World War II Online - User Interface

[Detomah]

OFFLINE Play

Battleground Europe is designed as an online game, and the offline mode is fairly sparse. You can select and launch any of over 80 playable units offline without the limit of rank levels. You can also select to spawn in from any facility, in any City (CP) modeled in the entire theater to allow you some freedom to explore the game world.

Once you are spawned in your only enemies will be the fixed AI emplacements throughout the map. There are no mobile units or missions in offline play.

SPAWN SELECTION
Using the Spawn Selection filters allow you to easily view and select from the many combat units of British, French and German forces. Simply select a unit and hit the Launch button to begin a practice session. This is the primary function of offline play.

THEATER MAP
While the Spawn Selection tab will automatically spawn you in a training facility on a remote island in the North Sea, the Theater Map allows you to select any facility within any city anywhere on the map and spawn at that location. Be aware that you must select the appropriate facility to spawn in at, for example you must select an airfield to spawn a plane in. Use the City Finder and Map Options drop down tools to help you navigate the map for offline play. Click on a city, then on an appropriate facility (Army Base, Airfield, or Docks). If you’ve already selected a unit to spawn in with simply hit the Launch button, if not pick one from the Spawn Selection tab and Launch from there. The map will remember the location you picked and drop you in there.

All other offline UI elements are exactly the same as their online counterparts described in the following ONLINE Play guide.

ONLINE Play

Battleground Europe is a complex game, with enough scope to keep you busy for literally years. But much of that is hidden out of the way, and the game interface is formatted to allow you to get into combat quickly. This interface guide will get you all the info you need to play BATTLEGROUND EUROPE effectively and expose the paths to more intricate features as well.

CHOOSING A “CAREER” BY SELECTING A PERSONA TO PLAY
This is where it all begins. Selecting your persona sets up who you will fight for, France Germany or Britain, and in what branch of service, Army, Navy, or Air Force.

The Persona Select screen allows you to view detailed information on each of your game personas and select one to play. The available personas are listed by country and branch. When you click on a persona your statistics like current rank, brigade affiliation, and any relevant career notes for that persona are displayed in the info window on the right hand side.

To play a persona, select it with the mouse and click the green button on the bottom left of the screen to proceed. You can also double click the persona to automatically advance to the next screen. If your selected persona does not have a brigade listed in the right hand pane you will go to the brigade selection screen, otherwise you will go directly to your Brigade HQ.

Battleground Europe has a side timer that prevents you from switching between Axis and Allied personas during an online gaming session. Personas that are not available to you due to recently playing for one side of the conflict will be listed as "On Leave". These personas will become available once you have been logged out of the game for several hours. Personas that are available for play will be listed as "Active Duty".

If at anytime you would like to change the persona you are playing or transfer the brigade of your selected persona, you can do so from the "Brigade HQ" by selecting the "Transfer" button.

MESSAGE OF THE DAY
The Message of the Day on the persona selection screen usually has general community notes and news. More detailed and specific news and orders can be found after you select your persona and brigade.

THE THEATER MAP TAB:
A theater map is provided for an overview of the battle before committing to a brigade. You can browse the Theater Map for a feel for the current strategic and tactical situation. The controls here remain standard throughout the UI and in-game whenever the Theater Map is available:


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• Map Legend: This gives short descriptions of all the map display icons
  
• City Finder: Type the name of a city you want to view here and select.
  
• Map options: Filter the map info to help de-clutter the display and refine searches.

Info Bar (bottom): This handy info bar provides mission info at a glance as well as positional lat long locators for your current position and that of your mouse cursor.

Full Screen Button: Located on the top right of the map display, this button (+ or -) toggles the map to full screen.

CHOOSING A BRIGADE
Once you’ve chosen your persona you’ll need to select a Brigade to fight with. Don’t worry, you can always transfer out of a Brigade if the need arises, but eventually you’ll find yourself establishing some loyalty to a Brigade due to the friends you make there, or if you join a squadron that is officially affiliated with a Brigade that operates in a specific sector.

The Brigade Selector shows you the Order of Battle for the country and branch of your selected persona. A brief summary of each Brigade is presented here and you will be able to transfer to the brigade of your choice by selecting a brigade with the mouse and clicking on the "Brigade HQ" button in the bottom left of the screen.

