Generals!

For the next several days you’ll be able to test some things and give us all your feedback in this thread.

You can play around, test and give feedback on anything you like, but our focus will be on these points:

• Equipment Designer - We’ve added functionality to save your designs across game sessions. Save a tank/ship/plane design in one playthrough, and load it up in another.
  
• Also added is the ability to share designs with friends using the import/export feature.

• Saadabad Pact Branch - Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey are getting a shared branch that allows them to cooperate more with one another.
  
• Iran is getting some extra characters and focuses, including scientists and generals.
  
• Afghanistan is also getting some extra characters in the form of a communist country leader and some new advisors.
  
• Iraq’s Kurdistan branch is being expanded upon

We’re working hard on polishing Graveyard of Empires content on multiple fronts with the addition of new focuses, characters and events. We’ll continue to work on fixes, content and balancing as the beta progresses, and we may want to update the beta content during this time to make sure you have the opportunity to give us specific feedback relevant to the state of the game at that time.

The equipment designer persistence feature is something we might want to extend in the future towards other parts of the game as well, so please give us feedback on that! (The import/export feature is available in the equipment designer that comes with MTG, NSB or BBA)

- Gorion and AveeBee

The Open Beta continues with fresh Tweaks.

April 16th 2025

• There are now more ways of increasing democracy support, making it easier to avoid the civil war in the democratic path

• Reduced several focuses in the India focus tree to 35 days
  
• Heavy Industry now gives 6 tungsten in capital state
  
• Seek Financial Aid from the USSR now gives 5 oil, 4 Tungsten and 6 steel in capital state
  
• Increased Resistance gained from Violence against the British to 60% (from 50%)
  
• Princely Subjugation now increases resistance target by 60% (from 20%) and reduces damage to garrison by -10% (from +50%)
  
• The "Anti-Imperialist Zeal" national spirit granted by the focus "The Sun Sets" now also gives attack and defense bonuses France and the USA, matching the bonuses targeting the UK

• Added +75 Political Power and +5% Communist Party Popularity to the Iranian focus "Soviet Alignment"

• Added a focus under the Fight For Iran path that allows Iran to reinstate the Qajar dynasty if they are a British puppet
  
• Added two new generals

• Added new communist branches for India
  
• Added North-Central and Western-Central India as areas targeted during the Mughal Uprising, giving the Mughal side more options for conquests during the civil war
  
• The focus "Revolt of the Princes" now gives a spirit that makes it easier to annex the princely states
  
• Improved descriptions of several Indian focuses
  
• The focus "Royal Navy Mutiny" now removes the Marginalized Muslim Community spirit

• Added an event that fires off if the Soviet Union are in control of Iranian Kurdish territory, which will release Kurdistan as the Republic of Mahabad
  
• Added the option to add 'notes' to your equipment design

• Improve performance of French and Russian localization

• The Constitutional Monarchy path no longer uses the country name "Iraqi Republic"
  
• The focus "Propose Syrian Unification" can now be taken even if Syria is a puppet of Vichy France rather than Free France
  
• Assures that none of the four members of the Golden Square join the Kurdish side when the focus "Launch a Revolt" is completed
  
• Renamed the army national spirit from "Army" to "National Army"

• Iranian focus "Soviet Alignment" now bypasses if Iran is already in a faction
  
• The focus "One for All, All for One" no longer uses an unfitting icon
  
• Adds the "Passive Defense" agency upgrade as a fallback reward for the focus "Fund State Intelligence"
  
• Adjusted focus branch offsets for the Iranian focus tree and how the Saadabad Pact branch accounts for collapsing focus branches
  
• The decision "Destabilize Northern Iraq" now correctly removes 10% stability rather than adds it
  
• Fixed generic portraits not showing in the pool of Iranian Officers
  
• Demand Afghan Territory and Demand Iraqi Territory no longer have broken tooltip names
  
• Changed the bypass requirements for Soviet Alignment to prevent blocking if player joins faction manually

• Subhas Chandra Bose no longer loses his country leader traits if India turns communist
  
• Fixed an issue where fascist UK decolonizing would attempt to turn India into a Dominion rather than a Satellite
  
• You now need to complete one of the two first railway focuses to complete "The People's Railway"
  
• Fixed an issue where Bhoodan movement would give random states shared building slots
  
• Fixed an issue where you could take the focus "Hegemony of the Subcontinent" before Pakistan spawned
  
• The "Mughal Influence" state modifier is now removed if the Mughals lose access to the state
  
• The decision to integrate the Princely States can now be taken even if the Princely states are puppets of the Raj
  
• Adds a National Spirit that slowly erodes the autonomy of the Princely states if Raj takes the focus "Mughal Court"
  
• Makes sure the icon for "Gun And Shell Factory" shows up rather than the generic icon

• Fixed an issue in the 1939 start where Afghanistan started with some focuses completed despite missing their parent focuses
  
• Fixed an issue where the focus "Defender of Central Asia" would sometimes change the capital hub
  
• The focus "Approach Foreign Intelligence Services" no longer attempts to create two separate agencies when playing as communist
  
• The decision "Exploit Turko-Persian Heritage" no longer gets soft-locked if a country gets annexed during a pending invitation
  
• The decision "Alliance with the Turkic People" will no longer be locked saying "Establishing a Resistance cell in progress" after a decision is aborted
  
• The focus "Purchase Aircraft" no longer gives unusable British planes
  
• Adds fitting focus filters
  
• The focus "The Red Threat" no longer forcibly puts Afghanistan into the Axis

• Saadabad focus "Expand Road and Rail Connections" can no longer be taken when at war with a former member of the pact
  
• The USSR can no longer take the focus "Preemptive Invasion of Iran" if they are in a faction with Iran
  
• Syria and Lebanon now becomes free if they refuse the event sent by France from "French Union"
  
• Added AI strategy to have the UK always let a loyal Raj back into the allies if it completed "Tryst with Destiny"
  
• British focus "Ceylon Forward Operating Base" now bypasses correctly
  
• Turkish focus "Reinstate the Darülfünûn-u Şahâne" no longer bypasses when you are not in a faction, locking you out of a research slot permanently
  
• The state modifier "Resistant to Occupation" given to states conquered from India is no longer permanently reapplied in states if India gets capitulated, modifier also doesn't reapply if it was previously removed or the state was given willingly
  
• MIO's now reset to no MIO if you import an equipment design for which you don't have the MIO (shareable equipment designs)

