Hello WWII Online: Chokepoint Community! This is Bebopsaxxx your Community Manager!!
A quick update on a few items that are part of this last patch and also some things that we can share with you today that are currently in process!! WWII Online: Chokepoint version 0.1.3. Minor Fixes
FIXES INCLUDE:
All 36 Player Slots are now available
Key Binds now have a "SAVE" button to keep your controls set
Hit Boxes have been improved
Death/Injury now is now confined to only head, torso and limbs
Shots to head and upper body from behind now cause death/injury to the enemy
Medium to long range shots are more effective (Work in Progress)
FUTURE ITEMS:
The M1A1 Thompson, M1 Carbine and Gewehr 43 have had major progress
Recoil, fire rate and other elements will be adjusted to accurately represent each weapon
Carentan is still receiving much improvement to lighting and textures
ALL PREMIUM SUBSCRIBERS RECEIVE A KEY! By subscribing to WWII Online you're not only helping with keeping us operational, but you're helping us keep game development rolling. In recognition of that, we invite all active premium WWII Online subscribers to get their Chokepoint key HERE by filling out a Support Ticket and in the "Title" and "Description" field type: "Requesting Chokepoint UE5 Key"
APPLY TO BECOME A TESTER! WWII Online: Chokepoint is looking for Community Testers!! Please fill out the Chokepoint UE5 Tester Application! CLICK HERE TO APPLY!
Please enjoy some gameplay highlights of our most recent WWII Online: Chokepoint Play Test from May 17, 2025 https://youtu.be/CXlGIQilMdU
WWIIONLINE: CHOKEPOINT PLAY TEST! MAY 17TH
IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN!!! WWIIONLINE: CHOKEPOINT PLAY TEST!!!!! MAY 17th | GMT 8:00PM | PST 1:00PM | CST 3:00PM | EST 5:00PM | Again, we apologize for the long period with no updates, but we are working as steadily as possible! ==================================================== Some things YOU WILL SEE on this next Chokepoint Play Test: -ALL 36 PLAYER SLOTS AVAILABLE -Keybinds Save!! -Hit Box Improvement! -Doors and Gates!!! Things you will not see but have faith that we are working on: -Updates to Carentan Textures, Lighting and Structures. -Rebuilding and improving ALL weapons from the UE4 version. -Ladder climbing and mantling/vaulting. ==================================================== THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR PATIENCE AND CONTINUED SUPPORT!!! SEE YOU AT THE PLAY TEST!!!!
Please consider joining the Chokepoint Testing Program!!! If you have any further questions please contact Bebopsaxxx on Discord!!!
WWII Online: Chokepoint is looking for Community Testers!! Please fill out the Chokepoint UE5 Application linked below!!
All applicants will be considered based on computer specs, and availability. Continuation in the program is dependent on your continued participation and effectiveness during testing. As the game is in active development, things may change and is subject to the direction CRS seeks to take it. Your participation in testing ensures bugs are targeted, addressed, and fixed before the product goes live.
This is a great opportunity for you to help push Chokepoint to an exciting and well optimized addition to the WWII Online Franchise!
Please consider joining the Chokepoint Testing Program!!! If you have any further questions please contact Bebopsaxxx on Discord!!!
Huge progress within the halls of Playnet/CRS is being made as we have been working around the clock to get WWII Online: Chokepoint's conversion from Unreal 4 to Unreal 5 rolling. We have an important message directly from XOOM for you to hear, some detailed notes about changes made, and some brand-new Unreal Engine 5 screenshots for you!
Please note: The following does not represent a final product, we are still at work. S!
Key highlights of this video include:
The team has been rebuilt.
We've been able to do internal UE5 testing.
We aim to open the door for keyholder testing before the end of 2024.
Real tangible progress is being made.
Continue reading below to see the important fixes we've put together.
This is UE5 alpha and there's more work to be done.
FIXES / CHANGES
UE 5 game server rebuilt.
Server browser now shows accurate information.
Audio, video and game options are now saving.
Player Spawn logic now works correctly.
Allied TNT explosive re-added.
M1 Garand re-added.
M1911 re-added.
Kar98 re-added.
Walther P38 re-added.
Mantling disabled.
Fall damage disabled.
Carentan boundaries were cleaned up.
Several buttons are hidden, pending repairs.
Fallschirmjager helmet was re-scaled and properly set.
Feet no longer flip while running.
Torso no longer grows to become a giant when crouching.
Reload animations cleaned up.
