v1.4.2 Stable | Smoke and Mortar
Hello again Captain!
It's been a while since we last broke radio silence on our announcements, and though we've been active in our Discord channel, we haven't had any Developer's Diaries in a while. We assure you that it was for a good reason as you'll find out below.
We're happy to announce the release of our stable build, including, among other things, a rework of the Mortar, as well as the much requested ability to use any of the boats in the Campaign! It's now possible to pick your boat when starting a Campaign and after losing a boat during the Campaign, so go ahead and ride your favorite boat to action!
For the mortar, the first, most obvious change is the addition of a fancy overlay for mortar targeting; no more will you have to try and aim on the small minimap or worse, by eyeballing it. The new overcay is clear, present, and easy to aim with, and makes the mortar more convenient than ever to use. We'll be using this for future artillery weapons as well, so feel free to get used to aiming in this manner!
We also changed the projectile behavior to start not from the barrel itself but be aimed downwards from the sky after a delay. This is a compromise we had to do for technical reasons, and felt were justified to make the weapon feel more responsive and satisfying to use.
The mortar also doesn't lose any accuracy for movement; we here in Tabbing Tabby acknowledge that motion is lotion, and having to stop to fire a light weapon might not feel fun for a fast and nimble PT boat in an action based game. Still, larger artillery pieces in the future might not get such a luxury, and this is something that will most likely remain unique to the 60mm mortar.
Rocket Launchers and Mousetraps are currently untouched, but expect them to get a similar overlay sooner rather than later.
Another powerful addition to the mortar is the smoke shell; a very versatile tool that allows you to create a smokescreen remotely that prevents either side from aiming through. It's sure to come in helpful when trying to approach big ships or to give allies in trouble some breathing space, and even to perhaps make a magician's escape.
All of this is now live in the Stable version, no Experimental branch required, so go ahead and see everything for yourself! We'll have more to talk about soon, but for now, see if you can come up with any other creative uses for the revised mortar and its smoke shells.
Finally, we are happy to announce that Tabbing Tabby has partnered with MicroProse in making and publishing Boat Crew! We're proud of how far Boat Crew came on our own steam, but MicroProse is an established publisher with a track record of delivering excellent games and of having particular interest in naval combat games. With that in mind, we're happy to join our strength together, and are excited for the possibilities this will open up for Boat Crew's future.
That will be all for now, Captain.
T.T.
It's been a while since we last broke radio silence on our announcements, and though we've been active in our Discord channel, we haven't had any Developer's Diaries in a while. We assure you that it was for a good reason as you'll find out below.
We're happy to announce the release of our stable build, including, among other things, a rework of the Mortar, as well as the much requested ability to use any of the boats in the Campaign! It's now possible to pick your boat when starting a Campaign and after losing a boat during the Campaign, so go ahead and ride your favorite boat to action!
For the mortar, the first, most obvious change is the addition of a fancy overlay for mortar targeting; no more will you have to try and aim on the small minimap or worse, by eyeballing it. The new overcay is clear, present, and easy to aim with, and makes the mortar more convenient than ever to use. We'll be using this for future artillery weapons as well, so feel free to get used to aiming in this manner!
We also changed the projectile behavior to start not from the barrel itself but be aimed downwards from the sky after a delay. This is a compromise we had to do for technical reasons, and felt were justified to make the weapon feel more responsive and satisfying to use.
The mortar also doesn't lose any accuracy for movement; we here in Tabbing Tabby acknowledge that motion is lotion, and having to stop to fire a light weapon might not feel fun for a fast and nimble PT boat in an action based game. Still, larger artillery pieces in the future might not get such a luxury, and this is something that will most likely remain unique to the 60mm mortar.
Rocket Launchers and Mousetraps are currently untouched, but expect them to get a similar overlay sooner rather than later.
Another powerful addition to the mortar is the smoke shell; a very versatile tool that allows you to create a smokescreen remotely that prevents either side from aiming through. It's sure to come in helpful when trying to approach big ships or to give allies in trouble some breathing space, and even to perhaps make a magician's escape.
All of this is now live in the Stable version, no Experimental branch required, so go ahead and see everything for yourself! We'll have more to talk about soon, but for now, see if you can come up with any other creative uses for the revised mortar and its smoke shells.
Finally, we are happy to announce that Tabbing Tabby has partnered with MicroProse in making and publishing Boat Crew! We're proud of how far Boat Crew came on our own steam, but MicroProse is an established publisher with a track record of delivering excellent games and of having particular interest in naval combat games. With that in mind, we're happy to join our strength together, and are excited for the possibilities this will open up for Boat Crew's future.
That will be all for now, Captain.
T.T.