Mar 9, 2023

War Effort - Operation Pike Patch 1.12.11 [Checksum 92f5]

Hearts of Iron IV - PDX Chakerathe

Generals!

Operation Pike is rolling out with plenty of new bug fixes, Modding Support, Balance Tweaks and changes for our Canadian comrades in the North!

The patch will be live on Steam today, but the Microsoft patch is unfortunately delayed until March 14th, sorry about that!

Feature

- German, Japanese and British trees will now hide obsolete branches if the related game rule is turned on.
- French and USA focus trees will now hide obsolete branches if the related game rule is turned on.
- Added a new alt-history branch to Canada's Communist path, allowing further reduction of the Great Depression, wargoals on the United States, and various other benefits, at the cost of being unable to join or create factions

Balance

- Germany now begin with 80 transport planes, from 4

Gameplay

- Tweaked Ethiopian Balance of Power, to decrease risk of country collapse
- Made coring decision for Italo-Ethiopian empire available when controlling, rather than owning, states
- Made it possible to move capital to Jerusalem after Axum for Ethiopia
- Made it possible for Ethiopia to collaborate with Italy as Monarchy as well as Fascist
- Improved Regional Supply depots National Spirit for Ethiopia
- Made multiple investments at the same time possible for Ethiopia
- Added camelry to Sultanate of Aussa

- Now the disabling of construction of railway lines on the map will remove them from construction UI.
- Delete-building button should now be visible/usable on UI-scaled clients
- Now, if you hover mouse over an invasion arrow, the whole path will be visible even if it is overlapped by another one.
- Visual improvement of the create faction window.
- Now the army theater groups will show the reinforcement priority.

Modding

- Removed deprecated trigger pc_is_state_outside_influence_for
- State level production speed modifiers now have the correct loc keys

Bugfixes

- Changed the "repair_speed_infrastructure_factor" modifier description to accurately reflect its actual effect
- Fixed creation of unbuildable plane variants by create_equipment_variant effect.
- Focus tree screen will now properly refresh when something changes the display - like when the player chooses a branch and it hides the other ones.
- Fixed the exploit of ignoring the special forces cap when changing army templates.
- Game rule "Show Obsolete Branches in Focus Tree" no longer requires any DLC.
- Motorized rocket artillery fuel usage increased from 0.12 to 1.2 to be in line with Trucks
- Fixed the missing description for all none-Italian countries receiving the end News Event for the Fate of Mussolini Event chain
- USA no longer hires both communist and fascist advisors without DLCs
- Events and focuses which invite all un-faction-ed countries of a specific ideology to a faction will no longer target subjects (this affects Spain and the Soviet Union currently)
- Fixed issue in which Italian Aircraft Designer CRDA-CANT would require the wrong Naval Designer to be active. It now requires CRDA Naval Designer as intended.
- Octavian Goga will now correctly become country leader on completion of the National Christian Party focus.
- The name of peace conferences will appear in the correct language after language changes during peace conferences.
- Fixed issue so that now Italian partisan general Ada Gobetti is properly cautious.
- Obsolete Soviet AI plan "Alternate" has now been purged.
- Build Cost equipment stat modifiers now display the correct color for a bonus (green for negative, red for positive)
- Fixed extra word in Alpine Supremacy description
- Fixed typo in Bulgarian Re-integration Campaign
- Fixed issue with Costanzo Ciano Light Cruiser Class granted by Italian focus Flotta d'Evasione when Man the Guns DLC was not active.
- Fixes to Canada's communist's path focuses

As always, we appreciate all the feedback you provide us, and if you encounter any issues with the game, please fill out a Bug Report so we can look into it!

And if you haven't already, let us know what you think of By Blood Alone here on Steam or over on the Forums!

As always, you all have a great weekend and enjoy your day!

Mar 3, 2023

War Effort - Operation Pike Open Beta [1.12.11] Checksum 66ce

Hearts of Iron IV - PDX Chakerathe

Generals!

With the beginnings of March comes a new open beta from our glorious factory! With this patch comes quite a few bugfixes, some gameplay tweaks, added features, and a special addition for our Canadian Comrades!

Listed below are all of the changes (which is subject to change where necessary) that are now live on an open beta branch. Feel free to give us feedback on these planned changes in this thread, or in our Discord!

Feature

Balance

- Germany now begin with 80 transport planes, from 4

Gameplay

- tweaked Ethiopian Balance of Power, to decrease risk of country collapse
- Made coring decision for Italo-Ethiopian empire available when controlling, rather than owning, states
- Made it possible to move capital to Jerusalem after Axum for Ethiopia
- Made it possible for Ethiopia to collaborate with Italy as Monarchy as well as Fascist
- Improved Regional Supply depots National Spirit for Ethiopia
- Made multiple investments at the same time possible for Ethiopia
- Added camelry to Sultanate of Aussa

Modding

- Removed deprecated trigger pc_is_state_outside_influence_for
- State level production speed modifiers now have the correct loc keys

