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HOI4 Dev Diary - Formables and Releasables

Hello everyone and welcome to another dev diary for La Resistance! I should begin by introducing myself: I am Meka, I joined Paradox just a few months ago as a Content Designer. Some of you may be aware of me due to my work on Theocracies and Burgundy over on EUIV, but now I'm here to show what mischief I've been up to in my time on Hearts of Iron.

Man the Guns saw the creation of a lot of new tags, making some countries balkanisable, and almost all of the world decolonisable. Waking the Tiger saw the introduction of formable tags, a mechanic that until now has not been further utilised. However, with the Husky patch, a whole slew of new releasable tags will be added to the game along with two new formable nations; one as part of the free patch, and one for owners of La Resistance.
Polynesia 001.png

Starting with releasable tags, Man the Guns allowed most of the world to be decolonised, but Oceania was mostly left unloved with only one nation being added to the continent, leaving the rest of the disparate islands untouched and still under colonial rule. However, I have added 6 new releasable tags and one formable for the region.

The Kingdom of Hawaii was only annexed by the United States 38 years before the start of Hearts of Iron and can be released along with most of the US’s pacific holdings.
Polynesia 002.png


Tahiti
Polynesia 003.png


Samoa
Polynesia 004.png


The Federated States of Micronesia
Polynesia 005.png


The Solomon Islands
Polynesia 006.png


The Mariana Federation
Polynesia 007.png


These disparate islands may struggle to survive on their own, and so a nation who holds enough of the Polynesian Triangle will be able to unite all Pacific peoples into a single state known as Polynesia. This state will be formable by any nation listed above plus New Zealand. Unlike other formable tags, this nation can be created by dominions meaning New Zealand does not necessarily have to leave the Allies in order to form this tag.
Polynesia 008.png


But perhaps players wish to live out an alternate history where the Naha Prophecy was fulfilled and Kamehameha united the Pacific several years earlier. With the Polynesian Empire game rule, Hawaii will begin the game having already conquered the entirety of the Polynesian Islands and built up a fair-sized industry.
Polynesia 009.png

Polynesia 010.png


The ability to form Polynesia is a free feature, as are the releasable tags.


Along with adding these releasable nations, I did also touch up the old fragmentation game options to make the world fully split into different continents. The UK now surrenders its African, Asian, and American islands to its former colonies, Portugal surrenders Timor to Indonesia, and a few other small changes like that.


Also, armies standing around in former colonial territories is now a thing of the past and nations will now only have armies stationed in territories where they have access.
Armies.png


Iberia is a focal point of La Resistance and as such, a few releasable tags have been added to the subcontinent as well.


Catalonia
Catalonia.png


The Basque Country
Basque.png


Galicia
Galicia.png


Spain can of course be fractured from the start of the game by selecting the appropriate option in the game menu. However, I noticed Catalonia, the Basque Country, and Galicia simply weren’t enough to make Iberia look “shattered” so I took the liberty of adding an “11th of November” game rule, and I will leave it for you all to speculate what that option does.
Spanish Fragmentation.png


When it comes to the second formable, one must be opportunistic and take full advantage of the instability in Spain and Portugal. The Moorish people once reigned sovereign over all of Iberia, and owners of La Resistance will be able to restore the long-dead state of Al-Andalus.
Andalusia Conditions.png


Andalusia was once an Islamic Sultanate that ruled from the Iberian peninsula and a beacon of the Islamic world. Through struggles with the Catholic kingdoms in the medieval era, the Andalusians would slowly be pushed out of Iberia, ending with the conquest of the Emirate of Granada in 1520. However, the Moorish people continue to exist to this day in Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, and Algeria, many of whom are descendants from Moorish refugees fleeing the Spanish Reconquista.

Andalusia will be formable by any of the North African countries; Morocco, Tunisia, Western Sahara, Algeria, or Libya. In order to form this tag, one must occupy a large portion of both Spain and Portugal’s southern states and forming the tag grants cores on the entirety of the Iberian subcontinent.
Andalusia 1.png


But that isn’t the end of Andalusia. Similar to Byzantium’s “triumph” decisions, Andalusia will be able to sweep across the Mediterranean and beyond, restoring their old claims and titles.
Andalusia Decision 2.png


If a player can enact all decisions relating to the Andalusian conquests of North Africa and the Med, they will be able to press on for Egypt and Arabia and declare themselves the Umayyad Caliphate reborn, granting cores on the Arabian Peninsula.
Andalusia Decision 3.png


Upon doing so, Andalusia will unlock their final set of decisions, allowing them to restore the entire former claims and titles of the Umayyad Caliphate, effectively reuinifying the Islamic world.
Andalusia Decision 4.png

Andalusia 3.png


As we have expanded the scope of Hearts of Iron, some old bits of content started to become outdated and lead to some annoying bugs, which I have dedicated some time to fixing. One key thing I have improved is the way that the British Raj interacts with different game options and Britain doing strange things. From now on, the Raj will be able to freely pursue their focus tree even if Britain forces them into independence, with some focuses bypassing, and others no longer requiring the Raj to be a subject.
Raj Fix.png


Join Da9L, Bratyn and Jojo at 16:00CET on twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive as they have a closer look at Anarchist Spain!
 
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This argument has been restated again and again, but it does not apply here.
Now it is a simple matter of prioritization of what the content designers do: content designers, as far as I can see, make a) decisions, b) events, c) focus trees.
The problem here is not content designers not programming the AI; it is rather that instead of working on existing problems within their purview (such as problematic focus trees interactions in general) or adding decisions/formables/events with at least some relevance to the 20th century (such as at least pan-Arabism instead of the damn Caliphate) that energy is put into Byzantium, the HRE, and Al-Andalus.

The best thing of this dev diary is the fix in the Indian focus tree, for which I must say both "congratulations" and "about time", honestly.

As mentioned, Paradox staff have Personal Development Time during which they can do stuff that is work related, but outside the scope of what a patch might be. This is likely due to @Meka66 making use of that.
 
Disappointing that the only nation that was independent from Spain in this timeframe is not one of the releasables.
Asturias (throught the Sovereign Council of Asturias and Leon) declared its sovereignity one we got cut from the rest of the Republic, issuing its own currency and even requesting acceptance in the league of nations. This is not surprising since 3 years before Asturias had had another short lived independence-ish moment during the October revolution (although this is not within the timeframe of the game).

On the other hand, having Galicia and Navarre as part of Euskadi as releasables in this timeframe is very strange, considering they essentially were the Nationalist Spain elite.
 
I appreciate the feedback, however I did all this as well as fixing bugs, not instead of. I fixed a number of content bugs, including those mentioned to be found in the TfV and Hungarian trees as well as some old Waking the Tiger bugs. I just felt the odds and ends I'd fixed was more of a footnote to a diary than a full diary in itself.
 
As mentioned, Paradox staff have Personal Development Time during which they can do stuff that is work related, but outside the scope of what a patch might be. This is likely due to @Meka66 making use of that.

My problem is not with the content designer, who evidently has done his/her job, produce new content.
My problem is with the direction or lack of it which has the result of meme content being produced.
 
I used to say I'm all about that sweet alternate reality content, but sweet baby Jesus. You'd think that countries that actually took part in the war, even if it was just getting steamrolled in 2 hours, would take precedent over releasables. I mean, hell yeah, go for it... once Soviet, Polish and Italian trees get updated and you add trees for Denmark, Norway, Greece, Finland, Siam? I'd be worried if we didn't have Kaiserreich to look forward to.
 
I appreciate the feedback, however I did all this as well as fixing bugs, not instead of. I fixed a number of content bugs, including those mentioned to be found in the TfV and Hungarian trees as well as some old Waking the Tiger bugs. I just felt the odds and ends I'd fixed was more of a footnote to a diary than a full diary in itself.

A sentence or two explicitly stating this incredibly important job in the beginning of the diary would be advisable -- we are a fickle crowd, after all.

I dont think anything about Hungary or other TfV or WtT bugs is mentioned.
 
I like the pacific flavour but the Al-Andalus stuff is really just over the top and shark-jumping.

