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HOI4 Dev Diary - Formables and Releasables

Hello everyone and welcome to another dev diary for La Resistance! I should begin by introducing myself: I am Meka, I joined Paradox just a few months ago as a Content Designer. Some of you may be aware of me due to my work on Theocracies and Burgundy over on EUIV, but now I'm here to show what mischief I've been up to in my time on Hearts of Iron.

Man the Guns saw the creation of a lot of new tags, making some countries balkanisable, and almost all of the world decolonisable. Waking the Tiger saw the introduction of formable tags, a mechanic that until now has not been further utilised. However, with the Husky patch, a whole slew of new releasable tags will be added to the game along with two new formable nations; one as part of the free patch, and one for owners of La Resistance.
Polynesia 001.png

Starting with releasable tags, Man the Guns allowed most of the world to be decolonised, but Oceania was mostly left unloved with only one nation being added to the continent, leaving the rest of the disparate islands untouched and still under colonial rule. However, I have added 6 new releasable tags and one formable for the region.

The Kingdom of Hawaii was only annexed by the United States 38 years before the start of Hearts of Iron and can be released along with most of the US’s pacific holdings.
Polynesia 002.png


Tahiti
Polynesia 003.png


Samoa
Polynesia 004.png


The Federated States of Micronesia
Polynesia 005.png


The Solomon Islands
Polynesia 006.png


The Mariana Federation
Polynesia 007.png


These disparate islands may struggle to survive on their own, and so a nation who holds enough of the Polynesian Triangle will be able to unite all Pacific peoples into a single state known as Polynesia. This state will be formable by any nation listed above plus New Zealand. Unlike other formable tags, this nation can be created by dominions meaning New Zealand does not necessarily have to leave the Allies in order to form this tag.
Polynesia 008.png


But perhaps players wish to live out an alternate history where the Naha Prophecy was fulfilled and Kamehameha united the Pacific several years earlier. With the Polynesian Empire game rule, Hawaii will begin the game having already conquered the entirety of the Polynesian Islands and built up a fair-sized industry.
Polynesia 009.png

Polynesia 010.png


The ability to form Polynesia is a free feature, as are the releasable tags.


Along with adding these releasable nations, I did also touch up the old fragmentation game options to make the world fully split into different continents. The UK now surrenders its African, Asian, and American islands to its former colonies, Portugal surrenders Timor to Indonesia, and a few other small changes like that.


Also, armies standing around in former colonial territories is now a thing of the past and nations will now only have armies stationed in territories where they have access.
Armies.png


Iberia is a focal point of La Resistance and as such, a few releasable tags have been added to the subcontinent as well.


Catalonia
Catalonia.png


The Basque Country
Basque.png


Galicia
Galicia.png


Spain can of course be fractured from the start of the game by selecting the appropriate option in the game menu. However, I noticed Catalonia, the Basque Country, and Galicia simply weren’t enough to make Iberia look “shattered” so I took the liberty of adding an “11th of November” game rule, and I will leave it for you all to speculate what that option does.
Spanish Fragmentation.png


When it comes to the second formable, one must be opportunistic and take full advantage of the instability in Spain and Portugal. The Moorish people once reigned sovereign over all of Iberia, and owners of La Resistance will be able to restore the long-dead state of Al-Andalus.
Andalusia Conditions.png


Andalusia was once an Islamic Sultanate that ruled from the Iberian peninsula and a beacon of the Islamic world. Through struggles with the Catholic kingdoms in the medieval era, the Andalusians would slowly be pushed out of Iberia, ending with the conquest of the Emirate of Granada in 1520. However, the Moorish people continue to exist to this day in Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, and Algeria, many of whom are descendants from Moorish refugees fleeing the Spanish Reconquista.

Andalusia will be formable by any of the North African countries; Morocco, Tunisia, Western Sahara, Algeria, or Libya. In order to form this tag, one must occupy a large portion of both Spain and Portugal’s southern states and forming the tag grants cores on the entirety of the Iberian subcontinent.
Andalusia 1.png


But that isn’t the end of Andalusia. Similar to Byzantium’s “triumph” decisions, Andalusia will be able to sweep across the Mediterranean and beyond, restoring their old claims and titles.
Andalusia Decision 2.png


If a player can enact all decisions relating to the Andalusian conquests of North Africa and the Med, they will be able to press on for Egypt and Arabia and declare themselves the Umayyad Caliphate reborn, granting cores on the Arabian Peninsula.
Andalusia Decision 3.png


Upon doing so, Andalusia will unlock their final set of decisions, allowing them to restore the entire former claims and titles of the Umayyad Caliphate, effectively reuinifying the Islamic world.
Andalusia Decision 4.png

Andalusia 3.png


As we have expanded the scope of Hearts of Iron, some old bits of content started to become outdated and lead to some annoying bugs, which I have dedicated some time to fixing. One key thing I have improved is the way that the British Raj interacts with different game options and Britain doing strange things. From now on, the Raj will be able to freely pursue their focus tree even if Britain forces them into independence, with some focuses bypassing, and others no longer requiring the Raj to be a subject.
Raj Fix.png


Join Da9L, Bratyn and Jojo at 16:00CET on twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive as they have a closer look at Anarchist Spain!
 
