Plagued /r/TNOmod and the Reddit HOI4 modding community - When a subreddit for a video game mod turns to utter insanity

[dalurker99]

The Calm Before the Storm mod is back after being gone for 3 years. If I recall in the original release of the mod it condescendingly chastised the player for playing as Hitler and Stalin. Let's see if it's just like it was.

holy shit this thing is still in beta? I guess its kinda expected when they aim for 15 whole years of content

 

[EpicGamerMoment]

The Calm Before the Storm mod is back after being gone for 3 years. If I recall in the original release of the mod it condescendingly chastised the player for playing as Hitler and Stalin. Let's see if it's just like it was.

yeah and the lead dev was a twat who had a hissy fit when someone disagreed with him

let's see if "cock and ball torture session" can make a comeback

 

[Rome's rightful successor]

yeah and the lead dev was a twat who had a hissy fit when someone disagreed with him

let's see if "cock and ball torture session" can make a comeback

How is that not surprising.

Anyway Paradox now seems to be helping modders updating their mods for the first day of the new DLC's release.

 

[foreman 89]

Does anyone think the Ukraine war breaking out has stiffed interest in Russia on the subreddit?

Before the war, the sub was littered with posts about Sablin, Taboritsky, Zhandov, SBA, Zhukov etc
But now with Russia being portrayed as the West's main villain, discussion on the sub about Russia has declined considerably, dev leaks and plans about Russia, the same. Do you think their conscious about being seen as pro Russia or un empathetic to Ukraine or scared of controversy?

 

[The Foxtrot]

Does anyone think the Ukraine war breaking out has stiffed interest in Russia on the subreddit?

Before the war, the sub was littered with posts about Sablin, Taboritsky, Zhandov, SBA, Zhukov etc
But now with Russia being portrayed as the West's main villain, discussion on the sub about Russia has declined considerably, dev leaks and plans about Russia, the same. Do you think their conscious about being seen as pro Russia or un empathetic to Ukraine or scared of controversy?

Yes, especially since in TNO's timeline, the Russians were the last ones to give up the fight against the Reich when the Second West Russian War ended in a German "victory" that left Russia headless and Germany with its guts spilled out. So the Russians aren't the Ultra Bad Guys in TNO, and any attempts to make them seem worse than the Germans would be immediately called out as just pandering to Ukraine. Especially since Reichskommissariat Ukraine is also in the mod and that's basically what modern day "Ukraine" was created from.

That having been said, I also think that the Russian side of TNO needs less of a "rework" and more of a "keep the damn timeline going farther". Fuck, give us the ability to begin the Great Trial!

 

[foreman 89]

I played The Ruin update and it's basically a downgrade, these are my upsides and downsides for the update:
Upsides:
-USA proxy conflict bug is fixed
That's it
Downsides:
-Every single British path was removed for fucking 5 years of gameplay for mediocrity
-if you go Nazi Britain, the game ends for you, flat out, so only two paths are actually playable and not three
-There's point in sabotaging grain production and trying to contest control of states in Ukraine, the UPA, Republicans, and Communists will still start with the same amount of troops, equipment and starting states
-They actually went through with removing Burgundian System
-The civil war system for Britain is also just
inheritanly inferior to the old one, you don't even contend states and mainly focus on keeping the political balance(while a civil war is imminent keep in mind)
-as was said eariler nothing ever came for Poland
- new British content obviously isn't even finished and was a submod

How do people even still like this mod? It 's just objectively worse and less interesting than everything Panzer put out

Isn't there an option in the game rules to re enable old Britain content?

 

[General Emílio Médici]

How is that not surprising.

Anyway Paradox now seems to be helping modders updating their mods for the first day of the new DLC's release.

How dare they put Equestria at War next to TNO those poor ponies don't deserve that.

That said it is a good move by them. The know many people buy and play their game for the mods, and working with them is a solid strategy to keep interest.

 

[Rome's rightful successor]

The Twilight of the Anthropocene mod is out!

Go Biafra! Go Ambazonia!

 

[The Foxtrot]

The Twilight of the Anthropocene mod is out!

Go Biafra! Go Ambazonia!

What the hell is this mod supposed to be about?

 

[Skeletonized Cow]

What the hell is this mod supposed to be about?

Germany invents computers with transistors in 1935, a few things happen, and Boris Johnson is an American now.

 

[General Emílio Médici]

What the hell is this mod supposed to be about?

Seems to be a timeline where the transistor was invented in 1935 Germany instead of 1947 USA.

I wish this was a actual alternate history book. I would read it. That being said I have to give the dudes props on nailing the fuck out of the Windows XP Luna look. Shit looks cash.

 

[The Foxtrot]

Germany invents computers with transistors in 1935, a few things happen, and Boris Johnson is an American now.

Seems to be a timeline where the transistor was invented in 1935 Germany instead of 1947 USA.

I wish this was a actual alternate history book. I would read it. That being said I have to give the dudes props on nailing the fuck out of the Windows XP Luna look. Shit looks cash.

