Welcome back to another installment of Verdun’s “Weapon Wednesday”, we use these media updates to tease upcoming content and provide you with an update on the overall state of the games development.
First of all a short announcement: Version 233 is now available for download.


Fusil Automatique Modèle 1917

In 1916 the French army recognised the need to start replacing its outdated (and arguably not so successful) Lebel 1886 rifle. They chose to go with a semi-automatic design, having tried and tested semi-automatic rifles ( for example the Meunier, albeit with some resistance) before the war broke out. The rifle was produced in fairly large numbers, with the production estimate being around 85k by the wars end. It had a 5 round enbloc magazine, and was gas operated, the mechanism is believed to have heavily influenced the design of the famous M1 Garand.



The RSC 17 will offer the french forces some extra firepower vs the overwhelmingly common bolt action rifles, and will be an option for tier 3 Machine Gunners (in place of the chauchat)

Fusil Automatique Modèle 1918

A shorter more compact version of the RSC 17, the RSC 18 started production during the very last weeks of the war. The rifle was absolutely renowned for it’s accuracy and loved by it’s users. Only a small number were made ( around 4000) with most of those being produced after the war.



The rifle will see exclusivity in the Attrition game-mode. It is unsure if it saw action but we figured as it was a quick piece to create, this little beauty was too good not to include.


Development status
On the development front, again we’ve made some great progress in all areas. As seen read above; weapons are still being made and animated (several were completed this week). We are more or less at the end of our list with new weapon being added to the game and animated ( of course, we haven’t shown all these yet! - this is by no means the last Weapon Wednesday!)


Early Work In Progress of the in-game RSC Mle. 1917 animation

The Gore system is also more or less ready to go live, several animations have been completed and polished in the last week and the dismemberment and blood systems have been finalized. In addition we will have recorded additional voice acting for the horrific scenes that will unfold in the game.

On the performance front we just received reinforcements! Industry veteran and isotix lead programmer Nico will be joining us. Having worked with unity extensively in the past few years we can double our efforts in areas like bug squashing and improving performance in the weeks to come.


Game update status
We are on track with deploying the next build to the main branch. We have received positive feedback on the beta branch, solved most of the bugs and will be rolling out a new game version right now. Tomorrow a new version with gore will be available on the beta branch for our closed beta testers. If all goes well, this should set us in motion to get Douaumont and the gore live and released as soon as possible, but for now do please bear with us!


Screenshot of the Week
Observing nomansland in Flanders, 1917.



That will be all for this week. Tune in next week for more where we’ll be unveiling some much sought after firepower.

Welcome back to another installment of Verdun’s “Weapon Wednesday”, we use these media updates to tease upcoming content and provide you with an update on the overall state of the games development.
First of all a short announcement: Version 233 is now available for download.


Fusil Automatique Modèle 1917

In 1916 the French army recognised the need to start replacing its outdated (and arguably not so successful) Lebel 1886 rifle. They chose to go with a semi-automatic design, having tried and tested semi-automatic rifles ( for example the Meunier, albeit with some resistance) before the war broke out. The rifle was produced in fairly large numbers, with the production estimate being around 85k by the wars end. It had a 5 round enbloc magazine, and was gas operated, the mechanism is believed to have heavily influenced the design of the famous M1 Garand.



The RSC 17 will offer the french forces some extra firepower vs the overwhelmingly common bolt action rifles, and will be an option for tier 3 Machine Gunners (in place of the chauchat)

Fusil Automatique Modèle 1918

A shorter more compact version of the RSC 17, the RSC 18 started production during the very last weeks of the war. The rifle was absolutely renowned for it’s accuracy and loved by it’s users. Only a small number were made ( around 4000) with most of those being produced after the war.



The rifle will see exclusivity in the Attrition game-mode. It is unsure if it saw action but we figured as it was a quick piece to create, this little beauty was too good not to include.


Development status
On the development front, again we’ve made some great progress in all areas. As seen read above; weapons are still being made and animated (several were completed this week). We are more or less at the end of our list with new weapon being added to the game and animated ( of course, we haven’t shown all these yet! - this is by no means the last Weapon Wednesday!)


Early Work In Progress of the in-game RSC Mle. 1917 animation

The Gore system is also more or less ready to go live, several animations have been completed and polished in the last week and the dismemberment and blood systems have been finalized. In addition we will have recorded additional voice acting for the horrific scenes that will unfold in the game.

On the performance front we just received reinforcements! Industry veteran and isotix lead programmer Nico will be joining us. Having worked with unity extensively in the past few years we can double our efforts in areas like bug squashing and improving performance in the weeks to come.


Game update status
We are on track with deploying the next build to the main branch. We have received positive feedback on the beta branch, solved most of the bugs and will be rolling out a new game version right now. Tomorrow a new version with gore will be available on the beta branch for our closed beta testers. If all goes well, this should set us in motion to get Douaumont and the gore live and released as soon as possible, but for now do please bear with us!


Screenshot of the Week
Observing nomansland in Flanders, 1917.



That will be all for this week. Tune in next week for more where we’ll be unveiling some much sought after firepower.

Welcome back to another installment of Verdun’s “Weapon Wednesday”, we use these media updates to tease upcoming content and provide you with an update on the overall state of the games development. Today is particularly special as it marks the 97th anniversary of the signing of armistice, effectively the end of the Great War.



It is important for each and every person to understand the sacrifice our servicemen and women have made for us. We live in the world of today largely because of the actions of those who came before us. It is vital we never forget the sacrifices made by these people, regardless of nationality, race, religion, or creed, in all conflicts. They gave their future, so we could have ours.

We will Remember them.


M1909 Hotchkiss “Benét–Mercié”

The Hotchkiss M1909 was one of the machineguns adopted by the U.S in the rearmament of it’s military in 1890-1910. Developed by the French Hotchkiss manufacturer (founded by U.S weapon designer Benjamin Hotchkiss) the Hotchkiss was sold under contract to many nations including the U.K (cavalry/tank use), France, U.S.A, and to a lesser extent, Belgium, Spain, Brazil and Australia. With a 30 round 30-round strip-magazine, the weapon was quite susceptible to mud and dirt and wasn’t ideal for trench warfare. While only around 700 were produced, the U.S had a comparatively small army in 1909, the same year the 30-06 hand crank gatling gun was taken out of service.



The Hotchkiss in game will be used by one of the American squads and potentially also the British Tommies, this is still being decided. Boasting a high rate of fire, but a tricky reload and small magazine, the MG should feel more than at home in the trenches.

Game update status
Excellent reports come in from the 5.3 update tests of last monday. Both Douaumont and other maps seem to run smoothly. We’d like to encourage all active ( and well-behaved!) community members to join our beta testing team. here

We are aiming to go public with this as soon as we sort out the last few issues that were caused by the engine update.

Development status
Aside from promising work with Douaumont in the testing branch, we keep advancing on other fronts as well. The animation crew has been allocated to deal with both the massive amount of new weapons (progressing nicely!) but also with enhancing the immersion of the game - in the addition of death animations. We are planning to launch the gore system alongside fort Douaumont within the fortnight.




Here is a small teaser of one of the ‘slower’ death animations. We are adding many more features this very moment, including dismemberment, screaming and flailing, neck shots and more.




With regards to weapons, we have completed several animations this week. Two recently announced weapons: The Mle. 1892 revolver (which model was teased earlier). What was particularly tricky to create was the fact that, unlike most other revolvers from the time, player has to switch hands in order to reload:



Also spectacular and most fun to use ingame is the M1897 trench gun. This classic firearm can be found in many games and when we implemented it in Verdun it feels like a familiar powerful weapon. The Soon to be formed U.S marine squad will have a blast!




Screenshot of the Week
Gas assault on a sunday day, western front, 1915.



That will be all for this week. Tune in next week for more!

