I opened this topic so in this first post i try to collect the "unique to AOW" rules of modeling units in this game, mainly the dual-approach to have a historical accuracy and still having balance.
# TimeFrame we model
We model the units used on start of the WW2 war (so can be older models too even from 1930)
And we model units till the end of war + a short post war period (not sure what we said about 1948 maximum(?))
We also model not built but planned (during the war) designs to make the game more intersting.
# stats by XLS equations
Many units (that has exact values available in Wikipedia) will have their in-game stats being auto calculated by an XLS (and its field-expressions).
This way a new unit will only need to put in the real life values and viola! we have the in-game values to use.
These units are mainly the vehicles/planes/ships and such.
However only these basic attributes are calculated in xls
- hp
- attack power
- bombing power (in case of bombers)
- shooting range
- armor
- explosive armor
- movement speed
So while we need to "balance" the game and we want to change these values we MUST change the xls Equations so all units of that kind will have that value changed.
all other properties eg. cost, sight, abilities and so on are manually set and free to change while balancing.
# Infantry units
Infantry units mean many soldiers, not only 1-3 as showed on image arts, so their hp can be modeled to compete with even tanks if needed.
# Firing ranges
We use the real life ranges of weapons but not in a linear scale (as that would not be possible to play in this tile based game)
so we use about:
- 1,8 km range is 1 tile range at start (so all units having smaller range should have 1 range)
- 8-15km range guns will have about 3-4 ranges
- 20-25 km range big guns will have about 5-6 ranges
(some exceptional units can have 2 range despite of having smaller range than 1,8km irl, eg. snipers, mortars, AT cannons)
remark: i wrote these by heart, i think we have it written somewhere more accurately, please help me with the better values
These values (in case of most units) comes from XLS equations.
# Unit speeds
Planes: some planed had extra speed so we maximized it to 14 on fastest planes.
Land units: we maximized to 5-6 speed.
# Mass productions
(this is a currently currently forming description, please advise changes or ideas)
We take into consideration if a unit was remarkably mass produced irl, for any of these reasons
- Reason A: nations has extra good capacity overall and made this unit in big amounts
- Reason B: nations had not necessarily big production but decided to make this special unit in mass way, even with stopping other units productions (so allocated MOST or ALL workers on this project resulting big amounts)
Naturally it is not needed to check on every single unit type, only the remarkable cases (eg. units were famous about it, or they used some exceptional technology, or eg. in case of some revolutionary production technique, or for some situationally important case (eg. that unit being in mass had big role on winning one or more battles)) . And if these used than the best if it is written in the unit description too!
so if on any above reason a unit (tank/plane/ship) was produced in much bigger amount than counterparts than we use the
- IN-game setting A: cost to show it (lower cost)
- IN-game setting B: AND/OR the availability of that unit in TC-s
- IN-game setting C: AND/OR ?
# Graphical considerations
Not all units can have same "scale" in game: eg. a battleship can not applear in same scale as a tank.
But within unit categories or similar sized ones shuold be in same scale (so a tank needs to be in same scale as other tanks)
To help making the scale we start define it here
Artillery/AT gun/AA gun (that has not mount) are all having same scale of
- 1 meter IRL length = about 8-9px in game
- the "basis" is the Lefh 18 Gun, that should be compared to
- unit_ger_artillery_lefh18_howitzer.png (1.13 KiB) Viewed 190 times
https://discord.com/channels/3735904559 ... 1767690330
Tanks, self-propelled artilleries, Vehicles, so all motorized ground units are all having same scale of
- 1 IRL meter = about ~7 - 7.5pixels
- so like a 6m long tank will be about ~42-45 pixels long
Planes Heavy bombers (usually over 20m length)
- 1 IRL meter = ~2.4 - 2.8px
- so a 20m plane will be ~48-56 px long
Planes Medium bombers (or planes >11m)
- 1 IRL meter = ~3.5 - 4px
- so a 15m plane will be ~53-60 px long
Planes fighter/fighter-bombers (or planes < 11m)
- 1 IRL meter = ~4 - 4.5px
- so a 8m plane will be ~32-36 px long