With steam and petrol - a Steampunk/Dieselpunk mod?

[d0nut]

A few days ago I started thinking about creating my own scenario for HoI. At first I just wanted to create events that would allow me to play the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Slowly I started altering more and more countries, thinking of their alternative history and stuff. Eventually I started writing it down. Then my friend said that it might be fun if I could add new units steampunk/dieselpunk style (zeppelins, flying battleships, some primitive mecha maybe) and I thought it wasn't sucha bad idea. Im not sure I will be able to do everything I want for this mod, but it is going quite well for the time being.

I started with dividing the world between countries I want in my scenario. Next I'll take care of their starting armies, leaders, relationships. I'm kind of worried by the future AI changes (I think I won't be able to avoid them) and some graphic changes but let's just hope it won't be that bad. For now - some world pics (please note that I might still change the borders or even add some countries):

Europe


As you can see we have a Poland and Lithuania in an alliance (and LIT is a puppet for Poland). In the north - a united Scandinavia. Germany and Austria are allied. Bulgaria is a Ottoman puppet. UK is the master of Ireland. The last alliance is between France (leader), Rep.Spain and Portugal. Switzerland and Italy aren't in any alliance.

Africa:


Not much to say here - most of the continent is divided between the UK and France. The country in control of the south is South (who would have guessed) Africa.

Central Asia:


Not much to say here either.

East Asia:


Larger Mongolia (and it's not a SOV puppet) and united China. Japan stole some SOV land, but it's puppet MAN lost some. Also - Siam is a JAP puppet and has taken over british and french land.

Australia:


The UK rules here - with most of the islands under their control and Australia as a puppet. Also New Zeland has it's strings pulled by the British Empire.

N. America:


The US has a bit of a problem - in the north the british puppet (another one) named Canada and the CSA in the south.

Thats all for the first update (no south am because nothing changed there yet). I know it's not much but I'll try to post something tomorrow (or in the morning since it is "tomorrow" already ). For the time being feel free to give me advice or criticise or give ideas if you wish.

 

[d0nut]

After changing the goverments in all countries (also I'm thinking of adding Brazil to the FRA/SPR/POR alliance) I decided to try and make an Air Battleship. It turned out not being so simple... Took me quite some time and finally I just made one in place of the str bombers (I am thinking of getting rid of str and tac bombers and putting air bb and zeppelins in their place). Here's a sample. Every stat was more or less random, it will change after some tests.



I want to make them really powerful so they will become very important for winning battles. Of course they will be also expensive to build and keep.

 

[Antihussite]

It looks wonderful! Please, finish this mod

Suggestion - Your mighty Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is surrounded by bitter and powerful enemies - maybe you could create a Kingdom of Bohemia as a PLC ally, let´s say with ME as a king

 

[SimonFin]

Good luck mate, you'll need it! Total conversion is a big job and long way! Idea is great and original!

 

[unmerged(118146)]

Good luck dude! Well, I just wanna know... Where and what's the main turning point of this game?

 

[Ithron]

