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Hearts of Iron IV: Renatus Char | A Developers Diary

Zachary_N_Kaleno

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Welcome one and all to the Developers Log of LokaMC: Hearts of Char

The date is January 1st, 2025, and the world of Char is about to change forever. Over the past year, starting in October of 2023, a series of events would eventually catch up with the world. Back on that fateful day, October 13th, 2023, a simple, relaxing Friday morning, turned chaotic, with the failure of the resource isles. All three resource isles have failed to regenerate, nothing too major for most towns and alliances, after all, by this point they had stockpiled enough wealth to see through this disaster. Cryptite could fix this right? RIGHT???

Well, he indeed, did not fix it. At first, it was heart breaking to see all of the small towns get eaten up by the wilderness, however, wars of conquest still had to occur, and grinding of gears went back to war after a short intermediary break. Ganking still occurred, towns still sold diamonds, gold, lapis to Neven. Neven still made bank, the man doesn't really care about the news, he just cares about one thing, money. Well, for the first time in Neven's lonely life, he read the newspaper.


Aladran Times 1.png
Shortly after reading the paper, Neven was reported to having said "Well then, I'm broke", and left Aladra, this left Char in a state of panic, as they could no longer gain shards. A year long manhunt started looking for Neven, but he was never seen again. With this, the final straw broke the camels back, and most towns made ganking a bannable offense, and all wars of conquest ended. However, this didn't stop towns from building up impressive military stockpiles, as March 2024 broke April 2024, the final hammer would kill the camel.

This event led to the collapse of the Shard, as over 874 million shards existed on Loka, leading to it being worth close to nothing, beacons are now worth more than some towns. Melchiott went out of business, Frodii's tourney's ended, Lenrith couldn't afford to keep AI's at 32, they exploded to almost 2000 shards a pop. A great economic collapse his Loka, the economic spiral kept going further and further down as towns could barely to afford the basics. Major towns began to die off, nearly every town had to drop territory, those who held onto territory would die off. Shard Sinks were implemented, however proved futile due to the scope of the entire disaster.

On April 2nd, Black Tuesday hit Char. The Artifact, imploded, in a sense at least, no one knows exactly what happens, but the Artifact after imploding, exploded afterwards, sending a killer wave of shrapnel that left the mountains jagged, and dirt crystalized. The Artifact went into overdrive, instead of keeping people alive, it harbored something, what we know is that all who died, had their souls sucked into the Artifact, where they would never escape. This was discovered when three Aladrans whom relied on Melchiotts donations, starved to death. This led to a panic that hit every town.

In June of 2024, Dhanri won the election, however, more of Aladra became more radicalized as propaganda by Lenrith & Frodii convinced them of a better life. The elections of 2025 were going to be tough for Dhanri. However, on the continents, a completely different story began to brew


Hearts of Sylvis
With Loka being driven to chaos, including Sylvis itself, two radically different ideas for the future of Sylvis took hold. The first was to continue down the current path of sail, another, would slowly take root in the Northern Counterpart. Over time, Lower Sylvians grew a superiority complex, and began to practically ignore the needs of its counter part, which of course grew hatred between the two. The Lower Sylvians began to mainly focus on their own town, to prevent it from dying, this was made apparent, when at a meeting, FoxyBearGames asked for everyone to donate to a fund with their last saved Shards, to keep the towns alive. However, FoxBad pulled the old switcheroo, and sent all the shards into Lower Sylvis. Leaving Upper Sylvis in a state of Economic Crisis.


With boundaries clearly crossed, an underground group in Sylvis would erupt into the limelight, earning the respect and admiration of all Upper Sylvans, including seeping into the Uppers Governmental Branches. The Eagles Guard would keep Upper Sylvis above all else, including the liars of their Southern Counterpart. War will break out soon, how soon will be anyone's guess, however, it will lead to the end of the unwanted peace, that is on the Lokan World. After all, the debts Lower Sylvis incurs from the Trident Powers will surely come back to haunt him.

