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Dear community,

One week has passed since the start of Phase 2, but we collected a lot of feedback and a lot of improvements and fixes are underway. We have decided to update the test with some of the changes that have been finalised last week. As you can see, the work is going at full speed. There is still plenty of work going on to address all of the feedback, and the entire package of changes and new additions will arrive for the release.

• Added session view Chat
  
• Added new model to game and multiplayer: Gaz-AAA 72K
  
• Added Zis-5 into MP to replace Gaz-AAA (more capacity)
  
• Slowed down the accumluation of points from captured flags to increase total game time
  
• Increased DP cost of Doctrine unit Panzer38t_g (15 to 20) and increased cooldown time (240 to 300)
  
• Increased standard resources from 2500 to 2800
  
• Reduced cost of armoured cars
  
• Reduced cooldown time for Airstrikes in Doctrines in MP (480 to 240) (cooldown = time to rebuy)

• Added fuel trucks to both nations research tree
  
• Increased GlobalMaxCP. Allows for more units in the veterans section (reserve)
  
• Increased ammo points (AP) earned for wins
  
• Increased attacking AI CP limits so they can field more units at any given time, when player is defending
  
• Increased point collection rate when player controls all flags as defender in Conquest: 20min game instead of 25min
  
• Fixed crew count for flak36
  
• Fixed cost of sdkfz_flak18
  
• Fixed humans spawning on fire and uncontrollable
  
• Fixed vehicles that had been burned from fire or engine destruction from being recoverable and spawning in next match on fire/setting crew of fire.
  
• Fixed scripts that were causing all vehicels to spawn sandbags shortly after mission start
  
• Fixed pz38t_A CP for conquest
  
• Reduced MP and CP cost of Kubelwagen variants
  
• Reduced cost to repair vehicles. Should be closer to the cost of buying a new vehicle.
  
• Reduced cost of T37a
  
• Removed mining teams from AI bot buy menu
  
• Removed tier 1 infantry from AI Bots menu after first few rounds (partisans, osttruppen, etc)
  
• Removed ability to crew enemy AI defender MG empalcements to prevent them from being captureable.
  
• Removed medics from bots buy menu in conquest

• Updated explosion sounds from HEAT shells
  
• General sound mixing and adjustments
  
• Fixed Sdkfz 10 w/ Pak38 to have rotate sound
  
• MG 34 & 42 sound revision
  
• MG Interior sound adjustment

• Many minor fixes for most maps: tex mods, terrains, some pathing
  
• DCG Pinsk: fixed pathfinding and ocean issues.
  
• Updated environment/weath setting's sounds to match on-screen FX (i.e. Rain)

• Added veterancy icons 6-8 for unit icon small
  
• Updated bt2 icons
  
• Updated cursors
  
• Updated Veterancy icons for conquest
  
• Updated localization for A19 cannon (mid doctrine)
  
• Fixed human at rifle icon for conquest
  
• Fixed roman numeral from VI to IV for stage 4 icon in conquest
  
• Fixed several localization issues

• Added better randomization to off map artillery barrages
  
• Added RUS V3 Voice Lines
  
• Added fire damage radius around flamethrower stream
  
• Added armor volumes for T34 Hull MG and Driver hatch
  
• Added support for BR-350B 76mm shell (aphebc2)
  
• Added support for HEAT HL/A/B/C shells
  
• Added APCR ammo to sdkfz8_flak18
  
• Added blitz truck engineering version x and xx models
  
• Added sandbags to all Mortars and DSHK AA stand
  
• Fixed net code sync with fire damage on ground and object
  
• Fixed net code sync with humans being revivable from bullet death
  
• Fixed net code sync with vehicles crews being killed from damage to vehicle
  
• Fixed syncing of various interaction events for multiplayer/coop
  
• Fixed shell casings from howitzers and guns to dissapear in fog of war
  
• Fixed rotation of LOD's for shell_cannon_auto
  
• Fixed flamethrower containers to on the back of humans
  
• Fixed portraits
  
• Fixed obstacles for several cannon x models
  
• Fixed firing angle/gravity for bm13 (katusha) so it can fire its full range even on varying terrain
  
• Fixed localization for soviet MG ammo
  
• Fixed visual bug with IL2 destroyed model
  
• Fixed goliath crater spawning
  
• Fixed awkward line on dust fx
  
• Fixed stug3g not being able to reload main gun, when MG gunner is told to hide/close hatch
  
• Fixed vehicle engine sound still playing when engine toggled of while moving
  
• Fixed armor for t26_39 turret
  
• Fixed Auto Cannons HE shell to cause as much damage on a direct hit to human health as AP ammo does. (It was causing only blast damage before)
  
• Fixed 20mm_flak30 sometimes not wanting to fire after reload or ammo type switch
  
• Fixed fences to be destructible by auto cannon HE shells
  
• Fixed pz1B enumerator problem after repairing turret
  
• Fixed vehicle view for kv85
  
• Fixed pz4 variants enumerator "direction of numbers"
  
• Fixed pz35t x and xx model winter textures
  
• Fixed dshk_stan armor, volumes, components, break/repair animations
  
• Fixed panzer4f2 Hull and Coax MG's being reversed
  
• Fixed sdkfz8_flak winter texture
  
• Fixed direction that sandbags built by cannons face. Still have rotation issue on uneven ground.
  
• Fixed smoke grenades blinking light during night
  
• Updated fire fx on burning wooden objects
  
• Updated detection time (reveal time) for enemy units in fog, based on unit type and distance
  
• Updated grenade throw animation to take less time to release grenade
  
• Updated Player AI to be able to use AT-rifles against infantry. Will switch to pistol when in range.
  
• Updated German rifle grenade to have HE grenade preloaded instead HEAT grenade
  
• Updated fx choice for anti-tank rifle grenades
  
• Updated many explosion fx
  
• Updated infantry that have both a helmet and cap, to wear helmet by default.
  
• Updated loadouts of several vehicles for new HEAT or APHEBC shell types or historical loadouts
  
• Updated flag texture
  
• Updated Gebirgsjagers human skins
  
• Updated partizan headwear
  
• Updated partizan headwear textures
  
• Updated other humanskins
  
• Updated tracer fx light intensity during night
  
• Increased slightly AT Rifle accuracy and longer ranges
  
• Increased blast damage for the 300mm nebelwerfer rockets
  
• Increased accuracy of Plane MG's
  
• Increased plane forward vision
  
• Increased accuracy and damage of IL2 rockets
  
• Increased armor for T34 57 & 76 series hull nose on vehicles where it was thicker
  
• Increased base accuracy of sniper rifles to match standard rifles. Adjusted aim shot settings accordingly.
  
• Reduced Soviet 76mm HE blast damage to be more inline with German 75mm HE shell
  
• Reduced resupply cost of small arms ammunition
  
• Reduced mortar accuracy beyond max range to help prevent accurate farshooting in 3rd person mode
  
• Reduced mortar range
  
• Reduced melee range
  
• Removed sound from spheredust_wood FX because it plays way too often when wood logs break
  
• Removed feature that crew of ammo crate would leave when setting crate down. Now they will stay on, until player orders them off.

If you haven’t already, this is your last chance to partake in the testing as the beta is on it’s final passages. stagesSteam Store page!


You can join in 2 clicks


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Community-made screenshots from our Discord channel by Kleis, Will G and IvanFrit!

Dear community members,

It is time to release conquest and allow you to test that part of the game as we draw an end to this excellent beta. Your feedback has been plentiful and it will help us polish the game for its release coming up soon.

This version of conquest, like the multiplayer, is limited in the maps available (only 6) to you and other features. It is a taste of what is to come. The fully fledged conquest (with 16 maps, and a lot of new stuff) will be available on the release, as with all the other content. Enjoy the beta update!

You can still join the open beta, this is your last chance as the beta won't run for much longer, it’s available on our Steam Store page!


You can join in 2 clicks



Community-made screenshots by Swonki, diruscze and JägerMan!


Meanwhile, join us on our Discord server, the best place for quick answers to any questions you might have.
Good luck & have fun!

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Dear community members,

The next open beta phase is about to be launched. This is phase 2 of the Call to Arms - Gates of Hell project open beta.

You can still join the open beta by the way, it’s available on our Steam Store page!


You can join in 2 clicks

As we said before, Phase 2 consists of the multiplayer (PvP and PvE) with the upgraded netcode, and we will launch conquest during the weekend too.

Aside from the new areas which now open for testing, we have done significant upgrades to the visuals, sounds and performed a huge number of improvements over the content previously available in phase 1. Such novelties include many new units and models, new uniforms for better 3rd person visuals, and tons of new features, including many of those that the community requested such as increased squad selection sizes.

We are on the final stretch finishing the new soundscape, having finished work on weapon sounds and performing a global QA pass. We are confident it offers you an authentic and immersive sound experience.

Phase 2 of the open beta contains 6 multiplayer maps (full release will contain 20) and will contain 5 conquest maps (full release will contain more than 15!).


New uniforms - HD Link

As usual we include the relevant part of the changelog:

• Enabled multiplayer access for 6 maps, only mid- war period and standard game settings.
  
• Improved netcode
  
• New vehicles, humanskins, weapons
  
• Improved HDR and shader optimization
  
• Improved multiple animations
  
• Improved in-game interface
  
• Improved sounds and sound mix
  
• Increased squad selection size
  
• New special effects
  
• New fog/ un-fog timer logic for vehicles per class
  
• Added human tank gun skill and vehicle veterancy
  
• Many fixes and quality of life improvements
  
• Redesigned tank ranges and support gun mechanics, more about it here

Like with the last update, there’s no action required from you, dependent on your Steam settings.
We hope you will enjoy this phase, which combines phases 2 and 3 as we have previously announced.

Meanwhile, join us on our Discord server, the best place for quick answers to any questions you might have.
Good luck & have fun!

Hello people!

It is the 9th of May and this is a special date in remembrance of the end of WWII in Europe and it is a worthy date to announce our plans.

We will be starting phase 2 during the next week. Release will follow closely after.

Remember Phase 2 will consist of one week of multiplayer testing, followed by the weekend for conquest (dynamic campaign) testing.

What took us so long you may ask? Well, the most important factor was the lengthy netcode upgrades. The netcode redesign was aimed to support bigger battles and users with worse connectivity. It took way longer than expected, because we added many new features which hadn't been previously synced through the servers. The netcode is now being fleshed out in its first version. Remember this is a test, so we had to finish this first before we could ask you to test the new code.


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Conquest (dynamic campaign) also went through some important upgrades. We added features like minefields and redesigned systems such as the way in which the bots field their troops. We are now at a stage where the conquest can be tested and can therefore proceed.

We have great plans for conquest, from historical calendars to new game modes and dynamics. This is a huge investment over time and we will continuously upgrade it and evolve it. How far we can go will depend on the success of the game, as we must also focus our attention to creating new nations and new theatres after the release!

You can expect the release approximately one or two weeks or so after the end of phase 2, it will depend on how much feedback we have to process.

Thanks for staying with us, happy victory day, and see you soon!

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Hi everyone, we have some progress to tell you about.
We are currently in the final stage of preparation for the next phase. It will consist of a multiplayer test with limited content. The date is to be announced. It will give you a single war stage and a set of maps, and this phase will run for exactly one week. During the week, we will add conquest mode.
Conquest will be available for the closing weekend only. After the weekend, the open beta will end officially.
We will then take your feedback, use it for the quick final polish and prepare Call to Arms: Gates of Hell for release!


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Call to Arms: Gates of Hell is a project in which we have always been in close touch with the community, and the community has given us tremendous support and feedback over the years.
Therefore, the fact that phase 1 of the OBT gave us valuable feedback was no surprise. We were curious how you would comment on the different aspects of gameplay and the associated new dynamics, besides finding glitches.

We took your feedback about improving the logic for tank combat, and decided it should be overhauled. The result includes revised ranges at a gun-by-gun basis, adhering to how effective at longer ranges some guns were compared to each other. We also made sure that different projectiles for the same gun have longer or shorter ranges, depending on how they performed in real life.
We have redesigned our penetration curves to depict the frequent fights (Most WWII fights happened at 700-1200m). At the usual engagement distances in the game, the penetration values will be closer to those, so that the tank vs tank combat relates better to the WWII experiences.

While doing so, we have also taken steps to help reduce and limit farshooting and other exploits which could become a problem in competitive multiplayer.
Long story short; your feedback has been used to improve balance and historical use of each type of cannon, while keeping it as realistic as we can within our game’s design philosophy.

We have made an important design choice with heavy assault guns as well. We're keeping them as direct fire weapons, because that is how they were used in real life.
There is a widespread misconception that support tanks have longer ranges and operate in an indirect manner, but at the same time they used to have a flatter trajectory and accuracy, like direct-fire weapons. The result is that units like the KV-2 or StuH 42 are long range weaponry with ranges superior to that of the big AT guns. In reality, these vehicles were used as direct fire weapons only (there are exceptions like the SU152, which could do both direct and indirect fire).

Therefore, we have re-assigned these kinds of units to fulfill the direct fire role.
In reality, they were used at shorter ranges than other specialised AT guns, and this is how we will implement them in CtA: GoH. New units have been established to cover the gaps left behind by the support gun redesign.

In the future we'd like to add a switch to change between direct and indirect fire for some units. We could improvise it now but we’d rather do it in a proper manner later. It should not just change the gun's characteristics, but also third person behaviour, and AI should be able to change it too depending on range of engagement.

Our Gates of Hell soundscape is reaching the final stages of completion, and recently all small arms sounds were upgraded to the release quality. We took the opportunity to take in some of the feedback about sounds which you guys posted in our Discord server and added other improvements of our own which we decided to add for the immersion factor. For example, in third person you will now hear the bolts sliding, casings being dropped and it will feel like a more engulfing experience.

Subscribers of the open beta will also have noticed additional improvements since the latest update, including matching explosion sounds to the length and feel of the actual effect, added built-in sounds to the human animations (crouching, drinking, etc) and there are more details planned in this regard.

We hope to deliver a project of extraordinary audio quality and consistency. We raise the bar every day, so there will also be sound improvements after the release as we see fit.

We keep updating the game with new and improved models; we’re working on optimization, we’re improving missions and much, much more.

Here is a good example: our new Panther D in the works.


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We also included the 122 mm M1931/37 (A-19) cannon. This Soviet cannon, which although a howitzer-type artillery, had very good anti-tank ballistics and will certainly become a worthy contender to the Tiger’s armour from long range:


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In preparation for the upcoming multiplayer test, we’ve recorded a PvP match with some of the testers. Remember, bots will also be available for everyone during the test and you can host PvE battles as well.

• We recommend subscribing to the youtube channels we display on our own channel for the near future
  
• Before release, we will start a “meta game” mini-game using our Discord server
  
• After release, we will start a “mod of the month” competition

That’s it for now, thanks for stopping by and good luck in the open beta!

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Hi everyone, here’s a short update on the beta.
It’s been great to see how people are enjoying CtA: Gates of Hell so far.
We have been working hard to process all the feedback we have received in the past weeks; time to implement a couple of changes.

We’ve worked our rear ends off to sift through all of the reports and clean out some bugs, and now it’s time for you to see the results. This is the changelog for the update that is about to be pushed:

• Added back the 1st soviet campaign mission.
  
• Added mining section at the end of training 2.
  
• Added realistic burst mechanics for weapons (shot amount, delays, zeroing,..). Now weapons adhere to documented practical rates of fire.
  
• Added many new FX, from diesel exhausts to massive HE impacts on objects.
  
• Added new animations.
  
• Added new cursors.
  
• Added sandbag fortifications to vehicles.
  
• Improved gun ranges, accuracies and penetration curves, making farshooting unfeasible.+
  
• Improved training 1.
  
• Improved third person views.
  
• Improved numerous existing animations.
  
• Improved numerous sounds.
  
• Improved shellholes (visual improvements and realistic sizes).
  
• Improved LODing.
  
• Improved interface.
  
• Improved support tanks and standardised them with a direct-fire game logic.
  
• Increased damage taken on soldiers, particularly soldier’s arms.
  
• Increased MG effectiveness at long range.
  
• Increased AT grenades damage, able to break hull of medium and heavy tanks in one grenade, if the explosive charge is strong enough to breach the armor.
  
• Decreased MG accuracy for humans when standing and kneeling.
  
• Decreased regen rate of supply trucks.
  
• Decreased flame particle gravity. Lower/flatter trajectory for flamethrower weapons.
  
• Decreased ammo carried in nebelwerfers from 60 to 30 (more inline with bm13_studebaker).
  
• Decreased slightly human run speeds to make them slower than the mechanised counterparts.
  
• Decreased heat required to set wood buildings on fire.
  
• Decreased durability for tankette tanks with just MG's (t27, panzer1, etc).
  
• Fixed crash on save game.
  
• Fixed crash when currentSelection is gone when a button command comes.
  
• Fixed crash if closing a game while in TPC.
  
• Fixed that now grenade trajectory is not locked as the grenade is being thrown.
  
• Fixed that reload and bolting animations no longer stop/delay: move, change stance or any other orders given by player.
  
• Fixed numerous issues of 3d models, and their game logic.
  
• Fixed some vehicle glitches / suspension / X models / armour
  
• Fixed numerous quality of life issues.
  
• Fixed numerous localization entries.
  
• Fixed some scripts in missions.
  
• Fixed some performance issues.

Depending on your personal settings, your beta game will update automatically, no action from your side is required if you’re already in the open beta.


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So now you know a part of what we’ve been up to. Of course, we are also preparing open beta phase 2. As we said, there will be some news pretty soon, so be sure to catch the news the minute phase 2 is ready. Your best bet to be the first to hear about it is to be on our official Discord server, you can find it HERE.
On Discord, we will be entertaining you with our screenshot competition and a meta game (which will be exclusive to our Discord) for some extra entertainment.

If you want to try our open beta, you still can! Simply subscribe on our store page by hitting the button like in the image below.




That’s it for the moment, let us know what you think in the comments & enjoy the improvements!

Hello everyone, hope you’re all having fun with the beta so far! It’s been a massive success and we got some very useful feedback from you.
We said we would do an update too; here it is, but please keep in mind this is not the start of phase 2.

We are about to update the Open Beta soon and here is what is coming with it:

• The 1st German Campaign Mission: “The Big Prize” which replaces “Absolute Zero”.
  
• Numerous fixes to reported issues
  
• Overhauled the soundscape
  
• A number of new features, including a major new addition we mentioned in last week’s devblog: You can now toggle direct control between the Classic and Third Person modes instantly at any moment. We are sure many of you will enjoy this new feature, so let us explain what this means.

In Gates of Hell, third person mode retains the Fog of War and keeps weapon damages at the same values and similar accuracies as when you are in classic direct control mode. It merely changes the position of the camera for the player. The one gameplay change it does make, is remove the range limitation on weapons. We are working to balance this by reducing weapon accuracy and reducing shell penetration values beyond their intended ranges. In multiplayer, game hosts will have the option to choose which modes can be used, choosing to allow the hybrid system or to restrict it to one of the modes.


The mode toggle in your controls



Beta subscription is still open, if you want to have a good look at Call to Arms: Gates of Hell, subscribe today on our Store page!



If you take part in the test, you should know that for now, only the english version is available. Full localization will be included in the release version, in several languages.

That’s it for now, enjoy the update!

One of the things some people asked about lately was to get more information about our armour and damage model. Today we will explain how our damage model works, what it takes to accomplish such a system, and why we did this.


Let’s start with the question of why we built a new system.
Previous games in the GEM engine, such as Men of War assault Squad 2, feature a highly intertwined and outdated damage system where it has health and RNG combined. Each tank has an amount of durability, which is deteriorated until it breaks. The amount of damage dealt is a multiplier of the penetration or blastwave. So, if you get up close and shoot with a small AT rifle with high penetration, you will deal more damage than a big gun with 10x the shell size, but shooting from far away.
This was absurd, and therefore required the MoW developers to add an additional random chance of breaking the component when pierced. So a big shell had a big chance of breaking or exploding the vehicle. But otherwise, if you were unlucky, it would deal no extra random damage and you were better off with an AT-rifle!
Some players may feel it’s “pseudo-realistic” to fire a 88mm shell at a vehicle and have a random chance of exploding it or a chance it does nothing. While this makes the gameplay more unpredictable and spontaneous, it most certainly is neither realistic nor fit for competitive or calculated gameplay. We absolutely wanted to change this.

Our armour model is very complex yet consistent, so that it benefits those players with intricate knowledge of vehicle warfare and promotes studying the different vehicles, their armour thicknesses, and the position of internal components.
All our vehicle’s components have a set of real hitboxes. Our components are: Chassis, turret(s), gun(s), engine, fuel, ammo rack and transmission. This list is longer than in any conventional RTS game out there, but we want a bigger list of damageable vehicle systems for a more immersive and compelling experience.


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If you pierce any of these components, an amount of damage is dealt to the component. It is possible to damage more than one component with one shot; if you manage to pierce the hull and it still has enough kinetic energy left to pierce the ammo rack, you will deal damage to both. Each component has a certain structural integrity, which is damaged by the penetrations or blasts. When the integrity is depleted, the component may be broken, and then destroyed.

Here is where the system gets realistic and deep: The amount of damage dealt depends on multiple factors. The size of the shell primarily. Does the shell type have fillers which cause internal blastwaves? (APHE will deal more damage than regular AP). The kinetic energy of the shell also has a big impact (if you pierce with more speed and penetration power, there is more energy induced into the internal spalling and speed of shattered fragments, ergo, more damage). Due to the combination of all factors, no two penetrations will deal the same damage. We do not have random damage factors explicitly inserted into the equations, the natural variance of all the factors does that for us.

To add diversity and spontaneity to tank combat, the breakage of certain components may trigger one or another consequence, always consistent with the end result. For example, if you pierce the ammo rack and destroy this component, it will mean there will be an ammunition ignition inside the vehicle which will always lead to its destruction, unless it has no ammo. It may cause an instant explosion, or it may cause a cook-off, or it may cause a very slow cook-off if the amount of ammunition remaining is not very plentiful. Needless to say, you will not cause any of these ammunition ignition events if your shells do not reach the actual ammo rack area. No longer is this a random chance when piercing any part of the hull.


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Both the projectile damage dealt and the structural integrity of the components have mathematical values associated with them, which are not seen by the player. They simply help with consistency and to be able to make the system work in a logical manner. Therefore, we don’t consider them ‘healthbars’, because they are neither visible as a “bar” nor they represent health. They are a “helper” to make things consistent. For example, it takes 2-3 successful penetration shots from a 45mm 20K shell to disable the hull of an enemy Panzer III. If you are shooting at the ammo rack you may get to disable the vehicle with one or two shots. If you shoot APCR which has no HE filler, you will require more shots, but the higher penetration will mean your shots are more likely to penetrate in the first place. If you shoot once at the turret, once at the hull, once somewhere else, you will end up killing the vehicle crew members in the different compartments but not so much actually disabling the vehicle because you’re not focusing your fire. This could be a good tactic for killing the crew and capturing a vehicle!

Next. You destroyed the fuel component. Is it a diesel or a gasoline-powered engine? This will determine a very flammable or less flammable result. One more layer into the system.

All in all. The realistic aspect and detail of our damage model means you can achieve reliable results if you know what you are doing. Another example: you are a german Pak-38 shooting at a soviet T-34. You are an experienced player who knows where the fuel, ammo, transmission and other components are located inside the T-34. You should not shoot at the engine nor fuel area, because it’s a diesel vehicle which has less volatility than a gasoline counterpart. You also have issues shooting at the superstructure, because your shells have a small caliber (50mm) and this, combined with poor normalization in your APCR-shells, have issues against the sloped armour of the T-34. Read about penetration mechanics HERE. You should aim for the hull to disable the vehicle, but you will aim between the second and third roadwheel, because under those wheels there is vertical flat armour and a juicy ammo rack behind the armour.

Which leads us to another topic: do not be hesitant to shoot in between the wheels on the track area. For the first time in GEM2 games, we model our wheels and our track hitboxes accurately. This means you can shoot in between the wheels, and the shot will not be “caught” by the tracks.
Tracks are not the only hitbox accurately modelled. Do you know you can kill an enemy AT-crew member with your sniper by shooting in the aiming holes in the shields?


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As you can see, this system is very deep. Some players may be “concerned” that it always takes around the same amount of shots to take out a tank in the same situation. But the hard reality is, the system is consistent and if you keep aiming at the same spot with the same shell from the same distance, it’s likely that you repeat similar input every time. Just learn how to do it better! We plan to do something in the future to enable people to learn the different vehicles better.

It takes a lot more time to model vehicles this way. But it’s worth it if you know what you are doing!


The crew will not be spared from this armour redesign. The first thing we did was to ensure crew stunning and deaths are conditional to where the penetration happens. Only when being pierced in specific locations of the fighting compartment will specific crew members be likely to die. And the size of shell and the type of ammunition on impact will naturally have an important effect on the crew’s survival chances. What would you rather be subjected to? A high velocity projectile that makes clean holes without splintering and may or may not hit you, or perhaps a HEAT shell causing a jet of superheated plasma and molten metal squirting in all directions?

We introduced a seat replacement mechanism. If your gunner is dead, this is obviously a very important position which you will want covered to regain the fighting abilities immediately. But it will take several seconds for a replacement crew member to retake that seat.


To make the system more manageable, we redesigned our vehicle damage visualization accordingly.
In the vehicle view, it is now possible to see the state of your components. A clear image will tell you your vehicle is fully functional. As it becomes red, it’s becoming unserviceable, because it was damaged from piercing shells or from explosion blastwaves. What we try to represent here is the crew’s assessment of the state of the vehicle: If your vehicle had been damaged, you’d be able to evaluate the functionality state of the systems, but never a quantifiable number which tells you the structural integrity remaining. So we went for the colour-coding. In previous GEM games, one could not tell the state of components, except when they were broken.

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When a component is red, you can repair it. When it is black, it’s destroyed beyond repair, such as a wheel torn off. Tankmen and engineers can repair more quickly than others, but nonetheless any infantry can repair. Repair kits are limited, and you can replenish them with engineering vehicles. It didn’t feel right that you could endlessly repair vehicles with one kit, like on previous games.

Moreover, we also represented minor repairs into the game. If your turret is damaged but still functional, you can repair it and ‘patch’ it up to mint condition. You will, however, still be depleting one repair kit, so you must be cautious. On the other hand, you will have a more survivable vehicle in a better condition when going into combat again, which may give you an extra edge.

So that’s the real story of our damage model. Some people are under the impression our armour model is that of vanilla CtA, or ‘Men of War Assault Squad 2’ or other games in the GEM2 series, but as you have now seen, this is definitely not the case.


Talking about armour systems and tank combat, we have been developing for some time a highly realistic and intricate redesign of 3rd person. Every tank will have realistic gunsights, with realistic zoom (magnifications) to add to the experience.


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You will be able to appreciate how AT guns and dedicated tank destroyers were more suited for precise firing (most of the time) thanks to their superior optics. Since we know there are people who like third person and people who like the classic direct control, we made both systems work at the same time, at your convenience, so the player can switch in real-time between his preferred mode. More about this later.

As you can see, we’re working hard for beta phase 2. Stay tuned!

We are very pleased with the results of the Phase 1 of the beta test and we have collected tons of feedback. We are glad you enjoyed the beta even those who had difficulties having the english version only. Do not worry, we will have you covered on the release.

After the weekend we will end phase 1 and start preparing for the next phase very shortly.

Many new features and ideas will be implemented as a result of your feedback. Thanks for making this game even better!

Hi everyone, here’s a short message to explain how we plan to do the open beta. As we promised, it would begin in March, and in fact it is beginning a few days sooner!

The open beta, is in fact not the full DLC but a time limited playtest that allows everyone to get a first impression of Call to Arms: Gates of Hell. We plan to run it for several short periods. We invited the entire community, many responded; it’s great to see this level of enthusiasm! We will let as many players as possible in and we want to split the playtest into several phases.

We will commence phase 1 with a single-player test , containing the first 2 single player missions from both campaigns. We will release one this weekend and one later next week. The tutorial is also included, for the new players. The game will be open to all our subscribers until the phase ends next week.

Future phases will include other areas of CtA: GoH to give you a taste of our project and allow you to give us your feedback. Your subscription to the beta is valid for all the phases and no further action is required . If you haven’t subscribed, now is a good time! Subscriptions will remain open. You will receive a notification that the beta is available to you, so keep an eye on your inbox.



After the playtest phases, we will prepare the full release, which contains all the content, dozens of maps and the mighty editor. The full release will be available in the languages indicated in our store page, but the playtests will be in english only. We will be translating all texts before release.

Remember you can only play the open beta test if you own a paid edition of Call to Arms, as announced earlier. Also, remember you don’t need to install CtA, ownership is sufficient. A CtA sale will commence today at 19:00 GMT+1, lasting a week, to help anyone who would not yet own the game.

If you own a free version of CtA, this will cause problems launching the game, you will need to acquire the basic edition. We have opened threads in 4 languages to guide you in this process or help with troubleshooting in our forums.

Our project has been in development for over 5 years and we are proud to be this close to releasing Call to Arms - Gates of Hell. We want to do this free playtest to allow anyone interested to try our work and get as much feedback as possible, so we can release a product that will stand the test of time and build an honest, open community around it. We will be working on Gates of Hell for many years to come, so setting a solid foundation now is very important to us, and will be equally important for our players, our fans and our modders. The long wait is over. Do not hesitate to share your thoughts in the forums and help test this project with the same passion we’ve put into it.



So there it is, the Gates of Hell are open, and the eyes of the world are upon us. Are you ready to go into battle?