It's out Tuesday 27th September.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1880650/Expansion__Hearts_of_Iron_IV_By_Blood_Alone/
A few notable additions are the Plane Designer (https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/developer-diary-plane-designer.1537609/), Divisional Command/promotion (https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/developer-diary-division-commanders-unit-medals.1538205/), and my favourite - that air combat has been remodelled so that aircraft now actually trace over enemy regions and can get intercepted and shot down on route and back from the mission area as well as Air Theatres being added to the game (https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/air-changes-developer-corner.1526348/)
EDIT: new patch update: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/avalanche-1-12-0-by-blood-alone-checksum-58f2.1544707/
The official notes:
New Italian Focus Tree:
Follow the historical path of Mussolini's Italy or rewrite history by restoring power to the monarchy, leading a Communist revolution or replacing Mussolini with one of a variety of new contenders.
New Ethiopian Focus Tree:
Defy the odds to defeat the Italian invader or resist the conqueror from abroad using unique Government in Exile abilities.
New Swiss Focus Tree:
Surrounded by France, Germany and Italy, the mountain nation of Switzerland finds strength in its neutrality, balancing competing factions and overtures from the great powers.
New Peace Conference Options:
Demilitarize zones of the map or entire nations, bid on the capital ships of defeated powers, or claim control of enemy resources or factories as reparations.
Aircraft Designer:
Design and build your own planes, from nimble interceptors that prioritize speed to durable bombers crafted to unload tons of destruction from high above.
Unit Medals:
A log of each division's accomplishments lets you track their performance, and even allows you to award unique medals to division commanders for their actions in the field.
Embargo Interaction:
Embargo your enemies with a new diplomatic interaction, preventing them from trading with you if they have generated enough world tension.
New Unit Models:
Over 20 new unit models for Italy, Ethiopia, and Switzerland
New Plane Models:
67 new plane models
12 New Music Tracks
HOI4 is becoming the rabbit hole for micromanagement. Fleet design, resource management, I come to the realization I'm not god and it's impossible for this old brain to embrace all the minutiae of HOI4. To much stuff I guess.
Tutorials for the new features:
With the air combat remodeled I may give this another go. That really was my biggest gripe. I have always wanted this game to grab me.
Oh boy, I cannot wait for HOI5 when they strip out all these cool features and make us wait for 50 DLCs over the course of 5 years to play with them again! :bd:
Quote from: al_infierno on September 27, 2022, 03:56:09 PM
Oh boy, I cannot wait for HOI5 when they strip out all these cool features and make us wait for 50 DLCs over the course of 5 years to play with them again! :bd:
+1 !!!!!
LMAO...prescient.
Quote from: al_infierno on September 27, 2022, 03:56:09 PM
Oh boy, I cannot wait for HOI5 when they strip out all these cool features and make us wait for 50 DLCs over the course of 5 years to play with them again! :bd:
Quote from: al_infierno on September 27, 2022, 03:56:09 PM
Oh boy, I cannot wait for HOI5 when they strip out all these cool features and make us wait for 50 DLCs over the course of 5 years to play with them again! :bd:
Exactly. I'm done with Paradox games when the newest ones come out. Buy them years later when finally bundled complete and heavily discounted. The old ones can hold me over until then.
Quote from: al_infierno on September 27, 2022, 03:56:09 PM
Oh boy, I cannot wait for HOI5 when they strip out all these cool features and make us wait for 50 DLCs over the course of 5 years to play with them again! :bd:
Exactly. I think in future I might wait until HOI 5 is complete and on sale. Then again, I'm a sucker for this game. Nearly 1500 hours playing it so I'm stuck repeating this cycle.
Hearts of Iron 3 came out in 2009, followed by HOI 4 in 2016.
These games have long cycles and I think it's unfair to fault paradox for supporting the game during all these years with fresh concepts and new ideas. I don't think it is a case of Paradox releasing an incomplete game and then taking years to finish while charging for it. None of the DLCs are really essential. In fact, some I actually have no interest in and skip altogether because I feel some of their additions and new concepts may detract from what I already consider a good system and experience. So, nobody is forced to by these DLCs and in some instances, it may even be better to avoid them.
How many solid grand strategy games are out there like these titles from paradox? Not many...which is why we keep coming back for more.
Quote from: al_infierno on September 27, 2022, 03:56:09 PM
Oh boy, I cannot wait for HOI5 when they strip out all these cool features and make us wait for 50 DLCs over the course of 5 years to play with them again! :bd:
That seems to be their business model. You will see the same re-imagined over and over again. I wish they would do something original for once.
Quote from: Sparhawk on September 27, 2022, 03:27:45 PM
With the air combat remodeled I may give this another go. That really was my biggest gripe. I have always wanted this game to grab me.
Do you think that they will fix the air combat so that you can use your Fighters, CAS and Tac bombers to hit airbases? I'd also like to see air leaders and formations much like they did with the navies.
After spending a couple thousand hours in a love/hate relationship with HOI4 I swore it off forever several months ago. The ai simply can't deal with the game. They finally fixed the atrocious air combat but it's not enough to lure me back.
Quote from: bobarossa on September 29, 2022, 01:14:06 PM
After spending a couple thousand hours in a love/hate relationship with HOI4 I swore it off forever several months ago. The ai simply can't deal with the game. They finally fixed the atrocious air combat but it's not enough to lure me back.
Thousands of hours? Surely you must like something about it... :-\
I love the game as well...but am also coming to the conclusion that maybe the AI has not kept up with the chrome. Can't put my finger on it yet...but when I get some concrete examples will post them.
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on September 29, 2022, 01:36:41 PM
Quote from: bobarossa on September 29, 2022, 01:14:06 PM
After spending a couple thousand hours in a love/hate relationship with HOI4 I swore it off forever several months ago. The ai simply can't deal with the game. They finally fixed the atrocious air combat but it's not enough to lure me back.
Thousands of hours? Surely you must like something about it... :-\
I love everything up until war starts. Love the economy, focus trees, building units, etc. War was it's great downfall. AI doesn't understand the difference in division types (arm vs mtz vs mountain) and their best use. The battle planner looks nice but divisions end up in a dance where they lose their readiness from lots of strategic movement. The air was was like playing whack-a-mole with me moving my fighters every couple days to where they just moved their bombers. Can't send a fleet to protect an island from invasion in the pacific. It just wanders around aimlessly instead of blasting transports at midway.
I turned it into a game of 'can I build a better armed forces than I did last game before war starts. Finally decided I had enough with the frustration and deleted it from the computer.
Quote from: Boggit on September 29, 2022, 12:53:14 PM
Quote from: Sparhawk on September 27, 2022, 03:27:45 PM
With the air combat remodeled I may give this another go. That really was my biggest gripe. I have always wanted this game to grab me.
Do you think that they will fix the air combat so that you can use your Fighters, CAS and Tac bombers to hit airbases? I'd also like to see air leaders and formations much like they did with the navies.
I keep playing the older iterations of HOI because I get more immersion from the air missions I can assign. It really tickles my fancy to wipe out a couple of air squadrons on the tarmac at first light.