Developer Diary | Italy #2

[ManoDeZombi]

I see that every country in this rework has the mechanic "Balance of Power." Will the other countries with content that was made before "By Blood Alone" get this mechanic?

We would definitely like to implement the Balance of Power feature for certain countries in the future, but we only have so much time so unfortunately only BBA countries will get it for this patch.

 

[CraniumMuppet]

A Greater Purpose gives 5% recruitable population for free? and Divino Duce gives 10%? That seems a bit too powerful, you can basically go to service by requirement with none of it's downsides.

Iirc that's factor, not conscription. Conscription is yellow in text

 

[PDX_Danne]

Awesome! Cant wait to play this now! Would it be possible to see a state map of Italy and its surrounding areas?

Check out Italy's first dev diary if you haven't - there are a few there; https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/developer-diary-italy-1.1531121/

 

[ManoDeZombi]

Good job guys! very impressive work.
i have some questions:
From Dev diary 1:

1) will be present in the map the italian territory of Tientsin in China?

Concessione italiana di Tientsin - Wikipedia

it.wikipedia.org

it could open new scenarios in the Pacific War because there were stationed 2 ships and a marine regiment.

Unfortunately not.

2) Who is General Prince Filiberto? i think it is a mistake. i think you are referring to Prince Umberto II, General commander of italian forces in the Alps against french.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umberto_II_of_Italy

Filiberto di Savoia-Genova, he was promoted to general of the Regio Esercito in 1936.

3) Please, insert picture of amedeo guillet. it was a real hero. you can take it from here

Amedeo Guillet - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

As you wish, event hough I opted for a more appropriate image reference to work as a General in the field, especially since he is represented in game as an irregulars general. This is his (WIP) portrait

5) Italian destroyers "Curatone class" is wrong. the right name is "Curtatone"

Already fixed, along with other typos spotted on the previous DD

 

[ManoDeZombi]

Questions regarding the German "Assassinate Mussolini" Focus:
1. How will this focus work? What happens if you Assassinate Mussolini? I assume the same as before, the king will take control, but what will happen to the Italian Focus tree, if, say, the AI already went down the Historical path? Would the focus tree change so at least the Monarchist part is unlocked?
2. What happens if the King is already in control? As of now, the Assassination focus not only replaces Mussolini, but changes the country to non-aligned and puts Italy in the German faction. But since the King is already in place, the country is non-aligned, would the focus just add Italy to the faction?
3. How will the focus work if Italy went democratic or communist? Or the Focus would require Italy to be at least fascist?

1. The Italian focus Banda Carità will prevent Germany from completing their "Assassinate Mussolini" focus.
Italy will now receive a warning event when Germany starts working on their focus "Prepare Italian Coup", so that an Italian player has a bit of time to act on it.
Mussolini's successor if he is assassinated is still WIP, but it will most likely be Grandi.

2. Not sure I understood correctly the question, but the German focus to Assassinate Mussolini requires Mussolini to be in charge, so if VIttorio Emanuele (or son) is ruling the country, Germany cannot complete the focus.

3. As I said, the focus requires Italy to be led by Mussolini.

 

[ManoDeZombi]

Great work, don't mean to diminish any of it, but I just feel like the comparison tree image is a bit misleading, half of it is at a different scale and repeats itself

Spoiler: Fixed comparison

Yup I know! Apparently there were some issues while patching the pictures together but hopefully our great community team can fix it in the future

For now please accept this terrible-resolution screenshot I just took from my machine as a show of good will

 

[PDX_Danne]

First of all, huge props to the artists again. The 2D art is as sharp as ever! The tree looks interesting and there do not seem a lot of underdeveloped parts.
Though i have some questions and suggestions, some of which have been voiced by more players after the last Italy diary.

4. Will it be possible to access the "Towards a greater Italy" focus and the following "Bend the bars" path with the alterative fascist/monarchist paths as well?

Thanks!

1; Thanks!

2; Yes, "A Greater Italy" and "The Roman Empire" paths will both be possible for either the alt Fascists and the Monarchists

 

[ManoDeZombi]

1. Will the Coronation of Prince Aimone be also possible if Germany releases the Independent State of Croatia? (Meaning both Yugo or Croatia work for this, right?)

The decision to crown Prince Aimone is actually shown in one of the pics

2. Either Austria should be guaranteed from the start and the Focus "Pact of Steel" should remove said guarantee, or it should also be possible to guarantee Austria with the "Italy First" branch. Also, in the case of Italy First Hungary should be a possible ally as it was in the Pact of Rome which i hope will be represented somehow.
To summarize, the anti-German but still fascist path that "Italy first" represents (i believe), would be better if Austria and Hungary were included in it.

