Good day folks. Urb here. I hope you are all doing well and thank you for checking on up with Mud and Blood.
This week's patch contains few addition to the game that are important in order to bring up the emergent game play aspect of MNB. I am of course talking about mine fields but also lootable crates.
Mine Fields:
Currently Germans will lay minefields in a certain pattern in order to cover (most of the time) kill zones which are overlooked by a defensive position. There is 3 types of mines that can be placed by the enemy.
- AT Mine: Large blast and kill potential for both personal and armor, the AT mine is the easiest one to detect and can be triggered by vehicles and infantry (tilt rod). AT mines are serious business and will leave a nice dent if your squad is too bunched.
- AP Mine: The anti-personal mine is very small and hard to detect. They have a tiny and concentrated blast that will usually severely maim the soldier stepping on it. The only good news is that they rarely kill the soldier. At least not immediately. A soldier that has stepped on a pers mine will likely need medical attention to avoid dying of blood loss.
- Bouncing Betty: Betties are mine that when triggered will bounce in the air and detonate a dense fragmentation blast. Being in the air they ignore cover and affect a very large area. Line of sight still applies so some lucky soldiers can be shielded by trees or rocks. Soldiers inside a roofed building are also protected. Be on the lookout for these nasty little critters since they can hinder a squad greatly.
Contrary to other MNB games, the minefields in MNB Steam will be placed in a pattern and grouped. So if your soldiers stumble upon a mine, there is a very likely chance that other mines can be found in the vicinity.
Other facts about mines:
- Enemy mines come in a cluster of 6 to 12.
- They are generally grouped together so if you find a mine expect that area to be mined.
- Flagged mines will not detonate if you step on them.
- Mines will not be detonated by the faction that has placed them.
- All mines friendly or enemy can be detonated by nearby explosions.
- Mine take some time to detonate (AT being the slowest) so fast troops may just avoid the gib.
- A minefield can be of the same type or be a hybrid minefield with mixed types.
- Most soldiers can detect mine granted they: have a line of sight, they are within 200 pixels and they succeed a detection roll based on their experience score.
- Scout detects mine automatically if within 200 px
- Engineers and Sappers have an increased detection range (600px) for mines but still have to do roll on their experience.
Loot boxes:
Now there is a chance for German weapon boxes to spawn on the map you are patrolling with your squad. Weapon crates are hidden but if a soldier is close enough (200 px) and rolls a successful detection check based on his experience the crate will be revealed. Scouts detect crates automatically within range. Once the crate is revealed it can be open and the weapon inside can be equipped by any soldier. This leads to very interesting combinations such as a linebacker medic with a heavy STG44 or an officer rocking an MG42. Any Axis weapons can spawn in those crates. This enables infinite combinations. Weapons captured in enemy crates will remain with the soldier even after the mission.
This said let's take a look at the patch changes for this week:
- Barbwires (will slow down soldiers and can hurt them too)
- Anti-tank mines
- Anti Pers mines
- Bouncing Betty mines
- Toned down the death announcement screams on the German side
- Significantly reduced morale gain when over 50 on the allied side
- Be on the lookout for them phat loot German weapon crates now!!
- Modified the frag and smoke throwing code to prevent further interruptions
- Give 15 morale after the panic sequence initiated.
- Stealthed enemies will now be invisible to non-detecting troops.
- Dropped flamer spawn chances by 1%
- Gun crate discovery animation and voice line added
- Dropped the spread bonus range for the shotgun by 100 pixels (500 max)
- Increased time between shots for snipers on both faction by 20%
- Decreased difficulty by 5%
- Dropped medkits will heal nearby troops
Alright folks, this is it for this week. I will catch you on the next update.
Respectfully,
urb