Update 5.21: Tanks, mod improvements, commander improvements

Warzone has just been updated to version 5.21.0! This update contains a bunch of improvements to the mod framework, improvements to commanders, improvements to 3d maps, and more. This blog post describes what’s changed.

This update is live now on the website. The standalone client, Android app, and iOS app should receive this update within a week or two.

Commanders no longer require a membership

Commanders no longer require a membership to be included in games! Instead, they are now a normal feature that unlocks at level 38. If you are already over level 38, you’ll unlock it on your next level up, or if you’re over 53 you’ll get it right away.

Commanders now work with one-army-stands-guard

Prior to this update, commanders (and all special units) required that the one-army-stands-guard feature be disabled to be included in a game. Now, these features can be used together.

Note that the one-army-stands-guard rule can be violated when special units are present. For example, if a commander and 2 armies are on a territory that gets attacked, since armies die before the commander, the commander could be left with 0 armies on that territory. If the commander then leaves, there will be a territory with 0 armies, despite the one-army-stands-guard which normally prevents that. If you want to attack from a territory with 0 armies, you must deploy at least 2 there — one to satisfy the one army that stands guard, and additional armies to attack with.

Tank Mod

This update brings a new example mod to Warzone Classic games, the Tank Mod. When enabled, players can build a tank which is a special unit worth 10 armies. It behaves like a commander in that it cannot be partially damaged, which makes it exceptionally good at taking down neutral territories such as wastelands.

The main reason to make the tank mod is to show off the new modding features (detailed below). But as is custom, example mods are useful mods in their own right and fully work out-of-the-box.

Mods: Custom Special Units

Mods can now add their own special units to Warzone Classic games! Prior to this update, the only special units were commanders and the single-player bosses, but with this update, mods will enable an infinite number of new possibilities for special units, such as the tanks mod discussed above.

Mods can even specify their own image for their new special units. This is the first time the mods can actually insert images into the game, which will likely be used for additional mod features coming in future updates.

I look forward to seeing what the mod community can come up with!

Other Changes

– Classic: If a game ends while you’re actively watching the latest turn play out, it will now continue letting you watch the rest of the turn instead of immediately switching to the end-game state.
– Classic: Updated the look of the commerce games to make the button more noticeable and the menu look nicer.
– Classic: Fixed viewing active cards in a “Finish versus AI” game with active sanction cards.
– Classic: Fixed the custom scenario button being sometimes clickable when custom scenario radio button wasn’t checked.
– All: Clan war now randomizes the order of players in a single clan for matchmaking.
– Unity: When viewing a large map in 3d, it now uses higher resolution backgrounds. This was accomplished by tiling textures.
– Unity: Members now get a balloon asking them if they want to try 3d mode. It can still be enabled or disabled in the settings menu at any time.
– Mods: Added Client_PresentCommercePurchaseUI hook to allow adding to commerce-purchase dialog.
– Mods: Added ClientGame.HighlightTerritories to highlight a territory or multiple territories on the map.
– Mods: Added ClientGame.CreateLocatorCircle which creates a circle on the screen to alert the player to a location on the map.
– Mods: Added UI.IsDestroyed which returns true for any UI object that’s been destroyed or never existed.
– Mods: Added UpdateMod API that allows development mods to be updated remotely. More details about this will be revealed in a future blog post.
– Mods: Added mod development UI to website, at https://www.warzone.com/Mods/Develop
– Mods: InterceptNextTerritoryClick and InterceptNextBonusLinkClick can now optionally return the special value WL.CancelClickIntercept. This will cancel the intercept and let the click go through normally.
– Mods: GameOrderEvent now has a property called JumpToActionSpotOpt that lets mods set where the camera will focus when the order is selected in the orders panel.
– Mods: GameOrderEvents now show which mod created them when double-clicking on the order in the orders panel.
– Mods: GameOrderEventResult now exposes a property called CardInstancesCreated which expose the information about cards created by AddCardPiecesOpt.
– Mods: Fixed a bug that could leave dead entries in tables after calling table.remove().
– Mods: Fixed a bug that could cause an error when adding a boss to a game.
– Mods: Fixed the error message that’s received if a mod incorrectly passes a single item to a parameter that needs a table.
– Mods: Fixed card orders not validating that the correct CardID was passed.