Is anyone else puzzled by Pdox's half-hearted 'rollout' of Hearts of Iron IV?

[ArizonaTank]

Any news on HOI IV?  Been quiet. 

[sandman2575]

They've been doing weekly Dev Diaries of late, which is nice -- new one today:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/hearts-of-iron-iv-26th-development-diary-25th-of-september-2015.883544/

Johan's posts tend to be a little thin on details, but I guess that's the nature of 'weekly dev diaries'. Always nice to see new screenshots.

[W8taminute]

I'll have to say I do like the unit icons and sprites.  Although I do understand how to read Nato symbols I've always preferred icons and sprites to my military games.  I come from the mentality where pushing little plastic soldiers and tanks in the backyard lawn is much more fun than pushing cardboard boxes with x's or horizontal ovals in them.   

[Barthheart]

I'll have to say I do like the unit icons and sprites.  Although I do understand how to read Nato symbols I've always preferred icons and sprites to my military games.  I come from the mentality where pushing little plastic soldiers and tanks in the backyard lawn is much more fun than pushing cardboard boxes with x's or horizontal ovals in them.   

Damn kids! Git off ma lawn!  Hex and counter or die! 

[W8taminute]

I'll have to say I do like the unit icons and sprites.  Although I do understand how to read Nato symbols I've always preferred icons and sprites to my military games.  I come from the mentality where pushing little plastic soldiers and tanks in the backyard lawn is much more fun than pushing cardboard boxes with x's or horizontal ovals in them.   

Damn kids! Git off ma lawn!  Hex and counter or die! 

Haha!  Ok I'm taking my little army guys and finding someplace else to play.   ;D

No I do understand what you mean, and perhaps they should have included an option for the Nato symbols in the game.  If their programming budget is limited I'm glad they went the way they did however.  I'm sure someone in the community will mod the Nato symbols in.   Far easier to mod a unit symbol than a unit sprite.  O0

[Barthheart]

I'll have to say I do like the unit icons and sprites.  Although I do understand how to read Nato symbols I've always preferred icons and sprites to my military games.  I come from the mentality where pushing little plastic soldiers and tanks in the backyard lawn is much more fun than pushing cardboard boxes with x's or horizontal ovals in them.   

Damn kids! Git off ma lawn!  Hex and counter or die! 

Haha!  Ok I'm taking my little army guys and finding someplace else to play.   ;D

No I do understand what you mean, and perhaps they should have included an option for the Nato symbols in the game.  If their programming budget is limited I'm glad they went the way they did however.  I'm sure someone in the community will mod the Nato symbols in.   Far easier to mod a unit symbol than a unit sprite.  O0

O0 I know what you mean as well. In fact I like unit sprites for so games as well. It's just that at this level, strategic, individual soldiers and tanks seems odd to represent 50,000 of each...
I do however love the period sprites used in EUIV and CKII.

[sandman2575]

Personally, I liked the system in HoI3, where you use both counters and sprites based on what 'magnification' you were viewing the map.  I used counters 99% but then liked the view to switch to sprites at max magnification, just because I liked the look of some of the sprites...  Cake and eat it to, this way.

Although playing the Black ICE mod, I just use counters because the counter graphics are superb, with divisions sporting their actual historical insignia.  Very cool.

[W8taminute]

I used to map out country silhouettes using popsicle sticks on the ground and then place my little army guys down.  In my imagination each army guy represented a division.  So the battles I fought in the backyard were with little army guys yes, but regulated by dice rolls and popsicle sticks used as measuring devices.  Not too bad for an 8 year old to come up with if I don't say so myself.  Later in my teens I graduated to cardboard wargames with the real deal but always had a soft spot for my little guys.   

[chemkid]

[...]
Although playing the Black ICE mod, I just use counters because the counter graphics are superb, with divisions sporting their actual historical insignia.  Very cool.

AGREE 100%!
playing blackice for some time now - feels like hoi5 all the way!  O0
btw, did you try BI v8 already? great stuff!!

cheers!

[sandman2575]

Haven't tried v.8 yet -- I thought it was still in a very experimental stage of development, so I've held off. Must say, I feel increasingly daunted by BICE, with the zillions of new features / specialized units / specialized techs etc. etc. it keeps adding. Part of me wishes Panzeroo would stop 'iterating' on the mod and let it marinate for a bit.  I don't know how he does it though, all the work and time he and the BICE team have put into this mod...

BTW, your beautiful maps for WitP:AE saved that game for me, Chemkid. Couldn't play without 'em. Tremendous work.   O0

[Rayfer]

[...]
Although playing the Black ICE mod, I just use counters because the counter graphics are superb, with divisions sporting their actual historical insignia.  Very cool.

AGREE 100%!
playing blackice for some time now - feels like hoi5 all the way!  O0
btw, did you try BI v8 already? great stuff!!

cheers!

I've read/heard good things about this black-ice mod...is it usable with the Steam version of HOI3?
Ps. I prefer the counters, don't enjoy the sprites at all.

[ArizonaTank]

They've been doing weekly Dev Diaries of late, which is nice -- new one today:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/hearts-of-iron-iv-26th-development-diary-25th-of-september-2015.883544/

Johan's posts tend to be a little thin on details, but I guess that's the nature of 'weekly dev diaries'. Always nice to see new screenshots.

Any sense for release date?  I am moderately interested in this.  I actually liked much of what HOI III was all about.  Except that the grand strategic AI was often brain dead...so hope they fix that.

[sandman2575]

My guess (and hope) for release is Q1 2016. But Pdox has been reluctant to give concrete info. on this since badly missing the initial release target of Q2 2015. They've admitted that the game was first announced *way* too early (first announced in Jan 2014!) and that they won't announce new games going forward until they are near (or in) Beta.

[sandman2575]

I've read/heard good things about this black-ice mod...is it usable with the Steam version of HOI3?
Ps. I prefer the counters, don't enjoy the sprites at all.

I have mixed feelings about BICE. Overall, it's an amazing mod and an amazing achievement. I'm glad it's available. But it also feels a bit overkill to me at this point. It's essentially the Super Deluxe Ultra Mega Every Conceivable Bell & Whistle version of HoI3. I'm not sure More is always Better, in terms of the units, features, techs etc. etc. that BICE adds (and keeps adding).

Definitely worth trying though if you've had your fill of vanilla HoI3.

EDIT -- not sure about Steam compatibility -- I don't have HoI3 on Steam --

[bobarossa]

I'm surprised no one has pointed out that NATO counters give you a much better feel for the size and types of troops in the enemy region.  You can count divisions when you are in counter mode; don't think that's possible with sprites.

I've never seen counters morph into sprites when you zoom out.  I just get a slightly different version of counters (just one counter, can't count units). 

I think Paradox's reason for no counters in HOI4 is that it doesn't look as pretty on the 3D maps they use these days.  Not really sure since I never used their 3D map in HOI3; always used the simplified map mode since it let you see terrain type at a glance.