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Posted: **2008-08-22 08:34pm**

Paradox Interactive keeps the Grand Strategy genre in its iron grip with the much awaited announcement of Hearts of Iron 3

New York, USA (August 20, 2008) – Amidst a backdrop of fevered online speculation, Paradox Interactive has today finally revealed the true identity of "Project Mayhem" at the Games Convention in Leipzig. The next Grand Strategy title to be released from the Paradox Interactive development team is the third instalment in the critically acclaimed Hearts of Iron series.

The Hearts of Iron series has become renowned for beingthe biggest, most detailed and complete strategic game series on World War 2 ever made. Hearts of Iron 3 will follow that tradition closely while focusing on satisfying veteran players through a multitude of brand new features and systems, including a huge map with more than 10,000 provinces.

It's clear this is a game that fans of our titles have been eagerly anticipating", commented Johan Andersson, Head of Development at Paradox Interactive. "Before revealing the project, our upcoming announcement online forum received more than 14,000 page views in less than 24 hours with a third installment of Hearts of Iron seemingly being at the top of everyone's wish list."

Hearts of Iron 3 is scheduled for release in Q3, 2009. For any enquiries on this or other Paradox Interactive titles, please e-mail pr@paradoxplaza.com.

Meet Paradox Interactive in Exhibition Hall 3 – A02 to find out more about this game.

About Paradox development

The experienced development team has released more than 20 titles, including multiple award winning titles like Hearts of Iron 2, uropa Universalis II, Europa Universalis III. The next project, Hearts of Iron 3 is said to be the teams biggest production to date.

Hearts of Iron 3 will follow that tradition closely while focusing on satisfying veteran players through a multitude of brand new features and systems, including a huge map with more than 10,000 provinces.

including a huge map with more than 10,000 provinces.

I see a lot of sleepless nights on the horizon....

Posted: **2008-08-22 08:55pm**

Will it not break if I play as Bolivia and don't suck ass?

Posted: **2008-08-22 09:42pm**

Fuckin' A. I just hope they make the AI better this time around. And yes 10,000 provinces is a lot. Perhaps large city's like Berlin will be multiple provinces? Horrible urban combat would be awesome.

Posted: **2008-08-22 10:55pm**

I went off HoI back when HoI2 came out. It was just shit compared to the original, especially with it's illogical 'design bureau' approach to R&D and artificial "caps" on the speed of development of certain technologies before their "time" - so where it was possible to get the equivalent of T-44 tanks in 1941 if you really wanted to in HoI, you couldn't do it in HoI2 no matter what you did.

If HoI3 is any good I'll give it a go, but the R&D system needs fucking help.

Posted: **2008-08-22 11:06pm**

I can only imagine the amazing success of 10,000 provinces + terrible Paradox UI. Will the game effectively scale and keep turn length from growing to enormous lengths?

Posted: **2008-08-23 12:20am**

Stark wrote:I can only imagine the amazing success of 10,000 provinces + terrible Paradox UI. Will the game effectively scale and keep turn length from growing to enormous lengths?

Funny you should mention that, there's a trailer on youtube and it briefly shows a map of Northern France/Southern England(it doesn't show much else except concept art)....and it looked a lot like previous HoI maps.

Posted: **2008-08-23 12:46am**

Lonestar wrote:Funny you should mention that, there's a trailer on youtube and it briefly shows a map of Northern France/Southern England(it doesn't show much else except concept art)....and it looked a lot like previous HoI maps.

Heh. Maybe they just evened out the sector size to Euro-standard, so that other parts of the world don't have larger ones then. Hopefully the UI is improved, however.

Posted: **2008-08-23 01:20am**

I'm cautiously optimistic. I liked HoI and HoI2 but despised the Anthology pack because it slowed my computer to the point it practically stopped. But when I remove the AP and reinstalled HoI2, the game ran fine. Plus did not get any help from them about the slowdown.

I wonder which direction they'll take. If they go the route they took with the Anthology Pack then forget HoI3. But if they didn't mess it up and stick improving upon HoI2 then I'll buy it.

I wouldn't mind a slightly more involved combat like the old hexagon style warfare if Paradox doesn't want to over complicate the game.

Posted: **2008-08-23 01:43am**

I am excited about this, and am really hoping for better combat models, particularly air and land, as well as non-retard AI. In fact, I would probably buy the game if it was just HoI2 with intelligent AI that was capable of planning and implementing complex operational plans as well as reacting to changing circumstances, especially when said circumstances deviate significantly from the usual course.

10,000 provinces is cool, maybe we'll see more movement in wars now. I will be especially happy if some of Asia and Africa gets more fleshed out. It is incredibly frustrating to have to wait two fucking months for a unit to move from one province to another, especially when bad shit happens and you have to start all over again.

Vympel wrote:I went off HoI back when HoI2 came out. It was just shit compared to the original, especially with it's illogical 'design bureau' approach to R&D and artificial "caps" on the speed of development of certain technologies before their "time" - so where it was possible to get the equivalent of T-44 tanks in 1941 if you really wanted to in HoI, you couldn't do it in HoI2 no matter what you did.

I must be the only person who liked the new research system better than the original, both because it is more streamlined, and because of the caps. The idea of a T-44 in 1941 is just ridiculous.

Posted: **2008-08-23 05:07am**

Stark wrote:I can only imagine the amazing success of 10,000 provinces + terrible Paradox UI. Will the game effectively scale and keep turn length from growing to enormous lengths?

Good thing its real time then rather than turn based

Posted: **2008-08-23 09:09am**

Shit. We must stop the development of this game before it consumes us all!

Posted: **2008-08-23 12:01pm**

Sweet. I may just hibernate until then, or until patch 1.3 is released.

Adrian Laguna wrote:
Vympel wrote:I went off HoI back when HoI2 came out. It was just shit compared to the original, especially with it's illogical 'design bureau' approach to R&D and artificial "caps" on the speed of development of certain technologies before their "time" - so where it was possible to get the equivalent of T-44 tanks in 1941 if you really wanted to in HoI, you couldn't do it in HoI2 no matter what you did.
I must be the only person who liked the new research system better than the original, both because it is more streamlined, and because of the caps. The idea of a T-44 in 1941 is just ridiculous.

I would have been a lot happier if I could have put multiple tech teams onto one project, with the only limits being the money available.

Posted: **2008-08-23 01:20pm**

Adrian Laguna wrote: I must be the only person who liked the new research system better than the original, both because it is more streamlined, and because of the caps. The idea of a T-44 in 1941 is just ridiculous.

I liked it as well.

You needed a damn spreadsheet to figure out the HoI1 model.

Posted: **2008-08-24 07:49am**

atg wrote:Good thing its real time then rather than turn based

From a certain perspective, HoI2 is 'real time' too.

Posted: **2008-08-24 09:51am**

Stark wrote:From a certain perspective, HoI2 is 'real time' too.

Haha - all too true. Damm you realism and your time consuming ways!

Posted: **2008-08-24 06:01pm**

The most retarded thing about HoI 2's research system is that countries only got fixed ones, and some even had a few disappear arbitrarily. Poland lost most good commanders and tech teams in IIRC 1940, which means that if you actually did well, you were fucked

You should've been able to establish new teams at a significant cost. Also, tech teams should have a "home province" where they'd work which would deny you their use when captured. And they should also use a different balancing system than the retarded "technology year" which always seemed like a last-minute hotfix to repair exploits to me.

And the UI...jesus, they need to do something about the clickfest UI. I'm not getting my hopes up, though: they developed dozens of these games and they still can't develop a UI worth shit.

Of course, it's hard to imagine they will ever get as bad as Victoria again

Posted: **2008-08-24 08:01pm**

PeZook wrote: And the UI...jesus, they need to do something about the clickfest UI. I'm not getting my hopes up, though: they developed dozens of these games and they still can't develop a UI worth shit.

Obviously, it will have even more sliders now.

