Auto Sliders...fail... [1.2]

[blackgrunge]

So I looked forward to this patch as more of a performance than anything else but there are several new feature I was excited about. Namely the Auto Sliders.

First of all they don't effing work...

I set it to "manual control" it does "prioritize production".
I set it to "prioritize production" it does nothing.
I set it to the other two option and it puts all of my IC into UPGRADES!!! Sadly even if it doesn't require ANY!

And this was an issue back in the days of HOI 2 but why can't they just include trades in the IC requirement sliders? I mean if I'm, for instance, trading away 7 money a day for something why can't it just add that to my Consumer Goods requirement on the slider so I can still use (well kinda) the auto slider feature without having a deficit of 7 money a day... This same idea applies to supplies. If I'm trading supplies to another country dammit just add it to the Supply slider... This is becoming horribly frustrating.

This is just one of many issues I have with this game as far as functionality is concerned. I believe it take the meaning of RTS to a whole new level and it took some bright individuals to come up with the concept. I just hate to see such an amazing idea spoiled on such lackluster execution. I know that everyone and their brother has already said all of this (not including the auto slider thing) but I suppose its ok to voice my opinion also.

Oh, and as a side note I have a question, why did they use LUA scripting for this game??? It looks like HOI 2 structure as far as coding but with a hundred million more lines of code packed into the scripts...it makes it unplayable on older computers like mine (3.2 GHZ P4) but maybe its my fault for expecting a 2D game to play well on a P4, oh well my i7 920 is gonna be here in 3 days, hope that will help.

 

[unmerged(22366)]

This is a good game
But the bug is more great

 

[Vryllyn]

If you the auto-sliders, choose the one you want and have a day pass and it will adjust.

 

[dsteve3]

With the need button, I didn't understand the need for the auto-sliders. I understand for some countries it is worthwhile putting all extra IC into supplies, and then the auto-sliders allow a constant rebalancing when there are reinforcements.

For me, playing as Germany, I would rush-build supplies and then change the setting so that it was slightly under the required amount. This saved me from the barrage of trade requests for supplies. Unfortunately, that doesn't work in 1.2, as the AI still asks me to trade supplies with a deficit daily balance. Fortunately, the AI doesn't spam any trade requests! Unfortunately, I can't sell my energy, which forces me to waste IC on consumer goods while my energy is capped. I wish there was another 'Fortunately,' ...

Make sure to explain exactly how you want the sliders to work. People have different wishes for that. There were no auto-sliders in HoI1, and only came about with the expansion in HoI2 (can't remember which one). The need button is very nice - I've learned to ignore the warning about wasted IC.

 

[blackgrunge]

Make sure to explain exactly how you want the sliders to work.

Well I guess I kind of outlined that in my first post. I just want all of the needs for each slider (supplies and consumer goods namely) to be included in the auto sliders. Right now it only calculates the needs for each group based on the original demand your country has for each. So for instance if my country demands let's say...15 consumer goods...if I'm trading away for example 3 money per day I'd like the game to say well hey he's trading away money so now the demand for consumer goods should go up to break even/compensate.

And like my original statement. I'd just like the effing sliders to work. Period.

 

[CavScout]

I've been using "prioritize production" and it seems to have been working fine. I was USA, 36 campaign.

 

[unmerged(149033)]

Try out the Smart AI mod it includes a new autoslider and production management. It does the trade adjustment and much more.

Well I guess I kind of outlined that in my first post. I just want all of the needs for each slider (supplies and consumer goods namely) to be included in the auto sliders. Right now it only calculates the needs for each group based on the original demand your country has for each. So for instance if my country demands let's say...15 consumer goods...if I'm trading away for example 3 money per day I'd like the game to say well hey he's trading away money so now the demand for consumer goods should go up to break even/compensate.

And like my original statement. I'd just like the effing sliders to work. Period.

 

[Greybriar]

Thanks for the link, reisender, but I want the sliders fixed in the game itself by an official patch and not by using an unofficial mod.

With the need button, I didn't understand the need for the auto-sliders....

Make sure to explain exactly how you want the sliders to work....

The Need button doesn't prevent the sliders from moving away from the settings you choose for them even if they are locked.

It would be far more helpful for me if I had the option to set the sliders to automatically adjust to the settings of the Need button. And I would like to be able to select sliders independently so that some could be set to Need at the same time that others could be adjusted manually. A toggle for that purpose would do nicely.

 

[Alex_brunius]

With the need button, I didn't understand the need for the auto-sliders. I understand for some countries it is worthwhile putting all extra IC into supplies, and then the auto-sliders allow a constant rebalancing when there are reinforcements.

For upgrades auto-sliders are very useful too unless you like to press the need button every few seconds at speed 5 in peacetime...
And for many nations supplyneed will vary too depending on how your logistics system looks and how your units move. Taken together 3 different sliders need to be adjusted almost daily.

 

[don-vip]

It would be far more helpful for me if I had the option to set the sliders to automatically adjust to the settings of the Need button. And I would like to be able to select sliders independently so that some could be set to Need at the same time that others could be adjusted manually. A toggle for that purpose would do nicely.

