Time flies when you're having fun and the summer is already here. In Sweden, we're about to celebrate Midsummer this week and we two developers are beginning our summer vacation with our families today. We've been working on Line War for the past three years straight, and we are very excited to continue with the work and everything Line War has in store for the future. But first, we'll need to recharge our batteries and spend some time with our very patient families. We hope that you also have a nice summer to spend with friends and family, and also playing Line War which will be up and running :)
We will drop into the Discord and monitor the servers during this period. The two of us will be back working full-time on Line War on 22 August.
Recap
The Unity and Network Library Upgrade
Most recently, we managed to do the "dreaded" Unity and UnityTransport network upgrade which was essential to get us back to a supported Unity version with the newly released (but dare we say scarily undocumented) network library. It was not an easy task, but very important for the future of Line War. We believe it is eliminating some of the problems people have been experiencing losing their connection to an ongoing game and our data shows that such disconnects are less frequent now.
With this engine upgrade, we also see a performance boost for many GPUs. We still have plenty of optimization to do in the future but for now, the increase in FPS is a nice bonus.
First Line War Tournament - 22Q2
We also just hosted the first quarterly Line War tournament this past weekend. A total of 126 matches have been played over two days in Line War 22Q2. You can watch the tournament stream archives on our YouTube channel:
- Line War 22Q2 Tournament Group Stage Stream Part 1 (YouTube)
- Line War 22Q2 Tournament Group Stage Stream Part 2 (YouTube)
- Line War 22Q2 Tournament - Finals Stages Part 1 (YouTube)
- Line War 22Q2 Tournament - Losers Bracket Final Round (YouTube)
- Line War 22Q2 Tournament - FINAL (YouTube)
New Replay System
A new cloud-based replay system was recently implemented in time for the tournament. The replays are now automatically saved after each match and you can easily access them, download multiple replays at the same time, and share them as a simple text-string.
Going Forward
The roadmap (see the Line War website) is still unchanged, and additionally, we are also working on a basic AI to practice against. Unfortunately, bugs in the network code prevented us from releasing the basic AI before the summer break, but it is a priority.
We hear and understand the feedback about the AI, both in comments and reviews, so it is a priority to get it implemented, but it will likely be implemented in September. Meanwhile, we hope that those of you who prefer an AI to practice against will wait to buy Line War until it has been implemented.
Although we have a vacation, we will likely both sneak in some development work during this period when our families are asleep.
Basantos will be working on the Teams and FFA implementation according to the roadmap. Smaller balance changes are also on the table and may get introduced through this period.
Imphenzia will be working on implementing the basic AI to practice against as a result of feedback in comments and reviews. Initial tests are looking promising and the AI in development is able to pick strong starting locations and expand. A knowledge library is being built for the AI so it can prioritize decisions when it comes to expanding, defending, attacking, and constructing. The AI will not be cheating and it will play by the same input rules as any human player. The release date is not set yet and be aware that it'll be a basic opponent to practice against (without pressure and ranking concerns) but it will not substitute the skill of a human player in the early stages.
Join the Line War Discord - here you'll find friendly people to play against, discuss strategies, and share your favorite map seeds!
May we also suggest a personal challenge to climb up the Line War Leaderboard?
For the curious: A total of 84601 matches have been played and combined people have spent 73208 hours in Line War. The player with the most play-time has played a total of 864 matches winning 87% of those.
Thanks to EVERYONE who is buying and playing Line War! We are thrilled to have an active core community and we look forward to continuing the development and growth of Line War for years to come!
Wishing you all an amazing summer.
/ Imphenzia & Basantos