00:00 Should I buy Götterdämmerung? 00:40 Focus trees fairy dusting 04:40 Focus trees require test runs 07:15 Focus trees uncreative conclusions 08:10 Focus trees lack testing 11:15 Secret projects what is a secret project? 12:00 Secret projects why not as a tech tree? 13:20 Secret projects most new tech are just old tech but bigger 15:15 Breakthrough vs breakthroughs? 15:30 Iterations feel disconnected 17:00 Nukes still feel weak 18:10 Landmarks lack depth 18:55 Raids and strat bomber overlap 19:40 Lategame issues 20:10 Notfications are getting spammy 20:45 UI for rockets is dated 21:15 Götterdämmerung name 22:10 Cost 22:30 Raids are awesome 23:00 Ai changes are awesome 23:35 Historical germany is now awesome
Feedback, try the Degrees of Alternativeness mod for alt history. It has a Soft Alternatives option where the big players like Germany act historically, but the lesser players have some chance of taking an ahistorical path. It creates a game that still flows like it's historical, but there are minor changes that add a bit of novelty.
Dude with the thermonuclear bomb it doesn't matter if they still have stability, if you throw it at something that has an actual army and airforce in the radius (i.e. 3 full provinces) half of everything there is dead. Or in other words, if there are forty divisions in the area and 2000 planes, the enemy has now lost 20 divisions worth of manpower and equipment in addition to 1000 planes, full 2000 if they were in the airport in the original province you hit. They are by far overpowered now. Against players, where in the late game the area of effect can have up to 80 divisions and 6000 aircraft, you are essentially going to kill the equavalent of the Hungarian or Bulgarian military with each hit.
Hey UK Gets a Cruiser Sub and Torpedo Cruiser early , which is really useful and saves time early instead of researching Ship hull teach to get upgrades to get extra slots. The only thing that still gets me is Italy runs out of steal early , like in 6mths . WHich is completely Unhistorical Italy was 7th in steel production during and after ww1 . Today is still ranted rank 11 th . With Natural deposits of Iron Ore in Tuscany, ELba and Piedmon . What held it back was Italy's Infrastructure and coking coal to produce it . Found in Mostly United States, China, Australia, Russia, and Canada all Europeans nations had to Import Even Germany From in those days from US, UK , France or Sweden . I've Said this many Times about the Game. Coal should have been added as Fuel also and you produce steal . Coal also powers your Factory's . And would be separate from Oil . And to get the Oil to turn it into Fuel you have to put a :standard refinery" on the County and selected Gas or Diesel , Diesel requires less oil to make but Gas would give a +20% or so Fuel consumption , to make Gas or Diesel . Synthetic Fuel can be added also Using Coal but would give you a -25% + or - in fuel consumption because of the amount of time and infrastructure it takes to produce it. Would require a Synthetic refinery (New Building ) that cost more work points to build it. And at least Infrastructure 3 or 4? On that County were the coal is. The more Coal you have the faster your production is or the More Factories you can build? Each Factory cost you 1 coal Civ or Mil ?Or it could be Passive like Oil is now ? So you have to make a choice do you want to trade it ? Coal would be a requirement to run your Trains also . No coal no Trains. And the Airplane Cannons are still incorrect. MGs give you Air attack , Interception and Air Superiority . While Canons give Air Attack and Logistics strikes (Mainly Used for to Dispatch Bombers and Trains - They would have a small AP stat). They did fix the Carrier issue , Thank G . Planes remember their mission after servicing so Im not constilly manning my carriers. I know this is Long LOL But this is My Opinion only.
Most of this stuff is just nitpicks, we should talk about the fact that the DLC costs 30$, the fact that the Hungarian focus tree is just a worse version of a mod, and the fact that the DLC was released without being playtested properly, all of these are more important problems than having UI clutter, that dosent mean you are wrong, but there are bigger and more important problems.
@@willholliday3537 Unbelievable having to pay so much for so little, you are paying an average of 7.50 for a single countries focus tree, that is absolutely insane and at most 10 hours of gameplay. I stopped paying for dlcs after waking the tiger and instead used mods.
@adamelestratega 1 dollar for 1 hour is not bad, that go w/o mention that by far you will chunk many more hours, that is more fair to me for consumers and companies rather than live services games or when for one coin you had limited time in the game machines.
Funny, because I don't see any difference in my army's performance for historical Germany than the old focus despite those "debuff", and I don't even go after min-maxing stuff (standard inf, standard tanks, standard air). More than that, having focuses that giving you context and historical flavour is much more appreciated than just straight up gameplay, for me at least.
Honestly as a Hungarian speaking here, I really loved the new dlc especially for the Hungarian content and I do have to say I really enjoy it. Hungary now has so much flavour and fun in it and it is very straight forward so new players can play it without having to watch a 2 hour tutorial about it. The bonuses seem fair to me, you can get quite powerful without having extremely strong national spirits.
@adamelestratega honestly I disagree, my problem with one of the mods is that it just adds way too much focuses and it feels like an eternity to get anywhere
I strongly disagree about the first argument about small bonuses. i believe EVERY focus tree should be made into a way which it makes you stronger not by huge amounts but smaller boosts. thats why as a Polish i really hate Polish focus tree as it feels really bad and old despite being from No step back
I somewhat disagree I think the polish focus tree is great and I thought the german focus tree was very good before the update. The buffs provided in the new tree are still insane, in fact even better than before. You still have amazingly poweful stuff in there, but now you have to click and read through three different focuses and their tradeoffs to get the same buffs. Its not even a balancing thing. You still get the same buffs in the same amount of time, you just need more input from the player. And thats a big issue with this update in general: You just need to do so much more clicking, pay so much more attention to do the same things that you could already do (like researching jets or Dropping nukes)
I'm a bit in the middle when it comes to buffs. There are some nations that are so absurd you feel like you're basically having magic applied to your combat stats. whilst on the flipside there are bonus spirits so trivial it feels like the 35-70d spent doing the focus was a waste of time. It's hard to find a sweet spot between what is too powerful or too trivial.
The problem is pyotr they overburden game. Germany was always hardest to play, now skill level is very deep to play the tree well There are maybe 4 or 5 variables to go through it well. I've seen it played in 8 mp games since release and every time Germany has died. Plus who wants to be chasing 35 day focuses during barb. It's too much
The historical vs non-historical issue is really frustrating. We need a semi-historical mode where the chaos of 4 civil wars starting per month doesn't happen, but nations can still accept or decline your focuses relating to them. An example is the Netherlands NEVER ONCE caving to Germany in historical, making it all a waste of political power.
My opinion on this video is sombody might find it interesting: Newfound is useless. Not true, Newfounland has iron deposits you can discover. Smaller bonuses that add up to big bonuses and specially alow you to choose which things you prefer to be buffed is amazing, and much better thank getting one massive buff for a 70 days focus. Other things I have to disagree that you are just trying to find wrong things where there are not, Big Ben being called Big Ben is normal as even Londoners call the Tower itself Big Ben, and Elizabeth Tower was only given to it in 2012 for The Queens Jubilee, so it would be really innacurate to call it that. I don't really understand why you think 3% political power for having the Big Ben for example is bad? It's just a landmark and it's clearly made as a prestige system, where the more landmarks you have the more buffs you get. Raids are great and have brutal consequences, specially rading the Oil fields in Romania. That can bring the Axis to a halt. And it doesn't overlap at all with normal strat bombing, in Vanilla there's no way as the UK you gonna manage to strat bomb Romania succesfully, you'll need heavy fighters to reach there and have green air and that most likely won't happen until late game, it gives you (historical) ways to interfere in the enemies war machine. Same to try and stop their research in nukes for example. And saying that Gotterdamerung is a bad name as a point is to be honest really hard to understand. And Nukes being weak also makes no sense for me, they are significantly better in every way, and Thermonuclear weapons basically guarantee you winning if you have them and the enemy doesn't. In fact now nukes do have some sense, specially Thermonukes. Only thing I can agree with is that some focuses could have more testing on them. I understand this is all your opinion and I respect it but I don't believe making content for the sake of making content is good at all. This video seems more like "Trying to find wrong things with the DLC" more than a criquite, and specially from big youtubers of HOI4 I would expect good and fair videos, not critquing for the sake of getting views. Still as you said it's always better to critique than to shut up, so if you read this just know that I appriciate your videos, I just believe this video is not up to par. Cheers!
10:00 I declared independence, but if you get 3 important states you can click a decision to declare that you won and can be independent and at peace. They always release dlcs without testing.
Yeah, I'm tired of these streamers acting like that anything new that's not ultra meta is somehow bad...like dude, most people don't play multiplayer with Paradox games, just because YOU are a sweat nerd making money off of this game doesn't mean that your experience is how everyone else's is
I feel like the ai is too aggressive, especially for more casual new players. I just cant seem to win when fighting other majors and allied ai just seems to just fall apart for whatever reason.
I think one of the things that has been completely lost for triple A gaming, paradox and all other publishers, is the point of pricing that you mentioned, 30 dollars may seem pricy or maybe ok for someone that earns that, but they all have completely stopped doing regional pricing for places like Brasil (where i am from) and im not about to drop 100 bucks into a fucking DLC, specially when a new game costs 300 bucks. If it was a DLC as big and impactful as the witcher 3 blood and wine or Shadow of the Erdtree for Elden Ring, ok, but the entire model of monetization for paradox has been played out way too much, every single one of their games turned into just a DLC pumpfest like the sims(go check how much it would cost for you to buy the entire game in any platform)
@@chef4025 my man, your reading comprehention is really bad huh, 30 dollars is the price in USD and i said its 100 in my currency, a new game is at least 300 in my currency in most cases
I think it's around 1000 rupees for the new dlc here in India. I pirated it. There's no way in hell I'm going to pay for that much for a fucking single dlc.
Too be fair it be worst in Turkey since they economy is terrible I've seen Turks complain about the price of games in they country allso I'm not Turkish btw
To put things into perspective, as soon as I played my first two games of this new DLC. I was underwhelmed... Honestly these weapon labs cannot be built in a regional power effectively based off of these costs nor GEN focus. You can expect many to ignore it. Then we agree on the trees I cannot overstate how much I agree with you on playing debuff whackamole, I really hate starting off with negative debuffs out the gate like Italy but it makes sense where it does. I have always appreciated your content and thank you for making me a better player and entertaining me while you generally do it. I feel your content is worth supporting and it is good to see an OG player continuing to play this game.
>Complains about "small bonuses" from focuses >shows Warproduction, objectively one of the very best economic focuses in the game The whole Breakthrough vs Breaktroughs is very minor and looks like you are just looking for stuff to reinforce your position
the biggest for me is the dlc price but also the fact that every dlc the focus reworks get more and more in-depth and leave all the last countries behind. The italian and Soviet trees which were top noch for the last 2 years now pale in comparison to the new german tree. We also need japan , britain and us tree reworks now desperately
I think people either grew with the game or forgot how it was their first time. As someone who has spent 1.2k hours, I can clearly remember thinking how cool it was to be France and try and defend from Germany, just to realize because I didn't understand the tech tree (because IT IS NOT INTUITIVE) I wouldn't be able to defend effectively. The game already is complex, and the game doesn't take your hand to teach you how things work. I totally agree with the video. Why are they adding tech trees on top of tech trees? Why are they adding meaningless bonuses that amount to nothing? Is it because they want it to become a mobile tap tap game? Really, I understand money pays for development but right now, it hasn't made it any more entertaining than its based game.
If you are a cheap ahh guy: For a similar experience for gotterdammerung: Death to dishonor Waking the Tiger These dlcs are already integarted to the base game, so no need to buy gotterdammerung
It should be pointed out (noted) that a lot of the new German focuses that seemingly give smaller buffs take only 35 days to complete whereas in the older German smaller focus tree almost every focus was 70 days, so that needs to be taken into account when pointing out the lower buffs (fairy dusting) in the new enlarged focus tree.
I was disappointed by the new raid system. The Devs promised that we would be able to attack, directly, other countries resources and dams, but most countries don't have a dam, or any kind of raid to do against their resources. I don't expect every country to have a dam (with the exception of the Major ones), but not having a raid when a country is drowning in natural resources is a big relapse in my opinion.
I think the state penalties that got added for nuclear impact makes more sense than the stability, war support, or national level penalties that you suggest. Strat bombing really didn't do much in forcing nations to surrender and pre thermonuclear bombs are debated in their efficacy in reducing national will as it was very likely Japan might have still fought if the USSR did not invade Manchuria along with the nuclear explosions unless the USA used dozens in Japan and in the front lines which it did not have at that time. Forcing surrender by glassing the entire nation would be in the cards with thermonuclear or modern strat bombing campaigns but I think that is outside the scope of Hoi4 since the expectation is for several nukes at best, not the potential of thousands like during the Cold War.
Most of this 'fairy dusting' is a tree making a spirit progressively better, so they don't have focuses that give massive buffs. War production is a focus that gives small boosts because the rest of the focuses before it also give these bonuses, making up a far larger bonus.
About the fairy dust, I agree, aldough sometimes the bonus are good and they seem small due to our perception of quantity... Our brain does not think calculations and math for everything it sees, It relies on fast approximations of "big number and small number"... So I don't feel so bad about fairy dusting except over old focus trees that are objectively obsolete 😅
I am only excited for the DLC because I know the modders will make something great with the new mechanics, l literally do not care about the base game.
AI is still broken IDK how hard is it to write for ai a single rule. I select historic rules and tick historic mode yet every time USA AI deletes Roosevelt and elects Landon
Got my MRBMs with nuclear warheads and the only country that can be forced to surrender with nukes is Japan ... and that as far as i know doesnt even work properly. Edit: the Japan thing works. I just didn't read all the conditions.
With the new dlc i played a USA game and ended my war against japan in late 43 by using the unconditional surrender decision. My casualties in the war was around 10k and japan lost half a million
Its because they don't tell you eveything. If u hover over the decision it says u also need okinawa and Japan must have less than 30 ships. Its really dumb
@@CODELIRIOUS-sy8xz The sad thing that YOU need to hold Okinawa and Iwo Jima I played as Germany and fought Japan. I reduced the fleet and executed the strikes, but since the islands were held by the US instead of me they did not surrender. Fucking BS
@@eyupayaz9858 How did you get nukes in 1943?? The special projects alone take three years, let along the 430 day Nuclear research and the time it takes to build reactors
@@Frontline_view_kaiser I also got nukes by 1943, as the US. I got the bonus for atomic research and had two Nuclear Facilities. Oppy be puttin that work in, lol
I don't quite understand the argument about "Focuses should all have big impacts." If every focus should give these huge buffs, then paradox will have to remove like 50% of the existing ones and increase the time it takes to research these strong focuses to 140 days or something....
I strongly disagree about focuses - they are more than "get bonus/solve problem" button.. They are supposed to tell a story and let you immerse yourself into the world - mustache man had to bribe generals to get their support because he hadn't yet gain absolute power, for example.
My issue with HOI4 is we get new content but older focus trees just get a focus or two. I like the Together for Victory nations and they are badly outdated.
I played a few Austria runs to form Austria-hungary and it felt kinda gimped, i had zero available manpower and went for all options for more manpower and still i couldnt remove germanys chance to anshluss me.
Focus tree thing is so real. İt's just a menial task of clicking and and when focus is done, there is a pop up again, you click and bam you gotta. Click for the next focus. Doing all this when you're also having a war, have to manage things like front lines and invasions, have to move the places etc. And all these pop ups suck.
Dave love your videos, I think you're nitpicking a bit too much here. I love this new expansion. Germany is now even more fun than it was before. Monarchist Germany is even more fun than regular old bad guy Germany. The secret projects are pretty cool. The one problem with them is the really awesome stuff, like supersonic jets and nuclear powered ships come so late that you cant even complete building them until 1950s at which point game is mostly over.
Ahh I didn’t see that video. To rate it as “mixed” because of these relatively minor things seems a bit harsh is more my point. Keep up the great content! Cant wait to see more exploit videos based on new mechanics!
@@rollando2000 So I realize you are trolling. However, with that said. The thumbnail of the video literally says "mixed" in the steam formatted text. Dave then proceeds to go through nitpicking the focus trees about relatively minor issues of bonuses not being significant enough or things not fully flushed out. This suggests when taken in context with the thumbnail that he feels the expansion is in fact "mixed." Maybe try not trolling people who openly support and thank Dave for his great content. Read the comment fully instead of just trying to shitpost. I clearly state he does great work and keep up the content. Constructive criticism helps make future content better.
I basically only use super heavy howitzer and that's if I have the economy to support it, I just don't really play beyond 1942-3 unless it's for a pesky achievement I couldn't get earlier, entire wunderwaffe just seems wasted in that regard
The bigger trees the less meaningfull each part has to be, to not to be OP… That is why i did like old Italy. Powerfull and small, so good for beginning player. But people wants to have huge trees, so this is what we get from it.
well it depends most older tress was. there is the start here focus that then split into 3 parts. Fascism , Democrat, communism and that is (one of them might in some contires be exchanged for unaligned). then there was a industry section and war section + navy(if costal nation) and that it. today the big trees. you can go Democratic Neutral/isolationist, Democratic actively working to go to war, Fascism , Fascism but against Hittler( even though HOI4 had 4 Types of Fascism they are never used). then we got stuff that make each nation different. before if the US, soviet, China, Japan, Germany all was Communism they all play the same... today even if all 5 was communism they all play different. China got internal struggles so you can´t move 50% of your army of mainland China or bandit starts to cause problem. the US have the Navy Destroyer escort expectation to small navy and it loses Political power income and if it drops even more... well stability drops because trade is threatened. Russia got stalin paranoia deal whit it. Germany got economy in shamble get it running again but don't overcharge it or it will explode on you.
Big trees are good, they offer more flexibility with bonuses that can be blocked off behind conditions Each bonus is smaller, but there are more of them so they add up regardless You can add more conditions as rewards like in the German tree with the focuses relating to subjects so you actually have to do something to unlock more bonuses beyond the easily available ones A small tree needs to be easy and achievable enough for that to not be an issue, or else you would be stuck trying to complete a single focus that gives a big bonus On the other hand, if it's too easy the big bonus is basically free Bigger tree = more opportunities for a larger selection of choices
Old Italy was one of the least played countries in the game, now its one of the most played. You can feel how you want but short trees with long and unrewarding focuses just arent as good and arent as fun.
Yeah but the old Italy tree literally had nothing to do, I’ve played Italy so many times because you have so many options as Italy, if you want to learn the game go as USA, but you gotta remember the player base wants big trees because how many times can you play classic Italy, running out of meaningful focuses by probably 41.
i like playing littel nations .... but they have only negative interactions whit this dlc . big nations can build this expansive building whitout problems but small nations ? .... totaly sad
i also feel a bit sad about the fact that no matter how big you become as a minor nation, you are never going to be able to catch up with major nations tech, simply because your number of researchers is lower. especially if you have so many different techs for navy, tanks, planes. it feels terrible to stick with an unoptimised design..
I think the thing people in the comments keep forgetting is that everyone plays hoi4 in a different way. Some are min-maxers, others are roleplayers, others still just enjoy a chilled out game where everything is predictable and perfect so they can gobble gobble in peace while the rest of the world tears itself apart. I personally prefer roleplaying in the form of in-depth micromanagement of troops, navies, geopolitics etc. so I really like complex mechanics were you have to actually give something to get something - make concessions for land instead of just magically getting it from a 70 day focus for example. I also HATE HATE HATE how you have to capitulate 3 majors just to get like 3 states in the desert, especially when the majors have bigger fish to fry in the form of a massive 3 way world war. There needs to be a working white peace mechanic that isn't just scripted in situationally, maybe accompanying the addition of war weariness at low war support, which increases the chance for AI to accept peace. I just wish AI diplomacy was more reasonable and just gave you the chance to expand a mini-empire in peace. Regarding the DLC - it's pretty good in my opinion. German civil war is less of a done deal for the AI (Mackensen has to work harder) and Austria exists as more than just a rump state for Germany to gobble. I also like the flavour changes where states change names depending on who owns them. Honestly haven't done much yet but overall I'm satisfied with the DLC so far. Not worth 21 quid for sure, was a bit misled by the reviews there, but not a major gripe. DLC is a bit buggy unfortunately - hope they fix that soon.
What I feel personnaly is that paradox was like "Ok guys this is the new Germany, it's the biggest and best tree we've ever done, it's so amazing we had to create special unique mecanics to make sure you're not lost" but... idk why, I feel like this is a mid focus tree, sure it's quite good you can have fun but honestly it is still the same boring "annex austria and czechoslovakia, declare on poland, defeat the allies, turn to the soviet -> the end". And really, for me the soviet and italian focus trees are still better and have more flavour. Even the south american trees despite being unecessary and way too expensive feel less boring and I don't know why.
I really like the dlc over all but I feel like some of the wonder weapons are too good/ too easy to get. I also agree that having to do trial runs on new focus trees is getting a bit annoying.
00:40 Meh. I like the smaller ones better. It gives more versatility in what I want to do. 6:00 Yeah, it sucks. Especially because they actually did it for Austria. 07:15 What else do you want in a war game than Rule your corner of the world? 08:10 Y-yeah... that's what Early access is. It's the "We made this, it's not crashing, you can play it now but it's not polished up yet." 11:15 I don't mind the late game techs getting moved to Special Projects. It makes sense and they don't suck now. 11:14 Yeah. That's how it works. All military progress is about making bigger gun or making gun go bigger boom. What do you want, laser swords? 21:45 Just call it Ragnarok, if you don't like the German pronunciation.
The alerts don't go ontop of the invasion alerts. So I get an alert I can't read when there is a shitton of naval invasions in italy. I find that annoying
One problem I have with the dlc is the cool tech you can research like missile subs and modern carriers also require you to have for carriers at least 1944 carriers researched so by the time you research that the game is over. Missile subs seem possible even if just with basic ballistic missiles but still that's cool for WW2
I feel like the current focus tree would be better if they had more 35 day focuses especially for things that have such minor bonuses because 70days just to get one 5% bonus for something is really annoying
I agree with you about the research projects, but I really like the idea of the on map research centres. I would love to see something like a hi-bred between Black Ice and the experimental facilities in Götterdämmerung. So you would get a number of facilities in your core starting territory, that are specialized like in BICE that could be raided to steal tech or disrupt progress. Then as you said, move the special projects into the tech tree with sizable research times. You could also incorporate the scientist that have different specialties for added bonus.
Been noticing very significant increases in lag even in mid-game now, especially when playing MP even on 3 or 4 speed, by 1940 it's so laggy that it is painful to play. Before this DLC i could easily go to 44 or 45 with no serious lag issues.
As a casual player, I feel very dumb after this DLC. On normal difficulty, I can’t win against China, Germany, Britain, or the Soviet Union anymore regardless of what i play as. The AI is too challenging for casual players, especially in historical games. Additionally, major powers seem to receive significant buffs to their militaries now, making them literal powerhouses. I miss a casual AI I had a fighting chance against... :(
As for the price, I only play vanilla around when dlcs release so 15 dollars for a temporary ownership is perfectly fine (tbh they probably price them so high so people take the subscription)
the real issues if the dlc is the same old one were they buff you into not fun. I never like those buffs like "italian red army = + 35% attack", they just don't make sense. Small buffs are ok, because realistically a different law or ideology will have a small impact, not a 30% one
the one thing i noticed is that the guarantee machanic has changed the uk / france will now do it where tension is very low and not just over 25%. but other than that theres some interesting stuff in this update.
I like the new special research researching way more, It's pretty unique and more realistic as the way that research works is sort of like real design, unlike the actual focus tree which is just "press research and wait", in my opinion W, It's also cool for RP reasons I guess like you having a hand in how those techs get developed to some extent. And we can just call it GTD or GD (Geometry Dash lmao)
Hey feedback, what was the 240 mm M1 but a ludicrously big artillery piece? Of course some of these special projects are gonna be just “the bigger badder version” because a lot of countries were looking for just that exact criteria
definitely not super happy with the free patch (i didn't buy the dlc). nukes are just harder to use and the only special projects you seem to get access to are either things that already exist (nukes, jets, radio) which are again just harder to get now, or super niche stuff like cruiser subs. you also have the land warfare facility which unlocks land research projects. although it actually unlocks land research project (singular) because there is only one single project available in the base game, which makes the idea of building an entire facility for it and hiring land research guys seem super silly. the whole system feels incredibly pointless for the base game and I kinda wish it was just kept as a dlc only feature with the base game research trees unaffected. also I really liked the old german focus tree so the new one does not feel like that much of a step up over the old one.
I am going to have to disagree hard with you on putting the special projects in a separate tech tree. I think it's great that it's integrated with the tech tree. If anything, I think we don't have enough of them and more of the slightly special engineering parts of the war can be put in a special project. Why is rocket artillery not a special project for example? Currently you don't use it because you have to research artillery first and won't produce it until 1940 anyway. Would be much cooler if it was available through a project already in 1936. There's also too little land projects compared to the rest.
I got the dlc subscription since I'm a couple behind, but its $5 per month, which doesn't sound like a lot but for stellaris it was only $3, so a significant % increase
I totally agree with you on Congo. It would be great that if the shared focus tree Is for whatever country you're a puppet or landlord of. Linking the focus tree only with Belgium is mental.
The german tree is severely underwhelming, it runs out of content way, way quicker than the soviet tree does, speaking about historical paths here, austrian is maybe a bit better, but nothing special too, if you compare these new trees to recently added updates in road to 56, they are really boring and not engaging at all, especially since i think Italian and Soviet trees were way, way better. Special Projects are inceredibly boring and annoying, just another pop-up at the top of the screen that you have to basically ignore, the raids that dont change much, if anythin at all, are announced like a end of the world. Im really dissapointed by this dlc
I agree with all your points but the Congo one definitely resonates with me. I wish there was a “local war.” Kind of system where major powers can’t get involved such as the Spanish civil war except it applies to people in a faction. The fact Congo declaring independence can cause them to draw the ire of all of the allies is both unrealistic and not fun.
If u want a mostly historical game outside of leaving historical on you can just make a game preset that has the majors all following their normal focus tree
i feel like this with most dlcs that come to the game. every one of them add a mechanic that complicates the game for nearly no reason that i have to have a base understanding of or else the ai runs me down for ignoring it. love them game but it only goes for 8-12 years before its over. a lot of these dlcs feel like eu4 or stellaris styled dlcs that over 50-100 years, would make a massive difference, but under the hoi4 timeframe most of the things that have been added don’t matter enough i feel.
I feel like the focus trees are about story telling and building up over time. The small bonuses are good cumulatively which is he point you’re building towards something.
I haven't play enough of the DLC to really give much of an opinion, but if you play historical Congo you become independent when Belgium capitulates. Idk if that is new but it was very abrupt because I was just messing around with the joint focus tree and I am suddenly locked out of it.
I 100% with you on the design of special projects. Really cool feature, but messily designed. I play on quite a small screen so it is often difficult to see when I have a breakthrough and how many of them I have
I am loving playing commie Austria and trying to beat Anschluss. It's perfect for my skill level (intermediate, im like 20 tries in and almost held last try). I can't make use of a single special project, which is sad.
Notifications are getting annoying and its ridiculous that i get an urgent notification that my manpower is low, even though I have 500k in reserve along with another 100k in the training pool
Before the DLC I thought the special projects would speed up research a bit by removing some technologies from the "normal" tree to the special projects (like have a new research slot), but then I realized that, no, you still have to research the extra stuff after the special project is done. Scientists do give research bonuses and random boosts, so I would be very curious now to see if research got faster or slower on average with this DLC. I would honestly like if every nation started with +1 research slot at this point because I feel that we have so many more individual techs to research now compared to older patches. And that's not just because this DLC, the major DLC that introduced tank, ship, and air designers all add more techs as a whole. So I get the "you have to choose your build" argument, but it seems that more often than not you will just not touch an entire branch of techs unless you go very late game. Plus, more tech might make the AI nation a bit more interesting and varied too.
