AI Improvements, Amphibious Vehicles, Strategic Bombers, and More!

Hello again everyone,

First off, as usual here's all the changes we performed in the most recent update. This time it took longer than usual, but the increase in the amount of features included in this update are to be seen for yourself!

Added Features:

• Heavy changes in AI in order to make them spread out more, advance more tactically, spend more time prone when under suppression, react more intelligently to nearby enemies, better choose their target, and better handle close quarter combat situations. While most of those changes apply to infantry units, some also applies to vehicle AI.
• Added new Amphibious system to multiple vehicles in game.
• Added LVT2, LVT4, LVTa1 and LVTa4.
• Added new Strategic Bomber system, with dedicated AI, bomb sight and gameplay.
• Added Japanese G3M bomber (but we will also include more bombers later on).
• Added long range time-fuse AA Flak shells to target high altitude bombers.
• Added a new Easy Red 2 custom Anti Cheat system.
• Added scripting API to sync weather in custom online missions.
• Reworked death screen.
• Reworked vehicles gun sights completely.
• Added option to disable team-kill in MP.
• Added 4 new music tracks.
• Reworked Italian uniforms with many additions. Still to be correctly distributed in missions.
• Reworked many US uniforms with many additions. Still to be correctly distributed in missions.
• Added many new Japanese huts, bunkers and props. Will be used in upcoming Pacific reworks.
• Added a new system to manually roll sleeves in uniforms that supports it.
• Updated Tunisia map and Missions.
• Added Dog Tags to Tunisia campaign.
• Added mission intro text to many missions.
• Added new adjustable sharpness setting.
• Reworked many road decals.
• Reworked many grass types.
• Many new TPS animations, in particular for landing craft.
• Added ability to crouch in landing craft.

Fixes/Improvements:

• Reworked LST.
• New PPsH-41 and C96 firing sound.
• Reworked many other gun sounds.
• Reworked mini-map shaders.
• Fixed missing fire sound on German 150mm coastal gun.
• Fixed physics bug when pausing the game for long time.
• Player now doesn't surrender automatically anymore when heavily suppressed and losing defended capture point at Easy and Normal difficulty.
• Fixed a bug causing multiple destruction vehicle parts sound being played together.
• Improved vision-blocking system of many vegetation assets.
• Updated SDK to support Bombers, amphibious vehicles and flak rounds.
• Fixed Broken Hull indicator in Kos.
• Fixes in various uniforms.
• Improvements with gamepad navigation.
• Small fixes in UI.
• Changes and adjustments in various squads.
• Fixed issues with Dog Tags.
• Fix with bug in achievements.
• Fixed shadow with some cliffs.
• Upgraded game engine and all SDKs to latest version.

Now let's spend few works into the biggest changes and additions of the update!

The A.I.

This latest update brings a massive overhaul to the way AI infantry behaves on the battlefield, and it’s one of the most exciting changes for players craving a more dynamic and challenging experience.

AI units now spread out more naturally, avoiding the often reported "Conga Lines" issue, advance with greater tactical thought, and duck prone under suppression more often.

They’ll react more intelligently to nearby threats, make smarter targeting decisions, and handle close-quarters combat with noticeably improved finesse.

Even vehicle AI has inherited parts of these improvements, especially when it comes to acquiring targets.
All of this means that each firefight will feel fresher and more unpredictable—perfect for veterans who have seen it all and newcomers who want to feel truly tested.

Bombers system

An entirely new gameplay system has been added with the introduction of bomber planes and AI. Both vanilla and modded bombers now have their own role on the battlefield: they perform bombing runs over the front lines, then retreat while avoiding enemy flak fire and engaging hostile fighters with their turrets. Like any other vehicle in the game, this system can be controlled by either the AI or a player.

While this system is currently available on the vanilla Japanese G3M, more bombers will be added later on.
A timed fuse Flak shell is currently available on the German 88mm Flak 36. This specific kind of shell can be used to target any plane, however they are better suited for high altitude bombers.

Amphibious system

Along with the upcoming Pacific campaigns, we are including several new assets and features, such as thew new Pacific props, new US uniforms, and also this new Amphibious system. Many vehicles already supports it in game, but the biggest addition are definitely the LVT transport troop and tank variants!

Campaign Information

Bastogne Rework

Some guessed it already (and many guessed incorrectly), but the non-pacific campaign being reworked/upgraded is the Battle of the Bulge Campaign! It will come with tons of upgraded visual detail and all missions totally rebalanced to be more fun and varied. The map file will also be renamed Bastogne, and the city itself is now going to be a playable location with much detail in the streets added.

Along with this campaign rework there will be 3 entirely new missions-- all focusing on the German offensive, and most involving large scale armored/tank gameplay. Here's a few in-game screenshots from various missions, some of which being from totally new ones! The rework is going to be out in BETA within the next weeks, and will more than likely be in the next mainline update.

Kwajalein and Roi Namur Remakes

As many of you know from the previous update post, Kwajalein and Roi-Namur are being entirely remade from the ground up. They're still work in progress, but here's some images from them now! Likely to be coming into BETA in the next month or two, along with the similarly vast Makin rework.

Here are some images from the Makin rework as well, which will be paired with the remade campaigns!

Check out the Shanghai-Nanking DLC if you haven’t yet!

Our most recent DLC have been released earlier this year!
In Easy Red 2: Shanghai-Nanking, you will fight for control of Shanghai, and the conflict will spread to locations such as: Luodian, Baoshan, Wusong, Jinshanwei, Hongkou, Suzhou creek, Chunhua, the Yuhuatai hills and the city of Nanjing.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3499380/Easy_Red_2_Shanghai__Nanking/

Extra Information

In case you didn't know, we have defined a precise roadmap for the next months of development and you can read it here.

We will continue to improve all features of the base game, and as always we will be going on listening to suggestions from people inside the Steam Discussions forums and the Discord server.

Thank you all for everything— see you again soon!

Marco and the Easy Red 2 Development Team