Focus Pacific Beta

[btd64]

Contact Gary via PM. He put his mod on hold for know, so he's available....GP

[btd64]

Any word Para? Need anything from me? Let me know....GP

[paradigmblue]

Lack of art is still the sticking point currently.

[btd64]

Email me a list of everything you need....GP

[Peever]

I started this mod a few days ago with a friend and we are having a lot of fun, although I had a very rude awakening as the Japanese player. Sending KB to Pearl was a huge mistake, at least for me, with all those new Allied Air units scattered around the Philippines, and the DEI, and those damn French at Kwangchowan. I'm curious as to what others do with KB now the the Allies have so many more aircraft all over the map.

Having the Soviets active on turn one is also a nice twist. It is so rare that I play deep enough into a game where they join and I was always the Allies in those games. Now playing as an inexperienced Japanese player I have a whole additional front to contend with. We set up some house rules though that the Soviets must stay on defense until Nov '42 to reflect conditions in Europe and no Japanese advance passed Ulan Bator & Chita since Japan had to desire or benefit to conquering deep into Russia.

I'm not sure how far we'll make it into the game due to time constraints, but it certainly is a nice twist on an old game. I just wanted to thank everyone for their contributions to this mod. Since we'll probably never get a new War in the Pacific, or at least one this complex, these mods keep the game alive and add new fun.

[btd64]

Peever, before you get to far in, I just wanted to let you know that their is another update coming. Para has most of the stuff done. I'm just trying to wrap up a few art issues....GP

[paradigmblue]

ORIGINAL: Peever

I started this mod a few days ago with a friend and we are having a lot of fun, although I had a very rude awakening as the Japanese player. Sending KB to Pearl was a huge mistake, at least for me, with all those new Allied Air units scattered around the Philippines, and the DEI, and those damn French at Kwangchowan. I'm curious as to what others do with KB now the the Allies have so many more aircraft all over the map.

Having the Soviets active on turn one is also a nice twist. It is so rare that I play deep enough into a game where they join and I was always the Allies in those games. Now playing as an inexperienced Japanese player I have a whole additional front to contend with. We set up some house rules though that the Soviets must stay on defense until Nov '42 to reflect conditions in Europe and no Japanese advance passed Ulan Bator & Chita since Japan had to desire or benefit to conquering deep into Russia.

I'm not sure how far we'll make it into the game due to time constraints, but it certainly is a nice twist on an old game. I just wanted to thank everyone for their contributions to this mod. Since we'll probably never get a new War in the Pacific, or at least one this complex, these mods keep the game alive and add new fun.

Some Focus Pacific specific tips:

Don't be afraid to reorganize your day 1 Japanese strikes. Both Manilla and Pearl are still vulnerable on day 1 if you commit strikes to them, as the Skyrockets don't show up until day 2.

Kwangchowan is annoying but is also incredibly vulnerable to naval bombardment. The shore guns there are strong, but nothing that a couple of battleships can't handle. Damaging the airfields here will make the base much less of a thorn in your side. You'll want to take out Kwangchowan quickly, as the French have some small aircraft production facilities here that will continue to crank out aircraft unless you take it out. Luckily, you will have lots of troops in the area from your invasion of Hong Kong.

The Soviets are both very strong and very vulnerable at the same time. Their tank divisions and mechanized divisions can be very hard to take on, and their artillery is beastly, but the rail line that connects their ports to the central Soviet Union is hard to defend along its entire length. Also check out the oil production of the Soviet Union. You can pick up nearly as much oil production by isolating Sakhalin and taking the Soviet bases there as you can by taking Palembang. This carries little risk, as the Soviet Navy is not only tiny, but is also nearly defenseless against your Betties and Nells.

You also have a lot more naval airpower at Truk and Tininan. While the allies have more and better fighters than in stock - the P-50 and Morane MS.410 both being capable early-war airframes - you have enough Zeroes with top notch pilots that you can still gain early air superiority over any theater you'd like, even if, unlike stock, you can't be strong in the air everywhere.

