Strategic Regions Flavour Events v2.1 (tested in Kaiserreich and TGC)

[Rohi]

Hello,

The purpose of this thread is to share a modification to the "generic_decisions.txt" file found within the "other" subfolder of the "events" folder in Kaiserreich for Darkest Hour. Before discussing the contents of the file and the reason motivating the creation of the events, it is necessary to offer a "Cheers!" to all of those within this forum who have taken the time to share guides and comments regarding modifying Hearts of Iron 2 (and Darkest Hour). Without those guides created and shared by others, the event series within this file would most likely not have been created.

Simple summary of the strategic regions flavour events shared in this thread
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The file shared in this thread contains numerous flavour events designed for Kaiserreich 1.9.3 that are activated when the human player of a nation controls a set of provinces within a region. Since each set of provinces within a particular region arguably has strategic value, the region itself has been considered in this context as a "strategic region." In order to demonstrate the "value" aspect of the strategic region, the event will offer various bonuses or rewards, such as supplies, money, victory points, transport capacity, and so on, as long as the particular provinces within the region are controlled. Of course, if the provinces in the region are no longer controlled, then the bonus (or strategic "value") is lost.

[Conversely -- and not shared in the particular file here -- is the concept of a penalty to any nation that either: does not control a specific strategic region; or, is not allied to a nation that controls a specific strategic region. The concept of penalties for not controlling a strategic region is discussed further at the end of this post.]

How do the strategic region flavour events shared in this thread, work?
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The strategic region events shared here work as follows:

• A list of provinces are ordered into a strategic region, let's call one region: "The Gulf of Aden";
• That region is given a flag, which in the case of this file is titled, "region_aden";
• So then, let's say X nation controls all of the provinces within the strategic region, "The Gulf of Aden":
  • Controlling the Gulf of Aden region will activate the "region_aden" flag for nation X;
  • The flag "region_aden", once activated, will generate off-map rewards as a means to demonstrate the strategic value associated with controlling the particular region;
  • The flag "region_aden" can only be activated by one nation at a time (of course);
  • If/When nation X loses control of the provinces within the Gulf of Aden, the flag "region_aden" will be deactivated and the rewards which demonstrated the strategic value of the region will no longer be available;
  • In order to once again acquire the rewards/bonuses (in other words, "strategic value") from the region, all of the provinces within the region will have to be controlled, thereby once again activating the particular flag associated with that particular region.

[Again, "Cheers!" to everyone within this forum who shared guides and comments explaining how to modify event flags within Hearts of Iron 2 and Darkest Hour. Without the various guides, comments, and wikis available in this forum, the strategic region flavour events shared in this thread would likely not have been created.]

The strategic regions text file shared here was created for three reasons:
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1. First, regions such as "Suez" and "Gibraltar" and so on, arguably offer a strategic advantage that extends beyond simply permitting access. In Hearts of Iron 3, for instance, the controller of Suez received bonuses such as a transport capacity bonus. What these events attempt to represent, in the context of Kaiserreich for Darkest Hour, is the strategic advantage one receives once they are in control of a particular set of provinces. In this case: regions and not just provinces have strategic value.
2. Second, minor nations have limitations to their manpower, technology, and industrial capacity that are often so significant, they're arguably not as enjoyable to control when compared to the larger ones. Notably, many of these minor nations are located adjacent to regions that -- if they were controlled -- would likely provide them with advantages that may not entirely offset their limitations, but be enough to provide a more enjoyable strategic experience.
3. Third, to give others within the Darkest Hour and Kaiserreich community a file they can work with to build their own strategic regions however they so choose. (In this case in particular, the file shared in this thread has been created with numerous #comments to assist others if they decide to modify the file).

In other words: controlling the Gulf of Aden, or the Gulf of Oman, or the Sea of Bohai, or the Malacca Strait (and so on) has strategic value, whereas previously it's fair to argue there was little value -- let alone reason -- to control these regions at all. Sure, controlling straits such as Panama, Gibraltar, Bosporus, Suez, and Storebelt, permit access to the waterway. Yet there is little reason to acquire the specific province if one does not build a navy. As a consequence, there are often numerous provinces within the map that are not worth controlling, even though they arguably do offer strategic value.

[Keep in mind the above reasoning applies to the Kaiserreich mod, however it's likely that similar reasoning can apply to Darkest Hour vanilla and other modifications, too.]

