Please add a generic planning button.

[DaleDVM]

I would kill for a button where an army could be ordered to sit still and just start building up the planning bonus. Then I don't have to make those ugly front lines with ugly arrows going everywhere. I micro most of my fronts anyway, since we all know we can't rely on the AI that controls front management. The AI sends units all over the place to try and fill perceived gaps. It moves your best units to the wrong areas. etc. etc. You know how it goes.

This would be one of the most welcome QOL changes I can think of.

 

[pdBravo]

Gentlemen, your orders are to plan.
Plan what, sir?
Just plan.
Attacking or defending?
Plan.
What's the objective?
Plan.

Can't see that being much of a plan when it arrives, the bonus should be zero for such a plan.

 

[Corpse Fool]

There are workarounds for the shuffle that let you plan.

 

[Iskulya]

Gentlemen, your orders are to plan.
Plan what, sir?
Just plan.
Attacking or defending?
Plan.
What's the objective?
Plan.

Can't see that being much of a plan when it arrives, the bonus should be zero for such a plan.

Having the AI execute a plan is more incompetent than all but the greenest players with only a few hours under their belt, though. The results of handing control over division attacks and movement to the AI, well, all those military officers should be fired, if not something more drastic.

There are workarounds for the shuffle that let you plan.

Yup. To OP, If you use a field marshal and use the front line tool, and then draw an offensive line, if you select the army you want to micro you can press Control+H to unassign them from the AI's control letting them build up planning without ceding control to the AI.

With that said, it's still very much a band aid solution. I've been so busy playing around with other stuff in the more limited time I've played that I haven't checked to see if the latest update with NSB finally got rid of the increased planning decay rate from microing, but I suspect it hasn't.

 

[DaleDVM]

I do understand the workaround is there. It would just be easier to have a 1 step process to make this a lot easier. You could also then do this easily for individual units, separate armies, or just groups of units you have selected. And those with or without a field marshal. I would guess that a good percentage of players micro their units instead of using the front AI.

My favorite is when the edge of the front touches another country and suddenly half of your army takes off to defend against a neutral. So very special!

 

[DaleDVM]

Gentlemen, your orders are to plan.
Plan what, sir?
Just plan.
Attacking or defending?
Plan.
What's the objective?
Plan.

Can't see that being much of a plan when it arrives, the bonus should be zero for such a plan.

Snarky...

I plan on not letting the AI carry out my plan. I don't know the exact bonus this plan imbues on my divisions, but it seems huge when I'm playing! ;-)

 

[Sayd]

It would be nice to have a defending plan with arrows where to retreat and to dig.

 

[Herr B.]

Gentlemen, your orders are to plan.
Plan what, sir?
Just plan.
Attacking or defending?
Plan.
What's the objective?
Plan.

While your joke is funny, it is not accurate.

Any plan in the game is an offensive plan, so planning is an attacking order. And the objective is to scout out the landscape around the frontline.

However, what I would like to see, is a revised planning system. Instead of having a planning bonus against a frontline, why not have a planning bonus against countries? After all, that seems WAY more in line of what many pre-war plans looked like: "How can I defeat country X?" So, you give your general staff the order to plan against country X, and they would go look for maps, for what tactics and equipment X uses and so on. This could be speed up by having high intel, too.

 

[LordWahu]

I would kill for a button where an army could be ordered to sit still and just start building up the planning bonus. Then I don't have to make those ugly front lines with ugly arrows going everywhere. I micro most of my fronts anyway, since we all know we can't rely on the AI that controls front management. The AI sends units all over the place to try and fill perceived gaps. It moves your best units to the wrong areas. etc. etc. You know how it goes.

I suspect this is the very reason that this will never come to pass

The point of the planning bonus is to reward players who use the planner despite the downsides. Removing the reward from the planner removes any incentive to use the planner, subverting the point of having the bonus entirely

That being said, I completely agree it would be lovely

 

[LordWahu]

...why not have a planning bonus against countries? After all, that seems WAY more in line of what many pre-war plans looked like: "How can I defeat country X?" So, you give your general staff the order to plan against country X, and they would go look for maps, for what tactics and equipment X uses and so on. This could be speed up by having high intel, too.

This would be a lovely mission addition to La Resistance

A "war games" operation that gives an advantage against the country based on army intel

 

[pdBravo]

While your joke is funny, it is not accurate.

Any plan in the game is an offensive plan, so planning is an attacking order. And the objective is to scout out the landscape around the frontline.

However, what I would like to see, is a revised planning system. Instead of having a planning bonus against a frontline, why not have a planning bonus against countries? After all, that seems WAY more in line of what many pre-war plans looked like: "How can I defeat country X?" So, you give your general staff the order to plan against country X, and they would go look for maps, for what tactics and equipment X uses and so on. This could be speed up by having high intel, too.

My joke was both funny and accurate.

Real life plans did not follow along the pattern you suggest. 'We're going to attack France'. Just not viable.

For example, the British Fourteenth Army decided what they needed to do to follow orders from above which could be something like capture Meiktila before the monsoon. In order to achieve this, they then decided what other objectives needed to be achieved before this could be possible. What hills would need to be in their control, what roads and rail lines would need to be captured, and when, and by which formation. How many planes would be needed to achieve air superiority. If that was not possible, what means could counter that, such as only moving at night and so on. Then, it needed to be decided what size forces would be needed to achieve all these aims, what supply they would need, where they would get it from and how. Roads, air, river supply, rail, and so on.

Then they assigned generals to play the role of the Japanese in a series of war games based on known Japanese strength in the area at the time. It was taken very seriously and the 'Japanese' generals went all out to try and win these. Depending on what happened, changes were made to the plans to try and counter the strategies that the wargame generals came up with and to try and put contingency plans in place.

