Ran the board in record time--

[MarkRNY]

Easiest game I ever had. It was virtually all over by 1943, and I was purposely going slow/historical. Playing as US (because why would you not?). Infantry and armored divisions all at 30w, because the number of men/tanks at 30w is closest to historical (so much for the perfect Facebook...uh..."Meta"). Destroyed the running dog Japanese navy by the end of 42, as soon as I could catch them even though I didn't move for 6 months after "Pearl Harbor". Retook New Guinea and the Philippines by April of 43. Landed in N. Africa and destroyed what was left of the Vichy, Italians and Germans by March of 43, with only a few thousand casualties. The Italians went Socialist and retook Italy with the UK by June of 43. I didn't bother landing in France because it was all over anyway.

What did Paradox do? For a plane designer? It's all designer and no game. I had Germany up one notch, Italy and Japan up two notches and it was like fighting Woody Allen. Unless this was a one-off, the only possible way to get a challenging game that I see is as the Axis. Was this the intent?

Forget the designers and Ethiopia/Switzerland and work on the game. They're like shiny objects to temporarily distract from lack of substance.

Rant over.

 

[marcelo r. r.]

neither germany, u did need to use sliders on UK/USA/SOV to find some challenge as germany.

 

[MarkRNY]

My point is that it's gotten less challenging since the patch/BBA. The game was almost over when, pre-BBA, it was just getting started. The game isn't the designers. It's a strategy game. I wish they'd concentrate on that.

 

[stormsand9]

On this game you played, can I ask when you took the focus "The Giant wakes"?

 

[cjhoser]

Yes the AI is too easy for most of us but somehow the vast player base loses to AI. It baffles me but I have also been playing since HOI2...

I tend to only play historically and invade at historical dates.

 

[kettyo]

Playing the most powerful country against AI isn't really indicative

 

[Krey_Lollipop]

I don't think I've ever played a full game as the US. Thing is, the way the game is designed, a good player will snowball much more than the AI, and if you then also have the most powerful start in the game...

But that isn't to say the game is poorly designed. It's a game where you can play as any country, and wouldn't that be boring if some countries neither had content nor the power to do anything? Just imagine how excruciatingly impossible Bhutan would be if the US was challenging. So in that sense I think the Ethiopian focus tree is the real substance, and proper balancing the shiny object they use to hide the lack of substance elsewhere coughFinlandcough.

I do realize that I'm not being very helpful though, so here are some other things you can do:

• Install mods like Expert AI
• Crank up the difficulty and the buffs/nerfs even more
• Experiment with custom scenarios. A monarchist UK and a fascist Canada might be a good start as both could ally with Germany right on your border.
• Play multiplayer

Or just don't play as the US. Maybe the Philippines, Australia or Canada would be a better pick?

 

[Joshua Happytree]

destroyed what was left of the Vichy, Italians and Germans by March of 43, with only a few thousand casualties.

Mere few thousand casualties for destroying Vichy AND Italy AND Germany... 8-0

 

[MarkRNY]

On this game you played, can I ask when you took the focus "The Giant wakes"?

After Germany took France.

 

[MarkRNY]

Playing the most powerful country against AI isn't really indicative

Actually, it is, at least the way I play it. I handicap myself--destroy the ships that were destroyed at Pearl Harbor, give Japan/Germany 6 to 8 months to run amok, etc. Also, what I found to have gotten much easier would apply to any Allied major or maybe any major, and there are very few who want to play as Switzerland or Ethiopia. Is that what HOI4's about now? Conquering the world as Switzerland and designers? Then it's a fantasy game.

They were headed in the right direction, imo, with NSB, except for the tank designer. Concentrate on warfare rather than designers and minors. The naval aspect was pretty bad before. Now it's a matter of catching them before they get away and whittling them down. As to the land aspect, it could be somewhat challenging before BBA. Now I just point my troops in the right direction and see green lights everywhere. If I were Paradox I'd concentrate on improving the naval game, ditching the combat width "perfect meta" quest and keeping it historical (30w is the closest to historical for most majors), and implementing a decent OOB structure. It doesn't have to be as detailed as HOI3, but at least have Theater/Army Group/Army/Corp.

 

[Joshua Happytree]

keeping it historical (30w is the closest to historical for most majors), and implementing a decent OOB structure. It doesn't have to be as detailed as HOI3, but at least have Theater/Army Group/Army/Corp

1. You basically want HoI3 repeated. HoI4 is certainly very much different from HoI3 and for a reason.
2. IMO HoI4 is interesting exactly because of a wealth of areas where one can optimize, try different approaches, math model something etc. If it's just about moving chess pieces of fixed capabilities on the map then why not play HoI3? Still playable.

I just point my troops in the right direction and see green lights everywhere ... 30w is the closest to historical for most majors

1. Have you taken over Soviet Union?
2. Don't know about historicity yet 30-33 width DIVs are more or less the most powerful DIVs that are still convenient to use (see the terrain width). So you took the easiest country with industrial and resource capacity at the start much beyond those of any other nation in HoI4, built so mighty DIVs that AI is not even close to replicate and say HoI4 is too easy to play in SP?
3. Certainly HoI4 is easy in SP -- that's no news. If minors are to be playable with a sensible result rather than cowering and trying to be invisible on the map then playing USA ought to be super-easy. You want USA to be a challenge without sliders? Then you may well simply erase every other nation on the map except may be the Soviet Union. Even Germany would be too easy to crush. After all that was exactly what happened IRL.

 

[PorkchopSandwiches247]

It really is pretty shocking theres no Pearl Harbor event, considering how important it was historically. I guess it is difficult to simulate within game mechanics though, not sure how it would play out.

But yeah if you want to play as a major with some actual difficulty go with France. Theyre much more of a challenge but at the same time dont feel restrictively weak. I find them to have the most variety of paths too if you dont want to go strict historical.

 

[MarkRNY]

It really is pretty shocking theres no Pearl Harbor event, considering how important it was historically. I guess it is difficult to simulate within game mechanics though, not sure how it would play out.

But yeah if you want to play as a major with some actual difficulty go with France. Theyre much more of a challenge but at the same time dont feel restrictively weak. I find them to have the most variety of paths too if you dont want to go strict historical.

My original intent wasn't to critique HOI4 as a game. It was to point out that BBA seems to have made it much easier than it was pre-BBA. I never won a game so easily as I did my last BBA game, even after handicapping myself and buffing the Axis. I don't see how any Allied major, specifically the US or the UK, can lose now. Italy takes Ethiopia, Ethiopia revolts at some point and North Africa is toast, Italy goes Socialist and joins the Allies, the Japanese fleet are either nowhere or run away, and my land troops seem invincible. That wasn't the case before. I hope Paradox corrects this.

As to what someone posted earlier--I don't want to see a return to HOI3. I just don't know why they threw the baby out with the bathwater. Imo, SOME kind of OOB should still be present, the game should focus more on combat, etc. Alternate history should be an option, but a somewhat historical/reality-based game should be an option too. That's all.

 

[Joshua Happytree]

SOME kind of OOB should still be present

You probably mean TOE. OOB is what force composition and in what condition each adversary has at the beginning of a specific battle. If you mean HoI4 DIV templates it's TOE.

I just don't know why they threw the baby out with the bathwater.

Steam sales estimates give HoI4 sales at about or over 5M units. May be PDX has not threw no nothing but rather found a gold mine?

 

[Gyrvendal]

Use Expert AI mod or one of the overhaul mods. The Expert AI mod is pretty cool in that it doesn't change the gameplay in any way, just makes the AI way more competitive (no cheating, it will just play much more like a player would, optimizing tech choices, build order, pp usage, division templates, etc).

 

[FlinzP]

I still think AI is alright for standard player. There is just few things that would hugely improve game without even changing much. First, AI needs some help with dlc mechanics as every dlc it falls little more behind of players. Second, AI needs to make more tanks, anti air, alright ships and such efficieny moves. Since release infantry attack have been meatginder move for AI. Third, AI still has very poor idea defending points, especially coastal cities with ports and rarely does serious counter attacks to reclaim them. Currently you just need few offensive divisions to break single layer infantryline and storm towards capital.

 

[PorkchopSandwiches247]

My original intent wasn't to critique HOI4 as a game. It was to point out that BBA seems to have made it much easier than it was pre-BBA. I never won a game so easily as I did my last BBA game, even after handicapping myself and buffing the Axis. I don't see how any Allied major, specifically the US or the UK, can lose now. Italy takes Ethiopia, Ethiopia revolts at some point and North Africa is toast, Italy goes Socialist and joins the Allies, the Japanese fleet are either nowhere or run away, and my land troops seem invincible. That wasn't the case before. I hope Paradox corrects this.

As to what someone posted earlier--I don't want to see a return to HOI3. I just don't know why they threw the baby out with the bathwater. Imo, SOME kind of OOB should still be present, the game should focus more on combat, etc. Alternate history should be an option, but a somewhat historical/reality-based game should be an option too. That's all.

Yeah, the AI cant handle Italy’s new mechanics like at all. I also think that the Ethiopia “in war forever but in exile” thing really hamstrings Italy’s growth badly, and the newer supply mechanics completely break Japan in China…western China is such impossibly low supply that they just bleed equipment and never finish the war.

By the time the USA can enter the war from a historical timeline, all their enemies have been ground down to a nub.

 

[MarkRNY]

Yeah, the AI cant handle Italy’s new mechanics like at all. I also think that the Ethiopia “in war forever but in exile” thing really hamstrings Italy’s growth badly, and the newer supply mechanics completely break Japan in China…western China is such impossibly low supply that they just bleed equipment and never finish the war.

By the time the USA can enter the war from a historical timeline, all their enemies have been ground down to a nub.

Yeah. This was my original point. I think that Italy and "MEGA" (Make Ethiopia Great Again) have made it impossible for the Western Allies to lose. My land forces just chew through the AI also. This wasn't the case before.

 

[MarkRNY]

Use Expert AI mod or one of the overhaul mods. The Expert AI mod is pretty cool in that it doesn't change the gameplay in any way, just makes the AI way more competitive (no cheating, it will just play much more like a player would, optimizing tech choices, build order, pp usage, division templates, etc).

I will try Expert AI. Thanks.

 

[Krey_Lollipop]

I feel like I have to bring up the question of what words like strategy, historical and easy really mean to you, as I've read a bit more and think we have quite different views.

To me the strategy in HoI4 is picking a country, understanding the situation they're in, setting goals for the campaign and then formulating plans to achieve them. And in this regard focus trees and designers are amazing because they open up new routes and allow you to tailor your army to the challenge your nation is facing. And I should also add that I play almost exclusively ahistorically as minors. And yes I've played as Switzerland, but that was before BBA.

Historical is tougher for me to define. And overall it's hard to say, because history and games are apples & oranges. Like, for things to play out the way they did in our history, you often have to tweak reality a bit, or railroad parts that just wouldn't happen otherwise, at the cost of interactivity. What I can say is that I don't really care about dates, so in my eyes your playthrough was as historical as it gets.

As for easy I can't give a good comment since I only started playing BBA this very week (got it at launch, but I reverted because it was unstable for me). But what I can say is that to me it doesn't feel like the game has gotten easier, if anything I'd assume the opposite now that Italy has its new focus tree. What I have noticed though, is that because of Ethiopia and the civil war, once you start to win over Italy, they fall faster and they fall harder. And because Italy is vital to Germany in this game it quickly dominoes. So yes, you do win faster, but I wouldn't call what I've seen easier. I can see how this would change depending on how you define easy though.

On another note, you may also want to check out the BlackICE mod. I haven't tried it myself, but back during the HoI3 days it used to have a good reputation for delivering a tougher, more historical experience.