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Götterdämmerung | Expansion Pass


Aaand there we have it, with the release of this video there can be no more subterfuge: our expansion Götterdämmerung drops November 14th.

Of course, we’ve kept this one under wraps for a bit longer despite some … subtle hints, so now is our opportunity to explain a little about what Götterdämmerung heralds, and what else is coming for Hearts of Iron in the near future.

With the above said, I’d like to draw attention to the fact that Dev Diaries and related events will be arriving with high frequency over the coming six weeks - two or three items per week up until launch. This means today we won’t be diving into extreme detail on each of the headline items, but you won’t have long to wait to see more.

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Note: The original schedule was changed to swap the Raids and the Small Features DD's to give the Devs more time with the Raids DD

Special Projects
A German themed expansion is something many of you have been clamouring for for many years, and as we’ve been quite clear about in previous roadmaps, we’ve also wanted to work on a super-weapons feature since the release of HoI4. Naturally, these two things made sense to tackle together.

War drives all sorts of technological innovation in an attempt to out-do opponents and although many projects ultimately never saw the battlefield, Götterdämmerung aims to tie together existing research systems with a new experimental research mechanic that allows for both historical and less historical but plausible super-projects to be pursued. The research process will become an important part of gameplay, with scientists, map-located experimental facilities, and supporting infrastructure all combining to produce a wide variety of outcomes that can augment your forces or change the very nature of the war you are fighting.

Military Raids
Of course, the story of experimental project development during the war was one fraught with strategic implications. From the secrecy around the Manhattan project, to the dambusters raids or targeted strikes on important facilities such as Peenemunde, there are numerous examples of targeted military strikes that had a severe impact on the nature of the conflict.

The military raids feature aims to add more narrative to your conflict while remaining an inherently strategic tool in your arsenal. Target experimental facilities, important military installations and more with high-risk, high-reward planned operations across multiple disciplines. We’ve aimed to have as much integration as possible here with special projects: raids will be one of your main counterplays to an opponent scheming to develop their own [redacted].

Germany
Germany will be receiving a totally revised historical national focus tree and a host of new alternate historical paths. We’ll go into further detail about exactly what is coming here, but we’ve put a high premium on retaining the core feeling that Germany’s old tree gave the player: a sense that they are the protagonist in the events leading up to the war; that the conflict revolves around their actions.

Austria
Resist the oncoming storm, cast off the shackles of enforced military impotence and retool your nation around your chosen identity. Forge a new history for Austria free of German control, standing as a beacon of resistance or reclaiming your fractured empire.

Revised Hungarian Focus Tree
A completely overhauled Hungarian focus tree, with a detailed historical revision and a completely unique perspective on reforging the Austro-Hungarian Empire, independent of Austrian content.

Belgian Focus Tree
Resist or welcome German supremacy. Draw on the natural wealth of the Congo and build potential for an African government-in-exile. Alternatively, play as the Belgian Congo, and either support the war effort, or throw off your old masters.


And of course that’s not all. With any release there’s a host of other items that will appear, some small, some bigger, and notably some pretty nice improvements to the way the AI will play on a tactical and planning level.

Expansion Pass

With Götterdämmerung we’ll be trying something a bit new. The release will be part of an expansion pass. Expansion passes are our way of both giving you a roadmap for the content that’ll be arriving over the next few releases, and for letting you sign up to get that content when it arrives with a discount of 20%.

The expansion pass will include:
  • Instant unlock of three new 3d tank models and a music track​
  • The Götterdämmerung expansion (Nov 14th 2024) - $24.99/£21.99/€24.99​
  • The Graveyard of Empires country pack (Q1 2025) - $14.99/£12.79/€14.99​
  • Prototype Vehicles unit pack (Q3 2025) - $6.99/£5.89/€6.99​
HOI_ExpansionPassOne_KeyArt.png
To see the Expansion pass on Steam, click the image above or this link https://pdxint.at/EP1Store
Now to get ahead of the game here: we understand that this method won’t appeal to everyone. All items listed above except for the first bullet-point will be available for purchase separately as per usual, or in the DLC subscription.
 
