Content Update: Binoculars and Platoon Commands
Hello, Tank Commanders!
We are back with one of our biggest updates to date, representing a major milestone for Call to Arms: Panzer Elite. With today's patch, the German Campaign is now fully complete!
We want to extend our sincere thanks to the community for your continued feedback, bug reports, and support throughout early access. Today's update brings the final chapters of the German campaign, a highly anticipated utility feature, a major overhaul to platoon commands, new vehicles, and much more.
Here is a detailed look at what is arriving in today’s update:
The German Campaign Complete - New Missions
With the addition of two brand-new campaign missions, the German campaign is now fully playable from start to finish.
Le Mesnil-Adelée (Operation Lüttich)
Pierce through enemy defenses blocking the path to Avranches at Le Mesnil-Adelée. This village serves as a supply lifeline for Allied operations in the sector. Move swiftly before their air support arrives. Advance without mercy!
Bastogne (The Ardennes Offensive)
Wacht am Rhein continues. Use our momentum to push the Americans back from this sector. Secure a river crossing first, then take Clervaux Castle and Mageret, and clear any outposts along the route. The enemy knows we are here, but they have not had time to bring up proper reinforcements.
New Allied Armor
To bolster the US forces, we have added two highly agile and historic American tanks to the roster.
M18 Hellcat
Designed for speed and aggressive flanking, the M18 Hellcat trades heavy armor for great mobility and a powerful 76mm gun. Use its exceptional speed to strike at vulnerable enemy positions from unexpected angles and redeploy before they can coordinate a response.
M24 Chaffee
A nimble light tank introduced to replace older reconnaissance vehicles, the M24 Chaffee brings a versatile 75mm gun, high top speed, and excellent maneuverability to the battlefield. It is highly effective for scouting enemy armor, harassing light targets, and providing quick fire support.
Binoculars
We are incredibly proud to introduce one of our most frequently requested and highly anticipated features: Binoculars.
You can now seamlessly switch to binoculars to spot enemy movements at much longer ranges, direct your platoon's movements, and mark distant targets. However, this tactical advantage comes with a serious risk. When using binoculars, the commander must physically climb out of the hatch, leaving them vulnerable to incoming small arms and high-explosive fire.
Platoon Commands & Individual Orders
To give you much finer tactical control over your platoon on the battlefield, we have completely overhauled how you issue orders to your tanks:
Individual Tank Orders: You are no longer restricted to ordering your entire platoon at once. You can now direct and order tanks individually.
Two-Stage Radial Menu: We have implemented a new 2-stage radial wheel. First, select the tactical order you wish to give, and then select the specific tank you want to carry it out. If you prefer to order all of them together like before, simply complete only the first stage of the wheel.
Constant Status Awareness: We've made sure you always know exactly what your AI-controlled platoon units are doing. Active order indicators are now permanently visible next to the minimap as well as directly in the 3D world.
Note: The 3D world markers can be disabled in the settings menu if you prefer a cleaner HUD.
Overhauled Behaviors: We have restructured the behavioral AI. For now, there are the following distinct orders to choose from, and we will continue to adjust them based on your feedback:
Charge: Direct a unit to a ground location, capture point, or directly at an enemy tank. When targeted at a location, the unit will advance aggressively, prioritizing speed and pushing forward. When used directly on an enemy tank, your vehicle will prioritize, engage, and attack that specific target.
Secure: Direct a unit to a ground location or capture point. Instead of an aggressive push, the unit will advance more slowly and methodically, prioritizing clearing the area of threats first.
Follow: The ordered unit will follow and support your currently controlled tank.
Hold: The unit will stop and hold its current position.
Visible Machine Gunners
Expanding on our implementation of visible crew members in open-top vehicles, we have now added visible machine gunners.
When you select the top-mounted AA machine gun, the crew member will physically climb out of the hatch to operate it, making them vulnerable to incoming fire while manning the gun. If you switch to another weapon (such as the coaxial machine gun), they will quickly climb back inside to stay safe.
Custom Host Settings
In our last patch, we added the option for lobby hosts to choose between immersive and casual presets. In today's update, we are expanding this system to give hosts granular, individual control over every game setting. As before, these settings will apply to every player in the session to ensure a level, fair playing field while allowing you to customize your matches exactly how you want.
AI Improvements
We are fully aware that the AI is still not where it needs to be. We remain deeply committed to making constant, incremental improvements with each update until we achieve the standard we are aiming for.
Platoon Orders Fixes: Resolved underlying logic bugs for both "Hold" and "Follow" commands.
Wheeled AI Vehicle Steering Improvements: Implemented steering compensation based on speed, and optimized destination approaches to properly account for the vehicle’s desired final direction.
Tracked AI Vehicle Battle Movement: Extended logic checks to ensure tracked AI vehicles actively work to keep their frontal armor facing toward the enemy during engagements.
Optimized Navigation Mesh Updates: Improved performance by reducing navigation updates, particularly when vehicles start and stop.
Reworked Road Navigation: Overhauled how AI vehicles navigate along roads, resulting in more efficient and performant movement.
Improved Infantry Surrender Checks: Refined checks for infantry surrender to be less strict and more natural.
AI Sensor Improvements: Expanded the ways AI vehicles can share information about enemies with one another.
General Improvements
Destroying buildings that contain enemy infantry now properly rewards points.
Added an automatically issued “Repairing” ping when a player starts repairing.
Added more information to Death Cam. When your tank is destroyed, you will now receive clear feedback detailing who eliminated your vehicle, an exact list of all components destroyed by the fatal round, and a visual hit trajectory showing the entry point of the shot.
Looking Ahead
While the German campaign is now complete, our work on Call to Arms: Panzer Elite is far from finished. We have more missions, additional tanks, further AI enhancements, and multiplayer quality-of-life updates currently in development. We will be sharing an updated development roadmap in the near future to detail what is next on the horizon.
Thank you again for your incredible support, and we'll see you on the battlefield!