Someone posted a while back in Math Guy's HSP announcement thread something like:
We're testing what's happening inside the black box, by tugging on the bits of string hanging out, and seeing what happens.
Well, inspired by that, I've starting tugging on every bit of string I could lay hold of. Here are the first few hour's results. All assertions are tested rigorously, according to proper scientific method. Assumptions and areas of uncertainty should be clearly labeled as such. Anyone who has tested other things that seem silly or overly obsessive are cordially invited to add them to this thread. Most particularly if they can fill in a blank I identify, or point out an assumption I have blithely made without proper testing.
1: Unit build costs can only be integers, and the engine rounds down, not up. I tried setting infantry build cost at 0.219, and putting 10 in my queue. If the engine read past the decimal point, cost would have been 2.19, or 2.2, or even 2 depending on rounding. But it was 0. To ensure this wasn't a disparity between actual ic's used, and what the display said, I cheated some manpower, built 100, and set IC to 0. All 100 were built at full speed, which is something considering I was using Luxemburg. The ability to use build costs with at least one decimal place would have such enormous value to modders that I am considering pestering the designers to add it to 1.06. It would be an easy change.
2: Unit supply and oil costs can be set to 0, and they will consume 0. However, armour units seem to be hard coded that oil is required. The little tank picture on the formation display did not have the blue oil drop on it, but the corp it formed did. And when there was no oil, the unit itself was not considered out of oil, but the corp it was alone in was. Whether this would affect movement rates I haven't tested.
o This might make units able to move and survive in low-infrastructure provinces, like rangers, or beduins, or tough local militia.
3: Unit fuel and supply costs can be set to negative values. I'm not sure how this would happen, but the string was hangin' out, so I yanked on it. Negative supply units are read as 0, both in screen display, and in actual fact. When Luxemburg's only unit was a tank that needed -10 supply a day, supply requirement stayed at 0, and no supply accumulated. I don't know if 0 supply requirements would make a unit immune to being cut out of supply, or able to survive in low-infrastucture provinces.
Interestingly, units that require negative fuel, seem to break the conversion cycle. The oil does not appear anywhere in the ledger, but it is converted to rubber. Unfortunately for Luxemburg, they needed to convert 20 oil a day to have enough rubber, and the tank only created 5 oil. The game-engine converted the oil from the tank, but did not convert any more than that, so the economy fell to 2 IC/day, while great quantities of coal accumulated in the stockpile.o D'oh! I didn't check what would have happened if there already had been enough rubber. Perhaps the created oil might have accumulated, either in the province the unit was in, or in the national stockpile.
4: Decimal combat values - not yet tested I've read in a few places that non-integer values are possible. These would be very handy for tech modders. There are far too many applications on the trees that don't do anything other than enable another application, which chances are, won't do anything either. Everything should do something. Adding 0.25 to Hard_Attack might not seem like much, but it could make a very big difference to a unit, both because other techs would be adding fractions too, and because the game-engine, after calculating efficiency, multiplies the relevant value by that, and rounds down. For example 1 HA at 95% efficiency = 0, but 1.25 HA at 95% efficiency = 1. The first unit is doomed, even if a stack of 24 attacked by 1 lousy MG tank. The second would win.
I'll test this soon, unless someone beats me to it.
We're testing what's happening inside the black box, by tugging on the bits of string hanging out, and seeing what happens.
Well, inspired by that, I've starting tugging on every bit of string I could lay hold of. Here are the first few hour's results. All assertions are tested rigorously, according to proper scientific method. Assumptions and areas of uncertainty should be clearly labeled as such. Anyone who has tested other things that seem silly or overly obsessive are cordially invited to add them to this thread. Most particularly if they can fill in a blank I identify, or point out an assumption I have blithely made without proper testing.
1: Unit build costs can only be integers, and the engine rounds down, not up. I tried setting infantry build cost at 0.219, and putting 10 in my queue. If the engine read past the decimal point, cost would have been 2.19, or 2.2, or even 2 depending on rounding. But it was 0. To ensure this wasn't a disparity between actual ic's used, and what the display said, I cheated some manpower, built 100, and set IC to 0. All 100 were built at full speed, which is something considering I was using Luxemburg. The ability to use build costs with at least one decimal place would have such enormous value to modders that I am considering pestering the designers to add it to 1.06. It would be an easy change.
2: Unit supply and oil costs can be set to 0, and they will consume 0. However, armour units seem to be hard coded that oil is required. The little tank picture on the formation display did not have the blue oil drop on it, but the corp it formed did. And when there was no oil, the unit itself was not considered out of oil, but the corp it was alone in was. Whether this would affect movement rates I haven't tested.
o This might make units able to move and survive in low-infrastructure provinces, like rangers, or beduins, or tough local militia.3: Unit fuel and supply costs can be set to negative values. I'm not sure how this would happen, but the string was hangin' out, so I yanked on it. Negative supply units are read as 0, both in screen display, and in actual fact. When Luxemburg's only unit was a tank that needed -10 supply a day, supply requirement stayed at 0, and no supply accumulated. I don't know if 0 supply requirements would make a unit immune to being cut out of supply, or able to survive in low-infrastucture provinces.
Interestingly, units that require negative fuel, seem to break the conversion cycle. The oil does not appear anywhere in the ledger, but it is converted to rubber. Unfortunately for Luxemburg, they needed to convert 20 oil a day to have enough rubber, and the tank only created 5 oil. The game-engine converted the oil from the tank, but did not convert any more than that, so the economy fell to 2 IC/day, while great quantities of coal accumulated in the stockpile.
o D'oh! I didn't check what would have happened if there already had been enough rubber. Perhaps the created oil might have accumulated, either in the province the unit was in, or in the national stockpile.4: Decimal combat values - not yet tested I've read in a few places that non-integer values are possible. These would be very handy for tech modders. There are far too many applications on the trees that don't do anything other than enable another application, which chances are, won't do anything either. Everything should do something. Adding 0.25 to Hard_Attack might not seem like much, but it could make a very big difference to a unit, both because other techs would be adding fractions too, and because the game-engine, after calculating efficiency, multiplies the relevant value by that, and rounds down. For example 1 HA at 95% efficiency = 0, but 1.25 HA at 95% efficiency = 1. The first unit is doomed, even if a stack of 24 attacked by 1 lousy MG tank. The second would win.
I'll test this soon, unless someone beats me to it.
