WWII grand strategy game Hearts of Iron IV's fifth year is proving an eventful one so far. On the one hand, it's working towards one of the most significant expansions in its history, one that will finally give the Soviet Union the overhaul it needs. On the other, it's losing the game director that took it from its nascence through half a decade of being one of the most consistently popular of Paradox's releases to date.
"[One] reason HOI4 has such a strong community and consistently high number of players is likely due to the modding scene," outgoing director Dan Lind reflects. "It's very easy to craft different experiences with mods, it gives people a lot of cool stuff to play with between expansions, and stops you from becoming bored or burned out. The other day I heard Hearts of Iron referred to as the Garry's Mod of strategy games!"
Lind tells us that one of the first concrete thoughts he had during the early days of the game's development was that of executable battle plans. "I always enjoyed playing HOI3 with a fair amount of front automation, but wanted some more control, plus being able to inject overrides."
RELATED LINKS:
This Hearts of Iron 4 speedrunner re-forms the Roman Empire in just nine months
I'm quite excited for Hearts of Iron 4's upcoming bag of tricks
Hearts of Iron 4's new trains have guns now