WW2OL receives a graphics update

[Zakhal]

New trees and foliage:





http://lindir.playnet.com/~lindir/nmcp/unity2/5.jpg (big picture)

Divx-video of the foliage, its pretty impressive (leaves move realisticly in the wind): http://www.mirror.wwiionline.com/images ... _trees.avi (15 megs)

New visible damage model:

http://lindir.playnet.com/~lindir/nmcp/unity2/3.jpg (big picture)

This is just a small sample what is coming in 1.3. Completely new foliage and visual damage model. And the update continues in 1.4 with enhanced water, grass and other stuff. The release time between each patch is only few months, the speed is just amazing.

Recently ww2ol was praised in PC MAGAZINE for its updates:

PC MAGAZINE APPLAUDS WWII ONLINE DEVELOPMENT
In the March 2nd issue of industry leader "PC Magazine", Peter Suciu features WWII Online in his regular 'After Hours' section. This issue's column titled, 'Online Games Revisited' lavished praise on your favorite MMOG for the constant upgrades and updates to the game. Salute Peter!

"World War II Online probably has the steadiest new content of any online game."

New models for high command officers: (notice the authentic nose for french generals)



=====================
World War Two Online
=====================
Version 1.13 (Beta)

Vehicles:
Added Visible Damage for ground vehicles. This consists of detached road wheels and tracks, engine covers, doors, and turrets that blow off when the ammo is cooked off.

This is the current list of ground vehicles with Visual Damage:

-R35
-A13
-A15 (crusader2)
-H39
-S35
-Sdkfz232
-Sdkfz251c
-Sdkfz7
-Opel Blitz
-PZIIC
-PzIIIf
-PzIIIh
-Daimler Mk1
-Panhard 178
-Vickers MkIV
-Bedford
-Morris
-Laffly
-Laffly W15TCC

-Raised the volume of 3rd person sounds in aircraft with canopy closed
-Moved ammo from turret in PZIIIF and PZIIIH to match historical documentation
-Adjusted the reverse gear on the Laffly W15
-Fixed a bug with the Sdkfz251c where you couldn't set it on fire

Infantry:
-Fixed a bug with satchel placement
-Fixed a bug with LMG deploy

Terrain:
-Adjusted AI flak to help FPS performance around heavy flak
-LODs adjusted on some trees (still under dev)
-Added code support for the builder’s statue
-Implemented point source lighting on trees

Foliage:
-Replaced all tree lines with new 3d trees
-Replaced several single foliage objects with new trees
-Added berms to several large tree line objects
-Added new clutter
-Added wind sway to foliage

Global:
-Added automated RDP cycle, cycle will now go live automatically when country reaches 100%
-Added .hc
HCStaff: ".hc" sends them the HC roster
HCStaff: ".hc my message" sends "my message" on HC channel
Player: ".hc" sends them the HC roster too
-Added initial hooks for .friends

New maps in works:


WW2Ol strategic command?:

http://www.rickb.com/pics/cool1.jpg

[Tactics]

WWIIOL is still far from a “must buy”. Aside from the visual damage the majority of the changes mentioned are still months away. The visual damage is just that, visual. It does nothing to address the more serious shortcomings of the games mechanics.

The flight model is still hugely flawed, despite CRS’s willingness to admit it. The damage model for infantry and vehicles is still sorely lacking and the hastily created RDP system intended to represent research and production is a farse.

The player run high commands are still very limited in what they can effect; and with deployment still 6 months out, things wont be changing anytime “soon”.

The trees are better, I’ll admit that. But it took what, 3 years to get them? I guess it will be nice to see the bark. There is still the issue of 64 player limit, which is huge considering the best battles have 100+ ppl. If I cant see the enemy or half my teammates, Im not having fun.

I recently cancelled my account. I’ve maintained it since release, mostly because of the “potential”, but after such a longtime with so little progress Im done. I triked myself into thinking I was paying for what the game could be, but at this point I consider that money to have been charity.

[Zakhal]

Just FYI 1.13 and trees is very close. Few weeks away at best. Did you actually check the video? They are one of the best trees i have seen. Much better than in bf1942 for instance. And what is great we get rid of titanium leaves too.

Sheez. Som people can never be happy huh? Its just a game not a freakin real life 2. If you get so upset over a computer game get another hobby.

[Tactics]

I looked at the video when Gopher or who ever put it up in the production update. I said they looked better and I meant it, honest engine. I just wasnt that impressed.

I've had a feeling wwiiol wasnt real life for a while now, thanks for clearing that up. [:)] Its not that I can "never be happy". Im very happy with HTTR, IL2, UV and the occasinal game of Close Combat. What Im unhappy with is CRS, the game mechanics and the direction wwiiol has taken in regards to the addtion of toys over substance.

Im happy to play a game with poor or average graphics so long as it feels well made. At this point, and this is just my opinion, I think wwiiol is lacking in both graphics and gameplay. Sorry to ruin your post, but it seemed like you were painting a rosey picture of World War II goodness. I have a different opinion from first hand experience and I thought I'd offer it.

[Zakhal]

You are playing totally different game than me then. The last 6 months or so have been just amazing when it comes to the speed and quality of the updates.

Just few things:

(1) Visual damage rocks. I like to shoot things and watch them blow up. WW2ol visual damage outdoes bf1942. In bf1942 they just turn into black boxes after certain amount of hitpoint damage. Ww2ol visual damage is much more detailed.

(2) The whole flight model is waiting for a second pass from rickb(?). Rafter wont change the planemodels themselves until that pass is done.

(3) Vehicle&tank simulator is one of the best ive seen and easily the most detailed and theres an audit for them in 1.13.

(4) Infantry combat is fun with depots, lmg, smoke and riflegrenades. Infact i have done nothing but played infantry recently. And AAA too. AAA gunnery is a joy, especially with the new visual damage model on planes.

(5) High commands do what they can. Deployment comes but you just have to wait like everyone else.

(6) Trees are finally here and they are great. But thats not good enough huh?

(7) As for 64 limit i dont even remember when i last noticed it. Itll get updated but its not as bad som want to make it.

[Zakhal]

I've had a feeling wwiiol wasnt real life for a while now, thanks for clearing that up.

If that were true then whats with all the emotions you had up there before you edited the post? When it comes to mmogs, som people opt to use them as their personal venting holes. WW2OL is no differ in that.

Somtimes it goes so bad that the devs have no other choice than to remove the boards even (swg). Signal to noise ratio goes beyond tolorable.

But it took what, 3 years to get them?

Actually more like three months.

[Tactics]

Zakhal, I think you've gone off the deap end bud. I was just giving my opinion. I didnt mean to ruin you campaign for new subscribers, I just have a view of the game that is very different from yours.

I edited my post to remove an emicon, re-word my thoughts and for spelling.

Im not really venting, I just have an opinion. If people are interested in WWIIOL they wil buy it and form their own. I will agree that we MUST be playing a different game though. Im not sure where you get 3 months for the new terrian, wwiiol came out in 2001. Anyhow, Im glad you love the game. I must be one of the 5 people in the world who dont. [8|]

[Zakhal]

Zakhal, I think you've gone off the deap end bud. I was just giving my opinion. I didnt mean to ruin you campaign for new subscribers, I just have a view of the game that is very different from yours.

I edited my post to remove an emicon, re-word my thoughts and for spelling.

Yeah its less emotional now after you "re-worded your thoughts".[;)]

[Zakhal]

m not sure where you get 3 months for the new terrian, wwiiol came out in 2001.

So ww2ol came in 2001. What does that matter? They didnt start the work for the new graphics until three months ago.

[Zakhal]

From aces high boards:

An Unbiased Opinion of WWIIOL

Why am I posting this here?

Well, I think WWIIOL compliments AH well, and the AH community is my home so I'd like to share my experience.

For those that do not know me, I've played AH for 3 years running, and before that I was active with Air Warrior.

Recently, there was a thread about a graphics upgrade to WWIIOL so I finally decided to try it.

Here's what I've gotten in the first 3 days.

*The community is awesome! People fall all over each other to help you when the hear your new. It's like CRS is paying them a bonus to help the noobs.

One man from Finland spent an hour with me teaching me the ropes from shooting to saluting.

One flaw is that there are many non-americans playing this game, so you will see some foreign languages in the text...about 10 times as much as AH

Community of WWIIOL= A-

*Gameplay is interesting. I've only played as a rifleman, and a truck driver so far, but both are entertaining. I hopped a ride on an armored car, teamed up with a machine gunner crew and had plenty of teamwork. Of course, these still plenty of lone wolves, but so far, its pretty entertaining. I've got a few kills, but most of the time, I get wasted and have no idea what killed. Enemy soldiers and vehicles have no icon, so they are tough to spot, especially at night. And even after you see 'em, they're hell to hit with a bolt action rifle.

So Gameplay gets a B+

*Graphics...about the same timeframe of AH..maybe earlier...but the graphics as they are now are throughly UNIMPRESSIVE.

I'd give this section a C+

*Sound....Not good at all. Needs some work. The sound of your own footsteps will make you crazy in an hour. It's sounds like your walking on dried leaves wrapped in Dorito's.

I'd give sound a C-.

Finally, overall program.- I've not seen any bugs, had any CTDS or even had trouble installing and running the game. Now I'm not on a prime system, butI have to say so far the game is smooth as silk.

Overall, I'd rate my experience in WWIIOL a B+.

It needs work, but I'll be paying for it for a while.

P.S.- Though I've not tried their planes yet, I get the feeling AH still owns the virtual skies.


More to Follow.

http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/s ... did=112205

Notice that hes talking of the current graphics which are soon to be updated in 1.3. Also the footsteps are getting new sounds in next patch(es).

Hers another from the same link:

I pretty much agree with most of mucks post, just want to add/argue over a few things.

footsteps: yeah they suck crs said they will be basically changing footsteps in 1.14 or something.

graphics: unimpressive, but in some weird sense they really conveyed well the sense of wwiieurope-just the style of the foliage, buildings, and the roads.

I would also like to add-

this game is alot of fun because of what I like to call "unscripted diversity and coolness." Take a scripted game like medal of honor allied assault and lots of cool stuff happens like the opel next to you blowing up and guys flying out...and it has scripted varying missions.

However, WWIIOL a little while ago we were doing an amphibious assault with 4 DD's. Each was packed with 10 or so player infantry (not including all the of the DD's). As we were pulling up to the beach something (may have been artillery or another destroyer) opened fire. I watched as the DD next to me blew up an sank...all guys on board died. In a sick, twisted, unscripted way, that was so cool...

There are also many varieties of gameplay-from 5-person behind-enemy-lines sabotage missions with the buds in your squad to amphibious assaults to large scale battles to urban warfare fighting its all there. Though CSR denies the game being an rpg, you do get a very roleplaying feeling of being a wwii soldier imo.

[Grouchy]

Dunno, but tend to agree here with Tactics.
Graphic updates are nice, still they don't impress me or give me "I'm here in the low countries" feeling. Gameplay and a realistic sim are more important. And in that area CRS is lacking big time. The game was hampered by design issues and bassicaly still is, RDP and deployment are going to make them worse. My hopes where to see here some improvments in the shortcomings of the games mechanics.

(3) and (4) After you play awhile it becomes clear that the vehicle & tank simulator does have some annoying design issues, flaws and bugs. And some of them are there for years.
Infantry gameplay still is somewhat behind if you compare it with the other branches and games and needs a lot of work.


This opinion is biased btw [;)]

[Zakhal]

Thats understandable. If you dont like the game mechanics the graphics wont change anything.

As for vehicles i have played ww2ol for more or less almost three years and yes i know it has problems but i dont see them as that big. The first year there were real problems like running out of 88 ammo before enemy ran out of chars because there was no spawn limits, no linky-cappy rules, nothing. Its was just ridicilous. What issues the game currently has i dont mind so much.

As for infantry i have playd call of duty, wolf:et, bf1942, medal of honor but in the end i always get bored to them and go back to ww2ol. I enjoy the amount of different battlefields. No one battle is the same.

[Faceless16]

WWII online is pure garbage, sorry buddy. Now dont get me wrong, the idea is awesome. It is in dire need of a completely different game engine in my opinion. I tried it for awhile because I love wargames, any and all, from massive strategy to action packed FPSs, but WWII needs an overhaul very bad.[>:]

[Zakhal]

So much garbage indeed that our squad (around 100 members) has enjoyed it for almost three years. [;)] (with few brakes here and there)

[tiredoftryingnames]

I love the idea that the game represents. I love the scope. I love the variety of places to go fight. I played it from release version up until they started charging. I've been back for two of the trial periods that they tried to get old players back. It's always the same new small changes to improve things, and the major problems that hold the game back never change. If enough kiddies complain they go unhistorical on the vehicles, weapons and infantry. The enviroment behind the visuals just sucks. The sounds are horrible. Last time I played if I rode a tank I had to listen to it for 2 hrs after it drove away. Sound is an important input for a person who is fighting and you can hear planes 50 miles away but not a guy shooting next to you. It's a joke.

[Zakhal]

Last time I played if I rode a tank I had to listen to it for 2 hrs after it drove away. Sound is an important input for a person who is fighting and you can hear planes 50 miles away but not a guy shooting next to you. It's a joke.

They have worked with the sounds. Added 3rd person infantry footstepts even so you can hear if inf is walking near you. And "bullet whizzles" meaning if 88 rounds for instance swoop by you, you can hear them. Also the vehicles have had sounds added and tuned. I think the game got praised for its sounds in som recent review.

The next free trial will be with 1.14 which has additional graphic updates, anti-tank rifles, enhanced inf animations and other stuff not known yet. The current patch 1.13 is due to be released in few weeks and 1.14 2-3 months from that. Come to back to check it out then.

we're going to be putting a trial in 1.4 which will have additional UnityII features.

Until then we're laying low

[tiredoftryingnames]

ORIGINAL: Zakhal

The current patch 1.13 is due to be released in few weeks and 1.14 2-3 months from that. Come to back to check it out then.

we're going to be putting a trial in 1.4 which will have additional UnityII features.

Until then we're laying low

I was around long enough in the WW2 Online community to translate that. It'll be out soon and will be followed by 1.135 to fix all the issues 1.13 issued.

[Sldghammer]

Well I just finished trying the latest version for 1 month.

My overall impression is that WWIIOL has improved significantly from earlier versions but:

- it's still boring for the most part. There is too much down time between action. I have limited time to spend playing games so I do not want to spend 30 - 40 minutes driving a tank from behind lines. I do not want to spend 15 - 20 minutes guarding a CP so that the enemy doesn't capture it. I do not want to spend 20 minutes searching for an EI who sets off the EWS and never shows up. the map is too big and the player numbers online is too small.

- It's still revolves around campfests. Virtually all the captures that I witnessed involved large numbers of tanks rolling into towns and camping the spawn points. There's either too many tanks in game or not sufficient weapons for infantry to kill them. RG's are largely ineffective.

- there's too many aircraft in game. CAS was extremly hazardous for aircraft in reality. When you seen Stukas and Spitfires doing loops over FB's and chasing down individual infantry, you know somethings wrong.

- so called night time. This is a joke. It hardly slows down combat. Aircraft are still flying and straffing. Tanks can still see you from 1500 m.

And while I agree with one of the above posters that there are some helpful people in the game, there are all too many that do nothing but whine and name call. I saw this on both sides. Far too many take this GAME way too seriously. The hatred etween sides is amazing.

[hardcase]

The graphics had to use fewer polygons because the view distance for a minimum is 2k, more for flying.
Standalone games get by this by have fog or bldgs or forest after a couple of hundred feet and can have higher quality stuff. WW2Ol graphics are improving and lower end cards will no longer punch the needed vetices and textures to display the sim. The physics damage model has been posted on many occasions. It is probably the most complex mode around. Visual Damage has not be around long. Wings did fall off, but now you see them. The 64 limit is being addressed and may well go to 128. If you have the maching to crunch those numbers,great. If not, upgrade. The real problem with the 64 limit is biasing. Ground guys should see what they need to see, air and tanks..etc.

CAS..this is not a recreation of ww2. It is a war fought with a half scale euro map and weapons of the period. If pilots, who don't acutally die wantto take the risk of braving the AAA and flying low level they will. Tactics of ww2ol are not the tactics of ww2. The French actually fight, live long enought to receive stuff they bought in 39 and use it. The P-39 for one. Again, you want ww2 in a scripted form, Close Combat comes to mind.

Hatred? Ppl disagree, complailn CRS favors one side of the other. post somethingis nerfed cause someone handed them their hat.

[Faceless16]

Yea, that was another thing about the game, it was pretty boring being infantry and trying to walk all the way to a fight. On top of that, dying when you get there and having to respawn on the other side of the world and walk there again lol!!!!! Wasnt really that exciting at all. I tried to love it but I guess it wasnt meant to be.[:(]