Regiments Playtest update for 29 January 2022

Update 6 will be the last major update for the playtest. I'll fix any serious bugs that may crop up, but other than that the focus will be on internal development, namely making the rest of the planned Operations.

The playtest will remain accessible during February at least.

The response to the Survey has been amazing, thank you all!
I think I'll need a day or two just to read through all the open questions' answers :)

Changelog

• Skirmish - Meeting Engagement is enabled for playtest
  Those of you who've completed the operation 10 times already may appreciate the change of pace. For others, skirmish can be a gentler introduction to the game's tactical combat.

Two maps and four regiments are available for the Meeting Engagement:
East German 4 Panzer Regiment
Soviet 35th Air Assault Brigade
Belgian COMRECCE Command
US 1st Brigade - 3rd Armored Division

Belgian task forces also allow a first look into the British units (with the rest of the roster and actual British regiments planned for post-release content)

• Meeting Engagement is more customizable. Set starting points, the Task Force arrival times, income and the rate of losses recoup.
  There is also a "Contested Area" option that adds a few attrited platoons around the objective areas, simulating the remnants of previous combat.

• Skirmish has the night-fighting rules ported back from Operations.
  Night-time atmospheric conditions will apply the corresponding accuracy & spotting distance modifiers. A smaller version of Illumination TA will also be added to your arsenal.

• Post-Operation results screen now also displays the Task Forces you've selected and the advanced rules in effect

• Allies losses are no longer accounted into the total losses count for the operation, to keep the numbers better at representing player's actual performance

• Fixed the post-operation kill logs. This time it's almost certain (probably). In short, undeployed platoons could receive kills for TacAid strikes due to a slightly incorrect check.

• Advanced Rules - Random Events mode
  Advanced rules will allow you to further customize your Operation playthrough. The first one is the ability to switch the Events mode - you can now let them play out randomly, instead of being able to select the next one, for that extra challenge and realism.

• Platoon tooltip now displays the stack's internal ammo level and how much supply it'll try to grab from the global pool if you deploy it.

• Added an explicit icon over the artillery firing outside of LOS
  Having to look closely for small smoke plumes to target counter-battery missions was in a strong conflict with the core design of the game.

• Enemy on-map artillery platoons are more likely to engage in counter-battery missions

• All airstrike TAs are switched to the 'targeted' mode.
  They will now try to drop their ordinance on the spotted targets in the search area. 'Dodging' airstrikes is now much less viable, consider SAMs. Remember, Danger Close missions may result in mistakes and friendly fire!

• Artillery attacks now have x1.5 increased dispersion when shooting at targets outside of allies line-of-sight. Having spotters is now desirable.

• Artillery attack command now also displays the dispersion of the artillery you've selected

• Added extra sound effects and game log messages when the unit is under attack

• Retreating units without smoke launchers now get a 25% defensive bonus instead of 0%, to simulate various evasive maneuvers (and reduce the massive gap in survivability during retreats between units with and without smoke grenades)

• Added extra wreck parts on unit death. Currently, these small pieces are not persistent, but the intent is to make them last through the battle and even the operation.

• Adjust the LOS Tool performance, it should utilize multiple cores better now

• Prevent deploying Supply platoons when at very low supply levels, as it would just waste DPs and time.

• Some US Task Forces in skirmish now have M109A3-DPICM. As expected, it uses cluster munitions instead of regular HE-FRAG.

• Disabled vision during deployment, which fixes the scout by redeploying BRM 'exploit'

• Mouse buttons are rebindable now, except for LMB/RMB

• Added an option to disable the kill score floating above the destroyed units

• Optimized some CPU-hungry routines

• Extended the length of vehicle death effects to 60s

• Adjusted the cloud shadows visuals

• Fixed AI chasing targets far outside their area of concern

• Fixed platoons only considering the terrain directly beneath platoon center-of-mass, which made placing them on the edge of cover much trickier than intended

• Fixed grass quality settings not affecting the grass density in any way

• Fixed reflections getting some unwanted light sources

• Fixed bombs spawning slightly above the aircraft in certain situations