Mod: MEGA Pacific - Most Realistic Yet

[Nginear]

Welcome to MEGA Pacific - MRY (most realistic yet) Mod! Version 1.0 (December 29, 2024)

This is a MEGA map of Strategic Command: Pacific. This is a mod that focuses on improving the historical aspects of the Pacific War - airfields, ports, engineers, and air and naval battles. First, credit to where it is due: I combined Elessar2's WaW Pacific mod (a great mod BTW) with the Developer's Pac ideas, but have made many many enhancements. Some enhancements include building railroads, corruption in the KMT, building the Ledo Road, China worried about Communist influence, coastal artillery, the all important atom bomb, and many more.

This mod is designed to be hard - you must control airfields and ports to win (plus it helps with NM). Most ports have been removed leaving only historical refueling spots; hence watching supply on ships will be of the utmost importance. If you don't capture ports close to your front lines and use naval construction, then you will lose due to the distance to resupply and repair. Airfields add a second strike and increased naval visibility, making them ultra valuable in this expanded map. China has been completely reworked (China had 300 divisions but was plagued with corruption and lack of outside supplies; Japan +/-30 divisions, but was far more effective soldier vs soldier), with a t-o-n of research done on the historical paved roads and railroad lines throughout India and Asia. There are several new units and every unit has a specialty, no unit is pointless. Engineers do a lot more than build forts now! And of course, an all new technology tree!

This is designed to be naval and LBA intensive (far more than generic SC:Pac), with careful planning and attention to details needed to win. And when able, to focus more on the historical strengths/weaknesses of each nation. For now, I have kept the victory conditions of SC:Pac, but time will tell whether this map is too big for that or not.

Sorry - no ported AI right now! That is an animal all on its own.

Download the zip file here (unzip and place in My Games SC:Pacific folder):
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/wvzcww4h ... 6q181&dl=0

Hex Scale: 35-40 miles per hex
Ship Scale: Carriers, Light Carriers, and Battleships 1:1; Heavy Cruiser 2:1; Light Cruiser 3.5:1; Everything else 5:1.
Unit Scale: Think of it in terms of "groups of battalions" or "groups of divisions" or "groups of regiments". A Corps is the ultimate unit - slow, expensive, and hard hitting.
Planes: About 100 per unit.

PLEASE READ: (updated 1/13/25)
Player notes for major changes :
Most Important Changes:
-Airfields add +1 strike for each air unit, except fighters get +3/+1 escort/strike range, AND +1 interception/escort/strike. All air units get +2 Naval visibility when on an airfield. Capture and hold them!
-Convoys run in a big semi-circle. US -> Australia-> India -> China. Great Britian can send a convoy to India too.
-HQ, Garrison, and Battalion, and Sea Planes are not reformable. Everything requires a supply of 6 or greater to be reformable, except Light/Medium/Heavy Tanks which still require 5.
-Shutting down a convoy's primary start/end port may cause it to switch ports, but with reduced efficiency. Thus, less MPP will be received with each port blockade.
-Zone of Control is controlled more by escort ships (heavy cruiser and smaller). Battleships have a weak ZofC, and carriers have none.
- To keep the focus on Carrier vs Carrier, a ship's attack value vs Carrier is significantly less than other surface ships. However, a carrier has no defense value vs a ship, so it is not likely to damage a unit if attacked.
-Battleships and short range amphibious transport de-entrench. Destroyer Transports (LR Transports) do not en-entrench, but they do get two strikes. Destroyer Transports also cruise, have a 20% chance of damage evasion, have full ZoC and have a minimal naval defense value.
-Use a Battalion unit to capture an island with no port. Then disband the unit to get another unit in there. Sorry, it's a game engine limitation.

Changes to game code:
-The closer Jap bombers are to Australia, the more damage will occur.
-Coastwatchers' effectiveness has been increased from 5% to 10-30% chance. The more units gathered together, the greater the chance to be spotted.
-Port defenses: reduced from 100% trigger. Small port has 50% trigger, may damage 0-1 point. Major port has 75% chance, 0-2 points.
-Supply depot (Mobility) adds 10% evasion, +1 AP.
-Tech is 3/2/2/1/1 % per level.
-You cannot starve the Japanese out of Iwo Jima simply by having a land unit next to it. You will need to bombard its supply.
-Communist China is much more apathetic. IRL they were content let Nationalist China do the battles. They will not begin to automatically mobilize until 1943.

Misc Changes to Units: (this is not all inclusive to every stat change, but more of the things you can't see in game)
- The British fleet is tricky. A large fleet was sent in '42, and then largely withdrawn by 1943. This is hard to represent since units can only be destroyed once on the map. My attempt was to have the ships that left IRL arrive at 3 HP. If GB can scrape the mpp to rebuild, then who knows?
-Submarines have 50% prepared attack bonus. Don't get caught next to one at the start of turn!
-Jap heavy cruisers have torpedoes, Allies have Fire Control.
-Japs have lower fighter defense and bomber defense to represent lightly armored planes.
-Sea Planes have a 25% chance of damage evasion.
-Most things have max experience of 5. Japanese pilots were very experienced at the start of the war.
-Most things have reduced "surprised" bonus.
-Naval retreat is between 3-6 hexes. The larger the ship, the less retreat distance.
-Australia has two partisan units waiting on LR amphib transports that can be landed anywhere. This represents the fact that many defeated units turned to guerilla warfare in the early war. They are not replaceable if destroyed.
-Communist China can build Guerillas. This represents their focus on guerilla tactics.
-Japanese Superheavy Battleship (SBB) is stronger than USA SBB (Yamato had bigger guns and more armor than Iowa). All SBB get two strikes.
-The US's domestic industry (MPPs) will gradually activate over time. Full mobilization won't be achieved until the end of 1943.
-PT Boat scripts have been updated, but are turned off. Auxiliary ships represent anything from minesweepers to old destroyers.
- (NEW) - Prewar Battleships cannot be built. They are also more expensive to upgrade than a fast battleship. You go to war with what you got, not what you want!



Recommended House Rules:
1) Fleet Carriers are used in Mix or Bomber mode only
2) (NEW) - LBA only operates to airfields, but can use action points to move around. Sea Planes can operate to airfields or any sea side resource.
3) Soft Limits off

Optional House Rules for extra realism and difficulty:
1) All ships except Destroyers and Light Cruisers repair at major ports.
2) Destroyer Transports can only carry Battalion and Regiment units.
3) NEW - Carriers and Battleships can only repair at Homeland major ports (Japan, USA, Australia). This does not apply to reinforcing aircrews. Extensive repairs were only done at the shipyards at home. Even Pearl Harbor's dry dock would only exact temporary-ish repairs on the capital ships, to allow them to safely travel home.

[OldCrowBalthazor]

Wow!

[Elessar2]

Hearty thumbs-up from me, for sure.

[Nginear]

Wow!

Old Crow...make sure you check out that "random" unit in Alaska....its just a funny easter egg I threw in there. "You'll spend the rest of your career manning a radar station in Alaska you incompetent imbecile!" Who knows, maybe he will save the day and turn the tide of the war!

[Umeu]

looks great.

I know this map is huge, but what's the reason behind keeping Long Range Amphibious Transports? I felt that their removal made WitP much more realistic compared to WaW. If they need to be kept due to map size and for example giving the US a chance to retake Hawaii if it is ever lost, then I would say LRATS should have no attack, and only be able to land without attacking. Also probably shouldn't be able to land on the same turn they cruise.

Also, do any amphibious transports take damage when they attack, or is it still a free attack?

[Nginear]

looks great.

I know this map is huge, but what's the reason behind keeping Long Range Amphibious Transports? I felt that their removal made WitP much more realistic compared to WaW. If they need to be kept due to map size and for example giving the US a chance to retake Hawaii if it is ever lost, then I would say LRATS should have no attack, and only be able to land without attacking. Also probably shouldn't be able to land on the same turn they cruise.

Also, do any amphibious transports take damage when they attack, or is it still a free attack?

DD Transports played an important role, more so in the early years. Their numbers are limited, so you have to use them wisely. It's mostly a realism feature, but I felt I could make them different enough to be useful in certain situations (they can return fire when naval atttacked). Most majors do not get them. This map has 12,000 more hexes than Pac, so getting a unit somewhere quick will be needed at points. But you will not be able to build 10 of them and take a mega army into Japan.

