Good day folks urb, thanks for your patience on the patch and without any further delay here goes another fairly beefy monstrosity full of violence and goodies. This one was a little bit of work since it was related to some back-end mechanics and AI. Let's have a look at some of the good stuff.

Squad rearrangement:

Kind of a big deal, code wise it definitely was interesting to tackle on a custom engine. You can now drag and drop soldiers' portraits in campaign mode. This was a highly requested feature. Commanders can now on the fly rearrange their squad's shortcuts by right-clicking and dragging the portrait of their men into a new position. This helps the micro tremendously and speeds up squad management. Very happy to have been able to crack this one up.

Forest warfare AI upgrade

I've spent a fair amount of time re-arranging the AI in order to navigate forest fights better. In a nutshell, the enemy will simultaneously move in and out of contact and keep a general SA (situation awareness) on how their squadmates are doing. Depending on their TTPs (tactics, techniques, and procedures) either SS or FJ or Wehrmacht, will behave with various degrees of aggressiveness and cohesion in order to match their archetypes. My goal is not to make the AI perfect woodland assassins, however, but rather to simulate soldiers attempting their best to win a fight. This was the hard part because it was easy to code the perfect solution but rather challenging to code human-like behaviour and plausible tactical mistakes in a high-stress situation. The result is very satisfying and also makes the Germans more aware of your troops while you are trying to be cute in the trees.

We also got new sounds and effects when bullets hit the trees making the forest fight colourfully and snappy. Soldiers that are moving within trees will also generate noise and leaf particles. This will help players determine where sneaky Germans hide in that hedgerow. It will also help the Germans know where you are so careful disturbing the vegetation too much you might catch a Faust!

Explosion mechanics rework

The way explosions worked in MNB was satisfying but not to the level I wanted in order to simulate warfare AND be a factor for emergent gameplay. With this latest patch, we get exactly that. There is a lot of back-end stuff going on but for the commander the most noticeable aspects of how troops are now affected by explosions especially when it comes to buildings and cover. A grenade that gets through a window of a house and land inside becomes a real threat now. Mortar shells that land on the roof of a house are not directly threatening but will shake your guys up a lil bit. Fragments from an incoming 88 shell that hits right outside of a defensive position will come straight at your soldiers if it doesn't get stopped by the cover. Overall it doesn't make the game harder but rather makes deflagrations behave in a more authentic fashion.

Volkssturm

Germany late in the war losing the fight progressively had to come up with fresh troops. The Volkssturm (People’s Militia) represents its last line of defence. The Volks were drawn from ranks of the population previously considered unfit for military service, including younger boys (aged 13-18) and older men (many of whom were veterans of World War I).

To reflect this in the game the Volks will have half the skill and health as regular forces. Since they show up late in the game however they have a little perk. When sustaining a casualty a Volks unit has 10% to bring in 4 more soldiers into the fight. If unlucky a commander can all of a sudden find him/herself rolled into a mini Gettysburg.

Volks will spawn as a boss wave in Classic bringing 20 soldiers on the map for 10 tp. In the campaign, they will progressively start appearing as you get closer to Germany in groups of 8 to 16. Volks have their own equipment table with a preponderance for late-war armament such as the VG1-5.

In terms of tactics, the militia will do very basic maneuvering but will shine if they attach themselves to experienced troops. This was particularly impressive to see in action when during testing a Volks squad was led by 3 FJs into a formidable maneuvering scheme (typical for the FJ). On the tactical spectrum, I see the Volks willing to fight but lacking the know-how. In-game mechanics, it translates into this very dynamic outcome where Volks will try to imitate or support (to the best of their limited abilities) the toughest guy around.

New Biome: Heart of Germany

Heart of Germany or HoG as we call it is one of the final stretches in the campaign mode and lasts for 30+ days. I felt it was important to inject some love in the late game in order to create incentive in fighting the long fight. The HoG has been coded to generate some of the most intricate terrain so far with a mesh of rural, open lands bordered by light forest and road works. New assets include farmland, tractors and dead cows, and some new haybales. We got a well that is destructible, and 2 new cottage houses with 20 abandoned domestic props. It also introduces procedurally generated cemeteries which offer some pretty cool tactical nightmares right in time for Halloween. HoG is also available in the special event in classic so you guys try it out.

New vehicles: M10 and Ambulance

Last time the Germans got some new vehicles now it's our time. Introducing the Wolverine M10 tank destroyer. This is a long-range (longest effective range of all allied vehicles) hard punching AT vehicle. It is also quite maneuverable for a thing of this size. Its turret is open top which in a sense is good because it gives the crew a 360-degree vision arc. However, it makes the crew more vulnerable. The tank will fire as long as there is at least one crewman in the turret. Speaking of the turret, that thing is hand cranked so absolutely slow to traverse. The M10 is not made for quick and agile engagement and will get entangled in managing its arcs of fire if not protected appropriately from infantry. M10 is beefy but its armour is not the best so keep an eye out for damage sustained. This said the Wolverine absolutely shines at taking out emplacements and vehicles from far, it is the vehicle sniper if you will.



Next, we got the ambulance which brings in new mechanics. This vehicle is a soft-skin-wheeled truck that when deployed will heal fairly fast any soldier that is severely wounded (under 50 hp). The ambulance is a non-fighting vehicle however which means as soon as it's sustaining damage it will leave the battlefield. In classic, that means you just lost that 3 tp. So commanders have to either keep it in the back at a rear medical station or roll the dice and accept the risk of bringing it to the front. The challenge in the campaign is that while your guys are being treated by the medical crew, counterattacks are still a thing and an acute sense of momentum will be required to not get caught with your pants down.

German Airborne drops

German AI commander can now call in fallschirmjagers drops on your position. They will drop straight onto your frontlines in section-size groups. If they land on trees they will sustain some damage but expect them to be ready to fight shortly after they hit the ground. In classic, FJ drops will come as a blitz wave. In the campaign, the drops are a battle condition in the same pattern as Panzer Grenadiers (1% to spawn in on German casualty) If you are about to get assaulted by FJ you will hear in the distance the distinctive sound of a JU52, at this point, it is advised to grab some walls and brace for a tough fight.



I also want to point out the excellent work from LTHunter our local historian who dug up the names of the 29ers who fought in WW2 which were added to the game naming function for your soldiers. Sounds like a minor thing but this is important for me and the MNB community. The 29th took part in some of the toughest fights out there and always with an impressive level of professionalism which in return made them less flamboyant than other outfits. As November approaches, this is our humble contribution to immortalizing their names and hopefully helping the legacy in ways we can.

This said good folks here is the list of all the changes in this patch:

0.3.9 change list

- In classic Germans will adapt if you have too many of a certain unit type. Post wave 100 difficulties has been increased.
- Smoke screens used by Germans will be more strategically used.
- All soldiers when done moving will turn towards the nearest threat.
- Bikes AI modified so they are more reactive to their environment and exfil when required.
- Reload time for 88s and M5 has been increased by 5 sec
- AT gun reload time will also be affected by the number of guns present on the map. Sharing ammo is hard.
- new mechanics for explosions:
Explosions that fall inside buildings with no roof will now damage occupants
Explosions that fall outside buildings can potentially hurt the occupants depending on the protection value of the building.
Explosions from grenades or rifle grenades or mines that are inside a building will damage the occupants
Explosions that are damaging occupants will leave a crater in the building.
Craters that are on wooden surfaces will spawn wooden plank particles.
Trenches although roofless offers an additional 50% saving throw to nearby explosions
Any troops pinned inside a trench or a building or behind a defence structure will be immunized to fragmentation (but still be stunned)
Stun value for all explosions has been reviewed
- Troops being shot will turn for a few degrees alive or not.
- Lootable med kits fixed
- Germans with radio capabilities will now have Radios on their backs for better identification.
- Buildings can save the occupant from outside shockwaves created by the explosion resulting in some protection versus stuns
- Bonus of OG troops fixed in the campaign (+2% bonus to combat skill to all the squad per surviving original six soldiers)
- Another attempt was made to fix an occurrence where the end of the map is empty in the campaign after a hail Mary battle condition.
- Air dropped Supply crates now have 10% chances to drop random allied weapons.
- Standardization now takes all the German weapons off your squad.
- Speeded up the Beach cut scene a lil bit so the sand hits faster.
- Vehicles now have their names just like soldiers and they can be viewed with a mouseover.
- Fixed menu rage quit option shadow's miss alignment.
- Pimped the White Phosphorus explosions effects
- QoL: You can now right-click and drag soldiers' icons in the campaign to change their positions and shortkey
- Soldiers that are very close to each other will see others in a los blocker (such as inside a smoke or a tree)
- M5 and 88 range dropped to 2000px
- Added carriage return on long ribbon descriptions
- Added a cool lil particle effect and sound when tracers hit trees
- Changed sounds for far explosions to something beefier
- Added a chance for soldiers to comment after a veteran save (thanks Yusti for the voice lines)
- Troops that don't have weapons that are capable of firing rifle grenades (like SMGs) will not fire grenades.
- Players can now choose how long the roofs will remain transparent on a mouse over
- Drop Zone Battle condition added, 1% chances per enemy killed that they drop a section of FJ in the AO
- Compromised Lines Battle condition, 1% per German killed to spawn a section of Jager behind your lines
- Added warning voice lines for Jager spawns. This is a preemptive call so vigilant commanders will be able to prepare for a rear flank.
- Added high tension Jager detection lines for allied troops
- Germans with shovels will now be able to detect and clear players' mines. Mines must be within line of sight so hiding mines under trees or behind the line of sight blockers can work well.
- Changed the mine deploy disposition in Classic. Additionally mine deploy spawns 2 mines now.
- Reduced the engineer build range to 100 px
- Fixed wrong prompt for Bofor placement in Classic
- Pretty substantial AI rehaul for dynamic forest fighting. Germans will peak and move more aggressively, especially if they feel they are winning the fight.
- Fixed an occurrence where Germans could fire mortars inside of a building
- Reduced the detection range of most vehicles to half the previous values
- Detection range for ZB60 is now 800 px
- Added stars under the command abilities in the campaign to indicate rarity tier
- Added new music for Mission success and mission fail in the Campaign.
- Intels now clear propaganda in Campaign
- Added air drop FJ blitz wave in classic
- Added Flak panzer, Greyhounds, Shermans and M10 Wolverines to the roads spawn tables for more chaos.
- New enemy, VolksSturms added to classic and campaign. These are low-skill and morale militiamen that start to appear more and more as you get closer to Germany. they are weak but they have a little something something to help them :)
- New Biome reworked, Heart of Germany (HoG) with multiple assets such as buildings, farmland wells and cemeteries. In terms of tactics, it should be taken as a low-intensity rural area with partial hedgerows. A lot of line of sight blockers. It has quite a variation in engagement range which vary from short to medium and often, long range.

Community highlight

Also, check out some of the good stuff from our community if you got time:

Our good friend Midge doing his part

Doctor Chow, grand master of Mud and Blood, blasting thru the first few maps of the campaign with version 0.3.9

Lance going through some of the hardest maps in Vire

Puguasu with a 100 wins streak making the game look quite easy!!

MT negotiates with a hard case in Hurtgen forest with the calm and composure that is known to him.

Wanderjar's absolute insane classic run that got him the Guerilla Warfare ribbon

St-Lo montage baby!!

Minor war crimes by caliigulasAquarium

That is all for me gents, thanks for your interest in this project stay safe out there and stay brutal.

respectfully,
urb