Studio GOLD Update - 2025 #3

[PDX_Gorion]

Dear Fans,

Today’s patch (Operation KNEE) marks the second release in a series of updates that we are doing to improve the game. Next week we aim to release the War Effort patch, which as @Arheo said previously will be more substantial than usual.

I also want to take this opportunity to circle back to a few topics that Arheo brought up last week, as well as start providing a few glimpses into the short- and long-term future.

Conclusion of the Expansion Pass
Next up in this pass is the Prototype Vehicles Unit Pack which adds vehicles that are more experimental in nature. Some will be available right away while others you will need to unlock through special projects. The unit pack continues to expand on the cool, detailed art we have in the game already, however it will not feature new in-game functionality.

Dev Corners Return
One important take-away from the development of all the content in this Expansion Pass is the need to better and earlier involve you, our community. Our Dev Diaries have regrettably been getting published closer and closer to our release date which makes it challenging to act on your feedback. To rectify that and better involve you in our plans at an earlier stage, moving forward we’ll bring back Dev Corners. For those of you who are new to the concept, Dev Corners is a space where we discuss our ongoing development, and highlight upcoming features and balance, to ensure early community feedback and discussions.

June is our target month to start the Dev Corners. That is still a few months away, so in the meantime we’ll provide insight into the internal workings of PDS Gold, which I’ve understood is of interest. Are there any areas you are interested in learning more about? Let us know and we’ll try our best to take them on. For example: How does a DLC get designed? How does the team decide what to work on? What kind of tools do our programmers use? What's the process of creating icons? Etc.. Let us know!

Our recent updates

• March 6 - Graveyard of Empires Follow up
• March 10 - Update from the Developers
• March 12 - Patch Notes | Operation HEAD (1.16.1)
• March 20 - Patch Notes | Operation KNEE (1.16.2)

Click here for the Patch notes

 

[Gigliovaljr]

I'm glad you're going to do dev corners again. The release of info closer to each DLC's release worked fine for Gotterdammerung, but I think it really hurt GoE.

One piece of feedback I'd like to give is to give Iraq and Iran the option to become puppets to the invaders after capitulating. Currently you can only submit if you haven't capitulated already. Iraq only restored the regency after being completely occupied. Why can't we do that in the game?

 

[Umbosch]

Fixed a bug that would cause the first variant of equipment to always be called "Mk0" regardless of country-specific naming scheme

Thx. Is there now a chance to overwrite in game MK 01, 02 with rename also? As German i like more variants with letters or numbers? K98a, K98b or StuG IIIB.

PS: damn wrong thread.

 

[lilcritt]

Are there any areas you are interested in learning more about? Let us know and we’ll try our best to take them on. For example: How does a DLC get designed? How does the team decide what to work on? What kind of tools do our programmers use? What's the process of creating icons? Etc.. Let us know!

Odd omission of QA which is everyone's clear interest. How does QA actually work, what are the resources it has - and how did this DLC pass QA/what condition.

 

[PDX_Gorion]

Odd omission of QA which is everyone's clear interest. How does QA actually work, what are the resources it has - and how did this DLC pass QA/what condition.

It was just some examples that I listed, we can definitely talk about QA if there is interest in that. My intention is not go to into specific example like GoE, but talk more about how they work in general (which is similar to GoE).

We have analyzed what went wrong with GoE internally and both Arheo and myself now have shared some parts of it (The go / no go meeting, as well as dev diaries being very late)

 

[ClydeFrosch]

So at what time can we expect the next update? It was previously said, that it would be in April. Any updates on that?

 

[VivaItalia1861]

Thank you, this means a lot. Is there a day announced yet for Operations Shoulders and Toes?

This is good, but we’d still like to see some 70 day focuses down to 35 days since most of these trees are huge and you can’t war until 1939.

 

[lilcritt]

It was just some examples that I listed, we can definitely talk about QA if there is interest in that. My intention is not go to into specific example like GoE, but talk more about how they work in general (which is similar to GoE).

We have analyzed what went wrong with GoE internally and both Arheo and myself now have shared some parts of it (The go / no go meeting, as well as dev diaries being very late)

A long-winded version of "We QA'd it, trust me. We're gonna be better going forward, trust me" all over again just isn't going to cut it for me.

We still don't have a clear outline of the scope for the patches or war efforts for GoE. So far, it's just mostly been bug fixes... while fixing a broken product is necessary, it doesn't make it a good one. With ToA, we were promised four war efforts/patches but only got two. At this point, I need concrete examples of what went wrong and what was actually done, and what will happen going forward to regain any faith in this process and keep pumping my hard earned money into HOI4.

I think at this point it's safe to say those may not be coming. Instead, as Arheo mentioned here, we're making a lot of (War) effort to bring you all several patches, starting today.

 

[PDX_Gorion]

So at what time can we expect the next update? It was previously said, that it would be in April. Any updates on that?

For now we can't be more precise than April, we want it of course as soon as possible, but we also want to make sure the update is polished.

Thank you, this means a lot. Is there a day announced yet for Operations Shoulders and Toes?

This is good, but we’d still like to see some 70 day focuses down to 35 days since most of these trees are huge and you can’t war until 1939.