If I recall, defending against amphib comes with Inf Weapons upgrades in regular SC ( I think 0.5 each lvl). I think Division and Corp units have an inherent defense number... I'd have to double check that.

[OldCrowBalthazor]

Wow!

Old Crow...make sure you check out that "random" unit in Alaska....its just a funny easter egg I threw in there. "You'll spend the rest of your career manning a radar station in Alaska you incompetent imbecile!" Who knows, maybe he will save the day and turn the tide of the war!

'IncompetentSupplyGuy HQ (USA)' lol
If only you knew how close to reality this is to me except you need that HQ on Shemya Island and not Ruby Alaska.
$hit hits the fan when the crew is supposed to search out suspected Spetznaz caches and instead report glowing reddish disks the size of buses flying out of the water and zig-zagging into space.
They lean in closer and tell you you never saw them and never talk about it again.................

Included an image of an original print of an Alaskan Scout. They patrolled out of Nome and the Priblof Islands. Got it from an old mentor who served during the Aleutian Campaign and further.
Happy New Years!

[Platoonist]

If only you knew how close to reality this is to me except you need that HQ on Shemya Island and not Ruby Alaska.
$hit hits the fan when the crew is supposed to search out suspected Spetznaz caches and instead report glowing reddish disks the size of buses flying out of the water and zig-zagging into space.
They lean in closer and tell you you never saw them and never talk about it again.................

Given this information I'm putting you charge of the Alaska Defense Command in my next game of War in the Pacific, Admirals Edition. If you can handle glowing red disks, then the spectre of the Rising Sun in the Arctic is no stranger to you. We might have to find you a cap better befitting your new rank though.

Alaska-Defense-Command.jpg (46.54 KiB) Viewed 726 times

[OldCrowBalthazor]

If only you knew how close to reality this is to me except you need that HQ on Shemya Island and not Ruby Alaska.
$hit hits the fan when the crew is supposed to search out suspected Spetznaz caches and instead report glowing reddish disks the size of buses flying out of the water and zig-zagging into space.
They lean in closer and tell you you never saw them and never talk about it again.................

Given this information I'm putting you charge of the Alaska Defense Command in my next game of War in the Pacific, Admirals Edition. If you can handle glowing red disks, then the spectre of the Rising Sun in the Arctic is no stranger to you. We might have to find you a cap better befitting your new rank though.


Alaska-Defense-Command.jpg

LoL
Alas that cap was burned about 2 weeks later. I contracted Giardiasis aka Beaver Fever and had to find another use for it..you know, on the opposite end.
I got flown out to Anchorage as I got real sick.
The boys were ribbing me and were going about that they knew I had a different kind of beaver Fever and the whole thing was a ruse for nookie.

[OldCrowBalthazor]

Digging deeper into this mod and I am really impressed.

Manchukuo:
So I like this change requiring the Japanese to maintain strong forces in Manchukuo/Manchuria. In vanilla WaW and Pacific, the meta is to move in mere garrisons into the trigger towns and move elements of what was the Kwangtung Army elsewhere into China or beyond.

Siberia: Found an anomaly (green arrow) specifying Japanese bombers can be placed there (Fiji) to interdict. Must be a duplicate because I checked an the proper location is covered.
Side note: Early in the Beta, I saw the road (The Kolyma Highway 'Road of Bones', 'Highway of Death' etc) from Magadan to Yakutsk but no mines. I asked if the Gold Mines could be placed there (The reason for the gulag build road) and Bill said he could with out impacting the balance. Could be a side show but if the Japanese did elect to go for the Soviets and try to create their planned 'Northern Prosperity Zone', well there is now a secondary objective. You never know where a Nippon rampage could go........

[Nginear]

Digging deeper into this mod and I am really impressed.

Manchukuo:
So I like this change requiring the Japanese to maintain strong forces in Manchukuo/Manchuria. In vanilla WaW and Pacific, the meta is to move in mere garrisons into the trigger towns and move elements of what was the Kwangtung Army elsewhere into China or beyond.

