Community members! We think it’s time to bring you up to speed with current development once again.
We’ve accomplished a lot, and work is progressing very steadily at the moment. We think you’ll like what you’re reading!
We have already shed light on the upcoming game update in development updates 128 and 129. This (free) update will bring a lot to the table; however, we’re still adding to it; so, let’s look at what’s in the works, and let’s look into the development schedule for a bit.

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On top of what we showed in previous updates, several more improvements are coming your way soon.
One big thing would be that the player will be able to determine which ammo a tank keeps loaded. We have added an option to allow or block units switching to HE shell loading, so the player gets to decide whether tanks remain loaded with AP shells, in case enemy armor pops up. This will probably sound pretty good to most of you (and us too!).

We have also had a look at the balance in multiplayer. As you may know we read everything, so we’re up to speed with discussions in the community about this. We think this will improve the MP experience for everyone. This will be introduced in the update as well.

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We’re currently working on new economy settings for Conquest. It remains to be seen whether this will make it into the next update; however, we think you would want to know about it in advance. If not in the next update, the one after that will probably feature this change.
Until now, the difficulty setting controlled the amount of resources that the bots could deploy. In the new situation, the difficulty setting will control the lethality of units and overall AI capability, like in singleplayer. Therefore the old resource difficulty scaling has been moved to a new economy setting. Work on conquest doesn’t stop here; we will keep improving it in little steps, so stay tuned for more.

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In previous games of the franchise, there was a common complaint which was that the AT guns switched to HE shells and they were often caught unprepared with the wrong shell loaded when enemy armor appeared. To prevent this frustrating experience, we made it so tanks and AT guns do not auto-switch to HE, they will only engage infantry with HE shells if the user switches ammunition to HE himself. This also frustrated some players, unable to comprehend why the tank wouldn’t load HE. We have achieved the best of both worlds by providing a button in the interface to enable the AI to change ammo or block HE loading. The player can decide what freedom to allow different units at different situations. This new feature is being tested. If it goes well, we will add it to the update, and we will let you know more details about the functionality as we polish it.

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As you probably know, we fix issues whenever we can. This update will have a lot of fixes too. There’s one in particular we want to mention here; the update will get soldiers to engage enemies when they are prone, as soon as the attack order is given. Previously, soldiers would be unresponsive when given the attack order in a prone stance, which was a legacy bug.
This fix will be one of several. When the update drops, we will publish the change log in the usual place in the forums.
So when does the update drop?

That’s definitely a “frequently asked question". As of now, we are waiting on Steam to coordinate an event with them alongside the release of this update, so it's not our call exactly when it will happen.
We will keep you posted of course, so you can anticipate when to start or finish a campaign in time for the game to update.
The other “when” question is always about the next DLC. Progress is really good, and the next devblog will tell you a bit more about where we stand with that.

That’s it for this edition, thanks for stopping by and see you on the battlefield!

Community members! In our daily efforts to raise the bar for all aspects of the game, we are currently working on several improvements in the field of performance and the general quality of life. In this update, we will discuss a number of developments we plan to introduce in our next game update.

With our next update, you will notice an improved frame rate in specific areas. These would be due to improved usage of mesh groups and game optimization. The largest improvement will be noticed on maps with many buildings. Our own lab tests suggest that the improvement could be as much as 20-30 fps in such areas!
Another gain in performance should be noticeable under morning or evening conditions with strong directional shadows which, so far, is particularly performance draining on low end PCs.
We also did a cleanup in - and improvements to - the resource packing, which will result in a 2 Gb reduction in the installation size and an improvement in loading times.
To visualize the improvements we made a “before and after” comparison, Click here to view; to open the image, click on it. Then, slide the white bar from right to left to compare “before” and “after”.


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We changed the laws for rendering Shadows and grass. They will be rendered at longer distances; perhaps surprisingly, performance improves at the same time! Object visibility distance will also increase by 20%.
This will make the game look even better, and it’s actually a stepping stone toward the new expansion we are working on.
When we announce the next episode in the Gates of Hell experience, It will be the biggest leap forward in visuals in the history of our project, or even in the history of WWII RTS games. Does that sound like a bold claim to you? Well, you can be the judge of that very soon!

We also upgraded the visual damage modeling for vehicles. When the shots do penetrate, they will leave different marks, depending on the size of the shell. We enhanced large caliber penetration marks with new molten metal glow effects. Make sure to enable the glow effect in video options. This will make vehicle combat more immersive and readable.


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Many fixes and improvements have been made to the shaders of human models. We changed the rendering of light in one texture direction, which fixes some unwanted artifacts and wrinkles that were especially noticeable on human faces.

We have improved the way selection sprites are displayed on the units, so that they are uniformly sized, tailor-fitted to each geometry of vehicle, and not too obtrusive to the eye. We’d like to remind our players that a year ago we introduced the ability to hide the selection sprites for increased realism in the game options.


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Furthermore, we will also introduce new cursors and icons to improve the overall look and feel of the game. We added new cursors for new ammo types which were recently introduced (APCNR, API) or will be introduced in the future. The reticles for the gun sights in first person mode have also been increased to 4k resolution, to improve the immersion.

We fixed an issue affecting multiplayer lobbies, where player- occupied spectator slots sometimes prevented the lobbies from being accessible to other players trying to access open player slots. We now separate spectator and player slots in the lobby.
We have also been working on pathing and unit movement desynchronisation in the PvP environment. Work in the netcode progresses steadily.

We are delighted with your feedback about the improvements to bots that were introduced with community update 2.
In conquest, they became extremely challenging to fight. We read all your feedback, and there was a noticeable amount of people who considered the last update to be too difficult. We have toned down bot resources in conquest, so that the bots rely on their newly acquired abilities and tactics, as opposed to spawning an overwhelming amount of units. We hope that the players, especially new players from our sale, have an easier time fighting the AI.

Besides that, the bots have been taught how to tow guns. Not only that; bots will spawn less emplacements in the early stages, thereby avoiding the risk of players capturing those units early on. Bots will also make sure their tanks are escorted by infantry. And your most horrible dreams have come true: the bots will defend when their artillery gets flanked. The crew will get out of the vehicle and fight, instead of waiting for the enemy to kill the crew and capture the gun with impunity.
We think you will appreciate the continuous improvements to AI. It's definitely been a lot of fun testing them!


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We are also working on the logic that allows bots to decide what purchases to make based on the situation on the battlefield. The bots will spawn sufficient infantry to maintain line of sight, while maintaining availability of AT weapons. The bots will react to the units the player purchases, and try to counter them in the most logical and realistic sense. However, this will be part of an update further down the line.
We are also working on the domination gamemode, and we want to make some improvements to make it more fun and competitive. We want to add a timer to the game, so it doesn’t protract for long periods of time. We also plan to make the flag points award victory points in the future, to give a bigger incentive to fight for them.
Last but not least, we are re-balancing numerous units and doctrines, thanks to the input of our talented competitive testers, while we are also working on the artillery gameplay.
We have long term plans for artillery, to make it a rewarding, less random factor. This will take time to implement, and we will keep you posted on progress of course. Stay tuned!


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We are approaching a new milestone in our evolution of the conquest dynamic campaign. Stay tuned for future devblogs which will cover this in detail, once we come closer to reaching results.

Ukraine and Poland are among the top 10 countries in terms of player base amount for our game. We decided to make the full localization for the game in these languages, and we will implement it in the coming updates.

That’s it for now, thanks for stopping by and see you on the battlefield!

• We posted an interesting story about health bars in the forums
  
• Much earlier, we explained the GoH damage system in development update #97
  
• We did a developer Q&A on Twitch and kept the entire video

• Sound Overhaul (Part I)
  - Added new shooting and reload sounds to small arms weapons and heavy MG's
  - Added new distance layers to shooting sounds
  - Added sonic cracks to bullet hits based on caliber
  - Added 3d shell casings to weapons and sounds for hitting ground/objects
  - Updated the mixing of various sound layers to reduce sound cut-off/clip and improve the overal soundscape
  - Reduced vehicle engine idle sound volumes
  
  
• Human Skins Update
  - Updated the majority of skins for Germans and Soviets
  - Added new humanskin and equipment variations that can be modded together to make new combinations
  - Added correct magazine pouches to updated skins
  - Uniforms and equipment should be more authentic than before for each time period
  - Replaced majority of headwear with new textures/models
  
  
• Bot/AI Update (Part I)
  - In General, many new bot behaviors that will hopefully make them more aware, less predictable and more challenging to fight against
  
  - Added in both Conquest and MP, new priority logics for bots on when to:
  - Purchase different Units
  - Move towards different flags/map points
  - Choose to seek and destroy enemy instead of attacking a flag
  - Ignore generic bot commands and obey scripted logic
  - Added wave style attacks to Bots in Conquest
  - Added mission scipted AI logics to Conquest that use to be MP only (newly added feature allows this now)
  
  - Updated and Improved scripted AI logics for both MP and Conquest
  - Updated Bots in MP to use the same unit timers as players
  - Updated Bots in MP to use a doctrine (Only All-Around Doctrine for now, plan to expand this in future update)
  - Updated Bots resource advantage in MP to more aligned with players
  - Updated internal code and file organization to allow for greater control and future improvements
  
  
• Added 8 New maps to conquest:
  - Black Sea coast
  - Frozen Highlands
  - Hungarian Swamps
  - Olkhovatka
  - Radusha Airfield
  - Shaforovo
  - Stalingrad Outskirts
  - Wasteland

• Added 8 New maps
  
• Added a capture weight minimum of 1 to all vehicles that were previously 0, except for Goliaths and planes.
  
  
• Increased minimum resources conquest bots will have, regardless of how many units players bring to the battle
  
• Updated some of the buy menu icons for support trucks to clearly see if they are ammo, engineer, fuel, etc.
  
• Replaced xx model on maps with proper destroyed models (fixes pathing for units trying to drive through them)
  
  
• Fixed issues on Map Kalinin
  
• Fixed Spawn point on Map Pinsk
  
• Fixed house that did not have proper collision on Map Kymhi Airfield
  
• Fixed maps to properly from black fade especially in coop
  
• Fixed maps to use all winter conquest environments
  
  
• Reduced MP and AP cost to repair units in conquest
  
• Reduced AP cost to resupply units in conquest

• Added AP belted ammo to several German MG breeds
  
• Added a capture weight minimum of 1 to all vehicles that were previously 0, except for Goliaths and planes.
  
  
• Increased Early war Resources by ~10% (2400 to 2650)
  
• Increased Mid war Resources by 10% (3000 to 3300) (Late war stays the same 4500)
  
  
• Replaced drum variant of MG42/34 to belt variant on several German MG breeds
  
• Replaced xx model on maps with proper destroyed models (fixes pathing for units trying to drive through them)
  
  
• Changed and fixed flag positions in battle zones for many maps to help improve balance and bot's decision making
  
• Changed payback rate in MP to decrease more evenly as CP increases
  
• Changed in Domination mode, that atleast one supply point is active at game start
  
• Changed icon over capture points in Domination to be in similar style as flag point icons in Battlezones
  
  
• Reduced time to capture enemy's base from neutral in Domination mode by 30s (120 to 90)
  
• Reduced time to capture supply points in Domination mode by 60s (150 to 90)
  
• Reduced invincible time for freshly spawned units in Domination mode by 5s (10 to 5)
  
• Reduced distance recon planes are spotted, still much greater than AA weapon ranges
  
• Reduced accuracy of 280mm BR5
  
• Reduced cost of DShK AA and Stand by 15 (150 to 135)
  
• Reduced cooldown of Soviet Tier 3 Squad in Early war from 180s to 60s
  
• Reduced blast energy of MP airstikes to match the SD-250 bomb
  
• Split Soviet Earl War Rifle grenade squad so that AT Grenade is a separate buy (AT detachment) from the HE rifle grenade
  
  
  
• Removed German, Late war, Panzer Grenadier GD squad from sniper limit counter. (G43 Sniper is not as effective as bolt rifle snipers). Late War Fusilier squad remains on the limit counter.
  
  
• Fixed missing 105mm H33 from Finnish Mid War All Around Doctrine
  
• Fixed pricing for all nations soldiers to be standardized resulting in minor price changes to squads
  
• Fixed issues on Map 1v1 Lodoga
  
• Fixed missing trench segments on Map 3v3 King of the Hill
  
• Fixed crew count for doctrine buy: Jagdpanther
  
• Fixed map borders and ocean on 4v4 Hills
  
• Fixed some pathing issues on 3v3 Lakeside Airfield
  
• Fixed Battlezones Flag layouts to be consitent (A Flag is always center, B Flag Closer to Team A, etc)
  
• Fixed half floating rocks around river on Map 1v1 Crossing

• Replaced xx model on maps with proper destroyed models (fixes pathing for units trying to drive through them)
  
• Various minor fixes to multiple missions
  
• Fixed voice of tank officer in Petrovka mission to not sound like its coming through a radio when he is out of the tank
  
• Added narrator/officer voice recordings to Scorched Earth German missions
  
• Added narrator/officer voice recordings to Winter Storm Mission
  
  
• Fixes for Soviet Mission: 1941_12_tikhvin
  - partisans events/states and assignment fixes
  - task5 fixes
  - scenarios fixes
  - coop fix
  
  
• Fixes for Soviet Mission: 1941_11_typhoon
  - fixes to player units assignment/movemement
  - fixed case where player had invincible players(extra squad)
  - fixed bad waypoint states
  - removed over 150 unused waypoint paths
  
  
• Fixes for Soviet Mission: 1942_05_kerch
  - coop fix
  
  
• Fixes for German Mission: 1942_01_vyazma
  - fixes to car drive and narration intro & part2 intro to ensure all important talks remain even if skipped anywhere or right away.
  - coop fixes.
  
  
• Fixes for German Mission: 1942_09_elbrus
  - fixes and clean up of game loss conditions.
  - intro/scenario fixes.
  
  
• Fixes for German Mission: 1943_02_krasny_bor
  - coop fixes
  - fixed irregular/defensive doctrine 3rd reinforcement so that towed guns are properly assigned/user controllable sp and coop.
  
  
• Fixes for German Mission: 1943_07_petrovka
  - fixed task 5 bugs, related to defending captured positions.
  - It was possible to fail the task and mission would not fail resulting in player not knowing what to do as the game would not progress but not fail either. (part2_defend_fail)
  - corrected task 5 conditions, and fixed situation where task 5 could complete and still fail or vice versa.
  
  
• Fixes for German Mission: 1943_11_wotan
  - coop intro fix

• Added destruction (x model) to the Engineer buildable trench
  
• Added some left and right rotation to 15cm Grille Ausf.K gun and Panzer 38H W40 rockets, so they can shoot better on uneven terrain
  
• Added dust fx to human footsteps for better visibility
  
• Added minimum range of 50m for most rocket artillery
  
• Added veterancy icons for library 1-8
  
  
• Increased tank track durability
  
• Increased mortar acccuracy by 10%
  
• Increased supply of german ammo trailer from 250 to 500
  
• Increased smoke time for RDG1 Smoke grenade by 30s
  
• Increased smoke time for RDG1 Smoke grenade by 60s
  
• Increased range indirect artillery and rocket artillery can be spotted when firing
  
  
• Updated Panzer38H W40 to spawn on hold fire in MP
  
• Updated only German pioneers, engineers and miners get the Nbk39 smoke grenade. Others get the M24 smoke grenade
  
• Updated Smoke grenade in German vehicles with NbKS instead of NbK 39
  
• Updated fx and sounds for smoke grenades
  
• Updated all_doors texture
  
• Updated .50 Cal reload animation
  
• Updated ammo in inventory for 20-25mm AA cannons and Trucks to be standardized (~280 for cannon, ~400 for trucks)
  
• Updated air detonation FX with fragment patterns
  
• Updated the ZiS5 DShK to use API ammo
  
• Updated M1919A4 for M1919A4_tank in armored vehicles
  
• Updated global maps to dds to save space on disk
  
• Updated muzzle flash textures
  
• Updated muzzle flashes and added to preload
  
  
• Reduced Indirect Artillery and Rocket Artillery range scale, 24km limit lowered from 600m to 510m (~15% reduction)
  
• Reduced time for human accuracy to reset after moving/firing from 1s to 0.8s
  
• Reduced timeout between bursts for MG42 so that it has higher DPS but will go through ammo quicker
  
• Reduced size of volumes of bushes to reduce how much vision they block
  
• Reduced slightly blast energy damage to tank components, ~2%-5%
  
  
• Fixed Panzer 3 J1 wrong pivot of turret basket
  
• Fixed Panzer 3 N
  
• Fixed Panzer 2 L mantlet inverting when breaking
  
• Fixed T50 tanks from thinking they can tow
  
• Fixed issue with IL2 prop animation that could cause a game crash when the plane crashed
  
• Fixed 1st/3rd person view for the 305mm MB-2-12
  
• Fixed missing wheel texture of b20 in #desert and #camos versions
  
• Fixed stalinetz60 missing transmission component/thickness
  
• Fixed light tank's turrets displaying both x and xx model when torn off by hit from large projectile
  
• Fixed windshield wiper animation and missing door sounds for Kfz 15
  
• Fixed car/truck and halftracks from not taking proper damage from AT grenades
  
• Fixed some of the ammo volumes to be components/destructible in Ostwind and Wirbelwind
  
