WWII Online News

It's patch day and The king of Battle has arrived at WWII Online: Introducing ARTILLERY! The RATS do it again by providing the longest-ranged indirect fire weapon ever introduced into a video game. They have server-tracked rounds with a range of up to 10,000-11,600m depending on the weapon. Also introduces the infantry-based MG42 with a 50rd drum mag and colored smoke. Three roadmap deliveries plus a lot more, keep reading!

World War II Online
Version 1.36.19.0 - November 2022

Introducing ARTILLERY for WWII Online! Since day one you have requested this to be part of the game, and here it is! It also happens to be the longest indirect firing weapons ever to be placed into a video game! Additionally, the MG42 is now available for infantry and we've added various other features and fixes. Stay subscribed and help us do even more!

• Artillery units have been added to the game
  
  • The Allied M2A1 105mm
    
  • The Axis 10.5cm LeFH18/40 105mm
    
  • Current known issue: Incorrect range info on the vehicle selection screen. This has no impact on actual vehicle performance, this is ONLY the vehicle information displayed in the UI when selecting the vehicle. The actual maximum range for the LeFH 18/40 is: 12,325m.
    
• A brand new Motorized Mortar and Artillery Leveling System has been added (see the unit's manual for details)
  
• An updated HUD info window for motorized mortars and artillery has been added to give players specific details for those units
  
• Added country specific colored smoke rounds to artillery, US-Violet, DE-Blue/White, FR/UK-White
  
• The infantry MG42 unit has been added to the German spawn list
  
• Available starting Tier 2, with production ramping up by Tier 3.
  
• 4th quarter Credits update
  
• Capture timers have been updated for Campaign 191
  
• A number of unit images have been updated with Propa screenshots
  
• A few machine guns updated, including: game manual updates, weapon names, tracers and proper weights
  
• The Panhard, Stewart and Stugs have had their crew members (3D models) updated
  
• Wickenby is now Scampton
  
• River dams have been added to west of Sheffield, SE of Herdecke and east of Dortmund
  
• A few of the Spawn In Tips have been updated, more planned in the future
  
• The new towns of Aumetz, Blerancourt, Coucy-le-Chateau, Maartensdijk, Hilversum, Huizen, Muiden, Woudenberg, Ede, Elst, Zeist, Utrecht, Culemborg, Vianen and Bruinisse have been added to the game
  
• The visual range of some buildings has been extended
  
• Wazdown has been added to the Fallen Soldier Memorial
  
• Koln has been updated to named Koeln
  
• A number of bridge names have been updated to their historical names
  
• Some bush rows have been replaced with city planters in some towns
  

• Fixed an armor issue with the FlaK36 (88mm)
  
• The Lorraine Anti-Char's driver hatch armor has been fixed
  
• Some telephone poles and their wires have been replaced
  
• More textures have been updated in order to help with ATI GPU load times
  
• Destroyer gun sights have been fixed
  
• Forrest floors now slow vehicles more than before
  

Note: Some fixes may arrive at a later point to further enhance the experience.

S! Cornered Rat Software




Don't forget to subscribe and support the war effort! Each person here makes a big difference, so please do back the team up - thanks!

Connect to our Social Media to get more updates and help us gain visibility to grow the community and reach new players to play with:

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/wwiionline
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOQ90QTMviaKRqIMlUthW2A TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wwiionline Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/corneredrats Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WWIIOnline Twitter: https://twitter.com/corneredrats

Have a look at our current Roadmap, and see its progress on our TRELLO.


Wishlist our next game Chokepoint, a prelude to WWIIOnline 2.0!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1576780/WWII_Online_Chokepoint/

During this campaign the axis pushed from the start and steadily pushed the front line west. It took them 18 days to capture 3 French and 6 British factories and the towns they are in. With them crossing the channel we seen some hard-fought battles in England, something that doesn't happen often.

Campaign 191 has now started! Everyone has access to free Tier0 equipment (pre-1940), so join the war now!

[h3]The following gameplay changes occur for campaign 191:[/h3]
-Increase the route timer from 6 hours to 12 hours
-Decreased flag Capture timers:
1 capper: 240s -> 180s
2 cappers: 120s -> 90s
3 cappers: 90s -> 60s
4 cappers: 80s -> 50s
5 cappers: 70s -> 40s
6 cappers: 60s -> 30s



We are introducing the TOP FIGHTER competition for WWII Online. As we start Campaign 191 today, we're going to unlock Tier 0 fighters for everyone (including free players and veterans) and we have some special awards available for players (including two joysticks and a Track IR system). The theme of this Campaign is to get more fighters in the air and development of air squads. Bragging rights are on the line and game-wide recognition is included as part of these physical awards. We just completed Campaign 190 and would also like to congratulate the TOP BOMBERS (see within). Now is the time to get the pilots back in-game, who will make the TOP 3 ACES in WWII Online? Campaign 191 starts tonight, let's go! Continue reading to see the special awards the top 3 aces will receive for campaign 191's TOP FIGHTER"competition!