Posted: **2008-08-24 08:06pm**

The old HoI1 research system is supposedly going to be back.

Posted: **2008-08-24 08:53pm**

PeZook wrote: You should've been able to establish new teams at a significant cost. Also, tech teams should have a "home province" where they'd work which would deny you their use when captured. And they should also use a different balancing system than the retarded "technology year" which always seemed like a last-minute hotfix to repair exploits to me.

I don't like that idea. It's not as if the tank design teams at Kharkov in Ukraine all got lost to the USSR when Germany attacked, they got evacuated.

The old HoI1 research system is supposedly going to be back.

Really? Sweet. Who said that?

Posted: **2008-08-24 09:22pm**

Vympel wrote:Really? Sweet. Who said that?

Johan, in another speech about the game at the Leipzig event HoI3 was announced at.

Posted: **2008-08-24 09:37pm**

Sweet. One of the good things about HoI was that you could take an alternate path in history if you wanted to - whether in having more advanced weapons because you focused on certain fields to the exclusion of others, or making different decisions at historical points, or whatever - HoI2 turned me off because it seemed intent on rail-roading you into emulating the decisions made in real life, no matter how ridiculously ill-advised (i.e. Stalin's purges). Hopefully they do something about that as well.

Posted: **2008-08-25 02:18am**

Vympel wrote:HoI2 turned me off because it seemed intent on rail-roading you into emulating the decisions made in real life, no matter how ridiculously ill-advised (i.e. Stalin's purges). Hopefully they do something about that as well.

The single worst example of that in HoI2 was the retarded Soviet "make your army suck unless you go the exact historical route" thing.

I tried playing a "good USSR", which actually stood up to Germany in 1939 rather than making a pact with them, but my army was castrated (despite having better equipment and all), so I lost.

Pure hate.

Vympel wrote: I don't like that idea. It's not as if the tank design teams at Kharkov in Ukraine all got lost to the USSR when Germany attacked, they got evacuated.

Then make them moveable at the cost of the team not working for some time and some cost in money/resources/supplies.

Oh, another gripe: individual inventions from a tech didn't carry over. So if you developed Infantry 1945 early, and wanted to do advanced mountaingdivisions, what did you see?

Assault rifle and infantry gun inventions all over again. Why?

Posted: **2008-08-25 09:09am**

Indeed. In HoI1, my standard tactic was to refuse the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement, watch Poland get devoured (trying to protect Poland was too high a cost, you'd have the whole Wehrmact on you then and they'd never attack France, and of course the Allies wouldn't do jack shit to help), then attack Germany in 1940 when they turned on France, and easily crush them with superior land forces. France would survive, Germany would be destroyed, then I could turn on Japan.

In HoI2, not only was this impossible because of the "Red Army sucks and you have no say in the matter" railroading and artificial restriction on you, but Germany never even attacked me, in any of my games. It was ridiculous.

Posted: **2008-08-25 10:14am**

Vympel wrote:In HoI2, not only was this impossible because of the "Red Army sucks and you have no say in the matter" railroading and artificial restriction on you, but Germany never even attacked me, in any of my games. It was ridiculous.

The most effective way to play the USSR at first was just to start churning infantry divisions on day one and keep it up until the shouting started, by the time you actually get to war, you're marching around with Doom Stacks and no-one can stop you, because even the overstacking penalty doesn't make a difference to your overwhelming tide of dudes.

Posted: **2008-08-25 03:16pm**

Vympel wrote:Sweet. One of the good things about HoI was that you could take an alternate path in history if you wanted to

What, turning America fascist and allying with Germany before marching on to world domination doesn't count?

BTW, what version of HoI2 were you using (because I've never had a problem with the German AI not attacking the USSR in Doomsday, then again I always set the AI to Furious), and have you ever bothered seriously playing as any country but the USSR? (I ask because most of the complaints I've seen from you about HoI2 specifically concern the USSR)

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Hearts of Iron 3 announced.

Hearts of Iron 3 announced.