Headquarters: World War II - Dev Log #12 is out nowTue, 2 April 2024
Hello!
It is Oleksandr from Starni Games with the new Dev log entry. The full release of Headquarters: World War II will happen very soon - on the 11th of April, and I would like to tell you more about our ongoing release preparations and the latest changes to the game. This is the last Dev log before the release and I want you all to be well-informed about the project and our progress.
What have we been doing over the last few months of development?
I am sure many of you would like to know what the Dev team has been working on during the last few months before release. Here is some of that:
Integrating the final VO in the game and checking it.
Finalizing all technical texts and sending all the materials for localization from English to other supported languages.
Putting the localization in-game and checking it.
Doing some final balancing and review of the missions, units, and all other key elements of the game.
Finishing any things that lagged behind or were left unfinished. (For example, introducing a Terrain info window, correcting the Combat Prediction for Assault, and so on).
Conducting lots of playtests.
Putting a lot of effort into the overall polishing.
Working very intensely on bug fixing.
Doing our best to address all remaining issues in time for the release.
Finalizing the user Manual and other useful hints/tips.
Making sure that new changes do not introduce new problems. Or addressing those problems expediently, when they do happen.
This is by far not an exhaustive list, as we have over 200 completed tasks in our internal task tracker for the period of March 2024 alone. That is making it over 500 tracked tasks since January. So, you can imagine how busy the team was.
We released the Demo in February and gathered a lot of useful feedback and suggestions. Below are some key changes that were introduced since that build.
1) We introduced many changes based on players' feedback. Here are a few examples:
A) adjusted the Machine Guns AP attack value to make sure they cannot hurt armor of 30 and above - making them effective only versus unarmored or very lightly armored targets.
B) Made sure units that have no chance of dealing damage are no longer overwatching in these situations. So, now the tanks cannot be used to exhaust the enemy MGs' reaction attacks on futile strikes, for example.
C) Introduced the Camouflage presets designed by the dev team, as well as, functionality for users to add their own ones. Those presets can then be applied quickly to any of the units.
2) Added some features that were missing, for example, the Terrain information. You can quickly toggle between the short and full versions of the Terrain info, similar to the Combat Prediction.
3) Made some balance changes in terms of unit costs, and other parameters. We also added Smoke screen attacks for Artillery and Mortars (as was suggested by the players as well), as before we had it only as teh HQ skill.
4) Added some missing information and hints. For example, we found that some descriptions were missing important pieces of information during the final text review. Now, you should have all the necessary information to play comfortably, and if you cannot find answers to your questions, you will be able to consult the game Manual that we are also finishing right now. We are just finishing it right now so that it has all the most up-to-date information.
5) Dealt with some unexpected difficulties.
As I explained above, while making all the changes it is of critical importance that all the new changes do not adversely affect the overall stability of the game. We take precautions, but sometimes that is not enough, and some less obvious or hard-to-detect issues slip through. Here is one example: we changed how the Spotting system worked, and we did not immediately notice that the game started to freeze often due to that change. So, the problem made it to the Press preview build, as we were looking for the problem source. As soon as we figured it out, we addressed the issue and updated the Press preview, but unfortunately, some creators and press have already experienced the said freezes… Still, the issue was taken care of and we hope to avoid having such problems slipping through to the end users in the future.
The said Spotting change was also an important one. Before, you could only have a vision of enemy units you see at the moment. So, if you moved away, you would immediately lose sight of them. After the change, however, you keep the information on the spotted enemy units until they move. So, you could scout the enemy positions, move away, and then attack them with other units without losing the intel on them until the end of your turn. We did this to avoid the situations, where it feels like your troops have a very short-lived memory, and immediately “forget” where the enemy was. Plus, we avoid situations, where the player knows where the enemy units are, but his troops - do not, so you have to make “blind” shots, etc. Now this problem is resolved.
So, this was a glimpse into our team’s work before release. We will do our best to deliver the best game we can on the 11th of April. At the same time, the further support of the project does not stop on the release day, so while you will start exploring the full game on the 11th, our team will keep working tirelessly to solve any problems you might encounter, or add any improvements or suggestions we could have overlooked so far. So, the release of the game is not an end, it is a new beginning.
I will be back with another Dev log sometime after the release to let you know how it went from the Devs' point of view and update you on our further plans.
Stay tuned, and see you all on April 11th!
What have we been doing over the last few months of development?
I am sure many of you would like to know what the Dev team has been working on during the last few months before release. Here is some of that:
Integrating the final VO in the game and checking it.
Finalizing all technical texts and sending all the materials for localization from English to other supported languages.
Putting the localization in-game and checking it.
Doing some final balancing and review of the missions, units, and all other key elements of the game.
Finishing any things that lagged behind or were left unfinished. (For example, introducing a Terrain info window, correcting the Combat Prediction for Assault, and so on).
Conducting lots of playtests.
Putting a lot of effort into the overall polishing.
Working very intensely on bug fixing.
Doing our best to address all remaining issues in time for the release.
Finalizing the user Manual and other useful hints/tips.
Making sure that new changes do not introduce new problems. Or addressing those problems expediently, when they do happen.
This is by far not an exhaustive list, as we have over 200 completed tasks in our internal task tracker for the period of March 2024 alone. That is making it over 500 tracked tasks since January. So, you can imagine how busy the team was.
We released the Demo in February and gathered a lot of useful feedback and suggestions. Below are some key changes that were introduced since that build.
1) We introduced many changes based on players' feedback. Here are a few examples:
A) adjusted the Machine Guns AP attack value to make sure they cannot hurt armor of 30 and above - making them effective only versus unarmored or very lightly armored targets.
B) Made sure units that have no chance of dealing damage are no longer overwatching in these situations. So, now the tanks cannot be used to exhaust the enemy MGs' reaction attacks on futile strikes, for example.
C) Introduced the Camouflage presets designed by the dev team, as well as, functionality for users to add their own ones. Those presets can then be applied quickly to any of the units.
2) Added some features that were missing, for example, the Terrain information. You can quickly toggle between the short and full versions of the Terrain info, similar to the Combat Prediction.
3) Made some balance changes in terms of unit costs, and other parameters. We also added Smoke screen attacks for Artillery and Mortars (as was suggested by the players as well), as before we had it only as teh HQ skill.
4) Added some missing information and hints. For example, we found that some descriptions were missing important pieces of information during the final text review. Now, you should have all the necessary information to play comfortably, and if you cannot find answers to your questions, you will be able to consult the game Manual that we are also finishing right now. We are just finishing it right now so that it has all the most up-to-date information.
5) Dealt with some unexpected difficulties.
As I explained above, while making all the changes it is of critical importance that all the new changes do not adversely affect the overall stability of the game. We take precautions, but sometimes that is not enough, and some less obvious or hard-to-detect issues slip through. Here is one example: we changed how the Spotting system worked, and we did not immediately notice that the game started to freeze often due to that change. So, the problem made it to the Press preview build, as we were looking for the problem source. As soon as we figured it out, we addressed the issue and updated the Press preview, but unfortunately, some creators and press have already experienced the said freezes… Still, the issue was taken care of and we hope to avoid having such problems slipping through to the end users in the future.
The said Spotting change was also an important one. Before, you could only have a vision of enemy units you see at the moment. So, if you moved away, you would immediately lose sight of them. After the change, however, you keep the information on the spotted enemy units until they move. So, you could scout the enemy positions, move away, and then attack them with other units without losing the intel on them until the end of your turn. We did this to avoid the situations, where it feels like your troops have a very short-lived memory, and immediately “forget” where the enemy was. Plus, we avoid situations, where the player knows where the enemy units are, but his troops - do not, so you have to make “blind” shots, etc. Now this problem is resolved.
So, this was a glimpse into our team’s work before release. We will do our best to deliver the best game we can on the 11th of April. At the same time, the further support of the project does not stop on the release day, so while you will start exploring the full game on the 11th, our team will keep working tirelessly to solve any problems you might encounter, or add any improvements or suggestions we could have overlooked so far. So, the release of the game is not an end, it is a new beginning.
I will be back with another Dev log sometime after the release to let you know how it went from the Devs' point of view and update you on our further plans.
Stay tuned, and see you all on April 11th!
Translations for our friends around the world.
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March 18, 2024, 07:44:34 PM