- Tank, Plane and Ship designs can now be saved between playthroughs
- Tank, Plane and Ship designs can now be exported to and imported from clipboard

- Soviet AI will now make use of Heavy Tanks
- Added an extra event as part of the Fight For Iran branch where allies of the faction leader will peace out if the leader chooses to accept the peace negotiations
- Added more places in the alt-history branches for Germany to lower the Consumer Goods Factory Factors if they have either the MEFO Bills or Economy of Conquest
- Germany: Reduced chance of AI Lithuania and Poland giving up territory to Germany in the Brest-Litovsk Path
- Added historical Generals Haj Ali Razmara and Assadollah Hosseinpoor to Iran
- Added political advisors Abdolsamad Kambakhsh, Rokneddin Mokhtari and Karim Buzarjomehri to Iran
- Iran: Focus "Clash of The Titans" is now visible from game start, and is available even if Greece hasn't formed Byzantium yet, but doing so while Greek Byzantine exists will offer a healthy attack bonus
- Added two new focuses to give democratic Iran the chance to get scientists, facilities and breakthrough progress
- Lowered the chances of the more obscure paths being taken by GoE countries if the game rules are set to non-historical or the country is set to random
- Adjusted 24 Iranian focuses from 70 to 35 days, with minor tweaks to some of them as a result of the time being lowered
- India: "Rally the Indian Left" now takes 35 days (down from 70)
- India: "Reds in the Shadow" now takes 35 days (down from 70)
- India: "League Against Gandhism" now adds 30 Political Power
- India: Removed War Support modifier, reduced Party Popularity and added 60 Political Power to the focus "All Indian Kishan Sabha"

- Added a joint focus tree between Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan to represent the Saadabad Pact, updated some content for Turkey to account for the new joint focus tree
- Afghanistan: Added a country leader to the communist path, as well as a Field Marshal and German General to the fascist path
- Added more resource variety in GoE nations, such as Chromium, Steel, etc.
- India: the Princely Breakaway State can now get more territorial concessions during the Mughal uprising, subdivided into Southern, Eastern, Northern, Central and Western India. Controlling all states in an area will let the Mughal side keep them at the end, instantly coring them.
- Added bypass to Revolt of the Princes if you already control all of India. Bypass gives the manpower and War Support you would normally get
- Added a way to core the princely states with the Akhand Bharat decisions
- Added the United Maghreb as a new formable nation
- Added custom agency icons for British Raj, Pakistan and Bangladesh
- The Turkmen and Tajik states in Afghanistan are now cores of their respective tags
- Afghanistan: Added a new focus for the Afghan Democratic branch to gain more democratic support as well as unlock two new advisors
- Iraq: Added Ma'ruf al-Rusafi as an advisor
- Iraq: Added four focuses to the Kurdistan path for Iraq, allowing Kurdistan to go communist and join the comintern
- India: Reworked how to flip communist as India. Now unlocks infiltration decisions to undermine the independence movement and the British, which reduces threshold to flip communist and boost communist support, instead of using the Autonomy system
- India: Renamed Train Robberies to the Peoples Railways, it no longer gives Train Robberies spirit, instead adds an optional decision and alters the railway focuses
- India: Subhas Chandra Bose can now become an advisor for Communist India if he is swayed
- Added formable "Mesopotamia" for Kurdistan, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, to allow for the restoration of the Cradle of Civilization
- Afghanistan: Reworked the tooltip for the focus "Retire the Uncles" to be more readable

- Modding: Fixed CTDs when attempting to scope to non-existing states
- Modding: Fixed dynamic scopes parsing for the fighting_army_strength_ratio trigger

- Fixed spelling issue for Uruguay focus "Pay Off All External Debts"
- Fixed rare CTD when removing advisors
- United Kingdom: Expand the Secret Intelligence Service typo fix (it's no longer the Greta War)
- India: Removed advisor Jim Corbett from the Rally the Indian Left focus, as he is actually unlocked by Lobby Parliament
- If Germany chooses to setup Bourbon France after capitulating France, Free France will now get its Focus Tree with the DLC La Résistance
- Iran: Updated the available triggers for the "Promoting Resistance in <state>" to be more clear
- Iran: Added tooltip explaining what Generals are unlocked from the focus "United Progressive Parties"
- Iran: Added more restrictions to when certain Iranian characters can be hired based on for example ideology or focuses completed
- Iran: Added small portraits for Jafar Kavian and Fazlollah Zahedi
- Iran: Resource rights are now reclaimed upon entering war with a country that bought resource rights to Khuzestan Oil
- Fixed bug where more equipment got recovered than lost
- Fixed a bug where spy network modifier was applied to countries, even if they are not at war with the country
- India: Fixed an erroneous tooltip that stated you had 1 year to finish the Mughal uprising, when in fact it was 255 days
- Iran: The focus "Soviet Alignment" now has an effect even if the Soviet Union isn't in a faction
- Iran: Removes state modifier "Promoting Resistance Here" applied by Iran in states that can be ceded to them if Iran gains control of the state
- Iran: Fixes a tooltip to avoid "Iraq declares war on Iraq"
- Added missing states to the formable nations the Macedonian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, Turan, the Aksumite Empire, Al-Andalus, the Persian Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire
- Ethiopian focuses targeting Yemen now also correctly target the Province of Aden
- Iran: Fixes mutually exclusive branches under "Dig and Defend" and "Force Them Back" not collapsing
- Iran: Fixes focus branches collapsing no whether the rule was set to hide or not hide obsolete branches
- Fixed an OOS related to using random in Rajs history file
- Planes created with Iraqi focus "Purchase Alternative Aircraft" no longer give you non-functional fighters
- Fixed a minor typo in the description of indian focus "The Mughal Uprising"
- Fixed missing focus filters in Iraq
- Indian focus "Lobby for Increased Polling Responsibilities" no longer gives a non functioning bonus to militia attack
- Afghanistan: Bonuses from Mohammad Hashim Khan, Abdul Hai Habibi, and other historical characters will now be displayed correctly with the character name in tooltips.
- India no longer stays as a colony after Britain decolonizes
- Afghanistan: Bonuses from the generic advisor Sher Ali Sherkhanzai (fascist writer) and other non-historical characters will now be displayed correctly with the character name in tooltips.
- Fixed Dams built via the Afghanistan Focus Tree not showing up on the map with their 3D models.
- Fixed Purchase Dreadnoughts decision tooltip always stating payment to the United States, even when ships were bought from a different country.
- India: When GoE is disabled, the focus Institute of Fundamental Research will grant one scientist level to nuclear scientist Homi J. Bhabha
- India / Madras: Fixed Chithira Thirunal Balarma Varma not showing up with his unique portraits as Country Leader, Political Advisor and Army Leader.
- India: Fixed Princely Breakaway State using the wrong small flag on unit counters
- Afghanistan: Reform Quami - Support companies will now be added to template if the technology is researched after the focus is taken.
- India: Princely Breakaway State will now show the appropriate country flag
- India: Added advisors to the East India Company focus "Lobby Parliament" effect and tooltip
- Afghanistan: Afghanistan and the Soviet Union now join a tech-sharing group when 'Soviet Research Cooperation' focus is taken.
- Afghanistan: Chak Dam focus for Afghanistan now builds in a different state
- Adds Lebanon and Kuwait to the Mesopotamia formable
- Afghanistan: No longer tries to join the Axis from focus "Into the Plains of the British Raj" if they are already part of the Axis
- Afghanistan: The focus "Linchpin of Global Defense" now correctly modifies the Quami national spirit.
- Iran: Clarifies that only Main Instigator gets resource rights if Iran does "Push for Negotiations", but adds extra effects for other attackers and makes sure all attackers can peace out, added new flavor event for all parties
- Iran: Fixes branches not hiding when they should in the Iranian focus tree
- Iran: Making sure the non-aligned party actually take over if the Islamic Revolution happens
- Iran: Added a capitulation progress requirement to 'Swear Fealty to the Invaders' to ensure the AI doesn't surrender when it is winning the war.

Generals!

Command has issued another survey from Research & Development in order to understand our battlefield a bit better, looking into what similar games you interact with, your different playstyles and preferences, and overall your experiences across the community.

Whether you're a seasoned veteran, a casual roleplayer or someone just getting started, your feedback will help us design features and experiences that better reflect the way you play.

To participate in the Survey, you can click HERE or on the QR code below, which can also be scanned.

Update - 07/04/24 - Thank you for getting involved with our survey, we have closed submissions in order to begin processing the results!

Generals!

We are back with our latest War Effort patch of the year, which contains a bunch of bugfixes, some balance changes, and tweaks to the game. But before we get to that, we have some words from @Wrongwraith

Hi everyone,
I’m Thomas, the Design Lead on Hearts of Iron.

It’s time for another War Effort, and it’s a big one.

Our primary focus for this War effort has been bug fixing — we’ve addressed a wide range of issues across the game to improve stability and polish. However, we’re not just fixing bugs; we’re also delivering balance tweaks, gameplay adjustments, and other enhancements.

This time around, from a balancing point of view, we’ve mainly looked at Armored Cars and Tanks. The reasoning behind this is that we felt that, as many of you have pointed out, it was usually better to make a cheap light tank than to use Armored Cars. While this is not entirely wrong from a historical point of view, it was a bit too much.

So we adjusted a few things with armored cars to make them slightly more viable. They now benefit from improved techs for Artillery, anti-tank, and anti-air. We also upped their starting Organization and Strength.

Then, we also had what we felt were too cheap tanks (especially light tanks) when using the tank designer. So, in accordance with that, we have modified the costs a bit for tank chassis and some of the modules.

Hopefully, this combined will make armored cars a bit more viable and make Tank Designer-designed tanks somewhat more similar to other tanks.

We’ve also made some other tweaks, like adding sub detection to a few ship hulls (and other things :) ), as you can see when you look through the list.

Anyways, I hope you like this War Effort and all the changes it contains.

/Thomas

Operation Shoulder, Patch 1.16.3 Checksum a433

• Armored Car Battalion Organization increased from 10 to 20
  
• Armored Car Battalion Strength increased from 2 to 5
  
• Artillery Equipment Technologies now provide bonus to the Armored Car Battalions; +10% Soft Attack from Artillery, +10% Hard Attack from Anti-Air Artillery, and +10% Piercing from Anti-Tank Artillery
  
• Inter-War Armored Car Production Cost Reduced from 4 IC to 3.5 IC
  
• Basic Armored Car Production Cost Reduced from 6 IC to 5.5. IC
  
• Improved Armored Car Production Cost Reduced from 8 IC to 7.5 IC
  
• Anti-Tank Armored Car Production Cost Reduced from 9 IC to 8.5 IC

• Inter-War Light Tank Chassis Production Cost Increased from 1 IC to 2 IC
  
• Basic Light Tank Chassis Production Cost Increased from 1.25 IC to 2.35 IC
  
• Improved Light Tank Chassis Production Cost Increased from 1.6 IC to 2.7 IC
  
• Advanced Light Tank Chassis Production Cost Increased from 2 IC to 3 IC
  
• Light One-Man Turret Production Cost Increased from 0.5 IC to 1 IC
  
• Light Two-Man Turret Production Cost Increased from 0.75 IC to 1.25 IC
  
• Light Three-Man Turret Production Cost Increased from 1 IC to 1.5 IC
  
• Light Superfixed Structure Production Cost Increased from 0.75 IC to 1 IC
  
• Inter-War Medium Tank Chassis Production Cost Increased from 2.5 IC to 3.5 IC
  
• Basic Medium Tank Chassis Production Cost Increased from 2.5 IC to 3.75 IC
  
• Improved Medium Tank Chassis Production Cost Increased from 3.2 IC to 4 IC
  
• Advanced Medium Tank Chassis Production Cost Increased from 4 IC to 4.25 IC
  
• Medium One-Man Turret Production Cost Increased from 1 IC to 1.25 IC
  
• Medium One-Man Turret Soft Attack and Hard Attack Penalty reduced from -10% to -5%
  
• Medium Two-Man Turret Production Cost Increased from 1.5 IC to 1.75 IC
  
• Medium Three-Man Turret Production Cost Increased from 2 IC to 2.25 IC
  
• Inter-War Heavy Tank Chassis Production Cost decreased from 10 IC to 9 IC
  
• Improved Heavy Tank Chassis Production Cost increased from 10 IC to 11 IC
  
• Self-Propelled Anti-Air Artillery now benefits from Anti-Air Upgrade Technology, providing +15%/+10%/+5% Air Attack per perspective technology

• Light Hull 1 - Submarine Detection increased from 1 to 2.5
  
• Light Hull 2 - Submarine Detection increased from 1 to 3
  
• Light Hull 3 - Submarine Detection increased from 1 to 3.5
  
• Light Hull 4 - Submarine Detection increased from 1 to 4
  
• Cruiser Hull 2 - Submarine Detection increased from 1 to 1.5
  
• Cruiser Hull 3 - Submarine Detection increased from 1 to 2
  
• Cruiser Hull 4 - Submarine Detection increased from 1 to 2.5

• Mobile Infantry Doctrine now also provides +10% Max Speed for the Armored Car Recon Company
  
• Mobile Infantry Doctrine now also provides +10% Max Speed for the Motorized Recon Company
  
• Mobile Infantry Doctrine now also provides +15% Max Speed for the Cavalry Recon Company
  
• Breakthrough Priority Doctrine now also provides +5% Breakthrough to Mounted Infantry

• The Spirits of the Army "Bayonet Strength" and "Overwhelming Firepower" now also affect the cost of Bicycle Battalions
  
• Added leader traits to Estonian alternate-ideology country leaders, and fixed the name of Johannes Käbin
  
• Decreased the chance that Sweden refuses request for resource rights from Germany
  
• Nerfed princely subjugation, it removes compliance faster than before and gives less boost to resources and factories
  
• MIO Tank Manufacturer - Standardized Production Trait Production Cost Reduction Increased from -3% to -5%
  
• Added policies to the Submarine and Assault Gun MIOs
  
• Added the Assembly Line Optimisers Policy to most materiel MIOs
  
• Britain's starting Tank, Plane and Ship production now has MIO designers assigned
  
• Reichskomissariat subject type now reduces Resistance Target by 10%
  
• Congo is now actually able to gain compliance when having Pierre Ryckmans as their leader, provided that they use civilian oversight

• Italy now gets an event warning them in advance when getting closer to their leaders deposition in the Balance of Power
  
• The Chilean focus "Protect Easter Island" now only targets independent nations
  
• The Netherlands now inherits the puppets of Belgium and Luxembourg if annexed through the Benelux Unification decision
  
• Countries at war only with Government in Exile countries can no longer call to arms, or be joined in war
  
• Carlist Spain can now select the Habsburg pretender as their king if playing with Götterdämmerung enabled
  
• Reworked the "Greater Indonesia" formable nation
  
• Reworked the Arabia formable
  
• Added Supersonic Jets, Motherships and Intercontinental Bombers to MIOs
  
• Infrastructure level 0 now gives -25% movement speed penalty instead of -95% movement speed penalty
  
• Electrification of Ethiopia decisions for Italy can now be taken in parallel.

• Added text icons for airborne light armor, jungle pioneer supports, long range patrol support and winter logistic support
  
• Many more Formable Nation categories now have unique pictures and descriptions
  
• Fixed tooltip for the achievement Woman in the High Castle
  
• Adjusted several focus icons to show the right flags and country borders
  
• Added country flags to player names in the in-game chat in multiplayer
  
• Fix certain UI elements in the country selection menu being off-screen on high resolutions
  
• Added information of how the number of allowed Air Wings are calculated to the Send Air Volunteers tooltip

• Add tiebreaker for peace conference contests between AI countries
  
• AI Portugal no longer gets into a civil war when going down their Monarchist path
  
• AI countries will now start researching Super Heavies somewhat later
  
• The Danish AI will now switch government earlier when going down their Monarchist strategy plan
  
• German AI will create a few divisions with flame tanks if you have No Step Back and Assault engineers if you have Götterdämmerung
  
• Germany no longer gets stuck with von Mackensen as their leader when set to go Monarchist

• Add a check to detect duplicate province building blocks overriding each other in state history files
  
• Add front_role_override for division templates which lets you customize which type of front it gets assigned to
  
• The load_focus_tree effect can now copy completed focus from an existing country with the copy_completed_from parameter
  
• Fixed the index when removing added resistance targets

• Uruguay and Paraguay now have their own unique Army, Navy and Airforce National Spirits
  
• Fixed problem with missing 3D models on DirectX9

• Multiplayer: Fixed CTD when trying to Join Game through Steam
  
• Multiplayer: Fix the Ready button being unclickable after loading a save file (forcing you to switch back and forth to another country)
  
• Multiplayer: Fixed an issue where players would be unable to send chat messages in the lobby if their DLC configuration differed from the host
  
• Fixed an issue where merging airwings could cause XP to be lost
  
• Fixed issue where reaching end game screen in multiple games in a row would cause a CTD
  
• Fixed an issue where resuming into a deleted Ironman save game would cause a non-functional Back button in the load game window
  
• Fixed calculations for unit leaders cost regarding spirit Academy Scholarships
  
• Added bypasses for multiple German focuses in case France does not exist
  
• Fixed CTD when loading a game for a country that does not exist in current game
  
• Fixed portrait for field marshal disappearing for volunteer forces
  
• Greek focus "Realign with the Central Powers" is now properly blocked when GTD is not active
  
• Fixed issue with equipment temporarily losing stats when a game was loaded
  
• Fixed decreased air accident chance modifier not being applied correctly
  
• Germany can now select a Local Collaborator for Reichskommissariat Großbritannien
  
• Fixed a bug where troops could be withdrawn over frontline
  
• Fixed specialization and trait icons being offset on experimental facility card
  
• Fixed an issue where dismissing certain Special Project notifications could prevent future notifications of the same type from appearing
  
• Fixed a flickering issue when starting a new Ironman game
  
• Fixed privacy page not being displayed on Linux
  
• Fixed issue where division commander would change portrait if sent as volunteer
  
• Legacy of the Naval Arms Race gets removed if other participants do not exist
  
• Removed Esc as the keyboard shortcut for Details in the Focus Completed pop-up
  
• EU leaders now have to be faction leaders to propose federalization or invite to faction via the "Development of the European Union" system
  
• Hungary can now take "Partial Mobilization" if it has either taken the focus "Secret Rearmament" or removed the "Treaty of Trianon", even when AAT is disabled
  
• Fixed broken localization string in requirements for Bulgarian advisor Georgi Ivanov Kyoseivanov
  
• The British decision "The Macdonald Proposal" can no longer be taken repeatedly
  
• National Spirit "Colonial Returns" is now removed from Belgium if Congo is no longer their puppet
  
• Removed misleading tooltip in "Gain Schutzbund Support" when taken as a democratic nation
  
