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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
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Samoa
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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
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Galicia
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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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https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...ry-formable-nations-and-achievements.1069661/

Here's the thread where the devs first introduced formables. Notice how much more positive people are compared to this post. Lots of people are saying that they are angry because its wasted dev time, but I think its because most of you personally don't care about this tag. Just be honest and say that instead of pretending like you don't like the idea of the devs making alt-history tags at all. You people loved the kalmar union, Roman Empire, HRE, and Byzantium.
 
Its because the community stopped taking everything for granter after Imperator. This has nothing to do with our personal preferences, thats just a bad way to disregard criticism.
 
There will be... ways to form an Iberian tag ;)

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As Spaniard these are probably the ugliest iberian flags renditions i've ever seen, these flags make me want to burn portugal a throw the ashes to space
P.S. Besides i don't know why u keep using estelada to represent independent catalonia or catalonia statehood, that is flag of independence movement itself even the designer didn't want to make it the flag of the country, 'national' flag of catalonia is senyera flag without ugly cuban copycat star
 
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...ry-formable-nations-and-achievements.1069661/

Here's the thread where the devs first introduced formables. Notice how much more positive people are compared to this post. Lots of people are saying that they are angry because its wasted dev time, but I think its because most of you personally don't care about this tag. Just be honest and say that instead of pretending like you don't like the idea of the devs making alt-history tags at all. You people loved the kalmar union, Roman Empire, HRE, and Byzantium.

I thought those were stupid as well :)
 
At a guess it would be a new person joining the project who doesn't want to break any existing functionality and so creates a new semi-fictional country to test he has the scripting language working correctly & decisions, cores, etc. linking properly. Upon showing it to the senior designer to double check his work, the senior designer approves the work as correct and functional and offers to include it in the game if the new person wants.

Yeah, that seems plausible. Nothing really wrong with that - it just doesn't make sense to include it in an official release. The team leader (aka Podcat) should have told him that it doesn't really fit in thematically, and that it could be released as a mod (or even mini-DLC).

Spy01 said:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...ry-formable-nations-and-achievements.1069661/

Here's the thread where the devs first introduced formables. Notice how much more positive people are compared to this post. Lots of people are saying that they are angry because its wasted dev time, but I think its because most of you personally don't care about this tag. Just be honest and say that instead of pretending like you don't like the idea of the devs making alt-history tags at all. You people loved the kalmar union, Roman Empire, HRE, and Byzantium.

I thought those were stupid as well

Amen :)
 
Ah yes the "its made in his free time" argument, indicating that content made in free time is better than normal and not critizeable? Im just glad Imperator Rome happened, otherwise this thread would have only positive messages empowering the creator without any critical thinking

yeah, i can't reasonably expect people to fix bugs in their free time, so you can't reasonably expect them to use their free time on something they wouldn't want to do. ergo, being mad he didn't spend his time on something else is like being mad a factory worker working on ways to make his job safer in his free time when he could have isntead worked more at the factory in his free time.
 
yeah, i can't reasonably expect people to fix bugs in their free time, so you can't reasonably expect them to use their free time on something they wouldn't want to do. ergo, being mad he didn't spend his time on something else is like being mad a factory worker working on ways to make his job safer in his free time when he could have isntead worked more at the factory in his free time.

People can spend their free time doing whatever they want to, it doesn’t mean the result should be in the game.
 
This content looks very EU4-ish, I don't know how convincing it looks for a game like HOI4.

I'm not saying ahistorical stuff shouldn't exist, but stuff like Al-Andalus and the Umayyad Caliphate seem way out of whack. Aren't there movements closer to the game's actual timeline that would represent arab unity/irredentism better?

Glad someone said it, this is completely daft and not remotely plausible from a historical perspective. This is not the kind of flavour we want.
 
@Meka66 Hey hey, So i was wondering what inspired such a smaller list of formable nations - I mean dont get me wrong Im a big fan of an expanded direction for Morroco however the addition of just two seems very lackluster for what is at its core 'A Decision that adds cores and changes the tag name/colour'. For the longest time myself and others have implored for a larger variety of formables and we now wonder why even some of these wouldnt have been added despite at their core being very simple. PS - This is not an insult, just a consideration - thanks for the expansion as it is!

Examples:
- East African Federation
- Greater Mongolia
- United South America
- Central Asia (Turan)
- Indochina
- Greater Antilles
- Transcaucasia
- Australasia (AST+NZL)
- Hispaniola
- The Gold Coast of Africa
 
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Gotta agree. I understand a pan-arab state, but why does it have to be a such a throwback? Pan-arabism is something that actually existed. Arabia is already in the game. Why doesn't it get these decisions?
It also depends on ideology. Some of the dynamic names make more sense than others. Fascists of course love nostalgia, and most of the formables seem very fascist bias.

