While we have had to delay the Community Test Branch build and test of the 1.1 update from the previously announced test this weekend, we wanted to share with you the Work In Progress changelog which you can find below!
Campaign
Brand new to Rising Storm 2 is the Multiplayer Campaign mode! A deep, tactical mode which takes place over several battles, where the fate of the Vietnam War will be decided. Players must choose a side, and vote on tactical decisions, such as where to attack, where to defend, and which of their faction’s armies they will proceed in to battle with.
In order to win the campaign, you must either end the 11-year period of the war with more Victory Points than the opposing team, or capture every territory on the map. Each year comprises of a single battle where winning those battles will earn you new territory along with victory points.
As the timeline of the war moves forwards through the campaign, each of the armies’ equipment and available commander abilities change. For example, after the Paris peace accords in ‘73, the US and ANZAC forces withdraw, which leaves the Southern team with the ARVN for the last two years of the war. As you fight your way through the duration of the war, real-life technological advancements and political events have a meaningful impact on the flow of battle.
Each faction also has a special ability - the Ho Chi Minh trail for the North, and Search and Destroy for the South. These both confer unique, asymmetric advantages for a single battle, and run on a three-turn cooldown which players must vote to either use or not once they become available.
In order to more clearly explain the flow of the Multiplayer Campaign, a hypothetical campaign flow was posted at the below link:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/418460/discussions/3/1742216733516925633/
Highway 14
1.1 (and this CTB) marks the official and long awaited release of Highway 14 into the Official map rotation. Please note, this map is still considered as Beta. Thank you to community mapper Dziga Vertov for letting us use this gargantuan map!
Highway 14 sees the United States army square off against the NLF in a gruelling conflict up a beautiful highway, and through several small towns. It also features the largest number of objectives to fight over in any of our stock maps, going all the way up to Objective M.There’s been a massive amount of bug fixes and optimization work done on the road to making Highway an official map, and we can’t wait for everyone to check it out!
1.1 also sees a number of optimizations to other official RS2 maps, as well as refinements to reinforcement counters in our ongoing efforts to make sure the game is as balanced as possible, which we’ll go into more detail on with the release of 1.1!
NLF vs PAVN Role Changes
So as to create more distinction between the NLF and PAVN factions who fight for Communist North Vietnam, NLF roles have been changed to reflect the guerilla nature of their forces, versus the standing army of the PAVN. This should also make the choice between the NLF and PAVN more meaningful when playing Multiplayer Campaign.
The role changes are as follows:
- NLF Guerilla
- Added M1 Carbine
- Removed AK-47
- NLF Scout
- Added Type 56 and Type 56-1 (no AKM)
- NLF Sapper
- Added Type 56 and Type 56-1 (no AKM)
- Added MAT-49
- Removed SKS
- NLF Machine Gunner
- Added Punji Trap
- NLF Radioman
- Removed AK-47
- Added Mosin Nagant 91/30
- Added IZH-58
- Added Punji Trap
- NLF RPG
- Added Punji Trap
- NLF Commander
- Added Punji Trap
Audio Remix
We have remixed the audio in Rising Storm 2: Vietnam to ensure proper directionality of combat sound. We have also increased the volume of environmental audio, foley and footstep sounds, and rebalanced various audio elements.
We have also improved third person weapon sounds, and ensured that third person weapon firing and third person weapon decay are split out and handled independently.
Weapon Change
Per community feedback, we have made some changes to certain weapons in Rising Storm 2: Vietnam. Those changes are as follows:
- Reduced horizontal recoil of the M2 / M1 Carbine
- Slightly reduced horizontal recoil of the Type 56 / 56-1
- Reduced sway on all Sniper Rifles - especially for SVD and XM21
- Reduced recoil when using Machine Gun bipods so that they are more effective
- 40% ADS movement speed increase for M37 Riot Shotgun and the Sawn-off IZH shotgun
- Universally reduced recoil by 10% when crouched and 15% when prone
- Increased Weapon Rested’s recoil reduction by 15%
Misc. Quality of Life Improvements
- By community request, we’ve added a volume slider to the main menu that allows players to adjust the level of the first person audio for being shot in the head
- Added an indicator on the main menu to show when ‘double xp’ is enabled. Also, added a feedback panel and link to the online RS2 roadmap so players can keep up to date with upcoming features!
- Commanders will now see a cooldown bar on their abilities
- Added the ability to wear two facial accessories at the same time - finally, you can have that beard/glasses combo you’ve always wanted!
- Made it easier to dig tunnels and plant traps and explosives, which no longer require players to look directly at the ground
- Added the ability to place squad tunnels almost anywhere, with a time penalty for harder surfaces such as rock and concrete
- Added the ability to place Tripwire Traps on a larger variety of surfaces, with a time penalty for harder surfaces such as rock and concrete
- Added a checkbox on the settings menu to enable or disable texture streaming (Having texture streaming enabled, ensures all textures are loaded at full resolution all the time. While the game will ultimately have a better visuals, the memory usage will be very large). Please experiment at your own risk.
- Changed pop-up tips so that they will only show when the player is dead and spectating
There are also a huge number of bug fixes, polish items and new features which will be fully detailed in the 1.1 changelog when the patch launches in the not-too-distant future. Watch this space, and see you online in the CTB!
Thank you for your continued support.
Antimatter Games & Tripwire Interactive