Bugfix

- Changed the "repair_speed_infrastructure_factor" modifier description to accurately reflect its actual effect
- When adding a production line, initial efficiency is now only set for slots that have an active factory.
- Fixed creation of unbuildable plane variants by create_equipment_variant effect.
- Focus tree screen will now properly refresh when something changes the display - like when the player chooses a branch and it hides the other ones.
- Fixed the exploit of ignoring the special forces cap when changing army templates.
- Game rule "Show Obsolete Branches in Focus Tree" no longer requires any DLC.
- Motorized rocket artillery fuel usage increased from 0.12 to 1.2 to be in line with Trucks
- Fixed the missing description for all none-Italian countries receiving the end News Event for the Fate of Mussolini Event chain
- USA no longer hires both communist and fascist advisors without DLCs
- Events and focuses which invite all un-faction-ed countries of a specific ideology to a faction will no longer target subjects (this affects Spain and the Soviet Union currently)
- Fixed issue in which Italian Aircraft Designer CRDA-CANT would require the wrong Naval Designer to be active. It now requires CRDA Naval Designer as intended.
- Octavian Goga will now correctly become country leader on completion of the National Christian Party focus.
- The name of peace conferences will appear in the correct language after language changes during peace conferences.
- Fixed issue so that now Italian partisan general Ada Gobetti is properly cautious.
- Obsolete Soviet AI plan "Alternate" has now been purged.
- Build Cost equipment stat modifiers now display the correct color for a bonus (green for negative, red for positive)
- Fixed extra word in Alpine Supremacy description
- Fixed typo in Bulgarian Re-integration Campaign
- Fixed issue with Costanzo Ciano Light Cruiser Class granted by Italian focus Flotta d'Evasione when Man the Guns DLC was not active.

As always, we appreciate your continued feedback, if you have more suggestions make sure to suggest it over on the Forums, where you can also fill out Bug reports for issues you come across.

That should be it from us today, make sure to have a great weekend everyone!

Feb 16, 2023

Operation Sabre Patch 1.12.10 [Checksum - 0f26]

Hearts of Iron IV - PDX Chakerathe

Generals!

With Operation Sabre comes plenty of new bugfixes, some attention towards Bulgaria and Romania, and the portions to your Career Profiles we outlined in our Previous Developer Diary

Listed below are all the changes, (Unchanged from the Open Beta) we appreciate all of your feedback and look forward the future!

Feature

- For easy and very easy difficulties, AI countries will transfer a part of their Peace Score to the human player(s)
- Puppets will transfer a part of their Peace Score to their Overlord (can be disabled with custom game rules)
- Faction members will transfer a part of their Peace Score to their Faction Leader (can be disabled with custom game rules)
- Countries with a low war participation score will transfer all their Peace Score to other countries (can be disabled with custom game rules)
- Make peace score redistribution game rules disabled by default

Balance

- Prussia of the Balkans rebalanced slightly, and more of the modifiers now scale as the spirit is upgraded
- Bulgaria now begins with the Mountaineers tech unlocked
- Bulgaria: National Railway Lines now take 35 days, from 70. Added two mutually exclusive focuses after this, choosing between exploiting aluminium resources (16 Aluminium) or natural gold deposits (stability + civ)
- Integrated designers navy spirit no longer gives double bonus and only gives research bonus for ship modules now
- Romania: several new focuses added which enable the possibility to manipulate which country leader will run the fascist party
- all countries will now build carrier aircraft if they have carriers, countries with low military factories are less likely to spend too much on fighters
- increased carrier aircraft wanted buffer for countries with carriers to 1.5x total deck space

- Fixed various issues with tech tree on different resolutions
- Bulgaria's default UI colour (used for allegiance/country unit banners) is now the same as their starting country colour
- Main menu Social Media buttons update

- Added some scripted AI desires for land doctrines
- Fixed bug in how AI prioritises its construction queue
- Stop AI from queueing up more naval bases and railways if they are already waiting to be upgraded
- Italy will now be much less active on the French front for the first months of the war, unless France are losing badly, or Germany is under threat
- AI will check if it should afford the monthly cost of Improve Relations before attempting it
- USA colorado class battleships now obsolete in 1936

Modding

- add is_hired_as_advisor = yes/no trigger
- Make has_resources_in_country accept extracted and buildings parameters
- Add get_supply_vehicles and get_supply_vehicles_temp effects and triggers to check the number of trucks and trains
- Make the following triggers neutral - meaning they won't impact the outcome of the trigger block they are in : log, set_temp_variable, print_variables, round_temp_variable, clamp_temp_variable, subtract_from_temp_variable, multiply_temp_variable, divide_temp_variable, clear_temp_array, add_to_temp_array, remove_from_temp_array, resize_temp_array, find_highest_in_array, find_lowest_in_array

Bugfixes

- Improved requirement tooltips for Mare Nostrum decision.
- Random country selection disabled when loading ironman saves
- Fixed incorrect dates for 1938 engine and armour techs
- Bulgaria's unit names now use the spelling 'Diviziya', from 'Divizija'
- Fixed issue in which Germany would get twice the amount of research bonuses via the focus "Treaty with the USSR"
- early cruiser hull no longer unlocks cruiser armour
- Aircraft Bomb tech now unlocks torpedoes
- Fixed incorrect role settings for amphibious drive module
- Fixing typo in Adopting Rumantsch country flag in Switzerland
- fixed incorrect templates for RO.57 aircraft
- Fix the capture and subsequent consequences for operatives when they get spotted on offensive missions
- Small fixes to Romanian focus tree additions

That should be it for us today! If you encounter any issues with Today's patch, make sure to leave a Bug Report and we appreciate you all enjoying the game :)

Also make sure to check out the updated roadmap!

Feb 3, 2023

War Effort - Open Beta & Developer Diary! [1.12.10]

Hearts of Iron IV - PDX Chakerathe

Hello, Ingevar is here with news about Career Profile, if you're just looking for patch notes, scroll down to find them at the bottom, but let's get into things!

More stats and Awards

We were happy to see that a lot of players welcomed new awards and got gold medals including the trickiest ones, so we felt we should expand the list of medals and ribbons a bit.
Previously we focused on warfare mostly, but this time we added some that cover economy, production and recruitment aspects of the game.

