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Hi @Nick3210 just wondering if I might be able to borrow some of your ideas from the mod?
If it will be written that some unique concepts are taken from Nick's Mod, why not :)
 
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@Nick3210

I just wanted to say thank you for an amazing mod! I am frustrated by so many vanilla mechanics (and prefer AOD as a result) but I just tried my first game with your mod as Japan and it makes a huge difference! Very clever especially the way org is handled for land units while on the move, it makes the combat much better.
 
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@Nick3210

I just wanted to say thank you for an amazing mod! I am frustrated by so many vanilla mechanics (and prefer AOD as a result) but I just tried my first game with your mod as Japan and it makes a huge difference! Very clever especially the way org is handled for land units while on the move, it makes the combat much better.
To be honest, you are somewhat mistaken about the mechanics of the Organization in my Mod. I didn't invent something new.

I'm just using exellent old-school Hoi2 mechanics. Because for my taste, the classic Hoi-2 battle mechanics is the best.
I changed nothing in the mechanics of the Organization, compared to vanilla Hoi-2.

But of course I sure that the mechanics of Organisation in Hoi2 is the most correct.
I am shocked that in some other Hoi2-based games the Organization grows o_O while moving. It's completely unrealistic and wrong.
Organization during the movement of troops should be falling.

------

If to speak about playing as Japan, I would rather hope that a player as Japan would like my Japanese super Destroyers and Japanese super torpedoes or may be unical national Japan aircraft :)
 
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New Mod's update!
December 2022

Download final version here:
Multiplayer Realism Mod (Legal Cenzored version)

Actual Final Version 5.42, check sum ZDGP (December 2022). (You need to get true ZDGP check-sum, before to play!)
for Darkest Hour v.1.05.2

New sensational feature in Multiplayer Mod!
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USSR vs Germany Challenge for single-player regime!
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##############################################################################################################

Main improvements in New verson of Multiplayer Mod:

1. The speed of land combat is reduced by three times compared to the classic super fast Hoi-2 land combat speed, that always was used in the Multiplayer Mode.
Now the combat speed is the golden mean between the terribly slow and boring DH-Full combat speed and super fast Hoi-2 combat speed.
I know that younger generation of DH players, who are used to play at terribly boring and slow speed of DH Full, always are shocked by the classic fast Hoi-2 speed that the Multiplayer Mod always used, they don't like this super fast combat speed of Hoi-2.

Me, in a turn, never play DH Full precisely because of its terribly slow speed, for me it is unbearable slow and boring, compared to old-good classic Hoi-2 speed.

Therefore, I have make a compromise solution by reducing the combat speed to the minimum level, still acceptable for Multiplayer, in my oppinion.

The difference between Hoi-2 speed and DH-Full speed is 10 (!) times.
Now, I set the combat speed to be three times slower than Hoi-2 and 3.3 times faster than in DH-Full.

So now combat speed is in the middle between these extreme values.
I hope that players who are used to play at DH Full combat speed will treat the new more slower Multiplayer Mod speed with more favor, now it's not as extreme fast as in Hoi-2.
#######################################################################

And, why do I find it unacceptable for Multiplayer to slow down the speed of combat even more?

Everything determines the duration of the sea landing!

If you make combat speed very slow, then the Defender will have a huge advantage over the Attacker, because Defender will have too much time to deliver additional troops and Fleets to the attacked beach.

My DH-Full tests showed that 1-2 amphibious assault "waves" of Marines lasts 1-2 weeks.
Sorry guys, this is completely absurd.
In 1-2 weeks, I as a Defender can send additional divisions to the beach, which are located hundreds (!) kilometers away from the attacked provice, or I can send my entire fleet located anywhere in the Pacific Ocean to destroy the enemy landing.

Such a super slow combat speed makes the protection of beaches too simple and cheap, and makes landing too impossible and involves huge losses of your fleet (unless of course if the Defender of the beach is not a fool)

With my new combat speed, the casual landing of 2 "waves" of Marines takes about 5 days, not two weeks as in DH-Full!
Yes, it is three times longer than in Hoi-2 and in Reality (just imagine the landing in Normandy, which would have happened not in 1 day as in reality and in Hoi-2, but in 2 weeks - would Rommel's tanks have time to arrive at the landing zone in 2 weeks?), but nevertheless still leave some chances for the Attacker that the Defender will not have time to bring all his fleet and additional garrisons in these 5 days.
Especially if an additional MP-Rule will be introduced - "it is forbidden to put divisions from the pool in the closest 2 provinces from the place where the amphibious assault is taking place."

