GAME MANUAL - Steam

HEARTS OF IRON DARKEST HOUROnes that aresomewhatless importantwill be displayedin amessage boxbut will notpause thegame. Otherswill display asmallmessagenotificationsymbol at theright edge ofthe screen,waiting for youto open andrespond to it.Many of thesehave a timelimit and willblink for ashort whilebeforedisappearing. Messages thatare probably of only minorimportance will simply bewritten to your history log.Those that are likely to beirrelevant to you, such as anotice of a trade agreementbeing signed between twonations with whom you haveno ties, will not be displayed atall.You can change most of yourgame’s message settings byclicking on the top bar’s Menubutton, then clicking theOptions button and thenselecting the MessageSettings button. This willdisplay a scrollable list ofmessage types that you canset to any one of the displayoptions. You may also changethe notification setting for aparticular type of message ingamewithout entering thesubmenu by right-clicking onthe message when it appears,even in the history log, andthen selecting the new displaymode from the options box.Tool TipsDarkest Hour has anextensive set of expandingtooltips that should greatlyreduce your need to refer tothis manual, not to mentionthat it will usually provideprecise numerical details orimportant information like therequirements needed toactivate a decision or theprerequisites of a tech. Mosttooltips are two-tiered. If youbriefly hover your mousepointer over an object, acontext-sensitive tooltip willappear. If you leave thepointer there for about threeseconds, it is quite probablethat the tooltip will furtherexpand to give you even moredetailed information.All numerical values displayedin tooltips will use current ingamedata, almost alwaysincluding any applicablemodifiers. Exceptions to thisrule are typically due to“hidden” information of whichyou may not be aware. Forinstance, a tooltip that comesup when hovering over anenemy force will only provideas much information as yourcurrent intelligence and technologypermits you to knowand could be misleading if youhave not detected the entireforce.Right-Click MenusMany items in the game,particularly those on the MainMap Interface Screen, havecontext-sensitive quick menusthat may be accessed by rightclickingon the province, spriteor item. Some also requirethat you hold down the control(Ctrl) key as you do so. Theseact as shortcuts to commonlyused controls or interfaces tomake it easier for you tomanage various aspects of thegame. In particular, you willuse the right-click and Ctrl +right-click unit order menus ona regular basis to set andcoordinate your militaryactivities. I have tried toinclude an indication in thismanual of every instancewhere these menus areavailable, but when in doubt, itisn’t a bad idea to give it a try,since doing so will nevercause the game to crash ormalfunction.29