Hex of Steel News

7.5.1

[h3]ADDED[/h3]

First of new Fictional scenarios. People often asked for small scenarios, unfortunately, the game doesn't feature really many small scale scenarios. To solve this issue, I have started working on designing new small scale scenarios (max 30x30) to fill this gap. The downside of this is these scenarios are completely made up, they are not historical in any way, they are fictional.
From the map editor, you can now control the amount of entrenchment for any given unit on the map.
Oerlikon 20mm to Switzerland.

[h3]CHANGED[/h3]

Multiplayer compatibility -> 7.5.1.
Screen resolution setting. Instead of displaying a list of pre chosen (by me) resolutions, now the game will automatically generate the list of all resolutions supported by your screen. This is better since I could not keep track of all resolutions used by all screens in the world, and this will also help unclutter the dropdown since you will be shown only useful information.
In the map editor, the HP modifier for unit on scenario start is now properly indicated as a %.
The weather icon in the game's UI now only indicate the current turn weather, instead of the prediction for next turn. If you want the forecast, you now have to place you mouse directly over the icon to get the full forecast.
Many, many campaign scenarios rebalanced. and updated.
In the map editor, for the 'Spawn unit' or 'Add unit to reserve' event action, you now have full access to the units store to pick what unit you want to be spawned (previously you only could pick a country and a name, now you have full customization available).
Sleep state data of units turned into a more data friendly format, unfortunately this results in a complete loss of original data upon loading your save, so for one turn you will have to set them again.
AI will now properly flank when its path is blocked by enemies or friendlies and an alternative path is available.
Commanders and recon bonus now is scaled with HP of the unit receiving the damage bonus. So, if your unit is at 10% HP, it will be getting the bonus scaled by HP amount.
Supply routes going through enemy territory will be applied a great penalty.
The game will now look for all folders and files inside the local Maps folder. This means that if you are working on some campaign, you may now create a dedicated folder for it. The game will recreate the hierarchy in the standalone scenarios UI.

[h3]FIXED[/h3]

Potential AI freeze.
Tile info UI lying to you when you picked the 'Minimized destruction' policy. It would show you a constant +50% income although it was not applied (even on not destroyed tiles).
AI units would try to move (and run the calculations algorithm) even though they could not (action points = 0, because they repaired during the turn). Small (?) waste of performances.
Supply route could move through territories that was not allied or at war with the player (example, German's supply routes going through Switzerland).
AI would deploy buildables in enemy victory points. Leading to impossibility to capture it.
KV-8S did not have the 'has flamethrower' property.
T-40 was missing the 'amphibious' property.

7.5.0

All current saves remain compatible with the new system, you have nothing to worry about, you can just keep playing, everything is automatically converted, as always :)

[h3]ADDED[/h3]

-15% damage penalty during bad weather (for all units), except for planes if the All Weather Policy is enabled.
Weather forecast system.
Possibility to edit the weather table of any scenario using the map editor (forecast accuracy, accuracy loss, how many turns in the future, and percentage of bad weather for every month).
Translation of the game in Turkish.
Tooltip over date indicating game's speed (how many days per turn).
Upkeep cost of units in the tooltip in the research menu.
Occupied area shown through the political map.
Map editor new event trigger settings: Don't trigger before date/turn.

[h3]CHANGED[/h3]

Multiplayer compatibility -> 7.5.0.
Reworked the weather system from the ground up. The new system now makes more sense, and is more accurate as a whole. The percentage of bad weather is now applied to the whole month, and no longer to every single turn. It also scales to the speed at which days go by.
Confirmation windows now have a black background and will prevent any interaction until the choice has been made.
AI order of playing its units changed a little, now, on top of being played in the order it currently is played, it will also be playing its wounded units first. This should have for effect to unclutter the front with wounded units, and to have fresh troops going to the front right away instead of having fresh troops behind waiting for nothing by playing before the wounded ones first. Hope that made sense :)
Another AI movement/positioning change, it will now move weak units right after they play, instead of waiting a full 1/2 turn. This will free space for stronger units as well, instead of them staying behind and waiting for their turn. Basically, AI is doing something close to swapping now.
Rebalance of several scenarios to make them playable with upkeep + manpower.
Military tactics damage bonus is now scaled with unit's HP. So when the unit is down to 10 HP, it will get 10% of those 30% damage bonus instead of getting the full 30% on base damage resulting in very crazy damage values (too high for the HP value of the unit).

[h3]FIXED[/h3]

One instance of AI unit stacking (due to destroyed bridges).
Another instance of AI unit stacking (due to overrun setting + Fast AI setting).
In some cases, tile data could not be updated when snow fell/melted.
Pz 38t(e) had too high armour.
Winter doctrine increased cost of commanders although they automatically get the winter equipment option from the store.

