Welcome to the release of 1.17.5, Warships of the Pacific.
In this release we focused on improving the immersion of the game. Based on feedback from previous releases, the team had many ideas on how to push the content even further. Last time we drew inspiration from the many strange and experimental inventions of World War II. With the Pacific and Asia as our theme this time, we instead looked at the remarkable stories of the ships that operated across the Pacific theater.
In last week’s Dev Diary you can see some of the history that inspired us, and how it helped us make these ships look better than ever.
This release also gave us the opportunity to revisit the model selection screen, allowing for a more immersive experience when choosing equipment. As a side effect, this work also helped us fix a large number of smaller bugs related to equipment beyond ships. The new system is easier for us to maintain and build on in the future. We already have more ideas for further improvements, such as bringing back historical equipment names rather than labels like Light Cruiser III (and we appreciate the suggestions we got in the above Dev Diary thread), but for now that work was outside the scope of this release.
Accompanying the DLC we also have a patch for everyone that focuses on smaller bug fixes, balancing and AI improvements. We continue to work on this in every release, and soon we’ll be back with our first Focus Pack, Peace for our Time; created in collaboration with veteran modders.
As a final note, we’ve been super happy with the feedback we’ve been getting on our dev corners for Thunder at our Gates and I hope you can see the results of that in the final product.
PDX_Gorion
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3796270/Cosmetic_Pack__Hearts_of_Iron_IV_Warships_of_the_Pacific/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3796240/Hearts_of_Iron_IV_Expansion_Pass_2/
Now onto the Patch Notes:
Warships of the Pacific
- Added 30 new 3D models for Naval vessels for: USA, Japan, The Commonwealth, The Soviet Union, and the PRC
- Added 30 2D icons corresponding to the new 3D models
- Added new SFX, VFX, and Animations for specific ship models
UI
- Implemented a simple equipment category dropdown and reset button in the model selector of the division designer
- Updated equipment model sorting so that special projects are always are at the top
- Implemented a more flexible pool priority system for equipment model sorting (and removed sorting cohorts)
- Added more functionality to control group management
- The Division Designer now uses the same model prioritisation as on the map
- The model selector UI now fits 5 list entries instead of 3
Balance
- Fixed an "airforce" typo and increased Lindberg's leader trait for air range to a more meaningful 5%, from 1%
- Reduced the mastery gain debuff France gets from "Victors of the Great War" to -15%
- Updated "Fund the Navy" focus to take 35 days instead
- All Puppets now get penalties to faction influence gain, ranging from -10% to -75% depending on their type
- Rebalanced faction influence gain from various sources: Increased for Warscore and Lend Lease, decreased for Scientists, also slightly increases passive initiative gain
Gameplay
- Broke out Nevada and Tennessee Class ships from Pennsylvania Class in USA naval OOB. Created separate classes
- USA: Carrier Primacy now gives Essex Class carrier when the tech is unlocked
- USA: Convoy Tactics now gives Casablanca Class escort carrier design when the special project is unlocked
- Japanese Carrier Submarine special project now creates I-400 design.
- Added Leander and County class cruiser designs to Australia to reflect active designs.
- Added Coastal Defense Ship tech to UK.
- Added Erebus-class Monitor design to UK (based on Coastal Defense Ship hull).
- Added HMS Erebus and HMS Terror to Britain's Reserve Fleet.
- The state of Banat is now included in the option "All of Transylvania" in the Second Vienna Award event chain
- Added starting paratrooper template to Japan
- When a fleet decides to repair, it will favor dockyards with more repair slots more strongly now
- Added British Monitors namelist for ships.
- Added Erebus-class 1939 refit design for Britain's 1939 bookmark.
- Changed "I-400 Class" name to the Japanese "Sentoku Class".
- While in the model selector grid, it now shows thumbnails of models
- Successfully imposing naval blockade should no longer restrict your access to trading through blockaded regions
Performance
- Fixed issue where 'RepairNow' button spams pathfinding calculations
- Made adjustments to how the game handles large lobbies to smooth out that experience.
