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2021? Damn, we are in the future now boys and girls!

I wanted to write this diary because it feels like it's been a really long time since we chatted. Well I guess it wasn’t that long actually but 2020 has definitely made everything feel like its taken forever ;D

2020 has probably been the most challenging year so far for the team since release. The COVID-19 situation really messes with your wellbeing, even if your life normally is chilling inside with your cat and computer games so I hope you are all taking care of yourselves. Looking back I think we overestimated direct impacts to work efficiency and absolutely underestimated impacts to mental health and general well being - things that are also incredibly important for doing a good job and being productive, as well as helping to onboard new members to a team. We have absolutely been impacted, and as a result I want to be pretty clear that you should not expect the next big expansion to drop before summer this year, which is what I was planning before COVID hit us right after La Resistance dropped.
I know a lot of you have been asking about dates for diaries to start up and for us to show stuff again, but you are going to have to wait a bit longer for that. I can say though that the expansion we are brewing up is gonna be pretty sweet I think and focus on a lot of things people have been wishing for :)

So, given that there was no PDXCON last year, where I normally do this, I felt I should take this opportunity to drop some statistics on you all…

Player Counts
With COVID keeping us all inside we and I suspect a lot of the rest of the gaming industry has seen a lot more players than normal playing. I know personally I have gotten a lot more gaming in. It's going to be interesting to see if there is a dip once our lives go back to normal again (whenever that may be).

graph.png



Top Mods
I am just highlighting the biggest total conversion mods here, and % numbers are based off daily player numbers.

TopMods.jpg


I think the standout here is TNO having jumped up in popularity quite rapidly during the year so congrats to the team behind that! Also feel free to chime in in comments if you think we have any other big up and coming mod to keep eyes on!

Road to 56 and KR keeping their top spots from before, and I also want to say that I am really inspired and impressed by the cool video and other transmedia content the KR team is putting out. I’m eager to see if any other mod teams do similar stuff in the future :cool:

Top 20 played nations
Counting most sessions > 5h

Germany - 17.9%
Italy - 7.4%
Soviet - 7.7%
France - 5.5%
Turkey - 5.1%
Britain - 4.7%
USA - 4.6%
Japan - 3.9%
Hungary - 3.7%
Spain - 3.2%
Greece - 3.0%
Romania - 2.0%
China - 1.9%
PRC - 1.9%
Bulgaria - 1.8%
Yugoslavia - 1.7%
Netherlands - 1.5%
Portugal - 1.5%
Mexico - 1.4%
Czechoslovakia - 1.2%

I think it's really cool to see Turkey this high. It was always popular but with Battle for the Bosporus it jumped up overall 60%. Greece and Bulgaria also more than doubled in popularity.

While I got you all gathered here reading, I also want to make sure to highlight here that there was an accidental released update of the launcher and that the launcher team is working on reverting that as quickly as they can as it introduced some bugs. Read about it here. I also want to say that we have received increasing amounts of reports of people using cheat tools to mess with multiplayer games over christmas, and we are looking into it.

See you all later, and to be clear this is not the start of regular diaries just yet. You'll have to be patient a bit longer on that front.
 
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One question, with the next DLC being delayed, is there a smaller (bugfix or anything else) patch planned in-between (no pressure, just curious)?
 
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I know, I gonna be very curious. How long shall we wait for DDs approximately. WE shall be patient. If it needs more work,then be it =)
 
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Wow, didn't expect one this week.
I've got a presidential inaguration to watch, but I'll check this out afterwards :p .
 
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Please fix bug with Turkey's joining to Allies in 1942 and add historical (or quasi-historical) PM change for France.
It's really annoying.
P.S. Anyway thanks for the news! We're all waiting for one German kaiser... and it's not Wilhelim II, you know ;)
 
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One question, with the next DLC being delayed, is there a smaller (bugfix or anything else) patch planned in-between (no pressure, just curious)?
I cant promise stuff obviously but looking back we always have patches on our anniversary around 6th June and such. As I said in the diary if we can solve some of the MP issues its not impossible that we can release fixes for that earlier too, but I am just guessing. Depends on what happens, so all I can promise is that I will tell you when we got stuff for you :D

The work we are doing now is pretty huge and focused on long term solutions on tricky stuff so thats why we have been hidden away a bit :)
 
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Looks like development speed will go from glacial to... well.. something slower then that. I was halfway expecting 'Barbarossa' to be closer to be completion since work tied back all the way to 'La Resistance'. A shame but, nothing I can do. I just want to see this game developed more and have additional content. I've been playing HoI4 since 2016 and see key problems with the game remain unsolved.
 
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Looks like development speed will go from glacial to... well.. something slower then that. I was halfway expecting 'Barbarossa' to be closer to be completion since work tied back all the way to 'La Resistance'. A shame but, nothing I can do. I just want to see this game developed more and have additional content. I've been playing HoI4 since 2016 and see key problems with the game remain unsolved.

Darn Paradox for not anticipating Covid-19! Should have known better.
 
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2021? Damn, we are in the future now boys and girls!

I wanted to write this diary because it feels like it's been a really long time since we chatted. Well I guess it wasn’t that long actually but 2020 has definitely made everything feel like its taken forever ;D

2020 has probably been the most challenging year so far for the team since release. The COVID-19 situation really messes with your wellbeing, even if your life normally is chilling inside with your cat and computer games so I hope you are all taking care of yourselves. Looking back I think we overestimated direct impacts to work efficiency and absolutely underestimated impacts to mental health and general well being - things that are also incredibly important for doing a good job and being productive, as well as helping to onboard new members to a team. We have absolutely been impacted, and as a result I want to be pretty clear that you should not expect the next big expansion to drop before summer this year, which is what I was planning before COVID hit us right after La Resistance dropped.
I know a lot of you have been asking about dates for diaries to start up and for us to show stuff again, but you are going to have to wait a bit longer for that. I can say though that the expansion we are brewing up is gonna be pretty sweet I think and focus on a lot of things people have been wishing for :)

So, given that there was no PDXCON last year, where I normally do this, I felt I should take this opportunity to drop some statistics on you all…

Player Counts
With COVID keeping us all inside we and I suspect a lot of the rest of the gaming industry has seen a lot more players than normal playing. I know personally I have gotten a lot more gaming in. It's going to be interesting to see if there is a dip once our lives go back to normal again (whenever that may be).

View attachment 672922


Top Mods
I am just highlighting the biggest total conversion mods here, and % numbers are based off daily player numbers.

View attachment 673086

I think the standout here is TNO having jumped up in popularity quite rapidly during the year so congrats to the team behind that! Also feel free to chime in in comments if you think we have any other big up and coming mod to keep eyes on!

Road to 56 and KR keeping their top spots from before, and I also want to say that I am really inspired and impressed by the cool video and other transmedia content the KR team is putting out. I’m eager to see if any other mod teams do similar stuff in the future :cool:

Top 20 played nations
Counting most sessions > 5h

Germany - 17.9%
Italy - 7.4%
Soviet - 7.7%
France - 5.5%
Turkey - 5.1%
Britain - 4.7%
USA - 4.6%
Japan - 3.9%
Hungary - 3.7%
Spain - 3.2%
Greece - 3.0%
Romania - 2.0%
China - 1.9%
PRC - 1.9%
Bulgaria - 1.8%
Yugoslavia - 1.7%
Netherlands - 1.5%
Portugal - 1.5%
Mexico - 1.4%
Czechoslovakia - 1.2%

I think it's really cool to see Turkey this high. It was always popular but with Battle for the Bosporus it jumped up overall 60%. Greece and Bulgaria also more than doubled in popularity.

While I got you all gathered here reading, I also want to make sure to highlight here that there was an accidental released update of the launcher and that the launcher team is working on reverting that as quickly as they can as it introduced some bugs. Read about it here. I also want to say that we have received increasing amounts of reports of people using cheat tools to mess with multiplayer games over christmas, and we are looking into it.

See you all later, and to be clear this is not the start of regular diaries just yet. You'll have to be patient a bit longer on that front.
Well, I hope that extra time serves to fix bugs and polish (pun intended) the game...

Glad to see TNO so high up! Super proud of our work...

though I do feel the need to mention we are not New World Order, a completely different mod ;)
Didn't expect you here, congrats to all the TNO team for your work!
 
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I am surprised by the popularity of France being so high. It now has a big focus tree but I would guess UK or US being more popular, this being a WW2 game and they are 2 of the big 3 Allies.

What is the most popular generic tree nation as of that data? My guess would be Brazil or Argentina, but I am genuinely curious.
 
Paradox needs to add more people into your team, seriously. 2020 has been a rough year for us all.

You guys' slack needs to be cut, and especially in these trying times, the more the merrier to keep your mental health checked.

Keep safe there, Dan! Tell us when Buzz joined the team.
 
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Thanks for the honesty in terms of potential release, much appreciated. Impact on me working through this crisis (I nearly added endgame crisis there damn you Stellaris!) really hit my mental health at times past year in ways I hadn't realised it would so make sure you all take care of yourselves!
 
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