Beasts of Steel News

Eighth update, more than a week into the launch of the steam page, not a day has passed where I would not release an update!

[h3]ADDED:[/h3]
● You can now press the 'T' (shortcut for chat) when a new message is received and the chat panel pops in to quickly answer without having to 'escape' and 'T' your way back in...


[h3]CHANGED:[/h3]
● Increased AI burst fire when using anti air (to 3 shots max).
● Smoothed out the sides of the texture of craters.
● Improved look of craters in Winter.


[h3]FIXED:[/h3]
● One internal error with grenades that would go 'missing' and would never be removed from the list of grenades, creating an endless flow of errors in the console, potentially impacting performances.
● Potentially fixed the white square in the killfeed (very rare bug) that I think happened when a player got killed after the explosion of a vehicle.
If it is not fixed, I should now have the tools/means to debug it anyway the next time it happens!
● Black screen of death in a VERY specific case: Starting the ADS procedure, dying in the meantime, being blown up by a bomb, but a second explosion happened right after the first one.
VERY specific, but it's fixed!
● Black screen of death in another very specific case: Your tank being killed while you are playing in FPS and in the middle of the animation of peeking in/out. FIXED.
● You could spawn and glitch through dead / empty ground vehicles if they had been killed/destroyed/abandonned on their spawnpoint.
● Probably fixed the 'big circle of mud' visual glitch with ground vehicles when spawning sometimes. Those who understand know what I am referring to.
● American vehicles wheels material / texture was a little glowy in the dark/shadows.
● AI (infantry) sometimes could get stuck after fleeing.


[h3]REMOVED:[/h3]
● Nothing.

Daily screenies:

Today's Sunday, I worked hard all week working on 2 games at a time, and even today I pushed an update on both games

I want to have some free time so that's what I'm gonna do

Smaller changelog, but my head feels better haha


[h3]ADDED:[/h3]

● Realistic mode toggle to campaign battles.
● Limits of players for online campaign battles.
● Possibility to close the changelog on game opening by pressing 'Escape'.


[h3]CHANGED:[/h3]
● Updated some small arms ammo loadouts (to match historical ones).
● Reduced even more the resources production in the campaign map to have more realistic battles and smaller armies overall.


[h3]FIXED:[/h3]
● Static weapons were missing the 'shell ready to fire' audio cue.
● SG-43 static weapon had the wrong icon in the build panel (icon of the ZIS-3).
● Probably fixed the flag ownership panel that never completely faded out.
● Games that were finished / ended were still listed in the lobby.
● Potentially fixed audio issue when going back to main menu would set all volumes to max.
● AI not using static weapons.
● Building static weapons would not impact the AI's pathfinding (he should be walking around them).
● Army unit icon was not refreshed after a battle.
● Fixed fog of war issue in campaign.
● Grass on roads.
● No icon in killfeed when player died due to explosion of a vehicle.


[h3]REMOVED:[/h3]
● Nothing.

Screenshot of the day:

Good evening lads,

One more changelog for you!

It's not too late to join the closed beta, join the discord server to ask for a key!

[h3]ADDED:[/h3]
● Multiplayer chat will now automatically try to reconnect when it loses connexion.
● Need to peek out to use weapons on some vehicles (most of US vehicles having an external M2 Browning).
● Orbit/Free Look for planes only in the Planes keybindings section.


[h3]CHANGED:[/h3]
● Chat panel will now pop in when a player joins the match.
It will also pop in when a player leaves it.
● Rich presence will no longer be translated and the status will be kept to Enligh only.
● For public online games, plants density and grass density will be forced set to ON at 100% to provide with a fair game for everyone (so that no cheating is allowed by disabling vegetation). You will still be able to change the vegetation settings in offline mode OR online with password set.
● Color of messages send in chat a little.
● Some changes to spawnpoints on the Fields of Normandy map.
● In campaign mode, the army losing the battle will now be moving back one hexagon.
● Reorganized the spawnpoints for 'Conquest' gamemode.
● In campaign, reduced starting resources and tiles resources production.
● Grass model / texture has been changed.


