WWII Online News

High Command has turned in their deployments, and we have reduced supply levels by 1/2 of what Campaign 195 was (still double of pre-Steam launch). Spend this time to start rallying and prepare for a solid launch into the weekend. Stay tuned for new patch notes coming soon in the early stages of Campaign 196.

The following weapons will be unlocked for Free Players and returning veterans for the duration of Campaign 196:

• All Paratrooper classes
  
• All Naval Vessels
  
• Sniper Rifles
  
• 50mm Anti-Tank Guns: German: Pak38, British: 6PDR, U.S. and French: M1
  
• Light Bombers: German Stuka (Ju87b), French & British: Hurricane Mk II B, U.S.: P40-B
  

Rank restrictions have been removed, and all weapons are now available Friday July 14th - Sunday July 16th 2023 as we prepare for Operation Maelstrom. All you need to do is login to WWII Online and all of those weapons will be there for free, ready to go.

Make this a weekend to remember, take full advantage of the unlocks and have some great fun!





TEX64: Being a Community Management member for nearly two years has been a great honor for me. I have been able to strengthen existing friendships and been able to meet many more of our community in person (having beer and burgers with local players), online, and via Discord. I am stepping down from the Community Manager role but will continue to serve CRS in a different capacity behind the scenes. You will likely see me more in-game padding someone's stats while I fire artillery shells in the general direction of the enemy. I am pleased that a good friend of many years is following me and I hope that our community will support him in the weeks and months ahead. We have such a great community and when we pull together, we have shown that we can shock the world. Take care, tex.

BADGER: Thank you, Tex, some of you may know me, and other may not, I am Badger. I started with the community around 1999 when I worked with a website, and I did an article on the game. Soon after we became affiliated with Playnet. After that first meeting with the "RATS" I fell in love with their dream. One of the things that I fell in love with what the HC strategic aspect of the game that they told me about during our first meeting. They explained to me the leadership on a larger scale, and then their visions of how those above country leadership would work with their counterparts for the betterment of all players. When possible, I joined the HC at the country leadership level. I was promoted up the chain of command over a period of time and served as the Commander in Chief of my side for a while. After retiring from the HC my counterpart and I proposed the need for Community Management to the RATs and they accepted. We were paid a small amount of money that was split in two between the two of us. A bit later we were laid off, my counterpart decided to leave, and I stayed on. During this time period we created the Community Managers, the Gamer Managers (Gamer Moderators today), and a worked behind the scenes to create toolsets to help with these and other positions. A bit later I made a hard decision that I still regret, I had an offer in RL that I could not refuse and I took it. To this day I still second guess that decision.

After Xoom and CRS 2.0 was going for a bit, I worked with them as Assistant CM for a little while and then my spouse had some health issues that I was taken away once again. While it was the right decision at the time, I have always regretted having to make that decision. I have lots of real-life friends in this community and really do enjoy the game. So, a couple of weeks ago Xoom contacted me, and we discussed the game. My life is back to stable, and I see no issues in the future that will cause me to leave, so I accepted his offer to take on the role Community Manager again. I appreciate the chance to take on such an important role and I look forward to working with everyone in the community to make this game and community better for everyone.

I would like to Congratulate Tex64 for his new position joining the Business Team. He is a natural for that type of position. I have known him since I was battling him in the trenches in the early days of the war. Chimm has picked up a great man for his team and I know Tex will bring us a lot of new folks.

Appointment of New Allied Assistant Community Manager

I am proud to announce the appointment of PANDA1K to the role of Allied Assistant Community Manager. He has been playing the game since 2001 and has earned a pretty mean reputation in the air. When he joined this game, he was 14 years old, he came to it from Chain of Command (by 2AM) and Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator. When asked about his new role he said, “I will be working with BADGER to help fine-tune this already awesome community.” While he primarily plays air, he is not afraid to dabble in the ground and naval game.

We are currently interviewing candidates for the Axis Assistant Community Manager position and hope to make an announcement soon.

Greetings, valiant soldiers,

We're thrilled to report that our launch on Steam has been a resounding success, ushering in a wave of new recruits eager to join our ranks. The influx of fresh faces sporting green tags has surged fivefold daily compared to the early access stage. The online population has also seen a significant boost, making our battlefield more vibrant than ever. Over the past weekend, we were thrilled to witness intense battles over three distinct Areas of Operation (AOs) from both sides.

