Hearts of Iron IV - 39th Development Diary - 8th of January 2016

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Johan

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Welcome to another development diary on Hearts of Iron IV.


Today we’ll talk about one of the most important gadgets of WW2, the radio. The radio was used for communication and for propaganda. It was used on the battlefield, and in people’s homes.


In our game, we have a technology called “Radio” which simulates adopting the inventions of amateur radio operators and extending the use of FM radio to reduce radio interference and allow us to find new uses for radio technology. This later on leads to the construction of Radar Stations. Looking closely at this technology tells us it gives +10% chance to reinforce.

The radio technology also is a prequisite to be able to build Signal Companies for your divisions. Each of those increases your divisions initiative by 5%, which besides making planning quicker, also increases your reinforce chance.

mRTEzc4.jpg


Now, veterans of HoI3 asks, why is reinforce chance important enough to mention in a development diary.

First of all, there is a maximum combat width in a battle, and if that is exceeded, all divisions fight worse, and divisions will not join battle at all if it has a risk of giving too much of a penalty to a battle. The rest of the divisions ordered to defend or attack is held in reserves,

Sometimes though, divisions gets knocked out of combat, or a tactic opens up bigger width, which allows a division to attempt to reinforce.

However, only 1 division is checked each hour, and without radio, you may end up with divisions taking days to join a battle, and the actual battle then being long decided.

Signal Companies use trucks and support equipment, and is one of the costliest support companies by far.

Radar stations on the other hand are buildings you build on the map. Radar stations generally work so that higher building levels give you more range and many overlapping stations give you better effects. Radar does several things:

  • Lifts the fog of war over an area.
  • Gives you information on enemy units in the area. The better your decryption technology is versus their encryption technology the more info you can see (such as exact numbers, division types and roughly what battalions make up their divisions).
  • Increases chance of detecting and intercepting enemy ships (like submarines).
  • Improves chance for airplanes on interception and patrol to catch enemy planes. Generally leads to them outnumbering the enemy as planes can scramble to the same place more effectively.
GxSoEiP.jpg


Next week, we’ll talk about factories again, and what has changed since last time.
 
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Good stuff! :)

Wasn't expecting to see this.
 
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Thanks Johan

When you say lifts the FOW will it be only partial? You wont be able to see 100% what you are up against?

- zero info shows a sort of fog on an area
- then there are multiple levels of intel quality depending on decryption/encryption and radar/troops nearby

so no you dont get 100%.
 
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Yes!!! I missed the dds very much!!!:)
 
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Awesome. You said there was a maximum width but with tactics you can increase the width. So is that increase with or without penalties? Or do tactics decrease the penalties as well as allow more width?
 
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- zero info shows a sort of fog on an area
- then there are multiple levels of intel quality depending on decryption/encryption and radar/troops nearby

so no you dont get 100%.

How about range of best level of radar, will it be "super radar"? like in HoI3, build one level 10 in Königsberg and almost see(rangewise) the entire east front.
 
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Awesome. You said there was a maximum width but with tactics you can increase the width. So is that increase with or without penalties? Or do tactics decrease the penalties as well as allow more width?

I assumed they were talking about the flanking attack & narrow salient tactics that were in HOI3. If your general picked those the normal 10 width changed to 15 or 5 respectively (IIRC one was offensive and one was defensive). It then reverted back to 10 for the next battle tactic. It's not a doctrinal change but a tactic used for that one battle segment.
 
Awesome. You said there was a maximum width but with tactics you can increase the width. So is that increase with or without penalties? Or do tactics decrease the penalties as well as allow more width?

all tactics do is decrease or shrink the width of the battle (encirclement increases it for example and tactical retreat decreases it). it doesnt affect any other penalties directly, but will indirectly since the width increases. Imagine you have the following battle:
- total width: 20
- you have 2 divisions. the first one is width 15 and the other is also 15. they both get to enter combat, but are 10 width over max width so will get a penalty (this is to avoid min-maxing so you can just squeeze in divisions like in HOI3, which were a bigger exploit problem in HOI4 where divisions sizes have more variation)
- if you get an encirclement tactic selected you get 50% more width to work with so combat is now 30, removing the penalty completely as long as it is in action.

How about range of best level of radar, will it be "super radar"? like in HoI3, build one level 10 in Königsberg and almost see(rangewise) the entire east front.

you need to strike a balance between being useful and investment costs. Max level gets you this (the light blue overlay.. maybe we should make that a bit more visible):
JhSpfZo.jpg

Note that to build that you need to research all radar techs there are (the last one has a 1942 year gate), and you'll want to build several overlapping for best actual results
 
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all tactics do is decrease or shrink the width of the battle (encirclement increases it for example and tactical retreat decreases it). it doesnt affect any other penalties directly, but will indirectly since the width increases. Imagine you have the following battle:
- total width: 20
- you have 2 divisions. the first one is width 15 and the other is also 15. they both get to enter combat, but are 10 width over max width so will get a penalty (this is to avoid min-maxing so you can just squeeze in divisions like in HOI3, which were a bigger exploit problem in HOI4 where divisions sizes have more variation)
- if you get an encirclement tactic selected you get 50% more width to work with so combat is now 30, removing the penalty completely as long as it is in action.



you need to strike a balance between being useful and investment costs. Max level gets you this (the light blue overlay.. maybe we should make that a bit more visible):
JhSpfZo.jpg

Note that to build that you need to research all radar techs there are (the last one has a 1942 year gate), and you'll want to build several overlapping for best actual results


This is info we love to have as there was/is debate in HoI III on which is the best way to go when building radar (many small stations all over, medium built areas with some overlap or just a few radar stations at max level) especially when you factor in build cost vs efficiency.
 
No combat penalties or bonuses for ground forces in general with more advanced radio-techs? It was one thing I missed from HOI3 since you could argue that the success of early-war german armored formations would have been impossible without radios being available down to the single tank commanders (and the lack of it was disastrous for Soviet commanders).

And how does radio-technology affect aircraft? Other than radar.
 
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I wonder how Napoleon and Wellington managed to 'reinforce' without radio. Surely they couldn't send couriers to the direction of cannonade to establish connection with other divisions because they had no trucks.
 
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