Our team has been extremely hard at work over the past two months. You may have seen our games on Relic Online recently, usually labeled 'EuropeInRuins.com TEST', these tests are going well and are putting us closer and closer to the public test. However, since testing continues, and I hate silence, I wanted to give you any information I could.
One of the things we recently accomplished which will make our players' lives easier is the creation of an .SGA file thru PHP that will contain your battle file. This file will have all the details for that specific battle in it and players will simply download it and place it in their Company of Heroes/EuropeInRuins/Archives directory for each battle. This eliminates the need to use the -dev command line switch.
We've modified the deuce and a half and the opel blitz to build the howitzer and flak 88 (respectively). I really wanted to be able to tow those weapons but despite Relic having towing in the alpha, I can't figure out how to get it to work (which is probably why they removed it). As it is, the truck will move to the spot you tell it to place the weapon, spend a few seconds setting it up, then drive off the field.
We have also been working with Fortress Europe creator Sturmhaubitze. We are currently in discussions amongst ourselves and him to determine the best avenue to take for Europe In Ruins. Do we want vanilla gameplay or gameplay provided by a modification such as Fortress Europe? Our main concern is the balancing requirements, but some have argued that because we are removing build times and the economy from the game, even vanilla gameplay may not be balanced for our implementation. If you have an opinion, please sound off in our forums.
Last and certainly not least, I'd like to see some company creations. We have setup this thread on our forums which is going to be used for company creation ideas. Using a certain amount of resources, create a company that you feel would be well-balanced enough against any force on the field.
Until next time...
