CORE BASIC FRAMEWORK PROPOSAL
Greetings everyone.
As someone who had only discovered HoI about 6 months ago, and CORE not much later, while it was still in the 0.2 version, I must say I am greatly impressed by both Paradox's original game, and the terrific mod the community has made out of CORE. We've gone a long way, and already have something worth playing over and over.
However, at this point I think CORE needs a basic framework that would state our goals, our methods, our means of coordination, and our agreed-upon background. Basicaly, we need a mission statement. We have already grown to the point where catch-as-you-can approach is failing on some very basic issues, like balancing tech tree, ICs, natural resources, province layout, etc. I'd like to start a discussion whose goal is to hammer a mission statement together, in time for the v0.6 release.
I've made a basic draft of that document, so here it goes:
CORE BASIC FRAMEWORK AND MISSION STATEMENT
1. Community Open Resource Exchange, or CORE for short, is a mod for Hearts of Iron, by Paradox Entertainment, a strategic simulation of WWII. It is built by the community, with the community, for the community of HoI gamers and general public.
1.1. Since CORE has no formal organisation, it will be built by the general consensus of the community.
1.2. CORE spans the time period from 1936 to 1947.
2. The goals of CORE mod are as follows:
2.1. Simulate the starting economic, military, and political conditions in the world at the beginning of scenario, year 1936, geared for the normal level of difficulty and normal level of AI aggresion.
2.2. Enrich the vanilla HoI with events, unit types, names, leaders, and other historic details to create a more interesting game, one more "in the spirit of the times".
2.3. Tinker with game variables of HoI to create a realistic WWII simulation; that is, make it so that WWII generally follows its expected flow and has its expected outcome in majority of hands-off games.
2.4. Make CORE playable and fun by as many countries as possible.
2.5. Create a challenge for even the most experienced players, without losing the historical flavor.
3. All other considerations aside, CORE aims to build a more enjoyable, more playable, and more fun HoI then HoI itself. If we start to stray into unplayable, boring, and silly things, we will remember and slap ourselves in the face... ;-)
4. To allow for a realistic simulation of WWII, many factors must be taken into account. The most important of these are the distribution of IC, natural resources, and technology modifying those. The following categories must be observed:
4.1. The general amount of IC available to a country will be determined based on the GDP of that country at the beginning of scenario.
4.2. The flow of IC changes to a country during the duration of the scenario will try to model the historical change of GDP during that period, where that information is available.
4.3. The distribution of IC within provinces will be determined by historical sources, where available, and by common sense, where information is lacking.
4.4. The 4 natural resources in CORE will be used to represent the following:
4.4.1. Coal represents all coal reserves, and all similar fuels, such as wood and charcoal.
4.4.2. Steel represents steel and all other common metals, used in industry.
4.4.3. Oil represents petroleum reserves and sources.
4.4.4. Rubber represents all other, exotic, valuable industrial substances, minerals, and materials.
4.5. Supplies will represent all expendable war material, including food, ammunition, clothing, small equipment, spare parts, and other miscellaneous objects.
4.6. Supplies will also represent all other miscellaneous forms of wealth, such as gold and silver reserves, precious gems, tradeable luxuries such as spices, and coffee.
4.7. IC and natural resources should be balanced in such a way that computer AI can reasonably be expected to follow the historical GDP numbers, even for small countries.
4.8. The consumer goods factor can be used to model how much an economy is geared for war.
5. Units, unit technologies, and other miscellaneous factors, such as terrain and weather, determining outcome of battles, should be tailored in such a way that they closely mimic historical battles in duration, casualties, and likely outcomes.
5.1. Throughout the duration of the scenario, the technology tree should showcase the changing face of warfare; going from static trench, infantry-driven warfare, through armored blitzkrieg, to modern combined Air-Land battle approach.
5.2. Various national approaches to warfare should be represented through the unit types available, technology researched, build priorities, and AI tactics. For example, German invention of blitzkrieg and innovative use of doctrines, American reliance on strong airforce, Russian strategy of overwhelming the enemy with numbers, etc.
6. The diplomatic model of HoI should be tweaked in such a manner as to reasonably mimic the feverish diplomatic wrangling before, during, and after WWII. Historically likely and factual alliances, enmities, and relationships in general should be more likely then the ahistorical ones.
6.1. Each country should be defined as either a likely and/or factual member of one of the 3 great alliances, or a neutral. The diplomatic AI and settings for the country should reflect this.
6.2. Where the diplomatic model itself can't provide for the complex interactions between the countries, events should be used.
7. The overall technology tree should reflect reality of technology and engineering, and be resonably interwoven and complex.
8. Leaders, unit and formation names, ministers, province names, unit model names, and event names should be historically accurate whenever possible.
8.1. Each country should have enough leaders and ministers to allow the player some choice in the governing of that country. This generally means at least one replacement minister for each category, and preferably more over the course of the scenario.
8.2. Each country should have enough leaders to credibly lead their armies, calculated for the biggest possible army that country could raise given its IC potential.
9. AI files should be made and refined for all countries where appropriate by country's size, importance for general flow of WWII, and historical significance. These AI files should attempt to mimic the historical behavior of their countries both in the specific particulars and general tendencies.
9.1. When possible, AI files should be smart enough to provide players of all skill levels with a reasonable challenge.
10. CORE will be made with consideration of the historical importance of WWII as a global conflict, and the sensibilities of those who participated in it.
DEFINITIONS & SOURCES
Initial GDP = Taken from Maddison's 1938 GDP figures, likely taken from Harrison's "The Economics of World War II" (Mithel)
IC = Unit of Industrial capacity, represents anywhere from $7000 to $120,000 (no current consensus value)
MP = Manpower unit, set at 750 men. Generally speaking, manpower numbers assume a 1:1 frontline troop to support personnel ratio. Since manpower numbers refer to frontline troops, mobilization numbers should be treated accordingly.
Strategic Non-Oil Fuels ("coal") = Coal, Wood, Charcoal
Petroleum Fuels ("oil") = Oil
Strategic Materials ("rubber") = Rubber, tungsten, molybdenum, cobalt, bauxite, chromium
Industrial Metals ("steel") = Steel, iron, copper, aluminum
Supplies = ammunition, food, agricultural products, clothes, gold and precious metals, precious gems
Division = Basic land army organisational unit in HoI, defined as 15,000 soldiers
COMMENTARY
1. This paragraph basically identifies CORE and its goal. It is a summary.
2. This states our goals. I basically took what I found on the forums, and added some summary of what I thought people wanted out of CORE.
3. This needs to be there to remind us that this is all for fun... ;-)
4. Here I think I outline what is our biggest goal right now: fixing economical engine. I bow to Mithel and Procer for their thoughts on this, because I am basically paraphrasing them here.
4.1. It is important here to have a general, simple, measure of IC, that can be historically verified. GDP is simple, can be looked up, and represents the output of the entire economy in a pretty objective manner.
4.4. Rubber is a thorny issue. While Mithel wants rubber to represent everything not covered by other 3 basic resources, I think supplies can be used instead. I'd reserve rubber as the catch-all category for the really rare but important stuff in WWII, like rubber itself, chrome, aluminum, stuff like that.
4.5. I propose that we basically use supplies as a universal currency of CORE. Everybody needs it, more or less, and it can be traded around easily with events. Besides, it is generic enough to represent just about anything.
5. We are doing well with the "localisation" of countries, as far as I can see, all the major players have a distinct "flavor" to them.
6. Since diplomacy generally sucks in HoI, we are here to make it better.
6.1. Most events already do this, so we are doing well here also.
7. We're already on the right path with tech tree, it just needs to be more interrelated.
8. Majors are pretty well covered, but most minors have next to no leaders and next to no ministers. Also, they could use more localised units and formation names.
9. Right now, AI for most countries varies between just dumb and abysmally stupid. Some big events, like French collapse, and Russian defense against Germans, are sort of ok. Others are not, like Japanese lack of interest in the Southeast Asia and Pacific Ocean.
10. Obligatory notice, and besides I think it is only right that we remember that these things we are simulating actually happened, and that they were pretty grim.
Also, on a related note, I think we need to create more references for the builders, with things like starting army sizes, starting IC and natural resources, leader and minister lists, some sort of official map of provinces, maybe some reference for graphics people to know what images are needed, etc. Right now we basically have a list of threads and IDs.
I invite discussion on this pile of stuff I just made up... ;-)
Hopefully you guys will be able to use it as a starting point.
Zerli
P.S. Posting here because I didn't want to open a new thread, and this is sort of the general thread.
Greetings everyone.
As someone who had only discovered HoI about 6 months ago, and CORE not much later, while it was still in the 0.2 version, I must say I am greatly impressed by both Paradox's original game, and the terrific mod the community has made out of CORE. We've gone a long way, and already have something worth playing over and over.
However, at this point I think CORE needs a basic framework that would state our goals, our methods, our means of coordination, and our agreed-upon background. Basicaly, we need a mission statement. We have already grown to the point where catch-as-you-can approach is failing on some very basic issues, like balancing tech tree, ICs, natural resources, province layout, etc. I'd like to start a discussion whose goal is to hammer a mission statement together, in time for the v0.6 release.
I've made a basic draft of that document, so here it goes:
CORE BASIC FRAMEWORK AND MISSION STATEMENT
1. Community Open Resource Exchange, or CORE for short, is a mod for Hearts of Iron, by Paradox Entertainment, a strategic simulation of WWII. It is built by the community, with the community, for the community of HoI gamers and general public.
1.1. Since CORE has no formal organisation, it will be built by the general consensus of the community.
1.2. CORE spans the time period from 1936 to 1947.
2. The goals of CORE mod are as follows:
2.1. Simulate the starting economic, military, and political conditions in the world at the beginning of scenario, year 1936, geared for the normal level of difficulty and normal level of AI aggresion.
2.2. Enrich the vanilla HoI with events, unit types, names, leaders, and other historic details to create a more interesting game, one more "in the spirit of the times".
2.3. Tinker with game variables of HoI to create a realistic WWII simulation; that is, make it so that WWII generally follows its expected flow and has its expected outcome in majority of hands-off games.
2.4. Make CORE playable and fun by as many countries as possible.
2.5. Create a challenge for even the most experienced players, without losing the historical flavor.
3. All other considerations aside, CORE aims to build a more enjoyable, more playable, and more fun HoI then HoI itself. If we start to stray into unplayable, boring, and silly things, we will remember and slap ourselves in the face... ;-)
4. To allow for a realistic simulation of WWII, many factors must be taken into account. The most important of these are the distribution of IC, natural resources, and technology modifying those. The following categories must be observed:
4.1. The general amount of IC available to a country will be determined based on the GDP of that country at the beginning of scenario.
4.2. The flow of IC changes to a country during the duration of the scenario will try to model the historical change of GDP during that period, where that information is available.
4.3. The distribution of IC within provinces will be determined by historical sources, where available, and by common sense, where information is lacking.
4.4. The 4 natural resources in CORE will be used to represent the following:
4.4.1. Coal represents all coal reserves, and all similar fuels, such as wood and charcoal.
4.4.2. Steel represents steel and all other common metals, used in industry.
4.4.3. Oil represents petroleum reserves and sources.
4.4.4. Rubber represents all other, exotic, valuable industrial substances, minerals, and materials.
4.5. Supplies will represent all expendable war material, including food, ammunition, clothing, small equipment, spare parts, and other miscellaneous objects.
4.6. Supplies will also represent all other miscellaneous forms of wealth, such as gold and silver reserves, precious gems, tradeable luxuries such as spices, and coffee.
4.7. IC and natural resources should be balanced in such a way that computer AI can reasonably be expected to follow the historical GDP numbers, even for small countries.
4.8. The consumer goods factor can be used to model how much an economy is geared for war.
5. Units, unit technologies, and other miscellaneous factors, such as terrain and weather, determining outcome of battles, should be tailored in such a way that they closely mimic historical battles in duration, casualties, and likely outcomes.
5.1. Throughout the duration of the scenario, the technology tree should showcase the changing face of warfare; going from static trench, infantry-driven warfare, through armored blitzkrieg, to modern combined Air-Land battle approach.
5.2. Various national approaches to warfare should be represented through the unit types available, technology researched, build priorities, and AI tactics. For example, German invention of blitzkrieg and innovative use of doctrines, American reliance on strong airforce, Russian strategy of overwhelming the enemy with numbers, etc.
6. The diplomatic model of HoI should be tweaked in such a manner as to reasonably mimic the feverish diplomatic wrangling before, during, and after WWII. Historically likely and factual alliances, enmities, and relationships in general should be more likely then the ahistorical ones.
6.1. Each country should be defined as either a likely and/or factual member of one of the 3 great alliances, or a neutral. The diplomatic AI and settings for the country should reflect this.
6.2. Where the diplomatic model itself can't provide for the complex interactions between the countries, events should be used.
7. The overall technology tree should reflect reality of technology and engineering, and be resonably interwoven and complex.
8. Leaders, unit and formation names, ministers, province names, unit model names, and event names should be historically accurate whenever possible.
8.1. Each country should have enough leaders and ministers to allow the player some choice in the governing of that country. This generally means at least one replacement minister for each category, and preferably more over the course of the scenario.
8.2. Each country should have enough leaders to credibly lead their armies, calculated for the biggest possible army that country could raise given its IC potential.
9. AI files should be made and refined for all countries where appropriate by country's size, importance for general flow of WWII, and historical significance. These AI files should attempt to mimic the historical behavior of their countries both in the specific particulars and general tendencies.
9.1. When possible, AI files should be smart enough to provide players of all skill levels with a reasonable challenge.
10. CORE will be made with consideration of the historical importance of WWII as a global conflict, and the sensibilities of those who participated in it.
DEFINITIONS & SOURCES
Initial GDP = Taken from Maddison's 1938 GDP figures, likely taken from Harrison's "The Economics of World War II" (Mithel)
IC = Unit of Industrial capacity, represents anywhere from $7000 to $120,000 (no current consensus value)
MP = Manpower unit, set at 750 men. Generally speaking, manpower numbers assume a 1:1 frontline troop to support personnel ratio. Since manpower numbers refer to frontline troops, mobilization numbers should be treated accordingly.
Strategic Non-Oil Fuels ("coal") = Coal, Wood, Charcoal
Petroleum Fuels ("oil") = Oil
Strategic Materials ("rubber") = Rubber, tungsten, molybdenum, cobalt, bauxite, chromium
Industrial Metals ("steel") = Steel, iron, copper, aluminum
Supplies = ammunition, food, agricultural products, clothes, gold and precious metals, precious gems
Division = Basic land army organisational unit in HoI, defined as 15,000 soldiers
COMMENTARY
1. This paragraph basically identifies CORE and its goal. It is a summary.
2. This states our goals. I basically took what I found on the forums, and added some summary of what I thought people wanted out of CORE.
3. This needs to be there to remind us that this is all for fun... ;-)
4. Here I think I outline what is our biggest goal right now: fixing economical engine. I bow to Mithel and Procer for their thoughts on this, because I am basically paraphrasing them here.
4.1. It is important here to have a general, simple, measure of IC, that can be historically verified. GDP is simple, can be looked up, and represents the output of the entire economy in a pretty objective manner.
4.4. Rubber is a thorny issue. While Mithel wants rubber to represent everything not covered by other 3 basic resources, I think supplies can be used instead. I'd reserve rubber as the catch-all category for the really rare but important stuff in WWII, like rubber itself, chrome, aluminum, stuff like that.
4.5. I propose that we basically use supplies as a universal currency of CORE. Everybody needs it, more or less, and it can be traded around easily with events. Besides, it is generic enough to represent just about anything.
5. We are doing well with the "localisation" of countries, as far as I can see, all the major players have a distinct "flavor" to them.
6. Since diplomacy generally sucks in HoI, we are here to make it better.
6.1. Most events already do this, so we are doing well here also.
7. We're already on the right path with tech tree, it just needs to be more interrelated.
8. Majors are pretty well covered, but most minors have next to no leaders and next to no ministers. Also, they could use more localised units and formation names.
9. Right now, AI for most countries varies between just dumb and abysmally stupid. Some big events, like French collapse, and Russian defense against Germans, are sort of ok. Others are not, like Japanese lack of interest in the Southeast Asia and Pacific Ocean.
10. Obligatory notice, and besides I think it is only right that we remember that these things we are simulating actually happened, and that they were pretty grim.
Also, on a related note, I think we need to create more references for the builders, with things like starting army sizes, starting IC and natural resources, leader and minister lists, some sort of official map of provinces, maybe some reference for graphics people to know what images are needed, etc. Right now we basically have a list of threads and IDs.
I invite discussion on this pile of stuff I just made up... ;-)
Hopefully you guys will be able to use it as a starting point.
Zerli
P.S. Posting here because I didn't want to open a new thread, and this is sort of the general thread.
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