Axis & Allies 1942 Online News

Hello Commanders,

Back in December we sent out a survey asking for your feedback on the dice in Axis & Allies 1942 Online. Your response was phenomenal— more than 2,900 players shared their thoughts and advice!

Huge thanks to all the Axis & Allies fans who filled out the survey. Please know we’re listening and taking your feedback seriously. Your answers will affect how we move forward with development.

Take a look at the Dice Survey results, and let us know if anything surprised you!

[h2]Dice Survey Results[/h2]
[h3]1. Do you agree with this statement? "When I attack with many high powered units there should be some guaranteed hits in my rolls."[/h3]

About half of you agree, and half disagree that attacks with many high powered units should result in some guaranteed hits.

[h3]2. Do you agree with this statement? "I HATE it when there are extremely lopsided dice rolls multiple times in a single game."[/h3]

This response was clearer: most of you agree that you HATE it when you get extremely lopsided dice rolls multiple times in a single game.

[h3]3. Do you agree with this statement? "It's fun when combat rolls create unexpected results!"[/h3]

Too many unexpected results aren’t fun, but responses to this question show that random, unexpected rolls are still essential to the game.

[h3]4. Do you agree with this statement? "Bombing Raids are unfair in Axis & Allies 1942 Online— bombers are shot down much more frequently than a 1 in 6 chance."[/h3]

It’s a pretty clear message here: the bombing raids feel unfair to half of our players.

[h3]5. Axis & Allies 1942 Online currently has 2 dice modes. What would your ideal dice be like?[/h3]
About half of you voted for completely random dice, while a good 30% of players prefer a Low Luck option (with some guaranteed hits based on average rolls).

We’re incredibly grateful to all of you who took time to share your thoughts with us. You’ve done your part— now it’s on us to use your feedback to improve Axis & Allies 1942 Online!

We’ll be sending out more surveys to shape our development path, so stay tuned for details on our Facebook, Twitter, Newsletter, and in-game announcements.

Sincerely,
The Beamdog Team

Hello Commanders,

Huge thanks to everyone who shared their thoughts on the new Stabilized Dice mode!

We're still working on getting this just right— so we're asking a few more questions in a new survey🎲!

Tell us what your ideal dice for Axis & Allies 1942 Online would be like? Your opinions will help shape the future of the game!

Thanks again for your enthusiasm and support. We'll see you on the battlefield!

Sincerely,

The Beamdog Team

P.S.
We know you’d like more technical details on our dice modes.
We’ve heard you!
We will share those technical details in the new year.

Attention Commanders:
Patch 14 for Axis & Allies 1942 Online arrives today!
Today's patch adds stability improvements, bug fixes, plus a major new feature: Stabilized Dice mode for custom games!
We know dice-rolls have been a pain point for many players. We're hopeful today's update will address some of your concerns, while staying true to the spirit of the board game. Huge thanks to our amazing community for your continued support and enthusiasm as we work to make Axis & Allies 1942 Online the best it can be!
Read on for full patch notes— and details on the Stabilized Dice mode rolling out today...
[h3]Patch Highlights[/h3]
🎲Stabilized Dice for Custom Games
🛡️Defense Profiles can now be set differently for each power
🤝Friends List improvements
*Outage Notice: Please expect an outage on Monday, November 23 from 10 am PT - 12 pm PT while we implement the patch.
[h2]Patch Notes[/h2]
[h3]Stability & Polish[/h3]

• Added improvements to game stability
  
• Increased saves in local games to improve performance
  
• Added various bug fixes

[h3]Friends List[/h3]

• Added ability to unfriend users
  
• Fixed loading issue affecting lists with 50+ friends

[h3]Defense Profiles[/h3]

• Added the ability to set different defense profiles for each power

- Defense profiles can be adjusted from the game-lobby or in-game from the options
- This feature will be available for all types (i.e. both custom & ranked games)
*We've added an FAQ about this feature - check it out below!
[h3]Stabilized Dice Option[/h3]

• Added a Stabilized Dice Option for custom online, hotseat & single player games

- Stabilized Dice will be the default option for custom online games & single player games
- The dice mode selected during game-creation will apply to all combat rolls for that game

• Ranked games will continue to use the Standard Dice mode at this time

*We've added an FAQ about this feature - check it out below!
[h2]FAQ - Stabilized Dice | Axis & Allies 1942 Online[/h2]
[h3]Why are we adding a new dice mode?[/h3]
There’s been a ton of discussion in our community around dice rolls. We’ve heard you, and we understand that the randomness of the dice just doesn’t feel right.
Common feedback on the dice includes:

• Industrial Complexes in Strategic Bombing Raids feel like they disproportionately roll hits on Bombers.
  
