We're happy to announce that our second major update is now available!
It focusses on the battle phase in the game and has the following core features:

• Overhaul of all battle systems: Gunfire, melee and grenade throwing
• Improvements to NPC troop behaviour logic
• Improved balancing in the battle phase
• Better display of certain effects and more detailed tooltips
• Some new animations and improved battle camera cutscenes

• Added new close combat system: Melee combat will automatically occur when troops move within a certain threshold of an enemy troop, defeated troops will have to move out of the 'close combat zone'
• Added new suppression system: It's possible to target a single enemy troop, suppressed troops cannot give fire orders or throw grenades
• Added new flanking system: Flanked troops are forced to reposition
• Added new cover fire system: It's now possible to cover your own troops when they move
• Added the possibility of soldiers getting wounded in the field and a project to bring wounded soldiers into your cover
• Added two new game-over options: Losing all your soldiers on the battlefield, or having only one soldier when surrounded by enemies
• Added animations for close combat, throwing grenades and being wounded
• Added highlighted scenes to the cutscene camera in battle: The camera will pan to melee combat or grenade scenes when they are near
• Added three new journal illustrations

• Reworked NPC troop behaviour to adapt the new changes
• Improved NPC troop behaviour to have an aggression multiplier: The more turns played in a battle, the more aggressive they will be
• Improved NPC troop behaviour to look for more ways into a target trench (and therefore move horizontally more often)
• Improved NPC troop behaviour to adjust their strategy more on behalf of other troops (e.g. if only a few troops are firing, they are more likely to do so)
• Changed being able to wound the last remaining soldier of a troop
• Reworked impact system: Multiple impacts from different sources are now possible
• Reworked troop actions: Hold position now includes all other troop actions that are not movements
• Reworked overwatch: Project is limited to two soldiers with higher efficiency
• Reworked throwing grenades: A distinction is made if the grenade hits, partially misses or completely misses
• Added several projects in battles to be displayed in 3D space
• Changed displays in 3D space to be a bit smaller
• Changed effect displays for projects to be easier to understand
• Added new attribute tooltips: they now highlight the primary effects
• Reworked danger display: The danger from gunfire is now better displayed in the troop action info window, removed all other danger sources
• Reworked UI troop info displays: They only show the most important attribute, and now also show the current fire actions instead of the last troop action
• Changed UI troop info displays, so that they don't appear when the corresponding troop is out of sight
• Improved UI troop info displays, so they don't overlap anymore
• Adjusted some project and attribute icons
• Improved soldier movement slightly
• Improved cutscene camera in general
• Adjusted tutorial slightly to cover the new changes

• Rebalanced every battle level to adapt to the new changes
• Increased the number of turns it takes to decide whether a battle is lost or won
• Increased the playable distance in each level and the distance to get 'Outside the formation' or 'Too far forward'
• Increased movement distance slightly, but limited the distance being able to advance
• Increased cover impact on firepower
• Changed attribute 'Narrow cover' so that suppression is impossible from there
• Changed attribute 'Bushes' so there can be no suppression there.
• Rebalanced ammunition usage
• Rebalanced stress gain / reduction to be less dependent on danger and more on attributes
• Rebalanced the decisive soldier traits for specific projects in combat
• Rebalanced all chances of impact from danger sources
• Increased wound intensity for non-player soldiers: they will take slightly more serious wounds and bleed faster
• Increased morale penalty for running out of provisions

• Fixed a number of bugs and errors when reworking the Battle Phase, which may have resulted in other bugs and errors ...
• Fixed scattered soldiers sometimes moving in advance direction
• Fixed being able to move onto an area with a troop with zero active soldiers
• Changed troops without remaining active soldiers to be moved to retreat territory
• Fixed 'Bunker panic' story being able to trigger for every soldier
• Fixed 'Bad work' dialogue adding fear directly when choosing the topic
• Fixed typo in Camp_Cherries story (EN)