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Grand Tactician: The Civil War (1861-1865)
Asid:
A Short Weapon Procurement Study
Aug 15, 2022
Gen’l,
Weapon production and procurement system has seen some changes during the development of Grand Tactician: The Civil War (1861-1865), most recently in the 1.08 patch. Let’s take a quick look at how the system works now, vs. previously.
The ability to equip and re-equip units with different weapon types has been one of the unit customization features in the game since the beginning. Originally, since the game’s Early Access release in fall of 2020, the weapon production system was quite heavily abstracted, which many players found unsatisfying, as they had no real direct control over the production.
The Old System.
In short, it used to work like this:
- Industrialization & Diplomacy policies made certain weapon types available, with the better weapon types requiring higher level policy to “unlock”.
- Once the weapon was available, production/import started automatically. Depending on fixed “standardization years” and “equipment modifiers”, the weapons were added to player’s “pool”.
- Standardization year: each weapon had a year, from where onward the weapon type was available. During approximately 2 years the standardization would increase following a curve. Example: weapon standardization year is 1861. In 1861, more weapons of this type became available very slowly, and in around 1863 the production would reach the highest level, as per equipment modifier.
- Equipment modifier: using this value, the different weapon types were balanced according to historical data. Example: Springfield Rifle-Musket, with historical production numbers of more than 1 million units, had a very high modifier, meaning much faster production than say Richmond Rifle, that had historical production of just a bit over 30,000 units.
- Weapons were not tracked as individual pieces, but rather per units to equip.
- Weapon costs were realized at the moment units were equipped, and the costs were depending on number of Weapons & Artillery goods types in markets, which tied the system to economy.
- If a weapon type was commonly used by units, it’s production would speed up a bit.
As said, the system was quite abstract, and limited player’s options. For example, if the player would have wanted to focus the industry to produce repeating rifles, this was not possible, as these weapon types became available very slowly. For this reason in patch 1.06, which focused on economy in general, we changed the system. But there were some bugs, plus a few remnants from the old system, so we wanted to revamp it further in version 1.08 of the game.
Fayetteville Rifle has low standardization, as only 7509 examples of this weapon type have been produced so far.
The New System.
The new system works quite differently if compared to the old one:
- New weapon types are made available via Projects, instead of policies. This adds the possibility to more directly influence which weapon to procure. If the player wants to focus on repeating rifles early on, it is possible, but it requires much higher subsidies than more simple weapon types.
- Using the new Weapons -panel, player can place orders for available weapon types. These can be either produced domestically, or imported from Europe.
- Weapons are tracked by actual number of pieces per weapon type. This also allows tracking of weapons captured in battles, including them in the stock.
- Each weapon is ranked per Production Complexity. The more simple the weapon, the cheaper and faster it is to produce.
- Equipment Factor is used only to balance production times between weapon types, or availability of imported weapons in Europe. For example, it’s used to make a difference between 10-, 20-, and 30-pounder Parrott Rifles, making the larger ones a bit slower to produce, or making sure more commonly available Enfields are faster to import than, say, Dreyses (which historically were not imported).
- Standardization, which affects only domestic production, plays a big role. This value represents the readiness of the nation’s arms industry to produce said weapon type, which in turn depends on the number of weapons of said type in use. If a weapon type is common, it means weapon industry has the required machinery ready to produce further pieces, and also has the means to quickly produce required ammunition and other accessories. When standardization is low, the industry needs to set up the required infrastructure and machinery…
- …which means weapons with high standardization are much quicker and cheaper to produce.
- Weapon costs are realized when an order is placed. The player can place one order per weapon type at a time. Once the weapons are delivered, they can be used to equip units. At this point the costs will cover the required logistics.
- Shortages of needed materials will make production slower and more expensive.
- Weapon imports are affected by blockades. If blockade efficiency is high, less goods get through, meaning orders will take much longer time to be delivered.
- In the Weapons -panel, effects of these mechanics are explained in the offered tooltips.
Example, purchasing 1000 rifles. Left: Union order of Springfield Rifles with standardization of 100 costs $201k and takes 14 days. Middle: CSA order of Richmond Rifles with standardization of 6 costs $293k and takes 62 days. Right: CSA order of Enfield Rifles from Europe costs $344k and takes 17 days. Conclusion: highly standardized, domestically produced weapons are cheaper and quicker to get, but ramping up the industry takes time.