• “Low percentage” plays (i.e. where an outcome that is highly unlikely) seem to happen more often than expected— especially in the context of Round 1 Russia/Germany actions.

Players plan combat moves based on probabilities, so when those plans don't conform to expectations it’s understandably frustrating.
Based on your feedback, we've added a “Stabilized Dice” option for custom games. Our goal is for the combat to feel satisfying and strategic while staying true to the element of chance at the heart of the board game. *Standard Dice mode will still currently be available for those who prefer to live and die by the unforgiving RNG gods!
[h3]What are Stabilized Dice?[/h3]
Stabilized dice are an alternative method of random number generation. This dice mode will still be random, but will control for extreme outcomes, and should feel more natural as a result. Our objective is to allow player strategy to play a larger part in the overall game by reducing the chances that dice can swing a whole game in a single roll.
Does this mean you will never see a completely lopsided result? No. We’re not removing the ability for this result to occur, but we are making it less likely going forward.
✔️Stabilized Dice mode reduces the frequency of low-percentage rolls
✔️Players should see fewer battles with extreme results
❌Stabilized Dice mode does not aggregate or group together unit rolls
❌Stabilized Dice mode does not reduce the number of dice rolled in any battles
We want to hear your thoughts on this exciting new feature! If you love it, or you’re running into weird results— we want to know!
Please share your thoughts with us in our Dice Survey here.
[h3]How do I change the dice mode?[/h3]
In the create game dialog, you’ll find a new tab labelled “Dice Mode.” On the Dice Mode tab you can toggle between the Standard Dice mode (the original dice mode) and Stabilized Dice (new dice mode).
By default, all custom games (including online, hotseat, and single player) will now be set to stabilized dice, but the game owner can change this to their preferred method.
Please note that Stabilized Dice are not currently available for Ranked Games.
[h3]Is the Stabilized Dice mode available for all game types?[/h3]
No. Stabilized Dice are supported for custom online games, and offline hotseat and single player games, but the mode is not available for Ranked Games at this time. Ranked Games will continue to use Standard Dice for the time being. The feedback we hear from the community will guide our decisions on whether or not to add Stabilized Dice to Ranked Games.
Share your thoughts on the new dice mode in our Dice Survey here.
[h3]Do Stabilized Dice affect all rolls in a game?[/h3]
Yes. If the option is selected at game creation, all rolls (including AI rolls) use the same generation method whenever a roll is required.
[h3]Can I change this option mid-game?[/h3]
No. Dice modes must be selected during game creation, and cannot be changed once the game starts.
[h3]I still lost a completely lopsided battle that was in my favour! What gives?[/h3]
This is still entirely something that can happen. Axis & Allies is a game about both risk management, and about miracles—or tragedies— of chance. These should happen less frequently in the Stabilized Dice mode, but they're still going to be a possibility.
Stabilized Dice are still in development. Share your thoughts on the new dice mode in our Dice Survey here.
[h2]FAQ - Defense Profiles | Axis & Allies 1942 Online[/h2]
[h3]What changes are being made to the defense profile system?[/h3]
With the new patch, you’ll be able to change what defense profile each of your powers uses. For example, if you control both the United Kingdom and the United States, you’ll be able to set a different profile for each power to use.
[h3]Is this available in all games?[/h3]
Yes! This feature is available for all game types.
[h3]Does changing a profile for a power affect all games where I control that power?[/h3]
No. For example, if you control the Soviet Union in one game, changing the defense profile for the Soviet Union there will not affect any other games where you control the Soviet Union.
[h3]What is the maximum number of defense profiles I can have?[/h3]
Currently, 6. We’re open to increasing this in the future if there’s demand, so let us know!

