HOI4 Dev Diary - New year update

[Abadon777]

It's great hearing from you, I hope you and all, stay safe.

 

[podcat]

What is the most popular generic tree nation as of that data? My guess would be Brazil or Argentina, but I am genuinely curious.

If I recall Sweden at like 1.1%. Brazil at 0.85%. Surprised me as well.
If I filter out all sessions shorter than 15h though Brazil climbs past it significantly

 

[Harin]

It is great to hear from you guys! Staying so busy it can sometimes be hard to realize just how much it helps when you drop a blue post on the forums. Since you cannot spare the time to be drawn into a discussion maybe you could add something like, "I have to get back to work, so this is my only post for now." at the end of you post. With the extended time needed to get this DLC right, dropping more blue posts would be appreciated by myself and I suspect most of us. While we would love to hear updates, please do not disappear because it is not a good time for updates. There is a whole game to discuss, so please drop in as much as you can.

 

[CantGetNoSleep]

If I filter out all sessions shorter than 15h though Brazil climbs past it significantly

Out of interest, and if you can tell, is that because of MP? In MP Brazil seems to punch well above what you'd expect as it has a large manpower and therefore can be a relevant force for D-day.

 

[safe-keeper]

I get to watch #46 be sworn in and read the first HoI4 dev diary on the same evening, what a day .

See you all later, and to be clear this is not the start of regular diaries just yet. You'll have to be patient a bit longer on that front.

#sadpanda

 

[ThePHD]

Looks like development speed will go from glacial to... well.. something slower then that. I was halfway expecting 'Barbarossa' to be closer to be completion since work tied back all the way to 'La Resistance'. A shame but, nothing I can do. I just want to see this game developed more and have additional content. I've been playing HoI4 since 2016 and see key problems with the game remain unsolved.

I personally don’t mind waiting if some of the major issues really do get fixed.

 

[podcat]

Out of interest, and if you can tell, is that because of MP? In MP Brazil seems to punch well above what you'd expect as it has a large manpower and therefore can be a relevant force for D-day.

Nah, smaller nations close to the big powerhouses tend to get destroyed or not do so well so people quit earlier. In brazil it takes a while before that happens so its better for longer games. MP is a pretty small chunk of players so it usually doesnt affect these kind of stats that much

 

[podcat]

It is great to hear from you guys! Staying so busy it can sometimes be hard to realize just how much it helps when you drop a blue post on the forums. Since you cannot spare the time to be drawn into a discussion maybe you could add something like, "I have to get back to work, so this is my only post for now." at the end of you post. With the extended time needed to get this DLC right, dropping more blue posts would be appreciated by myself and I suspect most of us. While we would love to hear updates, please do not disappear because it is not a good time for updates. There is a whole game to discuss, so please drop in as much as you can.

Thanks, will try to. I still read a lot so no fear there, but posting and following up takes more time so I do that less.

 

[Ketchup & friends]

As I said in the diary if we can solve some of the MP issues its not impossible that we can release fixes for that earlier too

Please fix these things. leaving them until summer would be too long.

 

[Harin]

We have absolutely been impacted, and as a result I want to be pretty clear that you should not expect the next big expansion to drop before summer this year, which is what I was planning before COVID hit us right after La Resistance dropped.

When I first read this, I thought, "It's a good thing they can extend deadlines like that." I run projects (not software related) myself and that deadline can be serious business. Now that I have run a few errands and come back, I realize this flexibility is great. I am sure there are serious pressures to get a profitable project out the door, but obviously they are not so extreme as to force the HOI4 crew to cripple the DLC to meet a deadline.

 

[noname warrior]

Can we get a little clue on how soon we can get our regular dev diaries regarding the new DLC?

 

[BrotherJonathan]

Glad to hear everyone is alright; take all the time you need.

Personally, my guesses for the next major expansion are:

1. Rework Italy and USSR Focus Trees (maybe Poland as well)
2. New Focus Tree for Finland
3. Land combat overhaul and ability to make custom tanks

 

[Michael Gladius]

Which is easier/faster to make, NF tree improvements or events? If it's the latter, then there seriously need to be some events for Pearl Harbor (like when Mexico nationalizes its oil) and ways to reduce resistance without LaR.

