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Ka Shima
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S. Charleston, WV USA
Apr 1999
time: 05:16
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I've thought a bit about this. I might do something about it if I ever stop doing DB programming and turn it towards a game.
None of this will fix your problem NOW however.
/ramble on
Naval movement should be zone based, rather than grid/hex based.
Split the world's oceans into zones. Make 4 zones between US and Europe. Give a transport 8 movement points, so it can make a round trip in 1 turn, which is very reasonable. At least it's much more reasonable than taking more than 1 turn to cross the ocean.
Now, that takes care of movement, let's talk about subs, and a way to keep ships hidden at sea. In real life, it is very problematic to know where the enemy is at sea, even if they are a surface vessel. There's a lot of ocean out there, and you can only see 12 miles, and there's always fog of war. What if leftover movement points could be used to evade the enemy. Make it difficult to be spotted, or conversely, to increase the chance of finding an evading vessel.
Consider the following scenario. I'm playing the enemy of that transport, and I want to interdict that traffic, so I move my ship out into the ocean close to me. My ship has a movement of 6. I move it 2 zones, but I have 4 movement points remaining. That movement should be instead directed into search and destroy operations in the zone of operation.
You can also implement naval air operations by a similar method, placing an air unit "in the naval zone." It's assumed that that particular unit has been given orders to patrol the zone, but that it's periodically refuelling, checking intel, etc. Also, you can combine forces, allowing land based and sea based units to coordinate attacks against opposition forces.
Now what does this do to the transport in the example from above? Well, let's say, that instead of moving from US to Europe and back again, that the transport's owner decides it wants to evade enemy units, and uses 4 movement to get to Europe, and another 4 movement to try and evade detection.
Another part of naval combat I'd probably adjust, would be using naval bombardment only in conjunction with an attack. Like I'm attacking with a tank, and it notices I have a battleship in an adjoining sea zone which is eligible to bombard, and it will ask if I want to bombard. Or, vice versa, elect to bombard and then it only does it when I attack with that tank. Mainly it's a mechanics issue on how to do bombardment.
I'm not exacly sure how to handle improved propulsion. Diesel boilers rather than coal, nuclear powered subs and carriers. Either increase size of sea zones (the more probable option) or increase movement rates of later age ships.
/ramble off
Thanks for your indulgence!
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09-12-2001 14:07
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