Hearts of Iron 4 announced

Missed it, second the question, even if just for curiosity.

I used the Naval Rework mod (Steam Workshop::Naval Rework Mod II). Well, really, I used the version integrated with the Ultra mod (Steam Workshop::HOI4 ULTRA (Historical Industry Project)).

Instead of throwing on everything as modules, you select your armament (e.g. choose 3 triple turrets configuration and then select gun size and tech level) and armour (choose belt thickness and then deck thickness) and similar for most of the “basic” characteristics of the ship on the bottom row. The top row is used in more normal fashion stuff bolted to the deck like AA or torpedoes.

The number of options in the dropdowns can be a bit annoying but at least it feels a bit more like I am designing an actual ship. It makes it feel closer to Rule the Waves on the design screen, but of course the in-game combat model is still HoI4, so vastly, vastly simplified.

Cool,thanks!

What start year is recommended for newbies?

I’d recommend 1936 for all experience levels.

Absolutely, 1936. If you just want to get in a fight than 1939 scenario, is ok, certainly as way of learning how combat works… But for most people much of the fun of the game is taking over your country in the depths of the depression and building up the war machine.

Fun thing, do a few runs until 39/warstart and see how much you can build. The industrial game is pretty good learning. I consider all 39 starts only for advanced players.

Also, avoid England and USA they are complicated. Germany is easier and plenty of good ahistorical fun.

Italy is also a good beginner country since it has a lot less units, and you get to conquer Ethiopia in the very beginning. My actual recommendation is you play one game as Italy and another as Germany and play through 1939, and then start over. In general, the AI is better at defense than attacking so can get burned playing Russia, or America if Germany fails to conquer France.

South American countries like Brazil and India (the Raj) can also be interesting starting countries.

Sea game looks more complicated than it is, you need patrol fleets with small ships and then set bigger ones to strike, this is to avoid fuel waste. Don’t use the auto fleet stuff, just lump ships in as you feel. Build destroyers with high sub detection and light cruisers with lots of spotter planes.

Fast cruisers with torps or slower with heavy guns.

New focus trees for the baltic countries.

They also walked back many of the questionable plans for Poland, so despite the whining by the Paradox staff about how harsh the forum was, I’m happy to see they listened to the legitimate criticism.

Well, most of the reason for the dev diaries is to solicit feedback. The reason they brought it up is because the toxicity of the forum makes developers not want to do that anymore, which would be a loss for everyone. When it’s wall to wall stuff like this (and this one is pretty tame, honestly) I don’t blame them for not wanting to wade through it every week.

I don’t disagree, that it wouldn’t be fun if it was all negative but it is not. There are a lot thank you, glad you fixed Poland, and I am happy to see regional focus trees. We both agree it is pretty tame, compared to the many game forums.

I think the problem is that young designers like Meka mistake the volume of posts, for the number of people. Looking at the first 10 pages, the ratio of positive comments to negative is at least 3 to 1.
(As you pointed earlier it is possible that moderators remove the worst comments, but I’ve seen little moderation on the HOI IV forums other Nazi stuff)

The problem is I’m going to make one post saying, nice job, or I really glad you are fixing how armor and penetration work and then move on. If on the other I don’t like something, or other people disagree, I might make 1/2 dozen posts, and off course the crazies will make 50 postings whining about the same thing and do so in a personal manner. I have zero problem with developers putting particular trollish posters on ignore.

@milspec and @Grunden, I got around to trying Old World Blues today. Glad you two mentioned it, it’s really neat so far! Playing as New Canaan is pretty fun since that’s where I live. Love what they’ve done with the events and focus tree, very thematic.

Let us know how it goes. It sounds pretty crazy. The last one of these super mods, I played was Fall from Heaven (so something like that ) for Civ IV, which was nice change of pace,but ultimately I went back to vanilla.

Glad you like it! I do also. And you are just in time for another big patch:

There are a lot of infantry tweaks. The Dev Diary on Reddit has details.

@KevinC does this scratch your Shadow Empire itch?

It’s not post-apocalyptic, but one of the largest and most detailed HOI4 total conversions is:

The amount of detail the devs have put into that is amazing.

Okay… how can I not take a look at My Little Pony meets Hearts of Iron?

I think it will! I got heavily into Shadow Empires. I liked a lot of things about it, but there were a lot of things that would drag down the experience. I’d get a little event/decision fatigue especially with the cumbersomeness of the UI (or at least that’s how I found it). I’d get annoyed by minors and the like seeming to ignore the supply mechanics and constant gum up my lines. They weren’t terribly hard to push out, just… annoying. And then I’d have some breakdown in my logistics network without a clear understanding of what exactly the problem is and what I should have done to avoid it and I’d retire that particular campaign.

Old World Blues is a nice combination of old and new. I have familiarity with HOI4 systems and concepts so it’s faster to get into, but the all-new tech trees, equipment, focus trees, etc. make for a very new-feeling experience. I’m very pleasantly surprised at how much detail is here, rather than just “HOI4 but with Fallout skins!”. I’ve only enjoyed New Canaan and I just got smacked around by the White Legs, which feature prominently in their focus tree. I can do a lot better next game, I was experimenting a lot with the tech tree and division types. With a better handle on the Old World Blues resources, economy, and equipment I think I’ll put up more of a fight. Alas, time to call it quits for the day. I’ll have to give it another shot during the week after work. :)

Western Brotherhood is a fun challenge; my mind boggled at the depth of the focus tree. NCR is fun as a “major”. But I think one of my favorite play throughs was as one of the Mexican nations ruled by semi-(in)sane military AIs.

Wow, what a mod, crazy amount of work, the folks put into this. I started as NCR, and I’m more than a little lost of what do. It seems like NCR has a good military, but is behind on the tech. But the war support is really low so I don’t see how I can declare war. The focus trees are very detailed and quite quick.

Is there a beginner guide, better documentation somewhere. So far I’ll have found is reddit forum?

I think most of the “official” discussion happens on their Discord.

Also there’s dozens of sub mods for it as well which might be worth a look.

If you want a good nation to try to get your feet wet, I suggest the Texas rangers. That’s kind of self-contained for a while at least and not nearly as overwhelming as NCR.