Toughts and requests.

[Stratos]

Finally was able to preorder my game, now waiting for the delivery. As the fictional map creator will not made to the release version, I want to request a small map to be launched asap while we wait for the "map creator" as sure some time will pass before this is ready to be added. Should not be anyhting big, simply something where two nations can fight in a fictional envinroment for a couple of big islands. Maybe somehting like this?

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b212/Capitanstratos/Aethis.jpg


This is a fictional map with two superpowers fighting against the other for the ocupation of the two mid ocean islands ( populated by minor powers ) I magine the size of the Ocan a little like the Pacific. Populate with cities, harbours and sealanes and we can have a ficitonal world in no time.
If needed I can create a better map, adding names, and a fictional history
Possible?

[Christian Schwietzke]

I would venture a guess that creating a new map is an awful lot of work, and thus probably not something that Tony is going to do just for the request of a single user.

With a little thought, I would say you can do pretty much anything you can think of on the maps already provided with the game. And, while I like your idea, I would prefer Tony to work on the suggestions about the game itself that have already come up (I know I have plenty of them already), and that certainly will keep coming up once the game is out. Once the map editor is released, I´m sure we will have more new maps than we´ll know what to do with.

[Scott Chisholm]

You can use the campaign creator in the game to modify the three maps that come with the game. As you set up the campaign, you can restrict which ports are available to each side. For instance, you can use the Pacific map and set up Tokyo and perhaps Rabaul as the only two Japanese bases, and perhaps an Austrailian port and one other SW Pacific island as the two Allied bases. As there would be nothing to cause the AI to head to EastPac, the game should limit itself to the WestPac theater.

Would that accomplish what you want?

[Stratos]

I wanted a theatre I can manage, something relatively small in bases and options, no huge convoys to organize, more a, attack this base to be near the enemy, and attack his home base to win the war, something like that

[Christian Schwietzke]

I wanted a theatre I can manage, something relatively small in bases and options, no huge convoys to organize, more a, attack this base to be near the enemy, and attack his home base to win the war, something like that

Use the Pacific map. Put one side´s home port at San Francisco, the other´s at Singapore, or Brisbane, and set up a number of ports in between (there are plenty of ports in the map between Hawaii and Australia) that have no resources or industry - mere stepping stones to be captured so that you get closer to the enemy.

Or use the Atlantic map, one side has (for example) Norfolk as its home port, the other has Murmansk or Kiel; use, for example, Reykjavik and Liverpool as "in between" bases.

Or if both are too big, use the Med map; one side is based in Gibraltar, the other in Alexandria; set up a base or two on Sicily or Malta.


Generally, it seems the crucial point for the kind of campaign you describe is that none of the bases except for the home ports have anything that makes regular convoys worthwhile, or necessary. So, no industry, no Export Materials; they should probably have some Domestic Materials to supply the troops stationed there and fulfill the basic refueling/rearming/repair needs of warships without shipping resources there all the time.

[Stratos]

Maybe the Western Med? If I can add ports to Spain, France and North Africa, I can try a tiny scenario with France against Italy.

[tony_glazebrook]

Use the Pacific map. Put one side´s home port at San Francisco, the other´s at Singapore, or Brisbane, and set up a number of ports in between (there are plenty of ports in the map between Hawaii and Australia) that have no resources or industry - mere stepping stones to be captured so that you get closer to the enemy.

Or use the Atlantic map, one side has (for example) Norfolk as its home port, the other has Murmansk or Kiel; use, for example, Reykjavik and Liverpool as "in between" bases.

Or if both are too big, use the Med map; one side is based in Gibraltar, the other in Alexandria; set up a base or two on Sicily or Malta.


Generally, it seems the crucial point for the kind of campaign you describe is that none of the bases except for the home ports have anything that makes regular convoys worthwhile, or necessary. So, no industry, no Export Materials; they should probably have some Domestic Materials to supply the troops stationed there and fulfill the basic refueling/rearming/repair needs of warships without shipping resources there all the time.

Chaos - go to the head of the class :D I could not have explained it better myself. You obviously have been studying the manual ;)

[Stratos]

Tony is possible to use Western or Eastern Med only to made a custom tiny scenario? Are Spanish and African ports available? What about the Eastern Med? Italy can use his home ports together with Lybia against a Egyptian/Syrian/Greece based navy?

[tony_glazebrook]

Tony is possible to use Western or Eastern Med only to made a custom tiny scenario? Are Spanish and African ports available? What about the Eastern Med? Italy can use his home ports together with Lybia against a Egyptian/Syrian/Greece based navy?

Stratos - the ports you can select on the Med map do not include any Spanish or Syrian ports or any French ports other than Mers el Kebir and Tunis. Piraeus and Rhodes are included as well as all the usual suspects - Gibraltar, Alexandria, Malta, Tobruk, Behghazi, Tripoli, Messina, Palermo, Cagliari, Naples, Taranto, La Spezia, Venice, Bari...

Down the track I can see that players such as yourself may want a wider selection of ports available, and it certainly would be possible to add them to a revised Med map.

Working with the map as it is now, you can certainly set up ports that are all on the eastern or western half. Though you can't truncate the map, you will find that the action will tend to confine itself to the areas around and between the ports, so the port locations will limit the geopgraphic size of the area you need to worry about.

I'd like to suggest though that you may be being a tad over-anxious about the need to reduce the scope of the game in order to learn it. If you use the 2IC functions, you should be able to quickly learn the ropes of a Med-sized campaign, perhaps of your own design with simplified ports or perhaps not. Your 2IC is more than capable of handling the setting up of all your convoys, for instance, leaving you free to think only about the naval missions you are most inteested in.

[Christian Schwietzke]

Chaos - go to the head of the class :D I could not have explained it better myself. You obviously have been studying the manual ;)

:D

Does that mean I get a prize?

Mmh... I can guess. I´m going to receive all free downloads for half the price...:p

[Stratos]

I will try a default Med campaign at first letting my 2IC take the hard management, I believe will be a good way to learn.
Thank's and happy new year all!!

[Scott Chisholm]

I will try a default Med campaign at first letting my 2IC take the hard management, I believe will be a good way to learn.
Thank's and happy new year all!!

Stratos,

Letting your 2IC do all the "hard" thinking and leaving all of the Tactical Response options disabled is pretty much the "easy" setting for the game. "All" you will have to do is establish the overall strategy you want him to pursue. Your 2IC will build your ships and aircraft, invest in infrastructure, and generate missions all on his own after that while you sit in your Admiral's Office smoking a cigar and contemplating Admiral things....

I would recommend doing just that. As there would not be any tactical responses required of you during the actual turn, you could disable all of the pop-ups during the actual run of the turn and let it zip right along. Then, step through the turn replay one hour at a time with all of the pop-ups enabled. That will let you see what happens during a turn and what information (and there's a LOT of it!) can be presented to you. That will enable you to decide what, if any, pop-ups you want to disable.

Do that for a turn or two, then start taking over some of the 2Ic's functions. The first thing I'd do is enable Fleet Tactical Responses. That will enable you to exercise control over your fleets - directing convoys to avoid (or ignore) certain enemy forces; diverting submarines to intercept convoys; or, sending your surface units to chase down Bad Guys.

I'd then scrap some or all of your Ready Reaction missions and put together your own Bombardment mission and go pummel an enemy port.

After you understand Fleet Tactical Responses and Mission Building, play around with designing a ship class.

You control the game's difficulty by determining how much of the load you let the 2IC carry. And, the Context Help files are omnipresent and very informative. It's a big game, but a whole lot of fun. :D

[Christian Schwietzke]

Mmh... that way you´d practically let the AI play against itself at first, to how things are done. Then start fine-tuning stuff, if something presents itself, and gradually move on to doing everything yourself. Sounds like a plan.

Me, I plan to start a campaign doing it all myself, get royally (or imperially, as the case my be) shipwrecked and then learn from my mistakes. That´s how I learn most games.

[tony_glazebrook]

Stratos,

Letting your 2IC do all the "hard" thinking and leaving all of the Tactical Response options disabled is pretty much the "easy" setting for the game. "All" you will have to do is establish the overall strategy you want him to pursue. Your 2IC will build your ships and aircraft, invest in infrastructure, and generate missions all on his own after that while you sit in your Admiral's Office smoking a cigar and contemplating Admiral things....

I would recommend doing just that. As there would not be any tactical responses required of you during the actual turn, you could disable all of the pop-ups during the actual run of the turn and let it zip right along. Then, step through the turn replay one hour at a time with all of the pop-ups enabled. That will let you see what happens during a turn and what information (and there's a LOT of it!) can be presented to you. That will enable you to decide what, if any, pop-ups you want to disable.

Do that for a turn or two, then start taking over some of the 2Ic's functions. The first thing I'd do is enable Fleet Tactical Responses. That will enable you to exercise control over your fleets - directing convoys to avoid (or ignore) certain enemy forces; diverting submarines to intercept convoys; or, sending your surface units to chase down Bad Guys.

I'd then scrap some or all of your Ready Reaction missions and put together your own Bombardment mission and go pummel an enemy port.

After you understand Fleet Tactical Responses and Mission Building, play around with designing a ship class.

You control the game's difficulty by determining how much of the load you let the 2IC carry. And, the Context Help files are omnipresent and very informative. It's a big game, but a whole lot of fun. :D

Thanks Scott for that excellent summary. Stratos - Scott is a senior beta tester and was heavily involved in fine tuning SAS - he knows his stuff - and not just about SAS - just get him onto modern warfare, or anything from Texas :D

[Custer61]

I have always seen this game not as a naval game that starts in World War II and goes forward or back to other naval eras, but as a basis for the very first game that will give air, naval and ground warfare equal time. To me, what sets this game apart from all others is the fact that it can be the foundation for a "combined arms" game covering land, sea and air.

I am not looking for this game to cover naval World War I or modern naval, but I see this game covering naval and air first and then expanding into ground and ground air support.

TAOW covers ground with naval being pretty much a joke and air used only as ground support. WITP covers naval but only token coverage of ground. I think SAS could be the ultimate combination of air, naval, and ground. I would think that from a sales perspective too, coverage of all combined arms would appeal to naval and ground gamers, not just one group.

I really am looking forward to this game.