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unmerged(54763)

Field Marshal
Mar 12, 2006
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Submarines balancing proposal

2.2.2008.g.(update 9.2.2008.g.)- 16.3. 2008. --OBSOLETE becouse patch 1.2 :D
Here is tiny data pack as a proposal that changes aspect of representing submarines in our game.
Changes include different values for sub models with an accent on Electrobote(Model V) that is now much more potent.
Here is allso very important change of the way advanced sub technology is obtained.
Research of sub V tech(electroboat) is now much more difficut and serves as a "treshold" or turning point in sub technology ,and Germany has a blueprint for it.
Fireing distance of all sub models is slightly rised.
Visibility of submarines is lowered.
Some changes in surface detection capabilities allso are made.
On this thread you can find what logic lies behind changes that I now leave to you as a proposal.

Note that I dont want to make ubersubmarines but to make them balanced and useful in tactitcs that I prefer
That tactics is simple "lounch and forget"submarines.Since anyone for everything makes shorts this days,let me be free to call this tactics "LAF" :D

Unrar file from this link into your Doomsday directory,and please report yout expiriences and opinion.
Note that changes I made are only tuned for Grand campaign 1936.
Thanx.

-download link-

http://www.2shared.com/file/2826813/818e919c/submarines_balancing_proposal.html
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I propose simple changing of values of subs in current game for interest of beter gameplay.

Here are atack values of subs in Aramageddon 1.1:

level III sub(1936) 3.
level IV sub-(1938) 3.
level V sub-(1944) 4.

After long expirience of playing this great game I am strongly convinced that something here is not wright.

Level III subs are generaly represented correctly.

Problem starts with level IV subs that are 50% more expencive but has the same atack as level III subs.Subs of level IV should be more powerfull(atack 4) or cheaper becouse they arent givng wright performance for their cost considdering level III.Long range submarines were built with allmost the same level of technology as medium range subs thus were allmost the same as III.
So,eather their atack value to increase,or their cost should be lowered.

But real problem comes with level V subs that comes in 1944.historicaly first subs of aproximated level of technology were german-Elektrobote subs.
those subs were first subs capable of underwater actions for days,and were much more faster and much more armed,and they even had antiradar and antisonar devices.Many historians agree that though they become operative to late to save Germans,they however,if deployed in suffitient numbers should be capable to turn the tide in battle of Atlantic.So this was a BIG STEP in sub technology.
In our game, level V sub model is just slightly more capable than level IV,thus not much more capable than model III eather.They are sitting ducks.
Nothing from real ww2 supports such status of level V subs(Elektrobote).

Since this great game alowes to players"what if" possibilities in generaly historical setting,I propose to aply this rule to subs allso.

Thus level V subs should give to player a chance to "turn the tide" in wright circumstances.
I propose as follows:

Slight rising sea atack value of level IV subs (or lowering its price to be more close to level III).
Significant rising of values of level V,making a big step compared to level IV(which is obvious even from observing of years of technology between 2 models(1938 compared to 1944).

here is support of my arguments from Wikipedia:

"German Type XXI submarine"

Type XXI U-boats, also known as "Elektroboote", were the first submarines designed to operate entirely submerged, rather than as surface ships that could submerge as a temporary means to escape detection or launch an attack. They were no less than revolutionary when introduced and, if produced earlier and in sufficient quantity, could have seriously influenced the outcome of the Battle of the Atlantic.

The key improvement to the Type XXI was greatly increased battery capacity, roughly three times that of the common Type VIIC. This gave these boats enormous underwater range, dramatically reducing the time they needed to spend near the surface. They could travel submerged at about five knots (9 km/h) for two or three days before recharging the batteries, which took less than five hours on the snorkel. It was allso much quieter than the VIIC, making it more difficult to detect at long range.

The streamlined hull design allowed the XXI to travel faster submerged than surfaced. The ability to outrun many surface ships while submerged, combined with improved dive times, made them much harder to chase and destroy. It also gave the boat a 'sprint ability' when positioning the boat for an attack. Older boats had to surface in order to sprint into position. This often gave the boat away, especially after aircraft became available for convoy escort. The design directly influenced USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear submarine, and USS Albacore, the first submarine with a teardrop hull, the French Narval class submarine, the British Oberon class submarine and the Soviet submarine classes known by the NATO reporting names Zulu and Whiskey, although the Whiskey class was smaller and less sophisticated.

