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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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Can French Indochina get a separate government? They had a population of around 38 million in 1936. They could pursuer their own path or force investment from France with consequences leading up to Vietnamese independence. This would branch out into monarchy, democracy, communism, or fascism. Also having to deal with Cambodian and Laotian nationalists rising up, Thailand’s claims in Laos, a belligerent Japan, and the future expansion into Burma, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
 
All these formable nations, and yet Tonga - which at the time was technically a British protectorate and an independent kingdom - is not even on the map! And I don't mean their territory s marked as British - no! The islands themselves are not on the map!

Fix it please!
 
To be honest, I think that instead of creating a bunch of useless or out of reality tags (like Al Andalus in WW2?! or Micronesian island states), you could have given the Soviet Union, Greece, Bulgaria or Turkey a new Focus Tree. The first three actually had strong resistance movements, so it could have fit perfectly into La Resistance.
Still, I would always love Hoi4 and your hard work.
 
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UK should have a decision to cede to New Zealand its Pacific possessions, in order to make Polynesia possible with a satellite New Zealand.
Actually, I think this should be a focus for New Zealand to ask this from Britain... That is, if Paradox is planning on overhauling old DLC trees, because some could REALLY use some modern look.
 
I hope meka66 hasn’t been discouraged from the shameful behaviour in this thread. I think it’s good paradox allows their employees time to pursue passion projects.

Though i’m not thrilled about al-anadulus either, I doubt the AI will ever form it, and i never will so it will have no impact whatsoever.
 
To be honest, I think that instead of creating a bunch of useless or out of reality tags (like Al Andalus in WW2?! or Micronesian island states), you could have given the Soviet Union, Greece, Bulgaria or Turkey a new Focus Tree. The first three actually had strong resistance movements, so it could have fit perfectly into La Resistance.
Still, I would always love Hoi4 and your hard work.

I don't think this is comparable to a focus tree...
 
Why not add North Korea to the game, Like might aswell. I really do miss the flavor there

It is in the game, it’s the communist ideology Korea.

Now if only we could have one version of a nation for each ideology outside of civil wars (at least as puppets) so that North and South Korea could co-exist and we could get a more organic East/West Germany.
 
Boy, I sure am thankful we get this. As well as Portugal,you know, the nation that clearly needed a Mediterranean rework... Not to mention the frontline system still being terrible, having troops from different ends of the frontline being thrown to the other side, having troops engage enemy troops trying to take land that was lost since the frontline order was giving, the sheer amount of garbage research no one will ever use, the absolute clusterf**k of a navy interface we have now, Not being able to restore historical borders, some states and provinces literally not even existing or being so far from history all for the sake of balance, hundreds of dollars in dlc for a 3 year and a half year old game, focus trees, decisions, and events that don't work correctly, AI never using tanks in some cases, AI never improving infrastructure, AI never hiring advisors (Italy), AI genociding itself against frontlines, AI starting wars as soon as they get wargoals without thinking strategically and waiting, not being able to demand your allies not start wars as a faction leader (Germany over Italy and Greece), focus tree effects being botched, portraits still not showing up because you didn't correctly name them, not being able to get upgrade or unlock new advisors, The UK starving themselves of OIL and having half of their troops guarding level 1 infrastructure land in Africa, etc. But woo wee, I sure am glad we get to core the world as anarchists, restore monarchies for nations that never would've accepted them, and having the complicated process of restoring an old system of rule magically happen by clicking a few icons and waiting 70 days, Being able to play as Portugal, a nation that wasn't involved in WW2, and not even getting the historical path correctly, a focus tree so complicated and winded the AI will most likely break the flow and balance of the game, crappy 3d models someone could make in a week (and selling them to use, along with music) and a formable PACIFIC ISLANDER NATION AND ISLAMIC CALIPHATE IN 1936. Thank you for using your DLC money responsibly, and not only refusing to hire people to work on things that need to be done, outsourcing, or doing anything but this, but also butchering one of the few decent WW2 Strategy franchises out there. Thank you Paradox, very cool!
 
So many people are ignoring all the great work they have announced before this dev diary. Even though I probably wont play much (if at all) with the content from this dev diary, i think its good to add a little flavor to the game. I applaud adding more sand to the sandbox. Too bad there's so many members here sucking up that sand into their fifth point of contact.
 
Always these people who complain that a developer has done a little thing in his personal time and has not completely overtaken the game, which is NOT possible in personal time. Many people ask here why you only moved the potted plant and not the sequoia.
 
