It’s been some time now since the last sale on HoS, and even more time since the game was discounted this low, so hey, why not doing it again?:)
Hopefully, we can get even more people into the world of wargaming and get them to love hexagons! Wargaming is COOL!
Now is the time to gift the game to your friends that were reluctant and thought wargaming was boring :p
If none of that is of any interest to you, then juste enjoy the discount :)
Limited time, for this weekend only
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On a more personal note now, some of you may know that we (my brother and I) are currently travelling to Finland, we will go home soon and get back not normal working hours but before all that, we decided to go to … the TANK MUSEUM
Who doesn’t like tanks?
The museum was Parola tank museum, located 100km north of Helsinki
It features numerous WWII vehicles as well as cold war / modern ones (T-72, Leopard 2 and others)
But what we went to this museum for was… the WWII tanks! Of course!
(Okay we also played the tank shooting simulation and destroyed 2 T-26 using a Bofors 37mm. Yes, we handled a true anti tank gun! Didn’t fire for real though but it was nice to use a piece of history)
Anyway, here are some pictures that I thought were worthy to be shared :)
A captured soviet KV-1E:
A captured soviet SU-152:
A rare BT-42 (only 18 produced):
An early StuG-III G, this one saw battle and destroyed 5 soviet tanks:
And finally, a (once more) captured BA-10:
All of those units are available in Hex of Steel for you to use, or even capture!
6.6.1
NOTE: 6.6.1 is not compatible with earlier versions of real time multiplayer. PBEM is fine.
Hi there!
So, I am currently travelling (Finland) and don't have much time to work, but since this trip included many hours spent in the train and the plane, well I had time to work on Hex of Steel.
I spent a lot of time thinking to solve a few issues I was having, including modifying base units' stats and saving those as part of a mod.
Well, my friends, wait no more, I found a way to do it and even implemented it already!
This small update actually changes several things, adds a little bit and fixes some issues you guys reported back to me (thanks!)
So here's the change log!
Added:
Possibility to modify base units' stats (official) and save those changes into a mod.
Changed:
Submarines can now detect ships 3 tiles away.
Mods' weight is now very accurately displayed in the mod manager (down to the kb).
You can now play the same country in real time multiplayer. Not same player, but same country. So you can have a map with 3 players and have 2 Germany.
Fixed:
When changing a base unit's max HP down to 50 let's say, if you started a new scenario, the unit would show 100/50 HP.
Buildings didn't appear in the map editor.
And that's it for this update! Will share some pictures from the tank museum when we get there :) There are mostly soviet tanks but german and finnish as well ;)
Cheers!
6.6.0
I am working my way on the most asked features, not especially fast, but I am!
First I have some stuff IRL going on, but I am also working hard on my next game
Anyway, the object of this new update is the possibility to build airfields on the spot, or factories to boost your economy. Both come at a cost and a certain amount of time to be ready in order to keep the game balanced. But still, it is now possible to make those! Why not trenches? Why not roads? Because I couldn't find any simply way to choose the orientation of those when placing them on the map. Still can't to this time.
The way I made this work is to create 3 new units (Factory, Refinery and Airfield). And upon placing those on the map (using engineers, just like when you make bunkers or place mines) the unit will not even spawn but the tile will change instantly to whatever it should be (Factory or airfield).
I have set the amount of turns to make a factory OR an airfield to be a total amount of days, not turns (internally). So, to make a factory, you will need 90 days, and to make an airfield 4 days. Number of turns will depend based on the scenario's pace. This will keep things realistic, and balanced! Playing at 1 day a turn will mean 90 turns to produce a factory. Playing at 7 days a turn will mean 13 turns to produce a factory. Making an airfield or a factory will immobilise some of your manpower that you will get back once the unit is placed on the map (and destroyed).
AI hasn't been programmed to build any of those.
Additions:
Possibility to build airfields on the spot, factories or even refineries to boost your country's income.
Button to remove units only in victory points in the map editor (Useful if you don't want to touch the OOB but still want to re do all garrison or simply remove it).
Button to place garrison in VPs only in the map editor. Once again, very useful if you want in just 2 clicks to replace all units in the VPs by garrisons.
HQ points are now shown in the store if you are playing with the policy option turned ON.
AT infantry 43 for italy.
2 new achievements for building an airfield and a factory.
Changes:
Internally created a "Shared" folder for all common graphics for units such as: Bunkers, all coastal batteries, mines (both types), supply depots, RADARs, newly added factory and airfield. Since they all look the same, it didn't make sense to have 257 sprites when you could have 1 of each). So yes, I deleted 257 images which should make some free space for your computers :) No difference in gameplay, or for mods, just more free space for you :)
Changed the way units are counted in the unit editor, doublons are not counted anymore. It is now based on unique units only. New total of units: 1213 unique units.
Fixes:
AI would go for reinforcement tiles (cannot be captured).
6.5.0
CAUTION: This update is NOT multiplayer compatible with prior versions of the game. Do not attempt to cross version multiplayer. Either stay in 6.4.2 OR move to 6.5.0.
Hello again :)
I have been at work for the past 3 days on something I talked about during my streams on Youtube, for those of you who watched me, you already know what this is :)
The last major feature the game was lacking was a better diplomacy system.
So, I got to work and updated it Actually, it was a bit more than an update since I changed around 800 lines of code throughout the game (that were linked to diplomacy in general) That was a LOT of work (but this was due to my code not supporting changes like those without redoing the entire thing from scratch) This is one of the reasons why there are things that are simply not gonna change simply because my code sucks and doesn't really support upgrades but actually requires to be demolished and rebuilt, making it a huge pain in the butt
Anyway, I finished the work on diplomacy, and now you have a proper system where you can be at war with Poland, not at war with the USSR but still have the USSR at war with Poland
This system was needed for the quick games (custom scenarios) where for example both Germany and the USSR would be at war with Poland but Germany and the USSR wouldn't be allies That wasn't possible with the old system because it was very binary. You were either at war, either at peace. Now you can have common enemies without being allies.
Anyway, this fixes the Winter War as well, where Finland and the USSR will both be at war with each other without impacting anything else, and same thing for the Baltic States and the USSR in June 1940 USSR will mind its own business and there will be no intel sharing or any red units running around Germany Not anymore
Unfortunately, the changes required for this to work made the whole thing slower (more expensive checks, since instead of checking if you are in the same faction or not you need to check in your list of allies or list or enemies or both even in some places) and so this slowed down the AI a little
At first, it was pretty bad, then I profiled the issues and saw there were things that could be optimised I optimised some things and made them faster, so we got back at the previous level of speed/lag Basically almost nothing changed in term of AI speed, but the code is more efficient now! (All my tests are conducted on Europe 1939 with all countries in Free For All mode in hardcore with all options ON in the settings. With the previous version the first turn took 1 minute 12 seconds to complete, now it takes 1 minute 7 seconds. Small optimisations things a bit)
Additions:
New diplomacy system. New diplomacy tooltip showing wars and alliances per player.
New pre war anti tank gun for Hungary.
Changes:
Many, many, many lines of code changed. Everywhere throughout the game. This means instability has increased, I did play test quite a bit and squashed all bugs I found. Since this update once again has really changed the code base of the game, it is likely there are going to be new bugs. If you witness something weird, please let me know so I can fix it in the best delays!
AI's behaviour with planes. If the option "one more tile with planes" is one, AI will take advantage of that now and have its plane move aside one tile when it attacked a unit, to allow for maximum destruction/damage.
When a VP is captured, if it used to belong to someone else, and if this someone else is your ally, the VP will go back to its original owner, no longer to you. Basically, when Germany invades France, if the USA or any ally of France take back France's stuff, it goes back to France. This is not only good because of this, but also because this means the AI will no longer steal stuff from you if it used to belong to you!
Fixes:
AI buying algorithm. Many fixes. Including ratio of tanks planes artillery etc both for majors and minors.
General fixes I found while re writing the code throughout the game.
6.4.2
Hello guysss
Today I focused on implementing a feature that has been asked probably more than any other, may I present to you ... WAYPOINTS
Probably one of the biggest QoL feature that I implemented based on player feedback
So, have fun with it ya'll :)
To add/remove waypoints you need to hold down SHIFT and do a left click with the mouse. Waypoints will be shown per unit when you select a unit. When the unit gets unselected everything disappears so it doesn't get in the way. Every waypoint is linked by a white line indicating in what order the unit will move
When the unit reaches its waypoint you get an important notification (golden) so you know it got there
You can basically now gives orders to get somewhere and forget about the unit
Please do keep in mind that to keep this lightweight and not create lag every time you add or remove a waypoint I am not calculating the paths every time this is done, this means you can add waypoints to stuff the unit CANNOT reach, please keep that in mind. If the unit doesn't move after you set the waypoint, it's most likely because it simply cannot go there (Ships -> Land for example) I have added a notification for this special case so that you still know about it, so if you set some waypoints and for some reason the unit cannot reach it you will get notified about it
I am not as active as I used to be, but this is not because I am gaming all day, but rather because I am working HARD on my next project. It currently features 40 planes, 70 vehicles of all kind, and 35 weapons!
