Salutations, Admirals!
We are proud to announce the deployment of Update 1.17.5, Warships of the Pacific.
In this iteration, our primary objective was to heighten the game’s atmospheric depth. Informed by community critiques of previous updates, our team explored various avenues to enrich the naval experience. While our prior efforts highlighted the esoteric and prototypical machinery of World War II, this expansion draws inspiration from the storied vessels that patrolled the vast Pacific and Asian theaters.
For a deeper look into the historical narratives that guided our artistic direction and helped us achieve unprecedented visual fidelity for these ships, please refer to last week’s Developer Diary.
This update also features a comprehensive overhaul of the model selection interface, fostering a more intuitive and tactile experience when customizing equipment. This structural redesign allowed us to resolve numerous minor legacy bugs affecting non-naval equipment. This modernized system is significantly more sustainable, providing a robust foundation for future enhancements. While we are currently exploring the reintroduction of authentic historical nomenclature (moving away from generic labels like “Light Cruiser III”), such refinements remain slated for a subsequent release.
In tandem with the DLC, we are launching a general patch available to all players. This update emphasizes stability, fine-tuning balance, and sharpening AI behavior. Our commitment to iterative improvement continues, and we look forward to unveiling our inaugural Focus Pack, Peace for our Time, developed in close partnership with esteemed members of the modding community.
We also want to extend our gratitude for the enthusiastic reception of our “Dev Corners” regarding Thunder at our Gates. We believe the fruits of those discussions are clearly visible in the final product.
— PDX_Gorion
Explore the Hearts of Iron IV Expansion Pass 2
Update Documentation: Warships of the Pacific
- Naval Expansion: Introduced 30 unique 3D naval models for the United States, Japan, the Commonwealth, the Soviet Union, and the PRC.
- Visual Assets: Added 30 bespoke 2D icons corresponding to the new 3D models.
- Atmospherics: Integrated exclusive SFX, VFX, and specialized animations for select ship classes.
User Interface Enhancements
- Integrated a streamlined equipment category dropdown and a reset toggle within the division designer’s model selector.
- Optimized model sorting to ensure Special Projects occupy the primary positions.
- Developed a dynamic pool priority system for equipment sorting, replacing outdated sorting cohorts.
- Expanded the utility and functionality of control group management.
- Unified model prioritization logic between the Division Designer and the world map.
- Expanded the model selector grid to display five entries simultaneously, up from three.
Balance Adjustments
- Corrected a “airforce” typo and buffed Lindbergh’s air range leadership trait from a negligible 1% to a meaningful 5%.
- Softened the mastery gain penalty for France’s “Victors of the Great War” spirit to -15%.
- Reduced the completion time for the “Fund the Navy” focus to 35 days.
- Standardized faction influence penalties for all puppet states, ranging from -10% to -75% based on autonomy level.
- Recalibrated faction influence sources: Increased rewards for Warscore and Lend-Lease, while reducing the impact of Scientists and slightly boosting passive initiative.
Gameplay Refinements
- Naval OOB Expansion: Formally distinguished the Nevada and Tennessee classes from the Pennsylvania class in the US Navy starting roster.
- US Naval Tech: “Carrier Primacy” now correctly grants the Essex-class carrier upon research; “Convoy Tactics” now unlocks the Casablanca-class escort carrier design.
- Japanese Submarines: The Carrier Submarine special project now correctly generates the I-400 design (renamed to Sentoku-class).
- Commonwealth Fleet: Australia now starts with active Leander and County-class cruiser designs.
- UK Coastal Defense: Added Coastal Defense Ship technology and the Erebus-class Monitor (utilizing the Coastal Defense hull).
- British Reserve Fleet: HMS Erebus and HMS Terror have been added to the UK’s starting reserves.
- Diplomacy: The state of Banat is now properly included in the “All of Transylvania” option during the Second Vienna Award.
- Japanese Airborne: Added a starting paratrooper template for Japan.
- Logistics: Fleets seeking repairs will now more intelligently prioritize dockyards with high capacity.
- Trade: Successfully executing a naval blockade will no longer erroneously restrict the blockading power’s own trade access through that region.
- UI Feedback: The model selector grid now displays high-quality thumbnails for all assets.
Performance & Stability
- Resolved a critical performance spike where the ‘RepairNow’ function triggered excessive pathfinding calculations.
- Optimized multiplayer lobby handling to improve stability for large-scale sessions.
AI Improvements
- Refined German industrial logic to better align equipment production with active templates.
- Improved AI decision-making regarding convoy raiding, force concentration, and the strategic liquidation of equipment via market/Lend-Lease prior to hostilities.
- Enhanced the US AI’s naval design philosophy and production prioritization.
- Adjusted the Ma Cliques and Sinkiang AI to behave more historically regarding guarantees and Soviet subjugation.
- Upgraded US strategic logic for more effective combat operations in the Pacific theater.
- Ensured Belgium correctly deploys its “Division d’Infanterie” units.
- Increased naval research weight for maritime powers and improved the AI’s usage of naval training and “Fund the Navy” bonuses.
Modding Tools
- Enabled support for chained console commands using the ‘&&’ operator.
- Added debug functionality to display icon weights in the designer interface.
- Introduced support for SubUnitDefinition-based equipment pools for icon selection.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a visual bug where scavenged equipment caused infantry to wear incorrect foreign uniforms.
- Resolved an issue where decision timers would occasionally stall.
- Corrected floating geometry on New Zealand’s “Big Bob” super-heavy tank.
- Fixed various scaling issues for tanks across multiple DLC packs.
- Corrected the spelling of the Japanese carrier “Zuikaku” (previously “Zaikaku”).
- Resolved a potential crash occurring when deleting division templates while exiled units were in transit.
- Fixed the inverted Maphilindo flag.
- Addressed several issues in the Spanish, Paraguayan, Japanese, and Soviet focus trees where triggers or rewards were not functioning as intended.
- Fixed a bug preventing screens without depth charges from properly disengaging from submarines.
- Corrected a calculation error in submarine detection probabilities.
- Eliminated various typos and localized text errors across multiple languages.