OpenFront v34.22: combat, trade, trains, Steam, and lobby fixes

Direct answer: what changed in OpenFront v34.15 through v34.22?

v0.34.13 fixes bugs in the Channel Islands map and includes infrastructure improvements. Treat the tagged map as the current public boundary; do not carry a remembered coastline or route from an older map artifact into a new match. The infrastructure note does not publish a new combat, economy, or nuclear coefficient.

The official v0.34.14 Release fixes the main menu freezing for players with large cosmetic collections by loading store and inventory content while scrolling. It also clarifies what Steam buyers receive during the free month and that the browser game remains free, and it shows the actual reason when a game-server connection fails. These are access and presentation fixes; they do not change the Team threshold or combat coefficients. The v0.34.15 Release fixes an accidental deployment in which some v35 features appeared in production. The v0.34.16 and v0.34.17 Releases are observability and telemetry-only patches; they track more game-information stats and improve reporting but publish no combat, economy, or nuclear coefficient. The v0.34.18 Release is the current public boundary: it lets a host choose the start time and player cap when listing a public lobby and locks the lobby config once listed, lets hosts pay to place a listed lobby in the public Special queue, improves latency reporting, and stops the Steam hardware back button from exiting the desktop app. The hosted auto-start window is now host-selectable between 1 and 5 minutes, with a player cap from 10 to 100, and listing is one-way (the server rejects unlisting). Treat those as the live lobby rules and do not treat the older fixed five-minute window or an unlisted-lobby toggle as current.

v0.34.19 adds account-link tokens for third-party stats sites, a default lobby-start-alert setting, the real hosted-lobby countdown in Detailed View, clearer public-hosting subscription copy, and sibling pools that can distribute joiners between listed lobbies. v0.34.20 became the public boundary for pooling because it fixes those pools never forming in production; a listed lobby can now actually spread incoming players across its sibling pool. The patch also fixes water-hover errors while a map is loading or recovering from a graphics reset and adds observability work. Pooling changes where a joiner may land, not the host’s chosen mode, start window, player cap, one-way listing rule, or locked configuration.

v0.34.21, published 29 September 2026 at tag commit d7075bface21e6835fadb7a0d0025455f8bc358a, advanced the formal non-TEST boundary. It removes the AdShield script that placed invisible frames over ad slots and could block in-game clicks, keeps valid sessions signed in through a temporary login-server outage, replaces endless reconnect loops for expired or revoked sessions with an invalid-session message, and prevents an error when the attack-ratio slider is moved before a match starts. It also adopts a neutral label for Pakistan-administered Kashmir and fixes dependency security alerts. These are access, input, map-label, and security fixes: the Release publishes no changed combat, economy, nuclear, Team-victory, lobby-pool, or map-rotation coefficient.

v0.34.22, published 1 October 2026 at tag commit 4e837520e886b255b1b020e9c89639dbb9d54038, is the current formal non-TEST boundary. It gives subscribers whose renewal failed a Manage billing route instead of a generic checkout error, fixes private-lobby hosts sometimes being unable to configure or start their own lobby, prevents Firefox Android solo games from opening the YouTube tutorial, removes the white flash during page load or reload, and adds observability work. These are billing, lobby-control, mobile-start, presentation, and telemetry repairs. The Release does not publish a new combat, economy, nuclear, Team-victory, or map-rotation coefficient; keep using the established v34 gameplay rules while treating the repaired private-lobby controls as live.

OpenFront’s stable v0.34.0 feature Release was published on 14 September 2026. After v0.34.1 through v0.34.9, the official v0.34.10, v0.34.11, and v0.34.12 patches followed. v0.34.12 increased Trade Ship and Train spawn rates in the early-to-middle game and improved the magic-link login flow; the series then moved through v0.34.20’s lobby-pool repair and v0.34.21’s session fixes to v0.34.22 as the current non-TEST player boundary. The series carries all v34 features forward while tightening combat pace, trade and rail generation, lobby and map presentation, Steam access, cosmetics, and input reliability. The practical headline is not Steam alone: combat, nuclear timing, Nation pressure, team victory, water and rail routes, public-lobby selection, and map choice all affect a next-match decision.

The player-facing gameplay change added after v0.34.1 is the v0.34.2 note that attacks run about 10% faster. That changes the wall-clock time available to cancel, reinforce, counterattack, or notice a collapsing reserve; it does not replace v34’s ratio-and-density loss model or prove that a fixed attack percentage wins. v0.34.2 also fixes zero-team public games, adds clearer trusted-lobby UI, restores an optional classic bot-color setting, adjusts audio defaults, and makes desktop copied links point to the website. v0.34.3 then fixes ranked matchmaking and payment errors and restores the Default swatch for owned patterns. Those patch fixes matter to access and presentation, but they do not create a new combat formula.

The next patches have different boundaries. v0.34.4 removes the desktop in-game fullscreen button, adds an account-merge option when linking Steam, and handles Steam outages more gracefully. v0.34.5 adds per-category cosmetic visibility settings, increases mid-to-late-game Train spawning, fixes overlapping ads and translated inventory tabs, numbers queued lobby labels, and cleans up the New maps category. In the tagged configuration, the Train saturation curve’s damping midpoint moves from 300 to 500 global Train units; this does not promise a fixed extra payout from one Factory. v0.34.6 corrects the New maps category and improves Steam server infrastructure. v0.34.7 fixes creator codes not being set correctly and an intermittent interface state in which clicks could stop responding. v0.34.8 makes Steam offline and session Retry states visible, fixes stale-client sign-in loops, and shows WinModal buttons immediately. v0.34.9 adds a wider desktop layout and UI scale picker, opens lobby links in Steam, recovers or retries a failed lobby feed, and rejects late joins to an already-started public game. v0.34.10 fixes an ad covering the Twitch panel and hands lobby links to the production Steam app. v0.34.11 accepts offered custom UI scale values, immediately translates map names on language change, and lets Lobby Retry refresh the feed during cooldown. It also shows Steam-specific WebGL help, uses a quit power icon, filters platform-specific news, avoids a false capture notice when retaking your own Trade Ship, and excludes friendly units from nuke kill stats. These are official patch notes, not evidence of new maps, a changed combat formula, or a universal Train-income percentage.

v0.34.12 increases Trade Ship and Train spawn rates in the early-to-middle game and improves the magic-link login flow. The Release does not publish one universal multiplier, payout increase, or fixed waiting time, so judge the economic change from completed trips in the current lobby. A faster spawn cadence improves a valid route; it does not make an unreachable station, embargoed partner, exposed Port, or unprofitable stop pay. The login improvement affects access rather than simulation rules.

Land attacks now use a rebuilt loss model driven by the attacker’s troop ratio and the defender’s troop density. A large committed push can pay less per tile than the old model implied, while a dense defender on compact territory remains expensive. The large-territory adjustment is smoothed and capped, with the release explicitly saying that positions below 100,000 tiles do not move under that adjustment. This is not permission to full-send: route shape, reserve, opposing attacks, terrain, and Defense Posts still matter. It means an old fixed loss estimate is no longer a reliable calculator.

MIRVs retain the game-wide price ladder: the next carrier costs 25 million Gold plus 15 million for each MIRV already launched in the match. The flat-price, 60-second global lockout experiment appeared in v0.34.0-beta1 but was reverted before the stable release. There is no global MIRV launch lockout in v0.34.11; each Silo tube still reloads separately. The release also normalizes MIRV warhead speed, removes map-edge benefits, improves close-spawn SAM targeting and interception feedback, cancels in-flight nuclear weapons when an alliance is accepted, and blocks launches during the half-second after acceptance.

Hard and Impossible Nations now hunt a valuable bordering rival they can safely beat, and they no longer ignore their troop cap when attacking neutral land or fallout. Team games use the same 80% normal win threshold as FFA instead of 95%. Water-Nuked channels are now included in ship pathfinding, trains no longer despawn merely because a track splits, and rails cannot cross impassable terrain. The winner also deactivates the Doomsday Clock.

