• 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 - The Baltic States 1/2 and Poland 3/2

Hello and welcome to another dev diary for the Barbarossa patch! Today I’m back with you to talk about not one, not two, but three new focus trees coming with the upcoming expansion: Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia!
Baltic States Map.png


The Baltic States were in a difficult position in the build-up to world war 2; only recently liberated from Russian and German rule and less than 20 years on from a bloody struggle against both imperialist powers. In the 30s, each of the states had established authoritarian rule in fear of German and Soviet invasions, and a player hoping to survive as a Baltic state must take some extreme measures to overcome these overwhelming odds...

The Baltic States, like the Chinese, will share some branches of their focus tree while other branches will be unique to each country. This week I am going to talk about the shared branches; the industrial branch and the communist political branch.
Baltic Total Focuses.png


Starting up with the industrial branch, each Baltic state was in something of a similar situation economically; relying heavily on foreign investment and equipment for their industry and armed forces. As such, each Baltic state may decide if they wish to put their faith in the democratic nations to supply their economy, or the Axis powers to fuel the war machine.
Baltic Industry Branch.png


The other common issue facing the Baltics was that they had previously been occupied by the Soviets and Germany, and their industry was sorely lacking. So, the Balts can attract workers to their capital and begin their rearmament and develop their research sector.
Attract Workers.png


Lastly, by modernising their industry, the Baltic states may become much more self-sufficient and end their reliance on foreign powers to fuel their war machine. They may expand raw resource production in their nation, which for Estonia and Latvia means the development of their on-map resources.

Lithuania however was uniquely very reliant on its agriculture, and thus starts the game with a variant of the “Agrarian Society” national spirit which can be slowly turned into a great benefit via their industrial tree.
Natural Resources.png


Next up, each of the Baltic States had recently endured bloody struggles against the USSR, so popular support for communism was vanishingly low. A Baltic state hoping to overthrow the government and establish an independent communist state must do so through war.
Estonia civil war.png


The Balts can either choose to rely on the Soviet intervention or attempt to reconcile relations with the Baltic lower classes and try to maintain their independence while establishing communism on their own.
Restore Workers Republic.png


Once the revolution is done and your nation is communist, the player will have the option to re-establish the Lithuania-Belarus SSR. In the case you sided with the Soviets, the USSR will grant you their half of Belarus with the rest coming either through war or the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
Lithuania Belarus Soviets.png


If you are independent however, Belarus must be acquired through adversarial means. The Baltic state must propagandise support for unification in Belarus similar to the Spanish Civil War garrison control system. When time runs out, Belarus will be released and fight a civil war; the victor will be annexed into either the victorious Baltic nation or the USSR.
Latvia Belarus decisions.png


The Baltic nation will also be able to try to convert their neighbours to communism through a propaganda war. No matter which path the Baltic player takes to establish socialism across the Baltics; they will be able to form the United Baltic SSR.
Baltic Socialist Republic.png


From there, they may use their newfound strength against Scandinavia and Poland and achieve communism across the entire Baltic Sea.
Baltic Warpath.png

That’s all for the Baltic States this week, next week I will be talking about the entirely unique political trees for each Baltic state.



Something worth bringing up here is we did make some changes to the Polish tree since we last talked about it. Firstly, I do just want to show off some of the new focus icons we got since I wrote those dev diaries and I feel like our artists have done a really great job. There are more, but I don't want to spoil all of them just yet! ;)
Poland focus icons.png


We originally planned to have Poland get an off-map reactor to essentially get them control of 1 nuke during play as an exile nation. This to reflect their role in the nuclear project, but we were already a bit on the fence on if this was too immersion breaking for the gameplay purpose, and it seemed many of you thought so too so we removed the off-map reactor and moved the focus to the industry branch.
Poland atomic bomb.png


Next, I managed to find time to implement Karl Albrecht von Habsburg as an option for monarchist Poland. He has his own branch which involves pressing the Habsburg claim on Czechoslovakia.
Karl Albrecht I.png

Habsburg Path.png


Claiming Czechoslovakia uses the same decision system as claiming Lithuania for the Commonwealth branch, and once the two nations are united, the ambition of West-Slavic unification is realised and the new nation may declare itself protector of the western Slavic peoples living in Germany.
West Slavia.png


