This week we will be going over all the diplomatic and otherwise options you have for affecting other nations. Diplomacy ties into a lot of stuff so expect links to previous diaries for all the nitty gritty! Lets go through all the diplomatic actions available...


Factions
One of the goals for HOI4 was to break free factions from ideologies and let players create their own. Ideology of creator will still matter for the factions special rules and bonuses and who will want to join it (for example being part of a fascist led faction let you declare war on anyone as long as you are already in war).

To create a faction a nation who doesn't start with one needs to take a national focus giving them the ability to do so. Some focuses also sets up factions directly (like France ability to create the Little Entente with the Czechs). Even minors can make factions if they unlock the right focuses. If you make your own you are free to name it and will be its leader. Nations can leave factions in a few situation: Being Couped, leaving on their own (only works if they haven't joined a war together) or some special focus and events. This means that in general, once you have joined a faction you are an ally that can be trusted.



Justify War
To declare war agaisnt someone you need a valid war goal (no matter how falsified). Fascist's special power is that they only need a valid war goal for their first declaration and may continue to declare wars as long as they are at war after that which let them act much more swiftly. Democracies are limited in that they can't justify war goals against someone who has generated no world tension. Having a wargoal is useful once the war is over as it makes demanding those claims during the peace deal cheaper compared to your allies. You can also get war goals from national focuses in special situations, which bypasses all rules.

Offer peace
For HOI4 it's possible to offer to surrender assuming the war has gone on long enough. Terms are set by the winners in this case, but needs to be approved by the surrendering nation. This is different from an unconditional surrender which is what happens when your nation get occupied past the limit set by its national unity. You can read more about peace conferences in this diary.

Guarantee Independence
This is the main tool for democracies trying to stop expansionist powers. By guaranteeing someone's independence you are called into war to protect them no matter what the world tension is (The actual guarantee requires at least 25% tension). Guaranteeing someone cost political power and these get (a lot) more expensive the more guarantees you have so carpeting europe is not a particularly good option.

Military Access
Like in most paradox games, this lets you move troops in a nation's territory, but not attack from there. Airbase and naval base access requires factions and military access is not enough for this.

Improve Relations
Similar to EU4, you can spend political power to smooth talk other nations. This will help getting them in factions or in trade.

Non-aggression pact
A non aggression pact between you and another nation will stop you both from declaring wars. When first enacted you have 12 months where it can not be broken. After that it can be broken if they have a lot fewer units than you on your mutual border. The exact amount of troops required to ensure it's not breakable will get progressively smaller to break over time.

Lend Lease, Volunteers and Expeditionary Forces
There are several ways to help allies, or tip the balance in neutral wars. See this diary for all the details.

Boost party popularity
You can spend political power to affect the popularity of parties in other nations. It's much less powerful than say enacting a minister in your own nation for that purpose, but it means that you can shift nations closer to you or set things up for a future coup.


Coup
By spending political power and equipment you can set up a coup in a foreign nation. The size of the resulting civil war depends on several things: Their national Unity, the power of the ideology you are supporting and the amount of equipment delivered. For those worried there are ministers and national focuses available to make yourself safer from foreign tampering like this.

For more info check out this diary on civil wars & coups check out this diary.

Transfer Occupation
It's possible to give control of occupied territory to others on your side in wars as well. We will talk more about this in the next diary where we talk about occupation and resistance movements.



Then finally I am happy to let you know that our Beta submission was approved yesterday, so we are now officially in Beta. I can't give you any release dates yet, but this is one of the last big steps to nailing one down and saying that the project is on course.

Anyway, we have been working on HOI4 for a long time so you can imagine that this feels really great, and we plan to celebrate with beers and cigars tonight as is appropriate :)

Read the original post with larger images

Useful links
Official Website
Hearts of Iron IV Wiki
Development Diary Archives
World War Wednesday Stream archive

This week we will be going over all the diplomatic and otherwise options you have for affecting other nations. Diplomacy ties into a lot of stuff so expect links to previous diaries for all the nitty gritty! Lets go through all the diplomatic actions available...


