New Special Ops ideas

Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2011 9:44 pm

I was experimenting with alternate special operations this last weekend. I've managed to make working operations by changing the existing ones-- it's been challenging and fun. my hope is to add four new operations to help complement the existing ones.

FATIGUE: remember how everybody jokes about how they wished they could used "Forced March" on their enemies? I figured for the experience points it would be nice to get a 25% reduction in speedn and flame damage eaach second for 30 seconds against targeted enemy regiments.

FIELD TRAINING: this one would function like Communist Zeal-- however it would give much smaller stat-boosts over a longer period of time. think of it like selective "Special Forces" that would last anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes.

SCORCHED EARTH: this one would be the exact opposite of sand-bagging. all targeted buildings have an increased vulnerability to all forms of damage (including flame). on top of all of these added vulnerabilities there is 1 point of flame damage given to the buildings each second for a full two minutes. I thought this would be a great operation from putting a target under siege and to help soften things up for a major attack. if your enemy wanted to keep those troops supplied during the atttack they'd have to use a supply drop or spam supply depots to counter this special op.

BLOCKADE: the idea being that you could inhibit the resupply rate of targeted regiments (or buildings, still working on this one) so that it takes longer for them to recover from damage.

does anybody else have other ideas? I'm having a lot of fun trying out new operations-- any suggestions or thoughts about which existing general could best use these new special ops would be appreciated.

Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2011 1:19 pm

tested out "Scorched Earth" with Wingate the other night-- it's actually a pretty fearsome op. it means you can smash through enemy bases faster, makes air strikes more potent, and is great to use along with Mechanized Advance. since it applies 120 pts of flame damage over two minutes with increased vulnerability-- it actually inflicts 240 points of flame damage to a LOT of buildings at the same time. it weakens opposing armies direclty through flame damage to buildings... but it also limits their offensive potential by forcing them to recruit engineers to counter the threat. the only other option is to counter with the Sand Bagging special op, and that's not something most generals have.

Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 1:46 pm

After reading about Wavel's role in Allied counter-intelligence (he was connected to several programs designed to deceive and mislead Axis defense forces) I came up with a new op idea:

Deception: it creates a fake Mechanized HQ with the health and defense stats of a battleship that can be used to stall an approaching enemy. it's biggest drawback is that it has to be connected to a zone of supply-- it also helps if you use it BEFORE enemy regeiments come in visual range. Unsurprisingly, it works VERY well against the AI. It could stall several heavy tank regiments a full minute or so before it finally caved in-- which allows more time to develop a proper counter attack. if you use the sand-bagging operation on it it could buy you even more time!

even if your base isn't being threatened you could still use it like an extremely tough supply depot.

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2012 8:54 am

How about assassination ? (Same as the purge power, but you use it on enemies)

I added it, but who should get it?

I was originally thinking Japan, but maybe Russia would be better (Just recently watched Enemy at the Gates). Did any of the other factions make use of assassinations?

Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2012 10:06 pm

well, the Germans were pretty infamous for the genocidal tactics-- so, either the Russians or the Germans would probably work out fine. perhaps rather than simply using "Communist Purge" directly on enemy regiments it would attach a negative value to the Attack Modifier.

I was just thinking one way to help offset the otherwise terrible German economy would be to have an operation called "Armored Reinforcements": the player could use experience points to get an armored HQ without having to pay for it.

my problem there is that although I've figured out how to summon HQ trucks-- once they are unpacked they don't generate full regiments. only the CO vehicle gets created. still trying to figure out how to solve that problem.

Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2012 11:15 am

Gizmotron wrote:

well, the Germans were pretty infamous for the genocidal tactics-- so, either the Russians or the Germans would probably work out fine. perhaps rather than simply using "Communist Purge" directly on enemy regiments it would attach a negative value to the Attack Modifier.

I was just thinking one way to help offset the otherwise terrible German economy would be to have an operation called "Armored Reinforcements": the player could use experience points to get an armored HQ without having to pay for it.

my problem there is that although I've figured out how to summon HQ trucks-- once they are unpacked they don't generate full regiments. only the CO vehicle gets created. still trying to figure out how to solve that problem.

I was actually going to try something similiar with battleships/carriers, but never got around to it. This way there is more naval warfare, which is quite lacking in this game. Wouldn't know how to make it so they only come in where there is water too.

Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2012 9:45 pm

hmm, sounds interesting!

the battleship seems to have a hard-coded aspect that requires water. I just tested it out using the saboteur operation-- instead of summong a saboteur it calls up a battleship at the target location.

the game refuses to summon a battleship unless the terrain will support it. and that provides a really nice alternative to the saboteur-- which I've been eliminating from special ops.

I find it's better to use saboteurs as part of regular regiments.

