Divisions need more than one sad, lonely guy

[KiwiNoob]

The thing with Civ is that anyone doing modelling work knows the shape of the province is all the same. Realistically, due to various province shapes, you've got a good deal less space to play with in HoI4 (I'd say around a quarter of the space those models take up there).

I would disagree with 'a good deal less space'. Granted there is a bit less space but there is still plenty to work with.

 

[Axe99]

I would disagree with 'a good deal less space'. Granted there is a bit less space but there is still plenty to work with.

In terms of absolute surface area, the sizes aren't that different, but in terms of the size of a reliable shape that can be found in each province that can be used as a guide for how large the models can be, it's a fair bit smaller. There are tall, thin provinces, and short, wide ones, and at the end of the day, the models have to work with both, so have to be as thin as the thin provinces, and as short as the shortest - that was what I was getting at.

Edit: Don't get me wrong, I don't mind the idea at all - I'm just thinking through having to implement it, and can see a few headaches if it was me having to make it work.

 

[KiwiNoob]

True but I'm happy if in the extreme examples the models stray slightly over the borders. As long as the centre of the units is clear it shouldn't be an issue.

Besides - ships already sail over bits of land in some coastal provinces so perfect visual harmony doesn't look to be a requirement

 

[Axe99]

True but I'm happy if in the extreme examples the models stray slightly over the borders. As long as the centre of the units is clear it shouldn't be an issue.

Besides - ships already sail over bits of land in some coastal provinces so perfect visual harmony doesn't look to be a requirement

Again, not having a go, just thinking it through (and could well be wrong ), but once you start getting models crossing over the borders, what happens when groups of models start clipping into each other? At least to me, it starts to become an ugly, jumbled mess - and the nature of HoI is that there'll be lots of provinces with troops in them next to each other, because that's the nature of a front, so there's going to be a lot of clipping going on if they take this approach. Not saying it's a bad thing or a good thing, but it wouldn't be something I'd go for personally.

 

[KiwiNoob]

Ever the devils advocate and you must be very unimpressed with the ships then because sailing over the top of each other is exactly what they're doing when they aren't sailing over land....

I'm not disagreeing with you though. I think that will be one of the determining factors of 'how many' is best. I wouldn't want a whole lot of clipping either.

 

[Axe99]

Ever the devils advocate and you must be very unimpressed with the ships then because sailing over the top of each other is exactly what they're doing when they aren't sailing over land....

I'm not disagreeing with you though. I think that will be one of the determining factors of 'how many' is best. I wouldn't want a whole lot of clipping either.

Haha, aye, sorry - I'm chewing the fat and trying to add perspective on the issue, deffo not trying to cause trouble . I'm definitely not overly thrilled at the ships clipping into each other, but I'm not crazy worried either (my focus is on gameplay substance, if the ships are bright pink and sailing backwards I could live with it if the actual mechanics were good) - I could live with it if they went with mega-overlapping multi-models that spanned multiple provinces as long as the counters and arrows could show us what was going on (devs - if any of you are reading this, I'm not suggesting you would actually do this ) - but given the aim of the models is to look immersive, too much clipping tends to be counter-productive.

We'll see - if there's a way to import the model used in the game into some kind of 3D modelling tool, I imagine it wouldn't be overly complicated to resize and have a play around with (although animating would likely still take some effort - and in both cases you'd need to know what you were doing - you wouldn't want me doing it, I don't know my arse from my elbow when it comes to 3D modelling ). Vonboe provided some links to tools that I think were free, at the very least on a trial basis, in his 3D modelling thread, if someone was keen they could fire that up and maybe practice with some of the EU4/CK2 models or similar? I'd guess it'd be the same principle, and a working proof-of-concept in EU4 (you've got cavalry, artillery and infantry, so could try the different types of units as well) would be a good way to make a strong argument.

 

[Will Steel]

Whether or not they implement multiple-model units, a major thing they do need to implement is a better, realistic battle sound system.

It is only so much time before those repeating loops of machine gun fire and airplane sounds become boring. In HoI3 it was really painful, Victoria 2 was barely better. They get really boring in almost every game, except maybe in CK2 because in that game my focus is completely on looking over stats and numbers and not on the sound. But in every other game it becomes utterly bland within a very short span of time.