Hearts of Iron IV

[JudgeDredd]

This is the first Hearts of Iron I've ever understood.  I'm currently playing as Japan and having a great time.

This is absolutely 100% more inviting to me than previous games. Having played the tutorial and carried on a tad, I can say that I have a much better grasp of the game than previous iterations. I can see me firing this up for some time to continue my campaign of world domination as Turkey  ;D

[JudgeDredd]

The "trade factory capacity for imported raw materials" mechanic is pretty unintuitive and makes no real-world sense that I can discern. I guess it serves its function as a game mechanic but it still kind of rubs me the wrong way all the same.

How I see it is you import something in return for something the people of the other country want.  Therefore you use one or more of your factories to produce those wanted goods.  While they do this you can't use them to build for yourself.   You don't give them a factory but you give them the output of that factory.  The result is the same : one less factory available for you.

That is my understanding - get goods in return for "something" they want - which uses a factory

I'm not sure I like the mechanic of only being able to set quantities of 8 mind...but maybe it's ok - I noticed a country was defaulting on my requirement of 8 rubber - only providing 6. I had to cancel that and look for a country that was going to provide me what I needed to maximise the use (loss) of a factory.

I don't currently get Air - but I'll get there.

[sandman2575]

How I see it is you import something in return for something the people of the other country want.  Therefore you use one or more of your factories to produce those wanted goods.  While they do this you can't use them to build for yourself.   You don't give them a factory but you give them the output of that factory.  The result is the same : one less factory available for you.

OK, I can buy that. I think the thing that throws me is the idea that not only do you lose some Civilian Factory capacity when trading for raw materials, but that the nation you're trading with *gains your* Civilian Factory capacity. In game logic, of course, since you need to have something to trade in return for the raw materials! But it just seemed odd that in some way another nation 'gains control' over your factory -- and like you say, the better way to think about it is, they gain the output of your factory, which they in turn can use to make the things that Civilian Factories in HOI4 make -- refineries, etc.

It's still a slightly convoluted mechanic, no matter how you slice it.

[jamus34]

How I see it is you import something in return for something the people of the other country want.  Therefore you use one or more of your factories to produce those wanted goods.  While they do this you can't use them to build for yourself.   You don't give them a factory but you give them the output of that factory.  The result is the same : one less factory available for you.

OK, I can buy that. I think the thing that throws me is the idea that not only do you lose some Civilian Factory capacity when trading for raw materials, but that the nation you're trading with *gains your* Civilian Factory capacity. In game logic, of course, since you need to have something to trade in return for the raw materials! But it just seemed odd that in some way another nation 'gains control' over your factory -- and like you say, the better way to think about it is, they gain the output of your factory, which they in turn can use to make the things that Civilian Factories in HOI4 make -- refineries, etc.

It's still a slightly convoluted mechanic, no matter how you slice it.

Yes, but I confirmed the same thing happens when you export materials...you "gain" the extra CF capacity.

It's vague and somewhat cumbersome...I imagine the 8 unit thing having to do with logistics (ie it does not make sense to send a truck / ship that is only half full) or it just approximates 1 CF to 8 RM units.

Of course IRL I'm a raw material purchaser so it makes pretty clear sense to me when abstracted.

[Queeg]

OK, I can buy that. I think the thing that throws me is the idea that not only do you lose some Civilian Factory capacity when trading for raw materials, but that the nation you're trading with *gains your* Civilian Factory capacity. In game logic, of course, since you need to have something to trade in return for the raw materials! But it just seemed odd that in some way another nation 'gains control' over your factory -- and like you say, the better way to think about it is, they gain the output of your factory, which they in turn can use to make the things that Civilian Factories in HOI4 make -- refineries, etc.

It's still a slightly convoluted mechanic, no matter how you slice it.

I think the (highly-abstracted) rationale is that Civilian Factories represent private industry, and they can either spend their time making things you want them to make or trading for things you want them to obtain.

[Grim.Reaper]

Some interesting play stats from paradox.....

Some fun statistics for first week:
Top nations played:
Germany - 35%
Italy - 13%
Soviet - 10%
USA - 10%
United Kingdom - 4%
France - 3.5%

The most played minors seems to be China, Poland and Turkey.

[sandman2575]

Japan is nowhere on that list - ?   C'mon people -- how's about some love for the Empire of the Rising Sun?

[Grim.Reaper]

I missed this piece, first big patch plans....

Right now we are working on the first proper patch that we plan to release just before vacation in july. You will get more detailed info in coming weeks but the main focus will be:
- AI
- Air warfare balancing
- Making sure invasions are harder to pull off, easier to defend against and more cleverly done by AI
- Improving peace conference scoring
- Quality of life interface improvements
- Bug fixing

[jomni]

Japan is nowhere on that list - ?   C'mon people -- how's about some love for the Empire of the Rising Sun?

Japan is not even in their box art!

[W8taminute]

I have a lot of love for this game.  Don't listen to all of the negativity out there, if there is any about this game. 

[MetalDog]

I won't be buying.
I would love something of detail that simulates world war II
Not something like world war II or something where Japan invades Sweden at some point. There just isn't a game that simulates the whole thing in detail in a totally non abstract way.

I understand that tone is hard to read in print, so, please understand that I only mean to ask for clarification.

I am asking this of Zulu1966, but, anyone else that has an opinion, feel free to chime in.  The way I read what you wrote, you would like a game that you press Play and then WWII unfolds in front of you.  Historically and with the same outcomes.  Why would anyone want a game that plays like that?  The Germans always lose.  The Americans always come in December 7, 1941.  And on and on.  Where is the fun in that?

So, I guess what I am asking is, what do you mean by simulation?  And why would you play a game that runs almost exactly like it did in real life?

[Grim.Reaper]

Good in depth guide  (This is not a "quick start" guide, it's more like a manual)

This was good...learned a number of new things.

[CptHowdy]

just purchased from gmg. code iron25 still works. so paid 29.99. have never played a HOI game so no preconceived notions here. hopefully once everyone buys and learns the game we can get a multiplayer game going.

[glen55]

I've always mostly played the U.S. in HOI, and for sure the pre-war U.S. stuff in this one is far more interesting than prior iterations.  (HOI 3 is on my hard drive, but unplayed, and I did a fair bit of each of the first 2 but was never really hooked on either.)  Balancing production with what you need now and what you're going to need in the future really offers endless permutations of tweaking. So much that I would say deciding exactly what to produce adn when is more of an art form: maximizing pre-war industrial research and production is more of a science, so you get various forms or problem-solving to tackle. I'm on my 3rd time through of pre-war U.S. tweaking. I'm sure I'll get to the actual combat at some point, but this is fun. 

I am interested in watching the planner in action a bit more. In the tutorial I just set my guys to take Adis Ababa (or whatever it was they were going for) and sat back. They did a pretty good job, actually - my attack advanced on the wings and the center bounced, and the wings turned some divisions back to help out in the center while enough of the left wing continued to advance to keep the momentum of the offensive up.  I wasn't sure what would happen if I took control of divisions, but apparently it does what I would want it to do: have the divisions carry out your orders, then go back under command of the AI to execute the plan once they're finished.

[Hofstadter]

This game is so wild. Went as Finland, went communist, made a communist coup in Norway and used the military access to get a better line. Allied with russia, declared war with sweden and got half of my divisions wiped out. For some reason the Chinese came to help me and rescued my other divisions. Now Ive got a heap of finnish divisions sitting on the south of sweden poised to strike into germany.