Hello! We wanted to take a moment to introduce several of the characters coming to [REDACTED]! Our Dev Corners have focused more on the higher level design ambitions, but didn’t talk much about who was actually leading the countries, participating as advisors or serving as the generals and admirals. The upcoming Dev Diaries will explore them in more depth, but for now here’s a first look at some of the characters being added.

Here we’re presenting some of the key people of interest and their portraits for the Chinese Soviet Republic. Bear in mind that we’re still in development and the portraits are not necessarily final.

First off we’ve listened to your feedback on the Zhang Wentian portrait, so we’ve de-1950-fied him (yes that is a word)


(New and old)

Here are some of the Generals at their disposal: including some who would later become Marshals of the PRC.


He Long, Liu Bocheng, Nie Rongzhen, Peng Dehuai

And yes - the landlocked Chinese Soviet Republic will even have access to (at least) two admirals, as well as (at least) one woman General


Su Zhenhua (Future Admiral), Zhang Qinqiu

And here we have some other new portraits:


Wang Ming. Zhang Guotao will be on a roadtrip with the Fourth Red Army at the start of the game


I wonder what’s behind this…

And finally some advisors:


Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaopeng, Ren Bishi, Lin Boqu, Liu Yalou

Hello! This is MordredViking (Gareth) with some Philippines characters for you too; these are some of their potential country leaders.


Jose Laurel, Manuel Roxas, Emilio Aguinaldo and Cristanto Evangelista (left to right), can all be a country leader for the Philippines. Manuel Quezon is also getting a make over, but we’re not quite ready to show him off just yet.


Enrique Jurado, Ramon Magsaysay, Vicente Lim and Luis Taruc comprise the Filipino generals.


Jose Andrada, Thomas Hart (USA), John Wilkes (USA), and Okawachi Denshichi (Japan) provide some naval muscle.



And here are the Philippine advisors available for use (ignore the civic icon, I’ve not assigned those properly yet).

In addition, here are some Nationalist China portraits


Carsun Chang and Dai Li


Chen Shaokuan, Feng Yuxiang and Zhang Fakui and finally some advisors


Chen Lifu, Dai Jitao, Huang Jinrong, Jiang Baili, Mao Renfeng, Shi Liang and Symeon Du

To finish it all off in a good way, let’s have a look at some of the faces you will be meeting while playing as Japan.


Oh, and of course there is always more.



Thank you very much for checking these out, let us know what you think of all the characters we’re introducing to [REDACTED]. Are there any characters you are particularly excited to see in-game?

Kon'nichiwa! Hello and welcome to this week’s Dev Corner, where I, PDX_Danne, and D3vil will guide you through some of the ideas of the new Japanese content for the upcoming DLC. As far as major themes for Japan go in the 1930s, the situation was a total and utter mess; politicians getting assassinated by the military left and right, the Army more or less doing whatever it wants, whenever it wants, and the Civilian Government not being able to rein them in. Spoiler alert: that’s how Japan ended up in China to begin with.

Keep in mind that all of this is still a work in progress, and things will change. But this is also the time to provide feedback and suggestions so that they might end up in the game

We know that the Balance of Power (BoP) more or less seems to be tailor-made for Japan and its inter-service rivalry between the Army and the Navy (the rivalry ran so deep that the Army had its own little navy, and the Navy had its own little army, and neither side communicated properly with the other one), but we have decided to not use that system. We’ve instead chosen to build a brand new system from the ground up to better reflect the chaotic political situation in Japan during this time period:



The Imperial Influence doubles as both the BoP between the Army and Navy, while also allowing the Zaibatsu (large industrial conglomerates) and the Civilian Government to enter the fray and fight for the chance to influence the Emperor. Each Faction will have unique advantages and disadvantages, and they will rise and fall depending on Focuses you take, or Demands you either succeed in fulfilling or not.




Some Focuses will require a specific Faction to have a certain level of Influence for you to be able to complete it, while other focuses will get better outcomes depending on a Faction’s standing. All in all, there are four levels of Influence: Subdued, Meddling, Influential, and Dominating



Having talked about the Imperial Influence, I think it’s time to move on to the starting political beat and how to lead into historical and alt-historical political paths.

The political tree starts with the Kodoha preparing for their attempted coup d’etat, in order to replace the decadent government and return to Japanese tradition. Before they can do this however, one of their leaders needs to be let out of house arrest while his trial is happening, giving you a small buffer to prepare.



