Hey everyone, Long time, no see!
We hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday and a happy new year! In-between having some desperately needed time off, we've been hard at work to bring you all some very exciting features!
Dedicated servers
THEY'RE FINALLY HERE! Dedicated servers have been a thorn in our side for a VERY long time, but our coder has been down in the trenches working tirelessly to get them up and running! Players will be able to host a server by selecting 'Launch New Dedicated Server' when launching the game.
Our coder has also prepared a handy guide on how to host one!
Map redesign
We always felt that the default map was a little empty when compared to our older last stand map (which unfortunately doesn't play too nicely with terrain deformation) so we've been looking to see what ways we can emulate the look of that original map, but still work neatly with dynamic terrain. After a bit of tweaking and some reworks to the foliage, we're finally happy to present the rework of our map!
This rework features 2 ravines that split the map into 3 sections. These should make for some interesting combat scenarios as the bridges crossing them are destroyable (and can be repaired!) Additionally, there's a lot more battle damage and detail!
New Visuals
We've also been laying the groundwork for new and varying locations for future maps. In doing so, we've made a nice, chilly version of our original map as a late christmas present!
While the maps don't feature any gameplay differences, it's definitely nice to mix up the look of the map now and then!
SOUND ISSUES
We've been getting a lot of reports of missing sounds for the game and after some help from our community, we discovered you can fix the bug by verifying the integrity of game files!
To do this, right click on TrenchesWIP on your Steam list and select Properties > Local Files > Verify integrity of game files.
Changelog
- Fixed tesselation setting so it actually turns off tesselation
- Added more detail to map AI1
- Fixed material bug that caused patches of grey
- Added dedicated server support
- Optimised materials
- Reworked material visuals
- Removed water plane that was destroying FPS
- Added snow variant of AI1 map
- Weapons now eject casings onto the environment
- Touched up some sounds
So our current plans are to continue with the roadmap detailed in this post, although we're looking at potentially improving the AI first (we've got an idea of how we could do it, but need to test before we commit to it)
We'd just like to thank everyone for your patience as we sort through the slower parts of development. TrenchesWIP has been a massive labor of love from two Australian developers. We're currently looking to see if we can host an official TrenchesWIP dedicated server, but for that, we need your help! We're currently operating off of crowdfunding such as Patreon and require a fair bit of money in order to keep a server up and running. Any amount you could help support us with would go a long way towards hosting expenses.
Either way, we're super greatful for the support we've had from our community! If you'd like to talk to the devs or organize games with fellow members, we're super active on our Discord. We're still very new to the world of dedicated servers, so expect the occasional bug to rear it's head (feel free to let us know on our Discord)
And now, we leave you a special gift: pictures from our latest stress test!
Until next time!
Big OOF Games.