War Effort - Operation Capital [1.12.8 OPEN BETA]

We have begun the final preparations for Operation Capital, and we now reveal our plans for you all! Below you will find a set of patch notes that are now live on an open beta branch. Feel free to give us feedback on these planned changes in the Discord!

################################################################ ######## Hotfix 1.12.8 "Avalanche" ######### Edited on the 13th of January with new changes ################################################################

################################## # Balance ##################################

- Equipment variants created through focuses etc. will be created first when the technology they are based on is researched, if it's missing. - Tank Design: Radio modules curve slightly changed, overall efficacy of radios reduced slightly - Tank Design: Close Support Gun now has 10 piercing, from 12. - Tank Design: Heavy Machine Gun now has 8 soft attack from 5, and 6 piercing from 10 - Tank Design: Secondary Cannon and HMG now have fewer drawbacks but higher production cost. HMG soft attack now 4, from 3, but hard attack removed - Tank Design: Additional Machineguns soft attack reduced to 1, from 2 - Tank Design: Easy Maintenance module now reduces total build cost by 5%, but requires 30 XP, from 10 - Tank Design: Expanded Fuel Tanks now cost 1 IC, from 2 - Tank Design: Sloped Armor now increases armor by 25%, from 20 - Tank Design: Medium One-Man Turret now has 8 breakthrough, from 10, and reduces soft and hard attack by 10%, from 25% - Tank Design: Three-Man Turret now has 24 breakthrough, from 20 - Tank Design: Torsion Bar now grants 15% reliability, from 10% - Tank Design: Interleaved Road Wheels no longer reduces reliability, but has doubled production cost - Tank Design: Welded armor reduced to 30% armor, from 40% - Plane Design: Torpedo Mountings now have 14 naval strike attack from 12, -12 agility from -15, and 6 targeting from 5 - Plane Design: Reduced the lower end of plane engine IC costs; earlier planes should be a little cheaper on the whole - Dive brakes no longer valid for naval bombers, increased naval targeting from dive brakes from 4 to 6 - Dive brakes no longer valid with naval bomber weapons (torpedoes and guided missiles) - Carrier Naval strike multiplier increased, reduced naval strike detection chance from 0.7 to 0.5, reduced carrier disruption factor from 0.8 to 0.6 - Basic Medium chassis now 1938 tech, amphibious tank now unlocked only by 1936 light, tank armour tech dates are now 36,38,41,44, amphibious tank no longer gets medium turrets

################################## # UI ##################################

- New variants received from auto-upgrades, focuses, events etc. are now highlighted in the production tab like variants received from research. - In research screen for modular equipment (tank, ship, plane), stop showing a diff in stats when there is no design company attached - Improved Tank tech tree layout

################################## # AI ##################################

- Soviet Union no longer desires to be best buddies with Romania despite being instructed to ignore them for a while - AI weights on hiring advisors now makes more sense. You should see a better split between political advisors & research bureaus, and the AI no longer saves all PP for hiring chiefs at the exclusion of all else. [This has a pretty radical effect on early AI build-up, thus there may be some imbalance in the early game in this open beta - feedback especially welcome] - AI have a higher weight on Captain of Industry advisors pre-1939 - AI military spirit selection is less deterministic

################################## # Modding ##################################

- Added property allow_without_tech to create_equipment_variant which will create the variant even if the technology it's based on is missing. - Fix the way character variables in script are stored