- #THE GREAT WAR MOD HEARTS OF IRON 4 STEAM PATCH#
- #THE GREAT WAR MOD HEARTS OF IRON 4 STEAM MODS#
- #THE GREAT WAR MOD HEARTS OF IRON 4 STEAM SERIES#
This severely condenses the possibilities of player choice, as all three of the methods mentioned above used to create opportunities for player choice at a macro-level are rolled into the game’s National Focus system.
In Hearts of Iron 4, the real meat of the game happens over the course of only about a decade, and of that time, only the choices in about the first five years will have any very meaningful impact on the composition of the war as a whole. The base game is choreographed and balanced to play out historically In Europa Universalis or Crusader Kings II there are hundreds of years of game time, so as long as they convey a general sense of the period, most players still feel like they are experiencing a satisfying level of verisimilitude while also believing their choices matter and effect the world around them. The problem with this approach is that it becomes more difficult at smaller timescales. The least intuitive method is to have set historical events that fire off at a particular date. Other times, the technology required to take certain actions will be time-locked, unable to appear until a set year or require enough research points that it will only happen roughly around when it did historically. At longer timescales, this problem is solved by a combination of genericizing certain historic events (for example the Protestant reformation in Europa Universalis IV is an event that can happen after a certain time but will happen semi-randomly within a geographic area this isn’t the Protestant Reformation, it is a Protestant Reformation). In all of Paradox Interactive’s mainline grand strategy titles, this balancing act is present. This system is the Hearts of Iron IV answer to the central design dilemma in most grand strategy games: the delicate balance between a desire for historical realism and a desire for player choice.Ĭhoose your path: Read our Hearts of Iron 4 DLC guide
#THE GREAT WAR MOD HEARTS OF IRON 4 STEAM SERIES#
Despite becoming a bit hackneyed, Hearts of Iron IV does a serviceable job of making the period feel fresh through the use of its National Focus system, which allows you to direct your nation down a series of branching paths through military, economic, and political choices. More ink, screen time, and simulated blood has been spilled on the topic than most other historical conflicts combined. The period is, by far, the most well-trod ground in wargaming, and in history in general for that matter. I try to stay away from World War 2 games. Particularly, the design choices that guide Hearts of Iron limit the narrative choices available to the player, while Kaiserreich uses its alternate-history setting to recraft the world and add a level of dynamism that simply doesn’t exist in the base game. Which begs the question: what is the essence of Kaiserreich’s success? Why has the mod survived multiple incarnations over more than a decade? As someone who has played hundreds of hours of both the base game and the mod, I believe this success, particularly in the Hearts of Iron IV incarnation, can be found in some structural issues with the base game that this mod has been effective at resolving. Kaiserreich uses its alternate-history setting to recraft the inter-war world
#THE GREAT WAR MOD HEARTS OF IRON 4 STEAM MODS#
At this point it has become a veritable institution in the larger, heavily mod-focused Paradox Interactive community, but, whereas many successful HOI4 total conversion mods are based on some existing IP - Old World Blues, a Hearts of Iron IV mod based on the Fallout universe is a good example of this - Kaiserreich is an original work, and one that has even spawned its own collection of spin-off mods based on the universe the developers have created. Recently, the developers have even launched a community store where you can buy merch, and have plans to use that as a launching pad to produce animated original shorts set in the mod’s universe. With an over 30,000 strong subreddit, and an active discord community, it has an incredibly dedicated fanbase - many of whom eschew the base game and play only Kaiserreich - creating fanart, fiction, AARs, and a flood of in-joke memes. Originating in Hearts of Iron II, the mod has existed in various incarnations throughout the series in the past decade.
#THE GREAT WAR MOD HEARTS OF IRON 4 STEAM PATCH#
By which I mean to say that Kaiserreich: Legacy of the Weltkrieg, the extremely popular mod for Paradox Interactive’s World War 2 grand strategy game Hearts of Iron 4, has been updated for the game’s latest patch and is once again playable.įor the unacquainted, Kaiserreich is an alternate history total conversion mod that takes place in a world in which Germany is victorious in the First World War.
On Sunday, April 19, 2019, Kaiser Wilhelm II returned from his long exile to reclaim his throne.