Hearts of Iron IV news & patch notes

• How do you feel about the ‘Civilian Economy’ that currently exists within the game - as in anything that relates to the building construction, using civilian factories for trading, laws etc.? - Is there something missing when it comes to the ‘Civilian Economy’? - How do you feel about the current depth of it? - Do you feel that the current system fulfills your immersion of what is/and or should be the Civilian Economy, also in an appropriate timeframe?
• What and how do you feel about the Consumer Goods as they are right now? - Do you think it does fulfill its role, narratively, and in gameplay terms? - Do you feel like there is something missing when it comes to the Consumer Goods? - How do you feel about the fact that Consumer Goods are purely ‘negative’, and it is always better to lower their %-demand in-game?
• What do you think about current Economic Laws? - Do you like them,and their effects? - Do you like the fact that higher mobilization is (ALMOST) always a better choice? - How would you react if there would be some more nuance or considerations between adopting different Economic Law?

• Start appearing closer to release
• Give you more detailed insight into content that’s more or less finished and is being polished
• Will generally include a plethora of images and screenshots
• Give you a chance to ask our developers questions, and perhaps even let us know if there’s anything glaringly obvious we missed
• (and may still have time to either fix quickly, or already start planning to include in a future Patch; being a Day-x, Hotfix or a War Effort.)

• Need your feedback, specific to the Dev Corner
• Should be short and to the point
• May or may not include any images
• May generally give you some idea of something that might come in future content, but it’s not guaranteed
• Are not usually planned far ahead. Instead, if at any point any developer has something they want to get feedback on, we’ll pick an upcoming weekly slot, usually a Tuesday or a Thursday

• Airborne jumps are queued up by a number of tedious manual steps, from separately planned operations, the finicky process of getting jump capable troops to the same place as their transports, then the rather nebulous process of waiting for the right amount of air superiority to accrue so they will finally jump. Then, you leap completely blind into the unknown.
• Airborne units teleport on to their objectives, in such a subtle way that it's quite easy for both attacker and defender to not notice it has even happened.
• Airborne troops take such ruinous damage and disorganization that they are incredibly feeble once landed, being generally only suited for the sort of highly gamified VP sniping attacks that gets them widely restricted in many multiplayer groups.
• And the final straw for me, that a unit like the 101st Airborne, an ultra-elite division of 10,000+ men containing the cream of the army and famous for numerous high profile battles IRL, can be deleted outright by a single bad drop. Kinda anticlimactic and disheartening to see Capt. Winters, his men, 26 other rifle companies plus all the divarty, engineers, and everything else in that awesome division just disappear in one tick because of a mechanically limited system.

• What issues with airborne troops would you add to this list?
• What would you like to see changed or added to improve the HOI airborne experience?

• Start appearing closer to release
• Give you more detailed insight into content that’s more or less finished and is being polished
• Will generally include a plethora of images and screenshots
• Give you a chance to ask our developers questions, and perhaps even let us know if there’s anything glaringly obvious we missed
• (and may still have time to either fix quickly, or already start planning to include in a future Patch; being a Day-x, Hotfix or a War Effort.)

• Need your feedback, specific to the Dev Corner
• Should be short and to the point
• May or may not include any images
• May generally give you some idea of something that might come in future content, but it’s not guaranteed
• Are not usually planned far ahead. Instead, if at any point any developer has something they want to get feedback on, we’ll pick an upcoming weekly slot, usually a Tuesday or a Thursday

• How do you feel when you start progressing down the focus tree?
• Do you try to rush down the civil war path, do you do common branches?
• What do you do with your military? (the starting nation)
• What do you do with industry? (the starting nation)
• What annoys you with this type of playthrough?
• What is it that makes the civil war feel rewarding/worth doing?
• Do you ever feel like it's emotionally/narratively rewarding even though you're objectively weaker afterwards than if you just did 'normal' playthrough? And if so, why?

• Start appearing closer to release
• Give you more detailed insight into content that’s more or less finished and is being polished
• Will generally include a plethora of images and screenshots
• Give you a chance to ask our developers questions, and perhaps even let us know if there’s anything glaringly obvious we missed
• (and may still have time to either fix quickly, or already start planning to include in a future Patch; being a Day-x, Hotfix or a War Effort.)

• Need your feedback, specific to the Dev Corner
• Should be short and to the point
• May or may not include any images
• May generally give you some idea of something that might come in future content, but it’s not guaranteed
• Are not usually planned far ahead. Instead, if at any point any developer has something they want to get feedback on, we’ll pick an upcoming weekly slot, usually a Tuesday or a Thursday

• Right-click the game in your library
• Select Properties from the drop-down menu
• Select Game Versions & Betas
• Select the beta branch called open_beta

• Battalion Adjusters now scale with the Equipment and Manpower status of the Sub-Unit. E.g. Super Heavy Artillery with Siege Artillery Sub-Doctrine no longer gives Army wide Soft-Attack Bonus due to the sheer force of will and imagination.
• Added Essential (Equipment) Blocks for the following units: Heavy Weapons Company and Motorized Heavy Weapons Company, Light Flame Tank, Medium Flame Tank, Heavy Flame Tank, Headquarters Staff, Engineer Staff, Reconnaissance Staff, Military Police Staff, Maintenance Planning Staff, Hospital Group Staff, Logistics & Service Staff, Signal & Intelligence Staff, Naval Liaison Staff, Forward Air Controller, Special Operations Coordination
• Adjusted Essential (Equipment) Blocks for the following units: Helicopter Med-Evac, Helicopter Transports

• Combat Bonus from division experience decreased from 25% to 20%. Green Divisions now have -20% Combat Penalty, Trained have 0%, Regulars have +20%, Seasoned +40% and Veterans have +60%.

• Air Crew Surveys Air Spirit Mastery gain for individual tracks got combined into Air Doctrine Mastery gain Factor.
• Dive Bombing Air Spirit CAS Design cost reduction got replaced with +15% Strike Aircraft Mastery Track gain Factor.
• Material Destruction Air Spirit Medium Airframe Design cost reduction got replaced with +15% Medium Aircraft Mastery gain Factor.
• Industrial Destruction Air Spirit Heavy Airframe Design cost reduction got replaced with +15% Heavy Aircraft Mastery gain Factor.

• Increased naval targeting values for naval bombers for fully screened capitals from 10 to 15
• Increased naval targeting values for naval bombers for fully screened carriers from 10 to 25

• Continuous Strike Air Spirit - Air Support Efficiency bonus has been reduced from 25% to 15%.
• Massed Strike Air Spirit - Air Superiority Effect has been increased from +5% to +10%
• Support Artillery now has -50% to Soft Attack, Hard Attack, Defense and Breakthrough from previous -40%
• Support Rocket Artillery now has -50% to Soft Attack, Hard Attack, Defense and Breakthrough from previous -40%
• Support Anti-Air now requires 24 equipment pieces from the previous 20
• Motorized Anti-Air now belongs to the Anti-Air Unit Category
• Anti-Air Unit Category has been renamed to Anti-Air Artillery Support & Line

• Anti-Tank 1940 Technology no longer provides randomly Motorized Anti-Tank with +10% Piercing and +10% Hard Attack
• Light, Medium, Heavy and Modern Self-Propelled Artillery Combat Width increased from 2 to 3

• Naval, Land and Air Facilities cost has been lowered from 12000 to 10000. Scaling cost per facility has been increased from 5000 to 6000. This means that the first and second will be cheaper (10000 and 16000 vs 12000 and 17000) . The third one will have the same cost, while starting with the fourth of the same type, they will become more and more expensive. This should make entering the world of Special Projects easier for smaller & less well developed nations. Nuclear Facility will remain at the current premium cost for now.
• Improved Amphibious Designs now reduce Amtrac production cost by 10% instead of 15%
• Helicopter Brigade and Helicopter Logistics now will have a proper Fuel Consumption instead of having -100%

• Heavy Weapons Company and Motorized Heavy Weapons Company Organization has been increased from 20 to 30.
• Heavy Weapons Company and Motorized Heavy Weapons Company Max Strength has been increased from 0.4 to 0.6
• Infantry Guns and Rocket Battery Equipment needed was increased from 4 to 6
• Infantry Guns and Rocket Battery stat adjustments have been normalized and are now -75% to Defense, Breakthrough, Soft and Hard Attack. (Previously it was (-80%, -60%, -70%, -60%)
• Anti–Air Battery Equipment needed was increased from 12 to 16 and Manpower needed from 120 to 180
• Anti-Air Battery Breakthrough, Soft Attack and Hard Attack penalties were lowered to -60% from -80%
• Anti-Tank Battery Manpower needed was increased from 120 to 180
• Soft Attack penalty from Anti-Tank battery has been lowered from -80% to -60%
• Light, Medium, Heavy and Modern Tank Destroyer Regimental Support units are for now excluded from the ‘Tank Destroyer’ category. They still benefit from the Tank Destroyer Regimental Support category.
• Light, Medium, Heavy and Modern Tank Destroyer Regimental Support units now require 15 Tank Destroyers instead of the previous 10. For now I will refer to them as TD-RS (Tank Destroyer Regimental Support)
• Light, Medium, Heavy and Modern Self-Propelled Anti-Air Regimental Support units are for now excluded from the ‘Self-Propelled Anti-Air Artillery’ category. They still benefit from Self-Propelled Anti-Air Regimental Support category
• Light, Medium, Heavy and Modern Self-Propelled Anti-Air Regimental Support units now require 15 Self-Propelled Anti-Air instead of the previous 10. For now I will refer to them as SPAA-RS (Self-Propelled Anti Air Regimental Support)
• TD-RS and SPAA-RS: Fuel Consumption for them has been increased from 33% of the equipment to 40% of the equipment
• TD-RS and SPAA-RS: Armor Value reduced from -33% to -66%
• TD-RS and SPAA-RS: Defense lowered from -25% to -50%
• TD-RS and SPAA-RS: Soft-Attack lowered from -33% to -66%
• SPAA-RS: Air Attack reduced from -15% to -25% and Hard Attack from -33% to -66%
• TD-RS: Hard Attack reduced from -33% to -50%
• TD-RS and SPAA-RS: Artillery Technologies impact on them for Hard Attack and Air Attack has been lowered by half after the full tech tree progression (From +30% Hard / Air Attack on them lowered to +15%)

• Infantry Guns no longer get benefits from Infantry Support Weapons research, and instead get their benefits from Artillery tech tree improvements.
• Infantry Guns and Rocket Battery scaling effect with technologies has been reduced. (+5% Soft Attack for the Infantry Guns per Artillery Technology, +10% Soft Attack for Rocket Batteries from Rocket Artillery technologies, and +5% Soft Attack from the Improved Guidance). Infantry Guns no longer have Defense boost from the Technologies.

• Artillery, Motorized Artillery, Rocket Artillery, Motorized Rocket Artillery, Truck Drawn Rocket Artillery, Anti-Tank, Motorized Anti-Tank, Anti-Air, Motorized Anti-Air Max Strength increased from 0.6 to 0.8
• Artillery Equipment I stats have been adjusted to provide following stats: Soft Attack +1 (from 25 to 26), Defense +1 (from 10 to 11), Breakthrough +4 (6 to 10)
• Artillery Equipment II stats have been adjusted to provide following stats: Breakthrough +6 (from 7 to 13), Hard Attack +1 (from 2 to 3), Piercing +2 (from 5 to 7)
• Artillery Equipment III stats have been adjusted to provide following stats: Breakthrough +8 (from 8 to 16), Defense +1 (from 18 to 19), Hard Attack +2 (from 2 to 4), Piercing +4 (from 5 to 9)
• Rocket Artillery Equipment I stats have been adjusted to provide following stats: Defense +1 (from 12 to 13), Breakthrough +8 (from 9 to 17), Soft Attack +2 (from 30 to 32)
• Rocket Artillery Equipment II stats have been adjusted to provide following stats: Defense +1 (from 15 to 16), Breakthrough +8 (from 12 to 20), Soft Attack +2 (from 38 to 40)
• Motorized Rocket Artillery Equipment stats have been adjusted to provide following stats: Defense +1 (from 15 to 16), Breakthrough +8 (from 12 to 20)

• Mobile Infantry 1 Reward: Cavalry Recon now receives bonus 10% to Defence and Breakthrough
• Mobile Infantry 3 Reward: Lowered Soft Attack Bonus to Infantry Guns and Rocket Batteries from +15% to +10%, now also increases Defense and Breakthrough by 5%
• Mobile Infantry 5 Reward: Motorized Heavy Weapons Company gets +10 Organization from +5
• Defensive Postures 1 Reward: Heavy Weapons Company now also receives +0.2 Entrenchment
• Defensive Postures 4 Reward: Soft Attack bonus to Infantry Guns and Rocket Batteries reduced to 10%
• Assault Infantry Adoption Bonus: Bonus to Support Artillery attack has been increased from +10% to +20%
• Assault Infantry 1 Reward: Bonus to Infantry Guns removed
• Assault Infantry 2 Reward: Bonus to Anti-Tank Battery and Anti-Air Battery reduced from +10% to +5% (Hard Attack, Piercing, Air Attack)
• Mounted Infantry 4 Reward: +0.05 HP to Mounted Infantry unit category was replaced with the battalion adjusters to the Cavalry Recon to give +5 flat HP to the Mounted Infantry
• Mounted Infantry 4 Reward: Reduced the Speed Bonus to Cavalry Recon and Cavalry to +40% (for a total of 8 kph instead of the previous 8.4 kph)
• Mounted Infantry 5 Reward: Increased Speed Bonus to Artillery, Anti-Air, Anti-Tank and Rocket Artillery to +100% (for a total of 8 kph)
• People’s Militia 2 Reward: Infantry Guns Soft Attack bonus reduced from 15% to 10%. Infantry Guns now get +10% Breakthrough
• People’s Militia 3 Reward: Now requires 50 Mastery like the other rewards in this doctrine.
• Great War Infantry 3 Reward: Support Artillery now provides +10% Bonus to Breakthrough to Leg Infantry from previous +5%
• Great War Infantry 3 Reward: Infantry Guns and Rocket Battery now provides +10% Soft Attack bonus instead of +20%
• Great War Infantry 5 Reward: Now also provides +5 Max Entrenchment
• Fire Concentration Adoption Bonus: +5% Defense bonus to Line Artillery changed to +10% Breakthrough bonus
• Fire Concentration 1 Reward: +5% Defense bonus to Line Artillery changed to +10% Breakthrough bonus
• Fire Concentration 3 Reward: +10% Breakthrough Bonus to Line Artillery and Support Artillery changed to +10% Defense Bonus and +5% Soft Attack Bonus increased to +10%. Bonus to Infantry Guns and Rocket Batteries removed.
• Fire Concentration 5 Reward: Bonus to Artillery and Rocket Artillery removed. Infantry Guns and Rocket Batteries now get +10% Defense and +10% Breakthrough
• Anti-Tank Frontline 1 Reward: Bonus to Anti-Tank Battery brought in-line with Line Anti-Tank. Anti-Tank Support now also receives the same bonus.
• Flying Batteries 1 Reward: Motorized Heavy Weapons Company removed from the reward
• Flying Batteries 3 Reward: Armored Signal Company now provides +0.2 Strength (from 0.8 to 1) to Line Artillery.
• Air Cavalry 2 Reward: 0.03 HP bonus is now being replaced with Maintenance Company Battalion Adjuster to the Helicopter Support Companies, giving +0.5 HP to each
• Mobile Recon and Support 5 Reward: Breakthrough bonus to TD-RS and SPAA-RS changed to +5% Hard Attack and +5% Air Attack respectively
• Self-Propelled Support Adoption Bonus: Soft Attack bonus reduced to +5%, Air-Attack bonus reduced to +5%
• Self-Propelled Support Reward 2: Soft Attack bonus provided by Recon units reduced to +5%
• Self-Propelled Support Reward 3: Speed Bonus reduced to +10% from +30%
• Self-Propelled Support Reward 4: TD-RS and SPAA-RS now get +5% Hard Attack and +5% Air Attack respectively, and +5 Organization
• Siege Artillery 2 Reward: Plains Movement bonus to Super Heavy Artillery and Self-Propelled Super Heavy Artillery replaced with 0.1 Recovery Rate
• Siege Artillery 4 Reward: Urban Bonus Attack reduced from +20% to +10%, and added Urban Defence Bonus of +10%. Soft Attack bonus to Infantry Guns & Rocket Battery reduced from +10% to +5%
• Armored Spearhead 3 Reward: SPAA-RS Organization bonus reduced from +10 to +5
• Armored Infantry Support 2 Reward: Piercing Bonus removed for TD-RS
• Armored Infantry Support 5 Reward: Air Attack reduced to +5% and removed Organization Bonus
• Mobile Defense 3 Reward: Air Attack for SPAA-RS removed
• Mobile Defense 4 Reward: TD-RS Organization bonus increased to +10, other benefits to TD-RS removed
• Tank Destroyer Force 5 Reward: TD-RS other benefits than the Organization were removed for them.
• Mission Type Tactics Adoption Bonus: Daily Command Power gain has been increased from +0.02 to +0.2

• Right click the game in Steam
• Go to Properties, then Game Versions & Betas
• Select 1.19.1
• Default Public Version will use the latest public build, in this case 1.19.2

PATCH NOTES

Balance

• Expeditionary Leader trait Non-Core Attack and Defence reduced from +15% to +10%.
• Tuned down the "Spirit of St. Bernard" spirit, which in combination with other things could give 105% casualty trickleback and unending armies of resurrected zombie Swiss. Fixes
• INS: Feint uprisings now cost more manpower (2500 > 5000), but less infantry equipment (2500 > 1500).
• INS: Indonesia will now core all of their starting states in the revolution
• AST: Decreased Non-Core Attack / Defence values by roughly half on the 'Australian Military Forces' National Spirit .
• AST: Decreased Citizen Army penalty to non-core Attack and Defence from -25% to -15%.
• AST: Rebalanced the Australian Air Branch, decreasing especially their mission efficiency.
• SIA: Increased Siam's starting stability from 19% to 29%.
• SIA: Reduced Build cost IC for 'Unconventional Tank Designs' from -15% to -10%.
• SIA: Removed Reliability penalty for 'Unconventional Tank Designs' and added a -5% Soft attack penalty instead.
• SIA: Reduced compliance gain from full Civilian support from 10% to 5%.
• SIA: Reduced compliance gain from the Focus 'Built to Withstand Every Flame' from 10% to 5%.
• SIA: Reduced Research speed, Production efficiency cap, Defense, Organization, Entrenchment and Output by on average ~1% gained from Asian Democratic Compact per faction member.

Gameplay

• Updated tooltip for "Establish the ABDACOM" shared focus to make it more clear that only faction members are eligible to receive invites to join the ABDACOM.
• Fixed the description for the focus "Reestablish the Guominjun" to not make the rather bold claim that Sinkiang was led by Moustache Man in the 1939 start. Fixes
• A subject owning a single state no longer creates a 'new war participant' popup when joining a war.
• Added a new event sound tickbox to disable/enable scripted event sounds. For example speeches.
• The new releasable nations in Indonesia now also have access to the Nusantara/Greater Indonesia formable decision category
• Added joint focus tree icons to ABDACOM focuses.
• INS: Clarified the effect of the Focus 'Privately Owned Military Industry'.
• INS: The Indonesian focus 'The Timor Issue' will now dynamically switch icons & loc if Timor is independent.
• INS: Indonesia can now core East Timor using Unity in Diversity decisions.
• INS: Indonesian decision "Order a Ceasefire" now requires escalation 2+
• INS: Allow an Indonesian-formed Netherlands-Indonesia union to take most Dutch economic focuses from the joint tree.
• INS: Added a decision for the Netherlands-Indonesia Union to move its capital to Amsterdam or Batavia.
• INS: Hollandia will now be renamed to Jayapura if Indonesia is independent.
• INS: Added a small naval branch for the Dutch East Indies joint tree, which is available during peacetime.
• AST: Added the Australasia formable.
• AST: The Focus 'Reclaim the Lost Territory' now transfers all land, naval, and air forces to Australia.
• AST: The Focus 'Singapore Strategy' is now available if either ENG or AST controls Singapore, instead of only ENG.
• AST: The 'Alice Springs' Focus has been reduced to 35 days.
• AST: Australian Infantry Divisions now have the proper division icon.
• AST: A. Ruthven set as leader if monarchist UK starts uprising in Australia.
• SIA: Added a decision to increase the Civil/Military wings approval of you if they are rebellious at the cost of a temporary negative National Spirit.
• SIA: A civil war triggered through the Khana Ratsadon only happens once now. If they become rebellious again a negative spirit is applied instead.
• SIA: the Royal Palace Directive focus now unlocks a decision to increase the Military/Civil wing opinion of you, without pissing the other party off. This has a 365 day timeout.
• SIA: Added a new focus in the Pan-Thaiism branch that allows you to end the factionalism of the Khana Ratsadon if both the Civil and Military wing approve of you for 270 days. This focus shuts off the Khana Ratsadon system and merges the civilian and military wing spirits.
• SIA: Added the king of the white elephant as a Movie poster decision, giving weekly stability.
• SIA: Removed increasing cost for theater decisions.
• AST: Decision 'Scorch the North' gives effect when specific states are naval invaded instead of when at war.
• SIA: Added option to pick a new leader when the Seri Thai Takes over, Phin Choonhavan or Khuang Aphaiwong.
• SIA: Added options to sway individuals via decisions for the Seri Thai. Each general increases the strength of the civil war for your side by 5%.
• SIA: The Seri Thai civil war can now be avoided if the combined civil war strength for the player is over 80% (5%/general swayed + total democratic support).
• SIA: In the Seri Thai branch the Focus 'Prepare to Drop' now gives a special forces National Spirit.
• SIA: Rising up as the Seri Thai against Japan now seizes some valuables, giving a temporary bonus.
• SIA: Made the requirement for forming the Greater Thai empire more clear.
• SIA: Starting a limited war now requires the territory to be adjacent to yours.
• SIA: When agricultural tax reduction is removed you now gain a one time tech bonus for industry.

