Is HOI2 Worth Buying?

[unmerged(36926)]

Hello,

I am thinking about buying HOI2 but I have several things that make me wonder if it’s worth the money.

1) My understanding is that the R&D system has been totally changed from the first game which bothers me because it was the best aspect of HOI. I am under the impression that the flexibility to focus on a given tech tree and having a weapon more advanced then was historically the case is basically gone. If I’m correct in matter I basically am not interested in buying HOI2.

2) One of the worst aspects of the original HOI (outside of naval combat which is terrible) is how movement worked. As an example you could hike along for a week and if you stopped moving before making it to the next province it was as if you never moved at all. I also never understood why at times aircraft moving very short distances (say from the Northern boarders of Germany to the closest portions of Poland) took several days or even weeks. I am wondering if that aspect of the game has been improved in HOI2.

3) Plenty of rumors say that Strategy First is about to go out of business. This worries me because it took something like two years for HOI to brought up to it’s current level which still has several problems. I am not too interested in getting the game if it stands a high chance of not being supported.

4) While HOI had a terrible manual the inter-face was simple enough and I could learn to run the game in a few hours. It’s my understanding that HOI2 has a useless manual and is much more complected and so I can’t help but wonder if I can actually play it.

5) One thing I liked a lot about HOI was the wide range of cheats available which allowed you to try out alternate historical scenarios or tailor the game to suit your abilities or historical biases. I am under the impression that the range of cheats are far more limited with no ability to change
ICs, your nation’s ideological position or DI. Am I correct about this? Dies this forum have a guide to cheat codes?

Thanks to anyone that addresses these matters.

 

[gzav]

This would prolly get answered sooner in the actual game forum...

*moved

 

[Zebedee]

1) Tech tree is changed. Still possible to rush to certain tech levels but it means you are making real sacrifices. Not played any mods yet (think Stony have finishedtheir first version) to see what changes can be made to tech tree.

2) Naval combat is better. Movement is the same. Check the weather when moving planes - if there's a blizzard they won't take off. Also check on which date you've told them to move. I've never had the problem you describe in HoI1 or HoI2.

3) None of my business. I'm sure mods will mod for some time to come and Johan has posted to say 1.2 is in the works so I'm not bothered what the scuttlebutt may or may not be.

4) The manual is actually very good, maybe even a little too comprehensive which has resulted in quite small type. It lacks a list of game values but as they change from mod to mod and patch to patch, then it makes a lot of sense to leave them out. If you can play HoI1, you can switch to HoI2 very easily.

5) I'm not sure what you mean. 'Cheats' are still available via the console, so you can still bump up oil or supplies etc if that floats your boat. I never use them so can't be bothered to look for them for you. Unaware of any modding problems right now, but I'm sure the community would have howled loudly already if HoI2 was not as moddable as HoI1.

I bought HoI1 just as it was finishing. I bought HoI2 as soon as it came out in my country. I have no regrets at purchasing either at the time I did. HoI2 will just get better as more tweaks and mods are made.

 

[Fredrik II]

3) Plenty of rumors say that Strategy First is about to go out of business. This worries me because it took something like two years for HOI to brought up to it’s current level which still has several problems. I am not too interested in getting the game if it stands a high chance of not being supported.

Just to clarify:
Strategy First has nothing to do with Hearts of Iron 2. The game is developed and published as well as supported by Paradox Interactive.

 

[Hallsten]

Hello,

I am thinking about buying HOI2 but I have several things that make me wonder if it’s worth the money.

1) My understanding is that the R&D system has been totally changed from the first game which bothers me because it was the best aspect of HOI. I am under the impression that the flexibility to focus on a given tech tree and having a weapon more advanced then was historically the case is basically gone. If I’m correct in matter I basically am not interested in buying HOI2.

I was also very sceptical about the new R&D-system, but when I got the game it was love at first sight. It's true that it's not as complex as the HOI-system, but that's really beside the point.

2) One of the worst aspects of the original HOI (outside of naval combat which is terrible) is how movement worked. As an example you could hike along for a week and if you stopped moving before making it to the next province it was as if you never moved at all. I also never understood why at times aircraft moving very short distances (say from the Northern boarders of Germany to the closest portions of Poland) took several days or even weeks. I am wondering if that aspect of the game has been improved in HOI2.

Navalcombat has been VASTLY improved, firing-distance now evnters into the equation so finally carriers can truly shine. The movement-system has been overhauled as well, with the new movement-is-attack-scheme which is excellent IMHO. I haven't thought about flight-time though.

