Developer Blog #2 - Patch 1.2Today's Developer Blog will talk about the team's work over the week on Patch 1.2 and show the new French Sentry and Rifle Grenadier classes.
The biggest priority was, of course, to figure out a solution to the lag issues that have been plaguing servers reaching more than 80 players. Thankfully, the FSE team took the time to help us identify the issue and we're fairly certain that it has been fixed. However, we plan to test it extensively to confirm this. Additionally, we have reworked our BRF files, major reorganizing has been done and unnecessary resources have been deleted. This should further improve performance. If the testing goes well, 100-200 people playing on a server should no longer be a problem.
As well, we've worked to flesh out our current factions. New classes, weapons and uniforms have been added. Two major things that'll be shown in this blog are the French Sentry and Viven-Bessiere rifle grenades.
Many have requested a French sentry to counter the German one so here it is. This one was a bit more difficult than the German one as French experiments with body armour were not as successful as the Germans. However, doing some research, I've found some types of French armour that wouldn't be completely unlikely to be seen on a French lookout in 1916-1917. He wears a chest plate, an Adrian stomach guard and Adrian shoulder guards. All of these were produced and issued in large numbers but were typically discarded due to the discomfort they caused.
Here's the Viven-Bessiere rifle grenade that the French Rifle Grenadier class will be getting.
The VB grenade was the most widely used French rifle grenade of the war. A cup launcher was attached to the rifle to hold the grenade in place for the bullet to strike it. Unlike many rifle grenades at the time which required blanks, VB which could be fired with a normal round, which avoided the problem of nasty accidents happening when the wrong ammunition was used. It was a very effective weapon, significantly boosting the firepower of infantry units, and had a significant impact in shaping French late-war infantry tactics. There may be concerns that France is getting too many new toys this update, but don't worry, Germany will have some surprises of its own either in the 1.2 patch or the next.
Unfortunately, I don't have an exact date for the patch release, but I can say that it's going to be soon. We are aware that server population has gone down quite a bit since the release but know that this will not stop the team from periodically improving the mod. Hopefully, the 1.2 patch and subsequent updates will help the situation. However, the team alone cannot keep the mod alive. We need you guys, the community, to continue supporting us as you have the in past, spreading the mod and simply playing it. Thanks for joining us on this Dev Blog!