https://youtu.be/WsfSaPbK5QQ
Today’s update significantly changes how squad levelling works. The system we had in place did not feel right as it was unclear why/how your level increased and for some users it was difficult to reach and maintain a high level. To counter these issues we have chosen to overhaul the system and replace it with something that is more clear and rewarding.

Previously, you earned co-op squad XP with each squad member which resulted in the final squad level. In the new system, every player has an individual squad level for each type of squad. The level of a squad in-game is simply the combined squad levels of each player in the squad - so a Tommies squad with two players who have a Tommy squad level of 10 and two players who have a Tommy squad level of 15 would have a total level of 10+10+15+15 = 50.

This also means that you can reach a level 100 squad playing by yourself, and if there is any player within your squad who has level 100, the squad will be level 100.

For those who have worked hard to reach a high level in the legacy system, fear not! We also ensured that the stats of the legacy system still function as well - anybody who reached a level 100 squad with their friends under the previous system will still see a level 100 squad when they play with those same friends, even if their squad level under the new system would be lower! The legacy system kicks in after a legacy squad level of 10+. It is however no longer possible to level via the legacy system.

The update also brings an update to the latest version of Unity (2019.1) plus some smaller tweaks and fixes. These include:

• Fixed wave number for Squad Defense at the top starting at 2 when joining a game that hasn't started yet.
  
• Weapon stats sorting (i.e. kills, minutes played, etc.).
  
• Added settings option to make some UI text elements larger (i.e. in-game text chat).
  
• Optimized spawning of bots, especially for the player that's controlling them.
  
• NCO abilities are now displayed in a new icon to other squad mates.

Read all the full changelog on our Steam forums.

Fight alongside the Latvian Riflemen as they defend their homeland on the new Baltic map, or attempt to break through the swamps and sand dunes.



New Squad!
The Latvian Riflemen are a support squad mostly equipped with the Type 30 and Type 38 Japanese import rifles and older repeating Winchesters, with plenty of grenades for close quarters action. Some of their members carry US M1911 pistols! Their NCO ability can remove weapon sway for 30 seconds, allowing perfect shots by skilled players in the squad at key moments in battle.



Special Grenades!
Other weapons added to the game include the Russian M1917 Chemical grenade and the German N Nebelbombe smoke grenade - these two allow players to deploy small local clouds of gas or smoke without the need to call in artillery for the first time!



New Map!
The new Baltic map is covered with pools of swampy water, navigable via duckboard walkways and pontoon bridges. Make the most of the sandbag positions and wooden fortifications as you advance across the map - there aren’t a lot of height differences or areas of natural cover to offer protection.

The expansion is free, but if you don’t own Tannenberg yet it’s on 50% sale to celebrate the release! Get it on the Steam store!

You can read the full release announcement on the Tannenberg hub!

Today’s update adds full controller support, expanded custom match options, a team balance change, and various map fixes. If you like playing with a controller, let us know what you think! Some of the highlights:

• Full controller support!
  
• New custom match options: set the year, Entente squad, Central squad, ability cooldown duration, friendly fire and friendly fire penalty.
  
• Players can't join the larger team, max player count difference is set to 2.
  
• Fixed Douaumont dugouts being difficult to enter.
  
• Fixed players spawning inside of Douaumont bunk bed.
  
• Fixed collision for bridge in St Mihiel.
  
• Fixed Flanders bunker entrance being difficult to enter.

You can read the full changelog on our Steam forums.


We’ll leave you with this amusing image from player Zuluhed. Their caption: “Now, kids, i will tell you the story about ghost in the trenches…”

Verdun is 60% off right now in the Steam Summer Sale, and Tannenberg is 50% off! Perfect time for you or your friends to complete the set if you don't already own both games ;)

A fortnight ago, the Verdun x64 group ran a special defensive battle event. Player controlled Landsers faced endless waves of attacking Tommies. It sounded like people had a good time, and some interesting feedback and comments were posted. A few screenshots below from one of the organizers, SovietDoge:





We updated our official guides for Verdun! This includes updated map and weapon lists, as well as a range of smaller tweaks to the other docs. If you spot anything we missed, let us know on our Discord channel!

Verdun is on sale for 80% off AND free to play on Steam this weekend - tell your family, friends, and pets! If you already own the game, come join the fun.

We have released a few smaller updates following the release of the new UI. The big console update is also progressing nicely, though we can’t give an exact date for when we expect to release it just yet.

It’s always a pleasure to browse through the screenshots section of the Steam hub, with images which can be anything from funny to impressive to just plain pretty. Here’s four that we liked from recent submissions:


Troops preparing for an attack. Taken by Tom Grump.


’an der Front mit Ulrich’ by Rupert.


The attack is halted at the wire in this shot by Wolfblu.


Reaching through the fog of war in this screenshot by Yuithgf.

It’s been a long time coming, but the new UI is here. Thank you so much to everyone who tested it out on the open beta branch and gave feedback.


The new UI is here!

It comes with a suite of customization options for your in-game HUD, allowing you to control how much information you get while fighting!


Just some of the new HUD options available.

We have also implemented a series of tutorials which will help new players learn how the game works. They will appear in the menus and in battles themselves to illustrate key game mechanics, how squads work, and how NCOs can use their abilities.


A tutorial in battle.

Along with the new system, we have also updated the Frontlines tutorial video:
https://youtu.be/tIeGf5JF2ZQ
To make life easier on folks setting up custom matches, we have now added menu UI for some gameplay options which were previously only available via console commands, including bot difficulty!



This update also brings some other tweaks and fixes. A few key features from the full changelog:

• Death animations are enabled again.
  
• Update to Vauquois fixing sector outlines.
  
• Fixed melee lock-on getting stuck when switching weapons during melee.
  
• Fixed full match filtering.

Reminder that there is also a big update on the way for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of Verdun. This will implement all the new content that has been added to the PC version recently, as well as bringing in the new UI and a raft of other improvements to gameplay and performance. As a nice bonus, we are also close to having full controller support in the Steam version of Verdun.

Did you know it was Verdun’s fourth Anniversary last April? Four years is a long time anywhere, but especially in video games. Four years on, and we still have another free update on the way - let’s take a look what will be included!

The new UI revamps the look and feel of the game. We've shared quite a bit about the new UI already, so we'll leave you with a few new WIP screenshots today:


The new main menu.


Role loadout and squad screen.

To help new players get the hang of things, we will be adding a new system of hints. Here are a few WIP screenshots demonstrating the concept:


The hints will highlight and describe parts of the interface.


They will appear in menus and anywhere else an explanation will be handy for new players.


The hints will explain things during the game itself as well, such as NCO commands.

As we mentioned last time, the 32 player classic mode will be going away. Naturally you can still start your own 32 player games via private matches. For instance, check out X’s Friday events - more info here!

Finally, if you weren’t aware, we have a big console update on the way. Both Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of Verdun will see the new squads and other content from the PC version implemented, plus the new UI and other improvements.

See you then!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwDXkextcWg
From today until April 21 wolf packs will disrupt some Tannenberg maneuver battles! When you hear howling, you will have to decide whether to try and hold a truce to deal with the attacking beasts, or take advantage of the situation. If you can successfully hold a truce, you can earn a special medal. Tannenberg will also be on sale tomorrow in a Steam daily deal!

We have also released a small update with a fix to an issue which could cause an unusually long loading time and possible freezes when the game started up.


Be careful in the woods...

We have a pretty packed update for Verdun today with a range of fixes and tweaks. We'd love to get feedback on some of these, in particular the MG deployment changes. There should be less clipping, floating, and exploitable positions where you can shoot without being seen. We've been crawling around the trenches in awkward places trying to do strange things with machine guns and have seen significant improvement.

In part this is due to a new deployment system: you now aim where you want to place your MG, or simply hold the deploy button while standing to go prone and deploy on the ground. A red marker will indicate where you will deploy, so you can easily see if particular bits of terrain are legitimate deploy locations or not.


Let us know your experiences with the new MG deployment!

On the opentesting branch there is also a new report function as part of the new user interface! It will be possible for players to report other players for cheating, chat harassment, voice harassment and offensive names. Data is gathered from the match, processed, and passed on to administrators who may then take manual action based on multiple reports. Note that we will not apply automatic bans based on reports.

The new report function in the new UI.

Today's update fixes a range of issues, polishes various aspects of the UI, and makes improvements to bot behaviour. Here are some of the most notable:

General Features
• In the new UI (currently only on opentesting) players can now report others for cheating / toxic behaviour in-game, and add them to a personal ban list.
  
• MG deployment improvements: less clipping/floating, fixes instances where MG players could see & shoot at someone while not being visible themselves.
  
• On Artois, fixed "getting stuck under bridge".
  
• Update to Douaumont fixing tunnel being sun lit on the inside.
  
• Spawn map camera is less close in frontlines .
  
• Fixed being able to switch squad type in squad defense after the first wave
  
• Fixed third person choke animation not playing after dying by gas
  
  Menu Adjustments (in new UI on opentesting)
  
• Now when you try to join a full squad, instead of attempting to load, no action is taken.
  
• Front selection can now be done via a sub-panel in the main menu, instead of an overlaid menu.
  
• Replaced Private Match banner button with Custom Match game mode button.
  
• Added LOW/MED/HIGH server population indicators. Will also display ping if we have pinged this session.
  
  Bots
  
• Fixed bots not dying from gas.
  
• Bots will take of their gas mask after exiting gas.
  
• Fixed issue where bots would still know where their target is if it went hidden by smoke/gas after acquiring the target. The first target acquisition was already never possible through smoke/gas.
  
• Fixed bots sometimes not spawning.

Check out the full changelog!

The new UI and tutorial system are very close to release now. We are also planning on removing the 32 player game mode to streamline the main menu and establish a clear focus on the 64 player Frontlines mode. Of course you will still be able to arrange 32 player games via private matches.

Finally, there will be a special event beginning in Tannenberg this Friday. If you've been following our Twitter or Facebook you'll likely have some idea what to expect...

We just released a new trailer for our Eastern Front game Tannenberg, featuring all the battlefields currently in the game along with the historical battles which inspired them. Check it out!
https://youtu.be/lv1aKJrosU8
Which guns do you think have the fastest fire rates in Verdun? Outside of obvious candidates like the various machine guns, which rifles are able to put out the most rounds in sixty seconds? Surely something like the 10 round SMLE would be one of the best, right? The results in this post by forumite X may surprise you!

You may know that you can adjust various things in private matches, such as bot numbers, accuracy, limiting the game to specific squads, and so on. It’s also possible to adjust the cooldown of NCO call-ins…
https://youtu.be/GArl7JBDlbQ?t=14
Now this is a heavy artillery barrage!

Some of our PS4 players recently organized a community event, and sent us this nice screenshot :) If you'd like to join them in future, search for the Verdun WW1 Events community group on PS4.

A screenshot of the participants!

On our side, steady progress is being made on the big update for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, which will bring all the new content which has been added to Verdun’s PC version to the consoles.

Until next time!