Iron Harvest: Rusviet Revolution 1.1.2.2001

Greetings Harvesters,
to the thirteenth of our regular post-release updates. Nothing unlucky about it. This week we focus on decreasing queue times by adding a feature that shares matchmaking. We’ve also implement several fixes and improvements requested by the community.

Shared Matchmaking

We know how eager you are to get into battle and feast upon the mechanized entrails of your enemy. Therefore, we are happy to oblige by refining the games matchmaker to more quickly pair combatants with their most suitable foes. It’ll work like this:

You enter the game queue via either Quick match or Ranked mode.

The matchmaker will aim to match you with players based on this preference and most who has a similar MMR to you.

If, after a few minutes, the matchmaker is unable to pair you with someone with your preference, it will choose any player with a similar MMR.

If you queued for Ranked Match, you will gain or lose SR as normal depending on the result.

If you queued for Quick Match, your SR will be unaffected.

Safeguards have been deployed to prevent players who try to exploit this system to “farm” SR.

We’re aware that some high level players are reporting unexpected and significant SR losses. We are currently assessing how MMR is incorporated into the calculation of SR and discussing our options. We will have more on this for you very soon.

General changes:

Fixed an issue that resulted in infantry units being left outside when the squad was ordered to garrison a building, or Zolw while firing at enemy units.

The “Matter of time” achievement is now correctly awarded when you win a game due the time limit elapsing.

Fixed issues related to deconstructing connected barbed wire sections that could cause game input freezes.

Fixed “Matchmaking failed” errors created when a few players used Coop mode on the final Polanian campaign mission “Showdown”.

Fixed multiple little errors so as to improve overall game stability.

Fixed overlapping icons in long titles within the cosmetics menu.

Fixed incorrectly displaying loading bar.

Map and Game mode are now clearly displayed during the Reserve picking and game loading screen.

Balance changes:

We continue to monitor the games state and your feedback regarding balancing, especially with all the info that comes from the ESL tournament. With that continuing, we are reluctant to make any significant changes that might disrupt those competing. We’ve also recently had in-depth conversations with community members. They helped to confirm us in our thinking that regularly, short-term, tweaking of numbers is undesirable.

Instead, we plan to focus on future balancing changes that would best come from long-term improvements. For example, in the way units operate and function on the battlefield.

General changes:

In “Drop Zone”, a Radar Pulse now highlights the drop-zone location upon the mini-map when a drop lands or another player is currently collecting it.

Fixed exploit, where the infantry-ability "Battle Cry" would stay active indefinitely while inside a building or transport-unit.

Fixed "Battle Cry", medic-heal and many infantry-hero-abilities not correctly updating their cooldown while inside of a building or transport-unit.

It is no longer possible to track units through the Fog of War using queued attack commands.

Unconscious heroes are no longer selectable when using Box/Drag to select multiple units.

Several banners now have a better fit over faceplates, making them look considerably better.

Removed dark backgrounds behind faceplates in the main menu and cosmetics screens so that faceplates with transparency and unconventional shapes look better.

Adjusted some mechs so that they correctly display their retreat icon when fleeing.

Adjusted scaling of the Tactical-Map for a few Maps to improve the accuracy of icon-positioning.

Flattened the player starting area on the 2v2 Crash Site map to prevent levitating buildings.

Fixed general missing textures.

General Flamer VFX fixes.

Added more “You-In-the-Game” Backer portraits to the roster of those available for public use via coins in the shop.

New cosmetic skins added to the shop for purchase with awarded coins.

Balance changes:
The ESL tournament continues and continues to offer a great source of balancing data. Similar to the last tourney, we love to see what solutions players come up with to contest the meta that has been established over the weekend.

Therefore, we’ll refrain from making balancing changes this week and keep observing. This will provide us a better foundation to make changes that are more solid and long term oriented as well as minimized disruption to players preparations.

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, your 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!

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 of all our factions 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.