Stability &Performance

• CTD: Fixed a crash that occurred when calling 'gain_xp' command on a fleet without an Admiral.
• CTD: Fix a crash that occurred when assigning a deployed Field Marshal to an Army Group
• OOS: Fixed a late-game gamestate OOS caused by MIOs.
• OOS: Fixed an OOS that happened if a client had previously played an ahistorical game in the same session before joining a historical MP game.

UI

• The Division Designer click-shortcuts now also apply to HQ templates.
• Fixed an issue where Division Designer dropdown items buttons did not have the right size.
• Added dams to the States & Construction mapmodes.
• Fixed wrong interactions and tooltips for Generals while assigning a leader to an Army Group.
• Now showing all manpower modifiers in tooltips even if they sum up to a neutral number.
• Divisions with multiple active commander abilities now show them all instead of just one.
• Divisions with an active ability that is being nerfed because of late joiners show that reduction.
• Fixed Assign Commander tooltips with TAOG disabled.

AI

• ITA: Introduced historical Italian fighter designs for the AI to build.
• GER: Introduced some intermediate plane variants for the improved_small_airframe.
• ENG: The UK will build more synthetic refineries to safeguard their supply of rubber. (autarky is king)
• USA: Added home guard defense logic to protect the continent once the Axis become a threat.
• JAP: Japan is more likely to naval invade Borneo now.
• ENG: The UK will be more likely to take 'Gateway to Europe' decisions on Historical mode.
• INS: Indonesia’s AI will have a higher risk tolerance for raids if the only alternative is cancelling them.

Modding

• Updated script documentation following the addition of new math functions.
• Added logical AND, OR, XOR and NOT math expression functions.
• Added a lerp function to the math expressions.
• Add 'always_show_on_actions_tooltip' bool field on Advisors to avoid 'on_add and on_remove' effect tooltips being lost when the advisor has a trait with a custom tooltip.
• Added support for scripted 'unit_animations' on raid types.
• Added atan and atan2 math functions

Bugfix

• Fixed a bug where pending hot-joins didn't show up in the UI to be accepted.
• Fixed bug where clients could join the lobby directly, instead of hot-joining once the host loaded into the map.
• AST: Changed incorrect value in the tooltip of the mission 'Final Reforms'.
• Fixed a bug where a leader's description would appear twice.
• Fixed an issue where Volunteers would not come back when Air Base Access is enabled.
• ICE: Fixed 'Reclaiming the Empire' focus for Iceland to be doable again after a war with the owner of Greenland is concluded.
• Fixed a case where Romania could snatch Bulgarian territory from a third party occupying them totally via the 'Puppet Romania' focus. Now Bulgaria is required to be at peace for this focus.
• Fixed a bug where a spearhead or offensive line order was not advancing to destination tiles
• When writing a file, it's now guarded by a try/catch and will error when unable to write.
• AST: The Focus 'World Peace' will now actually allow sending Volunteers to the Spanish Republicans rather than Nationalists.
• AST: Australia now gains the 'Liverpool Dockworker' uprising from 'Out of the Den'.
• AST: The Focus 'Lang is Right' shows the right tooltip (it is -0.05 Political Power Cost instead of -0.05%). Colour is also now green for good.
• AST: Fixed missing localisation in Smuggle Arms decisions, and made the Irish and Northern Irish smuggling use the same timer.
• AST: The Focuses 'Liberate the Colonies' and 'Red Solidarity' now have a tooltip to show what they do.
• AST: The Focus 'Join the Comintern' has a better tooltip explaining what is going on. Australia's faction will only merge into the Comintern, if Australia is the faction leader.
• SIA: Fixed an issue where you could demand to release your own territories.
• INS: Fixed a bug where Indonesia could have two resource trades.
• INS: Fixed a bug where Indonesia would suddenly become the Republic of Indonesia again after forming the Netherlands-Indonesia Union.
• INS: Fixed certain characters not appearing for the Netherlands-Indonesia Union.
• INS: Fixed a bug where Indonesia could start a new volksraad decision before clearing the event, allowing the same decision to be taken twice.
• INS: Fixed a typo in the Focus description 'Women in the Military'.
• INS: Fixed a typo in the Focus 'Women's Sufferage'.
• INS: Fixed a typo in the Focus description 'Continue the Hybrid Politics'.
• INS: Fixed several Focuses occasionally attempting to target Interior Borneo.
• SIA: Fixed missing tech names for tech bonuses.
• HOL: The Focus 'Continue the War in Batavia' now moves the capital to Batavia instead of Bandung.
• Fix Army Leaders cloned for a Civil War still thinking they are deployed with the Army of the original Leader.
• Fixed a bug where infiltration tokens disappear when loading saves.
• Fixed an issue where Army HQs became the default garrison garrison template if all other templates were locked.
• AST: 'The Phosphate Commission' now requires both owning and controlling Nauru.
• INS: Indonesia's leader will no longer reset after peacefully gaining independence.
• AST: The National Spirit 'Nauru Pact' tooltip has been edited so its effects alter depending on GER being in the faction or not.
• AST: Phosphate Commission spirit is now being removed by completing the Focus ‘Nauru's Return to German Hands’, instead of being removed by the event, making the effect clearer.
• AST: Added fallbacks for effects of event Nauru's Return to German Hands to cover if Australia is subject to the UK but not in the same faction or if not subject at all.
• AST: Event Nauru's Return to German Hands either gives a German Guarantee or adds Australia to the German faction, not both.
• JAP: After being defeated in the war, Japan is now discouraged from joining the Axis.
• Fixed a bug where lobbies with more than 20 players would struggle with more people connecting to the game
• SIA: Fixed a bug where the Allies could decline Siam's offer to join from the Seri Thai.
• SIA: Fixed a bug that caused the Seri Thai to not add intel bonus properly
• SIA: Fixed a bug that caused players without La Resistance DLC to not get a proper bonus from the Seri Thai OSS Focus
• AST: The Focus 'Defying American Interference': Added fallbacks if the Philippines are no longer a subject of the USA.
• AST: The Focus 'Defying American Interference': Added event chain asking JAP to guarantee AST if they're not in the same faction, and updated tooltips for the focus and its event chains.
• AST: Changed event images for AST_diplomatic_events.73, AST_diplomatic_events.76
• INS: The Indonesian communist branch will no longer create a generic faction with the 'Strength in Unity' manifest.
• INS: The Indonesian AI will no longer wait before establishing a revolutionary HQ, and will be far less likely to build the HQ in Papua.
• Fix the commander skill bonus modifier not being properly applied
• JAP: Fixed Japan's 'Strike the Southern Road' Focus being unreachable if Siam no longer existed.
• HOL: The Netherlands will no longer sometimes cave to the British when going communist or fascist.
• AST: Added TAOG check to event The 1938 Sesquicentenary (AST_political_events.6)
• SIA: Fixed an incorrect tooltip in the Seri Thai Branch.
• HOL: The Netherlands will now be invited to the Allies despite being at war with Indonesia after getting invaded by Germany.
• Fix issue where militia raid unit models were in an idle pose while displayed above the raid arrow.
• HOL: Fixed bug where the Netherlands would not get the 'Obtain Foreign Colonial Investments' decisions after completing the required focus.
• AST: Focus Done Meddling will no longer flood error log on hovering over it.
• Remove incorrect tooltip which falsely claimed an advisor would be unlocked.
• Fix AI constantly deploying and withdrawing Army HQs under Field Marshals.
• INS: Indonesia can no longer take the 'Purge the Opportunists' Focus, which creates a faction, if Indonesia is puppeted.
• INS: Fixed an issue where the Indonesian National Revolution ending would sometimes not whitepeace the rest of the Allies.
• Fixed some missing idea icons - for Design Companies and others, amongst them AST_kirov, BEL_kirov, smb_organization_of_american_states_member
• AST: Set to correct Fascist cosmetic tag when becoming independent manually.
• SIA: Fixed an issue where changing laws would not properly adjust the Khana Ratsadon.
• AST: Renamed the Bristol Blenheim to the Bristol Blenheim Mk IF (this variant replaced the bomb bay for extra under-carriage guns).
• SIA: Advisors when playing without Thunder at Our Gates enabled should no longer be displayed as question mark placeholder.
• AST: Added tooltip for Planned Extraction to show this focus will give access to the endless Pilbara steel decision.
• AST: Mount Isa Industrial Concern will now display correctly when upgraded through Planned Extraction.
• Division Designer should now save correctly restricted equipment types
• Fixed the crash that could happen due to the spy operative mastering ability to be in two countries at the same time
• Fixed the tooltip for the Maphilindia achievement
• Fixed the Treaty of Saadabad focus branch overlapping the Kurdish focus tree as Iraq when obsolete focus branches are shown
• AST: Event The Prime Minister Succumbs localization has been fixed to reference correct character
• Fixes Czechoslovakia not puppeting Hungary after taking the Neutralize Hungarian Threat Focus and capitulating Hungary.
• Sync HQ deploy template and CP reservation when retemplating a deployed HQ
• Anzac Achievement is now correctly only triggered by generals and field marshals
• Event Loyalties to Britain: Added triggers to hide old options if the Dominion is on the same ideological path as ENG, making it unavailable to leave the Commonwealth through event; Added new option with triggers to show if the Dominion is on the same ideological path as ENG.
• ENG: Fixed an issue where the United Kingdom wouldn't Bypass the focuses Secure Iraq and Secure Iran when they already had them as their puppets or were at war with them
• Give Control of State action should now display why you can't give control of a state in a specific condition, instead of allowing it to be done, but failing to properly act.
• AST: Fixed an issue so the Focuses 'Done Meddling’ & 'The Ultimate Overseas Duty' don't reset war participation.
• INS: Fixed an issue where the Indonesian Volksraad would be inaccessible after a veto.
• INS: Conrad Helfrich is no longer unavailable as a Chief of Navy for Indonesia
• HOL: the National Spirit 'Profitable Colony' is no longer removed immediately upon being added
• HOL: The achievement 'Bevrijding' is no longer impossible with TAOG enabled.
• SIA: Fixed 2 planes not showing up in the tech tree without BBA.
• AST: Updated Expéditionnaire Français en Extrême-Orient name to CEFEO.
• Heavy Armor HQ Security is now capable of exercising instead of relaxing all day in their Tanks.
• The Regimental Support Rocket Battery no longer affects division speed.
• GER: German focus 'Around Maginot' now targets an Indonesian-formed Netherlands-Indonesia Union.
• INS: Fixed a missing loc string in an Indonesian event
• INS: Indonesia no longer needs to control impassable states such as Interior Borneo in order to win the revolution
• AST: Now has access to their second Special Forces branch via the Marines focus.
• SIA: Fixed an issue which caused a limited war to white peace without transfer instead of correctly transferring states if France capitulated while the limited war was ongoing.
• SIA: Removed a redundant requirement in the Focus 'Spread Democratic Sentiment In Universities'.
• AST: Failsafes for mission 'Organize a Strike' and spirit 'Strike Ongoing' to cancel both when completing the Focus 'All for One, One for All'.
• AST: Removed misplaced trigger on 'Strike Ongoing' which made it cancel if not owning Nauru.
• AST: Fixed so advisors Milford, Northcott, Jeffrey, Goble & Burnett get discount from Relief of Command/Independent Air Force,
• ETH: The Focus 'Freedom at Gunpoint' now will only take African states and leaves the rest alone.
• AST: The Focus 'The Irish Anti-Britain Pact' now correctly grants Australia military access and docking rights through Ireland.
• AST: Decisions Vichy Out of Africa is now removed by the Focus 'Undeniably Ours', not 'Done Meddling'.
• ABDACOM: Vichy France no longer has access to the ABDACOM joint focus tree.
• INS: Indonesia will no longer lose Dutch generals when having completed ‘Volksraad Compromises’.
• INS: Made it so that Indonesia cannot side with Japanese invaders if the Focus 'The Industrialized Colony' has been completed, making it no longer possible to gain 7 research slots as Indonesia.
• Block disbanding armies with a deployed HQ, preventing an exploit
• GER: Decision Reichskommissariat Australasian required states has been adjusted to match map changes.
• SIA: The 'Artillery Enthusiast' trait now no longer applies to the Self-Propelled Artillery.
• SIA: Fixed an issue where limited wars would cause France to not be able to join a faction.
• SIA: King of the White Elephant propaganda poster tooltip and its effect on Weekly Stability have been fixed.
• Fixes the conflicting available tooltip for 'The Between the Seas Concept' to be clearer
• GER: Bougainville added to focus Break the Anglo-French Colonial Hegemony
• Bougainville has now been included in effects that target the state for GER, JAP, PHI (i.e.: focuses that take control of pacific islands etc.).
• Fixes issue where division templates used in a garrison could be edited to have zero suppression.
• RAJ: Loc typo for displaying current resistance in string currentStateResistance.
• AST: Communist Civil War should no longer happen if Australia is already Communist.
• Fix Shift+Click allowing Spain to deploy locked HQ templates.
• SIA: Fixed a bug where the Asian democratic compact wasn't updating correctly. It will now always be updated once at the end of each month.
• SIA: You now need to be a faction leader to get updated bonuses from the 'Asian Democratic Compact'.
• SIA: Fixed tooltip for 'Asian Democratic compact'.
• SIA: Fixed an issue where invite country to Asian Democratic Compact wasn't showing
• ETH: Fixes Ethiopia being able to annex colonial powers through the Horn of Africa decisions if the colonial powers moved their capitals there.
• AST: Focus completion time increase/decrease in event Halfway to Federal Election & decision Final Reforms has been edited to match
• INS: Fixed typo in Murk Boerstra's name.
• INS: Fixed typo in the Focus 'Overallwagen' -> 'Overvalwagen'.

The Official Thunder at our Gates Release Video

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The Hearts of Iron IV Anniversary Announcement, including a special teaser at the end!

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Even if you can’t engage at work, you can still enjoy the soundtrack (while you count down the minutes.)

Hearts of Iron IV x Print Clever: 10 Year Anniversary Store {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/bfdff7a540bf55758682193809873527a536625c.png

Hearts of Iron IV × Makeship: Private Platypus Plushie & Once More Mate Pin Pack

• Private Platypus Plushie, fully kitted in field gear, rifle and all
• Once More Mate Pin Pack, two pins, including a glow-in-the-dark kangaroo

• Right-click the game in your library
• Select Properties from the drop-down menu
• Select Game Versions & Betas
• Select the beta branch called open_beta

Known issues

• Pending hotjoins can be overwritten by new requests, resulting in an inability to launch the game
• Players bypass the hotjoin flow when joining a lobby that has loaded into the map, but not started yet

Balance

• Expeditionary Leader trait Non-Core Attack and Defence reduced from +15% to +10%.
• Tuned down the "Spirit of St. Bernard" spirit, which in combination with other things could give 105% casualty trickleback and unending armies of resurrected zombie Swiss. Fixes
• INS: Feint uprisings now cost more manpower (2500 > 5000), but less infantry equipment (2500 > 1500).
• INS: Indonesia will now core all of their starting states in the revolution
• AST: Decreased Non-Core Attack / Defence values by roughly half on the 'Australian Military Forces' National Spirit .
• AST: Decreased Citizen Army penalty to non-core Attack and Defence from -25% to -15%.
• AST: Rebalanced the Australian Air Branch, decreasing especially their mission efficiency.
• SIA: Increased Siam's starting stability from 19% to 29%.
• SIA: Reduced Build cost IC for 'Unconventional Tank Designs' from -15% to -10%.
• SIA: Removed Reliability penalty for 'Unconventional Tank Designs' and added a -5% Soft attack penalty instead.
• SIA: Reduced compliance gain from full Civilian support from 10% to 5%.
• SIA: Reduced compliance gain from the Focus 'Built to Withstand Every Flame' from 10% to 5%.
• SIA: Reduced Research speed, Production efficiency cap, Defense, Organization, Entrenchment and Output by on average ~1% gained from Asian Democratic Compact per faction member.

Gameplay

• Updated tooltip for "Establish the ABDACOM" shared focus to make it more clear that only faction members are eligible to receive invites to join the ABDACOM.
• Fixed the description for the focus "Reestablish the Guominjun" to not make the rather bold claim that Sinkiang was led by Moustache Man in the 1939 start. Fixes
• A subject owning a single state no longer creates a 'new war participant' popup when joining a war.
• Added a new event sound tickbox to disable/enable scripted event sounds. For example speeches.
• The new releasable nations in Indonesia now also have access to the Nusantara/Greater Indonesia formeable decision category
• Added joint focus tree icons to ABDACOM focuses.
• INS: Clarified the effect of the Focus 'Privately Owned Military Industry'.
• INS: The Indonesian focus 'The Timor Issue' will now dynamically switch icons & loc if Timor is independent.
• INS: Indonesia can now core East Timor using Unity in Diversity decisions.
• INS: Indonesian decision "Order a Ceasefire" now requires escalation 2+
• INS: Allow an Indonesian-formed Netherlands-Indonesia union to take most Dutch economic focuses from the joint tree.
• INS: Added a decision for the Netherlands-Indonesia Union to move its capital to Amsterdam or Batavia.
• INS: Hollandia will now be renamed to Jayapura if Indonesia is independent.
• INS: Added a small naval branch for the Dutch East Indies joint tree, which is available during peacetime.
• AST: Added the Australasia formable.
• AST: The Focus 'Reclaim the Lost Territory' now transfers all land, naval, and air forces to Australia.
• AST: The Focus 'Singapore Strategy' is now available if either ENG or AST controls Singapore, instead of only ENG.
• AST: The 'Alice Springs' Focus has been reduced to 35 days.
• AST: Australian Infantry Divisions now have the proper division icon.
• AST: A. Ruthven set as leader if monarchist UK starts uprising in Australia.
• SIA: Added a decision to increase the Civil/Military wings approval of you if they are rebellious at the cost of a temporary negative National Spirit.
• SIA: A civil war triggered through the Khana Ratsadon only happens once now. If they become rebellious again a negative spirit is applied instead.
• SIA: the Royal Palace Directive focus now unlocks a decision to increase the Military/Civil wing opinion of you, without pissing the other party off. This has a 365 day timeout.
• SIA: Added a new focus in the Pan-Thaiism branch that allows you to end the factionalism of the Khana Ratsadon if both the Civil and Military wing approve of you for 270 days. This focus shuts off the Khana Ratsadon system and merges the civilian and military wing spirits.
• SIA: Added the king of the white elephant as a Movie poster decision, giving weekly stability.
• SIA: Removed increasing cost for theater decisions.
• AST: Decision 'Scorch the North' gives effect when specific states are naval invaded instead of when at war.
• SIA: Added option to pick a new leader when the Seri Thai Takes over, Phin Choonhavan or Khuang Aphaiwong.
• SIA: Added options to sway individuals via decisions for the Seri Thai. Each general increases the strength of the civil war for your side by 5%.
• SIA: The Seri Thai civil war can now be avoided if the combined civil war strength for the player is over 80% (5%/general swayed + total democratic support).
• SIA: In the Seri Thai branch the Focus 'Prepare to Drop' now gives a special forces National Spirit.
• SIA: Rising up as the Seri Thai against Japan now seizes some valuables, giving a temporary bonus.
• SIA: Made the requirement for forming the Greater Thai empire more clear.
• SIA: Starting a limited war now requires the territory to be adjacent to yours.
• SIA: When agricultural tax reduction is removed you now gain a one time tech bonus for industry.