Weapon sounds timed correctly and rebuilt.
Glass now breaks when shot.
Prone (crawling) animation no longer shakes in third person.
Input controls now work properly when you respawn.
Kar98 transitions between crouching and movement are cleaner.
Haunted audio file removed.
Character weapons cleaned up (more to add later).
Removed improper equipment from character models.
Rebuilt Chokepoint app icon for taskbar.
FEATURES
Carentan has a new and improved town hall building.
New historically accurate telephone poles created.
Credits updated.
All-new game build deployment methodology.
Splash screen updated.
New “Bug” report button added to UI.
New “Discord” button added to UI.
New “News” button added to the UI.
Map (M Key) instantly pulls up your game map.
Allied Engineers are dispatched with demolition charges to destroy the German FlaK 88 position.
German forces viciously defend the FlaK 88 and twisted bodies and blood show the brutality of WWII.
Multiple casualties litter the battlefield as the Allies try to liberate La Fiere.
Allied Gliders end up off-target trying to dodge FlaK fire and tough controls.
Intense close-quarter combat ensues with Allied soldiers guarding the church staircase.
The La Fiere "Manor" is contested with a white flag, denoting intense fighting.
If you are not actively subscribed and would like to help support our studio, you first need to create an account and then upgrade it by signing in at https://account.wwiionline.com.
Chokepoint Gaining Momentum
With an all-new team at working on WWII Online: Chokepoint, we're pleased to report that hard work is materializing into actionable developments. This development update is designed to inform you of a bit of that progress and reinforce the positive impact it has on the entirety of our mission to innovate and bring WWII Online to the future.
You are invited to attend a Community RAT CHAT. Join our WWII Online Discord at https://discord.gg/sPPDkc3D
DATE: Sunday, April 14 WHERE: Xoom's Office on Discord TIME: 12PM PST (2PM Central, 3PM Eastern, GMT-8). DURATION: 90 MINUTES
TOPICS:
Discussing WWII Online 1.0 roadmap progress
Discussing Chokepoint progress
Sneak Peeks
Community Questions
Mark your calendars and make a point to be there. Not many development studios spend this kind of “live” time with its community. Join us!
See you on Sunday! Cornered Rat Software
WWII ONLINE: CHOKEPOINT 2024 ROADMAP
Chokepoint Community,
There have been requests for an update on the development of WWII ONLINE: CHOKEPOINT. Below is an excerpt from the recently announced 2024 Roadmap by CRS.
You can review the entire article via the link below which includes videos and screenshots of the ongoing development of Chokepoint.
https://www.wwiionline.com/post/2024-roadmap
******************
WWII ONLINE: CHOKEPOINT ROADMAP As we announced in mid-2023, we had to completely rebuild our Chokepoint team. Given all of the other moving parts of our organization here at CRS, and the high demand to press updates for 1.0 and 2.0, things were a bit slower than desired to get things going. So we appreciate your grace as we’ve had to navigate the recruitment and training of personnel and pick the project up from the original development team. By no means, is that a simple thing to do.
Our commitment to Chokepoint remains because it is acting as a training tool for our Production team and as we’ve described all along, it is being sought out to replace the current infantry system for WWII Online 1.0 for many reasons.
UPGRADE TO UNREAL ENGINE 5.3 Chokepoint is currently running within UE 5.1, we need to pursue the latest and greatest capabilities and stay on top of our game (pardon the pun). As much as we can help it, we do not want to fall behind. Initial conversion steps from 5.1 → 5.3 are underway.
REBUILDING INVENTORY SYSTEM This has been identified as a key hurdle we need to get past. UE4 utilized a custom-built inventory system which has been totally deprecated as part of the conversion over to UE5. We plan to leverage UE5’s new inventory system called, “Lyra.” Efforts were made to see what could be transferred over from UE4 → UE5 but have mostly fallen flat. This is part of the exploration process of our new team picking up the pieces and recognizing that we need to build anew.
The inventory system manages character inventory, which weapons are assigned to whom, load-outs, etc. Rebuilding it gives us native compatibility with UE5 which in turn makes it better long-term for support not just in Chokepoint, but anything WWII Online 2.0 intends to use from these systems. It also means that the general knowledge of how this works will be better documented (as it is provided by Epic Games itself) and our new team will be more capable of sustaining it.
To do this, we intend to strip out the current system entirely and start small by adding a single weapon to be shared across all classes and building from there.
Fortunately, we have lots of data still intact and weapons, animations, sounds, etc which should make that process start to pick up speed once we get base functionality working. We’ll keep you posted on progress, this a very difficult task and touches many areas of the code/blueprints.
CODE CLEAN UP We’re at a much better point now to isolate deprecated elements of our code base and blueprint(s) post-conversion. So things that are hanging around from UE4 will be jettisoned that are no longer in use by our programming team, to reduce technical debt and ensure optimal workflows going forward.
CLEANING UP EXISTING MAPS & MODELS Our environment artists have been steadily repairing Carentan & La Fiere, and have made some strong progress. Our next goal is to unlock a technical issue preventing artists from being able to work on Eglise (the nighttime map), so we can get that game ready as well.
Several models have received UVs, textures, placement adjustments, and so on. These were mostly post-conversion issues that demanded attention.
CARENTAN UNREAL ENGINE 5 PROGRESS (CONTINUED) Here are some additional photos demonstrating post-conversion cleanup activities on Carentan.
Advancing Chokepoint: Carentan's town hall is receiving finishing touches
Advancing Chokepoint: Carentan buildings being cleaned up
Advancing Chokepoint: Carentan railyard
LA FIERE UNREAL ENGINE 5 PROGRESS (CONTINUED) Here are some additional photos demonstrating post-conversion cleanup activities on the map of La Fiere.
Advancing Chokepoint: An all-new La Fiere Bridge
Advancing Chokepoint: Road to La Fire is being cleaned up
CLEANING UP ANIMATIONS There are several animations requiring attention, and our animator has already been addressing the more obvious animations in the third person. As soon as the inventory system is online, we’ll be able to do more thorough first-person animation improvements as well, as we can properly test results.
BUILDING, DEPLOYMENT & PLAYTESTS Once we have our inventory system functioning again, our next step is to clean up our application building process for PC and work on deploying those binaries to our dedicated host. This will effectively get us back into the routine development swing of things.
Then we can get updates deployed via Steam and all key holders of Chokepoint will be able to dive back into playtests and get the ball rolling. Then it will all be about players reporting issues, our team prioritizing them, cleaning things up and deploying new builds, and so on. This will be the ultimate sign that we’re on the right path and we can be more certain about release timelines.
TRANSPARENCY & EXPECTATIONS This stuff isn’t easy. We’re a mostly volunteer team with three major projects going on simultaneously. We’ve laid out what’s happened, our commitment to rebuild and get things back online, and that we’re staying the course as best we can to get Chokepoint to be operational. But it’s got some challenges that we’re currently navigating through.
Keep your expectations reasonable and know that until otherwise stated, we’re continuing to move forward on all fronts.
https://www.wwiionline.com/post/2024-roadmap
Unreal Engine Conversion Progress Update
S! Everyone, and Happy Labor day to you all! As promised we have an update for you regarding WWII Online: Chokepoint. We remain in the trenches of transitioning the game from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5 and we are making good progress in this endeavor. Unreal 5 opens up a lot of amazing technologies, nanite rendering being among one of the most powerful. Our team remains committed to the development of Chokepoint as the infantry system being developed here will result into WWII Online 2.0's infantry system, ranging from new assets, rigs, animations and most importantly making it feel right in terms of smoothness. Keep reading as we've got some before and after screenshots from the conversion and will discuss a couple of important decisions we'll be making and setting expectations.
A LOT HAS HAPPENED SINCE OUR LAST UPDATE
First let me say thank you to everyone in the community who have been patiently waiting for an update here on Chokepoint. It is our preference to come to you with solutions and productive information and sometimes that takes time. We have more contributors working on Chokepoint than we have had since the beginning of acquiring the IP, ranging from programmers to producers to artists. We have completely changed our way of how we collaborate on the project moving from SVN to Git and utilizing brand new tools to help us do that job.
Under my leadership I have always aimed to be transparent because you deserve that and it is the right thing to do. So let me say upfront that the original team who were working on this project decided to part ways and it created a bit of a stall in progress as we picked up the pieces, rebuilt the ability to work together and brought on new talent. This wasn't our choosing or desire, nor was it foreseen, but it has been resolved and we are continuing the mission as all roads inevitably lead to the building of WWII Online 2.0 and this is an integral component to delivering on that.
Let me reiterate our commitment to Chokepoint remains because it is acting as:
The training ground for our producers and artists to work in Unreal.
Helping us understand how to setup the projects success for WWII Online 2.0.
Creating a brand new functional infantry system.
A deployable product designed to reach the market and bring more folks into our WWII Online Franchise.
A source of revenue to fuel development efforts on all of our fronts.
With all of that said we have real work taking place in the form of fixing post-conversion cleanup. This includes:
Cleaning up blueprints / compile errors.
Creating an all-new Animation Blueprint / event graph.
Fixing up the three main levels of: Carentan, La Fiere and Eglise.
Replacing old animations with better versions.
UI / HUD functional fixes.
INFANTRY AIMING SYSTEM
Historically there was a two-stage aiming system which allowed for a quick snap and look around feature, followed by a hold-to-aim to look down sights for longer shots. We have found that while this system was unique it has created a lot of confusion for new people testing it out and it also creates an unfair advantage for those who are accustomed to it vs those who are not. To make sure the game isn't offsetting to the majority of FPS players we're going to be nixing that two-stage aiming system all together so it's a simple hold-to-aim across the board.
MOTION SICKNESS FIXES
In an effort to help alleviate motion sickness concerns we're exploring with increasing the FOV (Field of View) and making that a setting players can actually interact with on their own behalf to get things "right" for them. This also means removing head-bob and anything else that would be impacting them. There's a lot plans to help with the overall camera feel, particularly during vaulting as well to make that a smoother transition.
NEW LOW CRAWL ANIMATIONS (WIP)
These are raw captures of upcoming low crawling animations that are currently in progress, only intended to show the intended direction of things, not a final result.
CARENTAN LEVEL CLEANUP (BEFORE & AFTER)
We have multiple artists and developers combing over each planned release level to cleanup obvious issues and these help showcase some of those fixes. They do not represent a final result and we have plans to add/modify/enhance other assets within. Our first priority has been to get the most popular map squared away which is Carentan. Please enjoy these before and after shots below.
SUBSCRIBE TO SUPPORT DEVELOPMENT OF ALL EFFORTS
We cannot encourage you enough to step up and help these efforts by subscribing to WWII Online at http://account.wwiionline.com which will not only get you access to our flagship product of WWII Online, but also a Steam key to access WWII Online: Chokepoint.
We're continuing the efforts here and things are starting to take off. Stick around for more updates, we'll try to get you some more as we go forward.
WWII Online: Chokepoint Update Video #18
Howdy everyone! We're back with another update video! We hope you're having a fantastic summer season! Hopefully today's update video will make it even better.
WISHLIST US
We'd like to take this opportunity to remind you to wish-list us on our Steam Store Page so you can be alerted of new updates and also become aware of when we launch the game on Early Access.
WWII Online: Chokepoint development is steadily underway and today we wanted to give you some updates on our progress with converting the game from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5, plus share some great work that our artists have been doing. So buckle up, this is going to be good!
UNREAL ENGINE 5 CONVERSION
UE5 offers WWII Online: Chokepoint greater optimization and tools to work with. STEFAN and XOOM discussed this in great detail and recognized it would be ideal for us to convert over to UE5 before we launch the game so we had all of the latest and greatest tools and optimizations while avoiding a slow down post-release with development and production to conduct the conversion.
Simply put, this is fantastic that Chokepoint is going to come swinging out the gates with Unreal 5 already configured - w00t!
Let's get to some of that art stuff!
NEW JEEP PROP
We are particularly excited about this vehicle because of how iconic it is! While it is built as a vehicle prop, it was also built to be a fully functional vehicle someday if we decided to go down that route (which we'd like to, but later on as bigger maps get added).
NEW KUBELWAGEN
The German counterpart to the Jeep - yes it's built with moveable parts so if someday we decide to make it operational, it'll be ready to go! Kudos to SADGUY for the artwork on the Jeep & Kubelwagen!
101ST AIRBORNE INSIGNIA / DECAL
As like WWII Online, Chokepoint will have player decals which are used to denote special customizations, rewards, prestige, etc.
NEW TENT PROP IN CARENTAN
YUKZX has done a great job with the artwork here to create realistic looking tent props currently in Carentan, but could really be added to any map.
PANZER HULK IN CARENTAN
Carentan is planned to be one of our primary maps initially released which is why such great attention to detail is being paid to it. One of our artists "Anderson" has put together a master piece and this in-engine shot doesn't do the complete justice until you see it up close. Add a little fire to it and some smoke - this thing is BBQ'in!
WISHLIST US
We'd like to take this opportunity to remind you to wish-list us on our Steam Store Page so you can be alerted of new updates and also become aware of when we launch the game on Early Access.
