Hey Everyone!
BlueTheRobot here! We are excited to share everything new coming up with update #1.2.0.0. In this blog, we’ll go over the newly added content and all the improvements made to existing systems. We are so happy to finally give you a deep dive on what we have been working on the last couple of months, so let’s get into it!
Reworked Audio
We heard you loud and clear! Our audio was the most mentioned issue by our community and it was our top priority to fix it with this update. To do so, we utilized a completely new method that handles occlusion and reverb. While we were previously relying on Unreal Engine’s built-in occlusion system, we now use Wwise Rooms & Portals. Therefore, we went through every map and hand-placed simplified rooms and portals that explicitly tell the sound engine to simulate audio raycasts. Now, we simulate proper reverb and occlusion with audio being able to bounce off walls and traverse through windows/doors.
This is the first iteration of the new system, so not everything might be perfect yet, but we believe it is a huge improvement from the old build.
We’ve also refined existing audio cues and added additional ones to improve overall sound immersion. Gunshots were a focus when it came to improving sound. Shots from a distance have a much stronger punch. We introduced new ambient sounds, to Quarry in particular, so the environment can feel more lively. We also improved player foley effects, such as footsteps and jumping.
Last but not least we also worked on a new breathing/injured system that triggers when a player runs out of stamina or drops below a certain health threshold.
Quarry Rework
Despite our improvements last patch to Quarry and its surroundings; the world was still far from our final vision for that map alone, but also for what we wanted for our environments moving forward. We strive for authentic and believable locations while maintaining fun yet challenging tactical gameplay.
From a Level Design perspective, we need an environment that our AI can lock down so Players are forced to think about how they’ll approach their next contact point, and think creatively about sightlines and angles.. And of course, when the fight has begun, our AI needs an environment that allows them to employ their custom features such as taking cover, flanking, and as of this patch: calling in reinforcements to defend specific high value regions.
One aspect holding back the previous iteration of the map was its density and pacing. Therefore, we expanded westwards to push the Military Base further from the Factory POI. However, this area is not just a deadzone, we’ve scattered more villages with associated patrols to ensure you stay on your toes throughout the trek.
The Military Base itself has received a complete overhaul for the sake of realism and authenticity as requested from community feedback. We’ve taken the steps to gather the help of enlisted Vietnamese personnel to ensure this.
If you’d like to read more about the Military Base, as well as viewing some in-progress screenshots, feel free to follow this link to a previous dev blog!
Bunker Expansion
Quarry is not the only map that has received additional areas, Bunker has finally received its last planned area to complete the loop through the map. The Medbay was always originally intended, but due to time constraints had to be previously postponed.
However, the Medbay is now available for exploration and keeps the same sinister tone and high intensity CQB action as the rest of the map.
NEW Safehouse
The Hideout is now replaced with the Safehouse, while now this just seems like a nice fresh coat of paint- this new location will act as the building blocks for our later plans regarding resources, the story, and progression in general.
The Safehouse is located on a relatively remote coastal airfield island and was prepared by your employer (FANG) to be used for all your operations in-country. With subsequent patches, we intend for you to grow the area to strategically assist your in your various deployments across Red River.
Just don't let the rest discover your location…
NEW Gunsmith
Another intended QOL feature that was frequently requested by our community was a gunsmith. Previously assembling weapons has always been quite fiddly with only the marketplace available, and losing a loadout has been quite time consuming to reassemble. That has changed now with our new Gunsmith that lets you go through all available weapons, try out different attachments and save & load presets.
NEW Weapons
With this update we are adding a lot of new content for you to explore. First and foremost: plenty of new weapons to choose from.
- AK 100 series
- AK 12
- AKS 74
- RPK
- SVDS
- STV 380
- QSZ-92 [TBA]
- QBZ-97
Our focus with the newly added weapons was first to give the VLF, and later, the IGC factions more weapons to choose from. This way we can create a more interesting and dynamic loot pool for Quarry and Bunker.
In addition to that we also added 13 new gear items and many new mags and attachments to choose from.
NEW Mission
With this update we are also introducing a new mission type: Intel Extraction. We previously called this *Defense* in our roadmap, but during development the legacy name was no longer suitable as the focus became more about extracting intel via a Terminal interface than defending a zone. Reinforcements are still triggered while interacting with the Terminal though, so watch out!
Look up one of our previous dev updates to see the Terminal in action!
Alongside the development of the new intel extraction mission, we also reworked some existing missions to fit the new map layouts while also adding several new tasks for you to explore and complete!
NEW Durability System
Weapon malfunction/jamming mechanics have been introduced to add more realism and more importantly- depth to firefights. Weapons will now display a visible reddish overheating effect, providing clear feedback on their condition during extended engagements. Malfunction chance occurs based on the weapon’s heat and durability. The more a weapon overheats and the lower its durability, the higher the likelihood of a malfunction occurring.
To help balance the economy towards sourcing your own weapons, AI enemies will now carry used and much more worn down weapons, making them less valuable in comparison to the value of other loot. Also, as a long-time request, Players can not only repair their worn weapons but also damaged gear with one click from the Safehouse.
Reworked UI
One aspect of the game that we felt needed a fresh look after the launch of Early Access was the user interface.
With this next update, we’re looking to completely overhaul the current UI. We also want to make some important user experience changes as well to keep the UI consistent across the entire game.
Our core philosophy behind the new user interface was to inject our unique setting into the design itself, while giving a chance to bring major UX and QOL improvements. We tried our best to strike a balance between the requirements for a game of this nature, which requires many details to be presented to the player at all times, and ease of use.
This new design allows us to improve what we’ve already got, as well as making way for new features such as resources for safehouse improvements, the gunsmith, and other features that will be revealed later!
Reworked GCPS
The GCPS (Global Combat Positioning System) plays a major role in Incursion and helps the player track the current mission and navigate through the level. With this update, we completely overhauled the look of it to allow the Player to feel as if they’re really controlling it by hand.
We’ve reworked the 3D model with in-house talent, added new immersive interaction animations and overhauled the UI entirely.
Misc Improvements
Apart from all the listed additions and improvements, we’ve also worked on smaller changes to improve the overall polish and experience of the game.
As the famous gamedev quote goes: “small improvements and minor bug fixes.”
Coop Experience
One thing that always bothered us was the experience of playing as the client in a framework which didn’t fully allow the gunplay to shine. Bullets didn’t really connect properly and the overall experience felt less snappy. We tackled that issue by greatly improving the network load balance as well as introduced client authoritative bullets. Meaning the client (your machine) does the bullet calculation itself and tells the server where the actual impact is. This means we can also afford to immediately spawn the impact fx & sfx on the client, making gunfights much more responsive.
Viewmodel Animations
Additionally, we’ve touched up our viewmodel animations and weapon handling. Weapons now will feel more weighty when turning and movement animations feel more impactful. This also includes reworked fire animations and smoother transitions between player stances.
Icon Generation, Loading, and Textures
A common issue in the last build was unloaded & blurry icons that negatively influenced the looting experience. To tackle this issue, we now have pre-rendered icons for all items that only need to load from the game-files to greatly improve item loading time & quality. Additionally, we made improvements to force textures to be loaded when inspecting and for weapon icons in the inventory.
On the same note of blurry textures, we’ve taken steps while overhauling our shaders for the Quarry Rework, to adopt virtual texturing for a more optimized approach towards streaming in textures. Material quality will now be more relevant to what you’re looking at and therefore cuts back immensely on blurry models in the world due to high VRAM usage.
Performance
Last but not least one of our key concerns is always to improve performance while also improving the visual fidelity of our game.
With this update we managed to find several areas to improve performance (such as enabled virtual shadow maps by default) and still keep an overall smooth experience on most systems.
In our internal testing we were able to see improved performance across the board.
Thermals
We also reworked our scope material to be more realistic by adding eye relief and a small zoom & distortion effect. Additionally, we also added two entirely new thermal scopes, very useful for bunker & night raids. Check one of our previous dev updates out for more information!
Chat
Long term we definitely want to add ingame VOIP. But for the time being we added a chat option so you can now also communicate with your team mates via the game.
Outlook
So to wrap it up, this update is a huge step forward for us, bringing all systems to a new level, and we believe we now have the foundation and quality level we wanted from the get go to build upon and add more content. We cannot wait to hear your opinions on the update! Feel free to join our upcoming dev stream tomorrow that we will announce soon, where we’ll be playing and showcasing this patch. Also, make sure to follow our socials and join our Discord to stay up to date!