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You are a defeatist.

I do not want to look but I am convinced that similar voices appeared on the things from HOI3, when there was only HOI1

I'm not a computer specialist, but after the experience I say: nothing is impossible.

That the problem, you are not a computer specialist. Both Hexes and Provinces serve the same function: they are the the place where the data is stored and where the computer does the mathematics thing to compute the results. How they are drawn and the size are only limited by computer power. Your solution of a Hex free map that only has lines is not possible. If the level of detail is very fine (say the hexes are 1km in size) then it would be possible to draw the map so that it appears to be province/hex free at the larger scales but would require a supercomputer to calculate the billions of hexes. No one has yet learned how to do this without hexes. Even the 3D first person shooters use a form of hexes to do their calculations.
 
Guess what! Even the real world is made up of "hexes"! Ever heard of the term quantum? :D Life is not continuous.
 
I use the windowed mode for that ;)
 
I use the windowed mode for that ;)

yea, but i really dont like it, i dont want to click to activate the window, and i dont want to have the possibility to move the mouse over or left of the window (misclicks), something like the admin panel of windows (options-->always visible or something like that) but in fullscreen n_n. I could do that in Civ III, but it native resolution was 1024 and it wasnt very useful :D
 
I use alt-tab for switching between windows and it works very well for me. But your mileage may vary :)
 
What I want the most is to plan campains or operations and give these as oreders to my theater AI. Or just some few ways to focus it more. Ex, mark an area for an amphibious landings and then set the requirements so when the AI has the needed resourses it will try and conduct it.
 
perhaps it had something to do the fact that half of their country was in enemy hands by that time.

i would have said the same thing if i saw this thread earlier thank you. oh and it was only for barely 5 months also not a full 12
 
Honestly, I think HOI 4 shouldn't only be about WW2, I think they should take HOI3, and expand upon it, creating a game that spans the entire 20th century, from the start of WW1 to the end of the cold war.

It'd be a refreshing change from WW2 only, you can only do so much with a ten year time frame, especially for a game like this.
 
AI
--

1) AI should correctly use the types of forces it has(e.g. no more garrisoning with armor divisions while infantry push the line).

2) Better control over AI armies to ask them to use encirclements, not to use allied territory etc.

3) Fix the reason why the AI constantly shifts it forces large distances around the frontline exposing weakspots.

4) More feedback as to why AI controlled armies wont do as commanded(e.g. a naval invasion).

Diplomacy & Trade
==============

1) Much better feedback required in diplomacy & trade to indicate why agreements can't be reached.

2) Streamline trade management so that you can instruct the AI to stockpile certain materials.

3) Make a more realistic trade system which will do away with the micro-transactions. (Would Cuba really offer to ship 0.01 metal 3000 miles to me?)

4) Make trade AI a bit smarter so you can tell it what you want/don't want to trade, and what you want/don't want to trade it for.

5) Introduce food as a commodity to better simulate wars such as germany/uk atlantic war. Food could not be manufactured in a factory like a widget so supplies just doesn't cut it.

6) Limit stockpiling of resources depending on threat level. This will prevent countries in the pre-war period building up massive stockpiles of materials which will never run out even if the resource tap is turned off in 1939.

Characters
========

1) Commanders should be killable and capturable.

2) Introduce newgen commanders to replace the dead, but also to ensure that each country doesn't run out.

3) Introduce a Phoney War. Currently the game is total war; everyone fights to the last inch of (VP) territory and commits all their forces to the last from the day war is declared. As we saw between the western allies and Germany in September '39, declaring war doesn't necessarily mean all-out-war from the start if your government is hesitant, for example.

General Feel
=========

There is far too little immersion in the period for my liking. This has been the case with the original HOI3 through to FTM.

PI can rely on modders to do this work for them after vanilla is released, but out of the box it should also make you feel like you were around during the time period. PI also probably don't realise that because many people simply don't play the vanilla version, many bugs go unreported completely, or at least for a long time because we can only report things which we have seen in vanilla.

We need far more events & decisions.

