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HOI4 Dev Diary - Art and Music

Hello, and welcome back to another Dev Diary for the Man the Guns expansion. The dev team are all deep in testing and fixing at the moment so today we will be handing over the rains to the Art and Music teams so they get to show what they have been up to to fill MTG with both new music, 3d models and 2d art to ramp up its awesomeness ;)

3D Art
With the focus of Man the Guns being on Britain and the US as well as on naval combat, we decided that we wanted to give both countries some of their historical ships as 3d models.
us_ships.png


The US already had a modern battleship model from the Famous Battleship pack that was rolled into the base game with Waking the Tiger due to...reasons, so we decided to give you a model for your older battleships, represented here by USS New Mexico, joined by USS Pensacola for the Heavy Cruisers (owners of the Famous Heavy Cruiser Pack get that model at higher tech levels), USS Brooklyn for the Light Cruisers, and USS Fletcher for the Destroyers.

british_ships.png


The same basic consideration applies to Britain, which will have HMS Nelson representing early Battleships, as well as the County-Class Heavy Cruiser, Leander-Class Light Cruiser, and Tribal-Class Destroyer for its smaller ships.

amphib_tanks.png


Another big source of new 3d Art were the amphibious landing vehicles. We tried to have a good spread covering as many majors as possible with the Cromwell DD (never left the drawing board), the Schwimmpanzer II and the Type 2 Ka-Mi (a converted Ha-Go light tank) as well as the Soviet T-40 and the American LVT-1(A).

amtracs.png


Accompanying the amphibious tanks are the amphibious mechanized vehicles, with the British Terrapin cheekily shuffling in despite having wheels instead of tracks. Beside it are the American LVT-1 standing in as the generic amphibious tractor, the German Land-Wasser-Schlepper, the Japanese Type 4 Ka-Tsu (with its torpedoes removed for safety reasons) and finally the American LVT-2 as the unique American Amtrac.

mexico.png


Our new countries have also gotten the usual new 3d models. Mexico has its indigenously produced Zeus and Azcarate planes as well as the famous Mondragon self-loading rifle (the first semi-automatic combat rifle adopted as a universal service rifle...and also the first semi-automatic universal service rifle retired after very short service for cost reasons).

dutch.png


The Dutch are represented with the Fokker D.XXI and the Fokker T.V, the DAF truck and equipped with the M41 Johnson rifle and the MP28. Since a lot of the gameplay revolves around the colonies in the East Indies, they also have a model for colonial troops recruited there.


Music
Start by kicking off this clip with samples and art in it while you read:

With Man the Guns I wanted to try having more distinct music even within one nation and I felt USA with its possibilities for civil wars would be perfect to test this. The expansion will come with 4 new songs to help us enable that.

  • General Democratic song appropriate for UK/USA that is quite upbeat
  • A Communist America song that takes a lot of inspiration from soviet propaganda and folk music even to set the vibe. I personally love this one :)
  • A Confederate America song that tries to walk the line between a sombre military mood, southern nostalgia and american tunes.
  • A General Democratic song that is a lot darker and more ominous. Fitting either for a nation under a lot of pressure (we were thinking submarines here) or something like where UK’s monarchy has taken a turn towards… evil.
So for example we have set things up so the Confederate song plays as the players nation starts drifting from democracy. Likewise the communist tune plays as the player changes that direction. Of the above songs the absolute hardest to get right was the confederate song. We weren't quite sure how to get it to sound like we envisioned, but our composer tried a lot of different ways until we (I think on the 4th try) got something that really clicked. You can hear small parts of it in the video above.

2D Art
When it comes to 2d art we have been fleshing out each of the new nations with a ton of portraits. Here are some samples:
new_portraits_mtg (1).jpg


We have also been adding more generics for admirals across the world as many nations had a need of them.
Png all navy.png


Finally we have been updating the naval tech icons to get unique levels for each ship type. A pet peeve of mine since release :)
naval_new_devdiary.jpg


See you all next week for another update!

Rejected Titles
“Something-something-clickbait-release-date”
We finally got those Fokkers in the game
I had the Fokker in my sight, it was a Messerschmidt...
Can you say Fokker on a public stream
We didn't want to go 'overboard' with rejected titles
 
The first guy looks alot like Arthur Seyß-Inquart, the leader of the Austrian facist party in the game
The top-left guy? It's Alf Landon I think.
 