Great idea!
How about giving Germans some land in Africa, for example central africa? and giving them Falklend islands or the island to the south of Argentina, kind of German Base in Antarctica?
Sad that no Latvia or Estonia (seperate or united as Livonia or some other name)
How about some of the Kaukaz countries? there are many possibilities with them, but you could have just some 1 or 2, maybe fictional.
Also, it would be original to have Tatarstan, Bashkiria or some similar lands being independent or puppet though they are in the middle of Soviet Union. Ah! You could have not Soviet Union, but the state that existed after car was abdicted but communists hadn't usurped all power. That is..a bit of history..
in 1917 for half a year, in Russia there were 2 political powers - 1) provisional government, made by small group of intelectuals, professors, etc. held power over high issues like diplomacy, main economic policy, etc, but very little "lower" power, means implement this high politics. 2) Soviets of Soldiers and Workers - self made local groups that held local power all over the country, but nothing more then power in their own region. For half a year those 2 powers worked together, one on the grand scale, second (each place had its own "council" or in russian - "soviet") on the smallest scale. well, half a year later bolsheviks just made a coup against this provisional government, and then slowely get rid of all "true soviets" that is, councils actually made and governed by the local people, and made those councils into organisations led by their people with no power whatsoever. thats enough history for today
SO! how about having this wierd and unstable (well, for the time it actually was stable - both powers needed each other badly, so it worked, even though it looks very unstable) democratic-anarhistic country instead of usual soviet union? historically it was still named Russia, but if somehow would have survived for 20 years, for example if bolshevik coup didn't work out or didn't happen, the name could be made very interesting, representing this unique state. maybe United Democratic Soviet Russia.., Democratic Anarchistic Republic of Russia..
anyways. if poland is great, and it is great in your map, it should have some colonies.. there was this joke, about colonies. Poland allways thinks that it is the 5th great power of europe and this greatness was stolen from them repeatedly by neighbours.. anyway. some years ago they suddenly thought, that since it was great power, and all great powers have had colonies, and they didn't, then maybe they are not so great power after all so, they searched, if maybe there was some colony, and they found! in 16-18th century there was Duchy of Curland, that had colonies in Trinidada and Tobago and Gambia. Oficially this duchy was vasal of Poland, so, polish historians decided that they had colonies after all! even though it went against all laws of the time yipii for them! so, maybe in this game they could have some colonies, for example, as suggested by IIRP polish mod, colonies in southern Brazil, Liberia, and similar scraps and bits around the place, maybe even the Trinidada and Tobago, and Gambia, that belonged to Curland.
On a similar note what about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Sweden for scandinavia.
And, Scandinavia could have cores on Estonia, at least for casus belli.
Ah, and Scandinavia could have Saamiland as inner puppet
Cheers, and keep up the good work.

 

[Jape]

Excellent idea sir, such a mod has been on my mind but beyond occassionally thinking "That would AMAAAAAZIN'" I haven't progressed anywhere.

For your flying BBs I'd say make them slow with ridiculously strong defence and massive bombing abilitiy. Basically a steampunk death star . The image of swarms of enemy interceptors desperately trying to down a flying BB as its city-killer cannon charges up over London/Berlin/Paris ala Independence Day is just too sweet. You could do something like that to replace nukes as the ultimate weapon.

I want even go into the mastabatory joy of two flying BBs battling over a cityscape o

 

[d0nut]

Since im in the middle of my exams I might not be able to post often (but I haven't stopped working on the mod; I spend all my time working on it - it's a nice way to relax ). I'll try to answer and update as often as I can.

Antihussite I've been considering creating Bohemia for some time now.

SimonFin Thanks for the support.

samuelspellmann I'm not sure what kind of a turning point are you talking about. If by that you mean events then I can say this: because the alliances in this mod are usually small (about 4 countries max) there will be no event that will start a global war (at least I'm not planning one now) like the one between the Axis and Allies. Of course there will be a world war (not sure what number thou - depending on how I will "rewirte" history it will be 1 or 2 or 3 XD ) but it will start off small: one war, then some countries will join, the nervous atmosphere will start affecting other countries and they will start their own wars. I'd like to make it a global war in the end, a war where every last country will be involved (even Switzerland ). Of course some events will affect a lot of countries.

I wouldn't like to write about events I'll make but I guess I can share this:
George V had one more son - a year younger then George VI, a very ambitious and powerlusting man. He might change UKs history. And he probably will...

Ithron German colonies - I'm not saying no, but rather then africa I see them in the south america. Argentina looks nice >:]
Also - your idea of a democratic (but kinda unstable) russia is an interesting one. I will think about it. Never was a great commie fan, thou Stalin is one madman I'd like to keep in the mod (probably no Hitler thou). Another thing - I might add a country like the Crimean Khanate, only a bit larger. For some time I am also considering adding a Teutonic Knights country (prussia lands). It would be small, probably a Polish puppet (what? I'm a patriot - of course I'll try to make my country stronger) but strongly influenced by German and Austria (maybe even an uprising event option... who knows ).

Jape Thats more or less exacly how I see them (the air BBs). For the time being I'll keep to the idea of changing strat into ABBs and tac to Zeppelins. My biggest problem with them for now is the sprite - I'm no comp gfx artist... but hell, when the time comes, I'll think of something (prolly will do tokens first - they seem easy to make).

 

[SwordOfJustice]

Great idea for a mod, buddy. I'd love to see a mod like this.

One question you should sit down and really think through is whether you're able and willing to put in about 1500-2000 hours of your personal time into a project like this.

Having worked on the Fallout's Doomsday mod for more than a year and a half now, that's my estimate on the hours to make an ambitious total conversion mod.

Work out roughly how many hours you can put in per week including each weekend and then you can see what it takes to make to finish such a project. And the other thing to think about is if it's worth starting anything if you know you won't finish it.

Just questions I'd suggest any modder should be aware of before they start.

Cheers,
Sword

P.S. What about HOI3 coming out soon?

 

[unmerged(66346)]

This mod is a good idea, I actually wanted to do that someday but don't have the time.

Having the same experience I'll agree with SwordOfJustice, but do not bother about maybes and HOI3 yet, it's a unknown terrain and you need to develop ideas, make them concrete and put them in the game and see what actually happens both games aren't begin so different anyway. Much of HOI2 modding is about conceptual thinking especially when making new tech-trees as it's an quite abstract game, ideas are eternal and more modable than a game engine so it's cost nothing to start making them concrete even if you'd to change platform latter.

 

[d0nut]

Thank you for any and all advice.
I am aware that this mod might take a lot of my time, but that doesn't change the fact I still want to make it. I enjoy writing and coding stuff - it's kinda a way for me to relax. Sometimes I do get frustrated when some problem is in my way but thats just the part of the process.

About HoI3 - I know that maybe I should wait till it is launched, but I don't want to. I don't think I would drop creating this mod after HoI3 is out. I study programming so working on any project is a valuable experience for me. Plus - I often prefer the older versions of games both to play and mod. (I once was creating mods for both Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights; even thou NvN has a full editor I prefer playing with BG files 10x more ). Maybe I will turn to HoI3 at some point but probably after finishing this mod or after abandoning it (lets just hope the second option will never occur )

Now some progress info:

Like I said before - due to my exams the work is going slow now, but when the weekend starts I will prolly concentrate on the mod. For now I'm finishing the POL and LIT starting gov, armies and land buildings (AA, IC, naval/air bases). Next I'll take care of AUS and GER.

A few days ago I tried playing the mod. Every country had no army or buildings at the beggining of the game and I didn't concentrate on building too much infantry with the country I played. I had DAIM instaled. The game was very amusing and interesting. Some facts from it:

POL/LIT(me) vs SOV war lasted 2 years and was lost by POL when GER/AUS attacked it. Then GER/AUS dow'd ITA and the war was going just fine till FRA attacked GER. I took control of GER and stopped the FRA offensive and push ITA towards Rome. When I thought the germans would win over FRA I took control of ENG to look from the side. JAP dow'd CHI and lost all control on the continent apart from Siam and their land around it. CHI dow'd me and took India. I was surprised to see that even thou ger had an advantage they lost to FRA and AUS to ITA. FRA started a war with the soviets. I started a war with turkey, france and the ussr, persia and scandinavia joined my alliance. After a half year war with the USA they took canada. When I stopped playing I (ENG) controled the middle east, all africa apart from the south (thay kept me on the border) and ITA part, landed in FRA pressed south to spain (fighting with a large spain/france army) and east past the former polish border (FRA was waaay beyond moscow), Turkey went deep into SOV territory, PER lost to CHI and finaly the JAPs made their offensive both in india and national china provinces.

I hope when I finish all games will look like that XD

 

[unmerged(66346)]

If you've time or haven't done it yet I'll recommend you to read : A nomad on the time streams by Michael Moorcock which include a lot of things that may inspire your steampunk universe.

 

[d0nut]

I changed the east europe map a bit

http://img22.imageshack.us/my.php?image=thecommonwealthkq1.jpg

Now POL and LIT aren't alone. After some internal trouble in russia (I'll go with the democratic rus for now, maybe the soviets will have a part of it) Poland helped restoring peace in Ukraine territory and allowed some people (chosen by the POL gov >:]) to rise to power allowing the creation of an almost independent country (POL puppet). As for Prussia - it is also a puppet but has strong connections with GER/AUS and some people would like to see it independent or even... a part of Germany (GER clamis)!

Progress is going slowly but still going. I'll probably give one update per week.

 

[gll25]

Great mod man. Just hope you can finish it.

 

[d0nut]

To prove I am doing somethning here is a little update:

I mostly finished the europe map and relations between european countries. Here are the borders, claims and some background:

- The Three Countries Commonwealth:





In 1569 Poland and Lithuania formed Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Ruled by noble families this two

country democracy was on the edge of destruction many times, yet no alliance, no foe was able to wipe it from the map. In 1772 Prussia, Russia and Habsburg Austria tried to take advantage of Poland and part it between their countries. They failed. Threatened by invasion the nobles stood up and in a major mobilisation were able to gather a forces to stand up against an attack. Seeing how the king didn't do anything about the partition the nobles took full control of the country and since then Poland was ruled by chosen noble families representants. Lithuania was similar, yet always their goverment was strongly influenced by Poland and eventually they depended on their neighbour. In 1902 during the war between Europen empires and the Ottoman Empire the Commonwealth aligned with Austria and Italy and helped pushing back the ottomans in Odessa and Crimea. After the Sofia Conference (1920) where the peace treaty was signed Poland recieved Ottoman land at the north coast of the Black Sea. It was then that Ukraine was established and the Three Contries Commonwealth alliance was formed. In 1936 Poland and it's two puppets are a stable country with a quite high industrialisation, even thou the Great Industrialisation (1770 - 1900) didn't affect it there are some signs of it :
- the creation PKM - Polska Kolej Międzypaństwowa - a great railway connecting Warsaw with Danzing, Grodno and Kiev;
- building of the Wielka Stocznia Gdańska (Great Danzing Shipyard) the larges shipyard/navalbase on the Baltic Coast;
- the creation of Bolesław Chrobry - Polands first (and only) air battleship (named after Polands first king);

They keep good relations with Scandinavia, Austria, France, Italy and Britain. Relations with Germany and Russia are neutral/bad. All other countries are neutral.


- Scandinavia:





Since the VIIIth century Vikings were feared by all of europe fearsome warriors who traveled to lands no one knew about. The only thing that prevented this agressive nation from conquering the old continent was the lack of agreement between the various clans. Once in a while one clan leader took over the title of the Great Warchief and led the country into war with some nation. The most famous Warchief was Ulfar the Wise who managed to invade the British islands (he was the last succesfull leader to do that) in 1804. Also he made the Warchief a permanent head of Scnadinavia. Now a new Warchief is chosen after the death of the ruling one between heads of major clans. In 1936 Scandinavia is the most neutral country in europe right after Switzerland. Not taking part in major wars during the past 50 years allowed them to build their influence, army, navy and industrial capacity. The present Warchief will soon die and there are 4 candidates to take his place. Scandinavia doesn't have any large air units (mostly fighters and some cas) but they have a quite large navy and they are working towards creating a mechanized/armor land army.



