Quick Questions/ Quick Answers - HoI4

  • We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
I am playing historical, but never got Slovenia. Guess something went wrong r they declined. I do have an annex war goal against them I can use. Guess that will have to do, although it locks me out of fate of greece and some others.

Thanks for the quick responce!
 
  • 1
Reactions:
is there any path in the Polish focus tree that allows me to play with the actual flag of Poland?
What is the actual flag, in your view? The one at the start of game (white-over-red horizontal bicolor) is as far as I know the official national flag, first adopted in 1919. The one with the coat of arms (eagle on a shield) added is a marine ensign and supposedly restricted to a few specific official uses, like airports and embassies. (Not that I expect the Polish Flag Police will arrest you for displaying one outside your house on a holiday.)

There are 12 flags for Poland in the default installation. (See the ...\gfx\flags directory; the Polish flags start with "POL_".) The coat of arms appears in four of them, but none of them are exactly the bicolor with the shield in the upper white stripe. If that's the flag you want, I think you'll need to mod the files. (Easiest way would just be to edit the default file -- but you'll need to save a copy and replace it after any update that changes that file. Or you could write your own mod, which in this case would be the replacement flag and a little text file telling the game loader about your mod.)

GIMP, among other programs, can display and edit .tga files.
 
  • 2
Reactions:
What is the actual flag, in your view? The one at the start of game (white-over-red horizontal bicolor) is as far as I know the official national flag, first adopted in 1919. The one with the coat of arms (eagle on a shield) added is a marine ensign and supposedly restricted to a few specific official uses, like airports and embassies. (Not that I expect the Polish Flag Police will arrest you for displaying one outside your house on a holiday.)

There are 12 flags for Poland in the default installation. (See the ...\gfx\flags directory; the Polish flags start with "POL_".) The coat of arms appears in four of them, but none of them are exactly the bicolor with the shield in the upper white stripe. If that's the flag you want, I think you'll need to mod the files. (Easiest way would just be to edit the default file -- but you'll need to save a copy and replace it after any update that changes that file. Or you could write your own mod, which in this case would be the replacement flag and a little text file telling the game loader about your mod.)

GIMP, among other programs, can display and edit .tga files.
Yes the bicolor flag adopted in 1919. Is there no way to play with the bicolor flag? Sanation was the historical path, but the flag and color of the country changes.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions:
One of the special forces techs gives +5% defence. Is that the defence value you get when defending, or does that also include +5% breakthrough when attacking?
 
One of the special forces techs gives +5% defence. Is that the defence value you get when defending, or does that also include +5% breakthrough when attacking?
Just defense.

Before researching tech:
SF_before.png
After researching tech:
SF_after.png
 
That seems a bit lacklustre then. Your special forces already have more than enough defence by virtue of being infantry.

The lower path (expanded special forces) seems to have better bonuses, unless you really really need that +48hr supply grace.

(Not that either of them are really worth the research time...)
 
  • 1
Reactions:
When the combat width shrinks e.g. due to a tactics change, which units remain in combat? Is there a rule?

Also, is there in general a rule on who is initially selected to defend when combat starts?
 
Also, is there in general a rule on who is initially selected to defend when combat starts?
The available units get added in descending order by (soft_attack + hard_attack + defense) * org * strength. On the attacking side, breakthrough replaces defense.
 
  • 2
Reactions:
...those were not the answers I wanted to hear.

It strongly prefers wide units, then.

When the AI has a 40-width unit on the tile, it gets priority to enter combat. My general, clever as he is, happens to roll Guerrilla Tactics, and suddenly the AI's unit is the only one holding the combat together.

If the unit happens to run out of organisation when the combat width is shrunk, the whole stack retreats, my own units never having touched the enemy.

Not great. And even worse when the width reduction is due to a river crossing (bridge tactics) since you lose the river too...


There's still the semi-unanswered question from me a few pages back: does reinforcement from reserves happen in the same descending order as well? Because that would be disastrous.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions:
There's still the semi-unanswered question from me a few pages back: does reinforcement from reserves happen in the same descending order as well? Because that would be disastrous.
The old answer used to be that only the first unit in the reserve list can reinforce. But they changed how this works in patch 1.11.0 (the patch log says: "Fixed an issue where only the first division in the reserves list would be given a chance to reinforce").

As far as I can tell, it now selects the reinforce candidate based on the weighted distribution of (reinforce chance)².
 
  • 2
Reactions:
I suppose this sort of question is more for modders or codier people like bitmode.

