Welcome to the 25th development diary for Hearts of Iron IV. This time we take a look at how the political mechanics have evolved during development.Political Power has changed a bit, its now a currency which is used for almost everything related to managing your government and disruptive external diplomacy. It is used to influence other nations, support political parties, change laws, appoint which design companies develop your equipment, appointing military staff, justifying war to your population and introducing national focuses.Default gain is 2 PP every day, while all ticking activities cost 1 each. Germany as an example though has Adolf Hitler, whose special ability (being a dictator) is to increase the PP gain by 50%.Now if you compare the interface today with the one from DD#12 from last January, you’ll first notice that the goals have changed into national focus as we mentioned in DD#14. Secondly, you can now see your national spirits, which are unique attributes to your country, which you either start with or gain through national focuses. Germany starts with Bitter Loser, which makes them less likely to move away from fascism, and with General Staff that is a +5% to organisation & 25% faster planning speed, while France has a Victors of WW1 which gives 75% more expensive doctrine research until they have reached a point in their national focus tree that removes it.Secondly, we have added the faction information to this screen, with the possibility to dismantle your faction if you so desire.Finally, and the most important change, is that we have changed what was called “Manage Government” into three different categories, where each has six different slots that can hold something. Usually changing one of these cost about 150 political power.The government has 3 different laws, Conscription Law, Trade Law & Economy Law. As mentioned before, these Laws have prerequisits of when you can enact them, as total mobilisation and war economy is not something you do at peacetime. There is also 3 slots for Political Advisors. Every country has 1 communist revolutionary, 1 fascist demagogue & 1 democratic reformer that you can employ to mould your nation towards a desired ideology. There are also various types of ministers that can be employed, like Albert Speer which makes Civilian to Military conversion of factories 25% faster, or a Martin Borman which gives you +10% more daily political power. However, you can only have 3 different advisors at the same time, so you need to select your cabinet carefullly.Research & Production have six different designer slots. All provide at least a 10% research bonus to their technology type. A Tank designer is the first slot, where most majors have different companies that give you different styles of tanks, where some give you better armor, and some better speed. The other slots are Ship Designer, Aircraft Designer, Materiel Designer, Industrial Concern and finally, the Theorist. The Theorist is where you can select everything from a rocket scientist like Von Braun to a blitzkrieg theorist like Guderian.The Military Staff has a Chief of Army, a Chief of Navy, a Chief or Air, and 3 slots for Military High Command. This lets you mould your military at a high strategic level. Should the focus for the army be offensive or defensive? Will you have a high capability in naval thinking?Next week we’ll go into Naval Doctrines and Naval Technology… And hopefully see cool ships!