/!\ THIS UPDATE REQUIRES YOU TO CLEAR CACHE IN YOUR IN-GAME SETTINGS MENU /!\
Intro
Two months ago we released our map called Best, smallest map of Post Scriptum, designed to seed servers and provide a new angle on how PS can be played. Today, we are here again with another brand new map called Grave.
Grave will be the last map to release for “The Bloody Seventh” and thus, closing Chapter 1 of Post Scriptum. But worry not, support will continue on previous maps as well as adding more layers to levels like Best, Veghel and new released Grave in both AAS, Offensive and Armoured for the last two.
Memory Lane
About three and a half years ago we started development of a small Squad mod, which was not even called Post Scriptum when we started. We had the dream of doing our very own World War 2 game based on our childhood favorite games like Red Orchestra 1 (and its famous Darkest Hour mod), Battleground Europe: WWII Online and many more. We wanted to create a game with no compromises, where players are thrown into intense battles where they will need to learn the game mechanics by themselves and become veteran players by helping each other with teamwork and roleplaying with one another. We hoped players would share memorable gaming moments with both laugher and shellshock horror... Periscope Games is incredibly proud of Post Scriptum: our dream came true. To close Chapter 1 is a very important milestone for us as a professional and emotional fulfilment. What started as a mod with 2 factions and only 4 maps, it grew to a fully fleshed game studio with more than thirteen full time employees scattered all around the globe and a stand-alone game with more than 60 weapons, 50+ vehicles, a total 10 maps for around 180km² of fully playable terrain with over 100 different layers.
What a journey that was, and guess what, it was only the beginning! We are currently working on Chapter 2 that will arrive for free to Post Scriptum later this year! We will announce the new theater in the near future, so make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and join our wonderful community on our official Discord http://discord.gg/postscriptum
Chapter 1
A little less than a year ago, Post Scriptum released on Steam, here is a brief overview of what changed since August 2018.
August 2018
Game Release
Added Sdkfz.7 with Flak 38
September 2018
Radioman and Regroup Call
In game 35mm camera
Localization to 6 countries
Sandbags for rifleman
Logistic section upgrade with supplies and new bunkers
October 2018
Added Arnhem
November 2018
US Airborne release
Added Velmolen
Free Weekend on Steam
January 2019
Added Veghel
Bayonet system
Sherman M4A3
Sdkfz 234 Puma
Internal components on vehicles
February 2019
Old maps updated
March 2019
Armoured game mode
Ammo bag for infantry
New tank handling system
Map voting
Added Best
GRAVE
Now that we have covered the past, let’s dive in today’s massive update and we have a lot to cover! This is one of the biggest updates we have ever made. As you must know by now, Grave will be our last map of Operation Market Garden, it is a 3x3km map which includes paradropping on both sides of the bridge.
US Airborne will be tasked with capturing both sides of the bridge before heading toward the city center of Grave, a medieval town with wall fortifications, canals and flooded areas. A few historical landmarks have been carefully remodeled and placed exactly where they were or still are today, like this odd little bunker on the West side of the bridge. Its painted pattern was designed to fool the enemies in not knowing where the actual firing positions were from a distance. The more you know!
Here it is today
MENU & UI OVERHAUL
In this update you will also see that we have completely revamped both the main menu and the in-game UI.
There are multiple reasons behind the UI overhaul, the first one was to makes things a bit easier for newcomers to get into Post Scriptum. While we were running our booth during PAX East in Boston earlier this year we noticed that a lot of game mechanics such as spawning were not clear enough to new players.
We hope the addition of this and our set of new tutorials in the main menu will help new players understand the core concept of the game a bit better. The training range is now available in local (still subject to issues) for you to test weapons and vehicles before heading to online games.
In order to polish the game a bit more, we’ve also added custom loading screens for each maps of Post Scriptum and the music will also play during the loading time to then fade out once you have joined a server.
WEAPON RESTING & SWAY
Weapon resting is a feature that we’ve wanted to integrate into PS for a very, very long time and is now a feature in the game! If you are not familiar with what weapon resting is, it will simply allow you to rest any rifle or submachine gun on a wall, window frame or side of a tree and allows you to make your weapon a lot more steady, improving your aim, especially if tired with low stamina. This is automatic and does not require you to press any key, the weapon automatically detects any nearby surface if they are in resting distance. You will know if you weapon is rested if the bipod icon shows at the bottom right of your screen
We have also increased the sway values based on weapon weight, this will be even more visible if a bayonet is attached or if you are exhausted and turning a 200m standing shot in the open, you might want to consider resting your weapon on the nearest object (or teammate) or try crouching to have more stable aim.
AIR FRICTION & TANK SIGHT RANGING
Air friction, also known as drag, is how much velocity your projectile will lose over time due to gravity and air resistance. All tank shells are now affected by it and will make your shell hit the ground sooner over distance. However, if you lose velocity over distance that also means that you will obviously lose penetration capacity too. We have also added different penetration curves based on projectile velocity, this applies this for all shell types, you can see in the image below a PzGr.40 88mm APCR round commonly found on Panzer VI E1 Tiger.
We have added a lot of new shell types to Post Scriptum, all of them having their own realistic penetration curves based on data gathered from tank encyclopedia, wikipedia and various books.
Tanks equipped with ranging system can now range target
If you like stats and wants to know more about all the values in Post Scriptum, make sure you check this Google Sheet where everything is stored.
We are also adding 9 AAS layers and 3 Offensive layers to Veghel, this will allow a lot more replayability on this 4 months old map.
VARIOUS GAMEPLAY TWEAKS
All regroup call radios timer values are now doubled, both inside and outside the red zones. This change will allow Section Leaders to focus more on leading their soldiers than the radio itself. Artillery has been heavily buffed as well to include shrapnel being thrown at longer distances, you will now need run for your life when shell starts landing nearby! HE splash damage has now been increased by 35% on all shell types except 20mm HE, grenades and mortars.
To disable a radio, an enemy soldier will now have to be closer to it.
To avoid spawn kills on the defense flag, we added 3 to 5 different spawn locations, that will allow you to spawn somewhere a bit quieter if one location is compromised by the enemy forces.
To access an SMG as a Section Leader, you will now need 2 members for a MP40/Thompson/Sten and 3 to access the StG44, we hope that this fix will prevent people from creating empty sections just for the weapon.
As a logistic AT or AP soldier, you will now be able to lay down minefields instead of a single mine. 3x5 AP mines and 2x3 AT mines for all factions.
OPTIMIZATION
Like with every update we do, optimization is still a very important topic and an ongoing battle. We have made a lot of improvements to the game, by further optimization to some of our 3D models and textures. Foliage on all maps was also tweaked which should result in better frame rates overall.
SOUNDS
A few new features are also showing up in this patch, firing inside buildings and under structures will now change the way you perceive sounds with our new dynamic reverb system. Churches will cause gunshots, explosions and player voices to echo prominently, while small houses will feel more claustrophobic, with a tighter reverb time.
This system will be improved and tweaked upon in future patches, and may hopefully be utilised for other dynamic audio states.
LOCALIZATION
This update will probably conflict some of the previous localization work. Our amazing community is already helping us on getting it up to date, so give us a bit of time, it will be updated soon.
/!\ THIS UPDATE REQUIRES YOU TO CLEAR CACHE IN YOUR IN-GAME SETTINGS MENU /!\
Our 3D department started working on Chapter 2 late last year, all the models are now completed and our animation department is going at it full speed as well as our sound designer, making sure we have an even more immersive soundscape than Chapter 1! With the first few results we have, this is clearly the case! Level designers are also completing the first 2 maps of chapter 2 as we speak and a third one will come out at a later point since it has not started yet. There has been a massive step up as well in the level design department, the maps are absolutely stunning and we are dying to announce it so we can finally show you all the upcoming goodies. While we are working on chapter 2, we are also working on chapter 3 in the level design department.
PS 2.0
In between Chapter 1 and 2 there will be a massive engine upgrade to Unreal Engine 4.21 as we currently are on OWI Core 4.16 that is over a year old, bringing us a lot of legacy bugs in our current build. We are hopeful that the engine upgrade will grant some performance increase to the entire player base, from modest rigs to more high-end builds. If you have played the recent Squad A13 build, then you know what type of optimization and performance increase to expect. However, before we get 4.21 running on the public branch, there is a massive amount of work ahead of us: code breaking, compiling issues, missing links and more funny glitches to sort out.
We do not know just yet how big the task is going to be, but based on the last engine upgrade, we are not expecting a simple flick of a switch unfortunately.
After the 4.21 update is done and polished, we will release the first iteration of the PS SDK so that you guys can start messing around in the editor. Coding on Sandbox will also resume around that time.
FREE WEEKEND
We have a free weekend coming up very soon, we are currently in talks with Valve about it as they need a bit of a heads up to make sure things are ready on their end. We are also waiting to see how this build is fairing on the public branch, then hotfix what is needed to make sure the build is as clean as it can be for the event.
COMMUNITY
As you will see in the changelog below, we are also starting to mention what fixes are being made to Post Scriptum based on our community’s feedback. We can’t address them all obviously, but some good ideas were thrown our way and we thought it would be a good idea to acknowledge them publicly.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, a lot of new content is coming with this update, we hope that you enjoy the fruits of all the hard work and passion the team have put in over the last few months.
-Add: New map "Grave"
-Add: Main menu overhaul
-Add: Tutorial and wiki added to main menu
-Add: Local play enabled for the training range
-Add: Loading screen for each map and game mode
-Add: Weapons can now be rested on nearby surfaces
-Add: Tactical HUD now replaces the compass key
-Add: Tank sights can now be ranged (same keybinds as weapon ranging)
-Add: Air friction to tank shells (drop)
-Add: Shells now lose penetration factor over distance based on real life data
-Add: New shell types APC and APCBC
-Add: Kill volume under all maps
-Add: New canteen animation for US
-Add: Arnhem range updated minimap
-Add: 9 new layers of Veghel AAS
-Add: 3 new layers of Veghel Offensive
-Gameplay: Weapons have more sway if not rested (even more when low on stamina)
-Gameplay: All regroup call values are now doubled
-Gameplay: Artillery damage radius is increased by 35%
-Gameplay: HE splash damage is increased on all shells except 20mm HE
-Gameplay: Radius to disable a regroup call is now 33% smaller
-Gameplay: More spawn points on flag to avoid spawnkills
-Gameplay: Squad leaders can only access SMG's if 2 or more players are in the section
-Gameplay: Pistol rounds deal 15% more damage to soldiers
-Gameplay: AP and AT mines are now grouped in multiple mines
-Gameplay: Mines are consistent for all factions. 2 AT and 3 AP per player
-Gameplay: Rebalancing Best bridge area
-Gameplay: Strafing run impacts are more effective against flesh targets
-Fix: Best bridge collision blocking wreck destruction
-Fix: Doorwerth S10 cap zone size
-Fix: Leaning not working in some capture area
-Fix: Missing reload sound on Stuart hull MG
-Fix: Disable engine toggle for ATG's
-Fix: Flak 38 using wrong tracers
-Fix: Parachute animation stuck when killed while dropping
-Fix: All commanders can now use the radio without getting out of the vehicle
-Fix: Emplacement can be rebuilt after partial destruction
-Sounds: Dynamic reverb system added to interior spaces
-Sounds: M1 Garand tweak
-Sounds: Grenade close sound update
-Sounds: Panther Engine tweak
-Sounds: Cromwell new engine
-Sounds: Music now plays over loading screen
-Sounds: Various volume and balance tweaks to all areas
-FX: New bullet impact on grass, dirt and mud (small and medium calibers)
-Optimisation: Vehicle wreck lod values
-Optimisation: Building lod values (heavy change)
-Optimisation: Shockwave FX tweak
-Optimisation: Drawing distance for foliage tweaked on all maps
-Community: Adding IceKK's TAA antialiasing tweak as default
-Community: All shovels now have the same construction speed
-Community: Supply crates can be destroyed by explosive damage
-Community: Allow placement of deployables near FOBs when over free limit using nearby CT
-Community: Adding collision to logistic truck cargo so people can't hide under them
-Community: Allow regroup call radios to be used as functional radio (Commanders can now use them for support call-ins)
-Community: Reduce ability to build bunkers where it should not be possible
-Community: Correct sight on Jagdpanzer IV and Stug III
As always, from the whole team at Periscope Games, we thank you guys for your continued support and feedback, we have some epic stuff to show off in the near future!
We’re back with another ‘Tea Time with the Devs’ stream tomorrow! We will be going live to talk through the update that's coming next, as well as some other exciting news!
Tune in Wednesday 8th May at 8 PM BST / 9PM CEST / 3PM EST
‘Best’ is the most recent map to release in our Bloody Seventh chapter. This narrow map, which features hilly terrain and intense close quarter urban battles, has been inspired by one of the real locations of Operation Market Garden but with some added variety to the environment, which we hope will offer players a different challenge to those that our other maps offer. Be it in on top of a hill or at the bottom of a muddy ditch, the enemy is always closer than you think.
- 2km x 0.8km - Influenced by the real locations of ‘Operation Market Garden’ - Map designed for smaller teams/server seeding.
- Add: Best Offensive 01, AAS 01, AAS 02 - Add: Arnhem Range updated
- Fix: Small objects overhaul to enable vehicles to go through on all maps - Fix: Small fx fixes - Fix: Vertex normals on old oak trees - Fix: Ammo bag icons not showing up - Fix: Infantry capture times increased in Armoured gamemode - Fix: Inconsistencies in vehicle detection in Armoured gamemode
- Sounds: New engine sounds for Panther and Tiger - Sounds: Ammobag sound volume increase
‘Best’ is the most recent map release in our Bloody Seventh chapter. This narrow level features a hilly terrain and intense close quarter urban battles, offering a different challenge to the teams taking to the field.
Be it in on top of a hill or at the bottom of a muddy ditch, the enemy is always closer than you think.
- 2km x 0.8km - Influenced by the real locations of ‘Operation Market Garden’ - Map designed for smaller teams/server seeding.
Map releases 7PM GMT / 8PM CET / 3PM EST Friday, 22nd March
Hotfix for Post Scriptum Armoured is now live. A few mistakes got addressed.
-Fix: Wrong team on Doorwerth and Heelsum Armoured layers
-Fix: Artillery smoke shells
-Fix: Cannon impulse value divided by 2
-Fix: Wrong Arnhem Range layer
Last month we updated Post Scriptum with another massive update adding our newest map Veghel, 2 new vehicles, even more layers to existing maps, bayonets and a lot more.
Today, we are thrilled to announce that we are releasing another free update to Post Scriptum!! ARMOURED game mode is now available to all Post Scriptum owners. If you haven’t seen it yet, we had an amazing event last weekend with content creators crewing their favourite tanks and engaging in 12 versus 12 tank battles. A lot of clips and videos of that event are already on YouTube and below is our announcement trailer that we released just before the event. Post Scriptum - Armoured Trailer [2019] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmARMlqTXrY
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Ammo Bag for infantry Also coming with this update is the addition of the infantry ammo bag that is available to all riflemen.
Select the ammo bag and drop it on the floor, it can then be used by any other player to refill his ammo count. Look at it, press the F key and then click on resupply, this item can only be used once and will disappear after usage.
You are able to rearm at the ammo bag yourself but the ammo bag is not capable of rearming itself or at any other ammo crate. So you only have one per life and a maximum of two deployed simultaneously. Unused ammo bags will disappear after two minutes.
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Damage model improvement
Common values to all PS vehicles:
ON COMPONENT HIT: Crew: 50% chance of damage Turret: 100% chance of damage Ammo: 75% chance of damage Turret: 100% chance of damage Engine: 100% chance of damage Tracks: 100% chance of damage
All penetration values have been added to the Arnhem Range training map. For a recap on how our system works, we recommend you have a look at our Tea Time with the Devs that we had a few days ago.
Map Voting Yes! You can now, at the end of each round vote for the next map!
You can vote for a map but also the game mode. Voting Refresh will refresh the set of maps available on screen, which is currently not doing anything, but it will very soon as we will have more than 8 maps in a few weeks time. (Best, Grave and then our next theatre)
That is of course optional and a server admin can decide if they want the Map Vote feature or keep the old Map Rotation system.
For ServerAdmins:
To add that option, simply go to the ServerConfig folder and set that line from:
“MapVoting=False” to “MapVoting=True”
You will also see a file called: “MapVoting.cfg”, in there will be all the layers available for each map. You can then decide what layers to include, or not.
This is an example of layers that will be in your vote, when voting for Arnhem AAS, it will select one of the 3 layers added.
Contact us on Discord to get the full listing of maps for your CFG files.
PS: Armoured layers and Offensive/AAS layers can not be hosted on the same server rotation.
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Here is the complete changelog for this update:
-Add: ARMOURED Game mode
-Add: Ammo bag for infantry
-Add: New muzzle flash FX for tanks
-Add: New tank handling and suspension system
-Add: Map Voting option at the end of round
-Gameplay: Veghel Offensive tickets from 400 to 600
-Gameplay: Tank tracks should disappear if fully destroyed
-Gameplay: Tweak to internal component vulnerability (announcement)
-Gameplay: Repair station are 4 times faster
-Gameplay: Tank handling overhaul, suspensions and track friction
-Gameplay: Adding all penetration + hull values to Arnhem Range
-Fix: Missing radio on Velmolen AAS
-Fix: Sdkfz.251 torque values
-Fix: German rifle sprinting 1p animation, with ads blending
-Fix: Browning MG can reload while prone and undeployed
-Fix: Tank ammo not always refilling at repair station
-Fix: Tank spinning after engine destruction
-Fix: Missing 1 shell on off map artillery
-Sounds: MG34 tweaks
-Sounds: MP40 overhaul
-Sounds: M1 Garand tweaks l
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Here is a little taste of what to expect in the weeks and months to come: New layers for Velmolen in both Offensive and AAS. Best and its bridge. Grave and its fortified city. Sandbox game mode news. Various new unlisted features. New theatre reveals for Post Scriptum.
That is it for this week!
As always, many thanks to our dedicated community for your continued support and we hope you enjoy playing Armoured as much as we enjoyed developing and testing it!
Wednesday March 6th at 8 PM GMT / 9PM CET / 3PM EST will be the next instalment of 'Tea Time with the Devs' where our dev team will be on stream to talk through some of the updates that are releasing soon, as well as a general update on news and features!
On March 8th we will be releasing our newest update for Post Scriptum – Armoured. This brand-new game mode will pit teams against each other in multi-crew 12v12 vehicle warfare, taking place across huge battlefields with up to 64 players!
Commander. Tank. Recon. Choose your vehicle and work together to wipe out the opponent’s tickets through capturing the objectives and destroying enemy vehicles! To help showcase this new mode, we have an event on Saturday 2nd March at 8PM GMT / 9 PM CET / 3PM EST where a host of content creators will be trying the mode out! BillyEatWorld Buckles DevilDogGamer DigbyTathamWarter DiplexHeated El Tyranos FriendlyNikolai KarmaKut Klean MathChief Matsimus Nano Nordern PhlyDaily Raptor Sheriff Eli Shermanator SpadesCO The Mighty Jingles TrakkarLP TypeX vaughnwhiskey OperatorDrewski Andarilho RubixRaptor Finkone Skino DannyonPC BigfryTV RangerDave Mike The Bard
Small update today. We hope to get rid of the falling tank ragdoll/physX issue we were experiencing.
Some minor gameplay tweak and fixes are also in this version.
-Gameplay: TNT grenade deal more damage to infantry
-Gameplay: Sten sway value/stamina match the MP40
-Fix: Possible fix to vehicle glitching and falling through the sky
-Fix: Sdkfz.222 torque value
Something awesome is also coming later this week, stay tuned!
-Add: Doorwerth gets terrain update too!
-Gameplay: Sherman internal components tweak
-Fix: Localized version of the game can now properly bind keys
-Fix: Clipping in Arnhem house near the bridge
-Fix: German Luger and P38 deal 15% more damage
-Fix: Vehicles with crew inside can't be flipped
-Fix: Panzer V commander no longer have muffled sounds when turned out
-Fix: Various level design fixes