Hello friends,

Four months ago, we launched Season 2 of Axis & Allies 1942 Online— introducing fresh leaderboards and adjustments to the ladder ranks. Since this launch, we've seen a tremendous response and expansion to our competitive community. It’s been exciting to watch the progress of the game’s competitive players, and we're extremely grateful to all of you for your enthusiasm and support.

Today, I’m excited to share details on Patch 13: Season 3 of Axis & Allies 1942 Online. With this patch we will:

• Launch Season 3 of Competitive Play
  
• Reset the Leaderboards
  
• Focus on Stability & Bug Fixes

I’d also like to share some insights into what the future holds for Axis & Allies 1942 Online— in particular, some plans for dice development. We know there have been long-running concerns about the dice rolls, and we have a few ideas how we might address this.

***Please expect an outage between 1pm - 2pm PT, September 24, 2020. ***


Patch 13 resets all player rankings, kicking off Season 3 with a fresh start. Congratulations to our Season 2 Platinum-Ranked players!
Season 2 Highlights:

• Competitive players increased by more than 100%!
  
• Thanks to the changes introduced at the start of Season 2, we saw a healthier distribution of players across all ranks.
  
• We saw much more movement and variety in the Platinum tier— partly due to the increase in players, and partly due to the rank decay feature. It was not uncommon to see new players enter/exit Platinum throughout the entire season.

[h2]PATCH NOTES[/h2]

[h3]FEATURES AND IMPROVEMENTS[/h3]

• Complete Rollover to Season 3

- Player ranks will reset to base rankings
- Players will need to participate in placement matches

• Players may now view multiple seasons worth of records from the Player Profile via a drop down menu.
  
• Historical Win/Loss data is now viewable for previous seasons

- Please note: Due to Patch #11 in May, we no longer have the historical win/loss data for Season 1. We apologize for the inconvenience. Season 2 ranks will be preserved and viewable in the Player Profile.
[h3]BUG FIXES[/h3]

• Resolved error for “Unhandled Rejection Error committing phase: PHASE_COMMIT_ERROR_CRASHING_AIRCRAFT_COULD_BE_SAVED.”
  
• Resolved error for “Carriers under construction not properly recognized as landing spots when mobilizing from different factories into the same region”
  
• Resolved error for “URE may fire for Cannot read property 'game' of null”
  
• Resolved error for “Error message: Unhandled Rejection Cannot read property 'moves' of undefined.”
  
• Resolved error for “URE may fire for getChildAt: Index (0) does not exist.”
  
• Users can no longer interact with ICs in purchase menu in Observer mode
  
• Resolved error for “"You cannot repair an IC you do not own" Error when playing against the AI.
  
• Resolved error for “URE Fires for Error in GameControllerAdapter.doCombatRoll.”
  
• Resolved error for “URE fires for Error sending doCombatRoll with args ...”
  
• Resolved error for “URE fires for BoardController renderStage variable is null”

[h2]DICE & AXIS & ALLIES[/h2]
There’s been a ton of discussion in our community around dice rolls. We’ve heard you, and we understand that the randomness of the dice just doesn’t feel right.

Our goal is for the combat to feel satisfying and strategic while staying true to the element of chance at the heart of the board game. So, based on community feedback, our development team is working on a “Stabilized Dice” option for the game.

What does Stabilized Dice Mean?

Stabilized Dice will still be random, but will control for extreme outcomes, and should feel more natural as a result. Our objective is to allow player strategy to play a larger part in the overall game by reducing the chances that dice can swing a whole game in a single roll.

Under Construction

We’re currently in the testing phase for this new dice option, but we’re looking forward to releasing the new dice mode in a future update!

[h2]UI OVERHAUL[/h2]
The team has been working on a major overhaul to the UI system, designed to bring more control and clarity to the game. Our hope is that these changes will improve the game for existing players, and make it much easier for new players to jump into the world of Axis & Allies 1942 Online. We’re not ready to showcase the new UI just yet, but you can rest assured that we’ve got some significant changes coming down the pipeline!

[h2]FAREWELL TO CODY OUIMET[/h2]
All of this brings me to my final announcement today, which is that I will be departing Beamdog at the end of September, 2020. Although I'll be sad to leave such an incredible team, I've made the tough decision to pursue some exciting new adventures.

It has been an absolute pleasure to work alongside the talented team of developers, artists, designers, and quality assurance professionals during my time at the studio. It has been my honor to collaborate with you, the community, to keep making the game the best it can be.

Rest assured that Axis & Allies 1942 Online is in good hands. Beamdog's veteran developers are joined by some extremely talented new game designers and programmers— I can't wait to follow future development as an avid fan. Huge thanks to everyone who has contributed to the development of this legendary game over the past year.

See you on the battlefield,

Cody Ouimet

Producer, Axis & Allies 1942 Online


For those of you who are interested in the technical side of our dice investigations, here’s a deeper dive for you.

Axis & Allies 1942 Online uses a fairly common PRNG called XorShift128+ to randomize its dice rolls (for more details on XorShift128+, check out our previous post on the topic).

In January 2020, we began to experiment with other algorithms— internally we were confident in our RNG system, but based on community feedback, we wanted to see if there were better options. Over the course of the Winter and early Spring, we compared three major PRNG algorithms:

• Xorshift128+
  
• PCG
  
• MersenneTwister

All three systems returned similar internal test results (which was the expected outcome).

Next, to help us verify whether or not we had a flaw in our game’s implementation of Xorshift128+, we decided to create a live, in-game experiment. With the release of each patch since February 2020, we’ve alternated between different PRNG systems to monitor whether the community feedback around the dice changed at all.

Community feedback remained relatively constant throughout the changes to different PRNG systems. As of Patch 12, we have rolled the PRNG system back to the original XorShift128+ algorithm, as it appeared to be the most stable of the three options.

As mentioned above, our development team is working on a Stabilized Dice option that controls for extreme outcomes. Stay tuned for more details on this...

Thanks again for your enthusiasm and support— now it’s back to the trenches for us!

Greetings Commanders! Today we release Patch #12 for Axis & Allies 1942 Online!

This patch focuses primarily on bug fixes and online stabilization, plus a minor rework of the new Destination Markers introduced last patch. As always, a huge thanks goes out to the community for your continued support and engagement!

Patch Highlights:

• UI Improvements to Destination Markers
  
• Performance Improvements to Online Co-op with AI
  
• Big focus on bug fixes, including squashing the bug that occasionally caused phase skips

***Please expect a 30 minute outage at 10 am PT.***

Read on for full details!

[h2]PATCH #12 NOTES[/h2]
[h3]Major Items[/h3]
- Improvements to the Destination Markers

• We’ve heard your feedback, and have re-introduced the total count of units moving into a region within the Destination Markers
  
• We’ve also reintroduced the colour coding on the outside of the Marker to indicate the type of units moving into a region
  
• More changes are still to come with our UI rework, so stay tuned!

- Online Cooperative Play vs. the AI

• Since the start of the COVID-19 global pandemic, we’ve noticed a number of concerning issues with how our Online AI was structured when players were playing in an online co-op game with or against the AI
  
• Last patch we significantly upgraded our server infrastructure, which has allowed us to develop more permanent fixes to the Online Co-op AI issues
  
• We have introduced the following changes and fixes for our Online AI system:

1. Multiple AI instances running concurrently
   -Players should now experience a much more robust and smoother gameplay while playing with online AI— involving a much faster AI
   -If the AI instance you are running on encounters an error, a new instance will immediately be started to pick up where the previous left off
   -Online queues for the AI should be processed much faster, resulting in little to no wait time for the AI to take its turn
   -The Online AI will now be able to dynamically scale up/down as demand for it changes.
   
2. Changes to how the Online AI handles errors
   -If the Online AI does encounter an error, like one brought about by a sudden disconnect from the server, the AI will no longer put the game at the back of the queue to try again; instead it will revert back to its last server-verified action and resume play immediately
   
3. Stability enhancements to the Online AI
   -We’ve made numerous stability enhancements to the Online AI, meaning that players will see significantly fewer server desync issues and an overall more stable and fun experience when playing with the Online AI.

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

• [Notifications] - Reimplement notifications for pending invites sent to players
  
• Movement arrow didn't get cleaned up after Combat
  
• [AI] - Error in GameController.moveUnit: Unit is not alive or does not exist (land aircraft)
  
• Text on Invitation screen disappears when a user is selected
  
• Name Identifier Not Being Updated When User Logs In
  
• [AI] - AI will not die if games do not have a state
  
• [Autolander] - Numerous Autolander fixes when players or the AI are attempting to use it.
  
