• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

HoI4 Dev Diary - Poland Focus Tree Rework Part 2/2

Hello folks and welcome back to the Poland dev-diary extravaganza! This week, I am going to continue covering the changes coming to Poland in 1.11 Barbarossa and the unannounced DLC.Today we’ll be covering the DLC content.
poland_big_picture.png

So, I’m going to start here with something a bunch of you predicted last week; you can indeed play as the Peasants’ Strike! A Poland with ambitions to restore democracy or embrace the communist revolution must first build an organized peasant militia from the rabble of disorganized farmers!
organize_peasant_strike.png

No matter how many or few states join you in the strike, the rebellious state will be in a delicate balancing act between democrats and socialists. Your first step towards revolution is to sway the Front Morges to take up the peasant’s cause, the Morges being an alliance of political parties supported by a select few Polish generals including Sikorski.
peasant_strike_buildup.png

Each focus you do in this initial block will add 5 support to either communism or democracy, with a total of 50% or more being needed for one to assert dominance over the other and take control of the government.
peasant_strike_claim_states.png

Similar to the Spanish Civil War, the Peasants’ Strike will be on a tight schedule, taking up to a year before the revolution happens. Poland will at first be able to add agricultural states to the strike, but by expanding the strike to factory workers, Poland will also be able to bring states from Poland’s industrial heartland into the revolution.
peasant_sympathiser.png

Along with contesting for popular support, gaining military support will be vital for the movement. Using decisions, certain field marshals and generals will be swayed to your cause and gain the “Peasant Sympathiser” trait, ensuring that they will join your side when the war begins.
peasant_strike_war.png

Poland will begin with socialist politician Stanisław Mikołajczyk as country leader, but those who wish to see the return of Wincenty Witos will be able to bring him back to leadership via event.
peasant_strike_victory.png

Once the civil war is won, Poland will be in a vulnerable state. Recuperating manpower and resources after a civil war will place Poland in a precarious position, so some concessions and outreach for foreign assistance may be needed.
communist_soviet.png


A communist Poland will have two options: they may be bold and elect an anti-Stalinist candidate as Chairman, or they may elect the Soviet-aligned Władysław Gomułka. However, aligning with the Soviets will come at the cost of ceding Eastern Poland, but will unlock a few focuses for dealing with the USSR.

poland_morges_pact.png


With democracy, Poland may take advantage of the Front Morges’ ambitions for closer relations with the French and create the Morges Pact, a sort-of Poland-led Little Entente. Going down this route will allow Poland access to the Between the Seas branch we talked about last week.

communist_anticap.png


Anti-Soviet communists will be able to denounce both Capitalism and Fascism, diplomatically isolating this people’s republic, but allowing for new expansion options and military bonuses against the empires of this world. In doing so, they will gain a powerful attack and defence bonus against major powers.
1619011403051.png


Both democrats and anti-Soviet communists will also be able to declare the destruction of fascism a greater cause than the spread of socialism and align themselves with the British Empire. Doing so will allow Poland to renew her interests in colonialism and attempt to purchase colonies from Allied powers. By officially recognising the Maritime and Colonial League, Poland can purchase Madagascar, Palestine, and more. If any of your purchases are successful, Poland will have somewhere to build their forces in exile, should the front back home fail.

communist_commonwealth.png


No matter which option you pick, either conquering or building alliances with the Baltic States will allow you to create a new kind of Commonwealth: the Commonwealth of Socialist Republics.

regency_branch.png


Moving on to the next branch, we have the Regency Council: Poland’s attempt to “restore” the monarchy. The Act of the Fifth of November was the promise of the Central Powers to release a Kingdom of Poland from the occupied territories of the Russian Empire, but the Regency Council of the newly formed Kingdom of Poland failed to crown a King before Józef Piłsudski declared the Second Polish Republic.

regency_branch_kingdom_poland.png


With the Regency Council assembled, Poland will be able to choose from one of three claimants, each with their own complete political path. There were countless claimants and candidates for the Polish throne so it was impossible for me to make content for them all, so we have: The Hohenzollern, The Commonwealth Claimant, and the Cossack-King to choose from!

