You may have heard that today’s update marks an exciting change for The Great War: Western Front. We’re proud to confirm that alongside new content, this release will bring mod support and all the customisation and creativity that entails. We can’t wait to see how you redefine history through your own content and share that throughout the community!
With the new mod manager there are countless possibilities ranging from alternate-history versions of the Campaign to new types of units and much more. To bolster the modding experience, another update will arrive in August with additions such as Map and GUI editors and more.
Today’s update also brings with it a wealth of fixes, improvements, and balance adjustments from both the player and AI perspectives. Read below for more:
New Content
Mod Support
- Added Steam Workshop support and Mod manager.
- Support for custom player-created LUA/AI, XML, TEXTURES, MODELS, and AUDIO as well as model converter.
- Custom Mod Campaign Example Added
Units
- Added new French Infantry: Army of Africa and Colonial Troops Corps (Start a new Campaign to access to these).
- Added new German Infantry: Royal Bavarian Infantry Corps (Start a new Campaign to access to these).
- Added new French Heavy Tank: The Saint-Chamond.
- Added new German Light Tanks: The Leichter Kampfwagen II (LK II).
Other
- Added new Air Mission: Recon.
- Added new Campaign Objective Events.
- Added Custom Campaign settings options.
Fixes and Improvements
Performance
- Fixed an issue where client would use too much CPU when minimized.
- Optimisation of dead bodies to help further improve performance.
- Optimised performance in Multiplayer.
- Fixed an issue where snow maps were too bright when on low graphics settings.
- Fixed multiple crashes.
- Fixed multiple soft locks.
Other
- Made performance improvements to Multiplayer.
- Fixed errors in Tutorial text.
- Added Target FPS option (reset to default settings to enable)
- Fixed an issue with volume slider skipping some values (reset to default settings to enable).
- Historic missions now default to trainee difficulty to match default campaign difficulty.
- Enabled Encyclopaedia button on main menu.
- Updated the Campaign select menu.
- Various UI adjustments.
- Added a button to the Encyclopaedia that allows players to see a full list of all IWM images and videos used in game.
- Fixed an issue where the Encyclopaedia could not be navigated using the arrow keys.
- Fixed an issue where the Campaign Victory screen would not show the correct campaign progress.
Theatre Commander – Grand Strategy
- Fixed an exploit where large numbers of regions could be surrounded by utilising the edge of the playable map, by adding Supply Chain Regions
- The "Bankrupt!" event for hitting zero or negative gold reserves now has a -25 national will penalty (previously -10). Bankruptcy is also now a recurring event each turn.
- Gold reserves are no longer clamped to available reserves when using Autoresolve, so Autoresolve can now reduce Gold Reserves into negative values.
- Updated tech tree to reflect new content.
- Fixed an issue where Care Package level 3 could not be used in some instances.
- Updated corps UI to better distinguish different types of infantry corps.
Field Commander – Individual RTS Battles
- Various battle maps were graphically updated.
- Added anti-tank sniper status effect icons.
- Added map-wide ambient combat audio.
- Fixed various instances of incorrect textures showing up throughout the maps.
- Fixed an issue where rainy season speed reduction not being applied.
- Updated battlefield setup text in skirmish: changed Time Period to Destruction Level to better reflect that setting’s impact on battlefield.
- Fixed an issue where minimaps would not match the layout of the battlefield.
- Fixed an issue with enemies spawning during the Historic Battle of the Somme.
- Fixed an issue where the Siege Artillery moral penalty would apply to the wrong units if the HQ trench was captured.
- Fixed an issue where the firing arch would not display.
Infantry
- Fix an issue where infantry was getting pushed to the edge of a newly detonated undermine.
- Fixed an issue where Army Intel missions would not reveal attacking units on the battlefield deployment pane.
- Infantry will only use the anti-infantry sniper effect outside of standard rifle range.
- Added the Anti-Tank Rifles to the Sniper tech as an ability for Elite Infantry
- Infantry will only use the AT Rifle effect at standard rifle range.
- Pathfinding was improved in short-distance trench formations.
- When attacking a trench, Raider and Flamethrower units will now stop and use their main weapon briefly before jumping in and entering melee.
- Fixed an issue where infantry would stay prone while moving around.
- Fixed an issue where infantry bypassing a full firing trench would not re-enter the trench network at the earliest opportunity.
- Improved infantry movement through trench networks.
- Fixed an issue where infantry could become locked outside of the map.
- Infantry now slows when running through water such as rivers.
Tanks & Aircraft
- Airwings no longer influence mixed nationality calculation.
- Fixed an issue where flags would not show on regions with only airwings present.
- Fixed an issue where refuelling planes would not be correctly returned to the available pool for Air Missions.
- Fixed an issue where tank cannons could get stuck targeting something that cannot be fired at.
- Fixed an issue where tanks would struggle to move through crowds of infantry.
- Tanks will now delay 0.5 seconds before firing their first shot when getting a bead on their target.
- Increased time between heal ticks to 4 seconds (previously 3)
- Increased the out-of-combat delay (the time the tank must be out of combat before regen begins) to 10 seconds (previously 5).
- Tank regeneration speed is now based on their specific maximum health such that all tanks will take about 4 minutes to regenerate from near death (assuming no interruptions).
Structure & Artillery
- Fixed an issue where undermining could not be selected if the player had reached the population cap.
- Fixed an issue where vision would linger on destroyed artillery objects.
- Fixed an issue where movement arrows would linger on destroyed tanks.
- Improved late war pre-placed trench networks.
- Fixed an issue with destroyed structures reappearing on the mini map when covered by FOW.
- Reduced the cost of Barbed Wire to 7 Supply.
- Reduced the cost of Razor Wire to 10 Supply.
- Barbed Wire and Razor Wire are now fully immune to bullet-based damage (rifles and machine guns). Tank machine guns, infantry rifles and MG emplacements can no longer target wire.
AI Balancing Improvements
Theatre Commander AI (Strategic Mode)
- AI construction of Supply Depots improved. If funding is available, 2 to 6 are now built every turn depending on difficulty.
- Improved selection of opportunistic offensives.
- Priority planned assaults (e.g., salient heads or lines) now allow reducing non-priority and non-planned regions to 1 corps minimum defenders to bolster the planned priority assault.
- Increased the evaluation weight of a region's distance to its capital to further reinforce focus on salient bulges which are closer to the capital, when two or more bulges occur simultaneously.
- Normally salient heads will not push further and overextend into empty regions, but now if they are near a map edge the AI will ignore this rule and try to take the opportunity to surround.
- Priority assaults may cancel all opportunity assaults to avoid over-expenditure during priority defence situations, except for capture of empty regions.
- Further tuning of defensive company distribution based on distance and priority assaults.
- Ensured the sniper upgrade is available at appropriate time period for campaigns.
Field Commander AI (Battle Mode)
- Incorporated scripting system enhancements.
- Ensured more rear defence of flank Control Points with a couple companies each.
- Adjusted minimum company check for rush code.
- Further loosened minimal enemy defence evaluations.
- Added three starting trenches to the first battles to compensate for additional artillery defence addition.
- Companies in the woods will not retreat from tanks or Verdun turrets as they are hidden and should not move.
- Companies in defensive mode will no longer exit woods.
- Companies will use marked forests as potential cover locations in addition to trenches.
- Reduced the usage of airburst in compared to other options.
- Cleared previous movement destination record if an attack order is given, to prevent possible movement orders if the company stops moving.
- Added basic trenches in late game regions which are not on the front line.
- Further adjusted AI use of forestry.
- Fixed defensive adjustments for Allies when in defensive mode.
- On offense, scouting parties are now sent to multiple Control Points immediately. Initial attacks are slightly delayed to compensate.
- Fixed an issue with suppression artillery adjustment to cover multiple targets.
- Siege artillery was set as a fallback type for tank assaults, if heavy is available.
- Reduced the frequency of comms trench construction.
- Adjusted the scale of withdrawal percentages down slightly, based on difficulty.
- Fixed minor issues with artillery targeting, deviation, and friendly fire checks.
- Added scouting aircraft to initial tactical engagement. Ensured aircraft have a default target of the enemy HQ if there is no viable target provided.
- Fixed an issue so that tanks specifically follow infantry, not just other members of the same attack force.
- Assault force general size is now increased when companies are available. Consequential reduction in defence to a standard 5 companies, when attacking.
- Rallying companies will now depart immediately if over half the original attacking force is within engagement distance of the target control point.
- Tactical AI now considers artillery visibility of targets when evaluating which control point to attack.
- Removed companies in melee combat from artillery target spotting.
We trust that the long list of game changes above will greatly improve your experience in The Great War: Western Front™. Let us know what you think of the update and be sure to share your creations with us by tagging @PlayTheGreatWar and using the hashtag #TGW.
The Great War: Western Front Team