I hope I was able to explain the very important reason why I am categorically convinced that it is unacceptable to make the combat speed even more slower in Multiplayer, than I made now in this new verson of Mod.

2. Nick's Challenge for Single-Player regime!
USSR got advanced Single-Player regime!
Playing as the USSR in the historical way, the player can choose one of several increased difficulty levels, which should make the game against AI Germany more hard and interesting.
Have fun!

And of course I am interested in your feedback - whether it was difficult or easy?
StalHit.jpg
3. Maximum realistic ratio of the cost of military Units to practical IC of countries has been set.
After many researching and testing, to achieve the correct realistic ratio of Units and World's IC, the cost of military Units has been increased by about 15-20%, respectively, the number of military Units in the World has decreased proportionally.
I always knew that the number of units in my Mod is somewhat more than is potentially possible from the point of view of realism.
But it became possible to deal with this balance, only after the completion of all countries and after the Mod is fully ready.

So now is the time to do it - to set true balanse and realism in number of Units in the world in Game.
So, what is my concept of the correct balance of the number of units in the world in Game?

Firstly, the number of units in the world in the game will always be more than in real history and this is absolutely normal!
This is normal and unavoidable for two reasons:

- The player knows when the war will start and brings his country to the peak of military form precisely by the beginning of the war.
(If the USSR and the USA already in 1936 had known exactly the date of the outbreak of war, they would also have built more Units)

- The player does not build unnecessary units that the country built in reality, so the player gets a great superiority in some units compared to reality, due to the refusal to build other units, infrastructure and consumer goods.

Then how am I going to determine the "true balance" between price/number of Units in the World and IC in the World in the game?
First we need to choose the most suitable etalon/reference point/standard country.
The reference country needs two conditions:

- the country should be as long as possible in peacetime - from 1936-1941
- the country should be actively preparing for war all these years.

Obviously, there is only one country that fulfills both conditions - the USSR.
Therefore, there is no other options - we will set realistic balance of Units and IC using tests of the USSR.

To do this, we must conduct several tests of the most effective development of the USSR, consisting of the most effective IC-building (as if you play MP against experienced player as Germany) and then the construction of units wich the USSR had in reality on June 22, 1941.
Our goal is to find and set such cost of units that the USSR would have historical number of units by June 22, 1941 but would not have surplus of units/supplies/money.
In this case, we will achieve the right balance between the price of units and the number of IC of countries, even if there will be more units in the real Game because of the two reasons that I mentioned at the very beginning.

It took me 4 complete tests to find and set such unit price level that my USSR would have the exact historical number of units by June 22, 1941 and would not have any surpluses.
As the result, the price of units was increased by 15-20%, the number of Units in the world decreased proportionally, and also (logically) I reduced the MP in pools by 20%, from 30 MP per mln to 25 MP per mln of population.

########################################################################

By the way, such testing of historical balance of units and IC of country is quite interesting and give me much pleasure.
If you want to check your Hoi-game for such balance, you can do the following:

To do the most efficient IC-building, as it is customary for your Hoi-game. In my Mod, as in Hoi-2, the USSR in multiplayer game build 3.5 total series of IC-building. In other Mods of course IC-building standards can be different.

Then build Units so that by June 22, 1941, the USSR should have the following number of Units:

- 198 Infantry divisions ( 19 of them are - mountain divisions)

- 13 Mechanized Cavalry divisions ( 6600 personel and 64 light tanks in division ).
In my Mod 1 Cavalry Unit is Cavalry Corps, consisting of two such Cavalry divisions and has 13,500 personnel and 128 light tanks.
Since at the start of the game the USSR has more Cavalry divisions than in 1941 (31 vs 13), the available "superfluous cavalry units" should be counted as another Units at the appropriate price. My superfluous starting Cavalry corps were counted as "mechanized divisions".

- 61 Tank Divisions

- 31 Mechanized divisions (In soviet system they named "motorized divisions")
Attention! Don't be misled. Soviet "motorized divisions" are not motorized division Unit in the game, because they consist of 2 moto regiments and one tank regiment (258 light tanks by staff).
In the game, such division corresponds to Mechanized Division.

