Going Forward!
TacByte
Hey everyone, welcome to our devblog #13. Before we delve into the blog we want to say that despite the lack of DevBlogs we are still developing the game, we are investing a lot of our time and effort into this project and we are getting ever closer to an Early Access release date.
If you would like more information then you should consider joining our Discord server, there we will answer your questions and give other updates about our development. Currently, we have 750+ Members, so come and chat with us.
Closed Stresstest
TacByte
Let's start with some good news. In our Discord, we have the "TheFirst100" group (The first 100 Members to join our Discord server) and this group will get access to the game in December 2018. This means we can open the game to a larger testing group and they can finally play the game, we know it took such a long time. If this test goes well and our systems are robust enough we will expand the testing group sometime in the new year. We are sorry that we can´t grant access to everyone right now, Please remember this game is not finished or nearly finished yet, we've invested a lot of time getting TO4 to this point and now its time to allow more players to try/test our game with us, We are looking forward to having more people giving us their views and or criticisms of the game. Primarily opening our game up to a bigger group will enable us to test the performance of our servers/clients under a heavy workload. This test should also show assist us to balance our maps and help us to make adjustments where needed. More details will come when we are close to the test.
TacByte team changes
Jack M & Skyline
Our Discord members have already noticed that we have two new members "Skyline" and "Jack M" in our Tacbyte Crew. Some people maybe recognize "Skyline" due to the fact he was part of the project in its early stages, "So welcome Back Skyline". Now we have 3 coders, that's awesome news for us at TacByte, furthermore, he is familiar with the project and he has already started working on the game. Jack M is our Sound designer, he prepares and edits the projects Sound files so they can be implemented into the game, up to yet we didn´t have a Sound designer and we are glad that "Jack M" has joined our crew "Welcome Jack M". The full potential of his sound design will come out when we have added FMod to the game. We are still working on that.
The unraveling of a planetary sized constricted ball of hair aka our Code
TacByte
That's how Skyline described our code, of course, it isn´t as bad as it sounds, but it is kinda funny and worth repeating in the blog. This is just a part of our development when we started this project our knowledge of Unreal Engine 4 wasn´t as good as it is now. We grew with every problem we solved. So some parts of the code that are working need to be rewritten, in the end, it's better for all of us, a clean code will help us when problems arise, then we can find and fix them easier and quicker. There was also a tremendously work at the code that was put in by TH120 & DarkSoe, it's not possible to show that, but you will feel it when the game will run buttersmooth in the end. The Viewers of the last Livestream saw that we suffered a lot of server crashes, that has now been fixed, small error big impact, however, there are plenty of bugs left to fix/find, so let's leave that to our Dev team and Alpha-Testers, On a side note we would like to thank the active Alpha Testers for their work on TO4, Thank You. Now let's move on to some new Features that have been added to the game.Main Menu, Crosshair Editor, Shell-Out, Gameplay
Main Menu, Crosshair Editor, Shell-Out, Gameplay
DarkSoe & TH120
The Visual of the Main Menu remains the same but the plugin that we used has been replaced with our own code, now it's our own Menu, we wanted to hold off replacing it but we had a lot of complications working with the old menu plugin so we thought no time like the present. We have also added a Basic Crosshair Editor, nothing super fancy but it does the job for now. We have also added an alternative Weapon Hud, some of our Alpha Testers liked it some didn't. Take a look at the picture. We added a Shell-Out animation to all our Weapons, so when you're firing a gun you see the empty shell ejected from the chamber and the shell falls to the ground and remains, it also makes a sound when it collides with the terrain. Fine tuning is still needed but it works and gives the weapons a better feeling. We made some gameplay changes to the hacking and bomb scenarios. Now you can defuse or hack (same panel) with a maximum of 2 players at the same time to speed up the hacking or defusal. This is only something we are testing and we are not sure if it's a good idea or not. What do you think?
Please Visit our Website for the Screenshots
Map work
Ssswing
The maps Scope and Blister suffered from some scaling issues and didn't match the performance we needed for the game. Our new versions have Tacbyte's own style, they are a lot bigger and the performance of the maps has been greatly improved. All of our Alpha testers are really happy with these changes, since the gameplay on it improved drasticly. It is difficult to do comparison screenshots because both the maps are really different now, but take a look at the pictures from November 2017 and November 2018.
Check out our Media Section (High Resolution), we have recently updated it with new Screenshots, or just check it here below (Low Resolution).
The Map-Prelude had some minor visual changes. It's now a more damp forest, with reflective pools, muddy tracks and a more tense feeling to it.
We are also happy to mention a new map (WIP name: FollowTheMoney), its a smaller map focused on 2vs2 and 3vs3 gameplay. The mapshots are from a very early moment. In the mean time we are working on RapidWaters and Converge to increase performance and gameplay on these maps.
Please Visit our Website for the Screenshots
New Weapon Animations
slayer5530
Slayer made you some new Eyecandy to look at and the Special Force finally gains its correct MP5, our Silenced MP5A2 is out and the original MP5SD is in, we know you wanted it, obviously the Terrorist still have the MP5A2.
Please Visit our Website for the Videos
Introducing TO4ST
DarkSoe & TH120
TO4ST is our "Tactical Operations 4 Server Tool" this addon to the admin panel will enable the server owner to configure the server in many ways, for now, DarkSoe has been working on TO4ST Weapons. So you can create Servers that allow or disallow certain weapons on the server, as an example, you could set up a server which ONLY allows Sniper rifles and Pistols, TO4ST will also Auto Buy set items at the beginning of each Round. Currently, you can only make these changes in the Servers Config file, but this will change in the future and this function and any future admin functions/options will be added to the Admin Tab. We can´t wait to see Desert Eagle only servers again.
Final Words
TacByte
We hope you enjoyed our Devblog and we hope we took away some of your concerns or doubts about out develoment, we are steady working at the game. Some more news about this very soon. Again we mention: feel free to join our Discord channel and join our growing community!
Thank you
TacByte