Greetings all!
Welcome back to todays feature dev diary on a series of interconnected subsystems being added to the game in By Blood Alone.
One of the major points in my first roadmap dev diary was that I felt quite strongly about the inclusion of further roleplay and immersive elements in Hearts of Iron. What Ill be showing off today is intended to fulfill a small part of this bullet point.
Those of you with keen memories will recall an early teaser I posted here. Some of you guessed correctly, and in BBA, weve introduced a dynamic system for naming battleplans. For many major nations, battleplan names can be provided through a list of locations, resulting in a historical series of operation tags which will be applied when plans are created:
Of course, the war does not always proceed historically, and battleplan names can also be generated from several component lists for instances where a historical variant cannot be found. These name lists are fully moddable, and can be unique to countries. In some cases (ie; Soviet Union) a different naming convention can be utilized to represent the somewhat uninventive approach to naming operations that was used in reality:
Naturally, in the spirit of roleplaying, these operation names can be modified in-game, and you can replace the text with whatever operation name you desire. This will apply to any sub-orders derived from the initial drawn line:
If unset, naval landing and paradrop orders will have a unique pattern to remain unique.
This system however, goes further than a simple naming convention, and ties into another addition being made to BBA.
Division Commanders
In BBA, were replacing the standard method of recruiting new generals out of thin air. Instead, every division will be created with a commanding officer upon game start, or when they are trained:
These are predominantly generated from country-specific namelists, however in some cases we have set these individually for starting divisions. When a new unit is created, they will be provided a randomly generated character name and portrait. To accommodate the increased use of generic portraits for these, well be adding a large quantity of additional generic portraits for owners of BBA. The work involved in creating these is not insignificant, so for now weve limited ourselves in adding portraits to major nations only. Youll be able to get an overview of all division commanders in your army within the officer corps screen:
In an effort to avoid unnecessary micromanagement, weve made a few important decisions. Division commanders themselves will not directly confer bonuses upon the divisions they command, however the divisions they command will now earn and log a record of important actions they may perform during the natural course of a campaign:
Important actions such as taking a capital, securing a high-value victory point, and more, constitute actions for which a unit can be awarded a medal. It is expected that over the course of a campaign, many units will qualify for receiving medals, often several - the system is not driven by scarcity, as we do not intend for players to micromanage individual actions, rather to manage the macro-level step of choosing when and what to award their units.
As mentioned above, division commanders will not explicitly confer bonuses, however the medals awarded for action will. Medals are intended to act as a pp sink for the mid-late game, as we find a lot of players tend to end up with a significant amount of this resource as decisions, advisors and focuses begin to dwindle. Units can receive multiple medals, however the cost for each will increase as more are granted to any given unit, and the effect of stacking specific medals will decrease per instance of the same effect. As you will note above, medals can be specific to countries, and weve included a series of generic medals based on alignment, as well as unique medal sets for each major country. A medals effects will only extend to the unit it belongs to. A medals name and description will in most cases be dynamic depending on what action it was awarded for, and extreme valor while on a specific named operation can also result in receiving a medal for that action. To further streamline the process of awarding medals, you can perform quick actions to do this through the officers entry in the corps screen:
As mentioned previously, were removing the old method of recruiting generals by means of reaching into the void and plucking out a fully qualified officer. This means that your army generals will now be directly linked to your field of divisional officers, and their capability directly linked to their actions in the field. Divisional officers will store experience based on the experience gain of the unit they are commanding, as well as receiving a lump-sum when a medal is awarded. While active as a divisional officer, this experience will have no meaningful effect, however, when in need of a new army general, you can promote divisional commanders out of their divisional role and directly into their new role as a general. Any medals awarded to the division will be retained by that division, however, the newly created general will keep a reference to their awarded medals as a means of remembering their accomplishments in the line of duty (albeit with no direct effect on their new army - although weve elected to support this behavior for modders should they wish):
When a divisional officer is promoted this way, the experience they have earned during the course of their field command will be applied to their experience level as a general (up to a maximum cap). Promoting someone with field experience can prove a lot more valuable than hiring another pen-pusher, after all. If they have earned at least a certain quantity (as yet undecided) of field experience, they will also begin with a personality trait corresponding to the type of division they were commanding (armor officer, infantry officer, etc).
Unit Cohesion
You will also note that my roadmap included a wish to improve the battle-planner. While this is likely to be a slow, iterative process, BBA heralds the inclusion of a new frontline parameter intended for advanced users.
The Cohesion parameter can be set on any root frontline order, and will affect how the unit controller places divisions across that frontline. The default setting of Flexible Cohesion functions as you have grown to expect - all units will be evaluated for placement suitability and potentially relocated to fill perceived gaps in frontline cohesion.
Balanced Cohesion will only successfully evaluate units that are within a defined distance from the target (distances are moddable). In practice, this results in less unit shuffling along frontlines, but should still ensure that frontlines respond to changes in size and shape.
The final setting, Rigid Cohesion is intended primarily for long defensive lines, and will only successfully evaluate unit positions that are within a very short distance from the target location. In practice this results in relocations only taking place to neighboring provinces, and can result in gaps being created in frontlines if left unattended. It is expected that this setting will be used by players who primarily rely on micromanagement of frontlines. The AI will make use of flexible and balanced cohesion settings depending on the ratio of divisions:frontline length, but will avoid the use of rigid cohesion. It is worth noting that units that are not placed directly on the frontline (having been left behind or recently added to an order instance) will not be subject to the same cohesion restrictions, and will make use of strategic relocation to find themselves a new place on the frontline. Additionally, the cohesion setting will be respected regardless of whether an order is being executed or not.