My personal favorite is the new ribbon "Orchestra of Boom": first of all the name! But then also it will require you to design and deploy a division with anti-tank, anti-air, artillery and rocket artillery with a support signal company. Not that hard to do, but very fun to use this division in battle!

Some of the New Medals will deliver a serious challenge even for more experienced players, like "Quality Over Quantity" , which requires you to have several times less casualties than the enemy after inflicting at least 1 million casualties.

We are also adding more statistics to your Career Profile, which can tell a bit more about each player's playstyle.

Awards Display

You can display your awards now! Be a proud general with a couple of the best medals, or go full Brezhnev-mode showcasing every bit you have!
We also plan to add more medal shapes and icons so that it's easier to tell on medal apart from another.

Stats in Multiplayer

We will also collect Statistics in Multiplayer now! Awards are still Single Player only, but now you'll be able to see how the player is coping against other humans.

Backgrounds

We wanted to add a bit more customization to your Career Profile, so now you will unlock backgrounds for career points that you earn with Awards.
The combination of your nickname, profile picture and the background will form the Badge, which will be visible to other players.

The Badge in Multiplayer Lobby and Chat

One of the Biggest changes we bring is the possibility to view the Career Profiles of other players in the Multiplayer Lobby and chat.
Just click on their badge and see their stats and awards!
If you don't want to share this valuable intel with others you can always set the visibility of your own profile to "Friends Only" or "Private".

Stats Comparison

When Viewing profiles of other Players you will be able to compare numbers to your own directly.

We are very excited to hear your thoughts and see more gold in your Career Profiles

Stay tuned and see you later!

PATCH NOTES

Feature

Balance

Modding

Bugfix

- Improved requirement tooltips for Mare Nostrum decision.
- Random country selection disabled when loading ironman saves
- Fixed incorrect dates for 1938 engine and armour techs
- Bulgaria's unit names now use the spelling 'Diviziya', from 'Divizija'
- Fixed issue in which Germany would get twice the amount of research bonuses via the focus "Treaty with the USSR"
- early cruiser hull no longer unlocks cruiser armour
- Aircraft Bomb tech now unlocks torpedoes
- Fixed incorrect role settings for amphibious drive module
- Fixing typo in Adopting Rumantsch country flag in Switzerland
- fixed incorrect templates for RO.57 aircraft
- Fix the capture and subsequent consequences for operatives when they get spotted on offensive missions
- Small fixes to Romanian focus tree additions

For more input, make sure to leave a comment on the Forum, and as always, thank you to everyone for being apart of this Community - we appreciate you all and the enormous help that your suggestions and bug reports bring! So let's continue with this war effort to improve the game together!

Jan 25, 2023

1.12.9 Hotfix Patch

Hearts of Iron IV - PDXKatten

Hello there Generals!

################################################################
######## Hotfix 1.12.9 "Avalanche" ######### Checksum: 7c58
################################################################

##################################
# Bugfix
##################################

- In unit history file, if a mod tries to create a ship for a country that does not have the required tech, do not create the ship

Hotfix Information

We have seen a spike in crashes when playing with certain mods since the January patch 1.12.8. This hotfix addresses the issue in code.

However, the root cause is found in script, and some less severe errors will still result from it. Modders will need to update their scripting to fully resolve the issue.

In 1.12.8 the default behavior of the effect create_equipment_variant changed. By default, when the effect executes, if the equipment type specified in the effect has not yet been unlocked/researched, the variant will not be created. Instead creation is delayed and will occur first when the tech is acquired.

When researching a hull, chassis or airframe you get a variant representing the naked hull, chassis or airframe. This variant needs to be the first one created of its type. Otherwise it will cause errors later on. This is why we changed the default behavior of create_equipment_variant.

Unfortunately, this means that you cannot depend on create_equipment_variant to always create the variant (by default). For example, if you create a jet fighter variant, and then refer to that variant when executing add_to_stockpile, you might be in trouble. You likely want to add a precondition to only do this if the country has the required tech.

Additionally, when using create_equipment_variant in your history files to set up the initial game state, you want to make sure that you unlock techs before creating variants. You should see any issues in the error log when starting a new game.

Alternatively, you can add allow_without_tech=yes in create_equipment_variant to have the effect behave as it did before 1.12.8. This should be ok to do for non-modular equipment types, e.g. ships if MTG is deactivated (or NSB for tanks, or BBA for planes), since these types don’t have any hull, chassis or airframe variant.

Let us know in this thread if you have any questions in regards to this hotfix patch!

/Katten

Jan 17, 2023

War Effort - Operation Capital [1.12.8 - Checksum 9d51]

Hearts of Iron IV - PDX Chakerathe

Greetings Generals and Happy New Year!

To continue with the War Effort here are the latest patch notes for Operation Capital, including QoL updates, balance changes and bug fixes. As has been much requested, we've also made changes to the Stalin paranoia system - no need to look over your shoulder about it anymore!

Below you can find the patch notes (unchanged from the Open Beta version);