Factions
One of the goals for HOI4 was to break free factions from ideologies and let players create their own. Ideology of creator will still matter for the factions special rules and bonuses and who will want to join it (for example being part of a fascist led faction let you declare war on anyone as long as you are already in war).

To create a faction a nation who doesn't start with one needs to take a national focus giving them the ability to do so. Some focuses also sets up factions directly (like France ability to create the Little Entente with the Czechs). Even minors can make factions if they unlock the right focuses. If you make your own you are free to name it and will be its leader. Nations can leave factions in a few situation: Being Couped, leaving on their own (only works if they haven't joined a war together) or some special focus and events. This means that in general, once you have joined a faction you are an ally that can be trusted.



Justify War
To declare war agaisnt someone you need a valid war goal (no matter how falsified). Fascist's special power is that they only need a valid war goal for their first declaration and may continue to declare wars as long as they are at war after that which let them act much more swiftly. Democracies are limited in that they can't justify war goals against someone who has generated no world tension. Having a wargoal is useful once the war is over as it makes demanding those claims during the peace deal cheaper compared to your allies. You can also get war goals from national focuses in special situations, which bypasses all rules.

Offer peace
For HOI4 it's possible to offer to surrender assuming the war has gone on long enough. Terms are set by the winners in this case, but needs to be approved by the surrendering nation. This is different from an unconditional surrender which is what happens when your nation get occupied past the limit set by its national unity. You can read more about peace conferences in this diary.

Guarantee Independence
This is the main tool for democracies trying to stop expansionist powers. By guaranteeing someone's independence you are called into war to protect them no matter what the world tension is (The actual guarantee requires at least 25% tension). Guaranteeing someone cost political power and these get (a lot) more expensive the more guarantees you have so carpeting europe is not a particularly good option.

Military Access
Like in most paradox games, this lets you move troops in a nation's territory, but not attack from there. Airbase and naval base access requires factions and military access is not enough for this.

Improve Relations
Similar to EU4, you can spend political power to smooth talk other nations. This will help getting them in factions or in trade.

Non-aggression pact
A non aggression pact between you and another nation will stop you both from declaring wars. When first enacted you have 12 months where it can not be broken. After that it can be broken if they have a lot fewer units than you on your mutual border. The exact amount of troops required to ensure it's not breakable will get progressively smaller to break over time.

Lend Lease, Volunteers and Expeditionary Forces
There are several ways to help allies, or tip the balance in neutral wars. See this diary for all the details.

Boost party popularity
You can spend political power to affect the popularity of parties in other nations. It's much less powerful than say enacting a minister in your own nation for that purpose, but it means that you can shift nations closer to you or set things up for a future coup.


Coup
By spending political power and equipment you can set up a coup in a foreign nation. The size of the resulting civil war depends on several things: Their national Unity, the power of the ideology you are supporting and the amount of equipment delivered. For those worried there are ministers and national focuses available to make yourself safer from foreign tampering like this.

For more info check out this diary on civil wars & coups check out this diary.

Transfer Occupation
It's possible to give control of occupied territory to others on your side in wars as well. We will talk more about this in the next diary where we talk about occupation and resistance movements.



Then finally I am happy to let you know that our Beta submission was approved yesterday, so we are now officially in Beta. I can't give you any release dates yet, but this is one of the last big steps to nailing one down and saying that the project is on course.

Anyway, we have been working on HOI4 for a long time so you can imagine that this feels really great, and we plan to celebrate with beers and cigars tonight as is appropriate :)

Read the original post with larger images

Useful links
Official Website
Hearts of Iron IV Wiki
Development Diary Archives
World War Wednesday Stream archive

Hi everyone, today's topic is something that has been requested in every diary thread for months, so here we go. its time to cover Japan.

