The 1.6 is almost a new game, especialy for infantry play. It is still the same game and definitely not for everyone but I love the new version and have been playing extensively on the 1.6 test server. The new inf model is much more fluid than before and recoil makes the rifle the weapon of choice but close up the SMG is still king if you can control the recoil, that Thomson recoils like a son of a... female dog. Plus it now has an ammo counter for infantry.

They will be offering some kind of free trial so if you hated the game before you might give the 1.6 a try. You may still hate the game but if you can try it for free give it a go.

Here is the announcement:

Greetings all,
1.6 is complete and has achieved many of the goals we set down for this development cycle. It should be made available on the main public server tomorrow.

A completely new user interface and first person shooter system are the big highlights. The game interface has a new feel, feature set and ease of use; as well there is a completely new level of immersion on the battlefield. With new lighting and a moon at night, battles can be waged all through the game hours with much more effective and exciting results at night. New vehicles have been added to round out the set for this timeline like the He111 German Heavy bomber, MLE38 French anti-aircraft gun, Laffly French transport, and the PzKpfw IV German Medium tank.

The long development cycle of 1.6 also gave us the opportunity to revisit a lot of our data files and we found and corrected some discrepancies. All the weapon and damage values were reviewed for errors or miscalculations. We found a few, and used exhaustive research to triple check all of our figures. Soon we'll be publishing more information on this data. We think 1.6 delivers the most accurate weapon and damage systems attempted in an online simulation.

While we continue to work on performance issues like frame rates and load times we are now setting down the plans for the next release which will probably include more enhancements to the RPG layer, as well as gameplay changes within the strategic layer to help migrate supply and spawn limits into one system. We are defining development goals now and will have more detail in the weeks to come.

With the release of 1.6 for Windows we have entered the last dev cycle for the Macintosh client and have a publishing arrangement in place, which should see the Mac version on the shelves this year. A public preview of the Macintosh client will run prior to it's release. Watch for more details soon.

We also brought a long-awaited public test method into use with the development of 1.6. Thanks go out to all the players for who helped test, track and report bugs, and helped load and debug the host processes. We will be using this system again in the future, and without a doubt it helped produce a better product. Again, a big thanks goes out to all who helped.

In the coming days we'll be announcing new program to attract more players including a free trial offer and a re-evaluation program for former players. These along with the Recruitment Rewards and Prepay Subscription programs and the previously mentioned Mac preview are designed to do whatever we can to bring more players to the virtual battlefield- but we need your help. Help us kick start the Recruitment Rewards program by telling your friends about v1.6 and the free trial (watch for details).

Tomorrow's release marks the one year anniversary of WWIIOL going live. It's no secret that the launch of 1.0 last June was more than bloody but we made it off the beach and silenced the guns. We are now proud to see our customer base enjoying a stable environment with vastly improved performance and features (and fun!). We all wish the game could have been what it is now, but it was not to be. The fact that WWIIOL subscriptions are growing still is claim to a great idea being able to overcome horrible adversity. We have you to thank. Get out there and enjoy v1.6 while we go back to work making the game you play even better.