A heartfelt salute goes out to our seasoned veterans who have returned to the frontlines, providing invaluable training and guidance to our new players. Your commitment to fostering a supportive gaming community is what makes WWII Online truly special.

In response to the requests from our community, we're excited to announce the return of the STARTER account. Aimed at providing a more affordable subscription option, the STARTER account is back and better than ever, featuring updated benefits and features.

The STARTER subscription should now unlock access to these extra units (rank restrictions may apply):
https://store.steampowered.com/app/667290/World_War_II_Online__STARTER/

• INFANTRY
  
  • SMG (Premium supply)
    
  • Semi-Automatic Rifleman
    
  • LMG
    
  • Mortarman
    
  • Grenadier
    
  • AT Rifleman
    
  • Paratroopers
    
    
    
    • Airborne Light Machine Gunner (LMG)
      
    • Airborne Combat Engineer
      
    • Airborne Mortarman
      
    • Airborne Anti-Tank Rifleman (ATR)
      
    • Airborne RPAT (AT)
      
• Mechanized Anti-tank haulers
  
  • Lorraine 37L Anti-Char
    
  • SdKfz 251 Ausf. C APC
    
• Armored Scout Cars
  
  • SdKfz 232
    
  • Daimler Mk I
    
  • Panhard 178
    
• Medium Anti-tank guns
  [List]
  
• Pak38 (50 mm)
  
• SA mle 37 (47 mm)
  
• M1 (57 mm)
  
• QF 6 Pounder (57 mm)
  

Medium Anti-Aircraft guns
[List]
FlaK 38 (20 mm)

Medium Armor

• PZIIIH
  
• PZIVG
  
• Crusader Mk II
  
• Churchill Mk III
  
• Somua S-35
  
• M3A3 Stuart
  
• M4A2 Sherman
  
• M4A3 (76 mm) Sherman
  

Combat Fighters:

• Messerschmitt Bf 110C-4
  
• Hurricane Mk I
  
• Hurricane Mk IIb
  
• Spitfire Mk Ia
  
• Hawk 75
  
• Dewotine 520
  

Bomber Aircraft:

• Ju-87B(Stuka Dive Bomber)
  
• Blenheim Mk IF
  
• Blenheim Mk IV
  

Paratrooper transport Aircraft
Elligible to premium "surprise" units


You share the same early-war supplies as premium players. The complete experience of World War II Online will still require you to upgrade to a Premium Account, now on Discount!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/667291/WWII_Online__Premium_Pass/


See you on the battlefield!
ZEBBEEE



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 2023 Roadmap, and see its progress on our TRELLO.

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

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

The virtual battlefield of WWII Online is receiving a rather large set of reinforcements joining the frontlines, as new players are learning about the game for the first time and veteran players are returning. This is a fantastic opportunity for the entire community to rise up and enjoy the game as it should be and work to develop newer players.

The developers of WWII Online are continuing to provide supplemental updates to our existing game while simultaneously going all-in on Unreal Engine development to take the game into the future, and developing WWII Online: Chokepoint which acts as the basis of our future infantry development.

Since our inaugural Steam Early Access launch back in 2017, here's a few important items (though there've been plenty more) which have been accomplished:

• Bandwidth boosted: 10x
  
• Server Boosted: 4x Computing Power
  
• Built-in game voice added
  
• Proximity AOs (player-driven)
  
• Hybrid supply (Flags & Garrisons)
  
• 64-bit OS support
  
• Artillery w/Tracked Rounds
  
• Mortar Carriers w/Tracked Rounds
  
• Ju88 + Wellington Bombers
  
• Increased F2P access
  
• MG42 Added
  
• M1919 MG Added
  
• More RDP Facilities Added
  
• Playable map size increased
  
• Bomber loadouts added
  
• Enhanced visual effects
  
• Enhanced audio effects
  
• Replaced a ton of legacy artwork
  
• Over 200+ Bug Fixes
  

Very shortly you will start to see the NEW updated artwork which is being developed for WWII Online 2.0 (Unreal Engine) and 1.0 (current version this store page is dedicated to) demonstrating our trickle-down workflow. Here are a couple examples below:

• Download the game, login and play.
  
• Be helpful for your fellow community members and support them.
  
• Use in-game voice (V) key as much as you can.
  
• Get on Discord and get involved. Spread the word and recruit.
  
• Keep showing up to keep the population up.
  

Thanks, and we'll see you in the field!

Matt "XOOM" Callahan
Director & Executive Producer
Playnet, Inc. / Cornered Rat Software

From TEX, community manager:

Beginning on Friday, CRS is UNLOCKING all equipment for the entire weekend. Cash in on Father's Day Weekend and enjoy OPERATION DAD BOD!! Keep reading below for recent patch notes, Steam release date, upcoming operations and ALL-ACCESS weekends, and RatChat community info!

On May 31st, CRS deployed patch 1.37.3.0 which introduced:

• Fallen Rat Memorial added (Triumphal Arch in Brussels)
  
• Attack Objective (AO) numbers have been adjusted
  
• Modified loadout functionality updated for more flexible loadout options
  
• Ju-88 has third loadout option
  
• Frequency of capture times is checked more frequently
  
• Updated 3D crew members on multiple armor platforms
  
• Significant VFX updates for large rounds AP/HE impacts and explosions
  
• Significant SFX updates for armor and naval platform fires
  
• Updated Wellington engine audio
  

and many other things. Read the entire 1.37.3.0 read-me here!

[h2]Full Steam Ahead[/h2]
CRS is excited to announce that WWII Online is going "FULL RELEASE" on July 6th. This will be a GLOBAL launch so we anticipate a significant number of new and returning Steam users to join us on the Campaign Server.

This presents a tremendous opportunity for squads and the community. If your squad is interested in growing . . . this would be THE time to turn on the recruiting flag and work with new recruits. This is where in-game voice communication pays off big time!

Our community helpers need to be on the look-out to assist these new gamers on how to:

• navigate the "eclectic" user interface
  
• join a mission ("dot jay" anyone?)
  
• explain game mechanics
  
• which keymap button does what function
  
• how to access the keymapper and other menus
  

This is likely the largest opportunity over the next several years (prior to announcing an UE5-related test) for WWII Online to introduce a HUGE number of gamers to our beloved game. We all recognize that our game scales better than any other FPS out there and the more people playing the BETTER the game gets with more targets and teammates to accomplish the goal in attacking, defending, bombing, or fighter interception.


[h2]CRS is helping with this effort with:[/h2]

• Steam DLC package changes with easier financial thresholds for equipment access
  
• Steam Starter Subscription with greater value to experience more equipment as the campaign tiers progress
  
• 90-day no-cost incentive to ALL equipment whether air, land, or sea (includes ongoing access via tier progress as the campaign continues
  
• Returning Veterans (and free-to-play players) will see an increased weapon set during the 90-day period to encourage attendance.
  
• Server bandwidth is 10x greater than when we launched "Early Access"
  
• Server computing power is 4x greater than when we launched "Early Access"
  
• CRS is reviewing for additional preparations to ensure everyone has an enjoyable gaming experience
  

PRO TIP: As the population builds or spikes to high levels and attack objectives increase, it is CRITICAL to be aware that the player base should be spread across the entire server on other attack objectives versus the full population of hundreds of gamers massing within close proximity of a single objective This overload or density of gamers within visual limits of each individual gamer can cause lag issues, etc so be aware.

[h2]Rat Chat Info[/h2]
On June 11th, CRS hosted a "RatChat" and a number of community members attended in real-time. You can review it here!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


[h2]2023 Fundraiser Synopsis[/h2]

• You did it!! We reached 119% of our goal. Well done, community members!
  
• If you contributed to our fundraiser, CRS is in the process of reaching out to you individually. Please submit a support ticket if you do not hear from us in the coming weeks. Thank you again to all who contributed!
  

[h2]CALENDAR REMINDERS: FUTURE OPERATIONS[/h2]
DATE TIME OPERATION
06/18/2023 11am PST / GMT+8 Op Dad Bod
07/02/2023 11am PST / GMT+8 Op Avalanche
07/06/2023 11am PST / GMT+8 Steam Launch
07/16/2023 11am PST / GMT+8 Op Maelstrom
07/30/2023 11am PST / GMT+8 Op Thunderstrike
08/13/2023 11am PST / GMT+8 Op Hurricane


[h2]ALL-ACCESS WEEKEND COMBINES WITH OPERATION DAD BOD[/h2]
ALL-ACCESS Weekend which means it starts on FRIDAY!! Register HERE! in #EVENTS channel for OPERATION: Dad Bod on 18 June at 12pm Server Time / GMT+8.



Poster Art Courtesy of Propa, the Maestro of Propaganda!