BATTALION: Legacy - brammertron
Hey all!

We hope you’re all enjoying our latest update to Battalion 1944, Major Update 2. The comments, feedback and overall positivity from the community surrounding the game has been a real motivator to make sure Battalion is the best version of itself it can be. After the release of Major Update 2, our team moved straight to working on the next updates.

Major Update 3 is currently in development and has strong emphasis on improving the overall experience for new Battalion players. It's such a substantial game update that we also intend MU3 to enhance the current Battalion experience even further for existing players. After internal discussions, we’ve decide to push Major Update 3 back to enable us to add even more features, polish them and make sure we nail the full intended Battalion 1944 experience before we push the game again to the wider Steam community.

Major Update 2 improved Battalion's core competitive experience by leaps and bounds. Major Update 3 aims to bring user experience improvements to the game which will make the overall experience more enjoyable for more casual players. But as Battalion’s early access journey continues the game is taking big steps towards its full release as a finished game.

Today however, we wanted to announce an extremely important update we’ve been working on for Battalion that will be going live in early September in a patch we’re dubbing ‘Update 2.5’. Although this update isn’t a ‘Major Update’, due to it being less focused on new content - It does contain significant improvements and changes to the game that have been long time community requests.

Third & First Person Scale Rework

Note: The following rework is quite difficult to explain in words without actually seeing and playing the changes in action, so please ask questions and watch the gifs too!

Players have always noticed something feels slightly ‘off’ with Battalion. There is an ever present issue that is the root cause for many of Battalion’s core problems. Battalion’s characters, were too small. An early mistake in development caused a knock on effect throughout the game - and Battalion’s scale issues have been punishing to your experience thus far.
“Something just doesn’t feel right”
“Players look weird in 3rd person”
“Jump height is broken”
“I can barely see him!”
“The character is not smooth in the air”

Effectively over two years ago when we started Battalion, we didn’t respect the scale of the original blockout version of the game enough when it came to creating the 3D visuals you see today.

We have spent the last 6-8 weeks recorrecting this issue and we have seen the massive benefit and knock on effect it has had on the game. Below, we have detailed the steps we have taken and the changes to both scale and movement we have made, to solve the following issues.


Increase Character Scale
Increased the character scale/size by 16%.
This means characters are now nice and chunky, allowing for an increased feeling of hit registration with larger character models to plow your bullets into..


Rescale Environments
We’ve modified every single doorway, window, and headshot angle to compensate for the larger character model. Classic FPS games have large window/door frames to allow 1-2 players to easily pass through - these new standardised heights have been retroactively applied to every single enterable building - making for a hitch free experience when maneuvering from indoors/outdoors.


Movement Speed Very Slight Increase
Overall movement speed has been increased very slightly so that first person doesn’t feel sluggish with the new larger character scale. We’ve also fixed previously incorrect movement values of certain weapons - meaning eco SMGs are now faster than Heavy weapons etc


Overall Jump Height Reduced
Jump height has been reduced significantly as an effort to combat the ridiculous looking ‘bunny hop’ third person animations that has dampened the game’s feel since launch. The new (less springy) animation makes the game feel more grounded - and less ridiculous compared to previous versions of Battalion where you would’d see soldiers jumping their own height around corners. The change still retains a good feel of height gain in first person - and no longer looks cartoon-like in third - whilst retaining the same 1-1 first to third person movement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJYkJaYAINc

Strafe Jump Mechanics Improved & Distance Increase
A very common complaint we’ve received is that our strafe jump wasn’t effective enough and didn’t emulate the games that Battalion 1944 was influenced by closely enough. This unintentionally meant players who picked up the game Day 1 could manoeuvre just as well as a player who would put in hundreds of hours.

To make up for the loss of overall jump height - after weeks of refinement - we’ve come much closer to what we believe are the correct values that fit Battalion 1944’s ethos as a classic shooter for the modern era. The change feels liberating and is much closer to how Battalion 1944 was intended to feel from launch day - with skilled movement and map flow now feeling smooth like butter rather than a sluggish chore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PraALzZHA6Y

Crouch Jump Height Gain Heavily Reduced
Now that vault has been improved both back in MU2 and with further vaulting improvements coming to Update 2.5 - we’ve taken the decision to remove the legacy crouch jump mechanic from Battalion 1944. The reason crouch jump was previously so high in MU1 and earlier (it was above the players own head height!) was the lack of a solid vault. The game has since changed.

This change has the added benefit of reducing the ridiculous height gain in third person animation from crouch jumps vs regular height jumps.

To replace crouch jumping - we’re adding subtle options for gaining height within the levels themselves, such as many more vault volumes, ladders and nicely laid props to enable players to move smoothly throughout the levels whilst still retaining the ability to be able to maneuver vertically when needed. Combined with the new strafe distance and overall smoother, less clunky, movement - we can’t wait to see the new spots players find with the new and improved mechanics.

https://youtu.be/oynU3iHXRQ0

Landing ‘Viewbob’ Smoothed Depending on Height of Drop
When landing your camera will now ‘bob’ slightly lower than previously to feel smooth when moving around the games maps, as well as giving players crucial info of how far/hard they’ve fallen. The higher you fall - the larger the viewbob.

However - if players smartly and smoothly jump up to a higher surface they will not receive a viewbob or any landing sound, increasing that feeling of movement & momentum when you jump up to higher surfaces and chain skilled movements around Battalion’s maps.

This improved visual viewbob affects landing in ADS, hip fire, crouch and landing into prone.

https://youtu.be/lG0kMdt8GCM

Added Slight Deceleration After Landing Consecutively
To bring Battalion’s movement mechanics more inline with the titles Battalion 1944 takes inspiration from, we have added deceleration after landing. Each consecutive jump slows the player closer and closer to walk speed. Effectively, this means you can not jump as far after landing when trying to sprint & strafe jump consecutively again and again. Knowing when and where to jump, strafe and manage your stamina is more important than ever.

https://youtu.be/laAmDE3IvyU?list=PLv_u6kEQpiVdKqxyKZvhgggtXwfzY1zOc

Movement Audio Improvements
As previously mentioned - moving around levels in Battalion felt like a chore. Part of this issue is to do with audio. After studying some of the most fluid FPS titles of the last 2 decades - we’ve tweaked how much sound is being played to the player for minor movements. For example when jumping up to a point of higher elevation, you will no longer make a sound.

These audio changes include how much sound is made when jiggle peeking, going into/out of ADS is now silent, the amount of sound played when transitioning into sprint or making minor positional adjustments on the ground or on a ladder. All these factors add up to the smooth feel of classic FPS titles which has taken to this point in development to have the time and manpower to polish. The result is a much smoother, fluid feeling game.

General Movement Fluidity Improved
A combination of lower jump height, increased strafe distance, small audio tweaks and a concoction of new acceleration/deceleration values have created a much smoother experience. We can’t wait for you to check out the new subtle game feel changes for yourselves after the 2.5 release!

https://youtu.be/u9-zEGh0-is

More Update 2.5 Previews To Come!

Just like with our Major Update 2 preview posts - we have many more exciting features, updates and improvement coming before the Update 2.5 release. Following the development of a game and seeing it improve can be just as rewarding as creating the game itself, and we want to keep encouraging you guys to get involved in Battalion’s development.

Keep an eye on our social media accounts for the very latest news coming soon in the near future!
BATTALION: Legacy - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alice O'Connor)

“TOTAL REWORK,” declares a trailer for Battalion 1944‘s new free update. “THE COMMUNITY HAS BEEN HEARD.”

Bulkhead Interactive’s World War 2 multiplayer FPS got off to a rocky start in early access, see. Our Alec admired what he played, even if his clicking finger has grown slow and preoccupied in his old age, but he did note a number of problems – and players did too. Five months later, the game’s second “major” early access update arrived today with rebalanced weapons, a new map, a new mode, performance improvements, and a broad prettying-up including new player models and map polish. (more…)

BATTALION: Legacy - Big Tuna


Yes. It's finally time. Major Update 2, the game update that we’ve been talking about for the past few months, has left beta and is now LIVE!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw1qcMIm9A4
Our main goal for Major Update 2 (MU2) was to entirely revamp our core competitive gamemode - Wartide 2.0. Along with Wartide 2.0 we’ve added huge list of new features - including a complete ingame HUD overhaul, new player models, BattleRank (free cosmetic progression system), new maps, better weapon balance, movement, LAN servers, grenade training and improved netcode - and that’s just the beginning. So without further ado, here’s the Major Update 2 changelog!

Major Update 2 Core Features
  • Wartide 2.0 - Entirely revamped & improved competitive gamemode.
  • Introducing ‘BattleRank’ Beta 2018 - Our free seasonal cosmetic progression system.
  • Revamped Movement System - Improved lean, jumpshot nerf, smoother movement.
  • New Competitive Map - Savoia, Italy
  • New Weapons - MP28 & Grease Gun.
  • Reworked Weapon Balance - Varied Weapon Choice & Sniper Nerfs.
  • LAN Server Support - Including Grenade Training (Strat Mode).
  • New HD Renderer - Improved visuals take Battalion 1944 visuals into the next generation.
  • New Matchmaking System - Increased Stability
  • Huge Performance Optimisations - Solid 120+ FPS on most systems.
  • New HD Sound Engine - Advanced Sound Attenuation.
  • EXPERIMENTAL - Added Bots to fill empty server slots - Can be possessed by dead players.
  • EXPERIMENTAL - Added Work In Progress Match Replay system (Third Person ONLY)
New Competitive Gamemode ‘Wartide 2.0’



Updated Visuals & New HUD Interface with Wartide 2.0

For the past few months we’ve been incrementally playtesting alongside our dedicated community a brand new & improved version of our core gamemode, Wartide 2.0. The gamemode now revolves around a true team based economy system with solid comeback mechanics to allow for varied and interesting round to round gameplay. We’ve done away with the old card system and completely and utterly overhauled the user interface for a much more fun & polished gameplay experience.

Our hardcore players have been loving the weekly beta tweaks and changes and we’ve been receiving lots of good reports we’re finally ready to share this new gamemode and push it to the live servers. We can’t wait to hear the feedback from the wider gaming audience.

Wartide 2.0 Token Rewards/Expenses:

Max Tokens: 12
Round Win Bonus: 2
Round One Loss Bonus: 1
Round Two Loss Bonus: 2
Round Three Loss Bonus: 3
Bomb Defuse/Explosion Bonus: 1

New Allies Weapon Costings:
  • Grease Gun: Free
  • M1 Carbine: 1
  • Trench Gun: 2
  • Thompson: 3 (+1)
  • M1 Garand: 4
  • BAR: 4 (-1)
  • Springfield: 6 (-1)
New Axis Weapon Costings:
  • MP28: Free
  • Gewehr: 1
  • Trench Gun: 2
  • MP40: 3
  • STG44: 4 (-1)
  • Kar98k: 5 (-1)
  • Kar98 Scoped: 6 (-1)
New Utility Costings:
  • Frag Grenade: 2 (+1)
  • Smoke Grenade: 1
Weapon Saving
Players can now save weapons between rounds in both their primary and secondary weapon slots. This gives a large reward to players who stay alive and/or teams who win the round. This feature has massively changed the way Battalion is played - and winning an eco round rush then taking the enemy weapons has never felt more rewarding.

New Map - Savoia, Italy
Savoia has been designed around the idea of playing around with vertically, long sightlines and larger open areas as a departure from the default mould of Battalion’s current map design. High precision aim and map awareness have never been more important as you choose to either snipe from window to window or weave with an SMG through the italian buildings of our brand new competitive map, Savoia!



Existing Maps Reworked & New HD Renderer

Several maps have had both minor and major complete reworks since MU1 - and now the changes are finally going live.

New HD Renderer & Performance Gains
  • All Maps
Map Changes / Reworks:

Invasion Rework



Changes:
Manhouse v2:
  • Added a haystack as cover to the corner of A bombsite
  • Flattened the terrain in that same corner of A bombsite
  • Removed the ‘boost boxes’ by mid/A barn exit
  • Blocked certain overpowered boost spots based on players feedback
  • Fixed some map specific bug
Coastal:
  • Improved spawn area layouts for both axis and allies.
  • Added a new sniper building by the allies spawn for the Allies to peek into mid from a higher elevation or defend against aggressive flankers from B.
  • Added a new enterable house on A long by the A bombsite to allow axis players to peek A long and allied players to flank around the A bombsite building.
  • Made the ‘Byfam Antiques’ building enterable to add a quicker rotation point between B stairs & middle’s broken walls.
  • Added a ladder to the back of the A bombsite building to allow players to enter from the top of the wooden stairs (sorry stair campers!)



Updates & Bug Fixes:
  • Derailed
  • Aim Map
  • Liberation
  • Outpost
  • Upottery
Updated Minimaps

As a small UI update we’ve also updated all of the minimaps to fit the new Wartide UI. Here’s the very latest top down minimap images so that players can create new callout images & strategies if you wish.
Battalion 1944 Major Update 2 - New Minimaps

New & Improved Player Models

We’ve updated Battalion 1944’s first and third person player models and animations to look and feel 100x better than the previous characters in the old live build of the game. After playing with and against these new player models there’s no way we could never go back.





New Weapons - MP28 & Grease Gun

The famous allied ‘Grease Gun’ and Axis ‘MP28’ have been added to the game. Their role as the new default weapons of Battalion 1944 is an effective, and free, close range option to quick rush the enemy team or catch aggressors off guard. A great option when your team’s economy isn't looking too strong in a match of Wartide.



Allied ‘Grease Gun’ submachine gun



Axis ‘MP28’ submachine gun

Full Change-Log

Gameplay - (Movement & Gunplay Tweaks)
Movement Changes:
[/list]
  • Reduced the amount your third person player model moves out of cover whilst leaning by 75% which will encourage angle holding and jiggle peeking.
  • Increased momentum very slightly to create smoother general movement.
  • No longer receive movement penalty when falling from small heights whilst not ADS to increase general movement fluidity.
  • Adjusted acceleration to allow players to make minor positional adjustments
  • Added a server side ‘takeoff’ sound when a player jumps to give players who are holding an angle extra information on the enemies movement behavior.
  • Added a ‘movement punish’ when landing whilst holding ADS.
  • New better functioning vault
  • Vault animation added to first person and third person
  • Jump land punish now regenerate x2 faster when not in ADS/Scoped/Aiming (In line with COD)
  • Lean Speed increased by 15%
  • Fall damage reduced
  • New walk/left/right animation (hips don’t sway, new crouch animation to follow soon)
  • Jump ADS Punish recovery time decreased by 0.2 (now more in line with COD4)
Prone Behavior Changes
  • If a player goes to prone when moving whilst ADS, they will be pulled out of ADS.
  • If a player goes to prone when stationary whilst ADS, they will stay in ADS.
  • If a player tries to move whilst already in prone and ADS, they will be pulled out of ADS - unless you’re a using a scoped sniper rifle.
  • Prone ADS bug fixed
Weapons Changes and additions:
  • Added MP 28
  • Added Grease Gun
  • More Consistent Weapon Physics After Death
Sniper Rifles
  • The Springfield, the Kar98 Scoped and the Kar98 now take slightly longer to become fully scoped when transitioning to ADS. This has in turn increased the length of the inaccuracy period when transitioning between hip fire to aiming down the scope.
  • Hip Fire / Noscope is now considerably more accurate.
  • ADS Transition Speed increase/buff from 0.35 > 0.31 (MU1 ADS time was 0.25)
  • ADS Move speed increase/buff from 1.0 > 0.8
  • Weapon Holster speed increase/buff from 0.333 > 0.233
  • Hip Spread Recovery Rate After Moving 20 > 32
    (Explained: After you stop moving, you will see your crosshair return to the centre. This an important assisting mechanic for no scoping. Although the snipers are more inaccurate from hip than the Kar98, they recover their static hip fire accuracy almost 35% faster than the Kar98. The crosshair is 100% accurate to the area where the noscope can land.
  • Sniper scope FOV increased
Rife changes
  • Kar98 Scoped noscope accuracy buff
Heavy Weapons
  • The BAR is now a 3 shot weapon across all ranges instead of 3-5 shots at range.
  • The BAR ADS animation was tweaked to feel more snappy and responsive.
  • The STG44 is now a 3-4 shot weapon instead of 3-5 shots.
  • Both STG44 & BAR stationary hip fire accuracy slightly increased.
  • STG rate of fire (time between shots) decreased from 0.09 > 0.11
SMGs
  • MP40 Horizontal Recoil Slightly Reduced.
Shotguns
  • Max range damage slightly reduced.
  • Min range damage increased slightly.
  • Crosshair spread decreased to more accurately portray pellet spread.
  • Reduced shotgun fire rate.
  • Can now hold 6 shots instead of 5.
Eco Weapons
  • Grease Gun & MP28 rate of rire (Time between shots) increased from 0.13 > 0.125
Weapon Penetration Values
  • Bomb box no longer penetrable
  • Adjusted penetrable meshes
New Sounds:
  • Added a server side ‘takeoff’ sound when a player jumps.
  • New Gewehr Sound.
  • New STG44 Sound.
  • New Thompson Sound.
  • New Luger Sound.
  • New M1911 Sound.
  • New Headshot Sound.
  • New Hitmarker Sound.
  • New Footsteps Sounds.
  • New Token Pickup Sound.
  • New Attenuation/Falloff.
  • Adding an Ambient Sound Slider
  • Added grenade pick up sounds.
  • Added new hitmarker sound effect.
  • Added new headshot sound effect.
  • Added ambient volume slider.
  • Added main menu music volume slider
  • Added subtle audio occlusion.
  • Added new in-game music for Wartide gamemode.
  • Added new announcer voice for Wartide gamemode.
  • Bomb Ticking now gets faster depending on time left on the bomb.
  • Increased bomb planting sound radius.
  • Fixed a bug where other player's Garand 'ping' would trigger at incorrect times.
Player:
  • Added new jump sound effect.
  • Improved footstep sound effects for some surfaces.
  • Improved taking damage sound.
Weapons:
  • Improved gun sound attenuations.
  • Added new mechanical sound to guns when they are running out of ammo (first person only).
  • Improved gunshot sounds for STG44, Thompson, Trench Gun, BAR, Mp40, Luger, Colt 1911 and Gewehr.
  • Added knife stabbing sounds.
Performance Gains
  • Blueprint Navisation (drastically decreasing load times and increasing performance).
  • Level Specific Optimisations (reducing draw calls).
  • General Optimisations (reducing unnecessary clutter within the project).
  • Animation Optimisation (only visible information is sent to clients).
Settings/Menu Configs
  • No config resetting
  • More in-game config settings
  • ini files will be locked
  • Some restrictions on certain config settings
Misc
  • 144hz / fullscreen issue fixed (For extra assurance, make sure your Windows refresh rate is set to 144hz, not just Nvidia graphics settings, Battalion uses windows refresh rate setting when not in true full screen)
  • Amazon servers
Updated Smoke Grenade
Our new smoke grenade effects are now more consistent and act as a solid visual wall to allow players to cross gaps to safely and maneuver past long sightlines with confidence... or even get a cheeky ninja defuse!

https://youtu.be/9BkkfyzMrVA
Introducing Ladders!
https://youtu.be/Lp2FYMuW86w
All of the above changes have been made to polish the core of Battalion 1944 before we move onto Major Update 3’s development where we will start focusing on polishing arcade game modes (FFA, TDM, CTF & DOM) and the overall user experience from rewards and stat tracking to medals and UI.

Introducing ‘Battlerank’ - New Cosmetic Progression System!

When looking at the list of issues with the Early Access launch version of Battalion, at the top of the list was giving reasons for players to keep playing whilst rewarding those who do keep booting up and playing for their efforts. We had these kind of changes down to be worked on ready for Major Update 3 - but we’ve decided to run a small ‘beta season’ of our new leveling system within Major Update 2 called ‘BattleRank’.



BattleRank Beta Season 2018 is the first step towards making Battalion the engaging and rewarding game it was always intended to become. With every BattleRank season will come new exclusive rewards and weapon skins that can only be acquired during that period.

BattleRank is a system designed to reward you for playing Battalion 1944 - due to this, all players’ XP will need to be reset to make way for this new era of BattleRank.

Every player who boots the game during the very first beta season will receive a participant coin and a participant weapon skin as a thanks for checking out the changes to the game during MU2.

However, players who stick around past the MU2 launch will get the chance to ‘level up’ their BattleRank to higher tiers. This is done by gaining experience point (XP) by playing the game and completing matches. In the 2018 Beta Season of BattleRank, every 10 levels will reward you with a new & exclusive weapon skin that can be sold or traded on the community market. Also, every single level up will upgrade your publicly displayed BattleRank icon and also reward you with a free War Chest!

Battlerank ‘beta 2018’ Exclusive Weapon Skin Unlocks

These weapons can only be obtained by playing Battalion 1944 and leveling up via XP during the ‘Beta 2018’ season. These skins are tradable and marketable. Once the Beta 2018 season ends - these weapons will no longer be available to unlock.

Bronze Tier (Rank 2-9) - ‘MP28 | Hazard’ & BattleRank Beta 2018 Participant Coin


Silver Tier (Rank 10-19) - ‘BAR | Hellfire’


Gold Tier (Rank 20-29) - ‘Colt 1911 | Midnight Fade’


Platinum Tier (Rank 30-39) - ‘Grease Gun | CyberPunk’


Emerald Tier (Rank 40-39) - ‘Kar98k | Platinum Plated’


Diamond Tier (Rank 50+) - Animated ‘Springfield | Dragon Breath’ & BattleRank Beta 2018 Completionist Coin


The diamond tier scorched earth Springfield design is the first ever animated weapon skin in Battalion 1944 that reacts to your gameplay. Reign fire upon your enemies and see your springfield rage into life as light emits from the veins of this weapon’s woodwork every time you pull the trigger.

New Warchest - The Aces High War Chest

Along with BattleRank - we’re adding a brand new War Chest!
Say hello to the brand new 'Aces High' War Chest.

Drop chances within these new War Chests are considerably improved. Therefore the chance of you receiving higher tier skins is much higher.

Players will be able to unlock an ‘Aces High’ War Chest every time they level up via BattleRank. Here’s a preview of some of the new weapon skins you’ll be able to get your hands on:

The ‘Chompson’ Weapon Skin - Exclusive to the ‘Aces High’ War Chest



The ‘Red Barron’ STG-44 Weapon Skin - Exclusive to the ‘Aces High’ War Chest


The ‘Axis Nightmare’ BAR Weapon Skin - Exclusive to the ‘Aces High’ War Chest


And many more!

New & Updated Settings Menu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9vxip5z-Co
LAN Server Support - Including Grenade Training (Strat Mode).

After requests from the community we have decided to include Offline LAN server support as well as a grenade training mode. This includes a keybind for a grenade follow feature that allows you to track your grenade/smoke flight path and where it lands in order for you to work on those entry and denial stop nades. We hope you enjoy!

Many aspects of the game can be tweaked from this lan creation menu - meaning it can be a bit overwhelming for new players! We’ll be tidying up all the UI for this feature before full release but for now enjoy the unlimited customisation of your LAN servers.



How to enable strat mode



1] Create your LAN server with strat mode enabled and your desired map selection
2] When in your server type server.givegrenade NUMBER OR server.givesmoke
3] Throw your grenade then press your grenade follow key (default Z) to follow the grenade in the air! Use your mouse to rotate around the grenade mid flight.
4] Get creative! Eventually you’ll find some insane grenade angles to take with you into online servers like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X9IKexi_ms&feature=youtu.be&t=6
Experimental Feature - Adding Bots!

Bots have also been a highly requested feature and we are happy to say that they now can be included into community servers to. These can populate empty spots in a server and can be possessed by dead players. Newly joining players will kick these bots and take their spots!

Bots are WORK IN PROGRESS so you’ll see that they’re not very smart & will potentially have issues that could mean we remove them temporarily from the live servers. They like to follow each other in packs. One of our goals between now and full release is to be constantly improving the bot AI, so expect them to get smarter between now and full release.



Experimental Feature - Match Replays (Demo Viewer)



This is an extremely early version of this feature.

Players can now manually record matches by pressing F4 (Default Keybind) during gameplay which will start locally recording everything that happens in a match until the replay is manually stopped by pressing F4 again. These replays can then be accessed from the settings menu from within the main menu.

At the moment the replays are only in 3rd person with a very simple timeline function as a proof of concept. The replay feature will contain bugs and is likely to entirely break. Obviously this is not ideal. However, we felt it was important to push this feature into MU2 for early testing and to potentially help content creators relive awesome moments that happen during a game.

The match replay feature will be improved upon with the release of the next large content update, Major Update 3 and will be continued to be improved as we heard toward full release next year. We aim to allow players to relieve entire matches from any perspective as if they were spectating them live. Please help us test this very early, yet important addition to Battalion 1944 and send us feedback via our official Discord!

Summary

Hopefully you guys will see the revived potential of Battalion 1944’s future after you try out Major Update 2 today - we’re committed to the future of this game and we’re not going anywhere. Want more? Major Update 3 is not that far away and will bring even more to the table to make Battalion 1944 the game its intended to be.

Gallantry Budapest - The First Major Update 2 Lan Tournament

The very first LAN tournament running Major Update 2 is taking place at Gallantry Budapest. 18 teams from across the globe will compete to try and take the crown from Insomnia 62 winners Team Endpoint & embrace the glory of stamping their team name into Battalion 1944’s history books as the game’s best players during this Early Access period.

You can watch all the action live on Twitch, 13th - 15th July 2018.
Twitch: Gallantry Twitch
Gallantry Events Twitter

Read More: https://gallantry.gg/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmf7mxwXNwE
(Note: Trailer includes outdated Pre-MU2 gameplay footage from past B44 tournaments)

Coming Soon After Major Update 2.



Ever wanted to get into games design or show off your level design skills?
Soon you’ll be able to dive into the Battalion 1944 Developer Toolkit.
More info coming soon!

Thanks,
The Bulkhead Interactive Team


BATTALION: Legacy - Big Tuna
Major Update 2, Beta Test and release details



Ahead of the release of our next Major Update, players have been asking us to bring them in to help test the game before it’s pushed live to the world! There are lots of important dates in the run up to and in relation to the release of Major Update 2 (MU2).

MU2 Related Dates:

Reddit MU2 AMA with KingHoward & Brammertron
- Tuesday June 12th / 20:00 BST

Pretty self explanatory here. Joe and Howard will be holding an MU2 AMA on the Battalion 1944 Reddit page to answer any of your questions that you have about the Major Update 2 that isn’t featured in this update explanation. We will release the link to this thread soon.

Showmatch MU2 Team Howard vs Team Brammer
- Thursday June 14th / 20:00 BST

Tensions have been building on the Battalion 1944 Reddit between Joe and Howard and has accumulated to a Showmatch with each developer leading each team against each other. This light hearted but competitive match will showcase the new Wartide 2.0 gamemode that is coming in MU2 and it will also be streamed and casted by The Plays on their Twitch Channel. The teams are made up of the ‘balance team’ who play the game to try and nail the balancing on Wartide 2. These teams have been playing morning and afternoon this week and consistently the game ends tied. With our new overtime feature, we’ll be looking for a nice competitive game. Place your bets! Team Howard or Team Brammer?

Beta Weekend 1 MU2
(Testing for stability)
- Friday June 15th / 18:00 BST > Sunday June 17th 23:59 BST
- We will have a large list of servers open for use that will be running both competitive and arcade gamemodes. There will be enough for scrimming, so just pick a server, ready up and use it till you’re done.

Beta Weekend 2 MU2
(rebalance testing)
- Friday June 22th / 18:00 BST > Sunday June 24th 23:59 BST
- We will have a large list of servers open for use that will be running both competitive and arcade gamemodes. There will be enough for scrimming, so just pick a server, ready up and use it till you’re done.

Open beta MU2
- Friday July 5th / 18:00 BST > Sunday July 10th 23:59 BST
- We will have a large list of servers open for use that will be running both competitive and arcade gamemodes. There will be enough for scrimming so just pick a server and use it till you’re done.
Further explanation and instructions on how to access the MU2 beta are below:

MU2 Stage 1: Beta Stage Explained

In June, when we feel the MU2 build is stable ‘enough’ for testing, we will push a version of the game on the MU2 build to our “Public Beta Branch” on Steam. We will not be using the “Battalion 1944 Test Zone” (this is what we used for the pre-release Beta stages of Battalion) for a few good reasons, but this won’t change anything for you!

To access the MU2 Beta, we will publicly reveal the one overarching code to the Beta Branch. The only way to get the code for the Major Update 2 Beta Branch will be in the Official Battalion 1944 Discord . This means that owners of Battalion 1944 can use this code to access the MU2 Beta branch in Steam by doing the following:
Open Steam > Right Click ‘BATTALION 1944’ > Properties > Betas > ‘enter code’ > Select ‘beta’ within drop down menu above.

Important reminder: The only way to get the code for the Major Update 2 Beta Branch will be in the Official Battalion 1944 Discord. There are competitive channels in this Discord Server that you can use to set up PUGs.

This is similar to how games like BF1, PUBG and Overwatch do things with their CTE, Test Server and PTR. We are just a little behind these games with player management profiling and therefore have to roll this out to you guys using a coded Steam Beta Branch within the game itself.



MU2 Stage 2: Live Stage

Throughout the Beta phase we will be watching the feedback. What we will not do is be “over-reactive” to initial feedback. The beta phase will last a few weeks and during this time we will make changes, fixes, and improvements. We absolutely expect there to be bugs. But this is your opportunity as a passionate gaming community to make an impact on a commercial video game and this is our opportunity to make our passion project commercial!

By listening to your feedback we believe we can maximise the potential of Battalion 1944. We are not setting unrealistic expectations during this update, our goal is to show people what Battalion 1944 should have been at launch, but could only be possible with the extensive feedback given to us over the last 4 months. After we believe the game is balanced and just prior to the ‘Gallantry LAN event in Budapest’ we will push the release version of MU2 to the live Battalion 1944 branch.

BATTALION: Legacy

Bulkhead Interactive held a Battalion 1944 tournament back at the beginning of April, with €5000 and a selection of unique skins going to the winners of UK-based esports organization Endpoint. But the skins were slow in coming (and apparently still haven't been delivered), leading one of the team members, SUSPC7, to complain about the situation on Discord—a complaint that included a threat to shoot up the studio, complete with a reference to the April shooting at YouTube

SUSPC7 told The Verge that his outburst came after the developers brushed off his concerns about the delay in getting the skins. "Obviously I was just trying to be funny and shouldn’t have used the YouTube shooting as an example of that, basically saying they might answer my question if I did the same, but it was all just a joke that got blown out of proportion," he said. 

Word of the threat eventually found its way to Bulkhead, which responded in a firm fashion. "So a few months ago, I think you remember, you threatened that if we didn't get your skins to you soon you'd 'shoot up the studio'," Bulkhead boss Joe Brammer wrote. "It was really disappointing to see one of the best players in our foundation of the community, one of the winners of our first tournament take this attitude toward the developers. We are not a faceless Valve-esque studio who choose to remain silent for reasons like this, we choose to expose our personal lives and show players that we're people who care about FPS games." 

Brammer acknowledged that the threat wasn't meant seriously, but said that there's nothing funny about threats of violence and warned that the studio won't tolerate threats against it. Overall, though, he took a forgiving tone: He said that Bulkhead had considered holding back his Golden skin, but decided that would be too harsh. Instead, the developers decided to play a "real joke" on SUSPC7, and it's a pretty good one. 

"I myself have decided to draw a dick on the bottom on your Thompson Golden Skin," Brammer wrote. "People won't really see it, but we'll know it's there and I wanted to have a friendly joke with you. We're gamers too , we find things funny too, don't think just because we aren't a game studio we aren't people." 

Brammer expressed hope that SUSPC7 will do well in the upcoming Blitzkrieg Major in Amsterdam, and even offered to buy him a drink if he's there. He also suggested that if SUSPC7 decides to sell the skin (I imagine it would be relatively valuable, given its uniqueness), the funds could be donated to the Special Effect charity in the UK, which helps make videogames accessible to disabled gamers—and offered to match the donation if he does so.  

It's a positive ending to a situation that could have gone in a very different direction, and Bulkhead deserves full credit for handling it well. But the dick joke punchline shouldn't distract from the fact that the original threat, serious or not, was no joking matter at all, particularly in an era where gun violence is so distressingly common. 

I also wonder if this might actually encourage more players to try similar stunts in hopes of getting unique skins of their own: I have a feeling that there are plenty of players out there who would love to have an developer-engraved dick on their gun. This could ultimately have the unintended effect of forcing Bulkhead to come down harder on future transgressions than it might otherwise have wanted, just to ensure that its players get the right message.

Endpoint acknowledged that SUSPC7 crossed the line in a series of tweets. 

"We are hoping that this shows that both the studio and the player in question accepts that it was a real 'dick' move," Endpoint said. "It's important to us that people see that it wasn't forgotten. It was and still is completely unacceptable. We actually think the response from the studio is well executed. We reprimanded the player at the time and it will be a lesson learned to a young and aspiring player." 

BATTALION: Legacy - brammertron

The new settings menu gives players compete and full control of how their game looks, on a totally new level

MU2 Will feature a new settings menu!

During release we had 2 massive requests, from the general consensus people wanted drastic visual improvements as well as better optimisation. We did both of these.

However we didn’t want to destroy the ‘old school’ look of the game either, a big part of what we have been striving for is graphical simplicity. Something that classic shooters didn’t do by choice, but it’s something competitive players want.

We didn’t want to take control away from you guys over how your game looks and feels, we wanted the give you the power to change as many things about Battalions visual settings as you want.

If you’re interested to see the amount of control we’ve exposed to players please take a look at our Studio Lead ‘Brammertron’ chatting about the settings that we’ve added.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9vxip5z-Co
BATTALION: Legacy - Big Tuna
Introducing Savoia and more!



Some of you may have seen our previous update announcing our newest map - Savoia - coming to Battalion in June within our Major Update 2 Beta Testing Phase.

Today we’re happy to show a little more of this map to you guys as well as some other stuff so we hope you enjoy!

This map is a lot more open than previous maps as we have tried to move slightly away from our previous map design policy’s which retrospectively are too much like CSGO with tight chokes and close entries into the bomb sites.









Savoia contains long streets and a lot more verticality as well as a ton of potential for close combat with many enterable buildings and tighter areas around the bombs sites.

We hope you enjoy the new colour palette in this map too as it adds a Mediterranean feel to Battalion and could be a little more enjoyable than Northern European theatre we have previously used.

Consistent Weapon Physics After Death'

Whilst this feature is alot smaller than some of the other gigantic changes coming to Major Update 2 - this small change will please all players who have ever experienced the ‘where did his weapon go?’ feeling after killing an enemy player and wanting to take their weapon.

Weapons will now drop at the exact point you kill a player. Falling weapons no longer fall with the momentum of the dead enemies ragdoll, but will instead drop directly to the floor. This small change brings much more reliability to the game and no more ‘bouncing’ weapons.

This is an important fix for Wartide 2 where carrying weapons over to the next round and have the choice to save weapons is an important part of competitive play now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4BhjiNxsNs&feature=youtu.be
All this and more will be available in our live version of Major Update 2 on July 12th.

Thanks for tuning in and see you all soon
The Bulkhead Team
BATTALION: Legacy - Big Tuna
Announcing the first Battalion 1944 Major Tournament!




From the 27th - 30th of September 2018, ThePlays will be hosting the Battalion 1944 Blitzkrieg Major! ThePlays have been a big supporter of Battalion from day one and we’re pleased to bring the community our first major tournament in collaboration with them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxjok-ack1E
This tournament is a big part of Major Update 2, we’ve been working on this update for a while, it is based entirely on community feedback and will be going live in July prior to the start of competitions.

Visit the event webpage here: www.blitzkriegmasters.com

For the first Battalion Major, 16 of the best teams from around the world will head to the Esports Game Arena in Amsterdam, NL to compete for a $50,000 prize pool with placement winnings being broken up as follows:
  • First place: $30,000
  • Second place: $15,000
  • Third place: $5,000

Qualifier Information:

Qualifying routes for the Battalion 1944 Blitzkrieg Masters are:
  • Blitzkrieg Masters European Qualifiers (10 Slots)
  • Blitzkrieg Masters American Qualifiers (2 Slots)
  • Winners of Gallantry LAN (1 Slot)
  • The Plays Wildcard (1 Slot)
  • Bulkhead Interactive Wildcard (2 Slots)
This is subject to change due to specific teams conditions or terms. If orgs are unavailable to travel or attend then slots may be offered to other teams and will be treated as a wildcard

12 of the 16 teams will qualify for Blitzkrieg Masters Amsterdam through way of open qualifier; 10 through the European Qualifiers and 2 from the North American Qualifiers.

European Qualifiers
In Europe there will be 5 qualifiers and 2 teams from each qualifier will earn access to the main Amsterdam event. The format for these qualifiers will be BO1 until RO16 where the matches will become BO3. The last round of the tournament will be the semi-finals, both of which will be streamed.

Qualifier 1: 21st & 22nd July
Qualifier 2: 28th & 29th July
Qualifier 3: 4th & 5th August
Qualifier 4: 11th & 12th August
Qualifier 5: 18th & 19th August

North American Qualifiers
There will be 2 qualifiers where 1 team from each qualifier will earn access to the Amsterdam event. The format for these qualifiers will be BO1 until RO16 where the matches will become BO3.

Qualifier 1: 14th & 15th July
Qualifier 2: 28th & 29th July

The Plays/Blitzkrieg will be hosting beta tournaments on the Battalion 1944 beta client throughout June and encourage teams to participate as a means of practice with the new game mode and weapons. Results of these tournaments will contribute to seedings for the Open Qualifiers.

More information will be released in the coming weeks as we prepare to start this process.



Blitzkrieg Masters Format

The group rounds will be held on the 27th - 28th, with the Quarter and Semi finals on the 29th and the final taking place on the 30th. The final will be shown on the Main Stage in front of event attendees as well as members of the public that are in attendance.

All PC’s will be provided by Bulkhead courtesy of our friends at Chillblast so all you need to bring will be your peripherals. If your team wishes to compete in the Battalion Blitzkrieg Masters this September, Make sure you keep an eye out for & sign up to all the remaining qualifying routes when they open such as the EU and NA qualifiers being held by ThePlays.

Remember there are 3 Wildcard slots available too. If we think you’ll be an exciting addition to the Major lineup, or you set a good example as a pro team and represent yourself and esports well then you may receive an invite!

At Bulkhead HQ we are really excited for this event and there will definitely be developers in attendance to watch you all fragging for the top prize. This Major will really push Battalion forward and provide great exposure for us as well as giving any Battalion team that qualifies a chance to win a significant amount of money as well a golden personalised skin in-game.

And remember, we do allow tactical crouching and ask players to bring their A game and a fighting spirit, this is competitive gaming.

Acknowledgements

“We’d like to acknowledge that we’re aware esports is currently, a buzz word for many companies. As a result there are some very big numbers being thrown around as prize pools. Battalion 1944 is capable of massive tournaments, but not in its early access state. From the beginning of Battalion we’ve tried to heavily involve the community in the design of the game, something that we believe you’ll see in Major Update 2. We are aware that $50,000 is not the biggest esport prize pool, but it’s not trying to be. This is Battalion’s first Major. It is the start of something that is growing, we’re focusing on the grass roots of Battalion 1944 and we’re facilitating the growth of a professional scene within the game and also of tournament organizers who are dedicated to improving the viewership of the game. For those of you that are looking for a career in professional gaming, take the opportunity! Good luck.”
-Brammertron, Studio Lead

This does not mean we’re taking our eye off of Arcade & Casual. We have just began to focus on the total rework of Arcade 2. Good luck to all teams involved and make sure to keep an eye out for the Qualifiers opening up! We’ll be announcing more monthly online tournaments soon! Watch out for more announcements.

If you're interested in all of the huge changes coming with Major Update 2, you can read the following posts:
New map & Dual Currency
New Character Models
Weapon Balancing, New Sounds & Movement Tweaks
New Smoke and Map changes
BattleRank & Wartide 2 Changes

Thanks a lot,
The Bulkhead Team
BATTALION: Legacy

A recent trailer for upcoming changes to multiplayer shooter Battalion 1944 promised something dramatic. The sunrise fanfare from 'Thus Spake Zarathustra', a.k.a. the music from 2001: A Space Odyssey, played as a soldier walked slowly through the street, turning a corner to see—a ladder. And then they climbed that ladder, and ostentatiously emptied their gun into the sky.

It's deliberately over-the-top, playing up one of the smaller aspects of what is actually a major update coming to the WWII fps in June, full of changes suggested by the Battalion 1944 community. Its Wartide mode (the Counter-Strike style bomb-defusing one) is being revised significantly enough to be called 'Wartide 2.0', and a seasonal progression system called BattleRank will be added, with free rewards unlocked through play. A new map called Savoia is coming, as are a laundry list of alterations and rebalancings, with a variety of aims including a reduction in what Bulkhead's studio lead Joe Brammer calls "the bunnyhop meta". I certainly died a lot of times to someone coming sideways around a corner in midair and would be happy to see less of that. Further down the line there's a tournament called the Blitzkrieg Major coming in September, with a $50,000 prize.

Brammer, and the rest of Bulkhead Interactive, are keen to show that their game is still alive and give people a reason to come back to 1944 one more time. He walked me through some of the changes.

PC GAMER: I saw the video debuting ladders, which is pretty funny. What made you wait till now to add them?

JOE BRAMMER: To be totally honest, we made a game that should take three years in two years! We just didn't have the time. I suppose players (even myself to some extent) think of ladders as "just a ladder". But in reality there are so many networking and technical challenges with ladders that it just took time to safely develop them. Even CS:GO only fixed its hitbox issues with ladders last year. I suppose the final straw that made us go "fuck it, we're doing it" was the feedback from the community. Often players said our levels lacked height and wanted things to be a bit less linear. So we decided that if we made ladders it would literally add a whole new level to our maps. Ladders make Battalion more dynamic and give our environments more verticality. It's been great for our game because it's simply made it more fun and as a player given you more freedom.

Tell me about the Savoia map. What makes it special?

...we'd used an outdated graphics renderer because it was better for performance and made the game look and feel more like an old school shooter. But we realized we can still do both and deliver a 2018 experience.

Joe Brammer

It's in Italy! I think after over two years of looking at grey anonymous French farmland the art team were just about ready to quit! Release was brutal on our team, emotionally and physically with a lot of long work days. So when finally we'd fixed the core issues with matchmaking, I think I saw it as an opportunity to give the artists a new challenge. Almost like a "go away and make us something beautiful" challenge. And man, have they. I couldn't be prouder of our art team. With Savoia the color pallete of the world changes from gray and green to orange and yellow. I think that drastic shift from war-torn France to a bittersweet Sicilian warzone/town is a bit of a visual reminder that it was a WORLD war that stretched to vastly different parts of the globe. It's something we want to take advantage of in our art team, now we've got the support of the community and with our publisher backing and believing us more than ever, I think we're looking to make these big statements in Battalion 1944's art. 

We've just switched over to a shiny new renderer to bring our game into 2018. Previously we'd used an outdated graphics renderer because it was better for performance and made the game look and feel more like an old school shooter. But we realized we can still do both and deliver a 2018 experience. Savoia could be our best map yet, but its still got to get into the community's hands for vigorous testing yet!

What kind of skins are being added, and how do players unlock them?

Players can grind each level and unlock a War Chest, in that War Chest they have the chance to win currently a skin from 'The Original War Chest'. However, this War Chest will soon be retired forever! In its place we'll be adding the 'Aces High' War Chest. We're also adding 'BattleRank' where players can earn a unique skin each season. Starting with our Beta season with Major Update 2 in July. With each tier Bronze, Silver, Gold, etc. players can unlock a skin unique to that rank, with the higher ranking skins being naturally rarer and certainly... cooler.

How is 2.0 changing the Wartide mode?

Honestly, it's a whole new game really. We launched the first iteration of Wartide eagerly awaiting feedback. The community were keen to tell us what they didn't like about it, much of which came down to a lack of control of an individual's game. We've come more in-line with other competitive shooters now and tried to build upon the core part of what we had, that being the currency is physical in the world still, but now you can buy weapons with tokens, give tokens to other players in the buy menu, and finally and arguably most importantly we have a comeback mechanic. 

The new changes benefit everyone and like I said, the pro scene in Battalion is so fresh that we're seeing a lot of young and raw talent emerge.

Joe Brammer

We wanted to give teams that were losing an opportunity to get back into the game, so now with loss bonuses we're able to do just that. From our experience playing so far, Battalion has a much stronger emphasis on economy sharing and game movement than other competitive shooters such as CS:GO. Wartide 2 is the new face of Battalion and with our open tournament we're excited to see an awesome level of competition going after that $50,000. 

Are these changes part of getting Battalion 1944 ready for the Blitzkrieg Major? And what can you tell me about the tournament?

I wouldn't say it's for the Major specifically. It's for all players really. But seeing as Blitzkrieg is an open tournament as Battalion's pro scene is only just starting out, I'd really like to see everyone just go for it! The new changes benefit everyone and like I said, the pro scene in Battalion is so fresh that we're seeing a lot of young and raw talent emerge. It's an exciting opportunity, I think. CS:GO is incredibly hard to break into with its years of expertise, Fortnite has a great focus on streamers, and Overwatch is its own beast. But Battalion is something new and exciting and I think that's what players are really getting behind when they come to Battalion 1944. 

The tournament itself is open to everyone, you can sign up at www.blitzkriegmasters.com for your regions qualifiers. Currently we are holding five online qualifiers in Europe where 10 can qualify and two in North America where two teams can qualify. However, we as Bulkhead Interactive also have two wildcard slots that we can choose to give to teams we think have played exceptionally well but fallen short or a team who have shown they deserve to be in the Major in another way. You can also qualify offline at the 'Fragadelphia' LAN event in North America and at The 'Gallantry Budapest' tournament in July this summer. Once all 16 slots have been filled, we'll be looking forward to seeing all teams compete at the Esports Game Arena in Amsterdam from September 27th to September 30th!  

What are some of the other improvements and changes happening as part of this update?

We've been regularly posting development blogs on the Battalion 1944 Steam news page. We're basically overhauling the game, now we have the time. That means new characters, new weapons, maps, better performance, new game mode, new sound engine, new graphics engine, visual overhaul and of course WORKING MATCHMAKING! But overall I'd say it's just everything the community has been asking for. One of the biggest things being we're massively reducing the 'bunny hop' meta where players jump around corners. It's still a viable strategy, but it's not always the optimal one. Often holding angles and guarding your position is the best way. 

Is the plan still for final release in February, and what are some of the other things you hope to add by then?

Yep! Of course this time round, if we aren't happy with what we have at that time we'll simply not release it. Full release is all about releasing a videogame that can stand shoulder to shoulder with the Call of Duties and the Battlefields. Come February 2019 we have a lot of stuff we simply can't discuss yet, but we are adding the Russians! As well as in our next big update we'll be adding 'Arcade 2' which is our complete overhaul of our casual game modes. All in all, it'll be a great month for Battalion. Hopefully we'll speak in the coming months about what we have to announce because it's something that no other competitive game is doing right now.

BATTALION: Legacy - Big Tuna
Introducing BattleRank Beta 2018 - Major Update 2 (June)

When looking at the list of issues with the Early Access launch version of Battalion, at the top of the list was giving reasons for players to keep playing whilst rewarding those who do keep booting up and playing for their efforts. We had these kind of changes down to be worked on ready for Major Update 3 - but we’ve decided to run a small ‘betaseason’ of our new leveling system within Major Update 2 called ‘BattleRank’.



BattleRank Beta Season 2018 is the first step towards making Battalion the engaging and rewarding game it was always intended to become. With every BattleRank season (roughly every 3 months) will come new exclusive rewards and weapon skins that can only be acquired during that period.

BattleRank is a system designed to reward you for playing Battalion 1944 - due to this all players XP will need to be reset to make way for this new era of BattleRank.

Every player who boots the game during the very first beta season (seasons will last roughly 3 months) will receive a participant coin and a participant weapon skin as thanks for checking out the changes to the game for that season.

Players who stick around however, get the chance to ‘level up’ their BattleRank to higher tiers. This is done by gaining experience point (XP) by playing the game and completing matches. In the 2018 Beta Season of BattleRank, every 10 levels will reward you with a new & exclusive weapon skin that can be sold or traded on the community market. Also, every single level up will upgrade your publicly displayed BattleRank icon and also reward you with a free War Chest!



Reaching the Diamond Tier and max rank (Lvl 50+) will reward you with the ‘Beta 2018 Completionist Coin’ and a season exclusive animated weapon skin that you can only obtain during this BattleRank Beta season. We will reveal these awesome skins closer to the release of Major Update 2!

This season of BattleRank is named the Beta season as we want to recieve feedback on the system and see how we can improve upon it for future seasons.

Introducing ‘Aces High’ War Chest - Major Update 2 (June)

Along with BattleRank - we’re adding a brand new War Chest! Say hello to the brand new 'Aces High' War Chest:



This War Chest comes with 20 brand new weapon skins based on WW2 warplanes from the era. We can’t wait to show off the full set when we get closer to Major Update 2! Players will be able to unlock an ‘Aces High’ War Chest every time they level up via BattleRank.


Introducing ‘The Chompson’ Exclusive to The ‘Aces High’ War Chest

Important: The ‘Aces High’ War Chest will replace the previous ‘The Original’ War Chest. If you’re missing any of ‘The Original’ War Chest skins such as the coveted ‘Grand Panther’ skin, these last few weeks before Major Update 2 will be your last opportunity to unlock these original Early Access era weapon skins. Maybe it's worth holding onto them to see if they increase in market value?

Wartide 2.0 - Major Update 2 (June)

Our daily development playtests have been really helping us refine the game before the release of Major Update 2 and Wartide 2 is the area of the game that has seen the most iteration from these playtests. The specific focus of MU2 has always been to refine Wartide into a truly competitive gamemode that’s both fun to both play and watch for casual and competitive players alike.

However, since we added the concept of a personal wallet, we noticed the redundancy of having a shared economy pool. While cool in theory, - when playing we realised the only reason it had to exist was so that we could distribute money to players fairly, by allowing players to withdraw/deposit to the team pool as needed. The reality was it became just a race to withdraw 3 coins first - whilst actual sharing of money was done through the individual player wallet donation buttons.

This made the dual currency system not only redundant - but also confusing with so much information to share between players within the 18 second buy time.



Changes:

The single largest key change to Wartide 2.0 from our playtests is:
The removal of the shared token pool and replaced by personal wallets & direct teammate player donations only.

We have decided to remove the shared currency pool where all tokens earned through in game actions were merged into one central pool. This was a system where all players could donate their personal tokens into the team pool, however they could also extract tokens from this pool to their personal wallet.

We have decided to move away from this system and have introduced one where the only pool is personal and the only donations you are able to give are to other team members.

By only having your own personal wallet of tokens to worry about - the gamemode is now much simpler and allows you to quickly and efficiently share cash between your teammates whilst still allowing more selfish players to hold onto their own tokens. We’re very happy with this iteration of Wartide and are very confident in this being the extremely solid foundations for the gamemode going forwards. Strategy and teamplay have never felt stronger in any iteration of Battalion 1944 than the current development build.

Any changes to the mode from now on will most likely just be adjustments in weapon costs and/or reward amounts for winning/losing rounds.

Wartide 2.0 - Knife Rounds

The classic way to decide which team gets to choose which faction to play first has been officially added to the game. Server owners and tournament organisers will no longer have to restart servers with their own configs or trust players to not shoot one another

Here’s a question for the community - would you like knife rounds to be included on official Bulkhead unranked matchmaking servers? Or should this feature only be a server config variable for community server admins? Let us know in the comments!

Wartide 2.0 - Overtime

We’ve now added an official overtime server config variable so that competitive players get to play multiple mr3 overtimes until one team is victorious. This avoids scenarios in tournament play where team would draw 15-15 and have to completely restart the game server.

Misc Extra Additions

Adding an Ambient Sound Slider
You can now adjust the volume of the ambient map sounds separately from the other audio in the game through the ingame menus. You cannot turn the ambience entirely off - but this should reduce audio clutter for competitive players whilst keeping the playing field level and fair.

New HD Renderer
You may have noticed the visual upgrade Battalion has received?
If not here’s a quick reminder:



This is to do with us constantly working on improving the visual direction of the game from characters to environments to user interface - but also due to our new HD renderer which gives us way more post processing options to play with. The great thing about this is that we’ve also made it so that players themselves can tweak individual settings themselves - such as bloom/lens flare/brightness and even hue/saturation etc

We’ve actually added a quick option in the video settings so that players can quickly optimise their video settings between beauty and performance presets just in case you destroy your default config!

Wrapping Up

That’s it for today’s development update and preview - we have more awesome Battalion 1944 news and announcements to come and we can’t wait to share it. Keep a lookout for another huge announcement coming later this week!

Thanks,
The Bullkhead Interactive Team
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