DEVELOPMENT PLAN #95 — How Many Platoons Can One Commander Lead? Command Span and the Adjutant

This is a development plan: it describes something I would like to build next. None of what follows is implemented yet, and the details are still under consideration and may change before implementation.

This morning's post showed the regiment window rebuilt around people and strength. When you appoint a commander and an adjutant, the top of the window shows the adjutant's bonus, such as "Bonus Charisma S +28% · Command SS +59%". For now that bonus is display only: it does not enter any game calculation. And however many platoons you put in a regiment, the commander's load stays the same. Tonight's plan is to let the commander's Command decide how many platoons can be led without penalty (the command span), with the adjutant helping to extend it. It turns the direction already decided for improvement item MOB-015 into a concrete rule.

The current regiment window (the actual Debug build screen, in a verification state started from the initial master data). The adjutant's bonus appears under the regiment name at the top left, but it is display only today. "Affects" on the right lists the decisions the commander is responsible for. Regiment and platoon names are still shown in Japanese in the English UI.

Where things stand

A regiment is made of a commander, an adjutant and a number of platoons. People have abilities such as Charisma and Command, and today the game uses them like this:

• The commander's Charisma speeds up the organization recovery of the regiment's platoons (up to +20%).
• The commander's Command reduces how much organization the platoons lose in combat (up to −20%).
• An adjutant can be appointed, and the regiment window and the candidate list show the grade and increase of "the commander's ability plus half of the adjutant's", but it is not applied to the game yet.

Both effects reach every platoon in the same way, whether the regiment has 3 platoons or 10. Handing more platoons to one great commander costs nothing, so there is little reason to think about building one large regiment versus splitting it.

The idea: command span

I would like to take the commander's Command plus half of the adjutant's Command (the "adjusted Command") and derive the command span, the number of platoons the regiment can lead without penalty. The draft values under consideration are:

• Adjusted Command = commander's Command + half of the adjutant's Command (Charisma adds up the same way; capped at 150). It is the same formula as today's bonus display, so the screen and the calculation agree. The existing recovery bonus and combat reduction would also use the adjusted values.
• Command span = 2 + adjusted Command ÷ 20 (rounded down). Command 60 gives 5 platoons, 80 gives 6, 100 gives 7. With no commander the span is 2.
• While the regiment has more platoons than its span, the organization recovery of every platoon drops by 8% per platoon over (to no less than 60%), and the commander's Charisma bonus to recovery is thinned to "span ÷ platoons".
• In the first stage I do not plan to touch combat damage, movement, or tactics and pursuit decisions. Spreading the penalty too widely would make it hard to see why a battle was lost.

Concept mock (design under consideration). The top row gains "platoons led / command span", and the commander's detail shows how the span is derived from the adjusted Command, which platoons are within the span or over it, and what changes while the regiment is over. People and values are examples.

When choosing an adjutant, I would also like each candidate card to show the change, for example "span 5 → 6 if appointed". The candidate cards already show the adjusted grade and increase, so this adds one more value.

What it should make more interesting

The aim is to give choices in how regiments are built. Take one regiment of 7 platoons. A commander with Command 62 alone has a span of 5 and is 2 over. Add an adjutant with Command 44 and the adjusted Command is 62 + 22 = 84, a span of 6, only 1 over. Split it into regiments of 4 and 3 platoons and nothing is over, but you need a second commander, and tactics and pursuit are then decided per regiment.

Concept mock (design under consideration). The organization recovery multiplier for the same 7-platoon regiment led by a commander alone, with an adjutant, or split into two regiments. Values are illustrative, computed from the draft parameters.

It also separates roles: a commander with high Charisma makes recovery faster, while one with high Command holds more platoons together. A charismatic commander with weak Command can be paired with a strong-Command adjutant, so personnel choices start to matter as combinations.

Implementation steps and how it connects

The order I have in mind is: (1) compute the adjusted Charisma and Command in one place and use the same value on screen and in daily processing, (2) compute the span and the excess and apply them to the midnight organization recovery, (3) show the span in the regiment window's top row, the commander and adjutant details, and the candidate cards (Japanese and English), and (4) check that organization values match after a save/load round trip and when the same day is recalculated. The span and excess are counted once per regiment in daily processing, never by searching every regiment again for each platoon.

I am also working on letting the commander's 16-type personality shape offensive and pursuit decisions (BTL-012), so how far a commander's decisions reach in an over-span regiment will be decided together with that item. I added this proposal to the ticket and placed it just before BTL-012 in the implementation order.

Tell me what you think

Which would you pick: one large regiment under a great commander, more regiments with more commanders, or an adjutant to cover the gap? Is slower organization recovery enough of a penalty for going over the span, or would it be clearer if it affected combat too? Your comments help shape the design.

Image 1 was captured from the development Debug build, launched without showing a window and started from the initial master data in a verification state; images 2 and 3 are concept mocks (design under consideration). The people and numbers in the mocks are examples, not actual game values.

This morning: DEVELOPMENT SNAPSHOT #94 — Who Leads and How Strong: The Regiment Window Rebuilt

On appointments: DEVELOPMENT SNAPSHOT #76 — Appoint from the Platoon Window: Candidates Shown by What the Post Needs

Previous plan: DEVELOPMENT PLAN #93 — Rivers Rise, Springs Run Dry: Water Sources That Remember the Weather

Check the download page for the currently published files and development status