James M ShadeO

James M ShadeO, also known as Mr. ShadeO, MrShade93, James ShadeO, or just simply Shade, is a Hearts of Iron IV Modder known for mods such as Dreams of Austria, Dreams of Carthage, Dreams of Poland, Dreams of a White Russian Victory, and Project Atlas (WIP). James is a former sergeant in the United States Marine Corps. After finishing up his term from 8 BH4 to 3 BH4, Shade discovered HoI4 where he created mods in order to start a small following for his projects. Roughly at the time of Dreams of Poland's Release, he ended up meeting CaptainLuck.

Hearts of Iron IV Modding
James has published a numerous popular mods to the steam workshop since his first debut with Dreams of Carthage in December 23rd of 2019. He immediately found success with his mods as they were larger scale focuses trees which was not common for a newcomer to Modding. His experience with learning to code for college came in handy for development of his HoI4 mods. He then developed a Kasierreich submod called Balkanized Italy. A little less than three months later, he managed to release his best mod, making massive improvements and becoming a swiss army knife of HoI4 Modding. He later went on to updating this mod and launching 'The Dream Team' Discord server.

Dreams of Carthage
The debut mod of esteemed HoI4 Modder James M Shadeo, making a splash onto the workshop with his own alternate history. This mod earned a handsome amount of support, and a video from Alex the Rambler titled "What if Carthage Won WW2?! | HOI4". Later down the line, the logo for the mod was redesigned by CaptainLuck.

Balkanized Italy (KR Submod)
James' second mod is a fan requested mod. The mod was "made for the people who see Italy in Kaiserreich and think, 'You know what would be fun? Italy being split up amongst even more tiny nations!'". The mod adds no focus trees, and instead tweaks and adds new nations to the game.

Dreams of a White Russian Victory
(See main page: Dreams of a White Russian Victory)

Dreams of a White Russian Victory is seen as James/The Dream Team's current magnum opus. A little less than three months after he released Dreams of Carthage, he released DWRV (Dreams of a White Russian Victory). This mod explores an alternate history scenario in which the Russian monarchy won the Russian Civil War of 1917. The mod adds content for Russia, Finland, Ukraine, and was planned to get content for Belarus, Mongolia and Poland. The mod was also noticed by Alex the Rambler, who played the mod only once despite his promise to revisit the mod. The mod was also played by small content creator CaptainLuck in a video titled "The BEST FINLAND Tree EVER?!". Still referenced in HoI4 mod tier lists, this mod also introduced the now iconic design for his mods logos. DWRV also introduced a ton of Dream Team members, including: TheObsidanHiss, Wartank55, Todd Howard, Deezdoom, Alonch, Bum, Aahz, and Piyo.

Dreams of Yugoslavia
James is simply credited on the mod for his help, and using of the Dreams of Name/Development Team.

Dreams of Poland
A mod that expands on the original focus tree of Poland, released before Paradox's own No Step Back DLC. The mod does many of the same things that the DLC does, however it was initially created before the announcement of No Step Back. As the description of the mod states, James' goal was to "...make Poland far more fun to play and to do it proper justice. Poland can be so much more than just a speed bump for the Germans."

Mod Description
Sick of how weak and bland Poland is in vanilla? Want a thicc focus tree with plenty of new and exciting options? Then Dreams of Poland might be for you! Unlike my previous mods, this one has a historical start, but like my other mods, there are plenty of alternate history options for you to play through. You may be wondering why this is "early access" and the simple reason is because the mod is only about 33% to 50% completed. Don't let that scare you off though, all the content that is being released right now has been playtested and is fully localized. The only thing that's missing is a bit of polish concerning national focus icons and news events, which I plan to add in for the existing content over the next two weeks.

As new paths are completed, playtested, and localized, they will be released with this mod until I deem the mod complete, in which case this one will be deleted and the new, full mod will be released. I'm hoping to have everything finished by the end of 2020, but who the hell knows with this year.

All in all, my goal was ultimately to make Poland far more fun to play and to do it proper justice. Poland can be so much more than just a speed bump for the Germans.

Current Features
-A Sanation government tree with 4 sub paths (Sanation-Left, Sanation-Right, The Castle, and a Castle and Sanation-Right coalition) which in turn have two other sub paths to choose from, one where you form the Intermarium and one where you follow the historical timeline and create the Camp of National Unity and side with the Allies.

-A Kingdom of Poland tree with 7 possible options for monarchs with the choice of either an absolute monarchy or constitutional monarchy for each monarch option. Additionally, each monarch has a sub-tree of ~12 focuses that makes every monarch stand out from the rest (the exception being the two Polish monarch options who share a sub-tree).

-A far more accurate starting situation for the Polish Army, which was absolutely massive. It is not perfectly accurate, as I had serious balancing concerns. For example, the Poles' standing army in 1936 was roughly ~900,000 strong with about 1 million in reserve, which would be insanely OP to start with in HoI4.

-Accurate starting techs.

-Appropriate national spirits to provide buffs and debuffs that imitate the situation for Poland in 1936.

-11 current country leaders options

-A greatly expanded roster of ministers and high command

-Expanded roster of generals, field marshals, and admirals, all of which have unique portraits.

-Two new traits for generals that give bonuses to artillery, similar to the infantry leader and cavalry leader traits.

-A colonization tree that is available to certain paths that allows you to establish colonies that Poland historically tried, but failed, to do.

-Multiple Polonization decisions that will give you cores on certain territories that Poland (at the time) viewed as theirs, including some German states, Lithuania, and more.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2255469436

Dreams of Austria
The last line of Focus tree mods by James himself, as of this moment. Dreams of Austria is the newest installment in the Dreams mods collection. Dreams of Austria gives the country of Austria a focus tree, with multiple different paths. The mod utilizes dynamic focus trees, and contains some of the first custom icons created by CaptainLuck. iSorrowProductions created a video titled "How the Austrians Ruined WW2" during his A-to-Z series. This mod is currently not being worked on, as James' attention has shifted to Project Atlas. The mod has a Fatherland Front path, a fascist path where you unite all Catholic Germans and form Greater Austria. Two Monarchist paths are also available, with them being a United States of Greater Austria - Bring the abandoned plans of a federalized Austro-Hungarian Empire to fruition & Austrian Empire - turn Austria into a global power and form an Austria colonial Empire under Kaiser Otto von Habsburg. Lastly with a partial release Holy Roman Empire - Reform the Holy Roman Empire under Kaiser Otto von Habsburg.

More paths were planned for the mod, however these paths were ultimately not developed to make room for Project Altas.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2380534065

Credits
A huge thanks to the following 3rd party mod teams, artists, Modders, etc. that helped in the development of DoA!

ivenend_zwei833: unique Austrian unit models

Kaiserreich: several portraits, national focus icons, national spirit icons

The Fallen Eagle: national focus icons, national spirit icons

Mapno: national focus icons, national spirit icons

Dreams of Finland
This mod was just a slight tweak of the Dreams of a White Russian Victory Finland Focus tree, with new art made by CaptainLuck. This mod was played by DShakey as a direct result of Luck's harrasment, in a video titled "The Finnish Empire (HOI4)".

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2519649970

Trivia

 * James likes mozzarella sticks
 * James served in the United States Military as a Marine from 8 BH4 to 3 BH4
 * He believes Mouse Hunt is better than Pixar's Ratatouille
 * James' real name is not actually his name, it was a nickname randomly given by CaptainLuck
 * Shade was a the sole reason the Dream Team out of Context Twitter was made