Reporting from the beginnings of Beta - Part1
 
posted by [TW]Yoshiro @ 06:36PM on May 28, 2011
 
Well, we have visible progress this week. We distributed the beta succesfully, beat the stupid initial technical problems into submission - and got some scheduled games going! I didn't get a chance to jump in until Thursday, got a little time on the game with a fresh bunch of people, then jumped back in Friday afternoon/evening for a real, honest-to-god scheduled test session!
 
I wasn't counting, but I think we had over 50 people on, playing on Fallen Fighters and the map-currently-known-as "Apartments". I wasn't playing the whole time (some of us have to work too), but ran through some Countdown and Territory on Fallen Fighters, plus Firefight on Apartments.
 
We've actually been messing around with the dynamics of Countdown before the beta, adding in some extra touches, including a reinforcement wave mechanism for the attackers (as people got more experienced at CD, we'd been finding that defense outweighs attack too often - long story). It makes communication and timing important in CD, adds an extra dynamic, making for extra tension - and even more reason for the defenders to hang on, even when they are down to the last few men - can they force the attackers to use very limited reinforcements early in the round?
 
Anyway, I think the verdict on 50+ player Countdown was a resounding success. There'd been a nagging concern (in my mind at least) that it would turn into mass slaughter for the first 10 seconds, followed by a couple of mniutes of a few people creeping about. Might have happened the first couple of rounds, but I think I had underestimated the scale of our maps (and the skill of our level designers... [you owe me Krispy Kremes for that one, guys]). By the time I got to playing, the first 10-20 seconds largely involved 50 people vanishing into the terrain, followed by a couple of minutes of gripping combat. Every corner, hole, hiding spot, smoke grenade all house dangers that really matter. VOIP becomes very important, people supporting each other in small teams.

Reporting from the beginnings of Beta - Part 2
 
posted by [TW]Yoshiro @ 06:37PM on May 28, 2011
 
Those moments defending in the Univermag (I was lurking on the second floor) got classic. I was looking down over the railing/through the railing, trying to nail any enemy that got in to the ground floor. Had about 3 guys up there with me - Chapel was watching the side entrance, someone else was firing down as well and there was another one firing down/watching the main staircase. The enemy had broken in the side entrance and Chapel had his hands full, so I was having to switch my attention between the ground floor and the entrance to my left. I remember emptying a whole magazine through a shelving unit downstairs to take out a couple of Germans, think I added a grenade down there for good measure, got clipped from Germans attacking from the left side and had to duck to cover to bandage and reload.
 
Then I was taking suppressing fire from downstairs, while trying to help Chapel out on the side entrance. Decision time - risk the suppressing fire and try and take out the guys on the left, or cover and risk them breaking in? I went for the aggressive option and got away with it, Chapel and I dropping a series of attackers on the left side. I think a grenade dropped him and I used mine up retaliating. I think the Germans used a reinforcement wave to add to the stress - then I started taking fire from the left again, turned and put a burst into one guy - and the guy behind him. Happy days!
 
And Firefight in the Apartments: I think even us old hands are thoroughly enjoying Firefight. It reminded me of one of the first things I enjoyed about FPS's in the first place - the Stalingrad map on the MoH (or was it the CoD?) demo. But this is different (better, of course). Bigger, more space, the fight tending to move around the map (scale again). While it allows lazy, evil people like me to camp and lurk, the focus of the fight moves enough that I either have to wait for it to shift back to where I'm lurking - or I have to move. I think its' success comes from a combination of the map design and the core mechanics of the game. Just with a different objective (pun unintended) to Territory or Countdwon. Simpler task, different focus - raw fun.
 
I hope the new testers are enjoying it as much as we are!

Tripwire’s Vice President Talks Up Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad
 
http://www.offdutygamers.com/2011/ [...] talingrad/

Busy, busy
 
 
posted by [TW]Yoshiro @ 03:48AM on June 12, 2011
 
After a week off, Alan has returned to his weekly blog! And here it is:
 
So sorry I dared to take time off last Saturday So, what news do we have for you this week?
 
Well, the Russian VO has now been recorded (in Russia, for anyone whining that they don't sound like real Russians). Got it back on Thursday, should be in game next week. German VO should be with us in a few days as well. There is an awful lot of it!
 
We were finalizing the bullet penetration stuff last few days as well. Coders have their work cut out a little on this one. Consider that, with tank main gun rounds, you haven't got more than 5-10 in the air in any given second. With a server with 50+ people on it, using PPShs, DP28s and MG34s, you've potentially got about a LOT more than that - so a LOT of penetration calcs going on. Happily it isn't my problem to optimize that lot (except in the design, obviously). But don't think hiding behind that over-turned desk is going to do you any good when I'm using the MG34 - and anti-tank rifles will live up to their more modern designation of "anti-material rifles"!
 
With E3 finished, we'll let the press recover from their EA/Activision/Ubisoft/Sony/MS-fueled mayhem - and then we'll start pushing out a series of announcements and general fun and games over the next couple of weeks. There are a series of press events coming up - one at home base next week (secret squirrel - not telling you about that one yet), plus events set up by 1C in Prague (18 June, if I remember it right) and San Fran (7 July), so there should be more press coming from those.
 
Competitive gamers: with the recent "announcements" from the MW/CoD camps, we've had a sudden rush of comp gamers shouting "save us!" Fortunately, of course, we have a ton of features in place already (as the faithful know) to aid comp gaming around RO. So, if you are/know any more comp gamers who are getting pissed at the news around the soon-to-be-completely-console-oriented games - bring them over here!
 
For light amusement - we are just in process of opening a new office, to be known as "Tripwire South". Actually, it is only about 5 meters south, but we need the space.
 
Also been doing some more interviews, so look for those appearing over the next couple of weeks as well.
 
Have a good weekend!

C'est une première : Red Orchestra 2 se protégera des tricheurs en intégrant à la fois la technologie Valve Anti Cheat (VAC) ainsi que celle de Punkbuster.

En ce qui concerne les serveurs dédiés, n'importe qui pourra soumettre son serveur pour qu'il soit classé (ranked). Tripwire surveillera les serveurs classés et les supprimera s'ils ne respectent pas les règles édictées.

Non-US pricing for (our) games
 
Ok, people just don't seem to be getting the message, so:
 
Valve does not set the prices on Steam - they are entirely up to the publishers of the games. Some chose to convert $1--->£1--->1 EUR. We do not.
 
So, here is a worked example of Steam pricing for RO2 we MIGHT do for Europe (dependent on exchange rates over the next few weeks):
MSRP in the USA: $39.99
Converts to 27.79 EUR today, or 24.73 GBP
VAT (which has to be included in the price when selling in Europe) is 20% in the UK, a bit variable across the Euro countries around 19-20%.
Including VAT takes those prices to 33.35 EUR and 29.68 GBP
We'd round those (up, most likely), looking at normal price break-points, so that we are close to retail prices. Lets see some current examples:
Duke Nukem Forever - 39.99/34.99 GBP/39.00 EUR (odd...)
CoDBLOPS - 40.57/26.45 GBP/32.50 EUR
CoDMW3 - 40.57 GBP/56.99 EUR
CoDMW2 - 39.99 GBP/39.45 EUR
 
 
Actually, those examples really don't help ... lol. So, I could see us doing:
 
39.99 USD - 34.99 EUR - 29.99 GBP. But I could be quite wrong - we'll also talk to the retail distributors before we set the final price in each territory!