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HOI4 Dev Diary - Formables and Releasables

Hello everyone and welcome to another dev diary for La Resistance! I should begin by introducing myself: I am Meka, I joined Paradox just a few months ago as a Content Designer. Some of you may be aware of me due to my work on Theocracies and Burgundy over on EUIV, but now I'm here to show what mischief I've been up to in my time on Hearts of Iron.

Man the Guns saw the creation of a lot of new tags, making some countries balkanisable, and almost all of the world decolonisable. Waking the Tiger saw the introduction of formable tags, a mechanic that until now has not been further utilised. However, with the Husky patch, a whole slew of new releasable tags will be added to the game along with two new formable nations; one as part of the free patch, and one for owners of La Resistance.
Polynesia 001.png

Starting with releasable tags, Man the Guns allowed most of the world to be decolonised, but Oceania was mostly left unloved with only one nation being added to the continent, leaving the rest of the disparate islands untouched and still under colonial rule. However, I have added 6 new releasable tags and one formable for the region.

The Kingdom of Hawaii was only annexed by the United States 38 years before the start of Hearts of Iron and can be released along with most of the US’s pacific holdings.
Polynesia 002.png


Tahiti
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Samoa
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The Federated States of Micronesia
Polynesia 005.png


The Solomon Islands
Polynesia 006.png


The Mariana Federation
Polynesia 007.png


These disparate islands may struggle to survive on their own, and so a nation who holds enough of the Polynesian Triangle will be able to unite all Pacific peoples into a single state known as Polynesia. This state will be formable by any nation listed above plus New Zealand. Unlike other formable tags, this nation can be created by dominions meaning New Zealand does not necessarily have to leave the Allies in order to form this tag.
Polynesia 008.png


But perhaps players wish to live out an alternate history where the Naha Prophecy was fulfilled and Kamehameha united the Pacific several years earlier. With the Polynesian Empire game rule, Hawaii will begin the game having already conquered the entirety of the Polynesian Islands and built up a fair-sized industry.
Polynesia 009.png

Polynesia 010.png


The ability to form Polynesia is a free feature, as are the releasable tags.


Along with adding these releasable nations, I did also touch up the old fragmentation game options to make the world fully split into different continents. The UK now surrenders its African, Asian, and American islands to its former colonies, Portugal surrenders Timor to Indonesia, and a few other small changes like that.


Also, armies standing around in former colonial territories is now a thing of the past and nations will now only have armies stationed in territories where they have access.
Armies.png


Iberia is a focal point of La Resistance and as such, a few releasable tags have been added to the subcontinent as well.


Catalonia
Catalonia.png


The Basque Country
Basque.png


Galicia
Galicia.png


Spain can of course be fractured from the start of the game by selecting the appropriate option in the game menu. However, I noticed Catalonia, the Basque Country, and Galicia simply weren’t enough to make Iberia look “shattered” so I took the liberty of adding an “11th of November” game rule, and I will leave it for you all to speculate what that option does.
Spanish Fragmentation.png


When it comes to the second formable, one must be opportunistic and take full advantage of the instability in Spain and Portugal. The Moorish people once reigned sovereign over all of Iberia, and owners of La Resistance will be able to restore the long-dead state of Al-Andalus.
Andalusia Conditions.png


Andalusia was once an Islamic Sultanate that ruled from the Iberian peninsula and a beacon of the Islamic world. Through struggles with the Catholic kingdoms in the medieval era, the Andalusians would slowly be pushed out of Iberia, ending with the conquest of the Emirate of Granada in 1520. However, the Moorish people continue to exist to this day in Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, and Algeria, many of whom are descendants from Moorish refugees fleeing the Spanish Reconquista.

Andalusia will be formable by any of the North African countries; Morocco, Tunisia, Western Sahara, Algeria, or Libya. In order to form this tag, one must occupy a large portion of both Spain and Portugal’s southern states and forming the tag grants cores on the entirety of the Iberian subcontinent.
Andalusia 1.png


But that isn’t the end of Andalusia. Similar to Byzantium’s “triumph” decisions, Andalusia will be able to sweep across the Mediterranean and beyond, restoring their old claims and titles.
Andalusia Decision 2.png


If a player can enact all decisions relating to the Andalusian conquests of North Africa and the Med, they will be able to press on for Egypt and Arabia and declare themselves the Umayyad Caliphate reborn, granting cores on the Arabian Peninsula.
Andalusia Decision 3.png


