Guild Imperium Beta2
I want to go ahead and start this thread as so much has been done since beta1 (my perspective).
So I will start building the 'read-me' of sorts.
And post a few key screen shots and list off the ending check-list which still has a few tasks on it.
Beta1 has largely been successful with a lot of feedback from most beta-testers. Though I seem to have missed getting any from one or two.
Highlights of changes.
The para unit, that are named and themed in Guild Imperium as Imperium Shock Troops were failures in Beta1 both in use and theme.
This my doing and smartly demonstrated by some competent beta testers. They were instead a ‘uber-unit’ like unto HOI1, before they got tweaked. So now I have done the similarly. I was so taken up in having them well utilized by the AI’s in multiple situations ever repeating that I lost sight of human use of the same.
Will see how well Beta2 preserves their goodly AI use and yet curbs most human ‘mis-use’. They are decidedly not meant to carry out campaigns, but to break bottlenecks like take fortress/mountains or mainly by AI used to build bridgeheads for amphib invasions. Which per hands-off testing they still do voraciously now in Beta2 and I have seem them use it to take a garrison level 5 fort. You know all forts starts at level OOB wise so this AI had already turtled up to a level 5 fort. AI can by instructions build to 10, however I have never confirmed any AI fort past level 5.
Next big area is Europe and the introduction of the Guild Fascist. This was a major undertaking involving the careful addition of nine revolter nations that are integrated to appear as one nation. And they do largely. It also involved building and testing well over 150 specialized events organized in a four chains of sorts, because a lot of it is only tied together by similar action not really inter-dependent except game play wise for look and feel.
After this I noticed a 20% plus speed lag, I addressed it overall by three efforts. One was to glue the nine Guild Fascist as one alliance, next was to create more alliance at OOB start. Special note, Guild Imperium, Beta1 is only two independent nations away from going much slower, it is quite fast for what it is actually and plays on most systems anyway. But just add two more at game start and you cross the line so to speak processing wise. That is largely why the game must start with now 19 alliances. So having over 70 countries (it grew and grows) at start has to be down to an effective 45 at start. And as well the number of wars going on at once was and remains toned down, as in, cut to a 1/3 of RiskMod. Additionally I have and am still adding in delayed alliances per some scenario circumstances of chance that again lightens the load six months to 18 months in game time.
These efforts are so successful that the game speeded up and I went ahead and added four nations. One comes only conditions met or by player action, this being Imperial Portugal. At some very careful thought, though I would rather design wise have like Imperial Portugal simply introduced new countries by in game circumstances unfolding (sometimes not) I looked at from the new player perspective of just wanting a lot of easy country player choices at game start. Instead, off a saved game only.
I added some lore to help these countries make sense Guild Imperium theme wise. And with a few alliance events coming in they look like great additions per balance issues.
Kingdom of Brittany, of five provinces only with an IC of 40. Capitol is Brest.
Kingdom of Westfalen, of seven provinces with one north as port, Groningen. 62 IC. Capitol is Essen.
Kingdom of Prussia, of four provinces with Konigsberg as capitol. Has 46 IC.
Now each of these new countries is start in Guild Imperium as minor allies. Some theme outline done.
‘In the middle 1850 as the USA starting to break up north and south, Napoleon the IV took the throne too young and thought to meddle much in the affairs of USA. Already with the rise of Scotland the full breakup and reduction of England to a shadow of her former glory their being much ‘resentment’ with the Imperial France. So though the splitting of USA north and south though peaceful was internationally a messy affair. Some former British operative conspired to ‘get even’ and helped create a revolt in Brittany and some say assonated Napoleon the IV for the ‘mis-deeds’ of his fathers. Who knows but one concession was tied to another and the Republic of Liberia, Confederates States, Republic of America and the new Kingdom of Brittany came of it. The Kingdom of Brittany was in a very precarious position and with the Republic of Liberia allies with the Republic of America out of general necessity.’ This also help ‘seal’ Imperial France’s position of keeping French Louisana and French Quebec, strong, healthy and firmly under her thumb. So now many speculate that the Republic of America and Imperial France are tied to war…’
So, Kingdom of Brittany is a minor ally of the Republic of America.
Kingdom of Westfalen is a minor ally of Imperial Germany and now so is the Kingdom of England.
Kingdom of Prussia is a minor ally of the Kingdom of Poland who guards this prize very jealously.
I broke all land connections between Norseland and Imperial Germany and the whole of the British Isles to mainland Europe. It is now as vanilla HOI.
So now there are some careful entwining here and though the majors are strong each to themselves, Republic of America with now two minors, Imperial France with five minors, Kingdom of Scotland with three minors, and now Imperial Germany with three minors.
Finland is now a minor of the Kingdom and Sweden. Kingdom now has two minors.
Kingdom of Poland has one minor.
House Rakoczy has one minor
Ottoman Empire has two minors
Imperial Russia has one minor.
If the Iberian Empire decides to ‘release’ the Imperial Portugal then she would have one puppet. I have figured how to make this work.
Half of this is same as Beta1 but now in Beta2 things are far more ‘complicated’ as per beginning, especially with introduction of the Guild Fascist, as they, early on turn this precarious ‘balance’ upside down and it varies from game to game…
That is Europe.
Some tweaking here and there around the world.
Some for India.
Philippines are now the minor ally of Empire of Siam.
A few other lose ends still cooking up will detail later.
So at start of playable countries is 77 with 19 alliances. About half are involved in a alliance at start.
I want to go ahead and start this thread as so much has been done since beta1 (my perspective).
So I will start building the 'read-me' of sorts.
And post a few key screen shots and list off the ending check-list which still has a few tasks on it.
Beta1 has largely been successful with a lot of feedback from most beta-testers. Though I seem to have missed getting any from one or two.
Highlights of changes.
The para unit, that are named and themed in Guild Imperium as Imperium Shock Troops were failures in Beta1 both in use and theme.
This my doing and smartly demonstrated by some competent beta testers. They were instead a ‘uber-unit’ like unto HOI1, before they got tweaked. So now I have done the similarly. I was so taken up in having them well utilized by the AI’s in multiple situations ever repeating that I lost sight of human use of the same.
Will see how well Beta2 preserves their goodly AI use and yet curbs most human ‘mis-use’. They are decidedly not meant to carry out campaigns, but to break bottlenecks like take fortress/mountains or mainly by AI used to build bridgeheads for amphib invasions. Which per hands-off testing they still do voraciously now in Beta2 and I have seem them use it to take a garrison level 5 fort. You know all forts starts at level OOB wise so this AI had already turtled up to a level 5 fort. AI can by instructions build to 10, however I have never confirmed any AI fort past level 5.
Next big area is Europe and the introduction of the Guild Fascist. This was a major undertaking involving the careful addition of nine revolter nations that are integrated to appear as one nation. And they do largely. It also involved building and testing well over 150 specialized events organized in a four chains of sorts, because a lot of it is only tied together by similar action not really inter-dependent except game play wise for look and feel.
After this I noticed a 20% plus speed lag, I addressed it overall by three efforts. One was to glue the nine Guild Fascist as one alliance, next was to create more alliance at OOB start. Special note, Guild Imperium, Beta1 is only two independent nations away from going much slower, it is quite fast for what it is actually and plays on most systems anyway. But just add two more at game start and you cross the line so to speak processing wise. That is largely why the game must start with now 19 alliances. So having over 70 countries (it grew and grows) at start has to be down to an effective 45 at start. And as well the number of wars going on at once was and remains toned down, as in, cut to a 1/3 of RiskMod. Additionally I have and am still adding in delayed alliances per some scenario circumstances of chance that again lightens the load six months to 18 months in game time.
These efforts are so successful that the game speeded up and I went ahead and added four nations. One comes only conditions met or by player action, this being Imperial Portugal. At some very careful thought, though I would rather design wise have like Imperial Portugal simply introduced new countries by in game circumstances unfolding (sometimes not) I looked at from the new player perspective of just wanting a lot of easy country player choices at game start. Instead, off a saved game only.
I added some lore to help these countries make sense Guild Imperium theme wise. And with a few alliance events coming in they look like great additions per balance issues.
Kingdom of Brittany, of five provinces only with an IC of 40. Capitol is Brest.
Kingdom of Westfalen, of seven provinces with one north as port, Groningen. 62 IC. Capitol is Essen.
Kingdom of Prussia, of four provinces with Konigsberg as capitol. Has 46 IC.
Now each of these new countries is start in Guild Imperium as minor allies. Some theme outline done.
‘In the middle 1850 as the USA starting to break up north and south, Napoleon the IV took the throne too young and thought to meddle much in the affairs of USA. Already with the rise of Scotland the full breakup and reduction of England to a shadow of her former glory their being much ‘resentment’ with the Imperial France. So though the splitting of USA north and south though peaceful was internationally a messy affair. Some former British operative conspired to ‘get even’ and helped create a revolt in Brittany and some say assonated Napoleon the IV for the ‘mis-deeds’ of his fathers. Who knows but one concession was tied to another and the Republic of Liberia, Confederates States, Republic of America and the new Kingdom of Brittany came of it. The Kingdom of Brittany was in a very precarious position and with the Republic of Liberia allies with the Republic of America out of general necessity.’ This also help ‘seal’ Imperial France’s position of keeping French Louisana and French Quebec, strong, healthy and firmly under her thumb. So now many speculate that the Republic of America and Imperial France are tied to war…’
So, Kingdom of Brittany is a minor ally of the Republic of America.
Kingdom of Westfalen is a minor ally of Imperial Germany and now so is the Kingdom of England.
Kingdom of Prussia is a minor ally of the Kingdom of Poland who guards this prize very jealously.
I broke all land connections between Norseland and Imperial Germany and the whole of the British Isles to mainland Europe. It is now as vanilla HOI.
So now there are some careful entwining here and though the majors are strong each to themselves, Republic of America with now two minors, Imperial France with five minors, Kingdom of Scotland with three minors, and now Imperial Germany with three minors.
Finland is now a minor of the Kingdom and Sweden. Kingdom now has two minors.
Kingdom of Poland has one minor.
House Rakoczy has one minor
Ottoman Empire has two minors
Imperial Russia has one minor.
If the Iberian Empire decides to ‘release’ the Imperial Portugal then she would have one puppet. I have figured how to make this work.
Half of this is same as Beta1 but now in Beta2 things are far more ‘complicated’ as per beginning, especially with introduction of the Guild Fascist, as they, early on turn this precarious ‘balance’ upside down and it varies from game to game…
That is Europe.
Some tweaking here and there around the world.
Some for India.
Philippines are now the minor ally of Empire of Siam.
A few other lose ends still cooking up will detail later.
So at start of playable countries is 77 with 19 alliances. About half are involved in a alliance at start.
o