Ground of Aces news & patch notes

Things are heating up at your airbase! Major Update 6 is now available and introduces fires, airplane accidents, and the long-requested Air Traffic Control Towers to Ground of Aces.

A big thank you to everyone who helped us test these features on the Steam testing branch over the past weeks. Your bug reports and feedback helped us improve the update before release.

If you participated in the test, you can now switch back to the default Steam branch and continue playing with the official release.

Fires and Fire Accidents

Explosions, crashes, and other incidents can now start fires. Fires can spread across terrain, buildings, aircraft, and even engulf crew members. The fires must be extinguished before they get out of control.

Useful info:

• The chances of fire spreading on the terrain depend on the type of terrain tiles.

• Charred tiles revert to normal after a while.

Firefighting Tasks & Management

Crew members can now be assigned to the new Fight Fire task in the Crew Management window. Like Building or Gathering, Firefighting now has its own work priority. Crew members assigned to this task will even wake up from sleep to respond to emergencies.

Air Traffic Control Towers

Build an Air Traffic Control Tower from the Buildings menu and assign crew members to it. Each assigned air traffic controller reduces the chance of airplane accidents by 1% for aircraft operating within the tower’s range.

Three tower variants are available, each providing a larger operational radius: Metal, Brick, Concrete.

Airplane Accidents

Aircraft now have a chance of experiencing an accident when taking off or landing at your airbase.

The chance of an accident happening depends on airstrip tier, pilot flying skill, and the air traffic control tower in the airstrip range. However, which event will happen is determined by the airplane health points. The more damaged an aircraft is, the more severe accidents are possible.

Useful info:

• Planes can have wobbly, overshooting, smoking, or even burning landings.

• The aircraft will receive a landing defect and must be repaired to become operational again.

• Planes have a small chance to crash into the ground when they have too few HP

• We added a camera follow button to the event log entry.

Updated Airplane Visuals With Transparent Glass

Aircraft now feature transparent cockpit glass, allowing you to see your aircrew while they’re inside their planes.

New Aircraft for the Free Wings of Valor DLC: De Havilland Vampire

The De Havilland Vampire has joined the Wings of Valor DLC as a new flyable aircraft.

Twitch Integration for Livestreamers

Alongside Major Update 6, we’ve also implemented a brand-new Twitch Integration that allows viewers to actively participate in a livestream.

Chat participants can assign names to crew members and vote on events that affect the airbase. They can help the streamer with useful deliveries or make life considerably more chaotic with additional attacks, random fires, or exploding furniture.

Are you a Twitch streamer and want access to the Twitch Integration?

On the 27th of July, we’ll launch a campaign on Dare Drop, where Ground of Aces streamers can complete challenges and unlock rewards for their communities. The Twitch Integration will be part of these challenges. Find our Dare Drop page here: https://daredrop.com/e/ground-of-aces

If you don’t use Dare Drop, you can register your interest with this form. We will check your Twitch account, and if you’re eligible for access, we will send you access to the Twitch integration: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfa0fg6WIsaHYGpnWgPwJAw6caqxW3cFjApCdY0jh7pB4cNsw/viewform

Other Improvements

• Added explanation of effects of air crew stats to tooltip

• Added long grass terrain

• Adjusted enemy attacks to be physically more spread out

• Adjusted enemy plane speed and attack patterns

• Adjusted camera clipping distance

• Adjusted camera edge scrolling cursor threshold

• Adjusted camera panning speed. Camera panning speed is now dependent on zoom level.

• Adjusted fog distance

• Adjusted intro camera animation

• Adjusted low HP particle effects for planes

• Adjusted default resources for shipments and fixed default amounts being incorrect

• Adjusted some quest icons

• Adjusted wording of "Pro mode" to "Unlock all buildables"

• Updated ground textures

• Lowered bomb explosion damage to balance with fire

• Lowered negative morale effects caused by crew deaths

• Lowered difficulty of hard missions

• Increased map object HP

Fixes

• Fixed Kittyhawk perpetual smoking

• Fixed Kittyhawk name in plane management

• Fixed Blenheim interaction points

• Fixed Blenheim blueprint image in plane management

• Fixed save & load buttons being interactable in tutorial

• Fixed issue where people would remain in bed if they had fully recovered

• Fixed some issues with plane textures

• Fixed takeoff being overwritten by landing reaction

• Fixed issue where rubble would spawn ghost blueprints after load

• Fixed music in intro cutting off

• Fixed perpetual bomb drop

• Fixed plane follow camera stuttering

• Fixed low HP icon for planes

• Fixed logic for firing crew members

• Improved optimization

Issues we are aware of

• Recovering crew members may not leave the bed when on fire

• Fire accidents may happen without realizing it - accident visibility in event log will be increased

Please let us know what you think about the new content and use the in-game feedback button if you encounter a bug. We will monitor the new reports and feedback that will come in and continue to work on the game.

Thank you so much for all your previous reports, feedback posts and reviews!

- The Blindflug Studios team

A few weeks ago, we gave you a preview of some of the upcoming features. We’re now far enough along in development that we’d like to test them with the community and gather your feedback before the official release.

We’ve updated the testing branch, which is available to everyone who owns Ground of Aces on Steam.

How to Switch to the Testing Branch

• Right-click Ground of Aces in the Steam library list.

• Select “Properties…” in the dropdown menu.

• Go to “Game Versions & Betas”

• Switch to “alpha - Alpha test”

• You can switch back to the public default version at any time. --> Do this when the update is out officially.

Send Us Your Bug Reports & Feedback

JOIN OUR DISCORD

What Is New

Airplane Accidents

We didn’t reveal this feature in our previous preview yet, but here we can tell you that airplane accidents are coming to Ground of Aces. Aircraft now have a chance of experiencing an accident when landing at your airbase. Several different types of accidents can occur.

Air Control Towers

Build an Air Control Tower from the construction menu and assign crew members to it. Each assigned crew member reduces the chance of airplane accidents by 1%.

Fire

Explosions, crashes, and other incidents can now start fires. Fires can spread across terrain, buildings, aircraft, and crew members, and must be extinguished before they get out of control.

Fire Fighting

Crew members can now be assigned to the new Fight Fire task in the Crew Management window. Like Building or Gathering, Fire Fighting has its own work priority. Crew members assigned to this task will even wake up from sleep to respond to emergencies.

Transparent Glass

Aircraft now feature transparent cockpit glass, allowing you to see your aircrew while they’re inside their planes.

New Aircraft in Wings of Valor DLC

The De Havilland Vampire has been added as a new aircraft for the Wings of Valor DLC.

Things Being Worked On:

• Fire & Fire Fighting

  • Manually Assigning Firefighting Tasks

  • Firefighting Task Right-Click Prioritisation

  • Implementation of Fire Hazard Accidents

  • Better reconstruction tools for destroyed assets

  Air Control Tower & Safety

  • 3D models & 2D icons of the towers

  • Air control task animations for the characters

  Airplane Crashes

  • Enemy airplane crashes

  • Having crashed planes harvestable

Thank you for testing these features early and for your feedback!

Our team is hard at work on expanding Ground of Aces, and we’re currently aiming to release the next major update in July.

Today, we’d like to give you a first look at some of the new features that are currently in development and planned for the upcoming update.

What you see here is only part of what we’re working on, and things may still change before the update is released.

Fire!

Welcome to Ground of Aces: Hell Edition.

One of our goals with this update is to create more dramatic and memorable moments on your airbase, especially when you get attacked.

To achieve that, we’re introducing a new fire system. Fires can spread across the ground and buildings and affect your aircraft and other objects. So your crew will need to react to sudden emergencies that demand immediate attention.

Behind the scenes, this requires a simulation that determines how fires start, spread, and affect the different elements of your base.

Here is how it looked before we had the fire effects:

Our 2D artist has been working on visual effects and shaders to bring the fire to life. He first experimented with different shapes, but in the end, since our game uses a grid system, square tiles made the most sense.

Here you can see how the height of the shader effect can be adjusted:

The airplanes also need their own fire effects (as a reminder: these shots show work-in-progress effects):

And people as well…

Here is a screenshot from one of our programmers testing how fire spreads across the ground. You can see in the background that for the parking spot a different logic was active, which is why the entire area ended up in flames.

Firefighting

Of course, if things can catch fire, you’ll need a way to put them out. Crew members will be able to take on a new Firefighting task. Just like other jobs on the base, you will be able to adjust its priority for each crew member through the crew management screen. When a fire breaks out, NPCs will respond by spraying water onto the fire.

We’re still working on the visuals, including the final water jet effects and equipment models.

Testing the water jet arc. The current animation of the NPC is a placeholder.

One of our programmers has to make sure that the trajectory of the water jet looks believable at different distances:

That’s impressive, but maybe a bit too much…

Shooting water jets like lasers?

Air Traffic Control Towers

One feature that has been requested frequently by the community is finally making its way into the game: Air Traffic Control Towers.

We are still working on the 3D models and their implementation, so what you see here is a very early look at the towers.

Screenshot from our research whiteboard:

They will help your base both feel and look more like a real World War II airbase. They are also planned to be connected to new safety-related tasks, which adds another management layer to life on the airbase.

We are also working on a few other things, but for now, we wanted to give you this small sneak peek at what’s coming next.

Let us know what you think, and thank you for following the development of the game!

Our programmers prepared some fixes that are now ready as a small update.

Changelog:

• Fixed Unlock Summary Window appearing on plane skin unlock

• Fixed Fence Tool

• Fixed crew assignment highlights for AA gun in tutorial

• Applied some performance improvements

• Slightly injured crew members will use sickbeds if they have no other things to do

  • They will prefer sickbeds over other tasks in a future update

• Fixed typos + localization improvements

The submission phase for the Ground of Aces RAF Airfield Map Jam has ended, and we received 6 fantastic community-made maps inspired by historic RAF airfields from the Battle of Britain.

After reviewing all submissions, we selected 3 finalist maps for the community voting phase.

Here in alphabetical order by username:

• RAF Tangmere by Bearguard

• RAF Biggin Hill by Snorkman81

• RAF Duxford by Sten Mogon

Now you, the community, can try them out and decide who gets the first place on the podium!

To make it easier for everyone, we added them to the Community Maps List inside the game. So this means:

All you need to do is go into the game, click "New Game" and download the Map Jam finalist maps in the "Community Maps" tab.

Explore these maps and give your vote to who gets which place on the podium. You can rank them in our survey:

\ 🗳️ Rank the maps here

If you want to know more about the submitted maps, you can find the original submission posts on our Discord: Map Jam Channel

We close the vote on June 1, 9am CEST, so you have enough time to play the maps.

Let's celebrate the runners-up! 🧡

Narrowing the selection down to just three finalists was genuinely difficult, and we want to thank all participants for the creativity, effort, and experimentation they brought to the RAF Airfield Map Jam.

To everyone who did not make the finalist round: your work was still greatly appreciated, and we hope you feel proud of what you created.

We want to highlight the runners-up maps here (listed in alphabetical order by username). Each link leads to the original Discord post where you can download the map and learn more about it.

RAF Biggin Hill by reis.the.best

RAF Tangmere by Stormraven204

RAF Duxford by viski252

We have a new round of patches for you. Thank you for your reports!

Changelog:

• Added in-game information to equipment and props with special functions, explaining what they do

• Added Barbed Wire as a buildable fence type

• Added fence build tool for Metal Fence & Sturdy Wooden Fence

• Added Camouflage to HQ shipment

• Added Intel to HQ shipment

• Added Electronics to HQ shipments

• Added backwards compatibility for quest unlocks

• Added missing quest icons

• Adjusted scroll speed in crew menu

• Adjusted scroll speed for plane list in mission preparation

• Adjusted scroll speed in plane management

• Adjusted low integrity icons to be clearer

• Increased max. zoom speed

• Increased Pressing Issue priority related to planes being unable to land/start due to runway

• Removed TAB as a toggle for buttons

• Fixed issue where quests related to ordering AA guns would not complete

• Fixed issue where people would be stuck in training without gaining experience

• Fixed issue where ground crew job listings would be replaced by generic "Ground Crew"

• Fixed issue preventing players from instructing crew members to carry injured

• Fixed issue where the skin paint menu would overlap with the plane crew menu

• Fixed issue where players could toggle mission difficulty stars

• Fixed wording for some quests

To re-enable full functionality of the map editor for the map contest, we have made following changes

Changelog:

• Re-enabled the following props in their current condition for the map editor:

  • Sturdy Wooden Fence

  • Sturdy Wooden Fence Pole

  • Simple Wooden Fence

  • Simple Wooden Fence Pole

  • Metal Fence

  • Metal Fence Corner

Fences will be updated in the future to be draggable like walls. Happy editing!

Thank you for all the reports since our new Major Update. We have already implemented some fixes and improvements that are now available with this Hotfix update.

Changelog:

• Fixed issue when starting a new game with pre-existing planes on parking spots

• Fixed crew orientation when painting Spitfires and Blenheims

• Fixed some tutorial highlights

• Adjusted thumbnails of prop icons to be more uniform

• Adjusted the Kittyhawk's size for navigation to be the correct size

• Updated some translations

On May 8th, we remember Victory in Europe Day. A moment that marked the end of the war in Europe in 1945.

