Hi, friends.

With warmth and ease in our hearts, we inform that we have dealt with almost all the things that we had to deal with before the test. Today we finished sorting letters, and selected people to participate in the test. Thank you very much to everyone who responded and sent applications. Thanks for the words of support and warm feedback on previous games. It was not necessary. And by the way, it did not affect the decision. However, it was a pleasure to read. From time to time, someone could notice how a single tear of emotion rolls down the wrinkled cheek of fellow-developer. He brushes it off or wipes it with his sleeve shortly after, says that his eyes are simply tired of the monitor. And he will start to work again, but somehow happier this time. And his back will become straighter and the look lighter. Thank you for that, fellows.

There were many more applications than needed. Unfortunately, at this stage we can invite only a couple of hundred to the test. Those of you who have passed will receive a letter in the next few days with instructions on what to do next. Nothing complicated, don’t worry. No marching in full uniforms, tasks to get involved in a fight in opera-house, or waiting at night in a dark alley for a figure in a cloak that will pass a package with a key. The most difficult stage has already been completed. You sent an application and got to the test.

Those who won’t receive the letter - do not worry! After this test, a CBT will begin, much larger, and many more people will be able to participate in it. The game will be even better, and there will be many more players to play with. Just stay in touch in the Discord - https://discord.gg/TKFuSnY Cause it won't be many news here in the near future. The main channel for communication will be there. Are you ready to rush into battle?

Hi, friends!

As you remember we have teamed up with 1C Entertainment and now we are getting ready for closed testing. Many thanks to all those of you who volunteered to participate in the first test! There are even more applicants than we expected. We have collected your letters and we’ll keep in mind everyone. Now our goal is to ensure that everything will work smoothly. Hopefully, the dates of the first test will be set soon. We’ll inform you about it as soon as possible.

Closed testing will be held through the 1C Entertainment tools. To participate in CBT you have to be registered on the site: http://1cgames.net. A bit later the 1C Entertainment launcher will be available on the site. Men of War II: Arena could be installed through it.

It turns out that for now the game will grow outside of Steam. This does not mean that Men of War II: Arena will never return here. A separate page of the finished game may appear over time. But the stages of closed and open tests are intended for the 1C Entertainment platform. In this regard, it was decided to close the project page.

We understand that Steam is a convenient platform for many of you. You are used to monitoring the project, making friends for future games and reading the news here. But for a large-scale online project having its own space and separate site is very important. And it will be much more convenient to conduct tests and collect feedback. Also our posting is going to be more regular.

A forum and a separate page of Men of War II: Arena on the portal are being prepared right now. So far, we will answer all questions in our social networks:
ВК
FB

But for the current holly wars and fun you are welcome to Discord, where a separate channel for the test will be created.

Thank you for your support and we wish you all the best!

Hi, friends.

Didn’t we promise important news this Fall? So the change of name is one of them. Hopefully, we didn’t hold any weird “make tattoo with our brand name” contests, otherwise, it would be kinda awkward now.


A couple of months ago, negotiations with 1C Entertainment were completed. They ended with the signing of a publishing agreement. We were an indie studio long enough to fully enjoy unlimited freedom and limited resources. Now the development is at the stage when the core gameplay is ready, all possible foundations have been laid, and it is the right time to move on to public tests and promoting the game. And for this particular stage, we really needed a partner, preferably time-tested one. Therefore, to unite with 1C Entertainment again to release the next part of Men of War - is a logical and exciting step for both companies. Now that our cooperation has resumed, we will be able to increase staff, speed up development, add some more beautiful things to the game, do promotion, spend more money at the casino ...


... and use the Men of War family name. We had previously discussed the possibility of changing the name before the release and only partly so as not to receive news in Google Alerts on the life of New Brunswick and the “Soldiers Arena” hockey stadium. Men of War is without a doubt a more recognizable, popular and unequivocal title than Soldiers (there are still many more games with “soldiers” in the title). Now we can not only return to work on the MoW series, but also continue it. The number “2” in the name is not without reason after all. Arena turned out to be a really new game. She retained the main game mechanics, received many new ones, and lost some of the old problems of the series. Men of War II: Arena has both a recognizable MoW gameplay and a new gaming experience ...


