The German Rework for KaiserreduX is a volunteer modding project I have done for the past year for the video game Hearts of Iron IV. KaiserreduX is an alternative history total conversion mod that is developed by dozens of different people, and I have been the main individual spearheading the creation of the German Rework. The German Rework involves new playable content for the German Empire, a “major” country of the game, and alongside it new mechanics and features.

I have been responsible for design, scripting, writing, and collaborating with another developer via GitHub throughout the German Rework’s development. I have additionally had to research the involved individuals, since Hearts of Iron IV is a game that utilizes real-life persons of history. One of my core motivations for the project has mostly been to provide a fun experience for players and to design something I would enjoy playing myself, and a key part of that has been providing numerous different routes for the player to undertake.

At the current stage of development, the German Empire now has more than ten in-game years of content with sixteen different routes. These routes cover the whole breadth of the German Empire’s politics, and often can lead into one another to allow a very dynamic playstyle each and every time the player chooses the Empire as their nation.

Below are detailed sections about specific parts of the Rework that I had worked on, but first I must explain a few terms I will be using.

A “tree” refers to a “focus tree”, and in the context of Hearts of Iron IV this is functionally a set of directives that a nation undertakes, such as industrialization of a specific region, reforming the nation’s army, or performing political actions. A “focus tree” is thus what a nation in Hearts of Iron IV is able to do, and these trees tend to have specific choices or routes, or require specific objectives to be performed in the game to be able to be done (such as building enough ships to complete a naval reform focus).

Economy Interface

One of the core parts of the project I am the most proud of is the economy section. Here, I designed a Graphical User Interface (GUI) with an artist in order to provide the player with more means of investing within their economic sphere. I did this to try and illustrate the feeling of playing as an economic heavyweight and to offer more ways for the player to interact with their allies, giving more mechanical use to maintaining friendly relations with other powers.

Military Expansion

Of course, the economy of the German Empire predominantly is funneled to fuel its military, which I had spent extra care and attention on. A lot of the fun of Hearts of Iron IV is in conquering various nations, and so the military tree of the Empire was made to be full of historical flavor, strong buffs when properly invested into, and various unique doctrines to pick from. I accounted for various different playstyles with this tree, giving the player more than eight different ways to tool their army!

This military tree relates only to the land army of the German Empire, but I had also made trees for the navy and the air force, shown in the linked “teaser gallery” later in this post.

Every focus was given an exhaustive description, with most of these written out by myself. The writing was to help the player get immersed in the German Empire’s vibe, as well as to naturally offer historical trivia.

I had also given the generals involved in the various routes very lengthy descriptions, allowing the player to gain insight into their history, opinions, and other matters.

Political Routes

A route in Hearts of Iron IV always has a specific political tree associated with it. Shown here is the tree of the Social Democratic Party in the German Empire, with three different Imperial Chancellors to choose within. These chancellors will act as leaders of the nation, and are thus the “main characters” of a specific route.

These leaders all have long biographic descriptions given to them, allowing the player to understand the leader’s origins and belief system easier, and thus become more involved in wanting to see each Imperial Chancellor’s route to completion.

As before with the military tree, the political tree also has lengthy descriptions given to its focuses, allowing the player to get a feel for the actions they are undertaking and become more immersed in the leader’s goals and aims.

Unique Epilogues

As a big part of KaiserreduX’s gameplay involves the Second Weltkrieg, the alternative history world’s own version of World War 2, I had decided that the ending of this war needed special attention. As a result, I had added various unique endings to the nations that the player may defeat in the war based on the route the player was undertaking.

This are but a few of the unique officials that the player can appoint into France upon defeating it. I have also added these unique puppets to the United Kingdom and Russia.

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Below is a link to a Google Drive folder full of “teaser” images that are designed to show snippets of my work, which have been put out to the public. They showcase a small part of what I have been able to make. Feel free to contact me directly for more information.

Teaser Gallery