Patch 1.12.8 Operation Capital Checksum 9d51

Balance

- Equipment variants created through focuses etc. will be created first when the technology they are based on is researched, if it's missing.
- Tank Design: Radio modules curve slightly changed, overall efficacy of radios reduced slightly
- Tank Design: Close Support Gun now has 10 piercing, from 12.
- Tank Design: Heavy Machine Gun now has 8 soft attack from 5, and 6 piercing from 10
- Tank Design: Secondary Cannon and HMG now have fewer drawbacks but higher production cost. HMG soft attack now 4, from 3, but hard attack removed
- Tank Design: Additional Machine guns soft attack reduced to 1, from 2
- Tank Design: Easy Maintenance module now reduces total build cost by 5%, but requires 30 XP, from 10
- Tank Design: Expanded Fuel Tanks now cost 1 IC, from 2
- Tank Design: Sloped Armor now increases armor by 25%, from 20
- Tank Design: Medium One-Man Turret now has 8 breakthrough, from 10, and reduces soft and hard attack by 10%, from 25%
- Tank Design: Three-Man Turret now has 24 breakthrough, from 20
- Tank Design: Torsion Bar now grants 15% reliability, from 10%
- Tank Design: Interleaved Road Wheels no longer reduces reliability, but has doubled production cost
- Tank Design: Welded armor reduced to 30% armor, from 40%
- Plane Design: Torpedo Mountings now have 14 naval strike attack from 12, -12 agility from -15, and 6 targeting from 5
- Plane Design: Reduced the lower end of plane engine IC costs; earlier planes should be a little cheaper on the whole
- Dive brakes no longer valid for naval bombers, increased naval targeting from dive brakes from 4 to 6
- Dive brakes no longer valid with naval bomber weapons (torpedoes and guided missiles)
- Carrier Naval strike multiplier increased, reduced naval strike detection chance from 0.7 to 0.5, reduced carrier disruption factor from 0.8 to 0.6
- Basic Medium chassis now 1938 tech, amphibious tank now unlocked only by 1936 light, tank armour tech dates are now 36,38,41,44, amphibious tank no longer gets medium turrets

- New variants received from auto-upgrades, focuses, events etc. are now highlighted in the production tab like variants received from research.
- In research screen for modular equipment (tank, ship, plane), stop showing a diff in stats when there is no design company attached
- Improved Tank tech tree layout

- Soviet Union no longer desires to be best buddies with Romania despite being instructed to ignore them for a while
- AI weights on hiring advisors now makes more sense. You should see a better split between political advisors & research bureaus, and the AI no longer saves all PP for hiring chiefs at the exclusion of all else. [This has a pretty radical effect on early AI build-up, thus there may be some imbalance in the early game in this open beta - feedback especially welcome]
- AI have a higher weight on Captain of Industry advisors pre-1939
- AI military spirit selection is less deterministic

Modding

- Added property allow_without_tech to create_equipment_variant which will create the variant even if the technology it's based on is missing.
- Fix the way character variables in script are stored
- From now on, any trigger or effect, strictly requiring a country scope, but used in a character scope, will not work anymore
- From now on, any trigger or effect, strictly requiring a country scope, but used in all_character, any_character, random_character, every_character, party_leader, characters_list_tooltip, will not work anymore
- Correctly retrieve variables stored in character scope for text
- Fixed tooltip function of trigger can_be_country_leader when used in country scope or all_character/any_character
- Fix add_ideas and activate_advisor effects. When applied to a slot that is already filled, dismiss the currently appointed advisor before hiring the new one. Will fix crash when opening Officer corps after.
- In script, interpret correctly when a character token is used in input
- Make has_character and can_be_country_leader work with variables and keyword, and not just with a character token
- Make is_character work with variables and keyword, and not just with a character token
- Align can_be_country_leader on other character trigger and always return false if the character is retired
- Fix crash in remove_advisor_role if the character had no matching advisor role
- When using a character token as input for a scope, search for the closest encapsuling country scope in order to interpret it correctly
- Fix crash when using add_advisor_role on a character with already a role in the same slot. Add a log error if trying to put triggers and on_action in the advisor role in add_advisor_role, those can only work if in database.
- Make set_temp_variable accept character token as input
- Removed check on unit leader type for add_unit_leader_trait. This check is only relevant for random traits.
- Make sure that advisor roles in characters duplicated during civil war keep the same idea_token
- Remove check on scope for hidden_effect and effect_tooltip
- Added country dynamic variables : country_leader, theorist, army_chief, navy_chief, air_chief, political_advisor, high_command
- Make sure all political parties are cleaned up when a character with multiple country leader roles retires
- Fix the tooltip for triggers inside a character scope, now the name of the character will correctly prefix the trigger tooltip
- Add can_be_fired boolean flag in advisor role block in database. If at 'no', then the advisor can't be fired once hired. Warning modders : completely replaces removal_cost = -1 !
- Add trigger advisor_can_be_fired checking new flag can_be_fired in advisor role block
- Add effect set_can_be_fired_in_advisor_role, setting new flag can_be_fired in advisor role block
- Fix dynamic variables when using a unit leader scope
- Add trigger pc_is_state_claimed
- Renamed trigger pc_is_state_outside_influence_for to pc_is_state_outside_influence_for_winner
- AI now correctly evaluates the weight of the traits that an advisor has, as well as the advisor entry weights

Art

- Added portraits for political advisors in Spain and Portugal

Bugfix

- Fix all events related to Soviet Paranoia (value was always 0)
- Fixed issue where researching a new hull, chassis or airframe would not create the default variant if any variant of that type already existed.
- Fixed issue where variants created through focuses etc. would get unexpected modules and upgrades as a result of there being no default variant.
- Fixed typo in tooltip for Soviet Merge Plants focuses
- Fixed the manpower exploit by repeated splitting & merging of airwings.
- Italian Fiat 3000 and Fiat 3000B inter-war tanks will no longer be just hulls in the stockpile and will now show proper inter-war tank 2D icon.
- Italian AI should no longer release puppets in Balkans on historical via decisions.
- Decaying opinion modifers (for instance from improve relation diplomatic action) will not disappear after loading a save anymore
- Fixes to how AI selects target templates for upgrading
- Combat log tooltip now shows correct naming for losses breakdown
- Admirals can no longer erroneously gain the politically_connected general trait
- Fix bug with usage of pc_is_state_outside_influence_for trigger in ai desires
- Fixed issue where 'No Councilor' mission would complete right away.
- Fixed issue where Democratic Unrest National Spirit in Switzerland wouldn't be removed when declaring the Alpine Protectorate.
- AI no longer forgets top-most production line when reducing excessive factories
- Fixed Thrust/Weight issues in some plane designs after latest air rebalance
- Fixed not considering manpower casualties in the air combat.
- Unite Polynesia decision category now shows the appropriate decision category picture.
- Stalinist AI should now be more inclined to kill Trotsky.
- Cruiser Submarine icon will now be properly shown on the researched technology pop-up.
- Fixed Chinese general showing up with blank portrait when Nationalist China integrates Guanxi Clique army.

