Potzblitz V25.0 OCT 18th 2024

[Robotron]

I believe I got it all sorted out now. V10.2 will contain the following changes:

- doubled success chance for CP "Diplomatic Poker" event, only CP player will be informed of outcome, e.g. which Entente event was discarded
- build limit for German submarines: 3 per tech level
- build limit for tanks for all nations: 1 per tech level
- BB cost: 75PP build time 12 turns, BC cost: 50PP build time 10 turns
- US will start with lower tech levels (no tanks) but with 6 Light Cruisers to protect their troop transports.
- US cannot be influenced by either side to join the war sooner
- counter for Russian Supply Reserves, will be updated at start of each turn until counter reaches 0
- counter for temporal immunity from enemy mines because of enemy naval code broken
- counter for temporal combat bonus against enemy land/naval units because of army/naval code broken
- fixed bug concerning chance for coastal battery return fire against naval bombardments
- replaced the German Army Corps at Danzig with a Reserve Corpse for MP and SP vs Entente AI
- accelerated chain of events leading to Greece joining the war on either side

I'll upload the new version tomorrow evening.

[Robotron]

And here it is:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wAo0Z ... VvSCthX_Rb

As always: the new update will make any unfinished match unplayable so finish any match still in progress BEFORE you update.

[hnox]

Now testing with Cocolo. Thanks!

[cocolo]

Hi Robotron, we are in early game still. We wanted to comment you about a couple of things.

First Italy just joined CP in around turn 9. This is something that happened in another game between us some time ago, we thought it was a freak situation. Hnox plays entente and he hasnt gotten the oportunity to play any event to keep Italy neutral. In the other hand, CP is doing pretty bad with slow advance in the west front and had just lost koenisberg in the east so it is not as if Italy is joining CP because its doing really well.
Since its the second time this happens to us and we havent played that many games i think this is a real issue and not just a freak accident.

Second is just a question, are germans weakened in defense somehow from previous patch? I notice specially russians but even french are doing a lot more damage to defending germans than the last game we played but this could be just my subjective CP view from a few turns.

[hnox]

Hi, Robotron.

The Russian supply indicator works fine. Much appreciated. Playing entente is much easier this way. Thanks!

[Robotron]

Ah, feedback at last, great!

1.
First let me tell you that I've not changed anything about German combat strength.

However, Russian combat strength is boosted as long as the initial Russian attack bonus is in play, see manual 4.8:

4.8 RUSSIAN INVASION OF GERMANY AND AUSTRIA-HUNGARY IN 1914 or 1915
Russian troops will have a chance for bonus attack strength until the "Victory at Tannenberg" event has happened or the Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia consisting of Tarnopol, Lemberg and Czernowitz has been captured ("Austrian border overrun")
The more units have attacked the higher the bonus will get.
If the bonus gets too high however, then German general Von Francois will be unlocked.

2.
Italy starts the game with a randomly determined alignment of between 1 and 9, averaging on 4,5 (very close to joining CP)

The "Italy stays neutral" event for the Entente player to move Italy away from her starting pro-CP alignment is randomly discarded on either turn 4, 5 or 6.
This is determined when the campaign starts.

Hnox must have been rather unlucky to not draw that event in either of your games before turn 4.
Note that if CP successfully play "Diplomatic Poker", Entente loses any chance to play an event on turn 1.
Did that happen in your match?

3.
Italy's alignment will be modified pro CP for every hex Germany advances into France, see manual 4.9.2

4.9.2 PRO CENTRAL POWERS ALIGNMENT MODIFIERS ON ITALY
Moltke’s advance through Belgium and France continues: each newly captured French hex counts 0.2 points

Also if AH manages to destroy Russian units before Russia conquers Galicia, Italian alignment shifts 5 points pro CP for each ("Battle of Krasnik" and "Battle of Komarov")
I must admit, in hindsight this is way too much but did this happen during your match?

4.
If Russia manages to conquer Galicia (Tarnopol, Lemberg and Chernowitz) Italian alignment will be moved 10 points pro Entente ("Austrian border overrun")
Did Russia manage to do this in your match?

5.
My proposals for changes in V10.21
- Italy randomly starts with an alignment of between 2 to 12, averaging on 7 (2D6)
- The "Italy declares neutrality" event will only be discarded as early as turn 5 if either Russia or Britain are still neutral
- lower pro CP alignment shifts for both "Battle of Krasnik" and "Battle of Komarov" from 5 points each to 2 points each
- Italian alignment will be shifted towards Entente by 5 points if Koenigsberg is captured by Russia (was 2)
- Italian alignment will be shifted towards Entente for each Russian unit in East Prussia. This would also be a nice incentive for Russia to remain offensive towards Germany.

How about that?

[hnox]

Hi, Robotron.

