Hex of Steel News

[h3]ADDED[/h3]

• Nothing for now.
  

[h3]CHANGED[/h3]

• Manual got updated.
  
• Inside the research menu, the unit stats tooltip would be cut on some specific aspect ratio. I have now changed it to be wider than high. This way it will always be fully visible, even on very wide screens.
  
• Europe '43 rebalance.
  
• Changed a bit morale color schemes (Excellent = bright green, Good = dark green, normal = grey, bad = yellow, awful = red).
  

[h3]FIXED[/h3]

• Battle outcome damage on the UI could show -0 damage.
  
• In some cases modded units could not get the Marines counter assigned.
  
• Supplies issues (NaN) when a unit was on a sea tile that was frozen.
  
• Bridge tiles types were wrong.
  
• Some issues with engineers able but not able to cross destroyed bridges.
  
• Upon loading a save, if some of your units were in a train, they would have wrong max MP and fuel.
  
• Armour penalty to damage and final damage sometimes positive even when armour penalty was greater than final damage.
  
• Movement points issue with tanks/mechanized units when playing with the 'infinite ammo and fuel' setting ON.
  
• When playing campaign scenarios while having the 'research' setting turned ON would constantly remind you that you have available research points, but you could not use them. Now, all campaign scenarios force disable the research setting.
  
• UI issue in the multiplayer register menu when not having a 16:9 aspect ratio.
  
• Unit retreat (when human-owned and attacked by the AI) would 'teleport' from tile to tile instead of having the regular movement animation (if the movement animation setting was not OFF).
  
• Sea Lion North/South had not enough income/manpower to be played with upkeep/manpower optional settings.
  
• Some buildings had no graphics shown in the store when NATO graphics were turned ON.
  
• Offensive symbols censorship setting not properly working.
  
• CSV export/import issues with the AllowedFacingRotations property.
  
• Missing entry in the french localization file (shore bombardment).
  
• Issue in the map editor when generating a new map and only filling some of the players' info (Faction/Ideology), if you did not set a country, it would break everything.
  
• Sometimes morale did not refresh on units until you came close to them.
  

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[h3]ADDED[/h3]

• New setting: Stricter fog of war. Fog of war will only be removed around victory points and units, nowhere else (basically not removing the fog of war inside territory you control entirely, just around the victory points).
  
• Partisans to the CCP.
  

[h3]CHANGED[/h3]

• Multiplayer compatibility version.
  
• AI waiting time system reworked from the ground up, now I have much more control as to how to make it wait for camera when it plays, and as a result, it now plays faster and no longer waits for nothing.
  
• As a result of the above change, the AI playing speed has been increased by about 50%, so this is -50% waiting time for you :) (When Fast AI setting is ON).
  
• Retreat no longer is only on neighbouring hexes. A unit will now be able to retreat as far as it can actually move.
  
• Few units graphics.
  
• Europe '39 balance improved.
  
• AI recon planes will try to avoid each other now in order to prevent scouting the same area, they will split more.
  
• Units that cannot retreat due to allies blocking neighbour hexes will no longer surrender but have a penalty applied to it on the next turn: no attack possible.
  

[h3]FIXED[/h3]

• Supportive fire from AT units did not trigger when enemy tanks were supposed to trigger it.
  
• AI waiting time when playing. Sometimes, it could be waiting when it should not have been (when Fast AI was ON for example, resulting in MINUTES wasted as waiting time).
  
• Potentially fixed for good unit overlapping bug (?).
  
• One tile sync issue during real time MP (when transferring ownership of a tile).
  
• Supportive fire removing FoW in real time MP but not showing the unit providing it.
  
• AA not firing when bombers bombing ground targets nearby when the optional setting 'No AA support during air fight' was ON.
  
• AI was not performing Op. Husky / Op, Overlord on Europe standalone scenarios.
  
• Vichy France capitulation issues on Europe '39.
  
• Croatia state territory generation issues on Europe '39.
  
• AI could get in landing crafts in harbours but not move anywhere.
  
• AI USSR not invading Iran in august '41 on Europe standalone scenarios.
  
• Units with 'can attack ships' flag could not attack landing crafts (ground units that is, not ships).
  
• AT units would provide supportive fire against regular infantry.
  
• Units in landing crafts could not deal damage to units on land.
  
• Units not retreating in the right direction.
  

[h3]ADDED[/h3]

• AT infantry 43 to USSR.
  
• Light infantry 43 to France, Vichy France, and Republican Spain.
  
• New setting: NATO icons by default. Does as it says :)
  

[h3]CHANGED[/h3]

• Multiplayer compatibility version.
  
• Reduced ships damage vs land units quite a bit.
  
• Updated Steamworks API to 1.60.
  
• Changed retreating mechanics a little bit (under what circumstances units will retreat). I have added a new 'retreat damage threshold' (which goes from 0 to 100%). So when a unit takes some damage, the damage is evaluated as a % of the unit's current HP. So, if the unit is at 75 / 100 HP, taking 30 damage would meaning taking 40% of your health as damage. I have set up the default threshold to 30%. Then many modifiers will affect this threshold. Morale now directly affects this threshold, as an example, excellent morale doubles this threshold, meaning it no longer is 30% but 60% (only if playing with the optional morale setting ON). Then the unit's veterancy comes into play, a lvl 1 unit does not retreat at the same threshold as a lvl 5. For every veterancy level, a unit gains a +5% bonus to that retreat threshold. Units like militia or garrison have a straight -5% penalty from the get go, defaulting at 25% instead of 30%. Political units (SS/Guards) have a +5% bonus from the start too, defaulting at 35% instead of 30%. These changes should make the game more 'dynamic' and less static with more retreat going on, and less fight until death/utter destruction, although this still may happen, based on the above changes.
  
• Units sitting on Victory Points will now retreat as well. However, their retreat damage threshold has been buffed a lot, depending on what type of victory point they are on (Primary, Secondary, Normal).
  
• CustomManpowerCost, AllowedRotation, CustomUpkeepValue, CustomTurnProduction, unit properties have been added to default generation of CSV file when exporting the data from the units editor.
  

[h3]FIXED[/h3]

• AI was still purchasing regular AT infantry when it had access to AT infantry 43.
  
• Some wars/factions issues on Europe '45.
  
• Vichy France when capitulating not giving away its territories to the Allies.
  
• Ju 188 wrong category.
  
• End of scenario stats summary turn income was wrong (it was using/storing the final turn income instead of raw base income).
  
• Bombers would rotate to face off their attackers (they should not have).
  
• AI buying outdated recon vehicles in late war.
  
• Bad weather prediction icon on the UI could be wrong during the beginning of winter.
  
• Units being uncovered from the FOW when performing supportive fire when it should not have been (you could see the enemy triggering the supportive fire but not the unit it attacked, and then the supportive unit would come out of the FOW even though it was entirely not visible to you).
  
• Units having their veterancy lvl > 1 would not have the correct HP amount when loading a save file.
  
• Fighting on ice penalty for tanks was applied twice.
  
• AI decision making when attacking and taking into account supportive fire was flawed.
  

[h3]ADDED[/h3]

• 8 cm 29M (AA) to Hungary.
  
• BA-20, BT-7, BA-6, BA-27, T-34 76 1943, T-34 85 to Mongolia.
  
• BA-27 to USSR.
  
• Possibility through the units editor to personalize in what direction units can rotate.
  
• Units will now face the general direction of the enemy on scenario start (instead of all facing in the same direction).
  

[h3]CHANGED[/h3]

• Bumped multiplayer version compatibility.
  
• Increased supply depots upkeep (1 to 5).
  
• Some underlying code data structure for some of the properties of the units to make save size smaller. This will create some side effects such as cancelling all of the research you have been doing and the facing rotation of the units.
  
• AI engineers won't stay on rivers forever now anymore. If nobody needs them on there, they will move on and continue their life.
  
• Small cost increase to strategic (heavy) bombers, to better mark the difference between each.
  

[h3]FIXED[/h3]

• You could hear AI's units movement sounds when they were swapping in the fog of war.
  
• AI AA units moving before attacking when they could attack right away.
  
• AI will now better remember where some arty are providing supportive fire to not make the same mistake again.
  
• Upgrading/Downgrading a unit would not update its name.
  
• Not possible to assign custom faction in map editor after adding a new player, you would need to close and re open the settings to be able to do it.
  
• If you changed the max HP of some units, the game would not properly apply the change(s) when opening a save file.
  
• Gunboats could not move across anti tank obstacles on bridges.
  
• Downgrading an infantry unit from a paratrooper into a regular infantry would keep its type as a plane (if the para unit was not on the ground).
  
• Anyone could delete any hosted PBEM game (instead of host only).
  
• AI units when being downgraded or upgraded would lose some fuel / ammo in the process (which the AI would have to pay for to refill).
  
• Made the AI less prone to being ambushed and running into enemy VPs.
  

[h3]REMOVED[/h3]

• Settings to lock rotation, force left right rotation, or allow all rotations (this is now handled on a per unit basis through the editor).