Dec 22, 2022

War Effort - Operation Capital [1.12.8 OPEN BETA]

Hearts of Iron IV - PDXKatten

Hello there Generals!

We have begun the final preparations for Operation Capital, and we now reveal our plans for you all! Below you will find a set of patch notes that are now live on an open beta branch. Feel free to give us feedback on these planned changes in the Discord!

################################################################
######## Hotfix 1.12.8 "Avalanche" ######### Edited on the 13th of January with new changes
################################################################

##################################
# Balance
##################################

- Equipment variants created through focuses etc. will be created first when the technology they are based on is researched, if it's missing.
- Tank Design: Radio modules curve slightly changed, overall efficacy of radios reduced slightly
- Tank Design: Close Support Gun now has 10 piercing, from 12.
- Tank Design: Heavy Machine Gun now has 8 soft attack from 5, and 6 piercing from 10
- Tank Design: Secondary Cannon and HMG now have fewer drawbacks but higher production cost. HMG soft attack now 4, from 3, but hard attack removed
- Tank Design: Additional Machineguns soft attack reduced to 1, from 2
- Tank Design: Easy Maintenance module now reduces total build cost by 5%, but requires 30 XP, from 10
- Tank Design: Expanded Fuel Tanks now cost 1 IC, from 2
- Tank Design: Sloped Armor now increases armor by 25%, from 20
- Tank Design: Medium One-Man Turret now has 8 breakthrough, from 10, and reduces soft and hard attack by 10%, from 25%
- Tank Design: Three-Man Turret now has 24 breakthrough, from 20
- Tank Design: Torsion Bar now grants 15% reliability, from 10%
- Tank Design: Interleaved Road Wheels no longer reduces reliability, but has doubled production cost
- Tank Design: Welded armor reduced to 30% armor, from 40%
- Plane Design: Torpedo Mountings now have 14 naval strike attack from 12, -12 agility from -15, and 6 targeting from 5
- Plane Design: Reduced the lower end of plane engine IC costs; earlier planes should be a little cheaper on the whole
- Dive brakes no longer valid for naval bombers, increased naval targeting from dive brakes from 4 to 6
- Dive brakes no longer valid with naval bomber weapons (torpedoes and guided missiles)
- Carrier Naval strike multiplier increased, reduced naval strike detection chance from 0.7 to 0.5, reduced carrier disruption factor from 0.8 to 0.6
- Basic Medium chassis now 1938 tech, amphibious tank now unlocked only by 1936 light, tank armour tech dates are now 36,38,41,44, amphibious tank no longer gets medium turrets

##################################
# UI
##################################

- New variants received from auto-upgrades, focuses, events etc. are now highlighted in the production tab like variants received from research.
- In research screen for modular equipment (tank, ship, plane), stop showing a diff in stats when there is no design company attached
- Improved Tank tech tree layout

##################################
# AI
##################################

- Soviet Union no longer desires to be best buddies with Romania despite being instructed to ignore them for a while
- AI weights on hiring advisors now makes more sense. You should see a better split between political advisors & research bureaus, and the AI no longer saves all PP for hiring chiefs at the exclusion of all else. [This has a pretty radical effect on early AI build-up, thus there may be some imbalance in the early game in this open beta - feedback especially welcome]
- AI have a higher weight on Captain of Industry advisors pre-1939
- AI military spirit selection is less deterministic

##################################
# Modding
##################################

- Added property allow_without_tech to create_equipment_variant which will create the variant even if the technology it's based on is missing.
- Fix the way character variables in script are stored
- From now on, any trigger or effect, strictly requiring a country scope, but used in a character scope, will not work anymore
- From now on, any trigger or effect, strictly requiring a country scope, but used in all_character, any_character, random_character, every_character, party_leader, characters_list_tooltip, will not work anymore
- Correctly retrieve variables stored in character scope for text
- Fixed tooltip function of trigger can_be_country_leader when used in country scope or all_character/any_character
- Fix add_ideas and activate_advisor effects. When applied to a slot that is already filled, dismiss the currently appointed advisor before hiring the new one. Will fix crash when opening Officer corps after.
- In script, interpret correctly when a character token is used in input
- Make has_character and can_be_country_leader work with variables and keyword, and not just with a character token
- Make is_character work with variables and keyword, and not just with a character token
- Align can_be_country_leader on other character trigger and always return false if the character is retired
- Fix crash in remove_advisor_role if the character had no matching advisor role
- When using a character token as input for a scope, search for the closest encapsuling country scope in order to interpret it correctly
- Fix crash when using add_advisor_role on a character with already a role in the same slot. Add a log error if trying to put triggers and on_action in the advisor role in add_advisor_role, those can only work if in database.
- Make set_temp_variable accept character token as input
- Removed check on unit leader type for add_unit_leader_trait. This check is only relevant for random traits.
- Make sure that advisor roles in characters duplicated during civil war keep the same idea_token
- Remove check on scope for hidden_effect and effect_tooltip
- Added country dynamic variables : country_leader, theorist, army_chief, navy_chief, air_chief, political_advisor, high_command
- Make sure all political parties are cleaned up when a character with multiple country leader roles retires
- Fix the tooltip for triggers inside a character scope, now the name of the character will correctly prefix the trigger tooltip
- Add can_be_fired boolean flag in advisor role block in database. If at 'no', then the advisor can't be fired once hired. Warning modders : completely replaces removal_cost = -1 !
- Add trigger advisor_can_be_fired checking new flag can_be_fired in advisor role block
- Add effect set_can_be_fired_in_advisor_role, setting new flag can_be_fired in advisor role block
- Fix dynamic variables when using a unit leader scope
- Add trigger pc_is_state_claimed
- Renamed trigger pc_is_state_outside_influence_for to pc_is_state_outside_influence_for_winner
- AI now correctly evaluates the weight of the traits that an advisor has, as well as the advisor entry weights

