Hey gents, just making it back after a few days away. To answer some questions!
A lot of the map has been stripped down to improve performance, so unfortunately in some parts some of the street lamps and rubble are now missing
. In regard to what is actually out in the streets, you will find that for the most part, yes, they are bare, but my reasoning for this is I want for players to utilize the buildings for cover or to use the tanks as mobile shields (I think I may have discussed this point? I forget). Given that two tanks will probably block the street, they can serve as mobile cover. I didn't want to add too much clutter, lest people get caught on objects they shouldn't, and I also didn't want to add too much that would be unrealistic, i.e. lots of knocked out German tanks when for the battle within the city the Germans could muster only some 60 armored vehicles (from what I know). If there were more civilian vehicles, I would make use of them. Might look in to nagging some modelers, I don't know.
Will look in to the grayer smoke, for certain. I went with black for the most part because it was easy, though in some places it fades between black and gray. However, the smoke is there mainly for the sake of having the remnants of burning buildings left; I did want to have smoke in the street for a "dusty" effect, but there are definite performance concerns there.
With the Panzerfausts, I have them strewn about the map in different places because I wanted to have a situation that would be more along the lines of someone leaving them within a room waiting for a tank to come by. Just about all of the supply points are indoors, with some locations being set up as caches (with 3-4 faust spawns with varying respawn times), generally located on the first or second floors. This is to allow the Russians to overrun these caches and deny the Germans a fair deal of their anti tank abilities, leaving them to 1-2 fausts that respawn in times varying from 45-90 seconds. There are a few places where I could see a wheelbarrow making sense, I suppose I could put fausts in there which spawn only once during the course of the fighting in there.
To answer Trendkill's last question, the Lehrter Bahnhof is within playable bounds but is itself not a major scene of the fighting. A lot of the combat will take place around it, for instance in the nearby Ausstellungspark or Washingtonplatz, where the Germans will be able to take up positions along berms in lieu of Konigsplatz or also try to hide within a handful of craters which mark the area. A lot of the testers really seemed awed when they emerged from the dense urban environment and entered the open area on the approach to the bridge, I just can't wait to see how people handle it with a full server and vicious fighting in progress