Hearts of Iron IV

Hearts of Iron IV

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Improved Air Designer
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File Size
Posted
Updated
8.601 MB
Feb 27, 2024 @ 9:11am
Mar 23 @ 8:50am
39 Change Notes ( view )
You need DLC to use this item.

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Improved Air Designer

Description
Improved Air Designer

This is my take on what the Plane Designer should be like. I incorporated a lot of Freezer's work on the Reworked Air Designer, changing and modifying here and there. I modified aircraft ranges to be less than Freezer's mod but more than Paradox's latest modifications. So, hopefully there is a happy median there.

Main Components
  • Canopy Module for Fighters (Open Cockpit, Birdcage, Malcom Hood, Bubble)
  • Engine Aspiration Module (Turbochargers, Superchargers, etc.)
  • Gunsight Module for Fighters
  • Specific Gun Turret Modules
  • Nose Mounted Weaponry (For 2-engine planes, mainly for Heavy Fighters)
  • Air Cooled Radial and Liquid Cooled Inline engines

I have also incorporated my Improved Heavy Fighters mod into this mod, and of course there are also Medium Naval Bombers.

Enjoy!

Compatibility

This mod makes extensive changes to many files. It will not be compatible with any mod that has changes centered around aircraft. HOWEVER, this is definitely compatible with my New Fighter Icon Series mods!

Germany
England
Japan
USA


*This mod requires the By Blood Alone DLC Some of the newest changes require the Arms Against Tyranny DLC, though the mod should work just fine without it.

I won't be working on any compatibility patches at this time. However, if you would like to make one, let me know, and I'll add the link at the bottom of the description. Thanks!

Future Plans

This is a beta version of the mod for people to try out. I will eventually make more changes as time allows, especially if I get feedback.

Troubleshooting

Please let me know if you experience any issues. Please view the change notes to see the changes I've made with any updates I've posted.

Thank You

If you like this mod, please give it a thumbs up. Thanks!

UPDATES

  • AI files for all majors completed.
    Now all of the majors will more or less build up to date, competitive aircraft.
  • Updated starting aircraft
  • Added default icons to USA, USSR, Italy, Japan (Germany and England already had them).
    Now you will no longer see biplane icons used for other than biplanes!

April 22
MIO's!
I'm starting on a project to modify the MIO's (Military Industrial Organizations) to be more unique (most upgrades of each MIO are the same across all nations . . . i.e. generic).

My first foray into this is to modify the U.S. MIO's. North American Aviation (of P-51 fame) seemed too generic. I completely revamped it to be almost exclusively unique. I also added a little more focus on Medium Bombers since North American also designed and manufactured the famous B-25 Mitchell.

I also added a new MIO: Republic Aviation (the U.S. had no Multi-Role MIO . . . which I found extremely odd). They're famous for designing and manufacturing the vaunted P-47 Thunderbolt . . . the most produced American fighter of the war. Since the P-47 was literally designed around the huge Pratt & Whitney 18 cylinder, 2000 hp, superturbocharged, R-2800 Double Wasp engine, I added some MIO traits focused around this. I also added a "U.S. Radial Engine Supremancy" focus in the American focus tree which gives a 100% research bonus for Radial Engines 3 and 4. In radial engine technology, the U.S. was at least 3 years ahead of Germany (inline engines were a different matter with the U.S. having to rely on British Merlin engines until the U.S. Allison company could catch up in tech).

I also revamped Lockheed to have the famous "Skunk Works" division which focuses on producing the famous P-38 Lightning heavy fighter. I also gave Douglas Company some awesome traits associated with the C-47 transport. Based on the DC-3 which Douglas had produced for some time, the C-47 was arguably the best transport of the war: rugged, easy to fly, short take-off and landing, and excellent range. I therefore gave Douglas the ability to produce transports at a much faster rate and with much better range.

I also included N-009's excellent Soviet CAS MIO mod transforming Illyushin into a CAS MIO instead of Medium Airframe MIO and adding a different Medium plane MIO.

Revamped German MIO Focke-Wulf. Added an Interceptors trait with some branching traits from there to give a boost to Focke-Wulf as a viable fighter MIO. You get less speed and range than Messerschmidt, but more air defense and air attack. I also added an "Interceptor Design" focus to the German focus tree which comes right after Air Innovations II. It gives a big jump-start to fielding the FW-190: 25% research bonus to Improved Small Airframe, 100% bonus to Radial Engines 3, and a 200% bonus to Large Cannons. You also get a 6-trait boost to Focke-Wulf MIO!

Let me know what you think!

** If you want to take advantage of all these changes, you will need the DLC Arms Against Tyranny. However, I think this mod will run just fine without it. Let me know if you have any issues.


Known Compatibility Patches
Equestria at War
Kaissereich
Popular Discussions View All (1)
3
May 10 @ 6:57pm
Discussion
Riekopo
221 Comments
mack Apr 20 @ 2:27am 
have you got a tank one
BaguetteDoggo Apr 14 @ 12:49am 
Update on mod issue: For some reason, it seems the mod conflict causing issues was with Equipment Conversion, for future reference!
BaguetteDoggo Apr 14 @ 12:29am 
no idea why but this mod seems bugged out, running with a few other mods granted but none of them should in theory alter aircraft deisgn (stuff like toolpack, 50 building slots, special project best outcome, etc) but for some reason all the special slots added for particular equipment (such as engine aspiration) are permanently locked. Very confusing.

Mod I have installed:
- Special Projects Best Research Outcomes for Player
- Automatic City and State Name Changer Optimized
- 50 Construction Slots
- Toolpack without the Errors
- Historical Naval Production (w/ Lower Fuel Consumption)
- More MIOs
- No Undeleteable Units
- Refit It!
- Zee's Balanced Ship Refits
- Improved Air Designer
- 10 Support Companies
- Satisfying Puppet and Country Names
- Equipment Conversion
And finally, the full suite of tank icon mods by Telephone Crab

I really have no idea what could be causing the issue. Playing full vanilla + your mod works fine though. Very confusing.
LitterZZ Apr 12 @ 8:45am 
Hi, hope im not the only one experiencing this but i think this mod is incompatible with Extended Tech Tree 1960
Bloomfield Apr 5 @ 12:35am 
I love this mod so far. It's addressed a lot of my grievances with aircraft, though one still remains: Large Airframes are, well, largely useless. They can only be used for strategic and naval bombing.

I know it's a long shot and I don't know how big of an ask this is... but could you make it so large airframes can mount the same modules tactical bombers use? That way they can be like more expensive, longer-range, "heavy" tactical bombers. Maybe even let them equip fighter weapons like some kind of weird super-heavy fighter.

I just never see a use for large airframes since strategic bombing is really weak unless you're using a ton of them-- but if you can produce a ton of aircraft, you might as well produce fighters and CAS. Giving large airframes the ability to equip tactical bomber modules would at least give them another reason to exist.
Cat_pod_travoi Apr 2 @ 7:31pm 
Hi. I've done a Russian translation here. I can provide it. I've already sent a friend request.
Tal'Raziid Apr 1 @ 3:06am 
Anyone know if there's an updated KR patch?
Colonel O'Neil  [author] Mar 23 @ 8:52am 
Updated. I think it should be good to go, but let me know if you run into problems.

Thanks!
Lucina Augusta Mar 9 @ 10:15pm 
For some reason this seems to be breaking with the latest DLC. It's causing the new British and French puppets (Palestine, Jordan, Kuwait, Burma, Lebanon and Syria) to not actually be puppets.
Riekopo Mar 4 @ 8:25pm 
new update