Thanks to all who have tried Epsilon out thus far.
Inclusion of readme
- Ah, right. The readme. It's in now.
Espionage
The most serious player hiccup seems to be with the changes to the espionage system. Here is what I want to happen:
1) Greatly reduced micro-management in the placing of spies. No endless tries to place 'em, they just arrive and pretty cheaply too. This means that it's worth getting spies in countries other than Great Powers.
2) Counter-espionage to become very expensive and, unless you have a full set of 10 agents, very difficult. I don't want to see human-controlled nations immediately flushing out all enemy agents and becoming immune to espionage. That's what happens in the basic game and I think it ruins the whole point. What makes it worse is that AI nations don't perform this mission!
- However, I also want it to be the case that IF 1) you've prepared the ground and have 10 agents in your country, 2) the bad guys have enough agents in place to start getting really dangerous, and 3) you're prepared to spend what it takes, then counter-espionage should still be able to be effective.
3) To balance #1 and #2, usage of spies for operations other than passive intel-gathering needs to be expensive, especially for powerful missions.
I very much doubt that the current version of Epsilon accomplishes these three things. Suggestions on tweaking values to make this happen - or reasons why the objectives themselves ought to change - are welcome.
Brazil stuff
- The next version (don't hold your breath for it) will remove the standard election events.
- I increased the neutrality of Great Britain in the pre-war period (In Doomsday the AI gets more frisky if you don't watch it...). When the Brits actually get in a war, they will become much more interested in making friends with you.
- There is no event that guarantees that Argentina will join the Axis if Brazil joins the Allies. There is, however, an event that encourages it to seek alliance partners by reducing domestic isolationism and neutrality. More testing is needed here, but my focus is elsewhere (I need to concentrate on AI and basic game issues and will hope for support from the player community to help with specific topics such as this one).
Mess-ed up tech graphics
- I finally managed to get the corrected tech pictures uploaded. What a ridiculously huge file it is: 156 MB uncompressed! See post #1.
Ethopia
- Send me more reports like this one, please. If people think there's a pattern of effective Ethopian resistance, I'll look over the Italian AI again. This is just the sort of stuff I need to know.
Unit Icons
- Do NOT just use CPack's (or anyone else's) unit icons for DD for Epsilon! There will be so many errors it won't even be funny! The reason why I supply CPack's Doomsday icons is that people who really want individualized Germany infantry or the like can make their own conversions. Also they work great in the base game!
- As a modder, I have to focus my time and energy on what I think I can be of most help with. Graphics aren't it. Epsilon includes an absolute minimum of pretty pictures, not because graphics aren't important and much appreciated, but because 1) I lack skill in this area and 2) want to devote my attention to gameplay.
- That said, I didn't go with CPack's unit icons because of time constraints. Nope. I looked at GIP, at SKIF, and at DMP, and decided that CPack's clean, neat "tabletop model" approach worked better with Epsilon than the artistic effects sought by other designers. Of course this is just IMHO. If you really want to see a different unit icon set, I will be more than happy to include a link to any set correctly modified for Epsilon and having the permission of the original creator(s).
Starfire Extended combat
Yes, Epsilon has a variant of Starfire-style extended combat. It's a bit of a compromise; ground battles last longer than in the base game, shorter than in MOD 33 or TRP. Commentatary on the feel of land, air, air-to-ground, naval, and air-versus-naval combat is welcomed; I have no doubt at all that fine-tuning is needed.
Nation Colors
- Yes, Epsilon national color tweaking started off with the Sexxicolors mod. I also use many of the sexxileaders.
- If you find a prettier color for Great Britain, feel free to post it. Just don't suggest brown.
999 Airdefence?
- In the base game, aircraft become extremely deadly to ground troops if their attack ratings outmatch the unit's air defence. Not only do they have lots of hit attempts, but each attempt above the air defence is more likely to succeed. If you don't like this effect - and I don't - there are at least three ways to fix it. I chose to increase air defence to 999 and get rid of (most of) the tech or event effects. Other, perhaps more elegent, solution is to 1) set air defence to 0, 2) carefully remove ALL possible modifiers, and 3) rebalance soft/hard attack of aircraft. I will probably do it this way at some point.
