Features.markdown

Changes by Game Feature

All changes, organised according to which area of gameplay or which landmass they belong to. Listed in order of release within each category.

The history of editorial changes is collected separately.

General gameplay

1.0 and earlier

• Cherry-pick HFM/#175: fix typo in PEACE_TIME_FACTOR_NO_GOALS define.

Interface

1.0 and earlier

• Leaders now display their personality & background all at once, together with a stat summary with highlights. This makes it vastly easier for the player to figure out at a glance how good or bad a leader is:

  

  Selecting a general for Austria’s third army from among many candidates. From higher up to lower down the list, some of the leaders that stand out:

  • Alois von Grünne: the speediest hellbent armchair general there is with +50% speed
  • Werner von Hötzendorf: a decent all-rounder with +2 attack +1 defence and a little bit extra as indicated by the green ‘?’ question mark (in his case, a small bonus to morale)
  • Alfons Remmele (highlighted, with tooltip): this defiant cartographer is an ever present rock at +3 defence and +40% speed, with some extras (in this case, small bonuses to morale and organisation)
  • Ludwig Held (immediately after Alois Eisner, name hidden): while he could be considered for the post for defence, he should not be employed on the offence due to a disappointing -2 attack

  The leader stat summary consists of the following, with appropriate colour coding:

  

  attack score, defence score, speed modifier, extras

  Extras, if present, denote one or two remarkable modifier to organisation and/or morale—think of it as a tiebreaker for generals with otherwise similar stats. Leader prestige, indicated by the column to the left of the portrait, plays a similar role. Extras are displayed as one of the following from best to worst: ‘!!!’, ‘?’, blank when unremarkable, ‘¿’, ‘¡¡¡’.

  A stat is displayed as blank when neutral (e.g. no bonus to attack, no speed modifier) or unremarkable. Great care has been taken that stat summaries have pixel-perfect alignment with one another at all times in the leader selection panel, and you can think of all aggregate stats as being displayed in columns (e.g. for attack) as well as in leader rows.

  This change has been achieved by storing the formerly separate personalities & backgrounds of leaders as a single trait under the hood, which acts as a combination of the two. This does not affect how powerful generals or admirals can be, or how unlikely it is to roll e.g. a +5 attack/+5 defence general.

  Known limitations include:

  • An inability to sort leaders in any useful order when clicking on the “Personality & Background” column header. Unfortunately this appears to be a base game limitation.
  • The leader list in the military country screen “leaks” tooltips to the areas just under it. This is a little bit disorientating when trying to use the UI elements in this area: the Create General/Admiral buttons, as well as the leader management checkboxes. This however doesn’t prevent their normal use or displaying their own tooltips. This also appears to be a base game limitation, when trying to fit the longer unified trait descriptions in the leader list.

  Note that morale, a normally unremarkable stat, is being accounted for in the extras due to the weight that the game puts on it. It is suspected though not known for sure that high morale generals tend to take over their otherwise comparable colleagues when merging armies together, or even worse when joining a battle.

• Port the decision organisation & de-clutter system from HPM 0.4.5 and later. Includes some fixes (pending HPM/#237).

• Control over the Splendid Isolation diplomatic policy of the United Kingdom is now done through an option decision. The policy is active by default, and the option disables it.

• Port the additional text colours of HPM (HPM/#163). Also port the colour hints that improve the readability of e.g. decision condition tooltips.

Flags

1.0 and earlier

• Flag tweaks for Korea under a monarchy (4f0f02).
• Enable the flag of the British dominion of Newfoundland (#5).
• Use the correct flag for uncivilised or absolute Dahomey (#6).

Wars

1.0 and earlier

• Port the dismantlement system from HPM 0.4.5. In order to make this work, a couple other supporting features have also been ported—these are described separately.

  The dismantlement system is a great tool to transform a good campaign into a great campaign in the later parts of the game, or just to put the finishing touches on your favourite project. Unfortunately the version used by HFM was showing its age, and came with very frustrating drawbacks:

  • Unreliability: players had little to no control over who benefits from the spoils of dismantlement, in what order. A dismantling country might be offered worthless land at high infamy costs before even receiving a proposal for a valuable possession.
  • Unreliability again, but in the colonies: the system handed out colonial provinces at the region level. This compounds with the previous point: countries would take random turns to receive random regions. The results were rarely pretty.
  • Incompleteness: some parts of the world were not covered at all. India and Indonesia are the two big standouts in this respect, often ending safely independent despite being prized colonial possessions.

  HPM improves on all these points from 0.4 on:

  • Improved control: countries that have lost a war in the past 5 years are excluded from receiving spoils of dismantlement. Infamy costs are scaled to population.
  • Integration with the colonial organisation system means that most colonial possessions are now handed out on a country scale rather than piecemeal. Colonial masters get special access to recover their claims during dismantlement (e.g. completing their possessions in Nigeria), but only if they are at peace.
  • Regions which haven’t been claimed or cannot be claimed are handed out piecemeal, same as before.
  • For dismantled claims (e.g. a dismantled United Kingdom being forced to relinquish British Nigeria) a priority system gives first pick to eligible player Great Powers, followed by AI Great Powers, and finally secondary powers. Vassal countries are excluded (modulo pending HPM/#133, rarely and with limited impact).
  • Colonial Indonesia is now part of the colonial system, and gets handed out as such during dismantlement. India also gets handed out as a whole and Indian puppets will gradually shift their allegiance to the new colonial overlord, if there is any.

  The port is based on HPM 0.4.5.2, but also includes the following later fixes:

  • Part of HPM/104f7a31:

    • Increased Infamy from fighting colonies that refuse to submit during a dismantlement. It can go now up to an additional 5, depending on how bit the colony is.
    • NNM distribution of colonies during dismantlement should now avoid countries that already refused to get more colonies.
    • Ottoman dismantlement will now try to give Montenegro and Serbia their cores back, regardless of truce, and first. That way the region doesn't end controlled by Bosnia/Albania. Greece can also get their cores back regardless of truce IF they are not a SP/GP or if their sphere master/overlord has a truce with the Ottomans.

  • Part of HPM/a9984f5:

    • Another attempt at trying to stop the dismantlement event from happening over and over if you already decided to not take part anymore. Please let me know if the problem still pops up.

  • Part of HPM/7aab423e:

    • Fixed NNM event 96065 that could give a dismantle nation CB on a nation you have a truce with.

  • Part of HPM/1209fbbf (undocumented).

• To support the ported colonial organisation system from HPM, crises now follow the rules of HPM 0.4.5 and later. They are unlocked after a country researches Revolution & Counterrevolution and after 1886, to avoid interfering with the Scramble for Africa.

  Players have access to a new option decision to go by the previous rule: crises unlock as soon as a country researches Revolution & Counterrevolution. There is still also the option to unlock crises from the start.

• Add a name and improved information to call-to-arms wars. They will now be called e.g. 7th British Call to Arms while the associated casus belli sports a more fitting icon. A missing translation string in the description of the latter has also been added.

  These wars used to fall back to a generic name e.g. 7th War of British Aggression. Combined with their unusual appearance this made them rather confusing at first glance. (Call to arms have no actual defender and feature the placeholder rebel flag on that side.)

• Give more robust port requirements to casus belli. This sidesteps a quirk of the game which appears to rely on pathfinding to count ports in a country—resulting in inconsistent results when ongoing sieges (not occupations!) block off path computations. (Documented at HPM/#114.)

  While the quirk also affects other things, reducing the frequency of CB invalidation was given priority.

Colonisation

1.0 and earlier

• Port the colonial organisation system from HPM 0.4.5 and later to support the ported dismantlement system. This is not the colonial casus belli system with reworked Scramble for Africa.

  As a colonial conqueror from outside Africa, you could already supersede and organise native countries into a colonial country that takes on your primary culture and state religion. Changes & new features include:

  • There is now a colonial country for nearly every part of sub-Saharan Africa. This includes the addition of colonial country Ghana, separate from native country Ashanti which used to pull double duties.

  • Other countries outside of Africa that can also be organised (though not always as a colonial country) include:

    • Indonesia (not new)
    • Timor
    • Lebanon

  • Re-evaluated colonial organisation conditions. Relative to the older system organisation is a little more free-form now, typically requiring control of half the states that make up a colonial country. In comparison the older system normally required control of set key provinces.

    Likewise whereas the older system required 1870 culture tech Revolution & Counterrevolution, organisation now requires 1870 army tech Machine Guns and 1850 commerce tech Market Regulations.

  • Re-evaluated colonial organisation RGOs. Quoting from the 0.4 HPM patch notes:

    • "Organizing Colony" decisions now need Machine Guns and Market Regulations. They also will change a few RGOs to cash-crop/mining RGOs, making the decisions more worthwhile. Reduced the number of cash crops/mining operations in African uncivs and moved them to the "organize" decisions—these nations were more focused on subsistence than export-economy.
    • Nigeria RGOs redone. The source is (An Economic History of Nigeria 186o-196o Sahistory.org.za uploads /r.olufemi_ekundare_an_economic_history_of_nigerbook4you.org.pdf )
    • South Africa got a few more iron and coal provinces. Mostly based on Saimm.co.za and Isc.hbs.edu Africa_Iron Ore_2013.pdf
    • Indonesia got a few iron provinces that will appear later. Based on Aig.org.au the history of coal development in indonesia.pdf
    • Mauritania gets an iron province in the north.
    • Senegal gets a few cotton provinces. Saint-Louis changed to cotton. Source: Persee.fr pp303 and "La crise trentenaire de l’économie arachidière" by Mohamed Mbodj pp3
    • Upper Volta will produce cotton in the south. Diversified starting RGOs a bit (previously it was only grain). Based on Icac.org and Lefaso.net
    • Mali will now produce cotton in the south. Diversified starting RGOs and made sure cattle is in the cattle zone while fruits/grain start in the south. They will no longer start producing cotton either. Based on Fews.net copy.jpg?itok=NA3ukgKa and Haskovi.org
    • Ivory Coast has a big cash-crop centered economy once colonized. The south will turn to coffee production while the north has cotton and rubber. Based on Legacy.lib.utexas.edu and Horizon.documentation.ird.fr
    • Sierra Leone gets Coffee in Freetown after they are organized. Based on Universityofmakeni.com
    • Guinea has an economy focusing on Rubber. Other productions are fruit (bananas) and a gold mine. Source: Persee.fr
    • The Gambia is unchanged, as it exported groundnuts for most of its history. Source Stclements.edu
    • When Guinea-Bissau is organized they will export timber and rubber. Based on En.wikipedia.org
    • Niger, when organized, gets a 2 cotton producing provinces. Based on Persee.fr and Persee.fr and en.wikipedia.org

    Because the player debt system of HPM was not ported, players should take note that they should probably have enough treasury reserves on hand before undertaking the following lucrative investments:

    Country	Maximum cost
    Nigeria	£200k
    Indonesia	£200k
    Sierra Leone	£100k
    Zambia	£100k
    Mali	£100k
    Sudan	£100k

    These amounts are displayed as reminders in the description of their respective colonial organisation decision, before the player is presented with a final choice to make.

    Other colonial RGO decisions have been brought closer in line to HPM in terms of requirements (but rarely effects). This was done for consistency e.g. in the amount of importance that these decisions lend to economic techs, and include:

    • Economic Reforms in the Uzbek Homeland
    • Economic Reforms in the Kyrgyz Homeland
    • Economic Reforms in the Turkmen Homeland
    • Economic Reforms in the Tajik Homeland
    • Economic Reforms in the Philippines
    • An End to Natural Dyes?

  Includes fixes to restore parity between player and AI countries (pending HPM/#235).

• Make colonial railroading an option decision (PR HFM/#157).

• Colonial de-railroading: cherry-pick off-the-rails/#3, restoring parity with HFM Derailroaded.

• Colonial de-railroading: change the default behaviour to disabled, with the option to re-enable.

Africa

1.0 and earlier

• Remove correct Basotho cores in Mfecane Matabele (HPM/#131).

• Correct requirements of the Occupation of the Congo Basin decision, resolving ineffective use (#26).

  In addition, the decision has been relaxed and no longer requires that the occupying power be a Great Power. This constraint was too strict, regularly leading to games where the country in control of the lower Congo (often Spain or Portugal) would never come close to being a GP. This would leave a large empty streak of uncontrolled land in the middle of Africa.

  There is no longer a rank requirement. To prevent the colonial power immediately gaining control of all Chad lands, Ubangi-shari and Waddai are now only available after 1890 and 1895 respectively. This roughly matches historical dates. (#86)

• Improve the Boer War call to arms to be infamy neutral (it was deducting 3 extra), and make it AI only. The player now gets notified of the new alliance.

• Correct condition on the Colonial Incorporation event for Western Sahara. The event incorrectly happened for African countries other than Morocco.

• Reduce the amount of notifications from the Witwatersrand Gold Rush (#7).

The Americas

1.0 and earlier

• Prevent follow-up event to The Mysterious Lands of Guatemala archaeological chain from granting prestige to non-existing countries (8c3aa2).

Asia

1.0 and earlier

• Add a guard condition to the Establish the Karafuto Prefecture decision (#28).
• Leave Ryukyu independent during Meiji Restoration (#51).
• Preserve the state religion of the Heavenly Kingdom upon Westernisation (#40).
• Really release Ezo when choosing to play as them (HPM/#161).
• Fixes to the Annex Korea decision, aiming to resolve the following two situations (pending HPM/#189):
  • late game liberation crises that would fizzle when going to war over Korea
  • Japanese conquest of Korea against the player

• PR HFM/#141:

  At line 518 (ENG choice to not intervene) I've added set_global_flag = anglo_persian_war to signify the crisis has occurred, otherwise the event will continuously spawn.

Europe

1.0 and earlier

• Prevent the Papal States (aka Lazio aka the Roman Republic) from being outright annexed when Italy forms by event (Il Risorgimento). They instead get a say into the matter, and can challenge Italy (#19, HPM/#3 + HPM/93c5ca).

• Extend player protection of Neuchâtel crisis (#76). Note that there still are extant event-driven annexations of Neuchâtel, and as such it should still be considered a hard start for advanced players.

• Add 31 days of cooldown to AI: Call Allies to War (when AI United Kingdom is at war) in certain circumstances. This is to prevent adverse impact on performance, without hindering British military power too much. There is no cooldown when performance cannot be affected.

• Simplify Italia Irredenta. The decision has an over-complicated design, leading to two flaws:

  • Non obvious hidden conditions, potentially confusing the player as to when the decision is available, and for which purpose.
  • Conditions & effects were out of sync. In some circumstances, this led to Italy repeatedly activating the decision with ruinous consequences on game performance.

  The simplification only mitigates the latter aspect by turning the decision into a more typical claiming button—though with multiple stages same as before. A knock-on consequence is that the decision is now somewhat less powerful than before, though some of the things it allowed before (e.g. granting claims while at war) were of dubious value.

  The decision might be revisited again in the future (#39).

• Prevent French countries other than France from accessing or benefiting from decisions, events, and other effects meant to be exclusive to France (part of #87).

Middle East

1.0 and earlier

• Prevent the Arab Union (which acts as a quasi-cultural union) from losing Mashriqi culture from independence movements (pending HPM/#236).