Hello everyone! We are nearing the end of the development phase for the Battle Update. We're doing our best to release it by the end of this month. But before that, we'd like to introduce you to a few selected changes we've been working on over the last few weeks:

More buttons

Commands such as cut barbed wire, loot crates and a few more are now displayed in the 3D view. This not only helps to keep the bar on the left-hand side clearer, but above all allows us to improve the future map design: For example, we always had to make sure that only one barbed wire was available to cut per area, otherwise it wasn't clear which barbed wire it was.
The areas where you can search for ammunition are now also highlighted with a button.

Changes to melee combat

It was a bit complicated to find a suitable system that simulates close combat. We wanted to avoid situations in which enemy troops face each other in close proximity for several rounds. A direct attack should be possible by surprise. Nevertheless, we needed certain signs to indicate the dangers in advance. On the one hand, close combat should be as brutal and unpredictable as possible, but on the other hand the risks should remain manageable. If more than half of the troops lie injured on the ground after a single action, frustration is inevitable. We hope that we have struck the right balance with the current system! As before, if you are within a certain range of an enemy troop, you will be shown that you are now in melee range. This means that melee combat can break out at any time. The big difference to before is that the range is now much greater (about the same as the range at which you could throw grenades before). If a troop moves too close to an enemy troop, close combat is automatically triggered. The result is simulated, whereby the number of possible wounds is limited. However, the "loser" is forced to retreat, similar to the flanking we discussed in the last Dev Diary. This means that the lost position must be recaptured in the following rounds, in order to save the missing soldiers. In the process, however, we have built in the fact that soldiers can now be wounded anywhere on the map and can therefore sometimes lie without cover in no man's land. Previously, a soldier could only be located in a specific area.
This move will automatically result in close combat.

Bringing wounded soldiers into cover

In these situations, it is now possible to have wounded soldiers brought into your own cover on the open field. However, this can be quite dangerous, as the soldier can also be shot on the open field.
Pedersen was critically wounded in close combat and can now be taken into your own cover.

Changes to the grenades

The grenades now have a slightly longer range. We have also revised the underlying system. Instead of more or less just simulating the number of wounded, a distinction is now made as to whether a grenade hits directly, explodes near the target or misses the target completely. You are now also informed about the outcome of a grenade throw.
"Don't worry, Mayel. It was only our last grenade..."

New game over options

As some of you may have noticed, there is currently a restriction: the last soldier in a squad is invulnerable. This will no longer be the case with the new update. However, this also means that a sudden game over can occur as soon as all soldiers in a squad are incapacitated. We have written two new stories for this purpose.