The Type XXIs had much better facilities than previous classes, with a freezer for foodstuffs and minor conveniences for the crew such as a shower and wash basin – crews on other boats spent weeks-long patrols without bathing or shaving. The Type XXI featured a hydraulic torpedo reload system that allowed all of its six torpedo tubes, which were in the bow, to be reloaded faster than a Type VIIC could reload a single tube. The Type XXI could fire 18 torpedoes in under 20 minutes. The total warload was 23 torpedoes, or 17 torpedoes and 12 sea mines. The XXI featured an advanced sonar system which allowed the crew to aim torpedoes without relying on the periscope, increasing stealth.
 
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Upvote 0
As for the type XXI, its main advantages were:
1. It was ALMOST plane proof.
Being able to stay underwater meant it was VERY difficult to see and it did not leave a radar profile for sub killing planes to see. Towards the end of the war, some german subs would surface at night to recharge its batteries only to see a spotlight shown on them as a plane dropped bombs on them. It must have been a great shock for those sub crews thinking they were safe on the surface at night. The ability to stay underwater meant one of the biggest sub killers (the plane) lost most of its advantages. Although the Brits were working on a radar after the war that could 'see' periscopes.

2. Its improve underwater speed made it 300%+ more effective to get in position to get in a torpedo shot. Those who have played WW2 sub simulations know that part of being a good sub captain was not to waste fuel chasing ships that you could not get a decent shot on. Subs could not catch a typical warship so merchants were their ideal prey. IMO, a sub that could travel 18 knts/hr had a 300% better fire power and 300% better defense than a sub that could only travel 6 lknts/hr. Being able to get in position to get a shot in was the key. Many of sub captain had to let ships go because they just did not have the underwater speed to get into a decent firing position. Also having that speed made it easier to dodge depth charges.

HOI is the best strategic WW2 sim on the market but the naval aspects of the game need improvement.
 
UberFelix said:
As for the type XXI, its main advantages were:
1. It was ALMOST plane proof.
Being able to stay underwater meant it was VERY difficult to see and it did not leave a radar profile for sub killing planes to see. Towards the end of the war, some german subs would surface at night to recharge its batteries only to see a spotlight shown on them as a plane dropped bombs on them. It must have been a great shock for those sub crews thinking they were safe on the surface at night. The ability to stay underwater meant one of the biggest sub killers (the plane) lost most of its advantages. Although the Brits were working on a radar after the war that could 'see' periscopes.

2. Its improve underwater speed made it 300%+ more effective to get in position to get in a torpedo shot. Those who have played WW2 sub simulations know that part of being a good sub captain was not to waste fuel chasing ships that you could not get a decent shot on. Subs could not catch a typical warship so merchants were their ideal prey. IMO, a sub that could travel 18 knts/hr had a 300% better fire power and 300% better defense than a sub that could only travel 6 lknts/hr. Being able to get in position to get a shot in was the key. Many of sub captain had to let ships go because they just did not have the underwater speed to get into a decent firing position. Also having that speed made it easier to dodge depth charges.

HOI is the best strategic WW2 sim on the market but the naval aspects of the game need improvement.


Exactly,practicaly Elektrobtoe was many times les vulnerable to ww 2 naval planes than previous models.

They had a capability of"sprint" meaning a "turbo" speed for some time in close combat ,enabling underwater atack speed of allmost 20 knots.This must be horrible thing for ships of that time.

But in our game we have linear and modest increase of performances from model III(1936) to model V(1944) .
 
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One could imagine Electrobote sub atacking conwoy(and warships) with positioning speed of 18 knots dosens of meters underwater,with sonar driven guidance system for torpedoes aiming on targets.Than imagine salvo of 6 torpedoes to detected targets, reaload of next 6 torpedoes within fiew minutes with hidraulic system and another salvo,and another.Without need to use a periscope at all!.

But in game sea atack of level V is 4 ,and sea atack of model IV and III is 3 ?
 
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liebgot said:
One could imagine Electrobote sub atacking conwoy(and warships) with positioning speed of 18 knots dosens of meters underwater,with sonar driven guidance system for torpedoes aiming on targets.Than imagine salvo of 6 torpedoes to detected targets, reaload of next 6 torpedoes within fiew minutes with hidraulic system and another salvo,and another.Without need to use a periscope at all!.

But in game sea atack of level V is 4 ,and sea atack of model IV and III is 3 ?

