Upcoming mod:Modern War

[Paul Hanson]

That's probably the sweetest post I've ever read on these boards

From the experience I've got over the years working on a hobby projects I can say that the slow and methodological approach gives best results at the end as too intense work wears-out most people and they give up.

Keep up the good work guys!

Thanks!

I think you've hit upon the crux of the matter here; this mod is a hobby, nothing more. I want it to be the best DH mod going when it's done, make no mistake, but ultimately it has to be enjoyable for me to work on. If it isn't, I'll simply stop working on it. Working on it doesn't put a roof over my head or food on the table, and those activities that do have to come first.

You also mention the slow, methodical approach as opposed to the flat-out, intensive one. I have to say that I agree entirely. I take things nice and slow when I'm modding, mainly to avoid generating problems down the line where possible. As the old saying goes, there's never enough time to do anything properly, but always enough time to do it twice. I'm aiming to avoid this where possible. Giving that I'm working with a set of files generated by a number of others over a number of years, finding my way around them and learning how the mod is put together is a slow process that, in my opinion, requires the approach I've outlined. I've already discovered and corrected a number of errors thanks to this.

I'll try and put up a few screenshots later, just to prove that I have been working on this and that it will be worth the wait.

 

[Paul Hanson]

As promised, a quick peek at MDS for DH.

The US invasion of Iraq gets underway...

 

[Aliasing]

Hurray! Darkest Hour Full map!

 

[Panzergruppe]

As promised, a quick peek at MDS for DH.

The US invasion of Iraq gets underway...

Nice, but you might want to downscale that image. 6.6 MB is pretty big...

 

[Zzzzz...]

Hey guys, I'm an amateur at it but I would love to write the events.

 

[Paul Hanson]

Hurray! Darkest Hour Full map!

Oh yes indeed! It took a hell of a long time (and there are still a few nations that need to be added to make it complete), but I'm quite proud of the fact that MDS now uses the DH map. It really is far superior to the original HoI map for simulating the current world political situation.

Nice, but you might want to downscale that image. 6.6 MB is pretty big...

You're absolutely right. I uploaded it rather hastily, and in doing so forgot to convert the bitmap to JPEG. Any future screenshots (and I intend on putting a couple more up tonight) will not suffer from this problem.

Hey guys, I'm an amateur at it but I would love to write the events.

Thanks for the offer of help! However, events are not my primary concern at the moment; things like ministers and leaders are. If you're willing to do quite indepth research on either of those, I'd be more than grateful.

 

[UltimateTobi]

This mod looks promising. I am looking forward to that too!

Paul, are you now the "leader" of this mod? Or is Supeerme still?

Do it nice and slowly, take your time and the better it'll be.

 

[Paul Hanson]

This mod looks promising. I am looking forward to that too!

Paul, are you now the "leader" of this mod? Or is Supeerme still?

Do it nice and slowly, take your time and the better it'll be.

Thanks. I'm looking forward to the finished product as well, believe me!

The question of mod 'leadership' is a slightly tricky one. The short answer is 'yes, and no'. The long answer is as follows:

As a challenge to myself, and because I'd fancied playing it and no-one else had taken up the mantle, I converted MDS to Arsenal of Democracy some time ago. This was noted by Killerrabbit, the leader of MDS for Hearts of Iron, who asked me if I wished to take over leadership of the mod. His own desire to continue working on the mod had left him some time before, but he was unwilling to let it die a death. I accepted his offer, got hold of the complete files (including some bits he'd no gotten around to integrating), and converted everything to run on AoD.

When Darkest Hour came out, I, like a lot of others, was intrigued by it's modding capabilities. Put simply, it's a much better platform to build a mod on, so I set about the conversion from AoD to DH. This took a while, but I've made some progress. As I noted a few posts back, however, the nature of my life often leads to me having little to no time to work on the mod, and to the outside observer it appears as though I vanish off the face of the earth for weeks at a time. During one of these times, Supeerme decided to start work on Modern War, which would have covered a similar (yet slightly longer) timeframe.

