Game News! - Age of Napoleon French Faction Teaser
Hello there everyone! Welcome back to a new update of our Game news. Today we are happy to announce that the Age of Napoleon Mod Team has given us permission to share this awesome Teaser with you guys. Enjoy!
Called "Age of Napoleon" the Mod, made by our Community Members Aztir, Valk and DaMonkey is set in the year 1810, during the height of Napoleon's reign, and will feature two fully modeled Factions: France and Great Britain.
The Mod uses assets from the popular L'Aigle modification made by Docm30 (Jackson) for Mount & Blade: Warband.
While we are eager to show you more footage and reveal more information, the "Age of Napoleon" Mod Team has requested to keep most of the details a secret for now...
All we can say is that the Mod will release on May 15th, 2022. So stay tuned! Check out the original announcement with the British Faction Teaser here.
Napoleonic Themed Linebattle Event - May 15th 9:00PM CET
To celebrate the Mods release, we will be hosting a Special Napoleonic Themed Linebattle Event. The Event will take place on the 15th May at 9:00 PM CET (3:00 PM EST). The Rules and more information about the event will be published at a later Date.
Are you interested in attending huge organized Linebattles with hundreds of players? Then join our Discord and enlist with one of the Regiments (Clans) hosting organized events!
Thank you! /Flying Squirrel Entertainment
Game News! - First Full Conversion Mod
Hello there everyone! We are happy to announce that just in time for the 10 Year Anniversary of our first game, Mount & Blade: Warband - Napoleonic Wars, a new Full Conversion Mod for Battle Cry of Freedom has been announced.
Called "Age of Napoleon" the Mod, made by our Community Members Aztir, Valk and DaMonkey is set in the year 1810, during the height of Napoleon's reign, and will feature two fully modeled Factions: France and Great Britain.
The Mod uses assets from the popular L'Aigle modification made by Docm30 (Jackson) for Mount & Blade: Warband.
While we are eager to show you more footage and reveal more information, the "Age of Napoleon" Mod Team has requested to keep most of the details a secret for now...
All we can say is that the Mod will release on May 15th, 2022. So stay tuned!
Napoleonic Themed Linebattle Event - May 15th 9:00PM CET
To celebrate the Mods release, we will be hosting a Special Napoleonic Themed Linebattle Event. The Event will take place on the 15th May at 9:00 PM CET (3:00 PM EST). The Rules and more information about the event will be published at a later Date.
We are currently working on implementing a number of larger features and are finalizing the big Optimization Patch (More on that at a later date), so the changelog is not very long and mostly features smaller bug fixes and quality of life changes.
Full Changelog for this Patch
New Features:
Added setting for maximum number of ragdolls.
Added Bot revive zones. A human player must be in it to be activated. Bots will spawn at the nearest spawn point and run to the formation.
Added server settings to toggle allowed companies.ini.
Added server setting for the max % of bots that can be revived at a bot revive zone.
Added Corps Badges to a number of hats of the US Generic Infantry.
Added selectable Slouch Hats to the US Generic Infantry.
CS Generic Infantry now has access to the Springfield 1842 Smoothbore Musket.
Added 4 new Community Banners to the game.
Changes and fixes:
Significantly Improved performance of the player mesh merger.
Reduced default Sound volume of VOIP a bit.
Reduced possible Player Position desync between client and server.
Made sure that the default DOF and FOV level are set correctly when first launching the game.
Added security against cheats that would allow you to sprint indefinitely.
Fixed a bug causing bots to teleport all over the map when vaulting stone fences.
Fixed issue where if you died, your bots wouldn’t spawn in Commander Conquest.
Fixed that the live counter would not reset when Server settings were changed manually.
Fixed Server Browser not having a filter for Commander Conquest.
Fixed a bug with non commanded bots when they were being spawned for both teams.
Hopefully fixed that bots would sometimes not cause damage to each other.
Fixed a packet issue with dropped guns, rendering Blaster Rifle ammo unusable.
Fixed that when moving while surrendering, the legs wouldn’t move.
Renamed CS and US Generic Flag Bearers to “Color Bearer”.
Maybe fixed that Train Cart Doors would open the wrong way.
Increased Render Distance of all Boats, so that they actually get rendered from more than 40 meters away.
Fixed that some stone fences could not be vaulted over.
Resized Brown Bess Musket, previously was too large.
Fixed that the “No Flag Variants”, of Capture and Spawn Areas still had Flagpoles.
Earthworks are now less affected by Explosions.
Are you interested in attending huge organized Linebattles with hundreds of players? Then join our Discord and enlist with one of the Regiments (Clans) hosting organized events!
Thank you! /Flying Squirrel Entertainment
Game Updated! - Commander Conquest
Hello there everyone! We have just launched our latest update to Battle Cry of Freedom introducing the Commander Conquest game mode to the game. Additionally, at 19:00 CET (13:00 EST or 10:00 PST) Battle Cry of Freedom will go on a 35% Sale! That is less than 2 hours from now! So load your Musket, sharpen your swords and prepare for battle!
For a limited time, you can pick up Battle Cry of Freedom with a special discount of 35% ($7/€7) off of the retail price of $19.99 (€19.99).
Commander Conquest
Commander Conquest combines the Commander Battle game mode and the Conquest game mode together into one. Players are going to battle each other over large battlefields with multiple capture points, trying to capture and hold strategically important locations.
Once a company has lost all of its men, the player and his company will respawn at the Home Spawn. This means that players joining late will also be able to play immediately. No longer will they have to wait for the round to end. With the new game mode, the Engineer class will become extremely useful, strengthening friendly positions and destroying enemy field entrenchments.
Battle Cry of Freedom is now 35% off!
