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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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Hey,

We did something a little fun and different, it isn't the focus of what we do, so please try to keep some perspective when commenting on this. The vast majority of time and resources goes into improving the existing game, fixing issues and developing new features (which are historical).

There are a lot of people that play HOI4, and our data shows they play in a variety of different ways, so not everything we do is going to appeal to everyone playing, but we definitely need to try and do something for each type of player.

Thanks,

I think most people realize that the game has become bigger and something else than a ww2 game. From my impression, some people like me prefer "strictly" ww2 content, like in previous hoi games and we clinger to that great past and games. I think that actually sums it up rather nicely, but maybe I missed something along the lines as I didn't read the last few pages. Okay maybe some of the bugs has people very frustrated too, myself included. I also realize it's no this or that, meaning not a new tag or fix a bug, but when certain bugs lingers around for a while(or we have a poor soviet/op germany), and we suddenly get a dev diary about something really far fetched it can look a bit weird. Doesn't mean your priorities are out of wack, but it can look that way.
 
I think part of the south of France should have remakes by Basque Country in the Bayonne and Catalonia part on Roussillon as the northern part of Portugal to Galicia
 
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.
View attachment 540212
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.
View attachment 540213

Tahiti
View attachment 540214

Samoa
View attachment 540216

The Federated States of Micronesia
View attachment 540217

The Solomon Islands
View attachment 540218

The Mariana Federation
View attachment 540219

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.
View attachment 540220

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.
View attachment 540221
View attachment 540222

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.
View attachment 540223

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


Catalonia
View attachment 540224

The Basque Country
View attachment 540225

Galicia
View attachment 540226

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.
View attachment 540460

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.
View attachment 540227

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.
View attachment 540228

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.
View attachment 540229

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.
View attachment 540230

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.
View attachment 540433
View attachment 540231

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.
View attachment 540272

Join Da9L, Bratyn and Jojo at 16:00CET on twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive as they have a closer look at Anarchist Spain!
Being a fellow Formables fan, as anyone who would add Polynesia as a formable must be one, I have a little request for you. Could you influence Paradox to expand a bit on the mechanics. Across all the games, the only way to form a nation is to own the required provinces (plus a requirement or two). Instead, I'd like to see nation's being able to form if for instance they control majority of their culture(group) provinces, e.g. cultural unions, which admittedly isn't very relevant to Hoi4, but EU4 where you can convert province culture is a whole different story. One other way I had much fun while modding EU4 was if you are the only nation of your primary culture you are allowed to form a nation.

I think Azerbaijan was a prime example. There are three tags with Azerbaijani primary culture, so I enabled formation of Azerbaijan if you are the only Azerbaijani Republic, regardless if you own Baku or any other province. Needed to have any province with its primary culture.

Edit: Actually, it was Dagestani Gazikhumuk, Avaria and a modded-in Dagestan.
 
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What a pathetic, entitled response from this community this has been.

So many of these posts are disgusting and people should seriously take a long hard look at themselves. They and their very specific way they play the game are not the sole reason for its existence. There are tens of thousands of players who play the game in all kinds of ways that have nothing to do with the "right" way to play.

The vitriol directed at a NEW member of the HoI4 team is a quick fire way to even LESS dev interaction on these forums. Especially when it's directed at a personal project, something they are doing to make the game more fun and interesting for more people.

Also, the idea that we as a community are OWED dev diaries is a joke. They are done because PDX like to show off what's coming up and get people excited about a particular thing. They aren't required to do it and frankly, they should skip next week's DD as punishment.

I expected better from this community, but I guess I was wrong.
Yeah, some people take this game way too seriously. One light-hearted DD and it's like the sky is falling to certain people.

Also never understood the massive non-sequitir that people someone is working on X, no one can be working on Y or Z, Ä or Ö.

But even beyond that, it's really a question of priorities and direction. Why even spend one minute implementing something as ridiculous as centuries-old Arab kingdom in a WWII game?
Speaking only for myself, I do like to be rewarded by being allowed to form a nation when I've amassed enough land, be it by forming historical countries like England or the United Kingdom, or ahistorical unions such as Scandinavia. Some of them will be unrealistic, but HOI is an always has been a game where you can make very ahistorical and unrealistic gains, see the Tibet world conquest playthroughs. I don't agree with how easy this has been in that HOI4 has made the minors ridiculously powerful, but that's another discussion, I suppose.

Also, I highly doubt that obscure easter eggs like Al-Andalus that won't come up in more than perhaps every thousandth ahistorical playthrough will require much bug fixing or rebalancing work.
 
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Yeah, some people take this game way too seriously. One light-hearted DD and it's like the sky is falling to certain people.

