Will Hearts of Iron IV be user-friendly?

[Tiaexz]

Greetings,

I played the previous, but one thing that I never really liked is how units are controlled which is completely separate from EU, CK and Vicky series. There seemed to be a big bloat of counters and constantly assigning the AI to take areas on your behalf which a great deal of micromanage if you wanted to ever do it yourself.

Whilst the last game did big improvements such as theatres, would there be some radical changes to improve the system so it is far more 'hands on' then 'give orders and watch the screen for 30 minutes till the next set of 2 minutes of needing to do anything'.

EU4 brought with it a host of redesigns and new systems which made the experience far more active, are we to look forward to this playing a big part in this series too?

 

[podcat]

Great question! One of the main design focuses of HoI4 is being user friendly and fun to play (much more interactive without choking you in manual labor). The first dev diary will cover the vision and goals of the project. Expect it soonish(tm)

 

[Pallidum]

When I saw the thread title, I was almost hoping for a Johan-answer.

 

[Fernando Torres]

Dev diary tomorrow? Naiiice.

 

[RedRalphWiggum]

When I saw the thread title, I was almost hoping for a Johan-answer.

:laugh:

 

[podcat]

When I saw the thread title, I was almost hoping for a Johan-answer.

no

Dev diary tomorrow? Naiiice.

no

Spoiler

 

[Fernando Torres]

Classic Johan.

 

[Deathmachinept]

I'm always worried about user friendly improvements, as long they are about reducing clicks, getting more and faster information while improving tutorials and menus I'm ok but when depth and content is removed from the game that's a big turn off just like it happen to Rome 2 and so many other games.

 

[aasand]

My biggest fear is that will end up too user-friendly. I find complexity is the only thing that makes me stick to games. The OOB and builds can occupy me for hours. The only real reason my friends find this game confusing at start is the lack of a proper tutorial and how to keep things organised. When i learn them this they love it and want even more stuff to fiddle with. Then we go BICE

 

[LeeDub]

Classic Johan.

Classic Johan would not be so verbose.

Yes DDs please soon screenshots info.

 

[nikssims]

podcat is johan? Why am i so confused with those names, who is Balor then? and who is Johan? I dont think podcat is johan

 

[Wizzington]

podcat is johan? Why am i so confused with those names, who is Balor then? and who is Johan? I dont think podcat is johan

Their names are Legion, for we are many.

 

[seattle]

Considering the history of this forum, when something is announced to arrive "soon", people go ape after 2-3 weeks of non-delivery.
The veteran Podcat is aware of that, hence the wording "soon-ish" implying any time frame between 3 weeks and the commercial release of East vs. West.

#multi-accounts for developers
I'm pretty sure that PI-employees have alternate accounts which they use to write what they really think of certain forum members

 

[DPKdebator]

Great question! One of the main design focuses of HoI4 is being user friendly and fun to play (much more interactive without choking you in manual labor). The first dev diary will cover the vision and goals of the project. Expect it soonish(tm)

^_^

 

[Carbon]

podcat is johan? Why am i so confused with those names, who is Balor then? and who is Johan? I dont think podcat is johan

And you haven't even seen his final form yet.

 

[Mamluke]

LOL this tread XD :rofl:

 

[Zenith Darksea]

I just hope that I'll be able to figure out what to do this time around. I bought Hearts of Iron 3 and wanted to enjoy it; I even learned most of the game mechanics. But ultimately I was so overwhelmed by everything that I just didn't know what I was supposed to do at any particular time. Which of the gazillion techs should I start researching? Am I supposed to be building military units now? Should I be disbanding military units? Should I be engaging in some sort of diplomacy or espionage at the moment? What will be the consequences of doing (or not doing) any of these things?

I don't like to think that I'm a slouch at grand strategy games. EU3, EU4, CK2, Vic2, I've played them all and managed to succeed with them all. Vic2 was a bit of a steep learning curve, but I figured it out. But Hearts of Iron? I found the learning curve so brutally steep and overwhelming that I never managed to play it properly. Have any other players had this experience? Have the dev team had any thoughts about how to deal with it?

 

[PlacidDragon]

Greetings,

I played the previous, but one thing that I never really liked is how units are controlled which is completely separate from EU, CK and Vicky series. There seemed to be a big bloat of counters and constantly assigning the AI to take areas on your behalf which a great deal of micromanage if you wanted to ever do it yourself.

Whilst the last game did big improvements such as theatres, would there be some radical changes to improve the system so it is far more 'hands on' then 'give orders and watch the screen for 30 minutes till the next set of 2 minutes of needing to do anything'.

EU4 brought with it a host of redesigns and new systems which made the experience far more active, are we to look forward to this playing a big part in this series too?

From the "sneak peek" video it seems to be so overly user friendly that anything even approaching complicated (like an OOB) is right out the window in favor of just lassoing a bunch of units and making arrows with them

And i hope to god not... but we'll find out when they start pushing out DD's in the "near future"

 

[jrgen3]

no



no

Almost correct. Johan would write:

no.

 

[Holy.Death]

I don't like to think that I'm a slouch at grand strategy games. EU3, EU4, CK2, Vic2, I've played them all and managed to succeed with them all. Vic2 was a bit of a steep learning curve, but I figured it out. But Hearts of Iron? I found the learning curve so brutally steep and overwhelming that I never managed to play it properly. Have any other players had this experience?

I did. HoI3 was overwhelming indeed, but then it had quite large manual to help out and with practice one could start learning the game in time. It wasn't an easy game to get into, but once you knew how it worked it wasn't all that complicated. In reality it lacks of proper tutorial on top of not presenting info clearly in game. Not everybody read the manual so some things were given at face value, somewhat assuming that manual and tutorial were enough to get started. HoI4 can gain a lot from clearer presentation, like EU4 did. I didn't have to read manual for EU4, just play a bit to join dots.