Hearts of Iron 4’s open balance beta is steadily moving along, having received a new set of naval changes courtesy of update 2. Available for testing on its dedicated Steam branch, its patch notes kick off with a tweaked submarine detection formula.
The goal here, according to the developer, is to reduce the overall rate at which HOI4’s submarines are detected and sunk. This should result in more of the vessels escaping engagements heavily damaged rather than “being in 99.9% cases destroyed.”
Hearts of Iron 4’s Open Balance Beta Update II Patch Notes
Hearts of Iron 4’s open balance beta update II also changes multiple values tied to the carriers’ ability to spot submarines.
Below, you’ll find the full patch notes for Hearts of Iron 4’s open balance beta update II, as shared by the developer on Steam:
Gameplay
Submarine Detection Formula Tweaked
- SUBMARINE_REVEAL_DETECTION_MULTIPLIER reduced from 0.1 to 0.075. This reduces the passive reveal chance for submarines in combat by around 25%
- SUBMARINE_REVEAL_TORPEDO_FIRING_DETECTION_MULTIPLIER increased from 1 to 1.1. Submarines firing Torpedoes will have a higher chance to be revealed in combat by around 10%, unless they have Torpedo Reveal Chance modifier. Submarines firing torpedoes without any modifiers should be ~17.5% less likely to be detected than in previous Open Beta Update.
- SUBMARINE_HIDE_TIMEOUT reduced from 20 to 8. This means that the submarine after being revealed will stay visible for 8 hours instead of 20.
- SUBMARINE_REVEALED_TIMEOUT reduced from 16 to 12. This means that if the submarines are on the defender side (their taskforce was attacked) - they will stay revealed at the start of the combat for 12 hours instead of 16.
- SUBMARINE_REVEAL_ON_MINIMUM_POSITIONING reduced from 2 to 1. This means that on 0% positioning Submarines will get +100% Visibility instead of +200% Visibility
- Shallow Waters now increase Submarine Visibility by +33% instead of +100%.
Developer Commentary: Purpose of these changes is to reduce overall how often submarines are detected and sunk. With them spending less time revealed, they may actually have a chance to escape heavily damaged instead of being in 99.9% cases destroyed. The detection rates are also reduced a bit, while on top of that reducing the impact of 0% positioning and shallow waters on the submarines. Low Positioning Penalty and Shallow Waters was especially crippling for the early submarine types as they start with a relatively high visibility, thus +100-300% swing can mean between going from ‘25’ visibility to ‘50-100’ visibility, while later submarine types, especially equipped with better modules and/or having MIO Traits would see their visibility barely increased in the absolute numbers.
Early Submarine Hull
Sub Visibility
25 → 22
Strength
10 → 15
Basic Submarine Hull
Sub Visibility
22 → 20
Strength
20 → 22.5
Improved Submarine Hull
Sub Visibility
20 → 18
Advanced Submarine Hull
Strength
35 → 37.5
All Carriers (Carrier Conversions, Escort Carrier, Basic, Improved, Advanced, Modern and Ice Carrier Hulls)
Surface Detection
26 → 20
Sub Detection
5 → 1
Carrier Deck Space Module
Carrier Surface Detection
5 → 8
Carrier Sub Detection
2 → 4
Ice Carrier Deck Space Module
Carrier Surface Detection
6 → 10
Carrier Sub Detection
2 → 4
Escort Carrier Deck Space Module
Carrier Surface Detection
2 → 5
Carrier Sub Detection
5 → 7
Paradox is, of course, waiting for feedback on the changes proposed in Hearts of Iron 4’s open balance beta update II before pushing them to the live game.
The article linked above also contains aggregated patch notes, shedding light on more changes currently being considered.
These efforts follow the launch of the No Surrender, No Compromise DLC, which brought a host of new content for Japan, China, and the Philippines while shaking up naval gameplay.
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