##################################
# Art
##################################

- Added portraits for political advisors in Spain and Portugal

##################################
# Bugfix
##################################

- Fix all events related to Soviet Paranoia (value was always 0)
- Fixed issue where researching a new hull, chassis or airframe would not create the default variant if any variant of that type already existed.
- Fixed issue where variants created through focuses etc. would get unexpected modules and upgrades as a result of there being no default variant.
- Fixed typo in tooltip for Soviet Merge Plants focuses
- Fixed the manpower exploit by repeated splitting & merging of airwings.
- Italian Fiat 3000 and Fiat 3000B inter-war tanks will no longer be just hulls in the stockpile and will now show proper inter-war tank 2D icon.
- Italian AI should no longer release puppets i Balkans on historical via decisions.
- Decaying opinion modifers (for instance from improve relation diplomatic action) will not disappear after loading a save anymore
- Fixes to how AI selects target templates for upgrading
- Combat log tooltip now shows correct naming for losses breakdown
- Admirals can no longer erroneously gain the politically_connected general trait
- Fix bug with usage of pc_is_state_outside_influence_for trigger in ai desires
- Fixed issue where 'No Councilor' mission would complete right away.
- Fixed issue where Democratic Unrest National Spirit in Switzerland wouldn't be removed when declaring the Alpine Protectorate.
- AI no longer forgets top-most production line when reducing excessive factories
- Fixed Thrust/Weight issues in some plane designs after latest air rebalance
- Fixed not considering manpower casualties in the air combat.
- Unite Polynesia decision category now shows the appropriate decision category picture.
- Stalinist AI should now be more inclined to kill Trotsky.
- Cruiser Submarine icon will now be properly shown on the researched technology pop-up.
- Fixed Chinese general showing up with blank portrait when Nationalist China integrates Guanxi Clique army.

To end this, we thank you for an amazing year, and keep your eyes peeled for 2023 as we got exciting things on the way for the Hearts of Iron Brand!

/Katten

Dec 8, 2022

War Effort - Operation Source [1.12.7 - Checksum b738]

Hearts of Iron IV - PDXKatten

Hello there Generals!

The War Effort Continues with Operation Source! Today's operation has set sail with new focuses, balance changes and of course bug fixes!
We now sail towards a new operation, which we will be sharing more information about in 2023. But until then, we wish you good fortune in your conquering adventures!

You can find the patch notes (unchanged from the Open Beta version) below:

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# Balance
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- Italian decisions Expand Regional Control in Ethiopian states no longer require any Ethiopian legitimacy value.
- Canadian focus 'Dollar-A-Year Men' now grants a national spirit with -33% political advisor cost. The exchange rate of dollars to political power is poor.
- Canadian focus 'Bits and Pieces Program' has gained an extra bit and piece, now granting 4% industrial and dockyard output, from 3%
- Canadian focuses that grant army experience now grant significantly more of it
- Fascist Canada now has the choice to offer concessions to the United Kingdom in return for Labrador and Newfoundland, which will be more likely to be accepted. Tooltips added for conditions leading to higher success chances.
- Ships transferred as part of a Peace Conference action no longer have crew included: ship experience is reduced to 25% of what it was before the transfer
- Australia has an additional shipyard focus. Each shipyard focus unlocks one of the naval designers, and naval designer traits are rebalanced.
- All Australian focuses granting army experience now grant between 5 and 10 times more
- Australian focus 'Naval Auxiliary Patrol' now grants 5% core defence factor, from 3%, and 10% naval experience gain (new). Experience gain from naval focuses increased slightly.
- Australian Arms Production focus now grants -10% infantry equipment build cost in addition to civilian factory conversion speed.
- Added a new focus for Australia, 'Coordinate Central Bureau', which adds 2 signal company research/ahead of time bonuses, and a decryption bonus if La Resistance is owned.
- Warscore contribution from lend leasing fuel and equipment roughly tripled. Warscore malus from receiving lendlease remains unchanged for now.
- Warscore from capturing a province for the first time increased to 4, from 3, Warscore from IC damage reduced by 20%
- Mengkukuo now has a starting core on Ordos. This does not come with free Ixian technology.
- Taking occupied states in peace conferences is now considerably cheaper. AI is less likely to contest unoccupied states (though they still will if they have good reasons)
- Added one new Hungarian Focus to construct a new flagship, accelerating potential naval growth a bit. Admiral Horthy can now complete his transcendence.
- Plane Designer: Engine 2 speed reduced to 480/450, from 530/480
- Hungarian Aluminium production is balanced between Transdanubia and Northern Hungary. Added 1 excavation decision to improve Transdanubian bauxite production, requiring excavation II
- Added a late-game resource prospecting decision for tapping the Derna oilfield in North Transylvania.
- Added a Hungarian Focus for restarting the shipping industry, adding 3 dockyards in a coastal state
- Canadian Focus 'Retool Angus Shops' now grants 2 military factories, from 1
- Canadian Focus 'United Shipyards' now grants 4 dockyards, from 3
- Canadian Focus 'Maritime Colonial Railway' now grants 2 Civilian Factories, from 1
- Canadian Focus 'Defense of Canada Regulations' now takes 35 days, from 70
- Added approximately 40% more German random name possibilities
- Added approximately 20% more English random name possibilities
- Added a new option when releasing nations. You can now choose to retain states upon which you have cores. Retained cores can still be returned to the puppet through the occupation menu.
- Rebalanced values for the "Sky Supplies" career profile medal to make it in line with new transport planes supply capabilities.

