Century of Chaos: A Journey across a War-Torn Century Recruitment Thread

[ImperialEagle]

In the Year of Our Lord, Nineteen-Hundred:

Britain ruled the Waves, Germany Ruled the Land, Russia ruled the Largest Empire by Square milage in the world, and America was a rapidly growing industrial power that as of yet lacked a navy or army to go head to head with the other powers of the age. War is boiling over in South Africa between Cape Colony and The Ferocious Boers, with The Transvaal leading the charge as Kitchener arrives on the continent in a desperate attempt to stabilize the situation. Russia is a Powerful, yet backward autocratic regime that many theorize may not survive in it's current state for much longer without major change, due to instability caused by both the defeat of Russia in 1856 in the Crimean War and the 1881 Assassination of Tsar Alexander the 2nd via a revolutionary fanatic throwing a bomb at his carriage just 19 years before. The World is entering a New Century, and what it has in store, nobody knows, only time shall tell.


Europe in 1900:

The State of the Old Qing Empire (Ignore the uncompleted ministers):​

The Russo-Manchurian Railroad:

The Placeholder Tech Tree Tabs: (GOES BACK TO 1850 !!!!!)

Meanwhile in South Africa.....
​

Alright, Now down to Business! Hello there! I am ImperialEagle, a long-time member of this forum having returned from both school and occupational training to reenter the modding scene with a Mod that I hope, shall finally link all the key events of the 20th century, and Be to Darkest Hour what the Extended Timeline Mod was to EU4 with a planned timeline spanning from 1900 to 1992 (not even counting potential battle scenarios set during earlier wars) I am well aware that Darkest Hour has taken a steady decline in popularity over the past 4 to 5 years; However, I shall not let this deter Me! For anyone genuinely interested in Helping Me form a team for this Massive-Scale project, Please do message me in PM's or reply to me on this.
In the years since I initially began to mod on this forum,. I have FINALLY learned how to code! I cannot say I am the greatest programmer here, nor even a superlative one, BUT I have managed to get a hang of decision creation, utilizing Flags and have several event chains already operating in game up to approximately June of 1900 in-game. I want to bring this community new life again, but I require Your assistance! Upon messaging Me, I shall provide You with both My discord server username AND the download links to all required files for this mod on Google Drive.

Current Focus for any new Team:​

I should say The focus for NOW is applying proper effects to all technology placeholders at LEAST until the Ending of World War One, Developing a Functional unit tree until 1918, and developing all needed minister and leader files with a consistent COLORIZED photograph-portrait theme (if available), as well as General "Ambiance" events such as randomly generated scandals, political mishaps, capitalist innovation, research related events and a Music Player Functionality that is activated via a in-game decision.


I thank You for taking your time to read through all this information and simply put, I am happy to be back gentlemen!

 

[Pasha]

Amazing, and I love what you have planned for the Tech Tree. Also, I'm sure you could find some helpful files and graphics from Fabio's Imperial Zenith mod:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/mod-1897-imperial-zenith.1149865/

 

[macgregor2150]

I love it! I would like to offer my idea if there's room in the tech tree. It will make combat in the missile age much more realistic. I'll paste it.
"In the missile age, rapidly deployable, powerful units with a very high chance of being destroyed(used up) characterized as 'missile systems' should be added as 'brigades' to air, land, and naval units. Divisions, ships, and airwings will still have their organic value, but 'missile systems' will be the game changer they actually are; each with it's own range, strength, and just as importantly, cost. SAM, ASM. AAM, BM and AGM types can be added." Techs would only need maybe 5 levels by 1992. The aircraft tech page would have enough room.

Alternatively, 'missile guidance' could be a single tech, with each level making a slew of missiles available.

 

[Czarina Julie]

This is looking great. I love the idea. I'm a huge fan of history and like how you are not forgetting about or making Asia subservient to Europe. This time frame was instrumental in setting up the consequences & causes of the Pacific War, and even further into the late 20th century.

 

[GeneralGTSMR]

Amazing, I have been waiting for a mod like this for a long time, I am looking forward to this mod, I would offer to participate or help in the mod but I think I am many years away from the most experienced mods, haha

 

[Altruist]

Great undertaking!

Just a hint: While massively enlarging the timeframe of the tech-sections, you have kicked out many specific techs eg. infantry has 5 techs within the timespan 1930-45 in vanilla DH but only 3 in yours. This is absolutely understandable and anything else would make the tech section as cluttered as unusable. It might be a good idea to correspond this with lowering also the number of tech teams (more IC needed to gain a tech team and less max possible tech teams). Otherwise it would be boring because it is too easy to just research everything. Interesting it becomes whenever you force the player to make decisions where to be strong... and where weak.

 

[Pasha]

Great undertaking!

Just a hint: While massively enlarging the timeframe of the tech-sections, you have kicked out many specific techs eg. infantry has 5 techs within the timespan 1930-45 in vanilla DH but only 3 in yours. This is absolutely understandable and anything else would make the tech section as cluttered as unusable. It might be a good idea to correspond this with lowering also the number of tech teams (more IC needed to gain a tech team and less max possible tech teams). Otherwise it would be boring because it is too easy to just research everything. Interesting it becomes whenever you force the player to make decisions where to be strong... and where weak.

I see five in that pic. You have to go left to right as you research down the Inf tree.

 

[Altruist]

I see five in that pic. You have to go left to right as you research down the Inf tree.

Thanks, I stand corrected.

 

[Pasha]

Thanks, I stand corrected.

No worries. I never played Iron Cross, but I think its tech tree was similar from the pics I've seen.

 

[ImperialEagle]

Great undertaking!

Just a hint: While massively enlarging the timeframe of the tech-sections, you have kicked out many specific techs eg. infantry has 5 techs within the timespan 1930-45 in vanilla DH but only 3 in yours. This is absolutely understandable and anything else would make the tech section as cluttered as unusable. It might be a good idea to correspond this with lowering also the number of tech teams (more IC needed to gain a tech team and less max possible tech teams). Otherwise it would be boring because it is too easy to just research everything. Interesting it becomes whenever you force the player to make decisions where to be strong... and where weak.

I will admit, I have considered POTENTIALLY semi-simplifying the tree to only go as far back as 1870 so more room is left for periods with more development than others, although a part of me Still wants to have an American Civil War Battle Scenario at some distant point so that would have to be thrown out if I did that; as well as a potential Franco-Prussian War battlescenerio which would literally only be using the base technology around in 1870 and wouldn't account for things such as France's horribly outdated units and tactics. But yes, the actual Organization of the tech tree does need some work, and some techs progress via the left to right motion, whilst some advance via downwards and THEN moving to the right when all vertical room has run out.

About the Tech Trees, i plan on drastically lowing research speeds to if anything, lots of tech teams may actually be needed, especially as technologies become harder to research as time goes on naturally, and some in game decisions like focusing on commercial/industrial research, or miltiary research, or air research, or naval research could be added as well for immersion, although say.. investing the capitol to increase industrial research by 10 percent, lowers the research speed of all other areas by 5 percent.

Amazing, I have been waiting for a mod like this for a long time, I am looking forward to this mod, I would offer to participate or help in the mod but I think I am many years away from the most experienced mods, haha

I would immensely appreciate any help I can muster, I am aware that modding in DH has died down over the years as HOI4 has worked out it's kinks, But I want this mod to act perhaps, as a final send off to heavy-effort modifications for this title. This is if such a mod if completed doesn't respark interest into DH as a whole and revive the community to a extent that would match that of 2013/2014 etc.

Amazing, and I love what you have planned for the Tech Tree. Also, I'm sure you could find some helpful files and graphics from Fabio's Imperial Zenith mod:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/mod-1897-imperial-zenith.1149865/

I have actually considered borrowing different elements from His Great War Mod to add a bunch of needed ministers, base line events that could potentially be altered to fit within the context of the Mod itself, leaders and what not. I even initially considered basing some of this tech tree off the Great War mod, but felt the 19th century would be too barren if Most early units are only from 1890 or so and wouldn't accurately reflect the more primitive powers around in 1900, like china who has units akin to the 1860's still on roster. The issue is that I use completely different tags from that mod, and it would take a LOT of time trying to map out which ministers/leaders/gfx go to who and not get them confused. I'd also have to hope Fabio would give Me permission for such a undertaking to borrow elements from his mod. I will say this however, the idea is not entirely off the table.

 

[Khor]

Great to see a new mod for our beloved Darkest Hour.
Just one question. Will you add a possible early ww1 in 1905 or 1911. It would be quite interesting.

