Development Notes

It's the most, wonderful time of the year... for WWII Online fans! Congrats, you've made it to the 2021 roadmap release! We've got an exciting development plan for 2021 and we have lots of screenshots and a video to share with you today. New vehicles, new aircraft, new game - very important - game features all inbound to help celebrate 20 years of World War II Online (Anniversary is June 6th 2021). Please enjoy this read and be sure to share it with your squaddies, there's never been a more important and exciting time to support WWII Online's development!

2019-2020 ROADMAP DELIVERY OVERVIEW

Every year we like to reflect on the accomplishments made possible by our paid subscribers who help keep WWII Online operational and development vibrant. Of course we'd like to send our SALUTE to all team members of Cornered Rat Software who have spent thousands of combined man hours to help produce so many bug fixes and new features roll into the game.

ROADMAP ITEMS COMPLETED

• 64-bit game applications for PC and Mac
• 1.36 Hybrid Supply (Garrisons & Brigades)
• New Subscription Products
• Server Tracked Bombs
• Pop-up key mapper card (hotkey = P)
• Heads Up Display (HUD) markers for mission leaders
• Three Early Truck War Truck SPAA's
• All urban blocks were reactivated and received updated artwork
• Terrain was expanded and many bug fixes occurred
• Sturmgewehr 44 released
• United States Army Air Forces released
• US P40F added to the game
• US P39N-5 added to the game
• Me-109 G2 Jabo added to the game

NOTABLE ADDITIONS ADDED TO THE GAME

• Builders received the Commando class
• A-20C and AN-M57 bomb added to the USAAF
• US GMC CCKW 2.5 Tonner (Deuce and a Half)
• Several new environmental props
• A huge amount of new textures added to the game
• Trawler's added to the navy - first new naval units added in almost 15 years
• Trench Player Placed Objects
• Panzer IV H
• Russian language made available
• New Airfield design at places like Brussels and more
• And a whole bunch more on the Wiki Readme Notes!

2020 ACHIEVEMENT OVERVIEW

• 12 game releases shipped
• 59 bug fixes delivered
• 54 game updates delivered
• 32 new pieces of content delivered
• Total Deliveries: 157

NEW 2021 ROADMAP ITEMS

And now let's take a look at what's coming during the year of 2021!

BOMBER LOADOUTS ARE COMING SOON

What this means is that players will be able to determine what type of bombs they'd like to carry when they spawn in / go for their sortie. This does not affect routine supply availability, each load out is just considered as one plane available in supply. Please review the user interface functionality and the actual load outs we have planned for these specific bombers, it's a little different from when we last showed you and should be easier (a check mark instead of a manual typing of a numbered load out).

JU88-A4 STATUS UPDATE

Let's just take a moment to say - sorry for the delay here - this has been an extraordinarily complicated model, but it's almost there and has received consistent treatment. We've also assembled a quick demo / review of the positions available on the aircraft and are proving to you that it is now flying in-game, something I think you'll be happy to see. HATCH is working on fine tuning the aircraft's flight model right now. The Ju88-A4 will be the German's counterpart to the A-20/Boston/Db7 variant and will come out alongside the Wellington when it's ready to maintain balance.

WELLINGTON UNDER DEVELOPMENT

The Wellington is officially in development and BMBM is modeling it as fast as he can. This Wellington Bomber is the counterpart of the German Heinkel 111 and provides a greater payload for the duration of the war for Allied forces (made to be available for all Allied countries), and will be coming out alongside the Ju88-A4 to maintain balance.

SDKFZ 251-10 AUSF B

Yes - you guessed it right! It's a 251 with a Pak36 mounted and an MG34 covering its rear. Of course this vehicle will be multicrew-able as all vehicles with more than a single position are in WWII Online. We're excited to see how the Germans plan to employ this.

LORRAINE 37L ANTI-CHAR

Here's a Lorraine 37L Anti-Char is armed with the 47mm SA 37 Gun. Has a speed of 35 km/h (on the road) and comes with AP and HE munitions. Does anyone else feel sorry for that driver all cooped in there like that?

And sticking on with the Lorraine, here's the Armored Personnel Carrier variant coming with them.

PANZERJÄGER 1

A new Tier 0 Panzer coming to the Axis Forces! This vital piece of machinery is capable of penetrating the armor ANY Tier 0 Allied tank, yes you read that right - it can even kill a Matilda. It's armed with a 47mm Skoda VZ 36 L43 Gun. While the rear is exposed it has good protection from the front and sides. It also rides very low which means it can be hidden. You can drive at 40 km/h while on the road and the commander can pop up and down as seen in this screen shot to keep him well protected.

US M3 HALFTRACK - APC

Coming to the US Forces is the M3 Halftrack! This iconic beast will be the Armored Personnel Carrier US forces and has a gorgeous .50 caliber mounted on it - keep your heads down! 

US/FR ANTI-TANK VERSIONS

Here we have some beastly tank killers coming later in the war for the US and French forces. Of course these are variants of the US M3 Halftrack's we're familiar with.

UNIVERSAL CARRIER

We've shown you the Universal Carrier before and it's coming along very nicely. Pictured here you see the U.C. with the Bren Gun mounted in the front hull and the turret is a Vickers MG. Light, nimble and capable of towing they'll definitely be a force multiplier on the battlefield.

INTEGRATED VOICE COMMUNICATIONS (IVC)

We haven't forgot about IVC and development has been picked back up, however we have an important change from our original plan to help simplify the roll out and communication for players. Remember that this design plan is intended to create maximum inclusivity between the fresh new player and the day 1 veteran, and of course it is intended to enhance situational awareness.

While Discord has been a great solution (which we'll continue to keep operational) having voice communications built into the game with no other dependencies will be extremely valuable to getting folks to work together. And before you ask, we certainly will have a way for you to be able to mute users and for our moderators to handle any problems as they arise.

MISSION RADIO (MR)

All mission participants will have a radio channel that they'll have access to. This is not distant limited which will be valuable for pilots, sailors, and long range ground force needs. Mission Radio channel will be restricted to mission participants only, so your squad affiliation will not matter. 

LOCAL/PROXIMITY 3D POSITIONAL AUDIO CHAT

In other words regardless of who is on your mission, when you run by someone in the game world you'll be able to talk to them and know what direction they are. This will be vital for tactical communications and help increase situational awareness. Imagine running up to a friendly tank and helping to tell him where an enemy vehicle might be, or imagine your mission leader rallying troops to prepare for an assault on a spawn depot.

CRS has wanted to see integrated voice comms come into game for many years now and we're getting closer!

32-BIT DISCONTINUATION

With the implementation of the Integrated Voice Comms plan, we need to prepare for the discontinuation of the 32-bit client because it won't be compatible. The effective date of the 32-bit discontinuation will be April 1st, 2021. This does not directly mean that IVC will be publicly available at that point but it's a firm cut off date that we need to inform you of. 

Since the implementation of our 64-bit client we have made several fixes and enhanced its performance. But do know, if you are on a lower end computer you should consider upgrading your rig's components. 

Upgrade Recommendations:

• CPU: WWII Online is a CPU (single core) heavy driven game, and works best with Intel rather than AMD. Get an Intel i7+ with maximum Ghz per core (3.5-4.0 or overclocked).
• RAM: At least 16GB, the higher the Mhz count in that RAM the more boost you can get from it.
• GPU: Get an Nvidia card over a Radeon, Nvidia has better OpenGL support which is what WWII Online runs off of, and players who have Nvidia experience better frames per second and in general it's smoother.
• SSD: A solid state drive as compared to a mechanical hard drive will boost all of your application and operating system load times.
• Internet Connection: Connected to ethernet cable (not WiFi) ensures solid connectivity. We recommend at least 10mbps up and down, go to http://speedtest.net to verify your connection speed and consider upgrading if you need to with your provider.

All of these things help you to experience WWII Online with better performance and less buggy-ness. For any guidance or request for assistance in upgrading your machine, you can always head over to the main forums for our community to weigh in on it, or you can contact our support team and we'll help you directly.

MISSION TARGET CHANGE

Players have asked for the ability to change a Mission's Target for some time now. The premise is that a player that created a mission has taken off from an AF after creating a mission to a town where an attack was happening but within the time that they make it to Target, that Target has either went away or a higher priority Target has come up. Moving to this new Target, while still on the same mission, doesn't allow those players to see the Target chat or map markings for the new Target.

We are working to provide a solution for the Mission Leader to be able to select a new target during the mission so as to avoid participants having to despawn and generate a new mission.

HUD ELEMENTS OPACITY

We're bringing the ability to update several Heads Up Display elements like the mini-map and chat so you can change its opacity (transparency). This sort of customization will help you create a HUD that better suits your style of game play and can potentially review more on your screen without the loss of essential information that these HUD elements provide.

INTERACTIVE ROADMAP PROGRESS (TRELLO)

In an effort to keep your more in the loop of progress being made, which we believe is important as shown by our routine Friday developer updates, we're going a little further this time to include a work flow progress inside of WWII Online's Public Trello (2021 Roadmap).

As tasks progress we'll move them forward, and if you click on the card (task names) themselves you'll see commentary we add to it as we go along. We reserve the right to make any changes at any time, including adding or removing tasks listed.

Note: Some tasks may bounce back and forth from Testing --> In Progress based on actual developments. 

Workflow key:

• New: Task is assigned and standing by for development.
• In Progress: Task is being actively worked on.
• Testing: Task is approaching / has entered the testing cycle(s).
• Verification: Task is confirmed as completed.
• Pending Deployment: Standing by for public release.
• Completed: Players have downloaded the update which includes this (release candidate phase).

WWII ONLINE'S 20TH ANNIVERSARY

This year is a very exciting one, a massive milestone to say the least for our community and development team. CHIMM and TMAN are working closely together to make sure we have a very special anniversary of June 6th and you should keep an eye out for events and special announcements.

We'd like to thank you for your tremendous support in making this possible, because without you here and staying subscribed, we simply couldn't have made it. Let's also take some time to acknowledge all of our veteran players and staff members throughout the years who have also made this astounding achievement possible.

Cornered Rat Software remains committed to the betterment and future growth of WWII Online. Many things are being worked on still behind the scenes that are not listed here, which we'll share with you as the year progresses and these tasks mature. 

We hope to see those veteran players show back up and continue to support us, so do your part in spreading this message and encouraging them to rejoin your squad. This will help populate the game and provide the development team with essential resources so as to continue the vibrant, and expanding development that CRS has demonstrated over many years now.

SUBSCRIBE TO SUPPORT GAME DEVELOPMENT

WWII Online is 100% fueled by player support. Please consider subscribing to help us accelerate game development and continue to produce great features and content like this. Go to http://account.wwiionline.com and upgrade your account now.

ALREADY SUBSCRIBED? Become a Hero Builder!

By becoming a Hero Builder ($29.99/mo) you'll gain access to several recognition features and receive special in-game player content. Head to the account pages and upgrade your account, and click the below picture to learn more about the Hero Builder program. Thanks for your support!

The new Commando Class is now available in WWII Online (Details about the Commando Here)!