Hearts of Iron IV

[jomni]

I always ask "Can the AI cope?" Whenever they add a new feature.

[SirAndrewD]

I always ask "Can the AI cope?" Whenever they add a new feature.

The problem is that they haven't got the AI consistently coping with the features from day one.

It's certainly better than it was, but I'm a bit surprised that it's taken being a year in before there's finally been movement on some of the biggest AI issues.  Paradox was a lot better at addressing these things quickly and aggressively with previous releases.

[Ian C]

Beta patch is out. If it does what it says on the lid it should nail a lot of issues.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/hoi4-oak-1-4-1-beta-patch-checksum-86d1.1031090/

################################################################
########### Patch 1.4.1 "Oak" ###########
################################################################

##################################
# Highlights & Important
##################################
- Units getting pushed back in naval invasions are now removed from the order so they won't automatically try it again (no more ping pong)
- Fixed the Stug tech icon to have correct barrel length
- Major rewrite of air combat system (the underlying stuff), should now have less wierd special cases and be easier to balance
- Fixed issue where generic leaders would be replaced randomly in the world due to mistake in focus tree

##################################
# AI
##################################
- Fixed a case where Chinese AI would delete units incorrectly due to supply evaluation
- Fixed case where AI would think that it was being encircled and would pile up its divisions in few provinces and abandon fronts
- Took care of another situation that cause indecisive units
- Made AI respect waiting after already sending lend lease requests
- A fix for front abandonment that makes it spread out the units being taken from other fronts
- Units getting pushed back in naval invasions are now removed from the order so they won't automatically try it again (no more ping pong)
- Several tweaks to allied AI to avoid "suicide invasions" agaisnt axis nations before they are at war with soviets
- Germany no longer wastes time prepping naval invasiosn vs france just before it takes around maginot
- Made sure AI cannot pick event options with weight 0 if another option with higher score exists
- AI now considers enemies as obstacles when planning invasions on nations its not yet at war with when comparing fleets leading for less wasted preparation
- ai can now cancel invasions that are bad if started during a time they were ok
- Fix for case where Germany would use too aggressive stance versus maginot line again
- Air AI can now evaluate zones for bombing and such more than 1-2 zones away
- Tweaked ai_chance for all CZE events to be saner
- If CZE exists when Germany demands Danzig from poland, they will now be very interested in joining the war rather than waiting for Germany to get around to beating them


##################################
# UI
##################################
- Fixed UI bug that made GER to never show tech bonuses
- Splitted "In Combat: x83" tooltip into two. Now In Combat shows default combat speed (x33) and movement gain from tactics is shown separately
- Double click in army list now deselects previous selection if shift is down
- Mission icons on the map should now include port strike
- Movement bonus from tactics were being shown in damage tooltip of a unit in battle window, remove it from tooltip.
- Added missing localization for base strike research bonuses
- Can now unassign aces with right-click like tooltip says
- Added a new text icon for cost in license production screen
- Added tooltip for air wing state
- Create airwing interface properly resets the right side when all planes are removed
- Tweaked license tooltip in production view to be somewhat clearer
- Changed Hungary 1936 bookmark to highlight restoration of Austria-Hungary


##################################
# Modding
##################################
- Fixed a problem with the format for build_army strategy

##################################
# Database
##################################
- Added missing localization for UNITS_VIEW_WINGS_COUNT in French
- Fixed missing faces for Congo
- Fixed a misspelled loc string in war goals
- Fixed the Stug tech icon to have correct barrel length
- Fixed some issues with ship names in 00_GER_names
- Made dead sea a lake
- Fixed a number of mistakes and inconsistencies in German OoB
- Improved several items of flavor text for CZE focuses
- added HMS Dreadnought to Royal Navy ship names
- added cosmetic tag for Hungary if it elects a King but then changes ideology away from neutral (democratic, fascist branch)
- fix for a missing event picture gfx that has been in since launch and wasn't noticed
- fix for US missing air wing names for jets
- East/west germany now get nicer colors and dont bug out
- Fixed incorrect portrait for Horthy when admiral
- fixed an issue with news event 311 refering to the wrong country
- Added 4 new portraits for South america for historical leaders for Peru, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay
- Added new portrait for Bulgarian fascist leader
- Hooked in three new portraits for Baltic leaders (Police is still hunting for the set of identical triplets that were impersonating them)
- Added proper Slovenian and Slovakian flags (honestly at this point I dont even know which one is correct /Podcat)
- Added pdxcon magic winner portrait to generic soviet portrait list
- Dramatically improved communist Korea by using DPRK (best Korea) flag AGAIN
- Fixed 2 missing images in Romanian/hungarian events

##################################
# Balance
##################################
- Lowered the amount of ground based planes that can enter naval combats over time
- Reduced cost for giving core states back to our puppets
- Slightly increased fascist support in Hungary fascist king chain
- Rebalance of additional building slots for Serbian rail network focus
- Fixed a balance issue with Integrated/Serbian rail network focuses in Yugoslav tree
- Fix for air accidents being scaled depending on the number of wing
- Increased manpower requirements for CZE alliance with Germany focuses by 50k each
- fix for Romania being able to appoint a government friendly to a faction they are at war with

##################################
# Bugfix
##################################
- Fixed the bug when conversion could not convert last pieces of equipment
- Removed Demand Transnistria from the Romanian historical focus list. Romania should no longer think attacking the soviet union is a great idea
- Fixed bug where technologies was not updated in case of unlocking tech from another technology folder
- Fixed bug where some modifiers were not applied to airplanes after loading a save
- Fix for Soft Attack/Hard Attack values ignoring some combat bonuses in battle gui
- Overriding an idea with custom name, now overrides the modifier name as well, instead of using idea ID as key
- Fix for trade path not being recalculated when strait control has changed
- Fixed for a potential issue if CZE becomes a puppet of AH that may lead to intra-faction warfare
- Fix for dual mediation events in Transylvania chain (RIP Katya's sanity)
- Germany should now only leave the Romanian Tech group if Romania is in a faction germany is not in
- Changed the Sudetenland failsafe event to give the war goal against the controller of Sudetenland (was hardcoded to CZE)
- changed "His Majesty' loyal government" to work even if Hungary did not roll over in the event
- Fixed Horty not being leader of Hungary at gamestart without DoD
- Fixed an issue where Germany could be stuck with the Demand Sudetenland focus under some circumstances
- Made the demand Transylvania event chain remove the correct core (North Transylvania) for Romania if they instantly fold.
- Fixed a bug where generic unit names would not work if starting letters were the same for different generics
- Fixed an issue where existing airwing names were never returned to the pool
- Fixed a bug where traded away resources decreased amount of factories available for trade
- Fixed CZE only being angry with Allies if they decide not to fight over Southern Slovakia (CZE now always angry, all the time)
- Fix for Zalozie not being transfered if Soviet union honors MR pact
- Added a number of sanity checks for AH reclamaition focuses (must not be in faction with owners of claimed provinces)
- fixed an issue where the Ljubljana award could give out states not owned by Germany or Yugoslavia
- "Death or Dishonor or Cake" achievement now has a tooltip that tells the player to have Carol II as the country leader.
- Fix for Yugoslavia being allowed to try and buy planes from a country they are at war with
- Blocked vanilla YUG coup event if player has DoD
- Fix for Yugoslavia spawning Croatia even if they did not own the territory
- Fix for Czech-Slovak civil war not actually being between Czechs and Slovaks
- Fixed issue where aid event from Sweden to Hungary after getting democratic king would fire more than once
- Equipment conversion now properly converts to variants from older equipment
- Fixed bug where planes set on CAS mission could join naval battles without using naval strike mission
- Fix for two missing locs in Romania
- Overlord of CZE telling Germany to get bent during Sudetenland crisis now removes both CZE and Overlord from faction with Germany
- Fixed an issue where democratic Romania could not even handle King Carol II right now (or ever, really)
- Fix for AH not being able to justify wargoals due to world tension being too low
- Fixed France being able to take CZE into their faction if they do little entente and AH puppets CZE
- Austria-Hungary should now get Banat if Romania folds in the event chain
- Fixed an issue where Romania could steal CZE from out under Austria-Hungary by creating the Cordon Sanitaire
- Fixed fixedpoint overflow in peace conference which could give small nations lots of extra points
- Tweaked occupation rules fix for impassible zones, now it uses core and ownership prios
- Removed retire_country_leader from generic focus tree
- Fixed the bug when merging of airwings didn't update air wing manpower properly
- Fixed a few issues with yugoslavian historical focus list referencing focuses that no longer exist
- Fixed Bordergore if Hungary not in a position to gain state 73 in fate of CZE event chain (should go to SLO, now actually does)

###############################
# Stability & Performance
###############################
- Added safety code for terrain calculation when loading broken mod files (could lead to deleted units)
- Fixed stack out of bounds issue when generating unit names
- Fix for CTD in the airview details view
- Fixed CTD while tooltiping port strike air wing mission entry

[Ian C]

The 1.4.1 beta is playing very well. No ahistorical stuff so far. Started in '39 as Germany and now July 1940. Done a text-book historical Poland and Blitzkrieg. No suicide AI invasions. Nice air war.

[Hancock]

Looking for recommendations around this game. 

I have been looking for something new, this game pops up a lot. Did the youtubes and recommendations from various sites.  I am hesitating to commit due to "another WWII game" (though great interest in that conflict) and comments I have seen here and others regarding bugs, AI, etc.  Been disappointed before with "new and improved!" only to find same old, same old.  I would appreciate any feedback.   Thanks in advance.

