Hearts of Iron IV News

[h3]Hi everyone! We need some recovery time after PdxCon before we talk about more new stuff so today I figured we would recap stuff from PdxCon as well as talk about some team and studio topics. I am happy to say that we announced the name of the next big expansion - No Step Back![/h3]



We finally announced the name of the next expansion at PdxCon! (I accidentally wrote it on twitter last week but apparently nobody had time to spot that hehe). No Step Back will launch together with the 1.11 Barbarossa update and the mission statement is to focus on Soviet, the eastern front and refreshing land warfare and logistics!
This is a huge undertaking that changes a lot of key components of the game, especially the AI. This has been a major reason for waiting with Soviet. We needed to build up both ai stability and get a new partisan system in place and have time to rework supply etc etc, so its the culmination of a long plan towards this goal and its nice to see it coming together.

No Step Back - Teaser Trailer

This wasn’t a full reveal - we will be showing off and announcing more features as the dev diaries come online. We also showed some more up to date visuals on the ongoing work on the (wip) supply system:



There will be some more in depth looks on this again. We are currently working on how motorization functions as part of it but it's roughly as presented before with a focus on connecting supply hubs using railways and convoys to project supply, with motorization improving the process. The mapmode is starting to really come around and is much easier to play with compared to the one we showed in the initial early look diary (just don't look too close on the red - lack of supply color above, I grabbed it from a bug report where stuff was intentionally made extra bad for those units to test… but I felt it showed off the state well).

placeholder train graphics as our proper models aren't in the game just yet, but doesn't it look cozy? :)

We also teased some pictures of the railways and trains, as well as confirming that there will be railway guns as a new unit type. They function a lot like naval bombardment support and are intended to help break tough defended positions (probably cities/railway hubs). More on those in a dedicated train porn diary in the future :p



Soviet tree wise we do not wanna show off too much yet. It will have its dedicated diaries (plural) and its one of our more ambitions trees yet, both in size and in player choices. Soviet is after Germany the nation thats most important to get right for a ww2 game, and compared to Germany a lot more complex. Here is a little teaser (are those icons placeholder or is it a shaved marx?), feel free to speculate what choices hide outside the screen...

(yes I know center is on the left. Trust me it makes sense. You are crazy I am not crazy!)



Let's start off with some yearly statistics updates!

We keep trending up on active players. This year’s record peak was 899k players in a month which is crazy!



Majors vs Minor nation picking keeps slowly converging towards an even split:


Modding wise here are the latest numbers for the biggest total conversion mods:

• Road to 56 - 10%
  
• Kaiserreich - 6%
  
• Millenium Dawn - 3%
  
• The New Order - 2.9%
  
• Old World Blues - 2.2%
  
• The Great War - 2.2%
  
• Cold War: Iron Curtain - 1.2%
  

We also talked about the future of Hearts of Iron after No Step Back and onwards, because we don't plan to stop any time soon on expanding the game.

• Yes, we will be reworking Italy in the future :)
  
• As games get older the harder it is to do large paid mechanics changes and HOI is starting to approach that stage now. Our current thoughts (that could totally change) is to focus more towards smaller DLCs like country packs, patches and free updates long term as this lets us focus on whats best for the game and get more flavor in.
  
• Speaking of country packs. Battle for Bosporus or Death or Dishonor is what we are thinking here. We want to focus on themes and specific regions here. At the moment the top contenders we think about are Scandinavia, Middle East and South America (so big its maybe two though), but we got more ideas. Game development is hard and no plan truly survives contact with the enemy etc so we will see, but this is our intent :)
  
• With a more focus on content and free updating we will be able to tackle big pain points like peace conferences as well is our goal.
  
• We also want to try and help onboarding for new players. HOI4 is a hugely complex game and the tutorial is really not what it could with. But we also have other improvement ideas here.
  

To be clear, none of this is promises because plans change, and I cant say exactly when these things happen - my goal is to keep you in the loop with how we think about things :)

If you want to watch the pdxcon panel here are some bookmarks to the twitch stream (I am told there will be youtube clips available in the future too):

• HOI4 Panel start
• NSB Talk
• Future
• 
  

We have some cool team stuff happening, I will hand over the mic to @Arheo


Greetings all! Fresh from the Elysian fields, several of us previously from the Imperator: Rome team have swapped our gladii for KV-1s and have integrated with team HOI to create the ultimate combined arms, bear mounted (..thanks, Dan) division.

On a personal note, I’m thrilled to be joining HOI - it remains one of my all-time PDS favorites. The opportunity to give so much attention to such a short yet critical period of history is rarely afforded elsewhere. I have a great interest in the simulation of socio-political/economic causality behind the global narrative HOI provides, but find myself most at home micromanaging an ever-diminishing frontline in Russia… now with trains.