Welcome back to another installment of Verdun’s “Weapon Wednesday”, we use these media updates to tease upcoming content and provide you with an update on the overall state of the games development. Today is particularly special as it marks the 97th anniversary of the signing of armistice, effectively the end of the Great War.



It is important for each and every person to understand the sacrifice our servicemen and women have made for us. We live in the world of today largely because of the actions of those who came before us. It is vital we never forget the sacrifices made by these people, regardless of nationality, race, religion, or creed, in all conflicts. They gave their future, so we could have ours.

We will Remember them.


M1909 Hotchkiss “Benét–Mercié”

The Hotchkiss M1909 was one of the machineguns adopted by the U.S in the rearmament of it’s military in 1890-1910. Developed by the French Hotchkiss manufacturer (founded by U.S weapon designer Benjamin Hotchkiss) the Hotchkiss was sold under contract to many nations including the U.K (cavalry/tank use), France, U.S.A, and to a lesser extent, Belgium, Spain, Brazil and Australia. With a 30 round 30-round strip-magazine, the weapon was quite susceptible to mud and dirt and wasn’t ideal for trench warfare. While only around 700 were produced, the U.S had a comparatively small army in 1909, the same year the 30-06 hand crank gatling gun was taken out of service.



The Hotchkiss in game will be used by one of the American squads and potentially also the British Tommies, this is still being decided. Boasting a high rate of fire, but a tricky reload and small magazine, the MG should feel more than at home in the trenches.

Game update status
Excellent reports come in from the 5.3 update tests of last monday. Both Douaumont and other maps seem to run smoothly. We’d like to encourage all active ( and well-behaved!) community members to join our beta testing team. here

We are aiming to go public with this as soon as we sort out the last few issues that were caused by the engine update.

Development status
Aside from promising work with Douaumont in the testing branch, we keep advancing on other fronts as well. The animation crew has been allocated to deal with both the massive amount of new weapons (progressing nicely!) but also with enhancing the immersion of the game - in the addition of death animations. We are planning to launch the gore system alongside fort Douaumont within the fortnight.




Here is a small teaser of one of the ‘slower’ death animations. We are adding many more features this very moment, including dismemberment, screaming and flailing, neck shots and more.




With regards to weapons, we have completed several animations this week. Two recently announced weapons: The Mle. 1892 revolver (which model was teased earlier). What was particularly tricky to create was the fact that, unlike most other revolvers from the time, player has to switch hands in order to reload:



Also spectacular and most fun to use ingame is the M1897 trench gun. This classic firearm can be found in many games and when we implemented it in Verdun it feels like a familiar powerful weapon. The Soon to be formed U.S marine squad will have a blast!




Screenshot of the Week
Gas assault on a sunday day, western front, 1915.



That will be all for this week. Tune in next week for more!

Welcome back to another installment of Verdun’s “Weapon Wednesday”, we use these media updates to tease upcoming content and provide you with an update on the overall state of the games development.

Stielhandgranate M1917 + Geballte Ladung M1917 6x / 9x
Earlier during the war both French and Germans experimented with explosives tied to wooden sticks. The Germans actually took this concept and created the infamous “stielhandgranate” (stalk hand grenade) line of grenades. While the M1915 which is currently in-game has the simple string taped to the stick, the M1917 model (5.5 sec fuse) used a cap at the bottom of the stick to prevent both humidity from affecting the string and offering better safety (far more difficult to accidentally detonate). The cap had prongs lining the bottom of it to allow for better grip in the muddy trenches.

We have also decided to include 2 “geballte” ladung (concentrated charges), effectively an improvised explosive made by the Germans out of several of the m1917 stick grenades. It was used nearer the end of the war to counter allied tanks. The main disadvantage with these bundled grenades was they could only really be thrown short distances (due to obvious weight issues) and this makes for a far riskier task for the grenadier getting within range of target.



Ingame the updated stielhandgranate and “geballte ladung”s will be in the hands of the German Pionier units. With extra explosive power to deal with enemy strong points. More information about the new units will follow in later installments.