If you are gonna add flavour why not focus on the real stuff already needed? Or here is a good example: Better puppet interactions. If I am playing as a reformed Monarchy I would love the chance of instead of having Generico Governor as the ruler of my puppet a option to install a relative or other noble of the realm, you know like monarchies normally did? Or how about a way to tell my puppets to focus production lines on things? Maybe tell them to just supply my nation with as much support equipment they can pump out so I can free factories for planes and tanks? Or tell them to not generate troops at all and leave their manpower for me to create divisions with my decent templates instead of whatever the hell the AI pumps out?
 
Now I just wish they would make it so we could make the historic WW2 borders in Yugoslavia :(

The fact they swapped state borders from previously mostly historical ones to reflect modern day-borders instead of WW2 ones, is very descriptive of the direction of development this game has taken. It seems like they want to make every modern nation + a bunch of fantasy ones playable, while also allowing you to take over the entire world with any of these.

This forces cutbacks on plausibility in favour of the sandbox experience, but more importantly, it takes away from meaningful, historical content development. I understand their content creators can't just go adding entire focus trees at a whim to XYZ country, when they are bound to the update in development at the time, but I'd rather they spent this "excess" development time on plugging holes in the vanilla game, like missing events or leaders. What about the transfer of Hatay to Turkey, the excavation of nickel in Petsamo, the Anglo-Iraqi War or the Anglo-Russian Invasion of Persia? Content relatively easy to make and balance. I'd take any of those over 20 fantasy formables any day.
 
Well, that was unexpected. I mean, I am happy to have returned to the game with MTG, but...aren't there more important things to fix? Like, incredible stupid AI (the vast majority of players goes for singleplayer), bugs and actually quite important countries not even properly joining the war if you play historically (yes, you are sitting in Sweden and seemingly forgot about your neighbouring country, Finland!)? Please, at least hire someone to fix the AI and don't give us more broken, useless content nobody cares about.

Why are people here so obsessed about making Content Designers program the AI? Do you people desire a worse AI so much?
Content Designers always need to be paid, and for that they also need to work, so they will always make something, no matter how well or bad programmers do.
 
A reminder that Content Designers can have Personal Development Time and do things outside of their contracted work I.e this didn't take any focus away from the content of the expansion, bug fixes or anything of the sort. Much the same as the releasable tags made by @Bratyn in MtG
Sure, and let's just paint a moustache on the Mona Lisa while we're at it.

Who gives a #*%& about whether it fits the theme of the artwork....
 
@Meka66 Sorry for the awful way the Community is welcoming you, still, your work is appreciated and I am especially glad about the bugfixes and Polynesia flavour.

@Everyone Y'all need to calm down, we have a content designer who did this stuff on his own time here. I wouldn't have needed Andalusia aswell, but it's absolutely fine if they add it, maybe it'll make for a good Achievement run, and it's not like tons of Resources are spend on that. If we have Byzantium, I don't see a reason to be angry about Al-Andalus, and Meka evidently also fixed other stuff, stuff that was requested for quite some time now. Also, HE IS A CONTENT DESIGNER, he probably would make the AI worse and all is talent would be wasted by assigning him to AI.
 
Honestly, I was expecting something else, like an Achievement diary or some performance improvements...
 
I appreciate the feedback, however I did all this as well as fixing bugs, not instead of. I fixed a number of content bugs, including those mentioned to be found in the TfV and Hungarian trees as well as some old Waking the Tiger bugs. I just felt the odds and ends I'd fixed was more of a footnote to a diary than a full diary in itself.

First of all: welcome onboard the HoI team, hope you enjoy your time!
Second I'd like to state that I like the stuff you showed us, I'm a huge fan of formable nations! For my likings you can add 10 more :D

I would also like to thank you for the work you put in polishing old focus trees (like the raj one, that was really broken)! I can understand that people are very frustrated about old focus trees not being fully compatible with the latest changes (fascist Canada path to influence Mexico is broken since mexico received a new focus tree).
I would suggest you try to balance your time between adding new stuff and fixing old events/focus trees. I'm sure you already do that but the way this DD was layed out it made it look like fixing broken stuff is more of a side quest for you. I'm sure it's not, so as a small feedback: try to stress the fact that this is still important to you devs =)

Besides a nice DD (i like pictures) and good job on your end! Glad to see you onboard!
 