Take the case of Egypt:

• It is likely that (again, in the context of Kaiserreich) there will be little sense in Egypt acquiring the province Suez if they're not going to build a navy. Why risk a war with Germany just for one province that permits or restricts naval access? Now, however, with these events: there is strategic value with Egypt declaring war on Germany to acquire the Suez (and the provinces adjacent to it) because they will receive additional supplies, transport capacity (TC), money, and victory points (again, these bonuses can be modified according to individual preference).

A comment on the strategic region bonuses
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The bonuses shared in the file here were created as a test with minor nations in mind. It is likely that some may perceive the bonuses as too generous, and others as not generous enough. Whatever one thinks: the overall intent and purpose with this file and the events contained within, was not the bonuses in themselves but instead, the concept of strategic regions whereby controlling a set of provinces will offer -- generally speaking -- bonuses, rewards, or (generally speaking again) strategic advantages.

[See below for the concept -- not available in this particular file -- of penalties for not controlling strategic regions...]

Moreover, in the case of major nations these events provide incentive for the controller of the major nation to acquire the Gulf of Aden, or the Gulf of Oman, or the Gulf of Guinea (not in the particular file here) because in doing so, they will have acquired the value associated with a strategic region.

So then, what these events attempt to do, is the following:
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1. Provide strategic value to regions of provinces instead of just provinces; and,
2. Enhance the strategic value of minor nations; providing them with an opportunity to acquire advantages that attempt to offset their limitations.

For an example, here are some images which demonstrate a case whereby Ethiopia in Kaiserreich for Darkest Hour becomes an enjoyable and worthwhile nation to control, because it is located adjacent to the Gulf of Aden. Therefore, it is reasonable to argue that if the controller of Ethiopia manages to control the region of the Gulf of Aden, they will acquire the strategic value associated with the region.

Images
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The "spoiler" boxes below contain images which depict the strategic region events and their related decisions as seen through Ethiopia.

Spoiler: The strategic region decisions as seen from Ethiopia in Kaiserreich

Spoiler: Strategic region decision requirements as seen from Ethiopia

Spoiler: Controlling required provinces in strategic region

Spoiler: Triggering the strategic region decision's event

Spoiler: Losing control of a strategic region

Spoiler: Example of off-map victory points for controlling a region

Comments on the images above
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• The "Djibouti Waterway" in the region above has been renamed "The Gulf of Aden" and now consists of the province of Aden and the island of Suqutra.
  • In the case of the images above, the strategic region only consisted of one side of the waterway; however it seemed to make more sense to require both sides of the waterway to enforce control over the region.
• If one notices ample money and supplies in the images, that is because while testing the events various F12 console commands were used to add speed to the testing process.
• The word "residual" in the events is arguably not grammatically correct within the context of receiving supplies and money from the strategic region. Therefore, if one so chooses, the event descriptions can be rewritten (of course).
• The off-map victory points for Spain are a result of their control of the Gibraltar strategic region.

Strategic Regions; the region's provinces; and the region's bonuses
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One may have their own preferences regarding the set of provinces that comprise regions, and the particular bonuses one receives from a strategic region. Here, it is important to keep in mind that the file was written in such a way as to provide whomever decides to use it, an opportunity to customize the regions and their bonuses according to their own preferences.

For those curious:

Spoiler: Here is an image of a spreadsheet detailing all of the strategic regions within the file and their associated provinces

FYI:
An image will be shared here once this account is permitted to do so.
The image is a of a spreadsheet detailing all of the strategic regions in the events, their provinces, the province IDs, and the bonuses/rewards for each region.
Again, once this account is permitted to share images, then this post will be updated with the images which were originally shared in the draft of this post.

