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HoI 4 Dev Diary - Formable Nations and Achievements

Hello, and welcome back to another dev diary! We are on the home stretch, with only two more issues to go before release! The team is working very hard to squash the last bugs and tweak the almost-possibly-partially-final values.


Today, we will talk about Achievements and Formable Nations.


Formable Nations have already been teased by some ill-advised clicking on stream. We won’t tell you just how you can get the infamous form_hre decision, but rest assured: it is quite a journey. And no, the trigger that was accidentally shown on stream is no longer quite so accurate...


The historical purists can also rest assured that they won’t see the decision pop up if they follow the historical path, and the AI is set to never go down this path.

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The goal of the Formable Nations system is to give players a goal to work towards and enhance the sandbox gameplay. The formable nations have proven quite popular in other titles such as EUIV and the economics-simulator-that-shall-not-be-named. The implementation was fairly simple on the mechanics side: if you are one of the countries that can form a nation and control the required territories, you can activate a decision to form that nation. This gives you a cosmetic tag and cores on the relevant territories.

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We have a few fairly plausible formable nations like the Baltic Federation, Scandinavia, or the United Netherlands, which are pretty easy to do. We also have a number of somewhat less historically accurate formable nations like, say a reborn Roman Empire (which Mussolini may or may not have been aiming for), and finally the really far out ones like the Byzantine Empire.

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We envision these latter ones to be a late-game thing, after you have already achieved dominance over your region, when you want a little extra flavor for that world conquest. We’ve also attempted to ensure that all world regions have at least some possible formables.

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Again, the AI is set to never take these decisions in historical mode, and the territory requirements are such that only the more plausible and easy ones would likely ever be taken by the AI.


Currently, you need to control the territory directly, but future iterations might also allow you to form nations diplomatically.


Your reward is a new name and country color and a new flag. We had a lot of fun coming up with alternative history flags for a lot of these countries. For some, there are some additional goodies like custom namelists.

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(This particular one is also available if you form Austria-Hungary through the Hungarian focus tree)

We’re not going to spoil the full list of countries that you can form - you can find them out yourself in just a few weeks.

And if forming a new nation isn’t enough of a challenge for you, Waking the Tiger also comes with 18 new achievements:

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Awake and Angry: Reconquer all of China and Manchuria and force a Japanese surrender.

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Romance of the Three Kingdoms - as China, puppet and then annex Yunnan and Guangxi Clique.

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Sun Tzu Reborn: As Any Chinese Nation, have fully upgraded/promoted field marshal to Level 10.

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The people have stood up!: With Mao as your leader, win the Chinese Civil War.

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Made in China: As Communist China, have over 100 military factories

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Tojo shot first: As Japan, nuke a core territory of the US before the US develops nuclear weapons.

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Sunrise Invasion: As Japan, conquer Mexico then Europe before 1945.

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The Dragon Swallowed the Sun: As Manchukuo, break free from Japan and annex your former Overlord without being in a faction.

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Hail to the Qing: As Manchukuo, restore the Qing dynasty.

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The good, the bad and the weird: As Manchukuo, have max level infrastructure in every owned state and generate at least 15 units of oil.

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Battlecry: As a warlord, conquer all of China and Japan.

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Panda-monium: As a warlord, be at war with all chinese nations simultaneously.

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Make a man out of you - Have at least 1.000.000 manpower queued up for deployment.

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My ships don't lie: Form Gran Colombia and have 20 capital ships

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I swear I’m not a Byzantophile: As Greece, Form Byzantine Empire.

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Australia-Hungary: Annex all of Hungary as Australia

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Our Other Place in the Sun: As Imperial Germany, conquer a Caribbean island.

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Monarchy is back in fashion: As Germany, bring back the Kaiser and ensure that Italy is controlled by Victor Emmanuel by killing Mussolini.


