Improvement pack for the C.O.R.E.

[cegorach]

Some time ago I wrote about this idea my Beta-tester thread.

Durign the testing I slowly started adding things to my CORE for testing purposes and for fun. Later when CORE 0.40 was released I thought I don't need to play 'vanilla' mod and add when I felt was missing or what I beleived could be interesting to use.

The improvement pack adds tonns of stuff to the very good mod. Obviously it is like a parasite attached to the large project, also from the beginning it wasn't meant to become a large project on its own. It has grown almost as a side effect of research I've made over time.

Besides whenever I added something I felt a strong need not to leave some things incomplete. So everything was growing - from industrialisation event chains to leader lists, icons, pictures and new technologies...

Now it seems a mature project on its own, though I can promise it was never meant to. I've only created only one other large modding project (TW mod) which shows what I am capable of when I am serious.

Anyway the package is meant to cover as many alternative possibilities for Poland and add many improvements to other countries.

I also attempted not to damage the main event chains in the game so that the AI still would pose some danger.

Perhaps a small list would be helpful:

- changes aallowing playing with the use of the conversion for E3 map by Pinky,

- over 100 events for Poland in several chains from industralisation to Promethean events, from expanded naval commission plans to redefined mobilization events with a small number of strictly political events to avoid adding too many, probably unnecessary events,

- new techteams, leaders and minister for POL,

- over 400 new icons for many, many countries - from Yugoslavia to Bolivia,

- new techteams for Czechosloavakia, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Japan, Persia, Paraguay, Bolivia, Bulgaria and Austria,

- new leaders for Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Georgia, and Ukraine,

- ROA events for Japan, Germany, France, Britain, USA and Poland,

- new naval commision events for Japan (9 light carriers including ahistorical Nissin and Mizuho conversion events and Mogami class cruiser conversion),

- new event chains for Bulgaria and Finland covering their cooperation with Germany and creation of armored forces by both countries,

- new events for Ukraine, Georgia,

- several new events for Czechoslovakia including 'second Sudetenland crisis',

- early capitulation events for Germany and consequences for Poland (including 'Eastern Prussia crisis', Britain, France and Czechoslovakia

- new units such as commando units, observation planes, airborne regiments, improvised armored-motorized groups, river flotillas etc.

- numerous new aircraft deals from Turkish purchase of FW-190 to Argentianian Hawk 75 deal,

- Baltic Alliance i.e. series of events where Baltic States join Poland and the Allies (if Poland joined already) in fighting the Germans with additional events covering Finnish, Romanian and other reactions to Soviet invasion of Poland and Estonia,

- military exercise events fot all non majors helping them to rise skill level of their commanders before entering a war,

- naval commision events for Lithuania,

- numerous changes in OOB for several countries,

- expanded mobilization events for Czechoslovakia,

and other changes and improvements, many of them are optional and can be deactivated with a push of a button,

Sme screenshots and images:

DOWNLOAD LINKS
==================

Edition E is ready to download

http://rapidshare.com/files/355634595/CEGORACHA_PAKIET_E_pod_CORE_0.40.rar


link to mirror upload for the Pinky's mod - if you don't have it installed.

http://rapidshare.com/files/355642941/Pinky.rar

For those who play Edition D all you need to install is in one folder.

Everything is explained inside.


If there are any problems with missing graphics or something you can simply reinstall C followed by the E3 map package. There should not be any negative consequences.



The Hotfix for E is ready - link -

http://rapidshare.com/files/366327466/hotfix_for_E.rar

Extract to your main HoI II folder and it will be fine.

 

[cegorach]

Today is the day...

Anyway I thought I will show some results from my efforts to improve CORE.

Here is the latest addition - will take some time to develop, but I think I have about 40 % of work already done - mainly information gathering, but some things are implemented already.

Let the pictures speak for themselves:

If you have questions this is the place to ask them.

P.S. Of course there will be very few available techteams at a time, but with some knowledge about the subject it is easy to notice that fact.

 

[Denniss]

That all sounds very interesting.

 

[unmerged(101225)]

I might play a game with Poland with this improvement pack

 

[cegorach]

One of several expanded features in the improvement set will be new aircraft purchases.

It might even expand the original number of such events by 100 %.

That will include:

BUL - POL
deal with P.24 fighters and PZL 43 light bombers - three phass, the last one ends in 1940 and results in expanded airplane industry (DAR is replaced by a better team),

BUL - GER
deal about ex-CZE airplanes - almost purely about two new units for BUL.

BUL - GER
deal about ex-Vichy or ex-French fighters - 100 of those were delivered after the rest of France was occupied.

BUL- GER
deal about Avia B-135 fighters which were possible to buy in occupied Bohemia. It involved license production, which never took place because Bulgaria lacked infrastructure which it was hoping to create, so it will be bound to the last phase of the POL-BUL aircraft purchase.

BUL-POL
agreement to sell POL PZL 37 Łoś TAC which were supposed to be delivered in 1940. Will result in BUL getting some limited capabilities to upgrade their bomber force to 1937 level.

Note that currently BUL has no such events at all - now at least some of those events will happen resulting in the country receiving at least 3 airwings.



