• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

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.

Got-Calendar-switched.jpg

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.
 
  • 70Like
  • 43Love
  • 10
  • 6
  • 3
Reactions:
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
Could you please explain why in Poland we have to pay ~$43.56 instead of ~$36.99?
The difference is ~$6.57.
~1/6 of full price, ~16%.
 

Attachments

  • 36.99$.png
    36.99$.png
    22,9 KB · Views: 0
  • steam price.png
    steam price.png
    148,7 KB · Views: 0
  • 43.56$.png
    43.56$.png
    23,2 KB · Views: 0
  • 4Like
Reactions:
This is really amazing news, I might take paid time off from work and just play non-stop when it comes out.
 
Could you please explain why in Poland we have to pay ~$43.56 instead of ~$36.99?
The difference is ~$6.57.
~1/6 of full price, ~16%.

We undergo pricing reviews periodically, but expecting prices to adjust at the same rate as comparative currency fluctuations is a little unrealistic.
 
  • 4
  • 1
Reactions:
We undergo pricing reviews periodically, but expecting prices to adjust at the same rate as comparative currency fluctuations is a little unrealistic.
Well, for us Indonesians, then?

We still would spend 10% of our average monthly wage nationally (the highest one is at the K-Sector, Finances and Insurance) on the base game, let alone the DLCs.

Cutting the base price for all its contents by 40-45% would make more Indonesians in the market easier to reach it.
 
  • 5Like
Reactions:
Is there a youtube or something of the music track? Ride of the Valkyries? Is it just a wagner cover but with synths and no opera or something? I would rather listen to my own copy of the Ring. But I remember it from HOI3 and I believe HOI1 too. Great for beginning an offensive..

To reply to my own comment, they did put up the music track you get here


And it was exactly as I predicted, haha. Come on Paradox, throw down for the orchestra and find some diva who might work for cheap but nonetheless a Brunhilde.
 
"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."
Any chance of invoking the legacy of goodboi Charles I and federalizing the former empire?
Sad that he died in exile in his 30's.
 
"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."
Any chance of invoking the legacy of goodboi Charles I and federalizing the former empire?
Sad that he died in exile in his 30's.
There might be, or it might not ;) Charles I wasn't the only one with ideas related to federations and factions after all...

Alas, once again I'll have to say it, Monday :D By now I sound like a broken record do I not? :')
 
  • 4Like
  • 1Haha
Reactions:
Ik this isn't the focus of this DLC but if there are any staff still lurking around, what is the plan with Japan... to this day in the ww2 focused game:
1. You can't do both the two superheavies' and the zero focus even though historical Japan had both the superheavies and zeroes.
2. Pearl Harbor as an event basically doesn't exist (is raids supposed to cover this now?), there's the ahistorical 'fall of Pearl Harbor' event that references it, which you get if you occupy Hawaii, and if you declare war with carriers that have naval bombers in range you can start bombing the US fleet (provided it's in range, which I think is still random) but the way those mechanics are implemented that basically cannot produce a result nearly as damaging as actual Pearl Harbor since 'element of surprise' isn't really modeled. In order to really replicate it you'd need like way better naval bombers than would make sense for the time, a shit ton of luck, and even then, imagine manging to sink 4 battleships at once using base strike using naval bombers that are sensible for the time in vanilla, I have tried many times using double the carriers they actually had, each carrying more planes than the actual ones did, and I can't even get close to that. C'mon. Pearl Harbor is important.
3. Even though on the opposite side of the world invading the USSR as historical Germany with the allies still not dead, just France capped, is incentivized and modeled in a whole lot of ways... for historical Japan there is literally 0 reason you would ever declare war on the USA as a player while still at war with China. Like 0 motivaiton to do so at all, even if you are doing really bad in China and are behind schedule, it still makes way more sense to just deal with them since your job gets so much harder when you are wat war with both and there's absolutely no benefit to invading the US and Allies. You get more than enough fuel from trade with the Sovs and rubber from Siam, who in my experience neither of which embargo you if you've only done China, so there's 0 reason to do it at all, also most of the time the player is able to just kill them before that anyway. Really important aspect of the war is that didn't happen.

Like, is Japan getting another update? They really need one. Waking the Tiger was obviously an improvement from the original game on release but it can't be the final word.
 
  • 6Like
Reactions:
To reply to my own comment, they did put up the music track you get here


And it was exactly as I predicted, haha. Come on Paradox, throw down for the orchestra and find some diva who might work for cheap but nonetheless a Brunhilde.
The next question is: How many times will this play in game? HOI's music player does seem to be biased in favor of the latest entries, regardless of what nation you're playing as.
 
