Axis & Allies 1942 Online News

Today we're releasing Patch #9 for Axis & Allies 1942 Online!

The update includes a number of bug fixes, especially around Observer Mode and Online Games— plus improved server stability. Read on for full details!

[h2]Patch Notes[/h2]

[h3]Bug Fixes & Improvements[/h3]

• [Create Custom Game] - Visual improvements made to separate Computer Players and better distinguish between the Axis & Allies powers during Power Selection
  
• [Aircraft Carrier/Fighters] - Resolved more issues involving Aircraft Carriers and Fighter edge cases, and improved performance while landing Aircraft
  
• [Observer Mode] - Resolved an issue where players watching another player during Observer Mode would become de-synced
  
• [Observer Mode] - When following an AI player take their turn in offline mode (Single Player/Hot Seat), the AI will now wait for the player to load into the Combat Board before starting its actions for Combat.
  
• Note: You can adjust the speed of the AI from Settings > Gameplay.
  
• [Performance] - Resolved a bug where players occasionally could not progress to the next phase
  
• Networking] - Resolved a number of issues where games were not automatically forfeiting after the game timer expired

Dear friends,

Axis & Allies 1942 Online just celebrated six months in Early Access! We’ve heard from Axis & Allies fans all around the globe: your cheers, your woes, your bug reports, and your feedback. We’re hugely grateful to everyone helping us make this game the best way to play Axis & Allies (beyond the tabletop).
Thank you!

Of course, our launch wasn’t without challenges. Since July, our valiant dev team launched an aggressive assault on bugs, and bolstered server infrastructure to defend against crashes. They also added major features to the core game, including competitive gameplay, a new starting variant, and overall polish.

The work is far from over, but we’re proud of our progress to date. Check out Patch #8 Notes here, and read on for highlights from six months of Early Access!

Sincerely,


Cody Ouimet
Producer, Axis & Allies 1942 Online

P.S. Never miss an update— join our Newsletter, and follow us on Twitter and Facebook!


[h2]Features at Launch: July 31, 2019[/h2]

• Digital adaptation of Axis & Allies 1942 Second Edition
  
• Learn-to-Play Tutorials
  
• Online Multiplayer
  
• Offline Single Player
  
• AI players for single and multiplayer
  
• Hotseat
  

[h2]Features Added During Early Access (So Far)[/h2]
Server Stability & Speed

• After a bumpy start, we've vastly improved the servers
  
• Gameplay is now stable and speedy
  

Bugs Squashed

• 1,012 bugs squashed and counting!

New Visuals

• Updated designs for all buttons and in-game windows
  
• Adjusted appearance of North & South America
  
• Combat Speed: added options to disable combat animations
  
• Arrow Design: No more spaghetti arrows!
  
• Clean, smooth arrows display your planned movements
  
• Check out our new trailer for a preview:
  

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Ranking & Matchmaking

• We added ranked games— practice up, because the competition is fierce!
  
• Rankings include:
  
  1. Platinum
     
  2. Gold
     
  3. Silver
     
  4. Bronze
     
  5. Wood (this one was controversial)
     
• Play five ranked games to get an initial ranking, then work your way to the top or (defend your title)
  
• Matchmaking pairs you with players of similar skill
  

Player Profiles
Check out your stats:

• Allies Ranking
  
• Allies Win/Loss Ratio
  
• Axis Ranking
  
• Axis Win/Loss Ratio
  
• Custom Games Statistics
  

The Rules

• They matter!
  
• We listened to the community and made some tweaks to align with official rules as written. For example:
  
• No more refunds for non-mobilized units
  
• Choose to ignore unaccompanied enemy submarines / transports
  

Starting Variant

• Axis & Allies creator, Larry Harris, designed a variant starting condition for the 1942 Second Edition, granting Allies a bit more strength at the outset of the game
  
• We've added Larry's variant (...Larriant?) as an optional starting condition
  

AI Improvements

• Smarter robot players!
  
• Note: AI players present a decent challenge for newcomers who want to learn the game. Our robots aren't yet a threat to expert strategists, but we're working on it!
  

Notifications

• Get notifications in-game!
  
• Directly load into the game from the notification
  

Update to Controls

• Added New Left + Right Click controls
  
• Move stacks of units with Shift + Right-Click
  
• Combat: assign all hits with Shift + Left Click
  

[h2]Bonus: Old vs New Arrow Design
[/h2]

Today we're releasing Patch #8 for Axis & Allies 1942 Online! We're also celebrating 6 months in Early Access with a retrospective on our development progress to date!

Patch #8 includes further improvements to AI, and a revamped UI experience for custom games. Read on for full details!

[h2]Patch Notes[/h2]
[h3]New Features[/h3]
AI Improvements

• The Soviet Union AI will now be more aggressive when defending against Japan and Germany
  
• AI will now use Submarines abilities more effectively, submerging and avoiding enemy submarines
  
• AI will now properly defend Transports with Warships
  

New Create Game UI

• The Create Custom Game screen has been streamlined into a single screen, with clearer setup choices
  

[h3]Bug Fixes and Minor Updates[/h3]

• [Rules Implementation] - Resolved issue where players get stuck in mobilization if they purchased more units than they could place as a result of liberating an allied capital, with allied territories reverting to the ally’s control

• [Aircraft Carrier/Fighters] - Resolved an issue where players could get into an illegal state when moving Fighters and Aircraft Carriers

• [Aircraft Carrier/Fighters] - Resolved an issue where a game could crash when automatically landing fighters in certain regions

• [Observer Mode] - Resolved an issue where Observer Mode sound effects were playing the same sound effects as when the player is in control

• [Audio] - Players can now control the volume of the sound effects when in Observer Mode

• [Combat] - When retreating, instructions for player input are now displayed on screen

• [Tutorials] - Players will no longer become blocked from progressing through tutorial 3 when following the instructions

• [Legacy Mode] - Players can now manually enable the Legacy Support mode on their device via the Settings screen. This may lead to better performance for some on lower end hardware

• [Combat] - Resolved issue where clicking too fast before an animation had finished would result in a crash

• [AI] - Resolved various crashes and issues with the AI, both online and offline

• [Game Names] - We've added more variants to the auto generated game names for Ranked games

Hello commanders!

A Hot Fix is coming to Axis & Allies 1942 Online today! This should solve a few issues we’ve been seeing since the last patch:

- Fix for transports resetting their positions in some circumstances
- Prospective fix for some ranked matches not automatically forfeiting
- Prospective fix for some ranked matches not properly appearing in the finished games

Note: ***There will be a brief outage at 11 pm PST / 7:00 PM UTC to 12 pm PST / 8 pm UTC***

Hello friends,

Patch #7 for Axis & Allies 1942 Online arrives today!

***Please note: there will be a short outage between 1-2 pm PST, Jan 22, 2020***

We've been working on a sweeping set of changes to transform our AI computer players into better opponents and teammates. This patch includes the first phase of our AI strategy improvements— plus UI updates, bug fixes and new features. Read on for full patch notes.

[h2]PATCH #7 NOTES[/h2]
[h3]New Features and Improvements[/h3]
- AI Strategy Improvements:

• AI players are better at reacting to game events and shifting goals
  
• AI players are better at executing team goals
  
• AI players are better at supporting teammates
  
• AI players use transports more effectively (specifically Japan, UK, & USA)

- Rules Implementations

• Players must now deploy all purchased units during the Mobilization phase. IPC will no longer be refunded for undeployed units
  
• Choose to ignore or engage enemy transports/submarines located in the same sea zone as your units at the start of your turn

1. By default, the game will treat enemy transports/submarines as “Hostile”
   
2. To ignore enemy transports/submarines:
   -Click on the relevant sea zone
   -Click on the “dossier” tab in the bottom left corner of the screen, or press “e”
   -Change the toggle below the Sea Zone name from “Hostile” to “Friendly”
   