 

[GeneralGTSMR]

I would like to see the DH modding community revive again, it's a great game.
I adore it, and I think I like it more than the Hoi4 although there is something about Hoi4 that I would love to see in DH

 

[Josh365]

I really like your work.

Feel free to copy things from my Draka mod. You can also ask me questions.

 

[Bad4play]

Hoi2 modding will never die <3
I've been working on my own project for a while now (7 years). I've collected every mods made on Hoi2 to DH and tried to make a 1914-1999 time-line with all the historical event I liked (a lot of it is world in flamme 1914 and 1933, mod33, TGC, NWO) + adding some events of mine that I like for gameplay and ahistorical path. I also made a lot of mechanical change to the gameplay and generic event for the game to fit more with the longer timeline. I also tried to mod AI lightly (no new files) but it is able to better adapt to unpredicted situation (like if Guyana get indépendance, Venezuela may seize the upportunity to attack it). If you'd like some of those files or a list of mod i keep a copy of which can be good ressources I'll be happy to share it with you (some mods are really hard to get today sadly).
Good luck for everything and thank you for keeping the modding community alive

 

[Igoryuri]

Hello in one of the images shows Bukovina as part of Romania but at that time it was part of Austria-Hungary.

 

[ImperialEagle]

Hoi2 modding will never die <3
I've been working on my own project for a while now (7 years). I've collected every mods made on Hoi2 to DH and tried to make a 1914-1999 time-line with all the historical event I liked (a lot of it is world in flamme 1914 and 1933, mod33, TGC, NWO) + adding some events of mine that I like for gameplay and ahistorical path. I also made a lot of mechanical change to the gameplay and generic event for the game to fit more with the longer timeline. I also tried to mod AI lightly (no new files) but it is able to better adapt to unpredicted situation (like if Guyana get indépendance, Venezuela may seize the upportunity to attack it). If you'd like some of those files or a list of mod i keep a copy of which can be good ressources I'll be happy to share it with you (some mods are really hard to get today sadly).
Good luck for everything and thank you for keeping the modding community alive

Thank You Bad4Play, I’ll keep you as a reference in mind.

 

[ImperialEagle]

Gentlemen, I have run into a conundrum, for every moment that I can spare from school work and other activities to focus on this Project, a single concern has always popped up. Unit Statistics and Management.
What I refer to is, how does one faithfully balance the advancements made in tech between such a huge time span as 1850 to 2000 without accidentally under appreciating the actual advancements in soft/hard and other statistical advancements made with specific moments in time? I am not afraid to admit that this has left me staring at the edition which I utilize for a very long time just attempting to brain storm. Brainstorming ways in which to balance out how the slow advancement of tech should feel without making it seem “useless” to research new technology due to each unit such as infantry not advancing too much in soft attack abilities (and later hard attack abilities by 1916).

Here’s a question, should each generation of units only advance their soft attacks by 1 or 0.5? If only DH had more detailed unit statistics such as max entrenchment for a unit or something akin to that.. trying to model early industrial warfare is difficult to model in DH, who shoulda guessed? Any advice guys?

 

[Altruist]

What I refer to is, how does one faithfully balance the advancements made in tech between such a huge time span as 1850 to 2000 without accidentally under appreciating the actual advancements in soft/hard and other statistical advancements made with specific moments in time?

One way might be to seriously lower the amount of techs one can research.... wouldn't be very exciting anyway to research the 28th infantry improvement, instead concentrate on the really major improvements.

This would obviously need to be balanced on the other side: research speed. For this you can use the following line in misc.txt (DH full):
# Research modifier
0.4 #1.0

 

[macgregor2150]

Gentlemen, I have run into a conundrum, for every moment that I can spare from school work and other activities to focus on this Project, a single concern has always popped up. Unit Statistics and Management.
What I refer to is, how does one faithfully balance the advancements made in tech between such a huge time span as 1850 to 2000 without accidentally under appreciating the actual advancements in soft/hard and other statistical advancements made with specific moments in time? I am not afraid to admit that this has left me staring at the edition which I utilize for a very long time just attempting to brain storm. Brainstorming ways in which to balance out how the slow advancement of tech should feel without making it seem “useless” to research new technology due to each unit such as infantry not advancing too much in soft attack abilities (and later hard attack abilities by 1916).

Here’s a question, should each generation of units only advance their soft attacks by 1 or 0.5? If only DH had more detailed unit statistics such as max entrenchment for a unit or something akin to that.. trying to model early industrial warfare is difficult to model in DH, who shoulda guessed? Any advice guys?

