February game update

We're very excited to announce that february update is just around the corner! This will be our first big game update since demo release at the beginning of this year, and we're very proud of it. We've made pretty good progress in the last two months and we believe that Steel Rain will feel like almost new game compared to last version. Many bug fixes, countless gameplay tweaks and improvements, and most importantly brand new features! The complete changelog is too big to include it in this post(and we're still working on it), so here are some of the most exciting new features:

New unit - MG34 Lafette

Very effective weapon against massed infantry assaults, especially on big, open fields.

New immersive camera effects

You might wanna stay away from mighy 88mm when it's shooting, because it can shake you up! Shake effects strength can be set in options; Camera now also has neat, smooth movement for less clunky feel.

Groups and zones

These are tools in mission editor allowing for scriptable mission events like AI sending some group of units, detecting if player units get somewhere, scripted artillery strike etc. Not to be confused with groups of seleting units in game!(that will probably come in next update) - these are just for mission scripting events.

New mission events

Artillery strike - you can now schedule artillery fire mission on set zone with details like caliber, dispersion, barrels count etc. Sending untis by AI commander - yes! that means you will be attacked by AI! Right now you can set what type of move order AI will use to send units, which group of units to send, and of course destination zone. There will be more events like this and with more options in future; Patrolling zones, planning path with many zones and different group behaviours are some of planned improvements for high-level AI events.

Mission gameplay settings

One of the major and exciting new features are mission gameplay settings - they will enable mission designers to really change gameplay pace and level of realism - instead of using mods for this like in most games, gameplay coefficients can be tweaked per mission. This is better than modding for two reasons: mods typically break game's 'vanilla' missions and can be played properly only on missions designed specifically for that mod. Second reason is that it's just so much easier, faster and more convenient. This is also important first step into introducing game modes: arcade and realistic, both allowing for different range of coefficients(so all crazy, unrealistic values will be available in arcade mode only and only slight changes in realistic mode for consistency), right now ranges are pretty wide and allow for both arcade-y and more realistic gameplay. You will see even more settings exposed in next updates, like affecting units movement quickness etc. Mission designers can now also set time of day/night in mission editor.

GUI and communication improvements

You'll be able to see currently loaded ammunition and selected/loading amunition in weapon panel, different move order types will have different colors, and you will see red line rendered to unit that your soldiers are currently engaging when selected.

AI improvements: round I

Units will now rotate toward incoming fire instead of just taking cover. Unit aiming logic also went through major refactor, they are now more consistent and shoot more accurately in close distances; this refactor this also allowed for faster turrets rotating and gun elevation speeds, resulting in much faster aiming ai and more dynamic gameplay. Drivers logic and pathfinding was improved, especially when you want vehicle to backup/reverse. Also, shooting will now affect how easily unit can be spotted. As some of players rightly suggested - you can now order units to hold fire, so making abushes will be possible. When units get under fire 'hold fire' order will be automatically cancelled.

Machine guns for tanks!

Finally! You'll still see soldiers hit directly by HE rounds from time to time though, don't worry :D

And one new little feature-surprise...

But what could that be!? :)

We'll continue to focus our effort on core game elements, fix biggest pain points and lacking features for next few updates and then we'll start adding more content. Our current general goal stays the same - to get to the early access release cycle as soon as possible. With that said your help to get there will be much needed - here's how you can help : https://steamcommunity.com/games/1150390/announcements/detail/1702858819124486969

We hope you'll like this update, See you on battlefield!