AI
- Tweaked German equipment production to better be in line with their templates, additionally improved decision making for: Convoy raiding, force concentration, and lend-leasing or selling equipment close to war breaking out
- USA: improved the AI's naval templates and their prioritisation of which to produce
- Japanese starting paratrooper template now has 3 paratroopers (instead of 2)
- The Ma Cliques will now not do their mutual guarantees focus until the late game, and the SIK ai will now not become a Soviet puppet unless they fully control all their owned states
- Update USA strategy so they fight better in the pacific
- Belgium now correctly unlocks its "Division d'Infanterie" unit
- Increased research weights causing various navy heavy countries to research more naval technologies
- The AI now uses 'fund the navy' and will wait more with naval doctrine selection until it has the bonus active
- The AI will now train their ships more than previously, if possible due to fuel restraints
- Tweaked AI research weights for Fire Control Methods
Modding
- Implemented support for sending chains of console commands using '&&'
- Show icon weights in icon selector of designers when debugging
- Adds support for SubUnitDefinition-based equipment pools for icons
Bugfix
- Fixed an issue where scavenged equipment caused infantry to wear uniform from another country
- Fixed decision timers not progressing
- Changed an icon for USA jet_strat_bomber and jet_tac_bomber to fix errors that occur without the prototype vehicles pack.
- Fixed floating geometry on the Big Bob super heavy tank for New Zealand
- Fixed tank scale for BfB and the same type of tanks in other DLC:s
- Fixed "Zuikaku" provided through a Japanese focus incorrectly being called "Zaikaku".
- Japanese Missile Submarine special project is now no longer incorrectly called "I-400-class Missile Submarine" - instead the "I-400 Submarine Carrier" name has been moved to the Japanese Carrier Submarine special project.
- Fixed a potential crash when a division template was being removed while you had exiled divisions in transfer
- Added triggers to the "Coalition of Liberty" faction goal, so that it isn't available and can get auto-completed if the right criteria isn't fulfilled
- Fixes typo in AST focus tree: 'Habsbugs' -> 'Habsburgs'
- Fix some timing issues with decisions
- Fixed the Maphilindo flag displaying upside down
- Fixed an issue where two Khotan Ma advisors became unavailable when forming China
- Japan - Fixed an issue where the decisions from the focus East Asia Development Board wouldn't properly provide the promised factories
- Warlords - Fixed an issue where the Reach out to X country focuses in the shared branch could be taken even if said country no longer existed
- Paraguay - Fixed an issue where the spirit Guión Rojo wouldn't actually give any manpower
- Fixed an issue where the Japanese tactic Grand Banzai Charge would be enabled from the start instead of being enabled by focus
- Soviet Union - Fixed an issue where giving a Sinkiangi puppet control of Pamir would lock the Soviets out of taking the focus Gobi Gambit
- Fixed an issue where Spanish general Enrique Líster wouldn't get Stalinist sympathies if Spain had completed the focus The Popular Front
- Fixed an issue where a Belgian advisor and two Italian national spirits were attempting to use state based intel modifiers on a country scope
- Austria: fixed an issue where Godwin von Burmowski would show up in the air chief role without giving air xp, he has been moved to a high command role
- France: Fixed an issue where the focus Grow the Empire would be unavailable if the states were controlled by a puppet Congo
- Tweaked the scaling requirements of the Faction Goal "Develop Joint Research Practices" to make it easier to understand, and faster to complete.
- Updated localization of british infantry weapons to use the correct whitespace
- Fixed a bug where auto repeat spy operations was not correctly persisted between save & loads
- Fixed a bug where screens without depth charges would try and keep fighting submarines
- Fixed a bug where submarine detection chance was not correctly calculated
- Fixed an issue where some models were incorrectly showing up or missing
- Fixed a number of typos and other small writing issues
