Did some testing on the paks, there are a few that had a few extra degrees of elevation added or removed for beta2.

I'm 90% sure it's possible to shell long-range across the map using tanks. So long as you have to move the tank out of its starting position, I'm not going to interfere with those firing solutions. Naturally, the G3 tank scrape will probably figure prominently in the german firing solutions.

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Watched a few more spawn rape situations tonight. I have some ideas as to what the Russians need to get out from under that sort of situation. I study spawn rape situations very closely when they occur to see what the defenders try to do to escape.

I think the Germans are covered. They have 5 spawn buildings, arranged in a circular fashion. Each building has anti-tank rounds and it's not immediately obvious that you've spawned in those locations. Two or more Russian tanks can hold down the German spawn for about 2-3 minutes before they'll get pushed out. That's about right in my book and the Germans aren't dying as soon as they spawn. Challenging, but not frustrating.

Russians need a few more trenches, plus I need to finish the two bunkers. Maybe a few more bushes at the corners of buildings / rocks / walls. Even with an unfinished spawn area, the Russians manage to push Germans out in a few minutes. Russian spawn rape is a bit more frustrating then challenging at the moment so I need to tilt it slightly to be more favorable to Russians.

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I'll probably move the R2 pak gun about 10 meters to the south (other side of the road). That will let me put foliage at the current position, letting Russian infantry slip the corner easier without being seen while going for a defuse. The current R2 pak45 is also too vulnerable (gunner is too easily killed).

I think I fixed all of the angles on the other pak guns.

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v092 might go up on the test server on Friday/Saturday. This will be an incomplete preview version of beta2 changes just to make sure everything is working properly while I finish the other things that need to be fixed for beta2 release. (Beta2 will probably release on Mon/Tue. Things are balanced enough that I don't feel the need to rush the release.) I'll be putting v092 up so that I can get some feedback on the G1 changes (moved things around in the G1 area).

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I'll probably swap one of the KV1s for a stock T34. Russians need one more fast-moving tank for offense. I'm unsure whether to give the Russians an additional T34 in exchange for one of the milk trucks, but I'm probably going to go ahead and do it for beta2 and see what happens. That will give a vehicle balance during BAS of:

German
(2) Jagd
(1) StugIII
(3) Panzer IV
(3) Panzer III
(3) Halftracks

Russian
(2) KV1
(3) T34 stock
(2) T34_76
(3) BT7
(2) milk trucks

And 12 jeeps / horches spread across the map.

We might even want to take away one tank per side and put 2 more jeeps/horches in. The initial tank rush on a full server is a sight to behold, 4-7 tanks all moving forward in a pack.

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Adding (2) FG42s to the map. Server admins will need to disable this weapon if they don't want it available to players. Both FG42s are in non-obvious locations away from the main spawn areas and are on thirty second respawn timers. I was tempted to make them on 60 or 120 second respawn timers, but leaning them up against a tree works just as well.

Added two more flame throwers to the map. That brings the total count to (4). All are on 30-sec respawn timers. They should be fairly evenly spread across the middle of the map.

Pretty sure I've fixed the pak40s / pak45s.

Widened a few of the new semi-covered fox-holes.

I did add 2 or 3 more satchel spawns, but I don't remember where.

Moved some more rocks and trees around in the G1 area. Russians can now assault the SW bridge easier, but Germans can still defend it. If the Russians take the SW Bridge, they should now be able to hold it.

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Other, future changes (probably in beta2)

- Going to rework the terrain around the bases to make it slightly easier to jump through the window openings of a breached base.

- As Hammatime pointed out in the strategy thread, G3 is probably the strongest German base. (G2 runs a close second due to spawn proximity.) Fairly easy to defend (but it's beatable). I do have some tricks up my sleeve that make make life more difficult for the Germans on that side. I plan on adding treeline paths through the two treelines ESE of G3 (Hill 83 area). That will allow Russian infantry yet another route to infiltrate and harrass the defenders at G3.

- For right now, I'm only going to give the Russians one extra T34 (exchange for a KV1). I think I'm making enough other balance changes to the map and I want to see how it shakes out in Beta2.

- Fixed a few more sections of road that exhibited the "pothole" effect. (Players falling through the roadway and dying.)

- Fixed a bit of the Farm area fencing.

(Trying to remember what else I fixed this week...)

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v092 will be going up on the test server (70.42.41.170) in a few minutes. This is a preview release for beta2 but is not-quite-ready-for-primetime. I'll be doing at least 2 more internal revisions this weekend before I begin prepping a beta2 release.

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I'll try to make sure and look at that snowdrift. The old-style trench there also causes issues and needs to be replaced with the style near G3.

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Looking at the Russian spawn, here are the preliminary plans:

1) There are two, unfinished, bunkers in the Russian spawn area. One on the E side of the T-intersection, the other on the SW side of the intersection. One of those bunkers will move closer to R2, the other will move closer to R1.

2) I'll probably add a single allied BAS spawnpoint inside the ammo shelter right by R1.

3) I'll probably add a single allied BAS spawnpoint inside the small shack along the little road between the spawn and R2. I'll also add an ammo spawn and satchel spawn inside there.

4) The Pak45 at R2 will move 20m S, across the road, to the middle of the stone wall.

5) I will add a few more stone walls around the edges of fields on the Russian side of the map.

6) I will be adding a few more trenches to allow infantry to get along the edges of fields without being spotted. (But also without blocking the flow of vehicles.)

7) Shell craters that are moderately deep in the fields to give infantry a place to belly up.

8) A few more foxholes and boulders.

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Starting in Beta2, the raindrop effect will be back. Right now it stops working if more then 15 players are online. (I goofed up a math calculation)

In order to reduce the risk in case the raindrops causing lag or crashing the server, there will be a server-side CVar added so that you can control the number of raindrops. Setting "syb_rain_nodes" to a value between 0 and 10 allows you to control the max # of raindrops visible for each player on the server. Good values are probably 1, 2 or 3. You can also disable the raindrop effect by setting "syb_rain_nodes" to zero. (This information is also in the ADMIN README file inside the PK3 and ZIP files.)

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I still have not fixed DOM, that may not get fixed until Beta3. I might try implementing CTF in time for Beta3.

I need to remember to add flags to the bases... oops.

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- Removed trees and foliage throughout the map (trying to reduce my model quantity) to make up for new foliage that was added elsewhere.

- Added a few more rocks along the North Road near the North Bridge.

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Getting closer to beta #2. v094 (another preview version) will be up on the test server (70.42.41.170) sometime tonight.

- Finished detailing (preliminary) the interior of the Farm house and the Russian spawn house.

- Finished one of the russian spawn bunkers (actually, it's a new one).

- Moved a few things around like the R2 pak45.

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Got the exact error message when the server crashed tonight (it had been up four around 1818 minutes, 30 hours). It only appeared in the client-side console.

Restarting server due to numSnapshotEntities wrapping.

I'll research this in a bit to find out the reason behind it.