Which of the special projects are worth it?

[Stolen Rutters]

The problem with special projects is time. Sure, motherships are considered OP by many players, but are you really going to be using them in your games? That depends a lot on what you are doing in your games.

This means that there is a lot of context to what special projects are actually useful. This extends to the point that I've gotten tired of some games before I could get things like fleet nuclear subs with SLBMs in action. Nice techs, but I'm not running the clock for that long just sitting around waiting for the projects to finish, then the ships to finish, and so on.

As another example, I consider flame tanks to be just about always worth it. But part of the reason is that most countries start out being able to get that project into place the moment they get their first breakthrough. And you can produce the flame tanks on IW hulls if you want. It's not like you need unlock 1940 mediums or 1939 artillery to get them to work.

This is a good post.

I played Italy to test the new GtD dlc research options earlier this year, and you get an aviation research facility by focus, and you can get it very early, but Italy needs to build all the other facilities from scratch. Civ factories are very limited.

This means radar and helicopters are quite easy to get before the war, but you need to sacrifice a fair bit of civilian factory production to get flame tanks.
Armored vehicles breakthrough comes after the war starts, I guess there’s a way to work out how to get it earlier with how everyone is talking here though.

…and if you want flame tanks AND cruiser subs before the war, good luck building enough infantry equipment and support equipment for your units. (At least that’s what happened when I tried to acquire all four research labs as soon as possible, so I clearly need to work out a new “optimum” build sequence to maintain my basic kit production.)

 

[BurningEGO]

A lot of countries can get 1 early facility and get some early and easy projects done. The issue in many cases isn't even the special facilities but the political power for scientists. Specially when each scientist starts costing 100.

Most of those are suited for ahistorical runs when you want to declare war somewhere after 1940-1943 since in many of those, tension takes ages to build up. This, if you aren't playing as the usual fascist / commie cronny.

As of late I keep going for super heavy howitzer and for superior firepower doctrine, so I am always saving those 2 initial points. But its more of a personal preference than anything else.

 

[Lamartine]

The problem with special projects is time.

This I think is the overlooked balancing variable. It's a nice compromise that HOI4 has these wacky inventions but many are at leastssomewhat tied to history and they are so late game that most players don't encounter them.

I'd like an option to outright disable the crazier ones like Land Cruiser, similar to (a)historical toggle. But it's a pretty good compromise for the moment.

 

[Findell_HOI]

Radar is really the only one that is required.

Others are nice to have and make some things easier but aren't 100% needed.

I tend to avoid them on most nations because you just dont need to spend the production on them. But if you are a super power or have a large economy then things like Nuclear ones are worth it.

The mothership is still broken so if you are the USA or Germany or Russia you can get that they are the only countries that can really manage the resources and factories for them without crippling the economy.

I just find most of the special project lack luster with the amount of time and effort that goes into them vs what you get. The only ones I really bother with let you do useful things that you can't do otherwise like the.

Flame Tanks
Cruiser Submarine

 

[Secret Master]

The mothership is still broken so if you are the USA or Germany or Russia you can get that they are the only countries that can really manage the resources and factories for them without crippling the economy.

I might want to test how efficient 1944 fighters are against basic motherships in terms of aluminum, not production cost.

The reason is because the last time I used them in great numbers, I found myself using up so much aluminum that even with massive imports, I was having to pull factories off planes entirely.