Darkest Hour: Europe '44-'45 News

This update brings a number of quality of life changes to the squad system that have been requested by the community (and devs!) for a while. We've also snuck in some map fixes and some tweaks to the vehicles.

• The squad panels in the UI are now colored differently depending on whether or not you are a part of the squad.
  
• While in a squad, you can now join another squad directly without needing to explicitly leave your existing squad, preserving any squad-only role you might have.
  
• Squad Assistants are no longer immediately promoted to be squad leader after the squad leader leaves.
  
• Squad Leader promotions are now prompts that must be accepted by the player being promoted (this stops malicious or careless squad leaders from bumping players off of their roles).
  
• A "no rally points" icon (i.e. mark of shame) is now displayed on the squad menu next to the names of squads who have not had a rally point for 60 seconds. This should help unassigned players choose an appropriate squad to join.
  

[h2]Hedgerow Hell[/h2]

• Added new initial Axis main spawn.
  
• Streamlined design of final Axis main spawn to make it easier to navigate.
  
• Fixed a number of anomalous invisible walls.
  
• All objectives now require 2 or 3 players to capture.
  
• Reworked Bridge Defences capture area to include the nearby house (this should make the objective more defensible).
  
• Reduced Allied artillery strikes from 12 to 8.
  
• Increased Axis artillery cooldown from 15 seconds to 1 minute.
  

[h2]Godolloi[/h2]

• Increased lockdown timers on all objectives.
  
• Slightly decreased the capture speed of all objectives.
  

[h2]Champs d'Agonie[/h2]

• Fixed a bug where capture notifications wouldn't play when objectives were secured.
  
• Scaled back German anti-precap minefields across the board (they are still present but less oppressive than before).
  

[h2]Les Champs de Losque[/h2]

• Removed "fake" supply cache props.
  
• Replaced weapon props with real weapon pick-ups.
  

[h2]Vehicles[/h2]

• The M93 (76mm HVAP) projectile (found on the M18 Hellcat, M4A176W Sherman and M10 Wolverine) has had it's penetration capabilities increased to match contemporary penetration tables.
  
• APCs are now vulnerable to catching fire.
  
• APCs now have fuel tank hit points.
  
• Reworked Universal Carrier damage model to be consistent with other APCs (i.e., invulnerable to small arms, reduced resistance to penetrating shots)
  
• Added "tank steering" to the Sd.Kfz. 251, allowing the vehicle to make tight turns while nearly stationary.
  
• Added hit point for turret ammunition on the M16 Halftrack.
  
• Increased the likelihood of the ammunition detonating on the Sd.Kfz. 251/22 (Pakwagen) & Sd.Kfz 251/9 (Stummel) when hit with a penetrating shot.
  
• The Sd.Kfz. 234/1 now gets 2 magazines of APCR rounds. These rounds have a much higher penetration than the AP.
  
• Increased the damage and damage radius of the 20mm high-explosive round (found on the Sd.Kfz. 234/1, Wirbelwind etc.)
  

See you on the battlefield,
Darklight Games

As you have probably heard, Sicily will be coming to Darkest Hour in 2023!

This means a brand new Italian faction 🇮🇹 , new maps , weapons , vehicles and more!

We have put together a little teaser to get everyone HYPE! This will be the largest update to DH in years, and our team is hard at work to bring everything together. We look forward to hitting the shores of Sicily with you later this year!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

See you on the battlefield,
Darklight Games 🕸️

P.S. If you want to keep up to date on the team's progress, over on Patreon we are giving our patrons regular updates and exclusive content like Italy playtest highlight reels and more!

• Fixed an oversight where German machine-gunners would not have gloves on in first person.
  
• Fixed a visual bug where a floating bullet could be seen after picking up a DP-27 off the ground.
  
• Fixed an exploit where artillery could be spotted beyond the fog distance and on the ceiling of the world.
  

• Canceling a long-range artillery strike that hasn't yet started will no longer consume the strike (i.e., the strike is refunded and can be used at a later time).
  
• Increased the number of projectiles in canister shots from 20 to 50.
  
