May 3, 2022

WARNO - [EUG] Gal Marcel Bigeard

Rejoice, commander!

Here comes MURAT, arriving (much) later to WARNO, bringing you two new divisions among others!

Modding!

We've added a little surprise with the (early) arrival of Modding (or Steam Workshop)!
For the most DIY enthusiasts among you, you can now freely modify or add units, weapons, ammunitions, divisions and more. You can also change all the gameplay settings, such as the damage system, the rate at which you earn money or even the behavior of the AI. Those with an artistic flair can also modify the style of the interface, its colors or its positioning.

To create your first mod which will increase the activation points of a Battlegroup from 50 to 100, follow the "Creating your first mod, step-by-step" paragraph in the modding documentation which is available in the "Mods" subfolder of your WARNO's installation (or here).
All published mods will then be available for download in WARNO's Steam Workshop

You can find help and share your knowledge with other modders on the dedicated Discord channel or on the dedicated Steam forum.
We are sure you will create some very interesting and unique mods and we can't wait to see the result.

We know you've been looking forward to this update, as it brings a great batch of fixes. So while you're waiting for the downloads and updates feel free to check out the recap of all the good things that are coming with MURAT!

MURAT patchnotes

Check out MURAT’s patchnotes here!

FEATURES:

added two new divisions: West-German 2. Panzergrenadier & East-German 4. Mot.Schützen-Division
all para units (currently Germans and identified by the prefix "Fs-" in their name) have access to Forward Deployment
replaced the BTR-60 placeholders with their proper models.
adding new visual & sound feedbacks when a sector is captured or lost
improving the ruins mechanics: fixing a bug which made units inside invisible + adding a new LoS system allowing units to hide in ruins although not completely blocking the LoS of units outside the ruins
players will no longer be able to act after surrendering.
added some sounds while creating a deck
AI now correctly land supply helicopters to supply other units
AI will focus less on forests on Death Row
when using right click, units will now use their own RoE to interpret the order instead of previously using the RoE of the first selected unit

BUG FIXES:

fixed some hints which weren't explicit enough
fixed the TO-55's main gun which wouldn't fire on infantry units
fixed LARS 2 rocket's damages which were too high
fixed a visual bug in the command zone influence feedback when you started to capture from within an enemy controlled zone. (e.g. landing a command helicopter in the middle of an enemy zone)
fixed flares not disappearing after the aircraft evacuated
fixed the line of sight tool not matching the "shoot on position" cursor information for ground units. We still need to fix some issues for helicopters.
fixed vehicles not always stopping/landing when they are out of fuel

GENERIC:

added anti-tank teams (ATGM and/or RCL) to all divisions (according to TO&E)
overall pass on infantry weapons (see DevBlog)
overall pass on SPAAG to make efficiency more in line with IRL caliber & firepower (see DevBlog)
increased Tank Destroyer vehicles' stealth
decreased all CAS (HE, napalm, cluster, rocket) planes coming x4 per card to x3
restricted all CAS (HE, napalm, cluster, rocket) planes to 1 card only per deck
decreased the fastest plane's speed by ~20%
increased SPAAG rounds' travel speed by ~15% to reduce the cases of them hitting a target PAST their max range
added critical hits on helicopters
added SMG's 1s aiming time
bombers drop bombs closer to target

NATO:

reduced UNIMOG's optics on par with other unarmed transport (forgotten from previous patch)
reduced M163 PIVADS's anti-plane range from 2825m to 2650m
increased Gepard's anti-helicopter range from 2475m to 2825m & ant-plane one from 2825m to 3005m
increased Fuchs' price from 20 to 25
increased Fuchs MILAN's price from 25 to 30
decreased M113A1G's price from 25 to 20
added smoke launchers on Marder IFVs
decreased M113A3 DRAGON's price from 35 to 30
(8ID) added GUNNERS squad

PACT:

integrated proper BTR-60 (all variants)'s models
removed SAPERI (RPO)'s access to UAZ as transport option, replaced with GAZ-66
reduced ZSU-23-4's anti-helicopter range from 2825m to 2475m
decreased TUNGUSKA's anti-helicopter range from 2825m to 2650m & ant-plane one from 3005m to 2825m
increased TUNGUSKA's (gun) stabilizers from 5% to 35%
decreased BM-27 Uragan's price from 270 to 250
decreased BRDM-2's optics from Very Good to Good
decreased SPEZIALAUFKLÄRER's price from 90 to 75
increased Fs-EINSATZGRUPPE's price from 65 to 70
increased FLA-RAK. STRELA-2M's price from 20 to 25
decreased Fs-JÄGER (Metis)'s price from 65 to 60
decreased PIONIER (Flam)'s price from 70 to 65
increased MOT.-SCHÜTZEN's price from 45 to 55
increased PANZERJÄGER's price from 40 to 55
increased MOT.-SCHÜTZEN (BTR)'s price from 50 to 55
(39GvMSD) added PULEMETCHIKI squad
(79GvTD) added PULEMETCHIKI squad
(7Pz) increased 2S1's number of cards from 1 to 3

See you on the battlefield

Enough reading, time for some much-wanted action! Get ready to deploy, commander. Let us know what you think of MURAT. We can’t wait to hear your feedback and comments.

Join the awesome (and passionate) growing WARNO community. Check the latest news on the Steam News page or visit the Steam Forums. Get to together with other players on either the excellent Discord server, Reddit page, or our Instagram.

See you on the battlefield, commander. Over and out!

May 3, 2022

From Concept to Cosmetic: Snowbound Ship Lantern

Sea of Thieves: 2025 Edition - MrJordanAP

Every month brings the proprietors of the Pirate Emporium fresh shipments of goodies from beyond the Devil’s Shroud, while every Season also brings pirates new rewards to aspire to by raising their Renown. But you may ask yourself, how do these shiny ship liveries, wicked weapons and the like actually get made? Not within the lore of Sea of Thieves, but outside it – how do these cosmetics go from an idea in someone’s head to something you can hold in your (digital) hands?

Well, knowing you love a peek behind the curtain, we talked to various teams at Rare to track the journey of a cosmetic item – from its initial concept to its eventual appearance in the game, whether that’s in the Pirate Emporium, Plunder Pass or the reams of free rewards available for climbing the progression levels of a Sea of Thieves Season.

Naturally, we had to pick a suitable candidate for this inaugural behind-the-scenes feature, and it only seemed right that the fan-favourite Snowbound Ship Lantern – ‘The Orb’ to its ardent admirers – should be our first subject. Not only did it capture the hearts and minds of players, it provided some unique challenges for our crack team of artists and animators to bring to life…

CONCEPT

Let’s start at the very beginning with the concept phase. The Snowbound Ship Lantern was to be one of the rewards earnable within Season Five, which ran over the Christmas period, inspiring items that evoked a wintry feeling. So a lantern that doubled as a snowglobe was a compelling idea from the outset, but it was always going to be a challenge, as Principal Concept Artist Victoria Hall recalls:

“Having a snowglobe was a natural fit for a seasonal item, but when we pitched it to the other teams, we weren’t sure if it would be technically possible. After discussing it with the Tech Art team, they managed to produce a version that worked!”

The concept work was done by Senior Concept Artist (and snowglobe enthusiast) Ine T'Sjoen, who remembers its creation with great fondness:

“The Snowbound Ship Lantern has been one of my favourite items to work on. Who doesn't love snowglobes? When the idea first popped up, we knew it would be a bit outlandish, because we've never put images inside lanterns before. It was a bit of a gamble to pitch it, but we knew it had the potential to delight a lot of players. Which is what concept art is all about: putting some wild ideas out there. I was so happy when the Tech team was on board to try make it happen. But I never expected people to be so fully drawn to The Orb. Even I underestimated how much our players love snowglobes!”

So we had our concept, and we knew it would be one of the Seasonal rewards that players could earn for free by playing the game and raising their Renown – but what are some of the other deciding factors for progression rewards? We talked to Louise Roberts from Rare’s in-house Production team:

“As the Snowbound Ship Lantern was being delivered to players through Seasonal progression, we had a very wide target audience for this one, and wanted it to serve as something that would encourage players to work their way through Season Five to earn it. We tend to have a bit more fun and go a bit more ‘out there’ with these reward items, as they’re slightly different to items for which players have to make the decision to part with their hard-earned gold.”

CREATION

With the concept and its place within Season Five progression’s track locked down, we moved on to the task of getting this frosted lantern in-game. Creating the 3D model came next, a task managed by Hannah Smith, Joachim Coppens and others on the Sea of Thieves Environment Art team. As we found out from chatting to Principal Environment Artist Andy Betts, the modelling stage was surprisingly free of hurdles:

“The Snowbound Ship Lantern looks awesome, but that’s mainly down to the VFX it uses. From a 3D creation perspective, there was no real difference between this and other lanterns that the 3D teams have made. They all use an effect of some sort to show off the glowing nature of a lantern, so we just ensure this area is a clean canvas, so to speak, to allow our Tech team to do their work. On this particular lantern we just needed to make sure the glass had some surface detail, and the rest was up to the VFX team.”

As mentioned by both Victoria and Andy, the next test would be turning a standard lantern into a snowglobe – complete with falling snow, bobbing ship and a unique frozen glow. Thankfully, our Tech Art team aren’t ones to back down from a challenge. As we heard from Lead Technical Artist Andy Catling, there were so many other features to consider when creating The Orb, turning it into a real challenge from a VFX standpoint:

“This was probably the most complex shader we’ve used on a lantern. Most of our lanterns use projection effects in the shader to give the illusion of something inside the lantern. For the standard lantern, that’s just an animated flame texture, but for this lantern we really went to town, using ray-traced intersections with multiple planes to build up the layers of the snowglobe scene.

“The layers were animated using sine waves to give the subtle rocking motion of the ship and waves, and we used refraction from the glass to bend the ray-trace. For the finishing touch, we added multiple projected layers of swirling snow. The lantern is also quite unique in that we added additional logic to reflect the motion of the player in the movement inside the lantern material. For this, we tracked velocity and increased the agitation of the snow and other elements accordingly.”

Andy’s collaborator on The Orb, Technical Art Intern Emmett Green, brings up another consideration:

“As with our other lanterns, we needed to change the colour based on Flames of Fate. We have pre-set colours to switch between, but the default needed to be blue without muddying any of the others. We used vector length to figure out when the Flames of Fate value colour was closer to black and switched to blue instead, all while constraining the Flame of Fate colours to a tighter value range, as some were much brighter than others.”

Great – our lantern with all its bespoke effects was rigged up with the lighting working correctly in-game. Next thing to do was formally name it! The lantern had a placeholder name throughout this whole process, so as it went into the monthly text tracker alongside the other items, it was the turn of our Editorial department to weave their word magic and create something that fit within the Sea of Thieves world. For Season Five it frequently fell on loremaster Chris Allcock to conjure up names and descriptions, and as the Season had a snow and ice theme, there was already a rich pool of ideas to draw from:

“Most items come as part of a set, so how long their descriptions take to write depends on how quickly you can latch onto what makes the set unique and interesting and think of ways to play with that – for example, Season Five introduced the Bell Brigade set, which was themed around smartly dressed soldiers but also the holidays and keeping warm in winter, so there was a lot to pull from and the set was finished pretty quickly. Rewrites are relatively infrequent because we're all experienced professionals, and because I have no qualms about setting Smiley the Ravenous Crocodile on anyone who dares question my wordly wisdom.”

RECEPTION

Once the Snowbound Ship Lantern was in-game, all we had to do was wait for you rapscallions to get your hands on it. Obviously, we had no idea that this festive lantern would transform into The Orb, leading to our surprise, delight and fear when the community started a mini-cult around it. For Andy C, seeing people take an item he helped make and run with it was a thrill:

“It’s really great when players appreciate something you’ve worked on, especially when there has been so much work put into making it. I would often spend quite a bit of time looking through Twitter for people posting about this lantern.”

And his Tech Art team colleague Emmett agrees:

“It was incredibly fun to see so many players form the ‘All hail The Orb’ chant, and I saw that someone even made a parody Twitter account for it – that kind of thing really makes me feel like we’re contributing to the player experience!”

As Producer Louise enthuses, seeing players respond positively to an item that the team themselves really enjoyed creating is what makes all the work worthwhile:

“The Orb was a favourite throughout its development in the art reviews, it’s a lovely thematic item and the team really brought it to life. I didn’t initially know about the plans to use it for the lore teasers and raid stream, which I think added massively to its significance to the community!”

Back at its birthplace on the Concept Art team, Victoria agrees:

“We had no idea the community would find such an affinity for it! We always thought it would be a cool idea though, so it was a pleasure to see it received so well.”

And thus ends the story of The Orb’s creation – from its initial concept as a normal Seasonal reward to becoming the figurehead for a cult of winter prognostication. However, a couple of questions remain. Yes, we know how The Orb physically came to be in the game, but what does it want? Who created it within the world of Sea of Thieves? Has The Orb used its mysterious powers to make us write this article about it? We tried to reach Chris for an answer, but all we received was this hastily scribbled note:

“I heard it has a mysterious connection to ghostly sunken ships…”

Want more? Rummage through our News section for announcements and insights, check out the What’s New section for release notes on every update and get some Sea of Thieves in your feed every day by sailing over to some of our many channels: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, TikTokand the official Forums and Discord server. We’ll see you there!

May 3, 2022

WELCOME, YOU ROGUES

Cultist Simulator - AK

Hullo; contrary to unkind opinion, I'm still alive. Proof:

Any developer knows how important it is to make sure your game is stable going into a major sale, and not to patch it the night before. I'm not any developer, so I dropped two updates yesterday. Fortunately they don't appear to have broken anything important, and they have made some much-requested changes to the card placement mechanism.

Here are the patch notes for both VIOLET and WUTHERING:

Fix: You no longer need to restart the game to restore CONTINUE to the menu
Fix: $remove command no longer breaks mods
Fix: correctly handling extends as well as inheritance in older mods
Fix: Card ghost no longer disappears when card is removed from an additional slot
MAJOR CARD PLACEMENT CHANGE: the placement position now corrects for the camera. This means the card ghost goes much closer to the card. Many thanks to Genroa, Dylan and others who managed to get this point across to me.
A couple of other minor placement tweaks
Card grid no longer assumes a gap between rows. This may require some fiddling with big existing layouts, sorry, but the feedback over time was clear here.
Slightly better Mansus exit experience
Fixed hilarious bug with multi-select. (yes you can shift-drag to multi-select cards, semi-hidden feature)

This was the hilarious multi-select bug. I slightly regret fixing it, but my support email queue won't.

VIOLET and WUTHERING do place us in a slightly tricky position, in that I've nearly run out of alphabetical opera names. The next two updates, whenever they arrive, will be YERMA and ZAIDE but after that I'll need another update name theme. Suggestions welcome, keepitclassyladiesandgents.

Anyway in the meantime I really am going back to focus on BOOK OF HOURS now, at least if real life will leave me alone for ten minutes. Lottie will chide me for not giving you a wishlist link, so here it is.

and here's the Secret Histories / BOOK OF HOURS box we mentioned last month:

Before I go, a couple of rounds of thanks to a couple of contractors whose names you may see in the credits:

Clocq,a Japanese-speaker who pointed out that big chunks of our Japanese localisation had been garbled and mixed up. Some of them were bits like the Ghoul memories and Dancer marks, so it took quite a while for our Japanese-speaking players to realise it wasn't just me being weird. Clocq put painstaking work into fixing it.

Chelnoque, a long-time modding stalwart who I asked to quote me for a wishlist of the most urgently requested modding framework upgrades - this is where the modding upgrade in TARTUFFE came from. So yes, I am investing actual money in third-party contributions to the modding framework, but Chelnoque then one-upped me by donating his fee to charity. Well done everyone, I guess.

Those who've been keeping track of our updates will already know what this picture is, but it's probably already destined to sell out out so I am literally not going to make it a link. I just like the picture.