Outside the simulation, v34 adds a 20-step in-game tutorial, trusted-only scheduled lobbies with open alternatives still spaced between them, player reporting, the Detailed View lobby browser, map preloading, clan treasury donations, clan tags as team names, a cosmetic inventory and loadouts, Steam account and desktop support, and an engine performance pass reported as 39% lower tick cost on a full World benchmark. Yangtze River is new, China uses modern borders, and the former China layout remains available as Qing China. Those are released capabilities in this tag, not previews.

Profiles are public in v34, so another player can review the games attached to an account. History cards can expose a copyable game link, and the normal PlayerInfoPanel is available inside replays. Treat that visibility as both a learning tool and an account choice: share the exact game when asking for advice, review decisions in sequence rather than judging only the result, and remember that the Release names account deletion as the way to hide all games. Public history does not expose private moderation tools or prove why a player made a move.

What should you change in the next match?

Start with combat discipline. Treat the displayed attack percentage as a commitment choice, not a direct prediction of captured tiles. Under the new ratio-and-density model, a larger push may be more efficient against a thinly held frontier, but a large number still fails when it enters dense land, a narrow route, post coverage, or a counterattack that consumes the reserve. Compare at least four things before adding troops: the force actually committed, density on the land being taken, the route’s width and terrain, and the troops left behind. If the first wave buys no durable tile, stop repeating the same percentage. Reinforce only when the geometry or density changed; otherwise reroute or hold.

Against Hard or Impossible Nations, assume border value matters. A Nation is no longer adequately described as a uniformly expanding background opponent. If you present a valuable adjacent target that its force can safely beat, you can become its next priority. A compact economy behind one defended contact is safer than three exposed high-value borders. Probe with a bounded force, keep a reserve that can survive the Nation’s response, and stop expanding toward it when another easy route exists. If the Nation is capped or committed elsewhere, that is an opportunity window, not proof that it will remain passive.

For MIRVs, keep a shared price ledger. At zero prior launches, the next three cost 25M, 40M, and 55M, or 120M together. Every successful launch, including an opponent’s, moves everyone to the next rung. Check the current menu price before committing, keep Gold for the follow-up capture, and count ready Silo tubes separately. A teammate can launch from their own ready Silo if they can afford the new price; neither player receives a global timer. Alliance acceptance is still a real nuclear diplomacy decision because in-flight warheads are cancelled and a short launch guard prevents acceptance from becoming an instant ambush tool. Do not accept merely to erase a strike unless the diplomatic consequences are worth it.

For Overtime and ordinary victory checks, Team players must retire the old 95% baseline. The normal Team threshold is now 80%, matching FFA. If Overtime is enabled, the configured schedule still matters, but plans built around having another 15 percentage points of territory are obsolete. When an opponent approaches 80%, defend the easiest remaining expansion route and compare the live share before spending on a side project. A winning player no longer leaves Doomsday running after the result, so there is no post-win clock race to plan around.

For Water Nukes, the strategic warning changes. New water remains permanent, but the old v33 warning that transports may visibly detour around converted water is no longer the current release boundary. Route preview still deserves inspection because distance, hostile Warships, terminal access, and home reserve can make a technically valid route bad. The distinction is important: pathfinding through the new water is fixed; a poor landing decision is not. Rails now have the opposite kind of boundary. Impassable terrain behaves like the map edge and cannot be crossed by rail, so a visually short connection may be invalid. Track splits should no longer delete trains, but the legal path must still exist.

For a mid-to-late-game rail economy, v0.34.5 means Train generation may hold up better as the match fills with units. It does not make an isolated Factory pay by itself. Check completed City and Port stops, route legality, ownership, and actual Gold before buying another level; use the Train network guide for the graph and its stop conditions. If a route remains broken, a higher spawn chance only creates more motion without useful settlement.

Use the lobby changes before spawn rather than after a bad room choice. Detailed View exposes advertised lobbies in mode tabs with deep links. A lock marks trusted-only rooms; signed-out players may need to sign in, while the release states that open scheduled lobbies remain available between trusted games. Read mode, team setup, map, and player count before joining. Map preloading reduces the risk of spending the spawn phase waiting, but device and network conditions still matter; wait for the actual spawn UI. The tutorial is useful for learning the interface, but it cannot choose a safe border or reserve for you.

