Patch Notes | Operation SHOULDER

[ANLA-AHM-AKBAR]

My question is, if everyone wants peace options without capitulating everyone, and we've been asking for a decade, why is that still not a priority?

I've always been wondering why the mechanism of the Nations League wasn't improved. the world tension should be readjusted. Before the collapse of the League of Nations, small countries' or local wars could be mediated by the League of Nations. However, after its collapse, wars couldn't be mediated and would develop into world wars.

 

[Slippyfopp]

• Fixed a bug where troops could be withdrawn over frontline

THIS MAKES THE GAME COMPLETELY UNPLAYABLE AS YOU CAN NO LONGER RETREAT PINNED DIVISIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

While there are some good bugfixes in this patch, you guys brought back the game breaking retreat bug from several years ago. Now you can't retreat in states you don't control. You can retreat back to your own territory, but if you push more than one province deep you're out of luck. As seen in this screenshot, I can't retreat back to this Polish province while being pinned by the Poles.

Oh, no, no, no. This is awful.

Being able to skillfully maneuver troops is an important part of real-life warfare, AND this game. Having to control a State before you can retreat pinned troops is bull honkey. This is going to make it even harder to exploit gaps in the enemy's frontline, and pretty much necessitate that you need to have more troops than your opponent. In other words, it makes the game harder for smaller nations.

Why is it when Paradox makes a major oopsie, it always affects smaller nations more than larger ones? Why even make focus trees for smaller nations if Paradox just keeps making them less fun to play?

 

[ZeDoctor1918]

My question is, if everyone wants peace options without capitulating everyone, and we've been asking for a decade, why is that still not a priority?

Because how else will you get the funny "danzig world conquest!?!?!111" youtube videos that get made due to terrible achievements? Also worth noting something as simple as Vichy France still having incorrect borders due to the state change has been a thing for how many years now?

 

[pdxen]

• Fixed a bug where troops could be withdrawn over frontline

THIS MAKES THE GAME COMPLETELY UNPLAYABLE AS YOU CAN NO LONGER RETREAT PINNED DIVISIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

While there are some good bugfixes in this patch, you guys brought back the game breaking retreat bug from several years ago. Now you can't retreat in states you don't control. You can retreat back to your own territory, but if you push more than one province deep you're out of luck. As seen in this screenshot, I can't retreat back to this Polish province while being pinned by the Poles.

Oh, no, no, no. This is awful.

Being able to skillfully maneuver troops is an important part of real-life warfare, AND this game. Having to control a State before you can retreat pinned troops is bull honkey. This is going to make it even harder to exploit gaps in the enemy's frontline, and pretty much necessitate that you need to have more troops than your opponent. In other words, it makes the game harder for smaller nations.

Why is it when Paradox makes a major oopsie, it always affects smaller nations more than larger ones? Why even make focus trees for smaller nations if Paradox just keeps making them less fun to play?

Thank you for reporting this. We're working on fixing this as soon as possible.

 

[Slippyfopp]

Thank you for reporting this. We're working on fixing this as soon as possible.

Thank you for acknowledging this problem. I just hope it doesn't take months before this issue is fixed.

 

[Slippyfopp]

Regarding the buffs to Armored Cars and nerfs to Tanks, there are several problems with Armored Cars (I originally listed three, but found more):

1. You have to go out of your way to research them. Most major countries start with Early Trucks, normal Trucks, and Light Tank chassis already researched.
2. The Interwar Armored Car is slower than the than Early Truck: 10 KPH versus 12 KPH. (Basic and Improved Armored Cars are 12 and 15 KPH, but you still have to go out of your way to research them.)
3. Even after this patch, Armored Cars still have higher production costs than Trucks (Early Trucks and Trucks: 2.5, IW Armored Car: 3.5, Basic Armored Car: 5.5, Improved Armored Car: 7.5)
4. The Field Hospital, Logistics, and Signal Support Companies all require Trucks.
5. The main use for Motorized/Mechanized Infantry is in tank divisions to balance out tanks' low Organization stat of 10. Armored Cars have a pathetic 20 Organization compared to the 60 of Motorized/Mechanized.
6. Armored Car Battalions have 5 HP compared to the 25 of Motorized and the 30 of Mechanized. (Seriously? Armored Cars are weaker than normal Trucks?)
7. Armored Car Battalions have a Supply Consuption of .14, the same as Mechanized. Motorized Battalions have .065 Supply Consumption.
8. You need to manufacture 60 Armored Cars to make a Battalion, as opposed to 35 Trucks for Motorized and 50 Mechs for Mechanized. Motorized and Mechanized require rifles, but you should be making tons of rifles anyway.
9. Light Tank recon divisions are a jack-of-all-trades. Light Tank recon improves speed by a flat 10% in all terrain; Armored Car (and Motorized) recon are anywhere from 5% in rough terrain to 15% in open terrain.
10. National Focuses involving Tank research are much more common than Focuses involving Motorized tech.

Tanks and Trucks are already an integral part of this game, so if you want people to decide between Armored Cars, Trucks, and Light Tanks, don't nerf tanks, look at all the ways Armored Cars fall short, and buff them.

My suggestions for Armored Cars:

1. Halve the time they take to research.
2. Have a Battalion require fewer Armored Cars.
3. Increase the Battalion's Organization stat.
4. Increase the Battalion's HP to 30, same as Mechanized.
5. Decrease the Battalion's Supply Consumption.

I feel like Paradox needs to pay more attention to how their games actually play out, because their attempts to balance the game (buffing the U.K. home islands, A.I. sending more troops towards the player than other A.I.s, buffing Italy in the Italo-Ethiopian War) end up making it imbalanced in the other direction.

 

[ClunkedIt]

Hi guys,
Could you consider increasing the production cost of three man turrets/decrease the cost of the smaller turrets?

I don't think I've ever used a non-3-man-turret tank, as you get such a good deal on breakthrough for cost - this feels like poor balancing.

 

[Ossiv]

"Added Supersonic Jets, Motherships and Intercontinental Bombers to MIOs"

THANK YOU!


"

• Mobile Infantry Doctrine now also provides +10% Max Speed for the Armored Car Recon Company
• Mobile Infantry Doctrine now also provides +10% Max Speed for the Motorized Recon Company
• Mobile Infantry Doctrine now also provides +15% Max Speed for the Cavalry Recon Company"

What is the point of this? Support companies don't affect division speed. What's the point for adding speed onto helicopters? Please explain this, guys.

Reconnaisance companies do limit division speed.

 

[Rudolf Nechvile II]

Carlist Spain can now select the Habsburg pretender as their king if playing with Götterdämmerung enabled

Finally, thank you! I've been asking for this for years, so I'm glad it's finally in

But could you maybe please also look at allowing Austria to get cores on Galicia-Lodomeria? Forming Austria-Hungary by decision doesn't grant any, and it's frankly kind of weird that Hungary's focus tree allows them to core Galicia-Lodomeria and Lombardy-Venetia, but Austria's doesn't.

 

[FieryHero]

Hi guys,
Could you consider increasing the production cost of three man turrets/decrease the cost of the smaller turrets?

I don't think I've ever used a non-3-man-turret tank, as you get such a good deal on breakthrough for cost - this feels like poor balancing.

PSA:

If something is good or it works, it doesn't mean it is "unballanced" and should be nerfed.

 

[Biniu]

I really like the patch itself, and I appreciate that you're continuously working on improving the game – but I believe the tank-related changes are misguided for the following reasons:

• If you want to make armored cars more useful, simply increasing their suppression stat, reducing manpower cost, or improving the bonuses they provide in divisions (e.g., replacing hard attack with something more interesting) would be enough. So that they are useful and interesting both as part of garrisons and frontline divisions. They could be a valuable addition to motorized divisions, providing them with some armor and other buffs.
• Light tanks were already not optimal, but they served their role well until 1941-1942 and performed better in difficult terrain - especially as mass produced infantry tanks. Now, I see no reason not to ignore them entirely and focus solely on medium tanks, as the cost difference is minimal.
• The cost changes have completely killed the concept of self-propelled guns and tank destroyers. Their production was already more of a roleplay decision, but I really enjoyed that aspect of the game. Mounting a strong howitzer or anti-tank gun on a cheap chassis and producing them in large numbers reflected the late-war German army well and was a more interesting alternative than mass-producing the same tank (even if it was less optimal). Medium tanks also barely have any heavy guns that could be mounted on their chassis, so the whole interesting mechanic is gone
• Heavy tanks still don’t have stats that justify their massive cost. Even though medium tanks dominated WWII, heavy tanks still played an important role as breakthrough units. They should either have significantly higher stats, especially armor and breakthrough, or be cheap enough to make their production viable.

 

[Ossiv]

PSA:

If something is good or it works, it doesn't mean it is "unballanced" and should be nerfed.

Yes, 3 man turret was the best during WW2, it must have the best stats and most cost effective. Countries who started with smaller turrets went to 3 man turret later, for example T-34 was updated to T-34/85 by giving it a 3 man turret instead of 2, not just a bigger gun.

 

[boba22299]

Please make Austria(as A-H/Austrian Empire) have a decision to be able to core southern Poland(Historical Galicia and Bucovina), add this decision to Hungary as well, as why would a decision during an event, made by a another country, make u lose your cores?
goes for Silesia(+ zaolzie) as Im pretty sure that as Hungary, even when you annex Puppeted Czech Kingdom with Silesia you do not core it(unless my game bugged out that time)

 

[ClunkedIt]

If something is good or it works, it doesn't mean it is "unballanced" and should be nerfed.

If you are presented with three options in a game and you consistently pick one option over and over - then that option is probably over tuned.

So if the tank designer has an absolute meta option then it doesn't actually function as a designer because there's really only an illusion of choice.

Three man turrets are clearly superior for next to no additional cost, let's mix it up and have some more interesting choices.

 

[herculeanus]

Thank you for reporting this. We're working on fixing this as soon as possible.

Will the bug be fixed before the April patch?

 

[Caeric]

Any chance you could do a balance pass on some industrial foci in GoE?

To give an example compare these from the Raj

Which are extremely stingy


To

Which are very generous.

The power budget is just all over the place

or look at The Burma Road, 70d and gives 0 bonus to you as the Raj player, just to China.

Unless you're playing multiplayer why would you ever take this focus?


If you've cored all the Princely States these foci do nothing and cannot be bypassed

 

[Slippyfopp]

Reworked the Arabia formable

Super happy to see this change, and that it can now be formed by a puppet, but now that Oman is a British puppet, it STILL requires going to war with the U.K.

Reworked the "Greater Indonesia" formable nation

This makes me even happier. Being able to form it as a puppet will certainly make the game easier, and adding Papua New Guinea and the Philippines is a pleasant surprise.

Next formables I'd like to see changed:

Polynesia. Modern Polynesia is defined as the "Polynesian Triangle", which is comprised of Hawaii, New Zealand, Rapa Nui, Tahiti, and Samoa, which should be less of a hassle. All of the others can simply be instantly cored without taking any Decisions other than the one to form Polynesia (those tiny islands don't do much anyway). And obviously, let it be formed by a puppet below Dominion level.

Persian Empire. Even though the real-life empire itself stretched from Bulgaria to Pakistan, it seems fairer to be able to form it without need to go to war with any major powers; so Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and maybe Turkey should do fine. I've mentioned this before, but this formable should be available as a regular Decision for Iran with GoE enabled, and Iran's Focus Tree should instead make it easier to acquire the necessary territory to take the Decision (like New Zealand -> Polynesia, South Africa -> Mutapa, or Estonia/Finland -> Nordic Empire). I think the same should apply for Belgium and the United Netherlands as well.

 

[AlexNereča]

Armored Car Balance Changes

• Inter-War Armored Car Production Cost Reduced from 4 IC to 3.5 IC

So 1 Armoured Car Battalion + 1 Armoured Car Recon Company < 2 Artillery Battalions + 1 Support Artillery + 1 Cavalry Recon Company

But is it overall worse in stats...

 

[Caeric]

If you are presented with three options in a game and you consistently pick one option over and over - then that option is probably over tuned.

So if the tank designer has an absolute meta option then it doesn't actually function as a designer because there's really only an illusion of choice.

Three man turrets are clearly superior for next to no additional cost, let's mix it up and have some more interesting choices.

That's just what historically happened though. 1-man turrets were absolute ass garbage, having 1 guy be the gunner, loader and commander of the tank made them shit at all 3 jobs due to having to multitask. 2-man turrets still had the commander multitask as loader preventing him from always keeping situational awareness. 3-man turrets were the sweet spot because now every member could focus on their one job rather than having to multitask.

The only thing that could realistically be changed is making them slightly cheaper.

 

[PDX_Per]

Heads up, we just applied a hotfix, Manoeuvre CHIRO:

• You can now once again retreat to friendly controlled provinces even if they are not owned by friends