The ex-Imperator folks bring with them a wealth of knowledge which I’m certain can be put to good use here - we have spent a long time reacting, consulting, and working with our community to build a better game - something which I look forward to doing with the passionate fans of the HoI community as well.

Hi, I'm @Birken . I'm the technical director of Studio Gold and have been with Paradox since the release of Hearts of Iron III.
We're expanding the programming department in Studio Gold to better support the development of Hearts of Iron and future projects. Right now I'm looking for a Manager to help me develop our department as well as programmers that want to work with us to keep on building on Hearts of Iron and other GsG titles.
Please checkout the following job ads if you think it could be something for you.

Programmer Manager Game Programmer Senior Game Programmer

[h2]That’s it for today, see you all next week![/h2]
Read the full article here: https://pdxint.at/2QTrvjn

Hearts of Iron team members Drikus Kuiper • Content Design Lead - PDS, Daniel Sjöberg • Senior QA - PDS & Josh Bassett • Community Manager have attempted 'The Spanish Gambit' - win the Spanish Civil War in as few days as possible as the Republicans.

[h3]Their time:[/h3]
[h2]30th July, 1937 [/h2]

Think you can do better?

Head over to the PDXCON discord and submit your attempts on the PDXCON discord and assign yourself the HOI role!

We'll see you there: discord.gg/pdxcon

[h3]Hello everyone and welcome back to another dev diary for Barbarossa where today I’m going to be diving into the unique branches for the Baltic states.[/h3]

I would like to open up by showing the state rework I neglected to show last week, so here they are! The new Baltic States'... states.



[h2]ESTONIA[/h2]

Starting with Estonia, we have two starting focuses: Rally the Nation or the Era of Silence. Historically, the Era of Silence was a time in Estonian history where Konstantin Päts suspended all elections in Estonia out of fear of the fascist Vaps Movement.



While going down this path, the Vaps will gradually grow more and more agitated, and the player must use a series of focuses and decisions to prevent the nation from fracturing into a civil war. Once the Vaps are dealt with, Päts stands ready to prepare the nation for the inevitable wars to come.



A banker and economist, Päts has access to some powerful bonuses to the Estonian economy and internal stability.



Since his dictatorship was underpinned by the fear of fascists and communists, the threat both pose must be pushed into irrelevancy if an Estonian player wishes to restore democracy in their nation.



However, the dictatorship can be maintained by pushing not only communism and fascism into irrelevancy, but also democratic support.


Rally the Nation has the player take control of the Vaps in a series of decisions much similar to Britain’s fascist marches, whereby the Vaps must rally public support for their movement and overthrow the government. This culminates in a march on Tallinn and taking over in a civil war.



From here, it’s a race against time to bolster the military and ready the nation for war. As a movement made mostly of veteran’s societies, the Vaps have access to some powerful military bonuses and free units.



On top of that, the Vaps held close connections to the far-right veterans in Finland and as such, once they have taken over Estonia, they stand ready to give official support to the Finns to do the same in their own country by organizing marches through Finland.



Once this is done, Estonia is at a crossroads for where her identity lies. She may lean into her Scandinavian identity and conquer the Nordic countries, or she may lean into the Finno-Ugric identity and prepare for a war against Russia.



If Estonia successfully conquers the Nordics and completes the “Estonia is Scandinavia” focus, she will gain access to the old Nordic League decision from Waking the Tiger.



Leaning into the Ugric identity however will allow Estonia to form the new Empire of Finno-Ugra out of the Finnic identities living in Scandinavia and Russia.



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[h2]LATVIA[/h2]

Next up we have Latvia’s political focus, beginning with Kārlis Ulmanis’ historical decision to suspend the constitution of Latvia.



The focus tree is split into the military and civilian governments, which may or may not merge into one depending on your choices.



Historically, Ulmanis assigned the marshal of Latvia to be his Prime Minister, replacing Kviesis of the Farmer’s Party. Choosing to do so will allow the player to vastly improve their military industry.



Marshal Balodis became so influential in Latvia that many believed the nation to be a diarchy between Ulmanis and Balodis, despite this not being the case. However, the player will be able to make this perception a reality and establish Balodis as dictator of Latvia, rather than keep Ulmanis’ rule.



Instead of assigning Balodis as PM, Ulmanis may also choose to renew Kviesis as prime-minister, adopting a more open attitude towards the former Saeima members, giving bonuses to the civilian economy.



Similar to the marshal branch, at the end here Ulmanis may either restore public elections and empower Fricis Menders, or he may integrate the Farmer’s Party into his own; strengthening the dictatorship.



Next we have the military side of the Latvian government. Latvia may choose to either suppress the fascist Thunder Cross movement, or collaborate with them.



Suppressing them will allow Latvia to empower paramilitaries and organizations more aligned with the government, such as the Aizsargi, eventually allowing women to serve in the Women’s Aizsargi.



Unlike Estonia, Latvia has the ability to court the fascist Pērkonkrusts group without having them take over the government. However, this is a delicate balancing act because if the Pērkonkrusts grow too powerful too quickly, Latvia will be split into a civil war, so collaborate with them with caution.



If the player can keep the Pērkonkrusts in check for long enough, they can complete the “Anti-German Propaganda” focus, pacifying the Pērkonkrusts for good while utilising their bonuses.



However, Latvia may also have the Pērkonkrusts supercede Ulmanis’ government and take over the nation peacefully, unlocking powerful focuses to help them conquer the Baltics.



On top of that, Gustavs Celmiņš viewed Christianity as a weak and foreign religion, and instead stated that Dievturība neopaganism be adopted as Latvia’s state religion. If the player goes anti-German, the Dievturība national spirit is upgraded as you progress down your fascist focus branches, eventually becoming quite a powerful boon to your nation.



Going pro-German however will allow Latvia to adopt the mantle of RK-Ostland, serving their German masters by occupying the Baltics and Belarus.



*****************************************************
[h2]
LITHUANA[/h2]

Lastly, we have Lithuania’s national focus tree, and similar to Latvia’s, most everything is interconnected.



Just like Latvia, Smetona can choose to appoint either a military prime minister as they did historically, or assign Vladas Mironas, a priest turned politician.



No matter which they choose, Lithuania must fulfil Smetona’s ambition of empowering the Presidency and elevating the President above party politics. What this will mean for a Lithuanian player is that party popularity will have no impact at all on the nation’s stability, and they will instead gain a flat amount of stability as a base.



Over on the right here we have some of Lithuania’s external politics. Lithuania may attempt to seek peace and eventually mutual guarantees with their old enemies in Poland, or they may sign the Soviet Mutual Assistance pact, ensuring that Vilnius be returned to Lithuania upon completion of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.



Lithuania may also center their politics by suppressing communist and fascist supporters in their nation, eventually allowing them to focus their efforts on their true enemy, be that Germany or the USSR.



Over on the left, we have focuses for dealing with Augustinas Voldemaras. Voldemaras was once Smetona’s Prime Minister, but in 1936 the Iron Wolf leader was in a Lithuanian prison. Lithuania may exile him, granting access to their usual political focuses, or free him, allowing the nation to slowly turn to fascism.



In the fascist branch of the Lithuanian tree, Lithuania is able to go on a war-path to restore the old borders of Greater Lithuania. Opposing the Germans will also allow Lithuania to lay claim to “Lower Lithuania”, AKA Königsberg.



A fascist Lithuania that manages to either occupy Poland or align them will be able to restore things to the way they once were: with a large dominant Lithuania and a small submissive Poland on their border.



But Lithuania does not have to assign a Prime Minister at all. A fourth option is open to Smetona, and that is inviting the son of the duly elected King of Lithuania: Mindaugas III.



And here we have the beautiful Karl Gero von Urach portrait I teased in last week's diary! Big thank you to @Indyclone77 for sourcing the reference picture from the Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg for us!



Should Lithuania choose to elect a king, the player will gain access to the same claiming mini-game as Poland but inverted, allowing for a Commonwealth in which Lithuania is the senior partner.



Should both Poland and Lithuania choose to go monarchist, the two nations will be allowed to decide how they wish to move forward. They may reject the other and go to war, or they may unite into a Commonwealth faction and stand as friends.

*****************************************************

There are also a number of shared focuses in the unique branches as well.

Any Baltic State may choose to form the Baltic Entente faction, and if they become democratic, they may also turn this alliance into an economic union. By completing focuses to draw the states closer together, the democratic Baltic state may be able to unite people of the region into one nation



Similar to Poland, all three Baltic states have a small exiled government branch, granting them access to some offmap factories and weekly manpower.



The Baltics may also choose to do as they did historically: granting basing rights to either the Soviets or Germany, and eventually submitting to their occupation. Should the Baltics submit to Soviet occupation, they will switch to their shared communist branch.



[h2]That’s all for this week! Don't forget to tune into PdxCon '21 on Friday and Saturday, there is a bunch of interesting HOI4 stuff there as potentially some reveals! [/h2]

Full Article: https://pdxint.at/3owsceA