As much as I agree with you on the deadliness of the Type-XXI, there is one thing you seem to forget: whichever nation would build electro submarines would then have the exact same über-submarine as the Germans. Unit models in the game are represented over the nations, and I don't think a nation like, say, Romania would be able to come up with the same piece of equipment as the Germans. Maybe the superiority of those German subs could be better represented by doctrines, possible highly increasing the convoy raiding efficiency... although that would still be the same for every nation that decides to follow that doctrine route.
 
Draigh said:
As much as I agree with you on the deadliness of the Type-XXI, there is one thing you seem to forget: whichever nation would build electro submarines would then have the exact same über-submarine as the Germans. Unit models in the game are represented over the nations, and I don't think a nation like, say, Romania would be able to come up with the same piece of equipment as the Germans. Maybe the superiority of those German subs could be better represented by doctrines, possible highly increasing the convoy raiding efficiency... although that would still be the same for every nation that decides to follow that doctrine route.

I agree with you.
Once I allso noted exact problem that you observed (this is not my first apeal to developer to change sub model V).
Exclusivity for electrobote(and beginning of modern submarines era) clearly is on german technology.
From Wikipedia citation in my firts post it is obvious that german elektrobote level of tech was such ahead of time that actualy is questionable did any country in the world after ww2 came to this level of sub technology by herself or becouse they implemented and improved german technology that allready existed.Glorious USS Nautilus was- enhanced electrobote with nuclear reactor!
Most simple solution:
Technology research for model V (electrobote)should be much harder(10-20 to all tech components).
Germany should have blueprint for level V sub technology or high probability to gain blueprint by event.
 
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liebgot said:
Most simple solution:
Technology research for model V (electrobote)should be much harder(10-20 to all tech components).
Germany should have bluprint for level V sub technology or high probability to gain blueprint by event.
This was a suggestion that I made months ago, for customizing the tech tree by country:

Research should be made harder (either by raising the component difficulties, or by imposing a blanket research penalty), and each country should receive a unique combination of blueprints, to reflect its expertise in certain areas.

Eg:
USA: nukes, industry, encrypt/decrypt, STRATs, etc
UK: RADAR, ASW doctrines, etc
USSR: Infantry, tanks, etc
Germany: U-Boats and associated doctrines, Rockets, Tanks, etc.
 
blue emu said:
This was a suggestion that I made months ago, for customizing the tech tree by country:

Research should be made harder (either by raising the component difficulties, or by imposing a blanket research penalty), and each country should receive a unique combination of blueprints, to reflect its expertise in certain areas.

Eg:
USA: nukes, industry, encrypt/decrypt, STRATs, etc
UK: RADAR, ASW doctrines, etc
USSR: Infantry, tanks, etc
Germany: U-Boats and associated doctrines, Rockets, Tanks, etc.


Playing different country by this will become realy new expirience.Those differences will "guide"players to follow semi-historical paths of some countries and in that "frame" search ways to achive their goals ,which is of course from my view excellent thing.
It is quite simple to change game in that manner,even from my computer-dumb perspective,but benefits for gameplay will be by no means great.

Edit-First hand solution( achievable even in next 1.2 patch )will be to rise difficulty of researching components of specific Techs that you mentioned, and than to give blueprints to countries that historicaly excelled in those fields of technology .
 
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Would a simpler solution be to make it 'secret research'? That way the chance of it becoming available can be set based on doctrines and other techs, maybe?
 
The simplest way would be to just change the Research modifier in db/difficulty.txt, and then hand out blueprints.
 
blue emu said:
Research should be made harder (either by raising the component difficulties, or by imposing a blanket research penalty), and each country should receive a unique combination of blueprints, to reflect its expertise in certain areas.
What i would very much like is if there was an "experience" factor involved. The actual usage (or maybe presance) of subs speeds up research on the next model.
This would somewhat limit rushing of techs and force the player to build up the whole tree of models. No sudden switching to Strat bombing for the US, no super uboats for China.

Yes yes i know, just dreaming.
 
Evolving idea of country specific techs:

Some specific techs should be greatly rised in difficulty.But not hall fields(threes) of techs.For instance there is no need for rising of dificulty of research hall submarine three or hall nuclear technology three, or rocket tech...

There should be a "treshold" techs with high dificulty of research and for that "tresholds" specific countries to have blueprints.