Race For The Dragon
With Loka occupied with the issues of Aladra, a race for a superweapon begins. It all started in the End, which was a puppet of Aladra, along with the Nether. One day, the Ender Dragon Egg, the very last one, went missing. Now this is a big issue, as whoever controls the last dragon, can become all powerful, the entirety of Char will bow to their knees, or unite against them. The End, Nether, Volterra, Tartooine, & Silverhand are the most interested, leading to espionage upon espionage upon espionage, to locate, capture, and tame the dragon, to hopefully gain total hegemony over the world of Char.


Collapse of Aladra
With the World of Char embroiling itself into its cauldron of hate and fire, Aladra watched from the sidelines. Currently, Aladra is led by a peaceful, neutral, isolationist leader, Dhanri. However, a lot of his recent actions are leading to his removal from office, a four way split, between Dhanri, Lenrith, the towns blacksmith and populous leader, Frodii, the CEO of Frodii's Fishing Enterprise and communist Revolutionary, and an unknown candidate that goes by "The Harbinger". All four candidates have 25% of the voting base, it will be a very close mayoral election.

The domains of Aladra have pledged to support different candidates, however, this may be a ploy to declare independence from Aladra the moment a Civil Conflict erupts. The elections are in 6 months, what happens between then and now is decided, what happens afterwards, is up for war to decide.

The War For Potatoes
Kalros, a continent of cold dread, which got a whole lot colder over the 2024-2025 Winter, and is shown to get colder over rest of the decade, led to a mass exodus of people down to southern Kalros. However, most towns in South Kalros didn't accept these refugees, they had barely enough potatoes to hold off for the rest of the year, they couldn't afford these refugees. So in response, the Northern Defense Council was formed, to protect the refugees. Due to Southern hostility, a set of war plans were created, in case they're citizens were denied Potatoes.

The towns of the south in response built up their defenses, to prepare for war with the Northern Defense Council, this would lead to a divide on the continent, with the coming December deciding whether Peace would be an option.

Economic Crisis
With the collapse of the Lokan Shard, many towns fell. However, not all fell, some are close. These towns will have to do something to prevent the deletion of their towns.

- Stromgarde: A fortress in the North, short of Cash, may find that although its the Continental capital, swallowed up by their neighbors
- Upper Sylvis: A counterpart to Lower Sylvis, who got swindled out of its last penny, its on its dying legs, will the town live to see the horizon once again?
- Loraxia: Kingdom of the West, surrounded by nothing but an impenetrable forest, and an ocean. However, this leaves it stranded from resources, leaving shards hard to find.

Militarization
Many towns found themselves militarizing post collapse of the Shard, lets looks at a couple

- Sandsete: Ever since the raid on their library, they're on a desperate search for the culprits, they are planning to make them suffer, all over some books.
- Hilo: Long considered the Sick Man of Kalros, is about to show the world that they still got some punch in them, just got to deal with their neighbors first.
- Eldritch: With Loka seemingly no longer peaceful, and a continental war on Ascalon about to break out, this town began a massive defense program to keep it from falling.

The Great Ascalonian Scuffle
After the fall of the shard, Ascalon suffered 2 years of peace, with most towns attempting to stabilize their own towns. During this time, Helian League collapsed, leading to once more a Covenant Victory, for how long? That can't be said as a new alliance, the Grand Imperium, is prepared to fight Covenant, will the Covenant last through this threat as well? Or will the Covenant fall into the History Books once and for all. Only time will tell


The Garaman Order
With the rest of Loka occupied, Garama remains relatively peaceful, barring the incident every now and then, however, the corruption which plagued the alliance at the beginning of 2024 is becoming more and more obvious. A Civil War in BITS is inevitable, however, a major event will have to unfold for this occur, whatever that will be, will be determined in due time, in the mean time, lets intervene in the other events of Loka, after all, nothing bad will happen to us, right? RIGHT???


The Trident Powers
With war seemingly imminent, the powers of Sandsete, Vinovia, and Volterra signed a military alliance promising to join all wars of the other. No nation wants war, however, if this is how peace should be determined, then it must.


Thats all well and Good, but whats this for?
Hello everyone, Zachary_N_Kaleno here with this small side project. You might have a few questions, and I'd be glad to answer them.

To quite simply start, I'm creating a mod for Hearts of Iron IV, which is a Grand Strategy Video Game set during WW2. I will be using the above story to translate into a hopefully fun war story. I will be using this thread to update the community with how far the Mod is, any updates, and answer any questions. Keep in mind the stories told above are stupidly condensed down, and will have more lore in the mod itself, don't want to spoil everything now do I? Either way, I hope you enjoyed the read, any questions, ask, and most importantly, have a great day. If anyone would like to help with the story some bit, or with some of the coding (Should all just be easy), Direct Message Zachary N. Kaleno#0380, or ask me on the forums.

The Towns involved (Keep in mind, this map was designed in February, still being worked on, can easily remove and add towns)
AscalonKalrosGaramaOther
VolterraVinoviaThe Sylvi (Upper & Lower)Aladra
ValyriaSilverhandSouthern ValyriaEnd (Dominion of Aladra)
Western RivendaleStromgardeSandseteNether (Dominion of Aladra)
EuphoriaHiloNew LindisRivina (Dominion of Aladra)
EneriaImperialTartooineBalak (Dominion of Aladra)
IoniaValadorNoobvilleGank Isle Question Mark? (Dominion of Aladra?)
LoraxiaPossibly MoreEdgewindPossibly More
ValentiaYaddas
WastiaValmas
GothamCornerstone Canal
EldritchPossibly More
Western Fruitopia
Amanita
Al Raltah
Possibly more
 
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FoxyBearGames

Well-Known Member
Guardian
I absolutely love this idea. It's a take on making a HOI4 mod for Loka that isn't just about Loka now and gives breathing room. I cannot wait to play this thing, lmao
 

Zachary_N_Kaleno

Well-Known Member
Sentry
Community Rep
Developer Diary: Entry 1
Been a while since I updated this, so I might as well notify everyone on how this mods going. This Diary Entry will be split into a couple of major sections, so if you want to read only a certain section, go on ahead.

Personal Log
Well well well, where to start. I guess whats first on my mind.

My Schedule: Well, due to school ending earlier this month, I'm going to have plenty more time to focus on this mod, however I do have other duties to tend to, namely PvE Dev, and Build Team. So I'll be changing my schedule to have a week of Mod Development, and a week of Loka Development, hoping this will give me enough time to focus on my needed projects, as well as my side projects, if need be, this Mod will be put on the back burner for however long it needs What this means for anyone that actually reads this, is that there will be Bi-Weekly Diary Entries, showing the improvement to the mod, as well as other things.

Game Mechanic Idea: So whats the most important feature about Loka, and its community? The social media! Of course! So I've been thinking for a while, and need some thoughts on this from someone who isn't named @Zachary_N_Kaleno, for even if its a small feature, should a Discord & Forums GUI be added? With plenty of random & scripted events. This will require the game to be played at non-5 times speed, but honestly, with the way I'm structuring the early game right now, I think non Ludicrous speeds would be the best way to play. The mod is mainly going to be Single Player as of now. But multiplayer is in the view, however, I think it will have to have the Social Media Tab removed, as it will make the mod too boring to play.

What was done?
Well, the first step is done basically, The Map
The map for Renatus Char is done, screenshots will be provided later down the line. No Countries, entities, or anything was added to the map, however this is a good first step, of many, to take in the creation of the mod. I am decently happy with how the map turned out, and will not be updating it any further, as I would have to create a whole new mod if I did.

I would like to thanks @Piruletaas for helping me map out, even if only half of Aladra. I would also like to thank @FoxyBearGames for showing me this thread, which will help me immensely in naming these territories (Idea to name every previously settled territory of the former town was given by FoxBad, so huge thanks for him for that idea). Even if a bit of a time waster, I'd still love to name these tiles, be more exciting to read than Kalros 135, or Garama 54

What's next?
My next plans for this mod, is to start creating and implementing the countries, hopefully getting the NPC driven ones (Aladra, Nether, etc) done before my next Entry, but who knows how long, I'm also going to need colors for these nations, so if you're in an above mentioned town, give me ideas for colors for your town. I will be going to every owner, and asking what color they wish their town to be, if I can choose that, I'm not sure, we will find out in due time. Also I will begin my crack at building the Research Trees. Everything in the Research department will be updated/improved, as I feel they somewhat lack.

