HOI4 Tips and Tricks

Even for experienced users, learning to mod is a long and scavy road. Usually getting help from veterans is a great idea, but these pieces of help remain dispersed, and usually forgotten. Any tips on modding that aren't in a modding support document belong here; if add_ideas change laws, if different cosmetic tags make different focus trees, your special tricks in designing graphical icons etc. any tricks you learned from the trade deserve a place in this giant list.

Organisation

 * Creating a file that contains all the namespaces, spirits and flags become a large help in organising your code.

Focus Trees

 * Don't rely on focus tree creation tools to much; create the layout template with the tool first and fill in the code manually.

Events

 * Drawing out a general layout of events graphically first before starting to code is a much better idea.

Localisation

 * Having several descriptions for a single event make the game more flavoured and interesting.

Other Coding Tips

 * When you're replacing an idea with a new one, always use swap_ideas to save space and time.

Icons

 * When designing small icons for division counters, spirits or FTs, it's best to design your icon in a large space first, and then shrink it down to smaller dimensions.
 * When designing focus tree icons, it's best to use pieces of vanilla icons and mix them here and there.