Modding
For those of you interested in modding, the addition of these subsystems also comes with some new tools regarding units. It is now possible to iterate over unit arrays in states and countries by condition, and apply a series of effects, including the awarding of medals, history entries, and other basic parameters such as affecting org, strength, and more. For performance reasons, units do not currently support storing or being stored as variables, though we will monitor the need for, and performance implications of doing this in future (I SEE YOU EaW). Predefined divisions can be set up with lists of historical commanders that they will draw from when their current commander if replaced, should you wish to opt for extreme historical fidelity.
The visual display ranks of divisional commanders correspond to their gained experience, and are fully customizable, though confer no gameplay effect. Medals themselves can be added to the medal array based on arbitrary conditions, and support a variety of modifiers, not all of which are represented in our vanilla use-cases. Name combinations can also be split from various random lists, if you have a particular penchant for randomly generated names.
Thats all for now, tune in next week for a second look at how peace conferences are progressing!
[ 2022-08-10 13:00:13 CET ] [ Original post ]
- Hearts of Iron IV Linux [135.44 M]
- Hearts of Iron IV: Sabaton Soundtrack
- Hearts of Iron IV: Together for Victory
- Hearts of Iron IV: Death or Dishonor
- Hearts of Iron IV: Sabaton Soundtrack Vol. 2
- Hearts of Iron IV: Waking the Tiger
- Hearts of Iron IV: Man the Guns
- Unit Pack - Hearts of Iron IV: Axis Armor
- Music - Hearts of Iron IV: Radio Pack
- Hearts of Iron IV: La Résistance
- Unit Pack - Hearts of Iron IV: Allied Armor
- Music - Hearts of Iron IV: Allied Speeches Pack
- Country Pack - Hearts of Iron IV: Battle for the Bosporus
- Unit Pack - Hearts of Iron IV: Eastern Front Planes
- Music - Hearts of Iron IV: Songs of the Eastern Front
- Hearts of Iron IV: No Step Back
- Hearts of Iron IV - DLC Subscription
- Hearts of Iron IV: By Blood Alone
- Hearts of Iron IV: Arms Against Tyranny
- Country Pack - Hearts of Iron IV: Trial of Allegiance
- Hearts of Iron IV: Content Creator Pack - Soviet Union 2D
- Expansion - Hearts of Iron IV: Götterdämmerung
- Hearts of Iron IV: Expansion Pass 1
- Expansion pass 1 Bonus - Hearts of Iron IV: Supporter Pack
- Expansion Pass 1 Bonus - Hearts of Iron IV: Ride of the Valkyries Music
From the heart of the battlefield to the command center, you will guide your nation to glory and wage war, negotiate or invade. You hold the power to tip the very balance of WWII.
It is time to show your ability as the greatest military leader in the world. Will you relive or change history? Will you change the fate of the world by achieving victory at all costs?
Main Features:
- Total strategic war: War is not only won on land, sea and in the air. It’s also achieved in the hearts and minds of men and women.
- Authentic real-time war simulation: Let the greatest commanders of WW2 fight your war with the tools of the time; tanks, planes, ships, guns and newly discovered weapons of mass destruction.
- Assume control of any nation: Choose from the greatest powers striving for victory, or the small nations trying to weather the storm.
- Turn the world into your battlefield: Experience the full WWII timespan in a topographical map complete with seasons, weather and terrain. Snow, mud, storms can be both your strong ally and a ruthless enemy.
- Negotiate or force your will: Experience the advanced politics and diplomacy systems, form factions, engage in trade for resources and appoint ministers to your party.
- Intense Online Combat: Battle in both competitive and cooperative multiplayer for up to 32 players. Featuring cross-platform multiplayer.
- Give your nation a unique edge: Experience the flexible technology system, where all major powers get their own unique identity. Develop detailed historic tanks and planes through research and army experience.
Everyone will receive:
- Poland: United and Ready:
A Free DLC adds a unique focus tree for Poland, new 3d models for tanks and planes, 2d assets, and extra leader portraits for the ultimate in historical accuracy. - Forum Avatar
- Wallpaper
- OS: OS: Ubuntu 20.04
- Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 @ 2.66 GHz / AMD Athlon II X4 650 @ 3.20 GHzMemory: 4 GB RAM
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 5850 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX470 with 1GB VRAM / Latest available proprietary drivers from both manufacturers
- Storage: 2 GB available spaceAdditional Notes: Controller support: 3-button mouse. keyboard. and speakers are required. / Internet Connection or LAN for multiplayer. Up to 32 other players in multiplayer mode.
- OS: OS: Ubuntu 20.04
- Processor: Intel Core i5 750 @ 2.66 GHz / AMD Phenom II X4 955 @ 3.20 GHzMemory: 4 GB RAM
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 6950 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX570 with 2GB VRAM / Latest available proprietary drivers from both manufacturers
- Storage: 2 GB available spaceAdditional Notes: Controller support: 3-button mouse. keyboard. and speakers are required. / Internet Connection or LAN for multiplayer. Up to 32 other players in multiplayer mode.
[ 6138 ]
[ 3395 ]