Playing after 1970 and AI controlled carriers

[fittkuk]

I love the game but it really sucks that you can't keep playing after 1970. Could you please make it optional if you want to retire at 1970 or keep playing? I don't care if there is any more content or not, i just want to keep playing

Also, could you please add the ability to let the AI control carrier strikes? I hate having to micromanage tons of air wings, and i'd rather let the AI handle it automatically so i can focus on the fun stuff. There could be a few buttons that let you fine tune how the ai should handle the carrier wings, like what loads the planes should carry or wether to focus on launching torpedo bombers or dive bombers first, etc. Other than that, it should be completely automatic. Friendly air bases already do a good job without any player input, and i would really love it if that same AI could be used for carriers.

[maxnacemit]

Screenshots of the DLC betas imply there will be an ability to play after 1970, and auto-resolve introduced in one of the last betas probably includes AI carrier strikes.

[fittkuk]

that's awesome. do you know where i can find these screenshots? also, do you know if you can put carrier strikes under AI control if you play the battle yourself instead of using auto-resolve?

[tbr]

You can also "stretch" or indefinitely extend your game by savefile editing...

[fittkuk]

Oct 26, 2021 3:31:48 GMT -6 tbr said:

You can also "stretch" or indefinitely extend your game by savefile editing...

How? Is there a guide somewhere for how to do it?

[gurudennis]

I would imagine it is: open the save file with a text editor, find the date and wind it back.

[flamedraken]

Changing the date is very simple. Open the save game folder for the game you wish to edit, find the RTWGame#.bcs file(# is the current savegame you are editing), lines 2 through 4 are the current year/month/day. Change game year and month to your desired time. Simple as that.


Just be aware that changing the date does change game behavior if you go back far enough. There are other things you may want to change to keep things consistent as well, but that can be a pain. Here is a list of stuff I have noticed.


Resetting the date back to 1900 cause the AI to start building pre-dreadnaughts, armored cruisers, and protected cruiser templates again. They will not build the newer ship types until you get back into the appropriate age for them. They will also slowly scrap the "older" modern ships just like they would during normal game play. You will end up facing smaller battleships and battlecruisers until the years advance enough for the more modern templates are unlocked.


Aircraft development is stopped. No one can request new designs until the mid to late 1910's and then new designs are comparable to contemporary aircraft. You can keep the designs you had prior to the reset if you wish, but the AI will request new designs. This will lead to last generation planes going against first gen biplanes.


All previously built ships will keep their original 'obsolete date' schedule if you make no changes. If you refitted a ship in 1961 and reset back to 1900, that ship will not require a refit ever; however if you have a vessel that is obsolete in 1961, you will not have to refit the vessel until 1961. Vessels refitted after the reset will go back to the standard obsolete every 10 years schedule.

The Ship#ObsoleteDate line in the save file will tell the exact day from game start that the ship needs to be refitted. This is from game start, so legacy ships have 3650 as their obsolete date, a ship built in January 1901 has and obsolete date of 4017.


Speaking of refits, the tonnage of your vessel will vary from what it was before the switch. I have seen tonnage go up and go down, so there is no consistent rule there.


Your budget is also affected by the change. Maintenance and aircraft costs change, which frees ups funds for other uses.


There are probably other things that I am missing from the list. Just be aware that changing the save file can cause some issues so create a backup before making any changes, and have fun.

[fittkuk]

thanks!

[tbr]

What I am doing is to "reset" the game year a number of times, i.e. when January rolls around I save and exit the game and change the game year to the previous year in the savefile. I also use a separate .txt file as a "repeat counter" to track how many times I "reset" a particular calendar year.

When doing this I also set research speed accordingly (e.g. to 10% if I repeat a year 9 times) and start with the smallest game setting (because economic growth is randomly distributed your and the AI's economies grow a lot). You also get a lot "improved" plane types that are somewhat beyond their "year" for the same reason. A "house rule" to only manually extend dock once per "true year" avoids too early dispacement growth.

With this "recipe" I found:
1900 start at 1/10th "calendar speed" that the years 1900-1910 (i.e. 120 turns) become very interesting with different pre-dreadnought levels, semi-dreadnought and the different early dreadnought designs each having distinct impact
1900 start at 1/5th speed the game is enjoyable and manageable until the late 1930's (by then it begins to "baloon out" due to excessive economic growth)
1920 start at 1/10th speed works welluntil about the mid 1930's

Best "setting" in the sense of maximum number of enjoyable game turns per year is 1/3rd speed (repeat each year twice, i.e. 360 turns per decade), 40% research speed and the second smallest game size.

[tbr]

Also helps to mod the shipname files for additional "space", the earliest "ballooning" symptom is when the AI runs out of names. Easiest way to get more space is to set DD's, subs and KE's to numbering only and copy their names to the cruiser part of the file. Works very well, especially with the USA.

Additionally I extended for the smaller nations (A-H and Italy), as well as for Germany with its non-named DD and subs, from public sources (e.g. for A-H the wikipedia list of Maria-Teresien recipients, for Germany PLM recipients, city, colony and landscape names etc.

Attachments:

GermanyShipNames.dat (7.79 KB)