Notes to consider about the events in the file:
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• After creating this post and sharing the above spreadsheet, an additional thought comes to mind:
  • Production percentages can be used instead of off-map values;
  • In other words, instead of (let's say) 20 metal for controlling Storebelt (Denmark/Sweden), a bonus to metal production is rewarded;
  • The problem here, however, is what if the controller of a region does not produce metal? In this case, the reward is worthless;
  • Therefore, it seems off-map values instead of production rewards might be more reasonable.
• These events have been written with the human controller of minor nations in mind; thus the events have been written with the intention of giving minor nations that control strategic regions bonuses.
  • In other words: the events -- as written -- are not available to the A.I. controller of the nations. However, the events can be modified to enable A.I. activation of them.
• So then, the file was created with the thought of Colombia controlling Panama, or Ethiopia controlling The Gulf of Aden, or the Philippines or Thailand/Siam controlling the Malacca Strait, and so on, in order to offer a strategic advantage (and challenge) to the human controller of the minor nations.
  • The challenge here is recognized in the case of Ethiopia, for instance, which will have to build some transports and acquire provinces on either side of the Gulf of Aden in order to acquire the strategic value in controlling the strategic region of the Gulf of Aden.
• Of course, the above implication does not mean the events are available only to the mentioned minor nations.
  • To be more clear: although the events were created with the intent of a human controller of minor nation activating them, the events are available to whichever nation the human player controls -- unless the events are edited.
• Again, the definitions of a "strategic region" and the bonus (or, "strategic value") the region provides, may likely be debated.
  • In this case, the file (and therefore the events that trigger the region bonuses) can easily be edited to suit one's preference.
• The file shared here was created by someone who is not an expert on the topic of modifying Hearts of Iron 2 Darkest Hour. Therefore others will probably know of a simpler, more efficient, or "better" way to implement the "strategic regions" concept proposed here.
  • Adding to the above: it is necessary to iterate that the creator of this file was not aware of any similar type of file (or event concept) existing within the Darkest Hour community. Yes, a broad search on the topic of "strategic regions" was conducted within this forum in order to first investigate if such a concept had been attempted and/or implemented already. Why reinvent the wheel -- as some say. Nevertheless, it is possible that a similar concept as the one proposed here has already been proposed and/or implemented. And, if such a case exists, then accept this thread as obviously ignorant in that sense.
  • Again, the file shared here has been created and tested within the Kaiserreich Darkest Hour context, so if a similar event concept exists elsewhere it has not come to the attention of the creator of this file.

And now, the strategic region events
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A text file containing the strategic region events has been attached to this post.

And for those curious about the .txt file, all of the text from the attached .txt file has been copied and pasted into the "Spoiler" box below:

Spoiler: Additionally, here is the text from the attached .txt file:

Once again this account has been prevented from sharing additional details to this post because it is suspected as spam.

For now, the text for the strategic regions flavour events is available from the attached .txt file and not in this spoiler box, as originally intended.

Notes for Darkest Hour and Kaiserreich modders:
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• Within the text file is a simple list containing all the event numbers used by the various events;
• Also, the attached spreadsheet lists all of the province IDs to provide some ease in the case of further modification;
• Furthermore, a list of flags used in the events has been provided within the #comments of the text file;

Finding province IDs to create strategic regions
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In case anyone reading this post wants to create their own strategic region by modifying the file, here is a helpful hint regarding finding province IDs:

• Press F12 to open the console
• Type "showid" without the quotation marks
  • In the lower right corner of the screen a number will appear indicating the province ID of the specific province which the mouse pointer is hovering over.
• Of course at this point a piece of paper and pencil are useful to record the various province IDs for the specific strategic region one wants to create.

Installation (for Kaiserreich 1.9.3)
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To install the strategic regions flavour events for Kaiserreich for Darkest Hour:

• Assuming the ...\db\events\Other\generic_decisions.txt file has not been modified:
  • Copy-and-paste the text from the "strategic_regions.txt" file shared in this post, into the bottom of the "generic_decisions.txt" file of the Kaiserreich 1.9.3 mod for Darkest Hour.
• The "generic_decisions.txt" file can be found within the following Kaiserreich address:
  • ...\db\events\Other\generic_decisions.txt
  • Note: The \...\ part of the address above is the location of the Kaiserreich mod within one's installation of Darkest Hour.
  • In other words, the address is: [Kaiserreich mod within Darkest Hour] \db\events\other\generic_decisions.txt

IMPORTANT: Although the strategic regions events shared here have been tested within Kaiserreich and function without issue, nevertheless:

• It is strongly suggested that a copy of the "generic_decisions.txt" file be made prior to making any modifications.

Installation (for Darkest Hour vanilla 1.5)
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This file has not been tested with Darkest Hour vanilla. However, it's likely that a similar type of flavour events file can be created for Darkest Hour vanilla, or any other modification. It's also likely that this file can be used in Darkest Hour vanilla as long as:

• the event IDs in the file are not used by other events in Darkest Hour vanilla;
• the province IDs are the same in Darkest Hour vanilla and Kaiserreich; and,
• none of the flags used in this file are used in Darkest Hour vanilla.

If all of the above are checked, then simply copying-and-pasting the text from the "strategic_regions.txt" file shared in this post, into the appropriate generic_decisions.txt type file in Darkest Hour vanilla (or another mod), should create the same strategic regions event options as within Kaiserreich.

• "Should" is emphasized above because, again, this file has only been tested in Kaiserreich.
• As with the use of any modified file:
  • Caution is advised when modifying original files because the simplest error such as an incorrect event ID, or forgetting to start a comment with a hashtag ( "# " ) can prevent Darkest Hour from launching.

Final comments
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Once again: "Cheers!" to everyone who has shared guides and comments on the topic of modifying Darkest Hour. Without your guides and comments the little file shared here would not have been possible. Furthermore, if anyone has created a similar event series for Darkest Hour or Kaiserreich (or both) it is worth recognizing -- in that case -- that the file in this thread was created in ignorance of a similar event concept shared within the forum.

 

[Rohi]

The original post contained the following discussion points, which had to be removed because the post was likely considered spam. In any case, here is the rest of the original post (minus the images, which this account cannot share at this time):

Additional items to consider:
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Following the creation of this file, and browsing this forum, some additional items come to mind. These additional items include:

• Adding more regions:
  • South China Sea (of course in this case, the major countries in the region will likely clash to control these provinces):
    • Baguio; Haikou; Macau; Hong Kong; Gauxiong; Saigon
    • Note with the above that the provinces in this region may conflict with the creation of, lets say, a Spratly Islands region or a "Pearl River Delta Region" (see below)
  • Pearl River Delta:
    • Hong Kong; Macau; Guangzhou
    • The thought of this region is an interesting one because it offers some flavour to the "Legation Cities" available within Kaiserreich. In this case, the Legation Cities has reason to expand out of Hong Kong (declaring war on Portugal in the process) to control the vitally important trade region.
  • Spratly Islands
    • Provinces: Palawn; Kuching; Saigon
    • Here, the Philippines has reason to control not just provinces, but a set of provinces to conquer a resource rich region.
  • Gulf of Guinea
    • Sao Tome; Malabo; Lagos; Port Harcourt; Yarounde
    • This Gulf of Guinea region is an interesting one because it can force Portugal, Spain, and whichever country exists on the western African continent at the time (such as Mittelafrika, Nigeria, and so on) into a conflict over the control of the resource rich region
    • Of course, this region also provides strategic value to the western portion of the African continent, which may provide reason for controllers of nations to acquire the region which may otherwise have not been fought over in other scenarios.
  • The Sea of Sicily
    • Palermo; Siracuse; Malta; Tunis; Tripoli; Bengazi
    • This region is another interesting option. The idea here is that whichever nation controls the important provinces in the region, likely controls the entire central Mediterranean Sea, and therefore will acquire a significant strategic advantage, let's say to transport capacity (TC).
    • Here, a strategic region such as this will offer a significant benefit to major nations which may struggle with transport capacity in the later years.
  • and who knows how many others...

... Upon browsing through the forum again, thought it worthwhile to add a note for another potential strategic region:

• Pacific Islands
  • Not sure the precise islands here;
  • The point with this region is to encourage the conquest of various random islands in the Pacific (east and northeast of Australia);
  • The strategic value, similar to a Sea of Sicily region, can be an improvement to TC (transport capacity) as a means of representing a logistical bonus.

Penalties for not controlling the region, or having an ally not control the region:
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While the flavour events shared here do not address the topic of penalties for not controlling particular regions, it's worth considering an additional scenario:

• If an enemy nation controls a vital trade artery (lets say the Gulf of Oman region), then some form of a logistical penalty will be incurred (such as to oil production);
  • For instance, if Italy does not control the Suez region or the Gibraltar region -- but their enemies do control these regions -- then it's fair to argue that Italy in this case should receive a negative hit on their oil production.
    • Again, the flavour events shared here do not address this idea.
• The intent with this idea is to use penalties as a means to demonstrate the importance of acquiring control over vital trade arteries to nations which may operate as though they are insulated from foreign trade or do not need a navy, and so forth.
  • The point here is that in many campaigns, nations may not ever consider not only acquiring vital trade arteries, but ever building a navy.
    • Therefore, if their lack of control of a vital trade artery gives them a (lets say) negative impact on oil production, then its likely these nations will have an incentive to either build a navy, or go and control a vital trade artery.
• The concept here is to provide incentive for controlling entire regions in order to not just receive bonuses, but conversely: not receive penalties!
  • In other words: nations will not only want to control a strategic region, they might need to control the region in order to not incur a penalty to (for instance) oil production.
  • Or, if a strategic region cannot be controlled directly by a nation, then ensuring they have the nation that does control the particular strategic region within their allegiance network, becomes an important factor to consider in their overall strategic outlook.

Consider the discussion from the thread below about oil production in the Second World War:
[The link to the other paradox thread discussing oil production in Darkest Hour had to be removed because -- again -- this post is being suspected as spam.]

While strategic regions in general do not address the issue of resource production, they may address the problem of resource trade and acquisition. In other words, it is possible that the concept of "strategic regions" may offer an opportunity to provide more strategic flavour particularly in the realm of resource acquisition.

How to create penalties for not controlling strategic regions
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While sitting here and thinking about the idea, the following thought comes to mind:

• If a flag is used to activate the benefits associated with controlling a particular strategic region;
• Then it seems fair to assume (or reason?) that same flag can be used to activate negative consequences to any nation or alliance that is at war with that nation

For instance:

• If country X controls strategic region with the flag "region_a";
• And nation Y is in alliance 123;
• And nation Y (and its alliance 123) is at war with nation X;
• Then nation Y (and its alliance 123) will receive a negative consequence due to being at war with the controller of strategic region with the flag "region_a".

In summary then:

• It might be possible to create penalties (and therefore incentives) for nations to control strategic regions, if the same event flags that provide rewards to those nations that control a strategic region, provide a negative consequence to those nations whom they are at war.

Hopefully the above makes sense. Again, the strategic region flavour events shared here do not include negative consequences (or penalties). However the topic of penalties seemed like one worth discussing considering it might provide a means to enhance the strategic atmosphere within both the Darkest Hour and Kaiserreich map environments.

Another case to consider is regarding nuclear weapons:
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• If a nation is at war with other nations that have control over provinces that -- within the given timeline -- had known uranium deposits, then it's fair to say these nations would likely receive a penalty to nuclear weapon research and production.
• In the case of Kaiserreich:
  • If the Union of Britain is at war with the major uranium nations, then it's fair to say that the Union of Britain should receive a penalty on nuclear weapons research and production unless or until such provinces, or regions, are (re)acquired.

 

[RealityGuy]

Wow, gonna try this

 

[Rohi]

Wow, gonna try this

Great! Hopefully you enjoy the events and who knows how the file above can be further modified.

It seems this account is permitted to add images to posts now. So the "spoiler" boxes above have been updated to contain visual details of the strategic region decisions and their related events. Additionally, the spreadsheet image with all of the region details has been shared and it might be useful to anyone curious about the provinces within each region and their bonuses/rewards.

Finally, a thought just crossed the mind about nuclear weapons research and the possibility of a uranium strategic region:
In the Hearts of Iron 2 wiki (unfortunately this account is not permitted to share hyperlinks since they're considered as spam) the following commands are listed:

• type = allow_building which = [building type]
  • Allow the construction of a certain building type.
• type = building_prod_mod which = [building type] value = X%
  • Bonus to production time. Additive. NOTE: Positive value = reduced time.

It seems possible that a command can be created whereby the controller of provinces (or region) that were known to have uranium at the time, can have a positive impact on nuclear reactor production. Of course, the reverse can also -- possibly -- apply: not controlling uranium strategic regions, or not being allied to a nation that has access to uranium, will have a negative impact on nuclear reactor production (and/or research?).

A further question has come to mind regarding whether these commands can be connected to research. In other words:

• If a nation does not have access to uranium provinces, and neither do its alliance members, and it is at war with nations that do have plenty of uranium provinces, then a significant penalty to nuclear research will be triggered.

Personally curious if the above is possible, and it will take some time to figure out by testing various event commands.