Upon doing so, Andalusia will unlock their final set of decisions, allowing them to restore the entire former claims and titles of the Umayyad Caliphate, effectively reuinifying the Islamic world.
Andalusia Decision 4.png

Andalusia 3.png


As we have expanded the scope of Hearts of Iron, some old bits of content started to become outdated and lead to some annoying bugs, which I have dedicated some time to fixing. One key thing I have improved is the way that the British Raj interacts with different game options and Britain doing strange things. From now on, the Raj will be able to freely pursue their focus tree even if Britain forces them into independence, with some focuses bypassing, and others no longer requiring the Raj to be a subject.
Raj Fix.png


Join Da9L, Bratyn and Jojo at 16:00CET on twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive as they have a closer look at Anarchist Spain!
 
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One thing that really confused me about MTG was that they added the West Saharan Republic (a semi recognized state) but not South Sudan, Eswatini or Lesotho.
Also i hope they start giving countries more overlaping claims. Like the area of west sahara having a core by the West Shara Republic and a claim by Mauritania and Morrocco. Egypt gaining claims on Sudan. Ethiopia getting claims on Eritrea.
Then I would wish for some general "border fixing" (Don't know what else to call it). The state of croatia extends into modern day north Serbia. There is no way for Germany to reconquer certain tings, Germany can't reconquer North Schleswig without taking all of Jutland, ther is also no way to take back Eupen-Malmedy without taking all of Waloonia. And for France there is no way to make the "Perfect French nation" which is France's borders protected by all the natural boundaries, the main problem is that most of the states that go along the Rhine extend over it and not use it as a border.
Additionally I hope they put in a mechanic that let's you release only certain states like now if you own all of Czechoslovakia and wanna release only Moravia, there is no way to just release one state as a vassal, it's all or nothing. These are the things that bother me that I can think of off the top of my head.
 
I will say it again but releasable tags are not a good thing, lets put GB as example. You can divide GB in england, scotland, wales, Gibraltar, caribean islands and north ireland. Why would you like to start a game as wales? You are short of manpower if you dont cheese the fascist generic tree and/or land doctrines, you are also short of industry, equipment and your relevance in the game is minimal. There are exceptions like the CSA in USA but thats because USA is a monster with huge pop, resources and industry in their cores.

Formable nations are the way to go, they are in many games the end goal of said game. In fact it could be better if there were rules to put said formables from the start so the oposite of shatter GB or Yugoslavia could be "Ottoman Empire is reformed" "Quing China is formed" as those could prove more fun and challenging that beating several Belgiums with Germany

For me personally it's not about playing as releasables, it's about being able to fracture world in a peace deal, or watching how AI countries fall apart via decisions oe events, or jsut incompetency. But it's jsut me, I guess.

About formables, I agree 100%, they should be fun nations, not random like Andalusia. Unless they add some more expended Focus trees for some releasable countries Andalusia and similar to it are just useless.
 
In my opinion, If forming Al-Andalus & Umayyad and Rashidi Caliphate done by Saudi Arabia is so much better , Reasons :
1- The birth place of Umayyad - Al-Andalus " also founded and ruled by Umayyad - Rashidun is Hejaz in Saudi Arabia not Moors!
2- Saudi Arabia in the game is independent.
3- Saudi Arabia in the game controlling the two holy cities Medina & Mecca.
 
Why was this disagree bombed?

EDIT: Love how so many people got angry about a single formable when its freaking possible for Italy to restore the Roman Empire :p
If the formable is immersion breaking, just don't use it. Byzantium + Roman Empire + Persian empire exist and this formable is no different.
 
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EDIT: Love how so many people got angry about a single formable when its freaking possible for Italy to restore the Roman Empire :p
If the formable is immersion breaking, just don't use it. Byzantium + Roman Empire + Persian empire exist and this formable is no different.

It's different. Cuz Italy is major country with actual gameplay and mechanics, Releasable Morocco or something has no proper focus tree, nor factories, nor manpower for an interesting gameplay. Starting as weak Manchu, then via decisions and focus tree you gain strength and potential for an Interesting campaign. That's not the case with some releasables, unless they will have reasonable focus tree, which is doubtful.

All releasables good for is for interesting map painting.
 
They both are secondary countries and most importantly they're independant, meaning they will get focus tree and other features at some point.
I mean they don't have features as of now though, so it can't be speculated. Also, why bother adding releasables in the first place then by your reasoning?

I enjoy releasables and formables a lot, and I'm sure many other players do as well.