German Front Mod

Quote:

---

Well, it's long overdue, but the new year has come in with a vengeance for some members of our team. Real life has been a demanding task-master. I need to apologize for the delay, but I hope that you'll understand if I tell you that i caught the flu before New Year's Eve and right after the New Year, I was bombarded by work including quite a few long business trips (one of them to China).

Anyway, we all feel that we ought to give you a look ahead at the wide variety of new things that will come your way from the GFM crew. Let's focus on the news.

I asked Wanna Ganoush if he could write us something about the weapon developments in the new GFM. Here is his reply:

Quote:

---

We have a lot to tell you about here. We're adding some exciting new weapons and weapon features to the game. This has been a perfect example of cooperation involving almost our entire development team: modellers, skinners and scripters. And, in the future, we expect that our mappers will get in on the act too, adding environments that take advantage of the new weapon possibilities.

We've already told you about the knife, a multi-function weapon that can be used to slash, stab, and throw. It can also be used as a stealth weapon, killing silently as it slits an unsuspecting player's throat.

We've made significant changes to both the 30 Caliber machine gun and the MachineGewehr 42. These changes are long overdue! In the new GFM, ALL machine guns are deployable, including the fixed machine guns encountered in many maps. These can be picked up and deployed by any player. In addition, GFM's machine guns have 250-round ammo belts and barrels that can be changed. These weapons cannot be used when they run out of ammo. If one is fired for too long, it overheats and the barrel must be changed. Only the support gunner is equipped with ammo belts and replacement barrels. In short, the days of any player camping a machine gun are over. These changes are difficult to illustrate with screenshots, but in the next news we'll show you some shots to give you an idea.

We're also adding explosives of various types and a major change to the artillery situation. We'll tell you a bit more about the new explosives (mines and tnt devices) next time; but, here's the "skinny" on the artillery. GFM is pleased to announce the addition of player controlled mortars. You've already seen the US M2 60 mm mortar in action in the single-player game; you experienced it from a distance and, in several situations including Hill 400, oddly enough, you found it deployed as an axis weapon.

Now, in GFM, you'll experience this weapon first hand. As a "mortarman", you'll be able to deploy the M2 60 mm on level ground on any map. Once deployed, you'll be able to aim this weapon too; a user-friendly Heads-Up-Display will allow you to precisely target mortar rounds using the traverse and elevation controls on the mortar. Once you've set the direction and range to your satisfaction, after you pick up a shell and position it at the end of the mortar barrel, you'll be able to fire the mortar. And, if you're skilled enough to hit near your enemy, you'll see them knocked to the ground and may even see one or two of them blown through the air from the concussion of the high explosives.

In addition, if you wish, you'll be able to fire HE (high explosive) rounds, smoke rounds (including colored smoke to use as tactical markers), and illumination rounds for the occasional night campaign.

But don't worry; you German soldiers won't be left out of the action. Wyvern has just completed the Axis 50 mm light mortar to be added to the game. We're still painting this beauty but, trust me, if you've never seen one of these, and even if you have, you're in for a real treat.

In comparison to the M2, the German 50 mm has a wider traverse and a shorter range. Both features will be modelled in the game, although they will be modified to better fit the general scale of maps in COD2.

For the time being, GFM's Officer class will still be able to deploy long-range artillery. But we've got a lot of other things in mind to enchance this class.

Personally, I simply can't wait to play Merderet with the new mortar. That map will never be the same. Don't think about selling your copy of CoD2 because you're definitely going to need it!

---

Unfortunately I don't have the newer screenshots for the mortar, but here is an older GIF-Animation of the US-mortar in an MP-match: Click Here

I am sure that there is much more to show in due course.

Let`s switch to our maps. Cornrow Wallace provided a few new screenshots of his map Saumur and a special highlight is presented by “the-eXistence”. Up to now, we haven't released any info or screenshots about his new map “St. Come du Mont“.

[ Screenshots 1-11 ]

What’s also new? Let’s start with the playermodels. CoD2 already included a few playermodels for MP and a few additional playermodels for SP which aren’t usable in MP. Really? Not usable? No, not really, at least not for us. Here are 3 of our converted SP playermodels in MP-usage:

[ Screenshots 12-23 ]

This of course is not all, we also have the German fieldcap in game which will allow more variations of soldiers in a match especially with our wire-rimmed glasses…

[ Screenshots 24-28 ]

Beside these “small” new models we also have a few much bigger things in game like the Jagdpanther, the well known PanzerIV, an anti-air tank - the German “Flakpanzer Wirbelwind” and the German PAK40 to name only a few of them.

[ Screenshots 29-45 ]

Some of the models are made in a cooperation with the bgf-mod, a Battlefield2 modification. A big compliment to the mod and his developers. It’s a fantastic mod, you should take a look on it:

http://www.bgfmod.com

Really amazing!

Webchen and Landser made a small add on for the GFM community. GFM2 will support dynamic sinatures with playerstats. After choosing a signature picture, you can finally use this signature picture including your actual playerstats and GFM rank in forums etc..

[ Screenshot 46 ]

As you can see, we've been sitting on our hands. But we haven't gotten swelled heads just yet.

[ Screenshot 47 ]

So, I think that’s enough for today stay tuned for the next news.

Yours sincerely,
GER-Iceman

---