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HoI4 Dev Diary - Resistance and Compliance

Hello HoI bois and ladies, welcome to the second dev diary on our upcoming unannounced expansion and 1.8 ‘Husky’ update. This update features some big changes to how occupied territory functions. The biggest part of this is an overhaul of the game’s current resistance system into what we are calling the “Resistance and Compliance” system. This should help curb a bit of power from snowballing (Hello, Germany), remove gamey early war sniping of provinces, and put a bit of a clock on world conquest runs.

The old resistance system is rather simple. Each occupied state has a suppression requirement. If you meet that requirement nothing happens. If the suppression requirement is not met then you suffer from increasingly common sabotage to factories or infrastructure as resistance strength grows. We decided we could make this more interesting and use it as a way to further control the power of snowballing.

The growth of resistance is no longer stopped by having an adequate garrison. Resistance now functions with a target system. The resistance level will grow or decay towards whatever the current target is. The target is impacted by the development of the state, the core owner still existing and other factors. Resistance activities will still scale with the level of resistance, but the garrison will now work as a shield that absorbs these sabotages. If the garrison is adequate, the garrison shield will absorb the vast majority of sabotage attempts and take losses to manpower and equipment. Not having an adequate garrison means a higher resistance target and more resistance activity making it past the garrison shield to the state.

DD_RESCOMP_COMP.png


Compliance is in some ways the opposite of resistance. It is a rating of how willing the local state is to work with their occupiers. Compliance will normally start at zero and increase slowly over time. Compliance growth will generally be slow and several factors can affect that speed of growth. As compliance increases in a state, it will decrease local resistance and give access to more resources, factories, and manpower.

DD_RESCOMP_COMP2.png


Resistance and compliance also will have various effects that are unlocked. Resistance will gain the ability to more frequently bypass the garrison shield after it reaches a strength of 25%. Reaching 25% compliance means reducing suppression requirements for the current level of resistance.

DD_RESCOMP_UNLOCKS.png


The highest level of resistance unlocks include two levels of uprising. The first is a passive malus that is applied to the state, adding attrition, decreasing move speed, and slowing org regain for occupying forces in the area. The 2nd level uprising is a full scale organized uprising that functions somewhat like a civil war. The states that rise up will gain low-quality divisions and either rejoin their former master or if that no longer exists, reestablish themselves on the map. Both of these should be somewhat rare and will require the local resistance being supported by an outside source.

DD_RESCOMP_UPRISING1.png



In conjunction with these new systems, we have reworked how occupied states are handled. Colony states will be removed as a concept and every state not controlled by a nation with a core on the state will be viewed as occupied. Occupied states will now be less rewarding for the occupier. Access to the factories and resources of the state will by default be much lower than before. However, the conqueror can get more out of the state by cultivating compliance or adjusting occupation laws. This gives a bit of granularity between what was previously colony states and cores.

Occupation laws will also be updated to work with the new resistance and compliance systems and give the player more choice. Previous occupation laws were mostly a linear system of paying PP and increasing suppression need for increasing rewards. If you could afford it, harsher occupation would almost always be more beneficial. This was also a system not a lot of people interacted with as it was hidden behind several layers of the menu.

New occupation laws are built around trying to give the player choice based on playstyle and short and longterm goals. The new laws tend towards one of three objectives: compliance growth, resistance suppression, factory/resource exploitation. Compliance growth is a longterm reward, while resistance suppression and resource gains are more short term. These laws will, in turn, be bad at what they are not concerned with. IE focusing on resistance suppression will generally not be very rewarding in terms of resources or long term compliance growth. Cultivating compliance will mean that the player will have to deal with a period of low yields and maybe a more active resistance movement. Each of the big three ideologies will also get their own special occupation laws. These laws fit the themes of the ideologies and give them some unique choices

DD_RESCOMP_OCULAW02.png


That's all we got for this week. Next week we will update the good people of these forums on what is going on with France. Secrets and things hidden will be revealed!
 
This is a very good start to reduce the overwhelming power of Germany in game. Right now I have 1100+ IC once the Soviet Union fell. The USA has half my IC. Something is wrong here!
 
Hopefully, resistance will stop when yo ufinish off the main war. So like Poland, France, Belgium and Netherlands, will stop resistanting once you take out the faction leader.

Otherwise, World Conquest will be nigh impossible until the 60's or 70's.

and thats for Germany.


Italy or minors until the 80's or 90's.

You're making an excellent case in favor of the new mechanics.

World conquest shouldn't really be possible period. Making world conquest non viable as an unintended consequence of mechanics that make things play out more realistically is a good thing.

Plus, I'm sure there will always be mods if you want to do a map painting simulator.
 
How will this system effect the reichkommisariats or Vichy France? Will we be able to change the occupation policy of puppets or will they get any advantages? (on a related note italian social republic when?)
 
Give non-aligned it's its own occupation laws. As has been stated above, it's becoming just as common as the other three in newer trees.
 
How will this system effect the reichkommisariats or Vichy France? Will we be able to change the occupation policy of puppets or will they get any advantages? (on a related note italian social republic when?)
Probably getting an Italy rework this expansion. No Soviets, and they've said they want to rework 2 majors an expansion.
 
