Broken Arrow News

Broken Arrow demo is back on Steam!

By popular demand, the Broken Arrow demo is back on Steam!

As one of the most downloaded demos in the Steam Next Fest, we were really happy to see so many of you try and play the demo. Unfortunately some of you were not able to play it during that week and we received so many requests to make it available again.
From today until March 20 the demo can once again be downloaded and played. Remember, you will be able to play it until Monday March 20 at 4 pm BST.

You can do so simply by visiting the Broken Arrow steam page and clicking on the Download demo green button.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1604270/Broken_Arrow/

What it contains

It is the same demo that was released a few weeks ago during the Steam Next Fest.
In the single mission included in the demo you will be tasked to infiltrate a platoon of U.S. Marines Force Recon to destroy critical coastal defenses on the Baltic shore.

Clearing the sky of enemy planes, and escorting their landing craft and hovercraft to the shore, waves of powerful M1A1 Abrams and armored vehicles can be unleashed to dominate the battlefield. The mission will see American troops fight block for block in intense close-quarter infantry battles against airdropped enemy paratroopers. Forces can be resupplied with heavy-lift helicopters from a carrier group offshore. Prospective commanders need to take care and repel the assault of a full tank company with the combined arms help of helicopters and planes.

A number of major features are not yet in the current build. You cannot presently play as Russia, there is no Editor, there is a very limited selection of available troops, no customisation of units or deck building.

In addition, there are some features which are not final:
- Optimisation is far from complete
- Not all visuals and audio effects are final
- Unit balances will be refined as the game enters beta

We addressed all the feedback we received during the Steam Next Fest in this post.

The team is hard at work on the game, we expect to be back with news soon, so please stay tuned and have fun with the demo.

Broken Arrow - Demo feedback analysis & our next plans

First off, we wanted to thank everyone who managed to download and play the demo last week!

It’s been a big success for us. The development team was overjoyed to see so many people play and have fun with the demo. Secondly, it allowed us to gather a lot of feedback that will be used to make the game better.

Today we wanted to give you some insight on our takeaway points from the demo and on what our next steps will be.

The overwhelming majority of people who tried the demo and offered their opinion, whether on discord, Steam, or through our survey, really enjoyed the mission. That isn’t to say that it’s perfect as it is. There are several areas that need improvement.

Performance

There were widespread performance issues. We were aware of it and it was what we were expecting. As we had warned, the game needs to be optimized, and it is something we will work on closer to the release. It is very important for us to greatly improve this area.

Stability

Similarly with performance, there were players who experienced crashes. Unfortunately it is unavoidable at this stage of development, as the game hasn’t gone into beta yet. In the next few months the team will focus on making the game a lot more stable than it currently is (more details below).

Missing Units

Some key units were still missing in the demo, as they’re being worked on. Also, in the demo you couldn’t choose your own units, the units at your disposal were forced on you. That will be different in the final game.

Difficulty and accessibility

Some players found the mission rather hard. It generally comes from 3 main problems:

They didn’t find the reinforcement menu and tried to play the entire mission with the units present at start.
They didn’t find how to resupply units resulting in very high losses.
They didn’t try to put more than one infantry unit in a transport. Paying for a helicopter that can carry 30 persons to bring 4 soldiers on the battlefield is very inefficient.

In the final game all those things will be explained and taught gradually. The team wanted to test as many features as they could, even at the risk of them being a bit overwhelming. The game at launch will contain tutorial missions and a gradual learning curve. Also, there will be different difficulty levels.

The game felt too micro intensive at times

Countermeasures like flares and smoke had to be deployed manually. In the final game a mode for automatic countermeasures will be available.
The team will work on ergonomic improvements like the option to trigger sprint with a double right click for infantry.
Some quality of life tools are still missing. For instance, a tool to display the line of sight of units as well as the range of their weapons at 360°.

Destructible elements on the map

Some players noticed that some elements on the map were not destructible. Don’t worry, we plan to greatly expand the number of destructible elements.

Localisations

The demo was only available in English, but the game at launch will be available in a number of foreign languages. We will post the list of localisation languages at a later date.

Battle chatter

Most players thought the unit barks were cool, but some players thought they would be a bit too spammy and repetitive. We agree with that and the devs are working towards increasing the delay between lines and to avoid repetitiveness.

As you can see, the game is shaping up and getting there, but the devs are going to need a bit more time. But for now, we have some exciting news.

Multiplayer Beta coming in the Spring

In the next few months we plan to start testing multiplayer! Everyone will be welcome to apply. We are looking forward to it. We envision multiplayer to be a big part of the Broken Arrow experience, and we’ll need all the feedback we can get in order to make it as fun as we can. So, if you weren’t able to play the demo, don’t worry, you will have other chances to try the game in the near future.

Broken Arrow is a convincing attempt at a modern warfare RTS

One of the hotter demos out in this year's Steam Next Fest is for Broken Arrow, a large-scale RTS set just about in right now, this moment, using cutting-edge military equipment and technology. It's a setting often left to either less-realistic shooters or stodgy ultra-realistic but low fidelity wargames, but developer Steel Balalaika is giving it a convincing go that has me interested in the final product...
Read more.

Broken Arrow Live Stream

In the Broken Arrow demo mission, players will be tasked to infiltrate a platoon of U.S. Marines Force Recon to destroy critical coastal defenses on the Baltic shore.

Clearing the sky of enemy planes, and escorting their landing craft and hovercraft to the shore, waves of powerful M1A1 Abrams and armored vehicles can be unleashed to dominate the battlefield.
The mission will see American troops fight block for block in intense close-quarter infantry battles against airdropped enemy paratroopers. Forces can be resupplied with heavy-lift helicopters from a carrier group offshore. Prospective commanders need to take care and repel the assault of a full tank company with the combined arms help of helicopters and planes.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1604270/Broken_Arrow/

We will be streaming the demo scenario live on Twitch on Tuesday February 7th at 7 pm GMT +1 and on Thursday February 9th at 5:30 pm GMT +1.