That's exactly the behaviour I expect:
Each slider should have 3 toggle positions:
- The "free" position (brown): Both the player and the IA can move the slider at their wish.
- The "locked" position (grey): The slider is locked and moves by no way.
- A new "dynamic" position (green ?): The slider adjusts itself to the need.

 

[Alex_brunius]

I really don't see the problem here though, I've never had auto sliders "fail" doing anything except for them lagging 1day behind, which is fine Imho.

 

[unmerged(26764)]

My biggest complaint is that it won't put money to consumer goods to make cash if it can still fund anything in the production queue. Thus, it will run out of money and kill trade deals instead of cutting back production instead.

I wonder if this is part of what is killing AI economies.

 

[Bloodlance]

Try out the Smart AI mod it includes a new autoslider and production management. It does the trade adjustment and much more.

I use it, AND I AM REALLY PLEASED.

Ty for the mod <3

like if you have loads of supply and money, it will still prio production and keep the consumer goods in normal level and scavange supply production to other areas JUST WONDERFULL

 

[Hasentiger]

Try out the Smart AI mod it includes a new autoslider and production management. It does the trade adjustment and much more.

Best thing since bread came sliced.

 

[Ulsterman]

My biggest complaint is that it won't put money to consumer goods to make cash if it can still fund anything in the production queue. Thus, it will run out of money and kill trade deals instead of cutting back production instead.

I wonder if this is part of what is killing AI economies.

Actually, the autosliders in 1.2 do exactly what you want them to do. However, it seems that the sliders get stuck occasionally. In that case just cycle through them once

 

[unmerged(26764)]

Actually, the autosliders in 1.2 do exactly what you want them to do. However, it seems that the sliders get stuck occasionally. In that case just cycle through them once

At least when I tried them, the autoslider would insist on funding any project in the production queue, even if I was running out of money (no matter if I had it emphasizing production or something else). The only way to ensure I had enough money was cancel projects in the queue -- which defeats the point of using them.

That said, it would also jerk excess production around between supplies and money day to day, making it impossible to build up a money stockpile at all. Also, its not very good at timing these things day to day, so it constantly runs out of money even if there aren't projects in the queue.

 

[unmerged(10451)]

The new auto sliders worked for the most part, but in some situations they indeed fail. I set them to priorize production, and as long as there is enough IC available, that works. Excess IC is usually toggling between CG and supplies, which is tolerable, but I'd like to have the possibility to determine myself, where it should be spent.

The problem I see occurs, when I have less IC than needed to satisfy all needs. No matter what I do, it always harms my production. Even if I have a stockpile of 80k supplies and it would be ok to run a large deficit.

What I would like to see is a list, where I can freely set the priority of all 5 categories, by moving them up/down a sorted list. Additionally I'd like to have a few checkboxes, e. g.:

Consumer Goods
Production
Supplies
Upgrades
Reinforcements

[ ] Allow monetary deficit
[ ] Allow supply deficit
[ ] Excess IC into money
[ ] Excess IC into supplies

The AI should work as follows:

- Put available IC into all categories in the priority list, following the given order.
- If the subject is "Consumer Goods", put more IC in it, if the current trade balance is negative, unless "Allow monetary deficit" is checked.
- If the subject is "Supplies" and there is not enough IC left to fill the needs, evaluate "Allow supplies deficit". If it is checked, run a deficit, if not, draw the IC from the subject above "Supplies" in the list (would be "Production" in my example).
- If all needs are satisfied and there is IC left, evaluate the 2 "Excess IC" checkboxes. If exactly one of them is checked, put excess IC into that category. If both or none are checked, distribute excess IC evenly.

 

[blackgrunge]

As someone had mentioned above it is a problem when the AI sliders don't compensate for money being used for trades. If everything is fine and dandy will the other sliders I'd at least like to be able to know what my required CG is to break even with trades. It's really time consuming each time a trade is made I have to mouse of the slider and set it to exactly the amount of excess CG I need in order to break even or make a little money each day. All the other sliders are fine except for the one hiccup in the supplies which causes it to also not include the supplies I'm trading away.

I like Sir Ralph's idea about having an option as to what the excess IC gets put into. Its almost as though PI said "hey auto sliders seem like a good feature, but let's not finish the idea because the forums are turning into a sh*t storm and players are about to begin rioting about the 1.2 patch".

 

[Trin Tragula]

Seemed to me you could lock one slider and not have it touched by the autosliders. Either that or it just had the same priorities as I did I did have my consumer goods slider locked to produce a lot more goods than needed in order to generate money and the autoslider didn't change this.

 

[blackgrunge]

Seemed to me you could lock one slider and not have it touched by the autosliders. Either that or it just had the same priorities as I did I did have my consumer goods slider locked to produce a lot more goods than needed in order to generate money and the autoslider didn't change this.

That's interesting because I've tried that but it just moves everything the next day...hmmm...you must've had a lot of excess IC so it had no reason to touch it or I had not enough IC...

Don't know but I'll test it out again to see if it will work.