5

Things that need to be sorted out:

Decide how strictly we are going to stick to the historical timeline.

This is going to be important. I propose the following:

Certain events absolutely need to happen, such as WW1 and WW2, but historical events will have various triggers that might set them off at different times. For example, we could use our "threat level" system combined with things like countries starting to move into demilitarised zones, producing lots of weapons, cutting diplomatic ties etc.

The major concern is something happening in-game that did not happen IRL because it will throw off the future timeline. If Germany wins WW1, what happens then? I think we should go through all of the major events and decide on what to do if certain outcomes happen. In the case of Germany winning WW1, I think we should still have a Treaty of Versailles, but make the agreement different, perhaps setting up a situation where France potentially starts WW2 instead.

Create the battle system and decide how it will be tweaked during various time periods and situations.

TRA already made a post about this. Obviously the battle system in WW1 and WW2 is going to be different. I like TRA's general format, but it needs to be simplified and have a guideline regarding different eras.

Figure out how we are going to handle covert ops, particularly "fog of war".

I don't know how we are going to do this. Ideally, we would have mods that weren't playing who could "see" everything and be able to deal with things, but we don't have enough people for the mod team to not play. Another solution may be putting certain orders somewhere where it can be proven that you made the order in advance, but nobody can see it.

Come up with a system for dealing with time.

I proposed that time should be slowed down during periods where there are a lot of conflicts happening simultaneously. We could also change the format and have it so every week is a period of battle phases, to streamline conflicts and focus on them more than in peacetime. Just to give a basic example:

  • Mon/Tue - Planning/Diplo
  • Wed/Thu - Orders given
  • Fri/Sat - Conflict resolution

Penalties and bonuses

Production, sabotaging your enemy's supply lines and holding specific locations is very important. We need a way to simulate this in-game, something we never really standardised in s1 and s2 as we dealt with things like that individually. The budget thing we had going on is not going to cut it this time around.

I propose a "credits" system, similar to industrial capacity and other things in Hearts of Iron. For example, lets say Russia wants to build some planes, some tanks and some better infrastructure to get units to the frontline quicker. Each one of those actions will have a cost that will be deducted from Russia's total credit amount for the week [or year]. Those actions will then go towards battle modifiers, asset numbers or might let Russia perform certain actions it wouldn't have been able to do before - such as being able to bring troops into battle from further away if the infrastructure has been improved. This would of course mean that players would need to keep track of the amount of credits they have. We could have 2-3 different kinds of credits for different things. Doing this would eliminate the problem of players making shit tons of posts just to get more modifiers and assets, and would also mean that shitcountries need to play within their means.

If you have any suggestions for any of these things, comment and I will update the post so we can keep track of plans for S3.

Also, if there is anything else we need to sort out that isn't listed here, I'll add that too.

Things that need to be sorted out: ##Decide how strictly we are going to stick to the historical timeline. This is going to be important. I propose the following: Certain events absolutely need to happen, such as WW1 and WW2, but historical events will have various triggers that might set them off at different times. For example, we could use our "threat level" system combined with things like countries starting to move into demilitarised zones, producing lots of weapons, cutting diplomatic ties etc. The major concern is something happening in-game that did not happen IRL because it will throw off the future timeline. If Germany wins WW1, what happens then? I think we should go through all of the major events and decide on what to do if certain outcomes happen. In the case of Germany winning WW1, I think we should still have a Treaty of Versailles, but make the agreement different, perhaps setting up a situation where France potentially starts WW2 instead. ##Create the battle system and decide how it will be tweaked during various time periods and situations. [TRA already made a post about this.](https://phuks.co/s/ModernPowers/9038) Obviously the battle system in WW1 and WW2 is going to be different. I like TRA's general format, but it needs to be simplified and have a guideline regarding different eras. ##Figure out how we are going to handle covert ops, particularly "fog of war". I don't know how we are going to do this. Ideally, we would have mods that weren't playing who could "see" everything and be able to deal with things, but we don't have enough people for the mod team to not play. Another solution may be putting certain orders somewhere where it can be proven that you made the order in advance, but nobody can see it. ##Come up with a system for dealing with time. I proposed that time should be slowed down during periods where there are a lot of conflicts happening simultaneously. We could also change the format and have it so every week is a period of battle phases, to streamline conflicts and focus on them more than in peacetime. Just to give a basic example: - Mon/Tue - Planning/Diplo - Wed/Thu - Orders given - Fri/Sat - Conflict resolution ##Penalties and bonuses Production, sabotaging your enemy's supply lines and holding specific locations is very important. We need a way to simulate this in-game, something we never really standardised in s1 and s2 as we dealt with things like that individually. The budget thing we had going on is not going to cut it this time around. I propose a "credits" system, similar to industrial capacity and other things in Hearts of Iron. For example, lets say Russia wants to build some planes, some tanks and some better infrastructure to get units to the frontline quicker. Each one of those actions will have a cost that will be deducted from Russia's total credit amount for the week [or year]. Those actions will then go towards battle modifiers, asset numbers or might let Russia perform certain actions it wouldn't have been able to do before - such as being able to bring troops into battle from further away if the infrastructure has been improved. This would of course mean that players would need to keep track of the amount of credits they have. We could have 2-3 different kinds of credits for different things. Doing this would eliminate the problem of players making shit tons of posts just to get more modifiers and assets, and would also mean that shitcountries need to play within their means. ##If you have any suggestions for any of these things, comment and I will update the post so we can keep track of plans for S3. Also, if there is anything else we need to sort out that isn't listed here, I'll add that too.

6 comments

[–] TheRedArmy 1 points (+1|-0) Edited

Re: battle system

The system already has different eras and how they interact in place. Basically the overall strength of a unit (Troop Strength) is set at a number when first introduced, then doubled every technology level beyond that that its still in use (with some exceptions, like modern spearmen - while still vastly more capable than classical age spearmen sue to technology, the baseline unit itself is lacking against other modern units). In this way you can also easily model obsolete units participating in combat - their overall TS is lower, and so they contribute less overall, but are still meaningful. Certain units, like half-tracks, are not even introduced until the right technology period (~WW2), so you can't even use them until then.

I can work on simplification as well. As it is, it's quite front-loaded, and so should be relatively easy once everything is setup, but it could be that there are a lot of things that can be cut in the name of simplicity.

EDIT: The battle system is also designed to work for any era, but a side-effect of that is that you don't get too detailed into any particular thing. But creating special rules for trench warfare, as that was kind of its own unique thing, should be possible within the framework.

[–] redviiper 0 points (+0|-0)

When is this going down?

[–] PMYA [OP] 0 points (+0|-0)

We don't currently have any plans to start it again. We did discuss some other variations a couple of weeks ago though. One proposal was micronations only, though there would be issues with that because mods would still need to play major nations from time to time. Another was a US version, with each person claiming a state, or some kind of House of Cards MP with people in various government positions.