bmhking/hoi4-concentrated-v-dispersed-comparison

This project is a small R program built to settle a debate among players of the strategy game Hearts of Iron 4 (HOI4). The game lets players build factories in either a concentrated or dispersed layout, and there is a long running argument in the community about which approach produces more military equipment over time. This repository plots out the numbers to answer that question directly. The author's conclusion, based on their own gameplay data, is that concentrated factories produce more equipment than dispersed ones after roughly a year of in game time, unless a player deliberately avoids researching industry technology. Once a player reaches 1939 level industry tech, which is achievable by mid 1938 in game, concentrated factories overtake dispersed production within about 500 days. The program also models how bonuses affect this timeline. Three factors speed up the point where concentrated production wins: a higher production efficiency cap, a higher production efficiency growth rate, and a lower factory output modifier. The repository includes worked examples for different in game leaders and paths, such as playing the Soviet Union under Rykov versus Stalin, and Germany under different economic policies and advisors, each producing a comparison chart saved as an image. This is a personal side project rather than a general purpose tool or library. There is no installation guide, no reusable code interface, and no stated license. It exists mainly to document one player's analysis and share the resulting charts with others in the HOI4 community who are curious about the concentrated versus dispersed factory debate.