HoI4 DevDiary - Art and Achievements

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Hello, and welcome back to another Dev Diary for Battle for the Bosporus. We are coming up on the home stretch, and this week we are going to talk about the art, music and achievements for Battle for the Bosporus and the free update 1.10 Collie.

Art
In my personal and entirely unbiased opinion, the art department has really outdone themselves in this expansion. See for yourself:

National Spirit Icons:

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Design Companies:

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Focus Icons:

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After some feedback in last week's diary, we also changed some of the focus icons we have shown off for Yugoslavia:
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Portraits:
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Some absolutely spectacular beards on display here.

As part of the free update, Edwin Barclay, President of Liberia, now has his own portrait:

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Game finally literally playable.

The DLC also comes with a set of tech icons for the three new nations, plus some 3d art to go along with it. I quite like the Battlecruiser, the ex-German SMS Moltke, which will be a unique model for Turkey.

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And finally, we have the addition of Camels to our long lineup of tools with which to wage war. While we showed off Camelry as a unit for Turkey, it is also available for a number of other countries that historically operated Camel units during the game’s timeframe, such as the British garrison in Somalia or the French colonial forces.

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Turns out NATO doesn’t seem to have a proper counter for Camelry (an oversight on our part, I’m sure), so we made our own.

Music

The DLC also includes three new music tracks. You can listen to one of them (“Final Frontier”) here:

As a little treat for you, we also have the Loading Screen for Battle for the Bosporus in all its glory to use as a Wallpaper:

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I’m glad we finally have some cat representation in the game.

Achievements

View attachment 637996Finnish him: As Finland, defeat the Soviet Union without joining a faction

View attachment 637997I captured the Bosphorus and all I got was this lousy achievement: As Greece or Bulgaria, own both sides of the Bosporus. As Turkey, subjugate both Greece & Bulgaria.

View attachment 637998Istanbul is Constantinople. Again.: As Greece, capture Istanbul and rename it to Constantinople.

View attachment 637999Peter’s Pride: As Peter II of Yugoslavia, overthrow your uncle and become King.

View attachment 638000This is Madness!: As Greece, fulfill the Megali Idea and then form Greater Greece.

View attachment 638001Nobody’s Business but the Turks: Restore the Ottoman Sultanate.

View attachment 637991House of Kurds: As Kurdistan, hold all of your cores.

View attachment 637995Hellenic Civility: Win the Greek Civil War before 1937.

View attachment 638002Hoofin’ It: Unite Arabia with thirty camelry divisions.

View attachment 637992We’re Putting the Band Back Together: As Turkey, be in a faction with Germany and Austria-Hungary.

View attachment 638003Dracula’s Revenge: As Yugoslavia, establish the autonomous region of Transylvania and have it own all Romanian cores.

View attachment 638004Prussia of the Balkans: As Bulgaria capitulate Turkey while also controlling the rest of the Balkans, including Greece.

View attachment 638005Balkan Problem Solved: As Communist Bulgaria, form the United Balkan Federation and own all Balkan states as cores.

View attachment 638006Bad Romeance: Restore Byzantium and have Italy, Romania, and Russia as subjects.

View attachment 638007Totally Not Cool, Bromania: As Romania, change sides in the war and capitulate a former ally.

View attachment 638008Freedom or Death: As Greece, liberate Albania while being at war with Italy.

View attachment 638009Now This is Getting Childish: As Yugoslavia or Bulgaria, be at war while both countries are ruled by a child.

View attachment 637994Hardly Anything Sèvres: As the Ottoman Empire, hold the capitals of France, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Japan.

View attachment 638010One Nation Under Atatürk, Indivisible: As non-aligned Turkey, have zero negative state modifiers.

View attachment 638011Master Puppeteer: As Bulgaria, complete the focus The Fate of the Balkans while having 5 or more Balkan puppets.


That’s all for today. See you next week with the full changelog and some info on a new experiment we are running to make the game more accessible.
 
Having done the Byzantine achievement at the first time of asking, I'd wager that it is only going to be more difficult now (generic tree is OP, change my mind). Plus you need to deal with a bajillion of negative stuff first before you can meaningfully expand now.

I honestly have tried over 5 times using videos to do the Byzatine achievment in La Resistance. I just couldn't do it. I should honestly roll back my game in order to play it, but I hate being forced to do that.

And yea, I honestly think that it'll be harder for Greece to do it for sure, so I don't think this achievment will be hunted down a bunch. Well, unless they changed how the formable works. Like, man it would be sweet in a single player match to just call yourself the Byzantine by name and just core each place you take with a decision. Would be much easier. But sadly, you have to do so many things in order to form it and WW2 gets in the way.

