In this update15
Full notes
Full Ground of Aces update
Read the full published notes in a cleaner layout. The original post stays linked below.
What changed
- Maps
- Store
- Gameplay
- Fixes
- Balance
- UI and audio
Ground of Aces changes
Our latest major update is officially out with the title "Maps & Liveries" and it's a big one!
Note for our testers: If you took part in the alpha test branch, please switch back to the public default version to enjoy the latest version of the game.
New Features
Aircraft Liveries – Repaint your airplanes with different skins!
With this new system, you can paint your aircraft in a variety of different liveries, giving your fleet a much more personal and distinctive look.
Here you can see a selection of the new liveries:
These liveries will be unlocked simply by playing the game and completing specific achievement-style assignments.
There will also be "Natural Metal Finish" skins and colorful, unique-looking skins, the "special" skins. These can be unlocked with special promo codes that will be given out on special occasions and as part of collaborations with content creators. You will be informed about such promo code drops via the new news widget in the main menu.
Learn more about the unlock mechanics here: view
New Map: RAF Debden
We made a new starter map based on the Royal Air Force station Debden. This map has a runway, a few parking spots, and buildings already ready for you, so you can jump in more quickly than with the other maps.
Steam post image
Map Editor - Build your own starter map or freely build the airbase of your dreams!
This is a big one: Now you can design and share your own starter maps! Decide over the terrain, flora, available materials, and already set up buildings without worrying about resources and building times. Share the maps that you create on our Discord and check out what other community members created.
New Flora & Stone Assets
Our 3D artist made new trees, bushes, and stones to give the new map a new environment and look. These new assets are also available in the map editor.
New Resource: Stone
We added new stones because now harvesting stones gives you the ability to make gravel grounds which you need for one of the runway tiers.
Oerlikon 20 mm cannon
We have a new AA gun for you: HQ now lets you order the Oerlikon AA gun!
Predictor Lookout Post
Now you can build and assign someone to a lookout post to improve your defenses. Order it from HQ and place it near your AA guns to give them a bigger radius.
De Havilland Mosquito – Add with the free DLC
The most requested aircraft is available for Ground of Aces is now available for the game. You only need to add the free «Wings of Valor» DLC to your library to unlock it for the airplane roster in the game.
What is «Wings of Valor»?
Alongside Major Update 4, we’re also releasing Wings of Valor, the first DLC for Ground of Aces. This DLC is a promise we made during our Kickstarter campaign, and today marks the start of building it up piece by piece. Wings of Valor exists thanks to the incredible support of our backers, who made it possible for us to lay the foundation for additional content beyond the base game.
Wings of Valor is available for free in its current state, as it currently includes one aircraft and Ground of Aces itself is still in Early Access. As the DLC grows through future updates and receives more content, it will transition from free to paid at a later point. Players who pick it up now will receive all future additions at no extra cost. Releasing the DLC this way allows us to add the Mosquito already and begin fulfilling our Kickstarter promise step by step.
Planned content for «Wings of Valor» includes:
Curtiss P-40 “Kittyhawk”
De Havilland Vampire
Another aircraft voted by the community (tba)
An additional aircraft selected by the development team (tba)
Digital artbook
Decorative posters
Two legendary pilot NPCs voted by the community
Spitfire Mk X livery (skin)
Other improvements / things that got fixed since the previous hotfix:
New shading:
The shading has been updated to come closer to our vision of making a game with comic-style visuals and to make it more consistent. You can see the difference in this image, which is split in the middle with the old shading on the left and the new shading on the right.
On the map selection, you can now find some additional information about what you can expect from the map.
Fixed issue with HQ window not updating information properly
Plane’s stats have been rebalanced
Speed set to single speed when watching attacks or victory celebrations
Shipment size dots get removed reliably
AA gun values adjusted
Ammo stack limit increased (low-cal & high-cal doubled, bombs quadrupled)
Improvement of log texts and plane descriptions
Issues we are currently working on:
Make the function of the default paint button in the management screen clearer
Skin unlock notifications
Improvements planned for the Map Editor:
Truck delivery waypoint
Character spawn waypoint
"Long Grass" for biome selection
Map Editor runway improvements
Add “Undo” & “Redo” functionality
Get more airplane promo codes from livestreams
Keep an eye on Twitch for Ground of Aces livestreams, there's a good chance you can get exclusive promo codes in several of such Twitch streams during this weekend. We have given out promo codes to several streamers that will be playing Ground of Aces in these days after the update release.
Additionally, keep an eye on the following channels to get exclusive codes:
Twitch streamer Writing_Bull --> Our game designer Jeremy will join him for an interview (in German) on 21st of February at 7pm CET
There's also a promo code in our own dev livestream here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2693952090
As always, thank you so much for playing and your feedback!
Don't hesitate to leave a review here on Steam. It really helps an indie game project like ours! We will focus on monitoring the reports and feedback now and our team will make hotfixes if necessary.
Come to our Discord to share screenshots, your NPCs and your own custom maps:
We also have a Subreddit:
Source
Changelog.gg summarizes and formats this update. How we read updates.