Hearts of Iron IV deploys first expansion, big patch
War! Huah!
Hearts of Iron IV [official site] has today launched its first expansion, Together for Victory, but just as importantly has released a big patch fixing a lot. While the expansion focuses on the British Dominions and Commonwealth and introduces an autonomy system, while the update in theory does a fair bit to improve the AI. Some players are reporting the game has started crashing for them but, for now, a workaround is helping with that.
First up: Together for Victory. It expands British subjects with new national focuses, alternate histories and so on for Canada, Australia, New Zealand, The Raj and South Africa. Also new is an autonomy system giving subjects varying degrees of independence - and even a shot at true independence. Other new things include tech sharing and lend leases for vehicles and equipment.
Together for Victory is £10.99/14,99€/$14.99 on Steam.
Update 1.3, nicknamed Torch, is also now live. It brings balance tweaks, bug fixes, AI improvements, UI changes, and other patch-y things. The full patch notes are over here.
While Hearts of Iron patch notes aren't as fun as with Crusader Kings II, I am fascinated by whatever was going on with trucks.
- AI no longer spams trucks like they were some kind of war winning superweapon.
- Marked equipment as correct type for AI to avoid it getting caught in truck vortex
- Tweaked Japan starting strategies for divisions, less trucks for the truck throne
While the patch's notes list fixes for a fair few crashes, it may have introduced a new one. If you're suddenly having HoI 4 crash to desktop, do try deleting the Hearts of Iron 4 folder in 'My Documents' (but do back up your saves first!)