- 5 paratrooper Units

- 527 CAS (250 of them IL-2 class)

- 7 574 bombers of all types ( 1827 of them should be 1940-modern-class: Pe-2, Su2, Il-4, Er2 )
In my Mod CAS and Bombers have 72 planes in one Unit, so I need to have at june 22, 1941 - 8 CAS and 105 Bombers Units. Obviously other Mods have other aircraft number in one unit.

- 8 871 Fighters of all types ( 2000 of them should be modern-class: Yak-1, Mig-1, Mig-3, Lagg-3)
In my Mod Fighters have 100 planes in one Unit, so it will be 89 Fighters Units.

- 4 new modern cruisers (not counting the starting garbage)

- 70 Destroyers ( 46 of them should be modern)
In my Mod 1 Destroyer Unit consists 3 Destroyers, so it is 23 Dectroyer Units. In vanilla it is 5 in one Unit.

- 271 submarines
In my Mod 1 Submarine Unit consists 3 Submarine, so it will be 90 Submarine Units. In vanilla it is 5 in one Unit.

- 2 modern Battleships in build-list with about 30-40% readiness (not counting the starting three BB)

- "Stalin Line" from Odessa to Kingisepp of 5-level forts. (Of course most of them should already exist in 1936)

- "Far East Line" in 6 provinces of 3-level forts (Of course most of them should already exist in 1936)

Having tried to build such USSR, you will understand why the USSR in games has much more land divisions than in reality. Just players don't build such a huge number of bombers and don't build ships.

4. Once again, the realism of the ratio of the cost of Units among themselves has been deeply checked (taking into account all discounts and bonuses that may be in game - this is very important point that must be taken into account/calculations).
As the result, some amendments have been made to the unit cost ratio. For example, Infantry has become more expensive unit than it is usually the case in Hoi2 based games.
(Of course, at the same time, all units in Mod still remain ideally balanced and profitable according the Cost/Power Parameter, which is also calculated by exact mathematical formula.)
5000-6000 German horses with carts in Infantry division cost the same as 2000 Opel Blitz trucks.

Therefore, Infantry division in reality is not much cheaper than Motorized division.

But for the game balance, of course, I had to raise the price of Infantry to the maximum level that still would be acceptable in the Price/Power parameter.

Now Infantry-1939 cost is 70% of the Motorized Division 1939. And this is a significant step towards a realistic price, compared to the casual unrealistically cheap infantry.
###############################

Also (surprise!) Infantry division consumes +0.2 more supplies than motorized one.
According to Soviet/German norms of feeding soldiers and horses, and food prices in the 1930s, the realistic ratio of feeding of soldiers and horses is set as:

15000 human personnel of Division - 0.5 supplies/day (0.05 supplies for 1 MP)
5500 horses of Division - 0.28 supplies/day

Thus, even if we assume that the maintenance of the 2000-2500 trucks/cars of motorized division is somewhat more expensive than the maintenance of 5,500 horses with carts (which is not a fact), horses still consume about 0.2 supplies more than cars (although the fuel for these cars is much more expensive than food for these horses)

Thus, I explained why in my Mod (not like in Vanilla or other Mods) Infantry-39 consumes 1.6 supplies per day, but Motorized Infantry-39 consumes only 1.4 supplies per day.
Just 5500 horses eat every day, 2000 trucks in garages - don't!

5. Two new brigades!

- Aircraft carrier radar brigades (obviously, aircraft carrier radars in the game should have different effects than artillery ship radars)
The first-level Aircraft carrier radar has little effect (because USS Saratoga radar did not help really in the Battle of the Coral Sea)
The second-level Aircraft carrier radar has significant effects.

- Additional "bomb holders" brigade for tactical bombers.
They allow to increase the bomb load (damage) at any time at the player's request in exchange for reducing the flight Range and vice versa.

Since there is no ideal mechanics in the game to implement this feature, I had to divide the class of tactical bombers into 3 subclasses - 1-2 levels, 3-4 (1938-1940) levels, 5-6 (1942-1944) levels.
Bomb holders can be attached only to 2nd and 3rd class (Tactical bombers and Heavy bombers)
All bombers can be upgraded to the next class.
bombholders1 - копия.jpg
6. Realistic Mobilization events for USSR, France, Britain and Italy, which instantly adds 30% HP to their "divisions of peacetime".
(Instant addition of more HP during "Mobilization" is absolutely anti-realistic! Everything else HP needs to be replenished with casual 'Reinforce' mechanics only!)
Germany havn't such event, because unlike the USSR, France, Britain and Italy, Germany actually does not have "reduced divisions of peacetime" in 1936-Scenario.