• Licensed equipment can no longer be assigned MIOs
  
• Fixed a typo in the UK focus "Expand the Secret Intelligence Service"
  
• Removed reference to Jim Corbett from the British Raj focus "Rally The Indian Left" (he is actually unlocked by the focus "Lobby Parliament")
  
• Denmark will no longer get any generic Election Event, with the one exception of "Wartime Exception" which can now trigger the ordinary Danish election event
  
• Fixed an issue where the Soviet army focus "Military Political Advisors" was broken when playing as Monarchist or Fascist Russia
  
• Fixed German advisor Franz Seldte's name in the Japanese version
  
• When Democratic Germany is in a faction and takes the focus "Shared RnD Programs", the research bonus immediately increases based on the number of faction members, and Germany won't lose any research bonus until the total amount of faction members are below 10
  
• Germany will now start with Westwallen constructed with level 2 forts in the 1939 Scenario, and forts have also been removed from a province in the Westwallen decision, since that province does not border another country
  
• Fixed multiple instances where the EU decision system could become locked
  
• Removes an errant "c" in the MIO trait Anti-Vehicle Landmines
  
• Congo can now bypass the focuses to seek German and Soviet support if none of the countries exist
  
• Fixes broken logic in Argentina's "Arma Maravillosa" which prevented effects from firing
  
• The Additional decisions unlocked for East Africa no longer disappear when Latin Africa has been formed first
  
• Gdynia is included in "Integrate Poland" decision for monarchist Russia
  
• The Italian focus "Italian Irredentism" now correctly targets the state Var instead of Asir-Makkah
  
• Added the missing South Sudetenland to the effects of the non-Götterdämmerrung focus Restore Austria-Hungary for Hungary
  
• Added some missing states to the effect of the event from "Rekindle Imperial Sentiment" when Austria-Hungary is reformed through it
  
• Request Austrian Occupation now gives fascist Switzerland control over south-eastern Austria
  
• Bulgaria can now access the Treaty of Craiova focus through the new Second Vienna Award event
  
• The Japanese focus "Exchange the Exiles" now properly displays what will happen if Manchukuo accepts the trade
  
• Belgian decision to Boost Factory Worker's Unions now give proper production modifiers, also fixed a minor typo in decision name
  
• The Congolese Evolue events will now also happen if it was Belgium that completed the focus "Chefs Coutumiers"
  
• Diversify Elite Forces decision now works correctly when Trial of Allegiance or Götterdämmerung are disabled
  
• Fixed CTD that could occur due to invalid division template
  
• Added missing localization on Guided Missiles and Nuclear Missiles
  
• Himmler will now complete the Inner Circle Focus Strengthen the Waffen-SS in the 140 days as stated in the Focus
  
• Naval Arms Race achievement now only triggers when being Germany or in faction with Germany
  
• It will no longer be possible for Germany to have both "Economy of Conquest" and "Recovering Economy" National Spirits at the same time
  
• Rocket Propelled Bombs module now properly adds 12 weight instead of 2 for Port Strikes
  
• Sweden's decision to blow up the mines now has a visible trigger that targets the correct states
  
• Added missing victory points to Western Indian States, Qandahar and Maymanah
  
• The German focus "First Vienna Award" can now be bypassed if Hungary is either Democratic or Communist
  
• Fixed a false start up error by changing the order for raid database loading
  
• Fixed incorrect Soviet Tree offset when NSB is turned off
  
• The Congolese Independence War now works as intended if Congo has switched ideology before declaring it
  
• Helicopter MIO traits Tandem and Single Rotor are now in the right columns
  
• The German leader trait "The Supreme Leader" will no longer reduce your own autonomy, but instead reduce your puppets'
  
• Fixed portrait for Belgian advisor Leon Degrelle to fit in his frames
  
• Removed non-functional Production Efficiency Gain modifier from one of the traits for the Finnish Crichton-Vulcan Naval MIO
  
• Fixed several instances where the German Navy's name wouldn't change despite the nation's ideology having done so
  
• The German focus "Effective Operations" now modifies the National Spirit "Intelligence Wing" without La Resistance
  
• Fixed CTD that could occur when attempting to spawn railway guns
  
• Removed the Gradual War Escalation mission for Italy when BBA is disabled, since the effect is only intended to work when the DLC is enabled
  
• Spanish Field Marshal Máté Zalka now uses the correct portrait
  
• Norway can no longer invite countries' subjects to their faction, and can no longer join factions through focuses while being a puppet of another nation
  
• Peacefully annexing Poland as Germany will no longer trigger sabotage events
  
• Fixed an issue where the focus "The Steel Lions" would give a tank template with tanks that didn't have any main armament
  
• AI Italy can no longer go down two land doctrines at the same time
  
• Fixed a typo in the German Politburo national spirit
  
• Germany's "The Blitz" AI strategies will now activate as intended
  
• Fixed an issue where Slovakia would not get their tank template in the Fate of Czechoslovakia event
  
• Expand Regional Control decisions in Ethiopia are now available if Ethiopia's host isn't in a faction
  
• Fixed an issue where the German focus "Embrace Democratic Institutions" was not granting the correct effect
  
• Fixes missing ship silhouettes for Modern Battleship and Modern Carrier
  
• Super Heavy Battleship Armor now is properly highlighted in the Ship Designer View
  
• Added missing focus description to the Swiss focus "Fly over the Mountains"
  
• Removes a redundant "the" in the Canadian focus "Spirit of the True Revolution"
  
• Added missing states to the formable nation decision "Unite the Turks"
  
• Removed Ethiopia flavoured event if you're not playing Ethiopia
  
• Fixed an issue were the Yugoslav national spirit "Armed Neutrality" didn't have a functioning icon
  
• The Romanian focus "Force Abdication" no longer tries to remove a National Spirit if it isn't present
  
• Fixed an issue where a few character names and surnames did not start with a capital letter
  
• Removed a duplicated trigger in the "Will Abort if:" section of the British mission "Trade Unions Demand Minister Appointment"
  
• Fixed an issue where a paratroop invasion could draw a map arrow around the globe
  
• Italy will no longer Balkanize themselves after their civil war
  
• Fixed Bogdan Filov's name being "Bogdar" in Russian localization
  
• Salvador Abascal can now be chosen in the 1940 election for Mexico
  
• The events from the Polish focus "Enforce Baltic Socialism" are now sent to all Baltic states, instead of just one
  