Stability & Performance

• CTD: Fixed a crash that occurred when calling 'gain_xp' command on a fleet without an Admiral.
• CTD: Fix a crash that occurred when assigning a deployed Field Marshal to an Army Group
• OOS: Fixed a late-game gamestate OOS caused by MIOs.
• OOS: Fixed an OOS that happened if a client had previously played an ahistorical game in the same session before joining a historical MP game.

UI

• The Division Designer click-shortcuts now also apply to HQ templates.
• Fixed an issue where Division Designer dropdown items buttons did not have the right size.
• Added dams to the States & Construction mapmodes.
• Fixed wrong interactions and tooltips for Generals while assigning a leader to an Army Group.
• Now showing all manpower modifiers in tooltips even if they sum up to a neutral number.
• Divisions with multiple active commander abilities now show them all instead of just one.
• Divisions with an active ability that is being nerfed because of late joiners show that reduction.
• Fixed Assign Commander tooltips with TAOG disabled.
• Improvements to MP security

AI

• ITA: Introduced historical Italian fighter designs for the AI to build.
• GER: Introduced some intermediate plane variants for the improved_small_airframe.
• ENG: The UK will build more synthetic refineries to safe guard their supply of rubber. (autarky is king)
• USA: Added home guard defense logic to protect the continent once the Axis become a threat.
• JAP: Japan is more likely to naval invade Borneo now.
• ENG: The UK will be more likely to take 'Gateway to Europe' decisions on Historical mode.
• INS: Indonesia's AI will have a higher risk tolerance for raids if the only alternative is cancelling them.

Modding

• Added logical AND, OR, XOR and NOT math expression functions.
• Added a lerp function to the math expressions.
• Add 'always_show_on_actions_tooltip' bool field on Advisors to avoid 'on_add and on_remove' effect tooltips being lost when the advisor has a trait with a custom tooltip.
• If a radio station is disabled, scripted 'play_song' effects will respect this.
• Revert " If a radio station is disabled, scripted play_song effects will respect this".
• Added support for scripted 'unit_animations' on raid types.
• Added atan and atan2 math functions

Bugfix

• Fixed a bug where a leader's description would appear twice.
• Fixed an issue where Volunteers would not come back when Air Base Access is enabled.
• ICE: Fixed 'Reclaiming the Empire' focus for Iceland to be doable again after a war with the owner of Greenland is concluded.
• Fixed a case where Romania could snatch Bulgarian territory from a third party occupying them totally via the 'Puppet Romania' focus. Now Bulgaria is required to be at peace for this focus.
• Fixed a bug where a spearhead or offensive line order was not advancing to destination tiles
• When writing a file, it's now guarded by a try/catch and will error when unable to write.
• AST: The Focus 'World Peace' will now actually allow sending Volunteers to the Spanish Republicans rather than Nationalists.
• AST: Australia now gains the 'Liverpool Dockworker' uprising from 'Out of the Den'.
• AST: The Focus 'Lang is Right' shows the right tooltip (it is -0.05 Political Power Cost instead of -0.05%). Colour is also now green for good.
• AST: Fixed missing localisation in Smuggle Arms decisions, and made the Irish and Northern Irish smuggling use the same timer.
• AST: The Focuses 'Liberate the Colonies' and 'Red Solidarity' now have a tooltip to show what they do.
• AST: The Focus 'Join the Comintern' has a better tooltip explaining what is going on. Australia's faction will only merge into the Comintern, if Australia is the faction leader.
• SIA: Fixed an issue where you could demand to release your own territories.
• INS: Fixed a bug where Indonesia could have two resource trades.
• INS: Fixed a bug where Indonesia would suddenly become the Republic of Indonesia again after forming the Netherlands-Indonesia Union.
• INS: Fixed certain characters not appearing for the Netherlands-Indonesia Union.
• INS: Fixed a bug where Indonesia could start a new volksraad decision before clearing the event, allowing the same decision to be taken twice.
• INS: Fixed a typo in the Focus description 'Women in the Military'.
• INS: Fixed a typo in the Focus 'Women's Sufferage'.
• INS: Fixed a typo in the Focus description 'Continue the Hybrid Politics'.
• INS: Fixed several Focuses occasionally attempting to target Interior Borneo.
• SIA: Fixed missing tech names for tech bonuses.
• HOL: The Focus 'Continue the War in Batavia' now moves the capital to Batavia instead of Bandung.
• Fix Army Leaders cloned for a Civil War still thinking they are deployed with the Army of the original Leader.
• Fixed a bug where infiltration tokens disappear when loading saves.
• Fixed an issue where Army HQs became the default garrison garrison template if all other templates were locked.
• AST: 'The Phosphate Commission' now requires both owning and controlling Nauru.
• INS: Indonesia's leader will no longer reset after peacefully gaining independence.
• AST: The National Spirit 'Nauru Pact' tooltip has been edited so its effects alter depending on GER being in the faction or not.
• AST: Phosphate Commission spirit is now being removed by completing the Nauru's Return to German Hands, instead of being removed by the event, making the effect clearer.
• AST: Added fallbacks for effects of event Nauru's Return to German Hands to cover if Australia is subject of UK but not in the same faction or if not subject at all.
• AST: Event Nauru's Return to German Hands either gives a German Guarantee or adds Australia to German faction, not both.
• JAP: After being defeated in the war, Japan is npw discouraged from joining the Axis.
• Fixed a bug where lobbies with more than 20 players would struggle with more people connecting to the game
• SIA: Fixed a bug where the Allies could decline Siam's join offer from Seri Thai.
• SIA: Fixed a bug that caused the Seri Thai to not add intel bonus properly
• SIA: Fixed a bug that caused players without La Resistance DLC to not get a proper bonus from the Seri Thai OSS Focus
• AST: The Focus 'Defying American Interference': Added fallbacks if the Philippines are no longer subject of the USA.
• AST: The Focus 'Defying American Interference': Added event chain asking JAP to guarantee AST if they're not in the same faction, and updated tooltips for the focus and its event chains.
• AST: Changed event images for AST_diplomatic_events.73, AST_diplomatic_events.76
• INS: The Indonesian communist branch will no longer create a generic faction with the 'Strength in Unity' manifest.
• INS: The Indonesian AI will no longer wait before establishing a revolutionary HQ, and will be far less likely to build the HQ in Papua.
• Fix the commander skill bonus modifier not being properly applied
• JAP: Fixed Japan's 'Strike the Southern Road' Focus being unreachable if Siam no longer existed.
• HOL: The Netherlands will no longer sometimes cave to the British when going communist or fascist.
• AST: Added TAOG check to event The 1938 Sesquicentenary (AST_political_events.6)
• SIA: Fixed an incorrect tooltip in the Seri Thai Branch.
• HOL: The Netherlands will now be invited to the Allies despite being at war with Indonesia after getting invaded by Germany.
• Fix issue where militia raid unit models were in an idle pose while displayed above the raid arrow.
• HOL: Fixed bug where the Netherlands would not get the 'Obtain Foreign Colonial Investments' decisions after completing the required focus.
• AST: Focus Done Meddling will no longer flood error log on hovering over it.
• Remove incorrect tooltip which falsely claimed an advisor would be unlocked.
• Fix AI constantly deploying and withdrawing Army HQs under Field Marshals.
• INS: Indonesia can no longer take the 'Purge the Opportunists' Focus, which creates a faction, if Indonesia is puppeted.
• INS: Fixed an issue where the Indonesian National Revolution ending would sometimes not whitepeace the rest of the Allies.
• Fixed some missing idea icons - for Design Companies and others, amongst them AST_kirov, BEL_kirov, smb_organization_of_american_states_member
• AST: Set to correct Fascist cosmetic tag when becoming independent manually.
• SIA: Fixed an issue where changing laws would not properly adjust the Khana Ratsadon.
• AST: Renamed the Bristol Blenheim to the Bristol Blenheim Mk IF (this variant replaced the bomb bay for extra under-carriage guns).
• SIA: Advisors when playing without Thunder at Our Gates enabled should no longer be displayed as question mark placeholder.
• AST: Added tooltip for Planned Extraction to show this focus will give access to the endless Pilbara steel decision.
• AST: Mount Isa Industrial Concern will now display correctly when upgraded through Planned Extraction.
• Division Designer should now save correctly restricted equipment types
• Fixed the crash that could happen due to the spy operative mastering ability to be in two countries at the same time
• Fixed the tooltip for the Maphilindia achievement
• Fixed the Treaty of Saadabad focus branch overlapping the Kurdish focus tree as Iraq when obsolete focus branches are shown
• AST: Event The Prime Minister Succumbs localization has been fixed to reference correct character
• Fixes Czechoslovakia not puppeting Hungary after taking the Neutralize Hungarian Threat Focus and capitulating Hungary.
• Sync HQ deploy template and CP reservation when retemplating a deployed HQ
• Anzac Achievement is now correctly only triggered by generals and field marshals
• Event Loyalties to Britain: Added triggers to hide old options if the Dominion is on the same ideological path as ENG, making it unavailable to leave the Commonwealth through event; Added new option with triggers to show if the Dominion is on the same ideological path as ENG.
• ENG: Fixed an issue where the United Kingdom wouldn't Bypass the focuses Secure Iraq and Secure Iran when they already had them as their puppets or were at war with them
• Give Control of State action should now display why you can't give control of a state in a specific condition, instead of allowing it to be done, but failing to properly act.
• AST: Fixed an issue so the Focuses 'Done 'Meddling & 'The Ultimate Overseas Duty' don't reset war participation.
• INS: Fixed an issue where the Indonesian Volksraad would be inaccessible after a veto.
• INS: Conrad Helfrich is no longer unavailable as a Chief of Navy for Indonesia
• HOL: the National Spirit 'Profitable Colony' is no longer removed immediately upon being added
• HOL: The achievement 'Bevrijding' is no longer impossible with TAOG enabled.
• SIA: Fixed 2 planes not showing up in the tech tree without BBA.
• AST: Updated Expéditionnaire Français en Extrême-Orient name to CEFEO.
• Heavy Armor HQ Security is now capable of exercising instead of relaxing all day in their Tanks.
• The Regimental Support Rocket Battery no longer affects division speed.
• GER: German focus 'Around Maginot' now targets an Indonesian-formed Netherlands-Indonesia Union.
• INS: Fixed a missing loc string in an Indonesian event
• INS: Indonesia no longer needs to control impassable states such as Interior Borneo in order to win the revolution
• AST: Now has access to their second Special Forces branch via the Marines focus.
• SIA: Fixed an issue which caused a limited war to white peace without transfer instead of correctly transfer states if France capitulated while the limited war was ongoing.
• SIA: Removed a redundant requirement in the Focus 'Spread Democratic Ssentiment In Universities'.
• AST: Failsafes for mission 'Organize a Strike' and spirit 'Strike Ongoing' to cancel both when completing the Focus 'All for One, One for All'.
• AST: Removed misplaced trigger on 'Strike Ongoing' which made it cancel if not owning Nauru.
• AST: Fixed so advisors Milford, Northcott, Jeffrey, Goble & Burnett get discount from Relief of Command/Independent Air Force,
• ETH: The Focus 'Freedom at Gunpoint' now will only take african states and leaves the rest alone.
• AST: The Focus 'The Irish Anti-Britain Pact' now correctly grants Australia military access and docking rights through Ireland.
• AST: Decisions Vichy Out of Africa is now removed by the Focus 'Undeniably Ours', not 'Done Meddling'.
• ABDACOM: Vichy France no longer has access to the ABDACOM joint focus tree.
• INS: Indonesia will no longer lose Dutch generals when having completed Volksraad Compromises.
• INS: Made it so that Indonesia cannot side with Japanese invaders if the focus 'The Industrialized Colony' has been completed, making it no longer possible to gain 7 research slots as Indonesia.
• Block disbanding armies with a deployed HQ, preventing an exploit
• GER: Decision Reichskommissariat Australasian required states has been adjusted to match map changes.
• SIA: The 'Artillery Enthusiast' trait now no longer applies to the Self-Propelled Artillery.
• SIA: Fixed an issue where limited wars would cause France to not be able to join a faction.
• SIA: King of the White Elephant propaganda poster tooltip and its effect on Weekly Stability have been fixed.
• Fixes the conflicting available tooltip for 'The Between the Seas Concept' to be clearer
• GER: Bougainville added to focus Break the Anglo-French Colonial Hegemony
• Bougainville has now been included in effects that target the state for GER, JAP, PHI (i.e.: focuses that take control of pacific islands etc.).
• Fixes issue where division template used in a garrison could be edited to have zero suppression.
• RAJ: Loc typo for displaying current resistance in string currentStateResistance.
• AST: Communist Civil War should no longer happen if Australia is already Communist.
• Fix Shift+Click allowing Spain to deploy locked HQ templates.
• SIA: Fixed a bug where the Asian democratic compact wasn't updating correctly. It will now always be updated once at the end of each month.
• SIA: You now need to be a faction leader to get updated bonuses from the 'Asian Democratic Compact'.
• SIA: Fixed tooltip for 'Asian Democratic compact'.
• SIA: Fixed an issue where invite country to Asian Democratic Compact wasn't showing
• ETH: Fixes Ethiopia being able to annex colonial powers through the Horn of Africa decisions if the colonial powers moved their capitals there.
• AST: Focus completion time increase/decrease in event Halfway to Federal Election & decision Final Reforms has been edited to match
• INS: Fixed typo in Murk Boerstra's name.
• INS: Fixed typo in the Focus 'Overallwagen' -> 'Overvalwagen'.

Generals! Thanks for all of the feedback we’ve received over the last few days. We’re hard at work addressing as much of it as possible and plan to incorporate more into another patch that will happen later down the line. The main issues we wanted to address were the country selection screen being broken in several mods, as well as an exploit regarding ‘Force Attack’. Both of these issues are fixed now alongside a bunch of other bug fixes and balance changes. Besides letting us know what to focus on, I’d also like to ask if there are any changes people would like to see regarding the patch notes. For example I’ve bounced between using country tags and full names for highlighting purposes. I’d like to know if there’s a preference. /Batya

PATCH NOTES

Balance

• Blockade Runner admiral trait requirement reduced from 37 to 32 knots to allow for support and repair ships.

• The Grand Assault milestone 'Forward Command Posts' supply reduction was reduced from -0.05 to -0.01

• INS/HOL: Significantly reduced the factories required for the focus 'The Industrialized Colony'.

• INS/HOL: Significantly reduced the factories required for the focus 'The Soetardjo Act'.

• INS/HOL: The focus 'The Republic of Indonesia' no longer requires a minimum number of civs, mils, and dockyards, and instead only checks your factory count, regardless of which type. Also reduced the factories required to take the focus.

• INS/HOL: The focus 'Economic Integration' now requires a minumum of 50 factories of any type, instead of 45 civilian factories specifically

• AST: Changed focus length from 70 to 35 for several focuses, and swapped a few icons.

• AST: Tweaked the values of Decisions and National Spirits for the Fascist branch.

• AST: Locking default advisor to die in Air Crash event.

• AST: Fixed a bug with the small portrait of John Lavarack showing the wrong portrait.

• AST: The 'Governor General' Advisor Trait has had a balance tweak lowering the Democracy drift from 0.10 to 0.05 and adding -5% consumer goods factor.

• AST: Rebalanced Australia's various population growth modifiers

• AST: Democratic branch autonomy gain has been increased from 0.1 to 0.3.

• AST: Fascist autonomy gain has been increased from 0.1 to 0.3.

• AST: Edited advisor Richard Dixon available check, added leader trait to focus Eastern Focus, and tweaked prereqs of focus The Pacific Pact

• AST: Toned down the tech rushing capability through 'Lee-Enfield No.1 Mk III*' and 'Owen Gun' focuses.

• AST: Added MILS to fascist focuses 'Walls Like Uluru' and 'Crush the Gates' + spirit National Defense modifier tweaks

• AST: Decision Call On Fascist now has a dynamic cost.

• AST: Upgraded the focus 'Coastwatchers' with Air Wing Experience Loss When Killed reduction, and Naval Auxiliary Patrol with Casualties on Sink reduction to represent the many airmen and sailors saved by these two organisations.

• SIA: Slightly increased the probability that asking for the return of territories goes in Siams favor

• SIA: German Tank Studies now grants +5% piercing bonus instead of a -10% build cost reduction.

• SIA: American Tank Studies now only grants its attack bonus instead of -5% build cost reduction as well.

• ABDACOM focuses are now mostly 35 days (first and last are 70 day).

• SIA: 'Asian Democratic Compact' now only counts non-puppets that are in your faction.

• SIA: Unconventional Tank Construction now grants -15% build cost instead of -20% and -10% reliability instead of -15%.

Gameplay

• INS: Militia unit upgrades now increase the success chance of Indonesian raids.

• INS: Indonesia now gets events after finishing a militia base decision.

• INS: Clarified an Indonesian tooltip in the declaration of independence focus.

• AST: Rebalanced AI weight to focus a little more on air.

• AST: Tweaking Democratic and Communist volunteer focus effects.

• AST: Australian Communists no longer need to deal with the Cabinet Trust following the Canberra Air Disaster. Their government has already changed.

• AST: Refunding UAP/ALP advisors when they're removed; Counting completed Castle Crumbling mission as election win; Adding party votes modifier to Castle Crumbling mission fail

• SIA: 'Army of Siam' is now a dynamic modifier instead of a National Spirit to reduce spirit bloat.

• SIA: Added decisions to Develop Northern Malaya and Eastern Burma.

• SIA: Finishing the 'Triangular Defense network' now gives a flat +10% Compliance boost to any occupied territory.

• SIA: Kedah is now renamed to Syburi if cored by Siam.

• SIA: Recover Indochina and Demand the return of lost territory are no longer mutually exclusive

• SIA: Thailand is now evil red instead of blue when Siam turns to Thailand.

• PHI: Added Sergio Osmena as a country leader option after Manuel Quezon's death.

• Shift + Clicking a Commander while assigning to an Army will now also automatically start deploying them in the field with an HQ.

UI

• AST: Added mission to Australia First Movement decisions to visualize and keep track of the insufficient funds timer.

• AST: Tooltip for locked Air Crash advisor to show he's available only if Canberra Air Disaster hasn't happened.

• Pending Commander now shows up as a smaller portrait when re-assigning them to another army.

• Allow queuing the HQ deployment of en-route Commanders.

• Armies with deployed HQ can now change Commander, who will wait for the HQ to be withdrawn.

AI

• Indonesian AI will be heavily encouraged to switch to a different leader after completing the focus 'A Democratic Indonesia', if Indonesia's leader is still a governor general.

• Fixed a bug where the AI could be over-eager with their lendlease offers, they will now keep in mind the amount of available convoys you have in their offer.

Modding

• Add impassable_ignored_links for impassable states, a list of state IDs that will be ignored when computing the owner and controller of an impassable state

• Added a few common math functions pow, sqrt, cos, sin, tan, exp and log

Bugfix

• INS: Fixed several incorrect equipment names for Indonesian mechanized and armored cars.

• INS: The mission 'Moestopo demands promotion for his efforts' no longer gives +2 levels without the relevant skill increases.

• INS: Fixed a broken modifier added by the Indonesian 'Arm the Students' focus.

• INS: Fixed a broken command power modifier given by the Indonesian 'Laskar Rakyat' focus.

• INS: Indonesia can no longer use demorcatic elections (which dont work) after forming the Netherlands-Indonesia Union.

• INS: The focus 'A Democratic Indonesia' will no longer reset the country leader to Cornelis even if Tjarda was chosen to replace him

• INS: The Netherlands-Indonesia Union will now transfer all characters, including advisors.

• INS: Indonesia can no longer access the Volksraad when independent.

