Hex of Steel News

Merry Christmas to ya'll in advance! :)

[h3]ADDED[/h3]

• In the map editor, you can now edit any unit’s starting HP by setting a custom HP modifier (in percentage, from 1 to 100.
  

[h3]CHANGED[/h3]

• Multiplayer/Chat compatibility version updated to 7.2.4.
  
• The demo version of the game will no longer connect to the same chat as the paid version. Too many trolls without account registration.
  
• The armour modifier is now applied in another way, in order to further increase balance and logic.
  Here is an example of the damage before the change, for an engagement between a Nashorn and an IS-2. Hard damage of the Nashorn is 115, armour of the IS-2 is 93. Base damage is 22. Now, if the Nashorn gets damaged, since the damage scale with the HP but the armour don’t you literally get 0 damage for every single attack, which is kinda wrong. In order to fix this, the base raw damage is now calculated with the armour right away, and the HP modifier is applied based on the remaining damage. Meaning, if the Nashorn is at 50% HP, instead of dealing 0 damage, it would deal around 11 damage, because the HP modifier now applies after armour has been deduced from base raw hard damage. This makes things way more balanced and will solve many combat issues where if a unit was no longer 100% HP it would simply be useless because of the orders in which modifiers were applied.
  To sum this change up. Base damage is now equal to base damage minus armour, and the HP modifier is calculated based on left potential damage, instead of on the base raw damage.
  

[h3]FIXED[/h3]

• Campaign end of scenario bonus of XP for < 5 units lost could be wrongly applied.
  
• Some XP/rank calculation issues in campaign scenarios.
  
• On the mobile version of the game, on tablet, the ‘unit ready’ or ‘units in production’ icons would never be shown.
  
• In the map editor, the victory and defeat text would always be overwritten by the intro text.
  
• Seems like not all commanders had the ‘permanent death’ toggled ON.
  

[h3]ADDED[/h3]

• 4 new key binds (empty by default) to jump to the each far side of the map (left/right/up/down).
  

[h3]CHANGED[/h3]

• Multiplayer compatibility versionning: 7.2.3.
  
• Improved network stability when playing in real time multiplayer (reduced the amount of queries sent back and forth to prevent BufferFull error which was creating the desync issues) I therefore managed to reduce the amount of exchanged data/queries by 58%. Hopefully, this has a meaningful impact on stability in general.
  
• If a translation is missing, English will now be used as default instead of ‘missing translation’ text.
  

[h3]FIXED[/h3]

• In real time multiplayer, supportive fire from the FOW would not be synced (visually). Meaning if some artillery uncovered itself from the FOW on the host, the client would not see the newly uncovered artillery doing the supportive fire.
  
• AI paratroopers would go towards sea victory points and drop in the sea.
  
• Lot of typos or incorrect translation of soviet cities in the Soviet Union in the Europe scenarios.
  
• Incorrect Chinese cities names in Pacific scenarios.
  
• Heroes graphics having wrong dimensions prevented mods from being loaded entirely.
  
• Building buildings (haha) in real time multiplayer spawned the building at the wrong tile (wrong X coordinates).
  
• Unit suffix setting and realistic naming were both linked to each other, you could not have only realistic naming ON but suffix OFF.
  
• AI income modifier was being overwritten based on difficulty. This was half wrong, since it only matters if you play with ironman mode ON. Income modifier for AI will now only be overwritten based on difficulty IF ironman mode is ON for the scenario.
  
• Tactical bombers no longer dealt attrition. Not sure why it has been disabled for them.
  
• Planes could attack ground units on an adjacent tile if the ground unit had an enemy plane above it.
  
• Upgrading infantry would not make it lose 'isPontoonBridge' attribute, or gain it in the case of upgrading regular infantry into engineers.
  

Hey everyone!

Honestly, I hadn't planned on making a post on the Steam Community today, but something happened over on Discord that just made my day, and I couldn't resist sharing it with you all (with dad's authorization, of course!).

Meet the youngest wargamer out there (at least officially, from what I know!)—young Zalán, who turned 9 today! Happy birthday, buddy!

He's a huge fan of HoS and got his birthday cake designed based on the game—how crazy (and lovely) is that?!

Here's a picture of the special cake:



Now, I'm aware most of us are grown-ups here, but hey, who's up for a cake competition? Just saying... we could totally organize something, haha!

