Hello everyone, and welcome back to a new dev diary for Man the Guns and the 1.6 “Ironclad” update! Unfortunately, the next part of the naval combat rework is not entirely ready to show off, yet, and so to give them some extra time I’m stepping into the breach to give you an update on some of the things (this is by no means an exhaustive list, but rather the highlights) the HoI4 Content Design team have fixed or adjusted since showing off the focus trees 
Issues regarding ideology (and drift)
An issue that has come up in the community on multiple occasions are the issues caused by permanent ideology drift National Spirits. For instance, puppeting a fascist nation as a communist, only to have it gradually drift back to fascism because it once upon a time got a National Spirit giving it 0.10 fascism drift.
To solve this, we’ve gone with a two-pronged approach. First of all, all National Spirits that give ideology drift now either time out after 2-3 years, or, in the case of Spirits that have other effects than just ideology drift, and therefore need to be permanent, are removed when the ideology shifts away from the ideology drift they provide.
In addition, we’ve added new decisions that give you greater control over the ideology of your subjects. These allow you to expend political power to give an ideology drift, and, when ideology support becomes high enough, forcibly swap them to your ideology.
Adjustments to Netherlands focus tree
I was not too pleased with the Monarchist path in the Netherlands focus tree, and so I’ve tinkered a little bit with it to make it more unique and (hopefully) more interesting. The original design suffered from, yes, being too constrained by historical plausibility. Attempting to trace the most likely path for a royal take-over we can find some indications that Queen Wilhelmina historically wanted to use her wartime popularity, combined with the weakness of the Dutch Government-in-Exile (GiE), to obtain sweeping constitutional changes that would give much greater power to the Queen, after the liberation of the Netherlands. In HoI4, however, this would entail requiring the player to play poorly, lose the fight in the continent, become a government-in-exile, then flip to Neutrality, and subsequently gain no benefits at all from the tree because you do not control your land anymore, while just sitting back and supporting the British in their war (because historically the Queen wanted to do just that, rather than doing any ‘cool independent stuff’ on her own). None of this makes for fun gameplay.
The Monarchist path is on the left-hand side, but shares certain focuses (the branch leading up to "Request Allied Favors") with the Democratic path (the right-hand side).
It is still possible to go through the path as a GiE, as multiple focuses give you bonuses regardless of whether you have control of your homeland or not. However, it is no longer a requirement to have capitulated. New focuses give offmap military factories, as well as building up Belgium and Luxemburg after you get them through Revive the Buffer State Proposal. A final focus has been added to give a sort of ‘endgame’. Wilhelminism revolves around a cunning plot to use the German Kaiser (in exile in Huis Doorn in the Netherlands since the end of the First World War) to attract German deserters, and incite an insurrection to weaken the German position. This focus periodically spawns free divisions comprised of German deserters, while also giving Germany a National Spirit draining their manpower. Once any German territory has been ‘liberated’ by the Netherlands, an actual civil war kicks off in Germany, where the Kaiser (or his son, if he died) leads a rebellion (headquartered in the territory you just liberated) to put the von Hohenzollerns back on the German throne. This civil war nation exists as a puppet of the Netherlands, and so can be supported by you. Once the war is won, the Kaiser will require you to fulfill your end of the bargain, involving releasing them as an independent nation, and then proposes to create a formal alliance. If you happen to own Waking the Tiger, this will also set this new Germany on the Kaiserreich path, likely leading to a war with the Allies (who won’t be too happy with you doing all this in the first place).
Adjustments to the British focus tree
In the original UK focus tree reveal, I mentioned the naval tree would get a make-over as well. This has now been done.
Various new additions have been made to the tree. Anti-Non-Contact Committee gives tech bonuses to minelaying and minesweeping, while Anti-Submarine Training School gives doctrine bonuses to Convoy Defense, as well as a National Spirit that improves Destroyer experience gain. ASW Warfare gives 2x ahead of time tech bonuses for Anti-Submarine Warfare modules, while Expanding the Repair Yards gives a couple of Dockyards and a national spirit making repairs and refits cheaper and faster. Vanguard gives a modern Battleship template, and also creates a ‘free’ battleship of this template in Clydebank (Lanark state).
I also added some focuses that tie in to the Reinforce the Empire branch. As the British relied heavily on their light cruisers to keep the trade lanes secure, that is now represented in a new focus that requires both Naval Rearmament as well as Service Overseas.