• Fixed an erroneous tooltip in the Turkish Chester Concession event chain
  
• Fixes focuses in the Baltic states to avoid factions being created or joined while the Baltics are subject states
  
• Iceland no longer gets a wargoal against themselves if their claim to Greenland is rejected
  
• Fixed a typo in the New Zealander focus "Rule Them All"
  
• Fix unlocalized string for Bomber Command focus doctrine bonus
  
• Changed localization in Swiss focus to work for country selection screen
  
• The Danish focus "Side with the Unions" no longer has a doubled effect if Denmark is communist
  
• The tooltip for the Swedish advisor Birger Furugård is not duplicated anymore
  
• Fixes duplicated localization in Russian focus "Capital of the Tsars"
  
• Balancing Act focus and decisions will no longer mention subsidies with AAT disabled
  
• Fixed several instances where countries with focus trees from Götterdämmerung could join or create factions while being subjects
  
• Lindolfo Collor can't be both a country leader and advisor at the same time
  
• The Shared Chinese focus "Experimental Mechanised Unit" now only gives a subsidy towards the supporting nation, and not both the Soviets and the Germans
  
• Translated the names for Polish Monarchist Parties to Polish to better conform to the rest of the party names
  
• Greek Staunch Monarchist trait description improved
  
• Removed empty space in the Political Instability National Focus displayed on Nation Selection Screen for Greece
  
• Mexico's Triumph of Synarchism now sends an event which lets the recipient choose to accept or counteract the influence
  
• Assault Aviation Theorists now reduce cost of Naval Strike Torpedo Tactics
  
• Fixed multiple instances where incorrect models and icons would be selected for Generic and German airplane designs
  
• Fixed an issue where a newly added construction item could not be dragged in the construction queue
  
• Tooltip for creating a Military Advisor updated to specify you can have one and not multiple traits
  
• Abebe Aregai has correct trait when not running La Resistance
  
• Focus "Specialized Military Equipment" now gives the correct equipment with No Step Back enabled
  
• Added missing module and highlight for the Anechoic Tiles in the Ship Designer Window
  
• Fixed an issue where War Reparations from peace conferences could be lost on reloading a save
  
• Fixed a bug with some MIO windows showing connection lines for non-existent traits
  
• Removed duplicate AI rules for India, and hid Together for Victory ones if you have GoE enabled
  
• Fixed an instance where if the UK decolonized at the same time as the Mughals broke away they would instantly white peace with the other RAJ
  
• The event "The East Coast joins the Rebellion" now moves the capital to Richmond
  
• Fixed some typos in Army spirits
  
• Fixed incorrect mention of "armies" in Commander traits, where it should be "divisions"

• You can now once again retreat to friendly controlled provinces even if they are not owned by friends

And here is a list of our recent and still incoming updates
March 6 - Graveyard of Empires Follow up
March 10 - Update from the Developers
March 12 - Patch Notes | Operation HEAD (1.16.1)
March 20 - Patch Notes | Operation KNEE (1.16.2)
March 27 - War Effort: Patch Notes | Operation SHOULDER (1.16.3) <- You are here
April - Updates & Changes to GoE content
June - First Dev Corner

And lastly, the updated Roadmap

Dear fans,

Today's Patch for Operation Knee marks the second release in a series of updates that we are doing to improve the game. Next week we aim to release the War Effort patch, which as Arheo said previously will be more substantial than usual.

I also want to take this opportunity to circle back to a few topics that Arheo brought up last week, as well as start providing a few glimpses into the short- and long-term future.

Next up in this pass is the Prototype Vehicles Unit Pack which adds vehicles that are more experimental in nature. Some will be available right away while others you will need to unlock through special projects. The unit pack continues to expand on the cool, detailed art we have in the game already, however it will not feature new in-game functionality.

One important take-away from the development of all the content in this Expansion Pass is the need to better and earlier involve you, our community. Our Dev Diaries have regrettably been getting published closer and closer to our release date which makes it challenging to act on your feedback. To rectify that and better involve you in our plans at an earlier stage, moving forward we’ll bring back Dev Corners. For those of you who are new to the concept, Dev Corners is a space where we discuss our ongoing development, and highlight upcoming features and balance, to ensure early community feedback and discussions.

June is our target month to start the Dev Corners. That is still a few months away, so in the meantime we’ll provide insight into the internal workings of PDS Gold, which I’ve understood is of interest. Are there any areas you are interested in learning more about? Let us know and we’ll try our best to take them on. For example: How does a DLC get designed? How does the team decide what to work on? What kind of tools do our programmers use? What's the process of creating icons? Etc.. Let us know!

Our Recent Updates

• March 6 - Graveyard of Empires Follow up
  
• March 10 - Update from the Developers
  
• March 12 - Patch Notes | Operation HEAD (1.16.1)
  
• March 20 - Patch Notes | Operation KNEE (1.16.2)

And lastly, here’s our updated roadmap, below it you will also see the Patch notes.

• Added a port to Rangoon, Aqaba and Latakia
  
• Added infrastructure and two civilian factories to states in Burma
  
• Added infrastructure to some states in Afghanistan
  
• India: "Urge Violence against the British"-decisions now cost 13pp (down from 20pp), reduces compliance by -10%, and increases resistance by 50% (from 35%)
  
• India: You now only need >25% more pressure than Pakistan/Bangladesh to win a princely state
  
• Iran: The focuses "People's Revolutionary Airforce" and "People's Revolutionary Navy" are no longer mutually exclusive
  
• Tweaked Musamdam's population and lowered it to a more realistic figure

• Updated how air volunteers work. They now will always add the bonus from the modifier, making the intended behaviour of "Legion Condor" work as expected
  
• Country leaders for new subject nations added in Graveyard of Empires, such as Palestine, Kuwait, Jordan, etc., now display their unique portraits even if Graveyard of Empires is disabled
  
• India: Gaining a princely state now gives a core on that state
  
• India: Princely states can now be cored in the communist path
  
• India: The focus "Royal Indian Navy Mutiny" now requires >50% communist support, rather than full independence
  
• India: The focus "Threaten the Princes" now gives 10% communist support

• India: the AI will now take the decision to become independent when it is available, if it is going down the communist path

• Added bypass_effect block to national focuses that runs when a focus is manually or automatically bypassed

• States added in Graveyard of Empires now get included in the formation of the appropriate German Reichskommissariats

• Added a bypass for the focus "Annex Goa"
  
• Added a bypass for the focus "Crush The Anathema"
  