When I finally got around to noticing this, I figured that there would be considerable overlap between Modern War and MDS (I believe Supeerme himself said that Modern War would be based upon MDS, but I may be wrong about this), and suggested to him that we collaborate so as not to duplicate effort. He accepted, and then found himself rather busy himself, so I suppose I'm sort of heading up a joint effort by myself for now. I've incorporated his work into MDS, but there's still plenty to do.

 

[Zzzzz...]

Thanks for the offer of help! However, events are not my primary concern at the moment; things like ministers and leaders are. If you're willing to do quite indepth research on either of those, I'd be more than grateful.

Starting from 1990? I'll try I would love to see a modern day mod on DH.

 

[Joghurt]

Starting from 1990? I'll try I would love to see a modern day mod on DH.

Indeed! Really looking forward to that one!

 

[Aliasing]

I really hope there is a way to make the Soviet Union survive at the 1990 start.

 

[TC Pilot]

I'm glad to see work being done on a modern scenario. I'd been hoping for awhile someone would try to make just such a mod.

 

[UltimateTobi]

Thanks. I'm looking forward to the finished product as well, believe me!

The question of mod 'leadership' is a slightly tricky one. The short answer is 'yes, and no'. The long answer is as follows:

As a challenge to myself, and because I'd fancied playing it and no-one else had taken up the mantle, I converted MDS to Arsenal of Democracy some time ago. This was noted by Killerrabbit, the leader of MDS for Hearts of Iron, who asked me if I wished to take over leadership of the mod. His own desire to continue working on the mod had left him some time before, but he was unwilling to let it die a death. I accepted his offer, got hold of the complete files (including some bits he'd no gotten around to integrating), and converted everything to run on AoD.

When Darkest Hour came out, I, like a lot of others, was intrigued by it's modding capabilities. Put simply, it's a much better platform to build a mod on, so I set about the conversion from AoD to DH. This took a while, but I've made some progress. As I noted a few posts back, however, the nature of my life often leads to me having little to no time to work on the mod, and to the outside observer it appears as though I vanish off the face of the earth for weeks at a time. During one of these times, Supeerme decided to start work on Modern War, which would have covered a similar (yet slightly longer) timeframe.

When I finally got around to noticing this, I figured that there would be considerable overlap between Modern War and MDS (I believe Supeerme himself said that Modern War would be based upon MDS, but I may be wrong about this), and suggested to him that we collaborate so as not to duplicate effort. He accepted, and then found himself rather busy himself, so I suppose I'm sort of heading up a joint effort by myself for now. I've incorporated his work into MDS, but there's still plenty to do.

Great, thanks for such a big explanation. I wish you and your fellow(s) much luck for MDS for DH. I'll follow this thread and again looking forward to a playable mod.

 

[messenger]

Why not start from 1985 or something before Glasnost really started in the USSR. That way the Soviet players can take measures to get the union back on track or to do things historically, players get the cold war mod they so desire and MDS becomes a lot more interesting. If push comes to shove it could always be a seperate scenario?

 

[Paul Hanson]

Starting from 1990? I'll try I would love to see a modern day mod on DH.

If you're willing to give it go, let me know which nation(s) you'd be interested in researching. Bear in mind that the timeframe of the mod is 1990-2020, and I want the available ministers to reflect a wide range of possibilities, so what you did would need to be quite extensive.

I really hope there is a way to make the Soviet Union survive at the 1990 start.

Why not start from 1985 or something before Glasnost really started in the USSR. That way the Soviet players can take measures to get the union back on track or to do things historically, players get the cold war mod they so desire and MDS becomes a lot more interesting. If push comes to shove it could always be a seperate scenario?

My knowledge of the collapse of the Soviet Union is quite limited, so I'm not sure how plausible it would be for the Soviet Union to remain as a cohesive entity if the POD is as late as 1990. That being said, I intend for this mod to become a basis for all modern-day mods, so there would be nothing to stop anyone making a alt-hist scenario with a 1990 start, but a 1985 POD, for example.

 

[Ithron]

If the coup of 19th of August, 1991 by the hardliners who opposed the reformation and liberalization of Soviet Union wouldn't happen AT ALL, then Soviet Union would survive, with Baltic states, Armenia and Georgia (and very possibly - Ukraine) going out of Soviet Union and getting independence. This coup in 19th of August totally destroyed credibility of Soviet Union. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Soviet_coup_d'état_attempt)
Before that, in 17th of March, 1991 there was referendum (boycotted by Baltics, Armenia, Georgia and Moldova) about keeping or disbanding the Soviet Union, and in the republics where it happened, it was mostly voted to yes, KEEP the Soviet Union, albeit in a reformed form (as Union of Sovereign States - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_of_Sovereign_States). But, after the failed coup in 19th of August, popular opinion and local administrations of soviet republics went totally against Soviet Union. Thus, continued existance of Soviet Union in a reduced and reformed shape was possible, and most republics where either very much for it or absolutely against the idea. The only state "on the edge" was Ukraine, so, maybe it should have 50-50 chance of either going independent or going into the new Union of Sovereign States. Thus, while begining of scenario in 1985 might give deeper immersion for survival of Soviet Union (you should play the game Crisis in Kremlin to find out more about that! ), 1990 is also fine.. However, there might be some difficulty implimenting Union of Sovereign States, even though I'm not an expert on it, I'm not sure it could be represented as a unified single country (maybe it could, dunno).
Still, in this reformed Union of Sovereign States, economy would anyway experience partial liberalization and some crash, so the end result maybe would be an economy that very much resembles the economy of modern Belarus - on paper, there exists free economy, but in reality, 70% of workforce works for companies owned by state, state heavily subsidizes the big companies, regulates prices, sets production quotas, etc. So, on granduer scheme, command economy is still very much there, but at least, they dont kill the privat enterprenuers as USSR did in the "good old times" (just harasses them).

 

[Zzzzz...]

If you're willing to give it go, let me know which nation(s) you'd be interested in researching. Bear in mind that the timeframe of the mod is 1990-2020, and I want the available ministers to reflect a wide range of possibilities, so what you did would need to be quite extensive.

If you don't mind, I'll go with the cabinet ministers currently in power in the Western world at the start of the game, for starters. It seems that they are the easiest. What's the starting date?

 

[Paul Hanson]

If you don't mind, I'll go with the cabinet ministers currently in power in the Western world at the start of the game, for starters. It seems that they are the easiest. What's the starting date?

Any particular nation you want to start off with? For the sake of argument, we'll assume the starting date is 1st January 1990 (I don't know if Supeerme intended for the 1990 scenario to start on a different date). The minsters currently start from 23rd March 2003, which is when MDS begins, but just add/adjust ministers as necessary.

 

[unmerged(174159)]

My knowledge of the collapse of the Soviet Union is quite limited, so I'm not sure how plausible it would be for the Soviet Union to remain as a cohesive entity if the POD is as late as 1990. That being said, I intend for this mod to become a basis for all modern-day mods, so there would be nothing to stop anyone making a alt-hist scenario with a 1990 start, but a 1985 POD, for example.

1985 start would be recommended. For a start, you could have Gorbachev outmanouevred by Soviet Hardliners in the election for head of the Politburo, meaning glasnost doesn't happen. There would be a need however for the Soviets to perhaps acknowledge they're losing the missile race.


If you need help with anything, feel free to ask.

And you should start 1990 on 2nd August - a) My birthday and b) the date of the Invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein.

 

[Zzzzz...]

Any particular nation you want to start off with? For the sake of argument, we'll assume the starting date is 1st January 1990 (I don't know if Supeerme intended for the 1990 scenario to start on a different date). The minsters currently start from 23rd March 2003, which is when MDS begins, but just add/adjust ministers as necessary.

I think I'll start with US cabinet of 1990. After that, I don't know what you have in mind.