Hi everyone I hope you are enjoying 1.9.1 and La Resistance. Today will be a smaller diary to let you know that we are putting out a beta for 1.9.2, and also to fill you in on what the plan is now moving forward into next expansion work.

1.9.2 Beta
Since we came back from easter we have been working hard on nailing down some stubborn out of sync bugs. Some of those still elude us so the quest continues but we have also gotten some other things dealt with. Click below for changelog:

Spoiler: Changelog so far

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# Balance
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- added mil factory to china that was incorrectly set up in 1.9.1

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# Bugfix
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- Soviet now retains the old behaviour of sending volunteers to spain
- Fix end of civil war events no longer firing (initially reported on German Civil war)

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# Stability & Performance
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- Fixed OOS related to different language settings between the host and client
- Fixed OOS due to differing ship name in combat result
- Fixed OOS when joining a MP that has not LaR with a client that has LaR enable while comming back from a game with active operatives
- Added basic land and naval combat details to hourly OOS checks
- Fixed save game formatting of AI strategies for managing production of army roles, to use text instead of unstable numeric IDs
- Enabled the abort on map error for when game files are modified in the installation directory
- Fixed CTD when showing the leaderboard before going back to the main menu
- Fix a CTD on related to clearing strategic air data and processing air activity

The beta patch thread is over here and includes info on how to opt into it

We have no release date on this yet, but its not planned to be a giant mega patch like 1.9.1. The goal is to deal with the OOS issues and mop up anything major we missed as well as do some balancing (some operations need a buff for example).

Future
Working from home during the corona pandemic has started to feel more and more normal for us although I really miss hanging out with co-workers at the pub or the like. We are very fortunate to be able to work on at home and not be impacted as heavily as other companies. Paradox has also been super supportive and sending us dinners from local restaurants (gotto make sure they are still there when we go back to work!) and the like.

As for development we are still fixing some stuff but the team is transitioning over to working on the next expansion now. That means that this will be the last dev diary for a while. We will let you know when they kick off again when we know If you want to follow work on 1.9.2 keep an eye on the beta thread. That said expect to hear from us from time to time during the work period .

Stay safe inside your panzers everyone!

 

[sekelsenmat]

telling AI germany to go for norway in this situation would be straight up suicide unless we hardcoded a lot of allied behaviour or a special teleporter to oslo. It would hurt the game too much. Germany needs to do Around Maginot to make sure it is ready to hit the low countries fast. Its quite close to disaster if allies start getting ready to support france. imo timing is how we intend it as its the way that will work best.

What about decreasing the combat width exceeded penalty from 2x to 1x to allow using historical division designs?

 

[UlulvarCape]

Would it be possible to core Wallonia as France? I mean, both are french speaking, and stuff, and could fit within HOI4 easily with a decision.

Edit: Just gonna refer to this even though no one pointed it out... nor cared https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...e-should-core-wallonia.1377527/#post-26485360

 

[Mr.Grizzly]

The German Reich doing "Around Maginot" while fighting Poland, this needs to seriously end, part of the problem is the German Reich can't do "Operation Weserübung" because it requires Poland to have capitulated, so I suggest to remove that requirement, and instead have the German Reich ignore both focuses until Poland has capitulated (and ignore the Low Countries completely if they are AI players), this is a problem because this throws the whole thing down an ahistorical path, and the focuses are a little too short, perhaps 35 days instead? And if the German AI or player is having trouble, just give them a similar national spirit against France as they get against the Soviet Union.

The problem also seems to be tied to their AI, I've manually tagged over to Germany during games and made them not select Around Maginot and they just start to manually justify against the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. And while I really want the Battle of France to be represented properly, it's kind of hard considering how extremely lucky Germany was with some of the decision making of their generals on the field, such as Rommel ignoring the General Staff and pushing to the coast, some of the baffling decisions by French generals, including the refusal of air support near the Battle of Sedan, France's inefficient crew layouts in tanks or even France putting most of their troops into Belgium and digging in. And with how the game operates, I do fear Germany getting bogged down in France 1940 in-game. So definitely, Germany needs to take the focus at the right time, but we need to make sure we don't end up having a version of the game where Germany fails to France as we wait 6-12 months for an update to the issue.

 

[General Von Trapp]

Glad to hear Paradox is keeping safe... I have been running some tests recently in regards to the US Naval activity. I have noticed some work has gone into it in regards to the Pacific... they are now doing strike and patrol missions but I have not looked at the numbers in regards to sunk ships but I plan to have a look tomorrow evening.

 

[mag339]

Please add notifications for agency tab. I always forget to make upgrades.

 

[General Von Trapp]

I thought I would have a quick look now to be honest to push across my point...

Above is a common outcome on historical... not all the time but definitely above average. Not that big of a deal for a good challenge but I believe this is one of the major factors.

Literally none existent combat...

The US has got its strike force missions going on but somethings wrong... because there is just no contact between the forces when it's AI against AI. Japan actually took Hawaii by the way in this game and it's 1945.

The European Theatre is fantastic... but please try and balance this in the next update because it's just not right and its NEVER been right since release.

 

[Mr.Grizzly]

Above is a common outcome on historical... not all the time but definitely above average. Not that big of a deal for a good challenge but I believe this is one of the major factors.

That partition of Asia makes my eyes hurt

 

[Roland Traveler]

I thought I would have a quick look now to be honest to push across my point...

Above is a common outcome on historical... not all the time but definitely above average. Not that big of a deal for a good challenge but I believe this is one of the major factors.

Literally none existent combat...

The US has got its strike force missions going on but somethings wrong... because there is just no contact between the forces when it's AI against AI. Japan actually took Hawaii by the way in this game and it's 1945.

The European Theatre is fantastic... but please try and balance this in the next update because it's just not right and its NEVER been right since release.

If China held out more, I think Japan would be much more historical. Instead we get a China that tends to suicide itself into the Japanese until it’s too weak to put up an effective resistance even when it shifts to a defensive focus. For instance, in my last US game, I tagged over to China and built them a lovely defensive ring along the rivers by Chongqing that should have allowed the Nationalists and Guanxi to hold out. I even teleported encircled units out and made sure the defenses were fully staffed. Instead the Nationalists were reduced to Chongqing and one other tile, only surviving because I upped the level eight forts to level ten. China needs some dedicated AI to tell it to take advantage of rivers or to pull back from the lowlands if things go south. Right now they just drain their equipment stockpiles (and sometimes manpower, although they seem to be doing better with that) early and collapse later.

 

[Áurum]

I agree x 10.

This whole "AI won't release one-state collaboration governments" - could that be extended to two-state'rs? What would that break? Is there a define to allow us to do that ourselves?

Maybe there should be another way for the AI not to spam collabs instead of blocking n-state collaboration governments.

 

[General Von Trapp]

If China held out more, I think Japan would be much more historical. Instead we get a China that tends to suicide itself into the Japanese until it’s too weak to put up an effective resistance even when it shifts to a defensive focus. For instance, in my last US game, I tagged over to China and built them a lovely defensive ring along the rivers by Chongqing that should have allowed the Nationalists and Guanxi to hold out. I even teleported encircled units out and made sure the defenses were fully staffed. Instead the Nationalists were reduced to Chongqing and one other tile, only surviving because I upped the level eight forts to level ten. China needs some dedicated AI to tell it to take advantage of rivers or to pull back from the lowlands if things go south. Right now they just drain their equipment stockpiles (and sometimes manpower, although they seem to be doing better with that) early and collapse later.

The China side of things is not that bad as I ran four games over the last two days.

1st game China beat Japan and Korea was formed. The strange thing about this is that Japan still goes on its rampage anyway and China just sits back and watches. In fact this is worse than if China holds out as it's usually a quick victory and saves Japan the losses.

2nd game China held Japan as historical. 3rd game Japan did the above and same for the 4th.

The US is a problem.. No combat in the Pacific is just WEIRD and it needs to draw Japanese troops from the China front to help them.

 

[Áurum]

telling AI germany to go for norway in this situation would be straight up suicide unless we hardcoded a lot of allied behaviour or a special teleporter to oslo. It would hurt the game too much. Germany needs to do Around Maginot to make sure it is ready to hit the low countries fast. Its quite close to disaster if allies start getting ready to support france. imo timing is how we intend it as its the way that will work best.

If focuses take too long, maybe implement it via decisions? Once Germany has capitulated Poland, the decision to attack the Netherlands unlocks and can declare war immediately, but never before defeating Poland. Does that break your timing?

 

[DeadHeat16]

If you check the changelog for 1.9.1 you can see it was changed

Oh sorry didn’t noticed

 

[Áurum]

- Soviet now retains the old behaviour of sending volunteers to spain

That's not historical at all, the best solution would be that Soviets don't send volunteers but lend-lease, and that Republican focuses are tied to that.
And maybe buff Republican army a bit to compensate. But honestly, the weakest point of the Republic is the anarchist uprising, which shouldn't occur on historical anyway. When it happens, Franco simply steamrolls the Republic.

 

[General Von Trapp]

That's not historical at all, the best solution would be that Soviets don't send volunteers but lend-lease, and that Republican focuses are tied to that.
And maybe buff Republican army a bit to compensate. But honestly, the weakest point of the Republic is the anarchist uprising, which shouldn't occur on historical anyway. When it happens, Franco simply steamrolls the Republic.

I like that idea but so much balancing has already been put in place so I doubt it can be changed as easily. The anarchist uprising is to make it more fun for the player which I can understand... I certainly had fun! Great focus tree the Spain one... So immersive and different things to do.

 

[Falkenhayn1]

And pls fix the creation of the collab government in the Mariana islands and in the Czechia (including Sudets)

 

[Mr.Grizzly]

That's not historical at all, the best solution would be that Soviets don't send volunteers but lend-lease, and that Republican focuses are tied to that.

Yep, the focus Expand Soviet Aid needs to have the requirement of Soviet volunteers in Spain gone and it should primarily start off as lend-lease and if Spain continues to ask for Soviet assistance or if the Soviet Union goes for Trotsky, then the Soviets send troops into Spain.

And maybe buff Republican army a bit to compensate. But honestly, the weakest point of the Republic is the anarchist uprising, which shouldn't occur on historical anyway. When it happens, Franco simply steamrolls the Republic.

I'm fine with the Anarchists rising up but honestly it's blown out of proportion and is too much of a sudden change for the AI to handle. I've already said it elsewhere but the uprising should be limited to the state of Catalonia alone, it spreading to Eastern Aragon and Valencia is ridiculous, they should ONLY take the Anarchist units you had in your army, maybe a few of the other weaker volunteer units you get at the start of the war, but recruited units such as infantry divisions should be a definite no, ideally the Anarchists would have max 12 units and have just enough to defend the state borders of Catalonia with some extra to reinforce the line when needed. I don't get how 6 days of combat mostly around Barcelona, where there was only 2,5k casualties, was blown up into a major uprising in Northeastern Spain. The main penalties for the Republicans should be other factors with the mess that was their Popular Front, the lack of a proper army and no direct foreign intervention, and they should be able to address these issues, eventually, if they can survive for long enough. I'd even be tempted to perhaps say that when Republican Spain takes the focus Crush the Revolution it gets Spain an event about the uprising happening and being crushed before it could revolt, with some penalties to represent a little loss of manpower, some internal issues with the Popular Front collapsing a bit, so loss of stability, but the Anarchist uprising won't happen, as it shouldn't, when being played on historical mode by AI or when a player goes down the Republican path, since I don't think players like the idea of having to fight another front and losing a core province and divisions in a second because something is artificially buffed.

 

[Mr.Grizzly]

I like that idea but so much balancing has already been put in place so I doubt it can be changed as easily. The anarchist uprising is to make it more fun for the player which I can understand... I certainly had fun! Great focus tree the Spain one... So immersive and different things to do.

But the problem of the Anarchists could be fixed by making the focus for Republican Spain, Crush the Revolution, stop the uprising outright and an event would pop which would drop the stability and a tiny bit of manpower from the Republican, maybe even add state destruction, just a little, to represent the 6 days of fighting around the state. This wouldn't stop Anarchists from being playable, since it's exclusively a Republican focus, I believe, could be available to Communist Spain, meaning that historical AI or a player going down the Republican branch would stop the uprising that shouldn't even happen in the first place. For balancing, you could maybe make it like Manchuria with their bandits where they have to deploy troops to the state of Catalonia before taking the focus, to help represent troops being sent into it and it would weaken the Republican lines but not in a dramatic sudden shift that collapses them, also would allow the Republicans to redeploy the troops back to the front after. Oh and forgot to mention that the Republic would lose all of their Anarchist units, further weakening the Republicans but again, not in a sudden dramatic way.

One of the things that I'm surprised a lot of people haven't mentioned yet is Republican Spain getting stuck in their focus tree because the AI never hires advisors, so the focus Enlist the Carabineros is never taken, causing the Republicans to be stuck and never progress and get those final focuses for the Civil War that helps slow down the Nationalists, Falangists and/or Carlists, depending on who you're fighting. The other issue would be French assistance, France barely helped the Popular Front, they wanted to but couldn't due to their own political situation, France, if it's going to send anything, shouldn't be much unless they actively get involved, but when playing historical, France should not be getting involved.

 

[guprad]

Does Franco send volunteers to the axis again? Could you change that if he still doesn't, thanks for all the hard work!

 

[Roland Traveler]

The China side of things is not that bad as I ran four games over the last two days.

1st game China beat Japan and Korea was formed. The strange thing about this is that Japan still goes on its rampage anyway and China just sits back and watches. In fact this is worse than if China holds out as it's usually a quick victory and saves Japan the losses.

2nd game China held Japan as historical. 3rd game Japan did the above and same for the 4th.

The US is a problem.. No combat in the Pacific is just WEIRD and it needs to draw Japanese troops from the China front to help them.

Oh yeah they’ve been doing much better over recent patches, but they still get into the situation I describe regularly. Perhaps the deciding factors are how many divisions get encircled after the initial Japanese breakthrough and/or if Japan managed to break through Xibei San Ma.

 

[FLUX2226]

Maybe there should be another way for the AI not to spam collabs instead of blocking n-state collaboration governments.

In my opinion the AI should only create collaboration governments if the original owner is in exile, because in this case you will always have resistance. It doesn't make much sense to set up a puppet government in provinces that you own peacefully.