Hi everyone! Today we will be following up with some info on what is going on with the 1.7 Hydra update as well as some cool new stuff some of you might have found hints of if you tested out the Open Beta.
The Axis Armor Pack
A lot of you have asked for us to make 3d model packs for units, so we have! We wanted it to be big so we decided to focus on a pack that would fill out all the Axis majors with vehicles. Over 60 in total, for Germany, Italy and Japan. As a free bonus, the pack includes 8 German tanks that were previously only available in the Colonel Edition (we couldn't very well make an Axis Armor Pack without the King Tiger). Here is a couple of sample renders for each nation:
We also have 2d art, so you will also see changes when doing production etc:
The total breakdown is as such:
Radio Pack
Another thing people have asked for is a chance to get access to some of the old preorder music content, as well as more music, so to make this a reality we have revamped the music player and organized old and new tracks into “Radio Stations”. The idea here is to make it easier to control what kind of music you want to listen to as it allows you to toggle on or off whole stations. Each station also has the possibility of having a custom graphical look (my old winamp modder soul is ecstatic!). When release we have a big pack we simply call “The Radio Pack” which has 3 radio stations: Communist, Fascist and Allied, each with unique art and tracks. In total the pack comes with 28 new tracks, and includes the old preorder content for a total of 35 songs. Here is some picture of how it will look:
For the axis radio we tried to match the look of the iconic German radios of the time:
As a bonus we have also made a new free station called “Hearts of Iron Classics” which has 35(!) of our favorite tunes from HOI2 and HOI3:
Last week modders asked me how to do music mods now and have them fit into the structure. its pretty simple and flexible, so click the spoiler below for a simple guide:
1.7 ‘Hydra’
1.7 is currently in open beta and seems to be pretty stable at the moment, so if you want to try it out you can find out how here. Since last dev diary we have been doing more fixes and balance work. The actual release date is not yet decided, and with Sweden being a socialist paradise, we only have a 3 day week this week (and another one next week). I’ll let you know when I know, but it shouldn't be that far off.
Convoy Raiding Balance
Sub convoy raiding was a bit too binary. An escort would either show up in time, and discourage raiders, or raiders would get too much free reign over convoys they have found. We made convoy raiding with subs a bit more flexible, giving them more opportunity to attack convoys that are escorted sufficiently. This comes with the added risk of losing too many subs in a war of attrition. The attrition game should favor the player with a tech and doctrine advantage.
Naval Balance
Naval battles were too decisive and too many ships, particularly screens, were dying. We tried to make changes that would increase the chance that ships survive combat. There is less focus fire in combat now, screens retreat faster, and damage has been overall lowered. Combat are longer which means a closer to statistical representative of opposing stats and a bit less feel of random results.
The speed reduction setup on ship modules didn’t really incentivise historical builds. Most ship modules have had speed impacts lowered and some others have had speed debuffs added. This should help in designing ships that are light and fast, and a bit more historical. In general ships should be faster and thus a bit more survivable. Other modules have had some updates to address community and internal balance concerns.
Land Commander Balance
Since land commander traits were introduced, they have done a bit too much to diminish the importance of ground combat tech. To soften some of the land combat min-maxing, as well as put more weight onto research, a lot of the most beneficial commander traits were nerfed and offense and defense stats on commanders had their benefit halved. This, combined with improving some of the generally less desirable traits, should provide more viable options for building commanders, and make commander grinding less impactful overall. These commander changes probably need more testing though and likely wont make it for 1.7.
Next week & 3 Day War
Next week is the 3 year anniversary (!!!) of Hearts of Iron IV, so among other things, we will be hosting a 3 day war stream together with influencers.
Me, Daniel and maybe some more people will be taking a trip down memory lane and talk about the development of HOI4 and how the game has changed. I will see if I can dig up an old pre-release version as well from the archives, and the dev diary will also be focused on the anniversary. See you then!
The Axis Armor Pack
A lot of you have asked for us to make 3d model packs for units, so we have! We wanted it to be big so we decided to focus on a pack that would fill out all the Axis majors with vehicles. Over 60 in total, for Germany, Italy and Japan. As a free bonus, the pack includes 8 German tanks that were previously only available in the Colonel Edition (we couldn't very well make an Axis Armor Pack without the King Tiger). Here is a couple of sample renders for each nation:
We also have 2d art, so you will also see changes when doing production etc:
The total breakdown is as such:
- 18 Tanks
- 18 Tank destroyers
- 15 Self-propelled Artillery
- 8 Self-propelled Anti-Air
- 2 Mechanized/Halftracks
Radio Pack
Another thing people have asked for is a chance to get access to some of the old preorder music content, as well as more music, so to make this a reality we have revamped the music player and organized old and new tracks into “Radio Stations”. The idea here is to make it easier to control what kind of music you want to listen to as it allows you to toggle on or off whole stations. Each station also has the possibility of having a custom graphical look (my old winamp modder soul is ecstatic!). When release we have a big pack we simply call “The Radio Pack” which has 3 radio stations: Communist, Fascist and Allied, each with unique art and tracks. In total the pack comes with 28 new tracks, and includes the old preorder content for a total of 35 songs. Here is some picture of how it will look:
For the axis radio we tried to match the look of the iconic German radios of the time:
As a bonus we have also made a new free station called “Hearts of Iron Classics” which has 35(!) of our favorite tunes from HOI2 and HOI3:
Last week modders asked me how to do music mods now and have them fit into the structure. its pretty simple and flexible, so click the spoiler below for a simple guide:
First up you need to edit your music track list txt file and include what radio station you want them to be in:
So for your "my_mod" mod you would have a my_mod_songs.txt file as before:
You will want to include a localization file to get a proper name for your station as well. Write it like this:
If you also want to give it a cover image and change how the player looks you will need to do some UI modding.
Make a .gui file for your mod. Its probably best to copy one of the ones we have already once they are out and work from there. The important part is the naming of elements.
If you don't set up the gui files it will simply use the default look etc.
So for your "my_mod" mod you would have a my_mod_songs.txt file as before:
Code:
music_station = "my_mod" # include this, songs after are assigned to this station
music = {
song = "cooltrack"
}You will want to include a localization file to get a proper name for your station as well. Write it like this:
Code:
my_mod_TITLE:0 "My music mod"If you also want to give it a cover image and change how the player looks you will need to do some UI modding.
Make a .gui file for your mod. Its probably best to copy one of the ones we have already once they are out and work from there. The important part is the naming of elements.
If you don't set up the gui files it will simply use the default look etc.
1.7 ‘Hydra’
1.7 is currently in open beta and seems to be pretty stable at the moment, so if you want to try it out you can find out how here. Since last dev diary we have been doing more fixes and balance work. The actual release date is not yet decided, and with Sweden being a socialist paradise, we only have a 3 day week this week (and another one next week). I’ll let you know when I know, but it shouldn't be that far off.
Convoy Raiding Balance
Sub convoy raiding was a bit too binary. An escort would either show up in time, and discourage raiders, or raiders would get too much free reign over convoys they have found. We made convoy raiding with subs a bit more flexible, giving them more opportunity to attack convoys that are escorted sufficiently. This comes with the added risk of losing too many subs in a war of attrition. The attrition game should favor the player with a tech and doctrine advantage.
Naval Balance
Naval battles were too decisive and too many ships, particularly screens, were dying. We tried to make changes that would increase the chance that ships survive combat. There is less focus fire in combat now, screens retreat faster, and damage has been overall lowered. Combat are longer which means a closer to statistical representative of opposing stats and a bit less feel of random results.
The speed reduction setup on ship modules didn’t really incentivise historical builds. Most ship modules have had speed impacts lowered and some others have had speed debuffs added. This should help in designing ships that are light and fast, and a bit more historical. In general ships should be faster and thus a bit more survivable. Other modules have had some updates to address community and internal balance concerns.
Land Commander Balance
Since land commander traits were introduced, they have done a bit too much to diminish the importance of ground combat tech. To soften some of the land combat min-maxing, as well as put more weight onto research, a lot of the most beneficial commander traits were nerfed and offense and defense stats on commanders had their benefit halved. This, combined with improving some of the generally less desirable traits, should provide more viable options for building commanders, and make commander grinding less impactful overall. These commander changes probably need more testing though and likely wont make it for 1.7.
Next week & 3 Day War
Next week is the 3 year anniversary (!!!) of Hearts of Iron IV, so among other things, we will be hosting a 3 day war stream together with influencers.
Me, Daniel and maybe some more people will be taking a trip down memory lane and talk about the development of HOI4 and how the game has changed. I will see if I can dig up an old pre-release version as well from the archives, and the dev diary will also be focused on the anniversary. See you then!
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EDIT: How did I forget Word at War!? Hoi3 soundtrack had so many great songs!