A similar concept to the above was in Hearts of Iron 3 (Hoi3). In Hoi3, certain provinces had strategic value (such as uranium) and provided bonuses to nuclear research (if recalling correctly). The question here seems to be whether a similar concept can be implemented in Darkest Hour -- and its other mods. Of course, the above line-of-thought does not stop at nuclear production/research and uranium. For instance, tungsten and rubber might be considered resources of strategic value that are located within particular regions. And, as a consequence, controlling or not controlling such regions will have positive or negative effects on related production, research, and so forth.

 

[pakotorino]

I'm gonna try mee too on Fatherland.
Really cool idea.

 

[Rohi]

I'm gonna try mee too on Fatherland.
Really cool idea.

Awesome!

In the coming days -- possibly tomorrow -- there will likely be an update to the txt file with about 5 or 6 additional regions added. The regions will include:

• Sea of Sicily;
• Gulf of Guinea;
• Spratly Islands or South China Sea;
• Pearl River Delta;
• Coral Sea (Pacific islands northeast of Australia);
• and possibly more. Not sure yet.

The updated file will be shared here so others can use it as a template for their own projects, or just try it out as is, whatever they want.

Once the above is completed, will possibly move to using the decision flags to activate/deactivate alliance bonuses and penalties as mentioned above. Although, admittedly, such an endeavour will take some time to create and test/troubleshoot. And not sure the concept will create an environment of too many events, or beneficially add to the strategic experience.

Whatever the result, if and when the above regions are added and shared as a template for others, will possibly move on to creating and testing an alliance bonus/penalty scenario for controlling/not controlling strategic regions.

 

[Rohi]

Hello,

As mentioned above, more regions have been added to the strategic_regions.txt file and an updated template is available to be enjoyed as is, or modified further. The updated template (v2.0 of the strategic_regions.txt file) is shared with this post. In addition to the updated .txt file is an updated spreadsheet detailing the additional regions. In total there are 20 strategic regions (eleven added in v2.0), and numerous provinces now have strategic value. The spreadsheet file was saved as a .pdf, and then cropped to form a single .png image. The revised strategic regions spreadsheet is available to view within the "Spoiler" tab below as a .png image.

Version 2.0 of the strategic_regions.txt file has been attached to this post.

Spoiler: Here is the updated strategic regions spreadsheet for v2.0

Strategic regions added in v2.0
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A total of eleven (11) regions have been added to the file. Here is a list of the added regions with a brief description of each region within the context of the Kaiserreich mod, although the file can be modified to work with other mods or with Darkest Hour vanilla:

• Caribbean Sea
  • This region contains provinces from the Netherlands; the Caribbean Federation; USA; Venezuela; Dominican Republic; and, Haiti.
  • Considering the above, acquisition of the provinces required to form the region will result in a large conflict with neighbours.
• English Channel
  • This region was added because it made sense with the over-all concept of "strategic regions";
  • In other words, it's reasonable to think that controlling the English Channel will result in logistical bonuses and commercial rewards;
  • Note: Brugges has been included so that the region contains provinces from three countries.
• Sea of Sicily
  • Algeria/France; Libya; Syndicalist Italy; and, Germany (via Malta) all have provinces in this region at the start of Kaiserreich;
  • Therefore, acquiring this region will likely mean a war between numerous states.
• Gulf of Guinea
  • This region is rich in resources and has been noted historically for its rich resources;
  • The controller of this region will receive minerals, however -- of course -- the file can be modified to suit individual preferences;
    • or, the file can be modified by a modder who wants it to be customized for their own scenario.
  • This region does not offer a logistical bonus because the concept of a logistical bonus here doesn't seem to fit;
  • Keep in mind this region (in the context of Kaiserreich) includes Spain and Portugal due to their island provinces;
  • Therefore, again, acquiring this region will result in a larger war.
• Madagascar Strait
  • [This region is likely "made-up" and not plausible historically]
  • While this region is not notable within the timeframe, it's worthwhile to consider as an alternative when bypassing the Red Sea and Suez;
  • Also, this region includes islands which are often not-ever fought over within the map;
  • In other words, the intent with this region is to entice the player to consider fighting over the islands around Madagascar (and Madagascar itself);
• Nine Degree Channel
  • This region is located to the southwest of India;
  • In Kaiserreich, this region includes provinces from the Princely Federation and Germany;
  • Again, the intent with this region is to make the islands in the region worth fighting over, especially making Sri Lanka (Colombo) more significant.
• Bay of Bengal
  • This region (in Kaiserreich) includes provinces from the Syndicalist India, Burma, Germany (and Princely Federation/Madras)
  • Similar to the above, this region adds more "strategic flavour" to the Indian Ocean region of the map.
  • Also similar to the above, this region was arguably a major transport conduit during the timeframe considering it connects the Red Sea (thus Suez) with the Malacca Strait (and then China, Japan, etc.)
• Spratley Islands
  • Includes provinces from Philippines; Germany; and, the Netherlands (in Kaiserreich);
  • The primary purpose with this region is to offer the Philippines a worthwhile strategic adventure, considering its surrounded by powerful adversaries.
• Pearl River Delta
  • Portugal, Germany/German China/and Legation Cities all have provinces in this region (in Kaiserreich);
  • The primary intent with this region has been to offer the Legation Cities a region worth fighting over while creating more strategic "flavour";
  • There's also a historical case for this region considering it was a notable commercial hub within the timeframe.
• Sakishima Islands in the East China Sea
  • The idea here is to offer some more strategic flavour in the Pacific region;
  • This region consists of provinces from Mainland China (Shainghai and Fuzhou); and Japan (southern Okinawa and Taipei);
    • Note Southwest Okinawa -- meaning the entire island will have to be conquered;
  • Of course, the controller of this region will likely create a war between the two regional powers (China-Japan).
• Coral Sea
  • The purpose of this region has been to increase the strategic value of the random islands in the Pacific;
  • The file (as it is) provides only a TC boost, however it can easily be modified to provide other bonuses;
  • The reasoning behind the bonus is that once the various islands with their airfields and naval ports are acquired, one will receive a notable logistical improvement -- hence the TC boost.

Additional notes:
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• None of the original regions (from v1.0) have been modified; only regions added.
• Note the changes to the transport capacity (TC) and supply production efficiency bonuses (SPE):
  • Whereas the original file provided a flat +10 TC bonus (for example),
  • Many of the regions in the v2.0 file will provide a TC % increase bonus;
  • In other words, instead of +10 to base TC, the bonus is now +10% to overall TC.
• The reasoning for the change in TC is the recognition that percentage increases are more plausible than flat numerical increases within the given context;
• Different countries have different size economies and military, therefore once a military acquires a region that improves their logistical network, it's more sensible to have their TC improvement appear in the form of a percentage increase rather than a flat number to the base.
  • In other words: the same TC bonus to every country's military, regardless of size, doesn't seem to make sense in the context of a "logistical bonus";
• A similar case has been made with the SPE (supply production efficiency):
  • Instead of a region providing a flat +20 supply increase, the bonus is (in most additional regions) a +20% SPE bonus.
  • In other words, the supply production will increase by percentage, thereby reflecting the various economic sizes of the numerous countries which may acquire the region(s).
• As noted above: resources have remained numerical additions to the country's base production instead of a production percentage (%) increase.
  • The reason why resources are not production percentage increases is because some countries may not only have a lack of the particular resource in question; they may not have any deposits of the particular resource at all!
    • In the case above, providing a percentage increase to a resource which a nation does not produce is not only not fair, it's not reasonable.
  • Therefore, the resource bonuses from the regions (such as the Gulf of Guinea) are to reflect the notion that the controller of the region has acquired a form of monopoly over the resource production and trade from the region -- by controlling the ports -- therefore they are able to acquire additional resources from the region as a whole.

Uranium provinces/regions and nuclear weapons
************************************************************************************
The concept of a uranium province/region was discussed above and it has been successfully created as a test. During the test, a random province was picked to have uranium. The purpose of the test was to connect controlling the province with nuclear research. Fortunately the test was a success!

• In other words: "uranium regions" (or provinces) can be created for the sole purpose of enabling industrial nuclear research.
• The reasoning here is that countries that lack uranium will likely not be able to research far into nuclear technology.
• Therefore, the only way a country can get access to the industrial nuclear technology is to acquire a province which has uranium.