TUR - POL
deal about PZL 37 Łoś TAC bombers - planned to be concluded in 1940, so another unlikely event.
TUR planned to buy a license so it should also rsult in some improvements to their aircraft industry.


YUG - UK
agreement to buy Hurricanes and a license to produce those fighters.


ROM - ITA
events about Savoia S-79B TAC bombers and the license to produce those in Romania.



CZE-FRA
deal about MR-200 tactical bombers which was seen as an important move for this country to upgrade its production capabilities - the French bombers were large, all-metal airplanes and it was a challenge to expand the industry to build them in Czechoslovakia.

CZE-SOV
deal about SB 2 bombers. Relatively large numbers of those planes were delivered so it should rather appear. These airplanes were later sold to BUL by GER.


BEL - POL
deal about PZL 37 Łoś TAC. Rather tricky - the airplanes were supposed to be sold in Spain, but since it was defeated the agreement was cancelled. Will happen only if there is Republican Spain in the game in 1939.
It will give BEL some production capabilities and a unit of TAC bombers to Republican Spain.


As you can see there are several 'what if' deals.

If you have any ideas to implement I might do so, but please give me detailed information - when, how many and from what country to what.

Of course the problem with such events is that in saved games they might not fire (because it is too late) and that they certainly won't give any new units because that is defined in the scenario files which are in use from the very beginning.

But still some events will fire so it might be interesting to add the improvement pack even if you are playing for a while.



It seems that this project is expanding, but I guess it was doomed to end this way.
For this reason I cannot release the set earlier than before the next weekend.

 

[HistoryMan]

I should point out that this pack is not part of the CORE 0.40 release, and is not supported by the CORE team, so if you have any queries or think you find any bugs etc involving the contents of this pack, please do not complain to the CORE team - cegorach will have to answer these queries himself, I'm afraid.

Of course, if anything here points out a problem with the basic CORE events or files, then feel free to send those issues over to us.

Tim

 

[cegorach]

That should be said from the beginning so thank you for explaining that to the readers.

 

[Denniss]

I don't know how far your aircraft deals will go but Germany did build 72 Fw 190 A-3 for Turkey from 8/1942 to 5/1943.
http://fw190.hobbyvista.com/foreign.htm

 

[Hagar]

If needed here's a photo of a Turkish FW190. I'm bound to have some of the others covered as well in my archive, if needed.

 

[cegorach]

I was away for a couple of days so I am answering so late.


I made some progress - Poland is probably done, most of the aircraft deals are implemented and the main feature now is to make a working version of the POL Secret State - not ready to play, but with some impact in the game - basically I need to finish deactivation/game over events for this faction.


That should result in a release in the coming week.

I don't know how far your aircraft deals will go but Germany did build 72 Fw 190 A-3 for Turkey from 8/1942 to 5/1943.
http://fw190.hobbyvista.com/foreign.htm

Looks like the deal will be quite important.

I will add it, even if it doesn't result in a BP or license production rights it is still one wing of modern fighters for relatively undeveloped country so should be there.

@Hagar

If needed here's a photo of a Turkish FW190. I'm bound to have some of the others covered as well in my archive, if needed.

I am using some simple images made from model pictures in the mod.

I guess that a Romanian Savoia S-79B would be useful something better than the image used for the model picture in the game.

 

[unmerged(150811)]

looks very nice

 

[cegorach]

Something strange I found while testing if events in the game are working as they are supposed to.

AI doesn't research infantry tech 1937 command and communication for some reason so they all fight with 1935 infantry in 1939, that is probably caused by the presence of the Secret State because nothing else justifies it.

I will finish adding aircraft deals and turn my attention to solve the problem.

When very basic, virtually unplayable (for now) working POL Secret State is implemented I think I will release this as a beta version.


BTW The number and scope of events is growing and growing - I've just finished adding liberation events for Ukraine, Belorus, Georgia and other caucasian states. POL centred because it is the finishing touch to the Promethean sequence (you will understand when it will be available) which I felt shouldn't end just with some allied divisions fighting against GER or SOV on POL side (if it survives more than some time...), but in some final results.

ON the other hand I cannot think of some Bitter Peace events if the SOV are fighting the Allies including Poland or just Poland and its local allies.
I guess Soviets will have to be annexed completely so this feature will leave much to be desired. Unfortunatelly all possible consequences are... mind blowing and it is a whole new deal, whole new area to explore which I am not especially keen on touching... the pack was supposed to be rather small.

I might add GER capitulation events if it loses to Czechoslovakia (and anyone who joins them) - some simplified GER defeat events in 1939-40 are already here, so perhaps I will just copy one of them and modifiy so Czechoslovakia uses it...

If you have any ideas you think it could use I am open to suggestions - even if it might not appear in the first, beta release.

 

[cegorach]

A sort of bad news / good news situation...


The bad news is that for some reason i cannot add one techtem for Poland - it just... doesn't appear.
It wouldn't be so odd if it wsn't limited to this team alone - simply if this does appear something else goes missing.

It is neither the last team on the list, nor its place in the file seems to matter at all...

I have no idea what is going on because it seems so ... weird and I didn't encounter anything similar before...

