Campaign: What exactly is dynamic about it?

[trotter]

"Experience epic battles...where your actions directly impact the evolution of a dynamic campaign"

-The back of my SH5 box


I just finished "Total Germany", it is June 1940, and think I have a pretty good idea of how the campaign works. Each scenario (such as 'Total Germany') has missions, of which each have an expiration date. If you complete the missions, you get "Crosses", if not, the next scenario eventually becomes available anyway.

I was disappointed to see on the campaign "chain" screen that after the next scenario "Happy Times", they have already predetermined that the next two will be either "Mare Nostrum" or a North Atlantic one. First off, why are they showing me this ahead of time (especially considering that certain of those future scenario objectives rely on things that have not happened in the war yet)? Why show it to me now, even if it is scripted ahead of time?

Second, and more importantly, does this indicate that the campaign has precisely zero dynamic elements? I'm not sure what the "Crosses" you get for doing the missions are for, but how can they possibly influence a chain of scenarios that are clearly (according to the scenario "chain" screen) already scripted???

[severniae]

Basically, the 'dynamic campaign' isn't the missions, its more the traffic. The game engine generates ships moving around the seas at any particular time.

So basically you'll never have the exact game experience twice, your free to go and hunt whereever you want. And to be fair, the 'missions' don't seem to have any affect on progressing through the game. I've pretty much given up on them, I don't every actually try to complete the objectives, and if I do, its usually co-incidence!

[John Channing]

The war is going to proceed according to historical dates and events regardless what you do. The early cosstal war, the invasion of Norway, the convoy duels in the mid-Atlantic and the operations against the US Eastern Seaboard are all going to happen, just as they did in 1939-1943.

What happens within those dates is dynamic, depending on your success or failure with your objectives. Also the way the enemy reacts is dynamic depending upon your actions. If you manage to sink a lot of shipping in a particular area the shipping will get re-routed and you will probably find more Opfor presence the next time you go there.

JCC

[severniae]

The war is going to proceed according to historical dates and events regardless what you do. The early cosstal war, the invasion of Norway, the convoy duels in the mid-Atlantic and the operations against the US Eastern Seaboard are all going to happen, just as they did in 1939-1943.

What happens within those dates is dynamic, depending on your success or failure with your objectives. Also the way the enemy reacts is dynamic depending upon your actions. If you manage to sink a lot of shipping in a particular area the shipping will get re-routed and you will probably find more Opfor presence the next time you go there.

JCC

Ahhhhhh! You've answered a question I've had in my head for a fair old while. I used the same spot in the mid-atlantic to sink several convoys. Then on my next patrol, there did seem to be less and less ships in that area, found a few but not many. On my third patrol, there was nothing in my little hunting area at-all other than a carrier group and a pack of destroyers! And when I moved my area of operations found a massive, and largely undefended convoy!

I must also admit that I've noticed, that earlier on the convoys in the atlantic didn't seem to have any escort whatsoever, or maybe one or two every now and then, however now, I'm finding convoys escorted by 5+ DD's constantly!!