All Quiet in the Trenches News

Bugfixes:

• Fixed an error in Death Blamed Story that caused a certain choice to be unavailable
  
• Fixed a crash that could occur when some movement paths were invalid
  
• Fixed an error when successfully completing Recover wounded soldier in trench
  
• Some minor adjustments
  

It's time for the first patch, in which we've fixed a few things you've sent us!

Bugfixes:

• Fixed an error that could occur after a soldier helped another soldier get rid of negative moods
  
• Fixed an error that occurred when loading a new level or exiting the game while the machine gun was firing
  
• Reduced possibility of soldiers giving first aid in awkward positions (e.g. behind a wall or above a trench)
  
• Hotfix for the boundary boxes of the continue button and journal
  
• Minor text adjustments
  

The time has come! The Machine Gun Update 0.8 has now been released.



The core features of this update are:

• Integration of stationary machine guns into the game
• Soldiers can be influenced by moods
• Faster and skippable cutscenes in battle
• New ways to obtain equipment in a battle
• An expanded battle map, new levels, events and stories

Some things to be aware of:
1. Saves from version 0.7.x will no longer work. However, we will continue to make version 0.7.8 available on the Steam Beta Branch for some time.
2. Please note that due to the random selection of some battle levels, it is possible to have a playthrough without specific machine gun logics.
3. Last but not least: As we won't start development on the 0.9 update until next year, we're planning a few more improvements over the next few days in addition to the usual bug fixes.

And here is the list of the full patchnotes:

[h3]Patch Notes 0.8.0[/h3]

Features

• Added machine gun feature:
  - Model MG08 and usable by two soldiers
  - Placed at various positions in certain levels
  - Can be constructed at some positions in the trench
  - Adds danger, stress and suppresses all visible troops in the fire cone
  - Can be used by the player troop, although at way less efficiency
  
  
• Added moods:
  - 10 new attributes that changes morale
  - Soldiers will get moods in several situations
  - Replaces the Positive- and Negative Events attributes
  
  
• Added new ways to get ammunition, bandages and grenades:
  - Possibility to loot dead soldiers
  - Possibility to loot surrendered enemies
  - Possible rewards when giving allied soldiers first aid
  
  
• Added new response options for Karrsbruck after a mission
  
  
• Expanded the battle map in the south-western region
  
• Added 6 new battle levels
  
• Added 7 new stories
  

Improvements / Adjustments

• Added the ability to bring wounded allied soldiers into cover
  
• Changed that separated soldiers within a certain range now always return to the troop when a battle ends (previously, e.g., a wounded soldier could go MIA by chance even if he was only in a nearby area)
  
  
• Improved battle cutscenes to run in parallel, making them generally faster
  
• Improved firing animations in cutscenes
  
• Changed cutscene camera to also highlight rifle shots and artillery impacts
  
• Reduced size of the black border bars in cutscenes
  
• Battle cutscenes now can be skipped after all NPC troop calculations are finished
  
  
• Added blood particle effect
  
• Added blood on uniforms for wounded soldiers
  
• Added 'startled soldier' animation in trench
  
  
• Improved finding positions in an area to reduce the possibility of soldiers getting stuck
  
• Improved selection of default movement order when not allowed to hold position in battle
  
• Improved looting corpses: possibility to fail depending on skill checks
  
  
• Changed sorting of notifications: new notifications now appear at the top
  
• Added notice from soldiers when they have shot an enemy
  
• Added notice from soldiers when the troop is suppressed
  
• Added notice from soldiers when the troop is being flanked
  
• Added notice when harvest starts in the village
  
  
• Small adjustments to the battle map at various points
  
• Changed icon for Feverish
• Some story tweaks and typo fixes
  
• Added 'MG08' loading screen
  

Balancing

• Removed restrictions on forward movement when being flanked or losing a melee battle
  
• Reduced the impact of artillery and grenades by adding a limit to how many soldiers can be wounded at once
  
• Increased the distance for a troop to be too far forward
  
• Increased movement range of separated soldiers (Quick soldiers can now move further than troops)
  
• Changed providing cover fire for separated soldiers to also increase their possible movement range
  
  
• Changed the More Rations reward to apply negative consequences to the rest of the troop immediately, and added chances of negative mood effects when more than one soldier gets more rations (to discourage rewarding all soldiers with better rations instead of increasing the rations for the troop)
  
• Rebalanced Karrsbruck feedback to slightly reduce the difference between winning and losing a battle
  
• Reduced hospital capacity decrease after a battle drastically
  
  
• Reduced chance of trench destruction while Under Artillery Fire
• Reduced the threshold for rebuild destroyed constructions task
  

Bugfixes

• Fixed troops sometimes getting stuck at an area when they spawn too far behind
  
• Fixed Panic sometimes not adding Calm Comrade project
  
• Fixed separated soldiers finishing First Aid resulting in one turn of Take Cover instead of directly retreating or returning to the troop
  
  
• Fixed soldiers getting stress attributes in camp when the battle ends and they are still bleeding
  
• Fixed consequences for Latrine, Laundry, Firewood and Remove Water projects being applied to unavailable soldiers
  
  
• Fixed soldiers that spawn at a later time in a level to not execute certain animations
  
• Fixed dead bodies sometimes falling through the ground
  
• Fixed some trench levels with incorrect artillery display
  
• Fixed wrong animation for soldiers returning to battle after receiving first aid
  
• Fixed barbed wire not throwing shadows
  

We wish you all a good time with the new update!
Your Totally Not Aliens Team

Only a few days left until the release of version 0.8! Today we would like to give you an overview of further improvements that will come with the new update.

Moods

With the new update, we are introducing moods that soldiers can obtain at various points in the game. They replace the previous attributes Positive Events and Negative Events.

Of course, we made sure that there are more negative moods than positive ones!

From left to right:

- Disappointed
- Upset
- Resentful
- Nauseated
- Shaken
- Dejected
- Determined
- Grateful
- Belonging
- Relieved

Moods change morale and remain for a certain period of time until they disappear naturally. A soldier can have several moods.

Expanded map

We have focussed on expanding the south-western area of the map, but also made some minor changes to the existing locations. We have also defined three placeable machine gun locations for Constructions.



Stories

We have added a few new stories that can appear in the diary. The focus of this update was on dealing with the death of soldiers.

Karrsbruck's feedback

Some changes have been made to Lieutenant Karrsbruck's feedback after a battle. There are new situations and the previous situations have been slightly adapted. In general, it is now more about how you behave in the battle and less about whether the battle was won or lost (although this remains the main criteria!).

Visuals

Blood spatter from a wound can occur and wounded soldiers will have blood on their uniform.



Soldiers are startled, e.g. by an artillery strike.



More

Further improvements are coming with the update:

- Improved positioning in an area (should reduce the likelihood of multiple soldiers getting in each other's way)
- Notification of soldiers when they have wounded an enemy or are suppressed
- Some smaller ones, which we will then publish in the patch notes

The time has come!

We can announce a release date for the ‘Machine Gun’ update 0.8. It will be the 12th of December 2024. In addition, we plan not only to release bug fixes but also other minor improvements in the subsequent days before we start developing version 0.9 next year.

Among other things, these patches will include more starting options, in which individual components of the hardcore mode can be selected (e.g. more exhaustion per soldier, no ammunition from French soldiers, etc.).