HOI4 Dev Diary - We're back! (and 1.4.2 patch)

[grandad1982]

Or it has more units to do stupid things with? I got 2 left hands, so I'm basically useless at construction and giving me more hammers is not going to make me better at it...

But will it be more fun?

 

[RELee]

On my team, I would hand you a shovel since that fits everybody's hands just fine.

Just messing with ya.

 

[Randall C. Reed]

obsolete czech tracked armored vehicles? What do you mean by tracked armored vehicles? Because it sounds like you're talking about tanks there and before WWII, one thing, Czechoslovakia did not have obsolete was tanks. Also, for the years, I will assume you did those things concurrently as otherwise it would mean that you're over 127 years old, which is highly unlikely.

"The first model from the Czech Army adopted as it was by the Wehrmacht was the Panzerkampfwagen 35(t). 244 of this model were captured and participated (after modifications) in the Polish, French and Balkans campaign and operation Barbarossa, as a light tank. But the model was completely obsolete by 1942. The Panzer 38(t) was the first model built in large quantities under German control, giving birth to an incredible basis for at least ten models and variants. After the Marder III tank hunter for example, the best known of these derivatives was the Jagdpanzer 38(t), better and incorrectly known as the “Hetzer”, one of the best tank hunters of WW2."

The 15 cm sIG 33 (schweres Infanterie Geschütz 33) was the standard German heavy infantry gun used in the Second World War. It was the largest weapon ever classified as an infantry gun by any nation. Sincerely NOT field artillery.

Captured by Soviet forces German Bison I of sIG Kompanie 705 Eastern Front 1942. Built on and obsolete Panzer I chassis. Also, an infantry gun and not field artillery.

Now THIS is what I call a knife! (Excuse me, Crocodile Dundee.) Also known as the Wespe. While the Panzer II chassis was a viable starting point, several major changes had to be enacted to complete the conversion process to an SPA. Engineers lengthened the chassis and relocated the engine compartment slight forwards of its original placement, now closer to the center of the hull. The howitzer of choice became the 10.5cm leFH 18 series (105mm) light field gun which was a proven battlefield commodity. Now THIS was field artillery, of the self-propelled variety. Organized into battalions of 12 tubes, organized into 3 batteries plus a fire control battery and HQ elements. It formed the two light artillery battalions in a Panzer artillery regiment.

The Wespe's Big Brother was the Hummel, a similar vehicle but was a self-propelled gun based on the Geschützwagen III/IV chassis and armed with a 15 cm howitzer. It was used by the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War from early 1943 until the end of the war. I f formed the heavy artillery battalion in a Panzer artillery regiment.

And, of course, the infantry divisions were supplied with towed and, later, self-propelled anti-tank companies that were attached to the lowest levels of infantry battalions to stiffen their abilities to defend against Russian tank assaults. The best of which was a captured Russian 7.62 AT gun mounted on several different OBSOLETE German chassis and was a real tank killer on both fronts (not to be confused with FIELD ARTILLERY!)

ANY QUESTIONS?

 

[BeauNiddle]

ANY QUESTIONS?

Yes

In a game where all battles take place within a province and the weapons have no specific range then what is the definition of Artillery?

When you research a tank you can then research sub-variants that are better against soft targets, hard targets or air. The names are just for simplicity (and mild immersion)

If the SPG you are researching was actually a flamethrower how would it's in-game stats differ?

This is why immersion is so subjective. Your immersion is broken because the names are not right, my immersion is broken because I look at the list of captured equipment and I have no idea if it's weapons 1 or weapons 2. (I have no years of training and can't list the usage of specific weapons for different countries)

 

[Adamgerd]

View attachment 293771
"The first model from the Czech Army adopted as it was by the Wehrmacht was the Panzerkampfwagen 35(t). 244 of this model were captured and participated (after modifications) in the Polish, French and Balkans campaign and operation Barbarossa, as a light tank. But the model was completely obsolete by 1942. The Panzer 38(t) was the first model built in large quantities under German control, giving birth to an incredible basis for at least ten models and variants. After the Marder III tank hunter for example, the best known of these derivatives was the Jagdpanzer 38(t), better and incorrectly known as the “Hetzer”, one of the best tank hunters of WW2."

ANY QUESTIONS?

Yes. It was obsolete by 1942, and yet it wasn't developed by the germans. So the Czechs when they existed did have good tanks, if they only became obsolete in 1942. So I don't see how it's obsolete by 1936?
Also, why don't you use a proper image of the tank, before the Germans stole them?

