AtEM DD 2: Technology Rework

Throughout the development of 1.0 and 1.1 I wanted to avoid sticking my fingers too far into the core vanilla experience. My philosophy was that RfR should basically be a Lord of the Rings reskin of Hoi4. I took this path partially because I wanted people to be able to jump right into the narrative content of the mod, like focus trees and country mechanics, without being distracted by learning a whole new balance & meta. The other part is that I don’t understand the balance & meta well enough to feel comfortable altering it too much. To some extent I still believe both these things, but as I gain more experience with Hoi4, modding, and see more of what other mods do, they seem less significant. At the same time, the rough edges of translating WW2 into medieval times became more and more distracting, to the point they overwhelmed my reticence. Thus, I present to you: the technology rework.

**Smithing Folder**

I’ve restructured the entire tech tree into 4 categories: Metallurgy, Carpentry, Agriculture, and Organisation. The first three each have multiple folders (helpfully with color matched tabs) and a ‘main line’ of tech present on the left/top of each folder. The first tech in the mainline is necessary to research anything else in the category. The next four techs halve the research time of all techs of their year and the next in their category; eg, Early Metallurgy halves the research time for all 3015/3016 metallurgy techs, Basic Metallurgy for all 3017/3018 ones, etc. To clarify, the techs are very expensive without their ‘soft unlockers’ and return to a normal cost once you research the relevant mainline tech.

Each technology in the tools branch increases efficiency cap and unlocks a technology that increases resource gain-- basically the machine tools and excavation techs from vanilla. We then have the heavily masquerade concentrated/dispersed branches masquerading as industrial/artisanal. Industrial production represents a more assembly line, mass production style of work; each tech increases factory output and efficiency growth, and all but the first unlock a tech that reduces sword & armor price. Artisanal production allows craftspeople to work with greater independence and care; each tech increases output (less than industrial), efficiency retention, and efficiency base, and all but the first unlock a tech that increases sword & armor reliability. Each industrial/artisanal tech also increases the max number of military factories in a state, which now starts at 10 when you research Metallurgy. Of particular note is that slot increases & dockyard output have been moved to other techs, and thus the research time for these branches has decreased.

Now for probably the most controversial change so far: support equipment has been split into maintenance, engineering, medical, signals, and suppression equipment (recon and logistics no longer use specialized equipment). To upgrade your support companies you must now research and produce better equipment, just like with any other unit. The stats remain largely the same, though the research unlock years have been decreased, and the first three levels of equipment are less expensive than vanilla support equipment. I’m excited about this change, but if the community, after testing it, decides you don’t like the hassle I would be willing to re-introduce generic support equipment that can be easily converted into specific equipment.

**Melee Folder**

I covered the changes here in the previous dev diary so all I’ll say is that I’m very sorry about how the mainline techs come out in their secondary folders;  Hoi4 does not like displaying the same technology in multiple folders.

**Construction Folder**

Now we enter the carpentry category. The most exciting thing about the first three branches (construction speed, building slots, and dockyard output) is that carpentry now unlocks civilian factories and the architecture branch increases the maximum number per state by 2 each tech. Fort techs now unlock 2 levels per tech, with the first tech unlocking them at all.

I’ve decided to split engineers into two units: campaign and siege. Campaign engineers grant movement, defense, and attack buffs through rough terrain, especially rivers. Siege engineers grant attack and defense on urban and fort tiles. They use the same equipment, which provides their entrenchment, defense, and breakthrough. The first tech unlocks both units, with each branch unlocking the improved equipment for both & upgrading the terrain bonuses of their own unit.

**Ranged Folder**

Bows remain untouched, except aesthetically. Javelins are now completely independent of bow research; javelin equipment is overall cheaper but far less effective against cavalry/monsters. You now unlock the ability to actually use fixed artillery in the same tech you unlock the ability to build it– which now no longer takes up shared building slots and can go up to level 5, to make up for its reduced range. I wanted to make fixed artillery a provincial building but that unfortunately breaks the interface that allows you to aim it. Siege artillery is now cheaper, to better counter Middle Earth’s many fortified chokepoints, and has a far stronger upgrade: Troll Artillery. This tech is obviously only available to those who can already use trolls.

**Naval Folder**

I’m going to skip these ones as I’ve made no changes apart from tying them to carpentry tech. I intend to reskin & rework naval units + the ship designer when I update Umbar; it was unfortunately outside the scope of 1.2.

**Farming Folder**

Pretty self explanatory here. Agriculture now unlocks fuel silos, industrial farms now produce mounts instead of cloth, and field hospital equipment is in the agriculture folder mostly just for vibes and balance. Field hospitals no longer require wagons, mostly just because those are the vibes I’m feeling. Tell me how you feel about that one.

**Cavalry Folder**

Fun fact, my original plan was merely to reskin the cavalry designer, but somewhere along the way I decided to do the whole damn tech system. The only difference in tech layout between NSB and non-NSB is that without DLC you’ll have 2 amphibious cavalry technologies and you can research Basic Heavy Cavalry directly from Early Light Cavalry, since barding and shoe techs obviously don’t exist in pure vanilla. Perhaps the most substantial change in this update is modern cavalry: previously I used modern tanks to represent Ents, but Ents are now reskinned trolls & modern cavalry is a mix between light & heavy cavalry.

Wagon technology is now in the cavalry folder & no longer considered infantry technology. The distinction between ‘train’ wagons and ‘truck’ wagons seems pretty silly, but is unfortunately necessary to maintain the supply system. You now have to research ‘train’ wagons before ‘truck’ wagons, to at least acknowledge they’re basically the same thing.

I’ve removed Mûmakil lancers and changed Mûmakil ‘skirmishers’ to artillery. The Mûmakil equivalent of vanilla self propelled artillery is, in fact, self propelled artillery; it doesn’t have the massive soft attack buffs of other skirmishers but rather a significant bonus on fort tiles.

I replaced the cavalry designer’s engine types with mount types. Different races have access to different mount breeds– orcs have wargs, southrons have camels, dwarves have boars, easterlings have steppe ponies, and elves have elk. Everyone can access the base four horse breeds but they cost twice as much for Orcs and Dwarves, who were not known for their vast herds of horses. Trolls and Mûmakil obviously use different mounts.

Main weapons are unlocked through relevant technologies (normal cavalry uses swords from the melee tab, skirmishers use bows/javelins, lancers use spears). Most of your breakthrough will come through how you armor your rider, which replaces the turret slot and requires armor technology from the melee tab; heavier armor can significantly reduce your speed, however.

There are overall fewer available modules in the RfR designer than vanilla, and I would very much appreciate suggestions for more. I’ll try to get the full spreadsheet of modules onto the wiki at some point.

On a graphical note, I chose to replace the blueprint background with racially themed images of cavalry. The vanilla diagram system that dynamically displayed chasses and weapons would have unfortunately been far too much work to convert, and I think this captures the vibe well enough. There are currently 3 unique icon sets for cavalry equipment: generic, Orcish, and Rohirrim. I hope to add Numenorean, Easterling, and Northron before releasing 1.2, but no guarantees.

**Organisation Folder**

Finally, the organisation folder, or, whatever was left. Unlike the other three categories, organisation does not soft lock techs; the main line simply increases universal research speed. Recon companies are now gated behind watchtowers, which (along with signals companies) are gated behind semaphore technology. I’ve removed armored cars entirely from the mod as I could not find anything medieval that felt right for them, and thus removed armored car recon as well. Mot recon is now ranger recon, which I intend to gate behind the new special forces doctrines coming in *Arms Against Tyranny*, and you now also have access to Heavy Cavalry Recon: they’re not quite as good at recon as Light Cavalry, but they’re a good way to add heavy cav to a template.

Military police & logistics companies also live here. I’m seriously considering removing Bureaucracy as a prerequisite for any of these technologies, as it creates some weirdness in starting tech setups.

Special forces are untouched, except for reducing the meta-branch’s unlock years. This was a common trend across the whole tech rework; RfR tends to be over much earlier than vanilla, so no tech will experience ahead of time penalties after 3021 anymore. Support company years, notably, have been reduced from 3015/3018/3021/3024 to 3015/3017/3020/3022.

I axed the custom bureaucracy branch (the one with training time & recruitable pop) in this update. I originally introduced it to compensate for the reduction in tech from vanilla (no air, subs, carriers, or AA, and basically no one having to care about navy anyway). However, I feel that issue has been rectified through a combination of

A: the new techs introduced in this update

B: the compression of techs into fewer years

C: me being stingy with tech slots (I legitimately just forget to include them in tech trees)

If y’all miss them make some noise and I’ll see about adding them back in.

That wraps up the technology rework– for now, at least. All these changes are now live on the beta branch, so please test them out and tell me what you think. The next step is implementing several mechanics that will affect all the countries involved in 1.2, so see you around for those!