Hello! I am Jack, a recent Game Designer addition to the HoI IV team. I’ve been given the exciting privilege of presenting you with a feature/system rework: Doctrines.
Doctrines as a system has existed more or less untouched since the original release of the game, so when I was given the chance to rework and expand this system, I eagerly sank my teeth into it. Naturally, none of this could be possible without the most excellent help and input from my fellow designers; with very special thanks given to Zwirbaum (Tomasz), who has graciously listened to my questions and concerns, along with being a stalwart protector against frankly insane balance changes. Additionally, our beta testers have been a great help in preparing this.
The rework as presented still has some Work In Progress parts to it, so I would like to caution readers that things in here might still change to some degree by the time we release. A lot of changes and work have already gone into this, but it carries many small moving parts, with feedback constantly being factored in.
The intention of the Doctrine rework is to give players a more intentional gameplay experience when it comes to modifying and applying your armed forces. Instead of a single doctrine tree, we’re looking at something you build up and enhance over time by using your armies and equipment practically; namely, you should strive to put units in divisions, on the map, and use them in combat situations to actually upgrade their abilities. Free lunch is a figment of most of our imaginations, after all. Additionally, we want to give players more opportunities to play around and experiment with different division designs and their approaches to strategies in general.
Let’s get into the gritty of it! Behold, your new doctrine screen:
That does look a bit sad and empty, like a Swedish winter. Follow me along as we fill it up during this dev diary! (Not the winter. That’ll never be fixed)
Grand Doctrines & Subdoctrines
The most obvious change for returning players will be the new Doctrine tab, along with a split, in what we’ve chosen to call Grand Doctrines and subdoctrines. The design and flavour intention of the split is basically to have a Grand Doctrine that encompasses your intention for the kind of warfare you wish to pursue, further supplemented by discrete improvements to units through the use of subdoctrines. Subdoctrines are the newer, more special part here, being tailored around choosing which units to enhance.
In the new hierarchy, if you’re not playing a nation that starts with a Grand Doctrine assigned, that is what you will select first.
Ah, now it’s starting to look like something. Through picking our grand doctrine, we get a chance to see what Tracks we have available, to further customize our doctrinal interests.
Category Tracks
Subdoctrines are chosen by category, or Tracks. Each doctrine folder is associated with a set of tracks, in the case of Land Doctrines, these are “Infantry” “Combat Support & Artillery”, “Armor” & Operations. Rejoice, as you can choose one subdoctrine per track (and modders rejoice, the system supports an arbitrary amount of tracks). Assigning both grand doctrines and subdoctrines will cost you army xp, and some bonuses associated with the doctrines are unlocked immediately. You might however notice that not all bonuses are given at once. I mentioned that the doctrines build up and enhance over time, so how does that happen?
Mastery & Mastery Levels
As an addition, or a side, to Army XP, we’re introducing a new concept known as Doctrine Mastery or simply Mastery for short. Mastery is a type of practical experience gained by using units directly. They’re also split per track, so you have to use units related to your subdoctrines to actually keep gaining mastery.
The primary way would be to include units in combat directly, but you can additionally gain smaller amounts through unit training, using military attachés, and through faction sharing. Because of updates to the way doctrines are handled, you might also find mastery bonuses lurking in focus trees and decisions. By default, each track is associated with a certain set of mastery-generating units, but this can be overridden per subdoctrine.
Mastery is essentially handled by way of deployed manpower in combat, where there are diminishing returns to mastery gain after a certain amount of deployed manpower is used in combat. We’ve done this especially to make sure minor nations, or nations with overall small armies don’t get left behind completely. Generally however, you should expect majors and large armies to be able to gain mastery a bit faster.
The system supports an arbitrary set of mastery points to reach per level, but you will find that most in-game doctrines require a similar amount; it keeps things a bit more digestible. For each mastery level you attain in a doctrine, you gain further bonuses to your units as you progress down the tree.
Mastery Banking
And of course, additionally, mastery can be stored even without a subdoctrine (to an extent), or if you have one fully mastered already, so that you don’t necessarily lose out on using troops before you can actually invest in subdoctrines.
Milestones
Completing doctrine tracks will be in your interest, not only for your own bonuses, but it is also how you enhance your Grand Doctrine. Each track is associated with a Milestone, which gives bonuses directly related to your grand doctrine. Some of these bonuses occasionally show up in a subdoctrine too, so keen players can probably find some interesting stacks. As a brief example, mobile warfare - nominally associated with planning speed - has some of those improvements nested in their milestone upgrades. Be careful though, as replacing a completed subdoctrine will also deny you the milestone. In a similar fashion, replacing a grand doctrine can be expensive to do late game, as it means you’re also wiping progress on your existing subdoctrines.
And finally we arrive at a fully fleshed out land doctrine screen (There are of course air and naval doctrines too). We have filled up our four tracks with various subdoctrines, all progressing towards their final rewards, along with an unlocked milestone to our Grand Doctrine.
The Officer Corps Window
As part of the upgrade there are also changes to the officer corps window and the doctrine representation. The doctrine icon changes in small fashions as you unlock and reach new reward levels in your chosen tracks. Additionally, there’ll be small event ticks notifying you when you reach a new reward level in a doctrine.
Smaller Updates: Army Spirits
With these encompassing changes, we’re also doing some updates on army spirits. Like milestones, we will tie them to the completion of certain subdoctrines. This is done partially in order to keep some of them connected to doctrines like before, but also to give a bit more which each subdoctrine picked. Army spirits as such are based on completing a subdoctrine track; but once they’re unlocked, you can still have them adopted even if you change subdoctrines, making them more akin to actual army traditions. Also, since the changes to how doctrines work messes with army/navy/air XP use, having additional sinks for those currencies are certainly welcome. So for example, completing “Mobile Infantry”, an infantry subdoctrine, might unlock the Bayonet Strength spirit.
This rework might drop a bit as a surprise, but I hope it feels like a pleasant and positive one! There's still a ways to go, so I hope you’ll excuse me while I do my dark bidding in the scripts. I’ll be around for any questions and concerns you might have. Until next time!