Old World Blues: Overhauling Gameplay Loops

                 A few weeks ago, I made a post about the fascinating and impressive Hearts of Iron 4 mod, Red Flood. What made that mod great was the refreshing new take on world history, a new perspective that changed up the old rules of alternative history. This week, however, I’ll be talking about another HOI4 mod – but this time it’s one that is even further from reality than the last. I’m of course talking about Old World Blues, the total overhaul mod based on the Fallout universe. The current state of the mod focuses on the western half of the continental United States, although it is slowly moving eastward (it now includes some parts of the Midwest, like Colorado and Oklahoma). I’m honestly impressed with the progress the developers had made; they’ve not only introduced new regions with interesting and unique countries and focus trees, but they’ve also added cool new mechanics that didn’t exist in the base game. There’s a pseudo-economy with trade nodes and currencies, special marketplace mechanics for more mercantile-inclined nations, and even more things that I can’t adequately explain without more context. Needless to say, this labor of love deserves all the praise it has received. But just to be a prick, I’ve chosen to not talk about any of the new and improved stuff in the mod. I’m going to be talking about something that has been in the mod since the very beginning – something that, essentially, changes the way you play the game entirely. This is how Old World Blues redefined the gameplay loop of Hearts of Iron 4.

 

                 Let’s begin at the beginning. When you start as a nation in OWB, the first thing you’ll notice is the unique shape of the focus tree that all nations have in common – a line of three (or more) mandatory seven-day focuses that precedes the actual main focus tree. These focuses present the player with a rundown of the country’s background and motivations and presents them with a few choices. This gives the player a goal and a narrative while providing a chance for role-playing in the choices they make. But importantly, every country has these options, meaning that the world around you in every run will be in some way different due to the nearly infinite permutations these miniscule choices can have. It won’t drastically change any game, but it can mean the difference between which nations dominate which region, and hopefully provides some interesting variations. One example is up in Washington, where two nations are coded to go to war with each other. They are rival nations, being humans and ghouls from the same vault that fought and split off from each other. The ghouls can win to form the Old Spokane State, while the humans will create the Grand Inquisition. While neither of these nations have unique focus trees, the randomness from the short introductory focuses means that the result of the war is never predetermined. This randomness means you never know who will win the first battle of Hoover Dam, or whether the tense relationship between the NCR and the Western Brotherhood of Steel will explode into war. This variation makes each run feel fresh and exciting.

 

                 In comparison, runs in the base game are either frustratingly random or mind-numbingly dull. If you choose historical AI, all the other countries will go down their historical paths in their focus trees – except for you and your actions. This is good for achievement runs or runs with specific goals, but makes things stale if you don’t have a defined goal. On the other hand, if you go with non-historical to freshen things up, everything goes completely haywire. This can make runs become very frustrating, as base game focus trees have very stringent requirements to continue along the path. You might find that a major nation has taken a single tiny state you needed to continue in your focus, meaning that you’ll have to go to war with the entire world for just a tiny piece of land. Even worse, maybe you’ll attack a tiny, irrelevant nation only for them to join a faction with another tiny nation across the world from you, or the Axis or Allies. There is no happy ending. Because countries can join factions with almost no restrictions, things quickly go out of control and localized wars become world wars. This is, of course, intentional on the part of Paradox, as Hearts of Iron is in fact a World War Two war game. Yet the focus trees seem to not fully account for this; it doesn’t make sense narratively for World War Two part two to start over Greece wanting to take a province off Turkey after Germany is already defeated. It leaves the player feeling a sense of bewilderment and gives no narrative fulfilment. The peace deal that follows will simply be the player taking over half the world, even though all they wanted was a single province!

 

                 This brings me to the second change OWB introduced to the gameplay and narrative flow of the game. There are only two major powers at the beginning of the game – the New California Republic (or the NCR for short) and Caesar’s Legion, replicating the major conflict from Fallout: New Vegas. Their goals are, of course, to defeat each other. But if you choose any other nation other than these two, you’ll find yourself in a very different situation. The focus trees for these minor nations are geared towards making you into a regional power, thereby bringing you into conflict with other minor nations in the same region. Let’s take Oregon, for example. There is a veritable morass of unique nations here, ranging from the mutant armies of Troll Warren to the mirelurk queen worshipping Mirelurk Tribe to the cannibalistic Bone Dancers. Each of these countries gets wargoals on each other through their focus trees, and they each have their strengths and weaknesses – and the ones that persevere will go on to become the major power of Oregon. Because of the inherent randomness OWB has integrated into the mod, the situation in each of these regions will vary widely between runs. Furthermore, there is no risk of these regional conflicts flaring up into a massive conflict, as making and joining factions are locked behind specific focuses. Territorial claims are usually restricted to the local area until late game too, meaning fewer chances for messy inter-regional wars that don’t make sense narratively. After becoming regional powerhouses, nations can pick sides between the NCR and the Legion, contributing to the larger conflict – or take the maverick route and oppose both. The structure of the game then becomes that of a funnel: small, intense territorial conflicts slowly expand into major wars as you grow stronger and stronger and consolidate your powerbase before taking on the Bull and/or the Bear.

 

                 Old World Blues has an advantage over other mods because the world they are working with is much more malleable both geographically and narratively than other mods like Kaiserreich or Red Flood or even the base game. There’s only so much real estate in terms of regional conflicts when you must account for historical realism. Furthermore, with so many major powers in the real world, the game must have a different narrative flow. Yet the best moments I had with mods like Kaiserreich was as small countries like Sternberg’s Mongolia, desperately scrabbling for pieces of land with my neighbors to try to take on Mother Russia herself. With each division so essential and each moment closer to surrender, the manic tension in these tiny regional conflict dwarfs the boring, mindless march of hundred-divisions-strong armies marching through massive nations. OWB manages to make the journey from these small intense conflicts to becoming a major nation narratively satisfying and fun to play – it would not be remiss for other mod developers to learn a few lessons from them.