You are invited to attend a Community RAT CHAT. Join our WWII Online Discord at https://discord.gg/sPPDkc3D


DATE: Sunday, April 14
WHERE: Xoom's Office on Discord
TIME: 12PM PST (2PM Central, 3PM Eastern, GMT-8).
DURATION: 90 MINUTES

TOPICS:

• Discussing WWII Online 1.0 roadmap progress
  
• Discussing Chokepoint progress
  
• Sneak Peeks
  
• Community Questions

Mark your calendars and make a point to be there. Not many development studios spend this kind of “live” time with its community. Join us!

See you on Sunday!
Cornered Rat Software

REMEMBER: Our Training Server is available 24/7 to train and experiment with equipment. You can also use the OFF-LINE mode or TRAINING SERVER to work on key maps and how equipment and vehicles operate.

OP: Spring Cleaning
WHEN: April 7th at 12PM Server Time / GMT-8
WHERE: Campaign Server for combined arms battles
DURATION: 3 hours
UNLOCKS: All-Access Weekend

If you have not participated in one of these events, we also turn on notifications for killing members of CRS, called "KILL-A-RAT". This notification is a big hit with our players so enjoy this feature during the all-access weekend.

Join us to participate and witness:
• Ground units assaulting across a Bailey Bridge
• Dogfights and level bombers dropping payloads
• Amphibious infantry assaults
• Tank columns storming through expansive terrain
• Scores of paratroopers dropping over the objective
• Artillery bombardment and smoke

All of the above are accompanied by the "soundtrack" of WWII Online's gunners firing anti-aircraft, light machine guns, and the whistling of artillery. Experience YOUR immersive "WWII Online Moment."

Every soldier is requested to RSVP right away. Doing so encourages more players to participate. Spread the word, let's go! Here is the Discord link to the event . . . https://discord.gg/wwiionline


See you at the Front!
Cornered Rat Software

=========================================
World War II Online
Version 1.37.7.0 - March 2024
=========================================
This release brings in PPO changes, bug fixes and a bunch of terrain updates, to include 17 new towns.
=========================================
Features
=========================================

• Town altitudes will now show up in the tooltip when hovering your mouse over a town
  
• When a Firebase (FB) is selected as either the Mission Origin or Target, players will now see .own information on spawn in
  
• The Trench Corner Player Placed Object (PPO) now has a tower added to it
  
• The Fortified Mobile Spawn (FMS) has been updated to be less obvious at a distance
  
• The Ammo Cache PPO is now placeable by all trucks
  
• The Mobile Airfield PPO can now be placed behind the front lines
  
• The Higgins multicrew positions have been updated
  
• The StuH 42 now has an updated loadout (12 HE, 10 AP, 10 HEAT, and 4 SMOKE)
  
  

Updated 3D models:

• Pak 38 ATG
  
• ROQF 17 ATG
  

New engine, gun and foley audio has been updated for these tanks:

• Char B1
  
• M4A2 Sherman
  
• M4A3 Sherman
  
• Sherman Firefly
  
• Somua S35
  
• Lorraine37
  
• Lorraine37AC
  
• Panzer VIE (Tiger)
  
• Panzer III H

Terrain Updates:

• A new water tower has been added to the Antwerp Airfield and Formerie
  
• Added new links to Hornchurch and Gerbeviller
  
• Hastings now has a deepwater port
  
• All coastal towns can now allow for Higgins Boat MSPs
  
• The Aircraft Carriers at Ramsgate, Folkstone, Calais, Vlissengen and Charlois are now capable locations
  
• Aircraft Carriers now have AI AAA guns
  
• The Citadel has had updates to make gameplay better
  
• Taller bushes have been added to certain terrain tiles
  
• The tree Level of Details (LODs) have been adjusted for better performance
  
• Ramsgate and Sandwich now have an updated church
  
• Most roads with a curve now have less blocky curves in the road

Added 17 new Towns:

• Verberie
  
• Pierrefonds
  
• Marseille en Beauvaisis
  
• Crepy en Valois
  
• Villers Cotterets
  
• Pont Sainte Maxence
  
• Criel
  
• Savignies
  
• Gournay en Bray
  
• Forges les Eaux
  
• Grandvillers
  
• Formerie
  
• Robertsbridge
  
• Tenterden
  
• Charing
  
• Harrietsham
  
• Grain

=========================================
Bug Fixes
=========================================

• Fixed the issue that allowed a single bomb to destroy MSP PPOs
  
• Corrected a Universal Carrier graphics bug
  
• Removed trees and berms from Estrees-Saint-Denis buildings
  
• Hitmap errors within the Lorraine have been fixed
  
• Fixed third person disappearing parts on the Pz3L and Pz3H
  
• Corrected a clipping issue with some Firebase (FB) tents
  
• Fixed a broken gauge in the updated Laffly S-20
  
• Fixed the drive and idler sprockets not spinning for the Char and S35
  
• Found and fixed the issue causing both Allied and Axis to be on the same IVC channel

S! Cornered Rat Software
Copyright 1999-2024 Playnet, Inc.

WWII Online Community,

You can observe and interact with multiple iterations of alphas, upcoming features, new/improved equipment, and maybe even see some behind the scenes 2.0 stuff. Did I mention some cool tools to help you and others test and implement assets and features into WWII Online?
This is an important year for WWII Online as we are working hard at Rat HQ but to match this productivity, we need more manpower on our QA Team to meet our 2024 goals and beyond. We must expand our QA capacity to verify upcoming and future updates as we deliver them to the gaming community.

Do you want to accelerate growth in WWII Online? Your efforts as a QA team member have a DIRECT correlation in what our community gets to experience in 2024 and beyond.
What is QA?
At the start of a projected release, it is experimental testing and as the team progresses toward a release client, the role changes to one of independent validation and verification. In the words of OLDZEKE, QA Team Lead, “we are far more involved (than just testing) in that we need to often be the first step in a bug fix by finding a reliable replication method.”

Are you internationally based?
We have an international player base and that is reflected in our QA Team as we have US and European based testers, but we could always use more.

Are you thinking of volunteering?
You can experience it firsthand, but it all depends upon you and a little electronic sweat equity. You don’t have to be uber-smart, uber-skilled, or even own a super-computer. We will train you from scratch if needed.

So, what do you have to do to get all these goodies?

Ask yourself this question . . . do you have the desire, aptitude (attention to detail), willingness to test, and follow testing directions plus time throughout the week to do testing?
General expectations:

• Able to communicate in English verbally and in writing (you do not have to be fluent, but it helps)
  
• You have to show-up and help your team. Sometimes you’ll work alone, other times in a group.
  
• Basic knowledge of WWII Online game play and the various types of equipment
  
• Joystick/Game controller to test drive/pilot all sorts of equipment
  
• Ability to capture short clips of testing footage using free capture software (OBS?)

Specific expectations:

• Basic knowledge of finding files on your computer.
  
• QA testing can involve a week or more of nothing to test followed by a week where availability to test is critical.
  
• Being a part of our team means we need you to be able to put in needed time during an alpha test cycle. (EX: AVERAGE size new town takes 1 hour minimum to check depots, AI, ABs and FBs.

Interested?
Send an email to jobs@corneredrats.com, subject line: VOLUNTEER.

We need your game nick and would like to know a little about you, your history in the community (if any) and your present interest in WWII Online and why you would be a good candidate to join our team.


Thank you!
Cornered Rat Software

REMEMBER: Our Training Server is available 24/7 to train and experiment with equipment. You can also use the OFF-LINE mode or TRAINING SERVER to work on key maps and how equipment and vehicles operate.

OP: Irish Yoga
WHEN: March 17th at 12PM Server Time / GMT-8
WHERE: Campaign Server for combined arms battles
DURATION: 3 hours
UNLOCKS: All-Access Weekend

If you have not participated in one of these events, we also turn on notifications for killing members of CRS, called "KILL-A-RAT". This notification is a big hit with our players so enjoy this feature during the all-access weekend.

Join us to participate and witness:
• Ground units assaulting across a Bailey Bridge
• Dogfights and level bombers dropping payloads
• Amphibious infantry assaults
• Tank columns storming through expansive terrain
• Scores of paratroopers dropping over the objective
• Artillery bombardment and smoke

All of the above are accompanied by the "soundtrack" of WWII Online's gunners firing anti-aircraft, light machine guns, and the whistling of artillery. Experience YOUR immersive "WWII Online Moment."

Every soldier is requested to RSVP right away. Doing so encourages more players to participate. Spread the word, let's go! Here is the Discord link to the event . . . https://discord.gg/wwiionline


See you at the Front!
Cornered Rat Software

WWII Online’s 2024 Roadmap
This year’s roadmap is a continuation of efforts initiated in 2023. We currently have three major projects going on simultaneously:

• Continue to improve/optimize WWII Online 1.0
  
• Re-design WWII Online in Unreal Engine 5
  
• Continue the conversion of WWII Online: Chokepoint from UE4 —> UE5

It’s going to be a jam-packed year for CRS, and great progress is being made on all fronts for WWII Online. Keep reading to learn more about how your support is turning into action!

QUAD ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUNS COMING TO WWII ONLINE
As the years of the war progressed, innovation for anti-aircraft gunners enabled some pretty uber stuff to shoot enemy aircraft down. All of these guns will be made available in the Army branch as towable ground units. You will be able to spawn these from depots, army bases, and forward bases.

• Flakvierling 38 (Germany)
  
• Polsten 20mm (England)
  
• M45 4x.50 (United States & France)

And if you wanted to get an idea of how much fun these can be, enjoy this clip from Waterworld where it shows the M45 going to town:
https://youtu.be/3nNJ4v-k_Ng?t=35

NEW TANKS COMING TO WWII ONLINE
For a long time we’ve had players requesting that we add completely new tanks to WWII Online, and we agree - it’s time. FYI: It’s important to note that the resources working on these do not include developers currently working on our conversion to WWII Online 2.0 or Chokepoint.

We’re pleased to let you know that we intend to add the following tanks this year:

• Panther Ausf.A (Germany)
  
• Valentine Mk X (England)
  
• M18 Hellcat (United States & France)

REVAMPING OLDER MODELS FOR WWII ONLINE
We completely revolutionized our approach to modeling during 2023 and had some fantastic results. We’re going to continue this effort and we have several items not only in progress, but planned. We are not only creating NEW artwork and improving the visual appeal of the game, but we are also cleaning up technical debt by addressing known issues with each vehicle as it goes through the pipeline.
This creates a future proofing opportunity and optimizes gaming experiences now found in WWII Online 1.0. Keep your eye out for more vehicles being improved, and be sure to use the official bug tracker to report any known issues which is located at http://www.wwiionline.com/bugs. (Include vehicle types, descriptions of the issues, and any relevant picture or video and it will get prioritized).

TANK CREW - TRACK REPAIR
We now have a working concept of tank crews being able to repair their tracks, development continues and is approaching testing. WWII Online tankers are about to have the ability to fix their own tracks and get mobile again (up to a certain amount of times) if this occurs. We had this on our roadmap last year, and while work did occur we didn’t quite get it where we wanted. We intend to move this forward and get it available to tankers this year.

BETTER EWS REPORTING
Particularly for our underpopulated forces, we’re looking at adding some helpful - yet somewhat vague - information on where enemy infantry forces (only) are at via system/chat. For example, “Enemy infantry spotted northeast.” So again purely designed to help increase situational awareness and support the side with less people online.

AFK PLAYERS & BALANCING MECHANISMS
Some players go AFK and are still considered part of the balancing mechanisms that determine the number of attack objectives, capture speeds, and so on. We’re planning to remove AFK players from this consideration in fairness to the rest of the active players, and we plan to go a little deeper than just someone who types .afk or nudges their player every so often. This is a problem with someone who has multiple accounts and is distorting real numbers.

