After Semper Fi - Proposal for a new Add-on

[DanSez]

I agree PJ, that there are a lot of Diplo options lacking or underdeveloped. I think the grand design of this was trying to work on the Military/Supply side - with various levels of success...
Yes, I think a better version of Lend/Lease where upgrading your units gives the Major Powers the option to add upgrades (kind of like tech transfers) to specific Minor Allies without costing Leadersip points.

Another thing would be to set the trades options differently (Minor Allies should be willing - if not forced to - trade excess resources to their Majors) and the threat level should work differently in trades As In - Sweden would be giving below market trade levels to the Germans after they conqurered Norway/Denmark/Low Countries/France - from FEAR of those resources being taken. The way it works now, Sweden gets scared and won't trade???? That should certainly be part of any Expansion.

Diplo (as compared to other Paradox games) came out a little short in this, but they did expand the War_Making side and I do enjoy the game, mostly, except when HamHung or some other bug causes me to abandon a GC 6 monthsor more into it. Doesn't happen all the time, but just saying...

 

[DanSez]

(thanks for the response)
6. In the Diplo Screen, you give the option to transfer tech. Can that be enhansed/modified further? Is it possible once a whole block of upgrades (Inf/Armor/Ftr/Bomber) are completed to set a flag to allow some kind of tech transfer or unit upgrade to a minor ally? Actual unit upgrades might be difficult to effect, but raising one or more minor allies' tech levels to simulate the transfer should not be too difficult as you have (you Devs) have some of the pieces already created.

 

[TanksAhoy]

Some ideas on what I would like to see in the future (though they aren't too well thought out at the moment)

Improvements in:

Diplomacy - The diplomatic options feel a bit limited right now. it would be nice to have more to do starting in '36. Plus I'd like to be able to see the leaders and ministers of other nations, makes me feel like I'm dealing with people rather than flags

Politics - It would be fun to deal with the internal politics of a nation (getting the support of the people, stability issues etc.) with options to help with national unity, dissent and lowering neutrality quicker! plus like diplomacy it would give more to do during peace-time. Also laws with pros and cons rather than more or less upgrades.

Intelligence - Not very exciting though I think it's easier to manage than HOI2. It would be nice to have some of the features of HOI2 like stealing tech, coups, assassinations etc

Army Management - Even though Semper Fi made this easier it would be nice to have a completely separate tab just for army management where you can easily organise army hierarchy, navy, airforce and leaders.

Cold War additions and intelligent AI use of nukes would be fun too

 

[Jazumir]

[...]Army Management - Even though Semper Fi made this easier it would be nice to have a completely separate tab just for army management where you can easily organise army hierarchy, navy, airforce and leaders.
[...]

I actually suggested this before SF came out. We got the OOB-browser (which i never use) instead. Still would like the OOB-tab.

Here are two more:

- The reserves in battle could be sorted by chance to reinforce, so that i just have to check the top-most to know what likelyhood the unit with the highest has.

- I dont like the (historic) battle-events. I think they destroy immersion more than they do good. But there is one thing about them, that i find is an improvement: The pop-up-design. It´s newspaper-ish. I´d say: scrap the b-events, but carry their design to things like scripted events (Vichy, mers-el-kebir and such), DOWs, surrenders... you know, everything joe average could have read in the news about (so, not: battle-reports and such - they should stay as they are, basically). Not only does this look better, but also, it differs one type of message from another, visually - you´d see at a glance ´oh, this is something political (newspaper)´... From here, it might not be too far to a simplified message-options-menu (without scraping the advanced menu, which should still be accessible through an ´advanced´ button, pretty much like the one, i have below the panel i am typing in, right now: ´go advanced´).

 

[Chromos]

IC change

Split IC in:
-Light
-Medium
-Heavy

You can build onyl different model/units with different types of IC.

So you could build everything up to light planes as fighters and light tanks and normal Art with LIGHT IC.
But need MEDIUM IC for tactical Bomber and medium Tanks.
And HEAVY IC for everything else more heavy then medium..