Once you have a brigade selected you will default to it in subsequent game sessions, and again, transfers are free so don’t feel boxed into a specific brigade.

BRIGADE HQ
Brigade HQ is the central hub of all combat operations. From here you will have access to brigade chat so that you can communicate with the soldiers in your brigade. Several tabs are available that give detailed information about the current status and operations of your brigade.

THE BRIGADE HQ TAB:
The default tab when you arrive at your Brigade HQ shows a brief description of the Brigade including the Commanding Officer and a list of the currently Active Missions. Brigade HQ is your lifeline to news, orders, and your portal into combat operations. Here you can read the message of the day and view the currently Active Missions.

By selecting missions from the list you will receive a more detailed report about each mission. Once you have chosen a mission you can select the "Mission Briefing" button to join the mission and proceed to selecting a vehicle.

THE COMMUNICATIONS TAB:
This tab lists the important communiqués from your Brigade Command as well as updated command structures and officers. You should check this page regularly to see who is in command and any standing orders from your brigade commander or even from the high command staff that may be posted or may have been updated since your last visit, or even since your last mission.

THE CREATE MISSION TAB:
Officers of your brigade will have the ability to create and lead missions using this tab. If you are not a ranking officer yet you will not be able to access this area. The Mission Creation tool allows officers to set the origin and target of the mission as well as the type of mission and give a detailed description of the mission plan, all info that is then viewable in the mission brief and summary.

HOW TO CREATE A MISSION
Once you gain enough rank (NCO and above in a specific branch, see rank tables in the appendix section) to gain access to the mission creation tool you’ll need to know the basics of how to post a mission. The Create Mission tab opens a instance of the Theater map and a toolbar for entry of mission specifics.

You must select an origin, and a target from the map.

Once a facility or CP is selected you can click on the “” or “” fields to commit that facility or CP.

Write a briefing of the mission goals and any intelligence you want to pass on to your soldiers for the task at hand.
Once you have an origin, target and brief entered hit the create mission button and you will be sent to the mission ready room as its leader.

BEING A MISSION LEADER
Once you have successfully created a mission you take on the roll of Mission Leader. As a Mission Leader you have access to many tools to help you organize and execute your mission goals.

ORDERS
This is one of the first tools you will want to familiarize yourself with. By typing /orders you broadcast to the mission members what your orders are. This information is displayed at the top of the screen for a short period of time to all players on your mission. Mission members can also type /orders to see what the current orders are. You can update your /orders text once every minute.

WAYPOINTS
Waypoints are an extremely useful tool for organizing your troops in the field. As Mission Leader you can right click an area on the map and choose to place a waypoint. There are two types of waypoints you can create “Rally Here” (blue) and “Attack here” (red).

You can give each waypoint a unique name. You can also enter specific instructions regarding the waypoint in the notes field that will be displayed when mission members mouse over the waypoint.

Once a waypoint is placed mission members can right click and “make active” the selected waypoint. This will set the compass arrow to point towards that waypoint as opposed to the mission target which it defaults to.
You can also remove waypoints by right clicking and selecting the delete option.

CONTACT REPORTS
Another important tool of the Mission Leader is the ability to create/manage contact reports to alert your troops to known enemy positions. You create a contact report in the same manner as waypoints. Right click on the area of the enemy position and select report contact, then select the type of enemy unit you are reporting on.

This will create an orange icon on the map representing the type of enemy reported. You can also enter a description for the contact report that will be displayed upon mouse over. Note that contact reports will slowly start to fade out several minutes after being placed.

Players on your mission also have the ability to report enemy contacts, these reports must be approved by the Mission Leader before they are visible by others on the mission. When a player on your mission submits a contact report you will receive an audio cue as well as text indicating a contact is being reported. Player reported contacts will appear as blinking icons in the game map. You approve contact reports by right clicking and selecting the approve options. Player are limited in the number of unapproved contact reports they can make, and unapproved contact reports time out after a short period.

PLAYER ICONS
Another very useful feature of the mission system is the ability to see icons on the map that represent players participating on your mission. These small icons that when moused over will tell you the name and unit type of the mission member. You can choose the color of these icons in the setting application. You can also right click on a player icon and select the option to “contact player” this will pre-fill the text bar with a .message or .m and the name of the player selected, so you can quickly send a private message to that player.

MOBILE SPAWNS
Much like player icons when a mission member deploys a mobile spawn an icon is created on the map indicating its position. This icon has the title of (MSPAWN).

CHOOSING A MISSION
Once a mission is selected from the Mission List you will be exposed to more detail about the goals, leaders and who is on the mission. You are preparing for combat here so pay attention.

THE READY ROOM
Here is your last stop before going into harms way. You’ll be able to access some of this info in the field through the in-game map, but this will be the last time you can review everything before spawning in. Play Mode allows you to multi-crew various combat units. More on this under Multi-crewing later in this section.

The list of deployable forces shows you what equipment is currently available for the mission. The capacity shows you how many of each unit are “based” at this origin. The difference between the available and the capacity is basically how many of that unit have spawned through here into combat…some may be in combat, or may have been lost. You can get a good idea of how heavy the fighting is from this mission’s origin by comparing these numbers. An intelligence briefing on each unit type is also available to review.

The Briefing tab shows Mission Members and gives an indication if they are spawned in or not and the leader will be color coded for ease of identification. The Mission Details offers a review of the general info. The Deployed Forces pane shows how many units of what type are spawned in and fighting. Finally the Mission Orders is a review of the brief written by the mission leader.

Your primary goal in the ready room is to prep for combat. You can select a combat unit and reserve it here while you get the lay of the land. You’ll have access to the mission channel to chat with your mission mates here as well. More often than not the combat chatter of your fellow soldiers fighting in the field can give you the most useful info prior to your boots hitting the dirt.

Select a combat unit from the available deployable forces if you haven’t reserved one already, and hit the Enter World button. Lock and load soldier, this is it.

MULTI-CREW
Almost every vehicle in Battleground Europe supports more than one crew position two players may work a single vehicle together using the Multi-Crew functionality.

The Play Mode buttons along the top of the Ready Room unit selector allow you to choose one of three play modes.

• SOLO mode: This lets you spawn in a unit alone with no crew
  
• COMMANDER mode: Select a vehicle and hit this button to list your unit as requesting crew. Other soldiers at the ready room will see this list when they have selected CREW mode.
  
• CREW mode: Select this mode to see a lit of any and all Commanders currently requesting Crew for their vehicle.

Select a crew member or commander (depending on your mode) and then spawn in. You’ll be together in the vehicle and ready to roll. Commanders always control the number 1 position (usually a driver/pilot) and Crew members are usually placed in the primary gunner or bombardier position. In vehicles that have many positions BOTH crew and commander can move to various positions.

AAR
After Action Reports are available for all your completed sorties (into and out of combat once is a “sortie”) during your current online gaming session. Details of your sorties can be found here by selecting each one in the list, kills, time on mission, and other info is displayed.

THE SQUAD TAB:
This tab is used to create and manage player squads.

CREATING A SQUAD
To create a squad you need to have five players online. The player creating the squad initializes the process by entering the name of the squad (long and short name), then he must specify an Executive Officer and enter the other squad members names in the appropriate fields on the squad creation page. Once the fields are filled out the Commanding Officer clicks on the create squad button which sends an invite to the other players. The squad will be created once all members have accepted the invite by using the /accept command or by pressing the accept button on the squad creation tab.
-If the CO or XO try to /leave a squad with 5 or less members, the squad is disbanded.
- If anyone leaves a squad with 2 or less members, the squad is disbanded.

RECRUITING
Squad members with the rank of recruiter and above have the ability to invite new members into the squad. To recruit a player simply type /recruit . This will send a text message to the player and they have the option to accept or decline the invitation using the /accept or /decline commands or clicking the appropriate button on the squad page. Players must be online in order to join a squad.

SQUAD ELECTIONS
A squad has the ability to vote for who the Commanding Officer will be. This option is on by default although a Commanding Officer can turn this ability off by using the /voting off command, /voting on will enable voting again.
To start an election a squad member above the rank of recruit can type /voteco . This will cast a vote for the and begin the election process. You can type /vote to see the current election standings.

-If more than half the members vote for one person, that person is elected.
- If 7 days elapse from the start of the vote the lead candidate with > 5 votes is elected.
- If the leading candidate leaves the squad, the vote is nullified.
- If 7 days elapse without a clear leader, the election is nullified.

