5.3.4 Beta Patch
Hello to all Blitzkrieg fans!
I’m happy to announce Blitzkrieg Mod's newest 5.3.4 Beta Patch. It’s a relatively small patch that is mostly concerned with bug fixes, detailed below:
Allies:
Don’t worry – we’re not done yet! I’m also happy to announce a new beta – BK Beta Patch 5.3.41! This patch focuses on infantry changes and maps.
[h2]Infantry Combat Changes:[/h2]
Suppression ability change
[expand]
This ability was not used very often because it provided inconsistent results. Sometimes it happened that you spent 40 ammo, clicked on a squad and it didn't get suppressed at all.
We wanted to make sure that the ability actually does what it is intended to do. That is, to suppress the targetted squad every time. We changed the internal working of the ability and now it should always put the target into a suppressed state after aprox. 2-3 seconds after clicking on the target, no matter if the squad is in cover, has veterancy, is elite etc. It doesn't matter how many "received suppression" modifiers the target squad has stacked, they should get suppressed. Note, however, that abilities that "shrug off" suppression (Fireup, Heroic Assault etc.) will still remove the suppression effect that this ability applies.
This ability needs to be tested for possible problems. That may be unintended behavior (e.g. squads still don't get suppressed in some situations) or balance issues - is it still too weak, too strong or "OK", is the cost appropriate to its effect etc.[/expand]
Suppression ability now always suppresses the targeted squad within 2-3 seconds of activation.
Veterancy reduces ammo cost of grenades[expand]
This change was made to make veterancy on squads a bit more rewarding. -5 ammo on a grenade throw may not seem as much but it is still saving you ammo in the long run.
We would like to know if you feel the change is OK, or needs some tweaking. E.g. the cost reductions should come at different vet levels etc.[/expand]
Infantry squads able to throw grenades get a -5 munitions reduction cost to the grenade ability at Vet 3 and Vet 5. This only applies to the "normal" grenades, not stickies, gammon, sleeved grenades, or stun grenades.
Elite Infantry Combat Changes:
[expand]There has been requests to make doctrine-specific infantry sooner available without CPs. We wanted to try this but there is a "but".
Elite infantry with all bonuses and weapon upgrades would be OP and devastating in early game, which is clearly not the intention.
What we wanted to get is a situation where selecting a doctrine will give you earlier access to the "special" infantry that the doctrines in live version only have after investing CPs, but it should be a decision, not a no-brainer. Rangers, Stormtroopers and Gebirgjägers should be in such a position where people don't want to necessarily get them as soon as possible, but maybe get them a bit later when you get your economy going and so potentially losing them won't ruin your game immediately.
If you feel Rangers, Storms or Gebirgs are sort of an "no-brainer pick" in early game, we'll need to come up with some solution to change it. The exception to this is the 101st, as they are more of an "upgraded Riflemen" rather than an elite unit, so 101st squads entering the field earlier than the other doctrinal squads, is an intention.
Report anything that you find off, wrong or broken with this change. We know this will need some more tuning if it should ever get to the live version.[/expand]
There have been complaints about the suppression ability, usually concerning the price, saying it's too expensive at 40 munitions for how effective it is. If you guys still think the ability is too expensive, please let us know. We look forward to your feedback on the other infantry changes.
[h2]Maps:[/h2]
There’s been a lot of debate about how campy Blitzkrieg mod has gotten in the past year or two with a whole host of different causes ascribed to this frustrating phenomenon. Due to current constraints the dev team has attacked this problem from a novel angle and that angle is maps. For years, the dev team has tried encouraging players to play BK mod on bigger maps with high resources because BK mod is balanced around PVP. The larger map sizes help account for the larger ranges and therefore give players freedom to maneuver around defenses, rather than limiting them to head on attacks. The higher resources help get away from the rock paper scissors dynamic of the early game. We find that smaller resource games can magnify early mistakes and can sometimes end a game in 5 minutes. There are a large amount of maps such as Autry, Beaumont, Crossfire, Hillaire, and others that are relics from Blitzkrieg Mod's humble beginnings when it was catered to the PVE crowd. These maps, called lane maps, tend to lend themselves to camping because of their narrow designs.