poland_lithuania.png


The Commonwealth Claimant is perhaps the most obvious: Poland’s preferred candidate for King was Friedrich Christian. Christian was preferred due to Poland’s long connection with the houses of Saxony, and with a claimant so supported by the Poles, you are able to claim the throne of Lithuania without the need for warfare.

plc_decisions.png


Through decisions, Poland can trend monarchist sentiment up in Lithuania, and when it reaches high enough, they may either enter a civil war or peacefully take over the government. When either case has happened, Poland can annex the Lithuanian Kingdom and begin integrating the industries of their two nations and preparing for war with the Soviets and Germans: restoring the old borders of the Commonwealth and then some!

king_michael.png


Poland and Romania enjoyed close relations at the start of HoI’s timeframe, and with the throne of Poland empty, Poland may throw herself into the complex mess of Romanian politics by electing a Romanian King.

poland_romania.png


With King Michael on the throne of Poland, the Kingdoms will be able to unite under the right circumstances. Either by Polish interference or by Romania completing “King Michael’s Coup”, Romania and Poland will be united, bringing their armies together and becoming a powerful wall between the Axis and the Comintern.

poland_romania_tree.png


This Intermarium nation may seek Balkan Domination and a restoration of Poland-Hungary, or (as with the Commonwealth) it may seek to maintain its alignment with the Allies.

Finally, we have the most unlikely candidate for the throne: Pavel Bermondt-Avalov.
poland_pavel.png

A warlord, a cossack, and a Georgian Prince, Pavel led an interesting life of conquest and warfare. In the interwar period, Pavel and his Bermontian host invaded Lithuania and Latvia for reasons historians are still unsure of, but his ambition for Baltic domination makes him the ideal candidate for militarizing the Polish state into action and dominating the Baltics and Czechoslovakia.
poland_pavel_path.png

When done conquering the Baltics, Pavel will be able to either turn his militarized Polish Kingdom against the Germans and asser Poland’s claims in Silesia and Pomerania or, as a National Socialist, Pavel may wish to seek alignment with the Germans, which brings us on to the fascist branch.
poland_fascist_start.png

Poland was home to a multitude of fascist and nationalist movements: the most notable of which are the Endecja (or National Democracy) and the Falanga. The Sanation historically made dealings with both of these groups, and as such, if you want either Endecja or Falanga to take control, you must collaborate with the Sanation until you are able to supplant them.

When either Endecja or Falanga have taken over the government, they will have a choice to either stand firm with Polish nationalism or make concessions to the Germans and attempt to seek an alliance.
poland_fascist_germany.png

Aligning with the Germans will not place you on equal grounds, and it is not as easy as it once was. Germany will refuse to ally with Poland unless Danzig and Poznan are surrendered and Poland becomes a German subject. Unlike Czechoslovakia though, the Poles will be able to break their shackles and tear the Reich apart from within.

With either Pavel, Piasecki, or Dmowski in control, Poland will be presented with a ladder of focuses enabling them to either gain powerful bonuses from the Germans or plot with the Underground State to overthrow their current masters.
poland_fascist_postwar.png

Going for independence will allow Poland to switch sides and stab Germany in the back, whereas remaining loyal will enable Poland to gain some cores in the USSR in a sort-of reverse Yalta Conference.
poland_falangist_path.png

However, a Falanga or Endecja that does not bow to the Germans will be able to lean into the Polish Catholic identity and form the Falangist International: a faction devoted to the perseverance of Falangist ideals.
poland_falangist_path_boost.png

Once the Spanish Civil War is done with, if either the Carlists, Nationalists, or Falangists come out on top, Poland will be able to bring them into their own faction and from there, they will be able to expand that faction to other nations where Falangism was present such as: Mexico, the Netherlands, and much of Latin America.

