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Hearts of Iron 4 is the Garry's Mod of strategy games: an interview with Dan LindSep 24, 2021 - PCGamesNWWII grand strategy game Hearts of Iron IV's fifth year is proving an eventful one so far. On the one hand, it's working towards one of the most significant expansions in its history, one that will finally give the Soviet Union the overhaul it needs. On the other, it's losing the game director that took it from its nascence through half a decade of being one of the most consistently popular of Paradox's releases to date. " reason HOI4 has such a strong community and consistently high number of players is likely due to the modding scene," outgoing director Dan Lind reflects. "It's very easy to craft different experiences with mods, it gives people a lot of cool stuff to play with between expansions, and stops you from becoming bored or burned out. The other day I heard Hearts of Iron referred to as the Garry's Mod of strategy games!" Lind tells us that one of the first concrete thoughts he had during the early days of the game's development was that of executable battle plans. "I always enjoyed playing HOI3 with a fair amount of front automation, but wanted some more control, plus being able to inject overrides." Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: This Hearts of Iron 4 speedrunner re-forms the Roman Empire in just nine months I'm quite excited for Hearts of Iron 4's upcoming bag of tricks Hearts of Iron 4's new trains have guns now This Hearts of Iron 4 speedrunner re-forms the Roman Empire in just nine monthsSep 17, 2021 - Strategy GamerSpeedrunning as a videogame phenomenon is not something we talk about often in strategy games, although, by design, grand strategy games do lend themselves to the craft. We've previously reported on one fan's speedrun in Crusader Kings III, and now a new one has cropped up in Hearts of Iron IV. User CrossMountain has posted a run on the HOI4 subreddit in which they managed to re-form the Roman Empire by October 20, 1936, which is just shy of ten months after the game starts. In this timeframe they fight two wars, and take over enough of Europe to be able to trigger the event that lets you bring back the Imperium Romanum. Like most Paradox Development Studios titles, Hearts of Iron IV provides goals in the guise of formable nations. Some are authentic or at least historically plausible, but others are just for fun. The Roman Empire formable nation is a bit of a meme at this point, as it gets put into nearly every PDS game regardless of whether it'd make sense or not (like during WWII). Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Hearts of Iron 4 is the Garry's Mod of strategy games: an interview with Dan Lind I'm quite excited for Hearts of Iron 4's upcoming bag of tricks Hearts of Iron 4's new trains have guns now I'm quite excited for Hearts of Iron 4's upcoming bag of tricksSep 15, 2021 - Strategy GamerWhile it's all well and good talking about how Hearts of Iron IV's upcoming expansion No Step Back will overhaul the Soviet Union, or how the free patch will completely redo the supply system (again), being a war game I'm here for one thing: shooty bangs. Paradox's WWII grand strategy game isn't the deepest conflict simulation around, but it offers a perspective not often covered in these kinds of titles and offers enough depth to make it engaging. The No Step Back expansion is going to be adding more subtle tricks to make warfare that much more strategic, as this week's dev diary reveals. First up, there's now a formal scorched earth mechanic. A bit grim, for sure, but one reason the Soviet Union was able to hold out against the Nazi invasion was its policy of not leaving anything behind that could aid the invaders (that, and just up and moving their entire industrial base like it was a set of legos). This has now been introduced into the game as a general mechanic. Another new tweak will let you add more character to your generals by letting them have a preferred tactic. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Hearts of Iron 4 is the Garry's Mod of strategy games: an interview with Dan Lind This Hearts of Iron 4 speedrunner re-forms the Roman Empire in just nine months Hearts of Iron 4's new trains have guns now Dev Diary - Bag of Tricks #3 (The Sequel?)Sep 15, 2021 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/83868a18cf98ad4041c3488dc7744774f6cd6fd2.png Greetings all! Today’s dev diary contains the details of a few smaller features coming to the table in No Step Back. In addition, I’ll get ahead of the curve here and point out that there will be no diary next week - we’ll be back the week after with more to see. Scorched Earth One of the enduring tactical practices of the Soviet defense during the German invasion, was the use of scorched earth. In No Step Back, you’ll be able to spend Command Power on ordering the strategic disabling of railways in the event of a tactical retreat. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/740493050c7c92522cb4a662c615f843ca271ad7.png (All visuals WIP!) Enacted on a state level, every railway present receives full damage, and is immediately flagged, making sure that your eager workers do not attempt repairs. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/51dab3b39e605e0894a02c4353f75ed15f7a04c5.png The pending repairs will show up differently in your construction queue, and won’t be worked on. Rather than re-enable these all manually, you can toggle the state of Scorched Earth off on a state, in the same way it was enabled. All affected railways will begin repairing at once. Scorched Earth is a pretty simple mechanic here, but has potentially devastating effects on invaders. In addition to the rail conversion time that exists on captured railway, damaged rail must now be repaired in order to continue supply flow onwards. While we considered extending some effects to factories, we determined that this was likely to affect balance far more than we wanted. Preferred Tactics We touched on this feature briefly during a previous diary, however, due to some good feedback from the community and from inside the team, we’ve made some alterations to how it works. Where previously, you set a preferred tactic on a national level, giving a positive chance modifier for that tactic to be chosen in combat, your generals and field marshals will now also possess the ability to earn a favored combat tactic. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/fa21997ac4097ba34e52856f056a1a7b9d26481a.png At level 5, you’ll be prompted to choose a preferred tactic for your generals. This represents their doctrinal school of war - a choice that affects all units under their command. Note here, that we are not removing the national preferred tactic, and that the additive weight will compound from national -> field marshal -> general. To pre-empt the question, you can of course stack all 3 as the same tactic, although this drastically reduces your flexibility, and potentially makes it very easy to be countered. The overall additions granted by preferred tactics, have of course been reduced somewhat to account for this. We wanted to avoid a rock-paper-scissors choice here, and in order to further emulate the core, doctrinal nature of a general’s fighting style, we have chosen to make this choice permanent for characters. Strategic Redeployment As we hinted at, strategic redeploy...Hearts of Iron 4's new trains have guns nowSep 8, 2021 - Strategy GamerLast week we got rather excited about the fact that Hearts of Iron IV is giving trains some love. They're integral to the new supply rework that the 1.11 patch is going to introduce, but this being a WW2 game trains can also serve a much higher purpose - turning into train guns. Gun trains? Trains. With guns. A slightly niche area of military hardware - probably up there with V2 rockets - sticking giant guns on trains was nevertheless something that one did during the 20th century, with railway guns appearing in WW1. Apart from perhaps being featured in a few Medal of Honor games, though, you don't really see them crop up that often, even among other war games set during this period. As part of the new tech tree branch dedicated to trains, you can now unlock railway guns in Hearts of Iron IV after you've researched armoured trains. This week's dev diary explains how railway guns can then be produced in your production lines like other equipment, but you can only dedicate a maximum of five factories, and completed guns don't go into your stockpile. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Hearts of Iron 4 is the Garry's Mod of strategy games: an interview with Dan Lind This Hearts of Iron 4 speedrunner re-forms the Roman Empire in just nine months I'm quite excited for Hearts of Iron 4's upcoming bag of tricks Dev Diary: Trains #2 - Railway GunsSep 8, 2021 - Community AnnouncementsHello there, C0RAX again. It’s time again to reveal some more secret information that was hinted at in the last dev diary. Specifically this week will be revolving around the final part of railways and trains. So without any more need for introduction here are our stars of the show today. The railway guns. So to start off I'll go through how you get a railway gun on the map because it’s a little different to normal land units. First of all you are going to want to research railway guns which comes after armored trains {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/efe649489010518305ecd838d91f53b797c21673.png Then you can find it in your production tab just like building normal equipment. But unlike other equipment you build, these production lines are limited to 5 factories and the railway gun won't be added to your stockpile. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/5a2b727190c2961beebe89abbe473f892205769b.png Instead, once completed, your brand new railway gun will appear in your capital, in this way they are built similar to capital ships. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/1291b18bfbbb3352a43858fe109c4dd84bed41b7.png Moving your railway gun is limited to provinces with railways, and so to get to the front you must have a rail connection. Taking into account the rail conversion time when capturing territory is important as you will have to wait for the big guns to be able to help you out. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/4003fccf125c595f6838c9ab0c850e05fb2343fc.png You can also attach railway guns to armies just like with planes and they will attempt to place themselves relative to the frontline. If you have several, they will be distributed where possible to support your army. There is also a quick select button on the army to select all railways guns attached to an army should you need to. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/aa4337b9595230b4b901b761bfa86dc0c6bebda8.png Finally, the last bit of control understanding is range. Railway guns have a range in which they can support and so from any one point are limited in which provinces they can support. This range is shown by hovering over the unit icon.{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/39423583dc65b7de1f5f6fba306d6e9bd517928a.png On to combat now, here we can see a combat with a supporting railway gun, we have added the useful icon on the combat progress indicator that there is a supporting bombardment. This new icon will also show if there is shore bombardment happening in the combat. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/01ad17398974c45c30d7ac83d1f1af467ce949c5.png The combat effects of railway gun bombardment work just like shore bombardment, causing negative combat stat modifiers to those on the receiving end of the big guns. These modifiers affect both soft and hard attack as well as defence values. Notably, these effects do not stack - it becomes more important to spread out your railway artillery than to concentrate it. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/1806615c2f201f9182c6e572ee7053bb19705c1c.png Finally we need to talk about capture and damage, railway guns can be c...Here's your final look at Hearts of Iron 4's new supply system - now with trainsSep 1, 2021 - Strategy GamerOne of the key features of Hearts of Iron IV's No Step Back expansion and the free update is that it will completely overhaul the grand strategy game's supply systems. We were given an early look at the new supply system in April, with a follow-up in June just before the developers went on their summer break. This weeks' dev diary offers one final look at the supply system - and it's all about trains, baby. Trains and the rail network as it is represented in-game will be instrumental to getting supplies to your troops on the frontlines. While trains can't always get supply all the way - you may need trucks to go that final mile - they are the backbone for getting supply to areas where the local supply is being overwhelmed by the number of troops in a region. You can even research new train variants which will make them more effective, either at carrying supply or at resisting attempts at disrupting supply lines, such as with air strikes. Armoured trains are now a thing, which is exciting if you like trains. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Dan Lind on why Hearts of Iron 4 is the Garry's Mod of strategy games This Hearts of Iron 4 speedrunner re-forms the Roman Empire in just nine months I'm quite excited for Hearts of Iron 4's upcoming bag of tricks Dev Diary: Trains and SupplySep 1, 2021 - Community AnnouncementsGreetings, and welcome back for our last look at the supply system that ships with the Barbarossa update. As you all know, I’m British, and in Britain the trains never run on time - I couldn’t possibly break with this tradition, hence a completely intentional 10 minute delay on today’s diary. There’ve been a couple of changes since we last looked at this, so you may find I’ll be reiterating a few aspects that we’ve already covered in previous diaries, albeit in some cases with a new twist. Trains As indicated in a previous diary, the logistics network that supplies your troops relies on the large-scale relocation of supply using trucks and trains. Whereas trucks serve as an optional last-mile carrier for military supplies, trains make up the backbone of any logistics network that supplies an army which exceeds the local state supply available in its location. The domestic production of trains is something that is unlocked via the technology tree. Many countries will start with the initial (civilian) train technology readily unlocked, however, there are several more options available to you as time progresses (more on this below!). {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/9c6562350ecd5b15d5bbf2be72ba1dbff01f82ab.png