Hearts of Iron IV: "you're the top commander"

At the recent Paradox Convention we caught up with Hearts of Iron project lead Dan Lind, who had plenty to tell us about the changes being made to the upcoming strategy sequel, Hearts of Iron IV.

Specifically, we asked Lind what was different in the fourth game in the series when compared to its predecessor.

"A lot of the other parts of the game were a little bit too micromanagementy; you had to go down on the bottom level," Lind explained when talking about the third entry. "Hearts of Iron is supposed to be grand strategy, a think about the big strategic moves kind of game, rather than worrying about clicking each of your air divisions to do something."

"So we moved a lot of the stuff up into big areas and allowed you to think big picture," he continued, "and also battle plan system for managing generals over areas and stuff like that, but without it being a totally hands-off kind of thing like Hearts of Iron III was."

"So that was the idea, kind of more selling the role as you're the top commander and you're handing out orders, rather than being the guy that runs around and looks at all the bits and doesn't have time to look at the big picture."

Lind also explained a little bit about how the pacing of this game differs from other titles from the same the publisher, for example Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV:

"It is a game that requires more longterm planning and thinking, than a lot of our others, and I think you have to get that idea and see what's going to happen over time to make it really exciting. So that's what we're working on, making that more visible to new players."

Hearts of Iron IV is heading to PC, Mac and Linux sometime in Q2, and Lind confirmed during the interview that they're taking a "when it's done" approach to wrapping up development.