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SwordOfJustice

Peaceful Warrior
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Dec 8, 2003
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The early 21st century was a time of wonders. Micro fusion cells, plasma technology, and personal robots, the world was in a golden age of futuristic science. And using the arcane properties of Tesla valves, a whole new technology of computing led to true Artificial Intelligences, powered by vast mainframes. Man had reached space and touched other planets and new, sparkling stars called satellites could be seen in the night sky. Some scholars predicted that war, hunger and disease would be eliminated and that Mankind would enter a new era of peace and prosperity.
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They were wrong.

For some things never change...

The fossil fuels had run out. The industrial complexes of the advanced nations had sucked out every last drop of the precious oil from the earth. They drank the world dry yet still were gasping for more. In their greed, their ego and their blindness they wanted more.

But there was no more. Though fusion power was developed and then minituarised, it was too expensive and never enough to cover the shortfall.

As the oil vanished, Europe, Africa and the Middle East were wracked by war after war as nations fought to hold on to the diminishing oil fields. Whole nations collapsed and most of the world descended into anarchy.
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The last two powers of the world, USA and China, tried to hold on. The USA annexed Canada to take it's resources and China took over it's neighbours too. These two then went to war over Alaska which had the last known oil reserves in the world. The fight was bloody and vicious; two dying giants grappling with each other in a death embrace. Each side deployed it's best technology in a war the likes of which had never been seen before. Robotic heavy tanks, light bending stealth fields, massive bipedal war robots, man portable fusion and gauss weapons, personal powered battle suits, combat implants and battle drugs. This was war of another type. Though bled dry, the USA finally succeeded in liberating Alaska from the endless Chinese hordes.
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Then in the early morning hours of Saturday, October 23, 2077, someone pushed the Button. The resulting atomic and nuclear holocaust wiped out most of the earth's population. Genetically engineered super plagues took care of the rest.
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It is now the year 2245 AD. North America is howling, windswept, radioactive wilderness known only as... THE WASTELANDS.
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Welcome to Fallout's Doomsday mod; a mod for Hearts of Iron 2 Doomsday Armageddon (version 1.2). This is a complete replacement of the vanilla game. You will find it an empire building game based on the HOI2 engine like no other.

This is an AAR for version 1.0 of the mod which is about to be released. With this AAR, I will be showcasing the mod and its features. Prepare to enter the Wastelands!
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"Hear me now, for I am the Elder of New Arroyo. My father, the Vault Dweller, founded the tribe of Arroyo here in the north, when he was unjustly cast out from Vault 13. He led those who would leave the Vault and follow him to this land and they settled.

They grew and prospered despite the harshness of the Wastelands till our crops failed. Then my son, the Chosen One, was sent to find a holy G.E.C.K. which had the power to renew our soil. The Garden of Eden Creation Kit had the power of Science from before the War and it was our only hope of salvation.

My son succeeded, but by the time he returned, the people of Arroyo had been taken as slaves by the Enclave, that remnant of the pre-War government led by their President. We were to be used for testing in their experiments.

The Chosen One was brave though. My son and his companions ventured into the oil rig base of the Enclave, slew the mutant Horrigan and the President, and set us free. He saved us. Others from Vault 13 had also been captured by the evil men of the Enclave and they were set free. They chose to come with us and the old rift between our peoples when the Vault Dweller was cast out of the Vault was healed.

Then we returned to our lands and using the G.E.C.K. we grew and prospered again. Other tribes joined with us. Then towns too. And we called ourselves New Arroyo, the beacon of new hope!

I grow old now. I see the Wastelands changing.

My son has left on a secret mission, another crusade, and he has been gone for long years now.

Nations are arising from the radioactive ashes of the Wastelands. Sometimes, I am afraid. I fear what this will bring to our people. With townsfolk, Vault Dwellers and the tribes together, we must find our way forward in this new age. And perhaps the Long Night will finally end and civilisation will spring anew upon the world.

For such is the way of life, the shamans tell me. We move through the Great Wheel and what was old will become new again. My heart desires to see such a time with these tired old eyes, but my flesh is old and weak and I may not last so long. Perhaps I shall pass into the light to join my ancestors before such peace could come.

Come now. We must begin the journey of New Arroyo.

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So I load up Fallout's Doomsday mod 1.0 and come to the scenario screen. From now on, I will abbreviate the mod to FODD for ease of reference.

Here you can see there is only one scenario. There are 47 nations in the mod, of which 39 are playable. Some of these are spawned during the game.
AAR-1.0-A001.jpg


I've chosen to play New Arroyo, a medium power in the northwest of the map. They are interesting in that they are a fusion of Vault descendants, townspeople and tribals, as you can tell from the story introduction. They will have options via event to choose their path as tribal or civilised, or a blend of the two.

This will affect the technologies and units available to them, as you will see. Oh, did I mention this mod has over 400 technologies in brand new tech trees, with five races that also have unique techs? No?

Well I have now!
;)
 
The game loads. You can see here the wonderful new user interface. Almost every graphic content from Hearts of Iron 2 has been replaced in this mod. Most nations also have their own custom interface skin.
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You can see that my nation starts with two provinces and a few units. New Arroyo is located in the northwest of the map. North America is sparsely populated though the numbers are growing 167 years after the Apocalypse.
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The black territories are the howling, radioactive Wastelands. You can see the remnants of humanity trying to hold on during the post Apocalyptic Long Night.
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Here is my sole Garrison type battalion. There are many unit types in the mod, all with custom graphics. Some nations even have custom graphics to replace the normal mod ones as well.

Each manpower point is 40 soldiers and a Wastelands battalion is about 160 soldiers. This Garrison unit has a Tower attachment for added combat power.
AAR-1.0-A005.jpg


I check out my starting leaders and reassign them as I see fit. You might notice the custom leader traits with flavour names to fit the world of FODD. Every nation in the mod has been provisioned with their own pool of leaders.
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Naturally, one of the first things I do is to go check my cabinet and domestic policy settings. All ministers have new titles and the traits have new descriptions to fit the game world.
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I choose to move towards War Aims, which is one of the new domestic sliders in the mod. This will give me more manpower and help prepare me for the trials ahead.
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Sword's Fallout AAR! That's great! :D
 
Mmm nice! Eagerly waiting for the next update.
 
So I check out my production. My IC is at the level of a medium power. I have plenty of spare industrial capacity right now. But the game has not ticked over one day yet so my resource production could well impact that.

What a lovely UI New Arroyo has, so I lovingly drool over that for a moment! :D Notice the new resource icons and the new resource of cells? Yes, this mod is a different game with different economics.

Even though the resources levels are not visible yet, I order four Wasteland Regulars battalions with Scrap Heavy Weapons companies attached. I know I will have enough IC from having worked on this mod for the last three years of my life. ;) I note I have a good starting manpower pool.
AAR-1.0-A009.jpg


I start building up my defensive spy network straight away. Money will be an issue for my fledgling nation as it is not one of the great trading powers of the Wastelands. But I plan to sell my goods (supplies) in the Hub, the greatest trading city in the Wastelands far to the south. Hub traders will deal with anyone, even northern tribals from New Arroyo.
AAR-1.0-A010.jpg


The big red nation to the far northwest is the Enclave. High tech and very powerful, they are the mortal enemies of my nation. I chose to play New Arroyo for this AAR as it will be an interesting struggle to see if I can survive their onslaught.
AAR-1.0-A011.jpg


I let the game tick over and I get the first welcome events. These explain the game world and give guidance to a new player. One can switch them on or off. You can see the Pioneer Alliance of Klamath, Modoc and Ghost Farm border me to the southeast. This is a minor nation with little power.
AAR-1.0-A012.jpg


There is a flaw in the HOI2 game engine such that free resources granted by technologies are not implemented at game start. Therefore, I coded events to grant those at start. Free resources is a common benefit given by techs in this mod.
AAR-1.0-A013.jpg


I get some trade offers and the first welcome event for my nation. Every nation has at least some events and some have many. They tell the story of the nation and also are part of the gameplay and empire building. There are over a hundred random events as well, and lots of other event chains in the mod. All together, there are literally thousands of events in this mod. So many that I can't easily count them!
AAR-1.0-A014.jpg


You can see my resource situation is quite good in New Arroyo. I make surpluses. I review the offered trade deals carefully. Broken Hills is a large mining town to the southeast where Humans, Mutant and Ghouls live together making it quite a unique place in the Wastelands. The Shi Empire flourishes in the ruins of San Francisco and is very powerful. I don't want to trade away all my metal surplus but I plan to research some mining techs which will increase my metal and rares production. So I go for the trade deal with the Shi. This will improve relations and that might be crucial in any war against the hated Enclave. They are rivals with each other.
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I get a fun event chain about Player Traits. Yes, this fun idea allows you to choose a trait for yourself as leader of your nation. Fun, fun, fun!
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I pressed the mouse button too quickly and pick Cautious trait, my least favourite. This gives some defensive boni to my land units, plus some Org and combat event boni. The loss of one point of speed means my units will be significantly slower and this is a big penalty. I might to rebalance this trait one day. But the extra org is very useful, though it doesn't look like much. If I build any tribal battalions, that extra Org will be a good boost as Irregulars have less of it. The way HOI2 combat model works, the extra Ground Defense mainly helps to delay a loss when outnumbered. Anyway, that's what the Elder of New Arroyo has chosen for a trait so that's how it is!
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This the event I've been waiting for. This is the choice I have to make about which path New Arroyo will take: tribal, civilised or a blend of the two. Every event has a specially chosen and evocative picture. This is Shaman Ilkun who studied at the feet of Shaman Hakunin. Players who have played the original Fallout 1 and 2 games will know of Hakunin. The mod takes that story line and extends it. The mod is set after Fallout 2 and before Fallout 3. It also has elements from Fallout Tactics and Van Buren, the sequel game that was never made.

I take the middle path as I want the best of both worlds. Naturally, this means I will be the master of neither.
AAR-1.0-A018.jpg


Now that I have chosen my path, certain techs open up to me including some Tribal techs. These are Secret techs as you can see here. Notice the new tech screen, the new techs, the new tech icons and specialities? Pretty fantastic, I reckon. Every nation is fully provisioned with custom tech teams in release 1.0.
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Brother Vladimir Pavlov undertook a vast project last year to replace all 400+ techs pictures with new ones containing appropriate and funny quotes. All the Fallout Tragics who contribute on our forum contributed quotes. You can see his handiwork here. The pictures are superb, some are just the most fantastic science fiction artwork I've seen. We love you, Vlad, for doing this!

I'm choosing to research Path of the Shaman tech as Ilkun is a great tech team with specialities that match and it has lots of benefits. Tribal nations get some nice early techs and cheap units, but get left behind somewhat in the later game.
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Fallout fans will recognise this famous individual from Fallout 2. Vic is doing well for himself these days in his new home of New Arroyo. He's a great tech team. This tech gives metal and rares; rares are very... ummm... rare in the mod. Mining techs are very useful. In fact, there is a resource shortage in the mod, though not as much as in earlier versions. Hey, life is hard in the radioactive Wastelands!
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I check out the Unit tech tree. You can see how wonderful the mod's tech tree and unit branches are. Note the different races. Because of my event choice, I can build both Human Regulars and Irregulars also.

You can only choose one branch of the mercenary lines. They are cheap and quick to build but costly to maintain. I won't use them yet. I am going to keep making Regulars for now.

Ghoul Regulars are slow but tough with high Org and Morale. They also take much longer to build. Irregulars are cheap and quick but less powerful. They're also better in terrain.
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And here are some teasers on the other tech screens. Wonderful, huh?
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What about the Spiders? I've played Spiders in the sort-of-beta that was available for the download, and noticed they only have a single unit at their disposal. Will this be changed for 1.0?
 
The BETA had lots of promise but turned out kinda boring for the imbalancing of the factions and events. This here version seems a way better! KUTWG! :)
 
Very nice work Sword! no better way to advertise the mod!
Which in fact makes me wonder...why have never done this before? Maybe I should follow your example :p
 
Starting Review cont.

OK, so back to the game. A quick note on the calendar. It is 1936 Hub Reckoning (HR), which is a few centuries different to the actual date of 2245AD. This is because I had a problem with the game engine AI not working at all with a date of 2245. There is an event which explains this to the player.

It is January 1936 HR. Some interesting developments have taken place in the Wastelands. That remnant of the pre-War nation, the Former USA centred on Washington DC, is wracked by civil war. A powerful cult calling itself the Dark Cathedral is trying to take over. This is a dangerous time for FUSA and an exciting challenge for a player. You can see FUSA in blue and DC in yellow on this screenshot.
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But that is far to the east. I want to show you some of the new units and attachments. You can see here this Human Regulars battalion has Beast Packs attached. All air, naval and land units have been changed for the mod.
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And here are some detail screens on my starting units. You can see that the Defence Towers for my Garrison battalion is actually Fighting Plants. Fans of the original Fallout games will recognise these. Tribal nations are able to build Fighting Plants for their static Garrison units. You can picture these as semi-intelligent plants which hurl razor sharp spines or puff poisonous spores seeded around a defensive emplacement to catch unwary attackers. In game, they are a low cost attachment that strengthens a Garrison battalion which is activated with a secret Tribal tech Path of the Shaman. Note that I can't actually build these yet, but I start with one.

Note the Chosen One Believers unit. It is a higher model representing an elite force which I can't build yet. I need to research the Unit techs for the Human Regulars line. This battalion has a heavy weapons company attached. Check out the support cost. It is very high. These may be scrap mortars but they add a lot of combat power in return. I am building more of this style of battalion. The Apocalyptic Heavy Company upgrades into more advanced models of new production mortars and finally light artillery pieces with technology advances.

Wild Dogs are one of a number of Beast Packs attachments. These are cheap and cheerful attachments which still add some capabilities. Wild Dogs give a point of Soft Attack amongst other things but actually reduce Org. I need to learn Trained Dogs technology which removes that penalty and improves the attachment.

Other Beast Pack attachments include Rat Scouts, Robo Dogs, the grotesque Floaters+Centaurs, and the feared and deadly Deathclaws.
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I check my leaders more closely. White Oak leads my Holy Thirteen battalion, which is a good move because he has the trait of Expert Scavenger. This is a rename of Logitics Wizard and he will help reduce the high support cost of that elite unit.
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You can see here that the AI nations are active in both diplomacy and espionage. I spend a lot of hours coding AI files for every nation. It is rough but the work takes a long time just to get the basics happening. I am very happy with the end result though as nations spy, do diplomacy, declare wars and even ally sometimes by themselves without being prompted by events.

Caesar's Camp are hard core slavers in the east, on the border of the Former USA, who loosely model themselves on the ancient Roman Empire. We'll see what Caesar gets up to a bit later on.

Note that seven nations all belong to the Slavers' Guild: Den, New Reno, The Vipers, The Huns, Mexican Raiders, Junkers, Caesar's Legion. Slavery is everywhere in the Wastelands and the Slavers' Guild jealously maintains a monopoly on it. Nations who are part of the Guild get a special event pool for the following: hiring mercenary battalions contracted to the Guild, economic events allowing purchase or sale of slaves, revolts in their territories, additional benefits from the Slavery line of Social techs, Guild fees payment events, and events to conduct slaving raids on neighbouring nations.

Den has the Guild HQ and gets royalties from the slave trade which boosts their power considerably, as otherwise they only have minor level IC. I'll show you more about slavery and Den later. There is a player welcome event which explains slavery in the mod.
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While talking about other nations, let's go check two out. Both are not too far away from New Arroyo.
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In early January I get the following event. This is an exciting pool of events made by Brother Paladin Vladimir which I also worked on. He has created an entirely political system for the mod. You did notice the new government types in earlier screenshots, right? This is the Wastelands, not 20th century Earth. So instead of the old government types from HOI2, we have new ones like Military Technocracy, Criminal Corporation and Traditional Customs. New Arroyo has the latter government type.

We could not mod the game effects of the domestic sliders, but we could write events to add game effects and that's what you see here. This is very useful for a nation like mine which will be building Irregulars battalions. And yes, if you change types, the event will update your nation by removing the old boni and adding the new ones. Pretty cool, huh? :D
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I mentioned earlier that New Arroyo is poor. Too much of my IC is going to consumer goods. It is more efficient for me to trade supplies with a rich, trading nation. I also mentioned earlier that the greedy merchants of the Hub will trade with me and they do.
AAR-1.0-A035.jpg


Here is another welcome event to orient the player. I plan to add more in future versions. This one should be interesting to you as it explains something about motorised units in the mod.
AAR-1.0-A036.jpg


Here is the trading, resource and manufacturing situation I find my nation in. More trade deals are coming in but I ignore them all. I want to start building resource stockpiles when I can. I will make more deals of supplies for money when I can.
AAR-1.0-A037.jpg


I wonder how the civil war in the east is proceeding. The Former USA is still powerful and is busy ruthlessly driving back the Dark Cathedral.
AAR-1.0-A038.jpg
 
@4th Dimension, Asalto, Ivan88, Karaiskandar, ColonelIronboot, The _Shepherd, Admiral Yamamot, Tritoch42, CthulhuPL
Thanks all!

@ColobelIronboot
Spiders remain with only one unit type. But hey! What's not to like about mutant, mammalian giant spiders? They have been rebalanced but they do get some events now regarding expansion should that nation grow. Have fun!

@Kasakka
Well, work has been done on the gameplay in a number of areas. I hope you find the gameplay and empire building more interesting and that conquering the map will be a little harder. There is more work to do on developing some semi-scripted wars and alliances, and slowing down warmonger players.

There is now an end game showdown between three main alliances which should make the end game more interesting.

@Ghery Yes, you should!


Cheers,
Sword