[2.0.8] Smarter AI, New Skyboxes, Reworked Tiger I & More!

Hello again soldiers!

Update 2.0.8 is now available, bringing major improvements to infantry and vehicle AI, a new skybox and lighting system, reworked vehicles, interface updates, new content, and important stability and multiplayer fixes across Easy Red 2.

Following the launch of Easy Red 2: Blood on the Danube, our focus has returned to several core systems that affect every campaign. This update makes AI more responsive in combat, significantly improves vehicle navigation and unstuck behavior, refreshes the game’s atmosphere and lighting, and continues our gradual work on the user interface, maps, missions, equipment, performance, and networking.

The Future of Easy Red 2

The Easy Red 2 Community Poll has now provided us with the data we needed.

We have now collected the responses needed to identify a clear overall direction. For some time, a large part of our development focus will move toward AI and other core systems that received strong support from the community.

Several other highly requested additions are also being considered as a result of the poll, but these will be announced later, once our plans are ready to be discussed properly.

As many of you already know, Iwo Jima and the Battles of Khalkhin Gol are currently in development. The poll has also made the community’s preferences for future DLC very clear, and we will give these results significant weight when selecting the next major campaigns to develop.

Thank You for Your Feedback ❤️

Thank you to everyone who took the time to participate and provide us with useful feedback for the future of Easy Red 2.

View on Steam

Update 2.0.8

Update 2.0.8 introduces major AI, vehicle, visual, and interface improvements developed for Easy Red 2 as a whole.

Infantry AI now reacts more deliberately while under fire, uses awareness in a more situational way, and responds faster when receiving new movement orders. Vehicle AI has received extensive pathfinding and obstacle-avoidance changes, together with much stronger behavior for recovering when stuck on rocks, terrain, and other objects.

The update also introduces a new skybox, cloud, fog, and lighting system, a reworked Tiger I family, the new Marder II, improvements to aircraft weapons, new Normandy buildings and interiors, memory-management and netcode improvements, and numerous mission, animation, shader, and stability fixes.

New Features and Content:

• Vehicles and Aircraft

  • Reworked the Tiger I family and added multiple variants, including the Tiger I Ausf. H1, Tiger I Ausf. E, and variants equipped with Zimmerit coating. Steam post image

  • Added the Marder II.

    

  • Aircraft-mounted machine guns assigned to different weapon groups can now be fired together.

• Weapons and Historical Equipment

  • Added a new stabilization-on-aim system for weapons that cannot use a conventional aimed stance without deploying a bipod, currently including the MG 42 and MG 34.

  • Added new German tropical-camouflage M42 helmets, including variants with a bread bag and camouflage leaves.

  • Reworked the textures of the German 10.5 cm leFH 18.

• Interface and Settings

  • Began a gradual rework of the main-menu interface, with additional changes planned for future updates.

    

  • Added a new setting to play Campaign Gamemode missions without AI-count scaling.

• Map and Missions

  • Added a new Normandy train-station building (Normandy DLC).

  • Added interiors to the Normandy City Center house, with a few smaller adjustments still planned (Normandy DLC).

  • Large improvements in balancing in many Budapest missions.

  • Improvements in balancing in many Operation Konrad & Spring Awakening Missions.

  • Added Jagdpanther G1 to various Operation Konrad and Operation Spring Awakening missions.

  • Added Tiger I Ausf. E to post- 1943 campaigns (with the exception to Caen at Normandy, for now). The H1 has replaced the Tigers seen in Tunisia.

  • Bastogne has been converted to the new road system. It now has a black mud road throughout.

  • Kos has been updated to now have accurate unit names.

  • German tanks have been removed from Kos, now all vehicles used on the island are armored cars such as the Sd.Kfz 222 and 250/9.

  • Italians given more vehicle options to spawn as in some Kos missions.

  • M8 "Scott" added to Anzio and Cassino campaigns

  • Marder II replaced Marder I standin in Anzio, with some added to Cassino (still a standin for the Marder III for now).

  • A few more balancing changes to missions.

Fixes and Improvements:

• Infantry AI and Navigation

  • AI units under fire now advance more cautiously, spend more time returning fire instead of continuing to move, and are far less likely to remain standing during active combat.

  • AI awareness is now more situational. Units that have not been alerted may take longer to detect distant enemies and are less likely to immediately notice enemies approaching from behind.

  • When moving away from their squad leader, AI units now attempt to reach nearby cover before continuing toward the assigned marker. This remains an early experimental behavior rather than a complete cover-to-cover system and may receive further adjustments.

  • AI units now discard obsolete movement orders and calculate a path toward newly assigned destinations much faster.

  • Fixed several rare issues that could leave units far behind during a battle or cause them to use incorrectly assigned cover.

• Vehicle AI and Physics

  • Significantly improved vehicle pathfinding and obstacle avoidance, especially when navigating complex environments.

    

  • Greatly improved AI vehicle unstuck behavior around large rocks, terrain obstacles, and other objects.

  • Fixed an issue that could cause vehicles to jump when the camera rapidly moved close to them.

• Visual Effects and Graphics

  • Introduced a new skybox system with reworked clouds, fog, and lighting across the game.

    

  • Made additional polish and adjustments to the new skybox system.

  • Fixed and improved various shaders.

• Interface and Animations

  • Improved the size, transparency, and animation of various in-battle interface elements.

  • Made smaller fixes and improvements to various animations.

• Map Editor and Environment Tools

  • Fixed the Road tool on Nintendo Switch. This fix will arrive with the next 2.0.8 console update.

  • Fixed and improved various buildings and environmental assets.

• Performance, Multiplayer and Stability

  • Improved memory management for more stable gameplay on low-end devices and consoles.

  • Improved netcode for more stable multiplayer connections.

  • Fixed a crash affecting landing missions on PlayStation and reduced unnecessary resource usage in the same system on other platforms. The PlayStation fix will arrive with the next 2.0.8 console update.

  • Added various smaller gameplay, graphical, mission, and technical fixes.

What Comes Next?

Update 2.0.8 includes the first public version of several systems that will continue to evolve. We will keep testing and refining the new infantry AI behaviors, vehicle navigation, skybox system, and interface changes based on feedback from the BETA and public versions. Following the results of the Community Poll, AI and other strongly supported core systems will remain a major development focus for some time.

Development is already underway on the Battle of Iwo Jima and the Battles of Khalkhin Gol. Our current goal is to release both before the end of 2026, as part of base game, or free additions to currently existing DLCs.

Additionally, a larger Normandy Rework on the same map will be coming in the next months. It is planned to feature 5 additional missions on top of the existing ones! Can you guess where they will be?

Iwo Jima

Iwo Jima will return Easy Red 2 to the Pacific in 1945 and depict the full battle rather than just ending after the fighting for Mount Suribachi. Expect difficult amphibious landings, close-quarters infantry combat, fortified bunkers, caves, and a dedicated system of underground tunnels forming part of the Japanese defensive network.

Khalkhin Gol

Khalkhin Gol will instead bring the game to the largely overlooked 1939 conflict between Soviet-Mongolian and Japanese-Manchukuoan forces. Its open steppe terrain will support large early-war armored battles, infantry formations, artillery, and aircraft operating together on a large scale.

Work on these campaigns and the wider game will also introduce new mechanics and content, including deployable portable mortars such as the Japanese knee mortar, alongside new vehicles, weapons, equipment, and further reworks of existing content.

Beyond Iwo Jima and Khalkhin Gol, the poll has given us a clear understanding of which settings the community wants to see in future DLC. Those results will be strongly considered when we select the next major campaigns, while other plans suggested by the poll will be announced at a later date.

Hungary 1945

As a reminder, Easy Red 2: Blood on the Danube – Hungary 1945 is still available on Steam and is currently 25% off as part of its launch discount until July 29. This is a good opportunity to join the battles for Budapest and the final major operations fought in Hungary during the closing months of the war. Easy Red 2 Blood on the Danube Get in touch!

You can also join the Easy Red 2 community to share feedback, report issues, publish your creations, participate in ongoing tests, and follow future development updates:

Join Easy Red 2 Discord Community

Visit the Easy Red 2 Steam Workshop

Thank you for reading, and we will see you on the battlefield!

Marco and the Easy Red 2 Development Team