Genre: Real Time Strategy (RTS), Simulator, Strategy, Tactical
Men of War II
We simply need more time to fix bugs. Thank you for understanding.
Greetings, Commanders,
After carefully analyzing your feedback, that we’ve gathered throughout public playtests, and running some additional QA rounds, we’ve made a tough decision to postpone the release of Men of War II to next year.
At this point, Men of War II is content and feature complete and includes 3 narrative and 2 historical campaigns, Conquest and Raid dynamic campaigns, each playable in 4 variations of competing nations, 15 PvP and 8 PvE multiplayer modes with over 20 maps and more. The dev team has been working tirelessly, but it’s a lot of content and features to polish, especially given that BestWay employees have to deal with difficult conditions in their home country of Ukraine. We simply need more time to fix bugs before we release the game. Thank you so much for understanding and for your continuous support of Men of War II !
Maxim Kamensky, Producer of Men of War II at Best Way, explains: “We loved working with our dedicated community of fans during multiple Playtests and we gathered immense amounts of data and feedback. In fact, we received so many great suggestions we decided to implement, that the original schedule did not allow us to iron out all the bugs and issues in time for the September release. We feel that our fans deserve to receive a game in a completely polished and bug-free state and ask them for just a little more patience to allow us to deliver such a high quality product.”
We at FULQRUM Publishing would like to thank you all for taking part in the playtests, and for all the valuable feedback that you’ve shared.
In the meantime, we cordially invite you to join the official Men of War II Discord server if you'd like to be among the first to learn all news and chat with us, we always try to answer all questions we can there (or here in the Steam Discussions as well).
Don't Stop Having Fun - Final Open Beta Extended Until Tomorrow!
Greetings Commanders!
We want to thank everyone who has participated in the Final Open Beta so far - it looks like most people were having a lot of fun with the game, and we have gathered a lot of extremely useful feedback as well. We very much appreciate all the well-meaning criticism and suggestions, and rest assured, we will keep working on improving the game until release and beyond.
The Open Beta was officially scheduled to end today, but we have decided to keep the playtest publicly available until tomorrow, August 15, 7 pm CEST / 6 pm BST / 10 am PT / 01 pm ET.
We hope you will take up the opportunity for extra playtime and will keep enjoying the game! But we implore you, please, once you have played the Beta, share your thoughts on it with us. The best way to do that is via this questionnaire (especially if you have been playing since the start of the Beta), but feel free to post here in the comments or in Steam discussions, or come join the official Men of War II Discord server where you can not just chat with our team and other fans of the game, but also find team-mates for multiplayer matches or try to take on the Fulqrum Publishing team throughout the Final Beta.
We look forward to seeing you on the battlefield during the remainder of the Open Beta, the extended playtest, and later this year on full release! Remember to add the game to your wishlists!
Men of War II Final Beta - Update & Server Downtime
Greetings Commanders,
The Final Beta for Men of War II now receives a small, but important update. The most important change concerns the Classic match setup mode - all units' Command Points costs have been lowered, and Manpower generation in a match will continue for longer, meaning it should be possible to field more units and keep your battles more dynamic throughout a match.
The update causes a short downtime, but the Beta will be playable again in ~30-60 minutes. We hope you understand, as besides the rebalancing of the Classic mode, the update also fixes several reported issues:
Update Changelog:
Rebalancing the Classic mode
Fixed an issue with unit details not displaying when editing a battalion
Fixed possible sound distortion/noises in particular cases
Fixed issue with missing localization on first game start
Fixed several issues with multiplayer lobby localization
Added missing localization to the "hide UI" button
Men of War II Final Beta is LIVE!
Greetings, Commanders! The time has come and Men of War II is back with the third and final time to get hands on with the game, prior to its release. But giving you the opportunity to enjoy the game is not the only reason we are running the Beta - we need to learn what you think of the latest changes, so we can polish and tweak the game before its full launch.
We cannot stress this enough - your feedback from the first Multiplayer Tech Test in March and the subsequent Open Beta in May has been absolutely invaluable, and in this Final Open Beta, we would especially like to learn what you think about the two big features developers prepared solely based on your suggestions and comments - a new Match Setup Mode, called "Classic", and a new setting, dubbed "Realism".
We read all your feedback and each and every single player can have an impact on the final version of the game. We hope the changes implemented throughout the 3 playtests have proven our dedication to making Men of War II as enjoyable for our fans as possible.
Therefore we implore you, please, once you have played the Beta, share your thoughts with us here in the comments or Steam discussions, or come join the official Men of War II Discord server where you can not only chat with our team and other fans of the game, but also find team-mates for multiplayer matches or try to take on the Fulqrum Publishing team throughout the Final Beta.
And now, without further ado, let us introduce the biggest new features this Beta brings - both available through the custom lobby:
"Classic" Match Setup Mode
The "Match Setup Mode" is used to switch between "PvP" (the standard Men of War II playstyle, where you can choose from a wide selection of battalions), "Combined Arms" (which we introduced in the previous Open Beta, where each nation has a single battalion you can heavily customize) and now, "Classic" - which has been highly requested by the community and is reminiscent of the previous Men of War games.
Match Setup Mode selection in the Lobby Settings menu
When starting a "Classic" match, you will not be asked to select a battalion, just the nation whose army you want to play. This is similar to Combined Arms, however, there is nothing to customize before the match starts here. Once in the game, you will have all units from your nation's army available through a selection menu on the right-hand side of the screen.
You are not limited by timed echelons in calling in units either, however, each unit type has its own individual timer (so you cannot call in heavy tanks right from the start of the match, for example), and you cannot call in units without any limitations, as each of them costs a certain amount of "Manpower", which you regenerate at different paces throughout the match.
Important note about the "Classic" Match Setup
A crucial fact to remember about the "Classic" setup - the main reason for this Final Beta is for us to get your feedback on it. Developers will be changing its balancing before the final release based on your comments and suggestions. In fact, there are already 2 versions prepared and will be switched on Saturday (we will inform you here and on Discord ahead of time). It would be extremely appreciated if you played both and share your opinion with us using this form - filling it out won't take long and it will help us immensely!
New "Realism" Game Setting
We have introduced a whole new category in the Lobby, and that is "Game Settings" - which can now be switched between "Competitive" (the experience you are familiar with from previous Men of War II playtests) and the newly added setting called "Realism".
Game Settings selection in the Lobby Settings menu
This affects many gameplay features, some noticeable outright (such as different indicators on units), some more subtle (such as the inability to see if your unit has been fully detected after firing), and some major changes such as each unit having a different maximum firing range. When playing with the Realism setting turned on, even heavy artillery has to move closer to the front and will not be able to fire across the whole map.
The full list of effects when switching to the "Realism" setting:
Removed health bars for vehicles.
Changes in weapon settings - changed damage and range, higher chance of critical hits.
New vehicle destruction system.
Increased unit repair time.
Added a more realistic vision system for units, allowing them to physically hide behind objects.
The average range of vision has been increased.
Removed some indicators and tooltips in the interface.
Adjusted dynamic characteristics of all vehicles.
And last but not least, even though we have previously said there will be no new content available in the Final Beta besides these two features, we decided to give you a little bit extra anyway - one more map has been made available, so everyone, feel free to visit the Suburb!
Join the test now by clicking “Request Access” on Men of War II Steam page and the "Men of War II Playtest" will be added to your library, which you can install and run immediately. If you have already participated in the Multiplayer Tech Test and/or the Open Beta, you already have it in your library and can simply install (or update) it and play.
To sum up, here is the full list of content available in the Final Beta:
Final Beta Content:
2x Game Settings
Competitive
Realism
3x PvP Match Setup Mode
PvP (typical Men of War II experience using the battalion system)
Combined Arms (single customizable battalion for each nation)
Classic (all units from the player’s nation available in a match)
4x PvP Game Mode
Front Line
Assault Zones
Combat
Incursion - only available in PvP match setup (“Battalions”)
1x PvE Game Mode
Line Defense (listed in the lobby menu as "Special Battle Mode")
8x Maps
Airfield
Bazerville
Borovaya River
Carpathians
The Coast
Farmland
Winter March
Suburb
3x Single Player / Co-op Missions
Ambush
Battle of Coisson
Towards Freedom
Changes & Fixes:
A new enhanced lighting engine with new skyboxes and better quality of existing content.
