Looking for help with a mega scenario

[kahta]

Scenario notes:
This scenario is a huge undertaking.

No amount of computing power is going to be able to handle all of it at once, but the underlying efficient use of LUA scripts will effectively create theaters of combat that occur and then remove them once objectives are completed.

For example, the Soviets are flying maritime surveillance flights out of Venezuela. The player can choose to deal with this problem or ignore it (at the cost of higher shipping losses), but there would be a LUA script that would bring Venezuela into the game (spawn units, assign them to missions, change posture) and then remove them after certain objectives were met (destruction of ships, aircraft, etc.)

The intent is to place the player in the seat of how and where to deploy assets- they will need to make use of task pools and missions to have any level of success in avoiding turning this into a micromanagement click fest.

Background: This scenario takes place in the alternative history OOB of the Northern Fury world, but there are several changes to the recent history leading up to the war and is not part of Northern Fury. The NF team has done a great job of creating what a mid-1990s world war III OOB might look like and this simply would not be possible without the thought they put into thinking about "What if".


Faced with a widening technology gap with the West, the Soviet leadership is faced with a "use it or lose it" dilemma in the middle of the 1990s. The Soviet political order, cobbled together after a hardline coup in 1991, is once again falling into question. One month ago a Soviet-backed coup was launched in Turkey and succeeded- their membership in NATO is now effectively over and tensions are quickly on the rise with Greece. Poland remains effectively non-aligned, but there are rumors that hardliners within the Polish military seek to rejoin the Warsaw Pact to neutralize the threat of Germany.

Over the last week, the USSR successfully invaded Iceland and northern Norway. Over 250 Soviet submarines are now operating in the Atlantic ocean. Soviet or Soviet Ally efforts to close the Caribbean and Eastern Med to NATO forces are expected.

The primary player objective is keeping sea lanes open across three theaters of operation- and meeting the demands of political leadership. For example, if Argentina starts acting up,

The secondary objective is neutralizing the Soviet threat in Iceland.

The third objective is neutralizing opportunistic countries that are seeking to take advantage of the geopolitical order to expand their reach.



Scope of the Scenario
Atlantic Ocean
Caribbean Sea
Mediterranean Sea



Possible Scope
Persian Gulf
Red Sea


What I can do:
Maintain the asset database & build the world (I am using Excel files to keep track of everything)
Simple LUA scripts (create, modify, remove units)
Creation & assignment of missions
Creation of civilian air/ship traffic, false contacts, etc.
Changes in postures, doctrine, etc.


What I am looking for help with:
Complicated LUA scripts
Weather systems
Dynamic weather (by areas)
LUA scripts for building the scenario (IE Add 2 helicopters to each ship of type A, 1 to type B, etc.)
"Flavor" - Rescuing downed pilots, crews, etc.

What I am looking for feedback on
Resupply
Loss of comms
Deployment of reserves
Other ideas on how to make this fun for the player
Ideas on how to make this manageable.