Mar 25, 2020

Hearts of Iron IV - Addaway

Hi everyone! We are still in quarantine at home working on the patch, so time for another update!

Its a meaty chunk of balance fixes, bugfixes and mod support. Also there are some special highlights after I recommend to read up on as we are looking for feedback there. So, without further ado...

##################################
# Balance
##################################
- operations will now higher cost as you execute same operation on same targets (default is 15%. rescue operation is still 0%. Some exceptions are 25%)
- neutral countries no longer allowed to create collaborations
- compliance is now halved (instead of factored by 75%) when a state controller is changed
- destroying the counter-revolution now prevents France from descending into another civil war against the fascists from low stability again
- Danzig and Memel are no longer required for forming Poland-Lithuania
- Memel is no longer required for forming the United Baltic States
- Political violence can no longer return to France if France has capitulated
- unprepared offensive modifier in SCW now also affect CAS impacts
- Decrease Base manpower lost in resistance attack to 1.5% from 2.5%
- Along with Niceto Alcalá-Zamora as a leader, the Republicans will now, after the 1936 elections, receive a National Spirit reducing their political power income. Along with Zamora's trait and various tweaks and adjustments made to the political power gained through events and Republican focuses, this should make the flow of Garrison Control fighting before the SCW much more natural. Now, Nationalists get an initial advantage and a 'head start', but if the Republicans correctly focus on delaying the civil war initially, they will be rewarded and eventually be able to take more states back from the Nationalists than if they focus on taking states from the very start. Delaying the civil war should therefore be more enticing as a strategy.
- Increased tech stealing bonuses to 300% from 200%
- Increased tech stealing extra bonus outcomes to also give either 1 or 2 year ahead of time bonuses also
- Tech stealing can now unlock techs, uses weights on tech picking to prefer more up to date and equipment for a more rewarding bonus

##################################
# Stability & Performance
##################################
- Fixed CTD on Windows related to flag atlas texture update
- Fix performance issue when creating dynamic tags from targeted decisions.

##################################
# UI
##################################
- French Focuses bypassed by not having an inefficient economy now correctly display that fact
- fixed is_on_continent trigger tooltip being reversed
- Fix units when retreating towards a tile while in multiple combats has a wrong arrow visually
- Clear all province colors when switching to root out resistance map mode
- Unified achievements tooltips during game setup and in-game so that the in-game button shows the same details as game setup.
- Corrected achievement UI to be disabled when not logged in with necessary accounts, with explanation added to tooltip.
- fixed "Expand Influence in state" decisions increasing the influence over max and causing ui to show wrong decision icons
- Fixed Communal Autarky focus showing an effect tooltip twice.

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# AI
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- fixed ai not taking zero cost decisions if it has negative pp
- ai will be less reluctant to create collaborations if it already has some
- GER now will try to put more armor to low countries instead of france border
- Ai now able to send volunteer airwings again (optimization broke it in 1.8.1)

##################################
# Modding
##################################
- scripted effects with names that start with "d_" (example d_test_effect) now will be available as a console command) example usages are in zzz_debug_effects.txt
- added mtth database that allows mean_time_to_happen/ai_will_do structure as if they were variables
- added script profile scopes for ideas
- fixed country_resource_cost modifiers for real
- Fixed occurences of limit in an else effect not being reported as an error
- added dirty = var_name for scripted windows. if this variable name is set, the game will check if the value of that variable is changed before updating scripted windows to see if it needs to update the gui. by default guis are updated every hour/with every command. now if a change has been made that would affect the scripted gui, you can just change/increase a variable to force an update and improve performance
- Errors that cause the invalid map data error are now preffixed with MAP_ERROR
- release release_puppet release_autonomy effects no longer changes the controller if the state is controlled by a non-ally country.
- you can specify a list of effects under spawn_civil_war effect now, which will be executed under new civil war country
- added release_on_controlled release_puppet_on_controlled effects that also works if on your controlled states

##################################
# Database
##################################
- fixed a missing Czech airwing name
- Spanish focus "Demand French North Africa" now also gives Algerian Desert.
- Portugal will not be able to complete "Intervention in Spain" or "Nationalist Intervention" if it is in a faction with Spain.
- Free French coup in territory operations should now only be available against the country actually occupying that territory
- Spanish POUM will no longer share the same game rules as Anarchist Spain. They will be able to join factions, boost ideology and puppet nations.
- fixed a number of edge cases in the Munich conference logic (and probably introduced a number of new edge cases, happy hunting!)
- Tito should no longer be able to serve as chief of army if he is dead
- Added Niceto Niceto Alcalá-Zamora as the initial leader of Spain in 1936, along with an event to replace him with Manuel Azaña in April 1936.

##################################
# Bugfix
##################################
- Fix targeted legitimacy daily decision not giving 0.05 legitimacy
- fixed propaganda against warmonger decision not having lower cost against neighbors
- Fix Missing localization tag for synthetic refineries when hovering over state resources
- Fix steal naval blueprint removing civilian instead of a navy infiltration token
- invalid operations (target is now ally etc) are now cancelled even if they are prepared
- France should now only be able to invite a country once into the non-intervention committee
- fixed two incorrect tags in a French focus
- fixed an issue preventing Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck from being recruited
- Wilno will now become a core when forming the United Baltic States or Poland Lithuania
- Nationalist Spain will no longer be offered to move their capital to Madrid if their capital is already Madrid
- Carlist Spain should now have access to a naval advisor
- Solved issue with the end of SCW news event having multiple event options
- fixed missing text in the Italian focus Develop the Benghasi Oil Fields
- Mexico should no longer be able to send shipments to Spain if the war is over
- Tooltip for Alan Turing should now make more sense
- it is no longer possible to run an operation to capture cyphers if the target country is already fully decrypted
- fixed not properly creating collaborations in some cases involving states that are controlled but not owned
- Fixed an exploit that allows you to control another country that was being controlled Back in the previous Game
- fixed missing icon and description for a hidden tech
- fixed activate_targeted_decision & remove_targeted_decision not working properly for some cases of state targeted decisions
- Dynamic tag equipment and tech names fallback to original/base country tag
- Fixed scope so that Navarra, if owned by the Carlists, will become their capital during Fascist Crackdown and Carlist Uprising events.
- Fix saving and reloading remove research bonus already applied to a research.
- fixed a rare case where a recently freed collaboration government could peacefully annex the original country if both existed at the same time
- fixed a case where countries not joining peace conferences when there are multiple different wars the enemy is in
- fixed a rare case where Italy would not correctly join the Allies if France was already part of the Allies and Italy agreed to join the Stresa Front
- Fixed the Paradox account initialization to detect the active session passed to the game from the launcher.
- fixed Reichskommissariat Ukraine not properly puppeting Ukraina
- Fixed an issue with tech stealing operation where players with MTG could be stealing old useless techs

Some highlights we wanted to make sure to highlight and where we are interested in feedback:

Peace conferences
We are now more inclusive in peace conferences to try and stop issues where you might be left out and someone steals territory from you. This means that you can actually get peace conferences with enemies on each side cutting up a 3rd side before getting back to their war. Peace conferences have a lot of edge cases so try to be observant for anything we might have broken with this behaviour change.

Tech Stealing Operation
We wanted to make this more attractive so have been beefing it up. You can now get full unlocks and the system is more weighted towards late game techs (so you can try and nab that Tiger tank instead of a great war tank). Its still a random system (remember to pick the right operation targeting the branch of tech you want, they get unlocked by infiltration of that branch) but should be a lot more rewarding now so let us know how it feels now!

Collaboration puppets
We have made AI more reluctant to release a lot and fixed some performance issues here.

See you next week for more updates!

Mar 18, 2020

Dev Diary: Beta Patch Update II

Hearts of Iron IV - Addaway

Today's Development Diary by Podcat

Hi everyone, as the coronavirus apocalypse grips sweden the HOI dev team have reverted to to our baser instincts... no longer chained to our desks our programmers roam the streets stealing gasoline and lines of code from weaker gangs of programmers. The content designers have started worshipping stacks of photocopies of Rommel's "Infantry Attacks", and QA are now hunting bugs using spiked clubs.

Ok, not quite ;) But the team, as well as all of paradox, is currently working from home to help limit COVID-19 spread, also as many have pointed out.. less meetings and less pants! its a win-win situation :)

Today, like last week we have another update on the Beta patch.

Updates since last week

##################################
# Features
##################################
- Operatives can be disbanded to free up operative slots and recruit different operatives

##################################
# Balance
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- Increased minimum surrender limit to for a country to 20%
- Decrease Base manpower lost in resistance attack to 2.5% from 3%
- Increased compliance decay to give cap of 90% compliance to non democracies.
- Changed compliance loss on state changing hands to 25% from 10%
- Decreased fielded manpower requirement from German "Demand Sudetenland" to 725000 from 750000
- Improved Resistance Suppression when using "Brutal Oppression" from 65% to 75%
- Decreased compliance from collab regime operation to 20% from 30% on normal result and 50% to 40% on excelent result
- changing ideology now halves compliance
- Reduced the Compliance requirements for the Anarchist coring decisions to 50%, down from 60%.
- Increased the cost of Concessions to the Anarchists decision to 150 PP to bring it more in line with its intended purpose as an 'emergency' delay rather than a permanent one, and also made it require either of the Nationalist factions to exist. This means that once those are defeated, there is no stopping the Anarchist uprising anymore.
- operative gained from faction members now is reduced for counties that lacks industry

##################################
# Stability & Performance
##################################
- Prevent CTD when attempting to display the airwings of an airbase the player does not have access to
- Fixed abort to trigger on more cases where invalid map data is detected
- Fixed CTD on invalid naval terrain type for a strategic region
- Fixed CTD on invalid state definition
- Fixed CTD that could happen when re-ordering ship names
- Fixed CTD when displaying the tooltip of the join faction diplomatic action
- Fixed CTD when a autonomy_state has not been correctly loaded
- fixed unnamed gui objects possibly causing crashes and added an errorlog
- Blocked execution of white_peace before game start, along with error log explanation, instead of CTD.

