HoI2: creating an alien invasion mod - is my idea possible?

[Xorte-Renshe]

The only Paradox game I own is EU3, however, I do have an idea for a mod that would work great with HoI2 (which I only really know about thanks to One F Jef's stream he did a few months ago of Darkest Hour).
I want to make a mod in which it is humanity versus aliens. I'll list basically all the things I want to be able to do, and I'd like to know how much of it is possible with this game. So long as I know it's possible, I can do it (it might take me a long time, but I'm willing to invest the time. I might have a lot of questions over the course of working on it, of course. Heck, I'd love help if anyone would be willing.) In other words, I dont want to buy the game if I cant really use it for this purpose.
I'm basing this mod off of my favourite fictional series that started back in 1999, though the aliens didn't come into the story 'til 2003. Some of you obscure/diamond-in-the-rough visual novel fans out there might recognize the series I'm alluding to.

This is a long read, but I've put a lot of thought into this, so please give it a try (and if these kind of mods are impossible for HoI2, could you perhaps suggest another game that they would be possible on. I have no knowledge necessary to create a game from scratch, haha).

• Depending on how fast time in the game passes, I might have to slow it down a bit. EU3 goes through days faster than I can blink on its max speed. I want the battles and day-to-day events in this mod to take place on short scales. Thus, I want the player to take their time when battles happen and to NOT speed up time. Going by hour-to-hour every couple of seconds on normal speed is good.

• The starting year must be 1973, and the end date would be around 2010 (since the series I'm basing this mod on only has events that go up to 2004 in the main timeline, as far as we've seen, and the other timeline goes up to 2006, if I'm correct).

• Create new units and, of course, sprites. This brings up two things:
  
  • 1) Are the sprites 2D images or 3D renders in HoI2? I cant tell by looking at them. I'm a 2D artist, so I'm fine if that's the case. However, I am not a 3D artist.
  • 2) I read somewhere that unit classes were hardcoded into the game, so I cant change or add a class. However, that doesn't mean I'm unable to create new units and edit old units, right? By "class", do they mean "infantry", "cavalry", et cetera...? If not, do individual units in each class have separate statistics? The aliens have 8 different land units and only 1 unit that can take the place of a ship (to allow the aliens to traverse water). Seven of the alien land units have to have a MASSIVELY larger size in terms of soldiers than any of the human units. All of them will be vastly more powerful than infantry and tanks. Two of them will be vastly more powerful than human aircraft, rendering them practically useless in battles they take part in. Six of them, including the previous two will be a good match against a new human unit: giant robots. However, unlike the human units, the alien units will have to cost practically nothing to build and take a very short time to build. I want a balance that makes it incredibly difficult to win when playing as the humans.
  
  

• The aliens need to have 27 "hives" around the world that are the only places they can build units from (I wonder if I can do that while having the aliens be all 1 "nation", or if I would have to make it so that each hive is the capital of its own "nation" and that the aliens can only build from their capital province). I want to have it so that they appear via events, as they crash into the planet directly from space in the story over the course of around 20 years, the first landing around the real-world Kashgar, China area (whatever that is called in-game) in 19 April, 1973. I'll get to the events thing in a bit. With the hives, they can only take up one province and have to be upgradeable 6 times. The more upgraded they are, the further the aliens can build. For example, level 2 will allow them to build units in adjacent provinces to the hive province. Level 3 will allow provinces adjacent to those, and so on... This should cost quite a bit of "money" on the aliens part, and take a few years to complete each level. The one in Kashgar should start out as a level 2 hive. Alternatively, I could use events to increase the level of hives at certain dates. Actually, that idea seems better. Anyway, they should be practically impossible to destroy by normal units once they reach level 2. Level 1 hives should be easily destroyed by nukes (are useable nukes part of HoI2? I would assume they are), but the ground and surrounding provinces (unsure as to how many) should become uninhabitable and unusable afterwards. I'll get to the ways on how to destroy level 2 and up hives later. While unable to capture provinces with hives in them, humans can still capture any other provinces controlled by the aliens.

• Come to think of it, the hives being the capitals of different "nations" seems like a better idea, as I need some of the aliens to be ambitious about destroying the humans, like the ones in Kashgar and Budapest, and others to be more reclusive, like in Yokohama and Sadogashima. But, if I do have to have them be different nations, I need to make it possible that they can never go to war with each other, but instead be perfectly united (and obviously use the same units.)

