Popular Steam Game Broken Arrow Gets New Update And Anti-Cheat Refinements

Just over a month since its release, Broken Arrow‘s real-time strategy game has received an substantial update. This update allows players to manually adjust their map size in skirmish and custom rooms, a feature that was previously set by the game itself. Furthermore, the developers at Steel Balalaika Studio have taken steps to improve anti-cheat measures within the game.

In the latest update, version 1.08 of Broken Arrow, there are new Player vs Environment (PvE) situations added on the maps Kaliningrad and Ruda, which can accommodate up to three players. Additionally, the reload time for infantry sprint has been significantly reduced, now at 30 seconds. Steel Balalaika is being cautious about making numerous balance adjustments at once, so they’re starting with this modification first.

In Broken Arrow, around 2,000 players have been barred due to cheating allegations. Nevertheless, the game developer is looking into potential unjust bans that may have occurred. For example, Steel Balalaika pointed out on Steam that players using cheats exclusively in single-player modes might have been prohibited from multiplayer, as the anti-cheat system may not distinguish between single and multiplayer settings.

On June 19th, the game titled “Broken Arrow” was released at a price point of $50. According to SteamDB, this real-time strategy (RTS) game is one of Valve’s top 100 best-sellers and has been consistently attracting approximately 20,000 players each day in July. The game presents a realistic spin on the genre, featuring a single-player campaign with 19 missions that follow both US and Russian forces. Additionally, it offers over 300 military and technological units for players to use.

Below are the full patch notes:

Added:

Added option to change map size in Skirmish and Custom lobbies. The size is changed automatically based on the number of players by default but can be forced in the additional settings of the lobby;
Added game servers in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia (We’re monitoring the amount of players from all over the world and dynamically adding new servers accordingly. Full list of currently available game servers geolocations in GLOBAL region: US West, US East, Hongkong, UK, France, Germany, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia);
Added portraits for Baltic states vehicles;
Added swimming animation for ground troops (where applicable);
Added PVE 1-3 Kaliningrad scenario (tower defense style);
Added PVE 1-3 Ruda scenario (tower defense style);

General fixes & improvements:

Fixed multiple CTDs (crash-to-desktop) due to memory leak issues;
Fixed memory leak issue on our server infrastructure. This should increase overall multiplayer stability.
Fixed multiple cases of “Reconnect to battle” button not appearing;
Fixed multiple cases of “Player.log” file consuming excess amount of space;
Fixed an issue with Campaign menu being stuck;
Fixed an issue when players may have empty map without playable zone/capture zones/spawn points after loading to the game (in both: single player and multiplayer);Fixed an issue when players may have 99/99 units in a deck after loading to the game;
Fixed an issue when player may get disconnected from game server with corresponding error message;
Reduced max FPS cap from 300 to 144;
Fixed an issue with dropdown options being unclickable in some cases;
Fixed an issue in the reporting system which prevented showing the correct player’s profile upon clicking (this was a UI issue only).
Adjusted matchmaking system in order to minimize games with big difference in elo rating between teams;
Adjusted matchmaking mechanism to be more accurate while looking for a more suitable (ping-wise) game server. Please be advised: turning on VPN, “connection boosters” and other proxy-like solutions may in fact lead to worse multiplayer experience.
Fixed an issue with transferred units movement interpolation;
Fixed an issue where some input devices (joysticks, gamepads, racing wheels, vJoys, some particular mouse and keyboards) may interfere with options selection on UI.Fixed an issue with displaying incorrect date:time format in various in-game messages;
Fixed “Flares! Flares!” achievement not counting;
Fixed an issue when player wasn’t able to override anti-overkill with his AA by clicking RMB on a desired target;
Fixed an issue when Steam workshop scenarios were incorrectly initialized in some cases;
Fixed CIS region servers popup screen overlap;
Fixed incorrect “ready up” UI sound;
Rebinded default camera rotation button from LCTRL to MMB;
Fixed mission unlock conditions hints on Campaign screen being misleading;
Fixed M712 Copperhead VFX looking like a cluster round;
Adjusted 127mm gun VFX (Arleigh Burke);
Adjusted mortars and howitzers impact VFX life time;
Fixed MC-130H having no model under certain circumstances;
Fixed Tochka-U’s missile texture being pink;
Adjusted parachute animations;
Fixed CAAT Tow marines’ pose with M240;
Fixed an issue with S300V/S350/S300PM deployment animation being stuck resulting in missiles being fired directly into the ground;
“Bay of winds” zones capture time adjusted from 30 to 15 seconds to match other maps;
Various fixes for weapons icons;
Various localization fixes.

Campaign fixes & improvements:

“Blackout” mission:

Fixed mission being stuck in some cases.

“Show time” mission:

Fixed time-related medal could not be earned;
Fixed the case of players being stuck if they fail the bombing runs too many times.

“Peacekeeper” mission:

Fixed mission’s intro cutscene not scaling correctly for 4K resolutions.

“Self Service” mission:

The timer for the final stage has been increased to 20 minutes (it was 5 minutes by default);
When bringing supplies to Cap. Batalin, he will now give you 2 helicopters right away instead of adding them to the reinforcements.

“Papers please” mission:

Fixed cases of invisible units appearing in the mission;
Improved balance of pre-placed equipment at the storage base;
Various improvements to the behavior of allies and enemies;
Enemy attack pattern on the HQ has been slightly improved;
Fixed an issue of mission stuck due to losing HQ zone;
All units received appropriate camouflage (winter).

“Operation Cold Harbor” mission:

Various improvements for each difficulty level. Player now has slightly more resources and units;
The behavior of attack waves from Narva has been improved;
Fixed a bug when pilots could have been detected prior to secondary mission pops up.
Minor improvements to Batalin’s movements;.
All units received appropriate camouflage (winter).

“Forbidden waters” mission:

Various improvements for each difficulty level. Player now has slightly more resources and units;
Improved AI behavior.
“Broken arrow” mission:
Various fixes for voice overs;
Fixed a bug when the Green Light Team was able to capture the last objective (Bennett Plan).

Balance:

Reduced sprint cooldown from 60 to 30 seconds for every infantry/recon infantry unit.Fixed mistake in base price of CAAT TOW 110 =>100 this could result in deck value being inconsistent;
Spetsnaz GRU Verba option: added a second Verba launcher to balance the interest of this option with the two others;Ingenery-Shturmoviki price 60 => 70;
Fixed optics value for Skrezhet with Zu-23M + Igla to detect helicopter further away;
Fixed TOS-1 rear HEAT armor value being inferior to kinetic armor;
Fixed A-222 Bereg howitzer having lower reload times in mixed loadout.

2025-07-14 18:40