Development Diary #18 - 25th of February 2009

[Zwiback]

Is there any chance of having the CAGs going automatically on "carrier protection" mission when there is nothing else to do, or when the carriers are under attack? It'd be a pain having to re-assign them every time, and it would really suck to lose your carriers because you forgot that.

If the fighters and attack planes are not seperated this could mean that if you want to have CAP, you cannot attack with the whole CV compartment. Plus the fact that you always would have to switch around between the modes manually (offensive/defensive).

 

[kstanb]

great DD, I really like HOI3's approach to naval warfare,

quick question, would you know the exact composition of the enemy forces as soon as you engage them?

i would prefer that your knowledge of enemy composition depends on your intel level or for how long you were engaged

 

[unmerged(56754)]

Is it just me who thinks the British sprite looks like Bismarck class battleship, and the German sprite like a Renown class battlecruiser?

Looking sweet, as always.

 

[sbr]

Very nice, looks like all of the major concerns with Naval combat in HOI2 were addressed, including the mega-DD stack.

You all are really starting to get my expectations way too high.

 

[unmerged(34050)]

Is it just me who thinks the British sprite looks like Bismarck class battleship, and the German sprite like a Renown class battlecruiser?

Looking sweet, as always.

I thought the same--I guess the dangers of generic (non-nation-specific) sprites?

 

[Lascars]

Similarly, if you want to focus on carriers as defensive units, you should be able to fill the ship up with fighters.

May be they could simulate this by increasing the cag's air defense (the number of embarked fighters) from a CV "model" to another, as historically, more and more fighters being embarked as the war advanced and the threat from the air was bigger. But i would not suggest to put all the CAG on exclusive CAP missions, later fighters embarked were capable of a lot of missions including land support or ship attack.

 

[tretii_sleva]

I like this new feature that carriers can only attack with cags, it makes sense. In hoi2 there was no point include BBs in your fleet since carriers with it's superios positioning would render all other capital ships useleless.
Now however....

I see game is progressing nicely.

 

[mbabbs]

Looks promising !

Nice to see that HMS Effingham managed to avoid the rock this time.

I assume that the distance a ship is to the enemy units in the interface corresponds to their relative positioning in the engagment. i.e. Effingham, the 7th and the 8th are leading the front line. Is that correct ?

Also do the turrets play a role in the interface ? i.e. Can the rear turrets also engage or is that just a graphical abstraction ? If we can also engage with the rear turrets then would 'Crossing the T' be possible ? That would be fantastic......

 

[TheLand]

Is it just me who thinks the British sprite looks like Bismarck class battleship, and the German sprite like a Renown class battlecruiser?

Actually I was thinking the British sprite looked rather like a battlecruiser - the lines of the ship are very fine for a battleship.

The German sprite is certainly not Renown, it has 4 turrets.

 

[Will Lucky]

Yey a British Screenshot. I like the sounds of the improved Naval Battles, hopefully I will be successful this time around seeing how for some reason I am quite poor with HOI2.

 

[reignerok]

Yes of course, but that is air/naval combat not ship-to-ship combat.

Like it is in real life. Nice development

 

[Registered]

Will the CAG's scramble automatically when a fleet containing a CV is attacked*? (assuming they are not engaged elsewhere).

*even when they're not on carrier protect mission.

 

[unmerged(135783)]

Awesome. The seperation of CAGS from surface battles was really vital and I'm glad to see you've handled it this way. It's also neat how you've handled CAG strength with the hangar concept. Not what I was expecting at all but really clever, not to mention simple in a good way.

I must say that the naval side is what I have been worried about the most but I get a very good initial impression from this.

So on this topic I hope we can research the tech of the different parts of the carrier aircraft separately. For example upgrading the DB's for land/sea attack, TB's for mainly sea (and slight land considering they can still carry bombs). and the fighters for mainly air with a tiny effect on land/sea.

Plus I hope we get seperate tech for torpedos too so we can simulate the massive superiority of the Japanese in that area. Maybe one tech for naval that can be attached to ships/subs (and upgraded?) and one for TB's that increase their overall naval attack (perhaps also an upgrade considering it would take time for CV's to replace their stocks).

I also take it this means that CVL's will just be CV's with a smaller hangar. Nice and simple! But does this mean that we will be able to start out building large carriers but then switch to smaller carriers with a small hangar stat. Or is it that once we research "hangar" till we're at the level of Midway class CV's we're stuck with them forever?

Good job.

 

[Johan]

Is it just me who thinks the British sprite looks like Bismarck class battleship, and the German sprite like a Renown class battlecruiser?

Looking sweet, as always.

Actually.. not renown.. its Hood for generic battlecruiser.

 

[mathers]

1 cag/cv?

There will be only 1 CAG allowed per CV? Or multiple allowing to create orders like attack a taskforce and use the fighters to CAP simoultanously?

If I am right considering the japanese ~8 fighter was commited to CAP continously while the bulk of the planes was sent to bomb the target.

 

[Jayavarman]

I have great faith that Assmann will win this battle.

 

[unmerged(34050)]

I also take it this means that CVL's will just be CV's with a smaller hangar. Nice and simple! But does this mean that we will be able to start out building large carriers but then switch to smaller carriers with a small hangar stat. Or is it that once we research "hangar" till we're at the level of Midway class CV's we're stuck with them forever?

Johan has said that different combos of tech will activate different models, historical or not, so I see no reason why as UK you couldn't have both an Implacable-class fleet carrier and an Colossus-class light fleet design available at the same time, though I'm guessing a Hermes-class would be considered obsolete and would disappear from the production screen at some point...

 

[MontanaPrussian]

Looks like naval combat will make sense nat last. As others have said,I too would hope that CAGS would be on a CAP/TF defense mode when not otherwise assigned a mission.

 

[fbaker4]

Or maybe put hangars of tiny size on submarines!

 

[unmerged(56754)]

Actually I was thinking the British sprite looked rather like a battlecruiser - the lines of the ship are very fine for a battleship.

The German sprite is certainly not Renown, it has 4 turrets.

Ah, yes, as Johan correctly pointed out p) Its HMS Hood.

Actually.. not renown.. its Hood for generic battlecruiser.

Ah yes, how could I forgot her, so, I assume HOI3 will use generic naval sprites still?