SHOW FB DAMAGE ON SPAWN
We want to simplify things a bit here. Long story short, when someone spawns into their forward base, we want to report the percentage of damage instantly and easily to the player. Normally you’d have to click on your forward base on the map and type .own to see the percentage (Infantry: 20%, Vehicle: 80%, Other: 22%) etc. Basically this will just automatically happen as you spawn in to give you immediate situational awareness and help all players, new and veteran alike.

TOWN ALTITUDE ON MAP
For bombers, indirect fire weapons and paratrooper aircraft, it is critical to know the specific town altitude in game so you can range your sight or drop paras at a safe altitude. Our goal is to get the specific town height of the town marker (statue/obelisk) to be displayed on the in-game map. For example, when you hover your mouse over a town you can see the available brigades, garrisons, and town owner in a small pop-up window. In this case we’ll expand that window to include town altitude information.

SATCHELS CLIPPING INTO VEHICLES
Players have identified several reports of satchels clipping into vehicles. We have some working theories on this and will be prioritizing some effort here as this should not be happening. Using the bug tracker you can help our team find out (faster) where these specific hot spots might be by tank type.
We ask your support on this because you’re experiencing it daily and it will help us figure out those issues faster and turn around a result at a faster pace. When creating a ticket include: 1) Tank type, 2) picture of tank / satchel placement, 3) identify with some annotation via picture where it’s happening, 4) a video works too, all of that = a sure fire way to identify what needs cleaning up.

INFANTRY DYING TO STOPPED VEHICLES
This is one of those important quality of life things. Let’s say we have a sapper hunting down an enemy tank, and the vehicle stops. Sometimes infantry die simply by touching their character model with the vehicle, even though it’s “stationary”. We’re planning to clean this up for a more appropriate experience.

WWII ONLINE 2.0
Other than the continued technical debt cleanup you’re seeing on the Production side through our new vehicles and Chokepoint’s infantry system/animations being worked on (as seen below), 2.0 is continuing to receive under the hood, technical treatments. A lot of what we have to report on this is very technical and isn’t something we can show as it would expose IP or trade secrets.

The majority of our internal development resources have been deployed to this re-design of WWII Online within Unreal Engine (currently running on UE 5.3). As stated before, this will be a multi-year effort and we’re seeing positive movement internally. It’s very important that we allow our developers the time and breathing room (grace) they need to get the hard lifting done, by far the most difficult and time-consuming part of this process.

WWII ONLINE: CHOKEPOINT ROADMAP
As we announced in mid-2023, we had to completely rebuild our Chokepoint team. Given all of the other moving parts of our organization here at CRS, and the high-demand to press updates for 1.0 and 2.0, things were a bit slower than desired to get things going. So we appreciate your grace as we’ve had to navigate the recruitment and training of personnel, and picking the project up from the original development team. By no means, is that a simple thing to do.

Our commitment to Chokepoint remains because it is acting as a training tool for our Production team and as we’ve described all along, it is being sought out to replace the current infantry system for WWII Online 1.0 for many reasons.
UPGRADE TO UNREAL ENGINE 5.3
Chokepoint is currently running within UE 5.1, it’s important for us to pursue the latest and greatest capabilities and stay on top of our game (pardon the pun). As much as we can help it, we do not want to fall behind. Initial conversion steps from 5.1 → 5.3 are underway.

REBUILDING INVENTORY SYSTEM
This has been identified as a key hurdle we need to get past. UE4 utilized a custom-built inventory system which has been totally deprecated as part of the conversion over to UE5. We plan to leverage UE5’s new inventory system called, “Lyra.” Efforts were made to see what could be transferred over from UE4 → UE5 but have mostly fallen flat. This is part of the exploration process of our new team picking up the pieces and recognizing that we need to build anew.

The inventory system manages character inventory, which weapons are assigned to whom, loadouts, etc. Rebuilding it actually gives us native compatibility with UE5 which in turn makes it better long-term for support for not just in Chokepoint, but anything WWII Online 2.0 intends to use from these systems. It also means that the general knowledge of how this works will be better documented (as it is provided by Epic Games itself) and our new team will be more capable of sustaining it.

To do this, we intend to strip out the current system entirely and start small by adding a single weapon to be shared across all classes and building from there.

Fortunately, we have lots of data still intact and weapons, animations, sounds, etc which should make that process start to pick up speed once we get base functionality working. We’ll keep you posted on progress, this a very difficult task and touches many areas of the code/blueprints.

CODE CLEAN UP
We’re at a much better point now to isolate deprecated elements of our code base and blueprint(s) post-conversion. So things that are hanging around from UE4 will be jettisoned that are no longer in use by our programming team, to reduce technical debt and ensure optimal workflows going forward.

CLEANING UP EXISTING MAPS & MODELS
Our environment artists have been steadily repairing Carentan & La Fiere, and have made some strong progress. Our next goal is to unlock a technical issue preventing artists from being able to work on Eglise (the night time map), so we can get that game ready as well.

Several models have received UVs, textures, placement adjustments, and so on. These were mostly post-conversion issues that demanded attention.

CLEANING UP ANIMATIONS
There are several animations requiring attention, and our animator has already been addressing the more obvious animations in third person. As soon as the inventory system is online, we’ll be able to do more thorough first-person animation improvements as well, as we can properly test results.

BUILDING, DEPLOYMENT & PLAYTESTS
Once we have our inventory system functioning again, our next step is to clean up our application building process for PC and work on deploying those binaries to our dedicated host. This will effectively get us back into the routine development swing of things.

Then we can get updates deployed via Steam and all key holders of Chokepoint will be able to dive back into playtests and get the ball rolling. Then it will all be about players reporting issues, our team prioritizing them, cleaning things up and deploying new builds, and so on. This will be the ultimate sign that we’re on the right path and we can be more certain about release timelines.

TRANSPARENCY & EXPECTATIONS
This stuff isn’t easy. We’re a mostly volunteer team with three major projects going on simultaneously. We’ve laid out what’s happened, our commitment to rebuild and get things back online and that we’re staying the course as best we can to get Chokepoint to be operational. But it’s got some challenges that we’re currently navigating through.

Keep your expectations reasonable and know that until otherwise stated, we’re continuing to move forward on all fronts.

We are exceedingly grateful to our community for the continued support of the CRS 2.0 Team over the years by your subscriptions and annual fundraiser donations. We are 100% self-funded organization remains committed to bringing the unique strategic and tactical gaming experience of WWII Online into the Unreal Engine.

Sincerely,
Cornered Rat Software

REMEMBER: Our Training Server is available 24/7 to train and experiment with equipment. You can also use the OFF-LINE mode to work on key maps and how equipment and vehicles work.

OP: Blue Balls
WHEN: February 18th at 12PM Server Time / GMT-8
WHERE: Campaign Server for combined arms battles
DURATION: 3 hours
UNLOCKS: All-Access Weekend

Join us to participate and witness:
• Ground units assaulting
• Dogfights and level bombers dropping payloads
• Massed infantry assaults
• Tank columns storming through expansive terrain
• Scores of paratroopers dropping over the objective
• Artillery bombardment and smoke

All of the above are accompanied by the "soundtrack" of WWII Online's gunners firing anti-aircraft, light machine guns, and the whistling of artillery. Experience YOUR immersive "WWII Online Moment."

Every soldier is requested to RSVP right away. Doing so encourages more players to participate. Spread the word, let's go! Here is the Discord link to the event . . . https://discord.gg/wwiionline


See you at the Front!
Cornered Rat Software

We want EVERYONE to have a good time this weekend so join the fun and remember to RANK-UP so you can access the late-war equipment that is in historic CAMPAIGN 200!

