Anniversary Update

Foreword

For the past 3 months the Private Test Environment (our beta branch) has been running. What was initially supposed to be a shorter 2 to 4 weeks test ended up creeping in scope, with some features needing time to be refined and players requesting balance changes in the meantime when it wasn’t our initial goal.

As a result we ended up splitting the community into two groups not really playing the same game and becoming less and less compatible with each other as time passed. Some preferring PTE, others preferring the live version, all agreeing that no version is perfect but that keeping both is detrimental.

The objective of this patch is to re-unify our community back into a single version. We have heard the feedback from players who actively participated in the PTE as well as those who were disappointed by it and went back to the live version.

This patch is not the removal of one version or another, it’s a fusion of both, a new shared foundation for future improvements.

Sincerely, Steel Balalaika Team

User interface

• Return to battlegroup time is now displayed in the statistics card of units.

• Automatic weapons damage is now expressed per second.

• Added a timer animation when infantry exits a transport.

• Added a low altitude flight indicator for helicopters.

• Defensive smoke ability deployment delay is now feedbacked on the label of the unit.

Designer’s note: This delay is not new, only the visual feedback.
You cannot use smoke at the last moment, grenades take a short time to deploy and when missiles lose track of the target they don’t instantly crash into the ground so there is a chance that they randomly hit the target through the smoke.

Technical

• Fixed several null-reference errors and recurring exceptions.

• Fixed an exception occurring when multiple supply trucks were selected.

• Fixed soldiers occasionally remaining alive inside destroyed transports.

• Fixed multiplayer synchronization of infantry stress.

• Fixed helicopters moving closer to targets despite already being within weapon range.

• Fixed helicopters repeatedly resetting targets they could not aim at.

• Fixed static radar mode sometimes staying activated while a unit was moving.

• Fixed infantry stress being applied from only one source per frame.

• Improved projectile interception calculations.

• Added validation for invalid ammunition data received during network combat.

• Added missing localization for new abilities and interface elements.

• Improved Supply and Repair system performance.

• Optimized unit transform processing.

• Reduced garbage collection in the combat target-scoring system.

Maps

• New zone layout for the maps “Oil Rush” and “Highway of Death”

Economy/Victory points

• Units upkeep reduced from 6% to 5% in multiplayer matches.

Designer’s note: This will make the game more dynamic with more units present on the battlefield, it also reduces a bit the efficiency of suicidal spam tactics and makes the calculation of how much upkeep a unit costs easier (take the unit price, divide it by ten, then by two, this is its upkeep value).

• Killing your own units or ally units now counts in the destruction score.

Designer’s note: We initially didn’t count that to limit the power of nuisance of griefers. But this was exploited by players who killed their own units on purpose to avoid giving destruction scores to the opponent. It was also favouring “danger close” bombing, especially nukes, because only enemy losses would count in case of friendly fire.

We remind all players that team killing allies on purpose is punishable by a temporary ban and that repeated offenses can lead to a permanent ban.
So avoid blue on blue as much as you can, apologize in case of mistakes and if you are overwhelmed and friendly fire is acceptable, the code word is easy to remember: it’s BROKEN ARROW!

Gameplay

Our objectives for this patch are:

• Finalize the changes from PTE which were received positively and integrate them in the main branch environment.

• Reinforce the Russian faction whose win rate is inferior to the US faction at the moment.

• Reinforce the Baltic Battalion specialization to make it more appealing.

Aircraft/Anti-aircraft

Objectives:

• Improve anti-overkill mechanics to make it less frustrating

• Reinforce the place of the fighter jets as a part of the air defense network

• Reduce the amount of airstrikes to give more breathing room to ground battle

Changes:

• Anti-overkill system improved. The probability to hit targets using flares is correctly calculated, launchers located closer to the target have priority to shoot over those located further away, SAM auto-protect themselves by retargeting their missiles on SEAD missiles targeting them.

• Heavy SAM delay between missiles increased from 2-3sec to 3-4sec

Designer’s note: With the anti-overkill allowing more missiles to be fired, SAMs efficiency literally skyrockets leaving no possibility to use planes, so the rate of fire has been reduced to balance that. It also means that when two SEAD missiles are fired in quick succession at a SAM it will never be able to intercept the second on its own.

• A small extra range vs SEAD missiles has been added to the SHORAD units with the shortest range to act as a buffer in case of high network lag and help with interception.

• All missiles associated with SHORAD vehicles equipped with a radar can now intercept SEAD and Cruise missiles. Exception of Hellfire missile which is too slow to intercept but can target vehicles instead.

• SPAAG with radar, turret rotation speed increased to help interception

Designer’s note: SHORAD ability to intercept SEAD has been reinforced as a compensation for heavy SAM becoming more vulnerable to SEAD. We want to reinforce the idea that air defense is a network with multiple layers: fighter jets, SAM, SHORAD.

• Ballistic missiles are not targeted during the ascending phase any more (first third of their trajectory) to avoid losing interceptor missiles that wouldn't be able to reach them.

• SHORAD units can't intercept ballistic missiles any more. Only long range anti-plane SAM can now intercept ballistic missiles.

Designer’s note: While this might look like a buff to ballistic missiles, this is actually preventing air defence from wasting missiles in situations where an interception was impossible anyways.

• Air to Air missiles aim time reduced from 1 second to 0

• SAM aim time reduced from 1-2 seconds to 0

• SAM range reduced proportionally to the aim time reduction:

  • 4500 → 4200 (S-300V4 with extended range missiles)

  • 4300 → 4000 (S-300PM with extended range missiles)

  • 4000 → 3600 (PAC-2, S-300)

  • 3600 → 3200 (PAC-3 MSE, S-350)

  • 3200 → 2900 (PAC-3, S-350, BUK-M3)

  • 3000 → 2700 (NASAMS-ER, BUK-M2)

  • 2800 → 2600 (Iris-T SLM)

Designer’s note: The range reduction corresponds to the missile flight distance during their former aim time. As a result ground attack planes heading toward the SAM are intercepted at the same distance as before while fighter jets can loiter closer to the frontline and fire their missiles faster without flying as much in the direction of the enemy air defense.

• Heavy SAM with cold launch vertical shooting (S-300, S-350) main engine activation delay reduced from 1 sec to 0.6 sec, allowing them to intercept planes and missiles at ranges more similar to hot launched missiles (hot launch= main engine activated from the start, cold launch = main engine activated after the ejection phase).

Designer’s note: With the reduced range the delay of cold launch becomes more impactful and requires to be reduced to maintain the ability to intercept SEAD missiles.

• Planes delay to return to the deck globally increased and dependent on the loadout.

Designer’s note: Air to air missiles and rocket pods create the least cooldown, low altitude bombs and smart bombs generate more cooldown than dumb bombs and cruise missiles while nukes remain the longest to reload. This will give more breathing room to the ground battle and reinforce again the fighter jets in their role of air interdiction.

• Planes reaching red stress level get a smaller accuracy penalty to missiles from -50% to -40%

• Panicked planes suffer from a larger dispersion when they drop bombs from +50% to +100%

Designer’s note: Bombers managing to drop their bombs after taking a hit will be less accurate while fighters will remain a bit more efficient after being hit.

• Plane launched cruise missiles' aim time reduced from 3 to 1 second (except Kh-102 nuke to avoid selling the plane instantly)

• All smart bombs aim time reduced to 1 second

• Planes don’t start aiming before reaching the correct altitude when using smart bombs and cruise missiles

Designer’s note: The aim time made the ergonomic worse, with more cases where the plane had to loop around. This was a temporary solution to prevent these weapons from being used from low altitude. Now that we have a technical solution to that we can lower the aim time to improve the ergonomics.

• Guns, rockets and air to ground missiles mounted on planes are now fired automatically without requiring a strafe order.

• Kh-38 and AGM-65 Maverick missiles cannot reacquire targets any more if they lose track

• Kh-29 is now working as an air to ground missile that can target both vehicles and infantry

• Close air support planes’ turn speed increased. (A-10, Harriers, Su-25s, Yak-38, Albatros)

• AC-130 / KC-130 griffin missiles are now functional and are dropped automatically when flying over a target

• AC-130 / KC-130 hellfire missiles rate of fire increased

• Small bombs minimum drop length reduced

Designer’s note: This is an important change helping close air support planes like A-10 Thunderbolt or Su-25 to be really useful in the game. It makes the ergonomics of strafe runs simpler as you can simply click on the target and the plane will attack it with its gun and rockets. Using the strafe command is still possible to target suspected enemy positions.
AC-130 and KC-130 also benefit from this new feature by allowing previously underused munitions to be dropped automatically.

• Quantity of decoys carried by planes doubled (15 → 30, 20 → 40)

Designer’s note: More countermeasures will benefit fighters more than bombers since bombers generally go back to base immediately before running out of flares and won’t really benefit from that. Fighters on the other hand will be able to loiter for a longer time instead of being forced to go back to base because they ran out of flares after a single engagement.

• Low altitude drones (Korsar, Forpost, RQ-7 Shadow) are now considered as helicopter target type by weapons.

• High altitude drone HP reduced from 15 to 12

• Low altitude drones HP reduced from 10 to 9

Designer’s note: These drones were hardly usable because heavy SAMs were able to target them at rather long range before they recon. Being helicopter target types means they are now countered by SHORAD and weapons like machine guns and autocannons which are more accurate with reality.
The reduction of hit points only has an impact on drone swarm tactics by letting units like Tor or Tunguska destroy drones with a single missile.

• Kh-555 dispersion reduced from 120m to 100m and range increased from 8000m to 10000m

• Kh-59MK and Kh-59MK2 cruise missiles range increased from 6000m to 10000m

• Kh-101/102 dispersion reduced from 100m to 80m

Designer’s note: Cruise missiles are supposed to be used from outside the range of the AA network as a low risk / low reward option, these exceptions were not justified so the values have been unified. Kh-101 are modern missiles so buffing their accuracy is justified.

• Cargo planes price reduced

  • C-17 Globemaster : 250$ → 175$

  • IL-76 : 250$ → 150$

  • MC-130H Combat Talon : 200$ → 140$

  • AN-72P 200$ → 100$

  • KC-130J Harvest Hawk 175$ → 110$

  • C-130J-30 Hercules 185$ → 100$

  • C-27J Spartan 175$ → 100$

Designer’s note: With the reinforced presence of fighters and the improvement of anti-overkill logic these planes must be made cheaper to remain viable options.
Remember that you can trigger an emergency drop by pressing the airdrop command twice or that you can drop units one at a time by clicking their icon in the cargo panel of the plane.

• Mig-29K can now carry up to 4 Kh-31P anti-radiation missiles.

• Fixed F-22 not being able to fire more than one AIM-260 at a time.

• Predator drone hellfire missiles aim time fixed from 2-3 seconds to 1 second like other drones

• Griffin missile damage increased from 11 to 14 based on its caliber

• SLAMRAM and NASAMS radar activation and missile shooting require the truck to be static.

GROUND COMBAT

Objectives:

• Increase the damage of tank guns

• Reduce the frequency of artillery

• Facilitate the micromanagement of infantry

• Reinforce the synergy between infantry and armored transports

Infantry

• All infantry medium machine guns can be used on the move. (M240, PKP…)

Designer’s note: this was imposing the use of attack order instead of a simple right click when moving these infantry squads. Removing this extra micro management burden will make infantry armed with MMGs less demanding.
Note that the weapon is not really fired on the move, the squad member stops to shoot then sprint to catch up with the rest of the squad.

• Damage reduction offered by stress lowered.

• Rate of fire penalty received when stressed increased for rifles, machine guns and marksman rifles.

• Assault rifles generate less stress. They maintain enemy stress but don't generate much unless they kill an enemy soldier.

Designer’s note: when infantry is under fire they start crawling and looking for cover which reduces their rate of fire but also increases their protection. However the bonus of protection outmatched the penalty of RoF resulting in stressed squads having an overall advantage over fresh squads. This won’t be the case any more.

• 50% of the stress taken by a transport is transferred to the infantry inside.

• When a transport is destroyed the surviving infantry exiting the wreck is fully panicked.

Designer’s note: In combination with the changes to stress modifiers above this will make sacrificing transports in an assault less efficient. Losing the transport then sprinting forward with the panicked infantry will result in much more damage taken than before.

• Infantry resupply ability added to armored troop transports: Infantry receive ammunition and healing at a slow rate when they stay within range of the vehicle. The vehicle must be immobile, units stressed or in combat cannot resupply. The rearming speed is twice slower compared to supply crates, the healing speed is 3 times slower.

• M985 Battleship and M-ATV also get this ability even if they are not transports.

Designer’s note: The ability also works when infantry is transported inside the vehicle. This will reward players keeping their transports with their infantry instead of sacrificing them or refunding them instantly.

• Healing cost of infantry halved from 20kg to 10kg of supplies per HP (so 50kg per soldier instead of 100, ammo must still be replenished after the soldier appears).

• Infantry can be resupplied without unloading from their transport. When a resupply order is given to a transport it waits for the infantry inside to be fully healed before the order is considered validated.

• It is now possible to validate a fast move or reverse order on a supply crate to give a resupply order.

• It is now possible to queue load orders even when the transport is full (allows to queue multiple load and unload orders).

Designer’s note: These changes will reduce the cost but also divide by 2 the amount of micro management required to resupply infantry and send them back to the fight. You can now put your infantry in a transport, order a fast move on the crate then queue the order to come back to the front.
Previously you needed to dismount next to the crate, wait, click on the crate with infantry, queue the order to mount in the vehicle, wait, then give the order to come back to the front.

• Infantry equipped with Manpads low altitude optics increased from 1600 to 2500

• Ground optics increased from 1200 to 1400 for infantry equipped with anti-infantry weapons with a range superior or equal to 800m or anti tank capability with a range superior or equal to 1200m

Designer’s note: This will make the use of ATGM infantry and manpads easier as they can more autonomously track their targets.

• Semi-active infantry ATGM aim time reduced by one second 3-4 → 2-3 sec

• SRAW rocket launcher aim time reduced 3-4 → 2-3 sec

• SPG-9 Sapog aim time reduced 3-4 → 2-3

• SPG-9 range increased 900m → 1000m

• CAAT Javelin number of missiles carried 4 > 6

• Assaultmen SMAW number of anti-tank and thermobaric rockets reduced from 8 to 6 of each type

• Assaultmen SMAW price 70 → 80$

• Assaultmen SRAW price 90$ → 80$

• VDV Igla now carry an extra missile, price 60$ → 65$

• RPG-29 Vampyr, RPG-7V2 (Ingenery Shturmoviki), and SMAW reload time unified with other RPG 6-8 → 5-6 sec

• Ingenery Shturmoviki CQC variant has an AK-74M rifle replaced by a KS-K automatic shotgun, making them more efficient in CQC combat.

• Morskaya Razvedka weapons swap for one soldier from RPK-74M to AK-103 + RPG-27

• SSO CQC GP-34 grenade launchers replaced by KS-K automatic shotguns and price increased from 85$ to 90$

• SSO standoff armor fixed from 10 to 8

• New customisation: VDV Shturm a variant of VDV Dsh with a RPG-7 shooting thermobaric rockets

• M250 medium machine gun ability to fire at enemies located inside the same building removed

• Rangers snipers AT 120$ → 110$

• Green Berets Punishers 80$ → 70$, Flash 100$ → 90$, Snipers 125$ → 120$

• Spetsnaz VMF assault 80$ → 70$, Snipers 150$ → 130$

• Spetsnaz GRU mixed loadout 130$ → 120$, AT loadout 145$ → 140$

• KAC AMG, Mk48, Minimi Mk3, PKP Bullpup aim time fixed to match other infantry MMGs. (+1sec)

Helicopters:

• When a helicopter flying low is destroyed, the soldiers it carries have a 50% probability to survive. This probability is reduced depending on the helicopter max HP and weapon damage.

• The low altitude icon appearing on helicopter labels indicate that the altitude is low enough for infantry to have a probability to survive a crash.

Designer’s note: Currently transport helicopters are rarely used past the initial deployment because it’s too dangerous to bring infantry close to the frontline and it’s faster to use a truck than dropping infantry far back and having them walk the rest of the distance. Rather than reducing helicopters’ price which could lead to problems of empty helicopter rush it is a better approach to limit the cost of a crash by letting the infantry survive even if they are in a bad shape.

• AH-6 and MH-6 helicopters armor reduced from 10 to 0 (one shot by weapons with 8 damage or more)

• AH-6 Hellfire upgrade price reduced from 30$ to 25$

• AH-6 Stinger upgrade price increased from 20$ to 25$

Designer’s note: The AH-6 equipped with stingers is too cost efficient and prevents the Russian faction from attempting any move with helicopters on the flanks. While it is part of the asymmetric design to give the US faction and especially SOF specialization an advantage in this domain we don’t want to make it too significant. It is not a problem when playing US mirror because the AH-1 equipped with AIM-9 counters the Killer Eggs very efficiently. With this change Russia gains several hard counters to the AH-6 in the form of the Mi-24P equipped with R-60 AA missiles, very cheap planes equipped with multiple R-60 (Su-25, Yak-38), and the Verba manpad.

• Helicopters non-top attack ATGM aim time reduced by 1 second

• Comanche Hellfire missiles aim time fixed from 3-4 to 2-3 like other helicopters equipped with top attack missiles.

Vehicles

• Vehicles reaching yellow stress level get a smaller aim time penalty from +50% to +25%

• Vehicles reaching red stress level get a smaller aim time penalty from +100% to +50%

Designer’s note: Panicked vehicles like tanks could feel very sluggish with an aim time up to 8 seconds. Previously the modifiers were shared between every unit type. We can now define independent modifiers for vehicles, infantry and planes allowing us to assign more adapted values to each unit type.

• Tanks' guns damage increased:

  • 120 and 125mm APFSDS rounds from 6 to 8

  • 120mm, 122mm and 125mm HEAT rounds from 9 to 10

  • 125mm HE rounds from 12 to 13

  • 105mm APFSDS rounds from 5.5 to 7

  • 100mm AP rounds from 5 to 6

• Gun launched ATGM damage increased to match the new HEAT rounds damage

Designer’s note: This is a very important change allowing tanks with 120/125mm guns to destroy any armored vehicle in two shots, regardless of their HEAT protection. It will also increase the lethality of tank vs tank engagements by 33%.

• M10 Booker HEAT frontal armor reduced from 800 to 500

• M10 Booker base price 145$ → 140$

• M10 Booker APS upgrade 45$ → 50$

• M10 Booker 105mm option 10$ → 0$

• M10 Booker 50mm option 0$ → 10$

Designer’s note: The Booker with 50mm gun is by far the most overused and overperforming unit in the game. It will be strongly impacted by the increased damage of tank guns which will kill it in 2 shots instead of 3. The HEAT armor was also over evaluated compared to what a vehicle of this volume and weight could realistically have so it has been reduced, making infantry RPGs more of a threat.

• BMPT Terminator base price reduced by 15$, armor and grenade launcher upgrades each reduced by 5$ (total price 250$ → 225$)

• Barbaris 57mm upgrade price reduced from 100$ to 75$

Designer’s note: Similarly to the Booker, the increased tank damage impacts the efficiency of those heavily armored autocannon carriers as they cannot so recklessly try to circle around tanks any more.

• Semi-active Gun launched ATGM aim time reduced 3-4 → 2-3 sec

• BTO RPO-A rockets aim time reduced 3-4 → 2-3 sec

• War pig fletcher rockets aim time reduced 3-4 → 2-3 sec

• SPG-9 and PV-1110 aim time reduced 3-4 → 2-3 sec

• T-72B3 availability increased from 3 to 6

• T-72B availability increased from 6 to 9

• T-14 Armata reload time reduced from 6-7 sec to 5-6sec

• Grom gun range increased from 800m to 1000m (BMP-1 family)

• ACV infantry slots increased from 13 to 14 (to let marine raiders and 6+8 squads combo fit inside.)

• War pig fletcher upgrade 15$ → 10$

• War pig TOW-2BB upgrade 20$ → 10$

• Bereg anti aircraft shells dispersion reduced from 30x24m to 16x12m

Artillery

• Howitzers, MLRS and Ballistic missiles resupply time doubled and take much longer to return to the deck when refunded or killed.

Designer’s note: This is the most meaningful change to artillery, forcing players to more carefully select their targets as the amount of time these weapons can be fired during a match is drastically reduced, especially if they are sold after shooting.

