The main reason has to do with the strategic scale of HOI. Germany might have been prolific in their tank designs in WWII, but many of those designs overlapped or had small differences between each other.
For the sake of simplicity I've omitted them.
Simply put, the screenshots represent a HOI IV tech tree adaptation, a simplification of period armories to fit in the scope of a grand-strategy game whose areas of focus are numerous and diverse between each other. It should not, and cannot, be a snapshot of a Military Encyclopedia. In fact, it is a simplification to what I feel are the basic, irreductible elements present in that era.
Specifically :
- The Nashorn/Elefant were ommitted due them sitting uncomfortably between the Jagdpanzer IV/70 (in the tech tree it's assumed to be the long-barrelled JgPz IV) and the Jagdpanther/Jagdtiger. The Jagdpanzer IV -> Jagdpanther -> Jagdtiger is a much more harmonious progression, similar to the USSR's SU-76 -> SU-85 -> SU-100 progression. I feel this is the single greatest omission in the tech tree thus far, but also completely necessary.
- For the Pz 38(t) and derived vehicles based on the Czech tank model. It's practically "captured" model. I feel it is *highly* presumptuous and inappropriate to include foreign equipment in a nation's tech tree. Thankfully, there are alternatives for all of the Czech vehicles and derivates. (As to the issue of captured equipment/lend-leased, that's a whole different can of worms, but one *certainly* not modeled by techs)
- Moebelwagen, Wirblewind are, at the game's scale, similar to the Ostwind and they were conflated.
- StuH 42 is another typical case of "there's no room" because of the clash between the diversity of the real-world German arsenal and the necessary "systemic consistency" that the Tech Tree (and the Template Upgrade system that rests upon it) need.
By that I mean that most likely the "Equipment" system will necessarily need to be simple and to the point, complex enough to capture reality but simple enough to make room for all the other systems in the game. I *highly* doubt that the Equipment system will be able to adapt from, say, "40 StuGs" to "20 StuGs and 20 StuHs", it just opens a can of worms, developmentally that is simply not worth wrestling with. As such, if the StuH would be in-game, it would need to replace the late-war StuGs. Well, where would those StuGs go? To the SP-AT Battalions? And what would they upgrade? Similar performance Marder IIs or JgPz IVs? Okay, and where StuG-comparable vehicles with their perfectly good 75mm guns go? To the scrap yard? See what I mean?
Including the StuH would create a "redundancy ripple" that would absolutely not serve the game and as I've said before, this is a Tech Tree, it has to play nice with the rest of the systems. Yes, even risking losing sight of some things due to its "grand strategic" point of view.
-The self-propelled 15cm Infantry Gun variants were omitted due to the low production numbers, negligible impact in the war and generally lackluster design (the other Assault guns fared better). Certainly far too lightly armored to serve in a Bunkerbusting capacity like the Brummbaer/AVRE. Now sure, I *could* have included these for what-ifs, but again, these are impractical designs. I could also have included the Neubaufahrzeug multi-turreted tank and further hypothetical Maus-like developments for it (just like I could have with the Soviet T-35), but I feel exploring those areas simply isn't worth it. The self-propelled 15cm Inf Guns simply aren't relevant.
the VK1602 was initially supposed to have one, but it was changed to a 50mm because of :sanity: so I dont think it would be a logical route
