Hearts of Iron IV - 18th Development Diary - 26th of June 2015

[agus92]

The reserve tag of that unit only determines their supply and reinforcement prioritiy, nothing else. They use the same template as an elite unit of the same type, the elite unit simply gets better equipment earlier. You can probably just click on the reserve division and raise their priority.

As far as I understand, there's no such thing as tags for a division, but instead for the whole template. Correct me if I'm wrong.

There's another issue related, besides quality of equipment. Said reserve division (with a reserve template) saw a lot of combat unexpectedly and now I want it to perform first line duty. However, for that role it lacks armor/arty/whatever. Now I want to upgrade or switch the composition of it's regiments, but whitout changing the whole "reserve" template.
In order to do so, I think a "switch template for the division" button is needed.

 

[Denkt]

You can change template.

 

[paranoidsteve]

You can change template.

Yes you can, but for all divisions on that template......not just the one you might want to change resupply priorities to.

 

[Denkt]

No you switch the template the division is using. Like change an infantry division into a tank division. That will not change any other infantry division.

 

[agus92]

No you switch the template the division is using. Like change an infantry division into a tank division. That will not change any other infantry division.

Oh, that's nice! Do you mind if I ask you for sources?

 

[Denkt]

yes, you can switch, but of course that reorganization will take some time. Generally switching or upgrading a template is something you will want to do in larger chunks, or during quiet periods because you wont really be able to fight as efficiently during such organizations

 

[agus92]

Awesome, that's exactly what I was asking for.

Thank you very much Denkt!

 

[tommylotto]

I think with the current HOI IV system you could mod in a battalion type 'Big Red 1' and give it the unit patch or as already seen the 42nd Rainbow Division unit type. The Big Red 1 battalion type can have the same stats as a normal infantry battalion or something special. I am hopeful that you can tag the type unbuildable and just load the one off divisional template with the unique battalion type with an event loaded OOB.

I suspect each individual icon would require its own special battalion type and its own special template, and the way that the division builder screen is laid out, that would really, really clutter the interface for what is really just a bit of unnecessary graphical flourish. I have to say these windows look kinda hostile to modding. The template picking window and the battalion picking window use big thick buttons that look nice and are easy to select, but if modded to add a lot more, that graphic design would become cumbersome as the button you were looking for would likely be off screen and require scrolling. A nice tight list layout would be better for adding more unit types. I see that the selection screens are not alphabetical. So, maybe they are player sortable so at least you could keep the most used templates and battalions at the top of the list. Still, adding unit types and template types will probably require the pain of modding the graphical user interface too.

EDIT: Just a thought. If only buildable templates and buildable battalions showed up in the division designer window and if those special battalions and templates were limited to only being built once, then once built they would disappear from the list and the clutter would be greatly reduced. For example, the U.S. could be pre-loaded with over 100 special battalions and 100 special templates (one for each division). If already in the starting OOB or once built, the battalion would disappear from the list and not clutter everything up.

Another thought. Such a mod would defeat the best feature of templates -- being able to update numerous divisions with a single change. With 100 templates, each would have to be separately modified to change all, and each change would require land experience.

 

[paranoidsteve]

No you switch the template the division is using. Like change an infantry division into a tank division. That will not change any other infantry division.

It is my understanding that this is wrong, Any change to a template effects all the divisions that have been build using that template. If you make a copy of a template, change it, it will make new divisions from the new template, but the old ones wont change.

 

[Denkt]

You don't change the template, you change the template the division is using.
Like if you have an infantry template and an airborne template. You got a division that is using the infantry template you can just change the division template to airborne template and the division will become an airborne division (will take alot of time and probably cost alot of the divisions experience) but the 2 templates are not changed at all.

 

[tommylotto]

I think you guys are talking about two different things. You can change a template that will change every division of that template type according to that change. Or you can switch a single division's template from one template to another. That switch would only effect the one division changing templates and the remaining divisions of that template type would not be changed. However, it seems that switching templates will disorganize the division for a while.

 

[Krafty]

I know he said ignore the numbers, but, thats some crazy high soft attack.

Are we going to, since it appears we have a real manpower count and "dudes" in our divisions, going to get a better functioning explanation of all the stats? Like, is 100 soft attack, going to destroy 100 men an hour at exactly 100% efficiency. Will there be a correlation between the stats, and what we see happen in game?