Treat clan and account actions as a separate risk class from in-match Gold. Clan treasury donations move player currency into the clan balance. The release confirms the capability, but it does not turn a donation into a reversible practice transaction. Verify currency, amount, and clan before committing. Cosmetic inventory, ten numbered loadouts, Unequip All, store previews, bundles, and restored selections change account presentation rather than match strength. Steam sign-in, linking, rich presence, invites, purchases, and desktop update gates likewise change access and social flow, not combat coefficients.

Finally, re-read the map instead of relying on yesterday’s rotation. Yangtze River introduces a pipe-like river topology. Modern China and Qing China are separate layouts, so a familiar name or thumbnail is not enough. Labyrinth appears less often in public rotation and Luna is removed from public rotations, while per-mode map weights and modifiers can differ. Choose by actual land-water shape, available exits, and mode. The release gives you more visible information before entry; the decision still belongs to the map in front of you.

Source status, limits, and next reading

The current formal release is v0.34.22, published 1 October 2026. Its tag commit is 4e837520e886b255b1b020e9c89639dbb9d54038; v0.34.22 fixes failed-renewal billing access, private-lobby host controls, Firefox Android solo startup, and reload presentation without changing the v34 gameplay coefficients.

The current authority for this article is the official OpenFront v0.34.22 Release and immutable tag commit 4e837520e886b255b1b020e9c89639dbb9d54038. The stable v34 feature base is the v0.34.0 Release at commit 1e973bb534b8b37d8d30c80ab27ad1391a7b82da; beta1 is historical evidence of a reverted experiment, not the shipped MIRV price rule. The v0.34.14 through v0.34.22 notes are cross-checked against their official Release bodies and tagged source; v0.34.18 owns the public-lobby start-time, cap, locking, and pay-to-place details, v0.34.19 and v0.34.20 own sibling-pool introduction and the production fix, v0.34.21 owns click, session, slider, labeling, and dependency fixes, and v0.34.22 owns the current billing, private-lobby, Firefox Android, and reload-presentation repairs. Later main commits, when present, are clues for a future boundary rather than proof of this Release.

For combat, use tagged Config.ts, AttackExecution.ts, and the tagged AttackLogicGolden.test.ts. They establish the implemented loss function and its protected scenarios. They do not give one universal “troops per tile” quote because the answer changes with ratios and density. The editorial response is to compare a bounded probe with the resulting border, not to invent a deterministic table from incomplete inputs.

For Nations, the tagged Nation execution code and configuration establish difficulty modifiers, troop-cap behavior, and target selection. Continue to Nations mechanics for how AI decisions are generated, then use the Nations pressure guide for the player-side stop, defend, and redirect decision. For active human borders, use Land combat. These pages have different ownership: one describes the opponent, one manages strategic exposure, and one resolves an existing fight.

For nuclear play, tagged Config.ts, StatsImpl.ts, and SAMLauncherExecution.ts anchor the 25M + 15M per prior launch price, shared count, and interception behavior. Read the MIRV guide for attack and defense timing. The beta1 cooldown test documents only a reverted experiment; the stable tag is authoritative for current play.

For terrain and movement, the Release is the public source for Water Nuke pathfinding, rail splits, and impassable terrain. Read Water Nukes before reshaping a coast, Train network before placing a route, and Map strategy when a new layout changes expansion. The site’s generated database was refreshed from the exact tag and now lists 119 maps, including Yangtze River and Qing China.

This article deliberately does not reproduce private moderation details, payment internals, or server architecture. It also does not convert a 39% benchmark into a guaranteed frame-rate gain for every device. Formal Release notes establish availability and declared player impact; device performance, account eligibility, public rotation, and opponent behavior still vary. Recheck this page after the next non-TEST Release changes the tag boundary.

The completion test for a reader is practical: update the threshold, launch timer, route assumptions, and Nation scan before queueing again. If one of those four decisions still relies on v33, follow the linked main answer before committing resources.