CHANGE LOG 02: NEW MAP & CODEX

Greetings Harvesters,

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.

We continue to collect game data while you play to help inform future balance changes.

With all that to get your mech-claws into, here's how our road-map for September is looking.

Let’s get competitive with Ranked Ladder: Now released. Plus, more content.

News: Ranked Ladder

Iron Harvest just became more competitive! Many of you have been patiently waiting for this and we’re happy to be able to release it now.

Players can play against one another in ranked matches. Your position on the ladder is decided by your “Skill Rating” (SR).

There are 6 Leagues (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Master) with 3 Divisions each. With every match played, you will gain or lose SR. Earn enough SR and you will be promoted to the next Division or League. Losing SR may result in you being demoted.

To establish your initial rank, you will need to play a series of placement matches. Currently, we estimate that 10 to 15 placement matches will need to be played before reliable and fair matchmaking is possible. This is simply because right now we don’t have the data to precisely match you with players of a similar skill.

Generally, we have improved our backend matchmaking and we are working on solutions to continually evaluate your skill level accurately as it evolves over time.

We currently plan to have only one ladder combining your score from all multiplayer game types and factions, but this may change in future based on player demand and feedback.

News: Auto-Cast Abilities

You can right-click on many of your units' abilities to toggle their automatic usage on or off. When auto-cast ability is on, the units will use these abilities autonomously in appropriate situations.

The idea behind this feature is to take some of the micro-management off the players should they choose. Should you want to keep full control, you of course don’t have to use it.

Auto-cast doesn’t make sense for all abilities, but we may enable this for more in the future depending on the feedback we receive.

News: Change Log

We also updated the game with various changes and improvements:

General Changes:

- A.I. improvements which allow them to heal, repair, and use some veteran abilities on medium or higher difficult level.
- The position of the default set Rally Point after entering a Building now depends on the direction from which you entered it.
- Fixed crashes related to loosing online connection while playing single player modes
- Fixed a bug causing freezes during campaign missions.
- Fixed an animation bug that prevented Olga from falling into her unconscious state.
- General U.I. and tool tip fixes.
- Updated multiple minimaps.
- To accommodate these changes and fixes, all saved games will be invalidated.

Balance Changes:

Heavy Mechs- The Tur, Gulyay-Gorod and Kaiser are performing well but we want them to be less common in the mid-to-late game and give other high-tier mechs a chance to shine.

- The Tur, Gulyay-Gorod, and Kaiser are no longer available as Reserve options.
- Both an Advanced Workshop and an Advanced Barracks are required to build these mechs.

Field Cannons and Anti-Armor Gunners- These have proven to be a bit too effective against unarmored targets such as infantry. As a first step, we:

- Anti-Armor Gunner splash damage decreased vs. unarmored from 15 to 5.
- Field Cannon damage decreased vs. unarmored from 100 to 50.
- Field Cannon splash damage decreased vs. unarmored from 50 to 15.

Headquarters- We want to give players more time to respond to base attacks and reduce the odds of being caught off-guard. Therefore, we are making it more difficult to destroy an HQ and we’ll keep a close eye on this going forward.

- Increased HP for all Headquarters from 1300 to 1750.

Reinforce, Repair and Heal- The cost of these affected the rest of the match too heavily. Therefore:

Costs for repairing mechs in-base reduced by 40%.

- Costs for Medic’s Heal ability decreased:
- For infantry decreased iron cost from 170 to 75.
- For repairing exosuits decreased iron cost from 200 to 150 and oil cost from 30 to 25.

- Exosuit in-field repair cost decreased by 50%.

- Exosuits in-base reinforce cost (per soldier) decreased:
- Rycerz reinforce cost from 85 to 60 Iron and from 20 to 10 Oil.
- Eisenhans reinforce from 85 to 55 Iron and from 15 to 5 Oil.
- Groza reinforce cost from 85 to 55 Iron and from 30 to 15 Oil.

POLANIA

Michał Sikorski was very difficult to counter for most players, while Polania’s early mechs were slightly too powerful for how easy they are to acquire. By contrast, their Rycerz exosuits needed a little love.

Michal Sikorski:

- Reserve coins increased from 2 to 3.