We are aware of it and I will try to do my best to flesh out that part of the tree more if I have time, but unfortunately I cannot make any promises at this moment due to time constraints.

3. Rodolfo Graziani should be a normal General, not a Field Marshal. He was promoted to FM only in April 1936 after the occupation of Harar and Italy's current Marshals are bad enough. Imo the player should get some more agency on who to promote.
Dopo l'occupazione di Harar, Graziani fu nominato Maresciallo d'Italia e marchese di Neghelli.

Yeah I decided for it a while ago, I personally don't think that having him as a Field Marshal really steals away that much player agency, but I can give it a second thought.

4. Will it be possible to access the "Towards a greater Italy" focus and the following "Bend the bars" path with the alterative fascist/monarchist paths as well?

Yeah, it is available from alt-fascist and monarchist branches

 

[ManoDeZombi]

Are the civil war focuses actually where they are located in the images, or are they there own focus trees like the French ones?

Civil War focuses will most likely be hidden and then added to the left of the tree (pushing all the other branches to the right) when the CW happens.

Also there is no focus to liberate Antonio Gramsci.

Oh yeah there is a focus to Liberate Gramsci:

Also if you can do the communist and left democrat branch from the triumph in Africa focus, how does that work? There’s nothing showing mutual exclusivity.

I believe I might have added that after taking screenshots for this Dev Diary:

In light of the East Africa colony, which functions in core similarly to the German reichskommissariats, do you intend on expanding the italian colonial subject interactions to those?

There are some extra decisions to interact with the Italian East Africa puppet, yes.

Good to hear, the other problem with that chain is that German focus "Prepare Italian Coup" has no checks on ideology, leader or anything. Effectively Germany can force a non-aligned switch regardless of what an Italian player wants. Can it be confirmed if this has been changed.

There's been no changes on that focus (other than the event sent to Italy as a warning), but I'll take alook at it.

 

[ManoDeZombi]

This looks very cool, though I wished there were more flavour foci, stuff like a decision to join the entete or the central powers if either exists (also a focus to trade south tyrol for some central power assistance in teh arms industry or civillian might have been cool) or maybe some communist focusses to install or help other communists in the balkans if you dont go with stalin, especially yugoslavia for example. Otheriwse maybe stuff like a free trade agreement with a dmeocratic spain (giving both a small buff or reducing spains recovery focus), would also be very cool. Dont get me wrong I love what you did with the alt history paths but again I see sadly very little to no option to interact with other devolopments in the world or other foci from different nations outside the ones in this DLC.

For example the german focus to kill mussolini is not even mentioned so I wonder how this will intercat with one another. I just think its a bit sad that these ptions dont seem to be explored much, because this way playing these nations just feels isolated form teh rest, especially if for example I would like to play a central power run with soem friends, we woudl have little to no real way to interact with one another through the foci. this is especially felt in the democratic and communist branch in my opinion, both feel a bit parren and give no way to join for example the democratic german alliance should it spawn or stuff like the fourth international, or the bulgerian balkan defence pactor helping outa communist greece in their fight againgts turkey. You only can enagge with the historical democratic or communist powers, if they even exist in your game.

Again I like what you did with teh focusses very much, the missed oppotunitys are just a bit sad.

The Assassination of Mussolini affair is being dealt with already. In general, I would like to flesh out more the interactions with other countries, but we have limited time so we'll see.

Will the Partisan Generals also be normal Generals for communist italy? I would love to see Hitler getting bitch slapped by a female general

Of course!!

Will this also apply to the French colonies in the future? Fixed % odds are stupid.

I actually thought it worked like that and found out it doesn't, so it's something I have in mind to try and fix for a future monthly patch maybe, but again, can't make any promises at this moment.

What does air volunteer cap plus one mean here? Does it mean one extra plane ? View attachment 856743

Air wings. We'll talk more about that in the future.

And in my opinion Umberto II. should be buffed a bit, or at least his military bonuses, because for now there is not much incentive in abdicating VE3 (apart from rp). Or is there something i miss?

It's definitely not definitive, traits can be tweaked for sure

 

[PDX_Danne]

I meant more along the lines of those seen in the Spanish, Turkish and Yugoslav rework Dev Diaries wherein the entire nation is visible. If not that's more than understandable, and I still loved reading the DD!

Just for you

 

[PDX_Danne]

Does Greater Italy include Malta? It was historically claimed by irredentists.