@podcat With ‘Man the Guns’ focus on the British empire; I was hoping that we’d get some new portraits for the commonwealth leaders who have been left out of the game. Most importantly, Robert Menzies and Joseph Lyons of Australia, and the Viscount Wavell and Mountbatten for India. Is there any chance that we’ll see new portraits for the commonwealth anytime soon?
 
Most importantly, Robert Menzies and Joseph Lyons of Australia, and the Viscount Wavell and Mountbatten for India.

Lord Mountbatten was appointed Viceroy of India on 20 February 1947.

Last Viceroy of India and first Governor-General[edit]
His experience in the region and in particular his perceived Labour sympathies at that time led to Clement Attlee appointing him Viceroy of India on 20 February 1947[47][48] charged with overseeing the transition of British India to independence no later than 30 June 1948. Mountbatten's instructions were to avoid partition and preserve a united India as a result of the transference of power but authorised him to adapt to a changing situation in order to get Britain out promptly with minimal reputational damage.[49][50] Soon after he arrived, Mountbatten concluded that the situation was too volatile to wait even a year before granting independence to India. Although his advisers favoured a gradual transfer of independence, Mountbatten decided the only way forward was a quick and orderly transfer of independence before 1947 was out.
-- Wikipedia

I suppose it depends how much time traveling the Paradox design team wishes to introduce into a WW2 game (as opposed to a post-WW2 game set in the Cold War period).

But you might have a point...Paradox has demonstrated that it is open to the idea of putting 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s elements into the game.

(case in point, many of the focus tree resource boosts reflect production values seen decades after WW2, using post-war technologies).
 
Hello,

i miss the pictures of Felix Graf von Luckner (9 June 1881 – 13 April 1966), sometimes called Count Luckner in English, was a German nobleman, naval officer, author, and sailor who earned the epithet Der Seeteufel (the Sea Devil), and his crew that of Die Piraten des Kaisers (the Emperor's Pirates).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_von_Luckner

As well as Bernhard Rogge (4 November 1899 – 29 June 1982) was a German naval officer(vice admiral).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernhard_Rogge

Both would be good if choosing opposing Hitler path and instead of submarines if germany chooses surface raiders they should be avaiableas admirals isnt t?

Please add them
 
Do we get the USS Eagle?
 
Hello,

i miss the pictures of Felix Graf von Luckner (9 June 1881 – 13 April 1966), sometimes called Count Luckner in English, was a German nobleman, naval officer, author, and sailor who earned the epithet Der Seeteufel (the Sea Devil), and his crew that of Die Piraten des Kaisers (the Emperor's Pirates).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_von_Luckner

As well as Bernhard Rogge (4 November 1899 – 29 June 1982) was a German naval officer(vice admiral).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernhard_Rogge

Both would be good if choosing opposing Hitler path and instead of submarines if germany chooses surface raiders they should be avaiableas admirals isnt t?

Please add them
I like the idea along the same lines as you can get lettow-vorbeck
 
Hello,

i miss the pictures of Felix Graf von Luckner (9 June 1881 – 13 April 1966), sometimes called Count Luckner in English, was a German nobleman, naval officer, author, and sailor who earned the epithet Der Seeteufel (the Sea Devil), and his crew that of Die Piraten des Kaisers (the Emperor's Pirates).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_von_Luckner

As well as Bernhard Rogge (4 November 1899 – 29 June 1982) was a German naval officer(vice admiral).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernhard_Rogge

Both would be good if choosing opposing Hitler path and instead of submarines if germany chooses surface raiders they should be avaiableas admirals isnt t?

Please add them
It's unlikely to be added in this dlc, being how far into developement we are. But they always like suggestions so be sure to bring it up in the suggestions sub forums. They may be added in the next dlc for all we know. :)
 
The Priest Portrait is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_María_Martínez Luis Maria Martinez, The first Primate of Mexico. Was a hugely influential figure in the Catholic Church of Mexico at the time which fits with the theming of the Mexico content we have seen.

Good to know more about Mexican figures. Mexico can now go Deus Vult :D

Also, I think the Major Nations need more 2D portraits of admirals.
 
I always have mixed feelings about 3D models. Until I discovered the REWORKED mod (highly recommended for low-spec set-ups), I always had to turn them off during major combat in order to get the game to run at a resaonable pace. I don't mind that at all, but obviously it makes me less excited about them. Another curious aspect is that PDX's talented artists put a lot of effort into the details (e.g. the rusting around the portholes/scuppers on most of these ships), but in-game, you can never zoom in far enough to see them.

I also think that PDX is missing out on a lot of potential for fun - and profit - with their art strategy. We know from earlier dev diaries that the artists love getting the details of uniforms, weapons, etc. right. Actually, the existence of the wargamer community suggests that players would also love being able to do this! Games Workshop and others base their business on it. If PDX made some kind of workshop to enable players to edit the models (e.g. changing uniform colours or adding turrets to ships - somewhere on the spectrum in between CKII's Ruler Designer/Customization Pack and Blender), then I'm sure it would be very popular. It would be a big investment to create it, but once developed it could be repackaged for each of the Clausewitz games. Let the players share in the fun; don't keep it to your art team!

Am I the only one that noticed that Podcat said hand the rains, not hand the reigns?

It should be reins, not rains or reigns.

If you're going to be a spelling pedant, get it right. :p

@podcat That's smells good. I don't know where you are in the phase test but how about a public beta for this DLC ? That would allow us to get faster MTG and that let you to get a ton of feedback about possible bugs without being blamed for these errors (because it's a beta) ;)

PDX never has a public beta for patches released alongside a DLC. Either they would have to allow people to play the DLC for free (which seems to be a daft decision for a profit-making business) or people would be paying to take part in a beta programme (which seems to be a daft decision for a value-seeking consumer).

I know what someone is going to say: that the releases are so buggy that we pay to take part in a beta programme anyway. I know it sometimes feels like that when your hundred-hour game goes awry, but I don't think PDX stoops as low as planning that!

Lord Mountbatten was appointed Viceroy of India on 20 February 1947.

<snip>
I suppose it depends how much time traveling the Paradox design team wishes to introduce into a WW2 game (as opposed to a post-WW2 game set in the Cold War period).

But you might have a point...Paradox has demonstrated that it is open to the idea of putting 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s elements into the game.

Admiral Lord Mountbatten was Allied Supreme Commander South East Asia, responsible for British India's main operational command. So having him as an admiral of the Raj would be just as appropriate as having Eisenhower as a US general: they would be in the game on the basis of their wartime commands, not their later political positions.
 
Admiral Lord Mountbatten was Allied Supreme Commander South East Asia, responsible for British India's main operational command. So having him as an admiral of the Raj would be just as appropriate as having Eisenhower as a US general: they would be in the game on the basis of their wartime commands, not their later political positions.

Point taken.

Admiral Lord Mountbatten deserves to be in the game.

I must confess, I was shooting from the hip (i.e. spouting off with hardly any knowledge about Admiral Lord Mountbatten).

Thank you for the feedback.
 
Can we please finally get NATO counters for Military Police [MP] and Garrison [G] Divisions that we can use as division counters?
 
Last edited:
Can we please finally get NATO counters for Military Policy [MP] and Garrison [G] Divisions that we can use as division counters?

I use the garrison and militia symbols from a mod that greatly expands the available NATO symbols, but other people without the mod can't see them, so they see them as some funky PDX symbol instead. Would be nice if PDX would give us more NATO symbols without us having to resort to mods.
 
@podcat Great dev diary and I have a few questions for you. Which portraits are the American ones? Will you be forced to be a Fascist Confederacy or can you be a non-aligned Confederacy under the Blood Stained Banner? This is technically on topic but do you plan on redoing the Major countries’ unit models and leader portraits? I say that because now that you are doing such excellent work with these other countries the majors’ unit models and leader portraits feel out of place in the game now. One last question is one of the new songs by any chance based off of “When Johnny come Marching Home” instrumental? Because it is a pretty great song and would go well with another U.S. Civil War. Again great DD and while you haven’t yet announced the release date I know it will be very soon since this DD was for the Art and Music so now I don’t really care about the release date (especially since it will give you better time to fix any problems and fine tune the mechanics better before release without so much pressure due to a release date) and I appreciate the work you fellas are putting in to make this top of the line DLC.