Attention Brass Brigade Soldiers!
General Covid-19 Status Update & Regards
Welcome to another Brass Brigade update. First, let me start by once again thanking each and every one of you for supporting Brass Brigade. Let me also extend my best wishes for good health to each and every one of you during this unfortunate Covid-19 pandemic. I have been self-isolating for well over a month (as many have) and I'm trying my best to balance time spent on the computer for my day job, working on Brass Brigade, and other non screen-related activities. I hope you are all making the best of the situation and following the recommendations of your local health authorities.
As mentioned in previous updates, the self-isolation requirements where I live make consistent working on Brass Brigade difficult simply due to spending so much time programming each and every day without being able to go about my formerly normal routine. Work has slowed but hopefully this update gives you some fun new gameplay experiences. I'll do my best to continue working throughout the isolation period, and I hope you are all also finding a healthy work/life balance for your current situation. Without further a-do, let's discuss what's new in this update. (You can get a quick summary of Brass Brigade's newest features in this Spring Recap trailer too!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q_hHNZ6NTA
Troop Command System
The Basics
Issuing orders to a German squad.
For a long time, players have been asking for smarter bots and specifically - the ability to command bots. I'm happy to say that you can now issue a suite of basic commands to nearby bots in-game. The simple system lets you recruit nearby allies to join your squad which you can then issue three different orders to. After recruiting some allies, you can order them to follow you, move to a specific position, or hold at your current position. You can also tell the bots to take cover (crouch/prone) and get back up at any time. At any time, you can recruit other nearby stray allies to join your squad - they will immediately begin executing your most recent order. If you decide that the burden of command is too much to bear, you can dismiss all the allies under your current command; they will then return to battle like normal.
Officers have the largest sphere-of-influence for recruiting allies.
You can begin recruiting allies and issuing orders through the command-rose UI (Default Key: X). Any time a bot is recruited, a color-coded orb will appear above them. The color of the orb matches the colors of the orders in the command-rose UI and indicates the current order they are executing. You can see your latest order at the top of the command rose as well. If any further bots are recruited, they will execute that order immediately.
A blue arrow denotes where your bots are moving to when issued the move order.
Notes
If the player dies, all commanded bots will be dismissed, same as if you dismissed them manually. While there is no limit to the number of bots that the player can recruit to their squad, not all bots can be recruited. Specialized bots (such as rocketeers, banzai, sniper, and tank drivers) cannot be recruited. They will go about their usual behaviors.
Another noteworthy point is that different roles have differing recruitment ranges. Officers have a larger recruitment radius. Squad leaders and commando-type roles have medium sized ranges. Rifleman and support roles have the smallest range. You can see the distance of your influence projected around you when you attempt to recruit allies.
You can come up with some creative scenarios with these basics commands. You can collect a group of bots and have them follow you while attacking a base. You can stay back and send them to attack on your behalf. Or you tell them to hold a specific position while you rush around a flank. I'm sure you'll come up with other tactical situations that were previously just not possible with the older AI patterns.
Quality of Life Improvements
There have been a number of smaller quality of life improvements sprinkled throughout the game. Some more noteworthy examples are...
Animation
- Certain animations for characters (such as issuing orders) now do not lower the player's weapon, affecting the player's aim. Player weapons remain centered more consistently as a result.
Audio
- Reduced frequency of bullet-snapping sound effect.
- New sound effects for SVT-40 & SVT-40 Scoped Rifle.
- Fixed a bug which caused dead bots to still play vocal cues.
Controls
- Inverting the Y-Axis now affects tank aiming controls as well.
Gameplay: Weapons
- Pistols have had an accuracy reduction across the board.
- Grenades & TNT have had a damage increased across the board.
- Grenades & TNT have had their explosion radius slightly increased across the board.
- All weapons now have much more realistic bullet ballistic speeds; bullets are generally slower than they were before.
Gameplay: AI
- Bot accuracy has seen a general decrease across the board.
- American bots have been buffed slightly with regards to their health values.
- Bots may stop/crouch while shooting and hold position before continuing. This helps to reduce the "always charging" effect from before.
Optimization
- Reducing bullet speeds have lead to reduced load on the physics engine, increasing performance slightly.
- Adjustments to internal tick rates to bot calculations and physics processes have yielded slight performance improvements on my test systems; your results may vary.
- Adjustments to audio compression parameters should reduce the amount of audio clipping that occurs during very loud moments.
The Future
I am considering adding another map or two to the game while continuing with general quality-of-life improvements. I have some other ideas that are a bit larger in scale, and I may tinker with to see how well they fit in with the overall code-base and feel of the game. Unfortunately, I don't have much I'm willing to disclose at this time; my updates have just about caught up with my thinking.
Wrapping Up
I hope you enjoy the new command system and general improvements to the game. Feel free to swing by our Discord or the Steam Discussion forum for Brass Brigade if you have some suggestions, feedback, or other related interests. Feel free to leave a review (especially if you're loving the game) on the Steam Store Page - they really do help!
Until next time,
Henry Kucab