A House Divided Q&A session

[CaptRobau]

My question: would it be possible for you to include with AHD, one of its patches, or as a seperate download, a pack which contains the templates you used to make the event, decision and tech graphics with (if you did it with a program available to the public like Photoshop). To further clarify, I'm talking about the layers with borders, scratches, blotches, grain, etc. you've applied to the historical photos and sketches which you used for aforementioned event/decision/tech graphics. Right now when modders want to change/add these images they're stuck with either a plain black & white photo or at the very best a poor approximation of what your images look like. If you could release such a pack, modders could make any picture look like the one of the steam locomotive in the picture below.

 

[nestorius]

Has a heligoland decission been put into the game or are we still forced to fight uk for it?

 

[Naselus]

Does the AI understand this? I would realy like Naselus to respond to this. Please...

Yes. The AI no longer responds to cash crises by disbanding it's entire army, and no longer obsesses over the navy to the point of bankruptcy.

 

[Dagfinn]

Yes. The AI no longer responds to cash crises by disbanding it's entire army, and no longer obsesses over the navy to the point of bankruptcy.

Thanks a bunch!

 

[AlknicTeos]

And can both Germany and Scandinavia form at the same time now?

If the one pan-nation is able to do it with the decision and the other pan-nation got (succesful) pan-rebels somewhere, at the same day, then yes. But the chance is very very low

 

[Comrade Chaos]

May I ask the of the Westernization level of Persia? I ask because they had European influence since Napoleon. Imported weapons and European training and the like.

 

[ZechsMerquise73]

Would you say that the game now gives more diverse and plausible results?

For example, in vanilla, there were a lot of things that were unrealistic, but would happen almost every games, like Bolivia getting destroyed by all of its neighbors, or the British getting big chunks of China.

The UK no longer takes huge junks of China. It actually stays solid through pretty much the whole game as far as I've seen. With the new mechanics for China, its a whole new political landscape over there. The colonization of China mainly comes in the way of influence, which seems a lot more historical.

What I've enjoyed is that there are a lot more plausible alternative history results, like the UK taking Alaska, or someone other than France colonizing Africa.

You'll no longer see the map looking completely the same at the end as it did at the start, which, in my opinion, is a massive improvement.

 

[RedRalphWiggum]

May I ask the of the Westernization level of Persia? I ask because they had European influence since Napoleon. Imported weapons and European training and the like.

IIRC, (and I could be wrong, not at my PC now), Persia starts with some progress towards westernisation already completed, as do one or two other countries.

 

[calvinhobbeslik]

Were there any changes to South America that stops every country from declaring war on all its neighbours because they all have cores on each other?

 

[Chipster]

If I were to start in the ACW scenario as a non-American country, how often do we see the CSA win the war? About 50/50, less than half the time, but still often enough, or almost never?

This is assuming that I don't interfere with the war.

 

[Hibernian]

Yes. The AI no longer responds to cash crises by disbanding it's entire army, and no longer obsesses over the navy to the point of bankruptcy.

That's certainly good to hear!


First of all, thanks for actually taking the time to answer questions from the community (if only it were done more often...).

Anyway, my only concern with AHD when I read the DDs was the change to how Mobilization was done. That is, you guys said that mobilization of reserves would be based on the size of your standing army, which to my mind would make many historical mass mobilizations impossible; like when the US mobilized millions of men to fight in the First World War after having a very small standing army, or the way the Swiss military worked (almost no standing army, all reserves). My concern was that this could also be easily exploited in cases where a country was just in a war and had it's standing army annihilated and then another country declares war on them straight afterwards, they would not be able to mobilize at all.

How has this panned out in actual game-play and how does it affect warfare in the game?

 

[flyguy117]

Are there any new nations in AHD?

 

[sebajokela]

Were there any changes to South America that stops every country from declaring war on all its neighbours because they all have cores on each other?

I hope no since its fun to conquer other nations there.

 

[Beamed]

Is industrialization now actually worth it? Currently in vanilla the only point to industrializing is getting access to liquor and maybe, early-game, regular clothes. Steel, which helped drive the industrialization of Germany and especially America, is almost entirely useless - it rarely turns a profit. Has AHD tweaked the economy in this regard?

 

[AlknicTeos]

Were there any changes to South America that stops every country from declaring war on all its neighbours because they all have cores on each other?

They still go for their cores, but I have seen less wars and better borders there in my games

 

[delra]

Were there any changes to South America that stops every country from declaring war on all its neighbours because they all have cores on each other?

Rather the opposite, the game is less boring in this region than it ever was because every country here can now not just get their own cores but also demand someone else give up what he took from others. In my multiple Chile and Argentina games I intervened many times to enforce Brazil and other bigger countries returning what they bullied out of others, and it's something that really speeds up the gameplay of the region.

 

[podcat]

Not directly related but I've always been curious to know if developers actually pick ideas from good mods for an expansion (features not bug fixes). So do you? If yes, could you give an example of one?

Usually mods have one specific direction they want to go that is different from what we envisioned. I'm not sure I can remember any right now, but we have included ideas and suggestions from how the PDM economy works.

My question: would it be possible for you to include with AHD, one of its patches, or as a seperate download, a pack which contains the templates you used to make the event, decision and tech graphics with (if you did it with a program available to the public like Photoshop). To further clarify, I'm talking about the layers with borders, scratches, blotches, grain, etc. you've applied to the historical photos and sketches which you used for aforementioned event/decision/tech graphics. Right now when modders want to change/add these images they're stuck with either a plain black & white photo or at the very best a poor approximation of what your images look like. If you could release such a pack, modders could make any picture look like the one of the steam locomotive in the picture below.

not sure what is available but I can check up on it after release.

May I ask the of the Westernization level of Persia? I ask because they had European influence since Napoleon. Imported weapons and European training and the like.

they start partially westernized. I think 20%.

 

[Naselus]

Is industrialization now actually worth it? Currently in vanilla the only point to industrializing is getting access to liquor and maybe, early-game, regular clothes. Steel, which helped drive the industrialization of Germany and especially America, is almost entirely useless - it rarely turns a profit. Has AHD tweaked the economy in this regard?

Not so much tweaked, as 'completely rewritten'. Steel is now a hugely important enterprise. Raw materials are now hard to come by, rather than massively overproduced. Industrial products are rarely overproduced by more than 2-3%, and are usually in slightly high demand for 2/3rds of the game.

Seriously, just about the only thing you'll recognize from vanilla is the number of goods; even a few of the production chains have been altered.

 

[sebajokela]

Rather the opposite, the game is less boring in this region than it ever was because every country here can now not just get their own cores but also demand someone else give up what he took from others. In my multiple Chile and Argentina games I intervened many times to enforce Brazil and other bigger countries returning what they bullied out of others, and it's something that really speeds up the gameplay of the region.

Yes.I love playing in south america so its good news to me.

 

[AlknicTeos]

Is industrialization now actually worth it? Currently in vanilla the only point to industrializing is getting access to liquor and maybe, early-game, regular clothes. Steel, which helped drive the industrialization of Germany and especially America, is almost entirely useless - it rarely turns a profit. Has AHD tweaked the economy in this regard?

Also prior some factories made awesome profits - far more than in any rgo - and helped to get bigger armies,navies, happier pops.
And now, money isn't that easy to gain. You want industrialization to develop your country, more than before.