Tank Squad News

[h2]Dear Tankers,[/h2]

Welcome to our 18th Development Status. Check out our two weeks of work.

DP28 Weapon

DP-28 was a Soviet light machine gun, chambered in 7.62x54mm R, featuring a very unique and recognizable feature, a pan magazine. Deployed in 1928, and withdrawn in 1960 in USSR, it still serves some other countries to this day. It was used in aircraft (DA) as well as in tanks (DT), each having its modified variant.



Repair Station

Here is our new interpretation of a German repair station. We are trying to reconstruct the spirit of the field repair station as best we can, using real references from the Eastern Front. You can see that there is much more detail than on the previous version we had before such as new vegetation, spare tank parts, ammo boxes, etc. As players, you will spend quite a lot of time here supplying and repairing your tanks, so let us know what you think about it.



BMW R75

We are working on a german motorcycle BMW R75 model. We have a high poly model and we are going to optimize it and texture it. In Tank Squad you will be able to ride the motorcycle and also you will be able to make simple repairs on it like changing a wheel or refueling it. Motorcycles were often used under Kursk and we want to replicate that in our game. They were popular amongst tank engineers who needed to reach immobilized tanks quickly. Also, they were part of recon.



Post Process

One part of the visual aspect of the game is a post process. We are configuring color balance, saturation, contrast, light color, etc. Each scene is going to have its own post process settings. We want everything to look nice, sometimes changing post process in one aspect make something else look worse, for example, fire begin to look too bright or sky too dark so it requires quite a patience but effects speak for themselves.



Thank you and have a nice weekend!
DeGenerals

[h2]Dear Tankers,[/h2]

Welcome to our 17th Development Status. You can see what we were working on the last two weeks.

Player character

Although Tank Squad will not be a typical FPS, you will still be able to get out of your tank and shoot enemies. We are constantly optimizing and improving code for our character controller. At the moment we are working on the smoothness of movement and aiming. Also, we are making players able to take simple actions, like picking up stuff, press buttons, etc.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Destroyable Trees

Our tanks can now drive through wooded areas, ramming trees and bushes along the way. We can feel the heaviness and the destructible power of our tanks. In further iterations, some trees will be bendable and some will break immediately.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

New Universal Vehicle Code

We took code used by our tanks, the Physic Tank Maker and now rewriting it to use more optimized model-controller approach (this give us less amount of Components on GameObjects - this means less ram and cpu usage).

We already did this for:

• Driving
  
• Aiming
  
• Shooting
  
• Rotating Turret and Cannon
  

Change it to use not physic base approach, as it was causing much trouble for us.

• AI (WIP)
  

It will use that same path finding system as our infantry, so it will be much easier for us and more optimized than standard NavMesh (Path Finding is a system that allows AI to find obstacles)
This new AI system will have better code for finding allies, enemies, aiming and shooting.

It also is rewritten to be more universal:

• So it can be used by all of our game’s vehicles
  
• So we can use one prefab for both player and AI (both ally and enemy)
  

Environment
We’re working on new materials for terrain, which include:

• Grass
  
• Field
  
• Road
  
• Mud
  
• Dirt
  

We take great care to make levels look nice and aesthetic. In terrain we are using smart materials, which improve the production time and effort. Also smart materials give us more creative freedom.



Question
Since we are creating these development statuses for you - our future players, we want to pose a question to you.
What content would you most like to see in our statuses?


Thank you and have a good weekend!
DeGenerals

[h2]Dear Tankers,[/h2]

Welcome to our 16th Development Status. Check out our two weeks of work.

Tank Painting

We are adding “Smart Materials” to vehicles in Tank Squad. That will optimize the process of creating materials for vehicles, increase the quality of textures and allow for some additional tank customization. Right now we would like to show some customization on the turret of german Tiger tank:

• Camouflage
  
• Colour
  
• Text/Number on turret
  
• Emblem
  
• Text/Number on barrel
  
• Stripes on barrel
  

Additionally, to customizable smart materials, each vehicle is going to have hand painted details that could not be achieved with smart materials.

MP40

The MP40, often called “Schmeisser”, were submachine guns developed in Germany and used extensively by paratroopers, tank crews, platoon, squad leaders, and other troops during WWII.



T-34 model

We are working on optimalization of T-34 with the crew inside. The T-34 is small and tight, which is a challenge for us to properly animate the characters inside.



Tank Evacuation

We prepared another animation showing leaving the tank and edited it into one shot, so you can see how the evacuation looks like using each of the hatches.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Thank you and have a nice weekend!
DeGenerals

[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