Home Trending Latest threads New posts Developer diaries
Jump to latest Follow Reply
  • 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.
Hearts of Iron IV 48402 Bug Reports 17331 After Action Reports (AAR)
Previous dev diary Next dev diary
Show only dev responses

HOI4 Dev Diary - Airplanes and Lootboxes

Hi everyone! Today’s diary is sort of a logical continuation on the 1.4 “Oak” updated where we did a full revamp on the air interfaces and much of the underlying combat mechanics. So lets dive into some more air stuff!

Attaching air wings to armies
It's now possible to attach air wings directly to armies. This means that if you assign them to an army pushing into a hostile nation those wings will get automatically move to bases in range and assigned to areas the army is fighting in. This should hopefully mean no more accidentally forgetting your air force in france when you move forces up to the russian front in hectic multiplayer games or needing to manage things manually when crossing into new areas under an advance.
Assigned wings show over armies in air mapmode (you can’t attach to army groups) for easy check on how your attached air forces situation is. We show them in 3 groups: Fighters, Close Air support/tactical bombers and Transports for supply. You can’t attach strategic bombers, because, well, having planes on order to destroy the area you move through is generally not good. You can also quickly select those planes in each group which makes sending them around and rebalancing easy and quick.
Attaching is a free feature for everyone as part of the 1.5 “Cornflakes” update. The rest of the diary will cover features in the upcoming (and still unannounced. Trust me I’m itching to tell!) DLC.
Screenshot_1.png



Air Supply
Ever had your troops encircled and out of supply and wished there was some way to help them out? Now you can assign your transport planes to bring supply across enemy lines. Each plane assigned to a strategic area will boost supply in supply areas there. These planes can be intercepted as any other mission resulting in less supply, and destroyed planes. Air supply is designed to be a costly thing that you only want to use at a smaller scale, or to adjust minor supply problems. To ensure this we are rebalancing transport planes a bit so you will need a lot more of them (although with reduced costs as their “air fleet” status right now works badly with being intercepted) and air supply being a logistically tricky affair will require tying up new country resource to work. More info on that in a later diary though when we can show the whole picture. What is important here is that it's hard to use this at a large scale, and that it will come with some trade-offs.
supply_mapmode.png

(German planes delivering loot-boxes in a totally not-artificial at all situation of troops trapped in the middle of Poland)

To make it easy to identify where to send your transport planes on supply missions the air mapmode now has a special indicator showing areas with a supply need where planes could be assigned. If you are over supplying them through the air this is also shown, so that you may want to withdraw some of your wings.
supply_mapmode_2.png



Prioritization for strategic bombing
Players can now affect target selection for strategic bombers. The way it works is that you mark your prioritized targets when picking the strategic bombing mission. Those building types selected will have a higher chance of being targeted compared to others. Bombing isn't the most exact process and we felt it would be weird if you could completely control what doesn't get hit etc. So instead we decided on a system where you can somewhat affect it, but won't be able to walk into an area with all refineries destroyed but pristine infrastructure and factories.
upload_2017-11-1_16-4-0.png


We also have one more air related feature as part of the DLC, but we will be showing that off in a future diary where it fits in better with the content there ;P

Next week is a diary I have been looking forward to - we are going to explain what that new topbar button does that you may have spotted in screenies :)

PS. The second episode of our beginner-stream with @Da9L and @bus is coming any second now. Even though most of you are probably familiar with the basics, this is perfect for any friends that want to join in. Check out the Paradox twitch today at 16:00 CET: https://go.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive
 
Sort by date Sort by reaction score
podcat said:
there is some argument for at least american transport plane tech increasing its not in the plan atm.
Click to expand...

Could be interesting to include heavier capacity transport planes together with airlift which would allow you to airlift in normal divisions with line artillery and vehicles up to and including light tanks. You would need to capture airfields with normal paras first though or sacrifice the planes as gliders.

This was something both German planes like the Me 323 Gigant and American planes like the C-74 Globemaster could do, and both were flying in the WW2 period. Both Axis and Allies also had gliders capable of bringing in heavier equipment and some light tank models.
 
The ability to choose strategic bombing targets is an EXCELLENT feature - thank you very much.

However, we still desperately need a basic upgrade to the naval combat system - losing 43 DD's and zero larger ships in a week-long air-naval battle in the Med is just silly.
 
Will assigning air to armies work for a garrison army, say a german army garrisoning France or is this mainly for armies on teh offensve? How about a garrison army covering multiple islands in the Pacific?
 
podcat said:
we are rebalancing transport planes a bit so you will need a lot more of them (although with reduced costs as their “air fleet” status right now works badly with being intercepted) and air supply being a logistically tricky affair will require tying up new country resource to work
Click to expand...

So, there will be a difference between say, a 2-engine DC-3 type (and the derivatives used by the USSR & Japan), the Ju-52, and four-engine types ?
Will this also affect their ability to carry parachute divisions ?

Like, is transport capacity going to be a thing, affecting how many supplies a transport plane can carry, and how many planes it takes to transport a parachute division ?

I'm having thoughts now, about being able to convert the older 4-engine heavy bombers, into transports (as was done historically).

Exciting !
 
@podcat you already have air planes doing multiple missions, such as heavy fighters doing both intercept and kamikaze missions. Why not allow strat bombers to drop supplies, albeit fewer than transport planes?

You can further balance the whole thing by removing supplies from their air base supply zone in order to drop these supply "points" into the encirclement.
 
podcat said:
It's now possible to attach air wings directly to armies.
Click to expand...

Is it possible to attach wings to allied armies? Would be very useful in vanilla MP where often the plane users for the Axis and Allies are Hungary and Canada respectively, with neither wielding many or any divisions of their own.

podcat said:
These planes can be intercepted as any other mission resulting in less supply, and destroyed planes.
Click to expand...

Are transport planes also susceptible to accidents? I would assume they are.

podcat said:
The way it works is that you mark your prioritized targets when picking the strategic bombing mission.
Click to expand...

Will your previous marked prioritisation save, or is this something you will have to do every single time you switch air zones?

podcat said:
Those building types selected will have a higher chance of being targeted compared to others. Bombing isn't the most exact process and we felt it would be weird if you could completely control what doesn't get hit etc. So instead we decided on a system where you can somewhat affect it, but won't be able to walk into an area with all refineries destroyed but pristine infrastructure and factories.
Click to expand...

Will the chance to hit prioritised targets be influenced by differences in the operational environment such as visibility and weather? It should be far easier to hit an airfield instead of a factory at noon with clear skies than it is during a cloudy night.

Overall interesting and useful changes. Good to see the return of air supply.
 
Russian Bias lmao said:
If they are, then it will be reasonable to conclude that we will be able to create transport plane variants and possibly research new transport planes.
Click to expand...
I have a feeling they won't go that far, but I hope they do.

The previous HoIs had transport plane techs, adding them to HoI4 shouldn't be a problem.
 
Russian Bias lmao said:
Is it "a new focus tree" or "new focus trees"?

Hopefully it's a typo, not archangel being a politician XD
Click to expand...

I will say this much - and this is what I have always said, many times before: the thing is - regardless of what your personal opinion on it may be - the thing is that my position has not changed, and I stand behind what I said.
 
Could you add a logistic center like a warehouse in a region and add the railroads? Could you modify the anti-air in the regions? I think is easy to add the maximum point of anti-air in a big area.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back