HOI IV - Army construction proposal

[Hek1977]

I am not sure if this idea has been put forward but in case it has not here it goes.

What about the idea of designing the Army ( division, corps ect..) through a designer and once you have the composition that you want then start the game and construction would begin throughout your nation’s factories to start to supply the Army. Little by little your army would gain more equipment, men and organization.

This would work well with the equipment aspect that looks to be part of HOI IV. As your army fights it would lose equipment and men and the factories would be working hard to replace the losses. Depending on where the army is located the, amount of equipment that trickles in to the front could be varying significantly due to infrastructure. Maybe the factories can’t keep up with demand and it’s time to go on the defensive.

It would take away having to manage building of the units and could abstract the serialization of certain builds, so as time goes on you could supply the army more efficiently.

For example maybe you can choose to keep the tech level of your tanks at certain models. So an armored division could have 25% new models and 75% tried and true models, can do this with other equipment like guns as well. There would be a pool to take equipment from I suppose.
The designer could have a huge level of detail to specialize or you can make cookie cutter divisions or some of both. You could make the designer incorporate the existing forces and merge them into your perfect build with the hierarchy you desire.

Navy and Air force should be no different.

I think this would add great flavor, be more realistic and less time consuming without losing the immersion.

 

[justin6477]

I like it, and have wanted this kind of a system for the other Paradox titles as well.

Management is a chore, but it's part of the game. Personally, I'd rather front-load the management, building things with an already set rally-point or assigned theater, than deal with organizing them afterwards.

 

[Suaske666]

i think this part of the game has not only been decided already, but at the very least they've done a lot of it, so i doubt they'll consider any of this. not that i think they should.

 

[Klausewitz]

Yes, please, i'd like that too.
The A.R.T. was actually the first piece of extra software i got because managing divisions was such a pain in the ass.

 

[Hek1977]

i think this part of the game has not only been decided already, but at the very least they've done a lot of it, so i doubt they'll consider any of this. not that i think they should.

Well deep down I know you are right and who knows my proposal maybe exactly what is intended for HOI IV but I guess i put it forward as alternative to what we have seen so far and if not now later.

Could something like this be part of an Expansion if not part of the original?

 

[Jorgen_CAB]

To some extent this sounds nice but then I thought that why would we build rigid formations like that. Even at Corps level divisions might change based on its current mission, at least I do in HoI3. Armies are definitely very fluid in their compositions and strength depending on the needs. I am perhaps too much of a control freak but I tailor my forces out of my needs and don't use them as Lego bits to be pasted on the map...

Why could we not achieve more or less the same effect with just building equipment and have a priority level that we can set on divisions/corps/armies or at any level we want. We will then get new equipment assigned and divisions will most likely have multiple version of most equipment. Perhaps you can even restrict a formation from receiving any new equipment at all. Factories will produce and distribute equipment to your units based on the priorities that you have set. This priority can be as simple as a 0-9 level or something.

But I would like a OOB designer that is better than the one in HoI3. That one is not bad but it could be better.

 

[Poh]

I like the idea about designing your armies before hand however the way i always wanted it to be done was lkike this. When building your OOB you could also build "fictive units" (units that werent build yet) then in the production menu you could easily see what units you yourself had planned for and build accordingly. Actually a bit like the AI tells you what each theater wants, just a way for you to overwrite this and tell the AI this is how it should be done and what i want.

 

[Jorgen_CAB]

That would actually be kind of realistic. You would essentially build the unit by first adding some officers and rudimentary staff, the divisional HQ on the map. You would then start to add equipment to it and eventually you have received enough manpower, organization and equipment to actually field the unit on the front lines. The longer you wait the more training you can give your men based on your basic training programs, but you could always choose to deploy the unit before more advanced training is concluded.

 

[Hek1977]

To some extent this sounds nice but then I thought that why would we build rigid formations like that. Even at Corps level divisions might change based on its current mission, at least I do in HoI3. Armies are definitely very fluid in their compositions and strength depending on the needs. I am perhaps too much of a control freak but I tailor my forces out of my needs and don't use them as Lego bits to be pasted on the map...

Why could we not achieve more or less the same effect with just building equipment and have a priority level that we can set on divisions/corps/armies or at any level we want. We will then get new equipment assigned and divisions will most likely have multiple version of most equipment. Perhaps you can even restrict a formation from receiving any new equipment at all. Factories will produce and distribute equipment to your units based on the priorities that you have set. This priority can be as simple as a 0-9 level or something.

But I would like a OOB designer that is better than the one in HoI3. That one is not bad but it could be better.

I hear you on the rigid point.

I was thinking you could have a design for Army group A and one for Army group B but also you could have a design just at the corp level and that design could include exotic divisions and composition and you could just add or remove it from any hierarchy you want.

Example
While Army Group B and its included divisions are supplied one way you could have the special corps supplied another and still be under the umbrella of Army Group B until you care to move it.

If the aspect of a Division being equipment and manpower is implement in HOI IV then being able to see the amount of equipment being destroyed and how much you are replenishing would be awesome and the Army design layout like this would help you manage the complexity of it At least I think so.

 

[Jorgen_CAB]

That seem pretty reasonable...

 

[gregor_mendel]

Yes, I've always thought that a "fill in the blanks" system would be much more desirable than the current one. It also encourages long-term planning and strategy.

Also, please for the love of God allow us to create a unit name template for each playthrough. For example, when I begin I could choose how my divisions/corps/army's are named including the use of Roman numerals or not. Please, do it for the OCD among us.