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Andalusia getting cores on Iberia...
I very much made the decisions for Andalusia in the spirit of the existing Byzantium formable, prioritising fun and layered objectives over any historical believability.

I noticed that Tahiti has a unique portrait. Did you add more generic portraits or is that a unique portrait?
As much as I would love for the Queen of Tahiti to have her own portrait, she is currently using a generic Operative portrait.

With the Polynesian flags, the flag of the United Kingdom of... Polynesia? (I think that was it but didn't really see that part), is the Royal Tongan flag, but there's no Tonga. My question is, will this little tiny island Kingdom be ever added in? or is it so small that god forbid the ocean has swallowed it already?
Unfortunately, Tonga is still subdued far beneath the waves. I opted to use Tonga's royal standard as Polynesia's neutral flag as Tui Tonga is the closest real life example of a Polynesian state spanning several cultural identities. The dem/com/fasc flags however are all original and I had a lot of fun making those :)
 
If we are getting fantasy releasables, any chance we can see the larger Indian princely states have the chance to break away (as historically Hyderabad did in 49)? And maybe the option to restore the Mughal Empire?
 
I very much made the decisions for Andalusia in the spirit of the existing Byzantium formable, prioritising fun and layered objectives over any historical believability.


As much as I would love for the Queen of Tahiti to have her own portrait, she is currently using a generic Operative portrait.


Unfortunately, Tonga is still subdued far beneath the waves. I opted to use Tonga's royal standard as Polynesia's neutral flag as Tui Tonga is the closest real life example of a Polynesian state spanning several cultural identities. The dem/com/fasc flags however are all original and I had a lot of fun making those :)

Unfortunate news to hear about Tonga being subdued beneath the waves, however, I'm glad that Polynesia is a formable nation, especially with your wonderful flags.
 
I very much made the decisions for Andalusia in the spirit of the existing Byzantium formable, prioritising fun and layered objectives over any historical believability.
Wouldn't it be more interesting if such decision interacted with the resistance system as well?
Even for the DLC's sake, to integrate more of that mechanic into these decisions.
Doesn't even have to be something intricate, maybe a boost to compliance?

And I'd say, ideally, even old formables should receive such treatment tbh, but I know that's not always possible with time constrains.
 
As we have expanded the scope of Hearts of Iron, some old bits of content started to become outdated and lead to some annoying bugs, which I have dedicated some time to fixing. One key thing I have improved is the way that the British Raj interacts with different game options and Britain doing strange things. From now on, the Raj will be able to freely pursue their focus tree even if Britain forces them into independence, with some focuses bypassing, and others no longer requiring the Raj to be a subject.

There are other dominion focus trees lacking bypassings for when the country is already independant (I noticed it in Australia, maybe there are others).
I also think you should make all the branches about sticking with the Commonwealth unavailable until UK pick "Reinforce the Empire", at least for the AI, so it doesn't have its political branch entirely blocked if "Revisit the Colonial Policy" is chosen.

EDIT: By the way, the Umayyad ruled the Arab Empire from Damascus before they fled to Spain after the Abbassid coup, so maybe restoring the Umayyad Caliphate should move your capital there and change your tag's name.
Also, Grenada wasn't conquered in 1520...
 
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This content looks very EU4-ish, I don't know how convincing it looks for a game like HOI4.

I'm not saying ahistorical stuff shouldn't exist, but stuff like Al-Andalus and the Umayyad Caliphate seem way out of whack. Aren't there movements closer to the game's actual timeline that would represent arab unity/irredentism better?
 
As we have expanded the scope of Hearts of Iron, some old bits of content started to become outdated and lead to some annoying bugs, which I have dedicated some time to fixing. One key thing I have improved is the way that the British Raj interacts with different game options and Britain doing strange things. From now on, the Raj will be able to freely pursue their focus tree even if Britain forces them into independence, with some focuses bypassing, and others no longer requiring the Raj to be a subject.
This might have gone unnoticed by many, but this is a huge quality of life improvement which I can only applaud. I would only hope to expect more of these QoL fixes to be added in future minor patches as it would make replaying countries touched by past expansions more enjoyable.

All in all, welcome aboard Meka, you seem like a great addition :)
 
Formable nations are fantastic. They are a great goal to strive for in games, and can boost minor countries quite significantly. The more the merrier, as far as I'm concerned.

P.S. I made a post about the India bugs a while ago. I'm glad to see it getting attention.
 
Disapointed France doesn't get Brittany, Corsica and the Basque Country too as releasable.
Also disapointed that France doesn't get any new fantasy meymey formable nation, like Charlemagne Empire or Frank Empire or something, but oh well, still looks fun.
Good work anyway :)