HOI4 Dev Diary - Acclimatization and Special Forces

[Dendo Hellen]

Looks amazing!

 

[Lukevan16]

I'm a bit sad to see that the British and Commonwealth forces are missing their famous shorts from the desert. I get that you didn't want to make whole new models, but the theatre just doesn't feel right without them.

 

[bitmode]

I agree with you 100%. I just question how many times will it be used? Will it do anything other than have me watching the calendar for "X" amount of time to pass before the troops get new jackets and boots?
Is it a nice feature? Sure, I suppose so. How often will I ever use it? How often will I ever notice it being in place?
Rarely if ever?

I think you should look at this as a balancing mechanic rather than a feature. In many cases the aggressors will just generally have less acclimatization (neither hot nor cold) than the defenders, giving the latter more options for counter attacks and such. Actually waiting a few months before attacking (or just deploying the troops to that area months earlier) might make the difference. If the tide of the war turns at Stalingrad because of winter attrition, the Soviets are maybe not *using* this mechanic but it happens all the same.

England? After the desert then into Russia? Ok, maybe that might happen to 4 divisions or 5?

Going from cold to hot acclimatization is the most extreme case. The usual one will be ENG/FRA/ITA is not acclimatized, defenders are.

It is going to be just like WT or day/night cycle, not that interesting when it is all said and done.

This mechanic will actually overlay with day/night cycle; when you're in Siberia in winter (very short days) without acclimatization against enemies with night vision tech, it's going to be grim

 

[Pyro157]

Oh, I'm liking this. And the acclimation!

As a China main, I'm OK with the special forces limit - good men are hard to come by, after all, and I think only a few divisions of paratroops are needed for invading Taiwan by '43/'44.

 

[Eyered]

oh I probably should have explained that more. Its visible in one of the screenshots with the tooltip. Being in the area with those effects will see you gain acclimatization. If you are actively fighting it however goes much faster

Training in whatever climate should be the middle ground to those.

 

[bwc153]

Will it be possible to modify the max acclimation achievable with technology, events, equipment, etc? For example, Black Ice making it so that you'd need to give your guys winter gear to enable max winter acclimation?

 

[Sleight of Hand]

@Lukevan16

Agreed! Commonwealth troops need their khaki shorts in the desert.

 

[Jorlem]

Special forces
Up till now, we have had a bit of a balance issue with Special Forces (Marines, Mountaineers, Paratroopers). They were, pound for pound, better than regular infantry and many people simply replaced all their infantry with mountaineers.

To make sure special forces stay special, we added a restriction based on your whole army:

atm we dont have any country special bonuses, but we havent really finished balancing this so we may add something. Will tweet if so

Perhaps the proportion could be based on the relevant terrain type that the manpower comes from? That way countries that have a lot of mountains, and are thus drawing more proportional manpower from mountain provinces could field more mountaineers. Then, as the country expands and conquers flat land, they wouldn't be able to as easily train that new manpower as mountaineers.

 

[Dakka]

I love both concepts, my only potential issue is the special forces numbers. I hope they’re large enough to still be able to be fielded in appropriate numbers. IE as the US I want to be able to send the Marines into the Pacific as the backbone of the war effort there while also being able to use Paratroops for Overlord and Market Garden.
I’m guessing it scales off of total division count, so my concerns are probably unfounded.

Also, I think it would be appropriate to see more acclimation types in the future. Desert and Jungle should be split I feel.

 

[R3dhawk]

From what i'm interpreting from the screen shots, the SF cap is going by battalions (i.e. the individual unit selection in division editor). You get the first 24 boxes free for use, so you could have two divisions with 12 SF battalions in each. After that however you'd need to field 20 battalions of regular forces to field another SF.

For example, you'd essentially need to field three standard infantry 7-2 divisions (or two 7-3 divisions for the sake of simplicity) to be able to field a single battalion within a division template from that point onwards. So in the grand scheme of things you'd still be able to make use of the special force divisions. They'll just be more like a special attache force rather than a main body force which is really what they should be.

 

[zhiweiwba]

I agree with the idea of separating jungle and desert acclimatisation, especially in reality the redeployment of Empire units originally earmarked for North Africa to Malaya became problematic for the British.

Also are there any plans to synthesise troop exercises with acclimatisation? For example a Japanese player could 'exercise' the troops slated to invade Southeast Asia in Taiwan to gain a 'jungle' acclimatisation. Similarly if I, as a British player, devote my resources and a decent amount of time to 'exercise' my troops in Egypt before sending them into Libya, I should be able to get 'hot weather' acclimatisation right?

 

[Russian Bias lmao]

So Japan and UK are nerfed to death. Japan won't be able to have enough marines to invade China early, while the UK will never be able to stay total mob and pump out enough 10w inf divisions to make the 10-20 40w marines for D-Day.

Like others said, naval invasions definitely need to be buffed if you're going this route.

 

[Abadon777]

This looks good but how does the A.I. handle acclimatization.

 

[thinking_waffle]

Perhaps the proportion could be based on the relevant terrain type that the manpower comes from? That way countries that have a lot of mountains, and are thus drawing more proportional manpower from mountain provinces could field more mountaineers. Then, as the country expands and conquers flat land, they wouldn't be able to as easily train that new manpower as mountaineers.

It should depend on cores only. The only problem would be stuffs like Hungary with Transylvanian Romanians who would be less than happy to join the mighty Magyar army
I want my Gurkhas!

 

[Marcus_Claudius_Marcellus]

Will there be an option to motorize special forces?

 

[Wraith11B]

US had 6 marine divisions. Each marine division had 3 battalions in three regiments. that's 9*6=54. The way the game works, certain leg infantry divisions have to have been designated marines as well for D-Day to have worked. that is at least another 6 divisions with 9 battalions each or another 54. Airborne forces: 4 divisions, 9 battalions = 36. 2 mountain divisions = 18. Two ranger battalions as well, (corps/Army asset) So the US historically had 108+36+18 +2 = 164. 164/ .05 = 3280 battalions required to build actual force. 3280/9 = 364.44 divisions. Wait, total US divisions in WWII was 97, 91 in the army and 6 in the marines. So historically the US had 164 SPs out of 875 battalions (9*97+2 rangers) or 18.74%. I like the idea of limiting the special forces but the 5% rule is too low.

You forgot to account for the 10th Infantry (Mountain)... that's another three regiments or nine battalions!

 

[Wraith11B]

Will there be an option to motorize special forces?

Unfortunately, I doubt it. I wish I could get tags of what certain things are assigned to, so that tanks assigned to a Marine division are tagged as "Amphibious" or artillery assigned to motorized divisions would become motorized (rather than having to assign SP-Arty).

 

[D Inqu]

US had 6 marine divisions. Each marine division had 3 battalions in three regiments. that's 9*6=54. The way the game works, certain leg infantry divisions have to have been designated marines as well for D-Day to have worked[...] I like the idea of limiting the special forces but the 5% rule is too low.

Well, game mechanics-wise, the US clearly went down the tech path to expand special forces.

 

[Russian Bias lmao]

@podcat so how on earth do the allies D-Day now? Infantry and tanks are absolutely useless for some reason, so all you're left with is 4-5 40w marines which are nowhere near the 30 40w marines minimum you'll need to land in 3 beachheads and succeed.

 

[Broletariat90]

Regarding naval landings I'm sure they have thought this out.