Beyond The Wire News

Our first Development Recap of the year is here, and after a much needed winter break the team is picking up steam with major preparations happening for our next expansion - Operation IV. While development continues to work on the features of our next release we’re able to showcase some of the work going on behind the scenes. Catch up from some of the work done in January!


[h2]Passchendaele[/h2]
The next field of battle to arrive is Passchendaele and is well underway with the majority of whiteboxing being completed and the environment art team working on new buildings that will add a unique look to this map. As this battlefield will be debuting with tanks, much of the level design focus has been aimed at ensuring satisfying vehicle gameplay while sticking with our direction for brutal infantry combat. Featuring an open, daunting no-man's-land before tight combat spaces in the town and across bunker systems spread across the line. layers will see the first major gameplay diversity arriving with tanks in this latest map. While much of the map layout is complete the team are still world-building and look to create new assets to offer some unique visuals.



[h2]Tanks[/h2]
Our QA team has been busy taking on the mammoth task of testing the new tanks due in Operation IV. Running these machines through the mill to see exactly where potential issues are - there’s been some funny results with vehicle physics that have been causing issues when traversing complicated terrain. This has resulted in a rework of the physics so tanks won't be sent flying when trying to advance!
Tank Testing Video

The new setup allows tanks to move more smoothly across the terrain and able to overcome obstacles, such as wide trenches, as desired. There’s a long list of test points for these land ships and they’ll be getting many hours of internal testing before going onto large scale gameplay tests closer to spring time. Stay posted on more news on the horizon!
Tank Testing Video

[h2]Customization[/h2]
Work continues to build a large base of options for players with the new customization system arriving in our next Operation. Shown below are example of the types of webbing and backwear options players will have to customize their character model when the system arrives. With over 200 switchable items being introduced when it launches, you won't be short of adding a unique touch to your character. Also, we can finally reveal the full list of cosmetic items will cover your character's face, headwear, facewear, upper body, lower body, webbing, backwear and hand slots! Again we will have more information on this system as we move closer to it's initial release.



[h2]C.L.L.E Mk 1[/h2]
A new rifle is on the way and animations have been recently completed for the Charger Loading Lee Enfield. Utilising a charger bridge for quick, 5-round charger reloads this rifle saw service with many of the Territory Forces after being converted from M.L.E's. Expect this rifle to be textured and ready to ship with the Australian Imperial Force in Operation IV!
C.L.L.E Animations 1 C.L.L.E Animations 2

Stay posted as we prepare to showcase all of the content lined up for our next update. See you in the trenches!

We wanted to send out a news post after recent efforts by members of the community to produce some new, up-to-date tutorials for Beyond The Wire that can go a long way in helping new players and veterans get a better understanding of the game. It’s been a bit of time since our first endeavour to have tutorials for the community with our sponsored series from Karmakut, and the game has progressed to a point where updated versions were needed.

In the recent weeks there have been new videos released by members of our community which look to help new players and ambitious leaders looking to improve their impact on the battlefield. While we are intending to have official guides and tutorials within the game at some point in the future we thought we could highlight these community videos and share them. Catch the tutorials below!


The first tutorial that was recently released was this helpful video for Section Leaders. Covering all the basics that Section Leaders need to succeed, Elevator has done a fantastic job of compressing down the important tips into a digestible video. If you're looking to get started as a Section Leader this video is a great starting point!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Another helpful video for Section Leaders has been produced as part of a series of tutorials by Viper. This Section Leader guide includes general gameplay tips and tricks for aspiring leader's looking to lead a section into battle. The chapters in this video cover all aspects from commands, communication, spawn points and commander support requests to give a complete guide to help both aspiring and experiences leaders.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

If you're looking to take the step-up to Command and lead your team to victory then the second video from Viper will will give new commanders the information they need to get started. From breaking down the CP cost of call-ins to how to interact with the command menu, this tutorial will be a great starting point for players wanting to have a major impact on their teams success.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Finally, and perhaps most importantly is the 2022 New Player Guide. Breaking down the fundamentals of Beyond The Wire, this extensive guide will help new players get to grips with all of the mechanics and aspects of gameplay. Walking through deployment, game modes, inventory and communication and more, this tutorial covers every core part of the game that will give new players an important introduction to the main features of the game. Even if you're an old timer - we suggest checking out the video as there may be some tips and tricks you find useful. Great work Viper!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We're grateful that the community has shown initiative in helping new players by creating these tutorials and guides which help fill the gap until the in-game tutorial is ready so make sure to show support to these channeStay posted for upcoming news on development as we pick up steam after the winter holiday. See you in the trenches!

Our latest hotfix is out and brings some fixes and changes to update 0.14 that released last week.

[h2]Gameplay[/h2]

[h2]Changes[/h2]

- MG-08/15 changes on round dispersion
- Sniper rifle utility was enhanced by improving dispersion and velocity
- Relaxed placement rules on all deployables to address player frustration when placing on uneven or bumpy terrain (this may go too far in the other direction and allow emplacements too much freedom for placement but this is a better problem to us than how frustrating they are to place currently, we’ll revisit placement rules when we have time in the future to achieve a better solution)

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

- Fixed Jager engineer officer ability to use field guns
- Combles Assault FR vs GER missing spawns and sector configuration was fixed

[h2]Art[/h2]

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

- Early war Germans fixed from having skull decal on pickelhaube

[h2]UI[/h2]

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

- Removed Section Leader HUD icons from the bottom left of the screen as system is not yet fully functional

[h2]Maps[/h2]

[h3]Changes[/h3]

- Zonnebeke Assault layers - first sector adjusted so defenders cannot push too far forward of their first defense objective
- Combles Assault layers (GER attacking) - first sector adjusted so defenders cannot push too far forward of their first defense objective
- Vimy Assault layers (Entente attacking) - first sector adjusted so defenders cannot push too far forward of their first defense objective

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

- Fixed some bad sector names on Vimy Ridge and Sechault layers
- Zonnebeke Assault JAG vs BEF fixed the wrong year being displayed
- Various fixes on CEF vs GER & FR vs GER Vimy Ridge assault layers

[h2]Optimization / General Fixes[/h2]

[h3]Known issues[/h3]

- AMD FX users will have degraded performance due to issues with the audio system. We’re still investigating possible solutions, but here’s a workaround

1. Open following file:

C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Local\WireGame\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor\Engine.ini

If the file doesn't exist, create it.
2. Add following lines at the end:
[/script/engine.audiosettings] bDisableMasterEQ=True
[Audio] bDisableMasterEQ=True

- Bayonet cannot be equipped to Springfield 1903 iron-sighted variant
- Awards and some of the personal statistics do currently not display correctly
- Damage radius of field cannons will sometimes cause players to not be killed immediately
- No. 20 Rifle Grenade has placeholder sounds
- Switching Audio quality in the options menu will cause a crash when connected to a server or in the Shooting Range. Please restart the game to prevent that from happening.
- Ansoncourt underground bunkers have lighting issues on the day version
- Deploying LMG bipods on certain spots while prone can lead to players teleporting under the map
- Rifle Bayonet Charging may cause rubberbanding and a broken weapon animation
- Rally Points do not have a 30 meter range limit for frontlines objectives
- Tear Gas effect can sometimes appear with gas mask
- Vickers MK I emplacement is using the Vickers 1915 model
- Deployment/Team menu scenery appears too dark on night layers
- Damage is dealt at the marker position instead the chlorine artillery shells
- Deployment menu music continues playing when the deployment menu is closed using ESC

As 2021 draws to a close and our team look forward to a short break for Christmas we thought we would see out 2021 with an end of year review to celebrate some of the accomplishments we've achieved and the difficulties we've faced. The past year has been an important one for Beyond The Wire, after launching to Early Access in the last quarter of 2020 it was important to evolve the game through large expansions to increase available content as well as establishing the direction for the game. With two expansions adding major factions and pivotal fields of battle we're proud to have been able to deliver new experiences and pay homage to some of WW1's most infamous moments. But new content and changes to the game haven't been the only progress that's been achieved this year. Our internal processes and update preparation has also evolved, allowing us to streamline development tasks and create easier routes to large updates. Making use of our amazing community to run large scale, public testing prior to expansions and big updates has given the development team invaluable opportunities to identify performance problems and other issues which we've been able to tackle before updates release. As Beyond The Wire is the first title we've worked on these types of processes and best-practices have been massive in helping us improve internally to deliver with each release. With 2022 looking to be even bigger and better - we're excited to step up and take our work to the next level.


We kicked off 2021 by reviewing the roadmap for Beyond The Wire and the team wanted to commit to keeping our plans up to date publicly for our community to see where the game was heading. With Early Access being an open development process we tried to ensure that the route ahead was communicated clearly to our current and future playerbase. The release of our major content pieces have been tied to public updates to our roadmap in an attempt to show everyone the next milestones and give a better understanding of the general aims for Beyond The Wire. Our two Operations that released in 2021 took major investments from development, and in some cases, had an impact on the plans we had revealed in the various versions of the roadmap. Throughout this year all departments met and discussed what was achievable with each expansion as well as committing to a complete package of content that we want to deliver for 1.0 release. As a result of these discussions and the live development of the game our roadmap has been updated several times and our community have been able to see those decisions reflected in the four versions that we published. Eventually, after several long meetings we were able to deliver a complete Early Access roadmap in the last quarter of this year, showing our playerbase an exact reflection of the goals for the course of development up until 1.0 launch. While some aspects of development have been delayed due to unexpected growth in scope and investment, we have ensured our community is updated as soon as possible on these delays. We were able to understand the disappointment of these delays and took advantage of the opportunities to include additional content and changes that we had been unable to commit to in the roadmap. We will be continuing to publish updated roadmaps in the future when needed so the community can be reassured they are involved every step of the way.


Part of our efforts to deliver new content this year has been to identify unique parts of armies that would offer interesting gameplay and visual dimensions to Beyond The Wire. A large part of the work done this year has been to include these new aspects to teams so that players have options of sub-factions and unique, year determined loadouts to further enhance the historical authenticity which continues to be a core pillar of Beyond The Wire. From early war regiments to sub-units sitting under the command of larger factions, the armies in Beyond The Wire have been expanded upon this year to offer more authentic representations on our Fields of Battle. The first example of this system arrived in Operation II: For King and Country where the 369th Infantry Regiment were introduced to fight alongside the army of the French Republic. Players were able to deploy as either the Harlem Hellfighters or support with French Infantry sections on Séchault during the Meuse-Argonne offensive. Taking this intention to all of our factions the game designers, historical advisors and 3d modellers have worked this year to identify additional options that can be included to the rest of the armies. Since Operation II release Beyond The Wire has introduced multiple sub-factions across several maps, all determined by the gameplay layer and the year it is set. We are proud to have included The Harlem Hellfighters, Jäger-Battalion, Chasseurs Alpins, Royal Newfoundland Regiment and Jäger-Battalion, Army Detachment Gaede into the game this year. While these sub-factions appear in various forms throughout the game their impact on gameplay and atmosphere has gone a long way to help build the landscape for the game.



What comes next....

One of the disappointments for 2021 has been the delay on our progression and customization system. The development work began early this year to build a brand new system that would take a player's game-to-game progress and reward new customization pieces that player's could then use to add their personal touch to their soldier in-game. Our intention will always be respectful of the period and our main goal is to remain historically authentic. While the art teams worked to create uniform and facial options the engineering department have been tackling the major programming effort to build this complex system from scratch. The code-base we've used to build the game had no functionality for such a system that would track and collect a plethora of player stats which would then feed into a players profile, issuing rewards and new tasks across their playtime. Given the building of such a system needed a new foundation of how player actions are tracked. the task has grown exponentially which we had not foreseen. With each new target achieved for our engineers, a new web of problems arose needing even more attention and time. Ever since the system has been started it's easily been the biggest work load for our programmers this year, all the while still having to deal with all the other development requirements. Further delays have been needed and as we close the year out the system is now expected for release in Spring 2022. While the pushing back of this major feature has been disappointing for all of us, the engineering team have still had major successes in their work on the system up to now, which included a complete overhaul of player and team stats. Updates 0.13 & 0.14 included the brand new scoreboard - which now rewards players for almost every action that has a positive impact on the round. Our players now see their influence on a round in whatever role they play, with scores being accumulated for combat, team and objective contributions. Developing, testing and implementing this system is major success for the development team as it has opened the door for the progression system to be introduced which will track each of these actions, contributing to the progression players see from each and every game played.


The next Operation for Beyond The Wire is now lining up to be our biggest update yet as we have already completed preparation work to introduce, perhaps, our most game-changing addition - tanks. When entering Early Access we were hesitant to commit to introducing vehicles and couldn't confirm whether we would have the capability to develop them in time for 1.0 release. Since then, we have been able to allocate some development time to explore their inclusion and our community's excitement at the confirmation of tanks was palpable. With teaser's dropping on our YouTube channel we were finally able to commit to their release with Operation IV, along with opportunities for additional vehicles in the future. Entering the fray will be the Mark IV, Renault FT-17 and A7V which we're expecting to change the landscape completely for Beyond The Wire. We will be aiming to keep these machines of war to the years they were involved and while we are still working out the details on how these will feature on our fields of battle, you can be assured they'll be as frightening and impactful as they were for the soldiers who faced them. Consideration for their inclusion has already started with the level and game design departments looking at changes needed to maps and teams, to both utilise and oppose them.


2022 will be a major year for Beyond The Wire as we introduce some of our biggest and most anticipated features yet which will add new experiences and further cement the gameplay loop, putting us in position ready to spring towards 1.0. As these systems are introduced we will continue our efforts to ensure we survey the communities sentiment and feedback, taking onboard the concerns and ideas you bring us through the various channels, forums and regular feedback surveys. The input our players have given us this year has been invaluable and the interaction between the Redstone team and community will continue to be the most important part of the development process - and we're excited to share this journey with you all.

As always your passion for Beyond The Wire is our main source of inspiration and everyone at Redstone would like to thank you all for this continued support as we work towards delivering the best World War 1 gaming experience to date. 2022 will be our biggest year yet, we can't wait to see you there...

Our December update arrives and while our progression and customization system is still in development we've worked to deliver a major overhaul to team templates in addition to introducing new sub-factions, weapons and game mode changes. Read the full patch notes below.

[h2]Gameplay[/h2]
[h3]Changes[/h3]
- Major overhaul to roles, sections, and faction templates. The weapons, roles, and sections that are available will now be very different depending on which team you are playing and which year of the conflict your current round is set in. https://playbtw.com/team-restructure-blog/
- All layers were overhauled with new capture points, spawn locations, and capture point dimensions. Some assault layers will have multiple objectives that previously only had a large phase line capture point. Defenders on assault will now generally have spawn points closer to the objective than the attackers.
- Overtime on assault temporarily disabled until further iterations to overtime can be made (in the future will only trigger when the attacking team has made progress towards capturing their last objective in a sector instead of triggering when they have captured an objective in the current sector)
- Barbed wire with corpses strewn on them can no longer be cut
- Engineer/Construction sections are able to place 2 heavy fortifications emplacements instead of 1
- Spawn point overrun (nearby enemies prevent spawning) distance increased from 5m to 15m
- Spawn points can no longer be placed within 30m of capture zones. The intent here is to reduce how chaotic it can get on capture points when both teams have rally points extremely close together, as well as to mitigate the likelihood of having a rally point spawn-camped. The exact value of the distance is subject to change.
- Firing steps added to the engineer/construction section’s heavy fortification to enable shooting through the firing ports on uneven terrain
- Unique CEF voice lines added
- Increased the number of command points that are generated passively on assault game mode from 20 to 30 per minute. The intent here is to enable a defending team to call in off-map support abilities more frequently since they are not receiving command points for capturing objectives.
- Medic revival time reduced from 5.5 to 3 seconds

[h3]New[/h3]
- Many new layers were added to support a wider variety of team templates depending on faction and year.

[h3]Fixes[/h3]
- Fixed rally points not being destroyed by some explosive damage types

[h2]Factions[/h2]
[h3]New[/h3]
- Chasseurs Alpins and Jäger-Battalion characters added

[h3]Changes[/h3]
- Major overhaul to roles, sections, and faction templates. The weapons, roles, and sections that are available will now be very different depending on which team you are playing and which year of the conflict your current round is set in. [Link to devblog]

[h2]Weapons[/h2]
[h3]New[/h3]
- Springfield 1903 iron-sighted variant added to some AEF roles. Bayonet cannot currently be equipped with this weapon.
- MG 08/15 added. Players carrying this weapon will move much slower than others and will be unable to aim down the sights unless the bipod is deployed.
- Model 1914, 1915, and 1916 French tear gas grenades were added. Tear gas will distort players' screens caught in the affected area without a gas mask equipped. This is an early-stage implementation, including placeholder animations, and will be further developed in the future.
- Model 1916 French smoke grenade added. Placeholder animations.
- M1883 Reichsrevolver added to Jäger and some early war German officer roles

[h2]Maps[/h2]
[h3]Fixes[/h3]
- Improved collision on corrugated metal asset
- Fixed issues with smoke column vfx on Poelcappelle layers

[h2]Art[/h2]
- Fixed issue with muzzle flash VFX apperance
- Existing camouflage texture added to Stoßtruppen section characters' helmets (placeholder until proper turtle-shell texture is made)

[h2]UI[/h2]
- Small updates and changes to accommodate larger lists of sections as a result of the team template overhaul

[h2]Optimization / General Fixes[/h2]
- EAC pak file chunk size fix to fix EAC issues
- Crash when disconnecting from server fixed

[h2]Known issues[/h2]
- AMD FX users will have degraded performance due to issues with the audio system. We’re still investigating possible solutions, but here’s a workaround

1. Open following file:

C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Local\WireGame\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor\Engine.ini

If the file doesn't exist, create it.
2. Add following lines at the end:
[/script/engine.audiosettings] bDisableMasterEQ=True
[Audio] bDisableMasterEQ=True

- Bayonet cannot be equipped to Springfield 1903 iron-sighted variant
- Some of the personal statistics do currently not display the scores correctly
- Personal awards are not granted correctly
- Damage radius of field cannons will sometimes cause players to not be killed immediately
- No. 20 Rifle Grenade uses placeholder sounds
- Switching Audio quality in the options menu will cause a crash when connected to a server or when playing on the Shooting Range. Please restart the game to prevent that from happening.
- Infantry section members will see a SL ability icon in the bottom left screen
- Ansoncourt underground bunkers have lighting issues
- Deploying LMG bipods on walls while prone can lead to players teleporting under the map
- Rifle Bayonet Charging may cause rubberbanding and a broken weapon animation
- Spawn Points do not have a 50 meter limit range limit for frontlines objectives
- Tear Gas effect can sometimes appear with gas mask