[2019] Dev Diary: Operations

: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page [url=https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/394360/announcements/detail/1631921413933294521]here[/url].

Today's Development Diary by Podcat[pdxint.at]



Welcome to another dev diary for La Resistance. Today we are back talking espionage, namely Operations. These are like big impact missions that may require multiple agents as well as resources and preparation time. I also have some other stuff to cover.

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Update on the new launcher
As some of you may have noticed the launcher release got a big bumpier than we had liked. While we had fixed several issues since the stellaris launcher it seemed that HOI4 had a share of unique issues also :/ I’ve looked at telemetry and it seems like mod use is mostly back to pre-launcher-release so it seems most players are back on board with mods, but there are still reports of issues. We released a 1.8.1 hotfix for some issues at the end of last week and we are working on a few things on the game side since. I have been chatting with the team working on the launcher and they will have a launcher bugfix patch out next week (the new launcher updates without us having to update the game or bump version number). While they are mainly looking at bugs at the moment, they are also working on some UI improvements for mod navigation that should be ready during next month.

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Operations
Operations all require at least one agent to perform, and some require more than one (in fact some powerful ones require more than you might have as a non-spymaster, making their access more limited). They also all need some level of network to have been built up in preparation.



Operations all need preparation before they can be launched. This is usually produced equipment, agents or a cost in industry over time. We use this last one as an abstract representation of funneling economy into bribes, making or creating counterfeit cash etc where military equipment makes no sense.


In this example we are using the local resistance to saboutage resource extraction and we need to supply the operation with 250 support equipment
You can here also set the operation to just launch when ready if you do not care about timing, or if you want it to keep repeating.

Once preparation is done an operation can have multiple phases. The most common is 3 - Infiltration, performing the job and exfiltration. We have a pretty cool system for this where phases can be mixed and matched and have different costs associated with them. For example if your operatives need to paradrop into location at night it may require transport planes, but if its a neutral border perhaps only some economic bribing is needed to slip in. Operations can take quite a while to perform and will lock up your operatives during this. Operatives can also have traits that affect both chance of better outcomes as well as making them cheaper/faster.
The more times you perform an operation against a target the more difficult it gets. This kind of auto balancing simulates that the enemy will plug holes in their security based on how you have previously broken through.

There are two main types of operations: Gatekeeper ones that give you infiltrated assets, which in turn allow you access to other, more powerful operations.


Infiltration
These are all gatekeeper operations with added benefits.


(note that this resistance contact ones lets you specify a target state. Some operations target nations, some take states and others strategic regions)

Infiltrate Army - Gets you an asset inside the enemy armed forces. Gets you more info on their armies, techs etc.

Infiltrate Air Force - Gets you an asset inside the enemy air force. Gets you extra intel on their air forces, air techs etc.

Infiltrate Civilian Government - Gets you an asset in the enemies government. Gives more intel on their production, buildings etc.

Make Resistance Contacts - Get a local contact in the underground resistance. This helps boost resistance growth.



Other operations
Several of these require some form of infiltration to be in place first. Often they will need resistance networks, a certain amount network cover and other limiters also.

Steal Blueprints - Depending on the outcome and what kind of infiltration you have done you can get research speed bonuses, ahead of time or full unlocks of technologies.

Targeted Sabotage - Use your contacts in local resistance and strengthen and focus sabotage in an area

Boost Resistance - Strengthen the local resistance

Capture Ciphers - The old “steal the enigma” trick ;) Capture clues to the enemies cryptos and gain progress on cracking them. Requires that you have a crypto department.

Coordinated Strike - Allow setting up air strikes and launching a surprise attack. This will let us simulate things like Pearl Harbor and the devastation that the germans wrought on soviet air forces on the start of Barbarossa. Your agents prepare an area that will see a strong intial strike. You need to set up your air force missions before and when the operation triggers the strike will happen (and war declared if you are a nation allowed to do this). It works for port strikes and strategic bombing.

Plant False Intel - This lets you create “fake troops” to trick the enemy. These troops will look like regular divisions to the enemy, although they will disappear into thin air if the enemy gains full intel or end up in combat with them. They don’t consume supplies and are not able to capture territory. Fake troops work an all of your non-allies, but a nation needs to be picked where to seed the false information. Bonus point if you do this and put Patton in charge of them ;)[en.wikipedia.org]



Rescue captured operative - Its bound to happen that one of your Operatives get captured while out on mission. If this happens they will be leaking intel to the enemy, but you will have the option to mount a rescue operation and get them out to safety.

There are also some things we will wait until next week to reveal...

Historical operations
We also wanted to give you the opportunity to recreate some of the more famous operations in the war. While the generic operations already cover a lot of work done by, for example, allied agents working with the resistance in France and Yugoslavia, there were a few very famous ones that didn’t really fit. Most of these are less inspirations for spy movies and more about Daring Commando Raids (™).

For example, if Germany occupies the Telemark region in Norway, they can now take a decision to begin heavy water production. The decision runs for a fairly long time, and if it completes, the Germans get a bonus to nuclear research. Historically the heavy water was fairly useless for actually building a reactor or even a nuclear bomb, but we decided that if the Germans managed to get it, they would realize that and end up pursuing a better approach.



However, any country with an intelligence agency in a war with Germany can try to sabotage the production plant if there is a certain level of resistance in Telemark. This is to allow the German player to successfully defend by keeping resistance low in the area. Historically, the British had to execute several operations to deny the Germans the heavy water. The most successful was Operation Gunnerside, which completely demolished the plant through the use of explosives planted by a small Commando unit, and which now serves as the basis for our Historical Operation.

There are a handful of other historically-inspired operations, including the German raids to capture or kill Tito and to liberate Mussolini.