Integrating APCs into the Tank Designer

[Orlunu]

I can understand the limited manpower/time issue as a reason, but that makes it sound like HOI4 doesn't have enough manpower on the team. Can it be modded into the game at least?

Should be pretty doable, probably just a matter of too much bloat for vanilla and questions of how much you want to trim it down.

 

[Znail]

The Kangaroo carrier is already in the game, in the form of the last mechanized infantry transport for the UK (and possibly other Commonwealth nations).
(...)

The name is in the game, but it's not even close to acting like one. Churchill Kangaroo is based on the Churchill heavy tank and neither the armor nor the slow speed is what you get in the game.

 

[Victoria ll]

I'm actually a little concerned about this. Mechanized is slower than motorized so you have to make a decision to put motorized in your light tank divisions, and mechanized in your medium and heavies.

If we can increase speed of mechanized, we're going to see mechanized in light tank divisions, and possibly able to even match the speed of upgraded light tanks, which I think might be a problem.

Basically mechanized is going to completely replace motorized. No point making motorized anymore, besides for logistics.

Granted the speed increase for mechanized might just be so you can keep up with late-model mediums, but we don't know how fast you can make them go.

There is a very good reason to use motorized over mechanized, mainly that mechanized costs 3,2 times more to produce at the lowest tier, and 4,8 times more at the highest tier. Motorized also requires no technological investment and is available day 1, so you can produce huge numbers of motorized before you even have the chance to begin producing mechanized.

Given that production costs will be the same next patch (which they will not be as far as I know), one 13 light tank III division with 7 mechanized III would cost 36,3% more than the same division template with motorized instead of mechanized, meaning you could produce around 10 motorized light tank divisions for every 7 mechanized light tank divisions.

In addition, and this is the most important part, the highest tier mechanized is already as fast as motorized in the current patch of the game.

 

[blahmaster6k]

There is a very good reason to use motorized over mechanized, mainly that mechanized costs 3,2 times more to produce at the lowest tier, and 4,8 times more at the highest tier. Motorized also requires no technological investment and is available day 1, so you can produce huge numbers of motorized before you even have the chance to begin producing mechanized.

Given that production costs will be the same next patch (which they will not be as far as I know), one 13 light tank III division with 7 mechanized III would cost 36,3% more than the same division template with motorized instead of mechanized, meaning you could produce around 10 motorized light tank divisions for every 7 mechanized light tank divisions.

In addition, and this is the most important part, the highest tier mechanized is already as fast as motorized in the current patch of the game.

The thing about tanks is that Quality is more important than quality when it comes to tanks generally speaking. You need mechanized to have passable defense and not have your armor be dragged down too far. Of course in singleplayer the AI barely makes any AT so you can get away with motorized more easily, but in MP you absolutely need mechanized.

 

[Archangel85]

I can understand the limited manpower/time issue as a reason, but that makes it sound like HOI4 doesn't have enough manpower on the team. Can it be modded into the game at least?

There will never be enough manpower to implement all of a designer's ideas. Usually because the more resources you give to a designer, the bigger they dream. I have never heard of a development team, anywhere in the industry, where people felt like they had more programmers/artists/QA than they needed (more than they could afford - absolutely, but never more than they wanted).

It is possible to mod in a half-track chassis, have it take a troop module as well as other modules, and make the mechanized subunit use that chassis, but it's not technically possible to mod a light chassis to become a mechanized equipment.

 

[Orlunu]

It is possible to mod in a half-track chassis, have it take a troop module as well as other modules, and make the mechanized subunit use that chassis, but it's not technically possible to mod a light chassis to become a mechanized equipment.

Got other mods I'm going to be addressing, so won't be me, but a sketch for anyone looking who feels they want to try -

Removal of both armoured cars and mechanised, consolidation onto the same chassis type (with different levels, ofc) with different modules as described. Should be able to then diverge it back out into only the same number of subunits as there are currently (car recon, car btn, mech btn, amtrack btn) if you rely on the equipment selector to correctly allocate them to units which is more or less the historical method iirc. With correct setup for the chassis, this could even accomodate for a lot of the more edge-case historical designs pretty well.

Would take a good bit of script work, but should be a pretty feasible and neat mod for someone to hammer together.

 

[Shadow86]

The name is in the game, but it's not even close to acting like one. Churchill Kangaroo is based on the Churchill heavy tank and neither the armor nor the slow speed is what you get in the game.

Eh, given the scale of the simulation, that's but a technicality. Speeds are particularly abstracted/generalized since the stats don't correspond to a single vehicle, but rather a battalion of them, which is bound to have a more varied composition. The maximum speed of a Churchill tank was 24 km/h: half that is reasonable as an average, and on paper wouldn't be the bottleneck.

At any rate, you can't look too hard into historical, singular vehicle figures: you lose sight of the fact all stats are generalized across the board, per design, throughout nations which had more differentiated models in reality.

As far as the Churchill Kangaroo is concerned, anyway, it's immaterial in an IFV discussion since it doesn't qualify as one. Heavier armour doesn't factor much into the equation, compared to transport capability and heavier-than-APC weaponry, the latter of which this platform lacks.

 

[Znail]

The thing that makes Kangaroo's important is that they excisted in WW2 while IFV's did not, so they would be more important to simulate in the game.