You know Red Orchestra, the supremely bleak multiplayer FPS set on the Eastern front of WW2? Darkest Hour is a similarly dark and moody mod for it which hefts out RO’s black, oily heart and transplants it into the Western Front. As well as adding new maps, new weapons and vehicles, its features include “Airborne drops… bullet suppression and supersonic cracks”. The horror.

This weekend Darkest Hour hit version 5.0, adding even more maps, vehicles and weapons (including mortars and mortar teams), as well as plenty of uplifting new features like “Players now drop their weapon when they suffer falling damage,” “Players now fall over when shot in the legs,” and “Players can catch fire from nearby exploding vehicles and world fires”. THE HORROR. Trailer and mammoth changelog after the jump.





To experience this #content, you will need to enable targeting cookies. Yes, we know. Sorry.

Manage cookie settings



Here we go! *inhales deeply*

Maps

Additions

* Bridgehead

* Caen

* Cambes-en-Plaine

* Carentan Causeway

* Gran

* Hill 400

* Kommerscheidt

* Lutremange

* Poteau Ambush

* Simonskall

* Vieux Recon

Changes

* Bois Jacques

o Reduced round timer by 2 minutes.

o Last Allied spawn moved closer to ‘Hill’ objective.

* Brecourt

o Removed artillery crew and artillery officer roles.

* Dog Green

o Removed German anti-tank role.

o Sturmgewehr 44 removed from weapon selection.

o Fixed issue with ‘Western Sandbank’ objective that made it incredibly difficult to capture.

o Reduced intensity of random artillery on the beach.

o Increased the amount and density of beach obstacles.

o German resupply areas are now placed in more tactical locations.

o Fixed ‘Main Beachhead’ objective name.

o Removed destroyed anti-tank guns from all bunkers.

* Foy

o Removed German anti-tank role.

* Ginkel Heath

o Reduced round timer by 3 minutes.

* Hill 108

o Completely redesigned defensive perimeter, including the addition of wire obstacles and “real” minefields.

o Objective has been redefined as “Destroy Flak Emplacements”.

o Secondary ‘phase line’ objectives added to advance/withdraw spawn areas.

o German reinforcement pool increased by 66%.

o Time limit increased to 30 minutes.

o Widened flanks and increased overall foliage density; all trees now “real”.

* Hürtgenwald

o Flak 36 and Pak 40 guns no longer re-spawn when destroyed.

o Pak bunker interior updated.

o Sherman M4A1 75 limited to 6 spawns.

o Sherman M4A3E2 ‘Jumbo’ added with 2 spawns once the North or South bunker is captured.

* Juno

o Allies limited to 4 Sherman DD tanks.

o Removed Flak 36 facing the beach.

* La Chapelle

o German anti-tank units now receive Panzerfausts instead of Panzerschrecks.

o Added German mortar pit behind church.

o Added German anti-tank dugout near North Village.

* Noville

o Added more cover to eastern town approach.

o Increased Allied reinforcements.

* Raids

o British now receive 2 Cromwell tanks limited to 3 spawns each.

o German StuG III G limited to 4 spawns.

* Stoumont

o German anti-tank units now receive Panzerfausts instead of Panzerschreck

o Germans now receive a “Sniper” role

o US now receive a “Sniper” role

* Wacht am Rhein

o US forces now receive Jackson tanks.

o US forces now receive M4A3 Sherman 75mm & 76mm.

o German forces now receive StuH 42.

o German forces now receive Jagdpanzer IV l/70.

o German forces now receive a Funktrupp (radioman) role.

o Removed Jeep & Kübelwagen.

o Reduced amount of German heavy tanks in first and second spawn.

Miscellaneous

* Unified naming convention for maps with spaces in the name.

* All official maps now have more more historically accurate role allocations.

* Most resupply areas are now team specific.

Gameplay

Additions

* Players can catch fire from nearby exploding vehicles and world fires.

* Non-mortar operators carry one ammunition resupply for mortars.

* Players shot in the legs or feet while sprinting will fall on the ground.

* Players shot in the chest will have their stamina dropped to 0.

* Players that sustain falling damage will fall on the ground and drop their weapon.

* Mobile Deploy Vehicles added.

o Can be driven only by squad leaders.

o Can be deployed to as long as the vehicle is not in a capture area or near enemies.

* Added mapping variables which can disable armor crews and players in vehicles to count towards capturing objectives. Most maps now have this functionality activated.

* Mortar operators, mortar observers and reconnaissance crewmen can have separate spawn areas.

* Players can pick up enemy grenades from enemy resupply points.

Changes

* Default field of view reduced from 85 to 72.

* Colored smoke grenades no longer mark rally points.

* Machine-gunners can no longer resupply others with machine-gun ammunition.

* Anti-tank infantry can no longer resupply others with anti-tank rockets.

* Players can only carry one anti-tank and machine-gun resupply.

* Maximum roles increased from 10 to 16 per team.

* New win music for both sides.

HUD

Additions

* New hint messages for many features that do not exist in Red Orchestra (mortars, mantling, vehicle features, etc.)

* Death messages can be disabled from the HUD tab in the Configuration page.

* Voice icon displays above nearby players’ heads when using their microphone.

* Voice Icon can be enabled or disabled from the HUD tab in the Configuration page.

Changes

* Reinforcement count now displays the actual number of reinforcements left rather than a percentage.

* You can no longer see the enemy’s reinforcement levels.

* Death messages are delayed by 5 seconds and fade-in instead of appearing instantaneously.

Vehicles

Additions

* Allies

o Sherman M4A3E2 ‘Jumbo’

o GMC 2.5 Ton Truck

o Sherman M4A3 (75 mm)W

o Sherman M4A3 (76 mm)W

o M-8 Greyhound

o M-18 Hellcat

* Axis

o Jagdtiger (Jagdpanzer VI Ausf. B)

o Marder III Ausf. M

o SdKfz 234/1

o SdKfz 234/2 “Puma”

o Jagdpanzer IV Ausf F (L/48)

o Jagdpanzer IV Ausf J (L/70)

o StuH 42

Changes

* Allies

o Sherman M4A1 skins updated.

o Replaced M5A1 Stuart engine sounds.

o Replaced vehicle borne .30 cal machinegun sound effects

o Added HE shells to US 57mm anti-tank gun.

o Added HE shells to M5A1 Stuart.

o Removed smoke shells from M5A1 Stuart (no 37mm smoke shell existed)

o Bren carrier now actually carries a Bren gun.

o Fixed Achilles driver’s position texture issue.

o Optimized texture assignments for Firefly and Sherman M4A1 75.

* Axis

o Completely revised Panzer IV Ausf. H and J exterior and interior models

o Completely revised Panzer III Ausf. M & N exterior and interior models

o Completely revised Stug III G early and late exterior model

o Substantial revisions to King Tiger exterior and interior models

o Increased damage radius of Panzer III N and Panzer IV HEAT rounds.

o Added green, gray, and snow versions of the Flak 36

Miscellaneous Features & Changes

* Vehicle Engines can be turned on and off using the “primary fire” button.

* Powered turrets forced into manual mode if vehicle engine is destroyed or switched off.

* Penetration code completely revamped to account for the individual slope effects of APC/APCBC, HVAP/APCR, APDS, and HEAT.

* Turret component damage system now working completely

* Point scoring system added for killing vehicles.

* Reviewed all shell penetration and ballistics data and corrected as necessary.

* Opel Blitz, GMC 2.5 Ton Truck, and Bren carrier now act as mobile resupply points to infantry and armor.

* British APDS shell spead is now randomly enabled; max spread reduced by half from current.

* Chance of shell shatter at certain velocities for 76mm and 37mm APC, as well as APDS, HVAP, and APCR.

* Fine tuned how vehicle reset times work (i.e. abandoned vehicles will no longer stay on the battlefield indefinitely but respawn will not be called if crew members are still nearby).

* Top speed of wheeled vehicles reduced to top safe off road rating.

* Added camera shake and blur for shell hits/penetrations to vehicles.

* Reduced radius that engine on/off sounds can be heard.

* Revamped gunsight reticles for: Achilles, Wolverine, Sherman 75, Sherman 76, Flak 36, and US 57mm anti-tank gun.

* Wheeled vehicles can no longer be captured by opposing forces.

* Reduced chance that rear penetrations will reach the crew area of tanks.

* Turret penetrations now have a chance of detonating tanks.

* Increased brightness of tank shell tracers.

* Added unique death messages for each tank and anti-tank gun shell type.

* Added chance of sabotage to anti-tank guns.

* Revised high-explosive round penetration tables.

* Substantially reduced view shake when anti-tank guns and tanks fire their main guns.

* Increased vehicle recoil when main gun fires (aka “gun jump”).

* Removed view shake from tank co-axial machineguns.

* Reduced view shake on bow machine-guns.

* Improved artwork for some tank shell HUD elements.

* Reduced anti-tank gun traverse speeds.

* Offsets of German bow MG optics are correct (now off to the left instead of on top).

* Various improvements to the M3A1 mounted .30 cal.

* Added winter skin variants for nearly all vehicles.

Infantry Weapons

Additions

* German Kurz 8cm Granatwerfer 42.

* American M2 60mm Mortar.

Changes

* Decreased field of view when iron-sighted with most weapons.

* Adjusted penetration values of portable anti-tank weaponry.

* Adjusted flight time of Panzerfaust 60 warhead.

* Gewehr 43’s recoil and spread reduced.

* Gewehr 43’s firing sound replaced.

* B.A.R. recoil increased.

* PIAT can no longer be fired from the hip.

* PIAT can no longer reload while prone.

* Fixed grammatical errors in infantry anti-tank notification messages.

* Sturmgewehr 44 recoil increased.

* Maschinenpistole 40 rate of fire slightly increased.

* Effective range of portable anti-tank weapons decreased.

* Maschinengewehr 42 and Browning M1919A4 .30 Caliber spread reduced.

* Vision blur when firing the Browning M1919A4 .30 Caliber reduced.

* Maschinengewehr 34 now start with 7 drum magazines instead of 4.

* Maschinengewehr 34 is now resupplied with 2 drum magazines instead of 1.

* Maschinengewehr 42 and Browning M1919A4 .30 Caliber start with 3 ammunition belts instead of 2.

* All machine-guns take longer to overheat.

* Significantly reduced recoil of bipod-deployed weapons.

* Default amount of concealment and colored smoke grenades that can be carried reduced from 2 to 1.

* Inventory slot numbers adjusted for heavy weapons.

* Machine-gunners can no longer resupply other machine-guns.

* Anti-tank units can no longer resupply others’ anti-tank weapons.

* Machine-guns can no longer be deployed while moving.

* Most weapons adjusted ballistic coefficients and muzzle velocities to better reflect real-world values.

Roles

Additions

* United States

o Corporal

Equipped like a standard rifleman with one concealment smoke grenade.

* Germany

o Fireteam Leader

Equipped like a Squad Leader without smoke grenades.

o Radio Operator

Same functionality as American and Commonwealth radio operators.

* Commonwealth

o Lance Corporal

o Equipped like a Corporal without a colored smoke grenade.

* Universal

o Mortar Operator

Lightly equipped, carries and operates mortars.

o Mortar Observer

Equipped like a rifleman. Marks targets for mortar operator.

Changes

* Officer role replaced with Artillery Officer role. The Artillery Officer is equipped as a rifleman but has the ability to call in off-map artillery.

* Anti-tank roles now carry 1 concealment smoke grenade.

* Combat engineer roles now carry 1 concealment smoke grenade.

* Maximum amount of colored smoke grenades able to be carried reduced to 1.

* Colored smoke grenades can not be discarded and do not drop off of dead bodies.

* All airborne units are now equipped with pistols.

* Commonwealth Sniper roles are now equipped with 1 fragmentation grenade.

* German “semi-automatic rifleman” role now obsolete; a warning will appear when compiling a map that uses them.

Miscellaneous

* All role descriptions have been rewritten.

* Nearly all roles have had their equipment load-outs modified.

Bug Fixes

* Fixed bug that prevented tanks from burning down to death if the entire crew bailed out.

* Fixed bug where tanks would prematurely detonate when commander exited through burning turret hatch.

* Fixed bug that allowed non-penetrating vehicle hits to start fires (also know as the “fire bug”)

* Flak 36 gunner can now be killed.

* Fixed a rare mantling bug that could cause a player to float through the air or fall through the map under certain circumstances.

* Fixed bug where Panzerfaust 60 could not fire more than 30 meters during online play

* Fixed missing animations when jumping and falling while unarmed.

* Panzerschreck now displays proper message when attempting to reload while prone.

* Fixed commander’s hit box on M10 Wolverine, Achilles and M36 Jackson. You can no longer shoot them with small arms through the side of turret.

* Grenades and satchels are now oriented correctly when they come to rest on the ground.

* Players can now carry all 3 types of grenades instead of 2.

* Fixed an exploit where players could sprint backwards at forward sprinting speed.

* Players manning anti-tank guns are no longer immune to small arms fire.

* Switching from a deployed set of binoculars will properly un-deploy the binoculars and reset your player’s walking speed.

* ‘Mantis’ wrists on dead player rag-dolls eliminated.

* Fixed specific German sniper player model that would freeze in place when killed. Also known as the ‘zombie’ bug.

* Fixed issue where machine-gunners that were player resupplied would continue to be marked as ‘needing resupply’ even with full ammunition.

* Fixed issue where machine-guns would fire on the client side and overheat, but no actual bullets would be fired.

* Fixed some discrepancies regarding machine gun tracer effects.