All Quiet in the Trenches News

For our upcoming Gas Update, we plan to extend the game time by another in-game year. This also means that you will experience another year with the soldiers through your diary entries – for better or for worse. A total of over 40 new diary entries are planned for the Gas Update.

Personal stories of the soldiers

Each soldier in your squad already has stories tailored specifically to them and their character development. We have added more stories for all soldiers, which primarily deal with personal topics related to that soldier, their background and motives.

Stories about the gas war

In addition, there are stories that deal specifically with the gas war and its consequences. They are intended to show how the gas war was experienced from the personal perspective of an individual soldier, how its effects were felt and what difficult decisions this new form of warfare entailed.

Historical stories

More historical stories are planned to be included that shall establish a connection to specific events of the time as experienced by soldiers on the front lines and place the soldiers' own experiences in a historical context.

Various other topics

Additional stories on a wide variety of topics are planned to be added to the game. These are stories that deal with the personalities, moods or other attributes of the soldiers, or that focus on specific unusual game situations.

A current screenshot of our ticket system.

Hello everyone,

We are excited to officially announce that the next major update for All Quiet in the Trenches will be the Gas Update (Version 0.9) and will be released on 19 May 2025!

Version 0.9 will be our biggest update yet. It extends the game to early 1917 and brings new features, content and improvements to the game. We plan to release 2-3 more Dev Diaries before the release date.

There will also be an Open Beta available to everyone in a Steam beta branch roughly one week before the official release. Please note:

• Not all game content may be included in the beta
  
• No official patch notes will be published for the beta
  
• We cannot guarantee that save files from the beta will work in the release version
  
• Feedback and bug reports in Discord, on Steam or via email are very important to us and expressly welcome, but depending on the number of reports, we may not be able to respond to everyone
  

Thank you very much for your support!

All Quiet in the Trenches is set in a (fictional) secondary theatre of war on the Western Front. Many soldiers stationed away from the main front lines probably did not come into direct contact with poison gas very often. Nevertheless, poison gas is one of the most well-known and devastating weapons of the First World War. That's why it was clear to us from the very beginning that we wanted to incorporate this topic into the game.

Poison Gas in the Diary

With less than one percent of all World War I deaths, poison gas is considered an ineffective weapon in retrospect, but its cruelty and the effects it had on soldiers give it its terrible reputation.

We have written several new journal entries on this topic, which deal with various aspects of gas warfare. We plan to have 6-8 stories by the time of release of the next update, but due to our dynamic storytelling, it is of course possible that you will not experience all of them in one playthrough.



Gas Masks

We designed the gas masks in the game based on the German ‘GM15’ rubber mask and the French ‘M2’ mask. Both variants have been given their own storage locations: A carrying bag for French soldiers and the ‘Bereitschaftsbüchse’ ('emergency box') for German soldiers.



Gas Attacks in the Trenches

During the trench phase, occasional gas attacks may now occur. The main consequences are increased exhaustion and mental stress for the soldiers.

The use and duration of a gas attack depend on the wind. Gas can affect life in the trenches for several days, but it is ineffective in strong winds. The wind, in turn, depends on the weather. So heavy rain now has its good sides too.



Chlorine Gas on the Battlefield

Some new levels have been designed in which chlorine gas is used. Soldiers who are near poison gas clouds automatically put on their gas masks.

The gas clouds behave similarly to artillery smoke or smoke grenades. However, gas adds additional penalties to the visibility impairment: reduced stamina and lower soldier effectiveness.



Stamina Adjustments

As part of this, we have made minor changes to stamina, which is reflected in the game via the ‘Out of Breath’ attribute. In addition to balancing changes, we have introduced a mechanic where soldiers who are not given a break on the battlefield will eventually become unable to carry out orders.

In the last two Dev Diaries, we talked about the limited visibility caused by artillery smoke and smoke grenades. This will be supplemented by fog as a natural challenge that will be added with the gas update and which we will tell you about today.

Occurrences of Fog

Fog will occur as an additional weather effect in the game and will influence both the battle and the trench phases. While fog cannot occur in hot or sunny weather, there is a certain probability of it occurring in moderate or rainy weather, as well as in cold snaps (in order of increasing probability).



Effects of Fog in Battle

During a battle, fog drastically reduces visual range to about half of the normal distance. This makes movement through no-man's land less dangerous, as generally there are fewer enemy troops in sight.

However, careless movements can also be extremely risky, as you can now move into close combat or grenade range of one or more enemy troops that were previously out of your sight.

Fog in the Trenches

In the trench phase, fog reduces the danger of all tasks and also affects other circumstances: while enemy snipers, for example, can no longer carry out their tasks, which further lowers the danger level, the probability of an enemy attack increases.

Unknown Factors

There will be another change in battle: if a movement poses dangers from enemy troops that were not previously visible, this information will be hidden. This also applies to tactical attributes such as flanking or close combat. It does not matter whether visibility is restricted by terrain, fog, smoke or other factors.



This is supposed to make movements through fog or smoke more interesting and encourage cautious, short movements. Positions that can be seen by many enemy troops are generally more dangerous, but also give the player more information about the battlefield. The aim is to create a new strategic weighing of safety and information gain. NPC troops are subject to the same restrictions.

Graphical and Technical Improvements

As part of the integration of the fog effect, further adjustments were made:

The shader has been modified in such a way that the graphical outlines are now also influenced by the fog, which previously caused unwanted artifacts in the distance, especially at low resolutions.

Both screenshots in low resolution without anti-aliasing

The transitions to the skybox, especially in hot and sunny weather, have been optimized, which overall leads to a more beautiful appearance in the depths. This has also prompted us to tilt the camera up a little during the battle so that it can now see further into the distance.

The last dev diary was about the effects of artillery fire and the resulting smoke as a tactical challenge in the upcoming Gas Update 0.9. Now we can present another way in which obscuring visibility can affect gameplay: smoke grenades

Smoke Grenades in the First World War

On the German side, production of the Nebelbombe Typ N (literal translation: ‘Fog Bomb Type N’) did not begin until 1917, while the French had used smoke grenades before then, but in the form of hand grenades for infantry they were quite rare. Due to the similarity in development to gas and smoke and the tactical component in the game, we still wanted to introduce them with this update. Up until 1917, they can only be found occasionally on the battlefield or on French soldiers.

Use of Smoke Grenades

Soldiers can actively throw smoke grenades during an advance or retreat. When doing so, they try to place the grenades with the aim of obscuring the largest possible fields of vision. Smoke grenades produce a grayish-white smoke and are similar in effect to the smoke from artillery strikes. The emitted smoke disappears after two turns.

Kohn places the smoke grenade as a barrier to the French troop

Equipment Changes

With the introduction of smoke grenades, we have also adjusted our general equipment system. Previously, ammunition, bandages and hand grenades were set to a fixed value at the start of a battle. With the upcoming update, equipment that is won will be retained throughout the entire game and the troop will receive additional equipment from Feldintendant Hennek at the end of each camp phase. The amount can depend on various factors, such as the supply situation or your standing with your superiors.

... or if you hoard far too much ammunition ...