Rising Storm 2: Vietnam
Upcoming CTB Test This Weekend - And Please Take The CTB Survey!
Hello everyone!
We would once again like to start out by thanking those of you who have spent some time helping us test the upcoming 1.1 update on the Community Test Branch! We’ll be heading back into the servers again this weekend with a dedicated play with the devs test happening [B]Saturday (September 8th) at 3 PM EST (-5 GMT)[/B].
For those of you who have taken part in previous testing, or will be joining us for the first time this weekend, be sure to take some time to fill in the survey on your CTB experience. You can find it here: https://www.rs2vietnam.com/survey
[IMG]https://media.tripwirecdn.com/082418/campaign1.gif[/IMG]
Upcoming CTB Tests - Starting This Evening
Hello everyone!
First off, a big thank you for all those who helped test out the current 1.1 preview build on the Community Test Branch this weekend. We have switched one of the CTB servers over to Highway 14 and will be hosting a play with the devs session tonight (Tuesday, September 4th) at 8:00 PM EST (-5 GMT), so come join us! We’ll also be doing one more play with the devs MP Campaign test tomorrow (Wednesday, September 5th), also at 8:00 PM EST (-5 GMT).
We’ve also got some great data, feedback and bug reports already and are working towards an update to have another test this coming weekend! Keep an eye out for more information this week.
We look forward to playing with you on the CTB or at the full launch of update 1.1!
Tripwire Interactive & Antimatter Games
Update 1.1 Is Now Live On The Community Test Branch!
Our first preview build of update 1.1 with Multiplayer Campaign is now live on the CTB! Please join us in testing this update for any issues, starting now and with a dedicated play with the devs test happening Saturday at 3 PM EST.
You can find a Work In Progress changelog here:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/737230/announcements/detail/1705064322618150402
Be sure to let us know in the CTB discussions both here or for the CTB itself any issues you encounter!
Thank you for your help and support,
Tripwire Interactive & Antimatter Games
Multiplayer Campaign Heads To The Community Test Branch This Weekend
While the initial Update 1.1 test build has come together slower then we would have liked, we are now comfortable to reschedule the build hitting the Community Test Branch this Friday with a full Play With The Devs playtest this weekend starting on Saturday at 3 PM EST!
As always, this may be subject to change as we continue to do some final tests around the build, with a special thanks to our Grunts team for their continued help in test such as these!
To make sure you know what you'll be diving into this weekend, check out the previously released Work In Progress Changelog here:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/418460/announcements/detail/1701685355327072581
We look forward to seeing you this weekend, either in the CTB or live/tuned into our PAX West panel!
The First Tripwire Publisher Sale Is Here!
Featuring prices 50 to 85% off across our entire catalog of games and DLC! Looking to fill in that misisng item or try something new, or perhaps entice your friends to join you in one of your favorite games? Now is the time!
https://store.steampowered.com/developer/Tripwire/
And don't forget to join us this weekend at PAX West, either in person or tuning in via the live stream for more information on the awesome new things coming to some your favorite games! http://west.paxsite.com/schedule/panel/tripwire-interactives-2018-pax-west-panel
Work In Progress Changelog for Update 1.1
While we have had to delay the Community Test Branch build and test of the 1.1 update from the previously announced test this weekend, we wanted to share with you the Work In Progress changelog which you can find below!
Campaign
Brand new to Rising Storm 2 is the Multiplayer Campaign mode! A deep, tactical mode which takes place over several battles, where the fate of the Vietnam War will be decided. Players must choose a side, and vote on tactical decisions, such as where to attack, where to defend, and which of their faction’s armies they will proceed in to battle with.
In order to win the campaign, you must either end the 11-year period of the war with more Victory Points than the opposing team, or capture every territory on the map. Each year comprises of a single battle where winning those battles will earn you new territory along with victory points.
As the timeline of the war moves forwards through the campaign, each of the armies’ equipment and available commander abilities change. For example, after the Paris peace accords in ‘73, the US and ANZAC forces withdraw, which leaves the Southern team with the ARVN for the last two years of the war. As you fight your way through the duration of the war, real-life technological advancements and political events have a meaningful impact on the flow of battle.
Each faction also has a special ability - the Ho Chi Minh trail for the North, and Search and Destroy for the South. These both confer unique, asymmetric advantages for a single battle, and run on a three-turn cooldown which players must vote to either use or not once they become available.
In order to more clearly explain the flow of the Multiplayer Campaign, a hypothetical campaign flow was posted at the below link:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/418460/discussions/3/1742216733516925633/
Highway 14
1.1 (and this CTB) marks the official and long awaited release of Highway 14 into the Official map rotation. Please note, this map is still considered as Beta. Thank you to community mapper Dziga Vertov for letting us use this gargantuan map!
