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. Today is particularly special as it marks the 97th anniversary of the signing of armistice, effectively the end of the Great War.
It is important for each and every person to understand the sacrifice our servicemen and women have made for us. We live in the world of today largely because of the actions of those who came before us. It is vital we never forget the sacrifices made by these people, regardless of nationality, race, religion, or creed, in all conflicts. They gave their future, so we could have ours.
We will Remember them.
M1909 Hotchkiss “Benét–Mercié”
The Hotchkiss M1909 was one of the machineguns adopted by the U.S in the rearmament of it’s military in 1890-1910. Developed by the French Hotchkiss manufacturer (founded by U.S weapon designer Benjamin Hotchkiss) the Hotchkiss was sold under contract to many nations including the U.K (cavalry/tank use), France, U.S.A, and to a lesser extent, Belgium, Spain, Brazil and Australia. With a 30 round 30-round strip-magazine, the weapon was quite susceptible to mud and dirt and wasn’t ideal for trench warfare. While only around 700 were produced, the U.S had a comparatively small army in 1909, the same year the 30-06 hand crank gatling gun was taken out of service.
The Hotchkiss in game will be used by one of the American squads and potentially also the British Tommies, this is still being decided. Boasting a high rate of fire, but a tricky reload and small magazine, the MG should feel more than at home in the trenches.
Game update status
Excellent reports come in from the 5.3 update tests of last monday. Both Douaumont and other maps seem to run smoothly. We’d like to encourage all active ( and well-behaved!) community members to join our beta testing team. here
We are aiming to go public with this as soon as we sort out the last few issues that were caused by the engine update.
Development status
Aside from promising work with Douaumont in the testing branch, we keep advancing on other fronts as well. The animation crew has been allocated to deal with both the massive amount of new weapons (progressing nicely!) but also with enhancing the immersion of the game - in the addition of death animations. We are planning to launch the gore system alongside fort Douaumont within the fortnight.
Here is a small teaser of one of the ‘slower’ death animations. We are adding many more features this very moment, including dismemberment, screaming and flailing, neck shots and more.
With regards to weapons, we have completed several animations this week. Two recently announced weapons: The Mle. 1892 revolver (which model was teased earlier). What was particularly tricky to create was the fact that, unlike most other revolvers from the time, player has to switch hands in order to reload:
Also spectacular and most fun to use ingame is the M1897 trench gun. This classic firearm can be found in many games and when we implemented it in Verdun it feels like a familiar powerful weapon. The Soon to be formed U.S marine squad will have a blast!
Screenshot of the Week
Gas assault on a sunday day, western front, 1915.
That will be all for this week. Tune in next week for more!