BATTALION: Legacy - KingHoward
The Week 1 Update is Coming Tomorrow!



Tomorrow we’ll be releasing our big ‘Week 1 Update’ with a host of balance changes, quality of life changes and small bug fixes that’ll increase the stability and enjoyability of the game.

There will be around 10 mins of outage time whilst we restart and deploy server + matchmaker updates. This means all players will need to update their clients to play. The update is planned to go live between 16:00 and 17:00 GMT.

We will also be delaying the launch of competitive play.
You can read more about this further down within this update.

Week 1 Update Changelog - Going Live Tomorrow

Features
  • Added ingame VOIP functionality.
  • Added function to mute individual players via the social tab after pressing ESC.
  • Added menu setting to entirely disable VOIP.

Maps
  • Collision fixes to prevent certain overpowered boost spots on competitive maps.
  • Collision fixes to prevent areas players could get out of the playable area.
  • Fixed certain spots where players could lean through walls for information.
  • Fixed certain collision volumes affecting grenade bounces

Server Browser
  • New Feature: Filter servers by server name, player count, map, mode and ping.
  • New Feature: Search for servers by name
  • New Feature: Hide locked servers.

Bug Fixes
  • Players will no longer ‘fatal error’ to desktop mid game when a player is killed on the same frame a grenade is released from another player’s hand.
  • Matchmaker Improvements - Players should see less "loading into a game then being taken back to the menu" errors.
  • Skins can now be seen in community servers.
  • The launcher now quits immediately after successful launch to save system resources.
  • Headshot hitboxes now accurately match third person character
  • We put in a potential fix for the end of match XP/Rank bar to display correctly.

Heavy Weapons Buff



BAR
  • New BAR ADS sight allowing for better visibility and aim potential.
  • Damage falloff decreased - now takes 3 to 4 bullets to kill instead of 3 to 5.
  • Decreased time before BAR ammo refills when reloading to allow fast reloading of the BAR.

STG44
  • STG44 can now 1 shot headshot.

Pushing Back Competitive Play

We’ve been hearing the reports of regular crashes. Whilst this is expected for an Early Access game and we have fixed many of the fatal error crashes, this is not acceptable for a competitive environment.

This is why we’ve decided to delay the competitive mode launch.

The goal of this delay is to fix 50-80% of the regular crashes that occur during general play. We can’t just fix the game magically overnight - this stuff takes time, which is why we’re pushing back the launch of competitive play.

Luckily after the fixes If players do crash out - you will have the option to reconnect back into the same match. This is to reduce the annoyance of crashing out of a competitive game. However - if players just decide to rage quit a game in progress they will be banned from competitive play for a period of time.

You won’t have to wait too long - we’re still looking at getting competitive matchmaking to you guys asap - we’re just giving ourselves more time to get to the game into a state we feel is acceptable for competitive play for a Steam Early Access title! We’ll have more updates on this soon.

Blitzkrieg Battle EU Tournament Week #2

On Saturday 10th February ‘ThePlays’ will be hosting another Blitzkrieg Battle Tournament.
Make sure to sign your team up now if you want to be in with a chance of breaking into the early competitive Battalion 1944 scene without the need of matchmaking servers.

Check out this B site execute on Liberation by the week 1 tournament winners, The Ocelots!
https://clips.twitch.tv/SlipperyDarlingArugulaStinkyCheese

Full VoD:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_Px_ADYngU

Blitzkrieg Battle NA Sundays

ThePlays are looking for NA tournament organisers!
https://twitter.com/OnFireMoses/status/960637924730695680

They’re looking for some solid, reliable folks to help report matches and coordinate with the broadcast team every Sunday from 2PM Pacific. If you’re interested in helping them out - make sure to DM ThePlays official twitter account.

Thank you so much to our players for your continued support.
We look forward to reading your feedback.
The Bulkhead Interactive Development Team.
BATTALION: Legacy - KingHoward
The Week 1 Update is Coming Tomorrow!



Tomorrow we’ll be releasing our big ‘Week 1 Update’ with a host of balance changes, quality of life changes and small bug fixes that’ll increase the stability and enjoyability of the game.

There will be around 10 mins of outage time whilst we restart and deploy server + matchmaker updates. This means all players will need to update their clients to play. The update is planned to go live between 16:00 and 17:00 GMT.

We will also be delaying the launch of competitive play.
You can read more about this further down within this update.

Week 1 Update Changelog - Going Live Tomorrow

Features
  • Added ingame VOIP functionality.
  • Added function to mute individual players via the social tab after pressing ESC.
  • Added menu setting to entirely disable VOIP.

Maps
  • Collision fixes to prevent certain overpowered boost spots on competitive maps.
  • Collision fixes to prevent areas players could get out of the playable area.
  • Fixed certain spots where players could lean through walls for information.
  • Fixed certain collision volumes affecting grenade bounces

Server Browser
  • New Feature: Filter servers by server name, player count, map, mode and ping.
  • New Feature: Search for servers by name
  • New Feature: Hide locked servers.

Bug Fixes
  • Players will no longer ‘fatal error’ to desktop mid game when a player is killed on the same frame a grenade is released from another player’s hand.
  • Matchmaker Improvements - Players should see less "loading into a game then being taken back to the menu" errors.
  • Skins can now be seen in community servers.
  • The launcher now quits immediately after successful launch to save system resources.
  • Headshot hitboxes now accurately match third person character
  • We put in a potential fix for the end of match XP/Rank bar to display correctly.

Heavy Weapons Buff



BAR
  • New BAR ADS sight allowing for better visibility and aim potential.
  • Damage falloff decreased - now takes 3 to 4 bullets to kill instead of 3 to 5.
  • Decreased time before BAR ammo refills when reloading to allow fast reloading of the BAR.

STG44
  • STG44 can now 1 shot headshot.

Pushing Back Competitive Play

We’ve been hearing the reports of regular crashes. Whilst this is expected for an Early Access game and we have fixed many of the fatal error crashes, this is not acceptable for a competitive environment.

This is why we’ve decided to delay the competitive mode launch.

The goal of this delay is to fix 50-80% of the regular crashes that occur during general play. We can’t just fix the game magically overnight - this stuff takes time, which is why we’re pushing back the launch of competitive play.

Luckily after the fixes If players do crash out - you will have the option to reconnect back into the same match. This is to reduce the annoyance of crashing out of a competitive game. However - if players just decide to rage quit a game in progress they will be banned from competitive play for a period of time.

You won’t have to wait too long - we’re still looking at getting competitive matchmaking to you guys asap - we’re just giving ourselves more time to get to the game into a state we feel is acceptable for competitive play for a Steam Early Access title! We’ll have more updates on this soon.

Blitzkrieg Battle EU Tournament Week #2

On Saturday 10th February ‘ThePlays’ will be hosting another Blitzkrieg Battle Tournament.
Make sure to sign your team up now if you want to be in with a chance of breaking into the early competitive Battalion 1944 scene without the need of matchmaking servers.

Check out this B site execute on Liberation by the week 1 tournament winners, The Ocelots!
https://clips.twitch.tv/SlipperyDarlingArugulaStinkyCheese

Full VoD:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_Px_ADYngU

Blitzkrieg Battle NA Sundays

ThePlays are looking for NA tournament organisers!
https://twitter.com/OnFireMoses/status/960637924730695680

They’re looking for some solid, reliable folks to help report matches and coordinate with the broadcast team every Sunday from 2PM Pacific. If you’re interested in helping them out - make sure to DM ThePlays official twitter account.

Thank you so much to our players for your continued support.
We look forward to reading your feedback.
The Bulkhead Interactive Development Team.
BATTALION: Legacy - KingHoward
Hey guys,

Just a quick update to let you all know that a server restart is coming which intends to fix some of the issues that we’ve been seeing over the past couple of days. Sorry to interrupt your play during active hours but this is for the greater long term good of the game!

The server restart will happen in the next 5-15 minutes.

This restart intends to fix the imbalanced teams issue that we’ve been seeing over the weekend. This should mean no more strange scenarios where players are matched 7vs3. This restart should also reduce the amount of times players are entirely failing to get into games via matchmaking - where players would load into a server but immediately get kicked.

This is part of our effort to increase server and matchmaking stability every day. Thanks to all players for your patience throughout this Early Access launch period.



A few bug fixes confirmed for the Week 1 Update

Later this week we’re going to be putting out a client update with a host of minor fixes before we launch competitive play. These fixes will include:

Maps
  • Collision fixes to prevent certain overpowered boost spots on competitive maps.
  • Collision fixes to prevent areas players could get out of the playable area.
  • Fixed certain spots where players could lean through walls for information.
  • Fixed certain collision volumes affecting grenade bounces

Bug Fixes
  • Fixed the issue where in some instances headshots would instead count as neck shots.
  • Fixed ‘spin boosts’
  • XP displays to the client more reliably.
  • Fixed weapon skins not being enabled on distributed servers.

Server Browser
  • New Feature: Filter servers by server name, player count, map, mode and ping.
  • New Feature: Search for servers by name
  • New Feature: Hide locked servers.

Smaller Fixes
  • A host of less noteworthy fixes will also be going live with this update for general stability purposes.


All of these fixes will be going live later this week within the 'Week 1 Update'.

Thanks for sticking with us!

You guys have been amazing in helping us test and fix the majority of the matchmaking stability issues from our launch. We hope this indicates our commitment to the improvement of every aspect of this game. We’ve been reading ALL of your bug reports & suggestions and taking all the feedback onboard. We’re going to keep up this dedication throughout the Early Access period to create the polished experience we all want to play.

We already have features and new content in the works and we can’t wait to share some of that information with you guys in the near future!
BATTALION: Legacy - KingHoward
Hey guys,

Just a quick update to let you all know that a server restart is coming which intends to fix some of the issues that we’ve been seeing over the past couple of days. Sorry to interrupt your play during active hours but this is for the greater long term good of the game!

The server restart will happen in the next 5-15 minutes.

This restart intends to fix the imbalanced teams issue that we’ve been seeing over the weekend. This should mean no more strange scenarios where players are matched 7vs3. This restart should also reduce the amount of times players are entirely failing to get into games via matchmaking - where players would load into a server but immediately get kicked.

This is part of our effort to increase server and matchmaking stability every day. Thanks to all players for your patience throughout this Early Access launch period.



A few bug fixes confirmed for the Week 1 Update

Later this week we’re going to be putting out a client update with a host of minor fixes before we launch competitive play. These fixes will include:

Maps
  • Collision fixes to prevent certain overpowered boost spots on competitive maps.
  • Collision fixes to prevent areas players could get out of the playable area.
  • Fixed certain spots where players could lean through walls for information.
  • Fixed certain collision volumes affecting grenade bounces

Bug Fixes
  • Fixed the issue where in some instances headshots would instead count as neck shots.
  • Fixed ‘spin boosts’
  • XP displays to the client more reliably.
  • Fixed weapon skins not being enabled on distributed servers.

Server Browser
  • New Feature: Filter servers by server name, player count, map, mode and ping.
  • New Feature: Search for servers by name
  • New Feature: Hide locked servers.

Smaller Fixes
  • A host of less noteworthy fixes will also be going live with this update for general stability purposes.


All of these fixes will be going live later this week within the 'Week 1 Update'.

Thanks for sticking with us!

You guys have been amazing in helping us test and fix the majority of the matchmaking stability issues from our launch. We hope this indicates our commitment to the improvement of every aspect of this game. We’ve been reading ALL of your bug reports & suggestions and taking all the feedback onboard. We’re going to keep up this dedication throughout the Early Access period to create the polished experience we all want to play.

We already have features and new content in the works and we can’t wait to share some of that information with you guys in the near future!
Counter-Strike 2 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (John Walker)

Where oh where is #9 this week, you ask, uncertain that it is possible to have a top ten without it. A mystery! Of course there are the usual suspects, the increasingly usual new suspects, and even a couple of new entries, but when it comes to slot nine, there’s a gap. The URL for the entry is this, the number seemingly unattached to anything on the store, and not> the since deleted entry for the idiotic CS:GO championship sticker collection, as I’d first assumed. Go solve the mystery, mystery solvers! (more…)

BATTALION: Legacy - brammertron
Hey everyone!

