Woah, this is crazy early, it can't be far into Friday in Sweden yet, thanks Johan
. And cheers for the DD in and of itself
. Normally I have to wake up tomorrow to see the DD. The national foci (my vote) system looks very interesting, and looks like a great way to help guide the higher-level AI (and players less familiar with the actual and plausible alternative events of the period), but also raises a few question marks:
1) Will we still be able to achieve most things through national focii through other game systems, and national foci is a way of steering nations down paths for which there were historical factors in place that aren't modelled in the game, but should a player want to, they can still do other things? So pursuing and achieving a national focus gives a bonus to achieving something through a mechanic that exists elsewhere already, in general (with I guess the exception of things like remilitarising the Rhineland and other things not worth building mechanics into the game for)?
2) Are they moddable (I'm guessing yes, it looks like it's the kind of thing that could be well moddable)?
3) How does the AI follow the foci - with probabilities assigned to each, or is it something a bit more nuanced where it will 'look' at the factors relevant to that particular decision and this will adjust the probability? Say, for example, if the USSR is going on a crazy tank-building and minor-nation befriending/annexing spree, will that make it less likely an AI Germany takes a naval, western-oriented approach?
4) Are the various bonuses relatively balanced both between nations, or will the national foci system be what's used to hold France and the UK back and give Germany some boosts early?
5) How much has internal politics changed - is it mostly the same other than the national goals, or have other things been adjusted as well?
It does look like an interesting system, although I feel it might take a little while to balance it all out between a sandbox and railroaded style of gameplay. I'm a big fan of how it gives more structure to peacetime (and wartime) gameplay, but hope it hasn't taken too much the place of more gameplay system-based internal politics (which presumably has changed, at least a bit) and that it still allows for players to plausibly formulate their own plans and strategies that may not match those of the national foci (even if they don't get the national foci bonuses).
Edit: +1 for China (or however it's represented politically) having its own set of specific goals, there were a lot of things going on in China at the time. Understand if it has to wait for DLC/mods though.
