Armoured Commander II News

The 5.0.0 Alpha 1 build is now live on the alpha branch. To try it out, you may need to first restart Steam, then you will need to open the game properties, click on the "Betas" menu tab, and then under the "select the beta" drop-down menu, select "alpha." No code is necessary, and your game should update to 5.0.0 Alpha 1 right away. (Build: 5098670)

Some important notes: This is a work-in-progress build, so there's still missing elements and rough features, and it's not intended for long campaigns. Future updates probably will break saved game compatibility. The main 4.0.x branch should continue to be used for normal gameplay.

An initial changelog of the work so far follows:



ADD: North Africa region and terrain types for Campaign Day map
ADD: "Delete Saved Campaign" command in Load Campaign menu
ADD: Player Tanks for Italian campaign: L3/35, L3 cc, M11/39, M13/40, 105/28 gun for arty support
ADD: British AI units for North Africa: Stuart I (more to come)
ADD: Indication of 'None' for injuries in Crew Menu
ADD: Interpreter exception catching and writing error message to boot log before exit
ADD: Crewmen Grit stat will reduce average length of stay in Field Hospital
ADD: New National Skill for early-war Italy: "Audacia"
CNG: Modified front facing to now be between 330 and 30 degrees
CNG: Crewmen no longer have a 'Normal Position', instead a skill is required to work a commander/gunner/driver position without penalty, and another skill required to gain skills specific to that position
CNG: Greatly increased chance of crewmen being sent to field hospital for Heavy or Serious injuries
CNG: Increased base firepower destruction odds for unarmoured vehicles
CNG: Minor display changes for clarity



ADD: Option of playing a campaign of fewer days
ADD: Option of adding a chance in campaign weeks for combat days to take place along coast
ADD: Check to make sure that saved game structure is sane, and display a notification if not
ADD: Check to make sure no repeated dates are added to the combat calendar, which leads to time loops
ADD: Display list of crew positions in right column of tank selection menu
ADD: Display of current progress in the combat calendar (Day x/y)
ADD: Display of Day Ended in main panel
ADD: Player has a chance to swap crew positions after getting a new tank but before fresh crewmen are assigned to empty positions
ADD: Campaign option to ignore rarity factors of units



ADD: Maximum number of certain terrain types on CD map can be limited
ADD: Maps in North Africa now have neutrally-controlled zones, only some zones can be captured by either side
ADD: Zone capture VP values in North Africa increased
ADD: Check when generating map that it can be traversed
ADD: Ocean zone type, only spawned when combat day is along the coast
ADD: Chance of being attacked while waiting for resupply, random time required before resupply arrives
ADD: Key command to clear the current default command and hatch status for a crewman
ADD: Chance of landmines present in a map zone
ADD: Pop-up message if player tank was immobilized, ending combat day
ADD: Temperature for day: hot/cold influences crewman fatigue, extreme heat or cold makes weapon and vehicle breakdowns more likely
ADD: Notification of number of HE rounds used during Advancing Fire
ADD: Loading screen before starting a battle on the tactical/scenario map
ADD: Fatigue check on player crew when moving on Campaign Day map
CNG: Slight change to map generation procedure
CNG: Minor changes to how certain zones on the map are displayed
CNG: Made display of extra ammo in Ammo Load menu more clear
CNG: Reorganized display of crewmen slightly
CNG: Removed Targets of Opportunity, replaced with Objectives
FIX: Bug where enemy strength levels would not be generated after moving to a new map area
FIX: Bug where player location may be set to enemy control after moving to a new map area
FIX: Advancing fire no longer possible if gun is Broken



ADD: Unit destruction VP values in North Africa increased
ADD: Target line turned grey if targetting an enemy out of Line of Sight
ADD: New hex depiction for North Africa
ADD: Woods and Hamada firepower effect for HE hits, display in attack console
ADD: Can set a default hatch status and command for crewmen at start of scenarios
ADD: To-Hit bonus when firing Smoke
ADD: Units cannot test to recover from being pinned in the same turn as they took an effective firepower attack
ADD: Player can choose target terrain type when repositioning
ADD: AI units now take into account chances of armour penetration when choosing attacks
ADD: Console display with info about current map zone
ADD: Type of gun used in artillery support attack now displayed to player
ADD: Sound effects for when player pivots tank, rotates turret, landmine explosion
ADD: Additional detail to decriptions of crew commands
ADD: Nickname or common name of unit displayed in unit info console
CNG: Button Up command now Button/Close Up command
CNG: Ground cover and fortified etc. firepower modifiers no longer stack for HE hits
CNG: Hull Down now only effective 95% of the time for hits incoming from same direction as HD, 80% for one sextant to each side
CNG: Targets hit by HE now only have one of the following applied (if any): Fortified, Entrenched, Dug-In, Airburst Effect, Hamada Effect, Deep Snow, Muddy/Snow
CNG: Targets hit by Area Fire now only have one of the following applied (if any): Fortified, Entrenched, Dug-In, or Terrain Modifier
CNG: Concealed enemy units no longer have a sound effect played when moving
CNG: Adjusted RoF chance calculations slightly
CNG: Withdraw command can now be used when 1+ enemies are within 2 hexes, but the more enemies that are still nearby, the greater chance that action will not succeed
CNG: Slightly increase odds of crew injury if CE when tank is hit by a firepower attack
CNG: New procedure for resolving HE hits on unarmoured vehicles
CNG: To-Hit and To-Effect chances can now range from 0.5% to 99.5%
CNG: Critical Hit / Effect not possible if original odds were CNG: Fate point use no longer allowed for AP rolls
CNG: Enemy AI units more likely to attack player if the player has Acquired Target on them
FIX: Smoke hits no longer have possiblity of being critical, and Hull Down save against Smoke ammo is not allowed
FIX: Enemy units being spawned dug-in in terrain where digging-in is not allowed
FIX: Hull Down restriction for firing hull-mounted weapons more precise now
FIX: Operation of AA MG no longer possible while crewman is BU

This Saturday I'm going to upload a preview of the upcoming major update 5.0.0 to an alpha branch. If you enable this branch on Steam, you can try out a very early work-in-progress build for the upcoming major update, which will being lots of changes and improvements, as well the addition of North Africa as a new region for campaigns.

It's still a work in progress, so expect bugs and crashes, and the main new campaign is still unfinished, but it might be interesting to get a sneak peek of upcoming changes to the game.

One minor but important update:

FIX: Bug where the damage modifier was being applied incorrectly when player tank was knocked-out

Just over a week ago I released Armoured Commander II to the public on Steam. At the time I was hoping for maybe 100 sales on the first day, and ideally reaching close to 200 by the end of the first week. The fact that more than a thousand of you have bought the game during its first week on Steam is enormously encouraging. I know that Early Access games are very hit or miss (mostly miss) but I'm thankful that you took a chance on my little game, I hope you're enjoying it so far, and I hope that you'll enjoy what's in store for the future.

Over the past week I've been responding to bug and crash reports on the discussion boards as quickly as I can, issuing fixes and updates, discussing improvements to the game system, and listening to ideas for the future. At the same time that I've been updating the current version 4.0 (10 updates so far, plus stealth updates to apply quick fixes), I've been working on the next major update, which will bring ArmCom2 to the early-war campaigns in North Africa. I've already published some preview screenshots on Steam, and I continue to work on the different terrain, weather, and units of this theatre.

My goal for 5.0 is to cover all the major campaigns of the early war, from September 1939 to the end of 1941, apart from the Eastern European front, which will be the focus of 6.0. This of course misses out on a number of important battles, such as the invasions of Norway and Greece, and entire theatres that are about to be pulled into the global conflict, such as the early phase of the Second Sino-Japanese War, which began in 1937. These will hopefully also be covered in the future, but for now I want to keep my focus on the most central conflicts in Europe and North Africa, working from early-war, through mid-war, and into late-war, before turning to these other areas.

I'm very excited to see where this small community and this game will go over the next year or so. This is a passion project for me, something that I've been working on off and on for four years now (more if you count the original Armoured Commander too!) and so it's immensely pleasing to see the enthusiasm, energy, and excitement of the players.

Rev. Sudasana

Some minor but important fixes in this update:

ADD: Display of gun ammo while viewing Manage Ready Rack command in Command Phase
FIX: Crash during bail-out procedure (thought it was fixed previously!)
FIX: Tank will no longer burn up in bail-out procedure when abandoning tank
FIX: Rivers will no longer be generated in such a way that the player could be trapped after moving to a new Campaign Day map area