HOI4 Dev Diary - Back from summer!

[Roland Traveler]

1. Second Sino-Japanese War is still broken. Japan wins a war in 1939 that it historically lost in 1945.

There’s no real way to show this accurately with the current systems. The Japanese, for one, have too many troops. There’s also no actual supply lines, meaning that the Japanese aren’t forced to stick to rivers and rail lines just to stay in fighting shape. If the Japanese could have fought in China in real life like they can in HOI4, they probably would have won. Nationalist armies just couldn’t stand up to them after Shanghai and Nanking, they were gutted and needed numerical superiority to bring the same amount of firepower to the playing field. And if anything, Army Corruption should be harder to get rid of (or keep gone) rather than making the Japanese weaker. The NRA was a mess, logistics were the only thing that saved them.

 

[Mr.Grizzly]

Sometimes a Burgundian cross is a Burgundian cross, other times it's a Franco apologist.

It's possible to be against both ideologies that fought the civil war, just because you hate one more doesn't mean you support the other, don't need people throwing the word "fascist" as an insult here.

 

[Arch-Heretek]

It's possible to be against both ideologies that fought the civil war, just because you hate one more doesn't mean you support the other, don't need people throwing the word "fascist" as an insult here.

Yes, calling the reactionary cause a crusade is totally indicative of an unbiased and neutral opinion that thinks "both sides are bad." Let's not throw the term fascist around, as you suggest without prompting; there exists an entire quagmire from falangists to francoists to christian nationalists and more.

 

[Farid Adham]

Thank God that France is getting some love (it needs some national focus upgrade) though I definitely agree with Soviet needs much more upgrade. Though my gut feeling says that they want to fix allies-soviet and axis. After that they will rebalance with soviet (fix 2 faction and rebalance with communist faction).

 

[Mr.Grizzly]

Yes, calling the reactionary cause a crusade is totally indicative of an unbiased and neutral opinion that thinks "both sides are bad." Let's not throw the term fascist around, as you suggest without prompting; there exists an entire quagmire from falangists to francoists to christian nationalists and more.

If you want to call out someone for their support of other people's actions, go ahead. But don't ignore the others who support the other side of the conflict who equally were bad, the Republican forces weren't the people's chosen democratic liberators freeing the population from tyranny and doing no wrong. I'm not saying that they were worse than Franco's forces, only that if we're calling one side bad, we should call out the other.

Besides, judging by the Cross of Burgundy it's entirely possible he's a monarchist, who probably would rather have the Nationalists over the Republicans.

But of course, it's a random person on the internet that I'm talking about to someone else on the internet, so name calling is standard for people you disagree with.

Anyway, didn't mean to start an argument over someone's possible support of a dead government in a country across the ocean from me, cheers.

 

[xtfoster]

France, Italy and the Mediterranean it is. Not bad, but that makes me hope the upcoming Soviet expansion doesn't take another year to arrive.

Oh, and more minors with new focus trees, please. In over 18 months of HOI4 development only two countries (Mexico, Netherlands) got new trees, which is very underwhelming.

Hmm. the only thing in your whole post that we know for sure is the first word...everything after that is pure conjecture until they say differently.

 

[Lucas Lima]

It is not clear to me what will be in the free patch and what will be a DLC. Seriously, I get you devs need to get paid, but, expecting us to pay for a game fix is a bit too much. I truly expect that game fixes are brought in to the game freely. The trees reworks are nice and such, but non core I my opinion - throw them into a DLC alright. But, please, be sensible and fix allies incapacity to open a second front /protect convoys / fuel brit navy /do anything right at literally anywhere on the globe, AND soviet AI overall poor performance freely.

Just, like, cmon, I set historical AI mode, choose a neutral country, and the war NEVER EVER, NOT EVEN ONCE, happens in a remotely historical fashion - even worse, the axis will always win?

Im a noob and I've been trying to play minor democracies for the last weeks. Totally useless, can't win at all, it is atrocious seeing Germany conquer the whole ussr in 6 months maybe (and that will only happen in 43/44, because AI can't launch thethe campaign on the right time).


Overall, don't make us pay for fixes. Fix the game, and we will get excited about it and buy the DLCs. Don't get it in the wrong way.

 

[Roland Traveler]

It is not clear to me what will be in the free patch and what will be a DLC. Seriously, I get you devs need to get paid, but, expecting us to pay for a game fix is a bit too much. I truly expect that game fixes are brought in to the game freely. The trees reworks are nice and such, but non core I my opinion - throw them into a DLC alright. But, please, be sensible and fix allies incapacity to open a second front /protect convoys / fuel brit navy /do anything right at literally anywhere on the globe, AND soviet AI overall poor performance freely.

Just, like, cmon, I set historical AI mode, choose a neutral country, and the war NEVER EVER, NOT EVEN ONCE, happens in a remotely historical fashion - even worse, the axis will always win?

Im a noob and I've been trying to play minor democracies for the last weeks. Totally useless, can't win at all, it is atrocious seeing Germany conquer the whole ussr in 6 months maybe (and that will only happen in 43/44, because AI can't launch thethe campaign on the right time).


Overall, don't make us pay for fixes. Fix the game, and we will get excited about it and buy the DLCs. Don't get it in the wrong way.

They have never charged for fixes. The closest would be changing convoy routes, but that can be solved by naval and/or aerial supremacy. Changes to AI have always been in base patches (unless they deal with stuff like how to respond to Germany going Monarchist for instance). Fuel and the naval rework were in free patches. The Field Marshal rework was in a free patch. Turning off Man the Guns isn’t going to make Germany act worse. This opinion is coming from nowhere.

 

[fuser312]

Neither AI, nor logistics, nor mobilization and reserve system are present, and each is massive amount of work, and is absolutely critical to get Soviet front right.

And no one is saying otherwise. Infact its massive amount of work is precisely why it should be done now than later. Or are you telling me it won't be massive amount of work next year or an year after? This is a filmsy excuse at best and you can use it every year to keep supporting the stalling of any development for eastern front/USSR.

The bottom line is that the most important part of the war is completely broken and we still are not getting anything substantial to address it. USSR is the most ignored nation (even though its second most played nation), in fact its so ignored that while other nations have gotten ridiculous alt-history fantasy scenarios USSR doesn't evn get a feature that already exists in the game and historical precedent exists for USSR. I am looking at government in exile, 400,000 Polish troops, French Pilots of Normandie-Niemen regiment fought for and under USSR but nope, Soviets won't even get that and I don't know for what reasons.

 

[ChainsawBlue 36]

I'm bitterly disappointed that you guys have decided to prioritise France over arguably one of the most important nations in the game especially in Europe, the Soviet Union. I hope that whatever features you are planning in regards to this update and expansion will be very beneficial to the build of the game. I've followed and played this game since release and I don't believe I've actually felt this flat reading a developer diary before. Feelsbadman

 

[DerGrößteRitter]

Lets not get this thread locked guys....

 

[Ninaran]

How's "it's a lot of work" even a valid excuse? It won't suddenly be less work after the next DLC and you've already had like half a year to work on it.

 

[Roland Traveler]

How's "it's a lot of work" even a valid excuse? It won't suddenly be less work after the next DLC and you've already had like half a year to work on it.

Because they don’t want to rope it in with other stuff and they think they can get France+ whoever done quicker? They want to use this expansion to set groundwork for things in a Soviet one (such as partisans)? They would rather have such a big undertaking come at the end of the initial development cycle? There are plenty of legitimate reasons.

 

[fuser312]

Initial development cycle? Even after four years, again this is another flimsy excuse. I will argue that Germany is the most important country in this game being the catalyst of war and yet it got revamped in WTT and ai updates before MTG and arguably MTG was important to Germany as battle of Atlantic was hugely important, so is alt history operation sealion is important, possible feature like partisans will also hugely impact Germany but still it got revamped before these things, so why this problem only exists for USSR?

Once again the game as it currently exists is completely broken and completely opposite of what was the situation in OTL. Axis winning 9 out of 10 times without human involvement is ridiculous, it should be other way around, period. And I am still supposed to wait for more than an year to get basic things right. This game is simply not for historically minded people like me but is for meme creators fantasy loving people.

 

[TalyonUngol]

Initial development cycle? Even after four years, again this is another flimsy excuse. I will argue that Germany is the most important country in this game being the catalyst of war and yet it got revamped in WTT and ai updates before MTG and arguably MTG was important to Germany as battle of Atlantic was hugely important, so is alt history operation sealion is important, possible feature like partisans will also hugely impact Germany but still it got revamped before these things, so why this problem only exists for USSR?

Once again the game as it currently exists is completely broken and completely opposite of what was the situation in OTL. Axis winning 9 out of 10 times without human involvement is ridiculous, it should be other way around, period. And I am still supposed to wait for more than an year to get basic things right. This game is simply not for historically minded people like me but is for meme creators fantasy loving people.

Unfortunatly, this game will always have two people on each side of the coin.

Those who want a strict WW2 simulator where every battle and game plays out the same while the others are the ones who want options/A sandbox.

