HOI4 Dev Diary - South Africa - together for victory?

[Axe99]

Cheers for the DD Podcat, and the extra info Archangel/Havebeard . The South African NF tree looks tops, a lot of fun packed into it - I'd wager HoI4 will comfortably be the best HoI for playing SAF . Continuous NF also sound tops as well - as per @Zarathustra_the 's question, is it possible to mod in nation-specific continuous NFs (and are they moddable more broadly)? Increasing fortress costs also tops, lots to like .

 

[Lukevan16]

I can't say that I'm an expert on South African history, but my parents are South African and they brought an old map of the country from the 1920s when they came to Canada. I've noticed that Lesotho (then called Basutoland) and Swaziland were not incorporated into the Union of South Africa upon its independence.

I read a fantastic book on the history of South Africa by Frank Welsh, and he mentions that there was actually significant objections in the United Kingdom to handing over the territories as it was viewed as being immoral. The British, at least the ones in London, were never too fond of the Afrikaaner and Natalian tendency to treat their black population as almost subhuman. This caused London and the more liberal government of the Cape Colony quite the headache during the lead up to Union in 1910, as the Cape Colony already had given educated blacks the right to vote. While the Cape certainly didn't have a free society even this minor concession to the Natives was rejected by the governments of the Orange River Colony, the Transvaal, and the Natal. Anyways I'm getting off track...

I'm not saying that you should add anything about this to the focus tree, but it would be nice if you guys could transfer control of Basutoland and Swaziland to the British as they were never under the control of the government in Pretoria.

Also you cut the Kaprivi strip in half, you guys have to fix that it looks terrible as is.

Great work on the focus tree though! I'm excited

 

[Tiger1707]

Wow, gj Paradox
Continuous Focuses sound really nice and im eager to hear more about the autonomy system

 

[Nicolaes]

I really like the new South African focus tree, although there is one thing I'm not really certain about: the "A King for Our People" focus.

The Boers and to a lesser extent all Afrikaners have generally been grown up as an independent people with a tradition of a very orthodox christian (Calvinist) republic where a council of representatives headed by a so-called State President manage all political life with a heavy influence from the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa. The only exception I can think of what they could do besides going for the British path is to crown Queen Wilhelmina (Queen of the Netherlands in the first half of the 20th century) as Queen of South Africa due to political, cultural, ethnical and above all religious and linguistic similarities*. We'll have to see what the event options from the focus will be when the expansion is released though.

*Afrikaners are a people who are descendants from Dutch colonists in the Cape Colony together with the odd German and Huguenot Frenchman here and there. The Afrikaners' language, Afrikaans (although back then would probably still be called Dutch), was pretty much understandable and interchangeable with Dutch for the 19th and first half of the 20th century untill the independence of South Africa. The Dutch and Afrikaners are also traditionally the only peoples who mainly follow the Reformed (Calvinist) branch of Christianity and have a Calvinist European culture. The Boers' (Afrikaners who moved out of the Cape Colony) first independent state even tried to join the Netherlands as a colony.

 

[neusaap]

Also you cut the Kaprivi strip in half, you guys have to fix that it looks terrible as is.

Very much this, you may incorporate my mod if that's what it takes

was pretty much understandable and interchangeable with Dutch for the 19th and first half of the 20th century untill the independence of South Africa

Afrikaans and Dutch is still pretty much understandable and you can still use it interchangeably. Of course if we or them speak really fast we may lose track off eachother but aside from some minor grammatical changes and spelling, it's still almost the same. And that didn't suddenly become different because SA became independent.
(Source: Experience as a Dutchman who has been in South Africa too)

 

[banci]

Will we have the chance to liberate the French colonies too as South Africa?

 

[neusaap]

Will we have the chance to liberate the French colonies too as South Africa?

No

 

[Emren]

Of course, everyone knows this picture. Logistics in Africa should be damn complicated.

 

[Archangel85]

Will we have the chance to liberate the French colonies too as South Africa?

You can "liberate" Madagascar from their terrible colonial overlords under certain circumstances.

 

[podcat]

@podcat is the continuous national focus part of the focus tree or its own menu? If in its own menu, can they be country specific?

They are shown as part of regular tree and can be limited by country if you like

 

[AniBlack7]

What about the British Raj Focus?? I thought next week would cover their focus tree.

 

[smug]

One country was left out of this DLC, Ireland. Ireland was still technically still a member of the common wealth at the time (only officaly leaving in 1949). And Ireland could be so interesting with a focus tree. Churchill offered De Valera Northern Ireland if they joined the British against the Germans but De Valera decided to remain neutral. There was also German spies meeting the IRA with a plan to invade Northern Ireland. There was the Blueshirts who fought the police and went off to fight for Franco in the Spanish Civil War. You could get some pretty good stuff out of this.

 

[Adonnus]

glad you like it. I think its something we will keep expanding on in the future

Do you think it's a good idea to make sure the naval/air production bonuses are slightly higher than the army training bonus? So it's a harder decision to make.

Most players will just go army otherwise, I assume, since the other two are normally neglected especially in multi.

 

[Barvinok]

Nice to see new focus trees. Will existing trees of certain countries get a Communist path? I'm talking about Japan, Germany, Italy...

 

[SensitiveDannyBoi]

Why is there no industry related continuous focus? Those continuous focuses are pretty bland.

How about a resource revealing continuous focus so Africa is not such a wasteland?

 

[Zwirbaum]

Why is there no industry related continuous focus? Those continuous focuses are pretty bland.

How about a resource revealing continuous focus so Africa is not such a wasteland?

There is construction focus...

 

[Zarathustra_the]

There is construction focus...

Doesn't influence Industry buildings... Also I would support a resource finding focus, it would help for resource starving that happens in the end game.

 

[Zwirbaum]

Doesn't influence Industry buildings... Also I would support a resource finding focus, it would help for resource starving that happens in the end game.

It does influence indirectly by giving you ability to construct more factories faster. And there is air/navy 'industrial' focus. Focus aimed at boosting industrial capacity of building tanks/guns etc. would probably be go to go focus and as such presenting no other options.

Resource boosting focus, kinda, though, you need to have resources in first place etc. for it to be worth it.

 

[Communitnerd92]

yihaaa!!!!

 

[Zarathustra_the]

It does influence indirectly by giving you ability to construct more factories faster. And there is air/navy 'industrial' focus. Focus aimed at boosting industrial capacity of building tanks/guns etc. would probably be go to go focus and as such presenting no other options.

Resource boosting focus, kinda, though, you need to have resources in first place etc. for it to be worth it.

If it doesnt influence industry, that means it will not boost civilian factories, ie, it will only work on things like infrastructure, airbases and fortifications.


@podcat could you maybe add a resource exploitation focus that lets you expand resources available or something, to help simulate the historical prospecting that took place in the time period to expand aluminum, steel, and oil reserves? It would also help alleviate the resource crunch that takes place in 1942 where we all start running out of resources for our war machines. Further, if it affected sparse provinces, it would help add value to Africa and South America that does not currently exist.