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HoI 4 Dev Diary - Manchukuo

Hello and welcome back to another Dev Diary. This week we will look at the last unrevealed focus tree for Waking the Tiger: Manchukuo.


Manchukuo is perhaps one of the weirdest players in the Chinese Civil War. Formally an Empire led by an Emperor, it was also a puppet. Despite owning a large chunk of China, it was never able to field the numbers the other Chinese factions brought to the fight. Despite being ruled by the last legitimate Son of Heaven, no one particularly liked this government.


Capture_intro.JPG



As such, your position at the start of the game is precarious at best. You have practically no support from the population, your industry base is mostly working for the Japanese, your army is somewhat less than befitting your station and to start with, there are bandits running around the country causing havoc.


man_ft2.jpg



So your first step has to be the pacification of the countryside. You can do this by either maintaining a military presence in the relevant areas or spending some manpower and infantry equipment in a more aggressive campaign to hunt them down. You should hurry, though, as the bandit raids will damage your infrastructure and industry if you let them proceed too long.


raids.jpg



Once the country is reasonably pacified, you face a more difficult choice: Either you decide to be an obedient little puppet or you start down on your path to independence and restoring the Empire that has always been yours by birth.


We developers, of course, withhold any judgment about which path you take.


Should you choose to remain a mere pathetic lapdog of the Japanese, you sell your dignity and freedom very dear indeed, as that branch gives you a much more powerful economy. Five year plans allow you to shape the direction of your industry for the next, well, five years, giving you the option to focus on industrial growth, military production or aircraft development. You will gain more infrastructure and factories along the way.


Capture_fyp.JPG



Finally, by allying with the Kwantung Army, you can position yourself as the natural leader of China from the Japanese perspective and get all captured Chinese territories turned over to you. Only then can you gain some autonomy and finally arrive at an equal standing with your supposed “Brother-Emperor”.


Should you, however, decide to take a stand for your freedom and independence and assert yourself, you will have a much harder job ahead of you as your imperial masters will not invest nearly as heavily into your state.



hoi4_120.jpg


More than that, in order to gain your independence, you will have to be patient and gain some small concessions here and there. The next fundamental choice for you is whether you want to turn your country into a society dominated by Manchus, or if you will make good on the propaganda of five equal races under one banner. Each will give you different advantages.

Afterwards, you will at last prepare for the war of independence against Japan (we actually had to rewrite our war system to allow you to be at war with both Japan and China, while they are also at war with each other). However, this branch will allow you to eventually get rid of the penalties from low legitimacy as you climb the ladder to restore your Imperial rule all across China. Once you break free from your Japanese overlords, you will once again be known as Qing China. Conquering the rest of China allows you to claim the Mandate of Heaven and announce yourself to the world as The Chinese Empire (2.0)


hoi4_121.jpg



Much like the other main Chinese factions (Nationalists and Communists), Manchukuo has access to the shared focus tree that allows them to build up their industry and develop new technologies. Owing to its position in the world, the only viable paths at game start are Germany and Japan, but breaking free will give you the opportunity to reach out to new partners.


That is all for this week. There will be a dev diary next week, but we won't tell you what it is just yet (we are working on a number of things that may or may not be done in time for the dev diary). At World War Wednesday today, our intrepid team of Daniel and Gabriel will continue to try and conquer China while making some of the worst jokes known to humanity. Tune in at 16:00 CET and ask your questions about the focus tree: https://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive


Rejected Titles for this Dev Diary:

China - under new MANagement

This Focus tree sponsored by Burger Qing

MAN-spreading all over China

Henry Puyi and the Dragon Throne

This focus tree will make a MAN out of you

This DLC is basically MAN-datory

Hail to the Qing

Coming up with rejected titles took longer than writing the rest of this diary
 
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Chinese Empire... mandate of heaven... interesting :rolleyes: When release date of the Third Rome? I wanna create a Russian Empire? :p
 
I want to ask you guys how do you do the National Focus pictures i am trying to get my own stuff for MOD perspective. Your doing a great job cant wait to take China for a ride! Cheers for the reply
 
Still no release date? This isn't going to come out before March at this rate :(
Fine by me! Keep working! Keep adding! Keep improving!
This just means that the next DLC: The Eagle & The Bear (with a little love to Italy) is going to be the best!
 
@podcat have you guys addressed the construction Ai for the next dlc, for them to know to build infrastructure in areas where they have high troop concentrations or low supply (like Africa), or anti air in high industry areas that might get bombed?
 
What about when PRC won a Chinese Civil War and conquered Manchuria the Puyi changes his name to Henry Pu Yi and becomes a political adviser of PRC? I know he came back from CCCP in 1959, but in 1960 he was a part of a CPPCC (Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference)

5801430de790a.jpg
 
If you want I can give you the WIP .dds that I was working on with my old Manchukuo mod before my computer died. It's still far from a good match, but it's close enough that it doesn't really stick out from the other portraits much. You'd need someone much better with images than me to make it fit right, though.

CWEZIMB.png
Thanks for the offer, but if I'm gonna add anything to the game I prefer to draw it myself.

Edit: Senpai noticed me!:D
4y4cJ.png
 
@podcat Can we please get an indication that the border and naming issues have at least been registered? I don't mean to be rude, but it feels kinda like shouting into a void. If it's a case of it having been considered and put aside, I'd prefer to at least know that.

Great improvements in general.



Thanks for the offer, but if I'm gonna add anything to the game I prefer to draw it myself.
Fair
 
What about when PRC won a Chinese Civil War and conquered Manchuria the Puyi changes his name to Henry Pu Yi and becomes a political adviser of PRC? I know he came back from CCCP in 1959, but in 1960 he was a part of a CPPCC (Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference)

5801430de790a.jpg

I don't know about a political adviser, but perhaps a an event that goes something like "We have captured Puyi, *short text explaining who Puyi is*" and an option to spare him or execute him. I guess he could be an adviser that gives national unity, but it should be unable to use him if you choose certain focuses due to being incompatible with said focues (like the historical PRC tree with the cultural revolution)