Hello comrades!
We have a special announcement for a special day
!
We have read the comments from players asking about the problems with Panzer Elite and Commonwealth factions as they are designed in Company of Heroes. Since we are going to make a big release into Steam we also decided some months ago to give a try to a better tech system for Panzer Elite and the Commonwealth, however, for now only the former is being worked and the latter will be started after finishing the other.
There is no changes in the Panzer Elite command trees, the changes so far only were made for the regular tech tree of the faction, and we will describe them now.
The Headquarters now store some upgrades that used to be in other production buildings and what they unlock remains the same.
The Panzer Grenadiers are now four men squads, which means they can increase their size to five. Of course, they have become a bit more expensive because to this. They can purchase up to three different weapon upgrades and have the usual abilities. There production buildings remain the same, so there are only four to build and they cannot build defensive structures.
The Kettenkrad has the following changes: it has now an upgrade that allows to detect and dispose mines, it no longer has doctrinal abilities and it uses bike armour instead of the scout car one.
This is the current layout we are testing. It contains anti-tank grenades as global upgrade for Panzer Grenadiers infantry units.
The Scout Car (Sdkfz. 221) now has better suppression rate and also can be upgraded into the unit formerly known as Armoured Car (Sdkfz. 222). This unit no longer has the upgrade to lock down sectors.
The Munition Halftrack (Sdkfz. 252) works the same as it used to be for the most part but has two new features: it has the Deploy Goliath ability and can heal once Field Operations is researched.
The Sdkfz. 263 is now available to Panzer Elite to lock down sectors. It's offensive power is limited, due to having a single MG 34 in a fixed position.
The Vampire Halftrack (Sdkfz. 250/5) now acts as support for infantry, buffing their abilities instead of diverting resources. It has the same detection range as it used to.
The Schwimmwagen Type 128 is a Jeep like vehicle, also equipped with a MG 42 in the passenger seat. It also can lay down mines.
The infantry Halftrack (Sdkfz. 250/1) is just like it used to be in the past, the only change being that can only carry one squad instead of two.
The Mortar Halftrack (Sdkfz. 250/7) has also the same abilities and stats than before, but has a squad upgrade that does something which is a secret atm
.
It also contains some familiar upgrades, along with a new one. Halftracks used by Panzer Elite are the ones from the designation Sdkfz. 250 ausf. A and it has always been like that, however, with the new upgrade Halftracks will now use the ausf. B chassis that offers more protection. It is a global upgrade that improves all the Sdkfz. 250 Halftrack type-units used by this faction regardless they are built from this building or not.
The units used in this building are the Tank Buster squad, the Marder III and the Stummel Halftrack. The only upgrade available in this building unlocks the Marder III and also the Panzerschreck upgrade in Panzer Grenadiers.
The Tank Buster squad is a four men squad which shares the same abilities than the older version.
The Marder III is the same unit as the old version. However, it gets significantly big stats improvement when using the lockdown ability.
The Stummel Halftrack (Sdkfz. 250/8) is a unit specialized in combat against infantry units, equipped with the 7.5cm KwK 37 L/24 gun and a MG 42.
The Assault Grenadiers are the same as the previous one, except for the squad size.
The Anti-Tank Halftrack (Sdkfz. 250/10) no longer has the tread-breaker ability, but has a Stielgranate 41 ability (WIP).
The Jagdpanzer IV/70(V) is available for this production building and has the armoured skirts as squad upgrade.
The Panzer IV Infantry Support Tank is also available, it no longer has the lock-down ability but features a new upgrade for it's main gun, improving it's stats against armoured vehicles by using the 7.5cm Kwk 40 L/43 as main gun. It shall be noted that Wehrmacht Panzer IV uses the L/48 version, which means this Panzer IV has inferior stats against vehicles compared to the Panzer IV used by the other factions.
The Bergetiger is available and has no changes so far.
Regarding the Command Trees and the reward units, you can assume they are in a vanilla state, but the only change so far is the Nashorn being reward unit for the Jagdpanther.
We hope you like the direction of these changes and then again, we would like to remind you these changes aren't final and they are still being tested.
As the next part of the announcement, we have a surprise for you guys
! Company of Heroes: Eastern Front will feature Steam achievements!! Archaic Entertainment "Labs" never stops working to improve the mod
. Head Researcher Walentin "Walki" L. has worked hard to make this possible. Here is the list of the achievements that will be available once the mod is released in Steam.
And for the last part of the announcement, we are proud to present the new Developer who joined Archaic Entertainment to help developing Eastern Front Mod! He is Ki McKenzie, known as ComradeCrimson/TrenchDog, and he will help us in the position of Voice Acting Director.
Yes, you aren't dreaming, Company of Heroes: Eastern Front will have new voice acting for the Multiplayer units and hopefully in the future Singleplayer missions as well
.
Here is his
soundcloud page if you want to hear examples of his work.
We are also looking for beta testers which have knowledge and experience in PvP to help us with the balance for the Steam version. For more information you can contact Hendrik (aka 'DarcReaver') by
PM.
And that would be all for now, we wish you a merry christmas and the next time we will announce the changes for the Ostheer Command Trees. For real this time
.
Thanks for your support!
Archaic Entertainment Team