When the coup fires, the outcome you choose affects which path you go down, automatically completing the first choice of mutually exclusive political focuses, leading you down the historical, Kodoha or anti-military (which later becomes democratic or communist) paths, which all start out as locked until the attempted coup occurs.

Oh and that all is not to mention, you don’t start out as fascist when playing Japan anymore. Now instead, you are non-aligned, with prime minister Keisuke Okada at the helm. Japan will now instead become the fascist ideology when completing the focus “The Imperial Rule Assistance Association”, which will solidify totalitarian control over Japanese society, and allow for solving the stability issues the nation will now face at the start of the game, being the most unstable of all the starting major countries, due to their heavily tumultuous internal situation.




Another change for Japan is that now, instead of always having full control of when or even if to go into China, they depending on the branch they are going down might have to start a war whether they like it or not, as the Kwantung Army is always seeking new opportunities to expand their zone of control. This means that, though you can choose to delay or start it early, historical Japan cannot avoid an oncoming conflict with China.



Similarly, the navy might get some ideas once they are strong enough and give you demands of territorial expansion.



This all plays into the feeling that the Japanese politicians had historically, where the various elements within the nation all had different aspirations, and would stop at little to get their wishes fulfilled.

You do however have more options than before, as both the Northern and Southern Strike Doctrines are available to both the historical and Kodoha branches through their shared foreign politics branch. They do still have requirements of their own, such as the army or navy being stronger than a certain amount, or a certain amount of time having gone by between having started the branches, so there are still situations where doing both won’t be feasible, as was the case historically.



And with that, that’s all for now. We have talked about some of the fundamental changes that await Japan, but now it’s your turn to tell us what you think, and we’re looking forward to hearing your feedback. Matane! (see ya!)

Bear in mind that everything you see here is work in progress and subject to change or even removal!

Hello! My name is Mordred Viking, though you may also know me as Gareth. I’d like to welcome you to this Dev Corner about the lovely nation of the Philippines. Wait, the Philippines? What could they have done in the Second World War? Well, turns out that much like Belgium, they had more of an impact than you might expect.

Let’s begin with a little background; in 1936 the Philippines were a surprisingly prosperous American Commonwealth nation, and in 1935 they had been promised a 10 year transition to full independence. Then, in December 1941, just a few hours after the attack on Pearl Harbour, the Japanese launched an invasion of their islands and a couple of days later, despite General Douglas MacArthur’s best efforts, the American and Filipino defenders surrendered. They were then under Japanese occupation until their liberation by the Americans in 1944 / 45. In 1946, the Americans kept their promise and the nation was granted its independence.

As you might see, this leads to some pretty significant gameplay and design questions; how do you keep a puppet nation interesting until they are attacked in late 1941? How do you portray this path to independence? How do you represent the massive efforts of the resistance? What about their relationship with the USA? How does MacArthur factor into all this?

The early years of the game are dedicated to the Philippines’ path to independence, and in this they have two options. They can accept the gradual, planned path as happened historically, establishing their own government systems, taxation systems, military, etc with more than a little American help. Alternatively, they can seek Japanese assistance in expediting their independence.



This branch is the central political playground, where you are able to play the USA off against the Japanese. Going down the American path will take you longer, but generally give larger bonuses. Completing the Japanese focuses however, will actually make several of the central focuses complete more quickly (hence the little clock symbols). Therefore, you’ll be able to make your way to freedom more quickly, but at a cost of long term industrial and military power. If you finally manage to sign the Treaty of Manila then you will gain some major economic advantages.



Although you’ll be able to unlock this American Support branch from the start, you’ll only be able to access the lower elements if you continue to remain pro-USA. The more loyal you remain, the more requisitions you will be able to get from them.

Incidentally, did you know that MacArthur’s second in command was a certain Major Dwight D. Eisenhower until 1939? Yes, that Eisenhower. He was even asked to remain as the Police Chief of Quezon City, which he rejected. Well, this is one of those cool “what-if” situations we like to explore in Hearts of Iron!

This is the most WIP and the most likely to see things changed or removed!



The alt-history paths are meant to be plausible options that the Philippines could have taken were things to be a little different. The fascist path, where the nation tumbles down the slippery slope of Japanese pressure. There is also the communist path, where you can embrace the ideal of “Maritime Communism”, unleashing a mass naval assault with lots of ships, rather than the usual flood of manpower.



