Pretty much what's in the title.


Mod looks really interesting. When I saw all those unique focus trees I was really excited. Sadly soon after launching the mod and playing a few games my excitement turned into disappointment.

I mostly played Poland and Zapadoslavia. And sadly their focus trees are just wasted. As soon as may 1938 comes Germany invades you. Soon after finishing eastern claims they just dow. Often with help of soviets. Worth the mention it renders large part of german focus tree pointless. And I don't mind if player does this, but at least force AI to follow the focus tree.

I played about 20 games as Poland so far, about 5 as Zapadoslavia and couple as Germany to explore how far you can abuse the focus tree. Haven't done any wars, researching, building and so on. I purely wanted to see how "politics" play out. I also tried Hungary, but only to see what's the problem with early war and why they get crushed every single time. Haven't tried any majors so far, except Germany. I really do hope they're better balanced than minors, at least the ones in central Europe. As those are, quite frankly, in terrible shape.

Games as Germany were fun. If you don't exploit mechanics and follow focus tree it makes for very interesting experience. You can do quite a lot using politics before you're forced into a war. Or you can force war upon others. Anyway, very fun. Poland and Zapadoslavia not so much. You're crippled way too hard and your options are very limited, most of the trees being pretty much a deathtrap. And if the goal is for those two countries to just vanish from the map in 38, ok. But then, why include such great focus trees for them? So I assume that wasn't the intent. Same goes for Hungary, to lesser extent tho.



Generally there is a lot of problems with Germany. Overall their tree is way too fast compared to the others. And it's not like it needs to be, it's not really any bigger than other nations trees. It's completly imba as of now. I think it should be toned down, it should take them at least to may-june 1939 before they start steamrolling Europe. That would also give minors at least a bit of time to prepare and either recover their economy or do some political shenanigans.

Or other way around, make other trees more dynamic. I wouldn't mind if the pace of the game would be increased, in terms of focus times at least. Most trees are quite sophisicated and branching a lot, so it should work. As I suspect was the intent. But right now Germany is way too op. What makes it even worse is that they're not hit by market crash and most their focuses don't have terribly crippling debuffs associated with them. Or they go away quickly enough. Btw, why there are no political costs associated with most their focuses? All other nations I played have to sink ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of pps early game into focuses and events crippling them even further and making Germany even more op in the process/comparison.

But focus trees seems to not be the main issue. That would be world tensions. Germany go crazy as soon as wt hits 25+%. They often dow without completing the focuses required to do so. It's not exactly clear for me if it's tied to world tensions only. But I guess that could be at least part of the problem. My suggestion would be to either increase tensions limits or reduce tensions generated by all those minor conflicts. As it is now tensions generated just brake the focus trees available, mostly by opening options of (too) quick expansion for Germany.

Another issue would be terribly crippling debuff to production efficiency/construction all other nations except Germany seems to suffer. As I haven't tried any serious runs yet I can't say for sure. But judging on reserves of equipment I was able to build before they dow it would be very hard war to win. In case of Poland it's even more crippling as you have minister also giving debuff to production effi. I think that's a bit too much. Or if it's intentional I'll ask again, why give Poland such elaborate focus tree? If they're there just to perish in 1938. Or be made Germany's ♥♥♥♥♥. Again, same goes for Zapadoslavia.

Germany should get affected by market crash btw. Maybe not to such an extent as most nations but they still should feel effects of world economy crumbling around them. Germany was not self sustaining country, far from it. And Valkist Reich would be even less so. As they're stripped of quite a lot of resource heavy territories 3rd Reich did control irl. Especially if it wanted to keep its military industry operational, they relied heavily on imports. That part I find completly unrealistic and silly. Even in alt-history universe. Unless we're talking Thule Society summoning resources out of thin air with magiks. Anyways...

Polish tree. Romania-Hungary part of Intermarium branch is pretty much impossible. War between Hungary and Romania brakes out too soon, Hungary gets wrecked and they join Stahlpakt. You just don't have time. Overall debuffs are too crippling paired with long time to finish a lot of focuses. It's too "restrictive", at least in context of this mod. Plus market crash. You have no room to maneuver. Experience you get is very railroaded. If you go ND and Dmowski you have to associate yourself with Germany or perish. If you try to build Intermaium you either fail or have to win a very tedious war against Germany. At that time you don't need most of the rest of your focus tree as you're ready to conquer the world anyway. Same goes for Zapadoslavia. My point being, use those magnificent focus trees you have. As it is now playing Poland or Zapadoslavia doesn't make for interesting or fun experience. It's just tiresome and tedious. It's same old vanilla hoi4 ♥♥♥♥ all over again. I don't think that's what ppl are looking for in mods.

Hungary-Romania and whole Transylvania issue. The Romanians always crush Hungary. The war is very onesided. Again, for more interesing game overall I would suggest making this conflict more random. Give both sides a chance to win. Granted, it's only with AI control. Tried only once so far with Hungary and going for war when Romania occupies Transylvania is kinda a death sentence. Your divisions just vanish in combat and Romanians easily encircle you. So probably that is the issue for the AI and why it can't handle that war at all. I would suggest giving Hungarian divisions more equipment. Or make them sometimes choose to not intervene with occupation. Or don't lock their entire focus tree for almost entire first year of the game. Granted, you can go for Airforce reforms but I've found them not really helpful at this stage of the game ;)



I see couple of problems with all that. Kaiserreich, to which you refer, is so popular because every game is a bit different due to multitude of options available for AI to choose from. By including such well though out and researched focus trees in your mod, and for quite a lot minor nations, I suspect you aim for similar goal. To have dynamic and interesting world changing with each game, while still keeping true to the main theme.

Right now it always plays pretty much the same way. It also seems to play out way too fast, at least judging by focuses available. Intermarium, german-polish and german-lithuanian parts of the german tree examples again. It gives impression that a lot of work that went into making those focus trees is just wasted. It also gives impression that player choices are kinda meaningless. You either stick to the one path that will assure your survival or you perish against might and opness of Valkist Reich. Again, speaking from perspective of central European minors. And I get it that it's a WWII based game and Germany is kinda the focal point of it all. But c'mon... give little guys at least a chance. Most mods that did benefited greatly from it.



Like stated in the topic those are only my initial impressions. And limited to only couple of countries. Pls don't treat this as rant or whining. I'm aware this is still very early version of the mod. I think you're on the right way. I see a lot of great things about this mod and I'd really like it to succeed. Purely because of my own selfish needs. I have ~1300 hours in this game, mostly with mods. And from the good ones I'm already bored with most. And this one here looks like it could be really great, one of the best.

So far my experience with the mod was either extremly fun (but silly fun because they're way too op) with Germany or very disappointing with Poland/Zapadoslavia. I guess it was my mistake to start with the minors. But since I'm polish that's the nation I usually go for first in any mods. As to other minors, I just like to root for the little guy.

I will play serious run as Poland/Zapadoslavia next. Or maybe try something in South America, as many nations there look like they got a lot of attention. Or would you prefer playerbase to stick to the majors for now?


Random thought. In multiplayer, when you have good group that agrees on house rule to not abuse the tensions mechanics and abide by focus trees, you can have great time already. I would assume, as I had no chance to test it yet. But I see no reason why it should be any other way.

Cheers!


Edit:
Well, silly me. So I guess sole point of existance of Poland and Zapadoslavia is so Stahlpakt can gobble them up. Unless there's a player controling one of them, as I'm sure that war can be won with enough abuse "clever use" of game mechanics. But I still find it sad that those focus trees go to waste most of the time. As I don't see AI winning in that situation. And I get it that it's to get Stahlpakt on par with the Entente. I still think it would make for more interesting world overall if it wasn't such an onesided affair. I still would suggest giving central European minors more time before it escalates.

Edit:
@Tulev
o7