Opinions may vary. Cant think of anything more boring than watching someone else play a strategy game, except, maybe, watching paint dry.
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Opinions may vary. Cant think of anything more boring than watching someone else play a strategy game, except, maybe, watching paint dry.
I'd say it's not a matter of opinion, but rather a statement of fact, that BICE is more tedious than vanilla HOI3. It might do a lot of things better than the original, but does so at the price of being more complex and more... administrative.
The AI doesn't have to handle it. BICE scripts a lot of the AI's behavior, so it follows a strict set of rules as to what it builds, etc. The down side is that scripted behavior of that sort doesn't handle it well if/when the game goes off the rails. Then again, BICE is designed to keep you on those rails.
How does it do that, if I may ask and the answer is reasonably easy to give? I mean, how does it prevent one country from making a slew of ahistorical conquests, inflating its power beyond what any historical nation had and then going berserk?
There is "Neutrality", and then there is simply not allowing the AI to DoW except by scripted event or player decision. If the conditions are met, the AI can and generally WILL declare war. If the conditions are not met, then it simply can't. I haven't dug into the code, so I don't know the specifics (my programming skills are a bit limited, and somewhat obsolete by now, but I understand the underlying concepts well enough).
The HoI3 Ai can be quite good with just some changes to the Lua section ofthe game.
Others and me have shown that many years ago already.
Try to find some early reports from Dr. Johnson’s AI modification Mod called BlackICE (The initial version of BICE, so it might be buried there somewhere).
He showed that AI can seriously put you to a test spamming units in a more senseable way and doing multiple big invasions at the same time.'
My own mod does this since FTM when I started to completely rework the production Lua too.
For "vanilla lovers" try out :
TFH 4.02 LUA optimizations by peterhoi3: make the USA count! and other repairs
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...-make-the-usa-count-and-other-repairs.650333/
and combine that with this:
Hearts of Iron 3: Unofficial Patch 1.2
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/hearts-of-iron-3-unofficial-patch-1-2.879731/
Or take a look at:
[MOD HoI3 TFH 4.02] Downfall (by Paglia)
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/mod-hoi3-tfh-4-02-downfall-by-paglia.672686/
Should be a decent change to the base game.
Others and me have shown that many years ago already.
Try to find some early reports from Dr. Johnson’s AI modification Mod called BlackICE (The initial version of BICE, so it might be buried there somewhere).
He showed that AI can seriously put you to a test spamming units in a more senseable way and doing multiple big invasions at the same time.'
My own mod does this since FTM when I started to completely rework the production Lua too.
For "vanilla lovers" try out :
TFH 4.02 LUA optimizations by peterhoi3: make the USA count! and other repairs
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...-make-the-usa-count-and-other-repairs.650333/
and combine that with this:
Hearts of Iron 3: Unofficial Patch 1.2
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/hearts-of-iron-3-unofficial-patch-1-2.879731/
Or take a look at:
[MOD HoI3 TFH 4.02] Downfall (by Paglia)
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/mod-hoi3-tfh-4-02-downfall-by-paglia.672686/
Should be a decent change to the base game.
Stress is on 'reasonably'. In HPP the UK kept sending surface forces against my Japanese sub raiders and they even sent carriers to deal with my naval bombers who were attacking allied shipping around Ceylon.
I don't play HoI4, but from what I've seen on youtube I can firmly say HoI3 AI does not do HoI4 style Kamikaze attacks.
Actually quite well, at least in HPP, and to the best of my recollection also in vanilla TFM. I am no HoI3 grandmaster and still improving my naval tactics, so others might disagree. I do struggle as Japan against the US after having been quite successful for a while against the UK. But even the wins against the British navy were no easy feat. It does require close surveillance by the average player I would say.
I wouldn't say it's a tactical genius, even less so on a strategic scale. Many times I could have had a good game as an axis minor, but Germany refuses to go for an all out attack that I could support somehow. Playing as Japan, Germany just started cycling troops around the Mediterranean after a successful Barbarossa, instead of preparing and executing Seelöwe (landing in the UK). But the AI does a reasonable job in combat up to army level or so. Enough for one to have an interesting game.
Source:
300hrs vanilla TFM
300hrs HPP TFM
Check out:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?forums/the-historical-plausibility-project.531/
Well, you need all of the previous expansions, so the fully expanded game might be TFM: Their Fidelis Motherland, or something convoluted like that. At least he knew what he meant, even if we didn't.What's that? Their Finest Motherland?
On HoI3 AI
Since I mostly play a modded game (e.g. Downfall), or played MP games, I can't really remind myself of the vanilla AI. But I can say that AI military behavior in HoI3 is generally better than in HoI4 (hence why I ditch HoI4 for the time being).
Main HoI3 strengths
To overcome these mains flaws, you need some modding (for AI optimisation) and to play at higher level than NORMAL (above all to overcome AI auto-inflicted stacking penalty and make the game harder to a Human... btw you can mod those penalties to make it more challenging instead of only targeting IC).
What mods can do :
Depending on the work done, good mods can change general AI behavior and induce changes to AI military behavior (even though you can't change the behavior itself in the latter case).
General behavior: you can mod the production behavior, including production and technology research optimisation (adapting production to specific situations, divisions’ composition, recruiting laws, techs priorities or sequence, to optimise the use of leaderships points, etc.). All in all, this can make a big difference on the field as AI will put better units on the map, at the proper time (but it can still use them cluelessly, like Kovax and others pointed out...). You can also protect AI against itself by optimising its diplomatic stances (with whom to trade and not trade, to remove trade lines in time to save some transports, to DoW whom when or when to selfprepare against Human DoW, and so on). A lot can be done
Military behavior: AI reacts to VPs. Low level (1-3) induces swift reaction from him, while higher value (4+) seems to trigger a complex response
For instance, I'm currently testing that in my mod and I have great expectations. Still waiting to see the results. In my current game tough (testing 1.37), the changes I made to VP did induce some changes in the way AI reacted to my attacks. So far, so good. But only a complete game will tell me if I did something meaningful.
Since I mostly play a modded game (e.g. Downfall), or played MP games, I can't really remind myself of the vanilla AI. But I can say that AI military behavior in HoI3 is generally better than in HoI4 (hence why I ditch HoI4 for the time being).
Main HoI3 strengths
- AI has a very good air units handling
- AI does quite less units shuffling but still some
- General military behavior seems fine
- AI has a real hard time protecting itself against amphibious invasions behind its lines (as it will overlook them or react too abruptly to them by sending troops backward
- AI relies a bit too much on either small fleets, or very large one... (so in one case, you kill them quickly, in the 2nd...well, they suffer a huge penalty)
- AI tends to sometimes stack too many units in some provinces (hence getting a penalty for over stacking)
- AI detects close flanking attempts but not grand flanking attempts (those done like 5 provinces away)
- AI manages partisans poorly
- Basic scripts are not optimised and this induce a lot of issues (bad division composition, bad production stances in some circumstances, bad trades and trade lines management, bad diplomatic stances, etc.)
To overcome these mains flaws, you need some modding (for AI optimisation) and to play at higher level than NORMAL (above all to overcome AI auto-inflicted stacking penalty and make the game harder to a Human... btw you can mod those penalties to make it more challenging instead of only targeting IC).
What mods can do :
Depending on the work done, good mods can change general AI behavior and induce changes to AI military behavior (even though you can't change the behavior itself in the latter case).
General behavior: you can mod the production behavior, including production and technology research optimisation (adapting production to specific situations, divisions’ composition, recruiting laws, techs priorities or sequence, to optimise the use of leaderships points, etc.). All in all, this can make a big difference on the field as AI will put better units on the map, at the proper time (but it can still use them cluelessly, like Kovax and others pointed out...). You can also protect AI against itself by optimising its diplomatic stances (with whom to trade and not trade, to remove trade lines in time to save some transports, to DoW whom when or when to selfprepare against Human DoW, and so on). A lot can be done
Military behavior: AI reacts to VPs. Low level (1-3) induces swift reaction from him, while higher value (4+) seems to trigger a complex response
For instance, I'm currently testing that in my mod and I have great expectations. Still waiting to see the results. In my current game tough (testing 1.37), the changes I made to VP did induce some changes in the way AI reacted to my attacks. So far, so good. But only a complete game will tell me if I did something meaningful.