Players of Verdun!

Today we want to update you on the latest developments on the Verdun front. Behind the scenes we have been working on exciting new content, graphical updates, bugfixes and team extensions. Oh, and we are part of the steam summer sale!


Infamous C96 Mauser "Broomhandle, part of the new content in the works"

Available on the beta branch, and soon available for everyone is the 218th public version of the game. It contains:

• Updated MG deployment, no more exploits deploying as well as flying into the air.
  
• Squad name filtering
  
• Assault squad "esprit the corps" spawning ability fixed
  
• Aura bonus fixed
  
• Incoming artillery now whistles before impact (whizzbang)
  
• Picardie map performance issues fix

The last few weeks we made some concrete plans for the upcoming Free Thematic Expansion Packages (Yea you heard that right: Free DLC because we appreciate our fans and want to make an awesome game). Read more about that here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=433614638 Our focus, besides bugfixing, will be the addition of cool game modes and we are very excited to play those with you. While we are not commenting about timeframes we do want to underscore that adding game modes and new ways to play and experience the Verdun gameplay and all the unique features have a very high priority and will be rolled out as soon as possible.

Secondly work on the fort Douaumont level has been progressing at a steady pace, we hope to start teasing you with some material very soon! We hope this level brings an entirely new style of play with indoor fights and a dramatic backdrop. We have done massive research on the fort and even visited it!

As you can see we are also working on adding more weapons to the game, in combination with the new squads or to existing squads. The first one to be teased is the Mauser C96 "Broomhandle", the very famous German-made 10-round semi-automatic pistol. Around 137,000 saw service on the German side. The pistol was also a very popular private purchase and for instance Winston Churchill wielded one during the second boer war. This game will be in interesting addition to the German weapon arsenal in the game. We hope to introduce this weapon in the game at the same time as the new squads. We will keep you informed!


One important decision we made was to increase the size of the team so that we can maintain and improve Verdun for the long term. Our vision to create an awesome first person shooter experience and do right by the subject was almost universally recognized by the audience and press and this motivated us to invest in a bigger team to realize this. In the next couple of weeks we shall install several team members in the programming department (to polish the game, fix bugs and craft the new game-modes) as well as an animator to update the existing animations and create the new ones for the many new weapons that will be added in the coming time.

Our art department has also been putting in extra effort. The first focus was an update to the tanks and artillery that can be found around the levels and more. In addition to that we have been working on adding more details to the maps as well as adding more interesting gameplay components (like cover on picardie) to the the maps.

Have a look at the following imagery to get in impression of the updated art style (fully taking advantage of the advanced Physics Based Rendering) on the vehicles. The detail on most artillery pieces is now increased a tenfold especially up close.



German FK96n.A. 77mm - The main field artillery for the German during the war and can be found around the maps in Verdun. Designed for mobile warfare it became less important during the static trench war, but proved a real challenge for the tanks in the later stages of the war. A 1896 was version upgraded and designated "n.A" (new style) with the modern recoil system



British Mark IV "Male" - The Main Tank of the Commonwealth forces on the western front of which around 1200 were built, introduced in the middle of 1917. The male variant caried a two 6 pounder guns and three Machine guns.



French Mle. 1897 75mm - The famous "French 75" was the main (and pretty much only) artillery piece of the French army during the start of the war, with little to no heavy artillery available the french made use of what they had. It was however for its intended task in mobile warfare a revolutionary piece. Note, this is a brand new piece and will be implemented in the french sectors over time, as well as being part of Douaumont.


British 4.5 In. - The standard field howitzer of the Commonwealth forces. As these were stationed closer to the frontlines (field), many of these have been scattered throughout our levels.



British Mark IV "Female" - The Female version of the Mark IV's were armed with 5 lewis machine guns. All in more female versions were produced than male (about 600 vs about 420) . Some areas were better suited for tanks than others, the horrible muddy terrain of Flanders incapacitated many tanks en-route



German Mark IV "BeutePanzer" - Interestingly more beutepanzers (German captured Allied tanks) saw action than German-build tanks: about 40.


We would like to hear your input and battlefield stories, share them in the boards. See you in the Trenches!

- The Verdun Team

Players of Verdun!

