With the Hospital Update, we have completely overhauled the wound system. The previous model, which categorised wounds as minor, moderate and severe, has been replaced by a system that more accurately reflects where and how a soldier is injured.
Location- and type-based injuries
An injury now consists of two components, the location of the injury:
Arms
Legs
Torso
Head
and the type of the injury:
Bruise
Graze
Penetration
Cut
Stab
Shrapnel
Fracture
Explosion
as well as special cases, such as trench foot.
Consequences of injuries
Injuries directly affect a soldier's effectiveness. Injured arms e.g. make it harder to shoot, while injured legs decrease mobility. The type of the injury determines the severity of the impairment and also the amount of bleeding in battle.
As already described in the Dev Diary on diseases and complications, complications also play a central role in the case of injuries. A critically wounded soldier who is not treated in time may e.g. suffer from blood loss and circulatory collapse.
However, even a soldier who has already been treated or is less seriously wounded may develop complications over time in battle or in the trenches. For this reason, it is now possible to send a soldier to the hospital at an early stage, even if he's still fit for duty.
Balancing: Fitness and Exhaustion
As part of the changes, we have also adjusted the balancing: Fitness has now been renamed to Physical Condition and can increase or decrease much more rapidly. If a soldier has many complications, this leads to a significant decline of his physical condition. Even a recovered soldier is therefore not automatically fully fit for duty straight away, as he tires more quickly when performing tasks and is also more vulnerable to illness.
Exhaustion has also been adjusted. Overall, managing exhaustion should be significantly easier, particularly in the first few months of the war. During trench phase, soldiers will be less exhausted, but they will regenerate slightly more slowly in camp.
As the fundamental changes to the systems mean that things now work quite differently, balancing will remain a key focus for us in the time after the update.
New Stories
As with every update, we have written more diary entries (around 15 new stories), which mainly deal with topics such as death, physical and mental illness, and disability.