[Rayfer]

The 1.4.1 beta is playing very well. No ahistorical stuff so far. Started in '39 as Germany and now July 1940. Done a text-book historical Poland and Blitzkrieg. No suicide AI invasions. Nice air war.

Do you think it is compatible with an ongoing campaign started with 1.4 or is best to start a new campaign with the 1.4.1 beta?

[Ian C]

Do you think it is compatible with an ongoing campaign started with 1.4 or is best to start a new campaign with the 1.4.1 beta?

I'd say start a new one. The fixes work really well and it's feeling tons more solid all round.

[sandman2575]

Looking for recommendations around this game. 

I have been looking for something new, this game pops up a lot. Did the youtubes and recommendations from various sites.  I am hesitating to commit due to "another WWII game" (though great interest in that conflict) and comments I have seen here and others regarding bugs, AI, etc.  Been disappointed before with "new and improved!" only to find same old, same old.  I would appreciate any feedback.   Thanks in advance.

Have you played Hearts of Iron in the past?

I think it's safe to say that there's not much out there that's comparable to HOI as a 'real time' (not turn-based) WW2 grand strategy game -- possibly the Making History games come closest.  So if you're looking for "something new," then I'd say HOI definitely fits the bill.

Personally, I think HOI4 is a superb game that's still held back by one significant flaw -- the AI. I still think you can have a lot of fun and a pretty satisfying experience playing HOI4 in its current state. The AI presents just enough of a challenge to keep things interesting, and in many ways, the fun comes from trying to master the game's many systems -- production, training divisions, technology etc. -- as it does from defeating enemy nations.

I really do think HOI4 is the pinnacle of the series, in terms of creating a deep but relatively streamlined grand strategy experience. It's not perfect by any stretch. But the game continues to improve, although at a pace that requires patience.

The only reason I'd say 'stay away' from HOI is if you just cannot stand ahistorical events -- the Republicans winning the Spanish Civil War, for example, or USSR declaring war on Germany in 1940. Those things do happen, maybe more frequently than I'd like. But if you can stomach some far-fetched outcomes, than by all means give HOI4 a try.

[Ian C]

Looking for recommendations around this game. 

When the game works well I love it and when it falls short, I'm an honest critic.  However, I've spent over 440 hours on this game and it still gives me a lot of enjoyment and interest.

The current beta patch really has fixed a lot of the rough edges and all the DLC is a must.

One word of advice - it's a huge game to get into. You cannot run the game at a fast speed and expect to get the most from it. Running the game on speed 2 to 3 is tops in a war and expect to pause it often to take stock. You have to watch every single part of the map and not let the AI sneak up on you.

When you get into it and ignore some of the ahistoric events as Sandman mentioned, it will draw you in.

[Hancock]

Looking for recommendations around this game. 

One word of advice - it's a huge game to get into. You cannot run the game at a fast speed and expect to get the most from it. Running the game on speed 2 to 3 is tops in a war and expect to pause it often to take stock. You have to watch every single part of the map and not let the AI sneak up on you.

Many thanks for the feedback.  You both make solid points about the pros and cons, particularly the "huge game" aspect.  That definitely came across in the vids I watched.   Now officially on the "must" list, just need to make some huge game time... :)

[SirAndrewD]

Looking for recommendations around this game. 

One word of advice - it's a huge game to get into. You cannot run the game at a fast speed and expect to get the most from it. Running the game on speed 2 to 3 is tops in a war and expect to pause it often to take stock. You have to watch every single part of the map and not let the AI sneak up on you.

Many thanks for the feedback.  You both make solid points about the pros and cons, particularly the "huge game" aspect.  That definitely came across in the vids I watched.   Now officially on the "must" list, just need to make some huge game time... :)

It's a great game, it's just spent a lot longer than needed coming into its skin. 

If this is your first entry into the HOI series, you might look into HoI 3 as well.  It is still a very good game in its own right.   I think HoI 4 has much better overall national management and a significantly improved trade, production and air system, but HoI 3 has a better overall AI and an extremely deep, but difficult to manage OOB and HQ system that favors the micromanager.

[Hancock]

And the Steam sale prices sucked me in....downloaded IV this morning.  I'm in big trouble...will need to take the wife to dinner forever for this......

[MetalDog]

Even with all the DLC, it shouldn't end up being forever ;)

[Tuna]

Even with all the DLC, it shouldn't end up being forever ;)

He's retired, so it will just seem like forever, kind of like Summer vacation when we were kids!

[Ian C]

The 1.4.1 beta is great so far.

Playing as Germany, what I've noticed:
- No more stupid AI invasions
- Nations garrison themselves properly. Tried Sea Lion (invasion of UK) and it was properly defended. Took 6 months of intense fighting.
- U-Boats work. You have to take France or shift-click them over the north of UK to the Bay of Biscay area but they work. Basing them at La Rochelle after fall of France will net lots of results.
- Air War more realistic.
- lots more stuff fixed, game plays really well

Very pleased.