Now, let’s talk about the Philippine military. Historically, the USA provided basically all the war fighting equipment that the Philippines used in the Second World War, they didn’t really have much of a military industry of their own. This is represented by the United States Army in the Far East focus branch we saw earlier.

To unlock your own capabilities, you will need to complete the National Defense Act which is a whopping 245 day focus. This is, I believe, the longest focus on Heart of Iron history. However, each time you complete one tier of align USA / Japan in the Commonwealth of the Philippines branch, this number goes down. It will then be up to you to balance the political development against military necessity on when to embark on your own rearmament.

Much like with Belgium, I wanted to keep the game interesting even when you lose, and while Belgium could fall back on the Congo, the Philippines can fall back on daddy USA. You will be able to continue the struggle in your home islands, be able to acquire resources and manpower and ultimately prepare to stage a magnificent return to the Philippines.



And that’s your lot! This is just a glance into the design and intention behind the Philippines focus tree as I wanted to get your thoughts and opinions on how things are shaping up.

I’ve not yet spoken much about the characters involved, shown off new art, nor introduced the various national spirits. The Philippines content is still very much in development, but don’t worry we’ll go through that in a future Dev Diary… but for that, you’ll just have to stay tuned for more.

I Shall Return

Dàjiā hǎo, (that’s “Hello” for everyone who doesn’t speak Chinese), and welcome to this week’s Dev Corner. With this year marking the 80th anniversary of the end of WW2, we are here to walk you through the major themes and ideas for an extremely important participant in the global war effort: China.

Our intention is for this to be an early view of the Chinese content - some things may disappear, some things may be added, but you can be certain that things will definitely change!

It is a running theme that countries all around the world faced major difficulties in the 1930s, and China was no exception. Embroiled in a fractious state of civil war, the central government under the Kuomintang held only nominal power, while local warlords - regional military leaders - occupied significant tracts of land under privately controlled armies. It would be one of the smallest of these states, led by the Chinese Communist Party, which would defy odds - rising to power and uniting all of China.

One of our primary design goals here was to introduce a greater level of detail to Chinese content. This included changing the starting situation for the Communists to be more accurate to the situation in 1936; they’ve been renamed to the Chinese Soviet Republic (the official name from 1931 to 1937), Zhang Wentian is now the nominal leader, and the starting territory is altered as the Communists did not control Yan'an in early 1936.



Like the rest of China, there is an underlying struggle between the true policy-makers in the country, as Mao Zedong and the 28½ Bolsheviks are vying for power.





A Communist China playthrough has always been one of the more challenging in the game as a result of the starting situation, and our revamped approach is no different. As expected, you’ll need to fight off the Empire of Japan, then attempt to reunify the rest of China in several stages.


Conspicuously placed magnifying glass only included subject to availability.

This feeling of overcoming insurmountable odds is something we wanted to hone in on and build the new content around: with great challenge comes great reward. There are both new systems and revamped, familiar ones that have been implemented to achieve this. A familiar face to all of you who have played as Communist China before is the Infiltration system, which is returning, but with some changes and additions. Besides the fact that you can flip the infiltrated state to your side when war breaks out between you and the state controller, the state gets some additional penalties before that.



You will also be able to Establish Guerrilla Cells on enemy territory - as long as they’re not cores of your enemy.



After having established guerrilla cells (or if the state is a core of your enemy), you can scale up your operations there and Launch Sabotage Campaigns.



This might hurt your enemy, which is all fine and dandy - but it doesn’t help you. Well, let me show a first in the game; introducing Land Raids. Having either established guerrilla cells or launched sabotage campaigns in a state, you can now launch a Raid, targeting one of the state’s Supply Hubs. If you’re successful, you’ll be rewarded with the necessary equipment to continue the fight!



All of these features are sprinkled out to varying degrees in the different political branches you can choose from. The main question you have to ask yourself is; do you intend to cozy up to the Nationalists (and if you want to have a greater focus on guerrilla warfare as already outlined, or depend more heavily on Soviet support and usurp the control of the United Front from within), or if you’d rather face off both Japan and the rest of China all alone, and quite possibly all at once? How fiercely will you fight to unify all of China?

