Kadur
20.05.10, 17:26
It's Thursday, and time for another developer diary. It's short but tasty.
World War II can be seen as primarily being a struggle between three competing ideologies. In Hearts of Iron 3, this is what we model with the Axis, Allies and Comintern factions. Each seeks to establish a New World Order, though exactly what this takes is unclear. In other words, when and how do you "win"? Obviously, the complete destruction of the opposing two factions is a win, but this is an unlikely outcome within the game's timeframe. Now, traditionally, we have not been too concerned with Victory Conditions in our games, preferring instead to let players decide their own goals in typical sandbox fashion. However, wouldn't it be neat if we built this into the system, and let player set Victory Conditions actually affect the gameplay? We think it would, so that's what we have done in Semper Fi.
Before you start the game, if you choose to play one of the three great faction leaders (Germany, UK, USSR), you may select which Victory Conditions your faction has. You need to select 15 conditions; these should then guide your strategy during the game, because the significance of your potential victory will depend on how many you have fulfilled. With the right set of conditions and a wise strategy, it might be possible to institute a New World Order without having destroyed the other two factions. Neutral nations cannot set Victory Conditions since they are not involved with the War of Ideologies. So how does all of this affect gameplay, apart from players actually being able to win the game in a clear way? Well, the Strategic AI will be aware of its faction victory conditions, in much the same way that it handles Missions in EU3 (since In Nomine.) In other words, both multi-player and single-player sessions should develop differently depending on the set Victory Conditions. How does this jive with our desire for more historicity? Well, the default Victory Condition choices are the most historical ones, so you only have yourself to blame if you change them!
I believe that will have to do for today. Until next time!
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=476433
World War II can be seen as primarily being a struggle between three competing ideologies. In Hearts of Iron 3, this is what we model with the Axis, Allies and Comintern factions. Each seeks to establish a New World Order, though exactly what this takes is unclear. In other words, when and how do you "win"? Obviously, the complete destruction of the opposing two factions is a win, but this is an unlikely outcome within the game's timeframe. Now, traditionally, we have not been too concerned with Victory Conditions in our games, preferring instead to let players decide their own goals in typical sandbox fashion. However, wouldn't it be neat if we built this into the system, and let player set Victory Conditions actually affect the gameplay? We think it would, so that's what we have done in Semper Fi.
Before you start the game, if you choose to play one of the three great faction leaders (Germany, UK, USSR), you may select which Victory Conditions your faction has. You need to select 15 conditions; these should then guide your strategy during the game, because the significance of your potential victory will depend on how many you have fulfilled. With the right set of conditions and a wise strategy, it might be possible to institute a New World Order without having destroyed the other two factions. Neutral nations cannot set Victory Conditions since they are not involved with the War of Ideologies. So how does all of this affect gameplay, apart from players actually being able to win the game in a clear way? Well, the Strategic AI will be aware of its faction victory conditions, in much the same way that it handles Missions in EU3 (since In Nomine.) In other words, both multi-player and single-player sessions should develop differently depending on the set Victory Conditions. How does this jive with our desire for more historicity? Well, the default Victory Condition choices are the most historical ones, so you only have yourself to blame if you change them!
I believe that will have to do for today. Until next time!
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=476433