• INS: No longer display an inacurrate icon for the M23 Vickers

• INS: Fixed unlocalized string in Indonesian democratic elections tooltip.

• INS/HOL: Fixed a missing icon in Dutch spirit 'Agricultural Taxes'.

• AST: Setting and clearing flag in Vichy territory requests for decisions Vichy Out of Africa.

• AST: Removing effect for focus Under the Rule of Canberra that gave puppet to puppet; instead it annexes the states that are owned by an AI player

• AST: Applying A Sound Voice trait which failed earlier in the decision A Sound Voice

• AST: Adding a is_coastal check to several focuses that gave coastal forts

• AST: NCNS disabled fallbacks to focuses giving Faction effects

• AST: Australia now must own Nauru for The Phosphate Commission focus.

• AST: Australia now has a level 2 rail connection all the way from Canberra to Alice Springs if they complete both 'Standard Gauge Line to Darwin' and 'Alice Springs' focuses.

• AST: Changed Naval Engineer (Percival McNeil) icon to be more relevant.

• AST: Added TAOG/Non-TAOG DLC checks for Custom Game Rules / AI Behavior to prevent displaying a double set

• AST: Fixed a bug where communist Australia had a hard time ending civil wars.

• AST: Hidden Australia's prospect decisiosn which were TAOG only (they never worked, but showed up in the list).

• SIA: Fixed a bug that would cause Yellow Dossier events to fire after 'Spring the Trap' was completed.

• SIA: Fixed a bug where you could get a wargoal against yourself if you controlled parts of Indochina while asking France to return it.

• SIA: Pridi now gets his Civilian Wing Leader correctly when completing Secure the state.

• SIA: Replaced an inappropriately themed focus icon.

• Tooltip for maximum command power now correctly shows the name of the advisors.

• Added missing spriteType entry for event picture and switched out two event pictures.

• Sir Mohammed Iqbal and Agha Khan III will now be unhired when Pakistan starts existing.

• Load and continue buttons in main menu now correctly displays cosmetic flags

• Fix a bug where deployed Generals were able to be deployed as Field Marshals.

• Fixed a bug where Command Abilities cost was affected by a general's planning skill

• Fix an issue where Czechs puppets would trigger the Sudetenland Crisis.

• Fixed a missing localisation string (Mt. Isa Mines).

• Fixed a bug where Special Forces doctrines were shown to everyone, even if you didn't own the relevant DLC. (AAT or NCNS).

• Fixed a bug where Commander Ability cost was determined by number of divisions instead of number of battalions 

• Fixed an issue where dynamic countries could be created without valid Army HQ templates, causing a crash.

Anniversary SALE: Up to 80% Off! Shop Now.

Generals!

We’ve just released a small hotfix (1.19.0.1) to address two of the issues that we’re seeing right now.

• There was a particular crash related to the Spanish civil war kicking off into a four-way civil war and the new Army HQ feature.

• There was an issue where the TaoG DLC icon in the main menu wasn’t lighting up properly if you have the DLC unlocked.

Both of these should now be fixed. Crashing and MODs

We also can see in our reporting telemetry that most other crashes players are experiencing right now are related to playing with mods. If you do crash, and you are 100% certain that you’re NOT playing with mods, please submit your crashes in the crashreporter tool so we can look into fixing them.

Balance and stat bloat

We hear your concerns with balance & stat bloat, and we’re looking into this. We also see the complaints about command ability cost being affected by the general planning skill, causing in rare cases the ability cost to be pretty much free. This was unintentional and will be reverted in 1.19.1.

More patch

We’re already working on Patches 1.19.1 and 1.19.2.

Our aim is to release the former (early) next week, and 1.19.2 should be not too far after that.

PATCH NOTES

Stability & Performance

• Fixed a CTD when Army HQ units were destroyed in combat under specific conditions (risks happening in, for example, a 4-way Spanish civil war).

Bugfix

• Main menu icon for TaoG now correctly shows ownership.

Generals! Tomorrow at 18:00 CEST we’ll be releasing Thunder at our Gates. It feels like only two months ago that we brought you Peace for our Time. Accompanying this release we’ll bring you Patch 1.19.0 and, just like the recent Anniversary Patch, it’s another beefy one.

Patch Notes (1.19.0)

Thunder at our Gates

• Added new Focus tree for Australia and a new Democratic Election system.

• Added new Focus tree for Siam.

• Added new Focus tree for The Dutch East-Indies.

• Updated states in South-East Asia.

• Added new VO for Australia, Siam, and The Dutch East-Indies.

• Added 6 new Music Tracks.

• Added 50 new and revamped airplane models

• Added 4 new and revamped ground vehicle models.

• Added 21 new and revamped tank models.

• Added 3 new infantry models.

• Added 14 Army HQ commander models including 3 generic cultural variants.

• Introducing Army HQs which allows for the deployment of generals into the field to provide additional support to their army.

• Deployed Army HQs can be assigned to specific orders and buff troops accordingly.

• Added 11 unique HQ support companies that allows for tailoring Army HQs to different needs.

• Added 5 new commander abilities that are unlocked through HQ support companies.

• Added Dispersed Operations doctrine for Thunder at our Gates, focusing on hardening logistics & reduce the effect of enemy air power.

• Added Ship Captains to Naval vessels and the ability to grant them medals and promote them to become Admirals.

• Added 8 Historical Ship Captains in both bookmarks for all Major countries (and Australia!).

Free Features & Models

• Added a new row for Regimental Support to the Division Designer.

• Added 12 Regimental support companies that are unlocked through techs and synergise with the doctrine system

• Added the new Doctrine system for Special Forces.

• Added 3 revamped Infantry models, and 2 Artillery models for the Commonwealth

• Added 2 revamped tank models.

• Added 4 revamped ground vehicle models.

• New Zealand received several new Focuses, Advisors and Industrial Concerns.

Balance

• The Pearl Harbor raid now has a lower base success chance, but it is improved by taking the focus 'Form the Kido Butai'.

• Command powers daily costs now scale with amount of battalions affected.

• The negative effects of failing the 'People's Trust' mission as the PRC are now better displayed in the tooltip, and have been merged into one National Spirit.

• Split the Japanese Home Islands airzone into Northern, Central, and Southern Japan.

• Manchukuo: Improved the trait the leader gains when completing the focus 'Claim the Mandate of Heaven'.

• The UK is now less likely to select a faction rule that reduces the tension needed to guarantee other nations when playing on historical.

• Commercial Nuclear Reactor will now contribute 0.01% Daily Breakthrough towards 'Physics/Nuclear' category. (As it already contributed to the production of the Nuclear Bombs, it will now also be listed in the respective tooltip).

• Iran no longer gains redundant research bonuses when going down the Negotiate with America / Establish the Iranian Nuclear Program focuses, instead getting breakthrough points.

• Rejigged the Mexican AI strategy plans so that they build up and prepare more before they eventually go to war with the USA and the Allies.

• Supervised States can now decline being called into a war, to represent the difference between regular puppets and democratized governments.

• Continuous Offensives: All armour additionally gains +10% breakthrough.

• Self-Sufficient Battalion: Armored signal battalion_mult on tank destroyers nerfed: AP attack reduced from +20% to +10%.

• Artillery Groups: Support artillery now also benefits, gaining +5% soft attack and +10% breakthrough.

• Pakfront: Anti-tank brigade +20% defense moved to Emplacement Rotation & +20% soft attack moved to Weakpoint Studies

• Multirole Support Vehicles: Moved all SP-vehicle bonuses to regimental-support equivalents.

• Shoot and Scoot: All three SP categories had max organisation reduced from +10 to +5 and recovery rate from +20% to +15%. SP artillery additionally gains +5% soft attack; SP anti-air additionally gains +5% anti-air; tank destroyers' hard attack reduced from +15% to +5%.

• Integrated Support Batteries: Support artillery soft attack nerfed from +10% to +5%; anti-tank and anti-air support companies now also benefit (+20 max organisation, +5% AP and +5% hard attack for anti-tank, +5% air attack for anti-air).

• Breaking Out: Army-wide soft attack nerfed from +20% to +15%.

• Combined Arms Integration: Removed +4 max organisation for tanks; removed +10% air attack for anti-air support company (migrated to anti-air battery).

• "Quick Decision Offensive Warfare" Militia now gets 1.5% Initiative bonus instead of 1%

Gameplay

• Added in more critical states for ships: Leaking Pressure Hull, Leaking Battery, Jammed Torpedo Tube, Broken Diesel Engines, Broken Bilge Pump, Shortcircuited Radar, Leaking Fuel Tanks, Reactor Coolant Loss, and Fire Direction Breakdown.

• Inflexible strategist is now Stubborn Defender.

• UK: Reworked the Fortify East Asia focus tree branch.

• Clarified tooltip for Dominions on effects of accepting Imperial Federation.

• UK: Changed 'Blackshirt replace dominion government' decisions to send event instead of changing dominion ideology unilaterally.

• Fascist China now has access to the Sino-German Technical Mission tank MIO after approaching Western Powers.

• Iraq forming the Hashemite Arab Federation will now annex any subject included in their newly gained core territories.

• Brazil: Pedro Gastão can now take over the throne when his father dies.

• Portugal: Added focuses regarding the Asian colonies to the colonial branch.

• The two Japanese focuses locked behind having Yamakawa Kikue as the country leader can now also be taken if she is hired as an advisor, which she can be if her husband is the country leader.

• Added the ability for all releasable nations within the British Raj as well as Nepal and Bhutan to unite the Indian subcontinent into a formable nation.

• Raid units are now sorted on success rate rather than distance to raid source.

• When sending multiple armies as volunteers, they will be preserved instead of combined into one.

• Torpedo Mountings and Anti-Ship Guided Missile - they are considered one family, and as such Upgrade Option in the Plane Designer will upgrade them Torpedo Mounting I -> Torpedo Mounting II -> Torpedo Mounting III -> Anti-Ship Guided Missile

Stability & Performance

• Reduced save file size from provinces.

• Trade system now use more cores.

• Optimized Naval HQ calculations & reduced pathfinding for Army HQ.

UI

• Tweaked the Ship Details window: moved manpower, display fuel consumption, removed Terrain tab.

• Move the Naval HQ button to the Navy Overview screen.

• Shows en-route duration on generals in 'Select Commander' window.

• Added the ability to Shift+Click on a template icon to open the division designer for that template from the Army List view and Unit Details view.

• Added filters to the Country Selection Screen for unplayed countries and the various continents.

• Added arrows to the Italian BoP decision names to indicate which direction they will push the Balance in.

• The Indian focus 'Princely States Policy' now shows the effects of the unlocked laws upfront, and if taken by an ai the Independent Rule law is now automatically applied.

• Map Arrows that are too short will now display the arrow head anyway.

• Hovering a province will now show the information about the province control instead of the state's.

AI

• Added a small optimization for borderwars where the AI tried and failed interacting with it while technically not allowed to do so. (AKA: Made the AI stop trying (and failing) to cheat in border wars).

• Added script support for changing Taskforce ship target settings.

• Updated the Japanese AI to be more willing to attack islands to their south when they are going historical.

• Stop AI continuously exchanging Army Groups Field Marshals while they are in combat.

• Stop AI creating Frontlines they cannot reach (because of a demilitarized zone for example).

• Made the AI verify that they don't have access to special research facilities before building another one of them.

• Made United Kingdom more competent at defending egypt and attacking Tripoli, and Iraq.

• Germany will produce slightly more light tanks, and produce less trains overall.

• Italy will use its airforce more in Africa and keep a strong presence in North-Africa, even when its attacking Yugoslavia, and Greece. They also no longer will reinforce mindlessly in the Sub-Saharan region.

• AI is more keen on training their Air Wings.

• Added basic infantry template to Iraq.

• Added early tank destroyer variants to Soviets, USA and Germany.

• Soviets and Germans have updated AT and armored templates. The AI will also more likely prioritize templates that need updating.

• An AI hosting governments in exile no longer stops upgrading its own division templates as a side effect of refreshing exile templates.

• The UK is encouraged to help with air in north africa if needed.

• AI is better at filling their carriers with airplanes, even if they can't field the best, they will reuse old equipment.

• Increased UK naval dominance in the Mediterranean for better naval invasions.

Modding

• Add support for subdoctrines being assignable to multiple different doctrine track types.

• Add allow_in_multiple_tracks property for subdoctrines, which determines whether one subdoctrine can be added to multiple tracks simultaneously (default is no).

• Decision's war_with_on_remove/timeout/complete are now scoped variables.

• reduce_focus_completion_cost now correctly localizes dynamic text in its description.

• Add unlock_subunit effect which unlocks a subunit for a country.

• Add ship_modifiers to medals.

• Add captured_army_leader as a raid target type.

• Implement xor property for subdoctrines which makes subdoctrines mutually exclusive between separate tracks.

• Add officer_xp field to unit medals.

• Removes support for 'add_temporary_buff_to_units' and adds new 'unit_modifiers' to cover these use cases. All Army HQ abilities now use 'unit_modifiers'.

• focus_count command now also shows you a summary of the focuses and the days it takes to complete them.

• Add modifier for casualty_trickleback.

• Add avg_unit_entrenchment_ratio scripting scope.

• Added ai template weighting to imgui show ai_templates.

• Add is_leader_visible trigger to check whether the given unit leader is visible for its owner.

• Add ai_min_success_chance raid type property to override AI launch threshold.

• Add max_distance raid type property capping source-to-target path length.

Bugfix

• Fixed an issue where multiple Pacific releasable tags were missing generic military advisors.

• Fixed some timing issues with decisions.

• UK: Fixed Dominions getting event to leave Commonwealth when UK goes fascist/communist even if a dominion has the same ideology.

• Chile: Fixed an issue where taking the focus 'Treading the Straight Line' would break Ibanez' small portrait.

• PRC: The MIO Dalian Shipbuilding Company now properly requires control of Dalian rather than Liaoning.

• Romania: Fixed a broken AI weight in the event King Carol's Lifestyle - 'King bans critical book'.

• Added missing unit namelists for new Chinese Warlord states.

• Fixed an issue where the Japanese AI would sometimes puppet or liberate states out of its own core territory at the end of their Civil War.

• Fixed an instance where the Brazilian monarchist civil war triggered by Portugal would cease 1 day after.

• Nils Flyg can now join the German Reich again, let the reddit confusion continue!

• Fixed an issue where some warlord leaders wouldn't be promoted through the Personal Leadership focus.

• Fixed an issue where Iraq could become permanently locked out of their decisions to invite nation to the Hashemite Arab Federation if they ended up at war with them or they disappeared while the targeted decision was still ongoing.

• Fixed an issue where the 'Manchuko People's Army' and 'People's Liberation Army' National Spirits didn't give any Recruitable Population Factor.

• The British Raj will now drop their 'Raj' cosmetic tag at the end of a peace conference if they are either independent or a subject of a different nation than the UK.

• Re-added an airbase that had been accidentally removed for the 1939 scenario and fixed an issue where the Warlord focuses 'An Autonomous Tibet' and 'Conquer Tibet' wouldn't properly bypass.

• Fixed an issue where the Republic of Congo focus would not bypass if Congo was at war.

• Fixed an issue where the available tooltip would appear twice for the Radio Propaganda decision if not playing as Brazil or Afghanistan.

• Fixed two instances where the Stresa Front could be ratified while Italy was a subject of a foreign power.

• Japan: If the pressure Siam focus isn't available due to them being in another faction, Japan will now pivot to their focus Occupy Siam.

• Fixed 700+ typos across the game.

• Fixed fascist Latvia decision to incite civil war in Estonia, Lithuania, and Poland.

• Fixed an issue where the visual representation of the Naval HQ range did not match the range of the buff.

• Fixed an issue where Afghanistan would be forced into a faction with Germany despite being in its own one when completing either 'Into the Plains of the British Raj' or 'The Red Threat'.

• Fixed an issue where the Japanese focus 'Hasten the Integration of Taiwan' wasn't bypassable.

• Fixed multiple instances of VPs being scripted in the incorrect states.

• Raj: Fixed an issue where the Mughals could puppet existing countries when having the Princes Revolt against British India if they held a core of theirs. Also fixed a few characters not being correctly recruited, who are now available for the path.

• Fixed Balance Of Power transferring to new country after reusing a dynamic country tag.

• 'And the Snake Smoked' achievement now requires you to be in the Allies, and requires germany to be capitulated or no longer exist.

• Nordic support collaboration tech now correctly reduces experience loss instead of increasing it.

• Fixed a bug where Canadian & Italian focus tree still referred to 'medium gun batteries'.

• Fixed an issue where the decision 'Diversify Elite Forces' checked for an implicit 'and' instead of 'or', causing it to not show up correctly.

• Added missing upgrades and MIO trait support for amphibious mechanized equipment.

• If Sweden joins the Winter War as a result of the Finnish focus 'A Cry for Help', it is no longer considered an offensive war.

• Axel Pehrsson Bramstorp and Gösta Bagge no longer keep the trait 'Minority opposition party in power' after being re-elected in the 1936 general election.

• Fixed an issue where in the Swedish focus, 'The Åland Issu', Finland would refuse to cede Åland if Sweden was much stronger, contrary to what the focus describes.

• Transport Plane 3 Technology - now has the same 1945 Year for both BBA and non-BBA technology.

• Take Control of the Executive Yaum now properly updates autonomy of Warlord Puppets.

• Nuclear Production Tooltip now counts all the buildings with nuclear_reactor = yes.

• Fire Concentration Subdoctrine will now properly provide +5% Defense Bonus as well as +5 Organization to the Line Artillery Unit Category in the Initial unlock.

• Change Mountain Gun tech localisation to reflect that it is not only Indian.

• Fixed an issue where the Indian focus 'Kingmaker' would grant two non-functioning rules changes.

• Fixed an issue where the Faction Research panel flickered on hourly ticks.

• Afghan focuses granting foreign ideological influence now mention that the ideas will last for 1 year.

• The Indian focus 'Varunas Armor' now has a name assigned to the tech bonus it gives.

• Fixed an issue where the event chain from the Iranian focus 'Push for Negotiations' was missing descriptions.

• RAJ: The Focus 'Constitution for the Masses' now also has a Political Filter.

• The Iranian focuses 'The Iranian Socialist Revolution' and 'Force Abdication' now properly inform the player that a civil war can be avoided if certain conditions are met.

• Afghanistan: The 'Eliminate dissent' in a state decisions under 'Shadows of the King' are available again if the decision got canceled without completing the decision.

• Fixed an issue where Navy leaders could be assigned to multiple Naval Headquarters after saving the game.

• Fixed a crash that can occur when opening the production window.

• Fixed various issues and inconsistencies with the decolonization game rule for Asia, Africa, Oceania and the Americas.

• Fixed exploit where you could gain more manpower from leaving and rejoining your faction.

• Fixed an issue where subjects could impose a naval blockade on their overlord.

• Fixed various issues where Syria and Lebanon could escape from war and territorial losses when Vichy France was created by siding with them or declaring independence, and made it so they properly peace out enemies or not depending on their choices in the event chain. The now also gain historical flags and leaders when becoming Vichy puppets.

• Sir Mohammed Iqbal and Agha Khan III will now be unavailable if Pakistan has broken free from the Raj.

• Only bordering states will be transferred if taking the 'Swear Fealty to the Invaders focus'

• The focus Propose Syrian Unification can now be taken if Syria is independent.

• Fixed an issue where Commanders gained through focuses would not gain XP for their traits.

• Fixed a bug where single lend leases could send 1 or 0 equipment.

• The Achievement 'The Juannines' now only requires the Philippines to control and have cores on Spain's European states.

• Fixed an issue where the Unruly Tribes in southern Iraq were referred to as Shia despite being Sunni.

• India is now more likely to annex Princely States that try and break free from them, rather than puppeting or liberating them.

• Fixed a crash that could occur during peace conferences when co-oping in multiplayer.

• The Famine state modifiers will now be removed if the owner of the state is not RAJ or a puppet of theirs.

• Fixed an issue where a few states were missing from the decisions unlocked by the Afghan focus Kabul Conference.

• Raj: Fixed an issue where Shubhas Chandra Bose was still available as an advisor and general while hiding away.

• Fixed an issue where the achievement 'En Svensk Tiger' did not work if No Step Back is enabled.

• Fixed a broken decision category image for exile governments.

• Corrected the starting population of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

• Fixed multiple issues of mismatches between small/medium/large flags for countries.