To commemorate the occasion, you can discover more WWII stories in the World War II Games Sale which also includes our game Ground of Aces with a 35% discount:

WORLD WAR II GAMES SALE

Ground of Aces shares several bundles with other WWII games, so if you are looking for games for the best deal, look at this list:

And while this one is not WW2-related, it's a very fresh new bundle we are very excited about, so let's also share it here:

Going Medieval was one of our big base-builder inspirations for Ground of Aces, so we are very happy to share a bundle with this title.

Thank you to all our bundle collaborators and to Fulqrum Publishing for the organization of the sale event!

Our new major update, "Bootcamp," is out! Learn more about what is new in this update here.

New Features / Content

Linear Tutorial Mode

For this major update, our team focused on something that has been one of the most common requests in reviews, surveys, and general feedback: a proper linear tutorial mode that gradually unlocks the UI and guides you through every important step. Many new players felt overwhelmed by the game’s systems and UI when playing for the first time, so this is an important step toward improving onboarding as we move closer to the 1.0 release.

Please note: Not all languages are supported yet.

The tutorial is available in English but not in other languages yet because it's a very fresh feature and the texts weren't available yet for translation work.

If you are a non-English speaker, if you know a non-English language, you can help the game become accessible for more people by adding your own translations with this easy online tool:

TRANSLATE GROUND OF ACES

(We will update Crowdin with the new tutorial texts this Friday.)

Thank you so much to all our community translators!

Updated Quest System with Rewards

We expanded the quest system so that it gradually unlocks and rewards you with building elements and props. This way, people don't get overwhelmed with too many choices right away, and you get steadily introduced to new objects and structures that you can build.

PRO MODE if you want everything unlocked from the start

For players who want everything unlocked right from the beginning: There is the "Pro Mode" option. Just open the map parameters and click the checkbox for "Enable pro mode" and you can play the game like before.

25+ New Props

We added another batch of new props based on feedback from the community. You can use them in the map editor, and you unlock them in the normal game mode while going through the quests.

• Typewriter Table

• Stove

• Metal Bed

• Wooden Bed

• Shelf: Books

• Shelf: Folders

• Shelf: Personal Stuff

• Locker

• Filing Cabinet

• Metal Table

• Outdoor Table

• Chalkboard

• Pilot Board

• Anti-Tank Pimple

• Small Fuel Tank

• Water Tower

• Clothesline

• Clothing Rack

• Clothing Stand

• Polish Military Airport Flag

• Wicker Chair

• Scramble Bell

• Telephone

• Warning Sign (Gas)

• Warning Sign (No Smoking)

• Warning Sign (Track Discipline)

• Warning Sign (Low Flying Aircraft)

• Warning Sign (No Entry)

Drag Placement for Sandbags

You can now build rows and squares of sandbags using the drag placement tool, making it much faster and easier to create defensive lines.

\ Please note: Fences Temporarily Disabled

Fences are currently disabled as buildable elements while we work on adding drag placement support for them as well. Our programmer is still working on implementing drag placement for fences, and they will return in a future update as soon as possible.

If you are currently working on a custom map that requires fences, the alpha build on the testing branch still includes them. You can finish placing fences there, then move to the updated version to continue working on the custom map with the new props and features.

We apologize for the inconvenience. The change for the fences is a bit more complicated because we want to keep the fences that were built the old way still intact on all the existing maps, and that works a different way than the sandbags.

The P-40 "Kittyhawk" Has Landed — New Content in the Free "Wings of Valor" DLC

Our free bonus DLC "Wings of Valor" also received new content:

• The Curtiss P-40 "Kittyhawk"

• The "Malta" skin for the Supermarine Spitfire

• Decorative Posters

You can simply add the DLC for free, and the new content will be available in the main game:

What is "Wings of Valor"?

This DLC is a promise we made during our crowdfunding campaign and we are now building it up piece by piece. Wings of Valor exists thanks to the incredible support of our backers, who made it possible for us to lay the foundation for additional content beyond the base game.

Wings of Valor is available for free in its current state, as it currently includes only part of its planned content and Ground of Aces itself is still in Early Access. It will transition from free to paid when we launch the 1.0 version of the game. Players who pick it up now will receive all future additions at no extra cost.

Planned content for "Wings of Valor":

• De Havilland Vampire

• Another aircraft voted on by the community (tba)

• An additional aircraft selected by the development team (tba)

• Digital artbook

• Two legendary pilot NPCs voted on by the community

Other Improvements

• Added some new icons to the toolbar that should be easier to recognize at a glance

• Unified most scroll bar visuals

• Added Crew HP to Crew, Plane Management and Mission Menus

• Added planes being on missions to Plane Management and Mission Menus

• Changed names of props to better reflect them

• Added colored prop icons

• Adjusted some influence spheres

• Added toggle for auto speed up during night phase to options

• Adjusted the capitalization of multiple objects in-game to make it consistent

• Disabled accidental overwrites of provided maps

• Bug Fix: Cancelling a blueprint from a crate with the destroy tool allows it to be replanned again

• Bug Fix: Cancelling the destruction of a crate doesn't change the view to the constructed version anymore

Thank you for playing and supporting Ground of Aces! Don't hesitate to leave a review here on Steam. It really helps an indie game project like ours!

We will monitor the new reports and feedback that will come in now and over the weekend.

- The Blindflug Studios team

We've already seen some very cool map creations from the community and we want to take the chance to celebrate the creativity of our player base with a community contest:

Recreate a historic Battle of Britain airfield using the Ground of Aces map editor and submit your creation for a chance to win prizes. The main prize: €250 (~ $292) prize money. And maybe your map can even be added to the game as an official map…

Which airfields are part of the Map Jam?

To guide the competition, we’ve curated a list of historically significant RAF airfields. Choose one of the following and bring it to life inside of Ground of Aces.

• RAF Biggin Hill

• RAF Duxford

• RAF Fowlmere

• RAF Northolt

• RAF Tangmere

The real-life base should  give you direction and inspiration to build a cool base. They don't need to be 1:1 scale (that would be impossible in most cases), and you have the freedom to adjust. It's also good to keep playability in mind, especially if you hope for the map to become an official map.

Where can you submit your map file?

Submit your map file on our Discord in the #map-jam-contest channel.

JOIN OUR DISCORD

When is the deadline?

May 18, 23:59 CEST

How will the winner map be selected?

The Blindflug Studios team will review all submissions in the week of the 18th of May and create a shortlist of the best entries. From there, the community will vote to determine the final winners.

• The number of finalists will depend on the total number of submissions (expected: 3–5 maps)

• Selection criteria include:

  • Historical authenticity

  • Gameplay flow

  • Visual design

  • Creativity & innovation

What are the prizes?

