14 DAY TRIAL // The team at Paradox Development Studio has announced that it has delayed Hearts of Iron IV to later in the year, but the company continues to deliver diaries about the game making process, with this month's installment focusing on a new concept called World Tension.
This is a global value designed, as the name implies, to represent the threats that various states throw at each other and the way they tend to justify their actions.
The development diary states, "How much is affected by the nature of the action and the size of the nations involved. Say a diplomatic annexation of the Sudetenland will generate a lot less tension than an unjustified declaration of war and a war settled with minor border changes rather than total occupation and annexation will likewise generate less tension."
Hearts of Iron IV is designed to work as a limiter on certain actions, depending on the country the player controls and the national ideology that it has chosen.
For example, the United States of America, which is known for its initial isolationism during the World War II era, will wait until tensions reach 100 percent before choosing to join a faction.
World Tension in Hearts of Iron IV will be the biggest enemy of the expansionist countries in the early game and they will have to rely on diplomacy and events to reduce it as much as possible so that democracies do not move too fast against them.
Paradox is also adding a new neutral ideology
Previously, the grand strategy title only included three main affiliations for a country: democracy, fascism and communism.
The new neutral group is designed to offer more opportunities and to simulate the behavior of countries that aimed for stability through lack of engagement.
Neutrals are easier to influence by the great powers and will be governed by a set of other special rules when they are attacked.
The system for world politics in Hearts of Iron IV seems to be similar to that employed by the previous title in the series, although it seems that there are more limitations placed on the actions that major powers can take against smaller nations.
The World War II grand strategy title will be launched on the PC in the third quarter of the year.