• Fixed an issue where Reza Shah Pahlavi would show up incorrectly in multiplayer if one player had GOE and the other didn't.

• Fix 'Enemy Raids' alert shown when an ally raid is executed and gains control of the province.

• Fixed an issue where the Iranian focus 'Reach Out to Separatists' did not properly apply the opposition-control state modifiers to the western regions.

• Fixed an issue where Germany would fail to go down their democratic path when it was randomly chosen when historical AI was turned off.

• Fixed an issue where two street fighting tactics weren't available.

• Fixed an issue where the Soviet Union would sometimes reject communist Iran's request to join their faction.

• Fixed an issue where Iranian decisions to Plant Resistance Cells granted effects upon completion instead of removal.

• Fixed an issue where fascist Norway would be locked out of the focus Norwegian Reichsprotektorate if the democratic side ceased to exist.

• Game is now literally playable after fixing Typo in the Belgian Focus about Re-establishing Belgian Navy. Navy and game is now literally playable.

• 'Improve Cross Border Rail Connections' focus will now also include subject nations when adding connections to bordering countries.

• Sweden can now bypass the focus 'Narvik Crisis' if Narvik and surrounding area is controlled by Sweden.

• Kurdish uprising instigated by Iran will no longer have the UK automatically join Iraq.

• Remove incorrect focus filter in the Raj focus 'Stop the Japanese Threat in Central Asia'.

• Controlling the correct states should now bypass the focus 'Unite the Sami'.

• Fixed an issue where Japan and Germany could be unable to send volunteers to Afghanistan or the Soviet Union despite promising to do so due to ideology and world tension.

• Fixed an overflow in the event items in the decisions tab.

• Fixed an issue where several Indian events had pictures not relevant to the region.

• Raj: Added correct focus filters to 'Break the Zamindars' and 'Five Year Plan'.

• Fixed an issue where the PRC could repeatedly demand Manchuria from Japan and leave their faction despite being a puppet of theirs.

• 'The Juannines' Achievement won't instantly be completed if Nationalist Spain loses the Civil War.

• Raj: Added correct focus filters to 'Royal Indian Navy Mutiny', 'Quality Training', and 'Soviet Indian Industrial Cooperation'.

• Raj: 'The Peoples Liberation Army' national spirit was missing an apostrophe in its name.

• Fixed 'The Fall of Cairo' events targeting the wrong state, and allowed them to also be triggered if Egypt owns the state but is in a faction with the UK.

• Fixed an issue that caused Swedish advisor Per Edvin Sköld to never be visible.

• Assyria can now restore Mesopotamia.

• Fixed a crash on MacOS that can occur on peace conferences.

• Afghanistan: Fixed 'Extend a Hand to Tokyo' - Faction name is missing in focus' effects.

• Afghanistan: Fixed 'Unify the Islamic World' - Faction name is missing in focus' effects.

• Fixed getting effects from recompleting goals by dismantling and recreating your faction.

• Wargoals gained from 'Return To Delhi' and 'Reclaim Transoxiana' do not show the correct states.

• Saadabad: 'Expand Road and Rail Connections' - Focus tooltip displays empty Bypass Effect.

• Invite to Hashemite Arab Federation decisions will now highlight the whole country.

• Iranian events from the focuses Demand Iraqi Territory and Demand Afghan Territory will now properly mention the name of Iran.

• Fixed an issue where some Indian design companies would become invisible when their civil war started.

• Poland: The focus 'Institute Royal Guards' now creates a valid division template. Also it is now slightly buffed (instead of 2 Division 7 Infantry 2 Artillery it is now creating 2 Divisions of 8 Infantry 2 Artillery, Polska Gurom)

• Warships of the Pacific: Fixed so only Commonwealth and ENG get Commonwealth ship icons, not all faction members of ENG which led to France getting defaulted to British ships.

• Fixed an issue where the New Zealand decisions to demand Polynesian states wouldn't give all those that were demanded.

• Belgium will no longer get a puppet war goal on Congo if they handover Congo through the German focus "Carve up Congo" and is then released as a puppet of Germany.

• Fixed an issue where you could switch country by being able to click on the map on ironman save file screen.

• Fixed an issue where France had 3D models for TDs and SPGs assigned incorrectly when playing without No Step Back.

• Mandatory Palestine won't answer that they stand with the rebels opposing them.

• Fixed an issue where you could not assign Commanders to an army when having multiple armies selected.

• Fixed crash that could occur after resyncing from an ID OOS.

• Fixed an OOS that would occur due to railway guns and rockets.

• Fixed an OOS that can occur due to a character losing their advisor role.

• Fixed an OOS that could occur when sorting Air Wings.

• Raid auto launch success probability dropdown is now properly clickable even when running at high speed.

• Fixed a crash that could occur from assigning faction scientists.

• Fixed an OOS that would occur instantly after hotjoining.

• Fixed an issue where not all resources would fit in the state view.

• Fixed the inconsistent convoy count after reloading.

• Fixed effect description for 'Embrace Stalinism' focus.

• Fixed a crash that could occur during resync when playing with mods.

• Fixed a crash due to accessing invalid controller area.

• Fixed a bug where ships unable to escape the harbor as the province gets captured would get stuck in limbo. They either flee or scuttle the ships.

• Fixed a bug where the Union of Soviet Workers could get the world to help them and 6000 divisions would arrive.

• Corrected gender (localization) for Chinese characters (Li Zhen among others).

• Joining a faction now clears all naval blockades with faction members.

• Fixed a relation related CTD on MacOS.

• Fixed a bug where Heavy Fighters were not correctly filtered as aircrafts when requesting license production.

• Fixed an OOS from unsorted army requests.

• Fixed an OOS related to Country Controller that would occur on hotjoin.

• Fixed a few bugs in sub doctrines where a modifier was shown as a multiplication instead of an addition.

• Fixed a crash caused by the career profile.

• Fixed an OOS that could occur on mac with subject production lines.

• Fixed an OOS that could occur if 2 AI's had the same peace conference score.

• Fixed an OOS that would occur because of navy not being cleared out.

Coming soon: We mentioned that we’d be adding the formable Australasia nation. Right now that is planned to be included in patch 1.19.2.

(Edited to add a missing patch note under free features.)

The Hearts of Iron IV Anniversary Merch Store has opened its doors!

Greetings everyone and welcome to the Art’s Developer Diary for the upcoming DLC Thunder at our Gates! We are looking forward to showing you what we’ve been cooking up behind the scenes. We’ll be showing off a selection of:

• Fresh Focus icons

• Gorgeous Portraits

• Awesome 3D assets

• A different spin on the Loading Screen

And, of course, giving you a sneak peak of the Achievements waiting for you on this DLC.

Focus Icons

Some of our favourite Focus icons. Australia Indonesia Siam

Portraits

A few of our Lovely Portraits Australia Indonesia Siam Ship Captains

Loading Screen

A new campaign begins the moment the loading screen fades in and this one sets a new tone. Usually, HOI4’s Loading Screens are very dynamic, action-filled battle scenes. While those are very exciting, for this one we decided to try something different. This illustration takes inspiration from the Battle of Milne Bay and depicts a brief and rare break where the young soldiers can be found resting and posing for a photo that will one day be part of history books.

3D Art

Hello, Slurpen_paradox here again to give you a look at some of the 3D art that has been added for the release of Thunder at our Gates! Let’s start off by highlighting some of the soldiers for the feature countries. Australia has received a completely reworked infantry model with new weapons to go along with it as well! Siam now has its own unique 3D model.The default Indonesian model has been uprezed and they also have a new unique militia model! Here are some pre-rendered images to give you a closer look at what they look like: There are plenty of planes this time around as well! During World War 2 the Australia air force was quite a juggernaut so there are plenty of planes added to reflect this. With that said Indonesia and Siam will have plenty of new airplane models to choose from as well! Since Indonesia was a Dutch colony at the time, it makes sense that there would be some overlap in what types of planes would have been used. Because of this, both The Netherlands and Indonesia will receive new planes. The Indonesian planes can be differentiated by the differences in camouflage that have been befitted to most of the planes. The old Dutch plane models have received a bit of a face lift as well! I don’t want to come off like someone who has his head in the clouds all the time, so let’s have a look at some of the more grounded additions now: Now it’s time to have a look at the 3D assets that have been added for the Army Headquarters! We have a diverse group of generals that will appear depending on the country you choose to play. Each general also sports his own pistol of choice! That’s a look at most of the 3D art that we have in store for you this time around! As a bonus, I will end this part of the Dev Diary with a screenshot of the unique Dam that can be seen in Australia with the new DLC. It’s the lovely Cataract Dam! Slurpen_paradox signing out!

Achievements

And we’re back once more… because what’s a new DLC without a fresh batch of Achievements to conquer? Some will be a victory lap, others might push your grand strategy skills to the absolute limit. Which ones will you breeze through, and which will have you restarting at 2 AM? There’s only one way to find out — go claim them all! Disclaimer: Names and Descriptions of how to get the achievements may have been changed on release A Bridge too Far As the UK, have Bernard Montgomery's Army HQ take Rotterdam. A Succulent Chinese Meal As Australia, own and control a Chinese core state. ANZAC As Australia or New Zealand, have an Army HQ in Greece and ensure that Greece doesn't capitulate before 1945. Et Tu, Paulus? Capture a field Marshal. From Rags to Admiral Stripes Promote a Ship Captain to Admiral. Grand Siam As Siam, capitulate 4 nations within one year. Hail to the King As Siam, form Greater Thailand before King Ananda is 15 years old. Hunt for the Desert Fox Capture Erwin Rommel. Java-Script As the Dutch East Indies (or Indonesia), research the Advanced Computing Machine while your capital is on the island of Java. Maphilindia As Indonesia or the Philippines, form Maphilindo and control all Indian core states. No One Will Notice the Difference As Indonesia, station Gustav Adolf Ilgen in Stockholm. Old Zealand As New Zealand, control and own the states of Brabant (Zeeland) and Sjaelland (Zealand). The Rightside Up As Australia,control Jan Mayen. Saving Private Bryansk Capture a General in the state of Bryansk. Thai Fighters As Siam, have 10 aces. ThaiTanic As any nation, sink Siam's pride of the fleet. The 7th State As Australia, integrate New Zealand The Man of Medan Sink 100 convoys as Indonesia. Waltzing Matilda Deploy 25 Heavy Tank Battalions as Australia.

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The Decade

The Patch

• 11th of June - Thunder at Our Gates release 🥳
• 18th of June - Anniversary “behind the scenes” video + teaser of what is coming up next.

What have you all been up to these years:

PATCH NOTES

Ship & Navy Balance

• Reduced Naval Minimum Chance to Hit from 2% to 0.5%
• Set Naval XP Gain for the following mission types: Patrol, Convoy Raiding, Convoy Escort, Mines Planting, Mines Sweeping to 0.2, and Strike force to 0.05
• Navy Mastery gain for Strike force missions increased from 0 to 0.05, and for Convoy Raiding increased from 0.2 to 0.3
• Supply Consumption of Carriers reduced from 1.2 to 0.8
• Supply Consumption of Battleships reduced from 0.8 to 0.56
• Supply Consumption of Battlecruisers reduced from 0.48 to 0.32
• Supply Consumption of Heavy Cruisers reduced from 0.4 to 0.24
• Naval Reform Spirit changed from +15% Naval Experience Gain to +10% Naval Mastery Gain
• Naval Sub-Doctrine Coastal Mine-laying Clearing Procedures reward no longer applies bonus to mine sweeping to the Submarines, instead the effect on Destroyers has been increased from +20% to +25%
• Long Range Submarines Sub-Doctrine Ocean Patrols reward now also applies +10% bonus to the surface detection to the Nuclear Submarines
• Long Range Submarines Sub-Doctrine Improved Dive Protocols reward now also reduces Surface Visibility of the Nuclear Submarines by 5%
• Long Range Submarines Sub-Doctrine Support the Surface reward now also applies +10% bonus to the Torpedo Attack, and Naval Speed to the Nuclear Submarines
• Removed Resource Cost from most of the naval modules (guns, deck armor, hangar decks), Armor Schemes as well as Anechoic Tiles will still have resource costs associated with them.
• Cruiser Armor Scheme Resource Costs changed from resource cost of 0/1/1/2 Steel to 0/0/1/1 Steel and from 0/0/1/1 Chromium to 0/0/0/1 Chromium
• Battleship Armor Scheme Resource Costs changed from resource cost 1/1/2 Steel to 1/1/1 Steel. Chromium Costs unchanged.
• Early Destroyer Naval Range increased from 1500 km to 2000 km
• Basic Destroyer Naval Range increased from 1800 km to 2500 km and service manpower reduced from 325 to 300
• Improved Destroyer Naval Range increased from 2000 km to 3000 km and service manpower reduced from 400 to 350
• Advanced Destroyer Naval Range increased from 2500 km to 3500 km and service manpower reduced from 500 to 400
• Advanced Destroyer Hull cost decreased from 4 Steel to 3 Steel
• Naval Dominance Factor for Advanced Destroyers increased from 40 to 42
• Light Ship Engine III - Fuel Consumption lowered from 10 to 9
• Early Cruiser Hull cost increased from 1 Steel to 2 Steel
• Improved Cruiser Hull cost increased from 2 Steel to 3 Steel
• Advanced Cruiser Hull cost increased from 3 Steel, to 3 Steel and 1 Chromium
• Improved Cruiser Naval Range reduced from 4000 km to 3500 km and service manpower reduced from 1200 to 1000
• Advanced Cruiser Naval Range reduced from 4500 km to 4000 km and service manpower reduced from 1400 to 1200
• Cruiser Ship Engine I - Production Cost reduced from +15% to +12.5% and increased Naval Speed from +20% to +25%
• Cruiser Ship Engine II - Production Cost reduced from +17.5% to +15%
• Cruiser Ship Engine III - Production Cost reduced from +20% to +17.5%
• Cruiser Ship Engine IV - Production Cost reduced from +22.5% to +20%
• Pre-Dreadnaught Hull Naval Range increased from 2250 km to 2500 km
• Pre-Drednought Ship Hull cost changed from 1 Steel 1 Chromium to 2 Steel
• Torpedo Cruiser Naval Range reduced from 4000 km to 3500 km and service manpower reduced from 960 to 900
• Panzerschiff service manpower reduced from 1800 to 1200, IC cost for the hull reduced from 3500 to 2800, surface visibility from 22 to 18.
• Panzerschiff Hull cost increased from 3 Steel to 3 Steel 1 Chromium
• Coastal Defense Ship service manpower reduced from 1800 to 1000. IC cost for the hull reduced from 3500 to 1500. Base Steel Cost reduced from 3 to 2. Surface Visibility reduced from 20 to 16. Naval Range increased from 1500 km to 2000 km.
• Coastal Defense Ship Hull cost decreased from 3 Steel to 2 Steel
• Coastal Defense Ship Max Strength (HP) increased from 100 to 110
• Basic Heavy Hull service manpower reduced from 5200 to 4300
• Improved Heavy Hull service manpower reduced from 6000 to 4650
• Advanced Heavy Hull service manpower reduced from 6000 to 5000
• Modern Heavy Hull service manpower reduced from 6000 to 5000, IC cost for the hull reduced from 4000 to 3600
• Early Heavy Ship Hull cost increased from 1 Steel 1 Chromium to 3 Steel 1 Chromium
• Basic Heavy Ship Hull cost increased from 1 Steel 1 Chromium to 3 Steel 1 Chromium
• Improved Heavy Ship Hull cost increased from 1 Steel 1 Chromium to 4 Steel 1 Chromium
• Advanced Heavy Ship Hull cost increased from 1 Steel 1 Chromium to 4 Steel 1 Chromium
• Modern Heavy Ship Hull cost changed from 6 Steel 3 Chromium 2 Tungsten to 5 Steel 2 Chromium 2 Tungsten
• Early, Basic, Improved, Advanced Heavy Ship Hull Fuel Consumption reduced from 67 to 60
• Early Heavy Ship Naval Dominance Factor increased from 300 to 325
• Modern Heavy Ship Hull Fuel Consumption reduced from 80 to 72
• Heavy Ship Engine I - Production Cost reduced from +17.5% to +12.5%, increased Naval Speed from +20% to +25% and increased Fuel Consumption from 20 to 22
• Heavy Ship Engine II - Production Cost reduced from +20% to +15% and increased Fuel Consumption from 25 to 28
• Heavy Ship Engine III - Production Cost reduced from +22.5% to +17.5% and increased Fuel Consumption from 30 to 34
• Heavy Ship Engine IV - Production Cost reduced from +25% to +20% and increased Fuel Consumption from 35 to 40
• Super Heavy Hull service manpower reduced from 9000 to 7000
• Super Heavy Ship Hull cost increased from 1 Steel 1 Chromium to 5 Steel 2 Chromium
• Super Heavy Ship Hull Fuel Consumption reduced from 75 to 68
• Basic Carrier Naval Range increased from 3000 km to 3500 km and service manpower reduced from 4500 to 4000
• Improved Carrier Naval Range increased from 4000 km to 4250 km and service manpower reduced from 5000 to 4500
• Advanced Carrier service manpower reduced from 5500 to 5000
• Modern Carrier service manpower reduced from 6500 to 6000
• Basic Carrier Ship Hull cost increased from 3 Steel 1 Chromium to 4 Steel 1 Chromium
• Improved Carrier Ship Hull cost increased from 4 Steel 1 Chromium to 5 Steel 2 Chromium
• Advanced Carrier Ship Hull cost increased from 4 Steel 2 Chromium to 6 Steel 2 Chromium
• Modern Carrier Ship Hull cost increased from 5 Steel 3 Chromium to 6 Steel 3 Chromium
• Converted Battleship, Basic, Improved and Advanced Carrier Ship Hull Fuel Consumption reduced from 87 to 70
• Modern Carrier Ship Hull Fuel Consumption reduced from 90 to 72
• Improved Carrier Ship Hull Naval Dominance Factor increased from 300 to 325
• All Carriers Surface Detection Reduced from 26 to 20 and Sub Detection from 5 to 1
• Deck Space Carrier Detection Values increased from +5 Carrier Surface Detection and +2 Carrier Sub Detection to +8 Carrier Surface Detection and +4 Carrier Sub Detection
• Carrier Ship Engine I - Naval Speed reduced from +30% to +25% and increased Fuel Consumption from 12 to 16
• Carrier Ship Engine II - Naval Speed reduced from +40% to +35% and increased Fuel Consumption from 16 to 24
• Carrier Ship Engine III - Naval Speed reduced from +50% to +45% and increased Fuel Consumption from 20 to 32
• Carrier Ship Engine IV - Naval Speed reduced from +60% to +55% and increased Fuel Consumption from 24 to 40
• Cruiser Carrier Conversion Naval Range reduced from 4000 km to 3000 km
• Battleship Carrier Conversion Naval Range reduced from 4000 km to 3000 km and service manpower from 5000 to 3500
• Converted Cruiser Ship Hull Fuel Consumption reduced from 87 to 60
• Escort Carrier IC cost for the hull reduced from 1500 to 1250 and service manpower reduced from 2500 to 1500
• Escort Carrier Ship Hull cost changed from 2 Steel 1 Chromium to 3 Steel
• Escort Carrier Deck Space Carrier Detection Values increased from +2 Carrier Surface Detection & +5 Carrier Sub Detection to +5 Carrier Surface Detection and +7 Carrier Sub Detection
• Escort Carrier Ship Hull Fuel Consumption reduced from 87 to 50
• Ice Carrier Ship Hull cost increased from 5 Steel 2 Chromium to 8 Steel 2 Chromium
• Ice Carrier Ship Hull Fuel Consumption reduced from 95 to 90
• Ice Carrier Deck Space Carrier Detection Values increased from +6 Carrier Surface Detection and +3 Carrier Sub Detection to +10 Carrier Surface Detection and +4 Carrier Sub Detection
• Reduced SUBMARINE_HIDE_TIMEOUT from 20 to 8 and SUBMARINE_REVEALED_TIMEOUT from 16 to 12. This means that revealed submarine in battle will hide after 8 hours, and if the submarine taskforce was attacked they will stay revealed for 12 hours at the start of the combat.
• Penalty from Positioning to the Submarine Visibility reduced from +200% to +100%
• Reduced Shallow Waters effect on Submarine Visibility from +100% to +33%
• SUBMARINE_REVEAL_DETECTION_MULTIPLIER reduced from 0.075 to 0.065
• Early Submarine Sub Visibility reduced from 25 to 22 and Strength increased from 10 to 15
• Basic Submarine Sub Visibility reduced from 22 to 20 and Strength increased from 20 to 22.5
• Improved Submarine Sub Visibility reduced from 20 to 18
• Advanced Submarine Strength increased from 35 to 37.5
• Submarine Carrier Hull cost increased from 3 Steel to 4 Steel
• Submarine Ship Engine II - Now reduces the Submarine Visibility by -3.5%
• Submarine Ship Engine III - Submarine Visibility Reduction increased from -5% to -7% and reduced Fuel Consumption from 10 to 9
• Submarine Ship Engine IV - Production Cost reduced from +20% to +17.5%
• Submarine Nuclear Engine - Now reduces the Submarine Visibility by -15% and increased Naval Speed from +10% to +20%
• Naval retreat rebalanced: BASE_ESCAPE_SPEED increased from 0.045 to 0.05, SPEED_TO_ESCAPE_SPEED reduced from 0.95 to 0.5, ESCAPE_SPEED_PER_COMBAT_DAY increased from 0.01 to 0.015, MAX_ESCAPE_SPEED_FROM_COMBAT_DURATION increased from 0.15 to 0.5, ESCAPE_SPEED_SUB_BASE increased from 0.08 to 0.1, ESCAPE_SPEED_HIDDEN_SUB increased from 0.18 to 0.35, and capital ships and carriers now retreat at half their usual strength threshold (CAPITAL_SHIP_COMBAT_RETREAT_MULT added at 0.5).
• Convoy production deficit boost is now capped to avoid starving warship production
• NAVAL_STRIKE_CARRIER_MULTIPLIER increased from 10.0 to 12.0
• CARRIER_COMBAT_DAMAGE_STATS_MULTIPLIER increased from 0.35 to 0.5

