After more testing in our beta phase, we’ve read through literally all of the comments and discussions we could find in the community and we’ve taken the feedback onboard and applied it to the game.
Hopefully this will be yet more evidence of the bright future of Battalion’s competitive scene.
We don’t just listen to the community and react. We make our own assessments. We watch your feedback come in and evolve as more hours are put into the game. We then read and listen to your feedback on reddit/twitter/steam and we discuss potential fixes for your issues. Then we implement/test, and finally we push the game to the community for feedback!
Esports, Tournaments, and Events
First off we’d like to just give the community a small insight into the future of Battalion as a competitive title. Obviously the competitive side of the game is a huge focus for Battalion but we aren’t going to start with a huge prize pot without first growing the competitive scene. Our goal is to see each event grow bigger than the last. In the last 12 months we’ve seen multiple games grow too quickly in the esports scene without building the game on a solid foundation. Since the big success of our beta, we’ve been presented with so many amazing opportunities to push Battalion as not just a competitive game but to also have a professional scene as well.
We’re humbled to be presented with these opportunities but we wanted to let the community know that, regardless of how much money gets thrown at events and tournaments, the most important thing to us is to keep our focus on fostering growth in our fan base and our competitive scene, it is not possible to buy your way into esports.
To grow the game competitively we need you guys to continue your support and patience! We also would like to stress the importance of Clanwars going forward, being able to compete against other teams without ever having to leave the game is a huge step forward for a competitive game like ours. On top of this, we have some huge announcements on the horizon, surrounding Clanwars.
So whilst we’ve had many offers for events, we’re choosing to support a select group who share our ideas of steady growth. If you are an event or organisation looking to collaborate, please don’t hesitate to contact [email protected]
Changes & Improvements
Changes to Mid-Air Accuracy
We’ve acknowledged that beta players felt the time to kill was too low and that corner strafing/jump peeking was too common. Previously in Battalion, weapons were 100% accurate in the air. We have now added another layer of depth to the game, to reduce the amount of ‘flying around corners’complaints. Whilst strafing around a corner is still a valid strategy, it should no longer be the most optimal way to approach a gun fight, allowing for more options.
These changes affect the scoped rifles & the Kar98 most of all. For an amount of time when a player is in the air, they will no longer be able to hit perfectly accurate shots. This change is ONLY applied to horizontal movement (X & Z axis), if you stand still and complete a regular vertical jumpshot, you will retain 100% accuracy.
This change has been applied to the following weapons at different levels of inaccuracy:
- Kar98 Sniper (Extreme)
- Springfield (Extreme)
- Kar98k (High)
- STG44 (Medium)
- BAR (Medium)
- Thompson (Minor)
- MP40 (Minor)
BAR & STG44 Movement Speed Changes
After much discussion between the developers and the community, we have decided to buff the BAR & STG movement speed across the board. Firstly, we have increased ADS movement speed on the BAR & STG by 20%. This change is intended to make peeking corners more viable and remove the necessity to strafe round every corner.
We have also given the BAR & STG a buff by making their regular movement speed 20% faster.
Kar98k ADS speed changes
We have made the Kar98k’s general move speed slower, however the ADS speed is the same. We have moved away from any class based movements and adopted more weapon specific movement speeds.
This change is not as drastic as it sound and works out as more of a buff to the other weapons than it does a nerf to the Kar98k itself. This again feels a lot more balanced when we have tested it internally. It’s worth noting that its counterpart, the M1 Garand, now has faster movement speed in ADS than the Kar98k. This is to keep each factions weapons asymmetrical by design, giving each faction and team their own advantages and disadvantages.
The Garand has the faster shoulder peek but takes 2 bullets to kill!
Sniper Rifles Movement Changes
Previously, the snipers were set at the ‘medium’ movement speed. The Springfield and the Kar98 Scoped will both now have a reduced ADS walk speed and their overall movement speed will be slower. Generally, all the classes aren’t too dissimilar in speeds at the slow/medium level. But we felt the snipers were so fun to use for players that we didn’t want to nerf them by hurting the weapon. So we decided to nerf it in other ways. So far the sniper, still feels great but feels A LOT more balanced than it was.
Kar98 Scope Sight Changes
There was a consensus that the Kar98 scope in ADS wasn’t as appealing as the Springfield's. While we like the asymmetrical nature of the rifles, we wanted to make the sight feel a bit better. It’s a minor change but we’ve made the sticks/bars in the sight thinner & skinnier. You can see the change below.
Sniper Forced Unscope
Previously, snipers were able to take a shot and remain in scope while bolting the weapon. Now, the player is forced to unscope.
This functions the exact same way as Call of Duty 4, so it is worth noting, when you take a shot, you will need to manually press unscope, to not feel ‘stuck’ otherwise you will feel slow. This is just an extra layer of mechanical mastery that adds another layer of skill to high level sniping Battalion.
Hopefully, with all changes considered, snipers will no longer be overpowered and they will still feel great to play.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0_Fa6NOdmk&feature=youtu.be
Pistol speeds
As part of our movement changes, the pistol now also has its own unique speed. SMGs and default weapons are slightly faster than the pistol, however other weapons are slower. Keep this in mind when you’re rushing to get that pick!
Fixed Exploits on Derailed
Various unfair spots and strange angles have been fixed.
Upottery Training Map Fixes
Black lighting errors on Upottery have been fixed, it now also has a loading screen.
Arcade Improvements
Going into beta, we were already aware of issues with spawns in CTF, DOM, and TDM. The community tested the beta and came to the same conclusion that the spawns were not good enough. Fortunately we had started work on arcade spawns already and we were able to get them in just in time, we’ve tested them internally and they are much more intelligent!
Gameservers
Dedicated Server Files
We will be releasing the dedicated server files via the Steam tools section on February 1st. You will be able to host your own servers easily.
Player Counts
Technically, you can run a 50v50 game if you so wish!
However, we have tested the game with 18 players max, so anything after that is uncharted territory. As part of our “Major Content Update” in summer 2018 (www.battaliongame.com) we plan to include ‘large map support’ so that players can begin to play games with larger server numbers.
Please remember, the more players in a game, the more your frame rate will be affected.
Pre-Order Gameservers
We’ve been working with Multiplay who host all of our matchmaking servers, but they will also be hosting servers for players who want to run their own game! Their servers will be limited for 60 tick for now this will change in the future.
Visit https://www.multiplaygameservers.com/game-servers/battalion/ to pre-order your dedicated servers ready for Day 1 of Early Access.
Tick Rate
After much deliberation, we have decided to run our matchmaking servers at 60 tick. There are multiple reasons for this and it is important that server providers read this. We fully intend to offer 128 tick servers in the near future, but currently with our time constraints there are bugs with 128 tick. Some animation related and some spectator related. Clanwars is in its early stages but we intend for it to use higher tick servers, so fixing these issues are a priority for us.
If you do run your own server, we advise you do not use 128 tick and stick to 90 at most until we iron out these issues. But remember, the game has been tested most at 60 tick.
Mini Beta
We have made some changes to match making over this week to improve the overall experience ready for early access. This Beta will not be held for marketing purposes. We do however want to test the match making one more time before Early Access to really iron out those matchmaking problems.
The mini beta will be held this weekend between Friday the 26th and Sunday the 28th for approximately 1 hour. We will push out an update to the Battalion Test Zone (TZ) and we will live the servers.
To be clear; we have no interest in promoting this or even giving out the exact time - this is strictly for technical testing only. At some point via both the Studio Leads twitter (www.twitter.com/Brammertron) and the official Discord channel, we will say “The servers & update are live”. From then there will be a small window to play and test the game. However, our ONLY interest is in testing match making.