Armoured Commander II News

With the first public Steam release coming in a few days, I thought it would be a good moment to say something about my immediate plans for the further development of the game. Earlier versions were released for free on the game's website, which is why the first Steam release is numbered 4.0.0. My first priority from the release date on May 14th is making sure that this version is working well and is mostly bug- and crash-free, and to continue to make minor improvements to it without breaking saved game compatibility. These include any minor quality-of-life changes that can be made to in-game displays, and adding additional detail to existing campaigns.

For the first major update, 5.0.0, I have planned the following additions and changes, although this list may grow or change as I begin to work on these elements in earnest:

• Campaigns and Units for the North African Theatre 1940-1942, including British, Italian, and German forces
  
• Severe weather effects for winter and desert conditions, which will be used for the Winter War campaign as well
  
• First batch of 13 Steam Achievements
  
• Weather system: adding light levels, fog, wind, temperature
  
• Additional crew skills, especially for minor positions such as the Assistant Driver!
  
• Crewman may be discharged and sent home if injuries are very severe
  
• Radio/signals system for communication with headquarters, support attacks, squadmates
  
• Periscopes
  
• More detailed bail-out procedure, with more choices to be made when saving your crew
  
• Mortars for enemy infantry, handling attacks from ballistic weapons and aircraft
  
• Steam Workshop integration for custom campaigns
  
• Minor additions to existing campaigns, such as adding in missing Early War units
  

Once I've started on some of these I'll open up an alpha branch for intreped players who are interested in testing out the newest additions. Also, even after 5.0.0 is released, I will keep the 4.x branch open for players who are finishing up campaigns that were started in the older version.

I've just updated the Closed Beta build, unfortunately it will break saved game compatibility with beta 3, so don't download the update if you want to continue your current campaign. Lots of minor fixes in this one, and a few new sound effects, hopefully all is stable enough for the open release on Thursday!

I've made some revisions to the Fate Point system which unfortunately break saved game compatibility with Beta 4, so I'm going to test this build first and then upload it as the first "release candidate" for 4.0.0 on Sunday. If you want to continue playing through an in-progress campaign, be sure to turn off automatic updates before then, since you won't be able to load any campaigns that had been saved under Beta 4. This is (hopefully!) the last major feature change before the Early Access release on the 14th.

In the meantime I've been making small improvements to Beta 4 which you may or may not have noticed. Any bugs or crashes please do report them in the comments.

I just uploaded a slightly modified build, still compatible with Beta 3 saves, that fixes a few minor issues, particularly with the fullscreen mode.

Armoured Commander II is being released on Steam as Early Access on May 14th, 2020. My thanks to everyone who tested the game out during the close Beta. I'll continue to test the game and to make small improvements over the next week leading up to the release date!