• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

War Effort - Operation Capital [1.12.8 OPEN BETA]

Hello there Generals!

We have begun the final preparations for Operation Capital, and we now reveal our plans for you all! Below you will find a set of patch notes that are now live on an open beta branch. Feel free to give us feedback on these planned changes in this thread, or in our Discord!
Operations-Roadmap, Capital open beta.png


################################################################
######## Hotfix 1.12.8 "Avalanche" ######### - Edited on the 13th of January with new changes
################################################################


##################################
# Balance
##################################

- Equipment variants created through focuses etc. will be created first when the technology they are based on is researched, if it's missing.
- Tank Design: Radio modules curve slightly changed, overall efficacy of radios reduced slightly
- Tank Design: Close Support Gun now has 10 piercing, from 12.
- Tank Design: Heavy Machine Gun now has 8 soft attack from 5, and 6 piercing from 10
- Tank Design: Secondary Cannon and HMG now have fewer drawbacks but higher production cost. HMG soft attack now 4, from 3, but hard attack removed
- Tank Design: Additional Machineguns soft attack reduced to 1, from 2
- Tank Design: Easy Maintenance module now reduces total build cost by 5%, but requires 30 XP, from 10
- Tank Design: Expanded Fuel Tanks now cost 1 IC, from 2
- Tank Design: Sloped Armor now increases armor by 25%, from 20
- Tank Design: Medium One-Man Turret now has 8 breakthrough, from 10, and reduces soft and hard attack by 10%, from 25%
- Tank Design: Three-Man Turret now has 24 breakthrough, from 20
- Tank Design: Torsion Bar now grants 15% reliability, from 10%
- Tank Design: Interleaved Road Wheels no longer reduces reliability, but has doubled production cost
- Tank Design: Welded armor reduced to 30% armor, from 40%
- Plane Design: Torpedo Mountings now have 14 naval strike attack from 12, -12 agility from -15, and 6 targeting from 5
- Plane Design: Reduced the lower end of plane engine IC costs; earlier planes should be a little cheaper on the whole
- Dive brakes no longer valid for naval bombers, increased naval targeting from dive brakes from 4 to 6
- Dive brakes no longer valid with naval bomber weapons (torpedoes and guided missiles)
- Carrier Naval strike multiplier increased, reduced naval strike detection chance from 0.7 to 0.5, reduced carrier disruption factor from 0.8 to 0.6
- Basic Medium chassis now 1938 tech, amphibious tank now unlocked only by 1936 light, tank armour tech dates are now 36,38,41,44, amphibious tank no longer gets medium turrets

##################################
# UI
##################################

- New variants received from auto-upgrades, focuses, events etc. are now highlighted in the production tab like variants received from research.
- In research screen for modular equipment (tank, ship, plane), stop showing a diff in stats when there is no design company attached
- Improved Tank tech tree layout

##################################
# AI
##################################

- Soviet Union no longer desires to be best buddies with Romania despite being instructed to ignore them for a while
- AI weights on hiring advisors now makes more sense. You should see a better split between political advisors & research bureaus, and the AI no longer saves all PP for hiring chiefs at the exclusion of all else. [This has a pretty radical effect on early AI build-up, thus there may be some imbalance in the early game in this open beta - feedback especially welcome]
- AI have a higher weight on Captain of Industry advisors pre-1939
- AI military spirit selection is less deterministic

##################################
# Modding
##################################

- Added property allow_without_tech to create_equipment_variant which will create the variant even if the technology it's based on is missing.
- Fix the way character variables in script are stored
- From now on, any trigger or effect, strictly requiring a country scope, but used in a character scope, will not work anymore
- From now on, any trigger or effect, strictly requiring a country scope, but used in all_character, any_character, random_character, every_character, party_leader, characters_list_tooltip, will not work anymore
- Correctly retrieve variables stored in character scope for text
- Fixed tooltip function of trigger can_be_country_leader when used in country scope or all_character/any_character
- Fix add_ideas and activate_advisor effects. When applied to a slot that is already filled, dismiss the currently appointed advisor before hiring the new one. Will fix crash when opening Officer corps after.
- In script, interpret correctly when a character token is used in input
- Make has_character and can_be_country_leader work with variables and keyword, and not just with a character token
- Make is_character work with variables and keyword, and not just with a character token
- Align can_be_country_leader on other character trigger and always return false if the character is retired
- Fix crash in remove_advisor_role if the character had no matching advisor role
- When using a character token as input for a scope, search for the closest encapsuling country scope in order to interpret it correctly
- Fix crash when using add_advisor_role on a character with already a role in the same slot. Add a log error if trying to put triggers and on_action in the advisor role in add_advisor_role, those can only work if in database.
- Make set_temp_variable accept character token as input
- Removed check on unit leader type for add_unit_leader_trait. This check is only relevant for random traits.
- Make sure that advisor roles in characters duplicated during civil war keep the same idea_token
- Remove check on scope for hidden_effect and effect_tooltip
- Added country dynamic variables : country_leader, theorist, army_chief, navy_chief, air_chief, political_advisor, high_command
- Make sure all political parties are cleaned up when a character with multiple country leader roles retires
- Fix the tooltip for triggers inside a character scope, now the name of the character will correctly prefix the trigger tooltip
- Add can_be_fired boolean flag in advisor role block in database. If at 'no', then the advisor can't be fired once hired. Warning modders : completely replaces removal_cost = -1 !
- Add trigger advisor_can_be_fired checking new flag can_be_fired in advisor role block
- Add effect set_can_be_fired_in_advisor_role, setting new flag can_be_fired in advisor role block
- Fix dynamic variables when using a unit leader scope
- Add trigger pc_is_state_claimed
- Renamed trigger pc_is_state_outside_influence_for to pc_is_state_outside_influence_for_winner
- AI now correctly evaluates the weight of the traits that an advisor has, as well as the advisor entry weights

##################################
# Art
##################################

- Added portraits for political advisors in Spain and Portugal

##################################
# Bugfix
##################################

- Fix all events related to Soviet Paranoia (value was always 0)
- Fixed issue where researching a new hull, chassis or airframe would not create the default variant if any variant of that type already existed.
- Fixed issue where variants created through focuses etc. would get unexpected modules and upgrades as a result of there being no default variant.
- Fixed typo in tooltip for Soviet Merge Plants focuses
- Fixed the manpower exploit by repeated splitting & merging of airwings.
- Italian Fiat 3000 and Fiat 3000B inter-war tanks will no longer be just hulls in the stockpile and will now show proper inter-war tank 2D icon.
- Italian AI should no longer release puppets i Balkans on historical via decisions.
- Decaying opinion modifers (for instance from improve relation diplomatic action) will not disappear after loading a save anymore
- Fixes to how AI selects target templates for upgrading
- Combat log tooltip now shows correct naming for losses breakdown
- Admirals can no longer erroneously gain the politically_connected general trait
- Fix bug with usage of pc_is_state_outside_influence_for trigger in ai desires
- Fixed issue where 'No Councilor' mission would complete right away.
- Fixed issue where Democratic Unrest National Spirit in Switzerland wouldn't be removed when declaring the Alpine Protectorate.
- AI no longer forgets top-most production line when reducing excessive factories
- Fixed Thrust/Weight issues in some plane designs after latest air rebalance
- Fixed not considering manpower casualties in the air combat.
- Unite Polynesia decision category now shows the appropriate decision category picture.
- Stalinist AI should now be more inclined to kill Trotsky.
- Cruiser Submarine icon will now be properly shown on the researched technology pop-up.
- Fixed Chinese general showing up with blank portrait when Nationalist China integrates Guanxi Clique army.

To end this, we thank you for an amazing year, and keep your eyes peeled for 2023 as we got exciting things on the way for the Hearts of Iron Brand!

/Katten
 
Last edited:
  • 78Like
  • 14Love
  • 2
  • 2
  • 1Haha
  • 1
Reactions:
Did my usual test - played as Haiti with historical focuses turned on and took no actions, ran the game until Germany declared war on the USSR, then tag-swapped around the various major powers. Here's the weird stuff I saw:

USSR:

1. They've improved in recent patches - they take over the Baltic States, and they kill Trotsky now, which helps a lot.
2. They still do agitprop campaigns that don't help them - extra oil when there's no fuel shortage, extra metal when there's no metal shortage, anti-democratic propaganda which has no benefit. In my game it looks like they've wasted about 50 political power so far on agitprop that gave no benefit.
3. Their army is tiny (only 208 divisions) and they're still on "Volunteer Only" conscription laws. They have 500,000 spare manpower, but they're not using it to train any new divisions. I suspect the AI has been told to keep a large reserve of manpower so doesn't train more units, but doesn't prioritise raising the conscription laws because it has large reserve of manpower.
4. Bad resistance management. Running "local police force" everywhere, so resistance is around 30% in most of Poland.
5. Low military factories - only 100 compared to Germany's 185.
6. Big focus on railway guns for some reason. 20 factories are devoted to these.

Germany:

1. Terrible resistance management. Running "local police force" everywhere, and resistance is above 50% in Poland and France.

UK:

1. Fully half their civilian production is going towards building ports in the Mediterranean.
2. Seem to have been highly successful in convoy raiding, with the log saying they've sunk more than 2000 convoys. I'm not sure whose though.
3. They've kicked the Axis out of Africa, which is unusual. Might be related to point 2.
4. They've researched radar a lot, but their radar stations are still the ones they started with.

Italy:

1. They're still producing 1936-version artillery and infantry gear despite having newer versions researched.

China:

1. They're still producing 1936-version artillery and infantry gear despite having newer versions researched.
2. They have steel and tungsten shortages and could trade for more from the USSR, but aren't.

Japan:

1. Almost all civilian production is going into ports.
 
  • 5
  • 2Like
Reactions:
Found what appears to be a fairly major AI issue. I ran my test game until 1947 and Japan still hadn't been knocked out of the war - Germany fell around 1944. Japan took the Phillipines and Dutch East Indies and stalled out, and there are occasional naval battles and fighting in Asia, but no land is changing hands in the Pacific.

Checking both Japan and the USA's situations, both of them have virtually no carrier planes, and they're not building more.
The USA has twelve nuclear bombs and controls Iwo Jima which would give them enough range, but they have no strategic bombers to drop the bombs from.
 
  • 3
  • 1Like
Reactions:
Could you be more specific?
thank you Arheo for your messaged.

See bug section @Arheo . The amount in there found on version 1.12.8 (beta) are high. Looks higher then normal but I can’t see all details you got in your dev bug database so it might be all known and old bugs already and again found in version 1.12.8.
I believe you and your team are the ones to say its stable enough to go live. I am only looking at the numbers and think “the amount is higher then normal”. Reason for me telling/asking is the Beta good enough to go live?

also I am asking to confirm the bugs (or not if …) so that we as community know it’s in your bug database. To my believe this was done untill somewhere begin of November. I really liked it and was very excited about this way of working. But it looks like it’s not done anymore so make me (and maybe others) wonder if dev have seen the issues and placed them in your bug database (or on the backlog of in a sprint or… not sure how you name it
 
See bug section @Arheo . The amount in there found on version 1.12.8 (beta) are high.
Are you refering to completely new bugs only or is it rather the number of totals reports since the beta (including older bugs being refreshed with new examples or duplicates)? In case of the former, I don't have that particular impression and in case of the latter both keep in mind that a reason for this could be just more people playing and reporting in hope that stuff gets fixedw, while everything getting fixed what got reported and "refreshed" during the beta is just out of scope.

also I am asking to confirm the bugs (or not if …) so that we as community know it’s in your bug database. To my believe this was done untill somewhere begin of November. I really liked it and was very excited about this way of working. But it looks like it’s not done anymore so make me (and maybe others) wonder if dev have seen the issues and placed them in your bug database (or on the backlog of in a sprint or… not sure how you name it

I agree that it would be nice if the devs/QA could ensure permanent "air superiority" in the bug section which labeling everything we throw at them (like the Vic3 team does it so far), but I think the fact that it doesn't happens is likely a sign that they just don't have the capacities (or what else should be the reason? I just can't imagine that they don't try everything here to communicate as much as possible? Especially now with going the new "war effort"-route?) - and increasing activity there would probably eat time at another front. If I have the choice between one bug fixed and nine being labelled as "confirmed" and two getting fixed/only two getting visible tag attention, I prefer the latter...
 
It’s introducing new bugs. Hope dev can have a look at the bug reports. And confirm them so we know they are aware of it. Not sure if this Beta is really good enough to be released.
It's a hell of a lot better than 1.12-1.12.7. The Soviet Union's AI in particular is far more competent now. I stopped playing my last game before 1.12.8 when I saw the SU on civilian economy still in 1940.

There are still issues though as others have pointed out.

I let my current game run through from 1940-1947 with no input from me and the AI for Sweden off (after forming Scandinavia and having the Soviets declare war on me) and the Soviets hadn't done more than about 5 agency upgrades with only the form department crypto one and none of the passive defence ones.

Also, Trotsky was killed in 1941 so it's good to see that's fixed (and this save was started prior to the very latest changes in 1.12.8).
 
Since the patch fixes a lot of stuff regarding characters, would it perhaps be possible to add a small QOL feature for modding characters, a loc command to grab their portrait(s)? Could be something along the lines of [This.GetPortraitCivilLarge] etc. This would be really useful for character related guis.

Also speaking of guis, it seems a gridbox in a scripted gui that uses an array with character IDs doesn't properly scope to them, if set to use change_scope = yes. It works for unit leaders, but not for other characters (scoping to the variable of the element works however, so the scope works just the change_scope seems to be broken for such characters). (Bug report can be found here: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...with-scoped-gridboxes-for-characters.1565268/ )
 
Last edited:
Hm, there was a small download on Steam today but I don't know if anything changed in the beta.
I noticed that download as well...comparing the current checksum and those people added to reports between sicen Fridays update however I see no difference, so that probably either hints to a pure steam-related thing or at best minor chances not effecting the checksum (though I have honestly no idea what can be changed w/o modifying it...stability? UI? Text?)
 
I've been playing a Germany game in the beta throughout several updates of it. I've had weird issues, but I attribute them to the updates of an ongoing game. Like, one time all my subs lost a fraction of their HP and had to be repaired. The armor tech tree transformed mid-way, and so on. The biggest issue I have is that Lithuania and Poland have mutually guaranteed each other somehow, on historical mode. So if I attack Poland, Lithuania gets involved.. Meaning either USSR will think I violated M-R pact (If this is coded like it used to be.. I think the historical M-R pact did give Lithuania to Germany initially but that aside) Or Soviets will attack Lithuania when they can't annex them bringing them into war with allies. Kind of a game buster, so I'm having to edit the save to get rid of it.
 
I've been playing a Germany game in the beta throughout several updates of it. I've had weird issues, but I attribute them to the updates of an ongoing game. Like, one time all my subs lost a fraction of their HP and had to be repaired. The armor tech tree transformed mid-way, and so on. The biggest issue I have is that Lithuania and Poland have mutually guaranteed each other somehow, on historical mode. So if I attack Poland, Lithuania gets involved.. Meaning either USSR will think I violated M-R pact (If this is coded like it used to be.. I think the historical M-R pact did give Lithuania to Germany initially but that aside) Or Soviets will attack Lithuania when they can't annex them bringing them into war with allies. Kind of a game buster, so I'm having to edit the save to get rid of it.
It's normal for Poland and Lithuania to guarantee each other. At least it has been in all my games. I'm pretty sure it happens through Poland's focus tree. The guarantee will go away after Danzig or War on historical.

All that happened with the armour techs is they changed the dates of the basic medium chassis and the engine/armour techs plus changed the GUI. It's in the patch notes.
 
It's normal for Poland and Lithuania to guarantee each other. At least it has been in all my games. I'm pretty sure it happens through Poland's focus tree. The guarantee will go away after Danzig or War on historical.

All that happened with the armour techs is they changed the dates of the basic medium chassis and the engine/armour techs plus changed the GUI. It's in the patch notes.
To be clear, the guarantees are supposed to go away on the taking of Danzig or war focus, or the completion? Because they didn't go away after I started it.
 
thank you Arheo for your messaged.

See bug section @Arheo . The amount in there found on version 1.12.8 (beta) are high. Looks higher then normal but I can’t see all details you got in your dev bug database so it might be all known and old bugs already and again found in version 1.12.8.
I believe you and your team are the ones to say its stable enough to go live. I am only looking at the numbers and think “the amount is higher then normal”. Reason for me telling/asking is the Beta good enough to go live?

also I am asking to confirm the bugs (or not if …) so that we as community know it’s in your bug database. To my believe this was done untill somewhere begin of November. I really liked it and was very excited about this way of working. But it looks like it’s not done anymore so make me (and maybe others) wonder if dev have seen the issues and placed them in your bug database (or on the backlog of in a sprint or… not sure how you name it

The majority of these are bugs that are unrelated to changes in the open beta, though it is still good to have them reported. As far as the confirmation goes, this was something we were trialling for a period around releases, with an associated increase in community support staff. To do it all-year-round would be a pretty significant drain on our manpower, though I agree it can be nice to see the overall state of each report.
 
  • 4Like
  • 1
  • 1
Reactions:
Fixed issue where Democratic Unrest National Spirit in Switzerland wouldn't be removed when declaring the Alpine Protectorate.




I second that.

Having painted the map gray hundreds of times over the years, well decades, of HOI, I appreciate how very re-playable the game is because of the continued work in modeling interesting historical/near-historical situations with these minor nations. While we're quick to point out issues we find as a community, the devs should take heart in the fact that we're all playing so many hours of their game, a much better indicator of how their work is valued/appreciated.

Time once again to unify the world under the benevolent rule of the Alpine Protectorate ...
Here are some observations after having played the beta (Avalanche v1.12.8.fc54 (9d51)) as Switzerland going NA on the far left side of the tree:

The RNG to get the cantons is noticeably harder than before the beta, and off-putting. With 1 million men on the border in a few hundred trash divisions to look intimidating, a spy with full diplo pressure and maxed relations (assuming any of those help) it took about 15 attempts to get all three of the land grabs from Austria, Italy and France just one time.

I took the Switzerland on Offense focus; perhaps that had some bearing on some of the below, but the text on the focus does not suggest that it should.

Once completing the Alpine Protectorate focus:
  • Democratic unrest is removed upon completing Alpine Protectorate (which is good, it was not the case before the patch)
  • The councilors can be changed (which is good, it was not the case before the patch)
  • The balance of power button stays in place, but all BoP options are removed (blank screen) leaving no way to shift the balance between the federal council and cantons (Renounce Guiding Principles also did not rectify this).
  • Moving toward the council to achieve the protectorate and then not being able to access BoP decisions makes the large middle of the tree permanently inaccessible because it requires at least 1 point toward the canton side.
  • Surprisingly, I got Jacob Huber installed as leader instead of the usual Adolf Furrer of W+F Bern. I don’t know if this is something I did, if there is some randomization involved, or if this was an intended change that just wasn’t in the patch notes. Huber’s bonuses are definitely not as good and not getting Furrer’s research slot leaves the NA path no way to ever get a 4th research slot, which is crippling.
  • the usual political decisions (such as Improve Worker Conditions) are not made available
With promoting out the democratic counselors and with Gasser, Huber & Furrer all boosting non-aligned, I finally got under the 40% threshold for FA (democratic) around January ’40 allowing access to the war goals in the bottom of the NA tree. 1940 is a big pause in progress down the tree and seems late given that the land-grab focuses just above it must all be completed before war starts (and also that most of the rest of the center of tree is off-limits by this point, France won't likely be a neighbor any longer, and Italy will have joined Germany in the Axis).

Not so related to Switzerland, in my game on historical, it didn't seem that the allies ever guaranteed Poland and were not at war with Germany until well into '40 when the Netherlands was finally attacked.
 
  • 1
Reactions:
The majority of these are bugs that are unrelated to changes in the open beta, though it is still good to have them reported. As far as the confirmation goes, this was something we were trialling for a period around releases, with an associated increase in community support staff. To do it all-year-round would be a pretty significant drain on our manpower, though I agree it can be nice to see the overall state of each report.
@Arheo, here are some bugs, that are related to current beta:

1. These appeared after 13.01 beta update:

2. These ones seems to occure first in war effort patches, but they were already before 13.01 update:

Also, maybe it will be a good idea to collect in each war effort thread some bugs joined by specific country or mechanic for next war effort update? For example - you declare: we need more information for bugs related to Turkey (or to espionage), and in 1.12.9 (for example) we can see some of these bugs fixed? It may help to organize bugs that are not fixed yet and are well known by players by their type. An maybe this will help you to improve your internal bug database.

I`m writing all this because I submitted more than 20 bugs in past 30 days and there are issues that were broken in 1.4.x and still are not fixed. I do not want to see HOI4 in Eu4 Leviafan state, so I`d like to help.
 
  • 2Like
Reactions:
There are 2 more medium / big Patches in the Secret to Upgrade, Rework and Refit the 1.12-Version incl. exisitng DLC-Parts. I find that new System very cool.

The only Problem which come with the last light Patch to the prevoius Weekend was that you can´t start the Game with the Launcher anymore. It gives you an Failure with: "The Game have Crashed or get left unnormal. Then Tips get shown to repair / avoid the Problem."

If you get that Message in the Launcher, which comes up for me after the last light Patch-Upgrade for the Base-Game on prevoius Friday (13. Jan 2023) the first time after I had played the Game from 1.00-Version on.

The only Solution I used after I tried out the Tips to repair / avoid the Launcher-Problem: You have to set your Mods etc. and leave the Launcher. Then you make Admin-Rights on the Hoi 4.exe-Data. Last but not least use the Skip-Launcher-Start and accept the Admin-Right-Question on every Start of the Game. That´s the oldest Trick to avoid that Launcher-Problem.

The Disadvantage with that is, that you won´t get Cloud-Saves anymore, which you would get with the Launcher-Start. Normal Handmade-Saves and Auto-Saves work without Problems.
 
Last edited: