A Random World Map Generator would add infinite replayability

[Hippob4]

I'm sure some of us are a bit jaded about having to fight against the same ol' Axis, Allies, or Comintern and more specifically in regards to this thread: the map and geography.

England and America will always be separated from mainland Europe, France will always share its eastern borders with Belgium Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, and so on. Because the map never changes, your strategies will more or less stay the same too. A 'suitable' invasion of mainland Europe in France and/or Italy, island hopping for both Japan and USA, and so on.

I think the last time I felt like things were fresh map-wise was when I had Germany puppet South America and just fighting through the Jungles as the US against South American infantry and militia, with German expeditionary forces here and there felt like a new experience. Mostly because again, the setting was different unlike the same old battlefields of Europe and Asia.

That is why I would love, love, love to see a random world map generator for HOI4 like what Europa Universalis IV has

All those points for amphibious invasions :O ...

That's why I think the Civilization is so beloved too. If the game was constantly set in real-life Earth, then I think replayability would be diminished significantly. Instead, they randomly generate maps, creating a sense of exploration, replayability, and freshness in regards to empire building and warfare too.

Granted, given how 'linear' 1936-1948 is, I can see how it would be much harder to design a World Map generator, and to be fair, the map generator in Europa Universalis 4 is only for the Americas. Asia, Africa, Europe, etc remain the same (though there is a option to randomly place different nations on existing continents. A

Either way, I know it would be hard to do for Paradox in a WW2 setting but if was in HOI4, I dont think i would be able to stop playing the game

 

[SchwarzKatze]

A problem is that unless the focus tree can be generated dynamically too, its diplomatic aspects would become mostly useless, and there needs to be another way to create global tension to lead to a world war.

 

[Kozer]

A problem is that unless the focus tree can be generated dynamically too, its diplomatic aspects would become mostly useless, and there needs to be another way to create global tension to lead to a world war.

"Hi there Japan with your great Naval tech! You are now a completely landlocked country where Russia used to be!"
"Germany! Your infantry are too good! Enjoy these few and far between islands!"

I get the idea behind this suggestion. I personally do not see it working without some major balancing.
Maybe in a mod.

 

[Ctanr]

i think this would be much harder to implement,because it would break a ton of National focuses,events etc. and i dont see a lot of fun there

PS:france and the netherlands dont have a shared border

 

[Kagemusha]

I agree with Schwarzkatze, Kozer and Ctanr ... it may probably be too hard to implement in a way that it creates maps that make sense for the national specialities

 

[Super-Soviet]

I believe HoI3 had a fan made random generator.

 

[Daddl]

While I love games that have random generated maps, it simply doesn't fit the theme of HoI. Civilization and EU4 are at least partially about exploration, and it adds a lot to the fun to slowly uncover the map and find out whats out there. HoI is not about discovering unknown lands at all, and a random generated map looses a lot of its appeal if its fully uncovered from the start. HoI is set in a very specific scenario, and while its good you can do a lot of weird things after the start, I don't think its that much fun if the start itself is weird.

I would try this as a mod of cause. But I don't think a random world fits HoI as good as it fits other games.

 

[panzerzombie]

I guess in this fantasy world a nation should only retain its name and none of the national pecularities and certainly not a specific NF-tree. All nations would need the same generic tree with a lot of room to specialize.

 

[Murmeldjuret]

Creating a believable world map isn't too hard. If you want swamps where swamps might be, rivers, mountain ranges, peninsulas, island chains it gets progressively harder. Since I assume HoI uses level of importance to decide how big provinces are (Paris region vs mid Siberia) it might get really tricky to do it anywhere near the level the original game map will have. Day-night cycle shouldn't be too hard, nor should weather effects.

Finding provinces and places where nations might live is not too hard, nor should it be too hard to ensure nice borders. Voronoi-diagrams populated with fractal curves taking into account rivers etc and you get something that looks plausible enough. Islands might be assigned by a "Global Empire" rating, so that GB would get high, but smaller nations like Netherlands might also get a high rating where Russia would get a small (again just random trololol and it looks plausible).

Populate domestics should be doable. Assign regions of high manpower along rivers, randomly scaling entire regions (EU vs China), removing forests and replacing them with farmland appropriately. You can give regions and nations a "Industry tech" progression and assign industry after that. It should be forced to make a First/Second/Third world distinction. Destroy non-western nations and assign them as colonies to the "global empire" nations, keeping the cores/cultures.

Getting a plausible national distinction might be hard, but it easy to give countries with lots of coast, or islands, a larger amount of naval factories and naval focus. Give nations some random "focuses" from a focus table and you get something that looks decent in terms of what the nation does.

The problem will be a balanced and interesting diplomacy. With the dynamic civil war mechanics it might be possible to simulate spanish civil war like things early, and then throw some nation lots of random bonuses and casus-belli. Problem is to get it balanced and interesting, which will more be a matter of testing testing testing.

All in all, it is definitely doable, it will likely not be as detailed as vanilla, but it will be work.
I have considered making a random world generator for EUIV, but have never got the initiative started. It seems easier to make one for EUIV than it is for HoI, though HoI might need it more as the timeframe is narrow.

 

[inteljoe]

I agree with Schwarzkatze, Kozer and Ctanr ... it may probably be too hard to implement in a way that it creates maps that make sense for the national specialities

I don't think it would be that difficult, it would just mean that the generator would have to be designed in such a way that certain countries were always in certain places or have x% of land/water/mountains/etc. Additionally another way would be to give every nation generated a national focus tree and a blank tech tree (may be set a point allocation system to determine tech) so every nation starts off the same more or less depending on it's geographic location. You could also bring in custom nations as well in this fashion.

 

[CocoCincinnati]

This game for me has always been about WWII and as such I prefer to have the same map where that conflict was fought. I have already gotten endless replayability out of each of the previous three installments of this series simply because of my interest in the history of the event. Randomizing things, for me, would remove that historical interest. That being said, if Paradox were to include something like this as an option that I could ignore, it wouldn't effect my games in the least so more power to you.

 

[aruon]

the only kinds of wacky random scenario that world be compatible with HOI 4 would be a pre-done shattered would along the lines of the shattered world from Supreme Ruler Ultimate... or...

I believe HoI3 had a fan made random generator.

...this