Does the 'type' in the files for equipment actually do anything? Armoured cars are type motorized, with the infantry type having been removed. What difference would it being infantry have made? Is it used by the AI to help guide its production or something?
 
  • 1Like
Reactions:
Does the 'type' in the files for equipment actually do anything?
TLDR: National ideas can apply bonuses based on the equipment's type, so they probably wanted to get rid of unintended bonus usages. This seems to be a repetitive error for the devs, as there are a bunch of other equipment files with type infantry being commented out.

It does. It is not consistently a type though (or a category, as it is internally called) because it can have multiple values (i.e. fighters have type = { fighter interceptor }) with only some of them being mutually exclusive. Or anti-tank, with this brilliant developer comment:
Code:
type = { 
            anti_tank
            infantry #adding infantry type
        }
In some cases it is used like a capability set. For example, an air wing can only fly air superiority missions if one of its equipment "types" is fighter. For ships, the carrier/capital/screen capability determines their placement in battles. There don't seem to be any equivalent mechanics for land equipment.

Ideas (advisors, national spirits etc.) can apply bonuses to equipment types. For example POL_anti_blitz_tactics reduces production cost for equipment with type = { motorized } and type = { mechanized } (EDIT: wrong, see below)

Equipment needs to have at least one type of armor, motorized, mechanized, and/or infantry to be recognized as land equipment at all. This is used for things like generatingspending army XP and categorizing production lines.
 
Last edited:
  • 6
Reactions:
Ideas (advisors, national spirits etc.) can apply bonuses to equipment types. For example POL_anti_blitz_tactics reduces production cost for equipment with type = { motorized } and type = { mechanized }
I thought this was strange, so I tried to look for it. Your suggestion for type=motorized would mean that, armoured cars would get cost-reduced by this spirit because armoured cars are type=motorized. But the armoured cars don't get cost reduced. What the idea actually says, is...
Code:
POL_anti_blitz_tactics = {

        allowed = {
            original_tag = POL
            always = no
        }

        allowed_civil_war = {
            has_government = fascism
        }

        removal_cost = -1

        picture = generic_manpower_bonus

        equipment_bonus = {
            motorized_equipment = {
                build_cost_ic = -0.1
                instant = yes
            }
            mechanized_equipment = {
                build_cost_ic = -0.1
                instant = yes
            }
        }
    }
Which is motorized_equipment and mechanized_equipment, which are different than type=motorized.

Opening up the motorized equipment file, we see...
Code:
equipments = {

    motorized_equipment = {
        year = 1936

        is_archetype = yes
        picture = archetype_motorized_equipment       
        is_buildable = no
        type = {
            #infantry #Removing inf type
            motorized
        }
        group_by = archetype
        
        interface_category = interface_category_land
        
        maximum_speed = 12
        reliability = 0.8
        hardness = 0.1

        breakthrough = 5

        #Space taken in convoy
        lend_lease_cost = 5

        build_cost_ic = 2.5
        resources = {
            #oil = 1
            rubber = 1
            steel = 1
        }
        
        fuel_consumption = 1.2
        supply_truck = yes
    }

    motorized_equipment_1 = {
        year = 1936

        archetype = motorized_equipment
        priority = 30           
    }

}
I bolded the two key parts. One is the header, the motorized_equipment archetype which is being referenced by the idea. The other is the 'type' of equipment.
This is used for things like generating army XP and categorizing production lines.
The XP thing is interesting, if having a different type means you would give different amounts of XP. I'd imagine the production stuff is just guiding the AI and what list the equipment shows up in?
 
  • 2Like
Reactions:
Which is motorized_equipment and mechanized_equipment, which are different than type=motorized.
You are right, that was a bad example. The equipment bonus has to match the type name exactly, otherwise it just matches archetypes. Running a trace, I only see references to the armor type actually being used. For example, SOV_morozov_design_bureau_1:
Code:
equipment_bonus = {
				armor = {
					maximum_speed = 0.03
				}
			}
 
  • 3
Reactions:
The XP thing is interesting, if having a different type means you would give different amounts of XP.
I was wrong yet again, it is just about the XP type to be spent when creating variants or custom designs. Seems pretty useless(?)
I'd imagine the production stuff is just guiding the AI and what list the equipment shows up in?
I think it influences the filtering buttons above the production line. And if you, say, change light tank chassis to type = carrier, then they'll be built with dockyards and have the carrier wing config button etc. For the AI, it is basic stuff like "is this equipment of one of the types that has an equipment designer?"

I'm still wondering though what the significance of infantry for armored cars was.
 
  • 1Like
  • 1
Reactions: