Johan says "Don't sue your potential customers"

[WallysWorld]

'...Andersson claims the secret to beating piracy is to put valuable resources into making people want to pay for your game, rather than chasing after them with lawyers, threats, and pick-axes.'

'As PC sales decline, I wondered if Paradox had seen sales statistics to support the idea that "PC gaming is dying", or that it genuinely is on the decline. With a fiery response, Johan claimed that "We're seeing more and more and more sales every month."'

A Paradox developer posted this article on the Paradox forum so I'm just duplicating it here.

http://pcgmedia.com/dont-sue-potential-customers-paradox-development-studios-johan-andersson/

[sandman2575]

Good stuff -- thanks for posting. 

You have to admire Johan for his candid answers.  The guy speaks his mind and doesn't hide behind marketing cliches.

...I wish they'd just get on with it, though, and announce Hearts of Iron 4 already.  I really, really want HOI 4    :)

[Kushan]

Good read, Thanks for sharing.

...I wish they'd just get on with it, though, and announce Hearts of Iron 4 already.  I really, really want HOI 4    :)

I keep hoping they'll someday combine concepts from both Mount and Blade and CK2 into one game.

[Swatter]

If they do Hearts of Iron 4, they need to get back to more basic mechanics. They need to implement a simple, but realistic weather system. More importantly, they need to change how units take losses and receive replacements. In HOI3, attrition only takes place at the strategic level. They allowed mechanics to get out of control in HOI3 and its expansions.

[sandman2575]

Actually, one of my fears is that P'dox's will try to simplify HoI in the next installment. 

My complaint about the HoI3 weather system is not that it was too complex -- but that weather simply didn't matter.  It had no appreciable impact on combat or attrition. 

I would kill for P'dox's to ditch the 'strength bar' model for unit strength and organization, and implement something resembling the modeling of ToE in the "Decisive Campaigns" games.  There's probably no chance of that happening, but it would be a vast improvement over the existing, video-gamey system. 

[BanzaiCat]

'...Andersson claims the secret to beating piracy is to put valuable resources into making people want to pay for your game, rather than chasing after them with lawyers, threats, and pick-axes.'

I haven't seen fans being chased by a dev with pick-axes and threats since Derek Smart.

[undercovergeek]

...I wish they'd just get on with it, though, and announce Hearts of Iron 4 already.  I really, really want HOI 4    :)

East v West first, but i wouldnt be surprised to see 4 come out of nowhere like CKII did

[Swatter]

Actually, one of my fears is that P'dox's will try to simplify HoI in the next installment. 

My complaint about the HoI3 weather system is not that it was too complex -- but that weather simply didn't matter.  It had no appreciable impact on combat or attrition. 

I would kill for P'dox's to ditch the 'strength bar' model for unit strength and organization, and implement something resembling the modeling of ToE in the "Decisive Campaigns" games.  There's probably no chance of that happening, but it would be a vast improvement over the existing, video-gamey system.

I tried modding the weather system- it is complex and broken. There was no way to fix it. Same with the manpower/replacement system.

Sure, the weather system doesn't matter because it has no real affect on anything. They minimized attrition and movement rate affects because the weather system didn't work correctly. I modded attrition and movement values, but it never worked correctly because I couldn't make the weather do what I wanted it to do. I don't want to get deeply into it, but I abandoned modding it because it would never work correctly, or even close. A simple regional system would work better and allow them to focus on making the weather meaningful.

[sandman2575]

I would have no problem with HoI4 implementing a new weather & manpower replacement system along the lines you suggest. A regionalized weather/climate model would indeed seem a lot simpler than the dynamic 'weather fronts' system they attempted in HoI3.

Above all I don't want them to abandon things like the OOB hierarchy and return to the 'stacks' you had in HoI2... if anything, I'd love for them to expand it a bit to include real brigades and regiments (they have brigades, yes, but you can't assign a general, and they're not really supposed to act independently of divisions in the HoI3 scheme).  Battalion level may be too much to ask for, but it would be awesome.  I'd probably just spend most of my time designing division ToEs.

As much as I think HoI3 matured over time into an excellent game, there are still a lot of things that could be improved.  Naval combat still doesn't really work, and naval AI still leaves a lot to be desired.  I would also love to see them overhaul the Tech. and Espionage systems. 

Probably none of that will happen. My sense is that Pdox felt they went 'too ambitious' with HoI3 and will probably be wary of making that mistake in HoI4.  I just pray they won't 'solve' that problem by dumbing the game down.