Hearts of Iron IV Patch 1.13 Dev Diary – Joint Focus Tree

Today Paradox announced a surprising feature accompanying Arms Against Tyranny: joint focus trees allowing enhanced collaboration between countries. The goal of these is to make minor countries more feasible and enjoyable to play without having to conquer everybody around you.

What is a Joint Focus Tree?

A joint focus tree is a focus tree that will be shared between a group of allied countries in the same region of the world. For example, the tree being introduced in 1.13 will only consist of Nordic countries. Focuses can only be completed by one country, but every participating country will receive some benefits from it. Some of the focuses will make a country the leader in a certain area such as navies, allowing different countries in the group to specialize.

Although the feature is designed for multiplayer, you will be able to use the new focus tree with the AI.

The Nordic Joint Focus Tree

The games first joint focus tree will be available to Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland, who are coincidentally the focuses of the DLC. There will be three options for factions; The Nordic Council, The Northern People’s Union, and the Kalmar League. Each faction has seven branches of focuses focusing on different aspects of the faction. Players will be able to start the tree through shared focuses that will be available to every Nordic country.

Joint focus trees should prove to be plenty of fun for multiplayer games, but it’ll be interesting to see how the AI handles it. A focus on cooperation between countries is a nice change of pace compared to most Hearts of Iron content, and it certainly fits the DLC theme of uniting against a common enemy.