7. Additional nuances for greater historicity:

- Far Eastern divisions of the USSR are blocked from the start. Unblocking takes place according to historicity, during the second half of 1941.

- Activation of Barbarossa now historically damage Soviet aircraft -1500 aircraft in a couple days (similar to Pearl Harbor game mechanics)

8. My titanic work of checking/fixing of the mass errors of vanilla DH Map was continued.
Now, maps of China and Manchuria has been fully checked and fixed in all geographical aspects - correct terrain types, distances between provinces, connectings/disconnectings, Infra, ports/shores, climate of provinces and all other.
The region of China turned out to be a curious exception - it is the only region of the vanilla DH map in which 98% province coordinates corresponded to reality. All the other regions that I checked/fixed before contained a huge number of errors in coordinates.

Did a responsible Chinese make the Map of China? :D
Respect to this unknown person who took responsibility at least for entering true coordinates of the provinces, unlike those who made DH map of Europe.

However, in return, the map of China contained much more errors in the climate than the map of Europe, because it completely ignored the frosty Chinese highlands.
And of course I totally disagree with the fact that half of China in vanilla DH map is "high bald mountains".
China in my Mod is a country of "hills/highland hills, covered with forest" as it is in reality, not "highland bald mountains".

MapChi.jpg
 
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Excellent work as always, I tried out the new version as UK because I was interested to see how Battle of Britain would go. I can say that it certainly does work, but perhaps too well.

France fell, Norway and Greece I managed to hang onto through AI control/my navy, North Africa was mine and I landed in Sicily by Oct 1941.

After France fell, the German air force came over southern UK like they should. It was hard going, the RAF suffered a lot of losses (had to ground all my fighters at once before they dissolve maybe 2-3 times) but so did the Germans. I prioritized fighter techs and doctrines and the fight was really turning, the Germans lost maybe 6-8x as many as I did and it got to the point where the planes stopped coming altogether.

Then I noticed the Eastern Front was turning. Invasion of Soviet Union had begun and Germans got Baltics, Belarus and half of Ukraine, but then already by October 1941, the tide was turning and Soviets were counter-attacking. The Germans never even made it to Crimea (Nikolayevsk is as far as they got) when the Soviets pushed back a lot.

I switched to Germany and saw why, it was October 1941 and Germany had 0 manpower. I guess my air war over UK literally bled them out, so on the Eastern Front, their units were at 75% strength and retreating from Soviets.

Incidentally, could you do a plugin version of this mod to work with other mods? Your combat mechanics and map improvements are amazing, but I'd like to be able to play Kaiserreich (which has terrible combat, but great events) the way I do this mod.
 
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Then I noticed the Eastern Front was turning. Invasion of Soviet Union had begun and Germans got Baltics, Belarus and half of Ukraine, but then already by October 1941, the tide was turning and Soviets were counter-attacking. The Germans never even made it to Crimea (Nikolayevsk is as far as they got) when the Soviets pushed back a lot.

I switched to Germany and saw why, it was October 1941 and Germany had 0 manpower. I guess my air war over UK literally bled them out, so on the Eastern Front, their units were at 75% strength and retreating from Soviets.
I tested and balanced Germany's AI against the USSR's AI in the most neutral regime, playing as Honduras, and I managed to make that Germany would not take Stalingrad in 1941, as it was at the beginning of my tests, but would get stuck in a more or less long war behind the Dnieper line.
In your case, perhaps Germany had to shift more forces against Britain.
In any case, for the sake of balance, AI Germany builds free series of tanks and motorized infantry, which in 1941 eat up even the extra MP that AI Germany receives.

However, I hope someday to read reviews here about SP game as USSR against Germany, because exactly this experimental single regime I tried to make really difficult and interesting for SP. :)
Incidentally, could you do a plugin version of this mod to work with other mods? Your combat mechanics and map improvements are amazing, but I'd like to be able to play Kaiserreich (which has terrible combat, but great events) the way I do this mod.

I don't think it would be possible to make an automatic plugin for any mod with my map and especially for combat mechanics.
In order to transfer my corrected map to another Mode, it is necessary in any case to do some individual work to correct those nuances that are needed in my Mod and are not needed in another Mod.