Today we want to update you on the latest developments on the Verdun front. Behind the scenes we have been working on exciting new content, graphical updates, bugfixes and team extensions. Oh, and we are part of the steam summer sale!


Infamous C96 Mauser "Broomhandle, part of the new content in the works"

Available on the beta branch, and soon available for everyone is the 218th public version of the game. It contains:

• Updated MG deployment, no more exploits deploying as well as flying into the air.
  
• Squad name filtering
  
• Assault squad "esprit the corps" spawning ability fixed
  
• Aura bonus fixed
  
• Incoming artillery now whistles before impact (whizzbang)
  
• Picardie map performance issues fix

The last few weeks we made some concrete plans for the upcoming Free Thematic Expansion Packages (Yea you heard that right: Free DLC because we appreciate our fans and want to make an awesome game). Read more about that here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=433614638 Our focus, besides bugfixing, will be the addition of cool game modes and we are very excited to play those with you. While we are not commenting about timeframes we do want to underscore that adding game modes and new ways to play and experience the Verdun gameplay and all the unique features have a very high priority and will be rolled out as soon as possible.

Secondly work on the fort Douaumont level has been progressing at a steady pace, we hope to start teasing you with some material very soon! We hope this level brings an entirely new style of play with indoor fights and a dramatic backdrop. We have done massive research on the fort and even visited it!

As you can see we are also working on adding more weapons to the game, in combination with the new squads or to existing squads. The first one to be teased is the Mauser C96 "Broomhandle", the very famous German-made 10-round semi-automatic pistol. Around 137,000 saw service on the German side. The pistol was also a very popular private purchase and for instance Winston Churchill wielded one during the second boer war. This game will be in interesting addition to the German weapon arsenal in the game. We hope to introduce this weapon in the game at the same time as the new squads. We will keep you informed!


One important decision we made was to increase the size of the team so that we can maintain and improve Verdun for the long term. Our vision to create an awesome first person shooter experience and do right by the subject was almost universally recognized by the audience and press and this motivated us to invest in a bigger team to realize this. In the next couple of weeks we shall install several team members in the programming department (to polish the game, fix bugs and craft the new game-modes) as well as an animator to update the existing animations and create the new ones for the many new weapons that will be added in the coming time.

Our art department has also been putting in extra effort. The first focus was an update to the tanks and artillery that can be found around the levels and more. In addition to that we have been working on adding more details to the maps as well as adding more interesting gameplay components (like cover on picardie) to the the maps.

Have a look at the following imagery to get in impression of the updated art style (fully taking advantage of the advanced Physics Based Rendering) on the vehicles. The detail on most artillery pieces is now increased a tenfold especially up close.



German FK96n.A. 77mm - The main field artillery for the German during the war and can be found around the maps in Verdun. Designed for mobile warfare it became less important during the static trench war, but proved a real challenge for the tanks in the later stages of the war. A 1896 was version upgraded and designated "n.A" (new style) with the modern recoil system



British Mark IV "Male" - The Main Tank of the Commonwealth forces on the western front of which around 1200 were built, introduced in the middle of 1917. The male variant caried a two 6 pounder guns and three Machine guns.



French Mle. 1897 75mm - The famous "French 75" was the main (and pretty much only) artillery piece of the French army during the start of the war, with little to no heavy artillery available the french made use of what they had. It was however for its intended task in mobile warfare a revolutionary piece. Note, this is a brand new piece and will be implemented in the french sectors over time, as well as being part of Douaumont.


British 4.5 In. - The standard field howitzer of the Commonwealth forces. As these were stationed closer to the frontlines (field), many of these have been scattered throughout our levels.



British Mark IV "Female" - The Female version of the Mark IV's were armed with 5 lewis machine guns. All in more female versions were produced than male (about 600 vs about 420) . Some areas were better suited for tanks than others, the horrible muddy terrain of Flanders incapacitated many tanks en-route



German Mark IV "BeutePanzer" - Interestingly more beutepanzers (German captured Allied tanks) saw action than German-build tanks: about 40.


We would like to hear your input and battlefield stories, share them in the boards. See you in the Trenches!

- The Verdun Team

Tonight the two final matches in our first Verdun tournament will be played.

AU FINAL
AU had only two active teams in the end, they battled today and scored a draw capture wise (0-0 and 2-2). This means that based on score, Fromelles Heroes won, congratulations!

EU FINAL
Kaiser Kompanie EU Team VS Giant Potatoes
Starts in: 2 hours and 15 min (London: 2015-05-08 20:00:00)
Map: _2Argonne, max 16 players

US FINAL
Kaiser Kompanie NA VS {Pirates}
Starts in: 9 hours and 15 min (New York: 2015-05-08 22:00:00)
Map: _2Argonne, max 16 players

The final teams have confirmed they will be streaming the tournament, check out www.verdungame.com/twitch/ while a match is playing to see the action.

More info: http://www.verdungame.com/tournament/

To aid the tournament we launched a minor update today:

V215
8 May 2015

• Added subtle mainmenu cam shake
  
• Music volume now applies to all music
  
• Fixed tab buttins in account screen
  
• Vote request popup title localized
  
• Tent collision added
  
• Tournament matches: Entente is always attacker for now.
  
• Sniper scope sens bug fixed
  
• Private match/tournament restart improved

Tonight the two final matches in our first Verdun tournament will be played.

AU FINAL
AU had only two active teams in the end, they battled today and scored a draw capture wise (0-0 and 2-2). This means that based on score, Fromelles Heroes won, congratulations!

EU FINAL
Kaiser Kompanie EU Team VS Giant Potatoes
Starts in: 2 hours and 15 min (London: 2015-05-08 20:00:00)
Map: _2Argonne, max 16 players

US FINAL
Kaiser Kompanie NA VS {Pirates}
Starts in: 9 hours and 15 min (New York: 2015-05-08 22:00:00)
Map: _2Argonne, max 16 players

The final teams have confirmed they will be streaming the tournament, check out www.verdungame.com/twitch/ while a match is playing to see the action.

More info: http://www.verdungame.com/tournament/

To aid the tournament we launched a minor update today:

V215
8 May 2015

• Added subtle mainmenu cam shake
  
• Music volume now applies to all music
  
• Fixed tab buttins in account screen
  
• Vote request popup title localized
  
• Tent collision added
  
• Tournament matches: Entente is always attacker for now.
  
• Sniper scope sens bug fixed
  
• Private match/tournament restart improved

We’re proud to announce that WW1 game Verdun has officially launched today! After more than a year in Early Access on Steam, the official copy of Verdun is now available on PC, Mac and Linux.

Check out the new Game Trailer: http://youtu.be/kWp-7XH3080

We are excited to announce that the game is released with a new bonus map called Aisne; an area in Northern France which has seen some of the biggest battles of the early years of World War 1.

Years of dedicated hard work has finally paid off. During that time, Verdun was also being featured on Steam Early Access since 2013 where many big community driven improvements were made to the game. We had not expected the great extend of support received from the community during this time.

Over the course of the year, many good suggestions were made and put into the game. Whilst not every good suggestion made it in, we intend to add a few more in the near future.

Verdun will get free thematic expansions over the course of time, such as the addition of Belgian and American troops for the Allies, and for the Central Powers some special German troops. Check out the roadmap here:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=433614638

To celebrate the release, several contests will be held including the first Verdun tournament hosted on Steam. http://steamcommunity.com/app/242860/discussions/0/611704730329624708/

Be sure to try Verdun and take the fight to the trenches of your enemies!

We’re proud to announce that WW1 game Verdun has officially launched today! After more than a year in Early Access on Steam, the official copy of Verdun is now available on PC, Mac and Linux.

Check out the new Game Trailer: http://youtu.be/kWp-7XH3080

We are excited to announce that the game is released with a new bonus map called Aisne; an area in Northern France which has seen some of the biggest battles of the early years of World War 1.

Years of dedicated hard work has finally paid off. During that time, Verdun was also being featured on Steam Early Access since 2013 where many big community driven improvements were made to the game. We had not expected the great extend of support received from the community during this time.

Over the course of the year, many good suggestions were made and put into the game. Whilst not every good suggestion made it in, we intend to add a few more in the near future.

Verdun will get free thematic expansions over the course of time, such as the addition of Belgian and American troops for the Allies, and for the Central Powers some special German troops. Check out the roadmap here:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=433614638

To celebrate the release, several contests will be held including the first Verdun tournament hosted on Steam. http://steamcommunity.com/app/242860/discussions/0/611704730329624708/

Be sure to try Verdun and take the fight to the trenches of your enemies!

Joyous news for the troops in the trenches; the official launch date for Verdun is set on the 28th of April 2015! After more than a year in Steam Early Access, during which many community driven improvements were done to the game such as the addition of different troop types, new maps, improving the UI, bullet physics, the Unity 5 engine update and the introduction of the iconic gas weapon combined with a claustrophobic gas-mask experience to name just a few, the Steam Early Access is finally getting to a close. Here a trailer summarizing the development progression in Early Access so far: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlEkPF26eYA&feature=youtu.be

Now the focus is on Verdun’s official release. As a gesture of gratitude, Early Access players will be gifted a ‘Steam Early Access medal’ and can try out the live build of Verdun a day before launch.

Also, all players are invited to sign up for the first Verdun tournament, which will be hosted on Steam during the celebration of the release!
Be sure not to miss the celebration, sign up for the Verdun tournament here: http://www.VerdunGame.com/tournament/

Joyous news for the troops in the trenches; the official launch date for Verdun is set on the 28th of April 2015! After more than a year in Steam Early Access, during which many community driven improvements were done to the game such as the addition of different troop types, new maps, improving the UI, bullet physics, the Unity 5 engine update and the introduction of the iconic gas weapon combined with a claustrophobic gas-mask experience to name just a few, the Steam Early Access is finally getting to a close. Here a trailer summarizing the development progression in Early Access so far: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlEkPF26eYA&feature=youtu.be

Now the focus is on Verdun’s official release. As a gesture of gratitude, Early Access players will be gifted a ‘Steam Early Access medal’ and can try out the live build of Verdun a day before launch.

Also, all players are invited to sign up for the first Verdun tournament, which will be hosted on Steam during the celebration of the release!
Be sure not to miss the celebration, sign up for the Verdun tournament here: http://www.VerdunGame.com/tournament/

Today we introduce an important and long-awaited new feature to the game: faked insanity.


"wibble"

Players who do not participate in "going over the top" when the momentum shifts in their favor during a frontline match, and practice what some players in the community are calling "camping" or "cowardice" will be given two pencils and a pair of underpants, and declared insane. In addition they will be permanently renamed to "wibble" and all of their chat messages reduced to gibberish.

What the developers have to say:

"At M2H and BlackMill we have worked tirelessly for months to optimize this feature to encourage people to go over the top more during the frontlines game mode. Some players who are too afraid to attack stay behind and camp. this is a real problem for the gameplay. In this we have found a sound solution" - Developer Matt Hergaarden.

"Clearly this is one of the most important things we have worked on, besides the rats of course" - Developer Jos Hoebe

"yeah - that'd be epic" - Character Artist James Chilton

"The new update will be live later today, April 1st 2015" - Developer Mike Hergaarden

"Please study this classic video of great historical accuracy on which this feature has been based" - Historian Don Durandal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2DCExerOsA

Stay tuned for more updates regarding lesser features and bugfixes later this week.

- The Verdun Team

Today we introduce an important and long-awaited new feature to the game: faked insanity.


"wibble"

Players who do not participate in "going over the top" when the momentum shifts in their favor during a frontline match, and practice what some players in the community are calling "camping" or "cowardice" will be given two pencils and a pair of underpants, and declared insane. In addition they will be permanently renamed to "wibble" and all of their chat messages reduced to gibberish.

What the developers have to say:

"At M2H and BlackMill we have worked tirelessly for months to optimize this feature to encourage people to go over the top more during the frontlines game mode. Some players who are too afraid to attack stay behind and camp. this is a real problem for the gameplay. In this we have found a sound solution" - Developer Matt Hergaarden.

"Clearly this is one of the most important things we have worked on, besides the rats of course" - Developer Jos Hoebe

"yeah - that'd be epic" - Character Artist James Chilton

"The new update will be live later today, April 1st 2015" - Developer Mike Hergaarden

"Please study this classic video of great historical accuracy on which this feature has been based" - Historian Don Durandal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2DCExerOsA

Stay tuned for more updates regarding lesser features and bugfixes later this week.

- The Verdun Team