Today we are releasing Merc Tactics 1.8, featuring under-barrel grenade launchers. New features also include a revamped inventory system and better village building layout.

• Under- barrel grenade launchers
  • The M4, M16 and Tar-21 can receive the M203 under-barrel grenade launcher
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  • A rifle with a grenade launcher attachment will have a 40mm slot, which can be can be loaded with a 40mm grenade. Then "40mm low" and "40mm high" modes are available from the rifle's fire mode selector. The player can launch grenades by clicking the rotate button, or by holding down the CTRL button and moving the mouse. The aiming mechanism is the same as for normal grenades.
  • The trajectory is marked in green if clear, red if the grenade will collide with an obstacle and yellow if there is a possible collision. "Low mode" is good for firing from inside buildings, high mode allows the grenade to clear high objects in the way.
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  • 3 types of ammo are available:
    • M433 40mm grenade with contact fuse, for accurate targeting. This explodes immediately on contact.
    • M406 40mm grenade with timed fuse, for extra range. The grenade can travel further by bouncing, although it is rather unpredictable.
    • M397 40mm grenade with air-burst fuse. The grenade jumps up after contact allowing it to hit enemy behind cover.

• Reorganised Inventory system
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    • There are now 2 slots for holding guns and 4 "pouch" slots for holding grenades and small items.
      There is a limitation of 2 guns to be carried per soldier (due to weight).

• Better scene generation
  • New building placement algorithm allows more varied types of building layout.
  • New village stronghold layout, with defense posts.
  • Better placement of doors
  • Objects are no longer placed next to the outside corners of building, to improve gameplay

• Minor improvements
  • On main map there are more roads connecting villages and villages are placed closer together. This is to reduce unnecessary traveling back and forth.
  • Increased amount of smart soldiers for normal difficulty 
  • The Zerg AI task now checks back doors more often 
  • Check after closing door to see if the enemy is visible behind door 
  • Make HUD text easier to read scene 
  • Zoom in/out also uses alt +/- keys (for MacOS) 
  • Soldiers adopt overwatch pose only when there is at least one overwatch spot 
  • Ben Dabi increase spawn rate after gateway village militia eliminated 
  • Hostage option is now available option in QuickBattle 
  • AI standoff task takes age of contact into account to calculate score, resulting that AI will switch to a newer target
  • Locked door status shown on door button 
  • Allow gun to still be used even after jamming for launching 40mm grenades  
  • Interrupt stops turn bar from progressing
  • Game pauses automatically when any new militia gang becomes visible on main map 
  • Added new sounds for warning about new enemies 
  • An  extra empty ground panel now always appears, so you can drop multiple items in same spot (limited to 3) 
  • Shortcut 'E' key now loads a grenade into grenade launcher, or puts a hand grenade into the weapon hand 
  • Make HUD buttons disabled when soldier is in the middle of doing something 
  • Hidden Easter egg 
    
  • Improved floor textures 
    
  • New air conditioning unit asset
  • Added vents to residential buildings 
  • Fix wall texture to hide seems 

•  Bug fixes 
  • Number of enemy visible was updated at wrong time 
  • Prevent out of bounds on soldier name array 
  • Watski sometimes doesn't appear in game 
  • Eliminate crash when closing after selecting "extra enemy" in quickbattle 
  • AI Zerg task didn't stop after seeing target 
  • Enemy soldier can end up inside the prison 
  • AI uses shoulder offset to calculate if he/she can hit enemy 
  • Intro dialog can retrigger if battle is started in same location as the first battle 
  • Game can crash when interrupted by grenade explosion, while throwing grenade 
  • Pressing space to pause and start the game can cause a crash 
  • Fix potential crash when creating level 
  • Prevent taking hostage in countryside 
  • Prevent dead militia from being taken hostage 
  • Roads to Ben Dabi were named wrong 
  • Sound focus changes when players soldier is interrupted

Note: game saves are not compatible with older versions