I would be greateful if anyone could help me with the TXT file - perhaps some unknown factor affects this - I cannot tell, but it might be just a question of pure luck/some minute details I cannot spot....





Good news is that I have found a way to implement two things in the game.

I believe BOTH COULD INTEREST THE CORE TEAM, especially the second.


It seems that some command lines from HoI 1 actually work in the scenario .inc files.

First of all it is possible to define the starting, historically accurate or no, leader.

And what is more important it is possible to define some units as dug in.

Just see that:

Example in the file:

	name = "GO Grodno"
	location = 717 #Grodno
	leader = 8058 #Olszyna-Wilczynski
        dig_in = 10.000

This equals 10 days of preparation with leader 8058 assigned for the division in Grodno from the beginning.

I think that could work very well for Poland, Belgium, France, Finland etc.

Of course the bonus disappears if the unit is moved in any way, so I think it is ideal for border defences and units which are deployed where they should.




I must thank to bestmajor for appearing - otherwise I would never check the old CORE for HoI 1 files.

I'm not sure if this is already a known fact, but I haven't found anything about it anywhere so I guess it is not.






Now if just someone helped me with this bloody techteam glitch...

Here are the necessary files - HCP keeps disappearing, but if doesnt it is Centrum... or Fabryka Broni.

http://rapidshare.com/files/267580450/techteamy_0.40.rar

Extremely annoying and possibly responsible some strange AI behaviour with research...

 

[HistoryMan]

We know you can assign leaders in the inc files. Biggest problem is finding out who was actually assigned in 1936, and then th eproblem of people getting reassigned later on - the AI is poor at such things.

In game, you cannot "dig in" troops until you are at war, so why should any starting troops be allowed to do so ? People don't generally like having their fields dug up and covered with trenches when there is no fighting going on, plus the fact that in peacetime, any such sort of temporary fortifications get very neglected, as there is no incentive to maintain them. So I don't think the "dug in" bonus is appropriate for starting (1936) units, myself.

I recall we had some tech team strangeness in the past, so I'll look and see if I can track down that thread and what the problem was.

Tim

 

[cegorach]

Killing the whole joy of modding as usual HistoryMan ?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

In game, you cannot "dig in" troops until you are at war, so why should any starting troops be allowed to do so ?

I was thinking about fortified-but-not-so-much areas and units such as LOW in Poland's Danzig which infact is quite good for some locked garrison units in general I believe.

Simply some areas are too big for forts and some of their defences were reinforced with occasional bunkers which however didn't cover all attack routes.
That would work well for border defences in some areas too - not every border was peaceful in 1936.

It also could be of some use for counties which fight in 1936 - perhaps one or two Ethiopian units could get this bonus.


In my opinion the greatest advantage is that it can be varied - different for different units - some fixed to their positions, constantly in readiness, with prepared defences only waiting to be taken, while some would have to spend some time before they can do something similar.

People don't generally like having their fields dug up and covered with trenches when there is no fighting going on, plus the fact that in peacetime, any such sort of temporary fortifications get very neglected, as there is no incentive to maintain them.
So I don't think the "dug in" bonus is appropriate for starting (1936) units, myself.

I am going to improve only Poland's .inc file - eastern border defences and some units in the west (small, fortified areas) - other .inc files I will leave, because I either lack knowledge (e.g. which Ethiopian divisions should get it ? etc) or it is not necessary.

I recall we had some tech team strangeness in the past, so I'll look and see if I can track down that thread and what the problem was.

Tim

Any help is appreciated because I have started dismantling my little project looking for any reason why the AI doesn't want to research certain things and right now the best chance is this weirdness which could somehow trigger a hidden avalanche of invisible stupidity...o

 

[Ithron]

Sorry for the delay in answering your post.
So, to answer your questions. And put some of my ideas of what could be improved in Eastern Europe, maybe you can use some of them.

1) What did VEF produce concerning military equipment?

I think their philosophy was to try produce whatever they could sell. Some of those things (like radios) turned out to be of highest quality. However, there was very little production that you could call heavy industry, only light weapons and ammunition, since local natural resources were too little and pre-WW1 heavy industry factories were either taken away or could barley survive in the new non-empire conditions. So what VEF produced, that was used in the army - all the telecommunication hardware, starting from telephone central stations or telephone exchange stations, field radio transmitters and made any kind of equipment for lights. Also, for army, they made some cars and motorcycles. Found some pictures with russian text on military radios - http://www.radiopagajiba.lv/VEFold/r_spec/military.htm and http://www.radiopagajiba.lv/main/pictures/vefauto.jpg Some of their planes were potentially interesting for military purpose too, but only small amount was ordered and I don't think there were foreign buyers. Also it would seem to me that war disrupted VEF's plans concerning airplanes - in 1938-40 it only started to seriously produce more and more models, increasing amounts of planes produced and getting first contracts.

Thats about it that I could qualify as military stuff. Everything else - from machines for production of electricity (and vehicles and planes) were more as consumer goods. So radio stuff - definitely, thats their best products. Electronic equipment for airplanes? Yes, but I can only assume this.
To get more reliable data about airplane equipment - then I should go to their museum and just see for myself (I'll probably do that, getting curious )
Also, Latvia planned to double the amount of operational military planes it had from 79 (I think more then half of them were rather new) in 1939 to something like 150 in 1940.

2) On tech teams, here's what one Latvian guy made for Latvian minimod
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?l1zrynatz2j
Check what's there on tech teams.

In case you plan to use it, here are at least some comments on how to improve them, as they should probably be revised, I didn't make this mod. First I'd probably think about lowering "Augstaka Kara skola" to 4-5 and Latvijas Universitate to 5, but not lower then 4. Also nuclear_physics should stay in for Latv.Univ. as it's skill but nuclear_engineering no. Also, Latvijas Universitate (or University of Latvia) should have chemistry skill. Karlis Irbitis has too many specializations.. centralized_execution should definitely go out. As far as I know in military field Baltic states officers usually weren't too good at controlling more then few battalions at once, since such large-scale military trainings usually were expensive, so they were rare and few. Thus, Baltic teams probably shouldn't have any "centralized_execution" anywhere or almost anywhere. For VEF I'd change naval_engineering and artillery to general_equipment and electronics. Others should be also checked for accuracy, since this Latvian minimod is a-historical in nature (like on leaders), but part of it can be used (for example ministers file). VEF skill 6-7 should be fine. I assume that country like Latvia will have some minor trouble financing tech team with skill 7 for long period of time and I think it's more or less historical.

Also about tech teams:
A new tech team "Estonian Academy of Sciences" starting from 1938. Though don't know about their skills. And Tallinn Technical University from 1936 could also be in. Though I don't know about it's skills either.

To Latvia a new tech team could be Augusts Kirhensteins, a good chemist and with Soviet occupation there should be some events with him, as he became their puppet.


3) I mean - were there sufficient reserves of equipment for the additional divisions - I am especially interested in AT and artillery.

There definitely was light equipment and production of it was also going on. Materials were enough for all trained and planned reserves - some 120-140'000. Though mostly untrained manpower reserves and lack of equipment would still leave some more unused 100'-140'000 men. Also, the standing army could successfully expand in a short notice only to include the planned reserve.
AT and artillery. Thats more tricky. I checked info and counted from all military branches, it seems to me there were in total ~200 artillery guns, with partial mechanized transportation capabilities. I don't know if reserve is in this amount, but also newly mobilized divisions would receive some heavy guns.

4) What was the expected time before these divisions would be able to fight ?
Mobilization plan (as far as I know it's similar for all 3 Baltic States, but can check) for Latvia was 29 hours. Though I assume it would take additional week to make the troops combat-capable. Anyway, without organization, it could be given via events.

I am trying to define what was their quality and size - right now the starting four divisions fit the profile of a 9 battalion reserve infantry division ( at least 12 000 men) if these new divisions were relatively easy to mobilize I might add a mobilization event placing them on the board where it is announced.

I assume that the quality of mobilized divisions would be similar to already mobilized ones - they all were already trained and equipment would be equivalent. Though the amount of heavy guns per division would decrease. From what I gather, the quality of light equipment was good. In addition military forces in Baltics in case of war would also gain control over National Guard forces (50'-60'000 in each country) that were para-military organizations, like White guard in Finland. Hm, in vanilla they might be acceptably presented by militia, but in CORE I'm not sure.

5) Also. Do you have any images of VEF I-19 - pictures, drawings, even animations or images from book covers ?

I haven't checked books, but from internet info it would appear that it's unlikely that there was enough time to build it before the soviets. Though it looks that the project and model was complete and afterwords it was all taken either by Russians or Germans.
Found just those 2 pictures http://ivars.bunka.googlepages.com/vefirbitisi-19

6) About improving this region. About events - what I'd suggest to think about - there's a lot to add to make Eastern Europe a much more interesting and lively place, like better chain for Mol-Rib pacts, 2nd and maybe even 3rd Mol-Rib pact, Latvian plans to get Sweden involved in Baltics, Lithuanian politicians taking bribes from Russians, crisis of 1938 can be made into several chains, Romanian bridgehead, Lithuanian radicalists fears that Latvia or Poland will make it their colony, Baltic Entante events, Memel/Klaipeda elections, occupation events, resistance movements against Germany and SU, also "what if" events in case Baltic Entante works (for example from Romania to Estonia), Orzel incident, the very serious Ukrainian resistance movement, governments-in-exile (nice work on Polish one), International Exposition in Paris in 1937 (with such a great picture - http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:La_Tour_Eiffel_en_1937_contrast.png), some local political events, Lithuanian Men's Team becoming European Champions in basketball in 1937 and 1939, building the Palace of Soviets, events about united or separate defense plans (maybe with AI using them..), event chain about evacuation [or not] of Baltic Germans, Czechoslovak legion in Poland in 1939, Est-Fin cooperation plans, etc.

Also, Latvian starting economy in 1936 should be close to full-centralization (don't remember the situation with this in CORE) and some events should get it to full-centralization. Latvian economy was, quote "only second to Soviet Union in the control over the economy" (I actually assume it's abit exaggerated, but the idea is right), heh, though with the "minor" difference of the living standard between the two.

