Hi, and welcome to the first developer diary for the Hearts of Iron 3 DLC ”Dies Irae: Götterdämmerung” which features among many other things a German campaign focus. With Dies Irae: Götterdämmerung, you will be able to play Germany and only Germany, but like you never played it before in an Hearts of Iron game.
In this diary, we will talk a little bit about the graphical side of the changes that DI:G brings to HoI3.
The interface and map: With this DLC we wanted to give the game a different feel than the vanilla version, to make it more immersive. Whereas the vanilla HoI3 uses a few backgrounds to give the country specific feel in the game, we here, due to the Germany only form of the DLC, had the opportunity to go all the way and give the whole graphical interface a Germany WW2 era specific look. The interface has been changed to one of worn wood, worn paper, metal buttons and such, to give it a more “war time” and “being there” feel.
Another thing which adds to the Germany specific look of the game is the inclusion of the Kriegsmarine naval map being divided into squares. These squares have been accurately implemented (with minor artistic license where the HoI3 map required it), and are shown on the ocean on the game map. Furthermore the oceans have been made to represent the Kriegsmarine maps of the era with the jagged ocean depth colour indications.
The brigades: A major change to the game is the way brigade images are graphically represented. The idea is that one could represent the brigades with more than just a small black and white photo. Wouldn’t it be cool to see a soldier from the brigade? Perhaps have some info text about the brigade, explaining pros and cons? Well, this concept kept evolving, until we managed to implement a soldier portrait which changes clothes with technological advances, changes looks as experience is gained (filthy clothes, worn face) as well as medals awarded with increasing xp. I.e. a panzer brigade will eventually be awarded with wounded badge (black), then panzer assault badge, then wounded badge silver and so on up to knights cross with oak leaves. An infantry brigade will get the infantry assault badge instead of panzer assault badge, and likewise with other brigades. This system varies between land/naval/air to best represent the looks of these various arms.
The brigade representation allows you to follow your troops as time and war progresses, and to immerse you more into the development (or downfall) of your armies, i.e. seeing your 5th infantry brigade start out as young with spotless clothes, seeing them earn the iron cross 2nd class for the battle of Warsaw, getting more and more worn and dirty, ending up with the knights cross for battles during Barbarossa. Then see the once proud brigade again losing its’ decorated veterans as you are pushed back from Russia, ending up with green conscripts again. Ah the circle of life.
So, that was a quick look at the graphical changes of the Dies Irae: Götterdämmerung DLC coming for Hearts of Iron 3. In the next developer diary we will be telling you about a specific change we made to the mechanics of the game: the Operational Feature.
-Danevang and Devildread
Hi, and welcome to the second developer diary for the Hearts of Iron 3 DLC ”Dies Irae: Götterdämmerung” which features among many other things a German campaign focus. With Dies Irae: Götterdämmerung, you will be able to play Germany and only Germany, but like you never played it before in an Hearts of Iron game.
In this diary, we will talk a about the some changes in the gameplay that DI:G brings to HoI3.
The Operational Feature: In Dies Irae, as in real life, different areas call for different equipment. You can't just send your troops in the field and expect them to be 100% efficient in all terrains. This is why we made Operational Planning a key to success in the game. We made it in two different parts:
Operation planning The player has access to several "technologies/doctrines" abstractly representing the generals drawing plans of the area, local tactics planning and in general having some people of your staff working on the subject. Those technologies, once researched, lead to several bonus such as a special decisions with little manpower boost and some otherwise hidden events. The idea is to give some awards for the player who plays historically and to have some interesting bonus while he invests time and leadership in planning.
Left: Operation Weresubung, the troops were transported in capital and escort ships so we have decided to model this with a little transport capacity increase that may let you put 2-3 brigades in a Kriegsmarine surface fleet.
Right: Once the techs are researched, you have access to a decision available only in a short period of time (one year) that grants you several little bonus (those Weresubung decisions gives you 50 manpower each).
Operational units The other part we want to introduce is the Operational Units feature. We created an Afrika Korps Operational tech that activate four units: Afrika Korps infantry, Afrika Korps motorized infantry, Afrika Korps mechanized infantry and Afrika Korps armor. Those units are specialized in the new desert terrains we created in North Africa, replacing the whole plains, hills, urban or mountains we had in vanilla. Desert warfare is now more bloody (higher attrition) and favouring the defender.
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Sending regular units under this climate is not recommended and this is why we made the Afrika Korps desert equiped regiments. You can't create an Afrika Korps regiment, you have to select a unit on the map and equip it with desert stuff, thanks to the upgrade function.
Left: once completed, you can ship those units to Africa.
Right: the Afrika Korps Operational tech also include a decision making Italy donate you three transport ships in the Med. A-Historical chances: In Dies Irae: Götterdämmerung (thanks to this project, I can spell it now!), we are 110% focused on Germany (you can't even play another country). But we didn't want you to play the same campaign all over again: hop hop I make my OOB, I setup my techs, I switch two ministers and I hit the maximum speed waiting for 1939 to come. We included dozens of gameplay events and some decisions to make in the '36-'41 timeframe. Let's talk about the decisions. In vanilla HOI3, Germany has basically 4 decisions to take before the war: Remilitarization of the Rhineland, Anschluss of Austria, Treaty of Munich and first Vienna Award.
We wanted to make you actually think about what your are doing. For instance, Remilitarization of the Rhineland decision can now lead to an early war against France and United Kingdom, as historically there were tensions between Germany and the Allies. Of course there is only a little chance to see this happen and you can avoid the war by choosing not to Remilitarize the Rhineland (not to take the decision).
Left: historical outcome.
Right: something bad happened. There is some decisions about this early war which can be stopped in 1937 with either or white peace or German victory/defeat over France. The early war is not killing the '36 campaign but you can be sure that France and United Kingdom will be prepared for your next move. In a similar manner, if you put enough leadership points in espionnage and raising the different NSDAP over your neighbors, the player can choose between a diplomatic and forced Anschluss or make an earlier push over the Sudetenland and the annexation of Czechoslovakia. All those decisions can lead to an early world war too, related to how you acted in the past: if you don't remilitarize the Rhineland, you show the Allies that you are in a good spirit and that could prevent any early war and so on. Helped with some good fortune, you can even have all the cake without any war (until you ask too much).
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When I don't find historical background, I allow myself a little fun with the event descriptions.
This event is the consequence of two things: Poland agreed to give away Dantzig to Germany (thanks to the NSDAP being powerful in this country) ; and the decision that Germany had made after the secession of Dantzig to exige Upper Silesia.
DI:G provides a lot of a-historical possibilities. I can't share all of them but I want to show one more.
In HOI3, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact is not mandatory and you can simply avoid the pact and be sure Soviet Union won't stab you while you are in France or while you are preparing your forces. With the DLC this is not true anymore. You can't just play around without fearing the consequences. There are two ways to sign the pact: Germany asks or, if not, Soviet will ask in late August. That way you can't ignore the pact, you'll have to refuse it if you don't want it, making clear in the eyes of Stalin that you want the conflict. The M-R Pact also provides the historical Soviet invasion of Poland, making you operate faster in this campaign and not having to grab all the victory points by yourself.
Left: if you sign the pact, you'll have to respect it: no more annexation of the Baltic States without some Soviet move. Anyway this is based on random chance + some modifiers too. So you can take the shot at your own risk.
Right: Not signing the pact can lead to some surprises, based on random chances and either or not you annexed the Baltic States / helped Finland in the Winter War This is the end of the second Developer Diary for Dies Irae: Götterdämmerung. Don't worry, we have still a lot of things to talk about in the next one.
Few words: Barbarossa, U-Boats and Reichministers.
Oh, and a little surprise you might find interesting:
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-Devildread and Danevang
Hi, and welcome to the third developer diary for the Hearts of Iron 3 DLC ”Dies Irae: Götterdämmerung” which features among many other things a German campaign focus. With Dies Irae: Götterdämmerung, you will be able to play Germany and only Germany, but like you never played it before in an Hearts of Iron game.
In this diary, we will mainly talk a about Barbarossa.
I had a comment in the previous diary, saying that we gave a lot of bonuses to Germany and that you might find the Dies Irae '36 campaign too easy.
Haha. You won't.
Operation Barbarossa For us Dies Irae team, the Eastern Front is THE thing you don't want to miss in any historical german campaign. This is the very point of the last hours you spent in getting Europe and your OOB to act as you command. We heard the community about the soviet being a little to easy to break in the first weeks and then being a cakewalk. This is why we came with several features for both the AI and the player in order to make the whole thing a lot more difficult without too much cheating.
Strategic Effects and Technologies The first things we introduced were two strategic effects and their counter-technologies: General Winter and russian railways. As you know, the german soldiers weren't really prepared for a long campaign and like the french few decades earliers they were badly hit by winter. In DI:G, we changed some basic weather functions in order to have a very cold russian winter and to make units suffer from attrition a lot more than in vanilla HOI3. We also wanted to make the Barbarossa winter attrition even thougher by the addition of the strategic effect with 30% manpower income hit (abstractly representing the desertion/death or injuries due to the cold) and morale/organisation penalties.
Another big change in how the meteo system works is the longer time the snow and mud stay on the map and the severe supply tax they create, making any offensive during winter a nightmare for both German and Soviet sides. That way, you can observe an historical winter "truce" with your units and the ennemy's not being able to carry offensive without issues.
Left: Strategic Effects are very severe for the player, as historically the eastern front was not a cakewalk.
Right: Both above-mentionned effects can be canceled as soon as you research the related techs. You can even prepare winter equipment way before starting Barbarossa and then never suffer from General Winter strategic effect! A strong Soviet All those nasty negative modifiers are not enough for our evil mind. We also added a bunch of enhancements for the Soviet AI, starting by giving it the historical capacity of reinforcements and building units the Red Army had during the first months of Barbarossa. In order to achieve that goal, we made a simple rule: the less units the red army has, the more quickly it will be able to reinforce and build. For instance, with less than 150 divisions, it will be able to build any unit with 90% time reduction and so on (with more than 300 division it has no bonus at all). Thus, no matter how many troops you will encircle in the first weeks of the campaign (hundreds of thousands prisonners, historicaly), you'll still have to deal with all those eastern reinforcements and fresh troops, thrown in the combat as soon as they exit the factories.
Along with those modifiers, we added little decisions for the Soviet AI to arm people from the factories whenever a german unit approach a major city. You as a player will experience some soviet partisans spawns in Leningrad, Kiev, Sevastopol or Moscow, willing to defend their cities against the fascist hordes and helped with a special partisan defense bonus in urban tiles. Just enough to slow down your advance a little and get some reinforcements in order to avoid the easy capture of Victory Points.
Let's face the truth: the Eastern Front should become your worst nightmare and without some audacious move and Blitzkrieg tactics, you shouldn't be able to win in Russia anymore.
December 42. Everything on AI control. I am starting to lose ground 300km from Moscow. The Holy Balance Since we are also a little sadistic, we made impossible for Germany to choose anything else than Total Exploitation occupation policy in Soviet Union before '42. Then Full Occupation can be chosen, and in '43 you can have a Military Government. There is no way to have Collaboration Government in Soviet Union (or Poland by the way). That way you have a lot more ICs and ressources indeed, but you can't benefit from the soviet manpower and have to deal with some rebels. Also, you are not able to pick the Total Economic Mobilisation law before some conditions. Those conditions are to be met in the Totalen Krieg Speech decision, making almost impossible to go Total Economic Mobilisation before 43 (or anytime if you lose 15% of Germany core provinces, but I won't recommend you to try).
I can see your face right now, thinking "hell, I will never be able to win! God this Devildread guy is totally reading my mind." But DON'T PANIC.
We included a bunch of friendly stuff especially for you.
Combat events are now totally put into historical background. No longer "Successful Battle of the Bulges" in 1940 saying how strong is USA while they are not yet involved in the war. Now you only have events against the right enemy and during the right year. Those events can lead to several bonus (including two new bonus: +10% morale and +10% organisation) to choose or the same one called "captured equipment" that give you 1% IC efficiency for a month. That way we modeled the fact that German army used a lot of foreign equipment (allowing you to build your divisions 1% faster for a month).
Speaking of foreign equipment, as you might have seen in the Strategic Effect screenshot we also have a Foreign Wehrmacht Recruitment effect. This came from a decision you have to take earlier in the game (after you conquered your first foreign country) granting you some manpower bonus (10%) at the cost of 5% supplies penalty.
This Foreign Recruitment policy can lead you to several foreign units events such as Indische Legion, Division Azul and many more. You are not desarmed for Barbarossa, and if everything is done correctly, you are able to hit the Soviet so hard that the Red Army will take several days to get over it. We added a Surprise Attack decision leading to 50% land organisation and 70% air organisation hit for the Soviet Union during 21 days.
In Dies Irae: Götterdämmerung, we also worked on the Reich Ministers, giving some bonus and penalties for some, and special events for others. If you manage your cabinet properly, you should be able to have some pretty powerful bonuses over your ennemies.
Look at all those friendly faces and positive modifiers they bring with them. I know I told you we planned to talk about U-Boats and Ministers in this Diary but this Barbarossa thing is long enough for the moment. Here some random screenshots for your pleasure instead.
For those who can't see the picture, you can find all of them in this ftp folder, thanks to Derkb for providing the server:
http://didays.derkb.de/downloads/DiesIrae/ -Devildread and Danevang
Hi, and welcome to the fourth developer diary for the Hearts of Iron 3 DLC ”Dies Irae: Götterdämmerung” which features among many other things a German campaign focus. With Dies Irae: Götterdämmerung, you will be able to play Germany and only Germany, but like you never played it before in an Hearts of Iron game.
In this diary, we will talk a little bit about a thing that DI:G brings to HOI3: immersion.
U-Boats We started from the fact that in our opinion the submarine warfare is too abstracted in the game and we wanted, in a Germany focus mood, to emphasis the whole U-Boats thing. Once we agreed on the basics we decided to create three more U-Boats units:
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Coastal Submarine, type II*. Small and cheap submarines with limited range.
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Medium Range Submarine, type VII*. The bulk of your submarine force, efficient and with range starting 1500 up to 3600 in the late war.
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Long Range Submarine, type IX*. The name speaks by itself, they are less efficient than the Type VII but they can operate far from their bases (up to the American coasts).
Along with the vanilla submarine that the AI uses while the player can't (the three types replace the vanilla submarine for Germany)
We introduced as well 21 new technologies related to those submarines, from the better hull to the underway refueling concept in order to make submarine warfare something worth spending leadership points for. As soon as the war starts, if you invested enough in the U-Boats you will be able to create chaos in the ennemy convoys, helped with several events.
As an example of the War of the Atlantic events, when war against England begins, you are informed about the advantage of sending u-boats to the Western Approaches near England, where most convoys historically, and in game, hit a bottleneck. When you conquer the French Atlantic coast harbours, you get an event proposing you to build U-Boats pens in several ports in order to protect your submarines against Allies raids. This will to a larger extent immerse the gamer in the choices faced by Germany in WW2, and make the Atlantic interesting. Also, the whole u-boat development programme will historically follow this development (like the schnorkel design being discovered in Holland after it is conquered).
But those events are not all about benefits. As you can see in the pictures above if you want to invest into submarine warfare you have to pay for it, starting with a better naval organization while air and land have some penalties. You are not forced to take the organization hit path and you totally can use the regular mechanics of the game but if you choose this path your ennemy will suffer a lot more than in HOI3. With an intense naval and air campaign, you can actually achieve the battle of Britain and greatly reduce UK's will to fight.
But act quickly, because after the "Happy Time" the Allies will start to really protect their convoys, represented by some tech bonus to your ennemy and after 1941 if you don't upgrade your U-Boats you might lose your wolves packs against the Allies ASW campaigns.
This is the end of this Dev Diary.
In the next one, we will talk about Reich Ministers and several events related to them.
--Devildread and Danevang
Bonus Screenshots:
For those who can't see the picture, you can find all of them in this ftp folder, thanks to Derkb for providing the server:
http://didays.derkb.de/downloads/DiesIrae/ 
я слишком ленивый человек))) Мне даже скрины стало лень переносить.. их там более чем много в дневниках. А уж переводить такие тексты не слишком просто для ленивых эстонцев вроде меня 
