Iron Harvest Change Log #10

Greetings Harvesters,

Welcome to the tenth (!) of our regular post-release updates. Today’s update allows you to create groups and enter matches with your friends more easily. We’re also happy to announce that we'll be live on the Epic Games Store. Keep reading for details on many general and balance game changes.

Group Invite Available!

Hey Mech Commanders, you like to Party? ;)

This has easily been the No.1 request from you and we are excited to offer it now. You can now form a Group/Party of up to 3 people and queue for quick, ranked and custom matches.

Of course, you're likely to be matched with a same sized group, but it is also possible for a 3 person Group to be matched against a 2 person Group and a Solo player. Any combination is now feasible! You can even add A.I. to fill empty slots.

By forming a party your are also now able to play COOP with up to 3 players.

So grab some loyal commanders, choose your faction, and “hav-at-em”.

Remember, communication is always OP, and so you're welcome to use the voice channels found by clicking here in our Official Discord Server.

A massive shoutout to the PartyMechs who helped us road-test and QA this feature during the past week. You guys make the emperor proud!

Iron Harvest Now on Epic Games Store

For those who prefer, Iron Harvest will be available on Epic Games Store later today. As part of their Autumn Games Sale, it’s also -20% off until Thursday December 3rd!

Grease your gears and prepare for battle because Epic Game Store players will be able to cross-play with Steam and GoG players. It pleases us that such mech carnage is now more universally available.

More Dynamic and Responsive Infantry Combat

Following your feedback, we continue our commitment to improving infantry responsiveness and combat aspects of the game. We’ve now implemented a new system so that units start shooting sooner after being given the command. As well as this, we’ve added more dynamic Shoot & Run variations to all relevant soldiers. Check it out.

General Changes

We continue to improve the game with various bug fixes and adjustments. This week we’ve:

Improved save game system to make saving and loading quicker.
Fixed various bugs that broke save games when the save happened under specific conditions. This resulted in the save game file loading only as far as at 97%. If you still have this issue, please contact the Iron Doctor on Discord.
Enabled the Saxonian “Stiefmutter” mech to now properly attack-move when ordered..
Fixed issue where Olga and MG infantry transitioning into aiming stance resulted in issues with infantry they killed.
Fixed a related issue where killed unit models for an infantry squad did not properly die while the squad is entering a structure.
Enabled the Rusviet’s Serp mech ability “Rally Call” now negate suppression and healing effects.
Enabled destroyed mechs to functionally reveal the Fog Of War for a short duration, not just visually.
Improved scripting in Polania’s 1st and Rusviet’s 2nd campaign mission.
Made U.I. improvements for game menus as well as in-game.
Improved visualization of destroyed barbed wire and sandbags.
Prevented mechs from breaking Sandbags and Barbwire that are still under construction.
Improved curved sandbag-segments, so it should now be possible to enter cover on both sides of curved sandbags.
Fixed a bug that prevented grenades and sticky bombs from being consistent across saved and loaded games.
Fixed Cavalry Sticky-Bombs so that they always hit their target.
Fixed failed outcomes accidently visually resetting on Saxony’s 1st campaign mission “Welcome to the Mud”.
Enabled resource structures to now play their animations while being upgraded.

Unfortunately, while this is a mech-ton of important changes, the consequence is that saved game files from prior to this update are now invalidated. Overall game progress remains and we apologize for any inconvenience.

Balance Changes

Garrisoned Units: Damage against units in buildings has been decreased overall to create fewer situations in which cover provides far more protection than being in a house or bunker.

Gunner: Are notable for having higher HP than other infantry, this is necessary to help them fulfil their role combating mechs. The perception of this difference is higher than we anticipated and so we’ve reduced their HP slightly to hinder any undesired effectiveness vs. other units. Therefore:

HP decreased from 175 to 150 per model.

Medics: We are now getting to a point where medics are fine without risking their overuse.

Heal cooldown decreased from 50 to 25 seconds.

Barbed wire: Our recent focus on how very high skilled players use barbed wire has unintentionally affected others players use of this tool. Therefore, as a first step to readdress their utility, we’ve reverted their cost.

Iron cost decreased from 15 to 10.

The Rusviet’s, in general, are the least chosen faction and therefore they’ve received some slight buffs.

Groza (Exosuits): Previous movement speed reductions had a large effect on this unit. These changes aim at preventing their “spamability” while making a single squad viable.

Increased HP from 170 to 200 per model.
Increased damage vs. light armor from 30 to 40.
Increased damage vs. medium armor from 25 to 35.
Increased damage vs. heavy armor from 15 to 25.

Ognivo (Flamethrower mech): Contrary to the memes, our data tells us this beautiful mech is still, and has been for a long time now, the most built Rusviet mech. However, it hasn’t been performing in battle as well as its counterparts, often dying before it reaches its target and not fully finishing them off. Therefore:

Increased HP from 600 to 700.
Increased Flame Radius from 3.4 to 4.

Kolokol (Bomber mech): Its low range and difficulty to hit moving targets are now further compensated for by higher damage. Structure damage was also increased to emphasize this factions tendency in lore of destroying buildings. Therefore:

Increased damage vs. light armor from 75 to 85.
Increased damage vs. medium armor from 45 to 55.
Increased damage vs. heavy armor from 30 to 35.
Increased damage vs. structures from 35 to 50.

Erlkönig (Artillery mech): While Polania’s Mocny has been repeatedly buffed, the Erlkönig was neglected. However, their higher range is a factor that should not be forgotten, and so too much change would easily make this mech overpowered. Therefore, for now, we’ve: