Welcome back to another Frontline News! There’s a historical battle planned this weekend by the community, and a survey for Verdun veterans and newbies alike! If you want to have your say about Verdun’s future direction (and the direction of the WW1 Game Series as a whole) then the survey is open right now.



There was a great response to our Tannenberg Survey, and more than a few people asking for an equivalent Verdun Survey… so we put one together!
You can fill out the Verdun Survey right now. We’re looking forward to getting more awesome feedback :)

Another community organized historical battle is on the way! You can sign up now for the upcoming historical battle, to be held next Sunday, April 8. Read about the details and sign up in this thread.

If you’re not familiar with these historical battles, the basic concept is that players sign up and agree to follow rules about using certain roles and weapons, and most importantly following orders from superiors. This allows more organized and focused ‘set-piece’ battles - one of our devs joined the last Verdun battle and made some GIFs of the experience. Here's one:



The x64 group don't only run historical battles - they also organize casual events and more. This post explains it all. Take a look if you're interested in joining an organized battle :)



It's not strictly Verdun news, but this latest gun teaser for Tannenberg was too cool not to share! The Roth-Steyr M1907 was the first semi-automatic pistol adopted by a branch of a major land army. It stands out with the long bolt and integral 10 round magazine loaded from the top with stripper clips.



Thanks to our player echo1 once more for their amazing combat photography (the first image in this post), and we'll see you again for the next Frontline News!

Welcome back to another Frontline News! There’s a historical battle planned this weekend by the community, and a survey for Verdun veterans and newbies alike! If you want to have your say about Verdun’s future direction (and the direction of the WW1 Game Series as a whole) then the survey is open right now.



There was a great response to our Tannenberg Survey, and more than a few people asking for an equivalent Verdun Survey… so we put one together!
You can fill out the Verdun Survey right now. We’re looking forward to getting more awesome feedback :)

Another community organized historical battle is on the way! You can sign up now for the upcoming historical battle, to be held next Sunday, April 8. Read about the details and sign up in this thread.

If you’re not familiar with these historical battles, the basic concept is that players sign up and agree to follow rules about using certain roles and weapons, and most importantly following orders from superiors. This allows more organized and focused ‘set-piece’ battles - one of our devs joined the last Verdun battle and made some GIFs of the experience. Here's one:



The x64 group don't only run historical battles - they also organize casual events and more. This post explains it all. Take a look if you're interested in joining an organized battle :)



It's not strictly Verdun news, but this latest gun teaser for Tannenberg was too cool not to share! The Roth-Steyr M1907 was the first semi-automatic pistol adopted by a branch of a major land army. It stands out with the long bolt and integral 10 round magazine loaded from the top with stripper clips.



Thanks to our player echo1 once more for their amazing combat photography (the first image in this post), and we'll see you again for the next Frontline News!

A move to a new version of Unity should bring performance improvements, and if you’d like to take part in a historically focused Battle of the Somme within Verdun, you’ll be able to this weekend!

First, a quick reminder that if you run into any bugs, please submit them here: https://verdun.userecho.com/
It helps us keep everything organized and lets us focus on the most serious bugs which are affecting the most people!

Unity Update
We recently released new updates for Verdun and Tannenberg - now that they share the same code base it allows us to do these kinds of simultaneous updates much more easily. Both games will benefit from our move to the latest version of Unity - in our tests we’ve seen low-end machines getting around a 10% performance boost, and some high-end machines get up to a 25% improvement.

Sprinting
You will also be able to stop to aim or crouch while sprinting, then return to sprinting without needing to repress the sprint key - we’re hoping this and similar changes in the future can make movement feel more natural and fluid. Let us know your thoughts if you’ve noticed this change!



Bots and more!
Bot aiming behaviour has been tweaked so they should be less ‘jittery’, and they won’t be aiming down the sights unless they can see an enemy. We’ve also fixed a couple of weapon animations and an issue with invisible flamethrower flames that some people were reporting, and we switched to Fullscreen Windowed rather than Fullscreen Exclusive, which fixes a freeze issue, improves alt-tabbing, and solves a Unity screen focus problem.
You can read the full changelog here.

