I am so disappointed...

[George_VI]

If you're looking for a way to format air wings for the RAF, I'd recommend naming them groups and having a few hundred aircraft in each. It really only works for Fighter Command/Bomber Command/Coastal Command, but you'd have 11 Group based in the airfield in Sussex (since I believe airbases represent several small airfields and not just one massive one), and 12 Group in East Anglia and 13 Group in Cornwall/Gloucestershire, and so on. The way the air warfare system works is pretty abstracted, but that seemed logical to me.

 

[Bolshevik-]

Doesn't make any sense, does it? They did create it, and they do have a normal sized development team. They even took in new team members just recently. If you think otherwise, at least provide some arguments. So... please just stop spreading silly rumours and slants?

Upon release HoI IV was a barely functioning game. There were/are two modes in which to play the game - SP and MP. SP was so easy (mainly due to AI problems) that Luxembourg could conquer the world. MP is played by a minority but still very important. The hotjoin is broken, the game continually crashes for no apparent reason, a ton of cheats and exploits were apparently overlooked by beta testers and have made their way into the game, and finally there was and still is zero ways of detecting lag before the game actually starts. Thus if you have 20 players and 3 of them lag then that is obviously a problem, especially when they are majors. To summarize the problems with MP in a nutshell, I'v played dozens of MP games and the average game lasts until 1939. There is only one way to go from rock bottom i suppose and thus we have seen improvements. A year later, the AI remains unfixed along with half a dozen other major problems HoI fans have noted. However my biggest concern is that there is apparently much more work being put into other Paradox titles such as Stellaris and EU IV. I play neither of these titles but multiple people on HoI IV forums have noted the quality of these titles as opposed to HoI IV being superior.

I bought the first DLC because it had the spearhead and a way of seeing attrition and combat losses, both things that should have been in the base game. The second DLC had contained nothing that interested me. Both were overpriced and lacked the promised amount of content. Thus Paradox is now talking about refunds for HoI IV players who bought the DLC year pass.

 

[koba134]

Given the recent drama about the price increase and the way the CEO managed it, I can totally imagine that the HOI 4 team was given overambitious objectives with too few resources and manpower to achieve it. Hopefully the expanded team will deliver.

 

[Napoleonetniet]

Thus Paradox is now talking about refunds for HoI IV players who bought the DLC year pass.

Seriously? I must've missed that totally then, would you mind to point me in the right direction to find info on that?

 

[Kipsta]

I only play to break the AI at this point tbh...Once you stop playing seriously for a moment and just evaluate what you're seeing at some points during the game is just mind boggling. I am talking about 400k men pockets with zero organization being ignored by the AI. Dozens of German tank divisions suffering attrition in the Alps or getting port sniped in North Africa. AI wasting its troops in literally impossible fights for a single province. That one division which will keep attacking with 0.1 organization until it's shattered. The singular AI modus operandi which is EXECUTE BATTLEPLAN ALL OF THE DAY BRO.

 

[Bolshevik-]

Seriously? I must've missed that totally then, would you mind to point me in the right direction to find info on that?

Can't find the link anymore, was a few weeks ago and not really interested in looking through all the threads to find the exact post by Paradox.

 

[Bugnr01]

I was going to greate a simillar Thread too this we (have all dlcs in hope for a better gameplay) what i like and what i disslike and what could maybe done better but went with the uninstall buton.

Once you stop playing seriously for a moment and just evaluate what you're seeing at some points during the game is just mind boggling. I am talking about 400k men pockets with zero organization being ignored by the AI. Dozens of German tank divisions suffering attrition in the Alps or getting port sniped in North Africa. AI wasting its troops in literally impossible fights for a single province. That one division which will keep attacking with 0.1 organization until it's shattered. The singular AI modus operandi which is EXECUTE BATTLEPLAN ALL OF THE DAY BRO.

Thats all true and happening all the time. Combined with a non evaluation of movments mean that there is an additional wave of single division suicide attacks every time you take a province.

Troop deployment, This was something that was broken in HOI2 and HOI3. Why is it still a problem !! The other countries of the allies places troop anywhere they feel like be that Greece is being invaded but they send troops to Syria or Malta. I have seen them sent all over the world rather than protect the country they were from.

I was optimistic because i havent played for a long time and the fronts seemed pretty solid but then: Romania and Polen have been my Puppets (bought DoD and wanted to test some of the new features) and during the war with the allies (an while still in peace with the sovjets) the romanians decided that it is more importand to guard the whole Axis-Sovjet border from the black see up to the east see instead of beating back an invasion of their own country (had to send an army from france down there to beat them back while the romanians where sitting in poland and elsewhere guarding a "peacfull" boarder between two froeign countrys).

