Hello there brave Cold War strategy fans! We hope you have started the New Year in style as a new season of the Cold War is brewing. With 2020 behind us, here is a short review of accomplishments:

• A full release of the game in Q3 2020
• Terminal Conflict Community has surpassed 1300 members
• We started new partnerships and launched the intelligence focused Eyes Only DLC with the Hearts Of Iron: Road to 56 Modding Team
• Completed 20 Live Streams hosted by strategy master extraordinaire Lemuel Sora
• Achieved our desired game quality and stability. A testament to the remarkable QA team that has worked on a lot of content and optimized the game with 239 bug fixes over the past year thanks to input from the community. Thank you so much! Top reporters in the community without particular order: Python-079, Bojack_Horsefly, and sjgold will be gifted two copies of Terminal Conflict and be promoted to an honorary Masterful Member in the Community Discord (https://discord.gg/VQusSWF).

With the team back at work since the 7th of January, we thought we would devote some time to Decisions in this Development Diary. Played a few games and made a few choices, but what are the inner workings of this part of your terminal?

Decisions

You and your opponent gain, if available, one decision on each Turn (two on the first Turn of each new TIMELINE). Players do not share a decision, and each decision offers up to three options to select between. There are two distinct types of decisions:

• Default Decisions (with DECIDE LATER button) - Allow postponing a decision until the end of the FOCUS, at the end of which you lose all remaining undecided default decisions without effect.

• Urgent Decisions (without the DECIDE LATER button) - If you cannot make a choice by the end of the Turn, your administration will select an option for you, with its effects applied.

AI

These decision rules dont just apply to you. This also applies to the choices made by the AI. Remember that a good leader cares about making the right decisions, a great leader on the other hand also take into account when they make those choices. Consider your decision making and you will see your scores much approved. Mighty Cheers! The Strategy Mill Team *********************************************************

Upcoming Development

I) Weapons Program decision chain in final testing. II) Development has started of an event chain built around the Contras in Latin America. III) Policies are getting rolled out with each new patch. IV) Updates and improvements continue to be made for the Grand Campaign.

CHANGELOG

GAME

• Fixed an issue where the description text of Leaders would not be shown when the PRESS + HOLD 2 sec function was used over their portrait
• Fixed an issue where The Balance of Power scenario did not match the other Wargames
• Fixed an issue where if you selected a fighter command and change the theater before returning to it, the attack icons became incorrectly invisible
• Updated Eyes Only success and failure decisions to trigger upon launching the decisions
• Fixed unit deploying when starting deployment, canceling, using quick access to navigate to another theater and clicking to a region
• Fixed an issue where some of the policies where missing from Balance of Power
• Expanded MIRVINs storytelling - Reach him by selecting the MIRVIN button in the Main Menu to get more information about the functions in your terminal and to find out some of your predecessors secrets

MULTIPLAYER

• In-editor matches no longer counted in profile

POLICIES

• Ascending Titan policy triggers changed to: 1) USSR INFLUENCE, FALSE FLAG, ASSASSINATE LAUNCHED during the game at least 3 OR 2) USSR INFLUENCE, FALSE FLAG, ASSASSINATE SUCCESS during the game at least 1
• USSR Ascending Titan Policy now has the following effect: Place 2 USSR INFLUENCE in EASTERN EUROPE and gain 2 VP.
• Fixed a typo in Ideological Sympathizers Policy

DECISIONS

• Updated Encyclopedia description for Decisions
• Updated notification text for Urgent Decisions, clarifying that should you fail to make a choice at the end of the Turn, your administration will select an option for you.
• Updated the documentation for People's interests
• Added meta data for Paralyzing Strikes and fixed an issue where the Decision text for Paralyzing Strikes was too long

STEAM ACHIEVEMENTS

• Added Steam Achievement for Reconnecting the Department of Defense
• Steam achievements no longer unlocked in editor matches
• Fixed Bites The Dust achievement being incorrectly set as Deep Cover name
• Fixed Assured Destruction achievement not firing
• Fixed Wasn't Me, Deep Cover, Grapevine achievements not firing
• Fixed Minutes To Midnight incorrectly considering current doomsday clock

EDITOR

• Fixed an issue where the Leader Abilities editor would cause an error when accessed.
• Added the ability to adjust Interests Alignment from the Cheat Menu when running a game from the in-game editor.

LEADER

• Added Meta data for the default leader imagery
• Fixed an issue where some Leaders had incorrect ability setup
• Added imagery for default Leaders Male/Female

UI

• Fixed interest background animation not playing when previewing depleted resource
• Fixed wrongly colored notifications
• Fixed an issue where the Bottom Field text is too long
• Fixed interest animation warning text not updating correctly
• Implemented better reflections

OTHERS

• Fixed an issue where winning a game in Wargames Mode would bring you to the main menu instead of back to the Wargames Menu.
• Fixed an issue where the Encyclopedia for Intel missions was showing the incorrect descriptions
• Cleaned up the Policy imagery
• Updated Options text