Friday Update: August 7th, 2015

It has been a busy week here at Rat HQ. Campaign 115 has ended in an Axis victory (congrats) after a 47 day slugfest, and the new Campaign will begin on Monday. On the development front, BETA for 1.34.11 is almost underway, Deuce and a Half update and a Mas40 update. I will also be talking about recent server interruptions, why they are happening and what we are doing to prevent it. And finally, RDP bombing is going to mean something for Campaign 116.

RECENT SERVER INTERRUPTIONS

We've been experience a higher than normal rate of server interruptions lately. The best way I can describe why that is (and simply), would be to say when we go about changing things, other things have the potential to break. Now, before we assume that's a doom and gloom statement, I will go further and say, this should be recognition that we are indeed developing behind the scenes.

This is the first time our new team has brought up a new game cluster all on their own, so of course trying to get the permissions and settings right is going to take a little bit of growing pain, because this is completely uncharted for them. For what it's worth, they've done a pretty damn good job and have invested a lot of time into being careful, AND quickly resolving the problems as they come about.

Thanks to those of you who have helped us quickly find these issues. We are documenting all bugs and corrections. We have also instituted new logging systems to help us better track, see and prevent problems more efficiently.

RDP BOMBING & FACTORY REBUILD TIMERS

Some time ago when strategic bombing took place on RDP facilities (say by the Dambusters for example), it meant something. The whole game felt the consequences of not covering your factories, AND it brought a boat load of realism for everyone. Right now our factory rebuild timer settings is about 9 hours. Campaign 116 will see an increase in those rebuild timers by +9 hours (or twice the amount), for a total of 18 hours.

With an increased supply list over the last few campaigns, we feel it's time to bring this back because an entire part of our player base are dedicated to this.

NO MANS LAND AO WITH ONLY 1 AO AVAILABLE

So right now when you're in-game and only have 1 AO, you can only attack "hard-caps," which basically means the opposing side MUST have a brigade (flag) inside of it. This has done a lot of good for time zone 3 in preventing overnight massive game play changes that were entirely hurting the game.

However, we have seen with certainty that this is not a bullet proof solution, and we must do more. Upon the release of 1.34.11 (our current top priority) I will have the team work towards having a 1 AO, no mans-land capable AO. This means that if your opposition is one town off the frontline, but is linked to the town which they own (with no flag in it), you will be able to issue an Attack Order onto it.

This is acceptable because it allows for combat between players on the ground to take place. Even if no brigade is in the town, defenders can spawn if they own the FB link and there is an attack order on the town.

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT PROGRESS

There are several other items in the development pipeline beyond what you see below, as announced in our WWII Online Development Roadmap (here).

Deuce and a Half: This vehicle is in its very early stages of being modeled, but we wanted to get you something quickly to show this is happening. Thanks to our vehicle artist, OSALLIVAN!

French Semi-Automatic Rifle (Mas40): The Mas40 is currently being rigged (as seen below) and animations are being worked on. This rig and animations are completely fresh, a big thanks to DRAGONAV for his great work!

YOU, can help all of these initiatives move faster and provide us with the fuel to do more by becoming a HERO BUILDER. It has never been a better time to HERO UP and back CRS.

As a hero you will receive a free towing account, recognition in-game, closed BETA testing access and a forum for one on one chat with Developers. Are you ready to help make this game better?

JOIN THE RANKS OF HERO BUILDER NOW - CLICK HERE.