While we're mostly adults, the sheer enthusiasm of a young fan celebrating with a game-themed cake is contagious, right?

Take care, everyone, and I hope this brings a smile to your face as it did to mine. 😊

Val

New change-log :)
Got tired of appending to the old one haha

[h3]ADDED[/h3]

• Added missing default keybind for opening/closing the Order of Battle (L is the new default keybind).
  
• Prototype icon in the store for prototypes. It doesn't do anything, it just visually shows you what units are prototypes.
  
• 43M Toldi III (hungarian light tank).
  

[h3]CHANGED[/h3]

• Attempt to nerf the overpowered fighters: Rockets option and Bombs option no longer give an extra ammo to base ammo. This means, fighters don’t get 6 ammo anymore, they stay at 4 as they start with.
  
• Bombs on fighters now reduce their air damage by 25%, this is to represent their loss in agility and effectiveness in air vs air combat.
  
• Rockets don’t give any more bonus to air combat (they previously had a +5 air damage bonus).
  
• Bombs option now costs 50 instead of 60.
  
• Torpedo option now costs 50 instead of 60.
  
• Bombs and Torpedo options impact on plane action range now works as a percentage (25%) of their base action range instead of being a flat 15 tiles penalty.
  
• Keyboard camera layout has been changed for French (ZQSD vs WASD).
  
• Sd. Kfz. 232 graphics.
  
• Panzer III Ausf. A graphics.
  
• ML-20 152 mm graphics.
  
• ZiS-3 graphics.
  
• StuG III F graphics.
  
• Wurfrahmen 40 graphics.
  
• T-28 soviet tank graphics.
  
• BA-10 graphics.
  
• BT-2 graphics.
  
• Almost all Hungarian tanks graphics.
  
• Rebalanced Toldi hungarian tanks.
  
• Hungary 1944 standalone scenario update.
  

[h3]FIXED[/h3]

• Soviet Union and any other Communist country had wrong hero icon on counters.
  
• Fixed issue in PBEM games where if AI was set to play first, upon first human playing the turn would end and game would be sent the server.
  
• Siracusa (city) typo.
  
• Torino (city) typo.
  
• Small scroll issue in multiplayer host menu.
  
• Freshly dropped paratroopers, after attacking, would still blink (if the option was ON).
  
• AI freeze instance with paratroopers.
  
• Spawning buildings through events did not work.
  
• PBEM game listing not displaying country the player would play if he joined if the first player to play was set to be AI and not human.
  
• Order of Battle unit highlight not always working issue.
  
• Garrison units had the 'division' suffix added which made it weird. They will be called 'Garrison' from now on.
  
• When generating a random scenario, the game would not check for units having a max purchase limits when populating the map.
  
• Winter frozen sea tiles would turn black at times.
  
• Upkeep value displayed being incorrect if you were Neutral.
  
• Continuing a game that ended after you surrendered did not work.
  

[h3]REMOVED [/h3]

• Strategic redeployment for the AI because it was not working as intended (not in all cases, really hard to get it working like a human player would, almost impossible to cover all cases and situations or map layouts to make an actual good use of it). It would endlessly send back its unit to the reserve then re sell them and in the end never deployed them, it just crippled its army.
  

WARNING: Updated Multiplayer compatibility version to 7.2.1.

[h3]ADDED[/h3]

• New ‘Continue’ button in solo games where you can continue playing even after the scenario ended.
  
• Implemented chat filter processing when you are about to send a message when writing in the English channel. Chinese, Korean, Japanese or Russian will no longer be accepted in the English channel. Please use the dedicated channels to write in your native language. The English channel should only be for English language.
  
• QoL: When deploying units, whenever you deploy a first unit, the game will automatically selects the next unit in the reserve, if there is any.
  
• Fw-190 F to Germany.
  

[h3]CHANGED[/h3]

• Scorched Earth Policy will now also cancel any income reward for capturing a VP.
  
• Auto Resupply of units will now be split into 2: Repair, and ammo/fuel. Repair will take place right when you end your turn, ammo and fuel will be both at the end of your turn, and beginning of new one. Should be way handier now! When your turn starts, you are sure all of your units got ammo and fuel!
  
• Units details will now be displayed even when the game is paused, same for the range of ranged units.
  
• Various improvements to Europe 1939 scenario (Added creation of Vichy France upon France capitulation). Proper war declarations, proper support from Canada and US, proper Winter War etc. Plenty of good stuff, updated events, increased historical accuracy if the option is turned ON in your settings.
  
• Ships with a range of more than 1 will now provide the same supportive fire as artillery when a friendly is attacked nearby.
  
• AI will not longer have more bombers than fighters (meaning the ratio of bombers to fighters will never be higher than 1:1).
  
• Improved AI's ships use.
  
• AI artillery units (no SPGs) will no longer move in tiles that are inside the fog of war.
  
• Greatly improved the AI's deployment of new units, better understanding of the situation.
  
• AI will no longer deploy ranged artillery in close quarter with the enemy.
  
• AI will no longer deploy all its artillery at the same place.
  
• Change in AI's understanding of dangerosity when it comes to attacks and deploying reinforcements (land units now count as double dangerosity as air units, except paratroopers).
  
• Mechanized option in the store availability date per country.
  
• Reduced AI's engineers purchase rate.
  
• Reduced AI's flamethrower tanks purchase rate.
  
• AI will no longer purchase paratroopers if it does not have any fighters up in the air.
  
• AI fighters will now prioritize escort of paratroopers.
  
• AI minor countries will no longer use the mechanize option for transport.
  
• Railway guns can now target ships.
  
• Terrain penalty modifier for artillery now is applied to their RAW / BASE damage instead of their final damage, this is an attempt at nerfing super high arty damage.
  
• Hawker Typhoon and Hawker Tempest got their hard and soft damage reduced.
  
• M-30 122 mm graphics.
  
• Char B1 bis graphics.
  
• Panzer III Ausf. A graphics.
  
• Panzer 38(t) E graphics.
  
• Panzer I Ausf. A graphics.
  
• Panzer II Ausf. C graphics.
  
• Panzer III Ausf. J graphics.
  
• Panzer III Ausf. E graphics.
  
• Panzer III Ausf. H graphics.
  
• Panzerjager I graphics.
  
• Panzer IV F1 graphics.
  
• StuG III B graphics.
  
• German light inf. 43 graphics.
  
• Pak 36 graphics.
  
• Sd. Kfz. 231 graphics.
  
• All of Great Britain's infantry graphics.
  
• French light and heavy infantry graphics.
  
• Trenches can now be built in allied territory.
  
• AI now takes into account nearby artillery supportive fire when choosing a target to attack.
  
• Airfields, Factories and Refineries can now be built in allied territory. HOWEVER, the ownership of the built tile will now be passed on to the land owner. This is the only solution I have found to prevent land grabbing. Meaning, if you as Romania decide to build an airfield in Germany, it will be a German airfield, not a Romanian airfield, even if YOU as Romania built it.
  
• Type 4 Chi-To availability year 1942 --> 1943.
  
• Fw-190s stats nerf.
  
• Rockets option for planes is now available from 1943 and onward.
  

[h3]FIXED[/h3]

• Potential movement tiles graphics during winter on frozen bodies of water would still use the summer graphics.
  
• Zone of Control setting never synced in multiplayer.
  
• Upgrading unit creating an error during multiplayer sync (real time).
  
• Cross-Platform multiplayer issues with iOS in real time multiplayer.
  
• Weather GFX could be the wrong one (Rain instead of snow or snow instead of rain for) for certain months.
  
• Units not being sent back to the reserve if their tile melted (from frozen water) when playing with smooth season transition.
  
• Ships applying Zone of Control to land units (they should not).
  
• Bugged end of Winter War when Finland was played by a human.
  
• Could not change faction back to neutral in multiplayer games.
  
• Empty square characters (escape characters) in the message inputfield when pressing 'escape' to close the chat menu.
  
• Upgrading a paratrooper resulted in an air unit on the ground.
  
• Infinite money glitch by using production focus policies.
  
• Unit cost issue with upgrades.
  
• You could deploy units in neutral territory.
  
• You could swap land units with naval units upon scenario opening.
  
• Heroes and stats not being properly applied when loading a save.
  
• Yet another money exploit from upgrade (with policy Modernization).
  
• Finally fixed the units repopping after loading a save where a land swap happened (event).
  
• In campaign, if you won the scenario but had some units in transport ships, they would be stuck upon start of next scenario and would be considered as ships. You could therefore not deploy them.
  
• Number of turns for destroyed tiles were reduced by 1 every time the save was loaded.
  
• Message mention notification was not fixed as it should have been from 7.0.0.
  
• AI movements when stuck because of allies.