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Development Diary #2 - 22nd of October 2008

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Johan, could you please tell us which factors did you take under consideration for drawing and naming provinces?
Historical, geographical or maybe a mix of them?
Or maybe there is something other behind the algorithm?
Were you take under notice afterwar shape of the countries? (ie in HoI2 1945 Poland looks better than in HoI but it was still far from perfect - specially east).
 
It sounds promising. I think the gearing seems like a pretty good way to deal with changing production focus, the fact that it will have a knock on effect on R&D adds a lot to the production decisions for the player.

As for the map, well it looks okay at the moment, though a bit stark. I suspect once unit icons get added to it then it will start looking pretty good. It's a good thing I have other paradox games to play while I wait for this one!
 
King said:
Yes you are spot on, instead of forcing people to do something we instead offer up rewards for doing something. So if you balance your IC spending you will get more efficient production and research across the board.
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Ok, I'm looking forward to see how it looks like (still 11 months to go :( )
 
How about this little compromise idea:
Include province structures, such as shipyards or aircraft test centres, that affect the gearing- and research boni in their respective fields but are not strictly necessary for unit production?
 
Truly great update on an essential piece of the next game's structure. Thank you and the entire dev team for the hard work you put into making these diaries available!
 
Akjosch said:
Han(n)over's position is ... strange. I also wonder if every of the Frisian island will be its own province to micromanage. And is it the coast of Heligoland I can barerly make out in the upper left corner?
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Well, Hannover is not the only one: Schleswigs position is quite questionable, too. :confused:

Here is the orginal location of the city of Schleswig:

Schleswig_in_SL.PNG
 
King said:
Yes you are spot on, instead of forcing people to do something we instead offer up rewards for doing something. So if you balance your IC spending you will get more efficient production and research across the board.
Click to expand...

Great thinking.

Looking very good, guys. I'm glad you kept the abstract IC system.
 
An elegant solution, i'm starting to look forward to this one more and more.
 
I do not want to be pedantic and I know that the provinces in the game are not the real districts.

But some names are really at the wrong position.
For example you placed a province called Hamm directly north of Dortmund although it should clearly be northeast.
And what is really worse: you placed a province named Arnsberg northeast of Dortmund although it is clearly southeast in reality.

Again: I do not want to be pedantic but this can really mean a loss of credibility for those who know better because it is their home country/region.

I can only hope that province names will become changed if testers from various countries offer solutions that come closer to reality.
 
So Germany or Russia will have trouble building a navy if it focuses too much on land units... and Britain will end up with weak tank designs and expensive infantry because it focuses too heavily on the navy and the airforce.

I think this is a great solution to modelling limited capacity and experience without introducing mammoth micromanagement.

Quick questions:
-Are these productivity factors relative or absolute? Does building an aircraft carrier and improving your navy productivity also reduce your other productivity scores?

- Is there a relatively simple system of productivities (land vs navy vs air) or is it more detailed than that with a productivity factor for every division type?
 
There are several names and positions on the provided screenshot of northern germany, that are at least doubtful. It is easy to see, those names were not chosen by someone that knows the area very good. There are provinces, that would represent the real area much better with other names.
Only one example: "Malente" should be Plön. Plön even played a role in the last days of the war as a stage of Dönitz' withdraw of the new Reichsregierung on it's way to Flensburg. So this name, not only increasing correctness, would provide more historical taste. Geographically, the whole Hamburg are looks weird. Hamburg is definitively way too south, compared to the North Sea coastline. Otherwise, replacing it to the north doesnt fit with the location of Lübeck. And as already mentioned, Schleswig is in no way to be found at the shores of the north sea.
"Emden" is of course german. But the province that got named "Emden" is west of the Ems river delta and therefor it must be something dutch. This province should be dutch. Of course it could not be named Emden anymore, but a correct name for this area would be "Groningen".
Please keep also in mind, that Germany will be partitioned after the german defeat at the end of WW2. The impression of the historical border between east and west in HoI2 could never really satisfy.
I know it can be difficult for foreigners, to partition and to name provinces in a country, to the satisfaction of the players living there. And I fear it is difficult enough that Paradox will have no choice and remind us that the map (like other game features) will remain something to be regarded abstractly.
The other choice would be to trust us, the community and listen to one or two suggestions.
I volunteer to help at naming the german provinces and to tell you about erroneous province locations. :)
 
Darth Tracid said:
it´s an alpha for heavens sake people :p
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Okay. If there is a way people can help to find more appropriate names.
I only fear it would not be changed if nobody complained ;) .
 
Darth Tracid said:
it´s an alpha for heavens sake people :p
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And who cares how all those other provinces are named, Zutphen is on the map and it is spelled correctly !!! :) :cool:



Finally, Paradox acknowledges the importance of my birth- and hometown :D


The productionsystem sounds good, not to complex but still a bit more realistic then the previous versions
 
IMO the new IC system is ok, because we cannot and should not expect paradox to invest much of their time into making a separate factory system. As a matter of fact the new system does that part of the job as well. For everyone that still feels cheated by thinking that it is impossible to shift production from one type to another: it really isn't impossible. It would just take some time to optimize the new factories by retooling them (and instructing the workers). Besides many parts of ships can be made inland, for example much of the steel needed can be produced inland such as munition, radio equipment, beds, windows, engines etc. The same applies for aeroplane industries as well.
 
Johan said:
Another interesting thing is that production effects technology, the more of something you produce the easier it is to research in that area. So if you want to advance technology in an area (say carriers) you are going to want to keep producing carriers to pick up the research bonus. Yes no more tech rushing, those early model carriers may not be that good but they will serve as a nice test bed for design ideas.
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This is a great idea - but maybe it would be an even better idea if you got a bonus to research for actually using a certain type of unit in combat as well as just building lots of them; so if you fight a lot of air battles you could get a research bonus for fighters etc.

This would represent the fact that from the results of actual combat your designers could get a better idea about what is most/least successful about the current design and so work to improve it.

It would be a bit like the free blueprints you get from helping in the Spanish Civil War, but on a more extended and general level.

Maybe the research bonus from could also apply to the relevant doctrines.
 
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