@allboxcars:
@Brain:
All I am saying is that it should not be a luck thing. It should be automatic.
naw, I can’t get behind that.
I think there should be a random element with respect to when you make the big break-thru especially for whiz kid stuff like jet fighters.
And naturally, with increasing certainty the greater you invest in it to the point it’s almost a statistical sure thing.
Having said that, there should be very little randomness about what you end up with.
“hey sir, you know that rocket engine we’re working on? Well it’s still flaming out but now it’s churning out war bonds! who’d a thunk it eh?”
And some of the techs are just simple doctrinal advancements or new applications of existing tech. If it doesn’t require guys in lab coats - like war bonds - then it shouldn’t be random at all.
But hey that’s just me.
I agree that jet fighters are whiz kid stuff. To address that issue, I’ve limited each nation’s available techs to a list roughly corresponding with the techs it had managed to develop in the real war. Germany can research jets, because by the end of the war it had managed to develop very effective jet aircraft. The Americans can research long-range aircraft, because later in the war American aircraft had significant longer ranges than anyone else’s. The Americans can also develop heavier/better strategic bombers (the Superfortress). The Germans and the Soviets can develop better tanks and better infantry. Each nation tends to have its own niche: Germany and the U.S. are the best in the air, and Germany and the Soviet Union are the best on land. Japan’s ability to wage an impressive land war has been weakened through a lack of manpower points, unimpressive land technology, economic factors, the inclusion of a lot of space between the Pacific and Moscow, and a strengthened Chinese resistance effort.
Historically, Germany and its European allies represented the threat to the Soviet Union, and I feel the game should reflect this. An Axis strategy of Germany turtles/Japan takes Moscow would be historically inaccurate: Japan didn’t have nearly enough land war strength to pull that off. During WWII, the Soviet Union produced 105,000 tanks to Japan’s 2,500. The Soviets produced 520,000 artillery pieces to Japan’s 13,000. Those numbers don’t exactly paint a picture of the Rising Sun being raised over the Kremlin, especially when the Japanese Army was bogged down in China and elsewhere.