Fixing Battleground Europe AKA World War II Online!

Hello dear readers, I appologise deeply for the seven month gap between updates and all but life in general and what not.

Recently, I resubbed to WW2OL which is the daddy of the rare genre known as the massively multiplater first person shooter. For those who don't know what it is about, it is a Iron Man Realistic FPS based on the early war European Front with the BEF and a non certain heavily fortified wall obsessed French Army against the German Wehrmacht. Said MMO is made by a small Independent Studio called Cornered Rat Software (An apt name considering the juggernaughts of the MMO Industry like Blizzard, Cryptic and SOE to compete against) a small ground of Programmers in good old Texas.

Now, I love WW2OL. It is incredibly unique, a combination of pure PVP, FPS and Realism with a huge dash of Flight, Tank and Navy Sim combined. Alas, it has problems. Monitor punching, desk breaking instant unsubscription causing problems that has kept this gem limping in second lane when, egad things like PlanetSide and SWG get more attention. This little list is my own way of coping with such problems, I am sure CRS and Battleground Europe will eventually get there day if the MMO Industry keeps bombarding us with low shoddy fantasy MMO's.

Scale Down The European Front Slighty:

Now, looking at the in game map I noticed that a huge chunk of lower France, east Germany and the Netherlands don't have ANY roads, towns, cities, villages or factories due to the fact by now it is established where most of the action in Western Europe takes place (the game is currently fighting the War for the forty fifth time now) so I propose a little shaving and shelving off of those abandoned areas of Europe until the Western Front is re-populated to the point where it is needed. This will relieve the server and everyones load times a little bit. Other ways of transport that won't encourage camping or cheap gameplay like having trains and cars with limited amounts of fuel that won't spawn would be also be a good idea on cutting back the tiring trecks around this moon-esqe landscape to find action.

Upgrade The Graphics:

The Graphics are the game, whilst not being as bad as when the game first started out in 1999, are to the casual gamer about as appealing as a plate of Mash Potato. They aren't terrible, you can put up with them and focus on the gameplay but lets face it even todays low end PC and Server systems can handle nicely detailed and smooth polygons and Bitmaps, heck EVEN Physics. I suggest working on the terrain first followed by Infantry models and finally things like buildings, weather and the huge amount of vehicles at last. It would be nice not to lag slightly when zooming in on my Rifles iron sights to make my kill with these graphics I would admit, thus costing me precious seconds of reaction time.

Installing VOIP:

Lets face it. TeamSpeak is a hassle to set up and after finally passing numerious anti-opposing front spy checks and registering one won't use the damn thing when he finds out only fifty people are using it when he plays. Get a seperate company to code in the software at the same time. Once this is fixed the game will see a lot more people working together instead of lone wolfing, getting fed up and unsubscribing. Bonus points if a SFX of old fashioned radio cracking signify people activating it in game. People will actually crew Tanks, Planes and Boats because they can communicate and react much quicker.

Improving the UI and Web Site:

The WW2OL Website is another brilliant bonus for the game, who doesn't love checking out detailed combat statisitics, getting medals and reading about your kick ass killing spree in the nicely done Newspaper which reports the progress of the campaign, what is being researched and produced and how bad the Kill/Death ratio for your Army is. However, this could be improved greatly with more detail and letting the Generals of each army proof read and submit player stories and reports .

The game UI is also slightly clunky. It takes forever to figuire out where to find action for a new player and pretty much kicks the whole crewing system up the ass by being an obscure out of the way panel at the spawn screen. The loading screens are cute with all this random WW2 Trivia combined with screenshots of the game and War era images but there are too few of them. And the music, god! Have some different tracks of the old war era music.

Encouraging Team Work:

Team Work in this game is budding but strugging, the temptation to go lone wolf is incredibly great. Of course, it ends up with you getting killed seconds later. Encourage soldiers to group up or at least pair with a soldier with a Rifle or SMG if you have a AT Rifle for back up. Have Soldiers of a certain rank auto-mark their killers when they die, let Officers give certain buffs that give soldiers a tiny bit more stamina when it comes to damage and speed. Give points to players working together on the field or crewing planes and tanks. The gesture system is cute, but map them to keys instead of .annoyingcommand because typing things out in FPS games gets the unwary killed very easily. Add some voice commands too, like a certain less realistic WW2 Online FPS and give CO's a Battlefield 2 esqe ability to draw on the map.

Drop the Credit Card Required Option for the Free Trial:

People like an easy to download and play game CRS, so drop the annoying issue for people to put credit card details to play. To some more paranoid people, this seems suspicious whilst other lazy people will just shrug and close the browser. If you wish to stop people abusing free trials just keep track of IP addresses or E-Mail addresses instead. More people will play the trial and consider getting account if they can just download, register and boot up.

As I type this, CSR works hard in making this game better than before and they are doing very well considering the fact this game is now 7 years old. With Unity II on the way and a Chinese Release hopefully they will scrape enough cash together to make a few more epic changes and pull in a few thousand more players. When that happens, maybe they will eventually release the infamous North African, Pacific or Soviet Fronts onto our desktops.

Mod Play: Empires 2.0

Yes boys and girls, it it is time once more for another edition of Mod Play!

I have a gun! At last! Now world, you put YOUR hands up!

Name: Empires 2.0

Game: Half Life 2.

Type: Multiplayer FPS/RTS Hybred.

War! Hah! Good God, What is it good for? Fun apparently...

Now Empires has a small history, It was originally a Battlefield 1942 Mod which would explain the slight resemblance to the Models, The grid map and the diverse list of user friendly mechanised killing machines which you don't usually see much bigger than a few vehicles in your average HL2 Mod. Vehicles aside from the Buggy and Air boat were rare in HL2 mods because of the SOURCE engine at the time, but the Mod as you can see has worked around such problems and benefitted greatly with a huge amount of engine upgrades since 2004.

Soldiers in Empires are attracted to free ammoz like gazelles to watering holes.

The FPS bit is also quite BF1942-esqe. You and your fellow grunts must capture the Refineries dotted around the map while icing as much as the enemy possible with various weapons and vehicles. The RTS bit, with the Commander, places buildings down, organises the Squads of Infantry to actually do something instead of the usual anarchy in these sort of games for rewards that unlock the further skills for their classes (we'll get into that in a little bit) and help win the game for their side. The Commander (Who at the start of each round is elected) also has a RTS view of the entire map without fog of war inside his own vehicle, the Command Vehicle. If this is eliminated, the game is lost. Destroying the Command Vehicle is one of the easier ways to win a game. The other is to simply smash the opposite teams tickets down to 1 and kill all the Engineers to stop them re spawning. The attrition way. Commanders can also research and upgrade their teams technology giving them better vehicles, improved body armour and improving the damage dealt to the enemy forces with ease.

I am the Angel of Death. There will be no survivors.

They flushed away a perfectly good Engineer, only a little blood on him!

There are three different games modes, The RTS mode where bases must be built and tickets wore down until you smash the enemy commander with your bigger better armoured army as well as the classic Conquest where your team must capture strategic areas of the map in man on man urban combat. The 3rd mode, escort I have sadly not played but with a title like that I imagine it has something to do with keeping your Commander alive and moving.

Lots of manly uniformed men holding manly guns about to do a deal of great manly things Like dying manly! and shooting manly!

In fact, Empires was one of the first FPS multiplayer game with the RTS Commander Modded in modern times . So when you are having fun as the Commander in Battlefield 2 or 2142 thank Empires for adding this little system, otherwise we'd have something cheaper and less appealing. It actually is sort of fun, when you listen to your Commanders orders and get something right. Don't be too upset somehow is a Donkey instead of a Lion is elected leader and has no idea what the hell is doing. Empires is also one of the games where a Mic is incredibly useful. The interface DOES of course come with an excellent menu of voice commands but a mic usually makes thinks easier getting your Commanders attention and also adds a layer of amusement to the game.

We have got to stop conscripting the blind, they are terrible at this.

We know of the bone of the game, you cry, but what of the meat? Empires 2.0 has lots of it. In addition to over 12 unique maps for the game, all of them very well done (some Imported and Retooled for the SOURCE Engine from the BF1942 version) the two armies of the game the Northern Faction (Crazy Yellow Loving Slav Rebels) and the Brenodi Empire (Evil-Commie Nazi's!) have two unique styles with not only their appearances, but with their vehicles, weapons and buildings too. Each side however, has the same four combat classes. Rifleman, Scout, Engineer and Grenadier.

Two APCS depart a Brendoni Empire base, destined to spawn nubs into war!

You can ride shotgun in most of the vehicles, and shoot from the top too!

Rifleman is the jack of all trades, master of none. He can choose between the normal Rifle, the heavier offensive version or the MG for defence and suppressive fire. Scout is your typical Artillery Spotter and Saboteur Commando. Engineer can build buildings and walls, heal and revive fallen comrades and upgrade turret defences with ease. Grenadiers are masters of everything explosive. They can drop bombs onto campers with Mortars, Shatter armoured hulls with their Anti-Tank Rocket Launcher or drop mines that are hazard to man and machine. All classes can help an Engineer build up structures and walls by helping with the welding by pressing E.

The Engineers humble pocket Calculator, creator of Empires.

Engineers can drop Ammo and Health Supply crates for Infantry

for when the base armoury is too far away or the player is too fat/lazy.

The FPS bit gets even more diverse with classes and skills as well as selectable weapons. For example, after joining Bravo Squad I choose to be a Scout. Tapping the B key, I choose my first skill (You get a free skill point for joining and working with squads, which makes not going solo even more appealing) cloak and then instead of the sniper rifle grab a machine pistol and Flash bang Grenade. I catch a ride with the APC leaving the base, leave halfway through the intended route and sneak behind enemy lines to disrupt Engineers Turret production by cloak, shoot and sabotage. As I gain points for the kills and damage, I will soon unlock up to three more skills for myself as I gain Rambo-esqe experience from the battlefield.

Tense stand offs between Tanks overrunning Engineer outposts happen a lot.

The Mortar, A Campers worst nightmare.


Vehicles in the game can also be customised. You can choose what kind of engine to put in your APC to make it faster or go up hills better, or to make your tank heavier with that extra grenade launcher. Most vehicles can be multi-crewed, the most useful vehicle in the game next to the Commanders little Camper van is the APC, which is a mobile spawn point players can spawn from as long as it is standing on its own two wheels. Vehicles cost resources to spawn and create, and unlike BF1942, wasting one is a pretty serious offence. Luckily, Commanders have an option to limit what the Vehicle Factory can produce, or just decide what needs to be built so rounds are not spoilt by smacktards building waves of pointless jeeps.


Two cannons good! One cannon bad!

When playing the game, you will indeed have some excellent moments like I have had and will keep on having. Desperately building a wall with two Engineers under enemy APC turret fire, watching in satisfaction as you dive behind cover a fully loaded Northern faction jeep rolls over your mine, sneaking deep behind enemy lines and sabotaging their refineries or simply getting a kill with the Shotgun Pistol. Yes. That is one of the Northern Faction sidearms, a Pistol that fires shot. It has the best animations I have seen in ages on a HL2 game weapon. All the guns in the game are pretty, from the Brendoni Empires Engineer SMGs, To the Northern Factions Steam punk looking Landmines. However, melee combat is also there, in the Halo-esqe manly form of beating an enemy to death with your weapon. Most of the non-scoped or Machine Gun Rifles also have iron sights. Deep joy!



Look! The Shottie Pistol, and the Rebel Wall Fortifcation.

Northern faction Mine, Cutest Mine Ever.

Empires 2.0 at the moment as a pretty successful player count when it comes to a HL2 Mod, On average around 200-300 players are playing. The main appeal to the thing I expect, is mostly the vehicles and promised tactical and team work moments of the game. It is indeed something a little different from the usual frag and smash of HL2 Multiplayer gaming. The maps and general atmosphere of the game is very well done indeed. The interface needs a little more tweaking and the models need to look a little bit more pretty (Both promised in the up coming updated SOURCE Engine update, along with flying vehicles) and the sticky grenades of the Rifleman have an annoying habit of not, well sticking to a rampaging blood thirsty target when needed. You will also need to do a little bit of keymapping.

Angered and lonely due to years of war, Soldiers communicate their feelings through the means of bullet graffiti.


The next update should be very good for Empires, because it is increasing the highest player cap to 64 player. I have never heard of a HL2 Mod with that many players before and I will be quite interest indeed to see how this one does turn out. Hopefully, It won't lag and we will see some magnificent battles. The Installer file for the game is pretty large (Over 700 Megabytes) and I suggest the most reliable way in downloading the game is to simply join Filefront and use their IGN Downloader Client. It gets the job done efficiently.




Good Leadership and teamwork ensures you stride over the corpses of your fallen enemy...


...or gets you reduced to a bloody splatter on the landscape because of smacktardation.


Empires is lovely Mod, revived from the BF1942 Engine to the SOURCE Engine and your Empires need you soldier to fight in this crazy ragdoll physics explosive Warfest! Right now! Join Squad Bravo on the double man! And pick up a Rifle. Remember to press F10 in the game for all the info and you need and for god sake, don't become a Commander. Please. Don't waste noble, intelligent and well loved tickets. And your soldiers lives too, I guess.

This is my rifle, there are many ones like it, but this is mine. Because I aimbotted it.