Hex of Steel News

Alright, I got tired to update 6.6.7's change log day and night so I'm creating a new game version haha

[h3]ADDED:[/h3]

• Added animation to XP earning (will from down to up and disappear in a fade).
  
• Added animation to ammo and fuel depletion (will disappear in a fade).
  
• Added animation to unit level up (scale from 0 to 1 and disappear in a fade).
  
• Added animation to surrendering flag (will now wave left and right).
  
• Added animation to Overrun Retreat and Surrender text (fading).
  
• Added animation to capturing a victory point (Fading and scaling).
  
• Added animation to units you can attack (bullseye).
  
• Added animation to deploying a unit (fading and scaling).
  
• UI feedback showing when a unit levels up + little animation.
  
• Engineers for the British Raj.
  
• Visual feedback on wether or not a unit's purchase limit has been reached.
  
• Stalingrad 42' custom scenario (44 x 30).
  
• 2 new achievements for completing the Stalingrad 42' custom scenario as both Axis and Allies.
  
• Added a track record of which scenarios have been completed at least 1 time (small icon will show up).
  

[h3]CHANGED:[/h3]

• Replaced 'browse saves' button in the in game load menu by a folder button icon.
  
• New Zealand light inf. graphics.
  
• USSR heavy inf. graphics.
  
• Changed bullseye image (edited it a bit to give it some volume, looks way nicer now).
  
• AIs paratroopers might not just go and get to the closest VP anymore but also help on the ground.
  
• Graphics update for the following units: Sturmpanzer II, Panzerwerfer 42, Pak-40, Marder I, Marder II, SU-85, SU-100, SU-26, SU-14, BM-13 Katyusha, 45mm M1937, SU-122, 6-pdr, 17-pdr, BA-6, BA-10, Pak 43, Pak 44, IS-2, ZiS-2, Zis-3, BM-31 Andryusha, BA-64, ISU-122, T-60, T-26, T-26 1931, T-28, T-35A.
  
• Special characters like '.' or '_' are now hidden in game from scenario's/maps names. This allow for having your map/scenario at the very top (because the file's name starts with a special character) but the players will see a normal name in game.
  
• Eastern Front 1944 balance changes.
  
• AI will play faster now (In Fast AI mode) and with less lags.
  
• No more negative amount of money. Minimum is zero.
  
• Stars '*' in city names will not be shown anymore in the city names on the map (still shown in editor though).
  
• Aspect ratio of tiles categories in map editor (bottom left).
  

[h3]FIXED:[/h3]

• One instance of AI freeze when its faction was being changed.
  
• AI targeting it's allies VPs when historical focus was turned OFF.
  
• Instance of AI leaving its victory point even when there are enemies around (paras, or tanks).
  
• Instance of AI artillery going to close contact.
  
• Research panel % research was too wide compared to the units slots.
  
• Camera follow AI will now work properly and the AI will wait until the camera is focused on its unit before it starts moving/attacking.
  
• Heavy bombers not bombing the right tiles.
  
• Issue with paratroopers that did not drop.
  
• AI units could some times retreat into enemy VP tile and get ambushed. They will avoid that now.
  
• AI freeze because of paratroopers drop.
  
• AI buying way too little fighters compared to bombers.
  
• One instance of AI unit stack/overlap (planes) !!!!!
  
• One instance of AI freeze with certain settings.
  
• AI making WAYYY too many engineers in some cases.
  
• AI would deploy barrage balloons above reinforcement tiles (useless).
  

Over 400 updates have been made (in reality way more, it's just it's only the ones that have a change log..), and it's not over just yet!
On average, that's 1 update every 3 days, NON-STOP.

[h3]ADDED[/h3]

• Poland 1939 big map 144 x 93 (no USSR).
  
• Poland 1944 big map 144 x 93 (Late war soviet winter offensive).
  
• Shock infantry for USSR (1944 and onward infantry unit).
  
• 4 new achievements for completing each new Poland scenario as both Axis/Allies.
  
• Engineers for New Zealand.
  
• You can now save changes to base game tiles in your mod(s). Meaning you can edit the tile's stats and make a mod out of it.
  
• Added double click on save to load (after 3 years, about time LOL).
  
• Added double click on map in map editor to open it.
  
• Lithuanian ANBO IV and ANBO VIII (planes).
  

[h3]CHANGED[/h3]

• Updated graphics of all tiles, I can now use compression and this allowed me to ... cut the weight of the game in half! Yoohoo! 700 MB instead of 1.3 GB
  
• AI planes will not suicide anymore by attacking things they shouldn’t (like bombing a tile that has 3 AAs around it and would destroy the AI plane).
  
• AI minors plane buying rate. They will buy more now.
  
• Trains can now go and embark/disembark in refinery tiles.
  
• Ambush during bad weather for planes have been disabled. No more ambush, planes will just blocking the way.
  
• AI if historical focus is turned ON in the settings will not use landing crafts anymore (Specific list of countries that should not be using them, example: Yugoslavia, Finland…)
  
• AI will now trigger the purchase of engineers if some of its units are blocked by a river (units cannot reach goal because of a river).
  
• Changed a bit the behaviour of anti tank and artillery units when set to defensive mode. They will not longer leave their position and break their cover, they will stay put (unless they can capture a VP or need to defend one of its VPs).
  
• AI will not buy barrage balloons if the enemy doesn't have any bomber.
  
• AI will not buy recon planes if it doesn't have air supremacy and needs to buy planes.
  
• Improved AI's planes attack behaviour (which target to choose and most importantly, which target NOT to choose).
  
• AI recon planes will try to stay off victory points to allow for bombers to do their work and be more active (not staying in one place as it could be the case before).
  
• Improved AI's artillery attack and movement behaviour, less suicidal, will stay away from the enemy but still in range.
  
• Improved AI's use of terrain features. Will try to always have the high ground or stay in forests. Tanks will try to stay in the open.
  
• Slightly improved AI's performances (CPU).
  
• Small edits to Europe 1939 and Crimea 1944.
  
• Changed weight of fighters purchases for AI (was buying more bombers than fighters). It is now even.
  
• Replaced 'open maps folder' button in quick game menu in main menu.
  
• Size indicator for each scenario, QoL.
  
• Optimized AI planes second move.
  
• AI will less rely on landing crafts and prioritize alternative land routes.
  
• Optimized AIs pathfinding performance CPU cost. Will play faster and with less lags.
  
• AIs Armoured trains will now disengage if they need to be repaired.
  
• AIs artillery will now shoot before retreating.
  

[h3]FIXED[/h3]

• Mails not being sent when playing PBEM multiplayer (or when trying to set up a new password).
  
• Entrenchment wasn’t taken into account anymore.
  
• AIs engineers not being engineers when newly bought. Behaved as regular infantry.
  
• Walther von Reichenau was a german hero (in reality he was a Field Marshal... oops).
  
• Instance of not being able to end your turn (on tutorial map as the USSR, first turn).
  
• Glitch when AI is playing at high speed and human player doesn't have quick movement, when a human unit retreats it could get stuck because AI would move its unit over it (air unit) and completely freeze the movement of the retreating ground unit underneath it. This would in the end result in an unskippable turn end.
  
• In the map editor, if a unit had a max purchase limit, if you were deleting it from the board it would not get you that unit back (+1).
  
• In the map editor, when using the 'spawn units on VPS' or similar, it would not check for max purchase limit.
  
• End of game visualisation data tanks count was wrong, it included bunkers, coastal batteries etc.
  
• Sound settings always closed themselves when closing in game menu.
  
• More stats small panel at the bottom left always closed himself after deselecting a unit.
  
• Graph bar end of game stat data visualization missing graphics (all bars).
  
• AI and engineers purchase, only purchasing if bridges were blown up and not just to cross a river.
  
• Non movable units were blinking when camera zooms out even when they attacked, but since they cannot move, they would never stop blinking.
  
• Fixed units in some cases that would get 3 action points.
  
• AI would somehow target land mines and try to move to attack them and end up stuck in one place because well you cannot attack a land mine.
  
• AI artillery or commanders would flee from the battlefield when being around a land mine (which they technically CANNOT see...).
  
• Midway campaign scenario was not finishable.
  
• Corrected city name Zielena Gora in Grünberg.
  
• Surrendering units would see their range set back to 1 (annoying for artillery..)
  

666, haha

Alright so in this version I am trying to update the version of the game engine (Unity 2021.3.0 -> Unity 2021.3.17)
Last I tested it worked on MacOS and Windows without issues, now some things might go wrong so I'm relying on your feedback on this one :)
If something seems off / is broken, please let me know so that I can either fix it if it's fixable, or simply revert to the previous branch
As always, you can always manually revert to the previous stable release!

[h3]ADDED[/h3]

• New event type: Spawn unit at turn. Instead of spawning a unit at a given date, it will be based on the turn.
  
• New setting for units in the unit editor: Max purchase amount.
  
• New setting to hide the battle preview (was asked in order to play a more hardcore version of the game, why not). Turning this setting ON will hide completely the little UI part that tells you what damage are done to each side when you hover with your mouse over an enemy.
  
• Barrage balloons for the USSR.
  
• New setting: Permanent blinking. Without this option turned ON, units will blink only when at a certain distance from the camera (units having action points left). Turn this ON and they will always blink, regardless of the distance to the camera.
  
• AI behaviour will ignore staying on trench tiles for scenarios taking place between 1914 and 1919.
  

[h3]CHANGED[/h3]

• HP modifier is now being calculated and applied BEFORE the encirclement modifier.
  
• Made the AI purchase barrage balloons more often in losing air war situations.
  
• Barrage balloons turn to produce reduced to 1 (instead of 2).
  
• Panzergrenadier stats.
  
• Volksgrenadier stats.
  
• Updated manual (political units).
  
• Inverted zoom scroll for Windows users.
  

[h3]FIXED[/h3]

• Supply units that were upgraded passed this on to the newly upgraded unit. Ex: Upgrading/Downgrading a supply plane into any other plane would make this plane a super supply bomber!
  
