Game Improvements and Development News

Welcome back, loyal soldiers! I’m sure most, if not all, of you are excited to hear more about our upcoming Naval update, but we're not quite ready to share more yet, as we've tied it to an even bigger event later down the line. However, I can promise you that this even bigger event will surprise you and will definitely be worth the long wait!

Whats coming soon?

But you may wonder what we will be doing until then? Well, there is a lot to say.... We will tell you more about what we have been working on and show you some new content that’s on the way in mid-November! But for now, we will leave you with this: In Mid-November, the Belgian Forces will reinforce the Entente, alongside a new DLC featuring new uniforms and hats!

Steam Trading cards are also on the way to give you guys an extra bit of external content to collect.

Some Development News

Sadly, multiple of our team-members fell badly ill for multiple weeks and have been too sick to effectively work, which unfortunately slowed down development quite a bit. That being said the team is back in full strength and we are working hard on getting the “Iron Tides” update ready for release alongside the previously mentioned even bigger surprise. There will be another blog post with more details about its contents at a later date!

However, that doesn’t mean that we haven’t been working hard to implement an abundance of improvements to the game to keep you guys fighting the war to end all wars.

Game Update

Today we are updating the game with a huge amount of bug fixes and improvements to all aspects of the game, such as several crashes, a ton of improvements to the AI ( Bot Grenades no longer pass through solid objects! ), a huge amount of controller improvements and tweaks as well as fixes to all aspects of the game. All in all, we have over 120+ changes coming with today's patch.

(Almost full) Change log:

AI & BOTS

• Fixed defender bots at capture points spawning as officers, which could result in teams having 20 or more officers.
• Fixed class limits not activating correctly after a map change when a team filled up.
• Zombie mode classes no longer count toward officer and class limits.
• Fixed bots counting toward player class limits. Player and bot class limits now work separately, and the class menu displays player counts.
• When a player takes a full class, a bot in that class will respawn as a rifleman for one life with the correct rifleman equipment.
• Fixed bots jittering up and down while aiming in singleplayer. Their aim now moves smoothly between shots.
• Fixed bots throwing grenades less often than intended. They now throw grenades a little more often at enemies they are targeting.
• Fixed bot engineers sometimes failing to build forward spawns because an inactive capture point lock zone blocked all available building locations.
• Added server settings for how many forward spawns bot engineers build automatically and how long they wait between builds. These settings can be configured separately for attackers and defenders.
• In singleplayer, you can now place a forward spawn even when your team is at its limit. It replaces the nearest forward spawn built by bots.
• In singleplayer, improved AI capture and defending logic to make for more fluent and engaging gameplay.
• Fixed bots getting stuck in a half-running, half-sprinting animation. They now blend properly between running and sprinting, including when slowing down for corners.
• Fixed bot movement animations playing too slowly for players running below 30 FPS.
• Fixed bots bobbing up and down while sitting in foxholes or standing on steep ground.
• Fixed bots bobbing up and down in dug holes or on steep ground after being shot.
• Bots now drop to the floor properly when the ground beneath them is dug out, blown up or flattened by tanks.
• Fixed bot tanks repeatedly driving into the same obstacle. When blocked, they now reverse and go around the clearer side, trying the other side if necessary.
• Bot tanks now can also break through chevaux de frise and other destructible obstacles that they get stuck on, rather than repeatedly ramming them.
• Fixed bot tanks getting stuck turning against sandbags, spawn boxes and other obstacles that are on the left and right of the vehicle. They now back up and drive around the obstacle.
• Fixed bot tanks getting stuck in place with one track spinning. When a slow turn stalls, they now turn at full speed.
• Fixed bot tanks and armored cars getting stuck on their bellies against sandbags or trench edges. They can now turn slowly and drive themselves free.
• Fixed bot tanks and cars getting stuck at narrow trench crossings. They now attempt to cross suitable trenches, with larger vehicles using wider gaps.
• Fixed bot vehicles getting stuck halfway across trenches. They now back out and look for another route.
• Bot vehicles now cross trenches straight across along the route they checked, taking their track width into account.
• Fixed bot tanks and armored cars driving lengthwise into trenches and becoming wedged.
• Bot tanks now look for alternative trench crossings or wait instead of repeatedly ramming a tank that is parked on a crossing and blocking it.
• Bot-driven vehicles now break the same objects a player driving that vehicle would. Small cars and motorbikes no longer smash through wire, sandbags and stone fences.
• Fixed bot drivers weaving left and right repeatedly. They now hold a straighter line, particularly in cars and light tanks.
• Fixed bot-driven K-Wagens, Char 2Cs and other multi-gun tanks repeatedly stopping and starting every few metres.
• Large bot-driven tanks, including the K-Wagen, Mark VIII Liberty and Char 2C, can now cross wider trenches.
• Fixed bot-driven armored cars attempting to drive over sandbag parapets and getting stuck.
• Fixed bots getting stuck inside their own tanks. Recruited bots can now be given orders, and tank drivers will follow the Hold Position command again.
• Bots recruited from inside a tank are now released when you leave the vehicle, preventing them from driving spawn tanks away after you get out.

