Hearts of Iron IV - 49th Development Diary - 18th of March 2016

[podcat]

Today's topic is an explosive one (heh) - nukes!

Nuclear weapons are a late game tech and there are several steps to acquire one. First up is researching Atomic Research (1940), Reactors (1943), and finally Nuclear Weapons (1945). To actually produce nuclear bombs you need to construct Reactors which will slowly churn out the weapons. The more reactors the faster you can produce nukes (note that reactors compete for space with industry in states). Many majors have national focuses that let them focus on the nuclear research program and speed things up.

To launch a nuke you need to have strategic bombers in range of the target and air superiority.

This is early days yet, so nukes, while incredibly powerful are not the massive world destroyers of the cold war. However they can still do serious damage, and other effects:

• Hits national unity making the target nation more likely to surrender (amount depends on victory point worth and infrastructure level, so you cant just nuke some island they don't care about). This is really their primary use: to force surrender on a stubborn enemy.
• Damages building. Everything from forts to naval bases to factories.
• Damages any units in the province, including airplanes stationed in bases.

Oh btw, in case someone missed the announcement HOI4 now has a release date set for 6th of June!
Next week we will be off for Easter, but the week after we taking a look at the Generic Focus tree that all non-majors use. If you get the HOI craving next week there is still the World War Wednesday stream where I believe Daniel and Jake have started to take on China as Japan.

 

[podcat]

YOU BOMBED OSLO YOU MONSTER!

not I, it was the nazi king of britain!

 

[DDRJake]

For Queen and country.

 

[podcat]

What was up with the whole "a nation united against an atom divided" event and Spain's national unity increasing after Madrid was leveled in the last WWW? is that still in the game?

no clue. the WWW version was like over a month old last I checked so all sorts of bugs might have been there. NU drops now anyway.

That particular event was a special nuke news event (we got a bunch of them for specific cities)

 

[podcat]

Why is Edward VIII head of government, when George VI has previously been shown as head of state? (and thus without a political portrait)

Kings do not tend to rule fascist states. Would Mosley or another B.U.F. political not be a better head of government?

There is an event series that can happen after a fascist takeover where the rightful king can return and take over from Mosley

 

[podcat]

What is the propensity of the AI to go for the nukes? Will they always try to reach that goal? Or will it be random?

I think in general only nations with focus trees mentioning it will specifically prioritize it above other things. Others are likely to focus on general equipment and other techs primarily.

 

[podcat]

That's interesting, thanks for the info.

I still think it's a shame that only one political party is shown for each democratic 'slot' though; i.e. you do not have the Labour party in Britain, or the Republican party in the USA (IIRC). TBH, given that you are simply representing political factions rather than individual parties, it may actually be better to remove the country-specific party names.

Hopefully there is a choice between Mosley and Edward VIII anyway. I doubt he would just step aside...

its up to the player to invite him back.

 

[Havebeard]

why us? Denmark is a much better target

Dan wouldn't dare now that I'm on the team. There is always the threat of me removing his beloved King Edward again.

 

[Distantaziq]

Playing a fascist Britain sounds unbelievably fun.

Relatively.

 

[podcat]

How quickly do a reactor produce nukes?

I think its a year per reactor. so 12 reactors = 1 nuke a month

Can this happen for other nations too, or is it just an UK only choice?
And is it only for fascists?

its a special Uk event series in this case.

 

[podcat]

That might be true, but doesn't that make rocket research entirely useless for Germany?
Previously you could justify rocketry as Germany because they were a viable strategic bombing alternative. Now they can't even deliver nukes anymore.

A Germany that intends to go nukes will also have to go strategic bombing. Two research heavy tech trees like that would make an additional rocketry nigh impossible.

you dont need a top of the line bomber to deliver the nuke though. basic bombers have pretty decent range. I dont recall that you could launch nukes using rockets in HOI3. maybe it was some kind of mod?

its not really something that fits WW2. I'm sure if we time extend in some expansion the option will be there (fyi, if I had said that rockets could deliver nukes we'd have 2 pages of discussions about how this is unrealistic instead )

 

[podcat]

So a little OT here but I have a UI question.

Do the buttons of the soldier/anchor/plane in the bottom right serve the same function as the buttons in the top right? Don't know why I don't know this or why I only just thought of it!

the bottom right ones are mapmode switches. We ahve 3 major mapmodes (land/naval/air) so its those.

 

[podcat]

Will it be possible for the player to disable nuclear weapons from the game so that the AI does not build them? A mod at the very least? On DH this is possible. I never build nukes myself. Feels like too much of a game changer.

you can mod it for sure yea