Armoured Commander II News

It’s been one year since I released the first stable version of Armoured Commander II on my blog, which was version 1.0.4. Today the version on Steam is 8.0.7, having gone through seven major updates and dozens of smaller ones since then. The game has been more popular than I had ever imagined possible, and I am grateful to all the brave players who took a chance on the Early Access version, and sent me suggestions for improvement, as well as bug and crash reports.

My original plan when ArmCom2 was released on Steam in May 2020 was for the full release version to be completed by summer 2021, and right now I am still on track to meet that goal. There are quite a few gameplay improvements, changes, and enhancements that I want to add before that happens, as well as a handful of key campaigns, mostly from the late-war period 1944-1945. The game has come a long way in just a year, and I’m looking forward to these final months of work to deliver a complete game.

Even after its full release, however, I plan on continuing to add to the game. Limited mod support is already in place, with full Steam Workshop support planned for the near future, and some intrepid players have already started creating their own mods. Some of these are posted on the Discord server, which can be accessed through the link on the Steam discussion boards. I also post preview images there of my work in progress.

Many players have helped out with development over the past year, but I have to thank one in particular, flori2412, who has created dozens of new units, several new campaigns, and generally provided invaluable feedback and suggestions for the game. Without him and the other enthusastic players, ArmCom2 would not be half of what it is today, so many thanks to all of them.

A minor update today, adding two new units, a new mid-war campaign, and a fix for an annoying bug!


ADD: Churchill I and II
ADD: Operation Avalanche to the Winter Line (USA) campaign
FIX: Bug where a player commander returning to their tank after a stay in the field hospital would not have their position set properly, leading to an incorrect command list

A substantial minor update today, with two new campaigns, a number of new units (bringing the total to 501!) and many fixes and improvements. Changelog follows:


ADD: New Campaign: Baytown to the Winter Line (Canada)
ADD: New Campaign: Between Kursk and Bagration (USSR)
ADD: Enemy units' guns upon spawn will be loaded with between 40% and 100% of maximum ammo stores for each ammo type
ADD: Mountain Pass zone type in Italy and North Africa: additional travel time, increased chance of ambush, penalty to move in all terrain within the pass, greater chance of LoS being blocked
ADD: Short music effect to start of day display
ADD: Several new Soviet airplane units
ADD: Some missing unit portraits
ADD: When player is attacked in own zone, very likely that attacking units will be copied from those present in adjacent zones if possible

CNG: Slightly lower base Fog penalty for Area Fire and Point Fire attacks
CNG: No vision penalties (Fog, Smoke, Dust) now apply to overrun attacks
CNG: Overrun attacks now allowed against all enemy units, gun attacks during overrun get a bonus to hit, movement to-hit penalty reduced
CNG: Four of Spades Steam achievement changed to: Destroyed a Heavy Tank while commanding a Tankette or Light Tank (captured tanks are being renamed, so in near future will no longer be possible to destroy exactly the same model as player commands)

FIX: Rivers were being generated between or adjacent to Water zones
FIX: Display colour of Water zones now matches that of rivers
FIX: Time limit for Hold objectives in new map areas now set properly

A good-sized update today, adding in some new content including a new late-war campaign, as well as some improvements and fixes. As always, please report bugs and crashes on the Steam discussion board or on the Discord server. Changelog follows:


ADD: New Campaign: Between Kursk and Bagration (Germany)
ADD: New Bail-out actions to pull an unconscious crewman from an open hatch, and to carry an unconscious crewman to safety
ADD: Additional info now displayed in Unit Gallery
ADD: New Units: Panzer II J, Panzer T-70, Panzer M15/42 738, Panzer T-34 747 M41,
Panzer T-34 747 M42, Panzer T-34 747 M43, Panzerjager SU-85 748, Bf 109 (fighter),
Bf 110 (fighter), Bf 110 (fighter-bomber), Fw 190 (fighter), SU-75, LT-38 Praga,
T-III, T-IV, T-V, T-VI, Mark III (late), M4(76), T-34-85 (early), T-34-85 (late),
IS-1, IS-2 (early), IS-2 (late), SU-57, SU-85M, SU-100, ISU-122, ISU-122S,
ISU-152, MG Carrier, M5 half-track, 100mm obr. 1944, M17 MGMC, GAZ-67,
I-16, MiG-3, Hurricane Mk I, Hurricane Mk IIB, Hurricane Mk IIC, Hurricane Mk IID,
Spitfire Mk I/II, Spitfire Mk V, Spitfire Mk IX

CNG: Reduced chance of explosion if player tank was knocked out by MG fire
CNG: If 'Random Tank Model' campaign option is active, during refit periods the player will only be offered one alternate tank model, randomly selected according to current rarity
CNG: Minor change to layout of start of day display, added display to first day in a campaign

FIX: Sound effects during bail-out minigame not playing properly
FIX: Rare crash during animation of small arms attack

A minor update today with a few additions and fixes; some of these were already active via a hotfix that I uploaded in order to fix a persistent crash.


ADD: Longer crewman skill lists now scroll up and down
ADD: Info on current campaign, active unit mods, displayed in crash screen and crash log
ADD: Small chance of friendly fire attacks during air/arty attack random event
ADD: Unencodable characters in campaign week titles or descriptions will now be replaced with a '?' character
CNG: Crewmen in RST turret locations more likely to gain Fatigue
CNG: Crew morale more effective against Fatigue gain
CNG: Updated slightly main theme music