Dear BattleGroup42 fans,
it’s been more than two years now since our last release of
BattleGroup42, which was Release Candidate 3 of our final version of the
mod. Ever since then, a lot has happened. Much of the content from RC3
was reworked and improved, many bugs were reported and fixed, and the
overall quality and stability of the mod was improved. The new release
candidate was delayed over and over again for several reasons, but now
it’s finally her!
New and improved content in RC 4
The new release of BattleGroup42 not only fixes many bugs that have
been reported since 2016, the year of our last release, but also
features some completely new content like a new map, several new
vehicles and some overhauls of older content. In addition, some of the
old “vanilla” static objects (buildings) and textures have been reworked
and improved, to better match the quality of the mod. We won’t be able
to improve everything though, it would simply make the mod way too big
and there’s some engine limitations we have to consider. But now for a
few pictures of the new content!
The new map: Raid on Drvar – made by Sarge Surfat
Raid on Drvar is a map about the final attempt of the Germans,
Operation Rösselsprung,
to capture or kill Marshall Tito, the leader of the Yugoslav Partisans.
Sarge Surfat took great care in creating an interesting and challenging
map, including a very detailed base in the mountains representing
Tito’s hideout and headquarters. The map is still work in progress, but
is already fully playable and also offers Coop gameplay. The final
version of the map will include map specific textures for the Partisans,
and there may be some changes to the map layout and design, if need be.
Entirely new vehicles, never seen before in the mod
Some ingame information about those vehicles:
- Panzerfeldhaubitze 18M auf Geschützwagen III/IV (Sf) Hummel, SdKfz. 165
- Like comparable SPGs in BattleGroup42, this German self-propelled
artillery is available in two versions. One for Coop, with separate
seats for driver/gunner, and one for Conquest with the driver also
controlling the gun.
- The “Hummel” is thinly armored (max. of 30mm), so stay behind the frontline and use it in its intended role as mobile artillery
- Ammunition loadout is 18 rounds of 15 cm HE grenades.
- Secondary armament is a top mounted MG34 with a limited traverse, so make sure that enemy infantry don’t come too close!
- Type 3 Chi-Nu
- The Type 3 Chi-Nu is a special case in terms of historical accuracy.
The real tank never saw combat during Word War II, because the
surrender of Japan happened before it could be deployed on the main
island (it was never shipped abroad). Therefore, you’ll only find the
Type 3 Chi-Nu on our strictly fictional map “Yamashita Treasure“.
- The Chi-Nu is armed with a sufficiently enough 75mm gun that can damage and easily destroy all American vehicles on that map.
- The lack of a coaxial machine gun poses a problem when engaging enemy infantry, so watch out where you’re going!
- The ball mounted machine gun in the hull only has a limited field of
view and traverse, so make sure to turn the hull in direction of the
enemy.
- Ammunition loadout is 55 rounds of 75mm grenades
- Type 93 armored car
- Not much is known about this Japanese armored car, some information can be found on Wikipedia and Tanks Encyclopedia.
- Like all armored cars, it’s vulnerable to almost all weapons, except
small caliber guns like pistols, smgs and rifles. Make sure to advance
carefully and stay away from enemy tanks and large caliber guns.
- The Type 93 is well armed with 4 machine guns, and a nightmare for
enemy infantry, as long as you manage to keep them at a distance.
- In addition to a fully traversable turret, it features a hull
mounted machine gun facing forward, and one machine gun on each side of
the car.
- The turret mounted machine gun has a maximum elevation of 20
degrees, which is enough to reach the upper floors of buildings when
you’re far enough away.
- For now, it can only be found on our map “Shanghai Nights“
Reworked vehicles featuring better textures and additional details
Those
vehicles were already present in the mod for a long time, but lacked
quality. For RC 4, we decided to rework them as well as we could, giving
them better unwraps for texturing, added more details or even replaced
the models. Here’s some further info:
- SdKfz 173 Pz. V Jagdpanther
- The old BG42 Jagdpanther was replaced by an entirely new model,
which was created by former BGF member “Koricus”. Although the model
itself was nearly finished back then, it lacked some details and proper
textures. Sarge31FR spend several weeks of working on this model, coding
it for ingame use and created new textures based on the existing
texture template. Only the tracks were already existing, they were taken
from the existing Panther model.
- SdKfz 162/1 Pz. IV/70(V)
- This Jagdpanzer is almost entirely new. Its meshes and unwraps were
completely reworked, more and better details were added, and the
textures were created from scratch. Our Coder-in-Chief Sarge31FR worked a
- t
least as long on this rework as on the Jagdpanther, and consumed
unhealthy amounts of coffee to make it through. But the final result
almost justifies all means
- Krupp Protze
- This very old model got a major unwrap rework and new textures.
- SdKfz 234/1
- Based on our existing SdKfz 234/2, the old 234/1 model was
completely replaced. The turret was reworked, given a new unwrap and a
texture matching the rest of the vehicle.
There are a lot more reworked vehicles, stationary guns and
buildings in this release, so make sure to look out for them while
playing!
Additional changes and fixes in this release
The list of bug fixes and code tweaks is rather long, so we’ll concentrate on the most important ones:
- fixed Coop bugs on some maps (e.g. better pathmaps for bots)
- fixed some traverse/elevation/depression settings on tank guns and
hull/turret mounted machine guns to match historical accurate values
- changed the amount of rounds per belt/magazine on some hull mounted machine guns
- changed the position of the gunner view on some tanks to better match the position on the real life tank
- changed the remaining fixed return rollers on tanks to rotating ones
- changed the vehicle lineup on some maps for better balancing and integrating the new vehicles
- created new object lightmaps on all maps
- added channel 3 unwraps on some statics and props to allow usage of lightmaps
Annoying BUGS! and where to post them
Just like any other game, or mod in our case, a project as huge and
complex as this is bound to have some bugs, that we didn’t find during
development. You, our dear fans of BattleGroup42, and the remaining
members of our team, have done a great job in testing our mod over the
past few years and reporting every bug that you could find. With this
new build, all of the reported (major) bugs have been fixed, but there’s
definetely more to be found. With the release of RC 4, the bug
reporting section for RC 3 will be permanently closed, and all of your
findings can be posted in the proper RC 4 section. As always, please
make sure to post as many details as possible regarding the bug, like
name of the map, game mode (Coop, Conquest etc.)
A word on suggestions and requests for more content
With the release of RC 4, we will no longer accept any kind of
suggestions or requests for new content. Why? Because we simply can’t
handle adding any more stuff like entire armies, specific scenarios and
the like. For things like that, we’d need the proper voice commands,
specific weapons, vehicles and equipment, and we’re simply unable to
create that without several more team members, especially skilled and
experienced graphics and 3D artists. Upgrades and improvements for
existing content are still possible, and we’ll do our best to improve
the mod’s quality even more for the final release.
Installing the mod
For further instructions on how to download and install the mod correctly, please check the information in the
Downloads area, and read the information given by the mod installer.
I’ve started integrating some picture galleries featuring vintage
BattleGroup42 news pictures. Those pictures were once used on our old
website, for mod related news up until 2016.
More galleries with more recent ingame pictures will follow sometime
in the future. At the moment, priority is clearly on finishing the next
build, which will be Release Candidate 4. We won’t be posting a release
date though, but be assured that we’re still testing and improving the
mod. Some minor issues have been found and fixed, and we still need more
testing on the current build.
We’re looking forward to your feedback, and wish you lots of fun playing our mod
1.) The Basic (as new Player): Download
2.) Battlegroup42 RC4 (20.12.2018): Download
3.) For
Host your own
Battlegroup42 RC4 Server or modded/edited Files for it:
Download
Autor: Sarge31FR
Source: battlegroup42.de
