Starfire Historical Mod Available (Major Mod)

[Mithel]

We have just upgraded our Internet bandwidth, unfortunately this means that until the DNS records propagate our domain (starfireresearch.com) won't be reachable (by name). DNS records typically propagate overnight so tomorrow the problem should be gone. In the meantime you can reach our website (and hence the forum by directly surfing to 12.207.131.6.

 

[X_MasterDave_X]

thanks Mithel, for all your hard work.

Ive played now a little bit 1.3. Its a very nice Patch from Paradox. Now Airforce is full neccessary. But as before, all Troops run to fast. Also in 1.3 my poland Campaign is over in 8 Days. I fear all other campaigns would be the same as in 1.2 etc in sight of speed.

So 1.3 combined with your movement speed will be (as always) the best.

I hope a full 1.3 compatible Mod will come soon.

Thanks !!!

P.S.: what do you think about 1.3 and 1.3a ???

 

[Mithel]

I'd rather not post my opinions of 1.3 here. For a more in depth discussion ask about it on my own forum:
Starfire Forum

 

[Mithel]

Starfire version E6 is now available for download.

A lot of work was put into improving the Spanish Civil War.

Armor is slightly more expensive, Battalions (attachments) have been completely reviewed and improved.

More improvements to the economy; Finland tends to stop Russia cold in the Winter War.

 

[Epaminondas]

Great news. Thanks Mithel and team.

 

[Mithel]

Version E7 has been released. Should have a more historic Soviet Union and a better balance between Germany and Russia.

 

[Golwar]

Ah, the good old times with new versions every second day
I really appreciate your work, Starfire simply makes HoI Combats more strategic.

 

[Mithel]

{laugh} Overall I'm slowing down and releasing fewer releases. How often I make a release depends partly on feedback I get. If someone makes a suggestion that looks like it would be a good improvement I generally try to get that in and released quickly.

 

[Mithel]

Version E8 is now available for download.

This version includes significant enhancements to the German-Soviet balance.

Also the reinforcement and upgrading system has been completely revamped.

 

[Mithel]

Version E9 is now available. Visit our website and forums for info and discussion.

 

[unmerged(51324)]

I noticed Nightime Defense modification was increased to be the same as Attack modification. Why is that?

 

[unmerged(12303)]

yup a job well done on this mod..... pity P cant learn from you..

 

[Mithel]

With vanilla's instant combat you don't have battles that rage over several days thus you don't notice any problems with the misbalance between the nighttime attack and defense penalties.

With Starfire where battles typically last a few days lots of time is spent at night. If the defense and attack modifiers aren't equal then you get lopsided goofy penalties. So Starfire has them equal so night is just a "lull" in combat. Remember this is a strategic game not a tactical one.

 

[unmerged(51324)]

HoI is both strategic and tactical. Tactics come to the fore when dealing with specific types of troops, stacking, terrain, weather, day or night, blitzkrieg, surrounding the enemy, supply issues, on and on. If you have ever spent a lot of time outside at night, its much easier to have your bearings on position, direction, and organization, when you are stationary and defensive, and as compared to being mobile and offensive.

I indirectly mentioned this in another thread. I think minimal modification is key to a good mod, and focusing mostly on the strategic inconsistencies. I haven't played your mod, but I played another popular one and so far 1.3a is a much better and more historical game. I guess my point is that, fixing only glaring problems in the constitution (and, if there are any) of the regular HoI2 game is a pertinent point when it comes to modding.

So far, I haven't noticed any major historical inconsistencies in 1.3a, and I would think that this should be the status quo. So far, Gibraltar is the only thing I see that might need help (maybe a more historical Spanish army - not sure though) - Gibraltar is too big on the map, and stacking should be limited to 9 or 10 divisions there, or so, and as based upon a given regions carrying capacity. Past these kind of macro-issues, and short of being an ace at physics and its systemic simulation, modifications of the ground-plan should be far and few between, IMO.

 

[Mithel]

Let's see, off the cuff, realism or historical flaws in vanilla:
* Combat is absurdly fast - battles for entire provinces, hundreds of square miles last only a few hours.
* Manpower distribution - many provinces have zero manpower
* IC - Paradox has made the choice to give small nations at least 5 IC minimum irregardless of actual economy; other nations have distorted economic values.
* Resource amounts and placement - often "wrong" or inaccurate
* Initial trades don't reflect historical figures
* Relative value of an Infantry vs Armored division
* Diplomatic errors (like forgetting to set the neutrality of Spain thus allowing easy alliance with Spain)
* Combat loss rates are extremely low - this ties in with manpower issues - Historically every nation had manpower shortages, in vanilla HoI manpower shortages are rare.
* Value of experience for a division - in vanilla a seasoned veteran division has barely more combat value than a fresh green division.
* Initial OOBs - vanilla has huge initial armies for many smaller nations that are just plain wrong (usually more indicative of their peak military strength not their 1936 or 1938 strength)
* Relative cost of units - there have been some clear inaccuracies
* Battle of the Atlantic - last we checked in vanilla there was no point at all to Germany trying to wage a campaign against Allied merchant shipping.
* Attaching brigade sized units to divisions (historically it was battalion sized units that were attached)
* Much of the terrain is certainly debatable, and initial placement of fortification values is often wrong.
* Even the border of Belgium and Germany is incorrect.
* "fudge" methods to cheat single player or hands off games to look like they give historical results. Example: sov_ger_handicap.ai triggered in event 25027 - this tells the Soviet AI to not attack at all for 240 days. These types of "balancing" may work ok for hands off games or single player (as long as the player isn't Russia) but they result in a non-historic, incorrectly balanced simulation for multiplayer games.

Is there any point to going on?

Don't take this wrong, it's not meant as a criticism of Paradox or HoI. They have done a ton of work and a lot of research. To accurately simulate WW2 is a huge job and I'd guess we could continue to improve HoI for years. Elsewhere I've posted that, in my opinion, to do a "decent" comprehensive mod would take over a year of a talented person working full time.

 

[unmerged(12530)]

Manpower Limits in Starfire?

I'm playing the US with the Starfire Mod, and I've got a question: have you guys accounted for the new limit of 9999 manpower in 1.3? I'm in October of 1940 now, and have been at the limit for about 6 months, mainly because I'm not building much. I've had several gearing up for war events, which should've added about 5000 MP's, but of course they get lost. By the time the war actually starts, I figure I'll be down well over 10,000 MP's from what I should be if it weren't for the limit. I've got a funny feeling that when I actually do have to start building a lot of things, in about 8 months, I'm going to run out of manpower pretty quickly because of that missing 10,000.

Are my concerns justified?

 

[Mithel]

Arby, you are correct. This is an issue.

However I don't think it's too bad of an issue because 10,000 manpower will allow you to build almost 59 divisions. Daily manpower gain should allow you to build some more. Thus with starting divisions and perhaps a little pre-war building and you should reach near historic levels.

But you are correct, I need to review this and double check that it isn't a problem.

As it is you'll probably be forced to build roughly historic USA production (in terms of number of divisions). (which may seem limiting if you thought the USA could just churn out the most awesome army on the planet) I should work on it though because the USA did employ a lot of non-divisional units and to make the equivalent in HoI generic divisions you'll probably lack manpower.

 

[Orthank]

Just want to say that we are (WishingWell, Tyrant, Fiendix, Tangens, Phadishar, Orthank) in the middle of great game, it is july 1942 and seems that it is looking very very good and it is not the end yet.

P.S. it is previous version of Starfire on 1.02 patch so the new must be even better !

 

[unmerged(11633)]

Mithel, in the release notes it said in the latest version you'd lowered the cost and upped the time for upgrading of units. Won't that mean that a lot of upgrades will hit the cap of minimum 1 IC for upgrades for the max time, thus needing a lot more IC to upgraed stuff?

 

[Mithel]

Gjerg, no, if my math is correct very few units are cheap enough that the upgrade costs would get down to less than 1 IC per unit. (Yes there are some cheap units like Militia that will suffer from this)

Orthank, that's great to hear that you've got a multiplayer game that is remaining viable and interesting into 1942! Great!