Forum > Flight Simulation
Tiny Combat Arena, a simulation-lite, yet fun polygon-shaded flight simulator
Asid:
0.14.1.3 is now available on the Tester's branch
Thu, 23 May 2024
This patch fixes a couple long-standing issues related to the damage model. The most notable new feature to come out of this, is the introduction of critical parts. To fix some related AI bugs, many parts on aircraft are now marked as "critical". When one of these is destroyed, the AI pilot will attempt to maintain control of the plane, but when they figure out they can't, they'll eject.
Between this change and the rest of the damage model fixes, it's now possible to destroy planes without completely obliterating them or setting them on fire.
In the gif, the AI pilot holds full left stick for a second and it kinda almost works, but gives up, and then ejects.
For modders: For modders: The RCS value in the Control parameter for the DamageablePart has been removed, and replaced with new values. See the changelog below for more details.
Changelog
New Features:
- Added "Critical parts" which trigger ejection from pilot
Improvements:
- Losing a wingtip in AV8 reduces RCS roll authority
- Losing both wingtips in AV8 causes complete loss of RCS roll authority
- RCS damage can be caused to specific control axes
- It's possible to destroy aircraft from pilot ejecting from damage instead of fire
Bugfixes:
- All engine instances can be destroyed by damage
- Right engine is destroyed by right side damage on F-4E instead of left
- Control damage is no longer multiplied by >200X
Balance:
- Most Wings and elevators on all jets listed as critical
- Tweaks to MiG-23 damage model to better match visuals
- Reduced image of wing damage from AV8 elevators 2.0 -> 1.0
- F-4 outer wings roll damage increased 0.1 -> 0.2
- Swing wings
JSON:
- Removed "RCS" as a value for "Control" in the "PhysicsDamage" entries
- Added "RCSRoll", "RCSPitch", "RCSYaw", as values for "Control" in the "PhysicsDamage" entries
- "Control" value defaults to "None" instead of "Pitch"
- Added "IsCritical" to the "DamageablePart" definitions
Asid:
0.15.1.1 is available on the Tester's branch!
Thu, 15 August 2024
That one just bounced.
This patch adds the third training mission, demonstrating capturing of bases using APCs. To drive this, and to have the mission teach players about how to deal with tanks, this came a whole host of new mechanics relating to bullets and armor, and a massive rebalance of all vehicles and air to ground weapons!
There will be more posts in the near future about each of the new features, before the patch hits the main branch, detailing out what changed and the rationale behind them!
Changelog
New Features:
- Bullet can ricochet off of terrain
+ Gravity handled on a per-bullet basis
+ ExplodeOnImpact bullets ricochet at shallower angles than AP
+ Threshold for ricochet off ground depends on hardness of surface
- Groups spawned from strategic targets can be "primed" to attack a specific target
- New armor and damage mechanics to add variety to vehicles and weapons
+ Munitions (bombs, missiles, etc.) use a simple penetration >= armor check against armor
+ Completely new calculations for how HE damage is reduced by armor (see tool)
+ Penetration is now checked against for a chance to ricochet (see tool)
+ Ricochets against vehicles do not happen on bullets where "ExplodeOnImpact" is true
+ Penetration check for impact will still happen on impacts even if "ExplodeOnImpact" is true
- Ammo belt functionality added to aircraft
+ Selected ammo type displayed next to gun ammo count in loadout dialog
+ If no ammo belt is defined for aircraft, guns call back on their defined bullet
+ Arena UI shows gun ammo and belt in the loadout preview box
+ AI use average gravity of ammo belt for air to air gunnery
+ Gun piper max range cue is based on average in ammo belt
+ Gun piper A-A aimpoint calculations based (also used by AI) on average gravity of belt
+ Gun piper A-G aimpoint calculations based on average gravity and max range of ammo belt
+ Added "Select Ammo" button to loadout dialog, hidden when no ammo belts are defined
+ Selected ammo type displayed next to gun ammo count in loadout dialog
- All damageable objecs have a specifically defiend attrition cost
- All vehicles and aircraft default to 1 attrition cost
- Added "Capture" training mission
+ Capture Kogasa with M113 convoy
+ Protect the convoy of M113s against the medium tank T-62
Improvements:
- Arena mission objectives and flags are serializable
- Arena missions can set camera height
- Targets store a "size"
- All buildings now have their size prescribed in the prefab and at build time
