hypotehetical

[Millsy]

quick question - the scenario/campaign may go beyond the historical end point for certain combatents -i.e. France 1940 and Italy 1943 .

How are you haddling for example Ship building post historical and aircraft availability.

If fighting with France for example what aircraft will they have available post 1940 - as 1940 aircraft will be outclassed by real 1944 aircraft in 1944 for example. Similarly what ships would be in place - or do we assume completion of the 1940 programmes and more of whatever the most recent type was ?

regards - and still looking out for the smoke on the horizon !

[tony_glazebrook]

quick question - the scenario/campaign may go beyond the historical end point for certain combatents -i.e. France 1940 and Italy 1943 .

How are you haddling for example Ship building post historical and aircraft availability.

If fighting with France for example what aircraft will they have available post 1940 - as 1940 aircraft will be outclassed by real 1944 aircraft in 1944 for example. Similarly what ships would be in place - or do we assume completion of the 1940 programmes and more of whatever the most recent type was ?

regards - and still looking out for the smoke on the horizon !

Millsy - ships and aircraft are handled a little differently:
- with ships, a campaign can start with just the bare reosurces, and leave it up to the players to select or design their own (if design-your-own is enabled for the campaign); or it can start with historical or quasi-historical OOB's, and thereafter, players can build what they want when they have new resources. It depends on how the campaign designer - which is me in the first instance but will be you as well when you have SAS :-) - wants to do things. But there are no constraints to the effect that you can't build a Vanguard BB before say 1944.

- with aircraft, players start with the types that were historically available at the campaign start date. (Note - types - not numbers - the numbers depend on decisions re reource allocation and prioritisation of types). Thereafter, new types become available as they did BUT you can accelerate the entry of later types by investing in aircraft technology. EG you could have the Me262 in say 43 if you aggressively invested. We have aircraft type data modelled through to around 1950 - there are over 400 types available. You can't design your own ac though, like you can ships.

Cheers

[Staggerwing]

- with aircraft, players start with the types that were historically available at the campaign start date. (Note - types - not numbers - the numbers depend on decisions re reource allocation and prioritisation of types). Thereafter, new types become available as they did BUT you can accelerate the entry of later types by investing in aircraft technology. EG you could have the Me262 in say 43 if you aggressively invested. We have aircraft type data modelled through to around 1950 - there are over 400 types available. You can't design your own ac though, like you can ships.

Cheers

I think what Millsy was asking (and if he wasn't then I am :)) is this:
If I am in a campaign as Italy and it is now 1944 what kind of new aircraft are available
to me? Will I be able to License-build my own He177s and Me262s or Do335s (or their
theoretical Italian equivalents) or am I stuck with SM 79s and Fogolors? If I am France
am I still mucking about in Leo's and Potezes (and the odd Hawk 75) or will I be getting
Lend Lease 'Stangs and later even P-80s? (or if actually fighting the USA building my own jets).

EDIT: I don't mean that I would have a choice in available A/Cs, just access to better ones
than my country had before historical surrender.

[Millsy]

You understood me correctly staggerwing.

Better a/c than would have been available post the historical surrender point.

[tony_glazebrook]

I think what Millsy was asking (and if he wasn't then I am :)) is this:
If I am in a campaign as Italy and it is now 1944 what kind of new aircraft are available
to me? Will I be able to License-build my own He177s and Me262s or Do335s (or their
theoretical Italian equivalents) or am I stuck with SM 79s and Fogolors? If I am France
am I still mucking about in Leo's and Potezes (and the odd Hawk 75) or will I be getting
Lend Lease 'Stangs and later even P-80s? (or if actually fighting the USA building my own jets).

EDIT: I don't mean that I would have a choice in available A/Cs, just access to better ones
than my country had before historical surrender.

OK, I think there are really two questions you are asking:
1. - Can I access aircraft from other countries? Eg, as the Italians, can I build German ac under licence?
A - Not unless this actually happened and we have this in the database

2. - Am I stuck with no improved ac after historical surrender?
A - No - eg we have added in a few more capable ac for the Italians as plausible what ifs - the Caproni N2 - a very capable thermojet engine fighter; and the Re 2007 'hoax' jet fighter - we assume the Italians actually built it. These become available to the Italians in Jan 45 and June 48 respectively (assuming you are still around then!) BUT as I said in the previous post you CAN get these earlier if you invest in ac technology.

Sorry I can't go into more detail at the moment. I am head down to make sure you all get SAS in time for Christmas...

[Saffron]

One thing I've been meaning to ask --

How does the AI handle custom ship building? I'm assuming that the AI will have to be pretty sophisticated to handle this aspect of the game. I'd hate to have an AI building tons of cheap units while I'm building 120k ton battleships, or otherwise building lots of cheap and relatively ineffective units like many AIs try to do (the obligatory "rush" mentality that AIs so often have ... overwhelm with numbers and ignore technology).

Does the AI build based on what the players build in an effort to match the player? And if so, does the game include a way to find out what the AI is building?

I guess I'm trying to get a feel for how the AI logic will work when it comes to custom built ships.

[tony_glazebrook]

One thing I've been meaning to ask --

How does the AI handle custom ship building? I'm assuming that the AI will have to be pretty sophisticated to handle this aspect of the game. I'd hate to have an AI building tons of cheap units while I'm building 120k ton battleships, or otherwise building lots of cheap and relatively ineffective units like many AIs try to do (the obligatory "rush" mentality that AIs so often have ... overwhelm with numbers and ignore technology).

Does the AI build based on what the players build in an effort to match the player? And if so, does the game include a way to find out what the AI is building?

I guess I'm trying to get a feel for how the AI logic will work when it comes to custom built ships.

Saffron - the AI works the same way whether as your 2-I-C or as your computer opponent.

In terms of shib-building, the AI makes decisions based on:
1. your overall strategy - which sets ratios within your total navy of battleships, carriers, cruisers, escorts, subs and merchants. Every turn, it looks at the ships you have left and the ones already building and decides where the 'holes' are. (This way losses get replaced of course as soon as they can)
2. The strategy also helps set the choice of design of particular types.

To give an example - a very aggressive strategy favours a big-ship navy - a higher proportion goes to battleships and carriers, and the types chosen of all ships will be bigger because they are to be employed more aggressively so need more range, firepower etc. The ratio of merchants is smaller, to help pay for all of this and also because the idea is that in a very aggressive strategy, you are trying to win the war as quickly as possible. Eg, When building BBs as say a very aggressive Japanese player, the AI would favour the Yamatos when it can afford them

A very cautious strategy favours more escorts and smaller ships and ships generally with less capability individually (but not necessarily collectively). Eg a very cautious Japanese AI might prefer say the Nagatos over the Yamatos - they'll get more of them of course for the same resources as they will Yamatos.

As the player you can override any of this at any time and build your own custom ships - eg 120K ton battleships. The computer opponent will not try to match this other than as explained above - they have their own strategy. It is only during the course of gameplay that you can determine whether your 120K BBs are a worthy investment :-)

The AI never chooses custom ships - only historical ships or occasionally some might have beens/would have beens I put in there. Eg, the AI for the US has the Montanas to choose, and also the Lexington class battlecruisers which of course were never commissioned but in this game can be. The Japanese AI can select some interesting battlescruiser designs from the interwar years. The Brits have the Lion, The French have an improved Richlieu with 16 inch guns actually designed but never employed. The Italians have enlarged Littorios with 12 15 inch guns. The Germans have some of the H class big BBs. Etc. These are to sort of give play balance without going to extremes. But only a human player can go wild and build to the limits of the ship designer. As I said though, these choices may not be wise; they are certainly sexy but whether they work out is part of the fun of gameplay.:D

One other thing - your knowledge of the design characteristics of enemy ships is summarised every turn in your Briefing Report. I've simulated some fog of war there, so the data is likely to be a bit innacurate at first. You get more accurate data the more you encounter the enemy ships and also the better your level of naval intelligence is (and the worse the enemy's counter intel).

I hope that answers your question Saffron - let me know if it doesn't.

[tony_glazebrook]

PS - your knowledge of the enemy's strategy comes in 3 ways:
1. If you have designed the scenario using the campaign designer you will know the strategy they are employing because this is one of the settings. (Although there is also the chance to select '?' as the enemy strategy - the computer then chooses one randomly and you don't know what it is)
2. If it is one of the pre-set scenarios that comes with SAS, the scenario notes say what the strategy is
3. From game play - where you can deduce the strategy from the enemy's moves and also the types of ships they are building.

Note that as a human player you can change your strategy any time. The computer opponent doesn't change their strategy for better or for worse. This is possibly something I might add to a R 1.1 or 1.2 down the track. But anyway right now you can always change it for them if you are playing against the computer - by loading up the enemy side any time and then changing their strategy and saving the file.

[Christian Schwietzke]

How does the AI decide how to weight carriers and aircraft versus battleships?

Perhaps in a future version it would be possible to set conservative vs innovative AI behavior - the former favoring battleships and level bombers, the latter favoring carriers, carrier-based aircraft and specialised anti-ship planes like the G3M/G4M?

[tony_glazebrook]

How does the AI decide how to weight carriers and aircraft versus battleships?

Perhaps in a future version it would be possible to set conservative vs innovative AI behavior - the former favoring battleships and level bombers, the latter favoring carriers, carrier-based aircraft and specialised anti-ship planes like the G3M/G4M?

Some of this the AI already does, but in different way. The aircraft builder always tries to build ac suited to carriers first, if you have them. This is, after all, a naval war game first and foremost :-) Also, the AI builds aircraft taking strategy into account, so a very cautious strategy favours more fighters and interceptors and less bombers than more aggressive strategies. Other ways that strategy affects things is the default bombing height for level bombers - more cautious strategies favour higher bombing - less effective but also less dangerous to the bombers. You can override this. You can also prioritise the production of selected aircraft (within limits).

The carrier vs BB ratio is perhaps something that could be a player-controlled variable. Something to think about down the track...Of course you can manually maintain whatever ratios you want anyway.