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Unreleased HOI4 mods have a big problem

Error Log

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Today, I will be taking a dive into why a vast majority of HOI4 mods never release, a combination of factors such as manpower shortages, shifting development goals, the ever evolving nature of HOI4 modding and the advent of Toozer mods. In researching this video, I have also assembled the top developers at numerous prominent HOI4 mods, with their opinions in the link below.

This video is sponsored by Pax Historia, Pax Historia is an AI-powered alternate-history grand strategy, browser-based sandbox game. Players choose a nation at a specific point in time to rewrite history through interactive, AI-driven storytelling, with options ranging from real historical scenarios to hypothetical events like alien invasions.
Check them out here!
https://paxhistoria.co/?utm_source=yo...

Developer Transcripts
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_...

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Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:14 Teasers not Content
3:21 Moving the Goalposts
5:55 King of the Sand Castle
7:41 The Ever Evolving Scene
9:54 What the Future Holds
11:17 Sponsor - Pax Historia
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Credits:
Voiced and Edited by Error Log
HOI4 Footage from ‪@noturno5062‬
#hoi4 #unreleased #heartsofiron4 #modding #heartsofiron

20 Comments

@Error_log.9999 Creator 3 months ago Pinned

Thank you to the developers from the 20+ mods who responded to the survey featured at the end of the video!

If you are interested in their responses, check this link here 👇
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_TjCA7AMY5E-FyuVh8ZR4w4YaDQNL8xmgWi8WDYpTHY/edit?usp=sharing

@eatingbacon1458 3 months ago

"REWORKISM , REVISONISM" i feel like im watching an documantery of early bolshevik politics 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

@edmundkrumins8196 3 months ago

1. It's a lot of free labour driven by pure enthusiasm and if enthusiasm runs out, the project dies
2. People rewriting the lore for tubma-yumbaland for the 4th time instead of working on content for any of the playable nations
3. Average mod has 20 writers, 10 gfx artists and like 3 coders (only one of them will work on the mod regularly)

@Anon-l6u 3 months ago

Because bread is tastier than key

@TropicalTelephone 3 months ago

the hard part is, most developers are too ambitious on their project and want to add so much that it’ll be impossible for a beginner to do all by themselves without spending 40 years on it

@tylerwhaley4872 3 months ago

hoi4 players when their next stare at the map for 18 hours and click events simulator doesn't release: 😡😡💢💢

@PaF_Official 3 months ago

And there's the other half - we don't do much teasers so a few people actually knows about us and less even care. It's a sisyphean work.

@NahtReele 3 months ago

My only wish is that more abandoned projects would make it to the steam workshop, sure they’re dead but some of us would like to tour the cadaver

@NightDragonPlayz 3 months ago

if your mod is unfinished, just finish it!

@HAStheartist4747 3 months ago

I am a former dev of Daydream in Black (the mod in the thumbnail)

Daydream in Black was literally the perfect exemple of all these these issues combined. Maybe one day it can get it's own video, because what happend inside there is way worse than most people know

@Tr3e_Hugg3r 3 months ago

This affects the local carp population

@Odul1212 3 months ago

I think an overlooked issue is also the state of the base game. A lot of the latest DLCs added new, often times at release broken mechanics. These constant changes every couple of months are putting additional stress on mods in development, as the modders not only need to develop new content, but try to keep up with the changes and fix things the newest update has broken.

@maciejkamil 3 months ago

Unfortunately: nowadays it is better for modders to join a team of already existing mod, than trying to start on their own from zero.

@KobaFTP 3 months ago

i think that one of the most important reason is the lack of coders & gfx artists, the lack of competence
it's easy to get ideas of a world & stuff that could happen, but to find the actual competence, to learn how to fix some stuff, bugs that only high experienced people can fix
also lot of developers of hoi4 are students & don't work full time on it so when there is like, exam period, lot of inactivity because everyone is busy with real life & inactivity brings more inactivity & you can get really protracted void during these times, this is really true with small teams

@Fracturin 3 months ago

NGL i think all these mod's would've had better chance for release if they just uploaded a bearly finished mod early on in development and get a community in reddit or discord around a mod to make devs more motivated.

@HaarkenTheWorldclaimer 3 months ago

Probably the worst example of this is the Southern Victory mod.

Excellent source material, great worldbuilding and the perfect engine to facilitate simulation of the book in a strategy game.

Gets abandoned right when content not involving the south is the next focus.

@gamerthehoopa 3 months ago (edited)

The biggest issue really is that these talented people just don’t focus on actually making a product for release. They try to make it their personal little worldview simulator and focus in on rewriting the unique lore of Lesotho instead of actually adding content to the core nations first. It’s better to release an actual product with good ideas and content that has bad balancing or can be kind of unfun (because more often than not those things can be fixed), rather than not actually releasing anything at all

@sode07 3 months ago

As a mod dev I find it really discouraging that I have to rewrite huge amounts of code every time Paradox decides that hey what if Brunai was a tag or any major gameplay rework (supply, designers, national unity).

@BlueCrab-rr9gw 3 months ago

Press f to pay respect for dib

@konstantin.20324 3 months ago

the 'king of the sand castle' is what you can see unfold in the mod called 'fallout pre war'. one dude develops everything, insults people who say that the mod is dead in the server and actively bans them. not sure if it is alive