Most of the work this week was getting forest tiles in the game, which in turn necessitated a re-scaling of buildings. I also had to rewrite the plane upgrade logic into a form that made more sense. Long story short, this update is really more about refining and expanding what's already in the game rather than adding wholesale new features.
Bugfixes/Changes:
Fixed bug in which selected units that were sent on leave would remain selected when they were recalled.
Fixed bug in which enemy AI was too lenient towards retreating units, causing situations in which opposing units would not attack each other even when on the same tile.
Re-tweaked the scale of buildings to be more realistic. I've been working on forest terrain, which really made it clear how messed up the scale of buildings still was.
Tweaked the plane upgrade mechanic. Instead of upgrading each plane individually, each tier of plane is a single upgrade. Your next monthly supply of planes will then be of the newer models. Additionally, replacement pilots will automatically be equipped with the newest model available.
Fixed errors with pilot highlights in Air Activity Screen, whereby units previously selected/highlighted would remain so even when selecting a different pilot.
You can now rename your units. Several of you have asked for this feature to facilitate organization of units.
Bug in which the Order of Battle never properly refreshed the current actions of each unit has been fixed.
Thanks for playing!
Over the Western Front
Hi all,
Decided to focus a bit on the Aerodrome this week, as I've been neglecting it recently.
Bugfixes/Changes:
Pilots now have traits, just like officers.
Pilot balance has been tweaked, so that really good pilots are harder to shoot down, and lower-stat pilots are easier to shoot down. I believe this actually reflects real life a lot better.
Following from above, monthly pilot regeneration rate has been increased to compensate for the fact that you will probably be losing more pilots.
Pilots now have personal stats, like flight time, number of sorties, number of kills, etc. This is all "flavour" for the moment, but provides a solid base with which to flesh out the individuality of pilots. Feel free to suggest anything else that needs to be tracked.
Officers also have personal stats. They're self-explanatory, except for raids. Company commanders will be given credit for a raid when one of the platoons under their command returns with prisoners in tow.
Pilots now can develop an affinity for a certain model of plane, causing a temporary penalty when changing planes. This penalty is less than the gains you receive from the new plane, but is still something that needs to be taken into account when upgrading. The greater a pilot's affinity for a certain model, the longer the penalty lasts when changing.
I wasn't happy with the rate of wiring that the enemy AI does, as it seemed unrealistically low. Thanks to better optimization of the game in recent weeks, I've been able to tweak the AI so that it lays far more wire than it used to.
Fixed potential crash if units were withdrawn as the enemy AI was attempting to target them for bombardments.
Fixed bug with supply units randomizing their load type instead of keeping the one they originally had if they return to supply depots automatically.
Pilots shot down weren't being properly displayed or tracked, which in turn wasn't updating the number of pilots or planes properly. This should now be fixed.
Supply units could restock gas shells without having either gas upgrade unlocked, but this has been fixed.
Thanks for playing!
New Hotness
Hi all,
Implemented a bunch of new things based on suggestions and requests, as well as fixing some rather serious bugs with the underground component of the game.
Bugfixes/Changes:
Fixed issue in which underground units sent on leave would go through the ground rather than returning to the surface.
Building mines was broken when I added the separate Build Mode. This has now been fixed.
Commander traits now refresh properly when units move in and out of company command range.
You can now view the status of units in reserve. Selecting the top-level reserve unit in the Headquarters screen will cause a new button to appear.
Front-line units are no longer randomized at the start, allowing platoons to start near their company commanders. This should reduce the amount of initial micromanagement when starting a new game.
Units in reserve now will also treat wounded men.
The target selection list that appeared when using "Attack Unit" was not resizing properly when the name of a target unit was too long, causing the button to bleed out of bounds. This has been fixed for both fonts.
Changed the icon for AOE orders like "Suppress Area" and "Watch Duty" into a different icon, so it's easier to tell when you're actually in one of these modes.
Commander selection used to only show unassigned commanders. Now there it is possible to toggle unassigned commanders or all, allowing you to simply trade officers instead of having to unassign and reassign in two distinct steps.
Lastly, because I added a bunch of information to officers that needs to be saved when saving the game, your old/current saves are now broken. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Thanks for playing!