To celebrate the addition of the new Commander Conquest game mode, Battle Cry of Freedom will be participating in a Weeklong Steam Sale from the 11th to the 18th of April. We previously announced that we will be launching with a 25% Discount but have instead decided to up the Discount to a massive 35%! So if you were thinking about trying out the game, now is the best time to do so!
Simultaneously with Steam, we will also be launching a 35% Discount on Green Man Gaming. The game is there available immediately, so if you can not wait to get your hands on the game, head over to Green Man Gaming and get the game before the 35% Discount starts on Steam later today.
To accommodate the launch of the Commander Conquest game mode, we have entirely re-written the AI aiming code. Previously AI was not able to properly adjust for slopes in the terrain, meaning that they would often over- or undershoot their targets. This should now be fixed, making engagements much fairer.
Full Changelog for this Patch
New Features:
Added a new game mode: Commander Conquest to the game.
Added 2 new Banners.
Added “Generic” US and CS Infantry to the regular playable troops, no longer need to use the Modded troops.
Changes and fixes:
Changed how bots aim up and downhill to make them not shoot into the floor too much and actually aim properly at their targets.
Fixed the 1796 Pattern Light Cavalry Saber Scabbard.
Hopefully fixed the issue where you can't use cannon buttons.
Fixed a bug with map voting.
Changed some max values for map files.
Fixed a bug with Do All “X” text in the admin menu.
Updated weapon selection of the “Generic” Infantry troops.
Increased the accuracy penalty for being in 1 rank as line infantry, and buffed it for being in 3.
Fixed melee issue with player movement direction of attack/block:
Future Update Shedule
Starting with this Patch, we will be switching away from the regular weekly update Schedule to a more irregular update schedule. The reason for that is that we want to start work on larger new features, which will require more time and work. With a regular weekly update schedule, we do not have a whole lot of time to spend on implementing new features.
We will keep you updated on what we are working on and will provide you with many sneak peaks of what's to come.
Are you interested in attending huge organized Linebattles with hundreds of players? Then join our Discord and enlist with one of the Regiments (Clans) hosting organized events!
Thank you! Stay tuned for next Monday! /Flying Squirrel Entertainment
Game Updated! - Bug Fixes & Additions
Welcome to Battle Cry of Freedoms' 5th regular update. As usual, we implemented a number of community-requested features and changes. If you have any feedback or suggestions, feel free to join our Discord Server!
This weeks patch is rather small and mostly focused around Quality of Life changes, Regiment (Clan) additions and bug fixes. You can read the Full Changelog at the bottom of the Blog Post. As usual, here are some of the more important changes in detail:
Player position Desync and Melee changes
We have hopefully fixed an issue causing others players to heavily desync when bumping into each other. This patch should significantly improve this problem and should result in much better melee gameplay. In addition, we have also added a number of melee changes. Please take a look in the changelog for details.
Regiment Requested Features
Using the Modded Troops (Enable under Player Settings on Server), Regiments now will have access to two fully customizable placeholder units for the Union and Confederates. Regiments therefore will be able to use these placeholders to create their own uniforms with. The Confederates have access to various Butternut, Grey and EAC uniforms while the Union has access to Frock Coats, Sack Coats and Hardee Hats.
The placeholder Units provide standard Infantry bonuses, so they should be good to use in Linebattles too! Players can even edit the Display name of these Units by modifying the Moddable Troops.txt in the game folder.
Commander Conquest
As mentioned in an earlier Blog, we ran into some unforeseen issues with the new game mode and had to delay its release. We are still finalizing and testing the new game mode, and therefore have decided not to release it just yet. Instead, Commander Conquest will go live next Monday the 11th April!
To celebrate the addition of the new Commander Conquest game mode, Battle Cry of Freedom will be participating in a Weeklong Steam Sale from the 11th to the 18th of April.
For those of you interested in a preview of the new Commander Conquest game mode, Dinklebean will be Livestreaming a few rounds of Commander Conquest tonight at 9pm CET (3pm EST) (8pm BST) to his Twitch!
Added non-assigned key bind to make the mouse sensitivity in Scene Editor as low as possible while it's being held.
Added a setting to scale the compass/score UI.
Changes and fixes:
Hopefully fixed various desync issues relating to corrupted or missing packets.
Hopefully mostly fixed players desyncing when running into each other.
Fixed an issue causing some of the banners not to be displayed correctly.
Updated 2 Community Banners.
Decreased Gatling Gun turn rate by 10%
Apple trees should now fall to the ground when chopped down.
Fixed incorrect scabbard of the Pattern 1796 Light Cavalry Sabre.
Reduced backwards Walk and Run Speed.
Fixed an issue with player colliders, causing players bumping into each other to desync more often than they should.
Reduced musket bayonet melee downstab damage by 5%.
Fixed that the reload animation would not play when moving while reloading was enabled.
Added a cooldown to blocking and attacking after pushing.
When crouched and in melee mode, players now deliver 30% less melee damage.
After blocking an incoming attack, players now will have a 0.1 second long melee attack cooldown.
Fixed that you could push while executing a melee attack.
Decreased speed of block and attack direction changing slightly.
Slightly reduced the stun length of low damage hits.
Reduced the block cooldown after successfully executing a melee attack by 0.1 seconds.
You now take more damage from melee if you are hit while reloading.
Reload bonus and NCO bonus were increased to 10% from 5% per buff.
Calling out militia should no longer yell “Engineer!”.
Lieutenant now stands more to the left in the bot formation.
Lieutenant will now only fire at targets that are close.
Changed some of the code for randomly spawned props in the map editor.
You now get notified if a spawn is no longer valid
Added a new UI letting players know for how long they have to hold the Key-Cap in King of the Hill, Battle, and Commander Battle.
Added a small delay timer on your bots spawning after you spawn if spawned in late or no one is on the other team.
Made fog less likely to occur.
Removed hardcoded melee penalty for skirmisher bots and replaced it with a setting we can adjust on a per-company basis.
Server should no longer load large maps if there is a small playercount.
Are you interested in attending huge organized Linebattles with hundreds of players? Then join our Discord and enlist with one of the Regiments (Clans) hosting organized events!
Thank you! Stay tuned for next Monday! /Flying Squirrel Entertainment
Game Updated! - Version 223003D
Version 223003D
Welcome to Battle Cry of Freedoms' 4th regular update. As usual, we implemented a number of community-requested features and changes. If you have any feedback or suggestions, feel free to join our Discord Server!
This Patch is mostly focused around Quality of Life changes and additions to destructibility. Due to unforeseen issues, we weren't able to implement some of the new features we wanted to get done for today, so keep tuned for next week. You can read the Full Changelog at the bottom of the Blog Post. Here are some of the more important changes in detail:
Destruction
In an ongoing effort to make everything in the game destructible, we have added a large number of new destructible walls to the game. With today's patch, all of the modular buildings will be almost entirely destructible. More additions to destruction will be following soon, with roofs and pre-made buildings next on the list.
Commander Battle balancing
We have completely rewritten the Commander Battle Team balancing code (Again) to better balance the teams and more fairly divide the AI between the teams. Additionally, we have reduced the number of Confederate Sharpshooter soldiers by 10% and also have reduced AI accuracy with the Whitworth Rifle by 10%. For the Union, the AI has gained a small accuracy boost, all soldiers equipped with the Fusil d'Infanterie Modele 1842 have gained an accuracy boost of 20%.
Changes to classes and new Sabre
We have introduced a number of changes to the existing classes. All Artillery Enlisted for both the United States and the Confederate States now have access to the Model 1832 Foot Artillery Sword. Due to its short length, the sword will be extremely useful for defending close quarters such as Forts or entrenchments. The 54th Massachusetts has gained access to the .58 Cal. Lorenz Rifle.
The "Stand in Line" Bonus that all Infantry Enlisted men provide now also provides a sway reduction to aiming. Each player in line will provide a 5% sway and damage reduction bonus to friendly players also in the line. The bonus stacks up to a maximum of 15% reduction.
We have also added a new weapon to the game. The 1796 Light Cavalry Sabre. While not particularly historically accurate for the period, we figured that it would still be a cool weapon to add to the Militia Class. The 1796 was extremely popular in Europe and therefore it's not impossible that it might have ended up in the hands of a Militia Officer.
Pioneer Forward Spawn Improvements
To make it more clear to players why they can not place Forward Spawns, it will now display the reason on the bottom of the screen.
Whats to come?
As mentioned earlier, we ran into some unforeseen issues with some of the features we wanted to add for this patch. Next week will see the addition of a new game mode: Commander Conquest.
Commander Conquest will combine the Commander Battle game mode and the Conquest game mode together into one. Players are going to battle each other over large battlefields with multiple capture points, trying to capture and hold strategically important locations. Once a company has lost all of its men, the player and his company will respawn at the Home Spawn. This means that players joining late will also be able to play immediately. No longer will they have to wait for the round to end. With the new game mode, the Engineer class will become extremely useful, strengthening friendly positions and destroying enemy field entrenchments.
Other than Commander Conquest, we are working on two separate big patches at the moment. These will still take quite some while to be finished and it is too early to tell what's about to come. So all I can say for now is to stay tuned! There are many more things coming to Battle Cry of Freedom this year.
Official European Monday Linebattle
Starting coming Monday 04.04.2022 at 9pm CET (3pm EST) we will be hosting a weekly Official EU Linebattle Event. The Event will rotate between different game-modes and maps every week. Anyone is welcome to attend.
Signups will be done on our our Discord Server. in #event-signups 30 minutes prior to the event. All Regiment Leaders or Reps. must be present at minimum 30-15 minutes prior, so that we can figure out team balance in a timely manner and can start the event on time. Specialist roles such as Sharpshooters or Artillery will also be assigned then.
If you have any questions feel free to contact Olafson on Discord or on Steam.
Full Changelog
New Features:
A lot more walls are now fully destructible. Expect your cover to be blown away!
Added a setting to automatically switch to First Person when entering melee mode.
Added .69 Cal. Ball Ammunition to all Limber Chests.
Updated to the new Unity Engine Version, hopefully fixing various Crashes and slightly improving performance.
Implemented new system to Balance Teams in Commander Battles.
Added 10 new Community requested banners and updated 3 existing banners.
Added the Pattern 1796 light cavalry saber. Available to the Militia Officers.
Added the Model 1832 Foot Artillery Sword to all Artillery Enlisted for both CS and US.
Infantry, when standing in line, now get a reduction to aiming sway. Up to 15% less sway.
Added a server setting to not have more sway when low on stamina.
Added new setting to have snow start on the scene.
Added option to automatically go into first person when changing to melee mode.
Added config settings to limit what modes people can vote for map polls.
Added new messages for why you can't plant a sapper prop.
Added wave respawning as an option.
Added Lieutenants in Commander Battle if the company has them and your troop count is >= 30.
Added server config commands for the server to broadcast messages at specific times, and change settings at specific times
Changes and fixes:
Increased number of Artillery Ramrods and Sponges on each artillery piece from 4 to 8.
Artillery ramrods, when misfiring, should now fly further.
Increased bullet damage across the board by ~10%
Decreased reload time for all Smoothbore Muskets and Flintlocks slightly.
Decreased reload time for the Lefaucheux M1858 and Volcanic Repeating Arms Company Lever-Action Navy Pistol and the Moore Teatfire Revolver.
Decreased AI-Accuracy with the Whitworth rifle by an additional 10%.
