5.1.5 beta version
Posted: 20 May 2018, 21:30
Hello to all of you,
in a short time the new beta should be available. If you are interensted in playing the beta here is guide for you to get access to beta version.
The beta brings several quite big changes. They are rather core-play changes than doctrine specific but there a few smaller faction-specific changes/fixes too:
US:
Riflemen riflegrenades:
- HE grenade:
+ changed targetting system to require select a specific target (no longer can fire "on the ground")
+ now performs better at targetting buildings and emplacements (still has hard time hitting infantry that is not garrisoned)
+ now has better distributed chances of killing an emplacement crew
- HEAT grenade:
+ changed targetting system so that it does not miss more often than intended
+ increased damage vs light vehicles
- Airborne recon unit can now use "Hold Fire" ability when they are camouflaged
- M1 Carbine of 101st now shoots faster at all ranges but has lower accuracy (RoF and accuracy set to same level as M1 Garand of Riflemen, Carbine still keeps lower damage though)
- 101st can no longer upgrade Thompson SMG (was sort of obsolete since Carbines are now quite effective at closer ranges)
- 101st can now upgrade M1 Garands; 2 rifles for 20ammo, possible to upgrade up to 3x (Garands with same stats as Rangers have - shoot slower but more accurately and with slightly higher chance to one-shot infantry)
- removed the BAR upgrade from 101st
- 101st can now use the "Suppressive fire" ability if they upgrade Johnson 2x
CW:
- HE grenade:
+ changed targetting system to require select a specific target (no longer can fire "on the ground")
+ now performs better at targetting buildings and emplacements (still has hard time hitting infantry that is not garrisoned)
+ now has better distributed chances of killing an emplacement crew
WM:
- Crew of the naked 20mm flak 36 should now properly sit where he should be
PE:
- Fallshirmjägers now have new random skins (skins made by Halftrack)
The Rifle nades changes are there mainly to adress the complaints about Riflegrenades being useless - now the HE nades should extremely rarely miss a building/emplacement and should do better at clearing them. Still it is very strongly advised NOT to shoot HE grenades vs infantry that is not garrisoned - you are most likely to miss the shot. For USA the HEAT grenades should no longer miss that often the targetted vehicle.
As for the 101st - the weapon upgrade changes are experimental for now, the option to have BAR and Johnson upgrades on the same unit makes little sense because these two guns are very similar in performance and have same purpose so having these two options on the same unit is same as if you had the option to upgrade Grenadiers with Panzerschreck, LMG34 and LMG42. Currently the icon for "M1 Garand upgrade" of 101st is a placeholder so it will be replaced later if we decide to keep it in the game, same applies for the weapon upgrade indicator above the squad once you upgrade Garands (currently shows same icon G43 rifles).
Now for the rest - you will surely notice right away that all vehicles and tanks move a lot slower. The speeds of vehicles were meant to represent the real top speeds of vehicles but it got implemented in a wrong way and as a result all vehicles moved way faster than they were meant to. It got changed so that when vehicles move on solid roads (those that give to your infantry Red cover), they should match their "realistic" maximum speeds but when they move in cross-country terrain they are a lot slower. We tried to look up some information on realistic cross-country speeds on the vehicles and it is sort of hard because it depended a lot on the terrain but we managed to find some values and tried to apply them. In the initial tests we felt that the light vehicles were painfuly slow (even slower than infantry) so the speeds of halftracks and armored cars were increased above their "realistic" cross-country speeds to keep them viable as recons or infantry support. Tanks are slower but they have better armor and slower speed "feels" sort of right there. This change makes AT guns more viable because it takes longer to tanks to get in range and kill the crew with an HE shot, it also makes it harder to use armored cars with FTL speeds to bypass static defenses without a sweat or "kite" infantry with them. It also makes roads more strategically valuable because they allow for significantly faster movement across the map.
Now you're probably thinking "Slower vehicles means easier target for arty" - just what we were thinking. So the beta introduces changes to artillery too. Generally speaking, artillery deals less damage to vehicles (only exception is when they score a direct hit - then the damage is actually higher than before) to prevent OPness of bombing planes, similar adjustments were made to bombs too (more damage to vehicles on direct hit, less if not hit directly). Artillery remains same effective vs infantry and buildings/empalcements though. There is also change to ranges of artillery units. The changes basically go:
- Static howitzers (225(250 with range-boosting ammo))
- SPG (Priest, Hummel, Wepse etc.) (180 (210 with range-boosting ammo))
- infantry-moved arty (nebels/pack howitzers/LeiG18 - 150)
- arty on light vehicles (Calliope/Maultier/Stuka/Autocar etc. - 135)
- howitzer tanks (Sherman/Cromwell/Churchill - 120)
Sherman Calliope has range of 160 because it takes very long to finish barrage and during the time it is very vulnerable and flak36 barrage is 120 range because it is mainly AT/AA defense and arty is only a bonus and so it does not need huge range.
The ranges may not reflect some realistic ranges of these arty pieces but in this case gameplay is more important. We need static howitzers to have the biggest range because otherwise they will get counter-artied immediately and keep being useless. Now when you build one and shoot it, you reveal your position and that is still a risk since you cannot move it but at least you know that enemy needs to come closer to you. SPGs have second-longest range because they usually have weak armor and so they need to stay in relatively safe distance. Then comes the infantry-carried arty pieces because the crew is vulnerable to all sorts of damage, on the other hand the guns are relatively cheap and can be recrewed - we placed them "to the middle". Then there are the "light vehicle arty" which is also vulnerable but has better mobility which means it can afford to move closer to shoot and retreat if needed. Last are the arty tanks which are quite slow but also have quite good armor so they need to move the closest.
Last change that took place in arty is the bonuses that these units receive with veterancy. Up till now, arty units with veterancy usually got reduced cooldown on barrages (mostly -5 seconds/level), reduced scatter (so the shots hit more accurately the target area) and some also got faster reloads (which meant the barrage was completed faster). In this beta the general rule is that rocket artillery has bigger spread, no longer reduces spread with vet levels but veterancy reduces the cooldown of barrages. "Shell" artillery gains reduced spread with veterancy but the barrage cooldowns do not get lower. All in all Rocket arty hits bigger area but can shoot more often while "shell" arty can hit more accurately but shoots less often.
Lastly there are changes to reload speeds and rear penetration chances. Generally speaking - lighter guns reload faster, the biggest guns have some range advantage but reload slower and when you attempt to flank enemy heavy tanks with your medium tanks, rear hits should be more rewarding. This is so far only applied to "medium guns" (50/57/75/76mm) on vehicles - if the change proves to be viable the performance of lighter guns vs medium targets will be adjested in similar way. This is because changing these things means a lot of work in many files so if the change proves to be OK, we can add the rest, knowing it is not for nothing, it if proves not to be OK we might just revert it instead of wasting all the time needed to change the light guns too.
There is a lot to test and we will try to update the beta at least once per week to address issues that will pop up (if needed). Most of these changes are possible to adjust if there is a good reason for them.
Please try to be open minded and when you give feedback, try to consider the the intention of the changes. In other words, if your feedback is "OMG tanks are slow now! Please revert it!" then the answer will be most likely "No" because we brought down the speeds to make the vehicles slower - it was the intention. However if you report that something is too slow - e.g. to a level where it becomes almost impossible to use, then we can talk about adjustments.
Feedback and constructive criticism is welcomed
Good luck on the battlefield
in a short time the new beta should be available. If you are interensted in playing the beta here is guide for you to get access to beta version.
The beta brings several quite big changes. They are rather core-play changes than doctrine specific but there a few smaller faction-specific changes/fixes too:
US:
Riflemen riflegrenades:
- HE grenade:
+ changed targetting system to require select a specific target (no longer can fire "on the ground")
+ now performs better at targetting buildings and emplacements (still has hard time hitting infantry that is not garrisoned)
+ now has better distributed chances of killing an emplacement crew
- HEAT grenade:
+ changed targetting system so that it does not miss more often than intended
+ increased damage vs light vehicles
- Airborne recon unit can now use "Hold Fire" ability when they are camouflaged
- M1 Carbine of 101st now shoots faster at all ranges but has lower accuracy (RoF and accuracy set to same level as M1 Garand of Riflemen, Carbine still keeps lower damage though)
- 101st can no longer upgrade Thompson SMG (was sort of obsolete since Carbines are now quite effective at closer ranges)
- 101st can now upgrade M1 Garands; 2 rifles for 20ammo, possible to upgrade up to 3x (Garands with same stats as Rangers have - shoot slower but more accurately and with slightly higher chance to one-shot infantry)
- removed the BAR upgrade from 101st
- 101st can now use the "Suppressive fire" ability if they upgrade Johnson 2x
CW:
- HE grenade:
+ changed targetting system to require select a specific target (no longer can fire "on the ground")
+ now performs better at targetting buildings and emplacements (still has hard time hitting infantry that is not garrisoned)
+ now has better distributed chances of killing an emplacement crew
WM:
- Crew of the naked 20mm flak 36 should now properly sit where he should be
PE:
- Fallshirmjägers now have new random skins (skins made by Halftrack)
The Rifle nades changes are there mainly to adress the complaints about Riflegrenades being useless - now the HE nades should extremely rarely miss a building/emplacement and should do better at clearing them. Still it is very strongly advised NOT to shoot HE grenades vs infantry that is not garrisoned - you are most likely to miss the shot. For USA the HEAT grenades should no longer miss that often the targetted vehicle.
As for the 101st - the weapon upgrade changes are experimental for now, the option to have BAR and Johnson upgrades on the same unit makes little sense because these two guns are very similar in performance and have same purpose so having these two options on the same unit is same as if you had the option to upgrade Grenadiers with Panzerschreck, LMG34 and LMG42. Currently the icon for "M1 Garand upgrade" of 101st is a placeholder so it will be replaced later if we decide to keep it in the game, same applies for the weapon upgrade indicator above the squad once you upgrade Garands (currently shows same icon G43 rifles).
Now for the rest - you will surely notice right away that all vehicles and tanks move a lot slower. The speeds of vehicles were meant to represent the real top speeds of vehicles but it got implemented in a wrong way and as a result all vehicles moved way faster than they were meant to. It got changed so that when vehicles move on solid roads (those that give to your infantry Red cover), they should match their "realistic" maximum speeds but when they move in cross-country terrain they are a lot slower. We tried to look up some information on realistic cross-country speeds on the vehicles and it is sort of hard because it depended a lot on the terrain but we managed to find some values and tried to apply them. In the initial tests we felt that the light vehicles were painfuly slow (even slower than infantry) so the speeds of halftracks and armored cars were increased above their "realistic" cross-country speeds to keep them viable as recons or infantry support. Tanks are slower but they have better armor and slower speed "feels" sort of right there. This change makes AT guns more viable because it takes longer to tanks to get in range and kill the crew with an HE shot, it also makes it harder to use armored cars with FTL speeds to bypass static defenses without a sweat or "kite" infantry with them. It also makes roads more strategically valuable because they allow for significantly faster movement across the map.
Now you're probably thinking "Slower vehicles means easier target for arty" - just what we were thinking. So the beta introduces changes to artillery too. Generally speaking, artillery deals less damage to vehicles (only exception is when they score a direct hit - then the damage is actually higher than before) to prevent OPness of bombing planes, similar adjustments were made to bombs too (more damage to vehicles on direct hit, less if not hit directly). Artillery remains same effective vs infantry and buildings/empalcements though. There is also change to ranges of artillery units. The changes basically go:
- Static howitzers (225(250 with range-boosting ammo))
- SPG (Priest, Hummel, Wepse etc.) (180 (210 with range-boosting ammo))
- infantry-moved arty (nebels/pack howitzers/LeiG18 - 150)
- arty on light vehicles (Calliope/Maultier/Stuka/Autocar etc. - 135)
- howitzer tanks (Sherman/Cromwell/Churchill - 120)
Sherman Calliope has range of 160 because it takes very long to finish barrage and during the time it is very vulnerable and flak36 barrage is 120 range because it is mainly AT/AA defense and arty is only a bonus and so it does not need huge range.
The ranges may not reflect some realistic ranges of these arty pieces but in this case gameplay is more important. We need static howitzers to have the biggest range because otherwise they will get counter-artied immediately and keep being useless. Now when you build one and shoot it, you reveal your position and that is still a risk since you cannot move it but at least you know that enemy needs to come closer to you. SPGs have second-longest range because they usually have weak armor and so they need to stay in relatively safe distance. Then comes the infantry-carried arty pieces because the crew is vulnerable to all sorts of damage, on the other hand the guns are relatively cheap and can be recrewed - we placed them "to the middle". Then there are the "light vehicle arty" which is also vulnerable but has better mobility which means it can afford to move closer to shoot and retreat if needed. Last are the arty tanks which are quite slow but also have quite good armor so they need to move the closest.
Last change that took place in arty is the bonuses that these units receive with veterancy. Up till now, arty units with veterancy usually got reduced cooldown on barrages (mostly -5 seconds/level), reduced scatter (so the shots hit more accurately the target area) and some also got faster reloads (which meant the barrage was completed faster). In this beta the general rule is that rocket artillery has bigger spread, no longer reduces spread with vet levels but veterancy reduces the cooldown of barrages. "Shell" artillery gains reduced spread with veterancy but the barrage cooldowns do not get lower. All in all Rocket arty hits bigger area but can shoot more often while "shell" arty can hit more accurately but shoots less often.
Lastly there are changes to reload speeds and rear penetration chances. Generally speaking - lighter guns reload faster, the biggest guns have some range advantage but reload slower and when you attempt to flank enemy heavy tanks with your medium tanks, rear hits should be more rewarding. This is so far only applied to "medium guns" (50/57/75/76mm) on vehicles - if the change proves to be viable the performance of lighter guns vs medium targets will be adjested in similar way. This is because changing these things means a lot of work in many files so if the change proves to be OK, we can add the rest, knowing it is not for nothing, it if proves not to be OK we might just revert it instead of wasting all the time needed to change the light guns too.
There is a lot to test and we will try to update the beta at least once per week to address issues that will pop up (if needed). Most of these changes are possible to adjust if there is a good reason for them.
Please try to be open minded and when you give feedback, try to consider the the intention of the changes. In other words, if your feedback is "OMG tanks are slow now! Please revert it!" then the answer will be most likely "No" because we brought down the speeds to make the vehicles slower - it was the intention. However if you report that something is too slow - e.g. to a level where it becomes almost impossible to use, then we can talk about adjustments.
Feedback and constructive criticism is welcomed
Good luck on the battlefield