Lewding Hearts of Iron

[Siemann]

Would've posted this in the Paradox subforum, but it doesn't actually have a general board.

 

It's my rule of thumb to try to contribute to every site I join, and since my quick and dirty Sims 2 hacks are relics of a bygone age, I thought I might try something truly original. Hearts of Iron IV is certainly an unusual choice for lewd modding: a game about managing logistics for global total war certainly doesn't scream "sex me up", and compared to Crusader Kings or even Stellaris, its mechanics are far less character-centric. But it has leader portraits, and R34 has wrestled through the door on far flimsier pretexts.

 

And with some custom scripting, the character code is surprisingly versatile. "Waking the Tiger" doubled recognized genders in internal logic, and "No Step Back" began tracking discrete characters with functions closer to other Paradox titles. Equestria at War (unironically the game's best total conversion mod) uses homebrew scripts to replicate Stellaris's subcultural templates for dynamically-generated characters. It takes some finagling, but there's a workable roleplay foundation.

 

I was surprised to learn this site actually has some NSFW wallpapers, a minimod, and a proof-of-concept in the mold of Lustful Void. (Even more surprising, they managed to get an ideology reskin on the Workshop!) But despite the apparent appetite, no-one's yet tried for a holistic mod where NSFW is at the heart of the lore.

 

That's where I come in.

 

Reskinning the little things is easy: organization becomes stamina, fuel becomes essence, etc. The trick is building it around a coherent theme. My original inspiration was to adapt "Hearts of Furries" from a surface-level wallpaper into something that at least got the genders right, which got me thinking about smart-coding RNG'd characters' species, which got me pondering what sort of 'light-hearted' scenarios could be played out in a WWII-expy. A discussion on the Carnal Souls forum (RIP) comparing eRPGs got me musing a battle royale between franchises, though knowing the ego of some of the big names, that could get dicey. Another idea, a more fleshed-out version of the Fakku mod crossed with mythology fanfic, would have countries as the cults of various gods, with Ideologies as the major fetish archetypes. Nation-building is thus about promoting your brand, and war becomes the ultimate kinkshame.

 

I'll chip away privately as inspiration strikes, but if you could lewd a HOI4 total conversion, what would you want?

[E dijo el Markiplier]

Best of Luck to you, Im looking foward to seeing this I have 0 code knowledge but if you need assistance I might be able to help

 

[Siemann]

Thanks! I've got a fair bit of experience modding Pdox under my belt, so all I really need at this stage is ideas.

 

Well, ideas and volunteer artists.

[Aurkile]

Some ideas:

- When a pocket is closed or a VP captured an event is triggered with a lewd picture and a choice required of the player. Event chance and type varies according to casualties/vp value.
- Spy portrait, traits and operations lewdified and expanded. 
- Player bunker/palace. Same UI as espionage system with normal and lewd upgrades. Could be done by decision instead like the furher bunker in hoi3 black ice.
- Harem building ala EU4 Cosmopolitan Universalis. Ideally the player bunker and this work together.

I have a hard time though seeing any lewdification as not being too jarring. Anything small enough that is unobtrusive and fun in normal hoi4 will probably be too weird in the context of ww2. Similarly, anything big enough that distances itself from ww2 would overhaul away into silliness many of the cool things of the war. (See girls und panzer). The above ideas could be a good proof of concept.

Beyond those ideas and into a bigger overhaul it would be cool to have a way of rehabilitating a country out of extremism through lewdness. To become a state not defined by capital, labour or nationalism but by lust. This would be an alternative path for a nation that would further divide into two. True rehabilitation where you become as close to a lewd-utopia as realism allows you and corrupt rehabilitation where you use the resources of the state for your own perfidious lewd goals.

[Siemann]

On 2/28/2023 at 7:40 AM, Aurkile said:

Beyond those ideas and into a bigger overhaul it would be cool to have a way of rehabilitating a country out of extremism through lewdness. To become a state not defined by capital, labour or nationalism but by lust. This would be an alternative path for a nation that would further divide into two. True rehabilitation where you become as close to a lewd-utopia as realism allows you and corrupt rehabilitation where you use the resources of the state for your own perfidious lewd goals.

 

Funnily enough, several DLCs ago I'd sketched a rough outline for a meme mod about a Sapphic enclave. On the surface it would actually (loosely) fit the historical context, but leaning into sexual freedoms would boost the "Deviant" ideology, with higher percentages unlocking progressively more fantastical content. Embracing the mantle of "sexual revolutionaries" would then open up two flavours of World Conquest: the stereotypical Amazonian misandrist turnabout, and "true" gender equality by turning humanity futa. Sadly I barely got anywhere with it, and that was before Greece and Turkey got official reworks.

[Siemann]

Well, it's been a glacial pace, but I've been gathering loose ideas for when I find the time to give this a proper hammering out. One hangup is trying to find a mod for better provinces in Africa and South America, to make those continents actually playable. I used this years ago but it was never updated, and all the other mods I've seen would rather add a billion tiles to Europe than anywhere it would actually improve gameplay.

 

It turns out the hardest work conceptually isn't even scripting. To support a more parody setting, I've been toying with the basic combat language and a complete reflavour looks surprisingly plausible:

 

Combat --> Orgy

From fighting to "fighting".

 

Width --> Space

Determined by several factors, it limits how many units are simultaneously involved in a single battle. Combat frontage becomes physical room.

 

Organization --> Libido

AKA "morale", once it's depleted the unit can't fight. You're not gonna sex if you're not in the mood.

 

Strength --> Stamina

Essentially hitpoints: the unit's physical constitution. Even if you want to sex, you need the energy to do it.

 

Damage --> Pleasure

The force that depletes Org and Strength. The current frame that Pleasure reduces Libido reads counterintuitive, but if you pretend the stat is inverted and "0 Lib" indicates orgasm, it's passable.

