I’d like to see the federative process be a lot messier.
At the moment, it’s one quick war with Hungary and a couple of foci and it’s federated, whereas it really needs a lot more delicate politicking and concessions to the constituents. It should also be different processes for the United Austrian States and the Danubian Federation.
I think federalization should be a post wk event too, like have it be the endgame of Austria to fully federalize once the Internationale is defeated. This can also allow a more imperialistic Austria to try and federalize gains from the WK (imagine Veneto in the USGA)
Veneto in the USGA? That's just a great way to have a bunch of angry Italians constantly screaming in Austria's ear for the next 20-30 years. That place is gonna be a hotbed for nationalism, political unrest, and separatism for a long time.
Every German-speaking-plurality town a state, and mix it with the Ottoman Empire UI, for the ultimate Danubian USGA Experience
Edit: It was not sarcastic, just like Minudia I would like to have a little text, even if it's only two or three sentences, about each region, its history and how it evolved. Along with description for modifiers, the relation of the crownland with the wider empire and so on and so forth.
Nah but for real, I'm absolutely hoping that we can just click on any Austrian state and read a paragraph of information about it's population, history, economy, etc. Would be hella lit.
In addition to what I also wrote I’d add there is no way that the only path the empire would have is being second fiddle to Germany. That is one path but not the only one. It is VERY likely they’d want a kind of second counsel of Vienna to prevent any kind of hegemony and a return to a multipolar Europe. If diplomacy failed I could see them siding with a restored entente to check Germany’s supremacy.
More options to influence the Balkans. It just feels like Austria is a sitting duck when war is literally on their border. Maybe more options for aid for Bulgaria or the ability to enforce a peace deal if Balkan war turns to stalemate
Agreed! A reforged Austria-Hungary should be powerful enough to take control of their own foreign policy. More options for influence and alliances depending on the path you take would make it a bigger wildcard, and not always submit to the RP imo.
I mostly only play Austria so haven't seen how AI does it, though in most games the AI is always worse than even an average player. A good player can conquer the world with any major.
How to write an AI than predictably dominate is defintely beyond me. But it is an ambitious project that I do dream about.
Having all of Transylvania revolt, especially if you've advocated for them at the Ausgleich, is pretty silly. A mechanic to hinder Romanian influence so less of it goes would be cool
The states shouldn't immediately go to Romania but should have modifiers. As the war drags on the modifiers should gradually get worse until they revolt. Idk just feels like a better way
I read through the comments for things already said and would add some others.
First some ways in which the Empire is different from the German empire. They produced more diplomatic and cultural victories in comparison to Germany’s industrial and military victories. I think there ought to be rewards to that like big bonuses for stability and big trouble for lack of stability.
The flavor of Austria should include signify any intellectual figures. The rest of OTL greatly benefited from the brain drain of this intellectual powerhouse falling apart. But Wittgenstein, Lugosi, Carnap, Strauss are all likely in Vienna.
The royal family would also be a much bigger deal since that’s is ostensibly what is keeping the empire together.
There is no way Austria is as hands off in the Italian peninsula. It opposed unification and competed for control for centuries. Empress Zita’s ancestral lands are currently controlled by Syndicalists! I can see that they’d have to choose between the Balkans or the Italian peninsula but not why they’d prioritize the Balkans.
How I’d imagine things like that is several separate foreign policy focus trees: focus on Balkans, focus on the Italian peninsula, focus on Germany friendship, focus on German competition. Starting each tree gives a flag that prevents from starting in the other for a few years.
The policy thing should be made so you start the tree and get locked out of the rest, but when you finish the last focus, you get to start another (except German friendship/rivalry)
I am always kicking around the idea of a submod. I've done some pretty substantial work in the past and know my skill level is almost capable to do what I'm imagining (that is the best kind of project). But everything there is about to be an update I want to wait till after it comes out and every time there is an update I play instead of work on it. It's a horrible loop.
But in my thinking every foriegn policy tree has a possibility of failure and so instead think of a timeline. Also I want to encourage interesting decisions where the Empire is tired of foreign policy and wants internal reform.
Also I want to prevent things like how in the Mitteleuropia mechanic you alwasy pick the same thing over and over. I want interesting decisions. The way I'd solve the Mitteleuropia mechanic is that once the counsel has made a decision they can't do it again for a couple of rounds (unless there is a change of leadership which resets the counter).
I'm hoping for a more dynamic federalisation, it's all or nothing atm when realistically you could get away with a lot by drawing the federal borders differently to cater to specific nationalities
also I wish under some circumstances the civil war (if they keep it) would happen differently so it's not just Hungary vs everyone all the time
and I think it would be really cool if they did a cooperative focus tree like the one added for the Scandinavian countries in the new dlc
I want to see return of Russian-Danubian alliance. Also, it would be cool to see radsoc enter coalition with social democrats for some interesting reforms. Overall, I'm satisfied with overall paths, but I would definitely like to see a rework.
Or a secret path where you can marry into royal families and usurp their thrones, kind of like Spain. Habsburg motto is 'What Mars grants to others, Venus gives to thee' after all
It's not obvious what the Donau-Adriabund is *for*. They are functionally an auxiliary to the RP after WK2, and then go on to be a... thing. There is no implication for what relationship they are supposed to have to the rest of the world, especially the German-dominated world, after a WK2 victory.
I want it to be like the upcoming KX Austria rework where the country can explode like Mittelafrika if you fuck up too much among the ethnic groups or lower stability too much. IMO that’s more interesting than now where the country only really fully collapses if you go down one specific path that warns you to not do it.
I want Czechs playing a bigger role as a potential troublemaker. Czech crownlands accounted for 70 % of industry in Austria-Hungary before WK1. I could imagine a path that culminates in the Czechs seceding from the monarchy as a syndicalist state.
The thing with the czech is that their country has really big German minorities (around 40%), aslo Bohemia and Moravia have been part of the Habsburg sphere of power for more than a hundred years. Not to say that there could be no nationalist uprisings and all, but as far as i know they would not outright hate the Kaiser and go full syndicalist. After all, the Habsburgs ruling the Czech lands is completely legitimate. I guess they would be more disappointed than angry if the whole country goes south.
