Development Diary #27 - 6th of May 2009

[Gamepolice]

I want this game even more now. Too bad I have to wait....

[hanzo]

Finally I can leave the Chinese struggle to the Army AI and focus on southeast asia as Japan! Great news!

[dagas]

So you assign only one province? If I tell my army group to take Moscow will that make them secure the entire region or just head for moscow and then become surrounded because they have put all their troops in one province? Or is that the difference between attack and blitzkrieg?

Will the different AI groups help/be aware of each other? For example if you tell army group north to take a city, will they realize that army group middle is close by and use them to protect their flank or will there be twice as many troops instead? Say that 5 divisions are needed to protect a province will each AI group put 5 divisions there or will they realize aha middle has 2 divisions there so we need only 3 divisions there (since there is bound to be some overlap sometimes when the targets are fairly close by to each other)?

[sapper66]

while personally like the grognard version where you control everything... and most likely will play that way initially.........

i simply love the ability to play a higher level strategic thinking allowing your subordinates to formulate exact detailed battle plans.......... great great addition..... i think it will be alot of fun...

actually i htink it will be more realistic in that as player plays he/she can be very flexible in thier plans allowing for more success... but realistically at higher levels of command flexibility is reduced.... which can be seen in the fact that the AI controlling your corps(etc) may not always take all teh advantages of the player(god) seeing the entire battle space.......

great great...... i love it....


on another note.... it does help the game to be more acessible to those who have a hard time grognarding.......

[zeekater]

So you assign only one province? If I tell my army group to take Moscow will that make them secure the entire region or just head for moscow and then become surrounded because they have put all their troops in one province? Or is that the difference between attack and blitzkrieg?

Will the different AI groups help/be aware of each other? For example if you tell army group north to take a city, will they realize that army group middle is close by and use them to protect their flank or will there be twice as many troops instead? Say that 5 divisions are needed to protect a province will each AI group put 5 divisions there or will they realize aha middle has 2 divisions there so we need only 3 divisions there (since there is bound to be some overlap sometimes when the targets are fairly close by to each other)?

You can assign more then one province, in the screenshot the army has 3 provinces as goal. You can only see one though.
In blitzkrieg mode the AI will attack at every turn and care less about flanks.. but it will probably still care about flanks and not put all divisions into the one goal province
Give the devs and betas some credit!

[webprofessor]

Does the AI learn at all or is it all hard coded?

[Dakk]

OOOOOO! (eyes wide) _real_ AI!

Well no not really, I don't believe HOI3 AI will pass a Turing test...

In either case, I'm a fascinated by the opportunities that arise with AI-assisted warfare!

[Aidan]

What's a Grenzdivison? I've never heard of that designation in the wehrmacht.

[Rich Oliver]

It will be great for new people to the game. They can start by controling a division and then build up gradually.

[OutsiderSubtype]

Grenz is border, so it would be something like a border guard division.

[Alexander Seil]

Now theatres are a very special animal they have wide area of operation that they will look to operate in. These are defined by the AI and as such you have no need to actually use the theatre control option. There is a map mode that shows you the current theatres the AI would use. If a player activates a theatre HQ inside a theatre zone of operation then this theatre will assume responsibility for the whole zone, you can supply it specific objectives to give to focus as well. It will request assets in the same way. You can of course have assets outside the theatre HQs control but it will ignore these when it comes to decide what it is doing. When the situation changes the theatre map will change and new theatre zones created or removed. At this point you have the option to simply split or merge the theatres according the situation or assume manual control and divide things up yourself.

Does this mean that a Theater HQ will use air and naval assets stationed in its area?

Also, what happens if a unit assigned to the Theater HQ is outside of its area? Will the HQ use it, or is it strictly territorial?

[RegularK]

What's the deal with the green and teal borders around the units?

[Van Diemen]

Does this mean that a Theater HQ will use air and naval assets stationed in its area?

Also, what happens if a unit assigned to the Theater HQ is outside of its area? Will the HQ use it, or is it strictly territorial?

King stated that when you set for example your objective to London as Germany and allocate the correct (asked) resources it will prepare to invade Great Britain, so I would guess it can at least work together with naval assets.

[Katolik]

Is that implying that you can place ships (and possibly air units?) under the command of the Army? That would be awesome, that's something I dreamt of aloud once, but I was called just a dreamer. :/

Well I think a German Army placed under AI control would need at least some transport ships to invade England or any other island. Otherwise, there would be no sense in the AI "planning" the operation if it can't use transports.

[Alexander Seil]

Actually, I think both my questions were answered. Well, sort of - assuming King fully understood the implications of his statement about Sealion, there being a sea in the way and all

When the situation changes the theatre map will change and new theatre zones created or removed. At this point you have the option to simply split or merge the theatres according the situation or assume manual control and divide things up yourself.

What exactly do you mean by "split or merge"? King stated that Theater areas cannot be defined by the players, which makes me wonder what it would mean to "split or merge" Theaters?

How does this differ from the strategic AIs in In Nomine or Vae Victis? Well the big difference is not only does it consider other strategic possibilities, it will also remember them. It allows it to not only look at the current situation, but also has the situation changed. Giving it a new level in strategic thought.

The AI has memory now?

[FOARP]

Well I think a German Army placed under AI control would need at least some transport ships to invade England or any other island. Otherwise, there would be no sense in the AI "planning" the operation if it can't use transports.

Damn. So I just tell the computer to invade the Crete, hand over the infantry, ships, aircraft, paras, transports etc. necessary and it does it?

Guys, you have to show us this in you next video!

[Tambourmajor]

This is several degrees of awesome. It looks like we're finally going to get an AI with at least a limited ability to actually plan ahead.

[zeekater]

What's the deal with the green and teal borders around the units?

Green is the selected, AI controlled army.
Teal are the underlying 2 divisions and 2 corps with 3 divisions each

[zeekater]

What exactly do you mean by "split or merge"? King stated that Theater areas cannot be defined by the players, which makes me wonder what it would mean to "split or merge" Theaters?

As your conquer more provinces or lose more provinces there will be more or less theatre zones (NOT theatre HQs).

In 1939 Germany only has one theatre, while in 1942 it probably has 2. The OKH for the east, and the OKW for the west

[Rush]

Best DD so far. This AI command structure will give us lots of oportunities to give us handicaps (ex: send 6th Army to take and hold Stalingrad while we keep control only of Theater HQ or Army Group South HQ)