WWI Game Strategy Game

[JasonPratt]

Yes, but it's a little finicky getting to work on Win 8.1.

Um, hold on...

0. Make sure latest patch is installed (at least 1.03).

1. Go to your Darkest hour folder.

2. Right Click on the Darkest Hour exe and select properties.

3. In properties go to compatibility.

4. Press reduced color mode.

5. Then select 16 Bit color in the box under Reduced color mode.

6. After that you have to go open your settings.cfg
and write 1 instead of 0 in the display mode.

7. after that the game will be windowed and it has to be like that to work.

If you wanna play the game you have to launch it from the Darkest Hour.exe not the launcher
If you wanna change what mod you are playing change it in the Settings.cfg

It wont work if you dont run it in windowed mode!
And remember to only launch through the Darkest Hour.exe or it wont work


If your window goes over the windows bar you can do this: You can right click on you're windows bar and select it to hide it automaticly
and when you hover you're mouse over it then it will appear again.

I will note that I didn't have to twiddle the config file -- I've never had problems running it in full screen. So that's only through step 5; which is quite easy to do.

[OJsDad]

I'm running Win10.  Have to look and see if people are having running it with Win10.

[JasonPratt]

Be sure to install DHFull whenever it gives you an option. There are two lesser install modes (one of which is just HOI2 with all the official expansions, and some slight upgrades from DH), and neither of them have the WW1 campaign.

[Gusington]

I checked it out for a short time (while installing Commander: The Great War and Wings Over Flanders Fields)...what do you guys dig about Darkest Hour? From a quick glance it looks kind of...bland.

[JasonPratt]

Earth-sized world to fool around in. Pick a decent-sized neutral to get used to thing; Spain or Norway or Sweden, or Persia, or Japan, somewhere nearby that you can join in the fun if you want when you're ready, but (unlike for example Ethiopia ;) ) has some potential for you to grow economically and technically. The usual Paradox "real time" (or continuous time with pause) system. Depending on how you set it up, even "vanilla" DHFull can segue into late 40s or (with a slight bit of textfile tweaking) into the early 70s (or later, but 1970 is when the tech stops in vanilla DHFull. Scripts will run out in the mid-20s.)

Even more detail if you can find and install the latest version of the AAR mod, as it keeps scripts going through WW2 into the 60s Cold War from a July 1914 start (and tech into 2010!)

Granted, it looks almost as bland as Hearts of Iron 2 (because it is), but it features a lot of depth. Probably the best naval game for WW1 on the market, for example. Maaaaybe the best air game, too (for a strategic WW1 game I mean).

[OJsDad]

For $2.49, I grabbed Darkest Hour.  Haven't got it downloaded yet, but will soon. 

[Rayfer]

Earth-sized world to fool around in. Pick a decent-sized neutral to get used to thing; Spain or Norway or Sweden, or Persia, or Japan, somewhere nearby that you can join in the fun if you want when you're ready, but (unlike for example Ethiopia ;) ) has some potential for you to grow economically and technically. The usual Paradox "real time" (or continuous time with pause) system. Depending on how you set it up, even "vanilla" DHFull can segue into late 40s or (with a slight bit of textfile tweaking) into the early 70s (or later, but 1970 is when the tech stops in vanilla DHFull. Scripts will run out in the mid-20s.)

Even more detail if you can find and install the latest version of the AAR mod, as it keeps scripts going through WW2 into the 60s Cold War from a July 1914 start (and tech into 2010!)

Granted, it looks almost as bland as Hearts of Iron 2 (because it is), but it features a lot of depth. Probably the best naval game for WW1 on the market, for example. Maaaaybe the best air game, too (for a strategic WW1 game I mean).

I've played quite a bit of HOI3 but had never played 2, which Darkest Hour is built from. I thought I would be able to jump right in but couldn't, I had to do the tutorials because it plays differently than 3.

[OJsDad]

I'm really enjoying Darkest Hour.  I will say, I like having it on the HOI2 engine with the battle results having more details on losses, something that was sorely missing in HOI3.  I also like the research engine better in HOI2 than HOI3.  (Until I got DH, I never played HOI2).

I'm playing a game right now as Italy.  The Central Powers able to take Warsaw in the first few weeks and kept Russia on the defense.  By April of '15, the Germans had taken Paris.  It was then that I decided to jump into the war on the side of the Central Powers.  The French had stripped their boarder states of all but a token defense force that we were able to defeat.  However, before we could get much progress, they surrendered.

In Libya, we were fighting the North African tribes for control there.  As part of the peace with France, we received Tunisia.  However, before we could get troops there, the British landed.  They've pushed us back to Tripoli.  On the east front of Libya, we and the British keep going back and forth giving and taking a handful of provinces. 

Belgium was made a puppet of Germany.  England evaded and, with almost of Germany's forces in Russia, they were able to drive into SW Germany.  Most of my units were still in Western Italy, and were able to aid in wiping out the British on the mainland of Europe.  We've no redeployed them to the Ottoman Empire and have started a drive along the Med coast. 

I haven't gotten any mods yet.  I've looked around for the AAR mod, but haven't found it yet.  It looks like there is a mod called The Grand Campaign that is building off of the AAR mod.

BTW, the two things I'm missing from the HIO3 engine, is the ability to zoom in a lot more and the speed settings.  In HOI2, it looks like you can either pause or go.   

[JasonPratt]

Darkest Hour definitely has the usual speed settings, but it isn't overly obvious how to use them. Click the pause button (so things won't be running on while you're trying to change the speed), and then right-click the same pause button. This not only brings up the speed menu but some other control options, too. I don't know how to manually change the speed from the keyboard, but I recall that being possible.

Yes, the "Grand Campaign" mod is what I've been playing as Russia; I call it the "AAR" mod for legacy reasons I guess. Sorry, I should have been more clear.  :-[ (Aside from updating the AAR base, the GC is a megamod that uses a number of other mods as well.) The GC/AAR mod makes things a little easier on Russia, but not a lot.

That was a great result, btw!  O0

[Jarhead0331]

Isn't Darkest Hour, in essence, a mod? So they have mods of a mod now?

[OJsDad]

Yes, the "Grand Campaign" mod is what I've been playing as Russia; I call it the "AAR" mod for legacy reasons I guess. Sorry, I should have been more clear.  :-[

We'll just call it hitting the eggnog early :P

[OJsDad]

Isn't Darkest Hour, in essence, a mod? So they have mods of a mod now?

Yes, but it was released as a stand alone game.  Same with Arsenal of Democracy.

[OJsDad]

JP.  The war has ended with a return to status quo between GB and Germany.

I'm trying to build some aircraft and subs.  I have enough IC applied, but those build items are showing a 0% of needed IC.  Other items in my queue, brigades, factories, infrastructure are progressing.  Any idea why.

[JasonPratt]

On the IC list, upper far right, there should be three numbers X / Y / Z.

Z = your technical number of ICs

Y = the ICs you're effectively operating at. Usually this is larger or identical to Z, but if it's smaller that would be important. It can be smaller if a sufficient number of factories are operating fractionally for some reason, usually due to worker unrest which can be caused by numerous problems. A factory coming on line from non-operation for any reason will slowly spool up, too, over a period of days or longer.

X = the ICs going to waste because you aren't using them, which can't be the problem here.


Each IC needs 2 Energy, 1 Metal, and .5 Rare every... hour, I think? If you're using IC faster than you're adding to your stock, then whatever's at the bottom of your order queue might not work.


Those are the two possibilities that jump out at me to check. I am assuming that you've checked your proportion sliders and you've allocated the amount of ICs to production that the relevant slider says you need for 100%. The sliders work on that Y-number of effective IC operations, of course.


On a related question, are your aircraft and sub orders all together at the bottom of your list, or are they spread out? If they're spread out in your list, then the problem isn't with ICs or with material supplying the ICs or with delegating ICs to production -- I honestly don't know what the problem would be... hm...

[OJsDad]

Yea, should be a resource issue.  Here is a screen shot.  I just completed 3 Engineer Brigades, that's why I have excess IC assigned to production.  I allowed a game day to process and still nothing.  Here is a screen shot.