Armoured Commander II News

I've recorded (with the help of a veteran player and contributor) a new quickstart video outlining the first steps in learning the game, available on my YouTube channel and embedded here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr-ovDVhHSo

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

ADD: 18 Days' Campaign (Belgium) and Belgian units by cjprince
ADD: Game setting to disable main menu music
ADD: Display of XP needed for crewman to advance to next level
ADD: Display of HD save odds

CNG: Modified procedure for handling Player Commander heading to the field hospital, now possible that tank and crew are lost if player stays in hospital until the end of a campaign
CNG: Updated glyph sets and portraits by cjprince
CNG: Commands that are currently not allowed due to hatch status are included in list but warning is displayed and will default to 'Spot' if selected

FIX: Crash when Player Commander dies and player unit withdraws from battle in the same turn
FIX: Crewmen who are sent to the field hospital without bailing out of the tank now have their current position correctly cleared

This is a medium-sized update bringing new campaigns, additions, and fixes. Campaigns saved in the previous 8.1.x versions are still compatible with this update. Full changelog follows:


ADD: Maczek's Best (late-war Polish campaign), Leclerc's Best (late-war Free French campaign)
ADD: 13 new Steam achievements for the Clubs suit, mainly having to do with destroying things
ADD: Minor changes to campaign selection screen
ADD: New sound effects, including movement sounds for Medium and Heavy tanks
ADD: Units that start a scenario in friendly territory are now more likely to start Hull Down toward their hull's facing direction
ADD: All possible campaign awards and their required VP scores are now displayed in the final report
ADD: Smoke mortars to most Valentine and Crusader tanks
ADD: Radio Operator skill: Good Comms
ADD: Acclimatized and Acclimatized (Nordic) as campaign skills for Finnish campaigns
ADD: Additional check in case the campaign calendar ends up with two or more refitting days at the end of the calendar

CNG: Overrun bonus now also applies to Gun weapons
CNG: Reduced effect of weather conditions on artillery spotting chance
CNG: No longer possible to target allies in same map hex
CNG: Only the maximum extra time required for any active support request will now be applied to required movement time on the Campaign Day map
CNG: Minor changes to travel time on the Campaign Day map
CNG: Removed 15-minute time passing at start of Scenarios
CNG: If Player Commander is KIA during bail-out, the bail-out procedure ends immediately

FIX: T-34-57 now has a Restricted turret
FIX: If the Player Commander spent time in the field hospital, other crewmen who were released earlier from the field hospital would just disappear
FIX: Unjamming AA MGs was not being handled properly in vehicles with a RST
FIX: Objectives will no longer be placed in locations where if the player were to move there, a map area shift would end up pushing the objective off the map anyway
FIX: Surnames with a space in them (eg. St Pierre) now displayed properly with first-name initial
FIX: Rare crash in DisplayUnitInfo
FIX: Bug where some pop-up messages could be displayed too far to the right in fullscreen mode
FIX: Rare crash when player commander was sent to the field hospital near the end of a campaign
FIX: Typo in Baytown to the Winter Line (Germany) campaign that could lead to crashes

Today marks one year since Armoured Commander II launched on Steam Early Access. The game has developed so much since then, mainly thanks to the help of the enthusiastic and dedicated players. We now have 580 unit types in the game, and 44 campaigns to choose from, covering all periods and most of the major theatres of the war. There are also some exciting player mods in development. If you want to hear and see more about these, join our Discord server, the link for which is pinned in the Steam discussion board.

At present I am working on a medium-sized update, which will bring new fixes and content. I am still on track to complete the core game by the end of summer 2021, at which time the game will leave Early Access. Even after that, however, I intend on continuing to expand its content and scope. All future additions to the game will be free to everyone who owns the game. My thanks again to everyone who helped the game get this far!

Lots of minor additions, changes, and fixes in this update, most of which were already live through hotfixes to 8.1.9, but I thought that I should make sure to announce all of them in one place. Many thanks to the players on the Discord who contributed most of these bug reports and suggestions. Changelog follows:



ADD: Some tanks now have shoulder stabilizers for their guns, which slightly reduces the penalty to hit after moving
ADD: Area fire (MGs, light weapons) are now affected by precipitation effects at ranges of 3 hexes and up
ADD: Direct Movement command now gives a bonus when tyring to move into a particular type of terrain
ADD: Campaign name to final report display
ADD: Belgian and Republic of China nation definitions (not used yet)
ADD: Mountain Pass zones can now be captured
ADD: Additional bonus to fatigue loss when player unit moves into or waits within an Oasis zone
ADD: Display of Random Event phase in the Scenario layer
ADD: If player requests unit support, moves into a new hex, meets no resistance but is then attacked, they still get a chance at getting that unit support
ADD: Minor additional sound effects

CNG: Update to game font and unit portraits (thanks as always to cjprince)
CNG: Clarified wording of message when a crewman becomes Shaken as a result of losing a squadmate
CNG: Crew chatter now always appears near top of screen, as if it's coming out of the player's tank, added crew name to pop-up display
CNG: If a unit pivots, any movement bonus from previous moves is cleared
CNG: W/S keys are now used for managing the Ready Rack in the Campaign Day layer

FIX: Longstanding bug where allied units not in the player's squad were not having their status and their weapons' covered hexes reset properly
FIX: Firing over Open Sights penalty was not being applied properly
FIX: AA MGs now have no penalty if the turret rotated or the unit pivoted that turn
FIX: Bug where player could not continue into 2+ additiona campaigns during the same game session
FIX: In Unit Support menu, some longer unit types would be overwritten in the menu
FIX: Player would not be returned to top of hex stack after starting an overrun attack and having a defensive fire attack on a squadmate
FIX: Deep Snow could change into Snow during a Blizzard
FIX: HVSS will now not be added to tanks before December 1944