Hi,
I'm posting a suggestion regarding the convoy system in AoD I already made some time ago in another thread and, recently, in the 1.08 beta 6 thread. However, in order to give it better visibility (and especially not to hijack other people's threads
), I'm raising it again in a dedicated thread. Feel free to comment and add further suggestions/tweaks! (always keeping in mind, though, that like many other users I do not want an excessive increase of micromanagement!)
What I'd like to stress outright, before posting the actual suggestions, is that I'd gladly welcome an AoD expansion, priced about 5-10€, featuring this new addition. There's already a possible name for it: "Arsenal of Democracy: Battle of the Atlantic"...
---
The starting idea is simple: currently, convoys in AoD are not visible on map, therefore strongly limiting the player's ability to interact with them especially when it comes e.g. to battles against enemy raiders - which, in turn, are "physical" units on the game map. What's the rationale behind this?
To make this more consistent, we should either
1) have both displayed on map and treated like regular fleets (my preferred solution) or
2) place submarines and/or other raiders assigned to convoy-hunting duties in a list similar to the one currently used for convoys (e.g. "3 subs in Western Approaches on convoy raiding mission until August, 1942").
So, after a long thought at it I came to the conclusion that something that IMHO could greatly improve the convoy system, and especially the Battle of the Atlantic, is having convoys physically on map. Each convoy would have its own counter on map just like every other fleet. In their case, though, the counter could sum up all the merchants and escorts that form that convoy, to avoid having too many convoys around. Apart from their actual representation, though, what's important is that this way we'd achieve a series of goals:
1.) They would finally move at a realistic speed (just like all other fleets already do), making it more important and interesting to protect them. They should move at about 7-8 knots (i.e. the speed of the slowest merchant in the convoy which, in real life, was more or less that one).
2.) Being slower would also mean that they should carry a fair amount of materials to compensate for their less frequent appearance: another way to better simulate reality, when destroying a convoy e.g. bound for Malta would have meant that the island would have been in great supply trouble until the next convoy had arrived. A load capability example for every single merchant ship could be: 15 coal (energy), 10 metal, 5 rares, 5 oil, 5 supplies; so a rather standard 40-merchant convoy would carry 600 coal, 400 metal, 200 rares, oil and supplies. It goes without saying that every sunk merchant would go down with its cargo.
3.) The player would be able to change the convoy's course by clicking on it and then choosing an alternate path if he suspects the convoy would be entering a dangerous seazone (provided he doesn't want to let this task to the AI, which should remain the default option).
4.) Battles between convoys and submarines/surface raiders/airplanes would be displayed just like all other sea battles, making the player "feel" and enjoy them much more than with the current system telling him just that "2nd U-Flotille has sunk 5 merchants and 2 escorts in seazone x".
- Optional, but nonetheless engaging improvements would also be:
5.) The speed at which raw materials and supplies/oil are loaded (and especially unloaded) to, or from, convoys should depend on the port's size they're in while the operation is being performed. This to make it more important e.g. for the Allies to conquer as bigger ports as they can (say, Cherbourg) after an invasion of mainland Europe to speed up the flow of supplies to their land forces; and also to make it less likely for e.g. an enemy air unit to bomb the convoy while it is in port loading/unloading stuff.
6.) It should be possible to add new brigades, especially radar, radar-warning devices and maybe camouflage, to submarines to better simulate the ebb and flow of the real "Battle of the Atlantic" (although still leaving them with only one brigade, as it is now. The player would have to choose whether to add radar, camouflage, mines or other improvements to try to have an edge over the enemy's submarine-hunters). This to give one side a brief advantage until the other side researches the adequate countermeasure (I know there is much room to speculate on this, of course - it's just a basic suggestion. But I sincerely think that subs could greatly benefit from being able to choose one among 2-3 different brigade types, instead of being stuck with the current, single one, i.e. mines).
7.) New building suggestion: sub pens. They should have a cost/prod.time like coastal forts and protect 1 submarine for each level of the sub pen (?). Submarines under those 6-meter concrete roofs should receive no harm when attacked, at least from the air.
§ § §
Of course, I have to stress once again that the chance to manually move convoys on map would be optional and that, by default, they would be controlled by the AI to avoid a micromanagement hell (which is the last thing I'd want, and which I am sure can be easily avoided if this suggestion is implemented right). The player should intervene only if he really wished so but normally that shouldn't be needed. In addition, the convoys' overall number could be reduced somehow and their visibility should be made a bit lower, in order to make them harder to find and thus more rewarding the actual spotting, and subsequent attack, of a convoy.
Another thing that comes to mind is that this way it should be possible to even assign some capital ships to convoy escort duty, just like the Allies mainly did (with heavy cruisers, escort carriers and even battleships) but again, this would be a player's choice and not the standard rule.
Here's an image with a proto-sample of how a new convoy fleet could be like (can be improved, of course - it's just an idea):
I'm posting a suggestion regarding the convoy system in AoD I already made some time ago in another thread and, recently, in the 1.08 beta 6 thread. However, in order to give it better visibility (and especially not to hijack other people's threads
), I'm raising it again in a dedicated thread. Feel free to comment and add further suggestions/tweaks! (always keeping in mind, though, that like many other users I do not want an excessive increase of micromanagement!)What I'd like to stress outright, before posting the actual suggestions, is that I'd gladly welcome an AoD expansion, priced about 5-10€, featuring this new addition. There's already a possible name for it: "Arsenal of Democracy: Battle of the Atlantic"...
---
The starting idea is simple: currently, convoys in AoD are not visible on map, therefore strongly limiting the player's ability to interact with them especially when it comes e.g. to battles against enemy raiders - which, in turn, are "physical" units on the game map. What's the rationale behind this?
To make this more consistent, we should either
1) have both displayed on map and treated like regular fleets (my preferred solution) or
2) place submarines and/or other raiders assigned to convoy-hunting duties in a list similar to the one currently used for convoys (e.g. "3 subs in Western Approaches on convoy raiding mission until August, 1942").
So, after a long thought at it I came to the conclusion that something that IMHO could greatly improve the convoy system, and especially the Battle of the Atlantic, is having convoys physically on map. Each convoy would have its own counter on map just like every other fleet. In their case, though, the counter could sum up all the merchants and escorts that form that convoy, to avoid having too many convoys around. Apart from their actual representation, though, what's important is that this way we'd achieve a series of goals:
1.) They would finally move at a realistic speed (just like all other fleets already do), making it more important and interesting to protect them. They should move at about 7-8 knots (i.e. the speed of the slowest merchant in the convoy which, in real life, was more or less that one).
2.) Being slower would also mean that they should carry a fair amount of materials to compensate for their less frequent appearance: another way to better simulate reality, when destroying a convoy e.g. bound for Malta would have meant that the island would have been in great supply trouble until the next convoy had arrived. A load capability example for every single merchant ship could be: 15 coal (energy), 10 metal, 5 rares, 5 oil, 5 supplies; so a rather standard 40-merchant convoy would carry 600 coal, 400 metal, 200 rares, oil and supplies. It goes without saying that every sunk merchant would go down with its cargo.
3.) The player would be able to change the convoy's course by clicking on it and then choosing an alternate path if he suspects the convoy would be entering a dangerous seazone (provided he doesn't want to let this task to the AI, which should remain the default option).
4.) Battles between convoys and submarines/surface raiders/airplanes would be displayed just like all other sea battles, making the player "feel" and enjoy them much more than with the current system telling him just that "2nd U-Flotille has sunk 5 merchants and 2 escorts in seazone x".
- Optional, but nonetheless engaging improvements would also be:
5.) The speed at which raw materials and supplies/oil are loaded (and especially unloaded) to, or from, convoys should depend on the port's size they're in while the operation is being performed. This to make it more important e.g. for the Allies to conquer as bigger ports as they can (say, Cherbourg) after an invasion of mainland Europe to speed up the flow of supplies to their land forces; and also to make it less likely for e.g. an enemy air unit to bomb the convoy while it is in port loading/unloading stuff.
6.) It should be possible to add new brigades, especially radar, radar-warning devices and maybe camouflage, to submarines to better simulate the ebb and flow of the real "Battle of the Atlantic" (although still leaving them with only one brigade, as it is now. The player would have to choose whether to add radar, camouflage, mines or other improvements to try to have an edge over the enemy's submarine-hunters). This to give one side a brief advantage until the other side researches the adequate countermeasure (I know there is much room to speculate on this, of course - it's just a basic suggestion. But I sincerely think that subs could greatly benefit from being able to choose one among 2-3 different brigade types, instead of being stuck with the current, single one, i.e. mines).
7.) New building suggestion: sub pens. They should have a cost/prod.time like coastal forts and protect 1 submarine for each level of the sub pen (?). Submarines under those 6-meter concrete roofs should receive no harm when attacked, at least from the air.
§ § §
Of course, I have to stress once again that the chance to manually move convoys on map would be optional and that, by default, they would be controlled by the AI to avoid a micromanagement hell (which is the last thing I'd want, and which I am sure can be easily avoided if this suggestion is implemented right). The player should intervene only if he really wished so but normally that shouldn't be needed. In addition, the convoys' overall number could be reduced somehow and their visibility should be made a bit lower, in order to make them harder to find and thus more rewarding the actual spotting, and subsequent attack, of a convoy.
Another thing that comes to mind is that this way it should be possible to even assign some capital ships to convoy escort duty, just like the Allies mainly did (with heavy cruisers, escort carriers and even battleships) but again, this would be a player's choice and not the standard rule.
Here's an image with a proto-sample of how a new convoy fleet could be like (can be improved, of course - it's just an idea):
Last edited:
