This guide is for people who would like some of the mechanics of the new MD merger update explained or have some basic tips for starting out, it will be expanded over time.

• Hearts Of Iron 4 Millennium Dawn Mod 1 5 4x20 2
• Hearts Of Iron 4 Millennium Dawn Mod 1 5 4x20
• Hearts Of Iron 4 Millennium Dawn Mod 1 5 4 Scope With Spr
• Hearts Of Iron 4 Millennium Dawn Submods

Mod «For King and Country - Monarchies Expanded» for Hearts of Iron 4 (v1.9.0 - 1.9.3) This mod aims to be a light and minor add-on, compatible with most mods of HOI4 that share a similar size. Millennium Dawn I posted an earlier addition to edit economic short comings through editing the mod files. This is a quick console method if you want to get straight to it and save time. Copy the folder “xxxx.mod” inside the mod file to the Documents Paradox Interactive Hearts of Iron 4 Mod location. Note:If you do not have the folder named Mod, create a folder named Mod. Hoi4 enable new mod. To activate the mode you have installed; Run the game. Select the mods tab from the launcher. Find and activate the new mode.

The Merge and new Features

Modern Day 4 and Millenium Dawn have decided to merge their mods into one, the new mod mostly uses the MD4 Map and Units while retaining some MD focus tree among other things.

Newly added features since the merge are:

• Taxes, Money and debt
• Investing into nations via building
• Influencing Nations
• 24 Ideologies for the 5 Outlooks and many Leader Portraits for these ideologies
• 2000 start date (based off of MD4)
• New Generic Focus Tree and some new Focus trees
• Party Coalitions and Government Popularity
• Land Doctrines and a few new Techs
• Many new decisions

Economy (Money and International Investment)

One of the new features is an Economy System, you have a Daily Income, Daily Expenditures and Debt

Taxes
You can change the Tax Rate ingame via clicking on the + or – under your Leader Portrait, each click costs 50 PP and changes the tax rate by 1%. Changing the Tax Rate will be your main source of Income but be careful not to increase it too much as that will lower your Ruling Party popularity.

Resource Exports
Haven’t really figured out how this works exactly but you gain a bit of money from having resources

International Investments
You can open the Investment window by left clicking a foreign state (puppets and Allies work aswell). After clicking you should see a small window above the State window, there you can select which building you want to build, how many you want to build and can see how much time it will take and how much it will cost. After Investing the project will pop up as a decision timer showing you when its done among other infos. Investing gives you International Investment Points (refered to as IV form now on), you gain as many as you spent in the construction. You can sell off 1 IV point to gain 0.95 Cash if you really need it. You can also just gather as many IV points as possible and gain a daily income boost from it

Government Expenditure Laws
You can Find these under your Political Window in Laws, each Grant you some bonus while costing Money or sometimes even other things, you can reduce these by changing the law at the cost of PP, doing this will reduce your daily expenditure but also lower your Ruling Party Popularity. Unfortunately the tooltip won’t tell you how much you’d gain by changing the law.

Economy Growth Rate
You can find this under your Political Window in Laws, the better it is the more Tax income you get, it also increases Stability slightly and increases Construction Speed although you’ll have to pay a bunch of cash to change it, even if it gets changed via event.

Debt
You gain debt by going below 0 in your treasury, this mostly happens if you have a negative daily income or changed your Economy Growth Rate. You can also get a loan by left clicking, and pay off debt by right clicking the debt resource on the right of air experience. You have a minimum of a 0.5% Interest Rate which means you pay 0.5% of your debt as expenditure each day although if your debt is very low you don’t pay any at all.

Starter Tips:
to be added

Some Formulas:

• Taxes + International Investments + Resource Exports = Income
• Government Expenditure Laws + Interest on Debt = Expenditure
• 10 (10 Cash) International Investment Points = 0.001 Daily Cash
• 1 International Investment Point sold off = 0.95 Cash
• Income – Expenditure = Increase or decrease in Treasury
• Debt x Interest Rate = Daily Debt Interest Expenditure

Influence

Another new feature is Influence, similar to Victoria 2, each nation can Influence each other Nation. You open the Influence Window by right clicking a nation. Influence can be gained by clicking the buttons in the influence window, and used for economic gain, changing their party popularity or even puppeting a nation

How to gain Influence

• Spread Influence, Costs 100 PP and gives you 4-16 power depending on your Power Status (national Spirit)
• Give Economic Aid, costs money depending on the targets nation Economy
• Target Other Influence, Costs 100 PP and reduces Influence of another Influencer by 10 and additionally of another by 1%, also reduces your Influence by 1%, you can target the second highest influencers (excluding you) and the Independence from foreign Influence Level of the nation.

What to use Influence For

• Manipulate Politics, Costs 10% Influence and increases their party popularity for your outlook aswell as ideology by 5%
• Attempt coup, costs 200 PP, has 3 outcomes based on different Factors, Succesful Coup (Change Ideology to yours), Unsuccesful Coup, and Civil War for your ideology/outlook
• Economic Exploitation, Costs 10% influence, grants you 20% of their Civilian Factories and 20% cheaper trade but reduces relations with the target nation and their neighbors
• Turn to Puppet, has no cost although they need to have the same outlook and you need to have 80% influence on them

Outlooks, Ideologies and Elections

Millenium Dawn had a bunch of Ideologies, Modern Day 4 had 5 Outlooks, because people liked both they decided to somehow make both work. What we ended up with is having the 5 Outlooks but subcategories, or Ideologies within these Outlooks, this was done because Ideology just isn’t as Important in the Modern Age as is general outlook on the world situation, this also fixes weird things from Millenium dawn like Social Democrats leaving a Faction with a Conservative Leader because they’re not the same Ideology

The Outlooks/Ideologies are as follows:
Western Outlook (Generally USA and the EU)

• Pro Western Autocracy
• Conservative
• Liberal
• Social Democrat

Emerging Outlook (Generally China, Russia and Iran)

• Communist
• Left-Wing Radical
• Reactionary
• Autocratic
• Moderate Shiite Revolutionary
• Hardline Shiite Revolutionary

Salafist Outlook (Generally Saudi Arabia and ISIS)

• Wahabi Monarchist
• Salafi Jihadism

Non Aligned Outlook

• Moderate Islamist
• Non Aligned Autocrats
• Non Aligned Conservative
• Oligarchs
• Libertarian
• Greens
• Democratic Socialist
• Non Aligned Communist

Nationalist Outlook

• Right-Wing Populist
• Fascist
• Military Junta
• Monarchy

Outlooks basically work like base game HOI4 Ideologies, if you have the same outlook as another nation you will like each other more, be more willing to join a Faction together and more willing to accept other diplomatic offers.

Elections
If your nation has Elections enabled you will see when the next one happens under your leaders Portrait. If an Election rolls in you will get some events to potentially decrease other Outlooks Popularity or potentially increase your own. You can do Propaganda Campaigns for an Outlook to increase it’s Popularity or click on the two arrows on the right of the Manage Occupied Territories button, there you can boost a small party or attack a big party which will result in an Increase/Decrease of their party popularity and thus their Outlook. You can also increase the Election Threshold in the decisions, if you, for example have a 5% election Threshold a party needs to have 5% to be Available for Coalitions.

Coalitions
After the Elections you will sometimes have to go into an Coalition to keep your ruling party in Power, look into the decisions tab to see who you can go into a coalition with, some parties won’t go into a coalition with some others so check that. depending on your Coalition Partners ideology you will receive a daily boost to their respective Outlook.

More of this sort of thing:

Last month saw the release of Battle for the Bosporus, the sixth non-cosmetic content pack for Paradox’s stellar World War II simulator Hearts of Iron IV. The middle child of the modern paradox roster – landing after Crusader Kings II and EUIV, but before Stellaris and Imperator – HoI4 has the distinction of being perhaps the most unique of the PDS games in terms of its gameplay, scale, and general approach to warfare.

