Blitzkrieg Mod 5.1.6 beta
Posted: 26 Sep 2018, 21:32
Hi,
a new update is here. I know I said last time that 5.1.6 update would bring some more changes but I wanted to finish tuning the artillery changes first before going to some more changes that will again require extensive testing. However this update includes several changes that should not need too much of testing to be able to say what impact on balance they have.
Change log:
General:
- Added PE markings on Bergetiger and Ammunition Halftrack (Thanks to Panzerblitz1)
- Made changes to various howitzer artillery pieces to make the shells hit a "circular" area rather than "line"
- Corrected AoE range brackets for several artillery units
- Barrage AoE UI indicator (the yellow circle) should now get properly bigger with range (the farther you shoot, the bigger the UI - to more accurately indicate the hit zone)
- Lowered the rear/side penetration chance of 75mm guns (Shermans, Cromwells, Churchills) against Tigers (max range 25%), King Tigers (15%) and Jagdtiger (5%)
- Lowered front penetration chance of 75mm guns (Shermans, Cromwells, Churchills) against StuG III/IV (max range 23%; 14% with skirts)
- Lowered the rear/side penetration chance of Axis Stubby 75mm guns against Churchills (max range 10%), Croc Churchill (5%), Jumbo (35%), Pershings (25%) SP (15%)
- Returned a kicker message when game registers a rear penetration on a vehicle (it says now "Weak armor point penetrated" to prevent confusion with pure "rear armor" hits)
- Changed aim times for snipers 0.75 - 1.25 second (from 0.25; on average it is +1 second but it can be slightly less or more)
US:
- Stuart no longer needs to buy upgrade to use HE mode (activation: 15 ammo, needs to wait at least 20 seconds to switch back to AP)
- Riflegrenade upgrade is no longer mutually exlusive with other Riflemen weapon upgrades
- Increased the range of HEAT riflegrenade to 60
- Fixed a bug where the "Straffing raid" ability in AB HQ (converted from neutral building) would dissapear after upgrading the AP bullets
- Fixed missing sandbags on M16 in AA mode
CW:
- Stuart no longer needs to buy upgrade to use HE mode (activation: 15 ammo, needs to wait at least 20 seconds to switch back to AP)
- Corrected AoE ranges of 95mm Churchill and Cromwell to 1/3/5/8 (from 1/3/7/7)
- Assigned a Hotkey "B" for 95mm Churchill's and Cromwell's barrage
- Lowered cost of Dingo to 240MP (from 300MP)
- Lowered cost of Dingo to 170MP 5F after Captain is built
- Lowered speed bonus of Flank Speed ability on Cromwells and Comets to +25% (from +50%)
- Increased turret rotation of Comet to 22 (from 16; now it is closer to Cromwell)
- Lowered turret rotation speed of M10 Achilles to 9 (from 13; now it is the same as M10 Wolverine)
WM:
- Applied arty changes to Grille (was forgotten before)
- "46mm grenade" ability of GrB39 squad now requires the Tank Factory to become available
- Increased cooldown of "46mm grenade" ability of GrB39 squad to 75 seconds (from 30)
- Increased cost of "46mm grenade" ability of GrB39 squad to 70 ammo (from 50)
- Fixed a bug where 46mm grenade missed a lot less than intended
- Lowered range of 46mm grenade ability to 45 (from 55)
- "HE grenade" of GrB39 squad now requires the Krieg Barracks to become available
- Increased scatter of missed GrB HE grenades (even when they missed they usually hit so close that they dealt damage anyway)
- Increased accuracy of Tiger's main gun to 1/1/0.9/0.9 (from 1/1/0.75/0.75)
- Increased basic damage of Tiger's main gun to 120 - 150 (from 110 - 140)
- Removed Flank Speed from Tiger tanks
- Accurate Long Range Shot on Tiger Ace now requires Vet level 1 (from 2)
- Fixed a bug where standard Geschützwagen shot had AoE similar to HE shots
PE:
- Changed the base speed of Hotchkiss to 3.6 (from 5.5)
- "Stuka Rockets" upgrade now reduces speed of Hotchkiss to 2.8 (from 4.4)
- "Stuka Rockets" upgrade now requires "Panzer-support" building
- Hummel's "Rapid shooting position" (static mode) now reduces the reload time by 25% (from 50%)
- Fixed a bug where Hummel in static mode was actually harder to hit
- Hummel should no longer land majority of shells on the far edge of the hit zone
- Fixed a bug where TH doc's "Periscope" unlock provided no bonus when TDs were in camo
