Dear all,
after reading through the tech threads, it appears that some players are disappointed with the well balanced land tech tree and, sliders and doctrinal tech tree. I guess this mod may be a way to deal with some (though not all) of the concerns of fiendix, pcasey, noob and others. It probably won't be for everyone.
So I'm thinking of releasing a mod where the tech tree is UNBALANCED. As it stands the land doctrines are different, but they will become even more different.
Basically the idea is that land doctrines and sliders become even more unbalancing, to represent differences between nations. I haven't tested the files yet, but here's an idea of what's planned.
Land tech
Increase difficulty of getting better Infantry and armour technologies by changing difficulties of components to 9. This means that the big boys with great teams will get it done with little difficulty, but minor powers will probably need blueprints from a major power to stay closer to the historical game. (Probably have to give the AI a research bonus in difficulty to account for AI stupidity as well).
I'm also considering upping the cost and tech requirement of engineers, because at the moment they are utterly cool and incredibly cheap for what they do.
Land Doctrines
The Basic idea is to better represent national differences by doctrinal differences. Germany's success in developing new tactics will be simulated by giving Blitzkrieg doctrines an earlier historical year than the equivalent "Human Wave" (i.e., Soviet) defence doctrine.
Basically, take the existing differences in national doctrines and make them bigger, although by late game they will be somewhat equalised.
A nation choosing blitzkrieg will have better armour, while a mass attack may have cheaper infantry early on, between 39 and 41. However, between 42-43 other doctrines catch up, at which point economics will have a greater affect than equal doctinres. This may be slightly determnist, but we'll see how it goes. There will be a modest window (39-41 for Blitzkrieg, 41-42 for infiltration) where the Axis can have a significant doctrinal advantage in land. Later on, things equalise.
Proposed changes-
These changes will almost certainly require testing, and will probably be vastly unbalanced intitially, especially as the betas have extensively tested HOI 2. But hey!
Slider Change
The essential idea I have for slider change is that the standing Army/Drafted Army is changed more to an EU II style quality/Quantity slider. It will thus be a very important slider, more so than now.
Quality (germany, UK)
-A LOT of experience, org bonus, MORALE bonus, manpower penalty (slight), moderately higher unit production time, slightly less manpower, UNIT UPGRADE BONUS
Quantity (US, Sov)
-Better Gearing Bonus, manpower bonus, slightly lower unit prod time.
I think the biggest bonus will be more experience for fresh troops for the quality side of the slider, maybe even as much as 40% (translating to +20 combat modifier straight away). However, Veteran quality troops will eventually become experienced, they'll just be green when built.
I may even tweak unit upgrade costs, so that we may reach a point where it may be feasible to continue producing outdated units with a heavy gearing bonus versus upgrading or producing more advanced units. A free market/quality nation will get a hefty bonus for massive serial runs, but be harder and more costly to upgrade.
It is also open to debate as to how much additional choice this will give. Sliders are difficult to change, and there's only a limited number of clicks, but we'll see how it goes.
I have no idea whether this mod will provide any improvement over unmodded HOI 2. I suspect that certainly early on, it will not. I'll maybe put some tentative files out on the weekend. It will also need massive testing in MP and SP to be anywhere near worthwhile.
after reading through the tech threads, it appears that some players are disappointed with the well balanced land tech tree and, sliders and doctrinal tech tree. I guess this mod may be a way to deal with some (though not all) of the concerns of fiendix, pcasey, noob and others. It probably won't be for everyone.
So I'm thinking of releasing a mod where the tech tree is UNBALANCED. As it stands the land doctrines are different, but they will become even more different.
Basically the idea is that land doctrines and sliders become even more unbalancing, to represent differences between nations. I haven't tested the files yet, but here's an idea of what's planned.
Land tech
Increase difficulty of getting better Infantry and armour technologies by changing difficulties of components to 9. This means that the big boys with great teams will get it done with little difficulty, but minor powers will probably need blueprints from a major power to stay closer to the historical game. (Probably have to give the AI a research bonus in difficulty to account for AI stupidity as well).
I'm also considering upping the cost and tech requirement of engineers, because at the moment they are utterly cool and incredibly cheap for what they do.
Land Doctrines
The Basic idea is to better represent national differences by doctrinal differences. Germany's success in developing new tactics will be simulated by giving Blitzkrieg doctrines an earlier historical year than the equivalent "Human Wave" (i.e., Soviet) defence doctrine.
Basically, take the existing differences in national doctrines and make them bigger, although by late game they will be somewhat equalised.
A nation choosing blitzkrieg will have better armour, while a mass attack may have cheaper infantry early on, between 39 and 41. However, between 42-43 other doctrines catch up, at which point economics will have a greater affect than equal doctinres. This may be slightly determnist, but we'll see how it goes. There will be a modest window (39-41 for Blitzkrieg, 41-42 for infiltration) where the Axis can have a significant doctrinal advantage in land. Later on, things equalise.
Proposed changes-
- Increase difficulty for most land components to 9 in order to make things more difficult (may need testing, especially for the AI).
- Give Blitzkrieg bonuses to Toughness, HA, SA (+2?) and Mobility (+1) early on for Armour, mech and HQ (and engineer Speed cap). Other doctrines will get these bonuses later in the tech tree, it's just that Blitzkrieg will have an early advantage. Most bonuses will occur before Kampfgruppe.
- Blitzkrieg will get minor attack bonuses for CAS, but lets face it, CAS have a very short lifespan against organised air defences and will give a modest early bonus only.
- Change the Soviet equivalent of Kampfgruppe (Large formation SOP) from historical year 1941 to 1942. With increased difficulty from tech, it may be possible to discover it in late '41, but not quite in time for Barbarossa.
- Human wave gets some bonuses towards artillery and rocket artillery, in SA and IC cost later in the tech tree (think masses of Katushya's reigning death on the enemy).
- The Infiltration doctrine (Japan) will peak in 1942. It already gives enormous bonuses to night attack, but I'll probably add on a few more bonuses to building marines.
- Human Wave and Blitzkrieg get slightly more assaults than they do now, to simulate the offensive nature of these doctrines (other combat events will be modified).
- Elastic defence will give better defence values to Mot, Mech, and Cav.
These changes will almost certainly require testing, and will probably be vastly unbalanced intitially, especially as the betas have extensively tested HOI 2. But hey!
Slider Change
The essential idea I have for slider change is that the standing Army/Drafted Army is changed more to an EU II style quality/Quantity slider. It will thus be a very important slider, more so than now.
Quality (germany, UK)
-A LOT of experience, org bonus, MORALE bonus, manpower penalty (slight), moderately higher unit production time, slightly less manpower, UNIT UPGRADE BONUS
Quantity (US, Sov)
-Better Gearing Bonus, manpower bonus, slightly lower unit prod time.
I think the biggest bonus will be more experience for fresh troops for the quality side of the slider, maybe even as much as 40% (translating to +20 combat modifier straight away). However, Veteran quality troops will eventually become experienced, they'll just be green when built.
I may even tweak unit upgrade costs, so that we may reach a point where it may be feasible to continue producing outdated units with a heavy gearing bonus versus upgrading or producing more advanced units. A free market/quality nation will get a hefty bonus for massive serial runs, but be harder and more costly to upgrade.
It is also open to debate as to how much additional choice this will give. Sliders are difficult to change, and there's only a limited number of clicks, but we'll see how it goes.
I have no idea whether this mod will provide any improvement over unmodded HOI 2. I suspect that certainly early on, it will not. I'll maybe put some tentative files out on the weekend. It will also need massive testing in MP and SP to be anywhere near worthwhile.
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I hope this will change in a later (the next?) patch. This takes away LOTS of modding possibilities...
