Darkest Hour: Europe '44-'45 News

Join us this weekend for the annual Halloween celebration!

While our development team is busy polishing the upcoming Sicily release, back on the mainland the dead have risen once again and it's up to you to pound them back into the ground... or join the horde yourself.

This weekend Haunted maps are returning back to the roster featuring a few touch ups, a new melee weapon, and a new character with an exquisite taste in headwear and a penchant for stabbing things with broken glass bottles.

Make sure to visit Official Server #3 EU at 6:00 PM UTC this Sunday, October 27 for the Halloween map marathon.



[h3]Returning maps[/h3]

• Haunted Pariserplatz Survival
  
• Haunted Flugplatz Survival
  
• Haunted Inferno Verde Survival
  
• Haunted Hattert Clash
  
• Haunted Fury Advance

[h3]New updates[/h3]

• Mad Man role. He's faster, stronger, and more resilient survivor with a focus on melee.
  
• A new melee weapon: Glass Bottle.
  
• Reworked first person animations for maces.

[h3]Other non-Halloween additions[/h3]

• Gorlitz Defence been added to the map roster. Apart from the change of the game mode, this new rendition of the classic map now features Poland (LWP).

See you on the battlefield,
Darklight Games

After a short absence, we're back with a new update. This time a smaller one, but featuring a new armored map, a reworked infantry map and fixes for some long outstanding bugs.



[h2]Armored Yaryshivka[/h2]
Yaryshivka is a new armored map set in Ukraine at the end of the Donets Offensive of spring 1943.


The wide open steppes of eastern Ukraine make ideal hunting grounds for the Tiger tanks of the Panzergrenadier Division "Großdeutschland". The Soviets will have to use speed and cunning to outmanuever the heavy German armor and take command of the battlefield in this chaotic domination-style map.
[h2]Reichswald[/h2]
On the infantry side of things, Reichswald has been reworked to better suit the Advance game mode and has received a much needed facelift to go with it. This classic map now has new forests, widened map boundaries, reworked objectives and an overall snowier aesthetic. Set in its namesake forest during Operation Veritable, Reichswald sees Commonwealth forces facing off against German Fallschirmjäger in the early spring of 1945.


As a side note, this overhaul was made entirely in Blender using our new "BDK" tool for map development which will finally see public release later this month!
[h2]Changes[/h2]
[h3]Black Day July[/h3]

• Fixed some minor historical inaccuracies in roles.
  
• Moved Allied setup phase boundary back to prevent potential spawnkilling issues.
  
• Adjusted vehicle respawn timers to be more in line with other maps.
  

[h3]Cheneux[/h3]

• Reworked the From Rahier, Farm and Crossroads objectives.
  
• Increased all Allied objective lockdown timers by 80 seconds.
  
• Added a static radio in Allied main spawn.
  
• Added some additional cover in the fields around the Farm objective.
  
• Reduced Axis StG44 availability significantly: Corporal can now only choose between G41 and G43, rather than G43 and StG. Axis Assault Trooper roles were reduced from 5 to 3.
  

[h3]Dog Green[/h3]

• Removed time gain award from all objectives and instead set the map to a static 25 minute round timer.
  

[h3]Grain Elevator[/h3]

• Added a new objective.
  
• Removed ticket bleed from the German team.
  
• Significantly increased starting tickets for the German team.
  

[h3]Mahknovo[/h3]

• Removed a fence panel behind the Post Office objective to allow easier access to the objective.
  

[h2]Editor Click Delay[/h2]
While not an issue that affects most players, for those who have ever tried using the Red Orchestra SDK, you're likely aware of a long outstanding issue where selecting actors, objects, surfaces, etc. would cause the tool to become unresponsive for a short period of time (5-10 seconds or more). While there were some workarounds for this behavior in the past, nothing could actually fix the issue and over the years it became an increasingly major roadblock to DH map development.

Finally, however, at long last and with a huge thanks to developer Metallicafan212, the RO editor has been fixed and now functions more or less as intended.

[h2]Mortar Animation Bug Fix[/h2]
Eagle-eyed observers probably noticed that the mortar operator could have a full-body seizure when firing the mortar shell. The cause of this was eventually traced to an obscure animation bug in the engine, and the issue has finally been fixed!
[h2]Inconsistencies Between Turret and Hull Schürzen[/h2]

• Turret Schürzen now provides protection against AP bullets (PTRD) and HE shells under 8.5cm in caliber.
  
• Turret Schürzen now only defeats HEAT projectiles if the angle of incidence is over 45 degrees.
  