They will have access to decisions to boost fascism in those nations, and with a certain percentage achieved, those nations will be invited to join the Falangist International. These focuses invite multiple nations at once, so the faction can grow very large very quickly.
poland_falangist_demand_lit.png

Similar to the Sanation path, the Polish fascists must choose between allying with Lithuania or attempting to reclaim the legacy of the Commonwealth, but choose wisely. Without allying Lithuania, this Poland will be unable to progress down the Between the Seas path, severely limiting their faction’s ability to expand.

That’s about it for the political paths, so I’ll wrap this one up by talking about a feature we haven’t touched in quite some time: Governments in Exile.
poland_prepare_inevitable.png

Unlike France and the Netherlands, Poland does not by default have a vast colonial empire to which they may retreat when things fall apart back home, so Poland will be entirely reliant on the support and goodwill of their allies and the network of resistance fighters in the Polish Underground State.
poland_exile_leaders.png

In exile, the Polish government went through a number of Prime Ministers and Presidents before landing on something the Allies were satisfied with. If Poland is following a historical route and is exiled in a Democratic nation like Britain or France, they will demand the resignation of the Sanation leaders, and from there, Poland may pick from one of three new leaders, each with a unique personality enabling them to gain manpower while in exile.

poland_irena_anders.png


On top of that, they will gain access to Irena Anders as a political adviser, granting more legitimacy, stability, and exiled manpower.

poland_exile_industry.png


In the exile focus tree, Poland can gain a number of offmap factories and dockyards, and bonuses to their ace generation and an increase in special forces cap. Poland will never muster a major army while exiled, but with these bonuses, Poland will still be able to keep fighting on with a small but specialised force.

poland_exile_intelligence.png


Owners of La Resistance will gain access to a slew of agency bonuses including an increase to their spy capacity, free agency upgrades via focus, and the new Warsaw Uprising operation.

poland_exile_warsaw_uprising.png


Completing the operation will trigger the Warsaw Uprising sooner than the game mechanics usually allow. With 50% resistance or higher in Polish states, the uprising can be started, but time this well as you can only complete this operation once. A well-timed uprising can shatter the German army and leave them short on supply as they attempt Operation Barbarossa.

Poland was also vital to assisting in decrypting the enigma machine, so they also gain access to the Mastermind Codebreaker advisor: Marian Rejewski.

poland_offmap_reactor.png


The old Cyclometer and Bombe focuses have been moved into the espionage branch, but I noted that without any territory left, a bonus to atomic research was fairly useless to Poland. So, when the Atomic Research focus is done, Poland gains an offmap nuclear reactor that will give roughly one nuke per year... Try not to think too hard about it.

There were a lot of interesting alternate-history scenarios for Poland to explore and new possibilities came up during my research and implementation. Though I didn’t represent everything in game (such as the proposed Japan-Polish alliance), Poland is a treasure-trove of alternate history scenarios if only you can find a way to survive.

That’s all for this week, and that wraps up the two week Poland extravaganza!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • 274
  • 181Like
  • 29Love
  • 11
  • 8
  • 7Haha
Reactions:
I really think you are right. I read every single post and it was exhausting reading people piling on the negative stuff.

Yes, we have things we do not like, but to pound on people, because the wrong person or name or color was chosen to represent a game part or function is burning the forest down to kill a few sick trees.

This is all about a focus tree for a minor country that heroically fought the nazis, but in the end did very little in the time frame the game represents. Besides losing, everything is going to be alt-history. Poland has one of the largest what-if potential of most any nation during the war. There are so many things that could have happened that a game company cannot be expected to spend the time and resources on exploring it in detail. We expect them to spend their time and resources on many other things, too.

If you remove the names and just look at the options a player now has when playing Poland, we may see something really good here. I know I am going to have to play at least one game as Poland in exile, just to see what new things we can do now.

As someone who has always thought that Poland could have changed the course of history by surviving longer, I want this new focus tree to succeed. I do not want to see good criticism slowly turn acidic as more and more pile on and try to out do each other in voicing the same concern. Please, look at the actual options themselves and try to measure how they effect the game. The developers need to know more about that than anything else. The names and colors can be changed later.
Why am I not surprised by this reaction, disappointed, but not surprised. I just don't understand why people get so worked up about alt-history, which by it's very nature MUST be fantasy and made up.

