A lot of questions about the game...

[Fastsnake]

Hi everybody!

I already loved this game (WWI of course), and it's of course even more accurate since I've purchased the gold patch!
But if I really appreciate the new, and new shortcuts to manage your amies (which I can't actually use as they're transparent - the bug is known by developers, they told us they will be correct it the following day of the gold release, but we're still waiting, maybe it takes time because they want to correct other things, dunno)... that's obviously the only things I enjoy with this new version. Don't worry, I'm not here to diss the gold version (not at all), but just to ask things that I've never understood with this game (which made me leave this for others actually), and that are still as existing as they're used to be.

Firstly: I don't understand everything about navy.
It's like managing to do anything, other than transporting, and strangely enough, the AI has never done anything too.

Secondly: I don't understand events sometimes.
Germany activates events which give research bonuses to France, France sparks off riots in Great-Britain, its own ally...
And even when I trigger events favourable to me, I'm not always sure about what effects they really have, and how they affect me...

----> And that's basically what perturb me about this game: the lack of transparency.

So, thirdly: that's roughly the same thing about the budget (money): I plan to build ten bombshells, and the next turn I just get two of those...

Whereas, fourthly I am supposed to receive an aid (in ammos) from the United States.
And I don't understand the aid system: small, medium... I don't see the difference. And what's supposed to be the agricol aid Germany often get from Roumania?

Fifthly: Same interrogations about political events.
If the others (may they be ennemies or allies) often use them, it's a hell of big deal for me.
Each turn, I try to trigger some of them.
But, when they're not simply "forgotten" by the game, I fail too often to get them. And this, no matter how is the overall shape of my country (victorious, high morale, parliament prompt to support the war / or at the edge of a great crisis).
Finally, if they sometimes succeed (yes, it's happening!), it's like a second test has to be passed (the event is activated, and then the effects try to apply on my faction): and it never get successfull.
I've never managed to get an event successfully completed to be honest.


I think I'll stop there.
So thank you for your future answers, and be aware that I'm not harshly dissing this game, which I love actually (mostly because it's more than respectable to have made such a game on this neglected period of time (while it has turned out to be more than important in the entire history of our current world).
And don't worry, I also recognize that I don't really handle the game perfectly, that is sheer fact.


EDIT: Politically correct language edit.

[calvinus]

...new shortcuts to manage your amies (which I can't actually use as they're transparent - the bug is known by developers, they told us they will be correct it the following day of the gold release, but we're still waiting, maybe it takes time because they want to correct other things, dunno)...

Go here: http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?t=17561
You can fix the error by yourself with a few clicks!

Of course, the first patch will fix the error.

[Tamas]

Events: when you see a nation activate an event, often it is a "public" event meaning it just triggers automatically upon drawing.

Aid system: it gives you munition factory capacity rise. You have X mun. factories in your country. Y of them are active depending on your civilian production level (less civ. production, more sites active). you can actually see this on the map, inactive mun. sites are crossed off with a red line.

The number of mun sites define how much mun can you order cheaply.
And mun just melts away in grand offensives preliminary bombardments.

Political events: do you mean political actions? I think those are fairly straightforward, IIRC your most decisive factor is your parlaiment.

[calvinus]

Firstly: I don't understand f**k all about everything about navy.
It's like managing to do anything, other than transporting, and strangely enough, the AI has never done anything too.

I suggest you to read carefully the game manual. Naval stuff is indeed a bit complex...

Secondly: I don't understand events sometimes.
Germany activates events which give research bonuses to France, France sparks off riots in Great-Britain, its own ally...
And even when I trigger events favourable to me, I'm not always sure about what effects they really have, and how they affect me...

Indeed some events are to be modded in order to avoid such stupid things.

So, thirdly: that's roughly the same thing about the budget (money): I plan to build ten bombshells, and the next turn I just get two of those...

During Movement warfare, ammo comes via scripted reinforcements. The bombshells you planned will come in 1915+, as a scheduled flow.

For the other questions, I hope the betas will help me, because now I'm deadly busy with patch development.

[Fastsnake]

Ok for the little transparent windows, actually I had already seen this manual correction, but I am damn lazy so I was willing to wait for your correction (but it's alright, I've done it now)

Ok for the munition aid system, so it increases your productivity and give you better prices.

And concerning the events, I thought the patch would correct it! :s

[calvinus]

Ok for the little transparent windows, actually I had already seen this manual correction, but I am damn lazy so I was willing to wait for your correction (but it's alright, I've done it now)

Well, as you can see you did only a few clicks!

[enf91]

Building on the naval stuff:
I have problems moving ships. For example, I have a game where I have an Italian fleet in a port (Bari?) on the Adriatic coast. I can move it into any coastal zone, but no matter what I do, I can't move it into the big zone that is the Adriatic, where an A-H fleet is. Likewise, I have two fleets moving one zone at a time along the "toe" of Italy because they won't move 2 coastal zones in one turn. By some bizarre circumstance, they did enter an adjacent "big zone", but it was through another coastal zone, not through the one it was in. I also can't move my British fleet on the southern coast of England to the North Sea. I accidentally detached a naval air squadron, but I can't reattach it (I later saw it said "use with fleet or as a normal airplane", but it shouldn't be a one-way change).
In Africa, am I supposed to move only 1 OMB in a turn? It says "2 MP". Also, there was some movement I was trying to do with an army (I don't remember where), and the game routed me through a sea zone. Finally, the railroad algorithm seems off: I was moving the French 7th Army from where it was to Vitry le Francois (or so), and instead of following the shortest rail path, it took a right turn at Dijon and took the unnecessarily long loop back around. Fortunately, there is no limit on rail movement distance, but it gets a little silly when you see Russians moving armies from the to A-H front to the Caucasus and the army goes up by Minsk (OK, exaggeration).

[Gray_Lensman]

deleted

[calvinus]

Building on the naval stuff:
I have problems moving ships. For example, I have a game where I have an Italian fleet in a port (Bari?) on the Adriatic coast. I can move it into any coastal zone, but no matter what I do, I can't move it into the big zone that is the Adriatic, where an A-H fleet is. Likewise, I have two fleets moving one zone at a time along the "toe" of Italy because they won't move 2 coastal zones in one turn. By some bizarre circumstance, they did enter an adjacent "big zone", but it was through another coastal zone, not through the one it was in. I also can't move my British fleet on the southern coast of England to the North Sea. I accidentally detached a naval air squadron, but I can't reattach it (I later saw it said "use with fleet or as a normal airplane", but it shouldn't be a one-way change).

I noticed it too. You can move to the coastal sea zone in one turn and then to the open sea zone in the following turn. I'll investigate about this point.

In Africa, am I supposed to move only 1 OMB in a turn? It says "2 MP". Also, there was some movement I was trying to do with an army (I don't remember where), and the game routed me through a sea zone.

Entering a OMB exhausts all MPs.

Finally, the railroad algorithm seems off: I was moving the French 7th Army from where it was to Vitry le Francois (or so), and instead of following the shortest rail path, it took a right turn at Dijon and took the unnecessarily long loop back around. Fortunately, there is no limit on rail movement distance, but it gets a little silly when you see Russians moving armies from the to A-H front to the Caucasus and the army goes up by Minsk (OK, exaggeration).

Rail movement is indeed a combination of rail + normal movement, but if you embark + disembark troops from/to the train you spend MPs (cavalry costs more to embark). In addition there's a max number of rail tracks that can be passed (I recall 40, each OMB is counted as 20).

[Fastsnake]

Also... What does research really bring us on?
Because, in the first turn, I succeeded in developing "light machine guns"... And I don't see what it actually involves? Because the description talks about infantry, and it is marked as to be an aircraft invention!

If getting "gaz moutarde" obviously allows you to use it in land battles, I wonder what some innovations really unlock.

Thnak you for your future answers again.

[Tamas]

Also... What does research really bring us on?
Because, in the first turn, I succeeded in developing "light machine guns"... And I don't see what it actually involves? Because the description talks about infantry, and it is marked as to be an aircraft invention!

If getting "gaz moutarde" obviously allows you to use it in land battles, I wonder what some innovations really unlock.

Thnak you for your future answers again.

If the tech is under the "air" category, it influences aircraft! That grouping is correct for sure, even if the description is not.

[Fastsnake]

Ok then, but how did it help my airplanes actually?

[calvinus]

It increases the dogfight or protection value of your air squadrons.

[Fastsnake]

Ok... So it's increasing dogfight attack OR defense, chosen at random?

And is there a way to know this by myself or am I supposed to guess it like a real good player?

[Tamas]

Ok... So it's increasing dogfight attack OR defense, chosen at random?

