Hearts of Iron IV News

Generals!

The Quartermasters over here on Steam have once again reorganized the railroads to ensure maximum efficiency, now extending Discounts on HOI over to the Spring Sale!

It is the perfect time to grab something for a friend, or to grab something that missing from your collection~

This sale will run from Now until March 20th

[h3]BASE GAME[/h3]
Hearts of Iron IV - 70% off Hearts of Iron IV: Starter Edition - 70% off

[h3]Expansions[/h3]
Hearts of Iron IV: Arms Against Tyranny 20% off Hearts of Iron IV: By Blood Alone 30% off Hearts of Iron IV: No Step Back 30% off Hearts of Iron IV: La Résistance 50% off Hearts of Iron IV: Man the Guns 50% off

[h3]Country Packs[/h3]
Hearts of Iron IV: Battle for the Bosporus 50% off Hearts of Iron IV: Trial of Allegiance 20% off

[h3]Music & Unit Packs[/h3]
Hearts of Iron IV: Songs of the Eastern Front 50% off Hearts of Iron IV: Eastern Front Planes 50% off Hearts of Iron IV: Allied Speeches Pack 50% off Hearts of Iron IV: Radio Pack 50% off Hearts of Iron IV: Sabaton Soundtrack 50% off Hearts of Iron IV: Sabaton Soundtrack Vol. 2 50% off Hearts of Iron IV: Allied Armor 50% off Hearts of Iron IV: Axis Armor 50% off

Hello everyone!

As we mentioned not too long ago, we’ll be bringing you several patches over the coming weeks and months. Here is our first batch of patch notes.

Operation HEAD, 1.16.1, Checksum 48b7

[h3]Balance[/h3]
Increased the artillery required for elephantry
-reduced its base soft attack by 20%
-reduced breakthrough by 20%
-reduced manpower requirement by 10%
-increased supply consumption by 25% India
-Train Robberies now reduce railway/hub/infra by 2% (was 3%) for each railway focus completed
-Train Robberies now reduce weekly stability by 0.1% (was 0.3%)

• Iran: The Immortal Legion now has a much larger starting template
  
• India: The national spirit “Anti-Imperialist Zeal” now gives 8% defense bonus against the USA (up from 0.8%)
  

[h3]Gameplay[/h3]

• Added an event chain for Syria and Lebanon that allows them to side with Vichy/Free France or declare independence when Paris falls
  
• Added additional animation variants for elephantry
  
• Generic elephantry now uses the generic infantry model
  
• Iraq: More models can be selected for artillery and anti-tank battalions in the division designer
  
• India: Added better tooltip to train robberies
  
• India: Famine now only requires you to lose a starting Indian State (excluding Aden) with 30 days to retake it
  
• India: Improved Famine description
  
• India: The focus “Threaten the Princes” now gives 10% communist support
  

[h3]Modding[/h3]

• Added "count" functionality for all any_object triggers. It will evaluate true if at least "count" items fulfill the child triggers. The count field will support scoped variables
  

[h3]Bugfixes[/h3]

• India: The Mughal Influence state modifier will now be removed if no longer owned by the Mughal Empire or India
  
• India: The Mughal Uprising now changes the name of political parties rather than keeping the Indian ones
  
• India: The British Raj no longer loses certain spirits after separating from the East India Company or Princely Breakaway States
  
• India: "Parkash Singh"s trait "Brave" is no longer missing a title and description
  
• India: The "Conquer Afghanistan" focus no longer attempts to give a special forces doctrine discount when you do not have AAT
  
• India: The "Frontier Corps" focus no longer gives a special forces doctrine reward if you are missing AAT
  
• India: The "Nothing Personal" focus will now bypass if unavailable
  
• India: Forward Bloc now removes the occupation law No Garrison until independence is achieved through the focus Give Me Blood And I Will Grant You Freedom
  
• India: The game rule to make India go down the historical path will no longer block achievements
  
• India: Independence unrest events no longer continue to appear after declaring independence in India's fascist path
  
• India: East India Railways will no longer bypass automatically when GoE is missing
  
• India: The Ahadi Division template given by The Mughal Uprising can now be edited
  
• India: Famine should now longer trigger if a country spawns in the affected area
  
• India: The ruling party of the Mughal Empire and British Raj are no longer flipped (Mughals getting GB and RAJ getting Mughal Court) after starting the civil war
  
• India: Aden no longer gets returned to the Raj after the Mughal Uprising if it was previously handed over to the United Kingdom
  
• India: Fixed a bug where a blank EIC focus was appearing in the focus tree upon formation
  
• India: Numerous national focuses have been updated with filter tags
  
• India: The focus Royal Indian Navy Mutiny no longer requires independence
  
• India: Fixed a broken bypass condition for the focus Pledge for the Allies
  
• Iraq: Nuri As Said no longer has a placeholder portrait when missing GOE
  
• Iraq: The event from Propose Syrian Unification no longer gives the wrong war goal
  
• Iraq: Restoration of Hejaz focus now grants cores on the targeted states, instead of claims
  
• Iran/Soviet Union: Fixed a bug in which the Soviets could not puppet Iran if they chose to justify without the focus
  
• Iran: Join allies focuses can now be appropriately bypassed
  
• Iran: Changed the Memphis Initiative to include any state in the Middle East
  
• Iran: Fixed a bug where Iran started with Treaty of Saadabad in 1939, where it should not have
  
• Iran: Fixed a bug where Opposition to the Shah decisions still appeared after a peaceful takeover
  
• Iran: Allowed Organize Protests or Establish Local Opposition Groups to be bypassed if any of the focuses starting a civil war are taken
  
• Iran: Jafar Kavian and Ghulam Yahya Daneshian are now gated behind the Communist focus branch
  
• Iran: Fixed a bug where the Islamic Revolution leader would not become country leader if a civil war was started in the "Strengthen Iranian Parliament" focus
  
• Iran: Fixed issue with two national spirits disappearing when communist civil war starts
  
• Afghanistan: The "Graveyard of Empires" focus now works correctly if you have the Quami national spirit
  
• United Kingdom: Puppets breaking away from the UK when it goes fascist/communist should now function correctly
  
• Arabia: Can no longer be formed by Kurdistan
  
• Arabia: Now correctly gains cores on new states
  

[h3]Localization Bugfixes[/h3]

• Issues with technical text being displayed in Russian localization should now be resolved
  
• The East India Company Investment Schemes window is now functional when playing with Russian localization
  
• Typo: Masshad -> Mashhad
  
• India: Fixed a typo in the description of the Risk of Famine national spirit, where "loses" is misspelled as "looses"
  
• India: The Sideline the Conflict focus tooltip no longer displays a bugged name
  
• India: Several technology bonuses now have a name
  

[h3]Art Bugfixes[/h3]

• Fixed minor issue with Elephant animations
  
• Various 2D Icons updated
  
• Missing elephantry icons added
  
• Changed animation_blend_time to zero between the animation stages for Elephantry
  

[h3]Technical Bugfixes[/h3]

• Fixed a bug where production was not recalculated when taking decisions. This fixes instances of bugs such as MEFO bills failing to update when they should
  
• Fixed a OOS due to portrait generation when host and client have different DLC configurations
  
• Fix a Windows CTD on startup when some specific utf-8 characters are in the installation path
  
• Fixed buffer overflow when rendering 2D elements
  

And lastly, here’s an updated roadmap

Greetings all,

At the risk of stating the obvious, the release of Graveyard of Empires has not gone the way we wanted. Today, I want to post a mini-retrospective that explains some of what happened leading up to the release, and how we plan on acting on the results of that and on subsequent feedback and reception moving forwards.

One of the most important parts of the pre-release process we perform in Studio Gold is the Go/No-Go meeting. This is where each discipline; QA, Tech, Design, Marketing, Business et al, present their perspective on the state of the game and expectations on the likely reception thereof. We do this so we’re all on the same page, and so we can jointly arrive at a consensus on whether to launch or not. In GoE’s case, while we identified some areas of uncertainty mostly relating to dev diary feedback, we agreed that there was nothing out of the ordinary here, and that a release at this stage was acceptable. I don’t want to diminish my role here or throw anyone under the bus: as Game Director I can overrule in either direction, and I did not - I did not see what I should have seen.

Collectively, and personally, we were quite clearly wrong. As an organization we were unaware of the issues present in this release, and this represents a serious need for some inward thinking on how we arrived at this decision, and how we reorganize ourselves to prevent it occurring again. I have few answers for you right now as we’re focusing on the short-term goals for putting Graveyard of Empires right, but we have no intention of sweeping this under the rug.

From a long term perspective, this is now the second release of a Country pack which has performed worse than expected. Review score is actually a surprisingly difficult metric to evaluate. It is better to think of it as a snapshot that, on balance, gives us an idea of how much of the community considers everything surrounding a release to be a net positive or negative. This can include price, quality, scope, overall opinion of a company, and many other things. What we tend to do is aggregate the key sentiments of negative and positive reviews and work out, on balance, where the main points for and against are. The two main negatives on Trial of Allegiance were, in first place the regional price adjustments in two specific markets, followed by scope. It’s a bit early to say for Graveyard of Empires, but first impressions are content direction & quality (as we’ve acknowledged), followed by scope.

Both regional pricing and content quality are things that I would hope are relevant only to the individual releases here. They’re localized. Scope, on the other hand, represents a clearer area where we need to offer more on a fundamental level. Scope in this context, is the nature of what we’re offering: focus trees, mechanics, 3d models; the whole package. Content-only releases are popular with some HoI fans, but on balance are not enough to resonate with the majority of the community. Once again, I don’t have an answer yet here, but we’re aware of it, and will be evaluating how to make these releases more exciting to more people.

And finally, in the short term, I want to address our plans for Graveyard of Empires. Beginning this week, we have a series of patches and updates planned for GoE as well as for the base game in order to both fix and improve content that you found lacking. I sincerely appreciate all those who have reached out with constructive suggestions. We have all hands on this endeavour right now.

/Arheo

Timeline:

• 12th March - Patch (Operation HEAD)
  
• 20th March - Patch (Operation KNEE)
  
• Late March - War Effort (Operation SHOULDER)
  
• April - Updates & Changes to GoE content

As we approach the end of our developer content, we stand at the precipice for Graveyard of Empires. Fresh opportunities await players from the lands along the Euphrates, to the Gulf of Bengal, and we are delighted to see how you will experience these new challenges!

To kickstart your journey, be sure to continue reading for the full release notes, the Release Trailer, as well as our Steam Sale that’s starting right now!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Grab Graveyard of Empires below (Note that if you have already purchased the Expansion Pass 1, Graveyard of Empires will already be included with it)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3152790/Country_Pack__Hearts_of_Iron_IV_Graveyard_of_Empires/

[h3]Release Notes[/h3]
If you missed the release notes or changelog we posted yesterday, you can check it out here

[h3]All Developer Diaries and Country Showcases[/h3]
If you missed any of our developer diaries or spotlight videos and want to catch up on all the new features in this expansion, you can find everything you need at the bullet points below:

• The Complete List of Developer Diaries
• Country Showcases Playlist

[h3]Version Rollback[/h3]
As always, you’ll be able to roll back your game to previous versions. The rollback option will become available shortly after the DLC release, so if you don’t see it right away, please be patient.

If you’re unsure how to roll back your game, you can find a helpful guide here.

[h3]Known Issues[/h3]
There are some issues we know about; we’ve detailed them in this post, and are working on resolving them.

[h3]Release Sale![/h3]
Accompanying the release of Graveyard of Empires, we will also be running a sale! So if you want to grab something you're missing alongside this release, you can get up to 70-75% off on select purchases.

If the sale isn't currently live for you, it should be live within 30 minutes to an hour of this post going up!

[h3]BASE GAME[/h3]
Hearts of Iron IV - 70% off Hearts of Iron IV: Starter Edition - 70% off

[h3]Expansions[/h3]
Hearts of Iron IV: Arms Against Tyranny 20% off Hearts of Iron IV: By Blood Alone 30% off Hearts of Iron IV: No Step Back 30% off Hearts of Iron IV: La Résistance 50% off Hearts of Iron IV: Man the Guns 50% off

[h3]Country Packs[/h3]
Hearts of Iron IV: Battle for the Bosporus 50% off Hearts of Iron IV: Trial of Allegiance 20% off

[h3]Music & Unit Packs[/h3]
Hearts of Iron IV: Songs of the Eastern Front 50% off Hearts of Iron IV: Eastern Front Planes 50% off Hearts of Iron IV: Allied Speeches Pack 50% off Hearts of Iron IV: Radio Pack 50% off Hearts of Iron IV: Sabaton Soundtrack 50% off Hearts of Iron IV: Sabaton Soundtrack Vol. 2 50% off Hearts of Iron IV: Allied Armor 50% off Hearts of Iron IV: Axis Armor 50% off


That's all! We hope you enjoy the expansion!

Hi everyone,

with a mere one day to go before the release of Graveyard of Empires, it is tradition that we provide you with the Release Notes. The usual disclaimer applies; this list is comprehensive, but not necessarily complete. Any items we add will be placed in a separate spoiler underneath the main list. (Checksum isn’t final yet and will be added before Release.)

[h3]Graveyard of empires[/h3]

• Added focus tree for Iran
  
• Added focus tree for Iraq
  
• Added focus tree for Afghanistan
  
• Expanded focus tree for the British Raj
  
• Added numerous 3D models for Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and the Raj
  
• Added 8 new music tracks
  
• Added Voiceovers for Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and the Raj
  

[h3]Gameplay[/h3]

• British Burma now exists from game start as a British subject
  
• Mandatory Palestine now exists from game start as a British subject
  
• Jordan now exists from game start as a British subject
  
• Kuwait now exists from game start as a British subject
  
• Lebanon now exists from game start as a French subject
  
• Syria now exists from game start as a French subject
  
• Added new tactics and modifiers for city combat
  
• Added Burma namelist and oob
  
• Removed Prince Henry as leader for Palestine
  

[h3]Balance[/h3]

• Siam now joins the Co-Prosperity sphere on historical
  
• Added a port in Phuket
  
• Added a supply hub in Hat Yai
  
• Siam starts with army of Siam spirit
  
• Extra shared slots don't get removed when flipping state owners anymore
  
• Added railway line to Archangelsk
  
• Added some resources in Pakistan area (Peshawar 3 Steel, Baluchistan States 3 Oil)
  
• Updated Siams AI to produce more units and streamline production
  
• Increased Siams building slots
  

[h3]UI[/h3]

• Reliability and Torpedo upgrades no longer overlap for Torpedo Cruisers
  

[h3]Modding[/h3]

• has_artillery_ratio, has_cavalry_ratio and has_unit_type triggers now also consider support units
  

[h3]Bugfixes[/h3]

• Fixed a Crash To Desktop (CTD) when loading games with prepared raids
  
• Daily Army, Air and Naval XP gain can no longer be negative
  
• Prevent a rare Out Of Sync (OOS) related to operative mission names when using different languages
  
• Swedish national spirit "Hungersköld" is no longer removed too early
  
• The Netherlands can once again Placate the Germans through their Gateway of Europe Decision
  
• Without Götterdammerung, there can be only one Fascist Advisor in Belgium
  
• Fixed an issue where Germany's Operation Panzerfaust would result in Hungary getting puppeted and having their war reset, resulting in teleported divisions
  
• Dutch East Indies no longer starts with only 10% democratic support
  
• "Expansion Pass 1: Supporter Pack" is no longer included in save game compatibility checks
  
• Fixed a rare random OOS in AI truck production
  
• Fixed rare Out of Sync in character name generation
  
• Fixed UI Crash when reordering items in lists
  

[h3]Performance[/h3]

• AI is now more performant when upgrading equipment
  
• Weather updates are now more efficiently parallelized
  
• AI plans naval invasion in parallel (drastically reduced spikes on multi-core CPUs)
  
• Refactored a number of decision systems to improve performance
  
• Optimized AI diplomacy calculations
  
• Optimized how reinforcements are computed
  
• AI is now more performant when selecting which doctrines to upgrade
  
• MIO attributes are now computed faster across the board
  
• Naval supremacy is now better parallelized