while I was working on updating the original SP campaign maps and creating new ones in early 2019 I started running into a serious problem: the game was running out of resources! by the time I had fully upgraded several SP campaigns into the mod I turned my attention to the WW2 Metagame. to my shock an dismay most of the armies were now completely invisible! I also found that when I tried loading up the skirmish maps to test out new SP maps that the game was crashing. it occurred to me that the mod had gotten so large that I had to cut things out or huge parts of the game would now be unplayable.
I had ignored the SP campaigns and WW2 games for so long that I didn't realize how little memory was left.
so, to review... I'm getting rid of the unique Waffen SS mech and armor divisions for Germany. I'm also harmonizing ALL of the Waffen SS forces across the Axis nations. so Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, and Romania infantry divisions will all use the exact same building, regiments, and units.
I'm also getting rid of the RUS Guards Mech and Armor divisions. like Germany they were just getting too overpowered. I'll be giving the Soviets their own Partisan division instead. it's less overpowering and uses up a LOT less memory!
Australia, Canada, Great Britain, India, New Zealand, and South Africa will all use the same buildings. I've gotten rid of a lot of unique skins to save space.
I've harmonized all of the Netherlands Europe and KNIL buildings so that they use the same base model but only have tropical skins or temperate/desert skins to differentiate them.
since I had trouble with artillery being over-powered all artillery units will inflict damage on themselves and self destruct after sustained bombardment. this is to simulate the fact that artillery regiments would run out of ammo and have to replenish themselves. Keep in mind that the special ops and techs which increase the health of halftracks will work on artillery. this means that, after their fully upgraded, Allied artillery units will generally surpass their Axis counterparts. Eisenhower in the original game, with his Mechanized Advance and Assembly Line ops would be a good artillery general now.
every mortar and fighter unit in the game now has a built in attack bonus against artillery. AT infantry units also have their special one hit = one kill for artillery units since they are based on mech units.
since I'm getting rid of a lot of the unique SS, Guards, and desert models for the major nations I've taken the time to give a little more attention to the minor nations. countries that just copied German textures in the past will now have more historically representative unit skins. it didn't make sense to have Czech tanks roaring about the countryside in "Panzergrau". so I've tried updating them a bit.
I don't have a firm release date planned - but I definitely expect to be done before the end of the year 2020.
in the last year I've gotten rid of about 5000 files. however, in the last three months I've created 3500 as part of the building harmonization process. I'm trying to have fewer buildings with more skins of higher quality serve as the basis for a larger number of factions. right now we have about 40 unique nations represented in the mod. it didn't make sense that they would ALL have special building skins if I can just use waving flags and alpha team colors to help identify them.
thanks for waiting.
Hopefully youll be able to trim the fat to give us a fantastic Axis and Allies game experiance
Harmonizing process is notably one of the highly here I admit. Keep up your good work.
i personally dont care that much of the ww2 mode, i like the variety between nations in random battles a lot more, i think i will stick to the actual version of the mod then.
However, i must admit that what you are doing is the right thing to do, and i will still watch the progress you do in the future. I love this mod a lot.
I don't play the WW2 Metagame very much either. but I do want it to work well!
it's nice to get that variety in the randomly generated skirmish maps. sometimes I'll find myself playing for Lithuania against Japan. the next game I might find myself playing as Romania fighting on a team with Thailand versus the Soviet Union and Greece. sometimes I can win. sometimes I can't.
we're updating the unit names in the game editor to include historical deployment dates. we already have to update a lot of units to streamline the code: ability names, tech requirements, etc. so it makes sense to do this as well. I believe it will also make for better revisions to the original SP campaign. players will also have a much easier time creating more historically accurate new SP maps.
We're going to upgrade the Airborne forces for all of the nations that have paratroopers. so if a country had airborne AFVS, anti-tank guns, mountain gun artillery, and engineers you should be able to see those in the game.
also adding a lot of early war units and aircraft for many of the minor nations.
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