Here are a few screenshots of the advancement of the whole project: Multiplayer lobby
Amount of weapons currently in the game
German fighter sight
British fighter sight
MG-42 firing + walking in the woods
StuG III G in ambush position
View from the driver's port in StuG III G
Ju-88 A4 looking for a target
Currently supports up to 128 infantry bots in singleplayer, should be plenty to have some fun!
6.4.1
ADDED:
List of online players in the chat. Now you can see who is online and know if your friend(s) is playing the game or just to know if you're not chatting alone :)
History to the chat. I set the history to be the last 10 messages that were sent before you joined the chat, this way you can know what people were talking about before you joined.
CHANGES:
Updated the manual (hence the 40MB update).
FIXES:
Mines were invisible to your allies.
Top 10 mods
Hello hello!
I come with more mods news :p
This time, it is for the very FIRST top for the game! I shall name it, top 10 mods for HoS!
Judging by the amount of subscriptions to mods in the workshop, it seems not many of you know of its existence or seem to know what's there, so this top, hopefully, will spark interest in some of you :)
NUMBER 1: Uncut German flag.
Replaces the base censored German flag by the historically accurate one. You can subscribe to this mod here Credits: Valentin56610
NUMBER 2: Tinted counters.
Replaces all white on the counters by the counter's base color but tinted. You can subscribe to this mod here Credits: Der Kuenstler
NUMBER 3: The Great War (WWI conversion)
Brings WWI to Hex of Steel! No more, no less :) I heard eastern front is under development, so only the western front is available at the moment. You can subscribe to this mod here Credits: Chrys131
NUMBER 4: Modern Warfare
Brings modern conflicts to the game, featuring the Russo-Ukrainian war. You can subscribe to this mod here Credits: Chrys131
NUMBER 5: Napoleonic Wars
Brings the 1800s to the game, with a Europe map with most countries of the time. You can subscribe to this mod here Credits: Chrys131
NUMBER 6: National bunkers
This mod changes the graphics of most bunkers giving them a more personalized style. You can subscribe to this mod here Credits: Der Kuenstler
NUMBER 7: More Visible Airfields
This mod changes the graphics of the airfield tiles to make them more visible even when units are above them. You can subscribe to this mod here Credits: Der Kuenstler
NUMBER 8: Huge Pacific scenario
This mod adds a new scenario to the game, it is taking place in the Pacific and is a huge one! Perfect for players that are looking for huge scenarios :) You can subscribe to this mod here Credits: evolution.400
NUMBER 9: German Generals Portraits
This mod replaces the base generals' graphics by custom ones showing their faces. You can subscribe to this mod here Credits: Chrys131
NUMBER 10: More Visible Trenches
This mod changes the graphics of the trenches tiles to make them more visible even when units are above them. You can subscribe to this mod here Credits: Der Kuenstler
Thank you for reading and thank you to all modders that already have contributed to the workshop and that will contribute in the future!
Modding update
Hello everyone!
I am making this news event to make sure everyone knows about the modifications I made to modding. I have already talked about it in the Discord server (Discord server invite), and also in the change log of version 6.4.0 (6.4.0 change log), but in case some of you are simply not on the server OR do not read change logs (it's ok I won't be mad), here's an event with more visibility :)
With 6.4.0 out, it has now became incredibly easier to make mods that add units / tiles / countries
The big changes here are is the following: - Ability to edit mods on the fly directly from within the editors
In any of the editors (country, unit, tile) you can now select a mod to edit, and remove/add stuff from it and save your changes directly from within the game.
Whereas before you needed to handle files, copy them from the root folder of the game to the mod's folder back and forth every time you wanted to edit a mod.
Now, everything is accessible from within the editors, as long as you activate the mod(s) through the mods panel :)
Happy modding!
PS: To the attention of modders, only one Custom Units.txt file is now allowed PER mod. If your mod uses more than one Custom Units.txt file, please get in touch with me so I can merge those files in a single one.
6.4.0
Hello guys!
