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Hearts of Iron IV

Started by Ian C, May 13, 2016, 01:07:15 PM

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Grim.Reaper

When people say that counters aren't there, thought I saw an option in the preferences to use NATO counters, are you meaning something different?

Grim.Reaper

I didn't get a ton of time to play yet, just part of the tutorial and messing around, but so far I kind of like the streamlined approach.  I could never play the past versions because I would get lost in all the details and micromanagement, then give up.  So far I don't feel that way with this version.  I completely understand others enjoyed the details and might miss them, but this is looking like the first version I can actually keep up with.  Time will tell. 

Ian C

#272
I've read all the negatives but none of them affects my view that this is a great initial release. Really fun, great immersion and it can only get better.

I've found there are a lot of options 'hiding in plain sight', so it pays to mouse over every button, every window tag. You might miss something important you never knew was there. I keep getting pleasantly surprised by just how much is on offer here.


Some things are not apparent so some tips for the bewildered (I'm one of these):

Game Difficulty. It defaults to the easiest level. I've seen a few people rush in and them complain it's too easy. It is, because they didn't change the difficulty level for their game start.

Paradrops. You have to use the war plan toolbar. Mouse over the paradrop icon for how to conduct one.

Troop naval transport: just select troops and click on destination. They will acquire transports from your convoy pool. I haven't figured on how to naval escort transports -or do we have to? anyone?

Strategic Transport (Trains) click on the railtrack icon above your troops before clicking on destination.

Division Equipment. When creating new division templates: click on 'Division Equipment'. You can then choose to outfit Divisions with obsolete stockpiled equipment if you like. Perfect for UK Home Guards, Volkssturm or colonial forces. Be careful: changing equipment for an existing template will change ALL those divisions in the field. Click on 'duplicate' to create an entirely new template to avoid this. The benefits of creating new divisions can be to outfit specific fronts with worse or better equipped troops.

Reserve Divisions. Yes, it's possible to create them, if you mean very low starting strength and poorly trained. Just queue up new divisions and them instantly deploy them, and set priority reinforcement etc. to the lowest. They'll appear with hardly any strength and as raw recruits. When you need them, update their priority and begin training them.

Aces. You can promote air aces for individual air wings.

Mixed Air Wings. You can create air wings with mixed aircraft types.

Espionage. Click on national flag of a country and select the 'details' tab. Gives more info on their forces etc.

Naval Unit Battle History. Click on a naval force and the 'notepad' icon to the right of each ship if it has one. Will give a detailed list of sinkings and assisted sinkings.

Naval Split-Off. You can click a button on the naval group's GUI to have any damaged units split off, repair at nearest port, then re-attach, all automatically.








jomni

#273
Quote from: Ian C on June 07, 2016, 06:00:05 AM
I've found there are a lot of options 'hiding in plain sight', so it pays to mouse over every button, every window tag. You might miss something important you never knew was there. I keep getting pleasantly surprised by just how much is on offer here.

All this because there's no manual?

Ian C

Quote from: jomni on June 07, 2016, 06:22:29 AM

All this because there's no manual?

Yes, I know. I'm posting through necessity and I'm with you all 100% on this. It's not like they are strapped for cash and have only two people in the company that they couldn't write a manual. Why didn't they? Any official reply on this? I'm avoiding the extremism of their forums...



acctingman

I'm on the fence too, but not because I've played any of the HoI games. From what I'm reading a "new" player to this series should enjoy the game. Seems like a lot of the vets are so-so with it or do not like the changes.

I'm seeing the game for $25-30 so I might just pull the trigger  O0

Greybriar

When Hearts of Iron IV and all its DLC is priced at 75% off, I will buy it.
Regardless of how good a PC game may be it will always have its detractors and no matter how bad a PC game may be it will always have its fans.

jomni

Quote from: Ian C on June 07, 2016, 06:34:02 AM
Quote from: jomni on June 07, 2016, 06:22:29 AM

All this because there's no manual?

Yes, I know. I'm posting through necessity and I'm with you all 100% on this. It's not like they are strapped for cash and have only two people in the company that they couldn't write a manual. Why didn't they? Any official reply on this? I'm avoiding the extremism of their forums...

Most probably because a lot of the game mechanics will be changed along the way.

Greybriar

#278
nevermind  :)
Regardless of how good a PC game may be it will always have its detractors and no matter how bad a PC game may be it will always have its fans.

sandman2575

Just thinking a bit more about SDR's informative post. Added some comments --

Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on June 06, 2016, 09:21:16 PM
What I feel is missing.

1)  Battle reports.  You don't get any information when a battle ends informing you of casualties suffered, etc.

Agree -- we need more feedback


2)  Weather reports.   They've added dynamic weather on a province by province basis but there's no easy way to get a general weather picture for a theatre front.

This, and also from what I've read, weather doesn't seem to be much of a factor in combat. This was the case in HOI3 as well. I hope this will change -- weather has never gotten the attention it deserves in HOI. Also I can't tell if the day/night cycle really alters anything? I see units happily fighting throughout the night without any negative modifier I can see? Also needs fixing.