1st Place

• €250 (~$292 USD) (paid only via PayPal)

• Your map will be reviewed by the dev team for inclusion as an official map:

  • If selected:

    • +€250 bonus (paid only via PayPal)

    • Credit in the game

    • Added to the official map roster

  • If not selected:

    • Featured in the community maps list (rotating selection; up to 5 maps at a time)

2nd Place

• 1 piece of Ground of Aces merch (baseball cap, T-shirt, or poster)

• Steam Gift Card worth CHF 25 (~$31 USD)

• Featured in the community maps list (rotating selection; up to 5 maps at a time)

3rd Place

• 1 piece of Ground of Aces merch (baseball cap, T-shirt, or poster)

• Featured in the community maps list (rotating selection; up to 5 maps at a time)

Find the full Terms & Conditions on our website.

We are looking forward to your creations!

We’ve just updated the testing "alpha" branch with a new feature we’d love your help to evaluate: a proper tutorial mode.

This has been one of the most common requests in reviews, surveys, and general feedback. Many new players felt overwhelmed by the game’s systems, so this is an important step toward improving onboarding as we move closer to the 1.0 release.

Even if you are already an experienced player and not the primary target for this feature, your feedback is still incredibly valuable. If you have time to try it out, we’d love to hear your thoughts and any issues you encounter. There may still be some bugs to squish out, so tell us if you encounter something weird during the tutorial.

This tutorial will be part of Major Update 5, which is planned for May. Alongside it, we’re also working on improvements to the quest system and adding new assets to the game.

What else is new:

• The buildable objects have a new sorting logic in the build menu bar.

How to Switch to the Testing Branch

• Right-click Ground of Aces in the Steam library list.

• Select “Properties…” in the dropdown menu.

• Go to “Game Versions & Betas”

• Switch to “alpha - Alpha test”

• You can switch back to the public default version at any time. --> Do this when the update is out officially.

Please share any feedback in the comments here on Steam or join our Discord to talk to us. We have an extra channel there about the testing version.

Connected to our community map feature from the last update, we reached out on Discord to hear what kinds of props and assets you’d love to see in the map editor and in the game in general to make your bases even nicer. Thanks to your feedback, and some additions we already had in the pipeline, we’ve expanded the range of props you can use in the map editor and in the regular game mode.

This is the first wave of new props and terrain objects. More assets are already in the works. Stay tuned!

New Props (For Normal Game Mode + Map Editor)

• Flowerbed Iris

• Flowerbed Poppy

• Empty Crate

• Portable Metal Crate

• Toolbox

• Gravestone White

• Rollable Scaffolding

• Stepladder

• Way Signs

• Wall Signs

• Metal Fence Corner Piece

• Simple Wood Fence

• Sturdy Wood Fence

New Terrain Objects (For the Map Editor)

• Flowerbed Iris

• Flowerbed Poppy

• Flowerbed (purple, Lavender-like)

• Old Headstone

• Old Grave

• Old Grave Simple

• Tree Logs

• Tree Stumps

• Old Fence Pole

Change log

• Adjusted UI for build objects to give space for new assets

• Updated newsletter sign-up connection

Create and share your own map with the community!

Come to our Discord and share your map creations with the community in the "share-your-map" channel.

JOIN OUR DISCORD

We will regularly pick cool new maps made by the community and add them to the "Community Maps" list inside the game.

Which props do you want to see next?

Tell us what kind of assets you think the game is missing. We will continue to expand the game with more material to give you more choices over your airbase.

New content:

With this update, we’re introducing the Community Maps Spotlight: a new in-game section where you can browse, download, and play selected community maps directly. We are starting with one map first and will add more in the next few months.

This update also includes two hotfixes for issues that recently appeared.

Hotfix

• Fixed issue where the game froze/crashed when a storage zone/terrain object was hit by bombs during attacks

• Fixed issue with planes getting stuck midair when taking off in a north direction

New Feature: Community Maps Spotlight

Since introducing the map editor, we’ve seen an incredible amount of creativity from our community on Discord and Twitch, where players have recreated real-life airbases inside Ground of Aces. We’ve been genuinely impressed by the care, detail, and effort many of you have put into your maps.

While these maps have been available via Discord (in the "share-your-map" channel), we want to highlight standout creations and give every player easier access to them. This is why we added a Community Maps Spotlight section to the game.

To keep things focused and avoid overwhelming players, we’ll feature up to 5 maps at a time, starting with one map this week. New maps will be added regularly, and once the limit is reached, the oldest map will rotate out. (If demand grows, we may expand this system in the future.)

Any community map you download will remain in your custom maps folder even after it leaves the spotlight. And of course, all shared community maps will continue to be available on our Discord.

We’re planning to add a new spotlight map every two weeks.

Please note: These community-created maps are not balanced or optimized by the dev team. Performance may be affected depending on your computer setup and settings, especially on maps with many props or complex designs.

First Spotlight Map: RAF Kenley by Bearguard

We’re kicking things off with a map created by Harric aka Bearguard, one of our most active community members and the author of the excellent Ground of Aces starter guide.

He recreated RAF Kenley, and here’s his briefing:

Commander,

take command of this fully functional Tier 1 air base.

Basic workbenches, a small hospital and a mess hall are there and you have enough to start your service. Just order a few Gladiators and set the storage zones as you feel fit.

First take care of food supply and start to produce the most needed things. You will need repair parts and more fuel, then slowly produce or order Ammunition. Since this base is pretty big and supposed to station later on Bomber squadrons, do not rush the tiers and try to establish first a wide spread and well planned AA defense, or you will suffer severe losses.

You have very basic AA MGs and you should try to build up a better defense with the 20mm and 40mm AA guns from HQ.

You have many parking places and even hangars, so that you do not have to spend endless time on such build ups, but again, be patient and clever to build up the other infrastructure before you are provoking to hard attacks from the Luftwaffe.

Remember always, your crew needs first beds and food. You are assigned 6 Ground Crew Members

Good luck Commander!

Create your own map and share it with us!

Feeling inspired? Use the map editor in the game, create your own starter map, rebuild a real-life airbase without having to worry about resources and building times, forge your own dream airbase, and share it on our Discord. Maybe it will be selected for a spotlight spot in the future.

Lets Play Livestream This Friday

Our co-founder and the man who had the idea for Ground of Aces, Moritz – call sign Dark Zero – will be livestreaming this Friday at 9 PM CET / 12 PM PDT / 3 PM EDT, joined by Bearguard to discuss his RAF Kenley map and to play it with the community.

Follow us on Twitch and tune in on Friday:

We saw the reports of freezes that came in after the previous hotfix and we have here a fresh hot fix focused on this issue. Thank you for your reports!

Changelog:

• Fixed issue of everything (including camera controls) being frozen on load (or when work phase starts, if it was saved during a different phase)

Our team has been focused on bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements the last few weeks, and we have a fresh batch of changes for you.

