Hearts of Iron IV Gets First Major Patch

Sunflower Update Brings Host of Improvements to Wargame

Today, Paradox Development Studios released the first major update for its hit World War II grand strategy wargame, 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 Hearts of Iron’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 read on for a brief list of some of the highlights in Sunflower.

  • 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

Go to the Community Forum for the complete rundown of all of the improvements and updates now available for everyone that owns Hearts of Iron IV.

For more information on Hearts of Iron IV, check out the games official website.