HOI4 Dev Diary - Back from summer!

[animatrix37]

Happy to see you're back but also sad summer is ending

 

[Luckierexpert]

I personally believe in the current Soviet focus is the worst of today and it was more urgent to make a rework that the current French and Italian trees were still passable and I hope that the French rework will come a new issue of autonomy for some of its colonies especially in Indonchina, Syria and North Africa .

That somehow you must be reflected in your rework your inability to keep these from rebel groups attacks in the colonial territories as historically happened in the Indonchina, Algeria or Syria

Podcast mentioned in one of his replies that the Soviets are getting their own update and from some of the potentially leaked stuff I've seen, we may be getting espionage in 1.8 Husky as well, so I'm happy to wait if the Soviet tree gets proper treatment, rather then being rushed out because people are demanding it.

 

[noobermenschen]

Can a French rework help Allies to successfully land a D-Day?

Bah. Land in Italy and kill Germans. Your Anglo-American landing across the channel will come.

 

[ltccone]

I get your point, but I'm not a fan of fixing a cut-off artery with a band-aid The issue is way bigger than just my fronts.

True, but a band aid better than nothing.

I'm finishing up a game as the UK. I couldn't stop my 'allies' from flooding Burma (since it belonged to the Raj), so I would have to tag switch and SR them to Casablanca. That is much worse...

 

[ltccone]

Happy to see you're back but also sad summer is ending

Not a fan of summer. Heat, humidity, storms, mosquitoes, neighbors waking me up on the weekends at 8 AM mowing the grass, etc. You can have it.

 

[kimidf]

Podcast mentioned in one of his replies that the Soviets are getting their own update and from some of the potentially leaked stuff I've seen, we may be getting espionage in 1.8 Husky as well, so I'm happy to wait if the Soviet tree gets propped treatment, rather then being rushed out because people are demanding it.

Maybe what they want to keep in Soviet rework for another dlc is to be accompanied by some new designer for tanks or airplanes is still not ready and this fact would be some of the justifications to postpone it because Soviet rework is much more necessary than the French rework and possibly from Italian.

 

[Snake_Squeezins]

Will this next DLC be free of charge for people who purchased the Field Marshal version and/or Expansion Pass?

 

[kimidf]

Belgium seems like a guaranteed tree to be paired with France, although part of me thinks the team may split Italy and France into separate DLC, as both had very different wars and would need extremely different mechanical improvements (Logistics and army warfare for Italy, espionage, governments in exile and partisans for France). I see Switzerland as another possible tree with France, possibly being similar to the Czechoslovakia tree with focuses on fortification. Austria could be another to complete Central Europe but that depends on whether the dev's want to give Austria a focus tree, especially as they get absorbed by Germany most games or by Hungary in many of the others. If Italy is also getting reworked, Greece and Spain could also be up, although I'd wait with Spain for a politics revamp, as the civil war was substantially influenced by the various factions on both the Nationalist and Republican sides.

France and Italy have more than common that you think since both wanted to influence a lot and were quite important in the area of the Mediterranean and both were with many more weaknesses that wanted to cover more than they could really do that and became secondary powers both had quite a few problems in their colonial possessions

 

[Danilovz]

Hope this expansion is going to make Italy interesting. Would be neat if the patch finally fixed Japan, China & the U.S too. Not fun to have Japan control all of Asia by 1941 and the U.S does nothing unless you give them naval superiority for all their naval invasions.

 

[NilsFabian]

I see Switzerland as another possible tree with France, possibly being similar to the Czechoslovakia tree...

Not that I wouldn't like to see a Swiss tree but Switzerland should be way down on the list.
They should concentrate on warring nations or Nations with the potential of big events during that span of time (Mexico).
France, Spain, Italy and Greece would make sense, maybe together with an improvement of the Civil War mechanics along the UK mechanic. As all of them had some sort of civil war during that time period.

 

[ltccone]

Will this next DLC be free of charge for people who purchased the Field Marshal version and/or Expansion Pass?

I believe MtG is the last DLC you could get with either.

 

[kimidf]

Not that I wouldn't like to see a Swiss tree but Switzerland should be way down on the list.
They should concentrate on warring nations or Nations with the potential of big events during that span of time (Mexico).
France, Spain, Italy and Greece would make sense, maybe together with an improvement of the Civil War mechanics along the UK mechanic. As all of them had some sort of civil war during that time period.

also Belgium and Portugal also played a leading role in the world conflict as its prologue, as were the Portuguese citizens both in the Spanish civil war and in their political equilibrium between the Germans and Britons in the world conflict.

 

[Rashie]

Will this next DLC be free of charge for people who purchased the Field Marshal version and/or Expansion Pass?

Wouldn't count on it. The expansion pass was for 4 DLCs after it got increased from 2, and the next one will be the 5th one.

 

[Senor Bigbits]

While I am disappointed that the expansion is not Soviet-themed (and by proxy a properly done Winter War), if this expansion does revolve around France, and possibly the civil wars that took place, then we could see a revamp to partisans and occupation, which in turn could end up being a buff to nations that spend a lot of wartime with states being occupied like the Soviets and China. So in that sense, I'm rather excited.

 

[Iskulya]

Belgium is extremely low priority I'd think. Greece and even Bulgaria would be better choices.

What's much more likely is the second major being Italy, and Spain and Portugal being the minors. Italy was heavily involved with the Spanish Civil War. Although France was not, it very easily could have been. Leon Blum's government wanted to send extensive aid to Spain, but his government collapsed. I could easily see France getting embroiled in Spain through alternate-democratic focuses and communist focuses.

If there is a Spanish focus tree, along with a French and Italian rework, then Portugal becomes a no-brainer. Although Portugal wasn't a participant in World War 2, it could have been potentially. Plus there is the whole issue of the wolfram, which was of major significance to the war historically, as well in the game. Even in a historical campaign where Portugal never joins the Allies, mechanisms representing pressure from different countries to restrict or increase trade could potentially have a huge impact on the way the war plays out. Germany is in for major troubles if they're cut off from Portuguese tungsten.

Plus, we already have the Netherlands. Belgium would be a welcome addition, yet it wouldn't really add much diversity to the game. In any historical game, it would still get crushed almost instantly and then be a non-entity.

As i've said in another thread, I'm really hoping that the conflict between De Gaulle and Darlan gets represented, although I'm not holding out much hope for it. Historically the allies, President Roosevelt in particular, had great hope of bringing Vichy France into the allies. The Vichy Admiral Francoise Darlan was the preferable choice for Roosevelt and Churchill to be elevated to the recognized leader of France.

There is quite a bit of plausibility to this. From what I've noticed in speaking to French friends, there is quite a lot of revisionism as to Petain and the Vichy Regime in France today, but in reality Petain and the Vichy regime remained quite popular in France, even after the end of World War 2 by a substantial portion of the population. Among conservatives you might say, but Petain and Vichy apologists, even after the war, were extremely widespread and commonplace. This sentiment in France was not unknown to the Allies, one reason they preferred to get a Vichy insider as their recognized leader of France.

Darlan's sudden assassination put an end to this hypothetical, but it does seem as though it was an 'accident' of history rather than being the result of a conspiracy. Fertile ground for inclusion into the game, imo.

 

[Kadanz]

For me focus trees don't matter that much, I'll just download a mod if I'm not happy with the vanilla one. What matters for me are the fixes to horrible mechanics (battleplanner, naval invasions, peace conferences, occupation mechanics, a working peace button lol)

 

[Arch-Heretek]

Despite my profile pic, I'm quite heartened to hear that France will be getting attention. Going off of what others have suggested, this may very well be based around civil wars, or at the least, split nations, all of which happen to be in the Mediterranean region as well.

Free France and Vichy France are some obvious candidates, in addition to France's unsplit tree. There are multiple paths that could be taken for each as well; the leadership of the FFA is nowadays encapsulated by de Gaulle, but in wartime there was a lot of political jockeying with Giraud, the Allied prospecting of Darlan, and of course the split between military and (eventual) civilian leadership. Then there were the maquisards, ranging from monarchists to republicans and FF loyalists to communists and other leftists. Lots of potential here. Vichy, I do not find as interesting, but still there remain potential diverging paths, from Petain to Darlan to Laval to outright fascists like Bucard and Doriot. While some have already mentioned the potential for monarchist paths, it could be quite fun. Napoleon historically joined the FFL and fought for Free France, while Action Francaise and Maurras (and by extension, their puppet d'Orleans, despite his objections) mostly supported Vichy, though they did split. This could lead to all sorts of fun situations in which two monarchies fight each other for control of France, or even a three way civil war if Free France is unable to integrate or acquiesce to the leftists. A sort of secondary war can get fought for a while for popular support before eventually being dragged back into WWII.

Nationalist Spain and Republican Spain are also very obvious. Nationalists could go with Franco, monarchists, or Falange, while the Republicans could go with the communists, the anarchists in the CNT-FAI, and the democrats.

The Kingdom of Italy and the Italian Social Republic are fairly late candidates, though it is still interesting and fits with the civil war idea. The kingdom could regress to absolutism, transition to a democracy, or be overtaken by communists. Admittedly, there probably isn't much for the ISR to do other than just destroy the other side, since Mussolini would still be around as the dominant political actor.

Greece also became involved in its own civil war, less well known than the others, after the war. Of course, this could be sped up for the game's sake, such as an early German expulsion. It was mostly fought between the communists and monarchists, but depending on who comes to dominate the national liberation front, could involve republicans as well.

All in all, I remain hopeful. There is a lot of material to make something like this quite fun and interesting to play.

 

[kimidf]

Belgium is extremely low priority I'd think. Greece and even Bulgaria would be better choices.

What's much more likely is the second major being Italy, and Spain and Portugal being the minors. Italy was heavily involved with the Spanish Civil War. Although France was not, it very easily could have been. Leon Blum's government wanted to send extensive aid to Spain, but his government collapsed. I could easily see France getting embroiled in Spain through alternate-democratic focuses and communist focuses.

If there is a Spanish focus tree, along with a French and Italian rework, then Portugal becomes a no-brainer. Although Portugal wasn't a participant in World War 2, it could have been potentially. Plus there is the whole issue of the wolfram, which was of major significance to the war historically, as well in the game. Even in a historical campaign where Portugal never joins the Allies, mechanisms representing pressure from different countries to restrict or increase trade could potentially have a huge impact on the way the war plays out. Germany is in for major troubles if they're cut off from Portuguese tungsten.

Plus, we already have the Netherlands. Belgium would be a welcome addition, yet it wouldn't really add much diversity to the game. In any historical game, it would still get crushed almost instantly and then be a non-entity.

As i've said in another thread, I'm really hoping that the conflict between De Gaulle and Darlan gets represented, although I'm not holding out much hope for it. Historically the allies, President Roosevelt in particular, had great hope of bringing Vichy France into the allies. The Vichy Admiral Francoise Darlan was the preferable choice for Roosevelt and Churchill to be elevated to the recognized leader of France.

There is quite a bit of plausibility to this. From what I've noticed in speaking to French friends, there is quite a lot of revisionism as to Petain and the Vichy Regime in France today, but in reality Petain and the Vichy regime remained quite popular in France, even after the end of World War 2 by a substantial portion of the population. Among conservatives you might say, but Petain and Vichy apologists, even after the war, were extremely widespread and commonplace. This sentiment in France was not unknown to the Allies, one reason they preferred to get a Vichy insider as their recognized leader of France.

Darlan's sudden assassination put an end to this hypothetical, but it does seem as though it was an 'accident' of history rather than being the result of a conspiracy. Fertile ground for inclusion into the game, imo.

I think Belgium could be as interesting as the Netherlands is, both historical mode with alternative stories with the rexists in power and I believe with the French rework is the best occasion and it is clear both countries have a lot of relationship as the Belgian refusal to implement the maginot line or of any kind collaboration to avoid the German invasion.
i think at least the following dlc has to go back to a minimum of 6 own lights including the reworks
Apart from the mechanics of former dlc of exiled governments, I could continue playing with this country even if I had capitulated
It would be interesting how they would reflect the fragile internal confrontation between flamingos and Walloons that even today is not well resolved something could also apply in the Spanish tree with the theme of Catalan and Basque

 

[Riekopo]

Is that photo a heavy water resource for atom bomb development?

 

[StanczykNYC]

Like you can probably imagine, the bottom line is that it is a really hard dlc to do, and you can not skimp on it. As you said it is a massively important theater and a popular nation. It takes more time and resources to do than we got right now without massive delays and waiting time for you guys. It is also design wise a tough nut to crack which in turn needs proper time to ripen. In short its the wrong time to do it right now. It doesnt mean we wont touch the theater or work on AI. We always do that, which I think you know looking back.

It's been skimped on for years, and you're telling us it won't be done next as a favor to us.

I think added features are being staggered in this highly-scalable game to slowly and absolutely maximize profit, even if it means waiting this long for the dumb red blob to be fixed (which I suppose, as a bonus, drives up anticipation and demand as it "ripens"). Since the Soviets don't mesh right with whatever features are next on the chopping block, I get to continue a substandard experience for who-knows how long. To be perfectly honest, I think the time and resource issues you mention, insofar as they exist, are mainly the fault of Paradox, and that there is a fundamental incompetence in this company, probably brought on by isolation from competition.

Of course, I belong to a captured niche market, so short of me designing my own game, you can do whatever you want and I'll probably spend money on it anyway. Probably.

Disappointed and insulted.
/rant