Tank Squad News

[h2]Dear Tankers,[/h2]

Welcome to our 41st Development Status. You can see on what we were working the last two weeks.

[h3]Community Contest![/h3]
Together with our friends from Gaming Factory, we have prepared a contest for you, in which you have a chance to win keys to the Electrician Simulator game!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1080020/Electrician_Simulator/

The rules are very simple! To participate in the contest you must join our discord server and to think of how a tank could respond in that situation from the screenshot!



You can put your idea directly into the graphic or send a text message in a specially prepared #contest channel! The funniest wisdoms of the tank will be rewarded with the key to Electrician Simulator. Each user can participate only once, so think a second before sending your answer!

You can submit your work until 4th December, and we will announce the results in the next development status!

[h3]Environment optimization[/h3]
On the repair scene, we’ve begun the process of optimization of its environment. That means two things: most of its environment is done and there is major performance improvement. Optimization of the environment consists of:

• Merging several models into one to make GPU have to make fewer calculations.
  
• Lowering the resolution of textures.
  
• Adding LODs to 3D models (we’ve explained how that works in our Development Status #21)
  
• Simplification of collisions.
  
• Lowering the amount of triangles in models that have less importance on the scene.
  

[h3]Soviet Anti-aircraft gun M1939[/h3]
We’ve decided to add some anti-aircraft guns as a feature in the game. As a player in some missions, you will have to destroy them to unlock for yourself a possibility to call airstrikes and aircraft recons.


[h3]Environment[/h3]
In the last development status, you could see how we've moved from level blockout to scene dressing. Here we show you some more progress that we have done on the environment at the Prokhorovka level. It is our first pass at scene dressing, which means, we've focused on the basics like painting terrain, and placing the largest and most repetitive objects like trees, trenches, and buildings. In the next stages of development, we are going to add more details to the environment.


Thank you and have a good one!
DeGenerals

[h2]Dear Tankers,[/h2]

Welcome to our 40th Development Status. You can see on what we were working the last two weeks.

[h3]Walk through the repair station[/h3]

We are still working on the repair scene board. We invite you to take a short walk through it with us.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Environment[/h3]

We've finished most of the level design at the Prokhorovka battle. Below you can see progress from blockout to the first environment pass. What you see is 1/16 size of the map, scene dressing of the whole map is going to take a few months.


[h3]Ammo & medical boxes[/h3]

Special thanks to our community member ✠LootSoldat✠ from discord for reference pictures!



[h3]KV-1[/h3]
KV1 is in the development stage. First, we are preparing a high poly model which we will use to bake all the details on the low poly model.



For now, the exterior is almost finished (without additional stuff e.g. boxes, and tow ropes; this pass will be in the next stage) and we are adding all stuff mainly inside the hull like control panels, ammo racks, fuel tanks, electric parts, etc.



The Interior of the turret also is almost done, there needs to be made some smaller fixes to set all objects properly in “technical harmony”. Also, the engine and transmission will be reworked or made from scratch because of the different structure than in T-34 which is ready. We try our best to provide as accurate historical quality as we can.





Thank you and have a good one!
DeGenerals

[h2]Dear Tankers,[/h2]

Welcome to our 39th Development Status. You can see on what we were working the last three weeks.

[h3]Diorama[/h3]

For the Main Menu, we are going with a diorama approach. By default, this will be the default scene visible in the Main Menu. We might add more scenes & layouts later on during the development. The design idea of it was to show a diorama of a tank being repaired on a field during or between the battles.



[h3]UI & Game branding changes[/h3]

As we work on developing different aspects of the game, one of the important parts is the visuals of how the game is going to be represented. What colors, what logo is going to be used etc. Current colors and logotypes are going to be changed somewhere soon. This includes also improving the Steam Store layout with a new fresh look. Once we will set it all and mark it as ready you will of course be informed about it.



[h3]Main Menu UI[/h3]

Here is a diorama with work in progress UI mockups screens showing how we are trying to adopt new things. New logotypes will come with a few variants. The main colors used are black/white and red. Keep in mind this is just a prototype and it's not meant to be 100% delivered with a full game. For example LVL. 69 is just a preview - we didn’t yet decide to add or have player progression in the game. If you are familiar with our first game Tank Mechanic Simulator, the camera will be animated/rigged. You should be able to spot some similarities as in there. Below is a screenshot taken from the project itself:



Recorded sample of how this UI works currently:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Currently, we have started prototyping a new look for Main Menu that includes new logotypes and new colors. What do you think?

[h3]Repair Station Environment[/h3]



Another big push was on the first iteration of set dressing of a repair station scene. We have taken a look at terrain materials, improved shading and overall feel of the scene.



Placeholder models started to be replaced by final assets. Layout elements of the scene such as the HQ and ammo stations have been redone with new assets.



The whole scene has gotten a lot of love over the past weeks of work.



[h3]Opel Blitz[/h3]



Opel Blitz is a German truck, produced from 1930 up to 1975. Blitz, German for "lightning" reflected that not only by the emblem on the grille, but also by the way it paved the way to new, lightning quick German tactics developed during WW2.