I apologise for being out of touch for so long, I was taking a break at my grandparent's for 10 days, I just got home Thank you for your patience on the bugs matter :) I fixed everything that's been reported and even improved stuff I know I was on a break and with family, but I still found some time and motivation to rework the modding system to make it easier to use I know a lot of you were confused what to do with files, where they were where to put them etc and I understood the current solution was not optimal at all So I rewrote most of the code and it is now way easier to make mods (for units, tiles and countries, I haven't changed the rest) Hope you will enjoy those changes!
ADDITIONS:
British light infantry 43.
US M2 light tank.
You can now change the individual unit’s level right from the map editor. Done so when right clicking on a unit, two more buttons have been added: +1 level to unit and -1 level to unit.
CHANGES
Changed the way mods are being handled. No more file handling or whatever, just create your mod through the game's UI, then add/remove/modify units of your mod directly from the editor without having to move / copy files over the place. Those dark times are over and now modding became incredibly easier! Currently looking for a solution to modify official units (base units) stats and make a mod for that. One note though, only one file will be allowed per category now, you will not have the possibility to have 2 custom units file in the custom units folder.
Re did the modding README file, clearer now :)
Bunkers and costal batteries will spawn asleep.
Crimea 1944 and Europe 1939 balance adjustments.
Optimization to deployment panel (faster to open and close, performance wise).
Units for the spawn unit event in the map editor are now ordered by their names. Easier to look for a particular unit.
Made units store slots bigger on mobile version, 4 columns instead of 5 makes more space for having bigger slots.
Pershing and Super Pershing graphics.
Slightly improved opening times of maps in the map editor.
FIXES
Paratroopers kept their 8 MP when dropping if they were placed in the map editor.
AI generals not moving out victory points.
AI generals were not always winterized.
Human controlled partisans couldn’t blow up bridges
3.7 cm sd kHz (German) had no armour.
Clicks going through the tiles container in map editor.
Paratroopers would become garrisons.
You could resupply submarine under water with supply ships.
No sounds were played when resupplying using supply ships or planes.
Spawning several units using the event would not spawn all of the units if there was more than 1 unit to be spawned.
All scroll areas that would not scroll if you did not have your mouse perfectly on the item. YAY.
Forgot to add the graphics for the Chinese transport plane for paras.
Finally fixed the annoying bug of black tiles and tiles disappearing when placing roads rivers etc. All good now!
6.3.5
Update is not backward compatible for real time multiplayer since I made changes/fixes to the network code.
ADDITIONS:
None!
CHANGES:
Not showing the state of the enemy’s ammo and fuel anymore, will add that later back if you pick a certain policy (spying).
QoL : When you delete the unit’s name in game it will now set itself back to the normal name.
Stalingrad and Sea Lion south difficulty changes (too hard).
Carrier compatible planes cost 50 more.
Recon planes cost less to make a bigger difference with offensive planes (fighters and others).
Mechanized option for guns no longer apply a +5 soft damage to them. Only infantry.
Submarines were pretty much cannon fodder for ships due to their inability to disengage after an attack (limited by the 2 action points rule). Attacking now with submarines will not cost an action point anymore, so they can move, attack, then move again. Their number of movement points remains unchanged so they still can’t get very far away). I recommend using recon planes alongside with your fleets now so you can easily spot the subs.
Made deployment of new units at newly captured cities longer (2 turns to deploy new infantry at something captured behind the frontline was too short, minimum of 3 for towns, and 5 for factories and cities and 2 for airfields).
Inviting allies of same ideology was too cheap, made it twice more expensive.
Belgian heavy infantry and engineers got a graphics swap.
Artillery barrage policy now doubles the cost of ammo supplies.
Blitzkrieg policy now doubles the cost in ammo and fuel of your tanks, mechanised/motorized units and CAS planes.
Commanders are now more expensive and their range is taken into account in the way the price is calculated (useful for modding).
Small changes / adjustments to Europe map.
Adjusted the ammo of German artillery.
FIXES:
You could resupply fuel / ammo infinitely if you just spammed the hotkeys. There were no checks for using the hotkeys to resupply a unit.
Sync issues in real time multiplayer with mobile / PC (when units got deleted/died).
Your units could be renamed to waswsawsass when moving the camera around after you clicked on the unit’s name and thought you had clicked away.
AI freeze instance. Finally found it! Even fixed it live during my stream on Youtube :) Here
New random IDs for units less prone to doublons. Regenerated the IDs of all units on all maps.
Change faction event would happen even if the player already has the faction the event wants to change it to (Allies and Allies) for example.
