Operational battles a la SAI campaign mode
Jun 1, 2019 4:15:15 GMT -6
gornik, srndacful, and 3 more like this
Post by rimbecano on Jun 1, 2019 4:15:15 GMT -6
While RTW2 was in development, I'd been somewhat hopeful that the long-form operational battle style of SAI campaign mode might be included, though I was aware that it would probably be seen as an item with a high effort to priority ratio.
Having now actually played RTW2 and experienced carrier combat in that context, I really, really think that operational battles are needed.
At one point, I found myself in a scenario where I had a force of cruisers with no air cover operating within airstrike range of Kamchatka and far away from Dutch Harbor.
At multiple other points, I found single AI battlecruiser raiders spawning into absolutely suicidal positions off my airbase-filled eastern seaboard.
As I got into the 1940s, I also began to feel that many of the starting positions for carrier battles, while appropriate for earlier in the carrier era, were too close later on, which lead to the battle line being important to the outcome of a battle more often than it probably should have been.
I think implementing wars in RTW as something like an SAI operational campaign would help greatly with, for example, giving the player agency over force structure without giving too much agency (in SAI you have to juggle training and maintenance, so you don't always have the ships you want, but you get to choose how to deal with those ships not being available).
It would also help with ships spawning in places that expose them to land based air attack, since everyone would spawn at home.
An operations point mechanism that applied to airfields and aircraft resupply might also help with the concerns some people have raised about enclosed seas like the Med being air attack deathtraps.
That said, I realize that it might not be feasible to implement this for RTW2 given that it would probably involve a significant rewrite of the game at this stage. If this is the case, I think it should be seen as a high priority item for any RTW3.
Having now actually played RTW2 and experienced carrier combat in that context, I really, really think that operational battles are needed.
At one point, I found myself in a scenario where I had a force of cruisers with no air cover operating within airstrike range of Kamchatka and far away from Dutch Harbor.
At multiple other points, I found single AI battlecruiser raiders spawning into absolutely suicidal positions off my airbase-filled eastern seaboard.
As I got into the 1940s, I also began to feel that many of the starting positions for carrier battles, while appropriate for earlier in the carrier era, were too close later on, which lead to the battle line being important to the outcome of a battle more often than it probably should have been.
I think implementing wars in RTW as something like an SAI operational campaign would help greatly with, for example, giving the player agency over force structure without giving too much agency (in SAI you have to juggle training and maintenance, so you don't always have the ships you want, but you get to choose how to deal with those ships not being available).
It would also help with ships spawning in places that expose them to land based air attack, since everyone would spawn at home.
An operations point mechanism that applied to airfields and aircraft resupply might also help with the concerns some people have raised about enclosed seas like the Med being air attack deathtraps.
That said, I realize that it might not be feasible to implement this for RTW2 given that it would probably involve a significant rewrite of the game at this stage. If this is the case, I think it should be seen as a high priority item for any RTW3.