Your overall train need for the logistics network is derived from the overall supply usage of the nodes supplying your troops, and the distance factor that supply has to travel in order to reach them. In essence, the more troops you have drawing supply, the more trains you will need to keep supply running. Needless to say, if fewer trains are provided than are required, supply output at point of demand will incur penalties proportional to the magnitude of the shortfall. In one of our previous diaries, we alluded to a number of interactions that could be performed on supply nodes - one of these was a train priority setting. It transpired that this did not fit well with the underlying simulation, and we’ve removed this setting from nodes. Logistics Strike Of course, a freight-train loaded with supply makes a juicy target for the enemy. In NSB, CAS and bombers are able to perform the new logistics strike mission, which can put a severe strain on an enemy’s ability to supply their network - actively destroying trains and trucks, as well as damaging railways in the target area. The strategic bombing air mission will also target rail and supply infrastructure, however the logistics strike mission is a much more effective way of neutralizing an enemy’s fighting capabilities while retaining important industrial infrastructure if you intend to occupy an area for any period of time. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/d4c7b716575fb1ce37cc2944e64a75df367f3811.png Train Variants As mentioned above, trains will be a researchable technology with several variants. Trains, unlike regular units, are not controllable - their movement and behaviour is entirely simulated based on the needs of your logistics flow. This said, there are several important statistical aspects to the...Hearts of Iron 4's game director is moving on to a secret project that's "not Hearts of Iron 5"Aug 25, 2021 - Strategy GamerHearts of Iron IV's upcoming No Step Back expansion doesn't currently have a release window, but what it does have is plenty of quality of life improvements and now, apparently, a new game director. This week's dev diary covered some of the smaller minutiae that's coming with the new DLC, which includes better weather, more equipment micro-management, and the news that long-standing lead Dan 'Podcat' Lind is stepping down. He will be handing the reins over to Peter 'Arheo' Nicholson, the former game director of Imperator: Rome. Lind mentions that, after seven years leading Hearts of Iron IV (and before that a stint working on Hearts of Iron III) he feels "it's time for something new to sink my teeth into." He can't talk about what the new project is, but he did say at least that it wasn't Hearts of Iron 5. Shame. "I am super pumped about it," he said, and Lind also feels that Hearts of Iron IV has plenty of room left to develop and grow further. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: I'm quite excited for Hearts of Iron 4's upcoming bag of tricks Hearts of Iron 4's new trains have guns now Here's your final look at Hearts of Iron 4's new supply system - now with trains Dev Diary: Bag of Tricks #2Aug 25, 2021 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/bf52dd4436a89a7c191ca39b1c8d61a21437749f.png Greetings all, and welcome back for a slightly less content-focused dev diary than our latter soviet efforts. Today we’ll be covering a couple of smaller additions to be added in NSB, some of which have been hinted at before, followed by a small announcement from project management. Weather 2.0 One of our long-standing goals with the new supply system, was to introduce some changes to the way weather affects the gameplay experience. To give some strategic relevance to weather, we’ve slowed down the system to modulate between potential weather effects on a less frequent basis. This gives a player some time to react to potentially advantageous/disadvantageous conditions, as well as being somewhat more predictable on a larger scale. In addition to this, we’ve taken a broad look at the combination of stat effects on ground conditions, temperatures, and weather, in order to mesh more closely with the new supply system, and to give a greater impact on campaigns - especially those conducted in adverse conditions: In addition to Org recovery, weather will now affect org loss from movement, and in extreme cases, supply consumption. While temperature has no new modifier effects, we’ve taken a pass on temperature data across the world, with the intention of improving accuracy. Ground conditions now also have the potential to affect org loss on moving divisions. This becomes particularly important in muddy/cold conditions such as the eastern front, where the combination of various conditional effects can severely slow an advance. New Weather Effects: (WIP)​ {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/10aaee8efb2d044041c3652fddbda9ea68bf77d5.png New Ground Conditions: (WIP)​ {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/1254a174fc2a65b7ff9b66924a536830f56637d0.png Visually the weather effects have been updated to be easier to spot on the map, with updated particle effects weather will look better than ever. This also makes it clearer when a region is experiencing a weather event so you can react to it faster. Equipment Management In NSB, we’re introducing the ability to manage specific equipment usage by division template. This means you can ensure that your elite breakthrough divisions have everything they need, while line divisions have equipment of a lower priority. Please bear in mind that the interface is still a work in progress! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/e08112eb0f9e3044518006a066cc4cc57a1ff46b.png You can access this new feature in the division designer, where you’ll have a comprehensive breakdown of all equipment types currently stockpiled. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/35a617339a1ba6ee29686f3dad3f5b8158b93c09.png We’ve provided several broad methods of manipulating equipment usage, in the form of a togglable setting on whether this division template should automatically have newly researched equipment enabled, and a quick method of toggling the usage of foreign equipment. Beyond that, you’ll be able to toggle catego...Hearts of Iron 4's next DLC will let you split Soviet Russia into 29 separate entitiesAug 20, 2021 - Strategy GamerHearts of Iron IV is continuing its long march towards the release of its upcoming No Step Back expansion and the free 1.11 Barbarossa update. The strategy game's recent series of developer diaries have been looking at changes coming to the new star of the show - the Soviet Union. The changes coming to this country are so extensive that the project needed its own design team, and we imagine part of this is to do with the fact that it's now possible to split up the USSR into 29 separate states. These represent a myriad of nations that existed prior to the Soviet Union's official formation in 1922, as well various socialist republics that formed during the Russian Civil War. Many of these will only be released via a peace deal, but there are some branches across various focus trees that can bring these new nations about as well. A view of the map with all 29 states can be seen in this week's dev diary, which focuses on the non-communist options coming as part of the No Step Back expansion. This built on last week's diary, which looked into alternative socialist options if the player feels like ousting Stalin and going in a different direction to the (free) historical route. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Hearts of Iron 4's new trains have guns now Here's your final look at Hearts of Iron 4's new supply system - now with trains Hearts of Iron 4's game director is moving on to a secret project that's "not Hearts of Iron 5" Dev Diary - Soviet Union: Part ThreeAug 18, 2021 - Community Announcements“Comrade Bratyn, you have been found guilty of counter-WW2 activity. You have been seen consorting with citizens and even figurehead ideologues of the Imperator team. Undeniable proof of work -by your hand- can be seen in publications by this group of dissidents made over the course of the past year. You do not fool us. We know “Drikus” is just another alias you use. “Your attempts at shirking your duties to the Team will not be tolerated. Discussion of the Classical Period is wholly unacceptable behaviour for a HoI4 citizen; publication of treasonous material is a crime far, far worse. You are hereby stripped of your rank and sentenced to the mines in HoI-beria. Perhaps a year’s hard labor working on good, proper WW2 material will enable you to see the errors of your ways, and rehabilitate you sufficiently to regain your previous liberties. “Comrade Bratyn, I will not welcome you back. You were foolish to think you could ever leave, in the first place.” {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/509d6f893f7abf34dda8bdba284fece5cc86907d.png Hello everyone, and welcome to the third (yes you read that right) dev diary on the Soviet Union focus tree! And yes, in the words of a famous hero who fought valiantly and sacrificed himself for the defense of Earth some 25 years ago: “Hello boys! I’m baaaaaaaaaack!” Not to worry, though! Unlike Russel, I’m not here to destroy the project by dealing catastrophic damage to the superweapon that is this very next DLC that we’re unleashing upon a collection of RVs near a remote and officially non-existing military base in Nevada the world. That requires backbone, and we’re not allowed to have one of those here in HoI-beria. It has already been explained in previous DDs that the sheer size of the Soviet tree has meant multiple CDs have been slaving away working proudly on it. This has been doubly