Make ArmyGeneral more realistic or "how to mod command points and income"

[Fulminata]

SD2 is simply the best wargame which maintains dynamic and interesting gameplay while being quite deep in details and reproducing real warfare at 1:1 scale.
There is one flaw however, which I'm desperately trying to fix without any success.
While constantly pushing new units from reserves is fine for skirmish and online battles, this actually kills single Army General mode.
If you read how a division-level tactics really worked at those times, you would note how "sparse" the combat is. Given the front width of several km and a standard battalion-regiment level width from real history, it is obvious that there are too few units taking action for such a huge map at the same time.
All sides tried to make a supreriority in firepower by concentrating forces on a narrow front part and then exploit the breakthrough but the game just doesn't allow to do that due to its current command point system and inability to make concentrated attacks or be able to make a concentrated defence.

It would be great to:
- be able to deploy all the units of the "deployed" regiment right before the battle
- assault using ALL of at least half of the available at the current phase forces, not distillate them one by one to the battlefield for 30 mins.
- assigning air units for the battle should NOT take any of the 3 slots and have its own CPs.

I tried to fix that by modding various income and starting command point parameters for campaign but it just doesn't work for me.
I'd really appreciate if someone will help me with modding that.

[Sluggger]

Interesting idea.

I wish there was a way to concentrate units in a small area for a breakthrough attack. Right now units cant pass thru friendly units or occupy the same ground. That's something I hope the Devs work on.

Also, the action point system needs some work. Units that are not in combat or moving should continue to accumulate action points and not just remain at 3 points. Maybe after one day of no action units receive 1 extra action point up to a max of 6 or 8 action points. This would represent the unit being "rested" and available for additional combat.

Last, please do something about disorganized or encircled units being destroyed so easily. Disorganized units should receive no action points for two turns but still be able to fight. Encircled units should at least be able to fight for one or two turns before they surrender.

[SturmGrenadier]

great ideas!

[Fulminata]

Originally posted by Sluggger:

Interesting idea.

I wish there was a way to concentrate units in a small area for a breakthrough attack. Right now units cant pass thru friendly units or occupy the same ground. That's something I hope the Devs work on.

Also, the action point system needs some work. Units that are not in combat or moving should continue to accumulate action points and not just remain at 3 points. Maybe after one day of no action units receive 1 extra action point up to a max of 6 or 8 action points. This would represent the unit being "rested" and available for additional combat.

Last, please do something about disorganized or encircled units being destroyed so easily. Disorganized units should receive no action points for two turns but still be able to fight. Encircled units should at least be able to fight for one or two turns before they surrender.

Totally agree.
A failed attack should not lead to a unit being 'disorganized'. In reality, they would probably organize another attack next day if being in a good shape. In the game, no matter how much you lost during an attack, you will get same 'disorganized' status. What if the attacker try to explore the defenses in order to be able to better organize the real attack? A common "recon by attacking" schema popular in real warfare of that time is just not possible in the game.
My proposal about concentrated attack was to allow all or a big part of the available forces attack at the same time.
If I can get get let's say 200-300 cp at the start per regiment/batallion and rework 'disorganized' mechanics, the problem is largely solved and make the game more interesting and dynamic.

[Sluggger]

Originally posted by Fulminata:

Originally posted by Sluggger:

Interesting idea.

I wish there was a way to concentrate units in a small area for a breakthrough attack. Right now units cant pass thru friendly units or occupy the same ground. That's something I hope the Devs work on.

Also, the action point system needs some work. Units that are not in combat or moving should continue to accumulate action points and not just remain at 3 points. Maybe after one day of no action units receive 1 extra action point up to a max of 6 or 8 action points. This would represent the unit being "rested" and available for additional combat.

Last, please do something about disorganized or encircled units being destroyed so easily. Disorganized units should receive no action points for two turns but still be able to fight. Encircled units should at least be able to fight for one or two turns before they surrender.

Totally agree.
A failed attack should not lead to a unit being 'disorganized'. In reality, they would probably organize another attack next day if being in a good shape. In the game, no matter how much you lost during an attack, you will get same 'disorganized' status. What if the attacker try to explore the defenses in order to be able to better organize the real attack? A common "recon by attacking" schema popular in real warfare of that time is just not possible in the game.
My proposal about concentrated attack was to allow all or a big part of the available forces attack at the same time.
If I can get get let's say 200-300 cp at the start per regiment/batallion and rework 'disorganized' mechanics, the problem is largely solved and make the game more interesting and dynamic.

+1

[SturmGrenadier]

Originally posted by Fulminata:

Originally posted by Sluggger:

Interesting idea.

I wish there was a way to concentrate units in a small area for a breakthrough attack. Right now units cant pass thru friendly units or occupy the same ground. That's something I hope the Devs work on.

Also, the action point system needs some work. Units that are not in combat or moving should continue to accumulate action points and not just remain at 3 points. Maybe after one day of no action units receive 1 extra action point up to a max of 6 or 8 action points. This would represent the unit being "rested" and available for additional combat.

Last, please do something about disorganized or encircled units being destroyed so easily. Disorganized units should receive no action points for two turns but still be able to fight. Encircled units should at least be able to fight for one or two turns before they surrender.

