Hearts of Iron IV - Development Diary 1 - Our Vision
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It would be interesting to see extended pre-war gameplay, such as beginning the timeline at say 1930 instead of 1936 to give players a little more time to steer a country in a certain direction or gear up a smaller/less developed nation for war. This would mainly be for infrastructure but could also open the door for diplomacy playing a larger role once things start heating up.
2 things most needed: Let America (and other countries) form their own alliances, as america I don't want tied to one of three alliance groups to win, I want to forge my own, this gives me control of annexation and peace settlements. I once had Japan on the ropes and they surrendered to Allies which I was not apart of, I got nothing for all my efforts and they started the war with me. Second fix supply!! Having one province supply everything is ludicrous, it bogs down everything. Do you thing San Francisco should actually draw supplies from DC? One location could be in controll of who and what gets supplied, but the supplies should come from the NEAREST available source. We should be able to create supply convoys to actual war zone areas redundantly if necessary in order to keep the army moving. having your army bogged down for months unable to move do to supply when you nearly 100,000 stored up and plenty of convoys and escorts is MOST FRUSTRATING.
Brazil is often an interesting what-if country with perennially unrealized potential - as is said there, As is said there wryly, Brazil is the country of the future, and always will be.
Hmmm, how about Brazil extends hegemony over South America with an Argentine junior partner while making nice with the great powers and providing a haven for capital and wealthy refugees. The coalitions develop and use weapons of mass destruction to ravage each other. Even Switzerland and Nepal are affected.
Brazil "wins".*
*Of course that would require ahistorically good Brazilian leadership, administration, and policies - but what else is a player for?
P.S. the light recon elephant is adorable, giving it the first-shot advantage.
Well, i'm impressed by this first dev diary and i'm gonna read each one you have.
Your topographical map is good quality. but it doesn't show us what the province sizes are and i'm not a mind reader. Sorry but i hated your HOI3. I've been playing Darkest hour since it came out and IC and AofD since HOI3 was crappy.
Now the reason i'm writing this is i'd love to know if your new HOI4 map will be like the E3 map mod for Darkest Hour. That mod, available to be used in every DH mod, btw, gives the player 1000's of new provinces to use, both land and seas ones. Thus making the game infinitely more difficult.
And if this question has been already answered in a future dev diary then i'm sorry for beating something already finalized.
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Dear Podcat,
I may be lacking in amount of posts on this forum, it is quite embarrassing, however, I recently discovered that Paradox was developing another title for the HOI series. ( Found out it was announced in 2014 ) so i may be late on this post.
I hope you can spare a minute of your time to hear me out on an idea which would make your upcoming HOI4 combat an exhilarating experience for your strategy player.
suppose the Unit cards were represented as miniature soldier sprites, rather than a single 3D model soldier character.
IF the unit cards would have Artillery, or Tank units, the unit card sprites would show a tank column in front and artillery in the back.
Suppose for a second that two unit cards would commence a battle, ... i would suggest the sprites to be animated showing soldiers actually firing their weapons and artillery
also firing their cannons. Including Tanks.
I would imagine that the environment where the battle is taking place would change too, as you would see a 2D animated sprite of billowing smoke rising slowly and ominously
around the battle area.
Now if you have large scale battles across borders, the player would be instantly notified and would have a clearer picture of the action the ground.
Also, Unit strength and health can also be shown by the amount of soldiers in sprites. In full health you would see a large army of them, in half health, you would see half the army,
and when the unit is entirely killed, you would see persisting bodies, or remains of the army.
I mean, i believe this would make a huge impact on the immersion of the game, And also, might i add, that these sprites ( when they shoot ) ... you could make a low size .wav sound
play of distant gunfire, coupled with a distance modifier so when the player zooms around the map he could hear the battle rage on.
The unit card could be composed of : ( artillery - Foot Soldiers - Support Vehicles - Tanks ) and you would see these tiny sprites on the map actually move and fight.
It would be exhilarating to actually see this happen in a large scale game like HOI4.
I have played both CIV5 and company of heroes, and have noticed something that they both have in common. They appear to have somewhat realistic smoke effects, dirt puffs, and explosions,
and studied those and discovered that they are just 2D planes or animated Sprites, that really give a striking impact on the game's realism.
Billowing smoke after players Hex upgrade on map is pillaged:
#
I would love to see large armies, in sprites, that actually engage in combat on the field, billowing smoke, damage effects, Cannons firing, tanks Firing, battle sounds raging as i command
other battalions and troops elsewhere.
This i believe is what will make your game Hit the top 100 or 50 best strategy games of all time.
- A unit card showing all Stats, and Information,
and the actual army made of Sprites, - where you could see AT cannons, Tanks, Support Vehicles, Foot Soldiers, or even Mortars, ... And Planes ( that actually Fly across nations, Animated as such as to drop bombs and do ground strafes, and even crash to the ground ).
Similar to this example, except smaller Troops in scale :
I may be a bit too late to suggest, but i would leave this here anyway. Thanks for your time.
P.S. As for explosions, Look at this pre rendered fluid Sim explosion for BF4. Using planes as effects in your game would make eyes open wide. - This is technically a animated sprite
I may be lacking in amount of posts on this forum, it is quite embarrassing, however, I recently discovered that Paradox was developing another title for the HOI series. ( Found out it was announced in 2014 ) so i may be late on this post.
I hope you can spare a minute of your time to hear me out on an idea which would make your upcoming HOI4 combat an exhilarating experience for your strategy player.
suppose the Unit cards were represented as miniature soldier sprites, rather than a single 3D model soldier character.
IF the unit cards would have Artillery, or Tank units, the unit card sprites would show a tank column in front and artillery in the back.
Suppose for a second that two unit cards would commence a battle, ... i would suggest the sprites to be animated showing soldiers actually firing their weapons and artillery
also firing their cannons. Including Tanks.
I would imagine that the environment where the battle is taking place would change too, as you would see a 2D animated sprite of billowing smoke rising slowly and ominously
around the battle area.
Now if you have large scale battles across borders, the player would be instantly notified and would have a clearer picture of the action the ground.
Also, Unit strength and health can also be shown by the amount of soldiers in sprites. In full health you would see a large army of them, in half health, you would see half the army,
and when the unit is entirely killed, you would see persisting bodies, or remains of the army.
I mean, i believe this would make a huge impact on the immersion of the game, And also, might i add, that these sprites ( when they shoot ) ... you could make a low size .wav sound
play of distant gunfire, coupled with a distance modifier so when the player zooms around the map he could hear the battle rage on.
The unit card could be composed of : ( artillery - Foot Soldiers - Support Vehicles - Tanks ) and you would see these tiny sprites on the map actually move and fight.
It would be exhilarating to actually see this happen in a large scale game like HOI4.
I have played both CIV5 and company of heroes, and have noticed something that they both have in common. They appear to have somewhat realistic smoke effects, dirt puffs, and explosions,
and studied those and discovered that they are just 2D planes or animated Sprites, that really give a striking impact on the game's realism.
Billowing smoke after players Hex upgrade on map is pillaged:
I would love to see large armies, in sprites, that actually engage in combat on the field, billowing smoke, damage effects, Cannons firing, tanks Firing, battle sounds raging as i command
other battalions and troops elsewhere.
This i believe is what will make your game Hit the top 100 or 50 best strategy games of all time.
- A unit card showing all Stats, and Information,
and the actual army made of Sprites, - where you could see AT cannons, Tanks, Support Vehicles, Foot Soldiers, or even Mortars, ... And Planes ( that actually Fly across nations, Animated as such as to drop bombs and do ground strafes, and even crash to the ground ).
Similar to this example, except smaller Troops in scale :
I may be a bit too late to suggest, but i would leave this here anyway. Thanks for your time.
P.S. As for explosions, Look at this pre rendered fluid Sim explosion for BF4. Using planes as effects in your game would make eyes open wide. - This is technically a animated sprite
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Yep i realized. 
Guess 1 model Unit card ... or just cards would have to do.
Fighting wars on a massive scale, would have loved to see tiny armies battling it out on the map.
Guess 1 model Unit card ... or just cards would have to do.
Fighting wars on a massive scale, would have loved to see tiny armies battling it out on the map.
Yep i realized.
Guess 1 model Unit card ... or just cards would have to do.
Fighting wars on a massive scale, would have loved to see tiny armies battling it out on the map.
Unit model editing is becoming more accessible though it may be possible to have the 1 soldier/tank/etc. replaced by a small number of them more live Civ 5.
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P.S. As for explosions, Look at this pre rendered fluid Sim explosion for BF4. Using planes as effects in your game would make eyes open wide. - This is technically a animated sprite
It's never too late to have Michael Bay come to Stockholm for an afternoon to consult.
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Can you PLEASE 1.Make the different names like in HoI3 (gothic letters for fascists...)
2.Take Katyusha,the USSR hymn and Rise my Comrades (from HoI3)in the game
2.Take Katyusha,the USSR hymn and Rise my Comrades (from HoI3)in the game