This update resets ALL of the leaderboards. Some exploits were found and fixed.
ADDED
New and improved ironman mode tooltip. This new tooltip now efficiently explains which setting must be turned ON or OFF in order for the mode to be ON. Very helpful and informative.
Berlin 1945 standalone scenario leaderboards.
CHANGED
Multiplayer compatibility --> 7.6.2.
AI submarines will focus on capturing naval sea trade tiles.
Supplies rate through terrain. Hills and mountains as well as forest are now going to play a more important role.
Mountaineers (store option) have a -50% penalty for supplies going through hills/mountains.
Proper UI feedback for scenario setup with income sliders (adjusted by difficulty and configuration).
In game selected unit extra stats UI element now shown at all time.
FIXED
Exploits to complete scenarios in very short amount of time.
Supplies issues.
7.6.1
ADDED
New AI behaviour: Retreat and defend. When the AI (nation) is considering itself losing the war (turn income of all the enemies > 1.3x the turn income of the AI + its allies), and when it is locally (3 tiles radius) outnumbered by the enemy, it will retreat and look for good defensive positions.
Auto files checker for the mods menu (will refresh the UI automatically when mods are changed outside of the game, like a manual delete or dragging in/out things).
CHANGED
AI ships target behaviour. They will now ignore empty enemy harbours instead of staying around like a swarm of flies on a dog shit. :)
AI artillery / bombers / ships will try to prioritize shelling/bombing victory points first, even if it means doing less damage (if the unit on the VP has its entrenchment > 0). They (arty and light bombers) will also check the presence of allies in the direct vicinity of the VP to evaluate if they should shell it or if they should attack nearby units. Meaning, if force targeting a VP is not gonna be of any help since no friendlies can attack it anyway, it will do regular attack logic.
Refined risk/reward attack logic for AI planes.
Faction joined upon war declared for players having the same ideology. A Fascist country being declared war upon another Fascist country will now join its own faction instead of joining the Allies (Ex: Japan vs Thailand or Germany vs Spain).
Units added to the reserve through events will now have a turn production of 0 automatically (ready to deploy right away).
Renamed the 'Finite Manpower' setting into 'Realistic Manpower'.
Updated Tutorial scenario.
Tutorial scenario leaderboard entries have been reset entirely (scenario was changed enough that it would require a reset of the steam leaderboard).
FIXED
Notification text when a player is being transferred a tile would show 'No Translation'.
Custom Weather inputfields reacting oddly in the map editor.
Steam leaderboards/stats were no longer working (no more uploads). Big shoutout to @DarthPorscheman without whom I'd never have noticed it was no longer working.
Real Time multiplayer units HP not synced.
Android / iOS bugs only.
7.6.0
ADDED
New tile management menu (through diplomacy menu). You can now decide to request or transfer specific tiles. Useful when playing in coop or when the AI captures stuff you wanted to get for yourself. Transferring a tile to a player is free (one of yours) while requesting the ownership of a tile comes at a cost. The cost is calculated as follows: If the tile is a core territory of the player, then it costs 100 times the production value of the tile. If the tile is not a core territory of the player owning it, then it costs 50 times the production value of the tile. Meaning, if Slovakia captures a Polish factory, you can request its transfer to you if you can pay 35 (default factory production value) * 50 = 1750. If the tile was previously owned by you, then it is only 15 times the production value (although currently, ownership is automatically given back, so no transaction is required). You cannot manage in any way tiles owned by the enemy (no request or transfer). Transferring or requesting a tile will send any unit on the tile back to the reserve of the player owning the unit.
New optional setting: Finite Manpower. This only works if the Manpower setting is ON. It adds on to the Manpower setting, making it a finite resources. When this extra setting is OFF (default), when a unit is destroyed, 100% of its manpower is being sent back into the pool. This extra setting prevents this. Lost manpower cannot be retrieved, and wars of attrition of manpower are now possible. Small specificity: When transferring units to another player, the manpower used is yours. The player receiving the unit will not have less manpower in its pool. This puts an end to the exploit of transferring infinite units to your allies.
New japanese planes: Mitsubishi J2M, Kawanishi N1K-J, Nakajima B6N, Mitsubishi A7M3 (prototype).
New optional setting: Show unit pre move path. Default = ON on new installs. This basically shows the path the unit will take when moving to a given tile (under mouse cursor).
New graphics for the Desert biome mountain tile.
3 New event actions: Add VP (basically turning any tile into a VP) and Remove VP (removing any VP) and Set Tile Name (writing text on a tile).
Units that are too expensive in the store are now greyed out with a 'TOO EXPENSIVE' text above them.
New per scenario setting (map editor): Disable purchases. This will basically disable purchasing new units for players. Useful if you want to have a batch of starting units and only want these to be available in your scenario and control reinforcements with events.
New keybind: End of turn.
Stalingrad 43 Steam leaderboard.
CHANGED
Sending units back to the reserve (redeploying) now has a dynamic cost. It no longer costs a fixed 30 money, but is 10% of the unit's value. Redeploying a light infantry unit will be cheap, while redeploying tanks or ships will cost more, and scale with the unit's cost.