A group of our players is setting up another pair of 64 player historical battle events, this time for the Battle of the Somme! You can read about the rules for the match here, and join the group if you’re interested! In short, players commit to using particular classes and weapons, and then following the orders of a commander and their NCOs. This allows actions like coordinated bayonet charges and a general sense of being part of a more organized battle.



Here’s a photo of the French team from a previous historical battle, and another one from the German perspective during the battle. A European match is scheduled for Friday 16, and a US match on Saturday 17.



The Overpowered Noobs E4I Verdun World Cup has its penultimate qualifier coming up tomorrow! For an overview of the teams competing, check out this preview piece by caster Soren Patton. The action will be broadcast live on Twitch - best of luck to all the participants!

Follow us on Facebook or Twitter for news and interesting history snippets until our next Frontline News post, or talk with us on Discord!

A move to a new version of Unity should bring performance improvements, and if you’d like to take part in a historically focused Battle of the Somme within Verdun, you’ll be able to this weekend!

First, a quick reminder that if you run into any bugs, please submit them here: https://verdun.userecho.com/
It helps us keep everything organized and lets us focus on the most serious bugs which are affecting the most people!

Unity Update
We recently released new updates for Verdun and Tannenberg - now that they share the same code base it allows us to do these kinds of simultaneous updates much more easily. Both games will benefit from our move to the latest version of Unity - in our tests we’ve seen low-end machines getting around a 10% performance boost, and some high-end machines get up to a 25% improvement.

Sprinting
You will also be able to stop to aim or crouch while sprinting, then return to sprinting without needing to repress the sprint key - we’re hoping this and similar changes in the future can make movement feel more natural and fluid. Let us know your thoughts if you’ve noticed this change!



Bots and more!
Bot aiming behaviour has been tweaked so they should be less ‘jittery’, and they won’t be aiming down the sights unless they can see an enemy. We’ve also fixed a couple of weapon animations and an issue with invisible flamethrower flames that some people were reporting, and we switched to Fullscreen Windowed rather than Fullscreen Exclusive, which fixes a freeze issue, improves alt-tabbing, and solves a Unity screen focus problem.
You can read the full changelog here.

A group of our players is setting up another pair of 64 player historical battle events, this time for the Battle of the Somme! You can read about the rules for the match here, and join the group if you’re interested! In short, players commit to using particular classes and weapons, and then following the orders of a commander and their NCOs. This allows actions like coordinated bayonet charges and a general sense of being part of a more organized battle.



Here’s a photo of the French team from a previous historical battle, and another one from the German perspective during the battle. A European match is scheduled for Friday 16, and a US match on Saturday 17.



The Overpowered Noobs E4I Verdun World Cup has its penultimate qualifier coming up tomorrow! For an overview of the teams competing, check out this preview piece by caster Soren Patton. The action will be broadcast live on Twitch - best of luck to all the participants!

Follow us on Facebook or Twitter for news and interesting history snippets until our next Frontline News post, or talk with us on Discord!

We’ve been working hard on performance since the last Frontline News, though of course not everyone on our team is a programmer, so we have some new sounds to show off alongside our other news…


^screenshot by player [INEGRONI]MASTERMASCO^

If you didn’t know, Verdun and Tannenberg are made in Unity. This means that when Unity releases updates, both good and bad things can happen with our code - luckily, this time it’s all good!

In short, the latest Unity update fixes some issues and makes some improvements which should have a big impact on performance. Combined with work we’ve been doing on how ragdolls are handled, we’re looking at perhaps a 20-25% improvement in performance - this will depend on the exact combination of hardware you’re using, of course.

There is still more work to be done to get everything ship-shape, but we’re hoping to be able to roll out this update soon!

On the topic of teasers, check out these five new weapon sounds, all recorded from real guns!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNODFxU7YHw&feature=youtu.be
These new sounds will also come along with a new sound system, which among other things should make it easier to get a sense of where sounds are coming from in the environment around you.



This Friday at 4:00 PM CET we are going to be trying out a new feature on Steam - live streaming from our Steam Store page! If you’re interested in watching us play and chat about Verdun, just visit the Verdun Store Page. Both through a web browser or inside the Steam app itself will work fine.
We hope to see you there!

Keep an eye on our Steam news (follow us if you like) or watch for our announcements on Facebook or Twitter to hear about our next Frontline News post.

