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Greetings!

10 months ago we embarked on a huge task to rework and overhaul our entire armoured system, building it from the ground up to suit the dynamic and ever-changing nature of combat. With over 4000 commits to our source control since April, this update has been an incredibly involved and complicated process.

We are incredibly excited to announce the release of the Post Scriptum Armoured Update. Available now you can jump into one of the most immersive tank experiences available on the market. And if tanks aren't your thing then don't worry, we've got you covered.

This update brings the new armoured system to you, but in addition to this, we are also bringing an entirely new gamemode, meta changes and updates to the general gameplay of Post Scriptum.

We also want to remind you that you can join our Official Post Scriptum Discord where we collect most of our feedback, bugs and interact with our fantastic community!

Get Post Scriptum 75% during the Steam Autumn Sale!

In addition, we want to let you know that Post Scriptum will be 75% off for the Steam Autumn Sale 2021.

So now is a perfect time for you to get in and enjoy Post Scriptum, see what has changed or bring your friends along for an awesome and immersive experience.

Armoured Update Changes

By far the most anticipated part of this major update is the Armour Overhaul, which is finally here, lets dive down into exactly what you can expect with this new system. There is much more to cover than what we can reasonably talk about here.

New Advanced Shells & Penetration Logic

https://medal.tv/clips/46moxRa4jXP95/vp9Eg1lci

We cannot talk about tanks and armour without discussing the penetration simulation and shells themselves. With this update, we have introduced a range of new shell types, such as AP, APC, APCBC, APCR, HVAP, APDS, AP-HE, APC-HE, APCBC-HE, HEAT & Shaped Charges.

All these shells behave differently and have their own characteristics that make them unique in their own ways, we won't go over what each and every single shell does as we covered that in a previous devblog: https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/736220/announcements/detail/2977426980059880961

However, the most important change is that shells are divided into 4 base types. Armour Piercing, High Explosive, Armour Piercing with High Explosive filler and High Explosive Anti Tank.

These shells are the foundation of all anti-tank weapons in the game, infantry carried or not, this means that weapons like AT behave much more realistic and is harder to use effectively, but in the right hands with some experience can be a very potent weapon. The new penetration system is currently functional with all weapon calibers at .50 caliber or above.

The entire world was also reworked to work with this system, this means that your tank shells can penetrate tanks as well as work objects such as buildings, trees and other stuff that exist in the world, depending on the type of shell you can use this to your advantage in several ways. AP causes spalling and can be used to hit infantry or tanks behind hardened obstacles, while AP with HE filler can be used for taking out tank crews inside tanks or infantry hiding in a building since the shell will detonate on the inside like a hand grenade.

Bouncing, shattering and non-penetration now have a significant chance of causing spalling around the point of impact, this can pose a risk to nearby infantry as they could be caught in the spalling.

New component system, fire & hull breaking

https://medal.tv/clips/46mPqQOVwjnRc/vpjB063IK?invite=cr-MSx3N0EsMjExMDEzODIs

The next major change is in our component system, here we have reworked it from scratch to support both internal and external components. This means that shells don't necessarily have to penetrate to deal damage to certain components.

New Component System

For components we have additionally split components into "Vital" & "Non-Vital" components, this is relevant in how tanks are considered dead or knocked out, with the new armour system we have imposed a 3-strike you're out policy, meaning once 3 or more Vital components are fully damaged, the tank will be considered "destroyed" and you can no longer repair this vehicle.

Each component must be repaired separately by its crews or return to a repair station to repair fully. External objects like side-skirts, logs cannot be repaired or replaced after they've been lost.

Hull damage also cannot be repaired in the field and needs a repair station to repair fully.

This is by far the most common way to destroy tanks and will mean that engagements don't keep going until one or the other has depleted the HP of the other vehicle.

New Hull Break System

https://medal.tv/clips/4EuriefZbqok9/vpHpC3cni

But in order to ensure vehicles cannot take an unreasonable level of damage, we have implemented a hull component, the condition to deal hull damage is quite different in that a shell MUST pass through the entire hull, the turret for medium tanks and above do not count towards hull damage. The exception is that armoured cars do consider the damage to the turret as hull damage.

The main reason this was implemented was to have a consistent outcome firing shells against light vehicles like Armoured Cars that shouldn't survive more than a few shots regardless of where you penetrate. But also in part to ensure that tanks are destroyed even if the gunner misses components completely, this is of course very unlikely and takes many more shells depending on the size of the vehicle.

Oh no, the tank is on fire!

https://medal.tv/clips/46FyZDQc8Qfo7/vpUNuTyeB

Fire is the last big hazard for tankers. Fire was by far the most common reason tanks were completely knocked out of combat. Fire can be started by shooting various components like Ammo racks, fuel tanks and engines. Depending on the type of shell you fire the chance of a fire is going to change. An AP shell will have much less chance of starting a fire than an AP with High Explosive filler.

Fire in both engines and fuel tanks can be put out using the new fire extinguisher all crews are equipped with however, fire in ammo racks cannot be put out and a fire in your ammo stowage is a certain loss of your tank.

New Hangar & Shooting Range

https://medal.tv/clips/4EuEkLk1hzzX1/vpkwyOZhK?invite=cr-MSxManIsMjExMDEzODIs

This update also brings a brand new "Hangar" mode which is an interactive hangar where you can spawn and interact with the different tanks and vehicles in the game, this is intended as an interactive tool to get familiar with tanks. There is plenty of useful information here such as ammo types, crew counts, turret rotation speeds, armour analyzer and internal module viewer.

This is the perfect place to learn and get familiar with the new tanks and their systems.

The shooting range replaces the old Arnhem Range, with a more clean environment to test weapons, this is the place we have spent a lot of our time testing and playing around with weapons, we expect this will be updated further as we find more ways to utilize the range for players.

New driving mechanics & minor changes

The last big topic to cover is the new driving system. With this update, we have reworked the driving mechanics for tankers. All tanks now operate using a throttle and gearing system rather than the simplified driving controls from the past.

New Driving Mechanics

https://medal.tv/clips/3J1hiVSeiLYqK/vpZssy0Q0?invite=cr-MSwxZFosMjExMDEzODIs

This not only gives the driver more of a challenge but makes each and every tank different from each other. Choosing the right gear for the right speed is key and you have much more control over the speed you wish to traverse the battlefield at. Drivers can increase and decrease throttle using W / S (default) respectively. Turning is still done using the traditional A / D (default) keys. While pressing the space bar will turn on or off the handbrake, Q & E (default) is used to change the gear you are currently in. Each vehicle has a realistic amount of gears both forward and backwards. Meaning some tanks have more forward gears or reverse gears than others.

Seats, Hatches & You

https://medal.tv/clips/3J0WKpU1fnxFw/vpR2avR5s?invite=cr-MSx5SlQsMjExMDEzODIs

Tankers can also no longer enter tanks from any direction around the tank. To enter a tank you must climb onto the tank and look down at the hatch for the seat you wish to enter, be it driver, gunner or commander. Some hatches are used for multiple seats, this is based on their historical purpose.
https://medal.tv/clips/3JOyOO4dphbiw/vpalogCUQ?invite=cr-MSxrdkYsMjExMDEzODIs

Periscope Blindness

Periscopes are also now more realistic, there are no longer fictional rotating periscopes on most tanks. All tanks use their historical periscopes, if a tank had a fixed periscope that is angled to the side, then this is reflected in the new tank system. This means seats like the commander is much more valuable than before in that he has better visibility than all other crew members, the commander is now also the only crew member who can use the Q (default) key to zoom regardless of which view he is in.
Most other controls remain the same.

If you wish to know more about the Armoured System and its details you can find the devblogs below:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/736220/announcements/detail/3094511057696989330
https://steamcommunity.com/games/736220/announcements/detail/3037095871635357739
https://steamcommunity.com/games/736220/announcements/detail/2977426980059880961
https://steamcommunity.com/games/736220/announcements/detail/3039359731142018927

Meta & Gameplay Changes

Next, let's get into the section that doesn't directly involve the Armoured Update. Since the last update in April, we have been hard at work looking at and fixing other places in the game. These changes include gameplay improvements, Quality of Life changes, "Meta" changes and much more, so lets see what we've been working on.

Offensive Gamemode Changes

Offensive is our oldest gamemode, dating back to our release over 3 years ago, this gamemode hasn't seen much change in those 3 years and we have spent a lot of time talking and discussing how we can improve this gamemode that has become the "standard" gamemode of Post Scriptum.

Defender Hard Spawns Removed

One big area our community has expressed concern about is the spawn point system and weird gameplay rules, we took this feedback in and discussed how we could improve it.

With this update we have removed Defender hard spawns, the exception is that the defender still has their forward staging phase spawn which disappears shortly after the staging phase is over.

The hard spawns were the spawns that were present on locked objectives that acted as a persistent spawn for defenders, what was intended as a way to ensure combat didn't become dull, didn't really work within the game, the big problems with such a system is that it can be easily camped by enemies, causing more frustration than good to players.

For server hosters it caused significant headaches because the movement of troops was very often prohibited around these areas meaning tactical movement and flanking wasn't really possible. But this was only part one of the fixes needed here.

EVERYONE GETS FOBs!

The other place was Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) which were only available to attackers, this didn't make much sense after the removal of hard spawns so going forward Defenders are now able to build FOBs, but they must be 200m away from any current objective to stop the building of FOBs in the objectives themselves.

This means that defending Logi needs to take a much more active role in ensuring the team can spawn in, the failure to put up FOBs and spawn points means that you very quickly can end up losing a locked point before it's even unlocked for capture.

Gameplay "Meta" Changes

The next area a lot of the community has expressed concern about was in the current "Meta" of the game, which is the way we define the optimal way to play a game for the best results. While we cannot fix "Meta" itself, since it's always something players are going to try to find ways to optimize, we can limit unintentional habits that border "exploits".

Repair Crane Cooldown

One such area was the use of repair cranes to resupply and repair tanks and Anti Tank weapons indefinitely, this we have combated by introducing a cooldown to the system, meaning that we no longer favour players who sit still on a repair station, taking any damage while in a vehicle, that vehicle will have a cooldown applied to it, within this time you cannot repair or interact with repair stations.

Hedgehog Rebalance

Say it with me "Hedgehogs are for fighting tanks, not infantry."

Another area we took notice in was how Anti Tank barriers like the Hedgehogs were used by infantry, often using it as a cheap substitute for razorwire or to block off doorways of buildings completely, we have rebalanced them, made them more expensive to place, with fewer available on FOB's and limited the placement so that it's much harder to block off entryways or doorways using this method.

You can find all the gameplay changes in the changelog at the bottom of this post, for a full overview of gameplay changes made, there are many that aren't large enough to discuss in this section.

Maps & Layer Changes

The last big item we want to cover for this update is the rework to maps, layers as well as the new game modes added with this update.

New King Of The Hill & Armoured Gamemode

With this update, we are bringing some brand new game modes to the game, King Of The Hill (KOTH) and Armoured will be joining us, while Armoured isn't new we have essentially reworked the gamemode from the ground up to work and play better with the new Armoured system.

King Of The Hill

With King Of The Hill two teams are tasked with taking one random central point and holding it until the other teams tickets have been depleted, in this first iteration the point is selected at random on map start and will not change location. In a future update, we will make the zone more position as the battle goes on.

There isn't much new to the gamemode specifically, but its a mode suited well for low pop servers or when seeding your larger server.

Armoured Gamemode

Armoured players with very similar rules to King Of The Hill, but it is not entirely the same, unlike KOTH you have no infantry here, it is strictly tank vs tank combat, the objective is randomized on every map start and the objective is to hold the point until the enemy has had their tickets depleted.

https://medal.tv/clips/4Euz0OM4byprk/vpvnTQ8rX?invite=cr-MSwxWWYsMjExMDEzODIs
A new resource exists here called "Crew" this is indicated by the crew counter in the top left corner, every crew member that dies will take away 1 Crew point from this pool of 100, when a team has lost all their points, they will automatically lose, regardless of ticket count state, this means that the crews inside the tanks are much more valuable than the tank or tickets are.

To encourage the players to save these precious crew points we have introduced a new spawner/teleporter system that allows crew members to respawn closer to the action, or if their tank is destroyed can be teleported right back to their main base instead of respawning. This not only saves you a crew point but denies the enemy an easier win.
https://medal.tv/clips/4EuxofCGQfLea/vpS7G7orX?invite=cr-MSx2d1IsMjExMDEzODIs

New map & Lighting Overhaul

In addition to the new game modes we have created a new map "Proving Grounds", this new map is intended for Armoured gameplay and there is a 2nd map in the works which will be released sometime in the near future. Along with this we have gone through and updated all existing lighting for our old maps, the full list can be seen in the changelog.

And that covers the most major changes, but you can find the full list of changes below:

MODS MAY BE BROKEN WITH THIS UPDATE AND WILL LIKELY REQUIRE MODDERS TO UPDATE THEIR MODS

Armoured Update Changelog

Armour Overhaul

New driving mechanics with manual throttle and gear shifting.
Advanced shell penetration simulation logic. Shells can now also penetrate world objects like buildings.
New shell types such as AP, APC, APCBC, APCR, HVAP, APDS, APHE, APC-HE, APCBC-HE, HEAT & Shaped Charges.
Overhauled all game materials to be compatible with new penetration system.
Added new internal and external component damage model, as well as a hull break system.
Rebalanced all old vehicles with the new shell system.
New vehicle UI to suit the new system.
New and improved seating system.
Added brand new hangar for in-depth armour analysis.
Added new shell icons to reflect the new types of projectiles.

