Duplex's Scenarios and Campaigns

[Duplex]

Dalian 1943 v1.3.4:

An excellent scenario!

All’s working smooth and nice, no issue found. Major Victory (at level 3, as usual) on the 39th turn (out of 50).

Spoiler alert: I think the best thing to begin this scenario is to deploy most of our units together in the North of DaLian (including all arty and ATs plus of course the Stuart) to directly counter the Japs having landed there… Once these units have been whipped out (or the majority of them at least), then all the rest will be much easier. (Without forgetting to let the AAs and about 2 inf units as garrison in DaLian and to bring back as soon as possible the Militia from the West into DaLian…)

Good and intense fighting until the 20th turn, then it was a little quieter…


There is not much I can bring for this scenario, except maybe:

1. At the end of the text of the event “More Workers”, I suggest adding a “||New objective added.” for “crystalclearness” sakes!

2. We have a nice event entitled “Northern Spearhead” warning us that “Japanese soldiers have broken through on the North flank!”… That’s perfect! But then, there is later no event warning us about the small landing on the SW around the 28th turn… Therefore, it may be a little something to add.

3. Move our airstrip several hexes westwards, please, for it may to easily be taken as target now by the Japanese navy (once all costal guns, bunkers and MG-foxholes spotted by the enemy are gone, but still!)… Shall this happen, our single airstrip won’t last long and then our poor nice P40s have nowhere to refuel, which means… well, everyone got it, I’m sure!

4. To add more variety and to help counter the Japanese navy, what about spawning (probably in the E-SE waters) an allied submarine before our last wave of reinforcements?
The (main) point is that once our few and depleted Coastal Guns have been destroyed, once our few and old ships have been sunk, there is just no way at all to counter these warships (and our P40s are not good at all attacking ships, it’s not even worth trying!)… A submarine won’t do much either against destroyers, but against the Japanese CA it will and that’s interesting! So, for the flavor, for adding another “new” kind of unit as well on this scenario, for having the chance to deal some blow to these remaining Japanese ships towards the middle/end of the scenario… so, well, why not?

5. And finally a very little detail: the scenario name should be written “DaLian” instead of “Dalian”, by coherence, according to the name on map and to the briefing (and to how you write these names in general).


Trully, it was a pleasure playing this one. Thanks, keep up the good work!


By the way (and this is the last time I'm writing about it if you don't act on it), if you wish some help to find pictures for events, feel free to ask.

Thanks for the feedback on both scenarios! Well written and thorough. I'll get to work making a couple of the suggested changes. Update notes will come out probably sometime this week.

[ColonelY]

You're welcome!

[Duplex]

v1.3.3 of the Great Manchurian Offensive:
- buffed some Japanese units
- fixed the YingKou trigger, both the "red arrow" and the Goodbye event
- moved a reinforcement wave forward
- RP income tweaked
- other minor tweaks

Still no Flying Tigers in this scenario. I'm going to keep the aerial harassment from the Japanese.
Event pictures will come in a future update.
Hm, what easter egg are you talking about in the Southeast, Colonel?

[ColonelY]

What easter egg?

Well, you have one wooded hex which has this name (with no flag; its down in the SE, surrounded first by a belt of clearings... you can "see" that you have a hex with this name on the text file as well...

[ColonelY]

[...] Event pictures will come in a future update.

Great, thanks a lot!


By the way, just be aware that it may be a little different for the Major/Minor Victories/Defeat (and Draw!) than for "usual" events... Indeed, for this purpose, I think (but I'm not 100% sure - never done it myself! ) that there should in principle be up to five pictures with a name like "outcome_3_0" or something (one for Major Defeat, one for Minor Defeat, one for Draw, etc.)... with as number what appears in the txt file under the section: "// OUTCOME EVENTS"...

So, in this case, the modus operanti seems to be a little different...


All right, cheer up, keep up the good work!

[ColonelY]

What easter egg?

Well, you have one wooded hex which has this name (with no flag; its down in the SE, surrounded first by a belt of clearings... you can "see" that you have a hex with this name on the text file as well...

Even in the last version, you can find in the txt file "hex_7053 = Easter Egg"... But finding this actual hex on map may be a little trickier.

'Seems to me that you've added another (obvious) variant related to the Vickers that time! Seriously, for the next version, I think you may switch back to its original name...

[Duplex]

Duplex returns with Iwo Jima v1.0.0! (1945)

Fight as the Americans over a small but vital island. Featuring mountain batteries and brutal hand-to-hand combat, the scenario stays intense all throughout!

It's been nice getting back into OOB, I now remember why I loved this game so much.

All feedback/suggestions is greatly appreciated, I haven't tested this scenario too thoroughly, so please report any bugaboos! (If there are any )

- download link in the OP

[Duplex]

Iwo Jima v1.1.0 is out, containing:
- a fix to unintended complications, (units moving where they shouldn't)
- changed RP balance
- increased Japanese air presence
- other minor tweaks/bug fixes

[GabeKnight]

Duplex returns with Iwo Jima v1.0.0! (1945)

Thanks! Nice one. Good action, played very well without any real problems.

I just love having those B-29 Flying SuperFortresses in my core...

Although I have to say I was a bit surprised of the hefty air resistance from the Japs after I was told to have air superiority in the briefing. And of course I did not deploy any dogfighters or anti-air... a "minor misunderstanding" I guess, it's war after all, right?

Played the scen out of my mod in middle difficulty and Tabula Rasaed the map on turn 39 or so.
The "disappearing act" of the Jap "mountain guns" was a neat idea, well done IMO. Assaulting the mountains was a bloody affair, those batteries sank almost one of my ships per turn...

Some observations:

- the "clear leftover resistance" objective never validated; and I destoyed all, and not "almost all", units
- the (final) message of the Jap counterattack (after I take the last airfield, I believe) occured at the same moment as all Jap ground forces were effectively out of supply and made no sense like that
- the "undeploy" triggers of your mountain guns do not work if the Jap/AI switch the arty to the AT setup. I would suggest to either change the undeploy triggers or change to an arty unit type without switch mode

PS: I was playing version 1.0 of the scen, and you may have already resolved/changed some issues with your current update of the scen.

[Duplex]

Duplex returns with Iwo Jima v1.0.0! (1945)

Thanks! Nice one. Good action, played very well without any real problems.

I just love having those B-29 Flying SuperFortresses in my core...

Although I have to say I was a bit surprised of the hefty air resistance from the Japs after I was told to have air superiority in the briefing. And of course I did not deploy any dogfighters or anti-air... a "minor misunderstanding" I guess, it's war after all, right?

Played the scen out of my mod in middle difficulty and Tabula Rasaed the map on turn 39 or so.
The "disappearing act" of the Jap "mountain guns" was a neat idea, well done IMO. Assaulting the mountains was a bloody affair, those batteries sank almost one of my ships per turn...

Some observations:

- the "clear leftover resistance" objective never validated; and I destoyed all, and not "almost all", units
- the (final) message of the Jap counterattack (after I take the last airfield, I believe) occured at the same moment as all Jap ground forces were effectively out of supply and made no sense like that
- the "undeploy" triggers of your mountain guns do not work if the Jap/AI switch the arty to the AT setup. I would suggest to either change the undeploy triggers or change to an arty unit type without switch mode

PS: I was playing version 1.0 of the scen, and you may have already resolved/changed some issues with your current update of the scen.

Thanks for playing Gabeknight! Man, you never get tired of playing through *probably literally every custom scenario*, huh?

I'll definitely change and clarify the air superiority bit. I wrote the briefing before I put down any Japanese air units, but then the scenario was kind of boring without any Japanese air, so they were added later.

The leftover resistance objective should definitely not be broken......uh oh. I'll fix that right away!
The supply situation has changed for the Japanese in v1.1.0, so we're good there.
Yup, the AT setup guns are now removed as well in v1.1.0. I caught that myself while testing. (I should've tested more thoroughly before release )

Great feedback as usual, thanks!

(Oh btw, if you remember it, did the event photo for capturing Mt. Suribachi work?)

[Duplex]

Update v1.1.2 for Iwo Jima:
- Briefing has a little more clarification
- Shifted some Japanese supply
- (potentially?) fixed the clear resistance objective

I changed the kind of unit it detects from "Alive" to "Deployed". I'm not quite sure what the distinction is between the two, but I think that should fix it.

I'll play it through again after I finish Endsieg to see for myself if the objective works now.

[GabeKnight]

Thanks for playing Gabeknight! Man, you never get tired of playing through *probably literally every custom scenario*, huh?

How else do you suggest to test my mod?
Seriously, I'm loving this game; it's super relaxing, challenging and moddable as hell. If I think I need a new unit or should change some stats of an existing, I just do it mid-play...

(Oh btw, if you remember it, did the event photo for capturing Mt. Suribachi work?)

Yeah, I think so. I don't remember the pic itself, just me being surprised that you actually added one...

The leftover resistance objective should definitely not be broken......uh oh. I'll fix that right away!

It's a pity there's no real "scenario trigger" manual out there. Specifically how to constuct working trigger combinations for objectives. I mean, this is one the "usual-type" objectives (like destroy all units, do X amount of damage, kill X units, take X towns, finish before turn X, do not lose X units, etc.) and scen designers should not (still) have to struggle setting them up.

[terminator]

Update v1.1.2 for Iwo Jima:

Graphic bugs ?

Iwo Jima v1.1.2(1).jpg (436.32 KiB) Viewed 2790 times

Iwo Jima v1.1.2(2).jpg (639.74 KiB) Viewed 2790 times

Iwo Jima v1.1.2(3).jpg (527.77 KiB) Viewed 2790 times

[ColonelY]

Harbin 1943 v1.2.9:

Ah, some Flying Tigers, this time (although they are not explicitly so called)!


Now, quickly some elements of feedback:

1. This scenario is presented as being "one last battle to kick the Japanese out"... There have been a lot of battles previously, so why no inf unit of ours has XP? Maybe add some to several of them!

2. Our Polikapov I-15 in reserve can't be deployed as long as we haven't taken the airfield... and once we did, then we don't need fighter anylonger. => What about adding some air deploy hex for this unit?

3. 'Seems that this area lacks some roads... for example between the eastern village and the two main towns...

4. Very little detail: 2 times an "Intelligience" (sec obj descr + event title)... probably the last "i" of this word can safely be removed

[terminator]

Update v1.1.2 for Iwo Jima:

With the Magnetron and Centimetric Radar Specialisations, it is possible to locate all the suicide boats:

Iwo Jima v1.1.2(4).jpg (590.29 KiB) Viewed 2774 times

Without the Magnetron and Centimetric Radar Specialisations, it is not possible to locate all the suicide boats:

Iwo Jima v1.1.2(5).jpg (698.03 KiB) Viewed 2774 times

[Duplex]

Update v1.1.2 for Iwo Jima:

Graphic bugs ?

Hm...I haven't seen those before. I think the revealed hexes are from the deploy hexes that are available after the deployment phase, but I'm not sure what that darkened hex would be. Maybe I will keep the shallow water though, I don't think that matters too much. Good suggestion about the radar though, I'll give that some thought. Thanks for checking it out, Terminator!

[Duplex]

It's a pity there's no real "scenario trigger" manual out there. Specifically how to constuct working trigger combinations for objectives. I mean, this is one the "usual-type" objectives (like destroy all units, do X amount of damage, kill X units, take X towns, finish before turn X, do not lose X units, etc.) and scen designers should not (still) have to struggle setting them up.

Yeah that's a huge shame, and while most of the triggers are pretty intuitive, I've been using them for quite a while and I still don't know how some of them function! Well, that's why we have players to trial-and-error over and over.

Harbin 1943 v1.2.9:

Ah, some Flying Tigers, this time (although they are not explicitly so called)!


Now, quickly some elements of feedback:

1. This scenario is presented as being "one last battle to kick the Japanese out"... There have been a lot of battles previously, so why no inf unit of ours has XP? Maybe add some to several of them!

2. Our Polikapov I-15 in reserve can't be deployed as long as we haven't taken the airfield... and once we did, then we don't need fighter anylonger. => What about adding some air deploy hex for this unit?

3. 'Seems that this area lacks some roads... for example between the eastern village and the two main towns...

4. Very little detail: 2 times an "Intelligience" (sec obj descr + event title)... probably the last "i" of this word can safely be removed

Good suggestions. I'll definitely rethink the Polikarpov and probably change the text error . I'll also check it out and see if we need more roads.

[GabeKnight]

With the Magnetron and Centimetric Radar Specialisations, it is possible to locate all the suicide boats:

Good point. But actually I would suggest to "hide" them in the cliff-terrain/decoration and activate them when my units come near.

[Duplex]

v1.2.2 for Shanghai Battle (Multiplayer 1v1) is here! Features tons of changes to make the scenario more enjoyable, and balanced!

- Changed Primary Objectives for both sides (Shanghai is now an attack/defend scenario)
- Added a secondary objective for both sides (to incentivize early fighting in the city)
- Japanese units tweaked, buffed, and added in large quantities. Japanese forces are now far more powerful than before.
- increased Japanese RP income
- a few militia and partisan units added for China
- Many more fortifications for China, to encourage defensive tactics (bunkers/MG foxholes, two more fortress units)
- Wording and text in briefings and objectives clarified, so as to avoid confusion and make goals clear
- Japanese planes/carrier triggers reworked. Japanese carrier planes do not recall, airstrip construction group provided for Japanese (large Japanese airforce buff)
- more transports added for both sides, trucks and horse carriages for Japanese, horse carriages for China
- minor bug fixes
- extra terrain decoration
- changed Chinese navy, two destroyers instead of 1 light cruiser and one gunboat in the South
- less Chinese units in reserve, units are instead predeployed

The whole scenario should feel completely new, as nearly everything has been changed. Changes to objectives and countless balance changes should make the scenario more fair to both sides, although the scenario remains asymmetrical.

[ulysse02]

Hi Duplex,
Many thanks for your nice scenarios