In this time period, the central government is under the control of the Kuomintang and Chiang Kai-shek, the foremost leader of the party. However the KMT isn’t a unitary group and varying groups and factions within it are jostling for control. We’ve chosen to explore this dynamic and when playing as the nationalists your choices will be between these different groups. Who you choose influences which tools will be at your disposal and how you achieve the ultimate goal of unifying China under the KMT flag.



First of all there is the Generalissimo himself, Chiang Kai-Shek. Reflecting his military background Chiang draws his strength from posturing with the armed forces and being successful in defending the country.



Chiang was known for securing great quantities of material support from various foreign powers and we wanted to reflect this by giving him the ability to get a steady stream of arms and financial support from abroad. However, it is worth remembering that there is no such thing as a free lunch and you will have to prove that you’re worth betting on, by holding specific states and capturing specific areas in a timely fashion.



For a long time, the most viable adversary within the KMT to Chiang was Wang Jingwei, more known to the world as a Japanese puppet leader. But what if something would happen to Chiang, say in Xi’an for example, could Wang have stepped forward? Unlike Chiang, Wang is more of a politician and thus his focus isn’t the army which Chiang had secured the loyalty of through a decade of Whampoa Military Academy leadership. Instead, Wang’s power base is made up from the institutions of state: the Yuans. Don’t believe that Wang is building up institutions for the goal of a functioning state though, he is a shrewd powerbroker who puts his own people in power and is willing to cross some lines to solidify his own power before dealing with foreign threats.



The Society of Practice of the Three Principles of the People, or more commonly known as the Blue Shirt Society, didn’t amount to much historically beyond being viewed as a rabble by Madame Chiang, but maybe they could have. We’ve chosen to imagine what this organization, under Dai Li, could achieve if they would have been more organised like their European counterparts. The warlords will be hard to convince of your leadership so maybe a more direct route will be needed.

So we’ve talked about unifying the country, but mechanically how is it done? As you are playing the central government in a fractured state we've wanted to give some more gameplay tied to this. We’ve chosen to use the opportunity by the faction rework to incorporate the Chinese power struggle into it. This means that the Chinese United Front as a faction works a bit differently from the other ones as it is meant to end up with only one member, a united China under your leadership.

Without giving away too much, you will be using your influence in the United Front to coerce the different warlords into becoming your subjects. Your influence depends partly on how well you’re fighting in the war and what of the aforementioned paths you’ve chosen in the focus tree.




This might seem a one-sided affair, but the thing about using your influence means that you have relatively less to the other faction members so they will be able to take faction leadership. Overall the idea is that you, as the central government, need to prove that you are the legitimate leader and not just someone making a lot of noise in Nanjing, or Chongqing for that matter, by standing up to foreign aggression.

And that’s it, folks. We have told you what awaits China, but now it’s your turn to tell us what you think. Give us your feedback! Zàijiàn (goodbye) for now!

/pdx_danne & ImaginedPanda

Generals!

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Haven't kept up with the latest Dev Corners? Check out this master post to see all of the updates!

Hello everyone!

It has been a while since the last dev corner, as many of us (including myself) went on vacations - but now I have returned, even if it has been quite hard to readjust my brain back to the work frequencies. As usual, keep in mind that everything discussed here is in a relatively early stage, and as such is subject to change, especially all the numbers and values. There is also quite a number of placeholder art.

Today we will talk a bit more about Islands, Carriers (and changes to them) and also about a new branch of Special Forces, so buckle up!


Truk is what we call a ‘strategic location’, a place that can have increased building capacity or potential. In this case, currently it is a ‘placeholder’ name of Natural Harbor increasing the level cap of Naval Base Truk in Caroline Islands from 6 to 8. (note, that doesn't mean all the Caroline Islands have that increased level cap). This increased level cap of 8 can be quite important as it will allow…

As I mentioned in the Hydrodynamics Dev Corner, not all islands will be equal under the new system. We have created a concept called ‘Strategic Locations’ - that due to specific circumstances, historical importance, geographical location etc. deserves to be a bit more unique, while also having increased gameplay importance. Those locations will have increased limits for certain buildings, depending on the type of the strategic location. Some of the ‘Islands’ like Truk or Guam, may have increased Naval Base caps, others could have increased Airfield or Fort Caps. Or have a mix of them.


In this screenshot, you can see that planes from the British Carriers shot down some of the incoming German Naval Bombers performing Naval Strike.

One of the things that didn’t sit quite right with me for a long time, was the fact that whenever Naval Strike was performed on the Taskforce that included Carriers, Carrier Planes would sit idle and twiddle their thumbs. Now, carrier planes will participate in defense of the taskforce against Naval Strikes - with numbers depending on a few factors.




In these screenshots you can see that while the task force is executing the mission (in this case it was naval exercises), planes on that carrier can also perform the air missions at the same time. In the second screenshot I’ve selected all planes to do exercises, while in the last screenshot I’ve opted for fighters to provide air cover and superiority, while I ordered my taskforce to operate in the North Pacific Sea Zone.

Another update when it comes to the Carriers that we will be doing, is the ability to set and execute air missions for the Carrier Air Groups, while the taskforce that contains Carriers are performing the missions. Planes will be executing the missions selected in the same region that the taskforce is currently operating in.


And another change for Carriers, is the introduction of ‘Carrier Sub/Surface Detection’ values on the Hangar modules. Essentially what it does - it provides increased Sub / Surface detection to the ship scaled by the % of the planes it currently has.


Deck Space / Hangar for the ‘regular’ carriers provide +2 Carrier Sub Detection and +5 Carrier Surface Detection. For example, a carrier with 3 hangars, will have a Deck Size of 60, and +6 Carrier Sub Detection, +15 Carrier Surface Detection. If it would have a full compartment of 60 planes, then it would get +15 Surface and +6 Sub Detection, while if it would have only 30 planes, it would only provide +3 Sub Detection and +7.5 Surface Detection. As usual, keep in mind those values may be adjusted down the line.


Who will guess which one is the new branch of Special Forces?

To fight in all the jungles and on the islands, we are introducing a new branch of Special Forces - which we internally called for quite some time ‘Jungle Specialists’. This temporary name was great as long as they remained on the design board, but for the actual implementation finding the right name for them proved to be quite challenging to me. They went under a few ‘name iterations’ (amongst them some like: Jaegers or Chindits), but finally decided to name them Rangers. But hold up, aren’t there Rangers in-game already as a Support Company unlocked by the Mountaineers Special Doctrine, you will ask? Yes, and they will be renamed to Recon Rangers. Recon Rangers will be now unlocked by either picking Mountaineers Special Doctrine OR Rangers Special Doctrine. Rangers specialty will be fighting in the Woods and Jungles, and of course they can be further customized and boosted by the Rangers Special Forces Doctrine branch.


And this is the new special forces doctrine branch in all its FINAL_BACKUP_DRAFT_FINAL_V5 glory and form.

And that’s pretty much it for this dev corner from my side. In time we will return with more dev corners, including me talking more about things that are opposite to dry amongst others. I am really curious to see and read all your feedback and opinions on what I mentioned today.

Thanks for reading and until next time, farewell!

/Zwirbaum


I am going to leave you with another teaser for one of the new ‘toys’ we will talk about in the future. This shouldn’t be a hard guess, I think?

Generals!

High Command has issued a survey in order to gauge your thoughts in future HOI Merchandise!

Get involved with the Form below, and let us know your thoughts about them;


Click the image above, or here, to fill out the survey!

If you haven't seen the previous Dev Corner, make sure to check it out here.


Generals!

Welcome to another Developer Corner. Let’s start with a reminder, or clarification, so you have a better idea of what kind of feedback we’re looking for.

Dev Diaries give you a clear preview of what’s coming very soon.

Dev Corners are our way of involving the community earlier in our design and development process so we have a chance to listen and tweak. This obviously means there is less detail to share, because we don’t (want to) have it all nailed down yet. It’s also possible that things we discuss here aren’t all meant for the next DLC.
Now that that’s all cleared up, settle in, read it all and give us your honest, and friendly, feedback.

Now on to Wrongwraith:

The first dev corner about all things factions got a bit too long as I tended to talk about more things than I had originally intended to. But it felt that I had to try to cover a lot of things in order to explain what I was talking about. To compensate for that, this one will be a bit more focused.

I wanted to talk about the different factions - what makes them different? Basically giving a little bit of an insight into the working day of a game designer.

What we have tried to do is to decide on a theme for a faction; and design a Manifest, and select a set of Faction Rules that relate to that theme. We want to have Goals that are more or less strategic in nature. You should be encouraged to act; and to act in a way that makes sense according to the theme wherever that is possible.