3. You are no longer required to move your units out of the sea zone during Combat Move to avoid engaging enemy transports/submarines. Units starting in a hostile sea zone can now make Noncombat Moves

• Choose to ignore or engage enemy transports/submarines in a sea zone during amphibious assaults and bombardments

1. By default, the game will treat enemy transports/submarines as “Hostile”
   
2. To ignore enemy transports/submarines:

-Click on the relevant sea zone
-Click on the “dossier” tab in the bottom left corner of the screen, or press “e”
-Change the toggle below the Sea Zone name from “Hostile” to “Friendly”
-Mark the region friendly prior to moving units into the sea zone

New UI Elements

• Updated buttons and menu visuals to improve readability of game UI
  
• Tooltips appear when required info is missing or invalid on a game creation window
  
• When loading units to transports, players will now see an arrow from the starting region to
• the diamond icon (destination marker) to indicate the action
  
• Diamond icons (destination markers) have colored edges to showcase type(s) of movement to a region:

1. Blue: Sea Units
   
2. Red: Air Units
   
3. Yellow: Land Units
   
4. White: Bombardments

• When players make incomplete or invalid movements, the units and diamond icons for that movement will now flash

Cancelling Unit Action Improvements

• Unit Movements can now be cancelled by pressing SHIFT+Right Click on the Unit Stack
  
• Cancel individual land units loaded to a transport stack, without cancelling loaded units for all transports in the stack. To do this:

1. Click on the transport stack on the map
   
2. Open the “dossier” in the bottom left corner of the screen
   
3. Hover over the unit you wish to unload and click the red “X”

Engine Improvements

• Players with unsupported hardware configurations who were able to play the game prior to Patch #5, should now be able to play again with our newly updated engine
  
• Linux Players: We are still encountering issues with certain Nvidia hardware and drivers with Axis & Allies 1942 Online currently. Linux players with affected hardware will be able to play again through our Legacy Renderer until we resolve the core problem

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]

• [Automatic Aircraft Landing] - Resolved crash caused by players or AI attempting to automatically land unlanded planes
  
• [Aircraft Carriers/Fighters] - Resolved an issue where players could move fighters and aircraft carriers into positions that break game rules
  
• [Movement] - Resolved an issue where movements taking units out of and back into a starting region in a single move could not be cancelled
  
• [Finished Games] - Resolved an issue where finished games wouldn’t properly appear in the Player Profile
  
• [Finished Games] - Win ratio percentage for ranked games no longer calculates based off of all games played
  
• [Launch] - Game will no longer become stuck when loading into a game with a corrupted game state
  
• [Game Saves] - Saved games no longer become corrupted due to system activities
  
• [Unit Placement] - Resolved issue where certain units overlapped with Industrial Complex’s too much
  
• [Performance] - Resolved memory leaks and fixed more issues where players were encountering black screens, units disappearing from the combat board or other crashes after a short play session
  
• [Notifications] - Servers will no longer be affected by multiple unread Notifications in the database
  
• [Notifications] - Notifications are now capped at 100 notifications. Older notifications will be removed to make room for new notifications after the cap has been reached
  
• [Notifications] - Players who declined a game invite will no longer receive notifications that “The game has started without you!”
  
• [Online AI] - Resolved issue where the online AI wouldn’t take its turn
  
• [Movement] - Resolved issues where tanks could not Combat Move through friendly territories to attack hostile regions
  
• [Transports] - Resolved issue where Transports would “teleport” back to original sea zone after the combat phase
  
• [Transports] - Resolved issue where Transports could not pick up units from certain regions and islands
  
• [Movement] - Mass moving Fighters/Bombers will no longer cause under-fueled units to travel farther than capable
  
• [Map] - World Map will no longer only partially show up when returning to the Game Board from combat