Neither side will be truly happy, because the devs are trying to satisfy both sides and unfortunatly, they cant do both yet they are trying.

They aren't giving up on Soviet Union but are focusing on other nations first. I personally, couldn't be happier if the theory is that Italy is also getting its much needed rework.

While I would like to see what a Soviet Union rework is, it'd take ALOT more for that massive tree to get reworked considering I think 3 of the focus's almost take a full year to complete. So I can see why they would save the work on it for later, especialyl when it would probably need alot more mechanics. I rather they just work on a few more focus trees that actually need it so these countries are playable instead of just one country.

If theory is correct, we're looking at Greece, Spain, France and Italy. Thats four nations to become playable((Maybe. Greece being playable probably wouldn't actualyl be playable because its really bad starting unless they give it a Austria-hungary like treatment) versus Soviet Union which is somewhat playable. Soviet Unions issue is lack of good Allied AI.

I am hoping for this update to buff the Allied AI, specifically naval invasions from the Americans and the Brits as well as updated focus trees for Italy, France and whatever minors they choose. This buff to AI would actually help Soviet Union because it opens up that extra front instead of focusing on the massive work of the Sovet Union and whatever small mechanics they'll bring.


For over all health, they need better Allied AI just like they did for Germany not a SU rework.


But right now, everything we have is speculation so we don't know what'll be brought in for this expansion.

But if its Allied buffs, I think it would have been worth it to save a Soviet expansion for later. Oooh wonder if they could do a Mongolia or a Communist China to go with the Soviets? Hmm food for thought.

 

[Mr.Grizzly]

Lets not get this thread locked guys....

Well they didn't lock the EU IV mercenary company DD or the one when they said they were adding Bosnian culture so I doubt it'll happen on this thread. The decision of what the DLC and update have already been made, the people who've already complained need to accept it or give up on the game instead of repeating how they're disappointed or how "broken" the game is. I get frustration with representation of countries, and the significance of some over others, but the Game Director has a vision and we have to hope it's for the best and critique it once it's finished or we're shown gameplay changes in DD. Downvote this post all you want, it's not changing Podcat's decision since the team already started work on the future content. I know that I'm happier with a full region being revamped and updated over one country with maybe Finland being thrown in just for the Winter War.

 

[fuser312]

I think history-alt-history ditchonomy is not as complex as many people think it is.

We already can choose either of the path before starting the game, I personally play historical path more than alt-history but I have no problem that they exist and people enjoy it regardless of the fact how ridiculous they are. But basic things like 600 German divisions and Germany having more Industrial capacity than USA is just ridiculous. You can literally build level 10 naval forts all over Western Europe and guard it with 200 German divisions and still will have more than enough to kill Soviet Union simply using the battle planner, this is just ludicrous.

Basically I have no problem with restoring the monarchy in Germany regardless of the fact how implausible it was, this is alt-history but an unstoppable axis force that wins 9 out of 10 games is not alt-history, it's madness.

Finally I have no idea why people who are disappointed should not express their disappointment, is this forum only for heaping praises? Of course disappointed people will either accept it or leave it, there is literally no other option but in the meantime it's perfectly fine to express that disappointment albeit in a good manner without getting hostile.

 

[Rudolf Nechvile II]

All I personally really hope for is that we can finally get better peace conferences this time round.

 

[TalyonUngol]

All I personally really hope for is that we can finally get better peace conferences this time round.

Ok this would be good too lmao

 

[TalyonUngol]

I think history-alt-history ditchonomy is not as complex as many people think it is.

We already can choose either of the path before starting the game, I personally play historical path more than alt-history but I have no problem that they exist and people enjoy it regardless of the fact how ridiculous they are. But basic things like 600 German divisions and Germany having more Industrial capacity than USA is just ridiculous. You can literally build level 10 naval forts all over Western Europe and guard it with 200 German divisions and still will have more than enough to kill Soviet Union simply using the battle planner, this is just ludicrous.

Basically I have no problem with restoring the monarchy in Germany regardless of the fact how implausible it was, this is alt-history but an unstoppable axis force that wins 9 out of 10 games is not alt-history, it's madness.

Finally I have no idea why people who are disappointed should not express their disappointment, is this forum only for heaping praises? Of course disappointed people will either accept it or leave it, there is literally no other option but in the meantime it's perfectly fine to express that disappointment albeit in a good manner without getting hostile.

Thats an issue with the core of the game and all nations benifits from it. Manpower system too.

Making it a Soviet Union expansion won't change thks and such drastic changes to the game is ludicrous