Comments on: Hello, It's 1943, And I Am The Completely Historical Prime Minister of England, Stanley Baldwin

By: Raelyf

Raelyf — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:44:27 +0000

The map, unfortunately, is incredibly ugly – it just feels so washed out. I don’t know what it is, but I can get into things like Dwarf Fortress while just looking at this map makes me want to quit the game.

I’m really looking forward to this – there seems to be some real potential, and I’m sure the map will be modded in short order. My problem right now is that it’s practically unplayable between crashes and bugs – and, most tellingly, performance. The 1.2 patch improved things drastically, but it’s still too slow – and I have a new, high end, pc.

By: Arkham

Arkham — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:30:58 +0000

Vetarnias:

There are pictures of troops instead of the icons shown above, its a toggle you can set. In fact one of the things steam does is sell special icons for the germans and US.

By: Vetarnias

Vetarnias — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 08:31:10 +0000

Never mind the AI, what of the graphics? I know the HoI franchise is about tactics, not some fancy WWII shooter. But I have the first HoI (found a platinum box for cheap in 2007; never played the second), and the HoI3 graphics, based on your screenshots, look inferior to that… Where is the metal finish of the option boxes? The little models for troops? Hell, any vivid colour?

Anyway, I won’t be playing HoI3 any time soon. When I tried the demo, I couldn’t make it beyond the loading screen without crashing.

By: geldonyetich

geldonyetich — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:57:22 +0000

I'm not being too damning. Speaking from experience here, programming AI is hard. You're trying to teach calculator to act like a convincing human opponent. Doing too poor of a job, causing the AI to break the game from ineptitude, is half the problem. The other half of the problem is doing too good of a job, causing the AI to play the game far better than a human can by nature of it split-second reflexes or perfect memory. What HOI3 likely has going for it is an organic AI model that tries to build things unpredictably, so each game plays out differently, but the balance is off and it's causing it to build too much of the wrong things.

By: Goodgimp

Goodgimp — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:43:53 +0000

The level of problems between HOI3 and Empire: Total War can’t even be compared. Sure, the AI does some stupid things, and in some cases is downright bugged (I think the transport/convoy problem slipped into the 1.2 patch but I could be mistaken).

HOI3 is truly a complex beast and the fact that the AI is able to accomplish what it does is pretty remarkable. E:TW on the other hand was a naval based game where the AI couldn’t understand the concept of transports.

The problem described above is the fact that a programmer somewhere confused “Transport” with “convoy”.

By: Arkham

Arkham — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:31:43 +0000

What was ironic was that a few months ago, some dev made some snarky remarks about the quality of the AI in Empire: Total war, starting a minor pissing match between the two companies.

Best not to cast stones until your product ships.

By: Doug

Doug — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:28:50 +0000

So am I to understand that if I don’t buy this game, fueling the devs with money to patch this problem, that the Nazis win?

A very tempting offer.

By: Zoso

Zoso — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:59:32 +0000

At last! A game that accurately reflects us Brits’ obsession with transports. When Baldwin tried to step down in 1937, the public wouldn’t let him. “What does that Chamberlain bloke know of transports?”, they shouted, “you’ve got to stay, Stan, stay and build transports!” I was going to skip HOI3, fearing it was another shoddy effort where Britain would build destroyers, cruisers, battleships and that sort of nonsense, but if Stan “Transports” Baldwin is there, I’m in.

By: geldonyetich

geldonyetich — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:14:28 +0000

Producer to programming department: “We need to move this game.”

Programming department: “We’re on it.”

Actually, let me try this again.

Producer to programming department: “We need this game to move in the United Kingdom.”

Programming department: “No problem!” *Adds transport priority to the UK AI*

Producer to programming department: “We need to bring the people to this game in the United States.”

Programming department: “You got it!” *Adds troop spawning priority to the US AI*

Anywho, that said, here’s hoping the developers are willing to spare the time/money to get these issues Ironed out.

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:03:49 +0000

Yeah, those are AI-controlled countries ~7 years into the game.

The current theory is that the transport thing is because the AI is confusing Transports (which are used for moving troops around the map) and Convoys (which are used for moving resources & supplies around the map). So it’s even more screwy, because the AI can’t supply its overseas troops because it’s building the wrong thing, and in turn they need more supplies (because they start deteriorating)… it’s a mess.

HOI3 has ENORMOUS potential.. just got released about 4 months early.