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.
- 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!
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!
*This mod requires the By Blood Alone and Arms Against Tyranny DLC’s
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.
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.
If you like this mod, please give it a thumbs up. Thanks!
- 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!
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!
** Unfortunately, all of these changes require the DLC Arms Against Tyranny. However, I believe if you go into the Change Notes tab, you can select "Revert to this version" to go back to a previous version if you do not have this DLC.
Required DLC:
These DLC should be installed in order to use this item.
Hearts of Iron IV: By Blood Alone
Hearts of Iron IV: Arms Against Tyranny
Revisions:
Old revisions of this mod are available below. Click the link to download.
