Weekly Update #247: Hearts of Iron IV Gets First Major Patch

Editor's Note

So a lot happened in the last two weeks since my last Weekly Update. Please humor me while I go through it all.

First up, WE GOT 1 MILLION PAGE VIEWS. It still feels good to say that and I get a little tingle every time I go to my blog's dashboard and see those seven figures. Everything else pretty much pales in comparison, but waiting for the page count to tick over is a passive project. While waiting I interviewed one of my favorite authors, Jack Campbell (a.k.a. John G. Hemry) for SFFWorld. I even got a DeviantArt profile so I can share some of my map and flag posts/videos with that community.

I have also been busy as usual writing for this blog. If you haven't looked at any of those article already, I can recommend several of them such as Weekly Update #246, where I showcased some of the books that I will be reading in September. Plus you may want to check out my Map Monday articles where I featured "The Day After the World of Tomorrows"​ by Rvbomally and "Causae Deus - Climate of (Deglaciated) Antarctica" by Gian.

We also had a couple of new guest posters to the blog. Michael J. Martinez (MJ-12: Inception) made his debut on the The Update discussing how to write about sexism in racism in historical fantasy and newcomer Theo Taylor gave us two guest posts featuring President Washington's third term and a scenario where Alexander the Great drives farther into India.

I'll end this Editor's Note by congratulating Naomi Novik for winning the first ever Dragon Award for Alternate History. In the meantime, why not show some support to Novik and The Update by purchasing League of Dragons or any other new alternate history release through our Amazon banner?

And now the news...

Hearts of Iron IV Gets First Major Patch

Paradox Development Studios released the first major update for its World War II grand strategy game, Hearts of Iron IV. The “Sunflower Patch” is largely devoted to improving the game’s AI and user interface, as well as the usual changes to the game's balance and historical database, plus a number of bug fixes.

You can read the full list of changes and updates on the official Paradox Community forum here, but here is a brief list of the highlights from the press release:

• Changes to how peace conferences are handled, based on a design by Steam user Neutrino
• Hotjoin now available for multiplayer games, so you can connect to a match already in progress
• Custom difficulty settings let you adjust the relative power of Germany, Italy, France and the Soviet Union
• More nations can now be released as independent countries
• Re-sync button added to address connection issues without rehosting the game
• AI more likely to update templates, build nuclear reactors and cancel unnecessary production
• AI less likely to risk encirclement, opt for a Communist France or throw everything at North Africa
• Naval combat has been balanced to prevent light cruiser spam
• Changes to national territorial cores (Portugal loses, Sinkiang gains)
• A number of crashes caused by modding have been fixed
• Submarines better at finding surface ships, worse at finding other subs

Video of the Week

If I were you I would watch Tamara's new review of Back to the Future II:

I especially liked how she gave the figurative middle finger to some of the assholes in her comment section. Next up you should also check out some of my videos, like "What if 9/11 Didn't Happen"?

And "The Alternate History Map That Ended Up In A History Textbook":

I enjoyed this one, just because its fun to rag on major corporations who forget to fact check.

You should also check out...

• Tor lists the year's best alternate history books (so far).
• Hundreds of thousands of Catalans stage independence protests (via The Guardian).
• Ship found in Arctic 168 years after doomed Northwest Passage attempt (via The Guardian).
• Mexico threatens to cancel treaty that ceded Texas and California to US if Trump gets elected (via Raw Story).
• 30 Years Later, Watchmen's Unacknowledged Optimism Persists (via Paste). 
• Underground Airlines is one of the bleakest alternate histories ever (via Ars Technica).

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a blogger for Amazing Stories, a volunteer interviewer for SFFWorld and a Sidewise Awards for Alternate History judge. When not exploring alternate timelines he enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the day when travel between parallel universes becomes a reality. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, DeviantArt and YouTube. Learn how you can support his alternate history projects on Patreon.