However, I do not object if my much more realistic and quality DH map will be used in other Mods, if the information about it will be written in bg_start.bmp file, something like "Fixed map from Nick's Mod is being used here".
It will be enough to satisfy my conceit.

In any case, it's rather silly to continue playing on the totally incorrect vanilla DH Map, at the time when there was finally a crazy enthusiast who fixed hundreds (if not thousands) of ridiculous vanilla DH Map errors, at least in the main combat theaters. Therefore I don't object to share my work.
 
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However, I hope someday to read reviews here about SP game as USSR against Germany, because exactly this experimental single regime I tried to make really difficult and interesting for SP. :)

I have started a new game as USSR and have played until mid-1938! Some basic observations:

1. The purge is very static and little effect, some 6 generals/ministers removed and 1% dissent hit. I remember in vanilla there was a choice about whether to do the purge or not? Also in vanilla I remember the event being more extreme (more leaders/more dissent cost).

2. The Caspian Sea Flotilla is a waste. Even though there are ports in Baku and Astrakhan, the fleet refuses orders to dock there. In the end, I ended up disbanding them immediately as they are useless without being able to move, unless the intention is to have them act as a bridge for 1 division at a time to go from Azerbaijan to Kazakhstan?

3. The Spanish Civil War auto-win event needs some finetuning. It gives automatic victory to the Nationalists, but I used the (very good to have) choice to take military control of the Republicans. With some encirclements, I destroyed enough Nationalists to make us even sized, and a stalemate developed where I had 30 provinces/VP of Spain and they were bottled up in Burgos with 9 provinces, but they still won by event.

4. You mentioned some difficulty options for the German war, in the game based on selecting normal difficulty. I tried this game with normal difficulty but didn't get any event popups at the beginning. Will they come when the war starts or did something go wrong?

5. There is nothing about the this war in the mod? Surprising, because otherwise there is very good detail for many countries.
 
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I have started a new game as USSR and have played until mid-1938! Some basic observations:

1. The purge is very static and little effect, some 6 generals/ministers removed and 1% dissent hit. I remember in vanilla there was a choice about whether to do the purge or not? Also in vanilla I remember the event being more extreme (more leaders/more dissent cost).
Absolutely right!

Since the stated goal of my Mod is total Historicity and Realism, I completely reworked the Purge event, removing alt-historicity and randomness.

- now the Purge takes place not with one event, but with three events (Tukhachevsky and his generals are eliminated in 1937, the main Purge happened when it finished with the elimination of Yezhov - at the end of 1938, and air-generals eliminated before the War in 1941)

- Only those generals who were really repressed are eliminated.
That is, I checked every Soviet general for his death and those generals who were killed in 1941-1942 in my Mod also die in 1941-1942 (if Germany manages to capture certain provinces in those areas where these generals were really killed)
In vanilla, a lot of generals who actually died on the battlefield in 1941-1942, for unknown reason were harshly inscribed in the "dead-list" of the purge event. That is, I gave them a chance to die in battles by their historical death in historical years, in historical provinces.
Therefore, be ready for the fact that as Germany captures the Soviet provinces, some Soviet generals will die.

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About a small dissent for Purge in my Mod.
I think the idea of dissent growing after you massively shoot dissidents is rather illogical.
My simple dictator's logic tells me - the fewer living dissidents are, the less dissent is!
Therefore, I do not understand the logic in the traditional for Hoi +10 dissent for Purge.
On the contrary! After the Purge, everybody is totally intimidated and no one dare to open his mouth against the authorities, or even to work poorly and lasy.
In reality, the Purge did not reduce the USSR's GDP by -10%, this is absurd.

Therefore, I give a small dissent fo Purge - just for the fact that the bravest who survived are still quietly whispering their damnes... hiding under a blanket in darkness and when no one hears them.

But at the same time, the Purge in my Mod has serious negative effect on the quality of the Soviet army - it reduces the GDE and shifts the Army slider to a worse side - such effects really correspond to reality.

2. The Caspian Sea Flotilla is a waste. Even though there are ports in Baku and Astrakhan, the fleet refuses orders to dock there. In the end, I ended up disbanding them immediately as they are useless without being able to move, unless the intention is to have them act as a bridge for 1 division at a time to go from Azerbaijan to Kazakhstan?
:D
That's player's right!
I made the Caspian Sea transportable and put 1 transport there for maximum historicity and beauty, not for it would be imba.

But in fact, I myself sometimes got into a large encirclement in the Caucasus and saw how other players got encircled in the Caucasus (in Multiplayer games), so having 1 evacuation transport to try to get several divisions out of the Caucasian encirclement is really not bad!
Unfortunately, in that MP game where I was surrounded in the Caucasus, I did not have this life-saving transport. :(

To be honest, at first I made the Caspian Sea with normal ports (not just only with beaches as it is now), therefore more transport-units could be unloaded there.... but during the test for Germany, I faced an insurmountable problem - as soon as the Axis reached the Caspian Sea, Italian convoys in the Mediterranean were immediately diverted to the Astrakhan port o_O, which completely paralyzed the supply of Africa. (before the Axis reaches the Caspian Sea everything worked fine)

I couldn't figure out how to fix this bug, and therefore in the later versions I was needed to remove ports from the Caspian Sea and leave only "beaches" through which it is nevertheless possible to land/unload divisions.
I assume that in case of encirclement/threat of encirclement in the Caucasus, this transport have a chanse to save several Soviet divisions before this transport will be destroyed by Axis aircraft.

3. The Spanish Civil War auto-win event needs some finetuning. It gives automatic victory to the Nationalists, but I used the (very good to have) choice to take military control of the Republicans. With some encirclements, I destroyed enough Nationalists to make us even sized, and a stalemate developed where I had 30 provinces/VP of Spain and they were bottled up in Burgos with 9 provinces, but they still won by event.
:D lol

Some of my MP players also tried to manage to win in Spain for the USSR, until the end of 1936, when the harsh multiplayer event for Franco's victory happend, but no one has ever managed it yet. :D This is a kind of challenge.

You know, I totally agree with you!
Probably I should deactivate this multiplayer "auto-win" event in Spain, for the case of a Single game. I really hadn't thought of that. Another time I will deactivate this event for the Single game case, as I deactivated some other multiplayer events for SP.

The multiplayer unhistorical event for the "automatic victory of Franco in December 1936" was made so that in a multiplayer game the Axis player could take Spain immediately after this event and to develop Spain since 1937. (in our old multiplayer tradition - we don't waste time on the wars against AI until 1939, so as not to waste 10 players' time on boring waiting and pauses, we try to make the pre-war years pass as quickly as possible)

But for a Single playing, this MP event really needs to be deactivated, thanks for the comment!

4. You mentioned some difficulty options for the German war, in the game based on selecting normal difficulty. I tried this game with normal difficulty but didn't get any event popups at the beginning. Will they come when the war starts or did something go wrong?

Don't worry, a window with a choice of difficulty will appear at the time of the German attack on the USSR.
This is done on purpose so that the player could replay the game with different levels of difficulty, without necessarily having to start the game again since 1936.
It will be possible just to reload the pre-war save for the USSR and try another difficulty.

I also tried to make check that the player play historically and did not commit aggressive attacks on neighbors and non-historical annexations.
Therefore, if a window with a choice of difficulty suddenly does not appear on June 22, it means that the player was having some kind of non-historical aggressive wars.

5. There is nothing about the this war in the mod? Surprising, because otherwise there is very good detail for many countries.

Agree, it's worth thinking about to implement it.
 
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Absolutely right!
Good information here, everything is worked as designed then! I look forward to playing more and reporting back more, but for now I will just say, maybe not to remove the Spanish civil war auto-win completely, but modify the conditions and outcomes.

I'm not sure which is best to determine who is winning, but some combination of army sizes and provinces held would surely work. I notice every Spanish province except one in the south-east coast (south of Valencia) is a 1 VP province, so maybe the intention was to count how many VP are held by the Nationalists and Republicans, and decide that way? If more VP held by Republicans, they auto-win, if more by Nationalists, they do.

I know it'd probably be extra work, but it would be even better to have a third option. If the player chooses to take military control (this indicates they care about the outcome enough to control it), then there should be an option to disable the auto-win event as well or not.

So autowin event: Count VP and/or army size to determine winner, and make another event that can disable the original autowin event if player chose to control Republicans directly.
 
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I know it'd probably be extra work, but it would be even better to have a third option. If the player chooses to take military control (this indicates they care about the outcome enough to control it), then there should be an option to disable the auto-win event as well or not.

