Hearts of Iron IV News

Today's Development Diary by Podcat



Hi guys, another week another patch update. We are now focusing on stabilizing it and preparing it for release once its gone through testing.

A cool thing we have added this week is new 3d models for Spain and Portugal. All the different civil war sides in Spain now look different. Here is a fancy render of what they look like in detail:

(pardon the german guns for the renders tho ;D)

Check out the changelog since last week:

##################################
# Balance
##################################
- neutral government can do collaborations now
- If Britain or France decide to abandon Czechoslovakia or Yugoslavia in their respective event chains, any guarantees they have made to those countries are revoked

##################################
# Bugfix
##################################
- fixed civil war flags not being cleared when country is annexed by an effect and causing script issues
- fixed some occupation modifiers wrongly being applied after loading a save game
- impassable terrains no longer has resistance
- fixed some issues with resources that was causing inconsistencies with the last added resource type
- "Give up Baleares" and "Refuse to Give up Baleares" events are now fired to Italy instead of Spain.
- fixed china uprising decision not working in some cases
- France should no longer abandon all bonds of fellowship by leaving their faction if they decide to support the Czechs together with Britain, because IT IS NOT THIS DAY
- The EU should now correctly gain cores on Belgium and the Netherlands, Byzanthium and Imperium Romanum now also both gain cores on new states that were previously missing
- Airwing duplication now also copies missions as well as the "auto turn off" training setting
- fixed some bugs that was changing resistance country (by cancelling and recreating resistance) not working
- Evade Blockade decisions will now be properly removed after a country capitulates.
- Germany and Soviet air volunteers can fight each other in the civil war
- Fix a case where carrier combat disruption was not working
- Gibraltar will not generate resistance to any Spanish nation if it is transferred during the SCW.


##################################
# Stability & Performance
##################################
- fixed a bug that was leaking memory in decision scripted guis
- fixed a ctd that happens when you have invalid color characters
- fixed a ctd that can happen when loading a save that has gie with units in naval transfer
- fixed a crash that happens when saving when a border war ordergroup is invalid
- fixed a ctd that happens during peace conf when the game tries getting tooltip for a deleted action


##################################
# UI & Graphics
##################################
- Added text-to-speech (Win/Mac) and speech-to-text (Win) to the multiplayer chat
- Added large font support and visual message notification to the multiplayer chat
- Added new 3D models for the various Spanish sides and Portuguese units in La Résistance
- Fixed overflow of resource icons in the state view
- added 'lack of fuel' icon for combat view for the divisions that are lacking fuel


##################################
# AI
##################################
- Soviets are discouraged from sending volunteers to western Europe
- neutral ai countries won't create collaborations unless it is past 1944 and they are at peace
- ai will not create single state collaborations
- The US should now declare war on Vichy france closer to the historical date
- ITA now no longer invades NOR until FRA falls


##################################
# Modding
##################################
- added army_ledger navy_ledger air_ledger civilian_ledger tokens for parent_window_token scripted gui entries
- added state modifiers for building & repair speed for specific building types (example state_production_speed_infrastructure_factor state_repair_speed_infrastructure_factor)
- added is_impassable trigger
- added support for highlight_state_targets for decisions which is a script target that can be used for highlighting states. should give improved performance if used instead of highlight_states
- decision scripted guis now supports dirty var as well.
- event effects now accepts variables as its duration entries
- Enabled 3D mesh lookup based on a country's cosmetic tag before checking its true tag.


##################################
# Database
##################################
- fixed an issue where France would start out with too low war support if Man The Guns was not active
- Vichy France is now informed if any colonial territories are taken over by Free France
- Several new Spanish advisors are now at the service of the different Spanish factions. POUM will also receive a field marshal and two generals upon completion of Masters of Our Own Fate focus.
- Brazilian Fascist party will become an Anti-Monarchist Coalition when Portugal completes the focus Monarchist Uprising in Brazil.
- Added general Jose Asensio Torrado to the Spanish roster, so he can finally show up his cool portrait.
- Fixed missing portrait for Spanish general in vanilla.
- Fixed unlocalized option in one of the Spanish civil war news events.
- Spanish Election of 1936 events will now get the current Spanish leader, Niceto Alcala-Zamora.
- Updated BLR division names to use Belarusian instead of Russian.
- Added in decision category art for generic formable nations.
- The UK will now prioritize giving Gibraltar, if possible, to SPD, then SPA, then SPB and, only if no other Spanish tag exists, to SPC when they complete "Withdraw from Contested Territories" focus.


##################################
# Audio
##################################
- Fix sound effect for light armour fire. Now it has more DAKKA



If you want to see past changes and full changelog, check out the Beta Patch thread here as well as info on how to start playing on it.

To highlight some changes: We have restricted collaboration regimes further for AI, but opened it up more for players and fixed various issues with guarantee and event chains. We have also added support for accessibility features in multiplayer, like increased font sizes, notifications and text to speech support:



See you next week where I plan to do a bit of a roadmap update!

Paradox COVID-19 Response Fundraiser

In order to support the global response to COVID-19, Hearts of Iron is taking part in a fundraising sale on Steam, with deep discounts on Hearts of Iron IV alongside other Paradox titles. All proceeds from the promotion are being donated to the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for WHO.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/394360/Hearts_of_Iron_IV/

As well as Hearts of Iron IV, there are also discounts on Surviving Mars, Cities Skylines, Age of Wonders Planetfall, BATTLETECH, Shadowrun, Tyranny, Pillars of Eternity, and Knights of Pen and Paper 2.

You can click through to see the full list of discounts with this link: https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/paradoxinteractive/list/58320



The sale will last four days, from 19:00 CEST on March 31st, to 19:00 CEST on April 3rd.

In this week's 'World War Work From Home', our resident Hearts of Iron IV expert Da9L will be starting teaching the game to an absolute beginner.

We'll be covering all the basics, including national focuses, research choices, template and ship designs, and much more. We'll be running this tutorial for a few weeks to make sure we can fit all the important bits in.

If you're new to the game or can't wrap your head around a certain mechanic, then this might be the stream for you!

Tune in at 14:00 CEST on April 1st at: https://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive

Today's Development Diary by Podcat




Hi everyone! We are still in quarantine at home working on the patch, so time for another update!

Its a meaty chunk of balance fixes, bugfixes and mod support. Also there are some special highlights after I recommend to read up on as we are looking for feedback there. So, without further ado...

##################################
# Balance
##################################
- operations will now higher cost as you execute same operation on same targets (default is 15%. rescue operation is still 0%. Some exceptions are 25%)
- neutral countries no longer allowed to create collaborations
- compliance is now halved (instead of factored by 75%) when a state controller is changed
- destroying the counter-revolution now prevents France from descending into another civil war against the fascists from low stability again
- Danzig and Memel are no longer required for forming Poland-Lithuania
- Memel is no longer required for forming the United Baltic States
- Political violence can no longer return to France if France has capitulated
- unprepared offensive modifier in SCW now also affect CAS impacts
- Decrease Base manpower lost in resistance attack to 1.5% from 2.5%
- Along with Niceto Alcalá-Zamora as a leader, the Republicans will now, after the 1936 elections, receive a National Spirit reducing their political power income. Along with Zamora's trait and various tweaks and adjustments made to the political power gained through events and Republican focuses, this should make the flow of Garrison Control fighting before the SCW much more natural. Now, Nationalists get an initial advantage and a 'head start', but if the Republicans correctly focus on delaying the civil war initially, they will be rewarded and eventually be able to take more states back from the Nationalists than if they focus on taking states from the very start. Delaying the civil war should therefore be more enticing as a strategy.
- Increased tech stealing bonuses to 300% from 200%
- Increased tech stealing extra bonus outcomes to also give either 1 or 2 year ahead of time bonuses also
- Tech stealing can now unlock techs, uses weights on tech picking to prefer more up to date and equipment for a more rewarding bonus


##################################
# Stability & Performance
##################################
- Fixed CTD on Windows related to flag atlas texture update
- Fix performance issue when creating dynamic tags from targeted decisions.


##################################
# UI
##################################
- French Focuses bypassed by not having an inefficient economy now correctly display that fact
- fixed is_on_continent trigger tooltip being reversed
- Fix units when retreating towards a tile while in multiple combats has a wrong arrow visually
- Clear all province colors when switching to root out resistance map mode
- Unified achievements tooltips during game setup and in-game so that the in-game button shows the same details as game setup.
- Corrected achievement UI to be disabled when not logged in with necessary accounts, with explanation added to tooltip.
- fixed "Expand Influence in state" decisions increasing the influence over max and causing ui to show wrong decision icons
- Fixed Communal Autarky focus showing an effect tooltip twice.


##################################
# AI
##################################
- fixed ai not taking zero cost decisions if it has negative pp
- ai will be less reluctant to create collaborations if it already has some
- GER now will try to put more armor to low countries instead of france border
- Ai now able to send volunteer airwings again (optimization broke it in 1.8.1)


##################################
# Modding
##################################
- scripted effects with names that start with "d_" (example d_test_effect) now will be available as a console command) example usages are in zzz_debug_effects.txt
- added mtth database that allows mean_time_to_happen/ai_will_do structure as if they were variables
- added script profile scopes for ideas
- fixed country_resource_cost modifiers for real
- Fixed occurences of limit in an else effect not being reported as an error
- added dirty = var_name for scripted windows. if this variable name is set, the game will check if the value of that variable is changed before updating scripted windows to see if it needs to update the gui. by default guis are updated every hour/with every command. now if a change has been made that would affect the scripted gui, you can just change/increase a variable to force an update and improve performance
- Errors that cause the invalid map data error are now preffixed with MAP_ERROR
- release release_puppet release_autonomy effects no longer changes the controller if the state is controlled by a non-ally country.
- you can specify a list of effects under spawn_civil_war effect now, which will be executed under new civil war country
- added release_on_controlled release_puppet_on_controlled effects that also works if on your controlled states


##################################
# Database
##################################
- fixed a missing Czech airwing name
- Spanish focus "Demand French North Africa" now also gives Algerian Desert.
- Portugal will not be able to complete "Intervention in Spain" or "Nationalist Intervention" if it is in a faction with Spain.
- Free French coup in territory operations should now only be available against the country actually occupying that territory
- Spanish POUM will no longer share the same game rules as Anarchist Spain. They will be able to join factions, boost ideology and puppet nations.
- fixed a number of edge cases in the Munich conference logic (and probably introduced a number of new edge cases, happy hunting!)
- Tito should no longer be able to serve as chief of army if he is dead
- Added Niceto Niceto Alcalá-Zamora as the initial leader of Spain in 1936, along with an event to replace him with Manuel Azaña in April 1936.


##################################
# Bugfix
##################################
- Fix targeted legitimacy daily decision not giving 0.05 legitimacy
- fixed propaganda against warmonger decision not having lower cost against neighbors
- Fix Missing localization tag for synthetic refineries when hovering over state resources
- Fix steal naval blueprint removing civilian instead of a navy infiltration token
- invalid operations (target is now ally etc) are now cancelled even if they are prepared
- France should now only be able to invite a country once into the non-intervention committee
- fixed two incorrect tags in a French focus
- fixed an issue preventing Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck from being recruited
- Wilno will now become a core when forming the United Baltic States or Poland Lithuania
- Nationalist Spain will no longer be offered to move their capital to Madrid if their capital is already Madrid
- Carlist Spain should now have access to a naval advisor
- Solved issue with the end of SCW news event having multiple event options
- fixed missing text in the Italian focus Develop the Benghasi Oil Fields
- Mexico should no longer be able to send shipments to Spain if the war is over
- Tooltip for Alan Turing should now make more sense
- it is no longer possible to run an operation to capture cyphers if the target country is already fully decrypted
- fixed not properly creating collaborations in some cases involving states that are controlled but not owned
- Fixed an exploit that allows you to control another country that was being controlled Back in the previous Game
- fixed missing icon and description for a hidden tech
- fixed activate_targeted_decision & remove_targeted_decision not working properly for some cases of state targeted decisions
- Dynamic tag equipment and tech names fallback to original/base country tag
- Fixed scope so that Navarra, if owned by the Carlists, will become their capital during Fascist Crackdown and Carlist Uprising events.
- Fix saving and reloading remove research bonus already applied to a research.
- fixed a rare case where a recently freed collaboration government could peacefully annex the original country if both existed at the same time
- fixed a case where countries not joining peace conferences when there are multiple different wars the enemy is in
- fixed a rare case where Italy would not correctly join the Allies if France was already part of the Allies and Italy agreed to join the Stresa Front
- Fixed the Paradox account initialization to detect the active session passed to the game from the launcher.
- fixed Reichskommissariat Ukraine not properly puppeting Ukraina
- Fixed an issue with tech stealing operation where players with MTG could be stealing old useless techs

Some highlights we wanted to make sure to highlight and where we are interested in feedback:

Peace conferences
We are now more inclusive in peace conferences to try and stop issues where you might be left out and someone steals territory from you. This means that you can actually get peace conferences with enemies on each side cutting up a 3rd side before getting back to their war. Peace conferences have a lot of edge cases so try to be observant for anything we might have broken with this behaviour change.

Tech Stealing Operation
We wanted to make this more attractive so have been beefing it up. You can now get full unlocks and the system is more weighted towards late game techs (so you can try and nab that Tiger tank instead of a great war tank). Its still a random system (remember to pick the right operation targeting the branch of tech you want, they get unlocked by infiltration of that branch) but should be a lot more rewarding now so let us know how it feels now!

Collaboration puppets
We have made AI more reluctant to release a lot and fixed some performance issues here.

See you next week for more updates!

Tune in to https://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive at 14:00 CET for this week's stream.

We'll be doing a spotlight of the Apres Moi Le Deluge mod, and answering any questions you have as always!