Currently the Martians seem to be a bit too beatable, i mean i started from 1939 and beat them with relative ease, maybe provide them with every technology already researched from the start of the game so they have an even bigger advantage in technology aside from that, keep up the good work!
P.S. if you want more inspiration for events and other such things, i suggest you read Harry turtledoves "In the Balance" as it is set during and alien invasion of earth during ww2

Originally posted by Oreo the Mormon:

Currently the Martians seem to be a bit too beatable, i mean i started from 1939 and beat them with relative ease, maybe provide them with every technology already researched from the start of the game so they have an even bigger advantage in technology aside from that, keep up the good work!
P.S. if you want more inspiration for events and other such things, i suggest you read Harry turtledoves "In the Balance" as it is set during and alien invasion of earth during ww2

I haven't given the Martians all techs because I want the player (if they chose to play as the Martians) to have something to research. I was thinking about giving them large flat bonuses to troops instead (through their national focus and ideas).

Given the fact that some may try to do what you did and start from the 1939 start date, I might make a separate condition to give them more techs if they are spawned from 1939-onwards (or perhaps the ability to choose to play as them without having to force the event at that start date).

Also, I will definitely give the book gander :)

spoiler alert for anyone who has not read the book.

i just played the mod as the german reich and i discovered that it would be very nice if you added some flavour events also the us in my opinion should not be able to puppet them it makes little sense lore wise and maybe (although i know barely anything about modding) you could add a custom national spirit which makes them op and gives them a chance at conquring the world.
you could remove the national spirit if they fail to do that in the sett time limit when the bacteria kill them instead even adding a national spirit which gives them loads of debufs making the earth easily reconquerable.
also the german reich should probobly not be able to invite them (nor should they ask to join it which they did) for that maybe you could add a -1000 decision modifier to the join faction button or make a new ideology and sett the martians to that ideology

Originally posted by Freysi120:

spoiler alert for anyone who has not read the book.

i just played the mod as the german reich and i discovered that it would be very nice if you added some flavour events also the us in my opinion should not be able to puppet them it makes little sense lore wise and maybe (although i know barely anything about modding) you could add a custom national spirit which makes them op and gives them a chance at conquring the world.
you could remove the national spirit if they fail to do that in the sett time limit when the bacteria kill them instead even adding a national spirit which gives them loads of debufs making the earth easily reconquerable.
also the german reich should probobly not be able to invite them (nor should they ask to join it which they did) for that maybe you could add a -1000 decision modifier to the join faction button or make a new ideology and sett the martians to that ideology

Wew, thats a lot xD

Ok....I'll see what I can do as far as making the US not be able to puppet them. I'm still working on making them OP while still not making it a complete wash (balancing). There is an event chain involving bacteria, it should show up about a month after the Martians take New York, from there they have another month to capture Georgia (because reasons), before they all die. I just had that happen to me (Germany trying to invite them to a faction) and was going to look into it soon.

I think that answers everything, I hope

Hey thanks for working on this mod. I don't want to sound patronizing or rude but below I put together some stuff that may provide help in your jounrey.

There is a PC game called Jeff Waynes War of the Worlds set in Victorian Britain; true to the original novel (no martian force fields, just heavy artillary & battleship balistics vs Alien tech). I don't know if you're aware of the game but it is rich with ideas & a tech tree for the Martians that fits so well.

Martian Tech from the game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gI09fNGLIo

This is a lets Play of the Humans aka British Empire:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1KicFJBdxc&list=PLtF4VRrj8wTm4sPF6xseLCsQxP0HB79Li

The music is also some of the best. It's Jeff Waynes musical score remixed by Max Mondo with no talking. If you added that to the mod it would really add to the immersion.

Martitan Soundtrack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbUX4K6aLuQ&list=PLwyIxj1i0fruxSDyBHr0WqH8C07lkaioW

Human Soundtrack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92ilTqjTXqA&list=PLwyIxj1i0frvrwDjtZthch7cXk0JxBoSK

What added to the feeling of impending doom whilst playing as humans was that it would take atleast 10-15 armored cars/tanks to take down 3 Scout Tripods! This really made the player feel that they were vastly outplayed in the tech field but it could gradually be balaced as the Martians upgraded their heat ray's; the humans could research cheaper production & better heat resistant armour.

I really hope to see you succeed, this could potentially be one of the greatest HOI4 mods out there. There is nothing like it out there for the time being. Just one thing, please remember that the Martians were HORRIFIC. They harvested humans for their flesh & blood as it was full of elements & very nourishing for their Martian biology. Yum yum, tasty tasty. Humans became Martian KFC.

