Sorry for the wait, it's been a few months since the last official announcement. This is going to be a large post covering a huge update in the works as well as the interim update put together to hold you over until that monster of an update arrives!
The interim update that you can play right now is focused on character variety. There are now 28 unique player models spread throughout the game. Previously there was a single player model for each faction, a total of only 3.
It looked a bit weird having every player on a team seemingly be a clone of the same man. Now you'll have a player model depending on what weapon you pick to spawn with. This also applies to bots. This allows for a sniper character model to fit the sniper rifle you pick to spawn with, and an MP40 equipped soldier to have the appropriate ammunition pouches to match. It can give you a clue as to what weapon an enemy may be carrying at a distance as well.
The setting of 1945 allows for a massive variety of uniforms to be used, while still being historically authentic. Personally I believe truth is more interesting than fiction anyway. The Axis forces were in a pretty chaotic state at this point and this will be reflected in the mystery meat of uniforms you'll find among them.
Among these are SS, Wehrmacht, Order Police, the wounded called back to battle, and various Volkssturm members (Hitler Youth, SA/Brownshirts, and the elite "Freikorps Sauerland").
In addition to this, the Axis models include non-German Axis powers present here for the first time. These include representation for the Italian soldiers of the elite Decima MAS force, as well as the Brigate Nere militia. In the same theatre you can play as the Slovenian Domobranci or Home Guard and fight against the Yugoslav Partisans alongside the Germans and Italians. Over in the Battle for Nuremberg to the West, you may also spot a "Russian Liberation Army" soldier far from home and fighting alongside the Germans as a collaborator.
For the allied side, we have all new models for the Yugoslav Partisans as well as the US Army.
You'll find many of the American models have the insignia of the 45th Infantry Division. This division saw a great deal of combat in the final months of the war. Their uniforms are dirtied as they fight through the dirt, mud, and rubble to finally end the conflict in Europe.
The Yugoslav Partisans had nearly fully standardized their uniforms by this time, giving at least the appearance of a professional army. They're stocked with surplus British battle dress and greatcoat uniforms, topped off with many varieties of the iconic Titovka cap. Despite this, many elements of their insurgent origins remain, including captured German ammo pouches and shovels, an Italian M33 helmet, and even a pair of blue trousers dating back to the old Austro-Hungarian Army.
More will be done with these player models, but for now enjoy them and please provide feedback of any problems you encounter. The first person arms will also now differ based on what faction you're playing as. For now there is only one per faction, but more will be added soon. The ragdolls and physics have also been more standardized and react more realistically now.
I think these models look much better than the old ones present since launch. However these are also MUCH more easy on your hardware.
The old models used between 12-14 draw calls per model on screen. This is a major drain on your CPU in particular and can bottleneck your graphics card.
The new models by contrast, use just 3-4 draw calls each! So a 6v6 battle with all players on screen at once would now only cost 36-48 calls compared to the 144-168 it would have taken before. This frees up a lot of performance for enhancements to come!
Before we get to the news about what to expect in the upcoming major update, here are some other changes made with the interim update.
-The textures on many of the guns have been tweaked, particularly improving their brightness
-The Sten and KP31 received new textures entirely
-The M1 Carbine and STG 44 have a new fire sound
-Backend improvements to the blending of first person weapon animations, which now blend more naturally as well as more performantly
-Adjusted lighting on Monrupino
-Performance improvements from improved material efficiency on Trieste
Scroll down to the bottom of this announcement to see a bunch of screenshots of the new player models in action!
Now, for the content COMING SOON
This section will give a detailed breakdown on future plans and elaborate on previously promised content. The following list is a quick summary of what will be covered
- Addition of 13 new weapons
- 2 New factions:
- German/Italian/Slovene combination team
- British Army
- Big adjustments to current maps
- 3 ALL NEW Maps for the British faction
- New Main Menu and Gameplay Menus
- Replacement of almost all current weapon animations with much better ones
- Changes to ranged damage for balance purposes
- AI/Bots code overhaul
- Networking improvements
- A huge amount of quality of life changes and bug fixes
- German/Italian/Slovene combination team
- British Army
Big list there, but rest assured a lot of this has been worked on throughout the year already. To even make the interim update, a lot of assets had to be swapped out from older builds because of how much that was changed.
Now on to the list itself, we've got 13 new weapons coming with that huge update. These include the:
- Carcano M91/41
- Carcano M91/41 Scoped
- Bren
- Double Barrel Shotgun
- MP-3008
- FG-42
- Lee-Enfield
- Lee-Enfield Scoped
- MAB 38
- Breda PG Export (Burst)
- +3 Weapons that have never appeared in any game before (Despite being produced and used in the thousands)
End of War will generally try to avoid prototype weapons or one of a kind weapons, all of these were used in great enough numbers that they won't stray from historical authenticity.
The 2 new factions will of course have a unique combination of weapons for their arsenals, you can find the German/Italian/Slovene and British Army weapon list below along with the revised arsenals of the current factions.
The new arsenals per faction are as follows:
US Army: (Unchanged from current version)
Western Front Germans vs Americans:
- MP3008
- K98
- K98 Scoped
- Double Barrel Shotgun
- STG 44
- Gewehr 43
British Army:
- Sten
- Lee-Enfield
- Lee-Enfield Scoped
- Double Barrel Shotgun
- M1 Carbine
- Bren
Western Front Germans vs British:
- MP40
- (Mystery Weapon)
- (Mystery Weapon)
- Double Barrel Shotgun
- FG-42
- Gewehr 43
Germans/Italians/Slovenes (Yugoslavia maps):
- MAB 38
- Gewehr 43
- (Mystery Weapon)
- Breda PG Export (Burst)
- Double Barrel Shotgun
- K98
- K98 Scoped
Yugoslav Partisans:
- Sten
- M1 Carbine
- KP-31
- Bren
- Double Barrel Shotgun
- Carcano M91/41
- Carcano M91/41 Scoped
Adjustments to Current Maps
There will be layout adjustments and large overhauls to the 9 existing maps. As an example, Nuremberg will have a lot of its empty space filled. The buildings will also be adjusted and more connected in theme. Other maps will receive changes that are aimed at increasing verticality, which should lead to players moving around the map more. Graphical fidelity and overall detail will also receive a fresh pass, alongside fixing collision issues.
British Faction Maps
There will be 3 maps featuring the British Army in the coming update, here are some details on what those will be like:
Broadcast: Set during the Battle of Hamburg, you'll fight for control over a German radio broadcast station. A smaller map with Room to room fighting in the center, and small but open sight lines outside the main station.
Reichswald: The Reichswald forest saw some of the toughest fighting in the British drive into Germany. You'll maneuver between the rocks and trees in a forest ripe for close quarters combat. Stay out of the open center though, you never know where the window of a camouflaged bunker can overlook.
Kranenburg: A border town that had largely escaped the horrors of war is now caught in the midst of heavy ground fighting. Many still intact bridges allow for quick tactical movements, the old town has many wildly arrayed buildings for multi-level and angled gunfights. Combat mostly takes place in the streets as most buildings are rendered inaccessible to players.
New Menus
The main menu will have a major overhaul, bringing it more in line with the full release vision. New settings options will be available for further increased graphical tweaking, audio configurations, input settings, and more. There will also be much much more in the way of match settings and customization, as well as finding and setting up online lobbies.
In game menus will also see a redesign, and players will see more information on weapons as they make their choice before spawning in. This new select screen will also feature a preview of the character you'll be playing as, so you can admire your player model a bit. The new menus are much more scalable for further improvements as well, so new additions will no longer take so long in this aspect.
Weapon Animations
The current weapon animation aren't exactly the best. They're above placeholder level, but not final release ready. This will change soon as these current animations are mostly replaced with much better ones, some do look fine enough and will stay though. Around 3/4 of weapons are planned to get new animations.
There will also be improvements to the backend of the animation logic, further improving blending and working in conjunction with weapon behavior. Iron sights will also appear more correctly, and issues regarding framerate drops when aiming on certain weapons will be resolved.
Changes to Ranged Damage
Weapons will have more depth to them as range becomes more of a factor in the damage you deal. This further complements the increased weapon variety and forces players to experiment more.
Improvements to AI
Bots will be much more intelligent in the coming update, and will also have a difficulty slider. They will try to take and hold key points on the battlefield and bunch up less. The goal is to make them less predictable and have them perform more like a real player would, especially on higher difficulty.
Networking Improvements
In addition to the additions described with the new menus, the networking will be more stable than it is now. This will be an ongoing part of development, but will see considerable gains in the coming release.
Misc
Various bug fixes and little improvements adding up to an overall better experience. The version of Unreal Engine powering End of War 1945 will be updated as well, bringing inherent improvements and more potential for the future. A big benefit you'll notice right away will be the greatly reduced install size. This is thanks to better compression algorithms that are not only able to shrink data smaller than the current technology, but also decompress it even faster than now. This will improve load times and texture streaming, as well as save you space on your hard drive or SSD.
Closing
There's a lot to look forward to here! Thank you for supporting development and providing suggestions/feedback to work with. This major update should arrive by the end of the winter, until then please enjoy the game in its current state!
Also check out some screenshots below of the new player models in action!
