New Weapons! MP41(r) and ZK-383 Now Available + Bug Fixes
New weapons and some bug fixing! Wanted to give you all a quick follow up to the British update from a couple of weeks ago. In this update you're getting access to the MP41R and ZK-383 SMGs. As well as some bug fixes related to the menus and settings. Below is some info about the new SMGs!
MP41R
The MP41R or MP41(r) may look familiar, an awful lot like a PPSH-41 actually. That's because it is, just modified by the Germans after capture. After the Germans captured vast quantities of PPSH-41 SMGs during and after Operation Barbarossa, they rechambered some of these for 9mm Parabellum to cut down on the variety of ammo they needed to supply their soldiers with. This conversion was done pretty substantial numbers, at least 10,000 but possibly more. A side effect of the rechambering was a small slow down from the insanely fast fire rate of the PPSH-41.
It showed up in the Eastern and Western front primarily, but was sometimes found in Yugoslavia and Italy. After the war they would even be found in the stocks of the North Korean forces in the Korean War. It also uses 32 round MP40 magazines like the MP3008. In-game this also applies and you can replenish ammo from MP3008s or MP40s. They're available now when you're playing as the Axis forces on the Western Front. Not quite the PPSH-41 (which will of course arrive with the Soviets), but it should hold you over until that arrives. Lower damage is made up for a with a high fire rate, great for spraying down multiple enemies at close range when you're storming an objective.
ZK-383
The ZK-383 is a Czech SMG that was originally conceived to be an LMG. It was modified until the final product was a sturdy SMG delivering great range, manageable recoil, and a pretty powerful punch. The ZK-383 has a 30 round magazine and can be found when playing as the Axis or Allies for maps set in Yugoslavia or Italy. You can also find a ZK-383 in Nuremberg as a pick up weapon. The weapon was used by the Waffen SS that continued production in occupied Czechoslovakia for their own use. It was also used by Bulgaria, and captured Bulgarian examples would be used by the Yugoslav partisans. The weapon was well liked by both sides and would see usage in Yugoslavia and throughout Europe for the duration of the war.
Bug Fixes
Bug fixes are mentioned in the patch notes below, concerning the new menus and errors with settings sometimes not saving or being set to the incorrect default values.
Thanks for playing, and enjoy!
Patch Notes: -Added MP41R to the game and to weapon select screens for Western Front Germans/Axis -Added ZK383 to the weapon select screen for Balkan and Italian Theater Axis forces as well as Yugoslav Partisan faction -ZK383 was previously available hidden in Vallo Alpino, is still there and is also in Nuremberg now as pick up weapon -Fixed issue where some users audio settings would default to the lowest volume -Fixed issues with visual and other settings not saving properly -Fixed pause menu options not loading correctly
British Update is Finally Here! - British Faction, 3 New Maps, New Menu & More!
Sorry this took so long, but thank you so much to you all for waiting for this update. I hope you'll like it! This update is a big one, and from now on updates will thankfully not take so long now that this is out. Given the day this has happened to release, Happy 4th of July to all the Americans out there! (Sorry to our British friends, very stereotypical of us to get ourselves in your update somehow)
What's Included
The British as a new faction - With them come 3 new maps, bringing our total to 12. As well as a new set of weapons which are detailed later.
All new animations - Almost every weapon has new first person animations, all but the pistols have been totally replaced with much better animations
New menus - The main menu as well as in-game menus have been replaced. These look much nicer now and also feature far better support for controller and keyboard navigation.
13 New weapons - There are 13 new weapons for you to use, these are all listed further down. Also there is an additional bonus weapon that will be part of the next update that you can test out in Vallo Alpino now! Damage is also now more affected by range for balance purposes, this is done in a performant way that won't affect how shooting functioned otherwise.
New customization for match creation - You can now set score and time limits for all game modes easily in the new menus, as well as customize other options like friendly fire, and how many players or bots you want in the match. Much more customization will come soon.
Improved AI - Though still a work in progress until the next update, the AI are much more capable of meeting their potential. A coming engine upgrade will help them get to the point where they are much more interesting and challenging.
New graphical/technical features - Support for upscaling technologies like DLSS and FSR 1 and 2 have been added, providing more ways to get better performance for all PCs that support them. Reflex has also been added for Nvidia users that want lower input latency. Vulkan support has also been added, running with the launch option -vulkan via Proton for Linux users should improve performance there.