Disappointing that the only nation that was independent from Spain in this timeframe is not one of the releasables.
Asturias (throught the Sovereign Council of Asturias and Leon) declared its sovereignity one we got cut from the rest of the Republic, issuing its own currency and even requesting acceptance in the league of nations. This is not surprising since 3 years before Asturias had had another short lived independence-ish moment during the October revolution (although this is not within the timeframe of the game).

On the other hand, having Galicia and Navarre as part of Euskadi as releasables in this timeframe is very strange, considering they essentially were the Nationalist Spain elite.

The Asturias thing was a failed coup d etat, calling it a nation is waaay exaggerated
 
@Meka66 Sorry for the awful way the Community is welcoming you, still, your work is appreciated and I am especially glad about the bugfixes and Polynesia flavour.

@Everyone Y'all need to calm down, we have a content designer who did this stuff on his own time here. I wouldn't have needed Andalusia aswell, but it's absolutely fine if they add it, maybe it'll make for a good Achievement run, and it's not like tons of Resources are spend on that. If we have Byzantium, I don't see a reason to be angry about Al-Andalus, and Meka evidently also fixed other stuff, stuff that was requested for quite some time now. Also, HE IS A CONTENT DESIGNER, he probably would make the AI worse and all is talent would be wasted by assigning him to AI.

Again, the problem is NOT that content designers are not working on the AI.
The problem is that the game direction is obviously happy to make memes. Byzantium is also a meme, and shouldn't have been in, despite what my inner Byzantinophile says. This is silly ISP-video worthy mod potential
Opportunity costs exist. Not all content should be in a game just because it is designed.
 
Again, the problem is NOT that content designers are not working on the AI.
The problem is that the game direction is obviously happy to make memes. Byzantium is also a meme, and shouldn't have been in, despite what my inner Byzantinophile says. This is silly ISP-video worthy mod potential
Opportunity costs exist. Not all content should be in a game just because it is designed.

If it makes someone happy, I'm glad they put it in, as it doesn't hinder my personal enjoyment of the game.
 
Again, the problem is NOT that content designers are not working on the AI.
The problem is that the game direction is obviously happy to make memes. Byzantium is also a meme, and shouldn't have been in, despite what my inner Byzantinophile says. This is silly ISP-video worthy mod potential
Opportunity costs exist. Not all content should be in a game just because it is designed.
So are you saying Paradox should direct developers on what they should work on in their Personal Development Time? Doesn't that, y'know... defeat the purpose of Personal Development Time as a concept? On the point of "oppurtunity cost", it doesn't matter since the content is already designed, and I'm sure if this was both too stupid and also visible without making it so to the point of disrupting the average historical playthrough, or any playthrough at all, Paradox would've intervened...

But remember that in order to even SEE this option; you need to start the game as one of the European colonizers, release one of these nations as an independent nation and then play as them, which means you've already strayed far off the course of a historical game or something the average player would think to do. Even discovering this option without knowing about it beforehand is "Obscure Easter Egg" tier. In order to actually FORM the nation, you need to invade the entirety of Iberia... and that happening in the first place, is so historically implausible and unbelievable that if you actually managed to do that, riding off to Egypt and Arabia to declare a new Caliphate afterwards doesn't exactly make things any less historical.

The only actual objection I have about this is that forming Andalusia shouldn't give cores in Iberia (I voiced the same complaint with Byzantium and the others, but now that the resistance mechanic exists I'm more in favor of such a change), but unrealistic "bragging rights"-tier formable nations, I feel, SHOULD exist, because the player can make these come true regardless-- formable nation or not. I would argue that a Morocco that (Somehow) managed to occupy the entirety of Iberia with the intention to keep it not proclaiming itself "Al-Andalus Reborn" is actually the less realistic option compared to this (Even if both of them are so far off the course of the possible that it's hard to measure).