OPERATION NAME: Broken Resolutions
WHEN: January 21st at 12PM Server Time / GMT-8
WHERE: Campaign Server
DURATION: 3 hours
UNLOCKS: All-Access Weekend

Join us to participate and witness:
• Ground units using the newest PPO – the Bailey Bridge
• Dogfights and level bombers dropping payloads
• Massed infantry assaults (maybe an amphibious assault?)
• Tank columns storming through expansive terrain
• Scores of paratroopers dropping over the objective
• Artillery bombardment and smoke

All of the above are accompanied by the "soundtrack" of WWII Online's gunners firing anti-aircraft, light machine guns, and the whistling of artillery. Experience YOUR immersive "WWII Online Moment."

Every soldier is requested to RSVP right away. Doing so encourages more players to participate. Spread the word, let's go! Here is the Discord link to the event . . . https://discord.gg/wwiionline


Thanks!
Cornered Rat Software

Dear Friends,

Campaign 200 is upon us as the Axis side won Campaign 199 this past Sunday. As we reach the milestone of 200 campaigns, we thought it appropriate to have some community-based events.

Upcoming are some fun events:

Armor Death Match - this massive armor event takes place just north of Bastogne as American armored forces from the American 4th Armored Division relieve Bastogne and encounter the 4th Kompanie of the Schewere-Panzer Abteilung 506th who are rushing their Tigers to push back the Americans.
FAILURE TO READ THE RULES CAN RESULT IN THE LOSS OF YOUR TANK & SUPPLY!

Objective: Capture & hold the bend in the road between the Houffalize-Bastogne Forward Base and Bastogne.
Capture: At least 1 FRIENDLY tank must be CONTINUOUSLY occupying the rectangular capture area (600m x 2700m) to consider the area to be captured. Dead in the area means NOT under your team’s control.

Capture Area: 600m x 2700m
Capture Area Coordinates:
NW Corner: 50.1.37N / 5.41.38E
SW Corner: 50.0.52N / 5.41.38E
NE Corner: 50.1.37N / 5.44.57E
SE Corner: 50.0.52N / 5.44.57E
Supply: Limited
Duration: 60 mins or exhaustion of supply
Multi-crew: Available as a choice

RULES:
AB/FB are NOT to be capped/blown.

Allied tanks cannot move NORTH of Latitude 50.1.37N

Axis tanks cannot move SOUTH of Latitude 50.0.52N

If you drive out of bounds, IMMEDIATELY return to the field of play or LOSE your tank.

If you kill a tank while out of bounds, your team can be penalized by loss of FRIENDLY tank.
And finally, who doesn't like a little Grand Prix racing around the Spa track? CRS has been hard at work and is anxious to showcase the efforts of some of our unsung team members.


THE BELOW EVENT OCCURRED ON DECEMBER 13TH: Axis Victory!
Infantry Royal Rumble - a true cage match with limited supply as the famous 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division takes on the 3rd Fallschirmjager in the defense of Bastogne!
OPERATION NAME: Infantry Royal Rumble
FORCES: US Army vs German Army
WHEN: December 13th at 6PM Server Time / GMT-8
WHERE: Training Server – Bastogne
DURATION: 60 minutes minimum
SUPPLY: Custom infantry equipment list suited for assault/capture (no armor)

Rules of Engagement:
* Infantry Death Match
* Capture/hold the 2nd floor “office” of the warehouse
* At least 1 infantry player from your side must be CONTINUOUSLY occupying the room to consider the room to be captured
* Dead in the room means the room is not under your team’s control
* Duration: 60 minutes minimum (at the discretion of CRS) or exhaustion of one side’s supply
* Rules: None, last man standing

Armor Death Match - this massive armor event takes place just north of Bastogne as American armored forces from the American 4th Armored Division relieve Bastogne and encounter the 4th Kompanie of the Schewere-Panzer Abteilung 506th who are rushing their Tigers to push back the Americans.

As the week progresses, we will be updating this post to reflect each event so watch this space!

Season's Greetings,
Cornered Rat Software