3)  Trade.  Seems really stripped down.  There doesn't seem to be any currency anymore nor any real way to handle exports so you don't have the option of favouring trade or embargoing countries.

Linking the trade to civilian factories is an odd decision. I can't figure out if it's possible to *export* your own resources? Or if other nations ask you for trades? In general I really like the expanded emphasis on key resources (tungsten, chromium etc.) as opposed to the vague 'rare materials' of HOI3. But there's more potential to this system that hopefully will get fleshed out in time.

4)  Espionage.  It's missing.  You can get a little bit of information regarding other nations by developing decryption tech but other than that, the map is complete FOW.

I've always been of the mind that there's not nearly enough FOW in HOI. In general, I'd love to see intelligence gathering play a far greater role, but I think average players would lose their s**t if faced with added difficulty of correctly locating and ID'ing enemy units...  It also seems like some of the traditional espionage features are now folded into the diplomacy screen -- using influence to support you party or initiate a coup, etc.

5)  Battle tabs.  There's no quick tab option to select various battles your units might be fighting in.  You have to manually scroll around the map in order to select them to see what's going on.  Makes it hard to shuttle reinforcements to needed sectors.

Agree 100%

6)  Fuel and supplies seem to be missing from the air war aspect entirely.  Removes a lot of the granularity.

This doesn't bother me so much, as I'm very much in favor of what HOI4 has done to abstract air combat.

7)  Clickable mini-map.

Never used it myself.

8)  Better historical information on unit composition.  In HOI 3, you could click on an infantry division and it'd give you names of actual weapons for infantry, anti-tank, support, etc so you might see Garand M1, Bazooka, BAR.  Here, there's nothing.  Just weapons I, weapons II....  Also, there aren't enough discrete levels of tech to develop here.  In HOI 3, you might have 10 levels of a tech you could develop and you'd see gradual improvements.  Your Halifax night bomber might improve from Gee, to H2S, to Oboe target locations.  Here, there are only 4 levels if development so the jumps from level to level feel huge and the amount of resources it takes to upgrade your units can kill your production queue. 

Funny -- another point where I like HOI4's abstraction. Particularly with infantry, in HOI3, it always bugged me that we would 'research' things like the MP40, and that when you got more info on your divisions, it would say "MP40" as the div's main 'weapon', as though the entire infantry division was kitted out with this firearm. Just struck me as absurd.

9)  Missing historical vehicles.  There is an option to improve a base unit such as a Spitfire if you have enough experience but rather than getting real world unit improvements such as Spitfire MkI -->  MkII  ---> Mk Vb --> Mk IX.

I think you can add that flavor yourself if you want to -- i.e. when you upgrade the Spitfire, you can give it the name "Spitfire MkII".

10)  Diplomacy screens.  There should be one screen showing the alliances and which nations are in or gravitating towards each of the three main forces, Axis, Communists, Allies.   It's available on a country by country basis but not globally.

Agree.


Silent Disapproval Robot

Maybe it was because I was a few pints in when my naval war in the Med started in earnest last night, but I found trying to find my fleets and determine what was going on to be somewhat confusing.  It's sometimes hard to locate your ships with all the animated stuff happening, especially if a lot of AI fleets from other nations are also involved in the fight.  The post-battle naval screen break down needs to be cleaned up as well.  Personally, I don't really need information on what percentage of damage dealt and delivered came from each ship or plane.  I'd rather just see who was sunk, who's not, and how badly damaged the surviving ships are. 

Sandman,

Looks like exports are handled automatically.  If another nation needs goods, it looks like you'll export them.  I'm currently exporting 2 units of tungsten to the Netherlands.  I'm not sure if relationship status plays a part in this or not.  I can't even remember where I saw this but I think it was on the trade screen when I hovered over one of the commodities.


tgb

Quote from: acctingman on June 07, 2016, 08:41:47 AM

I'm seeing the game for $25-30 so I might just pull the trigger  O0

Where?

sandman2575

Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on June 07, 2016, 09:37:51 AM
Sandman,

Looks like exports are handled automatically.  If another nation needs goods, it looks like you'll export them.  I'm currently exporting 2 units of tungsten to the Netherlands.  I'm not sure if relationship status plays a part in this or not.  I can't even remember where I saw this but I think it was on the trade screen when I hovered over one of the commodities.

Thanks. Yes, you're right. Appears from the the Wiki that relationship does have some effect on trade, as do your 'trade laws' --

http://www.hoi4wiki.com/Trade

It's a system that will take some getting used to.

acctingman

Quote from: tgb on June 07, 2016, 09:53:47 AM
Quote from: acctingman on June 07, 2016, 08:41:47 AM

I'm seeing the game for $25-30 so I might just pull the trigger  O0

Where?


From a poster several pages above...

I just purchased HoI4 for $29.99 at green man gaming using the code of JUNE25. That's a 25% coupon.

I'm trying to find the site, but I think I saw it for $25 elsewhere....checking

steve58

Looks like Imperialgames has the current cheapest price ($29.20).  I've never used them (but HOI4 is really tempting me).  Seems they are Canadian so maybe one of the Canadians on the forums here can comment on them.

https://isthereanydeal.com/#/page:game/info?plain=heartsofironivcadetedition
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