Yes, very reasonable!
It is necessary just to take into account exactly this fact, if the player has taken control, then it is important for him and it is necessary to disable the "multiplayer event".
I think there is no need to take into account VP points and create an additional duplicate ways to win.
After all, vanilla DH has its own event about the end of the Spanish Civil War, let this vanilla event and its triggers work in this case.
 
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I am up to August 1939 now. Some more ideas:

1. The Spanish gold event is good (free money!) but a warning in the text would be nice that it will be spent entirely by the following event. I of course spent it on other things immediately and went into -2000 money deficit immediately.

2. I like the Baltic military access event being so specific, it makes very good use of DH event system.

3. The Soviet-Japanese border conflict is very unexplored. I know your focus is on the main conflict and usually want to skip the pre-1939 stuff in general but maybe this could be expanded? Poor Marshal Blyukher gets executed no matter what. Another way to do it might be to have it a local conflict.

Event pops up about border provocation. If either Japanese or Soviets want to escalate, Mongolia and Manchukuo break their alliances with their masters and start a war against each other, each main power sending certain forces and leaders with player option to militarily control. Potential to escalate into a full war between Japan and SU if one side is winning too much or end in a ceasefire like historical? Would make the European conflict very dangerous if it turns into full war, but it would also unlock all of Soviet Far Eastern forces?

This would also affect Japan's war with China, which might be good thing. Right now Manchu sends all of it's military minus some 2 locked divisions to Japan as expeditionary forces and they all go to fight in central China, leaving Soviet border ahistorically undefended.
 
1. The Spanish gold event is good (free money!) but a warning in the text would be nice that it will be spent entirely by the following event. I of course spent it on other things immediately and went into -2000 money deficit immediately.
:D :D
No no, this is my special joke, on a player who is playing for the first time. :D
But anyway, I'm surprised - how did you manage to spend so much money so quickly?
I assumed that the player would not have time to spend so much money in one week, because all these week he will be recovering from the shock of receiving such amount of money. :D

Note, necessarily win the Finnish war before January 1940, otherwise you will get another bad multiplayer joke.

2. I like the Baltic military access event being so specific, it makes very good use of DH event system.

Yes, for the first time in Hoi, the forced incorporation of the Baltic States was made exactly historically, as it really was in real history, by the chain of events in the "Anschluss" style.
Note, you don't need to annex the Baltic States by direct military attack as in vanilla Hoi2/DH, you just need to complete the chain of historical events.

3. The Soviet-Japanese border conflict is very unexplored. I know your focus is on the main conflict and usually want to skip the pre-1939 stuff in general but maybe this could be expanded? Poor Marshal Blyukher gets executed no matter what. Another way to do it might be to have it a local conflict.

In this case, I am completely satisfied with the vanilla Hoi2/DH implementation of armed clash with Japan, with only two events.
To implement these events through the mechanics of war as it made in Hoi4, seems to me superfluous, unnecessary and just technically impossible.

On the other hand, I have accurately taken into account all the losses of both sides, both in manpower and in equipment - these losses are deducted from the armies. Just like poor Blucher. And Zhukov gets +1 skill for his first big victory.

It seems to me difficult to implement a "Small War" in Mongolia between Japan and the USSR and exclude the risk that this war will change the course of history. After all, my goal is a more or less historical development of events before 1941.
If to make such a small war and ensure that in any case it ends up historically... then for what do it at all?
I would not want an alternative history to begin to unfold since 1939.
There are many other Mods with alt-history possibility.
Idea of my Mod is the opposite - my Mod is anti-alt-historical, until 1941.
I even disabled all 2%-5% chances of non-historical choices for AI. So that the historical course of WW2 history has no chance to be broken due to the fact that the AI choose an unhistorical option in any event.

Just the stable historical course of the game before at least 1940 is a necessary conditions for good multiplayer balance. In order for each side - Axis or Allies to have the equal chances of victory in MP game, it is necessary that the course of history at least until 1940 be the same and stable, without any surprises which may break the multiplayer balance.
 
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Haha, ok good to know. I spent the money on the DH events (research/infrastructure comprehensive investment) and it was all gone with just those two. USSR research is expensive!

Yes, I was surprised at the historical detail of SU giving Vilnius to Lithuania. I'd never seen that before in any mod and read the treaty online to see. USSR truly gave Vilnius to Lithuania (and bragged that it was second time Soviet Union gave Vilnius back since 1918).