Highway 14 sees the United States army square off against the NLF in a gruelling conflict up a beautiful highway, and through several small towns. It also features the largest number of objectives to fight over in any of our stock maps, going all the way up to Objective M.There’s been a massive amount of bug fixes and optimization work done on the road to making Highway an official map, and we can’t wait for everyone to check it out!
1.1 also sees a number of optimizations to other official RS2 maps, as well as refinements to reinforcement counters in our ongoing efforts to make sure the game is as balanced as possible, which we’ll go into more detail on with the release of 1.1!
NLF vs PAVN Role Changes
So as to create more distinction between the NLF and PAVN factions who fight for Communist North Vietnam, NLF roles have been changed to reflect the guerilla nature of their forces, versus the standing army of the PAVN. This should also make the choice between the NLF and PAVN more meaningful when playing Multiplayer Campaign.
The role changes are as follows:
- NLF Guerilla
- Added M1 Carbine
- Removed AK-47
- Added M1 Carbine
- NLF Scout
- Added Type 56 and Type 56-1 (no AKM)
- NLF Sapper
- Added Type 56 and Type 56-1 (no AKM)
- Added MAT-49
- Removed SKS
- Added Type 56 and Type 56-1 (no AKM)
- NLF Machine Gunner
- Added Punji Trap
- NLF Radioman
- Removed AK-47
- Added Mosin Nagant 91/30
- Added IZH-58
- Added Punji Trap
- Removed AK-47
- NLF RPG
- Added Punji Trap
- NLF Commander
- Added Punji Trap
Audio Remix
We have remixed the audio in Rising Storm 2: Vietnam to ensure proper directionality of combat sound. We have also increased the volume of environmental audio, foley and footstep sounds, and rebalanced various audio elements.
We have also improved third person weapon sounds, and ensured that third person weapon firing and third person weapon decay are split out and handled independently.
Weapon Change
Per community feedback, we have made some changes to certain weapons in Rising Storm 2: Vietnam. Those changes are as follows:
- Reduced horizontal recoil of the M2 / M1 Carbine
- Slightly reduced horizontal recoil of the Type 56 / 56-1
- Reduced sway on all Sniper Rifles - especially for SVD and XM21
- Reduced recoil when using Machine Gun bipods so that they are more effective
- 40% ADS movement speed increase for M37 Riot Shotgun and the Sawn-off IZH shotgun
- Universally reduced recoil by 10% when crouched and 15% when prone
- Increased Weapon Rested’s recoil reduction by 15%
Misc. Quality of Life Improvements
- By community request, we’ve added a volume slider to the main menu that allows players to adjust the level of the first person audio for being shot in the head
- Added an indicator on the main menu to show when ‘double xp’ is enabled. Also, added a feedback panel and link to the online RS2 roadmap so players can keep up to date with upcoming features!
- Commanders will now see a cooldown bar on their abilities
- Added the ability to wear two facial accessories at the same time - finally, you can have that beard/glasses combo you’ve always wanted!
- Made it easier to dig tunnels and plant traps and explosives, which no longer require players to look directly at the ground
- Added the ability to place squad tunnels almost anywhere, with a time penalty for harder surfaces such as rock and concrete
- Added the ability to place Tripwire Traps on a larger variety of surfaces, with a time penalty for harder surfaces such as rock and concrete
- Added a checkbox on the settings menu to enable or disable texture streaming (Having texture streaming enabled, ensures all textures are loaded at full resolution all the time. While the game will ultimately have a better visuals, the memory usage will be very large). Please experiment at your own risk.
- Changed pop-up tips so that they will only show when the player is dead and spectating
There are also a huge number of bug fixes, polish items and new features which will be fully detailed in the 1.1 changelog when the patch launches in the not-too-distant future. Watch this space, and see you online in the CTB!
Thank you for your continued support.
Antimatter Games & Tripwire Interactive
Update 1.1 Community Test Branch Build Delayed - No Test This Weekend
Hello everyone,
Due to unforeseen issues we will be delaying the update of the CTB build. This means we we will not be ready to run the planned CTB test this weekend. Our current target is to get the 1.1 build up on the CTB branch early next week.
We will have more information about the upcoming 1.1 build later today so stay tuned!
Update 1.1 Heads To The Community Test Branch - August 25th
Hello everyone!
Update 1.1 is currently slated to be in community hands in just a few days via the Community Test Branch on August 25th and 26th for a test weekend! Along with Multiplayer Campaign, Update 1.1 has many Quality of Life improvements and gameplay changes that are coming as well - and today we want to share some of them with you.
First up, the NLF faction is having changes made to its roles, to help differentiate it from the PAVN:
- NLF Guerilla
- Added M1 Carbine
- Removed AK-47
- Added M1 Carbine
- NLF Scout
- Added Type 56 and Type 56-1 (no AKM)
- NLF Sapper
- Added MAT-49
- Removed SKS
- Added MAT-49
- NLF Machine Gunner
- Added Punji Trap
- NLF Radioman
- Removed AK-47
- Added Mosin Nagant 91/30
- Added Punji Trap
- Removed AK-47
- NLF RPG
- Added Punji Trap
- NLF Commander
- Added Punji Trap
There are some upcoming weapon changes as well:
- Reduced horizontal recoil of the M2 / M1 Carbine
- Slightly reduced horizontal recoil of the Type 56 / 56-1
- Reduced sway on all Sniper Rifles - especially for SVD and XM21
- Reduced recoil when using Machine Gun bipods
- 40% ADS movement speed increase for M37 Riot Shotgun and the Sawn-off IZH shotgun
(Community Map Highway 14 Joins The Official Lineup With 1.1)
Many maps are also having their reinforcements adjusted to bring them into better balance as well as a potential optimization pass. We’ll be using the CTB to evaluate the effectiveness of these changes, so be sure to participate and let us know if you see improvement!
Along with these map, weapon and role changes, many community requested features, improvements and even new settings are also on the way:
- Players will now be able to place traps and tunnels without looking directly at the ground
- Tunnels and traps can now be placed anywhere, but with a time penalty for harder surfaces such as rock and concrete
- Commanders will now see a cooldown bar on their abilities
- A new checkbox has been added to the graphics settings to enable or disable texture streaming (in and out individually)
- A new volume slider has been added to the audio settings so players can adjust their first person headshot audio volume
And as some of the eagle eyed warriors in the community noticed in the last announcement, players will now be able to equip two facial accessories. No longer will you have to choose between those glasses and beard.
Since we’ve started talking about the upcoming Multiplayer Campaign and 1.1 Update, we have seen players asking for even more details. To help with that, we have gathered some of the top questions and have answered them!
Update 1.1 Q&A
Q: Is there any mechanic to stop faster loading players from always getting preferred roles (in MPC or general gameplay)
- No mechanic as of yet. Ideally this a problem that is addressed in the base game as well. I imagine we will need to find a fair way to give first picks to players rather than the first-come-first-serve unrestricted system we have at the moment.
Q: Is there any mechanic to delay round start until more players have loaded (so maps don't start with 5 players
- There is already a pre-round duration that servers can set. We will make sure one is set by default.
Q: How is what region that is attacked by a team decided?
- Players on attacking team have 60 seconds to communicate and vote for a specific region to attack. Different regions have different maps and armies to choose from.
Q: Was that a character that had both a mustache and glasses in the placeable HMG video?
- Yes, facial hair and eye wear are split off into different categories now.
Q: How many HMG's are deployable - and on maps where they are available? Does it remove the previous map ones?
- Deployable HMGs will replace indestructible static DSHKs on current maps.
Q: How can HMG's be moved/destroyed?
- The player on the HMG can choose to disassemble the HMG and put it back into their inventory (with movement penalty) and place it in a new location. HMGs can be destroyed by explosives and the pickup item will respawn at its spawn location (similar to Helicopters).
Q: Which maps will have the new deployable HMG’s?
- Our intention is to have this available in all maps, but subject to change as we observe how the maps play out and player feedback.
Q: Are any more official and community maps coming to the game?
- We have a few more community maps we want to make a official but they require more work to be put into them before they are ready.
Q: Can server admins add custom maps to the campaign?
- Absolutely, server admins will have the option to add custom maps to the regions of their choosing.
Incoming in Update 1.1 - Multiplayer Campaign and more!
Hello everyone!
With Update 1.09 out in the wild, the teams focus has of course become the upcoming 1.1 update and its headline feature: Multiplayer Campaign.
But that isn’t all! Another item currently scheduled (this may slip to a following update) to come out of prototype with Update 1.1 is deployable heavy weapons, such as the DShK!
https://media.tripwirecdn.com/080218/deployhmg.webm
(THE ABOVE IS A Work In Progress EXAMPLE)
Pesky helicopter pilots know exactly where to shoot? Know of a Vietnamese flank that needs heavy fire and suppression? Starting with a selection of maps in Update 1.1, players will be able to deploy Heavy Machine Guns at positions of opportunity, not just where the map has previously dictated they are (those will still be there)!
A limited number of these HMG’s will be available to pick up near ammo supply points, at your team’s starting location and can be carried into the field and deployed at will, space permitting. The Southern factions are also getting a new weapon to use with this system in the M2 Browning HMG (in a future update):
[IMG]https://media.tripwirecdn.com/080218/m2.jpg[/IMG]
We recently went into some greater detail on Multiplayer Campaign, and today we want to expand further on that with a hypothetical Campaign match partial walkthrough. To brush up on the previous details, check out the post here:
https://steamcommunity.com/gid/103582791441057506/announcements/detail/1676913021485271570
1965 - The first year of the Campaign. The forces of the North and South are preparing for conflict. Each start in control of one key area. The South has Saigon, the North has Pleiku, but the rest of the country is more “open” with neither side having control. Both sides start with 400 “Combat Power”. The North gets the first move this time. They want to start by establishing a base off the Ho Chi Minh trail in the center of the country and assault the Tuyen Doc region - as well as gain a Zone worth 10 Victory Points; their chosen battleground (map) is VNTE-Ninh Phu.
[IMG]https://media.tripwirecdn.com/071918/mpcampaignmap.jpg[/IMG]
This turns out to be a decisive first victory for the North against the ARVN that went out to meet the force in the field. During the match the North spent half their reinforcements. Tuyen Doc started out neutral (50 Combat Points to attack), but has a 2x modifier (higher risk, but higher reward) - so cost the North a potential maximum of 100 CP to attack. They succeeded, with 50% casualties - so the final cost is 50 CP.
The North now controls two areas and has a total of 25 Victory Points (Pleiku is worth 15, Tuyen Doc is worth 10) for their two held territories. They had 400 CP, the attack cost them 50, reducing them to 350 CP, but gain 25 for the two territories to finish 1965 on 375 CP. Defending a Neutral Zone costs 50 CP, with no modifiers, so the South’s loss has cost them 50 CP. But they still own Saigon, which is worth 15, to finish 1965 on 365 CP.
1966 - The second year… The North could attack again as they won the previous round. However they choose to force the South to attack, perhaps hoping to bleed them this year - and hit back from the Ho Chi Minh trail later. The South votes, deciding to attack Binh Long and provide a buffer region in front of Saigon. The US Army attacks the NLF in Binh Long, as the North can only use local NLF forces to defend a Neutral Zone - and wins a rapid victory, costing them only 10% of their reinforcements.
Binh Long is Neutral and has a 2x modifier, so the 10% casualties for the South cost them 10 CP (50 CP cost to attack a Neutral Zone, 2x modifier making it 100 CP - but only 10% casualties). The North loses the full 50 CP for failing to defend. Binh Long is worth 10 VP to the South, giving them a total of 25 VP (Saigon being worth 15 VP). At the end of 1966, both sides hold two Zones, both totalling 25 VP. The South had 365 CP coming into the year, lost 10 CP taking Binh Long, but gained 25 CP for the Zones owned, ending the year on 380 CP. The North had 375 CP, losing Binh Long cost them 50 CP, gaining 25 CP for the Zones owned, finishing their 1966 on 350 CP.
1967 - Year 3… The South decide to push hard. They vote to attack Quang Ngai, a 3x Zone, worth 15 Victory Points - but at a potential cost of 150 Combat Points. The North have to try and hold the Zone with the NLF again defending, with 50 Combat Points at stake. If the South wins, they are starting to build a big lead… if the North wins this one, they’ll have the initiative again - and will have heavily damaged the South’s Combat Power.
Play the campaign for yourself - you get to make the difference on who wins each fight. And you get to decide on the strategy each year. We’ll let you decide how the rest of the campaign plays out!
Rising Storm 2 Update 1.09.2 Is Now Live
The changelog is as follows:
Ambush Deployment Ticket Overuse Fix
- Fixed an issue where using Ambush Deployment as a Northern Commander would drain more reinforcement tickets than the number of people being spawned. As always, we owe a huge thank-you to the community for identifying and reporting this issue, and for being patient as we worked on this fix.
Server Ban/Revoke Fix
- Fixed an issue where server admins were unable to revoke bans on their servers.
- Fixed an issue where a player would get kicked back to the main menu without a message if they attempted to rejoin the same server before the ban was revoked.
Trap Disarmament Player Stuck Fix
- Fixed an issue where players would become stuck in place when attempting to disarm a trap, if a teammate disarmed the same trap they were targeting.
Territories Quang Tri Changes
- Adjusted spawn protection on Objective A on Territories Mode Quang Tri in response to community feedback that it was possible for defenders to spawn kill attackers, and camp in the alleyways approaching the church.
- Added 150 more reinforcements to both teams on Territories Mode Quang Tri after community reports that the map would end on reinforcements hitting zero with a significant amount of time remaining on the clock.
Territories Operation Forrest Changes
- Added 150 more reinforcements to both teams on the new, larger version of Territories Mode Operation Forrest.
MAT-49 Audio Fix
- Corrected an issue where the 9mm variant of the MAT-49 sounded too fast for its actual rate of fire. We have updated the firing sounds for this weapon.
Thank you for your continued support.
Antimatter Games & Tripwire Interactive