Melee damage decreased:
- vs. Unarmored from 40 to 20.
- vs. Light Armor from 20 to 10.
- vs. Medium Armor from 10 to 5.
- vs. Heavy Armor from10 to 5.

- Armor class changed from Light to unarmored.
- Michal’s personal HP decreased from 400 to 250.
- Cavalry soldier’s HP increased from 100 to 110.

Rycerz (exosuit):

- Weapon damage increased:
- vs. Unarmored from 15 to 25.
- vs. Light Armor from 20 to 30.
- vs. Medium Armor from 15 to 25.
- vs. Heavy Armor from 7 to 12.
- vs. Structures from 8 to 10.

Strażnik (spider mech)

- HP decreased from 600 to 550.

Śmiały (scout mech)

- Weapon damage decreased:
- vs. Light Armor from 75 to 70.
- vs. Medium Armor from 65 to 60.
- vs. Heavy Armor from 45 to 35.
- vs. Structures from 35 to 30.

Mocny (artillary mech)

- Weapon damage increased:
- vs. Light Armor from 100 to 150.
- vs. Medium Armor from 80 to 110.
- vs. Heavy Armor from 70 to 110.

Lowca (Stinger mech) cost decreased from 600 to 575 Iron and 170 to 165 Oil.

SAXONY

Brunhilde is powerful but hard to utilize properly. With this change, we want to make playing with her more forgiving.

Brunhilde's HP increased from 850 to 1100.

Stiefmutter's wheel damage increased:

- vs. Light Armor from 65 to 85.
- vs. Medium Armor from 50 to 75.
- vs. Heavy Armor from 40 to 65.

Wotan's (heavy mech)cost decreased from 550 to 525 Iron and 170 to 160 Oil.

RUSVIET

Rusviet’s high-tier mechs have received some improvements to help make the Advanced Workshop feel like a worthwhile investment.

Kolokol's (bomber mech) damage vs. structure increased from 20 to 35.

Nagan (revolver mech)

- HP decreased from 1150 to 1100.

- Weapon damage increased:
- vs. Light Armor from 45 to 65.
- vs. Medium Armor from 35 to 45.
- vs. Heavy Armor from 25to 45.

- Cost decreased from 550 to 525 Iron and 190 to 155 Oil.

Serp (scythe Mech)

- HP increased from 1000 to 1150.

- Melee damage increased.
- vs. Unarmored from 100 to 175.
- vs. Light Armor: 100 to 150.
- vs. Medium Armor: 100 to 150.
- vs. Heavy Armor: 100 to 150.
- vs. Structures: 80 to 40.

- Oil cost decreased from 175 to 140.

Info: New This Month

We have already released two new maps since releasing the game and we have more planned in future updates to keep the battlefield fresh. If you haven’t already, check them out here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkd_xb3NkXg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHMKEwirThQ

Check out new artwork, the stats and lore behind each unit in game as well as refresh your game knowledge with the tutorial.

You and a friend can work together to complete over 21 hours of campaign missions spanning the intertwined narratives of our 3 factions and their heroes.

Outlook

As many of you know, our Kickstarter player survey revealed that most of you wanted the campaign experience to be the focus of our development. With this largely complete, and receiving much praise, we can now shift our attention to the multiplayer experience. This, and the recent map additions are only the beginning as we assess your feedback and establish our long-term goals for future updates.

Change Log 03 (1 October 2020)

Out now! New 1v1 Map – Urban Paradise

This city is considered by many to be a bastion for the upper class, impervious to the scythe of war. The sound of gunfire and the sight of mechs cutting a path through its impressive buildings, however, will prove otherwise.

Opposing forces have arrived in one of the pristine suburbs; a central area featuring luxurious residences, while the outer edges betray a stark divide between the haves and have-nots. The many houses grant significant protection and opportunities for infantry forces seeking to capture the necessary strategic positions to claim victory over this town.

Once commanders begin fielding larger mechs however, even the grandest structures will quickly be reduced to rubble, another casualty in this all-consuming conflict.