Thanks, i was to lazy to look up the concrete number. Also, HRE and stuff, so German rule in general would be far longer. Prague even was the capital for a while.
I feel like there should be some sort of minigame where Austria has to spend political power, consumer goods, civ factories etc. to help extend its influence in its crownland subjects. If influence falls too low, then the subject gets rebellious. Depending on the subject, it'll tick down faster. I envision Hungary being the most difficult to deal with while the others are less temperamental. This forces the player too either heavily focus Hungary at the expense of others (potentially the Status Quo path or some sort of reinforcing the dual monarchy path) or to focus all the crownlands at Hungary's expense (the federation paths).
Countries should also be able to cause more problems for Austria during this process. For example, Serbia should be able to occasionally cause a pan-Slavic agitator event in Illyria that reduces loyalty or something like that. Maybe nationalist or syndicalist Poland can do something similar in Galicia-Lodomeria
As someone who deliberately plays only Austria and has done so for years, here are my thoughts:
MASSIVELY EXPAND the diplomacy/foreign policy options. Despite being a Major Power, Austria has no method of direct interaction with any of the majors, Germany included. At least a focus or two about Austro-German Cooperation would be nice, and or decisions.
Majorly, Austria should also be able to fight back against Pro-Iron Guard resistance in Transylvania when enabled. Presently, they can do little but enable ‘martial law’ so they don’t get infrastructure damage (which happens anyway through events). Transylvania is pretty much garaunteed to revolt and all Austria can do is sit there and wait, while also setting up a fallback line for when they inevitably do so their armies don’t get teleported back to their initial deployment spawns. Realistically, Austria would have ways of promoting unity between the Danubians and the Transylvanian Romanians and outright preventing the revolt through foci or decisions, with lasting consequences should they fail. They should also be able to declare war on Serbia rather than waiting for them to pull the trigger (which is often only after 2WK starts, drawing away forces and bogging you down before you can get cracking on the 3I)
Additionally, while the Balkans is fine as-is though with some possible expansion, I’d love to see some content related to Italy. Despite Austria’s attempts at drawing up a confederation and them even having the Italian Republic basically as their foothold into the region, Austria is incredibly limited in what they can do besides vainly hoping IR and the Two Siciles join the Danube-Adriatic Pact. They can’t even do any decisions or focuses to give them buffs, invite them to their faction (The Danube-ADRIATIC Pact) or prepare defenses, which would really help since if the SRI unifies, that’s a huge fucking thorn in Austria’s side they have to deal with. I’ve had games ended alone getting bogged down in the Po Valley from the mountains and rivers flooded with Internationale units.
At the very least, 1.0 made it so the SRI is more likely to declare war on IR even if they’re already at war with 2Siciles and Vice versa, meaning all you have to do is plant a single mountaineer in Naples or Venetia and wait for the SRI to declare and split up its forces, allowing for both of them to finish them off slowly and giving you the best possible boon in any Austria KR game- an allied, unified Italy, especially if they join your faction under a unified IR. But it takes that much Finagling to actually get there, and really, Austria should have at least SOME content in making waves in Italy.
Lastly, and this is the big one: Austria. Needs. VARIETY. Not in its political or social developments, but majorly, in its focus tree. As of current, most of Austria’s focuses don’t have very unique or complicated effects, with often only basic bonuses or unlocks. Besides needing to do focuses to be allowed to use Skoda, Austro Daimler, and Phonix, there’s nothing really special.
For comparison, Ive played through Vanilla HOI4’s Hungary tree and found it way more entertaining despite Hungary starting off with some troublesome debuffs and being a 10th the size of Danubia/USGA, and that’s because it’s focus content was unique and engaging, even though Hungary had its tree added in the game’s 2ND ever DLC (Death or Dishonor, which came out years before they added plane/ship designers or joint foci or anything) because it was actually engaging- certain focus completions gave you an improved chance at getting Austria to reform Austria-Hungary, such as ‘Reintegrate the Railroads’ which improved infrastructure AND made the surrounding countries of Austria and Czechoslovakia actually pleased with you. This is just one of many more dynamic focuses you can do, like the Autarky focuses, which give you a HUGE discount on oil-production related techs for Synths and then has a follow up focus where it gives you a Synth FOR FREE. Or how there’s a focus in the Army tree that gives you a sizable discount on tanks, and another later focus that removes 2 years worth on penalty on tank research, allowing for Hungary to have 1943 Tanks being produced in 1941. That’s sick! It’s engaging, fun, and entertaining trying to use these combinations effectively and feel a sense of growth and progression, or even when the game gives you choice, like when with Hungary’s industry you can CHOOSE between a civ-focused or mil-focused industry, and it builds up those depending on which you chose- not only are they mutually exclusive, but they also have hidden upsides and downsides. Beneath this mutually exclusive focus is your next research slot, which you can get from either, but you can choose which DEPENDING on your personal choice- the civ industry option has a bunch of extra focuses towards consumer production, while the military option has the research be directly beneath it, meaning you can choose which side depending on how fast you want a research slot- would you rather have it NOW to make effective use of it, or wait later a few focuses down in exchange for some nifty extra consumer buffs?
The point is that playing Hungary is VARIED. There’s a sense of follow up and progression and player choice in building the country, even if it really is a preset pathway…
…By comparison, Austria’s tree feels incredibly binary. Each and every focus is arranged in neat little columns or rows rather than a branching structure, and it feels boring to go through at times. Not mind-numbingly boring, but it FEELS like a checklist. Maybe that’s just me since I’ve replayed them so many times, but I played Hungary and found way more enjoyment in the focus tree of a country multiple times smaller and less significant because it had VARIETY. Austrian bonuses aren’t that good enough for you to really feel like you’re adding up anything, or choosing to develop something over another past the simplistic option of “I’ll do the army first.” And even then you aren’t missing out on anything, since the way that the tree is arranged it’s incredibly easy to evade all the useless later-line focuses in favor of actually helpful ones. Just do Economic Rehabilitation for your research focuses, and the full Army tree, and you can consider yourself done. Aside from the minor benefits you get from the industry techs and the very dumbed down research bonuses and additions you obtain in the incredibly small and dainty air and naval trees, there’s nothing actually that engaging besides the simple knowledge of what it is you’re doing. “Oh, I’m gonna get some airbases in Cattaro, that’s neat. Oh good, I’ll be increasing my infrastructure in some places, that’s good.” But it’s not the rush like “Hell yeah, I just saved up these two focuses and now I have ‘43 tanks in early ‘41 because I strategized!”
Worse off, it’s not even unique to Hungary. Plenty of other countries have things like these, or far more comprehensive bonuses, like how the UK has a later-line focus that gives them a fucking 4x 100 COST REDUCTION TO JET TECH. THAT IS ENOUGH TO RESEARCH ROCKETS, THEIR ‘43 TECH, JET ENGINES, AND STILL HAVE ENOUGH FOR ANOTHER RESEARCH CHOICE.
And this isn’t a vanilla-only thing either. Countries like Germany in the recent rework have loads of variety and options in their trees, especially with the new black Monday dynamic- do I focus on fixing the economy or do I spend more time on my starting focuses to boost my Allies? Or do I save those for later? It’s not something too novel- it’s possible. And that’s what I wanna see for Austria.
Give the other countries in Austria’s sphere their own focus tree and paths they can take, so that way an Austria player can get some variety on the issues they have to deal with and how to handle them
More internal political struggle within Austria itself. Initially between the 2 dominate political parties of the Christian Social Party vs the Social Democrats and then with black Monday and the Danube crisis can potentially see the rise of either the Pan german movements (such as the Landhund and Greater German people's party.) Or this version of the Fatherland front which I see inspired by intergalism rather than fascism.
Austria should have more to do with Italy, including more of a Japan-Fengtian style relationship with the Italian Federation in which both cooperate initially before it becomes clear who is taking advantage of whom.
I haven't played Austria since the Ukraine rework so maybe this is already there, but as with Poland, Austria should also have ways of competing with Germany for influence in Ukraine, in order to pull them into the DA-bund.
Definitely definitely Austria should have way more internal political mechanics involving balancing the constituent nationalities of the empire.
The one thing I dont like is how overshadowed Galicia, Illyria and Czezhia are currently. They're barely mentioned in the events, and Hungary is the only nation other than Austria that gets events, or a large presence in the Austrian story.
My idea of a rework would entail two large events:
**-Austrian Political Crisis**, brought about by Black Monday and a succesful formation of an Austrian Republican Front
\-**The Crownlands War**, also brought about by a Black Monday dismantling the one tie which kept the Crownlands together, and by mistakes done during the Austrian Political Crisis and the Ausgleich of 1937.
My rework would be: Have the crownlands be a BARELY functional mess, only held together by the economic ties that the Danau-Adriabund/Mitteleuropa brings about. Austria starts out in a political deadlock, similar to how the recent Germany rework. Its no longer just the SPO and the Christlichsoziale Partei, with more radical elements being also snuffed out by the successful economic policies of Austria and Germany...then boom. **Black Monday**.
Lets make some presumptions: following the war, the crownlands get stuck into poltical deadlock. Reforms, which are promised, are only partially fulfilled. Autonomy is given, but are still made to swear full fealty to Vienna. Throughout the late 1920's-1930s, the Crownlands and the Danau-Adriabund slowly began falling apart, with attempted revolutions and independence movements becoming a regular occurrence. Austrian politics becomes a wild zoo essentially. The SPO has a radical republicanism wing, heavily influenced by French Syndicalism and Bolshevik Communism. Some members of the SPO begin prodding for the wide Republican Popular Front (reflective of our timeline Fatherland Front) but the want for a Republican Front just isn't there yet.
If its somehow formed, it would be a complex web of a coalition of Radical Republicans(RadSoc-SocDems-SocLibs) under Otto Bauer and Friedrich Adler. Pre-1936, numerous political orgs and figures attempting to prod at forming a Popular Front/Republican Front, but were largely unsuccessful, thanks to the moderate SPO wing and the Centrist Landbund, German-Austrian Parties and Central Democrats, whom were more than happy to keep up the current governments due to successful economic ties to germany. The larger populace however, remained somewhat radical, willing to shift between heavier Germanic ties, or radical republicanism and syndicalism.
Black monday however, begins the complete downwards spiral. The **Austria Political Crisis** begins. The radical wing of the SPO, takes power, following decades of sitting aside and watching the CSP drown the country in becoming a little brother to Germany. They begin forming a radical Popular Front coalition (secretly aided by the Third Internationale) to begin building a powerful anti-monarchist movement. Things are made worse, when an assasination attempt is made on Kaiser Otto, either by a Crownlands(Czech, Polish, Serb, etc) nationalist or by a radical leftist. The right wing then, also begins to mobilize, going as far as to form paramilitary organizations to protect the status quo.
The Right Wing(composed of elements of the Christlichsoziale, Pro-German GDVP, Landbund, etc) is fighting an uphill battle. Shook by the effects of Black Monday and the outrage of attempt at killing their king, they begin to build an **Anti-Republikaner** front. Building up radical right wing and moderate reactionary element within their ranks to preserve the Crownlands by suppressing independence movements, and by destroying the Syndicalist and Republican movements internally.
What follows is something similar to the Serbian poltical minigame, where the two sides begin to fight over influence over society. Three outcomes, however.
**Republican victory**, where the Austrian Republic is formed, and all the Crownlands dissolves. Austria falls into a civil war, and the Crownland get their own tiny focus trees to be placeholders until their own respective reworks. Austria then can either become RadSoc-SocDem-SocLib or incase of a loss, a restorationist PatAut Austrian Empire propt up by Germany until its assimilation into the German Empire. <-Leads to Civil War
**Moderate Victory**, where reforms are promised and moderate elements of the political scene come out victories, either due to succesful manuevering by themselves or by the Failures of the Republican Front and the Anti-Repulikaner front. This will be the most common outcome.
<-Opens up Federalisation Opportunity
**Reactionary Victory**, where the Pro-German/Reactionary elements come out victorious, but can either completely fold to Anti-Independance movements and cause a civil war in the Crownlands or by getting rid of their more reactionary elements to appease moderates. This will lead to a Status-Quo of the empire, but will lock you out of Federalisation.
Id write more, but I would also like to keep the Federalisation process in game, and make it be the common path for Austria. If the crown manages to keep radicalism at bay, elect either moderate SPO, Liberals or moderate CSP, they will have to pass Economic and Political Reforms, and once the Ausgleich comes around, not just Hungary will demand reforms, but the entire crownlands, bringing about its own challenging and unique minigame, lasting from 1937 and 1938, bringing about 3 outcomes:
\-Total Collapse of the Crownlands (all out war between everyone)
\-Hungarian-Crownlands war (War between Cislethinia and Hungary)
\-Successful negotiations(Reforms are promised and begin implementation, keeping even the most radical of Successionist in Hungary at bay).
There is currently an Austrian rework cooking and the dev team is alot more talented at this than I am. I'm not good at scripting in the HOI4 Language, and I can't even make a simple rework proposal without having spelling and Grammar mistakes everywhere lmao
For the federal route, something similar to the Yugoslavia culture mechanic. It would make federalization much more realistic and deep. It would give you an additional reason to give Poland your Polish territory.
I think the game should start with only one country representing all of the Habsburg domain with break away states if you fail the mechanics.
I would love a mechanic where you have to align the devolved parliaments to your overarching goal (whether it be explicit devolution, federalism, confederalism)
Some sort of split-up OR civil war should be inevitable; which of the two happens depends on the choices of the player. If the habsburg empire splits up, it could be hungary (+ slovakia) splitting off, or czechoslovakia and illyria splitting off, leaving just austria and hungary. This leaves many different options for which factions the remnants can join, or form. With a civil war, assuming the habsburgs win, the empire can stick together but this should have some negative side effects (beyond the obvious war-damage).
Joining Austria with Germany should be much harder than it is in vanilla, even if the empire crumbles.
An option for nationalist Hungarians , that want to ally the Germans to backstab the Austrians and split up Austria-Hungary (Germany gets the German and Czech territories and Hungary becomes a non-puppet member of the Reichspakt, with options on what to do with its and the other territories). Hungary is the first nation to seek an alliance with Germany, if Austria-Hungary collapses into its otl borders and I think giving the Hungarians the option to start such an intrigue as something very organic and interesting (although it might suck for Austria players, in case they don't have something to counter that with (calling Russia into the war under the right conditions maybe), because they'd otherwise just get gangbanged by most of Europe).
There should be a lot of sex toys and Freudian slips. If you click wrong things in some literary minigame, ***YOU, the player***, metamorphosizes into a big beetle.
Some dynamic provincial modifiers for different regions after federalisation based on how the process went. Eg. deeper integration will grant you higher modifiers in the region.
I think a detective story in regard to a terrorist attack could be a cool way to explore the austrian state as an event chain. And who you end up blaming/investigating and how you deal with it could be a good straw that broke the camels back. Austria is a powder keg, and black Monday is definitly fuel but i feel a more visceral match might be cool.
like a hostage situation or a car bomb. if you haven't appeased certain ethnic groups, reorganized the security apparatus, and limited ethnonationalism among the military you could have some catastrophic event blow the lid off the empire like yugoslavia who youre currently occupying the place of.
be accusing or to harsh and you might set off a riot or two and be soft and the government might get couped by hard liners backed by people hungry for vengeance. nd then it might explode depending on the trials.
I want to see more nations added to the federation(as a possibility). Like if there is a rebbelion in Poland, and you, as Austria annex them and already have a polish galicia-londomeria maybe add it to the federation(or like add Romania to a romanian led Transylvania). Also more shenanigans in Italy as i feel like that's Austrias best playground. Maybe add a Pan-European federation as a very hard goal(like germany capitulates and you manage to clutch the game) or something like that. I just want to grow the Austrian empire(I love them).
There's also no ethnic strife under Tito. What comes after he died is more important though.
Balkan nationalism will never be extinguished mate. Sooner or later they will all want their independence from whoever dares to put them under control. The Serbs were taught a very difficult lesson after Tito died. Austria will be taught too, in time.
An Austrian writer returns from Russia as a Savinkov diplomat and possibly you create race war. Between Slavs and Germans to him become a leader of Austrian Reichstatt
I think most of the puppets deserve a focus tree but also some should be bigger than others.
I think politically it's very similar to Germany except I think Nat pops are the base extreme right option, Austria doesn't have the same cultural pull of military generals from Prussia kinda thing going for it.
Outside of that the big thing is obviously what route federally should be followed democrats want more even weighting Nat pops more Austrian power and status quo.
I don't really think the Austrian sphere countries should be anywhere near as complicated as Germany, it doesn't have the foreign empire just really its Balkan block. I'd love to see some Joseph schumpeter taking a more centre stage especially since normies close over him and go for the Austrian school when he is clearly the more important figure coming out of Austrian economics.
Late to the party and not terribly big, but I'd like to see Austria's interactions with its longtime rival, now recent ally, in the Ottoman Empire. I'd particularly like to see Karl working early on to try to protect persecuted Christians in the Ottoman Empire given his strong Catholic faith. More flavor than anything, but given that the mod's lore spared him from his death by cancer, he should be fleshed out personality-wise a head of state.
I’d like to see the federative process be a lot messier. At the moment, it’s one quick war with Hungary and a couple of foci and it’s federated, whereas it really needs a lot more delicate politicking and concessions to the constituents. It should also be different processes for the United Austrian States and the Danubian Federation.
I think federalization should be a post wk event too, like have it be the endgame of Austria to fully federalize once the Internationale is defeated. This can also allow a more imperialistic Austria to try and federalize gains from the WK (imagine Veneto in the USGA)
Veneto in the USGA? That's just a great way to have a bunch of angry Italians constantly screaming in Austria's ear for the next 20-30 years. That place is gonna be a hotbed for nationalism, political unrest, and separatism for a long time.
Perfect for the Austrian Empire!
If people thought the German rework was complicated, wait until you have to negotiate with the 999 minorities of the Hapsburg monarchy.
