Release Notes for Panzer Corps 2

Patch 1.01.15 (16 December 2020)

Changes in Axis Operations 1940:

Sedan

Added a 20 Strength, stationary, Panzer IIIB as an extra 7th Panzer unit to the map as a back up in the extremely rare situations where the other 7th Panzer units somehow are destroyed
Proximity scripts check for this new unit for scenario success trigger The two other 7th Panzer units are now full 15 overstrength
Switched a couple French units from Hold Active to Hold Position Fire
French Strongpoint at Chimay changed into a Minefield to prevent any possibility of it destroying mission critical 7th Panzer units

Fornebu

Removed hidden victory condition trigger

ValkenburgRaid

All briefing markers pointing to sunken Lelystad have been moved

Neufchateau

Increased portrait variety in debriefing

Changes in new player traits:

Aggressive Deployment trait now works as its description says
Force Dispersion no longer cancels Force Concentration, so the two can be combined to get max 2 heroes per unit
Terrain Expern now improves both base and max entrenchment

UI:

Main menu will now display "Field Marshal Edition" if FM pack or all of its components (purchased separately) are installed
Various tweaks in UI layouts to better accomodate long localized strings
Fixed color of unit strength in unit list (red when below maximum)
Increased the gap between unit class icon and text when indicating assignable classes for a hero

Multiplayer:

Various improvements in the tournament implementation
Fixed crash which some people experienced when creating new challenges
Fixed UI sometimes getting grayed and disabled at the end of MP games

Modding:

Fixed table merging issues encountered in some mods
Converted tables with main menu content (campaigns, scenarios, tutorials and multiplayer entry lists) to open text format for easier modding
Mod manager can now show preview image for local mods (it will look for preview.jpg, preview.jpeg and preview.png files)

Patch 1.01.14

Bug fixes:

Fixed script issues in 1939 related to German localization
It is now possible to purchase organic transports for captured AA units in SCW
Engineers now properly speed up entrenchment of adjacent units
Soviet motorcycle now has soviet soldiers attached to it
DK motorcycle now has CloseFighter trait, like all other motorcycle recons
Famous and Legendary heroes now award correct prestige bonus. Also, removed hard-coded numbers from trait icons.
Fixed SkilledRecon and ExpertRecon traits
Fixed LastStand trait
Fixed availability of organic transport for South African units
JPG screenshots are now properly deleted together with the save
Various other small fixes and tweaks

Gameplay changes:

Deadly Grasp trait now works between the player and AI ally
Split, Merge and Swap commands can now be taken back too if "movement only" undo mode is used
Added four positive and four negative player traits:
Meticulous Planning. All ground units get two movement actions instead of one, which allows them to move in two steps (without increasing the total amount of movement points
Force Concentration. Can assign one extra hero to every unit
Terrain Expert. Friendly units get +1 base entrenchment in any terrain, even in open ground and when crossing rivers
Aggressive Deployment. Friendly units do not lose their attack action when deploying from organic transports
Arrogant. Does not get any combat predictions
Force Dispersion. Can assign maximum 1 hero per unit
Ruthless. Never accepts surrender
Slow Reaction. Friendly units do not shoot back when attacked by the enemy
Added new special challenges (selectable in Advanced Options when starting the game):
Mass desertions. Every unit has a 50% chance to lose 1 point of strength at the beginning of its turn. For elite units, this chance decreases by 10% with each star.
Berserk Rage. Enemy units gain +1 attack and +1 defense for every point of strength they lose
The Collector. Cannot purchase or upgrade to unit types which are already present in the army
Army of Cowards. Units attacked by the enemy will always retreat, no matter how many losses they took.
Uphill Battle. With each passing turn, enemy units get slightly stronger by gaining a small bonus to attack, defense, accuracy or initiative.
Heroic Showdown. At the beginning of the battle, each enemy unit on the map is assigned a random hero

UI:

"General Edition" and the DLCs are now displayed in the game's Main Menu
Disbanded units no longer show up in "killed units" list
"Limited deployment" warning now appears only on deployment phase
Deployment phase panel will now disappear immediately when the AI opponent moves first
The shop will now display units using the right skin for the current scenario
The game will now remember the last entered commander name, and will fill it in the commander selection screen by default
It is no longer possible to extend unit list beyond the right screen border
Units in reserve are no longer included in the mission result screen

