Decided to go ahead and compile a preview version of Beta 3 for players to try out. I’ve tested out many of the new features but there’s bound to be bugs and crashes remaining, please do report these and I’ll do my best to fix them. The Canadian campaign is not yet playable since it needs to be converted to the new XML format and given more narrative detail.
Edit 1: Hotfix applied to prevent a crash when enemy APCs tried to dismount infantry after being immobilized or destroyed. Same download link, replace your armcom.exe with the new file.
#### Beta 3.0 Changelog ##########
“Out of commission, become a pillbox. Out of ammo, become a bunker. Out of time, become heroes.” – Daskal, The Beast of War (1988)
General
– New function for displaying tutorial messages in a pop-up window: each message is only displayed once for each player, intended to help new players get accustomed to the game
– Now possible to start campaign at any point during the campaign calendar
– Highscores file is now a bones file
– also records information about dead crewmen
– Key commands now accepted in lower case or upper case format; eg. having caps lock engaged will no longer cause key commands to stop working
– Operation of alt key in main gun ammunition menu has changed to a toggle rather than a hold to modify
– New tank model: Sherman VC ‘Firefly’
– has a very powerful 76LL main gun, but no assistant driver position
– has access to ADPS ammo; similar to HVAP, but more plentiful in 1945
– never assigned as lead tank for the day, more likely to start encounters hull down and stopped, and tend to be at greater range from enemy units when they spawn
– however: 33% chance of a Tank, SPG, and AT Gun attacks against the lead tank will attack player tank instead, reflects the fact that Fireflies were targeted more often
– If player switches to a new tank without an assistant driver position, that crewman will be removed. If they switch to a new tank that does have such a position, a new crewman will be assigned.
– New Terrain type: Bocage
– worth 3 VP to capture
– much more likely for enemy vehicles to be hull down, spawn at closer ranges
– ambush at start of encounter much more likely
– same modifier to trigger a battle when moving into it as a village node
– more likely for player to start hull down too, gain hull down status when moving
– More detail for recording number of enemy units destroyed in campaign stats
– Crewmen that are KIA will be recorded in the bones file and displayed in the main menu screen
– Crewmen dialogue now displayed using the standard on-screen label function
– Purple Heart now only awarded for serious wound, very serious wound, or KIA
– Fixed a bug with displaying the campaign journal in-game, would crash if journal was shorter than window and player pressed PgUp
– Campaign map now stored in an .XP file and set in the campaign file
– Re-implemented the player location marker on the campaign map
– Main gun types now have standard display format in combat (ie 75LL gun displayed as 75mm)
– Campaigns can now add activation chance modifiers based on date, eg. to have tanks spawn less often later in the campaign
– Activation chance tables in campaign files don’t have to add up to 100 any more; whatever the total is will be used to determine spawn chance
– New sound effects for: adding/upgrading a crew skill, HE and AP hits, main gun miss
Campaign Day Map
– Any map nodes that are adjacent but cannot have a line drawn between node centres without passing through a 3rd node will no longer be linked up; produces more realistic connections on the campaign day map
– Boundary between friendly and hostile map areas now indicated with a red border line
– Selecting an adjacent area now cycles either clockwise or counterclockwise around the player
– Exit area moved random event will no longer trigger if player is within 2 nodes of current exit
– All mission locations will now be within 2 map nodes of player’s current position
– Selected map node will be cleared if a new map is generated (eg. moving to a new map after capturing the exit area)
– When a mission is assigned, the player’s view will be moved to the event node and it will be highlighted for a moment, then the message reporting on the mission will be displayed
Battle Encounters
– Fixed a bug where a successful Pocket Bible skill check would still result in crewman’s death
– Enemy units moving on the encounter map are no longer drawn with their terrain moving along with them
– Commonwealth (Canada only for now, but UK and others in future) get a bonus to all artillery attacks
– Enemy APCs will dismount any passengers if immobilized or destroyed; dismounted unit is automatically pinned
– Some changes to how battle information is reported:
– ‘Unknown’ enemy status is now called ‘Unspotted’, effect is the same as before
– Initial enemy spotted message now more simple; doesn’t bother reporting that the newly spawned unit is Unspotted because they all are at first
– When a crewmember is KIA or sent home, a notification window appears after the battle is over, and a report on their final stats is added to the campaign journal
– Added a line to campaign journal on whether crewman bails out successfully or not
– Gunner will sometimes call out ‘Firing’ just before firing the main gun
– If main gun is fired and loader reloads a different shell type, he will call this out
– Final to-hit score required must be 2 or more to get a critical hit (was previously an automatic hit regardless of required score)
– The Sector Control mechanic has been completely removed. This means that enemy units can spawn behind the player (although much more rarely than in front) and the result table for random events has been changed to remove the two events that impacted sector control.
– New animations for HE and AP hits on enemy units
– All results from tank movement, plus tank stopping in the case of driver incapacitation, are now displayed as pop-up messages. Tank movement is pretty important so this result deserves its own pop-up as opposed to being buried in the combat message window.
Known Bugs / Incomplete Features
– Player location marker on campaign map not yet fully implemented
– Canadian crewmen don’t have hometowns yet
– Still missing several sound effects