Hearts of Iron 4 (HOI4) Update 1.12.8 Patch Notes – Jan 17, 2023

A new Hearts of Iron IV update 1.12.8 is available on PC (Steam). According to the official HOI4 patch notes, the latest update adds numerous balance adjustments, including changes to tank and plane design, naval strike attack and agility, and carrier disruption factors. Apart from this, HOI4 update 1.12.8 also includes various stability improvements.

Recently, a big Hearts of Iron IV update 1.12.0 was released that added balancing, AI improvements, and fixes. Unfortunately, since the last update, many players were experiencing a number of issues when trying to play. Today’s Hearts of Iron 4 update 1.12.8 will fix a few of these issues.

Read more details here.

HOI4 Update Patch Notes – January 17, 2023

Balance

• Equipment variants created through focuses etc. will be created first when the technology they are based on is researched, if it’s missing.
• Tank Design: Radio modules curve slightly changed, overall efficacy of radios reduced slightly
• Tank Design: Close Support Gun now has 10 piercing, from 12.
• Tank Design: Heavy Machine Gun now has 8 soft attack from 5, and 6 piercing from 10
• Tank Design: Secondary Cannon and HMG now have fewer drawbacks but higher production cost. HMG soft attack now 4, from 3, but hard attack removed
• Tank Design: Additional Machine guns soft attack reduced to 1, from 2
• Tank Design: Easy Maintenance module now reduces total build cost by 5%, but requires 30 XP, from 10
• Tank Design: Expanded Fuel Tanks now cost 1 IC, from 2
• Tank Design: Sloped Armor now increases armor by 25%, from 20
• Tank Design: Medium One-Man Turret now has 8 breakthrough, from 10, and reduces soft and hard attack by 10%, from 25%
• Tank Design: Three-Man Turret now has 24 breakthrough, from 20
• Tank Design: Torsion Bar now grants 15% reliability, from 10%
• Tank Design: Interleaved Road Wheels no longer reduces reliability, but has doubled production cost
• Tank Design: Welded armor reduced to 30% armor, from 40%
• Plane Design: Torpedo Mountings now have 14 naval strike attack from 12, -12 agility from -15, and 6 targeting from 5
• Plane Design: Reduced the lower end of plane engine IC costs; earlier planes should be a little cheaper on the whole
• Dive brakes no longer valid for naval bombers, increased naval targeting from dive brakes from 4 to 6
• Dive brakes no longer valid with naval bomber weapons (torpedoes and guided missiles)
• Carrier Naval strike multiplier increased, reduced naval strike detection chance from 0.7 to 0.5, reduced carrier disruption factor from 0.8 to 0.6
• Basic Medium chassis now 1938 tech, amphibious tank now unlocked only by 1936 light, tank armour tech dates are now 36,38,41,44, amphibious tank no longer gets medium turrets

UI

• New variants received from auto-upgrades, focuses, events etc. are now highlighted in the production tab like variants received from research.
• In research screen for modular equipment (tank, ship, plane), stop showing a diff in stats when there is no design company attached
• Improved Tank tech tree layout

AI

• Soviet Union no longer desires to be best buddies with Romania despite being instructed to ignore them for a while
• AI weights on hiring advisors now makes more sense. You should see a better split between political advisors & research bureaus, and the AI no longer saves all PP for hiring chiefs at the exclusion of all else. [This has a pretty radical effect on early AI build-up, thus there may be some imbalance in the early game in this open beta – feedback especially welcome]
• AI have a higher weight on Captain of Industry advisors pre-1939
• AI military spirit selection is less deterministic