I understand, I thought it would be this way, but then there are some good alt-history possibilities in the mod now (UK early war with Japan in 1939, Polish 4 power alliance with USSR) so I wasn't sure. The UK events especially are interesting, as I didn't know about some of these incidents before.
 
I understand, I thought it would be this way, but then there are some good alt-history possibilities in the mod now (UK early war with Japan in 1939, Polish 4 power alliance with USSR) so I wasn't sure. The UK events especially are interesting, as I didn't know about some of these incidents before.
lol
Indeed, I had already completely forgotten about it! :D
True, I really did make a couple of alt-historical options for Britain in august 1939, which absolutely totally break the course of the real history of WW2 and what completely contradicts my previous statement that my Mod is "totally anti-alt-historical". *facepalm* :D
Yes, it seems I made some alt-history options only for Britain, just for fun. Apparently at the moment when I was making Britain, I was quite flexible and frivolous. lol

Although in general, it makes sense why I made these some alt-historical options exactly for Britain.
Just by my mind, the further course of World's history depended precisely on the decisions of Britain in August 1939, which could move history in different directions.
 
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Great job Nick! Is SP only fun/challenge with USSR? Or not?
Other majors are also interesting to play but without challenges.
It's just there are no specially boosted enemies, so it will be as easy to kill stupid AI, as it usually happens in Hoi.

The experiment with the USSR will show me whether the players are interested in SP regime with different levels of difficulty.
If people like it, I will think about similar regime with different difficulty levels for Germany, but it is much more difficult to implement. Therefore, for the experiment, I chose the simplest country for such Single-regime - the USSR, because there are no naval battles.
AI is absolute idiot when it comes to naval battles, and I can't imagine how it can be improved and strengthened in this aspect.
 
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New Mod's update!
November 2023

Download final version here:

Multiplayer Realism Mod (Legal Cenzored version)

Actual Final Version 5.43, check sum ETUH (November 2023). (You need to get true ETUH check-sum, before to play!)
for Darkest Hour v.1.05.2
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Briefly:

Cardinal complication of the "USSR vs AI Germany Challenge"!
Now this special SP regime against AI will be really hard even for experienced players!

Also fixed some mistakes, made some improvements and introduced additional new type of brigade - motorized artillery.
(now the game has finally got all three fundamentally different types of artillery - arty on mixed horse-drawn and mechanical traction, fully mechanical traction and self-propelled artillery.)

Try your hands against the incredibly super boosted AI Germany, choosing one of the difficulty levels, right now!
Have fun! :)

##############################################################################################################

The penultimate update was big and I no longer had the moral strength thoroughly to test the new single-regime USSR vs Germany.

Now, having had a good long rest from Hoi and restoring my moral strength, I have conducted the most thorough testing of this special SP regime Sov vs Ger and found that it was not difficult enough for experienced Hoi2/DH players. In particular, Cas and bombers were too strong against stupid AI. (The power of cas and bombers in my Mod is balanced exactly for MP games, not for single)
So now, I've done the most thorough testing of this SP-regime and played 8 test sp games. Each time I remained unsatisfied with the difficulty, I strengthened the AI Germany with more and more cheats and counter-abuses in response to all possible meannesses and tricks of the player.

Finally, after all these many tests I was completely satisfied with the difficulty achieved and I am pleased to offer you a new version of the Mod with a new incredibly difficulty of the special SP-regime USSR vs Germany.
Now I achieved what I wanted - the game as USSR is very difficult not only in 1941, but also all the subsequent 1942/43/44 years.

I guarantee that you will have really to work hard to win against AI Germany, even if you are an experienced Hoi2/DH player.
Yes, it is possible to defeat AI Germany, but it will not be with the first your attempt and it will require you to do your best.
In addition to the fact of the victory of the AI Germany, time also matters - how quickly it can be done. Yes, you can win at 45 or later, but can you do it at 44 or even at 43? Not a fact.

I tested the AI power at the penultimate level of difficulty - at Communist level. And I am completely satisfied with this difficulty. It was really dificult and therefore interesting.
I have not tested the max hard level - Stalin level. It will be even hotter. I leave this level untested, for those who want to be the first to risk trying it :)

My result at the Communist level is July 1944. :D
Can you do it faster? ;)

kommilevel.jpg


commi.jpg
 
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