Hearts of Iron IV - The Ultimate WWII Strategy Game

[MasterSmithFandango]

That and let's face it - the game that NEEDS a new release the most (outside of Rome) is definitely HoI.

 

[Agesilaus]

Oh joy, another ww2 game, and a sequel to the pure shite that was hoi3 no less. Let me put this alongside the other 10 million ww2 titles that I will never play, never buy, and never think about ever again. What an absolute bloody joke.

Have some class, Paradox; stop aiming at the lowest common denominator. I know the man on the street has heard about Nazis, but you already robbed the common sort with the last 3 HoIs. It's time to make a title geared towards men of quality; let's see an ancient greek or chinese game. If it doesn't feature a man in a Corinthian helm, I'm not fucking buying it.

 

[Sranchammer]

War in the West followed by War in the East II will be out by the time this comes out and...let's be honest, tactical war games must be turn-based.

 

[Space Satan]

Hearts of Iron IV Announced - Victory at all costs
You are now in command of World War II! Your ability to lead your nation is your supreme weapon, the strategy game Hearts of Iron IV by Paradox Development Studio lets you take command of any nation in World War II; the most engaging conflict in world history.

From the heart of the battlefield to the command center, you will guide your nation to glory and wage war, negotiate or invade. You hold the power to tip the very balance of WWII. It is time to show your ability as the greatest military leader in the world. Will you relive or change history? Will you change the fate of the world?

Announced Features

• Total strategic war – The war is not only won on land, on the seas and in the air, but also in the laboratories, the factories, the backrooms, in international trade and in the hearts and minds of men and women.
• The most authentic real-time simulation of the war – Let the greatest commanders of WW2 fight your war with the tools of the time; tanks, planes, ships, guns and newly discovered weapons of mass destruction.
• Fight as any nation in the greatest human conflict of all time – Chose from the greatest powers striving for victory, or the small nations trying to weather the storm.

 

[Kane]

http://www.incgamers.com/2014/01/hearts-of-iron-iv-report-from-paradox-con

1936-1948
Easier to learn to play, rather than easier to play
Game Engine has progressed significiantly, IE Cities light up at night (motherfucker!).
Industry tied to regions, buildings like AA and Bunkers still built in individual provinces.
AI control over aspects from HOI3 is gone.
Fewer Technlogies, Longer to Research and bigger payoff.
Cross between National Ideas from EU4 and Doctrine from Company of Heroes to specialize nations.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

If they're doing unique national ideas for certain countries, I'll laugh at the priority process if Finland has a generic idea group this time.

I'll also call Swedish butthurt over the fact the largest land battle in Nordic history was fought (and won) by Finns.

 

[Average Manatee]

Everyone about this screams casualized.

 

[Kane]

Everyone about this screams casualized.

your face screams that too, yet you don't have your own thread on the dex. what gives?

 

[Krash]

Everyone about this screams casualized.

the codexer wrote, basing his statement on absolutely nothing.


EDIT: You're really really angry about paradox for some reason. May I suggest therapy?

 

[Onyxme]

Everyone about this screams casualized.

It's funny, considering that CKII and EUIV had far more depth than their predecessors. You will have to point out what makes you think so - else - you are just talking out of your ass.

 

[Average Manatee]

Everyone about this screams casualized.

the codexer wrote, basing his statement on absolutely nothing.

Except everything in this thread?

"lol it's easy like EU4" - This is a selling point?

EDIT: You're really really angry about paradox for some reason. May I suggest therapy?

What makes you think this?

Everyone about this screams casualized.

It's funny, considering that CKII and EUIV had far more depth than their predecessors. You will have to point out what makes you think so - else - you are just talking out of your ass.

CK2, sure. Though it's hard to say it has much more depth, but it certainly has a lot more breadth (arguably too much with the new india crap).

EU4 is the worst iteration of the series so far, falling far short of both EU2 and EU3.

 

[Sranchammer]

I have to agree with Manatee. I play it but it's definitely not near EUII

 

[Onyxme]

CK2, sure. Though it's hard to say it has much more depth, but it certainly has a lot more breadth (arguably too much with the new india crap).

EU4 is the worst iteration of the series so far, falling far short of both EU2 and EU3.

You can do so much more in EUIV than EUIII though + it has a more competent AI and is a harder game overall. I can't see your reasons, mostly because you are not disclosing them.