And to those who say alt-history must be plausible... would a Donald Trump presidency seemed plausible alt-history if you were making a game set in the 2000's? I seriously doubt it.

Frankly, I'm really excited for these gameplay possibilities. Some really fun scenario's seem possible, with some really wacky results.

Great job @Meka66! can't wait to play it!
I have a single question to you two, would you find it to be nice 'alt history' if someone who was a historically fan of Stalin and totally supported grain confiscation, and other such actions in Ukraine in actual history would be picked by paradox as one of leaders of independent anti-soviet Ukraine in HOI? Alt-history is fine, in fact, I like some of it, but please, let's base it on actual well researched history and be respectable about it first, and not go into whacky althistory based on nothing more then memes and random toss of dice.

Edit: In fact, this just came across my mind as I was laying down in bed: History is a long 'story' of causation and reaction, A thing effects B thing and that effects C thing, and so on, and so on. And as such, let's say, on example of my first and just finished megacampaign, because I played as Vikings in CK3 and formed Nordic Empire I was able then to be a counterbalance to France and Andalusia that arrived into their alternate positions because of different causes and effects compared to actual history, which change another set of causes and effect which made another changes possible, that's alternate history, changing causes and effects to differ the outcome. These paths are not alternate history, they are fantasy, there is no cause nor effect, there is just 'Welp, I guess Poland is now monarchist under a Hitler-liking Russian person that had never a single tie to Poland in his entire life'. That is not alt-history, that is a fantasy caused by... memes? Need to have as many paths as possible despite them not making sense? Some combination of the two?
 
Last edited:
  • 9Like
  • 8
  • 1
Reactions:
I'm really happy to see that the LaR aspects of the game is getting a little love. For me, it has become as important as my Air or Naval campaigns!

Since I've figured out Paras and Air Aces, I would like to request that both Scout and Transport get a chance at some aces. They fly missions, and they get shot at - the superb pilots seem to be able to avoid that and should be rewarded with some agility and range bonuses don't you think? Maybe a 'Curse you Red Baron' achievement!
 
  • 2Like
Reactions:
Well after the last few AMAZING dev diaries...This one brings us back to reality. This DLC will ruin the game more than it improves it. So disappointed.
 
  • 15
  • 13
  • 2Like
Reactions:
What the hell did I just read? Was there a mix up of DDs planned for the 1st and 21st? Sorry to be late on the complain train, just didn't get around to the DD until now. Just... wow.

As a big fan of the history of Romania, the "Kingdom of Poland-Romania" especially hurts my brain. Mihai would never support such a state nor becoming an absolute monarch. His heart was with Romania primarily, to ditch it for Poland-Hungary? Ludicrous. I fully support the monarchist path, heck each ideology, having paths to work towards friendship with Romania, makes perfect sense, but a full on union is just a no. The religious, cultural, linguistic, etc differences would be crazy. Anyway the actual Hohenzollern path seems kind of dull to, I mean, once you get Michael if war hasn't started yet you choose between absolute monarchy or constitutional monarchy. If you choose constitutional you just join the Allies and wait for the war it seems, if you go absolute then you get to rampage (start WW2) and just annex 2 countries, the end. Nothing unique really, nothing to do, just boring, the other two paths get stuff, why not this one?

The Pavel path is extremely questionable but everyone talked about it so I won't add to it.

Wettins being on the throne works with me, nice that you get some stuff to do though it does seem generic in that "go fight the Baltic States, Soviets and Germans, that's it really".

No Habsburg is disappointing, normally it's annoying to see the same family pop up over and over but they truly were everywhere and had nobles in positions to claim things, not to mention the story of Karl makes him more than worthy.

Again, as mentioned on the last DD and on this one, I guess Poland never had any ethnic issues, those Belarusian and Ukrainian cores are just there for.... reasons?

Democratic path exists though appears to be heavily socialist leaning and the communist path actually has a fair amount more to do than democratic path. Even the communist path is weird though. I mean really, colonies? For the communists? And they can't really access them due to a giant lack of a proper navy. I mean the pro-Soviet path seems to make some sense of concessions, the anti-Soviet one looks like I'm playing HoI IV with a Victoria mod.

I can't comment on the fascist/falangist path since I don't know enough on the matter.

The lack of path for a united West Slavic state is pretty disappointing to me personally.
 
  • 9Like
  • 6
  • 1
Reactions:
Now...? Where have you been the last half decade? The game has always been like this from the day it launched. Absolutely nothing has changed in this respect.

Tbh I can kind of sympathize with the devs a little bit. Even here on the forum, the attitude is extremely schizophrenic. Today, we see this kind of reaction, but just as often, we see the opposite one.

Right after the launch of BFTB about half a year ago, the forum was practically rioting exactly because it was extremely difficult for Turkey to become a superpower by 1939. People were incredibly angry you couldn't annex all your neighbors in 1937. No matter what they do, people will be yelling at the top of their lungs about it, which isn't to say that neither is right. I lean more towards more restricted minors.

Those who really think that there should be more of a realistic emphasis to focus trees and alternate history I think need to stick around and make their voices heard in these situations. I can already anticipate there will be visceral hysterics if the Soviet Union DOESN'T get a monarchist path.. the opposite of the sentiment displayed here.

We, the fanbase, need to make up our minds already and start providing consistent feedback, otherwise we can expect more of the same. I think in this thread we are mostly seeing a vocal minority, even by the standards of the forum itself. We see this time and time and time again in these forums. Stellaris fans were basically rioting last year over the lack of progress on the AI, but now everyone is satisfied and positive again despite nothing changing. This is unfortunate because I think a lot of the concerns and criticisms about the need for a bit more plausibility are entirely correct.


On a different note, I think it is also worth recognizing that in some respects, things have definitely improved content wise. Plausibility issues aside, this is actually looking like the biggest and most substantial rework of a major we've ever gotten. I would like to remind people about the French rework and how inadequate it was in so many ways.

View attachment 707561

Take the French monarchist focuses. The Orleanist pick gives you a unique leader with a portrait, but the rest of it is pure filler. No real structure or goals. I've played a few games as Orleanist France. An exercise in boredom. The Legitimist pick gives you a different leader, and if you're lucky or quick, you can annex Spain. Beyond that, absolutely no long term goals or guidance. Also an exercise in boredom as soon as you have annexed Spain, which can be done before 1939. As for the Bonapartist pick, it actually is not very impressive either. It just gives you wargoals almost anything and everything with very little actual structure, no scripted events, no real long term goals beyond just annexing everything. The one exception to this is the German partition, but that aside, it is all in all extremely uninspired and boring.

In comparison, each and every political branch for Poland seems to have a structure and long term goal to it. Even the communist focuses, a traditional weak point in almost all focus trees, look to be potentially promising. The communist content from the British rework is a good example of what not to do. You lose the Empire, setting you significantly back economically, and are not given any real goal to work towards that compensates you for this without cheesing and doing the Imperial Conference which the communist branch is designed to heavily punish. I think it's fine that in the short and medium term something like a communist revolution would weaken you, that is logical, but without any kind of long term goal that would consummate that sacrifice, it just becomes an exercise in tedium and frustration. Commie Japan is an even bigger example. Again, Poland seems to have solved this issues with this rework, but only the final implementation will tell.

On the other hand, I think some of this new content, especially with the Romanian King, leans too heavily in the direction of power gaming. annexing and coring Romania at the push of a button seems all too easy. It wasn't even that simple for Brazil-Portugal unification in the Portuguese focus tree. Add to that the possibility of potentially also diploannexing Hungary and Slovkia? If this isn't power gaming, I don't know what is. I think it's a bit much. If a Polish-Romanian unification is to be possible without war, it shouldn't be easy. It's like the monarchist focus tree for Hungary but two, three, or four times more powerful. The power creep is definitely real.

