Beyond The Wire News

In our player roles developer blog, we mentioned orders that Section Leader’s are able to activate which affects nearby section members. This week’s instalment will look at these Officer abilities and how they will benefit a section’s effectiveness in battle. The effects are placed on section members who are within range of their Section Leader when the ability is activated so sections that move together will get the most out of these abilities and will drive the momentum of the battle. With only one ability allowed to be active at any time, Section Leaders are responsible for issuing these orders for the right times and situations.

The Section Leader abilities are the first implementation with the values, durations and cooldowns going through reiteration as we test balancing. We will also be looking at adding additional orders as we move through development, with potential faction-specific abilities coming later down the line.


[h3]Increase movement speed[/h3]


This effect will increase the movement capabilities of the section. Motivating his section to cover ground, an Officer can help ensure his section crosses open terrain quicker to avoid excessive casualties during the advance. While this ability is active, the sections movement speed is increased by 50% for 3 seconds.

Effect: Increased player movement speed

Duration: 3 seconds

Cooldown: 5 minutes



[h3]Reduce damage taken[/h3]


Section Leader’s have the option to support their unit by reducing all damage taken. While this buff is active, the section is able to withstand higher levels of damage beyond normal limits while clinching objectives or holding an overwhelmed flank. Active for 3 seconds, this ability reduces damage taken by 25%.

Effect: Reduces damage taken

Duration: 3 seconds

Cooldown: 5 minutes



[h3]Reduce stamina cost[/h3]


To prevent weariness from the exhausting crossing of no man’s land, Officers can push their section the extra distance to safety. This ability reduces the drain all actions have on stamina. Take the fight to the enemy by being fresh and battle-ready when reaching the opposing trench line. This ability lasts for 3 seconds and reduces stamina cost by 50%.

Effect: Reduces stamina cost of any action

Duration: 3 seconds

Cooldown: 5 minutes



[h3]Increase charge speed
[/h3]


With bayonet’s fixed, Officers are able to boost their section’s sprint speed during bayonet charges. This increased speed allows a unit to close the distance with the enemy en-masse to get within striking range. The charge buff is active for 3 seconds and increases charge speed by 50%.

Effect: Faster sprint speed while bayonet charging

Duration: 3 seconds

Cooldown: 5 minutes



We'll be posting updates on these abilities as we move through development and refine this system. Stay posted for further dev blogs!

For this developer blog, we are showcasing our animations and the gore system that will be featured in Beyond The Wire. These aspects will be central to the experience we’re aiming to deliver and having realistic animations and an extensive gore system will help immerse players into the atmosphere of the war.



[h2]Animations[/h2]

With a priority on realism, while considering gameplay aspects, we have built and tailored our animations to find the balance that best achieves the feeling that players are controlling more than just a camera. Aspects such as inertia gives a physical quality that grounds the animation in the environment and contributes to immersion.  From movement speed to weapon reloads, our team has fine-tuned all aspects to ensure players are able to manoeuvre through the battlefield and engage the enemy while maintaining balance across the various roles that are available.

In order to deliver a realistic look for the characters in-game, we use references from period photographs and video that can give us the starting point for the various poses and stances of soldiers. Our animators, along with our historical advisors, then go through the key poses for each animation to ensure everything is correct. From these points, we blend the poses to ensure a realistic movement is presented in both third-person and first-person viewpoints.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We have placed initial priority on the first-person animations that players immediately see, but we have also placed emphases on third-person animations so that soldiers moving around you help contribute to the authentic experience. We have implemented a wide range of movements in Beyond The Wire which covers various speeds, stances and traversing obstacles and cover elements. Being able to climb and vault allows players to navigate obstacles and the environment itself, while stance changes let players take advantage of different types of cover and concealment.



[h2]Gore[/h2]

The industrialization of warfare at the turn of the 20th century had devastating effects on the soldiers who fought in this war. In order to deliver a true WW1 experience in-game, we have begun developing an early gore system that will bring these horrors to life. Fragmentation grenades, artillery shells and heavy calibre weapons all have brutal effects on your character and if you cannot avoid these, there is small hope of recovery. The damage to your character will have a direct effect on whether your teammates can revive you to return to the fight. If your character has suffered any dismemberment, you cannot be revived and will need to respawn. This is the first iteration of the system and will be changing as we move through development.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Note: Gore effects exaggerated for demonstration purposes.

The impact of this system on your character will vary depending on the projectile type and area of the body that’s hit. In addition to player movements, we also have a ragdoll system that replicates the effects of force on the player model. The severity of the ragdoll will change dependant on the projectile type. Our system differentiates based on impact force so players will go from a slump animation after receiving a sniper round, to blown out of a trench from a large artillery shell. Our gore system can be disabled for those players who prefer to play without the system active.

Standby for the next instalment of developer blogs, Soldier!

After recently adding more weapons into the mix with the Armament Update article, this week's developer blog will be a presentation of the weapons we've revealed with some in-game footage. With weapon handling being a core component of the game, our animations and systems have been built to create engaging gun play in every firefight. Mixing a blend of accurate bolt-action rifles, scathing machine gun fire and shells from above, players can utilize a host of weapons to approach the battle.

In order to generate the atmosphere we’re wanting to deliver in Beyond The Wire, special attention has to be paid to the sound and visual effects. With the introduction and heavy use of weapons systems such as machine guns and artillery, our sound design has been built to bathe the player in the cacophony of a WW1 battlefield. In addition to sound, our visual effects are also needing to deliver an authentic experience for the players. Gas clouds, artillery explosions, grenade explosion and impact effects are all part of this system that we hope will deliver the most immersive WW1 experience to date.


[h2]
French Republic[/h2]

The French army had to meet the new threat of war with various innovations and improvements to their equipment. From the increased demand for semi-automatic pistols to reliable, efficient machine guns, the French arsenal went under vast improvements from the demands of the conflict.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


[h2]
German Empire[/h2]

The German Empire had been investing vast resources towards the armies’ needs in the build-up to the start of the war. New technologies were explored which led to some of the finest weaponry of the modern era.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


[h2]Off-map support
[/h2]
The deployment of industrialized artillery is available to commanders from each faction. These systems are offered as call-in options from off-map support including artillery, gas and smoke shells. These support functions will be going under several reiterations and improvements throughout development.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


See you at the next briefing, Soldier!

For this week's instalment of developer blog, we're revealing some of the game modes that will be coming to Early Access. These modes and the objectives are pivotal to delivering the authentic WW1 experience we are aiming for. Beyond The Wire will be launching to Early Access with two game modes, with more coming soon after. These game modes will feature all factions on all three maps to deliver our interpretation of the ebb and flow of The Great War.

Bear in mind these game modes will go through changes and adaptations as development progresses.



[h2]Frontlines[/h2]

Aiming to replicate the push-pull, attack and counter-attack of trench warfare, this game mode will pit forces against each other as they both attempt to gain control of the same territories across the battlefield. This mode will require players to take control of the open areas of the battlefield before pushing on to the enemies trench system, where the engagements become close quarters.

The game mode is broken up into a number of timed phases. During each phase a sector of territory with multiple small capture points will be contested, the team that controls the majority of the capture points at the end of the time will win the phase and move onto the next territory in direction of the losing team’s HQ. The team that holds the most territory at the end of the phases, or the team who captures the enemy’s HQ, will win.






[h2]Assault
[/h2]
For this game mode, one team will need to prepare for an assault from the enemy team. The attacking team needs to capture sectors and work through the battlefield to push the defenders back to the HQ. Defending forces simply need to hold until the assaulting team has run out of time. Attacking teams will need to break from the safety of their entrenched positions in order to apply pressure on the objectives. This initial advance will be the toughest challenge but the momentum can be maintained once the positions are secure

Each sector must be captured before the assault can advance, and each sector may have different amounts of capture points. These objectives will become strategic positions that can be exploited to assist the next advance. If attacking teams capture one objective they will need to ensure they remain in control of that area as they continue to capture the remaining objectives in the sector.







Keep those eyes open for further detail, Soldiers!

Welcome Soldiers!



Following on from the reveal of Passchendaele we now move the front over to the second map in development, Argonne. To offer a different experience in-game we decided to explore the setting of the Argonne which will demand a change in approach to the battle, given the environmental factors of a forest location. While not being completely accurate to history, we aimed to deliver a different feeling that would break up the barren look of no man’s land that featured so heavily during WW1.


[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The Meuse-Argonne Offensive was part of the final Allied offensive of World War I and was one of the attacks that brought an end to the War. With over a million American soldiers deployed to the front, it was the largest operation of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in World War I.




Ranging from the dense woodland of the Argonne Forest, sprawling, extensive trenches and engulfing shell craters, the Argonne will be one of the most diverse environments in Beyond The Wire. Featuring 1km² of playable area, players will need to be alert to the enemies movement to prevent surprise assaults from all sides.



The level is designed for players to traverse a variety of environmental challenges before converging on an opening between the tree lines where a downed aircraft and huge craters make for a tough grind to push back the enemy. The open land is ideal for machine gun cover to assist the friendly charge but this opening will be well contested as teams try to claim a foothold beyond their lines.



The dense forest gives some opportunity for sections to move outside of the trench networks on their advance, but safety can only be partly guaranteed inside the well-established trenches, which have been largely untouched prior to the offensive. Moving through the trenches carries it’s own risks though, with underground bunkers and high walls hiding threats around each corner.



Flanking routes are available to the North and South for any assault squad looking to surprise the enemy. Gully’s and thick tree lines offer some concealment for those manoeuvres, however, teams will need to concentrate their forces at the centre to ensure strategic positions are held in order to support the advance.




Join us later today at 11 AM PST / 6PM UTC for a developer livestream where we will take an extended look at the Argonne with creative director Bruno and level designer Maurice!