Players of Verdun, we have some great news!

Today we have concluded most of the work of conversion to the brand new unity 5 engine. We are very excited as the new engine is a lot faster and better looking. Unity 5 uses so called "Physically Based Shading" (short: PBR), this means that surfaces are lit and reflect based on actual physical properties. This is most evident in the characters and really makes the all the details really come out more. Overall lighting and shading improvements can also be seen, most notably on the Flanders map. More advanced Screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO) and motion blur are now also noticable and bring the graphics to live. Unity 5 also offers a new way of audio management and this enhances the immersion even further, we hope to expand its use in the future. First reports indicate that the performance has increased dramatically for the participants of the beta branch which we deployed in the past month for the testing.




But that is far from all.
Besides working on the conversion to the new engine and all effort that went into that, we also continued to upgrade the gameplay. Some major improvements have been implemented in this area:

Supression
Players will now receive suppression when they are under fire. Their screen becomes fuzzy and desaturated and aiming becomes tougher.

Shell shock
When an explosion occurs nearby, the screen will be shaking and aiming will be thrown off. In addition the particle FX for grenades and mortars has been greatly improved as well as the audio effect.

Weapon sway overhaul
Weapons now have more realistic sway with the front sight (the arm that is holding the rifle or gun) now sways as a whole.

Private Matches
This long awaited and requested feature has now been implemented as well. it is possible to set up a private server (both Frontlines and Rifle deathmatch), with administrators and several commands as well to organize clan matches (such as restarting a round, changing maps).


Besides these new features we have also put a massive effort into fixing bugs. Most notably the many connection and matchmaking issues have been addressed. The changelog can be found below, it also includes smaller features such as a brightness/gamma setting and gas lethality increase.

While this was a major step forward in the development of the game, we are not 'dun yet and the current build will undoubtedly include some bugs or missing features . We greatly appreciate all the players who have put faith in the project and participate in the the early access program. We would very much like to work with you to prepare the game .

For those who want a Q&A with us, we will be holding a live twitch stream event. Today, 15th of Jan, 8PM GMT+1. http://www.twitch.tv/verdungame




15 January 2015

• Unity5 engine upgrade!
  
  • PBR graphics, the game looks way cooler!
    
  • Audio improvements
    
  • Performance: Various notable performance improvements: PhysX, Rendering, better use of multicore
    
  • Greatly improved shadow distance
    
  • For more information, see: http://unity3d.com/5
• Added private matches option to allow clans to set up matches (Both RDM and Frontlines game mode).
  
• Added camshake/headbobbing
  
• Surpression&Shock effects when a bullet/grenade almost hits you
  
• Weapon sway now correct at the front instead of the back
  
• Motionblur effect added
  
• Fixed not unlockable tier of jaeger and Chausseur squad.
  
• "Play Now" much improved matchmaking
  
• Aiming sensitivity option saved correctly
  
• Fix for users connecting with a high ping
  
• Control page scrollable
  
• Body drop sounds
  
• Contract/brightness/gamma settings
  
• Added value label for mouse sens.
  
• Fixed reloading/interrupt exploit
  
• Added (Debug) Option to change network traffic amount. Default = 70%, Setting it to 100% can reduce laggy movements of other players. Set it to 30% if you experience disconnects.
  
• Added an option to enable CRC check after a disconnection, will help on bad connections.
  
• Fixes players getting stuck forever when a spawnrequest failed
  
• Network stability improved and more logging
  
• Fix for "Gameserver did not add local player"
  
• Various graphics improved
  
• Artillery FX & sounds improved
  
• Tweaked postfx: SSAO, HDR, Anti aliasing
  
• Sound culling improved
  
• Fixed: MG animation stood still while sprinting
  
• Gas more deadly

Players of Verdun, we have some great news!