We realized that this map issue consists of two parts. Firstly, there are simply not enough maps. Players are tired of playing the same old maps with the same old metas. The map pool is both small because of the aforementioned lane maps that PVP players avoid and Workshop maps. Because there's such a large variety of expertise employed in Workshop map creation, game-play on those maps is often an inconsistent experience which is often accompanied by replay issues. Secondly, the dev team doesn't have a dedicated mapper with both enough free time or expertise to create new maps or revamp old ones in a timely fashion. The good news is that I came up with a rather elegant solution. We could simply steal use maps from other mods. I’ve asked around and have obtained permission to use maps from Celution from the Eastern Front, Halftrack from the Battle of the Bulge Mod, and Monolithic Bacon from The Great War 1918 Mod. This way we can use maps that have already been lovingly designed, crafted, and play-tested instead of trying our amateur hands at making or editing our own.
Just to be clear - these maps have not been explicitly designed for Blitzkrieg Mod. We have not edited them in any way, except to change their display names slightly in game to reflect their origin and suitability for PVP. I picked maps with an eye for size - medium maps for 1v1s, large maps for 2v2s, and extra-large maps for 3v3s and 4v4s. Whenever there's an exception to this selection criteria, it's because I thought the map had an interesting design despite its small size. We hope you guys will provide feedback on these maps. Please tell us if you like them, don't like them, or if there's any changes you think ought to be made to these maps (perhaps the resource distribution is wonky?). If there are any technical issues with the maps, please report them in the bug section of the steam forum with the BK Beta 5.3.41 in the title.
There will be three waves of betas for map testing. In total, the dev team may add up to 37 maps to the Blitzkrieg mod if you guys like them all. The first map wave will include 15 maps from the Eastern Front Mod and you can see them below:
[expand]Our kind friends at the Eastern Front mod have granted us permission to use 17 maps of theirs in BK mod. Two of these seventeen maps will come in a later beta patch because of technical issues.
While this may not be a huge update in a game-play sense, this will be a huge update with how much extra real estate we’re giving you guys to fight over. The dev team and I hope you guys enjoy these changes and these new maps.
Lastly, I just want to stress that this bigger update is a beta. These changes are not final until the beta is over and the dev team takes feedback into account. If there are any issues with the maps or any other changes in the beta, they won't go to the live patch until they are fixed. If you need help accessing the beta, please follow these instructions. There will be further updates and changes to this beta but rather than posting a constant flow of announcements, I'll update a single thread in steam beta patch sub forum whenever something changes.
When we're satisfied that everything's working properly and that you guys like the changes, it will go live as patch 5.3.4 and I will update this announcement's title with the date this patch goes live.
Enjoy!
-Wald
Edit: 13 October 2023 - There was a miscommunication between the devs and I, which was my fault. This is not in fact a small patch and a beta patch but actually just one substantial beta patch.
I’m happy to announce Blitzkrieg Mod's newest 5.3.4 Beta Patch. It’s a relatively small patch that is mostly concerned with bug fixes, detailed below:
Changelog:
Allies:
- Fixed an exploit where you could bypass the limit of 1 for US snipers.
- SAS squad no longer has inconsistent detection radius.
- When CW captures Pak36, it will no longer lose camo ability.
- Penetration values of Bazookas and PIATs vs allied targets set to more reasonable values.
- Assault Grenadiers with both G43 and LMG upgrades now properly display the option to switch between Tank Button and Suppressive Volley abilities.
- Sabotage squad in SE doctrine now properly displays Teller mines.
- Zeal now provides bonuses when Volkssturm have 7 men squad size and lose 1 man.
- Penetration values of Bazookas and PIATs vs allied targets set to more reasonable values.