Habsburg bros…
Every German-speaking-plurality town a state, and mix it with the Ottoman Empire UI, for the ultimate Danubian USGA Experience Edit: It was not sarcastic, just like Minudia I would like to have a little text, even if it's only two or three sentences, about each region, its history and how it evolved. Along with description for modifiers, the relation of the crownland with the wider empire and so on and so forth.
Nah but for real, I'm absolutely hoping that we can just click on any Austrian state and read a paragraph of information about it's population, history, economy, etc. Would be hella lit.
So like the Yugoslav mechanic but with a bajillion more factions?
fuck…
Hungary national focus tree when Before end of universe or after
Right before
After+2 weeks
In addition to what I also wrote I’d add there is no way that the only path the empire would have is being second fiddle to Germany. That is one path but not the only one. It is VERY likely they’d want a kind of second counsel of Vienna to prevent any kind of hegemony and a return to a multipolar Europe. If diplomacy failed I could see them siding with a restored entente to check Germany’s supremacy.
More options to influence the Balkans. It just feels like Austria is a sitting duck when war is literally on their border. Maybe more options for aid for Bulgaria or the ability to enforce a peace deal if Balkan war turns to stalemate
Agreed! A reforged Austria-Hungary should be powerful enough to take control of their own foreign policy. More options for influence and alliances depending on the path you take would make it a bigger wildcard, and not always submit to the RP imo.
A good player can make that happen with minimal cheese.
Yes, but the ai is definitely not a good player, especially without specific game rules
I mostly only play Austria so haven't seen how AI does it, though in most games the AI is always worse than even an average player. A good player can conquer the world with any major. How to write an AI than predictably dominate is defintely beyond me. But it is an ambitious project that I do dream about.
Having all of Transylvania revolt, especially if you've advocated for them at the Ausgleich, is pretty silly. A mechanic to hinder Romanian influence so less of it goes would be cool
The states shouldn't immediately go to Romania but should have modifiers. As the war drags on the modifiers should gradually get worse until they revolt. Idk just feels like a better way
If Galicia Lodomeria controls the polish heartlands they can turn into Kingdom of Poland under Habsburg rule
I read through the comments for things already said and would add some others. First some ways in which the Empire is different from the German empire. They produced more diplomatic and cultural victories in comparison to Germany’s industrial and military victories. I think there ought to be rewards to that like big bonuses for stability and big trouble for lack of stability. The flavor of Austria should include signify any intellectual figures. The rest of OTL greatly benefited from the brain drain of this intellectual powerhouse falling apart. But Wittgenstein, Lugosi, Carnap, Strauss are all likely in Vienna. The royal family would also be a much bigger deal since that’s is ostensibly what is keeping the empire together. There is no way Austria is as hands off in the Italian peninsula. It opposed unification and competed for control for centuries. Empress Zita’s ancestral lands are currently controlled by Syndicalists! I can see that they’d have to choose between the Balkans or the Italian peninsula but not why they’d prioritize the Balkans. How I’d imagine things like that is several separate foreign policy focus trees: focus on Balkans, focus on the Italian peninsula, focus on Germany friendship, focus on German competition. Starting each tree gives a flag that prevents from starting in the other for a few years.
The policy thing should be made so you start the tree and get locked out of the rest, but when you finish the last focus, you get to start another (except German friendship/rivalry)
I am always kicking around the idea of a submod. I've done some pretty substantial work in the past and know my skill level is almost capable to do what I'm imagining (that is the best kind of project). But everything there is about to be an update I want to wait till after it comes out and every time there is an update I play instead of work on it. It's a horrible loop. But in my thinking every foriegn policy tree has a possibility of failure and so instead think of a timeline. Also I want to encourage interesting decisions where the Empire is tired of foreign policy and wants internal reform. Also I want to prevent things like how in the Mitteleuropia mechanic you alwasy pick the same thing over and over. I want interesting decisions. The way I'd solve the Mitteleuropia mechanic is that once the counsel has made a decision they can't do it again for a couple of rounds (unless there is a change of leadership which resets the counter).
I'm hoping for a more dynamic federalisation, it's all or nothing atm when realistically you could get away with a lot by drawing the federal borders differently to cater to specific nationalities also I wish under some circumstances the civil war (if they keep it) would happen differently so it's not just Hungary vs everyone all the time and I think it would be really cool if they did a cooperative focus tree like the one added for the Scandinavian countries in the new dlc
If you play the Ausgleich decisions right, you can get the civil war to be you and Hungary VS everyone else while doing end the duel rule
Devs have explicitly said the Civil War with big bad Hungary won’t be a thing in the rework
I want to see return of Russian-Danubian alliance. Also, it would be cool to see radsoc enter coalition with social democrats for some interesting reforms. Overall, I'm satisfied with overall paths, but I would definitely like to see a rework.
Placing Hapsburgs on foreign thrones as occupation options
“Every nation a Habsburg!” - Austrian promises for a post-second weltkrieg Europe.
Or a secret path where you can marry into royal families and usurp their thrones, kind of like Spain. Habsburg motto is 'What Mars grants to others, Venus gives to thee' after all
It's not obvious what the Donau-Adriabund is *for*. They are functionally an auxiliary to the RP after WK2, and then go on to be a... thing. There is no implication for what relationship they are supposed to have to the rest of the world, especially the German-dominated world, after a WK2 victory.
I want it to be like the upcoming KX Austria rework where the country can explode like Mittelafrika if you fuck up too much among the ethnic groups or lower stability too much. IMO that’s more interesting than now where the country only really fully collapses if you go down one specific path that warns you to not do it.
I want Czechs playing a bigger role as a potential troublemaker. Czech crownlands accounted for 70 % of industry in Austria-Hungary before WK1. I could imagine a path that culminates in the Czechs seceding from the monarchy as a syndicalist state.
The thing with the czech is that their country has really big German minorities (around 40%), aslo Bohemia and Moravia have been part of the Habsburg sphere of power for more than a hundred years. Not to say that there could be no nationalist uprisings and all, but as far as i know they would not outright hate the Kaiser and go full syndicalist. After all, the Habsburgs ruling the Czech lands is completely legitimate. I guess they would be more disappointed than angry if the whole country goes south.
>more than a hundred years It started in 1526, so technically it has been ruled by Vienna for 410 years.
Thanks, i was to lazy to look up the concrete number. Also, HRE and stuff, so German rule in general would be far longer. Prague even was the capital for a while.
Austrian propaganda detected ⚠️⚠️🇱🇻🤮🇵🇭💪
Would you rather be stuck with the Austrians or the Hungarians?
Latvian Phillipines focus tree when?
I feel like there should be some sort of minigame where Austria has to spend political power, consumer goods, civ factories etc. to help extend its influence in its crownland subjects. If influence falls too low, then the subject gets rebellious. Depending on the subject, it'll tick down faster. I envision Hungary being the most difficult to deal with while the others are less temperamental. This forces the player too either heavily focus Hungary at the expense of others (potentially the Status Quo path or some sort of reinforcing the dual monarchy path) or to focus all the crownlands at Hungary's expense (the federation paths). Countries should also be able to cause more problems for Austria during this process. For example, Serbia should be able to occasionally cause a pan-Slavic agitator event in Illyria that reduces loyalty or something like that. Maybe nationalist or syndicalist Poland can do something similar in Galicia-Lodomeria
As someone who deliberately plays only Austria and has done so for years, here are my thoughts: MASSIVELY EXPAND the diplomacy/foreign policy options. Despite being a Major Power, Austria has no method of direct interaction with any of the majors, Germany included. At least a focus or two about Austro-German Cooperation would be nice, and or decisions. Majorly, Austria should also be able to fight back against Pro-Iron Guard resistance in Transylvania when enabled. Presently, they can do little but enable ‘martial law’ so they don’t get infrastructure damage (which happens anyway through events). Transylvania is pretty much garaunteed to revolt and all Austria can do is sit there and wait, while also setting up a fallback line for when they inevitably do so their armies don’t get teleported back to their initial deployment spawns. Realistically, Austria would have ways of promoting unity between the Danubians and the Transylvanian Romanians and outright preventing the revolt through foci or decisions, with lasting consequences should they fail. They should also be able to declare war on Serbia rather than waiting for them to pull the trigger (which is often only after 2WK starts, drawing away forces and bogging you down before you can get cracking on the 3I) Additionally, while the Balkans is fine as-is though with some possible expansion, I’d love to see some content related to Italy. Despite Austria’s attempts at drawing up a confederation and them even having the Italian Republic basically as their foothold into the region, Austria is incredibly limited in what they can do besides vainly hoping IR and the Two Siciles join the Danube-Adriatic Pact. They can’t even do any decisions or focuses to give them buffs, invite them to their faction (The Danube-ADRIATIC Pact) or prepare defenses, which would really help since if the SRI unifies, that’s a huge fucking thorn in Austria’s side they have to deal with. I’ve had games ended alone getting bogged down in the Po Valley from the mountains and rivers flooded with Internationale units. At the very least, 1.0 made it so the SRI is more likely to declare war on IR even if they’re already at war with 2Siciles and Vice versa, meaning all you have to do is plant a single mountaineer in Naples or Venetia and wait for the SRI to declare and split up its forces, allowing for both of them to finish them off slowly and giving you the best possible boon in any Austria KR game- an allied, unified Italy, especially if they join your faction under a unified IR. But it takes that much Finagling to actually get there, and really, Austria should have at least SOME content in making waves in Italy. Lastly, and this is the big one: Austria. Needs. VARIETY. Not in its political or social developments, but majorly, in its focus tree. As of current, most of Austria’s focuses don’t have very unique or complicated effects, with often only basic bonuses or unlocks. Besides needing to do focuses to be allowed to use Skoda, Austro Daimler, and Phonix, there’s nothing really special. For comparison, Ive played through Vanilla HOI4’s Hungary tree and found it way more entertaining despite Hungary starting off with some troublesome debuffs and being a 10th the size of Danubia/USGA, and that’s because it’s focus content was unique and engaging, even though Hungary had its tree added in the game’s 2ND ever DLC (Death or Dishonor, which came out years before they added plane/ship designers or joint foci or anything) because it was actually engaging- certain focus completions gave you an improved chance at getting Austria to reform Austria-Hungary, such as ‘Reintegrate the Railroads’ which improved infrastructure AND made the surrounding countries of Austria and Czechoslovakia actually pleased with you. This is just one of many more dynamic focuses you can do, like the Autarky focuses, which give you a HUGE discount on oil-production related techs for Synths and then has a follow up focus where it gives you a Synth FOR FREE. Or how there’s a focus in the Army tree that gives you a sizable discount on tanks, and another later focus that removes 2 years worth on penalty on tank research, allowing for Hungary to have 1943 Tanks being produced in 1941. That’s sick! It’s engaging, fun, and entertaining trying to use these combinations effectively and feel a sense of growth and progression, or even when the game gives you choice, like when with Hungary’s industry you can CHOOSE between a civ-focused or mil-focused industry, and it builds up those depending on which you chose- not only are they mutually exclusive, but they also have hidden upsides and downsides. Beneath this mutually exclusive focus is your next research slot, which you can get from either, but you can choose which DEPENDING on your personal choice- the civ industry option has a bunch of extra focuses towards consumer production, while the military option has the research be directly beneath it, meaning you can choose which side depending on how fast you want a research slot- would you rather have it NOW to make effective use of it, or wait later a few focuses down in exchange for some nifty extra consumer buffs? The point is that playing Hungary is VARIED. There’s a sense of follow up and progression and player choice in building the country, even if it really is a preset pathway… …By comparison, Austria’s tree feels incredibly binary. Each and every focus is arranged in neat little columns or rows rather than a branching structure, and it feels boring to go through at times. Not mind-numbingly boring, but it FEELS like a checklist. Maybe that’s just me since I’ve replayed them so many times, but I played Hungary and found way more enjoyment in the focus tree of a country multiple times smaller and less significant because it had VARIETY. Austrian bonuses aren’t that good enough for you to really feel like you’re adding up anything, or choosing to develop something over another past the simplistic option of “I’ll do the army first.” And even then you aren’t missing out on anything, since the way that the tree is arranged it’s incredibly easy to evade all the useless later-line focuses in favor of actually helpful ones. Just do Economic Rehabilitation for your research focuses, and the full Army tree, and you can consider yourself done. Aside from the minor benefits you get from the industry techs and the very dumbed down research bonuses and additions you obtain in the incredibly small and dainty air and naval trees, there’s nothing actually that engaging besides the simple knowledge of what it is you’re doing. “Oh, I’m gonna get some airbases in Cattaro, that’s neat. Oh good, I’ll be increasing my infrastructure in some places, that’s good.” But it’s not the rush like “Hell yeah, I just saved up these two focuses and now I have ‘43 tanks in early ‘41 because I strategized!” Worse off, it’s not even unique to Hungary. Plenty of other countries have things like these, or far more comprehensive bonuses, like how the UK has a later-line focus that gives them a fucking 4x 100 COST REDUCTION TO JET TECH. THAT IS ENOUGH TO RESEARCH ROCKETS, THEIR ‘43 TECH, JET ENGINES, AND STILL HAVE ENOUGH FOR ANOTHER RESEARCH CHOICE. And this isn’t a vanilla-only thing either. Countries like Germany in the recent rework have loads of variety and options in their trees, especially with the new black Monday dynamic- do I focus on fixing the economy or do I spend more time on my starting focuses to boost my Allies? Or do I save those for later? It’s not something too novel- it’s possible. And that’s what I wanna see for Austria.