Vehicles
Added new Tiger 1 E model.
Added new Panzer IV H model.
Added Initial Release Tanks (Remaining tanks will be added in several future updates)
United States
Sherman M4A3
Sherman M4A3(76)W HVSS (M4A3E8)
M5 Stuart
T17 Staghound

United Kingdom
Sherman Firefly
Churchill Mk. IV
Cromwell
Matilda Mk. II
Daimler Armoured Car

France
Somua S35
Renault R35
Panhard 178

Germany
Panzer VI King Tiger
Panzer VI Tiger E
Panzer V Panther
Panzer IV H + Skirted version
Panzer IV D
Panzer III F
Panzer 38t
Sd.Kfz. 234 Puma

Gamemodes / Gameplay
Added new King of The Hill gamemode.
Added new Armoured Gamemode.
Added a cooldown mechanic to repair stations. [Community Feedback]
Added main base protection to LCT on Utah Invasion.
Hard spawns removed from all Offensive maps. [Community Feedback]
Defenders can now build FOBs on Offensive. Has to be more than 200m from any capture zone.) [Community Feedback]
All TNT explosives can now be thrown, similar to the US Satchel. [Community Feedback]
Rebalanced hedgehogs, it is now much harder to use them to block doorways. [Community Feedback]
Hedgehog cost increased from 50 -> 150 construction points.
Lowered the amount of free hedgehogs on FOBs from 8 to 4.
Removed overheating mechanics from all emplaced and vehicle MG's.
Fixed Flak 36 base not having collision with shells. [Community Feedback]
Fixed mines being placeable on deployables.
Fixed players being able to place mines too close to tanks. [Community Feedback]
Fixed Doorwerth castle cap being too small. [Community Feedback]
Polish Mortar & Sapper loadout now matches the 1st Airborne version. [Community Feedback]
Made several server optimization passes.
Emplacements dig time is now based on time and not health.
German StG44 SL kit requirement has been increased from 3 -> 7 section members to unlock. [Community Feedback]
German Fallschirmjager SL now has access to FG42 kit at 9 section members.
All Commander and SL kits should now have access to a rifle in addition to their submachinegun. [Community Feedback]
Reduced tracer amount for all marksman kits. [Community Feedback]
Removed deployable health bar due to new UI changes.
Main protection now prevents weapon firing from small arms and armoured vehicles. [Community Feedback]
Red Zones in RAAS removed.
Armoured Gamemode now supports 80 players.
All deployables have been rebalanced, to support the new armoured system.
All out of bounds now have a standardised 20 second timer instead of 5. [Community Feedback]
Wrecks can now be blown up using TNT & HE explosives.

Maps
Added Layers ProvingGround Armoured 1940, Armoured 1944, Armoured 1944 Light, KOTH 1940, KOTH 1944, RAAS 1940, RAAS 1944
Added Layers St Mere Eglise RAAS US, Armoured 1944, Armoured 1944 Light
Added Layers Carentan Offensive 02, Offensive 03, Skirmish, RAAS US, KOTH 1944
Added Layers Doorwerth Armoured 1944, Armoured 1944 Light
Added Layers Driel RAAS UK 02, Armoured 1940, Armoured 1944, Armoured 1944 Light
Added Layers Oosterbeek RAAS US, Armoured 1944, Armoured 1944 Light
Added Layers Stonne Armoured 1940, Armoured 1944, Armoured 1944 Light, KOTH 1940
Added Layers Utah Beach Armoured 1944, Armoured 1944 Light
Added Layers Veghel Armoured 1944, Armoured 1944 Light
Added Layers Velmolen Armoured 1940, Armoured 1944, Armoured 1944 Light, KOTH 1944
Added Layer Grave RAAS US
Added Layer Best RAAS UK
Added new Proving Grounds map designed for tanks.
Added new Shooting range.
Fixed foliage collision on several maps to make tank driving easier. Particularly maps like Carentan & St Mere Eglise. [Community Feedback]
Ditches no longer collide with tanks, making traverse through ditches easier. [Community Feedback]
Oosterbeek lighting has been reworked.
Stonne lighting has been reworked.
Utah lighting has been reworked.
Grave lighting has been reworked.
St Mere Eglise lighting has been reworked.
Driel lighting has been reworked.
Doorwerth lighting has been reworked.
Carentan lighting has been reworked.
Dinant lighting has been reworked.
Best lighting has been reworked.
Veghel lighting has been reworked.
Velmolen lighting has been reworked.
Heelsum lighting has been reworked.
Arnhem lighting has been reworked.
Updated loading screens for most maps.

Miscellaneous
Added a safe mode launch option as a temporary fix for some users with Intel CPUs of the 10th generation and up, experiencing crashes on startup. (Pending permanent fix)
Added new StG 44 model. [Community Feedback]
Added new animated main menu.
Added a new music player to main menu.
Overhauled all the FX for vehicles.
Overhauled UI and icons to be more consistent.
Fixed Vickers MG on Jeep ignoring audio settings. [Community Feedback]
Fixed several map names in map rotation & map voting config files to make it more consistent. [Community Feedback]
Fixed magnetic mines being placeable on non-metallic surfaces.
Fixed missing grey Flak 36.

Sincerely,
Periscope Games

Squad 44 » Patches

Armoured Update Now Available!