There are some really exciting stuff happening with Hearts of Iron IV at the moment which I will be announcing, but first as promised; it's time to talk about the generic focus tree.

The generic focus tree is what all nations who don't have specific trees (the major 8) will get. The design goal of the generic focus tree is flexibility and freedom, allowing a player to take the nation in any direction they chose. It also contains a lot of focuses giving extra factory slots and industry, something that is a huge boost for small nations percentage wise compared to a larger nation allowing players more freedom in taking a minor somewhere worthwhile. So, let's look at each branch in detail:




Army, Aviation and Naval Effort
Gives technology bonuses in chosen fields. We have tried to give lots of choices here so you can tailor your path depending on your nation. Naval effort for example allows a choice between trying to build up a larger fleet or focusing on submarines, convoy interdiction and smaller ships while Army Effort focuses on things like infantry and support equipment primarily which will be important for a minor nation, but does also include some bonuses to armor and mechanization if your nation's industry can sustain such choices.

Industrial Effort
Focuses on building up your nation's industry. As I mentioned earlier it's very powerful for a small nation and should make lots of smaller nations more viable for fun play compared to HOI3.

Political Effort
This tree lets you more easily alter your nation's political makeup, or further develop your current one. The initial choice is between collectivism or liberty. The Liberty track is good for neutrals or democratic nations and splits off immediately in a choice between taking a neutral stance or interventionism as your foreign policy. Result wise it basically is a choice between better defense and being able to send more volunteers to indirectly involve yourself in conflicts.

The collectivist track is split between fascism and communism where the fascist track give you access to more manpower and faster training times, while the communist track gives you more power to meddle in other nations and helping existing forces fight better with political commissars. The final step of collectivism is Ideological Fanaticism which let you set up your own faction and unlocks things like kamikaze strikes for your air force.

The generic tree is really fun and flexible and hopefully it will make you dream of stuff you can do with the country of your choice.


Now to the important announcement: Hearts of Iron will be delayed until Q1 next year. This is because after getting lots of valuable design input from DDRJake we have realized that Hearts of Iron IV as it is now is missing a crucial physical connection with its players, and it would be unfair of us to release it until this is done.
Worry not however, we have a great solution for this proposed by Jake himself - Dance Dance Revolution Mat integration! No longer are you simply a passive observer, you can instead march in real time (soundtrack will be replaced with 100% marching band music) with your soldiers towards Moscow! Not enough for you? We have also developed a revolutionary Bucket DLC System(tm) that lets you slosh through authentic pripyat swamp water*, mud and scorching hot sand (requires oven (not included)).



We believe this will revolutionize grand strategy gaming like nothing else and are super excited to take you with us on this journey!



See you next friday when we will cover exciting head to head multiplayer dance-offs used to decide conflicts in peace negotiations!


* Paradox Interactive takes no responsibility for customers suffering from trench feet or sustaining other injuries while enjoying the DDR mat experience.

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

There are some really exciting stuff happening with Hearts of Iron IV at the moment which I will be announcing, but first as promised; it's time to talk about the generic focus tree.

The generic focus tree is what all nations who don't have specific trees (the major 8) will get. The design goal of the generic focus tree is flexibility and freedom, allowing a player to take the nation in any direction they chose. It also contains a lot of focuses giving extra factory slots and industry, something that is a huge boost for small nations percentage wise compared to a larger nation allowing players more freedom in taking a minor somewhere worthwhile. So, let's look at each branch in detail:




Army, Aviation and Naval Effort
Gives technology bonuses in chosen fields. We have tried to give lots of choices here so you can tailor your path depending on your nation. Naval effort for example allows a choice between trying to build up a larger fleet or focusing on submarines, convoy interdiction and smaller ships while Army Effort focuses on things like infantry and support equipment primarily which will be important for a minor nation, but does also include some bonuses to armor and mechanization if your nation's industry can sustain such choices.

Industrial Effort
Focuses on building up your nation's industry. As I mentioned earlier it's very powerful for a small nation and should make lots of smaller nations more viable for fun play compared to HOI3.

Political Effort
This tree lets you more easily alter your nation's political makeup, or further develop your current one. The initial choice is between collectivism or liberty. The Liberty track is good for neutrals or democratic nations and splits off immediately in a choice between taking a neutral stance or interventionism as your foreign policy. Result wise it basically is a choice between better defense and being able to send more volunteers to indirectly involve yourself in conflicts.

The collectivist track is split between fascism and communism where the fascist track give you access to more manpower and faster training times, while the communist track gives you more power to meddle in other nations and helping existing forces fight better with political commissars. The final step of collectivism is Ideological Fanaticism which let you set up your own faction and unlocks things like kamikaze strikes for your air force.

