Hearts of Iron 4’s patch 1.17.4 is in development, aiming to address several issues that have popped up following the launch of its No Compromise, No Surrender DLC. Chief among them is the naval AI’s behavior, which players spared no time pointing out is currently less than ideal.
One of the “major aspects” Studio Gold, the team inside Paradox Development Studios handling HoI4 development, aims to improve in patch 1.17.4 is “the unwillingness of the AI to have large fleet battles,” although it is actively looking at other pain points brought up in player reports.
Hearts of Iron 4’s Patch 1.17.4 Improves Naval AI, Germany Historical AI During Operation Barbarossa
Germany’s historical AI will also receive attention when Hearts of Iron 4’s patch 1.17.4, due to its underperformance during its invasion of the Soviet Union.
“When playing on historical, Germany should pose a good challenge against the Soviet Union, however at the moment they don’t, due to various reasons,” the developer explains.
“One of them being that with the new airbase access feature, the Soviet Union invites the UK to operate in their airzone once Barbarossa starts. This often causes Germany to have little to no CAS support on the frontlines and making their attacks less effective. Besides that we’re taking a look at mastery gain and other parts of general AI behaviour.”
The team working on the patch is also looking to address stability & performance issues affecting larger multiplayer sessions.
Hearts of Iron IV’s patch 1.17.4 will tackle more of the grand strategy game’s issues and is currently set to release at some point during early February.
More patches will be deployed over the coming months, while 2026’s second quarter brings us both the Thunder at Our Gates Theater Pack and the Peace for Our Time Focus Pack that make up the rest of HoI IV’s Expansion Pass 2.
In other Paradox Interactive news, Prison Architect 2 has recently shown signs of life thanks to the announcement of a closed beta test.
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