Can we get some dev assurance?

[podcat]

like most of the above posts have said in some way, there's just no chance of HOI 4 biting the bullet. it's a 1st party title (unlike EvW r.i.p) with a pedigree (unlike Runemaster), and part of the grand strategy genre, their bread and butter (also unlike Runemaster). it ain't going anywhere, it's just taking longer than expected to get to the finish line. now if we go for months without so much as a smartass remark from Dan Lind or Johan, THEN we can have cause to worry... because a forum without smartass remarks is just sad.

EDIT: uh... just for morale reasons, can we get a smartass remark?

The delays are due to a faulty final drive, just what made the Panther tank so bad compared to russian and american vehicles. :3

...

Basically, HOI4 is a big complicated game and it turns out making a game that isn't dumbed down, have awesome interfaces, and be stable and fun everywhere takes longer than expected. We are never going to announce a game before it has at least hit alpha again, because if you are trying to make a great game you just don't know exactly how long something will take until you get to that point and are happy with things. HOi4 isnt getting canceled and its fun to play at the moment, it just takes longer to get things to the quality level paradox is all about these days.

 

[podcat]

The DD hasnt been losing frequency. We have gotten 1 each month except december since february last year. And we will probably see another tomorrow. I'll grant you we have seen less activity from the devs but i would assume that it has to do with two things. 1 working hard to further the state of the game and 2 because they do not have so much to talk about at the moment.

We are working pretty hard, and the team size is also bigger right now so I have a lot less time to read and reply on forums sadly. Will improve as we go along

 

[Darkrenown]

Podcat already got the Panther joke in, so I'll go with a fully serious reply.

For a long time Paradox was a fairly small company where we had to stick to our original plans come hell or high water because missing a date meant going bust. That's been changing over the past few years, and we've tried to focus more on quality for recent releases, but it takes a while for new realities to filter down into everyone's attitudes, thinking, and planning. Originally we had a plan to have HoI4 ready by X date, and because the old rule was "ship it or die" it was thought safe enough to announce this well in advance. However as the date approached and we started having to think "Well, this part works, but it's not ideal" or "We might need to cut Y to be on time" it got us to consider: We wouldn't go bust if we delayed the game, so why not take the time to make the game we really wanted instead of the game we could have ready by our planned date? Actually being able to work on a game until it's at the standard we want instead of having to ship it at a date guesstimated in the planning phase is a wonderful thing, although I know it can be frustrating when you're waiting on the end result. In an ideal world we would have foreseen this and not announced the game until it was well past alpha and we knew exactly how much work was left to do instead of so early in the project - you live and learn.


Dev diary is coming out tomorrow and will cover neutrality/world tension and such. After this we are doing one more in a month and after that it should be on a weekly schedule until release.