Also I think the giant icons for modifiers, is totally unnecessary. People will either micromanage that, and read the unit placards, or theyll ignore it entirely no matter how big and informative the icons are, and let the AI manage their forces, who will, inevitably, cross giant rivers with armored and cavalry divisions into certain defeat. Is it necessary to have that enormous frame attached to the division designer, which is really just telling you things that should be obvious. Like...your tanks will move faster on plains, and your artillery will get a river defend bonus.

 

[seattle]

Question about the priority:
Would the proper use for reserve be garrison/holding the line duties? Default for both defence and offence, just like standard units in previous HoIs? Then the elite divisions would probably be for breakthroughs, seizing key objectives or defending key locations. Pretty much Waffen-SS units (getting the newest equipment).

If above assumptions are correct, I'm curious how you guys would compose your army.
As Germany (needing a lot of beach garrisons, partisan control and multiple theatre wars) I would go for:
30% reserve, 50% default, 20% elite. During Barbarossa most of the reserve would garrison the other theatres while some are for partisans. The 50% default units are chiefly designated to hold the line while the 20% elites perform the offensive operations.

Your thoughts?

 

[outis]

Question about the priority:
Would the proper use for reserve be garrison/holding the line duties? Default for both defence and offence, just like standard units in previous HoIs? Then the elite divisions would probably be for breakthroughs, seizing key objectives or defending key locations. Pretty much Waffen-SS units (getting the newest equipment).

If above assumptions are correct, I'm curious how you guys would compose your army.
As Germany (needing a lot of beach garrisons, partisan control and multiple theatre wars) I would go for:
30% reserve, 50% default, 20% elite. During Barbarossa most of the reserve would garrison the other theatres while some are for partisans. The 50% default units are chiefly designated to hold the line while the 20% elites perform the offensive operations.

Your thoughts?

Historically, German pulled back damaged unit in Russia and used them for garrison while they were recovering. That should be more effective use of the unit then what you are proposing.

 

[misterbean]

Those sound like good ratios to me. IIRC, in 1939, only 4 or 5 of the 18 divisions in the Siegfriedline were frontline units. The others were reserve units and garrisons.

 

[Curious]

Oh, and yes, there will be NATO symbols there for those that prefer those. And probably an option to use NATO symbols

And what might be the point of having something (NATO symbols, in this case) if it wasn't 100% available (as opposed to probably) to be used? Just curious.

Btw, it's great that NATO symbols will be available.

 

[brenok]

And what might be the point of having something (NATO symbols, in this case) if it wasn't 100% available (as opposed to probably) to be used? Just curious.

Btw, it's great that NATO symbols will be available.

Probably to be easier to mod it in. HoI3 had info about politicians of the 60s if I recall correctly.

 

[Mauricio-M]

Excellent, very interesting!

 

[potski]

I think the giant icons for modifiers, is totally unnecessary. People will either micromanage that, and read the unit placards, or theyll ignore it entirely no matter how big and informative the icons are, and let the AI manage their forces, who will, inevitably, cross giant rivers with armored and cavalry divisions into certain defeat. Is it necessary to have that enormous frame attached to the division designer, which is really just telling you things that should be obvious. Like...your tanks will move faster on plains, and your artillery will get a river defend bonus.

It's to tell you exactly what effect adding/removing Battalions and Regiments have on the overall stats of the units that use the template. If you have no interest in whether the extra CAV Batt you are adding increases the river crossing penalty, then presumably you won't ever use the interface?

It's there for new players and those who do care about this - they might want to play around with different combinations of Regiments/Batt's to find something which you think is most optimal to save as a specific river crossing unit template. Then you can apply that template to a Div before it attempts a river crossing.

 

[Porkman]

Oooh, interesting - so, India is a separate state? That's a much better way to represent the troop raising and equipment manufacture. Good stuff.

How will unified command be modelled? The Allies did particularly well at this - vide the India-China-Burma theatre (eventually) and the D-Day and post-D-Day campaigns in Europe - but the Axis managed it pretty tolerably in North Africa, also. Will this just be "expeditionary forces", or will there be improvements here?

Also, what about other "Colonial" areas? British and French African colonies, in particular, built significant forces (even if the equipment was mostly imported, in these cases).

1) The Defense of Burma in 1942 was a showcase of how bad Allied coordinated command was at first. The British deployed too far forward, Stilwell massively underestimated the Japanese numbers and abilities, the Chinese were the only ones with experience fighting Japan but they weren't listened to...

2) Also, as for the colonies, I made this proposal a year ago... https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...g-fixing-india-china-and-the-colonies.794223/