Units in the reserve (but not under production) now have an upkeep cost, but not full like deployed ones. They have a reduced upkeep cost and the upkeep value is 30% of the real upkeep once deployed.
Undo button was brought at the very top of the list of buttons for a selected unit for easier access.
US light tank M2 was turned into the M2A4 light tank.
When playing with Realistic Units Names option ON, the previous 'Battalion' word has been replaced by 'Brigade' to better fit the overall size of units represented in the game.
Manpower cost of some units.
Manpower 'Neutral' penalty has been replaced by Manpower 'not at war' penalty. Before 7.6.0. a country that was in the Neutral faction would have its available manpower cut in half. Now, this happens any time the player is not at war with anybody, regardless of the faction it is in.
FIXED
Updating tiles through events would not always work.
Units in reserve being removed from the scenario when opening a scenario in the map editor.
Some issue with unit pathfinding when asking it to move from A to B.
You could transfer core units to another player and it would not check if this would make it go over the max limit, this could be exploited to basically have unlimited core units.
Units that were ordered to stay asleep would wake up if there were other units nearby (Neutral).
Stalingrad 43 standalone scenario achievements could not be unlocked.
One potential error during code execution when a submarine was asked to dive/undive.
Game could sometimes show you the 'You still have research points available' popup window when all units were researched except the last ones that are being researched currently.
Drawings sync in real time multiplayer issues/not always shown for allies.
Country editor issues when having loaded mods which did not feature a Custom Countries.txt file.
Deleting / Disbanding a unit that was a goal for the scenario would grant manpower and income but cancel the disband process after that. Could be heavily exploited.
Checking if the unit has been used (while in the reserve) to determine its cost for a refund was wrong some times. Logic is: If you cancel the production of a unit that has never been deployed on the map, you should get full refund.
Manpower difference calculation when upgrading a unit was wrong.
7.5.4
ADDED
Nothing.
CHANGED
Updated game engine (Unity 2021.3.33 --> 2021.3.40).
UK and US rules of war declaration on Vichy France.
When importing an overlay for the first time, its opacity will be at 100% instead of 0% which could mislead a lot into thinking it was not working properly.
Removed the popup window warning you of unsupported setting(s) when playing a campaign, since now all campaign scenarios have been reworked to work in par with manpower and upkeep optional settings.
FIXED
Potentially fixed a crash on startup on M2 and above Macs.
2 events system objects were in the editor scene when you were trying to import a new overlay.
Some UI issues in the standalone games menu.
7.5.3
ADDED
Edition time stat for maps. It will simply count how long it took to create a map in the editor. Just a useful stat I guess since it has no real use. But at least you will know how long it took you to make this or that map.
Delete unit brush in map editor. 1 = tile painting. 2 = water freeze. 3 = season change. 4 = unit removal.
CHANGED
Increased painting accuracy when using the draw feature in game (x2 accuracy).
Using same keybind for 'Next unit' and 'Sleep' will now execute in the reverse order (first sleep, then next unit, instead of the other way around as it was before).
Several new campaign scenarios have been updated to be playable with manpower and upkeep settings.
FIXED
Mod would fail to upload to steam workshop if it was missing a thumbnail (in case you deleted it).
Strategic bombers could bomb convoy route tiles.
Workshop best mods 2024 edition
Hello guys!
I have talked in length about making a 'Best HoS mods' official post, for a long, LONG time... Actually, the last similar post was made on July 31st 2022... (Link to the post for those of you who don't remember)
This time I will not make a top, I will just give you a few links to some mods that deserve some attention, and that you may have missed. These mods are not ranked by 'the best', they are unsorted and ranked purely by me.
Alright, now that you know what we're gonna talk about today, let's start! Here's the top HoS mods I would recommend you to play...
As the mod name may suggest, it features a world map. It has pretty much every country that you can think about, it adds and modifies a ton of units, highly recommended to show the creator some love as it took over 6 months to complete.
Yet another world map mod. Although watch out for this one as it is truly massive and may not be supported on lower end PCs (I'm not even gonna talk about phones/tablets). A ton of work was put into that mod as well, and still is, as it isn't finished yet, but I'd really commend you to check it out :)
A brand new Europe map, very similar to the vanilla one, but bigger (not to a point that it is unplayable, though). It is not yet finished, so don't worry if you subscribe and you cannot see the map in the game, but it will be finished very soon. I cannot wait for that one to release as it was made from scratch, using a mash up of real life maps (for cities, terrain, height, roads and railroads). I will definitely base my next playthrough on YouTube on this map!
Still one of those mods I use all the time. It basically changes the graphics of the airfields a little to give higher visibility even when units are on it. It looks very natural and fits the game quite well.
A total conversion mod to bring the 1800s into Hex of Steel. Highly recommended if you are a fan of the era. There are pretty much all campaign of Napoleon and the Coalition as well as entire Europe conversion scenarios. I cannot fathom how much work was put into that mod as well.