Just to say it one more time: This is very much an iterative process. The final result, whenever this feature actually makes it into the game, might be totally different.

To explain what I mean I will give a few examples and show you a few more screenshots (sorry, but they still very much have placeholder UI elements - and not at all pretty).

Let's start with the Axis…

Germany starts the game as the leader of the Axis; nothing new there.

Thinking about the Axis, and especially the two major powers there - Germany and Italy - it is all about conquest and expansion. Subsequently that quite naturally becomes the theme for this faction. How do we measure conquest then? In HOI terms it is probably the amount of controlled territory that is outside your core nation.

Some of the bonuses you get from high fulfillment of the Manifest then also relate back to the conquest of territory, like non-core manpower, and resistance to occupation.



The Axis faction window - and no, it won’t look like this when ready.

The Axis goals then, are as follows:

• Secure the Resource Supply - Faction members control resources enough to ensure they can be at war with the world for some time.
  
• A European Bastion - Get European Continental countries to either join your faction or capitulate / become part of you.
  
• Secure North Africa - Control key areas in, and on the way to, North Africa to ensure the safety of the core Axis territory of continental Europe
  
• An Armored Fist - Deploy enough armored units so that you are ready to take on anyone who opposes your expansion plans.
  
• The North Atlantic - stop any enemies from gaining control of the North Atlantic in order to disrupt any attempts to block you off from world trade and to disable support for enemies in Europe.

The Axis countries weren’t very good at cooperating with each other, so it is for this reason that the faction starts without any of the more cooperative features unlocked.

How does this then contrast with e.g. the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere?

Here the theme is more centered around creating the prerequisites for expansion in Asia, ensuring that the Japanese industry has enough resources, and on creating puppets to establish control over the region. It is a very Japan-centered faction (at least if you play the historical version)

The manifest is about securing vital resources. The goals revolve around ensuring this is possible - and securing the necessary puppet countries.

Coastal security for example is about securing the sea zones around Japan and along the Chinese Coast, down to the South China Sea and the Gulf of Thailand. Secure the Oil Supply is a step on the way to fulfilling the manifest. Align China basically means creating Chinese puppets in China or conquering the country altogether. And so on.


Faction Goal: Coastal Security through naval dominance

The Allies on the other hand have a slightly different set of goals:
They start with just a few, and then they can get a few more through focuses and/or events, but this is what it looks like relatively early on:


Allied Goals

• Arteries of trade Focusing on asserting dominance over critical sea zones around the world
  
• Guardians of peace - try to ensure world peace
  
• Atomic Race - ensure that no one else gets an atomic bomb before we do
  
• Imperial Glory - Keep key parts of the colonial Empires under control even in times of war.

The idea is also that the Allies should get more bonuses to cooperation, and start with a slightly more 'upgraded faction' faction, and then get options to further improve on this as they go.

We are looking at different themes for a Stalin-lead, Communist block versus one led by e.g. Trotsky. Where the Comintern under Stalin’s lead would be more focused on border security for the Soviet Union and its allies and securing key strategic locations, the Trotskyist one should be more about spreading the revolution - supporting communism in other countries and/or forcibly converting them.

The theme for the Chinese United Front is resistance to occupation and unity. Thus the manifest is about Territorial Integrity - uniting and liberating China. The goals connect to this in various ways; like trying to control the coastline for as long as possible, organizing the resistance to occupation, but also things like building the industrial capacity to be able to stand up against the Japanese - or any other aggressor.

This would be all for this time. Would love to hear your thoughts on what you think makes the historical factions different from each other. What other factions and goals would you like to see?

We hope you do like these glimpses into what we do. We at least appreciate the feedback we are getting, having gotten some really good feedback on factions, naval dominance, and coal/energy already.

If you missed the previous Dev Corner, make sure to check it out here.


Briefing: Thermodynamics
Author: Zwirbaum


Hello everyone!

It has been eight days since the last dev corner, which means it is time for another one. Last time, I was talking about some of the new naval concepts and changes coming to the Hearts of Iron IV. Today I will be talking about the introduction of Coal and Energy into the game. As a casual reminder keep in mind that everything discussed here is in a relatively early stage, and as such is subject to change.I also want to add that not every dev corner will be a long one, and some may end up on a rather short side. But without further ado, let’s keep this lump of coal rolling.

