I was away about 5 months. Here's what I still don't like...

[Admiral Donuts]

Japanese Campaign 1890

1 - While at war with China, having the longest range ships with the best engines available ahead of tech, the only options I was given for invasion were Saipan area and Eastern China, the second I am unable to achieve the proper tonnage. This is regardless of where the fleet is positioned. An invasion order should come with all possible coastline options along with required tonnage to accomplish right in the drop-down menu. I can send the fleet later.

2 - The Japanese Fleet by 1910 consists of 3 Dn I's, 6 CAs, 12 CLs and 12 DDs. With all my focus on economy if I sortie 1 BB and 2 CAs I will lose $8 million per month while at peace. This concept flies in the face of Japan having the most advanced, largest fleet in the Pacific by 1905 and even earlier. I can fit the entire thing in Sasebo. The economy is almost as small as the hull sizes.

3 - Even with a proper task force, I have been unable to secure Korea as it is never given to me as an option. Not once.

4 - The United States, however, is gobbling up all neutral territory wherever they stick their fleet, despite the fact it was not in their nature to do so.

5 - France still consistently has a 200+ navy and expands way too rapidly, to the point of ruining the majority of my campaigns.

6 - The minor countries that so generously attach themselves to me are unwanted. I refuse them every ship request. No I'm not building Norway 3 top-of-the-line battleships. Stop asking me. In fact, bug off. The Department of FU has been working furiously for YEARS telling them precisely that, but they will not go away.

7 - Ships that I name by class are duplicating those names still when multiple ships are built.

8 - The game is still freezing up often, mainly during Building Ships, with 2 cases in one campaign while sorting task forces for a battle, sometimes getting into a cycle causing me to dump and reload it several times before it will clear.

9 - The simple fix of moving the latest technology to the top when addressing an item being researched has still not been done. Add to that the year of the historical discovery is left out of old discoveries, a very useful addition that would be.

10 - Components still weigh far too much to fit on proper hulls, no matter how many hulls you add to the game. We're not even putting AA on the ships and still there is no space on a destroyer for more than 1 torpedo launcher.

11 - Destroyer refit times are still way too long. Changing any part on them requires 8 months of refit.

12 - Task Force coordination is often screwed, with me changing follow and screen orders because the flagship decided it wasn't a flagship anymore with the enemy nowhere in sight before a battle starts.

13 - With reported 58%+ to-hit with main guns, they seem to be missing constantly regardless of fire rate.

 

All of these issues I reported 6 months ago and before. All of them provide me no end of frustration. I was hoping for a more refined gaming experience by now. But I'm disappointed.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 15 by Admiral Donuts

[Wowzery]

In regards to #1, I think its you need to have 100k tons of warships in sea area the ports are part of, then what area you are trying to conquer will have a port with a small circle.  You must have your fleet within that area.

If you wanted to invade Saipan you'd need 100k tons of ships in a fleet in the Philippines Sea.  Then you'd need whatever tonnage close to the port, within the circle, to have a chance of a successful invasion.

I don't know if this is what you are doing, but its always worked for me.

[anonusername]

I think the game urgently needs an option to spend prestige to influence politics. Leaving task forces to burn fuel outside a minor until the invasion ticks is both gamey and unreliable. It would work a lot better to have a combination of randomized invasion missions and the ability to spend prestige to spawn an invasion mission.

[Admiral Donuts]

I went back in yesterday and created a task force of 107,000 tons. It's been off Pusan for more than 5 years. Nothing.

There's been a lot of dumb things about the game that haven't been corrected. And the best test, I think, is to play Japan. Currently I have the original random fleet upgraded to the latest, at sea, and finally in positive budget. I should have been building much better designs by now, but this is the test. While America is scarfing up every neutral territory a fleet can get to, I'm sitting off Pusan with my middle finger up at Korea.

Edited April 3 by Admiral Donuts

[anonusername]

The worst part is it's probably just RNG, there seems to be basically zero ways for either players or AI to seriously affect the chance of invading minors. Some games you get huge numbers of invasions triggering and other games you cannot even invade your neighboring minors. The game would be better if they did away with the whole "admiral" charade and just let you declare war as you please. The political simulation is already practically non-existent, and prestige is pointless.

[TK3600]

On 4/5/2024 at 10:26 PM, anonusername said:

The worst part is it's probably just RNG, there seems to be basically zero ways for either players or AI to seriously affect the chance of invading minors. Some games you get huge numbers of invasions triggering and other games you cannot even invade your neighboring minors. The game would be better if they did away with the whole "admiral" charade and just let you declare war as you please. The political simulation is already practically non-existent, and prestige is pointless.

I think it still makes sense to have player control naval invasion. Marines and naval infantry are usually controlled by department of naval affair.

[Admiral Donuts]

I've spent 30+ years at sea and never got my hands on Korea. The option never came up.

Furthermore, I thought the campaign ended in 1950? I'm in July of 1955 now.

[PhoenixLP44]

1 hour ago, Admiral Donuts said:

I've spent 30+ years at sea and never got my hands on Korea. The option never came up.

Furthermore, I thought the campaign ended in 1950? I'm in July of 1955 now.

campaign ending was extended to 1965 (iirc)

[Admiral Donuts]

Finally the Japanese campaign ended.

Improvements - no seize-ups of the game. Battles were nearly without incident. I had two or three instances where my task force froze in the water but I was able to work around it. Economy and fleet size have indeed improved in the mid-late game. Ship designs are cleaner.

Never did secure Korea. Got one province of it in a land invasion out of Manchuria. Otherwise it never gave me the option. Add to it another thing - the world load-time out of the constructor or following a battle is humongous.

EDIT - I apologize, this was the live version of the game, the campaign took 2 updates while playing it.

 

Edited 12 hours ago by Admiral Donuts