Gamers will be able to enjoy better pathing for all their squads

Jul 10, 2014 14:04 GMT  ·  By

The development team at Relic and publisher Steam are delivering the second major patch for their Company of Heroes 2 strategy title after the launch of The Western Armies expansion, which is set to improve the quality of the maps and the overall balance of the multiplayer battles.

The official forum announcement explains that the studio has conducted a lot of testing and has optimized unit pathing on a number of maps, which should allow gamers to focus on the bigger tactical picture rather that micro-manage their squads to get from one location to another.

The maps that have been improved include Rails & Metal, Kholodny Spring, Vaux Farmlands and Langres Spring.

For the Soviet faction, Relic has been tweaking some damage patterns in order to make both the HM-38 120mm Mortar and the KV8 tank less deadly to infantry.

The company states, “The KV8 with its flamethrower was designed to be a hard counter against infantry this was never intended to be an eraser of infantry. The high direct damage the flame had would result in criticals triggering more often than intended thus increasing the chances of squad wiping and rendering all forms of infantry AT useless.”

The rotation speed of the Maxim machine gun has also been reduced in order to make it less able to kill infantry that is trying to flank it.

For the United States, volley fire for rear Echelon Troops was once again tweaked, making sure that the ability is again useful to gamers after its recent nerf.

Relic adds, “Defensive Stance which is an ability granted when equipped with a M1919 has its suppression reduce for a 360 degree shot it suppressed way too quickly. A number of smaller changes have been made to improve usability of units. Various classic hotkey changes were added to fix overlap.”

Hold fire is now available for both the M10 Wolverine and the M36 Jackson.

The only change made to the Werhmacht was to reduce the maximum speed modifier for the Blitzkrieg ability.

For the OKW, the focus is on changes to the Kubelwagen, which is now set to be able to survive more hits while it’s trying to execute a retreat under fire.

Relic has promised that new Commanders and other content will soon be delivered to Company of Heroes 2 – The Western Front Armies, allowing gamers to develop new tactics with which to defeat enemies.