How to install mods hoi4

How to install mods hoi4

Hearts of Iron IV is a great game to mod due to its ease of use, integrated mod support, and simplicity. Allow me to make it very clear:

You do not need to know programming, you do however need to know SYNTAX,

which we will get into shortly. I also wish to say that while you CAN make mods which require DLC, I highly recommend disabling DLC and building up the majority of your mod before making forays into adding DLC-based content or functionality. Even if Paradox has sold off core parts of the game as aftermarket content there’s still plenty of functionality in vanilla. There’s more effort involved in making mods compatible with Vanilla, whether or not that’s worth it is up to you.

Visual Studio [code.visualstudio.com] isn’t as lightweight or speedy as something like Notepad++, however there’s actually a few incredibly useful extensions for modding HoI4 with it. Go to the Extension tab, then put these terms in the search bar in order to subscribe to each extension.

Image Editing Software is a necessity for adding in, editing, or removing things like leader portraits, flags, general & field marshal portraits, etc. For this I highly recommend https://www.getpaint.net/ and/or GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program.) [www.gimp.org]

XnConvert [www.xnview.com] is used for editing/modifying image data/formatting, things like metadata, color depth, changing size and rotation, etc are what this will be used for. Its also able to do this in batches instead of having to go one-by-one through each image.
https://hoi4modding.com/ is extremely useful for streamlining the process of modding the game, however I’d recommend reading this guide before looking into using it as this allows you to get an underlying understanding of what the website is doing on the back-end, its nothing more than a GUI.
LukeZurg22’s Flag Converter [github.com] allows you to take any bitmapped image (JPG, PNG, etc) and convert it into the TGA fomat used for the flags in-game, it also automatically creates the small, medium, and large versions for each flag while allowing you to convert them and drop them directly into the directory where HoI4 will use them.

Hearts of Iron 4 Modding Subreddit (and their discord by extension.)
Filled with highly knowledgeable and experienced modders, everything from the RT56 staff to Kaiserreich and makers as of yet unreleased mods thrive here.
Hearts of Iron 4 Wikipedia Modding Page [hoi4.paradoxwikis.com]
Incredibly useful even if a bit outdated at times.

You’re going to be opening and closing the game hundreds if not thousands of times throughout this process, so to speed up that process (and enable the debug mode) we’re going to make a custom shortcut that you can use to kick you straight in game and completely bypass the launcher.

Debug mode (or developer mode if you wanna call it that) allows you to make in-game edits to the map, nations, and other such things while also allowing you to view information needed in order to develop mods (such as the file paths for images, the IDs of states & provinces, etc.) at a moments notice. Perhaps its best features are how it automatically opens the error.log file to let you see if you committed any errors while developing your mod, it also automatically updates the game and allows you to save DIRECTLY TO YOUR DOCUMENTS FOLDER whenever you wish to save changes via the «Nudge!» option. Even if it isn’t perfect, it is damn close to being so.

Step 0| Go into the launcher, edit any settings you wish, then go in-game and do the same. Any setting you make in the base game will then carry over to the debug mode.

Step 1|Go to your C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Hearts of Iron IV folder and look for the hoi4.exe file. Make a shortcut of it and move the Shortcut wherever you want (Start menu, desktop, taskbar, etc.)

Step 2|Right-click the shortcut, click properties, select the target address field.

Syntax is a form of coding that is used by the devs and modders alike to give commands to the game and change the behavior of various different parts of the game. All Paradox games have a roughly similar syntax structure, as such you can expect to be able to roughly translate your modding skills from one Paradox game to another (like talking to people of different dialects or from different regions that share a mother-language.)

Syntax within HoI4 does not allow the usage of spaces, it instead uses underscores (_.)

You can combine various different forms of syntax, as you get more skilled and more complex in your modding endeavors this will become mandatory.

YOU’RE GONNA SCREW UP! BUCKLE UP AND GET READY TO READ THE ERROR LOG A TON.

HOI4 Modding : The First Steps

Starting to mod in HOI4 is a long journey. HOI4 and in fact most Paradox games are very easy to mod, and spending a small amount of time to learn the code is enough to start modding; however this isn’t the case for adding new graphics, provinces or juggling with interface files, which has no documentation at all. It can also be frustrating to learn coding in the first place. If you’re clueless on how to start up, stuck or just want some shortcuts, you’ve come to the right place.

This guide will focus on giving the player a basic grasp on editing localisation files, changing flags and leader portraits. Note that this guide makes the assumption that the reader never has done anything to do with modding, creating content based on coding or anything of that sort. It’s focused towards people who’ve spent their lives reading history books and staring at maps, so discretion is advised to people who are familiar with using coding.

Contents

Good places to start off [ ]

The first few steps are a popular topic and various tutorial videos have been made on it. If you don’t feel like learning modding from text, you can always receive visual guidance. These are some of the videos powerblo thinks are the most useful for starting off.

The playlist by MrKmproductions is by far the most informative and helpful series on Youtube, and help you get quite a far way.

The playlist made by Paradox themselves are the canon resource, and while they cover several complicated schemes(new resources, province editing etc.) it’s not organised or user friendly and I wouldn’t recommend it for the fresh green modder.

These series by The Iron Workshop give several tips on how to make several useful changes, and include a nice introduction on making new provinces.

Along with these videos, the wiki page below shows a good list of sites you can access to learn coding or refer to resources.

Making your First Mod [ ]

While unfortunately Paradox hasn’t given a lot of documentation about modding, they’ve given a lot of useful tools to help the modder get going. One of these is the ability to create an empty mod in mere seconds. When you launch HOI4, you’ll notice a «Mod Tools» button in the launcher.
Press it, and go to «Create a Mod». When you get in there, you can tamper with the title of your mod and add new tags. Unless you know what you’re doing, it’s advised to set your directory the same name as your mod(or an abbreviate of it) without spaces or slashes. The game version should also be set to the latest current version of the game.
Don’t worry too much if you feel you’ve made a mistake; all of these can be edited later. If you’ve finished with all the new bells and whistles, click create mod and you’re ready to go.

Your New Directory [ ]

Mods are located in the folder

/.local/share/Paradox Interactive/Hearts of Iron IV/mod(Mac and Linux) or C;\Users\ \Documents\Paradox Interactive\Hearts of Iron IV\mod (Windows). Inside this folder there should be two nitbits;

With both of these folders/files, you should be able to select your mod in the game launcher. Right now it shouldn’t do anything, but content is something you can stack along with time. But before we get working with brand new content, there’s a few precautions and tools you should

Guidelines [ ]

Localisation : Adding Loading Tips [ ]

Now that we’ve created the empty template for a mod, it’s time to create some dummy content. Localisation files are a good place to start, being easy to edit and create.

Using special nitbits of code you can format your loading tips, and in fact any localisation file.

\n : The equivalent of typing Enter, adding this annotation jumps the text down one line. Useful for loading tips (you’ve gotta put the original quoter somewhere) or descriptions when you want them to look tidy. Note that you don’t need to put a space after the annotation, like «\nAnd Lewis is to blame.»

\» : Since the boundaries of the localisation is defined by quotes, to use quotes inside your text wall this annotation is used. This is optional, luckily HOI4 is smart enough to let you use normal quotes. However this is recommended for anyone making large scale projects, or just paranoid about how code looks.

UTF-8 and the HOI4 language [ ]

The traditional Paradox machine, the Clausewitz engine utilises a programming language unique to itself, different from the well known Lua or Java. You don’t have to read the stuff below to make portrait or flag mods, but it’s recommended to know what you’re coding in if you want to be good at it.

We assume that you have basic knowledge of how code works, and have at least common sense on what parentheses or equal signs do. Then now that you’ve got that through, it’s time to start making edits to the actual game.

Changing Country Leaders [ ]

Perhaps the best of modding HOI4 would be adding new leaders to nations. It’s one of the more simpler, and straightforward changes to start off with.

Adding new country leaders, or replacing them requires you two edit two things;

The history file is the first step of adding a leader, faction, party or researched tech for any nation ingame. They’re located in [mod]/history/countries/[TAG].txt. Opening it for the first time is a complicated process; but since we’re simply adding new leaders it’s simple right now.

Let’s take the example of Germany; we’re not fond that Hitler is in power and want to place a yodeling person in his place.

In the GER.txt, searching «Hitler» returns this block:

create_country_leader = <
name = «Adolf Hitler»
desc = «POLITICS_ADOLF_HITLER_DESC»
portrait = » »
expire = » »
trait = <

this kinda just stoped so yea heres a random text also hope ye havin a good day.

How to install mods hoi4

First of all, it’s interesting to know a few things before you start doing it:

First, all modders should know this: every time an update is released, some files need to be updated. Otherwise, the game launcher will warn you with a red exclamation mark that the mod is outdated. An outdated MOD can lead to problems in gameplay (or not, depending on the situation). The mod, unlike many people think, can still be used, regardless of the version, whether it is a mod made at launch or one done yesterday. The problem is that the older the mod, the more likely it will not work properly in the current version. A mod that came out after the release will most likely present bugs and incompatibility with new files, while a mod that came out a minor update back, should still work properly.

There are some examples of outdated mods:

First, the outdated mods in the new launcher. All mods with those red exclamation marks are outdated mods in the new launcher.

This mod is outdated. The image says «It doesn’t support the current version (1.7.0) » and «supports the version 1.5.4».

This example is perfect to illustrate how some mods work, even outdated.

This mod messes with model files, the kind of thing that hardly changes from update to update. So it is very likely that it will work, with no problem, in later versions and, in some cases, even earlier versions.

Other types of mods that tend to continue working, but not limited to, in the future without being updated are music, audio, images, portraits, misc., Map, etc.

Sadly, some mods are discontinued and need to be redone, so it needs somebody who knows what is doing to update it, because, in this case, more than changing 2 or 3 lines is needed.

After all, what is a discontinued mod?

A discontinued mod is a mod that its development has been temporarily or permanently terminated and will probably no longer be updated. This will only change if the author decides to re-develop it, update it or allow someone to continue.

First things first, you need to know where the mod is located. There is a pattern where files are located, some things repeat themselves, but you need to use common sense sometimes.

The mods (which were installed through the workshop) are always on the same hard drive where you installed the games. If you installed Hearts of Iron IV in (C:), it will probably be in (C:). If you installed in (D:), it will probably be in (D:).

Next, you need to know where you installed STEAM. The default path is something like «C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam». Now, in the folder «steamapps» instead of clicking in «common» (where the games themselves are located), click in workshop.

My computer is in portuguese. But the User Interface of windows 10 is 99% of the times the same. The path in the explorer is ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps’, and the folder which you need to access is highlighted in yellow.

Next, you are going to access ‘content’. That’s where most of the mods of all games are located.
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content

In there, you’ll face a lot of folders with numbers in their names. The numbers are the games’ IDs, the number to identify them. The Hearts of Iron IV ID is 394360.

There’s two ways to find it. The lazy but the longest way and the one you should go for. We are going to the lazy one in this section.

Example of an easy name:

This is obviously a mod related to icons for divisions. An easy pick. But, sometimes, it’s not going to be easy.

Example of a hard name:

«ntx_cpm.zip» At first glance, it looks like a bunch of jumbled letters. But, if you look more calmly, you will realize that it has something to do with the name of the mod. The mod is «Commonwealth Music Pack».

The «problem» is the author chooses the name without a defined pattern. I, for example, like to short the names so they do not get too big. Others like to put names intirely to help when it’s time to work. Others put totally random names and only God knows why.

IMPORTANT: SAVE THE FILE PATH SOMEWHERE TO MAKE LIFE EASIER LATER ON.

Next, you are going to open the zip file with winrar o 7zip. After that, open ‘descriptor.mod’.

If you open with Windows Notepad, you will find something like that. All messed up.

You are going to find, usually in the last line, » supported_version=»1.x.x» «, where «x» is the numbers related to the game version. In the case, it’s 1.4.0.

Change it to THE VERSION of the game you are playing with. You can check it opening the game, in the launcher or in the main menu.

Change the version in the FILE to the ONE IN THE GAME.

I CHANGED IT TO 1.7.*. The asterisk (*) is recommended to be used in the last number. It will make the mod work in all the versions until the next major update (in the case, 1.8 will be the next major update). The only thing that usually changes to 1.7.1 to 1.7.2 to 1.7.3. are bug fixes and game balance.

Now, just save it. If you are using winrar, you will get a box with something like that:

Just press «yes» (my yes is «sim», no is «não» and cancel is «cancelar»).

Now, you are going to change another file. It’s usually located in C:\Users\USER\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Hearts of Iron IV\mod, where all the saves and mod info are located.

The last number is 746915531, so the file name WILL BE «ugc_746915531». This number is the MOD ID, as I said before. REMEBER THIS: Most content related to the mod will contain THIS NUMBER. If the mod ID is 456, the file you are looking for is ugc_456. If it’s 789, you are looking for ugc_789

Open it. You will find a very similar text to the another one, but this time it will be organized.

Do the same thing you have done before. Change to the current game version and save it.

Now, you are ready to play!

REMEMBER TO UPDATE THE MOD WHEN THE OFFICIAL UPDATE IS RELEASED. GO TO THE MOD PAGE AND RE-SUBSCRIBE WHEN IT HAPPENS.

This version is a bit more laborious, but it will save you some time.

The first thing you need to do is find the mod you want to update in the workshop. As an example, I’ll pick up the same one again.

See that number in the link? 746915531? You’ll need to save it. It will save a lot of work. That’s the mod ID number, the number which identifies the mod not through his name. There’s a lot of mods with the same name, but not same IDs. IDs are unique.

First things first, you need to know where the mod is located. There is a pattern where files are located, some things repeat themselves, but you need to use common sense sometimes.

The mods (which were installed through the workshop) are always on the same hard drive where you installed the games. If you installed Hearts of Iron IV in (C:), it will probably be in (C:). If you installed in (D:), it will probably be in (D:).

Next, you need to know where you installed STEAM. The default path is something like «C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam». Now, in the folder «steamapps» instead of clicking in «common» (where the games themselves are located), click in workshop.

My computer is in portuguese. But the User Interface of windows 10 is 99% of the times the same. The path in the explorer is ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps’, and the folder which you need to access is highlighted in yellow.

Next, you are going to access ‘content’. That’s where most of the mods of all games are located.
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content

In there, you’ll face a lot of folders with numbers in their names. The numbers are the games’ IDs, the number to identify them. The Hearts of Iron IV ID is 394360.

Remember when I said to save the ID? Time to use it. To make things even faster, just pick the path and write/paste in this way.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\»GAME ID» \ «MOD ID», where «GAME ID» is Hearts of Iron IV ID and «MOD ID» is the MOD ID.

In this case, we will get this:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\394360\746915531

Or, you can navigate, clicking in 394360 and then 746915531.

Next, you are going to open the zip file with winrar o 7zip. After that, open ‘descriptor.mod’.

If you open with Windows Notepad, you will find something like that. All messed up.

You are going to find, usually in the last line, » supported_version=»1.x.x» «, where «x» is the numbers related to the game version. In the case, it’s 1.4.0.

Change it to THE VERSION of the game you are playing with. You can check it opening the game, in the launcher or in the main menu.

Change the version in the FILE to the ONE IN THE GAME.

I CHANGED IT TO 1.7.*. The asterisk (*) is recommended to be used in the last number. It will make the mod work in all the versions until the next major update (in the case, 1.8 will be the next major update). The only thing that usually changes to 1.7.1 to 1.7.2 to 1.7.3. are bug fixes and game balance.

Now, just save it. If you are using winrar, you will get a box with something like that:

Just press «yes» (my yes is «sim», no is «não» and cancel is «cancelar»).

Now, you are going to change another file. It’s usually located in C:\Users\USER\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Hearts of Iron IV\mod, where all the saves and mod info are located.

Again, there’s a lot of others files with numbers. Remeber when I said to save the mod ID? We will use it to find the correct file.

The last number is 746915531, so the file name WILL BE «ugc_746915531». This number is the MOD ID, as I said before. REMEBER THIS: Most content related to the mod will contain THIS NUMBER. If the mod ID is 456, the file you are looking for is ugc_456. If it’s 789, you are looking for ugc_789

Open it. You will find a very similar text to the another one, but this time it will be organized.

Do the same thing you have done before. Change to the current game version and save it.

Now, you are ready to play!

REMEMBER TO UPDATE THE MOD WHEN THE OFFICIAL UPDATE IS RELEASED. GO TO THE MOD PAGE AND RE-SUBSCRIBE WHEN IT HAPPENS.

Go to where you installed your mod.

It’s usually located in C:\Users\USER\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Hearts of Iron IV\mod, where all the saves and mod info are located.

There’s a lot of others files with numbers and names. Find the right file, It probably came with the files you installed. The file usually has a name related to the mod.

You are going to find, usually in the last line, » supported_version=»1.x.x» «, where «x» is the numbers related to the game version. In the case, it’s 1.4.0.

Change it to THE VERSION of the game you are playing with. You can check it opening the game, in the launcher or in the main menu.

Change the version in the FILE to the ONE IN THE GAME.

Change to the current game version and save it.

How to install mods hoi4

I can’t find the solution with the new launcher. I followed these steps.

This is the content of theModName.mod file :
name=»Historical Portraits»
path=»mod/hpp/»

This is the content of the descriptor.mod file (placed into the individual mod folder):
name=»Historical Portraits»
path=»C:/Documents/Paradox Interactive/Hearts of Iron IV/mod/hpp»
tags= <
«Graphics»
«Historical»
>
picture=»Historical Portraits.jpg»
supported_version=»1.8.1″
remote_file_id=»960885363″

I also tried to just keep the content of the ModName.mod file identical the actual above descriptor.mod. Doesn’t work too.

I can’t find the solution with the new launcher. I followed these steps.

This is the content of theModName.mod file :
name=»Historical Portraits»
path=»mod/hpp/»

This is the content of the descriptor.mod file (placed into the individual mod folder):
name=»Historical Portraits»
path=»C:/Documents/Paradox Interactive/Hearts of Iron IV/mod/hpp»
tags= <
«Graphics»
«Historical»
>
picture=»Historical Portraits.jpg»
supported_version=»1.8.1″
remote_file_id=»960885363″

I also tried to just keep the content of the ModName.mod file identical the actual above descriptor.mod. Doesn’t work too.

How to install mods hoi4

You basically need to reset everything to make sure that your game’s mod list and the Steam Workshop subscription list are in-sync with each other on what you have available to use as a mod. Sorry, but this process will delete all your mod data and settings (besides saves if you back them up) so be warned.

1. Unsubscribe from all mods on Steam Workshop.
2. Go into ‘C:\Users\your_name\Documents\Paradox Interactive\’ folder; back up your saves that were in the «Hearts of Iron IV» folder and store them somewhere safe, then delete the «Hearts of Iron IV» folder entirely.
3. Go into ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\’ folder; delete the «workshop» folder entirely.
4. Restart Steam.
5. If Steam wants to download anything do not interrupt it, but launch HoI4 as soon as you can.
6. Verify that you have no mods listed in the launcher.
7. Go into HoI4, start a new game as any country. Once you have control of the game again, exit to Desktop.
8. Subscribe to all your mods again in the workshop and let them download.
9. Start HoI4’s launcher, let it sit open for like 10-20 seconds, then close it. You may be given more downloads after this or you may not, but do this just to be sure the mods are downloaded and ready to use.

It should work as normal after that. This started to happen when they updated the launchers while Steam was also updating how the workshop content would be distributed, and it’s still causing problems.