Changelog for Patch 4 v1.1.1 (26 May 2020):
Bug fixes:
- Fixed the game crashing on launch for a few people
- Fixed the AI getting into infinite loop under rare circumstances
- Fixed dead units sometimes interfering with mouse clicks
- Fixed switchable units being captured into two separate pools of equipment
- Fixed merge command, so that the unit automatically mounts if needed to reach the other part. Also, if split parts are too far to merge this turn, merge marker is shown in red.
- Fixed selection marker in strategic mode not working well for aircraft
- Fixed "Reduced slots" and "Zero slots" heroes refusing to unassign from units in reserve because of insufficient free slots
- Fixed workaround of "Green Army" player trait by using unit upgrade. Now, upgrades will also use green replacements when there are no elite replacements left.
- Fixed spotting issues when a unit is deployed mid-mission on a high ground hex
- Fixed spotting bug when an allied unit is destroyed near your own units
- Fixed chat not scrolling to the end automatically when a long (multi-line) message is added
- Fixed "create screenshots for saved games" option
- Fixed some issues with "Shroud" advanced option (rivers showing through shroud, minimap artefacts)
- Fixed player selection UI when a custom multiplayer scenario is selected in the list
Gameplay changes:
- All units contributing some bonus to combat will now get experience for it: 20 for mass attack and 50 for any other bonus (recon, military engineer, distraction, leadership, aiming assistance). Among other things, this allows recon planes to earn experience.
- Dismissing a hero now gives a bonus of 1000 prestige (value configurable in Rules.json file).
- Discarding organic transport now returns its cost in prestige, so it can be repurchased later.
- When a unit embarks on an air transport which cannot carry its organic transport, organic transport is discarded.
- Split units equipped with organic transport will now unmount after a short drive, as normal (non-split) units do.
- Each star will now give +10% to unit's accuracy (instead of +8%), and reduce enemy accuracy by 4% (instead of 3%).
- Units with "suppressing fire" trait will slightly (+5%) improve their chances to outright kill the target (instead of suppressing it) with each star.
- Green strategic bombers now destroy 20% of ammo (instead of 1 point) with carpet bombing, and additionally destroy 20% of target's movement points. Each star adds +10% destroyed. Overstrength/understrength also increases/decreases damage done proportionally.
- On the other hand, suppression now reduces effectiveness of carpet bombing, so AA units will provide protection from this threat as well.
- Units with "Alpine" trait (mountain infantry) are now immune to the opponent's high ground bonuses, and move faster over hills.
- Aircraft can now be upgraded and disbanded if they are assigned to an airfield which is a supply hex (being straight over it is no longer required).
- River hexes (except settlements) now have zero base entrenchment, because units don't benefit from entrenchment when they are "crossing the river".
- Units adjacent to Engineers will now ignore up to 4 points of enemy entrenchment (instead of 50% previously), which means that engineers can enable other units to fully bypass base entrenchment of any terrain (except fortifications)
- Changed rounding method to "nearest integer" when applying bonus to initiative from entrenchment. One important consequence is that forest's base entrenchment of 3 now provides +2 initiative to the defender, instead of +1.
- Weather during deployment phase is now always Clear. You can see the weather that will be on the first turn in the forecast.
- Motorcycle recon units got "close combat" trait, which makes them more useful in close terrain
UI:
- Added a new "Deployment panel" visible during the Deployment Phase. It contains mass commands (replace all, disband all, undeploy all etc.) which allow to speed up typical tasks during the Deployment Phase.
AI:
- The AI can now give both green and elite replacements to its units.
- The AI will distribute fighter cover more evenly between bombers
Random maps:
- Random maps now always start with a deployment phase (using "custom army" is not needed)
- Experience growth rate is now 5x normal on random maps, so units can actually gain a few stars and maintain them with elite replacements in the course of the battle.
- Random maps now also use custom medal requirements, so it is possible to get more medals in the course of the battle. Medals can be turned off in advanced option, if needed.
- Human players can now choose their commander traits in the beginning of the game (as in the campaign). The AI will also pick some random trait(s) for itself. If this is not desirable, set number of picks to 0 in advanced options.
- It is now possible to purchase ships in random scenarios with ports (Coast, Big Island, Big Lake).
- Special challenges can now be activated for random maps in advanced options. "David vs. Goliath" only affects (makes stronger) AI units. "Europe of a Shoestring" only affects human players. "Race against time" obviously affects everyone on the map.
- When a year is specified, date is now set to 1st of July that year (mid year) instead of 1st of January.
- The generator will now give more priority to more recent units when generating starting armies, instead of using equal weight for all units available on scenario date.
- More airfields are now generated on larger maps
- In FFA, starting airfields are now defended by an AA unit
- Random scenarios can now have cloudy and rainy days (if not desired, weather can be turned off in advanced options as usual), and will display weather forecast for the next three days.
- Prestige of all opponents can now be seen in tooltips over player icons, so you can now better plan the wars of attrition with them.
- Filled some gaps in equipment in 1939: France now has a tactical bomber option, Great Britain has more choice of artillery, and Hungary has a strategic bomber option. Also, USA now has a recon option in 1942.
- Allied late war tanks (IS-3, Tortoise, T34 and T28) no longer have "no purchase" trait, and can be bought to counter German super tanks (like Tiger II, Maus and E-75) in 1945.
- Reduced number of enemy overstrength units when playing Defense and Survival missions against the AI
- Defense mission no longer has zero slots and thus allows to purchase units if the default force is disbanded
- Various tweaks in turn count, prestige and slots
Multiplayer:
- Fixed several more issues which could lead to desync in online MP mode
- Fixed replays of the opponent's turn in PBEM (only new games will show replays)
- Fixed "end turn" not working properly in coop MP when it is played in PBEM ("offline") mode
- After making a turn in a PBEM game, the player will now be returned to MP game list, not main menu
- In team games on random maps, allies will now give each other support fire and share airfields
- In random maps, AI teams no longer have "simultaneous movement" to reduce camera jumping around the map
- Fixed prestige sharing in Minsk scenario
Other:
- Changed yellow markings on Ju87 B and D, so that they are more different from contemporary fighters.
- Added hero images for US, GB, RU, IT, HU, RO factions. Heroes of other factions will display a generic hero image
- Added generic medal images which will be displayed in case there are no specialized images for a given nation
- Updated Polish localization (thanks Grzegorz Kłos!)
- In tactical puzzles undo is now set to Unlimited, so that it is much easier to experiment with different solutions.
Editor:
- Removed most "not implemented" data fields to avoid confusion and save screen space. They will return as they get implemented.
- Fixed "share prestige" and "share core slots" options for sides, and added "share auxiliary slots" and "share airfields" parameters.
- Added "prestige visible to enemies", "default experience", "max experience" and "experience growth rate" parameters to each player (advanced options section).
- Added an option to specify custom rules file. For now, custom file must be in the game's Content/Data folder.
- Added options to control what unit classes each player can purchase.
- Added options to specify custom unit skins and insignias, both on player (in Scenario Params) and individual unit (in Configure Units mode) level.
- Added a new checkbox for "Capture victory hexes" objective: "Only check at scenario end"
Standalone installer updated (01.01.00b ⇒ 1.01.01): 27 May 2020.