Hearts of Iron IV - Development Diary 52 - Modding

[Axe99]

I had trouble getting to sleep last night, I was so excited about this . I reckon the debugging and the macro'able triggers and effects are probably the things I'm most excited about at the moment, but then I'll remember something else and be "ooooooh, reloadability ".

we are seriously looking into it actually

I'm already hoping to put together 3D models of the cutest little corvettes you've ever seen - anything that makes getting them in the game easier would be brilliant .

i swear on the graves on my ancestors i will do my best to make this happen ;D

I'd pick one up - Errordawg FTW

We missed this in this dev diary, but I think @Sideburnout will give a take on that in the next dev diary about 2d or we will get back to it before release.
But overall is that you can mod everything in the GUI (both layout and pictures) as it is, that is: nothing is hidden so you cannot hook in more things (in most cases), but you are free to remove and redesign everything you can see (with some limits).

And we also have something called country specific art/localization that will be hooked in depending on the tag of the country, so if you add tag "RMS" as country the different systems will look for the "RMS_" prefix for files and objects in certain cases, ofcourse backrolling to a default if it cannot find it.

Oooh, nice. are those country specific hooks mainly for units, or are they potentially for things like tech/UI as well? No need to answer, but interested if you can/feel like it . Would also be interested in info on putting in new leader art and any things the art team can tell us to get results as similar to theirs as possible as easily as possible would be great.

Well depending on what you want to do I believe that all the tools and extra logging/sanity checking with the "-debug" flag will do the life easier for all modders despite experience level, remember that you do not have to use the "Nudger tool" if you do not want

I'm almost more excited about that -debug flag than I am about all the other modding features combined. Praise be to whoever is/are responsible for it making it out to modders .

 

[Alexander Suvorov]

Superlative! incredible! stupendous!

Podcat for President!

PS: Make Battletech great again! someone please!!

 

[Novatheorem]

Seriously, I'm earmarking $50 to get as many Errordawg shirts as I can buy. Came for HoI, stayed for Errordawg.

 

[EnvyDemon]

I think we all know what the first mod for HOI IV will be, let's be honest. It's paradox's own equivalent to the "Nude Mod"

Still, I hope the second mod that releases replaces Hitler with Donald Trump.

 

[Anichent]

In this DD you add a state.
I was wondering what the pros and cons of modding in extra states are? Is there a reason we might not want to do it?

I ask because my first instinct is to want to add more

 

[Trentos]

Girlfriends hate him!!

 

[Trentos]

I would love if someone made a mod to spilt large cities into 4 or 5 different provinces eg. North Berlin, East Berlin, South, West, central etc. would really simulate the battles for cities as a much more part by part process of bitter fighting and resistance. Stacking troops in the parts of the cities would have large penalties especially against artillery and bombing due to close proximity and units would lose movement speed due to house to house fighting. Tanks were also heavily penalised and the use of troops were the main way to fight through the cities. This would also be a great way for elite infantry units eg Paratroopers, Marines, SS to show their strengths whether that be in attack or defence.

A well defended city with SS troops could cause a significant delay in the advancing front and tie up troops because the SS troops are so damn hard to dislodge due to their fanatical defence of the parts of the city.

Obviously not every city will have these parts as some cities might only have two or three parts depending on their size and historical importance, for example Warsaw might have an east and west part split by the Vistula, or Frankfurt a North and south part split by the Main. Would be a cool addition that adds that extra level of depth and importance to assaults on cities.

 

[Gwayne]

We are doomed... I feel nuclear warfare incoming...

 

[Vnislav]

How Feasible do you think it would be to use Hearts of Iron 4 as first game that I mod? It sounds like there will be more tools in this game then any other that I have seen before and it makes me want to try

 

[pheonicia]

Oh can you add the area of Neuschwabenland? Then we can make a secret Nazi UFO base mod

Of course they can't, don't be silly. Everyone knows the Channel Islands are entirely fictitious.

 

[Matt the Czar]

*Takes a look at this, giggles internally.*

Here comes my Fortress Europe mod! In your face, thousands of provinces to edit!

 

[Midden]

Wow nicely done Paradox.

 

[IconOfEvi]

Kaiserreich for HOI4 here I come

 

[Mac Lazer]

Are we able to add new diplomatic actions into the game (like Offer Alliance, Improve Relation, etc.). That was something I really wanted in EU4, and it would be great if this could be in HOI4.

 

[Axe99]

How Feasible do you think it would be to use Hearts of Iron 4 as first game that I mod? It sounds like there will be more tools in this game then any other that I have seen before and it makes me want to try

PDS games have always been easy to mod, with all the important non-art stuff stored in text files (so editable by anyone). They sometimes take a bit of learning to work out where everything is, so some modding would be easier than others, and you could only mod what was in the text files (so hard coded stuff in the engine was and will still be out of reach) - but you don't need to learn any proper coding per se, just get a feel for the scripting language (which is fairly straightforward) and what is in each of the files and how it all works together. I'd expect to do much beyond some simple moving things around on the map, you'd still need to get your head around this, but it's really not that difficult, and the extra tools PDS are providing us with to make things easier (like the debugger - woot - and that Nudger) are really, really handy. It's definitely easier to mod than other PDS games, and given PDS games are, themselves, easy to mod, likely to be a good jumping off point.

The most important thing, though, is that you have a vision and motivation for what you want to do. At the end of the day, if you're looking to do more than a few events or tweaking the starting OOB of a nation or two, it'll take work and testing, so make sure it's something you're interested in, and you'll enjoy playing repeatedly as you get your head around it. Otherwise, there's a fair chance (depending on motivation/time/etc you'll run out of steam. I'd also recommend starting small and building up, rather than trying to do a total conversion mod as your first, or something like that. Add in a favourite niche unit or two, or some generals, or events, and then build up from there.

Edit: Notepad++ is a good text editor and the one I use, if that helps, but I'm far from an experienced modder, but if you don't hear anything better, it's a good place to start .

 

[loup99]

Great to see this offered from PDS! HoI4 is really going to be more transparent and simple to get into when it comes to modding.

I do agree with all of those who wished to see this for Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV, those game would greatly benefit from expanded modding aid.

 

[podcat]

Is it also possible to mod the air regions and sea zones you can choose for your naval and air attacks with this tool?

F.e I want to make them all a Little bit smaller and get more?

Yes

@podcat

--- Do you know for certain, or can you estimate if it's possible to add new resource types to the map, trade tab, and production (unit & building cost)? Though it appears there isn't room in the interface to add anything, I'm wondering if it's soft coded and in theory--moddable?

Yes no problem but you will need to mod the trade gui to look nice if you add more (probably just add scroll)

One question, if it wasn't asked before - what are the opportunities with this modding tool for creating so-called "Language packs" or unofficial translations? I know it should be possible but - will it be easier too?

You can do this with simple text files. Its pretty easy as well because you can reload text ingame to see if it fits etc

Is it possible to modify a nation's division template by event? For example, can I cause a nation's infantry divisions to go from square (four regiments) to triangular (three regiments) by event? Can we cause specific divisions (by division name) to change their template by event? And can we change a division's name without losing experience? For example, can I cause the "SS-Division (mot.) Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler" to morph into the "1. SS-Panzer-Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler"?

You can add more templates , like a smaller but not change existing or change what templates some units use. Understand that player might have several different templates for infantry or armor so there wouldnt be a way of targeting the right one.

@podcat

1) how complicated will it be to created new interfaces? (Something like adding espionage into the game?) are there default panels that can be filled in easily? are there some blanks that can be used for this purpose?

2) is it easy to expand the focus tree? let's say I want to add an additional branch beside just encryption and decryption....
rom reading that everything is soft coded would make sense those are links and extra links can be created, but just want to be certain (and that UI improves visually as well)

1. You cant make completely new interfaces but you can modify old. Adding espionage screen is not something a modder could do as it would be new features
2. Yeah very easy

So if you load US tank mod and German tank mod no1 would get hurt.
But if you load 'Japan tank mod' + 'Japan events' + 'Japan tech trees'
...
things may not go as planned 'cos they all try to modify the same file.

You can specify mod and dlc dependencies so stuff is loaded in the correct order

He means something like this:

GER change_tag_to HRE

Where all references to GER now reference HRE, including name, flag, parties, foreign relations, factions, techs and so on. Such a change would also invalidate Germany's special decisions and events (no more Anschluss decision, for example, if the HRE tag does not have one).

Similar to the Dual Monarchy Decision for Austria in Vic2. When you fire it, Austria becomes Austria-Hungary. She keeps relevant cores, changes parties, names, flag, keeps her techs, loses access to Austria's special decisions but gains Austria-Hungary's special decisions.

If actual tag switching is not possible (due to tech tree/NF issues), could we at least have name and flag changes possible through events/NFs/decisions?

We only have limited stuff like that unfortunatly so you need to hack around with events. Its something i would like to improve but its very technically difficult. We spent a week on suppoting dynamic tag changes but atm its much too unstable. I hope we can sort it out in the future. Just flag change is easier i guess.

When using debug mode, will be be able to see an event's ID number? Just like the province ID?

Yes

Are we able to add new diplomatic actions into the game (like Offer Alliance, Improve Relation, etc.). That was something I really wanted in EU4, and it would be great if this could be in HOI4.

No, cant add more as thats hard coded. They would be too difficult to make scriptable with all their special rules

 

[Sir Pellew]

Although I have more ideas for Stellaris mods ATM. Really looking forward to the Stellaris modding devblog.

 

[blackninja9939]

No, cant add more as thats hard coded. They would be too difficult to make scriptable with all their special rules

So nothing like targeted decisions from ck2 will be in hoi4?

 

[13Patrick]

We spent a week on suppoting dynamic tag changes but atm its much too unstable. I hope we can sort it out in the future. Just flag change is easier i guess.

Do you mean that flag can be changed to any flag by event?