f13.net

First off, the Open Beta (http://discussions.playnet.com/showthread.php?t=46100). (Follow link for full info)

Beginning at 1200CT (US) on Thursday, August 25th, 2005 account creation forms will be made available on the official website for test accounts. Participants will receive instructions on how to download the pre-release client and information on where to submit error reports. Space will be limited for the test which will run from Thursday, August 25th through Sunday August 28th.

BattleGround Europe (http://www.battlegroundeurope.com/) (the re-release after 4 years) is coming out Early/Mid September, so basicaly this is the version you can go out and buy later if you wish. I can't imagine this will be repeated anytime soon. The game is completly changed from 4 years ago blah blah blah (you know the drill). Anyway, the trees got a graphics update and look a lot nice these days for the graphic whores amonngst you (though the inf models are still getting a revamp). Brigade Spawning and Moblie Spawn Points means it's pretty straightforward to find a fight, and spawn in within 400m of the enemy (even closer if you capture a spawn building inside the town). 1.19 revamped the interface completly, and you can now map vechiles to the keyboard to drive them if you don't have a joystick (though I don't imagine it's as fun, and flying proabbly dosn't work either).

There's lots of pics at the BattleGround Europe (http://www.battlegroundeurope.com/) promo site (though most are pre the new 1.19 trees). There's a short 28meg movie semi-trailer Here (http://raft.playnet.com/files/beta119.avi) (the offical trailer is still being filmed, I played a Brit Para jumping out of a JU52 that had lost it's wing).

There are previews from various websites here (http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=27246), here (http://pc.gamezone.com/gzreviews/p26108.htm), here (http://www.game-boyz.com/g/review_982_p1.html), here (http://www.gamersmark.com/previews/view/263/), and here (http://www.gamesxtreme.net/pc/game/battleground-europe/preview-2282.shtml#) of varing degrees of uselessness.

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Secondaly 'Welcome Back Soldier' Returns (http://discussions.playnet.com/showthread.php?t=46130) (Follow link for more info).

Starting Monday, August 22nd all accounts that became inactive between August '04 and today will be eligible for free play through the return of our 'Welcome Back Soldier' program.

Free play starts Monday, August 22nd and ends Sunday, August 28th
- All returning players who resubscribe by August 28th will receive the Blitzkrieg theater participation decal.
- Effective January 1st, 2006, ALL accounts inactive/unsubscribed for more than 180 consecutive days become eligible for gamename transfer to an active/new subscriber.
- Following this 'Welcome Back Soldier' program (September 1st), ALL accounts inactive/unsubscribed for more than 90 consecutive days become eligible for rank rollback.

Q & A

Q. What time on Monday will accounts be re-activated?
A. Approximately 10:00amCT

Q. If the e-mail address bounces the message CRS sends out will the player still be eligible?
A. All eligible players will be able to log in after 10:00amCT on Monday even if the e-mail message is not delivered.

Q. What do you mean, "All accounts inactive/unsubscribed for more than 180 consecutive days become eligible for gamename transfer to an active/new subscriber."?
A. With the rise in new subscribers coming from the upcoming retail release, we need to free up gamenames from inactive accounts. If your account is inactive for more than 180 consecutive days, your gamename gets flagged as available. If an existing or new subscriber requests that gamename it will be assigned to that player. As long as nobody requests your gamename it will remain with your account. We're pre-announcing this change which wont take effect until January 1st, 2006.

Q. How will I log in if my gamename gets changed?
A. Your Playnet login (Member Name) will not change. Accounts with names re-assigned will be auto-assigned a new gamename which can be changed.

Q. What do you mean, "All accounts inactive/unsubscribed for more than 90 consecutive days become eligible for rank rollback."?
A. We want to be sure that the population of any given rank in the game is not skewed by players with accounts inactive for more than 90 consecutive days. As we make changes to the rank system, it's important for us to be able to predict population and allow us to roll back ranks on accounts not used. In addition, changes to the game and in-game organizations mean no player gone for more than 90 days should be jumping back into the game and leading missions.

Q. What about members of the military who get assigned to duty that can take them away for more than 90 or 180 days?
A. We always make special arrangements for individuals in our community. If you are a member of the military or have a need for special consideration, we will go out of our way to make something work for you. Contact Badger@playnet.com for details.

With this and the Shadowbane Lore Server, it is clear that old MMOs never die.

I picked up an AC box at Best Buy the other day. Seeing that certainly surprised me...

From what I understand, WW2OL is now a functional and reasonably good-looking game where you can jump into the action quickly.  FWIW.

And tanks pigs fly.

Unfortunatly, the P39 does indeed fly, though you don't want to turn and burn in it (it has a ntasy stall). If you're refering the P47, its the rumored Tier 4 french fighter, but no word on that yet.

Anyways, it's a open beta next week, you can do you're review then. :)

Why do I keep seeing this purple sky?

If you ask me flying tanks are a feature. I'll take flying tanks over camping in an EQ clone any day.

Big Gulp already took a bullet for us once. (http://www.f13.net/reviews.php?subaction=showfull&id=1111700632&archive=&start_from=&ucat=2&)

I'll jump on this grenade. Now that I'm settled in a new state and have pumped some upgrades (including the ditching of my 56k) into my computer I've been trying out war game demos left and right. No problem adding WWIIOL to the list and tinkering around with the units offline. My short experience is as follows:

1. Downloaded and installed Full Windows Client

2. Adjusted video settings to my liking and saved them

3. Pressed "Practice offline" and got an instant CTD and windows error message

4. All letters in the text in the settings panel are replaced with #'s (I.E. Sound = #####)

5. Attempted to adjust video setting blindly to anything that would make the game launch

6. All attempts at "practice offline" result in instant CTD without windows error messages

7. Program is removed from my PC via the control panel because CRS didn't put an uninstall option in the program menu.

8. Just got an e-mail conformation that my copy of "T-72 Balkans in Fire" shipped   :-)

I added that last one because I think stories should have happy endings...and I like the squishing sound a man makes when hit by 44 tons of steel going at 30 miles per hours.

From the equipment list I see that CRS is moving straight into 1944 territory with M10s and M4A2 for the French and PZIVG and STUG-Fs for the Germans. So long early war era, we hardly knew yee. Oh, and their adding the tiger. Can't wait to see the whining that one causes on both sides. The Allied tanks can't kill it and the Tiger will be a Bomber magnet that will be lucky to get out of the AB. Break out the popcorn, the forum posts alone will be entertaining enough.

P.S. Operation Flashpoint moders finally figured out that "lean to the left and right with standing, crouched, or prone" thing.  Did the poor infantry in WWIIOL get that yet?

P.S.S. Will Italy be added before or after the French get the Eurofighter2000?

Well the Sherman, IVG etc are all 1942. The Spitfire IX, FW, P38, Tiger/Churchill/M10 are all 1943, and the box cover does say 1940-43.

Yes, the Tiger whining on both sides is approching nuclear levels. We have some axis whining that's it's not going to be invunrable and do quad damage, and the allies all saying it will be the RDP tourist to end all RDP tourism (the practice of players switching sides for the cool new uber toy). The M10 is a tank with no roof, and the Churchill is slower than a jogging infantryman, so I tend to agree with that part myself.

The Tiger will indeed be a bomb magnet, as it was, and as it should be :)


Yes, been in game for over a year(?) now (not prone though), though it's not as useful as it could be. 1.19 added crouched running too.

Well they say tha BEFORE the North Africa game the'll be 1-2(?) expansions of 1-2 armies (CRS hasn't said who). We've seen models of the italions, and the US is an obvious choice (as half thier armour and planes are already modeled).

