Hex of Steel News

[h3]ADDED[/h3]

• Mountain tile now got a summer version (without the snow).
  

[h3]CHANGED[/h3]

• Huge amount of campaign scenarios updated to support both manpower + upkeep settings, as well as general balance. Actually, I think I finished revamping all 'Western' scenarios, all that's left to update now would be the Pacific ones.
  
• You now can (as a Neutral) send units to other players.
  
• AI will no longer purchase drop tank for its planes on small scale scenarios (waste of money).
  
• Extra recruitment time for: Political units (SS/Guards), Mech. / Mot. options.
  
• Updated manual (including new manpower section).
  
• The way the improved AP shells policy bonus is calculated. Now more efficient.
  

[h3]FIXED[/h3]

• AI would deploy anti tank obstacles in victory points.
  
• AI could waste its movement if it could kill a unit that was on an adjacent tile to him.
  
• Europe 1939, Italy should have owned Rijeka and Zadar (Balkans/Yugoslavia).
  
• AI engineers moving out from rivers when they should have stayed to help allies cross.
  
• AI not using pontoon bridges or engineers to cross rivers.
  
• When purchasing new units while the reserve panel was open, it would not refresh its content.
  
• If the unit you have selected was taking supportive fire, its stats would not be refreshed (selected unit stats shown on UI).
  
• More research points policy was broken, upon losing the policy, the extra research points would not be removed.
  
• UI size issue with transfer panel (cumbersome and couldn't always display all of the needed information).
  
• AI would often waste artillery attacks by moving more than 1 tile when it could have moved just 1. It will now move only 1 tile if it doesn't need to move closer to be able to fire at the enemy.
  
• ZiS-3 had too high stats.
  
• UI volume slider in game would not be set to its actual value when opening the UI.
  
• Your own armour obstacle would prevent your own armoured vehicles to move on the tile.
  
• When having the possibility to kill more than 1 unit, AIs bombers would not prioritize destroying the most valuable target.
  
• AI would place down many launch sites near each other (too close to really be worth it).
  
• Stalingrad 1942 standalone scenario would never end.
  
• Reaching max commander rank in campaign (20) was impossible. Therefore unlocking the associated achievement was impossible too.
  
• In map editor "hold VP" button would not properly work when setting the tile for a member of the Comintern faction (would work fine for Axis and Allies though).
  
• When a unit was granted a hero which provided a +1 visibility bonus, it would actually act as +2 visibility.
  
• When AI attacked with coastal batteries, it would trigger supportive fire from artillery.
  
• Some units stats inconsistencies.
  
• Railroad issue in Northern Russia on Europe scenario.
  

Hey everyone!

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For those who haven't yet jumped into the action, Hex of Steel is a strategic WW2 wargame that puts you in the commander's seat. With a massive sandbox environment and yet a historical focus, you can rewrite history or follow in the footsteps of the greatest generals of the era (I mean, blunders can happen too).

The sale starts today and will run until next week. So rally your troops and prepare your best strategies – the battlefield awaits!

Catch you on the front lines,

Val

[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.
  

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.
  

[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).