[WIP] SH5 True Dynamic Campaign

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by R-T-B

It is quite the task, that's for sure. The first release won't have everything you list, but it will do a rudimentary simulation of countries surendering/losing, turf changes, etc. It won't however change shipping lanes until the "2.0" release I imagine, which I plan to feature dynamic shipping lanes, more nations and more boats (contributions welcome, Finland is a major one I need to add, not in game and Russia goes to war with them), and many many more things.

There's no limit to how much you can add, because I'm writing it to be very modular. Nearly everything is wrapped in a callable subroutine or function so it's very modular, almost scriptable (heck, it could be with some work, but that's a low priority).

The first war log will simply simulate wars using a very rudimentary formula of "my military slowly grinds yours down based on numbers," sort of like battling spreadsheets. It works, but it's not ideal. The final 1.0 release will feature something much better, though I'm not saying much yet.

As far as changing the war goes, random events such as "economic booms" and "economic depressions" exist, allowing some things to change simply due to randomization. It should provide a different, but historical feeling experience each time if I can tune it right.

Of course, if you don't like how it's acting, it reads it's data from excel spreadsheets, and you have the source code, so there's nothing to stop you from changing it!

There probably won't be a need to build very many ships. There are dozens of unique warship models for minor nations that were built for SH3 and SH4 - as soon as we figure out how to convert the models for SH5 there won't be very many ship classes needed. Nearly all of the important Japanese ships, for example, can be ported over from SH4.

It would be interesting if you could produce a "ripple effect" from the players' individual sinkings, as some people have already alluded to. If commodity stocks are modeled, it could create some interesting situations. Perhaps there could be several primary categories of goods:

POL (Petroleum/Oil/Lubricants)
Carried in: TANKERS
Affects: MILITARY OPS
CIVILIAN HAPPINESS (Gasoline, Heating Oil, &c.)

AMMUNITION
Carried in: FREIGHTERS
Affects: MILITARY OPS

FOOD
Carried in: FREIGHTERS, REEFER SHIPS
Affects: CIVILIAN HAPPINESS

MINERAL ORES
Carried in: BULK CARRIERS
Affects: INDUSTRIAL OUTPUT

TROOPS
Carried in: TROOP CARRIERS
Affects: MILITARY OPS

MILITARY STORES
Carried in: FREIGHTERS
Affects: MILITARY OPS

CONSUMER GOODS
Carried in: FREIGHTERS
Affects: CIVILIAN HAPPINESS

For instance, Player X goes out on patrol and sinks four British freighters and a British tanker in October 1939. Assuming all the ships were loaded. Britain loses, maybe, 2 points worth of consumer goods, one point of military stores, and one point of food, plus one point of petroleum products. The 20-30 U-Boats on patrol in 1939 will therefore sink an average of 5 ships per patrol, give or take a few. Over all, British resolve is shaken but not destroyed - after all, it's early in the war, and there are still a lot of merchants left.

A small number of U-Boats will be lost, based on historical averages for that time period. If the player's U-Boat is lost, then assume a higher U-Boat loss rate.

Democracies should be more sensitive to factors like civilian unhappiness, because they lack dictatorship's brutal efficiency. Also, countries like Britain and the USA should be accustomed to having more consumer goods than, say, Russia or Japan. If civilian unhappiness declines enough, then countries should suffer from civil wars, unrest, or even sue for peace. If petroleum/ammo stocks decline, it would be great if the campaign layers spawned fewer aircraft and naval sorties (shortages of ammo, aviation fuel, & bunker fuel).

Countries with smaller merchant fleets should suffer greater point penalties per merchant ship sunk. This can be mitigated somewhat if they have an ally with a large merchant fleet.

Sinking certain "prestige units" like Battleships should cause a large morale penalty/increase in unhappiness. The military would try to censor these losses, but of course word got around.

I don't know how much of this is possible - I'm just throwing out ideas.

[R-T-B]

Originally Posted by iambecomelife

There probably won't be a need to build very many ships. There are dozens of unique warship models for minor nations that were built for SH3 and SH4 - as soon as we figure out how to convert the models for SH5 there won't be very many ship classes needed. Nearly all of the important Japanese ships, for example, can be ported over from SH4.

It would be interesting if you could produce a "ripple effect" from the players' individual sinkings, as some people have already alluded to. If commodity stocks are modeled, it could create some interesting situations. Perhaps there could be several primary categories of goods:

POL (Petroleum/Oil/Lubricants)
Carried in: TANKERS
Affects: MILITARY OPS
CIVILIAN HAPPINESS (Gasoline, Heating Oil, &c.)

AMMUNITION
Carried in: FREIGHTERS
Affects: MILITARY OPS

FOOD
Carried in: FREIGHTERS, REEFER SHIPS
Affects: CIVILIAN HAPPINESS

MINERAL ORES
Carried in: BULK CARRIERS
Affects: INDUSTRIAL OUTPUT

TROOPS
Carried in: TROOP CARRIERS
Affects: MILITARY OPS

MILITARY STORES
Carried in: FREIGHTERS
Affects: MILITARY OPS

CONSUMER GOODS
Carried in: FREIGHTERS
Affects: CIVILIAN HAPPINESS

For instance, Player X goes out on patrol and sinks four British freighters and a British tanker in October 1939. Assuming all the ships were loaded. Britain loses, maybe, 2 points worth of consumer goods, one point of military stores, and one point of food, plus one point of petroleum products. The 20-30 U-Boats on patrol in 1939 will therefore sink an average of 5 ships per patrol, give or take a few. Over all, British resolve is shaken but not destroyed - after all, it's early in the war, and there are still a lot of merchants left.

A small number of U-Boats will be lost, based on historical averages for that time period. If the player's U-Boat is lost, then assume a higher U-Boat loss rate.

Democracies should be more sensitive to factors like civilian unhappiness, because they lack dictatorship's brutal efficiency. Also, countries like Britain and the USA should be accustomed to having more consumer goods than, say, Russia or Japan. If civilian unhappiness declines enough, then countries should suffer from civil wars, unrest, or even sue for peace. If petroleum/ammo stocks decline, it would be great if the campaign layers spawned fewer aircraft and naval sorties (shortages of ammo, aviation fuel, & bunker fuel).

Countries with smaller merchant fleets should suffer greater point penalties per merchant ship sunk. This can be mitigated somewhat if they have an ally with a large merchant fleet.

Sinking certain "prestige units" like Battleships should cause a large morale penalty/increase in unhappiness. The military would try to censor these losses, but of course word got around.

I don't know how much of this is possible - I'm just throwing out ideas.

All of it is possible, but to implement every bit of that would take many many months, if not years. Right now, things are represented as a simple "industrial value" that can be impacted from sinkings, but because of my modular code nothing is stopping me from changing that. It just probably won't happen for the first release.

Once I have my first release out, I'll start a poll on "most wanted features" and we'll go from there.

BTW guys, I'll be needing some beta testers. When the time comes I'll let you know. Everyone however will get a copy of the non-gameplay-functional demo log exporter, which should provide some ahistorical fun.

The beta testers will get the full thing, but they have to deal with the bugs, so it probably won't be so much fun at first.