And much more! - See the expanded section below for the full patch details
New Maps
Broadcast: Set outside of Hamburg, you'll fight for control over a German radio broadcast station. A mid size map with buildings surrounding a hill with the broadcast station located on top.
Reichswald: The Reichswald forest saw some of the toughest fighting in the British drive into Germany. You'll maneuver between the rocks and trees in a forest ripe for close quarters combat. Stay out of the open center though to avoid the bunkers built into the ground!
Steinbruch: A stone mine in the Rhine, where you'' fight over the main building in close quarters, and between the equipment and stone outside. Lots of verticality, offset by the open space the opportunities provide.
New weapons
Carcano M91/41
Carcano M91/41 Scoped
Bren
Double Barrel Shotgun
MP-3008
FG-42
Lee-Enfield
Lee-Enfield Scoped
MAB 38
Breda PG Export (Burst)
VG-1 End of War 1945 is also the very first game to feature this rifle of the Volkssturmgewehr series!
VG-1 Scoped
TZ-45
+1 Bonus weapon you'll find on Vallo Alpino!
You can also check out all the new animations yourself! Or watch the earlier reel of animations from the last announcement, although seeing them in game will reflect the most up to date effects.
Future Plans
Before the rest of the patch notes, I'd also like to confirm that the game is still being worked on. The next updates will be more incremental but the next major release will be the one that takes us out of early access! Lots more to come with that one. Support for matchmaking, improved AI, Soviet faction, new maps for the Eastern Front, many new weapons, announcer voice acting for each faction, as well as improved controller support are just some of the features coming next. I promise it won't take as long as this one did :)
Additional patch notes
The Axis fighting in Yugoslavia and Italy are also now their own faction with their own unique weapons.
Networking stability has been improved
Support for DLSS 2.3 as well as FSR 1.0 and 2.1
Support for Reflex and Reflex + Boost
Improved textures for the MP40, as well as new sounds for the Kar98K, Gewehr 43, M1 Carbine, M1 Garand, Thompson, TT33, and KP-31
Damage adjustments to every weapon for balancing
Grenade throwing animations improved
Grenade is now thrown further and faster
Melee is faster and has improved animations
Improved sound effects for grenade and knife
Fixed various collision bugs on Monrupino
And a lot more bug fixes that were solved with all the overhauls to the game mentioned above
Progress Update For Coming Update - Weapon Animation Reel and More!
Hi everyone, sorry for not being more active on posting progress updates for the coming update. I wouldn't blame you if you thought the project was just abandoned as so many are sadly, if I were you my mood on this update would probably be similar to the thumbnail for this announcement too. Fear not though, I hope you were hanging in there because its about to finally arrive!
This update was originally announced at the very end of 2020 (my apologies), as an update bringing the British as a new faction for the game. Since then it grew to what is essentially a revamp of the whole game. The menus are new, the gun mechanics function differently, and speaking of guns there's a lot more variety there now too. Also, every weapon except the pistols has received a new set of animations entirely (Link to a quick run through of those below). There's 3 new maps for a total of 12, and the existing ones have been revised too, there's ~35 unique character models in the game when it originally launched with just 3. Also there's going to be graphical, networking, and AI related improvements.
I wanted to be able to show everything that's been worked on over the last couple of years, but most of its back end stuff that isn't really anything to show off. However the time has finally come where its coming together and progress becomes more VISIBLE in the literal sense. I'd like to finally present some screenshots of the new maps and a reel of the new animations!
There's still polishing to do, and you can see that below where the textures for example on some of the foliage in Reichswald haven't loaded properly, but we're really in the home stretch here. For all those still hanging on, thank you so much and I hope the update brings you some enjoyment, and this news holds you over for now. More updates to follow in the coming weeks leading up to the release, stay tuned!
Reichswald
Steinbruch
Broadcast
New Weapon Animations Reel
Some of the sound effects on a couple of the guns weren't set up to play as well, so apologies for that.
0:00 MP 40 0:28 KP 31 0:49 MAB 38 1:11 MP 3008 1:30 STEN 1:59 TZ 45 2:20 M1A1 Thompson 2:37 M1 Garand 2:57 Gewehr 43 3:14 STG 44 3:32 Breda PG (Export) After this I meant to show the M1 Carbine, however there's still a bug with that one so you'll have to wait to see it. Sorry about that. 3:50 Kar98K 4:22 Carcano 4:50 Lee-Enfield 5:20 VG 1 5:50 Double Barrel (Lupara) 6:07 Trench Gun 6:37 BAR 6:59 FG 42 7:27 BREN
28 ALL NEW Player Models and Details On Coming Major Updates v.0.5.0.10
Sorry for the wait, it's been a few months since the last official announcement. This is going to be a large post covering a huge update in the works as well as the interim update put together to hold you over until that monster of an update arrives!
The interim update that you can play right now is focused on character variety. There are now 28 unique player models spread throughout the game. Previously there was a single player model for each faction, a total of only 3.
It looked a bit weird having every player on a team seemingly be a clone of the same man. Now you'll have a player model depending on what weapon you pick to spawn with. This also applies to bots. This allows for a sniper character model to fit the sniper rifle you pick to spawn with, and an MP40 equipped soldier to have the appropriate ammunition pouches to match. It can give you a clue as to what weapon an enemy may be carrying at a distance as well.
The setting of 1945 allows for a massive variety of uniforms to be used, while still being historically authentic. Personally I believe truth is more interesting than fiction anyway. The Axis forces were in a pretty chaotic state at this point and this will be reflected in the mystery meat of uniforms you'll find among them.
Among these are SS, Wehrmacht, Order Police, the wounded called back to battle, and various Volkssturm members (Hitler Youth, SA/Brownshirts, and the elite "Freikorps Sauerland").
In addition to this, the Axis models include non-German Axis powers present here for the first time. These include representation for the Italian soldiers of the elite Decima MAS force, as well as the Brigate Nere militia. In the same theatre you can play as the Slovenian Domobranci or Home Guard and fight against the Yugoslav Partisans alongside the Germans and Italians. Over in the Battle for Nuremberg to the West, you may also spot a "Russian Liberation Army" soldier far from home and fighting alongside the Germans as a collaborator.
For the allied side, we have all new models for the Yugoslav Partisans as well as the US Army.
You'll find many of the American models have the insignia of the 45th Infantry Division. This division saw a great deal of combat in the final months of the war. Their uniforms are dirtied as they fight through the dirt, mud, and rubble to finally end the conflict in Europe.
The Yugoslav Partisans had nearly fully standardized their uniforms by this time, giving at least the appearance of a professional army. They're stocked with surplus British battle dress and greatcoat uniforms, topped off with many varieties of the iconic Titovka cap. Despite this, many elements of their insurgent origins remain, including captured German ammo pouches and shovels, an Italian M33 helmet, and even a pair of blue trousers dating back to the old Austro-Hungarian Army.
More will be done with these player models, but for now enjoy them and please provide feedback of any problems you encounter. The first person arms will also now differ based on what faction you're playing as. For now there is only one per faction, but more will be added soon. The ragdolls and physics have also been more standardized and react more realistically now.
I think these models look much better than the old ones present since launch. However these are also MUCH more easy on your hardware.
The old models used between 12-14 draw calls per model on screen. This is a major drain on your CPU in particular and can bottleneck your graphics card.
The new models by contrast, use just 3-4 draw calls each! So a 6v6 battle with all players on screen at once would now only cost 36-48 calls compared to the 144-168 it would have taken before. This frees up a lot of performance for enhancements to come!
Before we get to the news about what to expect in the upcoming major update, here are some other changes made with the interim update.
-The textures on many of the guns have been tweaked, particularly improving their brightness -The Sten and KP31 received new textures entirely -The M1 Carbine and STG 44 have a new fire sound -Backend improvements to the blending of first person weapon animations, which now blend more naturally as well as more performantly -Adjusted lighting on Monrupino -Performance improvements from improved material efficiency on Trieste
Scroll down to the bottom of this announcement to see a bunch of screenshots of the new player models in action!
Now, for the content COMING SOON
This section will give a detailed breakdown on future plans and elaborate on previously promised content. The following list is a quick summary of what will be covered
Addition of 13 new weapons
2 New factions:
German/Italian/Slovene combination team
British Army
Big adjustments to current maps
3 ALL NEW Maps for the British faction
New Main Menu and Gameplay Menus
Replacement of almost all current weapon animations with much better ones
Changes to ranged damage for balance purposes
AI/Bots code overhaul
Networking improvements
A huge amount of quality of life changes and bug fixes
Big list there, but rest assured a lot of this has been worked on throughout the year already. To even make the interim update, a lot of assets had to be swapped out from older builds because of how much that was changed.
Now on to the list itself, we've got 13 new weapons coming with that huge update. These include the:
Carcano M91/41
Carcano M91/41 Scoped
Bren
Double Barrel Shotgun
MP-3008
FG-42
Lee-Enfield
Lee-Enfield Scoped
MAB 38
Breda PG Export (Burst)
+3 Weapons that have never appeared in any game before (Despite being produced and used in the thousands)
End of War will generally try to avoid prototype weapons or one of a kind weapons, all of these were used in great enough numbers that they won't stray from historical authenticity.
The 2 new factions will of course have a unique combination of weapons for their arsenals, you can find the German/Italian/Slovene and British Army weapon list below along with the revised arsenals of the current factions.
The new arsenals per faction are as follows:
US Army: (Unchanged from current version)
Western Front Germans vs Americans:
MP3008
K98
K98 Scoped
Double Barrel Shotgun
STG 44
Gewehr 43
British Army:
Sten
Lee-Enfield
Lee-Enfield Scoped
Double Barrel Shotgun
M1 Carbine
Bren
Western Front Germans vs British:
MP40
(Mystery Weapon)
(Mystery Weapon)
Double Barrel Shotgun
FG-42
Gewehr 43
Germans/Italians/Slovenes (Yugoslavia maps):
MAB 38
Gewehr 43
(Mystery Weapon)
Breda PG Export (Burst)
Double Barrel Shotgun
K98
K98 Scoped
Yugoslav Partisans:
Sten
M1 Carbine
KP-31
Bren
Double Barrel Shotgun
Carcano M91/41
Carcano M91/41 Scoped
Adjustments to Current Maps
There will be layout adjustments and large overhauls to the 9 existing maps. As an example, Nuremberg will have a lot of its empty space filled. The buildings will also be adjusted and more connected in theme. Other maps will receive changes that are aimed at increasing verticality, which should lead to players moving around the map more. Graphical fidelity and overall detail will also receive a fresh pass, alongside fixing collision issues.
British Faction Maps
There will be 3 maps featuring the British Army in the coming update, here are some details on what those will be like:
Broadcast: Set during the Battle of Hamburg, you'll fight for control over a German radio broadcast station. A smaller map with Room to room fighting in the center, and small but open sight lines outside the main station.
Reichswald: The Reichswald forest saw some of the toughest fighting in the British drive into Germany. You'll maneuver between the rocks and trees in a forest ripe for close quarters combat. Stay out of the open center though, you never know where the window of a camouflaged bunker can overlook.
Kranenburg: A border town that had largely escaped the horrors of war is now caught in the midst of heavy ground fighting. Many still intact bridges allow for quick tactical movements, the old town has many wildly arrayed buildings for multi-level and angled gunfights. Combat mostly takes place in the streets as most buildings are rendered inaccessible to players.
New Menus
The main menu will have a major overhaul, bringing it more in line with the full release vision. New settings options will be available for further increased graphical tweaking, audio configurations, input settings, and more. There will also be much much more in the way of match settings and customization, as well as finding and setting up online lobbies.
In game menus will also see a redesign, and players will see more information on weapons as they make their choice before spawning in. This new select screen will also feature a preview of the character you'll be playing as, so you can admire your player model a bit. The new menus are much more scalable for further improvements as well, so new additions will no longer take so long in this aspect.
Weapon Animations
The current weapon animation aren't exactly the best. They're above placeholder level, but not final release ready. This will change soon as these current animations are mostly replaced with much better ones, some do look fine enough and will stay though. Around 3/4 of weapons are planned to get new animations.
There will also be improvements to the backend of the animation logic, further improving blending and working in conjunction with weapon behavior. Iron sights will also appear more correctly, and issues regarding framerate drops when aiming on certain weapons will be resolved.
Changes to Ranged Damage
Weapons will have more depth to them as range becomes more of a factor in the damage you deal. This further complements the increased weapon variety and forces players to experiment more.
Improvements to AI
Bots will be much more intelligent in the coming update, and will also have a difficulty slider. They will try to take and hold key points on the battlefield and bunch up less. The goal is to make them less predictable and have them perform more like a real player would, especially on higher difficulty.
Networking Improvements
In addition to the additions described with the new menus, the networking will be more stable than it is now. This will be an ongoing part of development, but will see considerable gains in the coming release.
Misc
Various bug fixes and little improvements adding up to an overall better experience. The version of Unreal Engine powering End of War 1945 will be updated as well, bringing inherent improvements and more potential for the future. A big benefit you'll notice right away will be the greatly reduced install size. This is thanks to better compression algorithms that are not only able to shrink data smaller than the current technology, but also decompress it even faster than now. This will improve load times and texture streaming, as well as save you space on your hard drive or SSD.
Closing
There's a lot to look forward to here! Thank you for supporting development and providing suggestions/feedback to work with. This major update should arrive by the end of the winter, until then please enjoy the game in its current state!
Also check out some screenshots below of the new player models in action!
Preloading, Experimental 3rd Person , Visual Improvements and More v.0.4.7.0
Hey epic gamers there's a new update for End of War 1945, and its got a ton of improvements that will make way for the bigger changes coming soon!
New Features:
-More detailed loading screen text -Preloading of more assets before level starts, this should greatly reduce hitches. Especially so when loading something like a sound or muzzle flash for the first time -3rd person mode added in experimental state, feedback appreciated but expect bugs and possible issues, you can set this as a permanent preference in the game settings or switch temporarily by pressing 'P'
-Hitmarker sound and Kill sound added -Improved visuals on Vallo Alpino
Map Changes:
-Changed initial spawn positions on Poljana -Adjusted the size of Retreat, and adjusted the height of the road -Added additional snow mounds on Tappelwerch
Graphical Improvements:
-Improved visuals on Vallo Alpino -rebuilt lighting on Retreat
Other Graphical Changes:
-Improved sharpen filter -Added sharpness slider -Added option to turn on legacy sharpen filter, not adjustable via the slider but its there if you want it
Animations:
-Improved overall reload animation blend out, this should smooth out the interpolation between the end of the reload and whatever animation needs to play next for the weapon like walking or sprinting -changed reload animations for the STG44, M1 Carbine, and KP31 -Improved the loop of the 3rd person sprint animation -improved weapon holding from the 3rd person view of players -Added inertial blending for 3rd person animations, this makes the flow more natural and improves performance as animations change
Audio:
-Added hitmarker sound and kill sound -Improved reverb effect in Vallo Alpino
Performance improvements:
-Reduced redundant shader overhead, especially on Poljana and Vallo Alpino -Improved caching of fonts -Added previously mentioned expanded preloading to reduce hitches when assets are called -Disabled unused engine plugins
UI:
-Made crosshair invisible while reloading
Bug Fixes:
-ensured correct animations play based on AI player walk/run speed -fixed a glitch where the current weapon would duplicate when you tried to pick up one off the ground while aiming -fixed a bug where leaves on trees would block collisions completely -fixed incorrect bullet impact effect playing on some wood in the houses on Poljana
Known issues:
-3rd person animations for the American soldiers aren't working correctly, this will be fixed shortly.
Movement Update - v.0.4.6.0
This is a small update to help improve the overall game before the large update adding the British as a faction. Movement has been improved and tweaked, along with some additional graphical enhancements, sound changes, and bug fixes.
Movement Changes and Improvements:
-Tweaked general and aim movement speed based off of what weapon the player is currently holding -Increased speed while crouched -Adjustments to jumping gravity and max height you can jump -You can now fall longer heights without dying or taking damage -Sprinting stops if you swap weapons while sprinting
Graphical Changes:
-Fixed incorrect lighting on arms and player model
Audio:
-Changed fire sound for the Thompson
Bug Fixes:
-Fixed incorrect reflections on some areas of Westwall V2 -Fixed wrong footstep and impact effect playing on some wood in Westwall V2 -Fixes for the firing animation of the Thompson