 

[atredies]

Totally agree with this - it's been mentioned a few times. That said, just had a thought - what if unit template sizes increased with the size of the army? So as the army got better, templates got bigger, reducing the impact on performance but not increasing template size until the AI had enough troops to cope with larger divisions?

I totally understand why this was done, but it has caused significant issues with game play regardless, and it's not like I can pretend the AI is okay the way it is over a year later? I suppose if division spam was removed/fixed the game would actually be worse.

 

[Axe99]

I totally understand why this was done, but it has caused significant issues with game play regardless, and it's not like I can pretend the AI is okay the way it is over a year later? I suppose if division spam was removed/fixed the game would actually be worse.

That's the thing - I'd bet good money they've tested larger divisions, and found the AI wanting with them.

 

[Randall C. Reed]

Yes

In a game where all battles take place within a province and the weapons have no specific range then what is the definition of Artillery?

When you research a tank you can then research sub-variants that are better against soft targets, hard targets or air. The names are just for simplicity (and mild immersion)

If the SPG you are researching was actually a flamethrower how would it's in-game stats differ?

This is why immersion is so subjective. Your immersion is broken because the names are not right, my immersion is broken because I look at the list of captured equipment and I have no idea if it's weapons 1 or weapons 2. (I have no years of training and can't list the usage of specific weapons for different countries)

You are clearly confused. SPG = Self-propelled gun, not flame thrower. By 1940, those Czech tanks were obsolete as main battle tanks but found a long life as a wide range of infantry support and combat vehicles other than MBTs. The Christie suspension was an excellent design used throughout the war. You are complaining because its reality does not fit cleanly into the developer's nice neat concept of "weapon 1 or weapon 2."

I understand the scale dimensions of the system well enough. But, of course, the whole point of having support units is that they DO affect a division's performance: engineers, medical, comm, etc. Having a division template in which self-propelled infantry support howitzers are present down to the battalion level represents a significant "punch" for front-line infantry. Range has nothing to do with it. All of the those research branches enhance the overall effectiveness of divisions in combat. Others, like whether late war armored divisions should have two or three tank battalions in their tank regiment, affect the fundamental power of a division in combat. All of this is nicely represented in the templates and have nothing to do with range. But it all relates to combat effectiveness. And if a developer confuses a 150mm Hummel SPA in an artillery regiment with a 150mm SPH in an infantry regiment, the repercussions would be to introduce a significant error into combat effectiveness calculations.

 

[BeauNiddle]

You are clearly confused. SPG = Self-propelled gun, not flame thrower. By 1940, those Czech tanks were obsolete as main battle tanks but found a long life as a wide range of infantry support and combat vehicles other than MBTs. The Christie suspension was an excellent design used throughout the war. You are complaining because its reality does not fit cleanly into the developer's nice neat concept of "weapon 1 or weapon 2."

I understand the scale dimensions of the system well enough. But, of course, the whole point of having support units is that they DO affect a division's performance: engineers, medical, comm, etc. Having a division template in which self-propelled infantry support howitzers are present down to the battalion level represents a significant "punch" for front-line infantry. Range has nothing to do with it. All of the those research branches enhance the overall effectiveness of divisions in combat. Others, like whether late war armored divisions should have two or three tank battalions in their tank regiment, affect the fundamental power of a division in combat. All of this is nicely represented in the templates and have nothing to do with range. But it all relates to combat effectiveness. And if a developer confuses a 150mm Hummel SPA in an artillery regiment with a 150mm SPH in an infantry regiment, the repercussions would be to introduce a significant error into combat effectiveness calculations.

My point was SPG = good against infantry. Whether it's good because it's artillery, or it's good because it's a howitzer or it's good because it's a flamethrower is below the scale of the game.

There is no way to directly add SPH to an infantry regiment but if you design a division of 4 infantry battalions and 1 SPG battalion then the division stats will match your desired result.

The ability to repurpose old tanks into new variants and specialisations added in DoD seems to serve the purpose of what you wish for those Czech tanks.

So is your argument that the solution is messy (and/or historically inaccurate) or is your argument that you don't think it's possible?

 

[Randall C. Reed]

My point was SPG = good against infantry. Whether it's good because it's artillery, or it's good because it's a howitzer or it's good because it's a flamethrower is below the scale of the game.

There is no way to directly add SPH to an infantry regiment but if you design a division of 4 infantry battalions and 1 SPG battalion then the division stats will match your desired result.

The ability to repurpose old tanks into new variants and specializations added in DoD seems to serve the purpose of what you wish for those Czech tanks.

So is your argument that the solution is messy (and/or historically inaccurate) or is your argument that you don't think it's possible?

Agreed. It should not be necessary to directly attach infantry support to battalions, etc. Even in Early War divisions, there was always task organizing going on. My assumption is that all of the supporting units that can be developed get distributed as needed throughout a division. A case in a current game came up when I researched an SPAA variant for the Vickers light tank. I got many error messages chiding me for creating weapons with no spot in the TO&E template. While all of the other supporting units had a way to get into a modified template, the Vickers SPAA did not. In reality, such units would have been parsed out in 2s and 4s to defend the point of attack in the tank brigade. It is perfectly reasonable to assume that such "penny-packeting" of high-value assets is factored into the task organizing of all assets for any mission and do not have to been shown discretely on the template. m

Yes. It was obsolete by 1942, and yet it wasn't developed by the germans. So the Czechs when they existed did have good tanks, if they only became obsolete in 1942. So I don't see how it's obsolete by 1936?
Also, why don't you use a proper image of the tank, before the Germans stole them?

Boy, do YOU hold a grudge or what? Its only been 80 years!

 

[Balesir]

Agreed. It should not be necessary to directly attach infantry support to battalions, etc. Even in Early War divisions, there was always task organizing going on. My assumption is that all of the supporting units that can be developed get distributed as needed throughout a division.

There are a number of ambiguous equipment types - what amount to different roles in detail depending on the army they were used in. British "CS" tanks and various nations' heavy mortars (ones than work more like "artillery", not the little 50mm jobs) are other examples. I generally take the view that the subunits in the templates represent the classes of equipment type, while how and where they were used is reprsented by doctrine - or ought to be, at least.

Incidentally, there is no "Vickers Light Tank" in vanilla - the basic light tank model is the Vickers Medium Tank, for some bizarre reason. Unless you are using a mod, of course.

 

[zzzlevi]

Awesome! Glad updates are back up.

 

[TheCapitalistCuban]

Nice work on the unique portrait for Jose Agripino Barnet. Really makes my Cuban playthroughs feel more unique. Keep up the good work

 

[I cringe productions]

 

[Blitzstark]

hi guys. I'm not sure if this is the place where I should ask this, but haven't found any particular thread on this one:
how can I install the patch 1.4.2 (or any other superior patch) on top of the 1.4 oak, WITHOUT using Steam? is there a downloadable version anywhere, on the official website or something?
thanks

 

[Sleight of Hand]

hi guys. I'm not sure if this is the place where I should ask this, but haven't found any particular thread on this one:
how can I install the patch 1.4.2 (or any other superior patch) on top of the 1.4 oak, WITHOUT using Steam? is there a downloadable version anywhere, on the official website or something?
thanks

No.

The game and patches/DLC are Steam-only.

 

[Blitzstark]

roger. thanks for quick reply.

 

[Stacho]

Hm, fair point on the Sudeten German Party. I had somehow ignored it. Will take a second look at it, but the reduction was primarily for balance reasons (it was too easy for CZE to join the Axis).

It was too easy for CZE to join the Axis?

So now you can join the Axis but now you cannot finish czech fascism tree because you don't have sufficient fascism popularity.
Hungary join the Axis and Poland is attacked by Germany before you reach 50% popularity (even in non-historical).
So now is czech fascim tree useless.
Congrats. Could you fix it? And next time avoid irrational changes?

 

[Adamgerd]

It was too easy for CZE to join the Axis?

So now you can join the Axis but now you cannot finish czech fascism tree because you don't have sufficient fascism popularity.
Hungary join the Axis and Poland is attacked by Germany before you reach 50% popularity (even in non-historical).
So now is czech fascim tree useless.
Congrats. Could you fix it? And next time avoid irrational changes?

Well it was too easy to join Axis (remember that Czechs weren't Nazi losing in the time). I do agree that the fascism popularity should be made independent of joining axis, as you can join the axis nearly at the same time and yet the rest is useless. However I'd argue we should offer a constructive criticism if we criticize it and so I'd like for paradox to appease both sides, by having a "Bastion of democracy" focus, decreasing ideological drift and so making it harder to drift or maybe decreasing the focus limiters or having a focus to prevent joining fascism unless you go down the path as then it's delayed and yet its not blocked

 

[donofwar3]

So when do I get my Hands on the beta