Happy New Years to you all! As 2021 draws to an end, I wanted to take sometime to reflect on the accomplishments of this year and help you all see the tremendous work that the team at CRS is doing to keep WWII Online moving forward. Of course all of this is made possible by your continued patronage as a subscriber, so as you review this we can only encourage you to keep it up and encourage your fellow player to step up to the paid subscriber ranks. All in all, it has been a great year (and 20th anniversary) filled with a good balance of features and fixes, incorporating player feedback into the development pipeline and getting things done. Let's dive into the update.
2021 was a big year for WWII Online, with the acquisition of WWII Online: Chokepoint and the announcement of our intention to move into the Unreal Engine (5) as our mainliners, followed by some good developments, and almost double the fixes this year compared to the prior - you could say we're definitely moving WWII Online forward.
Ultimately you should take note that Playnet/CRS remains a remote based company, with contributors (mostly compromised of volunteers) from across the world. The fact that we are doing these things is a remarkable achievement in pure effort and passion by these folks, and the technology that we incorporated pre-pandemic to develop this environment to have very limited to no impact on our operations. We are very blessed and fortunate in that regard, and we hope you and yours are healthy and hanging in there.
We also saw some new folks join our team and said goodbye to a few who are no longer with us (we are grateful for them, their time and contributions). This happens but we're still moving strong and we are poised to have some exciting developments yet ahead in 2022+. We also had some minor changes in our organizational structure which has helped consolidate things and make them a bit more efficient. And now the leadership team at Playnet/CRS is experimenting quite successfully with being in the Metaverse using Facebook's "Horizon Workplace" to start conducting remote meetings which has improved collaboration, productivity and team bonding. Since we're remote and can't meet up in an office place daily, this has really helped create the best conditions possible to maintain safety during the pandemic and break geographic barriers.
Playnet-CRS metaverse office
And before we get to the stats portion of this segment, I would say #1: If you support what we're doing here and want to see the project go further, subscribe. It is crucial so we can purchase more developer time and get done the things you want. And finally #2: If you have skills as a 3D artist or C++ developer, we're always open to discuss volunteers stepping up. Reach out to us at http://www.wwiionline.com/volunteer to see what other positions are available.
UPCOMING DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP
Please note that we typically release our WWII Online roadmap around February and will plan to do that again this round. This gives us some to recover from the holiday, get our team back to full operational status and iron out the working plans.
There were a couple of items we didn't get done in time like we had hoped for, namely the Ju-88 and the Wellington Bomber - though these are at the height of the priority list and it will get done as quickly as we can - and rolled out as soon as each vehicle is ready. We also had things like the Bomber Loadouts and Mission Target Change which were temporarily added to the game but had some issues that required them to be withdrawn pending fixes. We'll look to incorporate those back in as soon as we can.
2021 Developments
7 game releases shipped
110 bug fixes delivered
112 features delivered
9 new vehicles delivered
10 roadmap items completed
Total Deliveries: 248
Global Statistics
Kills: 2,702,381
Captures: 213,641
Sorties: 4,183,417
RTBs (Return To Base): 1,509,949
New squads created: 20
Number of .reports logged: 7,142
Number of .bugs logged: 4,374
Number of Campaigns and their length in days
Campaign 178: 3 days
Campaign 179: 20 days
Campaign 180: 40 days
Campaign 181: 27 days
Campaign 182: 87 days
Campaign 183: 34
Campaign 184: 71
Campaign 185: 60+
Top 10 Killers & Their Kill Count
Stromy: 35,924
Fusco50: 32,394
Stankyus: 17,146
Choad: 15,894
Mcafeed: 14,397
Skee53: 14,029
Slamen: 13,208
Rohmu: 12,887
Jwrona: 12,792
Dfire: 12,758
Top 10 Cappers & Total Captures
Doctorit2: 5,313
Elli0t: 5,049
Mcafeed: 4,011
Stromy: 3,804
Sgthenning: 3,382
Skee53: 2,658
Che644: 2,597
Fusco50: 2,324
Choad: 2,205
Rpochman42: 1,889
Top 10 Players with Time on Mission (TOM)
Gatorr: 51,159
Aomercy: 32,859
Stromy: 27,106
Bludngut: 21,352
Googs: 20,984
Gipper: 17,597
Bullvyne: 17,474
Mycat: 17,001
Lok0: 16,820
Fusco50: 16,073
Top 10 Areas Most Spawned From + Number of Spawns
Acremont Airfield: 34,938
Antwerp Airfield: 25,330
Gilze Airfield: 20,455
Fliegerhorst Airfield: 20,050
Schilde Armybase: 18,983
Tienen Armybase: 18,924
Butte de Montfaucon Airfield: 18,559
Elesmes Airdrome: 17,567
Ciney Armybase: 17,192
Leuven Armybase: 15,296
Top 5 Vehicles with the highest kill count
Submachine Gunner (MP40): 165,286
Rifleman (Kar98): 121,401
Light Machinegunner (MG34): 110,647
Submachine Gunner (M1928 Thompson): 90,242
Submachine Gunner (Mas38): 85,080
It should be noted those are all Tier 0 weapons available throughout the war entirely. Does not count for kill death ratio.
Rats & Kill Death Ratios
Rat Name Kills Deaths K/D Ratio
CORN 102 25 4.08
JCD 1719 525 3.27
OLDZEKE 820 292 2.81
BLKHWK8 2961 1220 2.43
WAVER 3773 1613 2.34
MANDRILL 2338 1212 1.93
TR6AL 23 13 1.77
KEMPI 9050 5191 1.74
TMAN 324 195 1.66
XOOM 710 464 1.53
SNIPER62 29 25 1.16
CHIMM 620 663 0.94
JAMES10 56 63 0.89
ZEBBEEE 262 366 0.72
WESTY91 552 778 0.71
PILOTMC 1056 1751 0.60
OHM 32 57 0.56
IMBRUTUS 15 28 0.54
B2K 175 359 0.49
TEX64 367 832 0.44
KMS 6 14 0.43
MIKEMUDD 54 193 0.28
SUBSCRIBE TO SUPPORT THE FUTURE OF WWII ONLINE
WWII Online is 100% fueled by player support. As Playnet / CRS seeks to build The Future of WWII Online with some aggressive goals, we need your help to make this possible. Please consider subscribing to help us accelerate game development, the future is now and your support as a subscriber has a direct impact on mission success. Go to our Premium Store page and subscribe now!
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* Weapons you have equipped when you quit the game will now be on Santa when you re-enter the game. Before you would have to re-equip weapons in the gun store. * Enemy description for each level will appear correctly. There was a bug that it would only load one and never again. This has been fixed. * We have completely REMOVED KICKBACK! We want the players to have fun. We believe that this feature (Even though improved) is hurting gameplay. If we bring this back it wont be anytime soon. * Redesigned FINE AIM. It needs a little tweaking still, but its functioning much better then the original attempt. It should be polished in the next day or so. * We have encountered a bug with the power up table. It will reset your weapons back to an incorrect value. Swapping weapons will restore the correct values. We will have this addressed by tomorrow.
*Twinkle Tech has made some improvements to the Blitzen!! They have attached an underbarrel grenade launcher to it. To use, hit AIM and press the grenade button.
CONTENT UPDATE COMING SOON : The Power Plant is under attack! The last surviving Elfs have radioed for Santa's Help. In a frantic message, they inform Santa that The Fuhrer has sent one of his greatest warriors...
Dear friends, this past year has, for reasons known to all, been difficult not only for us, but also for the world... However, this does not stop us from being optimistic about the future and making ambitious plans!
We are sincerely thankful to everyone who stayed with us this year, supported us in development, helped us with translation of the game, identified bugs and shortcomings, inspired us with tips and suggestions!
We wish you a Happy New Year! May the new year bring prosperity and peace to your families, wealth and comfort to your homes, peace and harmony to your souls, and prospects and success to your affairs!
And finally, at the request of some members of our humble community, we are publishing a roadmap for the near future:
Will be fixed: - Switching to "crawl lying down" mode soldiers randomly; - APC selection when mouse clicks anywhere at the top of the location; - Incorrect operation of the vehicle refueling system; - Some soldiers are not shown on the mini-map; - Freed inhabitants of neighboring locations are not unloaded from the transport on arrival at the base; - When exiting the game in the main menu and start a new game on another map chooses the old map; - Disappeara raiding party from global map; - Some farms don't start production after building; - Infinite purchase of goods when buying a second (identical) item from a vendor; - Unable to collect people in church (from danger) at 100% stability; - Cursor does work with displacement at high screen resolutions; - Incorrect routing by resource gatherers to the following resources: screen; - Map reverts to original size after saving is loaded; - The ability of zombies and wild animals to get through the fence; - Displaying a "win" message when raiders enter a City while loading the map, followed by loss of raiders; - Doubling the number of soldiers after returning to base; - Workers getting stuck at shops and warehouses; - Game freezes with a view of the global map when an enemy unit enters the base; - Random vehicle engine starting after returning from the global map; - General volume slider has no effect on music volume; - Cutscene, related to torture, hangs up; - Appearance of enemies inside camp (behind walls) after loading savegame or returning from global map.
Planned: - Add more flexibility to wall construction system; - Add a pig counter on the farm; - Make 5 difficulty levels: very easy/easy/normal/hard/very hard; - Add fuel mining methods (methane-based pig farms); - Add a fuel-consuming generator to increase production levels; - Add a gathering point for unoccupied workers; - Add additional settlements with which to maintain diplomacy; - Add binds for groups of soldiers; - Reduce duration of winter on easy difficulty; - Add the ability to move the camera by clicking on the mini-map; - Add the ability to mine iron ore and polymers; - Add more options to customize sound; - Add a "hold position" option for units; - Add a resource expenditure and income graph; - Change the colour of combat units on the mini map; - Add mines; - Add ability to sell resources from a merchant; - Add ability to temporarily hire mercenaries; - Make more accurate shooting with stationary machine guns; - Add ability to turn off the heating in the second level houses; - Add choice of behavior for workers in danger (flee to home/assembly point, attack back, continue resource gathering); - Add a system of interaction with corpses (funeral/cannibalism); - Balance shooting range of RPG and Sniper Rifle; - Make it possible to send more than four vehicles to a raid; - Add a "cancel construction" button if construction has not yet begun; - Make two modes of transport plant (construction and repair); - Increase range of the camera; - Add a second type of traders engaged in the sale of resources; - Make it possible to independently issue first equipment to units; - Add a weather station in the game to forecast the coming winter; - Add to the game characteristics description of weapons and buildings; - Add ability to plant trees; - Add gates that open/close; - Add an outpost system; - Add a supply system.