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WW2 grand strategy game Hearts of Iron 4 is cooking big Axis and Allies changesJul 6, 2025 - PCGamesNDespite building Steam's leading WW2 grand strategy game, Hearts of Iron 4 developer Paradox refuses to rest on its laurels. Over nine years since it was first launched, the highly detailed World War II management sim boasts a 91%-positive rating on the Valve store from over 240,000 combined user reviews. As it nears double digits, Paradox has big plans for HoI 4, including a full redesign to the way factions work to make them more engaging. In a new developer blog, design manager 'Wrongwraith' walks us through what that might look like for the two biggest players, the Axis and Allies. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: WW2 strategy game Hearts of Iron 4 is giving factions a fundamental rework Before Europa Universalis 5, get Paradox's finest grand strategy games cheap Hearts of Iron 4's next DLC is adding weird WW2 experiments sooner than expected Dev Corner | Faction Dynamics Part 2Jul 3, 2025 - Community AnnouncementsIf you haven't seen the previous Dev Corner, make sure to check it out here. Reinventing Faction Dynamics Part 2 Generals! Welcome to another Developer Corner. Let’s start with a reminder, or clarification, so you have a better idea of what kind of feedback we’re looking for. Dev Diaries give you a clear preview of what’s coming very soon. Dev Corners are our way of involving the community earlier in our design and development process so we have a chance to listen and tweak. This obviously means there is less detail to share, because we don’t (want to) have it all nailed down yet. It’s also possible that things we discuss here aren’t all meant for the next DLC. Now that that’s all cleared up, settle in, read it all and give us your honest, and friendly, feedback. Now on to Wrongwraith: The first dev corner about all things factions got a bit too long as I tended to talk about more things than I had originally intended to. But it felt that I had to try to cover a lot of things in order to explain what I was talking about. To compensate for that, this one will be a bit more focused. I wanted to talk about the different factions - what makes them different? Basically giving a little bit of an insight into the working day of a game designer. What we have tried to do is to decide on a theme for a faction; and design a Manifest, and select a set of Faction Rules that relate to that theme. We want to have Goals that are more or less strategic in nature. You should be encouraged to act; and to act in a way that makes sense according to the theme wherever that is possible. Just to say it one more time: This is very much an iterative process. The final result, whenever this feature actually makes it into the game, might be totally different. To explain what I mean I will give a few examples and show you a few more screenshots (sorry, but they still very much have placeholder UI elements - and not at all pretty). Designing the Axis Let's start with the Axis… Germany starts the game as the leader of the Axis; nothing new there. Thinking about the Axis, and especially the two major powers there - Germany and Italy - it is all about conquest and expansion. Subsequently that quite naturally becomes the theme for this faction. How do we measure conquest then? In HOI terms it is probably the amount of controlled territory that is outside your core nation. Some of the bonuses you get from high fulfillment of the Manifest then also relate back to the conquest of territory, like non-core manpower, and resistance to occupation. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/af7cee9b15dc8cc40f0ae24c9a669f6ce2cdd675.png The Axis faction window - and no, it won’t look like this when ready. The Axis goals then, are as follows: Secure the Resource Supply - Faction members control resources enough to ensure they can be at war with the world for some time. A European Bastion - Get European Continental countries to either join your faction or capitulate / become part of you. Secure North Africa...Dev Corner | ThermodynamicsJun 26, 2025 - Community AnnouncementsIf you missed the previous Dev Corner, make sure to check it out here. Briefing: Thermodynamics Author: Zwirbaum Hello everyone! It has been eight days since the last dev corner, which means it is time for another one. Last time, I was talking about some of the new naval concepts and changes coming to the Hearts of Iron IV. Today I will be talking about the introduction of Coal and Energy into the game. As a casual reminder keep in mind that everything discussed here is in a relatively early stage, and as such is subject to change.I also want to add that not every dev corner will be a long one, and some may end up on a rather short side. But without further ado, let’s keep this lump of coal rolling. For the first time since the launch of the game we will be adding a new resource to the game, as every other resource, Steel, Rubber, Tungsten, Chromium, Aluminium and Oil were since day 1 in-game (with Oil getting Facelift in Man