Hi,
I am Thomas, the Design Manager and Design Lead on the Hearts of Iron Expansion Team. Today I am here together with Manuel, also known as Mano de Zombi to introduce one of the new features of the upcoming Götterdämmerung expansion: Special Projects.
As always, please note that everything here might change before release… The UI in particular is receiving final touches at the moment, so it can most certainly look different on release day, but also any values, texts, etc you see in screenshots might change. But you know this already, right?
In Götterdämmerung, we have added a new way of acquiring super weapons and other experimental technological advancements that can give you an edge over your opponent. You can now construct secret experimental facilities, assign lead scientists and start up Special Projects there - trying to beat your enemy to getting those long range rockets, the atomic bomb, or the land cruiser mega tank.
With this new feature, Special Projects, you invest time and resources into specific fields, in order to produce those new super weapons, or similar things that can hopefully affect the outcome of the war, or at least will look cool and impress neighbouring countries :)
Experimental Facilities and Specializations
Okay, so how does one start one of these Special Projects? Well, the first thing you will need is an Experimental Facility. This is a new type of building that you can only have one of in a state (of any kind).
There are four types of Facilities, and all Special Projects are grouped into one of four specializations that match the types of Facilities.
The four Experimental Facilities are:
- Advanced Physics Facility (mainly nuclear related projects)
- Naval Engineering Facility (Naval, both Surface and Submarine projects)
- Aerodynamics and Avionics Facility (Air and Rocket projects)
- Land Warfare Facility (mainly Tank and Artillery related projects)
New Mexico seems like a safe place to construct an Advanced Physics Facility
Once constructed, you can see your Facilities on the map, and can click them in order to assign a scientist (more on them later) and start a Project from the map - or if you prefer from the top menu.
And here we have our new Experimental Facility, ready to change the world as we know it
The old research button found on the top bar has been given a “Facelift”. If you click it as before, you open the research menu as before, but there is now a second tab that you can click to access the Special Projects. Or if you prefer you can right click on the research top menu item and go directly here. The third option, as I mentioned earlier, is to click on the Facility on the map.
I wonder who would be the perfect candidate to assign to our new facility in New Mexico?
Unlocking and Breakthroughs
So you need an Experimental Facility to start a Special Project. However, you can’t start a project just because you have built a facility. In order to start a project you must first have at least one Scientific Breakthrough in the current field/specialization.
Breakthroughs are earned in two ways. The fastest and most efficient is by researching related technologies. This will generate progress towards a breakthrough in the field. For example, researching regular aircraft technologies will generate progress towards a breakthrough in the Aerodynamics and Avionics specialization.
Once you have gotten a Breakthrough, you can use it to start a Special Project from among those that you have available. So basically, regular technology research will give you the chance to start specific Special Projects. If you focus your research on Air technologies, you will more quickly generate Breakthroughs in Aerodynamics and Avionics.
Some projects are more advanced and require you to have more than one breakthrough in order to start working on them.
The other, and slightly slower way (at least with a less experienced scientist) to generate Breakthroughs is to have a scientist attached to an Experimental Facility with no active project in it. The Scientist will then do Basic Research in the field, and this will generate progress towards the next breakthrough.
Researching Air techs generates the majority of the Breakthrough progress here, but Heinrich Focke helps as well.
Of course, not all projects are available from game start. Some will be, but some require you to have a basic technology researched in order to become available. For example, Submarine Special Projects are only available once you have researched Submarines.
Additionally, some projects require other projects to be completed before they show up. That could be in the same Specialization, or in another, or even both. For example, in order to start the ICBM Project, you need to have completed a few other Rocket Projects, but also the Nuclear Warheads Project.
Prototyping
Projects take a long time to complete, and they are done in a number of prototype iterations. At the end of each iteration, progress is generated to the project.
Sometimes other things can happen as well. Work with the project can for example give a research bonus in a related technology, or army xp, or similar things, depending on the outcome of the iteration phase. If you are unlucky, some powerful-yet-dangerous projects could make the facility suffer damage due to an onsite explosion…
Iterations generate project progress, but sometimes you get other interesting things
Simple Rewards
Some iteration outcomes will lead to a choice that can affect the final project output as well. Do we want our rockets to be range focused, or is explosive power the main thing? This gives the project a bit more life of its own, and makes not all end results be the same. But in general, each prototype iteration brings the project closer to completion.
Researching a Special Project is, as mentioned in the beginning, a bit of an investment. First you need to have, or build, the experimental facility of the appropriate specialization. The project also takes time, during which you cannot do anything else in the facility. In addition, the Facility needs to be hooked onto the supply network (you can only build them on or next to a supply depot or naval base) - and lastly, some Special Projects consume resources while you run them.
Firepower is what we go for here
Completing a Special Project
When project completion reaches 100%, the project finishes, and you get whatever it is you get :) from completing it.
This could be a new piece of equipment that you can produce, a new building you can build, or something else. Usually you also get something more tangible as well. Couple of examples:
The Nuclear Reactor Special Project will not only unlock the Nuclear Reactor Building type for you, but you will also get a Reactor for free in the same state as the Experimental Facility - assuming there is space for it that is.
The Super-Heavy Railway Gun Project will not only unlock the Super-Heavy Railway Gun equipment to be produced, but it will also spawn one on completion.
Some projects also unlock new technologies in the basic tech tree that are not available, or even visible if you haven’t completed the Special Project in question. For example, when you complete the V1 Project you get access to tech that you can research to improve your rockets, but also to rocket powered bombs, that can improve your strategic bombers.
Some projects, like the Bouncing Bomb Project only unlocks a new module for your airplanes. But that module in itself unlocks special Dam Busting Air Raids that allow you to try to destroy enemy dams, disrupting their industry and strategic movement in the affected state.
Oh, and yes, dams are a thing. I’ll talk more about dams in a future Dev Diary…
Capturing Experimental Facilities
If you manage to capture an enemy Facility with an ongoing project, you will not only get to keep that Facility, but also earn some progress in that project - if you have it unlocked and it is not already completed. Additionally you will gain some breakthrough progress in the field related to the specialization.
Scientists
An Experimental Facility needs a scientist leading the work. All major powers and some minor countries start with historical scientists and all countries can recruit more if needed.
Scientists have a skill level related to the field in which they work - some may have more than one. The skill level affects how long prototype iterations take, and thus how long the projects take to complete.
Skill level also affects the previously mentioned Basic Research. When involved in Basic Research, the scientist will generate progress towards a new breakthrough as described above, and the amount generated depends on the skill level of the scientist. Additionally, by doing Basic Research, the scientist will speed up regular research in related technologies.
Aside from skill levels they can come with traits, for example making them better at a subset of projects, or giving them other bonuses/penalties.
Worth mentioning that scientist is a new character role, and as such all the old Nuclear/Rocket Theorists, along with a few other relevant scientists/engineers previously represented as advisors, have now become scientists instead.
Any scientist with level 1+ on a specialization can work on those projects. However, traits can boost specific projects making a scientist faster than the others at researching certain projects.
The Projects Themselves
The expansion comes with a decent number of Special Projects. There are, of course, projects allowing you to do your own Manhattan Project, and to take it even further… There are various Rocket Projects, you can develop the V1 Flying Bomb or the V2 Ballistic Missiles as was done historically.
We have included some (slightly) fantastic Special Projects that were perceived/started during the era, like Project Habakkuk (the British Ice Carrier Project), or the Ratte Project (The German Mega Tank) as well, but we’ve tried to stay on the feasible side of things, so some of these might not be very efficient on their early stages, but might become more powerful and viable if you research further technologies unlocked by their Special Projects.
In general, most projects will unlock a piece of equipment (Super-Heavy Howitzers, Parasites-Mothership Aircraft), a unit (Land Cruiser, Early Helicopter, Habakkuk), a module (Flamethrower Tank, Earthshaker Bomb, Anechoic Tiles) or a building (Nuclear Reactor, V3).
Some projects can also boost existing equipment and projects that unlock very big things might also create a unit or a production line with progress in it.
A few projects have more unique effects, such as the Naval Project, Underway Replenishment, which unlocks a new feature that Naval Task Forces can use.
Here are some examples of projects:
We have a few Naval Projects to choose from, and there are more hiding
Changes to Old Content
There has been some rework to the tech tree: We have added some new technologies, most of them invisible at game start and unlocked by Special Projects. Some previously-existing technologies are now hidden at game start and unlocked via Special Projects.
Besides the aforementioned V2 and the Manhattan Projects (rockets and nukes), other equipment has been moved into the Special Project feature, For example:
Flamethrower tanks are no longer unlocked by Engineers II technology, but they have their own early Special Project, with an additional technology mid-game that will boost the flamethrower.
Cruiser and Midget Submarines, previously equipment only available to very specific countries, will now have their own Special Projects making them accessible to any country.
With the addition of the Super-Heavy Railway Gun Special Project, we can now differentiate between “normal” Railway Guns, and insane much bigger ones, like Schwerer Gustav and Dora. This means that Germany gets a new model and icon for the regular Railway Gun researchable in the tech tree, and Dora becomes the Super-Heavy Railway Gun unlocked by a project.
A Word About Rockets
In the old systems, there was one type of rocket. Now there are several. The V1s are classed as Flying Bombs. These work similarly to before, but the rocket bases themselves have changed somewhat. The V2s however, are now classed as ballistic missiles. Ballistic missiles use another type of air mission, and are not affected by anti air. No one during the WW2 era had the capability to knock these rockets out, so that is something for later.
Different types of rockets to choose from
Oh, yes. You do have to actually produce rockets now, they are no longer constructed by rocket sites.
We have made some quality of life improvement to the Rocket interface as well, making it easier to select target and mission. You decide which type of rocket you want there, from the ones you have available, and then you can just right click on their target, as they each have only one mission available - so you do not need to pick mission type first.
Sending some rockets to the low countries
That’s all for now. Next Dev Diary will be about something completely different… A country that we decided to do a rework on in this expansion, namely Hungary.
Make sure to check out the Expansion Pass Here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3152810/Hearts_of_Iron_IV_Expansion_Pass_1