The popularity of the No Time Limit Mod and the repeated requests in the forum, even after a year and a half of release, for a way for the game to last longer, shows the desire from a significant portion of the fans for the game to cover more than the 1936-1947 timeframe.
The question now is whether Paradox wishes to please this section of its fan base that want an earlier starting and a later ending game.
September 1931 to July 1953 would be the perfect timeframe for me.
We need to give the Human-Italy player the option NOT to invade Ethiopia, which happened in October 1935. By the time that HoI starts in 1936, Italy is already at war and wasting much of its industrial capacity in maintaining and supplying its army/navy, leaving it with less resources to research and build for the future big war, while the other nations can.
Same thing with Japan, we need to give the Human-Japan player the option NOT to invade Manchuria, which happened in September 1931.
I don't think we need to go as far back as the German Reichstag elections of 1930, which were the first elections that the National Socialist party won and transformed them from a minor insignificant party, as they were per the result of the 1928 elections, to the second largest party in the German Parliament. Going back to the July 1932 elections on which they became the largest party, although still lacking a majority, would be enough.
The game should end by July 1953, with the end of the Korean War, which was the last chance for the Cold War to turn hot before the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
Anything before 1931 or after 1953 would be too ahistorical and no longer a WWII game.
Yes, researching and working on events for these additional years will require more time and resources, but HoI can still be improved upon and CORE 1.0 is still a ways of and Math Guy's Historical Statistical Mod is not yet out so all these things can keep us busy until HoI 2 comes along.
Also, World at War and Strategic Command 2, another two strategic level WWII games, will be coming out later this year and one of the few things that HoI 2 can offer which these games will not, is playing before and after the traditional 1939-1945 timeframe, at least until World in Flames comes out possibly next year which might offer to start from 1936 like HoI does now. The competition should be taken into consideration for HoI 2 to find its market niche.
The question now is whether Paradox wishes to please this section of its fan base that want an earlier starting and a later ending game.
September 1931 to July 1953 would be the perfect timeframe for me.
We need to give the Human-Italy player the option NOT to invade Ethiopia, which happened in October 1935. By the time that HoI starts in 1936, Italy is already at war and wasting much of its industrial capacity in maintaining and supplying its army/navy, leaving it with less resources to research and build for the future big war, while the other nations can.
Same thing with Japan, we need to give the Human-Japan player the option NOT to invade Manchuria, which happened in September 1931.
I don't think we need to go as far back as the German Reichstag elections of 1930, which were the first elections that the National Socialist party won and transformed them from a minor insignificant party, as they were per the result of the 1928 elections, to the second largest party in the German Parliament. Going back to the July 1932 elections on which they became the largest party, although still lacking a majority, would be enough.
The game should end by July 1953, with the end of the Korean War, which was the last chance for the Cold War to turn hot before the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
Anything before 1931 or after 1953 would be too ahistorical and no longer a WWII game.
Yes, researching and working on events for these additional years will require more time and resources, but HoI can still be improved upon and CORE 1.0 is still a ways of and Math Guy's Historical Statistical Mod is not yet out so all these things can keep us busy until HoI 2 comes along.
Also, World at War and Strategic Command 2, another two strategic level WWII games, will be coming out later this year and one of the few things that HoI 2 can offer which these games will not, is playing before and after the traditional 1939-1945 timeframe, at least until World in Flames comes out possibly next year which might offer to start from 1936 like HoI does now. The competition should be taken into consideration for HoI 2 to find its market niche.