One such real life plan relied on a period of air supply, however getting silk parachutes (to drop the supplies) to the 14th Army was nigh on impossible at that period, but they came up with making parachutes out of jute. Would be death to a human paratrooper but it was only to drop supplies so jute was fine.

That is how plans are made in real life. Not just 'let's plan'.

 

[Ody_CZ]

A planning bonus is there to allow the defender to react. That is why is mandatory to be at the front line to get this bonus so your opponent can see what are you doing. But why do I need to paint arrows when I do not plan to use them. It should be enough to put your divisions on the front. They can only plan offense anyway. It would make microing your units mutch more user-friendly.

Arrows are there only for AI to know where you want to push and how. But what I hate Is that AI is attacking also outside and over of these lines. they should stop when they reach an offensive line.

 

[Svenkomigen]

This option already exists in the game though.

Just draw an arbitrary line somewhere (for example, just past the Urals), let the planning bonus build up on your units, and then micro them all. The bonus still works even if the AI isn't the one to move the units or order the attack. Then when the bonus runs out, you just let your units sit tight for a little bit to build up the planning prep again.

It's not difficult.

 

[LordWahu]

But why do I need to paint arrows when I do not plan to use them. It should be enough to put your divisions on the front. They can only plan offense anyway. It would make microing your units mutch more user-friendly.

Those arrows are the plan

Without them, there isn't a plan. There's just sort of a vague idea

The point of the planning bonus is to make sure your officers know exactly what's going on, exactly what objectives are necessary, and are then able to carry out your orders. That bonus represents your people knowing what they're doing without having someone micromanaging, which potentially damages the chain of command, and leads to the front line officers not knowing what they're trying to accomplish

 

[Ody_CZ]

Those arrows are the plan

Without them, there isn't a plan. There's just sort of a vague idea

The point of the planning bonus is to make sure your officers know exactly what's going on, exactly what objectives are necessary, and are then able to carry out your orders. That bonus represents your people knowing what they're doing without having someone micromanaging, which potentially damages the chain of command, and leads to the front line officers not knowing what they're trying to accomplish

Do you know that it is a game? and we are talking about game mechanics. There are no officers that need to know what to do. Only an AI script that even does not follow that plan. Also, arrows "plans" that I draw can be only apprehended as: "Let's take Russia guys" . AI script is too bad for me to let him do important stuff.

I know you can chees it by marshal orders. But how many people even know that. Also, it seems more like a bug than a feature.

Yes if you want to use an AI script "officers" you need to paint the arrows. But there should be an option to say prepare for advance (units must be at the border) I will lead you myself. If you want Roleplaying explanation.

 

[LordWahu]

Yes if you want to use an AI script "officers" you need to paint the arrows. But there should be an option to say prepare for advance (units must be at the border) I will lead you myself. If you want Roleplaying explanation.

A way to have a "Personal Command" buff for a single unit would be pretty awesome. I would love to see that

But that's different than having a plan and following it. In fact, I'd say it's the opposite as the point of personal control is that you're able to abandon the plan and improvise.

So while a bonus for that would be lovely, the planning bonus is not the right bonus

 

[pdBravo]

Do you know that it is a game? and we are talking about game mechanics.

The game's mechanics are trying to simulate (as closely as can be expected) real life, that's why people play it. Or you might as well play Risk and depending on how a couple of dice roll you could lose your entire army.

 

[ltccone]

I never use plans, so I don't worry about a planning bonus.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Those arrows are the plan

Without them, there isn't a plan. There's just sort of a vague idea

The point of the planning bonus is to make sure your officers know exactly what's going on, exactly what objectives are necessary, and are then able to carry out your orders.

You can attain the maximum planning bonus available for your nation by drawing a front line across the enemy's entire border, and then drawing an arrow that amounts to "See that country? Walk through it. All of it."

I don't think there's a possible explanation for how this constitutes a "plan" in a way that OP's suggestion could not also be construed as a "plan". It is not a significantly more meaningful requirement than simply standing at a border. In fact, rather than a button automatically accruing planning bonus on a border is probably the more efficient implementation, and would not meaningfully change gameplay from how it is right now.

The devs really like the battleplanner art project based on earlier patches though, so best not to hold one's breath!

The game's mechanics are trying to simulate (as closely as can be expected) real life

lol

At the end of the day, the OP is essentially looking for a quick to press button to make battles easier. He doesn't want to actually plan an attack, he just wants a button to press so he can have a bonus.

In the context of how HOI 4 works taking this position against OP's post is incoherent. The idea that someone actually believes they're "planning an attack" by drawing a simple front line arrow is pretty funny though.

Even more ironic is looking down on someone who wants to micro their units, which requires more skill and knowledge of the game than the vast majority of "plans" created in HOI 4.

 

[ETAIPOS]

I would kill for a button where an army could be ordered to sit still and just start building up the planning bonus. Then I don't have to make those ugly front lines with ugly arrows going everywhere. I micro most of my fronts anyway, since we all know we can't rely on the AI that controls front management. The AI sends units all over the place to try and fill perceived gaps. It moves your best units to the wrong areas. etc. etc. You know how it goes.

This would be one of the most welcome QOL changes I can think of.

Some time ago I proposed to add "do not move" button that would switch off AI in battleplaner allowing units defend properly without being forced to delete the plan.

But with current attrition caused by mud or deep snow, I feel there is no redeeming for battleplaner unless you can produce VAST amount of extra equipment or use bp only when you are sure there will be no adverse weather. If there is any chance for it... you are better off just going full micro.