Hearts of Iron IV

Hearts of Iron IV

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Pumpgun-Petrus 27 NOV 2024 a las 4:15
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What Is Paradox Doing With Germany’s Focus Tree in HoI4????
I just finished my first playthrough of the new DLC with Germany, and honestly, I’m furious about the direction Paradox seems to be taking here. I usually stick to the modifiers and focus paths without paying too much attention to the "Inner Circle" mechanics, but even with that surface-level playstyle, the sheer amount of tone-deafness on display is staggering. When I started looking closer—at the portraits, the tooltips, and the mechanics—I couldn’t believe how much of it feels like an attempt to glorify figures and events that should not be glorified.

Let’s start with the little things, like Göring’s tooltip describing him as a "great German pilot" during the Great War. Why? Why does he get this glowing description when 95% of the advisors in the game don’t even get a tooltip at all? Why is this extra level of detail—and the subjective praise—necessary? It’s not just amateurish; it feels deliberate, like someone at Paradox thought, “Hey, let’s make him look cool.” And that’s just one example.

Then there’s the "Gold Reserves" mechanic. Are you kidding me? It’s such a bland, sanitized way to replace the actual historical atrocities committed by the Wehrmacht and SS. It gets even worse when you’re given the option, after the Soviet Union’s capitulation, to send "ethnic German settlers" into the East. The game conveniently forgets to mention why there’s suddenly all this space for new inhabitants. No context, no acknowledgment—just a convenient gameplay mechanic. How do you look at history and decide, “Let’s skip over the horrifying reality and turn it into a ‘feel-good’ empire-builder moment instead”?

And then there’s the Easter egg with Eva Braun. Seriously, what were they thinking? She’s portrayed as this edgy, eyepatch-wearing action movie protagonist, like she’s leading some badass revenge quest instead of, you know, being tied to one of the most evil regimes in history. It’s beyond tasteless—it’s offensive. It’s the clearest example yet of how Paradox is turning Germany into some weird power fantasy where you can just ignore everything that makes playing as them historically uncomfortable.

And that’s really the core problem, isn’t it? The game lets you play as some of the most horrifying regimes in history, but with Germany, there’s no attempt to acknowledge or reflect on that. Stalin gets mechanics that force you to deal with purges. Mussolini has incompetence baked into his path. But Germany? You’re encouraged to be an expansive, warmongering empire—but hey, that’s fine, because you’re just paying off your MEFO bills. There’s no downside, no weight to your actions, just a button that swaps "crimes against humanity" for "Gold Reserves" after every conquest. What the hell, Paradox?

I love HoI4. I love its gameplay, and the DLC mechanics are, on a purely technical level, well-executed. But playing as Germany feels wrong now. It’s not just ignorant—it’s actively trying to make you feel good about playing as one of the most destructive regimes in human history. It’s like Paradox is leaning into the power fantasy, hiding behind the excuse of “it’s just a logistics game with edgy memes,” but this isn’t Warhammer or some alternate universe. It’s history. And if you’re going to dive into that, you don’t get to ignore the uncomfortable parts just because it doesn’t fit your gameplay loop.

Am I the only one losing my mind over this? How do you defend this kind of presentation in a game that’s supposed to have some respect for history? Or is Paradox just catering to the worst parts of their fanbase now?
Publicado originalmente por G.I. ROBOT:
If you ask me, this was an inevitable problem that Hearts of Iron as a series has been dodging like Neo dodges bullets, for the entire length and breadth of the franchises' existence.

Wanting to allow the player to play as Nazi Germany without the 'Nazi' stuff has always been a decision of expediency and profit, not one of representation or respect. Why risk running afoul of decency laws and German law when you can replace the Swastika with a Balkenkreuz and still rake in money from a certain group nobody wants in their communities, but still has money and influence on the internet. Solution: you just let the players fill in the blanks.

Frankly, this was foreshadowed by PDX allowing mods such as TNO to continue - a mod which explicitly discusses slave labor and genocide, and makes the player an active participant. I'm old enough to remember when even discussing this stuff in a PDX forum could get you permanently banned. Now, we let mod makers create interactive slave-networking experiences in our flagship title, and to become so popular it's practically its own game.

So what to do now? Well, maybe add in events that stress the human cost. When you're any other country, allow the liberation of Concentration camps and war-crimes trials, making clear to the player that the Nazis paid the price for their heinous crimes and that to this day we are still hunting down every last foot-soldier of the conquest-hungry maniac who ran Europe through a bloody meatgrinder.
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Mostrando 166-180 de 246 comentarios
Psycho_Soyer 5 DIC 2024 a las 7:37 
The OP 🤡 really baited the hook and look at all the fish that took the bait.

🙄
Mayer 5 DIC 2024 a las 8:32 
Publicado originalmente por Colonel Death:
LMAO. This is just a game. Relax. And stop using reddit so much. It rots your brain. There is no difference between playing Total War Rome as Rome and WW2 games as Germany. They are basically the main character of the period and thus the most fun.
I disagree that they are comparable. Rome was a ancient city-state which created an empire, because of ambitious generals and mercantile interests. Nazi Germany was a totalitarian state which was founded on revanchism and genocidal intent.

The atrocities of Rome are also in the distant past and far removed from our lifes, which makes them less offensive than the German crimes in WW2.
And Rome Total War did not hold back, you could enslave and exterminate cities with the press of a button and population numbers go down. Paradox would never do this.


Publicado originalmente por Colonel Death:
The only correct thing you said is that there should be more challenge while playing as Germany. As fun as it is to conquer the world as them currently, it would be much better if you had to deal with more resistance and worse economy because you have to upkeep the war crime stuff or risk destabilizing the nazi regime and get ousted etc. Also, enemy AI and terrain weather should be more punishing as well.
That would be a senseful approach, making Germany more accurate in its portrayal and difficult to control for the player. Germany was very lucky in WW2 and it was far from certain that they conquer Central Europe and achieve some of the crazy goals of Mein Kampf. Many contemporaries were making the mistake to deny Hitler's true intentions until it was too late.
Colonel Death 5 DIC 2024 a las 8:50 
Publicado originalmente por Mayer:
Publicado originalmente por Colonel Death:
LMAO. This is just a game. Relax. And stop using reddit so much. It rots your brain. There is no difference between playing Total War Rome as Rome and WW2 games as Germany. They are basically the main character of the period and thus the most fun.
I disagree that they are comparable. Rome was a ancient city-state which created an empire, because of ambitious generals and mercantile interests. Nazi Germany was a totalitarian state which was founded on revanchism and genocidal intent.

The atrocities of Rome are also in the distant past and far removed from our lifes, which makes them less offensive than the German crimes in WW2.
And Rome Total War did not hold back, you could enslave and exterminate cities with the press of a button and population numbers go down. Paradox would never do this.


Publicado originalmente por Colonel Death:
The only correct thing you said is that there should be more challenge while playing as Germany. As fun as it is to conquer the world as them currently, it would be much better if you had to deal with more resistance and worse economy because you have to upkeep the war crime stuff or risk destabilizing the nazi regime and get ousted etc. Also, enemy AI and terrain weather should be more punishing as well.
That would be a senseful approach, making Germany more accurate in its portrayal and difficult to control for the player. Germany was very lucky in WW2 and it was far from certain that they conquer Central Europe and achieve some of the crazy goals of Mein Kampf. Many contemporaries were making the mistake to deny Hitler's true intentions until it was too late.
The Celtic Holocaust by Rome was a thing. Not to mention how many people died in USSR and China. They are really not that different. I feel like some people think that just because a game allows you to do bad things you will become a monster which will hopefully disappear from society in a generation when most grownups are also gamers.

I don't think that you can put it all on luck. You need to put yourself in risky situations to achieve massive success. The problem in HOI4 is that there isn't enough risk. You don't have to leave tanks in France to guard from invasion or have to deal with Russians behind the front lines etc etc. The enemy AI can't even use paratroopers FFS.
Mayer 5 DIC 2024 a las 8:55 
Julius Caesar was a brutal warmonger, but he did not try to exterminate the Celts. In fact, the senate was furious that Caesar promised Roman citizenship to his celtic allies. So totally not comparable.

I swear, everything is called Holocaust these days...
Última edición por Mayer; 5 DIC 2024 a las 8:56
Colonel Death 5 DIC 2024 a las 9:03 
Publicado originalmente por Mayer:
Julius Caesar was a brutal warmonger, but he did not try to exterminate the Celts. In fact, the senate was furious that Caesar promised Roman citizenship to his celtic allies. So totally not comparable.

Everything is called Holocaust these days...
The point I was trying to get across is that it's completely ludicrous to single out the Nazis as significantly worse than other regimes that did terrible things. The only possible result of doing it is people unfamiliar with history not hating other monstrous regimes and leaders enough. And what worries me is that sometimes the elite does it on purpose.
HB 5 DIC 2024 a las 9:15 
Publicado originalmente por Colonel Death:
The Celtic Holocaust by Rome was a thing.

Indeed which is why historians write books about the origins and parallels of Facism and antiquity and Genocide studies use Roman genocides as starting place to learn on what the Fascist built from. https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/109080/1/2018colwilldjphd.pdf and https://www.ojmche.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/OJMCHE_lessonplan_AppropriationOfHistoryByNazis.pdf

Roman holocaust was a common thing, we get the term genocide from R Lemkin* (who coined the term in his legal writings during WW" to articulate the policies of the reich to those they occupied) that became the Genocide laws. He explained Genos, the Tribe, cide to kill was how Rome treated those it deemed not worthy of life even as slaves, for Rome you were either a Roman with a divine right to Rule and mandate from God, to rule over others and to exterminate or enslave those you defeated. Just as did did the nazi philosopher who explained the Reich policyn Alfred Rosenberg declared "History and the mission of the future no longer mean the struggle of class against class, the struggle of church dogma against dogma, but the clash between blood and blood, race and race, people and people."

AH was great admire of the ancient Aryans and used how he understood them ( he thought sparta was wonderful model to use for how the master race treated its helots, helots is the term leading nazis use for the eastern Europeans they planned to enslave, and how they operated. AH "Natural instincts bid all living human beings not merely conquer their enemies but also destroy them. In former days it was the victor's prerogative to destroy tribes, entire peoples."

"ONE of the great mistakes of 1918 was to spare the civil life of the enemy countries, for it is necessary for us Germans to be always at least double the numbers of the peoples of the contiguous countries. We are therefore obliged to destroy at least a third of their inhabitants. The only means is organized underfeeding which in this case is better than machine guns."
Marshal von Rundstedt to the War academy in 43.

Agamemnon: "My dear Menelaus, why are you so chary of taking men's lives? Did the Trojans treat you as handsomely as that when they stayed in your house? No; we are not going to leave a single one of them alive, down to the babies in their mothers' wombs--not even they must live. The whole people must be wiped out of existence, and none be left to think of them and shed a tear."
Homer, Iliad


* R Lemkin "It is for this reason that I took the liberty of inventing the word, "genocide." The term is from the Greek word genes meaning tribe or race and the Latin cide meaning killing. Genocide tragically enough must take its place in the dictionary of the future beside other tragic words like homicide and infanticide."
Última edición por HB; 5 DIC 2024 a las 9:37
HB 5 DIC 2024 a las 9:22 
Publicado originalmente por Mayer:
Julius Caesar was a brutal warmonger, but he did not try to exterminate the Celts. In fact, the senate was furious that Caesar promised Roman citizenship to his celtic allies. So totally not comparable.

I swear, everything is called Holocaust these days...

Before Caesar enters Gaul the population was estimated at 6 million, when he left it was 4 million, so 250,000 a year, Plutarch tells us half were dead, half were now slaves. The celtic religion was banned, these are just 2 examples of genocide. Then came cultural assimilation of those Rome thought fit to become roman, and political assimilation as Romans, thats two more.

Publicado originalmente por Mayer:

The atrocities of Rome are also in the distant past and far removed from our lifes, which makes them less offensive than the German crimes in WW2.

Except that their is no statue of limitation for genocide and crimes against humanity. https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/MC1/MC1-Part1Section5.pdf

Is there no period of history you have a working knowledge about? ior even understand the meaning of what a genocide is?.
Última edición por HB; 5 DIC 2024 a las 10:18
Dedelblute3 5 DIC 2024 a las 12:32 
Publicado originalmente por HB:
cut for brevity
This is getting off topic again. This discussion isn't a genocide measuring contest, it's about Germany in HOI4, not Rome, not Total War Rome, etc.

also yet another ad hominen
Última edición por Dedelblute3; 5 DIC 2024 a las 12:33
Seek and Find 5 DIC 2024 a las 13:07 
Publicado originalmente por Mayer:
Holocaust memorial culture is a big thing in Germany, that is why I said we Germans are painfully aware of our collective guilt. It is viewed as right-wing extremism to try and draw a line (Schlußstrich) and renounce our responsibility for the Holocaust.

Religion is right-wing extremism? Surely you would not deem to infringe on freedom of religion. Granted, most religious people depend on the wolves in the pulpits for their learning and seldom read anything that is out of the scope of their knowledge.

Ezekiel 18:20 The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.

Publicado originalmente por Mayer:
Which is kinda hypocritical of Paradox, because genocides are possible in their game Stellaris. Maybe because it is socially acceptable to purge funny looking aliens as undesirables.

Race =/= Species.
HB 5 DIC 2024 a las 13:48 
Publicado originalmente por Dedelblute3:
This is getting off topic again.

Then quote correctly to the person creating the off topic divergence, which is what happens on nearly every thread on steam, instead of wasting my time as you assumption of moderation powers dont actually exist either.
Publicado originalmente por Dedelblute3:
This discussion isn't a genocide measuring contest, it's about Germany in HOI4, not Rome, not Total War Rome, etc.

This entire thread is posited on 2 posters not knowing what genocide is and thinking its in game as a mechanism.
Publicado originalmente por Dedelblute3:
also yet another ad hominen

Stop posting words you cant use properly, its boring see you embarrass yourself yet again.

Demonstrating for the umpteenth time where he is posting revisionist nonsense after claiming to know about genocide.

An ad hominem argument can be used as a legitimate rhetorical strategy. When the claims made about a person's character are relevant to the discussion or the conclusions being drawn, and they are properly justified, the ad hominem is valid.
Última edición por HB; 5 DIC 2024 a las 14:01
HB 5 DIC 2024 a las 13:53 
Publicado originalmente por Seek and Find:

Ezekiel 18:20 The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.

Romans 5:12-21 works better here.


Publicado originalmente por Mayer:
Which is kinda hypocritical of Paradox, because genocides are possible in their game Stellaris. Maybe because it is socially acceptable to purge funny looking aliens as undesirables.
Publicado originalmente por Seek and Find:
Race =/= Species.

When you dont know what constitutes a human genocide in the first place, its easy to get confused about species that dont exist being covered by human laws for humans. When all the cows had mad cow disease its was cow genocide to Mayer.
Última edición por HB; 5 DIC 2024 a las 13:54
Dedelblute3 5 DIC 2024 a las 16:08 
Publicado originalmente por HB:
Publicado originalmente por Dedelblute3:
This is getting off topic again.

Then quote correctly to the person creating the off topic divergence, which is what happens on nearly every thread on steam, instead of wasting my time as you assumption of moderation powers dont actually exist either.
Fair enough, but your's was the most recent, which is what I typically go for instead of earlier quotes to keep the snip relevant.


Publicado originalmente por HB:
Publicado originalmente por Dedelblute3:
This is getting off topic again.
instead of wasting my time as you assumption of moderation powers dont actually exist either.
Didn't claim I had moderation powers, I was just warning that that quote line was getting off-topic from the actual post and that in the future y'all should probably discontinue that line of reasoning before an actual moderator forces it. And how is it a "waste of your time"? You decided to check back on this discussion page, I'm not forcing you to read my posts under threat of death or anything (Under threat of accusation and scrutiny? Yes. You've already complained about others ignoring your posts, I'll hold you to a standard you yourself set. But if you really thing this is a "waste of [your] time," stop arguing with people :/)

Publicado originalmente por HB:
Publicado originalmente por Dedelblute3:
This discussion isn't a genocide measuring contest, it's about Germany in HOI4, not Rome, not Total War Rome, etc.

This entire thread is posited on 2 posters not knowing what genocide is and thinking its in game as a mechanism.
Except this discussion is not about that, whether you think so or not. It's still not about rome or other genocides, it's about Germany in HOI4.

Publicado originalmente por HB:
Publicado originalmente por Dedelblute3:
also yet another ad hominen
An ad hominem argument can be used as a legitimate rhetorical strategy. When the claims made about a person's character are relevant to the discussion or the conclusions being drawn, and they are properly justified, the ad hominem is valid.
Then back up both your claim that he is attempting to revise history and how that is relevant to this discussion. Not saying it isn't possible, but you have to justify it's inclusion first.

Publicado originalmente por HB:
Stop posting words you cant use properly
I can use them properly. I've done so before - not like you responded the first, second, or third time. In fact, my usage there was still proper, as you yourself implied in your previous quote. You justifying the ad hominen means you believed that I was properly using it, contrary to your claim here.
Publicado originalmente por HB:
its boring see you embarrass yourself yet again.
"boring." That says a lot about why you are actually here; are you really here to discuss and argue over the topic in discussion, or are you here to insult, "educate" others (for having an opinion different to yours), or garner entertainment?


BONUS ROUND
Publicado originalmente por HB:
When all the cows had mad cow disease it was cow genocide to Mayer.
This is not a claim Meyer has made, though I cannot speak for whether Meyer does or does not believe that.
Última edición por Dedelblute3; 5 DIC 2024 a las 16:30
HB 6 DIC 2024 a las 0:26 
Publicado originalmente por Dedelblute3:
Fair enough, but your's was the most recent, which is what I typically go for instead of earlier quotes to keep the snip relevant.

Except it was not, and i followed where others who you ignored, led.

Publicado originalmente por Dedelblute3:
Didn't claim I had moderation powers, I was just warning that that quote line was getting off-topic from the actual post and that in the future y'all should probably discontinue that line of reasoning before an actual moderator forces it.

You tried back seat moderating and while the intent is good, even if not confirming to steam rules, the execution was poor.

Publicado originalmente por Dedelblute3:
And how is it a "waste of your time"? You decided to check back on this discussion page, I'm not forcing you to read my posts under threat of death or anything (Under threat of accusation and scrutiny? Yes. You've already complained about others ignoring your posts, I'll hold you to a standard you yourself set. But if you really thing this is a "waste of [your] time," stop arguing with people :/)

This is Off topic and already explained, reading your off topic back seat moderating content, and misuse use of terms used in debate, which you could not use correctly then but after having the rules explained you have now understood how it works, so there is that has been a positive outcome for you.



Publicado originalmente por Dedelblute3:
Except this discussion is not about that, whether you think so or not. It's still not about rome or other genocides, it's about Germany in HOI4.

Then you have failed to understand the OP ( just a button that swaps "crimes against humanity" for "Gold Reserves" after every conquest. What the hell, Paradox? ) and topic and continue to waste everyone time.

