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HOI4 Dev Diary - Bag of Tricks #2

Greetings all, and welcome back for a slightly less content-focused dev diary than our latter soviet efforts. Today we’ll be covering a couple of smaller additions to be added in NSB, some of which have been hinted at before, followed by a small announcement from project management.

Weather 2.0

One of our long-standing goals with the new supply system, was to introduce some changes to the way weather affects the gameplay experience. To give some strategic relevance to weather, we’ve slowed down the system to modulate between potential weather effects on a less frequent basis. This gives a player some time to react to potentially advantageous/disadvantageous conditions, as well as being somewhat more predictable on a larger scale.

In addition to this, we’ve taken a broad look at the combination of stat effects on ground conditions, temperatures, and weather, in order to mesh more closely with the new supply system, and to give a greater impact on campaigns - especially those conducted in adverse conditions:

  • In addition to Org recovery, weather will now affect org loss from movement, and in extreme cases, supply consumption.
  • While temperature has no new modifier effects, we’ve taken a pass on temperature data across the world, with the intention of improving accuracy.
  • Ground conditions now also have the potential to affect org loss on moving divisions. This becomes particularly important in muddy/cold conditions such as the eastern front, where the combination of various conditional effects can severely slow an advance.

New Weather Effects: (WIP)​

ConditionOrg RegainOrg Loss While MovingSupply Consumption
Rain-5%+5%
Storm-15%+10%+10%
Snow+10%
Blizzard-10%+25%+15%
Sandstorm-20%+25%

New Ground Conditions: (WIP)​

ConditionAttritionDiv SpeedDiv AttackDiv DefenseDig InOrg RegainOrg Loss While Moving
Deep Snow+25%-25%-30%+25%
Snow-10%-10%+10%
Mud+70%-50%-40%+25%
Flood-50%+50%+20%+25%

Visually the weather effects have been updated to be easier to spot on the map, with updated particle effects weather will look better than ever. This also makes it clearer when a region is experiencing a weather event so you can react to it faster.

Equipment Management

In NSB, we’re upgrading the ability to manage specific equipment usage by division template. This means you can ensure that your elite breakthrough divisions have everything they need, while line divisions have equipment of a lower priority.

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You can access this feature in the division designer, where you’ll have a comprehensive breakdown of all equipment types currently stockpiled. You'll now be able to allow/deny by category, both in archetype and variant, without the need to manage everything individually.

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We’ve provided several broad methods of manipulating equipment usage, in the form of a togglable setting on whether this division template should automatically have newly researched equipment enabled, and a quick method of toggling the usage of foreign equipment.

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Changing these settings will not incur any explicit cost, though you’ll need to maintain awareness of your production lines when using these settings prodigiously. The update division tooltip, as before, will give you a summary of the scope of your changes, as well as how many divisions are likely to be impacted by this change. Lastly, it is important to note that these settings will affect reinforcement and training only - your existing divisions will not have their weapons immediately confiscated.

Allied Construction

Indeed, as hinted at yesterday, we’re introducing allied construction to the game. This oft-requested feature will allow you to build certain buildings in the territory of members of your faction.

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Unlike subject construction, this will utilize only your own factories, leaving your favored ally to continue with their own constructions as before. We have limited the building types permitted for allied construction to Infrastructure, Railways, Airbases, and Radar, however this setting is easily moddable for those interested in expanding their options. We initially allowed the allied construction of forts, but, well, the office MP proved why that was a terrible idea.

For balance reasons, constructions with levels dependent on technology (ie Radar) will be limited by the tech of the recipient country, not the builder.

Graphical Encircled Unit Icons

We've taken the opportunity with NSB to add some feedback to one of the more serious situations an army can find itself in - encirclement. Whenever an encircled division is destroyed, a short animation will be played to draw some attention towards it. Of course, this animation also plays if you are the one doing the destroying.

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Changing of the Guard

Here, I’ll hand over to @podcat to cover an upcoming change in the HoI development team.

Hi everyone Dan here, I want to let you know that you’ll be seeing Peter more and more as he is now taking over as game director on Hearts of Iron IV.

Looking back I have been working on HOI4 for about 7 years now and before this I worked a few years on HOI3. So it's fair to say that Hearts of Iron will always be close to my heart, but I also feel like it's time for something new to sink my teeth into.

I’m going to be working with a Secret Project which I can't tell you very much about - except that I am super pumped about it, and that it isn't HOI5. While I’m sure the time will come for that, right now we feel that HOI4 still has room to be developed with content and cool stuff.

Timing wise it fits well for me. No Step Back was the last expansion step I had penned down back when the original game released in 2016 so it's time for another 5 year plan (heh). It takes the game full circle as with NSB we will have touched on all the major systems in free updates and expansions at least once. It's also a perfect time to get more fresh perspectives to help evolve the game when most of my original ideas and plans have now been done.

Of course you will still see me around and I expect I’ll be poking around here and there in HOI (one does not simply let go of their baby so easily!), but I am confident in Peter and the team to take the helm and keep steering the ship now, and I am sure No Step Back will be awesome and that you will all love it.


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Et tu, Peter?! Game development is serious business!

Peter here again - I’m honored to have been asked to take the reigns on HoI. I’ve been working closely with Dan and the team over the last months, and feel confident that we can keep on building HoI in the right direction.

As some of you will be aware, I’ve come to HoI by way of Imperator, having previously worked on several PDS projects as a content designer. Prior to that, I had a long and entirely unrelated career in classical music. Historical PDS titles are something I’ve been an avid fan of from long before I worked here, and I’m super excited to take my experiences forward from Macedonian nation-building to the 20th century.

We have many plans for the future of HoI so after NSB is safely out of the door, you’ll get a chance to see my take on the future of the game. This said, I’ll point out that Dan and I are very much aligned on the creative direction of HoI 4, so to pre-empt some questions, a switch in game director does not mean lootboxes, mana, or any radical shift in core design philosophy.

What does it mean? Well, it’ll take time to see that properly. We’ve made no secret of the intentions around future dlcs and content (see last PDXcon for more details!), so the best answer I can give you there is that we’ll be doing our utmost to meet this potential roadmap while I begin to put my personal spin on the game. I’m more than happy to try and answer broad questions about my thoughts on the future of this excellent game, my industry experiences thus far, or myriad other topics, but please be aware that (beyond what I’ve already implied) we will not, as usual, be able to answer qualitative questions on future releases.

In general, you’ll find me present and willing to engage in polite discussion on the forums and other media inasmuch as my time allows, so I expect to begin interacting more with this passionate community in the near future!

/Arheo
 
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So no answer on the received under previous post critique? Is it supposed to mean that there won't be any changes made to the soviet non-communist focus tree?
even if they do they can't blitz through it, give them some time, I am certain they are going to change a thing or two in there.
 
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@podcat hoping for Europa Universalis: Pike and Shot. We need an FPS set in that Era.
 
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I’m going to be working with a Secret Project which I can't tell you very much about - except that I am super pumped about it, and that it isn't HOI5.
Knights of Pen & Paper 3 confirmed!

*begins running in circles, yelling "Woot!"*
 
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At what point will we see basic controls, battle plans, war score, peace conferences, bad UI information regarding disasters, and focus interactions that break otherwise established game rules by surprised addressed?

Several of these have been broken for the entirety of HOI 4's existence, others for at least the majority. Some of them are not even subjective issues (spearheads not working, orders changing w/o prompt, units attacking completely outside their frontline/orders, adviser modifiers doing nothing, focuses lying about consequences, inaccurate countdown on events). These are incredibly frustrating to play with. Enough that these days, I largely don't.
 
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If you make a March of the Eagles 2 with focus trees and an option to restore the ancien regime in France, I'll buy it.

Though let's face it, I play all Paradox games...
I honestly think ppl would want to play this and that it would be fun
 
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We have many plans for the future of HoI so after NSB is safely out of the door, you’ll get a chance to see my take on the future of the game. This said, I’ll point out that Dan and I are very much aligned on the creative direction of HoI 4, so to pre-empt some questions, a switch in game director does not mean lootboxes, mana, or any radical shift in core design philosophy.
Approximately when will NSB release?
 
Sorry I'm not that good with english, so there's still going to be future expansions right? The "No Step Back was the last expansion step I had penned down back when the original game released in 2016 so it's time for another 5 year plan" part kind of confused me.
 
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@Arheo

Would you be interested in sharing a little bit about your classical music background? I went to school for composition, and I enjoy writing classically-inspired pieces.

Were you a performer or composer? Conductor, theorist? Professor, critic?
 
Would you be interested in sharing a little bit about your classical music background? I went to school for composition, and I enjoy writing classically-inspired pieces.

Were you a performer or composer? Conductor, theorist? Professor, critic?

I have a conservatoire education in vocal studies (primarily early renaissance music), and I've worked for a number of cathedrals as a Lay Clerk (I don't know how prevalent this position is outside the UK!). I also play a variety of keyboard instruments; organ, harpsichord, piano etc. Largely a freelance career - recordings, concerts, etc, with a bit of teaching here and there.
 
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Please rework the polish states in the Update coming with NSB, so the Soviet-German border of 1939 (also the german-Generalgovernment border) is more accurate. Also more reichskommisariats decisions (Generalgovernment, Kaukasus etc.) would be awesome.

Otherwise great changes so far
 
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Great to see these minor additions, especially allied construction!

However, many of us are still left with a few questions about the upcoming DLC and expansion, namely, will the trucks used in the supply system have some sort of fuel consumption? For many of us, this will make or break the DLC, as it is a huge historical factor in many of the events that took place during WW2. If you feel it is too harsh for the casual player, will we modders at least have the opportunity to play with the possibility?
 
I enjoy these gameplay and mechanical changes/updates a lot more than focus tree content, since that's something that can easily be covered by mods & modders.

On the topic of which, I'd love to know if in the future the Hoi4 dev team under Arheo's new leadership plans to open up some more of the base mechanics of Hoi4 to modders, making them accessible in the defines or elsewhere. As much as the devs have done for the game, it's clear it would not be as popular as it is today without a thriving modding scene, and giving more options for modders is the way forward to a healthy and long-living community.
 
I have a conservatoire education in vocal studies (primarily early renaissance music), and I've worked for a number of cathedrals as a Lay Clerk (I don't know how prevalent this position is outside the UK!). I also play a variety of keyboard instruments; organ, harpsichord, piano etc. Largely a freelance career - recordings, concerts, etc, with a bit of teaching here and there.

Oh, that's wonderful! The early Renaissance is one of my favorite periods, des Prez, Ockeghem, and Isaac being my top picks. I played hurdy-gurdy in an amateur early music group, and that transitional time is both interesting to me historically and very influential compositionally.

Alas, I don't know the sacred music venue in the U.S. well enough to comment for certain about lay clerks here, but your career seems similar to many good friends' I've had in the choral/early music world. I've always been fascinated by those who are proficient in multiple performance types, as well!

Thank you for sharing, and I wish you all the best in your new position. :)
 
I'm sorry to see Podcat go.

A lot of changes have been made in the course of the past 5 years, some difficult decisions. I think one of the biggest was the decision to move from producing small, focus-tree oriented DLCs like Together for Victory and Death or Dishonor, to producing larger expansions with a bigger emphasis on new mechanics like Man the Guns and La Resistance. I think this was the right call, even though we've had to wait long periods of time. It's been nearly two years since the last fully fledged expansion, but looking back at the content we received in the first few DLCs, I'd rather wait and have solid content than receive lightweight and mostly forgettable additions that we had with TFV.

I wish Arheo good luck! It's a demanding fanbase.


On the content side of things...

I'm getting worried that so far there has been no mention of changes to planning bonus and the battle planner. It's a significant issue that's plagued the game since launch, although you don't see it talked about very much. I think this is because it's so opaque and counter-intuitive that it's not uncommon to see players who have over a thousand hours into the game and have very little idea of how it works.

Currently, the only real way of getting planning bonus without ceding control of your divisions' combat moves to the AI is to make an offensive line with a field marshal, and then unassign all armies. This feels like an exploit to me, yet simultaneously, there's no real alternative to it. Ceding division control to the AI, giving how incompetent it is at making attack decisions even if you make plans in excrutiating detail, isn't really an option at all. Moreover, it still suffers from the 50% increased decay rate to planning bonus.

All the issues with planning bonuses and the battle planner make Grand Battle Plan significantly less competitive than it should be. I really hope you guys have time to address this issue. Given that this is the 'land warfare' DLC, it feels like if it is not addressed now, then it will never be.
 
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@Arheo

Congrats on taking the helm and thanks for a great dev diary.

You alluded to wanting to look at peace conferences in the future, and I agree that is definitely one area of the game which could benefit from a bit of refinement.

I know you said you can't comment much on future plans, but could you blink twice if an aircraft designer, similar to the tank/ship designers, is on the cards at some point? :p
 
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