I gave the saboteur the health values of a regular infantry CO, removed the periodic flame damage, and found it makes a great edition to the infantry forces. it's nice to have for engineer regiments (it gives them more offensive ability). it also makes a tremendous addition to the Goliath Infantry regiment-- since one of the main uses for Goliath remote-controlled bombs was destroying enemy barricades and flushing people out of hiding places. the saboteur as CO allows the Goliath regiment to torch most buildings this side of the Corps HQ within a minute or so. it practically forces an enemy to recruit engineers to stop the damage of a successful attack. it can also be used as a diversion for a devastating attack elsewhere.

I also included it for an experimental "Airborne Demolitions" regiment where the regular SAS CO is replaced by a saboteur-- which works out a lot better than the regular lone saboteur.

whoops, I'm rambling here.

Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2012 9:56 pm

oops, I was wrong-- summong the battleship is EASY-- getting it to be useful is tricky! once the battleship is summoned I couldn't get it to acknowledge any of my commands! might need a bit more research before THAT one works out properly. Embarassed

Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2012 11:13 am

I actually haven't tried this yet, so if you figure it out, let me know.

Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2012 11:14 pm

ARTILLERY BARRAGE: this icon already exists in the game-- and it's been used as a special op in several mods. it normally gets used in a way similar to V-Weapons. however, wouldn't it be interesting if this could a "Blitzkrieg" type operation that could be used on all targeted artillery units? it would definitely make the rocket truck regiments more formidable. adding 50 points to the attack value of each rocket with this sort of special op would make them more of a threat.

Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 10:37 am

Gizmotron wrote:

ARTILLERY BARRAGE: this icon already exists in the game-- and it's been used as a special op in several mods. it normally gets used in a way similar to V-Weapons. however, wouldn't it be interesting if this could a "Blitzkrieg" type operation that could be used on all targeted artillery units? it would definitely make the rocket truck regiments more formidable. adding 50 points to the attack value of each rocket with this sort of special op would make them more of a threat.

For the arty. barrage, I assume you are ferering to the double the guard icon? Are there arty. shells to be used with such a special op? Anyway for your artillery bonus idea, is there a template file that holds the various things you can + - as targets. I don't know what artlliery would be considered. Would it be +artllery or +spa?

Anyway, I see an icon for USA

Diplomacy. Wonder what that was for. Speaking of which, I came across icons for infantry and tank bunkers. I guess those got cut.

I was going to add a minefield special op (I tried to have them built by engineers like bunkers, but didn't work right), but its kinda stupid since everyone can see them.

Keep the ideas coming. I need help, since I plan on having every general having a completely unique special op set (Including Hitler, Stalin when I figure out how to add them propely)

Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 8:41 pm

I should have clarified-- they already made this icon, but never used it in the game. there are a number of special op icons that were created that never got used in the game. you should be able to find them in the following subdirectories

Data/UI/Game/SpecialOps

Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 8:56 pm

open up the Blitzkrieg special op file (aka blitzkrieg.tgi) and you'll see a number of fields. the critical thing is near the middle of the .tgi file

targets = +FRIEND +TANKS

all you need to do to have it influence artillery would be to change the "+TANKS" into "+ARTILLERY" if you want the enchantment description to look right you'll also need to change the "required_properties" from tanks to artillery as well. both of these can be found in roughly the middle of the .tgi file. or, if you have a search function on your hex-editor, just look up the keywords "targets" and "required" (although it might be case-sensitive)

I just finished the first three experiments with the operation early this evening. if you're going to give arty's a 50-point attack bonus you'd probably best make it a really expensive operation and have it last only 60 seconds. since the enchantment only effects artillery pieces you can use this enchantment on a LOT of regiments. the Blitzkrieg op only influences 16 individual units-- so by extension of the unit count, you could use the "Artillery Barrage" on up to 8 regiments of artillery. the rocket-truck based regiments would benefit the most from this op.

20 x 5 = 120 without enchantment

70 X 5 = 350

it would nearly triple the destructive power of rocket truck attacks-- whereas with normal arty tanks it would merely double it.

I also toyed with grafting in part of the "long range artillery tech" so that for 60 seconds the enchanted arty-pieces would have an extra 12 increments of bombarding range. I readily admit, that's ridiculously powerful-- almost like allowing the player's artillery to replace the atomic bomb. using this sort of op you could flatten a Corps HQ in a single volley from 8 enchanted rocket truck regiments.

Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2012 3:19 pm

Gizmotron wrote:

open up the Blitzkrieg special op file (aka blitzkrieg.tgi) and you'll see a number of fields. the critical thing is near the middle of the .tgi file

targets = +FRIEND +TANKS

all you need to do to have it influence artillery would be to change the "+TANKS" into "+ARTILLERY" if you want the enchantment description to look right you'll also need to change the "required_properties" from tanks to artillery as well. both of these can be found in roughly the middle of the .tgi file. or, if you have a search function on your hex-editor, just look up the keywords "targets" and "required" (although it might be case-sensitive)

I just finished the first three experiments with the operation early this evening. if you're going to give arty's a 50-point attack bonus you'd probably best make it a really expensive operation and have it last only 60 seconds. since the enchantment only effects artillery pieces you can use this enchantment on a LOT of regiments. the Blitzkrieg op only influences 16 individual units-- so by extension of the unit count, you could use the "Artillery Barrage" on up to 8 regiments of artillery. the rocket-truck based regiments would benefit the most from this op.

20 x 5 = 120 without enchantment

70 X 5 = 350

it would nearly triple the destructive power of rocket truck attacks-- whereas with normal arty tanks it would merely double it.

I also toyed with grafting in part of the "long range artillery tech" so that for 60 seconds the enchanted arty-pieces would have an extra 12 increments of bombarding range. I readily admit, that's ridiculously powerful-- almost like allowing the player's artillery to replace the atomic bomb. using this sort of op you could flatten a Corps HQ in a single volley from 8 enchanted rocket truck regiments.

Any idea on how to increase area of effect? Or are you changing these values only. I was thinking of calling such an ablity "Mass Destruction"

Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2012 10:21 pm

yes, you can change the area of effect for special ops (or the number of targets). the clearest way to look at areas of effect would be to look at the ''Double the Guard'' and ''Sandbagging'' operations.

if by "area" you mean to say "can you change the area of effect for artillery pieces with a special operation? so far, the answer is "no". it won't load the game up properly if you try to do that. I tried the add modifier, and the multiplication modifier-- and it just doesn't seem to like changing the area of effect for weapons. I might not be parsing the phrases correctly-- but no luck with that idea thus far.

Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 10:23 am

Gizmotron wrote:

yes, you can change the area of effect for special ops (or the number of targets). the clearest way to look at areas of effect would be to look at the ''Double the Guard'' and ''Sandbagging'' operations.

if by "area" you mean to say "can you change the area of effect for artillery pieces with a special operation? so far, the answer is "no". it won't load the game up properly if you try to do that. I tried the add modifier, and the multiplication modifier-- and it just doesn't seem to like changing the area of effect for weapons. I might not be parsing the phrases correctly-- but no luck with that idea thus far.

Yeah, I knew how to do the first, but I was not too sure about the second. I also tried changing it and it crashes. I think the options for the multipliers and adds are in one of the template files and it tells you all that can be changed. I don't have it with me now, so I can't tell you which one it is (Its on my home computer. Will tell later). I was also hoping to create a radar tech that would allow British airfields to launch planes defensivly from further away. I know what to change, but they are not listed in the above mentioned template, so I thinking that the British will get no radar bonus.

I have another question though: Is there a way to get units to fight each other (or friendly regiments vs. friendly regiments)? I know of no ability like this, but it would be interesting to use such an ability on an enemy cluster and watch the mayhem unfold. Don't know if its possible though.

Have you fixed the battleship ability, so that they can be selected or is that still snafu?

Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 9:35 pm

my solution was to simply increase the detection range of British and German airfields-- they would frequently operate with benefit of an advanced warning network. you would also need to increase the guard_range to make that extra detection range truly effective. this attribute should be listed shortly after the[ DENIZEN COMPONENT] entry. I'm thinking that if you altered those attributes you could get a rough simulation of the British and German radar warning networks.

in that vein, this afternoon I did the aerial version of the Blitzkrieg: called "Aerial Supremacy". the tricky part is that you have to write the targets out as +FRIEND -VEHICLES -BUILDINGS -INFANTRY (as it turns out, it still works on boats, which I wasn't too happy with!) if it works on a carrier I don't mind too much-- but it shouldn't work on a battleship, lol!

by enchanting a flight of escorted bombers you can knock out buildings in about half the time. it's also handy for defending your airbase and HQ from bomber attacks. this seemed most logical for Arnold and Kesselring.

Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2012 12:54 pm

Gizmotron wrote:

my solution was to simply increase the detection range of British and German airfields-- they would frequently operate with benefit of an advanced warning network. you would also need to increase the guard_range to make that extra detection range truly effective. this attribute should be listed shortly after the[ DENIZEN COMPONENT] entry. I'm thinking that if you altered those attributes you could get a rough simulation of the British and German radar warning networks.

in that vein, this afternoon I did the aerial version of the Blitzkrieg: called "Aerial Supremacy". the tricky part is that you have to write the targets out as +FRIEND -VEHICLES -BUILDINGS -INFANTRY (as it turns out, it still works on boats, which I wasn't too happy with!) if it works on a carrier I don't mind too much-- but it shouldn't work on a battleship, lol!

by enchanting a flight of escorted bombers you can knock out buildings in about half the time. it's also handy for defending your airbase and HQ from bomber attacks. this seemed most logical for Arnold and Kesselring.

Do you know what the difference between guard_range and guard_operational_range is?

That aerial supremacy is a great idea! I thought about something like that, just didn't think it was feasible.

Also I think that air generals, like those you mentioned + nimitz, should get carrier reinforcements, and others, battleships. Anyway, I figured out how to add them properly and they are now controllable. If you haven't figured it out, let me know and I will tell. Basicly I just copied the corps reorganization and deleted some lines.

I was looking at the medium tank abilities and wondered can you have more than one regiment spawn via a power? I was thinking of giving one of the Russian generals "Human Wave" and spawn three conscript regiments at a location?

Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2012 11:48 pm

I've wondered if it would be possible to summon multiple regiments with a single op... sounds like a good idea.

don't know the difference between guard-range and operational-guard-range, to be honest. I'm looking at the World at War 1.3 mod-- and it's got some very interesting stuff in it. like being able to purchase battleships and carriers from your capital. they aircraft also seem much more likely to react to the dynamic environment-- so I plan on studying that later this year. (got the mod on Gamefront.com, per your recomendation).

fascinating single-player mod.

Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 4:42 pm

in regards to "Aerial Supremacy"-- ran into problems using an area-of-effect special op. it meant that I couldn't prevent boats from being enchanted. worse still, I couldn't prevent enemy boats from being enchanted. so I'm going back to the drawing board.

I'm thinking it would be better to use a technology-based special op-- like "Military Gear Up" or "Rapid Deployment". the idea being that the special up summons a technology for a limited period of time. the tech would apply to any and alll units (fighters and bombers) and would disappear when the time limit was up.

the other advantage of a tech-based op is that the area-of-effect would only work on a single enchanted wave of aircraft... whereas it would linger on boats for a considerable period of time.

although the fact that I couldn't stop it from effecting boats was sort of novel-- because you could greatly reduce the area of effect and simply call it "Naval Supremacy" and retain the original "Blitzkrieg" template on a smaller scale.

Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 4:48 pm

"Lightning Advance", it's kinda like "Forced March" except there's no flame damage penalty. I've noticed that chasing down retreating units can be fiendishly difficult in this game... it's like panicking regiments are given an automatic (nearly insurmountable) speed bonus. so I made this "Lightning Advance" op really powerful-- it increases the speed of all targeted units by 70 percent for 90 seconds. ideal for running down defeated enemies, stealing lightly defended cities, or allowing elite regiments to retreat in the face of certain death. particularly nice to have if you need to have armored regiments advance/retreat through heavily forested areas and large cities. (this op seems like a no-brainer for Patton or Rommel)

Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 6:03 pm

Gizmotron wrote:

I've wondered if it would be possible to summon multiple regiments with a single op... sounds like a good idea. fascinating single-player mod.

I tried doing this a few different ways to no avail. Only one regiment can be summoned (If you find otherwise plz tell). I am going to try and create a new regiment organization for my human wave, so that it is huge.

Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2012 3:20 pm

"U-Boats" aka "Submarine Attack"

any targeted boat gets sunk instantly... no complex waves of bombers to spend money on, no more numerous uses of V-Weapons or Carpet Bombing.. get rid of those pesky battleships instantly with a "U-Boat". don't rightly know how I'd pull that off, because I haven't figured out the proper unit code for naval vessels. I thought it was "UNIT SEA MAJOR" or something like that-- but every time I try to parse out the target phrasings the game tells me, "uh, no, I don't buy that!"

Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 11:52 am

Gizmotron wrote:

"U-Boats" aka "Submarine Attack"

any targeted boat gets sunk instantly... no complex waves of bombers to spend money on, no more numerous uses of V-Weapons or Carpet Bombing.. get rid of those pesky battleships instantly with a "U-Boat". don't rightly know how I'd pull that off, because I haven't figured out the proper unit code for naval vessels. I thought it was "UNIT SEA MAJOR" or something like that-- but every time I try to parse out the target phrasings the game tells me, "uh, no, I don't buy that!"

Another great idea! Keep'em comin. This would also be good for Japan, "Surprise Attack", which would represent something like Pearl Harbor.

Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 3:47 pm

Just added the U-boat and surprise attack and they work great

Use this after coping industrial sabatoge:

targets = +FRIEND -BUILDING -AIR -INFANTRY -VEHICLE -ORGANIZATION -TANK

My icons for them: