I miss the HOI 1 research tree. I miss some of HOI 2's rules (no attack delay, for example). But, overall HOI 3 is the way to go. The map and division designer are my favorite improvements.
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AOD? To be surpassed by HOI 3 with a few more expansions/mods.
I have played HOI2 DD and AOD and now HOI3 vanilla (testgame at a friends) and now have taklen the plunge with FTM.
To compare:
The general screen has more provinces, which is both good and bad. I dislike the micromanagement it entails, but the new OOB and the half decent AI (division out of command range again) actually make it fun to use.
The supply system is both a boon and a curse. When it works its a true marvel of good programming simulating an important mechanic. When it screws up its simply worse than the HOI2 approach of the TC. Tank divisions out of fuel, when a province further up the front has fuel in spades etc.
The Diplomacy is simply godsent and absolutely superior. You influence a nation continually and are not forced to remember to check the diplo screen every few minutes and hope the AI didnt trick in a trade agreement in a few seconds before. Plus you can actually see where a nation stands. No more +200 towards far too many different nations. The new wargoals are also kinda fun. Unfortunately you can change wargoals around. EG, switch from puppet to conquest, when you get so fed up with an enemy, that you simply dont want to see their color at all. Trading provinces is sadly gone too. No more carving up a conquered enemy into different puppet states. Or playing a nice benefactor master nation, which conquers a puppets lost provinces...
Research is overall vastly improved as well. When you research a better rifle, all infantry divisions, wether static/motorised/para/whatever can be upgraded. Same goes for airplanes etc. Im just missing the prominent names. You have to know beforehand what makes a Panther etc. Often enough you end up with Name/+ Which isnt that satisfying. But its good enough.
Production is pretty much the same, though i preferred AOD much more. No switching from Tacs to BB to Inf within a single day. The way brigades make up a division is alsy really nice. But not perfect yet, since adding an AA brigade or AT brigade is too much (most divisions had a regiment not a brigade worth of AA/AT) but if you dont do it, an Infantry division wont be able to defend itself too well. But luckily those little things arent that important.
Intelligence, quite honestly i dont really play around with that screen. I have it ^^, i really love the automatization.
Land warfare, i fiddle around with the OOB and let the AI handle the rest, most of the successfully. I tend to keep and armoured corps or two within my control. Air power has become quite a bit weaker, but i have been told it becomes better with higher tech. The Naval game has lost its big fleets. I really liked having 1-2 dozen ships/flotillas merged into a killer stack that patrols around. But thw orst part is that the AI cant handly anything beyond SS. Nothing new really. CAGs are truly seperate entities now. simply perfect.
Yeah HOI3 is better in nearly every aspect. But a game like AOD (and i can imagine DH or IC) are nicer because they feel more like a all round finished/complete product. Eg. AOD allows better customization and upgrading of ships via brigades. Most of carried over to HOI3, but i am very much missing the option to upgrade Yamatos radar/AA/secondary armaments. Most ships are reduced to their primary purpose. LCs are just AA batteries on the water now and so on.
I hope we get an expansion that enhances the naval aspect of the game and the AIs ability to handle naval matters a bit. Thatd make me quite happy.
I have played HOI2 DD and AOD and now HOI3 vanilla (testgame at a friends) and now have taklen the plunge with FTM.
To compare:
The general screen has more provinces, which is both good and bad. I dislike the micromanagement it entails, but the new OOB and the half decent AI (division out of command range again) actually make it fun to use.
The supply system is both a boon and a curse. When it works its a true marvel of good programming simulating an important mechanic. When it screws up its simply worse than the HOI2 approach of the TC. Tank divisions out of fuel, when a province further up the front has fuel in spades etc.
The Diplomacy is simply godsent and absolutely superior. You influence a nation continually and are not forced to remember to check the diplo screen every few minutes and hope the AI didnt trick in a trade agreement in a few seconds before. Plus you can actually see where a nation stands. No more +200 towards far too many different nations. The new wargoals are also kinda fun. Unfortunately you can change wargoals around. EG, switch from puppet to conquest, when you get so fed up with an enemy, that you simply dont want to see their color at all. Trading provinces is sadly gone too. No more carving up a conquered enemy into different puppet states. Or playing a nice benefactor master nation, which conquers a puppets lost provinces...
Research is overall vastly improved as well. When you research a better rifle, all infantry divisions, wether static/motorised/para/whatever can be upgraded. Same goes for airplanes etc. Im just missing the prominent names. You have to know beforehand what makes a Panther etc. Often enough you end up with Name/+ Which isnt that satisfying. But its good enough.
Production is pretty much the same, though i preferred AOD much more. No switching from Tacs to BB to Inf within a single day. The way brigades make up a division is alsy really nice. But not perfect yet, since adding an AA brigade or AT brigade is too much (most divisions had a regiment not a brigade worth of AA/AT) but if you dont do it, an Infantry division wont be able to defend itself too well. But luckily those little things arent that important.
Intelligence, quite honestly i dont really play around with that screen. I have it ^^, i really love the automatization.
Land warfare, i fiddle around with the OOB and let the AI handle the rest, most of the successfully. I tend to keep and armoured corps or two within my control. Air power has become quite a bit weaker, but i have been told it becomes better with higher tech. The Naval game has lost its big fleets. I really liked having 1-2 dozen ships/flotillas merged into a killer stack that patrols around. But thw orst part is that the AI cant handly anything beyond SS. Nothing new really. CAGs are truly seperate entities now. simply perfect.
Yeah HOI3 is better in nearly every aspect. But a game like AOD (and i can imagine DH or IC) are nicer because they feel more like a all round finished/complete product. Eg. AOD allows better customization and upgrading of ships via brigades. Most of carried over to HOI3, but i am very much missing the option to upgrade Yamatos radar/AA/secondary armaments. Most ships are reduced to their primary purpose. LCs are just AA batteries on the water now and so on.
I hope we get an expansion that enhances the naval aspect of the game and the AIs ability to handle naval matters a bit. Thatd make me quite happy.
Ahh what i forgot. I really miss the ability to change the number of production runs in AOD. Its always bugging me that i cant have a production line run another batch, or that i have to shorten it manually instead of simply changing the number midprodduction.