2010 is coming to a close, and what a year it's been. The extended dev time for 1.31 nearly put some of the team in the looney bin, but we finally shipped it on the 9th anniversary of the game. Not only did it make drastic improvements to the look and feel of the game, it opened up paths of development that we hadn't had before. The last half of 2010 saw an accelerated dev cycle, and now a full update to our infantry model is in full swing...an exciting 12 months to be sure!

My first combat sortie post 1.31. We had been waiting so long to ship this update, the excitement was palpable.

Approaching a town through a forest, tanks and infantry weaving through the new trees, explosions rocking the world, smoke obscuring the view of town and planes swooping overhead in dogfights that ended with balls of fire and debris raining down to earth. Suddenly the guy beside me gets picked off at a full run and his body crumples and slides across the earth, leaving me rooted in place, stunned, terrified and a little giddy.

RAFTER:
    
I was blown away with the terrain when I saw the first 1.31 alpha build on MARTINI's desk.

My 6 kill sortie with an LMG in 1.32.. hey! LMGs are hard m'kay

The "Last Man Standing" Kill-A-Rat event where we held off 100+ players for an hour with no cheats (honest!)

The STO/PPO production meeting where we realized all the new stuff we could do with the technology.

BLOO:
    
During the last Kill-A-Rat, I think right after a patch, I charged into town with only my rifle grenades for support.  I got winged early but then took down 4 enemy infantry and 2 AT guns as I limped around, turning at every sound.  One of the enemy infantry took a rifle grenade in the face.  Mmmmmmmm....Red Mist, the tastiest soda!


GOPHUR:
    
So hard to pick just one. I remember the time when I first dropped a bomb on a hundred clones and one of them must have hit the sun. That's two great ones. Or how about when we FINALLY went to mandating higher video card standards and I was so afraid we were going to lose 10% or more of our players. Not only did frame rates go up but we gained customers. WIN!

But personally, one of the most satisfying days was just last week (cave men producers have notoriously short memories and are always looking for something new and better). I've had a bug where if I play with hardware sound I can never hear my plane engine. I think I must have complained about this at least once a month for, oh, the last several years anyway. Guess what Martini fixed for me for Christmas?! Yep, all new sound engine. I can't wait for you guys to hear it.

MINNIE:

When there was no melt down and things didn’t spontaneously combust or self-destruct with our billing system when we flipped the switch to go live with the new payment processor. (That doesn’t have anything to do with in-game play but it was significant and memorable to me since I lost sleep over it and worried about it for weeks leading up to it!)

The C-47 Christmas Light Flight was pretty sweet too! Oh, and I finally got a game handle after three years.

Merry Christmas!

MARTINI:

1) Walking my daughter on the field at Cowboy's stadium...my good friend and co-worker TOTO got me the tour tickets.

2) Coming into work one morning and seeing Ramp here before me. Shocking.

TOTO:

Going to a Stars game with co-workers and Martini getting really good seats on center ice.

KFS1:

The day we dropped the first PPO in testing in-house, and the 7-years of accumulated "if only..." it unlocked a door to :)

Indirectly (and more significantly to me):
Week after I got home from hospital, was at home in agony after my system stopped up, and Rafter brought me a prescribed doggy bag of laxatives & gatorade that promised a truly horrendous experience, but into which he'd dropped in a bag of Werthers Original.

RAMP:
    
Mine was the first big battle we had in the 1.31 beta. We just got two new cool features in...improved 3rd person turret aiming and the new visible damage changes. It was night and the battle was large with all types of vehicles in it. I was humming around in a buzzard watching it all from above...following rounds from turret to hull. A big furball was happening over the battlefield with planes exploding left and right. Wings would fall off and now float more naturally to the ground and bounce. Wheels from exploded trucks would keep rolling as the hulk ground to a halt. And of course ragdoll guys falling down dead!

DOC:

Flying along in my Bf109 after the ragdoll release, having just saved a column of tanks and trucks towing guns from being strafed and bombed by a couple of allied planes, after I shot them down I did a low pass along the column 20 feet off the deck and did a slow barrel roll to advertise my leetness as an ace pilot. The view as I slipped over and past the line of vehicles moving along the road at such a low altitude was rather captivating me. Just as I reached the head of the line the lead truck blew up 50 feet in front of me from a direct hit. About 15 infantry flew up and out of the back of the exploding truck, and rag dolled into corpses as I almost flew through them.

Awesome.

TOPD:

Multicrewing with Ollie (KFS1) in a  Crusader.  He was driving.  We had a good run of about 15 kills.

XOOM:

My most memorable time ingame had to have been Operation Fury (the first one). 125 Sign ups for an ingame event that totally changed the pace of the campaign, it was truly an impressive experience. Great fighting on both sides, and the scale of the battlefield was what this game was designed for. Beyond that, 2010 was my initiation into the CRS Team, and what I have learned from this position has made me really appreciate what they do, and what our gamers are capable of on both sides.

KILLER:

The day 1.31 was finally released.. ;)


MAYPOLE:

Some noteworthy moments that will create some fond memories from 2010:

Successfully initiating brand new Executive Producer programs allowing direct player investments, for the first time ever, to support CRS development projects for 2011. I had the pleasure of meeting (virtually) some really great guys from Venezuela, the Czech Republic, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Canada, England and various places around the USA. Proves yet again that WWIIOL-BE has the absolute best online game community of ALL TIME!

Successfully completed brand new capital investment financing round with Playnet's 2 largest investors to fund new product development plans for CRS in 2011. This funding deal provides the necessary monies/resources to allow CRS to develop new automation tools; and produce new features plus some new product/s beginning in 2011. Stayed tuned to our various channels like the Playnet Newsletter, our website, etc. to follow product developments and for upcoming announcements.