It's been a month since the last big announcement in September, a good moment to look back at how we're doing and summarizing recent improvements to the game.
Our strategy since the last big content update is to focus on polishing the game in a very broad sense: Performance, bugs and game balancing/tweaking.
Improvements
Performance has improved greatly, you should be able to see a higher frame rate and the game should feel a lot smoother. Furthermore we've verified that the reduced memory usage has solved (almost) all memory crashes. These were very important topics to address.
Next to the technical stuff, we have made various game tweaks and we'll keep on doing so.
While we're happy with the recent changes, we're not satisfied yet! We still have enough to do: An in-game tutorial is in the making, squad matchmaking&balancing needs to be addressed ASAP, medals (and achievements) are missing, we want to support clan matches...and besides a lot of more stuff on our list there are still enough requests from the community that we're also adding (A FOV setting being a recent one).
Please keep letting us know about your problems/wishes.
Guides
One topic that has been neglected for too long is documentation/guides. We finally have guides available! In this game we are inventing some new FPS mechanics (such as our unique squad co-op xp) but since we're doing stuff that has not been done before an explanation was very much missing. So for those who were never aware of the co-op XP, check out the squad guide!
Find the guides here: http://steamcommunity.com/id/verdunGame/myworkshopfiles/?section=guides&appid=242860
Twitch
Got any questions, want to discuss the latest update? I'm streaming Verdun on twitch this night, join me on: http://www.twitch.tv/M2Hnl (20:00 GMT+1)
Once again, thank you for participating in our beta, we're dedicated to making this a polished game before release.
Hereby a complete list of all fixes since the last announcement:
V169: Role specialization & performance
October 23th 2014
- Clarified role specializations (Role weapon unlocking). Now referred to as role specialization I, II, III and sometimes IV. Unlocking new weapon specializations is now quicker, as intended. Typically 1 - 2 matches to unlock a full role, as was announced in: http://steamcommunity.com/app/242860/discussions/0/613935404212891493/#p11. Your role XP has not changed.
- Performance: Further improved camera culling, 5% to 30% gain.
- Voice commands (E menu) are now also shown in the chat (squad members only)
- Tweaked graphicsettings for best graphics vs performance (Mostly terrain detail higher, LOD distance lower)
- Removed career and weapon levelling popup (as they have no function)
- Ladder climbing is now smoother
- Spectating someone who is using binocs has been fixed.
- Main menu squad lobby will no longer automatically set to ready after a minute.
- No more black spots on the terrain on lower settings
V168.2
October 20th 2014 (168.1 was also released this day)
- Fixed lag spike when changing camera (most noticable at death)
- Fixed rendering issues on certain characters&sleeves in 168
- (Un)Mute command is no longer case sensitive.
- Gas buff: 25% more deadly, 75% bigger area. Gas visual doesn't pop up out of nowhere anymore
- Wire nerf: 40% less damage, bit more slowing
- Fix for weapon bugs introduced in v168
- Main menu server selection fix
V168.1
October 20th 2014
- Rendering performance improved (Better FPS?)
- Memory usage optimized (20% less or better): Crash fixes and faster loading times.
- Artois tree fix
- Possible fix for double listed players
- HUD bottom-left: removed the unused "(0)"
- Localization update
- /mute and /unmute chat command added (you will be able to mute players via the scoreboard later as well)
- Voice command menu will now auto close after 15 seconds
- Display friends-only matches on the map per default if any friends are online
- Never show more then 5 matches per location on the map (browser window shows all)
- Mainmenu welcome screen (sugested squads) will ony show friends
- Friend names marked green in all squad preview windows
- Friend window is now always visible (used to hide when opening the map view)
- Possible fix for match getting stuck (no one able to do damage)
- Water fix in Flanders
- Ladders can be climbed more easily
- Implemented anti cheating measurements.
V167
October 9th 2014
- Stutter fix, finally -really- fixed. This big lag spike happened every few seconds or so.
V166
October 8th 2014
- In-game support for controllers (options -> controls page redo)
- Optimized network traffic some more when players spawn
- Removed ghost bug message, this was fixed months ago. Instead, IF you experience an error you will get a much clearer error message
- Added ability to reset ALL data (mainmenu -> Account). When used, a timestamp will be shown with the last reset date.
- Fixed level 100 bug
- Fixed gas teamdamage causing players to get stuck in a black screen
- Fixed weapon audio volume (sometimes not hearable when the general volume slider is low)
- Game version and network version are now split: a game version update will no longer split the playerbase as long as we didn't change any network features.
V165.1
October 4th 2014
- Spawning beneath level in Artois is fixed
- Fixed deployed MG sight(Lewis Fix)
- Fixed smoke exploit on the tank in Argonne
- Grenade smoke will no longer shrink running through it
- Spawn anthems of Stosstruppen, Canadians and British are working properly
V165
October 3rd 2014
- playertags will be shown immediately when aiming at any friendlies, this should help clarify who to shoot at.
- artois improvements
- stone pebbles re-added on all terrains
- gas choke
- smoke particle performance improved
- fixed random game crash while playing
- mouse acceleration off per default (matters for new players only)
- the minimap will only show an icon for the current goal (defend or attack). The other trench line icons have been removed for clarification.
- rotated rock fix