Japan is a different and interesting nation to play in HOI4. They are effectively an island state like United Kingdom, but lacking its colonial empire to draw resources from. If Japan doesn't plan to reform towards democracy and settle with what they have they need to aggressively expand as early as possible and grab resources to fuel their war machine and build up their navy to be able to rival the other major nations.



When it comes to expansion routes there are several available, there was much debate and struggle in japan at the time which to go for. Nanshin-ron, The Southern Expansion Doctrine was supported by the imperial navy and involved expansion into southeast asia and pacific islands (bringing you into conflict with the european colonial masters and America). Its opposite Hokushin-ron, northern expansion was supported by the army and involved expansion into eastern soviet and siberia. Japan's focus tree tries to present these as different paths and also let you decide if you should favor army or navy focus.

Most of the diplomatic focuses for Japan require that you decide how to handle China. Its started by initiating the Chinese Border Incident focus where China is pressured into handing over border territory. Should they refuse Japan will get a war goal on them and can attack. Down this route japan may join Germany in the axis or establish its own faction before setting their aim on french indochina and Siam.



As nations go Japan is very different from the european powers, with its worship of the emperor, spiritualism and self sacrifice for the state. We wanted to make sure to capture this so Japan starts with the national spirit "State Shintoism" which make them more resistant to bombing and improves soldier morale. Their focus tree gets a pretty unique part called "Spiritual mobilization". It will both give more research options as well as improving the average soldiers morale, unlocking kamikaze missions, and if both research and warrior traditions tracks are completed unlock special rocket powered suicide crafts (MXY7 Ohka) which will be very hard to intercept due to their speed.

Japan has one of the world's most powerful navies and their air force is also strong. Their army is also pretty big, but in need of modernizing. Industry wise japan can get powerful but will struggle for resources if no successful expansions are done. As a japanese player you need to be careful with your fleet because naval battles can be very decisive and you do not have USA's powerful capability to quickly rebuild lost capital ships. Chances are if you lose your fleet you will not be able to recover from it in a war with the united states. Focus tree wise Japan can select bonuses to develop superheavy battleships faster and are able to unlock the unique Long Lance torpedo giving them greater range than other nations as well as research bonuses to carrier aircraft.



Historically japan did not develop their armored forces very far so we were faced with some problems when deciding on what should represent their tanks. Japan had plans for some heavier tanks which were never built (in the terrain they normally fight it heavy tanks do not make a lot of sense either), but you never know where a player may take japan of course.



See you next week when we will talk about diplomacy!

Go here to read the original article with larger images

Useful links
Official Website
Hearts of Iron IV Wiki
Development Diary Archives
World War Wednesday Stream archive

Hi everyone, today's topic is something that has been requested in every diary thread for months, so here we go. its time to cover Japan.

Japan is a different and interesting nation to play in HOI4. They are effectively an island state like United Kingdom, but lacking its colonial empire to draw resources from. If Japan doesn't plan to reform towards democracy and settle with what they have they need to aggressively expand as early as possible and grab resources to fuel their war machine and build up their navy to be able to rival the other major nations.



When it comes to expansion routes there are several available, there was much debate and struggle in japan at the time which to go for. Nanshin-ron, The Southern Expansion Doctrine was supported by the imperial navy and involved expansion into southeast asia and pacific islands (bringing you into conflict with the european colonial masters and America). Its opposite Hokushin-ron, northern expansion was supported by the army and involved expansion into eastern soviet and siberia. Japan's focus tree tries to present these as different paths and also let you decide if you should favor army or navy focus.

Most of the diplomatic focuses for Japan require that you decide how to handle China. Its started by initiating the Chinese Border Incident focus where China is pressured into handing over border territory. Should they refuse Japan will get a war goal on them and can attack. Down this route japan may join Germany in the axis or establish its own faction before setting their aim on french indochina and Siam.