That is all for today. Next week, we will take a closer look at the nuts and bolts of the game and talk a little about what our AI programmer(s) have been doing in these past weeks. On stream, Daniel and Gabriel continue their run of “historical” Germany, so tune in at 16:00 CET at https://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive


Rejected Titles:

Providing a sense of Pride and Accomplishment

Stealing Victoria II game mechanics for fun and profit, mostly profit

Dan Lind’s Disney Song Singalong

Google Search History: Byzantium Tank Division Names

We use only the finest memes for our achievements

Proud to announce the Shakira/Sabaton collaboration project
 
It is indeed high time for Paradox to leave aside all these little games for kids and devote resources to the true flagship title. The game to end all games :)

As long as they keep it strictly historical I’m ok with every title the spit out. But I’m afraid Victoria 3 is gonna have everything but the historical path.:(
 
I hope we also get a decision to form the ROA. Would be lovely to have Vlassov as a German general.
Vlasov was just a propaganda piece. He didn't really do anything and his only combat agaisnt the Red Army was for three days in February of 1945. Hitler also didn't like the idea of sponsoring someone who wanted to liberate the very land he needed for living space.
 
Vlasov was just a propaganda piece. He didn't really do anything and his only combat agaisnt the Red Army was for three days in February of 1945. Hitler also didn't like the idea of sponsoring someone who wanted to liberate the very land he needed for living space.
Yes, yet we can form Swedish Waffen-SS or Swedish Wehrmacht Units, when we occupy Sweden, so I think it would be a neat feature to have the ability to not use him, use him for propaganda only or really make him commander of a Russian liberation army.
 
18 new achievements...

I have 1102 hours down and 2% of achievements unlocked (mods block achievements).
Currently no single achievement has been unlocked by more than 18.7% of the players. Only 10 out of 53 achievements have been unlocked by more than 5% of the players.
It seems like a wasted effort to include more of what almost nobody wants.

You have to play in Ironman mode to get them anyway- tried once but the lag from the continual saving was too much of a drag.
 
What we need here is at least three game modes instead of the current two.

Those should be like the following:

A.) Historical mode: Like it is now, focuses, events, and decisions are taken in a historical fashion.

B.) Ahistorical plausible mode: There are freedom in focuses, events, and decisions but choices must be historically plausible. So Germany might get into war with USSR while the Allies are neutral or Japan can leave the USA alone etc.

C.) Ahistorical fantasy mode: Here everything is in play like Habsburg restoration or communist Japan etc.
 
Yes, yet we can form Swedish Waffen-SS or Swedish Wehrmacht Units, when we occupy Sweden, so I think it would be a neat feature to have the ability to not use him, use him for propaganda only or really make him commander of a Russian liberation army.
Hopefully the Russian and Ukrainian Liberation armies will be able to see the light of day.

@Archangel85 Have you given any thought to this?
 
OK, how about giving some attention to 1 of the most important Balkan countries in the whole WW2 conflict - Bulgaria!?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_Bulgaria_during_World_War_II
I mean speaking of turbulent political history, diversity of play and National Unity restorations.
Excluding Turkey which was neutral anyway, every single other Balkan state played a bigger role and they were all involved in the war unlike Bulgaria which only occupied/annexed some territories, declared war on Allies, but didn't do anything. The only time when Bulgaria actually fought was with volunteers and very late in the war when communists took power. Don't get me wrong, i want to see Bulgaria getting a focus tree but claiming they were important state is exaggeration.
 
Just when I thought HOI4 coulden't get any worse. This game is become more of a joke for each update/dlc. This is just unreal, really, unreal. What type of people enjoy this silliness? Did they ever want a WW2 game to begin with?

I'm really baffled by the way HOI4 is turning out... And a bit sad. I though I would say my meaning, I have uninstalled this a while a go and only play HOI3 - I had hopes for a long time, but each update and dlc just make the game worse. This however... Is really unbelievable.
 
Just when I thought HOI4 coulden't get any worse. This game is become more of a joke for each update/dlc. This is just unreal, really, unreal. What type of people enjoy this silliness? Did they ever want a WW2 game to begin with?

I'm really baffled by the way HOI4 is turning out... And a bit sad. I though I would say my meaning, I have uninstalled this a while a go and only play HOI3 - I had hopes for a long time, but each update and dlc just make the game worse. This however... Is really unbelievable.

I totally get you. Suddenly everyone find WW2 boring, they prefer silly achievements and focus trees that don’t make sense (Haiti, Turkey, Greece.. really?) rather then a more real historical approach. :(
 
I totally get you. Suddenly everyone find WW2 boring, they prefer silly achievements and focus trees that don’t make sense (Haiti, Turkey, Greece.. really?) rather then a more real historical approach. :(
Quite a few of us have spend years replaying a railroaded simulation of the war in HoI 3. So yes it gets quite 'boring' after having to play the same game every game.
 
I totally get you. Suddenly everyone find WW2 boring, they prefer silly achievements and focus trees that don’t make sense (Haiti, Turkey, Greece.. really?) rather then a more real historical approach. :(

Sure, I mean, they make a full expansion dedicated to China and Japan, they change the whole chain of command, they add historical based decisions and missions outside the already existing focus trees, but those totally optional achievements and a few new country tags (which the AI will never form if you don't want it to), that's what really ruins the game for you...
 
Quite a few of us have spend years replaying a railroaded simulation of the war in HoI 3. So yes it gets quite 'boring' after having to play the same game every game.

Have you having fun conquering the world as Belgium? Is it really fun? And how can you get tired of WW2 anyway?

@Arbus with this DLC we can see a communist Japan but still no D Day.
Come on.
 
Excluding Turkey which was neutral anyway, every single other Balkan state played a bigger role and they were all involved in the war unlike Bulgaria which only occupied/annexed some territories, declared war on Allies, but didn't do anything. The only time when Bulgaria actually fought was with volunteers and very late in the war when communists took power. Don't get me wrong, i want to see Bulgaria getting a focus tree but claiming they were important state is exaggeration.
I will respectfully disagree ... because I think you missed my point.
In a way Bulgaria is the only country that is MORE interesting exactly because it basically did NOT took sides.
Maybe you missed the last part of my message:
I mean speaking of turbulent political history, diversity of play and National Unity restorations.
Romania fought on the Eastern front - it took side actively.
Yugoslavia was having territories out of German reach the whole time - it took side actively.
Greece basically never left the Allies - it took side actively.
Turkey - it was always inclined to go with the Allies, if we look up at history and it was saved mostly because 90% of it's territory was not in either Soviets or Axis way.
Bulgaria actually never declared war on anyone, even if it was on the path of the Great Powers - this is exactly what makes it so interesting when we think about it in a "what if" scenario.
In a way Bulgaria is a paradox county in WW2.
P.S.:Actually we had anti-Axis-partisan movement here (of course not so big as in Yugoslavia) and also First Bulgarian Army took action against Germany later in the war, so not volunteers.
 
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I will respectfully disagree ... because I think you missed my point.
In a way Bulgaria is the only country that is MORE interesting exactly because it basically did NOT took sides.
Maybe you missed the last part of my message:
Romania fought on the Eastern front - it took side actively.
Yugoslavia was having territories out of German reach the whole time - it took side actively.
Greece basically never left the Allies - it took side actively.
Turkey - it was always inclined to go with the Allies, if we look up at history and it was saved mostly because 90% of it's territory was not in either Soviets or Axis way.
Bulgaria actually never declared war on anyone, even if it was on the path of the Great Powers - this is exactly what makes it so interesting when we think about it in a "what if" scenario.
In a way Bulgaria is a paradox county in WW2.
P.S.:Actually we had anti-Axis-partisan movement here (of course not so big as in Yugoslavia) and also First Bulgarian Army took action against Germany later in the war, so not volunteers.

Out of interest, how is Tsar Boris remembered in Bulgaria today?
 
Out of interest, how is Tsar Boris remembered in Bulgaria today?
In short.
Elderly people think he is the last great Bulgarian leader.
Middle-aged people - mostly don't care.
Young-aged people - don't know who he is.
His son - Simeon though - is despised by most. He was briefly PM and didn't do anything for his country/people.