Estonia should have some oil income, with it's kukersite resources and all (this was already in CORE?)

Abit more alternative idea, maybe you're interested - I think Reichkommisariats and General Government could be considered as German puppets, unable to produce any units, with units gained only via events. And with no cores. And if Germany releases them from puppet status, they have civil wars against the original countries of their lands. I partly agree to vanilla and modder's opinion that it would be historical to assume Reichkommisariats just as simple colonial territories, like French Algeria. But a) having them as puppets would add extra to rather simplistic current representation of Eastern Europe and b) it would be smth new and fun And also on similar notes it would be fun to see Soviet Union dissembling itself into its soviet republics, if it moves too far into either democratization, open society or free market

Anyways, I'll send you what [unfinished unfortunately..] events I had made for T.H.E. project concerning 1938 Polish-Lithuanian crisis, maybe you can use them.

Now I'll download your improvement pack

p.s.have you seen IIRP polish mod? In http://forum.eufi.org/forumdisplay.php?f=273 are some nice mods. Can't find at this moment the site but also Czech forum had some very extensive mods concerning this part of Europe.

 

[cegorach]

Sorry for the delay in answering your post.
So, to answer your questions. And put some of my ideas of what could be improved in Eastern Europe, maybe you can use some of them.

No problem - I am still dealing with some major AI problems so it will be a while before I can release anything...

1) What did VEF produce concerning military equipment?

I think their philosophy was to try produce whatever they could sell. Some of those things (like radios) turned out to be of highest quality. However, there was very little production that you could call heavy industry, only light weapons and ammunition, since local natural resources were too little and pre-WW1 heavy industry factories were either taken away or could barley survive in the new non-empire conditions. So what VEF produced, that was used in the army - all the telecommunication hardware, starting from telephone central stations or telephone exchange stations, field radio transmitters and made any kind of equipment for lights. Also, for army, they made some cars and motorcycles.

Hmm sems like it might see some improvements...

Right now VEF is skill 4, general equipment, industry, management team making it really good for light industry and a decent infantry equipment team.

As a comparison I can present two dedicated infantry equipment teams:

Polish PWU - skill 4, general equipment, industry, chemistry, infantry focus

Czechoslovak Ceská Zbrojovka - the same, but skill 5,

Right now Universitas Latviensis serves as LAT electronics team, bt I think that VEF could receive that skill with the university serving as a backup/secondary electronics team.

In general I am trying to limit tha number of changes in the techteam setup for CORE (a loooot of different than in the vanilla) so this will be quite exceptional.
Still considering the information you have presented before, and recently plus the data I have gathered on my own I think that VEF can be seen as the best electronics team in the Baltics.

I wonder though if VEF could get infantry focus or chemistry. That would make it quite an all-purpose team... but must be fully justofied.

General equipemtn covers things like basic equipment, uniforms, some communication stuff and similar with light weaponry such as rifles, AT guns or mortars as well...
Chemistry could be added if ammunition and granades was produced and designed.
Infantry focus if there were sizable quantities/good quality equipment in production/in design.

All infantry equipment techs in CORE use general equipment, chemistry, industry and infantry focus so the CZE team can be seen as the best in Central-Eastern Europe in this area - and one of better in the world as well.

Poles produced virtually everything an infantryman was using, Czechs that, but in larger quantities and earlier too so if VEF gets its third infantry specific spec it has to be fully justified.

I simply wonder what was imported and what was produced in Latvia, even if it was only the license equipment.

here is the infantry tree - for the Dutch, so not everything is the same for the Latvians

Found some pictures with russian text on military radios - http://www.radiopagajiba.lv/VEFold/r_spec/military.htm and http://www.radiopagajiba.lv/main/pictures/vefauto.jpg Some of their planes were potentially interesting for military purpose too, but only small amount was ordered and I don't think there were foreign buyers. Also it would seem to me that war disrupted VEF's plans concerning airplanes - in 1938-40 it only started to seriously produce more and more models, increasing amounts of planes produced and getting first contracts.

Latvia has two dedicated aeroantic teams - one doctrine team which directly influences its production capabilities and one aircraft designer who has its part to play, but less often. VEF doesn't cover this area - it is not necessary in the mod.

2) On tech teams, here's what one Latvian guy made for Latvian minimod
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?l1zrynatz2j
Check what's there on tech teams.

Good Lord ! Those teams are really powerful. I might steal an idea, or two, but rather not here.

Thanks for the link !

In case you plan to use it, here are at least some comments on how to improve them, as they should probably be revised, I didn't make this mod. First I'd probably think about lowering "Augstaka Kara skola" to 4-5 and Latvijas Universitate to 5, but not lower then 4. Also nuclear_physics should stay in for Latv.Univ. as it's skill but nuclear_engineering no. Also, Latvijas Universitate (or University of Latvia) should have chemistry skill. Karlis Irbitis has too many specializations.. centralized_execution should definitely go out. As far as I know in military field Baltic states officers usually weren't too good at controlling more then few battalions at once, since such large-scale military trainings usually were expensive, so they were rare and few. Thus, Baltic teams probably shouldn't have any "centralized_execution" anywhere or almost anywhere.

