Hello everyone,

I am Batya, a game designer that recently joined the ranks to bolster the team working on Hearts of Iron IV. Before this I was already working at Paradox on another project though so I am no complete stranger.

With the nearing planned release for the 1.17.4 patch we decided it would be a good moment to release a beta version first. We have fixed a lot of issues with this patch and it’s always good to get some extra input before it goes live.

We’ve seen noticeable improvements across the board on all issues both bug fixing, multiplayer performance and AI performance. Right now we would like to get more feedback on what pain points are still present so that we can further look into any issues.

This Beta client is Musketeer v1.17.4.0.f1d3 (fe52)

To install the Open Beta client simply follow the instructions below:

Right-click the game in your library
Properties…
Game Versions & Betas
Select the beta build as mentioned just above here

To ensure proper testing make sure you disable all mods, thank you! And remember to report bugs normally in the Bug Reports section of the Forums.

We've encountered an issue when testing on Linux, so the open beta might not work on it.

- Batya

Balance

• The Japanese focus Finish the Fight now takes 35 days and no longer unlocks an obsolete decision

• The Finnish AI is now more likely to pick subdoctrines that fit and work well for them

• Added a new national spirit for the Guangdong and Guangxi cliques to incentivise rushing the Liangguang Incident

• Added a national spirit and focus for the Chinese Warlord States regarding Military Looting, slowing down production in exchange for a slight military boost

• The Qing Empire now has access to warlord integration decisions to speed up the reduction of their puppets' autonomy

• The Greater Iraq integration decisions now take 14 days instead of 30, and target controlled states instead of owned states

• The Falangist Spanish bonus Eliminate the Carlists now lasts for 90 days instead of 60

• Finland now starts with its fifth submarine, the Saukko

• Adjusted the modifiers granted by the Putschminister trait

• Adjusted the location of some starting resources in Brazil, and added a small amount of rubber production to Acre

• Added one dockyard in Istanbul to represent the Taşkızak Naval Shipyard

• Turkey - Moved the Turkish character Kamil Tolon to the political advisor slot

• Turkey - Added two new starting ideas regarding the First Five Year Plan and illiteracy. Added two new early-game focuses for utilising Sümerbank for more industry and tackling illiteracy. Reduced the focus time for Ratify the Six Arrows to 35 days

• Japan - The missions for Naval Demands relating to building more ships now last 545 days instead of one year

• The communist shared Baltic focus A Revolutionary Cabinet now takes 35 days

• Overall org gain rate in large unit tactics has also been nerfed from 0.2 to 0.1

• Latvian Ugonkrusts divisions are now militias, and their national spirit Fascist Paramilitaries now gives a slight boost to militia attack and defense

• Historical Afghanistan can now seek investments from both the Axis and the Allies, provided that they expel the nationals of the faction they sought investments from first

• Increased energy cap for factories from 6 to 6.6

• Aussa - The focus Every Man a Warrior now unlocks militias

• Portugal - Boosted the amount of democratic support gained from the national spirit British Influence

• The Romanian national spirit Iron Guard now grants a 5% recruitable population factor bonus

• The Portuguese focus Portuguese Legion now also grants a one-time research bonus to Military Police, and the national spirit granted also gives 5% core defence

• The Soviet Union now starts with -50% land mastery gain. This can be removed with Lessons of War. Purges make the malus worse, while some focuses make it better

• Reduced 1936 starting static AA in England to a more historically accurate count

Multiplayer

• Significantly reduced the amount of commands being sent in multiplayer. This should help players with weaker internet connections

Gameplay

• New feature: You can now select which backgrounds you want to have shown in the main menu

• Greece - The focus An Orthodox State can now be taken when going down the absolutist royalist path, and grants different bonuses

• Congo - If the Barotse Litunga has been approached before the war for liberation commences, Yeta III will now become available as a field marshal

• Added the option in the Afghan historical branch to swap out the Prime Minister for another Royal Successor

• The Greater Mongolian formable nation now includes the state of Hebei-Chahar

• Added a new focus for Nationalist China in the air branch to open AFAMF factories, granting military factories and a small bonus to light airframes

• He Yingqin now becomes available as a general for Nationalist China after completing the focus Crackdown on Corruption in the army branch

• China can now rename a few Manchurian cities after recapturing them

• Added a bicycle division namelist for Japan

• Reforming the Chinese Empire as the Kumul Khanate or Ma Cliques now provides different flavour versions of the cosmetic tag

