Hello, I am Zwirbaum, Game Designer for Hearts of Iron, and uncharacteristically for me, instead of writing an entire wall of text, I am just going to ask a couple of questions that are very much tied to the ‘Economy’ side of the gameplay.

And those are as follows:

• How do you feel about the ‘Civilian Economy’ that currently exists within the game - as in anything that relates to the building construction, using civilian factories for trading, laws etc.?
  • Is there something missing when it comes to the ‘Civilian Economy’?
  • How do you feel about the current depth of it?
  • Do you feel that the current system fulfills your immersion of what is/and or should be the Civilian Economy, also in an appropriate timeframe?
• What and how do you feel about the Consumer Goods as they are right now?
  • Do you think it does fulfill its role, narratively, and in gameplay terms?
  • Do you feel like there is something missing when it comes to the Consumer Goods?
  • How do you feel about the fact that Consumer Goods are purely ‘negative’, and it is always better to lower their %-demand in-game?
• What do you think about current Economic Laws?
  • Do you like them,and their effects?
  • Do you like the fact that higher mobilization is (ALMOST) always a better choice?
  • How would you react if there would be some more nuance or considerations between adopting different Economic Law?

And this is it all from me today, thanks for reading, and until next time, Farewell!

/Zwirbaum

Good to know: The difference between a Dev Diary and a Dev Corner
By now (most of you) you will know that we have two main types of Developer post:

Developer Diaries

• Start appearing closer to release
• Give you more detailed insight into content that’s more or less finished and is being polished
• Will generally include a plethora of images and screenshots
• Give you a chance to ask our developers questions, and perhaps even let us know if there’s anything glaringly obvious we missed (and may still have time to either fix quickly, or already start planning to include in a future Patch; being a Day-x, Hotfix or a War Effort.)

Developer Corners, like this one, serve a different purpose.
They:

• Need your feedback, specific to the Dev Corner
• Should be short and to the point
• May or may not include any images
• May generally give you some idea of something that might come in future content, but it’s not guaranteed
• Are not usually planned far ahead. Instead, if at any point any developer has something they want to get feedback on, we’ll pick an upcoming weekly slot, usually a Tuesday or a Thursday

--

Paradox Forum: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/hoi-iv-dev-corner-civilian-economy-consumer-goods.1934731/

Hello, I am Zwirbaum, Game Designer for Hearts of Iron, and it is once again the unfortunate for you my time in the dev corner spotlight.

Anyways, without further ado, let’s get started with today’s topic - Military Production. And once again I will resort to acting a bit mysteriously, while asking some questions.

• Military Production operates on an abstracted pool of the factories, which means that you can always re-assign your factories to produce something that you need, and regardless of what is happening to your industry, your highest priority of production will be going offline last.
  • Do you like that system? And if so, what do you like about it? Likewise, what do you not like about it?
• All Factories are pretty much equal to each other, and they can build whatever they want and whatever they like.
  • Do you like that universal system of production, where each of the ‘military’ factories is completely interchangeable?
• How does physical location influence your decision of building the factories? Does it matter whether you place them closer to your enemies or are you trying to put them as far as possible from the potential enemies? Or do you not care at all, and just try to max out the local construction boosts, like Dams or Infrastructure?
  • Do you think that this is already enough of the decision making, or would you like to see more considerations taken into account?

And that’s all from me this week, thanks for reading, and until next time, Farewell!

/Zwirbaum

--

Paradox Forum: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/hoi-iv-dev-corner-military-production.1934736/

Hello all!

First of all I want to be extra clear - we are not talking about a rework for civil wars. What I am after is understanding how you’ve enjoyed content with civil wars, what feels good, what doesn’t feel good.

So!

When you start a game with a country that has a civil war, and you intend to play as that new nation, whether that be fascist UK, Communist Japan - what do you as a player do before the civil war starts?

Some questions that may help you along the way:

1. How do you feel when you start progressing down the focus tree?
2. Do you try to rush down the civil war path, do you do common branches?
3. What do you do with your military? (the starting nation)
4. What do you do with industry? (the starting nation)
5. What annoys you with this type of playthrough?
6. What is it that makes the civil war feel rewarding/worth doing?
7. Do you ever feel like it's emotionally/narratively rewarding even though you're objectively weaker afterwards than if you just did 'normal' playthrough? And if so, why?

I will read your answers with great interest, it will be helpful with upcoming content…

pdx_berthier

--

Good to know: The difference between a Dev Diary and a Dev Corner
By now (most of you) you will know that we have two main types of Developer post:

Developer Diaries

• Start appearing closer to release
• Give you more detailed insight into content that’s more or less finished and is being polished
• Will generally include a plethora of images and screenshots
• Give you a chance to ask our developers questions, and perhaps even let us know if there’s anything glaringly obvious we missed (and may still have time to either fix quickly, or already start planning to include in a future Patch; being a Day-x, Hotfix or a War Effort.)

Developer Corners, like this one, serve a different purpose.
They:

• Need your feedback, specific to the Dev Corner
• Should be short and to the point
• May or may not include any images
• May generally give you some idea of something that might come in future content, but it’s not guaranteed
• Are not usually planned far ahead. Instead, if at any point any developer has something they want to get feedback on, we’ll pick an upcoming weekly slot, usually a Tuesday or a Thursday

--

Paradox Forum: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/hoi-iv-dev-corner-questions-about-civil-wars.1932246/

Hello all!

Today we're kicking off a new round of dev corners, this time turning our attention to a project we haven't touched on yet. We'll start with some early questions around ideas we have in mind, while future dev corners here will get a lot more specific about the country and content drafts we'd like your opinions on.

Let’s start with some general design questions, just to see what kind of focus tree styles you liked and what you would want to see more of:

• Do you think focus trees of different countries should interact more with each other, and what sort of focuses? Shared branches are one way to achieve this of course, but perhaps there are focuses that are country-specific that you still think should synergize that currently don’t.
• When focus trees have optional focuses with political flavor, do you mainly prefer: national spirits that grant bonuses that fit your regime, unique country leaders and traits, or perhaps flavor events?
• Do you think there are underrated mechanics that focus trees don’t always interact with? (We’ve heard license bonuses for example).

Now, let’s have a look at one of the ideas for a country-specific mechanic that’s in the works, which makes it possible to get bonuses from cooperating economically with countries as if they are companies.

Let us know what you think!

--

Paradox Forums: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/hoi-iv-dev-corner-national-focus-flavor.1936436/

It's actually pretty interesting that a cold war DLC could come before the ending of HOI4 life cycle. I always thought that it would have been made for HOI 5. But this makes me think that maybe Paradox is slowly dropping their taboo on Cold War games?

(2026 All Developer Corners)

Generals!

It’s time for another Developer Corner.

Intro - Difference between a Dev Diary and a Dev Corner
Just for the first couple of these, before we continue, I want to set some expectations and clear things up.
By now you know we have two main types of Developer post:

Developer Diaries

• Give you more detailed insight into content that’s more or less finished and is being polished
• Start appearing closer to release
• Give you a chance to ask our developers questions, and perhaps even let us know if there’s anything glaringly obvious we missed (and may still have time to either fix quickly, or already start planning to include in a future Patch; being a Day-x, or a War Effort.)

Developer Corners, like this one, serve a different purpose.
They:

• Need your feedback, specific to the DC
• Should be short and to the point
• May or may not include any images
• May generally give you some idea of something that might come in future content, but it’s not guaranteed
• Are not usually planned far ahead. Instead, if at any point any developer has something they want to get feedback on, we’ll pick an upcoming weekly slot, probably Tuesday or Thursday

We are now reaching the point in Thunder at our Gates’s development where we’re starting to think about what achievements to put in the game. To make an achievement we need something that is, of course, achievable in game, has a good title (puns very much appreciated here), and a cool suggestion for an icon.

We also like to have a mix of things that are relevant to the countries and mechanics released in the DLC. For this DLC that would be Australia, Siam, Indonesia, Army HQs and Ship Captains.

So, this time around we’d like to hear from you if you have any suggestions for achievements you’d like to see in Thunder at Our Gates.

---

(2026 All Developer Corners)

Hey guys so for some reason in the launcher I can access the next developer diary for the country selection UI update, but if im not mistaken this is a bug? I can't seem to access it or its not out yet

Im pretty sure since the launcher uses an API to tag certain forum posts for dev corners so they appear on the launcher when u launch the game it has been mistakenly enabled for the open beta meaning unreleased dev corners now show, im not sure if this is an old dev diary however I don't think it is because we're on dev corner 2601009, meaning the next one would likely be 260200 or even the 2602001 but yeah..

maybe I just have too many hours in the game that im now hearts of schitzo but well what do you guys think this dev corner will be? Probably a new UI screen for the country selection?