At long last and after much anticipation, we are proud to announce the release of the Italy Expansion for Darkest Hour: Europe '44-'45!
This expansion adds the Italian faction to the game, as well as a bevy of new vehicles, weapons, and maps.
This has been a huge undertaking for our team, and speaking as the team lead, I'm very proud of everything that we've accomplished. We know that all the content we've created for this update is by far the best we've ever made, and think you'll agree.
The Italian Army
Coming out of the crucible of World War I, Italy did not fare very well. Although it had ostensibly been victorious, its ambitions of vast territorial expansion had been thwarted by post-war treaties, leaving the political landscape of Italy in turmoil.
The rise of Benito Mussolini and the fascist party in the 1920s saw a renewed interest in military expansionism, culminating in the successful Italian invasions of Ethiopia and Albania in the 1930s in an attempt to restore the lost glory of the Roman Empire around the Mediterranean Sea (the "Mare Nostrum", lit. "Our Sea").
Italy declared war on the Allies in 1940 during the invasion of France, launching a very unsuccessful attack through the Alps. Soon after, it launched a disastrous invasion of Greece in 1940. What was expected to be a quick victory against a relatively weak opponent turned into a prolonged and costly campaign, requiring German assistance to stabilize the front.
The war dragged on, and following the Axis' stunning defeat at Stalingrad in February of 1943, Axis territorial gains in the east were being erased with increasing speed. The Axis forces had been pushed out of North Africa in May of 1943, undoing virtually all of the Italian conquests of the previous decade.
It is amidst this backdrop that Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily, began in July 1943.
Vehicles
This update sees the addition of 9 brand new vehicles to the game; 8 of which are unique to the Italian faction.
Autoblinda 41
The Autoblinda 41 armored car is a fast and extremely maneuverable vehicle that's excellent for scouting and anti-infantry. Its 20mm cannon is capable of destroying light vehicles with ease, but will be dramatically less effective attempting to engage even lightly armored tanks head-on.
It is also unique in that it is the only vehicle in the game with a rear-facing machine-gun, allowing it to defend itself from enemy infantry attempting to flank it.
Autocarretta OM 32, 36P
The Autocaretta OM 32 and 36P are light trucks used for both transporting troops and supplies. Despite its small size and under-powered engine, the OM 36P can transport 10 men, and the OM 32 can carry a half load of supplies (1000 supplies instead of the normal 2000).
Carro Velocce 33 (CV-33, L3/33)
One of the smallest armored vehicles fielded by any nation during the war, this tankette is nimble and lightly armored and armed with two 6.5mm machine-guns. Despite it's diminutive stature, it excels at scouting and harassing enemy infantry and light vehicles while keeping a very low profile.
Fiat 508CM
The Fiat 508CM is a light utility vehicle used mainly as a scouting and staff car. One unique feature of the Fiat 508CM is that it has a working radio in the back seat, allowing squad leaders to call in artillery strikes from the front lines.
Fiat 626
The workhorse hauler of the Italian army, the Fiat 626 is capable of carrying a large number of troops and supplies. It has no armaments, so like any light vehicle, it is vulnerable to all manner of enemy fire.
Fiat L6/40
A light tank armed with a 20mm cannon and a 8mm machine-gun; the majority of these were destroyed or captured by the Allies during the North African campaign. It can excel at engaging lightly armored vehicles and unsupported infantry, but will struggle against anything with more than a few millimeters of armor.
Semovente 47/32
The most produced Italian self-propelled gun of the war, the Semovente 47/32 is armed with a 47mm cannon capable of penetrating most enemy tanks from the side and rear. It's low profile and good maneuverability make it an excellent ambush vehicle, but thin armor and an open-topped turret make it extremely vulnerable to enemy fire.
Semovente 90/53
A self-propelled gun sporting a devastating 90mm cannon, the Semovente 90/53 is capable of easily destroying any enemy vehicle it encounters. This power comes with a pretty dramatic drawback, though, since the small chassis can can only carry 8 extra rounds. The gun crew is also exposed to enemy fire from its rear. However, with good positioning, accurate gunnery, and logistical support, it has the potential to be the deciding factor in any battle.