I'd like to see some significant differences in each countries units. I know doctrine was meant to give this, but if you compare a german armored division to french armored divison in 1939 in the vanilla FTM game, I doubt you'll find much difference if they were to go head to head. In actuality the french tanks were generally far superior in combat, but they had other disadvantages which prevented them from being used effectively. This needs to be modelled!


Summation
========

What we don't need for HOI4 is a big rewrite of the codebase/new engine that we saw between hoi2 and hoi3.

In Hoi3 we have a rough diamond that has a lot of scope for being polished up into something really special. The game needs evolution, not revolution to take it to the next level.
 
3) Make a more realistic trade system which will do away with the micro-transactions. (Would Cuba really offer to ship 0.01 metal 3000 miles to me?)
Agreed , those micro trade propositions are annoying as hell .

5) Introduce food as a commodity to better simulate wars such as germany/uk atlantic war. Food could not be manufactured in a factory like a widget so supplies just doesn't cut it.
Agreed x 2 , food was always important thing during the war.

6) Limit stockpiling of resources depending on threat level. This will prevent countries in the pre-war period building up massive stockpiles of materials which will never run out even if the resource tap is turned off in 1939.
Definite NO . Germany and Japan threat level usually skyrockets so this will simply make Germany even more overpowerded than it is already .
Instead there should be some new province building ( Warehouse ) to simply make the resource cap larger .
1) Commanders should be killable and capturable.

2) Introduce newgen commanders to replace the dead, but also to ensure that each country doesn't run out.
Definite YES especially on point number 2 :)

I would very welcome more statistics in game .
How long was the battle, how many POW we have taken, how many planes/tanks etc we lost, how long is the war already, casaulties per day etc etc .
 
Jadelith I dont think that I want asw abstracted just correct
Chaplain you are on the right track for a war in which naval combat was so important the naval side really wants looking at
 
I agree with and second all this I've quoted, especially in Bold:
AI
--

1) AI should correctly use the types of forces it has(e.g. no more garrisoning with armor divisions while infantry push the line).

2) Better control over AI armies to ask them to use encirclements, not to use allied territory etc.

3) Fix the reason why the AI constantly shifts it forces large distances around the frontline exposing weakspots.


Diplomacy & Trade
==============

1)

2) Streamline trade management so that you can instruct the AI to stockpile certain materials.

3)

4) Make trade AI a bit smarter so you can tell it what you want/don't want to trade, and what you want/don't want to trade it for.

5) Introduce food as a commodity to better simulate wars such as Germany/UK Atlantic war. Food


Characters
========

2) Introduce newgen commanders to replace the dead, but also to ensure that each country doesn't run out.

I particular don't give trading to the AI, but I have a clickfest accepting all the offers of trade, I would really like the AI to be set when not in Diplomatic control itself, ie manual or as I prefer to call it normal (sane) to agree optionally to all trade offers, trade for this, trade for that, don't trade for the others, similarly trading away and as smythw poster asks, please can we set targets for trading - that would be way easier and almost a fire and forget once task!

But the best idea is generically spawned new generals, even at zero skill, please?
 
HoI4: New HQ and deployment idea

Hi all, I’m currently compiling a huge list of all sorts of new ideas to possibly implement into a new HoI4, though rather than have one massive post/thread and wall of text, I thought I’d create several smaller ones, so it would be easier to have a group discussion about one or two certain ideas.

Anyhow here’s an idea I have for the purpose/creation of HQ’s and their command trees, as well as division deployment.


Theatre HQ’s will be treated very differently.
You can only create/or move theatre HQ’s to one particular province in one of your core territories (connected by land to your capital).
When building divisions (from the production tab) you can allocate them to a particular theatre HQ (you could also break this down even further with tree lines, and allocate it to a specific army group or corp).
The division will automatically deploy at the province the Theatre HQ is in, and will obviously deploy with 0% org, if it stays at the theatre HQ province, they will regain org slightly quicker than usual, though they can of course be ordered to move elsewhere if needed at any time. And a division can be re-allocated to a new corp/Army group or Theatre HQ at any time (even during production).

