HoI IV - Previews and more Screenshots

[Axe99]

Interesting previews, cheers for posting Nigo .

This sounds like a great step for accessibility as well:

“The system didn't really give a good overview of what long-term direction the goal system would take you in,” he said. “If you know your history you could figure out that remilitarizing the Rhineland would eventually lead to war, but it wasn't all the obvious. So we are changing it to a more visible tree instead, where its obvious what long-term things can be reached.”

Was very impressed by IGN's preview - they've got a bit of a reputation as being shallow and mass-market, but they did a far better job than Eurogamer - I can't believe after flying all the way to Sweden that was all their journo could manage! That said, the previews were generally pretty good, given it's a style of game that seems to challenge the mainstream gaming media.

 

[Bki]

From the IGN Article

“The Soviet Union for example also has ambitions of expansions regardless of what the Germans do, as well as the Japanese. So there will be wars, but Germany, unless attacked by the Soviets, can keep itself out.”


Totally going to play a Neutral Germany and see what happens.

Unless it's small, weaker target of opportunity, that doesn't sound like Stalin, to be honest. (Now, a backstab if Germany struggle against France is another thing entirely, obviously).

 

[Stenner]

Podcat said that the brown arrows are the only exclusive choices, is it a WiP or am I misreading the chart, that there is only one exclusive choice and that's in the Air Superiority track.

Initially I thought that you could only take 1 option for each horizontal selection, but the brown arrows are confusing me as they aren't at every juncture.

 

[safe-keeper]

Quill18 lost Berlin to France while he was in Poland.

Which gave me a mental image of French soldiers tippie-toeing from the Maginot Line to Berlin .

Losing Berlin while looking away is probably more of an alpha thing either way, unless the French maybe landed paratroopers or something. I imagine he should've been flooded with "province lost" and "we're under attack" messages.

 

[Hatting]

Nice! Glad to finally see a land battle. It looks good, very similar to the HoI3 land battle

 

[Victor Cortez]

FFFFFFFFFFFF... can't wait.

 

[Holy.Death]

I am somewhat disappointed that land combat looks like simple combatination between HoI3 and EU4... I expected something more after seeing how naval combat works.

 

[Modestus]

Yeah they do look nice... of course you can't see anything like terrain and where units actually are but looking good. Tilting camera is not a friend to clarity.... I really fear for Barbarossa.

Not a very practical design but nonetheless attractive it looks almost like an elaborate poster from the Period.

Of course from the angle shown nearly all the mini counters are in the wrong provinces, its pretty clear that the best view with the mini counters will be top down of course in the top down view your zooming out to the point where those counters will actually merge which makes them useless.

And Germany in 1939 is attacking with only a total of 25 Divisions in HOI III you could easily have 60 which would then create an unbelievable graphical mess. In fact if you wanted to create a design that went out of its way to make it difficult to follow what was going on you could hardly do better.

I will predict that at some point Paradox will have to bite that bullet and make some radical changes to the design.


Edit: This is not EUIV even if you think it is.

 

[Darkath]

I am somewhat disappointed that land combat looks like simple combatination between HoI3 and EU4... I expected something more after seeing how naval combat works.

You can tell the UI is temporary/not final (EU4 art being used for instance).

However the combat didn't change much from HOI3 so there is little need to completely change the UI either.

 

[Denkt]

Not a very practical design but nonetheless attractive it looks almost like an elaborate poster from the Period.

HOI4 have the most pratical map of any Paradox game.
With only one map mode it can show all information that it takes older game several map mode to show.

Of course from the angle shown nearly all the mini counters are in the wrong provinces, its pretty clear that the best view with the mini counters will be top down of course in the top down view your zooming out to the point where those counters will actually merge which makes them useless.

The counters main purpose is to show the number of divisions in the area so you can get a quick overview.

 

[Centurion1973]

Not a very practical design but nonetheless attractive it looks almost like an elaborate poster from the Period.

Of course from the angle shown nearly all the mini counters are in the wrong provinces, its pretty clear that the best view with the mini counters will be top down of course in the top down view your zooming out to the point where those counters will actually merge which makes them useless.

And Germany in 1939 is attacking with only a total of 25 Divisions in HOI III you could easily have 60 which would then create an unbelievable graphical mess. In fact if you wanted to create a design that went out of its way to make it difficult to follow what was going on you could hardly do better.

I will predict that at some point Paradox will have to bite that bullet and make some radical changes to the design.


Edit: This is not EUIV even if you think it is.

In one of previous videos they had ability to move camera - so using camera angle, from which you wil be able to see what is where shouldnt be a problem.

 

[Mind Elemental]

Here's a good one - Rob Zacny at PCGamesN.

 

[Modestus]

HOI4 have the most pratical map of any Paradox game.
With only one map mode it can show all information that it takes older game several map mode to show.



The counters main purpose is to show the number of divisions in the area so you can get a quick overview.

I politely disagree, showing all the information on one map while being an admirable goal is not what makes a map practical its how you manage to show all that information on one map that matters. In fact trying to show all the information on one map when you needed several before should be a warning.


The main purpose of the counters is to show how many and what type of divisions you have in a province which is good but from most angles except in a top down view they will appear in the wrong province which in my humble opinion somewhat negates their primary function.

Zooming out and merging counters is almost useless except to clean up the clutter and has no real practical function beyond that.

 

[Modestus]

In one of previous videos they had ability to move camera - so using camera angle, from which you wil be able to see what is where shouldnt be a problem.

Oddly enough I would have thought the ability to move the camera would be like allowing your one year old to drive your car not to be encouraged, the last thing you need is the mini counters to be flying around the place as you try to adjust your view.

 

[SpermCube]

The Japan screenshot is hideous. The gradient borders look really weird in that image, I prefer the occupation stripes from HoI3.

Quite like the other screenshots though, thanks.

 

[unmerged(79411)]

@devs Any chance that we can get rid of the color gradient in the borders?

there will be mods for that.

But please Paradox, keep it in the game!! I want these border colours for terrain map in eu4 aswell, so the terrain map stops being so useless.

 

[Denkt]

They also produced valuable consumer goods for international trade. I used to those barter with France and the UK for things like rubber, tungsten, and oil.

I was correct about consumer goods are used for resource trade

 

[Centurion1973]

Here's a good one - Rob Zacny at PCGamesN.

This one is guite good - he clearly knew what he was doing.

 

[Shynka]

The Japan screenshot is hideous. The gradient borders look really weird in that image, I prefer the occupation stripes from HoI3.

Quite like the other screenshots though, thanks.

Agree, I also didn't like the screenshot from Ethiopia - I really hope I don't have to pay for DLC to make the Ethiopians look like non-Germans. Also, the models and palm trees in that one somehow look like they were stolen from 2007 >.>

But I really like the ship screen (Although should Donitz be commanding a surface battleship fleet in 1936?) and the air screens.

 

[Centurion1973]

Zooming out and merging counters is almost useless except to clean up the clutter and has no real practical function beyond that.

And what is wrong about reducing map clutter?

IMO, current HoI4 UI seems to be significant improvement over HoI3.
I really like, that I will no longer have to check several map modes, just to see basic info.

Only change that I would like (AFAIK its not present in HoI4) is option to increase size of all UI elements (including text).