• Added protection to the rear of turrets where appropriate (mid to late-war Panzer IV and Panzer III models). Previously skirts on the rear of these vehicles was purely cosmestic and offered no benefits.
  

Soldiers of the US 1st Infantry Division storm the beaches of Gela, 1943.

The Italy update is progressing steadily and we've hit a number of key milestones recently:

• All new player models have been completed.
  
• All new vehicle models & animations have been completed.
  
• New maps are being finalized and polished after a number of successful internal playtests.
  
• Italian voice lines have been recorded, edited and completed. You can hear a sample of some of the voice lines below!
  

There is still plenty left to do of course, but we are feeling on track to comfortably get the update finally released before the end of the year.

We know it's been a very long wait, but we know it will be worth it. The quality of the content going into this update is head and shoulders above anything in the game thus far. As we get closer to release, we will be revealing in detail what is coming in the update including the vehicle line-up, map line-up and a bit of a deep dive into some development "tales-from-the-trenches", explaining some of the new systems that were developed for this update and technologies that will help sustain the game into the future.

The gunner of the Semovente 47/32 is fully animated cranking the yaw wheel in multiple positions.

A reminder also that donations are always welcome on our Patreon! Community donations help us keep the game servers and our development infrastructure funded.

See you on the battlefield,
Darklight Games

Happy Spring everyone!

We're back with another toy for you to play with, along with some map updates!






Select Fallscirmjägergewehr sniper troops will now have access to the ZF42 scope attachment for the FG42. Needless to say, a fully automatic scoped rifle on a bipod will be a force to be reckoned with.

This can be found as a sniper option for Fallscirmjägergewehr troops on the following maps:

• Les Champs de Losque
  
• Stoumont
  
• Dead Man's Corner
  
• Carentan Causeway
  

It has also been added to the following map as a in-world pickup:

• Flakturm Tiergarten
  

Happy hunting!

Developer's Note: This is the first weapon in the game to have both a bipod and a scope!

[h2]Dzerzhinsky Tractor Factory[/h2]

The tractor factory map has been drastically reworked, with a focus on providing more interesting areas to fight in and around, as well as widening the map to allow for more flanking opportunities.

• Reworked Axis spawn.
  
• Added second street at the beginning of the map
  
• Detailed and expanded the courtyard/park
  
• Detailed the original street around the first objective.
  
• Added new building Apartment 5031 which serves as a new initial objective, grouped with reworked building Logistics Bureau.
  
• Added new buildings across the map, replacing many old static models with new ones.
  
• Significantly improved terrain detail with new textures and decolayers.
  
• Reworked South and West Commons locations with new trenchworks and dugouts.
  
• Reworked Administration Building and added new rooms and details.
  
• General detail pass across the map to increase visual fidelity and improve gameplay.
  
• Reworked objective layout and added 3 new objectives.
  

A large thanks to community leveler "$oul$eek" for his work on this map!
[h2]La Cambe[/h2]

• Fixed floating props at the Trenches objective.
  

[h2]Olkhovatka[/h2]

• Improved lighting.
  
• Added some additional statics around the map for more cover.
  
• Removed ticket bleed from Axis.
  
• Removed ticket capture bonus from taking the first objective to compensate for removal of ticket bleed.
  
• Reduced number of tanker roles on both teams to match the number of max tanks.
  
• Reworked tank loadouts:
  
• Increased Sovet max active tanks from 2 to 3.
  
• Increased KV1-E max spawns from 2 to 5.
  
• Removed the Panzer IVs.
  
• Increased the max active Tigers from 1 to 2.
  
• Increased the max spawns of the Tiger from 3 to 6.
  
• This rework is based on the actual units present in the battle (Olkhovatka was mainly a Tiger battle, with support from StuGs, StuHs and Panzer IIIN).
  

[h2]Ten Aard[/h2]

• The far east broken bridge is no longer passable by infantry. This was basically the case before, but it would allow you to pass to the other side, but then be stuck inside a minefield from which there was no escape.
  

[h2]Italy Update[/h2]

The Italy update is chugging along!

There's still lots of work to be done, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and we are entering the final stretch phase. We obviously can't put a date on it yet, but we're as close as we've ever been. ;)

Very excitingly, we have also hired a professional Italian voice actor to provide authentic Italian voice lines, and the recording session will be this coming week!

In the meantime, here's a couple of nice WIP shots from one of our new vehicles, the Fiat L6/40.



See you on the battlefield,

Darklight Games

• Fixed a bug where players movement would be hobbled after going from prone to standing when holding the ZB-30.
  