... which you will soon be able to test. Over the past few months, we have not only signed contracts and changed names, but also prepared for the beta test. It will begin in the near future and will take place in three stages. For the first and most “cozy” one we will recruit a couple of hundred players. Over time, we shall move to a larger-scale CBT, and only then to OBT, when anyone can play. We will be able to collect more feedback in conditions close to “in the field” ones, and you will be able to try the game before release. What is needed for this?

• Register on the publisher’s website.
  
• Send an e-mail with your data to pr@bestway.com.ua: the email address for which you registered your account on the 1C website, a link to your account in Steam, full name.
  
• Periodically check mail and news. We will write about the end of recruitment and the beginning of the test.

Register and get ready to send your troops to the Arena. Wish you all the best.

Link

Hi, friends.

Summer is over and with it our short parting. Let this art with sunflowers, tankmen with a dog and T-34 brighten up the beginning of autumn for all of you. We went to work straight outta stealth mode and prepared a short diary about arts, getting rid of placeholders, game responsiveness, and interface.

To make the metagame more attractive, we began work on the art for battalions. Started quite a while ago, but did not add them to the game until each one was ready. We finished this work by the end of August, so now the metagame interface has significantly fewer placeholders and notably more beauty. In the last post, before we went into the fog of war vacation, we already showed the art of the German subversive and reconnaissance battalion, and today's one is, obviously, the Soviet medium tank battalion. In the future, we will show the rest in good resolution.


Link

There are much fewer placeholders and question marks in the development tree too. The work has not yet been completed, so the icons from different periods look a bit heterogeneous. And may change one or more times before release.


Link

We also added a lot of hints on the metagame interface. It probably doesn't sound like an epic and very interesting task to read about. And it’s unlikely to give rise to fantasies about how you and your friends are going to open hints until the early hours of the morning, and interrupting each other excitedly talk about unit levels, or re-reading over and over again, for which you need a “Play” button. Being a rather boring part of the learning process (which is not Disneyland itself), the tips do not cease to be extremely important and necessary. Soldiers: Arena is a hardcore, as we all love, so there are a lot of mechanics, features, groups of units, types of slots and all kinds of characteristics in it, which you doubtfully understand without a peep. Now you will have a reliable assistant in the metagame. Not Clippy though.


Link

Most importantly, tips for units and battalions have started to do their job and can explain to beginners how the T-34-85 differs from the T-34-85M, or rookie rifleman from a veteran. And that means the decision to take it to the deck or not will be more conscious. Of course, you can always just put the most expensive units ... But if you, like us, like to dig into the settings and assemble the most efficient, interesting and surprising battalion, these tips will come in handy. They, as you see, contain a lot of information: basic characteristics, a list of strengths and weaknesses, a description of the unit. Ok, they WILL contain when we finish filling in all the data.


Link


We are doing our best to make the game as attractive as possible before the release, to remove the maximum number of placeholders and temporary solutions. We would like to make the OBT stage as short and quick as possible to give everyone a chance to play. While we have the opportunity to devote all our efforts to development, rather than support, we intend to use it. Wish you all the best, and feel free to suggest a topic for the next diary.

Link

Hi, friends.

The next diary will be in the first ten days of September. As for us, we will activate the stealth mode for the next two weeks, as a sabotage and reconnaissance brigade usually do. Don't miss us much and know that there will be many interesting news this autumn. Hope the rest of the summer will be great for you all.

Link

Hi, friends.

Today we continue to talk about how to manage your battalion. We’ll show with examples how much freedom of choice the battalion constructor provides. We will conduct an inspection of the howitzer battalion of Germany and will choose a favorite type of sabotage activity along with some other ones. And we will announce the winners of the contest from the last diary who will get access to the alpha test.

In the last diary about on this topic, we talked about the process itself, the principles that formed the basis for the concept of battalions, echelons, and BR. We will not repeat ourselves, so if you managed to forget (or missed the material at all), then here is the link. Today we will develop further on the topic, and show how the same battalion can vary depending on the strategy chosen by the player. In order not to confuse you, we will use the word “battalion”, although both “regiment” and “brigade” can be found in the screenshots. And don’t forget that the interface is still “work in progress”. Do not be too harsh on that.


Link

Each battalion has a specialization and discounts on BR for the units. And the deck from the screenshot above uses its specialization to the fullest extent. Only the howitzer battalion can take the leFH 18M on the first echelon, and it is the only one who can put howitzers into two slots on the second and third ones. Using all the slots and a ten percent discount to the maximum (3.6 BR instead of 4 for each sFH 18) we get ten (!) howitzers for the whole battle. We’ll put the recoilless 105-mm LG-40 gun (which we will use as a howitzer anyway), an anti-aircraft gun and some infantry into the remaining slots. At the third echelon we’ll take one Pak 43 in order to at least slightly cover our “rear” from heavy tanks. Such a deck will allow you to field anywhere from 2 to 5 howitzers on the battlefield at any time, allowing you to worry less about their loss and enable you to maintain a generous howitzer symphonic orchestra running. The main disadvantage of it is that there is practically nothing left to defend your chaps with and thus it is necessary to rely heavily on fellow mates.


Link

If you are not yet ready to entrust your life to an ally and think that the flexibility is the best way out, look at the screenshot above. There are much fewer howitzers, so losing them will be very unpleasant, but you will be ready to turn the tables around on unprecedented situations. You’ll be able to strengthen your position with engineers and battle engineers; defend against air strikes and paratroopers with the Wirbelwind. Take some infantry too for cover from saboteurs and the occasional capture of territory, previously freed from the enemy by means of dropping ample amounts of high explosive shells beforehand. Pak of various modifications will not only protect against tanks, but also significantly expand the list of priority targets for you. In general, the battle with this deck is more comfortable, but artillery fire from one or two howitzers isn’t the same as from four.


Link

What you see above is a deck made by a non-conformist howitzer commander that fights the system in all of its manifestations. This is not to say that a howitzer battalion without howitzers is the right decision, but it is also possible. Just imagine the bewilderment of the enemy team! Your team’s surprise equally notwithstanding, you may be able to pull it off... If you want, you can even play as an attacking howitzer battalion, no matter how strange it sounds. Collect more infantry, clear the territory with artillery preparation, move forward, repeat. Or you can support allies with "fire and wheels" moving after the advancing troops. You can take risks and bring howitzers almost to the front line to level out the minuses of the plunging fire. We are sure you understood the main idea - there is no one true option.

Now let's expand the material looking into the subversive and reconnaissance battalion. Because everyone knows - there is no MoW without a good fight in the enemy’s rear. Let's consider three types of decks: with focus on snipers, on front support and on sabotage units.


Link

For successful sabotage behind enemy lines, you still need to go there and find the enemy there, which is actually not so easy. But you don’t have to, when you focus on supporting the frontline instead. Such a deck is balanced and for it, the team will say “Thank you!”, Especially if you are a beginner saboteur. Its goal is to strengthen allies on the front line with your units, whilst then capturing and holding territory. Separate infantry squads will help to hold or capture important areas while you are micro-managing the rest of the units. The Jägers do not capture the territory, but they can protect you from the advancing infantry, and have an improved view range to detect enemy saboteurs. Profile units (scouts and saboteurs) in such a deck should be near the front line. Intentionally not going behind enemy lines, but highlighting firing points, machine gunners and snipers for allied artillery. Just to prevent an attack and repel the desire to carry it out. Mortars, both stationary and mounted on the Sd.Kfz 251/2, will help in cleaning buildings, destroying artillery and defending infantry. This one is good for reconnaissance, defense, sabotage on the front line.


Link

Focusing on snipers speaks for itself. There are a lot of them. If you forgot, here you can read about the types and ammunition of snipers in Soldiers: Arena. Still, all of them have something in common. Any sniper is good for the systematic killing of defending infantry, but does not cope well with large clusters of attacking ones, especially with tank support. They can trample your snipers and roll them over with their tracks. And in order to provide ourselves with some protection against such attacks, we put machine-gun detachments in the remaining slots to protect against infantry and include ourselves an airstrike against tanks and artillery. And we hope that we won’t have to defend ourselves alone. Jägers located close to the front line due to their enhanced view settings provide excellent visibility and highlight targets for snipers. This means that you will always see the enemy first. Such a deck is good for bleeding the enemy and slowing his advance. If the player not only scatters snipers on the map, but also has good situational awareness, then the effectiveness of the battalion will increase significantly. Change positions, monitor the visibility, choose priority targets, advance along with an ally ... In good hands, snipers clean out enemy infantry even better than howitzers.


Link

From defensive capturing decks, we move on to something completely different. A base-harassing, offensive, aggressive profile. Its basis is made up of scouts, saboteurs and Brandenburgers. All these units have stealth skills, can mask their positions, and do not affect the front line, but their weapons and equipment are very different.

• Scouts. Each of them have MP-40, 2 M39 grenades, a signal grenade (artillery strike).
  
• Saboteurs:
  
  • Two saboteurs (silent pistol, 2 M39 grenades, 2 smoke, 2 signal grenades, 2 dynamites).
    
  • Saboteur with SMG (MP-40, 2 M39 grenades, 2 smoke, 2 signal grenades, 2 dynamites).
    
  • Saboteur-sniper (Mauzer 98k (sniper), 2 smoke grenades).
• Brandenburgers:
  
  • Armored personnel carrier Sdkfz 251 (2 Mg-34)
    
  • Driver (MP-40)
    
  • Two riflemen (G43, 3 M24 grenades, 2 smoke grenades, 2 dynamite)
    
  • Commander (G43, 3 M24 grenades, high-explosive M24x5, 2 smoke, 2 signal grenades)
    
  • Radio operator (silent gun, 3 M24 grenades, 2 smoke, 5 signal grenades)
    
  • SMG infantryman (MP-35, 3 M24 grenades, HE M24x5, 2 smoke grenades, 2 dynamites)
    
  • Sniper (Mauser 98k (sniper), smoke grenade)

Such a deck will be supplemented by airstrikes and paratroopers, with which you can kill what your scouts and saboteurs spot. This one is very demanding in micro-control and practically useless in terms of capturing the territory, but if you are used to it, the enemy will never use the words “safe” and “rear” in one sentence.

As you can see, even highly specialized battalions like howitzer and subversive and reconnaissance can be configured for completely different strategies. What can we say about the battalions, the whole point of which is universality?

We want to thank the history fans from the community who responded and sent their work to the contest. There was really a lot of feedback and some of it was really impressive. Thank you for that! It was a tough decision to make but the winners are: Sebastian Czarnowski, Adams Disturber and Zhuk Ruslan. Remember to check your mail, guys. Wish you all the best.

Link

Hi, friends.

This is the right time for another diary with feedback. As usual, we will look back to tell what we created from scratch, what we repaired, and what we upgraded. Settings, new features, increasing the size of maps and two comebacks by your requests: ammunition and BC and rubric with bugs.


About a month ago we added an air strike to the game. And immediately started testing and modifying it. A week later, we added different types of ammunition to aircraft. Now we are adjusting the damage of planes. Trying to ensure that aviation is a formidable opponent, yet not becoming an easy-to-use ultimate tool. With most units, the airstrike can ensure total obliteration with one flight, with the heaviest and the most armored of the tanks - in several. But a couple of aerial bombs are a great way to cope with the IS without having serious AT-guns or your own tanks. Collapse the track and finish off with an air strike is quite a working strategy. You asked several times in the comments about the possibility of choosing the direction of attack for the air strike. The thing is necessary, no doubt. So we’ve added it. And also taught the AI how ​​to use aviation.



The importance of teamwork has also become more evident due to the charismatic involvement of attacking aircraft. Most units have always been an easy target without the support of infantry giving an overview. Now you need to protect the allies from the air attack too, so consequently, the value of anti-aircraft guns and allies who have them has grown. We are actively fixing bugs in the air defense behavior, learning to aim and doing fine-tuning of anti-aircraft guns, their damage, aiming speed, detection radius, etc.


The last few months we have been experimenting with the size of the maps, as there was a feeling that gameplay is somewhat “tight”. Created a new Champagne map with an area of ​​more than twice the size of the other maps. It was too spacious to play on it though, so according to the test results, we cut it in width and length several times. Until a compromise was reached, which made it easier to apply workaround tactics or organize impudent breakthroughs, but at the same time did not force to play “search” game all the time. The balance here was important. As always.


Link

When the map is too large, most of the session goes into training for a strategic triathlon: orienting, high-speed scrolling, and sports pixel-hunting. The main game mode is about the front line, where the battles do not stop, where you need to hold and win every inch. The ideal size for this mode is when the team lacks some troops to control the entire width of the map, and the depth allows to hide artillery and enables the saboteurs to hunt onward. And, it seems, we found such a size. The gameplay has become more orderly, the war has become more maneuverable, and mobile units have become more valuable. we began to customize the rest of the maps under the new format.


Of course, we worked on the metagame, usability, and tutorials. In this regard, a lot has already been made, but no less has remained. Soldiers: Arena game is quite difficult, both in terms of the metagame and in terms of gameplay. However, hints, tutorials and intuitive controls are desirable in a game of any difficulty level. Hardcore and difficult trials in games are certainly important, but the main test should hardly be the task of picking the sword from the ground or spawning the first squad. So, in recent months we have been working a lot with setting up in-game hints, hotkeys and hot groups. We made hints for the metagame, the commander’s constructor and the slot types. We write informational texts about battalions and units, so that it would be possible without Google to figure out which of the PZ III modifications is better suited for your deck.


Link

A lot of balanced edits and settings have been made. Here are some:

• Ammunition ceased to be infinite. We tested this mechanic and look for a good solution at this point. Maybe a choice of ammunition and setting up the supply will become a part of managing the battalion process.
  
• We continue to configure the tps and fps cameras. This time, machine guns got their legitimate opportunity to conveniently cut down the foes with direct control.
  
• Customized the characteristics, weapons and behavior of units. Ordinary snipers lost the bonus to the detection of saboteurs. Jaegers have become more mobile, making it easier to pursue scouts. Reduced health for brandenburgers, and increased it for elite snipers. Taught separate infantry squads how to go in the right order - now the commander and heavily armed fighters are walking in the center.
  
• Added additional characteristic for tractor units, which determines how fast it moves with attached artillery. For example, the GAZ-67B will receive a small penalty when towing a 53-К and much larger when towing something heavier.
  
• Refinement of the trenches. Made a new markup visualization, both intuitive and informative. Many bugs were fixed in the behavior of units in the trench and during its assault.

As always we fought and won the fights with bugs. In an unequal battle fell the one, that allowed units to ride through anti-tank hedgehogs while using direct control. The family of unit geometry bugs died too. However, it was rather the last favor, than cold-blooded murder. This family seriously suffered in life, turning the units outward, forcing them to move at an angle of 45 degrees to the ground, and run with feet facing backward. But, the saddest thing is that our dear friend is missing in action. It made us shake up and look more cheerful at life. In one of the patches, the camera shake began to work not only from especially large projectiles but also from fragmentation belts of anti-aircraft guns. He was jiggling our screens and shaking out all the sadness. And he also prevented the opponent from aiming, since the screen shook not only at the owner of the unit but also at all who saw the process of shooting fragmental-epileptic shells. Here is the last scene we saw him. R.I.P.



Slightly above we wrote that we fill in the info about the units. In addition to the description of weapons and armor characteristics, we want to see there some interesting historical fact, so that the hint wouldn’t be purely technical. And we know for sure that there are fans of the history of World War II among you, guys. If you have a desire to help the development, send to PR@bestway.com.ua interesting facts (with links) that seem to characterize a specific unit. You can send it up to 1.08.2019. We’ll return the favor and the three best historians will take their keys to the alpha test (NDA still required though). Wish you all the best.

Germany techtree.
USSR techtree.

Hi, friends.

Intimidating. Bombs away. Aviation. These words can be used to describe the first tests after the introduction of airstrikes in Soldiers: Arena. It is always a joy to add new features to the game, but an airstrike ... is a story that deserves to be in epos. The planes dropped bombs, anti-aircraft guns fought back and avenged the ground targets, all others sought shelter. Sought in vain. One can’t hide from the sharp ace eyes. Can’t get away from their punishment, which comes down the sky like rain, turning brave men into corpses. Damn, it's hard not to switch to a high syllable, remembering how epic it looked in the game.


You already know that reconnaissance and paratrooper planes have been around for quite some time. And the most attentive noticed a place for an airstrike in the technology tree. Since last week, this is not just an icon, but also the opportunity to order a flight of valkyries laden with bombs. Let’s discuss how it works now (in a draft form). As a reconnaissance aircraft, an airstrike does not take CPs, but launches a timer after completing a combat mission. The time required to return to the airfield and maintenance depends on the damage received during the flight. Of course, damaged to death planes become unsuitable for airstrikes. You, as a commander, are only required to indicate a point on the map, sometimes adjusting the designated point to take into account a moving target. The pilot will do the rest. Your air Aesir will go to bomb the Jotun-tankmen and the Vanir-infantrymen, dropping one bomb at a time. High-explosive damage from the payload is enough to destroy the majority of opponents, clearing a pair of buildings, destroying trenches. Or you can hit the preemptively-intimidating strike, the purpose of which is to show that you still have aces down and above.



Air strikes can be used by all infantry battalions, Mechanized and Panzergrenadier tank battalions, Howitzer and Air defense artillery battalions. The Sapper commander can put an airstrike in two slots, the rest only in one. Now the supportive troops have become strong not only in defensive actions but also in the offensive ones. The ability to send two planes at the same time can sometimes turn the tide of battle or, at a minimum, clean up the area before the offensive. Strengthening the spot and bombing the attacking enemy is also a good strategy. Anti-aircraft systems are rarely placed directly on the collision line, which means there are more chances that the enemy units will be sent to Valhalla, but not your pilots.


Is such a high-explosive lightning strike at a point on the map too strong? - you may ask. No way. Because we do not introduce ultimate and uncounterable abilities, and always think about the balance of forces on the battlefield. The plane can be seen from afar, and if you are attentive, and your unit is fast enough - you can just ride away. The situation is worse if you are seated in a fortified building, in a trench or immobilized in a tank ... In such cases, your only hope is in anti-aircraft guns. 61-Ks or Wirbelwinds prudently spawned can cleanly saw the wings off before anyone has a chance of dropping a bomb, or at the very least, seeking revenge. The struggle of aviation and air defense in the session adds not only the epicness to the fight, but also to realism in the use of anti-aircraft guns. Although the FlaK 18 was quite successfully used against armored vehicles, it was still created to combat air targets.



The airstrike is a very fresh feature, so we still need to customize it, add new models and a realistic arsenal to each aircraft. For example, before the spawn of the Stuka, you can choose what to hit the enemy with: one 500-kg bomb or two 250-kg with a large spread. And the IL-2 will have a choice between firing RS-82 missiles, bombing with cumulative anti-tank bombs (PTAB) or shoot with VYa-23 cannon. Frankly, we have already added this. Just the day before yesterday.



With aviation, things are getting better, so in the future, we are only going to expand the capabilities of the airfield. The logical development of the idea with an airstrike looks like the addition of the Pe-2 and Ju 88 front-line bombers. More survivability, more bomb load, more epic - isn't it great? In the future, unique US battalions with a bonus on the use of aviation could be interesting too. There is a lot of space for perks here too. Yeah, we have a lot of plans. But what do you think? What kind of aircraft would you like to see in Soldiers: Arena? Wish you all the best!

Link

Hi, friends.

Now, while we continue to fix the bugs, to refine the metagame (and not to talk about it), it’s a good time to discuss some of the questions floating in the air. The damage model in Soldiers: Arena, for example. Fans of accurate settings, disputes about realism and sprawling comments - make yourself comfortable. Today we are talking about who is hurting whom and how much, and what affects the amount of “hurt”.

Let's start with the Healthbar question. New people constantly come into the community, and when they learn about the existence of a “life bar” on vehicles, they become enraged. Being sure that the presence of healthbars is an indicator of the demise of the genre and the obligatory fall into arcade Gehenna, they lose all hope. So we’ll have this diary for all the newcomers. There will also be a lot of interesting things for seasoned community members too. Don’t really want to be a messenger that brings bad news, but Santa Claus does not read your letters, and healthbars have always been in MoW. Usually, shell removed the durability of the component or broke it after penetrating. When the hull was broken, the unit was considered destroyed (sad trombone).