##################################
# UI & Graphics
##################################
- Fix infinite production of ships not assigning names properly in the UI
- Ensured the Abdication Crisis timed mission will now appear at the top of its decision category, for convenience.
- Fixed the Boost Ideology window to work with more than 4 ideologies
- The list of aces to pick from is now sorted to have compatible and free aces at the top
- Releasing puppet no longer creates a new operative slot that disappears again after unpausing
- fixed some graphical issues with frontlines
- fixed operative nationality flags not properly positioned when there are more than 2
- Reduced excessive digits in percentages in various occupation tooltips
- improved operative slot tooltips to see where you are gaining your slots from
- During peace conference, collaboration events are delayed until after and non-news events are hidden

##################################
# AI
##################################
- allies no longer ask SOV for military access
- fixed ai not upgrading templates of existing units
- fixed some issues that resulted in ai preferring producing earlier ships
- ai ITA no longer releases Libya as a collaboration government
- ai will try not to pick closed economy laws if it has large allies

##################################
# Modding
##################################
- fixed accessing variables using other variables not working ( such as var_name:var_name2 )
- added seed = var support for scripted locs random list & random list effect
- laws/ministers can be now modded to use list view instead by adding use_list_view = yes to their idea group
- fixed country_resource_cost_ modifiers not applying correctly
- fixed state resource cost modifiers not showing in tooltip if there were no other resources
- country total resources can go below zero now
- The game no longer aborts due to map errors if launched in debug mode, to allow access to the Nudger
- The game now displays a pop up when reaching the main menu if it detected invalid map data when launched in debug mode
- added on_operative_recruited & on_operative_created on actions
- fixed invalid error logs with tag aliases
- added army_experience navy_experience air_experience country variables

##################################
# Database
##################################
- Renamed Elastic Defense focus to Rebuild the Lines of Torres Vedras for better flavor.
- Fixed "Catalonian Occupation Zone" to properly refer to a "Catalan Occupation Zone", instead.
- Fixed decision requirements in the Abdication Crisis timed mission.
- fixed a number of issues with the French Legitimist Monarchist branch
- Fixed flavor text in the Spanish Independence War news event
- fixed some issues with Japan's head of intelligence advisor
- dismantling the Maginot Line now removes the "Protected by the Maginot Line" national spirit. The Extending the Maginot Line Focus now requires this spirit.
- fixed an issue with Yugoslavian Fighter/Bomber competition event chain having unlocalized strings
- Added missing name for Concessions to the Anarchists decision.
- Fixed Soviet Union seizing Spanish gold reserves even if the gold was never relocated.
- The French "Economic Devolution" focus now displays the correct effects after it is taken

##################################
# Bugfix
##################################
- Renamed Franco's old portrait to prevent it from being used unintentionally by the game.
- Units now correctly divide units into fallback orders that originate in friendly territory and pass through neutral territory.
- fixed another illusive gentleman being available when the first one is taken
- army templates with >10 terrain adjusters will now create a scrollbar in template editor guis so all can be visible
- Random generated female aces now get properly gender flagged
- Made ideas database loading more resilient to script error
- fixed a case where you can steal ships
- fixed sometimes not getting used factories back when canceling an operation
- Made the distribution of states for the Carlist and Anarchist uprisings more reasonable, especially when finishing the SCW early and therefore owning a lot of states before rising up as the Anarchists.
- Requesting Foreign Manpower Garrison support no longer overflows.
- Fixed an issue where territory wasn't assigned properly in the Japan surrender to China
- fixed a rare edge case where Communist China could attempt to infiltrate itself
- Lina Odena is now properly considered female when being referred to in text. Also updated her name to have the proper diacritics.
- fixed usa fascist party popularity being set incorrectly after civil war
- annexed countries will be removed from wars now
- fixed access relations getting cancelled after a while
- fixed factory tooltips in country occupation view
- fixed collaboration government not having a proper name in some cases

If you want to see past changes and full changelog, check out the Beta Patch thread here as well as info on how to start playing on it. Its pretty stable.

Some highlights

Due to popular demand its now possible to fire spies and put someone else in their slot.

The operative will be put back in the pool and you need to wait for a timer to get the slot back to recruit someone else (or get a previously recruited agent back).

We noticed that the code we had put in to stop people from loading broken mod maps also stopped modders from using the ingame nudger tool to fix those issues. That has now been fixed in this update and it will let people access the nudger again as well as making the warnings clearer. We have also added more detailed logging to help people fix their problems. On top of a popup we also have this info when attempting to enter single player.