I'm curious why you would think HoI4 is the correct game framework for the fantastical. Have you looked at the game's description/features on the Paradox site?

from: https://www.paradoxplaza.com/hearts-of-iron-iv/HIHI04GSK-MASTER.html


This is part of what has the community up in arms: the series has long been built and marketed as a reasonably realistic and historical war simulator, where you nudge results in different yet still plausible directions. Paradox has obviously grown their player base and market share by adjusting the game towards the casuals, the YT memers, etc.....and they are well within their rights to do that. I'd just like them to be more upfront about this change in strategic direction for development. For example, is this DD content gonna be a part of the core game/patch with the expansion release? Why not release it as an optional DLC, like the "Axis Armor Pack?" I think that's what most complaints were trying to communicate: that big-picture management decisions re: alt-history are detracting from the focus on significant, long-standing historical issues with more relevant countries (Yugoslavia, etc....) that would still lead to better gameplay for people who enjoy minor powers and challenging niche achievements.

The actual content of this DD isn't really a problem for me personally as I play the Total War Mod, with historical focuses on, almost exclusively. I only touch vanilla when a new DLC is released so I can familiarize myself with new mechanics.



Like the Federation President said in Star Trek VI: "Just because we CAN do a thing, does not mean we MUST do that thing." I'm sure there are a wide variety of demographics that play Paradox games, and I'm sure some of those demographics are toxic/advocate for *ahem* unmentionable forum subjects/adhere to banned political parties/etc.... Paradox doesn't make content for them. They are paying customers but they don't fit Paradox's goals or values as a company, nor the intended direction for your products. As another example, Oblivion and Skyrim have ridiculously-popular nude mods. There's a giant demographic of players that wanna see big-breasted scantily clad women in their fantasy action RPG. But Bethesda never released official content like "Hey we wanted to make something for every variety of player so this time we included some S&M commands/dialogue for your followers. It's not for everybody....." Absolutely not. They stuck to their core focus of dungeons, quests, armor, etc...

It feels like Paradox's management of the Hearts of Iron game series is not sticking to it's core competency, but is instead doing anything and everything to chase market share, which brings a dilution of the brand with it.
Thing is, core players are more demanding while casual and meme players are usually satisfied with less. And casuals play the game because they knew of it because of core players playing. Core players are the ones who stay, casuals may play for a time and then move.

This means that if you satisfy core players, you will solidify and expand that core player base and casuals will still play because they didn't ask for much anyway. If you try to satisfy casuals against core players, core players may leave the game, but casuals won't support the game more just because of this meme content, they were already quite satisfied with the game. They will eventually leave to another game because, well, they are casuals, they are not that engaged to the game, and that's fine.

Why give things to the casual player who will play the game in any case and that will leave soon anyway, and not to players who play for thousands of hours, buy all the DLC, and that are the reason why the game is popular by engaging and sticking to it?

I've seen many games with lots of potential just fail because they didn't realize who their game should be targeting.


tl;dr: there are many things in the game that should be done to satisfy the core player, the casual and meme player is already satisfied because they demand less, they don't need Al-Andalus to play the game (more).
 
I think that's what most complaints were trying to communicate: that big-picture management decisions re: alt-history are detracting from the focus on significant, long-standing historical issues with more relevant countries (Yugoslavia, etc....) that would still lead to better gameplay for people who enjoy minor powers and challenging niche achievements.
And as we're trying to explain to you, you can't expect devs to work on the core game during their spare time.
 
tl;dr: there are many things in the game that should be done to satisfy the core player, the casual and meme player is already satisfied because they demand less, they don't need Al-Andalus to play the game (more).

They have done a superb in depth spying system. Rewritten all the code for recon. Tidied up the French tree, written a whole new Vichy tree + changes for how tags work. Written 2 Spanish trees & 1 Portuguese tree.

All for the 'core' players.

Then they did a filler DD, to pass the time before they announced the release dates & opened preorders, and some of the 'core' players lost their shit that people other than them are allowed to exist.

You ask:

Why give things to the casual player who will play the game in any case and that will leave soon anyway

and the answer is because the dev working on the game thought it would be fun and spent his personal development time on sorting it.

Your rant (and those of the others like you) about people having BagWrongFun would make sense if you were replying to the announcement of a major company change but posting on a filler DD by somebody who has just joined the team is bonkers.
 
And as we're trying to explain to you, you can't expect devs to work on the core game during their spare time.

And as several posters are trying to explain, we expect management to look at the dev's "pet project" and say "We appreciate your passion, but we're not going to put this into the core game as that's not the direction we're trying to take the product. But it should make for a nice little optional content pack. Almost like a company-sanctioned mod, for the AH crowd. Keep at it."

This feels like the DD where they revealed Confederate States focuses for the US, which elicited similar "WTF is this?!?!" from a large slice of the forum community. If anything that was a more egregious example of alt-history shenanigans as it wasn't an example of developer "free time" endeavors. The devs are gonna dev, but what kind of guidance and direction are they getting from their superiors that's planting the seeds of "HOI4 needs more alt-history stuff" in their heads at all?

EDIT: If a dev used their free time to make a "Weird War 2" content pack, with zombie troops and occult research focuses, would you expect that to be merged into the vanilla game experience?