HOI4 Dev Diary - PdxCon Recap and Team update

[DiNardo1910]

I loved all the HOI content at PDXCon!

Thank you Dan and the team for your continued work on my favorite game of all time ♥

 

[Ayetach]

A new partisan system? I must have missed an earlier mention of that.

 

[Polakko]

One very important question regarding logistics: What will happen if our country capital will be cut off from rest of country?
Right now this thing happening is almost overkill, becase immidetily all of country becomes out of supply.
How it will work in new system?

 

[Helicopter200]

I hope you will add focus for remaining european countries that dont have focus like belgium,austria and switzerland (luxembourg is useless and who knows maybe focus for luxembourg too)

 

[Xary Moft]

The supply map mode is already looking gorgeous! I love the blue!

 

[podcat]

And can you imagine any delay caused by having too many partisans rising up in Poland, crippling the supplies of AG Centre at the gates of Moscow? Good lord I would love that!

Italian trains would be immune tho since they always run on time ;P

Any plans to update the older dlc trees (TFV/DoD) after USSR and Italy?

I suspect we will wanna keep doing at least more fixes similar to what we did with Yugoslavia in BFTB to keep stuff hummin'

Is there a chart for mod popularity over the course of time?

Sadly not. could probably assemble it from old posts I have made, but percentages dont tell the whole story. a % can go down because we just get more players even if that mod also got more players etc.

So, no air rework in the plans?

For a detailed updated roadmap I tend to wait until after each expansion is out. I cant remember if air changes are on that one, but its been discussed a few times internally among the things we think could be improved

 

[Tehrozer]

Modding wise here are the latest numbers for the biggest total conversion mods:

• Road to 56 - 10%
• Kaiserreich - 6%
• Millenium Dawn - 3%
• The New Order - 2.9%
• Old World Blues - 2.2%
• The Great War - 2.2%
• Cold War: Iron Curtain - 1.2%

What do the % represent here?

• As games get older the harder it is to do large paid mechanics changes and HOI is starting to approach that stage now. Our current thoughts (that could totally change) is to focus more towards smaller DLCs like country packs, patches and free updates long term as this lets us focus on whats best for the game and get more flavor in.

I feel that HOI is still far from that stage there are still many mechanics that can be added and there are even still some mechanics that were in the games past but are not here. Moreover EU4 and CK2 shown that it is entirely possible to continue adding new mechanics years into the future even some that would substantially alter how the game is played so if anything I think it would be great for HOI to take that example and follow trough with it. There is also the fact that country packs don't seem to be at all popular with the community and from what I could see that seems to be reflected in how they perform worse sales wise.

But other than that I have to say the new supply is shaping up to be great both in content and looks which is nice.

 

[Treviranus]

Not the most flashy, spectacular Dev Diary around here, but interesting nonetheless.

But do you seriously want to arrange the Soviet Focus tree in such a way that "The Left Opposition" is placed to the right of "The Center"? I'm triggered.

 

[LittleRedRidingHood]

While I appreciate most of the stuff, except leaving out Suomi (perkele!), Please get rid of those train animations. They are too fast, look wonky and I feel they only serve to distract from important fighty things.

 

[TheSeto3000]

So welcome to Bukharin at right of the Soviet tree

 

[Godd_Howard]

Trains are cool, I'm afraid I will waste half of my time just watching them run around instead of paying attention to the frontlines.

 

[PurpulaPhoenixum53]

No Step Back will launch together with the 1.11 Barbarossa update

Could you speak to release season? Not an actual date, but a anticipated season of release. Beyond that, from what has been shown in the DDs and PDXCON, I really am starting to love this DLC. I might pre-order, but I'll wait til the Russia DDs are out.

Also could you speak a bit more on the Anniversery stuff that might come out on June 6th, either the patch or possible content?

The mapmode is starting to really come around and is much easier to play

This looks really good. Is there some type of code that might help newer players understand what exactlly they're looking at? Also, how is the AI acclimating to the new system?

placeholder train graphics as our proper models aren't in the game just yet, but doesn't it look cozy?

Looks really good. The art team should give themselves a cookie for all the hard work that this took. Reminds me of the model trains I used to see during Christmas in my town. Will the train gun have some model on the map so we can see it... working?

It will have its dedicated diaries (plural)

Why do I feel like this Russia is going to 5(+?) DDs?

its one of our more ambitions trees yet, both in size and in player

My hope is that after this DLC the Soviet's tree is the largest in the game. Yes, even larger than Spain's.

(yes I know center is on the left. Trust me it makes sense. You are crazy I am not crazy!)

If the center is the left, I feel like this is a confirmation of a possible monarchist and fascist paths. I'm this will be answered when Russia is shown off, but will there will be state changes to Russia proper?