Mar 11, 2020

Dev Diary: 1.9.1 Beta Patch Update

Hearts of Iron IV - Addaway

Today's Development Diary by Bratyn

Hi everyone, and welcome to another Beta Patch Update dev diary for Hearts of Iron 4 - La Résistance! The team has been hard at work fixing all manner of bugs, and today will see another update to the Beta Patch. The work is far from over, however, and you'll be able to expect continued regular updates to the Beta in the weeks ahead :)

I will first give the word to @bcareil, who will talk a little bit about error notifications for mod-users:

--

We have noticed that a significant portion of our crashes occurred due to people running outdated mods with 1.9.1. Most of them were caused by invalid map data (e.g. provinces without strategic region).

Since those kind of issues will always crash the game sooner or later, we put in place some measures to try to fix the situation where it was possible (by adding the province to the same strategic region as one of its neighbor).

If we fail to get the map into a working state, the game will abort with an error message.

Note that these measure are, for the time being, rather experimental and will not necessarily fire every time they should. We will refine them until the release of 1.9.1 so that they do not conflict with any mod while still preventing starting the game in an inconsistent state.

The error message looks like this:

--

Alright, back to me! I'll spend most of the rest of this Dev Diary delving into some of the more significant balance fixes and adjustments I've made to the Spanish Focus Trees, but for those of you who just want to see the patchnotes, they're right here:

##################################
# Balance
##################################
- France now starts with basic heavy tanks unlocked
- France now has engineer companies attached to leg and motorized infantry divisions as well as light mechanized divisions in the 1936 start
- France can no longer gain up to 7 research slots by cleverly losing a war
- Death Before Surrender now is a timed spirit that lasts for 900 days. This means that, if the Civil War starts the earliest it can start, the spirit will be removed at the beginning of 1939, thus simulating a collapse of morale and speeding up the conclusion of the Civil War if it is still in progress.
- Anarchist divisions now spawn with only 25% equipment (unless the player/AI went down the Anarchists branch). This should make Anarchist Spain's starting position much weaker.
- 20% Reduction to Strengthen the Regime focus requirements (80k MP instead of 100k, 800 infantry eq. and 800 support eq. instead of 1k each)

##################################
# Stability & Performance
##################################
- Fixed CTD that can occur when a carrier ship is tranferred between countries
- Added mitigation when loading a save that has invalid access rules for carrier
- Fixed CTD on missing static modifier definition
- Fixed CTD when define NIntel::MAP_INTEL_VISIBILITY_CUTOFFS was illformed
- improved performance slightly by making some adjustments to triggers (courtesy of Yard1)
- fixed some performance issues with naval invasion ai
- The game will now abort if the map contains invalid data
- Fixed CTD when accessing the airwings of a carrier that has been acquired through the annexation of a puppet
- Fixed CTD caused by event that would kill country leaders or a country that had none
- Fixed CTD when evaluating event target with an invalid state id
- Fixed CTD when an airbase with air volunteers was destroyed
- Fixed CTD that can be caused by some moded ship equipment type
- Fixed CTD caused by a task force located in a province with no sea access
- Fixed CTD that could happen when releasing a country
- fixed a ctd when \n at the end of definition.csv is forgotten

##################################
# AI
##################################
- Spanish AI will now be less disinclined to take certain advisors.
- German AI should now research 1940 fighters (after 1940 due to balance concerns)

##################################
# Modding
##################################
- it is possible to specify name & icon in create_intelligence_agency effect now
- added state_resource_cost_steel (and others) modifier that will add a resource cost for state (they can reduce state resources below zero and unaffected by transfer ratio)
- added country_resource_steel & country_resource_cost_steel (and others) which can be used in country scope to add/remove resources to country (added ones are affected by production modifiers)
- added max_planning_factor modifier
- added error log for non-existing game rule option for has_game_rule trigger
- fixed script triggers not producing correct tooltip for scripted_trigger = no
- fixed some tooltip issues with for_each_scope_loop effect and all_of_scopes & any_of_scopes triggers
- specific ideologies can now be disabled for random country leaders by setting can_be_randomly_selected = no
- updated documentation files
- Made random_list property log to log to in-game console while in debug mode
- added exclude_dlc support for game rules & options

##################################
# Database
##################################
- The Republican tree for Spain (POUM, Stalinists, and Democrats) has received various balancing tweaks and additional industry focuses, to make post-Civil War gameplay more enjoyable.
- Added a few new Carlist focuses to slightly improve their industrial situation after the civil war.
- Relocate Government to Batavia focus now also adds 70 compliance to Indonesian states.
- It is now no longer possible to avoid the Carlist/Anarchist uprisings by ending the Spanish Civil War before their timers expire. The timers will now continue until expiring, and, if the opposing faction (Republicans or Nationalists) has been defeated already, a new civil war will begin with the Carlists or the Anarchists (Franco can avoid this by taking the Fuse the Parties focus, as normal). New news events and descriptions for existing events have been added for these situations. The Civil War will now only be considered 'ended' when all factions have been defeated, or Franco takes the Fuse the Parties focus.
- France now has the correct heavy battery and secondary battery unlocked in 1936 (MtG only)
- Slightly adjusted A Great Spain and The Popular Front focus placement to be more central.
- Increased the strength of the focuses contained within the Expand Soviet Aid branch, to make these more useful and worth the repercussions. Also made them impact Communism support more.
- Reduced surrender limit offset (mninimum surrender limit) for Republican and Anarchist Spain in the Death Before Surrender spirit to 5%, down from 15%.
- Added an additional 5% neutrality support to both Safeguard the Freedom of Worship and Integrate the Requetés, making it easier for Francoist Spain to remain below 40% fascism support, in case they want to join the Allies.
- Changed the country names for Galicia and added party names for Spanish releasables

##################################
# Bugfix
##################################
- disabled anarchist ideology for randomly generated neutral country leaders
- Chinese Warlords should be able to become Communist
- Communists in the Government now also completes Increase Arms Production, allowing them to move down the Stalinist branch even if they started out as Republicans.
- War propaganda mission can now always be taken as long as there is intelligence network strength on targeted state
- British Coerce Spain focus no longer influences Anarchist Spain.
- Fixed a DLC check issue with base game only lend lease
- fixed historical unit leaders getting their genders randomly assigned if not specified
- fixed an oos due to random variables
- Allows Portugal to remove the Unstable Republic national spirit when taking focuses 'Join the Axis' and 'Honor Anglo-Portuguese Alliance'
- The Stalinist Doctrine and Anti-Fascist Unity are now only 35 days, making it possible for the Stalinists to reach Anti-Fascist Unity before the Anarchists rise up.
- fixed a broken trigger in the Expand the Burma Road decision.
- 1939 Spain start will now correctly have cores on historically Nationalist territory, and resistance will be correctly initialized on Republican states, allowing for re-coring via the decision system, as intended. Also removed cores of a superfluous Nationalist Spain tag.
- Fixed issues with the Spanish Civil War ending news events giving seemingly randomized combinations of titles and event texts. They should now properly reflect the SCW ending situation.
- fixed intel network max planning penalty not applying to enemy
- Fixed the Fascist Referendum decision incorrectly being available for the Carlists. Also made requirements more stringent for the Referendum decisions for all other Spanish factions.
- fixed two game rules not working (Volunteers freely available and Hungary set to go Communist)
- Taking any focus that removes or reduces 'autonomy' in Galicia, Pais Vasco, or Catalunya, while not controlling some of these states, will now remove or reduce 'autonomy' of these states when you take control of them.
- Updated Belarusian division names with proper spellings
- Fixed an issue where formable nations decisions category was using an incorrect asset
- Galicia should now have appropriate historical party leaders
- If Portugal joins the SCW, but their allied Spanish faction is defeated, this faction will now be recreated when Portugal wins, rather than result in a peace conference upon conclusion of the SCW.
- fixed an issue that prevented Vichy Produce Airplane Parts spirit from correctly applying to Germany
- Fixed Bulgarian Ships using generic Portuguese names for Submarines and Destroyers.
- Fixed an earlier fix for Expand Soviet Aid. It should now only bypass when having taken The Stalinist Doctrine and the civil war has ended, instead of always.
- The "Join the French" focus in the Dutch focus tree now takes new French focuses into account
- fixed some declare war pop up description issues
- France can no longer start border wars over her colonies if at war with the controller of those colonies
- Fixed an issue where, when the SCW starts, the other side did not have any cores on any of the Spanish states.Now both sides (Nationalists and Republicans) should have cores on all Spanish states upon the start of the SCW.
- Fixed an issue where Spanish Civil War factions did not have their cores initialized correctly, resulting in erroneous minimum surrender limit calculation. This resulted in Republican Spain having a surrender limit or 40%, rather than the intended limit of 15%. Together with the adjustment to the minimum surrender limit in the Death Before Surrender spirit for the Republicans, this should mean Republican Spain is much more difficult to capitulate now.
- The Iberian Pact is now bypassed if Portugal is already in a faction.
- Updated Portuguese Anarchism and Regional Defense Council of Iberia bypass and available triggers. Portuguese Anarchism should now bypass if you own their European states, ensuring you cannot get stuck on this focus as long as you do. Regional Defense Council of Iberia requires ownership of these same states.
- Ensured the Independence War news event for Spain shows the correct localization (it was referring to the wrong nation).
- Reworked AI weights on Limited Self-Rule and Lusotropicalism. Portugal AI will not choose Limited Self-Rule while ruling party is non-aligned or fascist.
- Prevent Nationalist Spain from joining factions on historical mode.
- Portuguese dynamic tags will get Portuguese Focus Tree after wining civil war.
- Swapped Porto and Guarda Region Type.
- Adjusted Portuguese population in Lisbon, Beja and Santarem states.
- Portugal AI will accept to Restore the Iberian Union if it is a puppet of Carlist Spain.
- Fixed Portuguese and Brazilian infantry division name to Divisão de Infantaria.
- Fixed bug with Purchase Ships decision, checking for the wrong DD technologies if MTG was active (which could lead to Portugal getting Basic Destroyers regardless of ITA/ENG DD hull research).
- "Continue the Public Works" and "Roads, Bridges and Dams" will add an extra building slot and infrastructure in Santarem. "A New Industry" and "Textile Industry" will add an extra civilian factory in Santarem.
- Swapped Alfredo da Silva's and Duarte Pacheco's advisor traits.
- Portuguese puppets will not get opinion penalty with Portugal upon completion of The Fifth Empire focus.
- Join the Comintern, Join the Allies, Honor Anglo-Portuguese Alliance, Join the Axis and The Royal Iberian Alliance focuses now require Portugal to not be in a faction and will get canceled if so.
- Completing Estado Novo focus will now lock Alvaro Cunhal as political advisor.
- Fixed issue with the chance of ships revolting during Navy Mutiny event.