Changelog:

Fixes

• Fixed Gardening Tiles not being removable

• Fixed surprise attacks and sirens going off indefinitely

• Fixed issues with runways remaining blocked when a mission cancels, causing planes not to start / come back

• Fixed issues with some custom maps not being playable

• Fixed issue of some crew members not pathfinding to defensive equipment when the alarm starts

• Fixed Meteor start-up noise playing for too long

• Fixed wall decorations not sticking to the walls anymore after loading a save

• Fixed depleted/destroyed map objects showing up as filled/intact

• Fixed parking spot tooltips only showing up when hovering over specific corners

• Fixed being able to cancel terraforming on runways with the cancel tool

• Fixed pending mission result sound playing on load

• Fixed tutorial videos not showing on some Mac machines

Quality-of-life changes

• Added ability to prioritize the construction of entire runways

• Added ability to rotate roofs

• Added Japanese as a language

• Added skin unlock notifications

• Added indicator in equipment assignment menu to show which plane a crew member belongs to

• Added time controls to map editor

• Adjusted 2D plane sprites to fit the 3D counterpart better

• Balanced Crew Mood Bonus for missions and min. plane stats for multi-seat aircraft

• Default paint button is now blocked when all skins are default

Next, we are preparing for Major Update 5, which, among other things, includes focusing on making a new tutorial / onboarding process. This has been a big feedback point, and it's important for the future of the game. We think Ground of Aces is now far enough in our Early Access phase and still early enough before 1.0 to make a new tutorial and then improve it further with your feedback.

We are also working on a community feature that is planned before the next major update which aims to celebrate map creations from other players. Stay tuned!

We continue to check the incoming feedback and bug reports from the in-game feedback tool, the Steam reviews and forum posts, and Discord discussions. Thank you all for your feedback and reports!

We have a new hotfix update ready for you that also includes one of our most requested features: controlling the direction of your airstrip.

We heard you and we didn't want to keep you waiting any longer for this feature, so here it is as part of a smaller hotfix update. This update also includes some useful new tools for the map editor.

Thank you all for your extensive feedback. We continue with other bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements.

Changelog:

Decide the landing / takeoff direction

• you can now configure the airstrip landing/takeoff direction

New tools for the map editor

• add and manage truck waypoints and resource spawning points

• set spawn points for specific planes on parking spots

• add character spawners to mark spots where initial characters appear when a new game is started

Tweaks to maps

• we added a hospital building to Lichfield

• The Hole was removed from Perranporth

Change the number of dogs on your base

• you can now decide the number of dogs on the map in the map parameters when starting a new game

Other changes

• added "painting in progress" indicator in the skin management button

• added an option to configure skin during plane ordering

• Pre-war Gladiator merged into Gladiator with a pre-war skin

• fixed minor visual bugs

• fixed minor functional bugs

New airplane livery 👀 Promo code will be given out in our next dev livestream

• there is a new skin in the game that can be unlocked with a promo code. This code will be given out in our next dev livestream on Twitch, which is planned for this Sunday at 9pm CET / 4pm EDT / 1pm PDT. Follow us on Twitch to get a notification when we go live:

Thank you for your reports and feedback. Our team made some fixes and improvements that we already want to push out as a Hotfix update.

Changelog:

• add missing hover tooltips for fuel tank/water pump

• fix one of the dirt biomes not counting as tier 1 for runways

• don't open game directory location when clicking DLC news buttons

• fix blurry images in main menu news UI

• properly close airstrip UI when placing is cancelled

• fix deconstructed roof blocking the building of new ones

• reduced the chance of injury when collapsing to 10%

• Lysander Day Fighter skin texture fix

• sandbags are smaller to avoid clipping through walls

• minor localization updates

Issues we are currently working on:

• Make the function of the default paint button in the management screen clearer

• Skin unlock notifications

Improvements planned for the Map Editor:

• Truck delivery waypoint

• Character spawn waypoint

• "Long Grass" for biome selection

• Map Editor runway improvements

• Add “Undo” & “Redo” functionality

This week our team will do a team retreat and discuss the feedback that we have gathered in the latest reviews, survey form answers, feedback entries and Steam forum posts. We will keep working on improvements and fixes, and we will plan the next features of the next big update.

Our latest major update is officially out with the title "Maps & Liveries" and it's a big one!

Note for our testers: If you took part in the alpha test branch, please switch back to the public default version to enjoy the latest version of the game.

New Features

Aircraft Liveries – Repaint your airplanes with different skins!

Here you can see a selection of the new liveries:

New Map: RAF Debden

Map Editor - Build your own starter map or freely build the airbase of your dreams!

This is a big one: Now you can design and share your own starter maps! Decide over the terrain, flora, available materials, and already set up buildings without worrying about resources and building times. Share the maps that you create on our Discord and check out what other community members created.

New Flora & Stone Assets

New Resource: Stone

Oerlikon 20 mm cannon

Predictor Lookout Post

De Havilland Mosquito – Add with the free DLC

The most requested aircraft is available for Ground of Aces is now available for the game. You only need to add the free «Wings of Valor» DLC to your library to unlock it for the airplane roster in the game.

What is «Wings of Valor»?

Alongside Major Update 4, we’re also releasing Wings of Valor, the first DLC for Ground of Aces. This DLC is a promise we made during our Kickstarter campaign, and today marks the start of building it up piece by piece. Wings of Valor exists thanks to the incredible support of our backers, who made it possible for us to lay the foundation for additional content beyond the base game.

Wings of Valor is available for free in its current state, as it currently includes one aircraft and Ground of Aces itself is still in Early Access. As the DLC grows through future updates and receives more content, it will transition from free to paid at a later point. Players who pick it up now will receive all future additions at no extra cost. Releasing the DLC this way allows us to add the Mosquito already and begin fulfilling our Kickstarter promise step by step.

Planned content for «Wings of Valor» includes:

• Curtiss P-40 “Kittyhawk”

• De Havilland Vampire

• Another aircraft voted by the community (tba)

• An additional aircraft selected by the development team (tba)

• Digital artbook

• Decorative posters

• Two legendary pilot NPCs voted by the community

• Spitfire Mk X livery (skin)

Other improvements / things that got fixed since the previous hotfix:

• New shading:

  • The shading has been updated to come closer to our vision of making a game with comic-style visuals and to make it more consistent. You can see the difference in this image, which is split in the middle with the old shading on the left and the new shading on the right.

• On the map selection, you can now find some additional information about what you can expect from the map.

• Fixed issue with HQ window not updating information properly

• Plane’s stats have been rebalanced

• Speed set to single speed when watching attacks or victory celebrations

• Shipment size dots get removed reliably

• AA gun values adjusted

• Ammo stack limit increased (low-cal & high-cal doubled, bombs quadrupled)

• Improvement of log texts and plane descriptions

Issues we are currently working on:

• Make the function of the default paint button in the management screen clearer

• Skin unlock notifications

Improvements planned for the Map Editor:

• Truck delivery waypoint

• Character spawn waypoint

• "Long Grass" for biome selection

• Map Editor runway improvements

• Add “Undo” & “Redo” functionality

Get more airplane promo codes from livestreams

Keep an eye on Twitch for Ground of Aces livestreams, there's a good chance you can get exclusive promo codes in several of such Twitch streams during this weekend. We have given out promo codes to several streamers that will be playing Ground of Aces in these days after the update release.

Additionally, keep an eye on the following channels to get exclusive codes:

• Twitch streamer Writing_Bull --> Our game designer Jeremy will join him for an interview (in German) on 21st of February at 7pm CET

• YouTuber PanzerPaw

• YouTuber TheOnlyL0nzY

There's also a promo code in our own dev livestream here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2693952090

As always, thank you so much for playing and your feedback!

Don't hesitate to leave a review here on Steam. It really helps an indie game project like ours! We will focus on monitoring the reports and feedback now and our team will make hotfixes if necessary.

Come to our Discord to share screenshots, your NPCs and your own custom maps:

JOIN THE DISCORD

We also have a Subreddit:

Join the Subreddit

Major Update 4 is coming next week, and we’re excited to share one of its biggest new features with you ahead of time: the new airplane livery system.

In other words, airplane skins are coming to Ground of Aces!

With this new system, you’ll be able to order and paint your aircraft in various different liveries, giving your fleet a much more personal and distinctive look.

Here, we want to explain how the unlocking of the airplanes will work and give you a few insights into our research material.

Skins You Can Unlock by Playing

Most liveries will be unlocked simply by playing the game and completing specific achievement-style assignments.

At launch, the system will include:

• 16 Temperate Land Skins

• 16 Night Skins

• 6 Temperate Sea Skins / 10 Day Fighter Skins

We’ll continue expanding the collection over time. For a few aircraft, not every skin is finished yet, but more will be added in future updates.

Night Skins

Available for all planes except the North American Mustang. For two planes, it's already set as the default skin: Westland Lysander and Boulton Paul Defiant.

Unlock the Night skin for a bomber:

Safely fly away in 10 real scrambles (must count as “flown away to safety” in the scramble summary)

AND

Return home 5 times with under 25% health

Unlock the Night skin for a multi-role plane:

Fly 1 unsuccessful mission at >90% success

AND

Fly 5 successful missions that have gone wrong

Unlock the Night skin for a fighter:

Take part in 20 real scramble defenses - plane must have taken off in time to take part in the fight

AND

Shoot down 3 planes in scrambles

Unlock the Night skin for a special plane:

Fly 5 successful missions that have gone wrong

AND

Return home 5 times from a mission with under 25% health

Temperate Land Skins

Unlock the Temperate Land skin for a bomber:

Fly 20 successful Bombing missions

AND

Fly 20 successful Cargo missions

Unlock the Temperate Land skin for a multi-roll plane:

Fly 20 successful Fight missions

AND

Fly 20 successful Bombing missions

Unlock the Temperate Land skin for a fighter:

Fly 40 successful Fight missions

AND

Fly 10 successful Manoeuver missions

Unlock the Temperate Land skin for a special plane:

Fly 20 successful Stealth missions

AND

Fly 20 successful Recon missions

Temperate Sea Skins

Unlock any Temperate Sea skin:

Fly 10 missions with sea or coast destinations (using the plane model you want the skin for)

AND

Travel 10,000 km total (again, using that same plane model)

For the following planes, you can have the Temperate Sea skins:

Short Stirling Mk.I (RAF)

Bristol Blenheim Mk.IV (RAF)

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress F (USAAF, RAF)

Bristol Beaufighter MK.IF (RAF)

Avro Lancaster MK I (RAF)

Handley Page Hampden Mk.I (RAF)

Day Fighter Skins

Unlock any Day Fighter skin:

10 successful mission on enemy territory

AND

5 returns with 25% or lower health

For the following planes, you can have the Day Fighter skins:

Gloster Gladiator Mk.I (RAF)

Gloster Meteor Mk.III (RAF)

De Havilland Flamingo (RAF)

North American Mustang Mk. I (RAF)

Hawker Typhoon Mk.Ib (RAF)

Hawker Tempest Mk.V (RAF)

Supermarine Spitfire Mk.IX (RAF)

Hawker Hurricane Mk.II (RAF)

Westland Lysander Mk.III (SD) (RAF)

Boulton Paul Defiant MK.I (RAF)

The Rules

A few important things to know about how liveries work:

• Skins are unlocked per airplane model. A Lancaster skin only works on the Lancaster, not on other bombers.

• You must complete challenges using the aircraft type you want the skin for. Want a Spitfire livery? You’ll need to fly Spitfires to earn it.

• Multiple planes of the same model can contribute in one mission. All qualifying aircraft of that type will count toward progress.

• Progress carries over across missions. You don’t need to complete everything in a single run.

  Example: Flying 5 Spitfires in two missions counts as 10 total Spitfire uses.

• Unlocks are stored globally, i.e. can be used on any save. Unlock progress of individual assignments is only stored per save.

Skins Unlockable via Promo Codes

In addition to gameplay unlocks, we’ll also offer a set of special liveries that can be redeemed with promo codes. Like the Pre-War Gloster Gladiator which you can unlock by signing up for our newsletter.

At launch, it's possible to unlock Natural Metal Finish Skins and certain unique Special Skins with promo-codes.

These codes will be distributed through:

• Our own livestreams

• Content creator collaborations

• Special events and community moments

Our first promo code was already given out during our latest dev livestream:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2693952090

And more will come later. We’ll keep creating new skins, and their codes may appear in future streams or events. To stay updated, keep an eye on our community spaces like the Discord and newsletter.

We’re also working on an in-game news system to make sure you won’t miss any upcoming codes.

Previews of the Skins

What We Used for Research

For research, we worked with books like British Aviation Colours of WWII – The Official Couflage, Colours and Markings of RAF Aircraft, 1939-45, which you can directly check out as a PDF.

And "The Complete Book of World War II Combat Aircraft" is an essential part of our research and has a permanent place in our office:

Websites that collect information about aircraft colors and camouflage that are also used by model painters helped us a lot by giving clear overviews of the colors of the different scheme types.

Want to see the skins in the game already?

For very active players who don't want to wait, we have a test version of the Major Update 4 up on the testing branch right now!

The unlocking assignments are not set up in the test version yet; this means in this version you have the Night Skins, Temperate Land, Temperate Sea, and Day Fighter skins available directly.

This will be different in the default version, which will be released in a week.

How to switch to the testing branch:

• Right-click Ground of Aces in the Steam library list.

• Go to the “Properties…”

• Go to “Game Versions & Betas”

• Switch to “alpha - Alpha test”

• You can switch back to the default branch at any time.

Try it out and send us back your feedback, and we will continue to improve the features and fix bugs until the normal release of the update.

Do you have a specific skin design you would like to see in the game? Tell us in the comments!

Can't wait for the new material? You can test the new features before the official release! We updated the version on the testing branch, which is available for everyone who has the game here on Steam.

The normal update release is planned for next week. Your feedback helps us figure out what we need to adjust most urgently and if there are unexpected bugs that haven't appeared in our testing sessions yet.

How to Switch to the Testing Branch

• Right-click Ground of Aces in the Steam library list.

• Select “Properties…” in the dropdown menu.

• Go to “Game Versions & Betas”

• Switch to “alpha - Alpha test”

• You can switch back to the public default version at any time. --> Do this when the update is out officially.

We recommend starting with a new save game. You can try loading an older save game; it may work without any big problems, but when we change and introduce new systems, we can't promise 100% that there are no unexpected issues when you load an older save.

Send Us Your Feedback / Bug Reports

Try the new material and use the in-game feedback tool to send back your findings. The feedback tool sends us the information of the game version; we will see which reports are about this test version and we can filter the feedback.

More complicated issues related to this version should be reported in the designated Discord channel #⁠bugs-testingbranch – ideally with save files attached.

JOIN OUR DISCORD

What Is New

Aircraft Liveries (Skins)

With this new system, you can paint your aircraft in a variety of different liveries, giving your fleet a much more personal and distinctive look.

Most liveries will be unlocked simply by playing the game and completing specific achievement-style assignments.

CURRENTLY ALL NEW SKINS ARE UNLOCKED IN THE TEST VERSION

THE UNLOCKING FEATURE WILL BE IMPLEMENTED IN THE OFFICIAL UPDATE

If you later use a save file from the test version in the updated default version, an airplane that you painted with a new skin in the test version will have it in the default version when you load the save, but you can't repaint it or other airplanes of the same model in that scheme again until you actually unlock that skin.

We will post another devlog about how the unlocking of the skins works later.

New Map: Debden

This is straightforward: we made a new starter map based on the Royal Air Force station Debden! This map has a runway, a few parking spots, and buildings already ready for you, so you can jump in more quickly than with the other maps.

Map Editor

This is a big one: now you can design and share your own starter maps! Decide over the terrain, flora, available materials, and already set up buildings without worrying about resources and building times.

New Flora & Stone Assets

Our 3D artist made new trees, bushes, and stones to give the new map a new environment and look. These new assets are also available in the map editor.

New Resource: Gravel

We added new stones because now harvesting stones gives you the resource "gravel" which you need for one of the runway tiers.

Oerlikon 20 mm cannon

We have a new AA gun for you: HQ now lets you order the Oerlikon AA gun!

Lookout Post

Now you can build and assign someone to a lookout post to improve your defenses. Order it from HQ and place it near your AA guns to give them a bigger radius

New shading

The shading has been updated to come closer to our vision of making a game with comic-style visuals.

What’s Still Being Worked On

Map Editor

• Undo function doesn't work yet

• You can't place airplanes yet

• Runway placement doesn't work yet.

• The position of the delivery truck can't be edited yet; it will drive to the same spot as on Lichfield

• Some tools are still being worked on

Skins

• CURRENTLY ALL NEW SKINS ARE UNLOCKED IN THE TEST VERSION. THE UNLOCKING FEATURE WILL BE IMPLEMENTED IN THE OFFICIAL UPDATE.

• When loading an older save, the painting feature does not work on airplanes that are already loaded up on the map

• Localization/skin names aren't implemented yet (they all have "Temperate Land" as a name)

• You can't order the airplanes directly in different skins yet - you have to paint them when they are on the base (except when you change the default one in the plane skin management for already existing types on the airbase)

• You can't see the different skins in the 3D preview yet

• The in-game duration of painting an airplane is not final yet.

Thank you for testing these features early and for your feedback!

Over time, we’ve seen many comments from people that Ground of Aces reminds them of Bomber Crew. The shared comic-inspired art style and focus on World War II aviation management naturally connect the two games. While Bomber Crew lets you manage a bomber crew during missions, Ground of Aces puts you in charge of preparing and running your airbase before and after those missions. One could say that together, they offer a complete World War II aviation experience.

That's why we’re excited to team up with Bomber Crew to bring you a special bundle that combines these two WW2 management experiences. For a limited time, you can get the bundle with a 15% discount.

Already own one of the games? No problem, you can complete the bundle and still benefit from the discount.

ICYMI: Check out what is coming next to Ground of Aces

Want a sneak peek at what we’re building next? We’ve published a devlog outlining the upcoming features and our current development focus.

Thank you for being part of our community and for supporting the game. Every purchase, wishlist, review, and message helps more than you know. And makes it possible for us to keep building Ground of Aces.

- The Blindflug Studios

Today we want to give you an early preview of what we’re currently working on for the next major update, which is planned for next month.

For a few of these features we can already share visual sneak peeks. Others are still too early for screenshots, but we still would like to give you an idea of what’s in the works right now. Please note that features, details, and scope may still change as development continues.

Airplane Liveries

We will introduce airplane liveries to Ground of Aces! You’ll be able to unlock new skins through gameplay. (EDIT: It was initially planned that they would also provide stat variations to their plane, but this is postponed for the moment.)

A first preview (work in progress overview. The red liveries are placeholders):

Mock-up of the user interface for changing the skins:

New AA-Gun: Oerlikon 20 mm cannon

Our studio is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and with the Oerlikon 20 mm cannon we’re excited to add a piece of equipment that was historically produced just a few kilometers from our main office (Oerlikon is a district of Zurich).

Here’s a historical reference image from 1944, showing an Oerlikon gun in action:

October 1944: A 20mm land based Oerlikon mobile Ack-Ack gun, in action in Italy.

Lookout Position

Connected to the AA guns, we’re introducing a lookout post that you can get via shipments. The NPC assigned to this position will actively scan the sky, increasing the effective firing radius of nearby anti-air guns. This adds more tactical depth to base layout and crew assignments.

New Map

We're planning to introduce a new map with new environmental objects and a new stone resource type.

Screenshot from our virtual whiteboard on which our team discussed possible options for the new map:

Map Editor

And we also want to give you the tools to make your own map! We are reworking our own map creation mode (we call it internally "god mode") so that a simplified version is also available to you.

Mock-up for a user-interface of the map editor (the grass icons are placeholders):

Graphical Improvements

Our 3D artist is currently working on updating the shading effect, to make it more comic-like. You may need to have a closer look but here is a comparison in one picture split in two halves to show the difference in the shadows. On the left side you see it with the old shading, and on the right side you've got the new shading:

A New Airplane…?

