Taskforce News

Great progress on Taskforce. You can see all new screenshots of the latest build on the store today. I can now introduce Teuton Arcanum, the organisation you will command in the game.

The Teuton Arcanum Special Knight Force, known as Taskforce, is a global organisation, founded in the 9th century in Aachen, Germany, by executive order of Emperor Charlemagne. It originally consisted of nine trusted knights, and indeed even today it is led by the 'Nine Unknown Knights'; unknown because even the Knights themselves do not know the real identities of the other members.

The organisation has survived until today, and is now based in a underground city beneath the Swiss Alps known as The Cathedral. Their symbol is the Arcanum Knot, a nine pointed star, and each point represents one of the Nine Unknown Knights and the different departments which they administer: Archival, Scientific, Esoteric, Political, Active Scientific and Practical Operations (ASPO makes all of your equipment), Sentinel, Financial, Military, and the Dark Order.

In the game you will command Knight Force One, twelve of the 169 troops in the Military wing.

A huge few weeks for Taskforce. A week ago I decided to reprogram the graphics system entirely, which needed new versions of the 400-or-so objects in the game. At the same time, I thought I'd create new textures at double the existing resolution too, so effectively all of the terrain graphics have been recreated in the past, long and exhausting, week.

Now, blocks and wall sections are correctly sealed, effectively automatically creating tubes of polygons for the walls and windows etc. Before, almost all objects showed strange fragments of polygons, holes, gaps. Everything looked like an error, but was there for speed. Now it's probably faster and looks better. Here is a look:



Those concrete-ends are just the unseen walls, the black holes will be filled in when your troops see them, as normal. One other thing is that you can now shoot through windows, which looks great and allows proper S.A.S. style entry into buildings.

All of this work means that, sadly, I won't be able to make the deadline for the Steam Summer Games Festival. A public demo will appear, but not this week. Due to the busy-ness of Steam's June Fest, the release date for Taskforce might be pushed back to the end of July.

One last note is that now that all of the graphics are new, the existing screenshots and the video are effectively invalid. I will create new ones...

Huge updates to Taskforce today. I've added the ability to skip units which have moved, and restricted movement on top of odd tiles, like walking over pot-plants, this was actually possible! I've also added a lot more music options. Oddly, for me, there isn't much music in this game; I'd like to add more but time is so limited.

At least five of the missions have had big changes to the maps. I want to make everything non-linear, so that players are given a target but can do it in so many ways that there is no right or wrong or best way. In this mission, a tiny commando-style raid has been authorised; you take just 4 units and must enter a building at night with the aim of destroying a cluster of generators. You are massively outnumbered by armed guards, so must evade as much as possible. There are so many ways in and out of the building that you are free to choose. You can even walk right over the roof and enter the target zone itself without so much as a single guard. All a far cry from linear F.P.S. games with a start here and a target at the end of the hall, but of course, no route is necessarily best, and, just as in The Guns of Navarone, you must escape after the bombs go off.

Working hard today on new training missions. These are a big part of the game, each new unlocked mission also unlocks training missions, allowing you to face enemies in a sort of holodeck environment. I'm designing new maps for each type of training. My golden rule is to give the player options. These games are more like multiplayer F.P.S. games than most single player games. Every game different, with so many options and missions to choose from that you can play again and again and never have the same experience.

Here's a look at the one of them in testing (no secrets to which!) - the special thing about this one is that your team starts separated, and in a different place each time you play.

Lots of work on Taskforce today. Added the ability for items to have random starts for missions that demand the retrieval of objects. Random starts were always in place for enemies, this is so important to keep the game fresh and non-linear. This same facility for items should add the same level of sparkle.

I'll post regular updates on testing and the game progress, moving towards the release date in June. Here are a couple of Secret Files in one of the Training Missions.