• Added an additional focus to Sinkiang's unique subbranch

• Added an internal politics subbranch to Khotan Ma

• Added two additional focuses to the Qinghai Ma's unique subbranch

• Added a focus for the Qinghai Ma to rebuild the Ninghai Army

• Added an event for imprisoning Zhang Xueliang as Nationalist China

• Added a unique focus tree subbranch for the Yunnan Clique

• Monarchist Portugal can now inherit a few Brazilian characters when reuniting the kingdoms

• Added the ability for a player puppet Mengkukuo to ask Japan, through a decision, to launch the Suiyuan Campaign

• Manchukuo can now request the annexation of other Japanese puppets in China through decisions when going down the Chinese Leadership path in the Obedience branch

• Added the ability for Brazil to establish and develop Rondônia

• Added a new focus to the Brazilian industrial branch to found the Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, increasing steel and aluminium in Minas Gerais

• Added the ability for a westernising Iranian state to secularise, and made the choice between the different democratic leaders more interesting

• Completing the focus Unified Kurdistan now grants additional core states

• Fascist Turkey can now make Nihal Atsız their country leader after completing the focus Turanist Ambition

• Added Etibank as a new industrial concern for Turkey

• Updated the Iraqi Military Branch to be more flavourful, giving them the ability to gain the river navy bonus, among other things

• The Iraqi focuses demanding Syria now require annexation instead of puppeting

• Updated the Kurdistan branch for Iraq to have more flavourful effects, such as the ability to train militias from the Peshmerga focus, and added the ability to take Eastern Syria through a border war

• Added a new industrial concern and two new military advisors for Iraq

• Added two new focuses to the Iraqi industrial tree for expanding the Cotton and Cement Industries

• Afghanistan - Added Abdul Hadi Dawi as an advisor for the Amanullah Khan branch

• Vichy France now has access to the political advisors it should have

• Vichy France now no longer has access to generals who fought with Free France

• Added one new Air Chief and two new High Command to Vichy France

• Added two more focuses to Iraq regarding Sunni Dominance and Shia Unrest

• Added a new focus for Afghanistan in the democratic branch to Ally the Young Afghans and gain more democratic support and advisors

• Added two capstone focuses to Iran

• Added two new decisions for Saudi Arabia and Oman relating to modernisation initiatives

• Added four new political advisors for Iraq

• Added a new shared national spirit and joint focus tree for the Ma Cliques

• Italy - If King Vittorio Emanuele dies while being a national spirit, he will be replaced by a national spirit version of Umberto II

• Repairing ships can draw local supply if not enough is available from their home base. This will only ever consume leftover supply

UI

• Show energy consumption modifiers in the energy resource tooltip

• Adds more information to the Spymaster operatives slot tooltip

• Adds an effective change clause to the Balance of Power tooltip

• Adds disabled states and new tooltips for Repair Now buttons for task forces and ships

• Japan - Added an explanation of which levels exist for the factions in the Imperial Influence system when hovering over the Emperor in the focus tree inlay window

• Fixed an issue where the convoy protection map icon efficiency tooltip would repeat the same information for every task force in a fleet

• Model Selector buttons now toggle

• Stockpile data is now sorted

• Afghanistan, Iraq - The Free Arabian and Turkestan Legion decisions now properly show their infantry equipment cost

• Added focus branch navigation buttons to the Indian and Iranian focus trees

• The Romanian focus White Squadron now has a more appropriate focus icon

• The logistics window now sorts the stockpile

AI

• Fixed issues where Japan would keep the Potsdam Conference and National Defense State spirits after being puppeted, and made the US more likely to puppet Japan and less likely to force a government change when they surrender through their focus

• If peace is accepted between China and Japan through the decision and subsequent events, truces are now also added with HBC and KUM, and the Japanese AI will be less likely to attack and antagonise Chinese nations

• Fixed an issue where ships could perform training missions while outside the range of their home base

• Naval AI - Fixed an issue where task forces would not move closer to their active regions, even when the home base was set nearby (this should make strike forces better at catching up to naval combats)

• Increased importance for the naval invasion defense goal

• Tweaked AI to only research coal efficiency when struggling with energy

• Improved behaviour of strike forces when engaging spotted enemies

• Improved Naval AI reasoning for the use of engagement rules, and added scriptable values by mission (risk/aggressiveness)

• Improved German AI efficiency with its air force during the Phoney War, Battle of Britain, and Barbarossa

• Improved AI choices around new coal technologies and state buildings. They will research new technologies and construct new buildings when clearly needed

• Adjusted Air Base Access AI acceptance logic. AI should now be less accepting of Air Base Access, especially across ideologies

Modding

• Fixed triggers is_demilitarized_zone and is_border_conflict crashing when used in any_state trigger

• Added `energy_ratio` trigger to see the energy fullfilment on a country scope, returning between 0 .. 1

• Implemented `only_imported` for `has_resources_in_country` trigger

Bugfix

• Fixed a bug where the map was brighter than intended

• Fixed a bug where random rolls in events would always roll the highest possible result

• Fixed a bug where an incorrect tactic name was used in infiltration tactics

• Correctly updates the research speed tooltip when tagging between countries

• Fixed an issue with tech bonus claiming that caused asserts

• Fixed a CTD when a unit given from an exiled Country A to Country B was standing in Country C, which was also exiled

• Fixed the High Capacity Electrical Grid tooltip displaying +10% instead of +10% per infrastructure

• Faction color now correctly follows the leader's color dynamically if not overridden

• Fixed an issue where the Goes To tooltip would show the wrong country

• Fixed resource-specific resource rights

• Polish AI will no longer take Boost Monarchism decisions if monarchism conditions are not met

• Poland can now access their Habsburg Alliance focus if Joseph August von conditions are met

• Requesting the South Atlantic Islands now correctly targets the appropriate country

• Fixed an issue where the Chinese Expedite the Political Tutelage decisions could be repeated in states that had been lost and recaptured

• PHI: The Philippines will now be granted independence if they peacefully complete the American Intervention

• PHI: You will no longer lose the Reino de Filipinas or Hispanic Empire tags when completing the Treaty of Manila while at war

• Fixed an issue where the Spanish Carlists would not receive the correct 3D unit models when choosing a Habsburg monarch

• Fixed a few instances of broken localisation in the Italian tree

• Fixed an issue where Moldovan characters would appear as debug strings

• Fixed an issue where the faction goal Fortify Okinawa would check naval forts in the wrong province, preventing completion

• Fixed an issue where Nationalist China puppeting a warlord after completing Appoint Sympathetic Judges would apply the spirit to itself instead of the warlord

• Fixed an issue where the Nationalist Chinese focus The Seas of Tomorrow would not grant the promised Naval Facility unless Hainan was controlled

• Fixed erroneous mastery gain bonuses in a few focuses

• Fixed Ye Jianying's portrait not showing if La Résistance was not enabled

• Fixed an issue where the Japanese army faction would not affect CAS production cost if BBA was disabled

• Fixed an issue where the Japanese Armored Car designer could appear when La Résistance was disabled

• Fixed an issue where the Spanish focus Join the Allies would ask multiple countries to join a faction simultaneously and trigger an incorrect news event

• Disabled an event when No Compromise, No Surrender is enabled that dismantled the United Front after defeating Japan, blocking China's focus Victory over the Invaders

• Fixed an issue where the Afghan and Raj focuses targeting Sinkiang would not grant war goals on KHM if they occupied the target territory

• Fixed the Establish a Marine Corps faction goal not granting the listed general reward when only amphibious tank technology was available

• Custom Game Rules - Fixed the Democratic AI Strategy of Lithuania incorrectly using the Latvian description

• Fixed an issue where Nicaragua was missing two political advisors

• Fixed issues where certain countries intended to form Central America and Gran Colombia could not do so, and added Balta-Tiraspol as a target in all Greater Lithuania and Greater Commonwealth focuses

• Fixed several instances where event options were unselectable for the AI due to being scripted with factor = 0 instead of base = 0

• Fixed an issue where Chile could have multiple Mapuche Conflict spirits simultaneously

• Fixed an issue where the hidden event to change Mao's portrait would retire the character and incorrectly swap the portrait

• Fixed an issue where some victory points would be incorrectly named after forming Greater Greece

• Eleftherios Venizelos passing away while Greece is democratic will no longer kill the country leader unless it is Venizelos himself

• Fixed issues where Mexican characters unlocked through focuses were incorrectly transferred to breakaway countries during civil wars

• Fixed missing localisation strings for the Nanjing Presidential Palace

• Fixed an issue where the Sinkiang focus Reestablish the Guominjun would send the wrong event to China

• Fixed an issue where warlords could not access the Morozov Design Bureau if NCNS was enabled

• Extended speed bonuses from sub-doctrines to motorised support units, including motorised and truck-drawn rocket artillery

• Fixed numerous "the the" duplicate word typos throughout localisation

• Fixed a missing officer trait in the Expand Infantry Forces faction goal reward description

• Corrected multiple instances of Poznan to the proper Polish spelling Poznań

• Fixed naval grand doctrines being incorrectly set based on doctrine tracks

• Fixed an issue where manually set equipment icons and models would not persist during auto-upgrades

• Removed Cancun, as it was not yet founded, and replaced it with Chetumal

• Fixed Magnatron typos and renamed it correctly to Magnetron

• Fixed an issue where democratic Japan could attract industrial investments from the same major country multiple times

• Fixed an issue where the Warlord Demands Subjugation event would always list China as the sender

