Hearts of Iron 4 announced

Submarines!

The exact mechanics aren’t really clear to me, but the general drift of things sounds pretty good.

Part of my plan for giving England a hard time included mining up the English Channel. I executed this plan with a cruiser sub equipped with naval mines and plane catapults. These plane catapults boost the sub’s surface detection, giving them an advantage in being detected and helping them remain invisible, at least for the first couple years of the war.

I can appreciate mechanics like the one described where an aircraft-equipped submarine would have a surface spotting bonus, but it’s situations like the one described where the airspace over the channel is so congested/contested that there’s no way that mechanic should provide a bonus (if anything, it should be a penalty). I think the challenge comes when they try to tack a flat bonus (provided by something like submarine-launched aircraft) onto a system that is already modeled (the air layer) and then not having those systems communicate in a way that produces realistic-ish results.

New DD on Fuel and Motorized Art

It seems like they are providing some nice tools to monitor and manage fuel use, and motorized art is something I’ve wanted for a long time. Hopefully the AI can handle this new game element! Realistically, I expect it to have a lot of problem, at least at the start.

New DD on tech changes

This goes over in more detail changes that were already presented back in October in: DD on amphibious vehicles and tech changes

Oh well. They are still good changes, and we get to see the naval tech tree.

I’m glad they are changing how the tech research works. Letting German get the Panther (43) by the end of 1940/early 41 was a bit overpowering. I really looking forward to the Naval changes.

I liked that change a lot. It’s something a lot of people have been arguing for. Though they could still allow 10k Panthers in '41 if they are too generous with the bonuses.

DD is Japanese After-Action Report

Seems like a lot of fun. Though he’s going up again a human player. No signs of whether the AI can handle these new systems at all.

That was a great ARR, it definitely got me jonesing for some HOI4.

Yes, I haven’t played a game in months will be anxious to try a naval power again.

Ugh this weeks developers diary is about new achievements. I seldom care about achievement in any game (Xcom is the rare exception). I never get them with HOI IV since I play with the better AI mod which disables them.

I’m starting to get annoyed with complete lack of info on the availability of MtG.

It’s a clue. Achievements DD means they’re wrapping up and we should be getting a release date shortly.

Released date is going to be announced tomorrow, as toyed with on stream. I honestly hate PDX’s marketing, just say the details or not, stop the stupid tease game.

February 28

Niiice!

Yeah I’ll be picking that one up.

That looks amazing. I’ll actually pick it up too.

I thought this would make an easy $20 towards the $30 threshold for Steam’s Lunar sale, but it turns out my account already has Man the Guns! The ‘founder’ edition of HOIV is really paying off for me this time!

Which mod is this?

I finally dove into this the other night with the tutorial. I think I might like it more than the other Paradox games I’ve tried because I get tired of moving little guys around a map, and this game makes that more efficient with its front line system, which I really like.

Expert AI 4.0:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=741805475

Be warned it will kick your ass in.