Update 9: Blood and Steel - Live Now!

Hey everyone,

We're excited to announce that Update 9: Blood and Steel is live now!

To give you an update on what the team are working on, as well as go through the full Changelog I'll be handing you over to Lead Developer Max!

Update 9 Changelog

Hi everyone,

This year is a very busy one for the whole team and we’re very excited to release Update 9 - which brings with it a ton of long-requested features that we’ve been keen to bring into the game - melee, the MG34, Utah Offensive modes, the admin camera and much more.

We try to list every single significant change, and never mean to omit anything. When this happens, it’s usually a result of human-error in reconciling our in-game bug tracking with the compilation of the notes. We’re striving to provide as much context and information as possible about every line in the changelog.

Like always, we’ll be monitoring all feedback from the Update and integrating it into our development plans. We’re particularly interested to see how the changes to Garrison behaviour affect the metagame and feel that the Admin camera will be a great way for us to better observe in-game behaviour.

Thanks so much for your support and patience over the course of our development. We’re very excited to show you what we’ve got cooking up in the future as we move towards leaving Early Access and fighting on the Eastern Front!

Find out more about some of Update 9's new additions below:

Melee

Utah Offensive

Barbed Wire

MG 34

Admin Cam

Patch Notes

Armour

We’ve done a deep-dive back into our armour code around both the weapon systems and physics systems, and felt that this required a more concerted effort to rewrite and polish both sets of code. As a result of this, we’re separating out balance with deeper system rewrites. In addition to this, we’re currently working to fill out the proper medium armour slots for all forces, as we know that the heavy armour skew in game has been causing issues for an unacceptably long period of time.

Due to the time needed to fix many of these deeper issues, we’re releasing as many beneficial changes as we can, as fast as we can.

• Reduced AT-Mine damage to Tanks. Mines no longer instantly destroy the following tanks: Tiger, Panther, Sherman 76mm, Sherman 75mm
• Tank MG belt has been increased from 100 to 200 rounds (this is coupled with the fixed zeroing of the MGs)
• Improved non-penetrating shell FX on Tanks
• Bombing runs and Artillery no longer deals proximity damage to Tanks (only direct hits)
• Adjusted the Luchs & Stuart gear speed ratio to be more linear and smooth
• Improvements made to damage occlusion (Added multi-point damage occlusion). This affects all heavy weapons (rockets, grenades, mines, tank rounds etc.)
• Improved Tanks MG hit detection. Please note, we’re aware of a persisting key issue with regard to the hit detection resulting in specific angles of both the target and the MG resulting in the target taking no damage from what appear to be obvious hits. We have a fix coming for this.

Meta Changes

• Disabled building Garrisons in neutral sectors
• Capturing a Strong Point on Offensive maps now takes 60 seconds (Was 120 seconds)
• Attacker Garrisons placed in enemy Active sectors on Offensive now takes 5 seconds to dismantle for the Defending forces (Was 30 seconds)
• Disabled the HQ spawn if enemy is capturing that HQ sector on Offensive
• Garrisons can now be placed in the first row/column of enemy sectors for 100 supplies (Unless locked). These are called Forward Garrisons.
• Forward Garrisons are disabled if enemy are within 100m (But not dismantled)
• Garrisons placed in friendly sectors still cost 50 supplies and an enemy needs to be within 15m of the garrison to disable it.
• Removed the 20 second cooldown for disabling Garrisons and Airheads (How long it takes to change from disabled > enemy near)
• Airheads now remain for 3 minutes allowing for 6 spawn waves (Was 2 minutes).
• If a sector is lost, friendly nodes in the lost sector are destroyed
• The engineer can build max 12 nodes per team (4 of each node per team)
• Engineers can no longer build the same nodes within 50 meters of another node

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Bug Reporting

We've decided to remove the in-game bug reporting menu in an effort to consolidate the bug reports we’re receiving. Players should instead report any bugs they experience in the game’s Support page on Steam or via the Team17 support page below.

Contact Team17 Support Here

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Gameplay/Features

• Added the MG 34 to German forces
• Added Utah Offensive US/GER
• Handheld weapons and tank MGs are now zeroed correctly by default
• Added a 2 minute staging period to the start of Warfare matches.
• Added an Admin/Spectate camera for server admins
• Increased max player level to 500
• Add new rank icons to scoreboard for levels 200-500
• Bullets no longer fire with perfect accuracy when leaving the sprint animation. Instead bullets will travel in the direction that your gun is facing
• Reduced the AT-gun cost from 100 to 50 supplies
• Made barbed wire functional. Due to the implementation, we are aware of specific locations in the game and per gamemode where this is not the case and will be fixing it.
• Added a VOIP reconnect option to Audio settings. We’ve worked a lot directly with Vivox around the implementation of the voip systems and it should be far more stable now, but we felt this would be a good thing to have just in case.
• Added a new anti-aliasing option called ‘Community TAA’ based on community feedback. We’ve added the most popular mixture of settings to the AA as we can no longer allow manual tweaks via .ini - which was used to remove grass and other objects from the game.
• Changing foliage settings no longer causes bushes to disappear
• Locked the ability to edit the engine.ini to prevent users disabling Grass/Foliage/Landscape
• Blueprints will be despawned after 3 minutes if they are not built
• Reduced dismantle timer for friendly blueprints to 2 seconds
• Medics now bandage twice as fast as regular infantry
• Shortened the Germans OP antenna to be more on par with the size of the US OP. We will be most likely remaking the models for both these and the Garrisons to be more optimised, higher quality and similar in size across all forces for balancing sake.
• Increased pistol damage at range (to be a 2 shot kill at extended range)
• Bombing runs and Artillery can now do radial damage to enemy trucks
• Tracers on weapons are now a fixed 1-in-4 ratio, instead of the "25% chance to spawn" system as before
• Vehicle wrecks now despawn when damaged by an explosion or after 5 minutes
• Vehicle wrecks will not despawn after 5 minutes if a player is within 100m or is within 250m and is looking in the direction of the wreck
• Vote-kicks now ban the player for 1 hour instead of 2 hours
• Improved performance on the Enlist screen (Server browser)
• Improvements made to damage occlusion (Added multi-point damage occlusion). This affects all heavy weapons (rockets, grenades, mines, tank rounds etc.)
• Tanks and all explosives can now destroy both enemy and friendly mines
• We’ve implemented a customised threshold on each reload animation, so that if it’s interrupted beyond a certain point the weapon will still be reloaded.

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EXP

• Players now receive the EXP reward after a deployable has been built, not when placing the blueprint
• Engineers gain 10 Support, Role and Career XP every time a resource node that they placed generates resources (Every 60 seconds)
• Passenger seats of the Supply and Transport Trucks now give bonus support score to the driver (+1 Support score every 60 seconds)
• Engineers earn 10 Support Score for every 30 seconds the Repair Station they built is used
• [Fixed] Inconsistency with the Support Score awarded between the Medic and the player that was revived
• [Fixed] Destroying a tank using the Bombing Run commander ability does not increase the Vehicle Kills score

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Animation

• [Fixed] Loaded round is not ejected when performing a partial reload with the M1 Garand
• [Fixed] Weapons don't leave firing state properly and keep playing muzzle effects
• [Fixed] [TPP] The player will remain in their throw animation after throwing their last smoke grenade
• [Fixed] [FPP] Character's arms are above their head when looking up and crawling on a sloped surface
• [Fixed] [TPP] Players in the driver seat of any truck have no idle animation
• [Fixed] [TPP] The 1st seat player of the Pak 40 AT gun has no idle animation

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HUD/UI

• Added a spawn list to the deploy screen that displays a list of available spawn locations
• The game now remembers which units the player has expanded and collapsed when the scoreboard is closed and reopened
• When using the Recon Plane ability, trucks now show as a hollow diamond, while armed vehicles show as a filled diamond.
• Mousing over supplies on the tactical map now displays how many supplies are remaining
• Added a ‘Add Friend’ button to the scoreboard allowing players to add others on Steam
• The Ping marker will now show on the edge of the screen if it’s out of view
• Commander abilities on the map show as white to teammates making them more visible
• Added a ‘Spectate unit’ designation icon to unit the bar. This icon will appear when someone in that unit is in the Admin Cam
• Officers of units now always appear at the top of their unit list and scoreboard
• Placed Satchel Charges icon has been changed from white to red
• Artillery HUD markers now cull at 200M not 500M
• Added a prompt to tell the player they need a bandage when they're wounded even if they don't have one in their inventory
• Servers running Offensive game modes show which team is attacking under the 'Game Mode' section on the Server Browser
• Added VIP slots and server queue information for servers to the server browser
• [Fixed] Players are unable to see occupants of other friendly vehicles when looking from inside a vehicle
• [Fixed] Player icons in-game scale down and become invisible at 200m regardless of view distance settings
• [Fixed] The Commander's name remain's visible in the In-Game HUD if they join a Unit without first Resigning as the Commander
• [Fixed] The player does not join a squad when pressing "Apply" on the Change Role screen after changing an appearance/loadout setting

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Loadouts

Sniper

• Added a second sniper loadout with AP mines.

Tank Commander

• Added a second loadout (Mechanic with a blowtorch) to both forces.

Machinegunner

• Changed the default German Machinegunner MG loadout to contain the MG34 as primary weapon. The MG42 has been moved back to role level 3.
• The US Machinegunner now has access to the BAR as a second unlockable loadout to provide a moving base of fire.

NOTE: We will be swapping items in loadouts in future updates as we introduce new equipment and weapons.

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Server/RCON

Added the following server options:

• Set Vote Kick Enabled
• Set Vote kick Threshold
• Reset Vote Kick Threshold
• Added enable/disable vote-kick server option
• Fixed a number of instances that would cause the server to crash
• [Fixed] A player banned by using their Steam ID is not removed from the server when it occurs
• [Fixed] Player will not see the server message in-game if they do not deploy within 10 seconds of joining the server

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SFX

• Added community VO 'death sound effects'.
• Added new BAR firing sfx.
• Overhauled all footsteps sound in the game.
• Adjusted the ‘Mic Volume’ setting to reduce chances of distorted player voices
• Added a sound effect for de-spawning vehicle wrecks
• Added a sound effect for dismantling an Airhead, Repair station and Supply crate
• [Fixed] Tank Hull/Coaxial Machine Gun firing SFX does not correctly play if [LMB] is not pressed long enough.
• [Fixed] The foot step audio while crouch running was inconsistent between FPP and TPP
• [Fixed] No bullet ejection audio when reloading an empty bolt action rifle
• [Fixed] Inconsistent SFX when shooting AP or AT mines

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Visual Improvements

• Extended the HLOD Transition Distance to a more acceptable distance. This is a bit of a balance between performance and “melted ice cream houses”.
• Updated BAR, Garand, K98k, MG42, Browning M1919, G43, Colt 1911, Luger, P38, STG44 Thompson, Springfield to use the new smart material system. We also cleaned up a lot of the geometry and sights (removed jagged geometry or poorly scaled front sight posts)
• Added particle effect for de-spawning vehicle wrecks
• Added particle effect for dismantling an Airhead, Repair station and Supply crate
• Bandaging wounds now adds blood to players hands
• Increased the cull distance for AT-Guns. They should now be visible at longer distances such as Omaha cliffs
• [Fixed] Scope becomes fuzzy when using sniper rifles
• [Fixed] Changing foliage settings causes grass/shrubs to disappear.
• [Fixed] Trees outlines visible on a fire/smoke VFX when having Low/Medium/High video preset selected
• [Fixed] Inconsistent VFX when shooting AP or AT mines
• [Fixed] The Torch flame will pulse when the game is on a lower FX quality
• [Fixed] The smoke resulting from firing shells from the tank appears distorted on Low, Medium or High FX Quality

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Trucks

• Improved Trucks collision model to prevent getting stuck on objects

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Bug Fixes

• [Fixed] Players deploying the LMG do not update for other players that are further than 500m away and become invincible
• [Fixed] The Engineer role's Barbed Wire blocks bazooka/panzerschreck shots, anti-tank/tank shells, grenades and explosions
• [Fixed] The airhead can be dropped in areas that will display the "Turn Back" message on player spawn
• [Fixed] Inconsistencies between certain tanks applying suppression to nearby friendly Players
• [Fixed] The Support and AT's wrench construction animation stops after about 2 seconds
• [Fixed] Offensive maps let defender vehicles pass the HQ of attackers
• [Fixed] Player may be invulnerable to ballistic damage during vaulting and/or climbing
• [Fixed] Starting to capture a sector instantly after the previous one has been caught results in the new sector not becoming enlarged on the player's HUD
• [Fixed] Text for Truck seat key bindings can overlap key bind graphic
• [Fixed] Satchel charge and impact marks appear to rotate on German Medium tank after undergoing collision
• [Fixed] Player will receive 65535 smoke grenades under unstable network conditions
• [Fixed] Opening the map while reloading a bolt action weapon will cancel the reload
• [Fixed] Multiple collision issues with the AT Gun ghost
• [Fixed] Missing progress bar for the 'You Shall Not Pass' and 'Labor of Love' achievements
• [Fixed] Map markers do not fade in when the player toggles the HUD on
• [Fixed] Selected customisations on Character model may appear incorrect on the front-end menu after exiting a server
• [Fixed] Several of the sliders within the game settings produce SFX when being dragged beyond their limit
• [Fixed] The "Dead Bodies Despawn Delay" setting does not change as intended, and is always 1 change behind
• [Fixed] The "Where's an Engineer?!" achievement is tracking the wrong number of repair stations
• [Fixed] The 'Strong Point' hint appears when the player enters an inactive Strong Point
• [Fixed] The achievements that involve the destruction of vehicles give more points of progress than intended
• [Fixed] The compass sometimes remains pointing towards the neutral sector even after that sector had been captured
• [Fixed] The format of the match timer is inconsistent between the HUD and scoreboard
• [Fixed] The health of a truck doesn't match up when compared between its HUD and Torch values
• [Fixed] The Map Marker List is cutoff on multiple resolutions
• [Fixed] The player is unable to dismantle the Barbed Wire constructible
• [Fixed] The player will receive the 'Capturing Sector' hint when they spawn as an attacker on an Offensive map
• [Fixed] The player will receive the 'You killed a friendly!' warning if they down an enemy and deploy on the enemy's team before the downed enemy has 'Let go'
• [Fixed] The reload of a deployed Machine Gun can be interrupted when it appears to be completed
• [Fixed] The user does not receive a warning if they opt to reset their settings or hints
• [Fixed] The ‘Enemy Near’ tooltip does not correctly update while it is visible to the Player
• [Fixed] User is unable to change appearance if the DLC is disabled via Steam whilst it is equipped to the character
• [Fixed] Visible issues when leaving a Unit.
• [Fixed] Watch build animation will partially loop if an enemy Player enters the build radius
• [Fixed] When in proximity of the enemy ghost nodes, the player will see the nodes' HUD icons
• [Fixed] The Commander's 'Reinforce' ability can be placed within locked sectors
• [Fixed] Captured sectors will go into 'Sector Cooldown' on the in-game map while playing the Offensive game mode
• [Fixed] On the Deployment Screen, the selected Spawn Point becomes visually deselected after redeploying
• [Fixed] The building animation will continue to play if the player goes into prone while constructing the supplies
• [Fixed] With pistol equipped, TPP Character ADS animation reverts to Hip when stop animation is played
• [Fixed] [TPP] The Ammo boxes, Ordnance boxes, Medical supplies boxes and Satchel charges are misaligned from the player's hand
• [Fixed] [TPP] The off-hand remains the same orientation when leaning with a one-handed piece of equipment
• [Fixed] Incorrect role equipment for the US ‘Support’ role when wearing the ‘Airborne M1942’ uniform
• [Fixed] Noticeable LOD issue on the Backpack as an US Anti-tank role
• [Fixed] The back of the neck of dead players may sometimes clip through Airborne M1942 Uniform
• [Fixed] [FPP] Player's hand is clipping with the Marsh Fallschirmjager Smock uniform when holding the Karabiner 98K rifle
• [Fixed] Accepting a Steam invite to a server with password will display the Wrong Password prompt
• [Fixed] Changing resolution while in 'Fullscreen' can briefly show the confirmation message before reverting back to its initial configuration
• [Fixed] Climbing on certain bushes can cause the player to levitate
• [Fixed] Disable the engine's shortcut that makes F11 toggle fullscreen
• [Fixed] The Vehicle engine start/stop sequence is cancelled if the Player attempts to open the map at the same time
• [Fixed] Players are able to immediately fire and with perfect accuracy by pressing the aim and fire buttons simultaneously while running
• [Fixed] Players kicked from squad sometimes remain in squad VOIP
• [Fixed] Server queue notifications are displayed to non-VIP members when all server slots are set for VIPs only
• [Fixed] Servers VIP slots only update after a user joins/leaves the server or the map changes
• [Fixed] The player is observed to crash while being "ALT+Tabbed" out of the game.
• [Fixed] Player crashed after leaving server and returning to enlist screen
• [Fixed] The cursor will be temporarily removed if the player is about to be deployed while navigating a game menu
• [Fixed] The Enlist Screen's server queue only updates after a map change or when a user joins/leaves the server
• [Fixed] The game will show as "Unreal Test!" on the Steam server list
• [Fixed] The player can become a rifleman when joining a locked recon unit.
• [Fixed] The player may experience a brief FPS drop upon first selecting a deploy location
• [Fixed] The player receives the "Already a member" message when trying to rejoin the same unit he got kicked out of
• [Fixed] Turret cannon HUD not updating whilst driving Recon Vehicles
• [Fixed] VIP Players are able to join a server during the post-match screen instead of being placed in the server queue
• [Fixed] [TPP] Player can perform certain animations with incorrect equipment.
• [Fixed] "THAT DEPLOY LOCATION HAS BEEN OVERRUN" shown, but the player is deployed anyway.
• [Fixed] Bullets do not penetrate window frames
• [Fixed] The Mausbach Approach capture point name is overlapped by the capture point icon from the HUD
• [Fixed] [TPP] The watch is misaligned in the player's hand
• [Fixed] Multiple issues observed with German revive animation
• [Fixed] If an action is performed while the player simultaneously opens up the scoreboard, the action will continue to completion
• [Fixed] Garrison icons will stay enlarged after being selected using the ‘Dismantle Garrison’ Commander ability
• [Fixed] Certain structures are counted twice in the "View Personal Stats" menu when placed
• [Fixed] Artillery Gun Icons on the HUD turn blue when a Unit member is in them
• [Fixed] Bullet Casing Ejects FX play at world origin when player hasn't moved for a while
• [Fixed] Key-bindings on the In-game map and Hints do not update if the key-bindings are changed via the in-game options menu
• [Fixed] All weapons can penetrate the "WaterDeep" material and the damage is not reduced after penetrating
• [Fixed] After a map transition, the background and player model of the customisation menu can disappear if the player quickly clicks 'Change Role'
• [Fixed] A defunct Unit may be created if another Player swaps team and creates a Unit while the Player is in the ‘Change Role’ menu.
• [Fixed] "Supplies Here!" achievement is not tracking the progress made when using Supply Drop as Commander.
• [Fixed] "Take Cover" achievement is not tracking the progress made
• [Fixed] Backface culling visible on drainpipe.
• [Fixed] Inconsistency with support score awarded when placing level 0 constructible ghosts
• [Fixed] US Trucks get stuck often under Supply Stations.
• [Fixed] A LoD transition issue with the German Munitions node at a short distance
• [Fixed] Collision issues with Barns
• [Fixed] Invisible collision present on factory asset across multiple maps
• [Fixed] Noticeable LOD issue observed on the ‘German Light Tank’

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UTAH

• Fixed the German side missing various vehicle spawns
• Reduced the extended load time seen on Utah vs other maps
• Fixed a number of assets without working bullet penetration
• Added missing repair stations to the Warfare game mode
• Improved vehicle and player collision on a number of assets across the map
• Fixed a number of misaligned textures and terrain

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HILL 400

• Fixed a number of misaligned textures and terrain

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FOY

• The Southern Edge strong point is now more central in the sector than its previous location
• Fixed a number of misaligned textures and terrain
• Road missing collision on Foy map
• Improved MG deployment at certain locations
• Fixed multiple inconsistencies between the map and the in game areas
• Fixed tank & gun shots not penetrating wire fences

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OMAHA

• [Omaha] Players cannot go in crouch position inside the small stone bunkers if they are in the prone position
• Improved many LOD issues related to buildings and terrain across the map
• Fixed multiple inconsistencies between the map and the in game areas
• Fixed a number of misaligned textures and terrain

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CARENTAN

• Train track asset is now consistent with the tracks on Hurtgen and Hill 400
• Improved vehicle and player collision on a number of assets across the map
• Prevented players from getting to certain locations they shouldn’t eg. on top of roofs or inside empty buildings
• Fixed inconstant vehicle collision on some stonewall assets across the map
• Increased the clearance on the railway bridge located in [J6/J7] so all vehicles can fit
• Improved LoD transitions on a number of assets
• Fixed a number of misaligned textures and terrain

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Hurtgen Forest

• Fixed a number of assets without working bullet penetration
• Fixed the German and US sides missing various vehicle spawns
• Fixed a number of misaligned textures and terrain

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Sainte Mere Eglise

• Fixed the placement of 2 preplaced Garrisons so they are not floating or clipping in the Offensive gamemode
• Fixed the US HQs having a German and US Repair Station model clipping on top of each other
• Improved vehicle collision on a number of assets across the map
• Fixed a number of misaligned textures and terrain

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Purple Heart Lane

• Fixed a number of misaligned textures and terrain

Blood and Steel

That wraps up today's Changelog / Patch Notes!

We look forward to hearing what you think of the new additions, tweaks and changes that you're diving into with Update 9.

As always your feedback is integral to us here on the team, so let us know what you like, what you don't and everything in-between!

Oh and keep an eye and ear out for us in battle, we'll be jumping in to enjoy Blood and Steel alongside you all.

We'll see you on the frontline.