Game update status status
Again our efforts to deal with performance spike issues continues. We have found some issues with the way character art is being loaded from the disk resulting in massive stuttering. To deal with this we are building a new system to render the characters, however there are some engine limitations with this so we are forced to find a work around. As you may have guessed, that does means a slight delay in the performance updates. We expect a performance patch to be able to go live before the weekend if everything works out with the new engine update and loading system. In addition we hope to have dealt with the hike in performance and some bugs related to invincibility as well. The update should also tackle the issue where people are experiencing crashing when loading levels.

For those who didn’t notice, during the halloween sale, rats overran the main menu! This was only visible during the 30th and 31st of October 2015.:



You might consider it a little teaser for the gore update which will in time allow us to create much grittier maps

Game Development Status
Tests last week with the upcoming Fort Douaumont map proved that A) The map is awesome and B) has several issues that need to be resolved. Most importantly we had errors with the way the fort was being rendered, we’ve been exploring fixes for this. Secondly we had to change the way the capturable sectors were ordered. The scenario for Fort Douaumont is the French Assault on the fort on the 22nd of May, 1916. In this assault the French succeeded in capturing some locations on the site. They were violently repelled. In light with this, and gameplay mechanics (fighting down the long hallway proofed a challenge). We decided to change the sectors as to better reflect the fighting and concentrate the battles more around the western side of the fort.


An impression of the massive scale of Douaumont (In-game)

On the weapon front things are advancing well asol, we hope to have finished animating most existing firearms by the this week and then new set in the coming week, ready for trials. One of the latest additions is the hard hitting Reichsrevolver, which due to it’s difficult reload and single action mechanism will certainly be a weapon for the veterans!


Work in progress M1883 reichsrevolver reloading loop

Screenshot of the Week
A British soldier falls victim to poison gas at the Battle of Loos, Artois


That will be all for this week. Tune in next week for more!

Welcome back to another installment of Verdun’s “Weapon Wednesday”, we use these media updates to tease upcoming content and provide you with an update on the overall state of the games development.

Stielhandgranate M1917 + Geballte Ladung M1917 6x / 9x
Earlier during the war both French and Germans experimented with explosives tied to wooden sticks. The Germans actually took this concept and created the infamous “stielhandgranate” (stalk hand grenade) line of grenades. While the M1915 which is currently in-game has the simple string taped to the stick, the M1917 model (5.5 sec fuse) used a cap at the bottom of the stick to prevent both humidity from affecting the string and offering better safety (far more difficult to accidentally detonate). The cap had prongs lining the bottom of it to allow for better grip in the muddy trenches.

We have also decided to include 2 “geballte” ladung (concentrated charges), effectively an improvised explosive made by the Germans out of several of the m1917 stick grenades. It was used nearer the end of the war to counter allied tanks. The main disadvantage with these bundled grenades was they could only really be thrown short distances (due to obvious weight issues) and this makes for a far riskier task for the grenadier getting within range of target.



Ingame the updated stielhandgranate and “geballte ladung”s will be in the hands of the German Pionier units. With extra explosive power to deal with enemy strong points. More information about the new units will follow in later installments.

Game update status status
Again our efforts to deal with performance spike issues continues. We have found some issues with the way character art is being loaded from the disk resulting in massive stuttering. To deal with this we are building a new system to render the characters, however there are some engine limitations with this so we are forced to find a work around. As you may have guessed, that does means a slight delay in the performance updates. We expect a performance patch to be able to go live before the weekend if everything works out with the new engine update and loading system. In addition we hope to have dealt with the hike in performance and some bugs related to invincibility as well. The update should also tackle the issue where people are experiencing crashing when loading levels.