As nations go Japan is very different from the european powers, with its worship of the emperor, spiritualism and self sacrifice for the state. We wanted to make sure to capture this so Japan starts with the national spirit "State Shintoism" which make them more resistant to bombing and improves soldier morale. Their focus tree gets a pretty unique part called "Spiritual mobilization". It will both give more research options as well as improving the average soldiers morale, unlocking kamikaze missions, and if both research and warrior traditions tracks are completed unlock special rocket powered suicide crafts (MXY7 Ohka) which will be very hard to intercept due to their speed.

Japan has one of the world's most powerful navies and their air force is also strong. Their army is also pretty big, but in need of modernizing. Industry wise japan can get powerful but will struggle for resources if no successful expansions are done. As a japanese player you need to be careful with your fleet because naval battles can be very decisive and you do not have USA's powerful capability to quickly rebuild lost capital ships. Chances are if you lose your fleet you will not be able to recover from it in a war with the united states. Focus tree wise Japan can select bonuses to develop superheavy battleships faster and are able to unlock the unique Long Lance torpedo giving them greater range than other nations as well as research bonuses to carrier aircraft.



Historically japan did not develop their armored forces very far so we were faced with some problems when deciding on what should represent their tanks. Japan had plans for some heavier tanks which were never built (in the terrain they normally fight it heavy tanks do not make a lot of sense either), but you never know where a player may take japan of course.



See you next week when we will talk about diplomacy!

Go here to read the original article with larger images

Useful links
Official Website
Hearts of Iron IV Wiki
Development Diary Archives
World War Wednesday Stream archive

Hello, and welcome to the 41st development diary for Hearts of Iron IV.

In HoI4, we call our basic military unit for a division, even if it may be as small as a single battalion, or as large 30 battalions. These can be grouped into what we call Armies. They have been referred to as command groups in the past, but that concept was a bit confusing. An Army is the entity which interacts with battleplans, and be given a commander. You can have as many armies as you want, but you need at least 1 division in each. Each Army can be named to whatever you want it to be.

Armies are organised in Theatres, which is a convenient aspect to group divisions according to your needs. Theatres do not have a specific area they cover, but besides giving a proper UI for quick access and a reference name, you can also define the reinforcement priority for that theatre compared to others.



There are two levels of commanders that can be assigned to armies, generals and field marshals. They both have skill levels that grow as they gain experience, which impacts the abilties of the divisions to fight.

The commanders also have traits, which can be gained if they fullfill some relevant criteria while fighting. Progress in trait gaining is tracked, and when they reach 100%, the trait is activated.

However, a commander can only have 5 traits, so they won’t catch them all.



A general can command up to 12 divisions while giving them the full benefit of their skill and traits. They can always be promoted to a field marshal, but will then lose all their specific traits and 1 level of skill.

Generals can have the following traits.

• Trickster: Divisions get +25% better recon.
  
• Winter Specialist: Divisions takes 50% less attrition during Winter.
  
• Engineer: Divisions have +10% Attack when crossing a river.
  
• Fortress Buster: Divisions have +20% Attack when attacking a fort.
  
• Panzer Leader: Armored Divisons move 5% faster, and have +10% in attack.
  
• Commando: Divisions Out of Supply is impact at 50%
  
• Desert Fox: Divisions move 5% faster in desert terrain, and fight 10% better.
  
• Swamp Fox: Divisions move 5% faster in marsh terrain, and fight 10% better.
  
• Mountaineer: Divisions move 5% faster in mountain terrain, and fight 10% better.
  
• Hill Fighter: Divisions move 5% faster in hill terrain, and fight 10% better.
  
• Jungle Rat: Divisions move 5% faster in jungle terrain, and fight 10% better.
  
• Ranger: Divisions move 5% faster in forest terrain, and fight 10% better.
  
• Urban Assault: Divisions move 5% faster in urban terrain, and fight 10% better.
  
• Naval Invader: Divisions prepare 30% faster for naval invasions, and perform them 30% faster

Field Marshals have no command limit, and command armies of any size, and they have the following possible traits.

• Logistics Wizard: Divisions have 20% less supply consumption
  
• Offensive Doctrine: Divisions have 10% less Combat Width.
  
• Defensive Doctrine: Divisions can get 30% higher entrenchment.
  
• Fast Planner: Divisions Plan 10% faster.
  
• Throrough Planner: Divisions can get 50% higher maximum planning bonus.
  
• Organisational commander: Divisions have +2% Hourly Reinforce Chance
  
• Inspirational commander: Divisons have 10% Higher Morale

And of course, both of them have the Old Guard trait, which reduces experience gain by 25%, which is a rather bad trait.


Next week, we’ll take a deep look at Japan.

Go to original post...

Useful links
Official Website
Hearts of Iron IV Wiki
Development Diary Archives
World War Wednesday Stream archive

Hello, and welcome to the 41st development diary for Hearts of Iron IV.

In HoI4, we call our basic military unit for a division, even if it may be as small as a single battalion, or as large 30 battalions. These can be grouped into what we call Armies. They have been referred to as command groups in the past, but that concept was a bit confusing. An Army is the entity which interacts with battleplans, and be given a commander. You can have as many armies as you want, but you need at least 1 division in each. Each Army can be named to whatever you want it to be.

Armies are organised in Theatres, which is a convenient aspect to group divisions according to your needs. Theatres do not have a specific area they cover, but besides giving a proper UI for quick access and a reference name, you can also define the reinforcement priority for that theatre compared to others.



There are two levels of commanders that can be assigned to armies, generals and field marshals. They both have skill levels that grow as they gain experience, which impacts the abilties of the divisions to fight.

The commanders also have traits, which can be gained if they fullfill some relevant criteria while fighting. Progress in trait gaining is tracked, and when they reach 100%, the trait is activated.

However, a commander can only have 5 traits, so they won’t catch them all.



A general can command up to 12 divisions while giving them the full benefit of their skill and traits. They can always be promoted to a field marshal, but will then lose all their specific traits and 1 level of skill.

Generals can have the following traits.

• Trickster: Divisions get +25% better recon.
  
• Winter Specialist: Divisions takes 50% less attrition during Winter.
  
• Engineer: Divisions have +10% Attack when crossing a river.
  
• Fortress Buster: Divisions have +20% Attack when attacking a fort.
  
• Panzer Leader: Armored Divisons move 5% faster, and have +10% in attack.
  
• Commando: Divisions Out of Supply is impact at 50%
  
• Desert Fox: Divisions move 5% faster in desert terrain, and fight 10% better.
  
• Swamp Fox: Divisions move 5% faster in marsh terrain, and fight 10% better.
  
• Mountaineer: Divisions move 5% faster in mountain terrain, and fight 10% better.
  
• Hill Fighter: Divisions move 5% faster in hill terrain, and fight 10% better.
  
• Jungle Rat: Divisions move 5% faster in jungle terrain, and fight 10% better.
  
• Ranger: Divisions move 5% faster in forest terrain, and fight 10% better.
  
• Urban Assault: Divisions move 5% faster in urban terrain, and fight 10% better.
  
• Naval Invader: Divisions prepare 30% faster for naval invasions, and perform them 30% faster

Field Marshals have no command limit, and command armies of any size, and they have the following possible traits.

• Logistics Wizard: Divisions have 20% less supply consumption
  
• Offensive Doctrine: Divisions have 10% less Combat Width.
  
• Defensive Doctrine: Divisions can get 30% higher entrenchment.
  
• Fast Planner: Divisions Plan 10% faster.
  
• Throrough Planner: Divisions can get 50% higher maximum planning bonus.
  
• Organisational commander: Divisions have +2% Hourly Reinforce Chance
  
• Inspirational commander: Divisons have 10% Higher Morale

And of course, both of them have the Old Guard trait, which reduces experience gain by 25%, which is a rather bad trait.


Next week, we’ll take a deep look at Japan.

Go to original post...

Useful links
Official Website
Hearts of Iron IV Wiki
Development Diary Archives
World War Wednesday Stream archive

Welcome to another development diary for Hearts of Iron IV. This week we look at some of the changes that has been done to the game lately.

In december, we completely revised how you get factory slots in the game, as the previous system of three different caps, depending on hidden formulas for manpower & infrastructure was too obtuse for players, and impossible to balance.



Now the system is much more clear. Each state is set to a regiontype, which defines the basic amount of factory slots it has. Then we have various national focuses which will add to the cap of factory slots in a state, and finally there are various techs that give percentage bonus to how many factories a state can have.


Some examples: Svealand is an urban region, Amazonas a wasteland, and Greater London Area is a Megalopolis Region. Gibraltar is an enclave, and Gotland is a small island.

We also changed the State mapmode to colorise the states depending on which regions they belong to.



World Tension was introduced back in the 16th development diary. It was then just a number in the topbar, with a clunky tooltip explaining it. Now it has a graphical indication as well, and opens up a detailed window, where you can view all active impacts on World Tension, and sort them.



Next week, we’ll talk about command groups and also about leader traits.

Useful links
Official Website
Hearts of Iron IV Wiki
Developer Diary Archives
World War Wednesday Stream archive

Welcome to another development diary for Hearts of Iron IV. This week we look at some of the changes that has been done to the game lately.

In december, we completely revised how you get factory slots in the game, as the previous system of three different caps, depending on hidden formulas for manpower & infrastructure was too obtuse for players, and impossible to balance.



Now the system is much more clear. Each state is set to a regiontype, which defines the basic amount of factory slots it has. Then we have various national focuses which will add to the cap of factory slots in a state, and finally there are various techs that give percentage bonus to how many factories a state can have.


Some examples: Svealand is an urban region, Amazonas a wasteland, and Greater London Area is a Megalopolis Region. Gibraltar is an enclave, and Gotland is a small island.

We also changed the State mapmode to colorise the states depending on which regions they belong to.



World Tension was introduced back in the 16th development diary. It was then just a number in the topbar, with a clunky tooltip explaining it. Now it has a graphical indication as well, and opens up a detailed window, where you can view all active impacts on World Tension, and sort them.



Next week, we’ll talk about command groups and also about leader traits.

Useful links
Official Website
Hearts of Iron IV Wiki
Developer Diary Archives
World War Wednesday Stream archive

Welcome to another development diary on Hearts of Iron IV

Today we’ll talk about one of the most important gadgets of WW2, the radio. The radio was used for communication and for propaganda. It was used on the battlefield, and in people’s homes.

In our game, we have a technology called “Radio” which simulates adopting the inventions of amateur radio operators and extending the use of FM radio to reduce radio interference and allow us to find new uses for radio technology. This later on leads to the construction of Radar Stations. Looking closely at this technology tells us it gives +10% chance to reinforce.

The radio technology also is a prequisite to be able to build Signal Companies for your divisions. Each of those increases your divisions initiative by 5%, which besides making planning quicker, also increases your reinforce chance.



Now, veterans of HoI3 asks, why is reinforce chance important enough to mention in a development diary... (Continue reading...)

Hearts of Iron IV Developer Diary Archive & Live Stream Videos

Welcome to another development diary on Hearts of Iron IV

Today we’ll talk about one of the most important gadgets of WW2, the radio. The radio was used for communication and for propaganda. It was used on the battlefield, and in people’s homes.

In our game, we have a technology called “Radio” which simulates adopting the inventions of amateur radio operators and extending the use of FM radio to reduce radio interference and allow us to find new uses for radio technology. This later on leads to the construction of Radar Stations. Looking closely at this technology tells us it gives +10% chance to reinforce.

The radio technology also is a prequisite to be able to build Signal Companies for your divisions. Each of those increases your divisions initiative by 5%, which besides making planning quicker, also increases your reinforce chance.



Now, veterans of HoI3 asks, why is reinforce chance important enough to mention in a development diary... (Continue reading...)

Hearts of Iron IV Developer Diary Archive & Live Stream Videos