Next week we aim to release the patch (SHOULDER), on thursday. But of course something unforeseen can happen.

 

[Bambilambi]

Questions about AI are usually ignored in the forum, so what i would like to know is:
1. why is that and how do you develop the AI, what is the long term plan?
A few examples:
- A broken Naval "game" is one example that isn´t fixed.
- Another example is the Aircrafts designer, to which the AI do bad plan designs. Basically a nerf on the AI compared to before the designer.
- There are good things as well, like AIFC, better management of frontlines etc... but i am more interested in the more persistent issues like the ones above. I doubt they are unknown

What is the plan/thinking?

 

[Agodak]

One important take-away from the development of all the content in this Expansion Pass is the need to better and earlier involve you, our community. Our Dev Diaries have regrettably been getting published closer and closer to our release date which makes it challenging to act on your feedback

I think I have seen this exact take-away over the past few years from each of teams behind other PDS games. CK3, EU4, Vic3 and Stellaris studios have all identified the same lesson at some point after their own less-than-stellar Expansions. Makes me think the inter-studio experience sharing mechanisms need a bit of an improvement.

 

[Steel_Viking]

It was just some examples that I listed, we can definitely talk about QA if there is interest in that. My intention is not go to into specific example like GoE, but talk more about how they work in general (which is similar to GoE).

We have analyzed what went wrong with GoE internally and both Arheo and myself now have shared some parts of it (The go / no go meeting, as well as dev diaries being very late)

I for one am very interested in the QA process within the studio. A general overview would be good.

I don’t want to sound harsh, because I myself am a software developer, and I know that every software release is bound to have something not quite perfect in it (some are less perfect than others ). However, it baffles me that the QA folks would give the GoE release a green light in the go-no-go meeting with the state that it was in. Occurrences like these are what motivate some in the community to make claims that no play testing is done whatsoever prior to releases.

In any case I greatly appreciate the increased communication from the team, and the pace of updates/patches you are rolling out. You’re making a serious effort and it shows.

 

[Maephi]

Questions about AI are usually ignored in the forum, so what i would like to know is:
1. why is that and how do you develop the AI, what is the long term plan?
A few examples:
- A broken Naval "game" is one example that isn´t fixed.
- Another example is the Aircrafts designer, to which the AI do bad plan designs. Basically a nerf on the AI compared to before the designer.
- There are good things as well, like AIFC, better management of frontlines etc... but i am more interested in the more persistent issues like the ones above. I doubt they are unknown

What is the plan/thinking?

AI not updating equipment like ships/planes is a massive issue imo that isn't talked about enough. Navy, even with 0 changes other than that, would be way more fun and engaging if the AI actually built/updated ships. As it is right now you can literally math out exactly what you need to beat the AI in naval from the moment you hit unpause because they don't actually do anything on that front to innovate or expand.

 

[Ossiv]

For now we can't be more precise than April, we want it of course as soon as possible, but we also want to make sure the update is polished.


Next week we aim to release the patch (SHOULDER), on thursday. But of course something unforeseen can happen.

Yes, please polish updates before release, even if release has to be postponed. It's good to get updates fast, but better get them when they really are ready.

 

[Carlos Burbon]

What are your plans with the new subjects that are being added to the game? Should we expect that someday all the colonies will be playable in 1936? If not, how do you decide which countries should start as puppets? Are you planning to add French Indochina and Egypt soon? Will French Indochina start as a united state or as separate protectorates and colonies? What about the divisions in other regions?

 

[Ollfardh]

Looks promising! What I would like to know from the Devs is how I can help the best with new ideas? For example, following the Götterdämmerung expansion I made this suggestion to keep the Germans from starting Fall Gelb too soon (from a histocial pov) while also adding some flavour for the Benelux with the Mechelen Incident. I understand time a resources are precious, so what would help to get stuff like this in?

- Should I be adding historical sources for the stuff I'm writing or is this always checked independantly?
- For this particular example, should I be taking notes in the exact dates Fall Gelb starts in my games to illustrate the point or is that something you guys can easily pick up?
- Is some kind of coding helpful (can't say I know much about this sadly)?
- Anything else?

 

[Selenter]

I hope the DLC will add mechanics that are available to ALL COUNTRIES, and not just new focuses or solutions for only some countries

 

[Coach Bud Kilmer]

You may want to consider posting some of your team's long-term goals for the rest of HOI4's life cycle. There's been talk of an updated roadmap for some time, but even just a short list of what nations, concepts, and features you still want to tackle would help manage expectations for the game. I understand that you can't commit to specifics for a multitude of reasons, including the inevitable barrage of questions on "WHEN is it coming?!", but it may help to know what you guys really want from HOI4.

 

[stingray20]

There needs to be a mechanic to peace out of these wars without destroying the Allies,Axis,Comintern, Etc. every game. It’s not fun especially as these smaller nations

 

[Selenter]

There needs to be a mechanic to peace out of these wars without destroying the Allies,Axis,Comintern, Etc. every game. It’s not fun especially as these smaller nations

I agree. It's absurd that if a large country stands up for the country, then it will have to conquer the whole world until the very end. In Stellaris, you can make peace even without complete capitulation.