- Dec 14, 1999
- 19.083
- 73.414
Air orders were one of those more interesting problems to play around with. When we started to think about them we first looked back at what we had done previously. So what did we do previously? Well in Hearts of Iron 1 we had the system of air units operating single provinces. It was great, you knew exactly where your air unit was going to be, but hell to manage. So in Hearts of Iron 2 we came up for the system of regions of operations. It was nice to manage, but wasn’t it just so annoying when your bomber would bomb the wrong unit in the region? So we came up with the idea of user defined region of operation, limited by range you define how large an area an air unit operates in. Thus you can have fighters patrolling large areas, while your close air support bombs that stack you really want then to bomb.
Now all this sounds great but how to do this in a simple manner? You start with an air unit, give it province to operate in and a mission. Then you get 4 additional choices. The first two should be fairly familiar to you. You can tell an air unit to only operate in the province you have selected, just like in Hearts of Iron 1. Or you can also tell the air unit to operate in the region you have selected, just like Hearts of Iron 2. However for Hearts of Iron 3 we have added two more options, defining a cone and a circle. In both cases you define the maximum range and then map will handily show you where they operate, from here you can shift click to add and subtract provinces as you see fit. When you define a cone you select the angle of the cone, thus you could define fighters operating the UK to operate in a semi-circle centred along the South coast. They will intercept German planes inside that semi-circle but won’t stray over into France in the pursuit of enemy planes.
Air missions themselves are fairly similar to Hearts of Iron 2 in both number and effect. However we have made two important changes to how missions work. Firstly we rewrote runway cratering so that it will also damage planes on the ground. This we feel was most definitely missing, and allows you to try and catch enemy airforces on the ground. The second is how logistical strike works. If we cast our minds back to the dev diary about logistics, supplies flow out towards units. Each province in the line of the supply holds supplies moving forward towards the frontline unit. It is now possible to target and destroy these supplies, preventing them reaching the enemy front line units.
With regards to the mechanics of the air mission system we are also implementing the same reserve system as found in naval missions. So you can have three fighter squadrons, two in combat in one in reserve. When one of the fighter squadrons gets too low in strength or org it will drop into reserve and the reserve squadron will replace it. This allows those long running air missions, like air defence of the home land, to run fairly continuously with the minimum of player intervention.
Well that’s our introduction into air units; we’ll be back for more in a future Developer Diary Instalment.
Now all this sounds great but how to do this in a simple manner? You start with an air unit, give it province to operate in and a mission. Then you get 4 additional choices. The first two should be fairly familiar to you. You can tell an air unit to only operate in the province you have selected, just like in Hearts of Iron 1. Or you can also tell the air unit to operate in the region you have selected, just like Hearts of Iron 2. However for Hearts of Iron 3 we have added two more options, defining a cone and a circle. In both cases you define the maximum range and then map will handily show you where they operate, from here you can shift click to add and subtract provinces as you see fit. When you define a cone you select the angle of the cone, thus you could define fighters operating the UK to operate in a semi-circle centred along the South coast. They will intercept German planes inside that semi-circle but won’t stray over into France in the pursuit of enemy planes.
Air missions themselves are fairly similar to Hearts of Iron 2 in both number and effect. However we have made two important changes to how missions work. Firstly we rewrote runway cratering so that it will also damage planes on the ground. This we feel was most definitely missing, and allows you to try and catch enemy airforces on the ground. The second is how logistical strike works. If we cast our minds back to the dev diary about logistics, supplies flow out towards units. Each province in the line of the supply holds supplies moving forward towards the frontline unit. It is now possible to target and destroy these supplies, preventing them reaching the enemy front line units.
With regards to the mechanics of the air mission system we are also implementing the same reserve system as found in naval missions. So you can have three fighter squadrons, two in combat in one in reserve. When one of the fighter squadrons gets too low in strength or org it will drop into reserve and the reserve squadron will replace it. This allows those long running air missions, like air defence of the home land, to run fairly continuously with the minimum of player intervention.
Well that’s our introduction into air units; we’ll be back for more in a future Developer Diary Instalment.
