Hey Runners! Update number 146, check! In this update right on time for the Steam Summer Sale, we focused once again on improving the quality of life of the gamers, especially new ones. We've added the possibility to change campaign difficulty on the fly, which as a feature makes a whole lot of sense when the campaign can be pretty long. No longer you have to restart the campaign from scratch after you realize halfway into it that either you've learnt the ropes so casual difficulty isn't giving you enough challenge or that hard difficulty is actually too much to handle. At first, the option to change the difficulty is hidden - we still want players to keep trying for a while - but when you are badly struggling to capture territories or latest within a few hours into the campaign depending on difficulty, you'll be notified with a journal entry that the option is now enabled and you will find the button added in the campaign menu. After that the option stays available in other Vanilla campaign runs.
Furthermore, we changed the difficulty presets for the campaign similar to how it has been in the WW2 DLCs. Instead of just "casual", "hard" (was default) and "veteran", we now have "casual", "normal" (now default), "hard" and "veteran". The new default difficulty is accordingly easier than what it was in earlier versions and by now having a "normal" difficulty option, there isn't such a big step in difficulty between "casual" and "hard". We also made some small tweaks for the final missions, you can find about it among other changes in the Changelog below.
We've also prepared an update for PACIFIC and EDELWEISS! Bigger changes include being able to select your initial spawn point when joining a server, a redesign of Bayonet penalties and a buff to the M10 Tank Destroyer Attaching a Bayonet will no longer provide an accuracy penalty on most weapons, while the penalty on those remaining is now very mild. Instead the main drawback is having slower accuracy 'recovery' when transitioning from running to standing still. This overall makes using a Bayonet much more viable at long range, with a slight impact on how fast you can acquire your first target. The M10 Tank Destroyer is now as fast as a Light Tank, and has also received a turret turn speed boost to help with firing while strafing or flanking. Furthermore it gets an increase to its main cannon's blast radius, to give it slightly more defensive power against Infantry. Don't forget to join the fun on Running with Rifles Discord and we'd be more than happy if you could let us know if you like the game and the WW2 DLCs by leaving a review on Steam, as it helps us a lot! Thank you! Keep on running, your Osumia Games [hr][/hr] Changelog v1.86:

NEW content:

• weapons: added F2000, XM8 and AKS-74U to be buyable at the ice cream van for 200 RP each
• campaign: added change difficulty menu, appears when a campaign has been played long enough or if any stage lasts long enough and is available from then on
• campaign: added highlighted commander messages for Final Missions
• invasion: added a campaign rotator. Faction rotates after every map rotation

BALANCE Changes:

• weapons: some price adjustments - SG552 (20->10RP), FAMAS-G1 (10 ->8RP) and L85A2 (10 ->8RP)
• weapons: SMAW max carry capacity lowered from 3 to 2. Rank requirement raised
• vehicles: bots use faction accuracy setting when shooting with vehicle weapons
• vehicles: Legion tank destroy reward down from 350 to 50 RP
• vests: EOD AI vest now can't be dropped on dead by EOD AI soldiers anymore
• vests: EOD AI vest stun state on projectile damage kicks in at later vest damage stages, while blast damage earlier
• calls: A10 gun run XP requirement increased from 1000 to 6000 XP and amount of projectiles increased by 33%
• campaign: Final Mission II (Frozen Canyon) script has been slightly reworked with e.g. less chance for the AI to backcap in phase 3 and also the minigun emplacement to not be left by the enemy on Castle capture by allied forces
• campaign: changed Final Mission I enemies to guard more likely and made them spawn more scattered
• invasion: added a supply quad at Leg SW in Tropical Blizzard (was mentioned for 1.85 but not applied)

BUG Fixes and Tweaks:

• maps: few fixes here and there
• translations: some improvements in the Chinese localizations
• weapons: Kulakov now can't be used when TK penalized
• weapons: Patrol Ship mortar doesn't damage self anymore
• weapons: DarkCat tank missile launcher doesn't damage self anymore
• vehicles: DarkCat tank has slightly improved navigation
• script: GPS Laptop now also shows the location of the ice cream van
• invasion: basic weapons have a 50% drop chance, instead of 100% to avoid clusters on heavily contested areas which could affect performance
• dominance: spawnpoints issue fixed in Islet of Eflen KotH mode (was mentioned for 1.85 but not applied)
• items: added CB5 goodies to the lottery pool (was mentioned for 1.85 but not applied)
• markers: comms marker textures are now preloaded to avoid a frame stutter on first call

NEW content:

• campaign: players may pick their spawn point on any ww2 levels when starting a new map or joining a server

BALANCE Changes:

• maps: increased enemy soldier counts by approx. 2 more soldiers per base on Peleliu and 3 on Downfall, both USMC and IJA campaign
• weapons: redesigned Bayonet penalty system; primarily slows down accuracy recovery when stopping to fire after running, rather than affecting the accuracy itself. Bolt-action rifles do receive a minor accuracy penalty anyways, but smaller than before
• weapons: all SMGs - reduced crouch accuracy slightly to make them less reliable at max range
• weapons: M3 Grease gun - lowered recoil so it will more consistently hit targets at range when firing short bursts
• weapons: M1928 Drum, M1921 100-round Drum, and PPSh 41 stance-change rate are improved
• weapons: reduced timer on the Type 100 Grenade Discharger's grenades from 3 seconds to 2.35 seconds, returned cost to 25rp
• weapons: slightly raised M1 Garand kill-probability to make it more competitive at long-range
• weapons: M9 Bazooka and Panzerschreck now reload in 3.5 seconds instead of 4 seconds
• weapons: M1918 BAR (all variants) raised damage-start distance, slightly improving long-range reliability
• weapons: MG 42 (bipod variants) raised accuracy
• weapons: various adjustments to the zoom of Scoped weapons to create a more standardized system and better distinguish between the powers of certain scopes
• weapons: Reworked M1 Garand 60mm Launcher to function as single-shot to avoid Assault Vest shenanigans
• call-ins: slightly raised blast-radius of all Light Artillery shells from 7.5m to 8m
• vehicles: raised the turret rotation speed of the Ha-Go and the Stuart Light Tanks
• vehicles: raised turret rotation speed, max speed, and slightly raised cannon blast radius of M10 Tank Destroyer
• vehicles: added a superior shield for better small-arms protection on the Sdkfz 251 Flak Driver
• items: slightly improved the resistance of each layer of the Veteran's vest, it now matches the resistance of the Assault vest

BUG Fixes and Tweaks:

• campaign: changing the difficulty settings will affect the amount of enemies spawned on wave defense maps
• campaign: fixed missing commander entries on wave defense maps
• maps: fixed an issue where a scripted artillery call on Guadalcanal was showing up as being ordered by the USMC instead of the IJA
• maps: USF will now correctly spawn M10 Wolverines on Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, Bastogne, and Operation Varsity
• maps: added second radio jammer to Operation Downfall
• maps: potential fix for crate desync on Operation Downfall
• maps: removed ineffective radio jammer spawn on west side of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont on the Allied campaign
• vehicles: LVT and Ka-Tsu wrecks can now be pushed around and destroyed by vehicles
• weapons: tweaked the appearance of the M12 Trench Gun Bayonet model so it more accurately represents the size of the bayonet
• weapons: set M1903A4 Sniper Rifle's cycle time to match the M1903A3 regular rifle
• weapons: added various missing animations on machineguns
• weapons: added larger explosion FX for Bofors
• weapons: new AT gun animation that provides better protection for the gunner