HOI4 - Development Diary - October 19th 2016

[Riekopo]

Looks like good improvements.

 

[Drokslit]

The stream showed an announcement teaser for the expansion. Titled "Together For Victory", looking really cool! Allies seriously need some more flavor and mechanics to be more enjoyable. I have a hard time not playing axis or comintern. Good job on all your hard work guys!

 

[Marine]

@podcat It would also be cool if you could see what your puppets or even Allies need in equipment ,so you know what to send to them.

The reason for the question was than when I was playing the UK. I started wondering why RAJ as an example did not put so many Divisions in the field as it used to do before the last patch. so I went into them and saw that they where lacking lots of Light Tanks, that they were building, so I guess they had to manufacture those first and then after that they could get out more inf divisions as before.
So if I had known they needed Light Tanks I could have sent them those and they could then have put out those armored divs in the field and then concentrate on other stuffs.
Maybe something like this is already considered ,so if so my apologies.

/Marine

 

[Shock360]

Are most focus trees planned to be released in groups with either expansions or focus packs? And for the problem of AI spamming lend lease requests, maybe have a single notification that lists all AI that would like lend lease(so instead of them sending, it's just constantly there)

 

[Tankbusta8]

@podcat, without sparking unnecessary debates, will the receiving lend lease be in the free patch, or just the modifying? will the AI be able to offer you lend leases now?

is the democratic political party going to be stronger and more of a viable option now for the main democratic parties? i.e. seeing everyone mostly going fascist because democratic doesnt give any manpower or military gains.

Really like the look of this! nice to see positive comments from everyone after the outburst last week.

 

[Jorlem]

This is something we feel strongly for and will keep doing in the future as some of the major trees can be a bit inflexible

Any chance that existing trees might be adjusted to bring them in line with the new way of doing things?

its jsut really difficult and would take a lot of time as lend lease currently deals with equipment, whereas ships are units.

There's a rather interesting bit of discussion going on in the suggestions subforum on the topic of having ship equipment being made with MIC, and assembled with NIC. If this was done, that equipment could be lend-leased, and the constant upkeep could crudely simulate the need for fuel.

we have found some more cases for the frontline issue now actually which we are looking at (we fixed 1-2 cases, but there are more). its being worked on

Out of curiosity, is the case I provided where Japan was abandoning their sole frontline when I had taken half the Home Islands one of the cases fixed?

Having Ai continiously beg for something usually makes for very spammy stuff, so right now it doesnt. It will only offer to send to other AI's and we expect player to know when it needs and request it. As I said in the OP, the ability to adjust existing lend lease is part of the free 1.3 torch patch, but the actual request feature is part of the expansion.

This could easily be solved by giving us a ledger that listed the stockpiles of countries we aren't at war with. That way, we as players could look and see what the AI we are fighting alongside actually needs, without them spamming requests.

 

[Jolt]

Having Ai continiously beg for something usually makes for very spammy stuff, so right now it doesnt.

There is a UI solution for that. Instead of having AI requests be one-time repeatable pop-ups that you accept or reject, you could create a small window box that has "Allies Lend-Lease Needs", where it showcases your Allies current Lend-Lease requests, and where your allies demands are updated with no pop-ups, as their needs change. The requests maintain until you fulfill the request, or the AI nation needs something else, at which point the game edits the request.

So, if you have equipment to spare, you just go to that window-box and check if your allies are requesting something, through Lend-Lease, that you have but no longer need.

That way you get rid of the spam, allow the player insight into the AIs current needs that can help the player shape his future industrial production, as well as actually helping the AI in Lend-Lease.

 

[Alex_brunius]

I'm sorry, but what? The amount of losses in China and the scale of the war should easily classff

If losing men is all that matters it basically makes USA a minor player in WW2. I don't agree with that viewpoint at all.

 

[Miaow]

If losing men is all that matters it basically makes USA a minor player in WW2. I don't agree with that viewpoint at all.

That's a fair point, though of course you have to distinguish importance during the war and how "big" a winner they were. The USA was obviously the greatest winner by a very long shot but they didn't play as important a role as the USSR. Part of the reason their casualties were so low was that they entered late and largely stayed out of the bloodiest land campaigns. The hardest fighting on land the USA committed too was in Italy, and they made sure to share the butcher's bill of the Italian campaign with as many allies as possible.

 

[Hells2014]

Canada was on the security council too, elected six times.

Plus, Canada's achievements during the war are impressive, whereas China basically just managed to not lose, and relied almost entirely on lend-lease just to stay afloat.