Today we have concluded most of the work of conversion to the brand new unity 5 engine. We are very excited as the new engine is a lot faster and better looking. Unity 5 uses so called "Physically Based Shading" (short: PBR), this means that surfaces are lit and reflect based on actual physical properties. This is most evident in the characters and really makes the all the details really come out more. Overall lighting and shading improvements can also be seen, most notably on the Flanders map. More advanced Screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO) and motion blur are now also noticable and bring the graphics to live. Unity 5 also offers a new way of audio management and this enhances the immersion even further, we hope to expand its use in the future. First reports indicate that the performance has increased dramatically for the participants of the beta branch which we deployed in the past month for the testing.




But that is far from all.
Besides working on the conversion to the new engine and all effort that went into that, we also continued to upgrade the gameplay. Some major improvements have been implemented in this area:

Supression
Players will now receive suppression when they are under fire. Their screen becomes fuzzy and desaturated and aiming becomes tougher.

Shell shock
When an explosion occurs nearby, the screen will be shaking and aiming will be thrown off. In addition the particle FX for grenades and mortars has been greatly improved as well as the audio effect.

Weapon sway overhaul
Weapons now have more realistic sway with the front sight (the arm that is holding the rifle or gun) now sways as a whole.

Private Matches
This long awaited and requested feature has now been implemented as well. it is possible to set up a private server (both Frontlines and Rifle deathmatch), with administrators and several commands as well to organize clan matches (such as restarting a round, changing maps).


Besides these new features we have also put a massive effort into fixing bugs. Most notably the many connection and matchmaking issues have been addressed. The changelog can be found below, it also includes smaller features such as a brightness/gamma setting and gas lethality increase.

While this was a major step forward in the development of the game, we are not 'dun yet and the current build will undoubtedly include some bugs or missing features . We greatly appreciate all the players who have put faith in the project and participate in the the early access program. We would very much like to work with you to prepare the game .

For those who want a Q&A with us, we will be holding a live twitch stream event. Today, 15th of Jan, 8PM GMT+1. http://www.twitch.tv/verdungame




15 January 2015

• Unity5 engine upgrade!
  
  • PBR graphics, the game looks way cooler!
    
  • Audio improvements
    
  • Performance: Various notable performance improvements: PhysX, Rendering, better use of multicore
    
  • Greatly improved shadow distance
    
  • For more information, see: http://unity3d.com/5
• Added private matches option to allow clans to set up matches (Both RDM and Frontlines game mode).
  
• Added camshake/headbobbing
  
• Surpression&Shock effects when a bullet/grenade almost hits you
  
• Weapon sway now correct at the front instead of the back
  
• Motionblur effect added
  
• Fixed not unlockable tier of jaeger and Chausseur squad.
  
• "Play Now" much improved matchmaking
  
• Aiming sensitivity option saved correctly
  
• Fix for users connecting with a high ping
  
• Control page scrollable
  
• Body drop sounds
  
• Contract/brightness/gamma settings
  
• Added value label for mouse sens.
  
• Fixed reloading/interrupt exploit
  
• Added (Debug) Option to change network traffic amount. Default = 70%, Setting it to 100% can reduce laggy movements of other players. Set it to 30% if you experience disconnects.
  
• Added an option to enable CRC check after a disconnection, will help on bad connections.
  
• Fixes players getting stuck forever when a spawnrequest failed
  
• Network stability improved and more logging
  
• Fix for "Gameserver did not add local player"
  
• Various graphics improved
  
• Artillery FX & sounds improved
  
• Tweaked postfx: SSAO, HDR, Anti aliasing
  
• Sound culling improved
  
• Fixed: MG animation stood still while sprinting
  
• Gas more deadly

A 100 years ago French, German and British troops while fighting in world war I held truces during Christmas 1914. They exchanged Christmas greetings, sang Christmas carols and rumours say that they played a few football matches.

In the game Verdun we will celebrate this remarkable event by reproducing a similar scene from December 18 – 25 2014.

