The French are glad to die for love,
They delight in fighting duels.
But I prefer a general who lives
to field these armored jewels.
Fighters or bombers are quite continental,
But tanks are a military man's best friend!
A deeper modernization is beginning as the Ministry of Defense initiates the design of a new tank as we implement a new set of decisions. A warm welcome to this week's development diary about the brand new decision chain for the tank weapons program with the equivalent on the US side!
Research and Development
Unlike unconventional research and development (the Space Race and Nuclear Technology) that is at your direct control in the State Affairs menu, conventional weapons development is under the control of the Defense establishments. They will recommend when needed, an overhaul of the tank models, represented by focuses in your terminal. The objective with all weapons program focuses is simple, with the stated goal to have the program reach 100% completion for the tank model to successfully enter service at the end of the timeline, granting you Victory Points.
The Military will love for nothing else then you picking these, providing one military interest to you each turn for your domestic politics and potentially fuelling research in unconventional tech.
Research Breakthroughs
Naturally, along the development cycle of anything new, there is always the chance that you discover something magnificent, like an experimental powertrain, turret and many more.
These can, of course, be used to upgrade your current design but will cause 10% of your progress being devoted to retrofitting them, potentially risking delays and the completion of the program before the focus ends. That said, if you know that this model is not going to be completed, you might as well just invest it all into the next coming model, instead of upgrading the one you already know is a failure.
Trouble down the barrel
These kinds of projects, with a lot of eyes and ears, and potentially loose lips, will have your opponent trying to benefit from or sabotage your development. Preventing you from reaching 100% completion on your weapons program will render your progress on anything but research breakthroughs valiant but ultimately wasted.
As the enemy's agents are at work, your opponent is given three crucial choices for all their discoveries:
- Continue monitoring the developments - low risk, slowly increasing their knowledge of the program
- Attempt to urgently acquire the blueprint - a 10% chance to gain the blueprints but yields no other knowledge otherwise
- Attempt to sabotage your development - yields nothing in terms of advances towards a blueprint, but knocks off 10% of your progress
Should your enemy succeed in getting hold of your blueprint, they will get up to 25% ahead of the competition at the end of the focus as they get to keep a quarter of all their Research Breakthrough progress for THEIR next focus model.
Keep safe and make sure to TANK your scientists for their great work!
Mighty Cheers,
Leif 'Greatexperiment' Miler, Alfred 'Zeress' Frendo-Cumbo and Gellert 'GFK' Keresztes,
*********************************************************
Upcoming Development
I) ZHU DE: Marshal Zhu De, the founder of Communist China's mighty People's Liberation Army is making his entrance into the terminal. The red carpet has been prepared and his story-line has advanced into beta testing, undergoing final balancing.
II) People's interests decision chain is in the works for the USA faction and is in full production.
III) KIM IL-SUNG: A Communist Ideologue and Supreme Leader will rise to power like the living Sun to establish a People's Republic like never seen before and the first Communist dynasty. Or will his life be cut short and his reign curtailed by US regional power?
CHANGELOG
AI
NEW major update to the way the AI handles Leaders
AI now uses calculates and uses Leader abilities
GAME
- Garrisoning of forces after disarmament is now once more working properly
- Full review and rebalancing of The China Card scenario
- Fixed an issue where selecting Peng as a Policy for China would cause an error
- Fixed an issue where the first Maneuver with an Army Command of a two-step move would incorrectly not cost any PEOPLE
- Fixed an issue that would cause Press + Hold for 2 seconds to sometimes not function properly
- Fixed an issue where selecting the last focus in FOCUS MGMT would cause an exception
FOCUS
- NEW! Focuses can now yield specific effects outside just VP
- Expriging focuses will now be shown properly even for your own focuses, not just the enemies
- Fixed Focus checks being part of an ALL trigger, and thus unable to allow for two triggers to pass at the same time
POLICIES
- USA NEW! (Available if Mao's power grows to 15 or more) INEVITABLE SCHISM: ---CHINA, EAST ASIA. Set all USSR CONTROLLED regions to 2 USSR INFLUENCE.
- Removed the military cost for recruiting the Chinese liaison officers (Peng, Zhu, Lin)
DECISIONS
- Fully rebalanced the bonuses for the Chinese Civil War
- The China Card will now need to be completed in 9 turns, up from 5
- Setup completed in anticipation of the implementation of Zhu De
- Updated the Strident horse Decision chain regarding Mongolia
- Chinese Civil War decisions will now take into consideration the posture you've selected before firing giving you much more variation in outcomes (Arm/Disarm)
- Divided up the Chinese mainland battle into 4 zones (North,West, East, Taiwan)
- Added Decision for Rallying forces by Peng in the North
- Added Decision for Communist Tactical Victory added for Peng in Lanzhou and Ürümqi in western Muslim regions of China
- Red Dragon Rising narrative and narrative for the Chinese Civil War can now be triggered by focusing on The Death of John Birch, Taiwan Strait Crisis, Red Dragon Dance or The Great Leap Forward
- The Arrival of Generals will correctly take focuses into consideration
- Standardized the description text for Korean Character Cho Man-sik
EDITOR
- Fixed an issue where copying a decision in certain circumstances would cause an exception to be given by the game
- Updated the FocusTargetTheater creation to set the standard focus as North America (being the first theater)
- Decision with Display set to NONE will no longer show in-game Message log allowing for hidden decisions to work in the background
OTHER
- Updated the imagery for all China Card decisions