Maybe after building a certain number of IC in one province that counts as a new IC type. F.e.:
Fo every 2 IC build in one place you have 1 Medium. For 2 Medium one Heavy..
Now units would cost different IC:
Heavy Tank would cost you 2 light, 1 medium and 1 Heavy.. for (each) xx days..

Implementation:
It could be implemented with a check (not even a new building needed) of a province that counts every month what IC level is reached in the provinces and then calculates the countrys different availbale IC types.
If you have Med or Hvy IC in that province could be marked in a different colour(the colour of the IC number changes.) Or with a new buildig pic in the prvince viewer.

So we can simulate the power of a coutry to build different stuff way better.
(How hard it was to build a Yamato class ship, or how costly heavy tanks.)

You could have a rich Light IC country but were not able to build any heavy stuff at all.. The US on the other side had much HIGH IC locations..

The needed change to the engine should be only affect the new (monthly?) calculating cycle and the costs of each unit? AI IC building would be the same.(Is favouring already existing IC locations already)
A rearangement of IC on the map, balancing of mostly the greater powers..
Maybe take port size into account for shipbuilding to..

It would not make the game very more complex but gave much more immersion in coutry setups and realism that I can't think of to implement with the current possibilities.

Kind regards,
Chromos

 

[unmerged(142634)]

From another thread, I was pointed here to suggest it:

• Allow the purchase of units from other nations again. Nations can sell off their older ships to smaller nations in need of a navy, but without the IC they need to devote to it. Land brigades would be the tricky part of this. Perhaps the nation would only have to devote a small fraction of the reinforcement IC to them, but it would last for quite some time (To represent training the troops)?
• Allowing nations to pay another nation to build a ship/flotilla for them.
• Allowing nations to purchase the ability to upgrade brigades from other nations. Pretty much the same as purchasing production rights, except it upgrades existing units instead of creating new ones (Would be very useful for nations with manpower shortages). This could work for upgrading the upgradeable aspects of naval units too.
• Converting the manpower statistic to an actual number of people. Manpower seems like a bit of a strange/obsolete figure now that divisions display troop numbers. I just suppose it'd be easier to interpret.
• This one is the one I'm worried is just ridiculously unachievable:Having naval units constructed in a specific port. So you choose where you want that ship built! Ships could be attacked whilst under construction, if you lose the port, you lose the ships being constructed there. Maybe the level of the port could correspond with the size/amount of ships being built there?

 

[Chromos]

Hi!
As the new Expansion is announced, I think it is a good timing to ghater more ideas that could make it into this Expansion.
News can be found here:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?516558-Expansion-announced!&p=12006556&posted=1#post12006556

Kind regards,
Chromos

 

[unmerged(141369)]

There are two things which I would love to see improved in the expansion or - if possible - a mod:

- A full screen drag-and-drop open-trees-on-mouse-over lag-free user-friendly interface which allows you to allocate units in the command structure and generals to HQs, and
- a better army-, corps- and division-level AI which does not allocate a tank division or corps to attack a city while an infantry division in the next province is fighting in plains.

 

[Spartan_One]

From a modder's perspective, one thing I would like to see in the expansion is event driven influence modifiers. This could be used in a number of ways (such as to drive Finland closer to axis after the winter war, something that is hard to do even if you influence from day one) as well as some more conditional influence drives. It would be a great tool to devs and modders alike I think.

EDIT: to clarify, I mean having a command used in events to create influence towards a specific faction.
influence_axis 0.1
influence_allies 0.3
...
so forth

 

[Chromos]

bump, bump, bump, to the first page..
(As there is already a new post for wishes..)

Kind regards,
Chromos

 

[Slan]

From a modder's perspective, one thing I would like to see in the expansion is event driven influence modifiers. This could be used in a number of ways (such as to drive Finland closer to axis after the winter war, something that is hard to do even if you influence from day one) as well as some more conditional influence drives. It would be a great tool to devs and modders alike I think.

EDIT: to clarify, I mean having a command used in events to create influence towards a specific faction.
influence_axis 0.1
influence_allies 0.3
...
so forth

There's a modifier for that already (suseptibility_axis, etc.), but IIRC it only helps influencing, won't effect their drift on its own. What I would like to see instead is a command to actually push a nation somewhere on the triangle. Like "drift_x = X1", "drift_y = X2". This could help model Romania and Finland getting closer to the Axis. (A command to change the ruling party would also be immensly helpful, but with the "coups" part in the announcement, I'm pretty sure we will get that one. I will probably have to rewrite half of HPP, but that's to be expected )

 

[X_MasterDave_X]

Oh Chromos,

i didnt saw you already created such a thread. Even showing my comment in first Post. Wow.

Here my Proposels i wrote before in the Expansian announced Thread from Kallocain:



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Finally a new addon to HoI3. Thats what i was waiting for. And also focusing on the Motherland -> Russia -> Land War. Yeah!!!

The biggest construction site is still Russia and China. They need to be made stronger. For a human player its way to easy to conquer Russia in 3 Months. Many things should be made tougher:

a) Weather Effects
we need that the Germans really suffer attrittion before they have their "winter tech", the russians have from start.
b) this means a wheather system that works. Meaning...mud that stopps the advance in the rain months, and a winter that stopps every attacker in Russia. YOu should get highest attrittion when you attack in Russia when its winter...until you have the tech for that. Russians should have it....and make their historical winter offensives. The german Player should fear the Russian AI, when the weahther turns to snow. Atm nobody cares about wheather. Oh and the frozen Ground should get down until Kiev or even more south. ATM i see them only in northern parts. Also northern Europe (Alps) is most times snowfree...but England has snow. Shouldnt it be the opposite?
c) Russians need enough IC (Landlease help and transferred Industire to siberia, that they are able to replace the losses of the first war year. In history they build more troops in the first 6 months of the war as they had at start of the war in june 41.



This has to be balanced with Multiplayer also. So we would need special help for the AI, to make the game expierence much better for the human Player. So in fact we would need enhanced difficulty levels.

Until now, the most Invasions stall, because the AI get not enough supply to their new invasion spots. When you give the AI 2-4 times the supply throughput at higher difficult Levels, then all Invasions will be much more successful. I tested that with 2.04beta, and the US AI overran Japan, and landed massivly in France...overrunning Germany also. Also gave the USA much more manpower to build a good force sooner. This has also to be balanced for Multiplayer.

The Orgproblem was only solved half for 2.04..there is still room for enhancement....but has to be balanced also. Atm the attacker in HoI3/SF is way stronger as the defender. This should be changed in nächst Addon. We need a bit more WWI in our WWII Game. Land changes to fast.


Well, Semper Fi did much for Sea Invasions. Now we need the same for the Land war. So the Name "For the Motherland" is a good decision. I am happy.


Oh...a last idea about how to sell future Sprite DLC´s better:
In HoI3 you have a very differnt view on the map, as it is in Vic2. In Vicky you can see all those detailed Sprite Soldiers very good...as you see them more Isometric. In HoI3 you see them directly from above. Makes it nearly worthless to use Sprites. In Vicky2 they look awesome, as i see more as just their helmet from above. Would it be possible to give this view to the Hoi3 Map? Would make the optic in this Addon awesome....maybe a Reason more to buy it.
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[Slan]

In HoI3 you have a very differnt view on the map, as it is in Vic2. In Vicky you can see all those detailed Sprite Soldiers very good...as you see them more Isometric. In HoI3 you see them directly from above. Makes it nearly worthless to use Sprites. In Vicky2 they look awesome, as i see more as just their helmet from above. Would it be possible to give this view to the Hoi3 Map? Would make the optic in this Addon awesome....maybe a Reason more to buy it.

I don't understand that one... Granted, I don't use Sprites all that much, but when last time I checked, using them and scrolling in did make the turn the angle of the camera...

