Bolt out of the Blue Feedback

[Indragnir]

Ya recon always had some issues, unfortunately we will have to work with what we got. Movement and Morale are about the only options

I honestly dont see a real downfall with all recon being A or B with maybe 50% more movement, 1 benefit of higher morale is more movement which is the direction it was going anyways and what 20% attack/defend, for a small unit that doesnt mean to much

edit. can always lower ATT/DEF to make up for the Quality change

It seems the way to go. Just lower base HA/SA values to balance them.
Notice Quality Fire Modifier is set to 1, thus gaining another 10%. (If the Quality of the firing unit is A, then +20% times the Quality Fire Modifier value applies.  If the Quality of the firing unit is B, then +10% times the Quality Fire Modifier value applies.)

[Aaron]

NATO Signit stations have picked up a high volume of communications between WP units and Moscow. Shortly after satellites are seeing increase Warsaw Pact military movements everywhere, in the west Pact forces were seen fueling military vehicles, on the Kola Peninsula they could see Soviet subs leaving port and there was still no word from the Soviet government, could this be it. Within 24 hours of these reports NATO governments have ordered their militaries to start mobilizing and soon reports were coming out of Moscow that Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was assassinated 2 days prior by hard line communists inside the military and government. NATO leaders had called a high level meeting to discuss the situation when reports started coming in of WP forces seen leaving their bases and heading West towards the inter-German border, then the loss of communications with West Berlin, the last communication saying artillery was landing on their positions. Next scattered reports of West German border troops skirmishing with there WP counterparts before losing comms with some of them. With NATO forces just starting to deploy to their positions and the first American reinforcements just loading up at US airfields the attack started with a massive cruise missile attack from Soviet long range bombers and surface to surface missiles, the target NATO airfields, it was followed shortly after by waves of Pact aircraft, this is when NATO commanders realized their worst case scenario had come true, the Soviets have initiated THE BOLT OUT OF THE BLUE..........

Had to do a little creative writing.

Update is coming along , will start testing in a week or so. A few surprises in store.

19. Attack helos are now off map like Aircraft. No more blocking movement, flying all over map, using every
turn, will now always face AAA/SAMS, interdiction and so on.

[Strela]

Yep! Definitely a few surprises....! 

[Aaron]

Anyone interested in poking around and play testing the new version send me a message here or an email. New graphics arnt done but that doesnt effect anything.

Thanks

edit: oh there is no AI, there will be a basic one soon but with all the variable release times it wont be very good, just enough for the AI to look like its doing something

[Indragnir]

Anyone interested in poking around and play testing the new version send me a message here or an email. New graphics arnt done but that doesnt effect anything.

Thanks

edit: oh there is no AI, there will be a basic one soon but with all the variable release times it wont be very good, just enough for the AI to look like its doing something

Aaron,

I'm interested.

[Aaron]

Bolt 10.0 in the testing phase now, will be building an AI this weekend and starting on missing graphics, noticed a couple wrong ones also that were included in the Gold version. Like SF having a truck behind it when its foot.
Changes below

1. EXPANDED MAP, yes the map is bigger. I always wanted to build Bolt a different way but didn't feel i had
what was needed to make it happen. Well now i do, plausibility will never be questioned again, units will
start from their bases on both sides with a variable release of normally 25%. So no 2 games will be alike,
replay is everywhere, the players will have lots of freedom to do whatever they want.

2. Visibility reduce to Min-2 Max-4 for everyday.

3. More variable weather- after 1st day 70% chance normal conditions, 30% soft.
After 2nd day same but add 10% chance of storms. Germany in June rains about 33% of the time, im using
soft conditions to represent a light rain and thunderstorms of course the heavy stuff.

4. Removed the Nato Italian airdrop

5. Removed the small chance of Polish troops withdrawing

6. Raised terrain combat modifiers 10% for village, town, city, industrial

7. Raised Electronic War Parameter of Nato from 10 to 14 and WP 3 to 12

8. Changed Night move disruption from 30 to 12

9. Whatever quality Recon units were before now they are 1 step higher

10. Added some French strike aircraft

11. All Recon units have 33% more movement

12. New replacement value in .pdt set to 0 for both sides. I already have replacements built into OOB

13. Reworked all Supply Depots, almost all are on map edge so farther away you are the less supply there
is. Starting the 17th the WP will start losing 1% supply each day to help show results from
off map Interdiction on roadways, bridges etc. Nato will also start losing 1% each day starting the
17th to show loss of infrastructure and reliance on supply's from the US mainland.

14. Adjusted some HQ command ranges down, with the extra ECM HQs with long range were getting hammered

15. Redid all Recon units in the OOB, for the most part no more small recon units. I think now is a good
simulation of what they provide. For example the WP divisional recon Bns are now merged as a BN so they
have like 32 vehicles, then i added the 4 regiments recon units into another recon unit of 28-38. And
with WP divisional command range being 12 i think these 2 bigger units represent divisional recon well
not to mention its more survivable bigger and Recon spotting is better, all goes along with the adjusted
Recon Spotting Rule.

16. French OOB got a little remodel.

17. Belgium OOB got a tiny remodel

18. Company's and merging are back, most KGs are removed unless its a company size unit that doesn't merge with
anything then it remained KG. Theres higher fatigue recovery in the scenario and i see this as a better
method of getting around the 3x rule so we are able to merge units again.

