Semper Fi - Development Diary #1

[LeeDub]

Those are basically a copy of the "triggered modifiers", but enhanced so that they have "potential", like decisions, and their trigger conditions are displayed, giving you direct info what you can achieve and how to do it. I think it's great, in fact, I think this can and should be used in all other Clausewitz games.

[cougar46]

Another question on this, are these achievements tied to the nations specific victory goals?

[ZanderD]

Way to go

[Rithral]

Does the AI know how to actively pursue these goals?
Or will the AI just stumble into achieving them on accident?

Does the AI know how to balance the + with the - of these goals?
IE will the AI Germany try for "Great Navy" even if it doesn't want to do a cross channel invasion?

[CaptRobau]

At first when I read achievements I was thinking it'd be something like Xbox achievements, as in: *sound* You've gotten the World Domination achievement.

This is a lot better than that. I like how it's sort of a static national ideas system (like EU3 but static as it's bound to certain requirements, like being at war or not).

[Raptor1]

Actually, IMO Great Navy sounds a bit strange as well. 'Grand Fleet' sounds like a much better thing to aim for despite it's WWI connotations.

Anyway, this looks like great, adds flavour and country-specific goals to make nations aim for specific things.

[ashandresash]

Those are basically a copy of the "triggered modifiers", but enhanced so that they have "potential", like decisions, and their trigger conditions are displayed, giving you direct info what you can achieve and how to do it. I think it's great, in fact, I think this can and should be used in all other Clausewitz games.

I don't see them like decisions but a nice commitment between EUIII/Rome's missions (making you do some things in the game to get the achievement) and National Ideas (not just a temporary reward like in missions but long-term effects, affecting the way you want to play your country, and giving the flavour that some people were missing).

Introducing missions and national ideas (two great features of last Paradox games generation) was difficult in HoI series... and well, they seem to have made it. I'm really happy about it

[Kaoru Nagisa]

I like this. Two quick questions, Johan (though one is more a suggestion):
Will these Achievements be somehow factored into the new Variable Victory Conditions?

For instance, could victory conditions for a nation like Romania include "Form Pact of Steel" and an Achievement like "Protect the Homeland", which would, for instance, include having no more than 10% of one's national provinces occupied by a foreign power? (Considering the intended eventual strength of the Soviet Union, I would consider this a serious victory for little Romania!)


The second is: Which branch of commands will these Achievements use? The tech tree effects, the event/triggered modifier effects, the minister effects? Will it be possible to use all of the above in them, or even, wonder of wonders, are these branches being merged, so you can use things like IC Efficiency in event modifiers, and lowered Practical Decay Rates in techs?

(Especially for Theory technologies, I think this would make sense, and would help grant some use to those oft-neglected Theory techs. Imagine sinking about five research levels into "Armour Theory", and having the practical decay rate for armor drop - I personally think this would be very useful.)

Thanks for getting on the ball so quickly and starting to pound out these dev diaries!
~Kaoru

EDIT: Also, sorry to bug you again, but: Will the presence of these achievements be check-able by the LUA script, by decision, and by event? Mayhap a trigger like "has_country_achievement="?

[ecnan02]

I see these achievements as the developers giving themselves the option to make the AI pursue certain objectives, which will lend towards more historical results. I bet you that the AI will be scripted to go after objectives in a set of priorites. For instance, I could see Switzerland pursuing a goal of establishing good relations with every faction, or some such thing, making it more likely that they will stay neutral.

The hard part will be dealing with ahistorical situations, much the same issue that some of the earlier versions of EU III had in missions.

[Devildread]

Can we mod them (add, remove and change some) ?

yes, fully scriptable.

Yippee \o/

[Ex Mudder]

Grant Naval Armada?

These decisions / achievements should only be unbalancing if one faction gets more than others. Some of them seem to have as many as three requirements before they are available. But I do hope there are some nice boosts for minor nations, other than isolationism.

The war exhaustion thing I worry about though, I'd hate to have war exhaustion as the US from 1936 because I have a huge navy. Too bad the leadership boost is static and not a %. Anything that gives more leadership is good imho Too bad the org regain looks global, rather than specific to one of three armed forces. Guess there will be no separate training options for land / air / naval either.

[LeeDub]

I don't see them like decisions but a nice commitment between EUIII/Rome's missions (making you do some things in the game to get the achievement) and National Ideas (not just a temporary reward like in missions but long-term effects, affecting the way you want to play your country, and giving the flavour that some people were missing).

Introducing missions and national ideas (two great features of last Paradox games generation) was difficult in HoI series... and well, they seem to have made it. I'm really happy about it

I never said they are like decisions. I said they (probably) have "potential" conditions to display LIKE decisions do, but in all other respects, they are like triggered modifiers.

[Lordban]

Iirc there is a -0.25 War Exhaustion decrease when you are at peace, so you wouldn't have to worry about the size of your fleet with the USA or the UK at game start.

[Ex Mudder]

Iirc there is a -0.25 War Exhaustion decrease when you are at peace, so you wouldn't have to worry about the size of your fleet with the USA or the UK at game start.

Ahh, that makes sense, thanks.

I'm really interested in the "grand convoy" or whatever. -.1 revolt risk means less consumer goods needed - half as good as consumer economy focus gives, without a downside. Yummy

Plus the ability to take this away from the UK via the war in the Atlantic... even better.

[Bullfrog]

Devs,
Could you maybe tie some negative achievements in, like lost national territory, or if you lose achievements, which allow for Total War Economy? As per my older thread, TWE should not be available right away. Looks good!

[Golwar]

Does this screenshot show a common situation? It seems that those are quite some achivement listed, perhaps it would make sense to sort them somehow (tabs, categories etc.).

Besides that, the achievments are a nice add and should indeed help the flavor a bit. But as already mentioned, those are pretty much triggered modifiers and thus I expect more to come.

[cwg9]

'Great Naval Army' should of course be, 'Great Navy'

Looks great!

Agreed. "Great Air Power" should also probably be "Great Air Force."

[cwg9]

While I think this achievement thing is generally a good idea, pending proper balancing, I'm a little nervous to see the first Dev diary be about yet another shiny new feature.

This game does not really need new features. This game needs:

Better AI
Fix all the bugs
Better AI
Improve the interface
Better AI
Improve the supply system
Better AI
Improve naval / air combat
Better AI

As per the above, I hope at least half your team is working full time on the AI.

[GrafKeks]

While I think this achievement thing is generally a good idea, pending proper balancing, I'm a little nervous to see the first Dev diary be about yet another shiny new feature.

This game does not really need new features. This game needs:

Better AI
Fix all the bugs
Better AI
Improve the interface
Better AI
Improve the supply system
Better AI
Improve naval / air combat
Better AI

As per the above, I hope at least half your team is working full time on the AI.

Your forget at least 3x better AI ;P(and 20x better military AI) xD

Nevertheless +1

[Kaoru Nagisa]

Your forget at least 3x better AI ;P(and 20x better military AI) xD

Nevertheless +1

To GrafKeks and cwg9: Doomdark is the full-time AI coder of the team, to my understanding. Since Johan says he's on-board with the expansion, that means he's hard at work building what we all hope will be a kickass AI.