Tank Squad News

[h2]Dear Tankers,[/h2]Welcome to our 16th Development Status. You can see on what we were working the last two weeks.

Tellermine 42

Tellermine was a German-made anti-tank mine, fairly commonly used during WW2. It contained around 5.5kg of explosive and had a 91kg pressure activation fuze. It was able to blow tracks off of tanks and even destroy lighter armored vehicles. Tellermines had a unique feature that prevented disarming it, by instantly triggering an explosion. Not all mines had this mechanism, but it was indistinguishable from the normal fuze, so it was never safe to disarm the Tellermine.



In addition to the model, we have also prepared an animation of the explosion, check out how the mine deals with the oncoming tank!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Evacuation Animations

We have prepared an animation which shows evacuation from a tank. How do you like it?
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Documentation driven development

One of the aspects of the production of Tank Squad is that we are putting great emphasis on keeping documentation. We write down essential know-how that we learn during the production. That helps in maintaining standardization for each process, avoiding mistakes, and keeps everything in order. We already have 320 pages in our internal wiki and it’s growing on a regular basis.

Hafthohlladung

Probably the most famous magnetic anti-tank device. Placed by hand on the target, the position of the magnets ensured that the shaped charge, when detonated, would strike the armor perpendicularly and at an optimal stand-off distance to maximize its anti-armor potential.



MP 40

We are working on a model of the MP 40 submachine gun. In the next statuses we will show you it in action!



Thank you and have a good weekend!

DeGenerals

[h2]Dear Tankers,[/h2]

Welcome to our 14th Development Status. Check out our two weeks of work.

Tank Aiming

We have improved the tank’s aiming system with a slider that slows down the turret and barrel rotation speed. That allows more precise aiming in long distances. The rotation of the tank turret is going to have a realistic speed, that is for example in the case of the Tiger: 7.2 degrees per second (360 degrees in 50 seconds). We’ve implemented a different kinds of bullets for gunner’s disposition:

• AP
  
• HE
  
• Machine Gun
  

Armor Penetration

We are experimenting with a damage system. We have taken the challenge of trying to recreate realistic bullet penetration of the tank’s armor. As you can see in the images below, the bullet has penetrated the armor of the tank and the interior is visible. The tank crew would see the hole from inside as well. The greatest challenge here is in performance. We can’t promise at this stage that such an armor damage system will be implemented in the game. The top priority for us is to create a game that will run smoothly.



Springmine 35

Springmine, also called S-mine and “Bouncing Betty”, was a German bounding mine, manufactured during WW2. When activated, this mine is launched into the air approximately one meter, and only then detonated, maximizing the damage. The fuze was set for a mere 7kg, ensuring that it won’t be triggered by wildlife or a falling branch. Nearly 2 million of those were manufactured.


[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Characters

Our characters family is growing.



Face Animations

We have implemented new face model with a topology that allows face animations.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Thank you and have a nice weekend!
DeGenerals

[h2]Dear Tankers,[/h2]

Welcome to our 13th Development Status. You can see on what we were working the last two weeks.

RGD 33

Our 3D artist has created a model of RGD 33 - anti-personnel fragmentation stick grenade.



PTRD

We're expanding the range of anti-tank weapons! This time it's PTRD.



Historical Research

We’ve been learning this week about soviet fortifications. In the region of Kursk, there were not many concrete bunkers, because the Soviets had no enough time to prepare defenses and fortifications for the German invasion. Instead, there were many ditches, trenches, and camouflaged in the ground fortifications and anti-tank guns. When it comes to the minefields, they were placed on roads where Soviets were expecting German vehicles to go through there, so also they would prepare additional defenses like anti-tank guns. Most minefields were in Grain fields and cornfields because when they grew up, they were very difficult for Germans to detect.

Sturdy, concrete bunker. Both MG and AT guns are available. Normal cannons cannot destroy the bunker itself, but a shot through the hole can kill the crew.

Crane mechanics

As probably you already know, in Tank Squad you will be able to repair tanks in cooperation with other players. Right now we are working on crane mechanics. You can use it to lift heavy objects like engines, turrets, etc. We’ve managed to make it synchronize in multiplayer. It’s in an early stage of development but it fulfills its function already so the fundamentals are there.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Explosions

Grenades, mines... As family of explosives is growing, our vfx artist is working of explosion effect sets.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Thank you and have a good weekend!
DeGenerals

[h2]Dear Tankers,[/h2]

Welcome to our 12th Development Status. As always, we want to show you the results of our work in the last two weeks.

MG-34 Model

Say hello to our new member of weapon family - MG-34!



Level Design

We are working on a universal level design template. Such a template will allow us to create new levels quickly as we will have all the necessary things at hand. It is one of the aspects of production improvement that we’ve been talking about in few firsts development statuses. It contains things like:

• Lightning
  
• Enemies
  - Infantry
  - Vehicles
  - Aircraft
  - Fortifications
  
• UI
  
• VFX
  
• Interactive
  - Minefields
  - Bridges
  - Tank Traps
  - Mud
  
• Environment
  - Cliffs
  - Buildings
  - Bushes
  - Fences
  - Roads
  - Props
  - Vegetation
  
• Game Manager
  - Player Spawners
  - Map Scenario
  - Mission Objectives
  - Events
  
• Diagnostic Tools
  
• Post Processing

Also, we are writing down documentation for the whole process of creating a level step by step, from historical research and concepts to gameplay tests, environment, and post-processing. Each process has got a detailed description of how it should be performed and also a standardization list. Simply put it is a checklist for quality control. We want to make sure that we are free from bugs and mistakes at each step before we move to the next step. One mistake or unresolved issue at the beginning of the process can cause a lot of trouble later on. That’s why we also take care of optimization at the beginning of the production of the game. At the moment our documentation for level design production process is 14 pages long and growing.

Vehicle configuration

We are at the point where we must pause battle testing and add a lot of code and configuration to our tanks/vehicles. Our main tasks here:

• Vehicles must have a crew to operate
  
• Vehicles can be destroyed
  
• Vehicles can be repaired (if damage was not too great)
  
• Vehicles must be towed
  
• Connecting vehicle functionalities to having alive crewman and required tank parts to be working/assembled:
  

- shooting
- driving
- command giving
- reloading
- communications (radio)

There is a lot of design ahead of us here as well as coding work. We will keep you updated here.

Panzerfaust animations and effects

Our animator and VFX artist worked together and focused on the effects of Panzerfaust shot. They also prepared a short gif to show you the results of their work. Check it out!



Campaign Design

We are brainstorming on how to design campaigns. If a campaign would have let’s say 6 missions, how different should each mission be? Would it be the best option to make a campaign where we play only in the summer of 1943 or would it be better to stretch the whole campaign between spring, summer, autumn, and finally winter of 1943? On one side, there would be more variety of maps if each would have different weather conditions, but it would break continuity between missions. If you play one mission in the summer and the next mission is in autumn and you still have the same tank with the same damages it would just be strange. We are making this game for you so please let us know what you think!


Announcement

DeGenerals Studio is growing. We have moved to a new office. Our previous office was two rooms 10m square each. Now we are working in an office with 3 larger rooms, so more people can work in the office (most of us work remotely). Also, we have space for motion capture.

Apart from all that great stuff, we are looking for an experienced Level Designer, Environment Artist, and QA Tester.


Thank you and have a nice weekend!
DeGenerals

[h2]Dear Tankers,[/h2]

Welcome to our 11th Development Status. Here is progress we've made in the last two weeks.

Panzerfaust
Our new 3D artist has created a model of a german anti-tank weapon - Panzerfaust.



Anti Tank weapons animations

Together with the new Panzerfaust model, we are preparing animations of infantry using our new toy and soviet PTRD. See the moves on the animations below!



Level Design

In the past two weeks, we continued to work on the prototype level which we have been testing regularly. Basing ourselves on the "Tigers in the mud" book by Otto Carius, we've increased the historical accuracy of our level. We've added more mud in certain areas and roads, where a tank can get stuck. In such a case player will have to cooperate with other players to get it back on solid ground. As described in the book, mud was a big problem for tanks and heavy vehicles on Eastern Front. Also, we've made some of the roads through forests more narrow. We have changed the placement of enemy tanks on the prototype level. Now you can expect to see enemy tanks in platoons and formations.

We have added more terrain bumps and deformations. One of our goals in level design is to achieve a balance between short, medium, and long-distance battles. Interestingly enough, soviet steps were not only empty and flat but also had waves like bumps or even cliffs.

We are working on enemy infantry ambushes in forests. We have been showing you in previous development statuses our ideas for tank traps. Now you can expect infantry appearing behind bushes and rocks throwing explosives at us, blinding us with smoke grenades, immobilizing our tanks, or not allowing us to get out of a hatch for a second. Such ambushes will require good cooperation between players to go through them without greater damage.

Flamable buildings

We created a type of building that can catch fire as a result of taking damage. In the building, there may be enemy infantry spawned. Soviet soldiers were making great use of civil houses and buildings. They have been digging trenches around them, digging cellars with small windows to shoot from, or even faking defense positions to confuse the enemy. Soviet village houses at that time were mainly made of wood and often used straw as heat isolation or as roofing, which made them easily inflammable. During summer, when the atmosphere was dry, even a machinegun fire could set them on fire.

When the building is on fire, soldiers located in the house have to evacuate. After leaving, soldiers will group up in a designated place and will try to cover the area around.

As a player, you’ll have to watch out for houses expecting the enemy infantry to run at you from behind or shoot at you with bazookas (soviets uses American M1A1 Bazookas as land leasing) or with PTRD.

Recon

We’ve made a very simple recon feature. The Player has got to his disposition an AI-controlled recon squad on a motorcycle, which can move quickly on the map to expose enemy units' positions. It’s a feature in the testing stage and we do not know yet if we are going to implement it in the game.

QA Tester

We are looking for an experienced QA tester, that will help us work on our projects and test them thoroughly. If you are interested, contact us at [email protected]

Thank you and have a good one!
DeGenerals