Units

14 Free Units have been included in this patch, adding a large amount of diversity to the playable factions and the armies the player will face. These units replace 'generic' equivalents giving each faction a unique identity on the battlefield. Here is a description of each free unit available in the update:

• Prussian Grenadiers -Wearing a distinctive brass fronted mitre cap, the Prussian Grenadiers are an explosive force to be reckoned with on the battlefield.


• Spanish Guardias de infateria - These elite guard infantry are charged with protecting the monarch and are a potent force on the battlefield.


• Swedish lifeguard horse - This cavalry regiment forms part of the monarchs' household guard. Superbly drilled, they act as a shock force on the battlefield.


• Holland Horse Guard -Armed with heavy cavalry sabres, these disciplined cavalrymen represent the elite of the army.


• Prussian Garde Du Corp- The Prussian Garde Du Corp are a replacement for the Prussian standard Household cavalry. These heavy horse shock troops are best used to break enemy lines and overrun enemy positions. With a strong charge and fearsome attack, these riders make short work of those who would oppose a Prussian monarch.


• Prussian Life guard - The Prussian life guards are equipped similarly to line infantrymen. However their uniforms are altogether more splendid, marking them out as a superior force, in arrogance if nothing else. They do a good job as garrison troops and are dedicated to the crown.


• Russian Grenadiers - This new Russian unit is great for assaults and their grenades pack a mighty punch!


• Spanish Guardias De Corp -The Spanish Guardias De Corp replace household cavalry for Spain. With almost unbreakable morale, on the charge they are almost unstoppable.


• Spanish Grenadiers - These are a replacement for the standard Spanish Grenadiers with a distinctive bearskin hat to mark them out as exemplary on the battlefield.


• Swedish 'Lifeguards of foot' - These are a highly trained replacement for the standard Swedish guard. They are often used as a force in a system that defends a monarchy and can be relied upon for utter loyalty and deadly accuracy in the field. Their professionalism is reflected in their fearsome battle reputation.


• Holland Guard - The Holland Guards from the United Provinces are superior line infantry units. Carrying smoothbore muskets, they were traditionally chosen to protect the royal family and have an incredibly high morale, often making them the last troops to break in a fight.


• Scots - The Scots are a Highland ex-patriate infantry used by the United Provinces, renowned for their deadly charge.


• Swiss Infantry - Very disciplined infantry of the United Provinces with quick reload and excellent marksmanship.


• Mamelukes - Mamelukes are fearless light horsemen, deadly when deployed against a broken or unsupported enemy.

Additionally the Spanish nation has had a new uniform design to better reflect its historical look.

Audio

Sound loading has been made asynchronous, so heavy disc access is reduced to a minimum. This makes loading times faster and reduces any instances of 'stuttering.' Unit group sounds have also been improved, for more realistic group movement. The primary sound library (Miles DLL) has been updated to stop occasional clicking. And we've added more sound variation for unit deaths and musket fire.

Campaign

• Several crash bug fixes in saves, movement, agents and logic.


• Various optimizations have been made to AI and path systems to reduce the campaign map turn times.


• When the pirates are destroyed and re-emerge they now maintain a status of at war with all and are unable to enter into diplomatic negotiations.


• Added small ships on domestic trade routes from the trade nodes to home regions moving in the correct direction, i.e. with the flow of trade.


• The AI should now no longer repeatedly sign a diplomatic agreement and then break it the next turn. Treaties are more valuable and adhered to.


• We've fixed some border trade agreements allowing greater numbers of bordering factions to properly trade with one another.


• Movement arrows now reflect the range of the selected units, not the whole army/navy.


• AI will no longer counter-offer and ask for more money than the player has available.


• Fixed commerce raiding taking money from blockaded trade routes.


• Fixed navies getting stuck when forced to retreat from ports (tactical retreat).


• Fixed rare inability to attack certain ports.


• Fixed middle mouse button camera drag stopping working occasionally.


• Made emergent factions be at war with the faction they emerged against if that faction is human.


• Fixed various movement extent crashes.


• Changed background income for minor factions.


• Fixed diplomatic relations with emergent factions.


• Tactical withdrawal will now always leave armies on the landmass containing the settlement of a region.


• Changed war score system to make the AI more likely to accept peace.


• Fixed crash when embarking and disembarking armies at ports.


• Fixed trade ships not being correctly registered in trade nodes after splitting forces.


• Fixed government change diplomatic effect.


• Improved commerce raiding display on trade screen.


• Faction specific text is now used in diplomacy.


• Prevent players cancelling the movement of fleeing agents.

Units

• Charge bonus generally increased across the board for all units and melee defence reduced.


• Greater diversification of stats between different unit types designed to emphasise differences and improve balance.


• Redone costs for all units for multiplayer to improve game balance which better reflects the actual battlefield worth of each unit.


• Mob formation added in for Native American, irregular and some skirmisher units.


• Spot distance for light infantry, skirmishers, irregulars, light cavalry and missile cavalry increased allowing them to spot hidden units at longer distances.


• Russian line infantry stats have been boosted to allow them to compete more with other faction's line infantry.


• Movement speed of all unit types reduced by 10%.


• Ammo for light infantry increased to 20, line to 15.

• Charge morale bonus reduced from 10 to 4.


• Recent casualties, extended casualties and total casualties morale penalties increased slightly for higher percentages.


• Rear and flank exposed morale penalties increased.

• Fatigue penalty for melee reduced from 18 per tick to 10.


• Running fatigue penalty for heavy and light cavalry reduced from -3/-2 to -2/-1.

• Calibration area for cannons and howitzers reduced. Accuracy of non-round shot shot types reduced to compensate.


• Muzzle velocity of round shot for cannons increased to make them fire lower and bounce more, accuracy also increased.


• Lethality of shrapnel pieces reduced to match canister shot, range also reduced to 350.


• Load time for special shot types for howitzers increased slightly, and range reduced to 350.


• Calibration area for mortars increased, accuracy of round shot increased to compensate. Reload time increased slightly.


• Accuracy of 18 lbr horse guard artillery restored to 65.


• Hit points of gun trains increased to 50, all guns and caissons to 25.

• Added enemy fleet ETAs on a planet's tooltip Added option to deactivate construction mode on RMB Added tooltips on why building deletion may not be allowed
  

• Autosave issue relating to combat
  
• AI issue in 'The Luyten Incident'
  
• Plural errors in the colony economy tooltip Objective issue in 'Remnants of the Past'
  
• Energy use of Shield Generators
  
• Game crash due to low framerate
  
• Objective criteria in 'Cities of Jupiter'
  
• Objective completion in 'Formations'
  
• Save of structures not in a colony
  
• Starbase issues with destruction
  
• Trade issues where trade routes were not created AI corrected in 'Ascension'
  
• Travel time popup shows correct value of days Various possessive grammatical errors with its and it's
  

• Added effects for environment interaction
  
• Made it easier to pick up objects
  
• Made it less likely that charged objects will kill the thrower when thrown
  
• Fixed bug where wrong effects were being shown for weapon tracer
  
• Fixed multiple crash bugs
  
• Updated the sniper scope
  
• Tweaked all weapons
  
• Turned off the outline by default (can be enabled by typing "r_drawoutline 1" into the console)
  
• Dead bodies no longer blow up when shot
  
• Fixed a bug where some weapon sounds weren't playing
  

• Updated scoreboard
  
• Added radar and minimap for Drug Wars games
  
• Fixed multiple bug with selecting weapons while spectating or driving a vehicle
  
• Added swimming and falling animations
  
• Decreased player fall damage
  
• Made it so Team Deathmatch and Drug Wars games can have between 2 and 4 teams
  
• Added map rotations
  
• Extended distance over which players can see enemy health bars
  
• Fixed multiple bugs in projectiles that stick to players
  
• Added taunts to multiplayer (can be activated by pressing T)
  
• Players on your team now have their names above their heads
  
• Friendly fire is now off by default
  

• Added source files for ten shipping TF2 maps
  
  • arena_lumberyard
    
  • arena_ravine
    
  • cp_badlands
    
  • cp_dustbowl
    
  • cp_granary
    
  • cp_gravelpit
    
  • ctf_2fort
    
  • pl_badwater
    
  • pl_goldrush
    
  • tc_hydro
    
• Updated shadercompile binaries and added missing DLL needed for shader compilation
  

• Fixed the issues with the following tools: height2ssbump, normal2ssbump, pfm2tga, splitskybox, vbspinfo, vmt_tweak, vmtcheck, shadercompile
  
• Fixed an issue in studiomdl pertaining to $shadowlod
  

• The texture browser automatically ignores most textures that cannot be placed on brushes or displacements, as well as anything inside a .svn folder for those using svn as their choice of versioning software.
  
• Added additional auto visgroups for sprites and cubemaps
  
• Separated the VRAD calls into two sequential while using HDR (-ldr and –hdr) instead of –both
  
• Model browser is now created once per session
  
• Displacement brush dial now has greater range
  
• Added a stop button to sound previews
  

Added the ability to edit game configurations with vconfig

• Added a new template mod that replaces the old 'advanced' source . This template has options for teams,classes, sprinting, prone, stamina, etc.
  
• Added shader source; fxc.exe, psa.exe and vsa.exe must be placed into the dx9sdkutilities folder and you must modify materialsystemstdshadersbuildsdkshaders.bat to set your paths.
  
• Most tonemap controller options now work in multiplayer. The 'template mod' map 'sdk_teams_hdr' demonstrates this.
  
• All three mod types by default mount the required appids – Multiplayer uses 218 and mounts 320 for example. Gameinfo.txt contains a new entry 'AdditionalAppId' for this purpose.
  
• Particle systems can now be defined with a per-map manifest, similar to soundscapes.
  
• Fixed a number of issues which caused the server to not compile in linux
  

• Players animate with the new animation system that came along with TF2.
  
• Fixed third person animations and all effects
  
• Fixed SLAM issues
  
• Fixed Use of UTIL_GetLocalPlayer on the server in various locations
  
• Fixed a number of other bugs / asserts
  

• Fixed a number of issues preventing the source from functioning correctly
  
• Added new vehicle "hl2buggy" so that users may have both the charger and the old buggy.•
  

• Info screen always shows demographics when espionage is disabled
  
• Players can no longer receive obsolete resources through trade
  
• Fixed bug where culture obtained through espionage was 100 times lower than intended
  
• AI player better evaluates his situation before voting for a ban on nuclear weapons
  
• Fixed a few AI civic evaluation bugs
  
• AI changes civics during Golden Ages
  
• Fixed bug with AI not knowing how close its cities are to other players
  
• Re-enabled Foreign Advisor "Glance" screen
  
• Fixed Team Battleground map script to distribute hills better and work around team-counting problem
  
• Civilopedia lists buildings that replace a given building
  
• Barrage promotions no longer available to units without the ability to already cause collateral damage
  
• Conquistador ignores walls, to be consistent with Cuirassier
  
• Fixed AI defender bug for newly captured cities
  
• Build-specific production modifiers are no longer counted for overflow gold calculations
  
• Building or destroying a fort now properly refreshes resource connections
  
• Collateral damage modifiers, collateral damage immunity, and air defense modifiers, multiply instead of add
  
• Fixed event triggering on a dead unit
  
• AI uses Warlords to make super-medic units
  
• Better AI decision-making related to damaged air units
  
• Better AI use of missiles to disconnect enemy resources
  
• AI evacuates ships and planes from cities in danger
  
• AI no longer joins Great People to cities in danger
  
• Fixed bug where AI Great Engineers would hurry Wonders in other players' cities
  
• Spies no longer interrupt their mission when moving next to an enemy unit
  
• Fixed map generator bug for water starts
  
• Situations which invalidated Secretary General/AP Resident now force the next vote to be an election
  
• Fixed team-counting bug that would cause some mapscripts to fail
  
• Moved some gamecore-specific code into the DLL
  
• Fixed cheat where you could apply a free tech from one game to another
  
• Diplomacy summary no longer claims that a civ is the worst enemy of a human team
  
• Groups on sentry awake based on best unit's vision rather than head unit's vision
  
• Hidden Nationality units can enter friendly rival territory when starting in a city
  
• Fixed bug where captured cities could give double bonus for the Apostolic Palace
  
• Fixed a bug in AI war declaration in exchange for technologies
  
• Sea patrolling ships no longer attack if they have less than 50% chance of winning the battle
  
• Terrain height no longer affects aerial recon missions
  
• No Espionage option: no Free Great Spy from Communism, no espionage-related events
  
• Blockading AI Privateers can no longer sense invisible units
  
• Colonies no longer assume the name of an eliminated player
  

• Fixed an issue where Bergetiger audio volume was lower than intended.
  
• Fixed an issue with speech mixing.
  
• Fixed an issue with the game crashing while trying to exit from cinematic mode.
  
• Fixed a number of issues with the World Builder.
  
• Updated the help text for a few units.
  
• Fixed an issue with incompatibility between save games and version.
  
• Fixed a bug with long scenario descriptions.
  
• Cool-downs are now working properly for all weapons.
  
• HMGs in buildings will now switch targets as intended; there is a 3.5 second delay before the hmg will fire at another target.
  
• Squads will no longer rush at an undeployed weapons crew when ordered to attack.
  
• Fixed an issue where Pak38s could stack their first-strike modifiers.
  
• Fixed an issue with the lobby and front-end slowing down and operating slowly. This makes joining games and automatch teams much more reliable.
  
• Fixed a networking issue that caused a player's stats to appear as all zeroes.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the last played map to be forgotten when starting a game of the same type.
  
• Fixed an issue where a host's game would crash when both host and client would try to move to an empty slot simultaneously.
  
• Fixed a few issues with players swapping slots and gameplay types within the lobby.
  
• Fixed an issue with "Swap Starting Location" functionality.
  
• Fixed a usability issue with the Autopatcher error messages.
  
• Fixed an issued that caused the game to crash upon loading the Mission 4 from Invasion of Normandy.
  
• The help text for the British Staghound has been updated to correctly reflect its role.
  
• Raised Panzerschreck squads preference to target Light Vehicles while garrisoned in buildings.
  
• SCAR Bug reporting has been turned off while players are running with -dev.
  
• Purple box no longer appears when trying to place British emplacements next to each other.
  
• Panzerkrieg: Fixed exploit that let players create Defensive Infantry for free ignoring the cool down timer.
  
• Repair bunker pioneers now repair engine criticals when repairing damaged vehicles.
  

• Added a new map called Panzerkrieg: Hebecrevon.
  
• 2p Sturzdorf has been updated to its proper version.
  
• 2p Beaux Lowlands has been updated to its proper version.
  
• 2p Wrecked Train has been updated to its proper version.
  
• 2p Langres has been updated to its proper version.
  
• 6p The Scheldt has been updated to its proper version.
  

• Improved the reliability and effectiveness of the American's Strafing Run.
  
• The T17 armored car's damage output has been reduced.
  
• Penetration of the T17 armored car has been reduced.
  
• The Panzer Elite's Schwimmwagen Scorched Earth ability has been replaced with an "Incendiary Trap" ability.
  
• The British Command Truck's mobile ability will no longer be available while the Truck is setting up.
  
• Panzergrenadier's Suppression Volley can properly target weapon crews that are set-up.
  
• Infantry sections with Bren upgrades can now use 'Button Enemy Vehicle' when garrisoned inside a building.
  

• Recon flight will now detect camouflaged vehicles and infantry (Panzerkrieg only).
  
• Panther health decreased by 11%.
  
• Panther Damage Multiplier reduced by 7%.
  
• Panther Range Multiplier reduced by 7%.
  
• Hellcat weapon reload modifier decreased by 11%.
  
• Hellcat damage multiplier increased by 9%.
  
• Hotchkiss health decreased by 10%.
  
• Churchill range increased by 7%.
  
• Stealth infantry units now cost 35 Manpower.
  
• Stealth infantry sticky bomb damage reduced by 27%.
  

• More than 20 new infantry weapons, such as the ever-distinctive Garand, M1 Carbine, .30-cal, Bren, FG42, Thomson and the Enfield rifles
  
• American Bazooka, British PIAT and German Panzerschreck to go tank-hunting with
  
• New infantry features, including Airborne drops onto the battlefield, bullet suppression and supersonic cracks, plus a new radioman class for calling in artillery strikes
  
• Over a dozen new crewable vehicles including the King Tiger and JagdPanther for the Germans, countered with multiple types of Sherman in 75mm, 76mm and 17-pounder versions, plus the Cromwell, M10 Wolverine and Achilles
  
• 11 new maps, including:
  
  • Juno Beach — Canadians storming the beaches in classic D-Day action
    
  • Carentan — the US 101st Airborne assaults the town shortly after D-Day
    
  • Brecourt — 101st Airborne attempt to put a key German artillery battery out of commission behind the beaches
    
  • Ginkel Heath — British paras drop into a hotly-contested LZ at the start of Operation Market-Garden
    
  • Wacht-am-Rhein — sweeping tank combat during the Battle of the Bulge, including the fearsome King Tiger
    
  • Stoumont — American infantry and armor try and hold back the SS PanzerGrenadiers in the streets of the Ardennes town
    

So whether it is the Normandy campaign, jumping onto the dropzones around Arnhem or the bitter fighting in the Battle of the Bulge, new and old players alike will get a chance to see why RO remains a classic. Now with the opportunity to re-play those battles RO-style, courtesy of Darkest Hour: Europe 1944-45! For more information on the mod (and to see the trailer) head to the Steam page.

• Fixed Day of Defeat: Source server crash when loading dod_jagd.
  

• Added a "Discard" button to the item pickup panel.
  
• Added a backstab custom death animation to the Heavy.
  
• Changed default for tf_arena_use_queue to 1. This was the original behavior prior to the last update.
  
• Changed the Dead Ringer so it can be activated while carrying the flag.
  
• Increased the Force-A-Nature's damage by 10%.
  
• Fixed not being able to reflect arrows with the Flamethrower.
  
• Fixed The Huntsman drawing a muzzle flash under lagged conditions.
  
• Fixed the background color of the Spy disguise panel not always matching his disguise team.
  
• Fixed idle players being kicked when the server has tf_arena_use_queue set to 0.
  
• Fixed Spies not being able to sap a building if an enemy player was colliding with the building.
  
• Fixed getting a real target ID on an enemy Spy that's disguised as one of your teammates if you are disguised as an enemy.
  
• Fixed the Ambassador not shooting enemy sticky bombs.
  
• Fixed Spies being able to automatically cloak after uncloaking at the moment of a weapon switch.
  
• Fixed Jarate instantly exploding when thrown in some places, like the final area of Badwater.
  
• Fixed spectators not having their items removed when they enter spectator mode.
  
• Fixed Sniper "civilian" exploit where players could crash the server.
  
• Fixed a couple of cases where viable backstabs would fail.
  

• The Ambassador now does full critical hits on headshots, instead of mini crits
  
• The Dead Ringer now fully drains the cloak meter, even if the Spy leaves cloak early
  
• Fixed Spy disguise menu not being visible in HUD minimal mode
  
• Server log improvements:
  
  • Added "player_extinguish" event for servers to log when a Pyro extinguishes flame with the airburst
    
  • Fixed kill descriptions for Force-A-Nature & Sandman, so server logs can distinguish them
    
  • Identified feign deaths in the events sent to server logs
    
• Fixed server crash related to the Jarate
  

• Added Sniper/Spy milestone achievements as an additional way players can get the new unlockables
  
• Arena Mode
  
  • Added tf_arena_use_queue server convar. Turn this on to get the old queue behavior. Default is off
    
  • Added tf_arena_round_time to set a timelimit on the round
    
• Added the userid of the player who built the teleporter to the "player_teleported" event
  
• Fixed player killed event causing server crash
  
• Fixed Spies not being telefragged when standing on an enemy teleporter exit with the Dead Ringer enabled
  
• Fixed attackers seeing the mini-crit particle effect for full crits if the victim has the Jarate effect enabled
  
• Fixed the Ambassador not doing damage to buildings
  
• Fixed Spies disguised as their own team not drawing blood effects
  
• Fixed players killed by flaming arrows not showing the appropriate death icon
  

• Added a Quick List view to the serverbrowser
  

• small player clip fixes

• Fixed a map bug at the Alpha spawn area
• Fixed car collisions
• A lot of small fixes and updates throughout the entire map

• Added destroyed section to bridge, accessible from the ground and bridge interior, with larger capture radius
• Modified village with new structures, balconies and vantage points
• Significant increase of prop and terrain cover throughout the map
• Light, fog and shadow improvements
• Performance optimizations

• Some additional sound updates (secondary sound effects)
• Fixed a minor issue with vehicle LODs

Rolling out with the upcoming demo of Valve's Left 4 Dead, Steam Cloud is a set of services announced back in March that will save various game settings on the server, so gamers will be able to easily transfer games to new machines with all of their tweaks and configurations intact. You'll be able to log into another system, log in Steam, and your game settings will automatically download to the new system.

"For some time now, Steam has allowed gamers to log on from any computer in the world and access their applications. This also makes it easy to upgrade a PC without worrying about losing your games," said Gabe Newell, president and co-founder of Valve. "Steam Cloud is a natural extension of the portability Steam affords gamers and developers, and we intend to expand its feature set as it is used in Left 4 Dead and other games coming to Steam."

 

The first release of Steam Cloud will support the saving of keyboard and mouse configurations as well as multiplayer settings. Valve is making Steam Cloud freely available to developers and publishers, and will also be adding support for the services to their back catalog. Hit the jump for more details.

STEAM CLOUD ROLLING IN THIS WEEK

Leading Online Platform for PC Games Extends Portability

November 3, 2008 - Valve, creators of best-selling entertainment products and advanced technologies, today announced the roll out of Steam Cloud, a set of services for Steam that stores application data online and allows user experiences to be consistent from any PC. Steam Cloud is a free extension to Steam, a leading a platform for PC games with over 15 million accounts worldwide.

Steam Cloud support will ship with Valve's Left 4 Dead demo later this week and the full game on November 18. In this first release, the information stored and accessible through the Steam Cloud includes keyboard, mouse, and gamepad configurations, as well as multiplayer settings such as spraypaint images.

The Steam Cloud will "just work," meaning any user changes to their game options will propagate to the Cloud by default. Upon logging into Steam from another PC, these settings will be brought down from the Cloud and automatically leveraged by the game. Any configuration changes on this second machine are then synced to the Cloud for future sessions.

Steam Cloud will be available to all publishers and developers using Steam, free of charge, and Valve will add Cloud support to its back catalog of Steam games. Cloud services are compatible with games purchased via Steam, at retail, and other digital outlets.

"For some time now, Steam has allowed gamers to log on from any computer in the world and access their applications. This also makes it easy to upgrade a PC without worrying about losing your games," said Gabe Newell, president and co-founder of Valve. "Steam Cloud is a natural extension of the portability Steam affords gamers and developers, and we intend to expand its feature set as it is used in Left 4 Dead and other games coming to Steam."

I was still able to contribute to the fight by shooting blindly from the downed position (even got an Achievement for it) – but after being incapacitated for too long (and getting my head stomped on a little bit by the Tank), I died and had to watch my teammates fight on via an action camera that followed their progress.

Again, when the Survivors died off, we changed sides and I got to try out the Smoker’s tongue-lashing attack (which I started to think of as a Gene Simmons special). I was told that for as many Tanks as one side had spawned during a match, the other side had exactly the same amount of Tanks when they took their turn playing as Infected – though they didn’t always show up at the same part of the game. I was hoping I’d get to try being one if I died often enough (and believe me, I tried) – but it never happened for me.

Ultimately my team won, despite my repeated and semi-deliberate deaths as an Infected. A PR rep was kind enough to clue me in to how the scoring works: you only earn points while playing as Survivors by getting as far as you can through a level. As Infected, you are racking up points – but they don’t go to your final score and mostly get used as a way to measure your performance against your teammates’. To win a game of versus, you’ve got to make it through the entire campaign (a series of levels – I wasn’t clear on how many) with the highest score.

The highlight of my evening? Accidentally shooting at one of my teammates, missing and hitting the gas station behind him that then suddenly exploded. Which killed him. Oops (sorry Randy!).

Left 4 Dead is out November 18.

 By: Leigh Alexander