That is very useful.

CORE techs are much different ( I suggest to download the mod and see... ) so some things won't work the same way...

For VEF I'd change naval_engineering and artillery to general_equipment and electronics.

Rigas Kugu Buvetava provides the naval team. Got the name from their webpage - cannot say if it is the best choice for the team, but seemed to me it was.

If you have better proposals I am willing to change that.

Also about tech teams:
A new tech team "Estonian Academy of Sciences" starting from 1938. Though don't know about their skills. And Tallinn Technical University from 1936 could also be in. Though I don't know about it's skills either.

To Latvia a new tech team could be Augusts Kirhensteins, a good chemist and with Soviet occupation there should be some events with him, as he became their puppet.

Some things are much different in CORE. I dont think a separate chemistry team will have any real use. In general industrial teams do not use people, but entire factories/industrial hubs/zones in the mod.

There definitely was light equipment and production of it was also going on. Materials were enough for all trained and planned reserves - some 120-140'000. Though mostly untrained manpower reserves and lack of equipment would still leave some more unused 100'-140'000 men. Also, the standing army could successfully expand in a short notice only to include the planned reserve.
AT and artillery. Thats more tricky. I checked info and counted from all military branches, it seems to me there were in total ~200 artillery guns, with partial mechanized transportation capabilities. I don't know if reserve is in this amount, but also newly mobilized divisions would receive some heavy guns.

I am thinking about adding these four additional divisions, perhaps as weaker and slightly outdated so it will take a moment before they are ready to fight.

I would need their names and if poossible, their commanders and mobilization areas.
I can always throw them to Riga, but the names would be the most important thing I believe.

4) What was the expected time before these divisions would be able to fight ?
Mobilization plan (as far as I know it's similar for all 3 Baltic States, but can check) for Latvia was 29 hours. Though I assume it would take additional week to make the troops combat-capable. Anyway, without organization, it could be given via events.

That can be easily done. Right now I have really complicated question which is POL mobilization covered by a series of events and that could be expanded... In case of Latvia it is mainly because their army seems the largest in the Batics.

5) Also. Do you have any images of VEF I-19 - pictures, drawings, even animations or images from book covers ?

I haven't checked books, but from internet info it would appear that it's unlikely that there was enough time to build it before the soviets. Though it looks that the project and model was complete and afterwords it was all taken either by Russians or Germans.
Found just those 2 pictures http://ivars.bunka.googlepages.com/vefirbitisi-19

Better than anything I could find... Still there might be a cover with some... more interesting image.
Such things are difficult to find in general, but I thought since I-16 I've already made... I-19 would be great too.
It is one of those more interesting projects from the interbellum - great to add it.

6) About improving this region.

I am trying to cover only some, more basic event sequences.

Aircrat deals as mentioned above and POL centred stuff.
For the Balts I came with the idea to exploit the alliance proposal made by Lithuania in 1939, several months after the normalisation of the relations with Poland started.
It was suggested that Estonia and Latvia were going to join.
So it is basically this + the option for all three states to sign a separate peace treaty with Germany if it goes rather badly - for Poland and/or for them.
In addition there are Finnish, Romanian and other reaction to earlier Soviet invasion of it happens in 1939.
I am trying to avoid too large changes so the AI still can make sense of it all and the game isn't totally derailed from the script written by the CORE team.

That is why there are no changes in the R-M Pact - and there is a multitude of possibilities - from other variants of the pact (e.g. the real, historical agreement - right now it is the revised version from September 1939 which is in the game) to Japanese and Chinese reactions to it (very interesting subject on its own).

About events - what I'd suggest to think about - there's a lot to add to make Eastern Europe a much more interesting and lively place, like better chain for Mol-Rib pacts, 2nd and maybe even 3rd Mol-Rib pact, Latvian plans to get Sweden involved in Baltics, Lithuanian politicians taking bribes from Russians, crisis of 1938 can be made into several chains, Romanian bridgehead, Lithuanian radicalists fears that Latvia or Poland will make it their colony, Baltic Entante events, Memel/Klaipeda elections, occupation events, resistance movements against Germany and SU, also "what if" events in case Baltic Entante works (for example from Romania to Estonia), Orzel incident, the very serious Ukrainian resistance movement,

That is why it should stay as it is and only with modifications which do not completely change the prepared sequence of events and AI decisions.

However I must say that I am totally in favour of improving and expanding all this for the CORE - for HoI III that is.
My pack is meant to be relatively small, though I was determined to provide some 'escape' route for the three Baltic States, even if it is a narow and difficult one...

Always interesting for the Sp and MP I guess, even if the first would work only with well acting Poland and/or France to actually work well.


I don't know (yet) if it is possible to give military control through an event to a specific country - this would give even Latvia or Estonia a better chance to fight and influence the situation.

governments-in-exile (nice work on Polish one),

Actually it is Polish Secret State so the masive and complicated entity in occupied Poland - the GIE isn't here (appears only as a minister) because it could make the game much more difficult.
I might add some sort of extension which actually gives it some units the Poles actually had in France, Britain or North Africa, but that would require some effort and could work only if I find time...