Erlk?nig (Artillery mech): While Polania’s Mocny has been repeatedly buffed, the Erlk?nig 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:
 Increased damage vs. light armor from 75 to 140.
 Increased damage vs. medium armor from 65 to 85.
 Increased damage vs. heavy armor from 65 to 85.
 It’s been a busy month and yet the best is still to come.

Welcome to this the ninth of our regular post-release updates. We’re please to report that many players approved of the last weeks update and we hope to continue in this vein. Today, we release a new 1v1 map and fix some issues affecting competitive gameplay. Read on!

New 1v1 Map: Dark Forest

Saxony is home to many majestic and wild forests. Despite the ever present encroachment of man, these places are still filled with mystery and myth.

But you’ll find more than folklore here. Deep within this sparsely populated area, the Kaiser’s finest engineers have been working in secret on a cutting-edge hydroelectric dam. This potent alternative to oil would be an incredible asset to the commander who can conquer the woodland's twisted paths and crumbling castles.

We wish you luck navigating the narrow woodland tracks as you flank your enemy. Just don’t get distracted wondering if a mech that explodes in a forest, when no-ones is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

General Changes
Fixed a bug that prevented saved games on Polania’s 5th mission, “A Path to Hope”, from loading beyond 97%.
Olga now uses Changa’s cool down correctly, preventing Changa from immediately respawning after death.
Fixed an issue whereby grenadiers would freeze when trying to throw a grenade outside of their range while also aiming and firing.
Following our recent update of the 1v1 Border River map, the community highlighted some collider issues. Thanks to this feedback, these have now been fixed.
Barbed wire cost reduced in single player from 15 to 5 iron.
Fixed destroyer cannons that weren’t working, incorrect quest messages and misplaced bushes in Stronghold Siege map.

Balance Changes
This week there will be no balance changes while we continue to collect and assess player data. “Measure twice, cut once” is our approach.

We soldier on. Half the month complete with the month’s best almost here!
Next week: Group invite, that will allow you to queue for battle with your friends.

New Cosmetics Collection

As well as being a thirsty bunch of mech commanders, the pirates among you will have noticed that you have being earning coins while playing and unlocking certain achievements. Well, we have now released the Cosmetic Collection for you to spend those spoils of war.

Here’s how it’ll work:
 For the first time players can see all the rewards we have in our game. Shiny!
 For each cosmetic item and skin, you can now see precisely how they are obtained, be it a specific achievement, season-tree node, specific level up etc.
 Players will be able to see all obtainable rewards, but some very special rewards will not be for available by using coins. For example, legendary rewards from the pre-season and past seasons will stay unavailable for the foreseeable future.
 Players will not be able to buy any items that are locked by achievements, season-tree, or level ups. To start with there are roughly 15 rewards buyable within the categories of faceplates, frames, avatars, and banners.

 As time progresses, we will likely add more rewards that can be purchased by coins.
 Currently there are no unit skins buyable for coins, but we may add them in the future.
 From Season 1, Episode 4, onwards (starting October 13th) completing season tree episodes will also award coins.

New Healing Allied Units

We’ve received a lot of feedback telling us how great it is to play with a buddy at your back. So now you can now heal and repair allied units using medics and engineers. This is a awesome example of when the community comes together over a feature they’d love to see in the game and so we boosted it up the priority list. So, thanks everyone!

For those who love to play in support roles, healing and repairing also applies to your teammates when playing multiplayer games. Note, that this feature does not apply for reinforcing/repairing at base/aid station.

Good communication, team awareness and cooperation are now more important for victory than ever! Your cries for “MEDIC!” might be answered now :P

General changes: 
 Fixed a navigation and building entering issues on the new 1v1 night map “Urban Paradise”.
 Fixed a bug whereby Michal Sikorski’s (Cavalry hero) sticky bombs fly to middle of map if targeting an unusual surface.
 Resources gained from harvesting wrecks are now also granted to allies, to make this more consistent with the rest of the normal resource gains throughout the game.
 Time challenge fix for Rusviets 3rd mission, “Peace and prosperity”, is now correct and in sync with match time.
 Fixed dialogue lines not being spoken in some cinematics.
 Fixed an issue whereby enemy structures sometimes were not visible when uncovering the fog of war.
 The Season Tree will now have "pins" in the board once you claimed a reward to make your progress more visually distinct.
 Olga fixed so she can now reinforce at medic buildings and barracks while riding Changa.
 Olga fixed so that when she is riding Changa it now costs the same for medics to heal her as when she wasn’t riding Changa.
 The Ranked Overview Screen now shows correct total hours played.

Balance changes:
Ranked Mode: We are closely monitoring the ranked game mode and will be adjusting where necessary throughout the coming months. As a first step, we’ve:
 Decreased the maximum amount of SR (Skill Rating) that can be lost when you are defeated.
 Decreased the rate at which players hit the maximum possible SR loss or gain at the end of a match.

Mega Mechs: We’ve removed the advanced barracks requirement for mega mech production in Campaign and Challenge missions. This change does not affect multiplayer/skirmish games, but we will keep an eye on how the added prerequisites for building the Tur, Gulyay-Gorod, and Kaiser influences the multiplayer experience.

 Hero Veterancy: To better align the power scaling of infantry hero veterancy (i.e. Anna, Olga, Gunter) with the overall match progression, we reduced the health and damage bonuses a hero gains across the board. These changes only affect Multiplayer and Skirmish.
 Damage bonus for veterancy rank I decreased from 1.2 to 1.15.
 Damage bonus for veterancy rank II decreased from 1.5 to 1.3.
 Damage bonus for veterancy rank III decreased from 1.7 to 1.6.
 Health bonus for veterancy rank I from decreased 1.5 to 1.3.
 Health bonus for veterancy rank II from decreased 2 to 1.6.
 Health bonus for veterancy rank III from decreased 2.5 to 1.9.
 Health bonus for veterancy rank IV from decreased 3 to 2.2.

Hero’s Base Healing: To align them closer to other units, healing infantry heroes (i.e. Anna, Olga, and Gunter) within the base now costs resources. These changes only affect Multiplayer and Skirmish.

 Destroyer Cannon: It fulfils its role as a very powerful weapon, but it should not dominate the battlefield completely on its own. To make this weapon system less daunting, the following adjustments have been made for Multiplayer and Skirmish:

Damage vs. Unarmored decreased from 300 to 200.
 Damage vs. Light Armor decreased from 600 to 200.
 Damage vs. Medium Armor decreased from 500 to 200.
 Damage vs. Heavy Armor decreased from 350 to 100.
 Splash damage vs. Unarmored decreased from 100 to 60.


 Micha? Sikorski (Cavalry Hero): Due to the changes for healing infantry heroes within base, reinforcing Micha?’s cavalrymen will be a bit cheaper to compensate.
 Reinforce oil cost per cavalryman decreased from 10 to 7.

 Gunter von Duisburg:
 Splash damage vs. Light Armor increased from 30 to 50.
 Splash damage vs. Medium Armor increased from 30 to 50.
 Splash damage vs. Heavy Armor increased from 30 to 50.
 Damage vs Heavy Armor decreased from 65 to 50.

Prince Wilhelm: To increase Wilhelm’s viability as a tier 2 reserve hero, we made some adjustments to his base weapon.
 Damage vs. Unarmored increased from 40 to 50.
 Damage vs. Light Armor increased from 50 to 60.
 Damage vs. Medium Armor increased from 40 to 45.
 Damage vs. Heavy Armor increased from 30 to 35.
 Damage vs. Structures increased from 10 to 15.

Eisenhans: To more accurately represent the intended impact of the Eisenhans’ melee weapon against unarmored targets we made one key adjustment:
 Melee damage vs. Unarmored increased from 50 to 100.

 Vanguards:
 Damage per bullet vs. Light Armor decreased from 0.7 to 0.5.

Olga:
 Melee damage vs Light Armor increased from 20 to 30.
 Ranged damage vs. Light Armor decreased from 10 to 5.

 Changa:
 Damage vs. Unarmored decreased from 100 to 80.
 Damage vs. Light Armor decreased from 20 to 10.
 Damage vs. Medium Armor decreased from 15 to 5.

Welcome to this, the second of regular post-release updates. You continue to feed the machinery that drives Iron Harvest with your feedback and we thank you for it. It’s also been a joy to see many of you enjoying the newest 3 vs. 3 multiplayer map “The Great Wastes”. Today’s changes bring a new 2 vs. 2 map which will be very interesting to adapt to. We’ve also released a detailed Codex, and made some general and balance changes. Read on.

General changes 
 Repositioned some crates and surrounding terrain on “The Great Wastes” multiplayer map.
 Fixed a display issue when multiple pop-ups were queued and shown one after another.
 Insane A.I. adjusted to minimise early rushes.
 Minor adjustments to improve readability of the credits.

New CODEX
This is a treat for all you lore-lover, deep-divers and stat-swains out there. We’ve compiled for you all the details and lore to enhance your enjoyment of Iron Harvest and the world of 1920+. Here you can compare units, enjoy new artwork and strategize in greater depth. For your reference, we’ve also include handy tutorial points for when you need to polish up your battlefield technique.

New Multiplayer/Skirmish Map

Surviving the onslaught, 2Sk3tchy has created this introduction to prepare you for this new theatre of battle. Adapt or perish.


Balance changes 
Altered the overall offensive and defensive attributes of Michal Sikorski’s cavalry command unit to improve consistency with other heroes.

Michal Sikorski personal HP increased from 200 to 400.
 Other cavalry soldiers HP decreased from 200 to 110.
 Sticky bomb explosion timer decreased from 8s to 2s.
 Melee damage vs. light armor decreased from 30 to 20.
 Melee damage vs. medium armor decreased from 30 to 10.

Increased Prince's damage against armoured targets to match his power level with the other heroes.
 
Damage vs. light armor increased from 40 to 60.
 Damage vs. medium armor increased from 30 to 50.
 Damage vs. heavy armor increased from 30 to 40.

General Changes
 The 7th Rusviet mission has been significantly reworked. The AI has been adjusted and a bug has been fixed that sometimes let to an overproduction of guardian mechs. As a result, previous saved games are now invalidated for this mission.
 Fixes to aid progression for those who played during the open beta and hadn’t completed the missions in the intended order.
 Mechs preview skins are now always removed before a new one is displayed.
 Background diagnostic tools added to create detailed logs when online services fail (pending).
 Added auto reconnect to online services after 30 seconds if connection unexpectedly lost.
 If not accepted, the EULA auto pops-up so that it is easier to access online services.
 U.I. fixes and improvements to accommodate text changes.
 Language localisation improvements and fixes.
 SFX added.
 Saved game improvement, incl.an overwrite function when you have reached the maximum number of save games possible.
 General improvements to aid match making.
 GOG pre-order mech skins are now available.
 Steam achievements are now available.

New Campaign COOP Mode
You now have the option to play through the entire campaign with a buddy. Coordination is key.
 
You only need go to the Campaign overview menu.
 Click the mission you want to play.
 Invite a buddy and play.

You’ll play the campaign as normal, however each of you can control all available units. Work together to achieve your goals and blame the other person when you lose! :P

New Multiplayer/Skirmish Map
Fresh from the trenches, 2Sk3tchy has created this overview to tempt you once more into battle.

New Native Mode Story
We’re also pleased to work with so many international peoples and so we now have a native mode cut of the Story Trailer. Somehow, even if you don’t understand the language, the words carry extra weight when spoken by a native.

“Thanks to this effort from KING Art, the native mode throws player right into the middle of this European conflict and they can dive even deeper into the thrilling story line.  It’s truly amazing seeing my artwork and the world I worked on coming to live in this way. For me personally I wouldn’t play it in any other way then with the native languages for each faction, it just adds so much to the experience”
 - Jakub Rozalski, the artist behind the world of 1920+.

Balance Changes
We collected data and feedback from all your battles and are working on balancing changes. These changes are currently being tested and if everything works out will be part of next week’s update.

Accolades
We’re still extremely proud and honoured many of you love the game (see video). We’ll keep working hard winning those over, who are still missing something.