Hearts of Iron IV - 18th Development Diary - 26th of June 2015

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The Army Planner

How you create armies in Hearts of Iron IV is a bit different compared to our previous games. You combine what you get out from the equipment production lines, with training from templates you create in the Division Designer.

On the same screen as the Army Planner, you can also define if reinforcements, upgrades, lend lease or actual divisions have priority on equipment being produced.

You train division by selecting a template from the division designer, and how many lines of those you want to run in parallel. Equipment will be assigned to these depending on priority, while training will go along at a steady pace, but always capped to the amount of equipment.

You can have multiple productions of the same type, with any amount of lines in each, but they all have a common priority and a target deployment.

You can only deploy to territory you own, that can trace a direct route to the capital and if you have a deployment target specified, the game will auto-deploy when training is 100%.

However, you can manually deploy units much earlier, but they may then be lacking training and/or equipment, but sometimes a half-trained brigade of fourteen year old boys is what you think Steiner needs to save Berlin.

As you have noticed, in various reports from the MP event, that the division designer have gotten a few updates and improvements since we first talked about it, over a year ago, mostly its about layout, and how we show information.

You can define if a division template is reserves, default or elite, which defines which divisions get priority on better equipment or not.

The icon defining a division on the map and in interfaces will be from the most important part of the division, but you can for your own preference change that icon to whatever you want, so you can easily see a difference between your variants.

Oh, and yes, there will be NATO symbols there for those that prefer those. And probably an option to use NATO symbols instead of great-looking-informative-paradox-style ones.

Next week, we'll talk a bit more about equipment..

nAfkkci.jpg
 
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Finally!

Thanks for the new DD.
 
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Cheers for the DD, it's very exciting getting them a fortnight apart. Going to be mad good after you'll all be back from holidays :). Really like the sound of the army planner as well, sounds like it'll make building a large army much more straightforward (while also deeper/more realistic) than HoI3.

You can only deploy to territory you own, that can trace a direct route to the capital and if you have a deployment target specified, the game will auto-deploy when training is 100%.

Any chance for an alert/pop-up/however it works in HoI4 when this happens?

You can define if a division template is reserves, default or elite, which defines which divisions get priority on better equipment or not.

Not sure if it's the right time to ask or not, but does 'elite' just relate to equipment, or does it relate to other things too - ie, can you nominate a unit as elite, give it your best tanks (Panthers! No, Shermans! No, T-34s! Pffft...make it Sentinels :)) and then rush them out half-trained and they'll still be ropey (my preference, for what it's worth), or will they get some kind of 'elite' bonuses as well (which may make sense if there was some kind of stricter recruitment mechanism a la paratroops or the like, but otherwise might be a bit odd).

The icon defining a division on the map and in interfaces will be from the most important part of the division, but you can for your own preference change that icon to whatever you want, so you can easily see a difference between your variants.

This is awesome - really great - the kind of system that if you're not looking for a deep involvement with your army and division builds, you can just let it run the way it is, but if you want to go all Black-ICE-alike, you can go to town. In terms of changing the icon to 'whatever you want', I'm guessing this is just from the range of icons assumed in the game, and that we can't import new ones in (other than via mods) - will there be many icons to choose from?

Next week, we'll talk a bit more about equipment..

It's very, very sweet to read a dev diary for HoI4 finish with "Next week, we'll talk about...." Cheers for a couple of DDs a week apart before you all go off on holidays :).
 
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Please, please please for the love of god let us be able to deploy troops to far flung theaters eg UK to India without having to fanny around with transports. Please?
 
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Not sure if it's the right time to ask or not, but does 'elite' just relate to equipment, or does it relate to other things too - ie, can you nominate a unit as elite, give it your best tanks (Panthers! No, Shermans! No, T-34s! Pffft...make it Sentinels :)) and then rush them out half-trained and they'll still be ropey (my preference, for what it's worth), or will they get some kind of 'elite' bonuses as well (which may make sense if there was some kind of stricter recruitment mechanism a la paratroops or the like, but otherwise might be a bit odd).

There are no elite units. This is a way of saying that these guys should get preferential treatment and also so you remember which are your best/most well equiped templates, and it makes sense to do that with more experienced troops, but nothing is stopping you from making "elite" SS divisions full of untrained idiots, designate them elite and send them off to die against experienced troops.

Please, please please for the love of god let us be able to deploy troops to far flung theaters eg UK to India without having to fanny around with transports. Please?

transporting is much less hassle now. you can ship troops back/to india with a single click now (at least in peace time)
 
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Please, please please for the love of god let us be able to deploy troops to far flung theaters eg UK to India without having to fanny around with transports. Please?

I just give movement orders to India and if the sealanes are more or less open, move of them arrive.
 
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I hope there won't be a sweet spot for early deployment before reaching 100%, like if you train your units 75% and they'll be at 80% strength or something. Deploying early really should be for saving Berlin in your time of need, 100% training should be the most efficient and sensible during peacetime or small border skirmishes.
 
Please explain to us effect of following division values:

Recon
Breakthrough (my guess is, that it affects chance of breakthrough combat event)

Thanks
 
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You can only deploy to territory you own, that can trace a direct route to the capital and if you have a deployment target specified, the game will auto-deploy when training is 100%.

But this doesn't make any sense... If you surround a capital a country doesn't stop working. Say a country like USA, if you surround Washington DC you can't deploy in Texas? I really hope you haven't the same logic when it comes to supplies. if you surround Washington DC you can't distribute supplies in Texas.
Please make it more decentralized, It's completely illogical and destroys a game when being Germany and your opponent can crack your supply/deployment system just by para shooting around Berlin. This is actually the single most annoying thing with HOI 3, please improve it to HOI IV :)
 
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I hope there won't be a sweet spot for early deployment before reaching 100%, like if you train your units 75% and they'll be at 80% strength or something. Deploying early really should be for saving Berlin in your time of need, 100% training should be the most efficient and sensible during peacetime or small border skirmishes.

you can read more about the details of training here: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...iv-dev-diary-13-conscription-training.837120/ but yes, it often makes sense to deploy early. There is also on map traiign which can get you to higher levels, but costs equipment.

Please explain to us effect of following division values:

Recon
Breakthrough (my guess is, that it affects chance of breakthrough combat event)

Thanks

Recon I think we'll wait to explain until we talk combat, but Breakthrough is a rename of Toughness from HOI3 because nobody understood what that means without a lot of time in HOI3. Breakthrough more clearly indicates that its a better breakthrough unit vs Defensive unit
 
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Please, please please for the love of god let us be able to deploy troops to far flung theaters eg UK to India without having to fanny around with transports. Please?

Come on, everyone who knows anything knows all the troops the UK had were shipped to the UK, then shipped back out to india. What you're asking is ahistorical.

and no, I'm not being serious obviously. :)

India trained a large amount of troops and produced plenty of weaponry during this period on it's territory. It's strange to consider that all UK military would end up from london. Though on the other hand, being allowed to deploy wherever (on cores) is a bit exploitable too, UK building it's entire military in singapore or hongkong might be a bit weird
 
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