Graphics

Reworked road implementation. Roads are now less likely to get lost in relief and consume less resources
Improved memory usage on large maps (like Kursk)
Improved loading speed of some maps

AI:

Made several fixes in the implementation of "guard unit" order

Random maps:

Random maps can now use Southern Europe and (occasionally) Africa locations

Multiplayer:

Implemented tournament support (beta)

Other:

Added mod manager to the Main Menu (MODS -> MOD MANAGER). The Editor is also invoked from MODS submenu now.
Improved implementation of Gamma Correction option. If game image looks too light/washed out for you, try to reduce the gamma below the default.
Added an option to show movement arrow outside movement zone. This allows to easier plan movement to remote locations.

Editor:

Fixed item size in "Place Units" list resetting in some cases
Added missing flags for Condor Legion, Communist Spain and Denmark
Added a safeguard against the Editor starting minimized when window position settings in Registry get messed up

Patch 1.01.10 (10 Spetember 2020)

Added missing localizations
Added achievements for finishing the 1939 campaign
Fixed some typos in achievement texts
Changes in Axis Operations 1939 campaign: Czechoslovakia
Players who do not import from Spain now receive extra starting prestige in this DLC campaign Warsaw
Chance for rain reduced to 0% to prevent losing special prototype gift. Raate Road
LaGG-3 fighters replaced with I-16s Taipale
LaGG-3 reinforcement fighters replaced with I-16s
Most starting LaGG-3 fighters replaced with I-15s
Lone remaining starting LaGG-3 fighter souped up with overstrength, experience, and a hero

Patch 1.01.09 (27 August 2020)

We are releasing the new update for Panzer Corps 2 accompanying the release of the Axis Operations - 1939 DLC.

Unfortunately we are late with the localizations in three languages: French, Polish and Brazilian Portuguese. Those three languages will have a few incomplete lines. We really apologize for that, and we'll look into patching them in as soon as possible.

Fixed issues with launching the Editor and with launching scenarios from the Editor
German, Spanish, Russian and Chinese translations are now fully complete

Patch 1.01.05 (14 July 2020)

Added missing languages for Briefings and Debriefings for Spanish Civil War
Fixed issue with crash at end of Madrid 1939

Patch 4 v1.1.1 (26 May 2020)

Bug fixes:

Fixed the game crashing on launch for a few people
Fixed the AI getting into infinite loop under rare circumstances
Fixed dead units sometimes interfering with mouse clicks
Fixed switchable units being captured into two separate pools of equipment
Fixed merge command, so that the unit automatically mounts if needed to reach the other part. Also, if split parts are too far to merge this turn, merge marker is shown in red.
Fixed selection marker in strategic mode not working well for aircraft
Fixed "Reduced slots" and "Zero slots" heroes refusing to unassign from units in reserve because of insufficient free slots
Fixed workaround of "Green Army" player trait by using unit upgrade. Now, upgrades will also use green replacements when there are no elite replacements left.
Fixed spotting issues when a unit is deployed mid-mission on a high ground hex
Fixed spotting bug when an allied unit is destroyed near your own units
Fixed chat not scrolling to the end automatically when a long (multi-line) message is added
Fixed "create screenshots for saved games" option
Fixed some issues with "Shroud" advanced option (rivers showing through shroud, minimap artefacts)
Fixed player selection UI when a custom multiplayer scenario is selected in the list

Gameplay changes:

All units contributing some bonus to combat will now get experience for it: 20 for mass attack and 50 for any other bonus (recon, military engineer, distraction, leadership, aiming assistance). Among other things, this allows recon planes to earn experience.
Dismissing a hero now gives a bonus of 1000 prestige (value configurable in Rules.json file).
Discarding organic transport now returns its cost in prestige, so it can be repurchased later.
When a unit embarks on an air transport which cannot carry its organic transport, organic transport is discarded.
Split units equipped with organic transport will now unmount after a short drive, as normal (non-split) units do.
Each star will now give +10% to unit's accuracy (instead of +8%), and reduce enemy accuracy by 4% (instead of 3%).
Units with "suppressing fire" trait will slightly (+5%) improve their chances to outright kill the target (instead of suppressing it) with each star.
Green strategic bombers now destroy 20% of ammo (instead of 1 point) with carpet bombing, and additionally destroy 20% of target's movement points. Each star adds +10% destroyed. Overstrength/understrength also increases/decreases damage done proportionally.
On the other hand, suppression now reduces effectiveness of carpet bombing, so AA units will provide protection from this threat as well.
Units with "Alpine" trait (mountain infantry) are now immune to the opponent's high ground bonuses, and move faster over hills.
Aircraft can now be upgraded and disbanded if they are assigned to an airfield which is a supply hex (being straight over it is no longer required).
River hexes (except settlements) now have zero base entrenchment, because units don't benefit from entrenchment when they are "crossing the river".
Units adjacent to Engineers will now ignore up to 4 points of enemy entrenchment (instead of 50% previously), which means that engineers can enable other units to fully bypass base entrenchment of any terrain (except fortifications)
Changed rounding method to "nearest integer" when applying bonus to initiative from entrenchment. One important consequence is that forest's base entrenchment of 3 now provides +2 initiative to the defender, instead of +1.
Weather during deployment phase is now always Clear. You can see the weather that will be on the first turn in the forecast.
Motorcycle recon units got "close combat" trait, which makes them more useful in close terrain

UI:

Added a new "Deployment panel" visible during the Deployment Phase. It contains mass commands (replace all, disband all, undeploy all etc.) which allow to speed up typical tasks during the Deployment Phase.

AI:

The AI can now give both green and elite replacements to its units.
The AI will distribute fighter cover more evenly between bombers

Random maps:

Random maps now always start with a deployment phase (using "custom army" is not needed)
Experience growth rate is now 5x normal on random maps, so units can actually gain a few stars and maintain them with elite replacements in the course of the battle.
Random maps now also use custom medal requirements, so it is possible to get more medals in the course of the battle. Medals can be turned off in advanced option, if needed.
Human players can now choose their commander traits in the beginning of the game (as in the campaign). The AI will also pick some random trait(s) for itself. If this is not desirable, set number of picks to 0 in advanced options.
It is now possible to purchase ships in random scenarios with ports (Coast, Big Island, Big Lake).
Special challenges can now be activated for random maps in advanced options. "David vs. Goliath" only affects (makes stronger) AI units. "Europe of a Shoestring" only affects human players. "Race against time" obviously affects everyone on the map.
When a year is specified, date is now set to 1st of July that year (mid year) instead of 1st of January.
The generator will now give more priority to more recent units when generating starting armies, instead of using equal weight for all units available on scenario date.
More airfields are now generated on larger maps
In FFA, starting airfields are now defended by an AA unit
Random scenarios can now have cloudy and rainy days (if not desired, weather can be turned off in advanced options as usual), and will display weather forecast for the next three days.
Prestige of all opponents can now be seen in tooltips over player icons, so you can now better plan the wars of attrition with them.
Filled some gaps in equipment in 1939: France now has a tactical bomber option, Great Britain has more choice of artillery, and Hungary has a strategic bomber option. Also, USA now has a recon option in 1942.
Allied late war tanks (IS-3, Tortoise, T34 and T28) no longer have "no purchase" trait, and can be bought to counter German super tanks (like Tiger II, Maus and E-75) in 1945.
Reduced number of enemy overstrength units when playing Defense and Survival missions against the AI
Defense mission no longer has zero slots and thus allows to purchase units if the default force is disbanded
Various tweaks in turn count, prestige and slots

Multiplayer:

Fixed several more issues which could lead to desync in online MP mode
Fixed replays of the opponent's turn in PBEM (only new games will show replays)
Fixed "end turn" not working properly in coop MP when it is played in PBEM ("offline") mode
After making a turn in a PBEM game, the player will now be returned to MP game list, not main menu
In team games on random maps, allies will now give each other support fire and share airfields
In random maps, AI teams no longer have "simultaneous movement" to reduce camera jumping around the map
Fixed prestige sharing in Minsk scenario

Other:

Changed yellow markings on Ju87 B and D, so that they are more different from contemporary fighters.
Added hero images for US, GB, RU, IT, HU, RO factions. Heroes of other factions will display a generic hero image
Added generic medal images which will be displayed in case there are no specialized images for a given nation
Updated Polish localization (thanks Grzegorz Kłos!)
In tactical puzzles undo is now set to Unlimited, so that it is much easier to experiment with different solutions.

Editor:

Removed most "not implemented" data fields to avoid confusion and save screen space. They will return as they get implemented.
Fixed "share prestige" and "share core slots" options for sides, and added "share auxiliary slots" and "share airfields" parameters.
Added "prestige visible to enemies", "default experience", "max experience" and "experience growth rate" parameters to each player (advanced options section).
Added an option to specify custom rules file. For now, custom file must be in the game's Content/Data folder.
Added options to control what unit classes each player can purchase.
Added options to specify custom unit skins and insignias, both on player (in Scenario Params) and individual unit (in Configure Units mode) level.
Added a new checkbox for "Capture victory hexes" objective: "Only check at scenario end"

Patch 3 01.01.00 (24 April 2020)

Bug fixes:

Fixed the problem with start of turn autosaves not writing for some players
Fixed bug with units losing medal effects when going to the next mission in the campaign
Fixed "Low Altitude Attack" trait in Anti-air vs. aircraft combats
Fixed destroyers not attacking coastal hexes
Fixed transport options for captured towed guns
Fixed high ground status getting lost after split
Fixed "Reduced Slots" and "Zero Slots" heroes incorrectly changing slots of units in Reserve
Fixed display of captured strength in on-screen notification
Fixed units in reserve triggering "below maximum strength" warning when ending the Deployment Phase
Fixed entrenchment sometimes going over maximum
Fixed autosave filtering in localized versions (will only work with new autosaves)
Fixed unit trait icons being mirrored in the right UI panel
Fixed the problem in Persia map where soviet aircraft crashed to the ground even though there are other soviet airfields available
Fixed "script not found" error when running custom campaigns from Documents/My Games/Panzer Corps 2/Campaigns

Performance:

Added a new setting to control number of trees (Options -> Video -> Forest Quality)
Optimized all landscape materials
Added FPS display to Options (bottom-right corner) so that it's easier to see what effect various settings have

AI changes:

Order in which the AI moves its units has been improved
Improved value calculation when deciding if a combat is favorable or not
The AI will now put more emphasis on escorting its bombers with fighters
The AI now understands how to use mount-move-unmount action
Attacker AI will now try to rebase aircraft closer to the front line
The AI will now switch units more often
The AI can now use "Forced March" ability
Improved AI usage of phased movement
The AI will now approach victory hexes, supply hexes, flags and river crossings hidden in the fog more carefully
The AI will now prefer to force retreats into disadvantageous terrain
The AI will now prefer to force a surrender instead of outright killing a unit
The AI now better understands the value of reducing entrenchment
Units with "hold position (active)" order will capture flags if presented with an opportunity

Random maps:

Random map interface has been improved, and the following new options added: -- Year - select any year from 1939 to 1945 for the upcoming battle, or use "no year" to have access to all equipment (as it worked before) -- Player factions. Each player can be assigned a specific or random faction -- More factions: Poland (in 1939) and France and Hungary (in 1939-1940) can also be selected. Italy is available till 1944. USA is available starting from 1942.
Starting force on random maps now includes a random number of aircraft
The AI will purchase units in FFA missions
Distribution of victory hexes has been made more uniform
Random map is now assigned random location and season
Starting prestige and prestige per turn generally increased
Prestige income from all flags increased in FFA missions
Number of slots increased on most map sizes
Victory conditions and unit generation logic reworked for all mission types

Multiplayer:

All Multiplayer games now allow to specify a number of advanced options: randomness, weather, supply, fog of war, shroud, custom army.
Random maps can now be created for up to 8 human players in FFA mode (Survival, Attack and Defense are still limited to two human players)
Random maps now support team mode where two people can play in coop as a team, or several teams of two players each can compete with each other in FFA
Fixed several more issues which could prevent old games from loading
Fixed a random crash which could happen in Multiplayer game list
Fixed damage and combat event popups sometimes appearing in the fog when two enemies are fighting each other
Fixed occasional camera jumps into the fog when two enemies are fighting each other there
Fixed units purchased by the opponent sometimes visible through the fog of war
Finished games now have "VIEW" button to review game ending
Added a button ("-") to hide MP games from the list. Can be used to hide abandoned games and reduce the clutter in the list.

