There is a heinous monster afoot... it must die, or we'll all be kaput. It stalks the swamps and ruins at night setting Britons and 'Mericans afright. It is summoned by absence of light, glowing pumpkins smiling in delight. Who will step up as our heroic knight and save us all from this evil sprite.
Trick or treat, soldiers! This coming Halloween on Sunday the 31st, at 2pm EST / 7pm BST, the Battle Grounds III Official FRANKFURT Server will be hosting our first ever Halloween event... will you be the one to vanquish the terrible beast? Join us for a fun time on the NEWLY REIMAGINED map Bg_Blackswamp from BG2.
Accompanying the event, and ONE HOUR prior to it (at 1pm EST/6pm BST), the game will receive an update to support this event, while ALSO delivering long-awaited features, including the VOTING SYSTEM that will let players vote for map changes, mute players, scramble teams, etc. Servers MUST update at the same time in order for updated players to be able to connect.
See you all in the swamps and catacombs...
(If the FRANKFURT server fills up, the NEW YORK server will also be used to host a simultaneous event)
Summary of Summer Updates
Attention, soldiers! It has been a while since the game received a large update; however, over the past few months, the game has nonetheless received a larger number of smaller updates. Their changes are summarized here.
Also, be aware that there will be another update this weekend, which introduces a new voting system!
The Anniversary Update
Celebrating the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, we are releasing the largest update the game has ever seen! We are introducing new weapons, map changes, new gameplay elements, balance tweaks and the much anticipated progression system. Without much further ado:
Weapons
TEN new weapons:
Light Model Charleville /w Bayonet
A musket with average melee range and a quicker than average melee refire time
A shorter version of the sea service, with higher accuracy.
Pattern 1770 Serjeant’s Fewzee
An accurate musket with a short lock time, yet has no bayonet and has lower damage
Pattern 1718 “Old Pattern” Long Land Musket
Longer melee range and higher damage than the long pattern, yet more unwieldly
M1777 French Cavalry Carbine
A more accurate officer’s carbine with less damage
Blunderbuss
Deadly at point blank range
Dagger
A weak melee weapon that requires 2 headshots to kill
French Rapier
A longer range sword with smaller melee sweep and damage
Trade Musket
An unwieldly, yet powerful weapon. At shorter ranges 1 hit kills.
Broken Bottle Meme Weapon
Humiliate your opponents by smashing them in with a broken bottle
Miscellaneous Weapon Changes
All weapon slings are now jiggly.
Long pattern weapon model has been redone.
“Brown Bess Carbine” renamed to “Royal Forester’s Carbine” and the model has also been redone.
French Grenadier’s M1777 model has been improved.
Spanish Mosquete lock time nerfed.
Historical Weapon Mode
New mp_year and mp_year_accuracy server variables control which weapons are available.
On by default.
mp_year is the historical accuracy setting to use, while mp_year_accuracy controls whether or not to use mp_year at all. Set mp_year_accuracy to 0 to disable this system.
Ex. no Pattern 1776 rifles before 1776
Maps
sg_siege
Rebalanced tickets for both teams; defenders now have fewer tickets.
Updated graphics in certain places.
Attackers must traverse spiked barricades in order to assault front gate.
Swivel damage greatly increased.
Secondary containment zone built behind front gate to slow down attackers.
Tunnel door can now be locked by defenders to halt the flow of attackers.
Locked door can be blown open by capturing the tunnel flag.
Fire trap now lasts much longer and covers the flag, allowing defenders to respawn.
bg_townguard
Redesigned town center inn and swivel gun house.
Replaced brazier brush with 3D model.
Added ropes with turnbuckles for roof traversal to a few buildings.
Both teams have sniper spawns: Americans – church tower and roof, British – inn near Street flag.
Opened up church graveyard a bit for easier movement, can also get onto church roof via scaffolding.
Other small additions for more detail throughout map.
All lights with gentle pulse have been switched to normal appearance for performance improvements.
Grenadiers can now climb the ladders.
bg_wrecked
Added “fun” spawns to rowboats in ocean.
Fixed displacement texture blend bug.
Replaced Half Life: 2 sand texture.
Swivel gun and ammo refill area added to cliff near ship bow.
lb_battleofconcord
Fixed missing models.
Retextured farmhouse near American spawn and added planks going to door.
Added few more props near bridge.
Updated ground and water textures.
sg_boston
Crashes have been fixed.
Boston has been re-added to the default map rotation.
Balcony flag gives attackers extra tickets.
Bomb cart is faster, and on detonation drains all of defenders tickets.
Progression System
Overview
New uniforms and most of new weapons locked behind EXP-based progression system.
Earn EXP by killing enemies, completing objectives, and winning rounds and matches.
Play the game to earn EXP to level up, and then trade in earned rum rations for the items.
No “Pay to Win”
All new weapons are unlocked in private matches.
Players who participated in the beta receive a loyalty bonus of 25 Rum Rations.
New Uniforms
British Officer now has a new and improved model (for everyone, this doesn’t have to be unlocked)
De Lancy’s Brigade uniform for British Light Infantry.
“Queen’s Rangers” uniform for British Light Infantry.
Régiment de Soissonnais uniform for French Grenadier.
British 52nd Regiment of Foot Grenadier uniform.
French Officer conversion for Continental Officer.
Feathered “Macaroni” Caps.
Derandomized American Frontiersman Uniforms.
Derandomized American Militia Uniforms.
“Easter Egg” Accoutrements, ex. Baguettes in French Grenadier uniform, Emergency tea kit for British Infantry.
Beta Reward uniform for those who participated in the beta: a Green-and-White American Infantry uniform.
Gameplay Changes
UI Changes
Fixed respawn timer not appearing on lower resolutions, and realigned nearby HUD elements to remove overlaps and provide cleaner look.
When spectating a player, that player’s name now always appears on the bottom-left.
Added a “Damage Over Range Graph” tab to the classmenu for comparing weapon damages over different ranges.
Added background crosshair texture options in BG3 options.
Added live crosshair preview to BG3 options.
Added “Hide Weapon Viewmodel” option to BG3 options.
Fixed swivel gun and Grenade killfeed icons.
Added automatic on-screen notifications for when ticket amounts are adjusted by mp_ticket_x_adjust commands.
System Improvements
Added more sophisticated LOD versions of player models and weapon models, which should improve performance.
Added more per-player console commands, ex. “heal”, “health”, “shrooms”, “freeze”.
Official game servers are now 128-tick.
Miscellaneous Gameplay Changes
Maps can now be both CTF and Skirmish: ex. play CTF on Townguard. Controlled by new mp_flagmode server variable. Can be randomized with mp_flagmode_randomize.
mp_friendlyfire_swivel now controls whether or not swivel guns deal friendly fire.
New “fun” spawns are optional; use mp_competitive to turn them off.
Update Preview: Weapons
The Blunderbuss
Find some cover; the blunderbuss is coming! The blunderbuss unleashes a mighty blast that packs a devastating blow at close range. Be advised: Enemies that are unfortunate enough to be close enough to your intended victims upon firing may very well become victims themselves. Those who managed to survive the initial blast will find themselves on the wrong end of a knife (or bottle)!
The Trade Musket
For those who think hiding behind their teammates (to avoid the aforementioned blunderbuss) is a good idea, they better watch out for the trade musket. The large caliber ensures a kill on a hit anywhere on the body, and the bullets pass through their intended victim to strike anything that happens to be behind the primary target.
Thanksgiving update
Happy Thanksgiving!
We’d like to give you a juicy BG3 update to put alongside your thanksgiving spread.
Gameplay Updates
Grenadiers wielding grenades will now drop them when their throwing arm is injured.
In an effort to move away from point blank hipfiring for easy kills, the following experimental shooting changes were applied:
Hipfire accuracy cone is now 1.5 times as big as before
Hipfire accuracy takes slightly longer to reach it’s peak after coming to a standstill
Bringing up ironsights (ADS time) now takes 25% longer, to reduce unrealistic quick-scoping
The ‘slow debuff’ applied by shotguns and grenades now only lasts for 4 seconds instead of 5
Map Changes
bg_canal
Removed first flags, modified other flags into 2/1/2 split
Opened up the city hall area a bit more
Flag behavior streamlined with other 5v5 maps
bg_wrecked
Graphical enhancements, including waves (thanks Taxpayer!)
sg_siege
Front gate has more health
Moved tunnel flag further back in favor of defenders
Main tunnel room made slightly bigger
Added a room in American spawn to serve as a ‘final stand’ room when tickets run out
Respawn time lengthened from 7s to 9s to give defenders more time to recover
British spawn barricade now breaks a second slower to give defenders more time at round start
Added class limits for grenadiers
Bug Fixes
Fixed broken ground texture on wrecked
Fixed glass texture reflection, multiple maps
Fixed hole in british spawn on siege that allowed for an early exit
Fixed missing texture on canal
Fall mapping update
Mapping contest maps released!
At long last, the maps from the contest will be officially released! We know you all have been chomping at the bit to play them, and we have been hard at work bringing the maps and new assets into the game.
Revamp: sg_siege
Lead mapper meat has been taking the bg2 classic sg_siege and bringing it up to par with other bg3 maps such as bg_winterisle and ctf_stonefort! Some of the changes include a reorganized interior with a swivel gun, brand new palisade models, a redone mine and cellar, and smoother overall gameplay. These are welcome changes on an already loved map.
Gameplay tweaks
All 5v5 maps have had flag capture times standardized. The old flag cap time on some maps was 5 seconds, and this has been shifted to 3.5 seconds. This should allow for faster back and fourth gameplay. Miscellaneous additions and fixes
New models have been added for mappers and level designers to play with
Weapon models recompiled by Awesome to fix lighting bugs
Broken physmeshes on certain props fixed by meat
Townguard has received another round of graphical updates
Respawn time on townguard has been reduced by 1 second to account for shorter cap times
It’s been a while since our last update, however you all have not been forgotten about. While this update has not been as flashy as some of the weapon additions, there are map improvements galore and new assets that bring a bit of polish to the game. There’s also a nice fix that players have been demanding for quite a while.
Mapping Contest Update
With our mapping contest coming to a close, make sure you swing by the mapping competition site to check out the teaser images of the contestants’ maps. The maps are looking phenomenal and we are really looking forward to seeing what they have done. A final playtest will be held this Saturday, the 18th at 6PM GMT. Check the official discord for more details!
Map Changes
Winterisle
Added choke points to flanking routes
Added more cover to the American side of the map
Small changes made inside of the fort
Moved the British flag slightly further away from the British Spawn
Brightened the map
Winterisle has replaced plateau in the default map rotation
Townguard
Added a shortcut to the town center middle garden
Fixed the small stairs in British spawn that players got stuck on
Toned down the HDR and bloom
Trenton
Added an ammo box in the connector
Raised the peep hole in the connector, market can no longer see if someone is jumping over the connector wall
Added slight cover to the market stalls
Road
Fixed flag return times to 2 seconds for both teams
Ammo boxes have been added to the sniper nests
Fixed a hole in the map near American spawn
The logs over the middle are now easier for players and bots to traverse
Ravine
Added more spawns for both teams
Lowered a rock model near the right side of the main gate that was causing players to get stuck on it
Bombzone
Bombzone removed due to not seeing much play
New Assets
As the deadline for the BG3 Mapping Contest nears, some fancy new assets have been added to give the upcoming maps a bit more polish. They include:
New flat and pointed palisade walls
A market box that fits on top of the stall
An assembled static farm wagon
Updated wood spikes and a second skin for them
Miscellaneous
Musket one-shot kill ranges have changed to be based on the weapons’ damages. These ranges are now visible in the classmenu. Accuracy values are also now reported in the class menu.
Last, but certainly not least, the red screen effect that occurs when players take damage has been reduced. The red screen had the tendency to disorient the player in dark or smoky environments; this tendency should now be reduced.
A new variable ‘mp_damage_kill_cap’ now exists such that, when turned on, damage values are capped to the victim’s health; for example a fatal headstab (on a healthy player) would always report 100 damage regardless of weapon used. This can be used in competitive environments in order to balance damage scores on the scoreboard.
“My bursting heart must find vent at my pen.”—Abigail Adams
18/5/20 Update – New Team Member, Map Changes, Player Action Menu, CSVs, Fixes
Attention, soldiers! Much has happened inside the developer’s tent—first, we would like to welcome the programmer PhilmacFLy back into the development team. Phil was back in the team during BG2, and was in fact the one who first implemented having the website shown in the main menu. He’s back, and he’s already coded something for us: the player action menu, which you can read about below.
Player Action Menu
The native, built-in admin menu now supports the player action menu; this will let admins ban, mute, slay etc. players without having to type in their name. Pesky mic spammers begone! (Thanks PhilmacFLy for his hard work!)
Map Changes
Bg_Trenton:
Added a house extension to give British cover for defending Inn area Brightened lanterns, for improved visibility Improved spawn areas Various performance and aesthetic improvments
Bg_WinterIsle:
Made flank routes even longer (listen for that crow!)
Lb_Princeton:
Fixed sun color Added another location for crossing the river Smoothed some displacements for improved movement and sightlines
5v5 Tournament Results, Fullcap Mechanism
This weekend was the final match of the Season 4 5v5 Tournament! Congratulations to the CN clan (‘cool nerdz’) for their victory!
However, the match brought to our attention an issue with the fullcap mechanism, one that has been around since BG2. Basically, the game was only checking for fullcaps once per second, such that a team may have to hold the flags for 1 second, while at other times it felt instantaneous. This had a direct impact on the match.
Rematches and such aside, this issue has now been fixed such that fullcaps will happen instantaneously once all flags are captured.
(Additionally, captured flags will no longer give points after the match is ended.) Exporting Scores to CSV
For those so interested in such data, players can now export match data to CSV files via the csv_export console command. This command can be run at any time (bind it to a key!), and what it does is it export a file into the ‘Battle Grounds III\bg3’ path of their game.
CSV Export
The format for these files is mapname_americanScore_britishScore.csv, for example, bg_ambush_1070_640.csv
And then inside the CSV, there is a list of players with their steamIDs, names, teams, scores, damage scores, and pings.
We understand this feature won’t be used by a lot of players, but there it is for those who would like it. More Server Variables
These server variables have been added to the game:
sv_perfectaim_training – a non-cheat version of sv_perfectaim which turns off all weapon inaccuracy. However it only works when all players are on the same team (excluding spectators). Clans can use this to practice shooting during their trainings (as bullet drop is still on).
mp_teamdamage_score_multiplier – controls the multiplier by which team damage is multiplied before being added into a player’s damage score. Default value is -2. Setting it to a zero value or positive value may be desirable in certain gamemodes (ex. Jawbones).
mp_suicide_penalty – turns on/off the -100 damage score penalty for when players press ‘delete’ to kill themselves.
That’s all folks! We hope you have enjoyed this update, and stay tuned for more! “Go on and improve in everything worthy.”—John Adams
Update March 22nd - New content!
We have not forgotten about you guys, and we are back with some juicy new content! We have new weapons, new mechanics, new maps and more!
New Weapon
We are introducing (yet another) new musket for the Americans, the “Committee of Safety Musket”. This American made short pattern clone lacks accuracy and has a slower lock time, but makes up for these shortcomings in damage.
Balance Changes
With the addition of new weaponry and with more on the horizon, balance is an ongoing and ever changing challenge that our dedicated beta testers and development team have been diligently working on.
Weapon Changes
The Dutch Musket’s damage has been taken down from 111 to 109. The extremely quick lock time has already made the Dutch formidable for hitting moving targets, and the high ball damage made it the go to choice in line battles. Turning the stats down on it gives other muskets a chance to shine.
The Sea Service lock time has been shortened from the default .135 to .09. To counterbalance this, its damage has been decreased from 111 to 108. This will push the Sea Service into the role filled by weapons such as the Spanish Mosquette and the Dutch Musket.
The Old Model Charleville’s “randomness” feature on the locktime has been decreased. We’ve heard lots of complaints about the lock time making the weapon unusable.
New Mechanics
Grenades and shotguns now have a “stamina draining” effect. Grenade blasts that do over 20 damage will drain all of a target’s stamina. Any shotgun damage will drain all of a target’s stamina. On top of this stamina drain, there is a 20% movement speed debuff for 5 seconds. Effected officers can’t use their buffs, and the light classes (Militia, British Light Infantry) are immune to the effect. We’re hoping this change will make grenades and shotguns more viable and give them a specialized role. The stamina debuff can be blocked and cancelled by the officer’s “Rally Round” buff.
The “Rally Round” buff has seen some improvements as well. On top of the aforementioned cancelling and blocking of the shotgun/grenade slow debuffs, the buff now instantly restores stamina to 100% at the moment of buff activation. It also removes damage weaknesses of allies, and allies with the “Rally Round” buff ignore the damage resistance of enemies.
New Server Variables
We’ve been doing a lot of work walking the delicate tightrope of balancing the game for both the linebattle community and the competitive community. And one of the results of that work is to come up with some variables so players can run some tests themselves, and see what works best for htem.
We’ve added a new experimental linebattle game mode that tightens vertical accuracy amongst other things. It can be activated using lb_tighten_vertical_accuracy.
Added sv_flintlock_delay_offset to give server admins the option to play with having increased lock times all around the board.
We’ve added an sv_player_model_scale cheat for players who want to feel larger than normal.
We’ve also added sv_muzzlevelocity_scale and sv_simulatedbullets_gravity for trajectory testing.
For melee heavy players and those who want to train, sv_headhits_only has been added as well.
Bug Fixes
As always bugs are getting fixed, some faster than others, but there is always progress on that front.
Fixed teamchat such that it actually works now.
When friendly fire is off, bullets that hit teammates are now blocked instead of potentially passing through them and hitting enemies.
We’ve also fixed sideways physics boxes on certain models.
New Assets
Our mappers have been working to add in new models and textures. Our lead mapper Klif has added in a tavern set, a wooden trunk and a spiked barricade for our developers and community mappers to play with.
Ricochet has added a swaying animation to trees, bushes and fields—this automatically applies to all existing maps without recompilation.
We’ve fixed up 2 cherished maps:
bg_townguard and sg_siege
Textures have been replaced to more modern textures, and texture alignment has been done. Spawn entities have been fixed so that they no longer get stuck into the ground.
New Maps!
lb_princeton
A lot of the development that has been done has inadvertently neglected the linebattle community. We are starting by bringing back a cherished map, lb_princeton. Ricochet created the map in Battle Grounds 2 and has worked to port the map over with newer models and textures.
sg_boston
An urban combat map akin to Townguard that features a pushable bomb cart and an underground sewer with lots of chutes and ladders, sg_boston was created by Awesome at the tail end of BG2’s life and has been ported over with improvements on the way
sg_ravine
A Battle Grounds 2 map created by Awesome, sg_ravine is an outdoors map in which defenders must navigate a treacherous ravine in order to attack a palisade fort. Cannons, trapdoors, barricades, lockable doors, flammable oil, pitfalls, falling rocks, sniper’s nests—this is not a map for the faint-hearted. Like sg_boston, textures and models have been replaced and modernized.
Future Roadmap
We unfortunately were not able to meet all of the goals of our posted Roadmap by today, yet we decided to put in this update to give all of you new toys before we double down on finishing the roadmap plan.
“We began a contest for liberty ill provided with the means for the war, relying on our patriotism to supply the deficiency. We expected to encounter many wants and distressed… we must bear the present evils and fortitude…”—George Washington
Mini Update 26/1/20 - New Map, Bug Fixes, Server Tools
At ease, soldiers! This new patch aims to serve as a stopgap to bigger content and to make some small quality of life changes for server administrators, mappers and players alike.
For everyone: the community map, Bg_Wrecked, has been added to the game! This was a map from the mapping competition last year. It has been tweaked from its community version; and also, Bg_Towngard, and Bg_Trenton has received improvements as well. Check the bottom of this post for their full changelogs.
For the players: We’ve fixed an Old Model Charleville bug where the recoil was sometimes being applied after the musket was reloaded. Also, for those playing with higher pings, the random lock time has been decreased to be in line with the effective lock time of lower ping players. (Players with 0 ping will receive all of the randomness; players with 250 ping or more receive none of it. It is a linear scale.)
Next, shift walking no longer has any effect on ironsights movement speed.
For mappers, mp_tickets_a_adjust and mp_tickets_b_adjust console commands have been added, as their name suggests they add and subtract tickets. Commands such as spawn, clip, solo, spec, brit, amer, msay, aclasskit, etc. now work with the entity point_servercommand. For mappers and server admins, ‘mp_comp_notifications’ server variable has been added to turn off serverwide notifications of the spawn, noclip, mp_tickets_a_adjust and mp_tickets_b_adjust commands.
Finally, the default lerp settings have been reverted back to the values they had before the previous update. The bug where the Windows application name for the game was 'Battle Grounds III Dev" instead of 'Battle Grounds III'. Stay tuned for some big improvements and additions in the next few months. The next major update will be at the end of February.
“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” — Thomas Paine
Attention, soldiers! Much has happened inside the developer’s tent—first, we would like to welcome the programmer PhilmacFLy back into the development team. Phil was back in the team during BG2, and was in fact the one who first implemented having the website shown in the main menu. He’s back, and he’s already coded something for us: the player action menu, which you can read about below.