General changes

- Fixed a timing issue in the reload animation for the Rusviet Vanguards. This issue occasionally made Vanguards fire at their previous target while performing a new unrelated order.
- Medics, Flamethrowers, Engineers, Riflemen, Vanguards, and Stormtroopers now stop shooting immediately if the target they were firing at was killed.

Change Log 04 (8 October 2020)

Greetings Harvesters,

Welcome to this, the fourth regular post-release update. With these we see the game and community going from strength to strength and we’re also especially happy to see a lot of you enjoying the new 1v1 night map “Urban Paradise”. All those buildings make for some interesting gameplay. . . at least until the mega mechs come smashing into town.

Today’s update will help you better aid your friends and dazzle your foes with style on the battlefield.

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.

POLANIA

Michał Sikorski (Cavalry Hero): Due to the changes for healing infantry heroes within base, reinforcing Michał’s cavalrymen will be a bit cheaper to compensate.

- Reinforce oil cost per cavalryman decreased from 10 to 7.

SAXONY

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.

RUSVIET

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.

CHANGE LOG 05: NEW 3v3 MAP

Greetings Harvesters,

This is the fifth of our regular post-release updates. A special welcome to all the new players who’ve joined this past weekend during our successful 20% off Steam sale. It’s great to see the ranks swell with new fodder for the war effort. Today’s update brings more general improvements and will see you battling it out, street by street, in an expansive new 3v3 map.

New 3v3 Map City Outskirts

2Sk3tchy has scouted ahead and reports back on this
new frontier, ripe for the taking.

General changes:

As ever, we are hard at work implementing improvements and fixes largely based on your feedback. This week we’ve:

- Fixed an issue resulting in Bunker foundations being visible through the Fog of War.
- Improved VFX system, especially related to destructibles.
- Fixed an issue that prevented medics from healing via clicking the ability button and then left clicking the target.
- Fixed numerous Season Tree visual inconsistencies and counting errors.
- Earned coins now display on the Season Tree screen.
- Added improvements to prevent game crashes on the 6th Polania mission "Kolno in Chaos".
- Adjusted a few minor unit values in the CODEX.
- Fixed issues whereby Olga’s interaction with Changa would prevent saved games from loading or her moving after a successful load.
- Adjusted layout of achievement screen and changed the ranked image you see so that it depends on your rank.
- Adjustments made to prevent units teleporting as part of the unit avoidance system.
- Added new title "prodigal spender" for big coin spenders.
- Fixed in-game achievement to correctly reward capturing 1500 strategic positions.

Balance changes:

We continue to collect data and feedback from all your battles as we seek to make informed balance changes. This weekend’s community tournament is another excellent opportunity to evaluate gameplay and so we’ll be assessing the result of this, and more, with the aim of implementing more concrete balance changes next week.

1920+ TOURNAMENT

Click here if you are interested in being a part of this friendly community tournament group via Discord.

Our Mechs are still on track!

Change Log #07

We updated the game with various changes and improvements:

General Changes:

- Numerous fixes to UI elements in various menu and result screens to aid clarity and function.
- Fixed coins count not updated after claiming a season tree node.
- Moved map ping button in tactical map a bit down to prevent overlapping with the map graphic.
- Fixed issue with Halloween conditions for skirmish player 2.

Balance Changes:

Thank you once more for the data and feedback you’ve supplied that help us to make informed balance changes. This week there are no balance changes as we evaluate how best to implement your suggestions and the technical requirements this may entail. We have some units on our watchlist.

CHANGELOG 08: ENGINEERS & MAP

Greetings Harvesters,

This is the eighth of our regular post-release updates. This week we address three issues which the community’s feedback highlighted. Engineers can now deconstruct barbed wire that hindered your advancing infantry and we’ve significantly updated the 1v1 Border River map. On top of all that we’ve also improved cover responsiveness and made some more balance changes based on your player data.

Cutting Barbedwire

In response to player feedback about the awkward use of barbed wire, especially on narrow bridges, we are happy to now add a counter. As a Polanian rifleman once said, “There is nothing an Engineer can’t do!”, well now they can also cut barbwire. Simply select an Engineer unit, hover your cursor over the offending barbed wire and right click to deconstruct it. You can “shift + click” to queue up orders to cut multiple barbed wire sections. You’re even able to cut your own misplaced barbed wire.

Job done!

Border River 1v1 Map Update

We’re extremely happy with and proud of our community, especially those with a more competitive mind set. Thanks to the feedback from you all, we are now in position to update the Border River map that many disfavored. Here’s what we’ve changed and why:

Iron Mine moved from the Island to the Ford.

Our Pioneers and Geologists have completed their survey of this strategically important battlefield. They confirm that the Iron Vein on the Island between the rivers has been depleted. But not all is not bad news, a replacement vein has been found downriver, directly beneath the ford that is often used to field our biggest mechs!

While the island was always supposed to be a desirable target, it ended up being simply too valuable while also being too easy and cheap to defend. This change should also create a second alternative point of interest to contest, forcing players to make a calculated decision of what to prioritize.

Added neutral Mortars close to the Island.

Enemy engineers have taken to using ungodly amounts of Barbed Wire on both the Island and the connected bridges. Consequently, all commanders have ordered Mortars to be deployed in advance, so a trained crew can quickly clear a path for our soldiers!

Two neutral Mortar systems have been added to the map, one per side. We hope that these will offer not only a viable counter against barbed wire but will also make the island, as well as both riverbanks, a more contested and risky area.

Made Castle destructible, opened both Ruin Areas to all Mechs.

Mech-Commanders familiar with the area often return from battle complaining of unfavorable architecture. Engineers have been dispatched to remove some of the annoying rocks and boulders around both the castles and farms ruins. Unfortunately, their overenthusiastic use of explosives has destabilized the Castle’s once immovable walls to the point where inattentive large mechs could “accidentally” topple them.

We removed the restrictions on the ruin areas north and south of the ford, allowing all Mechs to move inside them and made several previously indestructible elements, like the castle walls, destructible for the first time. This should not only make navigation and Mech positioning easier, but also reduce the advantage that special Units like Lech Zubov used to have.

Improving infantry responsiveness

How easily/quickly units react to players orders is an area of improvement the community has highlighted. As part of our ongoing investigation into how to best achieve this we have improved the way all infantry (except flamers) units respond to a players order to dive into cover.

This improvement applies to infantry that are already firing at an enemy. Now, when ordered to cover, instead of sitting down first and then popping up over the wall to fire, they go immediately into their cover firing positions. The following units are affected:

- Engineers
- Rifleman / Vanguards / Stormtroopers
- Grenadiers
- Medics
- Anti-Armor Gunners
- Anna Kos
- Olga Morozova
- Gunter von Duisburg

This is an ongoing process and we are very welcome to any suggestions and examples of how best to aid this.

General changes:

- Updated the mini-map and icons on 1v1 Border River.
- Fixed some collision issues that impeded navigation on Stronghold Siege challenge map.

Balance changes:

Barbed Wire: Based on the changes made to Barbed Wire as mentioned earlier in the log, we are making it a little less easy to mass produce Barbed Wire to match the effort of dismantling it.

- Increased Barbed Wire Iron cost from 5 to 15.

POLANIA

Łowca (Polanian mech hunter): Despite a few past buffs, we have observed that players still experience some difficulty utilizing the Łowca’s high damage output. With these changes, this mech hunter will arrive earlier on the field and last longer in combat.

- HP increased from 1050 to 1200.
- Decreased Iron cost from 575 to 525 Iron and 165 to 150 Oil.

Zółw (Polanian troops transport): The Zółw is a versatile mech that we’ve had our eye on for the past few weeks. This change will help prepared players inflict more meaningful damage to this troop carrier.

- HP decreased from 1000 to 900.

Dieselpunk engines engaged, there’s a lot to look forward to this month!

Next week: new 1v1 multiplayer map.

CHANGELOG 09: NEW MAP & FIXES

Greetings Harvesters,

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: The 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 solider 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.

CHANGELOG 10: PARTY INVITE

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!

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.

RUSVIET

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.

SAXONY

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:

- 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!

Next week: A brand new game mode “Drop zone” and we begin a new season tree with new perks to unlock.

Change Log 11

We updated the game with various changes and improvements:

General changes

- Skill Rating (SR) gained or lost after a Ranked Match is now based primarily on your opponent's (hidden) Match Making Rating (MMR). Winning against more skilled opponents grants more SR compared to winning against less skilled opponents.
- Gold, Platinum, Diamond, and Master Division have received tweaks to their thresholds. It should now be easier to reach these divisions.
- 5 more mechs now have skins, bringing the total to 12. All 12 mechs now have 1 skin for sale by default. Also new additional skins can be unlocked for many of these mechs through the Season Tree, achievements, and levelling up!
- The maximum Player Level has been expanded by 10 and the maximum Faction Level by 5 for each faction. These levels grant exciting new rewards such as new portraits, titles, frames, and unit skins!
- Fixed an issue in Multiplayer lobby that caused game settings to not be displayed for joined players.
- Fixed an issue that caused an invite to a friend to be accidentally sent twice when clicking on the name multiple times.
- Fixed an issue whereby the tooltip of the player leaving a party stayed open.
- Fixed that players appeared to not be in a match session after they became host once their party leader left a game lobby.
- Improved checksum check for multiplayer matches.
- Fixed the issue that GOG players were not able to invite other players from their friend list.
- Fixed an issue that caused the build menu of engineers to stay open once they picked up a different weapon or died.
- Fixed icon positions of the tactical map on “Deserted Tracks”
- Fixed an issue that could lead to a situation whereby the Polanian Campaign Mission “To the Rescue” could not be completed.

Balance Changes

Last week we unleashed a variety of balance changes, and so this week we will continue to collect data and gauge the effect these have had on gameplay. With players already practicing for the ESL tournament, it would also be unfair to disrupt their preparation with changes. The Tourney offers another excellent opportunity to gather feedback on balancing.

CHANGELOG 12: DEMO AND FIXES

Greetings Harvesters,

to the twelfth of our regular post-release updates. This week we add a feature that will calm many manic mech commanders and add a host of general changes and fixes. Like an infantry squad that’s just spotted a crate drop falling from the sky, let us get right to it.

Cancellable Upgrades

We’ve all been there. You’re in the heat of battle and you decide to make that investment to upgrade your production buildings and start kicking out the big boys! But then the tide of battle suddenly changes and you need those resources elsewhere. Or maybe you simply miss-clicked.

Well now, panic no further, you can cancel that upgrade order for a full refund. This is another implementation we’re happy to make in response to player Feedback.

Free Demo Extended

This past weekend has seen many mechs mangled and marauding. Due to the recent popularity we have decided to extend the Free Demo until January.
You’ll find it on Steam, GoG and Epic Games Store.

With all that’s happened, happening and coming since release, now is a great time to join the Harvest. We’re also extremely proud and thankful that our players are responding so well to our weekly updates.

Thanks to everyone who has left us a review. This really greases our gears and keep this mechanized monster going.

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 select to 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 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.

As the year closes we plough on towards revolution. Vodka for Christmas?!

Next week: Shared matchmaking will improve queue times between games.

CHANGELOG 13: FASTER Q-TIMES

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:

1. You enter the game queue via either Quick match or Ranked mode.
2. The matchmaker will aim to match you with players based on this preference and most who has a similar MMR to you.
3. 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.
4. If you queued for Ranked Match, you will gain or lose SR as normal depending on the result.
5. If you queued for Quick Match, your SR will be unaffected.
6. 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 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.

Wow what a year! Only one week to go and we’re going to end it in style!!

Next week: The winds of change arrive with the Rusviet Revolution mini-DLC

Embrace the icy winds of change with Rusviet Revolution DLC, Free Demo and Sale as well as Holiday Cosmetics to be won!

DEVBLOG 33: RUSVIET REVOLUTION DLC

News: Rusviet Revolution Rises up!

Introducing our 1st mini-DLC. Over 100 years ago the real Russian revolution came to a halt when the red forces won the final battles at the Krim. However, the alternate history of 1920+ has never seen this kind of revolution . . . until now.

Players will follow an additional story line that continues on after the events of the main games campaign. Over the course of four new campaign maps, you will begin to shed some light on the mysterious Rasputin and his machinations.

This mini-DLC is free to Backers and Deluxe game edition owners. Here’s how to get it.

- Backers, simply log in on our website and claim your key here.
- Deluxe game edition owners on Steam, GoG and EGS will see their game update.

To clarify, this is not the “big add-on” DLC that Deluxe edition owners are expecting. That’ll come next year and it’ll be huge. This is the mini-DLC promised to our Backers and that Deluxe owners are also entitled too.

For everyone else, the “Rusviet Revolution” is €3,99 through Steam, GOG or Epic Games Store.

Once claimed, the DLC will be immediately playable. But, if you haven’t completed the main campaign, you’ll get a warning window with a popup that this content includes spoilers.

Remember, these missions can be played in COOP, so invite some friends and discover the new adventure together.

News: Free Demo and Sale

To join your comrades in the Rusviet revolution, you first of all need to own the main game. With our Free Demo, deciding to invest your hard earned iron and oil is now easier than ever.

The Standard Version is now 30% off and it’s 33% off for those who want the Deluxe Edition and first access to the next big DLC.

Discount starts today December 17th until January 5th.

Ready to wreck? Iron Harvest is available now from Steam and GoG. Game edition comes with perks and check out the store from our merchandising partner for Vinyl, T-Shirts and more exclusive stuff here.

News: Holiday Cosmetics

Seeing as you’ve all been good mechs and commanders this year, we’re going to be offering numerous winter themed cosmetic rewards. Stay tuned in-game and across all our social channels.

Firstly, Gunter Von Duisburg is donning his big fluffy red coat for this unique player portrait available to anyone who plays the game over the holiday season.

2Sk3tchy and RedRupee will be offering rare Santa and elf Saxony mech skins. Check out their channels for more info.

And, for all Backers and DLC (including Deluxe game) owners, we have a special gold gilded trim faceplate and portrait frame for you as a thank you for your support this year.

Info: Change Log 14

We've also updated the game with various changes and improvements:

General Changes

- Improved object interactions so it is now possible to have multiple interactions, for example, repairing and entering a bunker at the same time.
- This fixes an issue whereby it wasn’t possible to occupy a weapon system if another player had already issued the order to take it.
- Adjusted the way units are prioritized over buildings and structures when selecting them.
- In Saxony’s 6th mission “Battle of the Five Heroes”, your ally will no longer give up entirely when all its units are destroyed.
- In Polania’s 5th mission “A Path to Hope”, pathways have been slightly enlarged to allow mechs to pass that visually should have been able to.
- Added a “Waiting for game results” screen to the end of multiplayer games that will prevent empty or broken result screens appearing when the online response and/or connection was not fast enough.
- Added missing Voiceovers to Stronghold Siege challenge map.
- Fixed an issue, whereby experience points where not granted after a quick match multiplayer game.
- Fixed a bug that resulted in a resource counter appearing in the middle of the map.
- Improved flamer VFX when leaving a garrison.
- Fixed that “Stiefmutter”, wasn´t receiving XP, when damaging enemy units
- Fixed many smaller bugs.

Skill Rating Hotfix

Yesterday we rolled out an improvement to your SR (Skill Rating) in ranked multiplayer that corrected earlier undesirable incidents. These created a situation whereby SR did not accurately reflect player skill. We have retroactively corrected SR for all affected players.

As a consequence, this update may make your SR (significantly) higher, but never lower than its value before this update. We have made sure that all players ranked season progress is maintained, so your new SR value will better reflect your skill and your progress this season.

Furthermore, we have adjusted all player’s MMR (Match Making Rating). This change will potentially make it easier for all the highest and lowest-rated players to find matches. It also allows encounters between players that would usually not match.

We are able to do this because of the invaluable feedback from our community. Thanks again for sharing your experiences and improving the game with us.

Balance Changes

We continue to watch the ESL tournament unfold and are looking forward to the finals this Saturday. We have collected a lot of feedback and data for us to mull over with our turkey sandwiches. It has convinced us that balancing issues need more systemic, long-term fixes to avoid an endless spiral of buffs and nerfs. Furthermore, we do not want to disrupt the tournament at this crucial stage. Therefore, balance changes can be expected in January.

Happy Holidays, Gaming and New Year from all at Iron Harvest