Hello there, dear Task Force Admiral fans!
A small December update in order to introduce you to our latest developments - and obviously wish you all a beautiful Christmas & a happy New Year!
Here is a summary of what we have been working on over the last few weeks. As usual, those who follow us on our social accounts are probably well-aware of most of this contents, but it doesn't hurt to keep you all updated. This is very much work in progress, so please stay nice in the comments and embrace the spirit of Christmas!
We've been working hard on destroying properly everything we have built so far. Suffice to say we have been pretty successful at maiming all surfaces, all materials of any kind.
It is mandatory to make sure that a hole will look the act on steel and on wood, and Julien our 2D artist is doing his best to make sure of that. Old Shokaku was kind enough to lend a hand. No warship Waifu was hurt during this experiment, I swear.
In the meantime, JB our lead dev has been busy with trying to turn these graphical snippets of pain into actual, internal damage. The original ballistic penetration model now had to be improved with a corresponding damage model, and we are happy to say that we are well on our way to make it worth your while. Modules can be knocked out, damaged or destroyed outright depending on the nature of the initial blast and the resistance the explosion will encounter when coming across armor and bulkheads.
More generally, this work allows also JB and John, our newcomer in the team, to spend much time making sure that the dev tools are as functional and versatile as possible. These dev tools are built upon a clean architecture which will, hopefully, allow for intuitive modding in the future. In the meantime, they ease up the development process in order for our enlarged team to properly involve itself in the design and the fine-tuning of the ships modules and weapon mounts.
In other news, we have made some improvements in regard of our pixel pilots' artificial intelligence when entering the landing pattern of a US carrier. They are now able to dynamically interact with the usual obstacles a carrier pilot might come across when attempting the lovely exercise of landing on a swinging & speeding flight deck. As you can see, they are not on rails anymore. Of course, there are still some little aspects to improve, and we are yet to provide the planes with moving shock absorbers (hence the awkwardness of the wheels sinking somewhat in the flight deck) but we're getting there one good step at the time. Please enjoy this Zen episode of carrier landing prowess.
Japanese decks were not forgotten. With the expectation of having them exchanging blows with Yorktown and Lexington is a near future, Julien paid special attention to the Shokaku sisters and provided them with a beautiful, specific garment that respects the uniqueness of their lines - and by lines, we mean them flight deck markings, of course!
Although they were very much twins, and beyond their very own deck katakana medallion, Shokaku and Zuikaku when it came to whatever was drawn on their flight decks. We sure hope to give them the proper treatment - quite a necessary effort, considering the player will come across them more often than not in the course of 1942...!
Last but not least, Julien also made sure to pay Pearl Harbor a proper homage for the 75th remembrance day this month with a beautiful drawing, with a video making-of baking in our Premiere video oven, hopefully in time for our next update. As brave USS Nevada tries to escape Hell on that painful Sunday morning of December 7th 1941, let us all spare a few moments and a thought on this Christmas day to honor the brave men and women who lost their lives in the struggles that preceded and followed that fateful day.
Let us hope that games like ours will allow everybody to remember and blow some steam in order not to repeat the mistakes of the past. Our kind regards to all the veterans, servicemen and servicewomen of all services, under all flags, along with their courageous spouses, sons and daughters - and please stay safe, all of you, in these trying times.
That is all for today. Now, go enjoy them, gifts and hugs from your loved ones, and see you soon in 2021!
The Team