HOI4 Dev Diary - Back from summer!

[Fulmen]

France rework means Italy rework. A general rule is 2 Majors to be reworked per DLC.
Which means USSR will be reworked after a year, which in turn means we'll still have band-aid solutions to collapsing SOV-GER front and AI's inability to deal with pretty much anything.
Well, unless we;ll get another Iceland DLC after Husky.

Which also means no Finland, Continuation War and in practice no Winter War either. Disappointing, but I guess the necessary mechanics just won't be there in quite a while.

If we're getting two whole new focus trees this expansion, besides the France and presumably Italy reworks, then they're probably Spain and Greece.

 

[fuser312]

And I don't disagree with that but it should had been given preference over France and Mediterranean.

 

[enisdb]

Telemark Heavy water Plant (Vemork) its from Norway. I remember this area from Battlefield 1942 secret weapons dlc.

 

[withche.07]

Scandinavian dlc?

 

[Ethereld]

Amazing! I hope this French rework comes with nice content for Vichy France and it's peculiar situation in WW2. It would also be lovely if the political situation of France before WW2 is better represented

 

[Bunnytob]

Will you be fixing the bugs present in Hydra and the new update?

 

[Enriador]

This expansion will not be USSR. Soviet deserves a expansion pretty much for itself and fits better with some mechanic stuff I got planned for the future rather than now. I felt it was good to get this out of the way early because I know a lot of people wanna see Soviet stuff.

France, Italy and the Mediterranean it is. Not bad, but that makes me hope the upcoming Soviet expansion doesn't take another year to arrive.

Oh, and more minors with new focus trees, please. In over 18 months of HOI4 development only two countries (Mexico, Netherlands) got new trees, which is very underwhelming.

 

[CrazyZombie]

And I don't disagree with that but it should had been given preference over France and Mediterranean.

Yup. Right now France acts just as it should: gets steamrolled after some fight. Italy is reasonably useless.

At the same time, we can't say anything good about biggest and most important front of WW2, when we talk about the game.

 

[Calle]

I guess MtG is the last thing I’m buying from Paradox then. Bought HoI 1 at release, hell I even played Svea Rike in 1997, from before Paradox was even formed in its current state, but the state of this game has sucked twenty years of fun out of me.

 

[marcelo r. r.]

Yup. Right now France acts just as it should: gets steamrolled after some fight. Italy is reasonably useless.

At the same time, we can't say anything good about biggest and most important front of WW2, when we talk about the game.

Yup x 2. unless it comes with big overhaul of western allied AI, i dont see anything interesting in western front.

 

[Aeroclub]

Yup. Right now France acts just as it should: gets steamrolled after some fight. Italy is reasonably useless.

At the same time, we can't say anything good about biggest and most important front of WW2, when we talk about the game.

Exactly! Italy and France are both represented really well ATM: acting the way they should if the player doesn't interfere, as well as providing a good challenge if the player wants to achieve something with them. I mean, I agree that their focuses could use more depth, but they are nowhere near as high a priority as the Soviets are right now.

And yes, I guess we all agree that the SU needs an expansion pretty much for itself. The disappointing thing is that the devs didn't agree that this kind of expansion is the number one priority right now.

 

[CrazyZombie]

The disappointing thing is that the devs didn't agree that this kind of expansion is the number one priority right now.

Good luck with all this - I definitely like Imerator team more for now. They listen to their audience, and results are pretty promising. Can't wait for official release of Cicero.

 

[Ethereld]

I agree with everyone that says that the USSR is in a really bad shape right now but Italy is no good unlike some people claim. First there is no Italian Civil War, the game also does not represent how unprepared was Italy for the war and it's also clearly lacking in political options.

 

[amocpower]

O please give Turkey, Greece and Bulgaria Focustree!

 

[CrazyZombie]

I agree with everyone that says that the USSR is in a really bad shape right now but Italy is no good unlike some people claim. First there is no Italian Civil War, the game also does not represent how unprepared was Italy for the war and it's also clearly lacking in political options.

Not like it was that hard to tie Italy to USSR. They had some connection points during Interbellum - trade and stuff. Also, last time I checked, Germany got into Asia-themed DLC just because it was number 1 played major of the game, not because it was somehow related to the region. If someone forgot - USSR is number 2 major.

 

[Aeroclub]

I agree with everyone that says that the USSR is in a really bad shape right now but Italy is no good unlike some people claim. First there is no Italian Civil War, the game also does not represent how unprepared was Italy for the war and it's also clearly lacking in political options.

I'm fully with you that Italy is in as bad of a shape as the SU is right now, and would frankly prefer the two of these to be the focus of the next expansion...But if I had to chose, I would still lean towards SU just because Italy's problems only really matter if you play as them (otherwise, the do play their WW2 role reasonably well), whereas the Soviet guaranteed collapse matters for everyone.

 

[Olanov]

This expansion will not be USSR. Soviet deserves a expansion pretty much for itself and fits better with some mechanic stuff I got planned for the future rather than now. I felt it was good to get this out of the way early because I know a lot of people wanna see Soviet stuff.

I can't say I'm not disappointed, but I hope at least this France & others business will make up for it. Allied AI being so incredibly outmatched vs Germany & Axis is one my biggest problems with the game right now and shoring up Soviet Union, I thought would've at least help solve parts of that issue. Hoping we'll get something out of this that sets the balance more correct either way.

 

[Ethereld]

Not like it was that hard to tie Italy to USSR. They had some connection points during Interbellum - trade and stuff. Also, last time I checked, Germany got into Asia-themed DLC just because it was number 1 played major of the game, not because it was somehow related to the region. If someone forgot - USSR is number 2 major.

I don't disagree, in fact what I wanted was an Soviet-Italian rework tied with the Spanish Civil War. But if Podcat said that he can't do the USSR justice with the scope of the next expansion then I can wait as long as France and Italy are done justice, for example representing the Italian civil war and the complicated international situation of France after 1940

 

[wesleytj]

Just because the focus on the next expansion is not Soviet, does NOT mean they can't also put in some tweaks to the AI and some other fixes that help bring them back into balance, and then focus on a complete overhaul later.

I think you all are reading way too much into what is, after all, an EXTREMELY brief dev diary. Just because something wasn't mentioned, doesn't mean it won't happen. It's way too early to be all doom and gloom.

 

[JackAlNXT]

If I were a betting man, I would say that Spain gets a focus tree. Two diaries given the scope? One diary for the Republicans, one for the Nationalists. Have something similar for Italy and France(Free and Vichy), throw in Portugal and you have a DLC.