 

[izadirad1]

Hi devs

Please don’t forget Asian minors. Philippines and Siam in particular both fought in ww2.

Might help Japan to have a stronger Siam especially coop multiplayer.

But it would be cool to see maybe Mongolia. Maybe have Tibet help the Chinese front. I’m not sure if Iran and Afghanistan are in the Middle East but perhaps them as well.

Oh and honestly I think Belgium deserves one too. Sorta similar to the Dutch fleeing to Indonesia with Congo maybe?

 

[Froozigiusz]

Will battle trains be in stockpile o nations that had them (poland had about two active in WW2 but I'm probably wrong in numbers)?

 

[colonel Oink]

We look forward to new details! And taking this opportunity - I want to ask you to remake the portrait of Trotsky in the game, otherwise the old one looks like a withered photograph.

 

[Kadanz]

This is a huge undertaking that changes a lot of key components of the game, especially the AI.

 

[Froozigiusz]

Also, how "hard" battle trains will be to produce? More ship like or tank like in terms of waiting? They weren't that many of them after all

 

[krios41]

While I appreciate most of the stuff, except leaving out Suomi (perkele!), Please get rid of those train animations. They are too fast, look wonky and I feel they only serve to distract from important fighty things.

i bet you'l be able to disable them in the graphics settings

 

[Kosaki MacTavish]

Ahahaha, thought you would bring my man to deliver the Soviet Rework's Quadruple Devdiaries.... Well, i can wait one week more, don't rush things.

We needed to build up both ai stability and get a new partisan system in place and

Finally Partisans!!! Hope Yugoslavia would have special operation to utilize this new mechanic.

placeholder train graphics as our proper models aren't in the game just yet, but doesn't it look cozy?

We also teased some pictures of the railways and trains, as well as confirming that there will be railway guns as a new unit type. They function a lot like naval bombardment support and are intended to help break tough defended positions (probably cities/railway hubs). More on those in a dedicated train porn diary in the future

Chu-Chu-Yeah!!! (don't google it unless you want to watch the best family show in 2017)

It will have its dedicated diaries (plural) and its one of our more ambitions trees yet, both in size and in player choices

Yeah, already guessing. My excitement keeps rising. But umm, would like for my man to switch Stalin's path and Trotsky's, thanks.

We want to focus on themes and specific regions here. At the moment the top contenders we think about are Scandinavia, Middle East and South America (so big its maybe two though)

Ahh, thought Southeast Asia would be on the top 3....

To be clear, none of this is promises because plans change, and I cant say exactly when these things happen - my goal is to keep you in the loop with how we think about things

Both the devs and the fans are affected by the pandemic. We're in this together (hope my college stuff didn't took to much time, btw....)

We have some cool team stuff happening, I will hand over the mic to @Arheo

Yooo, it's Arheo!!!

several of us previously from the Imperator: Rome team have swapped our gladii for KV-1s and have integrated with team HOI to create the ultimate combined arms,

Considering many Elysians are hailing from this place, definitely my man is already home. Yay! Hope the communication lines are ready for more devs. That's my earnest hope for your team, Podcat.

We're expanding the programming department in Studio Gold to better support the development of Hearts of Iron and future projects. Right now I'm looking for a Manager to help me develop our department as well as programmers that want to work with us to keep on building on Hearts of Iron and other GsG titles.

Well, i'll keep my job as a fan now, and would as much provide suggestions and criticisms, preferably creating my own mod to show it. Haha....

Next week can't be here soon enough. Thanks, all!

 

[Lord Lambert]

Reinforcements!

We have some cool team stuff happening, I will hand over the mic to @Arheo

Greetings all! Fresh from the Elysian fields, several of us previously from the Imperator: Rome team have swapped our gladii for KV-1s and have integrated with team HOI to create the ultimate combined arms, bear mounted (..thanks, Dan) division.

On a personal note, I’m thrilled to be joining HOI - it remains one of my all-time PDS favorites. The opportunity to give so much attention to such a short yet critical period of history is rarely afforded elsewhere. I have a great interest in the simulation of socio-political/economic causality behind the global narrative HOI provides, but find myself most at home micromanaging an ever-diminishing frontline in Russia… now with trains.

The ex-Imperator folks bring with them a wealth of knowledge which I’m certain can be put to good use here - we have spent a long time reacting, consulting, and working with our community to build a better game - something which I look forward to doing with the passionate fans of the HoI community as well.

HOI getting pops confirmed.

Gotta say this is a bit disappointing for me personally. One of my favourite devs going from working on my favourite PDX game to working on my least favourite

best of luck Peter, I know you'll bring HOI some magic <3