Oct 15, 2021
Darkest Hour: Europe '44-'45 - dirtybirdy
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
Artillery Spotting
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.
Spotting Scopes
Each artillery piece (mortars, pack howitzers et. al.) now have spotting scopes for making more accurate fire.
Range Tables
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
Pack Howitzers
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!
Winter Outfits
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.
Sten
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.
Other changes
Gameplay
- 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!
Visual Effects
- New impact effects for .50 caliber and PTRD bullets.
Characters
- 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.
Vehicles
- 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.
Weapons
M3 Grease Gun
- Reduced reverb on firing sound effect.
- Miscellaneous animation fixes.
M1 Garand
- Reduced sight bobbing in the idle iron-sighted animation.
RPG-43
- Added mini-parachute model.
- Miscellaneous sound and animation fixes.
Geballte Ladung
- Reduced damage radius from 22 meters to 18 meters.
Panzerfaust
- The Panzerfaust may no longer be fired from the hip.
Maps
Rederitz
- 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.
Bridgehead
- 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.
Barashka
- Merged Soviet anti-tank and sapper roles.
- Reduced Soviet assault roles from 8 to 6.
Cholm
- 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.
Grey Gods of War
- Added Axis spawn protection.
Kryukovo
- Added Axis main spawn protection.
Vossenack
- Increased fog distance.
Danzig
- Reduced round time to 14 minutes.
Dom Pavlova
- Reduced Soviet Machine-gunner rules from 3 to 1.
Lyes Krovy
- Removed Axis respawn bonus.
- Shifted team ratio in favor of the Germans.
Kreigstadt
- Removed German logistics trucks.
- Added German Panzer IV. Ausf. J.
Pariserplatz
- 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.
Prussia
- Reduced German spawn time.
Riga Docks
- Added Axis main spawn protection.
Salaca River
- Added Soviet “amoeba” camouflage sniper role.
Targnon
- Moved final Allied spawn to a safer area to prevent spawn-killing.
La Gleize
- Fixed the bug where one of active objectives ended up in a minefield area.
Gun Assault
- 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.
Jurques
- 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
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