I haven't played the game in over a year but decided to give it another shot, figuring all the new War Effort patches demonstrate the HOI4 team has turned a corner and is focusing on improving the game rather than just releasing buggy feature-bloated expansion after expansion. Although the War Effort patches are truly very welcome, unfortunately I still believe, for all the PDX team's hard work, they have lost the thread of what made the game game really immersive.
Example: I really hate playing as Axis Canada or Mexico. Even when I turn off supplies nodes to my allies, they insist on sending their divisions, which become useless on my shores without supplies... if they even survive the journey. They clog the roads, without supplies, coming in greater in greater numbers. Germans, Romanians, Italian colonial troops. The AI dumps piles of mismatched out-of-supply units, still unable to functionally distinguish the roles of any of them (panzers, regular infantry, mountaineers). Usually they're sunk en route. Tremendous casualties for virtually no logical reason. Pulls me right out of the game every time. What a waste of a Focus Tree branch.
You can almost feel the simple calculations spinning toward the conclusion of sending ship after ship of panzer divisions to naval invade the Congo, allowing my British Navy to pick off thousands. Is that immersion? Is immersion giving an "Iron Cross, Second Class" icon to a division commander (like, what does that even represent)?
I submit immersion is the feeling that AI countries have real strategies and aims, performing as intelligent, independent actors with competing motivations and goals.
Hearing now about MIO as the next feature, I have to say - I am out. I'll keep an eye on the War Effort patches, but I am going to put the game back on the shelf again. Caveat emptor. Maybe it will be better someday.
How do others square this? Do you just avoid certain playstyles (e.g. being the helpful minor ally) entirely? What makes the game immersive to you?
Example: I really hate playing as Axis Canada or Mexico. Even when I turn off supplies nodes to my allies, they insist on sending their divisions, which become useless on my shores without supplies... if they even survive the journey. They clog the roads, without supplies, coming in greater in greater numbers. Germans, Romanians, Italian colonial troops. The AI dumps piles of mismatched out-of-supply units, still unable to functionally distinguish the roles of any of them (panzers, regular infantry, mountaineers). Usually they're sunk en route. Tremendous casualties for virtually no logical reason. Pulls me right out of the game every time. What a waste of a Focus Tree branch.
You can almost feel the simple calculations spinning toward the conclusion of sending ship after ship of panzer divisions to naval invade the Congo, allowing my British Navy to pick off thousands. Is that immersion? Is immersion giving an "Iron Cross, Second Class" icon to a division commander (like, what does that even represent)?
I submit immersion is the feeling that AI countries have real strategies and aims, performing as intelligent, independent actors with competing motivations and goals.
Hearing now about MIO as the next feature, I have to say - I am out. I'll keep an eye on the War Effort patches, but I am going to put the game back on the shelf again. Caveat emptor. Maybe it will be better someday.
How do others square this? Do you just avoid certain playstyles (e.g. being the helpful minor ally) entirely? What makes the game immersive to you?
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