Check out the details on our website :
https://www.wwiionline.com/community-notes/community-events/16959-wwii-online-top-fighter-competition


Connect to our Social Media to get more updates and help us gain visibility to grow the community and reach new players to play with:

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/wwiionline
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOQ90QTMviaKRqIMlUthW2A TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wwiionline Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/corneredrats Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WWIIOnline Twitter: https://twitter.com/corneredrats

Have a look at our current Roadmap, and see its progress on our TRELLO.


Wishlist our next game Chokepoint, a prelude to WWIIOnline 2.0!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1576780/WWII_Online_Chokepoint/

From our President XOOM:
"IVC or Integrated Voice Communications is a game changer for WWII Online. We've talked about implementing this into the game for years, and for many, it's been a "that would be cool but probably won't happen" sort of thing, but I am here to tell you that it is and that we are in a more advanced testing phase where we are experiencing what kind of impact this is going to have for WWII Online. Continue reading to learn more about what IVC means and how it will radically improve the in-game experience for new and veteran players alike."


IVC stands for Integrated Voice Communications. Players will be able to simply load WWII Online with no external programs running in order to access voice chat and work with players in-game in real-time. Until now, this has just been a pipe dream of "what if."


Players will have access to a Mission Radio channel where they can communicate with anyone who is currently on their mission regardless if they are spawned in or at the mission briefing screen. This will not be distance-limited, so pilots for example can communicate with each other on the same mission all across the game world.

In addition to mission radio, every player will be able to speak to other players on their side when they are close to each other (within 25-40 meters) by using the local 3D positional proximity chat system. This means you don't have to be on the same mission to talk to someone next to you.

Each channel will have a certain key for you to use which will be something you can modify in your keymapper should you choose.

Of course, we will also have a way for you to disable IVC (though we don't advise it), and we will also allow you to mute other players you don't want to hear - and the Game Moderators will have a way to silence others who are causing disruptions. So no worries guys, we're aiming to keep things game-focused.


When you're in a city fighting you can call for support, call out enemy positions or just track where friendlies are. It massively enhances your situational awareness and immersion. And this is all done without the reliance on a third-party program, so we anticipate a larger number of players (new and veteran) to engage in voice comms.

What we know is that ever since the Roger Wilco days, and now throughout the TeamSpeak / Discord days, WWII Online is a dramatically better and more immersive experience once you get on voice. For some it has even meant the difference in whether or not they continue to play due to the game's large learning curve, it cuts through all of that and puts players into a more clear understanding of what they need to do and how those contributions matter to the overall war effort.


It takes only a little getting used to using the controls, but logging in and joining a mission, and starting to hear people talk is a huge improvement in the user interface from what has been a mostly lonely and uncertain experience for many (those not currently using Discord). We've asked questions like, "Hey I'm about to spawn in, what do you guys need?" Which is followed by the appropriate response. You can also just listen in briefly to see what's going on and figure out what the urgent priority(ies) might be and make your own choice.

Upon spawning in, you've got your typical gunfire and explosion SFX going on but now you can hear people talking around you - wait what!? That moment is surreal and mighty impressive, perhaps more impressive than the mission radio itself because again, with 3D Positional audio you can tell where it's coming from and gravitate towards that direction if you choose.

For Pilots, it's an incredible opportunity to talk to anyone who joins your mission and to have direct comms with them. This works to keep your six clear of bogeys and get more people on target while cutting out all of the other dependencies of relying on which Discord radio channel am I connected to. But the added benefit is, you can still use Discord for squad comms if you want (pilots or anyone)! Best of both worlds wrapped up into one.


Our quality assurance team is working aggressively to help the development team fine-tune the experience before it goes live, but the fact that we are in there testing and now with multiple clients simultaneously is very encouraging and we now have full validation that integrated voice communications will be a game changer in all of the positive ways we were hoping for upon drafting the concept. We are very much looking forward to a strong reception and believe it will be the next major evolution of WWII Online that works to retain new players better and foster better gameplay for all.

We will provide a work-in-progress demonstration video "Soon" (September) for how this all works.

We'd like to thank all of our subscribers for supporting WWII Online's continued development and helping to make things like this possible. We are 100% community supported and without you, we wouldn't be able to do this.


The Rats are hard at work
Salute!


PS: An unofficial video from "RedCoat" sharing his observations about the news. Timeline to implementation not yet announced but we will keep you posted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lliLDhGbPEk

From our president XOOM:

As you know, Playnet/CRS is actively working to modernize WWII Online and bring it to modern-day standards. In addition, we are continuously developing WWII Online 1.0 and providing new features and fixes routinely - with 11 releases shipped and an all-new game server giving the best ever European ping times over this last year. Then we have our WWII Online: Chokepoint project which is creating the basis of WWII Online 2.0 infantry and new content.

On our 20th anniversary, we made a commitment to reduce our price point in an effort to acquire more players for the game. We warned that this was a risk for us to do, but it was worth a shot. Unfortunately what we have seen is players jumping off of their higher-paying plans to the lower price point. We understand how this makes total sense from a consumer point of view, but it has now put us in the position to restore the prices as they were - which we said would be the case if required.

But this isn't all bad news. It is a special time for WWII Online and its history, where in real time a gaming community and dedicated development group is working to do something on a monumental scale - the porting of a 21-year-old MMO project onto a modern game engine. This is our primary mission, and Playnet/CRS requires funding to invest in talent, software, and resources and ensure that momentum carries forward.

At the outset of this migration to UE4 - which we've now decided to use Unreal Engine 5 because that makes sense and offers us the most bang for the buck - we said there were two major components that needed to be completed in order for us to ensure that this would be possible.

The first was to make sure we had an effective method of converting FLT (OpenFlight) assets which encompass all 3D assets in WWII Online - other than infantry. This has been completed.

The second was to create a pipeline whereby we could convert the game world to Unreal Engine 5. We have confirmed that this is possible and it is happening. We've successfully created an API to pull data points from our existing game and have created successful conversions to Unreal. Now we are working to do that on a mass scale, which is being done as we speak.

All of this combined represents what everyone in our community wants, forward progression, real innovation, and moving the game into the modern age graphically speaking. The game's design at its core has held up and we are blessed to have a community that has kept us going.

The increase in price comes out of necessity as mentioned before to ensure we keep this momentum rolling forward. We know that everyone's financial situation is different and a lot of thought has gone into this, we were hoping to see an increase in volume to make up the difference. I hope our goals of being transparent about this are well received and not our preferred choice - but it is the best for the game and the community's goals.

We know that when WWII Online is modernized it will be a massive game-changer (pun intended). At which time we will seriously reconsider this knowing that the number of people who will be there will hopefully be tens of thousands.

Effective now, WWII Online's premium rate has been reseted to $17.99/mo USD across all channels. All existing subscribers' billing information will be updated to that rate by 8/1/22 (Steam subscribers need to confirm this acceptance, follow the instructions received by email).
Every paying subscriber will however receive a WWII Online: Chokepoint key - as of September 7th, 2022. This means you will be eligible for playtesting and checking out everything going on. This will be mutually beneficial to ensure we have the maximum number of playtesters and that your premium status is recognized not only with full in-game features in WWII Online, but access to our new WIP project and eventually full premium access on Chokepoint as well. Existing folks who kept their subscription rate at $17.99 will continue to receive builder benefits until November 1st, 2022 in recognition of their effort.

That means the following plans will be available at that time:

• 2 Week Free Trial followed by perpetual (limited) Free to Play
  
• Premium: $17.99/mo
  
• Hero: $29.99/mo, $49.99/mo or $359.99/yr (Not available on Steam)
  

In closing I'd like to repeat something from our 20th anniversary: The future of WWII Online is in our hands. We're it. There's nothing else like this on the market, and we are the best equipped to make it happen because we have the proven infrastructure, willpower, and community support to do it. This is not our preferred option but it is the right call to make so we can continue forward. We remain committed to the WWII Online franchise and its development and we will continue at full speed to share with you the progress we are making on all fronts. Consider this as a Patreon funding initiative, because these subscriptions are the primary lifeline in achieving these goals.

Notable items in development now for WWII Online 1.0 includes:

• Mortar Carriers (81mm's on Half-tracks)
  
• Artillery/Howitzers (105mm)
  
• Integrated Voice Communications (approaching server test phase)
  
• Gliders
  

This is a special time with serious work underway. Your support remains ever critical and pertinent to not only keeping operations going but enabling real innovation that brings us into the future.

Thank you from all of us at Playnet / Cornered Rat Software.

Campaign 189 has started !

Here are some useful links to information on server settings and supply. We are always looking to keep our players updated on changes and make it easy to find the information to prevent any confusion.

These are the current server settings: SERVER SETTINGS FOR CAMPAIGN 189;
These are the current supply numbers: Current Supply Google Spreadsheet for viewing UPDATED 5/16/2022

If you have suggestions on any of these game subjects feel free to post in the forums. We are open to all ideas.

Good luck to both sides

S!