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Development Diary #11 - 7th of January 2009

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It'd be cool to build in a random factor, perhaps connected to espionage, where you get information about the enemy from unexpected sources. POW's can give lots of intel, sometimes foreign (allied or neutral) intel gives you information.

This sort of information can be reliable or not so much - you decide. Perhaps they are trying to lure you into a trap or perhaps they simply don't know any better (honest but stupid).

This could be incorporated into the game as intel showing up far behind enemy lines. Capturing a soviet high ranking officer could yield a lot about soviet troop placements - but perhaps he's misinformed about some of it - perhaps he's lying, and for how long is his intel reliable. Knowing that a number of divisions are placed in Moscow on 1 june doesn't really matter of you plan to attack on 1 august, as the troops may have moved since. This would be even more important in relations to aircraft or navies that can move within a day or so.

I just think the concept would be cool and you don't have to make a complex system as it can be simulated by showing information about different provinces now and again. Perhaps the destruction of 1+ divisions (and supposed capture of many POW's) could trigger a surge in intel.
 
Sangeli said:
My concern is not what intelligence advantages the AI should or shouldn't have over humans...it's what the AI does with that information. If the AI doens't treat a large armour concentration any differently then a concentration of militias and garrisons, intelligence is meaningless to the AI. Basically the only thing to do is spending thousands of hours testing and tinkering with the AI. If only the AI files were written in C++ then I could help...
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The AI, as well as the rest of the game, is written in C++ (at least I am 99% certain that's their language of choice). The scripts aren't. But that's not really "the" AI.
 
Sounds very reasonable, nwinther.

There is really, really long list of the potential sources of military intel information and I sincirely hope devs and beta team are working hard to make it interesting part of the coming game. Having radio recon stations merged with radar instalations is a nice touch, but it shouldn't be (it can't be) core of the solution.
 
Very good!
 
Very, very nice. In special the upgrade of the radar units. :)

And what about distant reconnaissance?
 
I think that is pretty interesting. I hope that Finland will have quite good radio intelligence as well since historically during WWII Finnish radio intelligence was able to decipher most of Soviet radio messages. Finnish radio intelligence was created and directed by Reino_Hallamaa who is probably one of the forgotten radio intelligence geniuses in WWII.

At the beginning of the Winter War, Reino Hallamaa worked as the chief of the intelligence unit. On November 29, 1939, the unit intercepted and deciphered a message, which ordered the attack on Finland. Later on in the war, the intelligence managed to gather information on Soviet troop movements near Suomussalmi and warned Colonel Hjalmar Siilasvuo, who managed to defeat the Soviet 44th Division at the Raattee road. The radio intelligence also relayed information on encircled Soviet units, helping the Finnish commanders in their decisions where and when to attack. By giving Soviet codes to the Swedish radio intelligence, the Finns received much needed equipment for radio intelligence. Similar deals were also struck with other nations.
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Johan said:
Next is the level of the unit, the higher level of head quarters the easier they are to detect. Basically we feel that these have more to say than lower level HQs. It also allows you to do the rather neat trick of setting up an Army Group HQ (let’s call it the US 1st Army Group just for arguments sake) in southeastern England commanded by a senior General (perhaps Patton) and I suppose if we wanted to go the whole hog here we could assign a few army and corps HQs to this formation. As divisions are harder to detect than the higher level HQs the fact that no divisions can be detected doesn’t actually say there are none. So the German player cannot ignore the possibility that there could be an invasion at Calais.
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I love it. It occurs to me that the HQs might also be linked to the intelligence gathering system. For instance, the larger they are, not only are they easier to detect, but that they also somehow, and on a limited and isolated basis, lend themselves to the intelligence process. For example, the presence or absence of the HQ could act as a variable on the scope or scale of enemy unit detection, or perhaps effect how regularly that intelligence is updated.
 
In concurrence to what other people have said, I think Belgian-Dutch border should be moved more to the north. Even if this means that the Netherlands would get in total one province less, that wouldn't hurt so much... A game that says it is realistic should also try to be realistic in geography.

I know this has been brought up before in a previous Dev Diary, but I also think the coast of the Netherlands shouldn't be so straight from Zeeland to Den Helder. I agree with other people that Zeeland should be more difficult to traverse, because Zeeland were really a bunch of islands and peninsulas back then (and still are ;)). What I propose is make at least a horizontal inlet, while making the North/South-Holland coastline a bit more vertical.

Intel looks great +++ Maybe the terminology in respect to radar station could be altered a bit, but not necessary in my opinion.

For the next Dev Diary, I propose Technology System II ! Can't wait!
 
Midlight said:
I agree with other people that Zeeland should be more difficult to traverse, because Zeeland were really a bunch of islands and peninsulas back then (and still are ;)). What I propose is make at least a horizontal inlet, while making the North/South-Holland coastline a bit more vertical.
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If that is too difficult they could simply make it a swamp province,
To be honest, that part of the low countries has looked unrealistic since the days of EUI.
 
alphajan7pl4.jpg



:D
 
i ve seen a problem with the brigade production

I VE SEEN A PROBLEM WITH BRIGADE PRODUCTION
in the brigade production mechanic from development diary 7:

Producing infantery cost 3.33 IC, and armored car 1.67; so it's right that 2 of each (2x3.33+2x1.67=10) is 10 IC, but the thing is it would be right if both were taking the same time, caus otherwise from day 96 to 270 IC demand should be dropping to only 3.33 as infantery are complete, caus right the fact of adding a longer brigade increase cost of the shorter one....

I suggest: in situation like this one, u lower IC need depending on the time took to produce the brigade, so; in this case the brigade take 270 days but infantery 95, (95/270= 0.35) so infantery will be produce at a speed of 35% so take only 35% of the IC, so only 1.17 IC so producing 2 infantery and 2 AC would cost 5.68 IC for 270 days.

This way, if u count days of IC used u come with the same price as building it induvidual:

infantery: 3.33 IC x 95 days = 316 DaysofIC took
armored car: 1.67 IC x 270 days = 451 DaysofIC took

if u compare individualy produced:
2 x 316 + 2 x 451 = 1532 DaysofIC took

with division with correct infantery IC:
(2 x 1.17 + 2 x 1.67) x 270 days = 1533 DaysofIC took

but in the exemple showed in D.D.#7 it take 10 IC x 270 days 2'700 daysofIC

witsh make it really unadvatageous to be making different time brig. together
 
Hi,

While I really like the "improved fog of war" concept being described here the idea that Radar = Listening Station is just not accurate. It would be far more accurate if these were completely seperate province improvements.

mm
 
Nice!

Perhaps there might be the possibility that you have "Intelligence Alliances" within which you share intelligence as well.

(I really hope they've revamp the alliance system - especially since playing as Nat. China in a game not long ago, they annexed one of the warlords on the Japanese side, but I ended up with the provinces. No fun in that if you want to fight it out with the commies afterwards ;))

I hope there is the possibility to have techlevels low enough not enabling SIGINT and radar though. One could imagine that some of the very minor powers wouldn't have this ability (then again, perhaps I'm the only one playing the micro- and minor powers [MMPs]?)

Thanks for the DD :)
 
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