As a "Christmas present" for all HoI players version F1 of Starfire (a major update) is expected to be released later today.
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Version F1 is now released. This is a major update.
The most important changes relate to the rise of German belligerence, the reaction of the USA to the German belligerence and the mobilization of military forces.
Significant changes have been made to manpower.
UK is stronger, Italy is weaker.
The most important changes relate to the rise of German belligerence, the reaction of the USA to the German belligerence and the mobilization of military forces.
Significant changes have been made to manpower.
UK is stronger, Italy is weaker.
From what I read in the Mod Critique thread from a few weeks ago, one of the things this mod is suppose to do is increase the length of time combat takes place. Well I'm working on a Vietnam scenario and I think increasing the combat time will be very needed for some things to work right in it and I am wondering what you did to make it last longer. If possible could you maybe send me only the changed files to make combat longer so I can use them in the scneario, assuming thats alright with you. If not, could you tell me what I ought to change to have longer combat? Thanks.
Email is lthilsdorf@yahoo.com
Email is lthilsdorf@yahoo.com
I've explained many times the fundamentals of my combat system changes and they are documented on my website. I'll send you an e-mail with the basics.
Quick Report
Started the new mod last night, as USA, and some points:
1. Had a both CTD's within the first few months, both when I clicked on a naval stack to regroup it. Didn't happen after that.
2. The "government sliders" -- moving toward a drafted army -- are occurring way too quickly. First one was in 1938. Also, in addition to the majors, Costa Rico is also affected.
3. It's the end of December 1939, and Japan is yet to build a single ship. I saved then reloaded as them, and found that's not likely to change. The only ship they're building is a single submarine. In addition, they're building a solitary tank, interceptor, and tac bomber. The only thing they're building in serial is airbases, three each at Iwo Jima and Palau.
Which brings up something I vaguely alluded to a couple of weeks ago: I think one of the problems with mods is that they sometimes make changes which the AI simply cannot adapt to. For example, your mod substantially alters the benefits of the gearing bonus; I think it maxes out at around 65/35. This puts a huge premium on starting units early and making them for a long time. For example, in games as the US I would often wait until the "gearing up for war events" had driven my hawk lobby setting to the max so that I would get the benefit of the 20% reduction in costs. With the gearing bonus adjustment, I don't do that anymore. Apparently, though, the computer still does. I don't know if there's a way to get the AI to take advantage of the change in the gearing bonus, but if there isn't, it gives a huge advantage to the human player.
RB
Started the new mod last night, as USA, and some points:
1. Had a both CTD's within the first few months, both when I clicked on a naval stack to regroup it. Didn't happen after that.
2. The "government sliders" -- moving toward a drafted army -- are occurring way too quickly. First one was in 1938. Also, in addition to the majors, Costa Rico is also affected.
3. It's the end of December 1939, and Japan is yet to build a single ship. I saved then reloaded as them, and found that's not likely to change. The only ship they're building is a single submarine. In addition, they're building a solitary tank, interceptor, and tac bomber. The only thing they're building in serial is airbases, three each at Iwo Jima and Palau.
Which brings up something I vaguely alluded to a couple of weeks ago: I think one of the problems with mods is that they sometimes make changes which the AI simply cannot adapt to. For example, your mod substantially alters the benefits of the gearing bonus; I think it maxes out at around 65/35. This puts a huge premium on starting units early and making them for a long time. For example, in games as the US I would often wait until the "gearing up for war events" had driven my hawk lobby setting to the max so that I would get the benefit of the 20% reduction in costs. With the gearing bonus adjustment, I don't do that anymore. Apparently, though, the computer still does. I don't know if there's a way to get the AI to take advantage of the change in the gearing bonus, but if there isn't, it gives a huge advantage to the human player.
RB
I'd recommend making sure you are patched to v1.3a as the naval stack CTDs sound like the crash bugs Paradox has in v1.3.
The government sliders are timed as intended to prevent players from moving their army to full "professional". Costa Rico is used to fire the timers (very few players will play Costa Rico and if they do it still doesn't cause them any problems but an extra click once every nine months).
Almost all of the AI is v1.3 AI, I haven't had time to re-implement my improvements. To take advantage of the gearing bonus I tell the AI to allow longer gearing runs and usually that's worked well in the past (but isn't currently working for most nations because they are basically vanilla 1.3 AI).
Thanks for the heads up on Japan, I'll take a look at them. (they have always been one of the most troublesome nations). Taking a quick look at them I can see that the AI is told to only build destroyers (for naval units) using the defective "relative_build_scheme = no" and Japan won't do better until the AI switches (or I fix their AI file).
Thanks for the feedback!
The government sliders are timed as intended to prevent players from moving their army to full "professional". Costa Rico is used to fire the timers (very few players will play Costa Rico and if they do it still doesn't cause them any problems but an extra click once every nine months).
Almost all of the AI is v1.3 AI, I haven't had time to re-implement my improvements. To take advantage of the gearing bonus I tell the AI to allow longer gearing runs and usually that's worked well in the past (but isn't currently working for most nations because they are basically vanilla 1.3 AI).
Thanks for the heads up on Japan, I'll take a look at them. (they have always been one of the most troublesome nations). Taking a quick look at them I can see that the AI is told to only build destroyers (for naval units) using the defective "relative_build_scheme = no" and Japan won't do better until the AI switches (or I fix their AI file).
Thanks for the feedback!