Following Commonwealth Ties, then, comes the last addition: a focus representing the massive British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. This gives bonuses to air (and air wing) experience gain, reflecting the impact of one of the largest air training programs in history.
Of these, all are part of the free rework except for those that rely on paid features; i.e. ASW Warfare, Expand the Repair Yards, Vanguard, and Anti-Non-Contact Committee will not be available without the DLC.
Map changes
The map changes dev diary had a lot of suggestions from the community, and I worked through a number of them (too many to list), but I will mention the most important here.
A number of new tags were added:
Mauritania
Namibia
Western Sahara (Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic)
British Antilles
French Guyana
Maldives
Fiji/Melanesia
Slovenia
Bosnia
Macedonia
Northern Ireland
To accomodate Mauritania, the western-most impassable state has been made passable, allowing armies to move down into subsaharan Africa both in Egypt in the east, as well as in the west.
Namibia has been added due to popular request, and the Caprivi strip has been fixed.
The Balkans have been further… balkanized, and the states for Montenegro and Macedonia have been adjusted.
Thanks to an initiative by @Tristan Edge, a large number of victory points have been adjusted and/or added.
A lot of VP adjustments happened to:
Greece, Turkey, Portugal, Mexico, Poland, Czechoslovakia, European Russia
Other VP adjustments happened to:
Spain, France, USA, Germany, Italy, China, Siberia
Sneak preview of the new VPs in Western Poland
Also, when adding new tags, I put in an effort to ensure all releasable tags have at least one victory point (their capital). This has seen a dramatic increase in the amount of victory points in Africa, the Caribbean, and some in Asia.
Finally, some naval zones have been split up to make better use of the new naval terrain, as well as making for more interesting strategic choices with your navy. One example here: the Aegean.
Don't forget to check out the stream today at 4PM CET, where Gabriel and Niall (Daniel is unfortunately the victim of biological warfare today) will be continuing with their communist Mexico playthrough. We'll see you guys next week, for a new dev diary!
Issues regarding ideology (and drift)
An issue that has come up in the community on multiple occasions are the issues caused by permanent ideology drift National Spirits. For instance, puppeting a fascist nation as a communist, only to have it gradually drift back to fascism because it once upon a time got a National Spirit giving it 0.10 fascism drift.
To solve this, we’ve gone with a two-pronged approach. First of all, all National Spirits that give ideology drift now either time out after 2-3 years, or, in the case of Spirits that have other effects than just ideology drift, and therefore need to be permanent, are removed when the ideology shifts away from the ideology drift they provide.
In addition, we’ve added new decisions that give you greater control over the ideology of your subjects. These allow you to expend political power to give an ideology drift, and, when ideology support becomes high enough, forcibly swap them to your ideology.
Adjustments to Netherlands focus tree
I was not too pleased with the Monarchist path in the Netherlands focus tree, and so I’ve tinkered a little bit with it to make it more unique and (hopefully) more interesting. The original design suffered from, yes, being too constrained by historical plausibility. Attempting to trace the most likely path for a royal take-over we can find some indications that Queen Wilhelmina historically wanted to use her wartime popularity, combined with the weakness of the Dutch Government-in-Exile (GiE), to obtain sweeping constitutional changes that would give much greater power to the Queen, after the liberation of the Netherlands. In HoI4, however, this would entail requiring the player to play poorly, lose the fight in the continent, become a government-in-exile, then flip to Neutrality, and subsequently gain no benefits at all from the tree because you do not control your land anymore, while just sitting back and supporting the British in their war (because historically the Queen wanted to do just that, rather than doing any ‘cool independent stuff’ on her own). None of this makes for fun gameplay.
The Monarchist path is on the left-hand side, but shares certain focuses (the branch leading up to "Request Allied Favors") with the Democratic path (the right-hand side).
