Welcome to the second development diary for Hearts of Iron IV! Today, I am going dive right into the meaty stuff and present one of the larger changes we've made to the game - equipment. It's a broad topic with many implications for how the rest of the game is played, so my goal is to present the general idea without digging into all the details just yet. But don't worry, there will be more details than you can shake a field-marshal's baton at in future diaries!
Production
We wanted a more interesting industry model that offered a compelling reason not to always use the latest technology, as well as adding more unit flavor in HoI4. To accomplish this we developed a model where you no longer build full divisions and aircraft wings one at a time; instead, you create production lines to pump out individual vehicles. The longer you run a single production line the more efficient it gets at producing that piece of equipment, and the choice of when to switch over to, say, a newer tank model becomes tricky. Is the war effort best served by a shiny new Tiger that can outclass the competition, or would you rather have 20 Panzer IVs? You will have to make choices like this. Upgrading your equipment now means replacing your old models at the front with new tank designs, for example. The old ones can be put in reserve, sent to less important places, or perhaps given as aid to an ally.
This means that a division is basically an assortment of different equipment combined with men who operate them. Most of the stats of a division will come from equipment, so a panzer division without tanks will not be particularly fit for duty. As for exactly what equipment is used by each division, it will depend on how you have structured your divisions. At the smallest level, we are looking at battalion types that make up your divisions determining how much you need of everything, but a division is still the smallest unit that can be moved around the map. For example, adding an extra battalion of artillery to a division means that it will now also require a few more men and a specific number of artillery cannons that you will need to produce before that battalion will be effective. We’ll talk more about this in a later diary.
Technology
Equipment appears all through the new technology trees. The idea is that unlocking a new piece of equipment should be very visible, and it should be very clear what you will get. Here is a screenshot showing what the armored tech tree looks like for Germany:
Armored technology is based around chassis that you unlock. Each of the chassis has 4 subtechs, each of which unlocks a variant. So, for example, once you have unlocked the Panzer III tank you can research the tank destroyer variant, StuG III. The StuG III was a Panzer III chassis with the turret removed and a larger fixed gun placed in its stead. Variants like this can be switched to production lines from the original chassis without much of penalty, so once the Panzer IV becomes your main tank and the Panzer III no longer measures up, it's a perfect time to convert to producing StuGs on those Panzer III lines. Most nations developed their vehicles like this during the war, and we wanted to include this flavor. Historically, the StuG III ended up being the most produced armored vehicle in Germany during the war.
There will also be ways to create more custom equipment variants with abilities unlocked by experience over the course of the war. This is also something we will go into more detail on in the future.
By switching to equipment from HoI3's more abstracted model, we gain a lot of cool flavor as well as introducing many of the actual interesting choices that leaders of the time had to deal with. We also believe it will make it easier to understand for new players, as well as being more immersive for players. You will now see results like "10 heavy tanks destroyed" rather than some abstracted strength percentage. Because the production models changes over to lines it also doesn't introduce any more unnecessary micro management, so it is really a win-win.
That's all from me for today, see you again in a month for another diary!
One of our main goals with HoI 4 has been to simplify things to appeal to a more mainstream audience without sacrificing historical appeal. Initially this seemed impossible until the recent release of Call of Duty: Ghosts. The key to the success of Ghosts was the inclusion of Riley, a dog companion and playable character. Immediately the solution was clear: Popular games have dogs, and as everyone knows Hitler was famously a dog-lover, so the National Dog concept was born.
The National Dog(ND) system should be familiar to anyone who has played CK2 or EUIII/IV, as it is used in a similar manner to a Councillor, National Focus, or Agent from those games. You can monitor and control your ND from the Dog Management screen by selecting a Canine Power and then clicking on the appropriate area of the map or UI. You ND can be used for many missions, including:
Puppy Socialisation: By allowing the political elite of your national to play with your National Dog you win their hearts and unite them behind your cause, improving your National Unity.
Not one step bark: Your ND can be placed in a province where a defensive battle is taking place and will prevent units from retreating by growling threateningly at any unit attempting it.
Fetch Claim: If you are simply throwing sticks for your National Dog to fetch by the border to another country it is hardly your fault if one accidentally crosses the border and your ND follows it. However, any territory where your ND stands is sovereign land of your nation, resulting in a valid cause for war to retake it.
Ruff and ready research: Assigning your ND to a particular tech screen results in a increased research speed in that field by barking at any scientists who appear to be slacking off.
Every nation has a unique National Dog, which grant a special bonus when not employed on the above missions, some examples include:
Germany - German Shepard Dog. Passive bonus: Schutzhund. Coups are less likely to succeed.
Britain - English Bulldog. Passive bonus: Nodding. The constant nodding of this Dog's head makes visiting ambassadors feel they are being agreed with. Their good mood results in a relations bonus.
France - French Poodle. Passive bonus: Fluffy. Has a fine, white coat.
USSR - Siberian Husky. Passive bonus: Anti-tank dogs. All units gain bonus Hard Attack.
Japan - Shiba Inu. Passive bonus: Coins. Greatly increases your income as cash appears from seemingly nowhere.
In order to ensure players feel a genuine connection to their National Dog we are taking extensive motion-capture footage of all dogs to be modelled so that they move and react in a realistic fashion ingame.
Next week we'll talk about our DLC policy, but as a sneakpeak I can reveal that we noted the outcry after the previous diary revealed that Horses will not be tracked in HoI IV. While this initially surprised us, and we don't think it's for everyone, we are committed to listening to our fans, and so we are proud to announce that the HoI IV Horse Armour DLC will be available on release day:
Hello! It's time for another Hearts of Iron 4 Developer Diary, and this one is about Land Doctrines. For HoI4, we are leaning more towards the Doctrine paths you may remember from HoI2 than the mix-and-match of HoI3. We have 4 main mutually exclusive Doctrine paths which nations can research. Each path also has one or more mutually exclusive choices to further differentiate the doctrines and sub-doctrines. Because we are still pre-alpha, I can't really describe exactly what each tech in the tree does at the moment; this can and will change as we implement, test and iterate over them. I can describe the general idea behind each path and choice so hopefully you will understand what we are aiming for.
Mobile Warfare: This path focuses on mobile mechanized units and is the default German path. Armour and motorized/mechanized units will have the largest gains in this path. It also reduces the planning time needed before you can launch an attack. This path is somewhat frontloaded with early bonuses. The first branching in this tree allows you to choose between Mobile Infantry or Armour as your main focus. While Mobile Infantry isn't as effective in combat, it is cheaper and can be used in greater numbers, so it could be an alternate strategy for Germany, or be used by a less industrially powerful nation. The second split offers the choice between switching over to a defensive posture (maximizing Manpower gains) as Germany historically did, or continuing to develop offensive mobile doctrines. And yes, we know Blitzkrieg wasn't a formal doctrine, but the mishmash of innovations and new techniques that the Germans used is popularly known as such, so we roll with it.
Superior Firepower: This is the American default path. This doctrine focuses on big, well-equipped, but expensive divisions and gains a bonus when fighting in areas with friendly air superiority. The first split offers the choice between adding more support units to each division, or focusing on independently deployed support brigades. The second split will let you pick between Airland battle (for increased cooperation with the air force for combat support) or Shock and Awe (which keeps the majority of your focus on ground-based firepower).
Grand Battleplan: This could be thought of as the traditional doctrine path, and is the default choice for Britain, France, Italy, and Japan. This doctrine path gives you larger planning bonuses and boosts Infantry and Artillery. It is a bit weak on the offence to begin with, but has some defensive bonuses. The split offers the choice between increased offensive potential and steadily improving all unit types with the Assault path, or focusing heavily on Infantry with the more frontloaded Infiltration path.
Mass Assault: The default doctrine for the USSR and China. It focuses on using large amounts of Manpower and offers increased morale and reinforce-speed. The early techs give some defensive bonuses and Infantry/Militia boosts. The first path decision here offers either continuing with the same methods with Mass Mobilisation (the mass use of Infantry and Militia) or adopting the innovative Soviet Deep Battle doctrine, which makes use of the modern tools of war and boosts the capability of Armour, artillery, and mobile units. You may notice from the image that the Mass Mobilisation path is shorter than the others. This is because it's more of a series of stopgap measures for nations in dire straits than a real doctrine, and we want to encourage nations to swap out of it when/if their situation improves.
"Swap out of it?" I hear you say. Yes, you can change your Doctrine path if you want. This will come at a cost. There will be a period of disorganisation for your army based on how far into your previous path you were and on the size of your army, so it's likely not something you want to do when things are going very poorly in the middle of a war. However, you do not necessarily start from scratch in your new Doctrine path: Several techs are shared between the paths, and if you switch to a path which includes a shared tech you have already researched you will start at that point in the new tree.
Ok, that's about all for this DD, start trying to guess the tech names based on their icons!
Me and Darkrenown actually talked about this as an april fools joke instead of the Dogs. Someone dresses up as Hitler in front of the camera and vigorously does military gestures to try and attack poland, but keeps screwing it up and declaring war on everyone else etc.
We didnt do it because we were too busy and nobody really was convinced about dressing up as hitler and making fun of microsoft in the same video was a great PR idea ;D
Sign up through my referee link and you'll help me gain 20 referrals that will lead me to have a chance to get some extra beta keys, which I'll happily spread in the sharing corner.
Prepare your anuses~
Last edited by farne on Tue, 12th Aug 2014 13:54; edited 3 times in total
So anoying..I wanted to play hoc3...but ive got no dvd/blueray player...so I thought "hey, the game is on steam - so why not just add my games steamkey?" but ofcourse...THAT key is just for the cd version and cant be added to steam. So anoying. Ive got quite a few games laying around which is impossible to add just cos that
shitloads of new stuff in my pc. Cant keep track of it all.
Signed up with a spam account since I already had an account @Farne
And signed up with yours as well Ragedoctor.
I'll drop a referral as well (My real account)... All beta keys will go to the hump since I have little friends, even less who game and 0 who play Paradox games
Apparently they did a 17 minutes long demo at their gamescon stage. It's supposedly up on twitch but my mobile cannot access it. They should have the vid on YT or some such place tomorrow. Cannot fucking wait.
New Dev Diary and notice that it's delayed until Q2, 2015
Quote:
On to other important matters. As some of you on the forum have already guessed, we have decided to move the original Q1 2015 release target to late Q2 2015. Hearts of Iron IV is a very ambitious undertaking and we might have been a tad optimistic with the original date that was communicated.
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