Is it worth playing? I'm a sucker for a good HOI4 mod that has a good economy sim too.

On that note, does anyone else wish they'd resurrect East vs. West? THAT was a game that didn't deserve to die.

 

[dalurker99]

Is it worth playing? I'm a sucker for a good HOI4 mod that has a good economy sim too.

The mod feels unfinished, Biafra (one of the countries that have content in the mod other than South Africa and fucking Seychelles, a small African island in the bumfuck of nowhere) doesnt have any localisation for the focuses

Other than that, this vibe of early internet/computers they are going with is such an eyesore, national spirits' effects are not highlighted in red or green colors, meaning you have to read each modifier ONE BY ONE to see if their effects are negative or not instead of just skim reading it. (This includes advisors as well btw)

Since they are so committed to this vibe, this means sound effects are also replaced. Every single time you click off from a screen to close it, the windows error sound effect plays. Every time, you have to endure this sound whenever you click off of your political screen, whenever you click off the stuff you researched or didnt, whenever you exit the focus tree screen, EVEN WHEN CLICKING ON THE UPPER PRODUCTION CONSTRUCTION TABS.

also if you noticed, economic tab doesnt even close when you choose another tab.
I have no idea why anyone would release a mod that is clearly incomplete, mind you, this isnt even a beta or an alpha version. I doubt they even playtested this thing considering the fucking support equipment doesnt have any localisation OR an icon.

another evidence I have is how weird the research trees are. Usually, in hoi4 mods, each of the trees (armor, planes, etc.) start at a specific year and end at a specific year or a year close to others with minimal difference (1-2).
Tota however...

Weapon tree starts at 2005 before making a jump to 2023, making the second gun take 400 days to research

Armor tree for some weird ass reason starts at 1915

Artillery tree starts at 1930

And my favourite so far, the industry tree that starts at 2023, mind you, this mod takes place in 2021 meaning the first production research takes 400 days to finish.

Overall, this mod is only worth playing if you wanna laugh at how incomplete it is other than the skeleton "content" they did for the toosers. Not recommended if you actually want to have fun playing a hoi4 mod. This definitely shouldnt have been released at such a state like this. I guess the lead dev fried his brain with the glove fetish of his combined with the it/its pronouns.

 

[The Foxtrot]

The mod feels unfinished, Biafra (one of the countries that have content in the mod other than South Africa and fucking Seychelles, a small African island in the bumfuck of nowhere) doesnt have any localisation for the focuses

Jesus Christ this mod isn't "unfinished", it looks like it's barely even begun development! This looks like an extremely early pre-alpha build cooked up over a weekend! Who thought this was fit to release in any form?

 

[Serbian Peacekeepers]

Jesus Christ this mod isn't "unfinished", it looks like it's barely even begun development! This looks like an extremely early pre-alpha build cooked up over a weekend! Who thought this was fit to release in any form?

I would find it a funny turn of events if they accidentally posted a early dev build and they precede to rush out the actual build tomorrow, but that's too funny to exist in this world. They 100% expect the aesthetics of the mod to carry it until they can add actual content in a year and make it a actual mod.

Its a bold choice making the first nations you can play as be 3 largely meaningless African Nations that in normal Hoi4 everyone ignores and doesn't care about.

 

[The Foxtrot]

I would find it a funny turn of events if they accidentally posted a early dev build and they precede to rush out the actual build tomorrow, but that's too funny to exist in this world. They 100% expect the aesthetics of the mod to carry it until they can add actual content in a year and make it a actual mod.

It's funny to me because my favorite mod that doesn't just spice up vanilla, Cold War: Iron Curtain? It might lack localization for some events, but every country has content out to the 1980s, even if only via a generic focus tree. And supposedly, that mod is only on version 0.3 but it's astonishingly well built already.
The mod also feels like it's what (old) TNO wishes it was, the UI is the right mix of early CRT computer screen and neon without making your eyeballs bleed, it has a real economy simulation with buildings that can allow a country to become almost entirely self-sufficient with enough build slots, a proper simulation of mid 20th-Century to early 21st Century warfare, an actual simulation of a Nuclear Triad, and if you're playing a smaller and/or weaker nation (AKA Rhodesia or East Germany early on) you can negotiate arms contracts for some Political Power and purchase foreign military equipment for cash to quickly build your armed forces.

And the biggest thing, IMO, that makes CW:IC the best candidate for "Spiritual Successor to East Vs. West" and "Best Post-WW2 HOI4 mod" is that there IS Alternate History, but it's kept on a reasonable leash. For examples:
- Beria can wind up killing off Khrushchev and succeed Stalin as head of the USSR.
- Communist China can actually lose the Chinese Civil War, but it'll still exist in Northern Manchuria as a Soviet puppet.
- North Korea can win the Korean War and just be the one Korea, but that won't change the fact that Juche is a massive kneecap to reconstruction.
- Rhodesia can actually be recognized by the United States and win the Bush War with aid from the USA.
- America can completely win the Vietnam War and purge Communist influence from Southeast Asia.

