As part of Steam's Holiday event, if you play Red Orchestra 2 today and get the achievement "Fighting The War on Christmas - Participate in a successful territory capture on Commissars House" in RO2 you can win a prize on Steam!!! These prizes include free games, free DLC, coupons for % off of games, and more. So get in game and get that achievement now!!! For more info check out the <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/holidaysale">Steam Holiday Event Page.</a>

Note: if you already have the achievement you can still get a prize. Keep in mind that prize may be a lump of coal. But also keep in mind, as Steam says on the page lumps of coal can be crafted into prizes, or give you a chance to win EVERY GAME ON STEAM at the end of the event.

As part of Steam's Holiday event, if you play Red Orchestra 2 today and get the achievement "Fighting The War on Christmas - Participate in a successful territory capture on Commissars House" in RO2 you can win a prize on Steam!!! These prizes include free games, free DLC, coupons for % off of games, and more. So get in game and get that achievement now!!! For more info check out the Steam Holiday Event Page.

Note: if you already have the achievement you can still get a prize. Keep in mind that prize may be a lump of coal. But also keep in mind, as Steam says on the page lumps of coal can be crafted into prizes, or give you a chance to win EVERY GAME ON STEAM at the end of the event.

As the latest version of "What we are up to" includes a poll I will be directly linking to our forums where it exists instead of posting it here.

Please head on over and give us your input:

<a href="http://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/showthread.php?t=73088">What We Are Up To Dec 14th Edition</a>

As the latest version of "What we are up to" includes a poll I will be directly linking to our forums where it exists instead of posting it here.

Please head on over and give us your input:

What We Are Up To Dec 14th Edition

The following is a change log that should go live shortly. Clients and servers will need to update.


General

* New achievement Fighting The War on Christmas - Participate in a successful territory capture on Commissars House
* Improved CPU performance for all players
* Spectators will now respect the server's roaming restrictions if the viewed player is killed
* Fixed occasional crash when changing teams in the role selection menu
* Weapon upgrades that have been unlocked no longer have a lock icon next to them in the profile menu

Countdown

* There is now a 5 second timeout after using a reinforcement wave in countdown. This addresses problems where several waves get used up at once.
* If the last player alive is still bleeding out they will now be able to live out their last few seconds before the round ends

Territory

* Fixed the round end screen not displaying if the spawn select menu is open

Server

* Servers that become unranked will now attempt to become ranked again after the map changes. We are still working on fully solving the issue with some servers going unranked, but this will help improve the issue.

The following is a change log that should go live shortly. Clients and servers will need to update.


General

* New achievement Fighting The War on Christmas - Participate in a successful territory capture on Commissars House
* Improved CPU performance for all players
* Spectators will now respect the server's roaming restrictions if the viewed player is killed
* Fixed occasional crash when changing teams in the role selection menu
* Weapon upgrades that have been unlocked no longer have a lock icon next to them in the profile menu

Countdown

* There is now a 5 second timeout after using a reinforcement wave in countdown. This addresses problems where several waves get used up at once.
* If the last player alive is still bleeding out they will now be able to live out their last few seconds before the round ends

Territory

* Fixed the round end screen not displaying if the spawn select menu is open

Server

* Servers that become unranked will now attempt to become ranked again after the map changes. We are still working on fully solving the issue with some servers going unranked, but this will help improve the issue.

With a patch out the door yesterday, and the SDK in the final stages of work before we release it to the community, the team has been hard at work finishing up their tasks before they take a few days off to spend with their families.

We've been isolating the few remaining crashes we are receiving and have identified a few more causes of hitching. Code and QA are already working on and testing fixes for these. You will likely see the results from this next week or the week after. It depends on if we can slip them in before the next "big" patch we have planned.

On that note, a large patch is in the works due to some content packages that need to be updated for some bugs. When this happens we are forced to do a several gig update (due to how the engine is structured and the cooking procedure). We will be trying to cram as much into that patch as possible so we don't have to do many of these.

Now we made a fairly large change in terms of weapon availability in the last patch so we have been monitoring community feedback in the forums and in game to see how it is taken. As I've stated before, other changes are being considered based on community feedback as well. I'll speak more about them once we've tested them and feel that they play out well and the community will enjoy them.

As to new content, one of my favorite things I had a chance to do in RO 2 late last week was to test a new prototype map with everybody in the office. I really think the old RO crowd will get a kick out of this one. The rest of the LD team are also cranking away and hope to have their new work in testing soon.

Last but not least we are trying to get the full SDK out the door to everybody, but are working on fixing up a few last issues. With luck it will go out the door late this evening, but may be out early next week if we can't get it done in time.

Have a good Thanksgiving everyone!

Addendum: I forgot to mention we have one of the problematic routers on site that is having issues with the server browser (updating past first refresh and similar problems) and we are starting to dig into what is going on.

With a patch out the door yesterday, and the SDK in the final stages of work before we release it to the community, the team has been hard at work finishing up their tasks before they take a few days off to spend with their families.

We've been isolating the few remaining crashes we are receiving and have identified a few more causes of hitching. Code and QA are already working on and testing fixes for these. You will likely see the results from this next week or the week after. It depends on if we can slip them in before the next "big" patch we have planned.

On that note, a large patch is in the works due to some content packages that need to be updated for some bugs. When this happens we are forced to do a several gig update (due to how the engine is structured and the cooking procedure). We will be trying to cram as much into that patch as possible so we don't have to do many of these.

Now we made a fairly large change in terms of weapon availability in the last patch so we have been monitoring community feedback in the forums and in game to see how it is taken. As I've stated before, other changes are being considered based on community feedback as well. I'll speak more about them once we've tested them and feel that they play out well and the community will enjoy them.

As to new content, one of my favorite things I had a chance to do in RO 2 late last week was to test a new prototype map with everybody in the office. I really think the old RO crowd will get a kick out of this one. The rest of the LD team are also cranking away and hope to have their new work in testing soon.

Last but not least we are trying to get the full SDK out the door to everybody, but are working on fixing up a few last issues. With luck it will go out the door late this evening, but may be out early next week if we can't get it done in time.

Have a good Thanksgiving everyone!

Addendum: I forgot to mention we have one of the problematic routers on site that is having issues with the server browser (updating past first refresh and similar problems) and we are starting to dig into what is going on.

We have sent a patch out to Valve to be released shortly. Included are several performance changes and map fixes. We will also be releasing the full SDK for everybody to download and begin to work with.

Change log:


Map Balance

- Reduced Elite Riflemen and Assault roles on all maps.

- Fixed various spawn camping issues on all maps.

- Apartments - Added additional allied spawn after capturing the first set of objectives

- Barracks - Fixed an exploit that allowed you to get into a wall

- Fallen Fighters - Added missing spawn on squad leader spawns to sewers and trenches

- Grain Elevator - Added a spawn for the Allies that is on the 4th floor. This for when the allies are defending the Foothold

- Spartanovka - Fixed a issues with spawn protection incorrectly showing up when one of the objectives was captured in the 16 player version. Also fixed an Allied spawn not working correctly on the 16 player version.

Performance/Stability
- Reduced the fps hitch during first spawn
- Improved the frame rate smoothing video setting to give more stable FPS
- Fixed memory spike when changing teams in the role selection menu
- Improved physics performance (removing another cause of hitching)
- Fixed a crash when device was lost

Other
- Fixed a wall exploit while leaning
- Satchel objectives can now be 'captured' by destroying the target
- Fixed getting kicked for idling if the server has set MaxIdleTime when reinforcements have run out, or when dead in countdown mode.
- Fixed momentary green scope texture when taking over a bot with a sniper scope.
- Fixed a bug where tank crew members would be invisible the first time they unhatch from the driver seat
- Tank geometry should no longer disappear after being killed as a tank crewman
- Several problems with the hero rank have been addressed (Enemy loadout weapons not showing up, losing hero status after death, UI refinements, etc...)
- Launching the game the first time will add a setting, HUDTipsLevel, to ROGame.ini. Changing this will reduce the amount of text tips that appear on the HUD (0 - All Tips, 1 - Moderate Tips, 2 - Few Tips). Looking for feedback and later on we may add it as a menu option.

We have sent a patch out to Valve to be released shortly. Included are several performance changes and map fixes. We will also be releasing the full SDK for everybody to download and begin to work with.

Change log:


Map Balance

- Reduced Elite Riflemen and Assault roles on all maps.

- Fixed various spawn camping issues on all maps.

- Apartments - Added additional allied spawn after capturing the first set of objectives

- Barracks - Fixed an exploit that allowed you to get into a wall

- Fallen Fighters - Added missing spawn on squad leader spawns to sewers and trenches

- Grain Elevator - Added a spawn for the Allies that is on the 4th floor. This for when the allies are defending the Foothold

- Spartanovka - Fixed a issues with spawn protection incorrectly showing up when one of the objectives was captured in the 16 player version. Also fixed an Allied spawn not working correctly on the 16 player version.

Performance/Stability
- Reduced the fps hitch during first spawn
- Improved the frame rate smoothing video setting to give more stable FPS
- Fixed memory spike when changing teams in the role selection menu
- Improved physics performance (removing another cause of hitching)
- Fixed a crash when device was lost

Other
- Fixed a wall exploit while leaning
- Satchel objectives can now be 'captured' by destroying the target
- Fixed getting kicked for idling if the server has set MaxIdleTime when reinforcements have run out, or when dead in countdown mode.
- Fixed momentary green scope texture when taking over a bot with a sniper scope.
- Fixed a bug where tank crew members would be invisible the first time they unhatch from the driver seat
- Tank geometry should no longer disappear after being killed as a tank crewman
- Several problems with the hero rank have been addressed (Enemy loadout weapons not showing up, losing hero status after death, UI refinements, etc...)
- Launching the game the first time will add a setting, HUDTipsLevel, to ROGame.ini. Changing this will reduce the amount of text tips that appear on the HUD (0 - All Tips, 1 - Moderate Tips, 2 - Few Tips). Looking for feedback and later on we may add it as a menu option.