HOI IV - Open Beta Update 01

Generals!

(Following our Open Beta Announcement)

We have now locked the first OB thread, so be sure to continue leaving your feedback in this thread. Bugs* go in the bug report forum. You can also start a separate thread, just make sure to reference this open beta and mention something like [open beta] in the title.

I’m Zwirbaum, Game Designer for Hearts of Iron. It is Friday and it is time for the first update to the Open ‘Balance’ Beta. There have been quite a number of responses to the beta, on the forum, Reddit, Steam or Discord channel (if there have been more places, I may have missed it somewhat), which definitely felt great! Unfortunately, while I tried to answer as many questions, suggestions, and opinions (even those contesting whether I am a real person…), I could not provide a reply to all of them. Rest assured that I have read most, if not all of them. Also at some point I need to actually have the time to prepare the next set of changes, reevaluate the current ones, think on the feedback, and finally write this ‘Open Beta Update’ dev diary.

To follow up on this, I am not sure if that was clear from my previous post, but I have seen that some people perceive that this Beta will be only concerning the things it already did in the first update (resource costs, range, supply etc.). This is not the plan, and hopefully over the following weeks I will be able to deliver other adjustments and changes to the Naval Gameplay, and today we will start seeing some of those changes happening as well.

With the release of the Warships of the Pacific patch, there has been a change that impacted how the reveal chance for submarines was calculated, resulting in quite significant increase of submarine losses. (Revealed submarine = destroyed submarine in most cases). After looking into the problem, I adjusted the formula, which now should result in a somewhat more sensible detection rate, where submarines should no longer be able to achieve ‘virtually’ undetectable status, but also should not end up revealed all the time. Modders: after updating the Open Beta, in the respective section of 00_defines.lua you will find information about the exact formula being used, as well as the values you can tweak to achieve your headcannon detection rates you would wish to see.
Moving forward I may also update for how long the submarine can be revealed (or in other words, until it becomes hidden again). If they can be detected a bit more reliably, then we can reduce the time they are revealed, so as to also reduce the time they can spend being ‘focus fired’. The new formula may see some adjustments, so I am curious to hear what are your impressions - are the submarines detected still way too often? Not enough? Or somehow I managed to nail the balance on the first try. (I very much doubt that…)

Second change is that I am bringing the minimum naval hit chance to 0.5%. With Patch 1.17.4, minimum naval hit chance was increased to 2%, increasing effectiveness of the already quite deadly and potent weapon type - Torpedoes. With minimum hit chance being lowered in Open Beta, this should give more breathing room to the actual hit calculations, without clamping them too much. Hopefully this will reduce the lethality of naval combat overall, as well as reduce Torpedo Destroyers overwhelming power a bit. In coming weeks, I hope to bring a bit more of a balance between different ship types and their builds.

For the final step of this dev diary I will want to discuss one thing, ahead of time - as I am curious to hear what you think.

Anyways, here goes:

It is quite prevalent that the homogenous designs (designs that specialize in stacking certain modules, in order to achieve the highest values for a specific value - Spotter Cruisers, Tanks with multiple Secondary Turrets among others) are usually the way to go for the maximum effectiveness in the game. This reduces the viability of ‘multi-role’ equipment designs, lowering the amount of viable choices and picks, which also often hurts ‘flavorful’ equipment designs that are trying to replicate real-life counterparts. On the other hand, it does make designing equipment to a certain extent easier, if you know what you should be ‘stacking’ or what is your ultimate goal and what you are focusing on. In a game that is already quite massive with a lot of different systems, mechanics, stats - maybe that is an acceptable trade-off? I am once again quite interested to hear what your thoughts are on this specific topic.

And that is pretty much all from me, at this weekly update.

Thanks for reading, and until next time, farewell!

/Zwirbaum

How to join this Open Beta:

This beta client is Musketeer v1.17.5.2.9135 (050f)

To install Open Balance Beta client, follow these instruction:

1. Right-click the game in your library
   
2. Select Properties from the drop-down menu
   
3. Select Game Versions & Betas
   
4. Select the beta branch called open_balance_beta

Finally, to report any issues you find in relation to this beta, please use the bug report forum and make sure to include the version you’re using. That way our Jira won’t go nuts trying to figure out what bug report belongs to what.


These are changes from the PREVIOUS Open Beta build to the NEW Open Beta build

• Reworked submarine detection formula, added three new defines related to the submarine detection, SUBMARINE_BASE_STEALTH_VALUE, SUBMARINE_REVEAL_DETECTION_MULTIPLIER, SUBMARINE_REVEAL_TORPEDO_FIRING_DETECTION_MULTIPLIER
  
• Reduced minimum naval hit chance from 2% to 0.5%

Panzerschiff
Hull IC Cost
3000 IC to 2800 IC
Surface Visibility
20 to 18

Coastal Defence Ship
Surface Visibility
18 to 16

Basic Cruiser Hull
Steel Cost Reduced from 3 to 2

Improved Cruiser Hull
Chromium Cost Reduced from 1 to 0

Advanced Cruiser Hull
Steel Cost Reduced from 4 to 3

Basic Carrier Ship Hull
5 Steel + 1 Chromium → 4 Steel + 1 Chromium

Improved Carrier Ship Hull
Steel Cost Reduced from 6 to 5

Advanced Carrier Ship Hull
Steel Cost Reduced from 7 to 6

Modern Carrier Ship Hull
Steel Cost Reduced from 8 to 6

Ice Carrier Ship Hull
Steel Cost Reduced from 10 to 8

Basic Heavy Ship Hull
Steel Cost Reduced from 4 to 3

Advanced Heavy Ship Hull
Steel Cost Reduced from 5 to 4

Super Heavy Ship Hull
Chromium Cost Reduced from 3 to 2

Modern Heavy Ship Hull
Steel Cost Reduced from 6 to 5
Chromium Cost Reduced from 4 to 2

Aggregated Patch Notes
(*Changes from Live to current OB build)

Carriers
1.2 → 0.8
Battleships
0.8 → 0.56
Battlecruisers
0.48 → 0.32
Heavy Cruisers
0.4 → 0.24

Early Destroyer
Naval Range
1500 km → 2000 km

Basic Destroyer
Naval Range
1800 km → 2500 km
Service Manpower
325 → 300

Improved Destroyer
Naval Range
2000 km → 3000 km
Service Manpower
400 → 350

Advanced Destroyer
Naval Range
2500 km → 3500 km
Service Manpower
500 → 400

Improved Cruiser
Naval Range
4000 km → 3500 km
Service Manpower
1200 → 1000

Advanced Cruiser
Naval Range
4500 km → 4000 km
Service Manpower
1400 → 1200

Torpedo Cruiser
Naval Range
4000 km → 3500 km
Service Manpower
960 → 900.

Panzerschiff
Service Manpower
1800 → 1200
Hull IC cost
3500 → 3000 → 2800
Surface Visibility
22 → 20 → 18

Coastal Defense Ship
Naval Range
1500 km → 2000 km
Service Manpower
1800 → 1000
Hull IC cost
3500 → 1500
Surface Visibility
20 → 18

Pre-Dreadnaught Hull
Naval Range
2250 km → 2500 km

Basic Heavy Hull
Service Manpower
5200 → 4300

Improved Heavy Hull
Service Manpower
6000 → 4650

Advanced Heavy Hull
Service Manpower
6000 → 5000

Modern Heavy Hull
Service Manpower
6000 → 5000
Hull IC cost
4000 → 3600

Cruiser Carrier Conversion
Naval Range
4000 km → 3000 km

Battleship Carrier Conversion
Naval Range
4000 km → 3000 km
Service Manpower
5000 → 3500

Basic Carrier
Naval Range
3000 km → 3500 km
Service Manpower
4500 → 4000

Improved Carrier
Naval Range
4000 km → 4250 km
Service Manpower
5000 → 4500

Advanced Carrier
Service Manpower
5500 → 5000

Modern Carrier
Service Manpower
6500 → 6000

Escort Carrier
Hull IC cost
1500 → 1250
Service Manpower
2500 → 1500.

Super Heavy Hull
Service Manpower
9000 → 7000

Naval XP gain for the following mission types:
(This value is expressed as a ratio compared to Naval Training XP Gain Rates, which is currently set at '1'.)

Patrol, Convoy Raiding, Convoy Escort, Mines Planting, Mines Sweeping
Increased to 0.2

Strike Force
Increased to 0.5

Removed Resource Cost from most of the naval modules (guns, deck armor, hangar decks)
(Armor Schemes as well as Anechoic Tiles will still have resource costs associated with them)

Cruiser Armor Scheme
Steel: 0/1/1/2 → 0/0/1/1
Chromium: 0/0/1/1 → 0/0/0/1

Battleship Armor Scheme
Steel: 1/1/2 → 1/1/1
Chromium: unchanged

Submarine Carrier Hull
3 Steel → 4 Steel

Advanced Destroyer Hull
4 Steel → 3 Steel

Early Cruiser Hull
1 Steel → 2 Steel

Basic Cruiser Hull
2 Steel → 3 Steel → 2 Steel

Improved Cruiser Hull
2 Steel → 3 Steel + 1 Chromium → 3 Steel + 0 Chromium

Advanced Cruiser Hull
3 Steel → 4 Steel + 1 Chromium → 3 Steel + 1 Chromium

Torpedo Cruiser Hull
2 Steel → 3 Steel

Panzerschiff Hull
2 Steel → 3 Steel + 1 Chromium

Coastal Defense Ship Hull
3 Steel → 2 Steel

Pre-Drednought Ship Hull
1 Steel + 1 Chromium → 2 Steel

Early Heavy Ship Hull
1 Steel + 1 Chromium → 3 Steel + 1 Chromium

Basic Heavy Ship Hull
1 Steel + 1 Chromium → 4 Steel + 1 Chromium → 3 Steel + 1 Chromium

Improved Heavy Ship Hull
1 Steel + 1 Chromium → 4 Steel + 1 Chromium

Advanced Heavy Ship Hull
1 Steel + 1 Chromium → 5 Steel + 1 Chromium → 4 Steel + 1 Chromium

Modern Heavy Ship Hull
6 Steel + 3 Chromium + 2 Tungsten → 6 Steel + 4 Chromium + 2 Tungsten → 5 Steel + 2 Chromium + 2 Tungsten

Super Heavy Ship Hull
1 Steel + 1 Chromium → 5 Steel + 3 Chromium → 5 Steel + 2 Chromium

Basic Carrier Ship Hull
3 Steel + 1 Chromium → 5 Steel + 1 Chromium → 4 Steel + 1 Chromium

Improved Carrier Ship Hull
4 Steel + 1 Chromium → 6 Steel + 2 Chromium → 5 Steel + 2 Chromium

Advanced Carrier Ship Hull
4 Steel + 2 Chromium → 7 Steel + 2 Chromium → 6 Steel + 2 Chromium

Modern Carrier Ship Hull
5 Steel + 3 Chromium → 8 Steel + 3 Chromium → 6 Steel + 3 Chromium

Ice Carrier Ship Hull
5 Steel + 2 Chromium → 10 Steel + 2 Chromium → 8 Steel + 2 Chromium

Escort Carrier Ship Hull
2 Steel + 1 Chromium → 3 Steel

• Tooltip updated to indicate that the control ratio required for having dominance in a sea zone is 60% (was 66%)