Passive Chinese
Will look at this. I may have neglected to remove the Doomsday AI that enforces the historical course of the war.
Saulot333: Thank you very much for your kind words!
Have you guys checked in the 34mod? a cooperation might be juicy...
Epsilon and Mod 34 (or another mod):
Among the possibilities for the future of Epsilon is cooperation/union with, or even incorporation into, another mod. I am not at all wedded to the idea of maintaining a seperate project - although I certainly can be convinced. The objective is to get more coolness into the hands of players. The method I am very much open to ideas on.
If I had to pick one mod that has the most of what Epsilon lacks, and most needs what Epsilon has, it would be Mod 34. I believe that cooperation in some form would be of benefit to both.
Events from emekien and HIP:
I will definitely talk to the maintainers of both and find out what their rules on usage of their material are.
Build restrictions (SOV as example):
I really don't want to enforce any very restrictive build scheme on SOV (or any other) players. Given a choice between perfecting historical realism and maximizing player choice and control, Epsilon will generally lean towards the latter. Historical constraints will usually be models by cost/effectiveness adjustments instead of outright requirements or prohibitions.
Also, making SOV more interesting to play is a personal goal of mine. Every modder seems to have a yen for adding more coolness to Germany, but the Soviet Union gets neglected or treated as some kind of zerg rush borg. I think that's unfair.
Bugs and Bugs?:
- Some doctrines do raise submarine org very slightly to simulate greater ability to maintain an extended sea battle. The obvious case is that of the Wolfpack doctrine. However, subs will always be quick strike, quick gateaway tools. If you feel that subs are too weak or powerful in naval combat, I will raise or lower naval attack or positioning.
- Max combat penalty and HQ effect: Not sure what exactly the best course is here - this is a area of flux. I do know that I don't want a -95% penalty from
anything. Going back to -75% until I figure things out doesn't seem like a bad idea.
- Usage (or lack thereof) of "doubletime": Lack of usage is mostly deliberate, but I will need to re-check consistency.
- Usage of less than five tech components: Deliberate. I have planes for further tech revisions and you can expect to see more of this.
- Mec divisions: Only SOV has something actually called "mechanized" and which is considered "hard" for combat rules purposes. The closest equivalent in Epsilon to the historical division the base game seems to be trying to model with the "mechanized infantry" unit is a motorized division with the Mechanized Support attachment. The USA is very fond of these.
- New models of Mechanized attachments become available over time, by event. Read the events to find out what you need for the next upgrade. In brief, it's up-to-date research in SP-AT, SP-ART, AA, and RECON. If you don't want to invest all that research time - and only a few nations are able to - your best option is to go with Mech Elite attachments.
USA and SOV peacetime modifiers, "big monsters", and MP games:
- This is a vexed subject. I want the USA AI to finally become an historically dangerous opponent capable after about 1943 of being just as dangerous as SOV to Germany and a mortal threat to Japan. Unfortunately, there are a LOT of things that stand in the way of getting this right. Poor sea warfare/convoying/amphibious AI can be fixed ... or at least patched over with enough special assistance. Stopping the American AI from frittering away its strength in useless battles before it has time to build up strength is something I haven't figured out how to solve (nor has anyone else whose work I've looked at...
). Finding a balance between a USA that 1) when AI-controlled, doesn't accomplish anything like the historical performance (current Doomsday and even Epsilon) and 2) when human-controlled, smashes everything in sight in MP games (what Epsilon is risking if I keep doing what I'm doing) is going to involve a LOT of "special help" (in plain English, cheating) for the AI.
- To return to the original suggestion, I do know that I want to see an extremely formidable USA industry after that nation gets in a war with great powers. How exactly this is accomplished doesn't matter. I don't mind raising the starting peacetime penalty, but I do like the IC figure the USA has in 1942, so would need to (further) strengthen the mobilization events.
Playing the USA:
- Is easier in Epsilon than it is in the original game due to more powerful mobilization events. In future versions (no timeframe), I will let players cut the USA down to a level that they feel is more balanced and challenging for that particular game, or to allow that game to apply the full range of AI cheats and assistance to let the USA do what it did historically.