Despite the additional allied aircraft, nothing can touch a 6-carrier KB, even in Focus Pacific. With all of the new carriers that you get in Focus Pacific as the Japanese, you can support more invasions more aggressively, but keep an eye on both the aircraft you see from the allied carriers and their upgrades. The allied CAVs and CLVs are not a threat, even to your escort carriers, whose CAP will take their strikes apart with ease. However, once those flight-deck cruisers upgrade to CVLs, you'll probably want to be a bit more cautious.

As General Patton mentioned, I'm very close to a new update, with just some final art assets, and you may want to start over with that. While it doesn't throw a lot of new toys your way as a Japanese player, the new update improves Japanese aircraft upgrade paths and makes a lot of quality of life improvements when it comes to aviation support, especially in Manchuko.

[btd64]

Para, Did that ship side I sent you work out?....GP
This is also a BUMP

[paradigmblue]

ORIGINAL: General Patton

Para, Did that ship side I sent you work out?....GP
This is also a BUMP

I'm having some problems with the transparency - it looks good in photoshop and the editor, but in game the battle animation throws all sorts of parts of the pink background. I'm going to have to beat my head against photoshop again to try and get it fixed.

[Peever]

Eagerly awaiting the new patch BUMP. [:D]

Recently I've been working on creating some new unit patch art for the Japanese and I found out that the IJAAF has their main flight training school at Hamamatsu Air Base. It's the hex SE of Nagoya. In Focus Pacific the IJAAF trainers start in Tokyo. Doesn't really matter where the units are located and it can always be moved by the player, but it would be a nice touch of history if they could start in Hamamatsu. (Location ID is #227 in the editor)

[btd64]

ORIGINAL: Peever

Eagerly awaiting the new patch BUMP. [:D]

Recently I've been working on creating some new unit patch art for the Japanese and I found out that the IJAAF has their main flight training school at Hamamatsu Air Base. It's the hex SE of Nagoya. In Focus Pacific the IJAAF trainers start in Tokyo. Doesn't really matter where the units are located and it can always be moved by the player, but it would be a nice touch of history if they could start in Hamamatsu. (Location ID is #227 in the editor)

Peever, Thanks for the info. I'll list it for Para as I and my soon to be FP PBEM opponent are doing a final run thru. Just got the files this morning. Give it 3 to 7 days....GP

[cardas]

Focus Pacific seems to have the same issue with some of the small Dutch vessels as RA/BTS. They all have a manuever value of thirty which doesn't jive at all with their speed/size. The classes in question are Sm.Gouv.Mar. PC/AVP/AG, Med.Gouv.Mar.PC/AVP/AG, A class, Merbaboe, Alor, Merapi, Djember, Ardjoeno and Arend. In addition Merbaboe, Alor, Merapi, Djember and Ardjoeno definitely has incorrect fuel values/endurance. As also mentioned in that thread, the cruise speed seems punishingly low and I don't understand why.
Just as I commented in the Between The Storms thread I'd add a bit more info with comparisons to other boats if it wasn't for the low postcount filter, but let's give it a try again. To prevent the filter from triggering I will write out the numbers with text, which to me makes it a bit harder to read.

