GHPC Early Access has been updated to version 20250212.
This is a regular update, introducing new features, adjustments, and bug fixes.
We've got plenty more in the works for GHPC! As always, you can get additional info by visiting our Discord server and YouTube channel. Links are on the GHPC website.
WEST GERMANY ARRIVES
From very early on, it has been our intention to feature four military groups in GHPC: the forces of the United States, the Soviet Union, and both East and West Germany. With this update, at long last, the Bundeswehr of West Germany makes its debut!
Much like the initial debut of the Soviet forces in GHPC, the West German unit set included in this update is limited to only a small portion of what we intend to add to the game. Today we are introducing the Leopard 1A1 family, the German variant of the M113, and West German troops with basic kit. More additions, such as the Marder 1, Leopard 2, and additional West German infantry weapons, will arrive when they are ready.
NEW VEHICLE: LEOPARD 1A1 FAMILY
Four variants of the classic Leopard 1 tank are now available in the game: the Leopard A1A1, A1A2, A1A3, and A1A4. Much like the M60 and M1 series, all of these are armed with a variant of the venerable 105mm L7 cannon and carry a familiar suite of rounds for different purposes.
There are several points on the features of the Leopard 1A1 that deserve explanation.
Stereoscopic rangefinder
The Leopard 1 features a unique form of optical rangefinder using the "stereoscopic" method. At first glance, this sounds similar to an optical coincidence rangefinder: the crew's viewfinder is fed by two sight apertures on the sides of the turret, which they focus on the target in order to judge the range. But the operating principle is very different.
A coincidence rangefinder requires the user to overlap (coincide) two images to set the correct range. This is seen in GHPC's M60A1 (where the images are transparent and overlapping) as well as the Soviet TPD-2-49 sights (where the images are displayed as two half circles that must be aligned). By contrast, a stereoscopic rangefinder relies on the user's 3D depth perception. The reticle of the stereoscopic rangefinder is rendered separately in each eyepiece in a way that makes it appear to "hover" in space, far in front of the optic. Adjusting the range setting of the optic will send the image of the reticle "toward" or "away from" the user. When the reticle appears to be at the same distance as the target, "touching" it in space, the range is correct.
Unfortunately, we cannot show a floating reticle in 3D space on a flat monitor, so we've taken some artistic liberty with the Leopard 1 rangefinder. Our depiction of the rangefinder's distance setting relies on two visual cues:
3D reticle with camera sway: The reticle is indeed projected into space, but rather than using your brain's binocular vision skills to convey the depth, we induce some camera sway or "head bob" while the sight is in rangefinder mode. The subtle perspective shifts of various objects in view help reveal what distance they're at. When the range is correct, the reticle will appear to move with the target as one, rather than shifting around over it.
Forced depth of field effect: Since we can't make your eyes see the depth cues on a flat screen, we've added cranked up the focus blur on objects that are not at the current distance setting of the rangefinder. If the target comes into sharp focus, that's a good sign that the distance setting is roughly correct.
The combination of these two visual cues should allow the stereoscopic rangefinder to be useful, while being visually distinct from the coincidence rangefinders on other tanks.
Ammunition loadouts
The standard Leopard 1 loadout for the early Cold War numbered 60 rounds total, consisting of APDS, HEAT-FS, and HESH. However, during the second half of the 1980s, the Bundeswehr switched over to a 55-round APFSDS and HEAT-FS loadout, much like what the US Army was using at the time. Due to this change, there is some variation in official standard Leopard tank loadouts from the Cold War.
We have chosen to depict this shift by giving the Leopard A1A4 the updated ammo loadout by default, featuring DM23 APFSDS as its standard dart. The three other variants receive the earlier loadout with DM13 APDS. The customizer will allow you to swap the sabot ammo type in any Leopard A1 variant, though the vehicle will retain the same number of ammo type slots it originally had.
HESH ammunition
High-Explosive Squash Head (HESH), sometimes called High-Explosive Plastic (HEP), is a brand-new type of ammunition for GHPC. In addition to standard HE blast damage, this round has a rather unique way of damaging armored targets. The head of the round is made of plastic explosive compound, and upon impact with a flat surface, it quickly deforms into a broad pancake before detonating. For homogenous plates of the correct thickness, the shock of the detonation on the outside surface blows off a chunk of armor on the inside, sometimes called a "scab". The armor scab then rips into the interior of the target, damaging it the same way penetration spall would.
Much like real-life HESH rounds, the 105mm HESH featured in the Leopard A1 loadout is most effective against lightly armored targets and when impacting a perpendicular or mildly angled surface. Some amount of angle will make the round more effective, but too much angle will cause it to rapidly become useless, possibly failing to detonate at all. In addition, the armor scab tends to blast off in the normal direction (directly away from the plane of the armor face), so the target's shape will have a large influence on whether you damage anything important inside of it.
Night sights
The Leopard A1A1 and A1A3 featured a fairly limited night sight system: an active IR sight installed in the commander's position. This sight could only be set for a range of 800, 1000, or 1200 meters. In the daytime, it was uninstalled and replaced with a day sight. In GHPC, the range limitations of the sight are accurately depicted, and using it will clamp your FCS range setting to the acceptable range. The sight is fully unavailable in daylight missions.
With the Leopard A1A2 and A1A4 came an upgrade: the PZB-200 night sight. This passive sight, now using an add-on fixture on the gun mantlet, allows far better image quality and a wider range of distance settings. The PZB-200 in GHPC is represented with a screen border similar to its real display.
Auxiliary sight
The backup telescope sight in the Leopard A1 is unusual in that its zero mark is quite high in the viewfinder. This is done to ensure that the sight will remain usable with the large ballistic drop of HESH ammunition at longer ranges.
Unlike the rangefinder sight, which is limited to a setting of 400 meters and above, the auxiliary sight can be set as low as 0 meters. However, returning to the rangefinder sight with a range setting below 400 selected will reset it to 400.
Variant differences
Continuing tradition, we have a chart showing the differences between the different Leopard A1 variants in GHPC.
An asterisk (*) indicates that the item is not strictly attached to the variant in real life but was chosen to reflect contemporary changes to the West German Leopard fleet at roughly the same time.
You can use any variant of the Leopard A1 in any mission after successfully completing it at least once, using the mission customizer menu.
NEW VEHICLE: M113A1G
Like several other NATO member states, West Germany used a local variant of the M113 APC during the Cold War. Their version of the M113A1 was fitted with German lamps and a German smoke grenade launcher rack. Its main armament was an MG3 medium machine gun on a special mount that allowed high elevation angles when necessary. The M113A1G is featured in the two new Eastern Road missions and can also be used in any mission with an APC slot in the customizer menu.
"NEW" VEHICLE: M2 BRADLEY WITH ALTERNATIVE LOADOUT
There are some situations where the standard 70-round APDS belt for the Bradley's 25mm gun feels like it's not enough to deal with the amount of enemy light armor. In real life, crews had the ability to load their armor piercing belts in the large bin if they needed to. To reflect this flexibility, we've added a special "alt" variant of the M2, with the ammo load swapped so it carries 230 ready rounds of APDS and 70 of HE. The mission Crossroads Screen now features this variant by default, but you can use it in any mission that allows IFVs to be swapped in the customizer menu.
NEW MAP: EASTERN ROAD
Our map designers are working on a smaller, more dense map to use for new missions. Though some assets in the map are still a work in progress, we've decided to release it in this update. Two new Leopard-focused missions entitled "Table Salt" are available in the Eastern Road section of the Instant Action list.