In between your fearsome matches there will be a Truce event where you can find soldiers dressed for the winter, join football matches and throw snowballs at each other. You might even spot a Scottish soldier that will appear in-game just for this event.

We will enforce these in-game activities, by setting up some competitions where you can win Verdun Christmas packages and even offer a nice discount for your friends to join in.

Competitions:

• 19 December; a YouTube Christmas Truce video contest for the best video about this event
  
• 20 December; a Steam Hub screenshot competition for the best in-game Christmas Truce screenshot
  
• 21 December; a Twitch TV giveaway for the Verdun streamers
  
• 22 December; a Twitter competition for the best WW1 Christmas carol text twittered @VerdunGame
  
• 23 December; a Facebook Christmas Card contest for the most entertaining Verdun best wishes card
  
  Submission will last until the 24th 10am Eastern time (GMT-5), winners will be announced on the 25th of December 2014. More information can be found on Steam.
  
  We hope you will enjoy the Holidays as much as we will!

A 100 years ago French, German and British troops while fighting in world war I held truces during Christmas 1914. They exchanged Christmas greetings, sang Christmas carols and rumours say that they played a few football matches.

In the game Verdun we will celebrate this remarkable event by reproducing a similar scene from December 18 – 25 2014.

In between your fearsome matches there will be a Truce event where you can find soldiers dressed for the winter, join football matches and throw snowballs at each other. You might even spot a Scottish soldier that will appear in-game just for this event.

We will enforce these in-game activities, by setting up some competitions where you can win Verdun Christmas packages and even offer a nice discount for your friends to join in.

Competitions:

• 19 December; a YouTube Christmas Truce video contest for the best video about this event
  
• 20 December; a Steam Hub screenshot competition for the best in-game Christmas Truce screenshot
  
• 21 December; a Twitch TV giveaway for the Verdun streamers
  
• 22 December; a Twitter competition for the best WW1 Christmas carol text twittered @VerdunGame
  
• 23 December; a Facebook Christmas Card contest for the most entertaining Verdun best wishes card

Submission will last until the 24th 10am Eastern time (GMT-5), winners will be announced on the 25th of December 2014. More information can be found on Steam.

We hope you will enjoy the Holidays as much as we will!

It took a bit longer than expected but v173 is now finally live. It introduces a new camera system which improves the image stability reducing Z-fighting and other shadow artifacts. Furthermore squad creation ingame is now possible and should help with balancing the games. These are just some highlights, for the full changelog please see:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/242860/discussions/0/613936039432728350/

We are also trying out to switch our project to Unity5 beta which brings a lot of cool new stuff. It will improve physics performance and has the possibility for PBR which really should boost graphics. If the beta is stable enough we will build with it. Check out the Unity 5 features preview:

http://unity3d.com/5

It took a bit longer than expected but v173 is now finally live. It introduces a new camera system which improves the image stability reducing Z-fighting and other shadow artifacts. Furthermore squad creation ingame is now possible and should help with balancing the games. These are just some highlights, for the full changelog please see:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/242860/discussions/0/613936039432728350/

We are also trying out to switch our project to Unity5 beta which brings a lot of cool new stuff. It will improve physics performance and has the possibility for PBR which really should boost graphics. If the beta is stable enough we will build with it. Check out the Unity 5 features preview:

http://unity3d.com/5

A day after the 96th anniversary of the end of the war on the 11th of November 1918, we launch another update. It's a big one as we bunched up quite some tweaks and improvements.

Most noticeable is the inclusion of Manual bolting as an option. Based on community feedback we decided that it would very fitting to include as a preference for the more realism focused players.

Secondly the spawn code received a big overhaul. We wanted players to go over the top together as a team so we introduced several measures to make sure people spawn together better and more efficient. Also it is now rewarding to advance as a squad NCO as you will earn points for spawning fellow squadmates near or in the enemy trenchlines. In addition you will be in formed when squadmembers are able spawn near you.

Another badly needed feature was the inclusion of the stamina bar and stance indicator (bottom right corner) which will make the spurts across nomansland more user friendly.

We also made the first steps of improving the prone, jump en deploy mechanics. These are heavily work in progress and we invite you to join us in polishing these, there will be small hotfixes in the the coming days to address the issues that may have arisen.

We want to thank all of Verdun's early access adopters for participating and we hope to join you in the trenches sometime!

- The Verdun team

November 12th 2014

• New: manual bolting as an option
  
• New: stamina bar display (bottom right)
  
• New: stance display (bottom right)
  
• New: in-game quit button will now ask for confirmation
  
• New: you can no longer switch to the different side if it's outnumbering the other side +3 players
  
• New: "over the top"-spawning. Players are now massed together before attacking
  
• New: "over the top"-spawning for defensive squads as well, 10 seconds (was 5 always)
  
• New: Successfully spawning a squad member in or near the enemy sectors will you points. (0 - 15 xp depending on the distance)
  
• New: Spawn protection, now 2 seconds
  
• New: At the start of the round, defenders spawn inside of the defending sector
  
• Tweaked: spawning attacker waves time slightly increased (3 seconds) to create more volume
  
• Tweaked: now always spawning with the most advanced squad member
  
• New: spawn indicator, which informs squad NCO's and other spawnable teammembers of pending squad reinforcements
  
• Tweaked Map - Argonne: Added more spawns and cover, especially the final sectors received tweaking
  
• Tweaked Map - Vosges: Added more cover and spawns in final sectors, some obstacles on the right flank
  
• Tweaked Map - Picardie: Massive increase in spawns, more tactical, some cover changes in the last german artillery sectors
  
• Tweaked Map - Artois: More cover in final sectors, deeper craters in nomanslands, more spawns
  
• New: ragdoll improved greatly (no more T-pose)
  
• New: added better prone block detection
  
• New: Audio options menu allows you to change audio settings (Stereo, 5.1 etc.)
  
• New: Clicking on playername in mainmenu will open the account page
  
• Fixed: overlapping text when attacking and defending sides switch
  
• Improved: ladder climbing
  
• New: second set of german voices
  
• New: win/lose music for entente and central powers
  
• Improved: tab colours for option screen buttons
  
• Fixed: free for all position being displayed twice in HUD
  
• Tweaked: lebel and lewis sights
  
• Fixed: problem with airplanes on argonne and picardie
  
• New: correct minimap for artois
  
• Fixed: issues with joining steam friends
  
• Fixed: joining friends through steam overlay
  
• Fixed: hipfire third person movement aim fix
  
• Fixed: rifle deathmatch spawn direction fix
  
• Fixed: first person water reflection fix
  
• Fixed: respawn & wave times based on server times
  
• New: added option to remove game tips
  
• Fixed: fixed control options menu scroll bar
  
• Fixed: fixed issues with australian server connection
  
• Fixed: fixed ladder step jitter issue
  
• Improved: increased bolt action recoil
  
• New: added better jumping detection
  
• Known issue: deploying has not improved and will need to be tweaked further.
  
• Known issue: jumping animation is twitchy.

A day after the 96th anniversary of the end of the war on the 11th of November 1918, we launch another update. It's a big one as we bunched up quite some tweaks and improvements.

Most noticeable is the inclusion of Manual bolting as an option. Based on community feedback we decided that it would very fitting to include as a preference for the more realism focused players.

Secondly the spawn code received a big overhaul. We wanted players to go over the top together as a team so we introduced several measures to make sure people spawn together better and more efficient. Also it is now rewarding to advance as a squad NCO as you will earn points for spawning fellow squadmates near or in the enemy trenchlines. In addition you will be in formed when squadmembers are able spawn near you.

Another badly needed feature was the inclusion of the stamina bar and stance indicator (bottom right corner) which will make the spurts across nomansland more user friendly.

We also made the first steps of improving the prone, jump en deploy mechanics. These are heavily work in progress and we invite you to join us in polishing these, there will be small hotfixes in the the coming days to address the issues that may have arisen.