• Decisions to claim Pakistan as Akhand Bharat can no longer be used to claim Bangladesh during the famine
  
• Divisions located in Burma will no longer be permanently exiled after the white peace triggers for the Mughal Uprising
  
• Fixed a bug causing some nuclear raids to not delete military factories correcty with "Bathe in Hellfire" completed
  
• Fixed a bug where the national spirit "Neutral Foreign Policy" was not properly removed from Pakistan and Bangladesh
  
• Fixed an exploit where the East India Company could buy the world without paying
  
• Fixed an incorrect tooltip in the partition mission
  
• Fixed an instance where a fascist UK would automatically flip India to fascist
  
• Fixed an instance where Freeman Freeman-Thomas would not lose his negative trait when Britain left India
  
• Fixed an instance where the civil war started by the focus "Give Me Blood And I Will Grant You Freedom" would not end correctly
  
• Fixed an issue where a princely state could be automatically annexed while at war with it
  
• Fixed grammar issues and a typo in the tooltip and description of the focus "Funnel investments into Princely States"
  
• Fixed missing and incorrect focus filters
  
• Fixed some instances where focuses would allow joining factions while being a subject
  
• Fixed the "Agrarian Society" national spirit sometimes not having an effect for India when the Princely Breakaway State or East India Company was created
  
• Negative versions of the "Marginalized Muslim Community" national spirit is no longer retained by India after the split with Pakistan
  
• Removed cores from certain states when Graveyard of Empires is disabled
  
• The achievement "That's Sikh!" is now obtainable
  
• The correct country name will now be used if "India Fragmentation Status" is set to "British Raj Fragmented" in game settings
  
• The focus "Expand the Silk Road" no longer builds a railway through the Soviet Union
  
• The focus "Gurkhas" no longer rewards an unusable Special Forces branch specialism when AAT is disabled
  
• The focus "Headhunt Army Personnel" now properly allows sending volunteers
  
• The focus "Institutional Money Laundering" no longer grants a research bonus with no name
  
• The focus "Jaguar" no longer allows two experimental facilities to exist in the same state
  
• The focus "Join the Shadow Scheme" can no longer build factories in core states not owned by India
  
• The focus "Punjab Autonomy" no longer breaks when puppets control the states
  
• The focus "Special Operations Executive" no longer rewards an unusable cost reduction for paratroopers doctrine when AAT is disabled
  
• The national spirit "Aggression towards Princely States" now grants -100% generate wargoal tension limit
  
• The national spirit "War Taxes" can no longer be lowered when not at war, now resets after a war ends, and can no longer be exploited to go above the limit
  
• The tooltips for the event options in the events "Widespread protests" and "Religious Violence" now display the correct compliance values

• Added several missing focus filters
  
• Added missing states to the decision system "Recreate the Persian Empire"
  
• Completing the focuses "The Memphis Initiative" and "Glory of Cyrus the Great" will now allow Iran to get cores on all of the Middle East, Egypt and Afghanistan
  
• Fixed a bug that could give Iran decisions to core Turkey twice
  
• Fixed a bug where avoiding the civil war in the democratic path could result in being stuck with no elections
  
• Fixed an exploit where the Immortal Legion template could be used to generate free equipment
  
• Fixed an instance where the "Election Season"-event would sometimes list a leader as retiring before being made leader again
  
• Fixed some instances where focuses would allow joining or creating factions while being a subject
  
• The decisions from "War Profiteering" are no longer displayed after your oil has been sold
  
• The event chain from the focus "A Foothold in the Indus" now grants a war goal instead of automatically declaring war if India rejects the demands
  
• The focus "Request Trains from Germany" now correctly adds German trains to stockpile
  
• The focuses "Establish the Airforce" and "Construct Air Bases" no longer grant building slots along with air bases

• Added several missing focus filters
  
• Fixed a typo in the description of the focus "Increase Anglo-Iraqi Economic Ties"
  
• The focus "Project Babylon" no longer allows two experimental facilities to exist in the same state
  
• The focus "Regional Military Integration" no longer tries to build factories meant for Jordan in Iraq
  
• The focuses "Form OPEC" and "Join the Axis" can no longer be taken if Iraq is a subject
  
• The national spirit "Anglo-Iraqi Mutual Defense Agreement" is now removed if you go to war with Britain

• The focus "Unite the Azeri Diaspora" now correctly rewards a core on East Azerbaijan

• Fixed a bug that would cause the first variant of equipment to always be called "Mk0" regardless of country-specific naming scheme
  
• Fixed an issue where buying dreadnaughts from Germany would not spawn them correctly

Generals!

Your Shah-nce to order your very own Shah Platypus is almost gone - Only 48 Hours remain!

As a wise man once said: " You're a Plushie, Shah-rry!"


Grab your own here, or by clicking the image below~

Generals!

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

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

This sale will run from Now until March 20th

Hearts of Iron IV - 70% off
Hearts of Iron IV: Starter Edition - 70% off

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

Hearts of Iron IV: Battle for the Bosporus 50% off
Hearts of Iron IV: Trial of Allegiance 20% off

Hearts of Iron IV: Songs of the Eastern Front 50% off
Hearts of Iron IV: Eastern Front Planes 50% off
Hearts of Iron IV: Allied Speeches Pack 50% off
Hearts of Iron IV: Radio Pack 50% off
Hearts of Iron IV: Sabaton Soundtrack 50% off
Hearts of Iron IV: Sabaton Soundtrack Vol. 2 50% off
Hearts of Iron IV: Allied Armor 50% off
Hearts of Iron IV: Axis Armor 50% off

Hello everyone!

