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Spotted!

After some testing, I decided to rework the radio contact rules described in the previous post. I've been playing a lot of RPG and Strategy games lately and one thing I don't really enjoy is the micromanaging aspect of buffing and de-buffing.

Rather than force the player to make hard decisions on where to allocate their buffs, it just ends up with them having to devote too many resources to support. You end up having at least one team member out of four doing nothing but support.
It also wastes a lot of time clicking and selecting and so on.

So, I want support actions to offer a significant bonus when active, but most should be passive. They should have specific utility too, not a general buff which you simply apply to your best unit. If your tanks are getting swarmed with infantry, then rapid fire will help you clear them out. If there's an enemy who is well dug in behind cover, you can use steady aim or mark target to get a bead on them.

In the end I just made special actions and ability to receive buffs reliant on having a radio. While the support role requires the command radio. Infantry can't carry a radio (yet) but they don't need to as none of their special abilities are reliant on it.

I'm also working on air support.

It's nice to be able to abstract this element. Not having to have actual planes flying around the map makes coding it a whole lot easier. Later I may add some graphics to represent it, such as a shadow cast on the ground, or an inset box with a picture of the type of plane doing the action.

Three types are currently planned; Spotter Planes, Fighter Planes and Air Strike.
In both cases they start their first turn inactive. The icon is placed on the map, but nothing happens.

On its way.
On the very next turn, the effect becomes active. Either dropping some bombs or revealing some of the map.

Circling and looking for targets.
At this time, the enemy (or the player) has a chance to use anti-aircraft weapons (or Fighter Planes) to try and cancel the effect before it is active. The chance will depend on a number of factors, such as the weapon being used, distance from target and so on.
About to head home.
The big advantage of air support is they can be targeted on tiles which are covered by fog of war. You can use them to scout out objectives or soften up the enemy before an attack. The disadvantage is that they can be nullified by opposition air support or anti air defenses.

This is quite a significant development, as none of my previous versions of Vinland got as far as adding air support rules. I hope I can train the AI to use them effectively, along with anti-aircraft weapons.

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