As promised, its time for a sneak peek at what's in the development pipeline! Although you might have seen some recent press coverage about WWIIOL:BE that included hints about a new "player-placed object" thing, it's time to reveal the entire feature set and give everyone a chance to begin shouting, "When? When? When?"

Field Reinforcement Unit

For some time players have been able to spawn a truck and venture onto the battlefield to find a spot closer to the action and deploy as a mobile spawn point (MSP) for infantry. Work has been underway to extend this capability in order to free the trucks by deploying a spawn point onto the ground so they can continue on to fulfill troop transport, towing or resupply tasks.

The "Field Reinforcement Unit" (FRU) feature will follow the same rules as current mission-based MSPs with restrictions on where the object can be placed as well as limiting the number to one per mission. Once the new FRU is placed, mission leaders can decide to destroy it and create an opportunity for a new one to be placed. This is the same as current MSPs. FRUs will take damage and can be destroyed. The major difference is that the FRU is independent, leaving the truck driver to redeploy or do other things. The footprint of the new object is roughly the same as that as a truck which should provide similar opportunities to place it in the world.

Player-Placed Objects (PPOs)

The client/server code breakthroughs that were made for the "Field Reinforcement Unit" feature paved the way for the new PPO feature. It will allow players to place other objects onto the terrain that become server-tracked objects and are visible to all players within visible distances. To begin, we are planning to provide two new objects;

• Infantry Fighting Position (IFP)
  This object is a small berm/foxhole that will not penetrate the terrain. Its size is expected to be large enough for two infantry to take cover from front-facing fire and will appear to be made from earth, rocks, sandbags and brush. It is will provide cover to infantry in the prone position and may include a place for LMGs to deploy with partial concealment.
•  Gun Emplacement (GE)
  This object is an AT/AA Gun pit with some modifications. Its size is expected to be large enough to serve most towable guns and to provide maximum cover to these units. It will appear to be made from wood (logs) sandbags and brush. It will provide cover to infantry in the kneeling and prone positions and may include a place for LMGs to deploy with partial concealment. This object will also serve as a resupply point with the same parameters as trucks.

IFPs and GEs will have different build timers that will require the player to remain stationary during the build process. The build can be stopped by the player or interrupted by damage from the enemy. The timer lengths have not yet been determined.

PPOs will have lifespan timers (how long they last on the terrain) that will not countdown until there are no players present in the object. The lifespan of the timers have not yet been determined.

There will be restrictions on how many PPOs can be placed in an area and proximity to buildings and other strat objects such as FBs and ABs. These rules have not been finalized but will approximate those used for current MSPs. There will also be terrain collision checks to ensure viable placement in the world. Finally, a player will be limited to building (2) active PPOs at any one time. The use of lifespan timers should provide the means for placing new PPOs while in combat (unused ones time out). GEs will take damage and can be destroyed.

We expect to allow all infantry units except Sappers/Engineers to build IFPs while only allowing Sappers/Engineers to build GEs. This is another step towards specialization for the Sapper/Engineer.

These are just the first on many PPOs that can be designed an utilized once the feature is tested in live play. At this time we do not have a release date set for these features but the team is working on them as a high priority. As always, some things may change about the design. We'll keep you updated on the progress.

We believe the addition of PPOs will have a dramatic and immediate effect on tactical play and create entirely new ways to prepare, attack and defend. These first two PPOs, combined with FRUs should provide the means for players to create mini-FBs (without vehicle spawning) or simply improve individual survivability on the battlefield.

Tell us what you think! Post a comment below.