• Made standing recoil while hipfiring the MG42 and M1919A6 more consistent.
  

[h2]Fury Clash[/h2]

• Increased most objective lock timers from 5 to 10 minutes.
  
• Added more minefield protection volumes.
  

[h2]Rhine River Advance[/h2]

• Fixed doors on a few buildings preventing players from entering.
  
• Fixed bugged lighting on windmill mover.
  
• Fixed missing staircase in Honopel objective building.
  
• Fixed floating tree statics in the forest between Honopel and Refuel Area.
  
• Fixed bug with the fog ring causing some objects to pop rather than fade in and out of view.
  
• Removed M45 Quadmount construction from Allies.
  
• Reduced view distance by about 75 meters to improve performance.
  
• Reduced culling distance on static trees by about 40 meters to improve performance.
  
• Removed ineffective anti-portals from the level to improve performance.
  
• Added or optimized existing BSP netcuts to improve network performance.
  

[h2]Targnon Advance[/h2]

• Improved capture volume for AT Gun Position objective and reduced player requirement from 5 to 3.
  
• Increased respawn timer for US M4A375W Sherman tank from 60 to 90 seconds.
  

• Fixed a long-standing RO bug where the player's eye-height could de-sync after rapidly transitioning from standing to crouching and then to prone.
  
• Fixed a bug where the max vehicle counter would not be dynamically updated, resulting in strange behavior on the vehicle selection UI.
  
• Fixed a bug where Vehicle Pools would not be automatically destroyed if a recently spawned vehicle was spawn-killed.
  
• Fixed a bug where the `GiveCamera` command was available to all players, even in multi-player.
  

• The reload duration of Soviet DP-27 coaxial and hull machine-gun has been slightly reduced.
  

As you probably well know, DH has a dizzying amount of maps; and not every map is created equal. It is necessary to occasionally trim the fat so that the players don't need to be stuck with low quality maps, and developers do not have to spend time maintaining maps that no one cares about.

A map is slated for removal if a map is some combination of: rarely played, unpopular, outdated or redundant.

As such, this update sees the removal of a number of maps:

• Armored Debrecen Clash
  
• Armored Hunter's Woods Clash
  
• Armored Kommerscheidt Clash
  
• Armored Mannikkala Clash
  
• Armored Orel Clash
  
• Armored Panzerschlact Clash
  
• Armored Studzianki Clash
  
• Armored Tank Clash At Bastogne Advance
  
• Ginkel Health Push
  
• Jurques Clash
  
• Kriegstadt Push
  
• Merderet Advance
  

See you on the battlefield,
Darklight Games

• Fixed a long-standing RO bug where the player's eye-height could de-sync after rapidly transitioning from standing to crouching and then to prone.
  
• Fixed a bug where the max vehicle counter would not be dynamically updated, resulting in strange behavior on the vehicle selection UI.
  
• Fixed a bug where Vehicle Pools would not be automatically destroyed if a recently spawned vehicle was spawn-killed.
  
• Fixed a bug where the `GiveCamera` command was available to all players, even in multi-player.
  

• The duration of Soviet DP-27 coaxial and hull machine-guns has been slightly reduced.
  

As you probably well know, DH has a dizzying amount of maps; and not every map is created equal. It is necessary to occasionally trim the fat so that the players don't need to be stuck with low quality maps, and developers do not have to spend time maintaining maps that no one cares about.

A map is slated for removal if a map is some combination of: rarely played, unpopular, outdated or redundant.

As such, this update sees the removal of a number of maps:

• Armored Debrecen Clash
  
• Armored Hunter's Woods Clash
  
• Armored Kommerscheidt Clash
  
• Armored Mannikkala Clash
  
• Armored Orel Clash
  
• Armored Panzerschlact Clash
  
• Armored Studzianki Clash
  
• Armored Tank Clash At Bastogne Advance
  
• Ginkel Health Push
  
• Jurques Clash
  
• Kriegstadt Push
  
• Merderet Advance
  

See you on the battlefield,
Darklight Games