[h3]FIXED:[/h3]
● Multiplayer / online chat would not be connecting to the same region as real multiplayer. It will now match the server's region (Would always be Europe by default).
● Broken stance issues.
● Selected weapon issues.
● Grass density / distance as well as plants density would not be properly set in online games.
● In campaign, you could deploy units infinitely.
● Some of the bombs from the B-17 could be dropped with bomb bay closed.
● Fixed 2D snipers scope not accurate.


[h3]REMOVED:[/h3]
● Nothing.

Screenies from our game yesterday with some players from the beta:

5th update, more changes, fixes, additions... Happy reading!

[h3]ADDED:[/h3]
● Touch Bending on vegetation for infantry.
● Armament info in the Encyclopedia.


[h3]CHANGED:[/h3]
● Units in the encyclopedia are now sorted by alphabetical order.
● Reverted the order of the changelog version lists in the dropdown. It is now sorted from most recent to oldest (makes more sense to be sorted this way).
● 'Loading...' text has been moved in the Loading Screen.
● Proper highlight and color for units slots in the unit encyclopedia.
● Split the 'zoom in' keybding from vehicles and added it in all sections: Planes, Tanks
● Fly by mouse behaviour has been changed to remove the virtual cursor and been replaced with direct control.
● You can no longer shoot while the weapon swap animation hasn't finished playing.
● You can no longer scroll and change weapons 60 times a second. Changing will be possible only when the animation finished playing (for infantry).
● Renamed the 'Survival' gamemode into 'Conquest'.
Mechanics stay the same, just a name change.


[h3]FIXED:[/h3]
● The in game chat and how it worked. You can finally send several messages without triggering some weird stuff.
● 2D scopes had an accuracy issue (aiming a little too low).
● End of game / scenario UI.
● PC score was not showing after going back to the main menu a second time.
● UI issue with dropdown on the changelog panel.
● Ferdinand jumping/bouncing when being summoned in the Encyclopedia.
● Double scene loading in campaign when starting a battle.
● One instance of AI 'freeze'. The US don't have any AT weapon for the AT infantry before 1942. I have added the BOYS AT rifle as a first AT weapon otherwise we get bugs. Future similar issues has been prevented. AI bots will no longer be allowed to be spawned if they have no loadouts.


[h3]REMOVED:[/h3]
● Nothing.

Screenshot from the Encyclopedia;

And one more patch today, lots of good stuff!

[h3]ADDED:[/h3]
● Touch Bending for vegetation with vehicles. Tanks and other vehicles will be bending grass and other plants when driving over them. This new option can be disabled in the settings. As far as we've tested, the performances don't really change.
● The units encyclopedia is finally available!
● Semi / Full auto for several infantry weapons.
● Switch from semi to full auto key binding in the settings.
● Semi / Full auto icon on the HUD.
● New toggle in settings 'Automatic zoom in when aiming down sight'.
● Difficulty modifier to infantry AI when it comes to engagement distances. Playing in hard will not affect its current engagement distance. Medium will apply a -25% max engagement distance modifier, while playing in Easy will apply a -50% engagement distance modifier.
● Info message when spawning in a ground vehicle letting you know that the engine is OFF and that you should press 'key binding' to turn it ON.
● Player icons on the map will now be facing the direction they are facing in the world.


[h3]CHANGED:[/h3]
● Removed the Y axis rotation freeze on ground vehicles.
● Removed the grip of the BAR as in most cases the soldiers didn't keep it due to weight increase.
● Smoothed out the change in velocity for ground vehicles when leaving/entering roads. They will now smoothly accelerate or decelerate. Ground vehicles move at their real life top speed on road, and at 50% of that off-road.
● Changed default keybinding to toggle the engine on tanks from K to E


[h3]FIXED:[/h3]
● There was a black fade in/out when your active crew died while you were playing in third person. Should have been first person only.
● I think this time trees are mostly fixed when driving them over. The tanks should be less jumpy.
● When you had the option 'hold down to sprint' and jumped, the character would not start sprinting again even if you had the key pressed down, you had to lift the finger and press the key again. It will now resume sprinting normally.
● You no longer can mash the stance keys anymore. You will need to wait until your character finishes his stance change animation before being able to swtich to another stance position.
● German Balkenkreuz on tanks was weird when seen through smoke/exhaust gas (as if it was not affected by it).


[h3]REMOVED:[/h3]
● 2 liveries for the P-51D which were post-war ones.


One more screenshot :)