• Units that had no suffix even though the option was turned ON.
  
• Units' names not being updated after an upgrade (linked to the issue above).
  
• Upgrading a unit from one that had less max HP than the new one would result in the unit being upgraded not being full HP (keeping old HP).
  
• You could upgrade barrage balloons.
  
• Prices in research panel were wrong (All).
  
• Commanders not being given back when deleting them in the map editor from the deploy panel.
  

[h3]ADDED[/h3]

• New toggle in the unit editor "IsEngineers". This replaces the now deleted "Pioneer" unit type. More versatile this way, and faster in code.
  
• Added separation for counting for ships types as well (same as I did for infantry types in the latest 6.6.4).
  
• Also added a separate counter for rail artillery guns and armoured trains.
  
• Possibility to mod / change the graphics of the movement tiles. Example mod in the workshop (download it and feel free to copy it), I also added the "how to" in the README file that gets generated when you create a mod, there you will find the instructions on how to change the graphics.
  

[h3]CHANGED[/h3]

• Updated Operation Grapheshot, factories were missing.
  
• Ships for Great Britain and the USA cost 50% less manpower, this change is made to enable them to have a better / bigger fleet in scenarios where they cannot field more due to manpower shortages resulting in weak fleets (Only for the WWII period, from 1939 included to 1945 included).
  
• Reset and regenerated all units numbers on all maps.
  
• Slightly improved the generation speed of potential movement tiles.
  
• Updated manual.
  

[h3]FIXED[/h3]

• You could walk on mines from your allies and the mine would now go off, this would result in a unit overlap. You cannot walk on friendly mines anymore.
  
• Upgrading a plane without a drop tank to a plane with a drop tank would not grant you the extra fuel.
  
• Upgrade fuel issue (giving you more than you could have at your max).
  
• Ju 188 had 2 visibility and wasn't marked as a recon unit.
  
• Deploying unit was using LeftMouseButton by default and wasn't using the keybinding the user set (now is mapped to the move unit keybinding).
  
• AI freeze instance.
  
• Damage breakdown HP modifier was showing wrong values leading to some confusion. Damage dealt were right, but the breakdown for the HP modifier was wrong.
  

[h3]ADDED[/h3]

• AI income modifier in the settings (singleplayer only).
  
• Human income modifier in the settings (singleplayer only).
  
• Fast AI only for allies setting (mutually exclusive with Fast AI).
  
• New event: Add unit to reserve. Was suggested by a player and I was seduced by the idea, this way you don't bother with having to pinpoint exactly where you want the unit to appear, the AI will handle that himself.
  
• Clone/Duplicate event button. You can now duplicate events at will at the push of a button.
  
• Convert save to playable scenario button in the map editor. When you click this button, it will reset a certain amount of variables to turn a save into a brand new scenario (reset time played, turns count, alliances, wars, etc). Only resets what needs to be reseted in order to use the old save file as a new scenario.
  
• 2 new achievements for completing the tutorial (As the Axis and the Allies).
  

[h3]CHANGED[/h3]

• To unlock achievements that are scenario linked, you will need to have FOW setting ON, infinite ammo and fuel OFF, have the AI income modifier set to at least 100% and the human player's income modifier at maximum of 100%.
  
• Made Fast AI and Slow AI setting mutually exclusive (cannot have both Slow and Fast AI turned ON at the same time, turning one or the other ON will turn the other OFF).
  
• Turned the random damage modifier setting from a toggle into a slider. You can adjust the value to your liking. From 0 to 50. 0 Acts as if the option was disabled (no random damage).
  
• Follow AI moves will no longer take effect when Fast AI is ON. Nobody will throw up anymore due to high movement speed :)
  
• Semyon Timoshenko was added to the Soviet Army in Europe 1939 start.
  
• You can get supplies from airfields now. Useful when using paratroopers if you can capture an airfield, you can now establish an airlift. However, the presence of enemies in the area will diminish the supplies rate.
  
• Split several sort of infantry in their own category for the amount of units to assign suffixes. So now paratroopers will not count as regular infantry when picking the number for the unit (ex: You have 5 light infantry unit, their names go from 1st light infantry to 5th light infantry, before, if you had bought paratroopers, they would be 6th paratroopers, they will now be 1st paratroopers).
  

[h3]REMOVED[/h3]

• Framerate setting (now automatically set to your screen's refresh rate).
  
• V-Sync setting (now automatically set to false, the framerate was capped at 60 when using this setting).
  
• Anti Aliasing setting (was useless and I was unaware of it).
  

[h3]FIXED[/h3]

• Opponent's mines were visible (should have been hidden).
  
• When finishing a campaign scenario, if you had paratroopers on the ground, they would have only 4 MPs when starting the next scenario.
  
• Incorrect amount of MPs set to paratroopers when getting in a plane for the second time (7 instead of 8).
  
• Set core unit button in the store in campaign was not in the proper place.
  
• Infinite money glitch.
  
• Artillery and AA losing soft damage when switching from horse/motorize to mechanize option in the store and could reach negative values.