DUKW
The DUKW is a versatile amphibious vehicle used by the United States landing forces in Sicily to transport troops and supplies to the landing beaches and beyond. It's enormous size and poor maneuverability makes it difficult to use inland, so it's better suited for the open sea.
Guns
Cannone da 47/32
The Cannone da 47/32 is a light 47mm anti-tank gun capable of decent penetration, though it will struggle against heavier tanks like the M4 Sherman, especially from the front. Despite this, it's very low profile makes it difficult to spot, especially when the wheels are removed.
Mortaio da 81/14 mod. 35
The most successful mortar of the Italian armed forces during the war. Based on the French Brandt Mle 27/31, the Mortaio da 81/14 mod. 35 is a medium 81mm mortar capable of firing a variety of rounds, as well as an ultra-heavy high-explosive round.
Weapons
Beretta mod. 34
This compact semi-automatic pistol was the standard sidearm of the Italian army. Despite it's relatively underpowered .380 ACP cartridge, it's small size and light weight made it a popular choice for officers and other personnel who needed a sidearm that was easy to carry.
Breda mod. 30
There are many things that have been said about the Breda mod. 30; most of them not very flattering. Intended as a squad light machine-gun, it's heavy weight, low effective rate of fire, and unique loading mechanism made it extremely ineffective in it's assigned role. We've taken great pains to make sure that the Breda modello 30 is as historically accurate as possible (including animating ammo being spilled out on reloads), so players will be able to experience the same boiling frustration that the Italian soldiers did.
Carcano mod. 91 and 91/38
The Carcano mod. 91 was the standard issue bolt-action rifle of the Italian army. It's 6.5mm cartridge is comparatively underpowered compared to the standard issue rifles of other nations, but it's light weight and good handling characteristics made it a popular choice for the Italian infantry.
In addition, certain roles will have access to the Carcano mod. 91/38, a short barreled variant with a foldable bayonet.
Developer Highlight: When chambering the final round, you can hear the distinctive sound of the en-bloc clip being ejected from the bottom of the rifle.
Fucile Controcarro 35(P)
Originally of Polish origin as the Wz. 35, the Fucile Controcarro 35(P) is a bolt-action, magazine-fed anti-tank rifle with an impressive high-velocity cartridge capable of penetrating most light tanks from the side and rear.
MAB mod. 38-A and 38-A/42
This sub-machine gun was a very effective weapon owing to it's great handling and high rate of fire. Unfortunately, it was issued almost exclusively to Blackshirt divisions that were attached to larger army groups. As a result, it was rarely seen in the hands of regular infantry units.
This weapon can be found exclusively in the hands of the Italian "Camicie Nere" (Blackshirts).
Additionally, the later mod. 38-A/42 variant can be found in the hands of late war German troops on the eastern front.
OTO Tipo L (Anti-Tank Grenade)
Kicking off the the theme of extremely dangerous impact fuzed grenades, the OTO Tipo L is a large anti-tank grenade with a powerful 1.5kg explosive charge useful for destroying or immobilizing vehicles. Since it's heavy and can't be thrown far, make sure to throw this from cover!
SRCM mod. 35
Dubbed the "red devil" by the Allies, the SRCM Mod. 35 was one of the standard hand grenades used by the Italian army. Unlike the standard grenades used by other nations, it uses an impact fuse, making it extremely dangerous to use in close quarters. The impact fuzes had a habit of failing to detonate when landing on soft ground, leaving a live grenade on the ground that could blow up if disturbed.
SRCM mod. 35 (Incendiary Smoke)
The SRCM Mod. 35 (Incendiary Smoke) is a variant of the standard hand grenade that produces a thick cloud of white phosphorus smoke when detonated. In addition to it's typical use as a smoke screen, the white phosphorus can cause severe burns to anyone unfortunate enough to be near the detonation, as well as being a potentially lethal choking hazard.
Maps
The Italy expansion sees the addition of 5 brand new maps.
The new maps in this first Italian expansion are focused on Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily in 1943. They follow the historical progression of the Battle of Gela, where US 1st and 2nd Infantry Divisions landed against the Italian 4th Infantry "Livorno" Division and the German 1st Fallschirm-Panzer Division Hermann Göring. Their goal was to secure the town of Gela, then push inland to capture the critical airfield at Ponte Olivo.
Gela (32-64 players)
The town of Gela was one of the main landing points for the invasion of Sicily due to its proximity to the Ponte Olivo airfield.
The invaders will have to fight their way off the beaches, ascend through a dense urban area, then push outwards into the sprawling Sicilan countryside.
Niscemi Outkirts (24-64 players)
Niscemi is a hilltop town that was used as a staging area for counterattacks against the invading Allies immediately following the invasion.
The Allies will have to fight an uphill battle against fixed Italian defensive positions to reach the outskirts of the town.
Ponte Olivo Airfield (32-64 players)
Capturing the airfield at Ponte Olivo was critical to the success of the invasion of Sicily, both to deny the German and Italian forces the ability to use it, and to grant the Allies a staging ground for their own air operations further inland.
This is the largest map in the update and features almost all of the new vehicles and equipment.
San Valentino (24-64 players)
This popular map has been completely re-imagined for the Italy expansion. The original map allegedly took place in the Italian countryside, though it certainly didn't look the part!
This is a fictional scenario set during the full-scale retreat of the Italian Livorno Division to more defensible positions once the Allies had established unassailable beachheads.
Villa Cecila (8-32 players)
This map is a fictional representation of a palatial estate in the Sicilian countryside. It is a small, infantry-only map with a focus on close-quarters combat in and around the villa and its gardens.
Localization
The game has now been fully localized to the following languages:
Polski (Polish)
русский (Russian)
українська (Ukrainian)
As a result, players are now able to type in Cyrillic and Polish characters in the game's chat.
Historically, the game only had partial localization support for German. However, the localization had never been updated after its initial release well over a decade ago.
We have developed a system that will allow us to add localization for more languages in the future as well as keep the existing ones up to date as the game continues to evolve. We hope that this will make the game more accessible to players from all over the world.
Please note that in order for the game to show up in these languages, your Steam Interface Language must be set to one of the supported languages. This is because the game's engine code predates Steam's ability to set languages on a per-game basis.
If you'd like to help us localize the game into your native language, please visit our localization portal!
Changes and Additions
New Mortars
82-BM-36 Mortar (Soviet Union, Poland)
Granatwerfer 34 (Germany)
M1 Mortar (United States of America)
Ordnance ML 3-inch Mortar (Britain, Canada)
Map Icon Overhaul
The map icons for vehicles and stationary weapons have been completely overhauled to be more accurate to the equipment that they represent.
To help with battlefield awareness, friendly guns & vehicle icons are now color-coded to indicate their status. For example, unoccupied anti-tank guns will now be colored grey, while occupied ones will be blue, or green if the occupant is a squadmate.
In addition, the icon used for vehicle spawn points has been modified so as not to obscure the icon for the vehicle itself, so you should have a better idea of what kind of vehicle you're spawning into.
Finally, all friendly vehicles will now be visible on the map at all times. We will monitor if this has a negative impact on the usability of the map, and will adjust as necessary.
Font Overhaul
To accommodate the localization efforts, all the game's fonts have been completely overhauled!
We have tried to keep the original aesthetic of the fonts while making them more readable and consistent. For example, drop-shadowing is now applied more consistently across the UI, making the text easier to read.
In addition, text will scale more consistently based on the resolution. As a result, players using higher resolutions (e.g. 2K) will be pleased to find that the game's fonts are no longer unreadably small.
Logistics
The Platoon HQ has been renamed to Command Post.
Panzerfaust crates now contain 4 Panzerfausts instead of 2.
The M45 Quadmount has been removed from the default available constructions. This gun was being massively overreppresented on the battlefield in ways that were glaringly ahistoric. It will still be available as a pre-placed gun.
Increased the resupply count of vehicle resupply constructions from 15 to 25.
Resupplying vehicles and guns now works more consistently. When a vehicle resupply tick happens, it will attempt to distribute a set number of rounds evenly among the available ammunition types. This allows for generally faster and more consistent resupplying.
New Variant & Skin System
Players can now select different variants and skins for guns placed in the world.
For example, the Cannone 47/32 has two variants, one with wheels and one without, this selection affects how high the gun sits.
Skins are also selectable, although winter skins will only be available on winter maps.
Category & Limits Overhaul
The construction loadout system has been overhauled to allow for easier and more fine-grained control over what each team can build on a map.
In the past, constructions could only be limited by "category" (e.g., light anti-tank guns, heavy anti-tank guns, etc.), and had to be defined per-level, which was a manual and time intensive ordeal that was prone to human error and oversight.
Now, we have per-nation default construction loadout limits, as well as retaining the ability to further restrict or add individual constructions on a per-level basis, depending on historical accuracy and balance considerations. This should dramatically reduce the amount of over-the-top "gun spam" that can occur.
In addition, there are now hard limits on the amount of total constructions that can be built, whereas before there was only a soft limit that could be fairly easily bypassed. This new behavior mirrors the total & active limitations in the vehicle spawning system.
Gameplay
Players can now capture and use enemy stationary weapons. However, these weapons cannot be resupplied by the capturing team.
Squad leaders and assistant squad leaders are now given wire cutters by default.
The artillery response delay has been standardized to 15 seconds for all teams instead of relying on the length of the request sound effect.
Reduced or removed role respawn penalties for some roles (e.g., sniper, light-machine gunner etc.)
Increased the default pistol rate of fire from 4 per second to 5 per second.
Players directly under a landing mortar will no longer hear the incoming whistling sound, mirroring real-life behavior of how the sound propagates.
The threshold for surrender votes has been increased from 50% to 60% to combat excessive early retreating.
Radios will now be in a "calibrating" stage during the setup phase.
Signaling
Changes to the signalling (in-world fire, move, spotting markers) system:
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.
The signal recipient radius has been reduced from 50 meters to 25 meters.
These changes should alleviate the exploitation of signals to accurately shoot through vegetation that the gunner they cannot see through either solo or with the help of others.
Vehicles
Interface and Settings
The scoreboard can now be visible even when the HUD is hidden.
Range indicators on vehicle cannons are now hidden when the HUD is hidden.
The "self" color has been changed from orange to gold. This better differentiates the local player from enemy markers.
Rocket weapons now display a small readout of the current range after toggling the range setting.
Increased the default FOV from 85 to 90 degrees.
The option to spawn with a bayonet already attached is now on by default.
Vehicle occupant list is no longer displayed if the player is the sole occupant.
Vehicle occupant numbers are now white instead of black, making them easier to read.
The rally point status icon is no longer displayed while in a vehicle.
Improved the appearance and extensibility of control prompt messages.
Weapons
Some scopes have had the reticle updated to be less chunky and view-obscuring.
Scoped weapons have been zeroed consistently for 100m.
FG42 now has slightly less recoil and a flatter recoil curve, making it more controllable.
Removed the requirement to be stationary in order to fire infantry anti-tank weapons (e.g., Panzerschreck, Bazooka)
Miscellaneous
Removed additional patron voting power. This was disabled on all official servers already, but custom servers would have this on by default.
American flag texture now uses the historically accurate 48-star version.
A hint is now sent to the driver of Higgins boats on how to raise and lower the ramp.
Squad names are now reset to the default when a new squad leader is assigned. This is to ensure that squad leaders can't be blamed for bad squad names set by their predecessors.
The near-clip distance of the camera has been doubled from 2 units to 4 units. This should reduce the prevalence of z-fighting.
