11th of November Update - Remembrance Day news - Screaming Steel: 1914-1918 mod for Day of Infamy

97 years ago the guns fell silent all across Europe when the First World War had officially ended with an armistice. A bit over four years of fighting had resulted in 11 million military casualties. It did not take very long before remembering the fallen on this very day every year became a tradition all around the world.

t is yet again the 11^th of November, a day we in the WW1: Source team feel is extremely important to us personally, but we also feel that it’s extremely relevant in terms of the project. The day holds many names around the world, but ultimately it’s a day that shall be used to remember and honour the fallen in every armed conflict. Having a few minutes of silence, sparing some thoughts or even wearing the red poppy are small things one can do in order to show your support towards the day and the things it symbolizes.

Seeing as the day is extremely relevant to the project, we feel it’s the perfect time to show off some of the things we’ve been working on the past months. Things are speeding up currently, so even if it seems like the wait for the release of 2.0 is a bit slow, the wait should not be long now. Code is getting in place, almost everything art-related is finished, and it’s just a matter of fitting the pieces together and making sure it all works at the moment. You can expect a more active MoDDb presence in the following weeks from us because of this, as the game is getting into shape quicker than ever before!

We’ll be covering a lot of varied media related to the game, especially towards the weapons and the different aspects of combat in this news-post. There are a lot of exciting and shiny things to show off in this update, so let’s jump straight into it by taking a look at the firearms and equipment of the “marksman” class!

EQUIPMENT AND WEAPON-RENDERS

The model 1916 Aldis Brothers Scope was an optic mounted on the Lee-Enfield variants that the British used throughout the war. A scope truly dedicated to sniping it was the tool of many marksmen in the British army. The Aldis scopes came in a few variations and could be used with different mounts. The variant in WW1: Source has slightly less magnification than its German counterpart, and sits at 2.1X which is a realistic amount for this variant of the scope. In addition, the scope is offset-mounted which means it allows for feeding the Lee-Enfield with stripper clips.

While less exclusive than the German “Glasvisier 16”, the Aldis scope was the workhorse for the British marksmen in the latter part of the war.

The ”Glasvisier 16” was not a common thing to find in the trenches of WW1. Unlike its British counterpart, the Glasvisier was not a dedicated snipers scope, but rather a magnification optic. The standard magnification was set to 2.5X, and allowed for precise firing for anyone lucky to own one. The optic was not standard military issue, and was a rather advanced piece of technology for its time. The way it was engineered even allowed it to be used as a scope for shooting in the night/dark when used together with another auxiliary sight attached to the front of the barrel. In WW1: Source however it functions the same way you would most often see it used; clamped onto the rear sight of the German Gewehr 98 rifle as a lone optic.

Here you can see both of the standard rifles in WW1: Source with their respective optics attached. The British Aldis scope is mounted in an offset manner on the Lee-Enfield SMLE while the German Glasvisier 16 is mounted halfway on the rifle, clamped to the rear sight of the Gewehr 98.

The MG08/15 was a modified version of the original German MG08 heavy machine gun. Stripping it of many parts and thus much of its weight, it was designated as a light machine gun even though it weighed in at a whopping 18 kilograms. First made in 1915, and introduced in 1917 it was the German machinegun that was produced in the largest quantity during the whole war. In WW1: Source you have to deploy this machinegun and stay in position to fire it, but it makes up for it by being perhaps the deadliest firearm you’ll find on the battlefield. Fed by 100-round belts in drums it can wreck havoc on the enemy and possibly even stop a whole advance if used wisely.

The Mills bomb was the creation of William Mills, a man who designed golf clubs before the outbreak of the war. Grenades used in the trenches before the Mills bomb became standard for the British army had a tendency to be just as dangerous for the thrower as the one on the receiving end, so William Mills had a look at these issues. The first version was introduced in 1915, designated as the “Number 5”. This is the version you will be able to toss in WW1: Source. The final design worked so well that it remained largely unchanged for many years to come, even serving as the standard British hand grenade all the way up to 1972.

During WW1 close to 75 million of these grenades were manufactured, which proves the effectiveness of the weapon.

Even though the First World War became very famous for its technological advancements when it comes to warfare, some aspects of old warfare didn’t let go. The bayonet was one of those exceptions, and was a widely used weapon on all fronts during the war, and one could say it became a symbol of the brutal hand-to-hand fighting that happened in the trenches on the Western Front. Before the war started in 1914, almost all European nations with a military still used the bayonet, and trained soldiers in the use of them. A popular design for many countries was the “sword bayonet”, characterized by a very long and sleek looking blade allowing the user to reach out to borderline extreme lengths with his thrusts and stabs.

In WW1: Source, the bayonets are the melee weapons with the most reach and damage, but are the slowest ones to recharge for a new attack as a result. The bayonets are only available for the riflemen.

PASSCHENDAELE

The battle of Passchendaele has gone down in history as perhaps one of the most unnecessary battles which also resulted in a huge amount of unnecessary deaths on both the Entente and Central Power side. The original goal of the offensive at Passchendaele was for the Entente to capture the German U-boat ports on the coast of Belgium and prevent the Germans from being able to roam in the English Channel. This eventually proved to be more difficult than first expected.

Extremely difficult conditions soon started to emerge including constant rain, bogs of mud and bodies combined, diseases spreading among the soldiers and a logistic nightmare, but this didn’t stop the Entente High Command from keeping the offensive on which lasted from July to November 1917; A decision that has often been criticized, as it resulted in roughly 500 000 casualties for both sides combined. Ultimately the battle did not prove to be even remotely the success that the Entente had hoped for, and it turned into another one of the immensely huge tragedies that were all too common during the First World War.

In WW1: Source, Passchendaele was one of the more popular maps in older versions, and the layout has been kept mostly the same with a few exceptions. The actual terrain is more true to the actual real life battle, it is more detailed and it’s also larger. The overall atmosphere has also been improved with different visual effects and background noises, upping the realism. You will in some places find that the map has bodies from previous engagements, a stark reminder of the horrors that the soldiers had to endure during the fighting.

The map is still a work in progress, but the images should give you an idea of what you can expect to encounter in WW1: Source 2.0. You can find more images of the map in the image section close to the top of our MoDDb page.

INGAME TESTING

We also want to show off some neat screenshots from some testing of the mod. Note that all of the pictures contain content that is all very much work in progress, and does not represent the final state of the project. It should give you a pointer of what it will look like in some aspects however, and hey; who doesn’t like seeing in-game stuff? As with the Passchendaele pictures, you can find some more screenshots of the testing in our image section!

THINGS TO CHECK OUT, AND WRAPPING UP

We want to show you all some things that are worth checking out if you’re a WW1: Source fan! First of all, the 3RD Marine Realism Group has returned to version 1.13b and playing weekly matches and events as a part of their activity surge. You can find more information about this surge and their “Iron Front” campaign on their website that you can access by clicking their fancy logo just below;

Here’s a direct link to the exciting “Iron Front” realism campaign they have going, with a lot of detailed information in case you are interested in participating;

They also have a Steam group where in-game activity is announced, so it’s definitely worth it joining in for the fun! Seeing as they have a server set up, its probably worth it to join it now too, let's make it crowded!

A community member, BloodAngel has been mocking up a fan-made Wikia for WW1: Source, and it already contains lots of info about both official and non-official content for the mod that has been made by the team and the fan-base over the years. If you want to check that out and perhaps make some contributions, you can click right here;

And lastly, you can also become part of our own Steam group where we post little tidbits of 2.0 development, more frequent than we do on ModdB. It’s an insider group for you to get a glimpse into both small and big things regarding our development cycle, and everyone are welcome to join in;

Big things are happening for WW1: Source in the near future, even a name-change in preparation for when we eventually go active on Steam Greenlight! Stay tuned in the following weeks, as updates will most likely be more frequent than they have been earlier, including in-game screenshots and video footage.