Siberia: Found an anomaly (green arrow) specifying Japanese bombers can be placed there (Fiji) to interdict. Must be a duplicate because I checked an the proper location is covered.
Side note: Early in the Beta, I saw the road (The Kolyma Highway 'Road of Bones', 'Highway of Death' etc) from Magadan to Yakutsk but no mines. I asked if the Gold Mines could be placed there (The reason for the gulag build road) and Bill said he could with out impacting the balance. Could be a side show but if the Japanese did elect to go for the Soviets and try to create their planned 'Northern Prosperity Zone', well there is now a secondary objective. You never know where a Nippon rampage could go........

Glad you are liking it! I have made a note to delete the random script.
Admittedly, I have not done much with USSR balance outside of porting the scripts. This is partly due to this AE map not having the west portion of Russia behind China like Pac does, and partly because USSR hasn't played any role in any Pacific games I've played, hence I don't have any experience to draw from. I did port the scripts and make some geographical adjustments to keep all of the dev's ideas from Pacific.

[Tanaka]

Welcome to MEGA Pacific - MRY (most realistic yet) Mod! Version 1.0 (December 29, 2024)

This is a MEGA map of Strategic Command: Pacific. This is a mod that focuses on improving the historical aspects of the Pacific War - airfields, ports, engineers, and air and naval battles. First, credit to where it is due: I combined Elessar2's WaW Pacific mod (a great mod BTW) with the Developer's Pac ideas, but have made many many enhancements. Some enhancements include building railroads, corruption in the KMT, building the Ledo Road, China worried about Communist influence, coastal artillery, the all important atom bomb, and many more.

This mod is designed to be hard - you must control airfields and ports to win (plus it helps with NM). Most ports have been removed leaving only historical refueling spots; hence watching supply on ships will be of the utmost importance. If you don't capture ports close to your front lines and use naval construction, then you will lose due to the distance to resupply and repair. Airfields add a second strike and increased naval visibility, making them ultra valuable in this expanded map. China has been completely reworked (China had 300 divisions but was plagued with corruption and lack of outside supplies; Japan +/-30 divisions, but was far more effective soldier vs soldier), with a t-o-n of research done on the historical paved roads and railroad lines throughout India and Asia. There are several new units and every unit has a specialty, no unit is pointless. Engineers do a lot more than build forts now! And of course, an all new technology tree!

This is designed to be naval and LBA intensive (far more than generic SC:Pac), with careful planning and attention to details needed to win. And when able, to focus more on the historical strengths/weaknesses of each nation. For now, I have kept the victory conditions of SC:Pac, but time will tell whether this map is too big for that or not.

Sorry - no ported AI right now! That is an animal all on its own.

Download the zip file here (unzip and place in My Games SC:Pacific folder):
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/wvzcww4h ... 6q181&dl=0

Hex Scale: 35-40 miles per hex
Ship Scale: Carriers, Light Carriers, and Battleships 1:1; Heavy Cruiser 2:1; Light Cruiser 3.5:1; Everything else 5:1.
Unit Scale: Think of it in terms of "groups of battalions" or "groups of divisions" or "groups of regiments". A Corps is the ultimate unit - slow, expensive, and hard hitting.
Planes: About 100 per unit.

PLEASE READ:
Player notes for major changes :
Most Important Changes:
-Airfields add +1 strike for each air unit, except fighters get +3/+1 escort/strike range, AND +1 interception/escort/strike. All air units get +2 Naval visibility when on an airfield. Capture and hold them!
-Convoys run in a big semi-circle. US -> Australia-> India -> China. Great Britian can send a convoy to India too.
-HQ, Garrison, and Battalion, and Sea Planes are not reformable. Everything requires a supply of 6 or greater to be reformable, except Light/Medium/Heavy Tanks which still require 5.
-Shutting down a convoy's primary start/end port may cause it to switch ports, but with reduced efficiency. Thus, less MPP will be received with each port blockade.
-Zone of Control is controlled more by escort ships (heavy cruiser and smaller). Battleships have a weak ZofC, and carriers have none.
- To keep the focus on Carrier vs Carrier, a ship's attack value vs Carrier is significantly less than other surface ships. However, a carrier has no defense value vs a ship, so it is not likely to damage a unit if attacked.
-Battleships and short range amphibious transport de-entrench. Destroyer Transports (LR Transports) do not en-entrench, but they do get two strikes. Destroyer Transports also cruise, have a 20% chance of damage evasion, have full ZoC and have a minimal naval defense value.
-Use a Battalion unit to capture an island with no port. Then disband the unit to get another unit in there. Sorry, it's a game engine limitation.