I think I'd rather see it made 1, even if you have to adjust other numbers. Max entrenchment would start extremely low in 1850. By the US civil war, some breastworks were deployed, and of course, there are still forts one can build. But by WW1, entrenchment was very close to what it is today (20?) I'd start at like '1' in 1850 and progress to 20 in say, 1914-16 where it stays until today. The advent from there would be in armor and eventually, guided missiles.

If there's an issue with how many techs one can fit, hopefully the editor someone is working on will allow you to change that.

 

[Bad4play]

WIF 1914 experimented a complete rebalance of units with the possibilities to add machingun brigade, infantry brigade etc... they did it by vastly changing every units stats especially unit vulnerability (not sure of the exact name here). With this done they could have 1914 infantry having 24 soft attack (with all their brigades) without breaking the game because the unit were less vulnerable to this attack. So if you want to do the 1 or 0.5 advance for every tech covering 150 years you should do this big work of balance. In the case of 1914-1918 it makes sense because it's a short period of time. But for 150 years i don't know if it's worth the pain.

I agree with altruist that it shouldn't be tech.27 boring research. Some selection should be made in the tech. Also be careful with just slowing reasarch as a solution. As the player and AI will increase their research speed all the game, it needs balance for 150 years timeframe or you will have a slow start and then a too fast end game (I've been there). You can either balance it by gradually increase tech component numbers and difficulty. Or by adding research speed decrease event (death of a scientist, projet that leads to nothing, scientist defection, sabotage) Here are few ideas that can help making unit advancement and early warfare more fun and realistic :
- Different unit type, not too much but some are relevant like reserve infantry, colonial infantry, tribal infantry (cav too btw). Basically for early 1850 warfare, who's got the best reserve Mobilization system wins (with same weaponery as opponent). The Prussian success is all about it and all the armies going to WW1 tried to copy that. Having colonial infantry is also interesting, for flavor ofc but they also had historical special uses to fight in special terrain. They can also make good event as Britain could have lost Indian because of a rebellion of colonial soldier (if I recall correctly there was a rumor of the use of pork or cow in the gunpowder ammunition which caused massive insurrection). Also colonial troops were also commanded by Generals that had a lot of autonomy from metropol which could have led to rebellion (yay news tags and challenges !).
- Not all the infantry tech could led to direct units upgrade. I'll explain this : for example tech inf 1905 could be a unit upgrade tech (new model) but tech inf 1910 could be a stat upgrade (here comes the 0.5 soft attack or the 1 vulnerability bonus - could be a uniform improvement) that would unlock events linked to army evolution of the time (could be an event that reinforce a stat like the moral, that turn off a bad event that could happen to the army like routing mens (disorg unit) showing the professionalization of the army, change weather/terrain attack ability, etc...
- Infantry tech could be necessary to unlock some doctrines. Afterall you cannot make rapid maneuver if your units logistical organization doesn't allow it. This allow to dramatically change the warfare with the change of unit tech. Doctrine should be more impactfull, not only giving always news bonuses. They should reflect evolution of warfare. 1850 tech gives more chances of assault and less org okay but this 1870 gives more org and lower assault chances. Previous modifier can be removed because war changed an if you don't research that tech because you think tech 1850 is better than tech 1870 then you still do massive charge when tech 1914 will greatly increase defense stats and you will suffer from.it like in real life...
- Combat event should matter, i found it more impactfull with longer duration and improved effect. Now you can win a battle that you would have lost if your general had not taken action. You can win an offensive battle that would nearly never have won before because your general sacrified many of your men in a costly successful offensive. This bring Clausewitz friction to life because it is part random, part calculated and it makes the front more alive with sometimes units that should have won lose and the contrary because they are led by different Generals using different tactics following different doctrines.
- I loved the HOI4 army experience idea where fighting is important to improve your army. I think it's true for the whole period of 1850-2000. I'm thinking about using the invention system or the tech breakthroughs system to make certain doctrine (not all) accessible only through fighting. It can be through an event with trigger atwar = yes/incombat, with the effect maylead to tech X.

I hope this helps more than if confuse you. Something always bothered me for modding it's the graphic part, most of the unit type i talked about exist in other mod and can be used if you get authorization from autor. This means models sprites and units card already done or with fewer work to do ^^