• 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.

HOI4 Dev Diary - Intel

Hi everyone! Next to last dev diary before christmas, and today we are going to talk about intel. We have been talking about ways to get intel a bit in previous diaries, like code cracking, scout planes and spies but not really talked about the system as a whole. So lets get to it!

Before intel was based essentially on comparing two nations crypto tech levels and it was a flat value covering everything. To make this more interesting we are splitting it into 4 separate values: Civilian/Industry Intel, Army Intel, Navy Intel, Air Intel. These affect what you can see in our new intel ledger, that replaces the little intel bit in the diplomacy interface from before for people with La Resistance:
upload_2019-12-11_12-24-29.png

Each of the tabs cover each type of intel (here we have civilian/industry selected), and they also come with mapmode information. As an example in the one above we aggregate building values as you zoom out (if you zoom in you see the same by state). This can help you when figuring out where to bomb or where and what kind of sabotage can be most effective.

The more intel you have the more information is displayed, we break down the levels in a tooltip per category:
upload_2019-12-11_12-37-57.png

So right now I can see how many army techs have been researched, but not specifically which. That requires 70% but then you can look at their tech tree. If I had 5% more I could see roughly how many of each division template the other nation had. At the moment I can only see that they exist but no real info about what they contain.

The army intel tab also lets you get a breakdown of the enemy stockpile of equipment.

Naval and air are similar:
upload_2019-12-11_12-44-10.png


upload_2019-12-11_12-44-42.png


Naval intel mapmode is quite powerful and at high intel levels will let you see where the enemy is placing certain missions
upload_2019-12-11_13-2-10.png


Intel can come from many different sources, for example:
- Spy networks
- Infiltrated spy assets
- Captured enemy spies
- Radar
- Broken Ciphers
- Scout planes
- Fighting the enemy in land combat
- Fighting the enemy in air combat
- Fighting the enemy in naval combat
And probably some I forgot.

Each source has a max it can contribute and may affect different intel values in different ways. For example if you have a spy network over the enemies coast, or scout naval areas with traffic you will get more naval intel. Each source also decays over time so its important to actively do things to keep your intel levels current and make sure you combine many sources to get as much intel as possible.

Here I have multiple sources:
upload_2019-12-11_13-17-34.png

Do note that the biggest chunk here is me doing some quick events with rewards of intel to cheat my way to quick screenshots ;). Also note that simply being democratic and having open trade laws make hiding the civilian part of your intel hard.

Knowing what kind of build strategy, templates, tech and stockpile an enemy has can be very useful allowing you to counter and attack them in the best way possible, but there is also direct advantage from relative intel which replaces the crypto level comparison from before.
upload_2019-12-11_13-35-41.png


See you next week for more cool stuff, and don't forget to tune into twitch at 16:00CET where we will be showing of France for the first time (aka watch Daniel accidentally leak stuff).
 
Last edited:
  • 1Like
Reactions:
Does this mean we can finally see what our allies have in terms of equipment, fuel and research ?
"Britain, how many artillery units do you have?"
"I dunno."
"How many planes do you need each month?"
"I dunno."
"Dammit, can you at least tell me what your plan of attack is?!"
"I dunno."
 
Hi @podcat I'm overruned by a deathly scare now about crypto. For me for several reasons naval and army codes should be splited. Now looking the power of a high naval Intel level I'm more sure that they should be splited if you don't have to choose which focus the boost is incredible huge.
Have the naval position of ships or task even as a extreme cases is an incredible advantage. I'm very worried the naval warfare go deep to decisive battle, the best of mtg was avoiding it for a while.
 
Ai uses intel for evaluating numbers and stuff in the background. Other than that we havent done any specific ai strategies for this atm, although its certainly possible in the future. Its the kind of thing that takes quite a bit of time

_____________
Ok, this make me sad.
 
Ai uses intel for evaluating numbers and stuff in the background. Other than that we havent done any specific ai strategies for this atm, although its certainly possible in the future. Its the kind of thing that takes quite a bit of time

_____________
Ok, this make me sad.

I think you can say that this is the general statement about the AI:

"Ai uses X for Y in the background. Other than that we havent done any specific ai strategies for this atm, although its certainly possible in the future. Its the kind of thing that takes quite a bit of time."

Certainly no naval strategies came with the AI for MtG. I guess Intel is no different.
 
Excellent point. And it would be great if armored cars are a new "armored" recon company, so they can have their proper use in an armored division. I read an article about a lone US M8 Greyhound AC killing a Tiger 2 tank. It flanked it and pierced the rear armor at 50 yards, with its 37mm pew pew gun.

Impossible, Tiger 2 rear had 80mm armor. What was your source?

And if that happened, it would be mentioned as a sensations in every book written about Tiger tanks (there are plenty).
 
If I had 5% more I could see roughly how many of each division template the other nation had.
On that note, can you PLEASE fix the AI behind setting up Division templates? If I'm now forced to see the 25 'Infantry Division 6' templates every time I try to retrieve useful intel from that pace, I might stop using that feature alltogether. It's annoying enough if you Anschluss Austria and have to clean up the utter mess the AI generated in less than a year.
 
What does 4/6 factories in first screenshot mean? 4 out of 6 possible in a state? 4 active and 2 destroyed/damaged?

Hardly mean 4 out of 6 possible in any case. I you have a free slot, then you could build anything not just military factories. Damaged or in conscruction is my guess.
 
You said it's now possible to see allied equipment and stuff. But what if it's just a strategic allience and I don't want my allies to see what I have? How about some sort of diplomatic action to allow insight of certain things in my country to allied nations? I think this would me more fair. Otherwise allied nations could still use spies to get those informations. But this should not happen without effort or permission.
 
Impossible, Tiger 2 rear had 80mm armor. What was your source?

And if that happened, it would be mentioned as a sensations in every book written about Tiger tanks (there are plenty).
Beevor, Antony (2015). Ardennes 1944: Hitler’s last gamble. New York: Viking. p. 172. ISBN 978-0-670-02531-2.

During the Battle of St. Vith an M8 Greyhound armoured car destroyed a Tiger II after getting in behind it on the Schonberg Road, though the commander tried to traverse his turret to engage the M8. The M8 fired three 37 mm rounds into the relatively thin rear armor of the Tiger from only 25 yd (23 m), setting it on fire: "There was a muffled explosion, followed by flames which billowed out of the turret and engine port."

Its not World of Tanks. Penetration can be quite high at at extremely close ranges.
 
Last edited:
Thank you! I read those two and found there's nothing specifically concerning operations I mentioned except "Targeted Sabotage" and "Propaganda". Hope paradox can make this dlc better...and complete it sooner!
 
You know what they say about assuming...

People will assume stuff if you don't give them enough information. Nothing personal, it's part of the job. ;)

Democracies will also give up less intel on their armies and airforces.

See? Now that's a shining piece of information we didn't have before. Thanks for sharing it!

Let's see how ahistorically buffy Axis behaves from now on.
 
I m not quite sure, did anyone understand what resources are used for doing spy actions?

Is it civ industry? Political power? A new resource that generates up the top of the screen?
 

The operations themselves can use different resources - support equipment was the one used in the operations DD https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/hoi4-dev-diary-operations.1284812/

They have mentioned subs, transport planes, civ factories and other things being possibly used for different operations

As wesleytj pointed out civs are used to build up your intelligency agency

Thank you for the info! Yes, it seems multiple resources affect it, mostly CIV factories as you confirmed. With even Political power used to make a spymaster, I hope they minimalize the use of political power for espionage. It seems the current state of the game with the decision system already has the political power drained enough.
 
Last edited: