Hearts of Iron III: For the Motherland Video Developer Diary launched!

I was quicker

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?529952-Video-DD

Sounds good. I hope that the system is moddable, too

Awesome! Szent István Koronájának Országai, here I come!

Great stuff, especially the new wargoals system...

very interesting!

I have a question about puppets.

Will puppets be able to claim territory, or will puppet-masters be able to claim territroty for a puppet?

Awesome, I love adding more versatility to the game. Plus it sounds like you can give even more terratory then the allies wanted. I would love to share the headache of Yugoslavia onto my allies, and give them their cores of course.

Regina said:

- War Goals and enforced peace, each member of the faction can demand their own slice and claim it when it is taken.

Click to expand...

The new neutrality, war goal and faction-joining mechanics sound intriguing. It'll be especially interesting to see how you work things out if the Comintern and Western Allies have different notions on how to slice up a post-Nazi Europe. Negotiation mini-game?

Regina said:

- New Partisan system, build Partisan undergrounds to organise your resistance movements and fight not just the occupier, but also other ideologies for control of the country.

Click to expand...

The new partisan system looks a whole lot more interesting all of a sudden. Could this lead to the German occupiers fighting the Ukrainian nationalists fighting the Polish nationalists fighting the Soviet partisans? That would be a sight to see.

Also, if partisan warfare and other changes can make playing as, say, the French government in exile a valid and fun choice, that'd be great! Currently many of Germany's neighbour countries suffer from the 'no fun past 1940' syndrome if the player chooses to play broadly historically.

Sounds very promising. The only thing I'm worried about is the new neutrality system and how it will affect minor countries. Currently, if you want to go to war, you lower your own neutrality and increase the threat of the target until these two numbers meet and you'll be able to declare a war. If in FtM, neutrality is a static value, does it mean that as a minor country you'll have to increase the threat of the target country even more (which already takes ages) before you'll be able to get a war?

Finally some stuff which is solid enough to warrant a sale. I'm pleased with this mechanic.

... Eyes begin to glass over with visions of the Greater Danish Empire.

Just a note on neutrality. It has always felt far too constraining for a player run country IMHO. Don't get me wrong, I understand the need to keep AI controlled countries from declaring wars unrealistically, or too soon and such. But as a player will you have better control of when your able to declare war when playing a country such as Denmark? For example, if I feel like attacking Sweden in '37.

podcat said:

it will still be pretty hard. could denmark realistically in any way have declared war on sweden in '37? there is always a cheat you can do if you want to go completely into imaginary land.

Click to expand...

Historically and politically no, but not because they didn't have the military capability. Had Denmark, or any of the Scandinavian countries for that mater, wanted to be aggressive toward their neighbors, they most certainly could have. Finding out whether they could have been successful in the endeavor is of course the reason a person would want to play such a scenario.

Under the current system I have been able to build up a force and go toe to toe with Sweden and Norway as Denmark, but I've almost never been able to declare war until early or mid '39, which at that point I'm staring down the barrel of a loaded Germany. I feel dirty every time I end up using the neutrality cheat.

Finally an HoI3 with better things than HoI2

I REALLY like this way you combine the good things from Vic2 and HoI3

Axis countries:
I don't see how Yugoslavia can join the Axis as it did IRL? (And the a cue followed, and then War).
Bulgaria will had demands on Greece
Romania on USSR
Hungary's problems where solved through pressure because Germany had influence, so it will be decisions that lead them into the Axis? (Same with Slovakia)
The Germans and Italians had a You-Conquer-It-You-Keep-It understanding, at least as for occupation. Italy also got a small bite of France in 1940...
Also this should make it easy to get Turkey and Nat. Spain into the war, since they would like a part of the Caucasus and North Africa.
And when Hungary, Finland and Italy (and Yugoslavia) left the Axis, this was basicly a declaration of war on Germany. So if a Country joins the Axis and stops fighting and/or wants to leave, this should be in the form of a declaration of war on Germany, and the country goes from allied with Germany to occupied by Germany. If this happens, then Germany should have an idea about this is about to happen (if they have spies in the area), and therefore be able to garrison a reserve in that country to change their mind.

So the big question is will this work with the game mechanics? Will leave the Axis be a direct DoW?

Also the idea of focussing on threat is very interesting, but how will this actually work?
An idea on this to spice things up:
I've tried twice as Denmark to play Axis, but the lowering of neutrality and everything takes so long that I get invaded by Germany before it is possible to join. With the massive threat of Germany then German influence both positive and negative should (even if I align myself with Germany) work a lot faster than any other country. To counter this I would like to see special "Historical Relations" or "Public Scepticisms". Some fixed value that would require an action to remove. Denmark has a special relation with Germany over Slesvig, and if Germany was to grant minority rights to Danes in Germany (this IRL happen through the agreement between Denmark and Germany that let Germany join NATO), or maybe guarantee the Danish-German border after WWI. It could be called an "understanding of friendship" this should give both countries a degree of decent (people in the border area and nationalist would be pissed), but make influencing countries you have history with easier. Also an Understanding of Friendship will cost more decent in an Axis country since they have to respect minority rights)

In game: German play clicks Denmark in diplomacy. There is a button for "Understanding of Friendship" (Denmark will have a historical problem with Germany), this will have a list of things Germany the has to acccept (territorial sovereignty, independence, minority rights, give up territorial demands now and in the future... also easier trade options), but if they do, then that country will be easier to influence. BUT if lets say the UK has a understanding of friendship with Denmark (neighbour country), then the Germans can see this as a treat to their security will therefore get a DoW-option event.

In other words you could have step-by-step a build up of alliances. The first 2 are only relevant if both countries are not at war. If a country has a Understanding of Friendship with a country of one alliance, they cannot have another one with countries of the other alliances.
1. Guarantee independence
2. Understanding of Friendship
3. Alliance

Also at the start of the game, the allies should not be able to do better than Understandings of Friendship, then when the war starts they can move towards alliances, but this will be really hard unless the country is actually invaded by Axis forces (then it will be automatic). But then the British Commonwealth allies should be in the Allies at game start...

Too bad we can't just get an option button where when we are starting to play a game we could choose between say "Historical Neutrality" or "Aggressive" (which would make it easier for the player to declare wars).

Just an idea.

Danmark Rising said:

Too bad we can't just get an option button where when we are starting to play a game we could choose between say "Historical Neutrality" or "Aggressive"

Click to expand...

Compare with

podcat said:

there is always a cheat you can do if you want to go completely into imaginary land.

Click to expand...

Hi,
and thx a lot!

Can't wait to see more about the other features!

Features to come:

- New Partisan system, build Partisan undergrounds to organise your resistance movements and fight not just the occupier, but also other ideologies for control of the country.
- Seize strategic resources to fuel your war machine. New Theatre Interface giving greater strategic information.
- Improved Internal politics and a new coup system.

- More! More! More! -

Btw. Would be nice if you could add also some nice additions from the "user-proposal-wishlist":
Click me to see some proposals so far.. After-Semper-Fi-Proposal-for-a-new-Add-on

Kind regards,
Chromos