Changes to game code:
-The closer Jap bombers are to Australia, the more damage will occur.
-Coastwatchers' effectiveness has been increased from 5% to 10-30% chance. The more units gathered together, the greater the chance to be spotted.
-Port defenses: reduced from 100% trigger. Small port has 50% trigger, may damage 0-1 point. Major port has 75% chance, 0-2 points.
-Supply depot (Mobility) adds 10% evasion, +1 AP.
-Tech is 3/2/2/1/1 % per level.
-You cannot starve the Japanese out of Iwo Jima simply by having a land unit next to it. You will need to bombard its supply.
-Communist China is much more apathetic. IRL they were content let Nationalist China do the battles. They will not begin to automatically mobilize until 1943.

Misc Changes to Units: (this is not all inclusive to every stat change, but more of the things you can't see in game)
- The British fleet is tricky. A large fleet was sent in '42, and then largely withdrawn by 1943. This is hard to represent since units can only be destroyed once on the map. My attempt was to have the ships that left IRL arrive at 3 HP. If GB can scrape the mpp to rebuild, then who knows?
-Submarines have 50% prepared attack bonus. Don't get caught next to one at the start of turn!
-Jap heavy cruisers have torpedoes, Allies have Fire Control.
-Japs have lower fighter defense and bomber defense to represent lightly armored planes.
-Sea Planes have a 25% chance of damage evasion.
-Most things have max experience of 5. Japanese pilots were very experienced at the start of the war.
-Most things have reduced "surprised" bonus.
-Naval retreat is between 3-6 hexes. The larger the ship, the less retreat distance.
-Australia has two partisan units waiting on LR amphib transports that can be landed anywhere. This represents the fact that many defeated units turned to guerilla warfare in the early war. They are not replaceable if destroyed.
-Communist China can build Guerillas. This represents their focus on guerilla tactics.
-Japanese Superheavy Battleship (SBB) is stronger than USA SBB (Yamato had bigger guns and more armor than Iowa). All SBB get two strikes.
-The US's domestic industry (MPPs) will gradually activate over time. Full mobilization won't be achieved until the end of 1943.
-PT Boat scripts have been updated, but are turned off. Auxiliary ships represent anything from minesweepers to old destroyers.



Recommended House Rules:
1) Fleet Carriers are used in Mix or Bomber mode only
2) LBA only operates to airfields, but can use action points to move around.
3) Soft Limits off

Optional House Rules for extra realism and difficulty:
1) All ships except Destroyers and Light Cruisers repair at major ports.
2) Destroyer Transports can only carry Battalion and Regiment units.
3) Carriers and Battleships can only repair at Homeland major ports (Japan, USA, Australia).

Wow very impressive and lots of interesting ideas here! Great work!

[OldCrowBalthazor]

Wow very impressive and lots of interesting ideas here! Great work!

Tanaka. Maybe this could be our next huckleberry. Soon as I down loaded this I thought of you.
Imagine the MEGA-Tsunami rampage you could unleash on me!

We should talk..........

[mdsmall]

Very impressive! I like everything you are doing in this mod. Just a couple of questions:

- did you consider limiting the ability of carriers to reinforce with new aircraft outside of major ports or home ports? My understanding was that new air crew had to be trained to land on carriers and that could only happen close to where they arrive as reinforcements. Obliging carriers to return to Japan or Hawai'i to reinforce their air crew would increase the impact of carrier vs carrier battles. This could be done via a house rule.

- do you think that ports (of any size) give too much of a defensive advantage to carriers? My understanding was that carriers could usually only launch air crew at sea. In this game, it seems standard for carriers to retreat to ports (even small forward bases) and go onto CAP until they spot a naval target at sea. As a result, a lot of the carrier action I have seen is attacking fighters vs CAP, rather than trying to bomb carriers in ports, which seems to yield limited results. Can something be done to reduce the defensive advantage of ports at least for carriers?

- why do you recommend the house rule that fleet carriers operate only on Mixed or Bombers, and not on CAP? I appreciate that escort carriers were intended for CAP duty. But given the above, I usually keep my fleet carriers on CAP unless I am ready to attack.

