Good day Mud and Blood commanders. I hope you guys are having a decent Friday and enjoying the summer. It has been a little while indeed since 03.6 brought in multiple new mechanics to the game and needed some tweaks. I've lost counts of hotfixes but the first 3 weeks were pretty busy hot fixing the game and tweaking balances issue with regard to the new dynamics.
This said all that time I was really eager to start on the new enemy type that is finally introduced in 0.3.7
to be consistent, a different look in MNB steam means that the unit is significantly different than the others notably with behaviour.
Today I present you the jagers, which mean hunters. The Jagers are considered light infantry which means they are primarily faster infantrymen. They also have the particularity to spawn behind your lines and conduct hit and run tactics on your lines.
In classic, they will spawn as a blitz wave assaulting your support troops from the rear in a coordinated fashion. Jagers due to their nature of already being behind your squad will not attempt to cross the start line but instead, remain on the map and coordinate a short and fast series of assaults on your rear flank.
In Campaign, the Jagers will start appearing if you finish patrols and leave enemies behind. We all know at times things get hairy and pushing thru the last few yards in order to finish a tough fight can be a life saver. This is a viable tactic, however, every enemy left behind adds 1% for Jagers to start appearing in subsequent maps. We can lower this rate by 1% per Jagers killed. You will never have more Jagers attacking you than the number of enemies you left behind.
This new troop type comes with a new weapon as well. The shortened K98 is a less bulky bolt action that allows a decent amount of range and damage while sacrificing range due to a shorter barrel and lighter weight. The short K98 can also spawn in German crates hidden across the battlefield as well.
Jagers's AI drives them to group up and perform hit and runs on your section. If they sustain a lot of fire or get hit they attempt to retreat, reorganize and try again with the troops that are available to them (tactics will depend on numbers). It is important to note that Jagers are not considered special troops and will behave conventionally towards combat and casualties. This means that a Jager assault can be successfully broken if you manage to hurt them enough. In this case, you will see the Jagers quickly losing their initial 'pizaz' and revert back to self-preservation and hopefully some confusion.
This said let's take a look at 0.3.7 change log:
- Fixed a fault in classic when you would deploy close protection and start calling vehicles without infantry
- Fixed a fault in the range-finding functions of some of the vehicles
- Disappearing visuals for shells crape and mortar pit
- Germans will not count as occupying troops in HQ for bonus TP generation
- Engineers will not fix nearby enemy vehicles
- Vehicles should not engage stealth enemies but can detected them just like normal troops now
- Fixed cleaning function deleting mortar pits, pillbox and shellscrapes
- Removed the idle frame for the mortarmen which would create some issues and was confusing at times
- Fixed a fault brought in by the Opel spawn function when there is no infantry around
- Fixed the shell shock ribbon requirements
- Fixed the blitz wave message not displaying the right amount of tp
- Barb wire will not spawn in the starting area anymore.
- Fixed a pause/wave exploit in classic
- Fixed some inconsistencies with the looting of some items.
[4:57 PM]
- Loot range for items has been reduced from 200px to 50 px, no more telekinesis.
- Fixed an issue where vehicle main guns would have no sounds
- Fixed a ribbon exploit with barbwires
- Classic snipers for both factions can only stealth if they are holding rifles
- Classic Pillboxes can't be built too close to other buildings
- Fires last longer in pillboxes
- Stun effects for explosions last twice as long on occupants of a pillbox
** still working on it, bbq stats on mnb2 are not representative
- Removed airbursts from counterattacks
- Primarily fix for Opels not driving forward in some situations
- An allied soldier that has been disabled by wire more than once will stop providing Gallantry bonuses
- Fixed a fault where the flak 30 would fire higher calibre ammo when engaging vehicles
- German snipers and the szfdk222 will see stealthed units
- When engaging a unit that is under a camnet, the 222 has 1% chance to relay the true amount of soldiers hidden under that cam net.
- Classic mode, changed the sound of the 6 men rule special wave for something more dramatic!
- Added a few variations to the unnecessary complex yet fun procedural sound generation when a reload is performed.
- Added voice lines from Yusti for the dismiss actions
- Added a little notification if you try to dismiss a disabled soldier
- Classic snipers that are performing "loud" actions (using a recoilless, throwing a grenade) will unstealth now.
- Fixed some typos (Thanks Skaen) (edited)
[4:57 PM]
- New classic Ribbon Ranger Graveyard (dig 250 shell scrapes, future shell scrapes have 10% not to consume the shovel)
- New unit Jagers complete with all animation frames and custom AI! The new unit can spawn during blitz waves, regularly or during special events in the campaign.
- New enemy weapon (used by Jagers but can spawn in boxes) Short K98, a low bulk hard kicking bolt action rifle.
- Emplacements (such as Paks and other crewed vehicles) will need to have a line of sight with a nearby enemy in order to decrew their guns and fight. It is not sufficient to just stand in a tree near a gun in order to decrew it.
- New item: Camo, this elaborate camouflage unit once used allows any soldier to become stealth for 30 seconds + (xp/5). This camo has its limits, however. A camouflaged soldier has a 75% chance + xp/4 to remain hidden when spotted by an enemy.
As you can see a lot of small tweaks in order to assimilate the recent mechanics of 0.3.6 in the eco system and make sure everything plays a part in the emergent combat experience.
I'm currently working on the next patch as we speak and I got a few nice surprises to add since now the code base is stable and solid enough to bring new madness into the mix.
Also, let's have a look at the community stuff:
- First absolutely check out this gem by Puguasu
- Then let's take a look at MT's adventures in Hurtgen forest. Take a good look at how he handles the intricate line of sight challenges fighting in a dense forest brings. MT plays in a deliberate manner with his tested fireteam method.
- Our good old Lance slapping a St Lo with merit.
- WiryWing attempting the guerrilla warfare (GW) ribbon on twitch.
- Master Chow, the author of this very good guide. back behind the gun and going thru the first few missions. We can all learn a thing or two by watching him play, granted we can manage that mountain dew level micro.
- Speaking of guides let's not forget Maxi's excellent field manual which is up-to-date with 0.3.6!
That would wrap the patch notes of this MNB update folks. Thanks for taking the time to read this and playing Mud and Blood. I appreciate the opportunity that you are giving me to make my dream game. I wish you all a safe weekend and I'll catch you on discord or in the next update patch notes.
respectfully,
urb