Join us this weekend for the annual Halloween celebration! While our development team is busy polishing the upcoming Sicily release, back on the mainland the dead have risen once again and it's up to you to pound them back into the ground... or join the horde yourself. This weekend Haunted maps are returning back to the roster featuring a few touch ups, a new melee weapon, and a new character with an exquisite taste in headwear and a penchant for stabbing things with broken glass bottles. Make sure to visit Official Server #3 EU at 6:00 PM UTC this Sunday, October 27 for the Halloween map marathon.

Returning maps

• Haunted Pariserplatz Survival
• Haunted Flugplatz Survival
• Haunted Inferno Verde Survival
• Haunted Hattert Clash
• Haunted Fury Advance

New updates

• Mad Man role. He's faster, stronger, and more resilient survivor with a focus on melee.
• A new melee weapon: Glass Bottle.
• Reworked first person animations for maces.

Other non-Halloween additions

• Gorlitz Defence been added to the map roster. Apart from the change of the game mode, this new rendition of the classic map now features Poland (LWP).

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2024-10-26 09:21:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

After a short absence, we're back with a new update. This time a smaller one, but featuring a new armored map, a reworked infantry map and fixes for some long outstanding bugs.

Maps

Armored Yaryshivka

Yaryshivka is a new armored map set in Ukraine at the end of the Donets Offensive of spring 1943.
The wide open steppes of eastern Ukraine make ideal hunting grounds for the Tiger tanks of the Panzergrenadier Division "Grodeutschland". The Soviets will have to use speed and cunning to outmanuever the heavy German armor and take command of the battlefield in this chaotic domination-style map.

Reichswald

On the infantry side of things, Reichswald has been reworked to better suit the Advance game mode and has received a much needed facelift to go with it. This classic map now has new forests, widened map boundaries, reworked objectives and an overall snowier aesthetic. Set in its namesake forest during Operation Veritable, Reichswald sees Commonwealth forces facing off against German Fallschirmjger in the early spring of 1945.
As a side note, this overhaul was made entirely in Blender using our new "BDK" tool for map development which will finally see public release later this month!

Changes

Black Day July

• Fixed some minor historical inaccuracies in roles.
• Moved Allied setup phase boundary back to prevent potential spawnkilling issues.
• Adjusted vehicle respawn timers to be more in line with other maps.

Cheneux

• Reworked the From Rahier, Farm and Crossroads objectives.
• Increased all Allied objective lockdown timers by 80 seconds.
• Added a static radio in Allied main spawn.
• Added some additional cover in the fields around the Farm objective.
• Reduced Axis StG44 availability significantly: Corporal can now only choose between G41 and G43, rather than G43 and StG. Axis Assault Trooper roles were reduced from 5 to 3.

Dog Green

• Removed time gain award from all objectives and instead set the map to a static 25 minute round timer.

Grain Elevator

• Added a new objective.
• Removed ticket bleed from the German team.
• Significantly increased starting tickets for the German team.

Mahknovo

• Removed a fence panel behind the Post Office objective to allow easier access to the objective.

Bug Fixes

Editor Click Delay

While not an issue that affects most players, for those who have ever tried using the Red Orchestra SDK, you're likely aware of a long outstanding issue where selecting actors, objects, surfaces, etc. would cause the tool to become unresponsive for a short period of time (5-10 seconds or more). While there were some workarounds for this behavior in the past, nothing could actually fix the issue and over the years it became an increasingly major roadblock to DH map development. Finally, however, at long last and with a huge thanks to developer Metallicafan212, the RO editor has been fixed and now functions more or less as intended.

Mortar Animation Bug Fix

Eagle-eyed observers probably noticed that the mortar operator could have a full-body seizure when firing the mortar shell. The cause of this was eventually traced to an obscure animation bug in the engine, and the issue has finally been fixed!

Inconsistencies Between Turret and Hull Schrzen

• Turret Schrzen now provides protection against AP bullets (PTRD) and HE shells under 8.5cm in caliber.
• Turret Schrzen now only defeats HEAT projectiles if the angle of incidence is over 45 degrees.
• Added protection to the rear of turrets where appropriate (mid to late-war Panzer IV and Panzer III models). Previously skirts on the rear of these vehicles was purely cosmestic and offered no benefits.

Italy Update Progress

[quote]Soldiers of the US 1st Infantry Division storm the beaches of Gela, 1943.[/quote] The Italy update is progressing steadily and we've hit a number of key milestones recently:

• All new player models have been completed.
• All new vehicle models & animations have been completed.
• New maps are being finalized and polished after a number of successful internal playtests.
• Italian voice lines have been recorded, edited and completed. You can hear a sample of some of the voice lines below!

[url=https://www.patreon.com/posts/105060155]
There is still plenty left to do of course, but we are feeling on track to comfortably get the update finally released before the end of the year. We know it's been a very long wait, but we know it will be worth it. The quality of the content going into this update is head and shoulders above anything in the game thus far. As we get closer to release, we will be revealing in detail what is coming in the update including the vehicle line-up, map line-up and a bit of a deep dive into some development "tales-from-the-trenches", explaining some of the new systems that were developed for this update and technologies that will help sustain the game into the future.
[quote]The gunner of the Semovente 47/32 is fully animated cranking the yaw wheel in multiple positions.[/quote] A reminder also that donations are always welcome on our Patreon! Community donations help us keep the game servers and our development infrastructure funded. See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2024-07-07 09:33:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy Spring everyone! We're back with another toy for you to play with, along with some map updates!

Fallschirmjgergewehr 42 (ZF42)

Select Fallscirmjgergewehr sniper troops will now have access to the ZF42 scope attachment for the FG42. Needless to say, a fully automatic scoped rifle on a bipod will be a force to be reckoned with. This can be found as a sniper option for Fallscirmjgergewehr troops on the following maps:

• Les Champs de Losque
• Stoumont
• Dead Man's Corner
• Carentan Causeway

It has also been added to the following map as a in-world pickup:

• Flakturm Tiergarten

Happy hunting! [quote]Developer's Note: This is the first weapon in the game to have both a bipod and a scope![/quote]

Map Updates

Dzerzhinsky Tractor Factory

The tractor factory map has been drastically reworked, with a focus on providing more interesting areas to fight in and around, as well as widening the map to allow for more flanking opportunities.

• Reworked Axis spawn.
• Added second street at the beginning of the map
• Detailed and expanded the courtyard/park
• Detailed the original street around the first objective.
• Added new building Apartment 5031 which serves as a new initial objective, grouped with reworked building Logistics Bureau.
• Added new buildings across the map, replacing many old static models with new ones.
• Significantly improved terrain detail with new textures and decolayers.
• Reworked South and West Commons locations with new trenchworks and dugouts.
• Reworked Administration Building and added new rooms and details.
• General detail pass across the map to increase visual fidelity and improve gameplay.
• Reworked objective layout and added 3 new objectives.

A large thanks to community leveler "$oul$eek" for his work on this map!

La Cambe

• Fixed floating props at the Trenches objective.

Olkhovatka

• Improved lighting.
• Added some additional statics around the map for more cover.
• Removed ticket bleed from Axis.
• Removed ticket capture bonus from taking the first objective to compensate for removal of ticket bleed.
• Reduced number of tanker roles on both teams to match the number of max tanks.
• Reworked tank loadouts:
• Increased Sovet max active tanks from 2 to 3.
• Increased KV1-E max spawns from 2 to 5.
• Removed the Panzer IVs.
• Increased the max active Tigers from 1 to 2.
• Increased the max spawns of the Tiger from 3 to 6.
• This rework is based on the actual units present in the battle (Olkhovatka was mainly a Tiger battle, with support from StuGs, StuHs and Panzer IIIN).

Ten Aard

• The far east broken bridge is no longer passable by infantry. This was basically the case before, but it would allow you to pass to the other side, but then be stuck inside a minefield from which there was no escape.

Italy Update

The Italy update is chugging along! There's still lots of work to be done, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and we are entering the final stretch phase. We obviously can't put a date on it yet, but we're as close as we've ever been. ;) Very excitingly, we have also hired a professional Italian voice actor to provide authentic Italian voice lines, and the recording session will be this coming week! In the meantime, here's a couple of nice WIP shots from one of our new vehicles, the Fiat L6/40.

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2024-04-06 11:04:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

v11.6.9 Patch Notes

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where players movement would be hobbled after going from prone to standing when holding the ZB-30.
• Fixed missing sleeve textures for some Soviet Rifleman roles.

Gameplay

• Fire and Move signals have had a number of changes to address exploits and usability:
• The signal transparency is now smoothly modulated based on timing & the viewing angle.
• The duration of signals has been reduced from 15 seconds to 10 seconds.
• Signals will now be fully transparent if the player's viewing angle is within 2 degrees of the signal.
• The signal recipient radius has been reduced from 50 meters to 25 meters.

Maps

Pegasus Bridge

• Fixed a Danger Zone issue that could allow Allied squad leaders to rally on the German side of the bridge solo.
• Fixed an issue with the recapture behaviors of the Town Hall and Corner House objectives.

Maupertus Advance

• Increased Axis tickets slightly.

Armored Vieux

• Removed NW Farm cap.
• Tank balance changed.
• Fixed some floaters.
• Re-designed last cap.
• Added progressive spawns for both teams.

Armored Gran

• Added Sherman M4A3E8 for Allies and an extra Panther for Axis.
• Fixed Pak43 that were leaning to the side because of bad placement.
• Rebalanced some roles.
• Reduced +30% ratio to +5% as this had greatly imbalanced the map.

Armored La Champagne Advance

• This map makes a return!

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2024-02-26 03:36:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello there! We're back with another small patch that introduces a number of bug fixes and level tweaks. If you ever noticed your turret sometimes rotating on its own when entering a tank, this old Red Orchestra bug is finally gone! But before we dive into the changelog, there's something we need to address.

Frequent Disconnects Issue

During the past week you might've experienced frequent disconnects with a Connection Failed error from both official and community servers. We're currently looking into this and contacted Valve, as we suspect this is caused by authentication issues with Steam. In the meantime, just reconnect if it happens and there won't be any more disconnections for the rest of the session. Now back to the patch notes.

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug where turrets and cannons would spontaneously rotate on entering them if they were used by another player earlier.
• Fixed a bug where players who disconnected from the game as spectator would be automatically assigned to the Axis upon rejoining.
• Fixed an exploit where it was possible to place constructions in invalid locations by switching to a smaller construction in the menu during the placement process.
• Fixed a bug where active objective spawns could be calculated incorrectly when the objective was linked to multiple active objectives.
• [Server maintenance] Fixed a number of errors that would spam the server logs.

Vehicles

• Slightly increased the BT-7 HE shell velocity (it was about ~10m/s slower than it should have been, according to sources).

Maps

Butovo

• Changed blocking boundaries in setup phase to delay Soviet tanks at the first objective.
• Reworked tank progression (Soviets will have fewer tanks at the final village, while some other Soviet models like the KV-1E and S will unlock earlier in the game).
• Added the Panzer IIIN as an additional fire support option for the Germans.
• Increased respawn timers on most Soviet tanks by 20-30 seconds.
• Removed Soviet objective spawn from the final village.
• Reworked objective Danger Zone influences around the final village.

Klin 1941

• Removed Axis ticket bleed from all objectives.
• Increased max active Panzer IIIJs from 2 to 3.
• Reduced respawn timers for Panzer IVF1 and BT7 tanks by 20-40 seconds.
• Reworked all objective Danger Zone influences.
• Reduced Axis and Allied tanker slots to match number of active tanks.

Kryuokovo

• Changed round time to 20 minutes.
• Removed time gain awards from capturing objectives.
• Reduced simultaneously available Soviet tanks from 2 to 1.
• Reduced respawn timers on all Soviet tanks by 30 seconds.
• Changed team balance ratio to be even.
• Added additional cover and spawn protection to final Axis spawn.

St. Marie du Mont

• Reworked NW, Eastern Road and Church objectives to unlock in a new order: Now when either road is taken, the Church will be unlocked and is grouped with them.
• Increased lockdown timers for the above objectives from 250 to 600 seconds.
• Reduced initial unlock timer for the Church to 60 seconds.
• Removed map-placed Axis HQ construction.
• Reworked all objective Danger Zone influences.
• Removed Allied ticket bleed from all objectives.
• Updated objective spawn locations to offer better cover.

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2023-11-25 12:10:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Welcome back! This update is small, but tightly packed with a number of notable bug fixes, including the fixing of a 15(!) year old bug that has eluded us...until now!

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a long-standing Red Orchestra bug (15+ years?) where projectiles would not spawn correctly when hipfiring while leaning in multiplayer mode.
• Fixed a bug where muting player's voice commands would not work.
• Fixed a bug where some constructions could be invulnerable to explosive damage if their origins were under the terrain.
• Fixed a bug where players would lose their session's kill count when disconnecting from the server.
• Fixed a bug where bipod simulations would not work in multiplayer.
• Fixed a bug where a version of the DP-27 would not have it's magazine spin during firing.
• Fixed a bug where resetting the game could cause the danger zone influences to be miscalculated.

Miscellaneous

• Increased the number of rounds in the belt of the M1919A6 and MG42 from 150 to 200.
• Sandbag constructions no longer automatically despawn if left unbuilt.
• Added a bipod turn sensitivity option to the control settings.
• The damage model of the HEAT projectiles of the StuH 42 and Sherman 105 have been brought to parity.
• The .50 cal now does less base damage to vehicles (i.e., you can no longer shoot a Panzer IV in the rear a handful of times and kill it).
• The PTRD has had it's base damage against vehicles reduced, but the chance to damage or destroy components has been increased.

Maps

Bremoy

• Optimized terrain and deco layers, hopefully increasing performance slightly.
• Added small team balance ratio in favor of the Allies.
• Reworked all objective danger zone influences.
• Removed Allied ticket bleed from first objective.
• Reduced Panther max spawns from infinite to 3.
• Reduced Sherman MkII respawn timer from 220 seconds to 180.
• Increased Sherman Firefly max spawns from 2 to 3 and reduced respawn timer to 180 seconds.
• Increased Stuart spawns from 1 to 5 and reduced respawn timer to 200 seconds.
• Increased max AT guns of all types for Allies from 1 to 2 and reduced the respawn timer to 120 seconds.
• Added Wolverine SP (British M10) with 3 spawns to Allies.

Gran Advance

• Infantry version of popular armored map.

Kriegstadt Push USA

• Recreated the classic 29th style US faction version (for funsies).

Wacht am Rhein

• Fixed bug where Axis would sometimes spawn under the terrain.
• Added a new objective.

Italy Update

As promised, we have some teaser shots to show from the upcoming Italy update! Our main focus now is finalizing the vehicle roster and polishing up the weapons, as well as implementing stationary machine-guns! For now, here are some selected screenshots of some in-development items as well as a video showing off some of the new weapons being added! We are looking forward to bringing this expansion to the game early next year. [previewyoutube=Yi2pn-C0TCY;full][/previewyoutube]




See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2023-11-11 11:07:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

v11.6.0

The hits just keep coming! We're back with another brand new map and 2 major weapon overhauls. Without further interruption, here is the change log!

Weapon Overhauls

Winchester 1897

The Winchester shotgun has had a major facelift, with a new upgraded texture and completely new first and third person animations from our newest member of the development team, Enfield!
The Winchester started life as a custom asset made by the 29th Infantry Division, and we're excited to see it finally given a full makeover to make it feel powerful and polished.

Enfield No. 4

The Enfield No. 4 has been given a full facelift, with a brand new higher quality texture and animations. With this, we have finally fully completed the modernization of the Commonwealth infantry weapons!

Maps

Additions

Bremoy Advance

Bremoy is a small town that saw fierce fighting during Operation Bluecoat, the Allied push further inland to exploit the success of Operation Cobra. Here, British Guards Armored Division and the 15th Scottish Infantry Division came head to head against the German 21st Panzer Division.
The rolling fields that surround the town make for dangerous manoeuvering, especially for infantry. Both sides will need to make good use of recon and armored units to turn the battle in their favor.

Changes

Armored Iskra

• Fixed an issue with the Axis initial spawn not deactivating after setup phase.

Bridgehead

• Added Volkssturm rifleman role and reduced number of Heer riflemen to 6.
• Added ammo pouch for FG42 roles.
• Added G43 to German AT role.
• Removed ZF41 from German sniper role (marksman role has these instead).
• Reduced number of Panther spawns from 10 to 5.
• Fixed bug with Canadian Squad Leaders having duplicate binoculars.
• Fixed an inconsistency with some roles using the base RO Kar98k model.

Champs d'Agonie

• Fixed corrupted map file.

Cheneux

• Added additional cover to the map, particularly around the first objective.
• Added a 3 minute delay before Sd.Kfz. 10/5 halftracks unlock.
• Reduced Allied respawn time to 8 seconds on the first objective only.
• Reduced capture requirements for first objective from 5 players to 3.

Flakturm Tiergarten

• Increased Axis ticket modifier by 2 (games were ended in draws too frequently).
• Fixed several floating static meshes.
• Fixed collision on plants inside of the University building.

Fury Advance:

• Changed Manor objective to deactivate when captured by Allies.
• Changed Stuart to unlock when Manor is captured.
• Added delay to initial Tiger spawn.

German Village

• Fixed incorrect rifle on Volkssturm AT loadouts.

Godolloi

• Increased Allied and Axis tickets slightly.
• Reduced all objective capture speeds.
• Changed all objectives to have minimum player requirements to capture.
• Reworked some objective capture areas such as Western Roadblock.

Jurques Dusk

• Rework of previous Jurques Day Two version with improved performance, new lighting and objectives.

Kriegstadt

• Added a limited number of logistic trucks back onto the map.
• Added constructions limits.
• Removed tank traps which locked German tanks into one street for the Ministry and Bridge objective.
• Moved Axis supply cache so it is not as vulnerable.
• Moved Flemingstrasse Axis Objective spawn back so it was out of arty range.
• Removed howitzers for both teams.
• Fixed bug which made Germans unable to capture Offices objective.

Olkhovatka

• Added some additional cover and detail near Soviet main spawn.
• Added a new building interior in the village.
• Added missing Combat Engineer role for Germans.
• Added PTRD and RPG grenade to the Russian AT role.
• Removed StuH 42, Pz III and earliest model of T-34 to simplify loadout.
• Increased Tiger respawn time and decreased availability.
• Reduced number of active tanks for the Germans from 5 to 3 and Russians from 4 to 2.
• Reduced German MG roles from 3 to 2.

Pointe du Hoc

• Added additional cover along the road and in the fields around the MG Position and Barn objectives.
• Increased map time limit from 40 to 45 minutes.
• Reduced Axis respawn time modifier on the last two objectives from 50 to 30 seconds.
• Fixed a bug where some Axis spawns were facing the wrong direction.
• Fixed a bug were certain objectives could stay enabled when not intended.

Road to Isigny

• Added Osttruppe rifleman role.
• Added construction limits.
• Added minimum player requirements to capture objectives.
• Fixed an issue where Axis could build AT guns behind artillery and minefield protection volumes.
• Reduced respawn timer of Marder III to 180 seconds from 400 seconds.
• Changed Pz IV Ausf. H to StuG III Ausf. G (352nd ID was equipped only with StuGs, Marders and Flakpanzers in reality).

Stoumont

• Added German sniper role with G43 ZF4.

Targnon Advance

• Added slight team balance skew in ratio of Attackers.
• Reduced player capture requirements for all objectives.

Ten Aard

• Increased Axis ticket modifier slightly.
• Reworked final Axis spawn minefield to offer better protection.
• Fixed some collision issues with some window statics.

Miscellaneous

• Set the default resolution for new installs to 1600x900 instead of 1024x768.
• Squads can now be locked with a minimum of 2 members instead of 3.

That's it for this one, we'll see you in the next one when we'll have some teaser shots from the upcoming Italy update! A reminder also that donations are always welcome on our Patreon! Community donations help us keep the game servers and our development infrastructure funded. See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2023-09-02 11:19:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Were back again at long last with a new batch of weapons for you to get your mitts on! The team has been hard at work putting together the upcoming Italian update for the last several months. We are still aiming for a late 2023 release date, though realistically we may have to delay the release somewhat to make sure the release is as stable and polished as we would like. A reminder also that our Patreon supporters get exclusive access to development progress reports (screenshots) and exclusive access to (upcoming) Italian update beta tests. Your donations through Patreon keep the game servers and our development infrastructure running. If you can afford to, please consider becoming a patron! Without further preamble, here are the change log notes:

New Weapons

Karabiner 98k (ZF41) and Marksman role

The Germans have been given a new Marksman role which has access to the new Karabiner 98k (ZF41). Depending on the time frame and units involved, this role has replaced the Sniper role on some maps. The ZF41 is a 1.5x scope developed to provide German squads with a designated marksman optic after lessons learned in the Battle of France. However, following Operation Barbarossa, the Wehrmacht found they had a severe lack of dedicated sniper scopes and pressed the much more plentiful ZF41s into the role. Not designed for such use, it was viewed generally unfavorably by trained snipers given its low magnification and poor field of view. Love it or hate it, Snipers and Marksmen will now be able to adorn their K98ks with this sight on many maps.

Gewehr 98 variants

This update adds the German service rifle from WWI and a couple of its variants into the arsenal:

• Gewehr 98
• Vz. 24
• FN Model M1924

Degtyaryov machine gun DT-29

Primarily meant as a tank machine gun, its been a common sight for it to end up in the hands of infantry after being dismounted from damaged tanks.

Mannlicher M95/30

With its unique straight-pull bolt, this Austro-Hungarian mainstay is now (narrowly) the fastest firing bolt action weapon in the game. It can be found in small numbers in the hands of Germans fighting on the eastern front.

Maschinenkarabiner 42(H)

The predecessor of Sturmgewehr 44, the MkB42 can be found being trialed in small numbers on the Eastern Front.

Weapon Overhauls

• The Fallschirmjger 42 has had its first person animations completely remade, bringing the feel of the weapon more in line with our more recent overhauled weapons.

Miscellaneous

• The British vehicle voice lines have had a radio effect added to them to bring them in line with the other faction's vehicle voice lines.
• The M45 Quadmount now has a dramatically longer reload time to properly reflect the loading of 4 seperate ammo boxes.
• Vehicle gunners will now automatically alert the crew (via vehicle voice commands) that the gun is loaded after reloading a main cannon. This behavior can be changed in the settings menu.
• There is now a new "Use Native Item Names" option in the settings which uses the native weapon names used by the nation of origin.

Bug Fixes

• Fix for bug where cancelling artillery strikes were being refunded when they shouldn't have been
• Fixed an inconsistency in the spotting menu where the number & location of the options would change depending on what the level's game mode was.

Maps

Armored Kasserine Pass

• Reduced German tank spawn times across the board.
• Changed Panzer IV tank models from Late to Early type, to more accurately depict the historical setting.
• Increased Axis and Allied tickets significantly.

Armored Raid to Bastogne

• Fixed collision issues with certain trees/bushes in the mid-section of the map.

Armored Road to Leningrad

• Changed map name from the generic "Road to Leningrad" to "Iskra" (Spark) after the offensive it was based on.
• Changed tanks from 1944 models to more accurate early 1943 models.
• Changed objective layout to better suit the Advance game mode (previously it functioned more as a Clash map).
• Changed attacking team to Soviets.
• Added more detail around the map.
• Added a new final objective.
• Fixed areas where you could fall through the terrain.
• Fixed a bug where teams could run out of tickets before the time limit and no longer be able to spawn.

Berezina

• Increased German tickets slightly.
• Increased objective lockdown timers significantly when captured by attackers.
• Removed objective lockdown timers when recaptured by defenders.
• Reduced objective unlock timers by 20 seconds.
• Fixed pop-in for some objects such as trench supports.

Flakturm Tiergarten

• Reworked tank unlock progression. Allies start with SU-76M immediately and receive T-34-85 after a 3 minute delay. Germans start with Sd.Kfz. 251/22 immediately and unlock Tiger after a 3 minute delay.
• Changed SU-76M to use new LWP skin.
• Changed advancing spawn protection minefields to offer defenders additional time to retreat if they are inside of the area when the minefield activates.
• Fixed incorrect US ammo box texture on resupply boxes inside of the Flakturm.

Klin 1941

• Increased German tickets slightly.
• Increased lockdown timers of final objectives to 5 minutes.
• Removed rally point restrictions from trenches around the final objectives.

La Cambe

• Changed the first objective to disable upon capture.
• Added lockdown timers to all objectives upon capture.
• Fixed infamous floating fire emitter.
• Fixed blue static stove inside the old manor building.

Maupertus Advance

• Reduced all objective capture speeds.
• Reduced Axis respawn timer from 20 seconds to 15 seconds.
• Fixed map boundaries preventing you from using flanks that were otherwise intended to be open.
• Fixed Axis initial spawns not spawning players in the correct position.

Pointe du Hoc

• Added Artillery Officer and Gunner roles to Axis.
• Limited WSS Rifleman roles to 8 (Artillery Gunner roles replace them as unlimited).
• Changed Allies to have +2% team ratio.
• Increased Axis respawn timer to 20 seconds from 15.
• Increased Allied Combat Engineer roles from 3 to 4.
• Removed requirement that objectives be cleared before capture.
• Fixed a bug where Higgins boats could spawn inside of eachother and launch into orbit.
• Fixed floating rocks on the beach.

Poteau Ambush

• Changed minefield boundaries to be more forgiving to both teams.
• Rebalanced Danger Zone influences of all objectives.

Rakowice

• Removed Soviet airstrip minefield, as it was much too close to the final objective and could block Germans from properly defending the final objective.
• Increased kill time of all minefields from 15 seconds to 20 to give vehicles a little more chance to back out.

Valko

• Increased max active Universal Carriers to 2 for Soviets.
• Added limited M3A1 Halftrack spawns to Soviets.

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2023-08-15 09:38:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello again! We are back with another patch that adds a number of quality of life changes and fixes a long-standing bug around machine-gun deployment! As usual, many map tweaks and fixes as well!

Quality of Life

• Players will now resupply & reload players that are shouldering AT weapons with a single keypress.
• A message will be displayed to the team when a vehicle pool has been activated or destroyed.
• When using a shovel, players can now simply hold down the fire button to continue digging.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a long-standing bug where weapons could sometimes fire blanks after deploying due to a client-server desync.

Maps

Cambes en Plaine

• Reworked objective territory influences.
• The final objective can now be recaptured by the Axis.

Pegasus Bridge

• The Allies can now spawn from 2 approaches.
• Fixed a bug where Benouville and Corner House objective volumes were too large.
• Added new Axis initial spawn with a maximum of 12 spawns.
• Reworked objective territory influences.
• Reworked Bridge objective area.
• Increased tickets for both teams to account for additional fighting.

La Fiere Day

• Enabled Allies a limited construction of 57mm AT guns (historically delivered by gliders)
• Allied supply caches now have a lower limit.
• Added an Allied supply cache to the end of the Causeway objective.

La Fuellie Advance

• Fixed an issue where invisible geometry would block howitzer shells in some areas of the map.
• Slightly increased Allied tickets.

Wanne Advance

• Reworked objective territory influences.
• Slightly reduced the size of some objective capture areas.

Berezina Advance

• The Soviet main spawn now has territory influence.

Les Champs de Losque

• Fixed a bug where minefields on the south east side of the map would kill the player too quickly.

SDK

• Leveler-placed spawn points can now have a limited number of players spawn on them (`MaxSpawns`)

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2023-06-03 17:09:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Gameplay

Grenades

• The amount of grenades that players spawn with has been increased from 1 to 2.

Developer Note

This reverses a long-standing change made years ago that was intended to reduce grenade spam. However, the change was largely ahistoric, as most troops were issues with 2 or more grenades, depending on the unit. We will evaluate how this shifts the nature of firefights, and may issue additional changes to keep grenade spam down in the future.

Satchel & Engine Fires

• The radius of resupply points attached to vehicles (i.e., logistics trucks) has been increased by ~1 meter.
• Satchels that explode on the tops of tanks and within range of the engine will no longer 100% start a fire in the engine. The likelihood of an engine fire is now determined by how close the explosion is to the engine.
• The likelihood of an engine fire spreading to the hull has been dramatically reduced.

Developer Note

In reality, most vehicles had firewalls that separated the engine from the crew cabin, making this type of thing unlikely. Previously, due to some wonky programming, the likelihood of the hull catching fire was virtually 100% (and ironically, made worse if your engine had a lot of HP), since it was doing a fire-spread dice roll every second while the engine was on fire. This system makes it to difficult to reason about and balance the likelihood of fires for different vehicles because the probabilities have to be amortised in relation to the vehicle's HP which is far too much complexity for what should be a simple dice roll. These two changes together make it so that satchels are no longer a guaranteed one-hit kill weapon against every tank in the game.

Infantry Howitzers

• Reduced the reload time of all infantry howitzers from 12 seconds to 6 seconds.
• Reduced the resupply interval of all howitzers from 25 seconds to 12 seconds.

Developer Note

This change was submitted by community member Punic, and it's one we agree with. Historically, the howitzer reload times were set as high as they were because we feared that they would be overpowered when used in battery. We feel safe in making these more viable now and reevaluating the balance once the changes have had time to settle in.

Maps

Berezina Advance

• Added 2 Combat Engineer roles for Soviets.
• Reduced max tanks for both teams, Soviets now have 2 tanks active at once, Germans have 3.
• Made BT7, Panzer III and Panzer IV Ausf. F1 spawns unlimited.
• Reduced max active logi trucks for both teams from 3 to 2.
• Implemented gun limit of 6 for Soviet light AT guns.

Cholm Advance

• Fixed issue where Axis would bleed tickets while still controlling objectives.
• Improved spawn protection minefield around Axis main spawn.
• Added additional cover to Axis main spawn.
• Disabled Karma collision on all wooden fences.

St Marie du Mont

• Added new Northwestern and Eastern Road objectives, replacing the old Stable objective.
• Added new spawn protection minefields for both teams.
• Added some additional light cover around the Church objective.
• Added artillery triggers to static radios on the map.
• Added additional logistics truck spawn for Axis.
• Reduced Axis main spawn cache limit from 8000 to 6000.
• Reworked Axis main spawn protection minefield.
• Reworked Danger Zone influences of all objectives.
• Reduced artillery strikes available to both teams significantly.
• Removed US Automatic Rifleman roles and instead increased Machine Gunners to 2.
• Fixed an off-grid BSP building that caused an invisible wall near the stables.

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2023-05-20 10:13:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update brings a number of quality of life changes to the squad system that have been requested by the community (and devs!) for a while. We've also snuck in some map fixes and some tweaks to the vehicles.

Squad System

• The squad panels in the UI are now colored differently depending on whether or not you are a part of the squad.
• While in a squad, you can now join another squad directly without needing to explicitly leave your existing squad, preserving any squad-only role you might have.
• Squad Assistants are no longer immediately promoted to be squad leader after the squad leader leaves.
• Squad Leader promotions are now prompts that must be accepted by the player being promoted (this stops malicious or careless squad leaders from bumping players off of their roles).
• A "no rally points" icon (i.e. mark of shame) is now displayed on the squad menu next to the names of squads who have not had a rally point for 60 seconds. This should help unassigned players choose an appropriate squad to join.

Maps

Hedgerow Hell

• Added new initial Axis main spawn.
• Streamlined design of final Axis main spawn to make it easier to navigate.
• Fixed a number of anomalous invisible walls.
• All objectives now require 2 or 3 players to capture.
• Reworked Bridge Defences capture area to include the nearby house (this should make the objective more defensible).
• Reduced Allied artillery strikes from 12 to 8.
• Increased Axis artillery cooldown from 15 seconds to 1 minute.

Godolloi

• Increased lockdown timers on all objectives.
• Slightly decreased the capture speed of all objectives.

Champs d'Agonie

• Fixed a bug where capture notifications wouldn't play when objectives were secured.
• Scaled back German anti-precap minefields across the board (they are still present but less oppressive than before).

Les Champs de Losque

• Removed "fake" supply cache props.
• Replaced weapon props with real weapon pick-ups.

Vehicles

• The M93 (76mm HVAP) projectile (found on the M18 Hellcat, M4A176W Sherman and M10 Wolverine) has had it's penetration capabilities increased to match contemporary penetration tables.
• APCs are now vulnerable to catching fire.
• APCs now have fuel tank hit points.
• Reworked Universal Carrier damage model to be consistent with other APCs (i.e., invulnerable to small arms, reduced resistance to penetrating shots)
• Added "tank steering" to the Sd.Kfz. 251, allowing the vehicle to make tight turns while nearly stationary.
• Added hit point for turret ammunition on the M16 Halftrack.
• Increased the likelihood of the ammunition detonating on the Sd.Kfz. 251/22 (Pakwagen) & Sd.Kfz 251/9 (Stummel) when hit with a penetrating shot.
• The Sd.Kfz. 234/1 now gets 2 magazines of APCR rounds. These rounds have a much higher penetration than the AP.
• Increased the damage and damage radius of the 20mm high-explosive round (found on the Sd.Kfz. 234/1, Wirbelwind etc.)

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2023-04-15 09:45:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

As you have probably heard, Sicily will be coming to Darkest Hour in 2023! This means a brand new Italian faction , new maps , weapons , vehicles and more! We have put together a little teaser to get everyone HYPE! This will be the largest update to DH in years, and our team is hard at work to bring everything together. We look forward to hitting the shores of Sicily with you later this year! [previewyoutube=RoUKiump-dQ;full][/previewyoutube] See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games P.S. If you want to keep up to date on the team's progress, over on Patreon we are giving our patrons regular updates and exclusive content like Italy playtest highlight reels and more!

[ 2023-03-26 08:26:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an oversight where German machine-gunners would not have gloves on in first person.
• Fixed a visual bug where a floating bullet could be seen after picking up a DP-27 off the ground.
• Fixed an exploit where artillery could be spotted beyond the fog distance and on the ceiling of the world.

Gameplay

• Canceling a long-range artillery strike that hasn't yet started will no longer consume the strike (i.e., the strike is refunded and can be used at a later time).
• Increased the number of projectiles in canister shots from 20 to 50.
• Made standing recoil while hipfiring the MG42 and M1919A6 more consistent.

Maps

Fury Clash

• Increased most objective lock timers from 5 to 10 minutes.
• Added more minefield protection volumes.

Rhine River Advance

• Fixed doors on a few buildings preventing players from entering.
• Fixed bugged lighting on windmill mover.
• Fixed missing staircase in Honopel objective building.
• Fixed floating tree statics in the forest between Honopel and Refuel Area.
• Fixed bug with the fog ring causing some objects to pop rather than fade in and out of view.
• Removed M45 Quadmount construction from Allies.
• Reduced view distance by about 75 meters to improve performance.
• Reduced culling distance on static trees by about 40 meters to improve performance.
• Removed ineffective anti-portals from the level to improve performance.
• Added or optimized existing BSP netcuts to improve network performance.

Targnon Advance

• Improved capture volume for AT Gun Position objective and reduced player requirement from 5 to 3.
• Increased respawn timer for US M4A375W Sherman tank from 60 to 90 seconds.

[ 2023-03-25 09:28:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a long-standing RO bug where the player's eye-height could de-sync after rapidly transitioning from standing to crouching and then to prone.
• Fixed a bug where the max vehicle counter would not be dynamically updated, resulting in strange behavior on the vehicle selection UI.
• Fixed a bug where Vehicle Pools would not be automatically destroyed if a recently spawned vehicle was spawn-killed.
• Fixed a bug where the `GiveCamera` command was available to all players, even in multi-player.

Vehicles

• The reload duration of Soviet DP-27 coaxial and hull machine-gun has been slightly reduced.

Map Removals

As you probably well know, DH has a dizzying amount of maps; and not every map is created equal. It is necessary to occasionally trim the fat so that the players don't need to be stuck with low quality maps, and developers do not have to spend time maintaining maps that no one cares about. A map is slated for removal if a map is some combination of: rarely played, unpopular, outdated or redundant. As such, this update sees the removal of a number of maps:

• Armored Debrecen Clash
• Armored Hunter's Woods Clash
• Armored Kommerscheidt Clash
• Armored Mannikkala Clash
• Armored Orel Clash
• Armored Panzerschlact Clash
• Armored Studzianki Clash
• Armored Tank Clash At Bastogne Advance
• Ginkel Health Push
• Jurques Clash
• Kriegstadt Push
• Merderet Advance

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2023-03-04 10:25:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a long-standing RO bug where the player's eye-height could de-sync after rapidly transitioning from standing to crouching and then to prone.
• Fixed a bug where the max vehicle counter would not be dynamically updated, resulting in strange behavior on the vehicle selection UI.
• Fixed a bug where Vehicle Pools would not be automatically destroyed if a recently spawned vehicle was spawn-killed.
• Fixed a bug where the `GiveCamera` command was available to all players, even in multi-player.

Vehicles

• The duration of Soviet DP-27 coaxial and hull machine-guns has been slightly reduced.

Map Removals

As you probably well know, DH has a dizzying amount of maps; and not every map is created equal. It is necessary to occasionally trim the fat so that the players don't need to be stuck with low quality maps, and developers do not have to spend time maintaining maps that no one cares about. A map is slated for removal if a map is some combination of: rarely played, unpopular, outdated or redundant. As such, this update sees the removal of a number of maps:

• Armored Debrecen Clash
• Armored Hunter's Woods Clash
• Armored Kommerscheidt Clash
• Armored Mannikkala Clash
• Armored Orel Clash
• Armored Panzerschlact Clash
• Armored Studzianki Clash
• Armored Tank Clash At Bastogne Advance
• Ginkel Health Push
• Jurques Clash
• Kriegstadt Push
• Merderet Advance

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2023-03-04 10:22:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

At long last, the M1919A6 Browning Machine Gun has been completely overhauled! This means new model, first-person and third-person animations!

M1919A6 Browning Machine-Gun

• Overhauled first and third-person model, texture, animations and reload sounds.
• The M1919A6 can now be hip-fired after being readied (similar to the MG-42).
• Recoil pattern has been brought closer in line with other similar machine guns (the net effect is more recoil, but a wider and arguably more desirable beaten zone)
• The weapon has now been renamed to the M1919A6 Browning Machine-Gun (previous version was an ahistoric frankenstein's monster that didn't actually exist).

With this, we are excited to finally complete the first pass of Allied weapon overhauls that we have been striving towards since 2020! There is still more work to be done to improve visuals of some weapons (especially one some of the Axis weapons), but we are now happy to have brought the entire Allied small arms arsenal up to a significantly higher level of visual fidelity.

Patreon Returns!

After a brief hiatus, the Patreon has now returned! The donations that we get from Patreon helps us keep the lights on by covering server & development infrastructure costs. If you can spare some cash, please consider donating to support the game's continued development! See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2023-02-25 08:19:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy New Years! We are excited to be back, and we're coming in hot! This update brings a large number of balance tweaks to a number of levels, as well as plenty of long awaited bug fixes and gameplay adjustments. Of note, Ten Aard has been converted to Advance and has had many parts of the level detailed with new defensive positions.
In addition, Rederitz has been extended, adding a new town beyond the final bridge to fight for!
We are planning some very big things for 2023, including the addition of the Italian faction. We can't wait to get it in your hands!

Maps

Butovo Advance

• Fixed incorrect Waffen SS roles on the map, now uses Waffen Heer.
• Increased Axis tickets (map is currently ending in about 50 minutes on a full server, should be closer to 60 minutes for a battle of this scale).
• Added some additional cover around the North Woods objective approach.
• Vehicles can now drive through all wooden fences.
• Reduced respawn timer for Sd.Kfz. 251 from 120 to 90 seconds.

Caen Advance

• Main supply cache maximum reduced from 8000 to 4000 for both teams.
• Resupply rate for both teams brought down from 500 to 250.
• Added an extra Pak 38 so that both "lanes" can be covered.
• Added anti-tank construction limits.

Champs d'Agonie Advance

• Renamed the map from Champs to Champs d'Agonie (the original name of the map!)
• Reworked the map to be part of the Normandy breakout around St. Lo, now features Panzer Lehr and US 3rd Armored Division.
• Fixed a number of potential game-breaking objective progression bugs.
• Increased US Radio Operator roles to 2 and added pre-placed radios for Axis.

Cheneux Advance

• Added more cover for Allies at the first objective area, especially on the flanking fields and forest to the right (Allied perspective).
• Reworked the minefields to provide more spawn protection to the Allies at the start.
• Allowed the Allies to use their armor from the start, rather than be unlocked after capturing the first objective.
• Made the middle town objectives recapturable.

Jurques Advance

• Optimized the map through additional anti-portals, reduced static cull distances, BSP optimization and bringing in fog by about 100 meters.

Kommerscheidt Advance

• "Intersection" and "Road to Schmidt" objectives now deactivate when both are captured by the Axis, preventing situation where capturing them in the wrong order could cost the Axis team their objective spawn.

Rakowice Advance

• Added anti-tank construction limits.

Rederitz Advance

• Added new objective "Rederitz West", extending the map beyond the final bridge objective.

Stavelot Defense

* Increased Allies tickets. * Reduced King Tiger max spawns from 3 to 2.

Targnon Advance

* Fixed a bug where capturing the initial objective group in a certain order could break map progression.

Ten Aard Advance

* Converted the map to the Advance game mode. * Reworked objectives, objective spawns and danger zone. * Added anti-precap minefields to the map. * Added several new locations and interiors. * Added new trenches and defensive positions. * Added pre-placed radios around the map.

Weapons

• The MG42 hipfire recoil has been increased.
• Minor tweak to the M1 Garand's recoil animation to momentarily obstruct the peep sight, in line with other similar rifles.
• Self-loading rifles (e.g., Garand, SVT-40 etc.) will now be more difficult to control when firing rapidly.

Vehicles

• The Pakwagen (Sd.Kfz. 251/22) now requires a tank crewman to operate and can now be locked similar to other vehicles.

Gameplay

• Constructed grenade crates and Panzerfaust boxes are no longer locked to the opposing team.
• Players will now only have their weapons locked on team-kills unless they have had a previous team kill within the last 30 seconds.
• Anti-tank guns can now only be constructed on earthen terrain.
• * Disabled placement of all constructions within the danger zone to curb spawn camping, blocking entrances, and other unfair play involving logistics deep behind the lines.
• Ammunition crates are now visible to the enemy team when inside the enemy territory.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where the wrong error message would be shown while trying to dig while prone.
• Reduced the cooldown on fire support markers from 10 seconds to 3 seconds.
• Fixed a bug where squad assistants could not user the spotting menu from within vehicles.
• Fixed a bug where the Commonwealth Radios did not have Mills bombs in their loadouts.

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2023-01-21 11:56:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Year by year, bird by bird, we're adding new chapters and goodies to our Halloween vault. This year is not an exception and Halloween is coming back in style with a new survival map and a fresh supply of apocalyptic weapons. Make sure to hop in the game this week to not miss it!

Flugplatz Survival

This is the latest (but not the final) chapter in our survival story, which continues from where we left it last year at Haunted Pariserplatz. After successfully escaping Berlin, our survivors arrive at an airfield in hopes to catch their last ride out of the desolate hellscape. The map will lead our heroes through zombie-infested forests, pools of green radioactive sludge, and treacherous ruins of the abandoned airfield. The escape is coming, but they'll have to work hard as a team to earn it.
For those who missed the last year's event: Survival is the unique game mode only available on Halloween, where one team tries to escape the apocalypse, while another wants to have them for dinner.

Clubs and Maces

A fine assortment of implements for bashing and smashing has arrived, and now available to the Army of the Dead. Groovy!

Gert Potsdam II

Mad Reich scientists didn't just spend all their time figuring out how to populate the world with zombies, they also made a perfect weapon to dispatch them. Turns out, if you combine German ingenuity, British thriftiness, and a PhD in advanced physics, you can make bigger holes in things. And that's precisely what everyone needs.

Halloween Maps

All haunted maps are back in roster this week:

• Haunted Pariserpatz Survival
• Haunted Hattert Advance
• Haunted Fury Advance

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2022-10-24 12:49:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

New Weapons

Nagant M1895 (BraMit)

This is a silenced revolver (yes, you read that correctly) used by Soviet scout and reconaissance troops.

Mosin M91/30 (PE)

This is the well-known Mosin M91/30, but with a PE scope, providing more magnification.

Weapon Changes

• The Enfield No.4 Mk.I (T) (No.32) has had it's scope zeroed to fire at the center middle post at 100m.
• Sped up some transition animations for the MG34 and DP27.
• Adjusted firing sounds for the Bren & Fallschirmjgergewehr 42.
• Increased Bazooka M9A1 penetration from 102mm to 126mm.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where the Bren carrier was still using the old Bren model.
• Fixed a bug where the Bren carrier's third person firing sound was always the distant variant.
• Fixed a bug where the ZB-30 was using the Bren's interface icon.
• Fixed a bug where it was possible to cancel the ironsight animation on AT weapons by switching the firing range.
• Fixed a bug where an explicitly given shovel item would appear as wirecutters in the deploy menu.

Miscellaneous

• Removed the server-side behavior that would increase respawn times if the server was performing poorly.
• Increased respawn penalty timer for Allied automatic rifleman roles from 5 seconds to 14 seconds (now in line with German counterpart).

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2022-10-15 06:35:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Its finally here! This update brings the long-awaited anti-tank weapon overhaul, the addition of new weapons, and a large number of gameplay tweaks. It has been a long hard road to get this update out, as weve had to develop new skills, tools and processes on top of creating all of the new assets. This release brings us ever closer to our long-standing quest of completely overhauling all of the infantry weapons to a higher standard.

Overhauled Weapons

The following weapons have had their models, textures and animations completely overhauled. Not only the first-person models have been updated, but the third-person animations for these weapons have also been completely redone! We now have a skilled third-person weapon animator, so look forward to more upgrades to the third person animations in the future.

M1A1 Bazooka

• Model, textures and animations have been completely remade.
• Reload duration has been reduced from 17 seconds to 8.3 seconds.
• Melee has been removed.
• Sights have been properly re-calibrated.

Raketenpanzerbchse 54 (Panzerschreck)

• Model, textures and animations have been completely remade.
• Reload duration has been reduced from 11 second to 9 seconds.
• Increased weapon sway.
• Reduced projectile spread considerably.
• Melee has been removed.
• Added 2 new skin variants (dunkelgelb and snow)

PIAT

• Model, textures and animations have been completely remade.
• Can now be deployed on its monopod similar to machine-guns.
• Must be deployed in order to reload.
• Reload speed has been reduced from 12 seconds to 5 seconds.
• Melee has been removed.

Bren Gun

• Model, textures, animations and sounds have been completely remade.
• Melee has been removed.

New Weapons

M9A1 Bazooka

This new weapon features a unique optical reflector sight that makes it much easier to acquire targets. The M9 Bazooka officially replaced the M1A1 Bazooka towards the end of the war and has a projectile with slightly more penetration power than its predecessor. You'll see this variant of the Bazooka in late-war battles.

Sturmgewehr 44 (ZF 4)

The beloved STG44, now with a ZF 4 telescopic sight! This is an incredibly rare weapon that can be found as a pick-up on a number of late-war maps.

ZB vz. 30

This is a new Czechoslovakian light machine-gun, a close relative to the British Bren gun in both form and function. You'll find this weapon in the hands of some Volkssturm and Waffen SS soldiers.

Soviet and LWP Radio Operators

At long last, the Soviets and Polish armies now have been issued the A7 Transceiver and Radio Operator roles, bringing them to parity with all other factions.

Weapon Changes

• Many weapons have had their rate of fire adjusted to better match their real life counterparts. In general, you may notice many sub-machine guns now fire very slightly slower.
• The MG42 can now be fired from the hip after being readied.
• The MG34 can now be fired from the hip without needing to be readied.
• The DP-27 can now be fired from the hip without needing to be readied.
• The DP-27 magazine now visibly spins as the magazine is emptied, allowing for the user to see roughly how much ammo is left a glance.
• Rocket weapons now use the SwitchFireMode (default X) command instead of the Deploy (default N) command to change the firing range. This change was made to accommodate the fact the PIAT can now be deployed.
• Added a new contextual hint that tells the player how to switch firing ranges on weapons that support it.
• Slightly lowered the horizontal recoil of the Fallschirmjgergewehr 42.
• Slightly lowered the fire rate of the Maschinenpistole 38/40/41.
• Added a recoil curve to the M1 Garand, so rapid successive shots will increase the recoil per shot.
• The Fallschirmjaegergewehr 42 can no longer be resupplied by friendlies. (This change is made because unlike the BAR and Bren, German squad doctrine did not require each member of the squad to carry ammunition for the weapon).
• All sniper rifles have had their sights zeroed for 100m. This should alleviate the feeling that sniper rifles consistently shoot too low.
• Many weapons have had their names changed to be more specific (e.g., sniper rifles will now display the name of the scope type being used).

Gameplay

• The mechanic where ammunition supplies would decrease as the round progressed has been removed.
• Squad leaders can now use their shovels so long as a squadmate is within 50 meters of them (increased from 25 meters)

Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug where players who were in vehicles or on anti-tank guns wouldnt be counted as a nearby squadmate for squad leaders trying to use their shovels to build.

Vehicles & Guns

• The APDS accuracy has been dramatically improved, in line with real-world data.

Miscellaneous

• The map voting system has been changed so that each player gets 1 vote, instead of voting power being a function of the players score. Legacy patrons are still granted extra voting power based on patronage tier, though the patron system will be phased out and replaced later this year.

Maps

Butovo Advance

• Fixed issue with the Panther entering an unspawnable state after Axis captured Pena River.
• Reworked final objective to be easier for Axis to capture.
• Reduced Axis ticket gain from capturing Pena River and North Woods objectives.

Fury Advance

• Fixed an issue that prevented Allied mortar operators from deploying around the starting area.

German Village Advance

• Fixed an issue where teams would be unable to mark targets for artillery thoughout most of the map.
• Fixed an exploit that could allow users to get outside of the map bounds.
• Increased Allied tickets slightly.
• Replaced flag statics on the map with new models from Matty.

Hedgerow Hell Advance

• Added missing Radio Operator role to Axis team.
• Replaced anachronistic Wirblewind with Sd.Kfz. 234/1 (20mm Armored Car).

Kasserine Pass Advance

• Fixed missing weapons for US Radio Operators.

Lutremange Domination

• Added territory nodes to both main spawns to allow for infantry to spawn in vehicles near the main spawn.
• Replaced Greyhound with Stuart and Easy 8 Sherman with M4A3 76W.
• Reduced intensity of artillery for both teams.

Lazur Chemical Plant Defence

• Expanded protection minefield for allied spawns to prevent spawn killing.
• Increased tickets for both teams significantly.
• Fixed a bug where many materials had incorrect impact effects.
• Fixed an issue where certain doors could not be destroyed with satchels.

Myshkova River Advance

• Updated lighting, terrain and objects on the map.
• Increased objective capture speed and reduced players needed from 8 to 6.
• Replaced G41 with SVT38 for Axis roles.
• Moved M34 grenades from Rifleman to Combat Engineer roles.
• Reduced amount of Axis SMGs available.

Noville Advance

• Swapped teams so that Axis are now attacking.
• Reworked objectives with new volumes and requirements to be more similar to Wanne.
• Added M18 Hellcats replacing previous US M10 Tank Destroyers.
• Added StuG 3 Ausf.G Assault Guns and Sd.Kfz. 251 Halftracks to Axis.
• Added objective spawns for both teams.
• Added additional spawn protection minefields for both teams.
• Added Radio Operators for both sides.
• Increased fog distance slightly to give better visibility on the map.

Rakowice Advance

• Removed large watchtowers from the map.
• Removed bunker blast door at airstrip.
• Fixed issue where players could respawn instantly in some cases.
• Removed grenades from Soviet Carbine Rifleman role and reduced role availability to 3.
• Added additional objects and changed terrain to provide more cover in certain areas.
• Replaced MP40 with MP41 for Axis Squad Leader role.
• Reduced time needed to capture objectives.

Rederitz Advance

• Implemented new Volkssturm Machinegunner role with ZB30.

Stoumont Advance

• Added missing Radio Operator role to Axis team.

Rhine River Clash

• Removed objectives neutralisation requirement, but halved capture rate (objectives will take the same amount of time to capture, but double neutral situations will be impossible).
• Increased objective lock down timers from 4 to 8 minutes.

Wanne Advance

• Reworked danger zone to reduce situations where team lines would be too close to an active objective.

Map Variation Removals

A number of maps have been removed as they have been superseded by other versions or are too unpopular to justify maintaining. These maps are:

• Cambes en Plaine Clash (superseded by Advance version)
• Fury Clash (superseded by Advance version)
• German Village Defence (superseded by Advance version)
• Godolloi Push (superseded by Advance version)
• Hedgerow Hell Clash (superseded by Advance version)
• Jurques Day Two Advance (generally considered to be a worse version of the original)
• Noville Push (superseded by Advance version)
• Pariserplatz Push (superseded by Advance version)
• Reichswald Push (superseded by Advance version)
• Winter Stalemate Advance (the Clash version plays better)

What's Next!?

The next major release we are working towards is the addition of the Italian faction and the Sicilian campaign. This is a large undertaking that requires new maps, weapons, vehicles, player models, voices and more. We dont have a solid date for when this will be released, but we have a couple morsels to tease here. We are really looking forward to bringing in a whole new theatre to the game!
Monte Cassino (Razorneck)
Niscemi (Razorneck) See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2022-09-10 09:55:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Attention! After listening to feedback from the community, we have decided to reinstate the squad leaders' shovel privileges that were revoked in a previous update. Squad leaders are now given a shovel just like everyone else. However, as a squad leader, you will not be able to use your shovel for building unless you have at least one squadmate near you. As for what's on the horizon: the team is getting ready to finally launch the much anticipated (and very late!) update that will see a number of major overhauls to the visuals of many weapons, particularly the anti-tank launchers such as the PIAT, Panzerschreck and Bazooka. The next time you hear from us, it will be with something big! The full details of this update's changes can be seen below.

Squad System

• Squad leaders are now issued shovels again, reverting a change made in v10.6.0.
• Squad leaders can only use their shovel for building if a squad member is within 25 meters.
• Unbuilt constructions will be automatically torn down and have their construction points .refunded to the nearest cache if placed by a squad leader that loses their squad leader status. This is an explot mitigation measure.
• Squad leaders can no longer be automatic riflemen (e.g., BAR, Bren gunners).

New Maps

Lutremange Domnation

This is the return of the classic original Lutremange map! We are experimenting with how this map will work within the new gameplay systems that have been developed over the years, so expect some growing pains and changes in future updates.

Lazur Chemical Plant Defense

This is a Stalingrad map suitable for 16-48 players. Expect hectic close quarters fighting!

Map Changes

Rakowice Advance

• Added tunnel between Personnel Bunker and Hangar.

Leningrad Push

• Fixed a bug where the KV-1 was not able to be spawned.
• Replaced with Panzer III Ausf.L with the Panzer III Ausf.J.
• Removed the requirement to "clear" objectives and lowered the capture speed.

Cambes en Plaine Advance

• Slightly increased Allied tickets.

Pegasus Bridge Advance

• Increased anti-air gun limit timer to 30 minutes.

Donner Bolts

• Removed grenades for all roles
• Added an objective to the center of the map (the team that holds this at the end of the round will win)
• Reduced time limit from 20 minutes to 15 minutes

Stoumont Advance

• Slightly increased Allied tickets.
• Increased Axis lockdown timers on all objectives from 5 minutes to 10 minutes.

Wanne Advance

• Restored Sturmgewehr 44s to German Assault Trooper roles.
• The King Tiger will now unlock after the Germans capture the Woods objective.

Armored Vieux Advance

• Added new overview.
• Fixed a bug where objectives could break if certain objectives were recaptured.

Rhine River Clash

• Fixed a bug where active objectives could be inside an active minefield.
• US roles now are using the autumn variants.

German Village Advance

• The map has been converted from Defense game mode to Advance game mode.

Fox Green Defense

• Barbed wire fences are now destroyable with satchels.
• Increased the number of Combat Engineer and Anti-Tank roles for the US.
• Increased number of US avaialable artillery strikes.
• Increased the kill timer on minefields from 2 seconds to 10 seconds.
• The Higgins boats now spawn further away from a minefield.
• Fixed various terrain and collision bugs.

General

• Added an interface option for changing the Mute Menu keybind (default F3).
• Chambois has had its Map Size changed from Medium to Small.

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2022-08-22 01:36:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello again! We're back with another update, and this one is high-impact!

Squad Leader Changes

We are making some long-requested changes to the squad system. These changes are intended to discourage "lone wolf" squad leader behavior that leaves the squad leader either absent from the front-lines or distracted trying to fulfill a job tied to their chosen role.

• The squad leader no longer gets a shovel to build (the squad leader can still place constructions for squad members to build)
• Squad leaders can no longer occupy the following roles on Advance & Clash game modes:
  • Mortar Operator
  • Radio Operator
  • Anti-Tank Soldier
  • Sniper
  • Machine-Gunner

We understand this is a large (and maybe painful) change to how players have expected the system to work, but we feel that this will have an overall positive impact on the overall play experience for everyone. We will monitor the impact of these changes and may make ammendments based on feedback.

Gameplay

• Command text chat channel is now unavailable for squad leaders without subordinates
• You must have at least 3 squad members in order to call for off-map artillery
• All vehicles can be used as team-wide infantry spawn points so long as the vehicle is behind your team's safe zone
• If a vehicle is not in the safe zone, it can still be used as a spawn point for the first 20 seconds after it spawns
• "Permanent" spawn vehicles can no longer be spawned on if they are behind the enemy's safe zone
• Players killed within 7 seconds after spawning on vehicles will disable spawning on the vehicle for 30 seconds (note that the Higgins boats are excluded from this rule)

Interface

• Enemy map markers will now fade away slowly over time, making it easier to see which marks are most recent

Vehicles

• Added a new summer camouflage pattern for the M4A1 Sherman 76(W)

Miscellaneous

• Error messages are now displayed when the player tries to join a voice channel they do not have permission to access

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where players could be left in the command voice channel after dropping the role of squad leader
• Fixed a bug where some radios would not be visible on the map
• Fixed a bug where squads would sometimes be unable to create rally points after the round was reset

Maps

Armored Hill 112

• Fixed a bug where progression could be deadlocked after the Axis recaptured the first objective
• Replaced early version of Cromwell with late version

Armored La Champagne

• Brightened the map slightly
• Replaced all 2D trees with 3D ones
• Balanced tank loadouts by giving Allies more Fireflies and Achilles
• Added mipmaps to all textures previously missing them
• Added a number of radio around the map

Butovo Advance

• Fixed a bug where the Axis would lose their vehicle objective spawns after capturing a certain objective
• Reduced all Soviet KV type spawns by 1

Godolloi Advance

• Disabled Flak 88 construction
• Tightened gun limit restrictions for Axis
• Reduced the capacity of the Axis main base supply cache from 8000 to 4000

Les Champs de Losque

• Fixed a bug where the Allied main cache was absent
• Fixed a bug where the ladder at Courimette Farm would not work
• The M16 Halftrack no longer counts against the team's vehicle limit

Rabenheck Advance

• Fixed a bug where the bridge objective could become disabled and deadlock progression

Reichswald Advance

• Added missing Corporal and Sergeant roles for the Allies
• Added Radio Operators for both teams
• Gave the allies a Cromwell 95mm for bunker-busting
• Fixed incorrect weapon loadouts

Stoumont Advance

• Objectives captured by the Axis will be locked down for 270 seconds
• Objectives recaptured by the Allies will be locked down for 30 seconds

Smolensk Advance

• Expanded the final objective volume to include the village area
• Added a Soviet supply cache near the final objective

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2022-07-30 13:58:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

Quality of Life

A new system has been added that will invalidate the player's spawn point selection upon death if a more desirable spawn point becomes available. The list of spawn point desirability is listed below, in descending order of desirability:

• Paradrop
• Squad Rally Point
• Platoon HQ
• Objective Spawn
• Progression Spawn (Push-style spawn points)
• Main Spawn

For example, if the player has a Platoon HQ selected as their spawn point and dies, but a Squad Rally Point is available, the player's spawn selection will be invalidated and the they will be prompted to select their spawn point. This generally allows for better spawn option discovery (especially important for new players!), and also eliminates the common annoyance of accidentally spawning back at main spawn when better options become available throughout the match.

Bug Fixes

• Fox Green Defence now has correct information on the map voting screen
• Fixed a bug where guns constructed by the enemy team could count against your own team's gun limit

[ 2022-07-09 09:32:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

v10.5.3 has been released! This update brings a number of bug fixes and numerous level tweaks and updates. Below are a list of all the changes.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where vehicle respawn times could grow out of control after the maximum number of active vehicles was increased during the round (this caused the bug on Cambes en Plaine where Shermans could not be spawned after capturing the first objective)
• Fixed a bug where players that dropped the squad leader would be kicked from leadership roles on maps where those roles were not restricted
• Fixed a bug where it was impossible to kill drivers of the following vehicles with small arms:
  • Sd.Kfz 251 (and all variants)
  • T60
  • KV-1E
  • SU76-M
  • BA-64
  • BT-7

Gameplay

• Level designers can now set a custom limit to the amount of supply points at main caches.

Levels

Cambes en Plaine Advance

• Reduced max supply count of the Axis main cache from 8000 to 4000
• Prevented Axis main spawn from changing after a certain objective was captured

Fox Green

• Fixed terrain issues

Hill 112

• Increase Achilles spawns by 1
• Reduced Jagdpanther spawns from 6 to 4
• Increased Baron-sur-Odon lockdown time from 5 to 15 minutes
• Changed all trees to lower-poly versions
• Changed German roles from Panzerlehr to Waffen SS
• Added more cover and detail at Road to Baron-sur-Odon
• Various graphical bug fixes

La Feuillie

• Added new overview

Lyevs Krovy

• The number of tickets for both teams now scales with the player count

Pariserplatz Defence

• Removed German main supply cache
• Prevented construction of vehicle ammo
• Reduced IS-2 spawns from 6 to 4
• Reduced Pakwagen spawns from 3 to 2
• Reduced Soviet artillery strikes from 4 to 2
• Reduced Open Blitz (Logistics) spawns from 3 to 2

Rhine River

• Added progressive minefields for both teams

Smolensk Advance

• The number of tickets for both teams now scales with the player count

Armored Tractable

• The round will now end after 75 minutes has elapsed

Winter Manor

• Added wire obstacle fences to last objective
• Added foxholes and moved cover between Trenches and Road Approach objectives

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2022-07-03 00:10:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello again! This update brings a new Advance version of the popular map Cambes en Plaine! In future updates, we plan on converting more Clash maps to Advance as we feel the maps tend to flow better and have a better sense of progression. The Clash versions will still be available while we see what players prefer. This update also has some loadout changes and a huge list of map changes and fixes, all of which can be seen below.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where the paratrooper radio call-in would not work.

Weapons

• The M1897 shotgun now has tigher spread and does slightly more damage.

Loadouts

• The M3 Greasegun and Springfield are no longer available by default for US Radio Operators and Tank Hunters.
• The M1 Garand is now available by default for US Combat Engineers.
• Replaced the Thompson 20rd. with the M3 Greasegun for US Corporals.
• Soviet Tank Hunters no longer have access to the explosive satchel on every map.
• Adjusted availability of default Mosin Nagant variants on many Soviet roles.
• Soviet Assault Troopers now have access to the PPD-40 on most maps.
• German Radio Operators now have grenades.
• German Combat Engineers no longer have access to the Gebalte Ladung on every map.
• German Tank Hunters no longer have access to the Gebalte Ladung on every map.

Maps

Cambes en Plaine

• New Advance version is now available.

La Fiere

• Added advancing minefields for both teams.
• Fixed Causeway objective spawn locations.
• Decreased Axis Machine-gunner roles from 3 to 2.

Myshkova River

• Adjusted lighting to be less off-putting.
• KV-1E now properly activates on objective capture.
• Reduced the players required to capture the first two objectives from 8 to 6.
• Decreased Axis Machine-gunner roles from 3 to 2.
• More obstacle constructions are now available.

Freyneux

• Fixed a bug where the map would always end in a draw if the time limit was reached.

Eindhoven

• Changed game mode to Domination.

Kharkov

• Reduced artillery for both teams.
• Fixed objective bugs that were preventing Bridgehead and Church from closing.
• Fixed some holes that allowed players to get under the map.
• Added more cover for Guard's House objective.
• Added more tanks and tank slots to make the map suitable for the armoured server.
• Added sandbags around Church objective to give defenders more cover to hold objective.

Hill 112

• Baron-Sur-Odon is now recapturable.
• Re-balanced tank loadout.
• Edited objective layout and added a new objective.

Vieux

• Fixed missing last objective.
• Added more cover around the map.
• Replaced incorrect winter hedges with summer ones.
• Removed objective spawns due to persistent spawn camping.
• Added more radio triggers.

Debrecen

• Changed game mode to Domination.

KrivoiRog

• Changed game mode to Domination.

Carpiquet Airfield

• Added objectives spawns for Allies.
• The Allies now have 2 Churchill tanks.

Fox Green

• Added missing overview.
• Increased Allied artillery strikes from 2 to 4.

German Village

• Added missing overview.

La Feuillie

• Changed objective flow in the final caps so that only 2 objectives are open at once instead of 3.

Merderet

• Fixed a bug where the Allied victory song would be from a different faction.
• Fixed Axis main spawn issue that could cause tanks to spawn inside each other.
• Added SdKfz. 10/5 and SdKfz. 251 for the Axis.
• Reduced Tiger spawns to 2 but made 1 unlock just before Bridge objective.
• Removed duplicate Axis mortar role.

Valko

• Fixed a bug where the minefield timers were too short.

Pegasus Bridge

• Disabled construction of howitzers.

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2022-06-25 10:53:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, folks! We are back with another quality-of-life release that brings a number of much requested changes and a number of fixes to maps. We are excited for the coming weeks, as we have a large amount of new content that is nearing completion. We can't wait for you to get your hands on it. Keep an eye out for it soon! In the meantime, here is the change log!

Gameplay

• Fixed an exploit where players that were previously squad leaders could maintain their restricted role after leaving a squad or making someone else the squad leader (players that lose their SL status will be switched to the first unlimited non-leader role, typically Rifleman)
• When reloading, the player will now prioritize loading the fullest magazine available
• Removed the requirement that a certain percentage of reinforcements be lost in order to initiate a vote to retreat
• Air-burst grenades will no longer do less damage than grenades that have landed on the ground
• Fixed the construction placement radius of the Flak 88 to match it's footprint
• Eliminated the disparity between the fire rates of the G41, G43 and M1 Garand (all weapons are now capable of firing 4.65 rounds/second)

Miscellaneous

• Removed the "Extra Large" map category, as the voting category was too restrictive

Maps

Miscellaneous

• Added Radio Operator roles to over a dozen of maps that were missing them

Armored Kharkov Advance

• Fixed a bug where objective progression could become deadlocked

Armored Vieux Advance

• Increased capture time on all objectives
• Added Koenigstiger, Stummel, Sd.Kfz 10/5, Pakwagen, Hetzer and StuH 42 for the Axis
• Added Achilles for Allies
• Reduced the amount of Tigers from 2 to 1 and the number of Panthers from 6 to 3 for axis
• Reduced the amount of M3A1 Stuarts from 2 to 1
• Reduced the amount of Sherman Fireflies from 5 to 4
• Added some spawns to reduce travel times
• Fixed some floaters & terrain holes
• Increased brightness and fixed some lighting issues
• Added some new buildings and statics to Road to Caen, Haut, Railway Yard and South Farm
• Fixed a visual bug where binoculars would be displayed incorrectly
• Removed some low quality trenches
• Replaced a number of low quality trees with higher quality ones

Butovo Advance

• T34/76 and Panzer IV tanks are now unlimited
• The ISU-152 now unlocks earlier
• Added objective vehicle spawns

Champs Advance

• Fixed a bug where objective progression could become deadlocked

Flakturm Tiergarten Defence

• Added a construction restriction volume at the rear of the Flakturm

Fury Advance

• Fixed an issue where some objectives would not lock after being captured by the Allies
• Significantly reduced the lock timer when Germans recapture some objectives

Godolloi Advance

• Fixed a bug where objective progression could become deadlocked

La Feuillie Advance

• Restored halftrack MDVs for both teams

Myshkova River

• Removed the first two objectives
• Removed Vehicle Pool from constructions
• Combined Myshkova Intersection & Bridgehead into one objective
• Added objective spawns & pre-cap minefields
• Revised roles, vehicle loadout & artillery
• Static radios are now functional
• Replaced low-poly trees with higher quality ones
• Replaced static AT guns with usable ones
• Added Radio Operator for the Germans

Rhine River Clash

• Fixed a bug that caused an invisible wall around the Axis main spawn

St. Marie du Mont

• Fixed a notorious floating hedge
• Increased the number of artillery strikes available for both teams
• Removed pistols from American Rifleman roles

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2022-05-24 09:18:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Our elves have been busy in the workshop this holiday season!
Introducing a brand new map, Les Champs de Losque! This is the first map by community member Cpt. Caverne. We'd like to thank everyone who participated in the map's beta test earlier in the year and provided helpful feedback! We will monitor how the map plays and squash any bugs or game-play issues that might surface in the coming days. In addition to this brand new map, a new Clash version of Jurques has also been slipped in your stocking! You can see the full change log below. And now for a personal aside: It's around this time of year that we reflect on how we are so grateful to be able to work together and build on a game that has endured for over 13 years. The gaming landscape has changed so much since 2008, and it's an increasingly rare thing that a small dedicated group of people would continue to volunteer their precious time and talents to build upon and improve this free mod. Thank you to all of our developers and players, past, present, and future.
We hope you all stay warm and safe this season. See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

New Maps

• Jurques Clash
• Les Champs de Losque

Map Changes

Flakturm Tiergarten Defence

• Added some weak artillery for Allies.
• Gave Axis a single Panther that unlocks in the middle of the map.
• Removed Allied ticket gain from capturing objectives.
• Set tickets to use the scaling system.
• Fixed Axis spawn hint that would cause players to fall on spawn and break their legs.

Kommerscheidt Advance

• Implemented three lines of anti-precap minefields.
• Reduced Axis tickets factor to 27 from 30.
• Reduced Axis respawn interval by 5 seconds to help prevent them from losing momentum as easily.
• Fixed incorrect victory music for the Allies.
• Fixed typo in the Intersection objective name.
• Added a basic map description and preview image for practice mode.

La Fiere (Day)

• Hand-tuned the danger zone to make more sense.

Pariserplatz Defence

• Fixed an exploit that would allow players to get under the map.
• Placed some spawn hints on the other side of the Reichstag to help prevent the Allies getting bottlenecked in their spawn at the beginning of the round.

Rabenheck Advance

• Added a new objective at the bridge, plus new defensive emplacements to go with it (extended trench line, new bunker, cleared some trees and added some new cover for the Allies).
• Added anti-precap minefields behind each objective.
• Expanded minefield protection around initial Allied spawn.
• Implemented anti-tank gun limits.
• Reduced Allied respawn interval to 10 seconds from 30.
• Reduced Allied ticket bleed rate slightly.
• Rebalanced roles and tank loadouts.
• Removed a bugged minefield from the final objective.
• Gave both teams additional artillery strikes and added several static radios around the map.
• Fixed a bug with some fluid surfaces.
• Added new raindrop emitters to the river and other bodies of water.
• Fixed some bugged objective progression dependencies.

Simonskall Push

• Reduced respawn interval of both teams from 20 seconds to 10 seconds.
• Gave Allies a small amount of artillery and a radio operator.

St. Marie du Mont Advance

• Fixed incorrect victory music for the Allies.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where AT launchers could fail to spawn a projectile.

[ 2021-12-25 10:32:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey, everyone! We got a couple of maps in store that are ready to receive their "trial by fire" before getting released into the wild. This Sunday @ 7 PM UTC we'll be running a beta test which will include the new Les Champs-de-Losque and the continuation of the battle for Jurques. Check the instructions below on how to participate. Everyone is welcome to join!
Jurques Clash
Les Champs-de-Losque Advance

How to participate in the beta testing?

[olist]

Right-click on Darkest Hour: Europe '44-'45 in your Steam Library.

Select Properties.

Under the Betas tab pick `prerelease` from the drop-down menu.

Launch the game and join the beta server.[/olist]
After the event, don't forget to switch back to the normal version. You can do this by selecting `None` in the drop-down menu. Make sure to join us on Discord to share your thoughts about the upcoming features and report any bugs you find in the beta release. We appreciate your feedback! See you on the testing grounds, Darklight Games

[ 2021-11-27 02:36:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

Cagny Recon

Today's weekly update includes a new rendition of the Armored Cagny map that only features light and fast moving vehicles. This version of the map was brought to you by an ace tanker and the menace of the armored server Klunk. Worth noting that Allied teams on both Cagny maps have been switched to the British faction which is historically correct for the setting,

Rabenheck

Another notable change was Rabenheck Advance. Apart from a number of bug fixes, the map has been updated with a new Bridge objective and additional encampments in its vicinity.

Full changelog

# Vehicles - [Stummel] Fixed the bug where players could enter non-existent passenger seats. - [Stummel] Fixed the bug where non-crewmen could enter the gunner's seat. # Maps ## Armored Cagny Recon Advance - Added a new variant of Cagny with light/recon vehicles only (Author: Klunk). ## Armored Cagny Advance - Reworked the map to use the correct British faction for Allies instead of US. - Updated minefield timers to not kill players instantly. - Replaced missing mipmap field textures with proper version from DH packages. - Various bug fixes. ## Rabenheck Advance - Added a new objective at the bridge. - Added defensive emplacements near the bridge (extended trench line, new bunker, and extra cover). - Cleared out some trees and added extra cover for the advancing team. - Added anti-precap minefields behind each objective. - Expanded minefield protection around initial Allied spawn. - Implemented AT gun limits. - Reduced Allied respawn interval to 10 seconds. - Reduced Allied ticket bleed rate slightly. - Re-balanced roles and tank loadouts. - Removed a bugged minefield from the final objective. - Gave both teams additional artillery strikes and added several static radios around the map. - Added new raindrop emitters to the river and other bodies of water. - Fixed bugs in objective progression. - Fixed volume issue that could make it difficult to blow up the destructible part of the Siegfried line dragon's teeth. - Various minor bug fixes. ## Simonskall Push - Reduced respawn interval of both teams to 10 seconds. - Gave Allies a small amount of artillery + a radio operator. ## Kommerscheidt Advance - Implemented three lines of anti-precap minefields. - Slightly reduced Axis tickets. - Decreased Axis respawn interval by 5 seconds to help prevent them from losing momentum as easily. - Fixed wrong victory music group for Allies. - Fixed typo in the Intersection objective name. - Added a map description and preview image for practice mode. ## St. Marie-du-Mont Advance - Fixed wrong victory music sound group for Allies. ## Flakturm Tiergarten Defence - Added some weak artillery for Allies. - Gave Axis a single Panther that unlocks in the middle of the map. - Removed Allied ticket gain from capturing objectives. - Set tickets to use the scaling system. - Fixed Axis spawn hint that would cause players to fall on spawn and break their legs. ## Pariserplatz Defence - Fixed an exploit that would allow players to get under the map. - Placed spawn locations on the other side of the Reichstag to help prevent the Allies getting bottle-necked in their spawn at the start. See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2021-11-26 13:00:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

A new weekly patch has been released! Check the changelog for details: # Vehicles ## BT-7 - Removed the intermediate positions in the turret that made the tank wonky to operate. - Fixed the appearance of the destroyed mesh. - Fixed the speeds of wheels and treads. # Maps ## Konigplatz Push - Made team ratios even. - Reduced respawn intervals to 10 seconds. - Reduced tank counts for both teams. - Gave Soviets a small amount of artillery. - Added a limited amount of artillery for Soviet team. - Added static radios. ## Cheneux Advance/Push - Added satchel charges to US Combat Engineer role. ## Bridge Assault Push - Fixed roof textures. ## Armored Tractable Advance - Added new tanks for both sides. ## Armored La Feuille Advance - Allowed HQ and VP construction. ## Dom Pavlova Event - Added a special version of Dom Pavlova for a community event (you can find more details about the event on Discord). GitHub See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2021-11-12 09:04:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

The weekly patch is out! This update focuses on fixing a few visual bugs and updating Flakturm Tiergarten to sort out a number of gameplay issues it had. Flakturm has been known for its harsh first objective that would often turn into a meat grinder and leave Allied team locked at their main spawn. In this iteration, along with other tweaks, the initial part of the map has been expanded to give both teams more room to wiggle. Check the full changelog for details: # Bug fixes - Fixed missing textures on 3rd person RPG-43 mesh. - Fixed missing destroyed overlays (burnt effect) on various German vehicles and static meshes. - Fixed a bug where a player's off-map fire support marker would disappear if an "artillery hit" marker was created afterwards. # Maps ## Flakturm Tiergarten Defense - Expanded the initial part of the map (the University building and its nearby street are now accessible). - Re-balanced tank loadout. - Changed the objective layout and spawn point locations. - Removed a number of destroyable walls in Hertzalle to improve the flow in that area. - Added extra cover at crucial locations. - Added more accessible rooms at Sportsplatz Entrance objective. - Reduced the amount of Allied assault troopers to 4. ## Stavelot Push - Fixed the incorrect season setting (affects barrel overheating, and other miscellaneous mechanics). GItHub See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2021-11-03 10:18:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

A small hotfix has been released, fixing a few bugs and balancing issues discovered after the previous release. Check the changelog for details: [v10.2.668] ## Haunted Pariserplatz Survival - Fixed incorrectly set team ratio values in the previous patch. - Set new team ratios to +50%/-50% in favor of Zombie team. [v10.2.667] # Vehicles - [Stummel] Fixed the bug where players could enter non-existent passenger seats. - [Stummel] Fixed textures on the destroyed mesh. - Fixed the bug that made all half-track based vehicles drive slower since the previous release. # Maps ## Haunter Pariserplatz Survival - Reduced capture times on first 4 caps. - Increased resupply volumes sizes. - Changed team ratios to 60/40 (Zombies/Survivors). - Removed 1 SMG from Survivor team for low player counts. - Added more pickups in objectives. - Adjusted zombie spawn locations. ## Haunted Hattert Clash & Haunted Fury Clash - Reduced the amount of Berserker roles to 3. ## Armored Fruhlingserwachen Clash - Set tickets to infinite (map will end via caps or time limit), fixing an issue where a team could run out of reinforcements early and not be able to spawn until the map time limit ran out. ## Armored Lemberg Clash - Fixed a field texture that was missing mipmaps. - Increased round timer from 45 minutes to 60. GitHub See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2021-10-31 08:35:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Keep your eyes open and grab an extra pair of clean underwear: zombies are coming back to the battlefield this Halloween! At Darklight Games we like to dabble in dark arts, and we couldn't miss out on the opportunity to sneak some spooky stuff into the game once again. This year's Halloween event includes:

• A new map: Haunted Pariserplatz Survival.
• Haunted Hattert and Haunted Fury maps making a return.
• Unique Halloween vehicle skins and zombie characters (available on Haunted maps).
• Spooky zombie voice lines.
• And more

All the unholy content is now available on our servers, and will stay on for an entire week from October 30th to November 7th.

Survive the Pariserplatz

A small groups of soldiers of various nations have found themselves surrounded by hordes of undead Nazis in the middle of Berlin. Will they survive? Who knows, but we're sure it will a hell of a fight! This is a unique rendition of the old Red Orchestra map where you'll be able to pick your side either as a brain dead zombie or a lucky survivor. Zombies can't use weapons, but they are numerous, and they won't go down from a single shot to the chest. Outnumbered and low on supplies, if survivors want to get out of this doozy alive, their only option is to work together and watch each other's back.

New features in v10.2

Along with the Halloween event, today marks a new feature release which includes a couple of fresh additions to German arsenal.

Maschinenpistole 3008

When situation was dire, Germans looked abroad for inspiration and came up with this oddly familiar firearm. Meant as a last ditch weapon, this STEN's foreign cousin can be mainly found in the hands of Volkssturmm troops.

Sd.Kfz. 251/9 Ausf. D Stummel

A new modification of the ever-present German half-track has arrived. Equipped with a short 7.5cm KwK 37 gun and a paper thin armor, Stummel might find itself outgunned against heavier armored vehicles; nevertheless, it was proven to be highly effective at blasting through fortifications and fighting lightly armored targets. The Stummel has been added to the following maps:

• Armored Arad Clash
• Armored Balaton Clash
• Armored Bautzen Clash
• Armored Cagny Clash
• Armored Celles Clash
• Armored Freyneux Advance
• Armored Fruhlingserwachen Clash
• Armored La Feuillie Clash
• Armored Preaux Clash
• Barashka Clash
• Cambes-En-Plaine Clash
• Champs Advance
• Cheneux Advance
• Fury Clash
• Hattert Clash
• Kommerscheidt Advance
• La Gleize Advance
• Nuenen Clash
• Ogledow Clash
• Putot-en-Bessin Advance
• Stavelot Push
• Stoumont Advance
• Valko Advance
• Wanne Advance

Other Changes

• Reduced players max stamina by 20%. This change drops the maximum distance a player can cross in one go to 200 meters.
• Temprorary increased shovel damage for the duration of the Halloween event.
• Fixed the bug where internal squad orders were shown on compass for everyone on the team.
• Made half-tracks to be treated as armored vehicles in the code (half-tracks now use the same damage model as armored vehicles).

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2021-10-30 12:42:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

This is a weekly patch that includes recent bug fixes and miscellaneous small updates. Check the changelog for details: # Artillery - Reduced the global limit of available artillery guns to 3. - Fixed the bug where artillery markers weren't visible in singleplayer mode. # Weapons - Replaced PPS-43 sound with the original Red Orchestra sound that more closely resembles its real counterpart. - Reduced PPS-43 rate of fire to 650 RPM (was 700). # Vehicles - Fixed the bug where Soviet gunsights were missing a range setting readout. # Miscellaneous - Fixed the voice muting feature. - Fixed the bug where admins could overrun rally points while in "bogeyman" mode (invisible). # Maps ## Hurtgenwald Advance - Fixed broken spawn protection minefield that activated too early. - Increased lockdown timer on trench objectives to 720 seconds (was 360). ## Odessa Push - Fixed broken group objective reliances that prevented objectives from progressing if capped in a certain order. ## Putot-en-Bessin Advance - Increased Allied tank crewman count to 3, - Capped team vehicle limit at 2 and made the M7 Priest ignore the limit (allows Allies to use the Priest and still have 2 tanks active as before). ## Rakowice Advance - Temporarily fixed issue with off-map artillery strikes being marked as "unavailable". - Increased time before anti-precap minefields will kill you. ## Targnon Push - Added gloves to German roles that were previously missing them, such as Squad Leaders and Engineers. GitHub See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2021-10-22 06:44:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

In the previous release, we've started updating and expanding our STEN lineup, which included the reworked Mark II and the new Mark III. Today their younger and better looking sibling has arrived! The Mark V is now available to our British airborne units, and you can find it on Pegasus Bridge, Oosterbeek, and various Operation Market Garden maps.
The new SMG is sporting a unique feature: a small detachable bayonet.

Armored Frhlingserwachen Clash

Old Red Orchestra veterans might remember the vast plains of this map from the days of old. In this update, Frhlingserwachen is ported to DH and joins the ranks of the Armored Server maps.

Other Changes

Artillery

• Increased distance at which artillery splashes are considered too far off-target and not displayed on the map. The value has been bumped to 150 meters.
• Increased lifespan of fire requests to 5 minutes (previously 2.5).
• Artillery spotters can now see the hit markers for artillery splashes within range of their marked targets.

Constructions

• Reduced artillery gun costs to 1500.
• Fixed the bug that allowed limited constructions (e.g guns) to be replenished past the maximum amount.
• Set the maximum amount of allowed artillery guns to 4 per team.

Weapons

• Adjusted proportions on STEN magazine models.
• Updated textures on all STENs.

Characters

• Fixed the bug that made character faces disappear on dead bodies with winter head-gear.

Vehicles

• Reduced M7 Priest resupply delay to 10 seconds.

Maps

Armored Freyneux Advance

• Increased Allied tickets.
• Removed ticket bleed from Allies (map ends when all objectives are taken).
• Gave Allies a little more tank variety (Sherman Jumbo and 105).
• Set missing Win music.

Armored Krivoi Rog Clash

• Fixed bugs related to objectives.
• Increased Soviet artillery amount.
• Added a radio to both team's main spawns.
• Set Soviet ISU-152 count by 1.

Hurtgenwald Advance

• Reworked objectives and objective volumes.
• Reworked tank loadouts and made tanks unlock after the first 2 objectives are taken.
• Gave Allies an AT role to help clear Pillboxes and Pak guns at range.
• Increased Allied respawn speed.
• Increased Axis tickets slightly.
• Added spawn protection minefield to Allies.
• Added objective spawn for vehicles once Pak bunker is taken.

La Gleize Advance

• Reworked no-arty and restriction volumes around Axis main to be less restrictive.

Pegasus Bridge Advance

• Reduced Allied respawn timer.
• Increased Axis respawn timer at the bridge.
• Increased Allied team ratio slightly.
• Reduced Axis assault trooper role by 1.

Wanne Advance

• Fixed anti-portals that could cause graphical issues near Allied main spawn.

Stoumont Advance

• Made first objective not re-capturable.
• Removed wall along the road behind the Church.
• Replaced destroyed half-track static with Panther.
• Added AT gun limits.
• Disabled vehicle pool constructions.
• Reduced the amout of logistic trucks to 2 for both teams.
• Added a respawn penalty to Allies at the final objective.

Smolensk Advance

• Fixed static radios.
• Added artillery strikes for Allies.
• Disabled AT gun constructions.
• Removed duplicate Axis Squad Leader role.
• Reduced setup phase timer.
• Other minor fixes.

Klin 1941 Advance

• Added pre-placed AT guns into the bunkers on the final objective line.
• Implemented AT gun construction limits to reduce gun spam.
• Made the Pz.IV spawns unlimited, but with a slightly increased respawn timer.
• Increased tickets for both teams slightly.
• Increased ticket bleed for Soviets when both final objectives are taken.
• Added a small ticket bleed when a single one of the final objectives is taken in order to pressure Soviet team to counter-attack.
• Disabled collision on tiny rubble props in the trenches that causes players to bounce erratically.
• Disabled Karma collisions on static fences so that tanks can drive through them (a temporary change before proper destructible fences are put in place).
• Added artillery triggers to various static radios on the map.
• Added few destroyed vehicles on the approach to the final objective line to give Axis a bit of cover

Pariserplatz Defence

• Updated Axis spawn points.
• Changed respawn intervals for both teams.
• Adjusted ticket counts.
• Reduced Axis tank count.
• Reduced the maximum number of AT guns for Axis.

Arnhem Bridge Push

• Reduced map brightness.
• Fixed bug where vehicles would fly at last objective.

Armored Gran Advance

• Fixed bug that made Axis logistics non-functional.
• Reduction of logistic trucks to 2.
• Deactivated logistics until Hill objective is taken.
• Fixed several weird holes on the map at last cap.

Armored Hill 112 Advance

• Added pre-placed AT guns.
• Added objective deactivation on the first 2 caps.

Rederitz Advance

• Fixed collisions in trenches.
• Fixed the bug where some of the rocks had no collisions.

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2021-10-17 08:55:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

At long last, the artillery overhaul is ready! The new system has been designed from the ground up to be significantly easier and much more enjoyable to use! The primary changes are:

• All squad leaders are now capable of marking artillery targets
• Artillery pieces now have spotting scopes and range tables
• Artillery targets now display the range of the targets
• Kill feed messages are now sent to artillery operators for artillery kills
• The Artillery Observer role has been removed

Artillery Spotting

Squad leaders now have a more robust and intuitive spotting menu when spotting from binoculars. There is also now a 3D widget to pinpoint the target location when placing markers. No more calling in artillery on the tree right in front of you!
One of the primary issues with the previous system was that no one wanted to take the Artillery Observer role because it was, admittedly, kind of lame. This often left mortar operators with no targets at all, firing blindly into the distance. With all squad leaders being capable of calling for targets, artillery gunners will have more opportunities for getting juicy targets.

Spotting Scopes

Each artillery piece (mortars, pack howitzers et. al.) now have spotting scopes for making more accurate fire.

Range Tables

Long asked for, all artillery pieces now have a calibrated range table, which means no more trial-and-error! All you will have to do is some quick mental math to get your artillery landing on target (well, mostly on target).
Developers Note: In play-testing, artillery fire was much more accurate and responsive than before, and artillery operators had a more enjoyable time playing due to the improved interface, increased collaboration with teammates, and feedback from kills. We will be closely monitoring how these changes shift the meta, and will make changes as necessary to make sure the artillery is not overpowered or oppressive

Pack Howitzers

To complement the new artillery overhaul, this update also sees the addition of three new pack howitzers.

• 75mm Pack Howitzer M1
• 76mm regimental gun M1927
• 7.5 cm leichtes Infanteriegeschtz 18

These howitzers are light infantry artillery, excelling at long-range, accurate fire with a relatively low flight time. However, unlike mortars, their shallow arc-of-fire makes requires favorable terrain and wide, unobstructed fields of fire in order to be effective, making it more difficult to find an ideal firing position. We are excited to see how soldiers will put these new battle implements to good use!

Winter Outfits

Baby, its cold outside! Our poor soldiers have been freezing their digits and ears off for well over a decade. Finally, our boys have a just received a proper shipment of stylish hand and head-wear to stave off frostbite in colder climates.

Sten

The Sten model and animations have been completely overhauled, continuing our long journey to improving the look and feel of our entire arsenal. As an added bonus, there are now two additional Sten variants, the Canadian Sten and the Sten Mk III. In addition, the rate of fire has been slightly increased to match its real-life counterpart, as well making it easier to handle its weapon sway.

Other changes

Gameplay

• Squad leaders can now instantly spawn on rally points that have one spawn remaining.
• Command voice lines are now available to all squad leaders (previously only available to Sergeant roles).
• Renamed the surrender feature to Retreat so players wont have to make the hard choice between pride and common sense. Theres no shame in a tactical retreat!

Visual Effects

• New impact effects for .50 caliber and PTRD bullets.

Characters

• Added volumetric epaulets for soviet and polish models
• Updated Brodie helmet with improved visuals and added a snowy variant.
• Fixed misaligned wrists on character animations.
• Fixed 3rd person shovel animations.

Vehicles

• Tiger Tank turret font armor has been reduced to a more accurate value, allowing it to be penetrated by the heavy armor piecing rounds of late-war Allied armor.

Weapons

M3 Grease Gun

• Reduced reverb on firing sound effect.
• Miscellaneous animation fixes.

M1 Garand

• Reduced sight bobbing in the idle iron-sighted animation.

RPG-43

• Added mini-parachute model.
• Miscellaneous sound and animation fixes.

Geballte Ladung

• Reduced damage radius from 22 meters to 18 meters.

Panzerfaust

• The Panzerfaust may no longer be fired from the hip.

Maps

Rederitz

• Added a trench network stretching across the entire right side of the map.
• Added more cover all around the map.
• Removed armored vehicles.
• Added a physical minefield on the right side of the first objective.

Bridgehead

• Added objective spawns.
• Removed all but one of the pre-placed Platoon HQ constructions.
• Limited anti-air and anti-tank gun constructions.
• Limited active tanks counts and crewman.
• Removed several Axis heavy tanks and reduced armor counts for both teams.
• Reduced Allied player count bias from 60% to 55%.
• Reduced view distance.
• Reduced supply amount.
• Reduced reinforcements for both teams.
• Objectives no longer give reinforcement rewards
• Objectives are no longer able to to be recaptured, and will no longer neutralize first.
• Objectives take longer to capture.
• Level ends with Allied victory if last objective is taken.
• Removed the random artillery on the last objective.

Barashka

• Merged Soviet anti-tank and sapper roles.
• Reduced Soviet assault roles from 8 to 6.

Cholm

• Removed German armored vehicles.
• Added German Mortar Operator role.
• Added German Radioman role.
• Reduce German spawn time by 5 seconds.
• Reduced Soviet T-34 and BT7 reinforcements.
• Added a single Soviet KV-1.

Grey Gods of War

• Added Axis spawn protection.

Kryukovo

• Added Axis main spawn protection.

Vossenack

• Increased fog distance.

Danzig

• Reduced round time to 14 minutes.

Dom Pavlova

• Reduced Soviet Machine-gunner rules from 3 to 1.

Lyes Krovy

• Removed Axis respawn bonus.
• Shifted team ratio in favor of the Germans.

Kreigstadt

• Removed German logistics trucks.
• Added German Panzer IV. Ausf. J.

Pariserplatz

• Plugged the infamous "noob hole" with a dead Tiger a memorial to all players that got stuck there.
• Fixed some Soviet roles being the early-war type.
• Merged Soviet anti-tank and sapper roles.
• Added Soviet SU-76 and lend-lease Sherman M4A2(76)W.
• Removed ISU-152.
• Reduced reinforcements and respawn times for a variety of other armored vehicles.

Prussia

• Reduced German spawn time.

Riga Docks

• Added Axis main spawn protection.

Salaca River

• Added Soviet amoeba camouflage sniper role.

Targnon

• Moved final Allied spawn to a safer area to prevent spawn-killing.

La Gleize

• Fixed the bug where one of active objectives ended up in a minefield area.

Gun Assault

• Fixed minefields
• Reduced team ratio for Allies.
• Opened up one of the hedges for an easier access from Axis main spawn to the AT Gun objective.
• Fixed spectator cameras.

Jurques

• Added more trenches.
• Added a cellar in one of the houses at the last objective.
• Various minor bug fixes.

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2021-10-15 10:07:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Updating levels for today's event.

v9.13.2 Changelog

# Maps ## Arnhem Bridge Push (credit to Mad Death Hound) - Added x2 6pdr AT guns in the same spots they were in the real battle. - Reworked lighting and skybox to make the map sunny/day time. - Increased fog distance. - Changed fog colour and fixed bugs with the fog - Added more detail to the "bridge-end" house. - Re-named all the objectives. - Added more destroyed vehicles to the bridge. - Added smoke and fire actors on ruined vehicles. - Added more boats. ## Ginkel Heath Push - Reworked lighting and fog. - Added 2 new barn buildings (credit to 20mmNormandy/Pvt Winter for the long barn). - Added some miscellaneous static details to the map. - Added some new fire and smoke emitters. - Added several Flakvierlings and a single Flakwagon. - Reworked roles for both teams. ## Oosterbeek Advance: - Swapped sides: Allies are now defending. - Removed tanks from the Allied team. - Reworked objectives and added 1 new objective. - Re-balanced roles. - Added spawn protection minefields to both teams. GitHub

v9.13.3 Changelog

# Maps ## Arnhem Bridge Push - Lighting fixes. - Disabled bloom. - Fixed missing spectator camera. ## Ginkel Heath Push - Lighting fixes. GitHub

[ 2021-10-03 07:45:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, everyone! The new update is looming on the horizon. This Saturday @ 7 PM UTC we'll be running a final beta to get a feel for how the new artillery system will fare in a live game. The beta test will feature live rounds on Road to Isigny and Stoumont where squad leaders and artillery-men will have to leverage the new indirect fire system to get the upper hand. Mortars and new constructible artillery guns (M116 Pack Howitzer and LeIG18) will be at your disposal. Don't miss out on the action!

How to participate in the beta testing?

[olist]

Right-click on Darkest Hour: Europe '44-'45 in your Steam Library.

Select Properties.

Under the Betas tab pick `prerelease` from the drop-down menu.

Launch the game and join the beta server.[/olist]
After the event, don't forget to switch back to the normal version. You can do this by selecting `None`. Make sure to join us on Discord to share your thoughts about the upcoming features and report any bugs you find in the beta release. We appreciate your feedback! See you on the testing grounds, Darklight Games

[ 2021-09-30 21:52:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changelog

# Visual Effects - [Bullet impacts] Optimization pass. - [Bullet impacts] Updated sprites for metal impacts. - [Bullet impacts] Redone wood and cloth impacts. # Maps ## Kriegstadt Advance - [Bugs] Fixed the bug that prevented loading the map (removed bad reference to a missing package in a blocking volume). - [Bugs] Fixed Axis objective spawn hints on the Bank objective. ## Jurques Advance - [Bugs] Fixed Axis minefields to disable artillery protection south of the town. ## Gun Assault Push - [Level] Added a new objective ("Trenches"). - [Gameplay] Minor balance fixes. - [Bugs] Fixed loading screen. ## Leningrad Push - [Gameplay] Changed spawns so they push defenders back when objectives are captured and not on cleared. - [Gameplay] Changes to vehicle roster to fix bottleneck near Axis spawn: * T-34 is active initially. * KVs activates after the first objective. * Heavy KV activates after the second objective. GitHub

[ 2021-08-24 07:00:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey, everyone! The new update is live!

M3 Grease Gun

Our to-do list for overhauled Allied weaponry has shrunk once more. Thanks to Mechanic, our new animator Aarn, and other team members who helped along the way, Grease Gun has a received a complete visual rework. Its characteristics remained unchanged though; if this was your favorite weapon in the game, youll feel right at home.
Notice the dirt puffs on the ground!

Bullet Impacts

Bullet impacts have received a major step up in quality. Small arms fire now generates a much more distinct and realistic-looking effects. Youll notice them right away as dirt will shoot high up in the air, and chips and bits will fly off wooden and rocky objects.
Unique impact effects include: wood, dirt, snow, plants, rock, concrete, paper, brick, blood, water, sand, and more.

Jurques Advance

Finally, this update takes us to Jurques, a small French town near Caen. Jurques Advance is a medium-to-large sized advance map, which boasts detailed French suburbs, wide grassy countryside, Churchills, Jagdpanthers, and plenty of Bawbag! to go around. Some of you got familiar with Jurques during Beta. Thanks to your feedback, weve been able to identify and fix a bunch of issues, and get it ready for the release!

Full Changelog

# Weapons - Replaced M3 Grease Gun model, animations, and sounds with new revised versions. # Constructions - Introduced limits to the amount of construction types a team can build. # Vehicles and guns - Added new Pantherturm AT gun (disabled Panther; static asset placed by mappers). - Added missing periscope to the BT-7 gunner's position (currently uses the same periscope overlay as the T-34, both of which need to be replaced in the future). - Fixed broken ammo hit points on the BT-7. # Effects and Audio - Overhauled bullet impacts for every material type (dirt, concrete, sand, etc.). - Added new victory songs for German team. # Bug fixes - Fixed key-bind hints shown when interacting with AT guns. - Fixed the bug that allowed players to go into iron-sight view during first-draw animations (while unfolding stocks, etc.). - Set appropriate material types in every texture package (DH). # Maps ## Jurques Advance - Added to the roster! ## Rederitz Advance - [Gameplay] Added tank support for Allied team. - [Gameplay] Removed Watchtower and Flak 88 constructions. - [Level] Expanded flanks. - [Level] Added more cover. - [Level] Increased the chance for some obstacles to spawn broken. - [Level] Miscellaneous minor fixes. ## Butovo Advance - [Gameplay] Added another final objective. - [Gameplay] Activated ISU-152 earlier (+2 available). - [Gameplay] Added +1 heavy KV-1. - [Level] Added trenches. ## St. Marie-du-Mont Advance - [Gameplay] Reduced Allied respawn interval for the first objective slightly. - [Gameplay] Implemented AT gun limits. - [Vehicles] Put a limit on Sherman tanks for the Allies, now 12 max spawns. - [Level] Added 2 new flanking routes for Allies to enter the town itself. ## Gun Assault Push - [Gameplay] Added a starting "gimme" objective to give Axis some time to defend the bridge. - [Gameplay] Reworked spawn points slightly to hopefully improve the flow of the map. - [Gameplay] Gave Axis a single PzIII N as per the old version of this map. ## Dead Man's Corner Push - [Gameplay] Removed Geballte Ladung from Axis tank hunter class. - [Gameplay] Reduced Allied reinforcement interval. - [Level] Added blocking volumes to various hedges around the map to prevent people from climbing on top and laying in the shrubbery. - [Level] Moved some Allied spawns to hopefully give more cover. ## Armored Krivoi Rog - [Gameplay] Changed tank loadouts to make the map a little more authentic and balanced. - [Level] Added spawn protection minefield to Allied main spawn. - [Bugs] Defending side set to "none" (Clash map). ## Hedgerow Hell Advance - [Gameplay] Implemented AT gun limits. ## Pariserplatz Defence - [Gameplay] Implemented AT gun limits. - [Gameplay] Reduced Axis supplies. - [Gameplay] Reduced both team's tank counts (Allies down to 2 max active and Axis down to 1 max active). - [Bugs] Miscellaneous. ## Winter Stalemate Clash - [Bugs] Fixed a bug where half-tracks and logistic trucks counted towards the vehicle limit. - [Level] Moved the Center objective volume to be more balanced. - [Level] Added radio triggers to the map. ## Kommerscheidt Advance - [Gameplay] Tweaked tank loadouts. - [Gameplay] Gave Allies more artillery to compensate for their inferior tanks. - [Level] Added artillery triggers to various static radios on the map. ## Stoumont Advance - [Level] Removed default Allied HQ. - [Level] Added anti-precap minefields to protect Allied spawns. - [Level] Added objective spawns for Allied on the final cap. ## Dom Pavlova Advance - [Gameplay] Added objective grouped bleed for the last 3 objectives. - [Gameplay] Increased capture rate. - [Gameplay] Increased allies respawn by 5 seconds. - [Gameplay] Reduced reinforcement tickets by -2 for both sides. - [Level] Added objective spawns for Axis. ## Kriegstadt Advance - [Gameplay] Added new Pantherturm to the map. - [Gameplay] Reworked an existing building near the Hotel objective to give Axis a better defensive position. - [Gameplay] Implemented new AT gun restrictions. - [Gameplay] Rebalanced roles. - [Gameplay] Reworked Axis tank loadout, Axis now get significantly fewer tanks and several unlock progressively as objectives are taken. - [Gameplay] Disabled Watch Tower construction to reduce exploiting. - [Level] Moved several pre-placed AT guns. - [Bugs] Miscellaneous bug fixes. See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2021-08-23 11:26:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone, Today marks the 77th anniversary of the largest sea and airborne operation in history and weve prepared a special release for the occasion. The main focus of this update is upping the quality of long-standing DH content, introducing new Normandy maps, and adding a few quality-of-life features. Come look at what we have in store!

Willys Jeep & GMC CCKW

The Willys Jeep and GMC CCKW have been completely re-modeled and re-textured, vastly surpassing the old models in quality and detail. Since both vehicles are featured extensively on Soviet and Commonwealth battles as well, each vehicle now also has faction-specific skins. Be on the lookout for more full re-models and vehicle replacements in the future!

M1 Garand

The visuals for this iconic weapon has been reworked from the ground up with a beautiful new model and handling animations. The rifle behaves identically to the old one, but now players will no longer lose their bullets on partially expended clips. In other words, bullets pulled from partially expended clips will be automatically combined into a full clip to be reloaded later. Keep an eye out for more complete weapon overhauls in the future as we continue to upgrade the visuals and feel of the Allied arsenal.

Pegasus Bridge Advance

The location been meticulously and faithfully recreated from every old photograph and reference we could get our grubby hands on. All the notable landmarks are there: Caf Gondre, miscellaneous houses and bunkers, a functional Pak-38 Tobruk gun guarding the crossing, and of course the iconic bridge itself. This is a medium-sized Advance map, and so will be perfect for between 24 and 64 combatants.

Hedgerow Hell Advance

In this iteration, Hedgerow Hell has received a lot of detail work and has been expanded with new areas. Another significant change to the map is its conversion to Advance game mode, which will give the map a fresh new perspective and momentum.

Map search feature

As our map roster grows, finding maps on the voting screen can be cumbersome. To solve the problem, weve added a nifty search bar for quickly looking up your favorite maps!

Full Change Log

Weapons

• Remastered M1 Garand model and animations.
• Added a feature that allows M1 Garand users to keep ammo after partial reload.
• Updated G41 reload animations, iron-sight view, and added a bayonet.
• Corrected SVT-41, G41, and G43 rifle animations to keep the bolt open.
• Added alternative SVT/AVT-40 reload animations (6 in total).
• Changed SVT-38 to use stripper clips and single rounds instead of magazines.
• Reduced M1 Carbine reload speed.
• Resized the M1928 drum mesh (the old one was too big).
• Adjusted BAR texture color.
• Other minors changes to various weapons.

Characters

• Adjusted third-person bolt-action reload animations to be in sync with first-person animations.
• Updated third-person shovel animations.
• Added a new third-person animation for M1 Garand reloads.

Vehicles

• Fully reworked GMC CCKW truck and Willys Jeep (with lots of new variants).
• Added Pak-38 w/ Tobruk housing (unique gun for Pegasus Bridge map)
• Reduced BA-64 maneuverability.

Interface

• Added a search bar to the map voting screen.
• Updated voting limits for all maps.

Bug fixes

• Fixed a long-standing Red Orchestra bug where firing a weapon would spontaneously switch to a recently acquired item, if that item was picked up during reload.
• Fixed a bug where auto-fire weapons in single-shot mode would play incorrect animations after releasing the fire button.

Maps

Pegasus Bridge Advance

• New map!

Hedgerow Hell Advance

• New map!

Rederitz Advance

• Added 4 rifleman roles for Allied team equipped with SVT-40.
• Allies can now have 2 Universal Carriers active at the same time.
• Miscellaneous bug fixes.

La Gleize Advance

• Added minefield protection for Axis.
• Added 2 assault roles for Axis.
• Shrunk down Town Hall objective.
• Moved Allied objective spawns farther back.
• Moved anti-precap minefields farther back.
• Optimization pass.
• Added Panzerfausts for Axis sergeant roles.
• Adding more cover around first three objectives.
• Made Panzer IV and Sherman 75mm spawns unlimited.

Poteau Ambush Advance

• Made first objective non-recapturable for Allied team.

Kriegstadt Advance

• Reduced the amount of Axis supplies.
• Added extra cover and a static radio at Junction objective.
• Boosted Allied artillery.
• Reduced the number of Panzerfaust pickups.
• Miscellaneous minor changes to the map layout.

Ogledow Clash

• Slightly rebalanced tank loadouts.
• Increased Allied and Axis max logistic trucks to 3.
• Reduced BA-64 spawns to 2 and increased respawn timer.
• Miscellaneous bug fixes and tweaks.

Caen Advance

• Fixed objective bug.
• Increased Allied reinforcements.
• Added Axis objective spawns.

Road to Isigny Advance

• Added Greyhound armored car to Allies with 4 spawns.
• Increased Stuart spawns to 5.
• Increased Allied and Axis reinforcements by 2.

Armored Celles Clash

• Fixed a bug where Allies could spawn tanks inside main spawn corridors.

Reichswald Advance

• Buffed allies: more tanks, more artillery, logistics, two Churchills, more Combat Engineer roles, new loadouts for SLs.
• Weakened Axis: limited logistjc trucks to 5, removed one tank hunter role, removed one MG role

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2021-06-06 10:36:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Heyo! As the next release is closing in, we'll be running a beta test to iron out all the kinks and hear your feedback on the upcoming updates. Come and join us this Friday @ 7 PM UTC to try out the new M1 Garand and the overhauled Hedgerow Hell map. Everyone will be issued a mandatory Garand without exceptions!

How to participate in the beta testing?

[olist]

Right-click on Darkest Hour: Europe '44-'45 in your Steam Library.

Select Properties.

Under the Betas tab pick `prerelease` from the drop-down menu.

Launch the game and join the beta server.[/olist]
To revert back to the normal version, select `None`. See you on the testing grounds, Darklight Games

[ 2021-04-16 02:39:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Your head is so big because youre smart, dummy! Have you ever left your subordinates alone in a heat of a battle, or abandoned your squad leader when he needed you the most? How about neglecting your assistant duties? If the answer is yes, that means youre a tactical genius! You got places to be, big fish to fry; youre playing 5D chess while them fools are playing checkers. Theres just no time for all that nonsense. To fit all the intricate plans youre cooking up in your head, you must have an enormous cranium. So enormous in fact, that it might get a bit unwieldy. But worry not, when enemies will see your mighty balloon heading their way, they will surely surrender right away. Weve added a nifty indicator right next to the compass to help you keep track of your ever growing intellect. Keep an eye on it! See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2021-04-01 13:31:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Heyo, everyone! The new release is live!

Rhine River

Originally, Rhine River was never meant to be more than a quick sketch of a map, but despite its "blank slate" appearance, the map managed to gather interest among players. In this release our level designer Bckis went on and gave Rhine River a massive visual overhaul, transforming it into a proper DH map. The overhaul includes enormous detailed forests, lively terrain, expanded town areas with enterable buildings, and all kinds of new points of interests scattered across the map (bunkers, forest camps, etc.).

Flakturm Tiergarten

Flakturm received a nifty visual update and been expanded to include new areas. The battle now carries into Zoo Tower interior where Polish troops will have to fight its stubborn defenders all the way to the top floors

Sneaky Rally Points

There's been an important gameplay change to our rally point system: squad leaders can no longer place rally points inside enemy-controlled territory\. Rally points that end up being swallowed by the encroaching Danger Zone will still be usable (and visible to enemy team) like they used to. For a full list of changes check GitHub release page. See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2021-03-20 11:50:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello there! The new update is live! This release brings a fresh new Advance map to our collection. The new map features snowy landscapes of rural Poland and the village of Rederitzone of the few strongholds positioned at the main line of Pomeranian Wall. Rederitz Advance is a mix of trench lines, woodsy areas, and house-to-house fighting; all packed into a lengthy, but straightforward Advance layout. This is our second map to include Polish Peoples Army, which now takes it's official place among Darkest Hour factions. The update also includes a boatload of map fixes and other various updates; look below for a detailed list. It's worth mentioning that some of our community members left their mark on the development of this level. We'd like to thank Rolandz and Rotzlffel for giving us a hand with testing and ironing out major bugs on Rederitz before the release.

Change Log

Maps

Rederitz Advance

• New map.

Wanne Advance

• Updated map overview to include new farmhouse and forest areas.
• Increased interval timer between artillery calls to reduce artillery spam.
• Re-balanced ticket progression.
• Slowed the capture rate of the "Lower Wanne" objective.
• Moved Axis respawn time modifier to activate when "Defensive Line" objective is captured, increasing base Axis respawn interval to 18 seconds.

Rakowice Advance

• Re-balanced tanks on the map using historical unit information (Credit to Ts4EVER for the research).
• Re-balanced objective layout, capture speeds and role loadouts.

La Gleize Advance

• Fixed the bug where Axis half-tracks would never activate.

Winter Stalemate Clash

• Fixed bug where lockdown on middle objective would only activate when it was recaptured, not on first capture.
• Increased lockdown timer on middle objective to 6 minutes and slowed capture speed.
• Decreased respawn timer on logistic trucks to be in line with other maps.
• Made Panzer III Ausf. J and BT-7 spawns unlimited.

Leningrad Push

• Fixed bug where players would get stuck on stairs leading out of Soviet spawn on final objective.
• Fixed the bug where blocking volumes prevented artillery from functioning on the map.
• Added single artillery strike for Soviet team.
• Placed usable radios in Allied and Axis main spawns.
• Increased respawn timer on KV-1S to 90 seconds (was 60).
• Added spawn protection minefields to Axis main spawn, and progressive minefields to protect Soviet forward spawns.
• Moved Axis main spawn into a safer location.
• Created a new first objective near Axis main which unlocks a new spawn point.
• Changed objective volumes on "AT Position" and "Searchlight" to encompass the entire buildings, but switched the capture type to require the objectives be cleared.
• Increased round timer to 35 minutes (was 30).
• Fixed the bug that allowed Axis to spawn 3 tanks simultaneously.
• Re-balanced roles on both teams.
• Changed resupply volumes to give ammo every 20 seconds instead of every 2 minutes.

Armored Celles Clash

• Added new snow camo skins for the Marder, King Tiger and Jagdpanther.

Armored Tank Clash At Bastogne Advance:

• Added new snow camo skin for King Tiger.

Hurtgenwald Advance:

• Evened out team balance ratios.
• Extended "Trenches" objective to cover more of the capture area and slowed the capture speed.
• Added cooldown timers to artillery on both teams.
• Gave Axis one additional MG role and moved StG 44 to assault trooper roles.

Berezina Advance & Klin 1941 Advance:

• Made Panzer III Ausf.J and BT-7 tank spawns unlimited.

Myshkova River Advance & Valko Advance

• Added Marder III Ausf. M (snowy variant)

Gorlitz Push

• Added Axis vehicle spawn that activates after "Central Square" objective.

La Fiere Advance

• Role changes.

Lyes Krovy Defence

• Role and reinforcement adjustments.

Road To Isigny

• Fixed the bug where Axis reinforcements wouldn't drain at the final objective.
• Updated map overview.
• Balancing adjustments.

Cholm Advance

• Set Axis logistic truck to a reasonable spawn time (80 secs).
• Minor bug fixes.

Kriegstadt Advance

• Added an additional logistic truck for Allied team (activates after Ruins objective).
• Minor bug and exploit fixes.

Butovo Advance

• Fixed an "off-map" exploit.

Vehicles

• Marder III Ausf.M: Added new camo variants.

Characters

• Added grey Polish tunic.
• Minor changes and improvements for Polish uniforms.

Miscellaneous

• Added Polish "merch" (interface art, flags, etc.).

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2021-03-06 13:29:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, everyone! We hope you're having a great 2021 so far. As our first release this year, we're excited to present you the new and updated BAR, a range of beautiful new M1 Carbines, and some other goodies.

Weapons

Browning Automatic Rifle M1918A2

In this update BAR received a complete rework and it never been looking sexier! It's characteristics were updated as well, making it more controllable and a joy to shoot. Fun fact: the bipod on the new BAR uses procedural animation and swings around with your movements.

M1, M1A1, and M1/T17 Carbines

The trusty Carbine comes in 3 variants, including a converted selective-fire version (T17). Just like BAR, this rifle was reworked from the ground up, and takes the spot as one the most well crafted weapons we got in the game. The models for BAR and the Carbine were designed by our community member and a talented 3D artist eksha.

Volkssturmgewehr 1-5

This German ersatz semi-automatic assault rifle was developed in late 1944 as dwindling materiel and manpower put pressure on wartime industries to make cheaper and more primitive weaponry. It might not be the prettiest "gewehr" on the field, but it might just save your life!

Miscellaneous

• New Kongsberg Colten M/1914 pistol available for German troops.
• Sweeping changes to all weapon gun sight pictures to improve feel and consistency.
• All scoped (Textured and 3D) were updated to have proper magnification and field-of-viev.
• Reduced spread on all rifles.

Interface

To help with spatial awareness inside tanks, the HUD received a nifty little feature which shows players cone of vision. This feature should be especially helpful when looking through periscopes, but can be disabled in the setting if you wish so.

Vehicles

The vehicle roster got updated with new camos for the King Tiger and the Hanomag. Our newest team member Matty provided us with these lovely winter paints.

Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B Camos

Sd.Kfz. 251 Whitewash Camo

Maps

Armored Voronezh Clash

Author: Bckis This is a new Armored Server map for players who love rolling though never-ending, flat grasslands, inhaling gas fumes mixed with a refreshing breeze of Ukrainian steppes.

Other map changes

Wanne Advance

• Added new farm near the final objective.
• Added south-facing windows to Manor and the nearby garage.
• Added snowy variants of the King Tiger and the Sd.Kfz. 251 Half-track.
• Added new M1/T17 carbine to Allied Corporal role.
• Hetzer now unlocks when Woods objective is captured.
• Implemented experimental ticket progression: Axis now start with 350 tickets and gain significantly more by capturing objectives, up to a maximum of 800 tickets for all objectives captured.

Radar Advance

• Scaled down the downed glider to a sensible size.

Minor fixes and adjustments

• Valko Advance
• Kriegstadt Advance
• Konigsplatz Push
• Fallen Heroes Clash
• Armored Studzianki Clash
• Armored Bautzen Clash

Bug fixes

• Fixed the bug with Panzer IV F1 shells flying on wacky trajectories.
• Fixed the bug where pre-placed HQs would prevent players from building new HQs nearby after their destruction.

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2021-01-26 11:54:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy Holidays, everyone! A new map will be joining our roster just in time for the holiday season. Some of you might be familiar with Road to Isigny, an old DH classic that's been off the radars for quite some time. Today it makes a comeback all brand new and shiny. The town of Isigny-sur-Mer was liberated by Allied forces on 9th of June, 1944 by a conjoined effort of 175th Infantry Regiment and 747th Tank Battalion. This map follows the advance of US troops along the road leading to the town, featuring a grassy terrain with lots of vegetation, borrow ditches, and lonely houses for players to take cover in. In this update, Road to Isigny received a complete rework and was expanded to accommodate the Advance game mode. Hurry up to the servers and check it out!



See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2020-12-23 21:39:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

A small update containing bug fixes, map updates, and some new sound effects.

Weapons

• New Panzerfaust firing sounds.
• New explosion sounds for Panzerfaust, Panzerschreck, and PIAT projectiles.

Bugfixes

• Fixed incorrect textures on Axis radio operators.
• Fixed the "black texture" bug on the Sd.Kfz. 234/1 (snowy variant).

Maps

Kriegstadt Advance

• Added a new location leading up to Kaschade Offices.
• Moved the "anti-precap" minefield behind Fleminstrasse a bit further.

Valko Advance

• Fixed the bug with the invisible ceiling hovering over the town.
• Added watchtower constructions.
• Slightly increased the draw distance.

La Fiere Advance

• Fixed the bug where Axis main spawn would end up inside the Allied territory in the endgame.
• Changed the icon for the airborne spawn.

Butovo Advance

• Adjusted team ratios and available tanks.

Black Day July Advance

• Changes to the tank balance and the objective layout.

Target Range

• Updated to include new vehicles.

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2020-12-04 08:17:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

As the Halloween event concludes, we are back with another patch featuring various fixes and incremental updates. Check out the logs for the details:

Changelog v9.9.5

### Bugfixes * Fixed the bug where players would spontaneously crash during map changes. * Fixed the LOD issues with player characters. ### Miscellaneous * Squad member numbers are now displayed in chat messages next to their name. * Increased reload times for AT guns, SU-76, and Marder by a slight margin (up to 0.9 seconds). * Reduced the chance of field caps appearing on WH characters. ### Maps * Carpiquet Airfield Advance: - Allowed Allies to spawn an additional Sherman tank. - Gave Allies 2 additional artillery strikes. - Fixed the bug that allowed Axis to build AT guns on rooftops. * Rakowice Advance: - Added a T-60 light tank to the Soviet vehicle pool. - Added objective spawns for Axis. - Minor bugfixes and adjustments. * Prussia Push: - Fixed the Dugout spawn point dropping players into the void. * Leningrad Push: - Added a minefield protecting Allied main spawn. - Minor balance adjustments. * Barashka Advance: - Fixed the visual bug with terrain covering the trenches.

Changelog v9.9.4

### Weapons * Adjusted the recoil patterns on PPSh-43, PPSh-43, MP-41r, PPD-40, and M712 Schnellfeuer to make them more controllable and consistent when firing in short bursts. ### Maps * Lyes Krovy Push: - Reduced Axis respawn times.

Changelog v9.9.3

### Vehicles / Guns * Reduced the prevalence of the "shatter gap" effect and added a physically-based randomness to the shattering calculations system. The shell shattering will less likely to occur in the game due to this effect. * Fixed inaccuracies in armor slope values for KV-1, T-34 (76/85), Panther (D), and Pz. III (J/L) tanks. ### Characters * Added a small chance for WH squad leaders, radio operators and snipers to spawn wearing a field cap. * New additions to Soviet outfits: - Green amoeba camouflage. - 1942/1944 leaf pattern camouflages. - Padded coats. - Naval pea coats. - Naval caps (4 variants, one for each fleet) * Introduced rank variety between different uniform variants for Soviet troops. * Other minor additions, fixes and adjustments to Soviet character models and textures. ### Maps * Added Rakowice Advance. * Carpiquet Airfield Advance: - Optimization pass. - Fixed various visual bugs. - Changed lighting and removed haze. - Replaced static Axis HQs with objective spawns. - Re-balanced roles and constructions for both teams to better reflect historical situation. - Added limited Panther G tanks to Axis; added limited Sherman Firefly tanks to Allies. - Increased view distance by roughly 50-75 meters. - Removed ticket bleed from all but the first objective. - Set Refueling Area objective to be inactive at start. * Hurtgenwald Advance: - Expanded minefields protecting Axis main spawn. - Slightly increased reinforcements for both sides. - Fixed the bug where some objectives were uncapturable. * Bridgehead Advance: - Added Corporal roles for both teams and a Radio Operator role for Allies. - Added a Churchill tank (available after capturing the Honnopel objective) * Leningrad Push: - Reworked the final objective. - Re-balanced roles and vehicles for both teams to better reflect the alleged setting of the level. * Olkhovatka Advance: - Increased the amount of available artillery for Axis. - Allowed Axis to spawn +1 extra vehicle. - Reduced the number of available KV and T-34 tanks, and made the BT-7 unlimited. * Lyes Krovy Push: - Introduced the new Soviet camos. - Reduced the respawn times for Axis. * Cholm Advance: - Minor adjustments to vehicle availability for both sides. - Added several pre-placed Pak-38 guns. * Krasnyi Oktyabr Push: - Reduced reinforcements for both teams. - Added some greatcoat uniforms together with standard tunics. * Black Day July Advance: - Replaced Soviet uniforms for ones with more accurate insignia for the period. - Added RPG-43 to Soviet loadouts. - Increased the limits on maximum active vehicles for the Soviet team. * Valko Advance: - Added StuG III Ausf.G to the Axis vehicle pool. - Added off-map artillery support for both sides. - Replaced Soviet uniforms for the "late war" variants. * Gorlitz Push: - Added SU-76 to the Soviet vehicle pool. - Added static Panzerfaust crates. - Moved the Allied spawn to protect it against spawn camping. - Minor adjustments to vehicle spawn limits for Soviets. * Berezina Advance: - Fixed logistic truck respawn times and added an extra one for the Allied team. * Kriegstadt Advance: - Separated German artillery into two stages: one activating after Kaschade Offices, and the second one after Ruins (both consist of three strikes). * La Gleize Advance: - Added a Radio Operator role for the Axis team. * Stoumont Advance: - Added a lockdown timer for the first objective (5.5 minutes). * Kryukovo Push: - Reduced the team ratio difference (Axis team is now less outnumbered). * Flakturm Tiergarten Push: - Minor balancing and character uniform changes. See you on the battlefield, Darklight Game

[ 2020-11-13 17:33:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

When theres no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth. The Allied forces having been victorious at the end of the war in May 1945 find their battle is not quite over! Some months later, on Halloween night 1945 the last remnants of the Allied forces in Europe get reports that the Nazi undead have begun to emerge from their graves! There will be one last battle to fight with the outcome deciding the fate of humankindthe Final Reich will be the end result if the Allies are beaten. Join us this Halloween (Saturday 31st October and Sunday 1st November) for some Nazi Zombie killing fun on the newly arrived Haunted Hattert and Haunted Fury maps!
We'll see you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2020-10-31 12:00:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi, everyone! We have received numerous reports about reinforcements depleting too fast on Armored maps, and after reviewing the issue, we've decided to scrap ticket costs for vehicles completely. This system did provide very little benefit for the gameplay, and was unjustly punishing teams for mistakes of a few players in control of valuable assets. Losing a vehicle does not cost reinforcements anymore. Apart from changes to the reinforcement system, this patch includes several map updates and fixes. Here's the full changelog:

Maps

• La Cambe Advance:
  • New objective layout!
  • Reworked Axis main spawn.
  • Added proper minefields.
• Cambes-En-Plaine Clash:
  • Fixed a floating static mesh.
  • Fixed the fog range being trippy at lowest settings ("white screen" issue).
  • Fixed sergeant roles spawning with 2 sets of binoculars.
  • Captured Bren Carrier no longer counts towards the vehicle limit.
• Hurtgenwald Advance:
  • Swapped Allied roles to autumn counterparts.
  • Extended the minefields.
  • Rebalanced the team ratio numbers in Allied favor.
  • Reduced the fog range.
• Kriegstadt Advance:
  • Fixed the terrain visibility in incorrect places.
  • Increased reinforcemets for both sides.
  • Added radios on main spawns.
• Riga Docks Push:
  • Disabled bullet collision on a few fences.
• Poteau Ambush Advance:
  • Deleted a floating emitter.
  • Changed the skins of some of the foxholes for a better blend.
  • Disabled collisions on impassable bushes.
• Klin1941 Advance:
  • Reduced logistic truck respawn times.
• Makhnovo Advance:
  • Removed HQ behind the Church objective.
  • Reduced logistic respawn times to ~1 minute for both teams.
• Butovo Advance:
  • Reduced logistic truck respawn times and added +1 more to each team.
• Nuenen Clash:
  • Halftracks are no longer counted towards towards the vehicle limit.

Gameplay

• Removed reinforcement costs on all vehicles.

Bugfixes

• Fixed radio confirmations for artillery calls not working in multiplayer.
• Fixed an issue where US and Commonwealth tankers would have incorrecly textured first-person sleeves.

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2020-10-19 08:51:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

This small patch focuses on fixing a couple issues with the last release. We've also optimized the CambesEnPlaine map, which received a significant performance boost.

Changelog

Maps

• Cambes-en-Paine Clash:
  • Optimization pass.
  • Added 1 armored personnel carrier for each team.

Bugfixes

• Fixed interface art for SU76 and T60.
• Fixed an issue where some weapon icons could appear blurry.
• Fixed an issue where low fog settings would result in zero visibility on certain maps.

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2020-10-16 20:13:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings everyone! After a few months since the last update, we are back again with a new massive release that features new vehicles, weapons, map updates, and more. Let's have a look at it.

Vehicles

In the never ending effort to bring you new goodies to play with, our team members AAZ and Shurek have cooked up a sizeable addition to the game. This update includes 10 new armored vehicles that you'll be able to use on the battlefield!

New

• BA-64
• T-34/76 (M42 and M43 models)
• SU-76M
• BT-7
• Panzer III Ausf. J
• Panzer IV Ausf. G (early)
• Panzer IV Ausf. F1
• KV-1E
• T-60
• M4A2 Sherman

Apart from the new additions, some of our armored vehicles and light carriers received new paints for their captured/leased variants.

Weapons

We've also added new weapons to our roster. You'll find them featured on the maps set during the early years of WWII (SVT-38, MP-38), and maps set in besieged Berlin during the final months of the war (VK.98). These weapons were made by one of our talented community membersLeyawynn.

New

• SVT-38
• MP-38
• Volkssturmkarabiner 98 (VK.98)

Updated

• M1928 Thompson, C96, M712, Sten, PPS-43, Korovin: New sounds.
• Mosin-Nagant: Received new, improved sights.

Maps

In this update we've brought back some of the old classics, including Lyes Krovy, which features the new Amoeba camouflage for Soviet troops.

New

• Lyes Krovy Defence
• Krasnyi Oktyabr Defence
• Hurtgenwald Advance
• Grey Ghosts of War Stalemate
• Bridge Assault Stalemate

Updated

Most of our levels in the game were equipped with the new vehicles, weapons and uniforms. Other changes include:

• Kriegstadt Advance: Opened up a previously blocked street before Kaschade Offices.
• San Valentino Advance: Gameplay and visual fixes.
• Omaha Beach Push: Fixed the bug where players were unable to call artillery.
• Gorlitz Push:
  • Opened up more streets.
  • Fixed exploits and minor bugs.
• Poteau Ambush:
  • Smoothed out the hill next to the town to make it look more realistic.
  • Added AT gun constructions.
  • Various fixes and adjustments.
• Putot-en-Bessin Advance:
  • Removed reinforcements bleed.
  • Removed first objective.

Characters

• Amoeba camouflage for Soviet troops.
• Volkssturm uniforms.

Constructions

• Pak-38 Anti-Tank Gun

Gameplay

• Adjustment of all health/damage related tank properties and shell characteristics for more consistency and to better reflect their real life counterparts.
• Reduced the amount of damage AT guns receive from armor-piercing shells.

Bugs

• Fixed the bug where certain maps caused clients to be stuck on the connection screen (thanks to the folks from the oldunreal.com forum for the solution).

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2020-10-15 13:27:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

Say hello to the Springfield M1903A1a long awaited addition to our bolt action rifle roster!
Despite being phased out during World War II in favor of M1 Garand, this rifle saw an extensive use in Pacific, African, and European theaters, as some of the U.S. front-line troops retained the M1903 and continued to use it alongside the M1 Garand. In the game it will be available in all U.S. Combat Engineer kits, and as a part of the rifleman's loadout for the U.S. Army Rangers (Hill 400, Pointe du Hoc, and other maps).

BONUS: New Kar98k variant

Can you spot the difference? As a little something extra, we have a surprise for our nit-picky sharpshootersan optional variant of a Kar98k rifle without a front sight hood. If you choose to go for this option, it should allow for a better visibility, but might make the sights harder to acquire. Let us know which one you prefer!

Change log

Weapon additions: - Springfield M1903A1. - Kar98k (w/o sight hood). - New M712 Schnellfeuer visuals, animations and sounds. Weapon additions (previously removed due to technical difficulties): - Nagant M1895 revolver. - Browning Hi-Power pistol. - ViS pistol. - M34 grenade. - Mauser C96 pistol. - Korovin SMG Vehicle smoke launchers: - Projectiles are now visible with the human eye. - German smoke projectiles begin emitting smoke upon launch. - Smoke ammo count now shown on Puma's HUD. - Custom surface impact effects. Backblast effects: - Fixed issue where elements of the backblast particle effect for the Bazooka and Panzerschreck were firing in the incorrect direction. - Added backblast particle effect to the Panzerfaust (has been missing for a while). Hetzer: - Fixed gunsight magnification and FOV (should be same as Stug). Maps: - Donner: Replaced Enfield No.4 with the new Springfield rifle - Dom Pavlova: Minor fixes. - Kasserine Pass: Minor fixes. See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2020-07-07 18:47:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, everyone! As you may already know, a couple weeks ago we have released the Fury map, which turned out to be quite an attraction with its lovely scenery and a kickin replica of the tank. In case someone missed the news or just in for a treat, we also prepared this amazing trailer for the occasion. The trailer was directed and produced by a community member and our good friend ChrisMo44, and it's a first one in the line up of videos featuring our latest and upcoming maps. Enjoy the show, and see you on the battlefield! [previewyoutube=bJUAnOQVIiY;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2020-04-13 20:59:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

Theres a new map wed like to show you, and this one is quite special! We present to youthe Fury!
This brand new map is a loving homage to the original 2014 movie and was closely inspired by the events and locales depicted in it, from the aftermath of the Tiger encounter, to the iconic crossroads of the final showdown. All this scenery was made possible by our talented level designer Dolas, who already treated us in the past with another beautiful map Rabeneck!

Easy Eight

But this is not all of it! The map also features a functioning replica of the Fury tank, crafted with love for details by our community members Mechanic and Napoleon Blownapart. This is a unique tank, and its only available once during the game. Take a good care of it!
Psst, the wooden logs on the sides function as additional armor and can be blown off the tank! We also have a regular Sherman M4A3E8 Easy Eight variant present, which will see action on other levels as well. In fact, its already been added to a number of armored maps, namely:

• AlteZiegelei Stalemate
• Celles Clash
• Freyneux Advance
• Preaux Clash
• Raid to Bastogne Advance

Overall, this update has been a feat of teamwork and love, and we are excited that it finally came to see the light of day. We hope you'll enjoy the map as much as we do! See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

Credits

Level Design

dolas kashash Patison (map overview)

Easy Eight

Mechanic Napoleon Blownapart Basnett

[ 2020-03-28 14:03:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

This patch brings us a couple changes to HEAT projectiles (which can now penetrate spaced armor) and a new take on our latest map! Meet La Fire Day Advancea continuation to the night variant that takes place during a German counterattack the following afternoon.

Changes

Maps

• New map La Fire Day Advance.
• Added an option to call a paradrop via a radio on La Fire Advance (the night version).

Vehicles

• HEAT projectiles now penetrate armored skirts (schrzen) at angles below 45 degrees.
• New vehicle hit effects for HEAT projectiles.
• Vehicle reload sounds can only be heard by nearby players and the crew inside.

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2020-03-15 20:46:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

A new update is out and we have something exciting to show you!

La Fire

Our master level builders, Razorneck and Kashash, have come up with another beauty of a map: La Fire Advance. It was in the works during the last few weeks, and we are excited to see y'all finally trying it out. The map follows the battle for the La Fire bridgea key point over the Merderet river that US troops were tasked to seize during airborne landings in Normandy on June 6th, 1944.

Other changes

Maps

• Fixed reinforcements bug on Armored Freyneux Advance.
• Minor tweaks and fixes for some of the maps.

Vehicles

• Tank cannons now deal more consistent amounts of damage (removed damage randomization).
• Improved visuals of hatch fires.
• Corrected KV-1s top speed (it's slightly faster now).
• Armored side-skirts (Schrzen) now stop PTRD rounds.

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2020-03-07 14:31:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

As we had to temporarily remove some of the new goodies to fix a number of game breaking bugs, we are happy to announce that all of the recent additions are now back in the game! This patch also brings a little quality of life update for squad leaders: they now receive mandatory smoke grenades (if their squad is large enough).

Change log

For the full list of changes that were brought back, check the v9.5.0 announcement: https://steamcommunity.com/games/DH/announcements/detail/3094470492875605816

Additional changes:

• Squad leaders can receive smoke grenades regardless of their class (excluding tank crewmen and mortar operators). A squad leader is required to have at least 4 members in his/hers squad for a regular smoke grenade, and 6 members for a colored one.
• Fixed a bug with the inventory that made it impossible to switch weapons on some of the axis classes.

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2020-03-04 09:59:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

In our efforts to bring back all the goods that were introduced in the previous major updateand to conclude our hunt for the game breaking bugs that were brought along with itwell be running beta testing events starting this Friday at 8 PM GMT. Feel free to join us!

How do i participate?

To join the testing, you will need to switch your game to the pre-release branch. This is done by going to the Darkest Hour: Europe 44-45 properties in your Steam library, opening the BETAS tab, and selecting the Pre-release testing branch in the drop-down list.
Once that's done, run the game and connect to the Official BETA TEST Server #1. You dont have to wait for the event to try out the pre-release version: the testing server is up and running, and you can join in at any time. If you encounter any crashes, please report them on our Discord. This will help us a lot in rooting out the bugs before the release. Dont forget to switch back from the pre-release branch (by selecting the "opt out" option) if you want to connect to regular servers!

Changes

To see the list of changes for the upcoming update, check out the v9.5.0 announcement: https://steamcommunity.com/games/DH/announcements/detail/3094470492875605816 See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2020-02-27 18:03:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Unfortunately, our latest build ended up highly unstable, and we had to revert to the last stable version, which is v9.4.5. The servers have been restarted now. If you have trouble connecting, make sure your game has been updated in Steam (if the update does not initiate, try verifying the game files). Apologies for the inconvenience!

[ 2020-02-15 17:03:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

After the 9.5.0 release, we've been receiving a lot reports about frequent game crashes, as well as issues where a number of maps would inexplicably crash the game servers. After exhaustive investigation, it was determined that these issues are likely caused by some sort of bug in the games engine code which we are unable to properly diagnose nor directly fix (as modders, we cannot edit the engines underlying engine). In order to restore stability and resolve these game-breaking issues, we have decided to revert a significant portion of the new additions introduced in the v9.5.0 update. This step back is a temporary measure, and we will be incrementally reintroducing all the new weapons and uniforms in the days to come. We apologize for the inconvenience! See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2020-02-15 09:33:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy new year to all! Were hitting the ground running in 2020 with a huge update!

Weapons

As part of our continuing effort to improve and expand our weapon roster, this update sees the largest addition of new weapons since the games release. This has largely been made possible by our animator AAZ. If you see him in game, thank him for the new hardware!

New Weapons

• Pistolet wz. 35 Vis
• Mauser C96
• Browning High Power
• Nagant M1895 Revolver
• Beretta Model 38
• PPSH41 (Stick Magazine)
• Maschinenpistole 41(r)
• M1928 Thompson (20rd/30rd/50rd)
• Gebalte Ladung
• Korovin 41

Changes

• M1A1 Thompson has new animations, texture and sounds
• Maschinengewehr 34 has new firing sounds
• Gewehr 43 has new firing sounds
• Mauser C96 Schnellfeuer has been replaced by the semi-automatic version

Maps

New Maps

• Riga Docks (Push)
• Tula Outskirts (Push)

Changes

The following maps have received balance adjustments, fixes, and general improvements

• Myshkova River
• Black Day July
• Tank Clash At Bastogne
• Road to Leningrand
• Debrecen
• Wanne
• Butovo
• St. Marie du Mont
• Makhnovo
• Ten Aard
• Olkhovatka
• Kriegstadt
• Radar Advance

Miscellaneous Changes

• Changed the main menu music and background image
• The text messages accompanying voice commands (eg. [VOICE] Basnett: Go, go go!) made by squadmates will have their names appear in green
• Surrender votes can now be initiated earlier and require less votes to pass
• Removed Rhine River Clash (RIP)
• Reduced the supply cost of the M1937 and M1942 anti-tank guns to 700 and 800, respectively

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where the combat and support point icons were not displaying correctly
• Fixed a bug where the KV1-S did not have a proper preview image on the vehicle selection screen
• Fixed a bug where the Sd.Kfz. 251/22 (Pakwagen) did not have a proper preview image on the vehicle selection screen
• Fixed an oversight which gave the Jagdtiger insufficient armor

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2020-01-19 10:31:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

We hope everyone is having a good holiday season! We, of course, never rest, so here's some more goodies to put under your tree.

New Maps

• Wanne (Advance)
• Battle in House (Holiday Fun Map)
• Kruokovo (Push)

Other Changes

• Squad leaders can now place rally points unassisted within friendly territory
• Increased the squadmate rally point assist radius from 15m to 25m
• New tank destruction emitter with cook-off
• Fixed spawn points not working on Celles due to earlier gameplay logic change
• The AVT-40 barrel can now overheat
• Makhnovo is back!

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2019-12-22 09:47:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

We're proud to announce the latest addition to our armor lineup, the fearsome Flakpanzer IV "Wirbelwind"!
This vehicle is pretty much exactly what it looks like: a Flakvierling AA gun on top of a Panzer IV chassis. The vehicle was produced in small numbers during the war and was primary used for anti-aircraft duties. However, with its high rate of fire, the Wirbelwind can make mincemeat out of infantry and light vehicles caught out in the open, so don't underestimate it! The Wirbelwind can be found on the following maps:

• Balaton
• Bridgehead
• Cambes en Plaine
• La Gleize
• Ogeledow
• Stoumont
• Valko
• Champs

Happy hunting, Darklight Games

[ 2019-12-07 09:13:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

White Phosphorous

At long last, Darkest Hour now has true white phosphorous (WP) smoke rounds!
Apart from looking like a million bucks, the WP projectiles will also ignite enemies unfortunate enough to be next to the blast. The round also leaves a choking haze that will kill infantry that stay in it for too long, making it a great area denial weapon. Due to the relative rarity of these rounds (and for balance reasons) you will not be able to resupply WP rounds from logistics trucks or vehicle resupply points. The white phosphorous rounds have replaced the generic "smoke" round for the Churchill Mk. VII, Cromwell, Sherman 75mm variants, Sherman Jumbo and Sherman M4A3 105mm.

Weapon Adjustments

As part of our never-ending quest to improve the weapons, we have done a pass of small changes that can be summarrized in a few key points:

• Sub-machine gun spread has been slightly reduced
• Weapon sway has been adjusted to better reflect a weapon's weight and bulkiness
• Increased the bash & stab range
• Attaching a bayonet now has a greater effect on weapon sway
• Adjusted the field-of-view of some weapons to afford a better sight picture

Miscellaneous

• Added AVT-40, a fully automatic version of the SVT-40.
• Added Soviet 45mm AT gun.
• Increased mortar resupply interval from rally points to 30 seconds.
• Reduced the rally point "establishment" counter from 15 to 10. Squad leaders should no longer need to worry about abandoning their rally points when placing them on the move.
• Allied binoculars now have a unique skin.
• Squad signals and name tags are now hidden when looking down a 3D scope.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where squad rally point timers were not being reliably reset on round restart.
• Fixed a bug where German Combat Engineers had no weapon on Black Day July.
• Fixed a bug where the PPS43 sight was misaligned.

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2019-12-01 20:01:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

We're back again with another big update! v9.3.0 has a lot of things that have been in the works for a long while, so let's get to it!

St. Marie du Mont

The (in)famous Razorneck has put the finishing touches on St. Marie du Mont, the equally famous sleepy Normandy town that saw fighting on D-Day. This map has been a long time coming, and we're excited to see you in the fields!

Enfield No.2

As part of our ongoing overhaul of all Allied weapons, GarlicAAZ has done a tremendous job revamping the model and animations on this neglected part of the arsenal. It's now a joy to use, give it a shot!

Maps

* New Armored Maps: Panzerschlact, Eidhoven, Belgium * Updated map overviews for a number of maps

Vehicles

* Fixed rendering issues where some vehicle periscopes allowed players to see through smoke * The chance of vehicle fires breaking out is now dependent on the characteristics penetrating projectile. * Updated tank obliteration effects. * DT29 hull machine-gun overlay is now back.

Miscellaneous

* Surrender voting no longer assumes a "No" vote for non-voters. * New historically accurate binocular reticles. See you on the battlefield!

[ 2019-10-19 09:47:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

We're back again, this time with an update that's slightly different from the usual! This time, we're focusing on some much needed love for Soviet armor, and the improvement of some explosion and impact effects.

The Highlights

• Added map DH-Armored_La_Feuillie_Clash.
• New explosion and smoke effects when vehicles are obliterated by rounds cooking off.
• New shell shatter effects.
• New bullet impact effects on players.
• Reduced the reload times of Soviet tank cannons.
• Improved the armor penetration capabilities of Soviet tank cannons (they were all under-performing compared to real-life counterparts).
• Added APCR round to T34/85.
• Fixed a bug where the Hetzer was unable to be resupplied.

What's Next?

There's quite a lot in development right now, including the addition of airstrikes (with full pilot AI!), a host of new levels, and yet more beautiful explosion effects coming your way.
See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2019-08-12 06:21:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

A new tank server has launched! The server will only have armored and combined arms levels in rotation. A big thanks to the Good Guys (GG), Real Panzer (RP), Backis, Patison, and everyone else who helped to get things done. Try it out this weekend! Longer view distances (up to 4 km!!!!), lots of tanks, rallies, contructions, and nostalgic levels that have been improved! See you on the battlefield!

[ 2019-07-20 16:21:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

At long last, v9.1.0 is released! This feature update brings a lot of cool stuff weve been working on the last few months. The change log is extensive, but has pretty GIFs, so read on!

Weapon Overhaul

This release sees the first fruits of our efforts to significantly upgrade the visuals and animations of virtually all Western Allied weapons, and generally weapons that werent already included in Red Orchestra: Ostfront. Our primary goal in this effort is to make all the weapons feel consistently polished and satisfying to use, as well as taking the opportunity to tweak and upgrade various weapon mechanics. The first weapon on the list to get the full treatment is the Enfield No.4 which now looks, feels and sounds great! All of these changes would not have been possible without the efforts of GarlicAAZ, whose animation talents have been put to good use, enabling us to fix and improve so many things we previously were unable to.

3D Scopes

After a very long hiatus, 3D scopes are back!
We made the decision to exclude 3D scopes from DH all the way back in v6.0 due, in part, to the wild inconsistency of the weapon animations and them generally feeling unpolished. In retrospect, this was probably a wrong-headed decision, and one that were happy to reverse. You can enable 3D scopes in the games graphics settings.

Bolt-Action Reloading

All bolt-action rifles can now be reloaded with individual rounds! This means that, on weapons like the Mosin Nagant and Karabiner 98k, you will no longer need to expend 5 rounds in order to perform a reload.
This feature wouldnt have been possible without the hard work of Dan06, who got this feature across the finish line and worked out a number of the bugs. While we were re-working the bolt-action reload system, we also took the opportunity to fix a mechanical error that had gone largely unnoticed for years. When you open the bolt on a bolt action rifle, the loaded round will now be ejected. For example, if you take a single shot with a rifle, cycle the bolt, and then reload, you will need to insert 2 rounds into the weapon in order to fill the magazine to capacity.

Pistols

Pistols are now much more accurate, but have increased sway. We have changed how the pistols look when sighted and removed the zoom when sighted. Overall, pistols should now be significantly more effective.

Automatics

Accuracy Changes All automatic weapons are now more accurate, but will potentially have more recoil (see below). This makes automatics more responsive and intuitive to shoot, since there is less randomness to contend with. Recoil Changes All automatic weapons have had significant changes to recoil. The strength of recoil is no longer constant. Instead, recoil strength is now based on a curve, where longer consecutive shots result in more recoil. This promotes the use of short bursts, since firing constantly will make the weapon significantly harder to control. This should raise the skill cap and promote more authentic and sensibile usage of automatic weapons. Reduction in Numbers We feel the changes to accuracy will make automatics much more deadly in the hands of a skilled soldier. To counteract that, and the problem of automatic weapon proliferation, weve dialed back the availability of automatic options from a number of roles. Overheating The FG42, Bren, BAR can now overheat like other the Machine Guns.

Suppression Changes

The suppression system has been tweaked to reduce the strength of involuntary flinches you experience the more you get shot at. In other words, the more a player receives involuntary flinches in a short time, the less strength those flinches will have. At the same time the player will receive more weapon sway. This adjustment essentially trades flinches in for additional weapon sway. If a player stops receiving fire for some time, the sway and flinch strength resets to normal. The idea here is to make overcoming sustained suppression possible for brave and skilled players; flinches are impossible to overcome, but additional sway is not. We will monitor how this affects the game and make changes based on player feedback.

Satchel Charges

Satchel Charges have always been a hot topic of debate. In recent past, we adjusted Satchels to not be very effective against tanks. However, based on community feedback, we have made some changes. We now have 2 different satchels, small and large. A small satchel is meant to be roughly half the explosive power of the large. A large will be very effective against tanks, but must be placed under the tank, near the tracks on the side, or over the engine vent. A large satchel well placed will be able to destroy or disable the heaviest tanks. A small satchel may require more precise placement or require a second charge to get the job done. Combat Engineers will now spawn with one small satchel. The plan is to later have a different model for the small and large satchels and allow players to combine 2 small satchels into 1 large. Satchels can also now reliably damage or destroy Obstacles and Constructions, even through walls. This means Satchel Charges can now destroy barbed-wire fences, wooden fences, and will be more predictable in their effectiveness.

Anti-Tank Gun Rotation

At long last, anti-tank guns can now be fully rotated in-place!
Smaller guns like the AT-57 can be rotated by a single soldier, while larger guns like the PaK-43 need multiple soldiers in order to be rotated. To rotate an anti-tank gun, simply walk up to one and press the command menu key (default: CAPSLOCK).

Overview Map Changes

• Friendly anti-tank guns are now visible on the map.
• Friendly danger zone boundary is now visible on the map.
• All vehicles that venture deep into the opposing teams territory will have their precise location visible on the map. This is done to counteract vehicles being used for extreme behind-the-lines sabotage, making it easier to combat such tactics. Anti-tank guns, supply caches and platoon HQ locations are spotted in the same manner.

Concertina Wire Changes

• Can now be cut by wire-cutters
• Added a unique placement sound
• Added an intermediate stage (has wooden pikes, but no wire)
• Added a cut stage (when cut by wire-cutters)
• Increased supply cost from 25 to 100
• Increased construction time from 2 to 4 digs
• Deconstruction with the shovel takes significantly longer while the wire is intact
• Can no longer be damaged by grenades
• Improved collision so players cannot dive over them

Whew! What a list! We're excited to get in game and try it all out with you all! See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2019-05-24 08:55:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

This Easter Sunday (April 21st) will be the first annual Easter Egg Hunt in Darkest Hour! Everyone can participate!

The player who finds the most eggs will be announced the winner of the event! The event will last all day Sunday and the rules are simple. Find an egg and destroy it, if there are 32 or more players on the server (must be an official server), the game will record that you found an egg. We will be using the official server statistics to keep track of how many eggs players have found. Players can destroy eggs by shooting them, hitting them in melee, explosives, or running them over. The current plan is to have eggs hidden on "Official" maps (non-WIP maps). However, some levels require more than 32 players, so those will not have eggs.

Before Sunday (early morning EST), players can submit egg paintings!

The egg-painting contest will allow players to submit paintings for the eggs players see in the levels. You can find more details regarding the Egg Painting Contest in the #egg-painting-contest discord channel. See you on the battlefield!

[ 2019-04-17 18:46:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Rabenheck (Advance)

Today sees the release of a brand new map, Rabenheck, by community member Dolas!
Rabenheck, or "Raven's Hedge", depicts the bitter fighting of the Hurtgenwald in late 1944, during the ill-fated Operation Queen. This map will be playable for the first time on Sunday during the Battle of the Hurtgen Forest event! Be sure to Join the Discord to stay up to speed on monthly events and all things DH!

Ten Aard (Clash)

In addition, last week saw the release of another incredible map, Ten Aard, by long time contributor Kashash!
Ten Aard depicts the fighting in the eponymous town during the Battle of Geel in northern Belgium, an oft-overlooked engagement taking place during Operation Market Garden. Click here to see a "before an after" video showing the map compared to its real-life counterparts, to get a sense of the incredible amount of work and attention to detail that has been poured into the map. In addition, we've managed to slip in a couple of quality of life changes and tweaks:

• Squad assistants now have access to the Command channel
• Resupply points are now displayed on the situation map
• Resupply points cost more to deploy, but now last longer
• Fixed a bug where vehicles could end up permanently reserved

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2019-04-13 10:44:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Strap your helmets on tight! This update is going to blow your mind! We have put our heads together to make Darkest Hour even more a thinking man's shooter! Darkest Hour has always been a thinking-man's-shooter, but after this update, players will grow their cranium to unlimited proportions. Making headway in Darkest Hour will require players to be more headstrong. However, let's not get ahead of ourselves, here is the change log! Players will get smarter more quickly by achieving kills New players will have an easier time killing veteran players on killing sprees Players will now be able to rename their squad to 20 characters long, instead of 16 Do not let the update get to your head. As always, see you on the battlefield!

[ 2019-04-01 08:18:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

Darkest Hour: Europe 44-45 v9.0 has been released! This release is a ceremonial one, and a milestone in the games development, punctuating all of the work that has been done over the last year and a half. In that time, we have added and refined a number of new features and content including squad rally points, constructions, the new Advance game mode, and well over a dozen new maps!

New Trailer

We are usually pretty humble about our releases, but this time weve gone all out and put together a cinematic trailer. We hope you will enjoy it (and send it to those who might also enjoy it!)

A Momentous Occasion

Today is also the 13th anniversary of Red Orchestra: Ostfront! To mark the occasion, we have enlisted the help of Tripwire Interactive to help get the word out to publications about all the hard work we have been doing, which should help bring in some new recruits! Whats more, Tripwire Interactive has permanently reduced the price of Red Orchestra: Ostfront! We would also like to thank our community and players, old and new, for giving us the inspiration and drive to continue to improve and expand one of the longest running WW2 games of all time. We have lots more in the works, and we look forward to delivering new features and content in the coming weeks and months! If you love what we do and want to support the games continued development, consider supporting us via Patreon. We also encourage everyone (new players especially!) to join our Discord community and join with your fellow soldiers in the mess hall!
See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2019-03-14 08:47:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update we are releasing a number of new features, including Danger Zones, Hot Rally Points and the Rally Point Indicator! This update is a big step towards our version 9.0 milestone coming in just a little over a month. A big focus for 9.0 will be to solidify the features added in 8.0 and to better convey the games mechanics to new players. Without further adieu, here are the highlights!

Danger Zone

The danger zone is essentially a dynamically calculated marker of enemy territory based on objective ownership. The primary use of the danger zone, currently, is to mark rally points inside the danger zone as hot. The location of hot rally points will be automatically marked on the map for the opposing team to call attention to deep flanking squads.
This mechanic was developed as a response to the metagame shifting towards extreme behind-the-lines play which could make battles feel unfocused as well as putting defending teams at an extreme disadvantage. As always, the mechanics are always subject to change based on how the mechanic affects the gameplay and player feedback. This feature was developed primarily by community member and ace squad leader Dirty Birdy, and we are really excited that he has lent us his talents.

Rally Point Indicator

We have added a new rally point indicator to the HUD for squad leaders! This handy little guy gives you at-a-glance information about your ability to place rally points. Here is a rundown of the kinds of information it conveys:

• If your squad has no rally points, the indicator will flash red.
• Displays the reason why placement may not be possible (eg. missing squadmate, cooldown etc.)
• When all placement conditions have been satisfied, the icon glows and displays a one-button prompt to place a rally point (will be useful for new squad leaders!)
• The indicator displays a yellow warning symbol when you are in the danger zone.

Misc Changes

• In an effort to stop grand theft logi, only Squad Leaders and Assistants can spawn and drive Logistics vehicles
• Low Reinforcement messages appear less often, but are now accompanied by a unique sound
• Tweaked the rules for activating objective spawns; objective spawns will generally be much further away from the frontlines, hopefully resulting in less instances of spawn killing.
• Changed the banned and session kicked messages to be less confusing
• Added the server name to the scoreboard

Servers

• Added ability to start kicking idle players once enough players are connected
• Added a command which unlocks the 10,000 Bps network speed cap
• Added a location string, so players can know where the server is located on the server browser

Friendly Fire

• Players who are forgiven for a team kill will now have their weapons unlocked if they have a past team kill which was punished
• Shooting a friendly soft vehicle will play an upsetting sound (to warn players against doing it)
• Removed the ability for players to damage the engine of friendly vehicles
• Added weapon locking for destroying friendly vehicles
• Added a message for when a player destroys a friendly vehicle
• A player who kills a friendly vehicle can no longer switch teams for 25 minutes
• Added a death message (Andy Kaufman) when a player destroys a friendly vehicle

Constructions

• Doubled the health of all sandbag constructions
• Dragons Teeth health increased from 750 to 1000
• Dragon's Teeth now take less damage from HE splash

Level Updates

• All work in progress maps now have a kill zone under the terrain
• Klin updated
  • Decreased number of reinforcements
  • Added windy snow emitters
  • Brightened the dark sky
  • Removed bloom and reduced the brightness of players
  • Fixed many other issues

• Salaca updated
  • Improved the Objective Spawns
  • Adjusted the end objectives locations and renamed

See you in the DANGER ZONE, Darklight Games

[ 2019-02-01 10:19:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

A small update released early this morning. Here are the...

Changes:

• Radar updated, several improvements, added objective spawns
• Slight damage and radius increase to satchel charges
• Moved smoke grenades to slot 4
• Moved shovel/wirecutters/satchels to slot 7
• Changes to Klin, Salaca, and Myshkova

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug on Hurtgenwald where players would be slain up on the hill
• Fixed a bug where players couldnt pick up satchels
• Fixed a bug with objective spawns which could crash the server

[ 2019-01-18 21:16:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

Got a hotfix for client crashes during level load and more! Changes:

• Updated the main menu to fix a client crash
• Added mortar observers to Stoumont Advance
• Removed Ami Go Home from Axis song list
• Moved Satchel Charges from slot "7" to slot "4"
• Moved Smoke Grenades from slot "2" to slot "7"
• Added slots as bindable keys on the control settings page
• Objective Spawns now have their own map icon (a square)
• Added objective spawns to Putot (objective spawns will work on Advance now)
• Netspeed changes:
  • New default is 10000
  • Users with less than 10000 netspeed will be updated to 10000
  • Adjusted netspeed values in the settings
• Several fixes to Putot

See you on the battlefield!

[ 2019-01-12 10:33:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

We are back at it! Here are the changes:

The Good

• New Main Menu
  • New background image
  • Handles different aspect ratios (4:3 & 16:9) better (no longer stretches image)
  • Now has a frame limiter (to help prevent coil whine on your hardware)
• Added a control for toggle run (no default bind, can be bound under Controls > Movement)
• Fixed a bug where constructions would be virtually immune to direct HE impact damage.
• Added an experimental feature to Hattert_Advance we are calling Objective Spawns
  • The nearest linked secured objectives act as a spawn point for the team
  • If no issues occur we will implement this feature on more Clash maps
• Increased the options for internet rate (now has experimental 30000 rate option)

The Bad

• Squad Leaders now receive 25 instead of 50 points when a squadmate spawns on their rally point. This change was made because squad leaders would almost always massively out-score the rest of their squad due to the high point value of players spawning on rally points.

The Ugly

• Removed DH_ATWeapons.u package
  • This package has been deprecated since v6.0 and was kept around for backwards compatibility with custom levels. However due to a bug in the UT2004 engine, it was discovered to be creating invalid references and data in map files which could lead to larger file sizes, instability, and made maintenance on these levels more difficult.
• Note To Server Administrators!
  • Custom levels that reference DH_ATWeapons.u will now require DH_ATWeapons.u as a custom file on the server. Either that, or the custom levels will need to be updated to remove these references (Contact [DH]Theel on our Discord for more information and instructions). You can download the DH_ATWeapons.u package here. Place the file in your servers DarkestHour/System folder.

[ 2019-01-09 06:32:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

We hope everyone had a good holiday break. 2019 is going to be a big year for Darkest Hour. We plan on polishing features we are happy with and making changes to features we are not. A big focus this year will be on brand new maps! Here is a recap of changes to DH in 2018: 2018 started with v8.0 (squads + construction + Advance) being just released in late 2017.

• By February, we added Assistant Squad Leaders and more constructions.
• In March, we had the frag grenade update, which reduced starting grenades to 1, max carriable to 3, and added grenade boxes.
• In April, we had changes to soft vehicles so they no longer instantly explode; giving soldiers a chance to bail out once the vehicle becomes disabled.
• We saw the 10th anniversary of Darkest Hour in June!
• In July, we had new construction (Dragons Teeth and Panzerfaust Crates) and a complete overhaul to the scoring system.
• In August, we saw improvements to blood and hit impacts on players.
• In September, we added a zoom-able overview map.
• In October, Theel launched his Patreon campaign.
• In November, he launched the London high performance server.
• Finally, in December we improved on the in-game chat and added squad merging.

We are now at v8.4.0! Over the last year we have added (I believe somewhere around 42) maps, implemented many other features not mentioned above, improved many existing features, fixed bugs, and many other things. The official server has been going great, if you enjoy playing on it and want to help, please donate here: https://www.patreon.com/theel By becoming a patron, you'll get access to private news, discord roles, and in-game rewards. Patison is hosting an event tomorrow (DH Campaign Night - Sunday 06/01/19 @ 10PM GMT)! For more information, please join us on Discord: https://discordapp.com/invite/RKpwrbr Thanks for playing Darkest Hour in 2018 and as always see you on the battlefield!

[ 2019-01-05 23:15:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

We're back at it again! This update's a bit of a hodge-podge, but the tl;dr is that we've added a new squad merging functionality, a couple new work-in-progress maps, and made some balance changes, including a change that should make light vehicles much more fragile.

New Stuff

• Added DH-WIP_MyshkovaRiver_Advance
• Added DH-WIP_Klin1941_Advance
• Added a new control for placing a Rally Point (default key is: J)
• Added a new splash screen

Squad Merge

Need to consolidate a bunch of itty bitty squads? Well, we're here to help! You can now offer other squad leaders to merge their squads into yours!

• As a squad leader, right-click another squad leader on the squad menu and select Request to Merge
• The squad leader that sent the merge request will become the new squad leader

Miscellaneous Changes

• Changes to soft vehicles (cars, trucks, halftracks):
  • Increased damage from small arms fire
  • Vehicles are now more easily disabled
  • Reduced engine health on cars and trucks
  • Halftracks now climb up slopes more effectively
• Updated DH-WIP_Cholm_Advance
  • Axis now have a new approach for the final objective
  • Second to last capture (Stronghold) can be captured from the ground level.
  • Added a couple weapon pickups
• Changes to several constructions:
  • Panzerfaust Crate:
    • Raised cost from 750 to 850
    • Lowered Panzerfaust count from 4 to 2
  • Increased cost of Grenade Crate from 300 to 400
  • Increased cost of Supply Cache from 250 to 500
  • Increased cost of Watchtower from 750 to 900
  • Platoon HQs can no longer be crushed by vehicles
  • Platoon HQs now take more damage from grenades and satchels
• All vehicles have had their reinforcement cost reduced
• Levels weapon pickups no longer respawn by default
• Reduced the high player count requirements for voting larger Advance levels

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where most functionality was broken in the Admin mutator.

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2018-12-08 08:44:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

We're back at it again! This time bringing a big quality-of-life improvement to the chat system. While typing, you are now able to cycle through chat modes by pressing the Tab button!
Since the RO1 days, there has been three buttons for initiating chat in certain channels (team, global, vehicle). When we added the squad chat channel, we had to take up another keybind on our already crowded default key mapping. The old system is just not tenable for extensibility and is very be cumbersome to use (e.g. accidentally hitting the wrong button and needing to hit escape and try again). Additionally, you can now simply hit your Enter key to start typing a message to your previously selected chat channel! Please note that backwards compatibility is maintained if you prefer to use the old system instead. Here are a few more notable tweaks and additions:

• There is now a colored line drawn between the player and the squad's current order marker on the situation map (this should help highlight the orders more prominently)
• All anti-tank guns now must be placed at least 15 meters from each other.
• All anti-tank guns have had their supply cost increased (in some cases significantly) in an effort to reduce AT gun spam.
• Increased the "block" time penalty for spawn kills on Platoon HQs from 15 to 30 seconds in an effort to reduce repeated spawn killing.
• Increased the duration of the " Have Won The Battle!" message from 5 seconds to 15 seconds.
• Fixed a bug where players would be told to wait for 5 seconds before voting for another map before they had voted for any maps.
• Fixed a bug where the crescent sandbag construction could seem to disappear if it was in your peripheral view.

Thank you for continued support and feedback! We have some very big and exciting plans that will be coming to fruition in the winter months, so watch this space! See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2018-11-17 10:52:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Event This Thursday! @ 4pm EST (9pm GMT) @ Darklight Games London Server (185.38.151.35)
New London Server! Thanks to past and present Patrons, the new high-performance server has arrived! This server uses an i7-7700k processor, the best marketable CPU for single-threaded applications. This is also a dedicated server, not a virtual server, meaning the processing power is not shared. This means we can easily host multiple 64 player servers without seeing the tick rate drop! This server is not cheap, but we also got a very good deal. While the Patrons do pay for it, I want to be as responsible as possible with that money. This means that we promote the server and try our best to see that it is actually used. However, I also want to be fair to the community and not just use my developer authority to dictate player choice. Ultimately, it is the player's responsibility to choose which server to play on. So we have decided AGAINST doing a server white list, which would allow us to select which servers would show up on the server browser by default. However, it is our responsibility to give players accurate and useful information in making that choice. We hope to figure out a fair and accurate way to inform players of how a server performs and indicate that on the server browser. Until then, we can only inform players in announcements and ask that players choose responsibility, especially on weekends. Though there is no noticeable incentive for players to play on better performing servers. What we can offer is the London server will be running metrics; which is statistics of kills, deaths, damage types, and other information that we plan on making public via a web tool. Why London? DH has many European and North American players; ideally, we would have two server locations. However, until we can consistently fill multiple servers on weekends, one will have to do. That means selecting the best affordable location to make everyone happy. Let's play on the new server tomorrow night, prime time! Come join around 4pm EST (9pm GMT) Thursday the 15th, try out the server and get an early weekend Darkest Hour fix! See you on the battlefield, Theel

[ 2018-11-14 21:28:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey folks, we're here again with another update! This one's short and sweet, here are the highlights:

New Stuff

• Added La Gleize (Advance) map
• Squad members can now volunteer to be the squad's assistant by right-clicking on the squad leader's name on the squad menu.

Bug Fixes!

• Fixed a bug where spawn points would be incorrectly positioned when the map was zoomed in.
• Fixed a bug where anti-tank rockets could kill Platoon HQs in one hit (it now takes 3 direct hits).

Tweaks!

• Adjustments and improvements to Noville (Advance) map (extended boundaries etc.)
• Slightly increased respawn times of players spawning as non-rifleman roles.
• Very slightly increased the spread of the MP40 (our telemetry found it overperforming at long ranges).
• Change team interval increased from 2 minutes to 5 minutes.
• Increased cost of vehicle pool constructions from 1250 to 1750.

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2018-11-10 09:40:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Server Performance:

First, we've released a hotfix (v8.2.5) last night to address some issues with our server self-optimizing system. I want to explain why we are spending time on this system. Why is server performance important? There is a direct correlation between server performance and players having a good experience. One of the elements of measuring server performance is how many times it calculates everything in a second, this is called the tick rate. Players start to notice inconsistencies when the server has a tick rate less than 20. Very low values will be very noticeable. What is this self-optimization system? One of the largest impacts on how a server performs is how many players are running around and shooting. By raising respawn times we can reasonably predict that there will (eventually) be less players on the battlefield at once. The self-optimization system currently increases respawn times if it detects poor server performance. If poor performance continues regardless of the increased respawn times, the server will then force a map vote. Is there something better than increasing my respawn time? Yes, the best thing would be to not allow anyone to respawn until the server's performance is acceptable. Keep track of how many players can be alive before the server struggles and then force that to always be present. Obviously we don't want to take this approach. There are also other ideas we are considering, but I won't go into that. Why not just whitelist servers that can perform well for its slots? That would be the modern approach. Squad and many other titles are doing just that. We have a very small community, very few servers, and there are also downsides to the server whitelist system. It disrupts freedoms of server owners, it has to be updated, and doesn't attempt to improve performance if poor performance is actually detected. Why not just get a better server? Well there are some issues with that. Which is money and usage. There is no point in getting a better server if by chance another server was instead seeded and is populated. Suddenly, you realize are paying a lot of money and no one is using it, this has been a major problem. There is no incentive for server owners to offer a better performing server, when players just join whatever server has players. I'd imagine this is why the server white list system is useful for more populated games. However, we plan on getting a high performance server based in London soon. This server should not have any tick rate issues, even with 64 players on Bridgehead! When that happens please help pay for it by becoming a patron here: https://www.patreon.com/theel We will continue as needed to create a system that gives incentive to players to play on the best performing servers.

Survey Summary:

Overall, how do you feel about the WIP maps? The consensus shows that players support the WIP maps. Players see them as a good thing for DH and are willing to tolerate their downsides. I cannot find one player who said they hate WIP maps. I think this means we made the right choice and I'm glad we finally made it. You guys can thank Kashash "ksh" for pushing for the idea. I think the next step is to create a way for community levelers to easily submit updates to WIP levels. But I also want to work it out, so they know which WIP levels are being worked on by DLG (us developers). How do you feel about Rhine_River_Clash? How could it be improved to be more fun? What do you feel are its biggest issues? The consensus shows that its still very early to make any big claims about the level (a lot haven't even played it yet). But those who have, said it needs more cover, more forests, it's too large & open for infantry, river is too crossable, requires a full server, and the towns leave much to be desired. Rank your most desired levels to be updated: In first place, the most desired WIP level to be updated is "DH-WIP_San_Valentino_Advance"! I found this surprising because I honestly haven't a clue where I'd start. In second place, we have "DH-WIP_Maupertus_Push" which I'm not surprised about, because I've been asked to update Maupertus many times in the past. Other notable mentions include: Black_Day_July, Arad_Advance, Makhnovo_Advance, and Arnhem_Bridge What should we do about levels that obviously harm the game because players leave consistently? The consensus is to NOT remove them from the game, but let servers take harmful levels off rotation until they are updated/fixed. And I agree with that. What level sizes should we focus on? 65.35% voted to focus on large levels 28.85% voted to focus on small-medium levels 5.77% voted to focus on tiny levels Well I'm not at all surprised by this, but truthfully it might seem like we don't focus large levels. The reason being is large levels take a lot more time and effort to update, overhaul, and create. Would you be interested in "fight yard" maps? This turned out to be roughly 50% yes and 50% no. I think this means we need to focus our efforts on all levels and sizes and try to balance that the best we can. Which do you prefer for a low-medium population (10-24 players) server? 60.78% said Push 19.61% said Clash 19.62% said Advance This makes total since because the majority of Clash and Advance maps are large, too large for low population. But I think that is their nature, we can experiment with a "Squad vs Squad" smaller map, but I think in the end Push will come out best for low population. Which do you prefer for a high population (50+ players) server? 76% said Advance 12% said Push 12% said Clash Clash is newer and a lot of players consider many Clash maps to be "Advance" still as they are similar. For instance, Hattert, Cambes, and Nuenen are Clash maps. Therefore, I think the question was not well worded. We should probably include the Clash votes with Advance, which gives a large majority to Advance/Clash for high population. That said, we are noticing some annoyances with Clash and will be making a significant change for Clash. For more information: https://github.com/DarklightGames/DarkestHour/issues/973 What is your least favorite level? The most voted least favorite level goes to... Kasserine_Pass this is not surprising. Other notable mentions are: DogGreen, Gorlitz, Dom-Pavlova, and Donner. I'm surprised these levels were only mentioned once or not at all: Simonskall (no one hardly votes for this level, so I just assume no one likes it) BridgeTDM (my personally most hated level, had 1 vote which was mine) Kommerscheidt (sadly this level has just never played well, had 1 vote) I have yet to make my own Normandy Beech map, which I think one day will happen, just a matter of time. Summary: The purpose of this survey was to gather how players feel regarding WIP maps, what maps they want to see improved the most, and where to focus efforts. I know that players love or at the least accept WIP levels. We know which maps players want to see improved. But, where to focus our efforts was not really answered. I think realistically we just need to keep moving forward with a reasonable regard for low and high population play. Thanks to everyone who participated in the survey. See you on the battlefield, Theel

[ 2018-10-29 00:52:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Darkest Hour: Europe 44-45

v8.2.4 Change Log Here are the v8.2.4 changes! Noville gets an Advance version, changes to server self-optimization system, Patron vote rewards are now scaled to the number of players, and other minor changes. See details below! Levels

• Added Noville Advance

Patrons

• Changed vote weight rewards to be more balanced based on the servers population

Quality of Life

• The server self-optimization system now:
  • Self-optimization system is now mandatory and cannot be disabled
  • Persistent poor server performance will result in permanently higher respawn times until the end of the level
  • Critically poor server performance will force a map vote
  • Players will be notified of poor server performance more aggressively

Rally Points The Rally Point is a powerful tool for squads, and we still want it to be. The last changes critically weakened its effectiveness in urban combat encounters, in that just 2 enemies within a 50 meter radius could destroy the rally point. The following changes should make rally points slightly less susceptible to destruction due to small numbers of enemies within a 50 meter radius.

• Increased minimum encroachment enemy count from 2 to 3
• Increased encroachment penalty block threshold from 10 to 15
• Increased encroachment penalty forgiveness per second from 2 to 5

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where players who voted before the round ended would not appear to have their score-based voting power into account.

Other

• The message shown to players who are session banned due to team-killing now more accurately reflects that nature and duration of the administrative action (players could be confused into believing they were permanently banned).

[ 2018-10-27 18:07:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

Got a new survey for you gentlemen. Please take some time and give your answers some thought. https://esurv.org/?u=DHLevelingQASurvey Thanks and see you on the battlefield!

[ 2018-10-26 23:27:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

I (Theel) am starting a Patreon Campaign. Patreon is a membership based crowdfunding platform that allows creators to get paid for their work. Essentially it allows people like you to donate to projects you support. For more information you can watch the “What is Patreon?” video here. This campaign will operate differently than our previous one. The primary difference is that I (Theel) will be the owner. The money will be for me personally to routinely work on Darkest Hour. The rest of the team has graciously agreed to support this Patreon campaign, so I would like to give special thanks to Basnett and Kashash for supporting me and Darkest Hour. This campaign will have patron tiers (lead, bronze, silver, and gold) which offer different benefits. If you’d like to support this campaign, just head on over to this page then create a patreon user, enter payment information, and pledge an amount. A successful campaign will mean that I will invest more time into Darkest Hour and players will see more content and hopefully Darkest Hour will remain on your Steam Library for years to come. Again, I’d like to thank Basnett and Kashash and also thank the community and future patrons. The specifics of the benefits include:

• Gain access to patron-only developer insights, news, and videos
• Be distinguished in game with the appropriate tier icon on the scoreboard
• Receive discord roles for the official DH discord server which give them access to Patron only channels
• Awarded additional votes (for map voting) which can bypass the 15 vote limit
  • Lead patrons are given 3 additional votes
  • Bronze patrons are given 7 additional votes
  • Silver patrons are given 15 additional votes
  • Gold patrons are given 25 additional votes

[ 2018-09-30 19:58:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Transport Vehicles

A much needed change to the vehicles has arrived. APCs (Half-tracks, Bren Carrier, etc) and unarmored vehicles will be riskier to have on the battlefield.

• Are more vulnerable to high explosives (HE rounds can one-shot transport vehicles)
• Are more vulnerable to AP rounds (will disable them after one-hit regardless of engine hit or not)
• HTs now take 5 times more damage from Artillery
• Unarmored vehicles now take 8 times more damage from Artillery
• Unarmored vehicles have much less operating HP so they now become disabled after 200-300 damage (was 1000 before)
• Wheel damage slows the vehicles down more
• Increased engine health so unarmored vehicles can take a bit more small arms fire
• Increased turning ability of Jeep, Kubel, and GAZ when moving at slow speeds

Dragon’s Teeth

• Raised the cost from 200 to 250
• Can now be dug up anytime (no longer requires supply truck in range)
• Takes longer to construct
• Lowered the minimum damage required to harm (more things can damage them)

Quality of Life

• Various minor map improvements and organization
• Raised the minimum connection setting (NetSpeed)
• Sergeants, Corporals, Assault, and Combat Engineers spawn with extra ammo now

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where Allied artillery marks could be seen by Axis on the situation map
• Fixed a bug where public voice chat would still be disabled when the round is over

Hopeful Fix

There has been a bug plaguing a few DH players since the spectator update a while back. The bug happens whenever that player dies; perhaps more specifically when that player dies whilst in a vehicle, manning a gun, or is gibbed by HE and thus doesn’t have a “model” to view. We have not been able to reproduce it or get our hands on a machine that has the issue. So this “bug fix” is a shot in the dark and we can only hope it fixes the issue for those few that have the issue. For more information visit the reported issue.

[ 2018-09-29 08:19:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Situation Map

At long last, Darkest Hour now has a zoomable map!

• Players can now zoom in on the deployment map with the mouse scroll wheel
• Players can now pan on the zoomed map by holding left mouse and dragging
• Players can now ‘activate’ the interactive map from the pop-up situation map by hitting their jump button (default: space bar) when viewing
• Players can now change spawn points from the pop-up situation map in interactive mode

[img=https://i.imgur.com/26sLGEy.gif]

Maps Galore

Darkest Hour boasts a map selection that would make the vast majority of other games blush. Typically, we go through a strong QA (quality assurance) process for every map included in the game. Our QA process ensures that the player experience is as smooth as possible (performance, optimization, visual enhancements, fixing collision problems etc.). However, the demand for more levels has always long outpaced our ability to individually QA levels for inclusion as “official” maps. There have also been an impressive number of custom levels that have been created or ported by the community recently. Sadly, the big downside to these being custom maps is that users often must endure lengthy download times in order to play them, which can be especially harsh on those with slow internet speeds. So, after much deliberation, we have decided to add large number of popular custom maps to DH. These custom maps will be marked as “WIP” (work in progress) so that players will know that the map is not necessarily in a finished state and there may be some issues. Doing this vastly expands the map selection, allows players to play the levels without needing to download them from the servers, and will ensure these levels will receive necessary changes needed to stay compliant with the live game as we continue to make changes and improvements to the codebase. Here is a list of the maps added to the WIP roster:

• Arad_Advance
• Arnhem_Bridge_Push
• Benouville_Advance
• Berezina_Advance
• BridgeAssault_Cutoff
• Chambois_Push
• Champs_Advance
• Cholm_Advance
• Dom-Pavlova_Advance
• Kasserine_Pass_Advance
• Leningrad_Push
• Leszinow_Advance
• Maupertus_Push
• Odessa_Push
• Ogledow_Clash
• Pegasus_Bridge_Push
• Pointe_Du_Hoc_Push
• Port-En-Bessin_Push
• Poteau_Ambush_Advance
• Prussia_Push
• Ramelle_Push
• Remagen_Push
• San_Valentino_Advance
• Schijndel_Advance
• Smolensk_Stalemate
• Turqueville_Push
• Winter_Stalemate_Clash
• Donner_Stalemate
• Radar_Advance

Bridgehead Updates

• Added new objective between First Bridge and Bridge Defenses
• Expanded boundaries near new objective
• Expanded boundaries West of Fortified Hill
• Added Schu mines to help reduce direct assaults on Fortified Hill
• Added pre-placed dragon’s teeth to funnel tanks
• Increased Axis reinforcements

New Map Vote System

Darkest Hour now has an new map voting system which replaces the previous system. The system is similar to the score based vote system, but with a few caveats:

• Each player always gets 1 vote, regardless of their score
• Players are rewarded an additional vote for each additional 1000 score to a maximum of 15 (eg. 11550 score is 11 votes, 18000 score is 15 votes)

Game Types

• Added a gametype “Clash” which is is the meeting engagement version of “Advance”. Advance maps that were meeting engagement style such as Hedgerow Hell have been renamed.
• “Advance” maps will no longer allow defenders to completely recapture the map’s objectives.
• Added a gametype “Stalemate” to indicate the map has all objectives open. These maps are notoriously hard to win on and thus are labeled Stalemate.

Weapons

PTRD

• Ammo loadout is no longer affected by the team’s munition percentage

Gewehr 43

• Now has a faster firing animation which makes the weapon feel less “floaty”
• Slightly decreased accuracy
• Increased recoil

Fallschirmgewehr 42

• Adjusted recoil values
• Changed FOV on the sights so the sights are larger
• Can now be resupplied by friendly players

Quality of Life

• Reduced the amount of reinforcements lost when vehicles are destroyed.
• Added a player threshold at which ‘all chat’ is disabled (default: 50) to cut down on noisy chatter when server has a lot of players
• Added ability for admin to gag specific players
• Removed the vote kick system, as it was completely ineffective
• Added 32 new victory songs
• Added VSync option in the display settings

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where Axis Assault Roles had STG44s when they shouldn’t have
• Fixed a bug where players on the same server could hear different victory songs

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2018-09-14 05:25:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Version 8.1.4 is here! We have some changes to the munitions, various improvements to constructions, and quality of life changes!
The Munition System: * Removed cache munition reward system * Changed the munition system to reward player score and players who do not die often. For details: https://github.com/DarklightGames/DarkestHour/commit/0d86db5676c52c7b629462ca234d100546755a55 Rallypoint Changes: * Increased the "enemy encroachment" radius from 25m to 50m. * Increased the "enemy encroachment" spawn time penalty from 10s to 15s. Dragons Teeth Changes: * Can now be dug up when there is a friendly supply truck nearby * Can now be easily destroyed by satchels and artillery * Can now be damaged by AP and HE direct hits * Can now be damaged by direct hits from Rockets and other AT weapons Watchtower Changes: * Can now be easily destroyed by satchels and artillery * Can now be damaged by AP and HE direct hits * Grenades no longer damage * Can now be damaged by direct hits from Rockets and other AT weapons Bridgehead Advance Changes: * Increased reinforcements for Allies * Removed Allied reinf bleed for first objectives * Worked on Honnopel area a bit more Lutremange Advance Changes: * Significant reduction in the FogFX * Destroyed the Rail Bridge * Replaced the middle bridge with jellysoda's bridge * Added sandbag cover all over the middle bridge * Other minor changes Improvements: * The 2 minutes round end time should no longer activate if the opposing team's reinforcements are over 50 (instead round will just end with the winner) * Moved the vehicle spawn for the Vehicle Pool Construction forward (should help prevent tanks such as Panther from spawning stuck) * Fixed a bug where the "press / to join a squad" message would be sent to spectating players See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2018-08-11 08:14:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Version 8.1.2 arrives with bullets and blood. This update focuses on munitions and blood effects.
Darkest Hour is all about having authentic combat situations and until now it has lacked low ammo situations. We decided to implement a munitions system that will decrease infantry starting ammo as the battle rages on; this way low ammo only becomes a problem late in the battle. Players will need to load up on ammo from ammo boxes, loot weapons, and if it comes to it engage with melee. It can be a burden to run out of ammo, so conserve your ammo, pick your targets, and resupply teammates when you can! The Munition System: Each team now has a munition percentage that can be viewed on the scoreboard. Munitions will decrease over time on Advance maps. Players spawn with a percentage of their maximum carrying capacity equal to their team’s munition percentage. Munitions does not yet affect tanks or vehicle weapons.

• Munitions drain at a rate of 1.66% a minute, so after 60 minutes, a team will be at minimum percentage
• Supply caches raise the minimum munition percentage by 10% (with a maximum of 30%)
• Removed ability for Machine Gunners, Anti-Tank Soldiers, and Tank Crewman to carry sharable extra ammo
• Only Riflemen spawn with shareable extra ammo (other roles can carry, but don’t spawn with it)

Blood:

• Fixed a bug where the blood impact emitter was not spawning at the victim player
• Fixed a bug where the blood splatter projector would appear at any distance behind the target hit
• Increased the size of blood impact emitters for all weapons (pistols, rifles, mgs, 50cal)

Constructions:

• Lowered cost of grenade boxes (350 to 300)
• Increased cost of panzerfaust box (500 to 750)
• Changed distance that inventory spawners (grenade and panzerfaust boxes) so they can be placed closer together (15 to 1 meters)
• Lowered health of watchtower (500 to 400)
• Increased health of bunker (400 to 500)

Other:

• Players are no longer required to join or be in a squad to select the Tank Crewman role
• Objectives can now be set to have different lock down times depending on which team captured it
• MP40 should now recoil less when iron sighted (roughly 10% less)
• PPH41 should now recoil more when iron sighted (roughly 10% more)

Server Admins:

• Added a Map Vote Hub level which servers should use to load up on (allows players to vote for the map they want instead of always being stuck on the same level after a crash)

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2018-08-03 07:10:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

v8.1.0 has arrived and this time we have a cocktail of improvements!
The big change players will notice right away is that we have a new scoring system! Players should notice some big changes to the scoreboard:

• Score is now split into two categories (Combat & Support)
• All scoring values have been inflated (a kill is now worth 100 points instead of just 1!) This allows us to award smaller point denominations for other actions (eg. reloading a friendly AT soldiers)
• More scoring events have been added. For example, completing Platoon HQ constructions and placing rally points will now awards a significant amount of points

The code for the scoring system has been completely reworked from the ground up, allowing us to expand it and give it more depth than was possible before. This first release will provide much needed insight on how best to expand it.
Here are some of the other highlights of this release:

All vehicles spawned on Advance maps are now temporary infantry spawn vehicles. Instead of spawning at Main just to watch a transport vehicle drive off, you can spawn directly in that transport vehicle heading out of Main!

Added a Panzerfaust crate for the Axis, which holds 4 Panzerfausts. This is a high-cost item, so don’t miss! (Allied equivalents will be forthcoming) Increased supply generation rate of main supply cache from 100 to 500 per minute

Reduced the Squad Rally Point placement interval from 60 to 50 seconds

Players attempting to spawn without a Squad in Advance mode will receive a judgemental message recommending that they join one (only once!)

On Putot en Bessin, the south end of Hollis Lane has been fleshed out significantly to give the defenders better fighting positions, making for more interesting battles and a tougher attack for the Axis. See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2018-07-28 08:10:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

We have scheduled anniversary events for Darkest Hour. This Saturday and Sunday (14-15th), we will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of Darkest Hour. We celebrate Darkest Hour every time we play, but scheduling events is more influential. We do not have an exact day to celebrate DH's anniversary, so we do so any time during the June-July months. So find some time and pop in this weekend and if you haven't already check out the changes!

[ 2018-07-13 04:30:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

We're back again with another update! To start off this list, there are a couple new constructions, the Dragon's Tooth, and the exciting new Vehicle Pool which allows a well organized team to deploy vehicles closer to the front-lines. In addition, the logistics mechanics have gotten a considerable number of tweaks to hopefully steer players toward more realistic behavior:

• Supply caches now generate less supplies and share a supply generation pool (the more caches you have, the less supplies will be generated per cache).
• Supply caches must now be placed 300 meters apart (was 200m).
• Each team's main spawn now contains a indestructible supply cache with a high capacity (8000) and regeneration rate.

On the quality-of-life side, we have made some significant improvements:

• Player models now have LODs, which should increase client FPS dramatically on high population servers.
• Infantry can now carry multiple grenade types at once.
• Squad leaders and assistants are now able to see where their team's other squad leaders are on the situation map.
• Weapon pickups will no longer disappear if players are nearby.
• There is now an "auto-join squad" button (/), and a "squad menu" button (P).
• Unassigned players are now prompted to join squads.
• Unassigned players are no longer able to take roles other than Rifleman.

See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2018-07-08 10:38:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Darkest Hour: Europe ‘44-’45 update 8.0.9 is here!
The highlights this update are some design changes to vehicles such as the Opel Blitz, GMC, Jeep, Kubelwagen, and APCs such as M3A1 and Sd.Kfz 251 Halftracks. In addition, level optimization and polishing.

Vehicles

All vehicles:

• Adjusted “spike timer” to 15 seconds (if engine is set on fire, spike timer determines how long until it explodes)
• Fixed an issue where a vehicle could be set on fire, but burn forever if friendlies were in the area

Soft Vehicles and APCs (cars, trucks, halftracks):

• Adjusted these vehicles to have a standard body health of 2000, making them harder to explode from small arms (Armoured APCs are still impervious to small arms)
• Adjusted engine health to be very low, making them the critical weak spot to aim for
• Added wheel hitpoints and a system which will make vehicles slower for having wheel damage (making wheels the secondary weak spot to aim for)
• Adjusted engine hitpoint sizes to be larger, to make them easier to hit
• Set these vehicles to only be spawnable by players that are in a squad
• Increased required speed to run over players from 30 kph to 35 kph
• Reduced explosion damage and radius
• Greyhound & Stuart have slightly reduced penetration ability at a distance
• Increased Panther’s side armor as it was weaker than intended
• Lowered view position of the Sherman hull machine gun to make it easier to tell where it is aiming

Maps

Minor changes for performance (decreased view distances):

• Barashka (also adjusted balance)
• Putot en Bessin
• Makhnovo
• Baranovka Armoured (also adjusted balance)

Stoumont Advance:

• Removed Kubelwagens and Jeeps
• Axis are now able to field 2 tanks instead of 1

Bridgehead Advance:

• Removed an undesired minefield in the northwest part of the level Increased reinforcements Removed several no arty volumes (relics from the Push version)

Hattert Advance:

• Decreased Allied crewman roles to 3 Replaced the unfinished M22 Locust with a M5 Stuart

Black Day July:

• Some balance changes to hopefully make the map worthy of keeping around Construction Reduce placement radius of barbed wire obstacle, so they can be closer together and closer to other objects

Infantry

• MG42 and MG34 deployed recoil has been reduced

Miscellaneous

• Changes to protocol for connecting to servers that are passworded:
• Players will now be required to enter the password each time (even on level change)
• Players will no longer get a black screen when connecting to a passworded server
• Players should no longer be required to change their name to join a passworded server
• New admin menu for the AdminMutator:
• New setting to change the server’s password in real time (WebAdmin requires a level change, this setting will be instantaneous)
• New toggleable setting to lock weapons so players cannot fire If you have use for any commands not yet implemented, please let us know!

Optimization

This update we continue to decrease view distances of Advance levels for performance sake. In addition, this update has several more maps using the dynamic view distance setting we added last update. So far we’ve had no complaints about it and no one really even noticing it, so we figured it was time to implement it on more levels. Again, the setting is not enabled by default and can be enabled in the display settings. It works by automatically adjusting your view distance for you based on your desired FPS.

Survey

We have created a new survey, surveys have been very successful for us to understand what the community wants and what path Darkest Hour needs to take. If you haven't already please complete the survey and help us keep Darkest Hour on the right path! See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2018-03-31 07:51:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Darkest Hour: Europe ‘44-’45 update 8.0.7 has arrived!
This update is a blend of new content, updated maps, balance tweaks, optimization, and design changes.

Gameplay

• Decreased the amount of grenades players spawn with to one (1), while increasing the maximum grenades players can carry to three (3). This is also paired with the addition of a placeable grenade crate (see below). These change were made to reduce the ubiquitous grenade spam, while at the same time allowing well organized teams to have a matériel advantage.

Maps

Stoumont (Advance)

• Significantly expanded the boundaries of the level.
• Objectives and spawn areas changed to better suit the new game mode.

Black Day July (Advance)

• Added loading screen and overview.
• Added trenches to various locations
• Added vegetation around towns and added more houses
• Gave Allies an additional T34 and set Allies to Axis ratio to 60%

Dead Man's Corner

• Changed the final objective to be easier for Allies by moving Axis spawn and by increasing reinforcement interval

Construction

Grenade Boxes (NEW):

• Costs 350 supply
• Provides 15 grenades to teammates

Platoon HQ

• Can now be built closer to other friendly HQs (limit was 250 meters, now 200)
• Fixed an issue where the Allied HQ could be placed in a position that would block the exit

Supply Cache

• Now contains the amount of supplies used to place it after being constructed.
• Now deposits generated supplies more often (was every 20 seconds, now every 5 seconds)
• Now generates more supplies (was 100/minute, now 120/minute)

Infantry

• Players can now shovel 33% faster
• Players in the prone position now have less recoil (was 50% reduction, changed to 60%)
• Slightly reduced recoil of Sturmgewehr 44

Vehicles

• Tweaked truck (GMC, Opel, ZiS-5V) tire friction to increase traction
• Tweaked truck hand-brake performance so they will not “spin out” as easily
• Decreased vehicle impact damage threshold
• Adjusted truck health to be significantly higher (from 150 to 1000)
• Soft vehicles (cars, trucks, etc) will now blow up after 10 seconds if their engine is on fire

AT Guns

• Soviet AT guns can now aim slightly lower

Optimization

Aside from the normal optimization treatment we have been giving to individual levels, we have also added an experimental optimization technique that will dynamically adjust your fog distance (view distance) based on your frame rate performance. This technique is disabled by default. When enabled, it will only have an affect on Black Day July and Stoumont Advance. If this technique proves to be useful, we will propagate the functionality to all other maps. See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2018-03-17 09:44:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

We're back again with another update! This update adds the long-awaited Squad Leader's Assistant role! Squad leaders can now assign a squad member as an assistant, allowing that player to place constructions and mark enemies on the situation map. This will allow the squad leader to focus on rally point placement and leading the squad into battle! More to come! See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2018-02-23 07:57:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

[img=https://i.imgur.com/OoL5rQw.jpg] Darkest Hour: Europe '44-'45 is getting another big update today! Here are some of the highlights!

Maps

• Added new Advance map "Butovo".

Gameplay

• Squad leaders are now able to call in artillery from radios.

Interface

• Calling artillery from radios is now more intuitive.
• Constructions are now divided into groups for easier menu navigation.
• Squad leaders are now able to spot enemies via the "command" menu.

Logistics Trucks

• Logistics trucks no longer generate supplies.
• Logistics trucks are now able to unload and load asupplies to or from nearby Supply Caches.

Supply Cache

• Supply Caches now generate supplies over time.
• Supply Caches must now be "dug" to be fully constructed.

Constructions

• Added Watchtower construction.
• Added Radio construction.
• Added Ammo Crate (Vehicles) construction..

There have also been a handful of very minor changes and balance tweaks to vehicles and infantry weapons. See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games P.S. A note to server administrators: there have been changes to the package structure that requires you to add a line to your DarkestHour.ini file in order for the game to function correctly. To fix this, follow the guide here!

[ 2018-02-11 11:09:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

Learn everything you wanted to know, but were afraid to ask, about Darkest Hour's new Squad Rally Point mechanics from our new video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWwepskZNHE

[ 2018-02-11 10:31:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

(temporarily announcement) Get the copy for you or your friend and enjoy Dakest Hour in enlarged Community ;)

[ 2017-12-23 16:10:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Darklight Games is proud to announce that Darkest Hour's new v8.0 update has now entered LIVE BETA! This means that the v8.0 update is now live on Steam for all to play! This update adds a number of exciting new features such as squads, constructions, and more. Since this is the largest and most technically ambitious update the game has ever seen, we are making sure to get it right! This is why we are releasing the game for our community to play while we work out any remaining kinks in a real-world environment. Be sure to join the 500+ strong Discord community to discuss the changes, make suggestions, or report any bugs! See you on the battlefield! Chat with us on Discord: http://discord.gg/EEwFhtk Support us on Patron: https://www.patreon.com/darkesthourgame Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/darkesthourgame Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/darklight_games Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqRNIWsgJDqsocwUHykvkBg P.S. A full changelog will be made available soon.

[ 2017-10-31 05:10:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

Want in on this Sunday's Beta test, but not sure how the squad system works? Here is a handy video that introduces the basics of how to join and lead squads. https://youtu.be/2AyDRl6kK20 Beta Schedule: http://steamcommunity.com/games/DH/events Get The Beta: https://github.com/DarklightGames/DarkestHour/wiki/Beta-Test Make sure to be there this Sunday the 22nd @ 5pm GMT for 128 player test!!!! See you on the battlefield!

[ 2017-10-19 21:54:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Darkest Hour 8.0 is now beta! We have scheduled all the beta tests for 8.0 you can find them here: http://steamcommunity.com/games/DH/events Do not miss these beta tests. We are recording footage for the 8.0 trailer and we have opened the server to 128 slots. Spread the word, 128 slots! And help us put the 8.0 beta server to the test! We plan to release the 8.0 beta change log this Friday. We are less than a month away from the planned 8.0 release date of November 11th. We would like to thank those who helped test in Alpha and a special thanks to those who have reported issues we have since fixed. See you on the battlefield.

[ 2017-10-17 04:33:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Yes it is only gameplay video - still no change-log . Check the in-video cards or description for more. Click the image for YouTube video: [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVubVAqLWzg][img=http://www.red.orchestra.pl/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/DH-Beta-1.jpg]

[ 2017-10-17 04:07:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Click the image for YouTube video: [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zllp-gp3Fqs][img=http://www.red.orchestra.pl/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/DH-alfatest-thumb.jpg]

[ 2017-10-02 11:17:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Sunday Oct. 1st @ 5pm GMT (1pm EST) Join us for the test which will mark 8.0 feature complete and thrust us into Beta! This test is highlighted by the last new maps we plan to add for 8.0, a new high-performance server, and improvements across the board. Those not setup or that want to join and help us finalize 8.0 can learn how here: https://github.com/DarklightGames/DarkestHour/wiki/Beta-Test Those who want to discuss and report problems they found, can do so our discord here: https://discord.gg/pAqmTnJ So hop in and see us on the battlefield!

[ 2017-09-30 04:21:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

Help us fill the test server! We need full population tests! Test setup instructions: https://github.com/DarklightGames/DarkestHour/wiki/Beta-Test

[ 2017-08-07 04:06:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

Join us for another round of alpha testing. Since the last tests, we've got some new goodies:

• Foxholes!
• New M3 HT (replacing the old and a M16 variant)
• Bridgehead Advance

To switch to the test version follow these instructions: https://github.com/DarklightGames/DarkestHour/wiki/Beta-Test See you on the battlefield!

[ 2017-08-05 22:54:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

Darkest Hour: Europe '44-'45 now has an official Discord server! Click the link below to join the community! https://discord.gg/RKpwrbr See you there!

[ 2017-07-20 22:04:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

[url=https://www.patreon.com/posts/heads-up-13014167]
Just a quick update so everyone knows what's going on with the progress of v8.0. The alpha tests we have had (and that you've been a part of!) have been great! The tests have shown us a few places where we need to improve and refine the mechanics. Most importantly, it has shown us that we are definitely on the right track. Some of the team have been developing Darkest Hour for 5 years, and we have never seen near-unanimous approval of any changes we've made to the game until now. The new mechanics create a dynamic, player-driven battlefield on top of the rock-solid and exciting combined arms combat that Darkest Hour is best known for. v8.0 is clearly the update that the game needs to stay fun, exciting, and relevant in 2017 and beyond. Excitement and motivation is at an all-time high as we hunker down to finalize the first beta (feature-complete) build for public testing. The next public play-test is likely to be in mid-to-late August. Assuming all goes well in that test and no game-breaking bugs are discovered, we will pivot towards creating a build for eventual public release of 8.0 in early Q4 of 2017. Thank you to everyone who has supported the game and our efforts in all ways, large and small. The best days are ahead of us.

[ 2017-07-15 23:31:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

Click the image for YouTube video: [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19MSu1ReJGI][img=http://www.red.orchestra.pl/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/dark-alfa-thumb.jpg]

[ 2017-07-10 16:49:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

The beta server is now up and running, make sure to restart steam if you didn't get an update in the last couple minutes.

[ 2017-07-09 15:34:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

8.0 Alpha Test! Sunday July 9th @ 5pm GMT
We were not going to test this weekend, wanting to wait for more stuff to be complete, but we have new maps ready to test! If you want to join, remember to opt into beta and join the test server. For more instructions: https://github.com/DarklightGames/DarkestHour/wiki/Beta-Test (Don't forget to opt out of beta afterwards if you want to play live DH again) Since last test we've worked on:

• Improved various maps
• Adjustments to reinforcements and attrition
• Supply vehicles now generate supply over time
• Major changes to performance and handling of:
  • GMC Truck
  • Opel Blitz
  • Jeep
  • Kubel
• Added shovel sounds
• Added rally point swap ability (turn active RP into the inactive one and inactive becomes active)
• Removed reinforcement obscuring system (??? reinforcements during round)
• Removed restriction of # of dead bodies and made bodies stay for a given amount of time (default 30 seconds)
• Made enemy reinforcements hidden again (like in 5.1)
• Many bug fixes including:
  • Fixed Squad member notification messages that were not accurate
  • Fixed Allied Pawn skin/face texture on uniform
  • Fixed drawing issues with squad numbers and member locations on map
  • Fixed a bug where the SL could make a rally point alone

^ That will not be a comprehensive list as we will have other changes in later today and early tomorrow. - See you on the battlefield

[ 2017-07-08 17:05:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

The server is up!
Join now and ask questions and learn about the changes! How to get the build: https://github.com/DarklightGames/DarkestHour/wiki/Beta-Test

[ 2017-07-01 16:02:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Lets fill the server!

Help us ascend Darkest Hour into new heights as we test the Squad System, Rally Points, Platoon HQs, and Construction! You won't want to miss this. How to get the beta build: https://github.com/DarklightGames/DarkestHour/wiki/Beta-Test Change Log So Far: 8.0 Alpha Change Log See you on the battlefield.

[ 2017-06-30 18:21:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

The next test date is this Saturday July 1st at 1pm EST (5pm GMT)

Make sure to be there we need to fill the server! How to get the beta build: https://github.com/DarklightGames/DarkestHour/wiki/Beta-Test We hope to have Hedgerow Hell and Hattert finished in time, but we still have many other things to test if neither make it. Other changes/progress since last test includes:

• Improvements to construction/logistics
• New default controls (and new control profiles)
• Pre-attached bayonets
• Tank locking system (work in progress)
• German shovel (spade)
• Dozens of other changes/fixes

The test can be a ton of fun, so show up! See you on the battlefield.

[ 2017-06-28 05:09:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

We are super happy with the test on Sunday and motivation is up. However, we want to flesh things out a bit more for the next test. Fixing up the logistics and preparing more maps to be ready will take time. So we've decided to not test this coming weekend. And we will schedule the next test as soon as we are ready for one. So please be patient. As a distraction to the fact DH 8.0 isn't live, I'd like to offer a challenge to everyone. I want everyone to get a microphone and begin using it, conquer your shyness, and get more involved with communication. Play the live DH and try calling out some enemies and get used to using your voice. The 8.0 update is all about teamwork and teamwork without communication is like sex without genitals. See you gents on the battlefield!

[ 2017-06-19 22:12:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

This test was a huge success and I want to thank everyone for showing up. I had a blast! Tests will continue next weekend (we need time to fix stuff up). We managed to test (pretty much) full rounds of Lutremange, Putot, and Cambes, and even Stoumont_Cutoff at the end. All were amazingly fun and unique. As a SL there are so many things to do and we will be adjusting to make sure the SL isn't TOO overwhelmed. Also it seems voice communication is finally working. Local chat after 9 years, finally works! Still some bugs to work out, but otherwise we are moving towards filling in missing features. In the mean time head over to the steam discussion board and discuss ideas: http://steamcommunity.com/app/1280/discussions/ Again our 8.0 alpha change log is here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CuBVYWKVHk4eM6wEdQpu0m1E_hLkRjrio4SPT7rCz2M/ And can be obtained by following this guide: https://github.com/DarklightGames/DarkestHour/wiki/Beta-Test Hope to see everyone next weekend!

[ 2017-06-18 22:04:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

The test went okay, pretty much what we expected, lots of bugs and a nasty client crash. Underneath that though, we saw the potential of the update. We want to fix the client crash and improve as much as we can tonight so we can give it another shot tomorrow. So we are asking if you guys would show up again tomorrow the same time! We really want to nearly fill the 64 player server, so please answer the call of duty! NEXT TEST: Sunday the 18th @ 1pm EST (5pm GMT) For those that missed out on today, you can join us tomorrow! How to get the 8.0 test version: https://github.com/DarklightGames/DarkestHour/wiki/Beta-Test After a few weeks we hope to be out of Alpha, but its going to be tough. Many of us are very busy with life stuff.

[ 2017-06-18 00:31:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

The 8.0 alpha testing starts in 1 hour, make sure to help us test this update! You can get setup to help test by following this guide. See you on the battlefield!

[ 2017-06-17 15:52:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello gents, You can now download and get setup for the steam beta build, which is what we are using for the 8.0 Alpha test. There are a lot of things you need to know! How to get the steam beta build: https://github.com/DarklightGames/DarkestHour/wiki/Beta-Test Note: Please remember you have to opt out of beta to play normal DH again!!! Resetting your controls: Once you are in the 8.0 alpha, some controls have been added/changed and to make use of them you need to go into your controls and select a control profile (then set your controls how you want). Changelog: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CuBVYWKVHk4eM6wEdQpu0m1E_hLkRjrio4SPT7rCz2M/edit?usp=sharing THIS IS AN ALPHA!!! Things are broken and unfinished! There will be bugs! Well I hope that was enough of a warning! Again the test is tomorrow (Saturday the 17th) at 1pm EST (5pm GMT).

[ 2017-06-17 00:01:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Well it is past due, but it is time for 8.0 update testing! This update will be the largest update for the Darkest Hour mod yet and we are not even feature complete yet. Therefore, we are calling this 8.0 Alpha testing and those who help us test should not expect things to be final. The testing will go on as long as we need it to. To start things off, we are scheduling the first 8.0 test for Saturday the 17th, at 1pm EST. We expect the test to last a couple of hours or longer if things go well. We will be testing the squad system, rally points, construction, maps, and the new game type Advance. For a more complete list of changes so far, you can check out our work in progress change log here.

[ 2017-06-15 19:06:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

We're back at it again, this time with a small but important patch that fixes a couple of important bugs:

• Fixed an exploit where vehicle cannons could be reloaded faster than intended.
• Fixed a bug where TeamSay would not work when the player was dead.

As an added bonus, there are some new and improved sounds for a number of weapons, so keep an ear out for them! In other news, since we launched our Patreon campaign last month, our generous patrons have helped us FAR surpass our first goal of getting all the operating costs of the project covered! This means that any additional donations will go directly towards adding new content to the game. Thank you to all of our players and patrons for their continued support! See you on the battlefield, Daklight Games

[ 2017-05-11 08:53:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

Comrades, Darklight Games is now accepting monthly donations via Patreon, an online crowdfunding platform, to support continued development of Darkest Hour. Pledging as a little as $1 a month will get you exclusive access to our Patreon feed where we will post development updates and sneak peeks that can't be seen anywhere else! Click here to learn more about it and to pledge your support! Thank you, Darklight Games

[ 2017-04-02 07:42:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Click the image for YouTube video: [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAKAKNwGWBc][img=https://i.ytimg.com/vi/TAKAKNwGWBc/maxresdefault_live.jpg]

[ 2017-03-24 20:06:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

click the image [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXQQuGYWpjY][img=https://i.ytimg.com/vi/iXQQuGYWpjY/maxresdefault_live.jpg]

[ 2017-03-24 20:06:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Comrades, Short and sweet this time: we have released a patch that fixes the persistent screen blurring bug that some players were experiencing. See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2017-03-03 08:43:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

Check other Players footage (in video description and in-video cards) Click the image for YouTube video: [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-zmIupqoI4][img=http://www.red.orchestra.pl/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/20170224-web.jpg]

[ 2017-02-25 13:44:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Scum was streaming live with English commentary. Click the image for it: [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDpzRAIaYuU][img=http://www.red.orchestra.pl/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/20170224-web-768x432.jpg]

[ 2017-02-24 21:35:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Another round on the house!
We will be testing 7.2.0 update this weekend. We will release the change log right before the test. To get the beta build, follow the simple instructions here (https://github.com/DarklightGames/DarkestHour/wiki/Beta-Test).

[ 2017-02-18 02:13:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

Click the image for YouTube video: [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMB8CX_8JFg][img=http://www.red.orchestra.pl/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/20170127-web.jpg]

[ 2017-01-28 15:35:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

There was a 4K one, but at 2K DH looks cool either ;) P.S. Join for next one(s) to improve our footage by your mighty presence ;) (click the image for YouTube video) [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U39AHrynsqo][img=http://www.red.orchestra.pl/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/20161223-web.jpg]

[ 2016-12-24 20:21:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

Steam has started a player driven award system. We feel Darkest Hour deserves a "Test of Time" award, if you agree head to the store page here and nominate it.

[ 2016-11-23 23:03:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

A couple hours after release there was an event to celelebrate the new version - here is our footage ;) [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxA3f8RdmTI][img=http://www.red.orchestra.pl/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/thumb.jpg]

[ 2016-11-16 17:38:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Urah! We are proud to release the latest version of Darkest Hour, which sees the addition of Ostfront units, weapons and vehicles. Of course, this also means the addition of four Ostfront maps, including the infamous fan favorite Kreigstadt (a.k.a. Berlin)! [img=http://i.imgur.com/G1qj7w6.jpg] A special thank you to the dozens of volunteers who donated their time to playtest the build! We have a variety of brand new vehicles and maps in the works, so like us on Facebook to keep up with our progress! To see a full list of the changes, you can find the change log here! See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2016-11-13 09:57:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Comrades! Our first public beta test for Darkest Hour 7.1 will start on Sunday, November 6th at 5:00 PM GMT! To join the fight, just follow these simple instructions! To keep up with our public testing events, be sure to join our public testing Steam group!
See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2016-11-06 04:47:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey guys! We've been pretty quiet as of late, due in large part to us working hard on update 7.1, which will see the addition of Eastern Front forces to Darkest Hour! We will be making a call for beta testers very soon, so keep your eyes out for that announcement coming in the next week or so! See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2016-10-31 16:53:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Sadly only 10 (sic!) players but for test ground was enough ;> Click the image for YouTube video (and read the video's description!) [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHvX-hYaFKs][img=http://www.red.orchestra.pl/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/20161021-web.jpg]

[ 2016-10-22 10:25:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

[img=https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/6T-8Gq5rbd-f2L8jwPPmq_wqp6jmmlZ2qkV9COXQO3XLE55bQRtvwsDG4T_Y06wTG6JaKZXWaKyOIJE=w946-h914]

Development Roadmap

We now have a development roadmap for planned and reachable changes. Anyone interested in the coming changes in the next update, can discuss them there.

Next Update

The next update will be 7.1.0 and it will bring the (late) Eastern Front to Darkest Hour. Early Ostfront content will have to wait, as significant work is required to bring the vehicles up to par for Darkest Hour. Other features we mostly have finished, but everything will need testing.

Testing

We plan to have a significant testing session for this update. The update will be adding seven (remastered) maps, several remastered vehicles, and add many new systems all of which need adequate testing. Testing beta builds can and will be through steam and no additional app will be required. We plan to start testing as soon as we are ready.

[ 2016-09-07 16:27:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

[img=http://www.red.orchestra.pl/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/20160826-aa.jpg] CLICK THE IMAGE for YouTube video: [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-yfXTdyqZY][img=http://www.red.orchestra.pl/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/20160826-web-768x432.jpg]

[ 2016-08-27 09:15:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

Click the image for YouTube video: [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07AxW1cY-m0][img=http://www.red.orchestra.pl/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/20160812-web-1024x576.jpg]

[ 2016-08-13 08:02:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

Haven't put the video from RO.PL FightNight after last Friday as usual, because there were not enough Fighters, but feeling lack of work well made I just did an "appendix" for FN, of course couldn't make quick extra event, so I joined the crowded server - 29th's - and this is what we captured for your joy ;) CLICK THE IMAGE FOR YouTube VIDEO: [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTMrCmL0LLU][img=http://www.red.orchestra.pl/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/th29.-thumb-resize.jpg]

[ 2016-07-15 10:22:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Darklight Games is currently looking to bring on an additional programmer to work on Darkest Hour: Europe '44-'45! The successful applicant will work alongside experienced programmers and artists to develop new features and content in a highly collaborative remote environment!
We are accepting applications from anyone with demonstrable solo or collaborative game programming experience and an interest in realistic FPS gaming! Experience with any of the following are a bonus: * UnrealScript * Python * Django * Git * Jenkins CI * Lex & Yacc Don't wait, drop us a line at hello@darklightgames.com! Be sure to tell us about your strengths and game programming experience!

[ 2016-07-14 08:02:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

We are back again with another patch! Noteable bug fixes include:

• Fixed a critical bug where a server could become “stalled” (not allowing players to join teams and therefore unable to switch to a new map)
• Fixed a bug where mortar observers would sometimes be unable to mark mortar targets
• Fixed a bug where players could suppress teammates when firing in close proximity
• Fixed a bug that prevented Simonskall’s objectives from advancing properly
• Fixed some minor issues on Caen where players could get stuck on and under terrain

In addition to the fixes, there is now a new armored beast roaming the battlefield: the Cromwell Mk. VI "Close Support" armed with a fearsome 95mm howitzer. It makes it's debut on the frontlines of Bridgehead! We have also potentially fixed a client crash that was affecting most users to varying degrees. Note that due to engine limitations, our ability to determine the root cause of some crashes is severely limited. If they persist, we may have to take more dramatic action (ie. temporarily removing functionality) to eliminate the crashes. If you haven't already, like us on Facebook for updates and news of coming updates and new content! See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2016-07-06 04:47:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

[img=http://www.red.orchestra.pl/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/20160617-aa.jpg] Click the image for YouTube video: [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ER1m8Pl5zw][img=http://www.red.orchestra.pl/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/20160617-web-1024x576.jpg]

[ 2016-06-18 07:08:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Click the image for YT video: [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te1yPLkVhwI][img=http://www.red.orchestra.pl/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/400.jpg]

[ 2016-06-11 12:10:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

As promised, we have fixed a number of the issues that arose from the D-day release. The largest complaint from players were the frequent crashes; after reviewing the code, we feel that the crashes were likely caused by out-of-date files sneaking their way into the build rather than any issues with the code itself; regardless, we do not expect the crashes will persist. Some noteable bug fixes include:

• Fix for cannons becoming "jammed"
• Fix for grenades appearing to not explode
• Fix for "dead nades" not dropping
• Fix for Artillery Officer being unable to request artillery on Bridgehead
• Fix for stance issues that would occur after using ladders
• Fix for assist-reload icon appearing over the heads of people who did not need them

We have also made many changes based on the community's response (eg. slightly reduced suppression effects, fixed volume on some sounds, etc.) As always, be sure to report any bugs you might encounter on our GitHub. We thank you for your patience and continued support! See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2016-06-10 08:27:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

To commemorate the 72nd anniversary of the D-day invasion of France, the Darklight Games team is proud to announce the release of v7.0.0! [img=http://darkesthour.darklightgames.com/public-relations/images/v7.0.0.png] In keeping with the spirit of the event, this update brings a total of 5 new Normandy levels: Vierville, St-Clement, La Cambe, Dead Man's Corner and Foucarville! The update also brings a whole bunch of new ear-candy, as we've replaced a dozen weapon sounds and completely replaced the American voices with professional voice recordings! And as always, we've made lots of changes and bug fixes, all of which can be seen in the change log! We had previously hinted that v7.0.0 would include a brand new squad system and map called Hedgerow Hell; unfortunately, we did not have enough time to finish them for the D-day update. Rest assured that this, and much more, will come in later updates! See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2016-06-06 07:34:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

The poll won [img=http://www.red.orchestra.pl/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/20160429-aa.jpg] So here is a video (click the image for YouTube footage): [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tzam7eM9-8][img=http://www.red.orchestra.pl/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/20160429-web-768x432.jpg]

[ 2016-04-30 07:33:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhqt9HdVf_g

[ 2016-03-19 09:12:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhqt9HdVf_g

[ 2016-03-19 09:11:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

[img=http://i.imgur.com/cmgsq9d.jpg] Today we have released Darkest Hour 6.0.3, a small but worthy update bringing a new vehicle to the lines -- the Sd.Kfz.10/5, a half-track equipped with the terrifying 2cm FlaK 38. We have done some new things for this vehicle; some variants of this vehicle have armor plates, but small arms fire can still penetrate the soft spots. The vehicle should be used defensively and should avoid the chaotic front unless properly supported. Our next vehicle will be the Allied counter-part, the M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage, and a complete remake of the M3 Halftrack. As always, we have fixed a few bugs including the fix for the German uniform mishap that has been common since 6.0 released. See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games P.S. Keep your eyes peeled on our Facebook in the coming weeks for an exciting announcement regarding the future of the game.

[ 2016-03-16 02:22:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! I'd like to inform you that for any reason you want to contact us and you don't like to use our standard Forum at red.orchestra.pl we have started our Facebook page you might be interested in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLv6R1owNLg

[ 2016-02-27 20:42:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHP_xG5hmDQ

[ 2016-02-20 08:28:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgBxWJYgBGw

[ 2016-02-13 10:07:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8gJHdVMh9k

[ 2016-01-16 09:20:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

We are back again with another patch! We've listened to feedback regarding the new vehicle spawning system and have implemented a system that will eliminate an issue where multiple players could all expect to spawn the same tank, yet only one would actually get to. Vehicles are now "reserved" as soon as they are selected to spawn! We have also made changes that should eliminate the need to "lead" targets in close quarters. Looking ahead, the team will be starting the transition out of bug-fixing mode and into content-creation mode, including the addition of more maps and vehicles! Stay tuned! As a side note, the team has been having a lot of fun playing these past couple weeks! However, we have noticed that on certain servers, players are experiencing a considerable amount of lag when the player counts creep up past a certain threshold (~60). As a result, we are asking server administrators to gauge the performance of their servers and adjust their maximum player slots accordingly to ensure a stable and enjoyable experience for all players. See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games P.S. If you are experiencing an "Unknown Steam Error" when a server changes maps, fear not, there is a quick and easy fix! Simply follow these instructions!

[ 2016-01-13 08:19:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azoZNf_u9vo

[ 2016-01-02 10:49:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

As promised, we have released patch 6.0.1 which addresses a number of the issues found since 6.0 dropped last week. This patch focuses mainly on fixing level issues such as low reinforcements values and problematic spawn point placements. There are, of course, a variety of other fixes as well which can be found in the change log. See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2016-01-01 08:16:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! We are happy to see everyone playing and discussing the new update! We here at Darklight have been having a blast, but our work is far from over. We recognize there are a number of issues that are hampering some players' experiences, and we are working quickly to resolve as many of them as we can. This Thursday, we will be releasing patch 6.0.1 which will address the low reinforcements on some levels, spawn placement issues and a number of small technical glitches that made their way into the 6.0.0 release. We will be releasing patches weekly (generally every Thursday) for the next month or so as we iron out the wrinkles left in the wake of this enormous update. We thank all of you for your patience and suggestions (and complaints!) thus far. As part of our new and open development process, you can track our progress on patch 6.0.1 on our GitHub. See you on the battlefield, Darklight Games

[ 2015-12-30 11:23:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Four years. It has been nearly four years since Darkest Hour has recieved an official update. Today, that changes. Darklight Games is extremely proud to finally announce the release of Darkest Hour 6.0! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojdq1M8WFfE I would like to personally thank a couple of team members by who made this update possible. Andrew Lett, our level designer, for his tireless efforts and enthusiasm, even when tasked with the monumental amount of work required to update and modernize over 30 levels by hand! Matt Hands, of the programming team, for the staggering amount of bug fixes and enhancements made to the vehicle code, and of course for diligently (and exhaustively) documenting every commit! Other special mentions include Peter Klinger, Piotr Lukasik, Torben Hensgens and Ian Campbell. Of course, we also thank our faithful testing team whose efforts have helped make this the most stable and bug free version of Darkest Hour since it's inception. This is not our last hurrah. Darklight Games will continue to update and modernize the game on a significantly more regular basis. We will provide more information on this in the coming weeks, but for now, we can't wait to play with all of you! Those interested can find the change log here. Long live Darkest Hour! Sincerely, Colin Basnett Darklight Games

[ 2015-12-27 07:14:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Last - if the 6.0 comes out in January 2016 ;) as there is an info that this mod for DH will be not supported (sadly) in newest DH version. So there is Christmas footage ;) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrIaE74ESVU

[ 2015-12-26 09:57:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

We are excited to announce that public testing for update 6.0 has officially come to a successful end! We would like to thank everyone who came out for donating their valuable time and helping us ensure the release is as bug free and enjoyable as possible! An extra special thanks to those who made it out almost every time. You know who you are. Thank you! As a tribute to all who attended the test sessions, here is a group photo we took after filming footage for the update 6.0 trailer. We can't thank you enough and are looking forward to seeing you by our sides in the trenches or in our cross-hairs very soon! [url=https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xlf1/t31.0-8/1498035_10153829194776692_2447947984217822450_o.jpg][img=https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xlf1/t31.0-8/1498035_10153829194776692_2447947984217822450_o.jpg]

[ 2015-12-22 09:51:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

We need more for a Bridgehead test, get in here!

[ 2015-12-12 21:24:08 CET ] [ Original post ]