Verdun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Fraser Brown)

tan

This week’s Premature Evaluation sees our early access conscript, Fraser, flung into the nightmarish Eastern Front of World War I in multiplayer FPS Tannenberg. It’s a companion game to Verdun, but the weather is worse and and there are a lot more angry men with guns. >

A man sprints out of the woods just in front of my hiding spot, screaming as he jumps over fallen trees. Before I can even figure out if he’s friend or foe, there s a flash and a scream as he’s sent hurtling through the air, the latest victim of the enemy s mortar. He lands in the mud right next to me, where he moans and gurgles as the life slowly seeps out of him. It s a noise I ve become very familiar with in Tannenberg.

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Tannenberg - legolas
Tannenberg has been released! The launch is going great so far, and we know people are having a lot of fun with the game.
We’ve already got plenty of useful feedback, and combined with our plans from before the launch, here is a rough roadmap of what we are planning to work on next:
  • New user interface - this was part of our plan before the release, and we can see from various comments that you agree that it’s important.
  • Tweaks to the Maneuver game mode - we want to hear from you what works and what doesn’t so we can refine the mode and the maps to provide the best possible gameplay.
  • Sound improvements - we have already implemented some new ambient sound effects, and there are more to come!
  • General performance - this is definitely a big priority for us.
  • Matchmaking - we want to make sure the system for creating and assigning players to games when they choose to automatch is as efficient as possible in connecting players.
  • Making the bots better - overall, we’ve had positive reactions to the bots, and we want to make them even more fun to play with and against. Don’t forget that when you play an NCO role, bots in your squad will follow your orders!
  • Looking into ‘clunkiness’ - this is a fairly common complaint regarding the movement and sometimes the game in general, and we want to spend some time trying to address it.
We will keep you updated via Frontline News posts.

Updates
Since Tannenberg entered open beta we have already put out several small patches addressing problems and improving performance. You can read the full patch changelogs here.

If you run into glitches in the game, or just have good ideas for suggestions, you can post them to our issue tracking system. You can use the same system to upvote problems you’ve encountered that someone else has reported, or to show support for someone else’s suggestion.

Heavy Machine Guns
One of the new features in Tannenberg are the heavy machine guns present around the map. They work well in Tannenberg’s Maneuver game mode because of the different sectors - if a particular HMG is holding up an advance, you have options depending on the map. You can capture adjacent sectors to flank them, find high ground to let you shoot down at the HMG gunner, or sometimes use cover to get close enough to throw a grenade. As exciting as it sounds, the frontal charge is not the best strategy!


Verdun is on sale, and Verdun owners get a 20% discount on Tannenberg
There is a 50% off sale for Verdun on Steam as part of the Autumn Sale! Plus, don’t forget that owners of Verdun can get a 20% discount on Tannenberg until December 1st.

And last but definitely not least...
Thank you all for making the Tannenberg open beta launch such a success! We have 92% positive reviews on Steam, and we’re very happy with the number of players who have joined us so far. As we said earlier, we’re working hard on fixing the issues you’ve spotted and considering the feedback you’ve given so far. If you haven’t left a review already, please do so - it helps us a lot!
Tannenberg - bramlegolas
Tannenberg has been released! The launch is going great so far, and we know people are having a lot of fun with the game.
We’ve already got plenty of useful feedback, and combined with our plans from before the launch, here is a rough roadmap of what we are planning to work on next:
  • New user interface - this was part of our plan before the release, and we can see from various comments that you agree that it’s important.
  • Tweaks to the Maneuver game mode - we want to hear from you what works and what doesn’t so we can refine the mode and the maps to provide the best possible gameplay.
  • Sound improvements - we have already implemented some new ambient sound effects, and there are more to come!
  • General performance - this is definitely a big priority for us.
  • Matchmaking - we want to make sure the system for creating and assigning players to games when they choose to automatch is as efficient as possible in connecting players.
  • Making the bots better - overall, we’ve had positive reactions to the bots, and we want to make them even more fun to play with and against. Don’t forget that when you play an NCO role, bots in your squad will follow your orders!
  • Looking into ‘clunkiness’ - this is a fairly common complaint regarding the movement and sometimes the game in general, and we want to spend some time trying to address it.
We will keep you updated via Frontline News posts.

Updates
Since Tannenberg entered open beta we have already put out several small patches addressing problems and improving performance. You can read the full patch changelogs here.

If you run into glitches in the game, or just have good ideas for suggestions, you can post them to our issue tracking system. You can use the same system to upvote problems you’ve encountered that someone else has reported, or to show support for someone else’s suggestion.

Heavy Machine Guns
One of the new features in Tannenberg are the heavy machine guns present around the map. They work well in Tannenberg’s Maneuver game mode because of the different sectors - if a particular HMG is holding up an advance, you have options depending on the map. You can capture adjacent sectors to flank them, find high ground to let you shoot down at the HMG gunner, or sometimes use cover to get close enough to throw a grenade. As exciting as it sounds, the frontal charge is not the best strategy!


Verdun is on sale, and Verdun owners get a 20% discount on Tannenberg
There is a 50% off sale for Verdun on Steam as part of the Autumn Sale! Plus, don’t forget that owners of Verdun can get a 20% discount on Tannenberg until December 1st.

And last but definitely not least...
Thank you all for making the Tannenberg open beta launch such a success! We have 92% positive reviews on Steam, and we’re very happy with the number of players who have joined us so far. As we said earlier, we’re working hard on fixing the issues you’ve spotted and considering the feedback you’ve given so far. If you haven’t left a review already, please do so - it helps us a lot!
Verdun - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alice O'Connor)

World War 2 is all the rage again but for those who favour classic conflicts, not their ‘bigger and deadlier than ever’ sequels, World War 1 games are still kicking. The creators of WW1 Western Front FPS Verdun today launched the Eastern Front standalone expansion Tannenberg into early access. Tannenberg focuses on ‘realistic’ action and ramps it up with a new 64-player mode (Verdun caps out at 40 players). Here, have a peek in the early access launch trailer: (more…)

Tannenberg - Blazy013
Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine that we would get the support and success that we did with Verdun, and that on top of that we would get the opportunity to develop a second WW1 game. Today the unexpected happened… we just released our second entry in the WW1 Game Series into open beta, set on the Eastern Front: TANNENBERG!

https://youtu.be/IR6k2MagQbs

The game is available for $17.99, with a 20% discount for Verdun players until December 1 2017.

The open beta is feature complete, and we will be using the time until release in Q1 2018 to work on improving the performance sounds, and game balance, adding an in-game switch between the two fronts, and implementing a new user interface.


Sneak peak of the new UI

There will also be a special in-game medal for those playing the game in open beta, and some release celebration events on the Steam hub, Facebook and Twitter where a few lucky individuals will be able to win keys! Stay tuned...

Don’t forget that you can report bugs for Tannenberg (or Verdun) on our support website at http://support.1914-1918series.com. Again a huge thank you to all our Tannenberg alpha and closed beta testers, as well as the Verdun players who have already been submitting issues there!

We’re very excited to hear what you think about Tannenberg, so make sure to join us in the Steam Hub and/or Discord.

Stay warm!

Cheers, M2H & Blackmill Games

Interesting links:
Tannenberg - Blazy013
Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine that we would get the support and success that we did with Verdun, and that on top of that we would get the opportunity to develop a second WW1 game. Today the unexpected happened… we just released our second entry in the WW1 Game Series into open beta, set on the Eastern Front: TANNENBERG!

https://youtu.be/IR6k2MagQbs

The game is available for $17.99, with a 20% discount for Verdun players until December 1 2017.

The open beta is feature complete, and we will be using the time until release in Q1 2018 to work on improving the performance sounds, and game balance, adding an in-game switch between the two fronts, and implementing a new user interface.


Sneak peak of the new UI

There will also be a special in-game medal for those playing the game in open beta, and some release celebration events on the Steam hub, Facebook and Twitter where a few lucky individuals will be able to win keys! Stay tuned...

Don’t forget that you can report bugs for Tannenberg (or Verdun) on our support website at http://support.1914-1918series.com. Again a huge thank you to all our Tannenberg alpha and closed beta testers, as well as the Verdun players who have already been submitting issues there!

We’re very excited to hear what you think about Tannenberg, so make sure to join us in the Steam Hub and/or Discord.

Stay warm!

Cheers, M2H & Blackmill Games

Interesting links:
Tannenberg

Tannenberg, the First World War online FPS from the makers of Verdun that was announced in May, is now available for purchase on Steam Early Access. The new game takes place on the Eastern Front of the war, and features Frontovik and Cossack units from the Russian army, Austro-Hungarian KuK troops, and German Infanterie doing battle in a more mobile, but no less horrific, theater of war. 

Unlike certain other WWI shooters you may have played (I'm talking about Battlefield 1), Tannenberg, like Verdun, is a more true-to-life recreation of the Great War: Weapons are clunky, movement is slow, and death comes quickly. That probably won't help make it a mainstream hit, but the priority for developers M2H and Blackmill Games is "to create an all-encompassing World War 1 experience that captures the essence in the gameplay and also provide a myriad of historical content (by using squad leveling and map sectors etc.)" 

With Verdun marking the "completion" of its Western Front effort, the developers opted to go to the Eastern Front, because of its "enormous" historical impact. It also opens up opportunities to create different kinds of gameplay, without sacrificing historical fidelity. 

"The almost complete lock-down on the Western front required unique rules to be imposed on a multiplayer game-mode to recreate the somewhat symmetrical nature of warfare, where each line lost would face a direct counter-attack, for instance. The overwhelming nature of the combat and the deep lines of defense on either side allowed for a unique approach," Blackmill's Jos Hoebe explained. 

"In the East we see characteristic elements that also lend themselves to certain gameplay rules. To begin with, the environments themselves are different, with less continuous lines of trenches, the vast distances to be covered, and fewer artillery shells per square meter, combined with the doctrines and equipment of the armies that fought there. The battle of Tannenberg itself, for instance, is a good example of an encirclement battle, a pattern repeated several times over as the war progressed. This element will be central to the new 'Maneuver' game mode." 

Maneuver is a 64-player mode set on large, open maps, with multiple zones of control and a variety of terrain, weather conditions and objectives. Players can attack and defend from any zone they control, and as zones are won or lost, the flow of battle will shift. "All of these elements add up not only to a different meta-game in terms of having to move around in a nonlinear way across the battlefield when the tactical situation changes for your squad, but also with respects to shifting gunplay engagement distances and different approaches to cover," Hoebe said. 

I've spent a little time playing with the Maneuver mode and even though it has that "not quite ready" feel of a game in beta, I was impressed by both its scope and its brutality. The map features forests, bombed-out buildings, dangerously wide-open fields, points of high and low ground, and small networks of trenches—and it feels big. It's plodding at times compared to games like BF1, but the slow, primitive weaponry can make for some intense moments, too: In one up-close confrontation, an enemy and I each emptied our rifles toward, but not actually into, each other, and then it was a frantic race to reload (which takes forever) and try again. I won, by the way.

And when you shoot a guy and don't make a clean kill—which seems to be most of the time—he goes down and makes some of the most awful screaming, choking, and gurgling noises you can imagine. It's horrible, but it occasionally works against the game too: The aftermath of a big skirmish in a small area is inevitably filled with competing cries of agony, and it ends up sounding like the cast of a small-town theater troupe trying to outdo each other in simultaneous over-dramatic death scenes. It might sound like an odd thing to complain about, but it's really weird. Hopefully the developers will tone it down. 

The new game features a number of under-the-hood changes from Verdun, including improved AI and graphics, and an updated interface that will properly support 4K resolutions. But the developers plan to approach the Early Access in basically the same way it did with the previous game, gradually increasing the player cap as it becomes more stable. Even so, if all goes well it should be a relatively short Early Access period: Tannnenberg is content-complete, so the Early Access beta will be focused primarily on "balance [and] sound and performance issues," and getting the new interface in place. It's expected to be ready for full release in the first quarter of 2018.

Tannenberg - Valve
Tannenberg is Now Available on Steam Early Access!

Experience authentic First World War action with 64 player battles of maneuver on the Eastern Front. Warfare between the Russian Empire and the Central Powers is a tense battle for dominance – stay close to your squad to survive!
Tannenberg - Blazy013
Just one more day until the open beta of Tannenberg!
Before we hit this milestone we’d like to take a moment to thank all of the alpha and closed beta testers who have helped the game get there. All the helpful bits of feedback and reported bugs make a big difference to the final quality of the product, so we have a gift...



This medal has been issued to all alpha and closed beta testers today. Thank you all for your help!

Cheers,
The WW1 Game Series team
Tannenberg - Blazy013
Just one more day until the open beta of Tannenberg!
Before we hit this milestone we’d like to take a moment to thank all of the alpha and closed beta testers who have helped the game get there. All the helpful bits of feedback and reported bugs make a big difference to the final quality of the product, so we have a gift...



This medal has been issued to all alpha and closed beta testers today. Thank you all for your help!

Cheers,
The WW1 Game Series team
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