And is there a way to know this by myself or am I supposed to guess it like a real good player?

How about: the big manual? :P

Anyways, IIRC, airplanes have 3 abilities, recon, combat, and bombardment. The air techs raise one (or more) of these. Airplanes start really abysmal at most stuff in 1914, but can become quite good by the late war thanks to all these techs.

I think with most techs it is quite straightforward which aspect of the aircrafts it will improve even from its name.

[calvinus]

...Germany activates events which give research bonuses to France, France sparks off riots in Great-Britain, its own ally...

Some events are mandatory, as Tamas wrote, so you cannot avoid them.

For the research bonuses, can you tell me exactly what event? I examined the mod params of all events and I found no mistake.

[Fastsnake]

I've just read the manual for one hour, very complete.
Actually, I got three of them: one "basic" manual (23 pages), one "gold addition" manual of 16 pages, and another manual of 223 pages or something like that strangely.
Is the first a simple manual, easy to read, and the third a very worthwhile but tough to handle manual?

Whatever, I got two main questions at the moment:

1/ Page 131 of the big manual, there is an explanation about blockade effects (which interests me, as I'm always playing UK and I never understood what was really happening).
But there is a first (very complex) board, which is meant to explain the diplomatic effects on neutral countries.



And then, on the blockade economic effects, it is referred to "Each column represents the slowly increasing effects of the blockade"...
So I'm kinda lost. And above all, if I won't get slapped on the wirst for that, I'll say what the and you guess what with these columns. Honestly I've tried but... I'm too young for that I think.

Of course I've guessed the board is about economic effects and that diplomatic effects are to be seen below.
And W1914 means winter 1914, ok... But the issue is about the rest of it.

Does that mean if I'm on the mod (??) 4, on summer 1915, the blockade will make respectively EP and NW of CP increase by 15 and 2?

[Tamas]

Diplo effect of blockade: thats a one time thing when yo declare it (execpt for the event of neutral ship's seizing)

and you are right, line 4 on the summer 1915 column means the country in question (it is rolled per country and there are various modifiers) is gaining 15 economic points and 2 national will.

It is because the initial inefficency of the blockade is taken into account, and is easier to simulate this way (it means the country can still get shipments through)

[Fastsnake]

Ok, but what does the line "mod" mean? How am I supposed to know if it's 2 or 13?
And that's a bit strange... If the blockade is not directly efficient, we can not say it improve Germany and A-H commerce, that would be totally absurd.
And by the way, 15 EP is really huge, if it's actually true, that means that to lead a blockade is a real pain in the back for the all the Entente until the very last turns. That does not make sense for me.

[Drakken]

Ok, but what does the line "mod" mean? How am I supposed to know if it's 2 or 13?
And that's a bit strange... If the blockade is not directly efficient, we can not say it improve Germany and A-H commerce, that would be totally absurd.
And by the way, 15 EP is really huge, if it's actually true, that means that to lead a blockade is a real pain in the back for the all the Entente until the very last turns. That does not make sense for me.

Mod is for "modifier".

It's not that complicated. At first the blockade isn't that effective. The more neutral countries it covers and the longer it is established, the harsher it gets for the CP.

So yes, in the first months you still get a lot of shipment, but as time goes by you move further to the right in the table as the blockade gets more effective and you start to starve.

[Tamas]

Ok, but what does the line "mod" mean? How am I supposed to know if it's 2 or 13?
And that's a bit strange... If the blockade is not directly efficient, we can not say it improve Germany and A-H commerce, that would be totally absurd.
And by the way, 15 EP is really huge, if it's actually true, that means that to lead a blockade is a real pain in the back for the all the Entente until the very last turns. That does not make sense for me.

Well, IIRC the dates (summer 1915, etc.) is a historic example. It is in fact the number of interphases since blockade was declared against the target country.
And the plus EP/NW thing is accounting for the naval trade of the target country, while it is still ongoing.

And altough yes, this involves a bit of abstraction in order to ease an already complicated economic/political model, you completely underestimate the effect of blockade in the late game

The -3 or -5 results already can be very important when countries barely manage to go above 30, and usually loiter around the 20, which is the limit below which social tests start, which in turn can make NW go lower during turnly checks, which in turn make subsequent social tests even harder, etc.

And the after-4-years effect are absolutely crippling and can probably win the war for entente.

[tagwyn]

GOOD GRIEF!!! t