3) Plenty of rumors say that Strategy First is about to go out of business. This worries me because it took something like two years for HOI to brought up to it’s current level which still has several problems. I am not too interested in getting the game if it stands a high chance of not being supported.

See above.
Moreover, HOI2 was very playable out of the box...

4) While HOI had a terrible manual the inter-face was simple enough and I could learn to run the game in a few hours. It’s my understanding that HOI2 has a useless manual and is much more complected and so I can’t help but wonder if I can actually play it.

The manual is good, the only bad thing about it is the poor layout of the index. The game has great tutorials though, so you'll learn it in a few hours...

5) One thing I liked a lot about HOI was the wide range of cheats available which allowed you to try out alternate historical scenarios or tailor the game to suit your abilities or historical biases. I am under the impression that the range of cheats are far more limited with no ability to change
ICs, your nation’s ideological position or DI. Am I correct about this? Dies this forum have a guide to cheat codes?

Thanks to anyone that addresses these matters.

Cheating is bad, m'kay?
You can find them here , though...
And do buy the game, it's great. Better than HOI IMHO...

 

[steveh11]

To answer your question simply, YES, it's worth buying.

In more detail:

1) Yes the research system has been streamlined, but the individual techs are still there - and the overall handling of the tech system is vastly improved. I personally am a bit miffed about the graphical elements in creating/modding the tech tree (because I can't draw to save my life, especially on a computer, and I was used to modding the tech system via just the text files) but that aside it's pretty, and works very, very well.

2) Naval combat has improved out of all recognition. The flight-time element hasn't changed, though - seems to be a minimum of one hour per province. Please note however that this does NOT detract, you'll not be micromanaging the air battle anymore in any case, as the new mission-based system handles this for you.

3) Regardless of Strategy First's position (which I have no clue about, it's the first I've heard of trouble there), it's Paradox that support the game. So where's the problem?

4) The manual is very, very good indeed - and we should all say "Thank You" to Chris Stone (Mr. T) for it. It could do with a proper Alphanumeric Index, but that aside the problems have, in my opinion, been greatly exaggerated.

5) Cheats? Surely no-one cheats? Actually, given that the game is so very, very moddable, that you can fire almost any event from the console, and even the save-game file is plain text, you can do 'what-if' to your herat's content.

Hope this helps you make up your mind - and that you join the HOI2 players' community soon!

Steve.

 

[Grosshaus]

Hello,

I am thinking about buying HOI2 but I have several things that make me wonder if it’s worth the money.

1) My understanding is that the R&D system has been totally changed from the first game which bothers me because it was the best aspect of HOI. I am under the impression that the flexibility to focus on a given tech tree and having a weapon more advanced then was historically the case is basically gone. If I’m correct in matter I basically am not interested in buying HOI2.

The new system allows focusing on one aspect of tech to be more advanced in that and it´s still effective although toned down from the exploitative levels of HoI1. I think it´s better now, not just more realistic but also much less tedious to use.

2) One of the worst aspects of the original HOI (outside of naval combat which is terrible) is how movement worked. As an example you could hike along for a week and if you stopped moving before making it to the next province it was as if you never moved at all. I also never understood why at times aircraft moving very short distances (say from the Northern boarders of Germany to the closest portions of Poland) took several days or even weeks. I am wondering if that aspect of the game has been improved in HOI2.

Although the movement is combat concept has changed a lot around this is basically the same. But there is a difference, if the province the unit was moving to has enemy troops then there had at least been a battle the whole time the unit has moved. If cancelled the advancement is removed but the damage caused to units remain.

3) Plenty of rumors say that Strategy First is about to go out of business. This worries me because it took something like two years for HOI to brought up to it’s current level which still has several problems. I am not too interested in getting the game if it stands a high chance of not being supported.

Strategy First has nothing to do with HoI2, even with HoI1 they weren`t the people who made the game. Paradox is the developer and they aren´t going down, it has already been confirmed that at least another patch will be released.

4) While HOI had a terrible manual the inter-face was simple enough and I could learn to run the game in a few hours. It’s my understanding that HOI2 has a useless manual and is much more complected and so I can’t help but wonder if I can actually play it.

HoI2 manual is really good, the author and method to do it are completely different from HoI1 manual.

5) One thing I liked a lot about HOI was the wide range of cheats available which allowed you to try out alternate historical scenarios or tailor the game to suit your abilities or historical biases. I am under the impression that the range of cheats are far more limited with no ability to change
ICs, your nation’s ideological position or DI. Am I correct about this? Dies this forum have a guide to cheat codes?

