Welcome to another exciting expedition of What We Are Up To. Today we follow the elusive game developer into his natural habitat, known as the "studio".
*rumble**rumble**rumble**rumble* so climb on in! Sorry about the noise, it can be *rumble* to hear over the engines of this Sd.Kfz. 251 we are using today. After working with the community vehicle mod team, we have decided to take the universal carrier and Sd.Kfz. 251 official! Stay tuned for Rising Storm beta updates as we will be bringing both of these vehicles up to speed in the near future there for fine tuning.
For those just joining us, the Universal Carrier is an armored troop transport built by United Kingdom forces during WWII. Used by many of the Allies (under Lend Lease) it also saw combat as a Russian troop transport and artillery mover. Chiefly equipped with a light machine gun, it also saw combat equipped with dedicated anti-tank weapons (including the German captured and modified variant with panzerschrecks!). The version we will be adding to the game is the same one included in Red Orchestra: Ostfront equipped with the Degtyaryov machine gun.
Now the Sd.Kfz. 251 half-track is the other transport that we will be adding to the game. Designed to protect a squad of German infantry as it advanced, it was also equipped with a forward mounted machine gun to provide covering fire as they disembarked. Like the Universal Carrier, there were several variants outfitted for other roles including anti-tank fire. The standard version equipped with a MG-34 will be adding (again like Red Orchestra: Ostfront).
But what are vehicles, without a place to drive? Those of you who have helped in previous testing for the Vehicle Mod team know that we have been working on adding the transports into Barashka. In addition to that we will also be adding them to Rakowice and Arad 2 (and of course modders will be free to add them to their own creations).
Now that is the end of today's safari, but we will be bringing you more detailed information as we move along! We'll see you on the front!