Again, the above test was successful. The following issues do come to mind:

• Will uranium provinces/regions create a scenario of "too many decisions"?
  • Sure, decisions can be organized alphabetically and by date; however currently there are over 15 strategic region decisions, and that number might be too much for some, regardless of the "strategic flavour" they provide.
• Which provinces had uranium within the Darkest Hour timeframe?
  • So far the following are notable for possible uranium deposits in the WW2 period:
    • Czech/Bohemia;
    • Ukraine/USSR;
    • Saskatchewan/Canada
    • Colorado(?)/USA
    • Congo/Central Africa
  • Note: the list above is not precise, and further investigation will be required into this topic if such a scenario is wanted.
• What's interesting here, is that -- in the case of Kaiserreich, for instance -- countries that do not have uranium cannot research nuclear technology and therefore no nuclear weapons; and,
  • countries that do have uranium can lose their provinces, thereby losing their ability to conduct further research!

Final thoughts:
************************************************************************************

• Considering revising the original template (v1.0) and either removing the Gulf of Oman, or, creating an additional region:
  • The Persian Gulf (which will include more provinces than the Oman region currently does);
• Similar to the above, but in the case of the Red Sea:
  • Perhaps a larger "Red Sea" region can be created?
  • Controlling a region is supposed to reflect having influence over the trade/shipping in the region
  • In the case of the Red Sea, it seems plausible that the owner of the Suez might have their influence restricted in the greater region if the owner of the Gulf of Aden is an opponent;
  • Therefore, perhaps an additional "Red Sea" region can be created, thereby reflecting the "entire control" of the Red Sea, from Aden to Suez?
  • Or, combining Suez with Aden and giving a "super bonus"...?

The above are just thoughts to consider, not sure if the regions in v1.0 will be revised or not. At least for now the file is a decent template for others to work from or enjoy as it is.

 

[Rohi]

Hello,

Here is a minor update to the strategic_regions.txt file that will enable the strategic region flavour events to be accessed in The Grand Campaign 1914-1991 mod (TGC). Note that these flavour events have not been thoroughly tested in TGC. What is meant by "thoroughly" is that the events have been tested with one faction, instead of numerous factions. What has been acknowledged, however, is the following:

• The contents from the "strategic_regions.txt" file were copied into the "generic_decision.txt" event file in the TGC mod;
• The start dates for each of the decisions were changed from 1936 to 1913;
• Starting as the Ottomans in the 1914 scenario (which is likely the only faction in TGC starting in control of a strategic region) the decisions were available without errors;
• The Bosporus decision was available to the Ottomans without errors;
• An assumption was therefore made that the flavour events will work with all factions in TGC (as they should).

Fortunately, it appears that the event IDs for the strategic_regions.txt decisions were not used by other events in TGC, hence why they were initiated without errors upon initiating the 1914 scenario for the Ottomans.

So then, here are the updates to v2.1 of the strategic_regions.txt file:

• Start dates for decisions changed from 1936 to 1913;
  • Thus, the events are available in the TGC 1914 scenario;
• All regions from v1.0 now provide:
  • percentage (%) bonus to transport capacity (TC) instead of off-map bonus; and,
  • supply production efficiency (SPE) percentage bonus instead of an off-map bonus;
• Bosporus off-map money changed from +1 to +2;
• Again, no additional regions added;
• Provinces within regions from v2.0 were not modified.

It seems fair to say now that these flavour events work within Kaiserreich and TGC (The Grand Campaign Mod) -- and likely others -- however personal tests have not been conducted so no confirmation can be given at this time.

While it is possible to install the decisions as a separate text file using the "strategic_regions.txt" file as is, a simpler approach is arguably just copying and pasting the text from the strategic_regions.txt file into the "generic_decisions.txt" file found in TGC (similar to in Kaiserreich).

Therefore, to install the strategic regions flavour events into The Grand Campaign (TGC) mod:

• Copy and paste the text from the strategic_regions.txt file into the bottom of the following file:
  • generic_decisions.txt
• The location of the file above is found within the following folder:
  • \...\Darkest Hour\Mods\TGC 4-9-2018\db\events

Finally, it might be worth repeating here that these events are not available to the A.I -- although some minor modifications to the file can enable the events for the A.I. Since there are already numerous events for the A.I., enabling these events might cause an issue (not sure) and likely it's a case-by-case basis depending on the mod.

v2.1 of the strategic_regions.txt file has been attached to this post.