quake wars beta 2 released in 1-2 weeks...

which puts it right on track for a demo, then the retail release sept 3rd!!!

http://community.enemyterritory.com/index.php?q=node/90

Last week I flew back to London from the E3 Business and Media Summit in Los Angeles. We demonstrated Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars on the PC and XBOX 360, so to get back and start reading so many positive previews has made everyone here feel great. I'm even more pleased about the recent announcement that ETQW has been nominated for two E3 Games Critics Awards; Best PC Game of Show and Best Multiplayer Game of Show - this should be good news if you're in possession of a Beta key, because the build the journalists played at E3 was a preview of the Beta 2 build that we're about to release to you! The build is in testing at Activision right now and will be initially released to the QuakeCon audience for BYOC play. We hope to have it to FilePlanet within the next week or two for a wide release to all of our public beta testers.

Here are the highlights:

The new Valley map

Valley features a multitude of new GDF vehicles.
The GDF need to destroy a Strogg Prionite Contaminator that's poisoning a reservoir (the Strogg are attempting to render the local population defenseless to Stroggification). Our Level Design Team has been polishing Valley like crazy, plus it's larger than Sewer, and features four additional GDF vehicles (the Anansi Attack 'Copter, Bumblebee Transport Chopper, the Platypus Assault Boat, and the Mobile Command Post) and improved visuals over Sewer. We're confident you're going to have fun on this map!

Balancing, Refinements and Bugs
The whole team has worked on thousands of bug fixes, refinements, and balancing improvements in this build that couldn't be applied as a simple patch to Beta 1. This covers most weapons, items, tools, vehicles, deployables, and the user interface, including fixes for uncapped frame-rates, improved server administration functions, interaction with objectives, better weapon spread modifiers, vehicle firing rates, better sniper scopes, more consistency between weapons and their UI components, better fire support, improved deployables, and smaller tweaks like time-stamping for messages from friends, and tweaked special effects.

Improved Bots
id Software's John Dean is making great progress with the Bot code, and our Level Designers have added full support to Valley - You can now play through the map while off-line against Bots, co-operatively with friends, against friends each using Bots, or simply flood the empty slots on a server with them. Even at this early stage, they are the most advanced implementation of multiplayer combat AI that I've ever seen. They understand player level tactics and priorities, and team-level strategy. Sure, there are some bugs (else it wouldn't be a Beta!) but I'm positive you'll be impressed by them.

Improved Prediction and Player Physics
Our Physics Programmer Tristan 'Fearog' Williams has developed the new Anti-Lag feature, so we're finally nearing the point where the goal of 'what you shoot is what you hit' will be realized, despite a player perhaps being on a higher latency connection. There are improvements to the collision system, player knock-back, player speed, hitting targets that are jumping, interacting with the world while going prone – it's a big list.

Improved Vehicle Physics and Controls
Tristan has been working hard on this stuff too, with the Husky Quad Bike, Armadillo Truck, and Trojan Amphibious Personnel Carrier in particular feeling much more dynamic (as a test of this, power-sliding now works properly). It's easier to aim as a Gunner when in vehicles now too.

Improved Interface
You'll see masses of refinements across the whole User Interface, but our primary focus has been on accessibility. Gordon "digibob" Biggans' work on the Mission System makes seeing, choosing, and accepting missions much slicker, while class-specific mini-map markers and damaged vehicle indicators make finding the team-mate or vehicle that you need a lot easier. Jared "jRAD" Hefty has been overhauling the Server Browser too, with more detailed information on servers (such as which map of a campaign it's on, and whether the server is in warm-up, the time left, etc), while 'friends filters' list only those servers with buddies or clan mates on them. You can now tweak many more options in the Game Settings Menu, including much more control over graphics settings, and even a color picker to make customizing your alias and clan tag much easier.

Improved Audio
Lots of attention has been given to the GDF handheld weapons in particular, but improvements across the board have been made based on your feedback.

Improved Game Performance
Beta 2 comes with a slew of performance optimisations and tweaks. There are also several new menu options allowing you to tweak the visuals of the game even further. Compared to Beta 1, we've seen performance increase as much as 30% - we're keen to get all the feedback we can in this area, so please keep your performance reports coming.

PunkBuster
The latest PunkBuster revision is included with Beta 2 and should alleviate any remaining problems people are having. The PunkBuster folks have also revised their manual updater and it works correctly now across all versions of Windows, should you ever have to use it.

Unranked Server Support
Beta 2 will include everything you need to put up your own unranked ETQW multiplayer server. There's been a lot of demand for this and we're eager to get the server out there for you to test and play around with. It's worth noting that the unranked server code offers a wide variety of tweakable options; for example, you'll be able to turn ETQW into a fast and frantic game, or a slower, more tactical experience, depending on your preference.

Brand-new Statistics Website

The Official ETQW Stats Site will launch alongside Beta 2.
Along with Beta 2, we're launching the Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars statistics site, where you will be able to track your achievements, military ranking, comparative leaderboards, and comprehensive stats. Members of our Global Volunteer Force, which includes fansite admins and tournament organizers, have had access to the site for several days now and their feedback has been extremely positive. We can't wait to get it out to the rest of you.

The full list of features, refinements, and bug fixes, will be published with the release of Beta 2.

Everyone working on ETQW at Splash Damage, id Software, Nerve Software, and Activision, are putting in incredible hours to validate, and then incorporate, features, fixes and refinements based on all the feedback you've given us. Since the launch of Beta 1, we've seen record levels of posts on this Community Site, with thousands more reports on the FilePlanet forums and via email. Please do keep them coming! Beta 2 should demonstrate the significant improvements that your feedback has directly created. Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars will get even better with your continued support.

Thanks on behalf of everyone working on ETQW at Splash Damage, id Software, Nerve Software, and Activision!

Paul 'Locki' Wedgwood
Owner/Lead Game Designer
Splash Damage Ltd

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