



V1.3 UPDATE



GENERAL

Shared Veterancy



Normalized team weapon veterancy for all factions (all HTs and USF officers). Our halftrack reinforcement changes left the shared-veterancy changes in an inconsistent state. This is because all USF weapon teams were contributing shared experience for the USF officer mechanism.



To bring everything together, we decided to only allow HMGs and Mortars to provide shared veterancy, but at a rate that is lower than infantry. This is because mortars gain experience at a higher rate, and to avoid awarding HMG-overuse too much.



5% mortars/indirect fire

10% HMGs

50% infantry



OKW

251 Flak Half-Track



To prevent the unit from coming out too early and dominating the field (e.g., a cut-off manoeuvre), players now require to first research Field Medics. This was especially problematic for Soviet Tier 1 or USF Tier 2 did not have access to proper counters. The 251 Flak HT was also overshadowing investing into a Mechanized HQ for Panzer 2 due to its earlier timing and not suffering from any of the downsides of Mech.

* Building the 251 FlakHT requires the player to first research Field Medics



SOVIET

Guards troops



The recent changes to Guards have brought the unit back into line with other squads in the game. Except for one detail; Guards now truly require their upgrades in order to function. Thus, losing their slot items will make them a bit less desirable. Thus, we have given Guards the opportunity to rebuy lost items and equipment for a small munitions cost:



30 MU per PTRS

40 MU per DP-28



Penal Battalions



With this patch, we aim to refine the anti-infantry and anti-vehicle roles Penals should have as well as late game scaling.Thus, in order to give Penals the tools to become more desirable and interactive, we are giving them the Molotov Cocktail ability. The rationale is that Penals rifle are very good at engaging enemy infantry at all ranges. However, a Penal investment might not look so lucrative if all fight is happening between green cover. Thus, we deem that a Molotov Cocktail will restore Penalâs capacity as both an anti-garrison specialist unit (forcing squads off cover), and a skirmisher unit (creating impediments for incoming squads). This will also allow for better Conscript mixing and make the upgrade more viable.

Oorah! Ability removed (vet2)

Penals can now throw Molotov Cocktails, when researched from the Soviet Headquarters. (Same as Conscripts)



Furthermore, we are enhancing Anti-Tank Penal battalions. Even though 2x PTRS would be more than enough to hold off against a vehicle threat, PTRS Penals would lose out in relevance to nearly every other squad in the game. To give PTRS Penal squads the ability to scale as a decent AT-squad, we are adding the ability for PTRS Penals to upgrade to a 3rd PTRS rifle. However, to prevent 3x PTRS Penals from hard countering light vehicles too easily, we are gating this upgrade behind Soviet Tech.



PTRS Penals can buy a 3rd PTRS for 30 munition

3rd PTRS upgrade requires building Soviet T4



Moreover, we have found that the Sticky AT Satchel is nearly impossible to use in a realistic combat situation. To alleviate this, we have modified the AT satchel as follows:



Buying the 2xPTRS upgrade removes access to the Satchel ability, and gives access to the Sticky AT satchel ability

The Sticky AT satchel will home in on the target, if thrown

The enemy vehicle can avoid having the satchel thrown at it if it runs out of range (10) while the unit is winding the satchel up

The Sticky AT Satchel will apply a snare to all injured tanks in the vicinity, if the health is low enough (friendly or enemy)

Now deals engine critical damage only if the tank falls below 75% health



Finally, we are also experimenting with giving Penals their Flamer back, but with a catch; upgrading the Flamethrower will severely inhibit the squadâs long-range capability. This is so as to prevent Penals from being to able to engage enemy squads at all ranges and all cover-types. Part of the reason the previous Penal Flame thrower package was too potent was because of the durability of Penals, but this has been weakened in a previous iteration of the Preview Mod.



Penals can upgrade to a Flamer & PPSh package for 70 munitions

The package gives access to 1 flamer and 3 PPSh submachine-guns

PPSh sub-machine-guns have equal priority to SVT rifles, thus PPSh will not transfer over to surviving members. This is to ensure Flamer is always the last item.



WEHRMACHT

222



We found the 222âs MG wasnât quite performing for its cost. Although a small change, it will help the performance of the 222 better reflect it cost.



MG accuracy increased from 0.35/0.3/0.25 to 0.44/0.385/0.275



QUALITY OF LIFE

Retreat point de-congestion



The OKW headquarters layout makes it so that retreating infantry units often get caught up in high-congestion areas. This, in particular, makes it difficult for nearby-stationed medics to reach injured soldiers, thus reducing the efficiency of healing.

Squads will halt their retreat within 10 yards from the OKW headquarters



We have noticed a similar situation arising in the forward OKW MedHQ. Healing performance is further degraded by the fact that activating the forward retreat point ability spawns antennas that inhibit movement. To address this:

Squads will halt their retreat within 10 yards from an OKW MedHQ base acting as retreat point

Forward retreat antennas can now be traversed by units



Finally, we have noticed similar patterns emerge with the forward retreat mechanic of the British faction. Like the OKW faction, the entities that act as forward retreat points are large immobile objects. Unlike OKW, there was only one single spot acting as a forward retreat point, creating unnecessary hotspots. To address this:

Squads will half their retreat within 10 yards from a Forward Assembly or a Vanguard Glider acting as retreat points



BUG FIXES



Fixed a bug where USF Phosphorus barrage was targettable in base sector



Fixed a bug where it was possible to make OKW Medical supplies have infinite duration

Fixed a bug where OST medic supplies would heal in-combat squads

Fixed a bug where it was possible to trigger OST medical supplies before the duration had elapsed

Assault grenadiers can no longer interrupt their grenade toss (workaround for infinite grenades abuse)

Fixed an issue where Schu mines were not causing suppression



Fixed an issue where the suppression -33% distance modifier was not affecting the following squads:



Airlanding officer (Light Gammon Bomb)

Stormtrooper (Stun grenade)

Obersoldaten (Bundle grenade)



UI FIXES



Updated abandoned M1 81mm Portrait



Updated M1 81mm squad portraits for their respective factions.

Updated 120mm Mortar Shield Symbol to a different variant

Updated KV-8 call-in icon to match other call-in icons.

Updated M1 81mm Smoke Radius UI. UI will now get smaller at shorter distances.

Updated artillery officer call-in icon to match other call-in icons.

DShka shield icon updated to the correct version for non-EFA armies.