Oooh it's going to suck taking Albania now though since in the basic tree, you can just invite Italy to a faction to abuse that... but more than likely you can't anymore. They're going to force you to go to war with the allies first, defeat the allies, then betray the axis just to form the Byzatine, all while dealing with massive resistance with your very little manpower. Oh yea, im not excited for greece anymore. I already see all the issues with the new focus tree that will make this almost impossible to do. I actually think very little people will be getting these achievments based on that alone. :/
 
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Thanks for the dd, love all the art and effort to put them in.

Looking at those new achievements, it does seem quite a few require some AI countries to be doing an explicit path (e.g. be in a faction with AH as Turkey, or "Now This is Getting Childish"). I dont want to be relying on forever reloading on ahistorical settings to just get the AI countries to do the paths i want...
 
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I honestly have tried over 5 times using videos to do the Byzatine achievment in La Resistance. I just couldn't do it. I should honestly roll back my game in order to play it, but I hate being forced to do that.

And yea, I honestly think that it'll be harder for Greece to do it for sure, so I don't think this achievment will be hunted down a bunch. Well, unless they changed how the formable works. Like, man it would be sweet in a single player match to just call yourself the Byzantine by name and just core each place you take with a decision. Would be much easier. But sadly, you have to do so many things in order to form it and WW2 gets in the way.

Oooh it's going to suck taking Albania now though since in the basic tree, you can just invite Italy to a faction to abuse that... but more than likely you can't anymore. They're going to force you to go to war with the allies first, defeat the allies, then betray the axis just to form the Byzatine, all while dealing with massive resistance with your very little manpower. Oh yea, im not excited for greece anymore. I already see all the issues with the new focus tree that will make this almost impossible to do. I actually think very little people will be getting these achievments based on that alone. :/
Oh yea I've done in it 1.9.3 but with the Albanian trick. I've talked to ppl saying it's possible to not use that trick, but I dont want to be bother with thinking an alternative strategy. It worked out for me well though because I have have to fight the allies for the cores I needed (Romania joined Axis just before I declared) so that trick has more benefits than just Albania.

Well this is a ww2 game after all, and some significant minorities have voiced about not wanting memey paths. So it makes sense for them to be at least historically plausible for the first 2-3 years of the timeframe, then you can choose to go wild afterwards.
 
Oh yea I've done in it 1.9.3 but with the Albanian trick. I've talked to ppl saying it's possible to not use that trick, but I dont want to be bother with thinking an alternative strategy. It worked out for me well though because I have have to fight the allies for the cores I needed (Romania joined Axis just before I declared) so that trick has more benefits than just Albania.

Well this is a ww2 game after all, and some significant minorities have voiced about not wanting memey paths. So it makes sense for them to be at least historically plausible for the first 2-3 years of the timeframe, then you can choose to go wild afterwards.

The problem is, you will always have to choose a side in WW2 and the peace conference is so buggy that these achievments can get screwed over quickly. Britain, for some stupid reason, will guarentee other countries and invite them into the war that she's already struggling with against Germany, and make new enemies. I don't see any smart country getting involved with another war while at war with a powerful country. Alot of the times, these achievments just get screwed out.

As for the significant minorities, PDX should be listening to the majority of their paying customers not a few vocal minorities who want the game to turn into an Allies Win 2.0 simulator. That being said, I don't think PDX is purposely going out of their way to make the memey paths impossible for the minorities. I just think it comes with the territory of not making super OP Focus trees, Germany and UK withstanding. They won't ever make it so Greece or any smaller countries get an Anschluss focus, despite the fact that they should just for the sake of these achievments. I hate playing Dark Souls in order to get what I want out of the game. I shouldn't have to slam my head against the wall just to play a country and have fun with it. its a game and I shouldn't be forced to struggle.

As for the albania strategy, it -has- to be done otherwise you're going to be at war with the Axis before you can get your economy off the ground in order to complete the ach. The way this new focus tree is going, it's -forcing- you to first go to war with the allies, lose all of your territory due to the fact Germany will have all the war participation because they fought in France and capitulated them, then being forced to go to war with the axis to claim a few bits more of your territory, all while dealing with manpower issues that will barely cover one army and resistance. Unless they actually let you core these smaller countries in the focus tree before the Byzatine, I dont think it's going to be possible with the way the game works right now, especially with the peace conference. I've played this game enough to realize that it has many shortcomings when it comes to these achievements because theres alot of silly things in your way of getting what you need.

