HOI4 - Development Diary - October 12th 2016

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I'm pretty baffle by the choice to make teh blitz command a paid feature. For me it's just pay to win at this point. I have no problem paying for new content (such as espionnage, better diplomatic, new Focus Tree or Event, new Tech Branch, or whatever), but I never thought I would have to pay to have a missing feature added. HOI IV is my first Paradox game. I was pretty confident until then, but now I feel concerned.
 
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so you think it's okay for paradox to make a paid DLC that puts something in that was meant to be in from release, and silence people who disagree by deleting their posts completely privately? i had one of my posts go missing, these are posts not breaking any rules and you are given no notification they are removed. This is censorship of a negative reaction and it is not defensible.

1. Your statement is an assumption as to what was intended to be on release. Even if PDx wanted this feature from the beginning, it didn't make it in the final cut. as such it is part of DLC (see point 2).
2. PDx can and will decide what to release for free and what it will ask money for. If you do not like how they handle it, please feel free to comment in a polite way. No need to be rude or make snide comments. More importantly, when making a negative reply try and offer constructive solutions (I have seen many of your posts and most are plain angst)
3. Given the amount of negative posts I would be surprised to find out that they randomly picked a couple to delete to "censor" the reactions. Chances are that if a post is not there it either a) violated a forum rule, b) an internet issue, c) was borderline offensive, or d) didn't happen.

I would try and keep statements as close to truth as possible. You may find it less stressful to accept the fact that someone other than you is making decisions about the development of this game and that you are not their only customer. They are creating games for a wide market and you may not agree with all of their choices. They are, however, PDx choices to make.
 
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A bit disappointing.
I`ll have to wait for xmas for the new patch. And then it`ll make battleplans better, which I don`t use anyways - not even for the planing bonus, because I always fear the AI buggers up my lineup.
 
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Hm, whenever I see such news about HOI4 Development, I think "It's a good feature/improvement", but it's never that one, I would expect. :) Still a lot to do, but thanks for the announcement.
 
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I'm pretty baffle by the choice to make th blitz command a paid feature. For me it's just pay to win at this point. I have no problem paying for new content (such as espionnage, better diplomatic, new Focus Tree or Event, new Tech Branch, or whatever), but I never thought I would have to pay to have a missing feature added. HOI IV is my first Paradox game. I was pretty confident until then, but now I feel concerned.
Well it's not pay to win, since in a MP game when the host has a DLC all other players benefit. But I agree - this doesn't seem like a new feature, more of an improvement in the ease of use of an existing one.
 
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The end result would be more or less the same, but since they would not be helping out through support attacks in combats as they go along, you would likely end up taking more damage if you just give a bunch of move orders and leave them alone.

With the information I have currently (knowing full well things may change over time) about this DLC I am willing to give up potentially more damage rather than paying for something that does "more or less the same thing"
Why would I pay for this feature when I have been replicating it with just a couple of mouse clicks since HOI1?
Most of us have been successfully pulling off encirclements and blitzes from day one of playing. I'm trying to figure out why I would pay for something that every general has used (or tried to use) since the very first war?
PDS did not invent encirclements or the blitz. It is not patented by PDS. I'm not sure why this is not part of the base game to begin with to be honest.

I'm one of PDS's loudest fan boys but I'm having a real difficult time cheering for this
 
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1. Your statement is an assumption as to what was intended to be on release. Even if PDx wanted this feature from the beginning, it didn't make it in the final cut. as such it is part of DLC (see point 2).
2. PDx can and will decide what to release for free and what it will ask money for. If you do not like how they handle it, please feel free to comment in a polite way. No need to be rude or make snide comments. More importantly, when making a negative reply try and offer constructive solutions (I have seen many of your posts and most are plain angst)
3. Given the amount of negative posts I would be surprised to find out that they randomly picked a couple to delete to "censor" the reactions. Chances are that if a post is not there it either a) violated a forum rule, b) an internet issue, c) was borderline offensive, or d) didn't happen.

I would try and keep statements as close to truth as possible. You may find it less stressful to accept the fact that someone other than you is making decisions about the development of this game and that you are not their only customer. They are creating games for a wide market and you may not agree with all of their choices. They are, however, PDx choices to make.

1 - The game is hearts of iron, the ability to do proper pincer attacks and encirclements through battleplans is not some optional fluffy feature. if battleplans was their big new feature it HAS to be in. this is like total war releasing a game without the RTS mode and then selling it to you later

2 - yes, and they're dead wrong and my constructive criticism is release that feature for free because its a horrible decision. there's no two ways about it.

3 - if they violated forum rules they would infringe people, or you'd get the yellow text from had a dad, i have been taking screenshots from now on, trust me, if another goes missing i WILL find it and post evidence. i wasn't before so i can't show you the missing posts but they were there.
 
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It will try to cover what it can based on priority. Aside from that there have been some improvements done to how it balances units over all, which is of course included in the free update.

Generally, players (well, those playing China), will garrison ports with a 1-2-1 layout, at minimum, with divisions on either side of the port, to discourage landings right next to your ports. Will the garrison command do this, if you tell it to garrison ports?
 
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Generally, players (well, those playing China), will garrison ports with a 1-2-1 layout, at minimum, with divisions on either side of the port, to discourage landings right next to your ports. Will the garrison command do this, if you tell it to garrison ports?

