Dec 18, 2022

Company of Heroes: Back to Basics - Celution

Update 5.4 is now live!

This update features performance improvements, new and reworked classic maps, AI behavior improvements and difficulty scaling adjustments, Commonwealth faction design changes and a round of general balance tweaks!

Update highlights

Performance improvements - optimizations have been made to our custom script-based mechanics and AI. Expect a less stuttery experience and a much improved framerate! But don't forget, the mod features a large selection of extra scripts and complex functionality so it's still more expensive to run than vanilla.
New and reworked classic maps - we keep expanding the selection of our custom-polished maps from both the community and the classic selection. Play the new Crossroads map, a favorite from our friends at Eastern Front mod, and experience classic maps like Semois and Sturzdorf anew, with updates to the layout and map flow to better suit our mod's gameplay.
AI behavior enhancements - new functionality and tons of tweaking has been done to allow AI to do wave-like attacks more often. Team weapons, special units and mobile artillery units have all seen major bug fixes and improvements.
AI difficulty scaling adjustments - New behavior changes allow us to quite drastically reduce AI resource bonuses across all difficulty levels. We're also further tweaking the difficulty curve, allowing players to impose resource handicaps on the AI at lowest difficulties. The new scaling curve will hopefully improve the perceived difficulty increments between the various AI opponents.
Commonwealth faction design changes - expect a much more tech flexible faction with much less reliance on Tommies as the core pillar of the faction. Side-teching will be much more encouraged and easier to afford, as we refocus faction priorities away from early core infantry domination into a defensive faction capable of fielding strong specialist units.
General balance tweaks - HMG rework, light vehicle rebalance, suppression recovery rework, 'point blank' range reduction, anti-blob power increase, penetration adjustments and a lot more!

Maps

Added [BtB] Crossroads (4): A tweaked version of a map from our friends at Eastern Front mod.

Added [BtB] Sturzdorf (2): A tweaked version of the classic map that offers additional flanking routes and better pathfinding in a lot of areas.

Added [BtB] Semois (2): A tweaked version of the classic map that offers additional flanking routes and a wider map flow to reduce the funneling effect through the main land bridges that the original map suffers from.

Made adjustments to BtB: Le Tremblot (2):

Replaced two of the "safe" +5 munition points with +10 (those that are adjacent to the base sectors).
Replaced the central +10 munition point with a +5 munition point.
Fixed minor object placement bugs.

Gameplay Changes

[h4]Core balance[/h4]

- Base manpower income: +255 mp/min → +260 mp/min

- Anti-blob:

Inner radius: 8.25 → 9.5
Outer radius: 12.25 → 13.0
Inner radius accuracy penalty: 0.98 → 0.92
Outer radius accuracy penalty: 0.97 → 0.925

- 'Point blank' range: 7 → 4.

Developer comment: Point blank range is the radius at which cover stops being applied to squads.

- Implemented functionality which will allow HMG and Mortar team weapons to be dropped on death even if they're not setup.

Developer comment: Note, due to engine limitations, this functionality has certain caveats:

If an unsetup team weapon squad dies near an already dropped team weapon of the same type, the team weapon will still be lost.

If the last team weapon member of a setup squad dies far away from the actual team weapon, the team weapon might be duplicated.

[h4]Suppression[/h4]

Previously, suppressed squads would stay suppressed unless they could exit combat. Low suppression units could keep suppressed squads from recovering for a very long time. With the new system it's much easier to have your squads recover from being suppressed in any given combat encounter as soon as they stop being fired at by high-suppression units, or, for example, receive smoke cover.

Initial suppression thresholds for squads are not changed, all squads work exactly the same as they did before in terms of how fast they enter suppressed state.

- Normalized suppression combat behavior for all squads, including campaign units, except special cases:

This fixes various issues with suppression parameter inconsistency.
Most normal squads already had their suppression values normalized before.
All capture squads had very different suppression parameters.
Some mortar squads had incorrect suppression recovery thresholds.
Officer squads and medic squads often had inconsistent parameters.

- Weapons suppression parameters:

Modifier against suppressed squads normalized at 1.0 (this value was either 1 for standard weaponry, or 0.7 for highly suppressive weaponry).
Modifier against pinned squads normalized at 1.0 (this value was either 0.1 for standard weaponry, or 0.3 for highly suppressive weaponry).
Suppression modifiers against targets in cover normalized:
- Heavy at 0.6 (this value was different for various types of weapons, was set for 0.5 for highly suppressive weaponry).
- Light at 0.75 (this value was different for various types of weapons, was set for 0.6 for highly suppressive weaponry).

- Squad suppression parameters:

Base squad suppression recovery set to 0.012 per tick (most squads already had this value).
Added scar-based suppression recovery rate increase for pinned and suppressed squads:
- Applied once every 0.625s.
- Suppression recovered for suppressed squads: 0.03125.
- Suppression recovered for pinned squads: 0.046875.
Suppressed activation threshold set to 0.2 (most squads already had this value).
Suppressed recovery threshold: 0.25 → 0.1.
Pinned activation threshold: 0.6 → 0.62.
Pinned recovery threshold: 0.6 → 0.55.
Non-combat delay: 5s → 4s.
Non-combat recovery multiplier: 50 → 1.5.
Recovery modifiers when in cover:
- Heavy: 3 → 1.5.
- Light: 1.5 → 1.3.
- Negative: 0.8 → 1.3.
- Smoke: 10 → 5.

- Adjusted sniper suppression to compensate for some side effects of this rework: 0.24/0.24/0.215/0 → 0.42/0.42/0.37/0.

- Implemented a scar-based fix to squads sometimes getting suppressed while retreating (engine bug).

[h4]Vehicle combat[/h4]

- Smoke cover bonus:

Removed -50% received damage multiplier.
Added -20% received penetration multiplier.
Sight range penalty: -5 → -7

- Rebalanced main gun penetration rates:

Close range combat (up to 17 meters) now is generally more consistent for tank guns that had previously had a tiny chance of bouncing certain armor types (e.g. Sherman vs Panzer IV)
Mobile tank destroyers (Hellcat, Jackson, Achilles) are generally less efficient against the frontal armor of the Sturmgeschutz IV, Panther, Tiger, and Jagdpanther.
Sturmgeschutz IV frontal armor is improved significantly vs mobile tank destroyers, and the M4A3(76)w Sherman.
The M4A3(76)w is now generally less efficient against the Sturmgeschutz IV, Hetzer, and Panther.
The M26 Pershing and Firefly are now more efficient against the King Tiger.
The Churchill is now generally more efficient against all armor types except the Hetzer and Sturmgeschutz IV.
The Ostwind and Wirbelwind Flakpanzer frontal armor is slightly less efficient overall.
Rear armor mechanics remain untounched (guaranteed penetration chance).
Fixed a plethora of damage multiplier inconsistencies.

- Significantly reduced the damage per shot for most tank guns vs halftracks and light vehicles.

Developer comment: This change should ensure that such vehicles will no longer get instgibbed as easily in mid and late game vehicle engagements. In most cases it now requires an extra shot to destroy halftracks with tanks. The lower damage per shot also means that the initial shot has a lower chance of inducing critical hits. Tank Destroyers like Marders and Stugs are now also less prone to getting obliterated by other tank destroyers like the Wolverine, Achilles, and Jackson, but also Fireflies and Pershings.

- Normalized damage multipliers of many tank guns against recon vehicles to offset the hitpoint reductions (see below).

[h4]Repairs[/h4]

- Repairing unit modifiers:

Added increased target priority penalty.
Added increased received suppression penalty.
Received accuracy penalty: 1.5 → 2

- Manpower income drain: -20 mp/min → -25 mp/min

[h4]Heavy Machine Gun teams[/h4]

- Costs:

USF: 270mp → 320mp
CW: 280mp → 320mp
Wehr: 270mp → 320mp
PE: 280mp → 320mp

- Teardown time: 2s → 3s

- Suppression radius: 12 → 16

- Suppression:

USF/CW (s/m/l/d): 0.002/0.022/0.029/0.027 → 0.002/0.028/0.031/0.031
Wehr/PE (s/m/l/d): 0.001/0.012/0.020/0.018 → 0.002/0.022/0.023/0.021

- Accuracy multiplier vs Halftracks and Armored Cars: 1 → 3

- Accuracy multiplier vs suppressed targets:

USF/CW: 0.7 → 0.6
Wehr/PE: 0.6 → 0.5

[h4]General Balance changes[/h4]

- Forward Barracks reinforce radius: 20 → 25

Developer comment: this is mostly to fix it being difficult to reinforce from very large ambient buildings.

