Ravenfield News

The meat of EA17 is in the brand new Engagement Levels. They are all about fast paced battles, often focused on infantry combat. There are 4 new levels introduced in this update taking place on a wide variety of scenery. 3 of them are still works-in-progress, but Glacier is for the most part finished!



You'll notice that some maps have recieved a face lift in the form of baked lightmaps! This is an approach I'll use for some levels which benefit from having more lights than just the sun. Especially Interiors get a visual pop, just check out this before and after:



Baked lightmaps are available on Temple, Glacier and Tunnel for now.



This Early Access build comes with a first look at the Conquest Mode. You can play around in it and move your soldiers around the battlefield, attacking and defending maps. While things are still very much in their early stages, I wanted to keep the open development style of Ravenfield and show this new mode off from its' humble beginnings. Expect more things to come in future EA updates!


Full change log:

Conquest:
- Basic world map gameplay is in place, you can move your troops around and attack/defend levels.
- You can gain resources, but right now only the battalion resource does something (spawns new troops each turn)
- Conquest disables some "cheaty" features like slow motion.
- Conquest is still super early, so expect tons of improvements over time!

Added 4 Engagement Levels: (These are smaller, typically infantry focused levels)
- Glacier
- Tunnel
- Twin Islands
- Desert Hill

Game tweaks:
- Added support for high quality baked lighting
- Baked lightmaps are available on Temple, Glacier and Tunnel
- Added support for loading a different night version scene for night maps.
- Improvements to ambient lighting, Skybox ambient lights are now fully supported!
- Added special footstep sound when walking on terrain
- Bots now make footstep sounds
- Redid the victory/defeat animation from scratch.
- Added music sting volume slider, controlling the volume of the victory/defeat stings.
- Added Endless Instant Action option in the options menu. This option can be disabled if you want the game to end on victory/defeat in instant action.
- Skirmish mode domination victory unlocks later, but fills up faster.
- Made AI tracking missiles less likely to kill teammates
- Reduced APC health from 2500 to 1900
- Added support for maps to have different flag layouts depending on the game mode
- Added ghost type spawn points. These can be spawned on as usual, but they do not count towards your team's score in skirmish or point match mode. The AI will not attempt to capture these points, but they can be captured.
- You can no longer mark a spawn point in skirmish mode after your initial spawn, since it made no difference anyway.
- AI helicopter pilots will now prioritize ground targets over other helicopters targets in the default helicopter.
- Taking over a bot in skirmish mode will now ensure all weapons are reloaded.
- You can now sprint while reloading.
- Fixed a bug where "loaded ammo" and "no ammo" animation parameters would not be set correctly when spawning and when getting up from ragdoll.

Known bugs:
- Night vision doesn't light up the environment in some levels
- Tunnel and Citadel maps only have daytime versions.


October 11 Patch:

- Fixed bug where starting Glacier in Skirmish mode at night would not start the match properly
- Fixed the ingame pause menu appearing over the options menu
- Fixed not being able to fire through custom weapons with colliders (such as shields)
- Fixed custom weapons with colliders colliding with vehicles, making them spaz out
- Fixed AI not being able to drive animated vehicles such as walkers
- Minor tweaks to AI car driving


I hope you'll enjoy both this update and all the *interesting level descriptions*!

/SteelRaven7

Hey everyone!

As you may know, I've been away on a summer break since releasing EA16. I'm back now and wanted to update everyone on exactly what I'll be working on.

The Conquest Mode has always been the end goal for Ravenfield, and it has been teased in the main menu ever since the first Steam version. Originally I had planned to ship the Conquest Mode within one year of the first Early Access release, but that obviously didn't happen :). Instead, I spent most of my time working on modding support for the game, and general game improvements.

Even though the original release target for 1.0 was missed I think it was worth it thanks to the incredible modding community creating tons of really cool mods for Ravenfield! A huge shoutout to everyone involved with creating/playing/making videos of mods!




I'm now shifting my dev time towards finishing up the Conquest Mode. This means that the upcoming EA updates will have playable versions of Conquest Mode, where more features will be added incrementally in each update. Eventually, the final conquest mode will feature army upgrading, weapons/vehicle research, and story elements.

This is what the Conquest Mode looks like right now (you may recognize this scene from the game's greenlight trailer):



Each game level is represented by a tile on the world map, and each tile can be held by up to 3 battalions at the same time (represented by the blue/red soldier miniatures). Conquest is played in turns, when it's your turn you may move your battalions to any adjacent tiles. If there are any enemy battalions already occupying that tile a battle will start, loading the game level that tile takes place on. It is important to consider how many battalions to attack with, having larger numbers than the enemy is a big advantage.

The objective of Conquest Mode is to take over the enemy HQ tile, but each owned tile will also provide you with valuable resource production. Resources include battalion production, money to buy new equipment, and research points to discover new weapons and vehicles.

After some playtesting it was obvious that having only 10 tiles on the world map wasn't ideal, it would be interesting to provide more paths and possible tactics to the player. From the desire to add more tiles, I also played with the idea of adding new tiles where battles would play out quicker. These tiles would represent less crowded battlefields such as hills, roads, fields etc. When battling on these tiles, the game would load a level with a different style to the others:




Engagement Levels are open and straightforward levels that are designed around fast, agressive engagements between the two teams. These levels typically take place on smaller, symmetric terrains and victory requires effective use of vehicles. Here's an example of an Engagement Level concept:



Because most points lack proper defenses, the Engagement Levels work very well with the Skirmish game mode where an all-out assault is highly effective. These levels play a lot faster than the "normal" levels which is a huge plus: when playing the campaign you will experience more battle variety.

Another strength of Engagement Levels is that they can be designed a lot faster than a normal level, meaning that there can be a greater number and variety of them. In fact, I have already designed a few concept levels to try out the ideas behind Engagement Levels in instant action mode. During this week I'll be adding one level each day on the beta branch for people to try out. On friday I'll make all concept levels playable at once.




Because my focus is on Conquest Mode, another programmer (who made the ingame map editor) will be working on adding more features to the modding side of Ravenfield. For example, the Conquest Mode will be fully moddable, allowing you to create your own war scenarios. We also have some other exciting plans that we aren't quite ready to show/talk about yet!




Here's what to expect of the upcoming updates:

This week (on the beta branch): One Engagement Level concept per day from monday to thursday. All levels available on friday and forward.

EA17: A very work in progress but playable version of Conquest Mode.

EA18,19,20+: Improvements to Conquest Mode and game polish.

Ravenfield 1.0: Final Conquest Mode with story elements.


I hope this clears up where the Ravenfield development is heading and that everyone is as excited for Conquest Mode as I am!

/SteelRaven7

We're really happy to introduce the new ingame map-editor in Ravenfield. The ingame map-editor is designed to be an easy-to-use but powerful alternative to the Ravenfield mod tools for Unity.



The map in the screenshot above is made by Maffnwy, you can find it here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1765196638

There's no need to download any extra software or tool, so making a custom map in Ravenfield has never been easier! The editor comes loaded with all official Ravenfield props, so you can start designing right away. When you have a nice map, use the built-in uploader to publish your map on Steam Workshop.

If you have any questions or need help getting started with Ravenfield mapping, reach other mappers and/or the Ravenfield devs on the official Ravenfield discord chat here: http://discord.gg/ravenfield

If map making just isn't your thing, you will want to check out the new Jeep overhaul. The new jeep even has a windshield that will protect you from small-arms fire, at least until it breaks.




Full change log:

- Added ingame map-editor
- Reworked the jeep.

- Added optional depth-of-field effect to photo mode, available by pressing i when in photo mode.
- Spectator/photo mode now shows a list of available controls.
- Fixed an AI issue that caused bots to sometimes instantly exit a player driven vehicle after entering it.
- Improvements to ragdolls such as joint constraints and lower angular drag (allowing them to rotate faster)
- Ragdolls now have some slight drag so they eventually come to rest which frees up work on the physics engine (so potentially higher framerates with lots of ragdolls/bodies)
- Ragdolls will now get tossed when ragdolled by explosions and splash damage, making them spin in the air.
- Fixed a bug where sound bank audio sources would sometimes not be affected by slowmotion effects and the in-game volume slider.
- Added support for vehicle hitboxes with varying damage (so modders can create critical hit spots, heavy armor spots etc)
- Added support for vehicle destructible objects, such as the windshield on the new jeep.
- Added support for destructible objects in maps.
- Added camera recoil to the jeep's machine gun.
- Removed splash damage from the jeep's machine gun.
- Improved projectile hit scan, you can no longer shoot through walls when standing very close to them.
- Reordered the map list so old favorites like Archipelago are at the top and WIP maps are at the bottom.


July 3 patch:

- Added Flat terrain biome that creates a completely flat terrain and an ocean water plane.
- Renamed Flat Island biome to Round Island.
- Gizmos (the move, rotate, scale clickables) are now larger and easier to click.
- Increased the normal and fast camera speeds (Hold shift to go fast).
- Added a slow camera speed when holding left control.
- Fixed a bug where asset preview textures would sometimes not show up for all assets in the picker menu.
- Fixed a bug where the terrain brush indicator would not scale with the brush scale setting.
- Fixed a bug where the terrain tools would not work when clicking far-away points on the terrain.

I'm going to take a summer break after some potential bugfixing on EA16, but I have some exciting updates on Conquest mode coming up when I'm back. For now, enjoy this update!

/SteelRaven7

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The Tank has received a significant overhaul in EA15, sporting both a new look and handling characteristics. The new Tank can take more damage and also has a new turret system that will prevent the barrel from getting caught in walls. Also, make sure you don't miss the new Tank sound effects!



Along with the Tank, the Quadbike has also had a facelift, along with new sound effects.

There have been several AI improvements to ground vehicle combat. For example, the AI will now stand still when attempting those tricky long range shots. When taking damage, bots will now turn towards the direction of the shooter and attempt to retaliate.

Full change log:

- Updated Tank to new style, including improved handling, new sounds, effects and more.
- Updated Quad to new style, including improved handling, new sounds, effects and more.

- Added support for turret springs and max turn speed, used on the tank main cannon
- Added support for throttle sounds that only play when accelerating a vehicle.
- Added support for fancy geometric tank tracks - no more cheap scrolling images ;)
- Increased tank health to 4000 (was 3000 before)
- AI will now stop when aiming long range shots. This also applies to vehicles.
- Major tweaks to AI aiming. They are now a little deadlier than before at low and medium range.
- AI will now always fire their weapon after aiming at an enemy for a while. Sometimes they would just aim but never fire before this update.
- When being attacked inside vehicles with anti-tank weapons, AI drivers/gunners will now turn towards their attacker.
- Anyone dealing high damage to a vehicle will be marked as a high-priority target. This means that AI are more likely to attack anti-tank units if they have recently fired.
- Fixed incoming damage indicator not showing up inside vehicles.
- Improvements to vehicle sound mixing. The vehicle you're inside should always be at the highest volume now.
- Changed the APC team color indicators
- Fixed the player minimap viewcone sometimes not turning with the player view.



Enjoy this update!

/SteelRaven7