• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

Developer Diary | Division Commanders & Unit Medals

image (9).png
Greetings all!

Welcome back to today’s feature dev diary on a series of interconnected subsystems being added to the game in By Blood Alone.

One of the major points in my first roadmap dev diary was that I felt quite strongly about the inclusion of further roleplay and immersive elements in Hearts of Iron. What I’ll be showing off today is intended to fulfill a small part of this bullet point.

Those of you with keen memories will recall an early teaser I posted here. Some of you guessed correctly, and in BBA, we’ve introduced a dynamic system for naming battleplans. For many major nations, battleplan names can be provided through a list of locations, resulting in a historical series of operation tags which will be applied when plans are created:​
image4.png

Of course, the war does not always proceed historically, and battleplan names can also be generated from several component lists for instances where a historical variant cannot be found. These name lists are fully moddable, and can be unique to countries. In some cases (ie; Soviet Union) a different naming convention can be utilized to represent the somewhat uninventive approach to naming operations that was used in reality:​
image3.png

Naturally, in the spirit of roleplaying, these operation names can be modified in-game, and you can replace the text with whatever operation name you desire. This will apply to any sub-orders derived from the initial drawn line:​
image7.png

If unset, naval landing and paradrop orders will have a unique pattern to remain unique.

This system however, goes further than a simple naming convention, and ties into another addition being made to BBA.


Division Commanders

In BBA, we’re replacing the standard method of recruiting new generals out of thin air. Instead, every division will be created with a commanding officer upon game start, or when they are trained:​
image1.png

These are predominantly generated from country-specific namelists, however in some cases we have set these individually for starting divisions. When a new unit is created, they will be provided a randomly generated character name and portrait. To accommodate the increased use of generic portraits for these, we’ll be adding a large quantity of additional generic portraits for owners of BBA. The work involved in creating these is not insignificant, so for now we’ve limited ourselves in adding portraits to major nations only.

You’ll be able to get an overview of all division commanders in your army within the officer corps screen:​
image5.png

In an effort to avoid unnecessary micromanagement, we’ve made a few important decisions. Division commanders themselves will not directly confer bonuses upon the divisions they command, however the divisions they command will now earn and log a record of important actions they may perform during the natural course of a campaign:​
image6.png

Important actions such as taking a capital, securing a high-value victory point, and more, constitute actions for which a unit can be awarded a medal. It is expected that over the course of a campaign, many units will qualify for receiving medals, often several - the system is not driven by scarcity, as we do not intend for players to micromanage individual actions, rather to manage the macro-level step of choosing when and what to award their units.​
image2.png

As mentioned above, division commanders will not explicitly confer bonuses, however the medals awarded for action will. Medals are intended to act as a pp sink for the mid-late game, as we find a lot of players tend to end up with a significant amount of this resource as decisions, advisors and focuses begin to dwindle.

Units can receive multiple medals, however the cost for each will increase as more are granted to any given unit, and the effect of stacking specific medals will decrease per instance of the same effect.

As you will note above, medals can be specific to countries, and we’ve included a series of generic medals based on alignment, as well as unique medal sets for each major country. A medal’s effects will only extend to the unit it belongs to.

A medal’s name and description will in most cases be dynamic depending on what action it was awarded for, and extreme valor while on a specific named operation can also result in receiving a medal for that action.

To further streamline the process of awarding medals, you can perform quick actions to do this through the officers entry in the corps screen:​
image13.png

As mentioned previously, we’re removing the old method of recruiting generals by means of reaching into the void and plucking out a fully qualified officer. This means that your army generals will now be directly linked to your field of divisional officers, and their capability directly linked to their actions in the field.

Divisional officers will store experience based on the experience gain of the unit they are commanding, as well as receiving a lump-sum when a medal is awarded. While active as a divisional officer, this experience will have no meaningful effect, however, when in need of a new army general, you can promote divisional commanders out of their divisional role and directly into their new role as a general.

Any medals awarded to the division will be retained by that division, however, the newly created general will keep a reference to their awarded medals as a means of remembering their accomplishments in the line of duty (albeit with no direct effect on their new army - although we’ve elected to support this behavior for modders should they wish):​
image9.png

When a divisional officer is promoted this way, the experience they have earned during the course of their field command will be applied to their experience level as a general (up to a maximum cap). Promoting someone with field experience can prove a lot more valuable than hiring another pen-pusher, after all. If they have earned at least a certain quantity (as yet undecided) of field experience, they will also begin with a personality trait corresponding to the type of division they were commanding (armor officer, infantry officer, etc).


Unit Cohesion

You will also note that my roadmap included a wish to improve the battleplanner. While this is likely to be a slow, iterative process, BBA heralds the inclusion of a new frontline parameter intended for advanced users.​
image8.png

The Cohesion parameter can be set on any root frontline order, and will affect how the unit controller places divisions across that frontline. The default setting of ‘Flexible Cohesion’ functions as you have grown to expect - all units will be evaluated for placement suitability and potentially relocated to fill perceived gaps in frontline cohesion.​
image14.png

Balanced Cohesion’ will only successfully evaluate units that are within a defined distance from the target (distances are moddable). In practice, this results in less unit shuffling along frontlines, but should still ensure that frontlines respond to changes in size and shape.​
image11.png

The final setting, ‘Rigid Cohesion’ is intended primarily for long defensive lines, and will only successfully evaluate unit positions that are within a very short distance from the target location. In practice this results in relocations only taking place to neighboring provinces, and can result in gaps being created in frontlines if left unattended. It is expected that this setting will be used by players who primarily rely on micromanagement of frontlines.

The AI will make use of flexible and balanced cohesion settings depending on the ratio of divisions:frontline length, but will avoid the use of rigid cohesion.

It is worth noting that units that are not placed directly on the frontline (having been left behind or recently added to an order instance) will not be subject to the same cohesion restrictions, and will make use of strategic relocation to find themselves a new place on the frontline. Additionally, the cohesion setting will be respected regardless of whether an order is being executed or not.


Modding

For those of you interested in modding, the addition of these subsystems also comes with some new tools regarding units. It is now possible to iterate over unit arrays in states and countries by condition, and apply a series of effects, including the awarding of medals, history entries, and other basic parameters such as affecting org, strength, and more. For performance reasons, units do not currently support storing or being stored as variables, though we will monitor the need for, and performance implications of doing this in future (I SEE YOU EaW).

Predefined divisions can be set up with lists of historical commanders that they will draw from when their current commander if replaced, should you wish to opt for extreme historical fidelity.​
image10.png

The visual display ranks of divisional commanders correspond to their gained experience, and are fully customizable, though confer no gameplay effect.

Medals themselves can be added to the medal array based on arbitrary conditions, and support a variety of modifiers, not all of which are represented in our vanilla use-cases.

Name combinations can also be split from various random lists, if you have a particular penchant for randomly generated names.
image12.png



That’s all for now, tune in next week for a second look at how peace conferences are progressing!​
 

Attachments

  • image7.png
    image7.png
    1,3 MB · Views: 0
  • image12.png
    image12.png
    18,5 KB · Views: 0
  • image (7).png
    image (7).png
    374,4 KB · Views: 0
Last edited by a moderator:
  • 133Like
  • 96Love
  • 10
  • 8
  • 2
  • 1Haha
Reactions:
But that's the issue. If I have a bunch of important divisions, then this system incentivized me to micromanage these divisions, so that every single one participated in some event so I can give them medals. And if I don't do that, then I am worse off.
If I want to play this game optimally, then I have to micromanage these divisions to get these medals.

This is something, for example, that happens in MMOs like World of Warcraft. If there is an optimal way to play the game, then players will play the game like this, even if it is an objectively worse experience, more boring or tedious, than the devs intended. Happens all the time.

Sure I can play without medal micromanagement, I can also play without a navy if I don't like it, then my experience would be objectively worse with paratooper spam everywhere for example.

It's not that any system forces me at gunpoint to use these medals, it's that this system exists and using it is objectively better, thus passively forcing me, if I want to play optimally, to use it. For multiplayer games, this will be a micro-nightmare, I can guarantee that.

I would note that it also isn't a problem that MMO developers have found a solution for. You're right, of course, if there's an optimal way to play, some will search for it - that might even be why they play. Many won't, however. You can't truly avoid a 'meta', because at some point, metas and strategies or optimal vs sub-optimal play becomes self-reinforcing. I know of no game which is perfectly balanced, and I know many of our fans take joy in searching for optimums.

What you can do, is mitigate. Accepting that while some players might use features tangentially to the way they were intended, and mitigating the effects of that. We have done this in large part by adding quick actions, batch actions, resource & time bottlenecks, etc. In effect, you're complaining that we haven't made it easier to take advantage of the system, and I think you'll find after using it that the resource bottleneck is actually the most significant anti-micro thing there, despite being a footnote. Awarding medals simply isn't an action we expect players to be taking every 2 minutes. Save them up and do them in batch at some point the same way you apply general traits... use the military spirit and make it the core of your campaign... there are options.

It is not, as you say, an 'objectively worse experience' unless you set your bar so high that it becomes that. We've provided mitigation, and I'm absolutely not above adding more if this becomes something that a significant number of people find genuinely consider arduous.

I wonder, is it not somewhat more practical to make these portraits randomised in their components as well, say setting a few different poses, same with outfits, same with facial hair/colour, same with presence of glasses, same with skin tone, etc? Literally thousands of new quality portraits would be generated out of, my assumption, a relatively simple system to program that would require less time and resources than creating hundreds of individual portraits alone, and would be applicabile to each and every nation in the game. I know nothing about coding so there's that.

We tried that with the LaR spy portraits. Mixed results, and in each case these had to be stitched together by artists rather than done procedurally.
 
  • 16
  • 9
  • 6Like
  • 2Love
Reactions:
@Arheo Earlier [much earlier] there was mention of something akin to a theater reserve system - I'm not sure if it was one of the first Developer Corners for BBA or perhaps it was back at the start of the NSB Developer Diaries - but the idea [as I understood it] was that there was to be a way for a theater to retain a reserve of units that could be reassigned by the battleplanner AI to fill gaps in lines as well as to reinforce against invasions.

I realize I may be mistaken about this but I was wondering if that idea [or whatever was similar to it] was still something being worked on or was it canceled? I recall there was a screenshot of unit deployments with a lot of units being held in some manner of strategic reserve - all of which was displayed as red dots on the map
 
@Arheo Earlier [much earlier] there was mention of something akin to a theater reserve system - I'm not sure if it was one of the first Developer Corners for BBA or perhaps it was back at the start of the NSB Developer Diaries - but the idea [as I understood it] was that there was to be a way for a theater to retain a reserve of units that could be reassigned by the battleplanner AI to fill gaps in lines as well as to reinforce against invasions.

I realize I may be mistaken about this but I was wondering if that idea [or whatever was similar to it] was still something being worked on or was it canceled? I recall there was a screenshot of unit deployments with a lot of units being held in some manner of strategic reserve - all of which was displayed as red dots on the map

This was added in NSB, but needs a lot of expansion to make a noticeable difference. We haven't forgotten it :)
 
  • 12
  • 4Like
  • 2Love
Reactions:
You said that units whose commanders are promoted will retain thier buffs from medals, but does that mean that the new commanding officer starts with the same medal? Afterall the division has the buff, if I understand correctly.
 
You said that units whose commanders are promoted will retain thier buffs from medals, but does that mean that the new commanding officer starts with the same medal? Afterall the division has the buff, if I understand correctly.

No, the new commander will not inherit old commander's medals, however the old medals will still exert an effect upon the unit.
 
  • 20
  • 2Like
  • 1Love
Reactions:
Great DD!!! Once more I smell some IR spirit here with a log of "Import actions" reminding me of Legions Distinctions and Medals as analogy to granting a triumph :cool:

A friendly and very minor nitpicking though as native German speaker...
Erhler.jpg

I know pics are always WiP (so maybe it is corrected already) and I even won't rule out that "Erhler" is a rare German surname, but "Ehrler" would be a much more common one here :)

And you gave me good laugh with that one...
BerwinnGrommel.jpg
:D
 
  • 6Haha
  • 4Like
Reactions:
love this. so if I have several battleplan (aggressive line) on soviet border as Germany, will all of them be name operation Barbarossa? main question is can multiple operation has same name if they focus same frontline?
 
  • 1Like
  • 1
Reactions:
This was probably asked already but what happens to division that already exist at game start? Will they get random commanders every time you play? Or will they get the historical ones
 
This was probably asked already but what happens to division that already exist at game start? Will they get random commanders every time you play? Or will they get the historical ones
As far as i could understand there are some historically significant divisions with pre-determined commanders. But i assume for the majority they will be random.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions:
love this. so if I have several battleplan (aggressive line) on soviet border as Germany, will all of them be name operation Barbarossa? main question is can multiple operation has same name if they focus same frontline?

Yes, however this behaviour can be toggled in defines.

So, the next obvious question for me is, can we stack buffs from medals? Like getting the same medal for two field commanders for one division.

Yes, however the effects will decrease per medal of the same type added.

This was probably asked already but what happens to division that already exist at game start? Will they get random commanders every time you play? Or will they get the historical ones

This is one of those 'with what time remains' tasks.
 
  • 19
  • 1Like
  • 1Love
Reactions:
Sounds interesting. Some questions and thoughts:

1. Do I have to use the battle planner in order to get these medals? Currently I prefer to not use any orders at all (not even defensive lines) and instead control all units manually. Yes, it's quite a lot of management, but it allows me to control the units in a way that would never be possible with the battleplanner. It would be quite sad to miss out on these medals though?

2. Will you make the battle planner more "controllable"? My biggest issue with the battle planner at the moment is that it basically only allows me to draw two lines and thats it. That doesn't feel very strategic in my opinion and the level of control is far too low. For example, when defending against a stronger opponent that keeps attacking without pause, you need to "rotate" your divisions in and out, in order for them to regain organization. That is not possible with the battle planner which causes the front line to eventually collapse. When it comes to offensive orders I find encirclements to be the biggest issue. Even though motorized infantry defends the flanks of the breakthrough, the regular leg infantry starts to move all over the place because they are in another army with another order and think there's a gap in the line. This in turn causes other areas to be undermanned. I want to use the battleplanner more, but currently I feel that the issues mentioned above are so critical that I can't. Do you have any plans to fix issues like these?

3. I think it's horrible that the division loses all or most of its experience if the division commander is promoted. It's already extremely difficult to obtain elite divisions just because of the raw time that they need in battle to get enough experience. Also I think it makes little sense, because the units themselves does not lose their "own" experience just because they have another commander. Maybe a better option would be to treat the division and the commander as separate entities in terms of experience? They both earn experience at the same rate but they can have a varying experience level?
 
  • 1Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Sounds interesting. Some questions and thoughts:

1. Do I have to use the battle planner in order to get these medals? Currently I prefer to not use any orders at all (not even defensive lines) and instead control all units manually. Yes, it's quite a lot of management, but it allows me to control the units in a way that would never be possible with the battleplanner. It would be quite sad to miss out on these medals though?

No, there are many that do not require the use of the battleplanner, and one that does.

Maybe a better option would be to treat the division and the commander as separate entities in terms of experience? They both earn experience at the same rate but they can have a varying experience level?

That is already the case
 
  • 15
  • 1Like
  • 1Love
Reactions:
This all looks great! I'm excited for new immersion features since I've agreed that was something this game was really missing and I'm glad to see some hefty new features in that aspect

That being said if you guys are looking at battle plan mechanics, can you PLEASE add an order to tell divisions not to counter attack provinces that were just lost to an enemy? Lemme explain what I mean
Currently if you have an army on a defensive line order, the AI evaluates where to place divisions based on number of divisions and provinces along the line. So if an enemy attacks a province and pushes that division out, the AI will perceive that province as being empty and in need of a division and will assign one to go there.
However when the enemy takes the province under their control, the order to go to this province isn't removed which results in the division running itself into an enemy and wasting equipment, manpower, and most of all organization. Would there be any way to order the AI to not move into provinces that have been taken by an enemy? Thanks again do all the new coming features!
 
  • 4Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Does the "Coordination" update to frontline management also address the common issue of when your divisions auto-attack provinces that you lost before the division has arrived?

It makes defending almost impossible when you're getting pushed because reinforcements always show up late, and immediately attempt a hopeless counterattack that exhausts them of organization.

My hope, is that setting redeployment range lower means you'll be less likely to see divisions arriving late, and therefore they wont be as likely to be moving to a province the enemy now controls, but I'm curious if there could be a check the divisions run to see if the province they are redeploying to is now occupied.
 
  • 2
  • 1Like
Reactions:
This all looks great! I'm excited for new immersion features since I've agreed that was something this game was really missing and I'm glad to see some hefty new features in that aspect

That being said if you guys are looking at battle plan mechanics, can you PLEASE add an order to tell divisions not to counter attack provinces that were just lost to an enemy? Lemme explain what I mean
Currently if you have an army on a defensive line order, the AI evaluates where to place divisions based on number of divisions and provinces along the line. So if an enemy attacks a province and pushes that division out, the AI will perceive that province as being empty and in need of a division and will assign one to go there.
However when the enemy takes the province under their control, the order to go to this province isn't removed which results in the division running itself into an enemy and wasting equipment, manpower, and most of all organization. Would there be any way to order the AI to not move into provinces that have been taken by an enemy? Thanks again do all the new coming features!
Yes! Please address this! It makes defensive gameplay so hopeless!
 
  • 2Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Dsingis said:

I am confused. You claim you didn't want to introduce micromanagement, and yet we have to manually assign medals to each and every single divison out there. How is that not a micromanagement hell? Seriously, am I missing something here? If my army consists of 200 divisions, how exactly will I not spend hours assessing who to assign medals to?

How am I not incentivized to relocate a specific division I want a medal for to a specific location, so they can earn a medal? Unless I am missing something, this seems like so much micromanagement hell, I am baffled, honestly.

And the bonuses are not insignificant. 7.5% breakthrough? Hell yes. I want that on my tank divisions. So what do you think I'm going to do? Exactly, I will micro every single of my tank divisions to partake in a special operation so they can earn a medal. I will manually go through all my tank divisions to see who has and who hasn't got a medal yet, and then send them off to somewhere special to earn a medal.

Seriously, tell me if I am misunderstanding this, because as it seems, you are doing the exact opposite of what you claim (as in not wanting to introduce micromanagement)


The button cannot hurt you. You don't have to click it.

As I pointed out quite early on, this system is not designed to be bottlenecked on medal availability. If you want to spend your pp on a medal for your pushing division, you will probably be able to, provided it has been engaged in combat for a little while. The bonuses these grant are subject to diminishing returns - once you've got a few for your main divisions, you likely don't need to keep coming back.

If this is still too much for your tastes, that's ok.

HOI4 is a game that is played competitively. We spend hundreds of hours learning the meta, mastering it and then going beyond it trying to find any small edge over our opponents. Saying that we "don't have to click it" is completely dismissive of the way HOI4 is played at the highest level.

This is like telling soccer players that every goal is worth two points instead of one as long as the team continues to sing the national anthem throughout the match. But don't worry, the national anthem can't hurt you. You don't have to sing if you don't want to. It's ok if the singing is too much for your taste.

I'll wait to judge the mechanic until I've played it, but this was a legitimate question. It's relevant considering how much micro already goes into grinding adaptable. Belittling the questioner like this is very unprofessional.

Please reconsider your answer.
 
  • 16
  • 3Haha
  • 1
Reactions: