This hotfix provides a fix for invisible mobile spawns, performance boosts, brand new customizations available for the "Heads Up Display" so you can get exactly what you want. This is all in thanks to your quick feedback and our team at CRS moving with a purpose to provide a record turn around in solutions. Thank you all for your continued reports, please read the full extent of this readme to understand all the changes coming in.
Version 1.36.5.1 - June 2020
This release is a Hotfix patch to fix a few bugs that popped up in the latest release.
BUG FIXES
Invisible FRUs should now be fixed
FPS loss when stacking multiple straight Sandbags together should now be fixed
Corrected an issue that allowed some PPOs to be placed under player units
HUD Waypoints should now disappear properly whenever the Mission Lead deletes them or the Mission closes
Implemented a change that should alleviate Firebugs
Fixed an issue that was causing continuous messages to appear for the new player AI Notification
UPDATES
The curved Sandbags should now be able to be attached to one another
The DB7's Bombardier's altitude gauge is now more visible whenever looking at the instrument view
Updated the pilot's view so that the top of the altitude gauges in the DB7 and Boston I can be fully seen
The DB7, Boston I and He111's altitude and airspeed gauge textures have updated, making them much easier to read
HUD Waypoints now have a separate Preference Options page with new Options
The ATG PPO can now be attached to the new Trench PPOs
The new Trench PPOs have had their wood and grass textures darkened in order to help blend them into their environment
The new Trench PPOs were updated to not have such a "rough" floor while walking/running on them
Combat Engineers have had their spawnlist selection menu image updated
NEW CONTENT
Opacity of HUD Waypoints can now be adjusted per player's preferences
The color of each HUD Waypoint can now be adjusted per player's preferences
The distance at which HUD Waypoints are no longer shown can now be selected per player's preferences
A new hotkey Keymapper Option (default shift+y) has been added to allow players to hide/show HUD Waypoints while spawned into the game
When it's night time in-game, HUD Waypoints will have their opacity reduced by 40% so that they aren't as bright during the night
Operation Rapid Strike Event and AWARD Announcement
Our 19th anniversary event "Operation Rapid Strike" was a huge success! American and British forces landed in occupied France on D-day but in 1943. A 4 hour air, land and sea battle ensued as the Allies pushed the Axis forces back to the east. To see the top winners of the event read below....
Operation Rapid Strike showcased the best of our game in a 4 hour special D-day event of intense battles. It was really crazy! We froze the live campaign and held this op on our training server. In this 1943 scenario both sides started the event without heavy armor. We were simulating a starting point where an early American landing would mean the Allied supply lines would not be as strong as they were by 1944. The Axis in 1943 were fully committed the war on the eastern front and the closest heavy armor divisions for both sides were more than two hours away. So most of the fighting in this event was done without heavy armor on both sides.
The Axis forces struck first with a capture of Gravelines and the Allies quickly followed with captures of Escoeuilles, Varengeville-Sur-Mer, Torcy-Le-Petit and recapture of Gravelines. The Allies finished the op with a capture of Samer and St. Omer right at the closing bell. As was historical, the Allies were successful in pushing the Axis east and liberating 5 French towns!
We Hope everyone enjoyed the op. We intend over the coming months to do more "pre-set up" ops on the Training server!
We hereby declare Allied Forces Victorious in Operation Rapid Strike with a net capture of 5 towns.
Allied total kills: 1,661
Axis total kills: 1,389
This year we recognize and award our Top Infantry, Tanker, Bomber, Fighter, and Navy from the event.
Top players in each category will receive a custom XXL 35" x 15" desk "mouse" pad with their name and WWII Online 19th Anniversary theme print. *Please be patient, these will take some time to be printed and shipped to players*
Our runner-up players will receive our standard sized WWII Online mouse pads and are available for immediate shipment.
The following players need to contact CHIMM @ CORNEREDRATS.COM no later than Friday, June 26th, 2020 to claim/coordinate their award arrangements. Player names in blue and red represent their respective ALLIED/AXIS sides.
