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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.
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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.
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(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.
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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.
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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
 
Thanks devs, the new patch and DLC are looking very good.
 
I would just find it very sad if there is a 1936 bomber that stays the same all game even while developing B-24's and Amerikabombers. Bomber tech should bleed into transport tech.

I wouldn't be averse to there being a string of three techs that focused on the logistical and coordination aspects of transports, but the hardware should just upgrade with the bomber tree.
While I agree that we should have more advanced transports as we go along I'm not sure tying it to bomber techs straight off is the right way to go.
Historically it was pretty much the other way round for a lot of the bombers pre/early-war. They started out as drafts/prototypes or actual civilian airliners and were then adapted or further improved into bomber variants. A lot of the tactical and strategical bombers later on were pure bomber-designs but almost all of them drew some basic techs from pre-war long range commercial projects. Later in the war and post-war it was the other way round. A lot of military designs were reworked into civilian airline prototypes.
I really like the "mini" techs (CAGs, SPART etc) and and for the sake of historical plausibility and logic we should really have a couple for each "frame". So that you could make 4xEngine long range maritime patrol aircraft from your heavies, lumbering transport behemoths for long range transport etc. Each "tier" could unlock some basic airframe and then bombers, transports and NAVs could be nested techs.

That would be the Demyansk pocket. It can be argued this was basically a trade of aircraft for manpower and not a very good one.
Operationally it was very successful. Not only was supply brought in but also reinforcements. It was one of the first major operational-level endeavours wholly supplied by air.
The main problems was that the effort required a considerable amount of air-power and logistics wizardry and wouldn't have been successful had distances been longer and airport infrastructure less developed in both ends (as was evident less than a year later in Stalingrad).

It wasn't unfeasible to airlift supplies for an army, just very "expensive".
 
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Sorry for my bad English first, but i thing i dont understand why is this good i now that this is profit and money and all that shit but why don t come this features in update FOR FREE why every time for DLC for fck sake you now some man can't afford that HUGE money for every single dlc whats this game why are even called "updates" there not one big update just DLC-s theres just little updates for distracion that there is no update really the modders has to fix this game when was that time when there were dlc-s but only 3-5 months often when was the last time when there was some features added in game but in UPDATES

If you look back over the DDs, you'll see some pretty interesting features that are part of the update and not the DLC (the chain of command, for example, attaching aircraft to armies, stability and war support - I'm not sure about name lists and the new approach to refineries and resources, but I think there's a fair chance these are in as well). There's plenty of material there - it's just not all in this DD.

Also - in terms of huge money, we're talking $20-$25 every six months (and less this year at least). While all of our personal circumstances are different, so it may well be huge relative to your means, it's neither a lot of money relative to other gaming or entertainment prices, nor at least where I'm from in terms of general living expenses. If it is too much for you on release, if you're patient it'll be on sale soon enough, and Paradox continue to run regular sales.
 
I think giving us the ability to research better transport planes and modify them should be high on the priority list, but also the AI using paratroopers.
 
I have to agree that the balance between free content and paid content in this patch is quite a bit in favor of the free side.

Maybe airdrops will be a game changer for me? The only thing I've seen so far that I know will add a lot of entertainment for me is the new Germany focus tree. I am still not seeing $20 of value in the paid content though.

I really wouldn't mind them fleshing out monarchism as it's own distinct ideology in a DLC.
 
Sorry for my bad English first, but i thing i dont understand why is this good i now that this is profit and money and all that shit but why don t come this features in update FOR FREE why every time for DLC for fck sake you now some man can't afford that HUGE money for every single dlc whats this game why are even called "updates" there not one big update just DLC-s theres just little updates for distracion that there is no update really the modders has to fix this game when was that time when there were dlc-s but only 3-5 months often when was the last time when there was some features added in game but in UPDATES




WHAT THIS GAME BECOME
Stop posting the same incoherent rant.
 
I have to agree that the balance between free content and paid content in this patch is quite a bit in favor of the free side.

Maybe airdrops will be a game changer for me? The only thing I've seen so far that I know will add a lot of entertainment for me is the new Germany focus tree. I am still not seeing $20 of value in the paid content though.

I really wouldn't mind them fleshing out monarchism as it's own distinct ideology in a DLC.
Well there are a few DD to come, I ususally look at the whole bundle and consider the free updates also when buying a DLC. Cause they're paid for by the DLC revenue.
 
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Sorry for my bad English first, but i thing i dont understand why is this good i now that this is profit and money and all that bad thing but why don t come this features in update FOR FREE why every time for DLC for fuck sake you now some man can't afford that HUGE money for every single dlc whats this game why are even called "updates2 there not one big update just DLC-s theres just little updates for distracion that there is no update really the modders has to fix this game when was that time when there were dlc-s but only 3-5 months often when was the last time when there was some features added in game but in UPDATES

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Also
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I'm interested to see how useful strategic bombing can be for going straight through the Maginot line.

Good point about strategic bombing's effects on fortifications.

Perhaps fort-building house rules and mods tailored for multiplayer games will have to be revised due to the new effects of strategic bombing:

upload_2017-11-3_8-12-24.png
 
Thank you for adding air supply! That's a feature I've really wanted back since it did play a small yet important role in WW2. Loving these air changes in general since I feel that air definitely is what needs reworking/improving most in HOI4's armed forces. Great title too!
 
@billcorr

I don't know how people can play MP with so many arbitrary rules. For one, I'd be quite liable to forget some of the rules I'd apparently broken!
Same with me. Ususally we ban using PP for boosting party support, Devilpact-alliances and Soviet-German war before '41 but that is about it.
 
Same with me. Ususally we ban using PP for boosting party support, Devilpact-alliances and Soviet-German war before '41 but that is about it.
I realize this is off topic, but I have to ask. What is "Devilpact-alliances"? You mean non-historical, like US allying with Germany?
 
I can deal with the arbitrary rules in MP.

But I really dislike the limitations people put on construction and division templates (lvl 5 forts and 1 arty per 10 width)

All this game needs are limitations placed on Foreign Policy (when wars can start and no unwanted coup/boost), and thats mostly because (imo) that system isnt fleshed out.

with the increased costs to high levels of forts and these changes to bombing...there really shouldnt be a need to limit the number of forts on a tile.

But then I thought last patches changes to Arty were going to make the 1arty:10width rule obsolete...