Beyond The Wire News

After the successful release of Operation Two and the reveal of our new and updated road map, we are now ready to open up Beyond The Wire for a Steam Free Weekend! Kicking off on the 20th of May, Beyond The Wire will be free to play on Steam until Monday the 24th! Coinciding with the free weekend Beyond The Wire will also be on sale during this time, with a 35% sale happening meaning the game will cost just £18 / $22.75 / E19.50! We can't wait to open Beyond The Wire to those looking to try the game and meet the new people joining our community. The game will be receiving a quick update next week in preparation for the free weekend with balancing, optimization work and bug fixes being the main agenda.



As Beyond The Wire opens up to the public it is important that our veterans take time to help new players understand the game and get maximum enjoyment. With communication and teamwork being a huge part of the experience, we're hoping our experienced players can set the example for how our community behaves and interacts with one another.

Stay posted on that update arriving soon Soldier. See you in the trenches!

It is with great excitement that we reveal our latest road map, and for the first time give a broader view of how Beyond The Wire will look in the future. While we have discussed plans sporadically during streams and discussions with the community we decided it was time to lay the future down so our players can see all the interesting features being planned and where Beyond The Wire is headed. With Operation Two closing out the first 6 months of Early Access, we are ready to present the journey ahead for Beyond The Wire. Throughout Early Access we will continue to release Operations to deliver relevant and fascinating content that delivers a new experience on the Western Front, with new diverse battlefields, iconic weapons and important factions all changing the battlefield around them. Supplementing these larger releases will be smaller updates to fix bugs, make UI improvements, introduce new weaponry for existing factions and make general quality of life and optimization improvements.

Note: This roadmap is subject to change dependant on community feedback and development requirements.

The major pieces to identify in our new roadmap are the two Operations that follow For King and Country. This summer brings Canada's 100 days, releasing the Canadian Expeditionary Force along with our initial customization and progression system and new weapons for existing factions. Following this operation players will see the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps joining the fray along with a first iteration of vehicles, flamethrowers and a multiplayer campaign. Throughout Early Access, there will be ongoing improvements to client and server optimization, sounds & special effects and continued level polish as we improve the game in all areas.

Our long term development plans which go beyond the 1.0 launch will see us aim for air battles, a COOP mode against AI and a brand new theatre, opening a new front of World War I. We will reveal details on all these new features and operations in due time, so remember to stay up to date on our development recaps and future updates on the game. See you in the trenches, Soldier!

[h2]Welcome Soldiers![/h2]

Our recent update For King and Country made some big changes and we wanted to get a better understanding of how the community as a whole feels about the recent changes. These feedback surveys will be used when we release large updates that make certain changes to the game. The development team are wanting to see how the community reacts to the changes and their general sentiment on the game at that point. We'll be using these over the course of Early Access where we feel a need to survey the communities feedback. Please fill out this google form below before Friday 14th May when we will be closing submissions, after which we will share the results publicly. Thanks in advance for your time to complete the form, we appreciate your feedback and we will endeavour to address areas of concern.

https://forms.gle/82wHVGXjWnsNWmt98

We've worked to get this first hotfix ready to resolve some issues that arrived with V0.10 last week - including some stability fixes and the return of Cantigny after having to to be pulled from the map rotations. Check out the changelog below!

[h2]Gameplay[/h2]

Changes
- All Medic 01 roles now have smoke grenades instead of hand grenades
- Disabled explosion when digging down Ammunition dump

Fixes
- Fixed Heavy Fortification barbed wire causing movement to be slowed down permanently
- Fixed Ammo Bags and Ammunition Dumps rearming constantly and rearming outside of radius
- Fixed players not being able to shoot people through QF 13-pounder shield opening
- Fixed taking damage and being slowed down for a second after cutting wire
- Fixed barbed wire slowdown and damage applying even when not overlapping with the actual barbed wire model. Previously you would start taking damage from further away than intended
- Fixed barbed wire slowdown not being removed when the current barbed wire is cut. Previously you could take damage right after cutting barbed wire and walking through it
- Fixed GER Medic 02 wrong loadout name
- Fixed damage not being removed when entering the next sector during prep phase and the next sector becoming active on Assault
- Fixed AEF HMG NCO has field dressing in inventory
- Fixed equipment name being misspelt for BEF Signaller

[h2]Weapons[/h2]

New
- Added No. 20 Rod Rifle Grenade to BEF Grenadier

Changes
- Updated ADS view for all pistols. Sight pictures should be improved and be more consistent.

Fixes

- Fixed Lewis Gun having incorrect equip/unequip animations
- Fixed P14 having wrong HUD image
- Fixed incorrect HUD images for Mk1 grenade and Mills bomb grenade
- Fixed Assault objective map markers being filled 70% at match start

[h2]Maps[/h2]
- Fixed visual effects not loading for some maps
Cantigny
- Fixed barbed wire causing major performance drop
- Fixed various gaps in Cantigny cathedral

Combles
- Fixed aggressive culling in certain areas
- Fixed cart disappearing too close to the player
- Fixed floating trees in certain areas

Frise
- Fixed fire sound being audible but no fire effect being visible in certain areas

Poelcappelle
- Fixed floating rock at B3-3-2
- Fixed tunnel at B3-4-5 having collision and terrain issues
- Fixed a hole in the ground at D3-4-3, Fixed a gap in the sandbags at C3-3-4
- Fixed Poelcappelle frontlines layers missing blocking volume during staging
- Fixed missing wall section

Séchault

- Fixed floating cans
- Fixed floating assets in bunkers
- Fixed foliage clipping through building
- Fixed bad collision in tunnel
- Fixed no collision on trench wall

Shooting Range

- Fixed BEF and HHF versions of shooting range not loading

[h2]Art[/h2]
- Improved visibility of characters in darker scenarios
- Fixed collisions for dead trees
- Fixed sprint animation not stopping during climb/vault
- Fixed animations not resetting when a player is wounded while interacting
- Fixed wound and blood textures not showing on player models
- Fixed deployment view floating above maps

[h2]UI[/h2]
- Added message to server queue widget to notify players about seeding empty servers
- Updated neutral sector flag for Frontlines
- Updated spawn type icons
- Fixed spelling error in spawn button and fixed formatting for overrun rally / SL spawns
- Fixed end round screen displaying "The match is a draw" briefly
- Fixed spawn point list only showing two spawn points
- Fixed next map widget displaying incorrect image
- Disabled option to enable automatic bolting
- Disabled option to share rally point in map widget

[h2]Optimization[/h2]
- Various crash fixes
- Improved the prioritization of sounds. This ensures certain sounds will always play, even if the audio - channel limit is reached.
- Increased audio channels on Epic from 128 to 192 to allow more sounds to be played at once and reduce the likelihood of sounds cutting out
- Improved performance on deployment view
- Optimized HUD widgets
- Optimized character models
- Optimized dismemberment limb models

[h2]Known issues[/h2]
- No. 20 Rifle Grenade equip animation not properly lined up
- No. 20 Rifle Grenade uses placeholder sounds
- Players may experience blurry textures on certain graphical options
- Switching Audio quality in the options menu will cause a crash. Please restart the game to prevent that from happening.
- AMD FX users will have degraded performance due to issues with the audio system. We’re still investigating possible solutions
- VOIP widget role icon is not being displayed correctly
- Damage radius of field cannons will sometimes cause players to not be killed immediately
- No. 20 Rifle Grenade is called “VB Rifle Grenade”

We are pleased to release our latest update bringing a host of additions, changes, fixes and improvements. Check out the full changelog below, and stay tuned for an incoming patch notes video.
Our first major content expansion, also known as Operation II: For King and Country, will not only introduce the British Expeditionary Force but also 3 new maps, new weapons, and our first subfaction, the Harlem Hellfighters.

[h2]Gameplay[/h2]

[h3]New[/h3]

- New Faction: British Expeditionary Force
- New Faction: 369th Infantry Regiment (Harlem Hellfighters)
- Added subfaction system allowing multiple factions to be on one team
- Added Engineering Section
- Added Engineering NCO role
- Added Sapper role
- Added Builder role
- Added deployable Ammunition Dump
- Added deployable sandbags
- Added deployable barbed wire
- Added deployable heavy fortification
- Added deployable ladders
- Added charge ability to hand-held melee weapons. Hold [Left Mouse Button] while running to perform a melee charge
- Added ability to also perform bayonet charge by holding [Middle Mouse Button] first and then pressing [Left Shift] to run
- Added a new universal interaction system. You can now bandage, revive, build by pressing [F] instead of equipping a special item first. Medic bags still function as before
- Added audio feedback when hitting body parts or helmet of enemies with firearms
- Added new bayonet attack and charge sounds
- Added new playable area mechanic, damaging players that accidentally glitch out of the playable area
- Added sounds when capturing / losing an objective a player is currently inside of
- Added second Medic loadout
[h2]
Changes[/h2]

Frontlines
- Removed time-based phases in favor of point system
- Team who reaches a set amount of points first will win a sector
- Points are gained for holding more than 50% of the sector’s capture points
- Team to win 3 sectors or have the most sectors by the end of the match timer wins the match
- Updated UI to match new mechanics
Assault
- Added cooldown period after a sector has been captured to allow attackers and defenders to organize
- Added damage volume to prevent attackers from entering the next sector before the cooldown timer has ended
- Updated UI to match new mechanics
- Reduced max capture rate from 0.125 to 0.015. Capture speed will now max out at a 3 player advantage
- Fixed first assault capture point sometimes not reporting progress correctly

- Changed Commander call-ins to be limited to only one at a time for the same marker
- Changed Commander command point generation and call-in cost
- Changed ammo bags to be placed at any angle
- Changed spawn selection to default to rally point if it’s available
- Changed damage curves for pistols, rifles, LMGs, and HMGs reducing the range for one-shot kills.
- Changed explosives to reload slower than other ammo from ammo bags
- Reduced amount of time that must pass before attempting to change the team from 240 to 30 seconds
- Reduced instant kill damage threshold from 450 to 150 to make headshot instant kills
- Reduced range for local VOIP from 100m to 50m
- Reduced damage volume for barbed wire
- Reduced penalty for placing rally point near enemies from 30 to 15 seconds
- Reduced rally point destruction ranges from enemies from 30 to 10 meters
- Removed melee directional attack indicator
- Removed team limit on Commander 02 role

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

- Fix players being able to fire while dead on the server but alive on client. Should reduce chances for trade-kills.
- Fixed collision on deployable sandbags
- Fixed wooden parts of deployables ignoring penetration values
- Fix SL Spawns not working on captured objectives
- Fixed inventory inconsistencies of various roles
- Fixed being able to revive players who are already being revived
- Fixed players being able to dig down occupied emplacements, causing the bald player bug
- Fixed players being able to block attacks from behind
- Fixed rally points not being rotated correctly, causing players to always spawn facing East
- Fixed Artillery Gun not applying blast damage to players in front of it

[h2]Weapons[/h2]

[h3]New[/h3]

- Added SMLE MK III*
- Added Webley MK VI
- Added Lewis Gun
- Added .303 British Vickers HMG
- Added QF 13-pounder gun for British Expeditionary Force, French Republic, American Expeditionary Force, and Harlem Hellfighters
- Added No. 27 Smoke Grenade
- Added Mk1 No. 5 Mills Bomb
- Added Pattern 1897 Officer Sword
- Added Pattern 1907 SMLE bayonet
- Added Lead Cast Trench Club
- Added Bolo Knife

[h3]Changes[/h3]

- Improved firing animation of Pistole 08 and Lange Pistole 08 to address visibility issues
- Improved Lebel 1886 bolting animation
- Reduced gravity scale to allow further throws with M1916 Bundle Grenade

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

- Fixed missing MG08 equip sounds
- Fix players not being able to lean near the Vickers 1915 HMG
- Fixed Mk1 grenade having a wrong projectile mesh
- Fixed Bayonet Knife using Trench Club image in role selection

[h2]Maps[/h2]

- New map: Séchault, Somme
- New map: Poelcapelle, Flanders
- New map: Combles, Somme
- Updated naming conventions of all maps: Mapname Gamemode Year Team1 vs Team2
- New gameplay layers
Combles Assault 1916 UK vs GER
Combles Assault 1914 FR vs GER
Combles Frontlines 1916 UK vs GER
Combles Frontlines 1914 FR vs GER
Sechault Assault 1918 HHF vs GER
Sechault Frontlines 1918 HHF vs GER
Poelcappelle Assault 1917 UK vs GER
Poelcappelle Assault 1914 FR vs GER
Poelcappelle Frontlines 1917 UK vs GER
Poelcappelle Frontlines 1914 FR vs GER
Frise Assault 1918 UK vs GER
Frise Frontlines 1918 UK vs GER
Zonnebeke Assault 1915 UK vs GER
Zonnebeke Frontlines 1914 UK vs GER

[h3]Ansoncourt[/h3]
- Various bug fixes
- Updated Ansoncourt Frontlines with new cap layout approach and made US on west and GER on east
- Updated Ansoncourt Frontlines with new out of playable area bounds
- Updated Ansoncourt Assault – drastically altered layout
- Removed some of the foliage on Ansoncourt

[h3]Chateau-Thierry[/h3]
- Various bug fixes
- Added more ambient sounds with interior ambient sounds for all buildings, nature sounds, etc.

[h3]Cantigny[/h3]
- Various bug fixes
- Added new non-playable area bounds to Cantigny gameplay layers
- Added fourth underground entrance/tunnel
- Updated Cantigny Assault layers
- Reduced amount of terrain components for better performance
- Fixed Cantigny Frontlines referencing US instead of FR

[h3]Frise[/h3]
- Various bug fixes
- Added new nonplayable area bounds to Frise gameplay layers
- Added additional polish and set-dressing
- Updated stables objects on Frise
- Updated particle effects placed on the map
- Fixed spawn locations on Frise Assault

[h3]Shooting Range[/h3]
- Added British Expeditionary Force version
- Added Harlem Hellfighter version
- Updated emplaced weapons based on faction

[h3]Zonnebeke[/h3]
- Various bug fixes
- Added new out of area bounds to Zonnebeke gameplay layers
- Added FR w/ UK coalition faction to Zonnebeke 1914 layers
- Updated draw distances of various objects
- Updated Zonnebeke Frontlines
- Lowered terrain resolution for better performance
- Fixing out of bound spawns on Frise

[h2]Art[/h2]

- Added facial hair to some character models
- Added shuffling feet animation when turning with emplaced weapons
- Added dagger / blade attack sounds
- Added additional environmental assets such as buildings, vehicles, vegetation, props, debris etc.
- Added mud explosion effects
- Added support for distance shadows on Low and Medium settings
- Improved sprint end animation
- Improved bayonet stabbing animation
- Improved character movement animation
- Improved head model visuals
- Improved eye material visuals
- Improved animations for melee combos
- Improved fire particle effects
- Improved melee flesh slash effects
- Improved collisions on various environmental assets
- Improved placement on helmets
- Improved character skinning on some of the character equipment
- Fixed incorrect sounds and effects being played on various surfaces
- Fixed no sounds playing when moving through bushes, water, or barbed wire
- Fixed low and high ready pose overlapping with sprint animations inside enemy territory
- Fixed issues related to runtime virtual texturing (terrain blending)
- Fixed first sprint animation switching back and forth when moving over bumpy terrain
- Fixed various textures not being PBR-valid causing issues with lighting
- Fixed water refraction
- Fixed no sounds playing when doing melee combos

[h2]UI[/h2]

- Added new role icons to Artillery, Engineering and Recon sections
- Added option to choose input device in audio settings
- Added volume slider to hit sound effects
- Added Win / Lose Themes to all factions
- Updated keyboard overlay showing default controls in-game from F1 to F5 key
- Updated game mode text for new version of frontlines that appears on loading screen
- Updated all inventory images to be consistent in style
- Updated main menu background for Operation II
- Updated VOIP widget
- Updated role icons for Signaller, Recruit
- Updated ammo box and telephone HUD icon
- Updated chatbox visuals
- Updated design of admin / server messages
- Updated design of deployment screen
- Updated interaction widget design and give up screen
- Changed “Benchmark” button to “Auto-Detect Settings” in graphics options window
- Fixed “Create Section” button is no longer visible on section & role screen due to increased amount of sections
- Fixed deployable radial menu button showing up red even if it’s available
- Fixed compass and weapon info overlapping
- Fixed camera exposure in deployment screen

[h2]Optimization[/h2]

- Overhauled game settings to correctly lower the quality of certain rendering features at lower quality settings
This may improve drastically for some players or may cause issues for others. Please reset your user cache if you encounter performance problems.
- Optimized Chauchat 1915 animations
- Optimized scope attachments
- Optimized character textures
- Optimized various particle effects
- Optimized HUD widgets such as objective markers, ammo bag icons, etc
- Optimized various environmental assets, such as trenches, vegetation, props, debris
- Optimization of water and puddles / rain and ripples

[h2]Miscellaneous[/h2]

- Fixed players jittering / lagging in enclosed spaces
- Fixed various stability issues and crashes
- Fixed log spam when creating a section
- Fixed black lines and black decals on Cantigny and Zonnebeke
- Fixed a crash when players got shot on HMGs
- Fixed infinite loop during server shutdown
- Fixed deployable barbed wire spawning too many instances of wire causing server/client desync
- Fixed AdminChangeMap showing the incorrect Map
- Fixed a crash when joining a server
- Fixed a rare crash on Frontlines

[h2]Known issues[/h2]

- BEF Grenadier is missing No. 20 rod rifle grenade. Will be added soon.
- Players may experience blurry textures on certain graphical options
- Touching the barbed wire of the new Heavy Fortification will cause players to slow down indefinitely until they respawn
- Launching the Training Range for BEF and HHF from the menu doesn’t work. Please use AdminChangeMap Shooting Range HHFvGER or AdminChangeMap Shooting Range BEFvGER
- Switching Audio quality in the options menu will cause a crash. Please restart the game to prevent that from happening.
- AMD FX users will have degraded performance due to issues with the audio system. We’re still investigating possible solutions
- Cutting barbed wire on Cantigny will cause a major performance drop for a second
- When a match starts on Cantigny it will cause a major performance drop for a second
- VOIP widget role icon is not being displayed correctly
- Damage radius of field cannons will sometimes cause players to not be killed immediately