Development Diary #21 - 18th of March 2009

[th3freakie]

I like the changes to trade and transport, but I still have one niggling doubt on the back of my head saying all this will be for naught if the UK can just do as it did on HoI2 last the whole war with just the resources it stores in London during the 3 first years.

 

[Wraith11B]

My concern with this is that its entirely focused on the ETO... with very little appearence on how things went in the Pacific... and I'm planning a big response to this, but can't put it out now (need to get my sources in order first!).

 

[unmerged(41034)]

Yes, if you can find those Russian convoys and sink them, it will steadly bring them to their knees. Good luck with your quest.

Does this mean that early SU wont start out with limitless resources like HOI2?

 

[Porkman]

Unabstracted trade adds a lot of realism and now if you are an European country threatened by germans by 1941 you won't be able to rely of those resources in case of war. That is a good implementation.

It's definitely a step in the right direction, but England will still have 3 years to build up huge stockpiles from 1936 - 1939. One of the problems of the current game is that sinking all of the UK's transports will never leave Britain out of supply because the war department had the foresight to stockpile five years worth of production materials.

I still worry about the Pacific and the apparent lack of unautomated convoy routes. Island hopping will work fine due to the 30 day supply stock, but what about Japanese defensive forces. Iwo Jima did not have a naval base which apparently is the same thing as a port. A great deal of these islands had large garrisons but giving them a port to supply those garrisons will turn them into possible naval bases, which they weren't.

 

[Easy1]

Will this convoy system reflect the lend and lease program too? With war material/supplies shipped thorough the Persian Corridor, the Arctic Ocean and the pacific route, heading for the Soviet Union?

 

[unmerged(137037)]

My precious Venezuela-Germany Oil Trade is undermined !!! Nooooo !!!

(heh in fact i like it)

 

[He-Man]

Seems to be a good system. In special that supplies may only be transportet to harbours! Very good!

 

[Van der Gent]

My precious Venezuela-Germany Oil Trade is undermined !!! Nooooo !!!

(heh in fact i like it)

It's so fun to puppet Venezuela and get all of their oil.. Ah, the memories of my French panzer armies rolling over the Russian steppes fueled by Venezuelan oil..

 

[Devout]

So a nation like Norway (with a big transport fleet) could by rares from Siam and oil from Venezuela and sell it to Germany (for a profit) since Germany didn’t have the transport capacity for those purchases?

King, can you review your response on this. If Germany doesn't have the convoys to trade with Veneuela or Siam, then it doesn't have the transport capacity to trade with Norway.

But as I understand it...
1. If belgium was making the trades instead of Norway, then Germany can get the resources with 0 convoys.
2. If Germany has the convoys, it may still be beneficial to trade with Sweden (since they are neutral) because germany can protect its convoys on a Sweden to Germany path, but can't protect a Germany to Venezuela path. Sweden can trade with Venezuela without fear of US/GB ships destroying their convoys since they are neutral.

 

[Myth]

King, can you review your response on this. If Germany doesn't have the convoys to trade with Veneuela or Siam, then it doesn't have the transport capacity to trade with Norway.

But as I understand it...
1. If belgium was making the trades instead of Norway, then Germany can get the resources with 0 convoys.
2. If Germany has the convoys, it may still be beneficial to trade with Sweden (since they are neutral) because germany can protect its convoys on a Sweden to Germany path, but can't protect a Germany to Venezuela path. Sweden can trade with Venezuela without fear of US/GB ships destroying their convoys since they are neutral.

Even landbound countries can trade with other states on their continent, either King or Johan confirmed this earlier. Given that Norway's a part of Europe, presumably Germany won't need convoys to trade with it.

 

[Markusw7]

King, can you review your response on this. If Germany doesn't have the convoys to trade with Veneuela or Siam, then it doesn't have the transport capacity to trade with Norway.

But as I understand it...
1. If belgium was making the trades instead of Norway, then Germany can get the resources with 0 convoys.
2. If Germany has the convoys, it may still be beneficial to trade with Sweden (since they are neutral) because germany can protect its convoys on a Sweden to Germany path, but can't protect a Germany to Venezuela path. Sweden can trade with Venezuela without fear of US/GB ships destroying their convoys since they are neutral.

1. seems like yes

2. seems possible too but would likely only happen with a human sweden which wouldn't keep them neutral for too long if there are humans playing as the allies or soviets.

 

[unmerged(132201)]

This is a change I'm going to really like. More realism.

It certainly adds more realism because you have to account for the surface ships. The example of the Bismarck and the Tirpitz are good ones because if they come out, you're going to have to devote some fleet to guarding the North Sean and the Channel. However, with this change, the Navy is going to be spreadout over the ocean protecting the convoy routes.

 

[Kikaider]

It's definitely a step in the right direction, but England will still have 3 years to build up huge stockpiles from 1936 - 1939. One of the problems of the current game is that sinking all of the UK's transports will never leave Britain out of supply because the war department had the foresight to stockpile five years worth of production materials.

Ah but I may the solution to this problem with the british. Get a few wings of JU-52 air transports, load them up with Fallschirmjäger, and drop them on London. Who cares if they are wasted, they just took out 5 years worth of stockpiles

 

[unmerged(81390)]

If vicky had this feature, only this feature too, it would reign supreme over all kinds of electronic entertainment for all eternity....

10000 provinces + this feature might be enough to challange vicky for that title....

Maybe...

 

[fbaker4]

I too am concerned about the japanese pacific island garrisons.

 

[Myth]

You should be. They starved in real life, after all, with only furtive submarines delivering foodstuffs once in a while after the Americans had swept by.

 

[Kikaider]

I too am concerned about the japanese pacific island garrisons.

Well, what if every major atoll that produces some resources starts with (at least) a size 1 navy base. Those would be at least nominally garrisoned, so they would have at least a 'minor' port from which to receive supplies. Random/Barren atolls could be left empty, because why would anyone defend a useless island? If a player decides to ahistorically build up some other random island as a forward base, he can build the airbases and naval bases to supply it himself. Then the island wouldn't be useless now and would be worth fighting over. Island hopping could then litterally be that, going from 1 important atoll to another, skipping over barren islands, and strangling minor ones by blockade.

I see no real problem

 

[unmerged(78917)]

King, can you review your response on this. If Germany doesn't have the convoys to trade with Veneuela or Siam, then it doesn't have the transport capacity to trade with Norway.

But as I understand it...
1. If belgium was making the trades instead of Norway, then Germany can get the resources with 0 convoys.
2. If Germany has the convoys, it may still be beneficial to trade with Sweden (since they are neutral) because germany can protect its convoys on a Sweden to Germany path, but can't protect a Germany to Venezuela path. Sweden can trade with Venezuela without fear of US/GB ships destroying their convoys since they are neutral.

As I see it Germany's convoy route to Norway is only two sea zones, therefore requires fewer ships then trying to establish a route to Venezuela. In HoI2 Norway had 200 convoys and I never understood why other then IRL Norway and Greece were major players in worldwide shipping.

 

[GLENN]

My scientist are now hard at work converting energy to oil.

Now this tech is important!

 

[Simon1397]

It's definitely a step in the right direction, but England will still have 3 years to build up huge stockpiles from 1936 - 1939. One of the problems of the current game is that sinking all of the UK's transports will never leave Britain out of supply because the war department had the foresight to stockpile five years worth of production materials.

Don't know how accurate the screen is that Johan posted on page 1 (beta) but have a look at how many resources have been stockpiled by the UK by Sept' '39

Seems to me that we might have an really excellent proposition here.