History Coming Alive

In the West, not much is popularly known of the struggle that brought Communism to power in China. Some would say, it is a matter of general disinterest, while others point to the decades of deliberate obfuscation being Beijing government policy. Today, this part of this history comes alive at your fingertips as we aim to shed some light on the tale of the Chinese Civil War. With its many battles and heroes, it is among the most consequential and dramatic of our modern era.

The Man Behind the Legend

One of those colorful characters that participated in this struggle, is a man called Zhu De. A person of some military skill, well educated and a regional Warlord, he was initially inclined toward the Nationalists rather than the Communists. Yet, Zhu De eventually embraced Communism under the sponsorship of Zhou Enlai - abandoning his previous ambitions in favor of a life dedicated to self-sacrifice. It is this change of heart that eventually led him down the path towards founding and becoming the Commander-in-Chief of the People's Liberation Army and the architect of its victory over the Nationalist Kuomintang.
If you select Zhu De, he will serve as a voice illustrating the military symphony of the Chinese Civil War. His strategy heavily emphasized proper logistics, long-term results, and above all - loyalty. It was his tactics of grand feints, deferred results, and asymmetric engagements that historically tipped the scales in towards the Red camp. Depending on the distribution of influence and force across the map, the general presents you with numerous challenges and opportunities for furthering the interests of the Soviets and putting your own mark on history.

Multiple paths to final victory

It all starts with the arrival of Zhu De, a chain of narrative and decisions that perfect exemplify what we are aiming to achieve in Terminal Conflict: a detailed Cold War simulation with historically plausible outcomes with a large amount of variation. Below you can see how the Zhu De chain of events is designed.
When Zhu De is selected as an active character the game instantly checks for the historical conditions that can trigger decisions related to him. Most of them are connected to the control of certain regions, and most of them trigger a decision that has a larger scale narrative and gameplay consequence. Let's play one example of how this could unfold.

A good Commander acts

Being in a proxy war, with Zhu De sent by Mao as your liaison officer to the Chinese Liberation Army, you will have to makes some thoughtful choices when the conditions are as favorable as you can make them.
Being a warlord, Zhu De can attract quite the company. Speaking in his favor is one thing but it is ultimately you that decides.
After a long series of battles, an opportunity to savor victory may present itself. While it may seem a mere philosophical matter, the effects are quite real.
Your strategic play on the short term and the long term will matter as there may also come a time when the mainland is all but secure - save for an island bastion of the Nationalists. Leaving Taiwan for last maybe a low-risk strategy but potentially with the long term effect of keeping the enemy out of reach. Consolidate your position or perhaps the moment has come to remove the enemy once and for all?
Now, is your opportunity to follow Zhu De's path and see if the life and works of a legend can be improved upon. The triumph of the Chinese Communist and that of the Soviet Union is yours to forge.
Mighty Cheers, Leif 'Greatexperiment' Miler and Alfred 'Zeress' Frendo-Cumbo ********************************************************* Upcoming Development I) NEW tutorials are in productions and the official MANUAL is soon going into print! Halls are busy in Washington and Moscow! 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

• AI has now gotten a new ability and will correctly score all used effects
• Fixed an issue where the leaders would not be correctly recruited
• AI now properly checks if a particular region can be targeted by Leader abilities
• AI leader recruitment now values focus needs
• Fixed an issue where the AI wrongly looks at focus prioritizations targets
• Fixed an issue where the AI did not use correctly 0 cost Leader abilities
• Tweaked Juche ability for AI use
• Added a new balancing where we slightly increased the favor for interest and increased leader power score
• Various other smaller AI tweaks

GAME

• Fixed an issue where the Sea Unit Movement in non-focus theaters is now correctly allowed if you already have a friendly sea unit in your enemy-controlled region
• Fixed a memory leak issue caused by texture allocation
• Failed maneuver attacks into focus theaters no longer incorrectly charge
• People interest
• Unable to DISEMBARK into non-focus theaters where the opponent has a presence in the target region
• Fixed Tito's Ability Samoupravljanje wrongly having an EndTurn value of 2, instead of 1 and Samoupravljanje now correctly grants 1 influence instead of 2
• Fixed an issue where you were awarded twice the amount of decisions in case of one-sided disarmament

FOCUS

• NEW RED DRAGON RISING: Enabled the ability to select and play the Chinese Civil War where the USSR can use Peng Dehuai or Zhu De
• Selection of 'Hollywood Investigation' now activates 'Red Scare' & 'Joseph McCarthy' policies and now requires selection of both Red Scare & McCarthy for completion
• Completion or Failure of 'Hollywood Investigation' now activates 'Olympus Rising'
• Politics of Poverty now requires that the Marshall Plan NOT be enacted

POLICIES

• NEW MERCHANTS OF LIBERTY (USA Sub-Saharan Africa): Spend 3 MILITARY to place 1 INFLUENCE for each of your opponent's MILITARY interests.
• NEW RED DAWN RISING (USSR North America): Set MILITARY to 3 to add 1 USSR ARMY COMMAND to COMMAND RESERVES.
• Charles 'Lucky' Luciano renamed to C. 'Lucky' Luciano to better fit condition and effect notification boundaries
• 'Olympus has Risen' now fires as soon as the flag CIAActive has been set to 1
• Fixed an issue where characters would disappear after a selection

DECISIONS

• The Promised Land: Fixed second options to better reflect the bonuses and the text AND adjusted its effect order to meet standards
• America's Playground: now triggered by Enforce Monroe Doctrine as well as America's Playground Focus
• Havana Conference: now triggered by Enforce Monroe Doctrine, America's Playground Focus, LITEMPO, Spy Network, and Havana Crime Conference Focuses
• Disabled Charles 'Lucky' Luciano from the start, instead he is activated by Havana Conference
• Money Trail: Fixed an issue in the that was causing an error when Option 1 or Option 2 was selected and Option 1 can no longer be selected if the CIA has already been created
• 'Olympus has Risen' no longer activates 'Joseph McCarthy' Policy
• Fixed an issue where you were able to remove the SUPPORT ability twice from David Ben-Gurion
• Fixed an issue where some triggers were incorrectly set up in the Chinese Civil War and where one of the change interests was causing an error
• Updated the independence decision for rmqi
• Updated text wording for The Long Telegram
• Fixed Idi Amin making a comeback tour with the USA despite being official with the USSR
• Major overhaul of the Weapons Program's decision effects and Research Breakthrough renamed to Future Generation Progress as well as Scientific Advancement & Triumph of Soviet Industry now require at least 10% progress to trigger
• Updated Weapons Program with randomized values setup and so that they become a lot more dynamic and balanced its bonuses further
• Weapons Program advancement decision framework added
• Random chance of progress assigned to all options in production-related decisions, and Opt. 1 in experimental X for WeaponsProgram
• Updated Weapons Program definition of Enemy Blueprints
• Weapons Program sabotage cost set to -1 Elites, sabotage amount to 5%
• Egg Fried Rice: Updated triggers to better match the correct conditions for Mao's son decision

EDITOR

• Standardized the use of editor terms for ease of usage, like De/Select, etc
• Matched terminology as it is used outside the editor, like war -> war zone
• Clarified the special field to be more succinct

OTHER

• Fixed an issue where theaters rendering in focus management could potentially cause game instability or crash
• Various memory optimization for the game
• Fixed some typos and minor issues with the text
• Pruned old flags and imagery

[ 2019-08-17 19:26:36 CET ] [ Original post ]