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Hearts of Iron IV

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

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jomni

Yeah. That tech tree doesn't make sense. Anyway I'm still keeping my eye on that game.  Will buy it pretty soon.

Grim.Reaper

Quote from: Pete Dero on June 16, 2016, 03:17:44 PM
This Sabaton DLC is already included with the pre-order packages.

Strange...was not included with my pre-order.  It was made available for purchase pretty much since day one, but not included what I ended up getting...maybe it was a certain pre order package.

Grim.Reaper

Quote from: Huw the Poo on June 16, 2016, 02:28:47 PM
Quote from: acctingman on June 16, 2016, 02:14:51 PM
Why does it feel like they'll DLC this game into the ground?  :tickedoff:

Because that's their business model and it works exceptionally well.  Paradox do DLC the correct way in my opinion.

Exactly....why anybody would seem surprised by this based on other Paradox games and it likely had been mentioned a ton of times in this thread alone, is beyond me.  I like the model as well.  Buy what you want......or don't buy anything....your call.

acctingman

Quote from: Grim.Reaper on June 16, 2016, 07:01:26 PM
Quote from: Huw the Poo on June 16, 2016, 02:28:47 PM
Quote from: acctingman on June 16, 2016, 02:14:51 PM
Why does it feel like they'll DLC this game into the ground?  :tickedoff:

Because that's their business model and it works exceptionally well.  Paradox do DLC the correct way in my opinion.

Exactly....why anybody would seem surprised by this based on other Paradox games and it likely had been mentioned a ton of times in this thread alone, is beyond me.  I like the model as well.  Buy what you want......or don't buy anything....your call.

This is my second Paradox game, so I'm not familiar with their selling tactics.

jamus34

Quote from: acctingman on June 16, 2016, 08:56:33 PM
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on June 16, 2016, 07:01:26 PM
Quote from: Huw the Poo on June 16, 2016, 02:28:47 PM
Quote from: acctingman on June 16, 2016, 02:14:51 PM
Why does it feel like they'll DLC this game into the ground?  :tickedoff:

Because that's their business model and it works exceptionally well.  Paradox do DLC the correct way in my opinion.

Exactly....why anybody would seem surprised by this based on other Paradox games and it likely had been mentioned a ton of times in this thread alone, is beyond me.  I like the model as well.  Buy what you want......or don't buy anything....your call.

This is my second Paradox game, so I'm not familiar with their selling tactics.

Look at dlc content for either CK2 or EU4.

Expect same for Stellaris and HoI4

Rinse and repeat

My only fear is that they will pull an EA and start removing critical / standard components from their games and make you pay extra for them. Diplomacy in Stellaris is especially thin. Also if they go nickle and dime on the dlc (such as charging for each country if you want to buy political focus dlc)
Insert witty comment here.

Lowenstaat

#545
This game features some deep game-play. After playing the Italy tutorial last week, this week I decided to pick a small country with which to experiment and learn the political, economic, and war-fighting  systems on my own. I surveyed the map and thought, "Ah, Afghanistan looks harmless enough and out of the way so it won't get squashed by the larger powers. I'll play the Afghans on easy for a bit, just enough to learn the basics."

After a few play sessions (a few years of game time starting in 1936) I'd upgraded Afghanistan's militia military with some infantry divisions and cavalry divisions, had a good grasp on production and the economics model, and dabbled with diplomacy a little. Then I decided to see what would happen if I sparked a domestic democracy movement. The ruling monarchy publicly agreed to consider elections sometime in the future, while privately doing all they could to stall. Fearing a loss on influence and status a rapid move to democracy casue, a group of elites organized a reactionary fascist movement which eventfully seized power and established the New Afghan Khanate.

Needless to say, I was invested in the outcome of Afghanistan beyond my original goal of just messing around to learn the game systems better.  By mid 1946, the New Afghan Khanate had created a fascist coup in neighboring Iran, supplied weapons to the  Iranian fascists in their civil war, intervened in that conflict militarily to prevent the destruction of the Iranian fascists, and formed a new faction called the Shia Khanate with the New Persian Empire that successfully supplanted the old Iranian monarchy.

During those gaming sessions I learned a great deal about managing and equipping armies, keeping Afghan's small air force in the air, using politics to influence domestic and international events to the nation's benefit, and how to turn research into practical applications for industry, infrastructure, and the military. Sadly, there was no Afghan navy, so those lessons will have to wait for another play through with a nation that actually has a coastline.

What I did not expect was to walk away from what I'd intended to be a simple learning game with an involved story about a small country getting swept up in its own internal politics and then "exporting" those ideals to its neighbor.

By the way, I played with the historical setting on and observed that events in the world at large proceeded similar to World War Two, until the Soviet Union attacked Finland who'd previously joined the Allies. The result was a few years of hot war with the Allies fighting both the Axis and the Comintern. But, Germany never invaded the USSR so there was no fighting between the Axis and the Comintern. Also, Italy conquered half of Africa. By mid 1945 it appeared the major powers had stopped fighting in Europe having shifted their war efforts to Central America, Asia, and Africa. It looked like the belligerents of Europe had settled into a sort of cold war
"Initiative compensates for a lack of skill."

Lowenstaat

Here are some YouTube playlists that I've found very helpful:

Praetorian HiJynx's Hearts of Iron 4 Guide
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAApFmDUfwlcrFnNRTBcBx_-Xd5oHOM7p
Particularly his Land Unit Types & Division Designs video helped me understand how division composition affects battlefield frontage. He recommends organizing divisions with frontages of 20 or 14 to 20 if you expect to be fighting in more restrictive terrain. If I understand correctly that means an offensive launched across clear terrain will have a total frontage of 80 meaning 4 units with frontages of 20 are the max that can fight at once at the front line. Units from neighboring provinces may support the attack through frontages of 40 per province, so 2 units with frontages of 20 each could support from adjacent provinces.

Bridger's Hearts of Iron IV Beginner's Guide [HOI4 Tutorial]
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkQMBP16-XLEVHqSC4CM82aHB10OaG9-T
These are pre-release videos, but they are full of clearly explained information and very concise. I found his Battle Plans video and his Laws and Staff video to help me the most.

Bridger's Hearts of Iron IV Hints, Tips, and Tricks
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkQMBP16-XLH-NkRNlw5KbauYfJw2z97J
Again, very clear and concise if you don't have time to watch hours of play through and lets play videos.

Finally, this wiki page presents a thorough layout of sub units that make up divisions:
http://www.hoi4wiki.com/Land_units 
I thought I was a major Table of Organization and Equipment  (TOE) geek until I saw the link at the bottom of this page to a Division Calculator someone has created fro HOI IV. 
"Initiative compensates for a lack of skill."

JudgeDredd

lol - what speed do you people play at? Am I exclusively in the camp of mostly playing at the lowest speed?
Alba gu' brath

Lowenstaat

I started on the slowest speed, but mid-game with Afghanistan was a little boring so I sped up to 3-normal speed. When the war in Iran kicked off, I dropped back to slow. I often pause the game to set battle plans, manage production, or respond to alert icons or popups. I play all of Paradox's grand strategy games like they're turned based, pausing to make decisions, develop strategies, or just let my imagination read more into events in the game. I think if I'd just played on fast I would have missed some of the political flavor of my Afghan play through.

My wife, on the other hand, plays Stellaris and Crusader Kings II on fast. Drives me crazy to watch her play that fast. But, she is a much better multitasker than I am. We'd play multiplayer more on those two games if we could just agree on the same speed. But normal is too fast for me and too slow for her!
"Initiative compensates for a lack of skill."

