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.
I’d suggest New Vegas, easy to set up production, good early goals, and smack dab in the middle of everything. For a more traditional (non robot) path, i like Republic of Rio Grande.
Have you dipped your feet in TNO or KR as well?
Nueva Aztlan (me) are locked into an eternal war with my neighbors, Chichen Itza. Itza are raiders while us Aztlaners are gentle farmers. Well, not really. This commander, Gabriel, sacrifices her fallen foes to do rituals with their blood. Hey, we are Aztlan after all.
This is a border conflict. I started it, so if I win I get some territory. I am winning, the long red line up top vs the smaller blue line. I have 6 divisions of special forces vs their 6 divisions of normal infantry. My attack and defense is 172 and 138 vs theirs of 29 and 71. Its no contest. Just the way I like it. (It may help that the opposing commander is hooked on drugs, but who am I to judge?)
Aztlan will slowly win this border war until we take back our ancestral lands. We need them since our capital of Mexico City was nuked by an internal splinter faction. And my current leader is weak, so I am training these elite soldiers, who are part of cult, to overthrow her.
I need to sort this all out before my nasty northern neighbor comes at me. Its an AI (an evil computer) who was put into place by the Americans after they invaded what used to be called Mexico after the great war started. It will be tough to fight robots at this tech level, so I need to expand and research and see if I can swap these pipe guns for laser rifles.
I have a secret plan though - gliders that drop bombs! Ha, the evil AI will never see this coming.
That’s awesome. Please keep it coming!
Thanks for the suggestions, Gruden and Ray. Compared to the major in HOI IV, NCR seems pretty managable so I’ll stick with it for a while before trying New Vegas the Texas Rangers.
I looked KR early on it seems like overkill. Much of the reason I liked HOI IV so much more than HOI III is they simplified things. KR seems like a step back. I hadn’t heard of the The New Order, I may check it out depending on the when the Barbarossa DLC is available.
KR is definitely a deeper end of the pool because the lore and events that transpire within the first three years are fairly sperate from history. But if you are interested I’d play as the USA and check out the cool civil war they go through.
TNO is a bit more an acquired taste, amore of a choose your own adventure (except for Russian countries which very combat centric) than your typical HOI experience. TNO also has it’s own deep lore (taking place in alternate 1962 after the Axis won) and has new mechanics, including turning Focus Trees into their own mini games essentially.
CAS and power armor are notoriously OP in Old World Blues.
I second this. The second US civil war is practically a playthrough in itself. Quite fun and you have multiple ways of approaching it.
I’m a Pacific States guy myself, but I do like being stuck in the middle as the Feds.
Woohoo, Pacific States unite! I first played through as MacArthur but gravitated towards Pacific States. Really enjoy that campaign.
It’s a great campaign that can go in a lot of different ways (Canadian intervention, Rocky/Mississippi ceasefire, Mac going Denver or East Coast, Mexico!?!?! etc.) Really enjoy the various ways it can play out. Just did a Mac campaign from the North East, I enjoyed it but the Pacific States become a done deal by the time I got to them, made me feel bad.
I had a lot of fun playing New Vegas. Of course I’m running low in manpower, (even after get more recruits twice.) so If I play again I’ll not bother making anything but robots.and maybe a power armor guy or two. I’ve taken over all the historical areas and I’m not sure if I should just turtle, and hope that NCR and the Legion kill each other. Or try and take out other areas.
Is there something special about Hoover Dam, or can you justify and then declare war?
I couldn’t find texas rangers, did you mean desert rangers?