Peace Conferences are the worse mechanic imaginable.

[LookingForOwls]

Peace conferences have to be the worst designed mechanic in the game. As part of Comintern, I (communist Netherlands) help in the war against the Axis by taking all of Northern Germany. When the peace conference rolls around, I'm sitting in 4th, with enough points on my turn to grab a few provinces. There is all told, about 8 factions above 100 points in this conference.

But my turn never arrives, because the number 1 and 2 (France and Soviets) pass the turn back and forth between them, gaining more points from the pass than they use to claim territory. 8 Factions, and all of the land goes to those 2.

I cannot imagine a worse way to handle this mechanic.

P.S. Not posting this in the bug section since this is evidently working as intended. Just what kind of person would intend for this effect is just beyond me.

 

[kettyo]

Were they run by AI or people?

Afaik the AI doesn't do the warscore ping-pong exploit.

 

[Vlad123]

Regardless of whether AI now uses this trick or not, peace conferences (like the world treasure) are mechanical, not ugly, but HORRIBLE! On hoi2 / hoi3 the system was managed much better.
On hoi2 and hoi3 existed, "belligerence". A score that increased when you declared war (or through specific decisions or events) and democracies could declare war if you had total belligerence, so democracies could declare war ONLY TO THOSE WHO HAD PRODUCED "BELLIGERANCE", a remnant remained in hoi4, where the democracies cannot declare war on those who produced 0 WT. Regarding the peace conferences, just resume hoi2: You decide whether to make separate peace or peace by faction, if you are Germany and you are at war ONLY with France, you can safely ask for two provinces for you, two for your Italian ally and make peace, without necessarily having to collapse the French state. Or: did you capture egypt, malta, gibraltar and france and capitulate? With that war score, you make Poland a puppet / annex whatever you want from Poland, take some provinces, you have French, ask for war repairs to the UK and make peace. This "total war" system can be fine in multiplayer, where everything can change. But a good player, if he has to invade the USA to have peace with the allies (and EVERYONE knows what a nightmare it is to invade the USA) will often start a new game, because 1-2 years to invade the usa (+ 100 atomic bombs) will not play them!

 

[Bunnytob]

It would perhaps be slightly better if war participation was not mostly decided by how many casualties you incurred...
(Seriously, why do casualties inflicted play absolutely no role in war score?)

But yeah. This is a known problem and... short of a bit of modding, it's not gonna get much better.

 

[SchwarzKatze]

Afaik the AI doesn't do the warscore ping-pong exploit.

They don't do it intentionally, but unless the third place has a war score not far from the second place, the first two countries will take 90% of the land because the game passes the round to whichever country that has the highest score at that time instead of a proper round-robin.

And peace conference is literally bugged: the "Turn" never progresses. It's been stuck in permanent Turn 1 for years now, not just the in the in game UI but the ai metrics log as well

 

[User29]

I hate being the guy who says use mods but unless I'm going for a specific achievement HoI 4 REQUIRES Player led peace conference mod imho.

It's ridiculous that the pay-off of the entire game, the thing you were working towards for all the warring is one of the worst built mechanics in the game. It's not so much that it's so bad that really irks me, it's that the game has been out for so many years and has never been reworked, small tweaks are nowhere near enough, the system itself is just not good

 

[kettyo]

They don't do it intentionally, but unless the third place has a war score not far from the second place, the first two countries will take 90% of the land because the game passes the round to whichever country that has the highest score at that time instead of a proper round-robin.

That's a different thing and probably intended, it's debatable of course whether it's a good mechanic.

I thought we are talking about the two top scorers pass to each other to get infinite warscore and then the rest get zero.

The former thing can at least can be worked around by not joining the strongman's faction.

 

[Metz]

There should be some sort of way to mark ones interest in a state like in EU4 so that when the peace conference arrives, things would be more straightforward for everyone.

Also you should be able to ask for a state or a deal that someone else made by offering them the equivalent amount of points for it. They can then either accept it or reject it.

You should also be able to assign a ruling party for countries that lost.

 

[Vlad123]

There should be some sort of way to mark ones interest in a state like in EU4 so that when the peace conference arrives, things would be more straightforward for everyone.

Also you should be able to ask for a state or a deal that someone else made by offering them the equivalent amount of points for it. They can then either accept it or reject it.

You should also be able to assign a ruling party for countries that lost.

ironically this, on hoi2 are present, i not understant why paradox remove the good features from their game

 

[kettyo]

There should be some sort of way to mark ones interest in a state like in EU4 so that when the peace conference arrives, things would be more straightforward for everyone

Isn't claiming should do just this?

 

[Earl Grey Tea]

This is why the Player Led Peace Conferences mod is amazing.