As this year comes to a close, we wanted to take this opportunity to look at many accomplishments and achievements around here. It goes without saying that the WWII Online community’s continued participation in playing, subscribing, and advocating this game to others is essential in enabling our continuation and growth. To that end, we thank you sincerely, for providing the RATS this opportunity. Please continue reading and share your commentary within. S!
ARTILLERY
Since the beginning, the community has been asking for artillery and it’s come in swinging providing a whole new dimension to the game. These weapons can be used to lob shells over 10km using server-tracked rounds. It’s an amazing thing to see them being used in-game and the cross-coordination has provided a whole new element to teamwork. We actually have new special effects (visual and sound) on the plan for future implementation which will make these howitzers even more awesome.
INTEGRATED VOICE COMMS
WWII Online has seen the use of Roger Wilco, Teamspeak 1 / 2 / 3, and now Discord for the last few years, and finally, we have brought voice comms directly into the game. This has created a very powerful experience with players being able to talk locally with any friendly combatant, and using long-range radios to ensure communication can exist for the Air, Land, and Sea.
We had a goal of getting this out before Christmas and we made it happen. Our team is presently ironing this out so it performs even better, and is a bit more stable (server-side) and we’re going to be expanding some channel availability which will include a private High Command channel and a Target channel.
Target channel will open the door for cross-communication in combined arms situations providing everyone has the same target selected on their mission, just like our current target (text) chat works. This was highly requested and will become the new “DEFAULT” voice channel in the near future.
MORTAR CARRIERS
We introduced four new 81mm motorized mortars to WWII Online enabling rapidly deployable indirect fire capabilities. During this time we were testing and sorting out the implementation of the artillery in a more controlled environment and leveraging some existing assets. The British Universal Carrier we had before was a Mk II but the mortar carrier was actually a Mk I variant, so it required an entirely new model from the chasse up. The M3 Halftrack version for the US/French forces also required extensive renewal work inside the model as well. The German Halftrack was probably the most straightforward model only requiring minimal renovation inside to make it fit its historical presentation.
- British - 3in Universal Carrier
- American/French - 81mm Halftrack
- German - 81mm Halftrack
FREE PLAY ACCESS EXPANDED
Free Play access was expanded to include base-level fighter access (BF-109E/1, Hawk 75, Hurricane Mk 1 and all-new P-40B) to help grow and develop the air community more.
A NEW DAWN FOR PARATROOPERS
We developed one of the biggest expansions to the Paratrooper set since the original release of paratroopers many years ago which included:
- Parachute turn rate/speed increased for greater maneuverability
- New Paratrooper canisters: Long range ammo canisters to resupply ground forces for Para NCOs
- New Para NCO: SMG w/deployable ammo canister (Hero Builders Only)
- New Para Combat Engineer: HE (x4) + Repair Kits (x2), able to be re-armed 50% by ammo cans in field
- New Para RPATs: Bazooka, PIAT and Panzerschrek
NEW MACHINE GUNS ADDED
The long-awaited M1919A6 was added to the US kit, and the MG42 was also developed and added as an infantryman and as a later-tier Sd. Kfz 251 halftrack variant.
VISUAL DISTANCE / RENDERING UPDATES
Infantry visibility was increased to 1,000m and trees were extended to about 4.5km. This is good information to have for better detection of these objects making the experience more true and realistic.
JU88 ADDED
Finally, the long-awaited German Ju-88 was added to WWII Online. This was our first ground-up aircraft that CRS 2.0 has done and let’s just say we picked a really complicated model. For those of you waiting on the Wellington, please note that it is in development still and we’re hoping to get it out there in the beginning of 2023, so it will make the roadmap and we haven’t stopped working on it fyi.
Upon the roll-out of the Wellington, we will be including new load-out options for the Ju-88 (and the Wellington).
40 NEW TOWNS ADDED
Our terrain producer TR6AL is an absolute machine. The work involved with developing new towns and ensuring all links are working is no short of a huge task. In the continued pursuit of expanding the playable area of WWII Online, 40 new towns added is a big deal. Further, the expansion up north into the Holland area represents an opportunity for us to remove the Zealand “cut” and preserve naval gameplay. The bay area up north could become quite the sea battle at some point and we look forward to seeing its continued development.
The new towns of: Aumetz, Blerancourt, Coucy-le-Chateau, Maartensdijk, Hilversum, Huizen, Muiden, Woudenberg, Ede, Elst, Zeist, Utrecht, Culemborg, Vianen, Bruinisse, De-Cochsdorp, Scheveningen, Ijmuiden, Herdecke, Castrop-Rauxel, Herne, Zwolle, Hoogeveen, Meppel, Eursinge, Arnhem, Renkum, Franeker, Harlingen, Woerden, Amsterdam East, Amsterdam West, Mijdrecht, Leiden, Alphen Aan Den Rijn, Haarlem, Aalsmeer, Hillegom, Dortmund, and Limburg have been added to the game.
OPERATION FURY & PLUNDER
Our Community Management and HC teams have been working closely to bring a larger-scale game play experience for everyone through newly founded, "Operations." We have seen a very large and positive impact from these OPS and intend to continue them with supplemental unlocks for users to incentivize attendance and show what else could be accessed along the way.
Here's one of our population graphs showing routine population and how these have a sizable bump.
GAMEPLAY MECHANICS
Garrison supply has been reduced to about 50% strength of an infantry brigade now, making moveable units a bit more powerful. This was done because we're a bit more comfortable that High Command has sufficient staffing to manage these. The strategic element of WWII Online is important to preserve and expand on and this is a big step in that direction. We'd like to give OHM and TMAN big kudos on their continued efforts to make campaign changes transparent and take in community feedback to help guide them. In this regard, it's the best it has ever been.
Additionally, capture timers were reduced slightly and that resulted in more participation in terms of captures and overall sorties. Both of these are healthy as we want to keep WWII Online moving and not get stagnant. Here are some details on the differences between Campaign 190 and 191 in terms of captures and the average number of sorties.
CONCLUSION
2022 was a magnificent year of development success and we got a lot of our long-awaited deliveries out there. It has also demonstrated that CRS 2.0 has increased its knowledge and capabilities with the code base, and our team overall has grown quite a bit. A massive congratulations to all of our staff and contributors who have worked so tirelessly - and relentlessly - to pursue a better future for WWII Online. For full details on what was added (features and fixes) to WWII Online, please check out our wiki page here: Wiki.wwiionline.com and Wiki.wwiionline.com
The CRS leadership team is currently ironing out details on the 2023 roadmap and things are shaping up there. Once we have everything worked out we will of course articulate what that plan is for you all, and we think you’re going to like it.
I can tell you it will be quite a bit different than what you’re used to with an emphasis on future development. We will have some work-in-progress items to share with you and give you a solid briefing on what to expect for the year.
To all of you who are subscribed, I want to send my personal thank you. Probably the most difficult (and undesirable - but necessary) decision we had to make this year was to roll back our price point. I want to encourage you by saying those of you who have remained and returned to your subscriptions you’ve made it possible for innovation to once again start taking place. You will see the fruit of that labor articulated in the 2023 roadmap and have a more clear understanding of what CRS is doing to take it further.
From all of us at Playnet / Cornered Rat Software, we hope you had a great holiday with your family and wish you a very Happy New Year. The team at CRS is primarily comprised of those who were players first and share the same passion you do for our future. During this re-charge, we’re prepping to do some pretty significant things and your patience and support will be paramount. You’ll stay looped in the whole time. Be sure to take this time to get folks off the sidelines and back into the fight where we the game needs them.
If you are looking to do more for the game, please consider joining the Hero Builder ranks at Wwiionline.com and get special access to exclusive in-game weapons and recognition.
S!
Matt “XOOM” Callahan Director | Executive Producer Playnet, Inc. / CRS