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Cause people were *furious* when they did Switzerland but not Austria for BBA, so clearly people want it. Also, Poland, Netherlands, France, Denmark, Norway, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Ethiopia, & Czechoslovakia generally get conquered/annexed before the end of 1940--- should they just not do focus trees for any country that didn't historically make it all the way through? It's a game, not a textbook, people love their alt history.
Well, they shouldn't have done switzerland in the first place. It was stupid of them, in the first place. But aside from that, there are plenty of reasons why Austria specifically should not have a focus tree. The closest comparison being czechoslovakia, a country which also gets annexed by event but has a focus tree, and there's a very simple reason why. Anschluss was not contested, but the sudeten crisis actually risked sparking a war. Giving austria a focus tree risk weakening germany, which completely messes up game balance as every other tree and especially the major powers are balanced around germany starting a war, how are they gonna do that if they get raped by AI austria? Lastly, but most importantly, there is no gameplay which austria could offer that is anything but either White Germany, or Austria-Hungary which is already fulfilled by Hungary. It's a pointless tag and will just bloat the game and mess up vanilla multiplayer even further.
>Poland, Netherlands, France,Norway,
All of these countries continued to be active participants of the western allies, and I hope you can understand why FRANCE a literal major has a focus tree.

>Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Ethiopia,
I don't believe these countries should have focus trees, ethiopia atleast makes some sense given that it starts at war, but it's in such a weak position that it's just a stale campaign, and serves as nothing but a grind sponge in multiplayer.


>It's a game, not a textbook, people love their alt history.
The game is entirely balanced around the regular ww2 scenario, it's not a textbook but it's best played as such.
 
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I mean thats like 3/4 of the countries in this DLC. At the end of the day if you don't like it don't buy it. Nobody forces you to spend your money.
Except I have to buy it, or I'll be missing out on mechanics. Given that personally put more value into gameplay than flavor of the week focus trees.
 
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It lacks an entire ideology and, using your words, exists solely to be split between the east and west
The fact that it lacks an ideology is a good thing, it forces a war in europe, which is by design, they already reworked it once and deliberately left out communism given that it would screw over the balance of the game, and make no sense historically.

As it stands, Germany's tree is the best because it offers freedom from focus mechanics ala Stalins purge, and powerful early game buffs that let you simulate the german rearmanent well and leave you in a good position for a fun multiplayer game.

Understand that Im not talking about LARP aspects, but the actual GAMEPLAY of this strategy GAME.
 
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Expansion Pass price: 36,99$ - 20% Discount if you purchase it instead of individual DLCs.
- Götterdämmerung: 24,99$
- Graveyard of Empires: 14,99$
- Prototype Vehicles: 6,99$
- Ride of the Valkyries: Bonus
- Supports pack (3 Tank Models): Bonus
 
Well, they shouldn't have done switzerland in the first place. It was stupid of them, in the first place. But aside from that, there are plenty of reasons why Austria specifically should not have a focus tree. The closest comparison being czechoslovakia, a country which also gets annexed by event but has a focus tree, and there's a very simple reason why. Anschluss was not contested, but the sudeten crisis actually risked sparking a war. Giving austria a focus tree risk weakening germany, which completely messes up game balance as every other tree and especially the major powers are balanced around germany starting a war, how are they gonna do that if they get raped by AI austria? Lastly, but most importantly, there is no gameplay which austria could offer that is anything but either White Germany, or Austria-Hungary which is already fulfilled by Hungary. It's a pointless tag and will just bloat the game and mess up vanilla multiplayer even further.
>Poland, Netherlands, France,Norway,
All of these countries continued to be active participants of the western allies, and I hope you can understand why FRANCE a literal major has a focus tree.

>Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Ethiopia,
I don't believe these countries should have focus trees, ethiopia atleast makes some sense given that it starts at war, but it's in such a weak position that it's just a stale campaign, and serves as nothing but a grind sponge in multiplayer.


