Development Status #2

[h2]Dear Tankers,[/h2]

Welcome to the second Development Status of Tank Squad. Here's what we have been working on lately...

[h3]Gameplay[/h3]

We continue testing our gameplay. We will be implementing multiplayer cooperation to our gameplay testing soon, so we will be able to repair a tank in cooperation. At the moment we will try only 4 players at once. The tank repair level includes interaction with crane, using tools and interaction with different NPC's as Quartermaster, Medic and Scout. Also one thing that we are testing is moving physical objects around the level.

When repairing, a tank commander will have a notebook with an actual tank status and a checklist of things to be repaired. His role will be to manage tank repairs and prepare a squad for battle. We don't know yet if tankers will have an access to all information that the commander will have. We want to make players cooperate in tank repairs instead of leaving each player on their own to do their thing.

We are preparing a test battle scene where we will be able to drive our tank and fight with enemy AI controlled tanks. We will be designing basic game strategy and missions by adding checkpoints, objectives etc. We are doing those tests and experiments to learn what gameplay we want to create in a first place.

*Most of the content in the scenes are placeholders for the sake of testing gameplay.

[h3]Infantry[/h3]

We've began to work on Infantry basic AI (Artificial Intelligence). During the battle, we will be supported by Infantry Squad and also we will be attacked by enemy anti-tank Infantry squad. Infantry will be able to move, attack and defend themselves. They will also be able to get into bunkers, buildings or trenches and throw different explosives at us.

Features:

Infantry moves to checkpoints
Intantry attacks and covers behind obstacles
Infantry defends and holds the position
Infranty gets into trenches and buildings

Features for Infantry we want to implement in the future:

Infantry throws explosives at us
Ally Infantry can climb on our tank
Ally Infantry can use our tank as a cover
Infantry can take an Anti-Tank gun

[h3]Research[/h3]

We are also dedicating time to do some historical research. How were tank crews repairing their tanks? What have they been doing when the tank was unrepairable? How have they been recovering them? We've got several dozens of World War II books. We want to make game realistic historically but at the same time entertaining. Our approach at the moment is to make historically correct scenes, tanks, infantry, equipment etc. but make gameplay to be fun and well balanced between relaxing entertainment and realism. We've gathered quite few historical books and we are slowly studying them.

*If you have any books, documentaries or resources that you think would be a good reference for us, feel free to share them in the comment.

[h3]Characters and Animation[/h3]

We continue our work with testing player character controller (we change previously used controller for new one). Right now we want to set up cooperation module for players and test interaction system. In the screen you can see look pose for characters, work in progress.

[h3]Visual Effects[/h3]

We are currently working on destructibles props. All destructions are made in Houdini. From the beginning we think about optimazation and we try to build procedural asset in Houdini wich
allows us customize quickly different setting and features like dimension of bricks, amount of bricks in rows and columns, size of object which emits force etc. This procedural tool/asset for brick wall is constantly honing and modifying to fits to our needs.

So far bricks can be replaced by bigger chunks with reduced amount of polygons, it will be especially useful for parts which are static not included in simulation.

[h3]Level Design[/h3]
We are in a process of hiring a new level designer. Someone who is going to design a whole campaign with levels, where he will implement game mechanics and design a fun gameplay. At the moment we aim at creating two campaigns, one for German side and other for Soviet side. Also we are doing a research on maps of Eastern Front villages and fields. From the research that we have done so far, we find out that it was a commom thing to set different (sometimes very creative traps) for tanks to temporarily immobilize them and make them more vulnerable to enemy fire.

Thanks and have a great weekend!

DeGenerals

* - Handbook on USSR Military Forces Robert L. Bolin, Depositor, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

** - https://www.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=74432db26a844a6b8428a454f88e01a0%20%20