For the Motherland - Developer Diary 10 - Theater View and Other Goodies

[Mip.]

@lobosrul I'm aware of the problem with a lack of leader filter. Its at the top of the todo-if-we-get-time-over list so its not forgotten.

I assume that means that you allready have a fixed release date?
( could you tell us? Or anounce when you will announce it xD )

[Corelli]

The UI changes are great!

Agree on the sortable leaders, I've been wanting that a long time too.

My guess would be June 22 for the release date...historical feel to the date, it makes the promised release quarter (which I never hold a company too since I work in the industry myself) and gives them a few more weeks to polish the product.

[PaxImperator]

I assume that means that you allready have a fixed release date?
( could you tell us? Or anounce when you will announce it xD )

Here you go. The 28th.
http://www.paradoxplaza.com/games/he...the-motherland

[Wunderlicht]

Thank you!!!

[Mip.]

Here you go. The 28th.
http://www.paradoxplaza.com/games/he...the-motherland

Wow, didnt notice, thanks.
Right 2 weeks before my exams

[PaxImperator]

Wow, didnt notice, thanks.
Right 2 weeks before my exams

Enjoy your resits then.

[Kaiser Bill]

The new theatre interfqace looks awesome. So let me ask a few questions if I may:

Where are those "fronts" coming from? Have we improved theatre AI somehow along with this and is it drawing those figures automatically and recognising 'fronts' and sub-theatres or is it just taking them from objective markers on the map.

Secondly, to reiterate the begging for a filter option for traits... please!!!!

Finally - the reorganisation function is great and I love the unassign all - but can you just make the whole interface bigger..... Pop selected sub groups out to the right in new columns. Allow filters to clear out assets like aircraft and ships which clutter the tiny space. It works really well for Belgium, not so good for Germany because the list is too long.

[GrimReaper]

Great stuff!

The Armchair of the Supreme Commander feels nicer than ever

[TheBromgrev]

I've made a bug report already, but since this DD is about theaters here I go again. Could you *please* stop theaters from spilling over into your puppets and/or allies territory? This doesn't happen for majors, but it does for smaller faction members and puppets that share a land border with the larger country. Germany, China, and the USSR are good examples.

I'll use Germany and Croatia as an example first. Say Germany beats Yugoslavia and forms Croatia. The theater covering Croatian territory will be a German one and not Croatia's theater. Not a big deal in this case.

Now, let's say I mod Xibei San Ma to be a Chinese ally instead of puppet (they defected to the communist side after Japan was defeated, so an alliance makes more sense). Same deal as before, China's theater now covers XSM territory instead of a XSM theater. Now, this causes problems when you try to unite China and break that alliance. Since you can't affect foreign theaters, even though the two aren't allied anymore, if you hover over a XSM province in the theater map mode or supply mode, you'll see that it's supplied from Nanjing and part of the Nanjing theater even after the alliance is broken. That causes problems with both nation's theater AIs. Because any objectives placed inside XSM by China is considered "in friendly territory", the AI won't man that front if you go to war, nor will it attack. The exact same thing happens with the other Chinese states if they were ever at any point allied to Nat. China. That means you can't put your armies on AI control, as the AI controlled units won't do anything. The same happens when those nations are on AI control; they'll just stare at each other forever.

Could this be fixed? Each country should be covered by its own theaters, not those of its allies or master nation. It really, really, screws up trying to create a continuation of the Chinese Civil War after Japan is defeated, as all the warlords were allied to each other and can't attack the others because their theaters overlap.

[ADEE1]

All of this looks great, I can't wait

One issue that I would like to be addressed (more of an irritation to be honest) is that when playing MP, the conversation history gets in the way of, say, your OOB in the left hand side when you're trying to do things. A useful addition would be an actual chat box that you could move around the screen, minimize etc. and also view the entire session chat history in it, so that you do not miss important information when it disappears. Hope that something could be done in this regard

[Frederic III]

That seems awesome! Finally, I will beless scared by playing big countries. I hope ally cooperation is implemented as well.

[jasonf]

I agree, these changes look great!

Question, though -- will the interface with the allied theatres be sortable? (i.e., so you can put the ones that are red/yellow at the top?) I could imagine playing the allies in the 1940s and spending half your time on that interface scrolling through all the theatres of South America just to see if any of your other allies were in trouble...

[cougar46]

That seems awesome! Finally, I will beless scared by playing big countries. I hope ally cooperation is implemented as well.

It's already implemented in Semper Fi, it just needs to be incorporated better which it sounds like they'll be looking to do or at the very least give them more weight in the AI's plans.

[TheBromgrev]

It's already implemented in Semper Fi, it just needs to be incorporated better which it sounds like they'll be looking to do or at the very least give them more weight in the AI's plans.

Yes, nothing like telling Axis Bulgaria to help Axis Turkey and watch Bulgaria send troops to Finland instead

[tommylotto]

I LOVE the ability to un-assign all leaders with one click. However, it might be interesting to make a complete shake up of the general staff come with some political consequences. For example, clicking the button might call up a window saying, "Shake up of general staff, gain __ in dissent, and {political party} loses __% in organization and __% in popularity. Are you sure you want to proceed?"

[Cybvep]

I LOVE the ability to un-assign all leaders with one click. However, it might be interesting to make a complete shake up of the general staff come with some political consequences. For example, clicking the button might call up a window saying, "Shake up of general staff, gain __ in dissent, and {political party} loses __% in organization and __% in popularity. Are you sure you want to proceed?"

The problem is that you can already do it by manually reassigning all leaders. It's just an interface option, not a new complex feature. Not that it isn't important, though.

Yes, nothing like telling Axis Bulgaria to help Axis Turkey and watch Bulgaria send troops to Finland instead

Yeah, the so-called "Allied objective" can often create so much mess than they are simply not worth it. The AI treats it as the order to attack somewhere along the frontline, not in a given region. The fact that it chooses the part of the frontline that is 1000 km away and messes up your supply lines doesn't bother the AI too much.

[Cynation]

Finally I don't have to waste 30 minutes unassigning every commander at the start of a USSR game!!!!

[chervois]

Speaking of Theatre builds, it would be nice if we could specify whether we want those units built as regulars or reserves, like we can normally.

Edit: Without affecting Naval & Air builds..

[kamikaze470]

The Deployment-to-OOB feature looks very helpful, thank you so much.

[juv95hrn]

I asked for that Statistics/Ledger feature from the first day HOI3 came out. My pleas fell on deaf ears. It's beyond comprehension that PI had that feature in HOI2 and dropped it in HOI3. Sometimes I have to hunt and hunt and hunt to find a particular unit or leader. The lack of this feature makes HOI3 much more difficult to manage than HOI2. Overall HOI3 is a much better game than HOI2, but excluding this feature from HOI3 was a giant step backwards. Very disappointing.

It was indeed a lot easier in HOI2 to groom a certain leader or upgrade your most experienced division than it is in HOI3. Maybe its a lot harder to make a clickable ledger post that will transfer you to a specific unit in the new HOI3 engine? If it was possible me too would very much like to see such a funtionality for brigades and land leaders.