Long post below since I decided to put multiple requests into one post:
Convoy Management Auto-Convoy Feature Requests (convoy freezing, auto-trader limits, use more escorts):
Add a checkbox to ‘freeze’ a convoy setting when the Auto-Convoy AI is turned on. For example, I want to have a supply convoy set up to go from Los Angeles to Tokyo every day without the AI changing it. So I could add 200 transports and 200 escorts to this specific convoy and have it never stop, and the AI would ignore it and take care of the supply needs for all the little islands I do not care about. Or another example, the AI creates a 42-transport convoy from Ocha to Los Angeles to ship 0.7 Oil per day. This is a waste, allow me to reduce the convoy to 0 transports and ‘freeze’ it so the AI can’t add more. Or a third example: I have an island with 2000+ supplies and oil that will never be used because the war has passed it by and I am moving on. Allow me to create a 200-transport convoy to start taking it back to my capital to be used somewhere else and ‘freeze’ it so that the stupid AI doesn’t cancel my convoy the next day. This option would keep me away from having to micromanage convoys, but still let me do things every once in a while without the AI getting in the way.
This one has to do with the auto-trader. Add a checkbox to not allow the auto-trader to make trades that would use up convoy transports. I had this situation come up recently: I was playing USA and invading lots of Japanese territories and the home islands. I was wondering why some of my forward units were not getting supplies, since I had well over 900 convoy transports built. I looked at the convoy screen and noticed that I had no convoys available. Looking closer, I noticed that the Auto-Trader AI had used up something like 600 convoy transports with trades to overseas countries. I didn’t have enough other convoys to support my supply convoys. I ended up having to turn off the Auto-trader so it wouldn’t use the convoys I need for supply after cancelling a few trade convoys. I think part of the problem is that the Auto-Convoy AI will not always use all of your convoy transports every day. Most of the time, a large amount of transports sit idle in the convoy pool not being used until a large shipment of supplies needs to be sent (say for example, to about 30 US divisions in the Japanese home islands). The Auto-Trade AI sees all these extra convoys and makes trades that use up these convoys without realizing they are needed for supplies. By having an option to tell the Auto-Trader AI to not make trades that use up convoys, this would be prevented.
The last Auto-Convoy suggestion has to do with escorts. Why does the Auto-Convoy AI not add escorts to any convoys until that convoy is attacked? How can it be 1943, and the US Pacific Command think that you do not need to protect convoys until _after_ a convoy loses transports? There were lots of convoys that were protected that were not attacked by enemy units. In my game, I had about 800 escorts sitting in the pool with nothing to do until I lost a transport. Why not program the AI to use some equation to evenly distribute the escorts around the active convoys to protect them? It could be something like ‘assign Y escorts to this convoy, where Y = number of transports times X, and X = number of total escorts divided by transports. So for example, you have a total of 400 transport and 200 escorts. A convoy has 20 transports attached to it. X = 400 / 200 = 0.5; Y = 20 * X = 10, so there would automatically be 10 escorts added to that convoy. It occurs to me that there is no need to build more than 50 escorts in any game, since the AI will only add escorts when they are needed. This would make for a better use of escorts and would be less gamey. Here is an even crazier notion; do not allow players to add or remove escorts. Automatically add escorts as a proportion of transports (see above equation) added to a convoy. This way the player would have to buy enough escorts to protect its convoys, rather than just building a few dozen to protect one convoy as needed.
Allow negative National Dissent levels?
So many times I get an event (fixed or random) where I get a negative dissent bonus, but I don’t need it because I already have zero dissent. One of the worst is the ‘throw a parade’ event. “I lose 5 Dissent for 2000 supplies? Nice! Wait, I already have 0 Dissent. So I just lose 2000 supplies? Crap!”
It would be great if that -5 Dissent still went towards my National Dissent as a negative value. That way I could then go in and make some culture, slider, or minister changes to use up the dissent bonus after I got the event. Maybe you could make it so that if you don’t use it that day, it goes away. Or maybe it goes away slowly, like at a rate of 0.1 per day in case you would rather use it to stop paying civil expenses for a few weeks. There would definitely have to be some decay or time to use it by, or things could get ridiculous. “What the… How did Germany get -25 Dissent?"
I wouldn’t expect a bonus to the combat modifier or to the IC modifier (although that would be cool) but allowing the dissent to be applied to the National Value for other uses would be great and would eliminate some frustration. As it is now, I reset to my most recent save if I have one of these events. I think it would make the AI better as well; I don’t know if the Germany AI takes advantage of the dissent decreases from all of its events. I know that I plan ahead of time and change out ministers, etc, before the event.
'Do-not-autopromote’ button for individual leaders?
It would be great to have a checkbox for a leader that told the game to not auto-promote him. This occurred to me after I found out that a Defensive Doc Major General that I attached to a Garrison division guarding a remote beach had been auto-promoted all the way to General without me noticing. I don’t need a Def Doc General, and I don’t want to have to periodically go through all my units to see if generals are getting promoted without me noticing. It would be nice if I could add a leader and then checkbox that unit to not auto-promote, and save the promotion for someone else.
‘Do not upgrade’ checkbox should default to ‘on’ when creating a new unit?
I know when I play, I check the ‘do not upgrade’ box as soon as I make the unit. When I upgrade a unit, I usually just uncheck that box (since every other unit is the game is set to ‘not upgrade’) and add enough IC to upgrade that specific unit. That gives me more flexibility in getting the units I want to be upgraded done first. What does everyone else do? I am asking because it would be nice if the ‘do not upgrade’ button was always checked as the default when creating new units. It would save a lot of extra clicks…
Transports do not hold enough supplies when loaded with troops
This might be more of a bug report than a request, but Transports do not hold enough supplies when they are loaded with troops. I had to retry several invasions because the transports would run out of supplies before the troops landed. For example, I was invading Okinawa from Guam with three marine divisions vs two garrison divisions. The going was slow, but I was beating down their org. A couple days into the fight, the transports had to go home to reload supplies, and they take the Marines with them. They go back to Guam, I make sure they are filled all the way up and go back. This time I kill the Garrisons, and I am walking up the beach. Before I can offload, the transports turn around to get reloaded with supplies. This is so annoying, and is ruining gameplay for me.
Here is another example that does not involve combat. I am transferring divisions from Los Angeles to Kwajelin (sp? It’s in the Marshall Islands). I send a 3-division unit there using a 3-transport fleet. The fleet barely gets there before running out of supplies. I would think there would be no question that the transports could make this trip. Having to relay troops by making several port stops along the way to reload supplies may be more realistic, but it is tedious and unfun. Also, this might actually be a bug, or just the way the game is designed: that 3-transport fleet that barely made it to the Marshall Islands is now in a port with supplies, so it should be ok now, right? No. The fleet immediately sees that it is out of supplies and sets a course for Pearl Harbor to reload. If it would wait just a few hours for the supplies to get loaded into the ships, they wouldn’t have to go all the way to Pearl to reload. So now I have to rebase the ships to the Marshalls so it stays long enough to reload.