Thats it for today, I'll post more tomorrow (probably Germany, Austria, Romania, Italy). Comments would be nice ^^

 

[Antihussite]

I´ll tell you what it is - awesome!
I´m looking forward to playing your mod

 

[d0nut]

As promised:

- Germany





In 1936 Germany is the most industrialized country in the world. Factories cover over half of it's land. Fast steam powered trains go across the whole country. Many of the machines produced in germany are known worldwide (cars, planes etc.). Their army is probably the most motorized/mechanized in the world. They have three air battleships and many fighter divisions. Their navy is based on submarines. Germans are known for their aggressive politics. Fortunately their actions are strongly influenced by Austria (they are alligned) so they keep their calm, but who knows what would happen if someday germany would break their Austrian friendship press its neighbours to reclaim their land (denmark, benelux, prussia). Recent important events:
- 1898-1902 War over benelux against France;
- 1912-1918 Took part in the Colonial Wars helping Argentina;
- 1902-1920 helped Austria in the war against the Ottomans;

They are in good relations with Austria, Romania and Argentina (all in an alliance). Besides that they have good relations with Scandinavia. They are neutral/good with Britain. Neutral/bad relations with The Three Countries Commonwealth, Spain, Bulgaria, Ottomans, Russia, Italy. Bad relations with France (recent war over Benelux) and Portugal (since the Colonial Wars).

- Austria





Austria tries to keep the old continent in one piece. Since the beginning of the Great Industrialisation they created a great army and kept things calm in Europe. Their main problem was the Ottoman Empire with whom they battled many times. The biggest war was in 1902 when the Empire tried invading Austria and pushed further into balkan land. Thats when Austria signed a pact with Italy and Poland and fought againts the Ottomans. They were succesful and took a lot of land away from their opponent. To show their gratitude to the people of Romania Austria liberated their country and helped them in the process of regaining independance. According to the pact with Italy they were supposed to liberate countries in the balkans, but that never happened. Not only did Italy take full control of the lands it also took some land that was taken away from Austria during the war. The only reason Austria didn't attack Italy was the fact that they were weakened by the war. Will the near future bring a new war? A war in which the great country will take what is rightfully theirs?
Austria once had a great army, but lost almost half of it during the war with the empire. They still have some armor divisions, 2 air battleships and a few zeppelins. With their acces to the sea they lost their whole navy.
They keep warm relations with every country except Italy and the Ottomans.

-
Italy





During the Colonial War lost their lands in east africa but managed to keep the lands in the north. After the war against the Ottomans Italy broke Sofia Pact and took full control over the conquered land. When the civil war in Spain started (1921 )Italy was among the coutries that took part in it. France, Portugal and Britain supported the republicans and italy - the nationals. In 1922 when the war ended and Reps won Italy gave shelter to the fleeing Nat Spains leaders. They try to make Italy invade Spain to hand over the country to them. But it looks like the Italian goverment has other plans - taking away from the Ottomans their last lands in europe. More control over the sea is also their goal.
They have a medium army, mostly inf. Their air force is based on zeppelins and fighters. Their navy is the most powerful in the Mediterranean Sea - battleships, battlecruisers as well as destroyers. They have poor relations with every country in europe but somewhat neutral with South Africa.

 

[d0nut]

Didn't update as often as I wanted, sorry.
Anyway I finished the whole world map and gov's. Next up - buildings and armies.

Finished maps:

Europe


Africa


Middle East


Asia


Australia


North America


Central America


South America



Romania




Recieved their independance after the European-Ottoman war. They fought bravely and earned with blood every km of land they have. They have claims on some land Poland and Austria control, but since they are allied with Austria they try to get it by diplomatic means. Same goes for Poland as Romania doesn't want to start a war. They have a limited army - mostly infantry units, very weak airforce. Their navy is based on ships they have captured during the war.
Romania has good relations with Austria, France, Spain, Portugal and Germnay; neutral with Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Scandinavia, UK and Italy; poor with the Ottomans and Bulgaria.

 

[Onlyhestands]

Pretty Map