Not at this point, but certainly something to consider for future improvement :)
 
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Hey All,

Those that are complaining that it will cost for a new feature that they wish was in at start just don't understand! Features take time to make and that costs money. There is much I wish was in HOI IV at release, but will happily pay for it if it is going to take time & effort to build. I still will poke the developers when I think it will do some good, but I am not asking for it for free! If you are thinking that this costs too much, just wait it will be on sale someday (maybe when they first release HOI V you can buy HOI IV & all DLCs cheaply). So I will defend them on this!
 
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With the information I have currently (knowing full well things may change over time) about this DLC I am willing to give up potentially more damage rather than paying for something that does "more or less the same thing"
Why would I pay for this feature when I have been replicating it with just a couple of mouse clicks since HOI1?
"things may change over time"? well I hope so, the whole expansion are not a single feature + a free thing or it might be hard to sell ;) Again not every feature will appeal to everyone. If you are fine with microing it will always be a just as good alternative, others might not be and be excited about this feature. Keep an eye on future diary for stuff that does intrigue you
 
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In the Garrison order configuration, it would be handy if you could not only set what you want the garrison to care about, but also prioritize the things it does care about.

I.E.Quell the rebels first. Then if you have units left over guard the airfields. Then if you still have units put them to harbors.

Also the AI could prioritize using cavalry units for rebel duty, and more fighty units for other duties. And between other duties would put "heavier" units to tasks with higher priority. In regards to my example above, that would mean putting the heaviest units to guard airfields, and whatever is left to guard the harbors.

This has been free feedback.
 
With the information I have currently (knowing full well things may change over time) about this DLC I am willing to give up potentially more damage rather than paying for something that does "more or less the same thing"
Why would I pay for this feature when I have been replicating it with just a couple of mouse clicks since HOI1?
Most of us have been successfully pulling off encirclements and blitzes from day one of playing. I'm trying to figure out why I would pay for something that every general has used (or tried to use) since the very first war?
PDS did not invent encirclements or the blitz. It is not patented by PDS. I'm not sure why this is not part of the base game to begin with to be honest.

I'm one of PDS's loudest fan boys but I'm having a real difficult time cheering for this

Sorry for lack of clarity: the end result would look more or less the same in that the same provinces would be conquered, given enough superiority. But since the manual orders, unless you micro the whole process, would not include stuff like support attacks or waiting until a reasonable amount of org before attacking, the difference in cost can be significant.
 
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In the Garrison order configuration, it would be handy if you could not only set what you want the garrison to care about, but also prioritize the things it does care about.

I.E.Quell the rebels first. Then if you have units left over guard the airfields. Then if you still have units put them to harbors.

Also the AI could prioritize using cavalry units for rebel duty, and more fighty units for other duties. And between other duties would put "heavier" units to tasks with higher priority. In regards to my example above, that would mean putting the heaviest units to guard airfields, and whatever is left to guard the harbors.

This has been free feedback.
Thanks :) we did consider it, but often there is a clear priority order you want and changing it on the fly makes it difficult for player to anticipate what the result will be. You can also prioritize perfectly by using separate groups where you give just the amount of divisions you want
 
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Hey All,

Those that are complaining that it will cost for a new feature that they wish was in at start just don't understand! Features take time to make and that costs money. There is much I wish was in HOI IV at release, but will happily pay for it if it is going to take time & effort to build. I still will poke the developers when I think it will do some good, but I am not asking for it for free! If you are thinking that this costs too much, just wait it will be on sale someday (maybe when they first release HOI V you can buy HOI IV & all DLCs cheaply). So I will defend them on this!

I am no AI coder, nor have any experience in game development... I know it can be hard.. but theres a point on where to draw the line, and the line is.. well... you shouldnt ask money for a button you click just for units to go there, and focus it...
 
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To echo a few people on here: I understand that many developers release a game and leave it there without ongoing support and so in that respect we're lucky to have a game that's constantly being improved on, but what I don't understand is why one of these features is paid for and the other is free - both are incremental improvements to existing features. I know @podcat disagrees with this, but my argument is simple - the battle planner already exists and the new Blitz function is an addition to this.

If the battle planner didn't exist and the DLC offered it as a completely new feature then I suspect most people would be happy. Instead we have two features which are seemingly being treated inconsistently.

In the larger scheme of things I guess this isn't a big deal, especially when we don't really know much more about what's going to go into the rest of the DLC (I hope this is just a small part of a much wider scope), but it does set a worrying precedent.
 
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Hey All,

Those that are complaining that it will cost for a new feature that they wish was in at start just don't understand! Features take time to make and that costs money. There is much I wish was in HOI IV at release, but will happily pay for it if it is going to take time & effort to build. I still will poke the developers when I think it will do some good, but I am not asking for it for free! If you are thinking that this costs too much, just wait it will be on sale someday (maybe when they first release HOI V you can buy HOI IV & all DLCs cheaply). So I will defend them on this!

No one is complaining that features take time and cost money. i just bought the new rights of man expansion for EU4 and i'm very happy with it. i mean, my favourite feature of all, institutions is completely free and didn't cost me a dime but overall its a great expansion and i paid for it happily. There's a very big divide between "good feature that you pay for and it adds to the game" and "forcing people to pay to fix the game"

This was something meant to be in from the start, and if you followed world war wednesday as i did, i saw many people myself included ask to see more complicated plans, and they never did and we got the worst most simplistic system possible and now we are being sold a fix for it when we already paid them for a game that's meant to be working.
 
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