Interface:

Added new option Display/UI -> Mouse Interface. One-Button mode works as before. Two-button mode allows to select units with left button and give orders with right button. Choose the mode which works best for you.
Added tooltips to unit class, movement type and target type icons in Unit Details
Added a UI button and a hotkey (7) to toggle the Minimap
The game will now remember and restore in every mission open state of Stats Panel, Overview and Minimap
Added a new hotkey (G) to toggle hex grid
Added a new hotkey (H) to toggle hex names
Added a new hotkey (V) for moving a unit from/to Reserve (since these commands are mutually exclusive, they are tied to the same button)
Understrength units are now shown in Unit List with red strength number, so its easier to see which unit requires replacements
Improved chat flow in-game, so you can quickly send a message without using the mouse: -- Press Enter to open Chat panel -- When Chat is open, keyboard focus is automatically set to input box, so you can instantly start typing message -- Press Enter to send the message, and you can start typing the next one -- Pressing Enter when input box is empty will close Chat panel

Editor:

Added functionality to rearrange the order of players (Edit->Scenario Params..., Players tab, click player header with down arrow to invoke move menu)
The Editor will now offer to save custom scenarios in the appropriate folder.

Localization:

Polish localization has been updated (thanks Grzegorz Kłos!)
Shop will now display localized unit class names

Other:

Major difficulty has been made easier
Added two more tactical advisor clips to "Tutorial" section of the game
Updated "Double Strike" puzzle to eliminate possible shortcuts in the solution
Added "cheat AllEqp" cheat code which unlocks all equipment for the current player
Added "cheat AddMedal <medal> <optional level>" cheat code which gives specified medal to the currently selected unit. Possible options for medals are: -- HeroicDefenseMedal -- UnstoppableOffensiveMedal -- AntiInfantryVeteranMedal -- AntiTankVeteranMedal -- AerialAceMedal -- DependableSupportMedal -- UrbanLegendMedal

Patch 2 1.00.09 (08 April 2020)

Localization:

Added French, Polish and Portuguese localizations
Updated Chinese and Russian localizations
The game will now display localized hex names over the map and in the UI (will not work with old saves)

Bug fixes:

Fixed a few more random crashes
Fixed crashes when working with "Lost Units" list
Fixed crash when repeatedly pressing Esc in briefings
Fixed crash when starting a new random map
Fixed autosaves and ironman saves which could be created with wrong state (inactive "End Turn" button etc.)
Fixed attacks sometimes "unsuppressing" units without dealing damage
Fixed aircraft getting initiative bonus when attacking from close terrain hex
Fixed ambushed units attacking the ambusher even if they normally cannot attack such unit
Fixed bug where attacking unit did not lose attack action if it did not have a chance to shoot in the combat it initiated
Fixed incorrect calculation of negative suppression between combat phases
Fixed aircraft spotting in cloudy weather
Fixed spotting bug when a unit retreated
Fixed weather forecast icon after loading a save
Fixed "Anti-tank Veteran" and "Anti-infantry Veteran" awards for aircraft
Fixed wrong strength when giving overstrength to prototype units
Fixed the problem with "Retrograde" player trait where available units disappeared earlier than they should
Fixed the problem with "Slow Modernization" player trait where transport upgrade and overstrength was impossible after 3 unit upgrades
Fixed replacements of deployed units during Deployment Phase (no longer limited by 50% of unit's max strength)
Fixed scrolling in Event Log (History section of Unit Details)
Fixed "gamma correction" setting
Fixed some maps where embarked transports could not leave the port

Performance:

Improved Landscape Tessellation implementation. Now, even with Tessellation off the game (in particular, rivers) should look decent.
Added new setting to Options->Video: "Landscape Geometry". It can be used to further reduce GPU load on weaker hardware, or (at a higher setting) used as an alternative to tessellation, which might be faster on some machines.

Improvements:

Stats panel now shows actual move points instead of max
River hexes now show "Vulnerable Position" and "Blocks Supply" icons in terrain panel
Combat log viewer (opened with L hotkey) will now include logs for all predictions visible on the screen when it's invoked
In Options->Video "Save" button is only required to change window mode and resolution. All other options are applied instantly.

Multiplayer:

Fixed crashes which occurred when loading existing games (some old games can still have problems, but new games started with 1.0.8 should not have them)
Fixed several issues causing the players to go out of sync in online MP
Fixed password protection not working for random maps
Minsk map now allows simultaneous movement
Small balance fix in Steel vs. Steamroller scenario

Patch 1 Hotfix v1.00.07 (31 March 2020)

Outdated cache files are cleared on start-up
Fixed "assign hero" button getting disabled
Fixed crash when capturing a flag and "show names on the map" is turned off