There's a new update in the test branch - adding radio communication to AI units

As I said the last time, I always wanted to add some sort of communication devices to the game, where the unfriendly civilians and the enemy teams could start using their radios to organize bigger attacks, share the locations of your troops, etc. This is what I started working on with this update of the game.

As usual, I'm first releasing the update into the test branch of the game. I plan on pushing it into the main release channel next week.

From now on, (almost) all the enemy patrols and ambush missions will have units carrying a radio. In various situations, they're gonna use it to request reinforcements and coordinate with other teams.
In most cases this means that if you attack an enemy patrol, you may soon find yourself defending from multiple enemy teams, coming to their help.

I've also rebuilt the AI driving the mortar teams. They were previously a bit too powerful, often able to attack you from the other side of the map, with no way for you to even attempt to find where they fired from. With that in mind, I've - reduced their accuracy, made their response radius much smaller, and also added radio comms to them (if they don't get a cry for help over the radio, they will not respond to firefights happening far away).

You get a new vehicle for intercepting the radio comms

I'm adding a "transmissions interceptor" vehicle. If you place it on the map, it's gonna give you a lot of insight into what the enemy units are doing, helping you uncover their mortar teams, find the ambushes, and in general - see what the AI might be planning to do next.
To make full use of this unit, you're gonna have to man it with a translator (or make one stand near it, at least). If you don't have a translator available, all you'll see is that _some transmission_ took place, without any details.

In other news - I will slowly be exchanging all the gun sounds

The weapon sounds in the game have always been rather weak and anemic, especially the vehicle turrets. I started replacing them in this update, and will continue doing so for all the weapons in the future releases.

Full changelog for this test release

version 0.8.4:
* NEW: radio communications - the AI will now send radio messages between it's units. This allows them to coordinate their attacks, request reinforcements from other squads, inform the AI commander about the locations of your troops, etc.
* NEW: a new vehicle - transmissions interceptor (I-Com) - allows you to see where and when an enemy radio transmission happens. For this unit to be doing anything useful, it has to be coupled with a translator (it's enough if one is standing near it). Without one, you won't be able to see the contents of any of the messages it intercepts.
* all the radio messages your translators are able to intercept will be displayed on the left side of the screen.
* NEW: the patrol, ambush and mortar missions have been changed to be able to respond to radio calls, especially the requests for reinforcements.
* FIX: completely rebuilt the enemy mounted patrols script, allowing them to respond to many more things on the map
* NEW: the enemy recon missions (enemy spotter with a radio, hidden on the map) will also generate these radio messages whenever your units are uncovered.
* FIX: changed most of those anemic gun sounds in the game. This is still an ongoing process, but already a big improvement over the old, mushy sfx.
* rebalanced the cost of units (again), to make it easier to buy larger amounts of basic troops and transports
* nerfed the mortar teams, because it was pretty much impossible to find them once they started firing at you from the other side of the map
* the mortar teams will now be much less accurate, and will only respond to firefights close to their location. The longer range engagements can only start if a radio-equipped unit requests their support
* the mortar teams will now be sending a lot of radio messages when firing, so the transmissions interceptor can help a lot with locating them
* enemy spotters on the map now have radios, and will direct patrols to any of your units they're able to spot