Yes it is. Different people like different things.
"Yes it is. No it's not."
OK
I remember back when HOI3 came out most people hated the OOB system because it was buggy as hell. Even after 3 expansions, and several huge patches it barely functions.
Hardly anyone is arguing that we should go back to the HOI III OOB. Just because PI didn't manage to create a solid immersive OOB system that the AI could handle during their first try, in a game that was buggy overall, doesn't prove that it's somehow impossible or undesirable to do so.
Define fixing. PDS "fixed" it by simplifying the OOB to armies and theatres.
For you maybe. I like the new system.
Fundamentally the new system can't even be called an OOB at this point, as OOB's have a
hierarchy in which units are placed. The proposed HOI IV system has no hierarchy at all, just groups of divisions co-existing on the same level, and an overall 'folder' to put them in (the theater), which doesn't do anything other than control reinforcement (no battle plan for theater, no commander, etc). If that's an OOB, than most RTS games qualify for that as well, as you can CTRL+G to create groups.
Removing something completely (the OOB/hierarchy) isn't
fixing a problem.
The way I see it, the method of controlling units in HOI III had 2 main problems: it required a ton of micro, and the AI couldn't handle it. Micro can be reduced a ton by:
(1) Removing division generals or create a better tool to easily appoint and manage them.
(2) Restricting the OOB to 2 (Army/Group) or 3 levels (Corps/Army/AGroup) and creating a better tool to move divisions/corps/army around (like dragging them on the map instead of the clickfest of detach/attach that was HOI III.
That alone vastly reduces the amount of micro involved in setting up and changing the OOB.
As for the AI, the problem there is more tied to the battle plans than to the OOB IMHO. The Human player can make his own groups (like panzer spearheads) and deploy them effectively. Can the AI? Is it able to take a massive front like Russia, and deploy it's armies in a way that seeks to encircle the enemy through deep thrusts, rather than the road roller technique it used in HOI III. The AI is still made to use these general/FM groupings, so it still needs to know how to set up groups effectively. If it can do that, why couldn't it set-up a 2-level hierarchy?
I think at this point the pro-OOB folks (including myself) have all but given up on the idea of recreating a realistic OOB in HOI IV (at least until someone can either mod it or there is an expansion), and that's fine, it's a game, I can live with that, but I don't think asking for 1 or 2 levels of hierarchy, so that you can create an overall Army Group battle plan, and have it use sub-groups (Armies) to carry out that plan, is a massive ask, nor a return to a HOI III-style OOB.
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