Ever wanted a historically accurate HUGE eastern front map, where each hex is 10 km? There you have it :) This is a high quality mod that also took a very long time to make, but as it is now ready, I highly recommend you checking this one out!
Total conversion of the game, brings the Korean conflicts of the 16th century into Hex of Steel. To anybody interested in this particular era/geographical area, a must have! Features high quality counters.
Total conversion mod which brings the 1770s to Hex of Steel. High quality mod, beautiful counters. Lovers of the era/period will absolutely love this mod!
Yet another total conversion mod, this time focused on more modern events. Not only does this mod bring brand new modern units into the game, but an entirely custom hand-made map. Hats off to the author for that one :)
Visual mod, just like the improved airfields one, but this time with trenches!
Alright, that's it for me, this is only my favorite 15 mods (not sorted in any way). I invite you to take a look at the 200+ other mods available on the workshop and see what you are most interested in!
Have a great week-end
Val
7.5.2
ADDED
Mountain tile now got a summer version (without the snow).
CHANGED
Huge amount of campaign scenarios updated to support both manpower + upkeep settings, as well as general balance. Actually, I think I finished revamping all 'Western' scenarios, all that's left to update now would be the Pacific ones.
You now can (as a Neutral) send units to other players.
FIXED
AI would deploy anti tank obstacles in victory points.
AI could waste its movement if it could kill a unit that was on an adjacent tile to him.
Europe 1939, Italy should have owned Rijeka and Zadar (Balkans/Yugoslavia).
Celebrate the 80th Anniversary of D-Day with Hex of Steel – Now 40% Off!
Hey everyone!
It's a big moment as we’re rolling up to the 80th anniversary of D-Day, and to mark this historic occasion, I'm slashing the price on Hex of Steel by 40%! Whether you're a seasoned strategist or a newcomer eager to dive into the intense theaters of WW2, now’s your chance to snag the game at a great price.
For those who haven't yet jumped into the action, Hex of Steel is a strategic WW2 wargame that puts you in the commander's seat. With a massive sandbox environment and yet a historical focus, you can rewrite history or follow in the footsteps of the greatest generals of the era (I mean, blunders can happen too).
The sale starts today and will run until next week. So rally your troops and prepare your best strategies – the battlefield awaits!
Catch you on the front lines,
Val
7.5.1
ADDED
First of new Fictional scenarios. People often asked for small scenarios, unfortunately, the game doesn't feature really many small scale scenarios. To solve this issue, I have started working on designing new small scale scenarios (max 30x30) to fill this gap. The downside of this is these scenarios are completely made up, they are not historical in any way, they are fictional.
From the map editor, you can now control the amount of entrenchment for any given unit on the map.
CHANGED
Screen resolution setting. Instead of displaying a list of pre chosen (by me) resolutions, now the game will automatically generate the list of all resolutions supported by your screen. This is better since I could not keep track of all resolutions used by all screens in the world, and this will also help unclutter the dropdown since you will be shown only useful information.
In the map editor, the HP modifier for unit on scenario start is now properly indicated as a %.
The weather icon in the game's UI now only indicate the current turn weather, instead of the prediction for next turn. If you want the forecast, you now have to place you mouse directly over the icon to get the full forecast.
Several campaign scenarios rebalance.
In the map editor, for the 'Spawn unit' or 'Add unit to reserve' event action, you now have full access to the units store to pick what unit you want to be spawned (previously you only could pick a country and a name, now you have full customization available).
FIXED
Potential AI freeze.
7.5.0
All current saves remain compatible with the new system, you have nothing to worry about, you can just keep playing, everything is automatically converted, as always :)
ADDED
-15% damage penalty during bad weather (for all units), except for planes if the All Weather Policy is enabled.
Weather forecast system.
Possibility to edit the weather table of any scenario using the map editor (forecast accuracy, accuracy loss, how many turns in the future, and percentage of bad weather for every month).
CHANGED
Multiplayer compatibility -> 7.5.0.
Reworked the weather system from the ground up. The new system now makes more sense, and is more accurate as a whole. The percentage of bad weather is now applied to the whole month, and no longer to every single turn. It also scales to the speed at which days go by.
Confirmation windows now have a black background and will prevent any interaction until the choice has been made.
AI order of playing its units changed a little, now, on top of being played in the order it currently is played, it will also be playing its wounded units first. This should have for effect to unclutter the front with wounded units, and to have fresh troops going to the front right away instead of having fresh troops behind waiting for nothing by playing before the wounded ones first. Hope that made sense :)
Another AI movement/positioning change, it will now move weak units right after they play, instead of waiting a full 1/2 turn. This will free space for stronger units as well, instead of them staying behind and waiting for their turn. Basically, AI is doing something close to swapping now.
FIXED
One instance of AI unit stacking (due to destroyed bridges).
Another instance of AI unit stacking (due to overrun setting + Fast AI setting).
In some cases, tile data could not be updated when snow fell/melted.
