We
would like to have a stickied topic explaining the basics of CORE... Unfortunately we're not in charge of our own subforums (Paradox moderators are), so unfortunately we periodically have to explain things over again.
HSR focuses on Germany first and foremost, and giving a human player a run for his money playing Germany. It uses the regular HoI tech tree, and gives you tons of more or less free units simply because 'they were there in real life'. I haven't toyed with it too much, as it really wasn't my cup of tea really. so this is basically what I know about it.
CORE on the other hand does not focus on any specific country, and definately does not give you any freebies. We have a completely revamped tech tree and vastly expanded model range, focus on historical accuracy and ahistorical, plausible outcomes for especially the pre-war era. Within CORE there's no chance in hell that Luxemburg will take over the world... Add to that a changed resource and IC setup, new and changed tech teams (including mobilization tech teams), rares scarcity, negative resource production (civilian spoilage), and you'll have quite a challenge. Within CORE you have to focus your research, there are simply too many techs to research them all.
We don't have militia, but instead have 'reserve' divisions. Some if not most countries rely heavily upon them, especially the semi-industrialized (like Russia) and agricultural economies. They are cheap, but lack the mobility and have less support units than 'regular' infantry. We do have SS units as well, but those are restricted to historical units, including their relative strengths. As such they differ largely in quality from unit to unit.
As HalfTon Midget correctly points out our vastly altered tech trees and models imply that you install either of the two CORE graphics packs (which come separate due to size). The CORE in Color graphics pack is designed to be used together with 'regular' GIP. We install our own graphics in the moddir directory (the whole mod, actually), so won't affect your regular game setup with the exception of dummy imagery (unfortunately, but otherwise our graphics won't load). Our graphics packs, like CORE itself, are still a work in progress, so the current version doesn't have full coverage yet (about 85% or so). Models are fully covered for GER, SOV and the USA, with the exception of naval models.
The upcoming 0.40, which won't be out for a couple of months, will have a revised naval and naval doctrine tech tree (that's why I skipped the naval model imagery for 0.3.2), full tech tree graphics coverage, full model coverage for all the majors plus some major minors, a new AI based on that of TRP, new events etc. The AI is still a weak spot in 0.3.2, so Germany is still a little overpowered.
Oh, and obviously there also is the
CORE manual...
TRP has, without a doubt, the best AI for HoI2. They do use the normal tech trees and setup, and have created a different look and feel for the game.
If you have any additional questions about CORE please feel free to ask. But the most response you'll get at either the CORE subforum or our own
www.terranova.dk forum, the latter which we are sharing with the VIP, Magna Mundi and Fallout mod teams. There is rather a close relation between those mod teams, and the same can be said about our fan bases. A lot of CORE fans are playing VIP for Vicky, and Magna Mundi for EU3.