Spanish Focus Tree Balance Changes

This will also be my final dev diary for HoI4, as I’m moving to join the Imperator: Rome team and helping them in their future endeavours :) My final contributions to HoI have focused on fixing, balancing, and slightly expanding the Spanish focus trees after the release of LaR. I'll continue to help my able colleagues (some of whom are fresh reinforcements to the team!) to continue this work until the patch comes out of beta (and long afterwards!).

The most visible changes to the Spanish focus trees pertain to a handy feedback thread written by @Iskulya. This pointed out a number of shortcomings to some of the Spanish branches, and I’ve made attempts to address some of these.

A central complaint was that many of the branches did not have sufficient industrial build-up post-SCW to make the game interesting at this time. To this end, I’ve added a number of focuses to most of the branches, with the notable exception of the Falangist and Francoist paths (which already had a good mix of industry focuses), and the Anarchist path (which also did not need this as it was designed as a long-term snowball industrial path rather than an instant-payoff one).

A new minor Carlist branch now adds civ and mil industry, as well as some more infrastructure and reducing the Recovering From the Civil War spirit by one more step. An additional focus after Encourage Local Industrialization has been added to once again add more infrastructure, but also open up access to the resource prospecting decisions that the Falange, Franco, and the Anarchists already had access to.

As it currently stands, only paths that obtain help from economic superpowers (or the Anarchists) are able to completely remove the Recovering From the Civil War spirit. It used to only be available to the Francoists (if they join the Allies), or the Anarchists, but with the new updates this has been expanded to also include the Stalinists and the Democrats, if they rely on Soviet Recovery Aid. Without this, the best any branch can achieve is now to reduce the spirit by two steps, and thereby significantly reduce its effects. Reducing it twice also removes the AI modifier that makes Spain not want to join factions, so Spains that went down these paths and reduced the spirit twice will still end up joining factions on non-historical mode. This is true for the following branches:

Falange
Carlists
POUM
Democratic Republic (which elects not to rely upon Soviet Aid)

The POUM-Stalinist shared branch has been fleshed out with some more mil industry, as well as a focus that reduces the Recovering From the Civil War spirit and opens up the resource prospecting decisions. In addition, taking the Communists in the Government focus in the Democratic path will now also bypass this Increase Arms Production focus, allowing for a Democratic-turned-Communist Spain to properly continue down the Stalinist finisher branch.

The Democratic branch for Spain has received the biggest re-work. A new focus after Engineering Advances adds 4 more civ factories, giving a bit of a better industrial base from which to grow. New focuses have been added after Prepare for the Next War add further mil factories, as well as opening up resource prospecting decisions. Finally, a focus in the War of Independence branch, which requires either the Allies or the Axis (depending on who you reached out to) having accepted your requests in the previous focuses, which reduces the Recovering From the Civil War spirit and adds further civ and mil factories.

It is still intended that the Democrats have the hardest time getting rid of the Recovering From the Civil War spirit, but these additions should greatly improve their post-SCW industrial situation. Concerns were also mentioned regarding the low stability the Democratic path results in - additional stability boosts throughout the tree should now help with this.

Further criticism focused on the Expand Soviet Aid branch and how these focuses were not good enough to off-set the penalty of being puppeted after the SCW. To this end, these have all been greatly buffed.

The focuses are now universally 35 days, and provide very strong bonuses for focuses of that duration. Several now provide instant industry, while others give other bonuses such as army experience, war support, and tech bonuses. They all do increase communist support, now, however. Either as drift added into their spirits (unchanged from before), or as an instant boost (new).

