HOI4 Dev Diary - 1.6.2 Update

[Badbonez]

Podcat, are there any plans to help the Chinese AI resist the Japanese? They don't cover their coastline very well, leaving ports entirely undefended, for example.

• The invasion AI has been improved quite a bit, which left China being crushed by Japan a bit too fast and often so we have tuned down Japans strategy a bit unless facing a player to keep a more historical timeline.

But I hope they make China better at defending rather than toning down Japan. If the warlords join China, can't they defend as well?

 

[blackpowder320]

Added Halifax to the bypass conditions of Motion of No Confidence.

The invasion AI has been improved quite a bit, which left China being crushed by Japan a bit too fast and often so we have tuned down Japans strategy a bit unless facing a player to keep a more historical timeline.

Atlantic Fleet Designer now adds 10% HP to Carriers

Britain should now care more about Africa as well as other area prio tweaks

- the Soviet union will no longer pick the War with Japan focus while fighting with Germany

- Japan will now avoid too aggressive early invasions

Sweet! Thank you @podcat

If I may ask though, are there more decisions or interactions with a PM Halifax?

Added certain stipulations for Coerce Spain and Coerce Greece focuses.

I wonder what these certain stipulations are....

 

[Shadow86]

@podcat please, this issue is a huge problem, negative convoys:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...route-is-canceled-during-convoy-raid.1161598/

Please consider putting the fix into this PRIOR to next Wednesday

Allow me to stress the importance of fixing this issue.

 

[Dan1109]

• The invasion AI has been improved quite a bit, which left China being crushed by Japan a bit too fast and often so we have tuned down Japans strategy a bit unless facing a player to keep a more historical timeline.

But I hope they make China better at defending rather than toning down Japan. If the warlords join China, can't they defend as well?

Its obviously a temp short term fix work around. Fixing China AI issues will take much longer. Human JAP players will obviously feel no change. However, we have to stand up and applaud PDS for fixing a problem SO WELL (naval invasions), that they had to prevent their AI from actually doing it so often.

Naval Invasion AI is also working extremely well against Borneo and the DEI, taking over all that rubber historically. I have spent countless days trying to get this to work properly pre-1.6. FINALLY!!! THANK YOU PDS, BETTER LATE THAN NEVER!

I think this will actually require them to give the US more synthetic rubber bonuses, as the US can't spend a year making the needed amount of rubber factories needed for aircraft, when the allies lose it all in 1942 (a modest amount of rubber in Africa helps, but until UK AI can hold that, allies are still doomed to fail).

 

[jpinard]

Lots of good stuff, thanks for you hard work.

This one has me irritated a bit though:


The Problem here is not the invasion AI being too agressive but the fact that Nat. China and its Warlords somehow forgot how to train divisions:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...s-divisions-but-stockpiles-equipment.1158903/

With the 40ish divisions China has at start it simply has not enough troops to cover the frontline and still garrison its ports, meaning Japan can happily land anywhere in china unopposed.

Looks like we wrote our responses at the same time. Nerfing the Japan AI is a terrible idea. Seems like a cheap and dirty fix instead of actually addressing the core issue. I honestly don't understand why the devs ignore major bug reports we create that show parts of the game that are crippled. I mean, we have a partial solution right there, along with telling the AI to weight port/coast then script a pull back to defensible positions. Yet instead of doing this right, nerf the Japan AI instead? Come on.

 

[Rafled]

Can you please fix the missing ships that were historically under construction at game start? There were a bunch of ships already under construction in 1936 that are missing (Yorktown, Enterprise, Ark Royal...etc)

Also I know this is probably a low priority, but it would be amazing if you could make it easier to select which ports ships can or can't use for repairs instead of having to manually turn off each level 1 port. Maybe a setting so that ships will only repair at ports over a certain level?

In reading the patch notes you'll note various ships WERE being added in the latest iteration, which I'm not certain is live in beta yet (hitting tonight sometime).

Changes in 1.62...
- The US now correctly starts with 2 Yorktown Carriers under construction in 1936 (MtG only due to balance concerns)
- Italy now correctly has two Littoria-Class Battleships under construction in 1936 (MtG only)
- changed some starting technologies for Italy
- France now starts with 1 Richelieu Class Battleship under construction in 1936 (Richelieu) and two more under construction in 1939 (Jean Bart and Clemenceau) (MtG only)
- added HMS Aurora to British starting construction (MtG only)
- moved Town Class Light Cruiser template to 1936 start, added 5 ships to British starting construction in 1936

and in 1.61 .... !
- moved British Ark Royal Class to 1936 start, added Ark Royal to starting building queue (laid down September 1935)

And last minute additions...
- Added Admiral Hipper to German starting construction (MtG only)
- Added two Kirov-Class Cruisers to Soviet starting construction (MtG only)
- Added USS Vincennes and USS Wichita to US starting production (MtG only)
- Added two light cruisers to Italian starting construction (MtG only)

 

[Perikles]

Those increased research boni will lead to even more extreme ahead of time research. It should at least be accompanied with a heavily increased ahead of time research penalty or a hard limit of maybe 2 years.

 

[Pipoka]

@podcat

I don't know whether you've already considered this, but I think a good incentive for players to upgrade ships would be if the conversion techs (in the industry tree) also affected ship conversion speed. You need not grant huge bonuses with them, but it would give the player more incentive to research them, and also to convert/rebuild ships (which, from a gameplay perspective, is often not worthwhile compared to the time/cost of building a new one).

@podcat this! I would so love this. (plus it's mid-late game, so it won't unbalance pre-war stuff too much)

 

[ltccone]

Waiting for the beta update to drop is driving me crazy!

 

[Kalafior]

When that go online?

 

[GPounda]

@podcat - has your team corrected the ASW for the Atlantic?

Currently once you start deploying 1940 Subs with snorkels they are invincible/invisible. The 1936 hulls get sunk, but the 1940's never get sunk. . .

 

[Otto]

Good to see that you are focusing on Russian defense. Whatever it is you are doing I sure hope it greatly reduces the constant shuffling of their armies. Looking forward to this patch!

 

[Admiral-Canaris]

@podcat will those capital ships in queue being deleted by the AI as the Ark Royal, or will they be build?

 

[MrDziurkacz]

Spending hours on forum reporting/commenting on current issues and asking for changes to finally see your wishlist being nearly fulfilled in one update. <3 BEST FEELING!!!

• Romania and Yugoslavia no longer desire to own Bulgaria, check!
• Soviets no longer scared of Wehrmacht, check!
• Japan no longer steamrolling through China (hopefully), check!

EDIT: Spain no longer joining Axis on historical mode, check!

 

[Andy Gainey]

The open beta on the 1.6.2_beta branch is now live! Checksum is a3a6.

I've updated the changelog in podcat's OP. Here are the few things that got in at the last moment that were not originally part of the dev diary:

Spoiler: Click for last minute changes

##################################
# Bugfix
##################################
- Fixed ship name from history file not being taking into account in some circumstances when adding a production line for it
- Highlight now fit the size of dockyard grid.
- Fragmenting Yugoslavia in the game setup rules should no longer result in Yugoslav units permanently being present on the map with no possibility of getting rid of them.
- Selecting Asia Decolonized game rule will now correctly grant independence to the Philippines.

##################################
# Database
##################################
- Removed Atatürk as a starting field marshal and instead added a decision to recruit him if Turkey is in a defensive war, also assigned to him his new field marshal portrait
- Added foreign language loc and an on_action trigger for Turkish civil wars.
- Added Admiral Hipper to German starting construction (MtG only)
- Added two Kirov-Class Cruisers to Soviet starting construction (MtG only)
- Added USS Vincennes and USS Wichita to US starting production (MtG only)
- Added two light cruisers to Italian starting construction (MtG only)
- Central Powers will now invite Bulgaria if they exist, are AI, and are non-aligned.
- Adjusted Vojvodina state population, and added cores to it in the Hungarian focus tree.
- Central Powers focus now sends event invites to the various potential nations, giving them a choice rather than automatically adding them to the faction.

 

[Crowarior]

Can you add drop & drag for fleets and task forces within them?

 

[Robosoldier1]

Spending hours on forum reporting/commenting on current issues and asking for changes to finally see your wishlist being nearly fulfilled in one update. <3 BEST FEELING!!!

• Romania and Yugoslavia no longer desire to own Bulgaria, check!
• Soviets no longer scared of Wehrmacht, check!
• Japan no longer steamrolling through China (hopefully), check!

EDIT: Spain no longer joining Axis on historical mode, check!

Well the change for the China situation only makes Japan stupid as opposed to making China better....which to me is not a very desirable solution.

Make China prioritize and dedicate 90 percent of its production building rifles, give it more starting equipment, make the initial Division sizes larger (20 width). Idk anything but resorting in pulling Japan’s teeth out because China hasn’t been molded properly for it to grow out/sharpen theirs.

 

[Daelyn75]

The open beta on the 1.6.2_beta branch is now live! Checksum is a3a6.

I've updated the changelog in podcat's OP. Here are the few things that got in at the last moment that were not originally part of the dev diary:

Spoiler: Click for last minute changes

##################################
# Bugfix
##################################
- Fixed ship name from history file not being taking into account in some circumstances when adding a production line for it
- Highlight now fit the size of dockyard grid.
- Fragmenting Yugoslavia in the game setup rules should no longer result in Yugoslav units permanently being present on the map with no possibility of getting rid of them.
- Selecting Asia Decolonized game rule will now correctly grant independence to the Philippines.

##################################
# Database
##################################
- Removed Atatürk as a starting field marshal and instead added a decision to recruit him if Turkey is in a defensive war, also assigned to him his new field marshal portrait
- Added foreign language loc and an on_action trigger for Turkish civil wars.
- Added Admiral Hipper to German starting construction (MtG only)
- Added two Kirov-Class Cruisers to Soviet starting construction (MtG only)
- Added USS Vincennes and USS Wichita to US starting production (MtG only)
- Added two light cruisers to Italian starting construction (MtG only)
- Central Powers will now invite Bulgaria if they exist, are AI, and are non-aligned.
- Adjusted Vojvodina state population, and added cores to it in the Hungarian focus tree.
- Central Powers focus now sends event invites to the various potential nations, giving them a choice rather than automatically adding them to the faction.

GAH!! I started a new game about 20 minutes before that. I just came back from a week vacation myself to good old San Antonio. I'm burnt red now! Anyhow, I thought the new beta would automatically be uploaded before or by the time this thread update to 1.6.2 came out. Time to restart!

 

[Vohen]

Hiya everyone, I am now back from the San Francisco Game Developer Conference and in the sweet embrace of soulcrushing jetlag! Last week was very fun chatting to other game devs and learning stuff from lectures as well as american food (burgers!). While I was there the team have been continuing work on the 1.6.2 patch. So today will be about status there. Short and sweet, enjoy!

We have been fixing all sorts of stuff, but here are some highlights:

• Increased research bonuses. We may have low-balled our estimates a bit on the new research impacts, where the idea was that it would be faster overall despite many of the new techs. To accommodate that research companies have been improved along with ministers and the computer techs have also increased buffs to make them more worth it (details in the patchnotes below).
• Help Soviets mount a better defense. We have identified a few things, like a tendency to keep units back for the japanese front despite their main front not having enough units to man it (which causes all sorts of issues).
• Get Allies more into the Africa game. Keeping Africa allied is quite difficult, but the AI should now prioritize fighting over it a lot more and Uk should be making smarter early choices for focuses and ministers etc
• The invasion AI has been improved quite a bit, which left China being crushed by Japan a bit too fast and often so we have tuned down Japans strategy a bit unless facing a player to keep a more historical timeline.
• airwing names are no longer lost on save load, and many other fixes...

The patchlog since last week looks like this, and should hopefully get into the open beta tonight. We then plan to leave it over weekend for testing with you guys and if all is fine it should be making it to everybody next week.

Spoiler: Click to expand

##################################
# Bugfix
##################################
- AI can now accept a fuel incoming lend lease.
- Fixed taken states not being colored properly during a peace conference
- Fixed some decisions on a revolter country disapearing after loading a save
- Correctly change leader trait icons in army badge when switching between leaders where one has exile leader traits and the other does not.
- fixed naval mission assignment not working correctly with taskforces on repairs
- fixed an issue where countries occupying Manchuria would get reports about finding communist sleeper cells while allied with communist china
- fixed anniversary pack not being loaded
- review fixes
- Fixed newly created ships teleporting to the task force set as their deployment target
- Fixed auto balance task force not working
- Fix fuel lend lease. It was full of minor bugs.
- Selecting a decolonized Asia in the game rules will now also grant independence to Malaya.
- Fixed new Maltese fascist flag not showing up properly.
- fixed two instances in US events giving incorrect amounts of party popularity
- fixed ai sending invalid commands with foreign templates
- Fixed Expose the Belly of the Bear events not being sent out, as well as having incorrect requirement triggers.
- fixed a way to create invalid paradrop orders and fixed a ctd that is caused by that
- Converted Battleship and Converted Cruiser Hulls use now the right 3D model as the best match in the Ship Designer.
- Fixed ships from reserve not reinforcing if the reserve task force has at least one ship repairing
- locked the Silver Legion special template gained during the Fascist US civil war
- fixed some localization issues with dynamic modifiers
- fixed stability & war support values not giving all bonuses in some cases
- fixed some scripted diplomatic action issued that broke actions that requires acceptance
- moved lights of Los Angeles to correct province position
- Abdicating after getting "King's Support Forms" will now correctly remove the beneficial spirit granted by that event.
- fixed a original_tag problem related to reusing of dynamic tags
- Now display correct naval supremacy in naval invasion tooltip.
- fixed a ctd while loading saves
- De Gaulle will no longer be incorrectly removed as Free France's leader.
- Added Halifax to the bypass conditions of Motion of No Confidence.
- Added certain stipulations for Coerce Spain and Coerce Greece focuses.
- Only one Rebuild the Nation decision will now be available if you switch ideology using a civil war.
- Alliance with Germany now requires Germany to be fascist only.
- The number of factories displayed in war overview is now consistent with the number in topbar.
- Fixed an effect that was deleting a division template without deleting all divisions using that template, specifically volunteers and expeditionary forces, leading to potential memory problems and crashes.
- Fixed the game generating a definition.csv file that would override the original in case the later was missing some entries
- Mexico without Man the Guns enabled (and therefore with no ability to nationalize the oil fields) will now have control over its own oil from the start of the game.
- Fixed airwing name not being loaded from save
- Fixed DOD unique motorized icons to correctly shop up in the production tab.
- Fixed reserve fleet getting merged on daily tick if in the same naval base
- Fixed ship name from history file not being taking into account in some circumstances when adding a production line for it
- Highlight now fit the size of dockyard grid.
- Fragmenting Yugoslavia in the game setup rules should no longer result in Yugoslav units permanently being present on the map with no possibility of getting rid of them.
- Selecting Asia Decolonized game rule will now correctly grant independence to the Philippines.

##################################
# Balance
##################################
- naval mission efficiency will now go even lower if you don't have enough ships/taskforces for the assigned regions
- Nationalist Spain will not lose the "recovering from the Civil War" national spirit in historical focus mode, thus preventing them from joining the war
- Atlantic Fleet Designer now adds 10% HP to Carriers
- Armor upgrade for Carriers now adds 1% HP per level (non-MtG only)
- research companies research bonus 10% to 15%
- doctrine ministers research bonus 7% to 10% and 10% to 15%
- electron mechanical engineering research bonus 2% to 3%
- mechanical computer research bonus 3% to 4%
- computing machine research bonus 3% to 5%
- improved computing machine research bonus 5% to 8%
- advanced computing machine research bonus 5 to 8%
- focus: give refuge to scientist research bonus 3% to 5%

##################################
# UI
##################################
- Fixed Benelux formation news event properly referring to Netherlands' original name, rather than the new Benelux name.
- It is now possible to select a theater as a deployment target which will put the newly created ships in that theater's reserve fleet
- Now showing the task force insignia when selecting a task force as deployment target
- Finnish neutrality party was renamed
- Task forces created through the Move Ships Window now copy the insignia from the original task force
- Fixed timed decision showing 999 instead of a progressbar
- Dive bomber trait in admiral skill tree now correctly identifies bonus as only applying to carrier planes
- Minor loc fix to Dutch Trade Neutrality news event option text.
- Added list of required module slots that are empty to the save button tooltip when designing a ship
- Fixed invalid 'no mission set' warning on a task force with a mission but currently refitting or repairing

##################################
# AI
##################################
- Britain should now care more about Africa as well as other area prio tweaks
- ENG will avoid channel if it is at war with GER
- British AI should now pick ministers better to make use of Stanley Baldwin (a first in British history)
- British AI should no longer take early mobilization if it has better use of the political power
- British AI should no longer waste pp on resource prospecting if it has better things to do
- British AI should no longer offer refuge to German scientist until a certain amount of time has passed
- Italy alternate fascist plan will now result in Italy First, rather than Pact of Steel
- Both sides of the Suez Canal are now considered part of Africa for the purpose of AI calculations (still separate for all other purposes)
- blocked ai from creating naval missions in blocked regions
- naval_avoid_region >= 600 will disable regions for missions as well now. Germany disables the channel if ENG is still a threat
- historical Yugoslavian AI will no longer take Greater Yugoslavia
- added an AI strategy to Hungary to prevent them from joining the axis before it is historical if historical focuses are on
- ai is now less reluctant/random about upgrading its ship designs
- fixed a bug preventing the Soviet AI from researching Fighters II
- the Soviet union will no longer pick the War with Japan focus while fighting with Germany
- ai will care more about home fronts that have actual enemies if surrender process is >0 and less about other non dangerous fronts
- ai won't care about guarantees that are guaranteeing an enemy that has offensive war against us or a war that started long ago
- Improved UK historical focus selection order
- Japan will now avoid too aggressive early invasions

##################################
# Stability & Performance
##################################
- Protected against a buffer overflow.
- Detected and skipped a certain type of invalid mipmap data in dds files.
- Fixed CTD when reordering pinned strategic regions

##################################
# Modding
##################################
- added is_valid_root trigger for targeted decision. this is checked before checking all targets and if false, will skip that targeted decision completely
- added game variables fuel_k & max_fuel_k
- fixed example of scripted diplo actions & fixed some string problems

##################################
# Database
##################################
- Tweaked Chamberlain resigns event to now require Poland to have fallen, and slightly increased the required surrender progress required for Denmark, Norway, the Low Countries, or France.
- The US now correctly starts with 2 Yorktown Carriers under construction in 1936 (MtG only due to balance concerns)
- Italy now correctly has two Littoria-Class Battleships under construction in 1936 (MtG only)
- changed some starting technologies for Italy
- France now starts with 1 Richelieu Class Battleship under construction in 1936 (Richelieu) and two more under construction in 1939 (Jean Bart and Clemenceau) (MtG only)
- added HMS Aurora to British starting construction (MtG only)
- moved Town Class Light Cruiser template to 1936 start, added 5 ships to British starting construction in 1936
- Added Marines division template to HOL
- Added portrait for Ataturk
- added and tweaked a number of division name lists for various countries
- Commonwealth Ties can now be taken if UK is overlord of Dominion civil war factions, as well (and applies the relationship boost to those countries).
- Adjusted requirement for Imperial Conference to no longer be impossible if UK accepts Destroyers for Bases offer from USA.
- removed the claim Romania gets on Bulgaria from the relevant event
- Reach out to the Ware Group is now available for both democratic and communist governments
- Removed Atatürk as a starting field marshal and instead added a decision to recruit him if Turkey is in a defensive war, also assigned to him his new field marshal portrait
- Added foreign language loc and an on_action trigger for Turkish civil wars.
- Added Admiral Hipper to German starting construction (MtG only)
- Added two Kirov-Class Cruisers to Soviet starting construction (MtG only)
- Added USS Vincennes and USS Wichita to US starting production (MtG only)
- Added two light cruisers to Italian starting construction (MtG only)
- Central Powers will now invite Bulgaria if they exist, are AI, and are non-aligned.
- Adjusted Vojvodina state population, and added cores to it in the Hungarian focus tree.
- Central Powers focus now sends event invites to the various potential nations, giving them a choice rather than automatically adding them to the faction.

For the full 1.6.2 log (its huge), or if you want to help test go check out the 1.6.2 beta page.

See you all next week again!

Huh, for some reason this gives me the feeling that this is the last planned update to 1.6.2.
That being the case, do you guys plan on putting out a 1.6.3 or are you satisfied with how things look and ready to move forward?

 

[Badbonez]

Hey Guys - with this new beta, the Deploy Target list for ships is empty. So when you select the location you want your ships to deploy, there is no list. You can still click on a province as the target.

Although - I do have mods, so maybe someone playing vanilla can verify?

EDIT: After restarting, the list is not missing - it is scrolled way to the bottom. You need to scroll down to see the list of deployment locations. Again, it could be a mod I am using.