Campaign start extreme times? (>1 hour)

[SPANISH_AVENGER]

Hello! I was eager to try out campaigns, but, ever since a few months ago, they just won't load/start...

A hour and half ago, I tried to start as a 1940 campaign. It's still loading "April 1937"! I have already given up on it, as all previous attempts I have made in the past few months.

Is this... normal? Or is there anything wrong on my end? My computer is a quite powerful machine capable of loading nearly every game in a few seconds, so it can't be a hardware issue, that's for sure.

Edited March 7, 2024 by SPANISH_AVENGER

[PhoenixLP44]

Try to reinstall your game, you might have a corrupted file. Also disable any mods you have they might be the cause.

[TK3600]

it appears devs want to let game play on auto for 10 turns before every campaign starts hence the slowness. In general they have a very particular idea of how game should work. When it does not reflect reality (like too much bugs, unenjoyable), they refuse to adapt. This is how we arrived at current mess. 

Also there seems to be a big lay off 3 years ago. Big cultural shift. 

[TK3600]

Campaign loading time is but one of their 'religious dogma' harming the game. Paradox Interactive games like HOI4, Victoria 2, are much more complex, yet takes a fraction of time to load. Their refusal to remove bloat is to blame.

One of the design principle they have that deeply harm the game is "AI play the same rules as humans". Sounds good on paper, but it messes up human element a lot in favor of AI. For instance, forced obsolecense of parts. Human lost their design freedom because AI pick parts out of random weight assignment. If old niche parts are not obsolete, AI is slower at picking parts. Human on other hand can identify niche of old parts, but is forced to play a less interesting game thanks to AI using same rule as humans. Had AI had its own obsolecense rules everyone would be happy. But this religious dogma is preventing them to see that.

Second biggest issue is their disrespect to player agency. Everything is under control by AI. Torpedo launching for one. If there is a manual firing arc, the not firing complaint will cease. But they insist they can automate everything, and fail at it. Worse examples were back then alliance were also AI controlled, but at least they compromised on that after years of complaints.

Third is their love for bandaid solutions. They prefer to take away features than dealing with small bugs. Examples include time compression x10 during battle, mass change port in fleet menu, build refitted ships, etc. All of them are crucial features that produce minor bugs, but they rather take them away because of small bugs they cant fix. A game with good potential with bugs is an acceptable game. A game with no feature but bug free is poor game. They don't understand this.

Forth is their disrespect for complexity. Take autoresolve for example, many of the irrational outcomes are actually due to complex codes. They tried to factor a composite traits of ship like armor, firepower, and speed for a reasonable outcome, but fails. A lone DD can sink 2 BB screened by 6 light cruisers. Had they used simpler codes like cost, tonnage, they can produce a reasonable outcome, but it appears they view it beneath them, yet simultaneously fail at fixing their own complex codes. Another example is game's economy. It actually try to simulate things like inflation, boon bust cycles. But end result is it fails to produce rational result. France lost all but 1 province still has more GDP than Russia that own rest of Europe + China. They are no economists, yet try to simulate an economic prediction economists cannot achieve, so they fail.

Game feels like it is designed by a philosophy student with no understanding of programming, and many programmers who are otherwise competent, but cannot keep up with the philosopher's demand.

Edited June 7, 2024 by TK3600