It made the German AI eat rocks and i feel like paradox changed something about the viability of certain templates because my standard infantry template is now regularly losing a 2/1 K/d ratio eventhough it pretty much was the other way around before the update. That and naval invasions have become WAAAAY harder. Even if you DO land you often get reïnforce memed back into the sea.
idk what your talking about, literally if you struggle with a naval invasion, you should send paratroopers as well or use actual MARINES Also air superiority is kind of important to gain naval superiority and helps alot in battles, do keep in mind that submarines and destroyers barely give any naval superiority nowadays so you should build more light and heavy cruisers
what‘s your infantry template? 6/1 is the highest ratio of artillery recommendable compared to infantry due to artillery facilitating org loss. anti air is in most cases sufficient anti tank, add it to every unit. get air superiority. maximize entrenchment and reconnaissance. keep supply and do encirclements. you should do better than AI on normal difficulty that way
im glad im not the only one how i feel about all of these things in top of the staggering price tag for this content (even if you bought the expansion pass - which i did - still too expensive for this slop)
I see what you're saying. I agree with a few things. Especially from the landmarks. The bonuses only affect the nation who owns it the start of the game anyway
For the name, im just pissed it's a single (german) word instead of a 3 words phrase. I call Battle for Bosphorus BfB for instance. Now i call this one (which i cant even word entirely lmao) GOT.
I very much dislike fact that there is so much to research as well. As Germany, there is no way to research Industry, Air Force, Navy, Army, and Special Troops equally. It’s not realistic and quite frustrating. The early versions of HOI4 you could be up to date with research and maybe only lag behind in one category, but I can’t even fully research tanks as Germany and have up to date guns for my Army. They claim it’s about “making difficult choices” but having to choose between having a tank of a ship isn’t very realistic to real WW2. They could balance it with a rubber band effect where it become easier to research certain things when others in the world discover them as a major power.
One of the main things I don’t like about Germany’s new tree are the buffs further down the focus tree. Some of the later focuses are cool for RP, but at that point in the game you’ve likely defeated France and have a massive economy. I already have no problem with production so some of the industry buffs feel like useless overkill
I only really agree with the criticism of the pricepoint - though this expansion adds some of the biggest features and seems to have made the AI so much better, which is likely why most people can live with it - and the nukes. At least against the AI nukes should be basically a WinCon to beat a nation into submission, like it happened literally the one time they were ever used. Regarding the Focus Trees, I find several small bonus gained by 35 Day decisions is much more fun (and feels a lot more like a "realistic" progression) than having to grind for 200+ days to get to one huge buff. Splitting Secret Projects off also makes sense imho, as the cost for it is much bigger than having it just be part of a focus tree. You need to build expensive facilities, hire scientists, gain breakthrough points (which might influence your Tech tree decisions) and then spend a consequential amount of raw materials and time to gain them. It's exactly how I think something like this should be - a deliberate decision you make in a run that you work towards these - or not. In general, I think just having more choices is a net benefit. Whether it's raid vs. regular strat bombing, Secret Superweapons vs. regular tech or a bloadted focus tree with a lot of small 35 day decisions.
And you also cannot form the European Union as Germany because you can’t kill off Luxembourg, they won’t join the Allies and you don’t have a war goal on them as democratic germany so I’m not sure if these focuses have been tested at all
FYI if you don't go democratic but go non aligned then you can via the Schlieffen plan focus but I agree very frustrating since democratic you can't justify. I usually don't play with ironman nowadays due to small issues such as that or RNG
i agree with the special projects. Every special project, that requires an other project or is just a smaller change of an existing tech should be put in the tech tree. To research them you could make the facilities necessary and make the research time shorter, depending how many you have. The special project as the are now should be only for stand alone tech or more gimiky tech, like the landcruiser. And make it so that for every facility you have, you can research one special project, if multiple research one project it is done faster.
The 30 GBP price is more for the whole content that's coming out this year and not just GD alone. So the country pack for central asia in 2025 and those 3D models further in the year. I think that's why the community isn't fussed about the price. But GD alone is 22 GBP which okay is defo more pricy if you buy it alone, but I guess PDX wants people to buy the package, like they do in CK3.
Honestly this feels like another DLC I just wont buy. I didnt buy the South American DLC either since I just cant justify the price with the content. I dont think the trees are all that interesting - no better than mods at least, not 25 bucks interesting - and the basic functionality of most new features which honestly should be part of the base game are included in the free updates. So what am I missing? A few trees that I dont care about mostly for nations I dont play and a few locked off mechanics like expanded special forces or International Market. But I've been playing without them for years now, so I dont care and I dont feel that those elements alone justify the huge prices they put on them. Paradox needs to revise its pricing badly. Charging such high prices for what are essentially country packs with a new mechanic thrown in is simply not justifiable today. For nearly 30 bucks I'd expect maybe the last few DLCs combined together at the very least. I get the HOI team isnt the largest and thats fine, but dont then extort us for the small amount of output that many modders have been doing for free for years. Either expand the scope and justify these new game prices or respect the DLC size and price accordingly.
No... I think the $25 price tag on this DLC is stupid and insane. I also think it's just to push people into the $37 expansion pass bs. I haven't bought any of the previous cosmetic bs and didn't want this one either, but they're wrapping this DLC and the next country pack into it which will also cost $15-20. So... technically I'm getting a 'deal,' but I probably should have just waited for a Steam Sale and picked up the DLC solo. It's been getting rave reviews on Steam (80%+) and RUclips content people, so I just decided to go ahead and splurge since it looked and sounded fun. But I've been struggling with a lot of the same things you're mentioning in this video. Not the getting to end game since I don't tend to instant capitulate like a lot of the content creators do (lack of interest in min/maxing divisions and equipment as well as microing every single division's attack/movement) or the laggy part since my computer's pretty good, but the rest is pretty spot on for how I would voice my critiques. It also wouldn't surprise if the next country pack (Graveyard) is a hot piece of garbage not worth the expected $15-20 asking price and I'll feel even more ripped off by the expansion pass bs. Don't get me wrong, it's worthwhile, but it's not phenomenal. If you have spare cash you can throw at the game, go for it, but if you're fence sitting, just wait for a 30%+ sale on it.
I agree with some of these points, but also feel like others come down to teething issues with new systems. I agree with the focus trees not being very impactful at times and it would be nice to see that improved. The new research system I personally really like the idea of and while it isn't quite where it should be I am happy they tried something different here. I feel like it would have been easy for them to just make a new tech tree slot. As for Nukes, I think that each atomic nuke should hit your stability by 5% but the thermonuclear bombs should do 15% to your stability. However it can't bring your base stability bellow say 20%.
00:00 Should I buy Götterdämmerung?
00:40 Focus trees fairy dusting
04:40 Focus trees require test runs
07:15 Focus trees uncreative conclusions
08:10 Focus trees lack testing
11:15 Secret projects what is a secret project?
12:00 Secret projects why not as a tech tree?
13:20 Secret projects most new tech are just old tech but bigger
15:15 Breakthrough vs breakthroughs?
15:30 Iterations feel disconnected
17:00 Nukes still feel weak
18:10 Landmarks lack depth
18:55 Raids and strat bomber overlap
19:40 Lategame issues
20:10 Notfications are getting spammy
20:45 UI for rockets is dated
21:15 Götterdämmerung name
22:10 Cost
22:30 Raids are awesome
23:00 Ai changes are awesome
23:35 Historical germany is now awesome
Feedback, try the Degrees of Alternativeness mod for alt history. It has a Soft Alternatives option where the big players like Germany act historically, but the lesser players have some chance of taking an ahistorical path.
It creates a game that still flows like it's historical, but there are minor changes that add a bit of novelty.
I honestly prefer the way that nukes work in equestria at war. In that mod the nukes when dropped actually feel like they have an impact and are bad.
Dude with the thermonuclear bomb it doesn't matter if they still have stability, if you throw it at something that has an actual army and airforce in the radius (i.e. 3 full provinces) half of everything there is dead. Or in other words, if there are forty divisions in the area and 2000 planes, the enemy has now lost 20 divisions worth of manpower and equipment in addition to 1000 planes, full 2000 if they were in the airport in the original province you hit. They are by far overpowered now. Against players, where in the late game the area of effect can have up to 80 divisions and 6000 aircraft, you are essentially going to kill the equavalent of the Hungarian or Bulgarian military with each hit.
😊😅😅😊
Hey UK Gets a Cruiser Sub and Torpedo Cruiser early , which is really useful and saves time early instead of researching Ship hull teach to get upgrades to get extra slots.
The only thing that still gets me is Italy runs out of steal early , like in 6mths . WHich is completely Unhistorical Italy was 7th in steel production during and after ww1 . Today is still ranted rank 11 th . With Natural deposits of Iron Ore in Tuscany, ELba and Piedmon . What held it back was Italy's Infrastructure and coking coal to produce it . Found in Mostly United States, China, Australia, Russia, and Canada all Europeans nations had to Import Even Germany From in those days from US, UK , France or Sweden .
I've Said this many Times about the Game.
Coal should have been added as Fuel also and you produce steal . Coal also powers your Factory's . And would be separate from Oil . And to get the Oil to turn it into Fuel you have to put a :standard refinery" on the County and selected Gas or Diesel , Diesel requires less oil to make but Gas would give a +20% or so Fuel consumption , to make Gas or Diesel .
Synthetic Fuel can be added also Using Coal but would give you a -25% + or - in fuel consumption because of the amount of time and infrastructure it takes to produce it. Would require a Synthetic refinery (New Building ) that cost more work points to build it. And at least Infrastructure 3 or 4? On that County were the coal is. The more Coal you have the faster your production is or the More Factories you can build? Each Factory cost you 1 coal Civ or Mil ?Or it could be Passive like Oil is now ? So you have to make a choice do you want to trade it ? Coal would be a requirement to run your Trains also . No coal no Trains.
And the Airplane Cannons are still incorrect. MGs give you Air attack , Interception and Air Superiority . While Canons give Air Attack and Logistics strikes (Mainly Used for to Dispatch Bombers and Trains - They would have a small AP stat).
They did fix the Carrier issue , Thank G . Planes remember their mission after servicing so Im not constilly manning my carriers.
I know this is Long LOL But this is My Opinion only.
Most of this stuff is just nitpicks, we should talk about the fact that the DLC costs 30$, the fact that the Hungarian focus tree is just a worse version of a mod, and the fact that the DLC was released without being playtested properly, all of these are more important problems than having UI clutter, that dosent mean you are wrong, but there are bigger and more important problems.
I can't believe how expensive the DLC is.
Austria Redone will always be superior to whatever Paradox puts out for Austria imo
@@domena1007 same with Hungary expanded to be honest.
@@willholliday3537 Unbelievable having to pay so much for so little, you are paying an average of 7.50 for a single countries focus tree, that is absolutely insane and at most 10 hours of gameplay.
I stopped paying for dlcs after waking the tiger and instead used mods.
@adamelestratega 1 dollar for 1 hour is not bad, that go w/o mention that by far you will chunk many more hours, that is more fair to me for consumers and companies rather than live services games or when for one coin you had limited time in the game machines.
Funny, because I don't see any difference in my army's performance for historical Germany than the old focus despite those "debuff", and I don't even go after min-maxing stuff (standard inf, standard tanks, standard air). More than that, having focuses that giving you context and historical flavour is much more appreciated than just straight up gameplay, for me at least.
agreed
Honestly as a Hungarian speaking here, I really loved the new dlc especially for the Hungarian content and I do have to say I really enjoy it. Hungary now has so much flavour and fun in it and it is very straight forward so new players can play it without having to watch a 2 hour tutorial about it. The bonuses seem fair to me, you can get quite powerful without having extremely strong national spirits.
Even the communist path is quiet fun(going for attempt #3 for the achievement).
My only problem with it how they still messes up the historical accuracy... why Szálasi the leader of the Magyar Nemzeti Szocialista Párt? Paradox!
My main problem with the Hungarian focus tree is that there is a mod that just adds more things and thats just straight up better
@adamelestratega honestly I disagree, my problem with one of the mods is that it just adds way too much focuses and it feels like an eternity to get anywhere
“Flavor” is such a useless reddit term that means nothing.
I strongly disagree about the first argument about small bonuses. i believe EVERY focus tree should be made into a way which it makes you stronger not by huge amounts but smaller boosts. thats why as a Polish i really hate Polish focus tree as it feels really bad and old despite being from No step back
I somewhat disagree
I think the polish focus tree is great and I thought the german focus tree was very good before the update.
The buffs provided in the new tree are still insane, in fact even better than before. You still have amazingly poweful stuff in there, but now you have to click and read through three different focuses and their tradeoffs to get the same buffs.
Its not even a balancing thing. You still get the same buffs in the same amount of time, you just need more input from the player.
And thats a big issue with this update in general: You just need to do so much more clicking, pay so much more attention to do the same things that you could already do (like researching jets or Dropping nukes)
@@Frontline_view_kaiser the german tree was awful before, the alt hist was bland and awful and the tree as a whole was unrewarding, boring, and slow
I'm a bit in the middle when it comes to buffs. There are some nations that are so absurd you feel like you're basically having magic applied to your combat stats. whilst on the flipside there are bonus spirits so trivial it feels like the 35-70d spent doing the focus was a waste of time. It's hard to find a sweet spot between what is too powerful or too trivial.
Yeah you kinda need a middle ground tbh
The problem is pyotr they overburden game. Germany was always hardest to play, now skill level is very deep to play the tree well
There are maybe 4 or 5 variables to go through it well. I've seen it played in 8 mp games since release and every time Germany has died. Plus who wants to be chasing 35 day focuses during barb. It's too much
The historical vs non-historical issue is really frustrating. We need a semi-historical mode where the chaos of 4 civil wars starting per month doesn't happen, but nations can still accept or decline your focuses relating to them. An example is the Netherlands NEVER ONCE caving to Germany in historical, making it all a waste of political power.
My opinion on this video is sombody might find it interesting:
Newfound is useless. Not true, Newfounland has iron deposits you can discover.
Smaller bonuses that add up to big bonuses and specially alow you to choose which things you prefer to be buffed is amazing, and much better thank getting one massive buff for a 70 days focus.
Other things I have to disagree that you are just trying to find wrong things where there are not, Big Ben being called Big Ben is normal as even Londoners call the Tower itself Big Ben, and Elizabeth Tower was only given to it in 2012 for The Queens Jubilee, so it would be really innacurate to call it that. I don't really understand why you think 3% political power for having the Big Ben for example is bad? It's just a landmark and it's clearly made as a prestige system, where the more landmarks you have the more buffs you get.
Raids are great and have brutal consequences, specially rading the Oil fields in Romania. That can bring the Axis to a halt. And it doesn't overlap at all with normal strat bombing, in Vanilla there's no way as the UK you gonna manage to strat bomb Romania succesfully, you'll need heavy fighters to reach there and have green air and that most likely won't happen until late game, it gives you (historical) ways to interfere in the enemies war machine. Same to try and stop their research in nukes for example.
And saying that Gotterdamerung is a bad name as a point is to be honest really hard to understand.
And Nukes being weak also makes no sense for me, they are significantly better in every way, and Thermonuclear weapons basically guarantee you winning if you have them and the enemy doesn't. In fact now nukes do have some sense, specially Thermonukes.
Only thing I can agree with is that some focuses could have more testing on them.
I understand this is all your opinion and I respect it but I don't believe making content for the sake of making content is good at all. This video seems more like "Trying to find wrong things with the DLC" more than a criquite, and specially from big youtubers of HOI4 I would expect good and fair videos, not critquing for the sake of getting views.
Still as you said it's always better to critique than to shut up, so if you read this just know that I appriciate your videos, I just believe this video is not up to par. Cheers!
Sounds like we half agree
@FeedbackIRL Yes I do agree with you on some points, and DLC definitely has some issues.
@@FeedbackIRLthat's what you got from this? Sounds like he disagreed with you on most points
10:00 I declared independence, but if you get 3 important states you can click a decision to declare that you won and can be independent and at peace. They always release dlcs without testing.
It's almost like he has no idea what he's talking about and complaining about nothing.
About the Götterdämmerung name, they could just translate it. "Twilight of the Gods" (TOG) is a pretty heavy metal.
Would also stop literally everyone failing to pronounce it.
whats the matter? just learn german i'm perfectly fine with pronouncing it :D
How about Ragnarök?
I think it sounds even more heavy metal in German than in English. Even more so if you pronounce it with a caricature form of German in full caps
It feel like he's complaining about a lot of nothing.
The newfoundland and Labrador Transfer Focus might not be meaningfull gameplaywise, but for me as a roleplayer it is still huge
the steel for canada makes a diff as well imo
@@sh1tbombthere‘s also a steal decisio. requiring 25pp and resource extraction II to get 8 steel in Shanxi, the northern province now
Thing is
If something is too weak to be a focus, it can just be a decision
I like my doggos too
Realized I disagree about everything you noted, interesting lol.
Hay it sounds like you made a good purchase!
For the most part I agree
Is it possible ur just burnt out or bored of rhe game after playing thousands of hours since it came out?
Exactly
Yeah, I'm tired of these streamers acting like that anything new that's not ultra meta is somehow bad...like dude, most people don't play multiplayer with Paradox games, just because YOU are a sweat nerd making money off of this game doesn't mean that your experience is how everyone else's is
@@ChristoffRevanexcept feedbackgaming has stated he doesn’t like multiplayer.
What really annoys me is how many things got broken for those who didn't buy the DLC, at this point just playing the older version is better
I feel like the ai is too aggressive, especially for more casual new players. I just cant seem to win when fighting other majors and allied ai just seems to just fall apart for whatever reason.
skill issue
I think one of the things that has been completely lost for triple A gaming, paradox and all other publishers, is the point of pricing that you mentioned, 30 dollars may seem pricy or maybe ok for someone that earns that, but they all have completely stopped doing regional pricing for places like Brasil (where i am from) and im not about to drop 100 bucks into a fucking DLC, specially when a new game costs 300 bucks.
If it was a DLC as big and impactful as the witcher 3 blood and wine or Shadow of the Erdtree for Elden Ring, ok, but the entire model of monetization for paradox has been played out way too much, every single one of their games turned into just a DLC pumpfest like the sims(go check how much it would cost for you to buy the entire game in any platform)
A new game costs 300 dollars in Brazil??? Holy fuck. Is that in your currency, or like comparatively to your average income in usd
@@chef4025 my man, your reading comprehention is really bad huh, 30 dollars is the price in USD and i said its 100 in my currency, a new game is at least 300 in my currency in most cases
I think it's around 1000 rupees for the new dlc here in India. I pirated it.
There's no way in hell I'm going to pay for that much for a fucking single dlc.
lmao, tell me, an argentinian. Been pirating the game just to play, and using the steam version to get mods
Too be fair it be worst in Turkey since they economy is terrible I've seen Turks complain about the price of games in they country allso I'm not Turkish btw
To put things into perspective, as soon as I played my first two games of this new DLC. I was underwhelmed... Honestly these weapon labs cannot be built in a regional power effectively based off of these costs nor GEN focus. You can expect many to ignore it. Then we agree on the trees I cannot overstate how much I agree with you on playing debuff whackamole, I really hate starting off with negative debuffs out the gate like Italy but it makes sense where it does.
I have always appreciated your content and thank you for making me a better player and entertaining me while you generally do it. I feel your content is worth supporting and it is good to see an OG player continuing to play this game.
it wasnt named the elizabeth tower until 2012
>Complains about "small bonuses" from focuses
>shows Warproduction, objectively one of the very best economic focuses in the game
The whole Breakthrough vs Breaktroughs is very minor and looks like you are just looking for stuff to reinforce your position
the biggest for me is the dlc price
but also the fact that every dlc the focus reworks get more and more in-depth and leave all the last countries behind.
The italian and Soviet trees which were top noch for the last 2 years now pale in comparison to the new german tree. We also need japan , britain and us tree reworks now desperately
i never know where to start with these gigantic trees, it’s really hard to figure out where to allocate stuff before the war starts,
are you serious? just play the game for couple of times, why is this such a big deal for people
@@DenienNeither they have no idea of the concept of replayability or they never played HOI3 Black ICE 😅
Industry first and political second just like EVERYONE does
I never found these focus trees hard to understand at all they're pretty easy
I think people either grew with the game or forgot how it was their first time. As someone who has spent 1.2k hours, I can clearly remember thinking how cool it was to be France and try and defend from Germany, just to realize because I didn't understand the tech tree (because IT IS NOT INTUITIVE) I wouldn't be able to defend effectively. The game already is complex, and the game doesn't take your hand to teach you how things work. I totally agree with the video. Why are they adding tech trees on top of tech trees? Why are they adding meaningless bonuses that amount to nothing? Is it because they want it to become a mobile tap tap game? Really, I understand money pays for development but right now, it hasn't made it any more entertaining than its based game.
If you are a cheap ahh guy:
For a similar experience for gotterdammerung:
Death to dishonor
Waking the Tiger
These dlcs are already integarted to the base game, so no need to buy gotterdammerung
It should be pointed out (noted) that a lot of the new German focuses that seemingly give smaller buffs take only 35 days to complete whereas in the older German smaller focus tree almost every focus was 70 days, so that needs to be taken into account when pointing out the lower buffs (fairy dusting) in the new enlarged focus tree.
I was disappointed by the new raid system. The Devs promised that we would be able to attack, directly, other countries resources and dams, but most countries don't have a dam, or any kind of raid to do against their resources. I don't expect every country to have a dam (with the exception of the Major ones), but not having a raid when a country is drowning in natural resources is a big relapse in my opinion.
I think the state penalties that got added for nuclear impact makes more sense than the stability, war support, or national level penalties that you suggest.
Strat bombing really didn't do much in forcing nations to surrender and pre thermonuclear bombs are debated in their efficacy in reducing national will as it was very likely Japan might have still fought if the USSR did not invade Manchuria along with the nuclear explosions unless the USA used dozens in Japan and in the front lines which it did not have at that time.
Forcing surrender by glassing the entire nation would be in the cards with thermonuclear or modern strat bombing campaigns but I think that is outside the scope of Hoi4 since the expectation is for several nukes at best, not the potential of thousands like during the Cold War.
Most of this 'fairy dusting' is a tree making a spirit progressively better, so they don't have focuses that give massive buffs. War production is a focus that gives small boosts because the rest of the focuses before it also give these bonuses, making up a far larger bonus.
About the fairy dust, I agree, aldough sometimes the bonus are good and they seem small due to our perception of quantity... Our brain does not think calculations and math for everything it sees, It relies on fast approximations of "big number and small number"... So I don't feel so bad about fairy dusting except over old focus trees that are objectively obsolete 😅
I am only excited for the DLC because I know the modders will make something great with the new mechanics, l literally do not care about the base game.
AI is still broken IDK how hard is it to write for ai a single rule. I select historic rules and tick historic mode yet every time USA AI deletes Roosevelt and elects Landon
Just want to correct you, the dlc is 24£. The 31£ price tag was for the dlc + grave of empires and other content in 2025
Got my MRBMs with nuclear warheads and the only country that can be forced to surrender with nukes is Japan ... and that as far as i know doesnt even work properly. Edit: the Japan thing works. I just didn't read all the conditions.
With the new dlc i played a USA game and ended my war against japan in late 43 by using the unconditional surrender decision. My casualties in the war was around 10k and japan lost half a million
Its because they don't tell you eveything. If u hover over the decision it says u also need okinawa and Japan must have less than 30 ships. Its really dumb
@@CODELIRIOUS-sy8xz The sad thing that YOU need to hold Okinawa and Iwo Jima
I played as Germany and fought Japan.
I reduced the fleet and executed the strikes, but since the islands were held by the US instead of me they did not surrender. Fucking BS
@@eyupayaz9858 How did you get nukes in 1943?? The special projects alone take three years, let along the 430 day Nuclear research and the time it takes to build reactors
@@Frontline_view_kaiser I also got nukes by 1943, as the US. I got the bonus for atomic research and had two Nuclear Facilities. Oppy be puttin that work in, lol
I don't quite understand the argument about "Focuses should all have big impacts."
If every focus should give these huge buffs, then paradox will have to remove like 50% of the existing ones and increase the time it takes to research these strong focuses to 140 days or something....
I strongly disagree about focuses - they are more than "get bonus/solve problem" button.. They are supposed to tell a story and let you immerse yourself into the world - mustache man had to bribe generals to get their support because he hadn't yet gain absolute power, for example.
My issue with HOI4 is we get new content but older focus trees just get a focus or two.
I like the Together for Victory nations and they are badly outdated.
I played a few Austria runs to form Austria-hungary and it felt kinda gimped, i had zero available manpower and went for all options for more manpower and still i couldnt remove germanys chance to anshluss me.
Extreme skill issue lmao...
@ChristoffRevan lmao!
Focus tree thing is so real. İt's just a menial task of clicking and and when focus is done, there is a pop up again, you click and bam you gotta. Click for the next focus. Doing all this when you're also having a war, have to manage things like front lines and invasions, have to move the places etc. And all these pop ups suck.
Dave love your videos, I think you're nitpicking a bit too much here. I love this new expansion. Germany is now even more fun than it was before. Monarchist Germany is even more fun than regular old bad guy Germany. The secret projects are pretty cool. The one problem with them is the really awesome stuff, like supersonic jets and nuclear powered ships come so late that you cant even complete building them until 1950s at which point game is mostly over.
Like I said in the video the german elements of the focus trees are great. I was focused on the other stuff
Ahh I didn’t see that video. To rate it as “mixed” because of these relatively minor things seems a bit harsh is more my point. Keep up the great content! Cant wait to see more exploit videos based on new mechanics!
@@jamesrose133he didn't even give it a score or call it mixed. He just said he felt mixed. Helps if you watch the video
@@rollando2000 So I realize you are trolling. However, with that said. The thumbnail of the video literally says "mixed" in the steam formatted text. Dave then proceeds to go through nitpicking the focus trees about relatively minor issues of bonuses not being significant enough or things not fully flushed out. This suggests when taken in context with the thumbnail that he feels the expansion is in fact "mixed." Maybe try not trolling people who openly support and thank Dave for his great content. Read the comment fully instead of just trying to shitpost. I clearly state he does great work and keep up the content. Constructive criticism helps make future content better.
The Joint Congo Tree is great, especially as Belgium because you can get Congo as a Permanent Integrated Puppet to feed you manpower and resources
I basically only use super heavy howitzer and that's if I have the economy to support it, I just don't really play beyond 1942-3 unless it's for a pesky achievement I couldn't get earlier, entire wunderwaffe just seems wasted in that regard
The subs are pretty fun too and so far they aren't banned in MP unlike Sub 3/4s
i dont feel like youre acknowledging at 3:24 that the german small buffs are 35 day focuses
The bigger trees the less meaningfull each part has to be, to not to be OP…
That is why i did like old Italy. Powerfull and small, so good for beginning player.
But people wants to have huge trees, so this is what we get from it.
well it depends most older tress was.
there is the start here focus that then split into 3 parts.
Fascism , Democrat, communism and that is (one of them might in some contires be exchanged for unaligned).
then there was a industry section and war section + navy(if costal nation) and that it.
today the big trees.
you can go Democratic Neutral/isolationist, Democratic actively working to go to war, Fascism , Fascism but against Hittler( even though HOI4 had 4 Types of Fascism they are never used).
then we got stuff that make each nation different.
before if the US, soviet, China, Japan, Germany all was Communism they all play the same... today even if all 5 was communism they all play different.
China got internal struggles so you can´t move 50% of your army of mainland China or bandit starts to cause problem.
the US have the Navy Destroyer escort expectation to small navy and it loses Political power income and if it drops even more... well stability drops because trade is threatened.
Russia got stalin paranoia deal whit it.
Germany got economy in shamble get it running again but don't overcharge it or it will explode on you.
Big trees are good, they offer more flexibility with bonuses that can be blocked off behind conditions
Each bonus is smaller, but there are more of them so they add up regardless
You can add more conditions as rewards like in the German tree with the focuses relating to subjects so you actually have to do something to unlock more bonuses beyond the easily available ones
A small tree needs to be easy and achievable enough for that to not be an issue, or else you would be stuck trying to complete a single focus that gives a big bonus
On the other hand, if it's too easy the big bonus is basically free
Bigger tree = more opportunities for a larger selection of choices
dude likes the old italy focus tree
opinion denied
Old Italy was one of the least played countries in the game, now its one of the most played. You can feel how you want but short trees with long and unrewarding focuses just arent as good and arent as fun.
Yeah but the old Italy tree literally had nothing to do, I’ve played Italy so many times because you have so many options as Italy, if you want to learn the game go as USA, but you gotta remember the player base wants big trees because how many times can you play classic Italy, running out of meaningful focuses by probably 41.
i like playing littel nations .... but they have only negative interactions whit this dlc . big nations can build this expansive building whitout problems but small nations ? .... totaly sad
maybe because small nations have small economy, so it only makes sense for them not to be able to build nukes etc.
It actually makes sense not being able to build a nuclear facility as either Albania or Iceland.
Bro what the fuck is wrong with your reasoning ? Is it really hard for you to understand why Ethiopia can't build avionics facilities ?
I mean it makes little sense that a small nation has the resources to produce these things especially outside of Europe
i also feel a bit sad about the fact that no matter how big you become as a minor nation, you are never going to be able to catch up with major nations tech, simply because your number of researchers is lower. especially if you have so many different techs for navy, tanks, planes. it feels terrible to stick with an unoptimised design..
I think the thing people in the comments keep forgetting is that everyone plays hoi4 in a different way. Some are min-maxers, others are roleplayers, others still just enjoy a chilled out game where everything is predictable and perfect so they can gobble gobble in peace while the rest of the world tears itself apart.
I personally prefer roleplaying in the form of in-depth micromanagement of troops, navies, geopolitics etc. so I really like complex mechanics were you have to actually give something to get something - make concessions for land instead of just magically getting it from a 70 day focus for example. I also HATE HATE HATE how you have to capitulate 3 majors just to get like 3 states in the desert, especially when the majors have bigger fish to fry in the form of a massive 3 way world war. There needs to be a working white peace mechanic that isn't just scripted in situationally, maybe accompanying the addition of war weariness at low war support, which increases the chance for AI to accept peace. I just wish AI diplomacy was more reasonable and just gave you the chance to expand a mini-empire in peace.
Regarding the DLC - it's pretty good in my opinion. German civil war is less of a done deal for the AI (Mackensen has to work harder) and Austria exists as more than just a rump state for Germany to gobble. I also like the flavour changes where states change names depending on who owns them. Honestly haven't done much yet but overall I'm satisfied with the DLC so far. Not worth 21 quid for sure, was a bit misled by the reviews there, but not a major gripe.
DLC is a bit buggy unfortunately - hope they fix that soon.
What I feel personnaly is that paradox was like "Ok guys this is the new Germany, it's the biggest and best tree we've ever done, it's so amazing we had to create special unique mecanics to make sure you're not lost" but... idk why, I feel like this is a mid focus tree, sure it's quite good you can have fun but honestly it is still the same boring "annex austria and czechoslovakia, declare on poland, defeat the allies, turn to the soviet -> the end". And really, for me the soviet and italian focus trees are still better and have more flavour. Even the south american trees despite being unecessary and way too expensive feel less boring and I don't know why.
I really like the dlc over all but I feel like some of the wonder weapons are too good/ too easy to get. I also agree that having to do trial runs on new focus trees is getting a bit annoying.
00:40 Meh. I like the smaller ones better. It gives more versatility in what I want to do.
6:00 Yeah, it sucks. Especially because they actually did it for Austria.
07:15 What else do you want in a war game than Rule your corner of the world?
08:10 Y-yeah... that's what Early access is. It's the "We made this, it's not crashing, you can play it now but it's not polished up yet."
11:15 I don't mind the late game techs getting moved to Special Projects. It makes sense and they don't suck now.
11:14 Yeah. That's how it works. All military progress is about making bigger gun or making gun go bigger boom. What do you want, laser swords?
21:45 Just call it Ragnarok, if you don't like the German pronunciation.
The alerts don't go ontop of the invasion alerts. So I get an alert I can't read when there is a shitton of naval invasions in italy. I find that annoying
One problem I have with the dlc is the cool tech you can research like missile subs and modern carriers also require you to have for carriers at least 1944 carriers researched so by the time you research that the game is over. Missile subs seem possible even if just with basic ballistic missiles but still that's cool for WW2
Oh no Dave is going against the hive mind. How will he ever survive.
Truuuuuuue
25 € for what is essentialy a focus tree update is insane.
but im SO HAPPY about the AI update. What a time to be alive.
So Dave's hoi4 would be even more of a modifier feel good buffet than it already is? I must be misunderstanding.
I feel like the current focus tree would be better if they had more 35 day focuses especially for things that have such minor bonuses because 70days just to get one 5% bonus for something is really annoying
I agree with you about the research projects, but I really like the idea of the on map research centres. I would love to see something like a hi-bred between Black Ice and the experimental facilities in Götterdämmerung. So you would get a number of facilities in your core starting territory, that are specialized like in BICE that could be raided to steal tech or disrupt progress. Then as you said, move the special projects into the tech tree with sizable research times. You could also incorporate the scientist that have different specialties for added bonus.
Been noticing very significant increases in lag even in mid-game now, especially when playing MP even on 3 or 4 speed, by 1940 it's so laggy that it is painful to play. Before this DLC i could easily go to 44 or 45 with no serious lag issues.
The worst part is optimisation :(
I could go up to 1950 in 3\4 hours on TOI, but now i get to 1945 in 3 hours
if this game is made by an American company it's going to be More than perfect
2:49 Still like 90% certain this does literally nothing at all... because I've never once seen it do anything.
Yeah got nerfed to death after the change to consumer goods
As a casual player, I feel very dumb after this DLC. On normal difficulty, I can’t win against China, Germany, Britain, or the Soviet Union anymore regardless of what i play as. The AI is too challenging for casual players, especially in historical games. Additionally, major powers seem to receive significant buffs to their militaries now, making them literal powerhouses. I miss a casual AI I had a fighting chance against... :(
As for the price, I only play vanilla around when dlcs release so 15 dollars for a temporary ownership is perfectly fine (tbh they probably price them so high so people take the subscription)
the real issues if the dlc is the same old one were they buff you into not fun. I never like those buffs like "italian red army = + 35% attack", they just don't make sense. Small buffs are ok, because realistically a different law or ideology will have a small impact, not a 30% one
As a fluent german speaker no I don't have problems saying: "Götterdämmerung" "Gods' Twilight" xD
the one thing i noticed is that the guarantee machanic has changed the uk / france will now do it where tension is very low and not just over 25%. but other than that theres some interesting stuff in this update.
I like the new special research researching way more, It's pretty unique and more realistic as the way that research works is sort of like real design, unlike the actual focus tree which is just "press research and wait", in my opinion W, It's also cool for RP reasons I guess like you having a hand in how those techs get developed to some extent.
And we can just call it GTD or GD (Geometry Dash lmao)
Hey feedback, what was the 240 mm M1 but a ludicrously big artillery piece? Of course some of these special projects are gonna be just “the bigger badder version” because a lot of countries were looking for just that exact criteria
definitely not super happy with the free patch (i didn't buy the dlc). nukes are just harder to use and the only special projects you seem to get access to are either things that already exist (nukes, jets, radio) which are again just harder to get now, or super niche stuff like cruiser subs. you also have the land warfare facility which unlocks land research projects. although it actually unlocks land research project (singular) because there is only one single project available in the base game, which makes the idea of building an entire facility for it and hiring land research guys seem super silly. the whole system feels incredibly pointless for the base game and I kinda wish it was just kept as a dlc only feature with the base game research trees unaffected. also I really liked the old german focus tree so the new one does not feel like that much of a step up over the old one.
I am going to have to disagree hard with you on putting the special projects in a separate tech tree. I think it's great that it's integrated with the tech tree. If anything, I think we don't have enough of them and more of the slightly special engineering parts of the war can be put in a special project.
Why is rocket artillery not a special project for example? Currently you don't use it because you have to research artillery first and won't produce it until 1940 anyway. Would be much cooler if it was available through a project already in 1936.
There's also too little land projects compared to the rest.
I got the dlc subscription since I'm a couple behind, but its $5 per month, which doesn't sound like a lot but for stellaris it was only $3, so a significant % increase
I totally agree with you on Congo. It would be great that if the shared focus tree Is for whatever country you're a puppet or landlord of. Linking the focus tree only with Belgium is mental.
The german tree is severely underwhelming, it runs out of content way, way quicker than the soviet tree does, speaking about historical paths here, austrian is maybe a bit better, but nothing special too, if you compare these new trees to recently added updates in road to 56, they are really boring and not engaging at all, especially since i think Italian and Soviet trees were way, way better. Special Projects are inceredibly boring and annoying, just another pop-up at the top of the screen that you have to basically ignore, the raids that dont change much, if anythin at all, are announced like a end of the world. Im really dissapointed by this dlc
I agree with all your points but the Congo one definitely resonates with me. I wish there was a “local war.” Kind of system where major powers can’t get involved such as the Spanish civil war except it applies to people in a faction.
The fact Congo declaring independence can cause them to draw the ire of all of the allies is both unrealistic and not fun.
If u want a mostly historical game outside of leaving historical on you can just make a game preset that has the majors all following their normal focus tree
i feel like this with most dlcs that come to the game. every one of them add a mechanic that complicates the game for nearly no reason that i have to have a base understanding of or else the ai runs me down for ignoring it. love them game but it only goes for 8-12 years before its over. a lot of these dlcs feel like eu4 or stellaris styled dlcs that over 50-100 years, would make a massive difference, but under the hoi4 timeframe most of the things that have been added don’t matter enough i feel.
New Zealand name for the land cruiser, is the bigger bob project funniest shit I've ever seen
I agree 100%, PDX won this round, 30$ for DLC such as this is real robbery.
I feel like the focus trees are about story telling and building up over time. The small bonuses are good cumulatively which is he point you’re building towards something.
the congo tree is just super cucked unless they stay a colony, they will also auto leave when did it irl in like 1960
I haven't play enough of the DLC to really give much of an opinion, but if you play historical Congo you become independent when Belgium capitulates. Idk if that is new but it was very abrupt because I was just messing around with the joint focus tree and I am suddenly locked out of it.
20:38 you can literally right click notifications to remove them though
Like fighting back a tsunami with a bucket
I 100% with you on the design of special projects. Really cool feature, but messily designed. I play on quite a small screen so it is often difficult to see when I have a breakthrough and how many of them I have
What about stealing the Eiffel Tower, you can't steal the Eiffel Tower!
I think belgium eu path is unplayable due to RNG I don't feel like save scumming every time I'm rejected and I can't re-ask or icrease the odds
And for the price, I think it's easy enough to get the DLC so that those who can pay pay and those who find it too pricey just "acquire" it
I am loving playing commie Austria and trying to beat Anschluss. It's perfect for my skill level (intermediate, im like 20 tries in and almost held last try). I can't make use of a single special project, which is sad.
Me when the strategic game is getting strategic:
Notifications are getting annoying and its ridiculous that i get an urgent notification that my manpower is low, even though I have 500k in reserve along with another 100k in the training pool
€30 euro for a mod is a joke. Agree about the name. Just call it overpriced second German rework
Before the DLC I thought the special projects would speed up research a bit by removing some technologies from the "normal" tree to the special projects (like have a new research slot), but then I realized that, no, you still have to research the extra stuff after the special project is done. Scientists do give research bonuses and random boosts, so I would be very curious now to see if research got faster or slower on average with this DLC. I would honestly like if every nation started with +1 research slot at this point because I feel that we have so many more individual techs to research now compared to older patches. And that's not just because this DLC, the major DLC that introduced tank, ship, and air designers all add more techs as a whole. So I get the "you have to choose your build" argument, but it seems that more often than not you will just not touch an entire branch of techs unless you go very late game. Plus, more tech might make the AI nation a bit more interesting and varied too.
It made the German AI eat rocks and i feel like paradox changed something about the viability of certain templates because my standard infantry template is now regularly losing a 2/1 K/d ratio eventhough it pretty much was the other way around before the update.
That and naval invasions have become WAAAAY harder. Even if you DO land you often get reïnforce memed back into the sea.
sounds like skill issue
idk what your talking about, literally if you struggle with a naval invasion, you should send paratroopers as well or use actual MARINES
Also air superiority is kind of important to gain naval superiority and helps alot in battles, do keep in mind that submarines and destroyers barely give any naval superiority nowadays so you should build more light and heavy cruisers
what‘s your infantry template? 6/1 is the highest ratio of artillery recommendable compared to infantry due to artillery facilitating org loss. anti air is in most cases sufficient anti tank, add it to every unit. get air superiority. maximize entrenchment and reconnaissance. keep supply and do encirclements. you should do better than AI on normal difficulty that way
@@gonozal8_962 reconnaissance is useless but the support company gives +10% movement speed 😉
@@pjdj yes starting to realize it aswell. which is kind of sad tbh
im glad im not the only one how i feel about all of these things in top of the staggering price tag for this content (even if you bought the expansion pass - which i did - still too expensive for this slop)
I see what you're saying. I agree with a few things. Especially from the landmarks. The bonuses only affect the nation who owns it the start of the game anyway
I didn't play Hoi4 in more then a year, and this new dlc actualy made me come back.
For the name, im just pissed it's a single (german) word instead of a 3 words phrase. I call Battle for Bosphorus BfB for instance. Now i call this one (which i cant even word entirely lmao) GOT.
I very much dislike fact that there is so much to research as well. As Germany, there is no way to research Industry, Air Force, Navy, Army, and Special Troops equally. It’s not realistic and quite frustrating. The early versions of HOI4 you could be up to date with research and maybe only lag behind in one category, but I can’t even fully research tanks as Germany and have up to date guns for my Army. They claim it’s about “making difficult choices” but having to choose between having a tank of a ship isn’t very realistic to real WW2. They could balance it with a rubber band effect where it become easier to research certain things when others in the world discover them as a major power.
It is secretly to balance pvp
I think that's the real answer
One of the main things I don’t like about Germany’s new tree are the buffs further down the focus tree. Some of the later focuses are cool for RP, but at that point in the game you’ve likely defeated France and have a massive economy. I already have no problem with production so some of the industry buffs feel like useless overkill
I only really agree with the criticism of the pricepoint - though this expansion adds some of the biggest features and seems to have made the AI so much better, which is likely why most people can live with it - and the nukes. At least against the AI nukes should be basically a WinCon to beat a nation into submission, like it happened literally the one time they were ever used.
Regarding the Focus Trees, I find several small bonus gained by 35 Day decisions is much more fun (and feels a lot more like a "realistic" progression) than having to grind for 200+ days to get to one huge buff.
Splitting Secret Projects off also makes sense imho, as the cost for it is much bigger than having it just be part of a focus tree. You need to build expensive facilities, hire scientists, gain breakthrough points (which might influence your Tech tree decisions) and then spend a consequential amount of raw materials and time to gain them. It's exactly how I think something like this should be - a deliberate decision you make in a run that you work towards these - or not.
In general, I think just having more choices is a net benefit. Whether it's raid vs. regular strat bombing, Secret Superweapons vs. regular tech or a bloadted focus tree with a lot of small 35 day decisions.
And you also cannot form the European Union as Germany because you can’t kill off Luxembourg, they won’t join the Allies and you don’t have a war goal on them as democratic germany so I’m not sure if these focuses have been tested at all
FYI if you don't go democratic but go non aligned then you can via the Schlieffen plan focus but I agree very frustrating since democratic you can't justify. I usually don't play with ironman nowadays due to small issues such as that or RNG
i agree with the special projects. Every special project, that requires an other project or is just a smaller change of an existing tech should be put in the tech tree. To research them you could make the facilities necessary and make the research time shorter, depending how many you have. The special project as the are now should be only for stand alone tech or more gimiky tech, like the landcruiser. And make it so that for every facility you have, you can research one special project, if multiple research one project it is done faster.
The 30 GBP price is more for the whole content that's coming out this year and not just GD alone. So the country pack for central asia in 2025 and those 3D models further in the year. I think that's why the community isn't fussed about the price. But GD alone is 22 GBP which okay is defo more pricy if you buy it alone, but I guess PDX wants people to buy the package, like they do in CK3.
Honestly this feels like another DLC I just wont buy. I didnt buy the South American DLC either since I just cant justify the price with the content. I dont think the trees are all that interesting - no better than mods at least, not 25 bucks interesting - and the basic functionality of most new features which honestly should be part of the base game are included in the free updates. So what am I missing? A few trees that I dont care about mostly for nations I dont play and a few locked off mechanics like expanded special forces or International Market. But I've been playing without them for years now, so I dont care and I dont feel that those elements alone justify the huge prices they put on them.
Paradox needs to revise its pricing badly. Charging such high prices for what are essentially country packs with a new mechanic thrown in is simply not justifiable today. For nearly 30 bucks I'd expect maybe the last few DLCs combined together at the very least. I get the HOI team isnt the largest and thats fine, but dont then extort us for the small amount of output that many modders have been doing for free for years. Either expand the scope and justify these new game prices or respect the DLC size and price accordingly.
No... I think the $25 price tag on this DLC is stupid and insane. I also think it's just to push people into the $37 expansion pass bs.
I haven't bought any of the previous cosmetic bs and didn't want this one either, but they're wrapping this DLC and the next country pack into it which will also cost $15-20. So... technically I'm getting a 'deal,' but I probably should have just waited for a Steam Sale and picked up the DLC solo. It's been getting rave reviews on Steam (80%+) and RUclips content people, so I just decided to go ahead and splurge since it looked and sounded fun. But I've been struggling with a lot of the same things you're mentioning in this video. Not the getting to end game since I don't tend to instant capitulate like a lot of the content creators do (lack of interest in min/maxing divisions and equipment as well as microing every single division's attack/movement) or the laggy part since my computer's pretty good, but the rest is pretty spot on for how I would voice my critiques.
It also wouldn't surprise if the next country pack (Graveyard) is a hot piece of garbage not worth the expected $15-20 asking price and I'll feel even more ripped off by the expansion pass bs.
Don't get me wrong, it's worthwhile, but it's not phenomenal. If you have spare cash you can throw at the game, go for it, but if you're fence sitting, just wait for a 30%+ sale on it.
I agree with some of these points, but also feel like others come down to teething issues with new systems. I agree with the focus trees not being very impactful at times and it would be nice to see that improved. The new research system I personally really like the idea of and while it isn't quite where it should be I am happy they tried something different here. I feel like it would have been easy for them to just make a new tech tree slot.
As for Nukes, I think that each atomic nuke should hit your stability by 5% but the thermonuclear bombs should do 15% to your stability. However it can't bring your base stability bellow say 20%.