[WIP] SH5 True Dynamic Campaign

[R-T-B]

UPDATE: Most of the below info is obsolete. I've started a complete rewrite since then, and am at a sort of crossroads in development. The game will now either run using a propietary engine of my own design that is proving very diffilcult to get to act realistics, or it will interface with the game Making History Gold (and later, Making History 2). The pros/cons of each choice are listed below:

My own engine (Option 1) PROS:
-The submariner would be able to effect the outcome of the war.
-Faster campaign generation.

My own engine (Option 1) CONS:
-My engine is not behaving realisticly at the moment, and is proving diffilcult to tame.
-Could a submariner really effect the war THAT much? I really don't see it as that likely (not really a con but had to be said).

Making History (Option 2) PROS:
-Ability to play the game as germany in grand stratedgy mode, and then switch to a uboat and let the AI take over as desired. You could even have the AI play the whole war if you want. This would allow you to both command germany, and play as a captain of a uboat, perhaps averting the course of the war.
-much more realistic, believable war outcomes
Making History (Option 2) CONS:
-Much longer campaign generation (perhaps up to one hour)
-Silent Hunter 5 gameplay would no longer have an effect on the actual outcome of the war, at least not in the initial release.

If the mods here could make this thread a poll with the following options, I'd be most appreciative:

Option 1.) Original Engine

Option 2.) Interface with Making History Gold

Please read before voting, and let me know why you voted what you did in this thread.

Old post can be found below in quotes:

I'm just unveiling this today as I'm trying to decide whether to finish it or not. That and I need some help.

What I have here is very primitive, but should be very immersive all the same. I'm coding a simple VB.NET application to load a truly dynamic campaign, that is, based on your actions it should generate a different outcome in the war. You could theoretically get scenarios such as the UK siding with Germany, or something interesting like that. Granted it does this through a degree of randomization, but it takes historical relations into account so generally things will stick to history unless something signifigant happens.

TECHNICAL DETAILS:

This works by using a "loader" application that is run prior to playing the game, similar to SH3 commander. The application generates a campaign based on the recent events by the player (read straight from the save game files), as well as some random events that have a percentage chance of going either way. Once the campaign is written, you can play as long as you want in it, and then "regenerate" the campaign every once in a while (basically whenever you feel like it, probably best inbetween patrols) to regenerate relations and see if any war decs/or signifigant events have happened. It will then write a new campaign and you can patrol under the new circumstances.

This theoretically will allow you to play games even past 1945, provided germany survives. It simulates rudimentary control of ground cities and such to facilitate this.

TECHNICAL LIMITATIONS:

This engine only can work based on fixed "events." It's similar to the SH5 branching campaign in that each time it is run, "major" nations can make decisions, but only so many scenarios can happen. Example, if the UK sides with germany, the US will side with Japan. This is a temporary limitation and it is moddable in the sense that it simply copy and pastes fixed campaign files so you can customize each "event" to your liking.

It uses several formulas and an excel table to manage relations and predict wars. I'm attatching a notepad document below that I have used for notes to describe how it works. It's a bit crazy (I never intended anyone but me to read it) but it should explain things:

Please feel free to ask for clarification if neccesary, it is a bit hard to understand.

WHERE I NEED HELP:

I need help with the following arbitrary figures I am using: Industrial Capacity, Military Strength, Diplomatic relations. I need to generate an excel document of the initial relations as of August 1939 (when the game will start), and an excel document for industrial capacity and military strength. These figures are arbitrary and only represent percentages against other nations. If anyone could provide me a good resource to figure out the approximate strength in each catagory of each nation relative to each other, I'd be most appreciative, as it's proving too much for me.

FINAL NOTES:

This is far from finished. I'll probably have a non-gameplay functional demo up somewhere between a week to a month, depending on how hard I work. The actual final will take even longer, and likely be missing a few features. However, it IS going to happen, as I am highly enthusiastic about this project, it's just a matter of how much I can actually obtain of the above feature list. If I fail I will open source the project. Any help anyone can offer is more than welcome, because my knowledge of the actual historical values is a bit lacking.

You can go nuts now people.