I don´t cheat myself but do know it´s possible to change ideological position and there being no DI in the game that cheat doesn´t matter. I bet you can find all the cheats around here easily.

 

[Eddy Gemmell]

Hello,

I am thinking about buying HOI2 but I have several things that make me wonder if it’s worth the money.

1) My understanding is that the R&D system has been totally changed from the first game which bothers me because it was the best aspect of HOI. I am under the impression that the flexibility to focus on a given tech tree and having a weapon more advanced then was historically the case is basically gone. If I’m correct in matter I basically am not interested in buying HOI2.

2) One of the worst aspects of the original HOI (outside of naval combat which is terrible) is how movement worked. As an example you could hike along for a week and if you stopped moving before making it to the next province it was as if you never moved at all. I also never understood why at times aircraft moving very short distances (say from the Northern boarders of Germany to the closest portions of Poland) took several days or even weeks. I am wondering if that aspect of the game has been improved in HOI2.

3) Plenty of rumors say that Strategy First is about to go out of business. This worries me because it took something like two years for HOI to brought up to it’s current level which still has several problems. I am not too interested in getting the game if it stands a high chance of not being supported.

4) While HOI had a terrible manual the inter-face was simple enough and I could learn to run the game in a few hours. It’s my understanding that HOI2 has a useless manual and is much more complected and so I can’t help but wonder if I can actually play it.

5) One thing I liked a lot about HOI was the wide range of cheats available which allowed you to try out alternate historical scenarios or tailor the game to suit your abilities or historical biases. I am under the impression that the range of cheats are far more limited with no ability to change
ICs, your nation’s ideological position or DI. Am I correct about this? Dies this forum have a guide to cheat codes?

Thanks to anyone that addresses these matters.

Silly question....yes.

The changes give the game a different feel. The tech is far easier and more immoersive due to the tech teams. Convoys, air groups etc are easier to control and the addition of partisans and the revamped diplomacy makes a huge difference.

It's a good leap forward from HOI1 and the muts nuts in my opinion.

 

[unmerged(35489)]

1) flexibility? - not the level hoi1 provided
focus? - only partly
historical limitations - yes, because the research costs increase with any year u develope a tech earlier then it was developed historically

2) in hoi2 its even worse, here u cant specify the time of arrival, u can only specify the time the troops leave (meaningless??)

4) the game is really simple to get used to, when u ve played hoi1

5) there are cheats, but i prefer to mod the provinces-file. but in hoi2 there is not the name of the province in the file, there is a number and u ve to guess which province it might be, if u don t want to spent more time in figuring it out

conclusion: i spent about 30 hours playing hoi and there are some aspects which are a lot better then in hoi (naval, diplomacy, trade, recruitment, building), but the disadvantages are to big (tech, combat timing, only 4 aircraft squadrons together, only target areas, not provinces, few leaders for some smaller countries)
so i m back at playing hoi1 with core

 

[MAC]

Hm, I play HOI2 most of my spare time and only a bit WOW.
Never imagined that

And now even HSR 2.00 is out and Patch 1.2 upcoming

So the simple answer is YES!
:rofl:

 

[steveh11]

conclusion: i spent about 30 hours playing hoi and there are some aspects which are a lot better then in hoi (naval, diplomacy, trade, recruitment, building), but the disadvantages are to big (tech, combat timing, only 4 aircraft squadrons together, only target areas, not provinces, few leaders for some smaller countries)
so i m back at playing hoi1 with core

I don't want to get into a HOI vs HOI2 slanging match, so this is just a personal observation: I cannot imagine going back to HOI, even with the CORE mod, from HOI2. Bear in mind that much of the CORE stuff - granted, not all - has been incorporatedinto the new game. I just think myself that the game is, even in Vanilla 1.1, just plain better than it's predecessor.

Steve.

 

[TheLand]

2) One of the worst aspects of the original HOI (outside of naval combat which is terrible) is how movement worked. As an example you could hike along for a week and if you stopped moving before making it to the next province it was as if you never moved at all. I also never understood why at times aircraft moving very short distances (say from the Northern boarders of Germany to the closest portions of Poland) took several days or even weeks. I am wondering if that aspect of the game has been improved in HOI2.

Yes, buy it ;-)

Movement has changed somewhat. The problem you mention (if you cancel a move halfway you've not gone anywhere) is still there. The main change relates to combat; now combat starts when you issue the move order, finishes, and then your troops move into the province. This is overall an improvement IMV, but results in a couple of artefacts (those hyper-speedy HQ units)

Anyone who thinks either of these issues is a game-killer is mad.