One definite issue here regarding the game's design that I think contributes to this is this Manichean binary with territorial expansion. Even though I don't think allowing the player to diplomatically annex all that territory is right, I can still see why they opted for that from a design perspective. Why? Because even the most limited expansion in this game beyond the first year or two can only be accomplished with a total war that takes you the rest of the game. It seems they opted for a design where you can achieve more expansion early on, diplomatically, and then focus on the world war without worrying about coring, integrating, etc your desired target for expansion.

The issue here goes deeper than with just focus trees and goes more into the limitations of the game's implementation of diplomacy, politics, and the much dreaded peace conference. When the peace conference mechanic is so unsatisfactory and virtually guaranteed to not give you what you want without cheesing the system, it becomes more explicable why this focus tree is basically handing the player easy wins with territorial expansion. I think it's a band-aid solution, at best, however.

Realistically, I don't think there can be a satisfactory solution to it until a proper sequel. Even if we do(and we should) get a rework of peace conferences, the issue of total war over small gains still might remain. True, one could argue that it is realistic, but it is also not satisfying from the perspective of gameplay. I think Kaiserreich here, love it or hate it, really best exemplifies the 'gameplay feedback loop' for minor countries. You're able to have minor wars and achieve modest goals during the earlier part of the game or in the early stages of the world-war, and then your emphasis switches to the World War itself. Winning the world war becomes its own goal since your more immediate territorial ambitions will already be fulfilled before it starts or early on in it in contrast to vanilla where you must occupy three fourths of the planet to annex a tiny strip in Europe. This is only achieved with extremely labor intensive scripts which makes this kind of solution not very practical for vanilla.

Again, it is likely the case that this limitation of the game is what made the team opt for this kind of "press button, annex and core neighbor' approach that we see in a lot of branches in this focus tree. The alternative is a total war that will take the entire duration of the game at the end of which you achieve your short term goal, only to be unable to enjoy it because the game is already over at that point. I think a lot of people criticizing this approach aren't really understanding why it's being taken in the first place. This is not to say that it is necessarily good, but it seems abundantly clear to me that this paradigm of fighting a total war for the entire duration of your campaign for a small or modest territorial gain, while realistic, is not something that appeals to the vast majority of people that play this game as evidenced by the fact that basically every single major mod aside from ones emphasizing historical-accuracy take this same approach.
This is barking the wrong tree

For one, Turkey is not Poland. It is very much fine to demand something for one country and something else for another country. Turkey - dismembered as it is - was Ottoman Empire, it is indeed quite powerful on its own, it's a quasi-major power really so restricting Turkey is quite a hassle. It'd be justified to ask Turkey to have good navy, it'd be ludicrous to demand extensive naval focus for Austria, or Switzerland for example.

Second, the problem with this focus tree is mostly less on "You get to annex this this this this this" and more "Yeah we forgot to check Wikipedia, how could you tell?". People do want to map paint, that's the sort of game HOI4 is, but for a game based on history you need a lot of plausibility. Not "possibility" mind you, but "plausibility". Is it fun to, as Turkey, fight Japan? Very much yes. But the focus to do that, which is just "they signed Sevres, time to make them pay", is laughable: Japan did not even get anything out of Sevres, and Japan did not engage Ottoman forces at all during WW1.

How do you maintain ill will on the guy who just signed it without getting anything out of it? All Japan got from WW1 was German colonies in Asia. It'd be more appropriate for Kaiserreich GERMANY to get bitter about Japan (well, slightly), but not Turkey. Now, if the justification was something else, then we can talk about that

As you can still see, people are complaining about mistakes such as the wrong choice of people (anti-soviet picked as soviet collaborator for example), the wrong choice of uniform colors, and the wrong choice of events (Romania agreeing for annexation outright), but not so much for the outcome. People do want to be able to map paint, but things like off map nuclear reactor is not how you go about it. The Poles did stuff with nukes, yeah give them ahead penalty reduction for nukes, not a freaking off map nuclear reactor. Knowing how to make nukes and being able to produce it are two different things altogether

Mexico is a good minor focus tree. It's plausible, it has plenty of options, and it allows you to map paint by going down on either of two unrelated branches. I mean will Mexico in real life ever attempt to annex Costa Rica? Maybe not. But the justification to do it - retake Aztec core - is plausible enough.
 
