Intelligence Bulletin Vol 2 * No 10 news

We've started to send Alpha-keys again after a short break and we expect to send keys to all who are on the Alpha-list within the next couple of weeks. We're also getting quite close to the Beta-stage, where the entire gameloop is fully operational (though it might still be a bit buggy), so we'll start to scale up the server-capacity and you should expect the severs to be permanently open 24/7 quite soon.

The next build has just been moved to our test-server, but it's still not ready for being deployed to the live server. We need to fix a few relatively simple bugs and we expect it to go up on live within a few days.

Our facebook page has now more than 2000 likes and it's still climbing. Thank you to all who have liked us and help us spread the word of our common project - we are eternally grateful for the support and dedication this community is showing, and we're doing our best to give it back to you!

Now it's time for Propaganda, Developer Blogs and Team Debriefing for the past 3 weeks:

Propaganda the past 3 Weeks

Press coverage of GDC is starting to show, and so far we have these very positive and interesting Preview and First Look articles:

Rock, Paper, Shotgun
Neoseeker Video Interview
GameSpy
Softonic
Android Rundown
IGN YouTube Channel

We expect a bunch of new preview-articles to be posted the next weeks as well, and we’ll keep you informed on our facebook-, Google+- and twitter-pages when it happens.

Developer Blogs the past 3 Weeks

German Characters…

By Reto.Colding
"Yesterday we posted the US Characters, so now it’s time to show the German Characters." Read More

US Characters…

By Reto.Colding
"In contrast to my last post ramblings I will just let this post’s images speak for themselves." Read More

Back from GDC, moving forward!

By Reto.KenSolo
"Reto.Topo and I landed in Copenhagen airport Friday night after a looong trip to the US where we attended GDC to give press-previews, and had a bunch of other business-meetings. We’re now back in the trenches again with our fellow developers, and ready to continue the battle." Read More

GDC Day 2+3 Update and conclusion

By Reto.KenSolo
"Sorry for not making an update yesterday, but the internet connection at the hotel was completely gone last night. Anyway – GDC is now over, and we’ve had a great time here demonstrating Heroes & Generals to selected members of the press as well as various potential business-partners. The overall reception of the game has been very positive and it seems that we have converted a lot of people into ‘believers’." Read More

Soldier(s), what can I do with them? What do they mean?

By Reto.Vashu
"So you’ve heard about the Campaign Map, Assault Teams, Planes, Bicycles and more, but a thing I’ve been working on for a while, is the Soldier area. It’s the area where you control your characters, purchase and equip your hard-earned badges, weapons, grenades, mines, knives and so on!" Read More

GDC Day1 update

By Reto.KenSolo
"I did 5 previews today, all of which went really well – although the internet connection sux. It’s very laggy, but it’s the same for the entire GDC. I even had to do an interview/preview without being able to play/show the game at all, so I had to use videos and screenshots instead." Read More

Team Debriefing this Week

Design

Reto.RedBjarne, Game Director
"- working on mockup GUI stuff for the flash site
- bugfixing on environment gfx.
- ribbons gfx. still needs some work though.
- meetings
- meetings
- more meetings
- eating way too much of Reto.Salu's candy
- water change in the large aquarium"

Reto.Fleck, Level Designer
"24/7: gfx bugfixing and gameplay tweaking :)"

Reto.Robotron3000, Community Manager & Game Designer
"Reading forum posts and making sure we catch all of the community's good ideas. Working on the game's wiki/manual. Design work on character progression and annoying programmers with bugs and features."

Artists

Reto.Hr.Wille, 3D Artist
"This week I have been working on weapons images for the shop. At the moment I'm working on the in-game HUD and Achievements screen."

Reto.Mato, Lead Character Artist
"Im doing various uniform tweaks and insignia."

Reto.Owleater, Character Designer
"The new heads are in progress. The German highres is done and it is time to look at the US head."

Reto.Colding, Lead Animator
"This week I have finished the Assault team images - I will do a post in the news section soon just like the US and German characters."

Reto.Dave, Environment/Props/Concept Artist
"Been doing props for medium french village, trainstation, and so on."

Coders & QA

Reto.Goonstah, Programmer and Technical Lead
"Been working on stats and the usual round of testing+bugfixing."