I was thinking of doing the Focus Trees after the implementation of the nations, however, I'm going to need a completed storyline for the canon ending first, and since that's not done yet, I will have to push that back, should be done before August hopefully, at least the full story.

Story Additions
In early 2024, an age of exploration will be set into motion, after the first introduction of steam power in Aladran Boats. This would lead to other towns creating their own, if weirdly done, boats, from the Sylvian Behemoth, to the Agile Vinovian Frigates, steam will lead to an age of exploration, the turbulent waters beyond the continents will no longer be holding back. Towns find islands across the vast oceans, and claim them for their own. These will soon lead to more trade between the continents, and more effort put into exploration. The Age of Exploration has ended by 2025, as all the islands have been discovered, and claimed, even if disputed.

Name Change
So... Probably the most obvious change to you guys, the name change. Hearts of Char wasn't really a permanent name, it just sounds wrong. So I pondered and wandered about, thinking of a name for this mod. After playing around in Google Translate, I thought of a name idea. Char's Rebirth, as conquest returns to Loka, I liked the idea, however, it didn't really translate well into Latin, so I put Char Born Again. This gave me something else, however I didn't really like the way it was worded, so I typed in "Reborn Char", and Renatus Charcame out, I loved it, and now yall will be have to suffer with me.

Rivina:
1653796357195.png
Balak:
1653796492949.png
Aladra:
1653796524088.png
End:
1653796554730.png
Nether (Unfortunately I have no clue how to insert Lava Lakes. So for now, they shall be water):
1653796611231.png
Zyre:
1653796652390.png
Ascalon + RI:
1653796680190.png
Garama + RI:
1653796722335.png
Kalros + RI:
1653796751664.png
Full Maps (Two maps, couldn't fit Ascalon in to the first map):
1653796822732.png
 
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Zachary_N_Kaleno

Well-Known Member
Sentry
Community Rep
Oh my god how did I forget this.

Last major Game play change, so we can't really have a nation with 31 population, so how population will work is like this.

Total Population = 1,000,000 × [(Total Members) - (Active Members)] + 5,000,000 × [(Active Members)] + 500,000

Population per Town Territory (All towns cores are divided into 5 sections.) = [(Total Population) - 500,000] / 5

So I'll use Lower Sylvis for an example as I know their numbers. They have 3 Actives, and 33 Total. It would be 30 million (inactive) + 15 million (3 actives). They would have a population of 45 million. This would then be divided by five, with 9 million being in each town territory, plus 500,000 in the section with the T-Gen.

The regular territories of the towns (aka territories that you can get in Conquest on current Loka), will have a base population of 1,000,000. They will also be loyal to whoever their conquerer is, if you use the right occupation laws. (Meaning you will gain all their resources, all their industry, etc.) They won't ever rebel against you unless you change the Occupation Law.

You can also gain cores on these territories through national Focuses. For example, once again going to use Lower Sylvis. After conquering it's Counterpart, can complete a focus called "The Ultimate MegaTown" or something else, and gain cores on the other tiles of the Deadlands.

Now thats for the continents. The Resource Isles, will have a base population of 25 million. Aladra will be a difficult one to count, but most likely in the upper 100 millions. Between 150 and 200 million. The Nether and the End have 65 and 70 million respectively.

Zyre, Balak, and Rivina will be around the 35 - 45 million range. With the smaller islands found during the Period of Exploration having around a million each.

I believe that is everything in regards to population.
 

Zachary_N_Kaleno

Well-Known Member
Sentry
Community Rep
So funny thing, a town I was gonna used died... RIP Valador, I'm just gonna substitute it with a new custom town, as I don't want to remake the map after all the progress of creating nations.

Need name ideas.
 

Zachary_N_Kaleno

Well-Known Member
Sentry
Community Rep
Another log tomorrow, but uh
so it turns out I somehow screwed up the wrong game files, so for the time being. I can only play HOI4 Renatus Char (in debug mode). So this will force me to work on this faster lol.

Base HOI4 don't even work for me
 
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