We’re seeing more and more players able to get into games, but of course it’s still important for us to acknowledge that this is not the case for all players. This is why we’ve been working overtime to get fixes ready for you all.

Later this morning 08:00 (GMT) we have a client and server update going live that will combat a lot of these issues.

This is part of our active effort to improve the experience for players as often as we can. The biggest feedback we’re seeing is that players are loving the game when they can get past the matchmaker. We don’t want to push the update tonight as we don’t want to interrupt play for players who are currently ingame during peak times - we’re going to put the update out early morning to combat disrupting players.

So what’s fixed? Here’s an overview of tomorrow’s update:

Server Backfilling Fix

The biggest complaint we’re seeing is that players are getting into games but they’re 4v3 ,4v2 or even 5v0. This is obviously not acceptable. We spent today identifying the exact issue and we’ve put in a potential fix for this.

Players will now be able to join games in progress. If a player quits or crashes from an arcade or unranked game their slot will now become open again ready to be refilled. This means servers should more reliably fill slots and keep topping up games to keep high player counts.

This is a potential fix. We have successfully ran internal automated tests which reported that our fix does work. However, it’s much different when testing with thousands of live players (something we’re fast learning!). Please give us feedback on whether this is working or not.

Region Restrictions Lifted In Certain Countries

We were seeing issues where our third party server provider (Google) had some of its business services blocked in certain countries. The governments in these affected areas have blocked access to our third party security servers/matchmaking. This is not a decision we (the developers) made to block you. This is entirely political, we are not The United Nations, our powers only go so far!

This meant Battalion 1944 had restricted access to some of its servers in certain countries or regions, such as China, Crimea, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, and many countries in the Arab Nation.

This meant some players from these countries couldn’t even use our main menus without using a VPN. Quick example of the issue for complete clarity: https://gyazo.com/f9cb92ede1a9437f17ff6ebbc84bada8

We have worked on a workaround for these affected players so that a VPN will not be needed for these players. This will be done by redirecting requests from affected countries such as yours to a different third party - however this is not guaranteed fix. We are testing this fix tomorrow with our client update.

For further clarity: If this fix does not work we are going to ask Valve to remove the game from sale in the affected regions. We are a game developer - we’re not able to resolve international politics! This is particularly important because we are seeing large numbers of players from those regions review the game negatively on Steam for no reason other than politics between Google and their government.

Accurate Server Browser Player Numbers

The server browser will now accurately reflect the amount of players ingame!
This means players will experience less instant kicks when trying to join community servers. Previously players were trying to join full servers when it looked like the server wasn’t full. This is now fixed!

Basic Server Browser Improvements - Ordering via Number of Players

We’re working on multiple server browser filters this week ready for the 8th February Week 1 client update. This is of high priority for us!

In the meantime as a temporary measure we’re going to order servers by player count. This should enable casual players to search for servers in order of player counts to quickly find empty/active community servers if matchmaking unexpectedly goes down for whatever reason.

Extra Matchmaking Third Party Stability and Security

We’re re-introducing our second layer of matchmaking security. The third party data cap limit that destroyed our servers on launch day has been lifted. This means tomorrow when we launch our client & server update we will see better security across all matchmaking servers and more reliable matchmaking experience for all.

This also means when we launch competitive play we will see more data and extra stability.

Why Am I Not Gaining Levels/XP?!
We keep seeing complaints that XP is not being granted.
This is for two reasons:

  • XP will never be granted on community servers.
The reason for this is to avoid the creation of idle servers where players can AFK to gain infinite War Chests. The bug is that players are seeing their XP bar rise after a community server match ends. This only happens on client’s user interface after a game ends, and doesn’t get sent to our backend servers where XP is actually stored. Sorry but… the cake (xp) is a lie.

A fix for this will be patched into Battalion 1944 in a future update.

  • Player’s levels aren't updating!
We’re seeing reports of players reaching level 2 and going back to level 1. Don’t worry - this is just not updating on your client’s user interface/hud in the main menus. We have all of your XP stored nice and safely on our servers.

  • End game scoreboard XP reward is incorrect?

XP gains / levels shown are incorrect on players UI.
Again - don’t worry! We have your actual XP stored on our servers.

We’ll be putting out a patch for all these XP & leveling issues at some point soon!

TL;DR Summary

We’re seeing great feedback from you guys about the game. We’ve already seen insanely high level play in the Blitzkrieg Battle Community Tournament, and this is only the 3rd day of Early Access. If you’ve ever dreamed of being a competitive player - Battalion 1944 is the most accessible FPS title with true grass roots beginnings. This is a super bright indication of what’s to come for the game competitively and all the more reason for players to practice for February 8ths competitive launch!

So the most important info:
Later this morning 08:00 (GMT) players will see a client and server update.

  • Server Backfilling Fix
  • Region Restrictions Lifted In Certain Countries
  • Accurate Server Browser Player Numbers
  • Temporary Server Browser Solution - Ordered via Number of Players
  • Extra Matchmaking Third Party Stability and Security

We’re constantly trying to communicate with you guys to help with your issues. We’re going to keep putting out small fixes and patches to improve stability. We thank you for your patience

Finally, we would like to congratulate ‘The Ocelots’ for winning the first ever Battalion 1944 tournament. We were thrilled to see the grassroots stage of Battalion’s competitive side take off so well! Thank you to the whole team at The PlaysGG.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeKNx7zX64M&feature=youtu.be

Full Blitzkrieg VOD available here: https://www.twitch.tv/theplaysgg/videos/all
BATTALION: Legacy - brammertron
Hey everyone!

We’re seeing more and more players able to get into games, but of course it’s still important for us to acknowledge that this is not the case for all players. This is why we’ve been working overtime to get fixes ready for you all.

Later this morning 08:00 (GMT) we have a client and server update going live that will combat a lot of these issues.

This is part of our active effort to improve the experience for players as often as we can. The biggest feedback we’re seeing is that players are loving the game when they can get past the matchmaker. We don’t want to push the update tonight as we don’t want to interrupt play for players who are currently ingame during peak times - we’re going to put the update out early morning to combat disrupting players.

So what’s fixed? Here’s an overview of tomorrow’s update:

Server Backfilling Fix

The biggest complaint we’re seeing is that players are getting into games but they’re 4v3 ,4v2 or even 5v0. This is obviously not acceptable. We spent today identifying the exact issue and we’ve put in a potential fix for this.

Players will now be able to join games in progress. If a player quits or crashes from an arcade or unranked game their slot will now become open again ready to be refilled. This means servers should more reliably fill slots and keep topping up games to keep high player counts.

This is a potential fix. We have successfully ran internal automated tests which reported that our fix does work. However, it’s much different when testing with thousands of live players (something we’re fast learning!). Please give us feedback on whether this is working or not.

Region Restrictions Lifted In Certain Countries

We were seeing issues where our third party server provider (Google) had some of its business services blocked in certain countries. The governments in these affected areas have blocked access to our third party security servers/matchmaking. This is not a decision we (the developers) made to block you. This is entirely political, we are not The United Nations, our powers only go so far!

This meant Battalion 1944 had restricted access to some of its servers in certain countries or regions, such as China, Crimea, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, and many countries in the Arab Nation.

This meant some players from these countries couldn’t even use our main menus without using a VPN. Quick example of the issue for complete clarity: https://gyazo.com/f9cb92ede1a9437f17ff6ebbc84bada8

We have worked on a workaround for these affected players so that a VPN will not be needed for these players. This will be done by redirecting requests from affected countries such as yours to a different third party - however this is not guaranteed fix. We are testing this fix tomorrow with our client update.

For further clarity: If this fix does not work we are going to ask Valve to remove the game from sale in the affected regions. We are a game developer - we’re not able to resolve international politics! This is particularly important because we are seeing large numbers of players from those regions review the game negatively on Steam for no reason other than politics between Google and their government.

Accurate Server Browser Player Numbers

The server browser will now accurately reflect the amount of players ingame!
This means players will experience less instant kicks when trying to join community servers. Previously players were trying to join full servers when it looked like the server wasn’t full. This is now fixed!

Basic Server Browser Improvements - Ordering via Number of Players

We’re working on multiple server browser filters this week ready for the 8th February Week 1 client update. This is of high priority for us!

In the meantime as a temporary measure we’re going to order servers by player count. This should enable casual players to search for servers in order of player counts to quickly find empty/active community servers if matchmaking unexpectedly goes down for whatever reason.

Extra Matchmaking Third Party Stability and Security

We’re re-introducing our second layer of matchmaking security. The third party data cap limit that destroyed our servers on launch day has been lifted. This means tomorrow when we launch our client & server update we will see better security across all matchmaking servers and more reliable matchmaking experience for all.

This also means when we launch competitive play we will see more data and extra stability.

Why Am I Not Gaining Levels/XP?!
We keep seeing complaints that XP is not being granted.
This is for two reasons:

  • XP will never be granted on community servers.
The reason for this is to avoid the creation of idle servers where players can AFK to gain infinite War Chests. The bug is that players are seeing their XP bar rise after a community server match ends. This only happens on client’s user interface after a game ends, and doesn’t get sent to our backend servers where XP is actually stored. Sorry but… the cake (xp) is a lie.

A fix for this will be patched into Battalion 1944 in a future update.

  • Player’s levels aren't updating!
We’re seeing reports of players reaching level 2 and going back to level 1. Don’t worry - this is just not updating on your client’s user interface/hud in the main menus. We have all of your XP stored nice and safely on our servers.

  • End game scoreboard XP reward is incorrect?

XP gains / levels shown are incorrect on players UI.
Again - don’t worry! We have your actual XP stored on our servers.

We’ll be putting out a patch for all these XP & leveling issues at some point soon!

TL;DR Summary

We’re seeing great feedback from you guys about the game. We’ve already seen insanely high level play in the Blitzkrieg Battle Community Tournament, and this is only the 3rd day of Early Access. If you’ve ever dreamed of being a competitive player - Battalion 1944 is the most accessible FPS title with true grass roots beginnings. This is a super bright indication of what’s to come for the game competitively and all the more reason for players to practice for February 8ths competitive launch!

So the most important info:
Later this morning 08:00 (GMT) players will see a client and server update.

  • Server Backfilling Fix
  • Region Restrictions Lifted In Certain Countries
  • Accurate Server Browser Player Numbers
  • Temporary Server Browser Solution - Ordered via Number of Players
  • Extra Matchmaking Third Party Stability and Security

We’re constantly trying to communicate with you guys to help with your issues. We’re going to keep putting out small fixes and patches to improve stability. We thank you for your patience

Finally, we would like to congratulate ‘The Ocelots’ for winning the first ever Battalion 1944 tournament. We were thrilled to see the grassroots stage of Battalion’s competitive side take off so well! Thank you to the whole team at The PlaysGG.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeKNx7zX64M&feature=youtu.be

Full Blitzkrieg VOD available here: https://www.twitch.tv/theplaysgg/videos/all
BATTALION: Legacy - brammertron
Hey everyone!

First of all - thank you so much for being patient and respectful to us developers, the majority of conversation has been very positive. We’ve been doing our best to communicate as much information to you all as possible, while we continue to work on fixes. To put it into perspective we have 3 people doing all of the community responses whilst our programmers have been hard at work and these fixes and plans what we’re here to tell you about right now.

Matchmaking Improvements

We’ve deployed some fixes to the matchmaking backend which make our matchmaker more reliable. You should now be able to get into games faster than before. This is happening right now and we’re seeing large amounts of players in games rather than searching, which is great!

This is something we can and will be improving every day, little by little. The more data we are getting from your guys playing, the more information we have to reliably identify and fix issues with. You guys are the reason this game will become more stable throughout early access and this is the exact reason early access exists - to help us test and polish the game before release.
We would not of been able to make these fixes, without the thousands of people actively helping us by searching for games.

We can’t thank you enough for your time and patience. So onto more specific issues:

Backfilling servers

By now you guys have definitely seen the issues with teams being unbalanced and not full when being matchmade into a server. When players leave servers (or do not make it into a server due to a crash) the empty slots are not being refilled.

Tomorrow we will be looking into identifying the reason why this is happening. We have enough data now from you guys to be able to look into this and find the source of the issue - especially with the servers now matchmaking players into servers reliably as stated above. Later tomorrow we’ll look into applying a patch for this issue. This is of a very high priority for the development team.

Community Servers will be able to host more than 10 players!

We’ve seen an issue on community hosted distributed servers that wouldn’t let more than 10 players join into a server - even when the server browser displayed information saying they were not full.

SERVER ADMINS PLEASE READ

At 10:00 GMT we will be releasing new server files that MUST be applied for your server to be visible and used.
The files will be uploaded to http://wiki.battaliongame.com
Both Linux & Windows server files will be updated at the same time and will provide a much better experience for all players and admins!

It’s very important distributed server owners update their servers to the latest version so that players can see their server in the server browser once the update has gone live, as out of date servers will not be displayed to players.

Server Browser Filters

We’ve heard your demand for this feature. It’s now a high priority for the dev team.

For clarity: The current server browser was put in place only for the initial launch of early access. We want to add filters and fix the issues such as ping not displaying.


We’re working on them right now and whilst the filters won’t be in the next few days - we’re planning for it to arrive with our week 1 update with a host of extra client bug fixes. Fully featured server browser filters are essential - and we want to get that to you guys as soon as possible.

Thanks
Thanks for all your support these last two days, keep up the good work. If you’ve played the game a lot for the last two days you can probably see the improvements happening live.

It’s 1am and we’re very tired! Thank you community.



BATTALION: Legacy - brammertron
Hey everyone!

First of all - thank you so much for being patient and respectful to us developers, the majority of conversation has been very positive. We’ve been doing our best to communicate as much information to you all as possible, while we continue to work on fixes. To put it into perspective we have 3 people doing all of the community responses whilst our programmers have been hard at work and these fixes and plans what we’re here to tell you about right now.

Matchmaking Improvements

We’ve deployed some fixes to the matchmaking backend which make our matchmaker more reliable. You should now be able to get into games faster than before. This is happening right now and we’re seeing large amounts of players in games rather than searching, which is great!

This is something we can and will be improving every day, little by little. The more data we are getting from your guys playing, the more information we have to reliably identify and fix issues with. You guys are the reason this game will become more stable throughout early access and this is the exact reason early access exists - to help us test and polish the game before release.
We would not of been able to make these fixes, without the thousands of people actively helping us by searching for games.

We can’t thank you enough for your time and patience. So onto more specific issues:

Backfilling servers

By now you guys have definitely seen the issues with teams being unbalanced and not full when being matchmade into a server. When players leave servers (or do not make it into a server due to a crash) the empty slots are not being refilled.

Tomorrow we will be looking into identifying the reason why this is happening. We have enough data now from you guys to be able to look into this and find the source of the issue - especially with the servers now matchmaking players into servers reliably as stated above. Later tomorrow we’ll look into applying a patch for this issue. This is of a very high priority for the development team.

Community Servers will be able to host more than 10 players!

We’ve seen an issue on community hosted distributed servers that wouldn’t let more than 10 players join into a server - even when the server browser displayed information saying they were not full.

SERVER ADMINS PLEASE READ

At 10:00 GMT we will be releasing new server files that MUST be applied for your server to be visible and used.
The files will be uploaded to http://wiki.battaliongame.com
Both Linux & Windows server files will be updated at the same time and will provide a much better experience for all players and admins!

It’s very important distributed server owners update their servers to the latest version so that players can see their server in the server browser once the update has gone live, as out of date servers will not be displayed to players.

Server Browser Filters

We’ve heard your demand for this feature. It’s now a high priority for the dev team.

For clarity: The current server browser was put in place only for the initial launch of early access. We want to add filters and fix the issues such as ping not displaying.


We’re working on them right now and whilst the filters won’t be in the next few days - we’re planning for it to arrive with our week 1 update with a host of extra client bug fixes. Fully featured server browser filters are essential - and we want to get that to you guys as soon as possible.

Thanks
Thanks for all your support these last two days, keep up the good work. If you’ve played the game a lot for the last two days you can probably see the improvements happening live.

It’s 1am and we’re very tired! Thank you community.



BATTALION: Legacy

Bulkhead's aim with Battalion 1944, which has just launched in Early Access, is to capture the feel of classic WWII multiplayer games such as Call of Duty 2, and to a certain extent they've succeeded. It's a stripped-back experience, with intimate maps and accessible yet satisfying gunplay. At the moment, there are some significant problems that need to be addressed, especially server and matchmaking issues. When the game works, however, it's obvious there is a solid base here for Bulkhead to build on. 

There are currently two modes. Unranked (a ranked mode is coming) is about bomb disposal and team elimination, while arcade is a randomized playlist of three different competitive games: capture the flag, domination, and team deathmatch. Arcade is a great introduction to the game, while unranked offers a quicker, less forgiving experience for those who want to demonstrate their skills. 

I died a lot earlier in unranked than I did in any of the arcade modes, as it's more about individual talent than pushing as a team. The pace is also much faster than I'm used to, with players constantly bumping into each other in tight alleyways and buildings. In one round I risked not checking around a corner and was immediately punished for it by a quick shot to the head. This didn't put me off, however, and actually highlighted how fun Battalion is to spectate. Watching the surviving member of my team as they tried to pull us back from the brink and disable the explosive the enemy had planted was nail-biting. After dusting myself off, I was eager to jump back in and take my revenge.

There is a competitive mode on the way too, but at the moment this is still locked and will be activated on February 8. That's fine by me, as many of Battalion's issues would be less forgivable in ranked competition than they are now.  

...it's worth noting that very few independent studios have attempted what Bulkhead are trying to achieve in terms of developing an online first-person shooter of this size.

Not an issue are the maps, which are excellent. They include trenches, rural villages, and a lighthouse and forest setting. Each has shortcuts and tricks to exploit once you've discovered every nook and cranny, and work across the different modes. The Coastal map, for instance, allows players to use windows to sneak around and get the jump on the other team. I used this tactic a lot, especially on capture the flag. It allowed me to break away and slip through their defense when my team were pinned down in our own area, helping to overturn a stalemate.

The weapons are also superb. This is an area that's improved significantly since I last played. In the closed beta scoped rifles dominated, but this is no longer the case. It's now harder to get off cheap shots with the rifle while moving, and this is reflected in more weapon diversity, with players using all the available loadout cards. I'm not sure whether they've made any changes in terms of damage output, but it also feels easier now to get kills with the automatic weapons, something I struggled with in the beta as I couldn’t stay alive long enough to get in enough shots when facing someone with a rifle. 

The main problem right now is with the servers. When the game went live, they struggled to cope with the demand, meaning that many, like me, were locked out for a long time. 

Bulkhead worked on a temporary fix throughout the night, and managed to get it working for some people, but there are still some issues getting into games. This is annoying, of course, but it's worth noting that very few independent studios have attempted what Bulkhead is trying to achieve by developing an online first-person shooter of this size. They've also been fantastic with keeping players up to date, and studio lead Joe Brammer has taken the blame for this, apologizing to players and shifting the fault away from his team. 

I'm still having trouble finding games, with unranked being much harder to get into than arcade, but the team is still working on another, more permanent, fix. It is currently possible to get in and play, if you have the patience.

Match balancing is a problem, too. I've entered a few games now to find the opposing side have outnumbered my own team. Currently, there's no way to swap sides in a game or for others to join late, which means all you can do in those situations is play and hope for the best. This is one area I hope is fixed during Early Access, especially as a few of the games I spectated in unranked saw players rage quit, leading to even more uneven teams.

There are also smaller concerns like missing prompts. During my first unranked game, I ran over to plant a bomb and didn't have any idea how to do it, having never played before. I thought the game would give me a prompt, but I was just left to figure it out by myself, spamming buttons. If it wasn't for my team chat I probably would have died and cost us a win, but luckily they told me to hold the F key just in time. 

Battalion 1944 is a promising game and I do recommend it. For the moment, though, that endorsement comes with caveats. It's still rough around the edges and needs more player feedback before it's ready. You may also want to hold back and wait for all the server issues to be sorted, too. 

Nevertheless, Battalion caters to specific type of player who has been ignored for a long time and the developers are some of the most active and transparent I've seen in this genre.

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