Nice word for the devs

[denisKhan]

I stand today as a 300+ hours proud hoi4 player against all the hate that a part of our community is throwing against the devs.

Yes the AI is not performing at its best but how can some people affirm that it didn't and cannot get better. How can others state that the game hasn't evolved since release. Many people trash on the 1.3 update because Germany is suffering from the resources change. They seem to not notice that the AI became capable of encircling, retreating, escaping from encirclements and launching large-scale operations. I would add on a personal note that contrarily to what certain people say, Germany is not the main protagonist of Hoi4. Should I remind them that Hoi4 is a ww2 sandbox???!!! It is merely one of the 7 majors and I have already seen world wars started by Spain, Japan, England and the USSR.
Back to our main topic. I have had 3 long-runs with the USSR this year, all played down differently:
-In 1.1, Germany declared war on me with no divisions on the border, they noticed me only as I walked in Berlin. Moreover, they hadn't secured the Western front.
-In 1.2, Germany launched Barbarossa in 1940. I was thus suffering from the Purge's penalties. I managed to stop the Wehrmacht in a Stalingrad like battle at Dnipropetrovsk. It then took me a year and a half to push them back into capitulation. I also liberated Western Europe which had been occupied by the Axis.
-In 1.3 (veteran difficulty), Germany had secured Western Europe by 1939 and declared war on me in 1941. Their attack was made of two armoured spearheads which would attempt to drive deep in my territory. The first one went straight into Brest and rushed Minsk, the second poured into Bucovina and drove North. I was caught completely by surprise. Germany even managed to encircle for a brief moment one of my armies situated in the Lwow area. If I hadn't used my tank divisions to rip their advance, I would've found myself in Moscow. However I must agree that the German AI seems weeker in the 1.3 patch on the long-run: as their first spearhead stalled west of Minsk and as they failed to develop momentum near Lwow, I launched a counter-offensive, taking Ostpreussen under my grip.
The armoured spearheads consequently retreated to their initial positions. The front entered a stalemate.
This allowed me to focus on the Far-East where Japan beat China and declared war on me. As I had to retreat my 24 divisions strong Siberian army which faced the full might of the Japanese army and Chinese manpower, the AI showed some progress again : it never advanced in winter and stopped when had secured all my Eastern tungsten reserves rather than going on and suffering from useless attrition.
The war went on and I managed to beat both powers in two years.

It is clear that progress has been made, that the AI is way better than it was, so this is why @podcat I thank all your team for the nice work!
There are people who really appreciate and understand the hard work it is to build a game as complex as Hoi4!

 

[therealpete]

I did have on my Germany save see my AI general take two armored divisions through the soviet lines like a proper blitzkrieg... That was pretty cool to watch.

 

[14lokk1]

I stand today as a 300+ hours proud hoi4 player against all the hate that a part of our community is throwing against the devs.

Yes the AI is not performing at its best but how can some people affirm that it didn't and cannot get better. How can others state that the game hasn't evolved since release. Many people trash on the 1.3 update because Germany is suffering from the resources change. They seem to not notice that the AI became capable of encircling, retreating, escaping from encirclements and launching large-scale operations. I would add on a personal note that contrarily to what certain people say, Germany is not the main protagonist of Hoi4. Should I remind them that Hoi4 is a ww2 sandbox???!!! It is merely one of the 7 majors and I have already seen world wars started by Spain, Japan, England and the USSR.
Back to our main topic. I have had 3 long-runs with the USSR this year, all played down differently:
-In 1.1, Germany declared war on me with no divisions on the border, they noticed me only as I walked in Berlin. Moreover, they hadn't secured the Western front.
-In 1.2, Germany launched Barbarossa in 1940. I was thus suffering from the Purge's penalties. I managed to stop the Wehrmacht in a Stalingrad like battle at Dnipropetrovsk. It then took me a year and a half to push them back into capitulation. I also liberated Western Europe which had been occupied by the Axis.
-In 1.3 (veteran difficulty), Germany had secured Western Europe by 1939 and declared war on me in 1941. Their attack was made of two armoured spearheads which would attempt to drive deep in my territory. The first one went straight into Brest and rushed Minsk, the second poured into Bucovina and drove North. I was caught completely by surprise. Germany even managed to encircle for a brief moment one of my armies situated in the Lwow area. If I hadn't used my tank divisions to rip their advance, I would've found myself in Moscow. However I must agree that the German AI seems weeker in the 1.3 patch on the long-run: as their first spearhead stalled west of Minsk and as they failed to develop momentum near Lwow, I launched a counter-offensive, taking Ostpreussen under my grip.
The armoured spearheads consequently retreated to their initial positions. The front entered a stalemate.
This allowed me to focus on the Far-East where Japan beat China and declared war on me. As I had to retreat my 24 divisions strong Siberian army which faced the full might of the Japanese army and Chinese manpower, the AI showed some progress again : it never advanced in winter and stopped when had secured all my Eastern tungsten reserves rather than going on and suffering from useless attrition.
The war went on and I managed to beat both powers in two years.

It is clear that progress has been made, that the AI is way better than it was, so this is why @podcat I thank all your team for the nice work!
There are people who really appreciate and understand the hard work it is to build a game as complex as Hoi4!

I don't think the issue was ever 'is there progress', I think it's always been 'Why was the game released in such a state' and 'the rate of progress is too slow'…

 

[Chengar Qordath]

 

[lihp]

I stand today as a 300+ hours proud hoi4 player <snip>

I suggest some more hours, as well as some more Paradox game launches.

 

[Gamer_1745]

Sorry,

I just don't get all the hate for someone who likes the game. They want to thank the Devs, they should. His views on his experience are no more right or wrong than yours and you can make as many threads sharing what is not working right in your game as you want, why disagree here? I happen to agree that the AI is much improved. Before you say or think I am just some fanboy I do think it still needs more improvement, but this thread should be a place to express how much improvement has been made. I get the impression most think no significant changes for the better have been made since release. This is wrong, there have been.


Add Aluminum in Asia

 

[lihp]

Sorry,

I just don't get all the hate for someone who likes the game.
<snip>
Add Aluminum in Asia

Where is hate in this thread? I dont understand at all how anyone can see hate so far here. Please point me at it?

PS (since I agree): Add Aluminum in Asia

 

[Misaka_Complex]

The AI isn't the only problem, the UI for naval combat is arguably even worse.

 

[Gamer_1745]

Where is hate in this thread? I dont understand at all how anyone can see hate so far here. Please point me at it?

PS (since I agree): Add Aluminum in Asia

The Respectfully Disagrees were much higher than Agree when I posted and the 'Leave Britney (Devs) Alone' video. I see as the 'hate'.

 

[Misaka_Complex]

The Respectfully Disagrees were much higher than Agree when I posted and the 'Leave Britney (Devs) Alone' video. I see as the 'hate'.

So you take disagreement as hate?

 

[lihp]

The Respectfully Disagrees were much higher than Agree when I posted and the 'Leave Britney (Devs) Alone' video. I see as the 'hate'.

Happens in a democracy...

Add Aluminum in Asia

 

[spartansociety]

I think the point of the thread was for those interested to discuss the positives though, not hard on about the negatives like all the other threads.

 

[lihp]

I think the point of the thread was for those interested to discuss the positives though, not hard on about the negatives like all the other threads.

Ok, I try to understand it:

• there are critical threads, where everyone discusses
• there are threads only for positives, where critical opinions are not wanted/allowed

Thats what you are telling?

 

[denisKhan]

I think the point of the thread was for those interested to discuss the positives though, not hard on about the negatives like all the other threads.

Yes absolutely, and because some people don't seem to understand this I will throw another example to them: in my first 1.3 Germany run I was surprised to see the Allies AI not launching their casual small naval invasion spam like in earlier versions. I had conquered Britain by 1941 but for some reason the Raj was considered a Major, Japan was moving slowly so I crossed the USSR to attack Pakistan. Later the same year, the USA joined the war and here again I was very surprised that the AI launched a large-scale naval invasion in 1942. The US army landed in Bordeaux with around 40 divisions, 3 were heavy tanks!

 

[CharlieFox]

I cannot speak for all the community,but I think that rather than "hating the devs" many are just disappointed by the slow rate at which improvements and fixes are coming to the game.

 

[smythw]

I don't think there is much 'hate'. In my own case certainly, there is only frustration and disappointment, and the devs are probably the last people at PI that anything should be targeted at. Much more likely to be marketing and senior management who call the shots and make the kind of decisions that annoy the fan-base(e.g. releasing half finished games, DLC policies etc).

That said, paying customers have the right to complain when they don't receive goods of reasonable quality. The majority of us on this forum want PI to become bigger and more successful so they can make more of the games we like and better games than they have done in the past, and sometimes friends need to be frank and honest and point out some basic truths. If you think the quality of the released products is going down hill the past few years, or that you're not getting value for money and you don't make it clear to them, then expect the quality and value to continue to reduce in future.

People point the finger at 'AI problems' but digging through some of the code, it is clear that for strategic issues, there is actually very little intelligence whatsoever. I kept wondering why Italy would attack much stronger powers all at the same time when playing an a-historical game. Digging through the national focus trees, it's clear that rather than do any calculations of likelihood of success, the computer simply picks a path at random which often leads to it declaring war on random countries as it heads down the focus tree. When the NF is complete, it just declares war, no preparation, ensuring it has armies in the right place, etc. If I wrote that quality of code in my own job, I'd be fired. If they insisted I did so, I'd leave.

Anyway, Italy declares on the UK or France, which are much larger and stronger powers, starts to lose badly, then it just picks the next target off it's focus tree, which is often Greece or similar. 70 days later when it declares on it's next target, it's problems just get worse. It's certainly a random sandbox, but now I know a bit about whats going on under the hood, I've no desire to spend hours setting up my nation through a few years of peace, just to see dozens of countries start to make idiotic decisions because a focus tree said it must declare war.

 

[spartansociety]

Ok, I try to understand it:

• there are critical threads, where everyone discusses
• there are threads only for positives, where critical opinions are not wanted/allowed

Thats what you are telling?

Yep, exactly. Having threads where disliked elements are criticised is fine. But...they don't have to be every single bloody thread. It gets old.

 

[spartansociety]

Ok here is one. I was way too overconfident. As the USSR I had maxed the axis buffs and was impatient to start fighting....so I took Afghanistan which started war with the allies, then Germany declared on me. Despite micro on the fronts and much better divisions I started losing as the Allies attacking me on multiple fronts while the Germans managed to survive for the most part. I missed an attack in the South that undid much of my gains in Germany....maybe I could have won still, but I was starting to lose equipment etc and the Americans were arriving in large numbers. I chalk this up as a SP loss.

 

[lihp]

Yes absolutely, and because some people don't seem to understand this I will throw another example to them: in my first 1.3 Germany run I was surprised to see the Allies AI not launching their casual small naval invasion spam like in earlier versions. I had conquered Britain by 1941 but for some reason the Raj was considered a Major, Japan was moving slowly so I crossed the USSR to attack Pakistan. Later the same year, the USA joined the war and here again I was very surprised that the AI launched a large-scale naval invasion in 1942. The US army landed in Bordeaux with around 40 divisions, 3 were heavy tanks!

Thank you for the clarification. I gladly tune in to do the OP that favor:

1. There were huge improvements in the overall handling of units. Most of the worst and most annoying handlings have been removed and optimized. I appreciate that work alot.
2. For one, soon (TM) two DLCs, which add to the gameplay.
3. There are specific improvements in optimized positioning of units as well as the battle planer. Great work.
4. Considering the start, the AI now is well capable of clearing pockets and way better in handling large fronts. Good job
5. Adding the army priority arrows was cool, since it now allows to set a more cautious great front and stil use pushing spearheads. Feels good and works well!
6. Apart from that, the battle planer is something really great. Despite some hickups, the ability to draw detailed battle plans, which are actually executed is really cool. And I do enjoy the experience a real lot. The single most best job over all HOI versions!

Unfortunately I have an issue in assigning each single unit of expeditionary force to my armies. After the last drive with more than 300+ assignments neccessary, I simply cant do it anymore due to a pain in my elbow (actually true). Also I beg your pardon I didnt buy the DLC, since I prefer - right now - the BICE mod, which feels more immersive to me. Overall great stuff!

Now in all due respect, I am back to HOI3 with HPP, where I can handle air, naval and land units together, where I bought the DLCs, where I got more detailed maps, where right now I am forced to do Weserübung due to my lack of metal, where I can set my armies to defensive, passive or Blitz, load up historic battle plans,...

While at it: can someone please just add the battle planer functionality to HOI3 please?

Add Aluminum to Asia.

 

[lihp]

Yep, exactly. Having threads where disliked elements are criticised is fine. But...they don't have to be every single bloody thread. It gets old.

Sorry I lack words.

*facepalm*

Add Aluminum to Asia.