Development Diary: Open Beta Update IV

1 minute ago

NAVAL AI OVERHAUL

We have been analyzing the root causes of Naval AI inefficiencies, specifically regarding how it handles strike forces and prioritizes naval operations. While previous patches have significantly improved the AI compared to the initial NCNS release, it often struggled to adapt rapidly to shifting tactical situations. Here is a breakdown of the identified issues and our solutions:

Technological Adaptation
To maintain historical plausibility, the AI will not construct perfectly “meta” optimized ships. If you were commanding Japanese naval production in 1936, you could theoretically dominate the US Navy by spamming light guns on fast cruisers—a tactic available to you as a player, but not something we want the AI to abuse. We have refined the AI’s focus on naval research and adjusted its equipment targets to ensure more effective, historically grounded fleet compositions. We will continue to iterate on this in future updates.

Fleet Reinforcement
We have instructed the AI to periodically scour its reserve fleets to upgrade active task forces with superior, newly commissioned vessels during peacetime. To prevent lone ships from becoming vulnerable targets for enemy submarines, this behavior is suspended once war begins.

Repair Management
The AI previously relied too heavily on automated repairs, which proved inefficient. It will now exercise more strategic judgment, opting to repair at local dockyards or retreating to major facilities when necessary. Furthermore, the AI will now swap damaged capital ships from its active task forces with fresh vessels from the reserve, ensuring that its frontline strength remains consistent.

Responsive Command
We have streamlined the command hierarchy by eliminating an redundant secondary layer previously responsible for strike forces. Every objective now independently assesses its need for a strike force. Combined with improved priority calculations and more efficient taskforce allocation logic, the AI is now significantly more agile when reacting to threats.

MISCELLANEOUS

We have consolidated the logic for homebase selection, which was previously fragmented. The AI now makes more intelligent decisions that allow for better regional coverage. We have also addressed the “convoy death spiral,” where the AI would enter a panic-driven “build only convoys” mode after accepting massive, unsustainable lend-lease requests. This has been rectified with new constraints on lend-lease acceptance and resource management.

GAMEPLAY & BALANCE

This update integrates the full balance overhaul from our previous testing phase, alongside several specific adjustments to naval mechanics:

Strike Force Refinement: Strike forces will no longer be distracted by irrelevant combat encounters while en route to their intended target. Previously, submarines raiding convoys could effectively “stunlock” superior fleets, causing them to arrive late or miss engagements entirely.
Aircraft Balancing: Heavy Machine Guns on aircraft have been slightly nerfed. While still the most effective choice for their production cost, they no longer feel overpowered. Furthermore, equipping 4x LMG/HMG slots now imposes a minor reliability penalty.

While our work on Naval AI is ongoing, these adjustments should create a more responsive and tactically coherent experience. You should observe more frequent naval engagements and a more assertive AI defense of its waters.

Please share your experiences with this beta in the forums. While I cannot promise further updates to this specific beta build, we are closely monitoring all feedback.

Have a wonderful weekend!

/Zwirbaum, Gorion and Batya

If you need assistance joining the open beta, please follow the instructions in the original Open Beta announcement HERE.

Beta Version: Case Green v1.18.1.0.c3bd (9b89)

Open Beta Update IV: Changelog

Balance Highlights

Reduced supply consumption across all major ship classes (Carriers, Battleships, Battlecruisers, Heavy Cruisers).
Increased Naval XP gain for patrol, raiding, escort, and mining missions.
Submarine mechanics adjusted: revealed submarines will now submerge after 8 hours, and detection multipliers have been tuned to make them slightly harder to find in combat.
Capital ships now retreat more slowly, staying engaged in the fight longer.
Carrier aircraft are approximately 20% more effective against both air and sea targets.
Heavy MG fighter armament costs have increased, and reliability penalties now apply to 4x mounts.
Carrier and Destroyer stats, costs, and manpower requirements have been rebalanced for greater historical accuracy and strategic variety.

Gameplay

Quality of Life: The international market now defaults to maximum purchase amounts and automatically sets a reasonable minimum civilian factory requirement.
Strike forces can now retarget combats already in progress while disengaging from others.
Strike forces will ignore minor submarine engagements while en route to their primary mission objective.

Performance & Stability

We have addressed several memory leaks and optimized engine processes to ensure smooth performance during long campaigns:

Fixed memory and sound effect leaks that contributed to late-game slowdowns.
Equipment data is now compacted annually to stabilize memory usage.
Air wing accident calculations optimized via pre-rolls.
Improved 2D icon rendering performance and reduced disk access through a new sound pool management system.
Significant speed improvements to air fuel, equipment variant, AI theatre distribution, and supply system calculations.

UI & AI Improvements

Updated tooltips for sea zone control thresholds (now 60%).
Added “Hit Profile” stats to the Ship Designer and Ship Cards.
Added division filtering in the division overview window.
The “Repair Now” button now immediately halts current missions.
The AI is now better at disengaging from losing battles and prioritizing defensive objectives based on Victory Points.
Germany will now prioritize submarine warfare in line with historical doctrine.

Modding

Introduced naval_invasion_support_priority for enhanced control over Naval AI behavior.

Bugfixes

Resolved a rare crash related to order invalidation.
Fixed issues preventing task forces from being caught in multiple combats simultaneously.
Ensured screening bonuses are now correctly applying efficiency modifiers.

Source

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