Welcome back to another installment of Verdun’s “Weapon Wednesday”, we use these media updates to tease upcoming content and provide you with an update on the overall state of the games development. This will be a short update on the weapon front and an announcement on the upcoming open beta that verdun players can participate in! This beta is mainly focused on rolling out as much performance fixes out as possible before shipping them to the main game.
Open Beta soon
To open our development up to the community even more and gather more feedback, we will be setting up an open beta platform for Verdun players that everybody can participate in. As we are uploading update after update to fix all sorts of performance issues targeted for a whole range of hardware configurations we we’d especially like to invite those people who do face issues to join!
So far we have had internal beta tests, but from now on we will keep an open beta test to run alongside the closed beta. Playing in the beta allows you to play on the regular servers as well, so there will not be any loss of gameplay. Not only that but you will be able to get an early experience of for instance the gore system as we prepare it for live launch (will be on the branch later).
At this moment we are still running some last-minute stability checks, but keep an eye on this hub and an official announcement for the live launch.
Bergmann MG15/n.A
The Mg15 was initially designed by Theodor Bergmann ( the mind behind the MP18) and Louis Schmeisser in 1910. The MG15na was introduced in 1915, with several modifications on the original (na representing ‘new model’) it was an important weapon in the German arsenal. In being lighter than the MG08/15, and offering a similar rate of fire, the weapon also filled the gap between the category of rifle and hmg. The MG itself saw use in most theaters of the war, with a many being issued to the German ‘Asia Korps’. It saw a large order placed by the German army after the battles of 1916, as the German army needed something light that could combat the Lewis gun - the closest being German captured Madsen guns.
In game the MG15na will boast a very similar rate of fire and general usage to that of the MG08/18 variants. The MG15na offers alternate iron sights, which offer a little more vision than the MG08/15. The MG15na will be used by specialist german squads.
Gew. 98 Trench Mag
The Gewehr 98 was the most common and most used German rifle throughout the war. A variety of accessories were produced for the rifle, these attachments ranged from alternating bayonets to rifle grenade cups and magazines. The magazine that was produced - the ‘trench magazine’ allowed the user access to far more rounds that the standard 5 rounds that the Gew98 had. With 20 rounds now readily available, it was twice that of the Lee Enfield, 4 times that of most nations firearms from the time. Favourable by the German troops, it did offer some drawbacks, the magazine itself was quite large and cumbersome which made for difficulty when fire the rifle while prone. The magazine itself was not detachable, so loading the rifle involved loading 4 separate 5 round stripper clips, which could be time consuming - that being said, the sheer quantity of rounds available for an attack or defence was a notable advantage.
The magazine in game will be a sentry unit specific piece of equipment, in the the right hands will be a formidable weapon for a trench attacker. The main drawback of this adaptation will be the lengthy reload, which could catch even the most seasoned veteran off guard.
Screenshot of the Week
“Gas attack at Douaumont, 1916”
That will be all for this week. Open Beta announcement will follow soon!