Plateau, 2365 (P2)

[Hawkeye]

It is Hearts Of Iron.  I prefer HOI2 to HOI3.  It didn't get very good reviews when I was thinking about buying it.

I preordered HOI3 because I realy liked HOI2. I knew pretty well it would have quite a few bugs (some kind of Paradox tradition I fail to understand)
What I got was a bug ridden, excuse my wording, POS!

Constant rain over Germany, and I mean 24/7 for one and one half year which means the Luftwaffe is pretty much grounded forever (same goes for large parts of the atlantic which makes carriers useless)
Stalingrad is a few hundred km off on the map (this was pointed out when the first alpha-screenshots were posted on their forum, "Oh, don´t worry, this is only an early alpha!" but it was still off on release)
Diplomatic system completly shot to hell (Swizerland, Sweden and pretty much everyone,... joining allies, commintern or axis regularly leading to three super-stacks of countries with no neutrals anywhere.
Supply system completely FUBAR leading to your troops running out of supply all the time
Finnland invading Africa? AI, what AI?
Some stuff is fixed by now but the Supply system is still FUBAR and I don´t think Stalingrad has moved either.


In the beginning several people (me included) tried to help Pdox on their forum in some damage control/bug fixing but when entire threats with complaints started to get deleted I simply left. Never been back to their forum since.

Yes, I am still very very angry at Paradox and makes me appretiate Steves work soooooo much!

[welchbloke]

I preordered HOI3 because I realy liked HOI2. I knew pretty well it would have quite a few bugs (some kind of Paradox tradition I fail to understand)
What I got was a bug ridden, excuse my wording, POS!

Constant rain over Germany, and I mean 24/7 for one and one half year which means the Luftwaffe is pretty much grounded forever (same goes for large parts of the atlantic which makes carriers useless)
Stalingrad is a few hundred km off on the map (this was pointed out when the first alpha-screenshots were posted on their forum, "Oh, don´t worry, this is only an early alpha!" but it was still off on release)
Diplomatic system completly shot to hell (Swizerland, Sweden and pretty much everyone,... joining allies, commintern or axis regularly leading to three super-stacks of countries with no neutrals anywhere.
Supply system completely FUBAR leading to your troops running out of supply all the time
Finnland invading Africa? AI, what AI?
Some stuff is fixed by now but the Supply system is still FUBAR and I don´t think Stalingrad has moved either.


In the beginning several people (me included) tried to help Pdox on their forum in some damage control/bug fixing but when entire threats with complaints started to get deleted I simply left. Never been back to their forum since.

Yes, I am still very very angry at Paradox and makes me appretiate Steves work soooooo much!

Sounds like I had a lucky escape.

[MWadwell]

Is this Hearts of Iron you are talking about? Never played it but seen comparisons of it to the Total War series. I love micro-management, hence Aurora, so if it like that then I may look into getting it.

Better getting HOI3 then though if I did try to get into it?

This thread has started me on HOI 1 - but I'm having some "issues" with it (such as a appallingly bad manual, bad tutorial, and issues with the events that occur at fixed times).

Any idea how HOI 1 compares to HOI 2?

Later,
Matt

[welchbloke]

This thread has started me on HOI 1 - but I'm having some "issues" with it (such as a appallingly bad manual, bad tutorial, and issues with the events that occur at fixed times).

Any idea how HOI 1 compares to HOI 2?

Later,
Matt

Don't know about HOI 1 but the reviews I read suggest that HOI 2 is a great imrovement.

[Hawkeye]

Yep, realy played the s**t out of HOI-2. Bought it in the "Doomsday" version and later upgraded to "Armageddon". Bought HOI-1 later from the bargain bin, but couldn´t get into it. The detailed research was nice, but ordering each division around (not being able to form corps/armies) killed it for me (Like, if you had to order each ship in Aurora individually)
I´d realy reccomend to go for HOI-2 over 1.
Note: The fixed date events are still there, but if you stray from the historical path, some (many?) won´t fire. Example: Anschluss in ´38 (Austria joining Germany) will not fire, if Germany is at war.
Furthermore, most events have a probability assigned, so while usually, after beating up France, they will sue for peace and Vichy will be created, there is a chance they fight on.
Of course, navel combat is, well, not exactly well done (Carriers are basicly battleships with VERY LONG RANGE guns), the AI does not play by the rules (unlimited range for ships, for example, which makes "Island hopping" irrelevant for the AI and establishing a defensive perimeter for you, if you are playing Japan, pretty much impossible) but overall, I liked it - a lot!

There are also quite a few good mods for HOI-2
If you want a more "realistic" game, have a look at the Stony Road mod, for example

[welchbloke]

Yep, realy played the s**t out of HOI-2. Bought it in the "Doomsday" version and later upgraded to "Armageddon". Bought HOI-1 later from the bargain bin, but couldn´t get into it. The detailed research was nice, but ordering each division around (not being able to form corps/armies) killed it for me (Like, if you had to order each ship in Aurora individually)
I´d realy reccomend to go for HOI-2 over 1.
Note: The fixed date events are still there, but if you stray from the historical path, some (many?) won´t fire. Example: Anschluss in ´38 (Austria joining Germany) will not fire, if Germany is at war.
Furthermore, most events have a probability assigned, so while usually, after beating up France, they will sue for peace and Vichy will be created, there is a chance they fight on.
Of course, navel combat is, well, not exactly well done (Carriers are basicly battleships with VERY LONG RANGE guns), the AI does not play by the rules (unlimited range for ships, for example, which makes "Island hopping" irrelevant for the AI and establishing a defensive perimeter for you, if you are playing Japan, pretty much impossible) but overall, I liked it - a lot!