Rome only gets Mussolini's support to be believeable. The AH Empire and Qing at least have living claimants in politics. The Ottomans at least only died a few decades earlier. But shit like the HRE or Byzantium are so out there it isn't funny.

The Global Defense Council is ridiculous, but immersive and fits the era. It's a powerless yet large underground ideology that was relevant for the time period coming out of left field, like the EU4 revolutionary government or Stellaris AI rebellion. It's the perfect example of a good ahistorical formable.
 
No Idea if it was asked already. But since we are on formable nations. Are the Reichskommissariats getting a update? The Reichprotectorat Böhmen und Mähren isnt in the Game, neither is the Polish "General Gouverment". And I am pretty sure they had similiar plans for Russia, if they ever won.

It's always a bit weird when you have the formable nations with that Focus, all having the neat grey color and a customised flag, but the rest of your conquered territory doesnt.
 
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Why even spend one minute implementing something as ridiculous as centuries-old Arab kingdom in a WWII game?
Because a lot of people enjoy it. HOI4 is a game played by lots of different people and formables is one of those things people keep asking for more of.
If you dont like it thats fine to say that, but try to keep in mind the different kinds of players we have. As an example we put a massive amount of development time into multiplayer despite the community not being particularly big. When it comes for ww2 history vs alt history content we probably spend 3x the resources on history stuff despite only about 50% of people play in a historical way. Its all about trying to balance a lot of different wants. Also fun side fact, me having to respond to people posting mean stuff to a guy who just wanted to show off some fun stuff he did in his off time IS eating into ai bugfixing which I am currently doing
 
yeah, i can't reasonably expect people to fix bugs in their free time, so you can't reasonably expect them to use their free time on something they wouldn't want to do. ergo, being mad he didn't spend his time on something else is like being mad a factory worker working on ways to make his job safer in his free time when he could have isntead worked more at the factory in his free time.
Even if you accept the notion that it was done entirely in his free time and just integrated without any more effort, it still takes up an entire dev diary where other (for many players more relevant) parts of the patch and/or the DLC could have been introduced. I'm not going to buy the DLC anyway, but there are surely some stronger things about it to present than this. And secondly
I just felt the odds and ends I'd fixed was more of a footnote to a diary than a full diary in itself.
does come across as bug fixes being less worthy of mention than this. Even just two or three non-trivial bugs fixed (and maybe how they were found/analyzed/solved) would in my humble opinion make very good material for a dev diary.
 
You might want to apply as Game Director to have a saying about all of this...

Or, as a fan and consumer of this game I'll voice my opinion on this forum on the direction of the product.

yeah, i can't reasonably expect people to fix bugs in their free time, so you can't reasonably expect them to use their free time on something they wouldn't want to do. ergo, being mad he didn't spend his time on something else is like being mad a factory worker working on ways to make his job safer in his free time when he could have isntead worked more at the factory in his free time.

Except it's now officially part of the game, requiring Paradox to fix any bugs that crop up with non-personal time, and potentially reducing the game's performance.
 
Releasables are OK, even if they are mostly flavourless (I expected France could get some of them, like Britanny or Corsica, though), but I think all these fantasy tags (Al-Andalus, Rome, Byzantium, etc) are a waste of time and resources. These could be spent on fixing some broken or redundant trees, or even making new decissions and events that are actually related to this period: for example setting a realistic German war goals on the East (Arkhangelsk-Astrakhan line, for instance) preventing them from annexing the whole soviet union, or a chain of events/decissions about the collapse of the Soviet Union if they actually lose the war, and the same with other major powers. But instead we got cheesy memes.
 
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If this dev diary focused on bugfixes first, Polynesia update second and featured Andalusia as a bonus (maybe even under spoiler), the attitude would have been different. Everyone is so tired of bad AI, bugs, poor performance and lack of content for actual countries that played a significant role in WW2 (USSR, Finland and the like), that quirky meme stuff is not funny anymore. No matter how reasonable the arguments about personal development time are, people hungry for essential fixes and additions will find it hard to remain calm and positive about such stuff, because "unnecessary X is done, while essential Y is not done" feels very, very similar to "unnecessary X is done instead of essential Y". So, if the dev diary tone was more like "we are working on essential stuff you asked for, like bugfixes... oh, and we also added this funny little thing", the reception would have been much more cordial.