- Mortars:

Barrage munition cost: 10 → 0 (free)
Smoke barrage munition cost: 10 → 0 (free)

- Snipers:

Veterancy requirements: 6/15/27 → 8/16/32
Veterancy bonuses:
- Veterancy 1 sight range bonus: +5 → +3
- Veterancy 2 durability bonus: -15% received damage → -5% received accuracy, -5% received damage.
- Veterancy 3 weapon range bonus: +5 → +3
Anti-Blobbing penalties:
- Suppression modifier removed.
- Range penalty per level: -3 → -3.5
- Cooldown penalty: 0.5 → 0.75

- Anti-Tank guns (M1 57mm, 6-Pounder, 75 mm Pak40, 50 mm Pak 38, 17-Pounder, 3" M5):

Ready aim time: 3s → 2s

- Mark Target:

Added a 2s initiation time before the target is marked. (Caster units must now maintain a lock on target for 2s otherwise the ability will cancel).

[h4]Static objects[/h4]

- Basic defenses (sandbags, barbed wire, tank traps) no longer revert to neutral ownership after being constructed.

- Significantly reduced the hitpoints of crewable team weapons (HMGs, Mortars, AT guns).

- Vehicle wrecks:

Significantly reduced hitpoints.
Most vehicle wrecks can now be crushed by medium crushers (everything up to heavy tanks).
Fixed JU87 Stuka wreck collision box.

Developer comment: Previously, it was quite tedious clearing out blocked off passageways as well as destroying decrewed team weapons. Player-owned defenses will better targeted by the AI.

[h4]Infantry Anti-Tank Weapons[/h4]

- M18 Recoilless Rifle:

Base accuracy (s/m/l/d): 1.31/0.89/0.24/0.21 → 1.31/0.89/0.37/0.29

- PIAT:

Base accuracy (s/m/l/d): 1.31/0.89/0.24/0.21 → 1.25/0.85/0.36/0.27

- Boys Anti-Tank Rifle:

Reduced overall effectiveness against infantry targets.

- Panzerschreck:

Damage multiplier vs M10 armor: 2.3 → 2.5
Damage multiplier vs Stuart/Hotchkiss armor: 2 → 2.2

[h4]Americans[/h4]

- Weapons Support Center:

Manpower cost: 180 → 140

- Engineers:

M1 Thompson (Assault Engineers):
- Base accuracy (s/m/l/d): 0.57/0.39/0.17/0.09 → 0.55/0.38/0.15/0.08
- Distant range cooldown multiplier: 1.6 → 1.7
- DPS change (s/m/l/d): -5%/-4%/-13%/-15%
Assault Engineers - Received suppression bonus: 0.9 → 0.95

- Jeep:

Hitpoints: 350 → 250

- Command Squad:

Can now pick-up heavy weapons.

- M10 Wolverine:

Hitpoints 650 → 600
Main gun reload time: 7.1s → 7.8s

- M3 Quad:

Base accuracy: 0.22/0.25/0.31/0.41 → 0.21/0.23/0.28/0.38
Reduced suppression on all ranges.

- Improvised Armor:

No longer increases Sherman hitpoints by +50.
Now properly reduces the penetration chance from shape-charged ammunition (Panzerschrecks, Bazookas, etc), and reduces damage from Panzerfausts.

[h4]Commonwealth[/h4]

- Restructured teching:

Unlock Company Command:
- Manpower cost: 150 → 120
Requisition Armour Command:
- Now locked behind Requisition Company Command.
- Fuel cost: 60 → 40
Restructured unit roster layout in the command panel.

- Headquarters:

Removed Universal Carrier
Added Captain

- C60L Supply Truck:

Manpower cost: 220 → 180
Resourcing Facility fuel cost: 60 → 40

- Platoon Command Truck:

Manpower cost: 200 → 180
Removed Heavy Machine Gun Section
Added Universal Carrier

- Company Command Truck:

Removed Captain
Added Heavy Machine Gun Section

- Armour Command Truck:

Fuel cost: 80 → 50

- Slit Trenches:

Manpower cost: 40 → 20
Construction time: 25s → 20s

- 25-Pounder Howitzer:

Now requires Armour Command unlock
Counter Battery - Now has a shared cooldown with the default barrage to reduce the capability of continuous barraging.

- Sappers:

Veterancy gain experience value per model: 1.2 → 1.5 (squad: 4.8 → 6)

- Infantry Section:

Boys Anti-Tank Rifle upgrade now requires Company Command upgrade.
Veterancy gain experience value per model: 1.4 → 1.5 (squad: 6 → 7.5)
Lee Enfield rifles:
- Base accuracy (s/m/l/d): 0.6/0.52/0.31/0.21 → 0.56/0.5/0.31/0.21
- Rebalanced cooldown multipliers
- DPS change (s/m/l/d): -11%/-8%/-3%/-
Rifle Grenades:
- Explosion reaction radius: 0.75 → 0.5
- Scatter angle: 10 → 8
- Range: 30 → 34
- Min range: 5 → 7

- Universal Carrier:

Hitpoints: 380 → 300
Slightly reduced durability against non-automatic rifle fire.
Wasp upgrade hitpoint boost: +20 → +50
Veterancy experience value: 4 → 5
Mortar Carrier upgrade now requires Armour Command unlock.

- Commandos:

Received accuracy multiplier: -15% → -20%

- SAS Jeep:

Hitpoints: 350 → 250
Deployment time: 35s → 30s
Received accuracy: -10% → -5%

- Recon Element:

Received accuracy: 1.08 → 1.05
Veterancy gain experience value per model: 1.4 → 1.6 (squad: 4.2 → 4.8)
Increased suppression potential of the Scoped Lee Enfield Rifle:
- Recon Sections now carry the potential to induce a short suppressive effect akin to Snipers.
- A single Recon section will not will not be able to induce suppression in most situations.
- Two Recon sections can effectively suppress a target.

- Captain:

Removed Observed Fire.

- Highlanders - Lee Enfield rifles:

Rebalanced cooldown multipliers
DPS change (s/m/l/d): -3%/-7%/-13%/-4%

- Achilles:

Hitpoints 650 → 600
Main gun reload time: 7.1s → 7.8s

- Tulip Rockets:

Now apply globally once unlocked in the Command Truck. (Vehicles no longer have to purchase the upgrade individually).

[h4]Wehrmacht[/h4]

- Wehrmacht Quarters:

Cost: 160mp 15f → 140mp 15f

- Krieg Barracks:

Cost: 180mp 20f → 160mp 20f

- Sturm Armory:

Fuel cost: 35 → 40

- Schwimmwagen:

Hitpoints: 350 → 250

- Motorcycle:

Hitpoints: 350 → 250

- Geschützwagen 39H:

Main gun area of effect:
- Radius: 3 → 2.45
- Inner radii (s/m/l/d): 0.5/1/1.5/2 → 0.5/1/1.5/2.45
- AOE damage (s/m/l/d): 95/43/14/8 → 95/33/12/8
Main gun accuracy multiplier vs infantry: 0.5 → 0.4

[h4]Panzer Elite[/h4]

- Kampfgruppe Kompanie:

Cost: 160mp 15f → 140mp 15f
Removed Pioneer Halftrack.

- Logistik Kompanie:

Cost: 180mp 15f → 160mp 15f
Added Pioneer Halftrack.

- Panzerpioneers:

Gewehr 43 munition cost: 40 → 60

- Kettenkrad - Hitpoints: 380 → 300

- Assault Grenadiers:

Hitpoints: 115 (460 per squad) → 105 (420 per squad)
Base accuracy: 0.57/0.47/0.22/0.12 → 0.45/0.37/0.17/0.10
DPS: -16%/-22%/-25%/-20%

- Fallschirmjägers:

Squad size: 5 → 4 (pop cost still 6)
Hitpoints: 93 → 120 (squad hp 465 → 480)
No upkeep change
Reinforce cost: 36 → 40
FG42 Assault Rifle - Base damage: 16/17 → 19/20
No squad DPS change

- Sd.Kfz. 222 Armored Car:

Fuel cost: 25 → 30

- Recon Halftrack:

Fuel cost: 25 → 30

- Marder III:

Main gun area of effect:
- Radius: 3 → 2.45
- Inner radii (s/m/l/d): 0.5/1/1.5/2 → 0.5/1/1.5/2.45
- aoe damage (s/m/l/d): 95/43/14/8 → 95/33/12/8
Main gun accuracy multiplier vs infantry: 0.5 → 0.4

- Hotchkiss:

Now uses its own armor type (instead of sharing with the Stuart).
Hotchkiss Rocket Launcher - Now applies globally once unlocked in the Luftwaffe Tactics Command Tree. (Vehicles no longer have to purchase the upgrade individually)

- Hetzer:

Manpower cost: 400 → 380
Fuel cost: 80 → 75

- Anti-Tank Grenades

Implemented a new and proper visual model for the Panzerwurfmine.

[h4]Manpower upkeep costs[/h4]

All units in mp/min.

- Americans:

M8 Greyhound: 4.8 → 8.5
T17 Armored Car: 4.8 → 8.5
M18 Hellcat: 6.0 → 7.3
M10 Wolverine: 6.0 → 7.3
M36 Jackson: 6.0 → 7.3
M3 GMC: 6.0 → 7.3
Command Squad: 12.1 → 14.5
Staff Sergeant: 8.5 → 10.9

- Commonwealth:

Infantry Section: 13.3 → 12.1
Sappers: 12.1 → 10.9
Tank Hunters: 10.9 → 8.7
Highlanders: 13.3 → 12.1
Vanguard: 17.7 → 12.1
Heavy Machine Gun Section: 8.2 → 8.2
Captain: 4.4 → 8.7
Lieutenant: 4.8 → 8.7
Mortar emplacement: 8.7 → 7.4
Bofors emplacement: 10.2 → 7.4
17-Pounder emplacement: 8.7 → 7.4
25-Pounder Howitzer emplacement: 9.7 → 7.25
Stuart Light Tank: 3.6 → 7.5
Tetrarch Light Tank: 3.6 → 7.5
Staghound Armoured Car: 3.6 → 7.5

- Wehrmacht:

Leutnant: 4.8 → 9.7
Sniper: 8.2 → 10.9
Sd.Kfz. 234 Puma: 3.6 → 7.3
Geschützwagen: 6.0 → 8.2
leFH 18 Howitzer Emplacement: 9.7 → 7.25

- Panzer Elite:

Hotchkiss Light Tank: 4.8 → 7.3
Sd.Kfz. 222 Armored Car: 3.6 → 6.0
Reconnaisance Halftrack: 3.6 → 6.0
Light Anti-Tank Halftrack: 3.6 → 4.8
Marder III: 6.0 → 7.3
Nashorn: 6.0 → 7.3

Technical & Quality of Life

- Improved passability of non-crushers and light crushers around stone walls and wooden fences. The result is that such vehicles may now properly drive through large gaps in crushed stone walls or in between wooden fences.

- Made optimizations to enfilade, self heal and sniper custom script-based mechanics:

Mechanics now update slower, a squad will refresh its state or self heal every 0.625s (every 5th game tick).
The effects of enfilade and sniper-specific anti-blob can briefly linger or not apply.
Self healing per single update changed from 0.0015 to 0.0075 (should result in more or less the same net-healing over time).

- GUI:

Enabled visual UI for reinforcement and upgrade purchasing radii for all base structures (excluding CW HQ Trucks).
Vehicle critials kicker message coloring:
- Crew Shock: yellow → orange
- Main gun jammed: yellow → orange
- Damaged engine: red → yellow
- Transmission damaged: red → yellow
Vehicle critical names: Suspension damaged → Transmission damaged.

[h4]Bug fixes[/h4]

Fixed an issue where certain projectiles could phase through various light vehicles (Schwimmwagen, Jeep, Motorcycle, Sd.Kfz. 234 Puma, Armored Car, Kettenkrad, M8, T17, Universal Carrier, Staghound).
Fixed USF Armored Infantry not applying anti-blob to nearby squads.
Fixed CW MG emplacement casting anti-blob on infantry squads
Fixed Sapper Demolition Charges overlapping with Wire Cutters.
Fixed description errors for Churchill, Vanguard, and Tank Hunters.
Fixed Bren Carrier pintle mounted LMG broken tracers
Fixed Smoke Screen (M4 Shermans, Tiger Ace) range tables
Fixed Panzer Elite HQ resupply not always applying.
Fixed Snipers automatically engaging Universal Carriers.
Fixed several instances of Snipers leapfrogging before initiating combat.
Fixed several stone wall elements not being crushable by medium crushers (tanks).
Fixed overlapping hotkeys of Medical Hits and Camouflage (Medical Kit hotkey: C → D)
Fixed Veteran Infantry Training not applying to Snipers.
Fixed Armor-Piercing rounds hotkey (P → C).
Fixed impassability checks for various hay bail/stack map objects.
Fixed unintended inconsistencies between various tank deployment times.
Fixed Anti-Aircraft Guns dealing excessive damage against Anti-Tank Guns.
Fixed Allied mortars base suppression potential (now equal to axis mortars, enabling them to suppress targets more consistently)
Fixed Incendiary Grenades using Pineapple Grenade visuals.

Difficulty scaling

We changed difficulty scaling from linear to in-out quadratic equation. Additionally, from now on, 'CPU - Adept' difficulty will be the difficulty without income bonuses. This means that 'CPU - Easy', 'CPU - Normal', and 'CPU - Hard' will now be penalized compared to the player.

- AI max resource bonuses:

Starting resources multiplier: 1.35 → 1.3
Starting manpower addition: +300 → +150
Manpower income multiplier: 1.7 → 1.6
Munition income multiplier: 1.7 → 1.6
Fuel income multiplier: 1.25 → 1.2
Upkeep costs: -10% → -9%
Production rate multiplier: 1.7 → 1.8
XP gain multiplier: 1.25 → 1.2

- AI min resource bonuses:

Starting resources multiplier: 0.94 → 0.883
Starting manpower addition: -50 → -59
Manpower income multiplier: 0.88 → 0.765
Munition income multiplier: 0.86 → 0.765
Fuel income multiplier: 0.96 → 0.902
Upkeep costs: +2% → +3.5%
Production rate multiplier: 0.84 → 0.687
XP gain multiplier: 0.95 → 0.922
Command Point gain multiplier: 0.96 → 0.922
Repair rate multiplier: 0.97 → 0.922
Base munitions income addition: -1.5 → -3.522
Base fuel income addition: -0.5 → -1.174

[h4]Performance improvements[/h4]

- Made major optimizations to all AI special purchase demand rules.

- Reworked ability avoidance logic for infantry, new implementation should have strongly improved performance.

- Made optimizations to surrounding safety calculations.

- Implemented multiple AI military target update optimizations.

- Implemented optimizations for and sped up military task requests.

- High priority AI military point markers can no longer be optimized away when reducing marker count at the start of the game. This also means that AI will contest high priority areas more reliably.

- Slightly reduced the number of low&medium AI military point markers which will be maintained per map to offset the change to high priority markers.

- Implemented barrage control requirement functions slightly improving performance in some cases and fixing issues where AI could use abilities without having the required squad upgrades.

- Optimized ability avoidance for vehicles.

- Made a small optimization to a function which returns data grid x,y coordinates, this optimization should affect most areas of scar-based AI.

- Made a small optimization to territory sector updates.

- Avoidance area updates are now limited per tick.

Major improvements

- Added new type of AI military markers - bridge markers:

They work similarly to high priority military markers.
Will be spawned at edges of bridges automatically.
Will be considered as always owned by enemy, even if marker itself is located in friendly territory (this should allow AI to focus on areas around bridges more reliably).

- Added 'chokepoint' avoidance type:

These avoidance areas will be created at the start of the match and act indefinitely.
If there are fewer than 3 friendly units in the area, chokepoint functionality is disabled.
Units in chokepoints can be forced to move towards their current heading.
Threat in chokepoint areas is still considered, similar to how it works for normal avoidance - high threat can result in immediate retreat, or pullback. However, it's much more likely units will simply move past the chokepoint, towards the enemy.
Spawned on bridges automatically.

- Changed general vehicle behavior around avoidance areas. Previously, vehicles would always be retreated from avoidance areas, now they will follow the same logic of considering directionality, considering threat.

- Reworked pullback functionality:

Squads not in combat will now utilize different threat assessment logic with larger radius and more importance of squads further away than usual.
Pullback threshold logic reworked.
Squads in combat will no longer ever be pulled back.
Squads affected by help functionality cannot be pulled back.
Units which were frequently pulled back recently are less likely to be pulled back again.
Enemy rushable unit value in the area now affects pullback logic.

- Help functionality adjustments:

Expect generally improved feeling of AI utilizing all its nearby forces for major fights.
Radius: 52 → 62
Now issues an extra queued attack move order towards the actual closest enemy position.
Adjusted timings.
Assault functionality now issues commands slightly closer towards the enemy.

- British HQ control updates:

Major updates to prioritization values.
Fixed distance modifier working incorrectly.
Anti-tank values in the area now affect safety more.
Reduced impact of distances to HQs on prioritization.
Fixed a long standing issue where territory sectors would count currently setup HQs incorrectly.

- Implemented a new system where squads which are assaulting a position will be able to move past HMGs if that is the closest squad to them.

- Reworked special unit safety calculation logic:

Larger emphasis on nearby friendlies (affects lategame most).
Larger emphasis on closest enemy units.
Updated setup direction calculation modifier values.
Adjusted all step counts.
Implemented functionality to use different distance exponents for different unit types.
Implemented new logic for nearby enemy armor value & friendly anti-tank value affecting safety.
Reworked setup thresholds.
Implemented functionality to consider nearby anti-tank when calculating overall area threat for special units (team weapons, snipers etc).
Implemented functionality for special units to consider history data when considering setup threshold. This should potentially result in team weapons setting up more preemptively in high traffic areas.
Reworked the way distance to HQ affects this logic (it should now affect it much more).
Removed functionality which changed safety values based on how well the weapon was setup if it had a setup angle threshold (there were issues related to this functionality).
Distance exponent: 2 → 1. This should result in AI considering units further away from special units as a bit more important rather than putting most of the emphasis on units nearby.

- Fixed a long standing issue where team weapons would always want to setup at their max range on any resetup.

- Reworked AT gun safety logic:

No longer granting a scaling safety increase based on amount of armor value in proximity.
Now granting a flat safety bonus when nearby enemy armor value is over threshold.
Updated distance-based threat parameters.
Much larger emphasis on friendly units nearby when calculating safety values.
Implemented functionality to change friendly nearby unit multiplier based on whether or not enemy armor is over a threshold number.
Increased step count for nearby cell consideration
Distance exponent: 2 → 1.3

- Implemented functionality for AT guns to attack-move towards enemy if they're in range. This should prevent issues where AI fails to issue facing commands and constantly relocates the AT gun when needing to do facing adjustments.

- Updated functionality to adjust military point priority based on distance from all friendly HQs. The scaling exponent is now 3 instead of 1, priority increases will look as follows:

At closest distance to HQ: 5.7 → 20
At half of map distance: 2.9 → 2.6
At 75% distance 1.4 → 0.3

- Added base clump weights for many basic static defenses, which should cause AI to bombard heavily fortified areas more, and even bombard defenses themselves.

- Fixed an issue where AI would have instant and permanent sight of entities when accumulating enemy clump data.

- Fixed a long standing issue where units which prefer to stay at a distance from the enemy would still get too close before executing their unit control logic (requirement of at least one enemy nearby, whilst nearby unit radius while too small).

- Fixed a bug causing barrage control to not function (issue started with 5.3 release).

- Implemented functionality to get average entity position for grid cells.

- Added custom AI markers to Scheldt.

- Added 'threat multiplier' for artillery avoidance types. Adjusted multiplier values, so that AI knows a little better that it's more dangerous to try to maneuver while being bombed by high radius artillery, as well as by fast artillery, and a bit more safe while being in areas of damage over time.

- Increased assault functionality lock timer duration - this should result in squads approaching the enemy on attack more reliably.

[h4]Minor improvements[/h4]

- Reduced/updated all avoidance delays for offmap artillery.

- Reworked mortar demand rules for allied, wehr and PE mortars.

- Adjusted how indirect fire unit demand is affected by munitions income and bank.

- Adjusted AT gun demand rules - More likely to purchase for USF, less likely to purchase multiple for Wehr.

- Reworked custom AI markers on following maps: Achelous River and Beaux Lowlands.

- Reworked special unit locking & unlocking logic.

- Aggro switch for targets assessment timers: 60-90s → 180-240s.

- Added tactic for Concealing Smoke (Commandos, Kettenkrad).

- Fixed special unit pullback lock status being applied incorrectly, causing these units to execute new unintended behaviors shortly after in some situations.

- Fixed a problem where Wehrmacht infantry veterancy upgrade rule was never being used.

- Fixed an issue where under certain circumstances closest cell unit weight data would be considered 5 times instead of 1.

- Fixed an issue where capture point neighbor score logic worked incorrectly.