Paradox Interactive posted the Hearts of Iron – Studio Gold | December Update on the Steam Store to outline post release support and immediate next steps for the game. The studio says the next patch is 1.17.2 and that it will include the changes mentioned in the earlier Coal Update plus more than 100 bug fixes and improvements. That bundle of fixes is the focus for this week while the team continues smaller follow-up work.
A headline item is a concentrated effort on AI, with the developer specifically calling out fixes for edge cases that trip up the Naval AI. The update note frames these changes as targeted problem solving rather than sweeping behavior changes, with the goal of making fleet and naval engagements behave more predictably when unusual situations occur.
Paradox also confirmed a follow-up 1.17.3 patch is in the pipeline with the team working toward releasing it before the year ends. Players are asked to keep submitting bug reports so the team can triage issues ahead of that build. The studio explicitly asks players to post bugs in the Bug Report section of the Paradox forum and points to that location as the primary place they track community issues. This continued support follows earlier content work and system overhauls like the Japan-focused overhaul, which our coverage of the Japan update adds Imperial Influence political system explored in detail.
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Hearts of Iron
Developed by Paradox Development Studio
Hearts of Iron is the first ever World War II PC game of true Grand Strategic scope. The game map spans the entire world and allows players to take part in any front they choose. You can play any nation in the world, but the game focuses on the epic struggle between the great alliances of the world orders - Fascism, Communism and Democracy.
- Genre: Strategy
- Platforms: PC (Microsoft Windows)
- Modes: Single player
- Release: 2002-12-29
- Publisher: Strategy First
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Age Rating:
ESRB E / USK 12
