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Hello everybody, welcome to another development diary. This one a little early...

Back to talk a little bit more about technology. Before we launch into it, let’s just recap from the previous developer diary. There are no longer any tech teams, instead a country generate ‘leadership’ points which can be spent on technology, although diplomacy, espionage, and your army all place demands on this resource. There are no longer tech teams; instead we have two concepts called theory and practical. The values of these alter the time it takes to research a technology. Finally we have a modular technology system, where instead of researching a single tank model, you research various components, each one altering different stats in model.

So having done the quick recap let’s talk some more about technology. First off the burning question, model names? Well as we said we would do, and we have done it. We now have files that define at which tech level the flavour name for a unit changes. However instead of them being simply the same for everyone, for the majors we have customised the various technologies according to how we think the different models differ from each other. Now in this regard model stats are a bit like economists, put 3 Hearts of Iron fans in a room and ask them to come up with some model stats, and you’ll get 4 answers. So our guess is probably none of you will be satisfied with every model stat choice we have made. Now there isn’t a huge amount we can do about this, so we’re going to have to live with this. However the model technology definitions are all stored in nice plain text files that are easy to mod.

So onto the technology interface, here is a screen shot.

alpha_jan28.jpg


Before I start you can safely ignore the technologies currently researched, these are simply holding techs for us to get on with development. Later on we will go back through them with a fine toothcomb to get the right combination of historical accuracy and balance. Secondly this tech list is by no means final, we will probably add more but this should give you a pretty good idea in which direction we are heading when it comes to technology.

Finally let’s talk a bit more about the theories and practicals. Now they pick up part of the functionality that tech teams had in Hearts of Iron 2. The components tech teams had would give countries certain advantages in researching certain technologies (for example the USA and carriers). Now the theories and practicals mean that we can duplicate this effect and make the system dynamic. However there is also another nice consequence of the system, we have far more theories and practicals than we have technology research components in Heats of Iron 2 (roughly 50), this allows us to be far more focused when we hand out these bonuses to countries. So instead of unintentionally giving a country the ability to research something when we give them a bonus in something else, we can give them only the bonus we intend. Thus we make someone good at fighter research, we may also choose to make them better at general aircraft research if we want, but we will not hand them any additional ability to research or build aircraft carriers. With practicals feeding into production it gives us a very powerful tool for game balance. Let’s take one of the harder conflicts to balance in Hearts of Iron 2, Japan vs China. Trying to give China enough IC to resist a Japanese player who went full out land while at the same time giving the Japanese enough IC to go for balanced approach for a Pearl Harbour was a very difficult balancing act to achieve. With this system we first give the Japanese player the incentive not to go all out on the land. Secondly if we still don’t like the balance and wish if only the Chinese could build a few more militia units, we don’t have to add to the IC total of China and make them better at everything, a little tick up on militia practical and we have exactly we want while reducing the possible side effects.

All in all Theory and Practical is one of those powerful game features we are most proud we added in Hearts of Iron 3. Very simple in conception, so easy for a player to grasp and understand. Yet at the same time highly flexible in how it works, meaning that the system offers many possibilities to explore while playing. Throw in that it gives us a real great way to both improve game balance and add to historical immersion and it is one of those things that we feel will make Hearts of Iron 3 be more than Hearts of Iron 2 with some new graphics and extra provinces.

Here below is example of two technologies scripted in the files.
Code:
cavalry_smallarms = {
	
	cavalry_brigade = {
		build_cost_ic = 0.05
		build_time = 2
		supply_consumption = 0.05
		soft_attack = 0.2
		
	}

	research_bonus_from = {
		mobile_theory = 0.3
		mobile_practical = 0.7
	}
	
	on_completion = mobile_theory
	difficulty = 1
	
	#common for all techs.
	start_year = 1918
	first_offset = 1934	#2nd model is from 1934
	additional_offset = 2	#one new every 2 years
	folder = infantry_folder
}
This is a technology that affects the cavalry brigade. It is an unlimited technology, which means that new levels can be researched whenever you want one. It increases soft attack of cavalry brigades for a minor cost increase. Mobile theory and practical affects it, and finish researching it increases mobile theory.

Code:
radio = {
	combat_efficiency = 0.1
	decryption = -0.2

	allow = {
		radio_technology = 1
	}

	research_bonus_from = {
		electornicegineering_theory  = 0.5
		mechanicalengineering_theory = 0.5
	}

	on_completion = electornicegineering_theory

	difficulty = 2

	start_year = 1936
	folder = industry_folder
}

Radio is a oneshot technology. You also need to have researched radio technology to be able to research it, and it grants a large combat benefit, but also lowers your chance of keeping your troops hidden.
 
It was mentioned that ingame IC levels now don't have to be alloted to countries as a shortcut to get historical results anymore (in research).

Does this mean that minors will be truly minors now, with some intermediate powers inbetween and the few majors? Ie will Spain for example have a lower IC, but the US possibly a slightly larger IC base?
 
Awesome! :cool:
 
Wow, that is ... overwhelming. But the graphical representation of the tech tab should be overhauled. It looks pretty messy... Still an alpha, I know.

The mechanics seem to work fine! I love the idea of flexible specialization. I still miss the techteams, though. From the code it looks as if the game will now calculate the position of a tech within the respective folders? So no more graphics modding to fit in a new technology? That would be great news! :)
 
Well i'm disappointed. In which way are small arms for militia different from small arms for regular infantry? Militia just used the old models of guns.
This new system is all about the game balance, not realism.
 
So infantry small arms could also be an unlimited tech? What are the restraints? It's getting a hell of a lot expensive later? Finally i can have a half automatic rifle like the Gewehr43 in the beginning of the war already, if i wanted to. The year restriction was maybe nice for balance terms, but in the end, it was kind of stupid as well, as in not realistic. Why for example did i need to wait for 1950, when i had all nuke techs prior and also all rocket techs done before i can tip my rockets with mininukes?

If i understood this right, that would be really really awesome. I also really like that you will boost militias. Militia AT weapons, yeah! Nothing better than ragtag group of bandits with Panzerfausts hiding in the woods!

For the interface, may i suggest grouping them and properly give them a name as a headline above? I can hardly make out what belongs to whom on that page. Not as easy and straightforward as it sounds from the blog.

Other than that, you once again got me very hyped.
 
Looks cool indeed.
 
Nice to see that the modular tech is coming along so well! But a quick question:
Does this mean that militia small arms are developed indenpendently from infantry small arms and cavalry small arms?
So if you have advanced infantry weapons in late game, and then decide it would be nice with a cavalry force, you would have to invent their weapons from scratch?

Btw: You have mispelled "electronicengineering"
 
I can't stop the nagging feeling that this new research system will increase the "OMG wuts betar T34 or Panther"-debates by over 9000%

Anyway it looks like a nice way to merge complexity with acessability.
The grouping of the prac. and theo. research values could be grouped better thou, maybe by service arm (land, air or sea),

And I like the big obvious "close screen"-button. :D
 
This is a technology that affects the cavalry brigade. It is an unlimited technology, which means that new levels can be researched whenever you want one. It increases soft attack of cavalry brigades for a minor cost increase. Mobile theory and practical affects it, and finish researching it increases mobile theory.
Unlimited? Does that mean we can improve cav unlimited number of times?

Radio is a oneshot technology. You also need to have researched radio technology to be able to research it, and it grants a large combat benefit, but also lowers your chance of keeping your troops hidden.
Why would it lower the chance of keeping my troops hidden?
 
Well i'm disappointed. In which way are small arms for militia different from small arms for regular infantry? Militia just used the old models of guns.
This new system is all about the game balance, not realism.

Alpha ;)

Maybe they'll take them out before release, it's all subject to change :D
 
On a side note, there are at least five typos in the screenshot and another four in the code excerpt. And I'm not counting the "s" instead of "z" thingy ;) (Sorry, couldn't resist pointing that out... :p I know it's irrelevant)

Amallric has a point here - the small arms used by militia are not exactly something you would research separately. But then, there needs to be some way to model the outfitting of militia with more modern weaponry. This would only be possible in a realistic way if the equipment was sort of an object, too, so you could take the small arms of an infantry brigade and give it to a militia brigade, while the infantry gets the latest fashion killing toys.
 
Well i'm disappointed. In which way are small arms for militia different from small arms for regular infantry? Militia just used the old models of guns.
This new system is all about the game balance, not realism.

Sheesh. But researching Militia 1943 is? Those weapons could be specialized, like you say old ones, or specifically cheap ones. AT for example, take the Panzerfausts. They were cheap, produced in the hundred thousands. And cracked a hell of a lot of tanks, from small to big.

It was mentioned that ingame IC levels now don't have to be alloted to countries as a shortcut to get historical results anymore (in research).

Does this mean that minors will be truly minors now, with some intermediate powers inbetween and the few majors? Ie will Spain for example have a lower IC, but the US possibly a slightly larger IC base?

What this means is, from what i get, that research teams are not tied to IC anymore (i NEED to get 60 IC for that 3rd techteam), making IC allocation more realistic. In essence, China has to go for seperate Militia only, because it simply cannot afford standard Infantry divisions western nations know. But they can make Militia better to suit their needs, to have a cheap armed force, while still prjecting power by the means of numbers. I really find this good, and it will diversify the game more.
 
It looks pretty interesting!
But I think that it would be nice if the graphic outlook of the tech screen is improved.