 

[X_MasterDave_X]

I don't understand that one... Granted, I don't use Sprites all that much, but when last time I checked, using them and scrolling in did make the turn the angle of the camera...

Wait...i will show you.

Thats the way how it is in Vicky2:

As you can see everywhere the Soldiers look good, as wee see them from an inclined position. So you can see the full soldier. In the lower Part of the screen an center you can see less of the Soldier....the prussian one in upper right part is even better visible.

But every soldier in this Game is good visible..even when you zoom far away out of the map...to see big parts of the map. Usually we do that when we play. Nobody zooms very close...well not often.


In HoI3 its very differnt. If you want such a view....the soldiers good visible..you need to zoom much in. So much..you cant see a big part of the map...and such inclined..that it is hardly to play it that way:

The real view we use, should be more around this....far away..to see all the frontline:

Now you can see the problem. The soldiers are nearly invisible...and you see them directly from above. Look at the red circles. The bulgarian horse is directly from above. Doesnt looks nice at all. Or look at the US soldier in upper part. Still not a good angle to see him. Just in the edges of the map...you get a slightly better view on soldiers..when your far away. The german one is good visible. But as HoI3 is now...you just can watch some units in the edges...all others are pretty ugly to watch.

So Vicky2 gave a very good new view. I would like that for HoI3 also. Then sprites would be used again by the Gamers. Atm i know nobody who uses them.

 

[Chromos]

Hi.
It looks that this could be changed easily because it is just needed to change the angel of view a bit.

Kind regards,
Chromos

 

[X_MasterDave_X]

Yes i thought the same...should be easily possible to change this. And then the sprites would sell good again...and people would use them. Now there is no reason.

 

[Slan]

Let's count the sprites in the two pictures, shall we?

Victoria 2: about 30.
Hearts of Iron 3 zoomed out: about 75.

That's the reason why units turn into counters rather quickly as you zoom out. Then again, it matters very little how much of the unit is visible if it is drawn at all...

 

[aenri]

I would propose a little change in trade department . An ability to merge all trades with countries into one big trade.
The main problem is that the same number of convoys is used when the trade is 50 energy or 0.1 energy, and every trade has its own convoy. I as human am not that hampered by it, but the AI suffers from convoy shortages.
It will also reduce the clutter in trade/convoy window. The only problem would be the inability to cancel individual trades. But if the feature will be optional this problem will be also avoided (you won't merge the trades you want eventually cancel).
Also for AI it should at least merge the convoys to let it cancel individual trades (it is sad to see 5x16 convoys from Dover to Boston ferrying 5 energy...).
It all boils down to establishing ONE trade route between two nations, which will convoy their every trade.

 

[Jazumir]

The thing is, if the AI you buy from runs out (or something) it will cancel one trade. If you only have one, it will be the one. So instead, i propose a select-feature for trades and buttons for ´cancel´ and ´merge´ applying to a whole selection. Left-clicking selects / deselects individual trades. Shift-clicking a trade may select all trades with that nation. Right-clicking may select all trades with them and the same import and export goods involved (all energy-sales, for example).

This way, you can merge the trade with a partner to like two or three, preferably one (or more) for each traded good, easily.

The selection should be stored ´above´ the prod-tab, meaning it will still be active when you re-enter the tab (in case you want to check something on the map). Add a ´deselect all´ button.

 

[Slan]

Allowing the merge of trades is not a good idea and I tell you why. If you make a trade deal, you get 15 points of relations. If you cancel a trade, you lose 15 points. Now, if you merge three trades, for which you gained 45 points overall, and cancel it, you will have 30 points of net gain. Highly exploitable. This could be avoided by adding a relations value to trades: the relations change would depend on the size of the trade: selling 50 of every resource should give you more of a relations change than 1 point of Energy.

By the way, since 2.03, the size of the trade effects the size of the convoy. (Although running two simultaneous convoys needs more ships than one covering both cargos, which is realistic IMO.)