4.27 Engine Devblog - General Improvements
Greetings!
We are now in what we consider the final stages of the Unreal Engine upgrade to Post Scriptum, this process has been a long one and involved mostly coding and fixing up stuff that inevitably got broken in the transfer.
The new version also allowed us to make use of some of the latest tech available to us, this is a major step in making Post Scriptum the best and most optimized experience it can be while also moving towards our eventual 100 player server goal.
But for this devblog, we want to cover some of the smaller and more general improvements, most of which come directly from community feedback. This mostly revolves around level design and gameplay design.
We are also running another playtest tonight. Details are at the end of the devblog.
[h2]Gameplay Improvements[/h2]
The first topic we want to cover is the Staging Phase. This is a period before the match starts in which you are given the opportunity to get organized into sections, make plans both strategically with the team, but also for your individual section. It also allows a generous period for players to load into the server and get set up with their section before the round starts.
During the staging phase, the players are not able to leave a certain area until the phase ends, this means that players have a chance to get into vehicles, get their kits and so forth before the initial roll-out. The first 10 minutes of gameplay is always very important and the more organized your team is the better.
[h3]Standardization of staging time across all layers.[/h3]
While staging isn’t anything new, it has been for years very inconsistent with seemingly random numbers between layers, sometimes not even any staging phase even existing. This was obviously a problem for coordination and we’ve addressed these issues with this update and going forward there will be a standardized time for all maps and layers.
The first problem was to figure out which layers had or didn’t have a staging phase and figuring out what is a reasonable time for the staging phase. We settled on giving all layers and maps a 3.5 minute (210 seconds) staging phase to allow adequate time for all players to get ready.
This has been standardized across all the gamemodes we have available.
[h3]Mines Ahead![/h3]
Another place we’ve realized some improvements were needed was the Mines Ahead warning when approaching the edge of the level, while not authentic it is a common way to keep players restricted without the need of a wall to block players.
With the Armour Overhaul we standardized the timer for the out of bound minefield. With this update we will be making some slight improvements to the UI to better inform players that they are at risk, in the past we used a simple piece of text with a timer and this could easily be overseen, so you end up meeting a very explosive end. The UI is now much more clear at telling you that you need to return to the battlefield.
[h2]Level Design Improvements[/h2]
Aside from direct gameplay improvements, we’ve spent time looking at our levels, feedback on them and how we can improve the gameplay for our players.
[h3]Level Improvements[/h3]
A big complaint especially with Chapter 3 was that the main bases were usually place far too close to a capture zone making it almost impossible to avoid some kind of spawn camping or main base camping. This was especially so on St Mere Eglise and Carentan, both of which has main bases that were less than 400 meters from a capture point.
Example of the improvements made to Carentan Offensive 01.
On the maps our community has given us feedback and communicated their problems, we’ve looked at and addressed as many of those issues as we could while we worked away on the engine upgrade, and we encourage our players to be vocal with issues and feedback on how we can improve, we are always keen to learn from the people who play our game how we can ensure you get the best game experience.
[h3]New Foliage[/h3]
With a new engine and the benefits it brings to the table, we were also able to invest more time into improving our foliage in the game. We have the ability to make use of the large catalog of assets available to us not only from Epic but also make our own foliage tailored towards Post Scriptum.
The new foliage is just the beginning of what is a large plan to update and improve the overall look and feel of the game without impacting the game performance for clients.
[h3]Bug fixes[/h3]
On top of all the improvements, we’ve obviously been fixing bugs and issues along the way. With more than 300 level design bugs alone fixed since the upgrade to the new engine, and we will be continuing these large bug fixes along with more content as we move further into 2022.
[h2]Public 4.27 Playtest Announcement[/h2]
With all of those changes covered, we are excited to announce a new public playtest on the new 4.27 Engine version and all the improvements made. We want to ensure the game is stable and works for everyone, but also to give people a chance to see what is new, help give their feedback on what we have ready.
This test primarily offers us an opportunity for us to profile the server and bug hunt for issues that we can’t normally look for because it needs a full server.
We will be running a public playtest on the new 4.27 Engine version this weekend. The test is set to start today May 25th @ 11 AM Pacific | 2 PM Eastern | 6 PM UTC | 8 PM CET!
We expect the test to run for a couple of hours, but this may be cut short or extended depending on how much data our developers need. To stay up to date with information, you should join us on our Official Discord or follow us on our socials at Twitter and Facebook
The public playtest will run on a special Public Testing application in your library titled Post Scriptum - Public Testing, so make sure to download this ahead of time, you will not need to use any special branches for this, just make sure to download the application, and we will make the update available for you when we are closer to the start time.
NOTE: If you do not see the server yet, it has either not gone live yet, or you need to restart Steam, to ensure you have the update.
Sincerely,
Periscope Games
[h2]JOIN THE DISCUSSION ON DISCORD[/h2]
[h2]Roadmap 2021 / 2022[/h2]
We are now in what we consider the final stages of the Unreal Engine upgrade to Post Scriptum, this process has been a long one and involved mostly coding and fixing up stuff that inevitably got broken in the transfer.
The new version also allowed us to make use of some of the latest tech available to us, this is a major step in making Post Scriptum the best and most optimized experience it can be while also moving towards our eventual 100 player server goal.
But for this devblog, we want to cover some of the smaller and more general improvements, most of which come directly from community feedback. This mostly revolves around level design and gameplay design.
We are also running another playtest tonight. Details are at the end of the devblog.
[h2]Gameplay Improvements[/h2]
The first topic we want to cover is the Staging Phase. This is a period before the match starts in which you are given the opportunity to get organized into sections, make plans both strategically with the team, but also for your individual section. It also allows a generous period for players to load into the server and get set up with their section before the round starts.
During the staging phase, the players are not able to leave a certain area until the phase ends, this means that players have a chance to get into vehicles, get their kits and so forth before the initial roll-out. The first 10 minutes of gameplay is always very important and the more organized your team is the better.
[h3]Standardization of staging time across all layers.[/h3]
While staging isn’t anything new, it has been for years very inconsistent with seemingly random numbers between layers, sometimes not even any staging phase even existing. This was obviously a problem for coordination and we’ve addressed these issues with this update and going forward there will be a standardized time for all maps and layers.
The first problem was to figure out which layers had or didn’t have a staging phase and figuring out what is a reasonable time for the staging phase. We settled on giving all layers and maps a 3.5 minute (210 seconds) staging phase to allow adequate time for all players to get ready.
This has been standardized across all the gamemodes we have available.
[h3]Mines Ahead![/h3]
Another place we’ve realized some improvements were needed was the Mines Ahead warning when approaching the edge of the level, while not authentic it is a common way to keep players restricted without the need of a wall to block players.
With the Armour Overhaul we standardized the timer for the out of bound minefield. With this update we will be making some slight improvements to the UI to better inform players that they are at risk, in the past we used a simple piece of text with a timer and this could easily be overseen, so you end up meeting a very explosive end. The UI is now much more clear at telling you that you need to return to the battlefield.
[h2]Level Design Improvements[/h2]
Aside from direct gameplay improvements, we’ve spent time looking at our levels, feedback on them and how we can improve the gameplay for our players.
[h3]Level Improvements[/h3]
A big complaint especially with Chapter 3 was that the main bases were usually place far too close to a capture zone making it almost impossible to avoid some kind of spawn camping or main base camping. This was especially so on St Mere Eglise and Carentan, both of which has main bases that were less than 400 meters from a capture point.
Example of the improvements made to Carentan Offensive 01.On the maps our community has given us feedback and communicated their problems, we’ve looked at and addressed as many of those issues as we could while we worked away on the engine upgrade, and we encourage our players to be vocal with issues and feedback on how we can improve, we are always keen to learn from the people who play our game how we can ensure you get the best game experience.
[h3]New Foliage[/h3]
With a new engine and the benefits it brings to the table, we were also able to invest more time into improving our foliage in the game. We have the ability to make use of the large catalog of assets available to us not only from Epic but also make our own foliage tailored towards Post Scriptum.
The new foliage is just the beginning of what is a large plan to update and improve the overall look and feel of the game without impacting the game performance for clients.
[h3]Bug fixes[/h3]
On top of all the improvements, we’ve obviously been fixing bugs and issues along the way. With more than 300 level design bugs alone fixed since the upgrade to the new engine, and we will be continuing these large bug fixes along with more content as we move further into 2022.
[h2]Public 4.27 Playtest Announcement[/h2]
With all of those changes covered, we are excited to announce a new public playtest on the new 4.27 Engine version and all the improvements made. We want to ensure the game is stable and works for everyone, but also to give people a chance to see what is new, help give their feedback on what we have ready.
This test primarily offers us an opportunity for us to profile the server and bug hunt for issues that we can’t normally look for because it needs a full server.
We will be running a public playtest on the new 4.27 Engine version this weekend. The test is set to start today May 25th @ 11 AM Pacific | 2 PM Eastern | 6 PM UTC | 8 PM CET!
We expect the test to run for a couple of hours, but this may be cut short or extended depending on how much data our developers need. To stay up to date with information, you should join us on our Official Discord or follow us on our socials at Twitter and Facebook
The public playtest will run on a special Public Testing application in your library titled Post Scriptum - Public Testing, so make sure to download this ahead of time, you will not need to use any special branches for this, just make sure to download the application, and we will make the update available for you when we are closer to the start time.
NOTE: If you do not see the server yet, it has either not gone live yet, or you need to restart Steam, to ensure you have the update.
Sincerely,
Periscope Games
[h2]JOIN THE DISCUSSION ON DISCORD[/h2]
[h2]Roadmap 2021 / 2022[/h2]
