Development Status #79

[h2]Dear Tankers![/h2]
Welcome to our 79th Development Status.

[h2]Tutorial work progress[/h2]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
The tutorial is almost finished. We have everything recorded and configured and now we are testing back and forth all the tutorial scenes to fix all possible bugs.

Tutorial is pretty big, it has 3 parts:

• repair section
  
• battle basics
  
• battle multi crew mode
  

And we already know in future another battle part must come - for when we extend the command giving and AI management or operations map handling.

[h2]Optimization progress[/h2]
Our last progress in this area was memory management. The game shows us using around 9-10 GB of RAM on the biggest maps. That's the reduction from around 12-13 GB previously (or even 15 in May).

This can still be reduced but this level of RAM usage will be what you’ll receive in the upcoming patch.

What this means:

• potential CPU usage reduction as the game won’t be needing so much VRAM to use (still it can use less but thats future)
  
• less crashes for players that have 16 GB of RAM in their OS
  

As optimization means destabilizing the game in order to dig through code, rewrite it and potentially break it we need to pause this process now. We are going to pick it up after the patch and focus on another issue that pops up after running diagnostics and listening to your feedback.

[h2]New campaign - redesigning our gameplay[/h2]
For the new campaign we’re adding operational map gameplay - the player team will have to either conquer the whole map or have more key points when the campaign timer runs out - we'll figure this out later.

WIP - this is just a prototype of the operations map - not the final thing. The sector shape and borders are going to be changed as well as additional UI is missing.
Some sectors (or all of them) can have a single scenario mission created for it - just like we have it now.

When that mission ends and the sector is in our hands it can be attacked by an enemy AI commander and as a side mission we can defend it.

Then the rules and objectives will be random and more generic and we won’t need to replay the same scenario mission again.



We want to extend the combined arms simulation and implement missions where a whole infantry company is coordinating an attack. We focus on enemy static weapon assets and potential armored counter attacks and infantry clears trenches.

This means we have to optimize the game to allow having at least 100-150 infantry on our side at all times and the same number of enemies.



We also want a shot at bigger maps with the ability to maneuver instead of having corridors like our previous approach is. This would also require extending the mobile spawner/mobile battle stations etc gameplay. Currently the whole map has 576km^2, with the full playable area being 324km^2. Right now the missions will be set up in a couple of logical sectors, with each being 9km^2. So the single sector in comparison is double the size of the C1M8 mission.



What does that mean for the players? Battles will be longer, at higher distances. The environment on which you will play is directly taken from real world data, so you will find yourself fighting in real places. We want to try out a more classical approach, since it was asked by You. There will be less detail in buildings, or other “environment fillers”, because we want to save as much performance as we can, but also the place in which the new campaign will take place has almost none buildings.


With this new wip campaign, we also want to tackle some of the features that are to be implemented in the future and try to add some of it into this development cycle. As you can see, we are shifting to a more robust approach and so we want to create gameplay that is based on somewhat dynamic battle scenarios.



This means, some of the missions will be to some extent procedurally generated. Because of that, battle at every sector mentioned, will be a little bit different. We are speaking here about weather, time, type of forces, type of battles (yes, we are also working on other mission types in the meantime), but also more economic things, like relocation of your repair base, managing your resources ahead (currently we named it as “turn based”, although it's not exactly fitting this description, so keep that in mind). Apart from that, we also want to start pushing tools for creating custom scenarios (as of right now on only given preset terrains and environments). We are inching closely to custom maps and scenario toolsets, although it's still a long way ahead.

[h2]When we can expect new patch 1.1.2?[/h2]Besides tutorial and optimization Stage 1:

• ballistic improvements
  
• toggle able interior lights in tanks
  
• improved interior textures for tanks
  
• big changes to how game handles knockout of a vehicle
  
  • should be harder to kill the player and easier to kill enemy AI
    
  • enemy AI now correctly decreases their morale that can lead to panic and evacuation of the tank
    
  • if tank wants to retreat and still can move and has smoke grenades it’s going to launch it
    
• AI shooting dispersion fix - we found out that AI always hit where they wanted to, our dispersion logic was not working and in the end the game allowed them to have 100% accuracy
  
• player vehicle camera and vehicle movement issues - added interpolation and a way to overcome the physics issues when interpolation is on
  

Thank you and have a good weekend!
DeGenerals