In the years before the war, Opel was the biggest truck manufacturer in Germany, and to rearm the country, it helped by producing around 130,00 of those vehicles. It was powered by either a GM Marquette engine for heavier applications, or by Opel's own engine for lighter ones. By 1934, however, the GM engine was replaced by another Opel design, that was so similar to Chevrolet engines, that if any malfunction appeared in the field, it could be repaired using allied vehicles' parts.



When the war started, Wehrmacht started heavily using the 3.6 tonne, 4-wheel drive of the Opel Blitz, seen in this status. To deal with bad road conditions in Russia, a half-track model of the Blitz was created as well, called Maultier.



For our game we made 3 variants of this truck. Two with cargo, one closed and the second one as a more open variant. Third variant is a medical version.



[h3]Level design[/h3]

Some new features and improvements in battle levels:

• Configuration of side objective types:
  
  • Conquer
    
  • Defend
    
  • Protect
    
  • Destroy
    
• Collectibles have been added
  
• Randomization of AI units positions
  
• Optimization of performance: limit amount of AI units active at once
  
• Retreat of friendly and enemy units when they’ve lost objective or their vehicle is broken
  
• Configuration of airstrike events
  
• Randomization of timing in events
  
• Units field of view
  

Detail blockout:

• Mills
  
• Cemetery
  
• Hives
  
• Road signs
  
• Sawmill
  
• Sets of houses with backyards
  
• Turf mine
  

Thank you and have a good one!
DeGenerals

[h2]Dear Tankers,[/h2]

Welcome to our 38th Development Status. You can see on what we were working the last three weeks.

[h3]PGA[/h3]
Last week (Friday) we had the great pleasure of visiting Poznań and participating in the PGA (Poznań Game Arena). We took it as a good excuse to integrate and gathered 16 people coming down from all over the country to attend the event together. In addition to visiting the site itself, we attended several lectures, met people from the industry, and had the opportunity to play a few new titles. In the evening we went out for dinner together, and then visited a few Poznan pubs, where what was going on we will leave to ourselves ;)

[h3]Crane[/h3]


[h3]Current technical features of traces[/h3]

• Support for many (up to several thousand) emitters (objects that generate traces);
  
• Support for many Terrain Components, without restrictions (each of them can have any number of splatmaps);
  
• Track marks fade effect (its speed can be set in the component);
  
• Smoothing traces, high quality, and precision;
  
• Ability to set shared albedo (RGB) smoothness (A) and normal maps for traces from the component level;
  
• Each trace has a radius adjusted to the size of the emitter (based on bounds if it has a Renderer), for empty GameObjects the radius (Radius) is set globally from the component level;
  
• The ability to decompose the generation of traces in every N image frames to obtain better performance;
  
• Tracks are generated only if the emitter has contact with the ground surface. No more bugged traces floating in the air. Proprietary way of detecting the geometry of the terrain, optimized, without physics or raycast.
  
• Level Of Details for traces.
  

[h3]PaK 40 animations[/h3]
Some time ago we’ve showed you a model of a german anti-tank gun 7,5 cm PaK 40. We’ve done animations of characters and of the PaK 40 itself.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Airstrike[/h3]
During the battle, players will have to watch out for enemy airplanes. If players notice enemy planes incoming, they can hide from them in a forest or between buildings. There are going to be an enemy and friendly airplanes. Something that was happening in real life during world war 2, was that planes could confuse enemy tanks with their tanks. For that reason, tankers were placing flags on top of their tanks to make it easier for pilots to recognize them. In Tank Squad, players will have to place flags on their tanks to decrease the chance of friendly fire from airplanes.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Thank you and have a good one!
DeGenerals

[h2]Dear Tankers,[/h2]

Welcome to our 37th Development Status. You can see on what we were working the last three weeks.

[h3]Binoculars[/h3]


[h3]Blowtorch[/h3]


[h3]German Wagon[/h3]


[h3]Tank’s movement speed dependent on the terrain surface[/h3]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Tank Squad has a new feature called "Terrain Physics Materials". It is based on the written scratch new scripts by us. In real-time, this system detects on which terrain texture (splatmap) the vehicle is currently situated. In practice, it gives us new possibilities. For example, to simulate terrain friction, we can calculate the maximum vehicle speed value independently for every ground texture. So now, when the tank enters different surfaces (muddy/sandy /rocky etc.), the system adjusts drive physics to present a more realistic behavior of the vehicle unit.

[h3]New Environment Artist[/h3]
A new Environment Artist - Sebastian has joined our team this week. He will be responsible for modeling and sculpting the terrain and its integration with gameplay. Together with the level design department, he will make sure that the maps and missions in Tank Squad are interesting and balanced in terms of difficulty. In addition, he has made a menu background for us, which we will soon be able to show off in one of the future development statuses. Our team consists now of 21 people and is still growing!

Thank you and have a good one!
DeGenerals