Production Update: July 10th, 2020

[Cornered Rats]

Coming sometime by the end of this month, version 1.36.6.0 will be live to the WWII Online players. We'll be highlighting the building/texture development in greater detail, in the form of screenshots and a video walkthrough. I also want to give you an update on a couple of other items that are a work in progress and not yet planned for release. Let's dive right in!

View the full article on battlegroundeurope.com

[tater]

Would these (or could these) be more likely in forests? Forests are some of the best gameplay (IMHO) when a fight actually happens there, even if rare. Fallen trees, as well couldn't hurt.

 

[TR6AL]

I will be placing rocks in forests to control access , depending on the forest etc, but as they need to be place individually it will take time . Also I plan to place them along roads , in fields and sometimes in towns .  

We don't have fallen trees to use atm but I will see what I can come up with . 

[tater]

2 hours ago, tr6al said:

I will be placing rocks in forests to control access , depending on the forest etc, but as they need to be place individually it will take time . Also I plan to place them along roads , in fields and sometimes in towns .  

We don't have fallen trees to use atm but I will see what I can come up with . 

Thanks for the reply!

Fallen trees was just an idea to provide some sort of cover for inf, and I suppose to mitigate vehicle speed. I didn't realize they were placed individually. Wow, loads of work.

 

[fidd]

I'd be very happy to assist with the Wellington. I'm currently building a 1:3.7 scale RC model of one, using the same alloy geodetics of the original, and have been studying the airframe, it's use and history, for over 7 years now, literally to every nut and bolt and rivet. Attached is a link to the film of pair of scratch-built FN5 turrets I've built for the model. Drop me a PM if you'd like my help? It might just be reviewing what's done to privately error-check, or to help with drawings. 

 

 

[delems]

Update looks good, but, is the barbwire and atg pit distance bug fixed?   That is important.

[chzacc]

hat's off to you Fidd now you've gone and made me want to get into building a mossie, I have just took early retirement and was planning to spend my days playing golf and building a worshop out back, now i will have something to do in it

[tater]

13 hours ago, fidd said:

I'd be very happy to assist with the Wellington. I'm currently building a 1:3.7 scale RC model of one, using the same alloy geodetics of the original, and have been studying the airframe, it's use and history, for over 7 years now, literally to every nut and bolt and rivet. Attached is a link to the film of pair of scratch-built FN5 turrets I've built for the model. Drop me a PM if you'd like my help? It might just be reviewing what's done to privately error-check, or to help with drawings. 

OMFG.

That's insane—in the best possible way. Wow. Really, really impressive.

 

[tater]

Related to the building textures... I'm not sure if I'm just used to the old ones, or if I dislike the new ones for some other reason. The biggest issue to me would be that infantry are super easy to spot in windows.

[fidd]

A couple of points regarding the new - and old - building textures:

1. Wooden "shingles" simply do not exist in regular buildings of the period in Europe. The climate would simply destroy them in short-order. "Roof-tiles" as we'd more usually call them are either fired-clay, typically a brick-red colour, or stone, ranging from slate-grey to an orangey-yellow. Of these the slate-grey and brick-red predominate.

2. Rendered (plastered stucco) is also common, which can  of course be painted any colour, although for the period, white-wash is not unusual. 1930's buildings are  often treated thus. The new "stone" texture on the cp flag buildings looks odd to my eyes, for a European building. Brick or Stucco might be better.

[tater]

27 minutes ago, fidd said:

A couple of points regarding the new - and old - building textures:

1. Wooden "shingles" simply do not exist in regular buildings of the period in Europe. The climate would simply destroy them in short-order. "Roof-tiles" as we'd more usually call them are either fired-clay, typically a brick-red colour, or stone, ranging from slate-grey to an orangey-yellow. Of these the slate-grey and brick-red predominate.

Yeah, wooden seems unlikely.

Quote

2. Rendered (plastered stucco) is also common, which can  of course be painted any colour, although for the period, white-wash is not unusual. 1930's buildings are  often treated thus. The new "stone" texture on the cp flag buildings looks odd to my eyes, for a European building. Brick or Stucco might be better.

This makes a lot more sense, and also gets rid of the small, reused texture set problem. The repeating nature of the patterns on those new textures is really jarring.

 

 

Edited July 12, 2020 by tater

[sideout]

20 hours ago, tr6al said:

I will be placing rocks in forests to control access , depending on the forest etc, but as they need to be place individually it will take time . Also I plan to place them along roads , in fields and sometimes in towns .  

We don't have fallen trees to use atm but I will see what I can come up with . 

Wait! No white stakes/pegs along the road!!?

 

giant tree leaves are probably gone forever too......8>(

 

 

[TR6AL]

Lol .. The white stakes could be brought back if you really want them . And the giant leaved trees are long gone as are the impenetratable forests , (sort of) . Telephone poles and wires are also hiding somewhere ..   

[fidd]

On 7/11/2020 at 11:18 PM, tr6al said:

I will be placing rocks in forests to control access , depending on the forest etc, but as they need to be place individually it will take time . Also I plan to place them along roads , in fields and sometimes in towns .  

We don't have fallen trees to use atm but I will see what I can come up with . 

May I suggest you canvas European players, especially those in France, Belgium and Germany to send in photographs of period (1940's):

Town buildings (say 1860 to 1940?) Farms

Fields, hedges

Street furniture: Signs, telegraph and power lines, Customs posts, shop frontages and the like.

I think this would provide the basis for much more realistic buildings and "feel" of the terrain. I often get the impression that our terrain is what someone imagining it is like, rather than someone who has seen the area. Wooden roof-tiles, close field boundaries underscoring the point. The buildings have certainly been improving over time, but there's a long way to go in terms of getting the gameworld to really resemble the area modelled. IMHO. If appliquee textures were added, (ie a building has the same appearance in any country, but has country specific textures identifying the "Bakers", "Butcher" (and so forth) in the relevant language. Shuttering for windows could be added in French towns, and Dutch architectural "high frontages" added to others to create the impression of more building types than actually exist, and the sense of moving from one country into another...

 

[TR6AL]

@fidd I agree completely, but all I have to work with is one small set of buildings to cover all countries and they are already in place in towns.  I do not have the skills yet to change a building much less add new ones but I am learning and hopefully soon I can adjust a building or two to make them more country specific. 

A lot of small stuff like signs and poles etc where in game but removed (I think for fps reasons) and I would like to bring them back .     

Right now I am focusing on overall terrain feel and filling in empty spots (adding trees , bushes etc) and starting to look at building placement . There are a few town areas I have been playing with to see what I can do and how it will affect game play and I will be doing  lots more. 

[fidd]

Hi,

That's fine, I was merely suggesting that CRS seek help from the European player base to assemble research material for future - eventual - improvement of buildings to more typical appearances, and weed out things like the wooden shingles.

I am NOT suggesting this all needs to happen yesterday!

[TR6AL]

Sorry if my tone was a little off, that  was not intentional .I like feedback and pointers in what can be done to make the game look more like it should .

 We do find a lot of players do want everything changed yesterday  and we do appreciate the input  .

I will and have been looking at pictures of actual European buildings as well as just the general landscape to try to shape how I can change the way the game looks and feels. I would like everything to look exactly like it should . 

I will pass the info about the wooden shingles along the the Artist that looks after the buildings .

[TEX64]

Congrats, FIDD.  Very well done - you should be very proud.  

[tater]

Obviously a cool pic

The thing that strikes me as most wrong with ww2ol terrain is that the trees all go the wrong way. All our roads have the trees in waves perpendicular to the roads, instead of ALONG the roads. There are bermed areas on the other side of the trees (smaller than ww2ol, but those could be increased a little).

Such a change would result in longer fields of fire for tanks, plus a real sense of roads being choke points. Gets rid in "Vietnam in the Low Countries."

[fidd]

On 7/14/2020 at 4:38 AM, tex64 said:

Congrats, FIDD.  Very well done - you should be very proud.  

Er thanks - I think! I can't see what you believe I should be proud of though! 

[fidd]

On 7/13/2020 at 1:33 PM, tr6al said:

@fidd I agree completely, but all I have to work with is one small set of buildings to cover all countries and they are already in place in towns.  I do not have the skills yet to change a building much less add new ones but I am learning and hopefully soon I can adjust a building or two to make them more country specific. 

A lot of small stuff like signs and poles etc where in game but removed (I think for fps reasons) and I would like to bring them back .     

Right now I am focusing on overall terrain feel and filling in empty spots (adding trees , bushes etc) and starting to look at building placement . There are a few town areas I have been playing with to see what I can do and how it will affect game play and I will be doing  lots more. 

Just to clarify on the point I'd made about country-specific appearance buildings. I'm assuming that it is technically possible to add additional textures to stock buildings. Think of a sign on the outside of a shop, or shutters either side of windows. If it is possible, then all buildings of the same type in France could have shutters around the windows, but the same building-type, in Germany, could have the shutters omitted. One building could be either a Baker's or a Butchers. In England they'd have "Butcher" or "Baker" over the front window, in France "Boulangerie" and "Boucherie", or "Backer" (with an a umlaut) and "Metzger" in Germany.

I call these "appliquee" textures, as they're not native to the building, only the building type, and the specfiic image used being contry-specific and rendered as a seperate entity to the building itself.

Similar treatment could be given to buildings commonly found in small towns, a fire-station, a police-station, a customs-post at the border and so forth. It could also be used to add architectural differeces to make Dutch buildings look more Dutch, add cast-iron railings to French buildings, and so forth. Pure eye-candy, and serves no other purpose other than to signify to players when they've crossed from one country to another in game.