7.4.3

[h3]ADDED[/h3]

2 new river / bridge crossing (vertical river with bridge crossing going from left to right up / down). Comes for all biomes (Summer, Winter, Desert) with their destroyed versions.
1 new road crossing (4 directions) for all biomes (Summer, Winter, Desert).
Courland '44 standalone scenario (Which was made live on Youtube).
Per player introduction - Victory - Defeat text in the map editor. A new dropdown has been added in the text windows to let you choose who will see what text. If no player is set, then it will be shown for everyone (default behaviour).
Color indicator to the two units indicator to know at a glance if the unit above/beneath is an ally, your own, or an enemy.

[h3]CHANGED[/h3]

AI engagement rules when defending a VP.
Capping AI planes purchases to be 1:3 ratio with ground units (active, units in VPs don't count, units taken into account are: Infantry, Tanks, Artillery, Ships). It still has the 'air supremacy race' going on, so, if the AI is seeing more enemy planes than his, then the cap will be bypassed and he will try to match the enemy's airforce.
Morale will now be capped based on the unit's current health. Badly damaged units will not be able to have good morale.
Rebalanced Khalkin Gol for the Axis (Campaign).
Minor UI improvements to briefing + victory + defeat text edition elements.
Rebalanced Siege of Sevastopol for the Axis (Campaign).
Some british artillery guns had wrong damage stats.
Some british artillery guns graphics.

[h3]FIXED[/h3]

Paratroopers could not longer blow up bridges.
Toggles in map editor did not have the same style.
Artillery price update did not impact 30+ damage arty.
Veteran star icon was shown in the reserve UI.
AI placing down many launch sites next to each other (too close).
Potential modding issues with units sound modding.
Two railroad bridge tiles graphics had railroads going over trees.
Soviet light bombers ammo stat.
Greek recon planes had only 1 visibility range.
Coastal battery took retaliation fire.
Camouflage policy gave +30% damage in all situations (broken).

7.4.2

[h3]ADDED[/h3]

Several new tile variants for railroads (intersections with roads and intersections with railroads).
Courland '44 standalone scenario (Which was made live on Youtube).

[h3]CHANGED[/h3]

Multiplayer compatibility --> 7.4.2.
AI engagement rules when defending a VP.
Capping AI planes purchases to be 1:3 ratio with ground units (active, units in VPs don't count, units taken into account are: Infantry, Tanks, Artillery, Ships). It still has the 'air supremacy race' going on, so, if the AI is seeing more enemy planes than his, then the cap will be bypassed and he will try to match the enemy's airforce.

[h3]FIXED[/h3]

Railroads were not providing a 0% penalty for supplies. They will now be used more often, as it is 'free of cost' to move supplies across railroads.
'Repeated attacks' setting not working properly.
Paratroopers could not longer blow up bridges.
Toggles in map editor did not have the same style.
Artillery price update did not impact 30+ damage arty.
Veteran star icon was shown in the reserve UI.

7.4.1

[h3]ADDED[/h3]

New policy: Mutual Support Pact - Deployment of units in allied territory is possible.
New policy: Strategic Flexibility - Get back 30% of spent HQ points after unselecting a policy.
New optional setting: Damage reduction over attack frequency. Since the poll for that new combat change was not unanimous AT ALL (50/50), I have no choice but to add this as an optional setting. It applies to both artillery, and planes. The damage penalty is 15% per unit attack on a same target.

[h3]CHANGED[/h3]

Multiplayer compatibility --> 7.4.1.
Policies effects changes: Superior Bombing Protection (upkeep for AA units doubled). Winter Equipment (+5% unit purchase costs).
Artillery cost a little, more expensive.
Bunker unit graphics.
Changed french 75mm short barrel arty to be 1 range instead of 3.
On paratrooper drop, instead of checking for direct adjacent neighbours, the game will now check a 10 tiles radius around the paratrooper drop (this won't affect the base game, the change was made for mods which uses rocket AA for modern conflicts which have a range > 1).

[h3]FIXED[/h3]

Entrenchment now being added every turn for all land units.
Wrong notification text generated when a city VP was captured but the city tile had no name assigned.
Drawings would not be displayed in multiplayer for your allies (Keep in mind they can only be erased by the player who drew them).
Camera would no longer follow the moves of units in real time multiplayer.
Early winter war initiated by USSR would still have Finland being thrown in its own faction and would result in forced redeployment of troops that were in enemy territory. Same thing about the Baltic States.
Some soviet light bombers had the wrong max ammo count.
When units (human controlled) were out of supplies (red/yellow icons) and auto supplies was ON, on the next turn the icons would still remain until the player selected the unit which forced a refresh of the counter.
20 extra HP gain when veteran unit is deployed and attacking for the first time.