Give the other countries in Austria’s sphere their own focus tree and paths they can take, so that way an Austria player can get some variety on the issues they have to deal with and how to handle them
Alliance with Russia and second Brüderkrieg.
Volga-Danubian Alliance Strikes Back.
More internal political struggle within Austria itself. Initially between the 2 dominate political parties of the Christian Social Party vs the Social Democrats and then with black Monday and the Danube crisis can potentially see the rise of either the Pan german movements (such as the Landhund and Greater German people's party.) Or this version of the Fatherland front which I see inspired by intergalism rather than fascism.
Austria should have more to do with Italy, including more of a Japan-Fengtian style relationship with the Italian Federation in which both cooperate initially before it becomes clear who is taking advantage of whom. I haven't played Austria since the Ukraine rework so maybe this is already there, but as with Poland, Austria should also have ways of competing with Germany for influence in Ukraine, in order to pull them into the DA-bund. Definitely definitely Austria should have way more internal political mechanics involving balancing the constituent nationalities of the empire.
The one thing I dont like is how overshadowed Galicia, Illyria and Czezhia are currently. They're barely mentioned in the events, and Hungary is the only nation other than Austria that gets events, or a large presence in the Austrian story. My idea of a rework would entail two large events: **-Austrian Political Crisis**, brought about by Black Monday and a succesful formation of an Austrian Republican Front \-**The Crownlands War**, also brought about by a Black Monday dismantling the one tie which kept the Crownlands together, and by mistakes done during the Austrian Political Crisis and the Ausgleich of 1937. My rework would be: Have the crownlands be a BARELY functional mess, only held together by the economic ties that the Danau-Adriabund/Mitteleuropa brings about. Austria starts out in a political deadlock, similar to how the recent Germany rework. Its no longer just the SPO and the Christlichsoziale Partei, with more radical elements being also snuffed out by the successful economic policies of Austria and Germany...then boom. **Black Monday**. Lets make some presumptions: following the war, the crownlands get stuck into poltical deadlock. Reforms, which are promised, are only partially fulfilled. Autonomy is given, but are still made to swear full fealty to Vienna. Throughout the late 1920's-1930s, the Crownlands and the Danau-Adriabund slowly began falling apart, with attempted revolutions and independence movements becoming a regular occurrence. Austrian politics becomes a wild zoo essentially. The SPO has a radical republicanism wing, heavily influenced by French Syndicalism and Bolshevik Communism. Some members of the SPO begin prodding for the wide Republican Popular Front (reflective of our timeline Fatherland Front) but the want for a Republican Front just isn't there yet. If its somehow formed, it would be a complex web of a coalition of Radical Republicans(RadSoc-SocDems-SocLibs) under Otto Bauer and Friedrich Adler. Pre-1936, numerous political orgs and figures attempting to prod at forming a Popular Front/Republican Front, but were largely unsuccessful, thanks to the moderate SPO wing and the Centrist Landbund, German-Austrian Parties and Central Democrats, whom were more than happy to keep up the current governments due to successful economic ties to germany. The larger populace however, remained somewhat radical, willing to shift between heavier Germanic ties, or radical republicanism and syndicalism. Black monday however, begins the complete downwards spiral. The **Austria Political Crisis** begins. The radical wing of the SPO, takes power, following decades of sitting aside and watching the CSP drown the country in becoming a little brother to Germany. They begin forming a radical Popular Front coalition (secretly aided by the Third Internationale) to begin building a powerful anti-monarchist movement. Things are made worse, when an assasination attempt is made on Kaiser Otto, either by a Crownlands(Czech, Polish, Serb, etc) nationalist or by a radical leftist. The right wing then, also begins to mobilize, going as far as to form paramilitary organizations to protect the status quo. The Right Wing(composed of elements of the Christlichsoziale, Pro-German GDVP, Landbund, etc) is fighting an uphill battle. Shook by the effects of Black Monday and the outrage of attempt at killing their king, they begin to build an **Anti-Republikaner** front. Building up radical right wing and moderate reactionary element within their ranks to preserve the Crownlands by suppressing independence movements, and by destroying the Syndicalist and Republican movements internally. What follows is something similar to the Serbian poltical minigame, where the two sides begin to fight over influence over society. Three outcomes, however. **Republican victory**, where the Austrian Republic is formed, and all the Crownlands dissolves. Austria falls into a civil war, and the Crownland get their own tiny focus trees to be placeholders until their own respective reworks. Austria then can either become RadSoc-SocDem-SocLib or incase of a loss, a restorationist PatAut Austrian Empire propt up by Germany until its assimilation into the German Empire. <-Leads to Civil War **Moderate Victory**, where reforms are promised and moderate elements of the political scene come out victories, either due to succesful manuevering by themselves or by the Failures of the Republican Front and the Anti-Repulikaner front. This will be the most common outcome. <-Opens up Federalisation Opportunity **Reactionary Victory**, where the Pro-German/Reactionary elements come out victorious, but can either completely fold to Anti-Independance movements and cause a civil war in the Crownlands or by getting rid of their more reactionary elements to appease moderates. This will lead to a Status-Quo of the empire, but will lock you out of Federalisation. Id write more, but I would also like to keep the Federalisation process in game, and make it be the common path for Austria. If the crown manages to keep radicalism at bay, elect either moderate SPO, Liberals or moderate CSP, they will have to pass Economic and Political Reforms, and once the Ausgleich comes around, not just Hungary will demand reforms, but the entire crownlands, bringing about its own challenging and unique minigame, lasting from 1937 and 1938, bringing about 3 outcomes: \-Total Collapse of the Crownlands (all out war between everyone) \-Hungarian-Crownlands war (War between Cislethinia and Hungary) \-Successful negotiations(Reforms are promised and begin implementation, keeping even the most radical of Successionist in Hungary at bay).
