Development Diary #4 - 5th of November 2008

[jorian]

Very nice stuff in there.


Except maybe for that bit.
I'll wait to see more, but I can't be the only one who appreciate a 3d view while using counters.

and i would like a locked 2d view with army sprites enabled

[Mædhric]

Like the new system, very nice improvement! Will make research more realistic, I hoped it would be more tied to manpower as it was manpower intensive.

Will leadership be tied to manpower? Will it be an extra resource that will stem from certain major cities? Can you improve the rate it rises, and how? Building universities or research centers (like rocket test sites; nuclear reactors)?

Plus I think leadership is the best word. What was good for vicky can't be bad for HoI

[Kriegsspieler]

Plus I think leadership is the best word. What was good for vicky can't be bad for HoI

Couldn't have said it better myself!

[Alojzy]

Plus I think leadership is the best word. What was good for vicky can't be bad for HoI

Now just give us pops, railroads, capitalists, political parties and lots of the photos of men with a mustache we are good.

[blue emu]

It sounds quite nice, though IMHO "leadership" isn't the correct word for what it's representing. I can't think of any suitable alternative at the moment however.

we toyed with replacing LD with "white collars" and MP with "blue collars".. but.. leadership is the one that felt best.. Intelligence felt wrong as well, as it conflicts with espionage etc.

Technicians?

[GrimReaper]

Very nice stuff indeed. Why cant it be Wednesday every day?

[barrabas]

The first screenshot with the 2D-ish map looks beautiful. I have always hoped for something like a hex-based map for HoI3, and with this I couldn't ask for more. The changes this new 'province' system alone will make on combat will be fantastic. All those decisions and options for movement, attack and exploitation...

On the subject of Leadership, how about Educated Manpower, EMP? To me it feels like a term that could represent the concept aimed for, the part of the population, perhaps with secondary school (very far from universal in those days), capable of serving as clerks, officers, etc. At the same time it gives the feeling of a sort of a mass of people, another 'resource' if you like, available to the player. How about it?

[Alojzy]

Technicians?

But then it doesn't fit the officer theme.

At first combining R&D pool (Vicky again) and leadership pool (hello Vicky) seems strange, but I like what it implies. You have to make choices - too big army (spending leadership for officer/NCO corps) will somehow affect your R&D, as you send your best people to the front, instead of keeping them at home working for your economy. On the other hand, if you can limit yourself to only small army your R&D (economy?) might improve.

I wonder if such effect can work indirectly in HoI3 on whole economy (like IC, TC, resource gathering and such), not just for R&D.

[2Coats]

Technicians?

Not if leadership is applied to military aspects which i think is. Its seems that manpower can be divided into different "specialists" depending on their application.

[Johan]

But then it doesn't fit the officer theme.

At first combining R&D pool (Vicky again) and leadership pool (hello Vicky) seems strange, but I like what it implies. You have to make choices - too big army (spending leadership for officer/NCO corps) will somehow affect your R&D, as you send your best people to the front, instead of keeping them at home working for your economy. On the other hand, if you can limit yourself to only small army your R&D (economy?) might improve.

Don't forget that diplomacy and espionage comes from the same resource.

[Johan]

Like the new system, very nice improvement! Will make research more realistic, I hoped it would be more tied to manpower as it was manpower intensive.

Will leadership be tied to manpower? Will it be an extra resource that will stem from certain major cities?

Its very similar to manpower, and has been assigned in a similar way to the map, based on several balancing values.

[Berrrie]

Don't forget that diplomacy and espionage comes from the same resource.

Lot's of strategic choices then. Me like!

[Kouak]

Don't forget that diplomacy and espionage comes from the same resource.

Will we can change MP points to Leadership points ?...
Or just investing into Leadership for having a greater growing rate ?

And for theorical land doctrines, if i choose to research an other branch that my tradiotional branch, the malus will be a greater need for Leadership points ?

And for officers aspect, will we choose an officers level for each divisions or a standard level ?

[Alex_brunius]

I think Leadership is a perfect name for it. Its also the only word I can think of that can affect both divisional organisation, research, diplomacy and espionage.

I will look forward into balancing these aspects with each other. For this smart solution to work though espionage and diplomacy have to be improved alot. Otherwise the choises won't be very meaningfull. I hope Both Espionage and diplomacy are more automated to save micromanagement, and can give more results, at least espionage that had huge impacts on the real war but very little impact in HoI2.

[Zwiback]

The system gets better and better. First I was pretty sad about losing a bit of personal touch by removing the tech teams but now it is already ten times better then before.

Especially because it also combines the single fields instead of having a bunch of seperate ongoing processes. In HOI2, your research was always at 100% max, because other then picking the right team, the tech and spending some money and time didn't change anything on a global level. Now an all out research comes at a price.

I know I repeat myself, but introducing some dependencies between the fields (research, production, military) other then pure produce, field and combat, is, at least for me, a very large step forward in the HOI series .

[vertinox]

I like the idea of leadership and what it represents, but I agree the term "leadership" is a bit odd. But that's just details...

From my impression, we still have our favorite historical leaders and generals, but we also have to remember they were not one man teams running the organization of entire divisions by themselves.

They had an army within an army as their general staff managing logistics, intelligence, and their orders from the general himself all the way down to the grunt in the trenches.

[GeorgeTheWinner]

Don't forget that diplomacy and espionage comes from the same resource.

Leadership sounds good, but what about the money? If diplomacy and espionage comes from leadership what is the money purpose?

[G'Kar]

All in all: Verrry niiice.

Don't forget that diplomacy and espionage comes from the same resource.

Will espionage in HoI 3 be more meaningful and/or better to handle? (I don't think anything has been revealed about it yet.)

[Velko]

On the subject of Leadership, how about Educated Manpower, EMP?

Wheee, EMP! Let's blast their electronical devices out of order!

...wait, no...

I think that Leadership sounds right, the only alternative I can think of would be "Human Capital" mentioned earlier but it really doesn't fit the timeline...

[franzer]

Watching the map, maybe I have found an error (if the white zone in France represent the higher zone of the alps), generally is the border between France and Italy (with Monte Bianco, Monviso, Uia di Ciamarella, Rocciamelone, Levanna, etc) or the zone in france near the border the higher zone of the western Alps that is 3000-4000 m high while here is indicated (I think) the farthest zone from the border only in France that is 2000-3000 m high.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Alpenrelief_02.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ur-thousanders