19. Attack helos are now off map like Aircraft. No more blocking movement, flying all over map, using every
turn, will now always face AAA/SAMS, interdiction and so on.

20. Austria OOB got a remodel, more Austria now, had to reorganize

21. Rhine,Elbe and Danube river parts that are on the map are all between 300-500 meters and since Danube is a
full hex so should all 3. And yes they arnt 1 mile but for game play and to show a difference between these
major rivers and regular rivers on map this is the only way. This is one thing i wanted standardized.

22. Bolt turns are shorter than Vanilla and bridge build was something that was overlooked so this has been
lowered to 66 from 85. I wanted something that still made it most likely to happen but had more variable
to it so you couldn't depend on it happening every time and with turns being shorter anyways it made sense.

23. Pontoon bridge takes 2 turns to build now instead of 3.

24. Streams are not really all streams per say on the map, more like minor rivers, with that said to move
across stream in Bolt was lower than Vanilla, that is now changed. To move across streams will now
cost more MPs. The cost is comparable to vanilla.

25. Made some ease of life changes to the oob. Some of these Nato reserve companys inside active Bns ive made
changes. Examples the Dutch you had 2 B morale and 1 C, i just made it a B, doesnt really effect much. German
M-113 companys, i took the 2 in each bde and moved it into the split Bn with tanks and took the 2 Marder
companys in the mixed tank Bn and put in the Mech Bns those forming a full unit to combine. Works great
and still simulates what was in the unit, theres others but you get the idea.

26. Turn 1 is at 1am so attachments is possible and ive gone threw who can get attached to who. Except for the
Strategy on turn 1 on where you want the NVA 1st MOT division i felt EGerman,Polish,Czech and French units
shouldn't be able to attach or be attached to anymore than what the start of game gives you. Make sure at
game start to make adjustments for whatever your strategy is, if you want 30 Soviet divisions in OpDirRuhr
and 1 in OpDirLux then go ahead and any Strategy's involving different command HQs are on the 0100 hour so
you can make the proper attachment at the same time so dont forget.

27. You will notice few Strategys, that is because the design of the start is a strategy in its own. Its all
in your head. The Strategys that are in you will notice duplicates on multiple nights in a row, this is
to help you, i have no idea where the combat will be on a certain day in the game so i have provided
a defensive option and many offensive ones that take place on multiple days to help in timing of attacks.

[Indragnir]

Aaron,
My initial review (on possible oversights):

-Point 25: 6th PzGr Division has tank btls with B/C quality companies. Should be like Dutch btls instead?

-2nd Pz Bde/1st ArmD at Braunschweig and 4th PzGr Bde/2nd PzGr D at Göttingen could be encircled if they got bad luck on releases (they're cornered against rivers). I suggest make their release Triggered with their bde recon elements a bit forward, that way encircling them should be harder.

-Helostrikes are not limited by what is in LOS of their parent units. I helostriked SF units in the rear with any available helo attack unit. I see Airstrikes by the map is checked, It is intended?

-No night airstrikes, only Recon. (not even helostrikes despite their Thermal IS tag in the OoB). It is intended?

-Guards Airborne division regiments have different colors each one, it's a bit weird. Maybe make them brigades/task forces instead of regiment?

-No French paras strategy drop makes me sad. Why no strategy drop for the Paras? they arrive at the back end of map on FOOT, they will need a lot of turns to arrive to any location near the front.

[Outlaw Josey Wales]

Seems to me Helos should have a range and time limit to fly out from their base and fly back to land. If they don't make it, they crash and are lost. If they can't make it and land somewhere, they remain out of gas until an enemy unit happens upon them or a friendly base can get to them. The bases themselves should be able to breakdown to have the recovery/resupply to go to aircraft that were forced to land out of gas. They are at least Bns anyway.

EW was 10-3, a gap of 7. Raised to 14-12, only a gap of 2. Were WP capabilities that improved? I was in West Germany 80-82 and it was more a numbers thing for them because our equipment was so much better. Just asking.

Can attachments be set for every turn? Makes sense seeing how in reality, they're not going to wait until midnight or one to make attachments. Getting attached to any HQs shouldn't be much of a problem. Even with nationalities. Just saying.

My 2 cents.

[Aaron]

If units dont release in time thats life or in this case death. can go both ways

French paras are not a front line unit in central europe and a divisional airdrop even in the 80s is outdated.

I have read many nato docs that said WP EW was good.

cant do anything about attachments

6th PzG units are combining so left them

edit>>
will double check the airstrikes, with airstrikes by the map fire value should be quartered.

[Indragnir]

French paras are not a front line unit in central europe and a divisional airdrop even in the 80s is outdated.

6th PzG units are combining so left them

Then the soviet divisional airdrops? Maybe I didn't understand.

Can you explain me the 6th PzG combining? Dutch btls have 2-3 B/C companies and 1 C/D company, you've consolidated them into a single quality unit, thus all their companies are combinables.
6th PzG has 2 B quality companies and 1 C quality company thus uncombinable. I'm just asking why Dutch btls are combinable and 6th PzG don't.

The air "issues" are ok? no night airstrikes and indirect/airstrikes by the map.