Developer Diary #10 // Future of the Idea
Well, hello everyone, most of you reading this are probably surprised to see activity in this thread, and well, I am too. I've been discussing with myself a month on making this specific post and confirming it with myself, I'll probably spend 2 hours typing this up as I try to convey what I mean correctly and honestly.
Renatus Char holds a special place in my heart, probably because it's one of the few things I'm truely proud of despite its many, many shortcomings. It was really one the first long-term projects in my life that I got to see the completion of. Of course, other things have come and passed, but Renatus Char still holds a place for being one of the few multi-year long projects that I've worked on and actually got to release and see people play.
Is the Mod getting revived?
Now don't get hasty, as much as I love it, even I know when to stop fighting losing battles. The numerous issues that plagued the mod, as well as the external issues that internally forced me to drop the mod, still very much exist. I as much as I want to bring back the mod and update it to modern specifications, can't see myself doing that, especially, as a major gripe of mine is that I directly refer to specific people in the mod. Several of whom probably don't even know they're in the mod to begin with.
Next would be actually something fully out of my control, but it's Loka itself, Loka updates & changes so fast, that by the time I would update it to something, a new update will force me to play a constant game of catchup, and that's just not enjoyable at all when it comes to worldbuilding. I don't want to force myself to drop lorebuilding & nationbuilding to update something to the mod, such as biome changes. Forcing myself to work on a project kills the fun of it. I want to want to work on it if you know what I mean.
Another thing, which is sort of out of my control, and not really the fault of anyone, is just the difference in scale between LokaMC & HOI4. Ascalon, the largest continent, has roughly the dimension of 72 square kilometers (9km x 8km) if we're being generous and including the Resource Isle into these calculations, as well as the Oceans within the boundaries. Singapore, a city-state on an island, has, according to Google, 710 square kilometers of surface area. That's another issue of mine, for what I have planned, Loka is just too small. I wouldn't be surprised if all the land area of Loka could fit into that 710 square kilometers. This isn't an issue with Loka at all, it benefits Loka for being this small, but for a mod that is about thinking about the larger picture, it's pretty small, and to me atleast, it feels like it breaks the immersion somewhat.
The last major issue I have is of my own doing, and honestly, is probably the number one reason I quit working on the mod, this was my first HOI4 project, not major project, first, and therefore, I have... a lot of errors in the mod. None that will crash the mod to desktop from what I can see (under current versions), but it's definitely an issue. Everything is a mess in the backend, and the mod weighs over a gigabyte. That may not sound like a lot, but the heaviest HOI4 mods weigh up to 5 gigabytes, and have alot more content than what I have in Renatus Char.
To summarize, I will not be bringing the mod back under my fold, because of those three main reasons, sure other smaller ones exist, but nothing that would justify me doing an update post.
So what's next?
Despite everything I've said about the mod, I absolutely love the worldbuilding, and a lot of this has to do with Loka's own fantastic worldbuilding. (For example, I love the ideas of t-gens, shards, the artifact, resource isles, etc). And adding my own additions to it to make it seem like it fits in a modern setting (which, to be fair, I have failed to show due to my own lack of work on the mod). The "Forced Modernity" feeling of it which I imagine and think about whenever I think about this mod. A crash course through the Industrial Revolution (which is my favorite time period in games) combined with the gamey feel I try to put into it when I imagine it.
I have come to the unfortunate decision to split the idea off from the world of Char, from Loka, and from the player community.
Many of the same ideas which I love will most likely be transferred over, or more likely inspire whole new systems that I can have fully functional control over, as well as a stable setting that is still as fantastical as the idea of Loka, but not overtly the same. I have yet to design the world, as I've been going through whether I wanted to do this for a while now, but now that I'm typing this, I can confirm with myself that this is something that I want for the best of this idea.
The mod will not be taken down from the workshop or updated. Instead, I'll create a new mod folder for the continuation of this idea, so that Renatus Char can continue to be accessible.
Character-wise, all players will be removed/replaced. However, that doesn't mean I won't leave Easter Eggs in different ways. (For example, a leader trait being "The Magpie" or "The Fox Guardian".) I just won't directly refer to players.
Final Comments
Not sure how obvious this is, but since this mod is detaching itself from Loka and core Loka Experience, I will not be posting anymore updates towards the idea & gameplay in this thread. If anyone is at all interested in anything, then I can't stop you from dming me on discord, but I won't actively promote what I'm doing here on the Forums, the Discord, or the Server itself. This is the only notification I will make about it unless directly inquired.
Thanks you to Cryptite, Magpieman, SilentStormSix, FoxyBearGames, Piruletaas, koi0001, Mocc1, Abyssopel0gic, McDanky, PartayArc, Opyc, DrSkull, Qfu, Reiwa1, (not in server hereonforth) RaphaelGalli, ItsChugg, LanceTheLance, Cplx, & Liv4lakes. You have all done alot in helping develop the mod over the course of the past almost four years, as well as adding Sparky & (not in server) MrMaus to the Thank You list for reigniting my interest in this again after my dormant period.
1st Phase | Hearts of Iron IV: Renatus Char | May 10th, 2022 - March 25th, 2026 // 3 Years, 10 months, 15 days.
2nd Phase | Hearts of Iron IV: Renatus ??? | March 25th, 2026 - ??? // ???
Go Forth!
Well, hello everyone, most of you reading this are probably surprised to see activity in this thread, and well, I am too. I've been discussing with myself a month on making this specific post and confirming it with myself, I'll probably spend 2 hours typing this up as I try to convey what I mean correctly and honestly.
Renatus Char holds a special place in my heart, probably because it's one of the few things I'm truely proud of despite its many, many shortcomings. It was really one the first long-term projects in my life that I got to see the completion of. Of course, other things have come and passed, but Renatus Char still holds a place for being one of the few multi-year long projects that I've worked on and actually got to release and see people play.
Is the Mod getting revived?
Now don't get hasty, as much as I love it, even I know when to stop fighting losing battles. The numerous issues that plagued the mod, as well as the external issues that internally forced me to drop the mod, still very much exist. I as much as I want to bring back the mod and update it to modern specifications, can't see myself doing that, especially, as a major gripe of mine is that I directly refer to specific people in the mod. Several of whom probably don't even know they're in the mod to begin with.
Next would be actually something fully out of my control, but it's Loka itself, Loka updates & changes so fast, that by the time I would update it to something, a new update will force me to play a constant game of catchup, and that's just not enjoyable at all when it comes to worldbuilding. I don't want to force myself to drop lorebuilding & nationbuilding to update something to the mod, such as biome changes. Forcing myself to work on a project kills the fun of it. I want to want to work on it if you know what I mean.
Another thing, which is sort of out of my control, and not really the fault of anyone, is just the difference in scale between LokaMC & HOI4. Ascalon, the largest continent, has roughly the dimension of 72 square kilometers (9km x 8km) if we're being generous and including the Resource Isle into these calculations, as well as the Oceans within the boundaries. Singapore, a city-state on an island, has, according to Google, 710 square kilometers of surface area. That's another issue of mine, for what I have planned, Loka is just too small. I wouldn't be surprised if all the land area of Loka could fit into that 710 square kilometers. This isn't an issue with Loka at all, it benefits Loka for being this small, but for a mod that is about thinking about the larger picture, it's pretty small, and to me atleast, it feels like it breaks the immersion somewhat.
The last major issue I have is of my own doing, and honestly, is probably the number one reason I quit working on the mod, this was my first HOI4 project, not major project, first, and therefore, I have... a lot of errors in the mod. None that will crash the mod to desktop from what I can see (under current versions), but it's definitely an issue. Everything is a mess in the backend, and the mod weighs over a gigabyte. That may not sound like a lot, but the heaviest HOI4 mods weigh up to 5 gigabytes, and have alot more content than what I have in Renatus Char.
To summarize, I will not be bringing the mod back under my fold, because of those three main reasons, sure other smaller ones exist, but nothing that would justify me doing an update post.
So what's next?
Despite everything I've said about the mod, I absolutely love the worldbuilding, and a lot of this has to do with Loka's own fantastic worldbuilding. (For example, I love the ideas of t-gens, shards, the artifact, resource isles, etc). And adding my own additions to it to make it seem like it fits in a modern setting (which, to be fair, I have failed to show due to my own lack of work on the mod). The "Forced Modernity" feeling of it which I imagine and think about whenever I think about this mod. A crash course through the Industrial Revolution (which is my favorite time period in games) combined with the gamey feel I try to put into it when I imagine it.
I have come to the unfortunate decision to split the idea off from the world of Char, from Loka, and from the player community.
Many of the same ideas which I love will most likely be transferred over, or more likely inspire whole new systems that I can have fully functional control over, as well as a stable setting that is still as fantastical as the idea of Loka, but not overtly the same. I have yet to design the world, as I've been going through whether I wanted to do this for a while now, but now that I'm typing this, I can confirm with myself that this is something that I want for the best of this idea.
The mod will not be taken down from the workshop or updated. Instead, I'll create a new mod folder for the continuation of this idea, so that Renatus Char can continue to be accessible.
Character-wise, all players will be removed/replaced. However, that doesn't mean I won't leave Easter Eggs in different ways. (For example, a leader trait being "The Magpie" or "The Fox Guardian".) I just won't directly refer to players.
Final Comments
Not sure how obvious this is, but since this mod is detaching itself from Loka and core Loka Experience, I will not be posting anymore updates towards the idea & gameplay in this thread. If anyone is at all interested in anything, then I can't stop you from dming me on discord, but I won't actively promote what I'm doing here on the Forums, the Discord, or the Server itself. This is the only notification I will make about it unless directly inquired.
Thanks you to Cryptite, Magpieman, SilentStormSix, FoxyBearGames, Piruletaas, koi0001, Mocc1, Abyssopel0gic, McDanky, PartayArc, Opyc, DrSkull, Qfu, Reiwa1, (not in server hereonforth) RaphaelGalli, ItsChugg, LanceTheLance, Cplx, & Liv4lakes. You have all done alot in helping develop the mod over the course of the past almost four years, as well as adding Sparky & (not in server) MrMaus to the Thank You list for reigniting my interest in this again after my dormant period.
1st Phase | Hearts of Iron IV: Renatus Char | May 10th, 2022 - March 25th, 2026 // 3 Years, 10 months, 15 days.
2nd Phase | Hearts of Iron IV: Renatus ??? | March 25th, 2026 - ??? // ???
Go Forth!