Confirmed HoI 4 - [v1.12.8.31c5][32be] USA and Japan do not produce carrier airplanes.

[general_de_golle]

Description of issue
[v1.12.8.31c5][32be] USA and Japan do not produce carrier airplanes.

What platform do you play on?
Steam

Game Version
v1.12.8.31c5

Enabled DLC
Together for Victory, Death or Dishonor, Waking the Tiger, Man The Guns, La Resistance, Battle for the Bosporus, No Step Back, By Blood Alone

Do you have mods enabled?
No

Description
USA and Japan do not produce carrier airplanes - most of their carrier airwings have 0 planes. This also may affect other countries due to changes from BBA update.

Steps to Reproduce
1. Start observing game as any country
2. Wait till late years (1940 -1943)
3. See that USA and Japan do not produce carrier airplanes - most of their carrier airwings have 0 planes.

Upload Attachment
File(s) attached

 

[Herennius]

Yes, same picture in my current playthrough...

View attachment 934898View attachment 934899

...and I don't have a clue why:

1. They have some old designs available
2. They have maxed out air exp and could comfortably designer a newer one if desired
3. They have enough factories building planes they have less of a deficit

 

[SeekTruthFromFx]

Searching the AI strategy files shows that only ENG has a strategy to build cv_fighter and cv_naval_bomber types. So I suspect that production of these items is always lower on the AI's priority list than equipment that is prescribed in the strategy files. Before BBA they would at least get some carrier aircraft because they would get a shipful from the construction of carriers, but no replacements for losses; that matches with my memory that at some point (not necessarily a recent patch) the US and Japan tended to run around with empty carriers later in the game.

 

[Nick0211]

can confirm, i have seen this too. makes the naval war against either, very easy for the player.

 

[mohican_bob]

Searching the AI strategy files shows that only ENG has a strategy to build cv_fighter and cv_naval_bomber types. So I suspect that production of these items is always lower on the AI's priority list than equipment that is prescribed in the strategy files. Before BBA they would at least get some carrier aircraft because they would get a shipful from the construction of carriers, but no replacements for losses; that matches with my memory that at some point (not necessarily a recent patch) the US and Japan tended to run around with empty carriers later in the game.

That was it. I copied over the ENG build strat portion of CV planes to Japan and the USA ai_strategies files.

ai_strategy = {
type = unit_ratio
id = cv_fighter
value = 25
}

ai_strategy = {
type = unit_ratio
id = cv_naval_bomber
value = 25
}

I also increased their value to 50, and USA and Japan are now designing and building CV planes. Japan is still behind on planes however (historical much?).

 

[mohican_bob]

The next problem is, I don't think the AI knows how to create a plane unit on Carriers. The original carriers the USA, and ENG had at 1936 are still not full, with plane surplus, however their new carriers are.

 

[Mefisto1029]

The next problem is, I don't think the AI knows how to create a plane unit on Carriers. The original carriers the USA, and ENG had at 1936 are still not full, with plane surplus, however their new carriers are.

This + AI doesn't like cas cv...
The USA starts with 42 cv cas (3x14), but at the start of the game the AI simply drags these aircraft from the aircraft carriers to the warehouse.
Leaving "USS Ranger", "USS Saratoga" and "USS Lexington" with 1 wing of CV Fighter and 1 wing CV Naval Bomber. (8 planes each)

 

[PDXKatten]

Hello! Thank you for this report, we have confirmed this bug and we are working on a fix for it. ^^

 

[SeekTruthFromFx]

I just finished a game in 1.12.8 (including the open beta) and have some screenshots from 1946 to illustrate this bug and a possibly related point.

As this post is image-heavy, it's mostly in a spoiler.

Spoiler: Screenshots to illustrate carrier aeroplane bug

I believe that the Logistics Screen does not show an equipment type if it's never been produced. AI Japan had never produced a CV aircraft:


Likewise, AI USA had never produced a carrier plane:


By contrast, the AI UK had produced aeroplanes for the Fleet Air Arm and had even introduced upgraded variants:


Substantial numbers of the new variants had made it on to carriers and more were in production:



I was only playing with cosmetic mods, so it seems that the presence of CV strategies in the AI_strategy files means that ENG will produce CV_aircraft if it has enough factories.

