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HOI4 Dev Diary - 1.6.2 Update

Hiya everyone, I am now back from the San Francisco Game Developer Conference and in the sweet embrace of soulcrushing jetlag! Last week was very fun chatting to other game devs and learning stuff from lectures as well as american food (burgers!). While I was there the team have been continuing work on the 1.6.2 patch. So today will be about status there. Short and sweet, enjoy!

We have been fixing all sorts of stuff, but here are some highlights:
  • Increased research bonuses. We may have low-balled our estimates a bit on the new research impacts, where the idea was that it would be faster overall despite many of the new techs. To accommodate that research companies have been improved along with ministers and the computer techs have also increased buffs to make them more worth it (details in the patchnotes below).
  • Help Soviets mount a better defense. We have identified a few things, like a tendency to keep units back for the japanese front despite their main front not having enough units to man it (which causes all sorts of issues).
  • Get Allies more into the Africa game. Keeping Africa allied is quite difficult, but the AI should now prioritize fighting over it a lot more and Uk should be making smarter early choices for focuses and ministers etc
  • The invasion AI has been improved quite a bit, which left China being crushed by Japan a bit too fast and often so we have tuned down Japans strategy a bit unless facing a player to keep a more historical timeline.
  • airwing names are no longer lost on save load, and many other fixes...
The patchlog since last week looks like this, and should hopefully get into the open beta tonight. We then plan to leave it over weekend for testing with you guys and if all is fine it should be making it to everybody next week.
##################################
# Bugfix
##################################
- AI can now accept a fuel incoming lend lease.
- Fixed taken states not being colored properly during a peace conference
- Fixed some decisions on a revolter country disapearing after loading a save
- Correctly change leader trait icons in army badge when switching between leaders where one has exile leader traits and the other does not.
- fixed naval mission assignment not working correctly with taskforces on repairs
- fixed an issue where countries occupying Manchuria would get reports about finding communist sleeper cells while allied with communist china
- fixed anniversary pack not being loaded
- review fixes
- Fixed newly created ships teleporting to the task force set as their deployment target
- Fixed auto balance task force not working
- Fix fuel lend lease. It was full of minor bugs.
- Selecting a decolonized Asia in the game rules will now also grant independence to Malaya.
- Fixed new Maltese fascist flag not showing up properly.
- fixed two instances in US events giving incorrect amounts of party popularity
- fixed ai sending invalid commands with foreign templates
- Fixed Expose the Belly of the Bear events not being sent out, as well as having incorrect requirement triggers.
- fixed a way to create invalid paradrop orders and fixed a ctd that is caused by that
- Converted Battleship and Converted Cruiser Hulls use now the right 3D model as the best match in the Ship Designer.
- Fixed ships from reserve not reinforcing if the reserve task force has at least one ship repairing
- locked the Silver Legion special template gained during the Fascist US civil war
- fixed some localization issues with dynamic modifiers
- fixed stability & war support values not giving all bonuses in some cases
- fixed some scripted diplomatic action issued that broke actions that requires acceptance
- moved lights of Los Angeles to correct province position
- Abdicating after getting "King's Support Forms" will now correctly remove the beneficial spirit granted by that event.
- fixed a original_tag problem related to reusing of dynamic tags
- Now display correct naval supremacy in naval invasion tooltip.
- fixed a ctd while loading saves
- De Gaulle will no longer be incorrectly removed as Free France's leader.
- Added Halifax to the bypass conditions of Motion of No Confidence.
- Added certain stipulations for Coerce Spain and Coerce Greece focuses.
- Only one Rebuild the Nation decision will now be available if you switch ideology using a civil war.
- Alliance with Germany now requires Germany to be fascist only.
- The number of factories displayed in war overview is now consistent with the number in topbar.
- Fixed an effect that was deleting a division template without deleting all divisions using that template, specifically volunteers and expeditionary forces, leading to potential memory problems and crashes.
- Fixed the game generating a definition.csv file that would override the original in case the later was missing some entries
- Mexico without Man the Guns enabled (and therefore with no ability to nationalize the oil fields) will now have control over its own oil from the start of the game.
- Fixed airwing name not being loaded from save
- Fixed DOD unique motorized icons to correctly shop up in the production tab.
- Fixed reserve fleet getting merged on daily tick if in the same naval base
- Fixed ship name from history file not being taking into account in some circumstances when adding a production line for it
- Highlight now fit the size of dockyard grid.
- Fragmenting Yugoslavia in the game setup rules should no longer result in Yugoslav units permanently being present on the map with no possibility of getting rid of them.
- Selecting Asia Decolonized game rule will now correctly grant independence to the Philippines.

##################################
# Balance
##################################
- naval mission efficiency will now go even lower if you don't have enough ships/taskforces for the assigned regions
- Nationalist Spain will not lose the "recovering from the Civil War" national spirit in historical focus mode, thus preventing them from joining the war
- Atlantic Fleet Designer now adds 10% HP to Carriers
- Armor upgrade for Carriers now adds 1% HP per level (non-MtG only)
- research companies research bonus 10% to 15%
- doctrine ministers research bonus 7% to 10% and 10% to 15%
- electron mechanical engineering research bonus 2% to 3%
- mechanical computer research bonus 3% to 4%
- computing machine research bonus 3% to 5%
- improved computing machine research bonus 5% to 8%
- advanced computing machine research bonus 5 to 8%
- focus: give refuge to scientist research bonus 3% to 5%

##################################
# UI
##################################
- Fixed Benelux formation news event properly referring to Netherlands' original name, rather than the new Benelux name.
- It is now possible to select a theater as a deployment target which will put the newly created ships in that theater's reserve fleet
- Now showing the task force insignia when selecting a task force as deployment target
- Finnish neutrality party was renamed
- Task forces created through the Move Ships Window now copy the insignia from the original task force
- Fixed timed decision showing 999 instead of a progressbar
- Dive bomber trait in admiral skill tree now correctly identifies bonus as only applying to carrier planes
- Minor loc fix to Dutch Trade Neutrality news event option text.
- Added list of required module slots that are empty to the save button tooltip when designing a ship
- Fixed invalid 'no mission set' warning on a task force with a mission but currently refitting or repairing

##################################
# AI
##################################
- Britain should now care more about Africa as well as other area prio tweaks
- ENG will avoid channel if it is at war with GER
- British AI should now pick ministers better to make use of Stanley Baldwin (a first in British history)
- British AI should no longer take early mobilization if it has better use of the political power
- British AI should no longer waste pp on resource prospecting if it has better things to do
- British AI should no longer offer refuge to German scientist until a certain amount of time has passed
- Italy alternate fascist plan will now result in Italy First, rather than Pact of Steel
- Both sides of the Suez Canal are now considered part of Africa for the purpose of AI calculations (still separate for all other purposes)
- blocked ai from creating naval missions in blocked regions
- naval_avoid_region >= 600 will disable regions for missions as well now. Germany disables the channel if ENG is still a threat
- historical Yugoslavian AI will no longer take Greater Yugoslavia
- added an AI strategy to Hungary to prevent them from joining the axis before it is historical if historical focuses are on
- ai is now less reluctant/random about upgrading its ship designs
- fixed a bug preventing the Soviet AI from researching Fighters II
- the Soviet union will no longer pick the War with Japan focus while fighting with Germany
- ai will care more about home fronts that have actual enemies if surrender process is >0 and less about other non dangerous fronts
- ai won't care about guarantees that are guaranteeing an enemy that has offensive war against us or a war that started long ago
- Improved UK historical focus selection order
- Japan will now avoid too aggressive early invasions

##################################
# Stability & Performance
##################################
- Protected against a buffer overflow.
- Detected and skipped a certain type of invalid mipmap data in dds files.
- Fixed CTD when reordering pinned strategic regions

##################################
# Modding
##################################
- added target_root_trigger trigger for targeted decision. this is checked before checking all targets and if false, will skip that targeted decision completely
- added game variables fuel_k & max_fuel_k
- fixed example of scripted diplo actions & fixed some string problems

##################################
# Database
##################################
- Tweaked Chamberlain resigns event to now require Poland to have fallen, and slightly increased the required surrender progress required for Denmark, Norway, the Low Countries, or France.
- The US now correctly starts with 2 Yorktown Carriers under construction in 1936 (MtG only due to balance concerns)
- Italy now correctly has two Littoria-Class Battleships under construction in 1936 (MtG only)
- changed some starting technologies for Italy
- France now starts with 1 Richelieu Class Battleship under construction in 1936 (Richelieu) and two more under construction in 1939 (Jean Bart and Clemenceau) (MtG only)
- added HMS Aurora to British starting construction (MtG only)
- moved Town Class Light Cruiser template to 1936 start, added 5 ships to British starting construction in 1936
- Added Marines division template to HOL
- Added portrait for Ataturk
- added and tweaked a number of division name lists for various countries
- Commonwealth Ties can now be taken if UK is overlord of Dominion civil war factions, as well (and applies the relationship boost to those countries).
- Adjusted requirement for Imperial Conference to no longer be impossible if UK accepts Destroyers for Bases offer from USA.
- removed the claim Romania gets on Bulgaria from the relevant event
- Reach out to the Ware Group is now available for both democratic and communist governments
- Removed Atatürk as a starting field marshal and instead added a decision to recruit him if Turkey is in a defensive war, also assigned to him his new field marshal portrait
- Added foreign language loc and an on_action trigger for Turkish civil wars.
- Added Admiral Hipper to German starting construction (MtG only)
- Added two Kirov-Class Cruisers to Soviet starting construction (MtG only)
- Added USS Vincennes and USS Wichita to US starting production (MtG only)
- Added two light cruisers to Italian starting construction (MtG only)
- Central Powers will now invite Bulgaria if they exist, are AI, and are non-aligned.
- Adjusted Vojvodina state population, and added cores to it in the Hungarian focus tree.
- Central Powers focus now sends event invites to the various potential nations, giving them a choice rather than automatically adding them to the faction.
For the full 1.6.2 log (its huge), or if you want to help test go check out the 1.6.2 beta page.

See you all next week again!
 
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Beagá said:
I don´t want to China to lose early but I don´t agree that it´s good as it is now.
Click to expand...
in my testing since the release of 1.6.0 I've seen the sino-japanese war come to a conclusion 17 times; all 17 were japanese victories.
 
So I noticed with the Netherlands' "Lead the Minor Democracies" path with the focus "Form the Benelux", you can actually now... form the Benelux and unify with Belgium and Luxembourg for 300 PP.

This is a really great change, one of the few changes I'd make to the nearly perfect tree that is the Netherlands! Wonder if @Bratyn had a hand in this change, very welcome in any case! This is definitely going to be one of my most played singleplayer choices going forward.
 
Greetings, devs. @podcat @Bratyn

I have a (yet another) concern for 1.6.2.

I noticed in one of my playthroughs that when every time Chinese warlord states (Guangxi, XSM, Shanxi, Yunnan, Sinkiang) finish all their individual focuses, they proceed immediately to the "Air Production" continuous focus. It just seems odd considering that not a single warlord has an airfield, let alone air units.

I hope this can be fixed by switching their AI preferences to more suitable continuous focuses like "Construction Engineering", "Army Training", or even "Increase Autonomy" if certain conditions are met.

Thank you. :)
 
Ok after playing a bunch of the new 1.6.2 here are my observations.

- Germany still needs a nerf. They're just insane. They can easily absorb millions of losses and still fight at full strength. Maybe a weak Soviet Union is to blame but I don't think that accounts for all of it

- The Soviet AI is still pathetic. It needs major major work to even stand a chance against the Axis. I honestly don't know how you're suppose to successfully invade Europe as the Allies in the short amount of time the Soviets give you before they collapse.

- China is a little better now. They can reliably survive until late '41 and sometimes into early '42 which is ok I guess. If it were up to me they'd be able to hold on for longer but it's not as bad as it was. At least they're not falling in '38 anymore.

- Sinkang needs to join the Comintern. When they join China and China inevitably falls it opens up a new front in India that makes holding India really problematic. The best way right now to keep India is to just not call the Raj into the war.

- Can we make it so I can request expeditionary forces without needing a plan to attach them to? I miss the good old days when you'd just get a popup saying 'Canada wants to send you some divisions'.

- Fuel right now seems to hurt the UK more than it hurts Germany ... which seems completely contrary to what you'd expect. I think some work needs to be done to reverse this.

- I think Strategic Bombing needs a buff. Right now it takes way too much effort for minimal gain to conduct a bombing campaign.

- Can we make Vichy France neutral? Not only would this be more historic but it would be a small nerf to the Axis.

- The Allies do seem to do a better job in Africa. Although Vichy's formation causes all kinds of chaos the AI is unprepared for and usually sets the Allies AI effort in Africa back years

That's all I got. Except for this. What are the Soviets doing to have this occur in every game? Are they not defending the Romanian border?

whatiswrongwithrussia.png
 
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After they fix the unit shuffling by the Soviets, they could add a Focus that would give the Soviets the ability to call up large amounts of poor divisions to throw men at the Germans, like they did historically. The focus could a triggered by the loss of Kiev or another strategic area, and be placed by the focus which moves industry to the Urals.
I mean, historically by the Spring of '43 the Soviets out-numbered the Germans on the Eastern Front by 4 to 1. There is nothing in the game right now that simulates this.

Also, a similarly-triggered focus like "Order 227" that would increase Soviet defensive strength would be a nice touch, imo.
 
There's a bit of strangeness with AI Britain, once they run out of focuses they will start taking the "Benelux Intervention" and "Scandinavian Intervention" focuses, even though those countries have long since fallen to Germany. Perhaps those focuses should be blocked if those nations have capitulated, or just make the AI not take them after the fall of continental Europe.
 
Still, lots of work to be done, Devs. USA historical game (3 'buffs' to USSR, 2 to Ita & UK, one to everyone else, but player).

1. Good work on Japan - China war. Bloody conflict, lasted till Dec. 1941.

2. Great job UK, -1373 convoys !!! How is it even possible ???

20190331192551_1.jpg

So, UK without aluminum, rubber. And oil ... But with troops sitting on island, unable to move ...

3. Still loooong way to go with USSR. Why SbR recruitment policy, why hurting itself??? Siting on 14 mil mp and hurting economy when it needs the most. At the same time USSR trains 20 LARM, 12 9/3 infantry (with decreased infantry width) and 20 cavalry (?#?@?) divisions. Sitting on 500k + infantry equipment one. 70% troops on guard duty ...

20190331151541_1.jpg 20190331220645_1.jpg

For start, It needs to be way more aggressive training troops at the time (spring 1941). It is still 2 focuses away from lessons of war....
 
WesW69 said:
After they fix the unit shuffling by the Soviets, they could add a Focus that would give the Soviets the ability to call up large amounts of poor divisions to throw men at the Germans, like they did historically. The focus could a triggered by the loss of Kiev or another strategic area, and be placed by the focus which moves industry to the Urals.
I mean, historically by the Spring of '43 the Soviets out-numbered the Germans on the Eastern Front by 4 to 1. There is nothing in the game right now that simulates this.

Also, a similarly-triggered focus like "Order 227" that would increase Soviet defensive strength would be a nice touch, imo.
Click to expand...

IIRC Order 227 is already a Decision for the Soviets instead of a focus.

But yes, it would make more sense if the Soviet AI start defending more ferociously once their surrender progress is at least 30% or something. That's a more in-game solution to Order 227 IMO.

You can argue the same thing for AI China. Once they reach a certain level in surrender progress, they should start defending more ferociously.
 
Nickjbor said:
in my testing since the release of 1.6.0 I've seen the sino-japanese war come to a conclusion 17 times; all 17 were japanese victories.
Click to expand...
As it should be. Chinese victory over Japan would be insane. Chinese AI just needs to hold on for a few years and then sue for peace, its not even an option to win Japanese and annex them.
 
cursorhiker said:
There's a bit of strangeness with AI Britain, once they run out of focuses they will start taking the "Benelux Intervention" and "Scandinavian Intervention" focuses, even though those countries have long since fallen to Germany. Perhaps those focuses should be blocked if those nations have capitulated, or just make the AI not take them after the fall of continental Europe.
Click to expand...

Perhaps AI lacks scripting that forces them to research boost to their production etc. found at the bottom left of the focus tree once all options are researched.
 
FieldMedic said:
Ok after playing a bunch of the new 1.6.2 here are my observations.

- Germany still needs a nerf. They're just insane. They can easily absorb millions of losses and still fight at full strength. Maybe a weak Soviet Union is to blame but I don't think that accounts for all of it

- The Soviet AI is still pathetic. It needs major major work to even stand a chance against the Axis. I honestly don't know how you're suppose to successfully invade Europe as the Allies in the short amount of time the Soviets give you before they collapse.

- China is a little better now. They can reliably survive until late '41 and sometimes into early '42 which is ok I guess. If it were up to me they'd be able to hold on for longer but it's not as bad as it was. At least they're not falling in '38 anymore.

- Sinkang needs to join the Comintern. When they join China and China inevitably falls it opens up a new front in India that makes holding India really problematic. The best way right now to keep India is to just not call the Raj into the war.

- Can we make it so I can request expeditionary forces without needing a plan to attach them to? I miss the good old days when you'd just get a popup saying 'Canada wants to send you some divisions'.

- Fuel right now seems to hurt the UK more than it hurts Germany ... which seems completely contrary to what you'd expect. I think some work needs to be done to reverse this.

- I think Strategic Bombing needs a buff. Right now it takes way too much effort for minimal gain to conduct a bombing campaign.

- Can we make Vichy France neutral? Not only would this be more historic but it would be a small nerf to the Axis.

- The Allies do seem to do a better job in Africa. Although Vichy's formation causes all kinds of chaos the AI is unprepared for and usually sets the Allies AI effort in Africa back years

That's all I got. Except for this. What are the Soviets doing to have this occur in every game? Are they not defending the Romanian border?

View attachment 467407
Click to expand...

I played a game with the sole purpose of seeing how high their losses could go. With desperate defense they can absorb close to 27 million casualties before completely running out of manpower which I think is sort of ridiculous. The negative penalties for switching conscription laws don't even really affect them much because of how ridiculously large Germany's industry is. The worst part of all this is it still didn't really seem to help the Allied AI launch any sort of meaningful invasion. Even when Germany had less than a million troops in the field.
 
Jellico said:
I played a game with the sole purpose of seeing how high their losses could go. With desperate defense they can absorb close to 27 million casualties before completely running out of manpower which I think is sort of ridiculous. The negative penalties for switching conscription laws don't even really affect them much because of how ridiculously large Germany's industry is. The worst part of all this is it still didn't really seem to help the Allied AI launch any sort of meaningful invasion. Even when Germany had less than a million troops in the field.
Click to expand...
Germany is the main protagonist/antagonist, and as such it has to be able to take a beating and keep fighting. Their manpower reserves shouldn't be an issue: with this not being WW1, it's not supposed to be a war of attrition.

If the enemy fields a lot of units and is difficult to dislodge, hit its ability to maintain them: it doesn't matter how many hundreds of divisions it has if it can't produce the material to keep them fighting in decent shape. The numerical advantage is diluted if supply, fuel and procurement is shot.

The Allies didn't historically bomb the German industrial heartland just for funzies.
 
Beagá said:
I can post many screenshots if you want, or you can prove your theory. It´s OBVIOUS I played the patch more than once so don´t treat me as a moron, ok?
Click to expand...
The thing is, every playthrough I have played and a lot of posts here seem to indicate that China still loses quite easily to Japan. It takes a bit longer since it seems Japan doesn't really move ahead until later in the war but if you look at losses in manpower before and after it seems to me that the only reason Japan taking longer is because they do not really push.

I still find China losing in '39 about 60% of the time and early '40 33% of the time and before Japan declares war on US/allies the other 7% of the time. I have yet to play a game where Japan and China are still at war when they declare on the US in 1.6.2. So it's not really anyone treating you as a moron as that your statement seems to contradict almost everyone's experiences. Your claim, compared to all the others, stands out like a bright beacon so to say. That's why it gets attention when you say that you want China to be nerfed now or Japan boosted when Japan is still whooping China's ass.

I do think that Japan needs a boost on the naval front though. Especially playing the US you just have a couple of battles and usually at the end of '41 it is often that the US, in the hand of a player, has destroyed the Japanese fleet about 10 to 1 in losses. With the American production capacity this means that at the end of '41 the US usually has about 400 more ships than Japan when the sea-war is over. Japan usually isn't able to recover as an AI and the tiny battles you still have are mostly with planes attacking your ships or the sporadic convoy raids.

So while there is a good case to be made to boost japan, it's not in the land-warfare department where they need their boost. At least, that's what a lot of people seem to experience.
 
I think they just need to sit down proper and go over all the AI mechanics and core behaviour. Once that's nailed down they can start tweaking with numbers for balance. Otherwise it's like cooling a car engine by pouring water on it rather than having a radiator.
 
Shadow86 said:
Germany is the main protagonist/antagonist, and as such it has to be able to take a beating and keep fighting. Their manpower reserves shouldn't be an issue: with this not being WW1, it's not supposed to be a war of attrition.

If the enemy fields a lot of units and is difficult to dislodge, hit its ability to maintain them: it doesn't matter how many hundreds of divisions it has if it can't produce the material to keep them fighting in decent shape. The numerical advantage is diluted if supply, fuel and procurement is shot.

The Allies didn't historically bomb the German industrial heartland just for funzies.
Click to expand...

Germany shouldn't have the industry or the manpower to field 700 divisions. We're about to leave a ww2 setting in favor of science fiction.

Those who want a Germany with an ability to withstand 20+ million casualties, should play with custom rules. Germany is simply way too OP at default.
 
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Shadow86 said:
Germany is the main protagonist/antagonist, and as such it has to be able to take a beating and keep fighting. Their manpower reserves shouldn't be an issue: with this not being WW1, it's not supposed to be a war of attrition.

If the enemy fields a lot of units and is difficult to dislodge, hit its ability to maintain them: it doesn't matter how many hundreds of divisions it has if it can't produce the material to keep them fighting in decent shape. The numerical advantage is diluted if supply, fuel and procurement is shot.

The Allies didn't historically bomb the German industrial heartland just for funzies.
Click to expand...
You realise they ran out of manpower during World War II, right? I can understand Nationalist China or the Soviet Union having close to infinite manpower, but Germany shouldn't have that luxury. Manpower was a significant concern for them, not just in general but also in terms of qualified pilots and submarine crewmen, for example.

Not only should they have manpower limitations, there should be separate manpower pools of trained sailors and airmen.
 
Shadow86 said:
Germany is the main protagonist/antagonist, and as such it has to be able to take a beating and keep fighting. Their manpower reserves shouldn't be an issue: with this not being WW1, it's not supposed to be a war of attrition.

If the enemy fields a lot of units and is difficult to dislodge, hit its ability to maintain them: it doesn't matter how many hundreds of divisions it has if it can't produce the material to keep them fighting in decent shape. The numerical advantage is diluted if supply, fuel and procurement is shot.

The Allies didn't historically bomb the German industrial heartland just for funzies.
Click to expand...
But WW2 did become a war of attrition on both fronts, that’s why US industry won over japan and Soviet manpower and industry won over Germany.
 
In my game (b2b3) China pushed the Japanese back to Manchukuo and capitulated mengjiang in 1938. They have if I remember correctly more divisions stationed along this frontline than the Japanese around 35 divisions.

There is a catch though... I am playing the Soviet Union and have an attaché in China. I also have sent air volunteers (Polikarpov l-16’s). Initially just over a 100 of them in order to turn them into veterans and get me some air experience. They were more successful than the Japanese fighters but air superiority was orange. Once they were vets I brought them back and sent a further 250 to get those also to veterans. I now have total air superiority over this northern region plus I lend leased my replaced pre war fighters to China (plus supplying them with 200 fuel per day which I think would cover them!).

I’ve stopped on 1st January 1939 because of the convoy bug but looking towards southern China, they have like 1 division on ports but if the Japanese AI started any naval invasions they will be in trouble (I think I can see all their units because of the attaché).
 
Some ships under construction don't start with their correct names in 1.6.1 (one of the French TBDs, for example). Has that been fixed?
 
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