Company of Heroes: Europe in Ruins News

Hi all,

We ended up taking a little bit of time off from development over the winter months but are now back and have been hard at work cooking up a new update for you all to enjoy.

Update R061 is a relatively big one too, and introduces a whole array of improvements to our fledgling AI (compstomp) mode, as well as a first implementation of an all new Soviet Urban Combat Doctrine alongside a number of other smaller fixes and changes.

With this update going live, we're pleased to say the Soviet faction is now fully in place, though it is of course still very much in beta so do bear with us while we iron out the kinks in terms of bugs and balance issues.

A big thank you to Olazaika and Jstek in particular for making this new patch happen, and to all of you for your continued support and interest in the mod without which we wouldn't still be developing this mod 15 years on after it was first released!

Expect to see some more PvP games happening european evening time in the next weeks as we betatest the new doctrine, and otherwise feel free to just jump in anytime for some compstomps instead ;). For any help with the mod, questions or suggestions on design and balance, do check out our discord.

- The EIR team




[h2]General[/h2]
Various improvements to AI (see below)
Fixed a bug with map positions affecting pop calculation
Fixed a bug preventing small AI games being played on larger player maps
Fixed a vCOH bug causing games crashes
Added 6p and 8p Amfreville (thanks to Ivsh)
Added 2p Road to Carentan
Discord integration for enhanced matchmaking currently in private beta testing
Migrated certain tasks in launcher to leverage more reliable Steamworks integration
Numerous launcher bug fixes and QOL updates

AI Enhancements
AI now has access to a limited number of powerful offmap abilities with more expected to be added over time now that the base framework of how these are to be coded has been laid down. AI difficulty tiers Easy, Normal, Hard, Expert have been reworked to allow additional accessibility for newer players while providing additional challenges to seasoned veterans.

[h2]Americans[/h2]
Greyhound Spahis reward unit:
Health reduced to 350 (from 450)
Weapon penetration values reduced to more closely match that of a regular greyhound

Armor doctrine changes:

• Armored Fist: Scatter bonuses removed from halftrack aura, sight and range bonuses increased instead.
  
• Rangefinding:
  
• Calliope Barrage Now effected by Pour it on Em cooldown bonus. Improved vs garrison and bunk cover
  
• Now also allows units with the upgrade to have gunner loss criticals repaired
  
• Let em Have it: New ability for Riflemen with the BAR upgrade. Allows them to significantly increase firepower for a short period on their BARs, but will then lose the weapons for the rest of the match.
  
• M9 bazooka: rear critical damage increased to 60 (from 40)

[h2]Panzer Elite[/h2]
Fixed a bug with the elite grenadier reward unit not having any sound

[h2]Soviets[/h2]
Various soviet model and skin changes (with thanks to Volsky)
Katyusha: barrage range reduced to 125 (down from 250)
M1938 Mortar: population cost increased to 4 (from 3)
SU-76: population cost reduced to 5 (from 6)
PPSH suppression values reduced to 0.001/0.0015/0.0025 (from 002/003/005)

Speznaz spotter:

1. Sight radius increased to 55 (from 45)
   
2. Detection increased to 17 (from 12)

BA64:

1. Sight radius increased to 70 (from 55)
   
2. Detection increased to 25 (from 12)

T-70:

1. Health increased to 500 (from 400)
   
2. Damage increased to 90 (from 60)

T60:

1. Health increased to 425 (from 350)
   
2. Weapon cooldown increased to 4 - 5 (from 2 - 2.5).
   
3. Damage increased to 20 - 25 (from 10 - 12.5)

T34-76mm:

1. Penetration values increased to 0.83/0.92/1 (from 0.72/0.83/1)
   
2. Penetration tables against various targets rebalanced

Bugfixes:

1. Attempted to fix a bug with treadbreaker not working on the Sherman Emcha and T70
   
2. Fixed a bug causing Rasputitsa not to trigger
   
3. Fixed a visual bug with the za rodinu on T34s
   
4. Fixed a number of unlocks not working on the T34-85 in breakthrough

Breakthrough doctrine:I
IS2: move speed increased to 5 (from 4.1)

Handheld AT changes:
VPG grenade: removed 100% critical chance. Now has 40% engine critical chance on yellow health, 50% destroyed engine critical chance on red health.
PTRD:

1. Deflection damage multiplier reduced to 0.25 (from 0.35)
   
2. Max range reduced to 37.5 (from 40)
   
3. Reload duration increased to 7 - 8 (from 5 - 5)

PTRS:

1. Cooldown duration multiplier reduced to 0.5 (from 0.66)
   
2. Deflection damage multiplier reduced to 0.15 (from 0.35)
   
3. Pentration values reduced to 0.6/0.8/1 (from 0.85/1/1.1)

Urban Combat doctrine:
Is now available for selection, includes various infantry centered combat buffs as well as new units such as SU-85, KVs (1, 2 and 8!), Shturmoviki assault infantry and Shtrafniki conscript units.
Rapid Reload ability cooldown reduction for KV2 reduced to -15s (from -30)
Reworked SU-85 penetration tables so that it no longer has a 100% pen rate

Hey!
Wow, this is uh.. unexpected. Soviets are, in a way, here. And right before Christmas!

They're buggy. They're lacking an insane amount of polish. The launcher still doesn't recognize them fully, there's no reward units for em, but they are here.

Two out of the three doctrines, at least.

This project has taken an insane amount of time, and the full release will come soon(tm), but for now - Soviet open beta is officially starting on December 18th!

You'll have access to two of the three doctrines : Propaganda War and Breakthrough.

Propaganda War is based around being the biggest nuisance in the entire game - stand your ground with cloaking infantry, while using mobile vehicles to take out key targets in the back!



OSNAZ are elite infantry, capable of cloaking in cover. Their main attraction and difference from Fallschimjagers? - They are capable of firing twice before being uncloaked. As such - you're able to effectively deal damage without being detected (If you're using PTRD's, for example)



Lacking some firepower? Utilize all the benefits of American and Commonwealth industry! Bring modified bren gun carriers (DP and DShK carriers?), M4 Emchas and equip your cloaking partisans with M9 Bazookas! Leverage the massive movement and disabling bonuses the doctrine grants you, while also capturing all the destroyed light vehicle wrecks with your partisans!



And if that won't work? Just use more rockets.
More.
Rockets.



Breakthrough is all about pushing the advantage. Durable Infantry? Check. Powerful Vehicles? Check. Moving healing? Check. Combined-Arms abilities? Check and check!



Use the poweful IS2 to soak up damage and completely obliterate axis armor! Never surrender, even in the face of defeat.



Keep your tanks repaired in the middle of battle! Guard are durable infantry, capable of repairing all owned vehicles quickly and efficiently (They can also ride T34s!)

Don't be surprised if they also hold the line - They're fairly tanky, and can purchase some pretty powerful upgrades.



Pushed to the enemy spawn and don't want to run back? No fret! - Just bring up your mobile ambulance and provide your team with some well deserved heals.

Other Changes :
Launcher stability fixes
AI should be more aggressive with cqc units
A groundbreaking bug of fallschimjagers getting 1% more damage reduction than intended has been finally fixed
New 1v1 Map : Martlet (Thanks Ivsh)

Notice : Please report all found bugs to the bug-report channel on Discord! We'll be quick in squashing them ASAP.

Thank you to everyone who made this "meme" possible. My twitch viewers forced me to make this, and I'm eternally grateful for the motivation.

A personal thanks to everyone who helped with the project :

Jstek (Launcher)
Volsky (Design ideas, some models)
o4b (R.I.P?)
HSK (For fixing relic's own issue)
Eastern Front team (for generously lending us the models)
Speedy (launcher and in-game Icons)
Halftrack (DShK BREN Carrier and variants, T-70, Soviet infantry and associated webgear, KV heavy tank variants, Maxim HMG and custom animations, and many other assets in use by the existing Western Front factions)

Happy holidays,
Olazaika

Hi there! We're proud to present this seemingly small (in file size) update.

Our resident AI and Launcher coder, Jstek, has been hard at work adding in some long overdue QoL improvements :

Launcher :

1) Launcher is now fixed at a 100 FPS cap, no longer will it feel choppy and laggy

2) Launcher window is now resizeable - rejoice in being able to see everything on 4k monitors! (better resolution upscaling is in the works). If you ever screw it up - don't fret - just click F1 on your keyboard and all will return to normal :)

3) Battle reporting is finally fixed. Your hard battles should now always be reported, even if someone rage-quits! AI should no longer hold anyone hostage in a battle.

4) AI games and Multiplayer games are now consolidated. No longer will you have to rehost a 4v4 just to add an AI to fill the gap.

Game :

1) AI should now act far more aggressively - Expert AI is difficult to beat, to say the least

2) A multitude of crashes have been sorted. No longer will your battles be interrupted by the AI deciding to end the game after losing a vet 5 unit!

3) AI has learned to use some new abilities, should work quicker and react faster. ATG's are finally a threat again!

4) Localization updates

Tune in soon for another, more game balance focused update, and see you on the battlefield!

Hi there, it's Olazaika again!

Today is the last devblog before the big one. Work on Soviets is continuing! While some of us are tinkering with the models, I'm personally working on the final touches of all three doctrines! You'll see them in the next issue :) (Warning, they're OP as hell)


A proper, official EiR Trailer is in the works ;) Trying to give our little mod the proper presentation it desreves! Please let me know if it looks "good" :D



AI has been worked on again, you'll notice this in the next patch - far more aggressive, far more fun to fight. Expert AI is... difficult to win against, especially without any AI teammates on your own side. Try not to lose!

Lots of changes to the launcher back-end. Resizeable window size, fullscreen support, higher-framerates, better battle-reporting. You'll be able to experience it all in just a short while.



I know this isn't such an in-depth dev-blog as the other ones, but hopefully you'll manage to wait a couple of weeks for the grand one :) I'll try and incorporate a teaser before hand on our Discord!

As always - have a good one on the battlefield boys!

Hi everyone,

The autumn update R060 for EIR is now live and brings a slightly different kind of update as it introduces a major new feature to the mod which many of you have been asking for a long time: AI mode! Some of you will have already been able to test games against the AI in recent weeks but after some further tweaks we are now making it available to all players in the launcher.

While the AI isn't quite as good as your average EIR player *just yet*, it should already give you a proper challenge and a chance to get a taste of EIR gameplay when there are no multiplayer games happening. As of this patch, you will also be able to choose AI difficulty in game which will scale the challenge (read onslaught) accordingly.

You can play any of the gamemodes, 1vs1 all the way up to 4vs4, against AI either alone, co-op or with other players mixed in on both sides. A quick how to guide on launching an AI game is included below.

A huge thank you to Jstek who has committed a lot of time and energy to making this happen. And as always, please let us know if you run into any issues or have ideas for improvements via our discord.

- The EIR dev team



[h2]Gameplay:
[/h2]Terror :
Ostwind K.M.P rounds - Ostwinds gain access to incendiary rounds, capable of quickly demolishing any infantry inside buildings!

[h2]Maps:
[/h2]Bergen has been added to the 1v1 roster thanks to Ivsh. Expect to see more of your favourite EIR maps turned into 1v1 versions to accommodate the new AI mode soon.

[h2]Localization changes:
[/h2]Unfortunately, to make the AI experience work correctly - we've had to disable all localization for EiR except English. This streamlining process will hopefully allow us to make changes in a far simpler manner. Please let us know if you're suffering any unintended consequences

[h2]UI fixes :
[/h2]A multitude (over 50) ingame icons were changed or fixed with thanks to speedy. Please let us know if you see any issues appear!

[h2]AI Fixes :
[/h2]AI should now :

• Repair properly
  
• Be more aggressive
  
• Blob a little bit less
  
• Use off-map artillery correctly (axis SHOULD work, not verified)
  
• Retreat units more correctly (no repair kits/healing and vet? - retreat)
  
• AI now uses easy/normal/hard/expert - so if you're having troubles winning against it - try lowering the difficulty!
  
• Call off their units if they've lost the game
  

Launcher fixes/changes :

1. Launcher now checks if you have Company of Heroes installed/purchased
   
2. Launcher now checks if you have Company of Heroes : Opposing Fronts installed/purchased
   
3. New news page - links to all the required resources!
   

----------------------------------------------

[h2]HOW TO: launching an EIR AI game[/h2]

To launch an AI game, select AI mode and "create battle" in the launcher battle screen.



Once your lobby is created, fill it with AI players,



Click ready for supplies, then ready for launch and hit the red launch button next to the AI players to ready them up. After that, the big launch button will light up and you can go set up the game



Clicking the red launch button will send you into the game. Create a skirmish or multiplayer lobby, add the AI players (make sure they match factions selected in launcher), choose your difficulty and launch!



Once a game is completed, head back to the launcher where the battle outcome will be reported and your company updated to reflect the losses incurred and veterancy gained, just like is the case with a multiplayer EIR game,