Developer DIary #2

This past month, I have been working on all the unit types, unit names, counter names, and divisional names. What I thought would take a week took a month. To give a scope of the size of the work...

Total Division Types: 626

Many of these are similar with different varieties based on the nation. For example, France has a lower infantry movement rate than Germany, reflecting various factors.

Aircraft: Each country has historical aircraft grouped by the most common and similar. Aircraft have different statistics. Players can form air counters with a mix of fighters and bombers.

Naval: Individual capital ships have been researched for accuracy in representation. Even carriers hold the number of planes they did historically. Cruisers come in groups of 4, destroyers and subs in groups of 8. I decided to include light cruisers in the force pool as well.

Total Game Counter Names: 709

Examples of counter names you will see on the map are 10th Army, or 20th Corps.

Total Game Division Names: 4110

Each land counter can hold 60,000 men. Each country has different-sized divisions. The Western Allies have 18,000 men in a division, Germany 15,000 men, and the Soviets 10,000 men. Every strength point a unit has = 100 men.

Each air counter can hold 4 air units or roughly 400 planes. Each strength point of an air unit roughly represents 1 operational combat airplane.

Each naval counter can hold 6 naval units.

This entire process has been an enormous task of data entry. It is 96% done. I now have to finish minor countries. Volunteers will double-check my work for accuracy. I want ships and planes to be as close as possible to their realistic attributes while keeping it simple for playability.

Next is creating the 1939 main scenario. This is another giant beast to tackle. It is the correct placement of hundreds of units on the map from various resources.

Once this is complete, work will move to coding the remainder of the game.