June Developer diary for Commander Now Available!

Post by **IainMcNeil** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 3:36 pm

All the latest developments on the game http://www.slitherine.com/commander/

Unfortunately not much progress on the art for various reasons, but things are getting back on track now.

Check out oil. After this - you can't say we never listen to you guys!

vveedd · Post by **vveedd** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 4:24 pm

Sounds very, very good so far. Oil system looks very good. Tactical bomber unit ??“ finally. Also I like idea about national morale. I would like to hear more about diplomacy system.

P.S. I say it before but I will tell you again

: pay special attention to crucial PBEM problem ??“ reloading.

Post by **IainMcNeil** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 6:24 pm

We're not really planning a diplomacy system, just the morale system. We've talked about it but decided that if we do it then it's something for the future. If done badly diplomacy can completely unbalance the game, so we think it too much of a risk. We've already got a load of feature we need to balance and have to stop the feature creep so we can this thing done

Johan has far too much to do already!

stalins_organ · Post by **stalins_organ** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 10:39 pm

Ol looks good, morale looks good but I don't see what effect low or high morale will have, and I'm note sure that it's the right way to address the political aspects like Germany going to war with Spain - I don't think that would have affected national/civilian "morale" much at all, although I can see why troops might not be too enthusiastic.

but as Goering said, to paraphrase, going to war is no problem for any nation - you just demonise the other guy for a bit and and in no time at all the population will be howling for blood.

just had a thought about oil - why would Germany have an "off map" resource for oil? The synthetic plants and domestic wells were certainly "on map" - although perhaps not able to be attacked for much of the war.

Edited again - there's a google answer about "Where did Germany get its oil from in WW2?" at http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=403163 - lots of really good links - I expecially recommend this one for a summary of German oil situation - http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airc ... becker.htm

vveedd · Post by **vveedd** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 1:06 pm

iainmcneil wrote:We're not really planning a diplomacy system, just the morale system. We've talked about it but decided that if we do it then it's something for the future. If done badly diplomacy can completely unbalance the game, so we think it too much of a risk. We've already got a load of feature we need to balance and have to stop the feature creep so we can this thing done

Johan has far too much to do already!

Hmmm.... World War II game without diplomacy is like a man without a soul. Good example of this is GGWAW game. I agree that you must be careful with diplomatic system but to my opinion you must have it. Actually, I am wondering - how you will manage this game without a diplomacy? GGWAW game start date is in 1941, moment before Barbarossa operation starts when in Europe was pretty much clear diplomatic situation and lack of diplomacy is still a big disadvantage.

durin · Post by **durin** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 12:54 pm

Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey are neutral in WWII, and they are in the Alpha version of campaign map..... How without diplomacy system?

firepowerjohan · Post by **firepowerjohan** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 1:14 pm

"No diplomacy" is an exaggeration. We will have diplomacy, but probably as a simple mechanism. Yes, you can declare war on neutral nations and they will join the other side. Also planned is some kind of penalty for declaring DOW to prevent the whole map from becoming owned by either Axis or Allies.

What we do want to avoid is having a system where you can form alliances, influence nations, coups and all that, instead we aim for just a simple "Declare of War" option combined with a penalty quite similar to how Avalon Hill Third Reich did it.

Post by **IainMcNeil** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 1:15 pm

If by diplomacy system you mean that you are able to declare war on other nations, and there are varying morale consequences for these actions then we do have diplomacy. We're not modelling relationships between all the different nations in the game though.

durin · Post by **durin** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 6:58 pm

I see the point, Iainmcneil.

Oh yes, when will start of the Grand Campaign?

1936? (Germany took "Rhinland" and Spain broke civil war, ended in 1939 and Germany and Italy secret deal as "alliance")
1938? (Full control of Austria and controlled Sudetland "forts of western Czechoslovakia of oct 1938 )
1939? (Already controlled "Bohmen Mahren in Western Czechoslovakia (15 march) + later took all of Czechoslovakia, Germany signed Non-attacked again Soviets (Aug). Germany attack in Poland (1 sept)...England+France declared war after 2 days the german armies took Poland.)

30 nov 1939 war between Soviets and Finland, ended 12 mars 1940, finnish lost, and Finland support Germany in 25 june 1941 since Germany attack Soviets.

1939 Italy attack Albania and Libya?

1940 Italy and Hungary join Axis
1941 Romania and Bulgaria join Axis

I think Grand Campaign "auto" as historial events? What happen if Germany attack so early than historial events if Grand Campaign start in 1936?

vveedd · Post by **vveedd** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 12:09 pm

Third Reich has simple diplomatic system and game works fine but Advanced Third Reich game has very complex diplomatic system (and the best I have ever seen) and game works much better. That??™s why game is called Advanced, probably??¦.

Anyway, as Durin mentioned, Spain, Turkey, Switzerland, Sweden, Portugal etc are neutral countries and in automatic or in simple diplomatic system (like you will have) this countries are too static or too exploited. Too static in case when you have attack penalties or too exploited if you don??™t have attack penalties and players attack them to gain resources. So, you should have something in the middle.