• [Main Menu] - Game Lists Not Being Displayed For Some Users
  
• [Map Notes] - Fix desync when acknowledging map notes
  
• [AI] - Make every possible action the AI can take time out after 10 seconds
  
• [Online Status] - Online Status is inconsistent for each person
  
• [Error Handling ] - Player’s will no longer experience skipped phases after reloading the game due to an error
  
• [Ranked Games] - Fix some expired ranked games are not ended when a forfeiter is added.
  
• [AI] - Make the AI capable of surviving server errors
  
• [AI] - Fix for the AI Throwing CRASHING_AIRCRAFT_CAN_BE_SAVED On US Final Round
  
• [Game Lobby] - Player is unable to manually start online games
  
• [AI] - Ensure the AI will not retake it's own turn if the server takes a while to process commands
  
• [Stability] - Fixes for the many “BUCKET || Error: Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'moves' of undefined.” errors players were encountering
  
• [Stability] - Fixes for the many BUCKET || Unhandled Rejection Error applying remote action for doCombatRoll to the client” errors players were encountering
  
• [Map Notes] - Map notes are being sent into the arctic and are never seen again
  
• [Stability] - Fixes for the many “Bucket || Error: powers that don't own their capital can't purchase units.” errors players were encountering
  
• [Stability] - Fixes for the many “Bucket || Unhandled Rejection Error sending assignHitsOnAttacker with args” errors players were encountering
  
• [Stability] - Fixes for the many “Bucket || Unhandled Rejection Cannot read property 'rollDice' of null.” errors players were encountering
  
• [Stability] - Fixes for the many “Bucket || Unhandled Rejection Error sending phaseCommit with args to the server” errors players were encountering
  
• [Stability] - Fixes for the many “Bucket || Unhandled Rejection Cannot read property 'flyDice' of null” errors players were encountering
  
• [Stability] - Fixes for the many “Bucket || Unhandled Rejection Error committing phase: PHASE_COMMIT_ERROR_CRASHING_AIRCRAFT_COULD_BE_SAVED.” errors players were encountering
  
• [Stability] - Fixes for the many “Bucket || Unhandled Rejection Cannot read property 'userUUID' of undefined.” errors players were encountering
  
• [Stability] - Fixes for the many “Bucket || Unhandled Rejection Cannot read property 'position' of null.” errors players were encountering
  
• [Stability] - Fixes for the many “Bucket || Error in GameControllerAdapter.moveUnit” errors players were encountering
  
• [Stability] - Fixes for the many “Bucket || Error sending placePurchasedUnit with args” errors players were encountering
  
• [Online Games] - kick action not working
  
• [UI] - Attempting to move more units than are available to a territory causes a URE to fire
  
• [Map Notes] [AI] - The AI isn't actually removing its mapnotes
  
• [AI] - Resolved issue where AI saw game start but didn't put it into the processing list, leaving the player waiting indefinitely
  
• [AI] - Server seems to stop emitting events after ai started as soviets
  
• [Create Game] - Cannot invite other players to Private Online games on Staging
  
• [AI] - Online AI regularly causes Desync reloads for human players
  
• [AI] - AI doesn’t transition from game to game properly
  
• [AI] - AI fails noncombat moves and errors out in online game
  
• [AI] - AI sometimes doesn't put purchased unit into purchasedUnits list
  
• [Stability] - URE fires for Cannot read property 'game' of null
  
• [Stability] - Fixes for the many “Bucket || Error: compressedImageParser issues players were encountering
  
• [Stability] - Fixes for the many “URE fires for Error: Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'current' of null.
  
• [Steam Client] hotseat/singleplayer change the way the gamestate is being saved to accommodate for slower hard disk drives or other potential hardware issues
  -NOTE: Single Player/Hot Seat games are now saved on a 1-minute timer OR when a player manually exits the game or returns to the main menu.
  
• [Server] - Find a way to prevent race conditions caused by forfeits.
  
• [AI] - Update how the AI handles games that get an error
  
• [Stability] - URE on Phase Commit when it times out due to bad connection