The generic tree is really fun and flexible and hopefully it will make you dream of stuff you can do with the country of your choice.


Now to the important announcement: Hearts of Iron will be delayed until Q1 next year. This is because after getting lots of valuable design input from DDRJake we have realized that Hearts of Iron IV as it is now is missing a crucial physical connection with its players, and it would be unfair of us to release it until this is done.
Worry not however, we have a great solution for this proposed by Jake himself - Dance Dance Revolution Mat integration! No longer are you simply a passive observer, you can instead march in real time (soundtrack will be replaced with 100% marching band music) with your soldiers towards Moscow! Not enough for you? We have also developed a revolutionary Bucket DLC System(tm) that lets you slosh through authentic pripyat swamp water*, mud and scorching hot sand (requires oven (not included)).



We believe this will revolutionize grand strategy gaming like nothing else and are super excited to take you with us on this journey!



See you next friday when we will cover exciting head to head multiplayer dance-offs used to decide conflicts in peace negotiations!


* Paradox Interactive takes no responsibility for customers suffering from trench feet or sustaining other injuries while enjoying the DDR mat experience.

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

Today's topic is an explosive one (heh) - nukes!

Nuclear weapons are a late game tech and there are several steps to acquire one. First up is researching Atomic Research (1940), Reactors (1943), and finally Nuclear Weapons (1945). To actually produce nuclear bombs you need to construct Reactors which will slowly churn out the weapons. The more reactors the faster you can produce nukes (note that reactors compete for space with industry in states). Many majors have national focuses that let them focus on the nuclear research program and speed things up.



To launch a nuke you need to have strategic bombers in range of the target and air superiority.

This is early days yet, so nukes, while incredibly powerful are not the massive world destroyers of the cold war. However they can still do serious damage, and other effects:

• Hits national unity making the target nation more likely to surrender (amount depends on victory point worth and infrastructure level, so you cant just nuke some island they don't care about). This is really their primary use: to force surrender on a stubborn enemy.
  
• Damages building. Everything from forts to naval bases to factories.
  
• Damages any units in the province, including airplanes stationed in bases.

Oh btw, in case someone missed the announcement HOI4 now has a release date set for 6th of June!
Next week we will be off for Easter, but the week after we taking a look at the Generic Focus tree that all non-majors use. If you get the HOI craving next week there is still the World War Wednesday stream where I believe Daniel and Jake have started to take on China as Japan.

Read original post with larger images

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

Today's topic is an explosive one (heh) - nukes!

Nuclear weapons are a late game tech and there are several steps to acquire one. First up is researching Atomic Research (1940), Reactors (1943), and finally Nuclear Weapons (1945). To actually produce nuclear bombs you need to construct Reactors which will slowly churn out the weapons. The more reactors the faster you can produce nukes (note that reactors compete for space with industry in states). Many majors have national focuses that let them focus on the nuclear research program and speed things up.



To launch a nuke you need to have strategic bombers in range of the target and air superiority.

This is early days yet, so nukes, while incredibly powerful are not the massive world destroyers of the cold war. However they can still do serious damage, and other effects:

• Hits national unity making the target nation more likely to surrender (amount depends on victory point worth and infrastructure level, so you cant just nuke some island they don't care about). This is really their primary use: to force surrender on a stubborn enemy.
  
• Damages building. Everything from forts to naval bases to factories.
  
• Damages any units in the province, including airplanes stationed in bases.

Oh btw, in case someone missed the announcement HOI4 now has a release date set for 6th of June!
Next week we will be off for Easter, but the week after we taking a look at the Generic Focus tree that all non-majors use. If you get the HOI craving next week there is still the World War Wednesday stream where I believe Daniel and Jake have started to take on China as Japan.

Read original post with larger images

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

This week at the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco, Paradox Development Studio announced that its eagerly awaited World War II grand strategy game Hearts of Iron IV is going to be released June 6th 2016.

Hearts of Iron IV will be the newest version of one of Paradox’s best selling series. Players can guide any nation in the world through the trials and terrors of war. Draft elaborate battle plans as you hop across the Pacific or push deep into the Eurasian steppes. Build diplomatic coalitions that will turn into an iron wall of tanks and aircraft. Research cutting edge weaponry and industrial technology, and give your army an edge in the destructive conflict to come.In a video introduction to the series, the development team behind Hearts of Iron IV explains their vision for the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMkRSRP1IPY

Hearts of Iron IV is designed to be the most complete grand strategy game about World War II yet made, and dares players around the world to take the reins of power in humanity’s darkest hour.

This week at the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco, Paradox Development Studio announced that its eagerly awaited World War II grand strategy game Hearts of Iron IV is going to be released June 6th 2016.

Hearts of Iron IV will be the newest version of one of Paradox’s best selling series. Players can guide any nation in the world through the trials and terrors of war. Draft elaborate battle plans as you hop across the Pacific or push deep into the Eurasian steppes. Build diplomatic coalitions that will turn into an iron wall of tanks and aircraft. Research cutting edge weaponry and industrial technology, and give your army an edge in the destructive conflict to come.In a video introduction to the series, the development team behind Hearts of Iron IV explains their vision for the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMkRSRP1IPY

Hearts of Iron IV is designed to be the most complete grand strategy game about World War II yet made, and dares players around the world to take the reins of power in humanity’s darkest hour.

Hi everybody, the topic for today is Naval Invasions.

The main design goal for naval invasions has been to make invasions something that requires a lot of preparation to make it possible to pull off, combat "gamey" tactics of sneaking troops in when others are not looking and make it clear how you go about defending yourself, something that requires both navy, air and land.



Let's start with what is required to do a naval invasion:

• You need to position troops at a starting naval base and draw up an invasion plan for where you want them to go.
  
• Before the invasion can be launched you need to prepare the invasion. This is first a matter of needing a certain amount of convoys available (which the invasion plan will grab) and a time. Both these depends on just how big this invasion is. Small invasions can be planned and executed quickly but large amount of divisions will require plenty of preparation time.
  
• For each strategic area you pass through with the invasion plan you must have sufficient Naval Supremacy. You get that by having sufficient amount of ships on patrol and by controlling the skies (air superiority). If you do not control these things you won't be able to invade (no sending your whole army to suicide). This makes it pretty clear now to defend as well. For example as UK - as long as your fleet is strong and stationed around the island and your air force is up and about you can feel safe from naval invasions.

There are also things you can do to improve your chances of successful invasions:

• Use special troops - Marines are much better than other troops for securing the beach.
  
• Make sure to always have ships set up as escorts. Even if you have sufficient naval supremacy to launch the invasion - if the enemy rallies their whole fleet after the invasion is already under way there is still a chance some of the convoys could get intercepted.
  
• Station battleships in the destination coastline. They will support the invasion with naval bombardment which will help your guys get the edge when fighting on the beaches.
  
• Use a commander with the Invader trait, he will help speed up the preparation as well as speed up to time it takes to get invading troops ready for fighting.
  
• And finally: make sure to research transportation technologies. The really useful ones are only available from 1940 (unless you research ahead with the penalties for that), but you can improve things like: Needing less transports to carry out invasions, halving the preparation time required, get extra defense from damage taken during invasion and speed up the time it takes for your troops to get out of the ships and on to the beach where they can fight.

The actual invasion combat has some special rules. Once troops land they first need to unload from ships and during this time they are unable to fire back effectively. If you have the right technologies researched troops will actually get some extra protection during this time, but still it's something you want to do as quickly as you can. Once on the beach they can fire back, but will still be suffering from naval invasion penalties.

Next week we'll talk about nukes!

Read original post with larger images

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

Hi everybody, the topic for today is Naval Invasions.

The main design goal for naval invasions has been to make invasions something that requires a lot of preparation to make it possible to pull off, combat "gamey" tactics of sneaking troops in when others are not looking and make it clear how you go about defending yourself, something that requires both navy, air and land.



Let's start with what is required to do a naval invasion:

• You need to position troops at a starting naval base and draw up an invasion plan for where you want them to go.
  
• Before the invasion can be launched you need to prepare the invasion. This is first a matter of needing a certain amount of convoys available (which the invasion plan will grab) and a time. Both these depends on just how big this invasion is. Small invasions can be planned and executed quickly but large amount of divisions will require plenty of preparation time.
  
• For each strategic area you pass through with the invasion plan you must have sufficient Naval Supremacy. You get that by having sufficient amount of ships on patrol and by controlling the skies (air superiority). If you do not control these things you won't be able to invade (no sending your whole army to suicide). This makes it pretty clear now to defend as well. For example as UK - as long as your fleet is strong and stationed around the island and your air force is up and about you can feel safe from naval invasions.

There are also things you can do to improve your chances of successful invasions:

• Use special troops - Marines are much better than other troops for securing the beach.
  
• Make sure to always have ships set up as escorts. Even if you have sufficient naval supremacy to launch the invasion - if the enemy rallies their whole fleet after the invasion is already under way there is still a chance some of the convoys could get intercepted.
  
• Station battleships in the destination coastline. They will support the invasion with naval bombardment which will help your guys get the edge when fighting on the beaches.
  
• Use a commander with the Invader trait, he will help speed up the preparation as well as speed up to time it takes to get invading troops ready for fighting.
  
• And finally: make sure to research transportation technologies. The really useful ones are only available from 1940 (unless you research ahead with the penalties for that), but you can improve things like: Needing less transports to carry out invasions, halving the preparation time required, get extra defense from damage taken during invasion and speed up the time it takes for your troops to get out of the ships and on to the beach where they can fight.

The actual invasion combat has some special rules. Once troops land they first need to unload from ships and during this time they are unable to fire back effectively. If you have the right technologies researched troops will actually get some extra protection during this time, but still it's something you want to do as quickly as you can. Once on the beach they can fire back, but will still be suffering from naval invasion penalties.

Next week we'll talk about nukes!

Read original post with larger images

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

China is always a rather difficult beast for Hearts of Iron games, still we have put on our thinking cap and seen what we can do to at least make things better. So as the game opens we have the Chinas at peace but hostile to each other.



The Kuomintang government will get the option launch an offensive against the communist insurgents, which will eventually end up in the possibility of a border war between Mao and Chiang. There will be no actual fighting, but units in border states will start to suffer attrition.



Maybe not 100% accurate but we are much more interested in what happens when Japan attacks and the peace afterwards. Should a Nationalist player chose to go for a real war, we’ve given Mao the ‘Cornered Fox’ trait which will help him defend.



Sometime during the hostilities, the Xi’an incident occurs and pressures Chiang to accept a temporary truce with Mao. This is the first step towards the Chinas looking outwards to the imminent threat of Japan that looms to the east.
When Japan attacks China the Nationalists get an event that allows them to set up the Chinese United Front faction against Japan. Communist China will get the option to join this faction. If they do then there is a follow up event where they annex Shanxi (a player Shanxi can refuse this). The other warlord states (except Sinkiang) will get the option to join with the Nationalist Chinese. Sinkiang will continue to be the odd man out until a war between the USSR and Germany breaks out. At that point they will throw their lot in the Chiang because the USSR is now a little too busy.



Our united China has proven a much more effective road block to Japan (more balancing to be done there but we are pleased with our progress). If Japan gets defeated the Chinese United Front will end, this was always an alliance of convenience for the two sides. Sneaky Mao will take advantage of the confusion to seize northern China and Manchuria. This is part a reflection of communist strength in those areas but also to give the PRC a better territorial base from which to get the civil war rolling.



Before we kick off the civil war we first give the PRC some free troops (supplied from unspecified communists somewhere in the world). With the PRC armies now nicely reinforced with their new territorial base, we fire an event to kick of the war between the two sides, to help the communists along we also hit the KMT forces with a morale penalty for the opening stages of the war. China is far more finely balanced than before.



Read original post with larger images

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

China is always a rather difficult beast for Hearts of Iron games, still we have put on our thinking cap and seen what we can do to at least make things better. So as the game opens we have the Chinas at peace but hostile to each other.



The Kuomintang government will get the option launch an offensive against the communist insurgents, which will eventually end up in the possibility of a border war between Mao and Chiang. There will be no actual fighting, but units in border states will start to suffer attrition.



Maybe not 100% accurate but we are much more interested in what happens when Japan attacks and the peace afterwards. Should a Nationalist player chose to go for a real war, we’ve given Mao the ‘Cornered Fox’ trait which will help him defend.



Sometime during the hostilities, the Xi’an incident occurs and pressures Chiang to accept a temporary truce with Mao. This is the first step towards the Chinas looking outwards to the imminent threat of Japan that looms to the east.
When Japan attacks China the Nationalists get an event that allows them to set up the Chinese United Front faction against Japan. Communist China will get the option to join this faction. If they do then there is a follow up event where they annex Shanxi (a player Shanxi can refuse this). The other warlord states (except Sinkiang) will get the option to join with the Nationalist Chinese. Sinkiang will continue to be the odd man out until a war between the USSR and Germany breaks out. At that point they will throw their lot in the Chiang because the USSR is now a little too busy.



Our united China has proven a much more effective road block to Japan (more balancing to be done there but we are pleased with our progress). If Japan gets defeated the Chinese United Front will end, this was always an alliance of convenience for the two sides. Sneaky Mao will take advantage of the confusion to seize northern China and Manchuria. This is part a reflection of communist strength in those areas but also to give the PRC a better territorial base from which to get the civil war rolling.



Before we kick off the civil war we first give the PRC some free troops (supplied from unspecified communists somewhere in the world). With the PRC armies now nicely reinforced with their new territorial base, we fire an event to kick of the war between the two sides, to help the communists along we also hit the KMT forces with a morale penalty for the opening stages of the war. China is far more finely balanced than before.



Read original post with larger images

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