 

Attack --> Give/Advance

This term covers two separate mechanics: the dealing of damage (Giving), and identifying the "aggressor party" in the battle (Advancing).

 

Defend --> Receive and Defense --> Comfort

The first identifies to whom the Giver is making their advance; the second is what mitigates the Pleasure (damage) received. The more Comfortable you are, the longer you can go (and/or the more your partner has to work).

 

Breakthrough --> ???

This is the "defense" stat for attacking units, described in the game tooltip as "How many enemy attacks a unit can attempt to avoid while on the offensive". I still haven't figured out a good replacement; currently weighing Momentum (versus getting distracted by the Receiver) or Control (ability to deny own orgasm).

 

Hardness --> Perversion

"Soft targets" vs "hard targets", or the ratio of men to machines. Determines damage (Pleasure) rates based on type of attack (see below).

 

Soft/Hard --> Softcore/Hardcore

Class of attack, basically the caliber of weapon for a unit's equipment: Soft for small arms and high explosives (artillery), Hard for anti-tank guns. Attacks against the opposite hardness (Perversion) are effectively nullified.

 

Armor and Piercing --> ???

Armor boosts a unit's combat stats if the enemy weapons' Piercing is inferior. This one I'm still trying to figure out; an initial idea revolved around penetration and protection/size/lubrication, but I want to keep these as broadly-applicable as possible so I'm trying to avoid anything that would infer a specific sex.

 

 

That's mostly it for ground combat; Naval and Air use similar terms but because they're vehicle-based and use different stats, I'm speccing them differently. The two main outliers are Fuel and Casualties: the former I'm thinking all-purpose Lubrication, the latter either Orgasms or Conceptions, although both have thematic hangups: in the first, a climax doesn't mean you're out of the game (and I'm debating using it for Critical Hits on ships), in the second, again, it infers a specific sex.

 

If you have any suggestions, feel free to share.

Edited June 15, 2023 by Siemann

[Robert Ray]

Hello. I'm interested in a "lewd" total conversion of Heart of Iron 4, and I've been hesitating to begin one myself as I have some experience in modding this game. I find your ideas interesting. I don't know if you're still preparing a mod, but I may help with coding ( I can do focus trees, events and writing in general, I just suck at making arts and GFX ).

I also have some ideas for the content of the countries :

you could preserve the  three main ideologies ( but perhaps rename them ) and organize them like this :

fascism = an ideology centered around enforcing hierarchical order ( patriarchy/matriarchy ) and enslaving others, with content like BDSM, Slavery, femdom...

democracy = an ideology centered around vanilla content that seeks to preserve the statut-quo

communism = an ideology centered around enforcing equality and sharing things, with content like polygamy

I think preserving the basic political configuration might be the best, making the focus should be quite easy

 

 

[Siemann]

On 8/26/2023 at 2:27 PM, Robert Ray said:

Hello. I'm interested in a "lewd" total conversion of Heart of Iron 4, and I've been hesitating to begin one myself as I have some experience in modding this game. I find your ideas interesting. I don't know if you're still preparing a mod, but I may help with coding ( I can do focus trees, events and writing in general, I just suck at making arts and GFX ).

 

Thanks for your interest! Sadly I've been swamped with other projects and haven't made a dent in actual coding, but I'm still keeping notes for when I can get back into the groove. Ironically, the biggest hurdle may be graphical: figuring out what sort of portraits to use, even just as placeholders, will determine characteristics of the initial country lineup. I know some artists who openly allow reposting with accreditation; I don't want to touch AI due to the copyright conundrums, but I'm handy enough with The Sims 4 that I could whip up my own shots. (Plus there's an S-tier furry mod so there'd be stylistic continuity.)

 

On 8/26/2023 at 2:27 PM, Robert Ray said:

you could preserve the  three main ideologies ( but perhaps rename them ) and organize them like this :

fascism = an ideology centered around enforcing hierarchical order ( patriarchy/matriarchy ) and enslaving others, with content like BDSM, Slavery, femdom...

democracy = an ideology centered around vanilla content that seeks to preserve the statut-quo

communism = an ideology centered around enforcing equality and sharing things, with content like polygamy

I think preserving the basic political configuration might be the best, making the focus should be quite easy

 

If the Kaiserreich mod taught me anything about ideologies, less is definitely more. Too many projects stretch them a mile wide and an inch deep, and I think they end up railroading the diplomacy because the game logic can't cope. I'd imagined much the same as you suggest, with the addition of a dedicated "Puritan" group for the militant anti-sex. Lore-wise I just need to figure out what Non-Aligned represents.

[F23ATF]

On 9/7/2023 at 12:15 PM, Siemann said:

 Lore-wise I just need to figure out what Non-Aligned represents.

That's going to be a hard one, since I don't even think Paradox knows themselves.

Anyway, while I'm not into furry erotica, I would rather like more Hoi4 stuff on this site. So I look forward to what you do and wish you good fortune in your efforts.

[Diegownia]

Hey I started playing around with lewd mod for HoI 4 as well, not a total conversion though at least for now, happy to join forces. In terms of Non-Aligned I'd pretty much go with anything that doesn't fit the other 3 categories. Asexual, Gay/Lesbian stuff/ mild BDSM (non-aligned have like dictatorships etc.) 

[Siemann]

Still trapped in the hamster ball of too many ideas and no time to write them out, but I'll be sure to hit you up once I finally find traction.

 

Sexual orientation I want to keep separate from ideology, but you may be onto something with ace: before it got conscripted for the Monarchists, Non-Aligned was basically a placeholder status for proxy influence wars by the main ideologies. In the scope of this mod, it could work as the "virgin" group to be wooed.