AIM ASSIST & SHOOTING

• Reworked controller aim assist. Aim assist now only works while aiming down sights and no longer turns your camera. It slows your aim when your sights are over an enemy and accounts for ping and bullet travel time to help with leading moving targets.
• Added Aim Assist Zoom Snap. When aiming down sights, your aim is nudged toward the torso of a nearby visible enemy. It has a separate setting and does not work with scoped weapons.
• Aim Assist and Zoom Snap now have Off, Low, Medium and High settings. Existing configurations keep aim assist enabled at Medium by default.
• Added a "Force Controller Aim Assist" option for Steam Deck and Steam Machine users, allowing trackpad and gyro aiming to use aim assist.
• Server admins can now limit controller aim assist strength from 0% to 100%, with 0% disabling it.
• Improved aim assist at longer ranges.
• Fixed Zoom Snap failing when an enemy behind cover was closer to the crosshair.
• Increased the strength of the controller aim assist pull slightly.
• Fixed controller aim assist failing to snap toward a nearby enemy when starting to aim down sights.
• Server-side bullet correction now aims at the torso instead of the feet, improving hit registration against prone and crouching targets.
• Fixed firing while sprinting. Your character now stops sprinting as soon as you shoot instead of continuing to sprint while firing.

CONTROLLER SUPPORT & MENUS

• Fixed holding A on ammunition and medical crates cancelling resupply after a split second.
• Fixed holding A while entering a seat or vehicle immediately throwing you back out.
• Fixed selecting an option on the radial wheel also triggering other actions, such as reloading, jumping, crouching, toggling the gas mask, switching camera, voting or opening the mute menu.
• Fixed voting No with B causing you to crouch. Jumping and crouching now work normally again after voting.
• Fixed Officers opening the orders menu when using Y to quick-build or cancel a build ghost.
• Fixed the cannon ammunition menu selecting the previously highlighted shell when pressing A on another shell or on Close. You must now press A on the highlighted shell to take it.
• The Select Spawn button in the troop menu now displays the correct controller button (Y / Triangle) and can be activated with it.
• LB/RB in the troop menu now move through classes in the order shown on screen, with button prompts displayed beside the first and last classes.
• Fixed controller button icons on the purchase confirmation popup being pushed off the bottom of the window.
• Reduced the size of controller button icons on the spawn selection screen so that "Change Class" and "Spawn Now" fit properly.
• The mouse cursor is now roughly twice as large when navigating menus with a controller. It returns to normal size when using the mouse.
• Fixed the Cancel and Close/Back buttons in the spawn menu sometimes displaying the wrong controller icon or failing to update when switching between controller and mouse.
• Fixed the machine gun pickup icon displaying the keyboard key "5" instead of the controller button (Y / Triangle).
• Holding LB/RB while placing an MG or other prop now rotates it smoothly instead of turning in small steps.
• Reduced the size of controller button icons beside menu labels so they no longer crowd the text.
• End-of-round screens now display controller prompts. Press A / Cross to continue and Y / Triangle to open the scoreboard.
• Fixed a stray yellow outline appearing in the top-right corner of the team and class selection screens when moving the controller cursor to the left edge.
• Added controller support for the Select/View button as a revert shortcut in menus.
• The scoreboard now supports controllers. Use the left stick to scroll player lists, LB/RB to switch between Players and Spectators, A to select a player and B to close a popup or the scoreboard.
• Fixed the server browser Join button not working properly with a controller. Pressing X / Square now joins the selected server, including when using the custom IP popup.
• The server browser now allows you to press X / Square to join the server you're hovering over without having to select it or highlight the Join button first.
• Fixed the controller focus outline not covering the entire server row, including the columns on the right.
• Fixed controller focus outlines appearing on the server browser and team selection screens when they shouldn't.
• Fixed controller focus highlights being incorrectly sized around buttons.
• Fixed the controller highlight disappearing after a few seconds without input.
• Fixed the controller highlight remaining visible after spawning or closing the Settings and other menus.
• Fixed the controller highlight appearing on the emote wheel.
• Fixed the controller highlight not fitting rotated forward-spawn icons properly.
• Fixed buttons with text extending beyond their borders, such as "Spawn Now" and "Change Class", not responding when clicked on the text.
• In the campaign battle statistics popup, controller players can now press A to return to the map. The Proceed button also displays the correct A prompt.
• Pressing B in the campaign overlay now returns you to the main menu after a confirmation prompt. The Main Menu button displays the B prompt when using a controller.
• LB/RB on the class selection screen now moves the cursor and highlight to the selected class.
• Pressing X / Square on the party screen now takes you straight to the next screen when you first join.
• Fixed the uniform selection menu showing an extra row of uniforms when scrolling the mouse wheel over the icons.
• Fixed team selection cards not growing when hovered over.