  • 12Like
  • 6
  • 4
  • 1
Reactions:
Seeing as this comes in the exile branch, an offmap nuclear production is the only way you have any hope of producing a nuke. With the research coming so late and one reactor producing such few nukes, you'll maybe get to drop one or maybe two per game. It's far from overpowered.
I personally respect and admire how much effort you put into reading and responding to what the community has to say, but this is probably the dumbest thing i've ever heard from a HOI4 dev. You do know that just 2 nukes ended the largest conflict in human history, claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in a matter of hours, and ushered in a completely new era in world diplomacy. And those nukes were made though millions of dollars and the efforts of thousands of exiled scientists in the world's most economically rich nation. And your telling me, that a game that claims to give an accurate representation of ww2, involves a poor country THAT DOESN'T POSSES ANY LAND, to effectively create nuclear weapons without any significant economic investement, and call it "far from overpowered."
 
Last edited:
  • 18Like
  • 12
  • 3
Reactions:
I personally respect and admire how much effort you put into reading and responding to what the community has to say, but this is probably the dumbest thing i've ever heard from a HOI4 dev. You do know that just 2 nukes ended the largest conflict in human history, claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in a matter of hours, and ushered in a completely new era in world diplomacy. And those nukes were made though millions of dollars and the efforts of thousands of exiled scientists in the world's most economically rich nation. And you telling me, that a game that claims to give an accurate representation of ww2, involves a poor country THAT DOESN'T POSSES ANY LAND, to effectively create nuclear weapons without any significant economic investement, and call it "far from overpowered."
To add to this, with the justification of "Poland lost all territories", then what would having an offmap nuke for themselves accomplish? In order to actually make use of said nuke, Poland would need to deliver it themselves, with their own strat bomber, presumably with allied fighters clearing the way. You can't really direct where allied fighters would fight, and since you lost all territories you clearly won't have enough fighters to clear the way yourself.

What, then, is the use of that nuke? It'd be one thing if it provides the richer allies with nukes, but your own Poland?

By the time Polish land has been liberated, such that Poland can start doing something, the Germans have already been defeated
 
  • 10Like
  • 3
Reactions:
So, the other day, I was having drinks with a random, well-to-do, legitimate-seeming businessman at an obscure establishment, and we got to talking. Naturally, we were both avid Hearts of Iron players and aficionados of Polish history. He says "I bet you we'll never see Pavel Bermondt-Avalov as the head of state of an alternate-history Polish nation." I says "Oh yeah? Let's make it interesting."

Next thing I know, this diary comes out, and now I owe my house, two stepsons, a goat, and my third cousin, Regina, to an Andorran black-market almond milk kingpin.

Thanks, Paradox. Very disappointed.
 
Last edited:
  • 9Haha
  • 7
  • 2Like
  • 1Love
Reactions:
Will there ever be a comment on refusal to implement Prometheism?

Edit: That being said, I went back and checked the reaction score on the original Dev Diary post - 10 minutes after it was posted when I read it the first time, the reaction was overwhelmingly positive, but now it's the opposite. I think there might be a bit of a bandwagon issue here as well.

Which implies that some just liked it without really reading into it, it is indeed a bandwagon issue. Offmap nuke issue alone probably gets a big amount of disagrees.
 
  • 5Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Will there ever be a comment on refusal to implement Prometheism?



Which implies that some just liked it without really reading into it, it is indeed a bandwagon issue. Offmap nuke issue alone probably gets a big amount of disagrees.
I myself disagreed with the offmap nuke issue, but as I said in my comment where I stated that I also stated that I thought the rest of the tree was well-done. People are ignoring the good parts of the tree and only flaming the bad parts. It's not very constructive to keep flaming and piling on heaps of complaints, when there is plenty of good stuff in the dev diary as well. This tree at the very least is miles better than the original Polish tree, which I have long considered to be by far the worst focus tree in the game. It may have a couple things I don't like in it, but to say that it's completely garbage and unredeemable is just lazy and wrong.
 
