WarPlan Dev Diary #4 - Production

[AlvaroSousa]

Not yet.

[solops]

I am a retired petroleum engineer with over forty years of experience in the oil and gas industry. I have NEVER heard the word "silo" used in conversation about petroleum products, operations, sales or distribution.

[AlvaroSousa]

Storage and Container aren't sexy.
Tank is already used and sounds kind of dull.
Silo was used because of the general thought you get when you picture one. A cylindrical shape that stores grain but in this case oil.

What is the appropriate storage name if it isn't silo.

[Michael T]

never mind that! We want a peek at the manual

[gwgardner]

My geologist Dad took me to the oil fields from the time I was eight or ten. We called 'em ... tanks.

[Michael T]

If you google 'oil silo's' images you get the appropriate images. With captions noted as 'silo's'

[Michael T]

I particularly like this one:

https://buildingcue.it/en/silo-oil-home ... home/9414/

[sPzAbt653]

Wiki says that 'Crude oil is stored in salt mines, tanks and oil tankers'. Maybe 'Oil Stock' or 'Barrelled Oil' or 'Stored Oil'.

As a refugee from CEaW I am glad to see Oil and Manpower in WarPlan. Thanks for that, ex-fluffy one.

[AlvaroSousa]

Both of those are tough resources to balance correctly for games.

[sPzAbt653]

We do these things because they are hard!

Because to give the Axis free reign of movement such as the Allies enjoyed, or to allow the UK to accept casualties on the same level as Germany, would be to not provide an Historical Simulation. Many games we have, the Historical Simulation is what we desire. So congratulations to WarPlan.

'Balancing' is a difficult discussion to balance. Ok, I did just say that because I thought it sounded good, but it really doesn't mean much. Better put, looking at Oil Production of Axis vs. Allies, there is no competition so no worry to balance that resource. Manpower I can see causing headaches and cause for more deliberate consideration, but the war did become unbalanced once Russia was involved, so personally it doesn't bother me if the Manpower Game is unbalanced. Maybe you can make Oil and Manpower 'Optional Rules' so that players worried about the imbalances can avoid the issues altogether?

[AlvaroSousa]

The oil rules have 2 different effects between the Axis and the Allies.

For the Axis it is about saving and using. Making a strategic goal and implementing it. You can't invade England, invade Russia, invade Spain, invade Syria all at once. You just don't have the oil. You need to stockpile it. You need to realize how many planes and tanks you can build without overwhelming your stockpile and depleting yourself.

For the Allies stockpile is no issue. They get plenty of oil each turn. Building too many oil dependent units will create a problem of supply overseas. It might blow through their turn stockpiles too fast rendering some units not doing anything. You can have all the oil in the world but not have enough at the front lines. Oil dependent units use more supply stockpile. An example is Russia just building armor and air. Besides certain tactical and production deficiencies of this strategy they might blow through their turn oil stockpile rendering some units doing nothing.

Manpower balance depends on strategy really. There are strategies to make manpower a weapon in the game. But I won't reveal them.

I am not giving anyone any hints on deep strategy. I want that adventure reserved for the players.

[Meteor2]

Quite interested to see this myself in 2 weeks. [:D]
Were the internal testers able to follow (not reproduce) history (more or less) in their games against the AI?
Have they been confronted with plausible considerations and concerns with the mentioned mechanics?
If Germany not helping the Italians in NA?
If Barbarossa not started in mid 41, but in 42? Will the SU start conquering the west?
If the Balkanfeldzug not happening and so Barbarossa starting in Mai 41?

When strategic decisions are of more importance, I am very exited, to dive into WAR PLAN. [:)]

[AlvaroSousa]

I can't make a game balanced to recreate history. I can make a game based on history. Different skill sets, strategies, and luck make it almost impossible to accurately recreate history. What you will get is a very deep thinking game. As I, and the beta testers, tested the game we found various strategies decisions that can be used to play yet there are no events in the game or decision questions. The depth is mostly the strategic planning of offensives and use of resources.

Results may vary. But that is what makes it fun. You will have blow out games in one direction or the other. World in Flames has been around for decades and it still can't recreate a perfect balanced game because it's almost impossible to get everyone to the finish line for a photo finish game. That's actually quite boring. You need some games where you just mow down the opponent and put your foot on his defeated armies and wave the flag of victory. It's good for the ego.

I just hope the players like it.

[Michael T]

Is it possible to see the manual? Or at least some parts that are finalised?

[AlvaroSousa]

They are working on it as we type. It's 95% done on their end.

[blackcloud6]

I'm not into the production thing. Usually this part of grand-strategic games cause a massive analysis paralysis on my part. is there a setting to just let the game go with a historical production schedule?

[AlvaroSousa]

No.

[Captjohn757]

Oil doesn't go bad. Oil can be contaminated; the chemicals added to it can deteriorate. But oil itself doesn't degrade --- it's been in the ground forever (well, at least thousands of years) and its composition doesn't change while it awaits refining. Petrochemical products (such as gasoline), however, can and do become degraded. Undoubtedly a 2,000 lb. bomb on an oil storage tank (Ploesti comes to mind) can wreak havoc. Overall, your emphasis on the weight that the availability (or lack thereof) that oil carried in WWII is well-founded.

[Saturn V]

I'm late to the party on this one, I only just became aware of this game. What I've seen is very encouraging so far. But I do have a nitpick based on the screenshot in the opening post: columns of numbers should be RIGHT-ALIGNED. The numbers shown in the top left of the screenshot are left-aligned, and that's just not right, typographically speaking. It makes it harder to read the numbers and compare them as necessary.

This is something I frequently see nowadays with games, columns of numbers left-aligned. Please, for the sake of my eyes, right-align columns of numbers.