Increased AI-Accuracy with the Fusil d’Infanterie Modele 1842 by 20%
Decreased number of Palmetto Sharpshooter Bots in Commander Battles by 10%.
Decreased number of Angry Mob Bots in Commander Battles by 20%.
Slightly increased damage of the Gatling Gun.
The 54th MA now has access to the .58 Cal. Lorenz Rifle.
Reduced aim sway of Whitworth rifle.
Fixed that 3 Inch Ordnance Limber Chest did not have access to muskets or Binoculars.
Increased Ammunition in the 12pndr Mountain Howitzer Pack Carriage Chest.
Fixed the broken 1841 Mississippi Rifle sights.
Should have temporarily fixed that the AI would just walk straight through barricades.
Increased size and improved readability of some of the on-screen tooltips.
Slightly reduced texture video memory.
Fixed a memory leak for voice data client side.
Fixed various errors with voice chat.
Added more security for corrupted data arriving on client
Made the stun you get from being pushed 0.2 seconds longer.
Solved some exceptions from losing contact with steam as client and or server.
Made the server browser a bit easier to read.
Added notifications for holding key caps in king, battle, and CB
Melee bonus from flags is now 20%, and no longer stacks
Changed max respawn time allowed to 300 seconds.
Hopefully fixed bug with polls and map change.
Fixed Sapper AI-Heal and AI-Ammo areas could not be placed outside of the Homespawn.
Thank you! Stay tuned for next week's update! /Flying Squirrel Entertainment
Game Updated! - Version 222303D
Version 222303D
Welcome to Battle Cry of Freedoms' 3rd regular update. This Patch is mostly focused around Quality of life changes and bug fixes.
Unfortunately, this week's Patch is rather small. We are working on a couple of larger features for next week's patch, so keep tuned for that. You can read the Full Changelog at the bottom of the Blog Post. Here are some of the more important changes in detail:
Commander Battle / AI-Changes
To improve the usefulness of Pioneers in Commander Battles we have given them the ability to construct special Commander Battle game mode specific constructibles:
Ammunition re-supply Zones Pioneers will now be able to construct Ammunition re-supply Zones. Any AI-Soldiers inside the zone (marked by the red markers) will automatically over time re-arm themselves with ammunition. This will be especially useful for the Union, since their sharpshooters tend to run out of ammunition relatively quickly!
Health re-generation Zones Pioneers will now also be able to construct Health re-generation Zones i.e. a surgeons table with a bucket full of sawn-off arms and a couple of ambulance beds. Any AI-Soldiers in the zone will automaticially heal themselves, but don't worry, they won't loose an arm or a leg.
Commadner UI Improvements We added UI to the top of the screen informing players who are in command of a company of AI-Soldiers about their soldiers current status. The UI will display the average health and ammunition supply of the company as well as the number of AI-Soldiers in the company.
AI Improvements to Pathfinding AI-Soldiers will now no longer get stuck on Pioneer constructed defenses and instead should be able to properly navigate around them. Should you instead want your AI-Soldiers to break down enemy defenses, you can give them the order to do so with F7-F1.
Artillery Changes
All artillery limber chests now come packed with their specific ammunition plus a carbine, a felling axe and binoculars. This will give Artillery the ability to defend themselves, and artillery rankers the ability to spot targets in the distance with greater ease. Additionally, the 3-Inch Parrot, 10-Pound Parrot, 20-Pound Parrott and the 12-Pound Witworth now have properly adjusted sights and should no longer over or undershoot.
Aiming Accuracy Changes
We have completely reworked the sway and random bullet deviation system, resulting in more realistic ballistics. While all rifles and pistols have become more accurate and bullets should no longer veer off to the left or right unrealistically, we have also increased the sway slightly. Hopefully, this will result in much better gunplay AND in a more skill-based game. Instead of hoping for the shot to land, players will now have to learn how to aim and negate the sway of their rifle.
Other Quality of Life Improvements
Most importantly, we increased the jump height of the player by 15% and implemented a number of small UI-Tooltips letting new players know how to play the game. Another important change is that we sped up weapon drawing and switching animations by 30%, which should result in more responsive gameplay. There are a good number of other changes, so I suggest you check them out in the changelog below.
Full Changelog
New Features:
Added Militia NCO to Organized Militia.
Added a Deathbox to the top of Canyon, so players can no longer climb out of it.
Added Carbines and Binoculars to all Artillery Limber Chests.
Added a new feature so that AI soldiers should no longer get stuck on Sapper Defenses.
Engineers now can construct Ammunition resupply Zones as well as Heal areas in Commander Battles.
Clicking on a player on the Scoreboard will now allow you to open their Steam Profile.
Added ability to make color-photos in the Uniform and Gear Editor.
Added server setting for melee tracers. Works similar to bullet tracer settings.
Added UI for common keys in HUD.
Added bot status UI for numbers, health,and ammo.
Added some new notifications for bots.
Changes and fixes:
Reduced Texture Memory usage slightly.
Slightly improved performance of various Lights on custom maps.
Reduced load time by a few seconds when joining a server that has been running for a longer period of time.
Reworked the Aim Sway system to be more in sync with the Server.
Reworked the bullet random system for more realistic ballistics.
Increased the weapon sway a bit.
Bayonets now clip with the environment when aiming, making it easier to aim over objects, around corners or through loopholes.
Reduced AI-Soldier accuracy with the Witworth rifle by 20%.
Slightly decreased damage of Pritchett .58 Ball.
Slightly Increased stun length for low damage hit effects.
Sped up draw weapon and sheath weapon animations by 30%.
Fixed a bug on Mountain Pass causing players to fall through the Train tracks.
Fixed that some of the Pine trees would not fall over after breaking.
Should have fixed that the destroyed Cactus would not fall over.
Destructible Walls are now easier to destroy with Explosions.
Reduced size of Sap Roller (Rolling Gabion) collider.
Increased Build Point cost of Explosive Kegs from 28 to 38 build points.
Fixed that Confederate Lieutenants did not have access to the Remington Revolver.
Fixed sights on the 20pdr and 10pdr Parrott Rifle as well as the 12pdr Witworth.
Gatling Guns are now no longer considered OP Artillery, i.e. they can be spawned on Commander battle Servers.
Minor changes and fixes on various UI elements.
Fixed that sometimes the Ping shown on Scoreboard was the wrong value.
Clicking on Profile from Main Menu now always opens the Profile Screen.
Server Filters are no longer retained after restarting the game.
Should have fixed that the game did not recognize the users language correctly.
Remove the spawn button from the escape menu in Battle and Commander Battle game modes.
Changed the wording “Unofficial” to “Community” in the server list.
Fixed some typos and grammar errors in the UI.
Fixed that players could not go underneath the terrain i.e. basements.
Fixed that custom maps would not check for the current player count, resulting in much to large maps being played on small population servers.
Added confirmation for banning in alternative Admin menu.
Fixed a bug with limbers on join, causing them to break.
Updated the Italian translation.
Added notification for when the round goes into overtime.
Fixed that bonuses were not displayed for Milita troops.
Changed how the Team balance in Commander Battles is calculated.
Fixed a bug that caused map editor sceneprops to break when the map was reset.
Fixed issue with parenting of props on map load.
Thank you! Stay tuned for next week's update! /Flying Squirrel Entertainment
Game Updated! - Version 221603D
Version 221603D
After last week's Update, this is the 2nd regular Battle Cry of Freedom update. In this update, we have implemented a number of community-requested features, various smaller performance improvements as well as new weapons and a number of Quality of Life Improvements.
The changelog is much to long for us to go through every entry in detail, so instead we will only be featuring some of the more important changes and additions. You can read the Full Changelog at the bottom of the Blog Post.
New Server List
We have received a number of reports from Players who were not able to see certain servers in the Server Browser. Until today, we have been using the Steam Server List to query Servers to fill the Server Browser with. However, Steam is very unreliable, sometimes not showing all the Servers and often goes down for maintenance.
To fix the issue, we have spent some time designing our own Server List, so that we are no longer dependent on Steam. We now list and query from our own List, which is about 10x as fast as querying from the Steam Server list and additionally will also make sure that players have access to all Servers, all the time.
New Weapons
We have added a couple of new Weapons to the game, which will be immediately selectable by various classes in the game. Over the coming few weeks we will be continuously adding more weapons to the game, so stay tuned for future updates.
India Pattern Brown Bess Musket Although extremely outdated by the time of the Civil War, the India Pattern Brown Bess still saw service with a few militia units early in the Civil War. Even unconverted Flintlock Versions, like the one featured in the game, were used by a number of Federal Militia Units.
Pattern 1853 Cavalry Saber The Pattern 1853 Cavalry Saber was a British Cavalry Sabre that the Confederacy imported in large numbers. The Saber saw widespread use in the Cavalry and Artillery. Although we do not have Cavalry in the game just yet, we will be issuing the Sword to the Artillery as well as the CS Militia Officers.
Lefaucheux M1858 Pinfire Revolver The French Lefaucheaux M1858 was one of the most numerous imported Revolvers of the Civil War, seeing widespread use in the Union Cavalry. The Revolver used a metallic cartridge that included both the primer and the powder in one cartridge. In the game, the Revolver will be issued to all Union Officers.
Remington-Beals Model Revolver After a fire broke out in the Colt Factory, destroying most of it, the US Government replaced the Colt Army with the Remington-Beals Model Revolver. Although not seeing adoption until relatively late in the war, the Remington-Beals quickly became one of the most used Revolvers of the Civil War.
Chat Filter
We have implemented a configurable Chat Filter that can be turned off/on at will by Server Admins. The Filter checks the chat for any word that might be deemed inappropriate and if posted will replace the word with *****. Server Owners can choose which words to filter by editing the "BannedWords.txt". This will allow Server Owners maximum flexibility over which words to ban.
Changes to Weapons
We standardized the Muzzle Velocity deviation values of all Rifles, making it more consistent between rifles. What this in turn means is that Players will now be able to more reliably hit the same target at slightly longer distances.
Additionally, we have also tweaked the Union Sharps Rifle. We have increased its projectile damage significantly but have decreased the base bayonet melee damage. This will make the Sharps Rifle a very deadly and accurate Sharpshooter rifle, but it will not be of much use in Melee.
To diversify pistols more and give each pistol its own unique stats we have changed the accuracy values of various revolvers and pistols.
Lastly, we removed all smoothbores from the 13th VA and 20th ME Soldiers. Now only the VMI and the 72nd PA will have access to Smoothbores. What this means is that the 13th VA and 20th ME now will be better for players who like to shoot over medium to long ranges, but the 72nd PA and VMI will be better for players who like to sneak up to the enemy and fire deadly volleys at medium to close ranges.
Quality of Life Improvements
We implemented a number of Quality of Life improvements, fixed various bugs and generally tried to improve gameplay and feel of the game. Most importantly, the Troop Menu now displays the bonuses each class provides and has useful tooltips which can be read by hovering over the icons. We also reworked "Twist Rate" and "Drag Coef" to "Accuracy", which now shows a stat of 0 to 100. This should help players to easily identify the differences between classes and weapons.
Uniform Modding Support
We have finally gotten around to uploading the Unity Project with the sample mod files and ALL of the uniform and character models that are currently included in the game. Modders therefore will have access to more than 5000 uniform models to play around with.
We also added several new Moddable Uniform Slots to the game. All of the new Factions added to the Moddable Uniforms list are fully voiced in their respective language. We will be adding more factions and specific weaponry for the modded factions in the near future, this is only the start. If you have requests for specific weapons or factions, please contact us on Discord, we will be happy to add them to the game.
The Unity Project allows modders to create their own character models, for example creating aliens, astronauts or other full conversion modifications. We have not made a Tutorial yet, but adding Uniforms to the game is very easy and straightforward. If you have any questions, please Contact Olafson on our Discord Server, he will be happy to help and even hop in a Discord call with you to help you get started.
The Download Link for the Modded Uniforms Project can also be found on our Discord Server.
Full Changelog
New Features:
Added the following new weapons to the game:
.........India Pattern Brown Bess Musket (All Organized Militia)
.........Lefaucheux M1858 Pinfire Revolver (All US Officers)
.........Remington-Beals Model Revolver (All CS and US Officers)
The Troop Menu now displays all class-specific bonuses. Hovering over the icon will show details.
Engineers can now construct 12pdr Coehorn Mortar Chests.
Added a chat filter to the chat. Admins can define what words to filter in the “BannedWords.txt”.
Added a Server setting to enable/disable rifled artillery.
Added server setting for how long a team must hold the Key Cap in Koth, CB, and Battle to win.
Added a Server setting to have map polls change right away or when the map/round ends.
Added a Server setting to automatically add bots to the team opposite of the players for servers like BBG. It is double the living players + 10; This will override the normal bot settings.
Updated Official Server map rotation: Added two Community Maps.
Added a keybind to quickly mute/unmute VOIP.
Added more Moddable Uniform Slots to the game. With the following factions (Fully Voiced):
.........France - Flintlocks
.........Great Britain - Flintlocks
.........Russia - Flintlocks
.........Austria - Flintlocks
.........Prussia - Flintlocks
.........United States - Flintlocks
Added a new Soundtrack selection to the game: Napoleonic Wars. This will play the Soundtrack of Mount & Blade: Warband - Napoleonic Wars.
Changes and fixes:
Standardized Muzzle Velocity deviation values of all Rifles, making it more consistent between rifles. They are now categorized into 3 categories: Smoothbores, Rifles and Flintlocks.
Reduced Fonts Memory usage by 80 Megabyte.
Reduced Sound Memory usage by 10 Megabyte.
Reduced Texture Memory usage by 265 Megabyte.
Reduced Terrain VRAM and Memory usage.
Improved performance of Tree Trunks and Stumps.
Reduced Base Bayonet-Melee damage of the Sharps Rifle with Socket Bayonet from 50 to 23.
Increased projectile damage of the Sharps Rifle with Socket Bayonet.
Decreased number of Artillery Bots assigned to players for Commander Battles.
13th VA and 20th ME now no longer have access to Smoothbore weapons. (i.e. 72nd PA and VMI will be more effective at close range, 13th VA and 20th ME more effective from a distance).
Fixed floating Limber Buckets on all Cannon-Limbers.
Fixed that the .54 Lorenz Ammo was using the .54 Minie Ball. It is now using its own Projectile.
Changed default zeroing of the 12pndr Whitworth Rifle, the 3inch, 10pndr and 20pndr Parrott Rifle, hopefully fixing that they shoot low.
Changed Bayonet of the Model 1816 Springfield Rifle.
Names should no longer clip over player numbers in the Troop Menu.
Diversified Accuracy values of all Pistols and Revolvers.
Fixed that the 1841 Mississippi Rifle Sights do not line up.
Increased Ammunition Capacity of the 12pdr Coehorn Mortar Chest from 8 to 10 Shells per crate.
Fixed the options menu buttons for keybinds and fixed resetting keybinds.
Fixed that the spawn menu would automatically open up when you are out of lives.
The spawn menu should no longer open while in the map editor.
Player meshes and their guns should now be turned off when in the spawn menu.
Changed Admin text for teleporting a player.
Limited the chat input length to what the server actually allows as maximum input lenght.
Fixed a bug with auto admin in melee.
Removed help text for a keybind no longer available.
Fixed memory leak with player/bot faces.
Updated Polish and Chinese translations.
Added Server name, Password, and Group Fight mode to the Admin Menu event category.
Hitting escape on first join now opens the team selection menu.
Changed team limitation from Union and Confederate to Attackers and Defenders.
Fixed a bug with attacker and defender bot settings.
Sapper Spawns can now only be placed greater than double the distance set in the Server settings from Home Spawns.
Fixed some specular settings for various floor textures.
Replaced Twist Rate and Drag Coef. with Accuracy, showing a value between 0 to 100.
Added security for when players accidentally fall under the terrain.
Changed the direction Commander Battle Bots would face when not targeting a player or bot.
Thank you! Stay tuned for next week's update! /Flying Squirrel Entertainment
Game Updated! - Version 220803D
Version 220803D
As promised, we will be keeping to a weekly update Schedule. After last week's Hotfix, this is the first regular Battle Cry of Freedom update. In this update, we have implemented a few community-requested features as well as a new map. However, most importantly, we continued our work on improving graphics performance.
There is more to come, but we all have to take one step at a time. Stay tuned for next week's update!
New Features: - Added a new map: Canyon. - Added server setting for destroying sapper spawns after X spawns (500 turns this feature off). - Added server setting for reloading on the move. - Added server setting for reload speed multipliers. - Bots can now destroy Pioneer-placed items. For Commander Battles, we added a new command, ordering your bots to destroy any Pioneer-placed items in the area.
Changes and fixes: - Improved destruction particle effect performance. - Improved Smoke destruction particle effect performance. - Improved Cannon Smoke particle effect performance. - Improved hit particle effect performance. - Improved blood splat particle effect performance. - Improved Terrain performance on various maps. - Improved physics performance in general. - Improved performance of the player position and input data reading on client by 4 times. - Improved performance of the player script by 25% - Improved performance of movable objects. - Reduced Server Bandwith usage by 5% - Tweaked bullet damage and accuracy for various rifles. - Changed accuracy and damage values of single-shot pistols. - Updated some server strings. - Updated some old strings. - Changed non-Commander Battle Union and Confederate Bots to Attacking and Defending Bots. - Fixed ragdolls being invisible on join. - Changed sandstorm weather effects. - Changed how ghost sapper props rotate when outside of building range. - Fixed an error related to players. - Changed how transparent callouts and orders are displayed while looking through Binoculars. - Leaving the scoreboard now clears the search bar. - Server mutes are now temporary, just like temp bans. - If capture progress on the Key Capture Area for attackers is positive, even if the Area isn't neutral, the round will continue. - Changed the height Sapper Spawns check for when placing. - In Battle, Commander Battle, Duel, and Deathmatch the troop menu will appear rather than the spawn menu. The spawn menu is no longer usable in Battle and Commander Battle. - Buffed bonus damage from flags - Fixed sliding doors sliding in strange directions. - Hopefully fixed a bug causing players to be stuck aiming their musket up in the sky. - Fixed CB in the scene editor not using the saved maps setting.
Thank you! Stay tuned for next week's update! /Flying Squirrel Entertainment
Frequently Asked Questions
First off, we want to offer our genuine thanks to everyone who has picked up Battle Cry of Freedom in its first week of release. We’re so excited to see everyone’s responses to the game, and we appreciate the thoughtful feedback we’ve received. We’re a small team constantly working on making the game the best it can be. We know there are improvements to be made and we’d like to address some of the common concerns we’ve heard and our plans to fix them:
Optimization and graphics performance:
We know this is a prominent concern and we are hard at work making improvements. Over the last few days we’ve already implemented patches (changelog Below) and we plan to continue releasing client side patches to improve overall performance. This is something we’ll likely never stop working on, but we will try to get the game running well on most systems. We also intend to decrease memory usage.
Melee animations:
Reworking the melee animations is something we’ve been vocal about wanting to improve after release, we’re hoping that we will have the funds soon to hire an animator so we’ll have someone working exclusively on the animations.
Melee mechanics:
Melee is an ongoing discussion with the community and we intend to stick as close to the Napoleonic Wars formula as possible. We have a dedicated melee feedback channel on our Discord, so anyone with melee related feedback is more than welcome to post there. We do read the responses and reply to them.
Toxicity and racially insensitive language in voice comms:
Sadly this is something that can happen with VOIP, nevertheless we try as best we can to stay on top of it. We want this to be a welcoming and friendly community for all and we take a hard stance against any racist or otherwise inappropriate comments. We are getting more and more admins on board (in various different time zones), to prevent those things from happening.
Anyone can report another player on our Discord, so if you see or hear someone spewing racist garbage around, we invite you to report the player there.
Player count in servers:
We take pride in our 500 man server, but we recognize the player count isn’t always that high. As Battle Cry of Freedom is a new game, the community is just starting to grow and we hope to continue that trajectory of high player counts. However not all players want to play on the same server so it can be difficult to fill the servers with 500 players at all times. Regardless, there are plenty of players on various different official and community servers.
For the real large scale experience, we suggest joining one of the community organized events/linebattles. Event details are often posted in the Discord.
Long reloading times for weapons:
We recently reduced reload time of the weapons slightly, but to preserve the historical accuracy we don't intend to reduce it any further. However, there’s a server setting for it now, so any community that dislikes it can tweak it to their liking.
No proper tutorial, hard for newcomers to pick up:
We agree that Battle Cry of Freedom can have a steep learning curve for new players. We plan to develop an in-game tutorial at some point, unfortunately it’s a bit difficult to implement a single player tutorial into a multiplayer game.
We have been adding more and more tooltips as well as small quality of life features to the game, such as little pop-ups on the bottom of the screen that give you more information on what you can do, or that give you feedback on various things such as killing/hitting enemy players etc.
Update Changelog
Over the past few days we have pushed a series of smaller hotfixes and patches, introducing a few new features, but mostly improving performance and fixing bugs. Here is the full changelog:
Version 220501D New Features: - Reworked cannon sight system, you can now manually move the sight up and down with Q and E. Check the inside of the limber chest for what angle you need for what distance. - Added fire out of line punishment functionality, you can enable it through the admin settings. - Added notification for loosing ammo. - Added automatic spawn opening in respawn modes. Toggle above the list of spawns turns this off. - Added notifications for hitting and killing players. Option in misc to turn this off. - Hitting tab while in the chat menu cycles the selected chat button. - Added the ability to limit what companies are playable in your server using the AllowedCompanies.ini - Added the ability to use /cmd (command) for senior admins in server. The commands are typed the same way as in the config file. Not all commands can be changed after server start. - Added notification for Battle and Commander Battles when dead and spectating. - Added popup if you hit fight while previewing a different troop than the one you have selected. - Added a new capture point to Cold Harbor map.
Changes and fixes: - Reduced memory usage by 1.5gb. - Various performance improvements regarding Pioneer works such as earthworks, gabions etc. - Various performance improvements regarding Ammunition crates and Limber Chests. - Improved performance of point lights. - Improved performance of a number of Particle Effects. - Improved performance of all weapons. - Improved performance of far distance Player Meshes. - Improved performance of the VOIP system on the Client CPU. - Fixed that VOIP only worked up to 255 players. - Changed Gatling Gun Sights. Less realistic, but should be easier to aim down sights now. - Fixed several broken Cannons. - Improved performance of all Limber Buckets on all Limbers (But now some are floating in place, GG) - Fixed a bunch of string typos. - Fixed string issue in polls. - Changed the help text for map editor. - Random troop button should no longer preview modded troops if they aren't allowed. - Fixed favoriting in server browser. - Fixed game mode drop down in server browser. - Made server browser not be as performance intensive when updating. - Fixed achievements not being awarded. - Fixed an issue on where you could bypass spectator limitations. - Fixed an issue with the selection box grabbing props behind the camera. - Can no longer use voip button while typing a chat message. - Fixed siege defenders lives in medley not being read in config. - Fixed broken Whitworth Gun Limber - Fixed that the 6pndr Limber Chest was inside another Limber Chest. - Changed size of the Bridge Capture point on River Crossing map. - Fixed that the CS Hospital Steward healed less than its US counterpart. - Fixed that some Ammunition Crates would randomly glow at times. - Reduced build point cost of Sapper Spawns. - Increased build point cost of Lanterns. - Slightly increased accuracy of the Scoped Whitworth Rifle. - Increased damage of the Scoped Whitworth Rifle by 20%. - Fixed broken collision on one of the Wooden Shacks. - Fixed an error in gear menu. - Player names now no longer twitch when the player is rotating.
Again, we thank everyone who has supported Battle Cry of Freedom, new players and old, and we are committed to implementing improvements in the coming months and beyond. If you have any specific questions or feedback, feel free to message us on Discord or post in the Steam discussion thread.
We hope to see you on the battlefield! /Flying Squirrel Entertainment
Hello there everyone! After nearly 10 years of development and a successful showing at the Steam Next Fest, Battle Cry of Freedom will launch today at 18:00 CET (12:00 EST or 09:00 PST). That is less than 2 hours from now! So load your Musket, sharpen your swords and prepare for battle!
For a limited time, you can pick up Battle Cry of Freedom with a special launch discount of 20% off of the retail price of $19.99 (€19.99).
[previewyoutube="8TUxKEyUwy4;full"]
Battle Cry of Freedom gives players a chance to experience the American Civil War up close and personal, complete with historically accurate uniforms and weaponry. Zip past bullets and dodge cannon blows while fighting epic battles in real-time with fully destructible environments and dynamic weather effects. Play as the Union or Confederate army and choose a spot among 3 distinct branches: artillery, infantry, and specialists such as Engineers, Medics or Militia.
Battle Cry of Freedom puts players in control by offering a wide range of customization options, including dozens of classes and over 120 server settings. Experience thrilling battles across 14 maps inspired by key Civil War locations, and become an architect of the action by creating personalized maps using easy-to-learn modding tools. A variety of game modes including Commander Battle, Siege, Conquest, Convoy Ambush, and more ensure a new challenge with every playthrough.
Key Features:
Accurate mid-19th century weapons, uniforms, and environments.
Massive multiplayer battles with up to 500 players simultaneously fighting each other on the same battlefield.
A wide range of artillery pieces ranging from field cannons to mortars, capable of firing a variety of missiles such as canisters, explosive shells, case shots, solid shots, bolts, and more - all fully controllable by players.
Construct barricades, dig trenches, and rig explosives.
Destructible environments -players can use a range of cannons, axes, and explosives to destroy various buildings, bridges, walls, trees, and other structures.
Special musician units with drums, fifes, bugles, banjos, violins, or pianos.
More than 50 classical and folk background music tracks, all recorded and played by award-winning musicians.
Wage war on more than 14 maps all across North America or play on a randomly generated map.
Create your own maps with the included easy-to-learn but powerful Scene Editor.
Participate in the community and enlist with a Regiment (Clan) to take part in massive, organized battles with players re-enacting historically accurate tactics of the Civil War Era.
Over 120 server settings allow you to personalize every detail of the game.
Future Updated Schedule
We will continue updating the game after release and are planning to release weekly updates every Wednesday. Weekly updates will include the addition of new features, maps, items, performance improvements, and bug fixes. Changelogs will be posted on our Discord.
Roadmap
Optimization With the game being released to the public, we finally have the opportunity to collect performance data to further improve the performance of the game. Work on this will be ongoing for a long time, as there is always something that can be improved.
Gameplay and Quality of life improvements. As the game is rolling out in public play, we will be spending lots of time optimizing gameplay systems like melee, to make it better, smoother, and more accurate. We will also be improving the shooting and first-person systems to be more responsive.
More maps In addition to the Scene-Editor provided in the game, we will continue adding more official maps to the base game.
More Weapons and Artillery One of the unique things about the American Civil War is the sheer number of weapons and artillery pieces that saw service throughout the war. While we already have over 120 weapons included in the game, we plan on adding even more.
New Regiments and Uniforms We will continue adding new Regiments and Uniforms to the game, complete with all the customization options that you are used to from the currently included Uniforms. However, work on this is currently on halt, as our Character Artist is from Ukraine.
Naval Content We plan to add various Naval Themed content, such as usable boats, ships, marines and naval artillery. Marines and sailors will be able to swim, which will change the tactics of the battlefield entirely.
Cavalry One of the most requested features is the addition of cavalry to Battle Cry of Freedom. We already have plenty of content prepared for the eventual addition of cavalry units to the game. Players will be able to ride horses and fight from horseback. Artillery units will also be able to tow cannons with the help of horses.
Modding Tools and Scene Editor improvements To give players the ability to modify the game to their liking, we will continue adding more and better modding tools to the game. The Scene Editor will see a number of improvements, such as the ability to walk/test your map without hosting a server.
More work on AI-Soldiers Currently only available in the Commander Battle game mode, we will be adding AI-Soldiers to all of the other game modes as well. We will also be adding a Commander Battle Conquest game mode to the game.
Re-work Animations We plan on reworking various Animations to reduce the “jankiness” of the game and improve playability, especially regarding melee animations.
We hope to see you on the battlefield! /Flying Squirrel Entertainment
