A few thoughts about the recent dev diary responses

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Even still, I don't think "Oppose Hitler" is a very sensible decision from a narrative standpoint, because it still doesn't make any sense why half the military would try and stop Hitler at that point in time.

Yes and no. Of course, triggering such an event with one 70-Day-Focus is a simplification, but a simplification which actually works in a way that is "sufficiently plausible". First of all, in 1936 Hitlers standing within the higher ranks of the military was not really good, he was nicknamed "Bohemian private" (Remark: You sometimes also read "Bohemian corporal" which is wrong - the German original says "Böhmischer Gefreiter" and "Gefreiter" equals a Private First Class) and second, in 1936 all persons involved knew, that they were dancing on a very thin blade - a tough reaction by France - even the announcement of a tough reaction by France - would have been sufficient to obstruct the plan.

Perhaps it works when you image that the following things happen in the background after you choose the focus:
(1) The German military is somehow convinced that the allies will not accept the Remilitarization of the Rhineland
(2) Despite (1) the German military is somehow convinced that Hitler will do it anyway and risk a confrontation

Yes, both assumptions are wrong from the 2021 perspective - but from the pre-march 1936 perspective they are only a few background-discussions away.
 
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Yes and no. Of course, triggering such an event with one 70-Day-Focus is a simplification, but a simplification which actually works in a way that is "sufficiently plausible". First of all, in 1936 Hitlers standing within the higher ranks of the military was not really good, he was nicknamed "Bohemian private" (Remark: You sometimes also read "Bohemian corporal" which is wrong - the German original says "Böhmischer Gefreiter" and "Gefreiter" equals a Private First Class) and second, in 1936 all persons involved knew, that they were dancing on a very thin blade - a tough reaction by France - even the announcement of a tough reaction by France - would have been sufficient to obstruct the plan.

Perhaps it works when you image that the following things happen in the background after you choose the focus:
(1) The German military is somehow convinced that the allies will not accept the Remilitarization of the Rhineland
(2) Despite (1) the German military is somehow convinced that Hitler will do it anyway and risk a confrontation
Exactly. This is what is said, more or less, in the description text for the focus as well.
 
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Exactly. This is what is said, more or less, in the description text for the focus as well.
I always felt that the more outlandish initial focuses could be retconned by saying "If that Happens, the pre 1936 timeline deviated a bit already", eg there is a communist movement in Japan, the German resistance is stronger than irl, etc.
 
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I want to take this opportunity to address a bit what happened with the Poland part 2 diary yesterday.

First of all the purpose of dev diaries is to show off in progress stuff so we can get feedback from the fans - you guys. I feel like people have started expecting something more like a release feature highlight and that is not what they are or should be.

This time we have gotten a lot of valuable feedback, but also quite a lot of rudeness and borderline personal attacks. That shit is not acceptable. This is a place where passionate devs share stuff with you. If people can not be civil and respectful like adults and keep in mind that there is a hard working person on the other side of the screen it doesn't work.

Communicating online can be hard, but that doesn't mean you can be lazy when you do it. Read your post and think about the person its directed at. The devs take time away from critical work to talk to you guys and we we do that because we are gamers too and know that nobody likes talking to marketing drones, but this comes with a certain amount of expected respect from your side.

This isn't 4chan or twitter. Be respectful, constructive and open minded. Don't be bullies and we wont have to bring out the big flammenwerfer.
To the people who helped with constructive and respectful suggestions - thanks a lot! We have been discussing the feedback and will look into where we want to go with it. You guys will be the first to know if and when we change stuff. This is why we have weekly dev diaries.

Thanks for all the hard work done on the game (and the ones before, I remember the victoria II expansions quite fondly ;) ).

There are no excuses for agressivity or rudeness, and I am personally appalled by the behaviour some people on the forums (stellaris and EU4 come to mind) feel entitled to.
I've complained quite a few times over the years and I know that sometimes the state of a game or the way de development goes can be frustrating, but if my experience on the forums has been anything to go by, its that constructive feedback and polite and courteous criticism is the best way to make yourself heard and hopefully influence future developments.

Can't wait to see what you have in store for us this time :D
 
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I want to take this opportunity to address a bit what happened with the Poland part 2 diary yesterday.

First of all the purpose of dev diaries is to show off in progress stuff so we can get feedback from the fans - you guys. I feel like people have started expecting something more like a release feature highlight and that is not what they are or should be.

This time we have gotten a lot of valuable feedback, but also quite a lot of rudeness and borderline personal attacks. That shit is not acceptable. This is a place where passionate devs share stuff with you. If people can not be civil and respectful like adults and keep in mind that there is a hard working person on the other side of the screen it doesn't work.

Communicating online can be hard, but that doesn't mean you can be lazy when you do it. Read your post and think about the person its directed at. The devs take time away from critical work to talk to you guys and we we do that because we are gamers too and know that nobody likes talking to marketing drones, but this comes with a certain amount of expected respect from your side.

This isn't 4chan or twitter. Be respectful, constructive and open minded. Don't be bullies and we wont have to bring out the big flammenwerfer.
To the people who helped with constructive and respectful suggestions - thanks a lot! We have been discussing the feedback and will look into where we want to go with it. You guys will be the first to know if and when we change stuff. This is why we have weekly dev diaries.
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Ya know I got to say. Prob like 90ish % of people giving any grief, what so ever in the approach of the focus trees. Kinda revolves around taking issue with this design philosophy. Which has over the course of a few years produced some wonky narrative decisions in a pretty hyper specific setting that your team and the company have chosen to represent. Which to your credit you have done. But you have also gone beyond the path here and into the weeds at a number of angles. Which comes off that your greatly reducing the potential or satisfaction of the game and its systems to sate a particular itch because it helps entice a few extra dollars.

Overall sorry to hear your employees are getting any ill messaging its not appropriate. However this isn't a new grievance people have addressed to you and overall doesn't seem like your team has moved the needle to reduce some of the more outlandish stuff narratively. Which I personally have never at all see you move on. Outside some technical issue.
 
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Keep up the good work. Very happy there is a vehicle designer. Does Paradox not employ a community team which gathers feedback from the community for the developers? That's a pretty standard thing in the industry as far as I know. I would definitely do that job lol. I love reading.
 
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First of all I have to state that by no means I support insulting or otherwise toxic behavior in this forum but at the same time I would like to state that it would be to easy to put the whole Poland 2/2 shitshow into the toxic nerd corner. Why?

The Hoi4 crowd in this forum might be not the easiest kind of audience, but in general they love their game. Yes, there are people here with a solid 4 digits number of the hours played which tend to call the game “unplayable”, but these people are not the rule and I hope that at least some of them are fully aware of the irony contained. When you look at the Tank Designer DD you see by today a whopping 592:0 of positive reactions – and if you’ve read the forums over the years, you know that the topic “Designers” is not completely non-controversial. This definitely won’t happen in a “toxic forum”.

I’m the wrong person to judge the criticism of the Poland 2/2 DD in detail, basically because I’m lacking any detailed knowledge regarding the situation in Poland in the early 30s – yet if PDX earns a 269:198 shitshow in a generally supportive forum (s. above) then I would support the idea that the “businesslike” part of the criticism is carefully read and based upon this, some (or even some more) changes are implemented.
 
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