Hex of Steel News

[h3]ADDED[/h3]

• Garrisons to Iceland.
  
• Light infantry 43 to Spain (fascist).
  
• 28cm Krupp K5 railway gun to Germany.
  
• 8 cm 29M to Hungary.
  

[h3]CHANGED[/h3]

• Bumped multiplayer version compatibility.
  
• Improved balance of Europe '39.
  
• Improved balance of Europe '44.
  
• US infantry graphics.
  
• Garrison NATO symbol.
  
• Reworked entirely the unit indice system, it is now logical and working. What's the change? Well before, every time you bought a new unit, it would bump the number to +1, but if you lost your 45th light inf unit, its indice would be lost forever, and you would only go up, ending up with 1000th + infantry etc. Now, the numbers are reused/recycled and you will no longer see crazy numbers unless there really are 1000+ fielded units of a same kind.
  
• Related to the above change, now, gunboats are in their own category, militia too, as well as SPG AA, SPG AT, and SPG Arty.
  
• Annexing tiles which have no production value now cost 50% more. It used to cost 500 to annex an airfield for example, it will now cost 750.
  
• Annexing tiles which have a production value will now also be more expensive, by an additional 10 turns more for it to become profitable (old = 40, now = 50).
  
• Prototype units now are only 30% more expensive than what they would normally be (their very limited max fielded number is really limiting them already).
  
• Whole bunch of units turned into prototypes (SU-26, AT-1, T-44, Neubaufahrzeug...).
  
• Added extra categories for prototypes so they don't count as regular units (for units indices).
  
• Unit cost rounding from 10 to 5.
  
• 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.
  

[h3]FIXED[/h3]

• Units pathfinding issue when clicking on a tile to move to.
  
• AI submarines not diving when moving a second time.
  
• AI freeze with mods when upgrading/downgrading garrisons.
  
• Italy (AI) would transfer all the captured British VPs to Germany instead of keeping them for themselves.
  
• Placing your mouse over visible mines (land/naval) would not display any information about it.
  
• 'Don't run before turn X' optional trigger not shown properly in the map editor.
  
• AI not buying as many units as it should have / could have when playing with upkeep.
  
• AI marines purchase ratio was too high.
  
• AI AT infantry purchase ratio was too high.
  
• Some soviet units production date were off.
  
• Some countries were missing their Train transport graphics (Mongolia, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Luxembourg, Iceland, Manchukuo, Philippines, Switzerland...).
  
• Changing a unit's level through the map editor would not update the unit's XP.
  
• Soviet Union (AI) not redeploying its army when Op. Barbarossa begins.
  
• UK AI will now properly invade Iceland in 1940.
  
• Germany trying to naval invade the UK on Europe scenarios (when historical focus is ON).
  
• Some units were in the wrong category/wrongly categorized (SU-26, AT-1, SU-76i...).
  
• AI not moving to certain enemy victory points when it should have.
  
• Decimals could not be imported properly from .csv files in the units editor.
  
• Progressive cost working wrongly (being always +1).
  
• Winter version of non frozen lake had the same texture as a frozen lake, which would lead to some confusion.
  
• 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.
  

[h3]ADDED[/h3]

• New setting: No AA support fire during air on air engagements.
  
• Auto-saving when playing offline PBEM, whenever the 'next human player playing' menu appears, the game will perform a save with the player's country name + turn count, example: Hungary_5. This will save you to have to do it manually. All you have to do is send the file to your friend(s) now. It will also automatically open the directory for you once the save is ready.
  

[h3]CHANGED[/h3]

• Multiplayer compatibility version bumped to match latest game version.
  
• Defending (being attacked) on a frozen river now will grant the attacker double damage against the defender.
  
• AI will now properly upgrade/downgrade to other units for garrisons if your mod is not in the same time period as the base game.
  
• Sped up going back to main menu from game speed a little (about 5% speed increase, haha).
  
• Units in the reserve now have to pay 50% of their upkeep instead of 30% (a 20% increase, basically).
  
• Increased upkeep for heavy infantry, commandos, panzergrenadiers, shock infantry, paratroopers, marines, NKVD.
  
• Autosave naming format (clearer).
  
• Some diplomacy shenanigans when let's say Belgium is being declared war on by France which was in the same team, while also at war with Germany, now Belgium will join its own faction instead of joining the Axis.
  
• Light infantry manpower cost is a bit cheaper now (13,000 vs 15,000).
  
• Garrison manpower cost a tad more expensive now (2,500 vs 2,000).
  