And don't be silly, giving the French a EURO plane after 1940 is inconcivebale (least for CRS), though appenrtly the Leo451 might FIANNLY be getting added at the same time as the Ju88 and Welligton (probably next year though is my guess).  :D

You know what? Because I've talked so much shit about CRS and WWIIO in the past, I am actually going to try to get in this, download and play it.

Woe betide CRS if it really does suck the monkey nuts I've heard it does.

I may check it out. However, after playing the BF games, WWIIOL is just too slow and stagnant. Not to mention the Alliance v Horde-like player numbers; the Allied forces were constantly outnumbered when last I played.

You can now create accounts for the beta here (http://www.wwiionline.com/scripts/wwiionline/be/freeplay.jsp).

(http://img377.imageshack.us/img377/4012/40yr5vf.jpg)

Signed up, waiting for email.

Are submarines implemented yet? Is there any such thing as a naval theatre?

Wow.

I downloaded the game, installed it, hit launch.

5 Minutes later the game is loaded.

Runs like shit, witch is fitting, since the graphics look like shit as well.

I tried two times to do one of those "Missions" that are given out, after dying, you have to reload the whole map which took another 2-5 minutes.

I uninstalled it after quiting the game took another 5 minutes.

I don't know what your system specs are but this game runs like crap unless you have 1Gig of memory, 2Gig+ processor, and blazing fast video card. 

All this to get a decent framerate for an ugly looking game.

Did you people not see my earlier writeup?  Tell me the truth; were I to say that the sandwich I was eating had shit in it you'd have to take a bite just to verify it, wouldn't you?

To hell with you all.  You've earned your pain.

I will be taking the bullet this weekend. I trust your review was accruate, Big Gulp, but this is a relaunch! The shit has magicially turned into yogurt!

I assume you have less than 1 gig of ram (with that descpription, it sounds like 256). Video card isn't as important, I run it on a Geforce 4200/64meg.

512 Mb to be correct. Just checked the minimum system requirements:


So I meet them. I even have blazing 1,4 GHz Cpu power.
The games in unplayable at the lowest settings with those specs. Where are "minimum system requirements" theese days ? Is it enough that the games loads ? You do not have to be able to play the game ? I just don't get it.

Had I bought the box, looking at the requirements, I would have shoved it down the throat of the poor sales monkey that sold it to me. And by doing so, I would have had more fun than by playing that Pos.

This makes me sad, I liked what I saw, game-mechanics wise.  :sad_panda:

Edit: Fixed the quotes

As far as I can tell, yes. Whatever listed as the "min" requirements is you can load the game....I see that to be true with EVERY game released these days. That's a different topic, could use it's own thread.

1.4 with 512meg of ram should be able to run the game, but on lowest details. What was the last FPS you've played though? Hows BF2 run for you?


Which of corse, if the great tragady of games like WW2OL or SB. There's no othe game like WW2OL beyond Planetside...and I don't know of ANY on the horizon. Auto Assault sounds like it has the mechancies of EQ everytime I read about it.

Actually, I can answer this one.  I have a 1.4 Ghz, although with a bit more RAM; 768 megs of pitiful SDRAM, to be precise.  Runs like a dream.  I run it at 1024X768 with everything turned down but terrain textures, which are set at medium.  I easily get 40 FPS at those settings, and even though I don't have all the bells and whistles on, the game's still gorgeous.

Soooo....  What's WWIIOL's excuse again?

Hm. I really have to think about that. Last (as in newest) FPS could have been Planetside, I honestly can't remember.
he BF2 demo did not even start on my computer :evil: , no idea why but I might try it out later

Don't worry, our time will come. Most hopefully during our livetime ...

High polygon counts on the weapon models  ?


(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v490/spaeschke/WW2_5.jpg)




Edit: Because I thought is is funnier with a picture

So I signed up for the free trial.

A day later, I have still not received my account information.

I did, however, receive an e-mail telling me I have less than 2 days left and I should think about subscribing to their wonderful little game.

I go to support to see about sending a new account activation email. They tell me I can reset my password so I go to the form for that. Wait, that form requires information that I don't have because I haven't received my account activation email. Ok, fine. I can submit a support ticket. WAIT! I need my login and password to do that.

Thanks chucklefucks.

Objection you're honor, thats a Pre 1.19 screenshot! The trees look nicer now (yes, the rifle is still the same though). And the high system requirments are mostly because you CAN see other people up to 4km away (so you're system has to be able to track and load stuff within 16 square kilometers). The rifle picture can shoot and hit targets 1000 meters away, and that all has to be tracked.

Yes the graphics arn't as good as most other FPS's. WW2OL will never win that award. I still think the new 1.19.5 trees look pretty realistic myself.

16km would be for a 4x4km box. What you really mean is 16*pi since the radius is 4km.

(http://www.f13.net/grief/pwned.jpg)

Well, during the round about 30 minutes I ran around in this game, I did not see a single enemy soldier.
Then I died.
Now I know why.

Damnit let this thread DIE.

There's got to be another reason that it keeps being brought up other than that some of you "like" it. I mean, do you not play other games? Is your computer not up to snuff, and so in turn, this is all you have?

Wtf?

Thats what a lot of us want the game to do, but it just keeps hanging in there...

Wtf? It's the first OPEN beta on the main server the game's ever had (there have been other open betas, some years(?) ago, but not on the live server). It goes over a 3 day period that I origanlly posted a week beforehand to give some notice. For bad or worse, some have spent the time telling the rest of us thier expericnes (so far HERE it's all bad news it would seem). It's essentially the only way you'll get a preview *here* for the re-release of BattleGround Europe.

Yes I play other games. After a few weeks or month or two, I finish them. Sure I might replay them from time to time, but how often can you play a game before you know it off by heart, or it gets out of date? People STILL talk about UO, 7 years after it's release. What, you don't think WoW or EQ2 will be around in 3 years time? (though judging from the threads talking about both on this fourm...mabye not).


The thread will die a naturally death by next week because the beta/welcome solider will be over and we'll be done.

[EDIT] You know what?

I feel guilty for writing what I just did. I don't know why, but I do. It wasn't inflammatory or anything.

Anyways...Have fun and enjoy...Or something. It's none of my business.

[EDIT] I'll just answer that one question: Why do people talk about WoW, UO, or EQ?

Well, there are two types of games in the mmog genre: Badly implemented good ideas. And badly implemented bad ideas. WWIIOL, of course, falls in the latter category. Not even Shadowbane is in such company. World War II Online sits amongst the rotting corpses of games like Horizons or AC2 (oh wait, they're not exactly dead yet...Still, we don't hear as much about them, do we?). This category deserves, at the most, a "launch thread", and "a death thread". That's it. No "relaunch" threads. No beta threads. No parachute threads, etc., etc., etc..

The problem I'm having is: WWIIOL just won't die. It's well into decay and rot phase, and yet, it's still here. Walking. Even without Bruce's help, it's stands on it's own two feet. And that pisses me off.

I'm willing to talk and see another thread about it again -- But only when it's buried, gone, and ready to be forgotten. But for now, the fact that it even came into being is enough discussion for me.

Oh come on, don't tell me you don't like reading these trainwreak threads we get about every single MMOG out there at some stage. You can't have the railroad company going bankrunpt without a traincrash or stupid managerment choice on the way. The stories we hear at the end, such as AC2, arn't as interesting, nay, as amusing, as the journey itself.

How IS Horizons going anyway? For that matter, EVE and Anarcay Online seems to have recovered thier inital launchs and crashes to gain a solid base of players.

Unlike AC2 or EQ, WW2OL is CRS's ONLY source of income, so I would say that it won't close until and if CRS goes bankrupt a 2nd time, which IF the release of Battlegroupd Europe is a success, won't happen for a while yet (as the money that comes in will allow them to get the US and Italions into the game, and following that, North Africa with a new terrian and physics system).

How much you want to bet you won't be seeing a thread about the "death" of WW2OL for a few more years yet? But I bet there WILL be disasters and farkups on the way.

The Journey is a more interesting read (and as an added bonus, you don't have to read these threads if you don't want to :) ).

I honestly am not being snide, here, but come on, Comstar.  We all know that the reason CRS's only source of income is WWIIOL is because no other publisher will touch them with a 10 ft. pole after the collossal fuckup that is WWIIOL.  Would you, as an investor operating coldly from the view of whether or not you'll see a return on your investment, ever put any more money into CRS?  If so, why?  I'd have to say that it's out of misguided love for your game and certainly not out of CRS showing any shred of competence, ability to execute in a timely manner, or even an understanding of what type of gameplay will be successful in the market.

And I see no earthly reason why the relaunch will be a success.  Any new customers you do manage to get will be almost instantly put off by the poor UI, shitty graphics, and lacking gameplay.  How many new players do you really think this thing will retain?  If you think it's over 200 or so I'd say you're delusional, and I'm being generous here.  At best the only people who'll be buying this game will be current players as an act of charity towards CRS, and the clueless customer who'll pick it up at WalMart and proceed to be royally pissed at the amateur hour level of competence displayed.

If this is how CRS chooses to operate, relaunching a game that while improved, still wouldn't be even put into beta by a reputable company, then more power to 'em.  Why you people continue to subsidize them is beyond me.

ETA:  Also, I see no reason why you'd view spreading out the conflict by adding new theaters to the game as a good thing.  Why spread out players in what is already a badly underpopulated game?  I just don't see that as a wise decision to make.  In theory it'd be possible to do if the game had been a success because you could then spread out your playerbase without harming gameplay.  Unfortunately, the game wasn't a success, and never will be.  That ship has sailed.  Adding a new theater now to a playing area that is already way, way, way too large to support the number of players online in any given night is even more evidence of fetal alcohol syndrome run amok at CRS, or it's evidence that CRS is telling you what you want to hear in order to keep you paying your subscription.  I think the latter is more likely.

So I got my email, got the "Your account is only good for another day" email before I'd even installed the fucking game, and got into it yesterday. I played about 2 hours. I'll explain why I quoted the above in a moment.

This game has just about as many subscribers as its ever going to have. And it isn't because the graphics really are ugly as dried-out monkey shit. And they are. Really, really bad. No, this game has topped out because not only is this game not for everybody, this game has as little appeal outside of a small, small series of sim grognards as free sex with a female supermodel does at a NAMBLA meeting. This game didn't almost die because it was a buggy POS, though it was. It almost died because it's only meant to appeal to people who can tell you the armor thickness on a 1940 Panzer tank.

It is excruciatingly realistic, in the sense that it sacrifices all sense of gameplay and fun to recreate some magical theory of reality.

I died 7 times in the two hours I played. Two of those seven deaths I actually caught a glimpse of what killed me. It was a real short glimpse and I still couldn't tell you if it was a tank, infantry or an AI gun that killed me. All but one of those deaths took place AFTER running, then walking then crouching to regain stamina before running again, for no less than 10-15 minutes. Once I actually was able to get on a truck that rode me relatively closely to the front. That was only a ten minute ride with the only helpful person I saw in the entire fucking game. He was someone who actually explained what we were supposed to do, which was screen a few mobile guns as they attacked the city we were charged with taking. That lasted about 1 minute before we were flank ambushed by what I assume was some form of machine gun or tank. Then I died again.

I quoted the above because it's important. Sure, I CAN see for miles and miles and miles. Which means I can and do DIE REPEATEDLY with the only clue as to what shot me being the tracer bullet that hits me and the 3 pixel block of gray that represents whatever the fuck just killed me. What fucking good is seeing that far if I can't even distinguish if what I'm firing at is friendly, enemy or the Gorgotron?

The whole time I did get the feeling of something big going on around me. Planes flying everywhere (in what I assume was more fun than what I was doing). Gun emplacements firing at stuff I couldn't see. Shitty sounds going off all around me, in a really bad, choppy approximation of 3D sound.

The interface, such as it is, is shit. Like an mature MMOG, the people in the game are complete assholes. They talk in some kind of abbreviated code that makes almost no sense to a newcomer, and most of them are about as helpful as syphilis, even when you speak on the "Help" channel. Having to "rank up," which I assume means actually killing something sometime just to be able to pick a vehicle, or a different weapon loadout other than single-shot bee-bee gun just adds a mini-treadmill onto the walking simulator that the infantry game is. Yes, I know there are supposedly mobile spawn points. I couldn't figure out if our side had any, or if they did, if I could spawn at them.

The game takes more patience than I should have to be equipped with. It's charging a monthly fee, which means it should bring the fun to me, or get me to the fun quickly. It's the equivalent of the travel times of early EQ followed by death so quick, I might as well be a level 1 naked warrior attacking Vox solo.

I cannot believe this is the state of the game after years of release and added development. In every instance where the design had a choice between realism and fun, it chose realism and locked fun in a corner. It deserves Bruce as a board member.

That was, what gave me the feeling that this game could be better. It seemed to be extremly realistic, and that goes a long way with me, but I was an infantry soldier for several years.
But as you wrote above, the execution sucks. Badly.

Well TriSynergy is one, and the other one is the Euro Publisher (can't find name right now). Or are you now advacating that 2 publishers would release it for free? LoL. Also, this page lists players (http://www.wwiionline.com/scripts/wwiionline/builders.jsp) who HAVE "invested" in CRS for $180 (Bronze), $500 (Silver) or $1,000 (Gold) dollers. The first round of people who did that, apperntly payed for the Speedtee licence, which help make the trees look a lot better (far better I would say, than a lot of other 4 year old MMOGs, but YMWV).


As far as I know, most game makers are in it for the "making of the game", not the money, CRS is yet another representation of that (it's DEFINATLY not for the money I think you'd agree). They ended up building it because no one ELSE was building it so they could play the game themselves. However, you may be right. Do you think the devs of WoW or EQ2 made the game so they could play it?

I left Warbirds because CRS made a game I wanted to play for a very long time. And currently the only game you'll play like it for a very long time to come. UO lasted past it's first year because there WAS no game like it. if another game came up with a realistic battlefield, that was better, I'd probably take it (though I'd hate to give up the socity of people I know from it).

As for "what type of gameplay will be *successful* in the market", the answer is obvious: a better World of Warcraft. Not a better WW2OL.



Wanna make a bet? Though I'm not how it'd be payed off. For that matter, you'd probably have to trust Sirbruces chart, and I don't think you'd agree to those tems. Anyways if CRS annouces any numbers, I'll post them here if you want.

If they were making the game to play themselves it wouldn't have been so shitty to begin with. 

CRS raced after something after the breakup of the Warbirds crew thx to wild bill the idiot.  Some formed CRS, the others went with HiTech and built AH. In the end you wound up with 3 games WB, AH and WW2OL spliliting a relatively small audience over 3 games.  Two of those three work, the other is having yet  another super-duper grand re-opening.

CRS squandered a perfect business opportunity plain and simple. All the talk of realistic plane, tank, inf models fell on its face when infantry had no place to take cover or concealment.  One tank machine guns could literally wipe out entire armies who had no place to run, no place to hide.  In a Stuka I could dump flaps turn inside anything and shoot it down w/o unloading my bomb.  WW2OL was set to hit the market prior to the onslaught of ww2 games and was in a perfect position however they dropped the ball.