Iron Harvest DevBlog #11 - March 2019

Step 3: High-poly Modeling

Step 4: Low-poly Modeling and Texturing

Step 5: Animating & Lighting

Gameplay

• Infantry units will now retreat to the nearest Medic Station or Barracks (in addition to HQs).
• Placing a building’s rally point now has a preview when using the UI button.
• The logical size for units, used for navigation, has been adjusted.
• An infantry squad now counts as a single unit in the post-match statistics screen.
• Statistics only account for damage to enemies, not to friends/neutrals.
• New in-game notification for when the enemy is receiving reinforcements from outside the map.
• A new visual indicator shows the direction from which the next enemy wave will attack on the challenge map.

Balancing

• Saxony Stormtroopers damage reduced. 
• Bunker range increased.

We’ve heard your feedback regarding how effective Stormtroopers were compared to their Polanian counterpart, as well as the lack of range the Bunker’s default weapon seemed to have.

Introducing the MG Infantry gave us the room to tweak the Stormtroopers’ effectiveness to be more in line with Riflemen, as well as give Bunkers a buff to deal with the new MG and other infantry units more effectively.

We’re currently working on an overhaul of how the game handles damage and health, so stay tuned for big changes in the future!

Visuals

• All mechs now have additional VFX which show their damage state.
• The Saxonian Erlkönig and Polanian Mocny now aim and fire their projectiles in a more realistic manner.
• The visual indicators showing where infantry can take cover have been updated to better highlight low cover.
• The Saxonian Eisenhans now has a range indicator.
  Infantry placed inside a bunker now display their weapon range.

UI

• The “HQ” build option is visible at all times but is inactive if you already have an HQ.
• Notifications are visible in the Tactical Map screen.
• A “Mission Objectives” HUD element has been added.

Minimap and Tactical Map

• Context-sensitive orders (right-click orders) can now be used on the minimap.
• Hovering over a unit card now highlights the corresponding unit on the minimap.
• New units and buildings that are attacked now blink correctly on the minimap.
• Rally points can now be seen on the minimap and tactical map.
• Double-clicking on the tactical map now centers on the clicked position/unit/structure and closes the tactical map.

Input

• Left-click no longer cancels drag move orders.
• The cursor is now locked to the game window.
• A “Show Unit Range” modifier key is now available in the settings. You can see the weapon range of a unit you select or mouse over as long as the key is held.
• You can now set keyboard shortcuts for selecting all units on-screen (default Ctrl+S) and for selecting all units on the map (default Ctrl+A).
• You can now focus the camera on the origin of an in-game notification by pressing Space.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug in skirmish mode that sometimes did not give the player control over the correct units.
• Fixed a bug where oil costs where not displayed in the upgrade tooltip.
• Fixed a bug that could freeze the game when two players surrendered at almost the same time.
• Fixed a bug in skirmish and challenge mode where bonus goals were applied to players instead of only the player that enabled it.
• Fixed a bug where units had incorrect hit zones when attacking while suppressed.
• Fixed a bug where the camera could not be controlled with the keyboard while the mouse cursor was over the minimap.
• Fixed a bug that lead to camera jittering when scrolling on the minimap near the map border.
• Fixed a problem with excessive memory consumption over extended play times and multiple matches.

Screenshot from out automatic testing machine. Now you can technically play Iron Harvest for 16 hours, or about two hundred matches, in a single sitting… if you’re into that.