At just four years old, it likely has at least a few large expansion packs left in it before the end of its lifecycle. It is, however, old enough that, with a bit of perspective, it’s clear to see the major contours that have taken shape over the past few years.

So, let’s take stock of where Paradox’s WW2 game is now, where it’s been in the past few years, and where it’s going in the future.

Where Are We Now – General State of the Game

Hearts Of Iron 4 Millennium Dawn Mod 1 5 4x20 2

Since its release in 2016 HoI4 has remained one of Paradox’s most solid titles. The basics of combat (well, ground and air combat, at least) have remained remarkably stable since launch. For a developer that has long struggled to make warfare engaging in its grand strategy titles, HoI4 is a notable exception. Its combat is competently executed on the tactical front, while at the same time still delivering on the high-level strategic gameplay that devoted fans have long expected from Paradox titles.

Its relatively contained timeline – only about a decade in total – allows the game to move at a decent clip, while the numerous Focus Trees that have been added since the game’s initial release help to ensure there is enough interesting stuff going on in the world to keep you busy until the shooting starts. Altogether, it is and has been a very capable WWII machine with some very interesting grand strategy choices to make it stand out from the crowd.

But that 'grand strategy' descriptor has created some lingering issues at the very core of the series. After four years of building, it is clear to see that Hearts of Iron IV has been moving in two fundamentally different directions. In part, this is because, even now, it can’t yet decide if it wants to be a strict WWII simulator or an alternate history sandbox. Instead, it is caught in a tug of war between the desire, on one hand, to make a solid nuts-and-bolts WWII game with a fanbase that demands the addition of gonzo historical shenanigans.

If the mod scene is anything to go by, there is a clear hunger for interesting, well-crafted alternate history content, and the developers likely feel a very reasonable pressure to give the fans what they want. But the game also has its own internal rhythm and tempo built around the gradual march towards WWII.

Because it is working on a much smaller timescale than any of the other paradox titles – that of years, rather than decades or centuries – the scope of events is going to be more limited, especially considering that there is really only a 3 or 4-year window for major changes to the geopolitical landscape to happen before the World War sets off.

Part of the problem of adding in so many alternate history paths is that many of the popular-yet-wacky Focus Trees, like Germany restoring the Kaiser or Japan embracing communism, throw a massive wrench in the game’s carefully crafted tempo. Others are so ludicrous as to require significant suspension of disbelief.

Ultimately, HoI4 would likely be stronger if it firmly picked a side, rather than hedging its bets. This far into the game’s lifecycle, though, it seems unlikely that one side or the other will totally prevail. Still, this internal contradiction is almost certainly something that will be on the developer's minds as discussions of a sequel start in the next few years, if they have not already.

Where Have We Been? – DLC and Updates

Despite some of these more top-level concerns, HoI4 has been consistent in its release of well-received new content. There have been five major DLC packs, each accompanied with a free major update:

• Together for Victory – expanded out the Focus Trees of the Commonwealth nations and added new mechanics for interacting with vassal states and subjects
• Death or Dishonor – filled out some Focus trees for nations in Central and Eastern Europe and added some new mechanics for fascist clients (but was really more of an up-jumped country pack)
• Waking the Tiger – revamped the War in Asia and added new mechanisms for China and added new Focus Trees and some alternative paths for Germany and Japan
• Man the Guns – included a massive naval rework and a new ship designer; the U.S.A. and U.K. Focus Trees received a face-lift as well
• La Résistance – reworked the Spanish Civil War, updated Focus Trees for some of the Latin nations, and added espionage mechanics

Battle for the Bosporus – the most recent DLC – ended up being more of a small scale 'country pack' (like the free Poland Content pack and Death or Dishonor). The pack added expanded Focus Trees for Turkey, Bulgaria, and Greece, though not much in terms of new features.

There has also now been a constellation of smaller, cosmetic DLC packs, such as expanded radio and armor packs with some additional models. These add a bit more flavor but don't necessarily represent any massive additions to the game in their own right.

Even with all of these, there are still some outstanding reworks that will likely drop in the coming months and years. A quick scan over the current DLC list will show that most of the major players of the war have received some form of rework, with one huge, looming, red exception.

Where Are We Going? – Outstanding Reworks

By far, the most likely target for the next massive rework is the Soviet Union, which has somehow slipped by as one of the very few major players to not receive a new coat of paint since launch. Given the relatively small size of the Battle for the Bosporus pack that was just released, it seems likely that Paradox has been allocating its resources for the inevitable launch of a massive update to coincide with any Soviet rework.

After that, Italy is another likely contender for a tune-up, as it has also passed by almost unaltered since release. There are strong odds that it will be the target for a rework as well before the end of the game’s lifecycle. This seems especially likely as the developers skipped over Italy while working on the other Latin powers in La Résistance and the Aegean/Black Sea states in Battle for the Bosporus, both of which would have seemed like reasonable places to squeeze them in unless they are working on something much more ambitious down the line.

Another strong candidate for a facelift is air combat, likely along the same lines that Man the Guns did for naval warfare. Air forces have always felt a little underdeveloped, especially compared to naval and ground warfare, and have remained pretty much untouched since release. A total overhaul of dogfighting, an aircraft designer, and a more engaging portrayal of strategic bombing would be a welcome improvement.

While it likely wouldn’t warrant its own separate DLC, Peace Conferences are also long overdue for a rework. It’s frankly shocking this was not a higher priority considering just how viscerally the community hates the current systems propensity for encouraging ahistorical land grabs and some truly nasty border-gore.

The Hearts of Iron 4 Mod Scene

Far and away the best part about HoI4 right now is the vibrant mod scene that has sprouted up around the community. There is a solution in the workshop to just about any conceivable problem or pet peeve you might have. Disagree with the division of states in Yugoslavia? There’s a mod for that. Wish the map looked more like Victoria II? There’s a mod for that. Think the implementation of combat width is all screwed up? There’s a mod for that, too. Tired of having the World War drag on indefinitely while you conquer fortress-Japan? You guessed it: there’s a mod.

Of course, all the major heavy hitters of the past few years are still floating around and receiving pretty consistent updates, especially the big four:

• Kaiserreich – an alternate history scenario that asks: what if Germany won the First World War?
• Millennium Dawn – a modern-day mod that moves the start date to the year 2000
• Old World Blues – a total conversion mod set in the universe of the Fallout franchise
• Road to ’56 – an immersion mod that adds a plethora of alternate history scenarios and increases the timeline to 1956

In the past year or so Kaiserreich, arguably the heaviest of the heavy hitters, has not only continued to receive updates, but has also spawned a ton of creative and original alternate history content – including original music, fan art, animated shorts, and even a soon-to-be release live-action short film set in the universe.

Some impressive newcomers have also come to the fore in the past few months, including the massively ambitious End of a New Beginning, the very promising Calm Before the Storm Beta, and the intriguing Cold War simulator Iron Curtain: A World Divided.

By far the most popular mod to land on the scene in the last few months is The New Order: The Last Days of Europe, which officially released a few months back and has quickly risen to the top of the workshop charts due to its incredible polished aesthetic, well-written narrative, and grimdark alternate history setting. It has also spawned a cottage industry of sub-mods and music mods to go alongside it and is well worth trying if you have not yet given it a go.

Hearts of Iron V when?

It’s a good thing that the mod scene is so lively, because, based on its age, it does not seem likely that Hearts of Iron V will be forthcoming in the immediate future. The game likely has an absolute minimum of 2 to 3 years left before a sequel would likely even be announced, at least if the older Paradox siblings are anything to go by. Crusader Kings took nearly 10 years for a sequel; Europa Universalis IV is already 6-years old without any announced sequel on the docket.

So buckle up and enjoy the mods (as well as the inevitable DLC). When the time does come for a sequel, it will be interesting to see if it will follow HoI4’s lead and hedge its bets, or firmly decide to embrace itself as a strict World War II simulator, or if it will lean on the more grand strategy side of its heritage.

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