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HOI4 Dev Diary - We're back! (and 1.4.2 patch)

Hi everyone! The HOI team is now back after recharging batteries on summer vacation (although yet again I failed to go visit the submarine museum in Kiel :().
We decided to start our time off with a little patch (Oak 1.4.2) since there were still a bunch of things we wanted to deal with for which there was no time before summer.

Here is changelog:
Code: 
######################################
###########  Hotfix 1.4.2 "Oak" ###########
#####################################

##################################
# AI
##################################
- Added AI strategy to avoid some naval strategic regions
- AI now realises that puppets will also join the war when their overlord does ( fixes situation where China does not put any troops on their border with Japan's puppets )
- AI should now prefer even shorter naval routes when picking what ports to navally transfer between
- Nations with low manpower are now less likely to burn pp on relation boosting as they need it for laws
- AI should be less likely to waste PP on guarantees when low on manpower and at war
- Removed AI weight modifier is_in_faction from JAP axis leaning focus
- Tweaked ai weights for carrier plane research. AI will now always research the most modern carrier version available and not research any carrier planes if they don't have carriers, the US and Japan will also be more eager to research carrier planes and particularly so when at war with each other
- Tweaked AT gun research to take enemy armor values into account (AI will be more willing to research AT upgrades if facing an enemy with high armor divisions)
- AI will no longer research basic heavy tanks if it can already research improved heavy tanks
- AI now clears the trades that are not being fulfilled due to having no access to trade country
- Italy should now be more careful about transports across the Med
- Enemies of UK will now be wary of transporting through the english channel

##################################
# Modding
##################################
- Can now use "relation" as target for pp_spend_priority ai strategy
- Can now use "guarantee" as target for pp_spend_priority ai strategy

##################################
# Database
##################################
- Added flavor names for German named fighter squadrons
- Added namelist for FAA squadrons in the 800-list
- Added a number of shipnames to the German roster (thanks davewolf!)
- Added Night Witches to the Soviet “Women in Aviation” focus
- Added German historic airwing names after player feedback
- New icons for Italian small arms and truck
- New icons for French infantry weapons (prime condition, only dropped once)
- Added a flavor name for a Yugoslavian light cruiser class
- New leader portraits for Yemen, Haiti, Malaysia, Luxembourg, Indonesia/Dutch East Indies, El Salvador, Buthan, Cuba, Panama, Dominican Republic, Netherlands (alternative)
- Commonwealth leaders now fallback on British portraits if TfV is not activated

##################################
# Audio
##################################
- Adjusted volume on some of the airplane sound effects

##################################
# Balance
##################################
- First level Radar now have a much longer range to make initial investment more attractive
- Expanded bypass criteria for puppet Bulgaria focus to allow focus to bypass if Romania holds all of Bulgaria in a war
- Albania should now not fold to Italian pressure if in a faction with Yugoslavia
- Added bypass to anschluss if AUS is a puppet
- Turkey will now only join the Axis through the German focus if they are fascist.
- Anschluss event now takes guarantees into account
- Lowered upgrade bonus to self propelled AA variants air attack from 30% per level to 15%
- Changed Demand Sudetenland focus to fire fallback event if England is a subject
- Changed South Tyrol to be a core of Austria
- Nerfed CZE fascism gain through focus by 50%
- Reduced starting fascism in CZE to 5% (down from 25%)
- Fixed wrong tech bonus in a Romanian focus
- A country that initiates coup on an another country gets a bonus while inviting revolting country to its faction

##################################
# Bugfix
##################################
- Fixed an issue where frontlines could sometimes dissapear
- It is now ok to transfer resources from your territories through subjects at war time
- Fixed issue where declaring war on a puppet could pull the puppet into an existing war on the wrong side of the war
- Subjects are now added to a faction if their master is
- Convoys used for naval transfers are no longer locked in a state of being permanently "in use" when saving/loading while navally transferring
- Fixed issue where merged wars made it impossible to surrender because you were not marked as war leader
- License production description now updates properly
- Fixed bug where division size affected how much attrition they took and how their supply status was affected by being out of supply
- Fixed a bug where volunteers could appear in an impassible area
- Fix for incorrect use of has_government = fascist/communist instead of fascism/communism
- Fixed a horrific bordergore issue in Romanian "Split CZE" focus
- Ensured that split CZE event chain did not result in CZE units sitting around after their country got annexed
- Doing the Indian focus "Battaglione Azad Hindoustan" should now fire the proper event for Italy rather than give them the option to collect money for the RAF
- Cheating on the Austria-Hungary Referendum and going with the annexation should no longer report that Hitler was assassinated. (the proper news event should fire instead)
- France now joins the Czech entente if they decide to support the Czechs and Czechs have their own faction
- Fixed a wrong tag in URG loc string
- Fixed Italy Befriend Bulgaria strategy not requiring Bulgaria to exist
- Reenabled Vichy France cosmetic tag in a cynical move to squeeze out a tiny bit of profit
- Fixed an event firing several times for Romania
- Fixed an issue with continuous naval/air production idea not being localised
- Fixed a situation that could cause an infinite loop of naval transports
- Made game several times less fun ( Fixed an exploit with nukes persisting after loading or starting new game )
- Design companies should no longer be lost when loading and older savegame in a new version (from next patch update on, it wont work with older sadly)

##################################
# Stability
##################################
- Fixed a division by zero CTD in airmissions when aircraft are fighting missiles
- Fixed various rare CTDs

As usual for patches between DLC releases we put them in public beta first. I snuck this one up yesterday and it was updated with some extra fixes today. If you want to test it out in beta you can find out how here. If all looks ok we may update live tomorrow evening (earliest), or on monday.

Looking over changelog list you'll notice how we have again added more portraits for free. This is part of our ongoing project to make sure all starting nations have unique portraits and its not that much left now either. I expect us to have accomplished it by 1.5 hopefully! Here are the portraits that were added:
portraits.png


We have also been working at an old and very difficult AI problem. The classic where Italy ships troops to Germany to help out (often from africa) leading to slaughter as they go through the channel. Our solution for 1.4.2 is specifically to deal with issues in the channel and the Mediterranean and works by us highlighting particularly dangerous areas to AI. Whenever AI needs to transport through such an area to reach another front and danger is high enough it will instead use those troops somewhere else. So for example Italy would leave troops in africa and fight on those fronts rather than get them killed moving to more high priority fronts. Long term we want to come up with a dynamic solution for this that doesnt need us pointing our danger to the AI and ways it can adapt its strategies based on this. AI however is always a work in progress for improvements and I think we have made a good step forward for a more competent transportation AI.

For today's World War Wednesday stream we are going to try something different: A massive co-op game where each general in germany is a different player on the dev team and me and Daniel run the government. Its going to get interesting so tune in at 16:00CEST on https://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive!

See you next week for another diary!
 
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Cheers for the DD Podcat :D. Am a big fan of the focus for 1.4.2 - from my angle, that was the next-largest AI issue to deal with. Looking forward to seeing how it works out later today. One thought - have you put in anything to stop the Allies shipping troops through the med once it becomes a warzone? Nowhere near as high a priority as the channel (in no small part because Italy often gets their fleet thumped), but when you get a chance to tune up commerce warfare, things like this (or allied convoys through the Bay of Biscay once France has fallen) might be something to think about. A long-term solution that's more dynamic is definitely a worthy goal, but I suspect the ai_strategy will still remain useful in some cases.

The other big place was the straits of Malacca. May well have already been sorted, but if not, some kind of strategy along the lines of "if we don't control Singapore, best not send anything through there" might be good. If it were me, I'd also have one for cutting off trade between Japan and GER/ITA/other European Axis in certain conditions, but those conditions might start to get a tad unwieldy. Just throwing ideas around in case they help, suspect you'll have thought of them all already but figure it can't hurt :).

podcat said:
You guys are wierd sometimes....
Click to expand...

Those results do suggest perhaps a somewhat limited perspective! Knocking out a beta patch in a week or so to address an issue that was (imo at least) the largest remaining AI issue in the game is a good thing!

podcat said:
probably yea, its something we ourselves really want to have
Click to expand...

This would be all sorts of cool if possible. Suspect all sorts of challenging from a performance perspective as well, but life wouldn't be any fun without challenges!

Ralle2 said:
Sounds great and all...but after all that time I somehow expected a liitle bit more. Not free stuff, but a bit more overwhelming patch notes.
But glad you`re working again.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind they've had a month off on holiday. In 'business days', the patch was pumped out in a week or two. That's not long enough to have a 1.3.3 style patch.

Space Chicken said:
If there is no enemy, one destroyer should be enough per area to get the control. If there is enemy on route, would you still want to send them?
Click to expand...

You'd still have to teach the AI to send those destroyers though - it could well be a nightmarish AI/performance job (not to mention historically implausible, there were plenty of places that at times had unescorted convoys - which means navies would then need to be balanced for ahistorical mechanics, creating other headaches). Not saying it was bad to suggest what you did (or it's a bad idea), but it could well raise lots of new problems.
 
Lord of Beer said:
I was hoping the new DLC would be hinted at or even announced :-/ Running on empty with only DoD and TFV after all this time.
Click to expand...
Podcat said there would be a 1.5, so technically that is an announcement that another dlc is being planned
 
Will you fix the AI adding unnessesary Division designs (Infantry Division 2, Infantry Division 3 and so on) where each design just adds 1 more infantry battalion? Its also really unimersive to meet Soviet Divisions with the name "Infanterie Division 6" as example.
 
Riekopo said:
I was really expecting some news about the next DLC...
Click to expand...

Sorry to disappoint, but they did say before they went on break that they would be working on a patch first thing back, not an expansion:

Hi everyone! The team is now going to head off to the yearly summer vacation for a month to try and catch some sun and recharge our batteries. When we get back we will check whats up and work on the 1.4.2 patch before sinking our teeth into the next expansion.
Click to expand...

After next week, there's a serious possibility that they will take a 2-3 week break from diaries before they have something meaningful to say about the expansion:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...-dev-diary-today.1037916/page-3#post-23163036

Yeah our cycle puts us in an annoying place where we just finish our stuff before each vacation meaning we don't get any time to actually work on stuff in the time where there are no diaries as we are on vacation then. This means that we might need to have another break in a bit to catch up (generally you want 4 weeks development or so of expansion to have time to actually make features to talk about). We'll see as I'm looking into the plan atm :) Next week is gonna be about patch stuff for 1.4.2 though.
Click to expand...
 
adam_grif said:
After next week, there's a serious possibility that they will take a 2-3 week break from diaries before they have something meaningful to say about the expansion:
Click to expand...
rumor has it the next DD will just be spoilers on GoT... something about an excuse to put dragons in HOI4...
 
Had a dad said:
rumor has it the next DD will just be spoilers on GoT... something about an excuse to put dragons in HOI4...
Click to expand...

Surely they wouldn't post GoT spoillers, that's worse than signing a non-aggression pact and then invading less than two years later :p.
 
Had a dad said:
something about an excuse to put dragons in HOI4...
Click to expand...

Don't worry. The imaginative Paradox team has demonstrated an enthusiasm to introduce fantasy elements into HoI4.
  • Shiny new suits of armor for the hill-tribes of the Hindu Kush (well, armor...if not suits. Afghanistan starts with light armor in 1936)
  • Lightweight but strong mystical metal that can be forged into flying machines is found in pots at the end of rainbows in the Land of Leprechauns (aluminum in the Republic of Ireland. What?!).
  • Talking about metals, a tough substance used to punch through iron plate abounds in the mythical land of Sweden. A rival of mithril and adamantium, this substance exists where none had expected it to. Tungsten! (and Sweden did not have a nickel industry either in 1936. Nor molybdeum. Nor cobalt. Nor vanadium. -- they did produce 0.11% of the world's manganese in 1936 though. Note that is 0.0011 (0,0011) of the world's production. Admittedly, I might have missed a steel hardening substance that Sweden has lots of...perhaps a dwarven war-smith can provide the details of why Sweden has 70 tungsten in the fantasy game of HoI4).
  • Then there is the fleet summoning ability of the Conjurers of Canada who are able to magically produce aircraft carriers (not just aircraft carriers...but entire aircraft carrier groups. With an "s". We're talking plural. That is some powerful mojo. O, Canada! More powerful than the voodoo priestesses of Haiti who can only animate one aircraft carrier group)
Undoubtedly, in a future DLC, the tribes of Earth will unite during Operation Barbarossa to fight off hordes of invading space orks warping in through ancient portals long hidden within the Pyramids of Giza, Machu Picchu, Stonehenge, Angor Wat, and the moai of Easter Island.

...the dragons can't be too far behind.

:rolleyes:

(love the game! Just having some fun. Thanks to the Paradox team for putting together a product that has international distribution. Well done!)
 
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Ralle2 said:
Sounds great and all...but after all that time I somehow expected a liitle bit more. Not free stuff, but a bit more overwhelming patch notes.
Click to expand...
This reminds me of the sign seen in the back of a Virginia workshop:

"We do three kinds of jobs - Cheap, Quick and Good. You can pick any two."

Speed Wubs said:
Will you fix the AI adding unnessesary Division designs (Infantry Division 2, Infantry Division 3 and so on) where each design just adds 1 more infantry battalion? Its also really unimersive to meet Soviet Divisions with the name "Infanterie Division 6" as example.
Click to expand...
The division names are a bit naff, and @podcat has said that they intend to do something about that, but arguably it's a good way to handle templates by copying and cloning them. Doing it that way tends to minimise the XP you need to spend to get the range of templates you end up wanting. Asking for better unit names is entirely reasonable, but letting the AI clone and spawn is actually OK, as long as you don't have to look at the lists of templates it generates!
 
Mr Friendly said:
Any plans for improving the division designer use by the AI? I'd like them to replace their cav with mechanized eventually, and use less motorized, cav, and infantry, and use more artillery, medium/heavy armor, mountaineers, and mechanized. Or on the other hand, make it easier to mod the Ai that way, with an aim at 40 width or 44 width with a field marshal. Btw, maybe motorized/light tanks/heavy fighters could use a buff?
Click to expand...

templates is always goign to be work in progress. The previous patches has focused quite a bit on it. For this one our AI job was spent on some other stuff, but there are sure to be more changes in the future

Axe99 said:
Cheers for the DD Podcat :D. Am a big fan of the focus for 1.4.2 - from my angle, that was the next-largest AI issue to deal with. Looking forward to seeing how it works out later today. One thought - have you put in anything to stop the Allies shipping troops through the med once it becomes a warzone? Nowhere near as high a priority as the channel (in no small part because Italy often gets their fleet thumped), but when you get a chance to tune up commerce warfare, things like this (or allied convoys through the Bay of Biscay once France has fallen) might be something to think about. A long-term solution that's more dynamic is definitely a worthy goal, but I suspect the ai_strategy will still remain useful in some cases.

The other big place was the straits of Malacca. May well have already been sorted, but if not, some kind of strategy along the lines of "if we don't control Singapore, best not send anything through there" might be good. If it were me, I'd also have one for cutting off trade between Japan and GER/ITA/other European Axis in certain conditions, but those conditions might start to get a tad unwieldy. Just throwing ideas around in case they help, suspect you'll have thought of them all already but figure it can't hurt :).
Click to expand...

Yeah, the naval transfer stuff in 1.4.2 is sort of only the first step to fix the places with most problems, we will be working on a more general solution thats more flexible. Performance is also a little heavier than we'd like, so we wanted to keep it limited for now.

Speed Wubs said:
Will you fix the AI adding unnessesary Division designs (Infantry Division 2, Infantry Division 3 and so on) where each design just adds 1 more infantry battalion? Its also really unimersive to meet Soviet Divisions with the name "Infanterie Division 6" as example.
Click to expand...

AI does that so it has a chance to go back if it needs to scale back, and also its a good way to trace its behaviour for us. The solution I think is not templates but a better naming system in the game with historically named divisions etc to avoid this *hint hint*
 
kettyo said:
In some situations you might not have enough naval range to patrol everywhere even if you have enough ships.
Click to expand...
CL with range boosted should do ok in most situations (at least for the allies) I would have thought. In fact isn't that what they where meant for historically (genuine question)?
 
Gorben said:
Hi, I have a problem since the patch came out!
The flags of the most of factions appear in black without any icon
Click to expand...

Are you using an AMD graphics card? This is an issue with the latest driver (1.7.7.2 for my 390). Just roll back to the previous driver via device manager on Windows.
That fixed it for me
 
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