After long period of waiting, and almost complete roster change of the ACW Team, we bring you this 3.5 Open Beta of American Civil War: Brothers vs. Brothers
You are probably wondering what is new in this beta? We have been very busy, and we tried to implement as much of the stuff possible and still retain good quality performance.I will not go over every single thing we have done, but some of the most important features, will be presented here. For the rest... well, you will simply need to download the beta and try it out.
Features
- completely reworked battle mechanics following the steps of realism modders (JaM and DaVinci)
- reworked the building system (both in construction and effects)
- increased campaign movement points of all units to represent rail-roads of Civil War era
- great number of units added including volunteers for each individual State (both CS and US)
- introduction of famous units and organizations such as Shelby's and Quantrill's Raiders, Virginia Laurel Brigade, Confederate and Union Marine Corps, several Union German Regiments, Confederate Natives Cavalry, Union Natives Sharpshooters, 55th "Garde de Lafayette" Regiment and many, many more
- reskinned great number of vanilla units and made new textures for existing units such as Richmond Artillery, Hood's Texas Brigade etc
- added new officers for both Confederacy and Union
- added historical generals own textures and assigned them corresponding models (now you can really see R.E. Lee or W. S. Hancock leading your armies)
- made historically accurate descriptions of every state volunteers and unit currently available in the game
- for the first time included steamship (only one ship available at the moment
- reintroduced socket bayonet
- reworked earthworks and gabionade to more ACW era
- added Civil War era event pictures
- edited the chronicles and the date display
- added new, ACW era quotes
- and many, many, more things
Visual Presentation |
Steamship |
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New General's Icon |
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The realism or realistic combat is something what many players would like ot see in games they play. They often complain about unrealistic or not completely realistic representation of combat. We at the ACW Team are of the same opinion, and have been trying for quite some time to find a realistic (or next best thing to realistic) system that would represent American Civil War Battles in a way that will prove more challenging for the player, but not repulsive at the same time. With great help of experienced Realism Modders such as DaVinci and especially JaM we have created a system that tries to bring that realism to you. However, before I go any further, I would like you to know, that this is only a representation that has taken in consideration the real world and has scaled it down or up to fit into the criteria of the game. So let me now explain what these battle mechanics bring to the game.
First thing any player will have to pay attention to is what type of weaponry a unit is using. This can be seen by right clicking on the units icon. You can see it here:
This is extremely important as in Open Beta 3.5 weapons that info card refers to is really used by a unit that has it. the infantry weapons are currently (with likely and possible expansion) the following:
As you can see we have 4 major classes: rifled and smooth-bore muskets, repeating rifles and cavalry weapons. The rifled muskets are your basic weapons. They are much a like but certain important differences do exist. Springfield and Enfield Rifle are almost equal, with minor differences in damage, reload speed and accuracy and they present Class I infantry weapons. The Mississippi Rifle and Lorenz Rifle are slightly inferior to the above ones but are still potent weapons (Class II). The smooth-bores are a special class. Their long range fire is worth very little, you are more likely going to spend half your ammunition for achieving almost no effect on the enemy. However, if you close in with the enemy, or manage to attack him from the flank, smooth-bores will prove as an extremely deadly weapon because of their faster reloading time and bigger calibre bullet. The repeating rifles aren't actual repeaters (due to engine limitations) but this rifles do have fastest reloading times and do offer good accuracy in the distant fights. They are mainly used by cavalry units, but beware of their lower ammo and fast firing rate. The various cavalry weapons is a class of its own, it falls somewhere between rifled and smooth-bores to represent various armament that cavalry units of that time did use. Very potent on short ranges, these weapons aren't as reliable as some other types, but will get their job done.
With that explained, I move to combat itself. It is important to point out, that now, shooting on a maximum range will do you little or no good. However, closing for even 30-40 (not to 30 or 40 yards) yards will increase effectiveness of your volleys. But the enemy will have that also, so be careful. Precisely timed volleys can break enemy unit in few secoonds, while sporadic and drawn out fire will only spend your ammo. This is all I want to share with you at the moment, if you want to learn more about it, then play the game!
Important
Current build of 3.5 Open Beta supports Warpath map based ACW campaign only.
However, users who don't own Warpath can still play the custom battles with all the new units!
Installation
Requirements
ACW Broters vs. Brothers 3.4.1 version
husserlTW's Subs Power
Process
1) install husserlTW's Subs Power launcher (download link)
2) download the ZoR - Open Beta 3.5 (link in the ACW Download Links Thread)
3) unzip the ZoR - Open Beta 3.5
4) run setup.exe and follow installer's instructions
Performance
For a better performance, especially if you were experiencing issues with smoke, please visitSmoke Mods thread in the Submod Subforum.
Disclaimer
This is still a beta so it means it isn't complete. The game should run smoothly and without any crashes or similar mishaps, but if they do happen, be sure you have followed all of the procedures listed in the Technical Help Thread. When crashes happen always post your log (instruction on how to find it are in Technical Help Thread). We will appreciate all the feedback, positive and negative for as long as it remains civil and polite. We know there is no technology tree yet, we are working on it, so please don't ask us where it is.
Team
husserlTW
Trig
Chieftain John K.
[NC]Master
Minas Moth
Credits
JaM for support and letting us to use his ETW Realism
DaVinci for setting us in the right direction
Flikitos for help with buildings
husserlTW for solving problems
Baron Von Beer for his submod
Tharros for paving the way
Special Thanks
shokh, hinkel, primergy
and all of you out there who support us
The ACW Team