Hotfix 5
Hi all,
Dealt with a rather serious issue this update, which is why there is such a quick turnaround.
Bugfixes/Changes:
Fixed issue in which popups would take precedence over subscreens like Headquarters and Order of battle, effectively locking up the game if these subscreens were open when a popup appeared.
The HQ screen was not refreshing properly when reserve units were replaced. This would cause weird issues when attempting to change a unit's type in reserve.
Following on from above, upgrades were not being reflected properly after being loaded from a save game. This has been fixed.
Debug functionality was left over in which using the "Suppress Area" command would give 50,000 Valour points for no reason. I've removed it. Now your men have to die just like everyone else's.
Fixed a crash which would occur if units went on leave while still selected/highlighted.
Added the existing commander stats to the commander reassignment popup, so that you can compare commanders.
Following on from above, old commanders were not being reset to "Unassigned" when replaced, which meant that commanders would gradually disappear from the list of available commanders. This should no longer happen.
Thanks for playing!
Stacked
Hi all,
Another week, another update. Mostly just tightening up the game again.
Bugfixes/Changes:
Increased the multiplier for monthly divisional supply allocation. With an increased emphasis on field supply dumps and supply lines, I figured I would make it less of a headache to deal with supplies in general. Let me know if this is a good change - shell shortage was a real thing, after all, and trying to balance realism and gameplay is a constant concern.
Tooltips now show up properly for all unit effects and commander traits. Tooltips weren't showing up properly because each refresh was erasing the entire list and re-creating it with each game tick. Hopefully this makes things a but more clear.
Added tooltips all over the place, notably for unit effects and commander traits.
Many of you have requested a way to tell at a glance how many units are on a tile. I previously said this was tough because, unlike HOI, units would bleed over into neighbouring tiles if they were stacked. I gave it a try and came up with a compromise - the stack caps at three. This way I can simply shrink the units without having them overlap into adjacent tiles, and there's still a rough overview of how many units are on a tile. I hope this helps!
Being under attack is (and always has been) rated by severity ie. being under light machine gun fire is less debilitating than heavy machine gun fire. This was, however, impossible for you guys to know because there was no visual indication of this effect. I've now added it in.
Non-supply units can now carry food. I figured carrying food didn't need specialist supply units, and it helps alleviate the burden placed on supply units in this game. This also means that the Carry Supplies and Supply Area orders are unlocked for all unit types, and they will automatically head to the rear to resupply if they run out.
Rate of wire building has been sped up, to encourage more of it.
Thanks for playing!
Hotfix 4
Hi all,
Was a bit sick this past week, so I mostly focused on small-ish things rather than adding anything totally new.
Bugfixes/Changes:
The Alternate Font was bugged out and would often crash when used. I've managed to track down the issue and fix it.
"Supply Area" order was buggy due to the units in question sometimes resupplying with invalid load types when automatically resupplying from the rear. I've fixed the issue so that units will no longer resupply with invalid load types.
Following on from the previous issue, units that automatically return to resupply in the rear will select load types based on the prevalence of open ground within their assigned areas/routes. More open ground means a higher probability of shells for artillery, while more trenches, comm. trenches, and the like means ammo/tools.
Following even further on with supply types, non-artillery units will no longer take shells from supply units.
Obscured units that appear when fog of war is enabled now match the colour of their faction properly instead of all looking British. This was an easy fix that really should have been a day one type thing, but it was such a minor issue that I kept putting it off.
AI has been improved so that it will now consolidate new forward trenches better (setting up new kitchens, field hospitals, comm. trenches) if it manages to take them from the player.
Readiness regain rate has been slowed in sub-optimal weather.
Food regain rate has been increased for units in dugouts.
Upgrades now actually reduce division Valour points again. I disabled this at some point for my own testing and forgot to re-enable it.
Hitting the ESC key while in the middle of a construction order now clears and resets the mouse cursor.
Pilots now cannot be withdrawn until the Wireless Radios upgrade is unlocked.
Wireless Radio upgrade also cuts order delay in half.
Thanks for playing!
Hotfix 3
Hi all,
Quick turnaround on this update, as there are a few bugfixes and changes that hopefully make the game a bit easier to play.