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# UI
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- Fix Career Profile Awards view for mod achievements in case of long texts

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# AI
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- AI now puts more weight on advisor competence rather than advisor cheapness, contrary to modern business practices.
- Fixed bug where AI gave super high score to the max_command_power and uncategorized modifiers while hiring advisors

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# Modding
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- Make the following triggers neutral - meaning they won't impact the outcome of the trigger block they are in: log, set_temp_variable, print_variables, round_temp_variable, clamp_temp_variable, subtract_from_temp_variable, multiply_temp_variable, divide_temp_variable, clear_temp_array, add_to_temp_array, remove_from_temp_array, resize_temp_array, find_highest_in_array, find_lowest_in_array

##################################
# Bugfix
##################################

- Fixed unlocalized armoured car technologies when researched via script.
- Reorganise Ascari will no longer add Armoured Cars to division templates if La Resistance is not active.
- Fixed typo in Balance of Power tooltip when there are no modifiers applied.
- Fix checking if a country is at war with someone in your faction. Also fixes add_to_faction effect.
- Ethiopian national spirit Aid Ethiopian Communists now shows proper localization
- Fixed wrong value for Mobilization Speed in the first range of the Italian Communist side of the Balance of Power
- Random seed for the outcome of NKVD decision to assassinate Stalin is now dynamic. Nobody is safe.
- New divisions spawned by Italian decision Train Irregulars will now spawn when the decision finishes instead of when the decision starts.
- Fixed Issue where Switzerland would not take focuses that required less than Full Cantonal Power
- Decreased likelihood Switzerland will join the Allies or Axis late war.

Playing with Mods?

We know mods are a huge part of our community and the game. With that in mind, we've updated our available old builds to include Hearts of Iron IV from before the War Effort initiative started. This means if your favorite mods is for some reason invalid with the initiative patches, you can backdate your game version and still enjoy Hearts of Iron IV your way.

Go to your Steam Library and select your game of choice.
Right-click and select Properties.
Under the “BETAS” tab.
Select the version you wish to play and wait for Steam launcher to finalize the switch.
If the previous step fails, exit the game, right click properties, local files, Verify the integrity of game files and wait for all files to be verified.

Nov 24, 2022

War Effort - Operation Tungsten [1.12.6 - Checksum a6ba]

Hearts of Iron IV - PDXKatten

Greetings all!

As I indicated a few weeks ago with the launch of the open beta for 1.12.6, the Hoi4 War Effort initiative is well underway. To recap, this will take the form of a consistent series of monthly updates containing smaller content additions, bugfixes, and quality of life improvements, primarily targeting nations that have older (perhaps outdated) content.

Today we're launching the first of these updates to the live branch. You can find the patch notes (unchanged from the Open Beta version) below:

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# Balance
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- India now has access to a new focus and series of lengthy decisions which allow the offset of the Agrarian Society national spirit
- Imperial Associates can now become spymaster of their faction
- Manchukuo focus 'Hoankyoku' now grants a free Spy Agency if unbuilt, and a national focus granting +1 free operative slot
- Two new one-use war support decisions added, which simulate the effects of radio and film industry propaganda
- One new focus added to Romanian air section: 'White Squadron'
- Air supply mission cp cost has been reduced by 75%
- truce period after kicking a country from faction increased to 60 days from 30
- Hungary's Support Urbanization focus now grants one civilian factory in addition to the three building slots. Institute for Industrial Techniques now requires one of the prerequisites, not both.
- Hungarian spirit 'Invite Foreign Investors' now grants 10% research speed in addition to previous effects.
- Hungary now receives 2 uses of the 25% doctrine cost reduction from the 'Mobile Corps' spirit, from 1
- Default occupation law is now set to Military Governor, from Civilian Oversight
- AI is somewhat less likely to blow the suez canal without reasons
- Soviet NKVD advisors are no longer omniscient beings - enemy spy detection chance reduced to 0.2% base from 5% base
- Italian 'Air Innovations' focus now grants a 50% research bonus, from 75%
- Italian focus 'Reggianes Exports' now grants 1x 50% bonus, from 2x 75%
- Italian Focus 'Citta del Aria' now grants 4x 25% bonuses, from 3x 75% research bonuses
- Italian focus 'Standardization' now provides 1x 75% research bonus, from 2x 75%
- Italian focus 'specialization' now grants 2x 50% research bonuses, from 3x 50%
- Italian focus 'Incrociatori Leggeri' now provides 2x interdiction cost reductions, from 3
- Italian focus 'Incrociatori pesanti' now provides 2x 75% cost reductions for fleet in being, from 3x 75%
- Italian Cruiser Sub and Midget Sub focuses now grant 1x 50% cost reductions, from 2x 75% cost reductions
- Italian focuses 'Navi da Battaglia' and 'Caccia... Cacciatorpprs... never mind' now provide 2x 50% cost reductions, from 2x 75%
- Italian focus 'Redirect Alfa Romeo production' now grants 2x50% research bonuses for light aircraft, from 2x 75%
- Italian focus 'thermojet research' has been made less powerful
- Czech Communist focus 'Communism with a Human Face' now grants 3% Recruitable Population from 2%
- Czech focus 'War College' now grants -100% Field Officer Promotion Penalty
- Czech focus 'Air is Our Sea' now grants -15% fighter production cost, from -10%
- Czech focus 'Equal Access Guarantee' no longer reduces heavy tank production cost, but reduces light tank production cost by 15%, from 5%
- Czech Fortification focuses (left side) now grant significantly more army experience (10-30 each, from 5 each)
- Czech Hungarian Line and Polish Line focuses now take 35 days to complete, from 70
- Ethiopia: Cost to invite to executive council reduced to 100pp from 150, cost to integrate is now 3% stability, from 150pp
- Indian Focus 'Rhani of Jhansi' now provides a commander of level 5, from 3 (with associated skill increases)
- Indian focus 'Navy Funding' now provides 50 naval xp, from 20
- Indian focus 'British Army Support' now grants 2 uses of the 100% research bonus for support technology from 1 use, and 30 army experience, from 20
- Indian focus 'Lions of the Great War' now provides 30 army experience. The spirit granted by this focus now also provides 5% war support
- approximately 2 million people have been returned to Mozambique
- Romanian focuses 'Invest in the IAR' and 'MALAXA' now grant 3 of their respective factory types, from 2
- Romanian focuses 'Ground Support' and 'Air Defense' now grant 2x 50% doctrine cost bonuses, from 2x 25%
- Romanian focus 'Air Superiority' now grants 2x 50% cost reduction bonuses, from 2x 25%
- Romanian focus 'The Armored Division' now grants 2 armored units, from 1
- Warscore from taking a province for the first time increased by 50%
- Garrison Manpower lost per resistance attack reduced slightly
- Small Bomb Bay now has -15 agility, from -20. Bomb Locks now have -20 agility from -15
- Several ai modifiers have been added to the 'Protect Czechoslovakia' triggered event in the Hungarian focus tree, and a tooltip has been added to indicate what you can do to make it more likely to succeed
- Non-strategic materials module now decreases production cost of airframes by 7.5%
- Manchukuo focus 'The Two Emperors' now reduces the Low Legitimacy malus by 20% war support and stability
- Slightly reduced manpower requirements again for lower tier occupation laws
- Timed peace stackables (resource rights + war reparations) now only cancel when at war with the receiver, rather than when at war with anyone.
- The USA now has a significant peace cost reduction for puppeting Japan

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# UI
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- Hovered state highlighting is now used in construction and deployment mapmodes
- You are once again able to click and shift-click to set the priority on production line elements, using the priority frame indicator

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# AI
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- AI will now pick somewhat more interesting military spirits
- Slightly adjusted thresholds for AI using occupation laws, towards a more severe approach
- If Czechoslovakia is at war with Germany, Germany should now wait a while before declaring war on Poland
- improved air role ratios for countries AI
- Gave the AI an extra layer of though process behind taking states in peace conferences. Added several key areas of interest, and reduced their general interest elsewhere.
- AI contesting other AIs in peace conferences should now resolve their conflicts based on a combination of relative power and map aesthetics

##################################
# Modding
##################################

- Added pc_turn trigger for peace conferences

##################################
# Bugfix
##################################

- Italy can no longer claim territory or the subjugation through decisions of a Balkan country if they are in the same faction
- If Italy tries to join the Stresa Front and has any wargoals on a faction member, they will be removed before Italy can join the faction
- Prevent CTD for observer when someone hotjoins
- Fix crash when putting the focus on an Edit text box and closing the screen by using the Escape key
- World Threat will now correctly build and decay from the fabrication of claims
- Fixed inconsistencies with BoP impact in Italy when losing/retaking core states.
- Switzerland now correctly updates best democratic allies when another country changes governments
- Former Presidents of the Swiss Confederation are now available as Councilors again after 1950
- Generic versions of Switzerland generated through Peace Conferences don't inherit Switzerland's systems or Focus Tree anymore.
- Indian civil war will no longer give you 0 units if you complete a civil war focus while Free
- Herzegovina is now transferred to Croatia if the appropriate event option is selected by Germany
- Cairo is now required to form Arabia, and is appropriately cored by the same decision
- Forming the ottoman empire without BftB now grants a core on Cairo. Cairo is now required and cored for the respective decisions in BftB
- Constantinople and Amasya are now cored by the Form Persia decision
- Ticino is now cored by the HRE decision
- Forming Byzantium without BftB will now appropriately grant cores on Constantinople and Amasya. Victory in Egypt and Tunis now requires and grants core on Cairo
- Forming Macedonia now requires and grants cores on Istanbul, Amasya, Van, and Cairo
- Decision alert should now show again if available decisions are present

Soon we'll begin an open beta period for our next War Effort patch, so those of you who are keen on getting your hands on changes early - keep your eyes peeled.

Message from the Team

One of our primary motivations here is to work with the HOI community in greater depth for these updates. Suggestions are always welcome, ideas considered, and feedback, as always, is requested. While some ideas will always be outside the scope of the work we are doing for the War Effort, or at odds with the direction I see the game going, I'd urge those with strong opinions on how we can improve the game to leave feedback in one of the War Effort threads, or in the suggestions forum. Many items from the suggestions forum have already been appraised, and some implemented - this is a practice we will continue, so long as they make practical sense.

The War Effort Continues!

Our recon vehicles have spotted the way forward! We can now see the coming two Operations, but with reconnaissance, things can be quite uncertain so we will work hard on confirming these dates to make sure they are correct being sharing them with you all.