A suggestion, you should probably review all the Manpower that countries get from events (legion condor, etc...), and the starting MP of italy, seeing how these are the same as they were in vanil HoI2, which could be a problem considering the MP system Starfire uses.
F1 rules by the way, Love this mod
F1 rules by the way, Love this mod
I agree completely, I do need to go through country by country and review the manpower situation for each. The province amounts are all now historical (totals for the nations anyway) but only Germany has decent events to give them mobilization manpower. Almost every other nation needs attention.
Playing your mod with Italy:
It's now June 1942 and I have 5800 manpower !!!!!
So I would suggest too reduce MP in the province.csv significantly
But:
This mod is really great. I'll post you my observations later one
It's now June 1942 and I have 5800 manpower !!!!!
So I would suggest too reduce MP in the province.csv significantly
But:
This mod is really great. I'll post you my observations later one
Interesting Cpack! Which version of Starfire?
In my testing of my next upcoming version (F2) Italy is not significantly gaining manpower. In the first year they have not yet built any units and manpower is down from it's starting value (no doubt busy reinforcing units).
Manpower is getting a lot of attention and will have some dramatic changes in F2 (possibly F3).
In my testing of my next upcoming version (F2) Italy is not significantly gaining manpower. In the first year they have not yet built any units and manpower is down from it's starting value (no doubt busy reinforcing units).
Manpower is getting a lot of attention and will have some dramatic changes in F2 (possibly F3).
It's F1.
I conquered Yugoslavia, Greece, Bulgaria and Albania, got Algeria from Vichy
I conquered Yugoslavia, Greece, Bulgaria and Albania, got Algeria from Vichy
well 1 inf costs 170 mp so u can build 34 inf with 5800. How many have you built from the start? Have u reinforced at all. Seen any heavy combat?
F2 Released
Version F2 is now available. Note: at this time we do not recommend installing v1.3b, stay with v1.3a (see Warden's note in the multiplayer forum).
Many more changes once again:
* All the v1.3 1938 changes have been reviewed and implemented as appropriate.
* Major rework of economy by changing Industrial techs (including oil conversion technologies)
* Additional Government slider regulations implemented and adjusted
* Very important changes to China-Japan situation.
* Several other changes
Initial analysis shows F2 to be a huge improvement regarding the over stockpiling of resources! Among the major powers excess stockpiling in the first year has been reduced by 213,705 units or a more than 25% reduction in excess stockpiles. This should make resources far more important!
Version F2 is now available. Note: at this time we do not recommend installing v1.3b, stay with v1.3a (see Warden's note in the multiplayer forum).
Many more changes once again:
* All the v1.3 1938 changes have been reviewed and implemented as appropriate.
* Major rework of economy by changing Industrial techs (including oil conversion technologies)
* Additional Government slider regulations implemented and adjusted
* Very important changes to China-Japan situation.
* Several other changes
Initial analysis shows F2 to be a huge improvement regarding the over stockpiling of resources! Among the major powers excess stockpiling in the first year has been reduced by 213,705 units or a more than 25% reduction in excess stockpiles. This should make resources far more important!
A little bit off-topic, Mithel, but I've just nominated this post of yours for the Post of the Month votation. 
Very nice work, by the way.
Very nice work, by the way.
Mithel wrote:
I assume that this recommendation is based on Starfire's preference for MP gaming? Colonel Warden's statement refers to that Soviet GDE bug that has crept back with 1.3b, and the importance for all players to have the same, exact version of the game. In any case, there has been an unofficial player-modded fix on one of the threads that seems to work; been using it myself...
Does your recommendation hold true for SP gaming?
I assume that this recommendation is based on Starfire's preference for MP gaming? Colonel Warden's statement refers to that Soviet GDE bug that has crept back with 1.3b, and the importance for all players to have the same, exact version of the game. In any case, there has been an unofficial player-modded fix on one of the threads that seems to work; been using it myself...
Does your recommendation hold true for SP gaming?
Several people have suggested the v1.3b patch might be more harm than good (unless you are playing vanilla 1936) and hinted that another patch will probably be out soon and that we'd be better off just ignoring v1.3b. Some of the v1.3b things do seem to be a bit of crude attempts to make the AI more of a challenge totally ignoring history and flavor of the game. I don't support those types of changes in general.
So yes, even for single player I'd suggest staying with v1.3a + F2.
So yes, even for single player I'd suggest staying with v1.3a + F2.
Does anyone have any comments on the government slider regulation events?
They should improve the overall game without having to take away the player's ability to do slider moves.
They should improve the overall game without having to take away the player's ability to do slider moves.
The French resource trades still need to be tuned. In F2 they are just in the right proportions, the total amount may be tuned a bit in future releases.
Mithel said:
Yes, similar comments have been made on the Paradox forums regarding certain "oddities", especially with regards to AI building parameters. "Artificial" attempts to get a more challenging AI may be somewhat efficient, but at the cost of bypassing historical flavour.
I, too, much prefer changes (be it with the hard-code or player mods) that attempt a more historical/realistic setting and parameters for gameplay. So, yes indeed, Mr. Mithel, I'm another player who appreciates your constant effort!
As a matter of fact, I've been looking over at the Starfire forums and have enjoyed reading the comments and considerations mentioned.
Just as an afterthought, I'm eagerly awaiting the CORE mod to test the "individual ships" idea (for DDs and SS), which seem to me an important variant. I know that this has also been discussed in the naval issues SF forum. Your more recent mods consider a sub unit as representing 10 subs; wonder if the CORE idea can be modded in SF for a more realistic, or perhaps less abstract, approach...