We commanders in the development team are all volunteers with full time jobs, and yet we will be looking to fix even more issues over the next few days. It is our honor to serve with you.
"I have not yet begun to fight!" — John Paul Jones
Battle Grounds III
Addressing Feedback: Lag Hotfix, Muting Players
We commanders in the development team are all volunteers with full time jobs, and yet we will be looking to fix even more issues over the next few days. It is our honor to serve with you.
"I have not yet begun to fight!" — John Paul Jones
Early Access Release SUNDAY!
While you're downloading the game, keep an eye out on our Guides page for official start-up guides, tutorials, and training drills. We'll help you get assimilated into the new world of Battle Grounds III, so you can spend less time configuring and more time playing!
This war has been a long time coming, soldiers! We'll see you on the battle grounds!
"Don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here." ― John Parker
Early Access Approved, Getting Servers!
Stand at attention! Our war plans (Early Access) have been approved by the officers at Valve, and we stand to move out any day! Yet before we march, we must consult with our quartermasters to make sure everything is ready!
In other words, Battle Grounds III (BG3) has been approved for Early Access by Valve, but before we release there must be servers to play on! We are communicating with multiple server hosting companies, and are opening the door to community members who wish to start up their own servers.
By "opening the door", we mean that we are inviting server owners, community leaders, and influencers to email us at community@battlegrounds3.com to apply for a Beta Key which will allow them to access the game and the server software. (Payment or donations will not be accepted as a means to getting a Beta Key.) Server setup tutorials will be provided.
Once we know that at least 4 servers are available, we will make an announcement stating that BG3 will be available as Early Access the following day. We currently have 2 servers available — we need only 2 more!
Communication is key to winning a battle, and so we hope we are doing well here. Stay tuned for more announcements and updates within the next few days!
"An army marches on its stomach." - Napoleon Bonaparte
Early Access, Release Postponement, Roadmap
Battle Grounds III and Early Access
We, The Battle Grounds Game Development Team, have submitted our request to Valve for The Battle Grounds III to be placed onto Early Access. This would allow for more soldiers to easily play The Battle Grounds III. For our veteran soldiers who have beta tested and beta tested with us for more than a year, an Early Access release would mean several things:
- The Steam Overlay will now work in-game.
- Game updates and fixes will be downloaded automatically.
- Source SDK Base 2013 Multiplayer will not be required to play.
- Server administrators will have easy access to the server software, which will be included with all Battle Grounds III downloads.
We hope that Valve will work with us on getting this through, and we'll keep you soldiers updated as the exciting news develops! In the best case scenario, BG3 will be available as Early Access on June 26th.
Release Date Postponement
The Battle Grounds III will not release on the initially planned release date of June 21st, 2019. As the saying goes, "no plan survives first contact with the enemy", and that was the case for us. This was our first time on Steam, and we underestimated the time we would need to finish our game while also going through the logistics of releasing a game.
We members of The Battle Grounds Game Development Team are all part-time volunteers with many other full-time responsibilities. We also lost a team member during these past few weeks.
We may have lost this battle, but we will win the war—we have developed a roadmap that will lead us toward success.
Roadmap Toward Release
Instead of marking any individual date as a release date, we will be taking an incremental approach. This plan assumes that we will be on Early Access. Every two weeks, The Battle Grounds III will receive a content-rich update. And here is a list of "features" that will be included with these updates. Once 8 of these 11+ features have been completed, we will consider The Battle Grounds III to be fully released:
- A training level to teach new soldiers how to play;
- An improved user interface, especially with the in-game HUD;
- Official servers located around the world, allowing soldiers everywhere to have a comfortable experience;
- Translations of the UI and closed captions into about 10 other languages;
- A colorblind mode to support soldiers who are colorblind and soldiers who are new to the game;
- Fully licensed music to be acquired for playing during gameplay events;
- Comprehensive documentation and guides to allow players to create their own Battle Grounds III content and run their own servers;
- Cosmetic-only, non-tradable extras for veteran players who supported us during earlier alpha and beta testing;
- Additional gamemode mechanics for streamlining the experience in other gamemodes (ex. automated linebattle officer rotation);
- Increased bot support for Capture-The-Flag, Siege, and/or Linebattle gamemodes;
- Integration with Steam achievements and the Steam workshop;
- And any other features yet to be discovered or suggested by players.
We are counting on all you soldiers to communicate with us and tell us which features you would like to see most! Open discussions on Steam, contact us on our social media pages, submit bug reports on our website, and email us at community@battlegrounds3.com !
"We fight, get beat, rise and fight again!" - General Nathanael Greene, 1781
