Favorite combat mode: Normal, Dice Chess, Chess?

[CarlVon]

Just wondering, can we use dice-chess in multiplayer? I hate normal.

[BiteNibbleChomp]

I agree that war is unpredictable...hell, I've been in one in real life.

Which war? (I've never fought, so don't ask me!)

Also I prefer Normal mode because I have relied too many times on getting 5/1 instead of 3/2 and winning a scenario as a result!

I would never play Chess mode as it would mean my army takes more casualties than it needs.

- BNC

[Goatman]

Chess.
If youre in that plane of existence where good fortune just does't exist, there is no shame to it.
When i attacked a lone dingo out in the open with a full strength PZ iv and lost 1:7, that was the final drop.
The brits and their endless prestige pool, insanely tough Matildas that appear to NEVER take more then 1 pt of damage, Stuarts that survive 8 PZ iv and come back full strength, endless hordes of fighters and dingos with hidden 1000mm railguns can kiss my rear.
No more attacking hurricanes with 4 BF109 and watch it turn 5:1 rolls into 1:5 and fly away almost intact laughing "shooting gum don't work fritz buy some real bullets!"

[hugh2711]

I would have to go with dice chess, it avoids the results that are too ridiculous but still keeps an element of unpredictability and hence variation.

[captainjack]

Dice chess for me, as full random is too variable and chess is too predictable.
When I started figure gaming one of the essentials was a set of average dice, marked with 2,3,3,4,4,5 to allow for variability without the extremes. That was quite a while back so there's a pretty decent heritage for those of us in favour of moderate variability!

[EsgibtkeinBier]

I was wondering whether we could be given the option of tweaking the randomness of the game.
Although I enjoyed dice chess I noticed that no extreme results were ever rolled. Judging by the comments here most people would disagree, but why not keep everyone satisfied? That’s I how I came up with an idea:

We could have two parameters. One would tweak the extremes of the distribution and the other its deviation.
Due to my lack of knowledge on how the game is scripted I don't know whether this is even possible but I suppose that if it was implemented, everyone could have the randomness that suits him/her best

edit: Regarding the fact that best and worst results are not displayed. Well, why do we have the detailed combat screen anyway? U.I. remains unchanged and the info is displayed somewhere unobtrusively.

[kanniethexen]

True story: One time I attacked a Dutch boy on a bike with a 10-strength Tiger (1,186: 1 odds), and I lost 5 strength points. The kid retreated a hex. That's just wrong.

That must have been Lord Zimoa himself

I always play normal, but often the results are not normal, both ways to be honest

[HNT]

I play chess mode now but I tried the normal mode first. The outcome of battle in the normal mode was frequently frustrating.

[yarco]

Hi,
I like to play dice chess.
is it possible to change combat random (chance) prediction by editing some files or registry? How to slightly push up deviation to 30%?

pardon my english

thanks

[jugasa]

Aristotle said that virtue resides in the middle term. That's why I choose the option Dice Chess to play. I do not know if it was General Lee, General Longstreet or General Pickett who said in the Gettysburg film of 1993 that a battle is a mathematical equation: he knew that the final charge of the Pickett Brigade against Cemetery Hill at the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg will fail before it started.

[captainjack]

Combat variability is hard coded, so yance, unfortunately you can't change it.

I think that Normal would be better if the distribution was a bit more bell curve rather than flat - so something like Dice Chess with the occasional extreme result in place of the frequent extreme results from Normal.

That way, you could still get the Russian Valentine occasionally taking down the Panther with a 2 pounder, but not quite as often as the Panzer 2 takes out a T34 now. To be fair, a Valentine could probably disable a Panther by making it turn in a hurry or start a fuel fire by getting the Panther to drive over a bump so maybe the current Normal setting is more realistic than it seems.

[jugasa]

Hi,
I like to play dice chess.
is it possible to change combat random (chance) prediction by editing some files or registry? How to slightly push up deviation to 30%?

pardon my english

thanks

I like to play dice chess too.
Average variance seems to be hardcoded at 20%.
I think that most unexpected results comes from initiative rolls.
ShotsPerInitiativePoint 20 at gamerules.pzdat.
You can set it to 30% if you want more unexpected results.
I have edit it to 10% in a mini-mod of rules because I think better initiative units can fire a few rounds before fire can be returned.
You can play with this value and do some testing before you tell us.

[jugasa]

is it possible to change combat random (chance) prediction by editing some files or registry? How to slightly push up deviation to 30%?

I think it is difficult to increase deviation.
Have you ever played role-play-games (RPGs)?
We have several kind of dice: 1d4, 1d6, 1d8, 1d10, 1d12 and 1d20.
We can have also a 1d100 dice using two d10: one for the tens and one for the units.
Deviation for 2d6 is lower than for 1d12: there is more probability to get a score of 7 with 2d6 and less to score a 2 or a 12.
I suppose that game engine uses 1d100 to calculate combat results: if it used 2d50 instead there was less deviation or variance.

You can find more information at this link:
http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=62845

Postdata (18/11/2018): I don't know if Normal Dice uses 1d100 or if Dice Chess uses 2d50 as they are hardcoded.

[PeteMitchell]

I prefer dice chess.

One question on this topic: why is it not possible to choose between Normal, Dice Chess and Chess in MP, please?

Some mods (e.g. the amazing Battlefield Europe mod by McGuba) become very hard to play at Normal in MP, i.e. it takes away all the fun as it just becomes too frustrating (IMHO).

[goose_2]

I prefer dice chess.

One question on this topic: why is it not possible to choose between Normal, Dice Chess and Chess in MP, please?

Some mods (e.g. the amazing Battlefield Europe mod by McGuba) become very hard to play at Normal in MP, i.e. it takes away all the fun as it just becomes too frustrating (IMHO).

That is a great question that has never been addressed by the developers, although it has been asked on repeated occasions. If you ever get an answer let us know.

[PeteMitchell]

Thanks goose_2, I am not that much into these software specifics but I would just be curious why this wasn't enabled to be honest... or what it would take to do so... while I kind of doubt I will ever find out...

I understand some people enjoy Normal but I just find it way too nerve-racking at times... not my cup of tea at all...

[goose_2]

Thanks goose_2, I am not that much into these software specifics but I would just be curious why this wasn't enabled to be honest... or what it would take to do so... while I kind of doubt I will ever find out...

I understand some people enjoy Normal but I just find it way too nerve-racking at times... not my cup of tea at all...

I have grown ccustomed to it at this point and don't mind it on games with the ai, even at the crazy difficulties I play at.

But what really bothers me is when I see a crazy roll in multiplayer, I am talking a 10 shot with 1 to 2% chance of hitting and I hit 4. That really pisses me off, because it makes the game seem to dependent on luck and takes away some of the feeling that I win because of my superior strategy.

When I pull off something brilliant and come walking away feeling victorious because of something I was able to pull off, nothing beats that feeling. Nothing beats the feeling of also coming to the tail end of a scenario with an opponent where he figures out how to pull off a win on the last turn.

DD-Ovy just pulled that off in Kursk. It felt awesome, even though I lost the scenario. Those kind of games where you play a strategy that works or almost works, feel the best, that is why when it becomes a slaughter because of lucky rolls it totally loses its effect.

[PeteMitchell]

That's exactly what I mean...

[Erasermarek]

Normal... and save and load method. If result is ok, than i save - when not i load. This is game not war

[PeteMitchell]

True... but this is what I would like to avoid personally... I want to get what I see... with limited surprises by random odds...