Forum > Games Discussion
On The Western Front
Asid:
Update - May 26
Wed, May 27, 2020
Hi all,
Several notable updates this time round. First and foremost, weather is now scaled. This affects movement for infantry and observation for pilots accordingly. Additionally, rates of sickness and damage to trenches during heavy rains are affected by weather scaling.
Another new addition is the addition of overall artillery upgrades.
This slightly modifies the ability of artillery as the game goes on, so that different nations have varying artillery capabilities.
Movement - Determines the movement speed of artillery units.
Damage - Determines damage done to structures, as well as casualties inflicted upon infantry units in the open.
Rate of Fire - Determines number of tiles attacked when bombarding an area. Since only a portion of an attacked area is actually hit per game tick, high rate of fire can provide an advantage.
Range - Determines attack range of artillery batteries.
Also, a new popup that displays unit composition is now available from both the unit details popup when a unit is selected and the Order of Battle screen. For the most part it's just flavour, but you will be able to see artillery attributes from this popup as well.
Bugfixes/Changes:
• Order delay is now shown in detail, allowing you to see the breakdown in how the distances of HQ units affects it.
• Passive upgrades now take some time to be distributed to units in the field.
• There is now a popup dialog that appears next to the unit's name when selected. This shows the weapons possessed by the unit, as well as any passive upgrades. This information also shows up when selecting units in the Order of Battle screen.
• Passive unit upgrades, such as gas masks and helmets, are now determined per unit rather than instantly across the whole division when unlocked. This means it takes time to distribute them to relevant units.
• Added an upgrade for steel helmets.
• Fixed bug in which units from multiple scheduled orders would return to the same location regardless of where their targeted tiles were.
• Command range of all units has been increased.
• Base movement speed of all units has been increased.
• Fixed crash when viewing status of reserve units from HQ screen.
• Weather and fog are now scaled. This affects movement for infantry and observation for pilots accordingly.
• Time of day and fog now causes a subtle overlay and color effect which might help with easily identifying both of these things.
• Cancelling orders now works for moving units. Previously it would only cancel the unit's intended action, but not the underlying move order.
• Enemy offensives used to lag the game dramatically, which forced me to stagger the assaults and stretch them out over unrealistic durations. I've tweaked the the pathfinding logic for enemy offensives so that enemy offensives are a lot more instantaneous.
• Previously, artillery units would also charge during enemy offensives. This no longer happens.
• Help text has been updated.
Thanks for playing!
Asid:
Optimization - June 2
Tue, 2 June 2020
Hi all,
Relatively quick turnaround on this update due to me wanting to push another optimization which I think will improve playability, as well as fixing some fairly serious bugs with underground construction and mine-setting.
Bugfixes/Changes:
• More optimizations, which should increase FPS.
• Fixed crash bug when setting and detonating mines underground.
• Fixed issues with underground unit visibility when reloading saved games.
• Fixed bug in which underground mines and tunnels would not properly load from a saved game, causing broken paths underground.
• Cancelling a Go On Leave order via an HQ units now properly cancels the order for all subordinate units as well.
• Slider lock for supply priority now persists even when dragging the slider manually. Previously the lock would prevent movement when toggling other sliders, but you could still toggle the locked slider itself.
• Damage reduction from machine gun fire (including those mounted on "Female" tanks) now begins at a closer distance, rendering machine gun fire less effective earlier.
• Fixed bug in which charging cavalry were somehow not being detected by the enemy even on open ground.
• Setting mines is now an order which requires you to drag over an area rather than selecting a single tile at a time. Defusing mines, however, remains an order in which you select tiles one at a time.
• Fixed bug in which weapon names were not being stored properly, causing them to change each time the unit was selected.
Thanks for playing!
Asid:
Update - June 13
Hi all,
A couple of requested features are now in the game. Field artillery and machine gun units can be placed on anti-air duty. Only artillery pit tiles are eligible to be used for anti-air duty. If there are none in the selected area, the order will not be issued. Units on anti-air duty will essentially mask their area of responsibility, making it more difficult for observers to reveal the tiles, as well as damaging any ground attack aircraft that target any tiles within the area.
Additionally, new mission types are available in the aerodrome screen.
Observation missions are the same as before - pilots will attempt to observe enemy positions and structures from the air. The difference is that escorts can no longer be paired with reconnaissance planes, only as part of separate Air Superiority sorties.
Balloon Attack and Ground Attack missions are only available to sorties consisting entirely of fighter planes. Balloon attack missions focus on engaging enemy balloons if present, and enemy pilots if not.
Ground attack missions focus on attacking enemy ground units, which may cause casualties, but primarily affect readiness and morale. If ground units are carrying supplies, they may lose some when attacked from the air. You must drag over an area to attack, and any open ground tiles without enemy units on them will be ignored.
Bugfixes/Changes:
• Anti-air orders are now available.
• Anti-air, artillery spotting, and adding cables now options as delegated tasks for your Intelligence officer.
• Air sorties are now broken down into mission type. Fighter escorts can no longer be assigned to observation sorties, they must instead be assigned to separate air superiority missions.
• Added "soft factors" by changing the previous Supply levels button in the top-right of the screen to allow for different supply types and attributes. Also changed the method in which units are coloured when toggling the various buttons in the top-right of the screen to make it more obvious.
• Optimized cavalry charges, so that there is less lag when ordering multiple cavalry units to charge.
• Reduced some of the morale and readiness regain/loss rates for certain commander traits.
• Line of fire in terrain is now possible, but only at close distances. This allows units to fire into and out of forests, for instance, rather than having to resort to melee.
• Fixed bug in which player trenches would get rushed by enemy HQs.
• Fixed bug in which unit weapons would be duplicated when reloading.
• Tweaked pathfinding to reduce periods of intense lag, usually when the enemy AI was calculating supply lines all at once.
• Added new river variations.
• Tweaked river crossings to reduce lag that would arise when pathfinding algorithm failed.
• Fixed strange pathfinding bug when units were ordered to attack, which would cause them to step out of the trenches first.
• Fixed bug in which units caught in barbed wire would jump or teleport back to where they started.
• Artillery batteries sent on leave now no longer need to retreat to a rear supply tile. This should cut down on the lag encountered when sending entire battalions of artillery on leave.
Thanks for playing!
Asid:
Update - June 19
Hi all,
This patch updates the tutorials and fixes the ones that were blocked. However, this update also fixes the Build issue several of you were having, hence the quick turnaround.
Bugfixes/Changes:
• Crossing wire penalty is less severe for light wire.
• Fixed bug in which Medical units prioritized returning to cover before stretcher bearing, which made them unable to grab wounded men in open ground.
• Fixed bug in which Build orders were being overridden by repair orders.
• Fixed bug in which plane reassignment wasn't working.
• Added ability to skip tutorial steps.
• Fixed some blocking bugs that would prevent completion of some tutorials.
• Updated some tutorials to take into account new gameplay elements.
• Tutorials will now highlight next steps on the screen.
Thanks for playing!
Asid:
First In Deed
Mon, 13 July 2020
Hi all,
I've added the Meuse-Argonne front to the list of possible map types.
The main difference in this map, besides the inclusion of the Americans, is the Meuse river acting as a large barrier between the two lines. The original focus of this map was going to be close-quarters forest combat in the Argonne, but I realized the game wasn't very fun. Reconnaissance was basically non-existent, and the gameplay consisted of simply sending your men blindly forward. Thus I decided to move to the other end of the sector and simulate one of the many crossings over the river Meuse onto the heights of Meuse beyond.
The game starts in 1918 with many upgrades automatically unlocked. If you play as the Americans, offensives happen much more frequently to allow you to be more aggressive. Tanks are automatically available for the Americans, while Flamethrowers are automatically unlocked for the Germans.
If there's something else you'd like me to add, feel free to let me know!
Bugfixes/Changes:
• Meuse-Argonne map has been added.
• Fixed potential issues in the event of a successful enemy offensive, such as tiles not being claimed properly.
• Bigger raids are more likely to be revealed, placing your units at risk.
• Whether or not units are revealed is now affected by their readiness levels.
• Attack strength is more heavily affected by readiness.
• Fixed bug in which weapon name in Order of Battle screen didn't match the actual primary and secondary weapon names.
• Updated weapon names for tanks.
• Hovering over the number of units attached to a tank will now show a list of unit names.
• Fixed bug with tanks not being able to attack properly.
• Fixed Flamethrower units, which weren't working properly at all.
• Can now use the "Replace" button to add Cavalry battalions on the Eastern Front.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page