Inclusion of readme
- Ah, right. The readme. It's in now.
Espionage
The most serious player hiccup seems to be with the changes to the espionage system. Here is what I want to happen:
1) Greatly reduced micro-management in the placing of spies. No endless tries to place 'em, they just arrive and pretty cheaply too. This means that it's worth getting spies in countries other than Great Powers.
2) Counter-espionage to become very expensive and, unless you have a full set of 10 agents, very difficult. I don't want to see human-controlled nations immediately flushing out all enemy agents and becoming immune to espionage. That's what happens in the basic game and I think it ruins the whole point. What makes it worse is that AI nations don't perform this mission!
- However, I also want it to be the case that IF 1) you've prepared the ground and have 10 agents in your country, 2) the bad guys have enough agents in place to start getting really dangerous, and 3) you're prepared to spend what it takes, then counter-espionage should still be able to be effective.
3) To balance #1 and #2, usage of spies for operations other than passive intel-gathering needs to be expensive, especially for powerful missions.
I very much doubt that the current version of Epsilon accomplishes these three things. Suggestions on tweaking values to make this happen - or reasons why the objectives themselves ought to change - are welcome.
Brazil stuff
- The next version (don't hold your breath for it) will remove the standard election events.
- I increased the neutrality of Great Britain in the pre-war period (In Doomsday the AI gets more frisky if you don't watch it...). When the Brits actually get in a war, they will become much more interested in making friends with you.
- There is no event that guarantees that Argentina will join the Axis if Brazil joins the Allies. There is, however, an event that encourages it to seek alliance partners by reducing domestic isolationism and neutrality. More testing is needed here, but my focus is elsewhere (I need to concentrate on AI and basic game issues and will hope for support from the player community to help with specific topics such as this one).
Mess-ed up tech graphics
- I finally managed to get the corrected tech pictures uploaded. What a ridiculously huge file it is: 156 MB uncompressed! See post #1.
Ethopia
- Send me more reports like this one, please. If people think there's a pattern of effective Ethopian resistance, I'll look over the Italian AI again. This is just the sort of stuff I need to know.
Unit Icons
- Do NOT just use CPack's (or anyone else's) unit icons for DD for Epsilon! There will be so many errors it won't even be funny! The reason why I supply CPack's Doomsday icons is that people who really want individualized Germany infantry or the like can make their own conversions. Also they work great in the base game!
- As a modder, I have to focus my time and energy on what I think I can be of most help with. Graphics aren't it. Epsilon includes an absolute minimum of pretty pictures, not because graphics aren't important and much appreciated, but because 1) I lack skill in this area and 2) want to devote my attention to gameplay.
- That said, I didn't go with CPack's unit icons because of time constraints. Nope. I looked at GIP, at SKIF, and at DMP, and decided that CPack's clean, neat "tabletop model" approach worked better with Epsilon than the artistic effects sought by other designers. Of course this is just IMHO. If you really want to see a different unit icon set, I will be more than happy to include a link to any set correctly modified for Epsilon and having the permission of the original creator(s).
Starfire Extended combat
Yes, Epsilon has a variant of Starfire-style extended combat. It's a bit of a compromise; ground battles last longer than in the base game, shorter than in MOD 33 or TRP. Commentatary on the feel of land, air, air-to-ground, naval, and air-versus-naval combat is welcomed; I have no doubt at all that fine-tuning is needed.
Nation Colors
- Yes, Epsilon national color tweaking started off with the Sexxicolors mod. I also use many of the sexxileaders.
- If you find a prettier color for Great Britain, feel free to post it. Just don't suggest brown.
999 Airdefence?
- In the base game, aircraft become extremely deadly to ground troops if their attack ratings outmatch the unit's air defence. Not only do they have lots of hit attempts, but each attempt above the air defence is more likely to succeed. If you don't like this effect - and I don't - there are at least three ways to fix it. I chose to increase air defence to 999 and get rid of (most of) the tech or event effects. Other, perhaps more elegent, solution is to 1) set air defence to 0, 2) carefully remove ALL possible modifiers, and 3) rebalance soft/hard attack of aircraft. I will probably do it this way at some point.