Firstly, Canada gets ELECTED to the security council. They are not a permanent member with veto status like China, who, despite their actual efforts, were apart of the winning side and fought against the Axis powers (Japan)

Secondly, in reference to game context, do you ever see Canada do anything useful (Or even the AI for that matter? ). China can actually fight against Japan and change the world completely. China has interesting game choices with Communist China, the warlords, and the general region etc. Whereas Canada is next to America and sends a fair few troops to fight with England, cool as. China seems like a better choice for the game not only logically, but adds depth to a country played and fought against significantly more than what Canada does in relation to interaction to the player

 

[podcat]

You could also imagine Germany lend-leasing massively to Japan to create a massive imbalance in China and then Japan sending it back before the war.
Even worse if you do it with navy (Japanese navy used to destroyed british navy, then combined italian + german navy sent to Japan to destroy the US)

The easiest idea might probably be that you can only lend-lease:
- Equipment you have build
- Equipment from a TAG that has the "surrendered" marker (like the old GiE from HOI3)

that could probably work well actually and let you get rid of conquered stuff

@podcat It would also be cool if you could see what your puppets or even Allies need in equipment ,so you know what to send to them.

The reason for the question was than when I was playing the UK. I started wondering why RAJ as an example did not put so many Divisions in the field as it used to do before the last patch. so I went into them and saw that they where lacking lots of Light Tanks, that they were building, so I guess they had to manufacture those first and then after that they could get out more inf divisions as before.
So if I had known they needed Light Tanks I could have sent them those and they could then have put out those armored divs in the field and then concentrate on other stuffs.
Maybe something like this is already considered ,so if so my apologies.

/Marine

its something we have been thinking about for sure

@podcat, without sparking unnecessary debates, will the receiving lend lease be in the free patch, or just the modifying? will the AI be able to offer you lend leases now?

is the democratic political party going to be stronger and more of a viable option now for the main democratic parties? i.e. seeing everyone mostly going fascist because democratic doesnt give any manpower or military gains.

Really like the look of this! nice to see positive comments from everyone after the outburst last week.

we have been tweaking the AI stuff a bit for this, but to clarify the modifying is the free part, and we already have offering. The request is the new one which comes with the expansion part you need to pay for (unless you already will get it for having field marshal edition)

Out of curiosity, is the case I provided where Japan was abandoning their sole frontline when I had taken half the Home Islands one of the cases fixed?

I actually dont know which cases were fixed or not, I think the remaining case was an issue with spain though. We managed to find some cases internally too after we fixed the others and knew what to look for.

 

[Mortheim]

It is so big, that USSR tree feels empty...

 

[Bambilambi]

Looks interesting

@podcat
Is there any planned changes of the airwarfare (including carrier) system in this dlc?

 

[Aidan]

Yes ! Lend lease! Thank you podcat

 

[Mr.BeachTowel]

Firstly, Canada gets ELECTED to the security council. They are not a permanent member with veto status like China, who, despite their actual efforts, were apart of the winning side and fought against the Axis powers (Japan)

Secondly, in reference to game context, do you ever see Canada do anything useful (Or even the AI for that matter? ). China can actually fight against Japan and change the world completely. China has interesting game choices with Communist China, the warlords, and the general region etc. Whereas Canada is next to America and sends a fair few troops to fight with England, cool as. China seems like a better choice for the game not only logically, but adds depth to a country played and fought against significantly more than what Canada does in relation to interaction to the player

I've had many great games as Canada. One time Spear heading the allies with 1M (with 500k manpower left to spend) Space Marines and 31% of war participation, with UK next at 25%. I've also invaded a troll ngl, who was playing Japan, and took the whole thing for myself. I've seen Fenrises invade Italy and push all the way to Berlin. New-France is a force to be reckoned with. Do not underestimate them.

 

[riadach]

Am I right in thinking that when you say Commonwealth, you don't mean Ireland?

 

[DiE9500]

expeditionaries would be easier than lend lease actually. Possibly model a lot of historical cases better too I think?

I'd think volunteers might even make a bit more sense, as you are physically supplying them ships that they could use themselves.

 

[just_a_beaver]

I'm so happy you guys included the conscription crisis. I'd quadruple-agree if I could!

 

[Krafty]

Nothing about AI fixes?

Its still basically unplayable.

 

[Shock360]

Nothing about AI fixes?

Its still basically unplayable.

They've already stated their intentions for AI, there's nothing left to say about it and it's a waste to make more dev diaries on it when they can showcase features instead.