HOI3

[JudgeDredd]

Someone is reporting when they changed from counters to sprites, the lag went. Others have said slowing down scrool speed helped.
 
I've yet to try my theory on the AA setting - AA settings notoriously slow down games - but I never really thought it would matter in a top down counter based wargame [&:]

[vonRocko]

Can anyone tell me about the game speed? Can orders be given while paused? How slow can I make it?
Thank you.

[Joram]

Yes, you can give orders while paused.  The first setting is very slow but the second speed setting while slow may still be a bit fast if a lot of action is going on.  However, like all the games with this engine, you can customize the popup messages to pause the game if you feel it's important enough to do so.

[bairdlander2]

The hq aspect was meant to be realistic.You have army hq,corp hq and division hq.This was so players didnt have to micromanage every division.You can assign objectives to your army hq and they will follow said objective.As for lag issues try not using sprites,remove trees and advanced water.A patch will be released on Friday.

[JudgeDredd]

LOL - TREES? I never saw any trees! And what exactly does advanced water do anyway? Look like...? What? I mean, the map is 2D isn't it? I couldn't move around the way I could with Vae Victus.

[doomtrader]

If you play with counters then the map is 2D if with sprites, then you can move around as it works like 3D

[Jeffrey H.]

ORIGINAL: bairdlander

does anyone plan on getting HOI3?I've already pre ordered.

I won't. I tried HOI 1 for about an hour and realized it wasn't my cup of tea. I wanted to give it a more complete try but the area movement and real time nature of it more or less turned me off.

[pvthudson01]

ORIGINAL: Jeffrey H.

ORIGINAL: bairdlander

does anyone plan on getting HOI3?I've already pre ordered.

I won't. I tried HOI 1 for about an hour and realized it wasn't my cup of tea. I wanted to give it a more complete try but the area movement and real time nature of it more or less turned me off.

Ditto, I also hate the combat in this game.

[AttuWatcher]

ORIGINAL: yoshino

I think that wargames are unnecessary to 3D graphics unit at all!
Especially "Ugly" and be very highly requires PC spec for run.
There are many many beautiful and informational 2D grapics on wargames (such as AGEOD's titles).

I totally agree.
The only thing I would like to see someday is maybe battle animations played out in a 3d replay like WITP+IL2 Strumovik, both engines in one game.
But ofcourse the battle animations would be totally optional and not disturb the beautiful simplicity of the 2d map.

[JudgeDredd]

The one thing that seemed to help with the lag for me was reducing the scroll speed to less than half - worked a treat - no more lag.

[bairdlander2]

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

LOL - TREES? I never saw any trees! And what exactly does advanced water do anyway? Look like...? What? I mean, the map is 2D isn't it? I couldn't move around the way I could with Vae Victus.

tress are forest vegetation when you zoom in full,advanced water is the waves moving and crashing into coastal area

[06 Maestro]

I tried out the demo last night. I was surprised at how different the game actually is from HoI2 DD. I did not experience any of the lag issues-ran fine for me.

This was/is a "must buy" for me. The only question is; do I buy now or after the 1st patch?

[bairdlander2]

A patch will be released when the game is on Friday.It has potential but is going to need a lot of patches,the map is pretty screwed up.Look at Canada,USA as one example.On political mapmode parts of Canada are USA colour and vise versa.

[geozero]

HOI 3 is really a very different game than HOI and HOI 2 + it's various add-ons.

I played the demo, and the map looks beautiful with tremendous detail and many more areas/provinces than before. You really have to work much harder at this game. The game runs smoothly for me with no lag and I still have an old P4 system.

I realize that this game will not be for everyone, but the amount of detail, and replayability will beat any other comparable game out there. Will there be bugs? Of course. All games do and need patching. No amount of beta testing will catch everything. Get real.

The AI is tough too. France will atatck in the west. The Poles will put up a stiff resistence. You will have a hard time wiping Poland out in 3 weeks, even at easy settings. You can now assign AI to handle mundane tasks like trades or technology research. You can change that anytime. You can develop customized divisions. There's all kinds of stuff you can do if you want to micro manage or let the computer do it for you so you can just fight the war, this will be very handy for the Allies in their convoys, which was a pain to manage in prior HOI games.

This game is so far different than any other HOI game, it really should not warrant a comparison. The demo is free. Play it and then decide. The price is right too. Under $40 USD.

Don't know about you, but I've got it on order...

[JudgeDredd]

ORIGINAL: bairdlander

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

LOL - TREES? I never saw any trees! And what exactly does advanced water do anyway? Look like...? What? I mean, the map is 2D isn't it? I couldn't move around the way I could with Vae Victus.

tress are forest vegetation when you zoom in full,advanced water is the waves moving and crashing into coastal area

That isn't exactly what I'm seeing in the game - I think you're exercising your right to use "artistic licence" there! [:'(]

But it does look very good. As GeoZero mentioned above, the map is good looking and has ALOT of provinces to look after - opens up the "tactical" options alot more. And last night I was learning the HQ stuff (very, very nice - although if over used, you can end up with overkill whilst mopping up). Also last night I switched off the popups telling me I was being attacked and completely neglected the West...by the time I had conquered Poland in mid October, France had almost marched to Berlin!

Great stuff.

[Joram]

I tried it again late last night.  Realized I had played on easy before and set it back to 'normal'.  Let the AI control a bunch of aspects like diplomacy, politics and intelligence.  Not sure if I liked the result as whatever it was doing seemed to severely limit my ICs.
 
Also decided to try to set objectives by HQ instead of ordering each individual division.   Had mixed results.  Was able to capture Warsaw and a couple key cities within a couple weeks but still hadn't forced Poland to surrender.  I noticed that it's army was largely intact so maybe that had something to do with it.  I set orders at the 'Army' (XXXX) level, maybe I need to do it at the corps level (XXX) for better results.  I didn't see the armies using air assets so I set those up myself.

What I didn't particularly care for was that out west I was getting absolutely annihilated by the French army.  They had busted through my lines and were on their way to Berlin well within a month!  Also, Britain had invaded Kiel and after beating off a meager counterattack, landed a major force.   I think I know how to ward off the British invasion but I'm at a bit of a loss how to hold back the French juggernaut.  I don't think I could send troops to the west fast enough even if I did it right at the start!  If this is 'reality' then I think I'll pass.
 
Will give it one more shot though to see what happens.
 
 
 
 

[jomni]

There is blatant distortion in the HOI3 map.  Cities and rivers are all in the wrong places. This may affect the strategies and tactics needed to play and you can't reenact history in a map like this.  This is probably the effect of adding more and more provinces.   they increased the 2000 provinces to 10000. They could have made it hex based already.
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=416221

[JudgeDredd]

I think the whole point of Hearts of Iron is not reality. That's the way I've always seen it. I've never viewed it as a "simulation" of the Second World War - more a "what ifs". Besides - and this may be for another topic - did France not have the ability to go for it - they just choose not to? I mean, with Germanys forces mostly tied up in the East? Surely that's what gave Germany the ability to wage war so quickly? Blitzkreig yes - but only because the Allies allowed Blitzkreig to happen?
 
If Germany had been attack by the French (and I was pretty sure the French were capable in number and equipment - just not as veteran), Germany would've surely had to send troops back from the East, thus forestalling their invasion of the East - ergo Blitzkreig wouldn't quite have been as "blitz" as it actually turned out to be?
 
Anyway - all that aside - I'm happy to see France on the Offensive. I think they could've and perhaps should've been. Besides, on a strategic scale, it makes you make tough choices - continue the fast war in the East, or send an Army back to help contain France and go slow over Poland.
 
I like it [:D]

[JudgeDredd]

ORIGINAL: jomni

There is blatant distortion in the HOI3 map.  Cities and rivers are all in the wrong places. This may affect the strategies and tactics needed to play and you can't reenact history in a map like this.  This is probably the effect of adding more and more provinces.   they increased the 2000 provinces to 10000. They could have made it hex based already.
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=416221

I know HoI3 is meant to be historical with regard to the "era" - but is HoI3 (HoI series) meant to be "historical" in the sense of re-enacting what happened? I already know what happened - so re-enacting it isn't going to be much fun. Where exactly is the fun in playing as Germany knowing your war will end in 1945? HoI3 (the HoI series) for me isn't about re-enacting history - it's about trying to change it.

Anyway - I'm not trying to convince you or Joram. You have your opinions and it isn't your cup of tea - that's cool. Just pointing out that HoI is not about re-enacting history.

[doomtrader]

And all the threads about mistakes in the map are closed.
And they didn't correct anything what was pointed months ago.