  • 6
  • 4
Reactions:
Which implies that some just liked it without really reading into it, it is indeed a bandwagon issue. Offmap nuke issue alone probably gets a big amount of disagrees.
To be fair, i "Liked" it first because well, it's came right on time. Only after that, i changed that into "Haha".

I believe little of the early likes is bandwagon.
Will there ever be a comment on refusal to implement Prometheism?

Yeah, Prometheism is not that far-fetched because Pilsudski died only 7 months ago, there's still his followers and the Guiding Spirit of the Nation (read: us players) who can carry on his legacy.
 
Last edited:
  • 5Like
Reactions:
Because Yugoslavia was developed during Death or Dishonor before government in exile was a thing. Now Poland after Man the Guns and government in exile can have that.
Let's remember in the last country pack the Yugoslav tree was updated with several additional branches but it still did not have post capitulation approaches, something I think should have been added
 
  • 5Like
  • 2
Reactions:
I myself disagreed with the offmap nuke issue, but as I said in my comment where I stated that I also stated that I thought the rest of the tree was well-done. People are ignoring the good parts of the tree and only flaming the bad parts. It's not very constructive to keep flaming and piling on heaps of complaints, when there is plenty of good stuff in the dev diary as well. This tree at the very least is miles better than the original Polish tree, which I have long considered to be by far the worst focus tree in the game. It may have a couple things I don't like in it, but to say that it's completely garbage and unredeemable is just lazy and wrong.

There is a lot of work indeed. But there aren't that many parts that are done really well. However most parts of tree have some mistakes. In this and last DD there is a lot of feedback on it too.

But... Cossack King, Communist colonies and offmap nukes are things in particular of worse quality than joke Malta tree and hardly distinguishable from a poor research. And refusal to even say anything about East is worst in my own opinion.

Yeah, Prometheism is not that far-fetched because Pildsudski died only 7 months ago, there's still his followers and the Guiding Spirit of the Nation (read: us players) who can carry on his legacy.

Apparently more far-fetched than colonial communist Poland.
 
  • 6Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Has there been any HoI4 Dev Diary downvoted like this?

Actually I'm not so deep into polnish history that I'm able to assess wheather the Alt-History stuff plausible, semi-plausible or just meme-bullshit (which may have it's raison d'être too) but the voice from the forum is quite clear.
 
  • 10Like
  • 3
Reactions:
Has there been any HoI4 Dev Diary downvoted like this?

Actually I'm not so deep into polnish history that I'm able to assess wheather the Alt-History stuff plausible, semi-plausible or just meme-bullshit (which may have it's raison d'être too) but the voice from the forum is quite clear.
Remember, though, that this is the same forum that started burning effigies over whether HoI IV, a computer game from 2016, would use 3D models instead of cardboard-inspired counters. After much hullabaloo, the devs added the desired counter feature, only for metrics to show a mere 13% actually used it.

This community is not always the voice of reason or the majority.
 
  • 8
  • 6Like
  • 2
Reactions:
There is another issue too - Polish would-be purchase of Madagascar was a thing that was considered in prism of ethnic cleansing by Poles. To get rid of Jews. And Palestine is likely the same.

It is really as bad as giving Germans Madagascar plan.
 
  • 11Like
  • 2
  • 2
Reactions:
Oh, also. Why isn't there more anarchist nations? Like, it would be so much fun to make the world go anarch with a Spanish ally. :D Anarchist USSR or Poland from the peasant union? Hmm?
 
  • 2Like
  • 2
Reactions:
Has there been any HoI4 Dev Diary downvoted like this?

Actually I'm not so deep into polnish history that I'm able to assess wheather the Alt-History stuff plausible, semi-plausible or just meme-bullshit (which may have it's raison d'être too) but the voice from the forum is quite clear.

It's hard to tell because the reactions seem to have been wiped on many of the old DDs, especially the ones that I remember having been controversial, such as formables nations with Al-Andalus.
 
  • 6Like
  • 2
Reactions: