Aggressor over the years
Before anything else is said, I feel I should take the time to explain where Aggressor has been, and why it wasn't updated on Steam for what is essentially 3 straight years. The problem largely comes down to what this game is and all the work that had to be done to get it to a state where it can be released. This is in no way meant as some sort of justification for it all, but I will be transparent with you regarding the game's development over the years.
2023
Prior to my departure I made a decision to begin work on a new strategic mode for Aggressor named Frontlines. Frontlines was meant to take Aggressor's air combat mechanics and mix them with a full scale war theatre. It can likened to a dynamic campaign with the distinction that one can build and maintain their own airports in a procedurally generated world. Seeing this come to life was one of the core motivations for me to work on Aggressor. Development has been tending towards this vision for a while and by 2023 I felt I was making good progress on it.
Long story short, the airport building mechanic had proven more difficult to make than anticipated. After about one month of work, I stepped away from Aggressor to catch my bearings and realized working on this one project full time left me uninspired and out of the fight. Around May 2023 I shelved the Aggressor project, took up a job and began a smaller scale game project on the side to clear my head. In the end, very little work was done on Aggressor that year.
I spent a long time thinking of a solution for the problem that is Aggressor, but couldn't find something definitive that would make this game uniquely fun and stand out amongst the others. The game just could not get any bigger than it already was.
Onwards
Since then it's just been some sporadic efforts here and there. Throughout 2024 I'd work on Aggressor for a few weeks at a time after work and then go back to whatever I was doing. The days just flew by like that and I didn't think much of it. It wasn't until March 2025 that I started gaining some momentum on the game again but I've had to shift gears and strip it of many of it's half-baked features. The airport creation system survived, but it's not user friendly. The 3D mission builder that was promised in the Discord was also kept, but once again it's unintuitive to use.
If I could do it all again, I would not have strayed so far from the game's original vision. The initial plan for it was to just be a fun quick-action air combat experience. No mission builder, no procedural airports, no first person view even. Perhaps the game would be in a better place now had these original guidelines been respected. Unfortunately what's done is done and all the time lost serves as a stark reminder of the consequences. This is not the only reason Aggressor has taken so long, but it has been the key issue. This ends now. I believe the right thing to do at this point is to move on and ensure the mistakes that were made are not repeated.
Aggressor Today
It has taken quite everything to get this game back in the air, but I am now finally and decisively at a point where the game is solid and the fun can begin. The amount of changes since last update means its impractical to make a changelog for it, which is why I will summarize the core changes here for each area of the game along with where it's headed.
New Game Modes
I've realized that by design this game has to focus on the quick, up-close action. Large worlds are technically supported now but the complexity of the individual aircraft (just the damage models really) mean its infeasible to have huge numbers of aircraft spread over a large area. That is why alongside missions, I have decided to include a few more quick action modes. These are the Scramble & Skirmish game modes, with elements of procedural mission gen. It is my intention to expand on these and make them into something truly memorable by focusing on what Aggressor does best: action in the here and now.
New Flight Model
A new flight model is used that works reasonably well for all aircraft, from light trainers to delta wing mixed-propulsion airships, everything's covered. The flight model covers the entire flight envelope and honestly feels a lot better to fly with than what was there previously. As you can imagine, it took quite some time to convert all 72 aircraft in the game to this new flight model. I actually made an entire helper system for this alone so I could convert an aircraft at the press of a button. With that there's now also systems in place to help me integrate an aircraft into Aggressor in as little as 20 minutes. A process that used to take a few hours (once again due to the damage model workings).
Missions
They aren't all that special, but they're there and (to my knowledge) functioning. Most importantly I can make more of them right now with no real hassle. The philosophy here is the same as what drove the creation of the new game modes. Aggressor's missions should focus on the raw aviation and action that's happening in the moment. What this roughly translates into when condensed into mission form: jets in full afterburner taking off overhead, high speed chases through winding terrain, interceptions at the very last minute. Low altitude, high speed, extreme danger. In summary: short mission formats with high levels of aerial violence.
Quality of Life
The majority of player-flyable aircraft now have cockpits along with some decent looking instrumentation & avionics. There are indicators for low-fuel, landing gear, radar warnings, engine state & more. This comes with an improved HUD with more telemetry and a minimap. The game settings have been completely overhauled and control systems should work a lot better now. You can choose whether you wish to have mouse aim or cursor as joystick controls. You can optionally bind mouse wheel input to either throttle or zoom. Leaving this option at none simply forces the game to use the respective axes the way you've set them up in the rebinding panel. Targeting is overhauled and you are assigned a priority target to focus on. The new sound system is something that just has to be heard, it's amazing especially for flyby's and something I'm personally very proud of.
Visuals
Worth a mention. The graphics of the game have been vastly improved. There's only so much you can do for a low-poly game but I've made sure the color balance, contrast, visual effects etc are tuned to be in harmony with each other. It's important for me that this game has it's own identity, and looks are a big part of that.
Changelog (incomplete)
New flight model (better for stability, high AoA flight, delta wings)
Vertical autotrim system
Scramble gamemode
Skirmish gamemode
Hangar overhaul
Instant dogfight overhaul + ability to save/load as a preset
New GPU-driven night skies
Wings-level trim engages if bank angle <~3 deg
Pilot rig operating aircraft controls
Egress systems: canopy jettison, ejection launch rails & boosters
Operations (single missions) gamemode
Airports
Airport building
Ground navigation for AI
Smarter AI capable of a full flight sequence
Better formation flight & coordination
Instant dogfight gamemode reworked & made faster
New landing gear system
New game data & file system
Addressables integration for aircraft (faster load times)
Entire game optimized to cut down on load times
Fully working landing gear for all aircraft
Cockpits for majority of fighter aircraft
New instrumentation
Reworked UI
Acceleration camera & improved cinematic camera
Dynamic screenshake (LF & UHF)
Toggleable object-based motionblur
Improved shadows at long distances
Better sound for jets & props (SuperSound)
Dynamic reverb depending on environment
Sound muffling in cockpit
New SFX in and around aircraft on the ground
Missions
Flight school is now a separate gamemode
New liveries
AA guns
Better dynamic lighting
Engine upgrade to 6.3 LTS
Improved cursor-aimed flight
Cockpit G-force effects
Baseline cinematic screenshake
Option to lower the player aircraft’s apparent sound volume
Synchronized meshes (no more visible seams between parts under high g-force for some aircraft)
New visual effects for bullets, explosions, aircraft damage, fire
Game adapted for larger worlds up to 120x120km
Multi-pack weapons (MULPAC) fitted to a single pylon, multi-firing capability
Volumetric bullets to ease hitting targets
Priority targeting
HUD upgrade
What's next?
Starting off, another patch will be released that fixes some issues related to the camera in first person mode with either cursor aim or mouse joystick enabled. Ground targets (which are still not in the game) will be added. They will first appear in a brand new gamemode called Fury. As opposed to Scramble which is a defensive gamemode, in Fury you are the Aggressor tasked with disposing of a range of air and ground targets until the stage is clear. Both Scramble & Skirmish will be expanded with more options and depth. Scramble will eventually have you start at an airport that you must defend. The mission sets in single-missions will be expanded upon with new missions. The addition of an early jet age mission is something I'm thinking of, time will tell what's best. I'll try to be more active on Steam from now on.
I'm sure there are still things left unsaid but it's getting late over here so I'll be back tomorrow for more. For those who stuck around, whether that be in the Discord or just skimming Aggressor's online presence, you have my utmost respect. Your persistence was not in vain and it's something that I will remember, no matter what happens to Aggressor or Flashpoint in the end. Cheers
