Beasts of Steel News

Happy new year everybody!

This is the first update of the year, and it is a 'big' one!
We are resuming our weekly playtest with the community :)
Join our Discord to learn how to participate!

[h3]ADDED:[/h3]
● Possibility to customize the ammunition loadout for tanks (how many shell of each available type).
● Winter camouflage to german Marder I tank destroyer.
● Winter camouflage to british 16 pdr AT gun.
● Winter camouflage to british 6 pdr AT gun.
● Winter camouflage to british QF 3.7inch AA gun.
● Winter camouflage to soviet 37 mm M1939 61-K AA gun.
● Winter camouflage to soviet 85mm 52-K M1939 AA gun.
● Winter camouflage to soviet M-30 122 mm gun.
● New scroll speed setting in the UI settings.
● New Voices volume setting.


[h3]CHANGED:[/h3]
● Updated multiplayer API, various network performance improvements.
● Updated AI Pathfinding API.
● Font throughout the UI of the game.
● Small arms now only deal 1 damage to planes.
● Explosion damage model vs infantry and other soft targets. When within injury radius, it will deal a minimum of 1 damage and a maximum of max HP - 1. In previous game versions, the damage inside the injury radius of an explosion was entirely random (from 0 to max HP).
● Normandy Farm map loading wallpapers.
● Unified UI style for unit spawn selection.
● Panzer III E winter camouflage.
● Changed glass material style/look.
● Added mipmaps to many more textures to improve GPU efficiency.
● Corrected import settings on many textures.
● Shadows style.


[h3]FIXED:[/h3]
● Excessive RAM usage (all game's assets were loaded at all times).
● Having negative merit points would allow you to purchase anything that cost merit points.
● Land vehicles exploding every time you got out of them.
● Craters generation would be off sometimes.
● Some vegetation elements were not removed when a crater was spawned (wheat, dry grass, wooden sticks...).
● Potential AI freeze linked to using static weapons.
● Players in spectator mode would appear in the scoreboard.
● Allegedly fixed any UI/flags issues in Frontline.
● Player avatar in the progress menu would be a white square if playing offline.
● Excessively fast scrolling in scrolling areas in the UI.
● Shadows popping when changing quality preset in the settings.
● The new 'voices volume' fixes the fact that voice lines shouted by infantry were too quiet. Turn the volume up and you shall hear them properly now :)

[h3]ADDED:[/h3]
● Play area on all gamemodes for both teams. This should prevent strong flanking or spawn kill and focus the battle on the objective. The play area can be visualized by opening the tactimap while in game.
● New UI visual cue to let AA users if they are currently in manual or automatic aim mode.


[h3]CHANGED:[/h3]
● Updated our vegetation rendering asset/API, all of the shaders got an upgrade and it should run better now.
● AA with automatic aim will no longer acquire allies as targets, nor dead people or destroyed vehicles.
● AI will no longer prone as often as it did, it will now only prone in 20% of the cases when it would have proned before, and will crouch instead of proning.
● Flags capture area ground decal style/look.


[h3]FIXED:[/h3]
● Flying dragon's teeth in Conquest.
● Player speaking cue being in the middle of the screen when player was speaking far away from you.
● Bleeding icon staying even after you healed someone.
● AA auto aim could 'see' through every obstacle.
● AI infantry being stuck on some walls (trying to move through them).
● Teams not always showing right amount of players when joining a game.
● UI visual cue indicating wether you're in the capture area of a flag not properly scaling up/down.

[h3]ADDED:[/h3]
● Voice system when objectives are lost or captured.
● Voice lines/acting options added to the brand new action wheel.
● Voice system when a battle ends.
● Visual cue on the UI to let you know when you are or aren't in the capture area of an objective.
● Brand new Conquest 32 players setup for smaller scale engagements.
● Hitmarkers will now be shown upon melee attacks.


[h3]CHANGED:[/h3]
● When in spectator mode, instead of all UI cues being red, they will now be red for the attacker team, and blue for the defender team.
● Flag UI element is now lower (15m vs 30m).
● Grenades (AP and AT) will no longer damage walls.
● Marker wheels has been repurposed into an action wheel.
● Graphics quality preset upon game first install will now be based on your PC score (calculated based on your hardware).
● Updated map loading screen images.
● Normandy farm map has been updated a bit.
● Improved flags' capture area decal on the ground quality and fidelity.
● Bleeding/hurt UI icon will now be displayed directly to the left of the player's nickname.
● Spawning at mobile spawnpoint is now disabled when enemies are within 30 meters of the spawnpoint.


[h3]FIXED:[/h3]
● When reaching negative merit points you could not spawn anymore.
● Spanish localization had missing entries.
● Flags UI shenanigans.
● One instance of AI freeze.
● One type of bush would spawn in the middle of the screen when driving over it.
● AT grenades not dealing any real damage to vehicles.
● Game was not properly picking the best gamemode setup based on a given player count (picking the 32 players gammode setup when 40 players was chosen).
● Order in which players or objects are processed during an explosion. It will now be properly from closest to furthest.
● Small arms despawn check process could stop running sometimes (as client, not host).
● Doing melee could deal damage to a player or objects more than once during the animation.

[h3]ADDED:[/h3]
● Possibility to spectate a match (new button added where you choose a team).
● Introducing a brand new 'Merit Points' system to fluidify the use of vehicles and render them not so OP (less of an revenge tool).
You will earn Merit Points for performing various actions throughout the game (killing enemies, healing allies, capturing points...).
But you will also lose Merit Points for team killing.
Also, all vehicles / infantry classes will have their own Merit Point cost. This way, a King Tiger does not require the same amount of 'farming' as a Panzer II.
This way, you could actually see more light tanks on the map instead of the usual heavies since there was 0 downsides to having heavies only, when given the choice.
● Reason for banning a player. Whenever you start a ban procedure mid game, you will have the possibility to add a reason/explanation to the ban.
● Frontline gamemode setup on the Normandy Farm map.
● Specific footstep sound effects for when walking on specific objects (wooden floor inside the houses, on rocks, etc).


[h3]CHANGED:[/h3]
● What bot can or cannot man/crew static weapons (infantry classes restrictions).
Now all classes are allowed except engineers or medics.
● Improved the look of craters in winter season.
● Colors of some vegetation elements.
● Improved the look of AmbientOcclusion (increased rendering range from 15 to 300 meters).
● Added FOV settings.
● Settings now all are scrollable.
● Mobile spawnpoints construction time reduced from 30s to 15s (-50%).
● Wind has been increased on the Normandy Farm map to increase dynamism/make the scene more alive.
● Updated all localization files.
● AI engineers will build things closer to flags when a gamemode has flags.


[h3]FIXED:[/h3]
● AI tanks sometimes not entering engagement mode because of false positive inclincation.
● Settings quality dropdown option not being refreshed when not matching with a default preset when in game (not in the main menu).
● No light going through when in FPS view in tanks.
● Nebelwerfer was unusable due to velocity being the real life one instead having the 50% modifier applied like other regular artillery guns.
● Touch bending on vegetation not working properly.
● Getting into a vehicle that was abandonned by someone would make you instant respawn.
● Issues when trying to repair modules on vehicles. Not very reliable (look action).
● Tank crew FPS view UI issue with some tanks.
● Some trees would stay on the map after you destroyed them. Sort of duplicate issue (visually).


[h3]REMOVED:[/h3]
● Spawn cooldown on vehicles. The new 'Merit Points' system replaces it.

[h3]CHANGED:[/h3]
● AI tank units will now be able to hear other tank engines and spot them this way if they are within 50 meters, even when behind bushes or trees etc.
If you want to be truly camouflaged and hidden, even when at short distance, you will need to turn OFF your engine.
● Avoidance system for AI. When a vehicle is idle (not moving) for more than 5 seconds, an avoidance area will be added around it and trigger a refresh of all bots paths to make sure they don't bump into it. Hopefully it is enough to solve it :)


[h3]FIXED:[/h3]
● IS-2 crew FPS external view was not high enough / clipping into the turret too much.
● Wooden fences would not spawn shards when destroyed.
● One wooden fence type could not be destroyed while driving over it.
● 1 road clipping issue.
● Trees colliders issue (accuracy and mesh non readable during runtime causing issues with pathfinding).
● AI tanks often going out of their movement path and ending up stuck in various map features (buildings, etc).
● AI tanks having issues acquiring enemy tank as target.
● SU-76M gun barrel base collider slight issue.