We are happy to announce Playtest 3 of Ramshackle and the long awaited Crew 2.0 update. This will probably be the biggest single update strictly from a changes/additions perspective since entering playtesting. Thank you to all 10k of you patiently waiting for playtest access, you'll all be granted access once the playtest opens on June 6th. And if you haven't already make sure to hit that 'Request Access' button.
This announcement will act as a summary of all the major changes/additions for the PT3 update. However, more of the finer details will be announced when the update goes live. As with all previous playtests the aim is to try stuff and fine-tune during the test, everything is subject to change. Lets get into it!
Designer Updates
UI Reorganize
The layout of the buttons and menus has been tweaked slightly to be more obvious and easier to navigate. Allowing direct access to most menus without needing to go 'Back' constantly. Key-binds have also been added to all the tooltips when relevant.
Subassemblies
Added the ability to save selections of parts and reuse them later in other designs. At the moment these are only saved on your local machine, cloud and workshop support will come later.
4D Armor Types
Trialing a new 'Advanced' armor construction material that allows for holes and bent armor shapes. These are a unique type [4d] following the trend of the 3d & 2d armor types. These have the special ability to bend and create 1 hole or notch (square, circle, or ellipse) per plate. They also allow for 'inside' corners but have the tradeoff of being a bit more expensive and needing to have the same uniform thickness across the entire plate.
Developer Comment: Based on how well these work, the long term intention is to consolidate all the different armor construction types into just 1 armor.
Clipping Overlap Visuals
New fill volume visuals that show you exactly what parts of hitboxes are clipping into each other. Instead of just the whole part showing red. Gives you much better feedback on how to adjust placement. Armor editing also refreshes clipping checks more seamlessly.
Context radial menu
A new dynamic radial menu that can be opened with a key bind that auto populates relevant functions based on what you have selected.
Tutorial Improvements
We've done a lot of work to make the tutorials more intuitive and easier to follow. Irrelevant buttons now grey out, camera can be moved to look at specific things, and much more. There is also a new step by step vehicle construction tutorial that is split into bite sized chapters.
Crew 2.0
Tasks & Roles
The old 'Focus & Workload' system has been removed and replaced with a new 'Task' system. Unlike the previous system where a crew's attention is split between multiple jobs, tasks can now request and drop attention based on what's happening. Allowing for crew to switch between tasks more deliberately. Crew members have now a much shorter interaction range and can only do a limited amount of tasks at a time. Roles can now be assigned to each crew member individually allow for better control over who does what.
Crew Seat Swapping
When a crew member is knocked out due to damage the seat will remain intact. Allowing for other crew members to switch to fill higher priority positions. There is a priority setting on each crew interactable part which effects the importance of any position in range of them. This also means that parts will now have a much harsher 'no-op' state when a position is vacant. Tank wont drive, gun wont load, turret wont aim, etc.
Built-In Turret Cranks
The dedicated hand crank part has been removed and instead has been built into all traverse parts. Using 'vertex-edit' they can be moved and rotated a limited amount using the same gab nodes that the plates use. These act as the crew interface point for 'Gunners' determining how effective turret traverse is. The drive port as been retained and is now located on this new crank drive, allowing integration with a new system which will be mentioned later.. Hydraulics.
Developer Comment: This is designed to simplify setting up turrets and allow gunner stats to be more directly applied to traverse.
New dedicated gunner station
The existing scopes have been changed into 'gunner stations' with an additional trigger handle built into them. These will now need to be placed close to a crew operator with the 'Gunner' role checked in order to work. Cannons loose their trigger inputs and instead will have to be assigned to a gunner station. Each cannon can be assigned as either a 'Primary' or 'Secondary' which specifies which trigger input to use. MG mounts have this new gunner station built into them however still require a gunner to operate them.
Updated crew placement & hitboxes
Sitting & Standing crew positions now are just the same, and the feet position can now just be adjusted using a vertex node. Moving the node under the torso will automatically switch the position to standing/crouching, and conversely moving it forward will switch back to seated. Recline angle can be set if the position is seated, however it will be ignored when standing as the crew member needs to 'balance' properly over their feet. The crew hitboxes have also been updated to very closely match the crew's form.
Reworked Crew Ergonomics
Crew ergonomics will include torso orientation as before as well as a new 'ergonomic volume' calculation. This will check how 'cramped' a position is and adversely effect crew performance. As with all crew checks moving forward these are all updated at a set tick rate instead of just when the vehicle spawns.
Reworked Cannon Reloading
Cannon reload calculation have been completely overhauled to better integrate with crew 2.0. The reload path is actually mapped out allowing for the true distance, orientation change, and obstructions to be calculated properly. Each cannon will have unique stats that weigh each of these parameters differently. For example a small lightweight shell wont care much about distance and orientation compared to a long heavy one. Also the checks are calculated from the actual selected shell in a ammorack and not just the center of said rack. The forced sequential reload mechanic has also been removed.
New driver positions
We've added two new driving positions that include better adjustment options. One for tanks that uses tillers and another setup for trucks with a more upright seating position and steering wheel.
New Hatches
Added another batch of ww2 inspired hatches and cupolas. All hatches will now require a proper hole in the armor and can now be interacted with crew. This is one area we will be experimenting heavily throughout the playtest as to fine tune how impactful they are.
Hydraulics
New Hydraulic pump and motors, these can be placed separately and then assigned together to create a closed loop. The pipes auto generate and don't have collisions, they also can't be damaged. This combination acts as a mini transmission allowing torque and rpm differentials not possible with other gearboxes. The pumps also have a setting to configure how much power they take off of the input shaft (Engine). The motors also have a normal control input allowing to be setup as drive motors for crude skid steer setups.
Shell & Armor Updates
Alternate Shell Types
Most cannons are now getting a second shell type option. In most cases this will some form of new HE shell. These will be placed as separate ammoracks and can be selected in battle via input on the gunner station. This is done by holding said input key (C) and then pressing the trigger input to cycle (Mouse 1 or 2). A new ammo count graphic is also placed on the right side of the HUD.
HE Changes
The AoE pressure wave is being changed to allow for an amount of penetration or 'blow through' in regards to thinner armor plates. This should allow for HE to feel more consistent vs lightly armored vehicles, also being a better option vs belly or roof armor.
AP Changes
Absolute bounce angle has been removed along with overmatching. These two heavily relied on fixed constants and didn't account for layered armor very well. Shells now just exclusively use the volumetric LoS thickness check to determine a penetration. Only on a non-pen the shell will do its chance of ricochet calc. This is very similar to what was used in PT1. However with the main difference that shells still loose a % of penetration based on angle of impact.
AP shells will now also 'tumble' after penetration causing their path to deviate an unpredictable direction. The deviation amount is based on the amount of armor penetrated.
Armor Degradation Updates & Visualizer
Degradation (armor drilling) is now enabled in the shell analyzer, and is represented by a new visualizer that shows the effected 'atoms'. More red and messed up = more damaged. How degradation is calculated is slightly updated to properly account to penetration depth and effects more of the surrounding atoms.
Damage Changes
Removal of 'Hit Points'
Removed the pool of integrity that was subtracted from when critical modules where damaged. Instead the amount of critical components destroyed is now the main driving factor in determining if a vehicle is destroyed. Each critical component is represented by a 'Dot' below the player name with full black being destroyed and yellow meaning damaged. Parts that are repaired via a crane or toolbox will be counted as 'alive' again.
Crew Knockout
It is now possible to KIA every crew member in the vehicle including the driver. The vehicle is now considered destroyed if the entire crew is knocked out. Crew member status is represented by little 'Crosses' on a enemy tag.
Critical Components
Parts such as Engines, Gearboxes, Weapons, Crew, and some utility parts have been classed as 'Critical Components' and have been assigned a value from 1-5 based on their 'impact'. Most fall in the 1-2 area.
Each vehicle class has a increasing limit of how many critical components is allowed to have based on these values. This value is also what is used when tracking critical damage. This system will replace the old 'Supply' (Stars) stat on parts.
Toolbox
All vehicles will now have a built in 'Toolbox' that can rebuild Traction > Drivetrain > and Utility parts only and in that order. It uses your own vehicles supply stores just like the repair crane. It is enabled by using the 'Field Repair' in the action radial. First all damaged parts are fixed like before, after which it begins to rebuild missing parts starting with the cheapest. It will continue this until out of supplies, or until its canceled by the player.
New Gamemodes
We'll be trailing a few experimental 'Long Form' game modes for this playtest. These are focused on longer battles that players can seamlessly enter and leave at anytime. With objectives that are a bit more interactive then just sit on point and win. Deploy costs will be earned in a similar way to the 'Blitz' mode trialed in PT2.5 however with more things like kills earning money.
More details will be announced once the playtest goes live.
This only touches the surface and there is a bunch of balance and system tweaks everywhere in conjunction. Of course as with every playtest the starting numbers will be off and some systems will be rolled out slowly throughout the playtest as we get a read on things.
Can't wait to see you on the battlefield! ~Sterik