Modding

• Added property allow_without_tech to create_equipment_variant which will create the variant even if the technology it’s based on is missing.
• Fix the way character variables in script are stored
• From now on, any trigger or effect, strictly requiring a country scope, but used in a character scope, will not work anymore
• From now on, any trigger or effect, strictly requiring a country scope, but used in all_character, any_character, random_character, every_character, party_leader, characters_list_tooltip, will not work anymore
• Correctly retrieve variables stored in character scope for text
• Fixed tooltip function of trigger can_be_country_leader when used in country scope or all_character/any_character
• Fix add_ideas and activate_advisor effects. When applied to a slot that is already filled, dismiss the currently appointed advisor before hiring the new one. Will fix crash when opening Officer corps after.
• In script, interpret correctly when a character token is used in input
• Make has_character and can_be_country_leader work with variables and keyword, and not just with a character token
• Make is_character work with variables and keyword, and not just with a character token
• Align can_be_country_leader on other character trigger and always return false if the character is retired
• Fix crash in remove_advisor_role if the character had no matching advisor role
• When using a character token as input for a scope, search for the closest encapsuling country scope in order to interpret it correctly
• Fix crash when using add_advisor_role on a character with already a role in the same slot. Add a log error if trying to put triggers and on_action in the advisor role in add_advisor_role, those can only work if in database.
• Make set_temp_variable accept character token as input
• Removed check on unit leader type for add_unit_leader_trait. This check is only relevant for random traits.
• Make sure that advisor roles in characters duplicated during civil war keep the same idea_token
• Remove check on scope for hidden_effect and effect_tooltip
• Added country dynamic variables : country_leader, theorist, army_chief, navy_chief, air_chief, political_advisor, high_command
• Make sure all political parties are cleaned up when a character with multiple country leader roles retires
• Fix the tooltip for triggers inside a character scope, now the name of the character will correctly prefix the trigger tooltip
• Add can_be_fired boolean flag in advisor role block in database. If at ‘no’, then the advisor can’t be fired once hired. Warning modders : completely replaces removal_cost = -1 !
• Add trigger advisor_can_be_fired checking new flag can_be_fired in advisor role block
• Add effect set_can_be_fired_in_advisor_role, setting new flag can_be_fired in advisor role block
• Fix dynamic variables when using a unit leader scope
• Add trigger pc_is_state_claimed
• Renamed trigger pc_is_state_outside_influence_for to pc_is_state_outside_influence_for_winner
• AI now correctly evaluates the weight of the traits that an advisor has, as well as the advisor entry weights

Art

• Added portraits for political advisors in Spain and Portugal

Bugfix

• Fix all events related to Soviet Paranoia (value was always 0)
• Fixed issue where researching a new hull, chassis or airframe would not create the default variant if any variant of that type already existed.
• Fixed issue where variants created through focuses etc. would get unexpected modules and upgrades as a result of there being no default variant.
• Fixed typo in tooltip for Soviet Merge Plants focuses
• Fixed the manpower exploit by repeated splitting & merging of airwings.
• Italian Fiat 3000 and Fiat 3000B inter-war tanks will no longer be just hulls in the stockpile and will now show proper inter-war tank 2D icon.
• Italian AI should no longer release puppets in Balkans on historical via decisions.
• Decaying opinion modifers (for instance from improve relation diplomatic action) will not disappear after loading a save anymore
• Fixes to how AI selects target templates for upgrading
• Combat log tooltip now shows correct naming for losses breakdown
• Admirals can no longer erroneously gain the politically_connected general trait
• Fix bug with usage of pc_is_state_outside_influence_for trigger in ai desires
• Fixed issue where ‘No Councilor’ mission would complete right away.
• Fixed issue where Democratic Unrest National Spirit in Switzerland wouldn’t be removed when declaring the Alpine Protectorate.
• AI no longer forgets top-most production line when reducing excessive factories
• Fixed Thrust/Weight issues in some plane designs after latest air rebalance
• Fixed not considering manpower casualties in the air combat.
• Unite Polynesia decision category now shows the appropriate decision category picture.
• Stalinist AI should now be more inclined to kill Trotsky.
• Cruiser Submarine icon will now be properly shown on the researched technology pop-up.
• Fixed Chinese general showing up with blank portrait when Nationalist China integrates Guanxi Clique army.