Development Diary #24 - 15th of April 2009

[mor]

I basically always played the 1936 GC in HoI2, and probably will do so in HoI3.

Still, I think the other scenario points are well chosen for players who like to start the game at a later time point.

same here, i like to start with early scenarios with building my country from the ground up, i am really looking forward to check the new features and customization options that have been added.

thou eventually i will probably end up playing a mod like MOD34, since Paradox focus on the war aspect of the game neglecting the home front build up.

[Dark Scipio]

They're no longer there

to bad that the 1940 and 1942 sceanrios are gone. But its fine with the basic start dates.

[The Great Duck]

I am not so sad about no battlescenarios.but I would like to know,will it still be possible to black out a province?

[The Red Baron]

Random question, but I noticed how you said area around Moscow in winter and that made me think. I can't say I've played HOI, but in HOI2, really the only areas of the earth that had weather seemed to be parts of Europe and Russia ... I was wondering if weather (I'm talking the whole range, snow, rain, etc) will be truly global, so that it is always a factor throughout the game, from the Pacific to the Russian steppe?

[Grey Wolf]

IMO the winter terrein should be 'more white'. Or is there any grade of winter and it colours - mild winter, harsh winter?

[Cardus]

I am pretty sure a variety of nations used airships similar to the Zeppelin for ASW spotting, their ability to stay airborne for long periods gives them a signifigant benefit to spotting submarines, combined with radio and you can use that intel to call in air strikes and divert shipping.

About what is technically feasible please see
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...9&postcount=72
about what it could be done please see
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...&postcount=150

[Yasko]

Great that there is more scenarios, but 1942 is needed. I feel that it is the most "balanced" scenario where it still isnt too late for the Axis albeit very difficult.

[myjher]

I hope we get HOI3 in my country, cant wait to play it.

[Panzerjaeger]

According to customer feedback the battlescenarios were not really used that much compared to even the later start times.

Accurate feedback. Frankly, the scenarios always felt like a "poor man's HoI" the way they focused narrowly on a particular battle. I don't think anybody plays HoI just to recreate a particular battle, there are many games out there that already do that well. HoI's strength has always been that you fight any of its battles in the context of a world struggle. Even if I was interested only in a particular campaign - say Barbarossa - I always played it inside the full campaign because I wanted the feeeling that my actions were affecting the entire world and vice versa. The scenarios lacked that all-important context.

[Solon]

Much as I like all the new provinces for game play and fighting battles, I'm wondering if this won't be something of a 'nightmare' when it comes to the build-up stage in one's country?

If one wants to build factories in Germany in 1936, and you click on the "Provinces" button, instead of 25 odd entries, you may have 100. And God help the player from the Soviet Union or the USA who will probably have to scroll through 1000 possibilities, each with IC factories, resources, manpower, etc. Then on the detail screen of each province all of the above plus ports, AA batteries, Airfields, etc.

We got away from some serious micromanagement when the game engine was switched from HoI-1 to HoI-2, and I hope that this issue is addressed, either by regional or intelligent AI handling of builds and 'province' IC and infrastructure control.

Solon

[Digoo]

Hello!
I am fan of HoI, HoI2 and all other your games. Recently was looking through Diaties of HoI3. Great!

But only now i noticed mistake in Russia

You have province "Obninak". It is totally wrong.
At first, it has gramma mistake: the city in that place calls "Obninsk".
But to have such province in game is incorrect in any way. Obninsk was build up only in 1954 year, became city in 1956!

It is totally true becase i am from Obninsk
Of couse, you can always check it out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obninsk

Please, rename this province to "Nara" or "Naro-Fominsk". This is old city, which was in this place on map from 1936 to 1964.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naro-Fominsk

Thank you. Hope, this mistake will be corrected.

[Alojzy]

Common issue with the province names, even more stressed with 10k land provinces in HoI3.

If they won't correct it in basic game, it can be very easily modded though - contrary to the HoI2, where province names were "drawn" on the map (and as result, pretty much unmodifiable), in HoI3 (as in EU3) those can be adjusted in config files.

[Digoo]

Common issue with the province names, even more stressed with 10k land provinces in HoI3.

If they won't correct it in basic game, it can be very easily modded though - contrary to the HoI2, where province names were "drawn" on the map (and as result, pretty much unmodifiable), in HoI3 (as in EU3) those can be adjusted in config files.

It will be nice if HoI3 will be clear from map errors. At least, without bug of my motherland city.

[Alojzy]

In Victoria, other Paradox game, there was a province in southeastern Poland called "Spif".

No one had slightest idea why such name was given to it (it might have had something with minor geographical region called "Spisz" that had about 10% of the actual province - but in Victoria, provinces were getting names from mayor cities, not geographical areas). Needless to say, all Victoria's players actually living in "Spif" were quite buffled, but it didn't affect their gameplay except from occasional laughs everytime they saw their homeland.

Compared to them, you are in advantage, as you can easily correct such errors on your copy of the game even if Paradox misses it, so don't worry all that much.

[Digoo]

In Victoria, other Paradox game, there was a province in southeastern Poland called "Spif".

No one had slightest idea why such name was given to it (it might have had something with minor geographical region called "Spisz" that had about 10% of the actual province - but in Victoria, provinces were getting names from mayor cities, not geographical areas). Needless to say, all Victoria's players actually living in "Spif" were quite buffled, but it didn't affect their gameplay except from occasional laughs everytime they saw their homeland.

Compared to them, you are in advantage, as you can easily correct such errors on your copy of the game even if Paradox misses it, so don't worry all that much.

I simply want HoI3 not to have errors in first release.
Even if it will have "Obninsk" instead of "Naro-Fominsk", i will have to buy it.

[Adrian Magnus]

If one wants to build factories in Germany in 1936, and you click on the "Provinces" button, instead of 25 odd entries, you may have 100. And God help the player from the Soviet Union or the USA who will probably have to scroll through 1000 possibilities, each with IC factories, resources, manpower, etc. Then on the detail screen of each province all of the above plus ports, AA batteries, Airfields, etc.

We got away from some serious micromanagement when the game engine was switched from HoI-1 to HoI-2, and I hope that this issue is addressed, either by regional or intelligent AI handling of builds and 'province' IC and infrastructure control.

You should pay more attention, groups of provinces are organized into states or regions for administrative purposes. If you look at maps you can see that there are darker lines delineating regions, usually composed for four or five provinces.

[Axeman1224]

it is a shame that most people did not like the battle scenerios. I loved them. There was room for improvement of course but over all i loved it. I personally have dedicated a lot of time to research (my own interest) and see a lot of historical realism in these scenarios. I also liked the limited frame and specific objectives.