 

[Sranchammer]

The fact that you can do so much more is part of the problem.

 

[Onyxme]

The fact that you can do so much more is part of the problem.

That can be a real reason to dislike it, however it does not mean the lack of depth, which it seems Manatee is implying.

 

[Average Manatee]

You can do so much more in EUIV than EUIII though + it has a more competent AI and is a harder game overall. I can't see your reasons, mostly because you are not disclosing them.

Go page through the EU4 thread if you want to read why EU4 is horrible. This is the HoI4 thread.

 

[Onyxme]

Go page through the EU4 thread if you want to read why EU4 is horrible. This is the HoI4 thread.

You really are avoiding to tell us this:

Everyone about this screams casualized.

You will have to point out what makes you think so - else - you are just talking out of your ass.

You might want to get medicine for that rapid

 

[Agesilaus]

I played HoI 3 once. Then I killed myself. Now I post as a ghost. If only I hadn't chosen a shitty game to play. Please don't make the same mistakes that I made, please don't buy another HoI title.

 

[GarfunkeL]

You made your opinion clear in your previous post, retard. No need to repeat it.

 

[Agesilaus]

Woooo the souls of the undead gamers are displeased by Paradox's poor decisions, they cannot be silenced Wooooo

 

[Average Manatee]

"We're going to make it better than EU4"
What we learned from CK2/EU4: Make the playability & replayability better. It shouldn't be a chore to play.

Why not make it better than HoI2/3? Because they are aiming for their new EU4 crowd

"Slightly easier learning curve (but not that easy.)"

Literally every developer thinks their game fits into the retarded "easy to learn hard to master" concept. This means dumbed down in every situation it's been spoken.

You can still control individual units, but now battle plans actually do stuff
Battle plans can include bombing targets, movement, etc..

We already had AI army control in HoI3, putting more emphasis on it only takes away from the the meat of the game.

"Deep Political System". Political leaders are fewer, but more important. Ideas you can unlock & implement.
Ideas can include neutrality stances, for example.

It's harder to think of how they can have fewer political leaders than HoI3. We're talking about a game where Germany will still have Hitler in power as a Comintern/Allied puppet, simply because there is no other political leader for the other parties. The only way to have less than 1 is to have 0. Is Hitler not going to be appearing in a WW2 game?

Ideas - Can't wait for the stupidity that is EU4 NIs to infect a game that has no need of it.

Strategic Warfare. Not everything is on a single-province level.
Air raids & submarine stuff can happen over larger areas instead of province-by-province micro.

Because factories in WW2 spanned 50 x 50 miles across multiple provinces? Strategic bombing is already incredibly OP in HoI3, no need to make it harder to defend against in HoI4 by forcing you to patrol outside of a city in order to prevent factories inside the city being bombed.

Game Engine has progressed significiantly, IE Cities light up at night (motherfucker!).

HAHA OH WOW HOLY SHIT.

Normally I don't care about irrelevant visual candy for the retards, but now Paradox is implementing the exact opposite of what happened during war. Cities blacked out during the night to defend against bombing. Who made this feature? Get them away from any WW2 game, ever.

AI control over aspects from HOI3 is gone.

Why would you do this? And here I thought they were trying to make the game less annoying to play. If I can't write an AI script to manage my tech and need to manually micromanage teching again, fuck you Paradox. And there's hardly any good reason to force you to manually trade or other things if you don't want to.

Detailed Technology Trees -- apparently we will see more on this later.
Fewer Technlogies, Longer to Research and bigger payoff.
Cross between National Ideas from EU4 and Doctrine from Company of Heroes to specialize nations.

Ohh, so it's a detailed tech tree, but less of them. Right. So it's actually simplified and with less tech, but with doctrinal options. Just say it's more like HoI2. Why is it that they haven't even mentioned HoI2? Instead they are talking about fucking Company of Heroes and EU4 when there are direct precedents for this in HoI2. I'll tell you why, it's because they are making this game for the EU4 and CoH crowd, not the HoI crowd.


Now go, EU babbies. Defend your new game.

 

[Arcks]

Hard to defend since they're still being rather vague. I also find you screaming CASUALIZATION! rather amusing since HOI3 was more complex than HOI2, and most paradox fans seemed to enjoy that one more, despite being much simpler. But why I'm arguing with you? I don't think you still have answered to all arguments presented in old EU4 thread, you just hide behind "I don't like it!" as usual. Fuck off.

 

[Average Manatee]

Hard to defend since they're still being rather vague. I also find you screaming CASUALIZATION! rather amusing since HOI3 was more complex than HOI2, and most paradox fans seemed to enjoy that one more, despite being much simpler. But why I'm arguing with you? I don't think you still have answered to all arguments presented in old EU4 thread, you just hide behind "I don't like it!" as usual. Fuck off.

Let's look at the sum total of your arguments for why EU4 isn't crap. Let's start from the beginning:

So... Australia?

And that's it. Wow. Such persuasive.

 

[Space Satan]

Some interview

Following up on the continuing recent success of Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV, Paradox is revisiting another beloved grand strategy series, Hearts of Iron, with the recently announced Hearts of Iron IV.

The Hearts of Iron series focuses on the World War II period of world history and has a much more concentrated focus on combat than other Paradox strategy games. If you were interested in Crusader Kings II or Europa, but felt overwhelmed or bored by some of the headier mechanics, this may be the grand strategy game for you.
While the bulk of World War II dealings are centralized in Europe, Hearts of Iron allows you take control of any country from the period, from Venezuela to Germany. You can alter the course of history or try to repeat history with a major power, or just try to sustain yourself -- and maybe even have some greater effect -- with a smaller power.

The first thing that caught my eye in Hearts of Iron IV was the terribly pretty map. I'm no cartographile, but seeing eye-popping HD maps that put those of my childhood classrooms to shame is kind of neat.
Plus, an important part of the game is its day and night cycle; for example, you don't want to be deploying your stealth bombers in the day time where they can be spotted like dalmatians. This is represented as a cool, large amplitude oscillation on the map (because timezones mean it is day or night in various parts of the world simultaneously).

The seasons also play an important part in deciding strategy, and they're represented on the map at more zoomed in levels. You'll be able to easily see that those cumbersome mountains that would make your invasion a challenge are now covered in nearly impassable snowfall. And what sort of idiot would attack Russia in the winter?

That's up there with getting involved in a land war in Asia.
The neatest addition to Hearts of Iron IV has to be the battle plan system. Zoomed all the way into your country, you'll find it broken down in provinces, upon which you can place a unit (strategically, you'll want infantry in forests, tanks in flat lands, and so on). You can control your units in a simple fell swoop with the battle plan feature that lets you draw arrows to orient your units and then hit execute to have them follow the plan.

Did you ever watch the history channel before it got consumed by the reality TV bug? Remember all the maps with wavy arrows indicating movement? It's that, basically. You draw out your strategy and set everything in motion at once, rather than stabbing at individual units, though you could do that if you want.

I didn't go hands-on with it or see too much, but early in development it looked good and seemed conceptually sound. A few arrows saw a whole smattering of troops head east and establish a front. There's even a way to sort of paint a country's border for simple front establishing, and you can advance that whole front at once when the time is right. It's a cool touch that's organic and could simplify and hasten the process of play without sacrificing anything.

Also, there is 32-player multiplayer, in addition to the single-player. You can have everyone play as their own country, or even co-op play a country.
Other than that, Hearts of Iron IV will feel like a familiar grand strategy game when it comes to PC, Mac and Linux early 2015. There are Doctrines that act as overall directions for you country. Two are based on German and American styles, respectively, while the other two are based on Russian/Chinese and Japanese/British styles.

And, of course, there are bundles of other decisions to be made within those doctrines, paths to branch out on, and more nitty gritty details to manage.

Producing early tech tanks becomes easier as the years go on thanks to an efficiency bonus from repeat production. Do you go the German route and produce the most technologically good tanks, losing that bonus by changing the means of production, or do you do things the American way and mass produce a crappy tank, winning by sheer volume? Rotting, burnt corpse volume.

 

[Arcks]

Let's look at the sum total of your arguments for why EU4 isn't crap. Let's start from the beginning:

So... Australia?

And that's it. Wow. Such persuasive.

That's great, you managed to pick up something I said as a joke. Alright, you win. You are correct, please keep enlightening us in the near future so we can all have your brilliant insight into what constitutes as great design.