With this new system, weapon production and import (= procurement by the government) are more controllable by the player, and also better balanced. If the player wants to get a lot of weapons quickly, importing is a better option, as long as trade routes are open, but the costs are higher due to the required logistics. If player wants to domestically produce weapons, it’s not possible to start mass production right away, as the industry is not ready immediately. It’s better to place smaller orders first, to increase standardization – later production will be much faster and cheaper than importing, but it takes some time. It also means it’s possible to balance between fast mass production of simple weapon types, such as muzzle-loading rifle-muskets, or more complex types like repeating rifles. And the link to economy is also more apparent: if production facilities suffer shortages on materials, or trade routes are not open, weapon procurement will be directly affected, in the short term as well as in the long term.
I hope this short study explains how weapon production works in the 1.08 version of the game!
Most Respy,
Gen’l. Ilja Varha,
Chief Designer, &c.,
The Grand Tactician -Team
Asid:
Patch 1.09: AI, Rebalancing & Fixes
Sat, 10 September 2022
Gen'l,
Patch 1.09 has just been released! The focus this time is on the AI, once again. The campaign AI will coordinate its forces more carefully, especially in defensive situations. In battles the AI will redeploy during the night also when attacking, and will react better in situations where it finds itself under long range fire.
The patch also contains a long list of bug fixes and other improvements, see the full list of changes here:
Campaigns:
fixed: weapon order costs are increasing cost in stats instead of reducing
friendly fleets are not joining naval raids but start a separate engagement
fixed: Veteran filter not working in officers list
performance improvements for campaign layer
smoothed tariff and sales tax revenues in projections to prevent sudden spikes
fixed: sometimes wrong negative effect on fighting spirit when operating on enemy soil
AI better coordinates its defensive movements with multiple corps if player’s units are moving
AI units better stick to their assigned theater positions, theater zones are smaller
fixed: commanding general is replaced very seldom
AI only leaves 1 group unit behind to construct a supply depots instead of all in range
AI acts more carefully when retaking occupied towns
AI promotes subordinate commanders vertically to higher positions if experience/fame is higher
fixed: statistical gun numbers are too high if unit downsizing is used in options menu
fixed: dropdown menu of sieges or land battles may show “dummy” entries, like “Siege No10” in the background
added readiness symbol to unit overview list on the right
fixed non accumulating perks: land torpedoes, bureau of military information, skilled cartographers, expert scouts, supply colliers, blockading sqn
when combining units the additional weapons are consumed from stock, if not available the unit is equipped with standard weapons (eg. mixed muskets)
AI does not transfer units out of groups carrying out offensive or defensive operations to not weaken strength
AI tries to achieve a higher strength dominance when carrying out defensive operations
fixed: RMB unpauses the game in campaign if game option “Game Remains Paused when Panels are Closed" is activated
fixed: city sizes change when new states are created (eg. WV)
AI moves farther to supply depots if supply is low and constructs depots less often
fixed issue that led to low probabilities of AI picking projects
AI recruits less cavalry brigades and tries to concentrate in separate cavalry divisions
brigade perks now increasing in autoresolved battles too +added AI picks
Battles:
fixed: blank avatar images in battle end screen
AI detachments to grab guns now have a cool down phase
fixed: melee during deployment phase
added workaround to fix units that march long distances in line formation
AI redeploys also in offensive battles
AI reacts better if under fire from out of range
faster perk exp increase for artillery units
group deployment now takes into account rivers and is curving
fixed: units stuck in melee if HQs move into melee
Other:
fixed: avatar, switching day or month may exceed birth year limitations
added option to switch to black & white cursors
[fixed: broken avatar files
fixed: pause key now also unpauses the game correctly
Cheers,
The Grand Tactician Team
Asid:
Patch 1.10: Fixes, Community Wishes & AI
Sun, 30 October 2022
A hefty load of fixes and improvements, big and small, as well as a few notable changes
Gen'l,
We are happy to report, that the most recent Update to Grand Tactician: The Civil War (1861-1865), Patch 1.10, has been released to the wider audience! This shipment contains a hefty load of fixes and improvements, big and small, as well as a few notable changes, of which we feel obligated to list to You the following:
• Bases of Supply: when operating in enemy territory, if low on readiness, armies can now fall back to any city, depot, fort within the state. Near a base of supply readiness improves faster. The bases can be seen on the map, in enemy terriotory nearby the selected army, when map information setting "Supplies" is selected.
• Weapon Production: the orders are now delivered in linear fashion, improving standardization and number of available weapons throughout the production.
• Terrain, Weather & Supplies: IIPs now show supply information in the icon. Rugged terrain, such as mountains, now has low transport capacity, making operations with large armies more difficult. Depot fill ratio target can be changed to improve control over storage of supplies. Weather has bigger effect on supplies, through condition of the supply routes worsening. Precipitation map filter added.
• UI: Added "update" button in the production panel for buildings.
• Battle game speed 10x changed to 20x.
To review the full content of the patch, please see below post:
Most Respy,
Engineer Corps
Asid:
Latest patch 1.1011, uploaded October 30, 2022
As always:
- Thanks for the development patch community for testing and supporting!
- Save games of prior versions should be compatible
Detailed Patch Notes:
Campaigns:
• fixed: issues with stuck and wrongly loaded battles when multiple battles happen at exactly the same location on the same day
• rebalanced AI machine gun usage and reduced lethality
• fixed: revolving naval battles if fleets do not find a retreat path to a friendly harbor
• added “base of supply" zones: units on enemy soil may now move to close friendly towns, depots or forts even if readiness is low. readiness recovery happens faster in such areas
• AI now finds harbor blockade positions better
• ordered weapons are now delivered continuously and standardization is now updated permanently
• fixed: when modding recruitment unit size AI recruits less soldiers in a brigade
• added fill ratio targets for supply depots
• added precipitation filter, supply now affected negatively in rainy and snowy areas
• campaign weather data is now saved instead of recalculated at start
• AI now checks for bad weather conditions before executing operations
• added seasonality (harvest times) of crops
• fixed: sometimes wrong battles are launched if player selects manual assault in sieges
• added local supply info icon for IIP’s on campaign map (if supply lines activated)
• commanding hierarchy level is now also taken into account when appointing commander in chief
• fixed: problems with filters if too many campaign buildings were constructed
• QOL enhancement: added upgrade building option also for the production panel
Battles:
• fixed: battlefield #240 not showing battlefield text
• fixed: “march to sound of guns” breaks historical movements of historical battles
• lowered cover values, reduced engineering points per unit but increased perk engineer points and commander branch engineer bonus
• fixed: returning from campaign battles does not reattach skirmishers
• changed: battles does not end immediately if loss trigger is surpassed but gives morale malus to attacker
• weak AI that is confronted with a strong player position does not retreat immediately at start but first tries to probe the opponent
• fixed: redeployment of groups by using “ALT” not happening immediately in deployment phase of day 2+
• refixed: stuck melee status if a group unit moves through regular brigades
• higher number of casualties for routed units in melee
• changed speed step x10 to x20
• AI avoids using short range volleys
• rebalanced: march to sound of guns movements
Other:
• fixed: opening options menu during a game session and quitting by <cancel> may result in changed realism settings
• added pref entries (campaignprefs): regrouping areas, campaign UI, economy, autocalc, campaign AI
• if camera zooms to a unit or building a circle quickly pops up to mark the position
• added tooltips for range markers
• Modding Excel: tab <resources> and <policies> need to be reexported for 1.10+ (added scenario column for policies and harvesting months for resources)
• filter entries are now scaled with different resolutions, especially noticeable in high resolutions
• fixed: changes in map settings are resetted if options menu is opened afterwards in same session
Asid:
Whiskey & Lemons
Sat, 31 December 2022
DLC to be released in 2023.
We wish you all a Happy New Year 2023!
...a year during which the DLC "Whiskey and Lemons" will be released, bringing to the game:
• Regiment level game play on a new campaign map covering the eastern theater,
• Career mode: start as a regiment commander, earn prestige and promotions, and become the greatest Civil War general.
More details about the DLC and the new features will be revealed as the development continues.
Thank You all for this year, the feedback and ideas you have provided, and of course for playing our game. The march continues!
Most Respy,
The Grand Tactician Team
PS. Patch 1.11 is in the final leg of testing, and will be released very shortly.
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