HOI4 Dev Diary - India - Struggle for Independence

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podcat

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Hi everyone, after just getting back from enjoying our weekly Wednesday Indian food at a local place, what better topic to cover than India!

India is a colony under British rule, that means that, unlike the dominions we have presented so far, they have more restrictions and limitations placed on them. These are things that you will want to shake off as a player - for example, unless you gain Dominion status you will not fully benefit from technology sharing.

ind_tree.jpg


After Provincial elections are done India is faced with two paths towards freedom (Historically both occurred simultaneously to a degree, but player must decide which one they want to play). On one hand they can continue to cooperate with the British and earn their freedom or status as dominion through service and the autonomy system (see last week’s diary). India at this time is a nation split between the Quit India movement & Gandhi calling for freedom, various Princely states supporting the British as they fear losing their power, and a large Muslim community that can sway to support independence and the creation of Pakistan. If you check the rightmost part of the tree there are also British investors getting fat off of India which may gain you some short term benefits in military and civilian investments, but which will also set back your struggle for independence.

On the other side the player can decide to go the non-cooperative path “Swaraj”, or self governing. This in effect puts you in the shoes of Subhas Chandra Bose trying to rally support for Indian independence from other factions. You can both ask Comintern and Axis here for backing. It is also possible to proceed without backing, but it is very difficult. With backing (or not) you can then launch a civil war and fight for your independence and continue to build up your nation free from the clutches of the British imperialists. Note that there is no classic "fascist or communist" path here, the support you get will dictate the direction for your nation. Bose was in my opinion much more interested in practical things and achieving freedom rather than promoting ideology and would have gone with any side that supported him (he asked Soviets first historically, but was told 'no'). It doesn't mean that you can't peacefully go communist etc, but it would be done using regular mechanics.

Military wise India is famous for having the largest volunteer army in history at the end of WWII. To model this you are limited to a strict volunteer army until you gain higher autonomy levels. But several focuses give you forces from Gurkhas, Sikhs etc. India gets several choices for making its army more distinctly Indian: setting up local officer training of Indians, mountain artillery and jungle training etc.

ind_top.jpg


India also starts with the national spirit “risk of famine”. This is a serious internal issue that will be up to the player to solve. Famines have long been issues in the area, but war, corruption and the like will stress things to a breaking point. If you gain enough autonomy to gain control over local government, root out corruption and improve railways and infrastructure, you will be able to prevent the famine entirely, but it will put you into a bit of a race once you get dragged into World War II.

raj_leaders.jpg



Subject Forces
As I hinted at last week the new autonomy system allows you to recruit forces from your subjects. This is done through the normal training & deployment interface where you can pick one of your subject’s division templates which gets copied over to you and is now marked as a subject template. These templates are a mix of yours and their manpower. For a colony its 30% of masters manpower and 70% of subjects. Actual equipment to arm them is supplied by the master. Other autonomy levels, like puppets, generally have lower requirements. These forces can only deploy in their home nation and must then be transported to other theaters. Using these forces also increases the subject's autonomy in the same way as expeditionary forces will, so its something the master needs to consider.
ind_divs.jpg


We are going on a short company trip to Malta tomorrow, so there might be some delays to posting that day. Just a heads up :) Next week we will be taking a look at New Zealand and some other stuff!

Remember to tune in for today’s World War Wednesday Livestream and find out if who of the Allies and Axis will be able to tip the balance in the war in Europe! Watch it live @16:00CET over at https://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive!
 
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delicious
 
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@podcat

I demand to see a portrait of Orde Wingate at once! :D

Great diary. I like the look of the focus tree and the subject forces stuff. Great to see a Chindits focus, too -- what does it do in this case? :)
 
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Looking very good. I think properly modeling the allies will also give a buff to the axis indirectly, since e.g. SA can't field 60+ divions prior to the war now. I am so hyped!

Edit: Can you show the exact benefits / negative effects of the national spirits?
 
Looks great again! More variety to "minor" countries. (if you can say that for a country with the 2nd largest population)

I'm interested on how does the AI use these new possibilities. With all the alternative history options, many countries could become quite strong and aggressive. And if there are a lot of strong and aggressive countries, the WW2 could become even bloodier than it was historically.

So does the AI have some pacific tendencies? I.e. it doesn't play as optimally as would be possible, doesn't make it's country super strong and behaves less aggressive than a human player would.
 
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I like the idea of having to stave off a famine, but I wish the DD went into some detail of what the actual effects are if you fail. Do you lose manpower and perhaps factories?
 
Is it just me or does the indian focus tree look smaller than the other ones?
 
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Will the two nations thing result in a possible Pakistan tag?
 
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Is there a way for the Master to see the Colony/Puppet's remaining manpower so they can plan accordingly?

Also, since the divisions are raised in the Colony, but using the Master's equipment, does the master just need to have sufficient equipment on hand or does it need to be shipped like lend-lease equipment?
 
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Nice, cannot wait to play it.

Something that always bugged me is that technologies cannot start researched by a company. for example in the 1939 start, Britain starts with the spitfire researched while the Germans must research the fw190. the Germans can research it using the messerschmidt company which gives them bonuses that Britain cannot get. will this be added to the game with the next expansion?

Additionally this would make the countries a bit more diverse as their equipment would be slightly different instead of being basically copies of one another.

Have a nice trip to Malta, perhaps it will inspire you to take a look at some 3d models for the commonwealth navy ;-)
 
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@podcat

- will there be new naval sprites in TfV?
- do you plan on ever making any unique 2D ship artwork? (ENG and the Commonwealth nations could share theirs)
 
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We are going on a short company trip to Malta tomorrow, so there might be some delays to posting that day. Just a heads up :) Next week we will be taking a look at New Zealand and some other stuff!

That has to mean something. Now I am waiting for an announcement of an upcoming Malta-DLC for HOI4 :D
 
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