It is still possible to go through the path as a GiE, as multiple focuses give you bonuses regardless of whether you have control of your homeland or not. However, it is no longer a requirement to have capitulated. New focuses give offmap military factories, as well as building up Belgium and Luxemburg after you get them through Revive the Buffer State Proposal. A final focus has been added to give a sort of ‘endgame’. Wilhelminism revolves around a cunning plot to use the German Kaiser (in exile in Huis Doorn in the Netherlands since the end of the First World War) to attract German deserters, and incite an insurrection to weaken the German position. This focus periodically spawns free divisions comprised of German deserters, while also giving Germany a National Spirit draining their manpower. Once any German territory has been ‘liberated’ by the Netherlands, an actual civil war kicks off in Germany, where the Kaiser (or his son, if he died) leads a rebellion (headquartered in the territory you just liberated) to put the von Hohenzollerns back on the German throne. This civil war nation exists as a puppet of the Netherlands, and so can be supported by you. Once the war is won, the Kaiser will require you to fulfill your end of the bargain, involving releasing them as an independent nation, and then proposes to create a formal alliance. If you happen to own Waking the Tiger, this will also set this new Germany on the Kaiserreich path, likely leading to a war with the Allies (who won’t be too happy with you doing all this in the first place).
Adjustments to the British focus tree
In the original UK focus tree reveal, I mentioned the naval tree would get a make-over as well. This has now been done.
Various new additions have been made to the tree. Anti-Non-Contact Committee gives tech bonuses to minelaying and minesweeping, while Anti-Submarine Training School gives doctrine bonuses to Convoy Defense, as well as a National Spirit that improves Destroyer experience gain. ASW Warfare gives 2x ahead of time tech bonuses for Anti-Submarine Warfare modules, while Expanding the Repair Yards gives a couple of Dockyards and a national spirit making repairs and refits cheaper and faster. Vanguard gives a modern Battleship template, and also creates a ‘free’ battleship of this template in Clydebank (Lanark state).
I also added some focuses that tie in to the Reinforce the Empire branch. As the British relied heavily on their light cruisers to keep the trade lanes secure, that is now represented in a new focus that requires both Naval Rearmament as well as Service Overseas.
Following Commonwealth Ties, then, comes the last addition: a focus representing the massive British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. This gives bonuses to air (and air wing) experience gain, reflecting the impact of one of the largest air training programs in history.
Of these, all are part of the free rework except for those that rely on paid features; i.e. ASW Warfare, Expand the Repair Yards, Vanguard, and Anti-Non-Contact Committee will not be available without the DLC.
Map changes
The map changes dev diary had a lot of suggestions from the community, and I worked through a number of them (too many to list), but I will mention the most important here.
A number of new tags were added:
Mauritania
Namibia
Western Sahara (Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic)
British Antilles
French Guyana
Maldives
Fiji/Melanesia
Slovenia
Bosnia
Macedonia
Northern Ireland
To accomodate Mauritania, the western-most impassable state has been made passable, allowing armies to move down into subsaharan Africa both in Egypt in the east, as well as in the west.
Namibia has been added due to popular request, and the Caprivi strip has been fixed.
The Balkans have been further… balkanized, and the states for Montenegro and Macedonia have been adjusted.
Thanks to an initiative by @Tristan Edge, a large number of victory points have been adjusted and/or added.
A lot of VP adjustments happened to:
Greece, Turkey, Portugal, Mexico, Poland, Czechoslovakia, European Russia
Other VP adjustments happened to:
Spain, France, USA, Germany, Italy, China, Siberia
Sneak preview of the new VPs in Western Poland
Also, when adding new tags, I put in an effort to ensure all releasable tags have at least one victory point (their capital). This has seen a dramatic increase in the amount of victory points in Africa, the Caribbean, and some in Asia.
Finally, some naval zones have been split up to make better use of the new naval terrain, as well as making for more interesting strategic choices with your navy. One example here: the Aegean.
Don't forget to check out the stream today at 4PM CET, where Gabriel and Niall (Daniel is unfortunately the victim of biological warfare today) will be continuing with their communist Mexico playthrough. We'll see you guys next week, for a new dev diary!
Rejected titles
- Yet another focus tree about the German Kaiser
- My Conquest is the Sea of Victory Points
- HOI4: Now with 200% more balkanization
- Installing Democracies has never been so easy
- Issuing the HoI4 community challenge: Western Sahara World Conquest
- The "People Actually Live Here Now"-update
- Yet another focus tree about the German Kaiser
- My Conquest is the Sea of Victory Points
- HOI4: Now with 200% more balkanization
- Installing Democracies has never been so easy
- Issuing the HoI4 community challenge: Western Sahara World Conquest
- The "People Actually Live Here Now"-update