Here endeth the spoiler.

One curious thing though, was the new variants actually had worse combat performance than the ones that they were replacing. This lowers the production cost and maybe the AI was making a sensible decision to increase output at the expense of performance. But I doubt it, because by this point the European war was over and the UK had puppeted both West Germany and Italy, so it had plenty of industrial capacity. It's a separate bug, but might be worth paying attention to if devs are currently working on carrier aircraft production.

 

[mohican_bob]

The problem

I just finished a game in 1.12.8 (including the open beta) and have some screenshots from 1946 to illustrate this bug and a possibly related point.

As this post is image-heavy, it's mostly in a spoiler.

Spoiler: Screenshots to illustrate carrier aeroplane bug

I believe that the Logistics Screen does not show an equipment type if it's never been produced. AI Japan had never produced a CV aircraft:
View attachment 941384

Likewise, AI USA had never produced a carrier plane:
View attachment 941385

By contrast, the AI UK had produced aeroplanes for the Fleet Air Arm and had even introduced upgraded variants:
View attachment 941386

Substantial numbers of the new variants had made it on to carriers and more were in production:
View attachment 941388
View attachment 941387

I was only playing with cosmetic mods, so it seems that the presence of CV strategies in the AI_strategy files means that ENG will produce CV_aircraft if it has enough factories.

Here endeth the spoiler.

One curious thing though, was the new variants actually had worse combat performance than the ones that they were replacing. This lowers the production cost and maybe the AI was making a sensible decision to increase output at the expense of performance. But I doubt it, because by this point the European war was over and the UK had puppeted both West Germany and Italy, so it had plenty of industrial capacity. It's a separate bug, but might be worth paying attention to if devs are currently working on carrier aircraft production.

The problem is the Japanese and USA ai strategy files have no CV plane production code. I've fixed the problem in my files until it gets fixed. USA and Japan always have 1-2 mils on CV planes now.

 

[dashstar1972]

Just played the latest open beta and issue still seems there! How is it not fixed yet? How do I fix the strategy files?

 

[Herennius]

Just played the latest open beta and issue still seems there! How is it not fixed yet? How do I fix the strategy files?

Good to know. I would recommend you to provide a new save, though, as 1.12.10 had already two fixes related to this:

- all countries will now build carrier aircraft if they have carriers, countries with low military factories are less likely to spend too much on fighters
- increased carrier aircraft wanted buffer for countries with carriers to 1.5x total deck space

So if it is still a problem, it of course needs to be investigated again - but then a new example is needed for the devs.

 

[lartur72]

On the occasion of this bug, check right away why the AI of Russia does not produce heavy tanks at all?
I defeated Russia with Germany in 1946 (v. 1.12.10), but there was not a single heavy tank in the statistics of destroyed tanks.

 

[mohican_bob]

On the occasion of this bug, check right away why the AI of Russia does not produce heavy tanks at all?
I defeated Russia with Germany in 1946 (v. 1.12.10), but there was not a single heavy tank in the statistics of destroyed tanks.

It's not a bug it's a feature. Although the AI has tank templates and division templates designed for heavy tanks, the way it's coded skips over these. Example: the heavy tank template is inside the armor division role, rather than a heavy_armor role. The AI only builds one template of a role at a time. Currently the AI skips to the fourth iteration of the armor template because of the way the upgrade priority is, they're all "upgrade_prio = 2". So the AI skips all the previous templates and makes the furthest one down the list that it can. The heavy tank template is second on the list. Soooo no. Unless the devs put in a heavy_armor role specifically and assigned a role ratio for production, no heavy tanks.

 

[Herennius]

@lartur72 / @mohican_bob

Interesting discussion on AI and heavy tanks; as I think it would clutter that thread I opened a new one in the main forum:

Does the AI really never build heavy tanks (despite using templates including them)?

I took the liberty to port over the ermerging discussion of that topic from a bug thread with a different topic... On the occasion of this bug, check right away why the AI of Russia does not produce heavy tanks at all? I defeated Russia with...

forum.paradoxplaza.com

 

[KubiG37]

Why are you discussing heavy tanks in this bug that has already been fixed?

In my 1.12.10 games the AI produces carrier aircraft.