Additionally if there are multiple candidates and a candidate has votes greater or equal to the number of members divided by the number of candidates, then they are elected. (e.g. if there are 3 candidates, having 1/3rd of the members vote for you will give you the CO position)

SQUAD ROLES AND ABILITIES

COMMANDING OFFICER:
A Commanding Officer is the leader of a squad. Each squad can only have one “CO”. CO’s have the ability to edit all squad information fields such as the squad name, squad description, the squad homepage, and the message of the day.

EXECUTIVE OFFICER(s):
Executive Officer(s) are the second in command of the squad. A squad may have multiple “XO’s”.
XO’s of a squad also have the ability to edit all squad information sections.

RECRUITER:
Recruiters of a squad have the ability to invite new players into a squad and also have the ability to edit the squad message of the day (MOTD).

MEMBER:
This is the standard squad member rank.

RECRUIT:
The recruit rank is used for identifying new or trial members in a squad.

SQUAD COMMANDS:

/recruit Recruits a player to your squad. Recruiter ‘s and above.
/accept Accepts an invitation to join a squad
/decline Declines and invitation to a squad.
/leave Leaves your current squad.
/disband CO’s only, disbands a squad.
/remove Removes a player from the Squad. XO and above.
/promote Promotes a player up one level, up to on level below yours. XO and above
/demote Demotes a player, limited to players below your level. XO and above
/resign CO’s only, Resigns your command, demotes you to XO and makes the new Commanding Officer.


MANUALS
The Manuals section of the user interface is where you can read up on general gameplay features as well as look up dossiers on the individual combat units. Navigate the various manuals and weapon dossiers through the simple menu system on the left hand side.

SETTINGS
Keymapper: See the Appendix section for a detailed overview of the Keymapper.

COMMUNICATION

CHAT
The majority of communication in Battleground Europe is done through a standard text based chat system. Basic functionality is simple: Hitting enter will open the buffer, type a message and hit enter again to send. There are six separate “radios” within the chat tool that allow you to customize your communications with and from various groups of players. Radios are often auto-assigned by the game in many instances, this is in an effort to streamline your communications and serves to insure that you are at least able to talk to the folks around you. Note also that the last two radios (F5 and F6) are never pre-tuned and can be tuned to whatever channel you wish. Hitting enter will always transmit on the primary radio(s) that are pre-tuned, for example:

With a brigade selected your enter key will transmit on your brigade (and squad if you are affiliated) channel(s). When a mission is selected your enter key will transmit on both mission and target channels. And finally when you are spawned into the world, your enter key will transmit on “area chat” which allows you to talk to the soldiers nearby.

The radio interface is displayed as the translucent horizontal bar at the bottom of the screen. This entire interface can be moved to different positions on the screen by clicking and dragging on the translucent element. Also on the right hand side of the bottom the “+ -“ box will expand or shrink the display. The scroll bar button can also be used to review messages that have scrolled off the display.

Each of the six radios is bound to one of the function keys F1 to F6 for easy transmitting. You can use the enter key to transmit on the default radio (usually this is local to the players near you), or simply hit the corresponding function keys (F1 through F6) to open the buffer for transmitting on that specific radio or sets of radios.

You can manually tune any of the six radios by clicking on any one of the channel tuning elements along the top of the display. Clicking here will expand a tuning menu of pre-determined channels and a custom tuning field.

Clicking any of these menu items will automatically tune that radio to the selected channel. The clear button will clear the tuning, and the custom button allows for entering a numbered channel (1-99) or a soldier’s game name for private comms.

The numbered channels allow players to customize communication groups. High Command officers often assign some of the numbered channels to specific branches and groups, so check your High Command’s website from the Community links on the BATTGROUD EUROPE website to get a fresh list of the channels currently being used in-game.

Each radio can also be muted independently by clicking on the tuning element on the top of the display and selecting “clear.”

Other channels are automatically broadcast without the need to be tuned by a radio. For example messages from GMs and SYSTEM administrators can be broadcast to all radios without any tuning required. Strategic and High Command broadcasts which are used by the game systems and High Command staff to transmit messages about the war effort (capturing or losing of facilities) to all soldiers on their side are also broadcast independently of your radios and their tuning. These channels cannot be transmitted on by anyone other than Staff and High Commanders.

Colored icons are provided in the chat buffer alongside many incoming messages to identify what kind of message (or what channel it came from) it is. Here is a list of the basic channels and their corresponding icons.


Chat Channel Icon

Social
Brigade Channel
Squad Channel
Private Message / Channel
Tactical
Mission Channel
Objective Channel
Say (area chat)
Enemy Say
Strategic
Strategic System Channel
High Command Channel
Allied Channel
Axis Channel
General / System
Help Channel
Game Information
System Alert


GENERAL CHAT COMMANDS
You can access specific in-game information when online using “dot commands.” Hit enter and type in the following commands for info and unique functionality:


Key/Command Functionality

.afk Toggle Away From Keyboard Flag
.allied Named message to all ALLIED players
.attack Issue an attack objective on targeted CP
.axis Named message to all AXIS players
.clear Request cancellation of an attack/defend objective
.defend Issue a defend objective on targeted CP
.delay Requests no action to requested OVERRUN order
.fallback Initiate a fallback
.fbs Shows FB information for closest or named town
.friends View/manipulate 'friends' list
.hc Roster or message the High Command channel(s)
.hcmotd Show/set the HC Message of the Day
.hcoff Detune the HC channel
.hcon Retune the HC channel
.help Display commands or command-specific help
.hold Initiate hold at all costs
.home Change brigade home
.hqoff Detune the HQ channel
.hqon Retune the HQ channel
.ignore Manage/view ignore list
.m Send a direct private message to a player
.noechat Toggle receipt of enemy area chat on/off
.nowho Allows you to hide from .who
.objectives List current objectives for your side
.overrun Notify HC that base is overrun
.own Shows ownership information for a CP
.r Reply to last private message received
.report Submit a bug/problem/feedback report
.say Short radius area chat message
.sysmotd View the system message of the day
.whisper Small-area chat message
.who Display list of squad mates online
.yell Large-area chat message


VOICE COMMUNICATIONS
Battleground Europe does not include a proprietary voice communication feature, but many community members use third party voice software such as Teamspeak (www.teamspeak.org) or Roger Wilco (rogerwilco.gamespy.com).

THE HUD

While you are spawned into the game world there are heads up display or “HUD” elements around your display perimeter that provide dynamic information on your combat status. You can turn them on or off with the Y key. Weapons and ammo information, as well as other game related info are displayed. Here are the various HUD elements and what information they provide.

WEAPON / AMMO COUNTERS
If you are in a combat unit, in a position that has weapons, you will see a weapon and ammo info box that displays your weapon type and the amount of ammo you have.

PERSONA / AVATAR STATUS
This display is global no matter what combat unit you are in. It displays your current avatar type (infantry or crew) your current stance (standing, prone, seated etc), as well as your blood and ATP levels. Pay close attention to these as they will let you know what shape you are in.

BLOOD LEVEL
The red bar element (top) gives you a readout of your injury level. If you are hit or loosing blood this indicator will drain accordingly.

ATP
The green bar element (bottom) gives you a readout of your stamina or ATP(adenosine triphosphate or “muscle fuel”). This represents your ability to operate your weapon, run, etc. As you get fatigued through sprinting or extended G forces in an airplane this will drain accordingly, but unlike blood levels, you can get your ATP back by taking it easy for a few seconds.

MINI MAP

The small map display in the lower right is designed to give you limited location information at a glance, when bringing up the main map would not be…”prudent.”

A simple compass display with a (green) arrow pointing to your mission target. You will also see a (blue) triangle indicating your origin, and a (red) triangle indicating your mission target.. Also you have mouse clickable zoom controls, an accurate lat/long display and the name of the CP you are closest to, provide the essential information you need when you can only afford a quick peek away from the action.

Additional HUD elements
There are two other info windows that can be toggled on or off that provide less critical information.

VEHICLE INFO
This element displays in the upper left corner and is toggled on or off with the tilde key (~”). Here you can find vehicle class-specific information. In aircraft it will show current G level, your AOA (angle of attack) and your degrees of Slip. In other vehicles it shows the current gear you are in as well as if you are in reverse. This element will also expand to show other soldiers who may be riding on a truck, tank or transport aircraft with you.

Vehicle info in an aircraft

…and on a prime mover showing riders.

GAME INFO

This element displays in the upper right corner and is toggled on or off with the “Num Lock” key. Here you will find useful game information including your current frame rate, game time of day (24 hr), and your icon display mode (controlled by the TAB key).