• The Portuguese focus Expand the Chinese Territories can now also be taken if Macau is controlled by one of their subjects

• Fixed an issue where the Lithuanian focus Restore Greater Lithuania would be unavailable if any target states were already cored

• Congo gaining a Brown Water Navy will no longer be treated as being in South America

• Austria can no longer liberate other countries' subjects when forming the Central Powers

• Fixed an issue where a separate peace between Japan and the Soviet Union would grant Full Focus on the West to Japan instead of the Soviets

• Fixed a bug where the bonus to organisation gain rate was applied twice

• Fixed an issue where warlords could demand subjugation of Chinese states that were already subjects of foreign powers

• Raj - The focus Riches of the Raj now correctly includes both coal and chromium

• Added missing cores to the Finno-Ugria formable nation

• Fixed the Expand Our Armored Force faction goal tooltip to include the Armor Officer reward

• Raj - Fixed an issue where dams gained from Industrialise the Ganges would not appear on the map

• Fixed The Juannines achievement so it works correctly with La Résistance enabled and only targets original Spanish core states

• Fixed Burma's military advisors having incorrect costs

• Fixed the CHI focus Fund the Marine Corps using Invasion Preparation Speed instead of Invasion Preparation Time

• Fixed various issues with the Neo-Mesopotamian formable nation

• Fixed several naming issues for the Great and Eternal Nordic Empires

• Fixed the icon for Improved Anti-Tank in the Philippines

• GRE - Fixed missing tooltip GRE_host_soviet_bureaucrats_in_greece_tt

• Fixed missing French localisation for the Husqvarna weapons factory focus in the Swedish focus tree

• Reduced the speed of Elephantry units

• Fixed broken tooltip localisation in Form the Nordic Council

• SWE - Fixed the Question Neutrality event title not checking the current German leader

• Removed an incorrect period from a focus name

• Fixed Appoint a Spy Master displaying incorrect faction goal rewards in its tooltip

• BEL - Fixed Vandervelde's death event missing its trigger

• Fixed an issue where the Coronation of Mohammad Hassan Mirza event would not correctly make Persia non-aligned

• Fixed an issue where the Philippines could repeatedly switch between the Maphilindo and Hispanic Empire tags

• Fixed Claire Lee Chennault quitting immediately after being hired

• A Trotsky-harbouring Mexico that had not invited Trotsky into government and sought to join the Comintern will now send him to Moscow instead of leaving him permanently unavailable

• Afghanistan - Qargha Dam will now appear in the correct location

• Fixed an issue where female characters in Arabic countries could incorrectly have ibn instead of the linguistically correct bint in their surnames

• Fixed an issue where AI strategy values from the Iraqi focuses Nationalize Anglo-Iraqi Oil Company and Anglo-Iraqi Oil Expansion would not properly apply to the UK

• Raj - Restoring the Timurids as the Raj now also grants cores on their former Transoxianian and Caucasian territories

• Afghanistan - Fixed an issue where some focuses mentioning claims did not inform the player that claimed states could be cored after capture

• Scaled the number of technologies required to complete the Develop Joint Research Practices faction goal based on the faction's average researched technologies

• Gunther "Adlerauge" Rall has his portrait restored

• Bypassing Clamp Down on Danzig and Ban the Nazi Party will now remove resistance and rename the city

• Norway will now gain its two off-map civilian factories

• Fixed an issue where Democratic Chinese faction invitation decisions would fail if China was not the faction leader

• The democratic Chinese focus Shifting the Balance now has a small bypass effect to enable faction creation

• The Afghan Oil Concessions now only grant access to oil in the selected states

• Democratic China - The Stir Republican Sentiments decisions can no longer target warlords already affected by another democratisation decision

• Fixed a few instances where Uruguay would fail to go fascist when set to do so in the game rules

• Fixed an issue where Paraguay could fail to go communist when set to do so in the game rules

• Fixed an OOS issue caused by mismatched international market prices

• Fixed an issue where the faction goal to control the Bosphorus would construct forts in the wrong state

• Turkey - Fixed an issue where the Kurdish State Management decision category would disappear when no mission or decision was active

• Entering a war now removes naval blockades imposed by either party

• Fixed a bug where equipment used by the supply system was not properly returned, causing trucks to disappear

• Fixed an OOS issue in peace conferences

• PRC - Fixed an issue where not all stated rules were applied when completing the focus Burn the Paper Tigers

• Fixed multiplayer performance issues caused by excessive naval mission command generation

• Fixed an issue where Mexico could be annexed by one of its revolts even while winning if both sides shared the same ideology

• Fixed map mode brightness regression caused by legacy rendering changes