The most influencing changes made in the game consider the addition of soldier skills, supply boxes and a rebalance of the competition and the campaign.
Quite a lot of minor things have changed as well but most of them won't influence the way you have to play the game. Those things will not be discussed in this post. First we will be discussing a feature that has been available in the game for quite a while, but which wasn't included in the initial version.
Supply boxes
Supply boxes enable a player to store ammunition and medical kits on the field. This will allow your soldiers to restock on ammunition or medkits. You can only build supply boxes at bunkers. The wall does not support supply boxes. To enable you to do so, the bunkerbuilder has been extended as is displayed in the figure below.
Building a supply box will cost you some wood. Once built you can store as much ammunition or as many medkits as you wish. You can do so by clicking the + button next to the type of equipment you wish to add to the box. The icons indicate the type of equipment. To remove equipment from a supply box, click the corresponding + button in the row labeled Inventory. Soldiers located in the bunker in which a supply box is built will automatically restock on equipment when they run out. If you wish to do so you can also order them to restock by using the soldier control GET menu.
On a quick note. If your bunker has no roof the boxes can be hit by a mortar. If that happens, you'll lose all the equipment stored in the boxes that were destroyed.
Skills
A second major addition to the game are soldier skills. In the previous version you were able to use stat points to increase a soldier's stats (e.g. gather speed, accuracy and handling). Because that feature just gave you more work, it has been removed. Now stats increase automatically if a soldier levels. Soldiers level if they have killed enough enemies. The amount of enemies required to gain a level depends on the soldier class.
Now, once a soldier's level increases, their stats will increase. This will give them an increase on handing, accuracy and gather speed. Yet, with this new update something else has been added as well. Instead of stat points, soldiers now receive skill points when their level increases. These points can be used to learn skills. When a soldier has skill points available his icon will have a + added to it when you're at the soldier details menu. An example is displayed at the red 1 in the figure below.
By selecting the respective soldier you will get to see a skilltree overview instead of the normal background story. You can swap between the background story and the skilltree by clicking the button displayed near the red 3.
A skilltree is unique for a soldier's class. Every class has some unique skills that will improve the soldier's actions on the field. The example displays the skills of a Rifleman. The colored icons display the skills that either have been learned, or that can be learned at this point in time. The number next to an icon indicates the current skill level. A skill can be learned if a soldier has skill points available and if the skill's requirements are met. A requirement can be an other skill that has to be learned (indicated with an arrow pointing from one skill to another). Another requirement can be a certain soldier level. Finally there is the requirement that in order to learn a certain skill, a specific other skill should not be learned. This is indicated with a double pointing arrow with a red X.
When a soldier who's placed on the field has active skills, these skills will be displayed when you select that soldier. An example is displayed in the figure below.
I have selected Brad and brad has two skills currently affecting him. One of them is a skill that I taught him. This is the Critical Damage skill, which allows this soldier to have a chance of 50% to destroy a halftrack with one bazooka shot. The other skill is one that I have taught Christian, who is located to the left side of Brad. Christian has a skill called Leadership. This skill affects all soldiers in the same bunker or behind the same wall. If you move your mouse over one of the icons its description will appear.
Attack Areas
With the aforementioned updates, some restrictions have also been added. A soldier can only carry a standard amount of 200 primary and 100 secondary bullets and 3 medkits. This ensures that supply boxes will actually be of use on the battlefield. A second adjustment was made in the areas that a soldier can defend. Depending on the soldier's weapon a range limitation has been added. The figure below shows the new view of the soldier placement map.
In this example I have pointed my mouse over Brad, who is placed on the rightmost position behind the wall. Brad only carries a pistol in this case, which limits his default range to the green area. He will only be able to defend that area with his current weapon. The brown area, which is added as an extension to the green area, indicates an area that Brad will only defend if he's under heavy attack from an enemy located in that area. As that area is out of his optimal range, his accuracy will drop when he attempts to shoot an enemy.
Try to keep the field covered in as much green as possible. Brown areas indicate a possibility to defend, but the defense will be very limited.
I hope you guys will enjoy these updates. With them I believe I've also been able to get rid of the crashing issues that we've experienced in the previous versions. Good luck and have fun!