JudgeDredd

lol - I simply cannot keep up on any other speed. I admit I do very occasionally fast forward but it's normally a slow game for me!
Alba gu' brath

Rayfer

Quote from: Lowenstaat on June 17, 2016, 06:03:53 AM
I started on the slowest speed, but mid-game with Afghanistan was a little boring so I sped up to 3-normal speed. When the war in Iran kicked off, I dropped back to slow. I often pause the game to set battle plans, manage production, or respond to alert icons or popups. I play all of Paradox's grand strategy games like they're turned based, pausing to make decisions, develop strategies, or just let my imagination read more into events in the game. I think if I'd just played on fast I would have missed some of the political flavor of my Afghan play through.

My wife, on the other hand, plays Stellaris and Crusader Kings II on fast. Drives me crazy to watch her play that fast. But, she is a much better multitasker than I am. We'd play multiplayer more on those two games if we could just agree on the same speed. But normal is too fast for me and too slow for her!

Lowenstaat...your Bridger youtube links posted above are excellent, especially his air and army units organization vids....so much depth I didn't realize was there.  Thanks for sharing.

Ian C

#551
Patch incoming end of June: Patch 1.1 "Red Ball Express"

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/hoi4-dev-diary-june-17th-patch-1-1-red-ball-express.949237/



Major Points directly quoted from the post by Podcat:

Access to allied territory
One of the biggest talked about issue has been the fact that as long as you fight the same enemy you automatically gain military access, even from other factions. This was kind of a bandaid for an old issue, and we never liked it either... so we have been listening and working on a solution. The way things work now is that you will be requiring military access as expected and the game will also alert you if you end up in a position where you are trying to move into occupied area you don't have access to (as this for democracies would liberate those nations you will need to ask for permissions, which ai will give you). We are still testing our solution, so there might be further changes still.

Peace conferences
We fixed a serious issue where instead of taking turns in a peace deal when there were 2 major contributors it would instead end up so that the 2nd of those gets to push through almost all changes in the peace deal. This could lead to some really weird peace deals. Now you will instead get to take turns (as well as do a little more per turn if you are close in points). Hopefully this should make peaces feel a lot more sane and rewarding.

Invasions and Naval bombers
When it comes to invasions and ease of reinforcing invasions into Germany we have now made Naval Bombers able to attack troop transports (before only fleets could stop them, which isn't a great option for Germany when facing the royal navy obviously), so you only really want to do invasions with sufficient control over the skies. AI has also been tweaked to prefer several larger invasions at once to pose more of a threat to players and bleed less troops in smaller invasions. I've also been looking at general balance around naval bomber and other air war being a bit too bloody, but I'll give you an update on that next week instead because it's not done.

AI
When it comes to further AI improvements, I'll hand over the mic to SteelVolt:

This path we have taken a look at some things in the AI where relatively small effort would give a rather big payoff. A lot of this focus was around mistakes Germany was making, such as building too many dock yards and thus lagging behind in the production of military factories. Another thing we discovered that Germany did was to start using the Austrian division designs after the Anschluss, due to looking at the latest date edited. Both of these have been taken care of, but we have also looked at how to make them not rush the maginot line without making large changes that could break other cases.




Pete Dero

Quote from: JudgeDredd on June 17, 2016, 05:49:48 AM
lol - what speed do you people play at? Am I exclusively in the camp of mostly playing at the lowest speed?

Speed 4 in peacetime, 2 when at war.

Getting to 1940 starting in 1936 took me a couple of evenings of micromanagement in HOI3.  Now one evening gets me to the start of the war.
Don't think I will ever go back to HOI3.

DasTactic also has a nice in depth guide available : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGB6RkFB7ZmPxVlR8oy_-CrlFNox8O1t6

sandman2575

Quote from: JudgeDredd on June 17, 2016, 05:49:48 AM
lol - what speed do you people play at? Am I exclusively in the camp of mostly playing at the lowest speed?

Nope, I'm right there with you, JD.  I almost never go above "3" and once war breaks out, definitely spend most of my time on "1" ( = lowest).  I also disable the day/night cycle, although occasionally leave it on if closely monitoring a particular battle/operation.


bbmike

I think it depends on who you play as. As Brazil I run it above 3 a lot because so little happens. Of course, I suspect that could change later in the game.
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