Upgrading your legacy armor

[Ernestas]

Hello,

Sorry if I failed to find an answer to it, but I want to ask quick question:

Did developers thought out how to use old armor for new purposes? I mean, if I want to modernize my old Pz.2 tanks into cutting edge AA weapon by researching its upgrade, could then I upgrade my tanks as I wish? I mean, taking them from panzer divisions and transferring to AA support attachments?

Also, does this game will have any calculation in place for statistics of various support vehicles? I mean, having whole freaking tank as AA platform is way superior than a mere truck vs strafing planes and even in combat support scenarios. Those quad 4x20 mm could eat up anything soft after all!

 

[Alexander Suvorov]

Okay, that's a good point. Lot's of tank chassis were repurposed for mounting infantry support guns or what have you once they were obsolete in the role of tank-against-tank combat.

Happily if you check out this pretty cool video you'll see Paradox have got something they're working on for this, so you too will be able to slap a Pak 40 on top of your Panzerkampfwagen II to make it fill you tank destroyer role once it is no longer a good front line unit.

 

[GsusNSV]

At the moment, the refitting of old tanks will not be in the base game. So the old Pz. III from your stockpile can not be converted to StuG III. Of course they thought about it, so we can hope for a DLC.

What you can do, is to research the submodell for tanks. Which unlocks the self-propelled Art, AA and TD for this chassie.
So after researching the Panzer III you can research the Stug III and then build it.

 

[Ernestas]

I hope so. In video they just mentioned that you can upgrade your legacy vehicles, but I never heard how it will be done. The worst solution is simply being able to produce modified tank as support vehicle without loosing any production bonuses. That forgets entire point of modifying vehicles since vast majority of your armed forces will still be using outdated equipment which either will be gradually lost or will demand full replacement from you with a new tank.

 

[Ernestas]

Well, I would consider this as core feature of the new engine and it would be weird to receive upgrades to basic game mechanics as dlc. Handling of your equipment is one of the most interesting parts of this new iteration, but strangely I could not find too much info about it.

In addition, having separate chassis, weapons and etc. could be a place for DLC. For example, elephants were a product of over confident tank producer to win a competition. He did not won it and thus Germans had to improvise something with them. More in depth management system of your equipment and its performance on the field could be a place for DLC like you suggested. For example, rifles are superior to submachine guns in ''plains'' while inferior in ''urban''. Same as producing long barreled cannons, while they are more taxing on a vehicle, they are largely useless if used in urban or other close range environment where low penetration capabilities of short barreled weapons are compensated by almost point blank ranges. Proper handling of your old equipment and redistribution to chosen units could be an idea for great DLC which would add a lot of complexity for veterans.

 

[Alexander Suvorov]

Thank you for the clarification on how exactly producing the different models of a tank chassis will work.

 

[Xsio]

I don't think they should add more micromanaging for equipment, but I absolutely agree that the game need a possibility to do something with old equipment you've been stockpiling for 2 years. Making TD, Mobile AA/Art from old tanks is vital for historical accuracy.

 

[Ernestas]

I would just want to know how old equipment will be replaced at vanilla launch version. Will it will be replaced just with casualties or I will have to press upgrade button which would send my all old armor to reserves while replacing it with new models.

 

[GsusNSV]

I would just want to know how old equipment will be replaced at vanilla launch version. Will it will be replaced just with casualties or I will have to press upgrade button which would send my all old armor to reserves while replacing it with new models.

Your divisions will try to get the best equipment possible. (While one with 'Elite' status are first in line.) So if you switch from Pz III to Pz IV, the medium tank batallions will get new Pz IV when they are produced. If you don't have enough they will use the stockpiled Pz III instead.

So as long as you have any kind of medium tank in your stockpile, these divisions will be filled.

Edit: no need to push any button. your divisions will always be filled, with what you have in your stockpile.

 

[Ernestas]

And old tanks? Will be they just thrown away, left there they are like today or returned to stockpile? I also assume that during peace time, all your divisions will start receiving new tanks as replacement so if you do not set priorities, you will end up with mixed varieties of armor.

 

[GsusNSV]

And old tanks? Will be they just thrown away, left there they are like today or returned to stockpile? I also assume that during peace time, all your divisions will start receiving new tanks as replacement so if you do not set priorities, you will end up with mixed varieties of armor.

They return to your stockpile, where they 'rust away'. Until now I haven't heard, that they include the feature, of refitting these old tanks into something more modern, into the base game.
For the second part, yeah that can happen.

 

[Ernestas]

Ah, well at least you can have quite a potential to create huge armed forces out of nothing just using same old WW1 and pre-WW2 equipment and let them pour in secondary fronts there they will ramp up nice defensive bonuses like guarding docks, islands, sending them for Africa campaigns where enemy forces are scare like in HOI3 Italy had shitloads of militia in its newest colony from which it was pain to move in and out.

 

[panzerzombie]

Somebody had a suggestion to mod a event or a national focus for this kind of conversion without waiting for a DLC.

Alas my question if a event could determine if there is enough stockpile of a certain weapon to be converted was not answered.

lets say germany has developed tier III tanks (making tier II tanks obsolete/outdated), has the model tier II tank destroyer and AT Weapons II and has a stock of 200 Pz-II chassis and 200 ATG´s.....is a event able to "sense" that and trigger ?

 

[Denkt]

From what I know you can not convert existing equipment into something else.

 

[panzerzombie]

No you can´t directly but you could subtract and add amounts of stuff in HOI3 via events iirc.....so it could be a workaround if 4 is similar enough.

The question remains: is a event capable of detecting the availability of stockpiles, subtracting a number of obsolete chassis and guns and add completed tankdestroyers in their stead...

edit: a primitive, awkward and fabricated example of an event ( my Hoi3 was deinstalled long ago)

time: every month beginning in e.g. August´41
technologies required: medium tank tier III and tankdestroyer tier II and ATG I
subtracts: stockpile 50 Pz- II and 50 ATG-I
adds: 50 Marder-II

if stockpiles not sufficient, event does not trigger
decision: Yes / No

 

[deutsch45]

You should be able to, after all, it's what they did historically (?)

I would rather invest the 20 days it takes to research a tank upgrade in a new tank since it doesn't seem like a reasonable trade off if you can't refit stockpiled armor.

 

[adam_grif]

They could model this partially by making tanks from the stockpile a resource input on tank destroyer and other variants of that chassis. Basically, normal speed production if you don't have them, if you DO have them the production line producing stugs will take your unused variants and convert them, halving the production time (or something like that).

It would only draw from stockpiles, and only if the tank in question is no longer produced. Ideally there would be a button you could check for "convert this obsolete model" or something like that.

 

[uther4117]

They could model this partially by making tanks from the stockpile a resource input on tank destroyer and other variants of that chassis. Basically, normal speed production if you don't have them, if you DO have them the production line producing stugs will take your unused variants and convert them, halving the production time (or something like that).

It would only draw from stockpiles, and only if the tank in question is no longer produced. Ideally there would be a button you could check for "convert this obsolete model" or something like that.

This is a GREAT idea and only viable option to implement such future

Community did its job now YOU PARADOX

 

[adam_grif]

This is a GREAT idea and only viable option to implement such future

I expect they could add something like that in a later DLC, but from what we've seen of the game it's not a launch feature. They're keeping it relatively simple. I would say you could do it in a mod, but I'm not totally sure if you could, since there are no "resource stockpiles", just resource income - thus there is not likely to be in-built code to do this kind of thing (where you have a stockpile that depletes during production). It would not make sense to have the stockpile conversion operate in exactly the same way - where it acts as a strategic resource, and it is either present or not present. It wouldn't make any sense if you could build 5 stugs from 1 chassis or something like that, nor that you take 5 chassis to produce 1 stug. But that's the kind of behaviour you get based on the existing resource model - resources are depleted based on how many factories are running, not based on how many items you're producing. But maybe you could add the functionality appropriately if the game is flexible enough.

 

[Alexander Suvorov]

They could model this partially by making tanks from the stockpile a resource input on tank destroyer and other variants of that chassis. Basically, normal speed production if you don't have them, if you DO have them the production line producing stugs will take your unused variants and convert them, halving the production time (or something like that).

It would only draw from stockpiles, and only if the tank in question is no longer produced. Ideally there would be a button you could check for "convert this obsolete model" or something like that.

First of all, I get that "half the production time" is a kind of arbitrarily chosen example number, so I won't take any issue with the particular number you chose, but rather just say that the whole concept is a good idea and appealing without getting bogged down in the numbers. You weren't expecting that were you?

secondly, I'd add that this should probably also remove the resource requirement for a vehicle being retooled versus built new, what with that cost already having been paid once for that vehicle.

Honestly, this kind of system would be great, but I am just excited to all these possible variants (and considering the variations you can make to some stats with your XP) there should be plenty of fun vehicles to choose from.