You can also choose for each Theatre HQ a particular province that all new divisions (once their organisation reaches 100%) will automatically strategically move to. Or possibly perhaps if the theatre HQ/Army Group/Corp is on an automated setting for managing all divisions under its control, it will automatically send the division to wherever it thinks best.

What I would like best however is if the particular HQ is NOT on an automated setting then the division (once at 100% org) will automatically head by strategic redeployment closer to the front lines and to the province of its HQ (corp or army group HQ etc). Perhaps even a lowly Corp HQ could have a province you could select all newly created divisions to strategically redeploy to.

This will prevent the old annoying issue say for the Russians when you’re just about to mount an offensive near Stalingrad, when all of a sudden 10 new German divisions just show up out of nowhere in two provinces next to you overnight, over 1,000 kilometres from German soil (where they would have been training).



For a selected HQ there will be a button to unattach all divisions and HQ’s attached to it. It will also be possible to highlight multiple divisions/HQ’s at once and bring up a list of HQ’s with available space to allocate them too/or to simply create a new one and attach all of the highlighted units to it. It’s frustrating and extremely time consuming trying to singly arrange every division into a theatre tree command for every large/new offensive.

All HQ’s will not cost anything to build, but will start with 0% organisation and will not be worth anything in combat (take up 0 frontal width) and will not be capable of attacking or seizing enemy provinces. Their organisation level will impact the time delay for divisions under its control to launch new attacks and slightly effect their division’s organisational regain.

This will prevent players from using HQ’s to be that extra unit to attack from multiple provinces and inflict on the defenders negative fighting efficiency affects from being attacked from multiple fronts. In addition it will mean that when creating new front lines, eg the Germans moving from a defeated Poland to France, or from France to Russia that if the player would like, they can quickly grab all each of the divisions they want to form into a new Corp HQ and send them to the new location with the click of 2-3 buttons. They won’t have to detach one division, go back and sort through the stack to the next one you want, detach that, and then find an existing HQ with enough space to allocate them all too etc. So now the player can create/delete HQ’s quickly and easily, and by making them free, means you don’t have to fret about inefficient IC management. Also by not being worth anything in combat it will mean that spamming them for free serves no useful purpose. Perhaps also make it so that a HQ being attacked with no other defending divisions in a province doesn’t initiate a battle, and it just auto retreats, with a reduction to its organisation level. You could even decrease the HQ org level even more, if one of the attackers units is an armoured/mobile division, which would in turn more negatively affect the divisions its controls performance, and players could possibly simulate the devastating effects of using blitzkrieg tactics to go for an enemies HQ and cut off their communications.


Any thoughts? like it or hate it?
 
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HoI4: Naval combat/convoy and movement ideas

As per another thread I just started (HQ's and division deployment) I'm releasing a list of possible new HoI4 ideas and trying to see what people think of them and/or get great ideas from other contributors, and hopefully the dev's can take some of them on board for consideration to make any HoI4 truly awesome.


Ships will have the same two main factors, Strength and organisation. Although organisation will be completely different, as a ship will only try to retreat once its ‘strength’ is below 50%, and no longer determined by organisation. For each day the fleet is at sea it will lose a tiny amount fuel/supplies (which is organisation).


For Ships/naval combat, instead of having sea zones the space is undefined (as in where ever the tip of your mouse pointer clicks when zoomed in, is exactly where the fleet moves to) If you cannot make the make the pixels small enough to do this then like in the ‘Total War’ series games (Rome/Shogun2), with naval movement the sea spaces although not displayed are hexagonal (as well as being a good size) and would allow for much more interesting naval movement/patrolling as opposed to a sprite of a fleet sitting on the spot ‘pretending’ to be patrolling an entire sea/ocean ‘zone’.

When you click on a ship, you can either right click on a particular space of water and increase the patrol radius of the ship/fleet by using the zoom in/out scroll key, and the ship/fleet will automatically sail out to the location and randomly move around. Can possibly even make multiple search areas by holding the control key and making another circle by again using the zoom/key scroll etc.

When sending a fleet out, it will auto create waypoints for every say 200 km’s on the map, starting from the port to the centre point of the closest targeted patrol area. If the player highlights the fleet whilst at sea, or from its command HQ (clicking on the port at the province it left from), the player can then if they wish move the way points, thus changing the path of the fleet (although this will alter the length of time the fleet can stay out patrolling, and there will maybe a little figure in the fleet tool box showing ‘approximately’ how long it can stay in the patrol area).

Each fleet shall have a view radius dependent on the amount/type of ships you have, which will ultimately make your view range wider, especially destroyers as they’re thought to be the scouting force around your core fleet. Depending on your fleets stance, it will then seek to flee/intercept the spotted enemy force. On the map there will be tiny little sprites for each ship in the fleet (maybe destroyers can be even tinier things circurling the fleet. Then when they get to within firing distance, you’ll see the ships firing.

For each day the fleet is at sea it will lose a tiny amount of organisation (fuel/supplies). Each day the ship/fleet will ensure it has enough organisation to get back to its home port plus say 10%. Once it gets to below this amount, it will immediately sail straight back to its home port (or along the same way point path it used to get there) it will however flee/engage enemy ships it detects on its return voyage as per normal/standing orders. The larger the port is that your fleet resupplies at will mean a quicker organisational regain.


Along each coastal zone there will be a little dot at sea indicating where a fleet would be if it was to launch a naval landing on a coastal province (that way you will know if your patrol zone is large enough to protect a specific location from landings, and won’t be caught just short).


Convoys, would be automatically generated by the computer (as they currently are) and would sail from port to port and you would see groups of tiny little ships sailing around along dotted lines (escorts would circle these, similar to destroyers for fleets) (very similar to Medieval Total War2). By using the current naval tab, you could then perhaps click another button and it would make the convoy routes editable, so like lines in the Microsoft office Word program, you could select waypoints along the line and move them to where ever you want (possibly even changing the port). Although a small port would mean that the convoy spends a longer amount of time there trying to unload/load. Each little ship would carry a certain amount of supplies/raw/resources/replacements/reinforcements and if one is sunk by the enemy, you lose the resources being carried by each ship. The player has no control over when convoys leave/sail.

Submarines would work similar to fleets, where you can select a certain area for them to patrol, and depending on your settings, when you click on the squadron at a naval base, it will automatically send out tiny little subs to the patrol area, moving around individually (unlike a fleet), though when they contact a convoy/fleet they will all converge on it. Depending on computer capabilities, could make it so that the submarine squadrons only send out so many at a time, so will always have some refitting at base, heading towards/back from the patrol area, and when one is destroyed (that another is deployed there from the submarine replacement pool.

Normal naval patrolling, naval bombers and intelligence should also provide you with some clues as to enemy convoy paths. This could just be in the form of thick shaded lines on the map showing approximate enemy convoy paths, and/or when a convoy is spotted directly that you’ll actually see the tiny enemy convoy group travelling on the map.

For Planes over the sea, there will still be the existing sea zones as in HoI3, and if the planes will look for ships/convoys that travel into their patrolling area. Once found they will engage. There will be a good chance for planes to spot them, though only a small portion of the air squadron (10-20%) will fight against the convoys/submarines to represent that most planes will be fanned out patrolling and not in proximity of an area where enemy are found and able to engage (submarines will disappear quickly if not destroyed). Against enemy surface ships, the portion of the air squad fighting against the fleet will increase every hour as time goes on.

Any thoughts?
 
It looks to be a good idea but Hearts of iron 4 is going to take ages to finish because first paradox interactive is going to create a new engine.
 
It looks to be a good idea but Hearts of iron 4 is going to take ages to finish because first paradox interactive is going to create a new engine.
They are? Where is that announced (he asked, lazily)? Seeing their thoughts on the shape of 4 would be very informative indeed. Having the chance to contribute feedback on those thoughts and possibly influence them even slightly would be splendid.
 
They are? Where is that announced (he asked, lazily)? Seeing their thoughts on the shape of 4 would be very informative indeed. Having the chance to contribute feedback on those thoughts and possibly influence them even slightly would be splendid.

nothing official was announced but they always use a new engine for the new generation. since they have to finish a lot of projects before they might even think about it you can be sure it will be a while.
 
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