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Malta Op-Fire anomalies

I don't know if I'm missing something or if I've uncovered a problem with the game... consider the following:



1. Why are GER land units strategically moved through Central Mediterranean (from anywhere in North Africa or any province including or adjoining the Agean Sea or Eastern Med) to Italy NOT Op-Fired upon by WA AIR units stationed at Malta?

2. Why are GER land units moved in either direction through Central Med between Southern Italy and Tobruk/Tripoli not Op-Fired upon by WA AIR units stationed in Malta?

It seems this game play is in contradiction to the game rules (8.5.3) which state: "Air units on an island will Op-Fire at non-submarine units that move out of the sea area containing the island."

I discovered this problem after a nasty surprise in a PBEM game I am playing where I was relying on Malta AIR Op-Fire for my defence in the Med. In testing I found more examples of erratic Op-Fire behaviour of AIR in Malta; consider these examples:

Testing sea-sea movement around Malta:
(Note rule v1.200 #65 in 8.5.3 of the revised manual). Tests revealed that even if you move land units from Italy - Adriatic Sea or Western Med - Central Med - Tripoli or Tobruk (i.e. sea-sea movement) they are NOT Op-Fired upon. However if you move units along the same route in reverse they ARE Op-Fired upon. Why? (As stated above moving through S Italy no Op-Fire occurs in either direction).

Likewise this one-way Op-Fire occurs on the eastern side of the Med. If you move GER land units from Aegean Sea or Eastern Med or adjoining land areas through Central Med to Italy they are NOT Op-Fired upon by AIR at Malta. However, moving in the opposite direction from/through Italy they ARE Op-Fired upon.

Is this some kind of bug/glitch or am I missing something?

If the game has been intentionally set up in this fashion with one-way Op-Fire and restricted Op-Fire for Malta please explain why as it presently seems to me that the situations described above are obviously wong both realistically speaking and in game terms.

[:)]

You bring up a good point about Malta, and what you describe is most likely a bug, because air units should be able to op-fire from all islands, including Malta.

See post #11 by Joel Billings in this thread.

ORIGINAL: Joel Billings

The reason Malta is not Op-firing at stuff moving across it is because aircraft on islands shoot at units that are moving from one sea zone to another sea zone (like the aircraft based on land in the previous paragraph in the manual (I realize this is not clear in the manual). They don't shoot at units moving from a sea zone to a land zone. Malta's main purpose in the game is it causes interdiction points to any surface naval units that move through the area that did not start their turn in the area. This will somewhat hamstring naval operations. It can also be used as an airbase (with it's fort defense bonus).

Thanks, this quote explains some of what I'm talking about.

Please notice however that Joel clearly states Malta *should* fire at units moving sea-sea and as I've pointed out Malta does not do this in several different cases. Most notably Joel's post does not explain the one-way Op-Fire question I raised (where units are fired upon moving in one direction but not fired upon when travelling the exact same path in the opposite direction).

I tested the land-land movement past islands and as Joel points out, no Op-Fire. Should be stated in the manual. I'm not personally a fan of this rule but can't imagine it's worth getting into it... just wondering quickly why it has been set up like this? I can think of many reasons why units moving land-land across Western/Central Med or South China Sea (for example) *should* be Op-Fired upon so I'm wondering at why it was decided that they wouldn't be?

Can this be changed with a Mod?


Thanks

M

I tested the land-land movement past islands and as Joel points out, no Op-Fire. Should be stated in the manual. I'm not personally a fan of this rule but can't imagine it's worth getting into it... just wondering quickly why it has been set up like this?

Can this be changed with a mod?

No, I'm almost sure it can't. It's not the data files that are the problem, but the actual program code.

I don't like the Malta rules as they are now, either, but I'm not sure if they'll ever change, so we might as well get used to them.