Bugfixes/Changes:
Underground construction works again. I had broken it when I redesigned the unit order list after adding things like field hospitals and kitchens.
Redesigned the "Suppress Area" command at the top of the screen. Previously, clicking it brought up a second menu which could be used to select artillery shell types. Now there is a small window with separate buttons, similar to Build Mode.
Scheduled artillery bombardments now are colour-coded when selected using the pop-up dialog in the top-right.
Cancel and Rest orders have been decoupled. Cancel orders cause units to stop what they're doing and return to an idle state, while Rest remains an AOE order in which you drag an area for your selected units to rest in.
Following on from the above update, Rest orders now work for artillery units. Previously, it would assume all selected units were infantry and eliminate all open ground tiles as rest positions after dragging an area. Now I've made it so that artillery units will rest on open ground, while infantry continue to use trenches or houses as rest locations.
The AI has been tweaked a bit so that it now attempts to build blockhouses on higher ground, as well as being more proactive in actually garrisoning them.
Thanks for playing!
Happy New Year!
Hi all,
Hope you all had a good holiday. I did, but I still managed to set aside some time to update the game a bit more!
Bugfixes/Changes:
Commander Traits
Commanders now possess traits that they pass down to their subordinates. The effect is inversely magnified depending on the commander's rank. That is, the bonuses (and penalties) given by company commander traits is greater than those given by battalion or brigade commanders, with the obvious tradeoff of affecting fewer units. NCOs earned by veteran-level platoons offer the greatest effects from traits.
Enemy Strongpoints
This one's not quite perfect yet, but you might notice that the AI now tries to build trenches around buildings. I'm hoping to eventually get to the point where the AI is turning these into strongpoints, just like in real life.
By turning "idle" actions such as resting, guard duty, and drilling into AOE orders, I accidentally broke the ability to order a unit to move elsewhere if it was already moving. This bug is now fixed.
Fixed a bug in which field kitchens could be restocked endlessly until they held enormous amounts of food/water.
Enlarged the range of both field hospitals and field kitchens, as well as increasing the carrying capacity of field kitchens. I found it got kind of annoying having to build one of these every few tiles.
Fixed German HQ unit counters. Previously were all set to company commanders.
Thanks for playing!
Grass
Hi all,
Fairly minor update gameplay wise, but a pretty noticeable one. I've added destructible grass, since many of you asked for it to be included in the game. I've also modified the scale of the buildings on the map, making them much smaller and more realistic relative to the units in the game.
Lastly, I made it so that using the Rest order and dragging over an area would also include buildings as possible rest locations, rather than being confined to trenches/dugouts.
Hope you enjoy the game!
Building Types and Improvements
Hi all,
Some more content and quality of life updates this week, most of which has been requested by you guys. Keep the suggestions coming!
Bugfixes/Changes:
Field Kitchens
Field Kitchens are essentially an open-ground version of field supply dumps. Only supply units are able to build field kitchens, and they start off fully stocked. However, they slowly distribute food to the units around them, and thus must be restocked using the Add Supplies command with a supply or rifle unit carrying food.
Food and water combined are now a new supply type, and can be viewed by using a new button next to the morale value on the unit window. Reaching 0% food/water starts to reduce morale, which can affect the ability of your units to carry out attacks and defend their positions. It's worth noting this new addition breaks all your saves, since Food is now a unit attribute. Sorry for the trouble.
Showers/Delousing Stations
This one's just for fun, like coffee and alcohol before it. Sending your men to the showers adds the "Deloused" effect for eight hours, which increases the rate of morale regain when resting (and also slows the rate of morale loss when food is at 0%). The "Deloused" effect also prevents men from becoming sick/wounded during heavy rain and snow.
Watch Duty, Rest, and Training are now click-and-drag AOE orders. Watch Duty and Rest will target trench tiles within the selected area, while Training will target open ground tiles. This allows you to select an entire group of units and have them garrison an entire stretch of trenches, or have them spread out and train over a patch of open ground instead of all being stacked on the same tile. This, along with the updated unit window, should make it easier to manage your units by allowing you to issue idle/rest orders over a small area instead of having to manually place subordinate units.
Tutorials were broken due to a bug with the event log. This has now been fixed.
