Axis & Allies 1942 Online News

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We just released Patch #6 for Axis & Allies 1942 Online!

***Axis & Allies 1942 Online will be unavailable from Dec 5, 2019, 9 am - 1 pm PT while we perform the update***

We’ve been listening to your feedback and made a few adjustments to the features introduced in patch 5. Check out the patch notes below for a rundown of new features and fixes in today's update!



New Features and Improvements

Improved Movement Arrows

• Reduced the width and size of movement arrows introduced in Patch 5.
  
• Arrows are 50% thinner
  
• Smoother curves
  
• Arrows take shortest distance to the region
  
• Arrow movement stops just after the border, improving map visibility
  

Click-through Destination Marker (Diamond Icons)

• Added functionality to the destination markers (diamond icons)
  
• Players can click markers to deploy/move units into regions
  
• Destination marker scales down in size when players zoom in
  

Ranked Game Matchmaking visibility

• Added toast-style notifications for ranked matchmaking
  
• Notification remains in lower left-hand corner while players navigate through the Main Menu
  
• Players cancel matchmaking from this notification
  
• Players can enter games from the notification once a match has been found
  

New Default AI Speed

• Reduced the default speed of the AI for new players
  
• Players can adjust the speed of the AI players to their liking by changing it within the Options -> Settings -> Gameplay screen.
  
• Existing players AI speeds will not be changed as a result of this change.
  Please Note: If your AI speed is set to “Fast” or “Very Fast” you will not be able to view live combats for the AI when it is taking its turn.
  

Player Profiles

• Finished Games have been added to the Player Profile.
  
• View the outcomes of your 5 most recent games.
  
• Expand the Finished Game card to see additional details, including who you played with
  
• Ranked Games no longer count towards the Custom games win/loss ratios
  

Unit/Token Placement

• Adjusted unit placement to improve map visibility
  
• Reduced instances of overlapping units
  

Bug Fixes

Memory Leak Fix

• We’ve resolved the issue players were encountering when playing the game that would result in a black screen, units disappearing from the combat board or other crashes occurring after a short play session.

Transport Loading

• We’ve resolved issues where players encountered problems attempting to load units in and around the area of Australia and the Solomon Islands

AI Fixes

• The AI will no longer take 24 hours to complete or start its turn
  
• Various fixes to the AI to provide additional stability when playing the AI

Server-side optimizations and performance increases
Players with supported lower-end video cards should now be able to load the game. Please note: Linux and macOS players with certain Nvidia GPUs may still encounter some issues with loading the game. We are working on increasing compatibility in the near future.
Various crashes during combat and movement phases
Typos when deleting/forfeiting a game

WE NEED YOUR INPUT!

Take our short survey (1-2 min) for a chance to win a Beamdog Steam Key of your choice!

We’ll draw 3 winners from the survey responses. Winners can choose a free Steam Key from Beamdog’s catalog of games & DLC including:

• Axis & Allies 1942 Online
  
• Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition
  
• Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition
  
• Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition
  
• Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition
  
• Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition

Details:

This survey is about Axis & Allies 1942 Online, but we want to hear from everyone whether you’ve played the game or not.

Recently, we released a big patch for Axis & Allies 1942 Online, which included substantial features & fixes, such as New Movement Arrows, Ranked Ladders, Matchmaking, and more.

We’re grateful for all the feedback from our players around the world and we’re eager to hear even more from you!

Take the Survey! (1-2 Min)
You could win a free game

Today we're releasing Patch #5 for Axis & Allies 1942 Online and this one is major!

The patch notes below outline the substantial features and fixes included in today's update— and check out Cody Ouimet's (Producer, Axis & Allies 1942 Online) development letter for a more detailed discussion of this patch, plus future development plans.

• New Movement Arrows

- Visually redesigned movement arrows for Combat Move and Noncombat Move Phases

New Player Controls

- Revamped control scheme that allows for separated selection and action buttons using their mouse or input device
- Revamped movement controls that allow for full stack movements through modifier keys

New Rendering Engine

- New rendering engine that improves performance substantially across a wide variety of hardware

In-Game Notifications

- Players will now receive notifications in game through a new notifications panel on the main menu and in-game.

Ranked Ladders and Matchmaking

- Competitive ladders and matchmaking are now an option when playing online. Note: Matchmaking is only available for ranked play at this time
- Current online games have been rebranded as “Custom Games”
- Layout for game cards for Active Campaigns and Join Custom Games have been adjusted for better readability

Player Profile

- New player profile contains statistics on your ranked and custom games

Tutorial Updates

- Tutorials 1, 2, 3 and 4 have been reworked for the new control and movement arrow systems.

New World Map

- The background art for the World map has been adjusted to give North America (Canada, United States and Mexico) more correct proportions.

Commander Name and Email Change

- We have removed the ability for players to manually change their Commander Name and Emails for the time being while we resolve issues with the system

Custom Movement

- Players can now customize the movement for Tanks and Naval units during the Combat Move Phase

Tooltips and Notifications

- User Error tooltips have been reconfigured into expandable windows

Transport User Experience

- Updated transport controls to quickly load and move stacks of transports

Improvements to retreating and crashes related to retreating to valid retreat zones

Variety of issues where Transports would no longer become selectable, would not allow for custom movement to pick up valid units for drop-off elsewhere or would not load units

Moving Tanks through one territory and into another will no longer result in a crash

Errors and crashes when spamming mouse clicks or hotkeys in large quantities when moving units

Errors and crashes related to the landing of Fighters on certain Aircraft Carriers.

War Diary will now show the correct information for the target player and round

AI Fixes

- We’ve fixed a number of issues with the AI that would result in the AI crashing and not being able to start back up
- German AI will now do more with the Battleship and Transport in the Mediterranean in the early game

Crashes when moving into and out of hostile sea zones

Stranded Defending Fighters will now find valid landing spots before crashing and no longer float in the sea zone

Server-side optimizations and performance increases

Valid Mobilization regions will now highlight when animations are disabled

Windowed Mode - Game will now remember window location correctly

Hello friends,

Since my last developer letter we’ve been hard at work on Axis & Allies 1942 Online, developing exciting new features that we’re pleased to share with you for the first time today:

• New Control System
  
• Redesigned Movement Arrows
  
• Online Ranked Matchmaking
  
• Online Ladders and Leaderboards
  
• Player Profiles and Stats
  
• In-Game Notifications
  
• Redesigned Game Cards
  
• Redesigned Custom Games Screen
  
• Redesigned World Map, and
  
• A new Rendering Engine
  
• Updated Tutorials
  

I’m proud to announce that Patch #5: Turning Point contains all of the above features, in addition to bug fixes and stability improvements.

I want to extend a huge thank you to our community for your continued feedback and support. Our goal through Early Access is to engage with your feedback as we develop our favorite game. Read on for my breakdown of the latest features.


We’ve overhauled the movement arrows, aiming for a more readable and approachable design.

New Arrow Design (Left) vs. Old Arrow Design (Right)

Updated Movement Controls:
* Left-Click: Select / Deselect
- Left-click to select a unit, region or destination marker
- Deselect the selected unit or region with another left-click.

* Right-Click: Action Button
- Right click region to move units during Combat & Non-Combat Movement Phase
- Right click region to mobilize / place units
- Right click region during combat phase to begin combat in that region

* Move Unit Stacks:
- Left Click: select unit stack
- Shift + Right Click on region: Move all units in a stack to the region

* Review Movement Plans:
- Left Click on the diamond icon / destination marker, or Shift + Left Click to open the info panel / dossier.

* Cancel Movements
- Shift + Left Click to open the info panel / dossier in the bottom left (or Left Click on the Diamond Icon). In the dossier, hover over unit you wish to cancel and hit the cancel button.

* Cancel All Movements to a Region
-Shift + Right Click on the diamond icon / destination marker in the region where you want to cancel.

* Load & Move Transports
- Left Click: Select Transport
- Right Click Unit: Load unit to transport. Continue to right click units to load transports in a stack.
- Right Click Region: Move transport and unload units. Continue to right click region to move multiple transports and unload units.

* Move a Specific Transport in a Stack
- Load the transports
- Left Click the diamond icon in the sea zone.
- Left Click the transport you want to move from the dossier (panel) that pops up in the bottom left.
- Right Click a region to move the transport / unload units

* Fast Load Transport Stacks:
- Left Click on transport stack
- Shift Right Click on unit stack to load as many transports as possible in the stack.

* Mobilize Units
- Right click region
- Left click diamond icon / destination marker to review mobilization plans in the dossier (panel in bottom left)
- Cancel mobilized units in the dossier (panel in the bottom left)

* Create Map Note:
- Keyboard shortcut (default key: “n”).
We plan to update map note controls in the future.

Previous Movement Features:

• New arrow created for each unit type moved
  
• Unit tokens move along arrows to the border of their destination
  
• Multiple arrows and units overlap

New Movement Features:

• The arrows are separated and color-coded by unit type

- Land Units: Yellow
- Air Units: Red
- Sea Units: Blue
- Special Unit Movement (Strategic Bombing Raids, Offshore Bombardment, and Amphibious Assault): Thin white line within movement arrow
Movements of the same type (i.e. land, sea, air) merge, rather than overlap.
Arrows move to target destination; unit tokens do not
Numbers at each end of movement arrow indicate how many units are committed to the movement vs. how many remain in the original territory.

• Tanks and Naval Units

- Players can customize unit paths for tanks and naval units.
Combat movement arrows


We’re also pleased to introduce Matchmaking and Ranked Ladders into Axis & Allies 1942 Online. We know there is a competitive A&A community out there who we hope will have fun with our new ranked play.
Matchmaking & Ranked Play

Ranking & Matchmaking
We’ve added a 1v1 competitive mode in a formal ELO system. The ranking system includes five different ranks (Wood, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum). Players must participate in 5 placement matches in order to determine their initial rank. Once ranked, you can select your preferred team (or no preference) and you will be paired with someone of a similar rank.
*Note: Current player win/loss records will have no impact on the ranking ladder.

Ranked Matches Are Timed
In order to keep ranked games moving quickly, we’re introducing stricter timing for these matches. Players will have 24 hours to complete their turn before they are automatically forfeited from the game.

Separate Ladders Per Faction
We’ve separated the ladders for games played as Axis and those played as the Allies. You will receive two separate ranks for matchmaking purposes.

Ranked Games: Larry Harris Gencon v3.0
The starting condition for ranked games will be the Larry Harris Gencon v3.0. Since launch, we have been keeping an eye on statistics for the win and loss ratios for both factions:

• 1942 2nd Edition out of the Box (Online Games)

Allies Win Rate: 35%
Axis Win Rate: 65%

Larry Harris Gencon v3.0 (Online Games)

Allies Win Rate: 45%
Axis Win Rate: 55%
The overall win gap between the two factions is significantly narrower with the Larry Harris Gencon v3.0 compared to the out of the box setup. We feel this represents a fairer and more competitive setup for ranked play.

Player Profiles
You can view your current statistics for both ranked and custom games from your Player Profile. You'll also see details from your five most recently completed games. You can expand game cards to view more information about it.
Note: Statistics from custom games completed prior to the release of this patch will not be included in your profile details.


Updated Custom Games List
The Custom Games will now appear in list form, as will your Active Campaigns. You’ll now be able to review your games at a glance in a cleaner aesthetic.

Redesigned World Map
We’ve adjusted the Axis & Allies 1942 Online map territories to better visually represent their real world counterparts. Our previous design was a direct adaptation of the 1942 2nd Edition board, which was never designed to wrap around or scroll infinitely.
New North America layout

In Game Notifications
Players who opt-out of receiving emails can now choose to receive email notifications of in-game events only. Game notifications will be viewable from both the main menu and a new Notifications button in-game.

Main Menu Notifications

New Rendering Engine
Lastly, we’ve updated our rendering engine, which significantly improves the speed and smoothness of the game. We’ll continue to improve the rendering engine in future development.


Thanks again to all our players. We’re eager to hear your thoughts on the update— we’ll be sending out a feedback survey after the patch goes live, so watch out for that announcement in the coming weeks.

Sincerely,

Cody Ouimet

Producer, Axis & Allies 1942 Online