What about resistance in pre annexed areas.
Talking about the Czechoslovak Republic. "Peacefully" annexed in 1938/39 according to the HoI rules it belongs to Germany fair and square so no resitance will happen, no government in exile. Yet in reality there had been a government in exile and resistance.

Are there any plans to allow for the UK for example, to "form" or recognize Government in Exiles for previous annexed states in order to forment unrest in those areas in order to cause headaches for the germans?

From what I understand, *all* non-core provinces will have resistance, modified by various levels of compliance. So Germany will face resistance in Czechoslovakia (but presumably being at peace will boost up compliance faster)

Hopefully, resistance will stop when yo ufinish off the main war. So like Poland, France, Belgium and Netherlands, will stop resistanting once you take out the faction leader.

Otherwise, World Conquest will be nigh impossible until the 60's or 70's.

and thats for Germany.


Italy or minors until the 80's or 90's.

That's very unlikely to happen, since they mentioned the allies are going to have to deal with resistance in colonies from the start.
 
You guys are doing an awesome job. My Wednesday are always fun reading these. I have two (2) comments/questions .....

#1. Territories taken over that should not have resistance, but high compliance ..........

Without pops, the easy occupation system is difficult. For example, when Germany takes Danzig, or Sudetenland or Austria the resistance should be minimal due to the large number of Germans living there. Same goes when Russians take the three Baltic states. I don't know the demographic stats back in 1940 were but I know today each of those countries is around 1/3 ethnic Russian. Same would go if Poland took that one southern land from Hungary. Obviously having pops with % of ethnicity would be ideal in these cases ..... but without that, is there anyway to represent this? Focus Trees? Decisions?

#2. Should be most important factor ... who is winning?


Resistance generates more resistance. Less resistance generates less. It is a snowball effect either way. The biggest and most important factor above all other commie, fascist, or democratic factors is WHO IS WINNING? Germany in 1940 had few issues with resistance, while Germany in 1944 had a lot. Will who is winning the war is not the only factor but it is by far the most important one. We have a direct % of which side is winning, so could that % be applied ?
 
I highly recommend you guys looking into the mobile game Rebel Inc. for some novel approaches on this subject matter... you might find a couple of gold nuggets in that design. It's also just really fun to play.
 
Will it be possible to add cores through the comliance system? (A province becomes a core after having 100% Compliance for a certain time?)

Will Provinces/States at 100% compliance be worse/equal/better than cores?

Will it be possible to add/remove specific comliance/resistance values through events, focuses, decisions, etc.? (For example focuses that give claims but not cores could also give a bit of compliance upon successful occupation of the claimed province?
 
It seems my premonitions about a resistance rework came to pass. I'd suppose RK might actually be of value beyond historical RP now, as a means of circumnavigating resistance by making a puppet. If the small bits and pieces of what was in the resistance window indicate what I think, you can dedicate divisions or manpower into potentially going off-map into that state's garrison, so that seems interesting.

How does resistance work in the case of event civil wars, like for instance Republican Spain vs Nationalist Spain, or a Trotsky or counter-revolutionary Soviet Civil War? Would it be a case where it's a matter of which side originally occupied the land at the start of the war, and resistance is removed at the end of the war? In the case of PRC's Infiltrations, would you rework it so that they increase resistance in whichever chosen state in the same manner of this system's build-up to an uprising until said uprising is triggered by the PRC?
 
What if when two countries in a same faction both have a core in an occupied state, and there is an uprising, will there be a chance that the uprising supporter gets the state? In most cases countries in same faction can't get states from others but that's how PRC rose into power in history.
 
Looks great!

Even though it will be a pain to deal with, it should stop snowballing. Hopefully it can also be worked into the game to allow for realistic decolonization? Maybe even force demobilization once wars end?

The possibilities for this system are endless! :)

Also, even though we didn't get a Soviet rework, reworking partisans should be a MASSIVE change to the eastern front. Now Soviet partisans can be accurately represented, and Germany won't snowball out of control, so Soviets now have a better chance (and maybe D-Day can actually work out more often???)
 
I wonder how does this work when I occupy a core territory without peace, if another country also has a core on it (lets say occupying southern Slovakia as Hungary while at war with CZE and having a core on it).
 
This is a very good start to reduce the overwhelming power of Germany in game. Right now I have 1100+ IC once the Soviet Union fell. The USA has half my IC. Something is wrong here!

Agreed! Conquering all that land, (especially in the east) so fast should not feel like an instant boost but rather a huge burden on the German economy. Because food and coal are not represented in game (I think those were the main resources that dragged down the Reich in the long run) it is cool to see this 'burden' represented as a kind of slow bleed in IC from each occupied state.

Hoping Germany will feel crazy stronk in 1939 and will push through France easy (as it does now) but right after the French occupation begins, German problems will start feeling more real than ever... then after Barbarossa, as they near Moscow, all that 'dragging down' should literally force the armies to a grinding halt. That would make playing Germany a real (and fun) challange :)