O
K, Cozmo here for the WODU, and I have a nice few updates for you.
Invisible-Codey-Backend-Stuff
Well this stuff is not really that invisible; Gary (AKA GMT) has been busily working on the basic War Control Panel, he has not checked in recently with anybody so unfortunately we have no previews 
, but hopefully it should be enough for you guys to create some sweet companies and do battle with.
On the in-game front, this week has been an exasperating one. The game just kept de-syncing when we tried to spawn squads, Bonte and myself tried countless remedies none of which fixed it, at one point it looked like Bonte would need to redo thousands of RGD attrib files! He exact words “I hate you Cozmo, and I hate myself!” 
but luckily I saved the day (hehe, I know it sounds big headed coming from me, but it is better than Andy proclaiming me lord of the world;)). In fact here are his exact words "Wow! Cozmo was on that sync error like Shaq on a Double Whopper!" and now we have a working spawner, Stumpster and myself even played a whole game (well 5 mins as each player only had 5 call-ins. )
On the database front not much has happened, Draygon has been away all week, but pretty much all the US are done and most of the Wehr.
And this leads me nicely on to the upcoming PreAlpha, balance Alpha, and Public Beta.
The Mod will be rolled out like this:
1) PreAlpha will be tested by the Dev to iron out GLARING bugs in the scripting. This will have no WCP or persistency and will be purely bug huntin’. After we iron out all the glaring flaws, we'll transition into the...
Balance Alpha - While still technically a "CLOSED" alpha, we WILL be inviting some of the most dedicated community members to help us set the initial balance & pricing - The Alpha will include NO Doctrines initially, and they will be rolled into the Alpha as they are coding completed
Open Beta:Then finally there will be the public beta for ALL you guys, this will include the Wehr and US, php WCP and doctrines for Wehr and US. British will be rolled out aprox 1-2 weeks after start of the Beta, PE 1-2 weeks after that (Could be faster, depends on how many balance issues we run into with each reveal).
Now dates for these awesome phenomenon’s: the PreAlpha will be running from this weekend, along with the balance alpha sometime next week, and as the ModDB Page says, the beta should be out by early November
Now I hear you all saying “WHY THE FUCK CAN’T I BE IN THE PREALPHA/BALANCE ALPHA?
!!!!one1111” well it is like this: the PreAlpha will just be cluster-fuck of CRASH, BURN and FAIL! With no WCP and just two for so pre-made companies, the Balance Alpha may well have the WCP but still it is purely to iron out retarded prices, if we let you all have a go at the early no bugs will get fixed because of 1. Not everybody knows how to report an error efficiently 2. It will be hard to get games (I say games...) going, so you will all get overly frustrated, so having a few select people will make it all a lot easier and we will be able to get a fairly sensible release to you guys sooner.
Now as for PE and Brits, they will be rolled out as they are done, but before they are released to the public they will also go through the two previous alphas (they may require extra scar shit).
Ok so lets have a look at the other areas:
Art and crafts...
Unfortunately Catinhats PC is still completely borked and he does not have photoshop so he has not been able to develop anything, but on the bright side we have recruited a 3D modeler, Left wing!
Here is some of he WIP (just to show you his skill)
NOTE: We've had Left Wing join the team with the hope that he is able to not only model, but also to puzzle out the Object Editor - In order to get new units into the game (with new models) we need to use a very broken tool called the OE that very few people understand or use effectively - Beyond that, while new models for units would be awesome it's totally frosting on the cake that is OMG - If we can't get the OE working & new models in we'll continue to use new & custom Skins on old models to make new units
Also Vandal has made some icons.
Now The Mapping Front...
Hey All, It's Warbirds, from the Mapping Team. I am the creator of a semi-well known map called Argentan, made for the mod Europe In Ruins.
I am currently working on a map by the name of Dutch Riverside, which you can check out here:
Progress is going smoothly, with an early beta play-testable really soon. It is a 6 player map, with a focus on heavy flanking maneuvers and infantry tactics. The roads will be vital for fast transportation, and light armor will have a nightmare in this heavily forested village. Medium and heavy armor will have no problem knocking down the trees, providing less intensive pathfinding for lighter vehicles trying to take a backroute. Overall I think it will be a fun map to play on, and that when released, you should give it a go.
Quite a few new maps have sprung up in a community fervor to get into the mod effort. Not only does it benefit the mod, but it benefits you in that you have another map to play on, and that you will grow your skills to potentially join the map team. We have a variety of new junior mappers, like Haroquen, Stumpster, Dr. Nick, Codog, Mysthalin, spartan11793, and UnLimiTeD.
Haroquen is working on a 4 player map called 'Crossing'. From his latest screenshot, it appears to be a very small village set next to a port facility. Gameplay will likely revolve around the bridge, and it seems like whoever hold the bridge will have a huge advantage here. He said this about his map:
Crossing is a Four player MCP map, based around the dynamics of a fully fordable river, and a map divided into distinct quarters. In the north, is the 'Urban' quarter. In terms of gameplay, I would like to see it turn into an infantry stronghold, able to repel almost any assault short of overwhelming artillery. In the south, is the 'Industrial' quarter. This, I envision as a cover heavy sector, that revolves around intelligent use of shot blockers and cover.
Now, I'll cover the west and east quarters. One, Im envisioning the western quarter as a very hard to navigate, but very essential [in terms of territory and riverside control], forest, and the eastern quarter as a 'Base-like' quarter, with the Command Tower, and general equipment. Slightly cover heavy, and easily defensible.
So, Crossing will develop itself [hopefully] into a much more shapely map after I get around to stamping the map onto a larger playable area and inclusion of extended combat grounds.You can find the topic here:
Omgmod.com
Stumpster is working on a 6 player map, named 'Sommeilies'. It seems to be a cross of the vCoH map Angoville, smashed together with two old Europe in Ruins maps; In Der Hitze, by DuckorDie, and Road To Carentan, made by Unkn0wn. It looks like it will be a lot of fun. I personally can't wait to smash some artillery shells into the country side.
Stumpster has given a general description of the map:
Sommeiles is based loosely on St. Hilare, and is designed to be a 6 player map. The idea of the map is to have multiple points of conflict, yet not have a situation where you can avoid the enemy altogether through flanking (one of the biggest issues with a map like McGechean's War). Infantry and tanks will be the order of the day, with support weapons taking a back seat. With the middle ground mostly open, with few garrisonable structures, machine guns can be easily taken down. However, this means that AT guns will be very effective, as long as they do not stay entirely stationary. 88 guns can wreck havoc on sections of the map, although can be flanked or taken down fairly easily with indirect fire from across hedgerows. The name comes from a small village west of the city of Nancy, which the Axis attacked during Operation Nordwind.
You can find the topic here:
Omgmod.com
Dr. Nick has taken the long held torch of mapping as well, being the creator of the currently [WiP] map 'Brandywine'. The map looks like it will be a heavy mix of semi-suburban and forestry. It seems you will have to balance your company load out to be able to defend against
anything in this map, since you'll be attacking through thick mangroves to get to the more defensible villages. I think this map will test your skill at attacking multiple positions at once, and should be very fun to smash through.
Dr. Nick has given his thoughts about his map here:
Description: Named after Brandywine river and forrest from Lord of the Rings, This map will be a very forrested area with pockets of buildings. Hedgerows and Groves will block blob movements and create many chokepoints that can be worked around but I think this map will still be fast paced. The village will be important but will not win the game single handedly. There's even a Chateau for you crazy people =P. And if anyone questions 2 churches in my map, the villagers like God, got a problem with that?
Scenario: The small area of Brandywine has escaped the horrors of war. Germans have set up a training center along the borders for veterans and new recruites and most men that are sent here consider it a vacation. The village has been kept in mint condition and the residents even thought they would get through the war unscathed. This all changes on a clear day as the allied war machine can be heard rumbling into the area. Hasty defenses are set up for the Germany defenders as the allies strive to liberate this area.
You can find the topic here:
Omgmod.com
Codog has decided to give mapping a once over, like so many others, and is currently heading a project he currently does not have a name for. It is taking place in a rural setting, and he says it will be a 2v2 or 3v3, though frankly, it looks more like a 4v4 from the overview he gives. I can't really give you guys info on the map, since the pictures he has displayed doesn't show much, not to mention it's very [WiP]. I wish him the best of luck on his mapping endeavors. You can find the topic here:
Mysthalin is now also mapping, and is working on 'St Asque', a 4 player map that looks very promising. It is heavily rural, with 3 lakes, a chateau, and what appears to be a very spread out town. Heavy forest in the north will make the road a vital route for attacking the enemy. However, the forest is still a good place to launch an offensive from, as your opponent will not likely expect an attack through such a forested area. He already has a version of the map out, and has included a link in his topic. You can find the topic here:
Spartan11793 wanted to try his worth in mapping too, and is constructing a map called 'Lanteville'. It is 4 players. It, too, resembles a cross between the vCoH map Angoville and Road To Carenten, minus In Der Hitze. A very good effort by him, it looks like a seasoned editor was doing some of the parts to his map, with the amount of detail that's in. It looks like it will be very constrictive inside the road/town area, but the fields outside will likely make for good alternate attack routes and flanking positions. You can find the topic here:
Our last new mapper, UnLimiTeD. He's creating what's known as 'Farmhill', also a 4 player map. A map based around various farm fields surrounding a small hill with a barn and house. There's also a tiny village to the north of it. The map looks promising, but based on current information about the map, there's not much to tell about it. You can find pictures in his topic, like all the others. You can find the topic here:
And lastly, Lompocus. A junior mapper with much experience in using the Crytek mapping engine for Crysis. His map, previously mentioned as 'Serenity', is 6 or 8 players; it is currently undecided or just for both amounts. He has made many advancements, in detailing and world design alike. The map looks like it will be very challenging in attacking and defending, and seems like it will bring many good memories about it to you. You can find the topic here:
Now We Enter the Mysterious World of Design and Balance...
Thanks Cozmo, Andy here folks - I don't really have much of an update for you this week - Design continues and we're gearing up to start hammering away on the British in the next week or two. I've been super wrapped up in helping the guys bug hunt the Alpha by saying things like "Well Cozmo, if you were a bug where would YOU be?" and other meaningful comments
I'll have a much more complete update next week after we've gotten some games in and can really start this whole "Balance" thing that is half of my job description.
Well I hope that was informing and nice to read (dates finally), I can't wait to see this all working and you guys playing it, probably not as much as you though .
yay first post lol..