Here we go, boyz!!! Hearts of Iron III impressions!

[Big Fo]

It still runs very slowly for me although setting the program to run on only one core instead of two has helped out some. The consumer goods bug has been fixed but some other big problems remain (Japan routinely getting its butt kicked in China, AI not building intelligently in peacetime, nations are too inclined to join the Allies even countries like Ireland/Finland/Switzerland).

Since it's a week or two before the next patch will be out I'm still playing it some anyway just to get used to everything. I'm in 1939 with the US and the war in Europe has begun. UK keeps spamming me with "invite to faction" requests but I don't want to join until UK and France get beat up on for a bit, partially for a greater challenge (Japan is kind of screwed on my game so there won't be much to do in the Pacific) and so I can feel smug for rescuing them. I should start increasing USSR's threat, maybe I could go to war with them after ze Germans.

[JPhillips]

There's a lot in the game that I'm going to love, but right now the speed and weird AI kill it. I've been fooling around, but I'm not that interested until I see what the next patch brings.

[Peregrine]

I love Paradox games, and have almost all of them, including the first two HOIs, but I've been burned too many times - I'll wait a few months and see what the patch level looks like at that point.

[Big Fo]

Ok now that I am at war the bug where the game unpauses when you select a unit from the top right menu bothers me enough that I'm stopping for now.

[Bobble]

OK, how about now? Fixed, hopeless, or wait-and-see?

[Big Fo]

Patch 1.2 fixed a lot of things but broke the weather. It's always overcast and usually raining at sea so naval combat is messed up. And Japan is still useless if controlled by the AI. I'm waiting for the next patch to begin playing again.

[JPhillips]

It's very disappointing that 1.3 is TBD. There are still enough problems that I can't enjoy playing and I'd like to have a better understanding of when things are going to get fixed.

[Bobble]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

It's very disappointing that 1.3 is TBD. There are still enough problems that I can't enjoy playing and I'd like to have a better understanding of when things are going to get fixed.

TBD as in "we may or may not do it" or TBD as in "we don't know when this will be out"?

[Big Fo]

Originally Posted by Bobble

TBD as in "we may or may not do it" or TBD as in "we don't know when this will be out"?

It's been announced but no date has been set.

Originally Posted by Johan Andersson (lead designer)

It will be out when we adressed all common issues. I do not want to promise a date as I rather want it to be 99.999% polished at release.

The focus is AI improvements and bugfixes, even if other things like speed, stability & fun will be adressed as well.

I'll do regular updates when we have more information about it.

[DataKing]

From the Paradox forums:

What has happened so far?

- Several problems with production AI has been dealt with.
- Most of the Bugs with the supply system, as well as some design flaws has been fixed.
- Dozens of reported problems with the Military AI has been tracked down and adressed.
and lots more...

If nothing major goes wrong, we're hoping to have a 1.3 out before november.

[Lonnie]

If you want to grab this one and brave the bugs until 1.3, GoGamer.com has it for $24.90 right now for their 48 hour madness.

[Greyroofoo]

Is it wrong that I'm looking forward to this more than seeing HoI3 ever get fixed?

[JPhillips]

[BigDPW]

Well said...

[JPhillips]

I tried to post the massive change log for the 1.3 patch, but I guess it broke the internet.

[dubb93]

BUMP

Looking to get into a WW2 strategy game. What is the impression of this game after all of this time and was the game ever completely patched up or is it STILL broken?

[Greyroofoo]

I've given up on HoI3.

You might want to give HoI2: Arsenal of Democracy a look though.

[Big Fo]

I haven't tried playing it in months. When the 1.4 public beta is done and a final patch has come out I'll probably reinstall it. Even then I might wait until I get a new computer, I have plenty of other games to occupy myself for now and it's never run very well on my laptop (though like I said I haven't tried lately, some of the recent patches make the game run better from what I've read).

[SunDevil]

Originally Posted by SunDevil

I wait about 2 years before I buy games from Paradox and the Total War series. By then the "Gold" or "Complete" version of the game is out. Most of the issues have been fixed and there are great mods available. I have not even picked up EU3 yet.

But I can not wait to play this game in 2 years.

Again, this is why I wait two years before getting their games. I am finally very close in picking up EU3 now that another expansion has been released the main mod for the game has released a new version to take into account the expansion.

[dubb93]

Originally Posted by Greyroofoo

I've given up on HoI3.

You might want to give HoI2: Arsenal of Democracy a look though.

Thanks for the suggestion, having a blast with it so far. Never played a game in the HOI series before so I played through the tutorial three times and then played four quick games(with Germany, UK, France, and USA). The quick games lasted about a month of game time before I set up with my first real game in Germany.

I picked Germany b/c while they were involved in alot of wars at this time they also are for the most part land based and not spread out like France and the UK. Also unlike UK and USA I won't have to load my troops up into ships to get them anywhere, this was a plus for a novice like me.

So far I can't comment on the AI too much as I am having an easy go of it in Poland, and while I have some resistance in France, for the most part I'm gaining territory weekly. Can't fault the AI for this though, as this happened in real life. I also took Luxembourg.

I did find one funny thing that happened so far when I took a Polish territory, they immediately launched an attack of the territory I had just taken with a force roughly half the size of the one I had sitting there. Other than that I haven't noticed anything too obtuse yet.