We want to thank all of Verdun's early access adopters for participating and we hope to join you in the trenches sometime!

- The Verdun team

November 12th 2014

• New: manual bolting as an option
  
• New: stamina bar display (bottom right)
  
• New: stance display (bottom right)
  
• New: in-game quit button will now ask for confirmation
  
• New: you can no longer switch to the different side if it's outnumbering the other side +3 players
  
• New: "over the top"-spawning. Players are now massed together before attacking
  
• New: "over the top"-spawning for defensive squads as well, 10 seconds (was 5 always)
  
• New: Successfully spawning a squad member in or near the enemy sectors will you points. (0 - 15 xp depending on the distance)
  
• New: Spawn protection, now 2 seconds
  
• New: At the start of the round, defenders spawn inside of the defending sector
  
• Tweaked: spawning attacker waves time slightly increased (3 seconds) to create more volume
  
• Tweaked: now always spawning with the most advanced squad member
  
• New: spawn indicator, which informs squad NCO's and other spawnable teammembers of pending squad reinforcements
  
• Tweaked Map - Argonne: Added more spawns and cover, especially the final sectors received tweaking
  
• Tweaked Map - Vosges: Added more cover and spawns in final sectors, some obstacles on the right flank
  
• Tweaked Map - Picardie: Massive increase in spawns, more tactical, some cover changes in the last german artillery sectors
  
• Tweaked Map - Artois: More cover in final sectors, deeper craters in nomanslands, more spawns
  
• New: ragdoll improved greatly (no more T-pose)
  
• New: added better prone block detection
  
• New: Audio options menu allows you to change audio settings (Stereo, 5.1 etc.)
  
• New: Clicking on playername in mainmenu will open the account page
  
• Fixed: overlapping text when attacking and defending sides switch
  
• Improved: ladder climbing
  
• New: second set of german voices
  
• New: win/lose music for entente and central powers
  
• Improved: tab colours for option screen buttons
  
• Fixed: free for all position being displayed twice in HUD
  
• Tweaked: lebel and lewis sights
  
• Fixed: problem with airplanes on argonne and picardie
  
• New: correct minimap for artois
  
• Fixed: issues with joining steam friends
  
• Fixed: joining friends through steam overlay
  
• Fixed: hipfire third person movement aim fix
  
• Fixed: rifle deathmatch spawn direction fix
  
• Fixed: first person water reflection fix
  
• Fixed: respawn & wave times based on server times
  
• New: added option to remove game tips
  
• Fixed: fixed control options menu scroll bar
  
• Fixed: fixed issues with australian server connection
  
• Fixed: fixed ladder step jitter issue
  
• Improved: increased bolt action recoil
  
• New: added better jumping detection
  
• Known issue: deploying has not improved and will need to be tweaked further.
  
• Known issue: jumping animation is twitchy.

We've just just launched another big update, which addresses quite some wishes of the community. First of all, we added an in-game tutorial which will help new players to discover our unique features.

Another important improvement is the matchmaking: since the squads decide where people can join they were the major hurdle in evening up matches. This has been solved by allowing "play now" to create in-game squads right away.

On the community forums the topic of an adjustable FOV had been coming up more often. Especially since some players experience health issues on lower FOVs we decided to add this new setting to the game.

Last but not least: even more requested then the FOV setting was an Oceanic based server, since these players could not properly play on any existing server. We have now added an Australian based server! If you're the first squad to feet on on this new promised land, stay put for a while, it'll fill up :).

Thank you for playing Verdun and helping us shape the game!

v170

• Added an Australian server, replacing Asia/Japan for now. We now offer: EU, US, Australia.
  
• We added a short&simple tutorial for the first time opening the game. After that, any further help can be found in the options menu. We'll be adding more help/tooltips in the future.
  
• FOV can now be changed in the graphics options
  
• "PLAY NOW" will now automatically create a new squad in an existing game. This should help improve the matckmaking a lot.
  
• Squads will reserve the slots for all squadmates, preventing a kick if someone is joining on a slot while a previous squadmate was still loading.
  
• Improved picardie trench line boundaries: Will no longer say you're deserting while still defending inside your trench.
  
• Rifles now have more visual recoil
  
• Accidentally moving outside of the map while retreating is now 'fair', does not set timer to low
  
• Slightly adjusted the cover in the last sectors on Argonne
  
• Buffed melee: bash max. 2 hits to kill instead of 3
  
• Improved rendering performance in Flanders and Vosges
  
• Squad inventory display bug (after switching) fixed
  
• Added distance based retreat time (It is no longer impossible to retreat with just 10 seconds)
  
• Added a "Show game tips" option (enabled by default).
  
• Ping kick improved: it was too strict and will now wait and see if your ping recovers.
  
• CENTRAL POWERS HAS BEEN -> HAVE BEEN
  
• Score list ping updates better (was displaying 100 incorrectly for too long)
  
• Sniper scopes improved
  
• Empty squad bug fixed, will now properly be removed.
  
• Fixed: Sometimes there was no loading screen while loading the next map
  
• Fixed one specific peaceful barbed wire, made it angry.
  
• Wattle model graphics improved
  
• Fixed greyscale effect, no longer pixelated.

The full up to date changelog can be found here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/242860/discussions/0/613936039432728350/

We've just just launched another big update, which addresses quite some wishes of the community. First of all, we added an in-game tutorial which will help new players to discover our unique features.

Another important improvement is the matchmaking: since the squads decide where people can join they were the major hurdle in evening up matches. This has been solved by allowing "play now" to create in-game squads right away.

On the community forums the topic of an adjustable FOV had been coming up more often. Especially since some players experience health issues on lower FOVs we decided to add this new setting to the game.

Last but not least: even more requested then the FOV setting was an Oceanic based server, since these players could not properly play on any existing server. We have now added an Australian based server! If you're the first squad to feet on on this new promised land, stay put for a while, it'll fill up :).

Thank you for playing Verdun and helping us shape the game!

v170

• Added an Australian server, replacing Asia/Japan for now. We now offer: EU, US, Australia.
  
• We added a short&simple tutorial for the first time opening the game. After that, any further help can be found in the options menu. We'll be adding more help/tooltips in the future.
  
• FOV can now be changed in the graphics options
  
• "PLAY NOW" will now automatically create a new squad in an existing game. This should help improve the matckmaking a lot.
  
• Squads will reserve the slots for all squadmates, preventing a kick if someone is joining on a slot while a previous squadmate was still loading.
  
• Improved picardie trench line boundaries: Will no longer say you're deserting while still defending inside your trench.
  
• Rifles now have more visual recoil
  
• Accidentally moving outside of the map while retreating is now 'fair', does not set timer to low
  
• Slightly adjusted the cover in the last sectors on Argonne
  
• Buffed melee: bash max. 2 hits to kill instead of 3
  
• Improved rendering performance in Flanders and Vosges
  
• Squad inventory display bug (after switching) fixed
  
• Added distance based retreat time (It is no longer impossible to retreat with just 10 seconds)
  
• Added a "Show game tips" option (enabled by default).
  
• Ping kick improved: it was too strict and will now wait and see if your ping recovers.
  
• CENTRAL POWERS HAS BEEN -> HAVE BEEN
  
• Score list ping updates better (was displaying 100 incorrectly for too long)
  
• Sniper scopes improved
  
• Empty squad bug fixed, will now properly be removed.
  
• Fixed: Sometimes there was no loading screen while loading the next map
  
• Fixed one specific peaceful barbed wire, made it angry.
  
• Wattle model graphics improved
  
• Fixed greyscale effect, no longer pixelated.

The full up to date changelog can be found here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/242860/discussions/0/613936039432728350/