INFANTRY IN MORE MISSIONS
As part of this update, we have modified several existing missions to add troops:
- Casual Cleanup
- Keen Kestrel
- Lethargic Liberty
- Slow Raid
- Fog of War
- Steel Wedge
SOVIET TROOPS
Soviet infantry, armed with AK-74 and RPG-7VL, are now available in GHPC. They will appear in any missions that include infantry and use Soviet forces by default. You can also select them in the customizer menu for the infantry slot in any other mission where that is available.
Note that with the addition of Soviet troops the East German anti-tank rifleman loadout has also been altered to use an earlier variant of the PG-7 warhead.
WEST GERMAN TROOPS
West German Bundeswehr infantry are now available, armed with G3A3 rifles. They feature in the Table Salt missions, but (just like the Soviet troops) they can be used in many other missions with the customizer feature.
As of this initial release, the West German troops use the LAW as their light anti-tank weapon.
INFANTRY WEAPON ANIMATIONS
Most infantry weapons now have animated reload sequences. This has no gameplay impact, but it looks cool, which is very important in its own right.
CHANGE LOG
NEW CONTENT
- Added West German Leopard 1A1 tank in a total of four sub-variants
- Added West German M113A1G APC
- Added West German troops armed with G3A3
- Added Soviet troops armed with AK-74
- Added a new map, "Eastern Road"
- Added two new missions, Table Salt parts 1 and 2, set in Eastern Road
- Added new tank defense template mission in North Fields map
- Added Leopard 1A1 training mission
- Added reload animations to most infantry weapons
- Added stereoscopic rangefinder system for Leopard 1A1
- Added HESH ammunition with armor scab mechanics
- Added improved models for 9P135M launcher and 9M111 missile
- Added improved models TOW and I-TOW missiles
- Added improved tracer visuals
- Reworked several older missions to add infantry: Casual Cleanup, Keen Kestrel, Lethargic Liberty, Slow Raid, Fog of War, Steel Wedge
- Added new M2 Bradley "alt" variant with AP-focused loadout
FEATURES AND ADJUSTMENTS
- Reduced CPU load of several systems, leading to improved optimization for some players
- Alert messages will no longer conflict with restocking or other weapon messages
- Fullscreen windowed mode no longer minimizes the game when it is out of focus
- AI gunners will resist engaging past the effective range of a weapon (this especially affects the cannon on the BMP-1)
- AI gunners will resist engaging targets they have no way to damage (e.g. the M113A1G will not fight tanks)
- Improved some fire, smoke, and dust effects
- Visible RPG warheads will now resemble the specific ammo type loaded
- PG-7VL rounds are now only used by the Soviet troops, with East German anti-tank troops carrying less effective rounds
- RPG troops now carry the launcher unloaded at first
- Troops will now attempt to account for vehicle speed when throwing anti-tank grenades
- Most CAS planes can now engage afterburners during egress
- Memory usage of some subsystems has been reduced
- American M113 has been renamed to M113A2
- Any existing camera blur is now canceled when entering free cam mode
FIXES
- Fixed an issue that would cause campaign file saving to fail (note: any campaign file last saved before September 2024 will fail to load)
- Fixed audio continuing to play during game paused state
- Fixed a UI bug that would de-highlight the current mission in the list if something else was clicked
- Fixed M113 gunners in Eastern Scramble refusing to visibly die or bail out when the vehicle was lost
- Fixed an issue that could lead to fragments flying backward at incredible speeds and nailing the shooter
- Fixed an issue where fragments could ignore the shooter's armor and damage internal components
- Fixed an issue that could lead to fragments having incorrect penetration ratings
- Fixed West German F-104 in Prying Eyes firing Soviet rockets (added FFAR)
- Reduced tendency of US troops to become fully red when wounded
- Fixed M1 sponson not having enough turret ring armor behind it
- Fixed portion of M113 armor model being slightly shifted in position
- Fixed seat positions in M113 being misplaced
- Fixed some issues with infantry models
Thanks for playing!
Note: The build was updated twice on Feb. 13 to fix some issues. Details here:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1705180/discussions/0/521957336989888793/