These are all events that could have happened in real life, had things gone a bit differently, and that's why the Alternate History here is the best. The mod isn't trying to be up its own ass pushing a message, it's just allowing the player a sandbox to play through the Cold War in with plenty of room to change history without going into unreasonable/pulp fiction/meme-tier territory.

Its a bold choice making the first nations you can play as be 3 largely meaningless African Nations that in normal Hoi4 everyone ignores and doesn't care about.

And then this mod looks like a gag or an April Fool's joke cooked up in an afternoon.

 

[Serbian Peacekeepers]

These are all events that could have happened in real life, had things gone a bit differently, and that's why the Alternate History here is the best. The mod isn't trying to be up its own ass pushing a message, it's just allowing the player a sandbox to play through the Cold War in with plenty of room to change history without going into unreasonable/pulp fiction/meme-tier territory.

In all honestly I am a massive fan of wacky alt history paths in HoI4, so Iron Curtain isn't exactly my cup of tea, cool mod but not something I am coming back to often. Being able to save Rhodesia is cool, but I also want the ability to collapse the USSR and create the Russian Federation in the 60s, as tired as the trope is I want to plunge the USA into a second Civil war and make the south rise again. I am one of the Filthy alt history meme path enjoyers.

But Twilight of the Anthropocene doesn't interest me, it looks boring, the leadup seems cool but the mod itself seems to do nothing with it, it just looks like another Modern Day mod with a eye hurting coat of paint. Sure the Soviet Union still exists, neat, and Germany is broken up into several other states, but you can basically do that anyways in Novum or Millennium Dawn, that isn't exciting. Anthropocene seems to fall into the same pit as TNO where its clear the people behind it are more interested in writing for the world than actually making a interesting mod, and the fact their first release covers 3 minor nations instead of the actually interesting ones Like the US, USSR, or anyone else shows they don't have gameplay first.

Side note but IIRC CWIC lets you revive the Third Reich as West Germany, which while a funny idea the one time i tried it i got soft locked and couldn't actually build a army because i still had some modifier that would be removed if i followed the proper path, so that sucks.

 

[EpicGamerMoment]

Finally more tranny wish fulfillment!!

The windows xp theme is the only cool thing about this.

 

[The Foxtrot]

In all honestly I am a massive fan of wacky alt history paths in HoI4, so Iron Curtain isn't exactly my cup of tea, cool mod but not something I am coming back to often. Being able to save Rhodesia is cool, but I also want the ability to collapse the USSR and create the Russian Federation in the 60s, as tired as the trope is I want to plunge the USA into a second Civil war and make the south rise again. I am one of the Filthy alt history meme path enjoyers.

And there's absolutely nothing wrong with the meme alt history paths, as long as it's established from the get-go that this is what the mod's about. Like the "Escalation '83" submod for Equestria at War, which adds in the EU, USA, and USSR after a hypothetical nuclear WW3 in the 1980s. Why wouldn't you want to genocide the horses and their friends as GLORIOUS MOTHER RUSSIA?

If a mod makes it clear from the workshop page on Steam that it's very much a wackier alt-history mod, then I'm cool. But if I'm promised a more "realistic" alt-history and I get meme alt history, I feel a bit lied to.

But Twilight of the Anthropocene doesn't interest me, it looks boring, the leadup seems cool but the mod itself seems to do nothing with it, it just looks like another Modern Day mod with a eye hurting coat of paint. Sure the Soviet Union still exists, neat, and Germany is broken up into several other states, but you can basically do that anyways in Novum or Millennium Dawn, that isn't exciting. Anthropocene seems to fall into the same pit as TNO where its clear the people behind it are more interested in writing for the world than actually making a interesting mod, and the fact their first release covers 3 minor nations instead of the actually interesting ones Like the US, USSR, or anyone else shows they don't have gameplay first.

Yeah, looking at the screencaps I legitimately got the feeling this was trying to copy Millennium Dawn but with its own little shtick (that being the UI is based around Windows XP), and with none of the interesting gameplay.

Side note but IIRC CWIC lets you revive the Third Reich as West Germany, which while a funny idea the one time i tried it i got soft locked and couldn't actually build a army because i still had some modifier that would be removed if i followed the proper path, so that sucks.

Yup, the "NATO Arms Restrictions" debuff. In my opinion, it should be removed automatically if you let the Socialist Reich Party take control again since I doubt a reborn Third Reich will give a shit that America/Britain say "No Guns Germany! ".

I personally wish East Germany could break away from being a Satellite State of the USSR and be a fully independent nation while still being part of the Warsaw Pact/COMINTERN like Albania.

 

[The Gene Genie]

Its a bold choice making the first nations you can play as be 3 largely meaningless African Nations that in normal Hoi4 everyone ignores and doesn't care about.

This is par for the course for most of these mods these days, even finished ones. Instead of going back and reworking the majors to work better with the newer content updates, they content themselves to pump out egregiously long content-trees for Chinese/Russian/African warlords that people never play.