There has always been a need for better peace deals in Hearts of Iron 4 as it's honestly been one of the sole reasons that this game doesn't work as well as it should. Every new alt-history tree added is completely pointless unless it allows for quick wars which will keep the allies from declaring on you. Take Turkey's new tree, for example. Other people complain that the tree is too long, and so you cannot complete the tree in time to feasibly fight any wars. But it's pretty obvious that the tree is not at fault, and what's actually at fault is what's been at fault since the game begun. So outlined here is the major problems with the peace treaties in the game at the current stage.
War Score Calculations:
This is probably the worst offender when it comes to peace treaties. When it comes to war score, the thing that counts the most is the number of casualties you have suffered. Not your enemy's casualties, no no no. You could personally be responsible for the death of every fighting man in a country, but if you lost no men while doing it, you get nothing. Occupation has some impact and somewhat levies weight off the importance of war score by making provinces cheaper. And yet, the game continues to physically punish you for playing smart because if your allies have bashed their head against the enemies for 3 years, then it doesn't matter if you capture every single victory point, you should be surprised if you walk away with a province. I think I understand the reasoning behind casualties having so much weight, and it comes from the idea that the Soviets threw their troops at the frontline till they won the war (which discredits the Nazi genocide of 3.3m PoWs as well as the superior industry of the USSR, but whatever). Controlling territory should give a larger discount, and causing casualties should cause more war score, especially in cases of encirclements. Self casualties should provide a minuscule amount of the war score. And for god sake make the Soviet AI capable.
Friendly AI are douchebags:
In Hearts of Iron 4, enemies are far more valuable than friends. This is because your allies have absolutely no desire to help you unless it's sending a lend lease of 30 convoys per month, of course while you play as Hungary.
You're playing as Communist Yugoslavia, trying to reclaim your core state of Istria. But what's that, you've befriended the Soviet Union? Therefore, despite literally doing all the work while the Soviets lose Stalingrad, Leningrad and Moscow, your good pal puppets Slovenia in Istria. Congratulations, your game is now over.
I really don't understand how there is no AI to prevent this case. Instead, it's all just puppet. The AI should give land to its allies if they have claims or cores on it, which could make claims actually valuable. They should also completely refrain from taking territory claimed by their allies unless they themselves have a claim on it. Because of the lack of these, it is against your own interests to ever make alliances or call allies into wars, because all they serve as is a nuisance to your personal expansion.
Lack of "White Peace" options:
There are very few white peaces which occur in this game. There is the one which occurs absolutely every game, which is the Winter War one, which for the most part the Soviets almost always stomp the Finns, and yet white peace for no reason. Now, of course this is mostly historically accurate for the time period, as most wars were fought until the subjugation of the entire enemy country, but in some cases white peaces are a really important option.
When I go to war with the UK as Mexico for Belize, then why should I be expected to be at perpetual war with them until I land in Great Britain? I have taken literally all of my claim, they have no reason to care about me, especially when they have bigger problems, like the Axis owning all of Europe.
Furthermore, for accuracy sake, when I go to war with say, Greece, for Thrace as Bulgaria, I don't really want to take their entire country and puppet them, and it makes no sense that I would be able to hold that territory anyway. Resistance and Puppets both need serious overhauls, because they provide hinderances in the stupidest of circumstances and yet in situations where it should be logical for them to be problematic to them, the challenge isn't there.
The ratio of cored/compliant provinces to non-cored provinces should have an impact on resistance. AI should also have some sort of war exhaustion modifier, which goes up when the purpose for the war is satisfied, giving them an opinion modifier more likely to accept a white peace. To keep WW2 from ending early, just make Major powers unable to white peace between one another.
This was written at midnight, due to my continued anger at problems which have persisted since I bought the game, with little to no attempts of resolving them. Plus, I am likely repeating concerns which have been voiced hundreds of times before, but regardless I've tried to make this reasonable.
War Score Calculations:
This is probably the worst offender when it comes to peace treaties. When it comes to war score, the thing that counts the most is the number of casualties you have suffered. Not your enemy's casualties, no no no. You could personally be responsible for the death of every fighting man in a country, but if you lost no men while doing it, you get nothing. Occupation has some impact and somewhat levies weight off the importance of war score by making provinces cheaper. And yet, the game continues to physically punish you for playing smart because if your allies have bashed their head against the enemies for 3 years, then it doesn't matter if you capture every single victory point, you should be surprised if you walk away with a province. I think I understand the reasoning behind casualties having so much weight, and it comes from the idea that the Soviets threw their troops at the frontline till they won the war (which discredits the Nazi genocide of 3.3m PoWs as well as the superior industry of the USSR, but whatever). Controlling territory should give a larger discount, and causing casualties should cause more war score, especially in cases of encirclements. Self casualties should provide a minuscule amount of the war score. And for god sake make the Soviet AI capable.
Friendly AI are douchebags:
In Hearts of Iron 4, enemies are far more valuable than friends. This is because your allies have absolutely no desire to help you unless it's sending a lend lease of 30 convoys per month, of course while you play as Hungary.
You're playing as Communist Yugoslavia, trying to reclaim your core state of Istria. But what's that, you've befriended the Soviet Union? Therefore, despite literally doing all the work while the Soviets lose Stalingrad, Leningrad and Moscow, your good pal puppets Slovenia in Istria. Congratulations, your game is now over.
I really don't understand how there is no AI to prevent this case. Instead, it's all just puppet. The AI should give land to its allies if they have claims or cores on it, which could make claims actually valuable. They should also completely refrain from taking territory claimed by their allies unless they themselves have a claim on it. Because of the lack of these, it is against your own interests to ever make alliances or call allies into wars, because all they serve as is a nuisance to your personal expansion.
Lack of "White Peace" options:
There are very few white peaces which occur in this game. There is the one which occurs absolutely every game, which is the Winter War one, which for the most part the Soviets almost always stomp the Finns, and yet white peace for no reason. Now, of course this is mostly historically accurate for the time period, as most wars were fought until the subjugation of the entire enemy country, but in some cases white peaces are a really important option.
When I go to war with the UK as Mexico for Belize, then why should I be expected to be at perpetual war with them until I land in Great Britain? I have taken literally all of my claim, they have no reason to care about me, especially when they have bigger problems, like the Axis owning all of Europe.
Furthermore, for accuracy sake, when I go to war with say, Greece, for Thrace as Bulgaria, I don't really want to take their entire country and puppet them, and it makes no sense that I would be able to hold that territory anyway. Resistance and Puppets both need serious overhauls, because they provide hinderances in the stupidest of circumstances and yet in situations where it should be logical for them to be problematic to them, the challenge isn't there.
The ratio of cored/compliant provinces to non-cored provinces should have an impact on resistance. AI should also have some sort of war exhaustion modifier, which goes up when the purpose for the war is satisfied, giving them an opinion modifier more likely to accept a white peace. To keep WW2 from ending early, just make Major powers unable to white peace between one another.
This was written at midnight, due to my continued anger at problems which have persisted since I bought the game, with little to no attempts of resolving them. Plus, I am likely repeating concerns which have been voiced hundreds of times before, but regardless I've tried to make this reasonable.
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