 

[podcat]

When I first read this, I thought, "It's a good thing they can extend deadlines like that." I run projects (not software related) myself and that deadline can be serious business. Now that I have run a few errands and come back, I realize this flexibility is great. I am sure there are serious pressures to get a profitable project out the door, but obviously they are not so extreme as to force the HOI4 crew to cripple the DLC to meet a deadline.

Well yeah, deadlines are always serious business, but there the fact is that with our model we still have money coming in long term every month so we must look at releases over a bigger period, and then quality has a big impact. It also has knockon effects on trusts on later releases and such. There is also stuff that can happen that is so severe there is no downscalings or other actions that can be taken to adjust for it without gutting quality, and as a a team of smaller size with high reliance on key individuals we are fragile to that. HOI3 was the last time we had to make calls like being able to pay employees or release the game now that I can remember and that was really painful. If i recall correctly several people in management delayed their salary payout then and didnt tell anyone so we could run a bit longer.

 

[podcat]

Which is easier/faster to make, NF tree improvements or events? If it's the latter, then there seriously need to be some events for Pearl Harbor (like when Mexico nationalizes its oil) and ways to reduce resistance without LaR.

Focus trees is by far the most expensive content that can be made for any of our games I would say. But events arent always great. They are hidden so bad for very important stuff that players need to have good agency over

 

[Michael Gladius]

Focus trees is by far the most expensive content that can be made for any of our games I would say. But events arent always great. They are hidden so bad for very important stuff that players need to have good agency over

(flashbacks of the Chinese United Front forming, and having a separate newspaper/event for each one)

 

[Fulmen]

as a a team of smaller size with high reliance on key individuals we are fragile to that.

How big is the HoI4 team in relation to other PDS game teams?

 

[safe-keeper]

Looking forward to regular DDs. They said they wanted to do Barbarossa justice, so I'm thinking it's going to be a pretty big overhaul. Maybe that's why there's no specifics yet.

Podcat giving new year's dev diary

Me waiting for news on Barbarossa DLC

(edit: to be clear, I'm not complaining that we haven't gotten news yet, I'm just eager for them)

 

[Almas]

[.....]
We have absolutely been impacted, and as a result I want to be pretty clear that you should not expect the next big expansion to drop before summer this year, which is what I was planning before COVID hit us right after La Resistance dropped.
I know a lot of you have been asking about dates for diaries to start up and for us to show stuff again, but you are going to have to wait a bit longer for that. I can say though that the expansion we are brewing up is gonna be pretty sweet I think and focus on a lot of things people have been wishing for

As far as i know Paradox takes the summer generally for vacations, so is it correct to assume that we are talking about Q3/fall for a release at the earliest?

[...]
There is also stuff that can happen that is so severe there is no downscalings or other actions that can be taken to adjust for it without gutting quality, and as a a team of smaller size with high reliance on key individuals we are fragile to that. HOI3 was the last time we had to make calls like being able to pay employees or release the game now that I can remember and that was really painful. If i recall correctly several people in management delayed their salary payout then and didnt tell anyone so we could run a bit longer.

Im glad that you are in a better position than at the time of HoI3, that story sounds horrible.

Could you please expand your comments on the team size? Speculation is floating, that HoI4 is understaffed despite being the most successfull game of the studio and you are indirectly confirming that. Is it because for some reason you could not use more staff, or it because less successfull games have higher priority for some reason? As a team of smaller size the return on investment of HoI4 is perhaps even higher than on CK3, seems logical to put more manpower into the game than.....

As a further question just out of curiosity: In your design work, do you have a master plan for big design changes that you finalize on paper and than implement it with small iterations, or do you favor a fail-fast approach, where you have minimal design on paper, try it out in prototypes/in-game and only proceed if successfull.

Thanks for communicating with the community

 

[ScottyWired]

I want to be pretty clear that you should not expect the next big expansion to drop before summer this year,

Well duh, it's summer right now