Development status

[Talar]

Hello, I played CORE for HoI1 and enjoyed it a lot, for HoI2 I never tried it however since I was waiting for it to become reasonably finished all along until AoD came out.

Now with version 0.50, how much of the mod do you consider completed? 50%?

Are there any areas in particular that are still "todo"?
Do you have flavour events included?
How about surrender events and post-WW2 setup?

 

[Tegetthoff]

I have once compared a mod to a model railroad - it is never finished and you cannot give a percentage on degree of finalisation.

Version 0.41 for ARM was a highly finished product, probably the only thing it lacked was the surrender events.

Version 0.50 is a - seemingly - straightforward transfer of 0.41 to 0.50 BUT it had to be completely rebalanced for the different AoD game mechanics.

As you transfer a mod, you will find both old errors and omissions and you will get a couple of new ideas. So the mod grows even as you transfer it. The greatest improvements I see in 0.50 is a significantly better modelling of the CHI/JAP theater and improvements in the Pacific War (although still far from perfect). We have also achieved significant improvements in the realignment of Eastern Europe to Germany in 1940/41, eliminating many ahistorically early alliances. Old CORE problems such as a very early US war entry and a very weak Soviet Union are also gone.

So what is lacking, and what is not in 0.50:
Surrender events and post war events
We are currently not utilising some options that AoD gives us, such as additional brigades, fuel and rar material plants etc. These will have to wait for 0.51.

Flavour events are in (and have been in for a long time), from the Olympics to the Amelia Earhard chain. There could be more, but they are not top priority.

Hope this helps,

T.

 

[Hister]

I find current iteration of CORE highly enjoyable. It's the closest simulation of how things were and what could plausibly happen at that time. It's a brilliant balanced concept where you can see a lot of thought was put in it and not rushed out just for the sake of it.

I've added some of the graphics from Tripartite pack graphical mod to it and forgot to go to bad this night 'cos of it Can't wait to continue my campaign as Japan soon!

Seeing that not so many downloads were made for the latest release I urge devs to try showing the plebs this mod is in highly playable state. Many people are turned away 'cos they think it's still a work in progress on a big amount but it is not.

 

[Tegetthoff]

Help us by posting here and commenting on the game!

An active forum is the best advertisement for a mod!

 

[Hister]

Help us by posting here and commenting on the game!

An active forum is the best advertisement for a mod!

That's exactly why I posted.

Mod has a very mature feeling to it btw - it's apparent it wasn't made by some kids around the block

Would you guys be willing to incorporate Tripartite Pack's colors for terrain? I mean I did that myself along with other graphical improvements but many players are not skilled in this and would prefer everything served on their plates.

So what do you say Tegetthoff? It wouldn't take you much time and you can check how it looks by going to this page.

 

[Talar]

Thanks for the reply, looking forward to try it out soon and see all that has happened since my last CORE game, but will probably wait for 0.51. Surrender events however are a personal must-have for me. Do you happen to know if it is possible to run the SMEP events or something similar together with CORE?

 

[Hister]

Thanks for the reply, looking forward to try it out soon and see all that has happened since my last CORE game, but will probably wait for 0.51. Surrender events however are a personal must-have for me. Do you happen to know if it is possible to run the SMEP events or something similar together with CORE?

That would be very nice but I don't know of any port being published so you would have to do it manually. If you succeed release your work publicly.

 

[Tegetthoff]

Tripartite colours:

I have not tried out that mod but I liked the screenshots in their forum. Using them would require a) asking them for permission and b) our graphics guru Hagar agreeing

SMEP:

Not possible without at least some degree of modding knowledge, event then problems are likely.

0.51:
Don´t wait for 0.51. You can expect a redesign period of several months doing basic changes to the mod once 0.50 is out.

 

[Hister]

OK, I'll notify Titan79 about your stance on this matter - your reasoning is perfectly default and I'm sure Titan will be thrilled to give permission to you guys. He made the terrain colors by himself so there isn't any authorship problem if he agrees.

I know Hagar will be for it won't you Hagar?

 

[Titan79]

Tripartite colours:

I have not tried out that mod but I liked the screenshots in their forum. Using them would require a) asking them for permission and b) our graphics guru Hagar agreeing

Thanks for considering me a team, Tegetthoff (asking them for permission...) but I made (or gathered together) all of the Tripartite Pack's content alone.

Besides, feel free to ask for parts of it to be used within CORE (check Hister's link or my sig) and I'll most probably give you the permission.

OK, I'll notify Titan79 about your stance on this matter - your reasoning is perfectly default and I'm sure Titan will be thrilled to give permission to you guys. He made the terrain colors by himself so there isn't any authorship problem if he agrees.

That's it, Hister . Being somehow taken into consideration by the CORE team would indeed be an honor for me.

 

[Tegetthoff]

Titan, thanks for the offer and you can indeed take the plural as a compliment - very good work!

I assume that Hagar will chime in pretty quickly.

 

[Titan79]

Thank you very much, Tegetthoff. Such a compliment from a member of a team like CORE is something that gives one great satisfaction!

I'm waiting to hear the boss' voice, then .

 

[HistoryMan]

In reply to the OP, we do post open Beta versions here pretty regularly - 0.50.20 is the latest version released here, and is pretty up to date.

As for the graphics / colours, we'll just poke Hagar with a sharp stick til he notices

Tim

 

[el alamein]

The Tripartite images are great Titan! They would certainly be a nice addition to CORE

 

[Hagar]

I'm waiting to hear the boss' voice, then .

Well I'm hardly 'the boss', but am downloading your pack at this very minute.

 

[Tegetthoff]

Regarding graphics, you are the "Boss".

Due to lack of people to boss around, you are also the one who does all the graphics work ...

 

[Hagar]

On the plus side, that assures 'the team' is pretty much agreeable.

As to the Tripartite pack, it has some great stuff (sound effects, for one). But so far I'm not sold regarding the color terrain imagery. The main quirk is that they are 'modern' shots, rather than pre-1953 vintage. So they are pretty much generic, lacking modern features, to keep them usable. Image wise that makes them a little less interesting. Personally I like those little confirmations that the image is absolutely, truly vintage rather than modern... An old car, the Normandie setting off from Le Havre, stuff like that. Like getting a color shot of 'modern', post-1964 Johnson Island is relatively easy. Getting one pre-1942 is next to impossible, and was quite a challenge to find in B&W even. With the island extended several times during the 1942-1964 timeframe, those two shots are like day and night compared. I know I'm probably the only one who will ever notice, but as long as I'm calling the shots, that's the threshold they have to pass, as far as I'm concerned.
To give you an impression of Johnson Island, see this image of the alterations to the island and the image that actually made it into the Travel Guide. The latter is taken from the plane in 1942, bringing in the staff to actually build a base on the island. It's probably the last image of the island before the US military arrived... Need I say more?

 

[Tegetthoff]

What I liked is the basic choice of colours for countries and terrain features (hills, plains, urban) etc.
I also like the AA icon
Regarding icons, we cannot move away from the NATO counters, that´s very "deep" CORE philosophy.
But the ship counters are just great and since ours are generic anyway, that would be something to add
Regarding aircraft - I like what is in there but I am unsure wether it collides with out unit philosophy.

 

[Hagar]

Those do look pretty good, I must say. Do like the Kharkov shot as well, for one.

 

[Titan79]

The Tripartite images are great Titan! They would certainly be a nice addition to CORE

Well I'm hardly 'the boss', but am downloading your pack at this very minute.

Thank you! (and, Hagar: as Tegetthoff correctly says, you're "the boss" from a GFX point of view )

As to the Tripartite pack, it has some great stuff (sound effects, for one). But so far I'm not sold regarding the color terrain imagery. The main quirk is that they are 'modern' shots, rather than pre-1953 vintage. So they are pretty much generic, lacking modern features, to keep them usable. (...)

Well, you know, I didn't care to mod every graphical side of the game - I rather focused on the elements I thought were more important (just like the terrain and political map colors). Nothing forbids me to take a look at other gfxs, though. Feel free to ask, I'll see what I can do.

What I liked is the basic choice of colours for countries and terrain features (hills, plains, urban) etc.
I also like the AA icon
Regarding icons, we cannot move away from the NATO counters, that´s very "deep" CORE philosophy.
But the ship counters are just great and since ours are generic anyway, that would be something to add
Regarding aircraft - I like what is in there but I am unsure wether it collides with out unit philosophy.

Thank you very much, Tegetthoff (as a matter of fact, the AA icon on map - not the one in the prov screen, which is mine - has been done by someone else; I liked it very much too, though, and decided to put it into my mod).

Re: icons, unfortunately I know my land models are unusable (apart from your mod's philosophy) because they aren't updated to CORE's light/heavy division system. I could mod them in the future, though, if people should show interest in that.

Besides, along with the naval counters can I kindly suggest you to use my improved land counters too? IMHO they do a good job in helping the player spot on map his most important units (tanks, HQs etc.) at a glance (given you're really referring to "counters", since I'm now thinking that maybe you were referring to naval icons).

Aircraft icons are the part of the mod that took me by far the longest time to make and which I'm more proud of (298 different model icons - except 4 - all done by me). It would be really cool if you'd implement them in CORE.

Those do look pretty good, I must say. Do like the Kharkov shot as well, for one.

Thank you very much too, Hagar (and, re: the Kharkov shot, it took me some patience to find it. Google didn't provide appropriate WW2-era pictures for the city, so I had to scout for a magazine with good ones, which I eventually managed to find).