Today we are releasing version 1.9 of Merc Tactics. This is a relatively minor release. 

The main new features are:

• Screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO)
  • This feature improves the graphic quality by creating shadows in occluded areas of the scene. The setting is enabled by default. However, it may reduce the FPS of the game if you have an older low end GPUs. In this case it can be disabled in settings.
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  Even with SSAO selected, the game still runs at 60 FPS on a PC with a modern integrated GPU. 

•  More accurate hit chance calculation. 
  • The game now calculates 8 target points for each enemy. This is shown in the target reticle. Also, the spotting distance is reduced if the enemy is partially hidden and friendly fire calculation accuracy is improved.
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•  Other improvements:
  • Improved furniture placement algorithm. Furniture fits into building spaces better. Also, improved prison furniture.
  • Improved building scene distribution algorithm 
    
  • The enemy makes a small delay before changing targets, or picking up weapons etc., for more realistic behaviour.
  • Improved grenade damage calculation 
  • Better handling of door splinters after explosion. Door fragments are flatter, so soldiers don't bump into them so much
  • The enemy delays before throwing grenade at doors (frequency depends on IQ level of soldier)
  • replaced one song in music playlist
  • Enemy soldiers can now be closer to the deployment area
  • Play suspense stinger sound at battle start to indicate difficult battles

• Bug fixes:
  • Fixed a bug where hostage quest tasks were displayed incorrectly 
  • Fix body disappearing early because of frustum culling
  • Prevent furniture placement from blocking movement through building
  • Fix bug where L-junction road in scene doesn't connect
  • Fix bug where no building gets added to the scene when a road is at edge of the scene
  • Fix bug in scene creation where 2 prisons are created on top of each other
  • Fix undo handling. Undo is now more error tolerant. Checks actions that are blocked 
  • Fix bug where player selects move to location while vehicle is already moving on 2D map
  • Fix bug where soldier can move through a closed door
  • Handle calculation of retreat area properly
  • Removed graphic settings that had no effect on performance: shadows, light

Game saves are compatible with the previous version.