• Rebalanced USSR comeback in Europe scenarios.
  

[h3]FIXED[/h3]

• You had to pay to join a faction when being Neutral.
  
• Turn production value on the UI for upgrading/downgrading a unit was wrong.
  
• AI manpower hole when disbanding unused units (losing manpower, never getting it back for disbanding units in its reserve).
  
• Hungary 1944 standalone scenario was not marked as 'official scenario', therefore you could not unlock any achievement or leaderboard there.
  
• Allies were at war with the USSR in Europe '41 and above.
  
• USA giving back land to france in africa after performing Op. Torch in 1942 on Europe '39.
  
• Partisans spawning directly on victory points which just got captured. I have introduced a minimum countdown of 5 turns before partisans start spawning at a newly captured victory point.
  

Hello everyone!

Just a small announcement to let you all know that a Wiki for the game has been created on Fandom, direct link: https://hex-of-steel.fandom.com/wiki/Hex_of_Steel_Wiki

It is open to the community to edit and develop, so, if you have some extra time and knowledge about the game, and would like to share it with the community, then the Wiki will be the place to do it :)

Let me know if you have any questions

Have a great Sunday!

Val

[h3]ADDED[/h3]

• Rodion Malinovsky to USSR (commander).
  
• When playing a multiplayer match (of any kind), you will now be able to send invitations to other people for them to join your alliance (before, this would not be possible, the human player would need to leave his own faction, and pay to join the other one). But now, you can be invited by somebody else from that faction directly. The invitation(s) appear in the notifications stack, so look for it there.
  

[h3]CHANGED[/h3]

• Multiplayer compatibility version --> 7.7.11.
  
• Europe 1943 scenario has been fully updated and reworked as part of the great Europe revamp process.
  
• Europe 1944 scenario has been fully updated and reworked as part of the great Europe revamp process.
  
• The setting 'production takes time' is now required for ironman mode to be ON..
  
• When historical focus is ON, AI minors and allied with Germany will transfer what they capture to Germany (basically, if Slovakia captures territory in the USSR, it will transfer it back to Germany).
  
• Attacking anti tank obstacles will no longer trigger supportive fire from nearby artillery.
  
• Finnish units in the store will now have the winter option turned ON by default (free for them).
  
• Few units graphics.
  
• Going to war will now provide a manpower (realistic) 'refill'. Only happens when changing from Neutral to actually at war. Your available manpower will be the max - fielded value, instead of staying the same as the turn before.
  
• To prevent any exploit, but also to solve another problem, faction changes are no longer free. You no longer can switch team 10 times in a turn for free. The fee will be calculated based on your turn income (base) and the amount of people you are at war with. The more people at war with you in your current faction, the more expensive it will be. Extra fee cost for going to neutral in the middle of a war.
  
• Total mobilization policy now has a new debuff of -1 HQ point per turn.
  
• When going back to neutrality through faction change in the diplomacy menu, the fee that has been established will now be equally shared through all members at war with the player. So, let's say Hungary wants to go back to Neutrality but is at war with UK + France + USA, the money that will be spent to get Neutrality will be split and sent to all 3 players that were at war with him.
  
• Notifications data has changed and now allows for dynamic translation on the fly. The content of the notification no longer is saved, only relevant data, then the text displayed on the notification is generated from the data and will now use the language chosen in the game (won't affect singleplayer games, but has an impact on multiplayer ones where multiple players would be playing in different languages).
  
• Amount of HQ points earned every turn while not at war is now -50% (+3) of the regular value (+5).
  
• AI capability of sending some money to its allies has been revised and more control over it has been added (never sending more than the player's turn income at once, and minors will not send to majors, only majors to minors).
  
• Double damage received for defender fighting on a frozen river tile.
  

[h3]FIXED[/h3]

• AI will no longer deploy/field new units if its upkeep cost is too high (you could basically bankrupt the AI by sending him a ton of high upkeep units and the AI would deploy them all).
  
• AI would perform unit swapping with human controlled units.
  
• Partisans spawning right after a country capitulated.
  
• Wrong deployment tooltip rule for coastal batteries.
  
• Game was not unloading from RAM mods after they were removed or deactivated. Basically, you could load the same mod 10 times and it would be loaded as new every time and the old data would not be purged. Only a game restart fixed it.
  
• Custom upkeep value was not really properly applied to the AI bought units.
  

[h3]ADDED[/h3]

• Adrian Cole, Frank Berryman, Stanley Savige to Australia (commanders).
  
• Konstantin Lukash to Bulgaria (commander).
  
• Bert Hoffmeister and Jean Victor Allard to Canada (commanders).
  
• Charles de Gaulle, Jean de Lattre de Tassigny to France (commanders).
  
• Ferenc Szombathelyi and József Heszlényi to Hungary (commanders).
  
• Mario Roatta to Italy (commander).
  
• Hugh Dowding and Keith Park to UK (commanders).
  
• Aaro Pajari and Jarl Lundqvist to Finland (commanders).
  
• Wladyslaw Anders to Poland (commander).
  
• Radu Korne and Emanoil Ionescu to Romania (commanders).
  
• Bai Chongxi and Chiang Kai-shek to Nationalist China (commanders).
  
• Nie Rongzhen to Communist China (commander).
  
• Alexandros Papagos to Greece (commander).
  
• Shunroku Hata, Hideki Tojo, Takeo Kurita, Mitsuru Ushijima to Japan (commanders).
  
• Karel Doorman, Christiaan Boers to The Netherlands (commanders).
  
• Howard Kippenberger and Leonard Trent to New Zealand (commanders).
  
• Otto Ruge to Norway (commander).
  
• Gösta von Stedingk and Helge Jung to Sweden (commanders).
  
• Danilo Kalafatović, Milorad Petrović, Dimitrije Živković, Vladimir Cukavac to Yugoslavia (commanders).
  
• Enrique Líster to Spanish Republic (commander).
  
• Stasys Raštikis and Kazys Skučas to Lithuania (commanders).
  
• Johan Laidoner and Aleksander Tõnisson to Estonia (commanders).
  
• Jānis Balodis and Krišjānis Berkis to Latvia (commanders).
  
• Rodion Malinovsky to USSR (commander).
  
• Toggle store menu keybind (none by default).
  
• Toggle reserve menu keybind (none by default).
  

[h3]CHANGED[/h3]

• Multiplayer compatibility version --> 7.7.10.
  
• AI playing smoother (improved code performances, should lag less when it plays).
  
• Big code refactor of a lot of the code.
  
• Upon capitulation, you would be getting all of the land of the player you just conquered. Now, if some of this land originally belonged to your allies, or to neutrals, it will be given back to them, and you will only keep the territory of your enemy (that you just beat).
  
• Increased cost penalty when buying units from another player (25% --> 35%).
  
• Purchasing units from other players will no longer transfer the extra you're paying as part of the penalty, this will prevent any cheesing/exploit or money generation.
  
• Made all air commanders ground commanders. May cause issues in your save files where they will occupy an air slot but move as a ground unit.
  
• Availability year of all units to be 1935.01.01 if they were available before.
  
• End availability year of all units to be 1947.01.01 (if their end use date was 1946+).
  
• Reworked all commanders stats for all countries.
  
• Bulgarian commanders counters.
  
• German commanders counters.
  
• When historical focus is ON, AI minors and allied with germany will transfer what they capture to Germany (basically, if Slovakia captures territory in the USSR, it will transfer it back to Germany).
  

[h3]FIXED[/h3]

• AI not flanking anymore.
  
• Armenia as part of USSR geography issue on Europe scenarios.
  
• On Europe '39, USSR turned Neutral through events after the end of the Baltic States invasion, if you were at war with it as Germany and started a very early Barbarossa, you would lose all progress and troops would be sent back home.
  
• Weather particles small issue during season change, when both rain and snow would appear on the screen and one would not go away.
  
• AI doing suicidal bombing runs with its strategic bombers.
  
• P-61 Black Widow too OP.
  
• Some stats not being updated for units after they have been changed in the editor when starting a new scenario (fuel).
  
• In the map editor, when setting painting tiles, the manpower value would not be directly set (only after reload of the map).
  
• Unit sleep status not being saved on turn 1 when the unit was on a VP tile.
  
• Units stats not being updated when opening a map in the map editor, which could lead to some issues down the road if you are actively modding the game.
  
• AI would deploy some of its new commanders too close to existing commanders.
  
• AI would perform unit swapping with human controlled units.
  
• Partisans spawning right after a country capitulated.
  
• Wrong deployment tooltip rule for coastal batteries.
  
• Game was not unloading from RAM mods after they were removed or deactivated. Basically, you could load the same mod 10 times and it would be loaded as new every time and the old data would not be purged. Only a game restart fixed it.
  

[h3]REMOVED[/h3]

• Mr. Hitler as a German commander.
  
• William Stevens New Zealand commander.