Don’t worry – we’re not done yet! I’m also happy to announce a new beta – BK Beta Patch 5.3.41! This patch focuses on infantry changes and maps.
[h2]Infantry Combat Changes:[/h2]
Suppression ability change
[expand]
This ability was not used very often because it provided inconsistent results. Sometimes it happened that you spent 40 ammo, clicked on a squad and it didn't get suppressed at all.
We wanted to make sure that the ability actually does what it is intended to do. That is, to suppress the targetted squad every time. We changed the internal working of the ability and now it should always put the target into a suppressed state after aprox. 2-3 seconds after clicking on the target, no matter if the squad is in cover, has veterancy, is elite etc. It doesn't matter how many "received suppression" modifiers the target squad has stacked, they should get suppressed. Note, however, that abilities that "shrug off" suppression (Fireup, Heroic Assault etc.) will still remove the suppression effect that this ability applies.
This ability needs to be tested for possible problems. That may be unintended behavior (e.g. squads still don't get suppressed in some situations) or balance issues - is it still too weak, too strong or "OK", is the cost appropriate to its effect etc.[/expand]
Suppression ability now always suppresses the targeted squad within 2-3 seconds of activation.
Veterancy reduces ammo cost of grenades[expand]
This change was made to make veterancy on squads a bit more rewarding. -5 ammo on a grenade throw may not seem as much but it is still saving you ammo in the long run.
We would like to know if you feel the change is OK, or needs some tweaking. E.g. the cost reductions should come at different vet levels etc.[/expand]
Infantry squads able to throw grenades get a -5 munitions reduction cost to the grenade ability at Vet 3 and Vet 5. This only applies to the "normal" grenades, not stickies, gammon, sleeved grenades, or stun grenades.
Elite Infantry Combat Changes:
[expand]There has been requests to make doctrine-specific infantry sooner available without CPs. We wanted to try this but there is a "but".
Elite infantry with all bonuses and weapon upgrades would be OP and devastating in early game, which is clearly not the intention.
What we wanted to get is a situation where selecting a doctrine will give you earlier access to the "special" infantry that the doctrines in live version only have after investing CPs, but it should be a decision, not a no-brainer. Rangers, Stormtroopers and Gebirgjägers should be in such a position where people don't want to necessarily get them as soon as possible, but maybe get them a bit later when you get your economy going and so potentially losing them won't ruin your game immediately.
If you feel Rangers, Storms or Gebirgs are sort of an "no-brainer pick" in early game, we'll need to come up with some solution to change it. The exception to this is the 101st, as they are more of an "upgraded Riflemen" rather than an elite unit, so 101st squads entering the field earlier than the other doctrinal squads, is an intention.
Report anything that you find off, wrong or broken with this change. We know this will need some more tuning if it should ever get to the live version.[/expand]
- Ranger squad is available to build in Barracks once Infantry doctrine is selected and WSC is built (LMG and SMG upgrade locked behind CQB unlock)
- 101st is available to build in Barracks once Airborne doctrine is selected and WSC is built (SMG upgrade locked behind 101st Paradrop unlock)
- Stormtrooper squad is available to build in Barracks once Blitzkrieg doctrine is selected and Kriegsbarracks is built (STG44/G43 upgrade locked behind Stormtrooper unlock)
- Gebirgsjäger squad is available to build in Barracks once Luftwaffe doctrine is selected and Logistic Kompanie is built (Scoped G43 and LMG upgrades locked behind Gebirgs unlock)
There have been complaints about the suppression ability, usually concerning the price, saying it's too expensive at 40 munitions for how effective it is. If you guys still think the ability is too expensive, please let us know. We look forward to your feedback on the other infantry changes.
[h2]Maps:[/h2]
There’s been a lot of debate about how campy Blitzkrieg mod has gotten in the past year or two with a whole host of different causes ascribed to this frustrating phenomenon. Due to current constraints the dev team has attacked this problem from a novel angle and that angle is maps. For years, the dev team has tried encouraging players to play BK mod on bigger maps with high resources because BK mod is balanced around PVP. The larger map sizes help account for the larger ranges and therefore give players freedom to maneuver around defenses, rather than limiting them to head on attacks. The higher resources help get away from the rock paper scissors dynamic of the early game. We find that smaller resource games can magnify early mistakes and can sometimes end a game in 5 minutes. There are a large amount of maps such as Autry, Beaumont, Crossfire, Hillaire, and others that are relics from Blitzkrieg Mod's humble beginnings when it was catered to the PVE crowd. These maps, called lane maps, tend to lend themselves to camping because of their narrow designs.
We realized that this map issue consists of two parts. Firstly, there are simply not enough maps. Players are tired of playing the same old maps with the same old metas. The map pool is both small because of the aforementioned lane maps that PVP players avoid and Workshop maps. Because there's such a large variety of expertise employed in Workshop map creation, game-play on those maps is often an inconsistent experience which is often accompanied by replay issues. Secondly, the dev team doesn't have a dedicated mapper with both enough free time or expertise to create new maps or revamp old ones in a timely fashion. The good news is that I came up with a rather elegant solution. We could simply steal use maps from other mods. I’ve asked around and have obtained permission to use maps from Celution from the Eastern Front, Halftrack from the Battle of the Bulge Mod, and Monolithic Bacon from The Great War 1918 Mod. This way we can use maps that have already been lovingly designed, crafted, and play-tested instead of trying our amateur hands at making or editing our own.
Just to be clear - these maps have not been explicitly designed for Blitzkrieg Mod. We have not edited them in any way, except to change their display names slightly in game to reflect their origin and suitability for PVP. I picked maps with an eye for size - medium maps for 1v1s, large maps for 2v2s, and extra-large maps for 3v3s and 4v4s. Whenever there's an exception to this selection criteria, it's because I thought the map had an interesting design despite its small size. We hope you guys will provide feedback on these maps. Please tell us if you like them, don't like them, or if there's any changes you think ought to be made to these maps (perhaps the resource distribution is wonky?). If there are any technical issues with the maps, please report them in the bug section of the steam forum with the BK Beta 5.3.41 in the title.
There will be three waves of betas for map testing. In total, the dev team may add up to 37 maps to the Blitzkrieg mod if you guys like them all. The first map wave will include 15 maps from the Eastern Front Mod and you can see them below:
[expand]Our kind friends at the Eastern Front mod have granted us permission to use 17 maps of theirs in BK mod. Two of these seventeen maps will come in a later beta patch because of technical issues.
- Vienna - 1v1
- Magnuszew Bridgehead - 2v2
- Battle of Mahiljou - 2v2
- Dom Pavlova - 2v2
- Karachev - 2v2
- Kursk - 2v2
- Stalingrad Railroad Station - 2v2
- Anapa - 3v3
- Dubna - 3v3
- Kiev - 3v3
- Prokhorovka - 3v3
- Seelow - 3v3
- Tali Ihantala - 3v3
- Voronezh - 3v3
- Zhytomyr - 3v3
While this may not be a huge update in a game-play sense, this will be a huge update with how much extra real estate we’re giving you guys to fight over. The dev team and I hope you guys enjoy these changes and these new maps.
Lastly, I just want to stress that this bigger update is a beta. These changes are not final until the beta is over and the dev team takes feedback into account. If there are any issues with the maps or any other changes in the beta, they won't go to the live patch until they are fixed. If you need help accessing the beta, please follow these instructions. There will be further updates and changes to this beta but rather than posting a constant flow of announcements, I'll update a single thread in steam beta patch sub forum whenever something changes.
When we're satisfied that everything's working properly and that you guys like the changes, it will go live as patch 5.3.4 and I will update this announcement's title with the date this patch goes live.
Enjoy!
-Wald
Edit: 13 October 2023 - There was a miscommunication between the devs and I, which was my fault. This is not in fact a small patch and a beta patch but actually just one substantial beta patch.