For instance:Level V sub Tech should be highly rised in values of researching components,and Germany should have blueprint to it.But previous and following techs(semi-modern sub) should be as it is now,more easy than "treshold".If coutry develops "treshold" tech than next techs should be considerred to be researched under "expertise" gained by effort to research "treshold" tech.So if any country except Germany manage to research level V,it is considerred its expertise is gained to follow the path later easier like Germany.
Allso for instance nuclear waste bomb should be highly more difficult with blueprint for USA.But after another coutry invests time in research of that level of nuke tech,than gained experitse enables to research another techs in nuclear three as easy as USA .

The same rule counts for V2 rocket for example,and jet fighter,tanks....
 
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This discussion is all very nice, but what about the lvl 5 subs? What kind of stats (attack, defense, etc.) would be better, taking into account it's huge improvement over the lvl 4 and lvl 3 submarines? Because that can be modded quite easily.
 
Van Diemen said:
This discussion is all very nice, but what about the lvl 5 subs? What kind of stats (attack, defense, etc.) would be better, taking into account it's huge improvement over the lvl 4 and lvl 3 submarines? Because that can be modded quite easily.

For level IV sub I just rised sea atack to 4(3)though maybee better will be to leave all stats the same as before but to lower cost to be equal to cost of level III.

I currently am playing level V subs like this:

sea atack 6
sea defence 7
air defence 10
..other values of model V are as before.


level VI sub(semi-modern) in my game is just 1 point more powerful in above mantioned values than level V-becouse nothing dramatical(except nuclear propulsion)has happend in sub technology in 50-s, after revolutional electrobote.Electrobote de facto was-semi modern submarine.Level VII sub is again slightly more powerfull than level VI.

Though ,as UberFelix noted , electrobote was theorethicaly +300% more capable machine in sea atack and sea and air defence than standard type(level III in game). But I think such drastic rising of values will result again in loosing of balance in game.

I am playing with my changed level V subs as GER in 1944/45 giving "headeche" to Allied AI(I didnt conquer GB and USA ,to face historical situation of powerfull Allied ASW).Still those subs lvl V are not absolute rulers of Atlantic, but they are hitting back.

Of course,to compleet my changes in historical manner,I will try to rise in my next game difficulty of reserach of level V sub technology by at least 50% for every component of the tech, and give a blueprint for it only to Germany.


EDIT-I will like for fiew players to change their sub values as I proposed and to report their expiriences.
 
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Changes I made,that I proposed and described in this posts are now downloadable as single data pack !
I changed values that I described above.I rised dificulty of researched of level V sub(Treshold tech!) and I gave a blueprint to Germany-note that this counts only for Grand campaign 1936.
Please unrar and paste in Doomsday.

Enjoy and please report expiriences.

Thanx.
Liebgot.
 
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Dracorex said:
Thanks a lot :) just unpacked the stuff and gonna start a new game :D
will report when anything noticeable happens ;)

Testing those changes however requires patience,becouse nothing significant should happend before introduction of Level 5 subs on masive scale,meaning around 1944. :)
 
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Update for all of you that downloaded my file,note that I changed file today(9.2.2008.).
I rised slightly maximum fireing distance for sub models becouse my preliminary testing showed that rising of atack values of subs is hampered by inability to"deliver" this rised power becouse of short atack range.
 
i always hated how subs are displayed in this game. to bad winners of history decide how important stuff was for the past.

If u asked Churchill in 41-42 he would not have given subs this role as waste of resources as they nearly have in vanilla hoi2.

i hate when stacks of subs run into a small carrier group and get annhilated and they dont even shoot back.If that would happen subs would go under surface and if situation would be not good for them to attack they would avoid the combat. altough i agree if planes or destroyers should engage enemy subs they should get kills. But a sub commander would surely not sit on 200km range and not do a shit untill they are terminanted.

subs sunk alot of combat naval ships altough it was not the early subs primary target and they didnt carry the stuff uk needed. and merchants where so much easier to sink of.

i think subs in hoi needs both doctrinal and stat wise tuning.the newest subs where good but germany already where in combat with almost whole the world on her own and her industry where bombed night and day....

think if germany never attacked russia and usa had never entered war.uk had been doomed, not couse operation sea lion or surface fleets from kriegsmarine but the subs had forced uk to surrender sooner or later....
 
I must admit that I am somewhat dissapointed since only 6 peoply by my count downloaded my proposal.

This thing works and nobody even has a need to try to see.Battles between subs and ships are now violent and ships are damaged more frequently.If lounched and forget about them I think finely sub losses are more balanced becouse enemy ships are allso sunked.Since I am subjective about this matter,and I have no responce,I cant value properly my proposal.I am using it with great pleasure.
To bad there is no interest even for try it:(
 
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