1.29 is set to go live today. There is certainly a lot in this patch and we hope you'll enjoy the new planes and new features. We've graduated all of our current players from training but you might want to take a look at it sometime by selecting the TRAINING tab on the BRIGADE screen. For 1.30 we're going to spend a lot of effort expanding this area and your feedback is greatly appreciated.

When we get back from the break we'll talk a little bit more about 1.30 and what we have in store for both our China release and the coming year. Until then, we hope everyone has a great weekend.

================================
WWIIOL - Battleground Europe
================================
Version 1.29.0.255 (11-25-08)

Training:
We've added a new training feature. New players will need to complete a set of basic training tutorials. Upon completion of these tutorials, players will gain access to all of their personas. Players can access these training tutorials at any time by selecting the training tab for the brigade screen.
- Training instances are per country
- There can be several training instances per country open depending on the population
- Basic training covers movement, using the rifleman weapons, the map, chat and the HUD
- Future training will include advanced vehicle training and combat training
- The training tab can be accessed from the Brigade Screen
- Not all actions are allowed in training like turning off the HUD or opening and closing the map

Quick Help:
The UI now has quick help tutorials. These tutorials will explain each of the pages and tabs in the UI. These will start automatically when a player first views a page or tab. To replay these quick help tutorials a player can click on the [?] icon located in the upper right corner of each UI screen.

New Planes:
Two new planes have been added in the early tiers. The Allies receive the Spitfire Mk Ib and the Axis receive the Bf109E1.

Rudder Response Audit:
All planes have undergone an intensive audit to their rudder control mechanisms. This should address extreme yaw misbehavior found in some planes.

Incendiary Rounds:
The following planes have had their load out adjusted to include the German 7.9mm incendiary rounds:
- bf109f4
- bf109e1
- bf109e3
- bf110c
- bf110c4
- fw190a4

Infantry:
- The French SMG has had it's kick adjusted to be inline with other weapons
- The combat knife is more deadly
- Engineers may now use the repair kit to rebuild destroyed AI
- Audited pistol dispersions to make them slightly more accurate at short range

Planes:
- Fixed P38 visible damage so that booms now stay attached when engines are destroyed

Ships:
- Fairmile 20mm tracers now show correctly
- Seamen will no longer be haunted by the incessant flapping of flags
- Boat fires are WAY cooler

ATGs:
- Audited the "big three" for improved mobility and handling
- PaK.36 37mm ATG had small increase in penetration

Tanks:
- Stug and Tiger commanders can now be properly killed
- PzKw.IIIf & Pz.38(t) 37mm guns had small increase in penetration
- Axis 75mm HI HEAT round had small increase in penetration

Brigades:
- AOs requested from army brigades (not paras) require a direct link to the objective
- AOs requested from army divisions (not paras) require a member brigade to have a direct link to the objective

UI/HUD:
- Players will no longer skip the Brigade Select screen
- Added new name tags in game to support Chinese characters (they look better too!)

Map:
- The mini map can now be zoomed using the (+) and (-) keys on the numpad
- The transparency slider for AWS has been adjusted and renamed

EWS:
- EWS no longer shows aircraft
- EWS no longer triggers chat messages for aircraft
- The air raid siren is still in effect needing heavy bomber contacts to trigger

Chat:
- Players will need to select a channel to transmit on while at the UI
- Added chat shortcuts
    $orig
    $targ
       Are replaced with the name of your mission's origin or target respectively.
    $lead
       Is replaced with the callsign of your mission's current leader.
    $unit
       Is replaced with the short form of your current brigade, e.g. 1.Division/1.Brigade
    $miss
       Is replaced with your "mission" name, which is the same as $unit/$miss... E.g. 1.Division/1.Brigade/KFS1   

Scoring:
- Your killer will now be listed in the AAR
- Scoring for killing an MSP has been increased
- Score is now rewarded for guarding capture buildings
- You can now get extra score for kills made while guarding a capture object

Terrain:
- Added new clouds
- Added several new buildings including urbans, town buildings, docks, airfield fences and farm ruins
- Added new bridges
- Added new capture objects
- Updated the memorial
- Added new builders
- Fixed several .report issues (hundreds even!)
- Hulks will no longer be created inside buildings
- Added a new training area

Our thanks to our newest Builder additions (I hope I didn;t miss any but email me if I did - gophur):
- Stig 'Janus' Leitet
- Kelly 'Amser' Richards
- Olle Norgren
- AJ 'VonTalon' Day
- Steve Roush - Pharmer
- Chris 'Mint' Taylor
- A. 'Lure' Larsson
- Michael 'Mike56' Fligor
- Gregory 'Greg56' Goff
- Patick 'Tear' Alvarez
- Robert 'Leeuw' van Olffen
- Feldpost
- Dover
- Daniel `Ibiza´ Fanni
- Leon "Snort" Cannon

Keymapper:
- All players should review the keymapper for changes to some default keys
- Added support for non joystick keymaps
- Added a joystick detection button
- Fixed a bug that caused some input devices (G15 Keyboard) to not be recognized
- Added French Blenheim
- Several minor changes to default keys
- Remapped Autopilot to Left Control+A
(note, there is a pending issue with autopilot rendering it inoperative unless manually remapped - ticketed)
- Mousewheel throttle added to tank, truck and sea vehicle "no joystick" default keymaps
- Made gun range keys consistent and logical (page up = +range, page down = -range)
- Corrected function assignment of bomb bay doors (for Havoc/DB7, this was assigned to "Deploy Weapon").  New default bomb bay door key (b) now functions


Translations:
- Added initial support for Chinese language

Widescreen:
- Changed the field of view to be based on the verticle instead of the horizontal
- Widescreen resolutions no longer cause distortion in game
- Players using the Matrox Triplehead can have resolutions in excess of 3840 x 1024
- Note that the UI still needs to be reworked to support these very large resolutions

Anti Addiction (China releases only):
- Added "minor" classification for players
- Minors will be prompted to exit the game when they have played too much
- Minors will have score reduced at preset intervals until they no longer accumulate score

Windows Support:
- All settings and screenshots will now save in the users My Documents folder
- Players experiencing problems with custom keymaps should delete the data directory from the game's install folder and reenter them in the keymapper

Mac:
- Correct resolutions will now appear in settings

unity Upgrade:
- Several changes are starting to migrate into the live game from our work on upgrading the Unity Engine
- Introduced some technology improvements from the Unity Upgrade branch that should improve performance, especially under load
- Fixed several memory related issues

Known Issues:
- AWS transparency slider is not working in all cases
- The map has some rendering issues when zooming around on some systems