The gist of it is that determining exactly what the maneuver value for the small boats should be is difficult as I don't see an entirely clear standard there. Take the Thronycroft HDML (which I think should be spelled Thornycroft?) as an example, it has a lower maneuver value than the Active PC despite being both smaller and faster so it's a bit of a mystery. Potentially some kind of hull shape consideration comes into play, but that's not info that you can easily find about obscure ships. Anyway if we then look at one of the Dutch vessels, the Ardjoeno class, then from the info I've found it's slightly slower and slightly larger than the Thornycroft, but at the same time it is also faster and smaller than the Active. Who knows what maneuver value it should have? Not thirty at least.
Moving on to the fuel/cruise speed issue but lets keep the Ardjoeno as an example. From what I've found it's supposed to have a diesel engine. It has a very large fuel load of one hundred twenty while only somehow making six hundred nm. So in other words it gets five endurance per fuel unit. The larger diesel powered Active gets twenty endurance for the same price while doing four knots more (six vs ten) with a fuel load of two hundred. The more similar sized Thornycroft gets roughly forty endurance per fuel unit at two knots more (six vs eight), although it only has fuel load of twelve. Only Dutch ships cruises at six knots as far as I know (I haven't checked it that throughoutly) and means they only make one hex per phase. Apart from that, only the Japanese midget subs and floating docks goes as slow or slower. At seven knots you should already get two hexes instead and even then only very few ships cruise at that speed, among them the Admiralty HDML along with some of the small landings ships (e.g. LCVP and the Japanese 1Xm Type landing crafts). That just underlines what kind of outliers these Dutch ships are at the moment.

I could give you some suggestions for some more reasonable values, but you might have your own ideas of what they should be.

[Peever]

Many mods are based off one of the versions of the "Da Babes" database changes so that is why you see the problem across multiple mods. One of the features of "Da Babes" is that it adds in all kinds of smaller boats and some are meant to be abstractions of real boats. That might explain some differences between real world boats and in the game?


Looking at some of the small Dutch boats you talk about are in stock like the Sm.Gouv.Mar.PC. I see its a slow 12kts max/6kts Cruise patrol craft with a maneuver of 30. I do agree that the cruise speeds seems slow in comparison to other ships. The USN Active PC cruises at 10 with a max of 13.

Have you looked at the Naval OOB issues thread on the main part of the AE forums. tm.asp?m=2179183
Perhaps the Dutch boats have been covered in there? Some of the issues you are talking about would need to be changed in the stock database however I'm not sure if they would ever be officially changed at this point in the games life.

I'm not too sure on if the issues with the Dutch boats are related to "Da Babes" mods or go all the way back to the games original release. I highly suggest going through the Naval thread if you haven't already and post your suggestions there.

[cardas]

Indeed, it does seem to go all the way back to the stock scenario. But as you said, it's unclear as to whether any changes to that would really happen any more so it feels a bit more fruitful to point it out to those who are still actively modding the game. Still, I will take your suggestion and post about it in the Naval OOB thread as well.

[paradigmblue]

If you have suggested tweaks for the cruise speed, fuel, endurance and maneuver for each class, please post those values. Patton and I will take a look and adjust as long as they don't look out of line with comparable ships.

[cardas]

Sent an email about it to Patton.

[btd64]

Bruce, Good morning and look at your Email.[;)]....GP

[ny59giants]

Recon - At work, so if these ideas are covered, disregard. A chutai of 9 recon Kates that can divide into 3x3 to go on KB (two on KB and other with Min-KB). Maybe another chutai becoming available in early 42. Upgradable to a Jill recon plane. So as not to give Japan another aircraft factory to use, make them come in as straight replacement per month (somebody might crank up production and then convert factory to something else) at like 3 to 6 each. For the Allies, have you checked the number of air and CV based airframes that are produced? I cranked up the Americans and adjusted some of the CW numbers for RA and BTS (see lates versions). Maybe have the Americans get a limited number of B-17s that are recon models only in '42 to reflect the fact that without numerous F4s, a few planes were used in this role. Since the Americans build the long range B-19s in this mod, there should be some recon plane that get reach out about half that distance or more.

[HansBolter]

Hey Guys,

Hos about an update on the status?

I suspended my game that was started on the original release hoping a "ready fro public consumption" version would be ready soon.

Started a new game of AndyMac's Ironman Ported to Babes (scen 40) in the meantime.

[paradigmblue]

Sorry for all the delays. Work has kept me from spending the time on this that I've wanted to, and more recently I've been having some computer problems that have brought things to a standstill. Next week however I'm taking some time off work, and finishing up Focus Pacific is a top priority.