Other Balance

• Heavy MG Fighter armament costs more IC (2x +20%, 4x +30%) and 4x mounts (light & heavy) take -2.5% reliability
• Nationalist China: Reduced focus time from 70 days to 35 days for 21 focuses across the Industry, Army, Air, Navy, and Politics branches
• Nationalist China: Construct the Banqiao Dam moved earlier in the tree; The National Sun Yat-sen University takes its previous prerequisites

Gameplay

• A new, very challenging achievement: "Steiner!": As Germany, after June 22nd 1941, reach more than 30% surrender progress while at war with the Soviet Union, France, and England. Afterwards, control Moscow, Paris, and London.
• Carrier Sortie Settings now only apply to the first 24 hours of Naval Combat, instead of being tracked for 24h per Carrier - even when they were reinforcing an already ongoing battle
• Screening bonus now scales with screening efficiency: partially screened formations no longer receive the full screening bonus against capital fire
• Strike forces are now able to target combats that are already in combat, while they exit their own combat
• Strike forces with a valid strike target will now ignore active combats on the way (no more being distracted by pesky subs!)
• Quality of Life: Buying equipment on international market now selects the maximum by default, and auto sets the minimum acceptable civ count
• Made lendlease default to max amount for 'once' and to 100% for 'percentage' modes
• Lendlease has better UI logic and will default to maximum amounts that the receiver can handle with their convoys
• Updated supply tooltip to show more careful where all supply is coming from
• An event will now be fired to all the signatories of the Nine-powers treaty when China gets attacked

Stability & Performance

• Use static_cast instead of dynamic_cast in CConstRef release builds. The debug path already validates the cast via assertion, making the RTTI overhead in release unnecessary. Improves performance for all ref pointer dereferences.
• optimized navalhq calculations
• Added a sound pool system, which keeps sound effects in memory for up to ~20 seconds, which should reduce file system access and thus reduce stutters
• Micro optimizations to supply system
• _NavalNodesByBaseSupply is now just a flat array rather than a weird 2d array
• Removed linear search for dirty tracking, instead do a direct lookup
• Added caching to root & fallback orders, significantly speeding up unit code
• Improved performance when having a large army selected
• Batched ability refresh on reinforcements arrival. (Now happens atmost once instead of twice)
• Trade is now calculated per resource, as most calculations are done per resource, which saves performance
• Naval objectives don't get recalculated all the time anymore, instead they are recalculated every X days
• Added a pre-pass for ai theatre distribution, cutting down massively on the number of options looked at
• Fixed leaking of sound effects, causing a slow down in longer game sessions.
• Equipment variants processing speed up significantly
• Calculating fuel requested for airplanes is 90% faster
• Airwings accident chance has a pre-roll now, skipping tens of thousands of calculations late game
• Fixed memory leak that caused late game performance problems for AI
• Parallelized airbase status updates
• Equipment data will be compacted once per year, reducing late game performance problems
• Fixed performance in very large scale naval battles (1000+ ships)
• Reduced math operations from doing a full 4x4 update to just do a vector2f and a single scale float
• Added a landmass detection, stopping world wide pathfinds

UI

• Tooltip updated to indicate that control ratio required for having dominance in a sea zone is 60% instead of 66%
• Added Hit Profile 'Stat' to be displayed on Ship Designer as well on the Ship Cards. Minelaying/Minesweeping will be displayed only if their respective value is above 0.
• Added ability to filter divisions based on their type in the division overview window
• Repair-now button will stop the current mission so the fleet can focus on repair

AI

• AI naval ship templates for Italy, England, USA, Japan, and the generic fallback reworked: most ship classes now follow a four-tier scheme (early / basic / improved / advanced) tied to historical classes as close as possible. AI fleets are now better-equipped at each tier and progress through them more reliably.
• AI is able to swap better quality ships into current task forces
• AI is better at picking a homebase that can reach all regions
• Added logic for the AI to decide that it is losing the battle too hard, and go for a full retreat instead of a slow retreat
• Introduction of AI buffering ships, this should result in the AI keeping a reserve fleet on hand for reinforcements
• Large lendleases will no longer be accepted if they would take too many convoys to ship
• Ai will be more aggressive with advantageous naval invasions
• Navy AI now considered scripted fleets separately for the case of building its required & optional task forces
• When naval objectives overlap, they will consider that and reduce request for patrols due to that
• Coastal defense will prioritize assignment based on number of VP's being defended
• Germany will build more submarines and fewer surface ships, matching historical doctrine
• Multiple invasions into the same sea region will share a single defense objective
• Naval dominance strategies with negative values will properly suppress objectives
• Coast defense will only ramp up when enemy presence is detected
• Rebalanced AI weights for naval research
• Introduced CV Fighter / Naval bomber equipment progress for England
• The AI will now train their troops more often
• The AI will no longer train divisions that are next to the enemy
• The AI will try to train their fleets a bit more opportunistic
• The AI will be a bit more sensible with picking a homebase for its standby fleet
• If there are no more patrol fleets available, the AI will use Strike forces as patrols instead
• Added logic to prevent the AI from assigning too many patrols to support naval invasion
• AI now reserves more dockyards for repair (thank you forum feedback)
• The AI will now repair until critical damage has been repaired (thank you forum feedback)
• The AI will now use their escort fleets in regions, even if the region is blocked due to convoy raiding
• Italy commits fewer units to the Alexandria push and holds Africa longer. Slightly reduced England's Alexandria defense buffer.
• UK builds up North Africa port more if its needed to push to Tobruk
• Convoy danger now decays quicker with time
• AI signatories of the Nine-Power Treaty now always agree to abandon it when Chiang Kai-shek leads China (unless allied with Japan)

Modding

• Introduced naval_invasion_support_priority to direct the naval AI more
• AI objectives will respect blocked naval regions now and not consider them for naval mission assignment anymore
• Fixed a bug where the AI was not using fleets if the ships did not require any fuel
• Equipment role debug view shows raw matching score

Bugfix

• Fixed a rare crash that happened due to order invalidating
• Fixed a bug where taskforces could be in two naval combats at the same time
• Fixed a bug where ships were partially considered for supply need
• Fixed a bug where a strike force sometimes gets stuck on an invalid target and stops working
• Fixed a bug where wrong snow modifier values were shown + fixed a bug where the leader snow adjuster didn't work as intended
• Snow attack penalty is now shown on the move-arrow tooltip
• Removed legacy plane techs from BBA-enabled starts for 36 minor nations
• RI Bolzano in the 1939 OOB now uses the correct ship_hull_cruiser_2 (Bolzano Class)
• Convoy raiders won't join or reinforce a combat unless there are enemy convoy's to shoot at
• Fixed a crash related to carrier airplanes being deployed
• Fixed bug where emergency convoy demand would scale infinitely
• Fixed a bug where a ship would gain strength through doctrines, on reloading a save they would be damaged
• Fixed a bug where planes destroyed by other sources than air to air combat did not count to war participation (as an example: static anti-air or destroyed planes in a raid)
• Raj: Fixed "Mixed Economy" giving resources on all owned states rather than starting states and added coal.
• Raj: Fixed "The riches of the Raj" to check for synthetic referinies as well
• Raj: Fixed "Acquire new Resources" so it gives the resources to the correct state
• CTD that could occur with scientists in late game
• Fixed a bug where a naval supply tooltip would show a much larger number of convoys required then was actually needed
• Fixed OOS related to trade routes

Army HQ's

Chapter 1: Dangerously Shippable

Chapter 2: Hearts of Iron III Is Good, Actually

Chapter 3: What is a Feature? A Miserable Little Pile of Considerations

Chapter 4: Final Results

• Give the players reason to use generals as a resource in terms of prioritising certain frontlines and theatres over others
• Allow for customisation that can allow them to make their armies better suited for the conditions they will be facing
• Provide an additional layer of consideration when it comes to the use of abilities and planning

• Let the player build dedicated HQ division/company templates, where they can build for a certain set of bonuses
• Deploy generals onto the map with said HQ templates, which allocates an amount of Command Power
• Allow them to set a preferred distance to the frontline, that the division will automatically adhere to
• Still allow for manual control if needed
• Provide HQ-derived bonuses when the general is deployed, and increase said bonuses when they attach to

HQ Units

Capturing Generals

Wrap-up

Special Forces

Sawasdee khrap! Today we will go through the focus tree for Siam, today known as Thailand.

Context

Before the start of the game Siam had lost territory, mainly against the French but also against the English. Large portions of Indochina were under some form of control from Bangkok, either as tributaries or under direct control. Still Siam remained unconquered, a stark contrast to the other Asian nations. Part of it can be attributed to Siam's efforts to Westernize, an effort to show the great powers that they weren't a nation to be conquered, but perhaps the most important factor was that Siam acted as a buffer zone between France and the UK. In 1936 Siam had just come out of several years of instability. The ruling party, the Khana Ratsadon, is a fragile alliance between different military and civilian cliques. This party had overthrown the absolute monarchy in 1932 via a bloodless coup. One year later the prime minister was overthrown, and barely a month later a royalist coup led by the prince Bowardej cast the country in chaos. While the government eventually prevailed, the country remained unstable, and by 1936 the government was divided between civilians led by Pridi Banomyong and the military clique, led by different generals, but mainly Plaek Phibunsongkhram (Phibun).

The Khana Ratsadon

The Khana Ratsadon is the main antagonistic force when playing as Siam. It is the only party in the country, and in game they are divided into the Civilian and Military clique. The two different cliques has their own opinion of you, the player, depending on what choices you make in the tree. For example if you hold a military parade you make the military clique happier while making the civilians annoyed. It is essentially their relation with you, regardless of who is in charge; of course putting a military dictator in power will make the military happier, as an example. If you piss off either clique for too long they might decide that they've had enough, and they will try to coup you You will have a certain period of time to remedy the situation before escalating into a full civil war. I decided to not use the Balance of Power for this because it only moves on one axis and is better suited when there is a push and pull between two things. I wanted this to move two independent clique opinions of the players actions, rather than what the BoP is supposed to represent. You start activating the Khana Ratsadon. This is the entrypoint of the tree, separated into two main parts, one that is generally pro-civilian clique and one that is generally pro-military. Some of these focuses will either appease or piss-off one or the other clique. If one clique gets too angry it might be wise to take some actions to make them a bit happier.

Historical (Fascism)

The historical path follows Siams descent into fascism, modelled after the Italian state. After some scandals, Phraya Phahon (the current Siamese starting leader) resigned, and Phibun stepped into the power vacuum. After which the civilian wing got drastically less power, and Siam became more authoritarian. When Phibun comes to power Siam becomes fascist. The focus can be completed by either gaining enough fascism support via advisors, or by selling privy purse lands(the scandal mentioned) and letting the spirit time out. Either or will unlock his premiership. You can then proceed to suppress your opponents and turn on the propaganda, mirroring other fascist states like Italy or Germany. The Songsuradet rebellion (in reality a purge) will neuter your biggest military opponent, while the Thai Cultural Mandates are decisions that will influence Thai life, molding them after the state. This is also where Siam gets renamed to Thailand, a legacy of WW2 to drum up Thai unity. The first two decisions are free in this case, after which they start to cost political power. The Soviet style propaganda posters are also making a comeback, but this time as propaganda movies. The Sala Chaloem Thai Movie Theater was used for these means during Phibun's rule, and they work the same way as the Soviet version. I wanted to bring back an existing system that is familiar for players but tailor it specifically for Siam

Pan-Thaiism

Shared with the monarchist branch is the Pan-Thaiism branch. Driven by the loss of territories to the great powers, Siam had a large influx of irredentism during WW2. This path allows you to retake some of the territories that were lost while also peace out without it remaining a permanent war. One of the criticisms from GoE was that it was too hard to do early expansions without it escalating into WW2 instantly. Hopefully this will allow for an easier time doing so. To start it just click on the icon for the country, in this case France You now have X days to finish the limited war by occupying the targeted states. If you occupy them before the timer runs out the opposing country will sign a peace deal where you keep the states you conquered And if you are more than 20% towards capitulation you won' get annexed as normal, but you will get a penalty The hope is that it gives Siam an easier way to expand, either early on but even later after the big war kicks off. As a minor power it can sometimes be hard to field a large enough army early on, so I wanted to also have the opportunity to gain these territories after the big war kicked off. When you have gained your brand new territories you can develop them. Getting compliance high enough is important since it allows you to form the Greater Thai Empire, gaining cores on the territory

Monarchism

The absolute monarchy might have been overthrown in 1932, but Siam was (and still is to this day), a constitutional monarchy. Even though the princes did not exert the same amount of influence as before, they still had vestiges of power. After Prajadhipok abdicated and exiled himself to the UK, a new king, Ananda, was chosen as his successor. At the start of the game Ananda is only 10 years old, studying in Switzerland. Our divergence in this scenario starts with Field Marshal Songsuradet. He was a high ranking member of the Khana Ratsadon, and somewhat of a risk for Phibun, so historically he had Songsuradet exiled, during what was called The Songsuradet Rebellion. In this timeline Songsuradet realizes he is about to be purged and forms an alliance with the remaining princes to overthrow Phibun. This clandestine meetings results in the schemers contacting the exiled king Prajadhipok Using Prajadhipoks legitimacy, you can appeal for support from different cliques. Another return from the Swedish tree, but a bit expanded upon. In this version you do not just pay a pp cost to appease the cliques, but rather have to do something in the game. The industrialists expect you to build 2 civ-factories, because it is in their interest. The Absolutist Monarchists want a return to absolute monarchy (shocker), while the constitutionalists want a more moderate option, these two cannot exist at the same time, so if you want support from both, you will eventually have to disappoint one of the cliques. Prajadhipok can gather support from either Japan or the UK, framing the current administration as unstable. When the support is big enough the king can make his ultimate gambit. He will return to Bangkok, with the full expectation of being arrested by the government. This gives him the legitimacy the King needs, pointing towards military overstepping, and with the supporters standing by, a civil war erupts. After the Royalist win and Phibun is ousted the question of "who is ruling" becomes a bit complicated. Ananda is still king, but underage,Prajadhipok is terminally ill with congestive heart failure, which will eventually lead to a heart attack, which means that a Reagent must step in until Ananda is fit to rule. You can pick either Bowardej, the same prince that was exiled for an attempted coup a few years before, representing a more conservative, authoritarian version of monarchism. Songsuradet, the prime instigator, represents a middle ground between authoritarianism and progress with ties to the military. Finally Rangsit represents the constitutionalists who want to eventually return to democracy. Eventually Ananda will become of age. The game tracks his age, and when he is at least 15 years old he can ascend the throne. Being young you get to influence him by steering his studies, molding him to become what you need for that playthrough. Completing the focus To Forge a King, you get an event once a year where you get to dictate what he studies, influencing his trait. Don't worry about missing a year or two, if you do the game will automatically give you all missed events. What is cool is that he gets a title depending on which trait combinations you pick. In this case I picked two industrial traits and one research trait, thus getting the Pragmatic title. There are 18 different title combinations currently. If you seek strength, the rest will follow.

Industry

Siam during WW2 was sometimes called "the Italy of the East", referring to its low industrial output compared to its counterpart (Italy - Germany, Siam - Japan), however comparing Siam to Italy would be an order of magnitude difference in output still. Siam was mostly an agrarian country centered on Rice with a large population working in subsistence farming. It wasn't until after WW2 that Thailand started to grow massively in GDP, with some attributing the transformation due to the war itself. This led to Siam being unprepared for war, despite their posture after the fall of France. The industrial branch allows Siam to alter their industrial trajectory as compared to the past, while still keeping it grounded in history. There are two major branches, with some shared focuses in the middle

Industry - Left Side

The left side follows a more aggressive expansion of civilian industry, mirroring the steps taken by Japan in the previous century to rapidly modernize. You start with looking to foreign expertise, sending your administrators abroad, tying the baht to a stable foreign currency and launching a foreign cooperative. This lays the foundation for the next step.. You can then launch a savings bond, giving bonuses depending on your conscription law. The lower you are the higher the bonus is, conversely the higher penalties you have to eat. The general ethos of the left path is that the bonuses are overall more direct in their power and allows you to reform the Thai Industry faster, but it also comes at a risk of collapse should something go wrong. The next focus doubles down on this. Eating the factory energy consumption is probably fine as long as you have access to enough energy. This particular focus was thought of as a kickstart focus which would help Siam get its industrial ball rolling quickly, as they start with quite a low baseline. You can then start to expand the agricultural base with a mix of modernization. This focus specifically acts as a gate, locking the other focuses. The requirements aren't meant to be super hard to achieve, but the player needs to plan for it. Putting one mil on trucks early on should be enough, but if not it might take a little more time. It goes back to the risk/reward aspect of this path that if everything goes as planned its not an issue but if it does it might take a little longer. You can also take out a loan for a short injection, and either pay it off immediately or have a long low-interest repayment. And at the end of the tree you get a massive boost to production, if you have the proper resources for it.

Industry - Right Side

The right side is intended to be more of a slow burn compared to the left side, which is more aggressive, but is more resilient towards external perturbations. This is more closely modelled after Siam's historical situation, where their reliance on rice shielded them somewhat against the worst economic effects of the war.

Instead of forming the Bank of Siam, you form the Thai Rice Company, with more focus on Agrarianism and shielding the country when the war hits. As you can see, delicious Pad Thai is here, which is said to have been made during this time as a way to boost unity among the Thais, especially after a flood destroyed a large amount of rice. You are able to put some of your current output into a "rainy day fund", where you can release a large influx of output while at war, its length depending on how long you have saved for before releasing it.

