Which DLC to buy

[Candela]

I picked up HOI3 in a bundle and have briefly explored playing it. I have to say, it seems great, so I intend to buy at least some of the DLC. By the looks of things, buying Semper Fi, For the Motherland, and Their Finest Hour are a relative necessity, but I'm unsure what else I should pick up.

The sprite and music packs don't bother me too much, or at least, not until a sale, perhaps, but what about Dies Irae Götterdämmerung? What does that actually do? Additionally, the Dies Irae Stars & Stripes Spritepack seems to offer more than just sprites, listing features of "Specially designed events, mechanics and new graphics." Do any of the other 'spritepacks' offer that?

Cheers in advance for the assistance!

 

[Darkshadows]

I'm not too familiar with the other DLCs but just a heads up in that they are only made for FtM and don't work in TFH

 

[Kovax]

I believe that Dies Irae was designed for FtM, and won't work with TFH. Personally, I use the NATO-style counters, which provide far more info than the sprites, so the Sprite Packs serve no purpose for me. I also turn music off, and play background music on my stereo if I want it; the selection is better than a "canned" set of tunes that I'm going to hear 300 times and get REALLY annoyed with.

In my experience, Semper Fi was an "essential", as it and the official patches for it fixed several game-breaking issues. At that point, it was how HOI3 should have been on release. FtM and TFH each add several nice features, but at the expense of some functionality of the original mechanics. I regard them as "nice to have", but not "essential". To me, HOI3/SF was a "better underlying game" than /TFH, but I would definitely miss a few of the new "bells and whistles" that have been added if I were to go back to it.

 

[Appren]

Dont buy any DLC, instead try some of the great mods that enhance the game, like TRP, B-ICE or HPP, all for free. (you do need the expansions though)

 

[Candela]

I suppose this is what people are talking about when they discuss the improved DLC systems for CKII and EUIV.

For music in most games, I'll extract the music files and then add them to my music library that gets played generally. Thus it will get played, but I'm in no rush to get it. With the counters and sprites, I'd noticed that the screenshots of the sprites seemed to have less info available, and now I know that it's true. Maybe I won't get them at all. If the Dies Irae content was made for FtM and doesn't work in TFH, would there be any point to buying it other than a "support Paradox" gesture.

Out of curiousity, what systems were changed/eliminated from Semper Fi that made it a better underlying game in your opinion?

 

[Lothos]

If you are using The Finest Hour I would suggest not buying any of the DLCs as they do not work with TFH.

 

[sgt.stickybomb]

I suppose this is what people are talking about when they discuss the improved DLC systems for CKII and EUIV.

For music in most games, I'll extract the music files and then add them to my music library that gets played generally. Thus it will get played, but I'm in no rush to get it. With the counters and sprites, I'd noticed that the screenshots of the sprites seemed to have less info available, and now I know that it's true. Maybe I won't get them at all. If the Dies Irae content was made for FtM and doesn't work in TFH, would there be any point to buying it other than a "support Paradox" gesture.

Out of curiousity, what systems were changed/eliminated from Semper Fi that made it a better underlying game in your opinion?

I remember there was battle events, but they removed these for some reason

 

[Kovax]

Out of curiousity, what systems were changed/eliminated from Semper Fi that made it a better underlying game in your opinion?

Mostly it's diplomatic and espionage functions, other than the combat mechanics change to a "Combined Arms bonus" system (which I don't care for) and Armor Piercing versus Armor (mostly good). Threat is about 1/4 as effective as it was, and doesn't have much impact on political "drift". You can no longer lower your own Neutrality, and it has essentially been replaced by a built-in "Prepare for War" exploit for playing smaller countries. "Cores" (claims on your neighbors) no longer affect your ability to declare war. Boosting your National Unity has been heavily scaled back. I can only get about a 1-2 point NU boost after a year unless I abandon any attempt at defending against enemy spies, but can lose that in a few weeks of unopposed bombing raids or couple of convoy sinkings if I don't have a lot of convoys. I find that the new Wargoals system is only partially implemented, and doesn't make a lot of sense in many cases. For one, it allows some tiny country to declare war on a major power that's already being defeated by another major, and claim the entire country when they surrender to the other one. Since the AI can't declare its own Wargoals, the player gets to pre-empt the result. I had one game where I "unexpectedly" ended up controlling all of continental France, when all I wanted was a couple of provinces in the Middle East (which I still didn't get). The ideas might have made sense (and could be a major improvement) if the game had been designed to use them properly, but as an "after the fact" add-on, it's seriously broken. Other such changes were made to balance Multi-player, but put a damper on the SP game. The whole thing feels more heavily scripted than ever, even though they've added a few possibilities for alternative outcomes.

 

[Candela]

OK, doing some reading, it seems that the changes to neutrality were done to stop players from being able to reduce their neutrality to 0 and engage in wars along with enacting the best laws before the end of 1936 as some minor power. It sounds fair enough to me, but then I haven't played enough of the original to pass real judgement.

The wargoals sound a little screwy, but I'm generally good about not exploiting things like that, so it shouldn't bother me. Note to self: must not accidentally annex Germany as Switzerland! Must not accidentally annex Germany as Switzerland!

With regards the DLC, thanks very much everyone; you've saved me some definite annoyance! I would have been more than a little unhappy to have purchased DLC that then wouldn't have worked with the version of the game I was playing. I'd complain about the bad design, but they already "fixed" it for their more recent releases, just not retroactively, so there wouldn't be much point.

 

[lilJayer]

Dont buy any DLC, instead try some of the great mods that enhance the game, like TRP, B-ICE or HPP, all for free. (you do need the expansions though)

So in other words, it might be best to buy FtM, TFH, and SF. It will only add to your experience.

 

[Snowbart63]

As far as what was added in Semper Fi.....I believe the pretty colored lines representing Chain of Command links between units came into being with Semper Fi. I plan to buy SF for this feature alone. Should make organizing units easier, I hope.

 

[Pugmak]

Well now, since I have the page open on another tab due to a reply done on another thread, I'll add this here stuff here too, since it might be wantful for the OP and others joining the HOI3 Borg (yes, resistance is futile!).

Order of Battle (the over all organization of your air/naval/ground forces) saved game editors:

HOI3 Army Organizer
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?448352-HoI3-Army-Organizer-A-Full-Feature-Visual-OOB-Editor

Army Restructuring Tool (ART)
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?458807-Army-Restructuring-Tool-for-Hearts-of-Iron-3-%28ART%29

Both are worth taking a look at.

Organizing your military force at beginning of the game can be a major chore if playing a major country.
A trick is to start your game. Save it before advancing the time (starting play). Use one of the OOB saved game editors to work out your OOB. Save that saved game as something like "XXX_GameStart" with X being country name. Then, if you want to restart or play another game with same country, you have the chore work done and can get right into play.