Beyond The Wire News

Operation Three: Canada's 100 Days will be bringing the Canadian Expeditionary Force to reinforce the Entente in Europe. Canada was part of the war from the very beginning, having joined when Britain declared war on Germany, but would not arrive on the continent until December of 1914.

Their first major action would take place at the 2nd Battle of Ypres, which saw them defending Belgian ground against the first major gas attack on the Western Front. Initially made up of a cadre of professional soldiers armed with their own equipment, wartime service would lead to Canadian troops adopting British weapons and uniforms, with reliance upon volunteers shifting to conscription in late 1917. By the end of the conflict, some 424,000 Canadians had served overseas in various theaters of operations.

After the major battles of 1916, the Canadian  forces undertook considerable reforms. Refining their use of counter-battery tactics, the creeping-barrage, and decentralizing command even down to infantry platoons, the corps would soon after earn a reputation as an elite 'shock troop' formation. Spending much of their time out of the trenches in training and rehearsing for the next offensive, they would utilize strong planning and coordination to achieve a series of successes in the final years of the conflict.

Armed and dressed quite similarly to their British counterparts, in Beyond the Wire the CEF serve as a standalone faction.. Bringing the unique Ross Mk III Sniper Rifle and M1895 "Potato Digger" Heavy Machine Gun to battle, players will have new elements to their arsenal to learn and with which to storm the bluffs of Vimy Ridge.

The Battle of Vimy Ridge was part of the larger Battle of Arras of 1917. The ridge itself was a critical area of high ground dominating the terrain around it for several kilometers, having been seized by the Germans in 1914, and contested by the French and British throughout 1915 and 1916. It would then fall to the Canadians to capture this vital position.

Players will find the CEF on the fields of battle at both Vimy Ridge and Zonnebeke, with early and late war gameplay layers giving interesting variety in loadouts and equipment.  We are excited to see the Canadian forces in Beyond the Wire and hope you will enjoy our representation of them. See you in the trenches, Soldier!

[h2]Welcome Soldiers![/h2]

Command have sent down orders to prepare for Operation III release by deploying to a new public test to ensure stability of recent changes.

Servers will be live at 11 AM PDT / 7 PM BST / 8 PM CEST on Wednesday October 27.

⚠️ You will get access to UNFINISHED content that contains BUGS and can lead to CRASHES.

The content you see is not representative of the version that will be released. Please keep the following known issues in mind:
- The server may crash repeatedly. Please wait for the server to be restarted if that happens. We're going to continue testing until we decide it's crashing to often.
- Your game may crash. Please, make sure to press Send and Close on the crash window if that happens and restart your game via Steam.

In order to access the test you will need to download the [public-testing] beta branch on the Beyond The Wire app through steam. Follow the instructions below to download the build. The test server will be on the regular Server Browser, please join at the start of the test.

Beta branch: public-testing - public testing branch
Download size: 5.5 GB

1. Open the Steam app and open your game library. Right click on Beyond The Wire and select properties
2. Select the Beta menu
3. Check the drop-down box for the public-testing branch. Select this and close the menu, steam will begin to download the update.
4. Once the download is done, verify the file integrity of your game.


See you tomorrow!

After announcing that Operation III was needing additional time for development we are now able to offer our latest update. Scheduled to release to steam on November 3rd, Operation III introduces a brand new faction, 2 new maps and a host of new weapons as well as optimization work, gameplay improvements and game mode reworks. While we had originally planned to release the first iteration of the progression and customization with this update, the system has taken much longer than we had anticipated, and therefore we have made the decision to release completed content and hold the new system until the next game update - due in a couple of months.

This exclusion is certainly not ideal and we will be ensuring the progression system is working fully before releasing. We do not want to ship a broken or malfunctioning system that could potentially fail in correctly rewarding players. Given these changes to content we plan on releasing an updated Road Map which reflects these changes, with new updates planned and concrete information on what 1.0 release looks like.

Finally, it has been one year since we released to Steam Early Access and we’re going to be celebrating over the coming days. Join the official Beyond The Wire discord as we host a giveaway of game copies and where we will be hosting our first "Journeys from Beyond The Wire" Stage Night on October 28, where we go live with the development for a chat about Beyond The Wire’s journey and more importantly - have your questions answered!

Thanks as always to our amazing community from all of us at Redstone for the continued support and input towards improving the game. We'll see you in the trenches!

Join the discussion!

With a new faction arriving and other weapons coming to completion, Operation III resupplies the arsenal with more iconic weaponry . This next update brings Canadian firearms and heavy weaponry for the French that have been waiting to be deployed and are now ready to be introduced. Check out the list of incoming weapons below!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Ross Rifle Mk III[/h2]

Before the Canadian Army adopted the British SMLE MK III* they were largely armed with the Ross rifle. The straight-pull action of the bolt allowed Soldiers to lay down a greater volume of fire for less effort. However due to concerns regarding its reliability in the trenches, it was eventually phased out in favour of the mass produced SMLE, Late war maps will still see the Ross in use as reconnaissance sections utilise it’s great accuracy, while early war maps will see the CEF deployed with the Ross as the main battle rifle.

[h2]2nd Model "Hand Ejector" Revolver[/h2]

A six-round, double-action revolver used by the CEF as a primary weapon for Officers. Similar in design to its American and British counterparts, the revolver was chambered in .455 Webley to simplify logistics for the forces of the British Empire. A sturdy weapon with a decent fire rate, it saw its fair share of action in the trenches of the Western Front.

[h2]Berthier 1907/15[/h2]

The most common service rifle of the Harlem Hellfighters - the French-made Berthier M1907/15 is fed by a relatively small 3-round en-bloc clip. Still accurate and reliable but with a quicker reload than its older Lebel cousin, the berthier is more than capable enough to serve in the battlefields of France.

[h2]M1918 B.A.R[/h2]

One of the most popular automatic rifle designs during the 20th century is heading out Beyond The Wire. The M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle came into service in the final months of the First World War but made a lasting impression. The BAR was well-received for its modest weight and reliability, though the lack of a bipod has a noticeable effect on its accuracy.

[h2]Canon de 75 modèle 1897[/h2]

French Artillery crews will soon be deploying with their own field canons, replacing the placeholder QF-13. This 75mm field cannon was primarily used by the French Republic, but also supplied in large numbers to the AEF, who nicknamed it the French 75. Though the flat trajectory of field guns challenged their utility in the static conditions of trench warfare, the 75 was one of the best of its class, with great range and rate of fire, and earned a bit of fame for its actions during the 1st Battle of the Marne.

[h2]Hotchkiss M1914[/h2]

The second heavy weapon arriving with Op III is the The main heavy machine gun of the French Republic, this is a heavy, air-cooled weapon that feeds from a 24-round metal strip. It was primarily used as an emplaced weapon in the trenches but also was adopted for use in vehicles. It entered service to replace the older and less-reliable St. Étienne and Puteaux machine guns, with production increasing as the war progressed.

[h2]M1895 “Potato Digger” [/h2]

This air-cooled heavy machine gun got its nickname for reportedly digging up dirt during operation due to its firing mechanism. Relatively lightweight and reliable, the Canadian forces landing in France fought with these weapons until they could phase them out for the Vickers heavy machine guns, after which the majority of them were given to the Belgian army.

Keep one eye on the horizon Soldier as more news on Operation III arrives. See you in the trenches!

Our latest instalment of Development Recaps showcases the newest versions of Frise and Ansoncourt, coming with Operation III. Taking some time and attention to our previously released maps, the Level Design and Environment Art departments have been updating old assets and raising the standard of original maps to match our newer, soon to be released levels. We've broken down some of these changes in this article, read all about it below!

Part of the on-going work in bringing the older maps up to standard is the upgrading of general level art. Aiming for a consistent and unique look for the maps in Beyond The Wire the teams have been ensuring that our older maps are aligned with our latest content. Identifying areas for improvement, level designers have introduced new shading techniques for landscapes, specifically areas of wetness such as puddles and soaked grounds. In addition to these shaders, new landscape tiling has been added to help smooth out patchy and repetitive ground textures.

Old assets have been removed or updated giving performance benefits as well as polishing visuals. Other small problems like collisions causing players to get stuck have been fixed, which have also helped the flow of the map which had previously been affected.

Further work has been done to clear up paths and revise areas of cover to improve movement for players. This work has been done as part of general design work to create more interesting gameplay spaces including where assets are placed in relation to each other.

A main priority for these reworks have been to increase performance through optimization work. Taking the intention to all aspects the level design team have made significant improvements via reductions in triangles and draw call count which gives consistent performance across the library of maps for Beyond The Wire.

Ansoncourt in particular has had extensive work done with areas being re-sculpted to create more variety in combat spaces along with new Points of Interest aimed at helping players navigate around the map. This field of battle from the Meuse-Argonne offensive now has more realistic ground textures, rock formations and wet textures presenting new ways for players to advance.

One focus has been a rework of the trench network layout on Ansoncourt, which should lead to more intense close quarter action in the trenches. No mans land has been updated, utilising the new wetness shader has added more realism to the scene, with a slow transition into the dense forest. Progression through the map is more evident as the change in biomes is striking as you advance deeper into the trees.

The new wetness shader we have implemented will hopefully give the players a much better feel of the mud that the soldiers had to endure during the war, and will give a new and more authentic look to our maps, especially in the heavy bombarded maps like Zonnebeke and Vimy Ridge. We will continue to implement this new shader on all our maps and aim to improve it more over time.

Given the slightly disorientating nature of the forest the team have added a trench rail line that stretches from east to west, and gives the player a visible guide after in the thick of the forest, while also adding more interesting POIs along its track. The train finished up in a small station to the north and inadvertently makes for some interesting combat spaces!

Taking this time to improve original maps means they meet the same level of polish and artistic standard as upcoming releases, ensuring our Fields of Battle deliver an authentic WW1 experience. As always - stay posted for further articles and updates as we move through development. See you in the trenches!