I look forward to trying to mod.

Michael

[Platoonist]

My understanding was that new air crew had to be trained to land on carriers and that could only happen close to where they arrive as reinforcements. Obliging carriers to return to Japan or Hawai'i to reinforce their air crew would increase the impact of carrier vs carrier battles. This could be done via a house rule.

New US naval aviators usually didn't get their carrier qualifications on active fleet carriers during the war. Big carriers were at a premium and admirals didn't want the newly minted nuggets crashing into their decks. Instead, the escort carrier USS Charger spent most of the war chugging around Chesapeake Bay training new pilots in landings and takeoffs. In 1942, two former paddle steamers were converted to training flattops and trained pilots at basic carrier ops at the Great Lakes Naval Station on Lake Michigan. By 1945 the aging USS Ranger and Saratoga were designated as training carriers as they couldn't accommodate the larger and more modern naval aircraft in their elevators.

Unless they were being assigned to a new naval squadron being formed at home, replacement naval aviators were usually shipped abroad as needed and sent overseas in the same manner as replacement Army or Marine pilots. By troopships, escort carriers, transport planes or by ferrying replacement aircraft to the front.

The Japanese used the small carriers Hosho and sometimes the Ryuho in the Inland Sea for pilot training. Which is likely why those two carriers survived the war.

[OldCrowBalthazor]

- why do you recommend the house rule that fleet carriers operate only on Mixed or Bombers, and not on CAP? I appreciate that escort carriers were intended for CAP duty. But given the above, I usually keep my fleet carriers on CAP unless I am ready to attack.

I look forward to trying to mod.

Michael

Hi Michael. I can answer the above question. It was a house-rule that Elessar and I came up with while testing for over a year his SC-WaW War in the Pacific mod. First strike carrier attacks had NO chance of doing much damage against a carrier All Fighter air capped enemy fleet. Elessar struggled to find a solution, as did I. We finally came up with this house-rule and tested it. The discussion about 'Mixed' and its merits came up, as we knew no Carrier had all fighters on board, and no dive/torpedo bombers. So after much testing, the 'Mixed' mode rule for CVs turned out to work great. First strikes in Mixed Mode could get through. Before, a first strike bombing mission against a enemy fleet that had all its CVs on Fighter Mode would get decimated, with hardly any hits at all.

I strongly urge that this house-rule be used in a multiplayer match.

btw..I am planning to do an introduction vid covering this mod. I just came here to PM Nginear to ask for some talking points, like I did for you and your brilliant Icarus Mod.

[Nginear]

Hi Michael and thank you so much for trying the mod and asking these questions! I have not written a comprehensive "designer's notes" but taking questions is a great equivalent.

- did you consider limiting the ability of carriers to reinforce with new aircraft outside of major ports or home ports? My understanding was that new air crew had to be trained to land on carriers and that could only happen close to where they arrive as reinforcements. Obliging carriers to return to Japan or Hawai'i to reinforce their air crew would increase the impact of carrier vs carrier battles. This could be done via a house rule.

-Excellent point and one I need to clarify. My original idea for this house rule would apply to the hull only, not reinforcing aircraft crews. I did not specify this very well and will correct it. What sounds good in my head is not what others interpret! As a side note, you will notice that US aircraft carriers in the production que start with 1.0 experience (represents their better training) and Japanese with none (in place Japanese carriers start with 3.0 to represent their highly experienced crews at war's start, but limited training program).

- do you think that ports (of any size) give too much of a defensive advantage to carriers? My understanding was that carriers could usually only launch air crew at sea. In this game, it seems standard for carriers to retreat to ports (even small forward bases) and go onto CAP until they spot a naval target at sea. As a result, a lot of the carrier action I have seen is attacking fighters vs CAP, rather than trying to bomb carriers in ports, which seems to yield limited results. Can something be done to reduce the defensive advantage of ports at least for carriers?

-I recently saw a thread about this, but for the life of me and I cannot find it now. Yes, the numbers can be changed, and I think the devs agreed they would change the numbers in the patch due to the problem you mentioned. I tried to use the numbers from Pac, but there were some problems with porting things in the editor, so their may be differences sometimes.
UPDATE: The thread was on the Matrix SC:Pac Discord channel.

- why do you recommend the house rule that fleet carriers operate only on Mixed or Bombers, and not on CAP? I appreciate that escort carriers were intended for CAP duty. But given the above, I usually keep my fleet carriers on CAP unless I am ready to attack.

-As OldCrowB mentioned, this has its basis in Elessar2's mod for WaW. Elessar determined, after discussing with the devs, there were unwritten combat rules that affected gameplay. I played an entire game against Feinder in the WaW pacific mod, and we agreed that mixed worked pretty well through out the game.
You can read Feinder's entertaining AAR here: https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 0&t=396378
You can read Elessar2's analysis of the CAP vs Mixed vs Bomber here: https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 4#p4926004 Look for the lengthy post 4th from bottom.


Let me know how the mod play goes! I am working on getting the scripts working so engineers build airfields and ports (think Guadalcanal).

[jjdenver]

Ty for the mod - looks interesting. I have a few immediate questions:
1) The notes in-game that pop up on turn 1 seem to refer to some designer's notes. I looked in the mod folders and see a small player notes.txt file which seems similar to the brief notes you posted already on this thread. Is there another document or pdf with designer's notes?
2) There are many red hashed hexes on the map - a line of them south of Truk, some around Japan, and I think others - what are all of these?
3) It looks from your notes like HQ's cannot be replaced. This seems pretty harsh. Destruction of an HQ doesn't necessarily have to mean death of the one guy in charge, he can ride away in a staff car or fly out. And even if he is killed there are other commanders that will rise to succeed him. Having a nation's HQ's be permanently gone losing overall ability to provide HQ's for the rest of the war seems pretty tough. I'm saying this without playing the game at all but this just stood out to me.

Thanks again

[Nginear]

Thanks for trying it! It's encouraging to see others take an interest.

1) The notes in-game that pop up on turn 1 seem to refer to some designer's notes. I looked in the mod folders and see a small player notes.txt file which seems similar to the brief notes you posted already on this thread. Is there another document or pdf with designer's notes?

I kept many of the developer's ideas and popups, editing as needed. For things that are uniquely mine, I would create a new popup (such as the atomic bomb). So you might see switches in personality from "My emperor" to "you" and references to the official SC strategy guide. The document you mentioned is the original version of what is posted in the forum and obviously not edited. When I release an updated mod, I will update those notes as well.

2) There are many red hashed hexes on the map - a line of them south of Truk, some around Japan, and I think others - what are all of these?

Good question! The sporadic red hexes around Japan were my markings for the original launch range for Doolittle to get the bomber's successfully to China (the bombers were supposed to join the fight in China). My original idea was to have two launch lines - the "oh crap, we are spotted" historical launch range; and the red line would initiate the raid + provide a medium bomber unit to China. Buuut I decided it was going to be too complex to work out the scripts and so I shelved the idea for now. BTW the launch points in this mod are the historic range, Pacific is a little beyond the historic range.
The long line of red hexes is the equator. As my mod traces has roots to Elessar2's mod, he had an extra weather zone around the equator that was more volatile. My mod does not have that specific weather affect (the porting feature was not compatible), but I kept the hexes.

3) It looks from your notes like HQ's cannot be replaced. This seems pretty harsh. Destruction of an HQ doesn't necessarily have to mean death of the one guy in charge, he can ride away in a staff car or fly out. And even if he is killed there are other commanders that will rise to succeed him. Having a nation's HQ's be permanently gone losing overall ability to provide HQ's for the rest of the war seems pretty tough. I'm saying this without playing the game at all but this just stood out to me.

I tend to think of HQs as the leader + equipment. Sure, the leader may or may not escape, but the equipment seldom does. MacArthur escaped with some staff, but everything was left behind. HQ's #1 use is for boosting supply - jeeps, trucks, fuel, food, ammo, etc. Leadership is a bonus. Part of my decision to raise the minimum supply to reform to 6+ is based off the island warfare. The limited game mechanics mix it all together - a random town in China is the same as a backwater island with a port.
However, because I do want HQs to play a bigger role, placing them at strategic operating points like Truk or Hollandia, I lowered the cost significantly from Pacific (300 down to 215).

Hope that helps and let me know about the results of your game!