Also never understood the massive non-sequitir that people someone is working on X, no one can be working on Y or Z, Ä or Ö.

Speaking only for myself, I do like to be rewarded by being allowed to form a nation when I've amassed enough land, be it by forming historical countries like England or the United Kingdom, or ahistorical unions such as Scandinavia. Some of them will be unrealistic, but HOI is an always has been a game where you can make very ahistorical and unrealistic gains, see the Tibet world conquest playthroughs. I don't agree with how easy this has been in that HOI4 has made the minors ridiculously powerful, but that's another discussion, I suppose.

Also, I highly doubt that obscure easter eggs like Al-Andalus that won't come up in more than perhaps every thousandth ahistorical playthrough will require much bug fixing or rebalancing work.

I honestly just find it scary how people can have so little empathy, such that they can turn this vicious over what is essentially free, optional content born of passion.

Why is it so upsetting when there's literally a tickbox to keep your game historically dull and predictable?
 
I think another aspect of releasables/formables that has been overlooked by some is that they are not about Morocco and Hawaii now being major players - they are about new nations being able to be formed through the course of the war. If things play out differently and France decolonizes or Britain falls into a civil war, or Germany wins the war but decides it doesn't want over seas cores - and so on, these tags create richer outcomes.
 
I honestly just find it scary how people can have so little empathy, such that they can turn this vicious over what is essentially free, optional content born of passion.

Why is it so upsetting when there's literally a tickbox to keep your game historically dull and predictable?
To be fair, a third option to have a kind of... "ahistorical but plausible" AI wouldn't go amiss. As in, things aren't railroaded to WWII, so Norway may join the Allies of their own accord, or Czechoslovakia may not cave to German demands, but you don't get Nazi England or a second US civil war.

I think another aspect of releasables/formables that has been overlooked by some is that they are not about Morocco and Hawaii now being major players - they are about new nations being able to be formed through the course of the war. If things play out differently and France decolonizes or Britain falls into a civil war, or Germany wins the war but decides it doesn't want over seas cores - and so on, these tags create richer outcomes.
Not too implausible. Heck, Iceland took the opportunity to break off and declare independence when the Nazis occupied Denmark ;) , and come to think of it, the Vietnamese when (I think) the Japanese left, although they weren't successful IIRC. The same thing could conceivably happen with other countries' colonies and puppets.
 
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Since I last posted I haven't read every post, but I did before and I didn't see any maliciopus post, only worry how these formable nations fit in a ww2 setting. They don't necessarily have any affect on your game, but they are there, and it just doesn't fit in a ww2 setting. I'm sure most people won't care or notice, but for some, at least me it ruins the immersion and kinda wakes me up to the fact this is not in fact a ww2 game - at least not compared to hoi2 or 3. Even if it's added content, it actually takes away from the game imo, it would rather be perfect mod content. Which is a worry for some as seen by the criticism. It also seems my posts didn't do my thoughts justice as I think you misunderstood what I was trying to say.

I haven't read the last few pages so don't base my answer on any action that happened the last maybe 16 hours. My concern and others have been voiced, I don't see what else there is to do at this point. Only to add what a fantastic game darkest hour is ;)

I see there are another quote of me, maybe others(I dunno how to link it in with this response). And I stated my "blame" would not be on the new content designer, but rather on the top boss man who approved this, so I dunno why you would quote my post then accuse me of not understanding that. And yes I realize there are already fantasy content that shouldn't be in ww2 setting strictly speaking, and I never have approved. Just because there is, it will never make it okay for myself to add more, I just don't want it because it takes away from ww2, which is what I want 99% of the time from a hearts of iron game. But I realize ho4 has become bigger than that and it sells more copies to make it something else, doesn't mean I won't speak against it. Also saying adding a fantasy tag is crap, is not exactly malicious is it? Saying the content creator is crap is of course not okay and afaik I haven't seen that.

There was a post after podcat's reply that was mocking his work I think it's been removed since though. I think mocking someone for doing their work falls under malignant criticism. I think it's more related to how people say adding a fantasy tag is crap. I mean there are two fanbases, the historical and alt-historical fanbases and only 50% are historical. I think they're just trying to make it fun for both fanbases. I do wonder why the last formable nation diary in waking the tiger was well received though, there are clearly a lot of fantasy elements there too. Not quite sure why it would ruin immersion though, most likely you won't be playing Morocco in a historical WW2 game ;)
 
I was thinking why not add French Basque Country and Catalonia, as Nationalist Spain you should be able to demand them after the fall of France if you joined the Axis, you should be able to also integrate them through decision if you own them no matter your ideology or how you got them. this should apply to all countries that have a releasable nation within their borders that also have cores in other countries. For example, the USSR being able to integrate Ukrainian cores in Poland without a focus after obtaining them.
 
There was a post after podcat's reply that was mocking his work I think it's been removed since though. I think mocking someone for doing their work falls under malignant criticism. I think it's more related to how people say adding a fantasy tag is crap. I mean there are two fanbases, the historical and alt-historical fanbases and only 50% are historical. I think they're just trying to make it fun for both fanbases. I do wonder why the last formable nation diary in waking the tiger was well received though, there are clearly a lot of fantasy elements there too. Not quite sure why it would ruin immersion though, most likely you won't be playing Morocco in a historical WW2 game ;)

yeah,it's been removed, when podcat said that him having to step aside and defend a coworker was cutting into his time to make fixes to the AI, someone essentially said "are you sure? i thought you sat around all day than work on this garbage".

it was really bad, but i think most of the bad posts have been removed so it seems like there was only minor criticisms, but trust me, there were more than a few people who were out of line.
 
What I do enjoy about this ton of formable nations, you can splinter your enemies after a war to make them more controlable.
I hope that this multitude of tags would allow me to use my spy agency to incite resistance from "occupied" nations in my opponents country.
Nothing helps the war effort more against the USA if Hawaii declares it's independence :)
 
While we are at it, we could go ahead and make Sumerian nation formable, just start as Iraq and conquer Kuwait and Persia. You could give them a focus tree with chariot machine gunner battalions and a research bonus from cuneiform tablet production too. That way, I can have the Nazi Germany vs. Byzantine Empire vs. Sumer WW2... which would be as realistic as Andalusia re-forming...
 
I definitely appreciate being able to Balkanize countries a bit more.

But this makes me wonder why we can't do it to France and Italy?

France you could have Breton and Occitain tags, and Northern Navarra to the Basque Country. Italy you could Balkanize into Lombardy-Venetia, Sardinia-Piedmont, Tuscany, Two Sicilies, and Papal States.

Heck cut Belgium into Wallonia and Flanders!

Of course I feel like balkanization would be more valuable if there were peace conferences that weren't all about land grab, and that there would be a reason to play long enough for that to matter other than some end-game screenshots. Usually when WWII is over, it kind of feels...done even though you could keep playing.
 
France you could have Breton and Occitain tags, and Northern Navarra to the Basque Country. Italy you could Balkanize into Lombardy-Venetia, Sardinia-Piedmont, Tuscany, Two Sicilies, and Papal States.

Heck cut Belgium into Wallonia and Flanders!

Yes, this is good.
 
I am impressed how polite this thread has been though, so congrats to everyone here who managed to avoid being offensive. ;)

The passion and feedback is always appreciated, just needs to not be blown out of proportion. We will however cancel the plans for the Golden Horde expansion, its clear that probably won't be very popular here.

Just sneak it in, not featuring it frontpage in a Dev Diary and everybody will see it for what it is, a small fun easter egg.
 
Interesting additions. I do agree that the whole Al-Andalus thing is a bit silly, but I think that's the point (sort of like when the Vic2 devs added Jan Mayen and Babylon to that game). The others at least look plausible; this gives me the idea of doing a Japan run and creating a puppet Hawaii to use as a base for attacking the continental US.
 
Al andalus... very unplausible, like the purple phoenix , but this may make a fun campaign.
hmm none of the eligible countries exist at the beginning , so playing as France , boosting Algeria and using that to conquer Spain? interesting.
 
Sorry, but this is factually wrong. Countries only create lag when they own a core. Mind you, this lag they create is very impactful, but it does not lag if it doesnt have a core or an owned state. If u want to see research about this go to the Coop discord.
Can you post a zelda to the discord?
 
What stands out to me is a lack of awareness for their own cultural biases.

The route of 'reforming' the Roman Empire as Mussolini is an historically accurate ambition of his, and there's nothing new in countries using mythical histories to prop up their ambitions through such propaganda campaigns.

Sure the modern Algerians or Libyans 'reforming' the Umayyad Caliphate is a joke, but so was Italy reforming the Roman Empire; yet that didn't stop the narrative and wouldn't have stopped Mussolini from pushing it further if he could've.

It's a kind of Chauvinism to take issue with it; it's no more ridiculous just because North African Arabs (and Berbers) are doing it. Modern Italy's right to the lineage of Rome is little better.

I will tend to ere towards the benefit of the doubt on that kind of thing, because there already is the possibility of reviving not only one but two different Muslim or non-European empires in the game already as formable nations, in the Persian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire, and there are already complaints about how unrealistic it is that Germany can revive the Austro-Hungarian empire.

It may just be that this is a formable nation formed by a released nation, and how clearly Al-Andalus is a Eu4 reference, even though Mutapa is already in the game as well.