International Exposition in Paris in 1937 (with such a great picture - http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:La_Tour_Eiffel_en_1937_contrast.png), some local political events, Lithuanian Men's Team becoming European Champions in basketball in 1937 and 1939, building the Palace of Soviets, events about united or separate defense plans (maybe with AI using them..), event chain about evacuation [or not] of Baltic Germans, Czechoslovak legion in Poland in 1939, Est-Fin cooperation plans, etc.

I have covered the last two - by 5 events - one giving the Finns an opportunity to DOW the Soviets if they invade Estonia (Romania gets the same if POL is fighting them) and four to deal with the Czechoslovak Legion ending with the divisions trasfered to liberated Czechoslovakia.

The entire rest - isn't my prority right now. IN general I am trying to finish most important things first, but I don't mind adding events which are already written, have prepared event pictures and descriptions etc.

Also, Latvian starting economy in 1936 should be close to full-centralization (don't remember the situation with this in CORE) and some events should get it to full-centralization. Latvian economy was, quote "only second to Soviet Union in the control over the economy" (I actually assume it's abit exaggerated, but the idea is right), heh, though with the "minor" difference of the living standard between the two.

Now, that is something very useful too. I wonder if the IC of Latvia, Estonia and perhaps Lithuania should be changed by one point (ROM has 20 base IC, Finland 12) or not. Latvia starts with 5 if I remember correctly.

Mind that useful, available IC is much lower in the beginning and only through research and mobilization events it is rised to usually 1 point higher than the base IC.

If Latvian, Estonian or Lithuanian IC should be higher I am willing to change that, but only by one point, two in really extreme cases.
I am not sure from what source the CORE team took their numbers, but it has to be pretty well supported, so does any possible revision, obviously.

Estonia should have some oil income, with it's kukersite resources and all (this was already in CORE?)

Yes, it is. As POL it is a good idea to buy their oil - in my testing runs I do that every time.

Abit more alternative idea, maybe you're interested - I think Reichkommisariats and General Government could be considered as German puppets, unable to produce any units, with units gained only via events. And with no cores. And if Germany releases them from puppet status, they have civil wars against the original countries of their lands. I partly agree to vanilla and modder's opinion that it would be historical to assume Reichkommisariats just as simple colonial territories, like French Algeria. But a) having them as puppets would add extra to rather simplistic current representation of Eastern Europe and b) it would be smth new and fun And also on similar notes it would be fun to see Soviet Union dissembling itself into its soviet republics, if it moves too far into either democratization, open society or free market

That could be interesting for the CORE project I guess, though right now I am having enough problems with weird AI behaviour as it is - adding such puppets would be difficult and above anything I am willing to do, at least right now.

Modding HoI isn't my primary modding project - that is somewhere else... but I am not totally excluding that possibility either.

Anyways, I'll send you what [unfinished unfortunately..] events I had made for T.H.E. project concerning 1938 Polish-Lithuanian crisis, maybe you can use them.

I'd like to see them, though I cannot promise anything.

Right now my priority is to have a working beta, which actually shouldn't be difficult if I solve just one problem, a major one, though.

Now I'll download your improvement pack

You mean the fist one ? Just some leaders, and many of them have been revised anyway...

p.s.have you seen IIRP polish mod? In http://forum.eufi.org/forumdisplay.php?f=273 are some nice mods. Can't find at this moment the site but also Czech forum had some very extensive mods concerning this part of Europe.

Yes, RPII is a major source, originally the single source I was using except my own work. Now it is different, besides their project is massive while my own covers only some directions and possibilities.

Besides some ideas are a matter of perspective that is why I am trying to limit myself and include only those ideas I am fully able to support.
Smaller modding projects in general should be one-man projects, in my opinion.
The other thing is that I am also trying to provide some raw data for the CORE team to include in the HoI III mod project, while some are just something I like to add.

 

[cegorach]

I had some busy evening recently... but there is some moticeable probress nonetheless.

One thing which always was unnerving me in HoI I and II was the simplicity of the Soviet overtaking the entire CEE - basically no problems, no complicated events, no difference between so many varied approaches in the entire region, just click and it is all over.

Since it HAS TO REMAIN a relatively simplified improvement pack I am not trying to deal with everything and because I am concentrating my efforts on POL it is Poland which will receive a number of changes to portrait the changes in the country.

I am trying not to touch political subjects unless they change something in the game - which should remain a military simulation after all - so political changes will appear in the background of the main thing, namely the Sovietisation of the economy and the army.
Because it is still very complicated I decided to limit my efforts to the events which really happened, with some, minor deviations.

As you know Poland was an ally of the Soviets, indirectly, through the Atlantic Charter and always was somehow difficult to turn into a communist state - it wasn't one of official Soviet enemies, its political system was guaranteed (however weak the guarantees were...) by the western allies and it could always offer serious resistence because of its size and historical traditions. On the other hand it was in terrible shape after the more than 5 year long occupation and its people felt betrayed.

Much like Czechoslovakia it had to be treated gently - that is for stalinist, communist, totalitarian state of course.

This means that it couldn't in any way start as a stalinist puppet state - it was a process to first fight the armed resistence offered by the most desperate part of the underground (NIE, WiN, Cursed Soldiers etc), eliminate political opposition next and finish it with the help of imported, Soviet assistance.

