[2020] Dev Diary: 1.9.1 Beta Patch Update

: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page [url=https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/394360/announcements/detail/1717499322305879717]here[/url].

Today's Development Diary by Bratyn[pdxint.at]



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:

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We have noticed that a significant portion of our crashes occurred due to people running outdated mods with 1.9.1.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:




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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:

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# Balance
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- 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
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- 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


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# AI
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- 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
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- 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! :)