For those who didn’t notice, during the halloween sale, rats overran the main menu! This was only visible during the 30th and 31st of October 2015.:



You might consider it a little teaser for the gore update which will in time allow us to create much grittier maps

Game Development Status
Tests last week with the upcoming Fort Douaumont map proved that A) The map is awesome and B) has several issues that need to be resolved. Most importantly we had errors with the way the fort was being rendered, we’ve been exploring fixes for this. Secondly we had to change the way the capturable sectors were ordered. The scenario for Fort Douaumont is the French Assault on the fort on the 22nd of May, 1916. In this assault the French succeeded in capturing some locations on the site. They were violently repelled. In light with this, and gameplay mechanics (fighting down the long hallway proofed a challenge). We decided to change the sectors as to better reflect the fighting and concentrate the battles more around the western side of the fort.


An impression of the massive scale of Douaumont (In-game)

On the weapon front things are advancing well asol, we hope to have finished animating most existing firearms by the this week and then new set in the coming week, ready for trials. One of the latest additions is the hard hitting Reichsrevolver, which due to it’s difficult reload and single action mechanism will certainly be a weapon for the veterans!


Work in progress M1883 reichsrevolver reloading loop

Screenshot of the Week
A British soldier falls victim to poison gas at the Battle of Loos, Artois


That will be all for this week. Tune in next week for more!

Welcome back to another (belated) Verdun Community Update. This week no weapons (there are plenty to come though!), but the announcement that we will be starting closed beta access to the upcoming map "Douaumont".

To celebrate this, here are two promotional teaser screenshots of a french assault on Fort Douaumont:





Soon you will be able to mount your own assaults on the fort with your squad! Keep an eye out on our facebook page, as in the next few days we will be teasing the map some more!



Game update status: V227 - V230
This week saw major team efforts to crush the bugs introduced with the V227 update. The most critical ones have been fixed in the intermediate V229 and V230 patches. Our work to improve the performance for all players continues. We take the issues some of you have very seriously and it is our main objective to have most of the hick ups sorted out in the next two weeks.



Game Development Status
Obviously the main task of improving performance on all fronts is at the very center of our development cycle. This means that the introduction of gore will also have be paired with a major overhaul of the character LOD system and the way characters are rendered. This should improve performance especially in full matches.

Next to that efforts have gone into developing the new first person animation system and starting the major task of adding all the new animations. In case for instance of the lee-metford:



Many more teasers of the new animations will be coming soon. The development of the new weapons is going pretty smooth.




Screenshot of the Week
Intense grenade warfare in the Argonne sector, supplied by veteran community member "MasterMasco":



That’s all for this update. For all the people in the closed beta group: We will be rolling the update out tomorrow. The rest will have to wait for a little longer. Next week: more weapons. Before that: we have a Halloween surprise in store ;)

Welcome back to another (belated) Verdun Community Update. This week no weapons (there are plenty to come though!), but the announcement that we will be starting closed beta access to the upcoming map "Douaumont".

To celebrate this, here are two promotional teaser screenshots of a french assault on Fort Douaumont:





Soon you will be able to mount your own assaults on the fort with your squad! Keep an eye out on our facebook page, as in the next few days we will be teasing the map some more!



Game update status: V227 - V230
This week saw major team efforts to crush the bugs introduced with the V227 update. The most critical ones have been fixed in the intermediate V229 and V230 patches. Our work to improve the performance for all players continues. We take the issues some of you have very seriously and it is our main objective to have most of the hick ups sorted out in the next two weeks.



Game Development Status
Obviously the main task of improving performance on all fronts is at the very center of our development cycle. This means that the introduction of gore will also have be paired with a major overhaul of the character LOD system and the way characters are rendered. This should improve performance especially in full matches.

Next to that efforts have gone into developing the new first person animation system and starting the major task of adding all the new animations. In case for instance of the lee-metford:



Many more teasers of the new animations will be coming soon. The development of the new weapons is going pretty smooth.




Screenshot of the Week
Intense grenade warfare in the Argonne sector, supplied by veteran community member "MasterMasco":



That’s all for this update. For all the people in the closed beta group: We will be rolling the update out tomorrow. The rest will have to wait for a little longer. Next week: more weapons. Before that: we have a Halloween surprise in store ;)

Welcome back to another installment of Verdun’s “Weapon Wednesday”, we use these media updates to tease upcoming content and provide you with an update on the overall state of the games development.

