Hearts of Iron IV - The Ultimate WWII Strategy Game

[GarfunkeL]

For people who played the other Hearts of Iron games extensively, does this look like it will be better or worse than the others?

Air model has good new macro options but we lost all micro options. Industry model is better with producing equipment and gear in factories, and the requirement for shipyards, so it isn't possible to instantly switch total production from tanks to planes. Can't say anything about the new naval combat model. Land combat model seems to be same as in HoI3. We lost chain of command and OOB. We lost map counters and everyone is forced to use their animated 3D models instead - if you zoom far enough they morph into Paradox' custom 3D "counters". You can still micro every unit if you want but you lose the bonuses that battle plans bring. And while they claim that battleplans have been overhauled, they still look like you just drag an arrow from Berlin to Moscow and the AI does the rest - raising the question why are we playing the game in the first place.

 

[Got bored and left]

We lost map counters and everyone is forced to use their animated 3D models instead - if you zoom far enough they morph into Paradox' custom 3D "counters".

I've seen them use NATO counters in one stream, so that appears to be a toggleable option, actually.

And from what I saw in the videos it seems that you can micro within the battleplan system, giving specific orders to units without messing up the grander plan and losing the planning bonus. But I've only seen two videos of gameplay to get a feel for how it looks live and never bothered to read up on it much, so I dunno. Enough for me to LOL at Sikorski being Prime Mnister of Poland in August 1939 (muh historical accuracy), but not much more.

 

[Space Satan]

Dat music... magnificent

 

[Spectacle]

You can still micro every unit if you want but you lose the bonuses that battle plans bring. And while they claim that battleplans have been overhauled, they still look like you just drag an arrow from Berlin to Moscow and the AI does the rest - raising the question why are we playing the game in the first place.

Battleplans really could go either way. Will they be an interesting feature that actually lets you plan out your offense in advance and the watch your masterful plans unfold, or will it be a struggle to design a plan that the AI won't screw up? In either case it should be easy to mod the plans away if you don't like them, just set the planning bonus to 0 and there's no compulsion to try to use plans instead of microing each unit.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

You can still micro every unit if you want but you lose the bonuses that battle plans bring. And while they claim that battleplans have been overhauled, they still look like you just drag an arrow from Berlin to Moscow and the AI does the rest - raising the question why are we playing the game in the first place.

Battleplans really could go either way. Will they be an interesting feature that actually lets you plan out your offense in advance and the watch your masterful plans unfold, or will it be a struggle to design a plan that the AI won't screw up? In either case it should be easy to mod the plans away if you don't like them, just set the planning bonus to 0 and there's no compulsion to try to use plans instead of microing each unit.

Yea, this is the primary concern with the plans.

 

[Average Manatee]

The issue I see with battleplans is that it hints the AI will be horrible and can't oppose the player in a fair fight, it needs to either get bonuses vs. the player's control or fight AI control vs. AI control. The AI was already pretty bad in HoI3 and it seems like the devs are even less confident of it in HoI4. This is a problem because the one really really good thing that could happen in HoI4 that would redeem every other change that I don't like or am on the fence about would be a more competent AI.

 

[GarfunkeL]

But Paradox is incapable of doing that. You're not fighting the AI in Pdox games, you're larping your country/dynasty/whatever. Even if you mod the AI countries to be unbelievable beasts, a human can still beat them, as shown by the LPs in the Playground by Cassidy and by the numerous AARs in Pdox forums. I honestly believe that the whole battleplan thing was designed to hide AI flaws by taking away as much micro ability as possible. Already in HoI3 the wars are actually hard-fought if you use army group level AI control for your own forces too. Pdox must be aware of that so now they make the battleplans the default setting for all players.

 

[Space Satan]

Battle plans are a concern but managing gigantic fronts in a HoI2 style is even more tedious than that, so I prefer they work on battleplans than other aspect of micromanagement fixing

 

[AwesomeButton]

Real men write down their own battle plans and army groups on paper and collect intelligence during battle phases by writing down the enemy divisions as they see their names during combat.

That's how I play Darkest Hour anyway. The Ardennes offensive took me a day to play through one month of game time but it felt a lot more rewarding than HoI 4 gameplay.

 

[Talby]

Welp, someone bought me a copy of the game so it looks like I'll be playing this anyway. The Third Reich will rise again.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I wonder if the Steam Achievements (where given how IIRC like only 5% of all the players have any of them I wonder why they even bother) will try to disguise the inevitable standard HoI situation where lion's share of the game is all about UND DER DEUTSCHES VOLK SIEG HEIL

 

[Makabb]

In one of the streams guy was defending, and he set up an attacking battle plan to ofcourse march to the end of the country and he did not executed it because he wanted his army to stand in plance, but he still got the battle plans bonuses.

Paradox using broken mechanics in their own livestream.

 

[Makabb]

France

 

[Eirikur]

The best version of the Panzerlied, for getting in good guy mood.

 

[Fry]

 

[bonescraper]

Polish DLC, intredasting...

Ooh boy... Paradox, if you're doing something then do it right FFS. The TP in 7/10/14TP stands for "Tonowy Polski" (Tonne Polish), so naturally these tanks weighed 7 10 and 14 tonnes respectfully. Why the fuck the third and final light tank in this tech tree weighs more than every heavy tank?

At least they did better here, pretty much everything up to 1940 is spot on (save for strategic bombers and "Lew Morski"). But i hope they fix that typo in Pszsczola (it's Pszczoła).

 

[not an artichoke]

Why spend too much effort on a country that will be overrun the moment the war starts?

 

[bonescraper]

You're new to this franchise, aren't you?

 

[poocolator]

Starting as Poland, conquering the planet, then casually landing on the moon is one of the reasons to even play the game.

 

[Tytus]

Starting as Poland, conquering the planet, then casually landing on the moon is one of the reasons to even play the game.

You mean the only reason.

 

[Ulminati]

The only reason to play any paradox game is to invade Sweden and salt the earth. HoI just puts a strict time limit on this before Germany invades. I managed to take Norway, Sweden and Finland once.

I bought landing craft licences from the British, then blitzed them before they could mobilise. I wanted to take Estonia too, but the 1939 deadline was coming up.

Had a decent stack in a coastal fort on Fyn hold back the Germans until sept. 1941. But the fucking allies never chipped in. By the time the Krauts were in Copenhagen, France hadn't even been invaded yet.

 

[Spectacle]

It would be a fun MP game to have one human playing each of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. See how much you achieve against the majors with coordinated viking-power.

 

[Renegen]

The Swedish player would just declare himself neutral and pretend he had connectivity problems.

 

[Alienman]

In HOI II I turned Swedish to a fascist country and took Norway. I tried to take Finland after Norway, but they kicked my ass. No wonder the Russians got beat up. I desperately wanted to join the axis but the Germans wouldn't let me

 

[Raghar]

I heard from pirates who are in beta, that it has clean interface and it's joy to play in comparison to HOI3.