As i said i played a little ahistoric because i bought DoD. Ans i have to say the most frustrating part of the game, maybe beiside the braindeath battle AI are the focus trees (and the way the AI is handling them) and unlogical events. There is no option you can pupped the whole of yugoslawia through the german focus (i could have annexd and released it) so i went with the puppets croatia and "rest"-yugoslawia. Just to see an event/focus fiering (dont looked it up because it does not matter) where two things can happen, first you will get a wargoal on your own subject because the gouverment changed or there will be a civil war where the game tells you that you cant intervine in this war "IN YOUR OWN SUBJECT" because WT is below 50. And after some years you loose your subject because the random focus selection said join the allies, wft? (the focus just cheks if YUG capitulated once and i took it via event -> no capitulation). You can just declare on the allies to prevent this.
And then Italy just declared a war alone (was at peace at that time) on Germany, Hungary, Coratia, Yugoslawia, Bulgaria, Romania and Poland because the focus said declare war on greece which was also a German subject (Yes Germany has a focus on Greece to so why cant Italy check the geopolitical situation befor declaring this war).

Personal opinion: the focus trees have to go (Edit: or at least be much more felxible, no fixed effect and a effect generation based on the geopolitical situation)! Introduce "Leader Personalitys" where you get your "gamerule breaking or event" stuff from. Lets say Musolini gets some sort of inferiority complex traid where he can choose a country on which he gets a wargoal whenever a european faschist country annexes another one (Edit: after rethinking it that can solve some of the issuses but not all, so keep the focuse trees but make them open on the effect sides to be able to keep up with an ahistorical game). (Greece looked like a compensation for the German took of france). Also i never undersut why vinchy france has to be a special event? Just give every country the option to install a puppet in an capitulated country if the faction support is over 30%.

Ps: useless fact, i came to PDX games because of Hoi 2 and to this forum because of HOi4 (played 2 and 3 and wanted to be informed about 4).

 

[Napoleonetniet]

Can't find the link anymore, was a few weeks ago and not really interested in looking through all the threads to find the exact post by Paradox.

think it mustve been that one about rollback of the recent pricechanges

that would only be for ppl buying in a specific period (right after the change) and has nothing to do with the content of any of the products.

 

[Bolshevik-]

think it mustve been that one about rollback of the recent pricechanges

that would only be for ppl buying in a specific period (this year) and has nothing to do with the content of any of the products.

Thanks, yeah that's the one. "For anyone who bought any of the games during this time (including during the summer sale) we will try to refund (if possible in the Steam platform) or reimburse with games of a value exceeding the difference."

 

[Vegtamskvitha]

Since it was mentioned a few times, and I just had now time to write something about this, I want to say something about AI improvement mods (expert AI or what else you might find).

For me there are two ways to play the game:
1.: Sandbox madness. Anything goes. But conquering the world as Mongolia with only cavalry gets boring after the third time, so this is where mods shine. Kaiserreich, Great War, Road to 56 or even just a new focus tree. And here I might use things like Expert AI.
2.: Pseudo campaign mode. I like campaigns and thus I use achievements as campaign objectives. Getting the achievement is for me the "mission complete" screen from other games like Star Craft. So, Expert AI is worthless in this case since it disables achievements and therefore the ability to finish the mission.

I know, the second reason sounds weird and maybe even stupid, but I want to believe that I am not the only one thinking in a way like this, and so I want PDS to fix the AI, not modders, no matter what a great job the modders might do, because the mods disable one of the two existing game modes for me.

 

[Swinds]

What I'd really like is paradox to come back to us all and post something. I am not the only one that has raised these issues in the forum by there is mainly silence.

I'd love a pined thread that can only be added to by paradox telling us how they intend to resolve the issues. This might list the issues being worked on and when they are fixed this would reassure the people that care about the game it is going in the right direction.

@podcat

 

[bowman2011]

What I'd really like is paradox to come back to us all and post something.

The best you will find on the forum is this outdated thread about the A.I. situation linked below. If you do intend to read it, keep in mind that this thread was merged with other complaint threads regarding the A.I. situation. So the context of many of the posts within will be off. Just goes to show the level of how much they care about customer feedback.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/the-great-official-ai-thread.988742/

I am not the only one that has raised these issues in the forum by there is mainly silence.

The forum was very active around release last year. But things have changed over the course of the past year. You're probably not going to get what you're after because what you're after would require Paradox to admit there is a foundational and game breaking issue with this game. And for them to admit that would hurt there revenue, which is the most important part of the game to them, not customer satisfaction. So long as ignorance surrounding the foundational issue with this game is high, Paradox will keep put and continue to make more money making DLC's.


------

 

[Mouts]

1.: Sandbox madness. Anything goes. But conquering the world as Mongolia with only cavalry gets boring after the third time

and so I want PDS to fix the AI.

This is the real problem.

Paradox should stop trying to please everyone by saying:

- Play any nation in the world... That's so cute...
- New 3D models and maps with cute bright colors (like if any of those features are important in a Grand Strategy game).

Only the 5 major countries in the conflict should be playable and the one you choose at the beginning is the one you stick with.

The only way the Hearts of Iron serie can solve all these problems in the future is by refocusing on what's really important for players and what challenges they expect to meet.

Put efforts on important features:

- Less micromanaging, but efficient grand strategy decisions.
- The right balance between simulation and sandbox.
- A real and simplified map with WWII feeling (not too much colors).

If I have to choose between a more simplified but also a more efficient game or one with more features, I choose efficiency all the way.

