Hello all,
Transport Vehicles - Jeeps
New to the battlefield in this update are some of the most iconic vehicles of the Second World War. The Willys MB/GPW (or what we now refer to as a "jeep") and the Kubelwagen are joining the ever growing fleet of vehicles available to navigate the battlefield with. These transport vehicles are the first examples of vehicles in Brass Brigade that allow for multiple troops to travel together in a vehicle. They're fast, nimble, and lightly armored, making them well suited for darting between capture points. They don't stand up to gunfire very well and offer very little armor, so if you come across a large group of enemies, you best steer clear before it's too late!
GP (Jeep)
The Jeep is perhaps the single most lasting and enduring road vehicle to have been born out of World War II. With nearly 650,000 produced by the war's end, the Jeep proved to be a reliable and rugged means of transportation for getting Allied troops both into and out of enemy lines.
In this initial update, you'll come across 3 variants of the Jeep; one adorned in the traditional green with the Allied Star on the hood, a slightly fictionalized British variant, and a desert variant (Rat Patrol anyone?).
Kubelwagen
The Kubelwagen served as the GPs opposite number. The Kubelwagen served a similar role for Axis troops throughout the Second World war and is arguably just as recognizable a vehicle with great historical significance. While the Axis powers couldn't quite match the United States' "Arsenal of Democracy" and their output of nearly 650,000 jeeps, over 50,000 Kubelwagens were produced with virtually all of them being assigned for use in the war. Despite the significantly lower production numbers, it is still an instantly recognizable vehicle on any battlefield thanks to its sharp angles and ribbed sides.
Like the jeep, the Kubelwagen comes in the standard military grey & desert variants. A dark green version is also available for the Japanese forces as a stand-in.
New Vehicle Behaviors
Bots will seek out all vehicles/mounted weapons now much more frequently than they did before. Generally, bots that are closer to these vehicles will try to run to them and hop in them if a seat is still available. Bots will fill up vehicles back to front to ensure they are full before speeding off into battle.
When entering a vehicle, you'll always default to the driver seat. You can swap to any other seat in the car by using F1-F4. You can also swap between first and third person modes while driving as well! When shooting from a vehicle with allies, friendly fire is always disabled between you and the allies in the vehicle.
Changelist
- Added 7 new Jeep/Kubelwagen variants
- Reworked how bots approach & enter vehicles/mounted guns.
- Switching between 1st & 3rd person now happens instantly, instead of waiting for the camera to lerp to each position
- Added jeep, Kubelwagen, artillery, and mounted machine gun to the tutorial training level.
- Various other tweaks and adjustments due to a near complete re-write of vehicle interaction logic & AI surrounding vehicle usage.
Note from the developer...
This update required a massive amount of reworking under the hood. These jeeps mark the first time bots and the player can share a single vehicle, shoot from a moving vehicle, etc...a lot of reworking needed to be done to support this. I was hoping to have this update ready long ago, but the technical complexity and other personal matters delayed it...but it's here now, so I hope you enjoy! There are still more behaviors I want to add to these jeeps, but they will come later as I wanted to have them ready for the Steam Spring Sale.
Thankfully, I think I've created a solid base to add a few more vehicles from in coming updates. My plan for now is to continue adding a few more transport vehicle types to the game and further enrich the vehicle feature-set, do some additional bug-fixing (I'm sure there are plenty hiding around in there...), etc.
If you have suggestions for future vehicles (or other features/maps/etc), drop me a line on the Brass Brigade Discord!
Until next time,
Henry