We’ve been working hard on performance since the last Frontline News, though of course not everyone on our team is a programmer, so we have some new sounds to show off alongside our other news…


^screenshot by player [INEGRONI]MASTERMASCO^

If you didn’t know, Verdun and Tannenberg are made in Unity. This means that when Unity releases updates, both good and bad things can happen with our code - luckily, this time it’s all good!

In short, the latest Unity update fixes some issues and makes some improvements which should have a big impact on performance. Combined with work we’ve been doing on how ragdolls are handled, we’re looking at perhaps a 20-25% improvement in performance - this will depend on the exact combination of hardware you’re using, of course.

There is still more work to be done to get everything ship-shape, but we’re hoping to be able to roll out this update soon!

On the topic of teasers, check out these five new weapon sounds, all recorded from real guns!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNODFxU7YHw&feature=youtu.be
These new sounds will also come along with a new sound system, which among other things should make it easier to get a sense of where sounds are coming from in the environment around you.



This Friday at 4:00 PM CET we are going to be trying out a new feature on Steam - live streaming from our Steam Store page! If you’re interested in watching us play and chat about Verdun, just visit the Verdun Store Page. Both through a web browser or inside the Steam app itself will work fine.
We hope to see you there!

Keep an eye on our Steam news (follow us if you like) or watch for our announcements on Facebook or Twitter to hear about our next Frontline News post.

For today’s Frontline News we have some cool events for you, one official and one player organized, along with a chance to get Verdun in a special Humble Bundle!

The next qualifier round in the Verdun World Cup tournament being run by The Overpowered Noobs is coming up this Saturday February 10! You will be able to watch the action live on their Twitch stream! Pro caster Soren Patten has a great write-up introducing the teams who will be competing on the OPN website.
Which team are you supporting?



If you’re interested in joining a clan for some more organized play, you could do a lot worse than Sturm-Bataillon Nr. 2! We posted one of their trailers on our social media recently, and if you didn’t see it it’s definitely worth taking a look on YouTube.

A group of Verdun players are running a historical battle scenario on February Sunday 18! It will be a 32 vs 32 player battle on the Argonne map, with friendly fire and with players expected to take specific squads and loadouts in order to replicate the actual battle for the Argonne.

Each side has a commander, who gives orders to the whole team and leads them. Soldiers and NCOs alike have to obey his orders, with NCOs and the commander allowed to shoot soldiers that disobey orders.
The event will be held on the 18h of February. Start time will be 7 PM German time or 7 PM CET. If you want to take part in an epic battle, add your name to the list below. There are 49 participants so far!
https://doodle.com/poll/w2vh5wdbqtm2tzs2



We’re proud to say that Verdun is part of the Humble Bundle’s Best of 2017 bundle! You can get Verdun and seven other great games selected from various bundles from across the course of 2017. Take a look!



That’s it for now. The screenshots above were made by our player echo1, a very talented frontline photographer! If you have some cool shots of your own, upload them on Steam, or post them on our Twitter and tag us so we can retweet our favorites!
Keep an eye on our Steam news (follow us if you like) or watch for our announcements on Facebook or Twitter to hear about our next Frontline News post.

For today’s Frontline News we have some cool events for you, one official and one player organized, along with a chance to get Verdun in a special Humble Bundle!

The next qualifier round in the Verdun World Cup tournament being run by The Overpowered Noobs is coming up this Saturday February 10! You will be able to watch the action live on their Twitch stream! Pro caster Soren Patten has a great write-up introducing the teams who will be competing on the OPN website.
Which team are you supporting?



If you’re interested in joining a clan for some more organized play, you could do a lot worse than Sturm-Bataillon Nr. 2! We posted one of their trailers on our social media recently, and if you didn’t see it it’s definitely worth taking a look on YouTube.

A group of Verdun players are running a historical battle scenario on February Sunday 18! It will be a 32 vs 32 player battle on the Argonne map, with friendly fire and with players expected to take specific squads and loadouts in order to replicate the actual battle for the Argonne.

Each side has a commander, who gives orders to the whole team and leads them. Soldiers and NCOs alike have to obey his orders, with NCOs and the commander allowed to shoot soldiers that disobey orders.
The event will be held on the 18h of February. Start time will be 7 PM German time or 7 PM CET. If you want to take part in an epic battle, add your name to the list below. There are 49 participants so far!
https://doodle.com/poll/w2vh5wdbqtm2tzs2



We’re proud to say that Verdun is part of the Humble Bundle’s Best of 2017 bundle! You can get Verdun and seven other great games selected from various bundles from across the course of 2017. Take a look!



That’s it for now. The screenshots above were made by our player echo1, a very talented frontline photographer! If you have some cool shots of your own, upload them on Steam, or post them on our Twitter and tag us so we can retweet our favorites!
Keep an eye on our Steam news (follow us if you like) or watch for our announcements on Facebook or Twitter to hear about our next Frontline News post.

The main part of the Merge Update is, well, the merge of our two games. The code bases are now aligned, which is essential to our long-term goal of continuing support for Verdun. As a small team, we simply can’t support two different code bases.

This merge will allow us to make more frequent updates to Verdun - the differences between Verdun and Tannenberg had made it impossible to do side-by-side updates, but now that the two games are aligned, we have a unified platform. It also means that we can switch our focus to performance optimization for both games.

One side-effect of the merge is that a number of bug fixes done during the development of Tannenberg are now applied to Verdun, which can have unpredictable results, such as the way strafe movement was affected. We moved quickly to resolve that issue, and we will continue to do so as necessary. You can report bugs on our forums or at our support website.

However, although all the benefits might not be immediately obvious from a player perspective you should make no mistake - this merge is a big step forward. It makes it possible to continue properly supporting Verdun and Tannenberg together into the future. Plus you no longer need to quit one game to play the other! If you own both Verdun and Tannenberg, there’s now a slick in-game menu so that you can switch from West Front to East Front and back again with ease.



When you load up Verdun, one of the first things you’ll notice with the update are the new graphical features. Screen space shadows add more depth to the world around you, while new image effects, reflection probes, and a deepsky fog system subtly enhance the atmosphere.












Smaller changes include performance tweaks, animation adjustment, changes to the Douaumont map (we have been aware of continuing criticisms on the forums), and more. The full changelog is long, but as we said earlier, the biggest changes are highly technical and behind the scenes.



To celebrate the merge, the complete WW1 Game Series bundle is part of the Steam Daily Deal! This is a great opportunity to introduce friends to the delights of WW1 FPS action, or to pick up Verdun or Tannenberg if you don’t own one of them yet, with a game left over to gift.

We’ll see you next time!

The main part of the Merge Update is, well, the merge of our two games. The code bases are now aligned, which is essential to our long-term goal of continuing support for Verdun. As a small team, we simply can’t support two different code bases.

This merge will allow us to make more frequent updates to Verdun - the differences between Verdun and Tannenberg had made it impossible to do side-by-side updates, but now that the two games are aligned, we have a unified platform. It also means that we can switch our focus to performance optimization for both games.

One side-effect of the merge is that a number of bug fixes done during the development of Tannenberg are now applied to Verdun, which can have unpredictable results, such as the way strafe movement was affected. We moved quickly to resolve that issue, and we will continue to do so as necessary. You can report bugs on our forums or at our support website.

However, although all the benefits might not be immediately obvious from a player perspective you should make no mistake - this merge is a big step forward. It makes it possible to continue properly supporting Verdun and Tannenberg together into the future. Plus you no longer need to quit one game to play the other! If you own both Verdun and Tannenberg, there’s now a slick in-game menu so that you can switch from West Front to East Front and back again with ease.



When you load up Verdun, one of the first things you’ll notice with the update are the new graphical features. Screen space shadows add more depth to the world around you, while new image effects, reflection probes, and a deepsky fog system subtly enhance the atmosphere.












Smaller changes include performance tweaks, animation adjustment, changes to the Douaumont map (we have been aware of continuing criticisms on the forums), and more. The full changelog is long, but as we said earlier, the biggest changes are highly technical and behind the scenes.



To celebrate the merge, the complete WW1 Game Series bundle is part of the Steam Daily Deal! This is a great opportunity to introduce friends to the delights of WW1 FPS action, or to pick up Verdun or Tannenberg if you don’t own one of them yet, with a game left over to gift.

We’ll see you next time!