Concern: Are Air regions too big?

[Bane5]

From the WWW stream, I can certainly say that HoI4 is shaping up to be a good game.

Something that concerns me though is the size of air regions. Controlling where your planes go can affect casualty rates. Some air regions are big, others are small. As an example, Northern France seems to be 2x or 3x bigger than the air region over the netherlands/Belgium. Ukraine is another extremely big air region. The Italian air region is very elongated and weird from a gameplay perspective as well.

In many instances, I can imagine the players would want more focused air coverage over a certain area especially if the game goes ahistorical. Northern France for instance is a very big region. I would suggest splitting up into 2 regions: "Brittany-Normandy" and "North-Eastern France". Ukraine can be split into eastern and western. Italy can be an additional north-south split.

To help with micro-management hell, borrow a mechanic from naval fleets and let airplanes fly the same mission in up to 3 provinces. That way my planes could cover all of France, or just a particular coastal region. Cutting up some of the big regions is especially useful if you want to relegate your obsolete planes to areas where the enemy's air range may be at its limit.

 

[Mannstien]

From the WWW stream, I can certainly say that HoI4 is shaping up to be a good game.

Something that concerns me though is the size of air regions. Controlling where your planes go can affect casualty rates. Some air regions are big, others are small. As an example, Northern France seems to be 2x or 3x bigger than the air region over the netherlands/Belgium. Ukraine is another extremely big air region. The Italian air region is very elongated and weird from a gameplay perspective as well.

In many instances, I can imagine the players would want more focused air coverage over a certain area especially if the game goes ahistorical. Northern France for instance is a very big region. I would suggest splitting up into 2 regions: "Brittany-Normandy" and "North-Eastern France". Ukraine can be split into eastern and western. Italy can be an additional north-south split.

To help with micro-management hell, borrow a mechanic from naval fleets and let airplanes fly the same mission in up to 3 provinces. That way my planes could cover all of France, or just a particular coastal region. Cutting up some of the big regions is especially useful if you want to relegate your obsolete planes to areas where the enemy's air range may be at its limit.

They are a bit big but I have a feeling the Air War will be polished more through a DLC or patch since they are missing Air Supply currently from the base game I can't imagine it not being put in at a later time since it was one of the mentioned parts in the supply diary and who wants Transport planes that can't fly supply missions? (Other than for Paratroopers they are pretty expensive to build and personally I'd like some options to supply surrounded troops if I'm building them.)

 

[Mac Lazer]

I'm fine with it, but I do have one problem: From one of the WWW videos I saw, North Africa is one air region. The ENTIRE northern coastline of Africa is one single air region. Like wtf. That could easily be 4 air regions.

 

[Mannstien]

I'm fine with it, but I do have one problem: From one of the WWW videos I saw, North Africa is one air region. The ENTIRE northern coastline of Africa is one single air region. Like wtf. That could easily be 4 air regions.

From what I've seen the biggest problem with the huge air zones is that your planes can range all the way to their limits which will reduce their ability to defend themselves and other than setting how often they return for repairs (I think the same as the Naval setting) your going to take some major attrition the farther they range out. Unless I'm missing something your just assigning planes to those regions and that is it, so your interceptors may very well range out to the farthest they can go and take some major attrition when perhaps you just wanted them over your front lines or just behind the enemies.

Again, I think the Air War has something missing about it that I can't put my thumb on (though I think it's better than HOI3 by a long shot it's still missing some panache) and believe they will either patch in a zinged up version of what they currently have or it will be DLC later on after release and I would say the same for the Naval side though it's more easily abstracted due to the vast territories it tends to cover.

 

[Vidkjaer]

I agree.
Sending naval bombers from Germany to the naval region just north of Willhelmshaven will get them all the way to the British coast and not just off the coast of Germany. They will have less efficiency and get shot down.
I just want them to attack off the coast where British fighters can't reach them.

 

[Denkt]

This is really one of those things you can only say after have played the game.

 

[Sharp163]

I honestly just wish that air forces could be integrated into the battle planner, and told to "follow the front"

 

[Ostheim]

I agree the massive areas for air missions seem odd. I was thinking why not make air units capable of operating in up to 3 or 4 connected regions within range.

Give them names even ie.--- Type: Heavy Bombing; Area: Close, Tactical, Strategic, Campaign _or_ something simpler--- Type: Air Superiority; Area: Small, Medium, Large.

Have the unit type/fuel/tech determine how many regions etc.

 

[Bhaal]

I have to agree that they look a bit big through an observers eyes, especially North Africa. I am going to reserving judgement until I actually get my hands on the game though, I will not know for sure until I get to use the system myself. I have to also agree that it does look a little bland at the moment and am 100% sure that a DLC or some patching will spruce it up in time.

 

[Ultimate_Hobo]

Considering there isnt any interception if there were lots of small air zones then it would be impossible to defend against bombers.

 

[OBRkenobi]

I'm fine with it, but I do have one problem: From one of the WWW videos I saw, North Africa is one air region. The ENTIRE northern coastline of Africa is one single air region. Like wtf. That could easily be 4 air regions.

Its probably unfinished.

 

[Mac Lazer]

Its probably unfinished.

I hope you're right lol

 

[Wyrm]

Well, nothing says there are no range-limits within air-zones. They might just work as a zone to keep aircraft contained. As I have understood it, aircraft will physically travel from their start to end-point and can be intercepted by aircraft within the same airzone as their target. That will not mean that short-ranged aircraft from Algeria can bomb Alexandria.

 

[PlacidDragon]

I'd say that, no, air regions are not too big. Since you have to confine yourself to one when assigning aircraft, it would be a massive click fest if you needed to manually reassign them from sector to sector every 5 minutes.

The range should play a factor, we've seen that in the WWW's. Which again should lead to strategic decisions, where to build airfields, etc.

Well, i hope

 

[Vidkjaer]

As I have understood air zones, planes with a range shorter than the size of the air zone gets an efficiency penalty. This is true even if the front lines are just in the beginning of the airzone and the front line is within plane range.

 

[Oahkoah]

I'll have to play the game before I come to a conclusion about the size of the air zones. The fact that flying over an air zone doesn't trigger fighter response (only at the destination) leaves me a little worried about being able to create enough planes and remembering to attempt air superiority in every single zone.