the Guns to be used for Fuel production instead of equipment production). This resource is Coal - to put it very briefly it will be serving as a ‘fuel’ in the form of Energy for your industry to keep it running efficiently. Core Concept What are some of the goals when it comes to adding Coal & Energy, and what do we want to achieve with it? We want to introduce a potential soft-limit on the current almost limitless industrial expansion. Increase importance on expanding and securing a resource base for your needs. Provide a bit more interesting choices when it comes to economic laws, give some incentive for a player to consider ‘demobilize’ at some point during the gameplay, and that War Economy / Total Mobilization is not always the one and the only one right choice. We are not aiming at creating a super complicated or overly complex system for energy/economy model What is all the fuse about? {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/450fe2db43795adb12a20084b19468a9789365d4.png Sardinia starts with 2 units of Coal at the beginning of the game. As usual, numbers are subject to change, so please do not despair yet. Base Concept So the system works like this: Coal is excavated just like every other resource in-game. Each unit of Coal that you have for your own use (so not traded away) will produce a set amount of Energy, which then in turn is used to power up your industry - your civilian, military factories and naval dockyards, which for the ease I’ll be later calling them in this dev corner as ‘factory’. Each Factory, regardless of the type, has the same base Energy demand, so what you are seeing in the top bar as your industry size should also give you a very rough estimate of the demand. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/57eb6fdb80e5b1943b33c95fbb427c290b0e4afd.png This totally mysterious country, that is totally unrelated to Sardinia from the previous screenshot starts with 56 factories, and now has a mysterious bar under the factory count. Economy of the Scale However the base Energy demand is not everything, as each Factory you own will also ...Steam Summer Sale!Jun 19, 2025 - Community AnnouncementsGenerals! The Steam Summer Sale has arrived, and the Quartermasters have facilitated more deals for our frontline troops, make sure to check them out before time is up! Pick out something for your collection, grab something for a friend, or maybe find that one thing you've been missing for your next games! BASE GAME Hearts of Iron IV - 70% off Hearts of Iron IV: Starter Edition - 70% off Expansions 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 70% off Country Packs Hearts of Iron IV: Battle for the Bosporus 50% off Hearts of Iron IV: Trial of Allegiance 20% off Hearts of Iron IV: Graveyard of Empires 20% off Music & Unit Packs 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 Have you kept up with our latest Dev Corners? If not, you should check out this post to find all of the recently discussed things shown by developers Dev Corner | HydrodynamicsJun 18, 2025 - Community AnnouncementsLast week's Dev Corner can be found here, but let's begin the next one! Briefing: HydrodynamicsWritten by: Zwirbaum Hello everyone! Another week is upon us which means it is the time for another dev corner. Last week Thomas talked about what we are cooking with the Factions, while I will be talking about naval and naval-related changes. Even the most beautiful placeholder art will be gone eventually like tears in the rain. So strap in, and prepare for the deluge of the information that will be coming your way. Also, keep in mind that everything discussed here is in a relatively early stage, and as such is subject to change. It is no secret that one of the most common sentiments across the Hearts of Iron IV player base is that the Navy seems to be rather hard to understand. Some elements are almost instantaneous in the effect (Supremacy), others take a long time (building the Navy) and some elements remain relatively hidden until the actual shooting starts (Supremacy Value of the Ships, Screening in Taskforces etc.). On top of that we are also having a fairly complex system of Naval Missions - where they work best when using them together, synergistically. However missions could be explained a bit better, and sometimes what is best to achieve your goal could be somewhat counter intuitive. (Giant Strike Force of Doom, sitting idle in the port somewhat projecting supremacy across the entire oceans without ever sailing out as one example). So how are we planning to address it? Core ConceptSimilarly to how last week we talked about high-level concepts for the Factions, I will try to do the same for the Naval Systems, but before that I will also list some of our goals that were the basis for what we are working on: Updating and Reshaping Naval Gameplay, making it more strategic, giving you the opportunity for the counter-play if needed; a bit more predictable, and less ‘flip-floppy’ Updating Naval Missions so that they become more intuitive, with a much clearer purpose and use case Encourage a more active use of fleets Update and Communicate better to the Player some of the intricacies of the Naval Systems Increasing the Importance of the Islands Control (in the Pacific) and Naval Logistics Updating Carriers and address the interactions between land-based aircraft and naval taskforces Update to Naval GameplayNaval DominanceFirst of all, and the most important of the changes is that we are introducing the concept of Naval Dominance. Naval Dominance is a sort of umbrella term for a couple of things. Similar to how ships had Supremacy Value, now they have Naval Dominance Value, which will be displayed on the Ship Card. Mutsu has 509 Naval Dominance Value. We are also changing the old calculation, that was based mostly on Production Cost and Manpower, to have more things affecting the calculation, like Speed and Range, so for those who want to build Fast Battleships, increased dominance value may be the reward… Next, we will want to talk about Naval Domina...War Effort | Patch 1.16.9Jun 16, 2025 - Community AnnouncementsGenerals! We return with new intel from Command, a new War Effort is now live with balance and gameplay tweaks, UI and performance changes and a bunch of bugfixes, make sure to read them all below; BalanceAfghanistan- The focus Socialist Coup can now be bypassed if they are already communist, and the coup can be performed peacefully if there is more than 60% communist support in the country - Countries will be more likely to accept your Confederation with Pakistan if they are in the same faction as you - The focus Reform the Quami now grants an additional 10% recruitable population factor General- Removed hostile armor speed factor from German Blitzkrieg operational planning modifier; this modifier only half-worked by virtue of a bug that has now been fixed GameplayAfghanistan- Mohammed Daoud Khan now becomes a general if going down the Nufus branch - Added a focus to the Quami branch that allows for the production of cheaper, but less efficient rifles - The army branch now contains two focuses relating to utilizing Camels in the military, with one of the focuses requiring Battle for the Bosphorus - Added a focus to the industrial branch to expand the Spinzar Cotton Factory, granting two more civilian factories - Added a focus accessible to the non-aligned/democratic branches about constructing a national identity, gaining strong bonuses after some investment - Added new focuses to the Nufus military branch, to gain a larger army, and potentially seek mutual guarantees with Turkey- Added a strong capstone focus to the Nufus branch that references the historical title of the Royal Afghan Army; Prussians of the Orient - Added 4 new political advisors - Added Traditionalist Paths to the Against Kabul Branch - Added three new low-probability expansionist AI Strategy Plans France- Improved the description of the focus "Fatherland" India- Added a news event for the formation of the East India Company - Added a news event for the Royal Indian navy Mutiny when India flips communist - Added a news event for the Death Knell of the Raj General- Overlords capitulating now always gives half progress to next autonomy level, disregarding of which autonomy level it currently is UI- Fixed an issue where army composition summary in frontline tooltip would show incorrect information - Added the option to disable map corner scrolling while keyboard navigation remains enabled - Added hotkey for accepting diplomatic requests quickly by Shift + Left Clicking top bar alerts Performance- Improved multiplayer save file transfer speed significantly, which should help resyncing to be much faster than before Modding- Added "after" (as opposed to "immediate") effect scope for events BugfixAfghanistan- You will no longer lose your own core states when gaining Tajikistan or Turkmenistan as allies when declaring war on the Soviets after having completed the focus "Alliance with Turkic Peoples" India- Pakistan and Bangladesh will no longer be counted as Princely States that break...WW2 strategy game Hearts of Iron 4 is giving factions a fundamental reworkJun 15, 2025 - PCGamesNHearts of Iron 4 has just celebrated its ninth birthday, and the WW2 grand strategy game remains the most popular of its type on Steam, reaching highs of more than 50,000 active players on a near-daily basis. Yet developer Paradox clearly still has ideas for how to keep building on its core; 2024's Götterdämmerung expansion delivered big changes to central players in the conflict such as Germany, Austria, and Hungary. Now, in a new developer blog, the studio explains that it plans to overhaul the way HoI 4 factions work. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Before Europa Universalis 5, get Paradox's finest grand strategy games cheap Hearts of Iron 4's next DLC is adding weird WW2 experiments sooner than expected New Hearts of Iron 4 DLC finally expands Central and South Asia in the WW2 game Dev Corner | Reinventing Faction Dynamics (Part 1)Jun 12, 2025 - Community AnnouncementsGenerals!Continuing from where we left off last week, we have another briefing from Command. Find a comfortable chair, settle in, and read on. Briefing: Reinventing Faction Dynamics (Part I)Written by: WrongwraithHey all,Dev corners are back. What are they and how do they differ from the Dev Diaries we normally do? The key difference is probably the scope. Dev corners are usually shorter. Here we discuss things that are sometimes very early in development, whereas Dev Diaries are usually about describing and explaining the new features that come with an expansion. So less details, and also a lot less pretty screenshots. And above all, a lot more Work in Progress - the things we talk about here might not even make it into the game in the end - at least not in the shape they are presented.But enough of that, on to what I was supposed to talk about. Today’s subject is Reinventing Faction Dynamics…Not much has happened to factions since release, so we figured it was time to take a look at them. The main difference is that there are more of them as more countries can, and do, create factions now. But in general they are all very similar, and you don’t feel any difference playing as the Axis as opposed to the Allies, the Comintern, or the Chinese United Front - for example. The goal here is to change that. To make factions feel more unique, and immersive at the same time. Before we continue I should reiterate that this is very early stages - so not much in terms of final UI is implemented, sometimes you can’t do things except by commands, and in general things are constantly changing - so don’t expect pretty pictures!But look at it from the bright side - you get to see very early UX mock ups - and some beautiful “coder art” :) Core ConceptsToday I will try to run you through the core concepts of what we are doing with factions. Later on I will dive deeper into details, but for now, I’ll try to keep it relatively high level and give you the big picture of what we are working on for this feature.Faction ManifestEarly mockup of Faction Window Header - showing the Manifest, the Faction Icon, and the Faction Power ProjectionEach faction has a manifest. The manifest is about what the faction wants to do. Conquer new land, Stop the spread of fascism - or similar longer term purposes. Each manifest will have a percentage of fulfillment - that can go up or down during gameplay. If the fulfillment is high enough, some bonuses will unlock - depending on the type of manifest.In-game view of the Faction header with manifest for the Allies - this is as raw as a screenshot will get. Placeholder art, no tooltips, no graphics added, and no attention to placement or final elements. But it is there, and it is working, and as the Allies, we want to defend democracyFaction GoalsIn addition to the Manifest each faction will have shorter or longer term strategic goals. These can be things like conquest of specific territory or control, or instigation, of resources.. These go...Hearts of Iron IV Anniversary week & Developer Corners!Jun 2, 2025 - Community AnnouncementsGenerals! Not only is our nine year anniversary happening today, but we've got a lot of content for you all to read through so make sure to continue reading. We've got Developer Corners starting up again, HOI4 Anniversary Giveaways every day and the Multiplayer Mayhem happening in the 2025 Community Cup! But first, a word from our Commander in Chief Arheo. Greetings all, As the oft-quoted Eisenhower stated, "In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable”. In the spirit of this, we thought it would be time to take a look at the long-term roadmap for Hearts of Iron. It has been around three years since our last formal Hearts of Iron Roadmap, and while plan have changed and evolved, this statement of intent has been largely what has guided our development process up until the release of Götterdämmerung. Our mainline intended innovations, when this was written just after No Step Back, included the following: Improvements to Frontline Stability (Progress in NSB, more to come) Strategic and Tactical AI improvements Battle Planner Improvements Götterdämmerung included a lot of improvements to the AI including Force Concentration: a feature designed to simulate tactical pushes and armor concentration. This has been an interesting one: when released, we saw a lot of players taken by surprise by the AI using this approach, and a lot more discussion over players being defeated or losing to the new AI behaviour. However, most of the community seems to have adapted fairly quickly to this change. To me this is a positive thing: while having a broad playerbase with varying levels of skill means we need to be gradual about how and if we increase overall difficulty when playing against AI, the existence of community “meta” and learning materials gives most players tools to catch up. In short, there’s no reason not to continue iterating on AI features that may increase average difficulty or required skill levels. On a related note, we’ve fixed a bunch of issues with frontline stability, but battle planning remains a tool that has a stark divide between how new and veteran players utilize it. We’ve done some quite deep user research into this