• Improved Conquest AI: Defender bot emplacements, coordinated waves, retreating enemies, difficulty scaling and battle force identities (read further below)
  
• Optimized netcode bandwidth, for a smoother multiplayer experience
  
• Sound optimizations and automatic weapon improvements(read further below)

• Added quality-based difficulty scaling
  - Difficulty now scales the enemy's unit quality, not just how much it buys
  - Unit grade gated by difficulty: easy leans on obsolete equipment, heroic favors the best available for that nation and operation day
  - Weight class (Light/Medium/Heavy) gated by difficulty, strongest on tanks, then SPGs, vehicles and towed guns; infantry unaffected
  - Both are weighted preferences, not hard bans, so any unit remains possible on any difficulty
  - Rare equipment stays rare regardless of difficulty
  - Difficulty still adjusts unit counts, but by roughly a unit per wave, making it a much smaller part of the difference than before
  
  
• Updated how enemy force size is limited
  - Enemy CP and money limits raised so they no longer constrain what the bot fields
  - Force size is now governed by the bot's own purchase logic: number of buys per phase, wave count and wave size
  - Removed the exploit where bringing a few cheap units starved the enemy of money, because the budget was derived from the player's force value
  - Removed the trickle effect where a CP-capped bot could only buy replacements as its existing units died, feeding attacks and counterattacks in a few units at a time
  
  
• Added battle force identity
  - Enemy commander rolls a primary force per battle: infantry or armored
  - Optionally rolls a secondary force: armored, anti-tank, artillery, AA, or none
  - Armored force fields a tank core with infantry escort and mobile support
  - Infantry force fields an infantry body with its own organic support weapons
  - Secondary forces are small attachments and do not dominate the battle
  
  
• Added structured attack waves
  - Attacks arrive as escalating waves instead of a continuous trickle
  - First wave is a probe: recon vehicles, light armor, MG carriers and infantry
  - Probe waves no longer bring static AT guns
  - Later waves are the main effort: they draw on the battle's full force identity, including its secondary force, and grow larger toward the final wave
  - Each wave commits to a single objective, drawn from a shuffled order, so waves spread across the map
  
  
• Added dynamic wave timing
  - Delay before the next wave is read from the battlefield rather than a fixed timer
  - Commander measures how much of the previous wave is still fighting and whether the objective changed hands
  - Small random offset so wave arrivals are not perfectly predictable
  
  
• Added attack failure detection
  - Commander concedes and retreats when it can no longer realistically take an objective
  - A beaten attack now ends the battle instead of running the score out to 1000
  
  
• Updated artillery to a deliberate support role
  - Artillery is a committed support role rather than a random purchase
  - Difficulty scales both how much indirect fire the enemy fields and what kind
  
  
• Added defender garrison setup
  - At battle start the bot defender buys a garrison and spawns it directly on the objectives instead of at the map edge
  - Garrison units then move out to defensive positions around the objective: infantry walk into place, vehicles are teleported (expected, not a bug)
  - The whole setup settles over roughly 30-60 seconds, after which the defense is in position
  - Defenders no longer have to cross the map to reach the flag they are meant to be holding
  - Garrison squads hold their positions instead of being pulled into capture flag orders
  
  
• Added defender counterattacks
  - Losing a flag can provoke a potential counterattack
  - Counterattack purchases target the flag being retaken
  - Counterattacks are capped per flag and per battle, so taking ground does not turn into an endless defense
  
  
• Added defender retreat
  - Similar to how enemy Commander retreats when it has failed an attack, when on defense, if all flags are captured, any remaining defenders will retreat
  
  
• Increased starting AP for player in Conquest to full amount (no longer have to wait to spawn in your unit stages)
  
• Updated enemy airstrikes will not launch if bots already lost and are retreating.
  
• Updated enemy airstrikes have a chance now to occur much earlier during bots attack
  
• Updated schema for AI unit rosters in conquest (supplied readme for modders reference)
  
• Updated all 114 conquest maps with latest setup for enemy AI defender
  
• Reduced rate that points accumulate for player while defending to give attacker enough time to spawn all waves
  
  
• Increase map size (playable area) for dcg_karvola, dcg_karvola_winter, and dcg_isigny_ruins
  
• Fixed pathing issue around gun positions on dcg_crisbecq_battery
  
• Fixed bridge for better vehicle pathing on dcg_flooded_lowlands
  
• Fixed blocked entrances and broken textures for dcg_puhoksen and dcg_puhoksen_winter
  
• Fixed fixed cliffs not aligned having a hole and some rocks under ground for dcg_natramala and dcg_natramala_winter
  
• Fixed pathing issues (terrain related) for dcg_mikli and dcg_mikli_winter
  
• Fixed broken heightmap polygons on dcg_hills
  
• Fixed terrain so that spawns can be moved better on dcg_shaforovo
  
• Fixed environment water mode to be river and not sea on dcg_shiryayevo
  
• Fixed blocked house entrances on dcg_rzhev
  
• Fixed some map issues on dcg_rasputitsa
  
  
• Fixed bot/ai script to use all smoke grenades and applied general updated to smoke script
  
• Updated throwing smokes script for bots so that they no longer throw smokes under their feet and instead throw as far as they can smoke grenades based on if they are defending or attacking, thus throwing either in direction of flag or enemy.
  
• Removed only when player is the attacker, the mini-map arrows indicators that is enemy spawning units
  
• Removed single engineers from buy roster for bots in Conquest

• The Ace of Swords (1943_07_petrovka)
  - Fixed starting pz3 when player fix and use it being taken over by script as if it was part of the ai tank group until village.
  - Fixed speed and states of pz3 so that if player fixes it can use it normally.
  
  
• Carpathian Turmoil (1944_09_yugoslavia)
  - Fixed soldiers having no room for helmet

• Added healthbars to enemy infantry in coop (they were missing, but present in every other part of the game)
  
  
• Optimized network bandwidth
  
• Optimized bot tagging, along with proper animal exclusion.
  
  
• Reduced manpower cost of pz38h_735 from 330 to 240 mp (scoring only as it's a dp unit)
  
  
• Fixed minor memory leak
  
• Fixed bots using smoke grenades in Multiplayer, now they throw grenades properly and not release them under their feet
  
• Fixed bots in all Multiplayer modes now aim smoke grenades towards enemy they see.
  
• Fixed missing 114mm_bl_4_5_mk1 command points and score
  
• Fixed 4v4_kirjavala map point name duplication causing crash
  
• Fixed broken heightmap polygons on 4v4_hills
  
• Fixed floating house and blocked entrance on 4v4_dubovka

• Performance Update for automatic weapons sounds
  - Automatic weapons sounds are now called in a granular head and tail manner, in brief with each shot of a burst a 'head' is called (this being the transient or pop of the shot) and only at the end of the burst is the 'tail' called (this being the decaying echo and reflection of the shot).
  - This leads to a ten-fold reduction to the risk of audio-buffer starvation during sustained combat, so more effects voices can be heard at once without voices being culled.
  - To illustrate the difference, in the legacy One-Shot system we play a 1.5 to 4 s long sound with EVERY shot across all 3 distance layers meaning that during a burst from an MG 42 between 30 and 160 buffers will be consumed depending on distance and overlap, easily exceeding our 64 buffers in mere moments. The new Granular system means that at any given time during a burst of fire only 9 Buffers are being consumed across all distance layers, and when the burst ends only 3 buffers are consumed.
  - Remix of Most Automatic Weapons Sound layers, to break them into Granular Pieces for the new system
  - Removal of Legacy One-Shot Sounds for Automatic Weapons
  - Removed Legacy Arty Projectile Sounds
  - Changes to Fade Distances and Priority
  
  
• Added Commonwealth Talk Set 4
  - Added Voice Files for CMW Soldier Talk Set 4
  - Added Voice Files for CMW Tank Talk Set 4
  - Updated talk.set to make use of Talk Set 4
  
  
• Added new sounds for:
  - Artillery Projectile Sounds
  - Small Arms - PM1910/30, Quad Maxim, MG15, MG17
  - Sonic Crack Sounds for S2 Small Arms (full size rifles and mgs)
  - Bullet Impacts for Dirt and Stone Terrains and Materials
  - Sounds for Size2 HE explosions (75-95mm caliber HE)
  
  
• Added trench_ridge texmod 'sand'
  
• Added more human cinematic animations for future use
  
  
• Fixed desync that could lead to a crash on fast change of transfer of all inventory between two units
  
• Fixed one of the causes for "flashing hand" bug
  
• Fixed unit panel on left side of UI from blocking clicks on the minimap when unit panel is closed
  
• Fixed crash on direct control button with no units selected
  
• Fixed panzer5a prefixes for x models for its x textures and missing specular map on x model.
  
• Fixed wrong SU-155 unit reinforcement label in 6th Finnish mission mission in russian localization
  
• Fixed panzer2l face issues on its body mesh
  
• Fixed M22 Locust with littlejohn adapter not able to resupply
  
• Fixed T-50 fuel type to be diesel
  
• Fixed bf109_e4b bomb not hiding when dropped
  
• Fixed double MG34 coax in early Panzer 3 tanks to be 150 and 300 round capacity
  
• Fixed engine mesh for xx model of matilda2_mk4_cs
  
• Fixed towing bone position for: 25mm_pstk37, 37mm_pstk36, 47mm_pstk39, 76mm_lk13, 20mm_flak30, 20mm_flak38, 28mm_pzb41, 37mm_flak37, 37mm_pak36, 47mm_pakt, 75mm_legebig18, 75mm_legebig18_snow, 75mm_leig18, 75mm_lg40, 37mm_m30, 45mm_m37, 45mm_m42, 37mm_qf_mk1.
  
• Fixed target selector and class for 122mm_m1910 variants
  
• Fixed bedford_qlt icon
  
• Fixed 84mm_k18 icon
  
• Fixed various wheel fxtracers on 114mm_bl_4_5_mk1, 20mm_oerlikon, 20mm_polsten, 76mm_land_mattress, 88mm_qf25_mk1_4p, 88mm_qf25_mk2, 88mm_qf25_mk2_late, 84mm_qf18_2pa
  
• Fixed 105mm_lefh18_40 shell_eject animation not playing
  
• Fixed muzzle vfx for 120mm_k78_31
  
• Fixed turret break FX for multi_turret / aux_turret vehicles
  
• Fixed dust color for vehicle dust trail fx
  
• Fixed fireSoundclose for American M5 AT gun and M3 GMC
  
• Fixed reload time for 75mm_m1897a4 cannon and M3 GMC from 6.5s to 4s to be similar to 75mm Pak97/38 (similar French gun/breach)
  
• Fixed various nation vehicles where enumerators had IDs within their parameters in mdl, causing odd outcomes when their respective component got broken, like swapping to German numbers.
  
• Fixed ger/late/begleitpio breeds to have defensive trait as intended
  
• Fixed breadbag LOD issue on German human model
  
• Fixed missing LODs on the boys_mk1
  
• Fixed settings for chicken houses that made them absorb projectiles more than they should have
  
• Fixed to euro barn destruction
  
• Fixed some localizations
  
  
• Optimized some maps by removing grass texmods that are almost never used
  
  
• Changed order that vehicle/animation-defines.inc is loaded in the entity.set
  
• Changed BotApi.Instance.teamSize to BotApi.Instance.ownTeamSize
  
  
• Removed/smoothed squad follower stutter during path updates

r8164-8931

Dear friends, we are happy to announce the next game update!
In addition to work on the next faction, we put a lot of effort into update #70.
This update brings a long list of improvements to Conquest, our Dynamic Campaign Generator, and many other changes. We have no doubt that many of you will recognize your own requests. You can try the new version as of now - the Open Beta is available!

This open beta is a major rewrite of the AI logic used in Conquest (Dynamic Campaign Generator). These are the main changes:

Previously, enemy strength was driven heavily by player army value and operation day, while units were selected relatively randomly from the available roster.
The new system gives the enemy commander much more direct control over force quality, composition, and battlefield behavior.

Difficulty now affects what the enemy fields, not just how much. Lower difficulties favor older, lighter equipment, while greater difficulties increasingly favor stronger equipment available to that nation and campaign date. These remain weighted preferences rather than hard restrictions, so battles should still give you plenty of variation.

Enemy forces also have a clearer identity.
A battle can center on infantry or armor, with smaller supporting elements such as artillery, anti-tank, anti-aircraft, or armor.
This ought to create more coherent enemies without making their composition easy to predict.

Your enemy will now attack in structured waves, instead of a continuous trickle.
Early waves act as probes; later waves grow larger. Wave timing also responds to what is happening on the battlefield.
The enemy commander can now recognize when an attack has failed and order its remaining forces to retreat, ending the battle.

Previously, once the enemy had exhausted its units or resources, the player could be left waiting for the victory score to slowly reach 1000 with little or nothing left to fight. A decisively beaten attack should now end the battle without that unnecessary wait. Any remaining enemy forces will retreat, destroying any equipment they cannot easily take back with them.

Defenders now begin with dedicated garrisons around objectives, can launch limited counterattacks after losing ground, and will retreat if all objectives are captured. All 114 Conquest maps have been updated to support this new defensive setup.

As you can probably see, this is a significant rebuild of the Conquest AI logic rather than a collection of smaller adjustments.
Much of the previous approach has been replaced with a new foundation for how the enemy builds its army and fights.

This update does not represent the final form of Conquest AI either. We’ll continue improving and expanding upon it in the future. Our internal and Closed beta testing has found the changes to be a net positive, even though balance isn't always even between battles.

This update includes a performance pass on all automatic-weapon audio.

After the Sound Overhauls, the game’s audio system grew substantially: more distance layers, more weapon detail, and many new effects all playing at once. That extra fidelity put far more pressure on the engine’s limited sound voices, especially when several automatic weapons were firing at the same time. The old method played three long sounds for every shot to cover the distance layers, so a single burst could quickly use up every available voice and cut off sounds that were still playing.

Automatic weapons now use a more efficient granular Head/Tail playback method. Where a burst could previously occupy dozens of voices, it now uses only 3–9 voices for the whole duration. This reduces audio dropouts during heavy combat by about ten times, so more weapons and effects can be heard at once. It also prevents those long one-shot sounds from stacking on top of each other, which keeps automatic-weapon fire cleaner sounding overall.

New sounds have also been added for artillery projectiles, rifle-caliber sonic cracks and impacts, and explosions for 75–95 mm HE shells.

Besides these headlines, there are many more changes and fixes. If you want the really extensive version, check the Changelog.

To join the beta, switch your game to the beta version. Later, when the beta becomes the live version, you won’t need to do anything to switch back.
To participate, go to your Steam library, right-click the game, and select Properties > Betas > Open Beta. You can switch back to the current version at any time, using the same process.

That’s it for now; enjoy the beta!

[discord.com]