Development ideas

[K K Rossokolski]

I have been out of Oz, driving around Europe for a couple of months, largely out of touch, but an idea or two came to mind, so hat in the ring .... here goes. Please remember my computer knowledge is insufficient for me to assess...or even guess...whether ideas are feasible, program-wise.

1. Units
...With the new specialised engineer units, is there a specialised flamethrower team? If not, would this be a worthwhile addition?....eg for bunker attack, although the ability to pop smoke :smoke: as well as shoot flame would seem to be needed simultaneously
...Remote control demolition eg Goliath. If this could be simulated, it might be fun. Could we be so sick as to include the Russian AT dogs?
...Bridgelayers that work (might have to wait for modern warfare)
...The gigantic German 80cm gun railway gun. :boom3:
...Recovery tanks, which would open the question of realistic simulation of repairable damage.
...WWI units..tanks, some arty, weaker infantry, slower German MGs etc..and flame thrower/assault/shturmtruppen teams, etc etc. Some work was done years ago on a WWI mod for WF. I think this could be easily adapted into JTCS, and might well produce both good games and great history.

2.Map Eye Candy, and a bit more than just that.

Some thoughts..
All theatres....Special buildings ..aircraft hangars, tented encampments, barracks (as in RS) stores depots etc etc
Europe/Mediterranean....Special buildings ...Three scales of church..cathedral(city)/town/village (We have temples in RS) And perhaps some other castle options? (I have about 5000000 happy snaps)
Could the WF map editor be set up to combine Europe/Mediterranean and Med/Desert?
Is it possible to include a tunnel (eg railway tunnel) in the map? The RS cave feature could lead the way here, but would be much more limited in scope, and would appear as a separate feature, particularly as railways are not a significant factor in RS.
Why does the game not allow the 'rubbleising' of special buildings? It should!

3. Game scale: There has been some debate about the game time scale, but little or none about the physical scale, set by the original designers at 250m per hex. This has 5 different magnifications, but the SCALE remains the same...whatever the view one chooses, a hex remains 250 m.
Questions...is it possible to set up a series of scales, dividing or multiplying by 2,4,8 say?
...would such a scaling feature be useful or desirable?
...would such a feature, if adopted, be applicable to existing scenarios as an option, or be a fixed factor in new scens made to order for that scale? (the latter I think)
...would stacking factors need to be reduced, or could a smaller area hold more troops etc?

On a related(?) scale issue, is it possible to expand vertically, from 0-12 to, say 0-24 or 0-36, to better simulate mountain/alpine areas, which CS does not do well at all.

:soap: :stir:
I am on record as being in total opposition to some game development changes, particularly and explicitly the ridiculous bathtub navy, and the absurd non-flying "bombers". I oppose these because they simulate reality as well as a pig flies, :pig: and because it is clear to me that no understanding of naval or air operations is evident in the development process which led to these fiascos :thumbs_down:

I am also on record as being a keen supporter of pretty much everything else that has been done. I offer the above thoughts without prejudice, inviting comments on feasibility and desirability, and of course hoping to inspire any other ideas that might come up. I also wish to note that I am happy to help the development team with thoughts on values etc.