Totally agree.
A failed attack should not lead to a unit being 'disorganized'. In reality, they would probably organize another attack next day if being in a good shape. In the game, no matter how much you lost during an attack, you will get same 'disorganized' status. What if the attacker try to explore the defenses in order to be able to better organize the real attack? A common "recon by attacking" schema popular in real warfare of that time is just not possible in the game.
My proposal about concentrated attack was to allow all or a big part of the available forces attack at the same time.
If I can get get let's say 200-300 cp at the start per regiment/batallion and rework 'disorganized' mechanics, the problem is largely solved and make the game more interesting and dynamic.

I absolutely agree
disorganizing attacking units kill game dinamics

[Hot Single In Your Area]

So to be clear, you'd like increased (significantly so) starting points, as well as more action points on the campaign map?

The file you want to edit for the former is GDCampaignConstantes.ndf.

To change the starting amount of points to allow for faster deployment early on, edit:

DefaultStartingTicketsPoints = MAP
[
(ENationalite/Allied, 20), //30
(ENationalite/Axis, 20),
]

to whatever you want. this is per unit deployed in that phase. I'd recommend 40 or 50 to get the effect you desire. Notice that the Allies/Axis points are defined separately, if you choose to model the disparity in resources in theatre during the operation.

Strategic\Units.ndf is where you'll find the action points per battalion. its formatted like this:

// ActionPoints
TActionPointsModuleDescriptor
(
InitialActionPoint = 3
ActionPointRecoveryPerTurn = 3
NbInitialActionsPointsForProducedPawn = 2
),

And is for every battalion. So you'll want to tweak accordingly. Initial is the "Cap" for AP I believe, and the recovery is obvious. NBInitialActions is how many points the unit gets when called in on its turn.

[Fulminata]

Originally posted by Baneposting ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥:

So to be clear, you'd like increased (significantly so) starting points, as well as more action points on the campaign map?

I can give you the file names and where to mod them if so. It can all be done in notepad even.

Thank you.
Yes, I only need an ability to increase starting command points per battle, not on the campaign map. I tried to make a mod where I changed CampaignConstantes file under Mods\{MyMode}\GameData\Gameplay\Constantes\Strategic\ folder and did everything according to modding guidelines.
Specifically, I changed DefaultStartingTicketsPoints and DefaultTicketsPointsIncome. But I don't see any changes in campaign when I update the mod and enable it in the game.

[Hot Single In Your Area]

The DefaultTicketsPointsIncome works strange, and is IIRC a divisor versus the total number of points per game, or has something to do with the length of each income tick. I generally dont mess with it at all.

To get a nice fat lump sum increase to allow a mass deployment of most of the battalion, you just need to edit the Allies/Axis fields mentioned above accordingly. That way you can get most of your tank battalion on the field and ready to go early, rather than just a platoon trickling in (which as you mentioned, doesnt really feel fitting for the historical operation)

In addition, if interested, you can change the length of the actual battle's duration in that same CampaignConstantes file.

DureePhaseEnMinutes = [20, 20, 20] //On considere qu'une phase durera a peu pres 10 min (cf SDDEUX-546)

^^ This is the duration of each phase. I modified mine to 20 per as you can see.

//Regles du Tactique
TacticalTimeLimit = 60
TacticalScoreLimit = 3000

Also modified on my end (forgot to comment the originals, but think it was 30/2000 accordingly). You will have to change both.

[Fulminata]

Originally posted by Baneposting ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥:

The DefaultTicketsPointsIncome works strange, and is IIRC a divisor versus the total number of points per game, or has something to do with the length of each income tick. I generally dont mess with it at all.

To get a nice fat lump sum increase to allow a mass deployment of most of the battalion, you just need to edit the Allies/Axis fields mentioned above accordingly. That way you can get most of your tank battalion on the field and ready to go early, rather than just a platoon trickling in (which as you mentioned, doesnt really feel fitting for the historical operation)

In addition, if interested, you can change the length of the actual battle's duration in that same CampaignConstantes file.

DureePhaseEnMinutes = [20, 20, 20] //On considere qu'une phase durera a peu pres 10 min (cf SDDEUX-546)

^^ This is the duration of each phase. I modified mine to 20 per as you can see.

//Regles du Tactique
TacticalTimeLimit = 60
TacticalScoreLimit = 3000

Also modified on my end (forgot to comment the originals, but think it was 30/2000 accordingly). You will have to change both.

Thanks,
where can I find that GDCampaignConstantes file? I can only see CampaignConstantes where I modified DefaultStartingTicketsPoints. Still, a new campaign gives me same 20 starting points as before.

[Hot Single In Your Area]

Sorry typo on my end that should be the right file. Are you using Generatemod.bat to merge the changes?

[Fulminata]

Originally posted by Baneposting ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥:

Sorry typo on my end that should be the right file. Are you using Generatemod.bat to merge the changes?

Yes, it works now! I thought it is enough to run mod_update

[Hot Single In Your Area]

Fantastic :)

[Raoule]

Thank you guys!
Very useful information, to make the army general more fun

[hel45]

Great stuff!