Version 0.97.10701 Available

[N3rull]

Originally Posted by Brit

I tweaked a number of units in the last ruleset update. The AA units should be a little better, and artillery are better at fighting ships. I don't remember what other tweaks I made. (I guess I should've written it down.)

I ran a few combat simulator tests and it didn't really feel like anything's changed. Assuming all units' classes are on similiar tech levels, the simulator says that over 4000 calculations you are still much more likely to lose two or even three subs, or 5 tactical bombers, than have them kill one BB, which means there is still no cost-effective counter to BBs.
The fact that artillery is better against ships is very good news though. It may not be particularly historically accurate, but there has to be at least one way to scare a BB away from your most precious cities, other than by bringing two BBs of your own!
It is not a counter though - you can't kill a BB with arty unless it's commander is plain stupid ^^.

I will have to play a few more longer games with the last update to check it all out, but I don't really have much time to fart recently, let alone do a 250 turn game a few times.
I'll post my feedback as I have it.

It is funny that you improved AA units, though. They were never bad... in fact, the few aircraft that I did send somewhere near enemy AA defenses usually went down. They were useless because Aircraft sucked in general, against everything - what use of making a specialized AA unit when any unit can defend itself against aircraft relatively well?
It was (and still is, according to the simulator) a suicide to send top class strategic bombers against a city with two infantry units inside. Who ever needs SAM sites?

[Clarke]

It appears that the hit point changes are not in effect in my game. Do I need to start a new game for the upgrade to apply?

[N3rull]

Yes, you have to run a new game.

[Brit]

Originally Posted by Clarke

It appears that the hit point changes are not in effect in my game. Do I need to start a new game for the upgrade to apply?

Yes. The way the rules system is setup, your old games continue to use old versions of the rules. There are some cases when you'd want to use the new rules, but some other cases when you'd want to use the old ones. For example, if some of the names of the units, buildings, or technologies change, it can mess things up. (Today, I changed the name of the "Airbase" city-improvement to "Airforce Base" to avoid confusion. If you had built an Airbase in a city, and moved up to the new rules, the game would've magically erased your Airbase from the game.) I also wanted to prevent cheating - since players can change the details of a ruleset. This would be especially important during multiplayer games.

So, I just set it up so that old games (and scenarios) are linked to whatever game rules they started with.

[Brit]

Originally Posted by N3rull

I ran a few combat simulator tests and it didn't really feel like anything's changed. Assuming all units' classes are on similiar tech levels, the simulator says that over 4000 calculations you are still much more likely to lose two or even three subs, or 5 tactical bombers, than have them kill one BB, which means there is still no cost-effective counter to BBs.
The fact that artillery is better against ships is very good news though. It may not be particularly historically accurate, but there has to be at least one way to scare a BB away from your most precious cities, other than by bringing two BBs of your own!
It is not a counter though - you can't kill a BB with arty unless it's commander is plain stupid ^^.

I ran some tests putting a battleship against artillery. It's true that the battleship is going to win against a single artillery, but if you look at the 'production loss' on the bottom of the combat simulator, the artillery function about 50% better against battleships than with the old rules. Under the new rules, battleships take about 60 production worth of damage and artillery take about 60 production worth of damage in a fight. The artillery would be dead, and the battleship could sail back home to get repaired (*which is, at least, a good way to get battleships out of your territory and take them out of the game for a few turns until they get repaired), but things would be a little different if the artillery-player built a lot more artillery. (Note: A battleship costs about the same as five artillery.) Under the old rules, the battleship would've taken about 40 production worth of damage. Also, none of these numbers take into account the terrain defensive bonuses that artillery would get.

Originally Posted by N3rull

It was (and still is, according to the simulator) a suicide to send top class strategic bombers against a city with two infantry units inside. Who ever needs SAM sites?

The strategic bombers now preferentially target cities now. One of the problems with the old combat system was that strategic bombers would often target the units inside the city. When strategic bombers do that, the units get a counterattack, and often destroy the strategic bomber. Now that the strategic bomber targets city-improvements, in-production items, and population, those other units don't get an automatic counterattack, which improves the strategic-bomber's survival. You can open up the combat simulator and pit a bomber against an infantry. The bomber doesn't survive very well. Now, hit "add location" and add a city. Now, the bomber is targetting the city, rather than the infantry. They do a lot better. The infantry doesn't really get much of a counterattack against the bomber because they're not setup for that. But, if you drop-in a flak gun, the bomber does worse again.

[N3rull]

Originally Posted by Brit

I ran some tests putting a battleship against artillery....

You misunderstood me. I see that artillery is very nice against BBs now. However, artillery - a land-bound unit that has to stick to roads or else it will move at a fifth of the BBs speed - is not a counter.
It is a decent defense so that the BBs can't bombard the city for 10 turns, obliterate everything and sail away in peace as they could before. The arty will not, however, sail to the middle of the ocean to kill that BB fleet waiting to wipe an invasion force you might want to send. The arty will not kill those BBs half a screen away from the shore, waiting to make a one-turn raid on your coastal city as soon as any ship pops out of the shipyard.

The first half of my text that you quoted was related to other potential anti-BB weapons - subs and tactical bombers - and neither work any better than they did before, or so it seems, which means they still suck.

Originally Posted by Brit

The strategic bombers now preferentially target cities now. One of the problems with the old combat system was that strategic bombers would often target the units inside the city.

Well, that's news. Strat bombers were so weak that I've never used them since the fifth time I played the game. It's good you gave them a little... heat

[N3rull]

Brit, would you mind hotfixing the airbase/airforce base thingy before the end of the week? It kinda cripples the airforce completely when you have to develop and build carriers solely to have these flying buckets of screws repaired...

[Brit]

Originally Posted by N3rull

Brit, would you mind hotfixing the airbase/airforce base thingy before the end of the week? It kinda cripples the airforce completely when you have to develop and build carriers solely to have these flying buckets of screws repaired...

Sure. I'll either get out a new version or hand-off the updated ruleset. (The ruleset is where the fix to this problem is.)