Hey Runners, First of all, we hope you all had a wonderful sunny summer time! Today we'll talk a little about what's planned next for RUNNING WITH RIFLES, and at the end of this dev blog we'll have a surprise for you guys! The game has been out for quite some time now and we've constantly improved it over the years, also with the help of our community - but if you think we're done, you are wrong!

Usability Update

The lack of a solid tutorial explaining high level game elements has been an issue among new players and we decided to do something about it now. There isn't going to be a typical tutorial level and the little puzzle playground we had previously will be removed (hey we still think it was cool! - Well Jack does...), but, in the new approach you'll get informed about things you encounter while playing the campaign in the form of journal notes, which are usually triggered by mousing over objects or by simply gaining XP. While there are still a few things you'll have to figure out on your own, this should definitely help players get into the game better! In the picture below there's a preview what it will look like:
The upcoming update 1.70, also known as the usability update, will make certain game features more accessible for experienced players too. For example, deploying sandbags or heavy weapons on the roof only to see them fall over the edge from a slight misplacement of its position is about to come to an end. Now, besides using improved collision models for the deployables, we also have a visual emplacement marker which turns red if the space in front of the player is not suitable for deployment. Alongside that, you can now order squadmates to man deployable weapons by giving them a move order over the gun! If (for some reason) you want to build 5 miniguns and 5 mortars side-by-side and want them all manned, no problem at all! Isn't that cool? In the picture below you can see it in action:
We entirely re-balanced the campaign after making some changes to the commander AI logic in pursuit of an improved pace for the game. Once a base has been captured, the next attack doesn't begin immediately - rather the commander will regroup his forces to defend against a counterattack and also gather for a larger attack when it does occur. In addition, we seized the occasion to add a new "veteran" difficulty which has same settings as the "hard" difficulty but with FoV enabled, which makes for a much more challenging experience. The first community box submission work was a great success and the modders had a lot of fun making experimental stuff and a good part of it made its way into the game. They gave us feedback that they had enough ideas for another community project so here we go. In 1.70 there will be a new community box with new exciting content! We've been experimenting with some rework in the "Dominance" (PvP) mode, but we can't promise the changes will make it into the game yet. The main idea would be to remove most of the RNG by simulating a healthpoint system, where there is no longer a kill probability system from bullet damage. Most weapons would have a smaller bullet decay (apart from sniper rifles) and some rare weapons would also be included, like the F2000, the XM-8, 44 Magnum, etc.

Pacific Update

Pacific in update 1.70 aims to improve upon some of the major balance concerns in the community, and to implement a few new weapons and units within the game. Some of the major balance changes include reducing the power of the Banzai Charge call-in, making the US forces start with more troops on beach-landing maps (allowing them better opportunity to secure that initial foot-hold), and a lot of performance changes to the game's small-arms weapons. Some other changes include reducing the spawn frequency of the armored Sentry soldiers, and making Guadalcanal a bit more challenging with large numbers of players in an Invasion server (reducing the number of Friendly AI soldiers more per each joined player. This will not affect Solo Players and has very minimal impact on small numbers of players.) Lastly, there is an assortment of new weapons being added, from the iconic M55 Reising sub-machine gun to the pre-war experimental Type Hei automatic rifle. The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) will also been added to the game in the form of their Special Naval Landing Forces - essentially Japanese Marines. They will replace the IJA on Tarawa and Downfall - using a few different weapons from the IJA, and being able to call-in a special Heavy Amphibious Tank (the Type 4 Ka-Tsu,) a behemoth of a personnel carrier equipped with double 13mm Machine Guns.

New DLC Announcement

And now, time for a big announcement! We have been hard at work on a SECOND DLC pack for RWR! We are now publicly announcing RUNNING WITH RIFLES: EDELWEISS - a WW2 campaign set on the Western Front late in the war! Focusing on Allied Paratroopers fighting their way across Europe, EDELWEISS will begin with the Allied airborne landings in Normandy, before moving on through the Netherlands and the Battle of the Bulge. EDELWEISS will feature the US, British, and German factions complete with a plethora of weapons, vehicles, and abilities, all battling over authentically-represented locations. As a teaser, check out this pic below! There is no release date yet as it's still early alpha phase, we will provide some more information in the future, stay tuned!
As for the update 1.70 release date, we haven't defined any date yet but safe to say that it will happen around the next 3-6 weeks Your Osumia Games