Greetings Commanders,
Patch 15 for Axis & Allies 1942 Online arrives today— and it is a BIG one. We're completely overhauling the user interface, adding two new dice modes, plus many more features and fixes!
⚠️Outage Notice: Please note that Axis & Allies 1942 Online will be unavailable from 9am-2pm PDT on July 13, 2021 as we roll out the new patch.
Today's major update represents feedback from players all across the globe: from Steam Forums, Steam Reviews, Beamdog Surveys, Beamdog Support to Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Discord, and more!
Huge thanks to our community of passionate players, and to everyone who tested out these changes in our Preview Build. We couldn't have done it without you!
Read on for full details and try the update today...
PATCH NOTES
Features
New Dice Modes:
There’s been a ton of discussion in our community around dice rolls. We’ve heard you!
Today’s update adds two new dice modes to the game: Low Luck and Biased Dice. Standard Dice will remain an option for players who prefer the classic RNG.
Here’s how these new modes will work…
🎲Low Luck Dice
In Low Luck mode, the number of hits equals the total attack power or defense power of units, divided by six.
If there is a remainder after this calculation (a leftover number not divisible by 6, ie. 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5) the game rolls an extra die that hits if the result is equal to or less than the remainder.
Example:
- 2 Tanks and 2 Infantry have a combined Attack Power of 8 = (3+3+1+1)
- Low Luck Calculation: 8 ÷ 6 = 1, remainder 2
- Total Hits = 1 guaranteed hit + a die roll that hits on 2 or lower
🎲Biased Dice
These dice control for extreme results. For each roll, the game takes a random result out of 100 that corresponds to possible dice outcomes (1 through 6). Results of 2, 3, and 4 are more likely to occur than results of 1, 5, or 6.
Menus
- Visuals | Updated visuals on the Friends List, Notifications and Options menu
- Settings | Updated visuals and streamlined the Settings menu
Help & Tutorials
- Tutorial | Updated single player tutorial
- Advanced Rules Help | Added “Help more” mode for advanced rules
- Tooltips | War Report tooltips will reopen when returning to the War Report, if tooltips were open when you last viewed the War Report
- Kick Players | Added clearer in-game messaging for players who are kicked from a game
- Updated Tool Tips | See more detailed prompts to help you complete your turns and understand the rules
Heads Up Display (HUD) and Menus
- Heads Up Display (HUD) | Now located at the top of the screen (instead of the bottom)
- Victory Thermometer | Clearer visuals on the victory city counter in the HUD
- Hover Information | Names of territories / sea zones display beneath the HUD when you hover your cursor over an area— so you don’t have to guess if it’s Sea Zone 15 or 16!
- Menu Text | Brightened some of the darker text in the lobby menu to improve readability
- Offline Mode | Offline Mode can now be activated from the main menu
- Readability | Improved readability of the United States elements in the User Interface
- Emojis | Emojis will now be filtered out of game and commander names to prevent compatibility issues on certain devices
- In-Game Notifications | Updated the in-game message and notification display
Map
- Antarctica | Added the continent of Antarctica
- Southern Sea Zones | Expanded southern Sea Zones to create more space for units
- Map Notes | Updated map note icons to be golden
Moving Your Troops
- Drag & Drop! | In addition to basic click/right-click, a click and drag option is now available— drag & drop units directly in a region, or use the new tokens
- Drag & Drop Toggle | Toggle drag & drop on or off in the input settings
- Control Options | Customize mouse binding options in the input settings
- Unit Tokens | New pop-up tokens show units in a territory— these tokens make it simple to pick out that one tank in Tokyo, or grab a unit from a crowded sea zone!
- Expand Movement Details | Click on the diamond movement markers to open a window with details about units involved in the move!
- Arrows | Refined movement arrows for a cleaner look
- Radial Menu | Radial Menu added as default way to control unit movement
- Standard Movement | Single unit movement is still available on ctrl + right click by default
- Blitz Visuals | New visuals highlight tank blitzes through regions
- Retreat Visuals | New visuals highlight battle retreats
- Revert Controls | Added an option to change back to the previous controls scheme, available through the settings menu under input
War Report
- Visuals | Updated visuals of the report
- Information | Streamlined information to be more useful
Transport Overhaul
- Streamlined UI | Transport loading/unloading is now easier with a streamlined UI
- Cancellation | Individual steps of transport movement can now be cancelled, rather than needing to cancel the whole movement
Combat
- No More Lane Rolls! | All lanes now roll automatically, without needing to click-through— much more like the board game!
- Bombing Raids | Updated visuals and interface for bombing raids (so it’s much easier to tell the difference between a bomber’s standard combat move vs a raid)
- Combat Board Visuals | Updated a few graphics & visuals on the combat board
- Combat Animations | Toggle combat animations on or off in the graphics settings, such as flashing damage effects
- Retreat | Prompt to Retreat or Press On is much clearer (so you won’t accidentally continue the battle when a strategic retreat is called for)
- Roll Log | Dice roll log now shows special rolls separately (i.e. anti-air, surprise strikes and bombardments)
- Retreat Button | Reduced size of “Retreat” and “Press On” buttons
- Retreat | Added a retreat icon to clearly indicate the selected retreat destination and updated the related message bar
Game Phases
- Automatic Turn Skip | A player's phases are now skipped automatically if they cannot take any actions in an online game
- End Phase | To avoid accidentally ending a phase, players now need to click and hold the end-phase button to proceed (players can’t spam-click and miss a full phase anymore...but spamming “Enter” is still available)
- Phase Summary | Streamlined phase summary details (this is no longer a wall of text, but should now be useful at-a-glance!)
- Probability Estimates | Phase summaries now include rough estimates on how likely your planned battles are to succeed
- Mobilization | Industrial complexes now highlight your deployment options
Defense Profiles
- Interface | Updated the Interface for Defense Profiles
- Maximum 15 | Increased the maximum number of defense profiles to 15
- Turn-based | Defense profiles can only be changed on your turn, not during your opponent’s turn—***Make sure to confirm your defense profile before you finish your turn!!!
- Defense Profiles | Decreased defense profile menu size and added vertical scrolling
Fixes
- Stability | Improved overall stability and performance
- AI Fixes | Addressed several crashes/bugs in AI games
- Readability | Text on older operating systems/devices should now be more readable
- Lobby | Fixed sizing and overflow issues in the lobby when choosing to join an opposing faction while already having joined the other faction
- Map | Fixed map borders that caused certain visual issues
- Transports | Fixed a crash caused by destroyed transports
- Bombardment | Fixed an issue with bombardments where the wrong number of units appeared on the radial menu
- Combat Summary | Fixed the color of the lost units count in the Combat Summary
- Defense Profiles | Autosave will no longer overwrite defense profiles
- Defense Profiles | Fixed a crash that happened when creating new defense profiles
- Offline Mode | Fixed support for playing with no internet connection
- Industrial Complexes | In the Mobilization Phase, newly captured Industrial Complexes will no longer be highlighted
- Observer Mode | Observed combats now correctly begin after loading and exit after the battle ends
- Movement | A group of units with a movement speed higher than one, will now correctly move as a group when clicking through regions
- Transports | Fixed an issue with the transport interface where units would not display properly