Bunkers, pillboxes and observation towers can now be built as defensive structures on all maps.
Additional match settings in the lobby: players can choose the weather and time of day for each battle.
Added medical transport for each nation and a Soviet self-propelled heavy howitzer SU-152.
New animations for various units and situations, such as artillery reloading and infantry dying in water.
New buildings added to maps, including a supply depot, infirmary, fuel station, etc.
New models for artillery shells, grenades and bombs.
Various new sound effects.
Improved pathfinding for vehicles.
Balancing and refinement to single-player missions and multiplayer modes.
Performance improvements.
Bug fixes, general polish and small tweaks.
Make sure you wishlist the game, and we look forward to seeing you on the battlefield, commanders!
Men of War II Final Beta weekend starts on August 10
Greetings, Commanders!
We are proud to announce that there will be one more chance for you to try out Men of War II before its release on September 20th, 2023 - the Final Beta weekend for the game will begin on Thursday, August 10, and conclude on Monday, August 14.
This Final Open Beta is based on feedback from the thousands of our fans who have already played, tested, and provided their thoughts on the previous two public tests on everything from unit balance to optimization improvements. The version in this Beta will closely mirror the full release experience, but bear in mind: further features, lots of content, and other modes are still to be added at launch.
While the content in terms of maps, missions, and types of matches will be the same as in the previous Open Beta, you will be able to experience it in two brand-new ways, the Classic Mode, and the Realism Mode, from the multiplayer lobby.
The Classic Modes is a highly-requested feature from the community, which will take players back to the multiplayer experience of previous Men of War games. You will be able to simply select which nation you want to play as, and will immediately have access to all that nation’s units in each match. There are no battalions and echelons, and you simply call in your forces based on a combination of each unit’s individual timer, as well as your own pool of resources. The Classic Mode will be available in variants for Assault Zones, Combat, and Front Line match types.
The Realism Mode is a brand-new way to enjoy Men of War II. It offers a higher chance of disabling and capturing enemy vehicles, fewer visual cues concerning the visibility and health of your units, a more limited range of fire for weapons, and many more gameplay changes. It is applicable to all match types, and can even be combined with the Classic Mode!
We will share even more details about these new features, along with instructions on how to access them, closer to the start of the Final Beta.
Bunkers, pillboxes, and observation towers can now be built as defensive structures on all maps.
New animations for various units and situations, such as artillery reloading and infantry dying in the water.
New buildings added to maps, including a supply depot, infirmary, fuel station, and cranes.
New models for artillery shells, grenades, and bombs.
Various new sound effects.
Improved pathfinding for vehicles.
Balancing and refinement to single-player missions.
Performance improvements.
Bug fixes, general polish, and small tweaks.
The Final Beta will be available for free here on Steam. Enlisting in it is simple:
You need to head over to the Men of War II Steam store page where you will have the option to ‘Request Access’ for a ‘Men of War II Playtest’ - you can do so right now and get an e-mail notification once the beta goes live. Otherwise, clicking the button anytime during the beta will grant you instant access.
If you have already taken part in the previous tests, you do not need to sign up again, the ‘Men of War II Playtest’ will simply become available to install/play in your Steam Library once the beta starts.
Wait and jump into the action on Thursday, August 10.
We would like to thank everyone who took their time to play the previous tests, and we hope you will take part in the Final Open Beta as well.
Make sure you wishlist the game, and we look forward to seeing you on the battlefield, commanders!
Mods in Men of War II – Born in the Fire: America Sneak Peek
Greetings Commanders,
Not so long ago we showed you a first little sample of the modding scene already forming around Men of War II (Mods in Men of War II – Lost Eagles Sneak Peek), and we would like to continue this series today by introducing another classic mod for the game’s launch this September. "Born in the Fire: America" – the famous modification about events of wars of the XVIII-XIX centuries, both in the American and European theaters is in the process of being remade for Men of War II. Big emphasis in its story is put on the colonization of North America, War of Independence, American Civil War and the era of the Wild West. The mod features historically accurate soldier equipment, weapons, cannons and ships, as well as horses and carts.
This version of the ‘Born in the Fire: America’, made and ported for Men of War II by ALC Team, consists of 6 missions about various events such as battle of Bunker-Hill, defense of Jamestown and the last battle of Colonel Custer. All levels have been reworked with the new resources of Men of War II and have received an updated visual style.
“We started our path into modding with the GEM engine and to this day we’re doing it here, this engine is very simple and most accessible tool for us to implement our ideas, interesting little features, plots and to create unique content. Men of War II continues this trend by expanding modding possibilities with its toolset. For us, port of the Born in the Fire is just the beginning.” – ChrisTaylor and Sea-Knight from ALC Team told us. If you’re interested in their projects, you can join their Discord channel.
Stay tuned, we will have even more news to share with you soon! And if you are a modder with a great idea for new content, or have an already existing mod you would like to convert to Men of War II, contact us at pr@fulqrumpublishing.com - we cannot promise everyone who asks will get early access to the modding tools however, since the game is still in development.
Don’t forget to wishlist Men of War II, join its Discord and follow Fulqrum Publishing on social media, so you don’t miss any of our announcements!
As you probably know, Men of War II will feature full mod support at launch. What you might not be aware of, even though we teased it some time ago, is the fact that we have already provided several modding teams early access to the tools they need to bring their creations to life. It is now our absolute pleasure to bring you a first sneak peek of one of the upcoming mods, which will be available to play at least in part right at launch, on September 20!
And it is none other than a remake of the "Lost Eagles" modification, which tells the story of an alternate outcome of Operation Overlord, where the Allied invasion of Normandy completely failed. Surviving paratroopers, led by Lieutenant Jason Baker, discover a shelter in an abandoned equipment service station where they struggle to survive, assist the local guerrilla militia in their war of partisanship, and search for surviving soldiers.
A nonlinear story campaign is complimented by full studio-quality voice acting for all dialogues and characters and the high quality of the missions, their gameplay variety, and the excellently transferred dark atmosphere introduce exceptional depth and intensity to the gameplay.
To get a better idea of the atmosphere awaiting you in Lost Eagles, its creator, Skilletti, has already prepared a short teaser and a couple of screenshots, enjoy!
[table noborder="1" equalcells="1"] [tr] [td][/td] [td][/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td][/td] [/tr][/table] This is what Skilletti had to say about working with the Men of War II modding toolkit:
"For me the GEM engine is in a kind of a sandbox, where you can implement any player's fantasies, gameplay concepts and realize your creative ideas without having much technical knowledge in game dev. Huge possibilities of the editor allow to reproduce absolutely any plot regardless of the setting."
Stay tuned, we will have even more news to share with you soon, including unveilings and sneak peeks into other mods that are already in production! And if you are a modder with a great idea for new Men of War II content, or have an already existing mod you would like to convert to Men of War II, contact us at pr@fulqrumpublishing.com - we cannot promise everyone who asks will get early access to the modding tools however, since the game is still in development.
Don’t forget to wishlist Men of War II, join its Discord and follow Fulqrum Publishing on social media, so you don’t miss any of our announcements!
And if you like what you saw of the Lost Eagles mod, why not join their dedicated Discord server too?
Today is the day you have been waiting for – we are excited to announce that Men of War II will be available on September 20, 2023!
And to celebrate this momentous occasion, we have prepared a new trailer, showcasing the full scope of the game:
We also believe it is now the right time to dive a little deeper into the different content available at launch, and officially unveil brand-new features, campaigns and game modes we have not talked about before:
Three Epic Narrative Campaigns
At launch, the game will feature three single-player narrative campaigns, which will guide you through explosive fictional stories set against a historically accurate background. Featuring plotlines from three global powers - the Americans, Soviets, and Germans - you will have to utilize military strategy to lay waste to your adversaries and fulfill various tactical objectives.
The American campaign, ‘The Falaise Pocket’, will see you take on the role of Allied troops facing the task of eliminating German forces west of the Seine.
‘Thwarted Blitzkrieg’ is the Soviet campaign, and follows an almost hopeless situation for the USSR, as they struggle to slow the encroaching German tank forces.
In the German campaign, ‘On Their Own Soil’, you will act as an old soldier amidst the collapse of the Third Reich, following the difficult road of retreat and loss, in a war that was never truly his own.
Historical Campaigns
In addition to the narrative campaigns, you will be given the ability to dive deeper into true historical operations with American ‘Operation Overlord’, the Allied operation into Western Europe, and Soviet ‘Operation Bagration’, a large-scale Soviet offensive against Nazi Germany, through a series of related missions. These historical campaigns offer more dynamic choices regarding the battalions and units you choose to defeat the enemy threat.
Raids and Conquest
Two further campaign modes will offer even more variety. The first is Raids, which are a series of 16 randomly generated battles, where you progress by conquering your opponents and upgrading your battalions.
Conquest offers a truly dynamic campaign in which you are free to choose a path for your army in an attempt to conquer territory on a dedicated map. These attempts are challenged by AI battalions, who will be consistently counter-attacking in an intense fight to capture it back.
Multiplayer Mobilised
Men of War II will also showcase more than 20 hand-crafted multiplayer maps, 5 dedicated PVE game modes, and 13 game modes for PVP. 5-player co-op will also be implemented for all narrative and historical campaigns, as well as individual missions.
Robust Mod Support
The action never stops thanks to a significantly redesigned and modified GEM RTS engine. With a comprehensive editor and full mod support at launch, Men of War II is primed to keep growing with community-created content, and we can't wait to see what amazing new battlefields, units, or whole armies our fans will come up with!
We wholeheartedly appreciate the support and constructive criticism from you, our community. While we have unveiled most of the launch content for Men of War II now, we still have a few surprises the dev team is working on, which we believe will please especially the franchise veterans. We will be sharing more details about that and more information about the campaigns and game modes we already teased today, before the release.
Make sure you wishlist the game to not miss any new announcements, and we will also be happy to see you on the official Men of War II Discord server!
Mark Your Calendars - A Big Announcement Is Coming!
Greetings Commanders,
It has been a month since the Open Beta of Men of War II ended, and things might seem quiet now, but rest assured, the opposite is true behind the scenes, and you could consider this period simply the calm before the storm - the development team has been very busy and we will soon be able to share a lot of new information about the game. In fact, mark your calendars - a big announcement is coming next week, on Thursday, June 22!
It has been quite the journey so far, and the best is yet to come. A huge thank you goes to everyone in our community for all your support, suggestions, and constructive criticism. Without you, making Men of War II truly would not be possible, and we can't wait to see how you like the full game later this year.
For now, we would like to take a look back at the fun we had together during the Open Beta last month and show you a few interesting stats and fun facts. We hope to see you in the game soon - don't forget to wishlist it so you don't miss any new updates on development, and if you'd like to come and chat about the game, we would love to see you on the official Men of War II Discord server!
Open Beta Ending Today... But You Can Keep On Playing!
Greetings Commanders!
We want to thank everyone who has participated in the Open Beta so far - it looks like most people were having a lot of fun with the game, and we have gathered a lot of extremely useful feedback as well. We very much appreciate all the well-meaning criticism and suggestions and rest assured, we will keep working on improving the game until release and beyond.
The Open Beta will officially end today at 5 pm CEST / 4 pm BST / 8 am PT / 11 am ET. However, we have decided to keep the playtest publicly available for at least another 24 hours to get more experimental with server setups. There will be no downtime and no need to download any updates. The changes should be seamless, without any interruption to your games. We cannot guarantee that during this extended test, lobbies will be as stable as they have been during the Open Beta - there might be increased ping and worse connection overall.
While matchmaking and single-player will be unaffected, we would like to ask all of our community to help us out and use the lobby system as much as possible. You can visit the official Men of War II Discord server to arrange matches and look for players. We would love to hear your feedback on the performance in multiplayer lobbies throughout the extended test, either there or here in the Steam Discussions.
We look forward to seeing you on the battlefield during the remainder of the Open Beta, the extended playtest, and later this year on full release! Remember to add the game to your wishlists!