Healthbars cannot be taken in isolation from other mechanics and further in the text, we will pour evidences that in Soldiers: Arena we’ve added even more realism. Visualization (which, by the way, can be turned off) and the improvements of healthbars is a necessity designed to reduce the value of the random stuff and make the gameplay more orderly and understandable. An additional quest is to force tankers to leave natural shyness, get out of the bushes, and at the same time become a powerful force in the offensive operations and a reliable support in defensive lines. With healthbars, you yourself are the master of your life, and you can safely erase from your emblem the old motto “Hit hard, die young”. HP is derived from the unit survivability characteristics and takes into account the armor, composition, type of vehicle, size and number of seats for the crew. So with a healthbar you easily understand the level of how durable your unit is, how close to its fate you are coming, and you can therefore control the process. There is no simplification or casualization. Just a standardization.

Damage mechanics needed to be improved too, because permanent oneshots aren’t very healthy. And, by the way, not very realistic too. Does every penetration brake down the tank? Nope. And there are a lot of stories about the shells that have been melted into armor, or machines that have been pieced through a couple of times and still have continued to fight. Reducing everything to a random variable is also not the best option. The luck isn’t the only thing that decides destiny in real life. And certainly not the only thing that should call the shots in a competitive multiplayer game. For example we have ZIS-2 and ZIS-3, shooting at some PZ III. Both guns can potentially destroy it. The ZIS-2 has a better penetration value, but the 76-mm ZIS-3 projectile has more explosive ingredient, which means more fragments affecting the vehicle and the crew inside. Which of them should oneshot the tank faster and with what chance? The conditional game situation, when ZIS-2 oneshot PZ III with a fifty percent chance, and ZIS-3 with a forty percent one doesn’t seem very realistic. No more than double jump or ring with +5 to the critical hit chance. So, to reduce the influence of chance on victory is a noble cause.



Consider the types of damage and mechanics that affect its amount.

• The penetrating damage to manpower is inflicted on infantry when a bullet or projectile penetrates. In Soldiers: Arena, we increased the damage of small arms at close range, so on a range of grenade throw, soldiers die from a single bullet, regardless of their coolness. The amount of such damage essentially depends on the ballistics of small arms, the position of the fighter, being in a trench or cover. Additional protective equipment such as a helmet, body armor or a thick book in a breast pocket seriously increases the chances of survival.
  
• Melee combat damage. Only infantry gets it of course. Directly depends on the skills of the fighter and weapons in his hands. We had to refine the AI ​​a lot, but it was worth it. In the trenches, you can now see the battle with the use of bayonets, shovels, knives and buttstocks. Strictly 16+.
  
• Fatal events damage. As Pratchett said, “And that which does kill us leaves us dead!” Throwing a throwing knife, being hit with vehicle, collapsed building or trench walls, killing by the world’s physical fragments.
  
• Armor-piercing damage. Applied as a result of penetration of armor by AP projectile. The characteristics of the projectile (including caliber) seriously affect the amount of such damage and the chance of killing with one penetration. The remoteness of the target is another important modifier, since the penetration and damage from the AP-shells fall with the distance. Such damage very often leads to crew death and disabling modules. Armor of the target isn’t the last thing, because to inflict AP damage, you firstly need pierce the damn thing. Using tank angles correctly to increase your chances is still in fashion. High angles of the meeting with the shell can cause a ricochet.
  
• Cumulative damage comes with cumulative grenades and projectiles. It differs from the AP damage in that it does much less damage to the health-bar (general functionality) of the machine, but doesn’t spare the crew and modules.
  
• High-explosive damage from explosives and HE shells. Destroys covers and is lethal to infantry, which is guaranteed to die in its area of effect. The principle of action on the armor is similar to a hammer - if it breaks through, it crumbles everything inside. The thinner the armor and the closer the epicenter of the explosion, the more damage the machine will take. Light armored vehicles can survive a direct hit only from some small shells. In the case of indirect hit, damage will be inflicted only if the high-explosive wave has enough energy, which rapidly dies out with distance, in order to break through or crush the armor. So indirect hit are almost not dangerous for heavy vehicles, but they are very easy to feel for light ones and fatal for unarmored ones. Artillery does not like high-explosive damage much because of the high chance of detonation of the ammunition.
  
• Fragmental damage from explosives and HE shells. As you can see in the Soldiers: Arena, high-explosive projectiles and explosives have both fragmentation and high explosive effects. Often in different proportions. For example, anti-personnel mines and grenades cause a lot of fragmentation damage, and minimally high-explosive ones. Fragment’s piercing rate isn’t enough to cause damage even to an APS. Infantry from such damage is well protected by shelters, removal from the epicenter of the explosion and the recumbent posture.
  
• Seismic damage. Deals damage to trenches and buries them. Large-caliber HE shells have the greatest seismic damage, so that artillery preparation before the storming of the trenches is the right decision. A pleasant realistic bonus is that tanks also cause seismic damage with their tracks. You can bring down the walls of the trench just by riding over it.
  
• Fire damage. When in contact with a flame, there is a chance of triggering an “ignition” event. In the future, we also want to move this mechanics from scripted rails, reduce the influence of the random and add fire extinguishers to the armored vehicles.

We also want to brag some about the improvements of some of the mechanics and units mentioned and share our plans.

• The mortality of the crew has become more logical and realistic. You shoot where the driver is sitting - most likely he will die.
  
• There is no limit to the firing range anymore. We remind you. Wipe clean a checkmark in the Realism column or put a new one if this is news to you.
  
• Rewrote damage system of the components. As before, you can shoot down the tracks, damage the tower or gun of the tank, destroy or ignite the engine, knock down additional screens, etc. But now it all became more predictable and less dependent on the chance. Added the possibility of damaging to the component without breaking it. For example, the tower of a heavy tank may jam from frequent hits.
  
• We’ve brought realism to the work of high-explosive and cumulative AT-grenades. Now they do not have infinite pierce power and are not the ultimate weapon in the fight against a tank threat. The RPG-43 could penetrate up to 75 mm of armor, and this is a bit like an ultimatum to the Royal Tiger ... rather, a polite warning. The RPG-40 generally has only 40 mm of penetration, but a lot more high-explosive damage. So, unlike RPG-43, it can be successfully used against fortifications and buildings.
  
• For each type of projectile we registered our own model of damage, trajectory, accuracy parameters and ballistics. Planning to add more types of shells. So the player will be able to even better configure the unit for the tasks that it intends to perform.
  
• Added visualization of calculations for penetration of present armor, taking into account the normalization of the projectile.

Let’s consider the task to consolidate today’s material. The enemy armored car is approaching your Pak 40. What type of projectile is better to use? Armor-piercing one first you think, because, you know, ARMORED car. But then you will understand that this is a tricky question, which happens to mean that the correct answer is a HE shell. And you will be right. As we know, high-explosive damage is deadly for lightly armored vehicles, while an armor-piercing projectile with excessive penetration can simply pierce through and not hurt the “vital organs”.

We customized and tempered during tests the current damage model. It is a big step forward for the whole community. And it is bearing fruit. In previous games, tanks mostly fought with other tanks, which is not very realistic. In such conditions, when choosing between the T-34-57 and T-34-76, the first one was always the winner usually because of a greater piercing rate. The greater the piercing rate, the greater the chance of a oneshot. It is quite logical. In Soldiers: Arena, it makes sense to use these tanks against different targets. The T-34-76’s projectile has a good high-explosive effect, which means it is suitable for fighting guns and infantry. The 57-mm projectile of T-34-57 for the same purposes is too weak, but its AP shell with excellent speed and penetration can rustle the jimmies of the heaviest heavy tanks. Damage won’t be great anyway, so there is no point in speaking about oneshoting Tigers. But you definitely can bite it and have a great amusement.

We cherish the hope that the number and depth of the settings (and examples) listed above will convince you that there is no question talking about casualization. The game only becomes more hardcore and more understandable at the same time. Soldiers: Arena can and will need to be studied for a long time in order to understand how everything works and to take your place in the top and in our hearts.

We already wrote that we are going to rework the ammunition mechanics. Definitely, it can help with the balance of some units that can inflict a lot of damage. We are still discussing how to implement the ammunition replenishment without slipping down to shifting items from one inventory slot to another. Your ideas? Wish you all the best as usual.

Hi, friends.

Traditionally on this day we wish everyone a peaceful cloudless sky overhead, emotional balance and good memory. May wars and conflicts will be only in games and on forums.

Yours sincerely, Best Way.