Karl Albrecht I was known for the service he provided to the Polish army, and it’s unlikely that willingness to serve would vanish upon becoming King. So, as Soldier-King, he will gain a plethora of unique personality traits as well as becoming a field marshal.
Soldier King.png


With Hungary aligning itself with Poland’s enemies, Karl Albrecht can demand that Horthy step down in favour of Otto von Habsburg and force Hungary down their Habsburg path, diplomatically aligning them with Habsburg Poland.
Demand Habsburg Rule.png


Galicia-Lodomeria represented Habsburg rule over Poland and as such, Karl Albrecht may restore the Diet of Galicia which as well as giving the Royal Sejm national spirit, moves the nation’s capital to Krakow. While this centralises the capital between Poland and Czechoslovakia and surrounds the capital in defensible hills, the old Polish capital is also very close to the German border and may prove an easy target…
Diet of Galicia.png


I feel I should also clarify the mechanics behind electing a monarch. When the Fulfil the 5th of November Act focus is complete, candidates come forward and present themselves to be King. So while it would make little sense for the regency council to reach out and invite candidates like Pavel Bermondt-Avalov to be King, Pavel is certainly the type to try and present himself for King.
Cossack King Event.png


The final thing I'd like to mention is that during testing we noticed that it was quite a chore to scroll back and forth between the Polish tree with it being so wide, so I implemented a system where the Polish tree automatically compacts itself when you've chosen a political path.
Tree compacting.png


That’s all for this week, next week we will be covering the paths unique to each Baltic state and for now I’ll leave you with this teaser.
funny_hat_dot_png.png
 
  • 282Like
  • 78Love
  • 61
  • 12
  • 6
  • 1Haha
Reactions:
  • 3
  • 1Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Well, I gotta take my hat off to ya, you heard the community pleas and answered. Hopefully ya do more of that in the coming future
 
  • 2
Reactions:
Espionage, resistance fighting, the Spanish civil war, and Iberia. Oh, and Vichy France focus tree and insta-join bugfix.


Focused on Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, and the Black Sea and Bosphorous region.
They all could have Italy on them. Heck, La Resistance is literally the most fitting, Mussolini was saved in a espionage operation, they were part of the french campaign, and they had civil wars, which was one of the themes of the DLC. Battle for the Bosphorus reworked all the countries that would be fitting to come along Italy in a DLC.
 
  • 5
  • 1
Reactions:
I thought this was a first April fool, but you really want to introduce the Baltics? I mean, they are very minor and very unimportant for that scenario. I was sure Finland would get one, because they had their little big fight against Soviet Union. Well ... Paradox made a focus tree for New Zealand, Netherlands and Belgium, aswell. So maybe I was to blind to see it coming XD
 
  • 22
  • 2Like
Reactions:
They all could have Italy on them. Heck, La Resistance is literally the most fitting, Mussolini was saved in a espionage operation, they were part of the french campaign, and they had civil wars, which was one of the themes of the DLC. Battle for the Bosphorus reworked all the countries that would be fitting to come along Italy in a DLC.
Oh, is that what you are arguing. No, sorry, I still feel Italy deserves to be the star of the show in her own DLC. Also, as has been said, Italy already has a focus tree. Honestly, I'm not sure what people are even complaining about when they talk about other countries getting focus trees before Italy - she had a focus tree when the game was released.

I thought this was a first April fool, but you really want to introduce the Baltics? I mean, they are very minor and very unimportant for that scenario. I was sure Finland would get one, because they had their little big fight against Soviet Union. Well ... Paradox made a focus tree for New Zealand, Netherlands and Belgium, aswell. So maybe I was to blind to see it coming XD
Not Belgium. I guess the best solution for them would be to put them in the Scandi country pack (unless Scandinavia is in this DLC), due to geographic proximity.
 
  • 3
  • 1
Reactions:
The final thing I'd like to mention is that during testing we noticed that it was quite a chore to scroll back and forth between the Polish tree with it being so wide, so I implemented a system where the Polish tree automatically compacts itself when you've chosen a political path.
Tree compacting.png
I'm wondering if it will take a lot of coding to compact a focus tree if I try to create a mod myself, or is it possible to add some effects that can automatically compact it?
 