  
• Fixed texture for ger_m38_helmet_camo_blue
  
• Fixed magazine ejection for MG13
  
• Fixed foresight bone position on mg42 to properly match muzzle fx to tip of the barrel
  
• Fixed tracer on soviet and ger AT rifle rounds (they were opposite)
  
• Fixed bolt action rifle animation now plays behind cover
  
• Fixed humans when firing semi auto rifles sometimes not playing the recoil animation (recoil animation was slightly too slow for the rate of fire)
  
• Fixed DShK muzzle FX on IS-2 45 and ISU-152
  
  
• Fixed allignment of roadway borders
  
• Fixed floor for sov_2st_build1
  
• Fixed and added more unique Vehicle views
  
• Fixed Fixed some inconsistent penetration stats on some german 37mm guns (37mm kwk34t and kwk38t)
  
• Fixed ammo HE ammo description for StuH 42 and others that use alternate HE shells
  
• Fixed minor Localization issues
  
• Fixed narrator/player/ voice files to play in mission 1941_11_typhoon
  
• Fixed MP mission scripts using wrong gui sound path. Some maps had commands cloned for same sound
  
  
• Removed possible damage radius for AT grenades (help AI use AT grenade even if it'll hurt the soldier)
  
• Removed unused muzzle flashes

r11189-11970

Community members! We are about to publish Community Update 2, after a short and successful open beta. The purpose of the beta was met; no technical issues were found. The suggestions from our feedback channel will be considered for future updates.

Since we’ve already revealed the majority of changes in development updates 126 and 127, you probably already know that this update brings quite a bit of change, to say the least.
Meanwhile, the entire franchise is on sale; the discount is insane!

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/15829/Call_to_Arms__Complete/

The sale ends March 23rd, get it while you can & tell all your friends!

Our “content updates” add content to the game that we desire as a developer studio; in contrast, “community updates” add changes to the game that have been requested by you, the community. If you are a regular on the official GoH Discord server, you’ve probably noticed that it features channels in which you can drop your suggestions. There are other sources for that too of course, but nowadays our Discord server is the real life of the party.
We are incredibly proud of our Discord community, which is always active and helping new players become a part of it.
With over 15.000 currently active Discord members you can expect to find out almost anything you want to know about GoH in the blink of an eye.


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Since we’ve already listed most of the changes in previous blogs, this blog is just a quick rundown of the main talking points. These are the main changes:

• Bot Update Part 1: bot behavior has been improved, influencing Conquest and PvE multiplayer
  
• Sound Overhaul Part 1: updated sounds for Small arms weapons and improved overall soundscape
  
• A huge number of new human skins has been added both the Germans and Soviets
  
• We’ve added 8 new maps to conquest

As usual we have prepared a change log for you, explaining all changes and details. It features more than 150 changes!


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Having said that, this doesn’t mean we’re done. We’re currently starting work on yet another update, however there is no date set for that at the moment.
Just as we promised, Community Update 2 will be free & available to all players.

When you launch the game after the new update, you might feel the firearms sound unbalanced. The new soundscape is designed to be balanced when the effects, vocal emotes and environment sliders in your audio settings are set to the same level. We recommend you max out these levels and then adjust down with the master volume as needed.



Besides game improvements, you probably know we’re developing the next faction at the moment. It’s turning out very nicely, and we’re all pretty excited to see it take shape. We’ve already dropped a number of hints and there’s a fair number of theories going around about the next faction. Many of them seem plausible at first sight, but are they?
We will keep the wait to a minimum, stay tuned.

That’s it for now, thanks for stopping by; tell us in the comments if you spot your suggestion in that ridiculously long changelog, and don’t forget to tell your friends about the sale!

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/15829/Call_to_Arms__Complete/

Community members! In our previous updates, we announced a pretty big overhaul of humanskins and sound. Both of these will be introduced when we push our next update. But what we haven’t told you yet is what else will be included in what we call “Community Update 2”. This blog is all about the rework we have started to improve the behavior of bots in both conquest and multiplayer. We are sure this update will vastly improve the player experience. Like the small arms weapon sounds and skins overhaul, this will come your way in Community Update 2!

We have embarked on a rework of bot behavior. It’s nowhere near finished yet! A large part of the work will be included in Community update 2, the rest will come in a separate update. However, we can already highlight some important changes.
Reworking bots takes a very long time, since there are countless aspects to work on. Our goal for this update was to improve the AI bots’ perceived intelligence to provide a greater challenge for players while also reducing the need for the bot to spam as many units. We also addressed pre- existing bugs that were inherent to this version of the game engine.

For the upcoming update, we have focused our efforts to improve the bots in 3 main areas:
1. Separating Multiplayer and Conquest’s AI Bot logic
2. Improving the AI’s unit purchasing decisions
3. Improving the Bot’s unit behavior after spawning


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So far, we were compelled to use the same bot logic for both MP and Conquest. Even though this enabled pretty much everything you need under most circumstances, there was room for improvement. We have now separated the logic.
Since they are now separate, bots for any game mode can be controlled completely independently. This results in better adaptability, which improves gameplay.

We added the ability to control the timing of bots’ first unit purchases. In MP this means the bots get their first unit immediately just like players. In Conquest bots can have different "start" times depending on whether they are the attacker or the defender.
Previously, due to the file structure and the outdated scripts, bots would attempt to purchase “impossible” units from other time periods or units it couldn't afford; in other cases, it would try to get units that were still on cooldown timers. This would cause the purchase scripts to - unnecessarily - skip or loop endlessly. As a result it would take far too long before bots were buying valid units. We have improved this by updating the file structure so only the units for the current game mode and time period are considered along with adjusting the scripts to filter out units that are on cooldown or are too expensive. We are considering making an open beta branch available in order to allow modders (and anyone else) to anticipate the update, so everyone can try out the flexibility in this new structure. If we do an open beta, we will let you know.


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Another feature that is WIP, but which won't be quite ready for the next update, is the ability to track all the unit types and how many each player (bots and users) currently have. This will allow us to create new and more advanced scripts to improve the bot's purchase decision making based on the units the bot already has, and what the opponents have.

In Multiplayer, we added a new factor that improves the AI units' initial move order (the flag they choose to move towards after spawning). Bots will not only consider which team has captured a flag, now they will also consider the flag's location in relation to their own side of the map. Bots will prefer to capture flags on their own side and the flags along the centerline, before flags on the opposing team's side.


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On top of the bots’ global movement of troops, a lot of work has been invested in cleaning up the bot algorithms and scripts. This will ensure no negative performance, as well as bringing AI gameplay closer to what an ordinary human would do. For example: bot tanks, when spotting an enemy, will attempt to "gather" a squad of nearby bot soldiers and perform various actions, from advancing and attacking, to engaging from a static location. The additional infantry squad during this period helps to protect the tank and improve its vision if it does indeed advance.


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Our first community update was published about a year ago, and like last year’s, this community update intends to reward the continued support and constructive criticism we get from you, the Gates of Hell community. Community update 2 will be free for everyone of course.
As you may have spotted in one of the images in this blog, we will also add a bunch of DCG maps to this update. The list of additions is already quite long. If you missed our blog about humanskins and sounds, we recommend you check Development update 126 as well, which details work we have going on in those areas.


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Our beta testers are working their way through the update right now, and progress is good.
Community Update 2 will probably go live sometime this spring.
Would you agree this is going to be a sizable step up in quality of life for everyone? Let us know in the comments!

• Community update 2 is the 5th large & free update for Gates of Hell: Ostfront
  
• We will do a developer Q&A on our Discord server in March.
  
• We have a map design competition going on! This takes place on our Discord server as well.
  
• You can help spread the word on Gates of Hell by linking people to our LinkTree. Thanks for your support!

This year will be all about the next faction in Call to Arms - Gates of Hell. However, while progress is good, we are working hard to complete a number of things we’d like to improve. As the title already suggests, there are 2 main topics to this update; but there’s more.

We have been working on the next faction for quite a number of months already. Despite some strong beliefs here and there, it’s not going to be Denmark!
Right, now, we are focused on making content for the new faction. A lot has already been done, such as determining what specific organizational units we want to choose for the single player campaigns, which vehicles to add and much, much more. Progress is steady, which makes us optimistic about achieving our goals in 2023.

A lot of work has gone into a rework on “human skins”. We will be replacing 300+ existing skins with new ones, complete with their respective different seasonal appearances. The new skins are a step up in quality, and will be made available for all players in the next update. These skins will probably make for even more realistic and historically-correct screenshots that we’ve seen so far.
These skins are also mod friendly and modular. We have engineered them in such a way that modders can interchange parts of the skins to create their own variations, without needing to utilize 3d software or animate them. For example, you can easily swap a soviet head into a german uniform, or replace an early-war tunic with a late-war variant.


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As we have announced earlier, the next update will also contain a sound overhaul.
The sound overhaul will provide you with a new level of realism. You may have seen a small teaser here and there; but there’s way more to it than adjusting some weapon sounds. The sounds are divided into layers; we have updated the sounds themselves and changed the characteristics and layers, for instance when you’re in 3rd person.
Depending on the view you’re using in- game, you will be able to hear more than you did before. When you zoom in on your infantry, in 3rd person the mechanical layer of sound will be audible, so you can actually hear the weapon’s mechanical action happening. The fading of sound will be different and more realistic as well, based on the way sounds fade over distance in real life.
We think you will like the new sound design, it’s going to be more realistic than it is today for sure!

https://youtu.be/Z4u-Tx4ntZo

The next update will also bring new maps to the game! That will bring up the total number of maps to a new high; we’ll be more specific about these in the next blog.
While working on these - and on the sounds & skins - we’re working on improvements to the game. This is an everyday process in which we are focused on quality; not just quality of life, but anything from tweaks to missions to refinement of what we already have and - obviously - to fix bugs where we can. Our last change log contained well over 100 lines of documented improvements and additions, and this process is always ongoing.

One highly requested feature which is slowly coming to fruition are skippable cutscenes for the original Ostfront missions. Talvisota and Scorched Earth DLCs brought skippable cutscenes into the game, and we have re-designed all of the missions to support this now, in a way that remains friendly with the netcode synchronization.

That’s it for this blog, thanks for stopping by and see you on the battlefield!

• We started a new meta game on our Discord server. Join today and win a key to the next faction!
  
• You can help spread the word on Gates of Hell by linking people to our LinkTree
  
• We will announce a developer Q&A on the GoH Discord server soon! Join by clicking below:

• Fixed server crash introduced in last update related to move orders. Crash report ended in: "> scene: quant: vehicle:buq"
  
• Added ability to rebind the "pause" key
  
• Added feature in Conquest and the general Library view to allow users to select the Season (aka texture) of a unit.
  
• Added UI support for to display veterancy levels up to 15 on unit icon. (4 bits)

Hello everyone, we’re getting near the end of the year, and so it’s time to get you up to speed on the next update we have planned for you. This will be the 12th update of 2022, making for a nice average of one update every 4 weeks.
It comes with new content & some QoL changes, and it will be out soon.

We have worked on a lot of different areas, and the result is a vast improvement. We have added different kinds of content like new maps; at the same time, this update will also improve loading times while also reducing the total installation size. How did we do that? Keep reading!


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The total installation size has been reduced. Your game will load slightly quicker as a result. This is in spite of the fact that we have upgraded the Ostfront ground texture quality by 4 times to match the Talvisota visual standard, so you should be able to see a visual improvement in the original “Ostfront” maps, especially in third person mode!
The original set of maps will be expanded as well; we add 4 new maps to multiplayer!
All in all, the installation size will go down by about 1 GB and the optimization will take another step.


HD Link

Generally speaking, there’s always room for more Quality of Life. One of the QoL changes is the addition of many vehicle schematic icons, replacing the old and sometimes placeholder schematics.
Another one is the camera shake. The camera shake is one of those things people seem to either love or hate; from now on, it doesn’t matter anymore - the camera shake will become optional!
Another improvement has to do with vehicle damage. On most wheeled vehicles except half-tracks, damage was irreparable if the wheel was blown off; we have now introduced the ability to replace these wheels, which takes a long time for the crew to do, but prevents these vehicles from being permanently unusable, which used to be inconvenient in conquest in particular.


HD Link

As you have already come to expect from us, we are fixing glitches and issues all the time and this update brings a good number of them. Our previous changelog had 52 lines that started with the word “fixed”. For this update, we have prepared a detailed changelog once more, which will be published as soon as possible, see below.

• All of our changelogs are posted in the Steam forums
  
• We’re also working on a humanskins overhaul and a sound overhaul, both to be announced.
  
• Any questions you might have can be asked on our Discord server
  
• You can help spread the word on Gates of Hell by linking people to our LinkTree
  
• We plan to do developer Q&A on that Discord server soon! Join by clicking below:

• Added option to game options tab to enable/disable screen shake from explosions
  
• Added Added Surrender and Restart Buttons to the In-game Escape Button menu in Conquest
  
• Added 4 New MP maps

• Removed "lose battle on exit" option on conquest creation screen
  
• Changed conquest so that crashing or ALT+F4 exiting cannot result in a loss, and allows players to replay battle.
  
• Added Surrender and Restart Buttons to the In-game Escape Button menu. Players can now decide in each battle, instead of at the campaign creation level, if they want to loose and progress or replay the same battle on early exit.
  
  
• Added Soviet KhT-130 and T28 M1938 to conquest
  
  
• Fixed soviet conquest research tree where some units were locked at start that should not have been.
  
• Fixed bug with missing enemy airstrikes when player is Finland
  
• Fixed spawns dcg_lakhta_winter map
  
• Fixed dcg_Vainikalan_winter map preview
  
• Fixed CP size of the Finnish KhT-130 in conquest
  
• Fixed CP size of BT42 and 75mm itk37 in conquest to be 20 each
  
• Fixed incorrect crew count for 122mm A19 in conquest
  
• Fixed cost of Sdkfz 234 Series of vehicles in conquest
  
  
• Increased cost of 60cm Karl Thor in conquest by 100
  
• Increased cost and CP size of Grille Ausf.K in conquest to be inline with other SPG of its size/caliber
  
• Increased ammo points gain slightly in conquest for both winning and losing across all difficulties.

• Added 4 New MP maps
  - 1v1 Ladoga
  - 2v2 Urban Hell
  - 3v3 Radusha Airfield
  - 4v4 Olkhovatka
  
  
• Added T28 M1938 to soviet Early War Irregular doctrine
  
• Added T28 M1938 to soviet Mid War standard buy menu
  
• Added KhT 130 to soviet Mid War Irregular doctrine (replaces 2x KhT-26 with 2x KhT-130)
  
  
• Reduced DP cost of KV-2 in Early war doctrine from 60 to 50
  
• Reduced DP cost of KV-2 in Mid War doctrine from 50 to 45
  
  
• Fixed crew leaving planes on MP Map: 4v4_vitebsk
  
• Fixed Soviet Doctrine Cossack squad missing description, CP and score
  
• Fixed 4v4_swamp var3 environment to not be night
  
• Fixed Finnish Mid and Late war where the 21cm Nebelwerfer and the Landsverk 182 shared the same unit limit group
  
• Fixed many smaller issues with several MP maps

• Fixed problem with loading some save files and units could not move
  
• Fixed SVT ammo in singleplayer breeds so it will resupply properly
  
• Fixed Voice lines for Finnish Campaign missions not playing
  
• Fixed enemy AI accuracy on hard difficulty as it was worse than on normal
  
  
• Increased bleedout time for revivable soldiers on hard and heroic difficulties to be the same and normal difficulty (120 - 180s)
  
  
• Fixes for German Mission: The Big Prize
  - Fixed player/soldier/officer narrator talks appearing as enemy.
  - Fixed intro
  
  
• Fixes for Soviet Mission: The Cold Supper
  - Intro fixes
  - All scenarios stop using event/trigger ON NEXT(bad).
  - Fixed intro issues with sled vehicle never reaching intended start location. This resulted in issues with starting stealth.
  - Intro scenario proper overlap.
  
  
• Fixes for Soviet Mission: Operation Bustard Hunt
  - Intro cleanup and fixes.
  - Scenario fixes.
  - Fixed player reinforcement crew/passengers set to proper states for assignment.
  - Re-aligned some grass entities
  - intro scenario
  - SINGLEPLAYER: skippable after intro/2_camera in single player / COOP: Auto skipped after intro/2_camera.
  - fixes related to evacuation trucks task, their fixing, crewing and driving via ai related to evacuation task(always use selector tag/mid if called on waypoint for impregnability and not waypoint selector itself).
  - drivers board trucks for evacuation remove inhabited requirement as it would prevent their command.
  - intro fixes.
  - fixed "Take back control of the position and protect the trucks with the wounded" showing as completed at start.
  
  
• Fixes for German Mission: Siege of Sevastopol
  - Tasks 3/4/5 add more pointers as areas are big.
  - Globally set all possible user humans as user tag and proper move modes
  - Fixed trench hole under the map.
  - Fixed task 3 completion.
  - Fixed iron beams causing vehicle pathing issues
  - Changed damaged 305mm_mb_2_12 to be player 3 (allied to rus)
  - Removed autosave that was done right at start of the mission
  - Cleaned up task 2(clearing mines).
  
  
• Fixes for German Mission: Among the heavens
  - Fixed intro
  
  
• Fixes for Soviet Mission: Pavlovs House
  - Fixed some map entities what were floating
  - Pavlov carries rdg1_smoke_supplies.
  - Enemy tanks near Pavlov house improved behavior.
  - Various broken polygons on map fixed.
  - Intro and sniper name fixed.
  
  
• Fixes for Soviet Mission: Unbroken
  - Fade from black intro.
  - Fixed spotters to have ability to fight once attack given but not until player is in the village and before officer tries to escape(added weapons for spotters once it happens).
  - Intro coop compatibility for fx explosions on german convoy.
  - Remove autosave at intro end.
  - Spotters have small stealth mask bonus upon attack command and once action really heats up(if they still alive).
  
  
• Fixes for Soviet Mission: Winter Storm
  - Fixed intro
  - Fixed scenario issues with being stuck possibility.
  - Fixed many starting units including at gun being not assigned and under proper control.
  - Scenario usage fixes.
  - Fixed pl_squad engineers bailing from the truck at start not always assigned properly.
  - Fixed crash when pz3j drove onto prescripted mine area, it was trying to spawn fx entity that no longer exists(ex_arm_size1_snow)
  - Enemy part1 vehicle spawn and movement fixes.
  - 88mm_flak18_towed does not need to be inactive as its parent linked controls the state.
  - T34_town harmless and off via tag on same waypoint with delay to avoid situation where it would remain in that state by never reaching next waypoint.
  - intro scenario - SINGLEPLAYER: skippable part by part in single player / COOP: Auto skipped after first scenario.
  - Fixes to assignment.
  
  
• Fixes for German Mission: Legend of Krasny Bor
  - Fixed intro
  - Send_veh/inf logic added for soldiers left abandoned from attacking vehicles far on the map so that they dont act dumb standing around
  - Add emit ables added(enemy) based on conditions.
  - Skip preparation stage button show on top of reinfs.
  - Fixes to flareguy
  - Intro scenario - SINGLEPLAYER: skippable part by part in single player / COOP: Auto skipped after first scenario.
  - Use flare service instead of flare soldier for flare effect of incoming tank groups.
  - Flare script cleanup.
  - Switch from night to morning to day begins later and not instant attack starts.
  - Reduced light brightness night environment
  - Removed sandbags blocking Pak 40 from shooting left and right
  
  
• Fixes for Soviet Mission: The Citadel
  - Fixed add_emitinf logic for tanks
  - Fixed at gun positions
  
  
• Fixes for German Mission: Ace of Swords
  - Fixed players artillery guns moving into rear position and looping back and forth between move/set states(part1/ally/mortar/to_pos1)
  - Fixed issue where to_pos0/1/2_fire could call allied arty to fire even though order to move forward was called thus breaking scripted movement.
  - Fixed intro if skipped before t0 tank hits mines the ai crew were never killed.
  - Fixed tiger filled starting rounds.
  - Fixed minor intro issue (sp) when tank hits mines if scenario not skipped.
  - Fixed intro bug (intr/cam8)
  - Intro scenario - SINGLEPLAYER: skippable part by part in single player / COOP: Auto skipped after first scenario.
  - Fixed various enemy *_c zones which were calling for clone reinforcements instantly due to wrong conditions.
  - Fixed russian pilot in a plane which was inactive and tagged for cloning reinforcements(possible crash source).
  
  
• Fixes for Soviet Mission: Street to Street
  - Fixed "ghost evil clones of starting player tanks" coop issue *properly*. (caused by scenario bad settings for coop)
  - Improved intro.
  - Start tanks assign of operations clean up
  - Fixed bug with doubled start tanks "ghosts"
  - Start user zone tad bigger to make sure all reinf vehicles are in it.
  - intro scenarios dont jump view when skipped
  - intro german running squad that dies in artillery, fix lowering health to ensure they die in coop, as sometimes they just come back to life due to diff not adjusting health down.
  - intro - COOP: Auto skipped after start/01. / SP: improved intro scenes joined better.
  - map pathing fixes.
  - intro from black.
  
  
• Fixes for German Mission: In Spite of Everything
  - Fixed intro
  - Ontroductory scene skippable properly(single player) at any subpart of the scenes(skips instantly to assignment not to next movie).
  - Fixed assignment of the 2 engineer trucks driving during intro.
  - Fixed certain inf not assigned in coop(sniper and 2 medics).
  - Fixed unit not assigned.
  
  
• Fixes for German Mission: Clash at Narva
  - Fixed fallback timer from being hidden when player completes task4 as there is still total of 300 sec before attack continues, so without the timer showing this it was confusing.
  - Fixed deletion of vehicles in rare instance. (tag deletion not removal).
  - 4 fails only if player is dead to make it feasible for aggressive player who dominated first part not fail because he did not retreat fully.
  - Implemented add_emitinf_ables logic for enemy tanks.
  - Difficulty deletions fix.
  - Major clean up of task 3/4 scripts.
  - Fixed pathing for ammo boxes in specific location.
  - Enemy wave attacks improved (timings and intial traffic paths) + small balancing.
  - Fixed add_emitinf logic for tanks
  - Complete defense task(3) upon all timers completion and player still alive in task3 zone, this way he gets reinforcements available even if enemy forces are within task 3. This is much more rewarding for holding on the area even with few men at last moment.
  - Initial reinf shows up as task 5 is shown, global/lose only loses before attack begins if player dies, later it varies based if player has reinforcements available or lost defense forward.
  - Increased cost of Grille Ausf. K reinforcement in Narva mission now that it can fire indirectly
  
  
• Fixes for Soviet Mission: Closing the Pocket
  - Added voice lines for officer and mission tasks
  - intro fixes
  
  
• Fixes for Soviet Mission: Koenigsberg Cauldron
  - Fixed towed cannons/mortars for doctrine vehicles to receive its own assign even if they are still attached, as this is the proper way(fixed autoassign issues).
  
  
• Fixes for Skirmish Mission: Mamayev Kurgan
  - Fixed sniper purchase bug(defensive doctrine).

• Added option to game options tab to enable/disable screen shake from explosions
  
• Added feature to allow torn off wheels to be replaced with new wheel when repaired (torn wheel is no longer a permanent vehicle death)
  
• Added new weapon views for Flame Throwers:KS-24 KS-25, ATO-42, Panzer3 14mm Flammenwerfer
  
• Added new chances for wheels can be torn off (HE blast damage or Pierced by 75mm+ projectiles, AT mines)
  
• Added halftracks and 8 Wheeled vehicles can still move (at slow speed) if 1 wheel is torn. 2 torn wheels = immobilization
  
• Added or improved all low to medium height fences to be climbable by infantry
  
• Added new vehicle_views (damage schematic) to many vehicles. (Eventually all will be done.)
  
• Added double drum SmK and SmK(H) rounds
  
• Added rear AA gunner position and MG to Jagtiger (with animation for MG mount)
  
• Added missing icons for Finnish heavy engineer and Ger/Sov Miners
  
  
• Fixed issue where vehicles with torn off wheels could still move if still crewed
  
• Fixed graphical glitch when sdkfz 7 windshield was broken
  
• Fixed Ostwind's max gun elevation so it should not turn backwards
  
• Fixed Stug 3 Ausf.B smoke launcher missing polygons
  
• Fixed Karl Thor from being able to be crushed by vehicles and tanks
  
• Fixed Turret ring armor thickness for pz38h_735 and pz38h_w40
  
• Fixed Mantlet armor for SU100
  
• Fixed incorrect shell texture inside the Grille Ausf.K
  
• Fixed grille_k, bison and sig33 to not eject shell casings after shooting
  
• Fixed small weak point on the front of the T34 Shielded
  
• Fixed inside of FT-17 gun/mantlet area from being see through
  
• Fixed 57mm_zis2 from showing in library twice
  
• Fixed is2 versions enumerator and turret mgun problems
  
• Fixed coax MG on Sdkfz. 234/2 to align with mantlet
  
• Fixed rotation limits of Finnish Panzer 4 J's AA MG
  
• Fixed MG ammo for Sdkfz 221 to match the MG (Double Drum Mags)
  
  
• Fixed English vehicle description for Pz.Kpfw B2 740(f)
  
• Fixed localization for German early war doctrines
  
• Fixed missing localization for Soviet Single-player Summer 1943 breeds
  
• Fixed localization for rus_cossack_hat
  
• Fixed syntax of Sd.Kfz to be consistent in localization/description files
  
  
• Fixed vehicle view for Sdkfz250's (broken tracks were reversed)
  
• Fixed typos of finnish engineer squad icons
  
  
• Fixed texture inside of German M42 Winter Cover helmet
  
• Fixed mass of shovels
  
  
• Fixed being able to walk through barbed_wire_finland while in direct control
  
• Fixed barbed_wire_finland and barbedwire to be cutable with wirecutters
  
• Fixed buildable barbedwire to able to overlap itself and other entities
  
• Fixed volumes on barbedwire destroyed models
  
  
• Fixed issue with some windows on sov_2st_build1 not being destructible
  
• Fixed issue with generic ruin 7 sometimes not allowing units to enter inside
  
• Fixed industrial awning metal parts from exploding when crushed by vehicle
  
• Fixed pathing around red_beam_medium for carried cannons like Maxim MG
  
• Fixed colliders for fence_stone_destr2
  
• Fixed wall volumes in Pavlovs house so units cannot be shot through the house
  
  
• Fixed brandenburger sometimes spawning without a helmet
  
• Fixed infantry not wanting to go near crashed aircraft
  
• Fixed 20mm lahti L39 to spawn gun fully loaded
  
• Fixed 122mm APHE didn't have filler stats
  
  
• Updated textures to take up less harddrive space
  
• Updated all land textures from Ostfront to 4x the resolution to match the quality of Talvisota and future theatres/locations
  
• Updated vehicle schematic overlay to give more strength to the damage colour layer to improve readibility.
  
• Updated portraits for some Soviet and Finnish breeds
  
  
• Updated Grille Ausf.K to be able to fire indirectly (longer range with arc)
  
• Updated Grille Ausf.K 1st person view to be like other indirect artillery views
  
• Updated player given move orders to update without giving an order to stop/start the unit
  
• Updated .50 cal MG on Sherman tanks to be not removable, so that is the same as Dshk's on Soviet vehicles. Also stops exploit in MP.
  
• Updated Ampulomet M1941 3rd/1st Person camera to be the same as other arc firing field guns
  
• Updated the Sdkfz 222, Sdkfz 250/9, and the Sdkfz 234/1 (2cm guns) to spawn with hatches open, have increased vertical rotation limits and allow them to target aircraft.
  
  
• Increased blast resistance of barbed wire so personnel grenades cannot break it
  
• Increased turret armor of KV1 M1942 from 100mm to 105mm
  
• Increased speed of KV1 M1942 from 28 to 35kph
  
  
• Reduced 20mm lahti L39 accuracy to be more inline with other 20mm cannons and reduced rate of fire slightly
  
  
• Removed Ampulomet M1941 unlimited fire range while in 1st/3rd person
  
• Removed code that throws humans when hit with a specific amount of grenade energy. Had side effect of humans living at 0 health.
  
• Removed smoke launchers in Finnish Panzer 4 J. Sources say they were not delivered and holes plugged.

r10846-11188

We wish you a wonderful time with your friends and family. ːcta_emo1ː

It's a great opportunity to fill up your game libraries with some exciting coop gameplay to enjoy.

Have fun!


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