The manual is much better; the cheats are there; ...

The R&D system works really well. You have a lot less flexibility and detail than in HOI1 but still a lot of accuracy and a lot of fun. The problem with HOI1 was that in many cases there were no real tradeoffs and it was almost costless to tech-rush towards Panther tanks.
HOI2 sacrifices much of the detail (no longer can you research 20, 30, 40, 50, 70, 80, and 120mm AT guns) but is IMV more satisfying overall; and because there is a harder limit on the amount of tech research you can do, you have to be much more focused about research choices.

 

[unmerged(1057)]

Jezuz Christ, Mother Mary and Jozef... I´m a total wreck after several nights of hard planning and fighting.. Haven´t been this tired since the release of...Crusader Kings..

Thank You Johan et alias for making the games I´ve always wanted to play!..

Yes! Buy it!......

 

[unmerged(15826)]

I have to say, yes.

gone are the things that annoyed me about HOi like the overcomplicated tech tree, fiddly air units, the convoys needing attention, manually reinforcing troops, units disbanding through attrition and a million more things. After all that I still loved HOI.

The only thing I miss are all the lovely events in the CORE mod and I am sure that somebody, somewhere is doing that right now.

I am pretty sure you will not be dissapointed.

 

[unmerged(35489)]

I don't want to get into a HOI vs HOI2 slanging match, so this is just a personal observation: I cannot imagine going back to HOI, even with the CORE mod, from HOI2. Bear in mind that much of the CORE stuff - granted, not all - has been incorporatedinto the new game. I just think myself that the game is, even in Vanilla 1.1, just plain better than it's predecessor.

Steve.

so i thought after 25 hours
but then i planned to invade nat. spain (no independece guaranteed by anyone) and i saw that there were no transports with a reasonable range, that due to the limited research teams i m unable to research naval tech and i ve not enough commanders for my navy and air force (i wanted to train the air force commanders, but after promoting one, i saw, that there cant be more then 4 squadrons together)
and after 30 hours, when i waged a small war, i finally saw, that i can t time the attack (or better: arrival time) - and that was too much

 

[steveh11]

so i thought after 25 hours
but then i planned to invade nat. spain (no independece guaranteed by anyone) and i saw that there were no transports with a reasonable range, that due to the limited research teams i m unable to research naval tech and i ve not enough commanders for my navy and air force (i wanted to train the air force commanders, but after promoting one, i saw, that there cant be more then 4 squadrons together)
and after 30 hours, when i waged a small war, i finally saw, that i can t time the attack (or better: arrival time) - and that was too much

Transports: You need a stepping stone. Did you say who you were playing as?
Airstacks: same limit as HOI in it's last incarnation, and at least it's true for both player and ai.
Timing the attacks: Of course you can. What's more, you can synchronise the arrival time as well, assuming you've got 'enhancement' 1.1.
Without knowing which country you're playing, I can't comment on the leaders, but be aware that you can always mod the startup or indeed, edit the savegame file to add in some more leaders.

 

[mbb]

HOI 2 is leaps and bounds over HOI 1.

 

[Sera]

HOI2 could be worth it, as it is now however I'd wait a couple of patches if I were you. The AI is as usual not up to par and there's too many bugs yet to be ironed out. It really is too similar to it's predecessor to warrant buying it in its present state. I got two copies though.

 

[Grosshaus]

2) in hoi2 its even worse, here u cant specify the time of arrival, u can only specify the time the troops leave (meaningless??)

Yes you can

And specifying the time troops leave is definedly not pointless now that movement is combat, if they would not leave at the same time they would not start the combat at the same time and thus you would not have the encirclement etc. benefits of using multiple troops in the start without it.

5) there are cheats, but i prefer to mod the provinces-file. but in hoi2 there is not the name of the province in the file, there is a number and u ve to guess which province it might be, if u don t want to spent more time in figuring it out

That is unfortunate, but did you know of the "showid" in-game cheat? With it you can see the id of a province when hovering mouse over it, helps in finding the right province to edit.

 

[unmerged(25565)]

the movement is MUCH improved.

You attack as soon as you order movement, which is FAR more realistic as far as I'm concerned.

The tech tree is WAY better, i can actually see where my research is taking me, the tech teams make it far more interesting, and as it is no longer done with IC you can do much more with your industry, especially in regards to production.

Also, on a sidenote, the trading is amazing...I can actually use it to help my economy now...which is what trading is for lol.

Air missions also are much better, due to general mission orders (lasting as long as you want them to) over wide areas rather than specific provinces..

BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT!
well what are you waiting for? GO! NOW!