Beasts of Steel News

[h3]ADDED:[/h3]
● New bullet flyby SFXs. Tightly linked to the suppression calculations/system, new SFXs for bullet whizz/flyby have been added (over different 20 SFXs). Will greatly improve immersion and situational awareness!
● Shadow effect to the killfeed skulls icons.
● Merit points UI feedback. Finally! You will now get a visual feedback on the UI whenever you gain/lose merit points.
● Step climbing for infantry. You will no longer get stuck into small obstacles on the ground (doorsteps, rocks, etc).
● AFK indicators for inactive players (both in scoreboard and on screen when near the player, in range of seeing his nickname).
● Possibility to allow and set quantity for tank destroyers when setting up a game.
● AI will now say "thank you" when the player heals/revive them.
● Possibility to build small bunkers with engineer class. This coupled with the new digging possibilities will allow you to setup a fully prepared trench.
● New player stat: Holes dug (total).
● Dust/dirt GFX and debris SFX when digging holes.
● Mine disarm percent chance (success) is now shown on the UI prompt.

[h3]CHANGED:[/h3]
● All infantry loadouts (except very first ones) now cost merit points. The better the weapon, the higher the merit point cost.
● Optimized the houses/buildings.
● Replaced all medics base loadout by regular bolt action rifle.
● Reduced polygons on guns shell meshes by 3.
● Added some shadows effects to the vehicle's orientation module on the UI.
● Updated the UI for kills feedback (skull icons + player's nicknames).
● Player's nicknames (text UI element) will now scale with the distance to the player.
● Player's nicknames (text UI element) are now visible 20 meters away maximum instead of 30 previously.
● Spawnpoints on UI are now scaled by distance.
● Flags UI icons will now change shape depending on the state they are in (owned, contested, enemy).
● Digging foxholes will no longer add up the depth infinitely anymore. The shape/depth of the foxhole will always based on the original height of the terrain.
● Added proper outline/shadowing to icons in killfeed.
● Reduced distance identification of allies (icons on UI).
● Reduced damage from rocket launchers.
● When choosing the infantry category in game, the classes will be directly generated instead of needing to click again on the unit.
● Eased AI engineers restrictions on allowed building locations to better work on smaller scale maps. They should build more stuff now.
● Selected weapon sync process from the network, should be more robust and less prone to errors now!
● Doors in houses can now be opened/closed.
● Split all mortars into nations, they all have their proper name + stats, they still share the same model which will be updated on a per nation basis later. Right now only data/stats have been reorganized/split.
● Changed the Conquest setups, the 16 players have been changed into 32 (single flag), and the 32 players setup has been turned into the 64 (2 flags). 3 flags 64 players has been removed.
● Removed wheels hidden when destroyed, as the vehicle would fall on their side and glitch through the terrain. There is no longer any visual clue that the wheels have been damaged/destroyed.
● Reduced buildable sandbags check area to make better walls that are a bit more intricate.
● Reduced all mortars RPM from 20 to 15.
● Increased mobile spawnpoints buildable limit per player from 1 to 2.
● Orientation/rotation of the buildable schemes is now averaged instead of taking a single point into account. This helps having them more flat instead of exactly being angled at the terrain which could lead to very abrupt/rough results before.
● Updated/changed all footsteps SFXs. There even now are dedicated SFXs for each of your state (walking, sneaking, running).
● Updated/changed ALL small arms/projectiles hit impacts SFXs.
● Updated/changed almost all explosions SFXs.
● Kar98 firing SFX.
● Rewrote entirely the infantry interaction code.
● Code cleanup.

[h3]FIXED:[/h3]
● Small arms never despawned when laying on the ground.
● Black screen when joining games.
● x2 data sync issue when joining an online game (game stats were mismatched/awaited as gamemode data). This resulted in vital code not running when it should have and creating unknown issues down the road, leading to some systems simply not working at all.
● Planes would not deal damage to each other when using small caliber machine guns (or very rarely).
● Matilda II APC shell not firing (missing ballistics data).
● Potentially fixed weapons blocked mid animation upon pickup.
● Nickname no longer showing on the UI after a player was revived.
● Bleeding icon would sometimes overlap on the player's nickname.
● Ping not showing for anyone other than the host in the scoreboard.
● B-25B Mitchell and B-25J Mitchell had no engine cowl texture.
● Hurricane Mk. IId was missing its casing spawn when firing.
● The achievement "Killed by the dev" could not be unlocked.
● Bulltes from small arms could appear to not come out from the muzzle.
● The game's default quality settings would always default to 'Custom' when you were choosing 'Ultra'.
● Pilot mesh would go through Hurricane Mk IV cockpit glass.
● Restricting the AI to armoured cars only or SPGs only would not work and none would spawn.
● Spawning in allied vehicle was broken.
● Authority request on static weapons wasn't properly working.
● Crossfade not being properly disabled on infantry's weapons when spawning in (blurry effect would happen for a few frames).
● Infinite damage loop when damageing the module of a vehicle you owned in the network.
● Hatch sounds playing when a crew member was added or removed from a land vehicle.
● Typo in plane UI BRAKES were spelled BREAKS.
● Player map icons that were spawned while you hadn't selected a team would appear as white dots in the middle of the map and would never disappear.
● Projectiles would get despawned when entering planes supply areas.
● Removed some code that ran when it should not have (updating some UI elements even though the menu wasn't open).
● AA blast radius when close to the ground but exploding mid-air was way too wide and you would be able to clear the map from infantry with AA.
● Friendly built mortars would not show on the tactical map (in game).
● You could start digging in one place and move around and it would keep digging.
● Fixed mine disarming UI prompt not going away in some cases.
● Infantry players (humans, real players) not despawning when quitting the game while playing.
● Footsteps sounds would play when climbing a ladder.

