Hello!
Apologies for the prolonged gap between this update and the previous one. Balancing programming 9-to-5 for my day job, working on Brass Brigade, and marshaling other life events is no easy task. But I'm pleased to be able to bring you some new features and content in today's interim update.
DaleyProductions Shout-out
Before I dive into the specifics, I'd like to give DaleyProductions a special thanks for his continued support and content creation that features Brass Brigade. I recently partnered with him and his team to host a giveaway of some Brass Brigade Steam keys. Thank you to him and his community for their love and support,
New Map, Still in the Works...
In the previous update, I teased a new, untitled map. That map, while mostly ready, was meant to be coupled with some other custom art that a very talented and extremely generous individual is creating. As of writing this, the last of the art that I am expecting is still being worked on. As such, I am splitting up this update into two parts. Today's update features...
- Swappable allied & axis team arrangements for all maps
- Reverse Mode
- Type 89 Tank for Japanese Forces
- Tank support on Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima maps (bringing tank combat to the Pacific theater for the first time in Brass Brigade!)
- Improved 1st Person Shooting Mechanics
- A switch which lets you pick between carrying your custom settings over to the next match at a battle's end, or selecting the defaults.
- The ability to kick bots out of tanks (highly requested, finally implemented!)
Swappable Teams & Reverse Mode
As mentioned in the previous post, players can now pick and choose from any Allied-Axis team combination for all maps. Please keep in mind that maps were originally intended to be played with specific teams & tanks, so altering this can lead to very interesting gameplay results! The default settings for each map reflect a more historically accurate assignment, but you can change the assignments to your heart's content. You can also swap around the starting spawns of either team, doubling the arrangements available for each map.
Type 89 Japanese Tank
The Japanese finally get a tank, making every faction in Brass Brigade feature at least one armored vehicle! The Type 89 rather weak when it comes to armor, but boast a decently speed and reasonably good off-road ability. It can often scale really uneven terrain smoother than other tanks thanks to generous suspension travel. However, it lacks a forward-mounted turret machine-gun, meaning its small cannon is its only armament. Look out for these when fighting against the Japanese Army.
This also means that both Pacific theater maps (Iwo Jima & Guadalcanal) have been updated to support tank combat. Iwo Jima pits one Allied tank against one Axis tank. Guadalcanal features one Allied tank against three Axis tanks, owing to the nature of that battle. Allied troops are meant to be surrounded in the firebase at Guadalcanal and should struggle to hold the line against relentless Japanese attacks.
AI Shooting Through Wall Bugfix
I've recently noticed that bullet-tracers can sometimes appear to go through walls, which gave the effect that AI bots were able to shoot at the player and other bots through solid objects. Fortunately, only the tracer effect was clipping through walls - the physical bullet projectiles that cause damage did not. None-the-less, this oversight has been corrected, and tracers should no longer go through solid objects and should end where the bullet projectile stops.
Other New Features & Improvements
- First person weapon shooting has been improved such that bullets stem from the exact center of your screen. This makes shooting out of windows behave much better; bullets shouldn't hit the frame if your crosshair is aiming through the gaps of the window.
- Players can now kick bots of out tanks. Simply approach a tank that a friendly bot is occupying and press the ACTION key (as usual). The player will assume control and the bot will return to battle.
- A new option has been added to the End-of-Game summary screen; players can now pick to use the default settings for the next battle (default), or if their current settings should carry over.
- German forces as a whole have been nerfed a little bit; internal testing & player feedback indicated that they were really dominate in many maps, so their troops have seen an average of 10% health reduction across the board, as well as making them stop while shooting more frequently.
The Future
I hope I can bring you the new map soon along with the planned additional content. I am not ready to divulge any specifics about it, but the person who is helping me is being extremely generous with their time and I want to accommodate them in every way possible.
Until next time,
Henry Kucab