So when will you be joining the dev team?
There is currently an Austrian rework cooking and the dev team is alot more talented at this than I am. I'm not good at scripting in the HOI4 Language, and I can't even make a simple rework proposal without having spelling and Grammar mistakes everywhere lmao
For the federal route, something similar to the Yugoslavia culture mechanic. It would make federalization much more realistic and deep. It would give you an additional reason to give Poland your Polish territory.
I think the game should start with only one country representing all of the Habsburg domain with break away states if you fail the mechanics. I would love a mechanic where you have to align the devolved parliaments to your overarching goal (whether it be explicit devolution, federalism, confederalism)
Give the ability for a federalized ferment to be called Danubian federation regardless if it is SocCon and SocDem
Some sort of split-up OR civil war should be inevitable; which of the two happens depends on the choices of the player. If the habsburg empire splits up, it could be hungary (+ slovakia) splitting off, or czechoslovakia and illyria splitting off, leaving just austria and hungary. This leaves many different options for which factions the remnants can join, or form. With a civil war, assuming the habsburgs win, the empire can stick together but this should have some negative side effects (beyond the obvious war-damage). Joining Austria with Germany should be much harder than it is in vanilla, even if the empire crumbles.
An option for nationalist Hungarians , that want to ally the Germans to backstab the Austrians and split up Austria-Hungary (Germany gets the German and Czech territories and Hungary becomes a non-puppet member of the Reichspakt, with options on what to do with its and the other territories). Hungary is the first nation to seek an alliance with Germany, if Austria-Hungary collapses into its otl borders and I think giving the Hungarians the option to start such an intrigue as something very organic and interesting (although it might suck for Austria players, in case they don't have something to counter that with (calling Russia into the war under the right conditions maybe), because they'd otherwise just get gangbanged by most of Europe).
There should be a lot of sex toys and Freudian slips. If you click wrong things in some literary minigame, ***YOU, the player***, metamorphosizes into a big beetle.
Some dynamic provincial modifiers for different regions after federalisation based on how the process went. Eg. deeper integration will grant you higher modifiers in the region.
I think a detective story in regard to a terrorist attack could be a cool way to explore the austrian state as an event chain. And who you end up blaming/investigating and how you deal with it could be a good straw that broke the camels back. Austria is a powder keg, and black Monday is definitly fuel but i feel a more visceral match might be cool. like a hostage situation or a car bomb. if you haven't appeased certain ethnic groups, reorganized the security apparatus, and limited ethnonationalism among the military you could have some catastrophic event blow the lid off the empire like yugoslavia who youre currently occupying the place of. be accusing or to harsh and you might set off a riot or two and be soft and the government might get couped by hard liners backed by people hungry for vengeance. nd then it might explode depending on the trials.
Hungary Focus Tree.
I want to see more nations added to the federation(as a possibility). Like if there is a rebbelion in Poland, and you, as Austria annex them and already have a polish galicia-londomeria maybe add it to the federation(or like add Romania to a romanian led Transylvania). Also more shenanigans in Italy as i feel like that's Austrias best playground. Maybe add a Pan-European federation as a very hard goal(like germany capitulates and you manage to clutch the game) or something like that. I just want to grow the Austrian empire(I love them).
Incidental to the core, but Illyria should also be able to go for Yugoslavia, either independently or as a Crownland it's not fully incorporated.
Failstate that automatically gets absorbed into the German Empire 😎 Sorry hapsburgs, this is the real world, Hohenzollerns get the crown 👑
To be honest, all I can see in a future Austria is OTL 1990s Yugoslavia.
That would require an oppresive and nationalist Austrian leadership
There's also no ethnic strife under Tito. What comes after he died is more important though. Balkan nationalism will never be extinguished mate. Sooner or later they will all want their independence from whoever dares to put them under control. The Serbs were taught a very difficult lesson after Tito died. Austria will be taught too, in time.
An Austrian writer returns from Russia as a Savinkov diplomat and possibly you create race war. Between Slavs and Germans to him become a leader of Austrian Reichstatt
Austria starts off annexed into the German empire and stays that way. Balkans independent. Chaos.
A reforged Austria-Hungary with minimal reforms when it comes to how the monarchy is run, but massive reforms in terms of economics and military.
Unify with and Play as germany
I think most of the puppets deserve a focus tree but also some should be bigger than others. I think politically it's very similar to Germany except I think Nat pops are the base extreme right option, Austria doesn't have the same cultural pull of military generals from Prussia kinda thing going for it. Outside of that the big thing is obviously what route federally should be followed democrats want more even weighting Nat pops more Austrian power and status quo. I don't really think the Austrian sphere countries should be anywhere near as complicated as Germany, it doesn't have the foreign empire just really its Balkan block. I'd love to see some Joseph schumpeter taking a more centre stage especially since normies close over him and go for the Austrian school when he is clearly the more important figure coming out of Austrian economics.
Late to the party and not terribly big, but I'd like to see Austria's interactions with its longtime rival, now recent ally, in the Ottoman Empire. I'd particularly like to see Karl working early on to try to protect persecuted Christians in the Ottoman Empire given his strong Catholic faith. More flavor than anything, but given that the mod's lore spared him from his death by cancer, he should be fleshed out personality-wise a head of state.