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

Operation HEAD, 1.16.1, Checksum 48b7

• Increased the artillery required for elephantry
  -reduced its base soft attack by 20%
  -reduced breakthrough by 20%
  -reduced manpower requirement by 10%
  -increased supply consumption by 25%
  
• India
  -Train Robberies now reduce railway/hub/infra by 2% (was 3%) for each railway focus completed
  -Train Robberies now reduce weekly stability by 0.1% (was 0.3%)
  
  • Iran: The Immortal Legion now has a much larger starting template
    
  • India: The national spirit “Anti-Imperialist Zeal” now gives 8% defense bonus against the USA (up from 0.8%)
  
  
  Gameplay
  • Added an event chain for Syria and Lebanon that allows them to side with Vichy/Free France or declare independence when Paris falls
    
  • Added additional animation variants for elephantry
    
  • Generic elephantry now uses the generic infantry model
    
  • Iraq: More models can be selected for artillery and anti-tank battalions in the division designer
    
  • India: Added better tooltip to train robberies
    
  • India: Famine now only requires you to lose a starting Indian State (excluding Aden) with 30 days to retake it
    
  • India: Improved Famine description
    
  • India: The focus “Threaten the Princes” now gives 10% communist support
  
  
  Modding
  • Added "count" functionality for all any_object triggers. It will evaluate true if at least "count" items fulfill the child triggers. The count field will support scoped variables
  
  
  Bugfixes
  • India: The Mughal Influence state modifier will now be removed if no longer owned by the Mughal Empire or India
    
  • India: The Mughal Uprising now changes the name of political parties rather than keeping the Indian ones
    
  • India: The British Raj no longer loses certain spirits after separating from the East India Company or Princely Breakaway States
    
  • India: "Parkash Singh"s trait "Brave" is no longer missing a title and description
    
  • India: The "Conquer Afghanistan" focus no longer attempts to give a special forces doctrine discount when you do not have AAT
    
  • India: The "Frontier Corps" focus no longer gives a special forces doctrine reward if you are missing AAT
    
  • India: The "Nothing Personal" focus will now bypass if unavailable
    
  • India: Forward Bloc now removes the occupation law No Garrison until independence is achieved through the focus Give Me Blood And I Will Grant You Freedom
    
  • India: The game rule to make India go down the historical path will no longer block achievements
    
  • India: Independence unrest events no longer continue to appear after declaring independence in India's fascist path
    
  • India: East India Railways will no longer bypass automatically when GoE is missing
    
  • India: The Ahadi Division template given by The Mughal Uprising can now be edited
    
  • India: Famine should now longer trigger if a country spawns in the affected area
    
  • India: The ruling party of the Mughal Empire and British Raj are no longer flipped (Mughals getting GB and RAJ getting Mughal Court) after starting the civil war
    
  • India: Aden no longer gets returned to the Raj after the Mughal Uprising if it was previously handed over to the United Kingdom
    
  • India: Fixed a bug where a blank EIC focus was appearing in the focus tree upon formation
    
  • India: Numerous national focuses have been updated with filter tags
    
  • India: The focus Royal Indian Navy Mutiny no longer requires independence
    
  • India: Fixed a broken bypass condition for the focus Pledge for the Allies
    
  • Iraq: Nuri As Said no longer has a placeholder portrait when missing GOE
    
  • Iraq: The event from Propose Syrian Unification no longer gives the wrong war goal
    
  • Iraq: Restoration of Hejaz focus now grants cores on the targeted states, instead of claims
    
  • Iran/Soviet Union: Fixed a bug in which the Soviets could not puppet Iran if they chose to justify without the focus
    
  • Iran: Join allies focuses can now be appropriately bypassed
    
  • Iran: Changed the Memphis Initiative to include any state in the Middle East
    
  • Iran: Fixed a bug where Iran started with Treaty of Saadabad in 1939, where it should not have
    
  • Iran: Fixed a bug where Opposition to the Shah decisions still appeared after a peaceful takeover
    
  • Iran: Allowed Organize Protests or Establish Local Opposition Groups to be bypassed if any of the focuses starting a civil war are taken
    
  • Iran: Jafar Kavian and Ghulam Yahya Daneshian are now gated behind the Communist focus branch
    
  • Iran: Fixed a bug where the Islamic Revolution leader would not become country leader if a civil war was started in the "Strengthen Iranian Parliament" focus
    
  • Iran: Fixed issue with two national spirits disappearing when communist civil war starts
    
  • Afghanistan: The "Graveyard of Empires" focus now works correctly if you have the Quami national spirit
    
  • United Kingdom: Puppets breaking away from the UK when it goes fascist/communist should now function correctly
    
  • Arabia: Can no longer be formed by Kurdistan
    
  • Arabia: Now correctly gains cores on new states
  
  
  Localization Bugfixes
  • Issues with technical text being displayed in Russian localization should now be resolved
    
  • The East India Company Investment Schemes window is now functional when playing with Russian localization
    
  • Typo: Masshad -> Mashhad
    
  • India: Fixed a typo in the description of the Risk of Famine national spirit, where "loses" is misspelled as "looses"
    
  • India: The Sideline the Conflict focus tooltip no longer displays a bugged name
    
  • India: Several technology bonuses now have a name
  
  
  Art Bugfixes
  • Fixed minor issue with Elephant animations
    
  • Various 2D Icons updated
    
  • Missing elephantry icons added
    
  • Changed animation_blend_time to zero between the animation stages for Elephantry
  
  
  Technical Bugfixes
  • Fixed a bug where production was not recalculated when taking decisions. This fixes instances of bugs such as MEFO bills failing to update when they should
    
  • Fixed a OOS due to portrait generation when host and client have different DLC configurations
    
  • Fix a Windows CTD on startup when some specific utf-8 characters are in the installation path
    
  • Fixed buffer overflow when rendering 2D elements
  
  And lastly, here’s an updated roadmap
  

Greetings all,

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

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

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

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

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

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

/Arheo

Timeline:

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

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

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



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

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

If you missed the release notes or changelog we posted yesterday, you can check it out here

If you missed any of our developer diaries or spotlight videos and want to catch up on all the new features in this expansion, you can find everything you need at the bullet points below:

• The Complete List of Developer Diaries
  
• Country Showcases Playlist

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

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

There are some issues we know about; we’ve detailed them in this post, and are working on resolving them.

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

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

Hearts of Iron IV - 70% off
Hearts of Iron IV: Starter Edition - 70% off

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

Hearts of Iron IV: Battle for the Bosporus 50% off
Hearts of Iron IV: Trial of Allegiance 20% off

Hearts of Iron IV: Songs of the Eastern Front 50% off
Hearts of Iron IV: Eastern Front Planes 50% off
Hearts of Iron IV: Allied Speeches Pack 50% off
Hearts of Iron IV: Radio Pack 50% off
Hearts of Iron IV: Sabaton Soundtrack 50% off
Hearts of Iron IV: Sabaton Soundtrack Vol. 2 50% off
Hearts of Iron IV: Allied Armor 50% off
Hearts of Iron IV: Axis Armor 50% off


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

Hi everyone,

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

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

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

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

• Reliability and Torpedo upgrades no longer overlap for Torpedo Cruisers

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

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

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