• Smoke duration of mortars reverted from 90sec to 60sec (remains at 90sec for howitzers and GRAD MLRS)

• Howitzers and mortars direct fire HEAT rounds now have a separate aim time of 3-4 seconds.

• 152mm and 155mm cluster rounds area of effect increased to match the HE rounds. (similarly to mortars and MLRS logic)

• GRAD incendiary loadout -50$ (250$ → 200$)

• Brutus guided round option price increased from 130$ to 150$

• Smerch cluster -25$ (275$ → 250$)

• Tornado-S guided cluster -25$ (300$ → 275$)

• Tornado-S guided HE +25$ (275$ → 300$)

• M270 MLRS cluster -25$ (275$ → 250$)

• HIMARS guided cluster -20$ (220$ → 200$)

• HIMARS guided HE +20$ (200$ → 220$)

• M270A2 GMLRS guided cluster -25$ (300$ → 275$)

• M270A2 GMLRS guided HE +25$ (275$ → 300$)

Designer’s note: The HE rockets benefit more from being guided than the cluster which applies the same damage over a large area. Hence the inversion of price between them.

• Cluster ballistics missiles fully ignore cover

• Tochka-U cluster missile area of effect unified with other cluster ballistic missiles 100m → 110m

• Iskander-K with 4 cruise missiles now rearms 25% faster than the version with 2 missiles

• Malka extended range ammunition laser guidance ability added. Customization cost increased 20$ → 50$

• Nona SVK transferred from coastal to moto.

Sneak ability

Designer’s note: The sneak ability represents how recon vehicles crews infiltrate in reality, with the engine running at low RPM to avoid creating sound and dust and to give them more time to scan while advancing.
In game the ability doubles the stealth of the vehicles while reducing their speed by half. The ability is canceled if the vehicle is detected or shoots.

• Sneak ability added to the following recon vehicles:

  • 1v119 Reostat with upgrade

  • 1V14 Mashina-S with upgrade

  • PRP-5G

  • PRP-5K

  • PRP-4A Argus

  • T-90M Razvedchik with upgrade

  • M981 FISTV

  • M1200 Armored Knight.

• Sneak ability added to dedicated ATGM carriers

  • Kornet-D1

  • Kornet-T

  • BRDM-2 ATGM

  • Shturm-S

  • LAV-AT

  • Stryker-AT

  • M901A3

  • Humvee TOW

  • Baltic G-Wagen

Stryker specialisation buff

Designer’s note: The Stryker specialization suffers a lot from the tank damage increase as the entirety of its vehicles are now killed by tanks in 2 shots instead of 3. Several buffs have been made to compensate.

• All Stryker based vehicles don't lose speed any more when up armored

• Stryker ESV/ICV javelin upgrade price reduced 35$ → 30$

• Stryker MGS base price reduced 90$ → 85$, Mk19 upgrade price increased 0$ → 5$

• Scouts now carry an extra AT-4 rocket launcher

• A M110 marksman rifle has been added to Troopers AA

• Airborne snipers moved to Stryker brigade specialisation, renamed "Snipers"

• New unit: Airborne Recce squad with 2 possible customisations added to Airborne specialisation to replace the airborne snipers

Baltic Battalion buff

Designer’s note: We didn’t want to create an overpowered specialization reinforcing the win rate of the already superior US faction, so this specialization was released with cautious values. Now that we have a better picture of its capabilities we can improve some of its weaknesses to make it more attractive.

• Infantry MG3 resupply time fixed (was 10 times too long)

• RBS-70 weapon priority fixed, the missile launcher will always be picked up if the soldier carrying it dies

• Jalavae Jagu and Eesti scouts now carry and extra Spike-SR missiles

• ESTSOF C90-CR-BK multirole rocket penetration increased 200 → 300

• KASP rifles and rockets range increased 300 → 400

• Leopard 2A8 AP munition penetration increased 450 → 475 (DM53 → DM73 round)

• Leopard 2A8 base price increased 245$ → 260$

• CV-9035 MkIV upgrade price reduced 70$ → 50$

• Vilkas IFV base price reduced 100$ → 90$

• Javelin team price reduced 85$ → 75$

• Spike-LR team price reduced 110$ → 100$