Since CORE timeframe ends in 1953 Poland and the rest of the CEE is meant to end as stalinist countries. That was the reson why I made a sequence of events to reflect some of the changes in the region...

Originally much of the data I've used to prepare the Soviet Poland part of the improvement pack ws menat for a separate revolter state.

When this pack is released it could still serve as a resource for CORE project prepared for HoI III.



Here is a sneak peek:

Make no mistake - the teams do not appear at the same time, but virtually all which ever appear for the Soviet Poland are shown here.

Currently I am working on stalinist purges in the military and finishing governmental changes caused by the stalinisation process.






I was trying to stop myself from changing anything in the techtree and astually resisted pretty well. One thing I couldn't not to add were armoured trains.

The relic of the older times, for sure, but still having its uses. Each attachment represents 10 medium sized armoured trains or a smaller number of lighter smoke belching behemots.

All four types of armoured train attachments use police entry - one, the most expensive one can be upgraded if better technology is researched.

Two others represent either smaller numbers or larger but of smaller/improvised armoured trains or interwar AA armoured trains used for example by the Soviets.

Currently the following countries start with these vehicles:

- Poland, one large unit,
- Soviet Union - four, large attachemnts,

- Germany - one, light unit,
Czechoslovakia and Hungary - the same.

The main thing with these units is that they are relatively easy to research using only infantry techs so even most primitive economies can handle them. That was the idea, actually.

As you can see these things use sizable amounts of supplies and manpower - but 10 armoured columns with attached infantry, armoured vehicles and repair teams won't be too cheap...

Of course there are lighter and easier to produce improvised/light armoured columns, but that is understandable.

In addition to those four new brigades I was thinking to add massive railway cannons or rivenile flotillas, but the second can be better simulated by an event while first is somehow difficult to design and probably not worth it. besides which artillery tech could activate these monsters ??






Alternative history is always difficult to discuss. Still one thing was too hard to resist - a simlified sequence of the opposite Sudetenland crisis.

Appears only if Germany are defeated with surviving Poland. **yes this polonocentrism is boring, damn it...** but as I said before I am trying to make it relatively simple to prepare - alternative versions of the Austrian crisis or what could happen if the Czechs successfully resisted in 1938... well, that I am leaving to other people, regardless of the version of the CORE it will use.

Notice the spelling error - my keyboard is to be blamed for that, I am telling you !






=======================================================

Uff, that was loong to read...

I am trying to finish as much as possible as soon as possible with the release the sooner the better.

Before the release I want to sya what I am going to add before...

1. All mentioned aircraft deals PLUS some new ones:

German - Swiss deal with ME 109

Will result in a INT unit for the Helvetians.

French - Swiss deal with Morane MS-406

One, weak INT squdron + massive number of BPs - the ones which the Swiss currently have will be removed.

German - Spanish deal with Me 109

Some technology, nothing more.

German-Finnish ex-FRA MS-406 purchase

One, outdated INT unit + some technology.

German-Croat ex-FRA MS-406 purchase

Just some old INT, but important for the small country.

French-Belgian deal about Breguet Br.693 CAS

Only some technology.

2. Finish the Soviet Takover of Poland event chain - mainly the purges in the military - at least 75 % of leaders will be removed by it.
Actually should be more extensive... perhaps it will be.


3. Add Polish and 'Soviet Polish' units available to France, Britain and the USRR - will be returned when Poland is liberated by those states.

Later I might consider adding POL in the Exile as a revolter state liberated by the British in 1939 - it would receive POL warships and controll the 'Free Polish' units created in France and Britain. Might end as a part of POlish Secret State in the end to make it less boring to play. Will most likely have an event based upgrade unit build sequence to make it impossible to build armoured divisions and the airforce by the Underground, but surely will be awafully interesting to liberate yourself from abroad.

The last thing will wait after the first release and will finish everything I ever wanted from this engine and I have time to do myself.

3 techteam/minister/leader files - nope, it is not easy....

 

[unmerged(50226)]

Would you care to add the Finnish purchase of JU-88 A4's from Germany?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkers_Ju_88#Finnish_Air_Force
And how about the Finnish purchase of 59 StuG III Ausf. Gs?

 

[cegorach]

Would you care to add the Finnish purchase of JU-88 A4's from Germany?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkers_Ju_88#Finnish_Air_Force

That can be done - especially because the Finns are unlikely to build any TAC bomber units and they had some, older ones and much earlier.

I guess this air wing will be rather precious and hard to replace if anything happens to it.

And how about the Finnish purchase of 59 StuG III Ausf. Gs?

I was thinking about similar too - it is possible to add heavy arms deals like this if the thing which would appear is a low strenghts infantry/res division with an attachment.

Finland is very unlikely to produce complicated armored vehicles and it is too much for an AC attachment.



I guess it can be added, though I want to keep the number of such deals as low as possible - only in most important cases and only if a country is unlikely to research such equipment...

If there are other proposals like this I might add them as well.

I think that these events could be activated by research e.g. armoured car, industry or doctrine techs ?