Ik this isn't the focus of this DLC but if there are any staff still lurking around, what is the plan with Japan... to this day in the ww2 focused game:
1. You can't do both the two superheavies' and the zero focus even though historical Japan had both the superheavies and zeroes.
2. Pearl Harbor as an event basically doesn't exist (is raids supposed to cover this now?), there's the ahistorical 'fall of Pearl Harbor' event that references it, which you get if you occupy Hawaii, and if you declare war with carriers that have naval bombers in range you can start bombing the US fleet (provided it's in range, which I think is still random) but the way those mechanics are implemented that basically cannot produce a result nearly as damaging as actual Pearl Harbor since 'element of surprise' isn't really modeled. In order to really replicate it you'd need like way better naval bombers than would make sense for the time, a shit ton of luck, and even then, imagine manging to sink 4 battleships at once using base strike using naval bombers that are sensible for the time in vanilla, I have tried many times using double the carriers they actually had, each carrying more planes than the actual ones did, and I can't even get close to that. C'mon. Pearl Harbor is important.
3. Even though on the opposite side of the world invading the USSR as historical Germany with the allies still not dead, just France capped, is incentivized and modeled in a whole lot of ways... for historical Japan there is literally 0 reason you would ever declare war on the USA as a player while still at war with China. Like 0 motivaiton to do so at all, even if you are doing really bad in China and are behind schedule, it still makes way more sense to just deal with them since your job gets so much harder when you are wat war with both and there's absolutely no benefit to invading the US and Allies. You get more than enough fuel from trade with the Sovs and rubber from Siam, who in my experience neither of which embargo you if you've only done China, so there's 0 reason to do it at all, also most of the time the player is able to just kill them before that anyway. Really important aspect of the war is that didn't happen.

Like, is Japan getting another update? They really need one. Waking the Tiger was obviously an improvement from the original game on release but it can't be the final word.
I think that attacks like the Pearl Harbor raid are supposed to be modeled already by the "coordinated strike" spy operation. If you have a war goal and use that operation (takes 7 days), all your port strike and strategic bombing missions execute multiple times with a damage multiplier while being immune to disruption at the start of the war.

In practice, it doesn't work because I've basically never seen the USA, either as a player or as an AI, base any ships in Pearl Harbor. The fleet is always docked in San Diego or wherever else the AI feels like sending it.
 
  • 2
  • 1Like
  • 1
Reactions:
The next question is: How many times will this play in game? HOI's music player does seem to be biased in favor of the latest entries, regardless of what nation you're playing as.

The script on Ride of the valkyries should be something like if you have at least a whole army planning and hit execute it plays. Or a paradrop. Maybe it should just have it's own button in the interface.

The final thing I will say about it is if you have the classic HOI2/3 music installed, which came free at some point? you already have the Waldetoft version from HOI3...
 
So i'm new here (sorry if it's a stupid question) but will the new Belgian focus tree come with its share of unique generals, advisors, decisions, reworked research tree, etc?
 
  • 1Like
Reactions:
So i'm new here (sorry if it's a stupid question) but will the new Belgian focus tree come with its share of unique generals, advisors, decisions, reworked research tree, etc?
It's usually the case, every country received at least some historical generals, advisors etc, and all the recent DLCs brought lots of flavour, even for countries with very little to none participation in WW2, so Belgium, as a participant, would definitely look cool.
 
  • 2Like
Reactions:
Before the content of the coming expansion was announced I was hoping for Axis DLC with primary focus on Germany and Japan. I see now that Japan is not part of this expansion (instead Graveyard of Empires, hmm…not that important… equals BoB) @Paradox can we agree on, the next DLC will have focus on Japan and all countries in the Far East Asia and South East Asia?
 
  • 1Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Ik this isn't the focus of this DLC but if there are any staff still lurking around, what is the plan with Japan... to this day in the ww2 focused game:
1. You can't do both the two superheavies' and the zero focus even though historical Japan had both the superheavies and zeroes.
2. Pearl Harbor as an event basically doesn't exist (is raids supposed to cover this now?), there's the ahistorical 'fall of Pearl Harbor' event that references it, which you get if you occupy Hawaii, and if you declare war with carriers that have naval bombers in range you can start bombing the US fleet (provided it's in range, which I think is still random) but the way those mechanics are implemented that basically cannot produce a result nearly as damaging as actual Pearl Harbor since 'element of surprise' isn't really modeled. In order to really replicate it you'd need like way better naval bombers than would make sense for the time, a shit ton of luck, and even then, imagine manging to sink 4 battleships at once using base strike using naval bombers that are sensible for the time in vanilla, I have tried many times using double the carriers they actually had, each carrying more planes than the actual ones did, and I can't even get close to that. C'mon. Pearl Harbor is important.
3. Even though on the opposite side of the world invading the USSR as historical Germany with the allies still not dead, just France capped, is incentivized and modeled in a whole lot of ways... for historical Japan there is literally 0 reason you would ever declare war on the USA as a player while still at war with China. Like 0 motivaiton to do so at all, even if you are doing really bad in China and are behind schedule, it still makes way more sense to just deal with them since your job gets so much harder when you are wat war with both and there's absolutely no benefit to invading the US and Allies. You get more than enough fuel from trade with the Sovs and rubber from Siam, who in my experience neither of which embargo you if you've only done China, so there's 0 reason to do it at all, also most of the time the player is able to just kill them before that anyway. Really important aspect of the war is that didn't happen.

Like, is Japan getting another update? They really need one. Waking the Tiger was obviously an improvement from the original game on release but it can't be the final word.
Totally agree with you. And the countries around Japan also need new focuses. I pledge for the next DLC to focus entirely on Japan and all countires in Far East Asia and South East Asia... ITS ABOUT TIME
 
  • 2Like
Reactions:
Totally agree with you. And the countries around Japan also need new focuses. I pledge for the next DLC to focus entirely on Japan and all countires in Far East Asia and South East Asia... ITS ABOUT TIME
Should've replaced the Iraq and Iran content with the Himalayas and Burma, making it more territorially compact.

Then we can have Japan + SEA

After that, the Middle East can come after SEA.
 
  • 2Like
Reactions: