No Compromise, No Surrender | Patch 1.17.4

Commanders!

Following the debut of our open beta, we have focused our efforts on refining specific core systems to ensure a polished experience for the official update release.

Naval AI Enhancements

We have continued to optimize naval AI performance, and we are confident that the tactical behavior of fleets is significantly improved over version 1.17.3. However, our work is not yet complete. Future updates will address edge cases, such as the AI running out of screening ships, which renders strike forces ineffective. While using capital ships for patrols is resource-heavy, it is a necessary last resort for defense that the AI will soon utilize more effectively. Your detailed community feedback has been instrumental in these improvements.

Air-to-Ground Combat

The 1.17 release addressed a legacy exploit involving Close Air Support (CAS) damage. This correction revealed secondary issues, particularly regarding AI air efficiency. Using your reports, we have narrowed down these discrepancies and implemented an initial rebalance for divisional Anti-Air (AA). This remains a work in progress, and further refinements are planned for the near future.

Historical Balance Adjustments

Internal testing showed that the Soviet Union had been inadvertently weakened too much. We have conducted a deep dive into Soviet AI logic to bolster their performance, with similar (though less extensive) improvements applied to Germany and Great Britain. These changes aim to preserve historical tension and challenge.

• The French national idea “Victors of the Great War” now carries a 50% mastery gain penalty.
• The Japanese focus “Finish the Fight” now completes in 35 days and no longer triggers obsolete decisions.
• The Finnish AI is now prioritized to select sub-doctrines that align with its historical strengths.
• Introduced a new national spirit for the Guangdong and Guangxi cliques to encourage early involvement in the Liangguang Incident.
• Added “Military Looting” mechanics for Chinese Warlord States, trading industrial output for immediate military advantages.
• The Qing Empire can now utilize warlord integration decisions to accelerate puppet autonomy reduction.
• “Greater Iraq” integration decisions now resolve in 14 days and apply to controlled states.
• The Falangist Spanish “Eliminate the Carlists” bonus duration has been extended to 90 days.
• Finland now begins the game with its fifth submarine, the Saukko.
• Modified modifiers associated with the Putschminister trait.
• Redistributed starting resources in Brazil, including a new rubber source in Acre.
• Added a dockyard in Istanbul to represent the Taşkızak Naval Shipyard.
• Turkey: Kamil Tolon moved to the political advisor slot; added two new starting ideas regarding the first five-year plan and illiteracy; added early-game focuses for industrial expansion via Sümerbank; reduced “Ratify the Six Arrows” duration to 35 days.
• Japan: Extended the duration of Naval Demand missions to 545 days.
• The Baltic communist focus “A Revolutionary Cabinet” now takes 35 days.
• Latvian Ugonkrusts units are now classified as militias, receiving a combat boost via the fascist paramilitaries spirit.
• Historical Afghanistan can now solicit investments from both Axis and Allied powers, provided previous nationals are expelled.
• Aussa’s “Every Man a Warrior” focus now unlocks militia units.
• Increased democratic support gain from the Portuguese “British Influence” spirit.
• The Romanian “Iron Guard” spirit now provides a 5% bonus to the recruitable population factor.
• Portugal’s “Portuguese Legion” focus now adds a research bonus for military police and 5% core defense.
• Ships can now draw from local supply for repairs if the home base supply is insufficient.
• Lowered 1936 static AA in Great Britain to balance German bomber attrition during the Blitz.

Soviet Union Adjustments

• Reduced duration for “The Means to Wage War” and “Superior War Machines” to 35 days; bonuses adjusted to 50%.
• “Superior War Machines” now requires basic medium tank research.
• The Soviet Union starts with a -15% land mastery penalty, removable via “Lessons of War.”
• Removed the -10% army experience modifier.
• AI-controlled Soviets will prioritize T-34 production and deployment earlier.

Naval System Changes

• Increased minimum naval hit chance to 2% (from 0.05%).
• Strike forces can now repair while in harbor based on set priority levels.
• Reserve fleets will no longer reinforce task forces actively engaged in combat, preventing instant destruction of late arrivals.
• Heavy battery accuracy improved by reducing the maximum hit profile from 80 to 70.
• Naval grand doctrines have been recalibrated for better track alignment.

Air and Ground Combat

• Air-to-ground strength damage reduced to 0.035.
• Air-to-ground organization damage reduced to 0.035.
• Increased organization damage dice roll from 4 to 5.
• Improved consistency for divisional AA damage against CAS.
• Maximum CAS damage reduction (75%) now requires approximately 55 anti-air attack.
• Divisional AA now scales better against air superiority, with a maximum penalty reduction of 50%.

Mastery and Doctrines

• Maximum monthly mastery gain capped at 40.
• Armor mastery gain multiplier increased to 10; Artillery reduced to 8.
• “Desperate Defense” is now restricted to defensive wars.
• “Infiltration Tactics” now correctly enables its specific combat tactic.
• Adjusted “Fire Concentration” milestones to delay combat width reduction.
• Organization recovery rates have been halved across most doctrine paths.

• Main Menu Customization: You can now select specific background images for the main menu, which rotate every 20 seconds. This option is located in the bottom right of the menu screen.

• Greece: “An Orthodox State” focus is now available for the Absolutist path with revised bonuses.
• China: Added AFAMF factory focuses, new generals (He Yingqin), city renaming options for Manchuria, and unique sub-branches for Yunnan and the Ma Cliques.
• Iraq: Updated military branch with river navy bonuses, improved Kurdistan flavor, and new industrial focuses for cotton and cement.
• Turkey: Added Nihal Atsız as a potential leader for fascist paths and introduced Etibank as an industrial concern.
• Vichy France: Restored missing political advisors and air/high command staff; blocked access to Free French generals.
• Geography: Added Gwadar to the map.
• Naval movement logic updated: fleets will now ignore “avoided” zones for move commands while still respecting “blocked” zones.

• Energy consumption modifiers are now visible in tooltips.
• Enhanced tooltips for Spymaster slots and Balance of Power changes.
• Added “Repair Now!” button states and tooltips for task forces.
• Stockpile data is now sorted by active production and quantity.
• Added branch navigation buttons for Indian and Iranian focus trees.

• AI now only researches coal efficiency when facing energy shortages.
• Historical German and Soviet focus orders adjusted for better chronological accuracy.
• Germany will now avoid high-attrition air operations over the UK until France has fallen.
• The Battle of Britain will now conclude by November 1940 as the AI prepares for Barbarossa.
• Improved AI admiral assignment and task force templates.
• AI strike forces are more aggressive in engaging spotted hostiles.

• Added `energy_ratio` trigger for country scopes.
• Fixed crashes related to `any_state` triggers in demilitarized zones.
• Improved validation for normalized range triggers.

• Fixed a recurring seed issue where country events would always roll the same random numbers.
• Resolved several “Out of Sync” (OOS) errors in multiplayer peace conferences and market transactions.
• Corrected the “the the” typos throughout various localization files.
• Fixed the “Magnetron” spelling in technology tooltips.
• Ensured the “Reino de Filipinas” tag persists correctly during the Treaty of Manila.
• Fixed map mode brightness issues caused by legacy rendering fixes.
• Resolved issues where female Arabic characters used incorrect patronymic naming conventions.
• Fixed various issues where naval dominance calculations failed to refresh.

Please continue to report any issues you encounter. Review our official Bug Reporting Guidelines here!

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