Yes, If I remember correctly I believe it does!

 

[ManoDeZombi]

I saw it but that's why i am asking. Knowing Paradox coding is sometimes as reliable as an Alfa Romeo i wondered if it works for both Croatia (if Germany decides to release it after dissolving Yugoslavia) and potentially Yugo itself.

Not that it checks for Yugo only and than when the Ustasa pops up i am greeted by a "X Yugoslavia must exist" message.

Oh, and hopefully Italy stops being adamant on annexing 2 parts of Scotland in peace conferences for some reason.

Atm, the decision is checking for Croatia (CRO) as a released country.
Even though I totally support Italian adventurous desires of integrating Scotland, big part of the Peace Conference rework is aimed at fixing those kind of issues

Sorry to be confusing:
1. Grandi? Wouldn't it be Emanuele? As show in the picture in your comment.
2. Sorry sorry, so what I've meant is, right now the focus will replace Mussolini with Emanuele, make the non-aligned the leading party and put Italy in the German Faction. But, as you said, you cannot do these focuses if Italy went down the monarchist path. So these two focuses will be blocked, meaning you, as a German player, cannot force Italy to join your faction. What if you get a decision, which you can click and Italy gets an event whether they want to join or not (once the King is firmly in control).
3. What I've meant was, I assumed and you confirmed it, was that if Italy goes democratic or communist the focus will be blocked. So at that point there is no way to put Emanuele in control, if the player desired.
Sorry for the long questions, I figure it is quiet difficult to make all nation's focus trees work with each other.

Oh yeah you're totally right! Emanuele, Idk what I was thinking, guess Swedish summer is finally taking a toll on my brain

Can you show an image of this? Possibly for both the Social Republic and the Kingdom?

I'm afraid that for now the branches are not scripted to start hidden and show up during the CW, that's something that we'll implement later on

Is it possible for us to get a look at the leader portraits for the communist and democratic party?

Most of those portraits are still WIP, but I can tease you with Bonomi's portrait

 

[ManoDeZombi]

But how does assassinating Mussolini affect the Italian focus tree if the assassination is successful? Will Italy switch to the monarchist tree?

I'm still debating on that, tbh. I believe switching branches might be exploitable. For now I am leaning more towards keeping the Mussolini branch, just bypassing any remaining focuses that require Mussolini being in charge, up until Strengthen the Regime, which allows you to go for either Greater Italy or Roman Empire final branches.

 

[ManoDeZombi]

Thanks for the amazing 3D models. I'll repeat my question from the Developer Diary: Italy #1. Will you add 3D models and 2D arts for the Italian Navy?

Not for this expansion, this time we will have tons of new models for Italian infantry and aircraft

 

[PDX_Danne]

Beautiful work, as always! My only question is: will the foreign policy branch allow us to form the Latin alliance (with France, Spain, Portugal and Romania) similar to the French and Spanish focus trees?

You can read all about the Foreign Policy focuses in the first Dev Diary https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/developer-diary-italy-1.1531121/

 

[ManoDeZombi]

At the end, the advisor Luigi Longo, it is not el gallo that's spanish. It is il gallo. Unless he is spanish i don't know.

AFAIK he got the nickname "Gallo" in Spain during the civil war, but ading the name without article read a bit weird in my opinion, so it kinda made sense to me to add the article goes in Spanish as a nod to his involvement in the Spanish war and Spanish people calling him that.

Does that mean that the French Union focus is getting a rework, where colonies are more likely to accept if you develop them, instead of it just relying rng? If so, that would make for such a good change!

As I stated in other reply, I would like to address the French event chain in a future monthly patch later on, but I can't make any promises

 

[ManoDeZombi]

Will we get some middle east focuses added for the foreign policy? I made a suggestion about that. Basically radio bari and to either align yemen or saudi arabia towards us, maybe also support fascism in iraq.

I personally would really like to expand the foreign politics branch a bit, with content like that (I read the feedback from the previous Dev Diary and there were a lot of good input there), but unfortunately I really can't make any promises atm.

Which are all territories cored when forming Greater Italy?

Awesome stuff! Just a few questions:

1. Will proclaim the Italian empire change italy‘s cosmetic tag also?
2. Will giving land to Italian East Africa reflect in its name & decisions?
3. Is there any additional funny business we can do with the pope :O

1. Yes!
2. Not entirely sure what you mean, but the name for the country won't change and you can only give them specific states via decisions.
3. The godly businesses of His Holiness can't be discussed by a mere sinner like me.