Yea im ranting, but I want to play this game and have fun but I'm not an amazing player and I don't usually abuse exploits in order to do things. I shouldn't be forced to play a major country in order to enjoy myself, but the game forces my hand most of the time.

And I have -no- issue with not forming the Byzantine or these formable nations by 1939, -but-, the issue is again, the AI is stupid in the way they work. Britain and France love to Guarentee countries independence or invite them to their faction, bringing more enemies for them instead of handling their own problems. Its stupidity.

Im not expecting to be able to have an OP nation like Germany in 1938. But I also don't want to have to continue to restart because the peace conference screwed me, or the AI screwed me, or what not. Its frustrating beyond belief to have to quit a game because you did -ALL- the fighting in Turkey, but because France and Uk were majors and thats where all the fighting was, Germany gets to take all your turkey land because thats logical!
 
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The Finnish Achievement looks like a preview for an upcoming focus tree in the next big DLC
Really nice thing.
When will be able to preorder?
 
To those who are curious about the girl in the blue chador. Her name is Hatice Hayriye Ayşe Dürrüşehvar Sultan, commonly known as Dürrüşehvar. She is the daughter of the Abdulmejid II. Idk what's the significance, but i think her storyline would be similar to Victoria's (i.e. Dead family, women inheriting throne). Anyways, here is a pic of her, which looks a lot similar to the portrait
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Dürrüşehvar Sultan, daughter of last caliph Abdülmecid II.

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here she and her father together in nice, france.

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That is one simp-worthy lady.
 
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I apologise if this has been answered before but since we're seeing Paradox revisiting and updating older DLCs with BftB, will we see something similar in the future?

I'm asking specifically in relation to TfV, where some of the trees are quite lacklustre but more importantly the historical inaccuracies. For example, I'm pretty sure Australia in the 1936 start has the wrong leader and South Africa keeps J.B.M Hertzog despite the fact he resigned and was replaced by their wartime leader Jan Smuts.

These are small historical inaccuracies but since the New Zealand leader inaccuracy was already fixed I'm sure these could be too :p
 
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Austria-hungary comes to mind. *Shudder*

So much luck/RNG in that.

And I dont think alot of them will be cancer, but, at the same time, with the way the game is right now I guess It will be cancer. I dont think Greece will be able to get the Byzatine Achievment easily without exploits. lol Mainly thanks to the peace conference crap.
Get the achievement now that you know it's relatively easy. We don't know if after BftB it will be more difficult.
 
I feel like "Getting the Band Back Together" should be double as Germany or Austria-Hungary, too, since the achievement is solely about the Central Powers and doesn't have much to do with Turkey specifically.
 
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I honestly have tried over 5 times using videos to do the Byzatine achievment in La Resistance. I just couldn't do it. I should honestly roll back my game in order to play it, but I hate being forced to do that.

And yea, I honestly think that it'll be harder for Greece to do it for sure, so I don't think this achievment will be hunted down a bunch. Well, unless they changed how the formable works. Like, man it would be sweet in a single player match to just call yourself the Byzantine by name and just core each place you take with a decision. Would be much easier. But sadly, you have to do so many things in order to form it and WW2 gets in the way.

Oooh it's going to suck taking Albania now though since in the basic tree, you can just invite Italy to a faction to abuse that... but more than likely you can't anymore. They're going to force you to go to war with the allies first, defeat the allies, then betray the axis just to form the Byzatine, all while dealing with massive resistance with your very little manpower. Oh yea, im not excited for greece anymore. I already see all the issues with the new focus tree that will make this almost impossible to do. I actually think very little people will be getting these achievments based on that alone. :/
I did it at first try with a guide.

Do the faction trick to get Albania and Yugoslavia.
Join Axis.
Justify on Bulgaria. Declare war. Allies will enter, don't care. Defend your ports. Capitulate Bulgaria.
Justify on Romania. Declare war. WW2 should start around here. Get Banat before Hungary joins the Axis. Capitulate Romania.
Justify on Turkey. Declare war. Encircle them in Europe before moving to Asia. Be careful about Italian naval invasions taking needed states, check their plans. Capitulate Turkey.
Click button to become purple and get the achievement.
Soviet Union will justify on you soon if you control Bessarabia or Bukovina. Give them to Germany if you want a breeze to defeat the UK with paratroopers before fighting the Soviets.
 
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Excellent stuff, excellent content, excellent achievments and their perfectly created artworks. Thank all the team.

Now, the DevTeam has only one job. Invent the time machine so we can get the expansion now.
I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE NEXT WEEK!
 
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