January was a very productive month! Here is some of the stuff I worked on:
INFANTRY WEAPONS, FIRST PERSON CONTROL AND MORE
Added a better rifle (R4A), a machinegun (Fermin), anti-tank missile launcher (NPAT), anti-aircraft missile launcher (Scorpion) and a shoulder fired rocket propelled grenade (SFRPG)
Implemented weapon switching so soldiers can carry two different weapons and switch between them according to their target.
Added first person view for infantry so you can aim better from the point of view of the weapon instead of third person
Made soldiers grab their weapons much better, using IK for hands and fingers for a more realistic grip.
Made soldiers drop their weapons when they die. Later other soldiers will be able to pick them up and also use any remaining ammo.
Finally added recoil when soldiers are shooting!
Here are several images showing all those infantry changes:
AIR DEFENSES
I worked on multiple air defense systems, including buildable DSAMS and Legion C-RAM, the Charly IFV having AA capabilities, and adding infantry based scorpion AA missile launchers. And improved the already present ZU-234 AA vehicle.
NEW AUDIO SYSTEM (AND VOICES AND COMMS!)
I have been using a mix of Unity audio system and Latios Myri audio system (for better performance than the Unity one), but those two have a lot of limitations when it comes to effects and development tooling. Now I switched to a full professional solution used by a lot of AAA games called WWise, and implemented much better attenuation, randomization of sounds, volumes and effects. Also got better performance while also making it easier to mix the sounds and volumes and provide customized volumes for different audio channels in the game settings.
I also added soldier proximity voices and radio comms to acknowledge orders and provide information about what's going on in the whole map (in addition to the notification feed on the top right of the screen).
100.000 YOUTUBE FOLLOWERS
In an unexpected side effect of game development, TLG's Youtube channel reached 100.000 subscribers (134.000 now) ! Thanks to everyone that subscribe there too!!
WHAT'S NEXT
February will be all about navigation/pathfinding and behaviors for enemy and player troops and some economy/logisitics stuff. I will also start doing some alpha testing with family and friends to check for any strange bugs or crashes that don't happen in my computer and start getting a better idea about performance on different PCs.
Remember to join the Discord to be in the first alpha playtests once I start opening the alpha to more players, and to get these kind of news weekly instead of monthly!
https://www.discord.com/thelastgeneral