There are also quite a few good mods for HOI-2
If you want a more "realistic" game, have a look at the Stony Road mod, for example

I didn't know about the mods.  Can you recommend a good website?

[MWadwell]

Yep, realy played the s**t out of HOI-2. Bought it in the "Doomsday" version and later upgraded to "Armageddon". Bought HOI-1 later from the bargain bin, but couldn´t get into it. The detailed research was nice, but ordering each division around (not being able to form corps/armies) killed it for me (Like, if you had to order each ship in Aurora individually)
I´d realy reccomend to go for HOI-2 over 1.
Note: The fixed date events are still there, but if you stray from the historical path, some (many?) won´t fire. Example: Anschluss in ´38 (Austria joining Germany) will not fire, if Germany is at war.
Furthermore, most events have a probability assigned, so while usually, after beating up France, they will sue for peace and Vichy will be created, there is a chance they fight on.
Of course, navel combat is, well, not exactly well done (Carriers are basicly battleships with VERY LONG RANGE guns), the AI does not play by the rules (unlimited range for ships, for example, which makes "Island hopping" irrelevant for the AI and establishing a defensive perimeter for you, if you are playing Japan, pretty much impossible) but overall, I liked it - a lot!

There are also quite a few good mods for HOI-2
If you want a more "realistic" game, have a look at the Stony Road mod, for example

How's the bugs?

Some of the bugs are what kills it for me (such as you get a penalty if you have more than 4 aircraft in a air-air battle - but not the AI, or if you fight at night - but not the AI, or the AI having a large stack of fighters with a 200 km range attack at a range of 1200 km). That and the really poor manual....

Later,
Matt

[Hawkeye]

Paradox has a forum devoted to mods at http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?284-HoI2-Scenarios-and-modifications

As for bugs: Most bugs, as far as they are considered bugs, in HOI-2 have been dealt with.

The "AI can use more than 4 squadrons in an air battle without malus": This is a "feature" like the one with the unlimited ship range in my earlier post. I am not sure on the fighter range thing. Something like this had been reported several times, but it seems the ai is not actually attacking, but your fighters intercepting an ai-flight that is re-basing (yes, rebasing is possible over vast distances, but you can do this too).

I am not visiting their forum anymore since the HOI-3 disaster, so I am somewhat out of the loop on what has happened since.

[Beersatron]

Are you still kicking about Kurt? Would hate to see this campaign fizzle out!

Somebody is posting your Phoenix Campaign on the Starfire Design Forums one chapter at a time as they manage to get it formatted for that forum's layout and it reminded me that we haven't seen you post in a while!

[Beersatron]

Are you still kicking about Kurt? Would hate to see this campaign fizzle out!

Somebody is posting your Phoenix Campaign on the Starfire Design Forums one chapter at a time as they manage to get it formatted for that forum's layout and it reminded me that we haven't seen you post in a while!

In relation to this, I think the person reposting it has permission and he also made it clear that it was not his own work.

(I think this is the post that prompted your new thread Erik?)

[Kurt (OP)]

In relation to this, I think the person reposting it has permission and he also made it clear that it was not his own work.

(I think this is the post that prompted your new thread Erik?)

Matt Wadwell, a long time Starfire Board member and a big fan of my writing, is the one posting the original Terran Campaign on the Starfire Board.  I think I remember him asking me if it was okay, but in any case it is fine with me. 

I'm still working on this campaign, but my time has been limited lately.  I'm currently in the middle of a battle right now, and once I resolve that things should move forward fairly quickly. 

Kurt

[Erik L]

In relation to this, I think the person reposting it has permission and he also made it clear that it was not his own work.

(I think this is the post that prompted your new thread Erik?)

Heh, yes it is.

I'm fine with reposts of other's fiction, as long as the appropriate permission is granted.

[Exsellsior]

I'm still working on this campaign, but my time has been limited lately.   I'm currently in the middle of a battle right now, and once I resolve that things should move forward fairly quickly.  

Kurt

Yay!     

[MWadwell]

Matt Wadwell, a long time Starfire Board member and a big fan of my writing, is the one posting the original Terran Campaign on the Starfire Board.  I think I remember him asking me if it was okay, but in any case it is fine with me. 

Thanks Kurt!

I'm still working on this campaign, but my time has been limited lately.  I'm currently in the middle of a battle right now, and once I resolve that things should move forward fairly quickly. 

Kurt

Excellent - do we have an ETA for when the next part will be posted?

Later,
Matt

[Kurt (OP)]

Thanks Kurt!


Excellent - do we have an ETA for when the next part will be posted?

Later,
Matt

Not right now.  I just finished the battle, but it took way longer than I originally thought, for several reasonos.  I should be able to move forward fairly quickly now, but there is at least one more battle coming up in the near future, I think.  So the only answer I can give right now is that it will be as soon as I can, but I can't give a timeline right now.