I think that the tech tree is one of the strongest parts of HoI. You can replay the same nation in the same scenario and try a different tech strategy and get a significantly different play experience.
However, I think that a few things ought to be changed to improve the game:
Problem - Tech sharing right now is overpowered. A minor nation with good manpower can become a real juggernaut if a high-tech power dumps tech on it. Try playing as the US and giving Poland all your techs to see what I mean. I suggest two changes.
Solution Part 1 - First, that doctrines cannot be transferred at all. They represent the training and indoctrination of a nation's military IMHO, and you can't give that to anyone.
Solution Part 2 - Second, I suggest that the giving of a tech should not actually grant that tech to the receiving nation. Instead it should drastically reduce the IC cost of development, but not the time. I suggest that if someone gives a tech to another country that that other country should be able to research the shared tech for 1/4 the cost, but the same amount of time.
Problem - The cost of researching Doctrines varies too widely between rich nations and poorer ones. With good war entry the cost to the US of researching a 40 IC doctrine is around 1/15th of it's discretionary IC budget. For France it's around 1/4.
Solution - Like EU2 'research' I think doctrine research costs should vary with a nation's ICs. For the richest nations I'd make a current 40 IC project cost 80, for the poorer end I'd make it cost 20 or so. Non-doctrinal research would not be affected, and the time involved would not change.
Making the AI capable to respond to gift techs will be difficult, and I admit that this adds complexity to the game as well, and tech can be daunting already. However, IMHO these are not overly difficult to implement, and they would result in a less powerful, but still useful, tech sharing scheme. They would also give smaller powers a reasonable shot at having doctrines which allowed them to share a battlefield with the major powers (though not on equal footing), which certainly happened historically.
However, I think that a few things ought to be changed to improve the game:
Problem - Tech sharing right now is overpowered. A minor nation with good manpower can become a real juggernaut if a high-tech power dumps tech on it. Try playing as the US and giving Poland all your techs to see what I mean. I suggest two changes.
Solution Part 1 - First, that doctrines cannot be transferred at all. They represent the training and indoctrination of a nation's military IMHO, and you can't give that to anyone.
Solution Part 2 - Second, I suggest that the giving of a tech should not actually grant that tech to the receiving nation. Instead it should drastically reduce the IC cost of development, but not the time. I suggest that if someone gives a tech to another country that that other country should be able to research the shared tech for 1/4 the cost, but the same amount of time.
Problem - The cost of researching Doctrines varies too widely between rich nations and poorer ones. With good war entry the cost to the US of researching a 40 IC doctrine is around 1/15th of it's discretionary IC budget. For France it's around 1/4.
Solution - Like EU2 'research' I think doctrine research costs should vary with a nation's ICs. For the richest nations I'd make a current 40 IC project cost 80, for the poorer end I'd make it cost 20 or so. Non-doctrinal research would not be affected, and the time involved would not change.
Making the AI capable to respond to gift techs will be difficult, and I admit that this adds complexity to the game as well, and tech can be daunting already. However, IMHO these are not overly difficult to implement, and they would result in a less powerful, but still useful, tech sharing scheme. They would also give smaller powers a reasonable shot at having doctrines which allowed them to share a battlefield with the major powers (though not on equal footing), which certainly happened historically.