From your feedback, there’s one particular airplane name that comes up again and again. We’re currently exploring whether we can introduce it earlier than originally planned…

…And More

Beyond what’s listed above, we’re also working on ideas expanding the crew character depth. It’s not yet certain how much of it will already be part of the next major update and what may come later, but we wanted to share a glimpse of what’s ahead.

Thank you for playing and all your feedback

Thank you for playing Ground of Aces and for all your reports, suggestions, requests, feedback entries, and reviews. We read everything and do our best to respond, help out, and improve the game based on your input. In case you missed it, we also released a hotfix update this week.

The Blindflug Studios team

One small hotfix for something that was caused by a fix from the previous hotfix:

• fixed an issue relating to radio towers that affects players starting a new save. Previously, players who had a radio tower constructed in a new game and tried to load the save in the future would be unable to play the game.

Thank you for the reports from the affected players!

Thank you all for playing and reporting bugs over the Christmas break! Our devs have been back at work since last week and today we have a new hotfix update ready for you.

Changelog:

- navigation optimization to minimize issues with crew members getting stuck in places

- fixed an issue with double camera generating errors

- fixed an issue with interaction slot not existing in code

- fixed an issue with resource piles not having integrity

- fixed a visual bug with the AA gun snapping to its original rotation when an air attack happens

- fixed an issue with some old DLC missions not containing map location data

- added automatic load for DLC scripts. This should remove the requirement of manually copying the minor events/missions scripts from the DLC directory to make the game load them.

We are starting to work on new features for the next major update now and will continue to monitor the incoming feedback and bug reports.

This is an announcement for all purchasers of the Supporter Pack DLC: With the change in the Missions System in Major 3, unfortunately the game can now hang up when triggering some old style DLC Missions.

If you are a buyer of the Supporter Pack and have the bonus missions copied into your mission folder: Please make sure you are grabbing the files that recently shipped in the DLC Location with Major 3 and replace the old files in the main games mission folder.

Unfortunately, we can not automatically remove or replace the old files in the mission folder and an import issue slipped by us.

If this bug affects you: We are very sorry for the inconvenience, and thank you again for being a supporter pack purchaser.

If you need a reminder on how to exchange the Supporter Pack DLC Missions, you can check here: https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/720F-F7D3-0EB2-059F

Thank you for your early reports about the Major Update 3. Our programmers worked on a few fixed today:

Hotfixes:

• fixed too extreme/too punishing mission outcomes for some missions

• fixed character importer to make sure correct character data is used in-game

• fixed a few errors found in our analytics

• fixed several localization errors

Issues with the web editor that we are aware of:

• the generator gives out the wrong Body Shape value inside the file (we know what is causing it, should be fixed soon)

• the selected Hair Back option for female characters doesn't get imported correctly

• the naming of hair and nose options doesn't always fit the design

• the postcard generator was just updated with the Christmas card design, but now the other two postcards don't display the pictures correctly

We will continue working on the web character editor. Please note that it is in an experimental beta state.

Tip for the character editor

You can open the character data files with a text program (like TextEdit, Sublime Text) and adjust and play around with the values directly in there. Sync the folder and you should see the changes in the preview image immediately.

For Body Shape the correct values are the following:

For “Thin” the value is 0, so it should say in the file: “BodyShapeIndex”: 0

For “Average” it’s 1 --> “BodyShapeIndex”: 1

For “Bulky” it’s 2 --> “BodyShapeIndex”: 2

For “Fat” it’s 3 --> “BodyShapeIndex”: 3

Major Update 3 is here! The "Warplans" Update brings features and improvements to Ground of Aces, expanding both the strategic depth of your base and the action unfolding above it. Here’s a quick look at what’s new in this update:

New Features

Brand-New Mission Map System

• The mission serving system has been overhauled to be more immersive and offer more strategic choice.

• All missions now take place in specific locations, which will impact the fuel cost to fulfill them.

• On every airbase tier level, you get up to 50% more missions, allowing you to strategically choose which missions your crews are good at.

Base Fight Animations

• In the aftermath of scrambling, you can witness shootouts above your base.

• A new camera button will also allow you to automatically move the camera to follow the intercepted plane.

• This camera is also available to witness victory roll celebrations after missions.

New Defense Gun: Vickers AA gun

• The new Vickers Machine Gun joins the roster of base defense options.

• The Vickers only needs 1 person to operate and costs 2 slots to ship.

• However, it is weaker than the Bofors and is limited in its turning radius, meaning it needs to be strategically aimed at paths enemies could come from.

• This new gun offers a simple early game solution for base defense.

Character/Crew Editor & Import (BETA)

• The brand-new web character editor allows you to create characters to import into your game.

• The new import functionality in the main menu allows you to choose which characters you want to populate the base with.

• New map parameters also allow you more control over which characters are in your starter crew.

Tree Sapling Regrowth

• Trees now spawn a tree sapling upon harvest, which will eventually become a tree.

• If you destroy trees, trees will not spawn a sapling, allowing you to also get rid of trees for good.

Improvements:

• Over 16 new missions: Together with the new mission system, there is a new set of missions.

  • 10 of these are new hard endgame missions.

• Stealth parameter main missions have been fixed to be shown properly.

  • 6 of the new missions are brand-new stealth missions.

• Repair time for any object is now a flat 50% of build time.

  • This addresses problems with roofs being repaired for several days.

• Scramble reports now show more information on which planes took part.

• The crew overview now also shows the health status of crew members.

• Crew will not bury people through the night anymore.

• “Open saves location” option now works on Mac.

• There is a new option to deactivate tutorials in the Options Menu.

Other fixes and changes:

• Fixed issues of selections snapping to 0,0 when dragging on UI elements.

• Fixed an issue of older saves having everyone grow mustaches, including women.

• Missions now have a proper fallback if localization is missing.

• Fixed a problem of unread mission reports getting added to weekly evaluations.

• Fixed problems when planning structures further than the map border.

• Fixed issue of multiple people rushing in to carry the injured.

• Fixed issues of the runway menu not properly updating to Tier 0 when planning.

• Fixed a problem of AA gun range not showing if something else is selected before.

• Fixed a minor UI issue of size dots in the shipping menu showing in other categories.

• Fixed an issue of the game not going to automatic triple speed when everyone is asleep.

• Fixed some issues with objects destroyed on Lichfield during the intro.

• Plane tier display is now properly hooked up in the management menu.

Issues we are currently working on:

• We heard several reports of people getting stuck midway through going to locations. We have no fix yet, but we are working on it.

• We are trying to address that you cannot force people to carry an injured person.

• We are investigating an issue that performance starts to drop when resources lie around

• We are actively watching all your reports in the Feedback Tool and on Discord, so let us know if the update causes any issue.

NOTE: After a Major Update, we recommend starting a new game to make sure you don't get any unexpected issues. Older saves may not work as intended because of new systems that got added.

Thank you!