Our latest 1.3.0 update, Umber Wasp, will be coming to Company of Heroes 3 on PC on Wednesday, October 4th. This update features a new 4v4 map, improvements to an existing 1v1 map, a main menu newsfeed, as well as a host of gameplay adjustments, quality of life improvements, and balance changes.
Please note that this summary of the update does not cover everything coming in Umber Wasp, so if you want all the details, be sure to review the full patch notes releasing tomorrow.
Maps
Umber Wasp will see the introduction of one new map and one re-worked map to Automatch, Co-op vs A.I., Skirmish and Custom game modes.
(New) Sousse Wetlands - 4v4
Sousse Wetlands is a vast Tunisian map with three distinct locations:
- The ancient walled city - Featuring exciting urban combat and flanking routes galore
- The wetlands and causeway - Featuring masses of foliage and water where combat is long-ranged, and maneuverability is key
- The desert village - Where cover can rapidly deteriorate, and defenders can easily be outflanked
(Reworked) Pachino Stalemate - 1v1
Pachino Stalemate has received considerable changes to territory and accessibility including the following:
- Large rock formations have been removed map-wide to enable better mid to late game pathfinding
- Updated cover around central resource points
- Updated map textures to improve visibility around key areas
Features & Improvements
Newsfeed
Coming to Umber Wasp, this new feature allows players to access news, events, and information directly in the game. The Newsfeed is accessible through the game's main menu.
Pathfinding
Our team has begun overhauling pathfinding to ensure units move and react in a more immersive way. We have several changes coming in this update to address known pathfinding issues; however, this work is ongoing, and we will be making additional improvements in future updates. In this update you will see changes to infantry, team weapon, and vehicle pathfinding.
Infantry Pathfinding
The system has been modified to enhance the response capability of infantry units. As a result, infantry soldiers now have the ability to phase through obstacles while retreating. They are also more inclined to circumvent obstacles rather than confront them directly. Moreover, they will make an effort to stay together with their respective squads, minimizing the instances of splitting up during movement. You can see some examples of these improvements here, here and here.
Team Weapon Pathfinding
Chokepoints for allied units will no longer be obstructed by abandoned, set-up, or idle team weapons. This change ensures smoother movement and better accessibility for allied units. This means that team weapons will no longer act as barriers in critical areas, allowing for improved maneuverability on the battlefield. You can see an example of this improvement here.
Vehicle Pathfinding
Vehicles (and team weapons) will no longer be able to halt their movement during phasing. Long range pathfinding for vehicles has been modified so that units now take more direct routes towards their move order destination. Additionally, when attacking enemy vehicles, they will now make an effort to position themselves more strategically for optimal attack opportunities. You can find an example of these improvement here.
Pings
To enhance communication between players in Multiplayer games, a new visual effect has been added to communication pings. Additionally, ping visibility and clarity has been improved with the addition of elements like a visible colored light beam, and ping type distinct cursors. Ping readability has also been improved on the Tactical map and the Mini-map. A cooldown has been implemented to prevent excessive ping spamming. An example of pings can be seen here.
Tactical Map
We have made changes to the unit decorators by reducing their size, and removed the Unit position icon, as indicators now function as position icons. This contributes to decluttering the Tactical Map and enhances legibility. See how it looks before and after!
Unit Selection
In our Fall/Winter Roadmap we had planned to release a series of changes for Unit selection in Umber Wasp. However, we were able to make most of these changes in 1.2.3. This update will see some bug fixes but no direct improvements to Unit Selection.
We’re still planning on additional Unit Selection changes in a future update, and we have some work in progress for fixes to infantry selection when next to vehicles, and improvements to the retreat / reverse flow.
Game Balance
Anti-Air
In our upcoming Umber Wasp update, we have implemented significant changes to the balance of AA pieces and Air Offmap abilities. As a result, Anti-Air units will now have a significantly enhanced ability to deny Air Offmap abilities within their proximity. Moreover, Anti-air can now extend their firing range beyond the border regions of the map, enabling them to engage enemy planes before they even enter the battlefield. These improvements aim to boost the efficacy of Anti-Air units in countering airborne threats. Off-map air abilities have also been rebalanced by power and type, which we believe will help reconcile the impact of airstrike abilities between different game sizes.
Factions & Units
We made several changes to factions and units in the Umber Wasp update.
Changes for the US faction have centered around addressing problematic builds and promoting overall build variety. We made several adjustments to the support centers, offering greater choices and tradeoffs between them. The mechanized support center has been adjusted to address the overperforming armored build. Additionally, the faction has undergone changes to Riflemen to encourage less reliance on Riflemen heavy strategies.
Following the latest updates, there were still concerns about the DAK’s overall volatility and lack of diversity in the early game. As a result, DAK has been given major adjustments to address this, such as changes to Panzergrenadiers, the addition of Panzerjaegers to the core army, and buffs to Italian Bersalgieri as a few examples. Additionally, the Italian infantry Battlegroup has been rearranged to improve its usefulness.
Wehrmacht has received a minor set of changes intended on boosting some of the underused units in its roster, particularly units like the Stummel, Wirbelwind and the Kettenkrad.
Bug Fixes
As with every update, we have several bug fixes coming to all areas of the game. Those include:
- Performance (crashes)
- Art & Animation
- Gameplay
- Singleplayer – Italian Dynamic Campaign and North African Operation
- User Interface & User Experience (UI/UX)
- Quality of Life fixes (QoL)
Notable changes for Umber Wasp:
- Anti-Air units can now target airplanes outside the playable area
- Breach now forces retreat
- Quitting a match will no longer exit the Match Stats screen.
The full patch notes will be released alongside the update.
Conclusion
Get ready for Umber Wasp, which is releasing tomorrow on PC! We are looking forward to hearing your feedback and seeing you dig in to all the changes coming in this update. Be sure to jump into our official forums or Discord to discuss the update with other players and to leave us your thoughts. To tide you over in the meantime, be sure to check out our Umber Wasp showcase with the Design team!