VEHICLES, BOATS & DESTRUCTION

• Fixed late-spawning boats not working correctly.
• Fixed spawning on boats.
• Fixed boat icons on the map being rotated in the wrong direction.
• Fixed players and bots switching to a generic sitting pose shortly after spawning on a boat. They now keep the correct seat animation.
• Fixed the Mark VIII Liberty not creating its destroyed mesh when destroyed.
• Fixed some Behemoths failing to respawn making the German team much better.
• Fixed the smoke trail on solid-shot cannonballs becoming invisible. The trail is now smoother, with fewer gaps, and no longer uses the costly heat-distortion effect.
• Engineer-built props now collapse when the structure supporting them is destroyed. Destroying the bottom sandbag of a stack will bring down the sandbags above it instead of leaving them floating.
• Fixed bullets hitting invisible terrain in front of partially built sandbag walls, allowing players to shoot over them properly.

SCORING & GAMEPLAY

• Vehicle destruction score is now split between everyone who damaged the vehicle, based on how much damage each player dealt. The player who lands the final hit still receives the vehicle kill.
• Crew killed when a vehicle is destroyed now also award their kill score to the players who damaged the vehicle, split according to their damage contributions. Players still receive their share of vehicle damage score if the driver destroys their own vehicle or a teammate delivers the final hit.
• Fully repairing a vehicle resets its accumulated damage contributions.
• Fixed score popups showing double points for small actions such as digging, building and healing. They now match the scoreboard.
• Light hits of 50 damage or less no longer interrupt music or knock musicians off their seats. Pushes and heavy hits still do.
• Fixed the friendly-fire crosshair and vehicle name appearing when aiming above or beside a friendly tank, truck or gun. It now only appears when aiming directly at the vehicle.

CAMERA & ANIMATIONS

• Fixed the first-person camera shaking and jittering while following your soldier's head.
• Fixed the field of view jumping when dying in first person.
• In first person, the camera now stays attached to the soldier's head when dying.
• Dying as a tank gunner no longer leaves the camera stuck inside the destroyed tank. It now rises smoothly out of the hull.
• Fixed the weapon being held in the wrong position on the Best Player screen when a round ended while you were in first person.

MAP, TERRAIN & JOIN-IN-PROGRESS

• Fixed players and bots spawning inside the ground or becoming stuck halfway inside the floor when a map spawn point was placed below the terrain.
• Players joining a match in progress now see craters and dug terrain correctly, including blended edges and the map border.
• Crates resting on moving platforms now stay attached to the platform for players who join late.
• Fixed dead trees appearing black.

CRASHES, PERFORMANCE & STABILITY

• Reworked menu, HUD and map UI animations to use lightweight scripts instead of Unity Animators.
• Fixed a crash that could happen shortly after joining a match, especially when opening the map.
• Minor Memory Improvements.

Thank you!