- Changed "range distances" for Henschel cannon
- Lowered accuracy of Henschel aircraft to 1/0.9/0.8/0.7 (from 1/1/1/1)
- Lowered "ready for fire" delay of Hetzer to 0.75-1.25 second (from 1.5)
- Increased the cost of Panzer-Jäger Kommand building to 400MP (from 350MP)
- Lowered the cost of Panzer-Support Kommand building to 400MP (from 550MP)
- Lowered the cost of transport Halftrack to 250MP 15F (from 300MP 15F)
- Fixed a bug where standard Nashorn shot had AoE similar to HE shots
Now some more info on these changes. Appart from tweaks and fixes to previous arty changes (AoE brackets of Cromwell/ Hotchkiss changes), this update brings some changes to distribution of shots in arty hit zones. When you click on a barrage ability of any arty unit, you will see a yellow UI circle which should represent the hit-zone, in other words the shells should randomly land in a circlular area. However many arty units hit in a "line" rather than a circle, e.g. Priest barrage hit-zone is indicated like this (yellow circle):
But the shots most of the time land like this (line-shape):
Similar goes for hit zone indication of Wespe and the actual hit-pattern:
or shots in Hummel barrage very often landed at the far-edge of the hit-zone but the chance for a shot to land closer to center was quite low:
with this update the shots in every barrage should be more evenly distributed in a circular area. This does not mean that arty units are less accurate now, if the game calculates a hit based on accuracy, it is still a hit (and accuracy has nto been touched) but if the game calculates a miss, then the missed shot can also land to the sides instead of "just" landing short or far.
Please, during testing, focus your attention how the arty hits and if the shells don't land insanely far away (meaning off the screen) from the targetted area. Keep in mind that rocket arty is meant to have bigger scatter but it fires the barrage quickly, leaving less time to react, but Veterancy does not reduce the scatter, only reduces cooldown of barrage abilities. Shell arty, on the other hand, fires the barrages slower but each Vet level reduces the scatter so with more veterancy they become more accurate, but veterancy does not reduce cooldowns of barrages.
Also we tried to make all the yellow UI circles of barrage abilities bigger with distance, because for all arty units the scatter is bigger if they shoot farther away. The bigger scatter with range was the case even before the update but the UI did not get bigger for some units (e.g. Hummel or Priest) but some had this feature already (e.g. Wespe). However this UI circle does not show the borders of the AoE with 100% accuracy. It is impossible to set the UI to reflect the scatter zone with 100% accuracy. So it is possible that shot will land outisde the zone that is shown by the UI but at the same time the UI should give you better idea about where the shots can actually land.
A lot of changes are connected to the new WM AT squad. According to the feedback we've gotten from you the squad was able to completely replace PaK36 (which was intended) but also PaK38 and to some degree even PaK40 (which was not intended). The intention here was that this squad should work as anti- vehicle unit in early game, taking on the AT-duty of PaK36, but was not meant to become the primary counter to medium tanks later in the game, which was the case when players built 2 of these squads and kept killing tanks with the 46mm grenade ability. The ability is now available later, costs more to use, has longer cooldown, shorter range and we fixed a bug which made it miss less often than was intended. This ability should now act more like a "last resort" in anti-tank combat rather than the "main way of killing tanks".
Also there the HE grenades used to hit too close to the targetted squad even if you missed, which resulted in dealing damage almost every time. Now, if the game calculates a miss, the grenade has better chance to land farther away from the target, dealing no damage at all. As mentione before, the HE ability is there to mainly be used against garrisoned soldiers and emplacements, not as a general ability against infantry anywhere.
Riflegrenades for US Riflemen were changed few patches ago to provide an alternative way of dealing with early vehicles, giving to the US a chance to start the game without relying only on 37mm AT gun. It was deemed too strong to allow players to combine this upgrade with other weapon weapon upgrades for Riflemen so they were mutually exlusive. Feedback from players often said that the Riflegrenade upgrade became one of the worst in the game for several reasons. It prevented other weapon upgrades on the squad, the HEAT grenade had shorter range than the standard attack range of most units in the game, it would miss very often etc. Probably the biggest problem of the HEAT was the fact that the range was too short, which meant that the Halftracks and other early game vehicles could safely shoot at the squad while the squad could not use the HEAT grenade unless they moved closer which meant they would be without cover and die quickly (usually to the same vehicle they were meant to attack). The Riflegrenade upgrade no longer makes you unable to upgrade the other weapons and now the HEAT grenade can be fired at standard range of 60. The shot can still miss but it should be no longer possible to for Axis vehicles to just keep shooting at the squad without taking any risk what-so-ever.
The flank speed on Cromwells and Comets is still available but it provides less speed bonus than before. It used to give +50% speed, now it is +25%. Given the fact that these two belong to the fastest tanks in the game, this ability should still provide enough speed buff to catch up or flank any tank in the game, but they should no longer look like being rocket-propelled.
If the speed buff still feels too much, or on contrary too negligible it can be further tweaked.
Also there have been some changes made to Comet and Achilles. Many people said that there wasn't much of a difference between them appart from one being able to camo and the other not. Now Achilles has same turret rotation speed as Wolverine (which was actually the case in real life too but for some reason in BK we had Achilles with much faster turret rotation for years) while Comet has speed rotation similar to Cromwells. This makes Achilles more fit for ambush usage (where it has enough time to rotate the turret without being shot at, while Comet is more fit for flanking enemy tanks. Also with the changes to rear penetration of 75mm guns vs Axis heavy tanks this will make Comet more suitable for attacking heavy tanks than Cromwells.
Stuart tanks (both US and CW) are now able to activate the HE mode without any need for buying an upgrade first, however the activation now costs a small amount of ammo each time. Paying 45 ammo early game for a unit that could be easily one-shotted without even firing a shot was too much of a gamble. There is still a 20 second cooldown between (was 45 seconds) the uses so that it is impossible to keep mindlesly switching between AP and HE.
Most of the other changes are mostly just fixes or smaller things things based on the debates that have been going on here since the 5.1.5 was released.
Please, give it a go and report any issues you come across.
We hope you'll enjoy this one
a new update is here. I know I said last time that 5.1.6 update would bring some more changes but I wanted to finish tuning the artillery changes first before going to some more changes that will again require extensive testing. However this update includes several changes that should not need too much of testing to be able to say what impact on balance they have.
Change log:
General:
- Added PE markings on Bergetiger and Ammunition Halftrack (Thanks to Panzerblitz1)
- Made changes to various howitzer artillery pieces to make the shells hit a "circular" area rather than "line"
- Corrected AoE range brackets for several artillery units
- Barrage AoE UI indicator (the yellow circle) should now get properly bigger with range (the farther you shoot, the bigger the UI - to more accurately indicate the hit zone)
- Lowered the rear/side penetration chance of 75mm guns (Shermans, Cromwells, Churchills) against Tigers (max range 25%), King Tigers (15%) and Jagdtiger (5%)
- Lowered front penetration chance of 75mm guns (Shermans, Cromwells, Churchills) against StuG III/IV (max range 23%; 14% with skirts)
- Lowered the rear/side penetration chance of Axis Stubby 75mm guns against Churchills (max range 10%), Croc Churchill (5%), Jumbo (35%), Pershings (25%) SP (15%)
- Returned a kicker message when game registers a rear penetration on a vehicle (it says now "Weak armor point penetrated" to prevent confusion with pure "rear armor" hits)
- Changed aim times for snipers 0.75 - 1.25 second (from 0.25; on average it is +1 second but it can be slightly less or more)
US:
- Stuart no longer needs to buy upgrade to use HE mode (activation: 15 ammo, needs to wait at least 20 seconds to switch back to AP)
- Riflegrenade upgrade is no longer mutually exlusive with other Riflemen weapon upgrades
- Increased the range of HEAT riflegrenade to 60
- Fixed a bug where the "Straffing raid" ability in AB HQ (converted from neutral building) would dissapear after upgrading the AP bullets
- Fixed missing sandbags on M16 in AA mode
CW:
- Stuart no longer needs to buy upgrade to use HE mode (activation: 15 ammo, needs to wait at least 20 seconds to switch back to AP)
- Corrected AoE ranges of 95mm Churchill and Cromwell to 1/3/5/8 (from 1/3/7/7)
- Assigned a Hotkey "B" for 95mm Churchill's and Cromwell's barrage
- Lowered cost of Dingo to 240MP (from 300MP)
- Lowered cost of Dingo to 170MP 5F after Captain is built
- Lowered speed bonus of Flank Speed ability on Cromwells and Comets to +25% (from +50%)
- Increased turret rotation of Comet to 22 (from 16; now it is closer to Cromwell)
- Lowered turret rotation speed of M10 Achilles to 9 (from 13; now it is the same as M10 Wolverine)
WM:
- Applied arty changes to Grille (was forgotten before)
- "46mm grenade" ability of GrB39 squad now requires the Tank Factory to become available
- Increased cooldown of "46mm grenade" ability of GrB39 squad to 75 seconds (from 30)
- Increased cost of "46mm grenade" ability of GrB39 squad to 70 ammo (from 50)
- Fixed a bug where 46mm grenade missed a lot less than intended
- Lowered range of 46mm grenade ability to 45 (from 55)
- "HE grenade" of GrB39 squad now requires the Krieg Barracks to become available
- Increased scatter of missed GrB HE grenades (even when they missed they usually hit so close that they dealt damage anyway)
- Increased accuracy of Tiger's main gun to 1/1/0.9/0.9 (from 1/1/0.75/0.75)
- Increased basic damage of Tiger's main gun to 120 - 150 (from 110 - 140)
- Removed Flank Speed from Tiger tanks
- Accurate Long Range Shot on Tiger Ace now requires Vet level 1 (from 2)
- Fixed a bug where standard Geschützwagen shot had AoE similar to HE shots
PE:
- Changed the base speed of Hotchkiss to 3.6 (from 5.5)
- "Stuka Rockets" upgrade now reduces speed of Hotchkiss to 2.8 (from 4.4)
- "Stuka Rockets" upgrade now requires "Panzer-support" building
- Hummel's "Rapid shooting position" (static mode) now reduces the reload time by 25% (from 50%)
- Fixed a bug where Hummel in static mode was actually harder to hit
- Hummel should no longer land majority of shells on the far edge of the hit zone
- Fixed a bug where TH doc's "Periscope" unlock provided no bonus when TDs were in camo
- Changed "range distances" for Henschel cannon
- Lowered accuracy of Henschel aircraft to 1/0.9/0.8/0.7 (from 1/1/1/1)
- Lowered "ready for fire" delay of Hetzer to 0.75-1.25 second (from 1.5)
- Increased the cost of Panzer-Jäger Kommand building to 400MP (from 350MP)
- Lowered the cost of Panzer-Support Kommand building to 400MP (from 550MP)
- Lowered the cost of transport Halftrack to 250MP 15F (from 300MP 15F)
- Fixed a bug where standard Nashorn shot had AoE similar to HE shots
Now some more info on these changes. Appart from tweaks and fixes to previous arty changes (AoE brackets of Cromwell/ Hotchkiss changes), this update brings some changes to distribution of shots in arty hit zones. When you click on a barrage ability of any arty unit, you will see a yellow UI circle which should represent the hit-zone, in other words the shells should randomly land in a circlular area. However many arty units hit in a "line" rather than a circle, e.g. Priest barrage hit-zone is indicated like this (yellow circle):
But the shots most of the time land like this (line-shape):
Similar goes for hit zone indication of Wespe and the actual hit-pattern:
or shots in Hummel barrage very often landed at the far-edge of the hit-zone but the chance for a shot to land closer to center was quite low:
with this update the shots in every barrage should be more evenly distributed in a circular area. This does not mean that arty units are less accurate now, if the game calculates a hit based on accuracy, it is still a hit (and accuracy has nto been touched) but if the game calculates a miss, then the missed shot can also land to the sides instead of "just" landing short or far.
Please, during testing, focus your attention how the arty hits and if the shells don't land insanely far away (meaning off the screen) from the targetted area. Keep in mind that rocket arty is meant to have bigger scatter but it fires the barrage quickly, leaving less time to react, but Veterancy does not reduce the scatter, only reduces cooldown of barrage abilities. Shell arty, on the other hand, fires the barrages slower but each Vet level reduces the scatter so with more veterancy they become more accurate, but veterancy does not reduce cooldowns of barrages.
Also we tried to make all the yellow UI circles of barrage abilities bigger with distance, because for all arty units the scatter is bigger if they shoot farther away. The bigger scatter with range was the case even before the update but the UI did not get bigger for some units (e.g. Hummel or Priest) but some had this feature already (e.g. Wespe). However this UI circle does not show the borders of the AoE with 100% accuracy. It is impossible to set the UI to reflect the scatter zone with 100% accuracy. So it is possible that shot will land outisde the zone that is shown by the UI but at the same time the UI should give you better idea about where the shots can actually land.
A lot of changes are connected to the new WM AT squad. According to the feedback we've gotten from you the squad was able to completely replace PaK36 (which was intended) but also PaK38 and to some degree even PaK40 (which was not intended). The intention here was that this squad should work as anti- vehicle unit in early game, taking on the AT-duty of PaK36, but was not meant to become the primary counter to medium tanks later in the game, which was the case when players built 2 of these squads and kept killing tanks with the 46mm grenade ability. The ability is now available later, costs more to use, has longer cooldown, shorter range and we fixed a bug which made it miss less often than was intended. This ability should now act more like a "last resort" in anti-tank combat rather than the "main way of killing tanks".
Also there the HE grenades used to hit too close to the targetted squad even if you missed, which resulted in dealing damage almost every time. Now, if the game calculates a miss, the grenade has better chance to land farther away from the target, dealing no damage at all. As mentione before, the HE ability is there to mainly be used against garrisoned soldiers and emplacements, not as a general ability against infantry anywhere.
Riflegrenades for US Riflemen were changed few patches ago to provide an alternative way of dealing with early vehicles, giving to the US a chance to start the game without relying only on 37mm AT gun. It was deemed too strong to allow players to combine this upgrade with other weapon weapon upgrades for Riflemen so they were mutually exlusive. Feedback from players often said that the Riflegrenade upgrade became one of the worst in the game for several reasons. It prevented other weapon upgrades on the squad, the HEAT grenade had shorter range than the standard attack range of most units in the game, it would miss very often etc. Probably the biggest problem of the HEAT was the fact that the range was too short, which meant that the Halftracks and other early game vehicles could safely shoot at the squad while the squad could not use the HEAT grenade unless they moved closer which meant they would be without cover and die quickly (usually to the same vehicle they were meant to attack). The Riflegrenade upgrade no longer makes you unable to upgrade the other weapons and now the HEAT grenade can be fired at standard range of 60. The shot can still miss but it should be no longer possible to for Axis vehicles to just keep shooting at the squad without taking any risk what-so-ever.
The flank speed on Cromwells and Comets is still available but it provides less speed bonus than before. It used to give +50% speed, now it is +25%. Given the fact that these two belong to the fastest tanks in the game, this ability should still provide enough speed buff to catch up or flank any tank in the game, but they should no longer look like being rocket-propelled.
If the speed buff still feels too much, or on contrary too negligible it can be further tweaked.
Also there have been some changes made to Comet and Achilles. Many people said that there wasn't much of a difference between them appart from one being able to camo and the other not. Now Achilles has same turret rotation speed as Wolverine (which was actually the case in real life too but for some reason in BK we had Achilles with much faster turret rotation for years) while Comet has speed rotation similar to Cromwells. This makes Achilles more fit for ambush usage (where it has enough time to rotate the turret without being shot at, while Comet is more fit for flanking enemy tanks. Also with the changes to rear penetration of 75mm guns vs Axis heavy tanks this will make Comet more suitable for attacking heavy tanks than Cromwells.
Stuart tanks (both US and CW) are now able to activate the HE mode without any need for buying an upgrade first, however the activation now costs a small amount of ammo each time. Paying 45 ammo early game for a unit that could be easily one-shotted without even firing a shot was too much of a gamble. There is still a 20 second cooldown between (was 45 seconds) the uses so that it is impossible to keep mindlesly switching between AP and HE.
Most of the other changes are mostly just fixes or smaller things things based on the debates that have been going on here since the 5.1.5 was released.
Please, give it a go and report any issues you come across.
We hope you'll enjoy this one