United States Rifle, cal .30, Model of 1917

When the U.S declared war on Germany in 1917, it was far from being equipped enough to handle a conflict of the scale seen in WW1. The standard issue rifle for the U.S army being the Springfield 1903, there were not enough 1903 rifles around to equip the influx of soldiers that joined the army. The U.S government faced two options, convert its factories creating Pattern 14 rifles for the British to factories capable of creating the Springfield OR simply rechamber the Pattern 14 to the U.S round. The latter option was chosen, it was the quickest, cheapest and easier option to go with - and thus, the P17 came to be. The rifle itself was a successful rifle, boasting decent accuracy and a reasonable rate of fire … though many U.S soldiers would still swear by their 1903 Springfields.



The P17 will be the main battle rifle for the U.S ‘doughboys’ - with reasonable accuracy and a fair rate of fire, this rifle will very much so feel at home in the trenches.

Webley-Scott MKI Model I

The British army had been using revolver style side arms for officers and other units ( artillery etc) for some time. It was very slow to pick up on the idea of a semi-automatic firearm and was seemingly steeped in the traditions of its wars in Africa and other parts of the world … where a hard hitting revolver was all that was needed. While the Webley & Scott only really saw official military issue in other branches of the armed forces (Royal Navy, possible trials in the Flying Corps) the pistol was a popular private purchase weapon for those officers who had the funds available. Chambering the same powerful .455 round as the revolver, and offering 7 rounds for the users disposal it was a marginal improvement on the Webley MKVI


The W&S MKI in game will see a hard hitting round, good rate of fire and reasonable reload speed, but it still falls somewhat short in regards to performance and capacity vs some of the other small arms used within the theatre.

Development status
This week has seen a great deal of effort in implementing the new weapon animation system, as we double down on the new upcoming content with bringing the total weapons to about 60, we have also brought on board another animator to deal with the massive workload. Douaumont has been prepared for launch and we hope to test this in the next few days. Lots of work has been going on in other areas including work on our new night raid scenario map as well as some finalisation of the character gore system.

Game update status: V227
Our main focus this week, however, has been releasing the update. We have had some issues with the new load screen mechanic. Which actually now displays several historical images, maps and high-quality in-game scenario screenshots. Here are some examples of this new system:


Vosges


Picardie


The main menu loading screen will display general information about the war

The information about the sectors is still work in progress, currently the text specifically mentions one playable scenario, but in the future info will be available on numerous historical scenarios. More generic text providing information on the entire frontline sector (such as artois or vosges) will also be added over time.

The full changelog:

• Performance update, should increase performance around 10-20%
  
• New loading screens
  
• Grayscale when you are waiting for spawn no longer pixelated
  
• New LOD system where changing to a lower quality now smoothly fades out instead of harsh popping(does not work on trees)
  
• Unity 5.2
  
• Improved Squad information at minimap to be more accurate
  
• Solved Banning issues where players would get banned when they did not cheat. Overhaul in anti cheat system
  
• New terrain shader which increases overall terrain texture sharpness and a new Parralax Occlusion mapping effect which gives depth to textures.
  
• Better anti piracy protection
  
• Fixed UI issues
  
• Fully fixed deploy exploit(Crouching while deploying is no longer possible)
  
• Tommies Bomber loadout no longer using F1 but Mills

We realise some issues may occur in terms of stuttering as a result of the unity 5.2 upgrade. However overall our observations and calculations have indicated at 20% fps increase. We are working to resolve any issues as fast as we can. We needed to release this update into the public because of the many issues with the banning system and identify any other bugs. We are aware of a good few bugs that need fixing, and will be looking to do so in the next few days. the easiest way for us to go about identifying these bugs and nailing them is to go live - so please bare with us!

Screenshot of the Week
A dramatic defence of a trench in the Ypres salient..


That’s all for this week. Next week we have something special in store for you!

Welcome back to another installment of Verdun’s “Weapon Wednesday”, we use these media updates to tease upcoming content and provide you with an update on the overall state of the games development.

United States Rifle, cal .30, Model of 1917

When the U.S declared war on Germany in 1917, it was far from being equipped enough to handle a conflict of the scale seen in WW1. The standard issue rifle for the U.S army being the Springfield 1903, there were not enough 1903 rifles around to equip the influx of soldiers that joined the army. The U.S government faced two options, convert its factories creating Pattern 14 rifles for the British to factories capable of creating the Springfield OR simply rechamber the Pattern 14 to the U.S round. The latter option was chosen, it was the quickest, cheapest and easier option to go with - and thus, the P17 came to be. The rifle itself was a successful rifle, boasting decent accuracy and a reasonable rate of fire … though many U.S soldiers would still swear by their 1903 Springfields.



The P17 will be the main battle rifle for the U.S ‘doughboys’ - with reasonable accuracy and a fair rate of fire, this rifle will very much so feel at home in the trenches.

Webley-Scott MKI Model I

The British army had been using revolver style side arms for officers and other units ( artillery etc) for some time. It was very slow to pick up on the idea of a semi-automatic firearm and was seemingly steeped in the traditions of its wars in Africa and other parts of the world … where a hard hitting revolver was all that was needed. While the Webley & Scott only really saw official military issue in other branches of the armed forces (Royal Navy, possible trials in the Flying Corps) the pistol was a popular private purchase weapon for those officers who had the funds available. Chambering the same powerful .455 round as the revolver, and offering 7 rounds for the users disposal it was a marginal improvement on the Webley MKVI


The W&S MKI in game will see a hard hitting round, good rate of fire and reasonable reload speed, but it still falls somewhat short in regards to performance and capacity vs some of the other small arms used within the theatre.

Development status
This week has seen a great deal of effort in implementing the new weapon animation system, as we double down on the new upcoming content with bringing the total weapons to about 60, we have also brought on board another animator to deal with the massive workload. Douaumont has been prepared for launch and we hope to test this in the next few days. Lots of work has been going on in other areas including work on our new night raid scenario map as well as some finalisation of the character gore system.

Game update status: V227
Our main focus this week, however, has been releasing the update. We have had some issues with the new load screen mechanic. Which actually now displays several historical images, maps and high-quality in-game scenario screenshots. Here are some examples of this new system:


Vosges


Picardie


The main menu loading screen will display general information about the war

The information about the sectors is still work in progress, currently the text specifically mentions one playable scenario, but in the future info will be available on numerous historical scenarios. More generic text providing information on the entire frontline sector (such as artois or vosges) will also be added over time.

The full changelog:

• Performance update, should increase performance around 10-20%
  
• New loading screens
  
• Grayscale when you are waiting for spawn no longer pixelated
  
• New LOD system where changing to a lower quality now smoothly fades out instead of harsh popping(does not work on trees)
  
• Unity 5.2
  
• Improved Squad information at minimap to be more accurate
  
• Solved Banning issues where players would get banned when they did not cheat. Overhaul in anti cheat system
  
• New terrain shader which increases overall terrain texture sharpness and a new Parralax Occlusion mapping effect which gives depth to textures.
  
• Better anti piracy protection
  
• Fixed UI issues
  
• Fully fixed deploy exploit(Crouching while deploying is no longer possible)
  
• Tommies Bomber loadout no longer using F1 but Mills

We realise some issues may occur in terms of stuttering as a result of the unity 5.2 upgrade. However overall our observations and calculations have indicated at 20% fps increase. We are working to resolve any issues as fast as we can. We needed to release this update into the public because of the many issues with the banning system and identify any other bugs. We are aware of a good few bugs that need fixing, and will be looking to do so in the next few days. the easiest way for us to go about identifying these bugs and nailing them is to go live - so please bare with us!

Screenshot of the Week
A dramatic defence of a trench in the Ypres salient..


That’s all for this week. Next week we have something special in store for you!