HOI4 - Development Diary - October 12th 2016

[wildbillhdmax01]

I do mostly blame how I presented things

But that's been with almost everything since day one. Dev diaries have been for more or less presented poorly, and communication has broken down across the board while other Teams have done a much better job at it.

 

[podcat]

I have no problem with that. And honestly many people will buy the first DLC anyway (or already have). So what the point of adding Blitz to the DLC ? Increase sells figure ? You are most likely getting the opposite by including such basic feature in a DLC. I feel cheated as a customer. Please reconsider.

in this case, adding value to people who actually pay and for people who already did through the field marshal edition

 

[lort683]

Apparently we're the 0.25% of their customer base, in the excuse posted the other day. So our opinion is irrelevant because the majority do not speak out.

What excuse was that? could you link me?

 

[Chema1994]

Great news, but imho that should be included from the start

 

[ruzen]

What's even sadder, is the HOI4 team was the most loved team from release. People have seen the dedication and the love of their work and waited supportively during all those delays. They did the best release in the Paradox history and people loved team for It. I loved It too. This reaction from fans was so evident, even other Paradox teams ( CK2, EU4 ) were inspired by this and tried put more effort into their work. Both teams took their time and released one of ( IF not) the best content for both games. CK2 even revived the series.

But now all we get acknowledge of a problem but offering Paid Feature solution.

 

[sturnado]

in this case, adding value to people who actually pay and for people who already did through the field marshal edition

But what you're doing isn't really adding any value - instead you're nickel and diming us for things that were reasonably expected to be in the base game.

This is a game about World War 2. The blitzkrieg was an integral part of WW2. Locking a blitz command behind a paywall is not cool, not even in the slightest.

 

[trenarrr]

I'm done with paradox. You can't seriously expect people to pay for a feature that should have been in since day one, come on! The game is nowhere near finished, and at no time did you tell me I was buying a goddamned demo. Finish the bloody product or get out of the business you ********.

- Please mind your language //Icratox

 

[Chema1994]

Also the garrison priority settings could be adapted to the air missions:
For ground attack you could choose CAS or interdiction
For strategic bombing IC, infrastructure or airfields
For port strike the ships or the port itself

 

[Ancalimé]

Cool story, bro.
It was like this when Paradox was niche company producing games for a very narrow auditory. And people were ready to endure a lot just to play such games - terrible bugs, not working gaameplay mechanics, strange pricing policy, constant flow of cosmetic stuff just to stay afloat and a lot more. People were ready to be free testers for the games they want, to help shaping it into something great. Everybody knew that Paradox "1.0 release" is more close to today "Early Access" than to complete game gameplay-wise.

Nowadays, Paradox is a big company and a big Publisher too - just go to Forum main page and count the number of games Paradox developed or took part in development one way or another. Read about their clear statements about how they want to focus and appeal to broader auditory. And they succeeded - both Stellaris and HoI4 became most sold Paradox titles. But the process of game development didn't change even a little bit - same horrible bugs and non-working mechanics, same "be a tester for free", same million cosmetic stuff and costly DLC with Add-ons. They have huge auditory and probably big on cash now, but somehow are still trying to pretend a small niche company they were years ago.

But a lot of people still go like: "It's a Paradox, chill a little bit, they always are like that". But thing is Paradox is nothing like it was. We must start addressing it like all other big players in game Industry. What people do when EA release another game riddled with bugs? Or Ubisoft mess up another title? A ****-storm appears. Paradox messed up TWO of their titles, one after another? "Well, it's Paradox, let's wait a year or two till they sort their games out", paying double the cost of original games on DLCs and cosmetic stuff". At least EA and Co sell Season Passes for their games...

I've made this exact point a while ago, and a lot of people downvoted it.
Now they agree apparently.

 

[hkrommel]

Do note that its important to understand that we need to actually charge money for DLC as much as people would like everything to be free, its what fuels bug fixing and continued development. We arent like a lot of other companies who release 1-3 patches then make sequels instead so we need to find a good balance between paid/free stuff, and sometimes stuff is in a grey zone. Sometimes big stuff need to be free (like tech changes in EU's Rights of Man) to give a base to build on, and because you cant just replace an existing system and then not have it accessible for all so it needs to be free.

The issue is that the battleplanner should already be able to work like the "blitz" feature offers. It's supposed to replace micro, but it doesn't even come close to simulating blitzkrieg which was an integral part of the war. I'm fine with paying for expansions that add lots of little things on top of bigger things, but frankly the battleplanner should have already had this and hiding it inside a paid DLC is a worrying action on your part.

 

[Theodorian]

209 Dislikes and 70 Likes on the original post. At what point is it recognized that this behavior of attaching essential fixes to base game mechanics behind a DLC paywall is not acceptable?

