Tank Mechanic Simulator News

[h2]Dear Mechanics,[/h2]

we've uploaded next patch, version 1.1.5.

Also, the game is on -20% discount, from 25.05 to 9.07, as we are also participating in Steam Summer Sale.

Please find attached change log below:

[h2]1.1.5[/h2]

Added:

• Few new parts to M3 Halftrack (The door and front cover has been separated into more parts, also the lock on the back of the vehicle, and the bogie arms)
  
• An option in warehouse material customizer, that player can select if he wants or not to have the floor clean
  

Tweaked:

• Player will receive bonus money and reputation for finishing the contract with higher percentage of repairs and assembly
  
• T-34/76 paintable parts have been updated and fixed (although few parts have been made as unpaintable, due to UV mapping restrictions)
  
• Suspension for M3 Halftrack
  

Fixed:

• Stug wrong material config for few parts
  
• An error when few tanks could not be correctly painted after applying final paint to it (for example, the stug)
  
• Stug wrong config for paintable parts for test drive model
  
• Decreased the effect of reflections while adding decals
  
• An error that would cause the storage menu to not display all parts
  
• M10 Wolverine driver and radio operator hatches animations
  
• KV-1 test drive model revamp
  
• Paint Room menu now correctly resets buffers used to paint on tank (previously this was not reset, and it could paste previous paint jobs on next tanks)
  
• A bug, that the game did not reset the blueprints player had when loading the game
  
• Tiger I Right idler wheel dependency
  
• The game will now correctly show the tank part status that the player is looking at, when the tool he's holding in hand is turned off (previously the game displayed the status only when the tool was on)
  
• T-34/76 engine and transmission covers dependencies
  
• Museum room terrain glitch through the floor
  
• Panzer III J test drive model wrong animation of turret viewers (near cannon base)
  
• Panzer III J animations for turret hatches
  
• M3 Half-track wrong tracks position
  
• M10 Wolverine UV mapping fix
  
• M3 Half-track few part names have been corrected (Thanks to member ThatMaus from our Discord server)
  
• An error that could cause the player to go under the floor when moving a tank/module in Warehouse scene
  

Thank you for all the bug reports, suggestions, reviews. Without your support this would not be possible.

Thanks for all the support and have a good day,
DeGenerals

[h2]Dear Mechanics,[/h2]

welcome to our eighty ninth development status update.

Today we would like to discuss about features we are currently adding to the paint room module (and planning for future).

[h3]Improvements[/h3]



[h3]Color Palette[/h3]

• Saturation and Brightness sliders - self explaining, each slider sets the saturation or brightness of the color, from 0 to 1 (but presented as 0 to 100% value)
  

[h3]Color Picker[/h3]

• RGB and Hex Color Input fields - Player will be able to input a custom value to either a RGB or Hex type input field, and the tank color will be selected based on that input. The input fields and color picker will be set initially, when the tank is placed into paint room to the color, that the tank currently has.
  

[h3]Color Swatches[/h3]

• Saving current color as a Color Swatch (and adding Steam Workshop support for this) - An option, that player will be able to save currently selected color as a new Color Swatch, and saved as a file (.txt) to StreamAssets folder. This also will be followed by Steam Workshop support, so if anyone likes to share the color pallette he has prepared, he could do so.
  

[h3]New addition planning for future[/h3]

[h3]Paint sets[/h3]
will be a set of options, that will be applied to the tank visuals, including:

1. Color
2. Camo:
   • Texture
     
   • Scale
     
   • Rotation
     
   • State
     
3. Hull and Turret decal textures

Player will be able to select a paint set from a list, or save the current state of the tank as a new paint set, assign a name and then a file will be created at Streaming Assets folder. When this is ready, we will add Steam Workshop support for paint sets, allowing to share them.

We will also look into how to implement following features for the game, including tank visuals:

• Decorators - objects like tree branches, sandbags to be placed on tank when in paint room
  
• Paint sets for extraction/workshop tanks - we will need to change some shaders/materials in order for the paint sets to work for tanks on extraction missions and for tanks that are not yet covered in final paint. We will inform about the progress here in future dev statuses.
  
• Damage and destruction - allowing to add holes and overall any visual representation of combat, that the extraction tank was part of.
  
• Mirroring decals - this might be the trickiest part, but we will check what can we do here
  
• Toggle to add or not to add camo to wheels - some players requested such option, and we plan to add it.
  

Thanks for all the support and have a good day,

DeGenerals

[h2]Dear Mechanics,[/h2]

welcome to our eighty eighth development status update.

We would like to present to you next tank coming to the game. It is a Soviet light tank - BT-7.
Below you can see the work in progress from the production process of creating game asset to the game. We put a lot of emphasis on the interior. More details in the engine or in gearbox such as pistons etc.



Thanks for all the support and have a good day,

DeGenerals

[h2]Dear Mechanics,[/h2]

welcome to our eighty seventh development status update.

As we mentioned in the previous entry on the occasion of the release of patch 1.1.4 we are working on an update to Steam Workshop.

The first change that has already been made was to convert textures from SteamingAssets folder .png and .tga format to .dds format. With this step, we have achieved unification in the textures files. Each texture of e.g. poster or decal has the same format and extension. Thanks to .dds the file size has also been significantly reduced so that all files weigh significantly less.



After game release we were and still working on fixing and improving game stability. One of the key factors is RAM usage. Next step in improvements is related to museum stands. Right now each stand have it own texture per tank. Such a solution proved to be problematic. From the creation of new textures for new vehicles to the increased consumption of players' RAM.

A solution for this is to combine all the stands into one texture.

• One file /texture per vehicle
  
• Less RAM usage
  
• A more accessible and easier way to create new graphics for tank or vehicle
  

The new implementation of museum stands will look more or less like on the pictures below.



We would like to share with you a .psd source file with a wireframe so you can prepare your custom textures for an upcoming update. Link below:

Click here to download TMS_NewMuseumStands.psd

Thanks for all the support and have a good day,

DeGenerals

[h2]Dear Mechanics,[/h2]

we have uploaded a hotfix for update 1.1.4, list of changes:

• Added an option to use or not the screw mouse cursor block (in game tab)
  
• Added M3 Half track achievement
  
• Fixed a null reference exception that caused some errors in shop, after player had bought few parts, and tried to filter the tank parts
  
• Fixed a null reference exception in Paint room menu, that did not allow opening it for some players, added more debug logs to help us fix it further if something wrong happens again
  
• Fixed some dependency errors in M3 Halftrack
  
• Fixed error with KV-2 wrong materials
  

Thanks and have a good day,
DeGenerals