• Fixed missing sleeve textures for some Soviet Rifleman roles.
  

• Fire and Move signals have had a number of changes to address exploits and usability:
  
• The signal transparency is now smoothly modulated based on timing & the viewing angle.
  
• The duration of signals has been reduced from 15 seconds to 10 seconds.
  
• Signals will now be fully transparent if the player's viewing angle is within 2 degrees of the signal.
  
• The signal recipient radius has been reduced from 50 meters to 25 meters.
  

[h2]Pegasus Bridge[/h2]

• Fixed a Danger Zone issue that could allow Allied squad leaders to rally on the German side of the bridge solo.
  
• Fixed an issue with the recapture behaviors of the Town Hall and Corner House objectives.
  

[h2]Maupertus Advance[/h2]

• Increased Axis tickets slightly.
  

[h2]Armored Vieux[/h2]

• Removed NW Farm cap.
  
• Tank balance changed.
  
• Fixed some floaters.
  
• Re-designed last cap.
  
• Added progressive spawns for both teams.
  

[h2]Armored Gran[/h2]

• Added Sherman M4A3E8 for Allies and an extra Panther for Axis.
  
• Fixed Pak43 that were leaning to the side because of bad placement.
  
• Rebalanced some roles.
  
• Reduced +30% ratio to +5% as this had greatly imbalanced the map.
  

[h2]Armored La Champagne Advance[/h2]

• This map makes a return!
  

See you on the battlefield,
Darklight Games

Hello there! We're back with another small patch that introduces a number of bug fixes and level tweaks. If you ever noticed your turret sometimes rotating on its own when entering a tank, this old Red Orchestra bug is finally gone!

But before we dive into the changelog, there's something we need to address.



During the past week you might've experienced frequent disconnects with a Connection Failed error from both official and community servers. We're currently looking into this and contacted Valve, as we suspect this is caused by authentication issues with Steam.

In the meantime, just reconnect if it happens and there won't be any more disconnections for the rest of the session.

Now back to the patch notes.

• Fixed a bug where turrets and cannons would spontaneously rotate on entering them if they were used by another player earlier.
  
• Fixed a bug where players who disconnected from the game as spectator would be automatically assigned to the Axis upon rejoining.
  
• Fixed an exploit where it was possible to place constructions in invalid locations by switching to a smaller construction in the menu during the placement process.
  
• Fixed a bug where active objective spawns could be calculated incorrectly when the objective was linked to multiple active objectives.
  
• [Server maintenance] Fixed a number of errors that would spam the server logs.
  

• Slightly increased the BT-7 HE shell velocity (it was about ~10m/s slower than it should have been, according to sources).
  

[h3]Butovo[/h3]

• Changed blocking boundaries in setup phase to delay Soviet tanks at the first objective.
  
• Reworked tank progression (Soviets will have fewer tanks at the final village, while some other Soviet models like the KV-1E and S will unlock earlier in the game).
  
• Added the Panzer IIIN as an additional fire support option for the Germans.
  
• Increased respawn timers on most Soviet tanks by 20-30 seconds.
  
• Removed Soviet objective spawn from the final village.
  
• Reworked objective Danger Zone influences around the final village.
  

[h3]Klin 1941[/h3]

• Removed Axis ticket bleed from all objectives.
  
• Increased max active Panzer IIIJs from 2 to 3.
  
• Reduced respawn timers for Panzer IVF1 and BT7 tanks by 20-40 seconds.
  
• Reworked all objective Danger Zone influences.
  
• Reduced Axis and Allied tanker slots to match number of active tanks.
  

[h3]Kryuokovo[/h3]

• Changed round time to 20 minutes.
  
• Removed time gain awards from capturing objectives.
  
• Reduced simultaneously available Soviet tanks from 2 to 1.
  
• Reduced respawn timers on all Soviet tanks by 30 seconds.
  
• Changed team balance ratio to be even.
  
• Added additional cover and spawn protection to final Axis spawn.
  

[h3]St. Marie du Mont[/h3]

• Reworked NW, Eastern Road and Church objectives to unlock in a new order: Now when either road is taken, the Church will be unlocked and is grouped with them.
  
• Increased lockdown timers for the above objectives from 250 to 600 seconds.
  
• Reduced initial unlock timer for the Church to 60 seconds.
  
• Removed map-placed Axis HQ construction.
  
• Reworked all objective Danger Zone influences.
  
• Removed Allied ticket bleed from all objectives.
  
• Updated objective spawn locations to offer better cover.
  

See you on the battlefield,
Darklight Games