  • 1Like
Reactions:
I thought this was a first April fool, but you really want to introduce the Baltics? I mean, they are very minor and very unimportant for that scenario. I was sure Finland would get one, because they had their little big fight against Soviet Union. Well ... Paradox made a focus tree for New Zealand, Netherlands and Belgium, aswell. So maybe I was to blind to see it coming XD
Not Belgium
 
  • 2
Reactions:
Looks really great this. WTT esque style which was the best DLC to date IMO. I will actually probably play all the Baltic states.

Great work and looking forward to the dev diaries in the future.

Can we have more German and Russian generals? I can provide a list if need be.

Need to get the content designers at work generating some new portraits.
 
  • 3
Reactions:
I'm always a fan of new content, it's going to be interesting to see what kind of wrench the Baltics can put in the soviet and german expansion spheres, this does bring up the question of Finland Tree this DLC? Seems like were getting that corner of Europe taken care of, and I hope that after that we have a Mediterranean/Africa based DLC for Italy to thrive in because we all know the star of this DLC is going to be Russia.
 
  • 1Like
  • 1
Reactions:
I'm wondering if it will take a lot of coding to compact a focus tree if I try to create a mod myself, or is it possible to add some effects that can automatically compact it?
In script we already have the support for it. You just have to use allow_branch on the focuses you wanna hide and add an offset to make sure they move correctly when the focus tree changes size. Then you need to trigger a focus tree reload with load_focus_tree and you're good to go.
 
  • 22
  • 4Like
Reactions:
In Plan West's icon the eagle could be gold like sickle and hammer in plan east (instead of grey). That would make it clear and easily visible. The grey one is too similar to its surrounding and it is getting lost. It might look obvious when you look at it closely, but when you look like you would look playing game its not that clear.
plans.png
 
  • 15
  • 5Like
Reactions:
It is nice to see the baltic states getting attention, however I really hope that mother russia will also be reworked in this update. I mean, it is called Barbarossa for a reason, and what eastern front would be without a reworked Soviet Union.
 
  • 2Like
Reactions:
Mediterranean DLC? Literally TWO Med countries in 1936 are still untouched since base game. More likely an Italy DLC will include Austria and Switzerland
I’d think that a possible country for a Mediterranean dlc would be Egypt. If the update made them a puppet instead of colonial territory(which would be more accurate imo) then they could easily get a focus tree
 
@Meka66 will the "Seek Axis Investments" Focus be dynamic? For example, if Germany becomes the Kaiserreich again or a Constitutional Monarchy, does that affect the Focus and the subsequent Focuses?

I believe the changes to Poland's Next Top Monarch will finally make the Monarchist Path more interesting. Personally, I look forward to the Polish Underground State and the Monarchist Paths. And even joining forces with the Kaiserreich in an expanded Central Powers <3

Good to change that ridiculous one-nuke-a-year Focus into a 100% Nuclear Tech boost.

I am pretty sure Finland is next after the Baltics... and of course the Soviets themselves. :D
 
@Meka66 will the "Seek Axis Investments" Focus be dynamic? For example, if Germany becomes the Kaiserreich again or a Constitutional Monarchy, does that affect the Focus and the subsequent Focuses?

I believe the changes to Poland's Next Top Monarch will finally make the Monarchist Path more interesting. Personally, I look forward to the Polish Underground State and the Monarchist Paths. And even joining forces with the Kaiserreich in an expanded Central Powers <3
Yeah, the Seek Axis Investments thing tries to look for an actual fascist power if Germany has gone Kaiser or Democratic.

Some of what I've talked about are changes to the monarchy, but others were already there and I just didn't talk in detail last time. The Habsburg path is new, but the event for Pavel becoming King was always there for example. Each monarch candidate has a unique event for them proposing themselves to be king, and a partially unique news event when they are chosen by the Regency Council.
 
  • 14
  • 5Like
  • 2Love
Reactions:
Can we keep the speculation about other focus trees to a minimum? I appreciate it's fun, but I do like answering comments on diaries I write and having to filter through unrelated comments speculating about future trees makes this a bit more time consuming.
 
  • 28Like
  • 13
  • 7Haha
  • 1
  • 1
Reactions:
For this upcoming patch/expansion, are you guys gonna give Wtt Germany a communist path? With the USSR inevitably getting a tree, now seems like the time to finally finish the Germany tree.
 
  • 1
  • 1Like
Reactions: