Wacht am Rhein

[JdB 151]

A Project Announcement/interview has been posted on [Armed-assault.de]. Since not everyone can speak German, it is also available in [English] and [Dutch].

A-A.de: If someone had absolutely no idea what Invasion 1944 is exactly: how would you explain it to him/her?

Invasion 1944: I would say that Invasion 1944 is a total conversion for the Armed Assault engine. We are a World War 2 era modification that focuses on realism and fun.

A-A.de: What are your plans for Armed Assault?

Invasion 1944: We have chosen "Wacht am Rhein" ("Watch on the Rhine") as the new subject from a number of options. This appeared to be the most original and appealing option to a large majority of the team.

To fully clarify: "Wacht am Rhein" was the German codename for the Ardennes Offensive (aka the Battle of the Bulge).

A-A.de: What made you decide to change the subject of the mod?

Invasion 1944: We discontinued the Market Garden project because it soon became apperant that a campaign centered around XXX Corps would be too repetitive and time consuming (many vehicles would have to be created for each side). Also, despite the fact that the engine is vastly superior to that of OFP, reproducing a densely populated, highly detailed area such as Arnhem is still impossible, even with streaming technology. We already ran into alot of problems with that while making Oosterbeek.

We did receive fairly good "reviews" from players about both the Phase 1 releases, but it was just alot easier for us to change to this new subject and make a fresh new start altogether.

A-A.de: Have there been any changes as to the way you handle the project from start to finish?

Invasion 1944: Alot more time has been spent on planning the project and especially the way the team operates. We've created addon guidelines to which all addons must adhere in order to make all addons of roughly the same quality (also performance-wise). It is at present more like a list of hints, but hopefully will be expanded towards a full miniature Wiki for private use.

Another important issue is improving our image as a whole. The mod has often suffered from negative public relations, and lacking news coverage. We intend to make the status of the project more clear than was done in the past.

We have also decided not to release any screenshots showing untextured models anymore from now on, as well as not editing screenshots, with the exception of adding our logo, and text to it. If we do release items such as a wallpaper i.e., it will be labeled as such.

In other words, we have documented alot of the things that used to be subject to personal preference or knowledge. This will hopefully result in a more continuous development, and better documented, more well liked releases.

A-A.de: What are your goals for the new project?

Invasion 1944: We have downgraded our aims in terms of size to cut down on the time required to develop the mod. We will only focus on three areas that played a key role in the Ardennes offensive, one of which will consist exclusively of forest, valleys and dirt roads.

We are no longer aiming to recreate the entire offensive, even not in Phases like we tried to do on the Market Garden project. You won't see every tank that was in the offensive, only those belonging to the divisions that were in the area in large numbers that had a great impact on the progress of the offensive. Also there won't be any artillery pieces present, as these are mostly situated far behind the frontlines. Of course we will have some anti-tank and anti-aircraft guns later on.

We are also trying to create unique elements. These are what make a mod interesting, and distinguish it from the rest. You will for instance have the chance of playing as a tankcommander in the Waffen SS, which not many games offer.

A-A.de: There were several warcrimes commited in that area by the Waffen SS, how are you going to deal with that aspect?

Invasion 1944: This is a very delicate matter, that can easily lead to angry reactions, and as these instances have no bearing on any of the planned campaigns they will not be represented.

A-A.de: Will the SS units wear the SS runes, and will the swastika be present? (both these symbols are forbidden in Germany, and could get hosts in trouble)

Invasion 1944: Yes, they will. While we do realize these symbols do represent alot of crimes, we should also not forget that to censor history is to make history repeat itself. Also these symbols already existed before the birth of national socialism.

A-A.de: What will make this mod worth installing?

Invasion 1944: Some projects have been started involving the Ardennes offensive, but none has unfortunately ever been released (except for John's Ardennes test map as far as I know). We are also trying to do what other games never do, to make you play as a German. One of the highlights of playing with the Oosterbeek release was the excellent campaign by our talented missionteam. Mods without quality campaigns and missions are only a "15 minutes of editor fun" as we like to call it, so we will do our best to make the campaign the highlight of the mod.

We already started with scripting missions to make them feel different every time you play them during the work on Oosterbeek. Ideally we can perfect this so that missions will always be slightly different and more challenging. An improved AI combined with the ability of creating new AI routines will also greatly add to the diversity. Increased visibility will mean that finally we can use support weapons (machine guns and AAA) the way they are supposed to, over greater distances.

We will also use scripts to i.e. automatically discard used Panzerfausts, and will be trying to implement a more realistic armor penetration system.

A-A.de:v Do you value realism above anything else, or will there be certain sacrifices to increase the fun-factor?

Invasion 1944: We will always value realism in gameplay unless it makes the mod unplayable. We do not shy away from portraying the true balance between US forces on one side, and the Germans on the other. The US forces have superior infantry firing power and larger supplies in their favor, while the German forces have more experience and more mobile firepower (especially in the early stages of the offensive). This reflects reality as much as possible. In the OFP community "fun" is often seen as getting the action as realistic as possible. This is what we're aiming for as well, if you do things right, than there is no need for sacrifices or balancing.

A-A.de: Will you put more emphasis on the singleplayer aspect of the game, or will you focus on making the mod run well in multiplayer?

Invasion 1944: In the Oosterbeek project, the MP did not always work the way we hoped it would. Some things were incompatible with Dedicated servers for example. Making a game fun in MP can be a bit more difficult than in SP. As said before we will not balance the opposing forces, so mission makers will need to be careful what they place in their mission to make it an exciting experience without frustration.

A-A.de: Could you tell us something more about the campaigns?

Invasion 1944: You will be playing a tank commander in the Waffen SS (most likely in the 1.SS Liebstandarte division). The “full version†campaign will place you in the role of a squad leader in the 101st ABD (Bastogne) and as a soldier in the 7th AD (St. Vith). We will more than likely involve multiple npc (non playable characters) that are present throughout the campaign (or until they die in our storyline at least).

A-A.de: How and when do you plan to release the mod?

Invasion 1944: We plan to release a demo including the area around Losheim. While we call this a demo, it is only because we chose not to include all small arms, clothing variants and some other weapon systems to save time.

The full version will have all of the new branches of the armed forces and variations on the existing ones, as well as all of the remaining weapons. This release will also include all of the files that were present in the demo (some altered to include clothing/camo variants).

We have no targetdate to complete these two releases, among others, it depends on the team's available time, the release of tools by BIS, how fast we can learn to work with them etc.

A-A.de: What units and maps will we see in the various releases?

Invasion 1944: The demo will have Waffen SS troops opposing regular US infantry troops. These will be used in a campaign that takes place on a map representing the Losheim Gap including the Elsenborn Ridge. The full version will contain other branches of the armed forces, and variations/additions on/to the already existing ones as well as US armor and further German vehicles. The maps will include St Vith and Bastogne, with a campaign centered around these two vital crossroads in the American defensive line.

A more detailed list of what will be included in the demo, and full version, will be made available when we feel it is appropriate (the full version list is as of yet unfinished).

A-A.de: Will there be defensive positions such as trenches and bunkers?

Invasion 1944: Seeing as the tilesize of ArmA islands has decreased, this may become possible. We will experiment with this and see if it works. If it doesn't, we will include them separately in missions like in OFP. The ground in the Ardennes was frozen rock solid, so real trenches were not that numerous, but we'll certainly have foxholes.

A-A.de: Will you include aircraft like the Junkers Ju 52 or Stuka?

Invasion 1944: Aircraft are not at the top of our priority list, as the weather in the opening stages of the offensive did not allow aircraft to operate. Depending on what direction the full version takes us, we may include some later.

A-A.de: Wacht am Rhein took place in winter will you try to simulate some bad effects like frostbite?

Invasion 1944: That could create a very interesting new enemy. We don't know if it is possible to really simulate it, but we'll see what we can do.

A-A.de: What kind of action will we see, and what kind of impact will the gameplay changes that BIS made in ArmA have?

Invasion 1944: Since we picked the role of a tank commander for the demo, that will change the gameplay experience from what Invasion 1944 has been doing up till now. Alot of OFP campaigns, not to mention INV44 campaigns center around infantry. I have personally never played a campaign that follows a tank crew from start to finish.

We are very happy that BIS chose to include multiple gunner positions on vehicles, as this means that the machine guns that we place on top of the vehicles will now actually be usable, and make the commander have less of a helpless feeling. This also means that we can now give halftracks the proper armament, so that they can really tip the balance in battle.

Streaming should also prove useful, as the Ardennes consist of large patches of forest, with smaller towns dotted around the map. We would of course like to maximize the effect that the greater viewdistance will have on gameplay.

A-A.de: What difficulties do you think the team will have to overcome?

Invasion 1944: Mainly these will include becoming accustomed to the tools, and finding the necessary time to complete all the goals we have within a reasonable schedule.

A-A.de: How can the community help?

Invasion 1944: For now we will leave it at: By giving constructive criticism. We may also ask for help in finding reference material in the future in case we can't find it ourselves. We will also be needing voice-actors at some point.

A-A.de: Is the mod in need of new staff?

Invasion 1944: We are always looking for talented, dedicated addonmakers that can do both modeling and texturing on their own (preferably with experience in 3DS MAX). Right now we are especially looking for an islandmaker and an animator.

A-A.de: Is there anything else you'd like to say to the community?

Invasion 1944: Be patient, and it WILL be released.

JdB (addonteam) & Winters (missionteam)

First of all we are going to try re-using as much high quality content from the Market Garden project as possible, to save time.

[Content re-used from Phase 1]

We have also chosen to include some very early screenshots of our work. These untextured models will be used for generating normal maps. Some of these models will be in the demo, while others will be in the full version. These are not final, and are more than likely subject to change.

[M1A1 Bazooka]

[Panzerfaust 60]

[M3 Greasegun]

[Handgranate]

[Fuel barrel]

[PAK40 #1]

PAK40 #2]

[M1A1 Thompson]

[springfield 1903]

Note: our domainname has expired, so no use trying to open the page through www.inv44.com, instead you can use [this link].

As you may have guessed, the renders with "www.inv44.com" on them were made earlier. The site has ceased to be the number one source of news for the mod, as we can not access anything beyond the newsposting interface. Our [forum] is a much more up to date source for news

[tpM 478]

Good to hear it Good luck!

[-SWAT- 1]

Thank you for the interview and BIG thx to burns for the translation

[Clavicula_nox4817 0]

Good luck, guys! I'll keep this one in mind.

[belgerot 33]

Excellent choice, I'm really looking forward to seeing this great offensive in ArmA. The very best to everyone in Inv'44!

[Monkwarrior 0]

Great, great news.

This will convince the remaining part of my clan to start playing arma. Once more I will happily run over some yanks in my Panzer

Monk.

[Col. Faulkner 0]

I do hope that a "Waffen SS tank commander" will not be the

only player option offered for the campaign.

[JdB 151]

I do hope that a "Waffen SS tank commander" will not be the

only player option offered for the campaign.

I personally think the "switch players whenever you like" is not realistic, and so I would rather not use it at all.

In case you mean various characters during the course of a campaign, we have decided to make things more into a storyline, instead of the action-orientated (where ever there is fighting, "you" appear) that was used in the Oosterbeek campaign, so you follow one tankcrew like with the Resistance campaign where you had the same crowd around you (except for when they got killed).

I would personally prefer to make the NPC's immortal until the moment they die in the storyline, otherwise it would be impossible to stick to the storyline. Despite the increase in pre-determined story you will still be able to complete missions in several ways, unlike other games where you are restricted to one path with only one option.

You will still need to complete the mission to progress, because of course we can't have you driving around changing the outcome of the Ardennes Offensive

The mission outlines aren't done yet, so we may change some things.

P.S. I hope this is not the "OMG I'm playing a German!" syndrome

P.P.S. 2, regarding a question asked on our forums, the tank will more than likely be a Panther, which will probably be a totally new model + textures to get rid of Marfy's "mistakes" (far too many texturefiles among others).

[Guest Ti0n3r]

Looks very interesting. I guess all I can say right now is good luck! hehe

[black dragon 0]

Nice project and thx`s for the great interview.

[Col. Faulkner 0]

I'd advise you to be prepared for a considerable amount of  

scorn over your decision to force players to take on the

persona of a Nazi. I know this from experience of trying to

do a mod that planned to allow people to play as Provisional

IRA (ye gods, the hassles, ridicule, acrimony and calumny we

had over that! ). Good luck with your mod, though.

[Daniel 0]

Quote[/b] ]be prepared for a considerable amount of

scorn over your decision to force players to take on the

persona of a Nazi

I bloody well hope people are a bit more grown up than that.

Really looking froward to this.

[JdB 151]

Not all germans were nazis, and not all nazis were germans. Also being part of the Waffen SS doesn't automatically make someone a war criminal. If people can't see beyond the stereotype of every German being a nazi than they should discuss or play this mod.

We want to do something else than portray the same american paratroopers all the time. There are always at least 2 sides in a war, and as OFP offers to play with them both, you will be able to play them both. The German side in the 1st release and the American side in the 2nd.

And besides, we already get ridiculed plenty with prejudices, so nothing we can't handle

[FriketMonkey 0]

Sounds cool, can't wait for this. I loved your mod for ofp, the sounds, units all great quality. Especially the gameplay was good in my opinion, the dispersion, tracers hope you will include this also in ArmA.

The only thing I don't like is the name, Inv 44.... a bit due to the anti-climax you know.....

But still great work!!

Quote[/b] ] Also being part of the Waffen SS doesn't automatically make someone a war criminal.

It does not. But if you look at how the Waffen SS was in Russia, you start to think that every Waffen SS soldier was a criminal there.

[JdB 151]

The only thing I don't like is the name, Inv 44.... a bit due to the anti-climax you know.....

We thought about changing it, but:

1. We couldn't come up with an original alternative;

2. It's a well known and appropriate name (all but one of the projects so far have taken place in 1944);

3. We don't mind having a "tainted" name. 60+ people have "worked" (done nothing but having less than half of the others create their glory for them) on 4 projects over the last 5 years, each time starting pretty much from scratch and redoing content over and over. The Oosterbeek project was the only to be released. We could also have thrown it away (I won't discuss our decission to release further).

Also we only used an abreviation just once in the interview (forgot to change it), besides that only the one official name: "Invasion 1944".

As long as the mod plays well then I don't care if the number of rivets is exactly correct, or if two buttons on a uniform are placed 1 cm too far apart.

[NoRailgunner 0]

@JdB

There no black and white sides at war - thats too simple-minded.

Would be nice to see kind of story in your campaign!!

[Winters 1]

There no black and white sides at war - thats too simple-minded.

I couldnt have said it better myself, many soldiers in the german army were just that, soldiers and many others were not. We can go on and on debating this forever but it wont change the campaign at all. It was my decision to go with a German campaign for the demo and i stand by that decision. The demo campaign will be focused on the initial advances they made and the stiff resistance put up by the American infantry at Elsenborn Ridge which required the Germans to unleash the panzers (you) earlier than they would have wished.

Each side in war has soldiers that obey orders and do their job and also monsters who live for killing. We are going to focus on the fighting and stay away from the politicing.

[MATRA 0]

Sounds great. Good Luck, I will be patience as I was with inv44.

P.S.

Quote[/b] ]we should also not forget that to censor history is to make history repeat itself. Also these symbols already existed before the birth of national socialism.

Being an History Teacher, its always good to see that people can learn from the past. Too bad that some of the most important politicians and military leaders, skip history classes.

[canukausiuka 1]

I'm glad to see the enthusiasm for our work here. It's nice to know that despite the long wait for our broken mod, people are still excited. Makes it all worthwhile.

I'd also like to add that, as always, we are looking for more people to help us out. I'm sure there are some more WWII enthusiasts in the community (even though the genre <s>is getting</s> has been done to death), and we could use some help... and of course, the tools! Just feel free to contact any of the team members or to stop by our forums if you'd like to join us. We all started as fans at some point.

[blackdog~ 0]

What exactly do unicorns have to do with Nazi Germany? I always thought unicorns represented rainbows and happy children. Please explain.

[Mabes 0]

Defiantly looking forward to this mod, hope all goes well for you

[GalComT 509]

Its a Pegasus,...symbol of British Paratroopers,.....

[Monkwarrior 0]

Its a Pegasus,...symbol of British Paratroopers,.....

I can almost sense what his next question will be

[Ironsight 1]

Its a Pegasus,...symbol of British Paratroopers,.....

I can almost sense what his next question will be

Where in the campaign are the British paratroopers?

[Sennacherib 0]

you will make the 101 airborne division soldiers?