the case for the non-Communist branches (which the eagle-eyed among you already noticed in last week's diary must lurk off to the side of the picture you were shown): the collection of CDs that have contributed to these have almost been as numerous and varied as have been the groups comprising the White Movement that inspired the branches... *Laughs nervously, glancing at his room’s locked door* While I initially was given some background features to toil away on, I eventually was drafted into this group of laborers-- *Glances at the silhouettes of guards visible through the window in the door, sweating this time and continuing in an excessively loud voice* ...Erhhh, I-I mean, I volunteered for this honorable task to contribute in some small way to the ever-increasing glory of the HoI4 Team, which has so graciously and mercifully deigned to allow me to prove my unceasing loyalty through my labor! *Sweats profusely* ...I, uh, am also proud to have volunteered as… as spokesman for this assembled group of CDs, and tell you all about what we’ve been doing! *Clears throat raspily* Very well, let’s get started. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/914d3...Hearts of Iron IV's AI is so good, the devs sometimes need to handicap it via codeAug 18, 2021 - Strategy GamerHearts of Iron IV is a grand strategy game that attempts to offer the ultimate World War 2 sandbox. Through historical and plausible alt-history options, it allows you - in each individual game - to fight your own version of the Second World War, and tell your own stories of an alternative greatest generation. But with the player taking charge of only one out of dozens nations that existed in 1936, making sure the rest of the world behaves in a manner that facilitates an engaging and believable narrative is an on-going struggle. In many cases, the developers have intervened directly; it seems the UK was so good at beating Italy in North Africa, for example, the team had to hard-code a solution that rendered them less effective. Reddit user drefvelin on the Hearts of Iron IV subreddit discovered a line of code while looking at the AI files for a mod they are creating, called "ENG_please_stop_stomping_italy_so_hard_in_africa_ty". The gist of the code ensures that Great Britain and any dominions (if controlled by the AI) don't put too many troops into North Africa to ensure that the Italian AI has a fighting chance of winning the theatre. "These kinds of AI directives are usually there for a few reasons... to control pacing," Hearts of Iron IV game director Dan Lind tells us. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Hearts of Iron 4's new trains have guns now Here's your final look at Hearts of Iron 4's new supply system - now with trains Hearts of Iron 4's game director is moving on to a secret project that's "not Hearts of Iron 5" Dev Diary: Soviet Union Rework - Part 2Aug 11, 2021 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/38f8c79905b3813bc1e31d1d5e9607fd08cc83e3.png Hello comrades, and welcome back to another DevDiary for No Step Back. After Comrade @ManoDeZombi (as chairman of the People's Commitee for Focus Tree Production) introduced you to the historical and shared branches of the Soviet tree last week, today we will be talking about the Opposition against Stalin. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/e13ce219e71e0715126917c37c21c7874c18c74b.png The opposition to Stalin during the 30’s was diverse and divided. Thus I guess it is fitting that the work on the various paths for the Soviet Union has been divided between several CDs unlike normally, when one tree is designed by one CD. Thus the creation of the CD Soviet. I got the honor of writing this diary, so I shall do my best at covering all the options available for the alternative communist branches. It is also my first dev diary, as I am relatively new to the Content Design team at HoI. Hope you like it! Please note though that at the moment of writing this dev diary, a lot of things are still being worked upon, and copy edits to be done, so there will be changes before release. Even before Lenin’s death, there was a bitter power struggle within the party. Lenin introduced a ban on factionalism, which Stalin later used to defeat his opponents. But before that happened, several sub groups had formed behind outspoken leaders. Initially the strongest ones were Kamenev and Zinovyev and their so called “New Opposition”. Their main opponent, back in the early 20’s, was Trotsky, leading what came to be known as the Left Opposition. On the other “side” of the spectrum was the Right Opposition, fronted by Bukharin. Of course, there were other groups as well - as the Workers’ opposition, and the Decemist faction, and nothing was stable for long as allegiances shifted. Stalin, forming his own faction, aptly called the "center", and using his position as party secretary to his advantage, played the others against each other, gradually gaining total control of the communist party. While all this was happening, the surviving leaders and generals of what had been the disunited white movement were plotting in Manchuria. As communist you will have three main options. One is to stay with the center and keep Stalin as country leader. That option has already been covered, so let’s move on. The second option you have is a move to the left. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/11b6bf0a60b73379309637db91cce97de61aeed4.png Trotsky As you can see from the tooltip, if you go down this path, you will end up in a civil war. There was simply no way Stalin would just hand over power to Trotsky or his allies. You have a few things you can do to make life easier for you once the war starts, and to prepare for what comes after. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/38d4ae79a89db5f5995f2779ab50a220c59dc495.png You can send trusted advisors abroad, in order to keep them safe from Stalin. Relatively safe anyway, stay clear of ice picks. {STEAM_CLA...Hearts of Iron has joined Instagram!Aug 9, 2021 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/9e8352a663b544991300e5aa45be178f856bdc9b.gif Greetings Comrades & Generals! We know you're ever watchful for more No Step Back information, and we'll deliver with this weeks dev diary, but for now we wanted to take a moment to talk to you about Operation Zoomer. As of 14:00 BST, August 9th our landing craft invaded our latest Social Media platform - Instagram. Magenta Beach is open. We're under heavy fire and we need reinforcements! Join the Hearts of Iron community team for a whole host of new, community content on our latest platform. We've got bundles of planned content, including special video content, sneak peaks, history bites and behind the scenes info! Who knows, there might be a dev diary tease later today too! Join the fight: Hearts of Iron InstagramPatch 1.10.8 - Multiplayer HotfixAug 5, 2021 - Community AnnouncementsAdded server visibility settings to Steam MP (Public, Private, Friends) Update MS as well to keep version parity.The Hearts of Iron 4 Soviet rework is so big it needed its own design teamAug 4, 2021 - Strategy GamerParadox Interactive employees are coming back from their summer break, which means only one thing - dev diaries are starting up again! The Hearts of Iron IV team has kicked things into high gear with a new diary - the first that will look at all of the changes coming to the Soviet Union as part of No Step Back and the free patch. According to the diary's author ManoDeZombi, there was so much stuff that needed to be done an entire design team had to be formed and dedicated to the Soviet Union changes alone. This week's notes cover historical and common branches, which means that it's all free content as part of the 1.11 'Barbarossa' update. There is a lot to go through, covering military, economic, and political decisions the player will have access to, but one of the most notable changes is the introduction of a 'paranoia' system for Stalin, which will be made available to players at some point in 1936. Once activated, various focuses, traits, and events will increase or decrease Stalin's paranoia. If it goes over 25, random purge events will happen; going over 75 can trigger bigger purge events. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Here's your final look at Hearts of Iron 4's new supply system - now with trains Hearts of Iron 4's game director is moving on to a secret project that's "not Hearts of Iron 5" Hearts of Iron 4's next DLC will let you split Soviet Russia into 29 separate entities Dev Diary - Soviet Union Historical and Common BranchesAug 4, 2021 - Community AnnouncementsЗдравствуйте товарищи! - Greetings comrades! And welcome to a new Hearts of Iron 4 Dev Diary! I hope that you are all having a great summer, and that you are prepared for a little reading, because today we’ll be talking about the last country left to show for the upcoming expansion, a country that, in the direst of times, did take No Step Back. As you all know, the Soviet Union is huge, and we’ve had to form our own Content Design Soviet to properly implement all the cool stuff we wanted to represent. So today I’ll be talking about my main responsibility, which has been the historical and the common branches for what is one of the most interesting countries in HOI. I’d just like to mention a couple of things before we start: First of all, yes, everything we’ll be talking about today will be coming for free with the Barbarossa update, although some content might vary if you don’t own some of the previous DLCs. Secondly, our beloved Motherland is still WIP so you might see content, values or even art that’s not final and is subject to change before release. You will also see a fair amount of debug decisions that we use in order to test the new systems. And with that said, I suggest you make yourselves comfortable and ready for a long read, and let’s get started! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/36aad8c55178d422e588187e267bc737d806b1d1.png This country entered World War I as the Russian Empire, but got out of it as Soviet Russia, having lost substantial territory in Eastern Europe as a result of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918, where the Bolsheviks in Petrograd ceded control of Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Finland and other areas to the Central Powers. Since the Allies did not recognize the Bolshevik government, no Soviet Russian representation attended the Peace Conference of 1919 at Versailles, where the former Russian territories previously ceded to Germany became independent states. In December 1922, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was formed. The term soviet means “council”, and they emerged in the 1905 Revolution as groups or assemblies of Russian workers, soldiers and peasants, in opposition to the Tsar. These soviets disappeared after the (failed) revolution of 1905, but re-emerged under socialist leadership during the revolutions of 1917, which overthrew the Tsar. Through the Soviets, the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, constituted the political structure of the new regime. Following Lenin’s death in 1924, Iosif Stalin came to power and soon began to suppress all political opposition inside the Party, starting with Trotsky and his followers, but turning against many of those who supported him in his political struggle shortly after (such as Zinovyev or Bukharin), developing a climate of political paranoia and carrying out the Great Purge, with its massive arrests and extremely harsh repression to citizens, military and even party members. But that’s enough history for now, let’s take a look at how the Soviet Union looks when...Hearts of Iron 4 multiplayer is under siege from hackers as Paradox investigatesJul 28, 2021 - Strategy GamerHearts of Iron IV fans are becoming increasingly concerned about the grand strategy game's multiplayer scene as unknown actors roam community servers launching DDoS attacks to crash sessions completely, preventing anyone from being able to play the WW2 game online with others. A post yesterday by user SelfHatingTurk on the Hearts of Iron IV subreddit raised concerns over this issue, however there is a post on the official Paradox forum from Sunday also talking about the problem, with comments referencing discussions on the official Discord as well. Paradox has already responded stating it was aware of the issue, but today Peter 'Arheo' Nicholson - the former lead on Imperator: Rome who is now part of the Hearts of Iron IV team - gave a more concrete statement: "We're aware of the current targeting of multiplayer hosts on HOIIV," he reiterates. "As of now, I have no ETA on any solutions. It's still the middle of our vacation period here, but those personnel who are available are investigating." Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Hearts of Iron 4's game director is moving on to a secret project that's "not Hearts of Iron 5" Hearts of Iron 4's next DLC will let you split Soviet Russia into 29 separate entities Hearts of Iron IV's AI is so good, the devs sometimes need to handicap it via code Hearts of Iron IV is one dollarJul 21, 2021 - Strategy GamerIf you'd like to play a WW2 game that lets you play the whole war - and we do mean all of it - then grand strategy game Hearts of Iron IV is what you're looking for. Paradox's World War II strategy game is currently featured in its very own bundle at Humble, which puts the price of the Cadet Edition at a single dollar. That's right - the whole game, for $1. The Hearts of Iron IV Cadet Edition includes the base game, plus the Poland: United and Ready DLC. There's also some nice wallpapers and a Paradox forums avatar thrown in for good measure. It normally retails for $39.99 / £34.99, so getting it for a buck is a terrific deal. If you beat the average donation, which is $9.64 at the time of this writing, you'll also get three additional DLCs: there's 2017's Death or Dishonor, which is a country pack that adds national focus trees for Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia; and Together For Victory, which launched in 2016 and adds focus trees for the British Commonwealth nations. You also get the Hearts of Iron IV Radio Pack, which adds 35 new faction-themed songs to the soundtrack, with each major faction (Allies, Axis, and Comintern) getting a historical look for their UI. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Hearts of Iron 4's next DLC will let you split Soviet Russia into 29 separate entities Hearts of Iron IV's AI is so good, the devs sometimes need to handicap it via code Hearts of Iron 4 cheats - a guide to the best console commands

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