[h3]ADDED[/h3]
● New British tank: the Matilda II.
● New 16 players Conquest setup (single flag, much smaller play area, perfect for humans only games).
● Reload crosshair instead of aim crosshair when your weapon is reloading (this way you don't have to look at the weapons UI to know when you can shoot next).

[h3]CHANGED[/h3]
● When a crew member is killed, it will now be clearly shown in the killfeed (what exact crew member was killed using the crew member's icon).
● Any main weapon you pick up from the ground will now be equipped automatically and replace your currently selected/equipped weapon.
● When picking up a weapon on the ground as infantry, if you already have that same weapon in your inventory, you will only be grabbing the ammo from the weapon instead of having a duplicate of the weapon in your inventory.
● Adjusted a little bit the colors of the killfeed elements.
● Final touch to to in game chat window (UI) that didn't make it into the previous update.
● Finished refactor of the modules code. Much more robust and reliable and split properly into sub scripts now.
● Code for weapon drop and pickup by infantry has been rewritten.
● Increased distance at which you get shell shocked when standing near a gun (more or less by 30%, depends on calibre, really).
● Flag UI elements are now scaling with distance to them and their position is also now updated based on their distance to the player.
● Changed penetration/internal damage allowance threshold. Previously, the projectile would be allowed to deal internal damage if the final damage resulted in a number bigger or equal to at least 25% of the vehicle's max HP. This threshold has been reduced to 10%, which will result in more frequent penetration and internal damage (especially for lower caliber weapons that would not deal much damage but still go through the armour).
● Headshot killfeed icon. It wasn't like super obvious what it was, and now since crew members are shown in the killfeed as well, the gunner icon was way too close to what the old headshot icon looked like.
● Updated the road/off road speed for all land vehicles for the units encyclopedia.
● Reworked planes damage smoke GFX.
● Opening the in game menu will no longer hide nicknames on the UI.
● Adjusted placement of exhaust GFX to be more accurate.
● Started rework of the localization system.
● Adjusted color of shells mesh projectile.
● Changed some screen space shadows settings, performances should be improved on lower-end hardware.
● Improved readability of in game chat messages.
● Static weapons (guns) projectile look (solid vs previous trail).
● The british 25pounder artillery gun will now require the player to be seated with the gun.
● Improved the look of the mortars projectile smoke GFX.
● Started merging many small meshes into single big one to reduce draw calls, shadow casters, and improve performances globally as a whole (some objects got reduced from 300 to 1).

[h3]FIXED[/h3]
● AI tanks having big issues acquiring targets.
● When dying as a crew member, you would not be placed in another available seat.
● Crew death/kill UI issues.
● Weapon's UI slots availability state was not refreshed when a module's health state (turret/gun) changed (damaged, destroyed, repaired).
● Weapon's aim dot (hit location) was not shown when in FPS mode in vehicles.
● White loading screen when clicking the 'quit to desktop' button in game.
● Allies identification UI element would suddenly be hidden if you were far enough instead of fading out.
● Panzer III E crew members weapons usage/authority.
● Panzer III J crew members weapons usage/authority.
● Panzer 38(t) A and E radio operator crew member FPS view was broken.
● Reactive wheel on Pak40 were not setup and resulted in errors in the code.
● Reactive wheel on Pak 43-41 were not setup and resulted in errors in the code.
● Tiger I E radio operator crew member FPS view was broken.
● Panzer IV G radio operator crew member FPS view was broken.
● Added exhaust GFX to some vehicles that didn't have them.
● Some mesh elements would not be properly hidden when in first person as tank crew.
● Many localization elements missing from all languages except english.
● 7.5 cm le.IG 18 when being destroyed was not properly splitted in bits.
● Holes across terrain connexions sometimes.
● You could no longer send messages to the chat after leaving the multiplayer menu.
● End of game UI scoreboard headers minor UI issues.
● 25pounder colliders issues.
● M1 Garand grenade was not placed properly.
● Hurricane Mk. IIb MG casings not spawned at the right place under the right wing.

[h3]ADDED[/h3]
● Guns as moveable parts on certain SPGs in the vehicle orientation miniature.

[h3]CHANGED[/h3]
● Removed collider from hull MG on Pz 38t(s).
● Changed the color of the FOV indicator on the tank UI (orange->grey).
● Presentation of the changelogs.
● Reduced the size of many UI icons (stuff that had ad dimension of 512x512 but was perfectly fine in 128x128).
● Reduced AI AT (Bazooka) max engagement distance from 100 to 75 meters.
● Game language setting is now in the settings menu instead of the dropdown right on the landing page.
● Dev nicknames are now shown with brackets in the game.
● Rewrote the chat code. Much more simple and efficient now.
● Reworked game host menu a little bit.
● Allowing going over max supported player limit for online games. Game will issue a warning however if you pick a value that goes above the supported limit. This is for testing purposes only.
● Minor changes to the UI elements of the spawn menu.
● Physical weapons destruction/duplication code (bombs, rockets).
● Ammo crate build distance is now 1 meter from player instead of 1.5m.
● Updated fog FX for planes.

[h3]FIXED[/h3]
● X-Ray mode in Encyclopedia was not kept when spawning another unit. You would need to click the button again.
● Stats menu items generation not looking real good on screens with other aspect ratio than 16:9 (resizing not working very well).
● After shot muzzle smoke was not constrained when spawning, meaning it would spawn anywhere on the map (no optimization check for distance to camera).
● Fixed bouncyness on units in encyclopedia when spawning (especially planes).
● Localization for some physics units (distances, height, speed).
● In the Encyclopedia, the projectile could spawn in the camera sometimes.
● In the Encyclopedia, vehicles are now properly and exactly placed on the ground instead of being spawned mid air and falling on the ground.
● Hs 129 B3 FPS aim sight was way too low.
● 2+ engines planes had their engine module broken on the UI.
● You could not spectate players directly when in spectator mode.
● Weapons would be greyed out when spectating a player.
● Suppression vignette GFX was squarish instead of being roundish.
● Passenger seats would be filled in entirely when a vehicle with passenger seats was spawned.
● Ammo boxes decal was not being drawn on top of the roads.
● FPS crew issue in planes when playing with realistic mode ON.

Hello everyone!

I am aware that it has been a long time since the last update, and it isn't because we were playing Monster Hunter Wilds (really not), but because we were working on the next big update for the game :)

It all really started as a small incremental weekly update, but it turned into a month worth of work.
I wrongly estimated the time it would take to revamp all vehicles to add new crew members, new modules, and so on.

We hope that our beta testers will enjoy this update, as always.

We will resume private playtesting next week!

[h3]ADDED:[/h3]
● New crew members in vehicles: Loader, radio operator. Your reloading speed is now tied to how many loaders are a live in your vehicle.
● Brand new modular buildings. Old ones were static/fixed and could not really be changed whatsoever, new ones are entirely modular and we can assemble them like legos. They will be more optimized in the future!
● New vehicle module: Radio (if destroyed, your nickname will be hidden to your allies).
● New vehicle module: Transmission (affects movement/turning speed of land vehicles).
● New vehicle module: Fuel tank (fuel is stored and split realistically across all fuel tanks. A damaged fuel tank will leak. A destroyed fuel tank will lose all of its fuel).
● Suppression system (Your screen will become increasingly darker as projectiles fly nearby or land anywhere near you).
● Visualization of vehicles internals in the Encyclopedia.
● M1927 76mm light artillery gun for the USSR.
● 7.5cm Le.IG18 light artillery gun for Germany.
● M4A3E2 Jumbo for the USA.
● Panzer I A to Germany.
● Camera inertia to land vehicles (gives them more weight and it feels better).
● Binoculars UI effect when getting your head out and zooming in as a tank crew.
● Wheels on guns now rotate realistically if you are moving the gun to the left or to the right.
● Smoke GFX to guns after they fire a shot.
● Smoke GFX to shells being ejected by guns.


[h3]CHANGED:[/h3]
● Encyclopedia scene is available again.
● Rework of the vehicles crew UI.
● Movement speed and turning speed is now directly affected by the health state of your engine/transmission.
● Updated multiplayer API. Performances improvements regarding multiplayer.
● The entirety of the crew member code has been rewritten and simplified.
● All crews are now sorted in the same way. Commander -> Driver -> Radio Operator -> Gunners -> Loader.
● Changes to shadows and post processing.
● Extended leaving battlefield despawn timer from 10s to 15s.
● Tracks dirt/mud and dust GFX for all land vehicles.
● Dirt coming off tracks/wheels will no longer happen if you are driving on a road (off-road effect only).
● Units with no customizable loadouts will now automatically take you to the spawn UI instead of having to do one useless click to validate an empty loadout.
● Reduced bean infantry models triangles (geometry) by 70%.
● Removed shadow casting from unnecessary parts of the bean infantry model (eyes).
● Distance text elements on markers and flags is now shown above the UI element instead of beneath it.
● Touch bending coming from vehicles will now be applied for 60 seconds.
● Optimized vegetation touch bending from tanks.
● Optimized vegetation touch bending from infantry.
● Changed aim reticles for vehicles (U).
● Destroyed vegetation elements will no longer scale down to 0, but fall slowly through the ground (more pleasing to the eye than a tree shrinking into oblivion).
● Reduced vertices of projectiles and improved general look.
● Projectiles penetration. Penetration distance and radius is now properly applied and based on shell used. APCR will go much further than regular AP, for example. And APHE will explode after penetrating the vehicle and deal internal damage to crew members and modules in a radius set by the shell calibre.
● Reduced deceleration rate of gun/turrets when aiming to a given point by 50%.
● Smoke GFX changes.


[h3]FIXED:[/h3]
● Engine internals position on Ferdinand.
● Hetzer external MG required you to get out to use it.
● Hetzer gun alignement was off on the vertical axis.
● Hetzer crew members position was not accurate (compared to IRL).
● Gunner crew in Jagdpanzer IV L48 had no access to the main gun.
● M24 Chaffee commander crew had issues.
● Action wheel toggle setting was using wrong text and was misleading.
● Rocket launchers (Nebelwerfer...) projectiles would lose velocity after being reloaded.
● Game would prompt weapon deconstruction if you were trying to build something (engineer) near a static weapon.
● Infantry interaction window would be shown when you were using the action wheel.
● Land rocket launchers were using the wrong dispersion table and had very little variation.
● British 90mm AA gun was missing from the new action wheel.
● US M45 AA was missing from the new action wheel.
● Dust from vehicles didn't have soft particles enabled.
● Some US tanks had a small track texture issue.
● Some UI elements overlap near the impact distance text.
● Churchill Mk. II was missing colliders for its gun.
● Impostors and LODs of several vehicles.
● Some planes would collide with their generated casings when firing (Bf 110 C3 for example).
● Bullets would show up as part of a custom loadout edit for land vehicles (for the M2 Browning specifically or the DshK).
● Crew members could collide with own vehicle's physics/colliders in some cases.
● Parachute ropes had a transparent material instead of opaque.
● La-7 had wrong AO texture.
● Tanks could be slippy on the ground when no input was done by the user and the tank was on a slope.
● Could not hit the Panzer III E hull sides when shooting at the track's level (it would always count as a track hit).
● Ladders not properly working/being glitchy to use.
● M4A3E8 had wrong vehicle orientation UI icons.
● When disarming a mine, the prompt asking you to hold F to disarm the mine would still appear.

[h3]ADDED:[/h3]
● Brand new anti tank gun, the german Pak 43/41.
● Possibility to customize the amount of build points for each side when hosting a game.
● Mobile spawnpoints are now shown on the in game tactical map for an easier identification.


[h3]CHANGED:[/h3]
● Player's nicknames can only be alphanumeric now (a-Z 0-9).
No special characters allowed.
● Player's nicknames length is now set to 16 char maximum.
● All buildable AT guns now have a maximum of 50 shells (combined).
● If you started building a buildable object, and during the building process someone spent the last build points of your team, you would be able to finish the construction and the points amount would go negative. Now, the game will check if your team has enough build points even during the building process.
● Updateda bit the style of the spawnpoint icons on the UI.
● To prevent any abuse/exploit with buildable objects, when deconstructing it with an engineer, you will be getting back only 80% of the original value of the object.
● Added more sway to small arms (infantry FPS).


[h3]FIXED:[/h3]
● Mouse delta recorded whenever the cursor went from "free" to "locked. The Delta position cannot be prevented because the cursor/pointer is warped, but the delta generated should have been ignored/discarded. Concrete example is whenever you close the action wheel while the mouse cursor is far away from the center, the next time you move the mouse it won't send the infantry camera away.
● Having the scoreboard open while placing down a buildable object and holding down the mouse would trigger the construction of the buildable object.
● When the scheme of a buildable object appeared after you selected it through the action wheel, it would rotate on itself for like a few frames.
● Soviet M30 122mm artillery had no killfeed icon.
● In game FPS UI display sampling was wrong.
● Deconstructing an enemy construction would give your own team construction points (the amount of the enemy's object worth).