For the first time since the launch of the game we will be adding a new resource to the game, as every other resource, Steel, Rubber, Tungsten, Chromium, Aluminium and Oil were since day 1 in-game (with Oil getting Facelift in Man the Guns to be used for Fuel production instead of equipment production). This resource is Coal - to put it very briefly it will be serving as a ‘fuel’ in the form of Energy for your industry to keep it running efficiently.

What are some of the goals when it comes to adding Coal & Energy, and what do we want to achieve with it?

• We want to introduce a potential soft-limit on the current almost limitless industrial expansion.
  
• Increase importance on expanding and securing a resource base for your needs.
  
• Provide a bit more interesting choices when it comes to economic laws, give some incentive for a player to consider ‘demobilize’ at some point during the gameplay, and that War Economy / Total Mobilization is not always the one and the only one right choice.
  
• We are not aiming at creating a super complicated or overly complex system for energy/economy model

What is all the fuse about?

Sardinia starts with 2 units of Coal at the beginning of the game. As usual, numbers are subject to change, so please do not despair yet.

So the system works like this: Coal is excavated just like every other resource in-game. Each unit of Coal that you have for your own use (so not traded away) will produce a set amount of Energy, which then in turn is used to power up your industry - your civilian, military factories and naval dockyards, which for the ease I’ll be later calling them in this dev corner as ‘factory’. Each Factory, regardless of the type, has the same base Energy demand, so what you are seeing in the top bar as your industry size should also give you a very rough estimate of the demand.


This totally mysterious country, that is totally unrelated to Sardinia from the previous screenshot starts with 56 factories, and now has a mysterious bar under the factory count.

However the base Energy demand is not everything, as each Factory you own will also introduce a little extra scaling cost to the demand per factory, so a small, undeveloped minor country will be able to sustain their few factories with a rather small amount of coal, while historically accurate Luxembourg spanning across Eurasia will require much more energy in order to effectively satisfy the ever hungry maw of their Industry.

Most, if not all, economic laws will also have factory energy consumption modifiers, which will essentially either increase or decrease how much each factory (including the ‘scaled’ portion from ‘size’ of the industry) will demand energy. Higher mobilization laws will have higher energy demand, to represent longer working hours, more shifts etc.


Economy Law picker will also now proudly display the energy consumption modifier at the first glance, so that you do not need to scour through the tooltip to find the modifier. Before you start going crazy with guessing what is the second number, it is just the expected amount of consumer goods - the icon is currently placeholderish, as we haven’t adjusted the previous icon yet.

I will start with a quick reminder how the Civilian, Naval and Military Industry operate in-game currently. Essentially each of the ‘factories’ have a specific base amount of output valued in points that they contribute daily to. (5, 2.5 and 4.5 respectively). And that was further modified by all the technologies, laws, ideas, ministers, national spirits with various ‘Construction Speed’ or ‘Dockyard/Factory outputs’ modifiers. I am not mentioning Production Efficiency, as that was unique to the Military Factories.

So how will that operate in the brave new world? We will now have a base output for each of the industry types - which means that regardless of the energy, you will always have at least this much output from your factories. And there will be ‘fully powered’ output values for the industry. Depending on the energy ratio you are providing, you will end up somewhere on that scale, e.g. If you have 50% energy - you will be getting output that is ‘50%’ way from the base output to the fully powered up. All the previously mentioned Construction Speed, Dockyard/Factory Output modifiers will also be scaled accordingly to the % of the energy you have.


This is the current debug display that allows us to see energy demand & consumption, and how much it impacts the industry. In this case we have 26.7% energy needs satisfied, and it means that each of our CICs provide 4.2 IC daily, MIC provides 3.7 IC daily and NIC provides 2.1 IC daily. Of course as usual, reminder that all values are subject to change.

And that is all from this dev corner. While this post is one the shorter side, impact from adding this ‘system’ could of course be quite big - however thanks to covering only this one matter, feedback, opinions, suggestions from you dear readers, should be laser-focused and allow us to get a much clearer picture of what you are thinking. Anyways, that is all from me for this week, and next week Thomas will be back with more things to say about the Factions.

Thanks for reading, and until next time, farewell!

/Zwirbaum


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Have you kept up with our latest Dev Corners? If not, you should check out this post to find all of the recently discussed things shown by developers