Hi everyone! Last week on Thursday we released Waking the Tiger and it has been a huge success breaking our active user records and is our highest rated DLC on steam for HOI thus far! Thanks everyone who has bought and played it and given us feedback, its super appreciated and the team is really happy!

The plan now is to get the 1.5.1 patch out with the most important fixes we have done. That one has been in open beta since Friday (but updated a few times), so thanks those who have braved its waters and helped us with feedback there too. We just updated that one again as well just now. The plan is to check it for any issues and if it's ok we hope it can go live tomorrow After that we will focus on a more long-term patch where we will have time to address balance issues and more risky changes. That one will be 1.5.2 and will get a rolling opt-in open beta you can participate in until it's done (about 3 weeks or so to give you a rough timespan) which will get updated frequently with fixes/balance updates for those who want to help test.

Overall the release has been very stable, but looking at reports and feedback the things we are focusing on are:

• Balance. There are several areas, but air involvement in land combat and general strength of spamming air power is a prio.
• Desynchs in multiplayer. Telemetry data only shows a minor increase of 2% more people desynching, but we are still prioritizing this. 1.5.1 has a few potential fixes but it has proven very hard to nail down the exact reason. If your MP group runs into this feel free to tell us and test on the open beta.
• Focus tree fixes. Germany not going fascist has had some unforeseen effects as well as other inter-country checks. Hopefully most of this have been taken care of in the 1.5.1 beta now.

The changelog so far on 1.5.1 is as follow:

Spoiler

################################################################
######## Patch 1.5.1 "Cornflakes" ########
################################################################

##################################
# AI
##################################
- "Desperate AI" improvements, ai know does not switch escape provinces as long as last one valid and fixed a case where it can try to escape a province that is also desperate
- fixed a case where armor divisions were being allowed in defense fronts

##################################
# UI
##################################
- Fixed positioning of add army portrait btn.
- Fixed Zaibatsus Challenged tooltip issue.
- Fixed balance, tooltips, and events for ideology switching decisions.
- Fixed border clash focus icons lost gfx
- Added infantry tech level 3 3D model. Copies lvl 2 version.
- Fix construction showing more building levels to be repaired than what was constructed.
- fixed naval production gui not updating when you switch equipment
- fixed ui scaling no longer breaking tooltips
- added tooltip that explains increased capacity for garrison orders
- Fixed battle plan tools going behind army list stopping you from training on small screens
- Danzig for Guarantees now mentions getting Poznan as well.
- fix for minimap positioning with UI scaling
- fixed drag and drop not working with ui scale
- Division Designer > Better layout, with instant preview when mouse over the edited battalion.
- Aligned division count on badge in theatre view to match army badge.
- Right click on an army group leader portrait while having unassigned divisions, will assign them to it's sub groups in a smart way.
- Added bunch of generic focus icons.
- Added icons for German CV CAS tech level 3, with a flavour names.
- Fixed icon for generic focus for tank production.
- Added icon for attack switzerland focus.
- Minimap is now working with scaled interface.
- Fixed a missing picture in a stability event.
- Adjusted trade window resource quantity label to be large enough to show more than three digits instead of wrapping.
- Updated leader promotion message to clarify that the decrease in skills will be temporary.

##################################
# Modding
##################################
- Added cancel_trigger to all types of decisions. cancel_trigger will not run remove_effect when true.
- Missions now use cancel_trigger to abort before completion and remove_trigger to remove and run remove effect if the decision stays in the interface.
- Added modifier army_org_regain
- Fixed "random variables" being broken with tooltips
- fixed an issue where mods were loaded in wrong order and couldnt overwrite DLC
- When using the effect add_offsite_building in a wrong way, the error log will warn about it.


##################################
# Database
##################################
- removed a focus from PRC 1939 start that caused an error
- Fix for two wrong division name lists in the 1939 start
- Event pictures "communists cheer" and "American hunger strike" now have interface entries
- unlocked Chennault as adviser for manchukuo and reduced cost for him
- Reenabled generic tank manufacturer idea for countries without
- Returned Samoa to its (then) rightful owner
- "Forced loans" decision is now repeatable.
- Assertiveness focus now bypasses if manchukuo is already free.
- Communist Japan can now only call for Soviet Volunteers once
- Unaligned Germany's Anti-Comintern Pact no longer invites India and China and other Asian minors that don't border SOV.
- Blow the Suez Canal event now has correct localisation.
- "Object to Attachés" decision is now more limited and its effects now depend on relative strength of nations.
- AST and SAF no longer locked out of Appeasement tree by Germany opposing Hitler.
- Adjusted bypass requirements for "Danzig for Guarantees", "Safeguard the Baltic", and "Support the Finns".
- "Schlieffen Once More" is now available in case of Franco-British Union.
- Added some missing (and fixed some existing) text translations to Russian.
- Political advisors unlocked from PRC/CHI focus trees, are now available to warlords that take over the government.
- Fixed some missing event pictures in Japanese border war.
- Added plenty of missing texts translations in various languages.
- Added bypasses to the "Japanese Non-Aggression Pact" focuses.

##################################
# Balance
##################################
- Germany should no longer lose 50% of its equipment upon starting the Oppose Hitler civil war.
- Communist Chinese focus tree, now get's some infantry equipment production bonuses, for better gameplay balance.


##################################
# Bugfix
##################################
- Prevented exploit of tech swapping military doctrines by starting level 2 tech in the current branch before switching to a different branch.
- Fixed Chinese Industry Relocation decisions to check for control of state.
- Changed remove_trigger to cancel_trigger for Political Struggle decisions to avoid sudden influx of points when someone claimed national leadership
- Reinstate Imperial Possessions no longer removes core for Alsace from France.
- Fixed not creating combats while moving into provinces that has combats that you can't join (where both are enemies)
- Made "Triumph for X" decisions non-repeatable.
- fix for double inflation spirit appearing under certain circumstances
- their cores are no longer lost when you puppet a nation (fixes soups in peace deals when AI cant liberate for example)
- Now guarantees can be mutual (fixes a path in japanese focus tree)
- Fixed frontlines around wastelands sometime disappearing.
- JAP nuke surrender decision now clears global flags
- PRC that takes over through political struggle will not inherit negative spirits from China
- added bypass checks for Confrontation with the warlords focus
- blocked taking national leadership if subject or leader is subject
- Fixed a case which could prevent nations from ever surrendering
- Manchukuo now loses Kwantung Veto when released through the Japanese focus tree.
- Changed local_org_regain to army_org_regain for communist china's spirits
- added bypass checks to Finish the Fight focus for japan
- Fixed planes being engaged in combat in another region than the one they are assigned to
- Added recalculation of support points if a state involved in the struggle changes controller
- Fixed an issue where states would show as being part of the strugle, though they were controlled by an enemy nation.
- Fixed female unit leaders being converted to males on save/reload
- Surprise Attack Plan idea for civil wars is now functional.
- Creating a Manchurian Airforce focus will now bypass if MAN does not exist
- Enabled increase Airlift decision for a China that is in the United Front
- Fate of the Imperial Family no longer requires Manchukuo to exist.
- Decision to escalate to a border conflict is now cancelled if in faction with the target
- Fixed issue where decisions updating decisions to remove could skip an element in the array if one was supposed to be removed
- fixed an issue where Manchuko's Assertiveness branch broke if Japan went with support Kodoha (lost Puyi, lost special autonomy level)
- Forcefully removing support for opposition in a state now properly reduces the gloabl support for the leader of China
- Added bypass trigger to Japanese focus Triparte Pact if either Germany or Italy is not fascist or Japan is at war with either of them
- Secret CIA reference now actually works (maybe. but thats CLASSIFIED)
- Removed max trait limit from unit leaders
- Fix for awake and angry achievement not working
- fixed a US resource decision pointing to the wrong state
- Adjusted Wilhelm II and von Mackensen minimum/average death dates.
- Fixed the never ending "connecting..." message when you fail to connect to a multiplayer session. The max timeout is 30sec, but now it will finally say "Failed to connect".
- Fixed attaches adding ideas twice on save/load.
- Fixed a double-Stalin-bug. If a player right click on a country with a leader, and then on your own country that is missing a leader portrait, it still shows the previous country portrait.
- Battleplans > Fixed bug in defensive orders being auto merged when painting them.
- Fixed a number of issues with Romania in base game without DLCs enabled.
- Fix for wrong event being fired from SAF decision.
- "Fall of Cairo" event now gives correct Italian leader
- Fixed "replace_path" not working for mods downloaded from the workshop.
- Socialism with Chinese Characteristics no longer creates a faction if player is already in one.
- Fixed missing occupying country name in the tooltip.
- Various generals generated from focus trees (or other effects) now has correctly scripted skill levels.
- Overall garrison order improvements.
- Fixed a bug where strikes from demobilization would be impossible to remove by restarting demobilization mission immediately on timeout.
- German focus to "align Hungary or Romania", now bypass if the country does not exist or is already a subject of another country. Effect from focus to integrate them now only gives factories to the country that becomes a puppet of Germany.
- It is now possible to bookmark with Ctrl+(1-9), not only a divisions, but also a selected province or a strategic region.
- Reverted Nazi Germany getting back their old focus tree if they won the German Civil War (because it broke a lot of things).
- South Africa now has referendum decision available if they went "South Africa First".
- "Test the soviets" decision should no longer require split-second timing for it to work.
- Poland now more inclined to ally Germany, and less inclined to ally UK, after giving up Danzig for guarantees.
- The amounts of air wings being sent as volunteers are now updated properly, and should no longer go negative.
- Fixed typo in the tooltip of command power description.
- Fixed some division names in German historical name list.
- Referendum decisions now have proper triggers, and will correctly display after Political Discourse is Opened, or ideology support is above 60%.
- "Test the Soviets" will now only execute a negative effect for Soviet Union if they actually lose.
- Splitted demobilization missions into two separate decisions, to fix an issue with strikes spirit getting stuck.
- Manchukuo "Five People Armies" - spawned divisions are no longer locked.
- Fixed some XP gain problems for unit leaders. Multiple leaders can gain XP from same combats now and XP gain does not depend on number of units in army (it depends only on number of units in combat) which should increase overall XP gain.
- Fixed command_power_gain modifier (which are currently being used in inflitration) behaving unexpectedly and causing too much effect on daily command power gain.
- "Expand Civil Support" and "Expand Military Support" decisions, are now removed when a civil war starts, even if still active.
- JAP, RAJ, SAF, ITA, and SOV revolters will no longer get their 'old' focus tree back if they miraculously win the civil war, because it broke many things.

##################################
# Stability & Performance
##################################
- fixed an OOS that is caused by triggering same event twice
- added CTD safety checks to deployment destruction to avoid random crashes
- Prevented using the Continue button to load an old save from a previous and incompatible save version.
- Possibly fixed new game launch crash with modded initial state where it tries to instantly peace out countries at war
- Better handling of error messages from the DirectX function calls (so now if something goes wrong with rendering, we see what is it about).
- Fixed CTD when selecting planes on a non-owned carrier after a civil war.
- Fixed CTD related to the new division names system.
- Fixed CTD in our code responsible for parsing (searching) the folders and files.
- Fixed CTD when using event add_ofssite_building when it would put the building level below zero.
- Performance improvement caused by add_relation_modifier (seen especially when played with specific mods that use it a lot).
- Added extra safety checks to prevent potential CTDs when joining to a MP session.
- Filtered out superficial unit and country leader values when calculating checksum, to avoid false positive OOS.
- Fixed possible OOS cause when client and host have different sets of leader portraits or names (DLCs and MODs may cause that each player in the session has different portraits/names).
- Added hotjoin and error code details to telemetry for OOS events, which will help us with tracking OOSes that happens to the players.
- Fixed potential OOS if only some of the players are using mods with unit names (related to the ace generation).

Its always interesting to see what people play and like in the new expansion, so we took a look at some telemetry:

What paths do people pick?
Germany:
Rheinland - 55%
Oppose Hitler - 45%

Japan
The Unthinkable Option - 9.5%
Purge the Kodoha Faction - 65%
Support the Kodoha Faction - 16.8%
Strengthen the Civilian Government - 8.7%

People Republic of China
Marxist Orthodoxy - 9.8%
Agrarian Socialism - 81.5%
Social Democracy - 8.7%

Manchukuo
Assertivness - 89%
Obedience - 11% (I guess you guys arent very obedient ;D)

Nationalist China
They dont really have a top level choice like the others, so no data here.

Its early days so I expect these numbers to look different in a week or so

 

[geckoman1011]

I love the telemetry data on the decisions. Its fascinating to see how people are playing as a whole rather than the limited view through AARs.

 

[ferrisboy]

desyncs have happened in every mp game i attended so far and resysncs didnt help, we had to rehost. live version and beta patch alike. please implement a pilot mechanic similar to eu4s sailor system to hoi4 to stop the air spam. now that mechanized is buffed, can we get a small buff to motorised rockets aswell, at least let them be affected by the speed boost mobile warfare gives to mot and mech? <3

honestly a very good idea. I had never thought of this as an idea to stopping air spam. We should have a pilot manpower pool as well as a sailors one (although navy can’t really be spammed as it takes so long to build, but might as well while at it.) Also could make pilot specific manpower laws that effect quality of planes/pilots the more pilots you have.

 

[Flamefang]

As for historical vs ahistorical this is why we have different paths. you dont have to go down the commie japan path if you dont want ti (although I am not sure its all that implausible in the scenario we painted up honestly)

Obviously we're all entitled to our opinions, but I'd really recommend that you do some reading on the state of communism and ideology in Japan during the 1930s. If you're looking for something fairly succinct, I might recommend Chapters 5 and 7 of Sandra Wilson's "The Manchurian Crisis and Japanese Society, 1931-1933".

If it isn't clear, this post is meant to be informative, and not argumentative.

 

[adam_grif]

Suggestion: can we please get the arrows back in the Production menu? I think for new players it is very un-intuitive that the only way to change the order of things is to click in that specific blank space on the bar, no indication at all that this is how you drag things around. But more importantly, I want to be able to jump new lines to the top immediately, and be able to move low priority thigns to the bottom immediately like I used to. The clicking and dragging system seems like a downgrade to me.

Keyboard shortcut for "move to top" and "move to bottom" would be good at minimum. Or maybe something like a middle mouse click and ctrl+middle mouse for move to top and bottom, or something like that. I don't think drag and drop is a bad system but it's slower to do that than it used to be.

The UI for dragging could also use a bit of a revision - like expanding the area at which the click and drag will start. Several times I have mistakenly clicked in the wrong spot, and had nothing happen. From memory you have to drag from the top "bar" of the production entity, whereas it would be nice if you could do it from anywhere except the factory control bit.

 

[OneTrueRevan]

Raising a glass in the hopes that upon firing up HoI when 1.5.1 officially goes live, I'll be seeing Manchukuo with rightful Japanese flavouring. Otherwise I'll be faceless and on the floor with every dev diary announced in regards to post-1.5 releases.

 

[Rajiin]

Congrats HOI4 Devs, you have succeeded in pulling my boyfriends interests away from Stellaris with this newest expansion, look forward to more multiplayer games with him now on this awesome game. Keep the improvements coming!

 

[Anfelbac]

Nice update! I haven't tested yet, but I was about to complain about Wilhelm II dying on the '38 everytime and making the achievement a really pain in the ass. To rest from suffering with the imperial germany I was trying to do the comunist china achievements and suffering a lot with infrantry equipment, so noice!

 

[AppleCyanide]

Will fascist parties still not be able to form rival governments in China?

 

[hkrommel]

detecting branches that are less popular (democratic and commie paths for japan may need some love for example).

Is there method you use to determine whether a branch is unpopular because it needs further development vs. unpopular because people don't want to use the option generally? Something like the Manchukuo obedience tree seems like the latter, for example.

 

[CommissarWallace]

I've been enjoying 1.5.0 and 1.5.1. I still think soft attack is a bit too nerfed and airpower is a bit too much power.

I know for balancing purposes the devs wanted to decrease the predominance of soft attack, but there's a reason that artillery caused the vast proportion of battlefield deaths in the Second World War, and I don't believe making artillery less powerful is a good thing. I would recommend them nerfing arty's other characteristics to make it a bigger drain on org/supply etc., while re-buffing its soft attack, so that artillery can cause massive damage while making divisions a bit more fragile on the defence/slower/some other penalty.

I want AGRAs to be viable dammit!

 

[Iskulya]

Very ambitious changes, there's been some bugs, but overall I've been enjoying this release very much.

There are a few suggestions I have, they aren't exactly bugs but whether it's working as intended or not is another issue. For one, there's a lot of issues with Manchuria, particularly the obedience path. I am unsurprised to see so few people choose it.

1. The "National Cooperation Government" focus that gives Manchuria cores on all of China implies that Japan will use Puyi's government as the base of a collaborationist government covering all of China, yet because you're a puppet, you get no say in the peace deal. The Japanese AI constantly will do what it always did before the expansion: annex the coastline and puppet China. This seems to entirely defeat the point of even choosing the obedience path in the first place, other than to have a reliable AI puppet for Japan in historical mode.

2. I noticed in from the pre-release footage, the Assertiveness path was buffed and got more factories. It's at an appropriate level now, but the Obedience path didn't receive similar buffs. Because you rely on war score contributions to gain autonomy in the obedience path, you are more or less screwed because your industry is so inferior to the assertiveness path that you cannot build up a good army. The 5% construction speed bonus from the Five Year Plan is extremely inadequate given that you do not have the industry to even take advantage of this in the first place. I would recommend increasing that bonus to 10 or even 15%, and pair it along with more factories. I also think it probably wouldn't be bad to change the "Two Emperors" focus to provide ticking autonomy, even if it is not a huge amount. IIRC it currently adds about 400 autonomy points and nothing else, and it feels very inadequate given the massive requirements to even take the focus in the first place.

3. Manchuria should be non-aligned, or at the very least, if you go for the independence war you should automatically become non-aligned. Historical reasons aside, because you are locked into being fascist, it effectively cuts you off from all foreign aid. Since you are fascist, your only options are the very countries that you are almost guaranteed to be at war with or hostile to: Japan and Germany.

4. The German Civil War seems very well designed and tested. This is in contrast to the Japanese Civil War, which feels very disjointed and messed up. The Japanese civil wars seem like they really need to be rebalanced and provided with set OOBs like the German ones. While you're at it, the Indian civil war has been suffering the same problem ever since TfV was released. The vast majority of your army defects to the loyalists even if your ideology is at 100%, and there needs to be a peace option for kicking the British and their allies out of India entirely otherwise it's an unwinnable war. I think it was great you added a scripted peace option between the Chinese factions and China, fascist and communist India would benefit from the same thing.

 

[ColonialAdmiral]

With this update I finally feel like I'm playing a Paradox game and not Risk. Having actual depth and so many avenues of history is starting to put it on par with the other titles. After seeing how great one update can make the game, I almost don't want to play until a few more updates because of all the stuff I'll be missing before then. But I can't help myself and for once I finish a game and actually have motivation to start another.

 

[Nandogss]

I know it's not the focus of this diary, but some information about when the PRÉ ORDER MUSIC GERMAN MARCH AND ALLIED RADIO will be released?

I really want to buy.

 

[xtfoster]

How exactly can you check this data? Do you get this data from every player playing this game?

No, just from every player playing this game through Steam. Which means most players except those (like me at times) who prefer to play in offline mode.

 

[majorante]

Good Job Devs. But I can't up Manchukuo autonomy when the notification appears.

 

[CrazyZombie]

So, was 1.5.1 already released, or it is still in open beta?

 

[Aurelio123]

I think i only played 1 mp patch that didn't dysync.

 

[Malickhoi]

Great DLC so far, and I'm happy to learn that you are working on fixes in 1.5.1 !
I noted a few typos, by the way... Will post them if I find the time.
Furthermore, I feel it's a bit sad to introduce a new chain of command, but not configure the history files to use it.
Can you please :
- load the OOB in the history/units files for 1936/39 starts
- give the syntax to the modders so that someone can do it and release it

Thanks

Malick

 

[Bratyn]

@podcat
Are MEFO bills still 20% consumer goods?

Yes. We are aware of the balance problems, though, and have some ideas on how to fix it. Doing so properly is not possible for the hotfix, unfortunately, but I can all but guarantee that MEFO will be adjusted for the 1.5.2 update in 3-ish weeks.

- Adjusted Wilhelm II and von Mackensen minimum/average death dates. Does this mean Wilhelm will die in 1941 like in real life?

No. His average death date is now 1943 (it used to be 1941, but people were understandably complaining about this). His earliest possible death date has been moved up from 1938 to 1939, and an extra year has been added to the MTTH for the death event.

The fix for the equipment loss in the German Civil War does not work. You end up with half strength units with ~10k equipment deficit fighting the Reich's full strength units. It's completely winnable, but until you make up the equipment deficit(which takes several months) it's about as fun as bashing your head against the wall.

We are aware of this, and I have fixed it already this morning (I missed a line of script when I fixed the original issue... Mea culpa Thanks for pointing it out, though! ). It should go into the 1.5.1 hotfix before it goes live

 

[Alex_brunius]

Yes. We are aware of the balance problems, though, and have some ideas on how to fix it. Doing so properly is not possible for the hotfix, unfortunately, but I can all but guarantee that MEFO will be adjusted for the 1.5.2 update in 3-ish weeks.

I would just swap it to a +20% construction speed on MIC bonus and call it a day

That should fill the original intention of boosting Military buildup, be fairly balanced with the 12 or so fewer MIC and prevent it from being possible to exploit for CIC spam.