• The use of named characters on the battlefield. I want the giant robots to be one-robot-per-unit, and as such, I would like there to be general characters who have their own unit. This, I think, seems to be the most implausible thing on the list, as I have no idea how that would work in a Paradox game. Alternatively, I need to make it so that people in the governments and research things will be automatically added at certain dates, whether that has to do with events or not. If they are possible, there will be events that require the use of specific characters, assuming they're alive. I guess, alternatively (I used that word again), I could just create units that are limited to a cap of 1 and called by the name of a character, instead of using the class of the robot they'd be piloting, if that makes sense.

• Events are obviously something I'll need to create. Apparently, they're relatively easy when dealing with giving units and perks. However, I have some ideas for events that dont seem like they'd be simple to create. Naturally, the events I'm going to show are reliant on the countries in question not having been destroyed by the dates listed:
  
  • 1) Of course, the events where the hives land. I assume this would be like a "rising nation" event, yes?
  • 2) In 6 July, 1974, the second hive lands in Athabasca, Canada. The United States, if the player isn't playing as them, has to nuke it almost immediately, destroying it and rendering most of Alberta, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan uninhabitable. If the player is playing as them, then they get the mission to destroy it. That's an easy enough thing to code, I'd guess. Also, the US and Canada shouldn't go to war over this, however, their relations should take a dive.
  • 3) In 1998, a hive has to land in Yokohama, Japan (Yokohama needs to be the main city in the Tokyo region). If not playing as Japan, the Japanese need to launch an offensive to try and capture the hive in summer 1999. Again, if playing as Japan, you get a mission to do so. If you fail to capture the hive by 6 August, 1999 (which is highly likely), the US orders Japanese troops to retreat (so, the units are automatically moved out of range) and drops two new bombs of mass destruction called G-bombs (that the US and USSR research from the aliens a decade earlier, if you're not playing as them) to destroy the hive, destroying the land in Yokohama and Tokyo, though not making it uninhabitable. All the aliens in Japan disappear after this as well, and stay out of Japan until early 2001. Yokohama, after the battle, then has to become a very important province to Japan.
  • 4) If characters are a possibility, then having them appearing at certain dates.
  • 5) I need to have the western Yukon and Alaska become their own power, "Yukon", in 1996. This new power is also something I'll get to later.
  • 6) The hive that lands in Budapest in 1985 will need to be incredibly offensively minded. It needs to be more powerful than the Germanic countries, enough to defeat them relatively easily. In late 1985, if not playing as France, Germany, Belgium, Austria, or any other central European powers, there needs to be an event like this:
    
    • France and Germany are destroyed, but Britain allots Plymouth, Bristol, Portsmouth, and Dover (I think those are the HoI2 names for the provinces) to a new Franco-Germanic nation, which becomes a vassal to Britain.
    • Austria, Slovakia, and Hungary are destroyed.
    
    
  • ^continuation^ If you are playing as France or Germany, if you are destroyed, the event takes place, reviving you and giving you control over the Franco-Germanic nation. If you're playing as any other central European nation, then the event will take place if France and Germany are both destroyed. The likelihood of you surviving to see that, though, is pretty slim, however not impossible, I'd wager. Those would be good countries to play as if you want a bigger challenge.
  • 7) If the hive in Kashgar is destroyed, then the aliens will have to be in disarray, as they are a hive mind in the series and their "queen bee" is in the hive at Kashgar. Thus, an event will take place that ramps up the production cost and production time of all the alien units so that it takes them a lot longer to create units, and also severely decreases their morale, giving humanity a pretty good fighting chance.

• The Yukon faction has to be a powerhouse of tech advancement. In the series, it's a testing area for new technologies and robots run by the US, the UN, and the USSR. So, I guess it should have a lot of ease researching new techs and building new advancements. Then, it trades those blueprints and stuff with the other nations. The Yukon faction itself shouldn't go out to try and fight the aliens, but should instead focus on internal and domestic stuff.

• With regards to destroying level 2 and up hives, 3 G-bombs can destroy level 2 hives. It takes more than 3 to destroy any hive higher than level 2, and more than 3 G-bombs would then leave the land uninhabitable. The use of G-bombs at all, which only the US and the USSR would possess for the first few years of the bomb's existence, would completely cripple the nation's stability (or whatever the equivalent is in HoI2), reducing it to the lowest possible rating (with the Yokohama G-bomb event as an exception. No stability drop for that one).

• Another way to destroy level 2 and up hives is with a super unit that Japan will get as part of an event in 2001. This should be a single (capped at only 1) unit that is immensely powerful when it comes to defense and can also move from province to province relatively quickly (including whatever units are attached to it in an army). If it gets to a province that a hive is in, after a charge that takes a few hours, you can destroy the hive and all the aliens in the area, rendering only the province the hive was in uninhabitable (leaving the surrounding area perfectly fine).
  
  • 1) If playing as Japan, you will get a mission in 20 December 2001 to move the super unit to Sadogashima by 24 December (according to an "interactive map of HoI2", Sadogashima doesn't exist in the vanilla HoI2, so that'll have to be created). If you dont move the super unit there by that time, you will get that same insane stability penalty that comes from using G-bombs. So, I'm forcing the player to move the super unit to Sadogashima. The alien army there should be massive enough to make it incredibly difficult. This is where the game-speed thing comes into play. On 25 December, you will get another mission to destroy the hive using the super unit. If you cant destroy the hive by 16:00 on 25 December, another event happens where the super unit fails to work properly and blows up, destroying Sadogashima entirely and, by event, killing a few named characters, should named characters be possible. All the other human units are automatically moved back to mainland Japan unharmed by the explosion. A second super unit will be given by event the day after, and a new mission will come up to destroy the original hive in Kashgar by 1 January, 2002. If you fail that mission, there will be a huge consequence, which I'll explain in a bit (another event thing that is similar to the Canadian hive event). I do need to know a way to make it so that certain stipulations have to be met in order for the super weapon to destroy a hive. That way, the time limit on Sadogashima will be difficult to reach.
  • 2) If you succeed in destroying the hive on Sadogashima, you'll still get the mission to destroy the Kashgar hive, just this time not getting a new super unit (obviously).
  • 3) If you're not playing as Japan, there will be an event detailing the failure of the attack on Sadogashima, with the island being destroyed by the super unit blowing up. Also, if you're not playing as Japan, you'll still get the mission to destroy the Kashgar hive by 1 January, 2002. In fact, all the countries should get that mission (with top priority. This needs to be a huge, HUGE battle, if possible, with all the countries trying to protect Japan's super unit).
  
  

• This is the big event in the mod. This is the big fork in the road, assuming that the required countries, the United States, the USSR, and Japan are still around.
  
  • 1) If the destruction of the hive in Kashgar was successful, the main timeline will play out, and the event mentioned above with the aliens in disarray takes place, and the exact opposite happens for the humans. The governments of each country gain extra funding for research and production (in other words, military units and research are cheaper), and human troop morale skyrockets. If named characters are a possibility, a few of them die in the history/story event that follows the hive destruction, as per the events in the series. A new class of the super unit becomes available to build at a limit of 1, and you can have it as well as the original, though this one you actually have to build yourself (and it'll take a while, which adds balance if both get destroyed). If you dont already have the 3 hives in Europe destroyed by 2004 (as you're going from East to West, seeing as Japan is the only country with the super unit), all of the countries will get the mission to re-take Europe. If Japan is ever destroyed after 2002, Britain will inherit the technology to build the super unit. If they're destroyed, then the US and after them, the USSR.
  • 2) If the destruction of the hive in Kashgar was a failure, the other timeline will play out. The super unit will be destroyed, this time not destroying the hive or the land around it. The UN, under direction of the US, will get ready to evacuate most of the planet's population. Normal gameplay will continue until 23 February, 2004. On the 23 February, the planet's population will board ships destined for another planet in an attempt to escape, including many named characters (thanks to learning how to bypass the speed of light from studying the alien's technology from the "captured" hive in Yokohama and the remains of the hive in Canada). Each province will have it's population/man-power cut by 90%. The US and USSR will then launch multiple G-bombs on all the remaining hives on the planet. Most of the world becomes uninhabitable. Salt desserts will form around Australia and North America, drying up most of the Pacific Ocean, effectively connecting the two continents. The last place in North America that touches the Pacific is Washington, so Seattle becomes the big production and military base in the US. The remaining countries in Eurasia lose most of their provinces, except for Japan, which only loses Shikoku, Kyushu, and the very southern tip of Honshu. The remaining bits of the USSR break up into smaller countries. Mid 2005, French units and Canada go to war with the US and occupy D.C. Relations between the remaining countries break down completely.
  
  

As far as I can remember, I think that's the basic gist, including some very specific examples, of things I want to do with this mod. I'm sure someone here knows the series the inspiration for this mod comes from. There are hints all over my account.

So, does this seem possible?

I also need to learn how the whole upgrading military units and technology works in HoI2 (and the whole blueprint thing).
If I've forgotten anything, I might edit this post, but likely not. I have classes at uni in 4 hours that last pretty much all day, and then after that, I'm probably taking a nap! (I still haven't gone to bed tonight. It's bloody 5:00 in the morning!) It's quite likely that I've mis-spelled some stuff, but whatever.

[TheBromgrev]

I'm 99% sure there is an alien invasion cheat for HOI2. See this: http://www.paradoxian.org/hoi2wiki/i...hp/Cheat_Codes

[Xorte-Renshe]

I'm 99% sure there is an alien invasion cheat for HOI2. See this: http://www.paradoxian.org/hoi2wiki/i...hp/Cheat_Codes

Well, that's cool (and hilarious). And it's a good sign, if nothing else. But what I'm after is rather specific. I want to make a total conversion.

[TheBromgrev]

Well, there are a few flaws with your plan. In the HOI series, units aren't created in provinces, so your hive idea to limit where the aliens spawn won't work. The rest might be do-able (I haven't modded HOI2, but do mod HOI3 so I can't be sure), but will be tricky and complicated. Given that you want things to happen on very specific dates, then HOI2 is better for your idea than HOI3. HOI3 uses the EU3 engine, which doesn't lend itself well to date-specific stuff.

[Xorte-Renshe]

They aren't created in provinces? That does make it a bit more confusing. I just went back and looked at Jef's recorded stream again, and you're right. Ugh, you can deploy units manually to the region you want them in. Hmmm... could there be a way of, perhaps, limiting the option of deploying units to specific provinces? If so, and if it's not possible to specify only the alien faction(s) as having that stipulation, I'd be fine with that for every faction.

[TheBromgrev]

I can't say this is true for HOI2, but in HOI3 the AI will always place new units in the capital, and this behavior can't be modded.

Aside from that, you have to ask yourself the following question: "what if the player doesn't follow the story I laid out?" Basically, the appeal to games like these is that you can change the course of history. This is the downfall of most HOI3 and HOI2 modders. They think in terms that are too scripted, and the games themselves and the entire intent of the game is to not follow a strict script, but to be guided to various end scenarios you're willing to support. If you don't want the player to do something the game would normally allow him to do, then you need to figure out a way to prevent that behavior, knowing that people will actively try to skirt around the blocks you made.

I've had a lot of experience with working on a mod for HOI3 that isn't completely scripted yet not a complete sandbox either, changing the game mechanics that can be changed to guide the players toward starting WW2 and finishing it with a few possible end results I'd like to see. I want to play as a country during the setting of WW2, not repeat WW2. If I wanted to repeat WW2 then I'd watch a documentary or read some books. On the other hand I don't want to allow stuff like Albania conquering Greece in 1937, or Italy annexing all of southern Europe while France and the UK do nothing. Geopolitics wouldn't allow that kind of crazy behavior that goes well beyond the "appeasement" treaties, so I don't want to allow it in the mod either.

Just a few other things to think about. I can't really help much with HOI2 modding since I don't own it, but might be able to help in other ways.

[Xorte-Renshe]

Oh yeah, that's perfectly fine if it doesn't follow the story. That'd cause the mod to lose re-playability if it did. I just want the possibility of the storyline from the series being played out. But I'd want to do things not in the story as well, haha. I guess the only thing that will be in the mod regardless of how history plays out is the "evacuate the Earth then bomb the crap out of it" plot if the hive in Kashgar isn't destroyed by 1 January, 2002 (with the only possibility of that not happening being both the US and USSR are destroyed) (assuming that having hives is possible).

That third paragraph reminds me of a HoI story I heard where AI Mexico somehow ended up annexing Spain through an alliance with Portugal. Then, Mexico joined the Axis with Italy and Germany while Japan was left out.

Thanks, though. I just really want an RTS game that takes place in this series, even if I have to make the bloody thing myself, heh. Any information about modding HoI2 is welcomed, and, by extent, knowledge of HoI3 cant hurt either.