 

[sturnado]

209 Dislikes and 70 Likes on the original post. At what point is it recognized that this behavior of attaching essential fixes to base game mechanics behind a DLC paywall is not acceptable?

I really hope the community outcry motivates them to reverse this ridiculous blitz command paywall decision.

 

[podcat]

They did the best release in the Paradox history and people loved team for It. I loved It too. This reaction from fans was so evident, even other Paradox teams ( CK2, EU4 ) were inspired by this and tried put more effort into their work.

I'm sorry, but I am not sure if this is sarcasm or not HOI4 release was probably one of the best and most stable in PDS history, but this forum has been overwhelmingly negative to a large degree since release (and was also very negative the week before release when a lot of other gaming communities were very positive as they watched streamers etc play). Its something I think partly is legacy of HOI3 release, partly our fault for managing communication less than optimal, and partly because well, HOI players are HOI players. We will need to work together to overcome this stuff, because its not fun for us or you with such a climate on the forum. payed or not aside people have spent 99% of their energy in this thread on being negative, posting ultimatums and critic. Now, to clarify there is nothing wrong with speaking your mind and giving constructive critic, and has sent a clear message, *but* the fact that there is no talk about the actual features is sadly not so surprising and pretty depressing. Its pretty clear the current community climate only really accepts negative opinions which is driving away a lot of people who are having a good time.

also since this is moving fast, I have recognized the feedback here. check my post last page

 

[sturnado]

I'm sorry, but I am not sure if this is sarcasm or not HOI4 release was probably one of the best and most stable in PDS history, but this forum has been overwhelmingly negative to a large degree since release (and was also very negative the week before release when a lot of other gaming communities were very positive as they watched streamers etc play). Its something I think partly is legacy of HOI3 release, partly our fault for managing communication less than optimal, and partly because well, HOI players are HOI players. We will need to work together to overcome this stuff, because its not fun for us or you with such a climate on the forum. payed or not aside people have spent 99% of their energy in this thread on being negative, posting ultimatums and critic. Now, to clarify there is nothing wrong with speaking your mind and giving constructive critic, and has sent a clear message, *but* the fact that there is no talk about the actual features is sadly not so surprising and pretty depressing. Its pretty clear the current community climate only really accepts negative opinions which is driving away a lot of people who are having a good time.

So your thinking equates to the following: people are complaining about your DLC announcement because customers of your HOI franchise are naturally just negative whiny people?

You just threw gasoline all over the fire.

Edit: People aren't posting here just to be negative. Nobody would take the time to shit all over something they don't even have an interest in. Every single "negative HOI player" posting here wants this game to be better. We want to love this game, and we want to see it improve, and we don't want to be nickel and dimed in the process.

Referring to us the way you have is frankly insulting.

 

[ashbery76]

So your thinking equates to the following: people are complaining about your DLC announcement because customers of your HOI franchise are naturally just negative whiny people?

You just threw gasoline all over the fire.

Seems like denial and deflecting the reality from what most people can clearly see a patch feature vital to the base game becoming paid.

 

[Demosthenest]

@podcat since you seem to be reading this, can you respond my PM about a huge bug I encountered in this game?

 

[Swistaczek]

The point is that DLCs should be made of stuff that enchances the gameplay, not stuff that help with micromanaging. EU4 is example here, most people bought eu4 dlcs because of all those buttons that detach ships, let you give territory to ally and other stuff. Thats not what DLCs should be for.

 

[podcat]

@podcat since you seem to be reading this, can you respond my PM about a huge bug I encountered in this game?

Yeah thanks, already logged it earlier tonight after talking with Bjorn.

So your thinking equates to the following: people are complaining about your DLC announcement because customers of your HOI franchise are naturally just negative whiny people?

Thats not what I said. I said this forum is seemingly in a big negative place and its not good for anyone and we should try and get it out of there. I also care a lot, otherwise I would not be talking to fans on the forum at midnight.

 

[thunderchild]

I think the main problem here is that the DD is tiny and really doesn´t show anything interesting.

If people had seen some more paid and unpaid features, they wouldn´t we so upset.

But anyways that´s my opinion, I like the new features and probably will buy the first DLC on release. I encourage you to keep the good work, i´m sure the patch will have plenty of new features that the community, in general speaking, will like.

 

[Xuanzue]

@podcat I've been writing since June the problem of having to use ctrl-H to deal with the battleplan going crazy. Just today you answered me. And it seems it was because I was rude, not because the battleplans.

Battleplans have been an issue rarely addressed by paradox, first we have a long silence about them, and suddenly the first time paradox talks about battleplans is about how they will be tied to the DLC.

Look! 0 dev posts there:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...re-horribly-frustrating.953839/&sdpDevPosts=1

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...e-edges-of-a-battleplan.960602/&sdpDevPosts=1

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...ter-battle-plan-control.965999/&sdpDevPosts=1