Malta pre-dreadnought is missing and the port is not available for French units. Not sure if this is a feature, just asking.

Situation is this: French navy is actively chasing Goeben. UK just joined CE this very turn, "King G. inspects fleet" event was played. Multiplayer. It's the second game in a row that this happens.

As you can see, the port is dark gray, no ships shown even if it is in the LOS of French ships. The Malta garrison is also missing. The port is not accesible to the French armored cruiser.

missing predre malta ligth cruiser.jpg (852.25 KiB) Viewed 2767 times

missing predre malta CE turn.jpg (834.07 KiB) Viewed 2767 times

The second image was captured on the prior CP turn replay. There you can see the ship and the garrison. UK is still out of play.

missing predre malta CP turn.jpg (684.2 KiB) Viewed 2767 times

Other Commonwealth units are available: armored cruiser in Suez, garrisons, etc.

Shall we freeze the game to replay it again and look for something else? The samething happened in our prior game on monday. The Malta units were available on the next turn.

Regards.

[hnox]

1. However, Russian combat strength is boosted as long as the initial Russian attack bonus is in play, see manual 4.8

That may be the case.

2.
Hnox must have been rather unlucky to not draw that event in either of your games before turn 4.
Note that if CP successfully play "Diplomatic Poker", Entente loses any chance to play an event on turn 1.
Did that happen in your match?

IIRC Diplomatic Poker was not played.

3.
Italy's alignment will be modified pro CP for every hex Germany advances into France, see manual 4.9.2

There were advances, yes. Not many as to be concerned for French staying power, but enough to trigger Italy, I'm afraid.

Also if AH manages to destroy Russian units before Russia conquers Galicia, Italian alignment shifts 5 points pro CP for each ("Battle of Krasnik" and "Battle of Komarov")
I must admit, in hindsight this is way too much but did this happen during your match?
4.
If Russia manages to conquer Galicia (Tarnopol, Lemberg and Chernowitz) Italian alignment will be moved 10 points pro Entente ("Austrian border overrun")
Did Russia manage to do this in your match?

I only took Tarnopol and concentrated Russian war effort on Germany. No russian units were lost to AH units. Battles of Krasnik and Komarov didn't happened I think, but not sure.

5.
My proposals for changes in V10.21
1 Italy randomly starts with an alignment of between 2 to 12, averaging on 7 (2D6)
2 The "Italy declares neutrality" event will only be discarded as early as turn 5 if either Russia or Britain are still neutral
3 lower pro CP alignment shifts for both "Battle of Krasnik" and "Battle of Komarov" from 5 points each to 2 points each
4 Italian alignment will be shifted towards Entente by 5 points if Koenigsberg is captured by Russia (was 2)
5 Italian alignment will be shifted towards Entente for each Russian unit in East Prussia. This would also be a nice incentive for Russia to remain offensive towards Germany.

How about that?

I feel Italy entered war as intended, nothing went wrong. Just an unplayed event and a good-but-not-unsually-deep CP advance into France. The main problem with an early Italian entry is that the game is too early decided. Even the CP player decided it was not funny. Perhaps in single player is interesting to have Italy soon on either way.

My feeling on the opening turns with CE is that there is not much room to play events other than those "mandatory". From your proposal, I find fairly enough 1,2, and 5. 4 arrived too late on that game

[Robotron]

Concerning Malta: it might be caused by Britain not correctly registering as being already part of the Entente for visibility purposes.
Were the invisible units clickable?
Did the units re-appear on turn 5 or were they still missing on turn 5?

[hnox]

Concerning Malta: it might be caused by Britain not correctly registering as being already part of the Entente for visibility purposes.
Were the invisible units clickable?
Did the units re-appear on turn 5 or were they still missing on turn 5?

1. Yes, they are clickable! (Didn't check). The ship is available and could move to attack. It become visible just exiting port hex.
2. Got this match frozen, so I don't know if they will become visible. But last game also happened and units were visible next turn. If you don't need more, I'll follow the game.

Check the image: the Malta garrison is selected but invisible.

invisible garrison.jpg (564.29 KiB) Viewed 2747 times

[Robotron]

Okay, then it's not my fault, that bug has been around since vanilla V1.66 CTGW and it's something that can't be fixed by me because the LOS-logic is not moddable.

Probably the units will become visible again after the turn they were moved.

See this post here from 2015 when that happened to myself, unfortunately the screenshot is not available anymore.

viewtopic.php?f=214&t=66572&p=564706#p564706

[hnox]

Okay, then it's not my fault, that bug has been around since vanilla V1.66 CTGW and it's something that can't be fixed by me because the LOS-logic is not moddable.

Probably the units will become visible again after the turn they were moved.

See this post here from 2015 when that happened to myself, unfortunately the screenshot is not available anymore.

viewtopic.php?f=214&t=66572&p=564706#p564706

Well. Once known there is an easy work around. Thanks!

[Robotron]

V10.3 is out

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1kUljp ... fQNh3PfdAV

Changes:
- several fixes for reported issues of Italy going with the Central Powers too often:
1. Italy starts with a random alignment of 3D6 which will average at about 11 (was average of 5 before)
2. Event for "Italy declares Neutrality" will not be discarded before autumn 1914
3. Russian units in Germany will shift Italy's alignment to Entente
4. all events about modifying Italy's alignment toward pro-CP toned down
5. note that if Entente player willfully delays playing "Italy declares Neutrality" or stray too far away from historic plans, e.g. Russia getting nothing done in Austria, Italy might still join CP!

- fixed stupid bug in singleplayer Entente vs CP AI concerning German units deserting from East Prussia
- minor balancing concerning "Japan joins Entente"/"Cede Tsingtau" events: only available after Britain has joined Entente
- CP "Diplomatic Poker" event success chance reverted back from 20% per diplo point to 10% per diplo point. At 20% per point this almost always nullified Entente diplo on turn 1.
- "Serbs invade Austria" event requires a Serbian Army Corps or 2 full-strength Reserve Corps
- minor balancing issues too ethereal to mention, really.

Hope you like the new update, please leave comments.

Skol!

[Kossatx]

Thanks a lot Robotron!

[Robotron]

To answer two observations from cocolo sent via PM so that other players can see the answer too:

Q: When Turkey, while still being neutral, was attacked by Entente, Bulgaria joined CP too.
A: Turkey and Bulgaria have a mutual defense pact: if either nation is attacked, the other will declare war on the attacking alliance.

Q: When Entente was clearly winning, the game suddenly ended:
A: If ALL major nations of an alliance have 13 or more collapse points, the game ends. Major nations for CP are: Germany & Austria-Hungary. Major nations for Entente are: France, Britain and Russia.

The actual level of victory will depend on how many nations have surrendered before.

Nations with less 10 to 12 collapse points don't count as having surrendered, they only count as collapsing.
However, nations with 13 or more collapse points DO count as having surrendered and can trigger the end of the game.

[Robotron]

@cocolo: I've attached a file to this post.

Unpack and put that into folder:

CTGW/Data/Scripts

units.zip

(2.84 KiB) Downloaded 75 times

@all others: this file is just a fix for my match vs cocolo, it is of no use to anyone else

[Robotron]

V10.4 is nearly completed and will feature the following changes:

1. Submarines at 15PP, submarine tech research slightly accelerated
2. Light Cruisers at 25PP, subs suffer combat penalty vs LCs once anti-sub techs are researched: Depth Charge: -15%, Depth Charge Projector: -25%, Passive Hydrophone: -50% (not cumulative)
3. "industrial warfare" tech ground defense bonus set to 6 (was set to 4 for several months, no clue why)
4. CP gains diplo points from advance in France until Moltke is fired
5. Zeppelins +1 LOS
6. lessened chance to trigger "Neutral Convoy sunk" event: can only happen if at least one other convoy was sunk before. Chance rises for each additional sunk convoy
7. in singleplayer vs CP AI German troops still deserted East Prussia, fixed
8. the whole "Cede Trento to Italy" event tree was defunct , fixed
9. ground units attacking air units receive a 300% combat bonus to get rid off the rather lame tactic to block gaps in the front line with fighters, zeps etc.
10. fixed "Austrian Howitzer" event never doing extra damage on subsequent shots from artillery
11. all capital ships (B,BB,BC) only use 1 ammo point when bombarding land units, instead of 3 as was before
12. "British Guarantee to Belgium" event will have Britain DOW on CP as soon as Belgium is attacked (normally turn 3), if not played Britain will DOW CP on turn 4 if Belgium is attacked
13. hardened Austria-Hungary in respect to collapse points: reduce 1 collapse point when capturing Belgrade and Tirana. Loss of Przemysl erroneously caused 1 automatic collapse point: fixed.
14. made CP AI more aggressive on the Eastern Front

Upload within the next few days.

Comments are welcome.

[DuncanStewart]

I'm assuming the CP and Eastern Prussia thing is not meant to be the way it is. Played a game, and was able to just walk right into Danzig with zero guards and Konigsburg(one maybe two units?) By early November I had both Vienna and Budapest. On the other hand, France is almost completely over-run. Tried 2 games with historical Schlieffen plan and there was absolutely no way I could stop them from attacking Paris or capturing it. It was like Germany forgot Russian declared war on it, or were hoping to 1879 it and then rush back to the East.

Is that the East Prussia bug you mentioned?

[Robotron]

Yes, that is exactly what I meant.

[DuncanStewart]

Should I not play any games as entente then? Or does it only happen under certain circumstances?