What if equipment cost scaled exponentially late-game?

[Dlin369]

This is a shower though I had that I've been mulling, not a fully formed suggestion and I have to admit I do not know if this aligns with what happened historically. However, one problem with late-game HOI4's economy is factory counts increase exponentially and although equipment costs do go up, it is not enough to stop the large number of divisions produced and maintained on the field by the AI and players. In addition, while not the fault of the equipment itself, bonuses and modifiers by countries and their focus tree also end up stacking together so late-game everyone produces more and are also much stronger

One idea I had was what if equipment quality and costs also went up exponentially? To maintain a 1945 army with 1945 gear the same size as a 1940 army with 1940 equipment you need to invest exponentially more resources or you need to "cut" the mixture with some out-dated gear, meaning you prioritize which parts of the army you keep up to date. Therefore countries will have to specialize unless they are the USA/Germany/USSR and can afford modern gear across the board. The reward however, as opposed to just keeping a large army with older gear, is that you have a considerable technological advantage. Therefore a balance of quality and quantity needs to be maintained in order to "keep up with the Joneses".

In order to expand your army you need to either hold back on adopting new equipment or beat the exponential curve of equipment costs with a faster economical development curve. This should hopefully allow for armies to stay a bit smaller as wealthier countries prioritize quality over quantity.

 

[Corpse Fool]

I think it'd be better to have some sort of basic attrition rate to actually create an effective cap on stockpiles based on production, rather than just making everything more expensive.

 

[Reman]

Why are either of these suggestions needed? Late game division counts (the supposed "issue" here) have always been soft-capped very effectively by logistics.

A rifle or a pair of boots shouldn't randomly self-detonate if they're sitting unused in a box somewhere. Tanks and planes might need a bit of maintenance while in storage, but the scale of this pales in comparison to normal production concerns for the limited timescale of WW2.

 

[Ossiv]

Have you ever heard of the economies of scale? The more you produce, the cheaper it gets per unit. Also, the learning curve adds to that, producing more of the same you learn to do it faster and cheaper. That was seen in all countries, for example, even under heavy bombardments Germany's production peaked during the last year of the war.

So, definitely NO to this proposition.

 

[Corpse Fool]

A rifle or a pair of boots shouldn't randomly self-detonate if they're sitting unused in a box somewhere.

They might not spontaneously combust, but there is some measure of attrition that can be applied. I've worked in a couple of military warehouses, things aren't always stored correctly and accidents do sometimes happen. Maybe the rifle rusts or the boots get mouldy or rates make a nest in them. Maybe someone knocks a shelf over, maybe the warehouse catches fire. Certain types of items also just have a shelf life, where they will deteriorate over time no matter what you do.

 

[pro.gamer.69]

Have you ever heard of the economies of scale? The more you produce, the cheaper it gets per unit. Also, the learning curve adds to that, producing more of the same you learn to do it faster and cheaper. That was seen in all countries, for example, even under heavy bombardments Germany's production peaked during the last year of the war.

So, definitely NO to this proposition.

to be fair, this is simulated separately, via production efficiency and to some degree industry techs.

 

[Corpse Fool]

via production efficiency and to some degree industry techs.

Its weird that 'production efficiency' can result in 10x or more the production from the same factory.

 

[Cavalry]

This should hopefully allow for armies to stay a bit smaller as wealthier countries prioritize quality over quantity.

It is a not good war concept in WW II. Every country should go for quantity to win war. If they afford quality, that's fine but not at the expense of quantity.

For experience players, high difficulty level and slider help to get a good game, some mod can reduce MIL output, create a realistic scarce environment. The things I like to keep equal for each side are battle modifiers.

 

[him_15]

My suggestion is that equipment in stock should also has attrition over time.