Developer Diary | Austria

[Nattmaran]

Can't I continue playing as a puppet of Germany and gradually recover the territories of the former Austrian Empire under German occupation when the Anschluss occurs?

No, this was ruled out quite early, Germany wanted that territory for themselves, and as we have seen that most people do not seem to like playing as a puppet we decided to not make a focus branch for this.

 

[Nattmaran]

Will there be a new formable for Austria if it becomes Germany? (Eg like a new name, flag etc) could imagine that would be pai- fun for players (and specifically hollow being)

Maybe there will be

 

[Nattmaran]

Btw, why the mutual exclusivity on the Integrate Bohemia / Integrate Hungary focuses?

This is to keep Austria from snowballing too quickly... but the old formable isn't going anywhere, so you can still get other cores later on

 

[Nattmaran]

In the current game when the anchluss happens, Germany gains an Austrian general, will this continue to happen and can we see portraits of this general?

Germany will not get Eglseer anymore, but, they will get Franz Böhme, Eugen Beyer and Lothar Rendulic. Böhme and Beyer will be demoted to Generals, however

 

[PDXKatten]

Hey! For those who are asking about the uniforms, thank you for your feedback. We will look into it. As always, we highly value player feedback, but I want to note that the release is just around the corner, so we can't promise any instant changes if there would be changes.

Edit: I did not mean to imply in any way that we are out of time or that there isn’t enough time. I just don’t want to promise any changes.

 

[Nattmaran]

Hello, so what will the Austrian AI do? Go historical and say yes to Anschluss?

Pretty much, yes, if the ai is historical, or the general game rules are set to historical, they will accept unless things have gone way crazy. There is one game rule which makes them a bit more defiant though, if you like the challenge of fighting them

 

[PDXKatten]

View attachment 1198793

Its almost like I called this happening...

My apologies; I did not mean to imply in any way that we are out of time or that there isn’t enough time. I just don’t want to promise any changes.

 

[Nattmaran]

The Treaty of Saint-Germain imposed a total ban on Austrian armoured cars or tanks. It seems like this would be possible (and relatively straightforward?) to implement. Is there any chance of this happening, please?

There are no tanks or armored cars in Austria at the game start, and since they can't train troops until the treaty is done away with, I find it highly unlikely that they'd manage a tank unit before getting rid of the treaty

 

[Nattmaran]

If I set the overall game to ahistorical but set Germany to historical and leave Austria on default, how often will Austria choose to fight on average? (If that's even something we can know)

Likely not very often at all. AI Austria is generally not that defiant

 

[Nattmaran]

hey, considering starhemberg was Dolfuss's chosen successor could there be an option to put him in charge in the Austro-fascist path?

There may be a way, hidden away somewhere in the focus tree

 

[Nattmaran]

Equipped manpower instead of Manpower in the field to meet the Anschluss requirement? :>

I guess that means rip cheese. xD

But to be fair if they cannot train any additional troops, and considering the amount of troops they have it would likely still be easy to meet the new requirements soonish. Maybe just not as soon as when one early-deploys tons of troops without guns.

This was the thought yes! No more dudes without guns to force Anschluss. And also, giving Austria a smidge of control, giving them a way to affect the timing, even just slightly

As you say, there are things to help Germany achieve this before Austria snowballs too, via events and... other things that shall not yet be named.

 

[Nattmaran]

Wait. Why does it say:
View attachment 1198846

Is that some UI glitch or a secret hint?
I have my eyes on you, Paradox.

It looks weird and I will look into this!

 

[Nattmaran]

From what i could gather from the Youtube video the Austrian Army consists of 3 infantry 2 Mountain and 1 cavalry division. That was not the Austrian Army strength in early 1936 however, it had 4 infantry divisions, 2 Mountain divisions, 1 independant infantry brigade and 1 experimental armored/mechanized division.

You are correct, but, what we went for was actually the deployed manpower. Austria was, by the Treaty, only allowed 30'000 fielded manpower. When we tried this OOB ingame (we did! I found a list and was so excited to implement it!) Austria had way too much fielded manpower, and it would affect both accuracy and other nations (not naming names but Germany, it would mess up the Anschluss ratios a bit) so we decided against it in the end, for the greater good

 

[Nattmaran]

should have ended or opened the dev diary with

Grüß Gott

instead of Auf Wiedersehen

I'm afraid my German is shaky even after working on Austria for so long (I do not speak German at all :') )

 

[Nattmaran]

Ah no, prob. It's a nitpick.

In Standard German Auf Wiedersehen is perfectly fine.

However in the South of Germany, as well as Austria (same "South German" cultural sphere) the common greeting, and goodbye to an extent, is Grüß Gott.

The more you know! It might please you to know, speaking of regional differences in language; we will have an Austrian VO for the troops, not just German!

 

[Nattmaran]

It looks good but i do hope that both or all Monarchist paths will alow you to core ALL and i do mean ALL of Austria Hungary(From Krakow to Silesia, to Vojvodina Bosna and Venice...) and yeah can you bump that recrutable pop. for Otto up to at least 1.00% Since let's say he starts with 0.50% then when Austria become a kingdom to 1.00% and when he become an Empire let's say 1.50%?
Also why Kingdom of Austria? SInce historically that never really exited..(Nvm i have seen that you changed that )
Other than these things It does look really good!

The old formable for Austria-Hungary is not going anywhere, and that gives you ample amounts of cores

 

[Nattmaran]

Thank you so much for including Heinrich Maier as an advisor. Have you considered also including some of his CASSIA compatriots as advisors / spies? Barbara Issakides would be a good choice for a spy.

Franz Messner would be a good choice for a synthetics advisor, along with Josef Joham as an economics advisor due to his role within Creditanstalt. I'd also recommend Heinrich Stumpfl as a general.

I've been researching the Maier / Messner group for a screenplay I've been working on, so would be happy to send over some useful sources.

I looked into them too! I really tried to get more of them in but there wasn't really a place for that. Particularily Barbara was someone we looked into heavily, for a while. We struggled with where to place her however and in the end she was cut to make room for other people we though more fitting and interesting choices

 

[Nattmaran]

i have a question, how will austrian ai in historical work? will austria just do no focuses or will they go until it becomes unrealistic on their historical path?

They have a strategy plan that they will follow that gradually becomes more a-historical as they live and go beyond their usual date of annexation

 

[D3vil]

I wish there was an EU formable rework. There would be more incentives for players to go democratic. Also, make it so you can core more of Europe or at least make it so you can form lesser regional federations as puppets à la Reichskommisariats to Germany.

You wish may have been granted.

 

[MordredViking]

Speaking of VOs - will we get any for Belgium and if so, will these be in both official languages? And what about Congo, as French is the official language but several other are in use as well?
I remember Yugoslavia being left without a VO for having multiple languages in use.

Belgium has them too, in Belgian French as that was more often spoken by the officer-class.