E3 2012: New Expansion for Hearts of Iron III Announced!

[podcat]

1. Can you tell us if and who of the "Main Moders" was/is involved in this expansion?
2. Is the Expansion in any kind connected with the mod "Finest Hour"?

1. no, we don't give out betas names without their approval, and even then only at the end of the project so they don't get spammed with questions they arent allowed to answer, but we havent started the beta yet.
2. no, sorry if the creator feels he need to change the mod name now saw it and couldn't say anything earlier to warn him before the announcement

Whats new in the first two screen-shots?

Who will be project lead and who will be working on it? I assume you will be Podcat?

nothing new in the first 2, they are just padding. these screens are shown to people who sometimes might not have played the game before so we like to put in a few regular screens too.

core team will be me, darkrenown and tomasz + yonaz & aerie doing any art stuff but as is customary other people are likely to chip in for parts they find interesting.

This probably has something to do with the "custom game" tab and feature.

yes this is a screenshot during a custom game setup

 

[Metz]

A good feature to add would be one where all units stationed in a province, regardless of who they are subordinate to will automatically obey the highest ranked general in a province if ordered to do so (a hold province/stand and fight command). So if you have several German units in Paris and you are being attacked by the Allies, then all units in Paris will temporarily attach to the highest ranking general and obtain his bonuses.

 

[Paglia]

Very good news !!!


If I follow correctly :

- the best part of Common Weapon of WWII
- the best part of Stars & Stripes
+
new Spying/OPS interface
+
a new map ? or the picture on China is no there to show such an improvement?
+
other great stuff

...


On the deeper invasion system? Will you correct the current flaw that allow someone to invade from very far away ? So that naval invasion would now not be possible with Cargos but would instead require a landing craft??? This would answer most of my own hopes ! (that are in line with those of many fans of the game)

 

[Metz]

A Prisoner of War system would be good. Its unrealistic that if you have 200k encircled, they all "disappear" and you will never get them back. With a PoW system, if you beat a country you can recover most of your captured soldiers and reuse them to build back old brigades.

That would be the simple version of it. The more complex version would be that as you capture more PoW's, you can place working stations in provinces and they will give you extra IC to use until you lose those provinces. Maybe 10k or 20k PoW's per working station. There could also be PoW policies, the harsher the policy is, the more IC bonus you get but your PoW's may die at a faster rate and it would raise your belligerence level.

 

[Easo]

Nice...

 

[Cybvep]

A Prisoner of War system would be good. Its unrealistic that if you have 200k encircled, they all "disappear" and you will never get them back. With a PoW system, if you beat a country you can recover most of your captured soldiers and reuse them to build back old brigades.

That would be the simple version of it. The more complex version would be that as you capture more PoW's, you can place working stations in provinces and they will give you extra IC to use until you lose those provinces. Maybe 10k or 20k PoW's per working station. There could also be PoW policies, the harsher the policy is, the more IC bonus you get but your PoW's may die at a faster rate and it would raise your belligerence level.

Not going to happen. The PI abstracts or omits such things.

 

[Wunderlicht]

Very good news Podcat and crew, very good news.

Eagerly awaiting the release... Good Luck!!!

 

[vertinox]

Looks awesome. Will there be extensive AI improvements this time around? Maybe seeing AI try its hand at encirclements?

 

[HMS Enterprize]

Will there finally be nation-specific regiment/brigade name files in the game (or at least the facility to create them ourselves) so we dont have to have generic regiment names regardless of the nation being played? Please.

Its only a little thing in the scheme of things but I think its a worthwhile addition to the game.

 

[TheBromgrev]

a new map ? or the picture on China is no there to show such an improvement?

Yes, there's a new map. Patch 3.06 has it, and it was made by the forum community. The China map is probably shown because it's radically different from the China map from all of PI's other WW2 titles (the China map for AHD is the closest you'll get to what's in 3.06 and that screenshot). Forum member jat85 redid the terrain and rivers, I personally redid the province boundaries and infrastructure, and ATLeow renamed the provinces. Some more work is needed (less mountains and more jungle down south; Gobi needs to stretch east further), but for the most part it's 90% done and accurate.

The fact that particular screenshot was shown at E3, despite the 3 of us not getting any credit, still puts a smile on my face. I at least know that what PI is showing off to everyone is my work that we volunteered to provide.

That's not to mention all of the other map modders who worked on the map. The screenshot of Spain shows the map work of sauloaleia, who redid all of Iberia just as jat85, ATLeow, and I redid all of East Asia. PaxImperator, VetMax, Frank+Frei, and many others also contributed to the new map as well.

 

[P-51]

- New 'battle plans' mode where you can load historical plans, or draw your own and share with your allies in real-time in multiplayer games.

This was quite desperately needed. I've been waiting for something like this for awhile. Thanks for finally getting around to it.

 

[MrFreeze]

Excellent,
can we imagine a "chronicles" version that will include all the addon of HO3 soon?

 

[panzeroo]

Excellent news !

 

[plasticpanzers]

Very cool!

 

[kuroiya88]

This was quite desperately needed. I've been waiting for something like this for awhile. Thanks for finally getting around to it.

Seriously, this should've been implemented back with Semper Fi. THIS would make HOI3 a much more manageable game than it is now. Managing hundreds of units at a time manually is just awful for Barbarossa. Praise Ares for finally enlightening PI!

 

[Camped Crusader]

"Shut up and take my money"

 

[Viper1989]

A Prisoner of War system would be good.

This is against Rule #1.

Edit: wrong post quoted

 

[Paglia]

Yes, there's a new map. Patch 3.06 has it, and it was made by the forum community. The China map is probably shown because it's radically different from the China map from all of PI's other WW2 titles (the China map for AHD is the closest you'll get to what's in 3.06 and that screenshot). Forum member jat85 redid the terrain and rivers, I personally redid the province boundaries and infrastructure, and ATLeow renamed the provinces. Some more work is needed (less mountains and more jungle down south; Gobi needs to stretch east further), but for the most part it's 90% done and accurate.

The fact that particular screenshot was shown at E3, despite the 3 of us not getting any credit, still puts a smile on my face. I at least know that what PI is showing off to everyone is my work that we volunteered to provide.

That's not to mention all of the other map modders who worked on the map. The screenshot of Spain shows the map work of sauloaleia, who redid all of Iberia just as jat85, ATLeow, and I redid all of East Asia. PaxImperator, VetMax, Frank+Frei, and many others also contributed to the new map as well.

I heard about that work. Very impressive. You can tell the others I do appreciate their work a lot.

Thanks !

 

[unmerged(7874)]

No SS units still I assume?


Will you guys be addressing the unit naming for each respective country instead of having all new units appear with English names (2nd Army, 1st Corps, etc..)? This would cut back A LOT of work in renaming units manually.

+1

 

[SAS]

Aside from new scripting commands needed to implement new expansion stuff, will you guys be adding any new commands/trigger/scopes that the community has requested in the past?