Friends, we’re proud to present a new season of our regular Development Blog, which is updated every Friday. Here you can learn about our day-to-day work and upcoming changes to the game. During the break we thought of plenty of interesting topics, so let’s dive right in.
Part 1: “What’s happening right now?”
Following recent commentary and the results of the poll on update 0.8 (which you can check out here and here), we turned our attention towards full-blown internal testing of Skirmish mode.
This long-awaited game mode will be available on public servers beginning on the 10th of June. By that time, we will have prepared a basic version with fully-functional gameplay, but it’ll still be somewhat unpolished (this will be fixed in future updates). For example, the matchmaking system will select random opponents and allies, but you’ll soon be able to assemble a team of your friends.
How Skirmish is different from Assault:
- It includes 2v2 and 3v3 modes and thus involves more teamwork.
- The map is completely symmetrical.
- Players don’t have a predefined line of defence with fortifications and don’t have bases.
- The map has additional points of interest that give a tactical advantage or have fortifications.
- The rate of your Reinforcement Point generation depends not on your number of captured control points but rather on the size of your army (the larger your army, the slower your points generate).
- The player’s goal is to obtain a certain number of points by controlling the control points.
The map layout is typical for this kind of game mode: there’s a “home” control point next to the deployment area, and there’s a control point in the centre which is set at an equal distance from both teams.
The most obvious tactic is to capture the closest point and then move towards the centre of the map. However, the best way to secure victory is to experiment with various tactical approaches: capturing points in a different order, maneuvering, and supporting. This is where the points of interest come in, since they allow players to utilise unconventional tactics. The greater the number of players, the more opportunities they’ll have to try out complex approaches.
And now, as usual,
a few words from the development team about their most recent week.
Vadim, Lead Tester:
Three patches over the last three weeks. We had a lot of work to do, so we never stopped bothering the programmers, even during lunch breaks...
In general, this is how we feel now:
Sasha, Lead Technical Artist:
There’s been an addition to our friendly, close-knit team!
One of our interesting and not-too-secret developments is that we’ve made great progress increasing the quality of terrain. The soil will soon be much cooler and more volumetric ;)
Jean, Lead Designer:
Recently, while working on a winter-themed map, we encountered a funny bug that turned snow into cake icing.
Captain Morgan, Lead Programmer:
Skirmish, Skirmish, more Skirmish...
Part 2: “Player suggestions”
This season, we’re presenting this new column. We’ll be taking a couple of player suggestions to rip them apart discuss them :)
In this first post we’ll discuss a suggestion by Knightbruder posted on the official forum: “I suggest giving the sniper the ability to fire while camouflaged without losing the camouflage bonus.”
This would cause the sniper to become a real Predator, an uber-effective AI-destroyer and a thorn in enemy players’ sides.
His low fire rate and low fire density would make it impossible to identify the source of the shot, even indirectly, thus turning the game into an excruciating fight against a ghost. Earlier, some players used to wear out their opponents at the forest edge with just one sniper. With a change like this, we would turn the whole map into “the forest.”
Besides, pixel-hunting in 2016 is just not cool. When the player can’t see or understand what’s happening and why, that’s bad. For instance, imagine that you had to follow a recon aircraft with your camera to record the location of some fortifications. With a “Predator sniper,” you’d have to watch each and every soldier at all times, leaving you unable to take the measures necessary to complete your strategic objective :)
Part 3: “The Next Episode”
To make the wait for the next Episode a little more interesting, here are a few highlights from the next blog post:
- The historical campaigns will reflect the player’s progress. By the way, there will be 3 of these (playing as USSR, as Germany, and as the USA), and each of them will gradually bring the player through the war. The first campaign will be released in the early summer of 2016.
- You’ll need to take troops from your own army into the historical campaigns. Your people will go through the whole war alongside of you, carrying their experience from 1939 to 1945 (vehicle crews will be able to be switched to newer vehicles whenever you’re able and willing to do so).
- The new economy will make it impossible to just buy everything (for example, you won’t be able to buy tanks – you’ll be rewarded with them by Command for successfully completing operational objectives). Your most valuable asset will be your army.