Version 222303D

Welcome to Battle Cry of Freedoms' 3rd regular update. This Patch is mostly focused around Quality of life changes and bug fixes.

Unfortunately, this week's Patch is rather small. We are working on a couple of larger features for next week's patch, so keep tuned for that. You can read the Full Changelog at the bottom of the Blog Post. Here are some of the more important changes in detail:

Commander Battle / AI-Changes

To improve the usefulness of Pioneers in Commander Battles we have given them the ability to construct special Commander Battle game mode specific constructibles:

Ammunition re-supply Zones
Pioneers will now be able to construct Ammunition re-supply Zones. Any AI-Soldiers inside the zone (marked by the red markers) will automatically over time re-arm themselves with ammunition.
This will be especially useful for the Union, since their sharpshooters tend to run out of ammunition relatively quickly!



Health re-generation Zones
Pioneers will now also be able to construct Health re-generation Zones i.e. a surgeons table with a bucket full of sawn-off arms and a couple of ambulance beds. Any AI-Soldiers in the zone will automatically heal themselves, but don't worry, they won't loose an arm or a leg.



Commander UI Improvements
We added UI to the top of the screen informing players who are in command of a company of AI-Soldiers about their soldiers current status. The UI will display the average health and ammunition supply of the company as well as the number of AI-Soldiers in the company.



AI Improvements to Pathfinding
AI-Soldiers will now no longer get stuck on Pioneer constructed defenses and instead should be able to properly navigate around them. Should you instead want your AI-Soldiers to break down enemy defenses, you can give them the order to do so with F7-F1.

Artillery Changes

All artillery limber chests now come packed with their specific ammunition plus a carbine, a felling axe and binoculars. This will give Artillery the ability to defend themselves, and artillery rankers the ability to spot targets in the distance with greater ease. Additionally, the 3-Inch Parrot, 10-Pound Parrot, 20-Pound Parrott and the 12-Pound Witworth now have properly adjusted sights and should no longer over or undershoot.

Aiming Accuracy Changes

We have completely reworked the sway and random bullet deviation system, resulting in more realistic ballistics. While all rifles and pistols have become more accurate and bullets should no longer veer off to the left or right unrealistically, we have also increased the sway slightly. Hopefully, this will result in much better gunplay AND in a more skill-based game. Instead of hoping for the shot to land, players will now have to learn how to aim and negate the sway of their rifle.

Other Quality of Life Improvements

Most importantly, we increased the jump height of the player by 15% and implemented a number of small UI-Tooltips letting new players know how to play the game. Another important change is that we sped up weapon drawing and switching animations by 30%, which should result in more responsive gameplay. There are a good number of other changes, so I suggest you check them out in the changelog below.

Another important change for Regiment Players is the ability to open someone's steam profile directly from the Scoreboard. Just click on the players name and click on "Steam Profile". This will be very useful for recruiting.

Full Changelog

New Features:

• Added Militia NCO to Organized Militia.
  
• Added a Deathbox to the top of Canyon, so players can no longer climb out of it.
  
• Added Carbines and Binoculars to all Artillery Limber Chests.
  
• Added a new feature so that AI soldiers should no longer get stuck on Sapper Defenses.
  
• Engineers now can construct Ammunition resupply Zones as well as Heal areas in Commander Battles.
  
• Clicking on a player on the Scoreboard will now allow you to open their Steam Profile.
  
• Added ability to make color-photos in the Uniform and Gear Editor.
  
• Added server setting for melee tracers. Works similar to bullet tracer settings.
  
• Added UI for common keys in HUD.
  
• Added bot status UI for numbers, health,and ammo.
  
• Added some new notifications for bots.
  
• Added 39 Community made and requested banners and updated a couple of old banners.
  

Changes and fixes:

• Reworked mouse input for camera movement, it should now be smooth and not jerky when fps drops.
  
• Reworked mouse input for melee directions, it should now choose the wrong direction less often.
  
• Reduced Texture Memory usage slightly.
  
• Slightly improved performance of various Lights on custom maps.
  
• Reduced load time by a few seconds when joining a server that has been running for a longer period of time.
  
• Reworked the Aim Sway system to be more in sync with the Server.
  
• Reworked the bullet random system for more realistic ballistics.
  
• Increased the weapon sway a bit.
  
• Bayonets now clip with the environment when aiming, making it easier to aim over objects, around corners or through loopholes.
  
• Reduced AI-Soldier accuracy with the Witworth rifle by 20%.
  
• Slightly decreased damage of Pritchett .58 Ball.
  
• Slightly Increased stun length for low damage hit effects.
  
• Sped up draw weapon and sheath weapon animations by 30%.
  
• Fixed a bug on Mountain Pass causing players to fall through the Train tracks.
  
• Fixed that some of the Pine trees would not fall over after breaking.
  
• Should have fixed that the destroyed Cactus would not fall over.
  
• Destructible Walls are now easier to destroy with Explosions.
  
• Reduced size of Sap Roller (Rolling Gabion) collider.
  
• Increased Build Point cost of Explosive Kegs from 28 to 38 build points.
  
• Fixed that Confederate Lieutenants did not have access to the Remington Revolver.
  
• Fixed sights on the 20pdr and 10pdr Parrott Rifle as well as the 12pdr Witworth.
  
• Gatling Guns are now no longer considered OP Artillery, i.e. they can be spawned on Commander battle Servers.
  
• Minor changes and fixes on various UI elements.
  
• Fixed that sometimes the Ping shown on Scoreboard was the wrong value.
  
• Changed chamber timings.
  
• Clicking on Profile from Main Menu now always opens the Profile Screen.
  
• Server Filters are no longer retained after restarting the game.
  
• Should have fixed that the game did not recognize the users language correctly.
  
• Remove the spawn button from the escape menu in Battle and Commander Battle game modes.
  
• Changed the wording “Unofficial” to “Community” in the server list.
  
• Fixed some typos and grammar errors in the UI.
  
• Fixed that players could not go underneath the terrain i.e. basements.
  
• Fixed that custom maps would not check for the current player count, resulting in much to large maps being played on small population servers.
  
• Added confirmation for banning in alternative Admin menu.
  
• Fixed a bug with limbers on join, causing them to break.
  
• Updated the Italian translation.
  
• Added notification for when the round goes into overtime.
  
• Fixed that bonuses were not displayed for Milita troops.
  
• Changed how the Team balance in Commander Battles is calculated.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused map editor sceneprops to break when the map was reset.
  
• Fixed issue with parenting of props on map load.
  

Thank you! Stay tuned for next week's update!
/Flying Squirrel Entertainment