Hello, dear players!
Update 1.04 brings a large number of changes and improvements to the game.
1. Overhaul of the President’s Approval Box and Ministry Screens
General policy decisions that were previously scattered across multiple ministries have now been consolidated into the President’s Approval Box.
Added major and minor categories for each field, as well as a filter for currently executable decisions.
Added dedicated briefing documents for 10 ministries, allowing you to review implementation records, policy effects, related projects, equipment fulfillment rates, diplomatic response deadlines, and more.
2. Reorganization of Recurring Decisions and Reports
Removed 37 decisions that largely consisted of duplicate investments or simple rewards, and rewrote 37 recurring decisions into one-time policies and agreements with historical conditions.
The total number of decisions has been reduced from 284 to 247, while recurring decisions have been reduced from 162 to 88.
Limited the repetition of 6 simple confirmation reports.
Removed excessively repetitive events.
Added resolution conditions to events related to shantytowns, labor disputes, union recognition, and Saemaul roof improvement projects, reducing situations where the same reports continued to appear even after the underlying issue had been resolved.
3. Improvements to Economic Development Plans and Project Management
You can now move directly from an unmet target in a Five-Year Plan to the relevant project.
Projects are now divided into ongoing projects, new projects, and operational facilities, with improved search and category filters.
You can compare project progress and causes of delays, and review the expected progress as well as the effects on other projects before applying resource allocations.
Improved the navigation flow when returning to the original project and allocation draft after reviewing the budget or President’s Approval Box.
Added links that allow you to search by the problem you are trying to resolve, such as inflation, foreign exchange shortages, or project delays.
Completion events for the Gyeongbu Expressway, Pohang Iron and Steel Works, Seoul Subway, and Soyang Dam will now occur according to the actual completion date of their respective projects.
4. Expansion of the Defense and War Systems
Introduced a command structure in which the President approves war objectives and policies regarding offensive preparation, advance, defense, and withdrawal, while the military staff handles the actual deployment and operation of units.
Added corps assignments by front, situation reports, commander appointments, and combat orders.
Connected division-level combat, organization, rotation, and retreat with supply, wartime mobilization, training, replacements, and air and naval support.
Added limited operations, border defense objectives, and armistice negotiations in addition to wars of reunification.
Added multi-stage diplomatic negotiations aimed at keeping other countries from intervening in a war.
Improved the presentation of front and combat command boards, as well as unit markers for each side.
5. Another Major Tutorial Overhaul
Added three introductory chapters—Preparation, Operations, and State Affairs—beginning directly from the title screen, moving away from the previous tutorial format.
Added 8 optional training exercises covering major systems such as politics, legislation, economics, diplomacy, and defense.
The tutorials are structured so that players first follow instructions and observe the actual results, then perform a similar task on their own.
Added support for continuing a training session or restoring it from the beginning of a chapter. Training saves are kept separate from the main game.
6. Improvements to the Map and Regional Economy
Chungcheong, Honam, and Yeongnam, which were previously represented as broad regions, have been subdivided into northern and southern provincial units and connected to regional projects and regional ledgers.
Adjusted the initial shares of production and population across 10 regions of South Korea based on historical data from the period.
Applied a higher-resolution map along with dedicated graphics for expressways and major facilities.
Changes to the administrative jurisdiction of Uljin County, as well as the return of administrative authority over Okinawa and the Ogasawara Islands, are now reflected on the map according to the in-game date.
Fixed an issue where regional growth rates could incorrectly remain negative in certain starting scenarios.
7. Improvements to Screens, Video, and Languages
Improved various UI elements, shared buttons, training guides, election campaign and vote-counting screens, and category icons.
Adjusted the display size of event photographs and videos.
Added Korean Newsreel footage along with timed subtitles in Korean, English, Japanese, and Chinese.
Japanese and Chinese translations have been improved to approximately 80% completion.
Added dedicated Mincho-style fonts for Japanese and Chinese, as well as replacement fonts for unsupported symbols.
8. Major Bug Fixes
Fixed a screen transition issue where only the map could remain visible after the first-launch guide or after returning to the title screen.
Improved handling of old deleted decisions that may still remain inside approval documents from existing save files.
9. National Technology Strategy and Industrial Validation Added — Ministry of Science and Technology Overhaul
You can now designate the country’s core and supporting technology goals and research the necessary prerequisite technologies.
Manpower and equipment can be allocated while maintaining the research objectives set by the President.
During research, you can select an actual operating industrial site and conduct industrial validation there.
You can choose between processes aimed at reducing costs and advanced development policies aimed at improving output and quality, and industrial trials may also be suspended or resumed.
After applying a technology, you can review the actual changes in output and operating profit, while improvements to production and quality are now connected to the existing export system.
Added dedicated screens and graphics for laboratories and industrial sites, and improved navigation between research and project details.
Removed the uniform intermediate reviews that previously repeated during every new research project.
10. Improvements to Economic Allocation and Performance Reports
Added direct numerical input, single-unit increase/decrease controls, and an option to automatically match the available allocation when distributing project resources.
Fixed an issue where projects could continue operating solely on the minimum level of general supply even when no resources had actually been allocated.
Direct changes and completion dates for research, economic projects, and regional projects are now recorded in completion reports.
Completion reports can be reviewed and organized through the President’s Approval Box, and reopened from the relevant project screen.
Improved the Administrative Leakage system so that it now directly affects policy implementation and the operation of economic projects.
Connected the production and subcontracting benefits of Chaebol Concentration with the Administrative Leakage costs created by preferential treatment and dependency, while adjusting both the benefits and costs of stronger corporate discipline.
11. New Starting Date and Post-Reunification Administration
Added a new starting point set before the 1971 presidential election. However, as I am still not particularly experienced in balancing alternative starting dates, I still recommend starting in 1960 for now.
The 1971 start is configured to inherit previous historical developments, including the 1967 election and the constitutional amendment allowing a third presidential term.
Dedicated black-and-white illustrations have been added to the 1960, 1961, 1963, and 1971 starting screens, and the layout of year cards and difficulty selection has been improved.
After reunification, development, industry, infrastructure, and private projects across five northern regions are now connected to the regional map and save system.
Fixed an issue where post-reunification local elections could conflict with the existing term of the legislature.
12. Autosave History and Phase Recovery
Story and Sandbox autosaves now retain the latest save along with the previous three versions.
Recovery points are now created when entering major operations, elections, economic plans, and wars.
Prevented repeated saves during the same phase from pushing older recovery points out of the save history.
Improved save handling so that an existing valid save is preserved if a save file becomes corrupted or replacement fails.
The inauguration guide now directs the player toward the next appropriate action based on the current state of vacant positions, plans, projects, budgets, and elections.
13. Further Improvements to Tutorial Usability
Improved the position and layout of guide cards so that they no longer cover actual interaction buttons, such as the button used to submit legislation.
Fixed issues where tutorial arrows could disappear or point to the wrong target after opening menus, events, or switching screens.
Updated tutorial text to match current policy names and the actual steps required.
On smaller screens, objectives and progression buttons are now easier to locate even after scrolling through the explanation.
Fixed an issue in the defense tutorial where replenishing equipment before being instructed to do so could prevent the next objective from progressing.
Improved the layout of the Coup, Delegation, Diplomacy, and Defense screens so that they flow vertically on narrow resolutions.
14. Settings Overhaul
Replaced the settings window with a dedicated settings screen divided into General, Gameplay, Display, Sound, and Controls sections.
Reopening the settings screen now restores the category and scroll position you were previously viewing.
Improved accessibility to options and controls that could not previously be selected at large UI scaling values.
Added actual volume percentages and improved language-change guidance and control explanations.
15. Improvements to Map Controls and Screen Transitions
Corps can now be dragged and dropped directly onto regions or fronts for deployment.
Assigning a corps to a front will initiate movement toward a forward staging area and will follow wartime command restrictions.
Added dedicated military icons and redesigned them into a more readable horizontal format.
Added an animation in which documents slide into view when opening major work screens from the map.
Fixed issues where briefing documents could cover Cabinet, leader, or confirmation windows, or intercept input intended to close another window.
16. Startup and Screen Refresh Performance Improvements
Reduced unnecessary UI decoration refresh processing that was repeatedly running even for hidden windows.
Reduced duplicate calculations for country highlighting on the map and event option previews.
Improved how fonts and images are prepared, reducing delays during game startup and the initial screen display.
Mods and replacement assets can continue to use the existing loading paths.
As this update introduces a substantial number of changes and major improvements, there may still be bugs or issues that I have not yet discovered. If you encounter any problems, please feel free to leave a comment at any time, and I will address them as quickly as possible!
For the next planned update, 1.05, I intend to revisit issues that could not be addressed this time, as well as features that were originally supposed to be included in previous updates but were postponed due to other priorities. These include more advanced modding tools, reducing hard-coded systems, inconvenient UI elements, and further foreign-language translation reviews. I also plan to continue searching for better Japanese and Chinese fonts.
The game still has many shortcomings, but I sincerely thank every player who continues to enjoy it.
I will return with the next update.
Have a great day, everyone!