Update: Matchmaking Improvements & What's Next on The List!
Hey everyone!
First of all - thank you so much for being patient and respectful to us developers, the majority of conversation has been very positive. We’ve been doing our best to communicate as much information to you all as possible, while we continue to work on fixes. To put it into perspective we have 3 people doing all of the community responses whilst our programmers have been hard at work and these fixes and plans what we’re here to tell you about right now.
Matchmaking Improvements
We’ve deployed some fixes to the matchmaking backend which make our matchmaker more reliable. You should now be able to get into games faster than before. This is happening right now and we’re seeing large amounts of players in games rather than searching, which is great!
This is something we can and will be improving every day, little by little. The more data we are getting from your guys playing, the more information we have to reliably identify and fix issues with. You guys are the reason this game will become more stable throughout early access and this is the exact reason early access exists - to help us test and polish the game before release.
We would not of been able to make these fixes, without the thousands of people actively helping us by searching for games.
We can’t thank you enough for your time and patience. So onto more specific issues:
Backfilling servers
By now you guys have definitely seen the issues with teams being unbalanced and not full when being matchmade into a server. When players leave servers (or do not make it into a server due to a crash) the empty slots are not being refilled.
Tomorrow we will be looking into identifying the reason why this is happening. We have enough data now from you guys to be able to look into this and find the source of the issue - especially with the servers now matchmaking players into servers reliably as stated above. Later tomorrow we’ll look into applying a patch for this issue. This is of a very high priority for the development team.
Community Servers will be able to host more than 10 players!
We’ve seen an issue on community hosted distributed servers that wouldn’t let more than 10 players join into a server - even when the server browser displayed information saying they were not full.
SERVER ADMINS PLEASE READ
At 10:00 GMT we will be releasing new server files that MUST be applied for your server to be visible and used.
The files will be uploaded to http://wiki.battaliongame.com
Both Linux & Windows server files will be updated at the same time and will provide a much better experience for all players and admins!
It’s very important distributed server owners update their servers to the latest version so that players can see their server in the server browser once the update has gone live, as out of date servers will not be displayed to players.
Server Browser Filters
We’ve heard your demand for this feature. It’s now a high priority for the dev team.
For clarity: The current server browser was put in place only for the initial launch of early access. We want to add filters and fix the issues such as ping not displaying.
We’re working on them right now and whilst the filters won’t be in the next few days - we’re planning for it to arrive with our week 1 update with a host of extra client bug fixes. Fully featured server browser filters are essential - and we want to get that to you guys as soon as possible.
Thanks
Thanks for all your support these last two days, keep up the good work. If you’ve played the game a lot for the last two days you can probably see the improvements happening live.
It’s 1am and we’re very tired! Thank you community.
PSA: Client Update & Issues Explained!
Our programmers have been working insanely hard to get the server issues solved. We identified the issues we spoke about in our last update and we’ve been working on a fix!
I wanted to speak to you all directly and apologize for the launch issues. Please watch this video if you have ANY disappointments or doubts about launch or Battalion 1944, this is addressed to all of our fans.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF67jrRt4qM
BUT, we have good news!
We now have a client update ready to go live!
We have pushed a Steam Update, please restart Steam
Previously servers were fully blocked from allocating any players to a server due to the limit a third party provider placed on our server allocation back end. You should now be able to find a server! Please let us know if we have any issues.
It will still take a while to join that server once a server is found for you (up to 10 minutes).
In addition to the above fix we have also ordered more server boxes.
Server Browser Issues
We have also identified the server browser issues where players will get kicked back to the main menu without any error message. This is because of a bug with community servers not allowing more than 10 players. Because of this - servers are displaying as ‘not full’ when in reality the server thinks it is full. We are working to fix this as we speak, however this one will take a bit more time to resolve due to all our programming efforts being focused on fixing the matchmaking part of the game this evening.
PSA: Addressing Current Server Issues
ADDRESSING ISSUES WITH INFLUX OF PLAYERS
Battalion 1944 launched at 17:00 GMT and players were instantly put into games. Across that hour, Battalion has seen tens of thousands of players launch the game at once.
During our beta we had over 4,000 concurrent players, this is the number we used to anticipate day one players. We have seen four times that amount, all trying to matchmake at once and our server loads are currently MUCH higher than anticipated from those numbers. This is why you’re currently seeing the issues that are happening right now.
The future looks bright, but we need to work right now because we owe that to our community. Our existing fans know we like to operate as an open book, so we’d like to explain exactly what’s happening.