Reto.Chrestangen, Flash Programmer
"This week I have been finishing the Protocall Buffers. So now one of our development servers are running flash with the Protocall Buffer object system. 45mb data less to download. I am also writing documentation and cleaning up, as I am leaving the company next week."

Reto.Placebo, Code connoisseur
"* Work on warmap editor
- Initial work on having multiple campaign maps, and multiple iterations of the same campaign map
- Small bugfixes"

Reto.Hal9k, Render Programmer
"- Minor render optimizations
- Fixup ingame video menu
- Fixup water when viewed from below surface
- Fixup some bugs in deploy system
- Fix issue with InitiateMission (first to press attack on a mission)
- Improved Nvidia 3D Stereo vision
- Improved support for surround gaming"

Reto.Ogssan, Gameplay Programmer
"This week has consisted of getting a gameover screen up and running and on a capture guide."

Reto.Leto, Gameplay Programmer
"Optimization and animation blending. Prone, swimming and jumping starting to shape up"

Reto.Murphy, Senior Programmer
"Intelligent and friendly on rye bread with some mayonnaise."

Reto.Injection, Senior Programmer
"INFIRMARY"

Reto.Splixxen, Lead Tester
"- Test Shop.
- Test Payment system.
- Test maps and Campaign.
- Verify bugs/feedback.
- Debug Crashlogs.
- Drink Red Bull and eat candy."

Reto.Indusninja, IT Architect
"- More features for paratrooper units in the strategy games
- Character packs are available for buying and come with a set of weapons equipped
- Auto-resolve fix for multiple wars
- Allow players to unequip weapons/equipment
- ... and much more bug fixes :)"

Reto.Vashu, Flash Programmer
"- Paratroopers movement implemented iteration 1
- Bug fixes
- Testing of Strategy part, stabilizing areas.
- Expanded buying characters and their gear
- Update to usability on soldier / equipment screens
- Switching faction related fixes
- Protocol Buffers implementation cleanup, restored functionality after switch
- Strategy 2nd iteration planning"

Reto.masterdisaster17, Server Programmer
"Spending my time changing logging functionality in the server, stresstesting, and adding some other nice error reporting stuff."

Sound

Reto.Draebesmoelf, Lead Sound Designer
"This is what I remember doing since the last debriefing. I have created brand new reload sounds for the Panzerfaust, the MG42 and the M1919 Browning. The BMW R75 motorcycle has also recieved new engine sounds, some of its other sounds are still placerholder sounds. Other new sounds are: sounds when switching side (Allies/Axis), suicide sound, tik tak counting sounds when waiting for the game to start."

Reto.Lord, Audio Programmer
"- more flash work, Ribbons/combatbadge screen. (fixing to work after switch to protocol-buffers in flash client)
- minor audio things
- looking into replay camera/audio bug"

Management, IT & support

Reto.Topo, CEO
"MIA"

Reto.Hansg, IT Admin
"1. Network trafic monitor
2. New web server frontend build (reverse proxy) / testing. NOT finished.
3. Ad hoc cases.
4. Test test and test network."

Reto.KenSolo, PR Manager
"Finally back at the office after a long trip to the US. GDC is well over and press-previews are starting to show. I still hope that a few more of the journalists I demoed the game for will write something soon, and I'm trying to follow up on all of the meetings. I'm now working on the next PR steps with the Closed Beta, where we'll send preview-keys to selected gaming media."

Reto.Salu, Project Coordinator
"Leave"

Reto.Bacon, Support Manager
"- With Reto.Robotron3000 and our awesome volunteers we have now started the work on our wiki site. More to come!
- Wrapping up our first version of our online-support website, which will be made public soon!
- Enjoyed my morning coffee with our testers across the Atlantic during the GDC-24/7 open server week."

NOTICE

The Intelligence Bulletin is designed primarily for the use of the members of the Heroes & Generals community. It is a vehicle for the dissemination to them of the latest information received from Reto-Moto Intelligence sources about the development of Heroes & Generals. Readers are invited to comment on the use that they are making of the Intelligence Bulletin and to forward suggestions for future issues.

Reto-Moto Intelligence Division,
Developer Department

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(Original Heroes & Generals blog link)