• 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.
Showing developer posts only. Show all posts in this thread.

podcat

Game Director <unannounced>
Paradox Staff
12 Badges
Jul 23, 2007
12.811
38.516
  • Europa Universalis IV
  • Hearts of Iron III
  • Semper Fi
  • 500k Club
  • Europa Universalis III: Collection
  • Europa Universalis IV: Pre-order
  • Hearts of Iron II: Beta
  • Europa Universalis: Rome Collectors Edition
  • Mount & Blade: Warband
  • Paradox Order
  • Hearts of Iron IV Sign-up
  • Hearts of Iron IV: Together for Victory
Welcome to this week's development diary for A House Divided. Much like a pirate's blunderbuss it's going to be filled with a mix of all sorts of stuff.

Dealing with your sphere can sometimes be a micromanagement task, so we set out to improve this. As you found out in diary 8 you can help support your sphere claim by investing in their infrastructure or factories, but this is more of a long term help. To help with the more immediate influence battle we have now changed how influence is used once you fill up influence to max (without spending it on an action). What happens now is that any "overflowing" influence gets deducted from your strongest competitor removing the need to be quick about hitting ban embassy etc and will help automatically protect yourself when someone is moving in on your sphere.

To quote Lenin: "The peaceful development of any revolution is, generally speaking, extremely rare and difficult ... ", so why not give it a helping hand? We are adding a new wargoal available to proletarian dictatorships to help spread the communist ideology. If you use this goal on a country their government type and ruling party will switch to yours and if you are a great power they will be put in your sphere. Most other political relations with other states get toned down or removed due to the new rulers. If you also want to make them your puppet you will have to add an extra goal for this. Spreading your ideology also has some special rules: If another country (or their allies etc) intervene they will be given a special CB they can use in case of losing to help bring back the government from the claws of communism. However they are not forced to try this.

The many flavorful decisions are one of Victoria II's strong points and we wanted to make this even cooler. To have more room for reforms and popular movements we have split them off to their own tab which let us put in a picture for each one (I think we have something like 145 unique pictures).

dd10-1.png
We have also been doing some changes on terrain. Certain borders (like Himalayas) can be set as impassable making things like an invasion from India into china a much more complex affair. Terrain also affects combat width, so hills and mountains will have much reduced width of combat and make selecting where you do battles (if you have the option) a bit more tactical. Another change that people was asking for in an earlier diary was for railways to increase the movement speed of your troops, which it now does.

dd10-2.png

Last for today is flavor names for wars. We have extended the number of custom names for wars and they can be matched to participating countries. So if England attacks USA with certain types of wargoals the new system kicks in and you can get a "2nd American War of Independence" or English conquests in south Africa gets you Boer Wars. We a have a few of these, like The Opium War, Boxer Rebellion or The Pastry War. Another cool thing is that the point of view affects the name of the war so for outsiders the American Civil War will be called that, but for participants (or closely aligned countries) it will be shown as "War of Northern Aggression" for CSA and "War of the Rebellion" for USA.

Tank of the Week
This weeks tank is the Italian Fiat 2000, a 40t monster, often called the heaviest tank of WWI, although it never actually saw combat during the war and only 2 prototypes were ever built. Top speed of 4km/h and armed with 9 machineguns and a short howitzer gun mounted in the top turret.

IMG_02122011_153717.png



Next week we'll be talking about making uncivilized countries more interesting to play!
 
Last edited:
  • 1Like
Reactions:
sorry about forgetting the tank, but here it is (also added at the top). I blame communism.


Tank of the Week
This weeks tank is the Italian Fiat 2000, a 40t monster, often called the heaviest tank of WWI, although it never actually saw combat during the war and only 2 prototypes were ever built. Top speed of 4km/h and armed with 9 machineguns and a short howitzer gun mounted in the top turret.

attachment.php
 
That's so inaccurate. There were no Tiger I's during Victoria II's timeframe. Gather the pitchforks and torches!
:D

That´s a Panzer Mark V aka the Panther and not a Tiger! You can tell by its sloped armour.

both wrong. its clearly a Vk1602 Leopard recon prototype with winter camouflage

For people wondering about the same for fascism I'm not sure that there were a lot of examples of that happening. People were mostly after territory. However its super easy to mod in if you would want to have it. Otherwise you can exploit the counter goal given when someone gets their government changed to communism while by your side to later liberate them into fascism.
 
yeah it could look better. I'll kick one of the artist people and make them tweak it
 
So what're the advantages of making a secondary power communism over just using the add to sphere casus belli? Apart from resetting their relations with others.

its mostly a role-playing thing. its cool spreading the workers revolution! but it does give prestige etc so when someone else might just use a wargoal to take someone from a sphere you can do it and make them communists at the same time.

How do you define a move=attack game? Just curious.

hearts of iron uses it. I dont think it fits early game (it would late game I guess), but we went with the first because its simpler.

Indeed, the only thing I can add which would make fascism unique would be some sort of cb which allows conquests for less infamy, representing the belligerent attitude of fascist states.



Also can we get how much infamy does the Communist cb cost?

dont remember the cost, but its not 100% decided yet. Betas will get it for balance testing today. it will be cheaper than the regular sphere goal.

it doesnt make sense to reduce infamy. however fascists can make CBs faster for conquest etc, so less risk of being found out etc before the war. so they have other advantages
 
One more question, if I make a nation communist through war, will I have good relations with it since I put their communist government in power, or will they dislike me as if I waged a regular war?

you will get good standings. their standings to old friends get removed also
 
If my opinion matters, tell your artists that the impassable terrain in Sengoku and CK2 looks a lot better because it is much clearer and obvious what the border signifies. Of course, I know that there might be graphics limitations, but you need to steal a template, steal one of those. :)

they get the new nicer map engine sadly so they can do cool stuff with borders :( its not really possible to move over to V2. we'll have a look at making it nicer
 
Will Jews play a role in financing the spread of Communism? It would add some historical flavour.

negativeman-55f.png


That's what I mean. Every reference in every speech, memoir, etc, that I remember studying from that time period called it the war between the states, or the war of southern independence. I only find modern interpretations that say "And Today, in the former confederate states, they call it "The War of Northern Aggression". and the rest of the country called it "The Civil War"". I don't have a soapbox or giant flag burning behind my desk, but given that this war is a central part of the game, for flavor, I would at least like to know if that's what the CSA actually called it. I have learned lots of obscure history facts from this game, this would be just another factoid.


Since its from the point of view of the participants I tried to pick the most extreme possible name since feelings would be running hot. For example "War of Northern Aggression" instead of "War for Southern Independence" because, while both were used the more "partisan view" feels more correct to me.


Indeed. :D
I do look forward to 'spreading the light' across the world ^^ xD

Also, a question for podcat. Will proletarian dictatorships controlled by the AI try to use the new wargoal a lot? So it is not just me doing all of the work.

AI will use the wargoal type, not sure how common it will be yet, but its not going to be super common.