Some criticism that I disagreed with was that the Democrats should be ‘rewarded’ if they manage to win the SCW without expanding Soviet aid, and it was insinuated that there should be other focuses that buff the nation that would be available in this eventuality. In my view, the simple fact that you are not puppeted after conclusion of the SCW, and do not have to wage a war of Independence against one of the world’s leading superpowers, is reward enough. The design was always meant to emphasize choice of an easier time during the SCW or more freedom after it.

Additional adjustments have been made to the Spanish Civil War as a whole, as well. Some of you may have seen FeedBackGaming’s video in which he meets my challenge and finishes the SCW within two months (in one week, to be exact). I do not feel any changes are warranted to the Garrison Control system, as FeedBackGaming simply made extraordinarily intelligent use of the system, and I feel that a player should be rewarded for making smart choices in where to contest and where not to. In addition, finishing the SCW so quickly is not always a benefit, as you miss out on tremendous amounts of Army XP and many focuses that you could have taken otherwise. However, the video did illustrate many issues inherent in finishing the SCW so quickly, and these were not intended. I’ll list a couple of things I changed and adjusted, both for balance, and just as bugfixes.

I felt that Republican Spain too easily surrendered in the SCW, and after some investigation it appeared that there was an underlying issue resulting in their minimum surrender limit being much higher than intended (40% instead of 15%). I fixed this issue, and also reduced the minimum surrender limit (for the Republican side only), which is set in the Death Before Surrender spirit, to 5%. This means that they will continue to fight much longer now (you have to take almost all of their VPs to make them surrender).

To better ‘time’ the end of the SCW, the Death Before Surrender spirit has now been made timed rather than permanent, and it expires at the earliest in early 1939. This simulates a collapse in morale due to the protracted fighting, and at the same time makes it much more likely that the SCW will end in 1939 if it is still raging at that point.

Furthermore, if the player (or AI) is not going down the Anarchist path (in which case they simply receive a portion of the already-existing Spanish divisions rather than spawning new ones), the Anarchist divisions that are spawned when they rise up are only given 25% equipment initially, rather than 100%. This should make the Anarchist rebellion much weaker in these situations.

The biggest change is a complete overhaul in how the SCW end is handled. The change essentially boils down to this: the timer missions counting down to the Carlist/Anarchist uprisings no longer stop if the other side in the Civil War is defeated. The reason for this is two-fold: fluff-wise it makes no sense for a fragmented alliance to suddenly set aside their differences when their shared enemy is defeated (rather: in-fighting would get much worse), and doing it this way solves a lot of issues that cropped up as a result of finishing the SCW much faster than expected. The change itself sounds relatively minor, but it affects a lot of different things.

First off, if you defeat the other faction before the Anarchists/Carlists rise up, you are greeted by the above news event, instead of the “SCW ends” news event.

This event does not ‘end’ the SCW, and so focuses that rely on the SCW being in progress can still be taken. The actual “SCW ends” news event can then be triggered by either one of two ways: either defeat the opposing faction when the civil war ‘resumes’, or, as the Francoists, reach the Fuse the Parties focus before the Carlists rise up (shown above).

Much of the localization for these events has been rewritten to ‘make sense’ with the new situations that can arise, and some outright new events have been added as well.

Other than a series of other bugfixes, the final thing worth mentioning is that a total of 10% additional non-aligned support has been added to Francoist focuses, making it slightly easier to remain non-aligned after the SCW has ended, and therefore making it easier to join the Allies if you so choose. Careful selection of your advisors is still warranted, though, as many of them come with fascism drift!

All the changes mentioned above are in the Beta Patch as of right now.

That brings me to the end of today's Dev Diary. It’s been a great pleasure to work on a game I like as much as HoI4 for the past 3 years, and I have no doubt you all will enjoy what’s in store for the game in the future ;) Thanks for the past few years, everyone, and you’ll find me on the Imperator forums! :)

Mar 4, 2020

Dev Diary: Post Release and Statistics

Hearts of Iron IV - Addaway

Today's Development Diary by Podcat:

Hi everyone, I hope you are all having fun with La Résistance! This weekend had a new active users record for HOI4 and its great to see this happen for a game thats been out now for quite a while with a very growing community still :) Since release we have been busy working on bugs reported, talking to you guys on different communities and enjoying watching influencers stream the game :)

Statistics

Who doesn't love statistics?! After each release we like to dig into data and check what the most popular focus branches and nations are.

Portugal Stats
As it could be expected, the Monarchist path is the player’s favorite for Portugal, with almost 60% of the players supporting A Royal Wedding. The most popular paths after that are the Fascist one at 15% (The Fifth Empire being the favorite choice, but with a slight advantage) and the Communist one at 10.5%. Democratic and Historical Salazarist paths are far less popular (roughly 7% and 4.5% respectively).

Regarding the Spanish Civil War, 21% of the players Supported a Spanish Monarchy (aka Carlists). That being 1/3 of the total Monarchist players. It is worth noting that Carlists might not spawn, so I’m sure a lot more people were eager to support the Spanish Monarchists!

19% supported the Spanish Nationalists (but only 11% Sent Assistance, actually joining the war), 10.5% supported the Spanish Republic and roughly 7% of the players kept Strict Neutrality and let the Spaniards manage by themselves.

Involvement in Spanish Civil War:
10.3% supported the Spanish Republic
18.8% supported the Spanish Nationalists (10.7% Sent Assistance, actually joining the war)
21.1% supported the Carlists, but only 13.8% actually Joined the Carlist Fight
6.8% kept Strict Neutrality

After supporting the Nationalists:
- 4.4% followed historical path
- 14.8% went Fascist

France Stats
For France, we have a number of surprising, and some not so surprising, observations. As it turns out, our community is evidently made up of unrepentant Monarchists. The monarchist branch as a whole was played by roughly 45% of playthroughs, compared to communists and fascists at 9% and 8%, respectively. About a quarter of playthroughs stuck with the republic.

Of the people who decided to restore yet another monarchy (when did HoI become Monarchy Simulator 2020? Dan edit: with DoD ;) ), a whooping 84% decided to side with his Imperial Majesty, Emperor Napoleon VI. It’s about 5 times as many people than the people who played the communist branch in total. I’m not bitter.

The new Vichy and Free French trees have seen very little play in the past week - about as many people played either of them as decided to form the Latin Entente. Special mention goes to the 200-odd people who decided to continue on as Vichy and then decided to stop without giving Petain special powers: we see you.

Of the people who went fascist, about two thirds formed the Latin Entente. Of the communists, about 60% did not compromise on their revolutionary ideals by allying with Moscow or forming an anti-fascist coalition. It appears that there is still some revolutionary spirit left in France!

Spain Stats
For Spain, there is almost exactly a 50-50 split between Republicans and Nationalists playthroughs. For Nationalists, 40% chooses the Carlists, and 30% equally between Falange and Francoists. For the Republicans: a whopping 70% choose to go Anarchist, and the remainder is split between 6% POUM (Independent Communist), 11% Stalinist Communist, and 13% Democratic. Of these combined Stalinist and Democratic runs, over half (56%) Expand Soviet Aid. The vast majority of Democratic players (84%) thereafter do Oppose the Communists, rather than be a loyal subject of the Soviets, but almost none (13%) take Subvert Soviet Control, seeming to indicate that the vast majority of players who select Maintain the Second Republic finish the Civil War without Expanding Soviet Aid, and therefore never need to wage a war of independence. But for those who do, the vast majority (85%) have trouble stomaching accepting aid from those who helped their enemies during the SCW, and so in their war of independence against the Soviets they seek help from the Allies, rather than the Axis.

Republicans and Stalinists are far more inclined to let the Anarchist uprising happen rather than crack down on them, with only ~15% selecting the Crush the Revolution focus. Anarchists and Independent Communists, however, select the Masters of Our Own Fate focus in over 50% of the games. For Nationalists there is a similar discrepancy (though less extreme), with about 50% of Carlist players selecting the No Compromise on Carlist Ideals focus, but only 37% of Falange players selecting Eliminate the Carlists. It would also seem that Anarchist tenacity knows no bounds, with 80% of players making it all the way to the very end of the focus tree ;)

Open Beta Patch

To make sure the 1.9.1 patch is as stable as possible we will be running an open opt-in beta for anyone to take part in. We had our first update on friday and it fixes a lot of reported issues. Today is the second update of it. The plan is that 1.9.1 goes live mid-April so look forward to more beta updates until then.

See the full updated patchlog on the forums: https://pdxint.at/2TmDbti

The thread for the beta patch is here: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...usky-1-9-1-beta-hotfix-checksum-8eaf.1342931/

This beta also includes a cool little QoL thing we couldnt finish in time for the release, to help with airwing management and tedium of controlling airplane equipment in them.

Here is a breakdown of how it works:

You can now duplicate selected air wings as long as there is some planes in stockpile they can use. This copies settings etc so you will only need to access the reorg window fairly rarely.
You can set reinforcement rules for air wings in the reorg window With 4 settings to pick from:
- Reserves - will only use equipment marked outdated
- Regular - doesnt care, uses anything and acts like old air wings did
- Elite - only uses up to date equipment
- Specialized - Will never add plane variants not in the wing already giving you 100% control.
Foreign planes will look at your equipment for reference for the auto updating. If for some reason you want to use a foreign variant and have disabled your own of same tech level you should set up specialized wings to consume those.

Make sure to let us know how you like it!

As promised we are also working on some art. We only just started so its not in the beta yet, but here is a sneak peak of a Portugese general:

See you all next week with another update, and if you or a friend is wondering about how stuff works in the new expansion I recommend checking out some of the tutorial videos we made here. Later today at 16:00CET we will also have a stream where Daniel and Björn will show some patch stuff. I'm home sick but will try to hang out on the chat a bit!