>It's a game, not a textbook, people love their alt history.
The game is entirely balanced around the regular ww2 scenario, it's not a textbook but it's best played as such.
Why give germany, italy and japan focus trees? they exist to lose at 1945, it would just save effort by not having them playable too

while we're at it, france exists to be destroyed so lets just disable the AI on it
 
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Well, they shouldn't have done switzerland in the first place. It was stupid of them, in the first place. But aside from that, there are plenty of reasons why Austria specifically should not have a focus tree. The closest comparison being czechoslovakia, a country which also gets annexed by event but has a focus tree, and there's a very simple reason why. Anschluss was not contested, but the sudeten crisis actually risked sparking a war. Giving austria a focus tree risk weakening germany, which completely messes up game balance as every other tree and especially the major powers are balanced around germany starting a war, how are they gonna do that if they get raped by AI austria? Lastly, but most importantly, there is no gameplay which austria could offer that is anything but either White Germany, or Austria-Hungary which is already fulfilled by Hungary. It's a pointless tag and will just bloat the game and mess up vanilla multiplayer even further.
>Poland, Netherlands, France,Norway,
All of these countries continued to be active participants of the western allies, and I hope you can understand why FRANCE a literal major has a focus tree.

>Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Ethiopia,
I don't believe these countries should have focus trees, ethiopia atleast makes some sense given that it starts at war, but it's in such a weak position that it's just a stale campaign, and serves as nothing but a grind sponge in multiplayer.


>It's a game, not a textbook, people love their alt history.
The game is entirely balanced around the regular ww2 scenario, it's not a textbook but it's best played as such.
If you like sticking to historical runs, sure-- in which case, Austria will just get annexed by Germany, just like CZE. Sounds like you prefer multiplayer, so if you're worried about balance just put in rules to prevent people from abusing this? My understanding is that MP communities have to do that already if they want to keep history (no objecting rhineland or sudeten, etc). And if someone plays singleplayer, they can either play on historical and not notice any difference unless the devs fucked something up big time (which to be fair, they did with Estonia & Norway, but they fixed both of those), or play on ahistorical in which case they're clearly fine with balance & history going out the window.
 
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Giving austria a focus tree risk weakening germany, which completely messes up game balance as every other tree and especially the major powers are balanced around germany starting a war, how are they gonna do that if they get raped by AI austria? Lastly, but most importantly, there is no gameplay which austria could offer that is anything but either White Germany, or Austria-Hungary which is already fulfilled by Hungary. It's a pointless tag and will just bloat the game and mess up vanilla multiplayer even further.
They can always decide not to go to war against Austria, or there may be more options like making them a puppet and so forth. The game thrives on giving the player what choice to make.

> Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Ethiopia,
I don't believe these countries should have focus trees, ethiopia atleast makes some sense given that it starts at war, but it's in such a weak position that it's just a stale campaign, and serves as nothing but a grind sponge in multiplayer.
Not everyone plays Multiplayer tho. And personally I like more focus trees and countries, and I am pretty sure most their audience does too.

Except I have to buy it, or I'll be missing out on mechanics. Given that personally put more value into gameplay than flavor of the week focus trees.
Also like you can just make a mod to disable the focus tree, and then require that mod for the lobbies you play in. And then play your "vanilla" multiplayer without any trees you don't like or any variation.
 
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Like the axis and allies armour pack? and allied speech pack? What about the Sabaton music pack?

Don't act like this is new
Yeah they are bundling stuff that should be packaged with the main dlc to make the expansion pass seem more valuable. Also these models are kinda lame in quality when compared to what Eugene Systems makes.
 
Expansion Pass price: 36,99$ - 20% Discount if you purchase it instead of individual DLCs.
- Götterdämmerung: 24,99$
- Graveyard of Empires: 14,99$
- Prototype Vehicles: 6,99$
- Ride of the Valkyries: Bonus
- Supports pack (3 Tank Models): Bonus
This pricing indicates that you should buy the expansion pass if you are interested in both Götterdämmerung and Graveyard of Empires, because you save ~$3 on the price of those two alone, and you also get prototype vehicles and a few other goodies.

Obviously, this is a raw price calculation and does not consider inflation, exchange rates, opportunity costs, &c.
 
Also like you can just make a mod to disable the focus tree, and then require that mod for the lobbies you play in. And then play your "vanilla" multiplayer without any trees you don't like or any variation.
Orrrrr just don't buy it in the first place, PDX isn't holding your mum hostage
 
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