A small hotfix has been released, fixing a few bugs and balancing issues discovered after the previous release.

Check the changelog for details:

GitHub

See you on the battlefield,
Darklight Games

Keep your eyes open and grab an extra pair of clean underwear: zombies are coming back to the battlefield this Halloween!

At Darklight Games we like to dabble in dark arts, and we couldn't miss out on the opportunity to sneak some spooky stuff into the game once again. This year's Halloween event includes:

• A new map: Haunted Pariserplatz Survival.
  
• Haunted Hattert and Haunted Fury maps making a return.
  
• Unique Halloween vehicle skins and zombie characters (available on Haunted maps).
  
• Spooky zombie voice lines.
  
• And more…

All the unholy content is now available on our servers, and will stay on for an entire week from October 30th to November 7th.




A small groups of soldiers of various nations have found themselves surrounded by hordes of undead Nazis in the middle of Berlin. Will they survive? Who knows, but we're sure it will a hell of a fight!

This is a unique rendition of the old Red Orchestra map where you'll be able to pick your side either as a brain dead zombie or a lucky survivor. Zombies can't use weapons, but they are numerous, and they won't go down from a single shot to the chest. Outnumbered and low on supplies, if survivors want to get out of this doozy alive, their only option is to work together and watch each other's back.



Along with the Halloween event, today marks a new feature release which includes a couple of fresh additions to German arsenal.




When situation was dire, Germans looked abroad for inspiration and came up with this oddly familiar firearm. Meant as a last ditch weapon, this STEN's foreign cousin can be mainly found in the hands of Volkssturmm troops.




A new modification of the ever-present German half-track has arrived. Equipped with a short 7.5cm KwK 37 gun and a paper thin armor, Stummel might find itself outgunned against heavier armored vehicles; nevertheless, it was proven to be highly effective at blasting through fortifications and fighting lightly armored targets.

The Stummel has been added to the following maps:

• Armored Arad Clash
  
• Armored Balaton Clash
  
• Armored Bautzen Clash
  
• Armored Cagny Clash
  
• Armored Celles Clash
  
• Armored Freyneux Advance
  
• Armored Fruhlingserwachen Clash
  
• Armored La Feuillie Clash
  
• Armored Preaux Clash
  
• Barashka Clash
  
• Cambes-En-Plaine Clash
  
• Champs Advance
  
• Cheneux Advance
  
• Fury Clash
  
• Hattert Clash
  
• Kommerscheidt Advance
  
• La Gleize Advance
  
• Nuenen Clash
  
• Ogledow Clash
  
• Putot-en-Bessin Advance
  
• Stavelot Push
  
• Stoumont Advance
  
• Valko Advance
  
• Wanne Advance

• Reduced player’s max stamina by 20%. This change drops the maximum distance a player can cross in one go to 200 meters.
  
• Temprorary increased shovel damage for the duration of the Halloween event.
  
• Fixed the bug where internal squad orders were shown on compass for everyone on the team.
  
• Made half-tracks to be treated as armored vehicles in the code (half-tracks now use the same damage model as armored vehicles).

See you on the battlefield,
Darklight Games

This is a weekly patch that includes recent bug fixes and miscellaneous small updates.

Check the changelog for details:

GitHub

See you on the battlefield,
Darklight Games

In the previous release, we've started updating and expanding our STEN lineup, which included the reworked Mark II and the new Mark III. Today their younger and better looking sibling has arrived!

The Mark V is now available to our British airborne units, and you can find it on Pegasus Bridge, Oosterbeek, and various Operation Market Garden maps.


The new SMG is sporting a unique feature: a small detachable bayonet.



Old Red Orchestra veterans might remember the vast plains of this map from the days of old. In this update, Frühlingserwachen is ported to DH and joins the ranks of the Armored Server maps.

• Increased distance at which artillery splashes are considered too far off-target and not displayed on the map. The value has been bumped to 150 meters.
  
• Increased lifespan of fire requests to 5 minutes (previously 2.5).
  
• Artillery spotters can now see the hit markers for artillery splashes within range of their marked targets.

• Reduced artillery gun costs to 1500.
  
• Fixed the bug that allowed limited constructions (e.g guns) to be replenished past the maximum amount.
  
• Set the maximum amount of allowed artillery guns to 4 per team.

• Adjusted proportions on STEN magazine models.
  
• Updated textures on all STENs.

• Fixed the bug that made character faces disappear on dead bodies with winter head-gear.

• Reduced M7 Priest resupply delay to 10 seconds.

• Increased Allied tickets.
  
• Removed ticket bleed from Allies (map ends when all objectives are taken).
  
• Gave Allies a little more tank variety (Sherman Jumbo and 105).
  
• Set missing Win music.

• Fixed bugs related to objectives.
  
• Increased Soviet artillery amount.
  
• Added a radio to both team's main spawns.
  
• Set Soviet ISU-152 count by 1.

• Reworked objectives and objective volumes.
  
• Reworked tank loadouts and made tanks unlock after the first 2 objectives are taken.
  
• Gave Allies an AT role to help clear Pillboxes and Pak guns at range.
  
• Increased Allied respawn speed.
  
• Increased Axis tickets slightly.
  
• Added spawn protection minefield to Allies.
  
• Added objective spawn for vehicles once Pak bunker is taken.

• Reworked no-arty and restriction volumes around Axis main to be less restrictive.

• Reduced Allied respawn timer.
  
• Increased Axis respawn timer at the bridge.
  
• Increased Allied team ratio slightly.
  
• Reduced Axis assault trooper role by 1.

• Fixed anti-portals that could cause graphical issues near Allied main spawn.

• Made first objective not re-capturable.
  
• Removed wall along the road behind the Church.
  
• Replaced destroyed half-track static with Panther.
  
• Added AT gun limits.
  
• Disabled vehicle pool constructions.
  
• Reduced the amout of logistic trucks to 2 for both teams.
  
• Added a respawn penalty to Allies at the final objective.

• Fixed static radios.
  
• Added artillery strikes for Allies.
  
• Disabled AT gun constructions.
  
• Removed duplicate Axis Squad Leader role.
  
• Reduced setup phase timer.
  
• Other minor fixes.

• Added pre-placed AT guns into the bunkers on the final objective line.
  
• Implemented AT gun construction limits to reduce “gun spam”.
  
• Made the Pz.IV spawns unlimited, but with a slightly increased respawn timer.
  
• Increased tickets for both teams slightly.
  
• Increased ticket bleed for Soviets when both final objectives are taken.
  
• Added a small ticket bleed when a single one of the final objectives is taken in order to pressure Soviet team to counter-attack.
  
• Disabled collision on tiny rubble props in the trenches that causes players to bounce erratically.
  
• Disabled Karma collisions on static fences so that tanks can drive through them (a temporary change before proper destructible fences are put in place).
  
• Added artillery triggers to various static radios on the map.
  
• Added few destroyed vehicles on the approach to the final objective line to give Axis a bit of coverю

• Updated Axis spawn points.
  
• Changed respawn intervals for both teams.
  
• Adjusted ticket counts.
  
• Reduced Axis tank count.
  
• Reduced the maximum number of AT guns for Axis.

• Reduced map brightness.
  
• Fixed bug where vehicles would fly at last objective.

• Fixed bug that made Axis logistics non-functional.
  
• Reduction of logistic trucks to 2.
  
• Deactivated logistics until Hill objective is taken.
  
• Fixed several weird holes on the map at last cap.

• Added pre-placed AT guns.
  
• Added objective deactivation on the first 2 caps.

• Fixed collisions in trenches.
  
• Fixed the bug where some of the rocks had no collisions.

See you on the battlefield,
Darklight Games

At long last, the artillery overhaul is ready! The new system has been designed from the ground up to be significantly easier and much more enjoyable to use!

The primary changes are:

• All squad leaders are now capable of marking artillery targets
  
• Artillery pieces now have spotting scopes and range tables
  
• Artillery targets now display the range of the targets
  
• Kill feed messages are now sent to artillery operators for artillery kills
  
• The Artillery Observer role has been removed

Squad leaders now have a more robust and intuitive spotting menu when spotting from binoculars. There is also now a 3D widget to pinpoint the target location when placing markers. No more calling in artillery on the tree right in front of you!



One of the primary issues with the previous system was that no one wanted to take the Artillery Observer role because it was, admittedly, kind of lame. This often left mortar operators with no targets at all, firing blindly into the distance. With all squad leaders being capable of calling for targets, artillery gunners will have more opportunities for getting juicy targets.



Each artillery piece (mortars, pack howitzers et. al.) now have spotting scopes for making more accurate fire.





Long asked for, all artillery pieces now have a calibrated range table, which means no more trial-and-error! All you will have to do is some quick mental math to get your artillery landing on target (well, mostly on target).



Developer’s Note:
In play-testing, artillery fire was much more accurate and responsive than before, and artillery operators had a more enjoyable time playing due to the improved interface, increased collaboration with teammates, and feedback from kills. We will be closely monitoring how these changes shift the meta, and will make changes as necessary to make sure the artillery is not overpowered or oppressive





To complement the new artillery overhaul, this update also sees the addition of three new “pack” howitzers.

• 75mm Pack Howitzer M1
  
• 76mm regimental gun M1927
  
• 7.5 cm leichtes Infanteriegeschütz 18

These howitzers are light infantry artillery, excelling at long-range, accurate fire with a relatively low flight time. However, unlike mortars, their shallow arc-of-fire makes requires favorable terrain and wide, unobstructed fields of fire in order to be effective, making it more difficult to find an ideal firing position.

We are excited to see how soldiers will put these new battle implements to good use!



Baby, it’s cold outside! Our poor soldiers have been freezing their digits and ears off for well over a decade. Finally, our boys have a just received a proper shipment of stylish hand and head-wear to stave off frostbite in colder climates.







The Sten model and animations have been completely overhauled, continuing our long journey to improving the look and feel of our entire arsenal. As an added bonus, there are now two additional Sten variants, the Canadian Sten and the Sten Mk III.

In addition, the rate of fire has been slightly increased to match it’s real-life counterpart, as well making it easier to handle its weapon sway.

• Squad leaders can now instantly spawn on rally points that have one spawn remaining.
  
• Command voice lines are now available to all squad leaders (previously only available to Sergeant roles).
  
• Renamed the surrender feature to “Retreat” so players won’t have to make the hard choice between pride and common sense. There’s no shame in a tactical retreat!

• New impact effects for .50 caliber and PTRD bullets.

• Added volumetric epaulets for soviet and polish models
  
• Updated Brodie helmet with improved visuals and added a snowy variant.
  
• Fixed misaligned wrists on character animations.
  
• Fixed 3rd person shovel animations.

• Tiger Tank turret font armor has been reduced to a more accurate value, allowing it to be penetrated by the heavy armor piecing rounds of late-war Allied armor.

• Reduced reverb on firing sound effect.
  
• Miscellaneous animation fixes.

• Reduced sight bobbing in the idle iron-sighted animation.

• Added mini-parachute model.
  
• Miscellaneous sound and animation fixes.

• Reduced damage radius from 22 meters to 18 meters.

• The Panzerfaust may no longer be fired from the hip.

• Added a trench network stretching across the entire right side of the map.
  
• Added more cover all around the map.
  
• Removed armored vehicles.
  
• Added a physical minefield on the right side of the first objective.

• Added objective spawns.
  
• Removed all but one of the pre-placed Platoon HQ constructions.
  
• Limited anti-air and anti-tank gun constructions.
  
• Limited active tanks counts and crewman.
  
• Removed several Axis heavy tanks and reduced armor counts for both teams.
  
• Reduced Allied player count bias from 60% to 55%.
  
• Reduced view distance.
  
• Reduced supply amount.
  
• Reduced reinforcements for both teams.
  
• Objectives no longer give reinforcement rewards
  
• Objectives are no longer able to to be recaptured, and will no longer neutralize first.
  
• Objectives take longer to capture.
  
• Level ends with Allied victory if last objective is taken.
  
• Removed the random artillery on the last objective.

• Merged Soviet anti-tank and sapper roles.
  
• Reduced Soviet assault roles from 8 to 6.

• Removed German armored vehicles.
  
• Added German Mortar Operator role.
  
• Added German Radioman role.
  
• Reduce German spawn time by 5 seconds.
  
• Reduced Soviet T-34 and BT7 reinforcements.
  
• Added a single Soviet KV-1.

• Added Axis spawn protection.

• Added Axis main spawn protection.

• Increased fog distance.

• Reduced round time to 14 minutes.

• Reduced Soviet Machine-gunner rules from 3 to 1.

• Removed Axis respawn bonus.
  
• Shifted team ratio in favor of the Germans.

• Removed German logistics trucks.
  
• Added German Panzer IV. Ausf. J.

• Plugged the infamous "noob hole" with a dead Tiger — a memorial to all players that got stuck there.
  
• Fixed some Soviet roles being the early-war type.
  
• Merged Soviet anti-tank and sapper roles.
  
• Added Soviet SU-76 and lend-lease Sherman M4A2(76)W.
  
• Removed ISU-152.
  
• Reduced reinforcements and respawn times for a variety of other armored vehicles.

• Reduced German spawn time.

• Added Axis main spawn protection.

• Added Soviet “amoeba” camouflage sniper role.

• Moved final Allied spawn to a safer area to prevent spawn-killing.

• Fixed the bug where one of active objectives ended up in a minefield area.

• Fixed minefields
  
• Reduced team ratio for Allies.
  
• Opened up one of the hedges for an easier access from Axis main spawn to the AT Gun objective.
  
• Fixed spectator cameras.

• Added more trenches.
  
• Added a cellar in one of the houses at the last objective.
  
• Various minor bug fixes.

See you on the battlefield,
Darklight Games

Updating levels for today's event.

Hello, everyone!

The new update is looming on the horizon. This Saturday @ 7 PM UTC we'll be running a final beta to get a feel for how the new artillery system will fare in a live game.

The beta test will feature live rounds on Road to Isigny and Stoumont where squad leaders and artillery-men will have to leverage the new indirect fire system to get the upper hand. Mortars and new constructible artillery guns (M116 Pack Howitzer and LeIG18) will be at your disposal.

Don't miss out on the action!

1. Right-click on Darkest Hour: Europe '44-'45 in your Steam Library.
   
2. Select Properties.
   
3. Under the Betas tab pick `prerelease` from the drop-down menu.
   
4. Launch the game and join the beta server.

After the event, don't forget to switch back to the normal version. You can do this by selecting `None`.

Make sure to join us on Discord to share your thoughts about the upcoming features and report any bugs you find in the beta release. We appreciate your feedback!

See you on the testing grounds,
Darklight Games