Dear Tankers,
Welcome to our 71th Development Status.
Devlog
New mission summary & intro
We have spent the last few weeks internally playing and testing all ten missions from the first campaign on the same build. We came to the conclusion that they lacked an explanation of why certain things occur during a scenario. For example, why the player has to attack a certain point or take over a particular village.
We are adding to each mission starting from the first mission of the campaign, a broader description, additional graphics. Starting from the main menu during mission selection and continuing during the mission itself.
At the beginning, each mission will have an intro, i.e. a kind of introduction showing the mission assumptions in the form of a camera fly-through, like a typical film interlude. During this, the main and side missions will be presented in the form of audio read by a voice over, plus subtitles. We want to colour the whole thing with a hint of story so that it doesn't feel so artificial. Especially since we are basing it on real events - Operation Citadel, which took place under the Kursk arch in 1943.
During the mission, the voice over will also inform the players about the course of the mission in the form of information from the staff. There will be hints about the scenario itself, about possible counter-attacks or suggestions to use available artillery or air support, for example.
Single missions in the form of skirmishes, which are not closely linked to the campaign, will also receive such an explanation.
A preview of how it currently looks can be seen on the devlog linked above.
New VFX
In the latest iteration of VFX, we added custom effects created by Embergen. This has resulted in nicer and less resource-intensive explosions and blasts. This is another step towards making Tank Squad even more immersive.
Mountables
We have added another layer of repair section gameplay, mountable parts. This allows the player to mount or dismount various smaller parts, from wheels, tracks to mudguards and other non-essential parts.
Wheels and tracks mount state are now connected to driving functionality, if they are destroyed during combat or not mounted in repair section, the tank is considered not combat ready and cannot drive.
Vehicle Inventory
We have finished first phase of new system that manages every vehicle inventory. This system will allow to replace broken wheels or tracks during battle. This is restricted, however, to having the spare parts on the vehicle when trying to mount them. If you forget to place the spare parts during repair section then tough luck.
Squad orders menu
We are also changing the squad management system. The main goal is to make the UI more useful for understanding how many soldiers or vehicles are still alive in a given squad. Basically what is the current status of the squad and individual units.
Each unit marks its waypoint or target with a special line, green for a waypoint, red for an enemy target.
If you are controlling your vehicle in full control mode (i.e. not as a single crew member, in commander mode, or outside your vehicle), you will be able to give commands to other vehicles in your squad.
If you are not directly controlling your vehicle, another item will appear that allows you to give direct commands to your vehicle (fire at target, move to, attack).
A different interface element is designed for squads consisting of vehicles (mainly tanks) than for an infantry squad.
A squad with vehicles is limited to only four units. On this panel, we can see what kind of unit it is, its emblem, designation, whether it is a platoon of heavy tanks or self-propelled guns, the current status or the distance of the individual units in relation to the commander.
The information on the infantry squad is similar, the main difference being that the number of units visible in the squad is increased.
New video settings
We have added support for up-scaling image filters/methods including:
- XeSS (Xe Super Sampling) by Intel
- DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) for Nvidia onlyl
- FSR for AMD
Thank you and have a good one!
DeGenerals