Good luck!

Originally posted by Ronbo Fett:

Hey thanks for working on this mod. I don't want to sound patronizing or rude but below I put together some stuff that may provide help in your jounrey.

There is a PC game called Jeff Waynes War of the Worlds set in Victorian Britain; true to the original novel (no martian force fields, just heavy artillary & battleship balistics vs Alien tech). I don't know if you're aware of the game but it is rich with ideas & a tech tree for the Martians that fits so well.

...

What added to the feeling of impending doom whilst playing as humans was that it would take atleast 10-15 armored cars/tanks to take down 3 Scout Tripods! This really made the player feel that they were vastly outplayed in the tech field but it could gradually be balaced as the Martians upgraded their heat ray's; the humans could research cheaper production & better heat resistant armour.

I really hope to see you succeed, this could potentially be one of the greatest HOI4 mods out there. There is nothing like it out there for the time being. Just one thing, please remember that the Martians were HORRIFIC. They harvested humans for their flesh & blood as it was full of elements & very nourishing for their Martian biology. Yum yum, tasty tasty. Humans became Martian KFC.

Good luck!

Thanks for the advise, I might just add those soundtracks to my mod xD

As for the game itself, I will definitely take a look at those lets plays (at the very least for some inspiration for renaming the tech tree for the Martians).

I adjusted your mod to give them more divisions, in the end they had 98 divisions and all I'd done is withdraw without contact to defined defensive lines. They were defeated by disease again. I never got the chance to fight them as it was over so quickly. I'd suggest putting back the disease date a lot further, or put it on a trigger so that if they also outnumber the enemy at least 3:1 then it triggers. I would personally prefer the martians to start with more super heavy and modern armour, rather than the weak light armour they invade with, perhaps switch infantry to fully motorised. (there is a mod on steam for fully motorised art/at/aa)

Originally posted by technobug:

I adjusted your mod to give them more divisions, in the end they had 98 divisions and all I'd done is withdraw without contact to defined defensive lines. They were defeated by disease again. I never got the chance to fight them as it was over so quickly. I'd suggest putting back the disease date a lot further, or put it on a trigger so that if they also outnumber the enemy at least 3:1 then it triggers. I would personally prefer the martians to start with more super heavy and modern armour, rather than the weak light armour they invade with, perhaps switch infantry to fully motorised. (there is a mod on steam for fully motorised art/at/aa)

I recently doubled their starting divisions and added Super Heavies to the Tripod unit (they get the template a little while after taking New York). Not now, but most likley soon, I might increase they numbers again, and/or add new events giving them more troops. As for the disease, I have considered making it so when the Martians are AI controlled they will have more time to get to the cure location.

As a side note, when you do engage the Martians (either now or once I fix the disease event), could you let me know if they are a tough opponent?

Hi love the mod and just wanted speak upon my experiences so far with it.

As playing as the martians the plague surprised me but I was able to get to and take Georgia by just rushing all of my armor there immediately, the US Ai didn't cut them off and was soon crushed after they had taken all of Georgia. After the cure I simply returned to a broadfront of all units and it was fine, easily conquering the rest of the US. Annexed because there didn't seem to be any reason to just puppet and get such a small area. I considered it but decided that keeping the US's navy really wasn't worth giving up the factories.

Next played as US and prepared for invasion. Naval wise just built battlehsips otherwise ignored. Air wise, built warhawk fighters off of one factory from near start, did the same for CAS, otherwise ignored. Just built infantry, changed National Guards to infantry, changed infantry template, switched out one infantry to arty, added anti-tank line unit. Added recon and anti-tank support. Next used US 'Support Rock Island' to get arty 2 and anti-tank 2 early then built till invasion. Infantry had about 75% new equipment on anti tank and arty, rest of need filled, only infantry equipment 1. Invasion started early-mid november, defeat by december 20th. Aliens managed to push out of my containment to near washington then I took Newark and they surrendered. Forgot about airforce and navy, Battleships and over 1000 planes didn't do anything.

Overall as the Martians was a little disappointed by the hitting power of my troops. As the US felt the martians were powerful but didn't matter against numbers (had 34 divisions, 30 inf, 4 cav). Maybe the martians need to buffed by National spirit or something? Simply overwheled them with troops as US, as Martians able to win but only using superior mobility.

Originally posted by rngtnoiachmpnzua:

Hi love the mod and just wanted speak upon my experiences so far with it.

As playing as the martians the plague surprised me but I was able to get to and take Georgia by just rushing all of my armor there immediately, the US Ai didn't cut them off and was soon crushed after they had taken all of Georgia. After the cure I simply returned to a broadfront of all units and it was fine, easily conquering the rest of the US. Annexed because there didn't seem to be any reason to just puppet and get such a small area. I considered it but decided that keeping the US's navy really wasn't worth giving up the factories.

...

Overall as the Martians was a little disappointed by the hitting power of my troops. As the US felt the martians were powerful but didn't matter against numbers (had 34 divisions, 30 inf, 4 cav). Maybe the martians need to buffed by National spirit or something? Simply overwheled them with troops as US, as Martians able to win but only using superior mobility.

Thanks for the detailed report, it really helps. Sometimes its hard to balance everything so whether its the player vs Martians AI, player vs US AI, or US AI vs Martians AI (this one is especially hard) its fun while still keeping a good pace/feel to it. So from what I took out of your impressions, although the Martian mobility is good, they lack the punching power to back up their "legacy"; is that correct?

Just a side note; you were right not to puppet the USA, given some of the new focuses that are coming in the next patch ;)

Originally posted by Darzall:

Thanks for the detailed report, it really helps. Sometimes its hard to balance everything so whether its the player vs Martians AI, player vs US AI, or US AI vs Martians AI (this one is especially hard) its fun while still keeping a good pace/feel to it. So from what I took out of your impressions, although the Martian mobility is good, they lack the punching power to back up their "legacy"; is that correct?

Just a side note; you were right not to puppet the USA, given some of the new focuses that are coming in the next patch ;)

Yes, the Martian invasion in the Victorian setting had them be essentielly unstoppable, in the current WWII setting it would seem to make sense that they would have some ability to fight the Martians but would not be equals by a longshot. So I don't know how you would go about balancing this out as one of the major powerstoppers for the Martians is their inability to replace anything they lose as of the current state that I have. So perhaps giving them a large stockpile of equipment if you do not want to give them large amounts of factories. Possibily increasing training times by a insane amount to prevent training new divisions if you want them to rely of reinforcements. Or you could increase training times by a large amount and do that as having to import the troops from Mars.

In any case if you want you could just create new units just for the Martians that they would use, it would allow you to edit base characteristics of equipment without effecting the rest of the world easily.

In reference to the book In the Balance, it's alien invasion is more akin to a Modern country's technology for the aliens. A little different from the Martian scenerio but still a good book/series.

Looking forward to a new patch, I think I will do more testing when it comes out and see how it goes.

Originally posted by rngtnoiachmpnzua:

Yes, the Martian invasion in the Victorian setting had them be essentielly unstoppable, in the current WWII setting it would seem to make sense that they would have some ability to fight the Martians but would not be equals by a longshot. So I don't know how you would go about balancing this out as one of the major powerstoppers for the Martians is their inability to replace anything they lose as of the current state that I have. So perhaps giving them a large stockpile of equipment if you do not want to give them large amounts of factories. Possibily increasing training times by a insane amount to prevent training new divisions if you want them to rely of reinforcements. Or you could increase training times by a large amount and do that as having to import the troops from Mars.

In any case if you want you could just create new units just for the Martians that they would use, it would allow you to edit base characteristics of equipment without effecting the rest of the world easily.

In reference to the book In the Balance, it's alien invasion is more akin to a Modern country's technology for the aliens. A little different from the Martian scenerio but still a good book/series.

Looking forward to a new patch, I think I will do more testing when it comes out and see how it goes.

I have been thinking about implementing the increased training times as you suggested. As far as making new units, it is a possibility, it would require a lot of redesigning though. I was thinking about, however, creating a special unit for the humans (a Martian destroying solider) once I got much farther into development (and the balancing was much better).

Originally posted by Darzall:

I have been thinking about implementing the increased training times as you suggested. As far as making new units, it is a possibility, it would require a lot of redesigning though. I was thinking about, however, creating a special unit for the humans (a Martian destroying solider) once I got much farther into development (and the balancing was much better).

A Martian destroying unit would be cool, what kind of thing it would be I am gonna look at I think as to whther it should be a type of infantry or what...

Oh also you could have such a unit be availible by National Foci, so that it would allow for you to set the requirements being at war with the Martians or such and it would, once done, allow you to build the Martian Destroyers, or whatever they will be called...

I think I am going to look at some files for a while to get a good idea of what it might be best to do.

So testing with new Patch and played through as US until the Eve of War event which I saved at and played both US and Martian. Here are the results.

USA! So played as US doing mostly the same as before when I played as Us. Division the same, replaced all continental units as infantry. At start of Martian war had 47 divisions on the continent, 10 infantry in training, 1 Cavalry division and 46 Infantry divisions. Stationed as follows.

3 In Norfolk
11 in Washington
2 in Baltimore
11 in Philidelphia
3 in New York
11 in Providence
2 in Boston
14 divisions on various islands, not used during war.

Forces under Dwight D. Eisenhower

540 Fighters, 240 CAS, 204 Tactical Bombers

War starts 9:00,25 Nov, 1938

War ends 0:00,5 Dec, 1938

War lasts for 10 days, annex Martians after. 10 days later gets event "The Martians are Retreating!"

For the Greater Glory of Mars! So played as Martians with the above detailed positioning for the US forces and tried to conquer Earth. Didn't go so well. First a breakdown of Martian forces.

No airforce.

No Equipment Stockpile.

No military factories.

18 divisions, 12 Infantry, 6 Stalker light tank divisions. Infantry Composed like this:

Support Line
Engineering Inf Inf Inf
Recon Inf Inf Inf
Logisitcs Arty AA Arty

Tanks composed like this:

Support Line
Engineering LTank LTank Moterized
Recon LTank LTank Moterized
Singal LTank LTank Moterized
Logisitics

Let the fight begin. Able to push out some then US army arrives and surrounds in Early December. Unable to push out, US unable to push in. Tries for last offensive to take Philidelphia and New York. Offensive fails, loss of Equipment weakens divisions, falls to US, slowly Quickly running out of equipment. December 25th loses Newark, unable to retake it, surrenders on the 26th. US puppets me.

Conclusion: The Martians could do with a rework of their divisions to make them more efficient and hardy. In addition they need a stockpile of equipment, possibly given to them as an event or other starting thing as they do not have enough production to keep up with the loss. Right before the defeat when playing the Martians I lost about half of all of the Equipment. I was down 3,500 infantry equipment, 500 support equipment, 500 motorized equipment, 300 artillery, 120 Anti air, and 1000 light tanks.

In addition the Martians have technology the same or lesser than their Human counterparts. Arty 2, Light Tanks 2, etc. etc. Because the Martians are just so supremely outnumbered they should have their technology level increased greatly.

Player US VS AI Martians, 10 days till Martian defeat.

Player Martians VS AI US, 31 Days till Martian defeat.

So summary of conclusion. Martians are very weak, need more tech, equipment and a rework of their division templates.

Originally posted by rngtnoiachmpnzua:

So testing with new Patch and played through as US until the Eve of War event which I saved at and played both US and Martian. Here are the results.

USA! So played as US doing mostly the same as before when I played as Us. Division the same, replaced all continental units as infantry. At start of Martian war had 47 divisions on the continent, 10 infantry in training, 1 Cavalry division and 46 Infantry divisions. Stationed as follows.
...

Let the fight begin. Able to push out some then US army arrives and surrounds in Early December. Unable to push out, US unable to push in. Tries for last offensive to take Philidelphia and New York. Offensive fails, loss of Equipment weakens divisions, falls to US, slowly Quickly running out of equipment. December 25th loses Newark, unable to retake it, surrenders on the 26th. US puppets me.

Conclusion: The Martians could do with a rework of their divisions to make them more efficient and hardy. In addition they need a stockpile of equipment, possibly given to them as an event or other starting thing as they do not have enough production to keep up with the loss. Right before the defeat when playing the Martians I lost about half of all of the Equipment. I was down 3,500 infantry equipment, 500 support equipment, 500 motorized equipment, 300 artillery, 120 Anti air, and 1000 light tanks.

In addition the Martians have technology the same or lesser than their Human counterparts. Arty 2, Light Tanks 2, etc. etc. Because the Martians are just so supremely outnumbered they should have their technology level increased greatly.

Player US VS AI Martians, 10 days till Martian defeat.

Player Martians VS AI US, 31 Days till Martian defeat.

So summary of conclusion. Martians are very weak, need more tech, equipment and a rework of their division templates.

Ouch, sounds worse than last time.

I'll see if I can add some equipment to their beginning loadout, I'm not sure its possible given how most minors start with no equipment what so ever. Plane wise, I keep forgeting to give them some (I'll get that done today). Tech wise, I have been trying every other alternative besides giving them all the techs, I might have to cave on that :P