Maps
The following maps have been removed due to unpopularity or redundancy.
Effects
Grenades that have a "spoon" will now have the spoon fly off when the grenade is thrown (e.g., Mk. II grenade, F1 grenade etc.)
Grenades impacting surfaces now have unique sounds depending on the type of surface hit.
Mortar and grenades now have new and unique explosion effects.
Grenade scorch decal changed to be more realistic.
SDK
A team-specific delay to spawning during the setup phase can be added using the new TeamAddSpawningEnabledTime property in the DHSetupPhaseManager.
Roles can now be locked and unlocked by firing events to the new DH_ModifyRole actor.
Spawn points can now be set to only allow vehicles to spawn using the new ESPT_VehicleOnly spawn point type (previously, ESPT_Vehicle spawn points would allow tank crewmen to spawn on foot).
Spawn points can now be set to only spawn boat vehicles using the new bBoatSpawn spawn point property.
New PhaseEndEventName added to DHSetupPhaseManager to call an event when the setup phase ends.
Added StopArty console command to stop all artillery spawners while debugging.
Added DH_ModifyVehiclePool actor that can be triggered to modify the properties of vehicle pools.
Bug Fixes
Voice command audio sources will now be properly attached to the player pawn instead of the location of the player when they issued the command.
Voice commands will no longer continue to play after the player has died.
Patron spotting signals will now be properly displayed in-world and send a voice command.
Fixed a bug where it was possible for boat vehicles to become immobile if the driver ever left the driver's seat.
Tracer rounds for some weapons (Bren, ZB30 etc.) will no longer be misaligned with the barrel from the perspective of the gunner.
Fixed a bug where the pre-launch-trace would suppress tracer rounds from being spawned when firing at nearby targets.
Vehicle friendly fire beeping sound no longer plays when no damage is done (i.e., meleeing a friendly truck)
Fixed a bug where the pitch of the mortar whistling sound would always be incorrect while spectating.
Fixed a bug where mortars that hit things on ascent (e.g., nearby trees) wouldn't explode immediately.
ToggleSelectedArtilleryTarget command now has a default keybind set.
Fixed an issues where the default graphics settings we set incorrectly (they are now set to Highest setting).
Fixed a bug where map marker cooldowns (e.g., mortar spotting marks) would be broken after the round was reset.
Fixed an issue on Freyneux & Lamormenil where tanks could drive through some buildings.
Fixed a bug where the gun rotation projector looked opaque on BSP surfaces.
Fixed a bug where the "open the hatch to exit" message would be erroneously sent to players when there was no hatch to open.
Fixed a bug where spawn protection would not be applied to players that spawned on vehicles.
Fixed issue where AP shell ground impacts could be heard from extreme distances.
Fixed an issue where player jumping and landing sounds would not work on sandbags, bricks and other custom surface types.
Fixed a bug where the "join a squad" nag message could be sent twice in rapid succession.
Fixed primary weapon selection drop-down box being too small.
Fixed bug where SL & ASL nameplates would not have their associated icons if they were in a vehicle.
Fixed a long-standing bug where players would take half-damage from their own explosives.
Fixed missing sleeve textures for some Soviet rifleman roles.
What's Next?
With such an enormous project now in the rear view mirror, we are excited to switch back to the more incremental update release schedule that we are used to.
We have a fairly large backlog of projects that are complete or nearly complete that we will be rolling out shortly after we make sure the release is stable and any salient bugs are dealt with.
In the near future we plan to add:
On a slightly longer time scale, we have started building the necessary groundwork for stationary machine-guns for every faction, remaking all of the Allied player models, specialized squad types and much more!
Support Us On Patreon!
The Darkest Hour development team is made entirely of volunteers, and we receive no compensation other than from our generous Patreon supporters, whose donations fund game server costs and development infrastructure.
If you like what we're doing, and want to help us build even more, please consider joining our Patreon!
See you on the battlefield,
Darklight Games 🕷️