The gold reserve mechanic in game, as i posted the link to PDX explaining it, ( is not about the genocides the Op thinks it is) is an abstraction of Millwards economic explanation of Nazi short war blitkkreig economy that was predicated on not fighting long war of attrition, but short wars that through exploitation of the defeated helped finance the war, he came up with c 60/70% of the cost incurred, being exploited from those being occupied. This economic explanation has been challenged in recent decades by revisionist Russian authors like Kudryashov who argue that economic burden was much lower, at 22%. How you can explain the economics of this means knowing about the cost benefit of the genocides the nazi conducted as its a part of the economic calculations. Mayer replaced the c8 billion with 150 billion, he replaced the 9 million jews exploited with 6 million exterminated, he ignored the $ cost of committing the holocaust almost entirely, only accounting to the $ value the Whermact contributed, instead of what The nazi state spent in total, he replaced data from occupied Europe with all of Europe to further mis represent the data.



Publicado originalmente por Dedelblute3:
Then back up both your claim that he is attempting to revise history and how that is relevant to this discussion. Not saying it isn't possible, but you have to justify it's inclusion first.

Already done so on multiple occasions as they arose in the thread.

Publicado originalmente por Dedelblute3:
I can use them properly. I've done so before - not like you responded the first, second, or third time. In fact, my usage there was still proper, as you yourself implied in your previous quote. You justifying the ad hominen means you believed that I was properly using it, contrary to your claim here.

Sadly no you did not, your a day late and $ short.

Publicado originalmente por Dedelblute3:

BONUS ROUND

This is not a claim Meyer has made, though I cannot speak for whether Meyer does or does not believe that.

its the logic of his beliefs and the outcome of how he expressed his understanding of what a genocide is and the laws of what a genocide is, he thinks any species can havea genocide committed on it, as in his Stellaris explantion of how he understand it. All you had to do was follow the language and logic of what he posted on an OT subject you chose not to back seat moderate, and which i chose to engage in. He then goes onto demonstrate further revisionist views, ie he has no clue about ancient genocides and how the Nazis based/justified themselves on those who committed them
Última edición por HB; 6 DIC 2024 a las 1:12
HB 6 DIC 2024 a las 1:16 
Publicado originalmente por Dedelblute3:
"boring." That says a lot about why you are actually here; are you really here to discuss and argue over the topic in discussion, or are you here to insult, "educate" others (for having an opinion different to yours), or garner entertainment?

.


Opinions based on misrepresenting the facts are boring to read, especially from those who accuse you of being a revisionist, while all the time replacing historical fact with their fictional revisionist nonsense, its just as boring to watch people try a hand, and fail, at back seat moderation or as in your long boring post filled with you not using words correctly i did not engage with, btw choosing not do so is, does not infer that any silence gives assent, another terms you misused in your diatribe of epic proportions. Or fallacy of composition if you prefer.
Última edición por HB; 6 DIC 2024 a las 2:20
HB 6 DIC 2024 a las 1:28 
Publicado originalmente por Pumpgun-Petrus:
Publicado originalmente por HB:
Nazism.https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-2146837a93d10c933104d3eeed22356f

Your link is broken - my vpn says "Invalid URL" - I suspect a copypasta error


edit: *sigh*
ofc- you react with an insult again ...
https://ibb.co/DLZjP64
No I am well able to copy a link.
I mean I dont care if it does not work - I thought you should know that

It works just fine, Nazism. is not a part of the link, link starts at https.

I found by accident you edited your post after it was replied to, the link works when you copy past the link, you failed in that simple task so its no insult to explain the link works just fine , thats simply a statement of fact, and the one unable to copy past it, is you, again a simple statement of fact. Facts are not insulting, they dont care about your feelings.
Última edición por HB; 6 DIC 2024 a las 2:21
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Publicado el: 27 NOV 2024 a las 4:15
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