This one I'm particularly happy about. This actually happened in real life, when the allies bombed Bangkok the government used the ships Thonburis engines as a backup power source to run the tram. And as others this ends in a powerful focus. This path also is a bit more geared towards military production than the other. The full path:

Democratic

Taking a step back, to the democratic path. As mentioned before, Pridi was the main counterweight towards the military led by Phibun. Pridi wanted a more ambitious reform, called the Yellow Dossier. This sweeping set of reforms was decried as communist in nature by King Prajadhipok, and some argue that it was this that led to the Bowardej rebellion in 1933. Pridi would eventually lose the struggle for power against the military, only ousting Phibun via the Seri-Thai at the tail end of the war. In this alternative world however, he makes a play for power. In our alternative world, Pridi realizes that he isn't strong enough to challenge the military head on, so the civilians devise a plan. They will leak a new fake version of the Yellow Dossier to military affiliates, intended to be pushed in the general assembly, the military will overreact, denounce it to the public as communist (again), and when a more moderate version of the draft is presented, the military will be made to look like fools. In practical terms this means that when you trigger the focus "To lay the bait" the military will publicly denounce the actions of the player. The more you let the military criticize the fake plan, the harsher the blowback will be towards them, the higher support the player will actually get when the civil war to oust Phibun is triggered. It comes at the cost of some negative outcomes though. If the players total support (25% of it comes from democratic support, 75% from the militarys overreaction score) is over 80%, no civil war is triggered. After Phibun and the military is deposed, it is time to secure the state. Doing so means either purging the military (Stalin style) or putting them under close surveillance. You will also have to reach outwards to get global legitimacy. You then have the option of getting into the allies. This path is more fashioned at navy and marines, where you tackle an incoming Japanese threat Some of the issues that the minors without a strong starting fleet is that its very hard to catch up. So this tree is trying to alleviate some of the hurdles. While not having a massive fleet it should still be possible to get an ok navy up and going If navy isn't your cup of tea, you can join the Chinese united front directly in the land war against Japan When the fighting is over you have the option to be a kingmaker against either the Nationalists or the Communist. There is also the option to form your own democratic Bloc. While there aren't many independent nations around Asia at the start, you get the option to demand their release and invite them to the bloc. The bigger the block is the stronger your bonuses get. As the strength of the faction grows, so does everyone in it.

Submission or Standing our Ground

Siam wasn't exactly a willing participant in WW2, at least not in the beginning. Japan invaded Siam to get access to the Malaysian Peninsula, upon which Phibun, instead of resisting, joined the Co-Prospherity Sphere. At first it looked like a good deal, as the Japanese helped Siam get back land, but it turned out to be a devil's bargain. Japan demanded more and more from the Thai people, both in terms of resources but also currency, which could be converted to yen. Phibun was eventually deposed by the Seri-Thai, or Free Thai, a 50k strong force, partially led by his rival, Pridi. Siam would then switch to the allies and face little repercussions after the war as a result. The player gets the same choice. When you are first attacked by a major you get the option of either standing your ground, and fight the invaders. This gives lots of boosts for rapidly defending against an oncoming invasion. If you then decide to fold, you get either the choice of completely supporting the invader, or secretly planning to flip to the allies. If you support the invader (Japan) you will be expected to pay some of their occupation cost. This will increase slowly over time

However it can be ended by getting enough war score

Which will force Japan to repay you

If you are planning to not stay with Japan indefinitely, you can do a Romania and switch sides via the Seri-Thai path, which will eventually depose Phibunand join the allies

Army Tree

In the army tree you can decide what type of war you want to focus on, a long war, short war or an intermediate solution.

You also get to specialize in either artillery or a more specialized type of warfare The tradition of having a focus name for the DLC continues The tank part focuses on mostly light tanks, which is what Siam could afford, but one is more…controversial, whereas the other one is more traditional

Navy

And lastly the navy branch. It is divided into two main branches. One is a more classical path which focuses on building up the navy via dockyards and bonuses. What I did want to do however with this is that it also gives some bonuses towards the other industry, so even if you don't feel like engaging with the navy there is reason to eventually go down here. If you do not want to engage with the navy branch at all there is a shorter branch which basically sells of all the dockyards for some civilian industrial bonuses And with that I am done! That is what is coming for Siam in Thunder at our Gates. If you have any questions or feedback, I'll be reading them. Best regards,

Underground Revolution

The National Revolution

Escalation​

Raids

Naval / Marine Raids​

Laskar Rakyat

Army Branch

Navy Branch

Revolution Joint Focus Tree

Political Chaos

Unaligned Path

Democratic Path

Communist Path

Power Balance

Outro​

History: Far and recent

Princely States

Economy

The Soetardjo Petition

Loyalist Branch

The Volksraad

If you reject the Soetardjo Petition

Military Branch

Outro

Balance

• Nationalist China: Reduced focus time from 70 days to 35 days for 22 focuses across the Industry, Army, Air, Navy and Politics branches
• Nationalist China: Construct the Banqiao Dam moved earlier in the tree; The National Sun Yat-sen University takes its previous prerequisites
• Submarines now escape at 35% progress per day if they are hidden (previously 50%)

Gameplay

• Lendlease has better UI logic and will default to maximum amounts that the receiver can handle with their convoys
• An event will now be fired to all the signatories of the Nine-powers treaty when China gets attacked
• Ignore convoy limit when sending convoys as a lend lease

AI

• Updated USA naval templates and strategy
• Updated generic & UK's ship templates
• AI now reserves more dockyards for repair (thank you forum feedback)
• The AI will now repair until critical damage has been repaired (thank you forum feedback)
• UK builds up north africa port more if its needed to push to Tobruk

Bugfix

• Crash that can occur when a SAM mission is set to a naval region
• Crash that can occur on Mac in peace conferences
• Fixed bug where emergency convoy demand would scale infinitely
• Force creation of new GPU buffer by running the first map of the frame with DISCARD
• Fixed a bug where a ship would gain strength through doctrines, on reloading a save they would be damaged
• Fixed a bug where planes destroyed by other sources than air to air combat did not count towards war participation (as an example: static anti-air or destroyed planes in a raid)
• Raj: Fixed "Mixed Economy" giving resources on all owned states rather than starting states and added coal
• Raj: Fixed "The riches of the Raj" to check for synthetic refineries as well
• Raj: Fixed "Acquire new Resources" so it gives the resources to the correct state
• CTD that could occur with scientists in late game
• Fixed a bug where a naval supply tooltip would show a much larger number of convoys required then was actually needed

Ship Captains

Division Designer & Regimental Support

Regimental Support Companies

Gameplay & Balance

• When Czechoslovakia uses the Austria-Hungary reformation decision, they now get a unique cosmetic tag called Great Moravia.
• Changed the flag for the Bohemian Kingdom so it still includes Slovakia.
• 'Integrate Hungary' is now 'Integrate Former Austrian Lands', and can grant the integration idea to more puppets than just Hungary.
• Certain Czech characters now go into exile to some countries sometime after the 'Fate of Czechoslovakia' baring conditions are met.
• Slightly tweaked the balance of a few advisors.
• The option to demand land in return for joining their faction that Hungary and Poland get when invited now has a tooltip about what happens if CZE accepts the counteroffer event.
• Some of the Balance of Power Decisions reappearance times have been rebalanced slightly.
• Overhauled late-game industry and Peace For Our Time branch ideas to use idea swaps to reduce the amount of ideas displayed.
• Added conscription/training & militia bonuses for the army spirit to some focuses.
• Added two new division name lists: Rangers & State Defense Guard.
• Germany can no longer start ‘Fate of Czechoslovakia’ if CZE still owns the Sudetenland, they will get a wargoal instead.
• Added a slight color change to Czechoslovakia when it starts its monarchist or fascist branches.
• Two Polish MIOs (Naval and Tank) can be gained by Czechoslovakia depending on completing a focus or having a core related state.
• Added tooltips to a few focuses when they don't have any targets (faction members/puppets) yet to make clear what they do.
• Added some extra visual and focus effect flavor in the fascist branch.
• The Ready for Anything decision to remove the BoP now has slightly more forgiving requirements.
• Czechoslovakia no longer uses the Balkan Union cosmetic tag, using a new Pan-European one instead
• Completing the Czechoslovakian focus 'Lessons of War' now removes the BoP modifier 'Threatening Neighbors'.

Bugfixes

• Fixed a crash that can occur when a rocket silo's 'Surface-to-Air' mission is set to a naval region.
• Fixed a crash that can occur on Mac during peace conferences.
• Radola Gajda now has a Militarist trait.
• Removed two army leader cost reductions as together with unremoved ones they could accumulate to -125% army leader cost and make promoting division leaders cost 0 CP.
• Unifying with Poland now grants their unit leaders.
• Buffed the monarchist integration idea from -1 daily autonomy for Hungary to -2.
• Added a new cosmetic tag for Czechoslovakia's (integrated communist) puppets so they don't stay blue while CZE isn't.
• Fixed Galicia's default capital being in the Sudetenland.
• Fixed two Slovak navy chiefs having the same idea token.
• Fixed communist path overlapping with democratic paths if a democratic path was chosen with the gamerule to show normally auto-hidden branches enabled.
• Fixed multiple scope mistakes in the new special project.
• Czechoslovakia no longer loses cores on Slovakian and Ruthenian states with the historical event chain.
• If Czechoslovakia is puppeted by a non-aligned nation, Hlinka is now automatically replaced by Emil Hacha as leader for the non-aligned party.
• Fixed an issue where the Industrial Concern Apollo would become available unintentionally through an upgrade focus linked to the concern.
• Fixed an issue where Skoda's industry company required an extra focus after being upgraded.
• Swapped around two victory point names that were misplaced on the map. (The tiles have 0 VP points so the name is only visible in bottom left when selecting the province).
• Integrated some community feedback on localization for naming and usage of the correct characters.
• Fixed typo in Hácha's name.
• Fixed an issue which cancelled the focus 'Fortify the Crossroads' if Slovakia exists.
• Multiple cosmetic tags achieved after doing the autonomist path no longer disappear when reannexing Slovakia through the autonomy system.
• Fixed Peru having access to a Czech Industrial Concern.
• Fixed broken Visibility conditions with some Czech MIOs for Germany and Poland.

AI

• Slovakia is now more likely to fight on the Eastern Front when they are a German puppet.
• Increased the chance that Germany does its new raid on Czechoslovakia.
• Hungary is now more encouraged to take part in Operation Barbarossa.
• Germany's historical plan will cancel if the Czechs annex Austria.
• Kommisariat Böhmen-Mahren is now more likely to assist Germany. Either support in the war, defending territory, or lend-lease.
• Fixed broken allowed statements in a Polish naval and tank MIO making them show on every country when PFOT is disabled.
• Added a lot more detail to a bunch of AI event considerations.
• Germany was given an even stronger nudge to do the Berlin-Moscow Axis when faced with a strong Czech faction under certain circumstances.

Art

• New advisor portrait for navy chief František Placák.
• New advisor portrait for air chief Jaroslav Kejla.
• New idea art for Leveraged Sokol.
• New focus icons for: Compromise with the Veteran Agrarians, Powerhouse of Europe, Leverage Sokol, Forgive Trading Debts, Deepen Ties with Trademen, Bolster Domestic Construction & Trinec Ironworks.
• New flags for CEF (Central European Federation) formable.
• Removed all uses of USSR GFX CCP focus icons, replaced the one on Industrial Relocation with a new icon.
• Certain Focus icons in the Czech tree will be switched for different ones depending on ideology.

Australia First

Fascism

P.R. Stephensen

Adela Pankhurst Walsh

From the Ruins They Rise

Against War and Fascism

Communism

The Rise to Power

From Strikes to Nationalization

Communist At Last!

That's your lot for this one, guys!

Generals!

Before we head out on our 4-Day LOA we wanted to give you another OB update. Give it a try, leave us a lot of feedback here, and we'll be back soon to take it all in and make potential adjustments.

How to join this Open Beta:

This beta client is Case Green v1.18.1.0.9197 (01c8)

To install Open Beta client, follow the instruction below:

G’day mate! From the trenches of game development, we, Punchrullar and Mordred Viking, finally emerge. The time has come for the land from down under to undergo its long-awaited revision, and for the nine year old Australian content to get a fresh coat of war paint. For those who have not yet proven their bravery down south, we hope this will give you reason to; for those who have, we hope this will improve the experience even more. Without further ado, let’s dig into Australia.

Australia 1936

In 1936, Australia was like many other nations still licking its wounds from the Great Depression. The economic collapse did not only negatively impact employment and financial growth, but also population numbers. Poor fertility rates had been a concern for Australia's leaders ever since World War I, but now, with potential Japanese aggression looming, Australia’s small population became a particularly worrisome matter. Following Japan’s invasion into Manchuria in 1931, and later into China in 1937, fear of southward Japanese expansion grew. Along with the issue of its modest population, Australia had an underdeveloped military and was not at all ready for war. Even if Japan would stay within its own borders, another nation might yet force the Australians to arms; and not an aggressor, but an ally. With the Statute of Westminster still unratified, a potential British war would mean war for Australia too. After fighting for Britain in World War I and being led into the disastrous Gallipoli campaign, many Australians were hesitant about doing so once again. As civilians and veterans, ministers and military officials alike strained in different directions the war crept closer, and became, ultimately, a reality.

It's Fight, Work or Perish

Historical

Australia’s historical path is about the balance between placating British demands, and prioritizing domestic needs; just like Australian leaders walked the tightrope in the 1930s, players will do so now. By promoting either the continued rule of the governing party, or the rise of their successor, players will through elections unlock focus clusters that represent the policies of one of the two democratic parties. The United Australia Party, representing conservative liberals, values British overlordship and will in government unlock actions that strengthens British cooperation. The Australian Labor Party on the other hand, representing the social democrats, seeks self-sufficiency, and will in government unlock actions that grow Australian capabilities and lessen its dependencies. Dynamically, throughout the game, players will be able to switch between clusters and parties and shape Australia how they see fit, and although a certain party is not in government at a certain instance, their previous time in government will still impact possible player choices. As an effect of this, elections will hold importance despite them not leading to a switch of ideology. To represent the elections’ importance and current status, Australia’s focus tree will contain a ‘Democratic Elections’ window. Besides displaying the ‘Expected Winner’ of the next election, and when that election will be held, players may launch a ‘Party Campaign’ for either party, that over time will raise popularity by the cost of Political Power. Other player actions, such as certain focuses and events, will indirectly also impact democratic party popularity. The unlockable focus clusters will be represented by a golden wattle focus frame, accompanied by the UAP or ALP logo. Below the focus text is shown how many wins a party must have had for the cluster to be unlocked. Once a focus has been unlocked, it can not be locked even if the governing party switches again, so you are never time-gated to actually complete these political focuses. As final objectives, players have three options. Of course, there’s the option of going fully historical with John Curtin as standard-bearer, and face aggression first when the situation allows nothing else. But, if players don’t wish for their army to scramble into their uniforms, they will begin preparations before aggressors start moving too far south. By seeking autonomy and realizing the importance of national defense policies early, players have the chance to build up Australia’s own military industry and army, that late-game will be able to make its own outward advances. And as final option, players may go all out British patriot and utilize their overlord for every possible advantage, until the line between who is the subject and not blurs enough that it turns frivolous.

Wartime Leaders

The different democratic parties definitely had their own policies, but so did the different prime ministers. Although John Curtin, without doubt, holds a top spot on the list of Australia’s most prominent leaders, other figures contributed to leading the nation through World War II too. We’re happy to present — from left to right — all new playable democratic leaders: Joseph Lyons, Robert Menzies, Billy Hughes & Ben Chifley. And although we don’t intend to spoil the surprise of Australia’s new advisors just yet, we can’t help ourselves when it comes to these two. Please welcome the controversial Jack Lang, and the reliable coalition partner Arthur Fadden.

The Disaster & Its Aftermath

Leaving the strictly democratic content, there are a few historical matters that would impact whoever would have led Australia. And so, content-wise, they will. Starting off with one of the central systems for both democratic and non-democratic players: the ‘Cabinet Trust’ decision system. Following the Canberra Air Disaster, a tragic plane crash that killed highly respected military advisors, Australian politics got rocky. Support for the sitting government was already wavering due to failing trust in its war policies, and the loss of important war advisors did nothing to aid the situation. Historically, about a year after the Air Disaster, the sitting ministers were forced to resign by a non-confidence vote, and John Curtin’s government took their place. Players will have to face the same trial, and may choose to either let their government resign, or to have it weather the storm. By doing one or the other, players will gain certain benefits and make certain sacrifices, but the most impactful effect the system will have for the democratic player is that it counts as an election; new clusters of UAP or ALP focuses will unlock when it’s either completed, or the mission has run out. Democratic players will have a time slot where they can trigger the system themselves, before it otherwise triggers at the event’s historical date. Although the system always will force maluses on the player, the decision to trigger is about knowing when the maluses are best weathered, or when the unlocking of new clusters is necessary. In line with the feedback we received when touching upon the Canberra Air Disaster in a Dev Corner, we’ve decided to give players an opportunity to more cheaply replace advisors that they lose in the plane crash event. By the decision ‘Eminent Successors’, players gain a timed advisor discount.

Populate or Perish

Besides the common Industry and Army branches that will be elaborated on below, there will be an additional common branch: Populate or Perish. As mentioned previously, low birthrates had in 1936 long been a national concern. Not only did a small population negatively impact industrial and economic growth, but it also made an army more difficult to raise. Players can tackle this obstacle by altering immigration policies, increasing nationwide welfare, and repealing restrictions in military recruitment, resulting in an increase in both civilian and army numbers. We’re very happy to have the Northern Territory Recon Unit and the Torres Strait Battalion represented here. If it weren’t for your Dev Corner engagement, they wouldn’t be.

Democratic & Fascist Industry

Moving on to the industrial side, we’ve done something a little different this time. Democratic and Fascist branches share one industrial branch, while the Communist side has their own. For today, we’re just going to be covering the former. To find out about the latter… well, you’ll just have to wait until Australia: Part 2! All ideologies will need to contend with the Great Depression, with reductions to the imposed penalties scattered throughout the centre of the branch, and the effects being removed entirely with the “Recovery” focus. The real question in this branch is which path to economic success do you take? Lang’s Plan, which focuses on domestic progress, or the Exports for Economic Recovery, which as you can likely infer by the name, relies on increasing economic exports abroad. To break them down into their basics, Lang’s Plan will give you more factories up front, provides construction and consumer goods bonuses. Both paths give you access to additional resource development, but the Exports path really doubles down on this, even letting you open up the Pitbara mines, providing an effectively infinite supply of steel. Speaking of resources, we’ve reworked Australia’s distribution of them. They now start with slightly fewer, but using the above decisions boost their resource output significantly in time. While they’ll never rival Indonesia in pure export capacity, it can certainly lean heavily on it, and of course are a more lucrative target for expansionist rivals. They also have a solid spread of industrial concerns available, with a handful which can be upgraded further. Here are a couple of highlights: Broken Hill : The big dog of the pack, this provides resource extraction, and can be further upgraded to a whopping 20% resource extraction gain. Mount Isa Mines : Provides a reduction in lack of resources penalties, in case you want to tap into the historical Australian aircraft production and run short on rubber and aluminium. Whyalla Steelworks : Provides a base line of steel, as well as dockyard output. Bradmill Denim Factory : Increases production of infantry equipment.

Military

Army

Since becoming a dominion with its own military, the Australian Army was centred around a militia force responsible primarily for home defence. When Britain called upon Australia to serve abroad, a separate expeditionary force would be raised for overseas service. In the case of the Great War, for example, Australia raised the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF), which served in North Africa, the Middle East, and of course Gallipoli. Outside of this, by law the remaining militia forces could not be deployed overseas. Australia therefore begins with significant obstacles to overseas action. However, as you may know, during the Second World War Australia became particularly well known for its combat tenacity across the globe. So how do we represent this shift? Expeditionary Forces. We’ve introduced a new general trait: the Expeditionary Leader. This trait provides a dramatic bonus to both attack and defence when fighting in non-core territory. It also comes with hefty penalties to command capacity, with a general only able to effectively handle 6 divisions instead of the usual 24, and field marshals limited to just 1 army instead of 5. In this way, countries like Australia can provide highly potent forces abroad, but only in limited numbers. As a side note, this trait is only granted through focuses, it cannot be assigned freely. Similarly, generals who receive it begin with it, so there is no risk of a high-level general suddenly being reduced to commanding only 6 divisions. Australia can also, over time, reduce its overseas penalties and become increasingly adept at fighting on distant battlefields. Manpower is another major concern for Australia, and something that will always be in short supply. Alongside a relatively small population, Australia cannot simply increase conscription at will. Instead, it must build the political will to enable it. Focuses such as the Second Australian Imperial Force include a small symbol indicating that they unlock an increase in conscription law by one step. It does not matter in which order these are taken, they will always increase the cap by one step, though you must still pay the 150 political power cost. The final part of the Australian army tree we want to highlight is the ANZAC spirit branch. The Great War, and Gallipoli in particular, became a defining aspect of the Australian national identity. The experiences of this conflict shaped not only the world’s perception of Australia, but also how Australians saw themselves. We wanted to highlight the distinctive attitude to war often associated with Australian forces, sometimes referred to as larrikinism. This is best described by the focus itself, and is one of the very few instances of a focus granting a flat bonus to organisation rather than a percentage. When Australians commit to a fight, they stick to it!

