Squad 44 News

Hey everyone!

During the conversion to UE4 version 4.21, we’ve had some time to look into how we can improve player feedback for armored gameplay, both inside tanks and infantry around them. Vast improvements have been made to tank shell flyby audio in terms of design and how they work, only triggering at correct distances from the player and having a more realistic and most importantly, visceral feel. There are also different flyby variants dependant on shell size.

HE and AP shells of all sizes have had an impact and explosion audio revamps, AP now has a much more distinct ‘thud’ to the impact, whereas HE has a much larger ‘boom’. Also, thanks to new systems available in the OWI Core 4.21 framework, we have finally been able to implement internal impact sounds for vehicle occupants [both transport and armoured], so you can now tell that your hull has been hit by either HE/AP shells, rockets or small arms rounds. All tank occupants can now hear the vehicle’s weapons systems from the correct internal perspective, to make the overall experience much more immersive for the whole crew.

All of the above are aiming to allow the player to more quickly and accurately discern what kind of armoured threat they are facing, if there is no clear visual, and for armoured players to see some enhancements to immersion.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

There have also been some continual improvements to some infantry weapons and kits that required a bit of love since release.

- K98 firing sounds
- Lee Enfield firing and reload sounds [new animations]
- G41 firing and reload sounds [new animations]
- Sten MkV firing and reload sounds [new animations]
- British No77 Phosphorus grenade ‘pinpull’ and explosion sounds
- StG44 firing and reload sounds [new animations]
- P38 reload sounds [new animations]
- G43 firing sounds

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We realised that we really wanted ‘vanilla’ PS content to hold up to more recent additions such as the US faction, as well as future chapter content we’ve been working on behind the scenes. And that finishes off the Devblog this week, we will have more to show you soon.



Sincerely,
Periscope Games

Hey everyone!

Throughout the past few weeks we have been reading your feedback and suggestions on how to improve PS for the better. We have put together a roadmap that outlines the plans for Post Scriptum over the foreseeable future. Please keep in mind that the order of the items on the roadmap does not represent the release schedule of the content



During our ongoing work on the roadmap, our level designers have been revamping the older and newer maps with new visuals.

Below is a link to our webpage, where you can use an interactive before & after slider to compare the old Doorwerth and Oosterbeek to the new with most notably the change in forest scenery, now providing much more undergrowth, tree density and render distance without sacrificing performance.

4.21 Mini Devblog 3 "Roadmap" on Post Scriptum Official Website

Post Scriptum has come a long way since release and it has seen many new additions like the US Airborne faction, four new maps, brand new vehicles, gameplay improvements and more. However the journey is not over, we are committed to the longevity of Post Scriptum as well as the community at large.


Sincerely,
Periscope Games

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Greetings everyone!

In the first Mini Devblog, we spoke about the changes we made to the maps and visuals of the game. 


As work continues on the Unreal Engine 4.21 upgrade, our artists have been remaking and improving outdated animations. The goal was to bring them up to new standards and provide a more visceral and polished feel to the general handling of the weapons.

The following video shows the updated animations of the Gewehr 41, STG44, Walther P38, and the M1A1 Thompson
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Next to the weapon animation changes, work has also been undergoing on the character movement animations and general controls.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Due to the OWI core update, infantry movement should feel more responsive and less floaty and actions such as going prone while sprinting much faster, reducing downtime of being stuck in animation sequences.

Our artists will keep improving many aspects of the game while our coders continue to work on fixing issues that have arisen from the 4.21 upgrade. You can expect to see more stuff coming in the next few weeks.


Sincerely,
Periscope Games

                                                               

Greetings!

As some of you may already know, we were in the process of upgrading the Unreal Engine 4.16 version to 4.21. This milestone has been achieved in the previous month. However, we are going through a mountain of bugs, broken features and visual corrections that have been caused by the engine upgrade.

At the moment, we are dealing with issues in several fields, such as UI or vehicle mechanics. In parallel to the hard work of our programmers who are working on fixing core components of the game, the artists have been working on audio changes, updated animations, visual enhancements and new gameplay additions.

The Mini Devblog will be a series to keep you updated through this journey and provide you with information about the state of Post Scriptum on UE 4.21.

Expect more news in the upcoming weeks!



The first entry in the Mini Devblog series will be about the work that has been going into visual enhancements of the maps.

To see the interactive before & after images, you need to go to the post on our official WEBSITE.
The arrival of the 4.21 update led to a series of broken meshes and shaders and proved to be an excellent chance for our artists to try and improve the visual aspect of the game.

 

As seen in the images, ground materials, post-processing and undergrowth were changed to get more color into the Netherlands and make the environment appear more vibrant and lush. The overall image is also much sharper and clearer, compared to the past.
 
We hope you are all as excited as we are to see the Unreal Engine 4.21 come to life in Post Scriptum. We will make sure to regularly keep you informed on what progress is being made on the upgrade.

Sincerely,
Periscope Games

Hey everyone! Time for a little update.

Since we released the Gore Patch, which was the last patch of UE 4.16 we have shifted the team over to working with getting the upgrade to 4.21 finished.
(More on that later)


First of all, as some of you might know we had some of our team members take a trip to Arnhem for an event known as “The Game”, hosted by the Bridge To Liberation organization.
This was very exciting to us as we had the opportunity to see Post Scriptum on the big screen!



Not only that but the organization had rented about 40 laptop computers so that the people attending could play Post Scriptum while watching the game on the big movie screen, this was something that excited in particularly Project Lead Romain “BreizhoO” FERCHAT who himself described it as a dream come true, to see this creation come to life on a cinema screen.

Also, at the event was well known Dutch Youtuber Milan Knol.



While the team was in Arnhem, they had the opportunity to visit and explore some of the sites that you can play in Post Scriptum, places like the John Frost bridge, Driel Rail Bridge, Doorwerth Castle and the Cathedral in the middle of Arnhem. I think it’s fair to say they were excited to be there and to experience the event.

Special thanks goes out to the Bridge To Liberation team for making all of this a reality.



For those who couldn’t make it all the way to Arnhem, we had something else planned.

We got together with EASY Company to create a semi-historical reenactment of the famous Battle of Arnhem.
This event was open for everyone to join and we had full signup just over 24 hours after we opened to registration.


This event was also streamed and recorded by multiple content creators including Digby, Nordern, MonsterScream and Buckles to mention a few.

The event was also streamed and commentated live on the Official Post Scriptum Twitch, alongside Community Manager Henrik “SnazzyDuckling”, Level Designer Kaan “Macolik”, EASY Researcher rosado as well as Streamer Digby.

We would like to thank every one of you who either joined the event or watched it live on Twitch, we are very grateful to have a community this amazing.


Moving on though we would like to very quickly talk about where we are sitting with the upgrade to Unreal Engine 4.21.

Since the Gore update, we have shifted most of our team over to work on 4.21, so that we can get the ball rolling and get the upgrade finished.
Now as you might imagine upgrading an engine isn’t exactly an easy thing to do as it tends to break many things. In our case it even broke things we didn’t think it would break.

(Some of the many issues we encountered during the 4.21 Upgrade process)

So currently our coders are working hard on making all the old and new systems work together so that we can bring the standard functionality back to the game. Our Programmer Yash “Shepard” has been working hard, fixing the gameplay aspects of 4.21, for example things like vehicle spawners, game modes and anything related to gameplay.

Jumping from OWI Core 4.16 to 4.21 is quite a jump as many things have changed and he's working on making the new code work with our existing systems again. An example of the things that changed are capture points, in the past we used to have dedicated capture point BP (Blueprint), now however anything can be a capture zone if it has the right component. This doesn’t make much sense to most of us end users, but this is quite important as it changes how certain things will work compared to before.

Some of the things that he is especially excited for is to continue working on the Sandbox game mode which is intended for the communities to create their own missions and modify the experience in a live environment. More on this game mode will come at a later date.

(Your average 4.21 Editor experience)

Meanwhile our other Programmer John “SgtStryker” has been a main component in ensuring stability to the 4.21 Editor so that other developers can work without crashing. He has also been important in fixing in-game crashes so that we can create builds that we are able to upload to Steam, so that we are hopefully able to start playtesting 4.21.

When he hasn’t been working on fixing the editor, he has been working on fixing UI and HUD elements that broke when upgrading, emplacements were also one of the many things he has been working on, since they too broke.
All in all, it’s been busy for him, since he has been on the 4.21 team since they started upgrading and has been a core element in making sure 4.21 becomes stable.


And finally, the Company Trip.
Like OWI this usually happens around this time of the year and so we are leaving Friday September 6th and most of us won’t be back until September 15th.

So, since the team works almost all year round, it’s only fair to give them a little break and therefore we have a company trip organized, where we can all get together, meet the new faces and have a week away from work.

This year we’ve decided to head to Cyprus, a wonderful island nation south of Turkey, we’ll be spending time relaxing and having a bit of fun so that we can come back to work and 4.21 with refreshed energy and morale.
We’ve heard Cyprus is a wonderful place this time of year.

This means that support and contact to us may not be as reliable as it is most of the time, but we will make sure to take a few pictures so that we can keep you guys updated on what is happening. But don’t expect much availability from us.
And should you happen to be in Protaras and find us, don't be afraid to come say hello.

Sincerely,
Periscope Games