Dev Diary #5 - Logistics, ESE and Carried Supplies - 8.October 2009

Welcome to the 5th Edition of the AOD Dev Diary.

Today's topic is all about supply and logistics. You may have noticed that supplies are now carried together with a unit. There are bars for the status of the carried amount, to be specific,
there is a bar for supply and a bar for fuel. Units that only use supplies will not carry any oil with them and thus will not display that bar.
Each Division carries supplies & oil for about 30 days (this is a moddable value), so if a division gets cut off, it will be able to sustain itself for around a month. However this feature could devalue encirclements, and to also promote a combined air-land focus, the carried stock is destroyable by air interdiction. Your CAS units are very effective at this, giving them a further role on the battlefield.



The supply efficiency, i.e. the rate at which a unit receives more supplies is now more dependent on the ESE level and the supply line back to the nearest supply depot (which is in most cases still the capital). TC is still there, and now it models the maximum limit a nation is capable in transportation.
Be aware that going in the red now means a drop in ESE. Any unit fighting with low stock will receive combat penalties; so attritional battles on low ESE units will prevent them from fighting effectively. Just think of superiorly equipped but critically low ESE Japan against numerical superior china - there was a reason the interior of china was so hard to conquer.
Anyways, make sure you're keeping an eye out on the TC; and your trucks will keep on rolling.

For ESE calculation we implemented a completely new mathematical algorithm, which traces terrain, infrastructure, ports and also takes estimated & actual throughput and neighbouring areas into account.
So, actually you will now have a hard time supplying that complete 6th Army through that single & muddy mountain dirt road.



Naval Units on the other hand carry roughly half a year’s worth of supplies and do not get resupplied at sea. They do resupply very quickly at ports but while at sea the over all supply situation on the home front does not affect them. Fleets auto return to their home port when supplies and/or oil is running low, and then continue with their mission afterwards.

Another new feature is that supply usage depends on unit actions. A unit garrisoning some quiet backwater and a unit fighting on the front are completely different things, so we made a lot of modifiable values to correctly simulate this.
The division supply usage rate can be seen by an indicator in the unit menue.
Let’s look at what this means for naval units. Take a submarine for example; it should be able to sail roughly half a year under peacetime conditions. However after just a few engagements it will need to come by a port for resupply. Land units caught in a pocket will not be able to sustain any more than a weeks worth of fighting without seriously diminishing their stockpile, reducing their ability to mount serious resistance.



Resource and Supply convoy routes are now displayed in different colours and with nice looking arrows for faster recognition.
Also the danger level of sea provinces is shown (last time a convoy of your alliance was attacked) If a sea province has a too high danger level it is avoided by transports, so it is now possible to blockade provinces and even sea regions with enough forces. Units stationed on islands are now far more vulnerable if you do not control the seas.



As stated previously, there are espionage missions that detect naval vessels, and enemy convoys. Enemy convoys will also be shown in the supply map, but for a limited duration.

Stay tuned for next weeks DevDiary, were im going to talk about Production and an alle new feature : Buildings.

 

Naval Units and Fuel

Very nice DD i'm looking forward to this game being released. I have a few questions though.

1.Do different naval units have different maximum fuel supplies. For instance can a late model submarine carry more fuel and travel futher than an early model one.

2. If so, is a fleets maximum fuel supply and range limited to that of the ship with the lowest fuel supply or an average of all the ships contained in the fleet.

3. would it be possible for a modder to create a Fleet tanker style unit that would allow a fleet to re-supply at sea. For example each fleet tanker unit would allow a fleet to get 0.2 fuel/supply a day from the depot supplying its base port.

Thank you.

 

Yay! Infra is actually useful now! This looks really good.

 

These changes to supply will give a radical and more realistic aspect to the game. I get more excited with each DD.

In the first image are two icons in the Kiel province - please elaborate.

Third image contained different colored BDEs or other attachments to the Cruisers - please elaborate.

 

The supply & fuel level is for the whole stack (ie the Kroegsmarine in the screenshot). Do you keep a value per unit, and present the sum in the screen or is it a value at the stack level ?

Therefore, what happens when a unit is destroyed ? Can "someone" (friend or foe) get part of its supply and oil?


Looks great anyway !

 

The Flask could be tech team location?? I don't know. Perhaps one of these new building features?

 

Nope. They are the reminders.

Tech reminder and slider reminder. Just like HoI 3, EU 3, et cetera...

 

And what about good old trick "you surround the enemy capital, and all of his armies are soon without supplies"? Is it still intact?

 

Yeah, that was what I pretty much thought when I read this. Now my habit of building infrastructure actually makes sense!

 

fuel is combined when you add fleets together, and is split evenly ,depending on unit consumption&stock, when divided. so yes it may be possible to further mod in resupply at sea.

 

Yes, I am also interested on his. In general whether there is still only one supply center (the capital), or is it possible to set up several somehow?

 

A good question.
I have a long answer that will blow your mind.. and a short one....
I totally forgot about it,for this dd, so i wil save it up for the next dd....

The Short answer: NO!
Cutting off only the capital while leaving a large part of his production capacity cut off the capital,will not hamper his production, supplies or unit placement.

As to why - you will now have to wait until the next DD :rofl:

 

Is it possible to interdict foreign trade?

 

beautiful news!

 

Local supply production by province-IC?

 

First an observation, HQs no longer seem to consume fuel.

¤ How is supply affected by repairs/reinforcements? Is more consumed then when Idle?

¤ Does TPs have a higher ability to carry supply & fuel with them that the divisions are consuming while on the way (so that fresh landed divisions will have their 30days left and not 10 days if they were at sea for 20days).
If so TPs could also be used as logistical ships to supply fleets or extend their range/seatime.

¤ Will ships on other missions then convoy raiding sink or capture convoys when possibility is given? I believe this would greatly affect the AIs ability to reroute transports around threatened areas since blockading Battleships always would sink passing convoys marking their zones as threatened before their enemy sends transports past.
AIs would thus only have to gamble TPs when doing invasions, not reinforcing or withdrawing troops from owned territory.

 

Historically naval units were resuplied at sea. Will there be a way to represent this?

 

Very nice

 

Sea province danger level... Pure genious.
Now territories can be blockaded, and AI doesnt have to send all his convoys to death cause he doesnt understand the danger. And please tell me that sea interdiction sinks convoys as well, as A. Brunius suggested...

Thank you a lot. Just make sure your amasing new features work properly, unlike some other recently published games.

 

Good way to handle. It makes in practice corps like "supply depots", what it's fine. Congratulations again!