As long as everyone will want everything, we are gonna get everything, but in a real mess...

 

[Bugnr01]

What I'd really like is paradox to come back to us all and post something. I am not the only one that has raised these issues in the forum by there is mainly silence.
@podcat

They are on vacation now, so its less likely to hear somthing from them the next weeks. (Beisides someone is masochistic enought to discuss/fight with some forum members in his/her hollydays)

 

[Bugnr01]

This is the real problem.

Paradox should stop trying to please everyone by saying:

- Play any nation in the world... That's so cute...
- New 3D models and maps with cute bright colors (like if any of those features are important in a Grand Strategy game).

Only the 5 major countries in the conflict should be playable and the one you choose at the beginning is the one you stick with.

The only way the Hearts of Iron serie can solve all these problems in the future is by refocusing on what's really important for players and what challenges they expect to meet.

I disagreed and want to explain why (personal opinion):

• Beeing able to play as every Nation its not a problem and i like this part of pdx games in general (but i have to admit it could be a problem to make every/a lot of nations beeing worth playing through buffs)
• but it does not hurt the gameplay eighter and can attract/not hold of new players
• To select five major countries would also displease the hoi base very much and why blocking others (see above)
• i dont like it if posts includes something like "what players want" because i am a player and it seems i want a different game than you so dont involve me in your post.
• And that leeds to the last point why i had to disagree, i dont have a clue what you really want because you are so vage

Put efforts on important features:

- Less micromanaging, but efficient grand strategy decisions.
- The right balance between simulation and sandbox.
- A real and simplified map with WWII feeling (not too much colors).

If I have to choose between a more simplified but also a more efficient game or one with more features, I choose efficiency all the way.

As long as everyone will want everything, we are gonna get everything, but in a real mess...

 

[Lykanion]

However my biggest concern is that there is apparently much more work being put into other Paradox titles such as Stellaris and EU IV.

I don't see any of that. I don't know the exact team sizes, of course, but what I can tell from dev diaries and recent patches/DLCs, there's no big difference. In my opinion, HoI4 suffers from some design decisions that turned out to be suboptimal. They had problems during development of this game, leading to delays and the need to rework parts of the code immediately after release. This kind of thing slows down development and eats up effort. I see great dedication and big efforts from the development team, but following release they simply were in a worse position than EUIV or Stellaris.

 

[Sayd]

I also don't like AI for now, here are reasons:
1) I started hands off game with observe via GER, after start Ger spams LArm divisions. They don't have any equipment for it, but they do spam. Probably that is becouse of PDX way to force AI to calculate equipment requirements to produce. But it has many disadvanteges:
a) AI can't make any stocks of equipment
b) AI spends many manpower in reqruiting divisions without equiment to train, that manpower and probably already filled equipment are frozen until all required equipment is produced. At 1941-42 I noticed they had 46 MArm divisions without some eq in queue (mostly tank and motorized), holding 8900*46=409400 manpower and eq'. IMHO, that is a BUG.
Becouse of not making stocks of eq' they can't train -> BattlePlanner AI askes for more div -> queue more MArm -> can't train -> queue more -> ... etc.
After that GER has 0 manpower and turn on "bad" manpower law to had more and loose production efficiency to make eq', so they produce less!

2) So I can say: AI can't think strategy, AI now is mostly tactical:

a) Diplo AI mark borders to guard, mark VP/forts/etc to guard
b) BattlePlanner AI ask for more div to fill fronts marked by Diplo AI and fill train queue.
c) Eq' Production AI make eq' to fill train queue.

I also notices Prod.AI is always recalculate requirements and shuffle mil. factories. Sometime I see them doing 2 lines of LArm, one with best efficiency always loose their factories to something "better" prod.line, ofter after that change second LArm line got their factory too, but effieincy is lost! Same for other equipment, they shuffle factories without or with wrong calculation, they loose efficiency too often.

3) Trade AI is dumb. It can't trade to ideological enemy, imho. So they loose prod. efficiency when resources are short.


I can't speak of Battle AI, last 2 my SOV games GER didn't even try to attack me.

 

[Holy.Death]

Paradox should stop trying to please everyone by saying:

- Play any nation in the world... That's so cute...
[...]

Only the 5 major countries in the conflict should be playable and the one you choose at the beginning is the one you stick with.

There is no harm for allowing people to play any nation in the world, quite the contrary - it's a feature. The focus is already on major nations.

The only way the Hearts of Iron serie can solve all these problems in the future is by refocusing on what's really important for players and what challenges they expect to meet.

Put efforts on important features:

- Less micromanaging, but efficient grand strategy decisions.
- The right balance between simulation and sandbox.
- A real and simplified map with WWII feeling (not too much colors).

HoI4 already did a great step in the direction of micro-management reduction (at least comparing to HoI3). What it really needs at this point is better AI and clearer UI to help manage nation's war efforts. Colors I am fine with, as long as they help the UI part. Personally I think they wanted to put too much into a single map mode in an effort to reduce the number of map modes and ended up making it harder to see things as a result. I'd rather have more map modes but with clearer picture of what's going on.