Air Force

One thing which surprised us during our research into Australia is that by the end of the Second World War, the Royal Australian Air Force had become the 4th largest Air Force in the world. We wanted to reflect this in the design of the air branch, so Australia gains a fair number of free military factories and production bonuses down the right-hand side. When Britain was discussing the possibility of establishing the Commonwealth Air Training Plan, there was serious consideration given to basing it in Australia (it was ultimately established in Canada). In Australia, participation in this initiative became known as the Empire Air Training Scheme, and the centre of this branch explores a “what if” scenario in which Australia had been chosen as the primary host. As you can see, Australia receives a strong mix of production, effectiveness, and technology bonuses for its air force, allowing it to become a serious contender in the skies.

Navy

Australia is an island nation, so its naval power is naturally of great importance. During the Great War, the Royal Australian Navy was a significant regional asset. However, in the interwar years it was dramatically reduced in size, and the early part of the focus tree is dedicated to rebuilding it. There are also several unique elements included. For example, the Coastwatchers were a group of Australian personnel and local islanders who operated across the islands to the north, observing and reporting on enemy movements, particularly naval and air activity, effectively acting as an early warning system. Notably, Coastwatchers assisted in the rescue of future U.S. President John F. Kennedy. The “Scrap Iron Flotilla” is another notable historical element. This was a group of ageing destroyers deployed in the Mediterranean, derisively labelled by Nazi propaganda, but they proved highly effective despite their age. Finally, the capstone is HMAS Melbourne. Historically, together with HMAS Sydney, these ships made Australia the only Commonwealth nation besides Britain to operate fleet carriers.

Until Next Time!

Cheers for joining us on this one, guys! We’ll be back soon with another cracking Dev Diary. Next up, the alt-history paths for Fascism and Communism. Until then, take it easy, ya little rippers!

• Australia
• Dutch East-Indies
• Siam

• Army Headquarters
• Ship captains

• Division Designer Rework
• Regimental Support

Generals!

Today we have an update to the open beta, including a sneak preview of the anniversary patch we have planned. This update includes quality of life improvements, bugfixes, gameplay and balance changes, naval AI improvements, and a sizable amount of performance work. It also includes the balance changes from the previous balance open beta.

Early next week we will be back with more news on Thunder at our Gates.

NAVAL AI

We’ve been looking at some of the key pain points behind the naval AI’s underperformance. One of the reasons was the way that the AI decided to use its strikeforces, and another was how it decided where to prioritize its navy. 

Previous patches significantly improved naval AI compared to the NCNS launch version, but it still struggled to react quickly to changing situations. Here are some of the problems we’ve seen and how they have been addressed.

AI wasn’t making good use of new naval technology

The AI will still not build the absolute “best” meta ships, and this is intentional. We aim for historically plausible ship designs rather than fully optimized ones. After all, if you had been directing Japanese naval production in 1936, you probably could have defeated the US Navy by stacking light guns on fast cruisers. (Instead, you can do that in-game.) 

That said, we’ve had a look at some of the problem areas and improved them. This is an area where we will continue to improve things in further updates to the game. The fix is around a combination of focusing on naval research and updating the ai_equipment targets.

AI wasn’t reinforcing fleets with newer ships

We’ve instructed the AI to occasionally scour the reserve fleet for upgrades to its current taskforce, this doesn’t have a huge impact, but it does allow the AI to fight with newer ships as they come available. Once war breaks out, this stops as it could cause lone ships to wander the ocean, ripe for picking by enemy submarines.

AI repairs were too passive

The AI fully relied on the automated repairing system and this was clearly not efficient. The AI will now manage repairs more similar to before, where it can decide to repair its fleet at a local dockyard, or retreat to a bigger dockyard further away. Together with this we also made it so that if it has capitals in the reserve fleet available, it can decide to swap them out, so the damaged capitals can safely repair, and the taskforce gets reinforced immediately.

AI response times were too slow

This was due to a 2 layered system where strikeforces would be the 2nd layer. This 2nd layer is now removed and each objective determines if it requires a strikeforce, that combined with improved priority calculations and better taskforce stealing logic makes it far quicker to react to threats. 

MISCELLANEOUS

The AI would sometimes choose very strange homebases, and this essentially was because the logic was triplicated. This is now consolidated and is better at picking a homebase that also allows better region coverage. 

Occasionally the AI would accept a very large lend lease, which would eat all its convoys, and it would trigger “build only convoys” mode. This caused the AI to not build any other ship, and it was sort of a downward spiral. Now there is a limit to this panic mode, and the AI will also now not accept such large lendleases anymore. 

GAMEPLAY & BALANCE

This open beta has the full balance update that we had trialed earlier in the open balance beta, additionally it contains some changes to naval gameplay.

Strike forces will not join combats ‘on route’ to their intended strike target

It was a common way to stunlock a strikeforce, as they would get pulled into combat by submarines doing convoy raiding on convoys. This then caused the strikeforce to be late to reinforce or even worse, entirely miss the combat.

We also took the opportunity to nerf HMG’s in planes a bit, they are still the strongest air attack for IC, but not overly anymore. The 4x LMG/HMG slots now also come with a small reliability penalty. 

While there’s still more work to do on naval AI, these changes should significantly improve naval responsiveness and fleet behavior overall. Naval engagements should happen more frequently, and the AI will be much more committed to defending its waters.

Please share your experiences of playing with the open beta in the thread, or make new threads with write ups. I am not promising updates to this open beta, but we do read almost all feedback and take that with us.

Thank you, and have a great weekend!

/Zwirbaum, Gorion and Batya

If you want to join the Open beta, but are unsure how to, check out the steps that are covered in the very first Open Beta announcement HERE

This beta client is Case Green v1.18.1.0.c3bd (9b89)

Open Beta Update IV Notes 

Balance

• Supply Consumption of Carriers reduced from 1.2 to 0.8

• Supply Consumption of Battleships reduced from 0.8 to 0.56

• Supply Consumption of Battlecruisers reduced from 0.48 to 0.32

• Supply Consumption of Heavy Cruisers reduced from 0.4 to 0.24

• Increased Naval XP Gain for the following mission types: Patrol, Convoy Raiding, Convoy Escort, Mines Planting, Mines Sweeping - to 0.2, Strike Force to 0.05

• Reduced SUBMARINE_HIDE_TIMEOUT from 20 to 8 and SUBMARINE_REVEALED_TIMEOUT from 16 to 12. This means that revealed submarine in battle will hide after 8 hours, and if the submarine taskforce was attacked they will stay revealed for 12 hours at the start of the combat.

• Reduced SUBMARINE_REVEAL_DETECTION_MULTIPLIER from 0.1 to 0.075. This reduces passive reveal chance for Submarines in combat

• Increased SUBMARINE_RVEAL_TORPEDO_FIRING_DETECTION_MULTIPLIER from 1 to 1.1. This means that Submarines when firing torpedoes have a slightly higher chance to be detected, unless they have modifiers reducing Torpedo Reveal Chance.

• Removed Resource Cost from most of the naval modules (guns, deck armor, hangar decks), Armor Schemes as well as Anechoic Tiles will still have resource costs associated with them.

• Penalty from Positioning to the Submarine Visibility reduced from +200% to +100%

• Reduced Shallow Waters effect on Submarine Visibility from +100% to +33%.

• Naval Sub-doctrine Coastal Mine-laying 'Clearing Procedures' reward no longer applies bonus to mine sweeping to the Submarines, instead the effect on Destroyers have been increased from +20% to +25%

• Long Range Submarines Sub-doctrine 'Ocean Patrols' reward now also apply +10% bonus to the surface detection to the Nuclear Submarines.

• Long Range Submarines Sub-doctrine 'Improved Dive Protocols' reward now also reduces Surface Visibility of the Nuclear Submarines by 5%.

• Long Range Submarines Sub-doctrine 'Support the Surface' reward now also apply +10% bonus to the Torpedo Attack and Naval Speed to the Nuclear Submarines.

• Capital ships will retreat slower, staying in the fight a bit longer

• Submarines are slightly harder to detect in combat

• Navy XP & Mastery gain buffed

• Carrier airplanes are ~20% more effective (vs air & ships)

• Heavy MG fighter armament costs more IC (2x +20%, 4x +30%) and 4x mounts (light & heavy) take -2.5% reliability

• Ships are able to retreat faster now, especially hidden submarines

• All Carriers Surface Detection reduced from 26 to 20

• All Carriers Sub Detection reduced from 5 to 1

• All Carriers Fuel Consumption reduced from 87 to 70

• Basic Carrier Naval Range increased from 3000 to 3500

• Basic Carrier Hull cost increased from 3 Steel + 1 Chromium to 4 Steel + 1 Chromium

• Basic Carrier Manpower reduced from 4500 to 4000

• Improved Carrier Naval Range increased from 4000 to 4250

• Improved Carrier Naval Dominance Factor increased from 300 to 325

• Improved Carrier Hull cost increased from 4 Steel + 1 Chromium to 5 Steel + 2 Chromium

• Improved Carrier Manpower reduced from 5000 to 4500

• Advanced Carrier Hull cost increased from 4 Steel + 2 Chromium to 6 Steel + 2 Chromium

• Advanced Carrier Manpower reduced from 5500 to 5000

• Modern Carrier Fuel Consumption reduced from 90 to 72

• Modern Carrier Hull cost increased from 5 Steel + 3 Chromium to 6 Steel + 3 Chromium

• Modern Carrier Manpower reduced from 6500 to 6000

• Ice Carrier Fuel Consumption reduced from 95 to 90

• Ice Carrier Hull cost increased from 5 Steel + 2 Chromium to 8 Steel + 2 Chromium

• Converted Battleship and Converted Cruiser Naval Range reduced from 4000 to 3000

• Converted Battleship Manpower reduced from 5000 to 3500

• Converted Cruiser now requires 1 additional Chromium (3 Steel → 3 Steel + 1 Chromium) and gains an override Fuel Consumption of 60

• Escort Carrier Fuel Consumption reduced from 87 to 50

• Escort Carrier Build Cost reduced from 1500 to 1250 IC

• Escort Carrier Hull cost changed from 2 Steel + 1 Chromium to 3 Steel

• Escort Carrier Manpower reduced from 2500 to 1500

• Early Cruiser Hull cost increased from 1 Steel to 2 Steel

• Improved Cruiser Naval Range reduced from 4000 to 3500

• Improved Cruiser Manpower reduced from 1200 to 1000

• Improved Cruiser Hull cost increased from 2 Steel to 3 Steel

• Advanced Cruiser Naval Range reduced from 4500 to 4000

• Advanced Cruiser Naval Dominance Factor increased from 130 to 150

• Advanced Cruiser Hull cost increased by 1 Chromium (3 Steel → 3 Steel + 1 Chromium)

• Advanced Cruiser Manpower reduced from 1400 to 1200

• Torpedo Cruiser Naval Range reduced from 4000 to 3500

• Torpedo Cruiser Manpower reduced from 960 to 900

• Panzerschiff Build Cost reduced from 3500 to 2800 IC

• Panzerschiff Surface Visibility reduced from 22 to 18

• Panzerschiff Hull cost increased by 1 Chromium (3 Steel → 3 Steel + 1 Chromium)

• Panzerschiff Manpower reduced from 1800 to 1200

• Coastal Defense Ship Build Cost reduced from 3500 to 1500 IC

• Coastal Defense Ship Hull cost reduced from 3 Steel to 2 Steel

• Coastal Defense Ship Surface Visibility reduced from 20 to 16

• Coastal Defense Ship Naval Range increased from 1500 to 2000

• Coastal Defense Ship Max Strength set to 110 (override added)

• Coastal Defense Ship Manpower reduced from 1800 to 1000

• Pre-Dreadnought, Early, Basic, Improved, and Advanced Heavy Ship Fuel Consumption reduced from 67 to 60

• Modern Battleship Fuel Consumption reduced from 80 to 72

• Super Heavy Battleship Fuel Consumption reduced from 75 to 68

• Pre-Dreadnought Naval Range increased from 2250 to 2500

• Pre-Dreadnought Hull cost changed from 1 Steel + 1 Chromium to 2 Steel

• Early Heavy Ship Naval Dominance Factor increased from 300 to 325

• Early Heavy Ship Hull cost increased from 1 Steel + 1 Chromium to 3 Steel + 1 Chromium

• Basic Heavy Ship Hull cost increased from 1 Steel + 1 Chromium to 3 Steel + 1 Chromium

• Basic Heavy Ship Manpower reduced from 5200 to 4300

• Improved Heavy Ship Hull cost increased from 1 Steel + 1 Chromium to 4 Steel + 1 Chromium

• Improved Heavy Ship Manpower reduced from 6000 to 4650

• Advanced Heavy Ship Hull cost increased from 1 Steel + 1 Chromium to 4 Steel + 1 Chromium

• Advanced Heavy Ship Manpower reduced from 6000 to 5000

• Modern Battleship Build Cost reduced from 4000 to 3600 IC

• Modern Battleship Hull cost reduced from 6 Steel + 3 Chromium + 2 Tungsten to 5 Steel + 2 Chromium + 2 Tungsten

• Modern Battleship Manpower reduced from 6000 to 5000

• Super Heavy Battleship Hull cost increased from 1 Steel + 1 Chromium to 5 Steel + 2 Chromium

• Super Heavy Battleship Manpower reduced from 9000 to 7000

• Early Destroyer Naval Range increased from 1500 to 2000

• Basic Destroyer Naval Range increased from 1800 to 2500

• Improved Destroyer Naval Range increased from 2000 to 3000

• Advanced Destroyer Naval Range increased from 2500 to 3500

• Basic Destroyer Manpower reduced from 325 to 300

• Improved Destroyer Manpower reduced from 400 to 350

• Advanced Destroyer Manpower reduced from 500 to 400

• Advanced Destroyer Naval Dominance Factor increased from 40 to 42

• Advanced Destroyer Hull cost reduced from 4 Steel + 1 Chromium to 3 Steel + 1 Chromium

• Early Submarine Sub Visibility reduced from 25 to 22

• Basic Submarine Sub Visibility reduced from 22 to 20

• Improved Submarine Sub Visibility reduced from 20 to 18

• Early Submarine Max Strength increased from 10 to 15

• Basic Submarine Max Strength increased from 20 to 22.5

• Advanced Submarine Max Strength increased from 35 to 37.5

• Submarine Carrier Hull cost increased from 3 Steel to 4 Steel

• Repair Ship and Support Ship Naval Range increased from 3000 to 3500

• Repair Ship and Support Ship Max Strength increased from 25 to 30

• Improved Repair Ship and Improved Support Ship Naval Range increased from 4000 to 5000

• Support Ship Sub Attack reduced from 1 to 0

• Support Ship Sub Detection reduced from 1 to 0

• ship_deck_space Carrier Surface Detection increased from 5 to 8 and Sub Detection from 2 to 4

• big_ship_deck_space Carrier Surface Detection increased from 6 to 10 and Sub Detection from 3 to 4

• ship_escort_deck_space Carrier Surface Detection increased from 2 to 5 and Sub Detection from 5 to 7

• ship_armor_bb_3 cost reduced from 2 Steel + 1 Chromium to 1 Steel + 1 Chromium

• ship_armor_cruiser_3 cost reduced from 1 Steel + 1 Chromium to 1 Steel

• ship_armor_cruiser_4 cost reduced from 2 Steel + 1 Chromium to 1 Steel + 1 Chromium

• light_ship_engine_3 Fuel Consumption reduced from 10 to 9

• sub_ship_engine_2 Sub Visibility multiplier set to -3.5% (was disabled)

• sub_ship_engine_3 Fuel Consumption reduced from 10 to 9; Sub Visibility multiplier increased from -5% to -7%

• sub_ship_engine_4 Build Cost multiplier reduced from +20% to +17.5%

• sub_ship_nuclear_engine_1 Naval Speed multiplier increased from +10% to +20%; Sub Visibility multiplier set to -15%

• cruiser_ship_engine_1 Naval Speed multiplier increased from +20% to +25%; Build Cost multiplier reduced from +15% to +12.5%

• cruiser_ship_engine_2/3/4 Build Cost multiplier reduced by 2.5pp each (0.175→0.15, 0.20→0.175, 0.225→0.20)

• heavy_ship_engine_1 Fuel Consumption increased from 20 to 22; Naval Speed multiplier increased from +20% to +25%; Build Cost multiplier reduced from +17.5% to +12.5%

• heavy_ship_engine_2 Fuel Consumption increased from 25 to 28; Build Cost multiplier reduced from +20% to +15%

• heavy_ship_engine_3 Fuel Consumption increased from 30 to 34; Build Cost multiplier reduced from +22.5% to +17.5%

• heavy_ship_engine_4 Fuel Consumption increased from 35 to 40; Build Cost multiplier reduced from +25% to +20%

• carrier_ship_engine_1/2/3/4 Naval Speed multiplier reduced by 5% across all four tiers

• carrier_ship_engine_1 Fuel Consumption increased from 12 to 16

• carrier_ship_engine_2 Fuel Consumption increased from 16 to 24

• carrier_ship_engine_3 Fuel Consumption increased from 20 to 32

• carrier_ship_engine_4 Fuel Consumption increased from 24 to 40

• Reduced Minimum Naval Hit Chance from 2% to 0.5%

Gameplay

• Quality of Life: Buying equipment on international market now selects the maximum by default, and auto sets the minimum acceptable civ count

• Strikeforces are now able to target combats that are already in combat, while they exit their own combat

• Strikeforces with a valid strike target will now ignore active combats on the way (no more being distracted by pesky subs!)

Stability & Performance

Long sessions used to slow down significantly as the game state grew. Several leaks and accumulating costs have been addressed:

• Fixed a memory leak that caused late-game performance problems for the AI

• Fixed a sound effect leak that caused longer sessions to slow down over time

• Equipment data is now compacted once per year, keeping its memory footprint stable

• Air wing accident calculations now use a pre-roll, skipping thousands of late-game checks

Hitches and frame-drops during play have been reduced:

• Added a sound pool that keeps recently played sound effects in memory for around 20 seconds, reducing disk access during gameplay

• 2D icon rendering is approximately 15% faster thanks to a new DX11 ringbuffer implementation

• Optimized map icon update slightly

The simulation performance has been improved, especially in mid-to-late game:

• Air fuel requirement calculations are 90% faster

• Equipment variant processing is significantly faster

• Optimized AI theatre distribution with a pre-pass that drastically reduces the number of options evaluated

• Optimized Naval HQ calculations

• Optimized supply system calculations

• Optimized trade calculations by computing them per resource

• Airbase status updates now run in parallel

• Improved performance when a large army is selected

• Cached root and fallback orders to speed up unit order handling

UI

• Tooltip updated to indicate that control ratio required for having dominance in a sea zone is 60% instead of 66%

• Added Hit Profile 'Stat' to be displayed on Ship Designer as well on the Ship Cards. Minelaying/Minesweeping will be displayed only if their respective value is above 0.

• Added ability to filter divisions based on their type in the division overview window

• Repair-now button will stop the current mission so the fleet can focus on repair

AI

• AI can choose to disengage from disadvantageous naval battles

• Convoy production deficit boost is now capped to avoid starving warship production

• Large lendleases will no longer be accepted if they would take too many convoys to ship

• AI will be more aggressive with advantageous naval invasions

• Navy AI now considered scripted fleet separate for the case of building its required & optional task forces

• When naval objectives overlap, they will consider that and reduce request for patrols due to that

• Coastal defense will prioritize assignment based on number of VP's being defended

• Germany will build more submarines and fewer surface ships, matching historical doctrine

• Small tweaks to ENG/USA task force compositions

• Better at picking a homebase that can reach all regions

• Strike forces will skip regions already covered by coast defense and clean up faster

• Multiple invasions into the same sea region will share a single defense objective

• Naval dominance strategies with negative values will properly suppress objectives

• Coast defense will only ramp up when enemy presence is detected

• Naval AI fixes plus USA-specific build/strategy tuning

• research weight tweaks

• Introduced CV Fighter / Naval bomber equipment progress for england

• Streamlined destroyer and escort designs for JAP, USA, ENG

• AI will swap out higher quality ships from reserve into active task forces during peace time

• USA will research radar earlier

Modding

• Introduced naval_invasion_support_priority to direct the naval AI more

Bugfixes

• Fixed a rare crash that happened due to order invalidating

• stopped taskforces being in two combats at the same time

• Efficiency is correctly applied to screening bonus