TOP INFANTRY
barbiere (Axis) 87 kills
jonas41 (Allied) 58 kills
TOP TANKER
XOOM (Axis) 31 kills (not eligible for award)
berraco (Allied) 26 kills
rans (Allied) 26 kills
macalex (Allied) 21 kills
TOP BOMBER
drake1 (Allied) 12 kills
MANDRILL (Allied) 10 kills (not eligible for award)
allstar12 (Allied) 6 kills
kapropa (Axis) 6 kills
TOP FIGHTER
panda1k (Allied) 31 kills
radical (Allied) 21 kills
kardehk (Axis) 21 kills
TOP NAVY
kempi (Allied) 61 kills
dubane (Allied) 13 kills
(Yes, I caught Hell for denying the boss an award, and I'm assuming MANDRILL will charge me an "award denial fee" (inside joke) - hehe)
What an amazing event though, congratulations to everyone!
S! ~ CHIMM
P.S. - We would love to see pictures with you and your awards if you are willing to share
Version 1.36.5.0 Readme
Coming June 1st 2020, Cornered Rat Software will be releasing WWII Online version 1.36.5.0! This includes some highly anticipated content such as Server Tracked Bombs, STG44, HUD Waypoints, New Trenches + MORE! Join us for this exciting patch and get ready for our big 19th anniversary celebration / D-Day event on June 6th 2020 at 11AM. Please continue reading for patch notes and event details.
World War II Online
Version 1.36.5.0 - May 2020 This release is an assortment of bug fixes, updates and long awaited new features.
BUG FIXES
UPDATES
NEW CONTENT
S! Cornered Rat Software
ACTIVE AND UPGRADE YOUR ACCOUNT
Support Cornered Rat Software's development of WWIIOL and subscribe!
Not unlike most countries, the United States celebrates the sacrifice of its war dead with a day of remembrance and honor. For the US it is Memorial Day which is now celebrated on the last Monday in May.
Originally called "Decoration Day" the holiday to honor our military men and women who have died fighting for the United States started back in 1868. That first year, American flags were placed on the graves of Confederate and Union soldiers who were buried at Arlington National Cemetary during America's Civil War. That tradition started more than 150 years ago continues today where over 5,000 volunteers gather annually to place American flags on every grave in Arlington National Cemetary. In addition, the annual flag setting has spread to veteran graves in cemetaries around the country. It's just a small sign of rememberance for the ultimate sacrifice.
Here at WWII Online we are hoping to crank up the heat in Campaign 173 by opening all player access to all weapons starting Friday afternoon through Memorial Day Monday! This means all subscriptions will have all weapons access for 72 hours from Friday to Monday.
No excuse now not to use your favorite toy or one you have been looking forward to trying out and perfecting. Rally up your squadies and get some game time in this weekend!
***Veteran Player Notice (anyone with an account already in our system)***: You can login and play under your "Free Play" subscription now. Full access will be added Friday morning and last until Monday night as outlined.
WWII Online 19th Anniversary Special Event: Operation rapid strike
When: D-Day, Saturday, June 6, 2020.
Time: 11:00 AM server time (PST) or 2:00 PM EST or 6:00 PM GMT.
Where: The "Special Event" server (you will see the server in your Playgate options)
For Mac users, it's your server selection (Training / Events).
Duration: Four hours.
Details: The day is June 6, 1943 yes 1943…
In this “what if scenario” The Allies are determined to strike against the Axis in France before their Atlantic wall is complete and while Axis forces are stretched to the East in Russia. In striking early, the Allies will not be as well-equipped or organized as they were a historically (a year later) and in some cases the Axis forces will be stronger as they have not suffered the historical losses yet, especially in the LW and the KM.
Operation Rapid Strike will be played on the Special Event server. The campaign server will be locked for the duration of the Special Event (4 hours planned). In this scenario there will be only a few light armor tanks in garrison supply so the first few hours of the event will be infantry, navy and air focused. Moveable brigades loaded with heavy armor will arrive to the front lines about 90-120 minutes after the event starts.
In Operation Rapid Strike the Allies have chosen speed (attack in 1943) and closest distance between England and France for the main attack – Dover to Calais!
The Allies will have secured a beach head at Calais and moved less than 30 km inland before meeting Axis resistance (Calais, Wissant, Marquise, Ardres, Boulogne and Gravelines start Allied with all Allied FB’s except Gravelines and Boulogne whose FB’s will be Axis. Allies will have air in Calais
A secondary Allied landing at will be simulated at Vlissigen with Breskins, Ijzendike, Westkapelle and Veere starting Allied giving us two locations for Air, sea and land action. Allies will have air in Vliss.
The key is that the first 2 hours will be fighting without heavy armor and will be air, navy and infantry focused until armor arrives.
We expect to recognize a few top performing players and next week we will roll out the Allied and Axis scoring rules so we can declare a winner for bragging rights at the end of the event.
Mark your calendar and save a few hours on D-Day 2020 to fight along side your squaddies and join Operation Rapid Strike.
Building Texture Updates coming
We've got some more screenshots for you, this time showing some (of the several) work-in-progress building textures that are being revamped. The work of XL2RIPPR and KayBeeJay (environment artists) are really starting to take shape enhancing the visual appeal of the game. Working on textures takes talent to get right, and it certainly simplifies the need to totally re-model a whole building. That's not to say that these buildings may not get replaced with newer - higher poly buildings however (such as the big urban blocks, which yes, are still being worked on).
ALL ACCESS until Thursday May 7th!
FREE INTERMISSION FOR ALL
Campaign 172 has ended after 52 days of brutal fighting. German forces have won after securing three French factory towns (Amiens, Abbeville, and Montreuil). Great job on this Campaign everyone, and a special kudos to the Allies for fighting very hard all the way to the end,
Intermission will begin shortly after we do some server upgrades. Campaign 173 will begin this Thursday, May 7th.
During intermission, we will be opening up all equipment to all, and remove rank restrictions so you guys can have full play options.
Intermission scenario: Rotterdam is the central focus. This is a newer area developed in our game and it's the one place we can expect to see plenty of combined forces (Air - Land - Sea) all working together. Full supply is available so go crazy and have some hardcore fights there! Try a destroyer if you haven't before.
We'd like to encourage both High Commands to organize their side and prepare for a successful launch of Campaign 173 on Thursday.
RETURN OF THE 12-MONTHS PREMIUM PACK
Because some of our hardcore Steam supporters requested it, we have re-activated the discounted offer for a 12-months prepaid pack, with an extra discount after the 1st purchase!
Lots of screenshots included in today's article, ranging from new vehicles in development, texture upgrades to terrain objects, and the return of 10 old-school bunkers in frontline - strategically valuable - towns.
NEW SELF-PROPELLED ANTI-AIRCRAFT WEAPONS
On the path to completion of a few of our critical Roadmap items is the roll-out of Early War Truck SPAA's. These will be lightly armored, highly mobile Anti-Aircraft weapons available earlier in the war to provide AA protection for friendly forces. Please enjoy this great work by BMBM.
BEDFORD SPAA: Available for British and US Forces.
STUG III AusfG - LATE WAR w/MG
Finally, the Stug is getting a machinegun, WOOT! BMBM has gone further to update the textures on this vehicle and even went into the internal model to enhance it a bit with a new radio (provided by XL2RIPPR) and better-looking textures.
NEW UNIVERSAL CARRIER
The Universal Carrier is an iconic British Expeditionary Force, lightweight support infantry unit, capable of carrying troops and providing machinegun support via the hull Bren Gun and the top-mounted Vickers MG.
Free Play for retired premium, Operation Spring Boot & Rat Chat
From ou President, XOOM:
Today I am pleased to announce that CRS has provided Free Play subscription access to ALL veterans of WWII Online, and you may play the game immediately!
Free play granted to all veteran players
Anyone who has ever had a premium subscription has received a Free Play sub added to their primary account, meaning all players of WWII Online will now be able to play - always - with Free Play (limited) access. This is a bold move for us but we believe it's not only a great way to keep players connected, but we think it's the right thing to do during this unprecedented time in our world's history to give all of our players the opportunity to play the game and disconnect from stress. We see this as a perpetual "welcome back soldier" while still maintaining the value of our subscriptions. Please continue reading for more information.
All veteran players rank will remain as it was
Access will be limited to Free Play subscription
Rifleman
Reserve SMG
Reserve Tanks
Basic Truck
Light AA Gun
Light ATG Gun
Fairmile Boat
Basic Features
Capturing
Infantry binoculars
Mission creation
Squad creation
At any time you may subscribe, and unsubscribe, and still retain your Free Play access.
Finally, we have introduced some newer subscriptions (optional), but these are only available for organic (non-steam) accounts:
All Infantry access: $9.99/mo
All Air Force access: $9.99/mo
All Army access: $12.99/mo
Infantry Operation: Spring Boot
Saturday's Operation "Spring Boot" will be an infantry-based campaign event led by the High Command and organized by HEAV265. Set an automatic reminder by pressing the button at the top of this article!
Operation Spring Boot: Saturday, April 18th at 11 AM Server Time (Pacific, GMT -7): 1PM Central 2PM Eastern 6PM GMT WWII Online Discord (Voice Comms)
Rat Chat
Rat Chat: Sunday, April 19th at 11 AM Server Time (Pacific, GMT -7)
This Sunday's Rat Chat will be an eye-opening in-depth review of the next patch coming to WWII Online, featuring demonstrations of content in the works and a discussion of how we can take WWII Online technology forward. Of course, we will put together a window of time to accept some questions, but this Rat Chat will be more of a demonstration than a Question & Answer session.
If you need any help, please contact our support team at http://support.wwiionline.com
Patch 1.36.4.2 Hotfix
April 14th, 2020 Servers will be coming down around 7:00pm Server time (US Pacific).
Bug Fixes Corrected an issue that was causing the 64bit Mac client to crash whenever submitting a .bug or .report Fixed an issue with logging on the server-side of things
S! Cornered Rat Software
Development Notes
From the Desk of XOOM: April 1st, 2020 (no April fools!)
S! WWII Online Community, exactly 1 year since we've released our 2019-20 dev roadmap, today's announcement is a colossal amount of outstanding development information, and even better it's all REAL (no April fools!). We're going to talk about; Bomber Loadouts, a new Stug G model, aircraft gauges being updated, the new trench system coming out, the new combat engineer class, link-able PPO's, waypoints and server tracked objects for bombs + more!
This is one of those articles you'll want to really digest and then share it with all of your squad mates - IT IS A BIG DEAL! Hope you've got your drink poured, get ready for the HYPE!!!
WWII Online Version 1.36.5.0
It's important to note that this is a work in progress and some items may be added / removed based on current working conditions. Prior to release a full completed readme will be distributed.
Patch Content:
BOMBER LOADOUTS
NEW STUG G MODEL W/MG34 (AND SIDE SKIRTS)
SEVERAL AIRCRAFT GAUGES UPDATED
MODULAR PPO TRENCH SYSTEM
MODULAR TRENCH "MOBILE SPAWN"
ENGINEER CLASS SPLIT IN TWO (ENGINEER & COMBAT ENGINEER)
SANDBAGS & BARBED WIRE OBJECTS "LINK-ABLE"
MISSION LEADER "HUD" WAYPOINTS
WAYPOINTS ACROSS MULTIPLE MISSIONS
SERVER TRACKED OBJECTS - BOMBS
ROADMAP UPDATES
STURMGEWEHR 44
M1A1 CARBINE & .30 CALIBER LMG
JUNKERS-88 A4
WELLINGTON BOMBER
URBAN CITY BLOCKS
OTHER ITEMS IN DEVELOPMENT
UI Opacity (Transparency) Settings
Upgrading SpeedTree technology (graphics) - Evaluation underway / in progress
[Patch v1.36.4.1] WWIIOnline is now 64-bit compatible!
64-bit client is now LIVE and Campaign 172 continues!
This is a 64-bit compliance patch that will open doors to future updates! This is a big milestone from our 2019-2020 roadmap. Most important: our MAC users can now log in with their newest operating system update.
Work continues to release the next patch offering new content, including the new combat engineer, trenches, sandbags and barbed wire being able to hold together, New bunkers added to 10 strategic towns, load-out, and more.
Welcome Back Soldier for our former premium players ends later today. All players on the WBS - please check your email inbox (or spam folder if you don't see it) for a special message from XOOM. We hope you stay with us and subscribe to further support the next releases.