Client Update Available Tonight
We will be pushing a client update tonight to help solve the issue below, aiming to fix our second process. Please watch our social media accounts on twitter @Battalion1944 and @Brammertron or on Reddit /r/Battalion1944
So why exactly is this happening?
Our matchmaker uses two processes to get players into games. One is on our end, the matchmaking code is functioning how it was intended to function, this is almost entirely thanks to the testing from our alpha & beta testers. Players will be queued into games and eventually get into a game once the server has been created for them.
The second process is the allocation - which is handled by a third party. This is the part of the matchmaking process which has put a large halt on players getting into games because of the high server load - to the extent of fully stopping players from entering the game entirely.
We have hit a cap on this third party account that was never intended to be hit and the service provider are freezing all traffic through our servers. This is a protocol built in to protect us in the event of a DDOS attack, however, in this instance where Battalion is extremely popular the service is working against us. This same service is affecting joining community servers.
We are working on a fix for this issue and you should be able to begin matchmaking again soon.
Server Browser/Community Servers Community Servers also speak to the matchmaking service as part of our anticheat service.
“The fault lies with Bulkhead Interactive & Square Enix Collective for incorrectly anticipating the huge influx of players we would receive, we are incredibly humbled to receive this many players on Day one. It’s up to my team and I over the next few hours, days, and weeks to show you what we’re made of and show you we’re a dev team you can trust. I hope you see our updates as good communication. We will absolutely be learning from this and we’ll be showing you our updates through the weekend and next week”
BRAMMERTRON
Studio Lead @ Bulkhead Interactive
The most important information from us as developers to you as players:
We are working on and releasing a fix to resolve the complete halt on matchmaking.
Very soon there will be a small patch and client update. You must install this update to be able to get into unranked and arcade games. What this patch does is entirely remove the function of the third party and puts the stress back onto the servers and no longer the third party.
This means you WILL be able to get into games, however there will be long wait times with the ‘Match Ready - Allocating Server’ message. There will be a long wait time but this does mean you will be able to get into games.
How are we compensating players?
Currently, our focus is on how to fix the existing issues. But players will be rewarded for their patience and for supporting us in our first days of Early Access.
This is a TEMPORARY launch day solution.
Early Access is intended as a constant development period for us and matchmaking systems are a part of that development process. Throughout Early Access we will learn to manage our player numbers much better. It will also quickly become very easy to anticipate how many players we have and at what time as well as improve the entire matchmaking experience.
We need to thank you all so much for your enthusiasm and patience.
We’re seeing feedback that when players are getting into games that the game itself is awesome and exactly the back to the roots experience people wanted. We now need to deliver on getting players into games to make sure players can access that experience and rest assured we are doing everything we can to make that happen as soon as possible.
TL;DR
Client update and fix coming within the next few hours. This is a temporary fix - server wait times will still be sometimes up to 10 minutes, but this will be fixed this week.
Be The First To Fight - Preparing For Early Access
On February 1st, 17:00pm GMT we launch Battalion 1944 into Steam Early Access.
This is a huge milestone for everyone who has supported us at events, through our Alpha tests and all the way into our recent Beta. Now is finally the time when the closed doors will open and everyone will be able to join us in creating the true successor to great shooters of the past.
We’re expecting a large influx of new players and your opinions matter. If you’ve enjoyed the game throughout Alpha/Beta, positive Steam reviews will help us reach as many people as possible to ensure the largest impact on day one. We have listened to your feedback to get us to this point, and now the real fun begins.
For those who want to jump on board with our ongoing development - here’s a few of the options we’ll have for you to get access to the game on day one.
Announcing The ‘First To Fight’ Edition and Upgrade Pack
For soldiers who want to really show their support of the development of the game, we are giving you guys the option to upgrade to the ‘First To Fight’ edition. This edition includes extra bonus content that will help you kickstart your weapon skin collection as well as the Battalion 1944 Original soundtrack in its entirety.
The First To Fight Edition includes:
Battalion 1944 Core Game
5x 'The Originial War Chests'
Exclusive ‘First To Fight’ Trench Gun Weapon Skin
Battalion 1944 Original Soundtrack
The Battalion 1944 ‘First To Fight’ Edition will cost $24.99.
If you already own Battalion 1944 - you will have the option to upgrade later via the ‘Upgrade Pack’ which will cost $12.99. This includes the exact same bonus content as the First To Fight edition, minus the base Battalion 1944 base game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV2X_tGNwvk
All of the bonus content included in these editions are entirely optional and in no way affects the down the barrel gameplay of Battalion 1944!
Battalion 1944 - 10% Launch Discount
We decided to price Battalion 1944 at an insanely low price point to give you guys as much value for your money as we could afford. Our $14.99 price point reflects our ethos heading into Early Access, where you guys get access to the game early in return for helping us shape the game. On top of this we’re adding a small 10% launch discount for all the day one adopters as an extra thanks for checking out our game.
We’re planning to be in early access for just one year - in which we shall be adding new features and content as well as regular spot fixes and patches. Once we’ve hit our year one milestone we shall release out of Early Access at a higher price along with even more new content.
Kickstarter/Humble Early Access Steam Codes Have Been Sent!
If you’re a Kickstarter backer or you pre-ordered via Humble Bundle last year, you should have received your Battalion 1944 Steam key via email. This is NOT the same as the Battalion 1944 Test Zone key. If you’re missing your key when you’re 100% sure you have not received your key, please make sure to contact our community manager [URL="https://twitter.com/BigTunaAlex"]@BigTuna[/URL] via Twitter.
All Kickstarter Backers and Humble Supporters will receive 3 free war chests as an extra thanks for your support!
First Update! Ranked Competitive Matchmaking - Launches February 8th
Now this one’s huge.
Battalion 1944 Competitive Matchmaking will launch into Early Access February 8th, 2018.
This will give you one entire week to practice on unranked, arcade and community hosted servers ready for the competitive matchmaking launch day.
Ranked play will match players against each other of similar skill level with a hidden ELO system. Players will initially be put into placement matches with other players who are also completing their placements. Once all 10 placement matches are complete, you will then be put into a ranking division, either Bronze, Silver, Gold or Diamond. The goal of ranked play is for players to find others of a similar skill level and strive towards self improvement and teamplay.
To partake in ranked play, you must first reach at least level 10 (which shouldn’t take too long for players who grind the game on launch!).
Above is the full list of competitive ranks, all the way from Bronze Recruit to Diamond World Elite. Where do you think your road to becoming a professional player begin?
Other features/fixes coming out with the week 1 patch include:
VOIP will be added to the game
Equipped weapon skins will be enabled on unofficial community servers.
Distributed servers will show if they are not up to date via the server browser.
Networking improvements.
Other small tweaks and fixes.
Week One Tournaments and Events!
Bulkhead took the decision to not back any first week tournaments with prize money because we wanted to see which tournament providers would provide a good experience. However, we have worked with organizers to provide servers and some War Chest prize pools! Consider these first tournaments tests, have a good time and lets see who’s going to be THE FIRST winner of a Battalion tournament!
Want to take your team to the next level or jump straight into competitive play before the release of ranked matchmaking? On February 3rd Battalion 1944’s first weekly community hosted tournament will begin with the “BLITZKRIEG BATTLE” series.
BLITZKRIEG BATTLE (EU)
The Blitzkrieg Battle, community hosted and ran by ‘The Plays’ will take place online and will be broadcast via Twitch. 64 teams will compete to be crowned the first winner of a community hosted Battalion 1944 tournament. We fully endorse this kind of community initiative and have helped hook these guys up with the right people from Multiplay to run community hosted competitive servers for their event. This a great first step in seeing this community evolve.
WISEFRAG WEEKLY (NA)
The team at Wisefrag have put together a cup in North America.
Sign Up Here
[B]Talks With ESL[/B]
On the subject of Battalion 1944 and competitive tournaments, we tweeted a photo this week that showed we’d been visiting ESL’s UK Office. We had a lot of questions that obviously we’d love to answer, but we can’t do that just yet! It’s safe to say the future of Battalion’s esport scene is in great hands and we’re really excited to see which players rise to the top.
We’ve had many meetings over the last 2 years with ESL who have been incredibly supportive of our efforts, but we just wanted to let you all know that the future looks bright but unfortunately, this is just a teaser of what’s to come!
Announcing ‘The Original War Chest’
War chests are the cosmetic only unlock system in Battalion 1944. Warchests can be obtained entirely for free by leveling your account via experience points or purchasing them for $1.75 each. Every level progression will reward a player with one free War Chest, which can be opened for free without the need of any sort of ‘key’ to unlock the chest. Inside each Warchest is a guaranteed weapon skin unlock, which can be equipped in the inventory or traded/sold via the Steam Marketplace.
You also have the entirely optional choice of purchasing extra War Chests. We see this as a way for people to further financially support the future of Battalion 1944 - where profits gained will be put straight back into development of post release content, and competitive tournament prize pools.
To see the skins available in ‘The Original War Chest’ - take a look at this fan made website posted on Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/Battalion1944/comments/7tj9xz/i_made_a_website_showing_off_battalion_1944/
The Turing Test - Bonus Weapon Skin!
If you’ve played Bulkhead Interactive’s previous game, The Turing Test, you will be in for a nice surprise on February 1st inside your Steam inventory!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4m6sTdelDA
Early Access Day 1 Map Layouts / Callouts
You guys asked for map updated map overviews and call outs of every level which is being included in Early Access, so we’ve delivered. Click each thumbnail to expand!
[B]Coastal[/B]
[B]Derailed [/B]
Manorhouse v1
Manorhouse v2
Liberation
Battery
Outpost
AimMap_01
Linux Dedicated Servers
Good news Linux fans!
Linux distributed server files will be available February 1st for all your dedicated server hosting needs. If you’d like to pre-order a dedicated community server, head over to:
[URL="https://www.multiplaygameservers.com/game-servers/battalion/"]Multiplay[/URL]!
Battalion 1944 Server Wiki
If you’re looking for help on how to set up your dedicated server, check out our newly hosted wiki.battaliongame.com ! It should help you guys out with server commands and tips on day 1!
Alternatively you can also check out this guide in-game through Steam right here:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1287190221
Official Competitive Ruleset
Want to set up a competitive Battalion 1944 tournament? Read the ruleset and get prepared right here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1287213024
Some Interesting Programming Stats
Our lead programmer, [URL="https://twitter.com/James_Tatum"]James Tatum[/URL], has released some cool stats for programmers interested in Battalion 1944’s ongoing development. These facts include infomation such as how Battalion 1944’s code base has over 100,000 lines of code, and the busiest month saw nearly 24,000 lines of code written! You can follow him on twitter if this is your kind of thing.
Summary
Big things are coming. Let your friends know the release date and get your squad online and be the first to fight on February 1st. Leave a Steam review to let us know your thoughts and spread the word about the true successor to the classic shooters of the past.
This is Battalion 1944.
Beta Changes - Improvements, Tweaks, and Fixes From The Community
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!
[H1]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 esports@bulkheadinteractive.com
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.
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.
Thanks for your support! Battalion is releasing to Steam on Thursday February 1st 2018 (Next week). To help us promote the title, the best support you can give is:
Purchase The Game Day 1
Write a review for game on Steam
We’ll see you all in Steam Early Access February 1st!
Post Beta - What We've Learned
Thank you for a nostalgia filled beta weekend! Despite beta bugs, our players were gracious, understanding, and supportive of Battalion's bright future!
Battalion 1944 is coming to Early Access on February 1st 2018 at 17:00 GMT we hope to see you all there day one!
If you enjoyed beta and buy the game on day 1, please leave us a review and help get Battalion to the front of Steam!
[H1]Beta Overview
Overall the beta was a huge success! We were able to test match making with large numbers and expose the issues. Our opinion is bugs are a good thing, because it means we can fix them. We cant fix things we can’t see. There were definitely issues, but we’d like to remind everyone that this is an early access game and to remember ANY game at release, not just early access games. As far as Battalion’s stability goes, it was very good for an early access game. We’re now committed to preparing for our first major update: The Stability Update. You can read more about our roadmap here: www.battaliongame.com
We saw some incredible fragmovies over the weekend, and we’ll be regularly sharing some of our favourites in our Steam Updates. Along with weekly highlights from HattonGames!
[H1]Beta Highlights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sdOY0OUNEo
[H1]Brammertron’s favourite; Elwzoy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8GPdBZ4uO4
And finally, congratulations to “DRUNKKZ3” for being the highest competitively ranked player on Sunday, when we tested our elo rankings. He played an impressive 25 games in just a few hours!
Now it’s time for some updates and changes we’ve made based on the feedback from beta players.
UPDATES
M1 Carbine – Ironsight Update As usual, we debated this change internally before we even reached beta. We wanted to see how the players felt about the M1 Carbine before we went ahead and made changes. Players often said they found the default classes powerful with a high skill ceiling however, the ironsight on the M1 Carbine was regularly commented on as being invasive and ‘in the way’. It wasn’t a lot of work to make that change so this will be in for Early Access
Coastal – Lamppost Jump Balance We all love a good jump spot, so we didn’t want to remove this one that players found. However, we did want to make it more fair. We’ve removed the first tree, so that players are not shooting through a tree. We’ve also removed the railings from the top of the arch, making the player in the jump spot much more visible than before. The route you take to get on top of the lamppost is the same, but now you’ll be more exposed and visible than you were before. Do you think this is a good compromise?
Wartide – Future plans and Intentions We’re very aware that Wartide is needs tweaking. Our biggest issue with Wartide is that it is a negatively progressing system meaning; you are always losing cards instead of a positively progressing system like Counter Strike where you are constantly being rewarded. You are not the first to identify these issues; luckily, we anticipated balancing issues back in November and began work on designing improvements to the mode. Yesterday on the Monday following the beta we made the decision to pursue our improvements. Whilst we aren’t prepared to disclose what they are yet, we are happy to say that it is a big rework of Wartide, but the core value of team shared economy and physical pickups will remain in the mode. However, there are many juicy details we will be holding back until our first major update…
It’s important to mention that we NEED people playing the mode in its current state so that we can gather the data and balance what we currently have. The additions will come in due time, however we need to make sure we see the positives and negatives of the existing system playout, before we make any large changes, the same way any major studio would. Rest assured, the devs are on it.
We saw a huge amount of people play the game over the weekend. First and foremost, we’d like to apologize for underestimating how many people would want to play the game. Battalion is a lot bigger than we’d expected, which is an AWESOME problem to have! But we’d like to explain some of the matchmaking issues below and how we intend to fix them, just to keep the community in the loop!
Issues; be aware that most studios don’t acknowledge issues publicly. We’re doing this to let you know that we are making improvements and keep the community in the loop. We ask you remain patient with us as we work towards improving the game
Players not accepting matches 25% of the time, when a player alt-tabs back into Battalion during an accept period, the accept button will not show. Resulting in players not being able to hit accept. We are working to fix this
Not enough servers We have two types of servers, that Bulkhead and Square Enix Collective pay for. Bare Metal & Cloud based servers. The bare metal servers are literally sitting there, ready to go. However cloud based servers have to be requested from our server provider ‘Multiplay’. These cloud based servers can take sometimes up to 10 minutes to allocate! (Usually 3-6 minutes) However, during beta we saw issues meaning they weren’t correctly being allocated. Not only have we fixed this, we have also improved the way we allocate servers and we have also ordered more bare metal servers, so that players won’t have to wait to be assigned servers, EXCEPT during peak times. Once the game settles, we'll be able to predict exactly how many servers we'll need during peak times.
Server locations Currently, our match making does not detect the best location for all players in the match. It picks a server and that is it. This is something we are working on, but it takes time and we wanted to get the game in players hands before we continue work on improving server detection. Currently our EU Servers will be based in Luxembourg, a central location for Europe. While the US will have one location in in West, Central, and East. We’re also adding servers in new regions, this will be announced soon. Server locations will be improved and is only a temporary measure as we roll out Battalion improvements over the next few months.
So thank you for continuing to support us, we're actively working on improving all aspects of the game, yes. Including animations!
See you on February 1st!
Beta Update - What to Expect in Beta Weekend!
[H1]Beta is finally here! We’d like to thank everybody who’s helped us get to this point. We’ve had some amazing support over these last few months that we hope will continue through better and throughout early access
Briefly, we’d like to thank all of our early backers who helped fund Battalion, Square Enix who believed in us almost no questions asked, ESL for constantly being there to support Battalion’s growth in the competitive scene, and all of our developers for working some seriously long hours to get us to this point. We’ll be slowing down our updates from here on out and making sure our developers get a healthy amount of time at home with their families from this point!
Welcome to beta. You can stream, share, and create content based on the footage in this build!
This build contains the following gamemodes:
Wartide (Competitive)
Capture The Flag (Arcade)
Domination (Arcade)
Team Deathmatch (Arcade)
If you’re interested in learning how to play ‘Wartide’ check out this explanation video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uz4cTblG9S0
Phantasy has also taken the time to record and upload a scrim in Battalion. If you’re looking to hit Battalion hard this weekend, then these are the videos you want to watch!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhdESIBFxxs
And we’ll be running these maps!
Coastal
Derailed
Battery (Arcade Only)
[H1]BETA DATES: JANUARY 19th 18:00(GMT) to JANUARY 20th 06:00(GMT)
(INFLUENCERS ONLY & LUCKY PLAYERS!)
JANUARY 20th 18:00(GMT) to JANUARY 22nd 06:00AM(GMT)
(ALL PLAYERS)
Keys are currently being distributed via email and we will finish sending keys by 18:00 GMT Saturday! Continue checking your email because you may get in on the Friday! Thank you for your support, have a great beta and please buy the game on February 1st at 17:00 GMT on Steam!