particular area, but this resulted in few actionable results beyond handling edge cases better and improving frontline integrity. Long Term Goals and Strategies to Guide AI (Progress in NSB) Most of this is “under the hood”, but we’ve made a lot of progress adding tooling to interpret and direct how the AI performs long-term planning. This area of the game is notoriously opaque and it’s taken a fair while to get to the point where we have enough analytical insight into the mechanical decision-making process of the AI, but, we’re more or less there now. This has meant improved tooling such as AI strategies, imgui debug tools that modders also have access to, and better integration with existing mechanics that previously existed “on top” of the game without interacting much wi...Operation Brainstorm | Prototype Vehicles Available Now!May 15, 2025 - Community AnnouncementsGenerals! Welcome to Operation Brainstorm - File .: 1.16.6 :. This is the release of the final part of Expansion Pass 1: Prototype Vehicles. All of these models were either blueprints or early prototypes that were created or designed during the war, but ended up never getting used, or even manufactured. Also, they’re all entirely optional to use. Everything in this Unit Pack is intended to add some flavour and doesn’t affect gameplay. To facilitate and accompany this release we have included a War Effort patch, tweaking some balance, as well as fixing a bunch of issues. I hope you enjoy this release! Our current plan is to be back in just a few weeks to give all of you more insight into what we are, and have been, up to. -PDX_Gorion Hotfix Patch 1.16.8 Bugfix Germany: Fixed an issue where AI Austria would always reject Anschluss with historical settings turned off Fixed an issue where MIO selection persists across different equipment windows, which allowed using MIO for unsupported equipment. Hotfix Patch 1.16.7 Bugfix You can once again upgrade MIO on basic equipment if you chose not to upgrade it automatically Operation Brainstorm Patch 1.16.6 Prototype Vehicles Pack New 3D models added for prototype vehicles for Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Japan, Poland, Soviet Union, and USA. (Also, have a look here!) Balance Non-NSB Improved Medium Tank, Advanced Medium Tank, Improved Medium Tank Destroyer and Advanced Medium Tank Destroyers now have hardness value of 90% Close support gun soft attack reduced to 22 from 25 Self-Propelled Anti-Air brigades now have a baseline +15% air attack modifier Self-Propelled Artillery brigades now have a +15% baseline soft attack value Tank Destroyer brigades now have a +15% baseline piercing modifier Tank Designer: Anti-Air cannon 2 now has 32 Air Attack from 36, and 18 piercing from 20 Anti-Air cannon 3 now has 24 piercing from 30 Auto-Loader reduced to 1.5 IC cost from 2.5 Dozer blade IC cost reduced to 1 from 2 Easy Maintenance module increased to a 10% cost reduction, from 5% Upgrading MIO on equipment no longer costs XP. Choosing to upgrade equipment via the checkbox or by using the MIO queue will automatically update any production lines producing said equipment for no additional cost or production efficiency loss. Easy maintenance reduced to -7.5% from 10% cost reduction UI The redundant words "Chassis", "Airframe", and "Hull" have been removed from most instances of equipment designer templates. These classifications were already implied. Bugfix Fixed GFX issue where airplanes crashing into ground would remain for a while Fixed leader portrait not updating correctly in naval combat window Fixed state tooltip showing buildings under construction Fixed equipment design discount disappearing when saving and re-loading Advisor portrait will be colored if available but not affordable Fixed issue with 3D model selector for helicopters PZL P.23 now ...Before Europa Universalis 5, get Paradox's finest grand strategy games cheapMay 10, 2025 - PCGamesNWhen it comes to the top grand strategy games on PC, Paradox Interactive is a name you can trust. The developer and publisher has brought us many of the most rich, involved, and expansive tactical experiences around for a long time coming. Next on its list is the recently announced Europa Universalis 5 - but before we get there, you can catch up on its best works, including a few that branch out into other genres such as city builders and 4X games, at a big discount along with savings on much of their corresponding DLC. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Co-op roguelike gets new DLC, and only one player needs to buy it Roguelike deck builder Across the Obelisk update adds "major changes" Paradox Publisher Sale!May 9, 2025 - Community AnnouncementsGenerals! Following the announcement of Project Caesar Europa Universalis V, the Paradox Interactive Publisher Sale has begun with deals up to 70% off for Hearts of Iron! This sale runs from now until May 15th BASE GAME Hearts of Iron IV - 70% off Hearts of Iron IV: Starter Edition - 70% off Expansions 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 Country Packs Hearts of Iron IV: Battle for the Bosporus 50% off Hearts of Iron IV: Trial of Allegiance 20% off Music & Unit Packs 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% offRevealing Project Caesar!May 8, 2025 - Community AnnouncementsGenerals! Paradox Interactive are proud to welcome another soldier on the frontlines: Europa Universalis V is now available for wishlisting. Almost five hundred years of history unfold before you in Europa Universalis V, the latest version of one of the greatest strategy games of all time. Guide the destiny of any of hundreds of nations and societies in a simulated living world of unparalleled depth and complexity. Read more about it at the store page below! https://store.steampowered.com/app/3450310/Europa_Universalis_V/War Games Fest Reinforcements!May 3, 2025 - Community AnnouncementsGenerals! The Steam Wargames Fest is already upon us, though we are joining later than most we are reinforcing the front lines immediately with up to 70% off! Hold the line with some fantastic offers on DLCs, or perhaps recruit more comrades with the Hearts of Iron IV: Starter Edition! This sale will run from Now until May 7th BASE GAME Hearts of Iron IV - 70% off Hearts of Iron IV: Starter Edition - 70% off Expansions 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 Country Packs Hearts of Iron IV: Battle for the Bosporus 50% off Hearts of Iron IV: Trial of Allegiance 20% off Music & Unit Packs 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% offHearts of Iron 4's next DLC is adding weird WW2 experiments sooner than expectedMay 1, 2025 - PCGamesNHearts of Iron 4 remains a titan of the grand strategy genre. Nearly nine years after it launched, the Paradox-developed WW2 game continues to pull in tens of thousands of players daily, remaining among Steam's top games thanks to the unparalleled level of depth in its recreation of the globe-spanning conflict. With its next DLC, however, HoI 4 is getting a little experimental, delving into prototype creations that, in most cases, never actually saw the light of day. Set to round out the game's first expansion pass, Paradox announces that Prototype Vehicles will now be launching sooner than expected. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: New Hearts of Iron 4 DLC finally expands Central and South Asia in the WW2 game Epic WW2 strategy game Hearts of Iron 4 is the biggest it's ever been right now Hearts of Iron 4 DLC gives Germany new alternate history paths through WW2 Developer Diary | Prototype Vehicles Unit PackApr 30, 2025 - Community AnnouncementsGenerals! We have some good news! Prototype Vehicles are almost ready to roll out, so instead of releasing them in Q3 as initially announced, we will launch them in Q2! Yes, the Prototype vehicle pack will be dropping soon, and you’ll find some juicy details below. But first, a small disclaimer: When our latest DLC comes out, Expansion Pass 1 will become a dynamic bundle. This means that you will get a discount for any DLCs from the Expansion Pass you already own. Good news for any holdouts! But, this also means the preorder bonuses will no longer be available in the bundle, so choose timely. And now, for the juicy bits: Hello generals! My name is Slurpen, here again to talk about 3D art for Hearts of Iron IV. This time, I’m also joined by Mordred Viking (aka Gareth), who is one of our content designers on HoI4. We are here to bring you a closer look at the new vehicles in the Prototype Vehicles Unit Pack, as well as some fun facts along the way! These are vehicles from a time when the arms race was in full force, and any means of getting the upper hand on the enemy was a battle within itself. Many vehicles were designed to improve on existing concepts, others were meant to tread new ground, and some were created purely out of desperation. Some of these prototypes were never built or fully developed, others reached the battlefield and were even successful to various degrees! In some cases, we will never know what the final designs may have looked like. This is, however, my favourite part of this pack! We have had to look at the original blueprints to give you our illustrations of what these vehicles would have looked like had they been fully produced. I hope you have as much fun looking at these designs as we had making them! These vehicles make for some fun topics of discussion. I have included the names of each one, so feel free to read up on the history of each one. We had a blast doing this ourselves! Mordred Viking and I will make brief comments on our personal favourites as we go along! Here are the high-res close-ups of these vehicles: {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/e116c1be22adce0ebe6b1ad2428bd3b906e75bad.png *The Modra Revolving Tank was designed with a rounded rotating hull that would deflect incoming projectiles. *The “Grasshopper” was a tank designed to combine the newly developed helicopter designs with the power of a tank. However, this design was swiftly dropped due to a multitude of design issues. *The Czech Skoda SK 13 was the German answer to the looming fuel shortage towards the end of the war. This vehicle was actually coal-powered. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/44fe47ac64b497230b68d7b4efc75bbfbbed2ac0.png * The “Praying Mantis” was an experimental machine gun carrier prototype that was tested for use in the British Army. At a glance, it looks quite futuristic, even though it’s anything but from the crew's point of view. Its fighting compartment can pivot up and down to lower its profile or shoot over terrain! * The Jasquet Articulat...Patch Notes & Developer Diary | Operation EARApr 28, 2025 - Community AnnouncementsHey! @AveeBee here to give you a rundown of what we’ve been up to recently. Since Graveyard of Empires released, we’ve been working hard to polish and refine the new content to make it more enjoyable. Some of this has taken the form of bug fixes of course, but we’ve also fully reworked significant sections of some focus trees, as well as added some completely new content that we really hope you enjoy. Many of you may have seen these changes already if you participated in the open beta recently and I’d like to say thank you to all who did! Your feedback was much appreciated and really helped us refine the new content. So without further ado, let’s take a look at some of the highlights. Saadabad Pact The Shared Saadabad tree is a joint focus tree that is shared between Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Turkey. This tree represents the historical Treaty of Saadabad, which was a pact of non aggression signed in 1937 between these countries. Historical AI will only complete the first focus in the branch, which is what creates the non aggression pact and gives all nations that agree a (weak) national spirit. However, on alt-history there is potential for expanding this into a much stronger alliance. Every focus completed will improve the national spirit bit by bit, until it eventually becomes a major boon to all members. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/fe7a96bdbcb003d26bb0c4dd074f32997bd5bd24.png The focus tree brings back the joint tree banners as seen in the Congo in Götterdamerung. The banner with all four flags can be taken by any member, and will give rewards to everyone, often with an additional bonus for the originator. Focuses with a specific flag can only be taken by that country, but these will also give bonuses to everyone. The “Military Cooperation” focus leads to the focuses “Expand our Influence”, giving war-related diplomatic bonuses to all members, “SAVAK to Protect Us All” which Iran can complete after it has formed SAVAK, and “Joint Military Exercises”, which gives military XP gain to everyone. On the other side you have the “Economic Cooperation” focus, which leads to the focuses “Expand Road and Rail Connections” and “Integration of our Infrastructure”, which opens the borders between the pact members, constructs a railway through the region, and gives every member a trade discount when buying resources from each other. There is also the “New Branches for the Baghlan Sugar Company” and “Joint Trade Through the Berlin-Baghdad Railway” focuses. These two can only be taken by Afghanistan and Iraq respectively, and allow them to share their resources with the rest of the pact, giving bonuses to every member including themselves. After either “Joint Military Exercises” or “Integration of our Infrastructure” has been taken, the second half of the tree is unlocked. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/7ca2a17641e1239b5716f9251f45b0389a718d7e.png Every member has one or two dedicated focuses that center on something they are good at. This focus can only be com...OPEN BETA | Patch 1.16.5 - UPDATEDApr 9, 2025 - Community AnnouncementsGenerals! 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. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/b6765d943da09f7fdc980a5626bfc705d605c6f4.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/42be21d7a0f834ab725652c580278e29e10fea58.png 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. Open Beta Update 1.15.6.3 April 16th 2025 Balance Afghanistan There are now more ways of increasing democracy support, making it easier to avoid the civil war in the democratic path India 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 Iran Added +75 Political Power and +5% Communist Party Popularity to the Iranian focus "Soviet Alignment" Gameplay Iran 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 India 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 t...User Research Survey! - [CLOSED]Apr 2, 2025 - Community AnnouncementsGenerals! 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! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/9948323/f6e542f7bc135e414a1ba01f591f4085463b246e.pngOperation SHOULDER | War Effort Patch 1.16.3Mar 27, 2025 - Community AnnouncementsGenerals! 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 After the Hotfix, It is Patch 1.16.4 Checksum 639e Balance Armored Car Balance Changes 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 Tanks and Tank Modules Balance Changes 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 Superf...
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