- Adjusted weights for the pathfinding to favor roads more when out of combat
- Temporarily(?) disabled wrecks blocking the navmesh to prevent bridges from getting blocked and improve navigation
- Vehicles are smaller for navigation and collision avoidance purposes
- Tweaked the effect of roads on vehicle movement
+ Road movement boosts acceleration (50%) and turn rate (100%)
+ Road speed bonus reduced 50% -> 25%
- Updates to vehicle targeting
+ Visually based targeting checks for line of sight
+ Targeting handled from top of vehicles rather than centroid
+ Vehicles will no longer turn around and drive away from targets that get too close
- Radars now check for terrain line of sight
- Loadout dialog slightly widened
- Arena mission selector shows a "recommended" aircraft, ammo belt, and loadout
- Many new impact effects specific to AP shells for autocannons and cannons
- Attrition Display now visible during an Arena sortie
- Added options for Always Show or Auto Hide for the Attrition Display (defaults to Always Show)
- Better logging when bullets have missing or incorrect effects
- Updated Mk20 description and tactics in database
Bugfixes:
- Many buildings now correctly contribute to the navmesh
- Fixed/added navmesh to the rest of the islands
- Major navmesh improvements to the big island
- Fixed cliffside near Shou not having a collision mesh
- Missile launchers will now reload when empty and out of combat
- Strategic target capture and disable objectives are functional again
- Fixed null reference when landing at random spot on the ground
- Damageable parts (e.g. wings) no longer each deduct 1 attrition when destroyed
- Fixed Attrition Display not initializing correctly after respawn
Balance:
- Big balance pass on almost all vehicles and weapons to use new armor and penetration values
- In general: Vehicles have a lot more HP, and are more armored
- In general: Effectiveness of gun against armor is reduced
- In general: Munitions are much more necessary to destroy armored targets
- In general: Tank cannon accuracy and effectiveness greatly increased
- M113/BTR70/M113/M48/SA9: HP increased 50 -> 100, Armored increased 0 -> 1
- BMP1: HP increased 60 -> 100, Armor increased 0 -> 2
- M1: HP increased 200 -> 500, Armor increased 1 -> 9
- T80B/M1A1: HP increased 200 -> 500, Armor increased 1 -> 10
- M60A1/T62: HP increased 100 -> 350, Armor increased 1 -> 5
- Shilka: HP increased 75 -> 125, Armor increased 0 -> 1
- ZSU57: HP increased 75 -> 220, Armor increased 0 -> 3
- M2/KPVT: Penetration increased 0 -> 1
- 2A28/M68: Deviation reduced 2.0 -> 0.5
- 2A20: Deviation reduced 2.0 -> 0.2
- M256/2A46-2: Deviation reduced 0.5 -> 0.1
- M256: Fires new 120mm NATO round
- 73mm HEAT: Impact damage increased 50 -> 100, Penetration increased 0 -> 1
- 105mm NATO: Impact damage increased 50 -> 150, Penetration increased 1 -> 8
- 120mm NATO (new): Impact damage 250, Penetration 15
- 115mm USSR: Impact damage increased 50 -> 160, Penetration increased 1 -> 7
- 125mm USSR: Impact damage increased 75 -> 275, Penetratio increased 2 -> 15
- GAU12 on AV8B has 3 ammo belt options: Mixed, High Explosive, and Armor Piercing
- GAU12 HE round has 15 splash damage and explodes on timeout
- GAU12 AP round does 12 AP damage with penetration of 3 and has a longer range and flatter trajectory than HE
- Attrition training mission defaults to HE ammo belt
- Big balance pass on all A/G munitions to bring them in line with the stronger vehicles
- Mk20 splash penetration 2 -> 10
- Mk20 splash damage 25 -> 100
- Mk82, Mk82SE splash damage 100 -> 200
- Mk82, Mk82AB, Mk82SE impact penetration 1 -> 10
- Mk82, Mk82AB, Mk82SE impact damage 200 -> 500
- Mk82AB splash damage 100 -> 250
- Mk83 impact damage 400 -> 800
- Mk83 impact penetratin 1 -> 13
- Mk83 splash damage 200 -> 400
- Mk84 impact damage 800 -> 1600
- Mk84 splash damage 300 -> 600
- AGM65D impact damage 200 -> 650
JSON:
- Added "InitialCamHeight" to the Arena definition
- Aircraft now have a "Size" property similar to vehicles
- Added "AmmoBelts" array property to Aircraft loadout definition (see AV8B loadout for example)
- Added "PlayerAmmoBelt" to set default ammo belt for plaeyrs in Arena Mission definition
- Added "Attrition" parameter to vehicle and aircraft definitions to define attrition deducted when destroyed
Asid:
Armor, Penetration, and How This Changes All Vehicles
Fri, 23 August 2024
TL;DR: Vehicle types didn't matter much to the player for a lot of reasons but now it will
With the next main branch patch (currently available on the tester's branch), major changes to how armor, penetration, and vehicle damage is handled are being implemented.
A lot of this has been a long time coming, and building out and balancing the training missions was the final straw that broke the camel's back for this. The way vehicles act when fighting each other should be as easy to intuit as possible. Various quirks in the ways that vehicles were balanced, and the mechanics they used, were getting in the way of that, and producing unexpected results.
Armor
Broadly speaking, the effect of armor has been dramatically increased. What was once a scale of 0-2, is now a scale of 0-10. It can go even higher if necessary, but all vehicles you'll find will operate on this 0-10 scale. To give some reference points:
• 0: Completely unarmored. Applies to all aircraft. Currently no vehicles fall under this categorization, but things like convoy trucks and SAM sites will occupy this category. Unarmored vehicles take full and unmitigated HE damage and AP shots never ricochet off. Explosions of any kind are extremely deadly to anything unarmored.
• 1-2: Lightly armored. All APCs fall under this. The armor serves mainly to provide some light protection against pure HE damage. All bullet based weapons will still penetrate 1 armor, though a 2 armor APC will provide some light protection against machineguns.
• 3-7: Light Armor (e.g. ZSU-57-2) Medium tanks. Aircraft cannons are only moderately effective, requiring AP to have a chance to damage, but it can still be done in a pinch if you have gun ammo to spare. Explosive damage is reduced. Cluster bombs or ATGMs are recommended. Most tank have a decent chance to penetrate medium tanks.
• 8-10: Heavy tanks. No aircraft gun can penetrate these tanks, requiring cluster bombs or ATGMs to destroy. Medium tank cannons will have some difficulty with this, about 50% penetration rate.
Read on...
Asid:
0.15.2.1 Patch Notes
Tue, 1 October 2024
Imagine getting hit by a tank shell while flying. That'd be pretty funny.
This will be pushed to the main branch very soon.
Changelog 0.15.2.1 (September 30 2024)
New Features:
- Handling for neutral bases
- APCs will capture neutral bases, tanks will not
- Laser guidance type will continue to guide weapons as long as there is line of sight to aircraft post-launch
- Laser guided weapons can acquire their targets post-launch, allowing them to be fired beyond their seeker max range
- Added "AGM-64C" short range laser guided anti-tank missile with 2x and 4x launchers
- "Close Air Support" loadout now had 8x AGM-64C
- Notification when bases are being captured
- Added support for "Spinners" for aircraft (see JSON section)
- Spinners only spin when the engine is running
- Ability for Arena missions to create custom Strategic Targets at runtime
- Added T-72 Ural, only slightly more armored than the average medium tank, but with a great gun
- Custom strategic targets can have custom spawn points
- Added new training mission 4, focusing on armor and anti-tank weapons
Improvements:
- Attrition can be disabled per-side by setting starting tickets to negative
- Attrition display will display a single bar if only one side is using the mechanic
- Added "Tactical" entry to Arena mission briefings
- Updated formatting of the mission briefings
- Updated descriptions for existing training missions with the new tactical entries
- Missions can set a custom number of tickets that the player costs on death
- Campaigns can be hidden from selection, and test campaign has been hidden (obsolete, and source of many bugs)
- Civilian color is now a gray color
- Tickets no longer deducted once the mission has been completed
- Currently selected Arena mission is now highlighted on the Arena mission selector
- Better initial camera positions for the Arena training missions
- Changed the Arena sortie unable text "No pilots available" -> "No Sorties Available"
- Mission status messages last longer on screen
- Depleting red tickets automatically results in a win
- Depleting blue tickets automatically results in a loss
- Depleting pilots automatically results in a loss
- When missions are completed, new sorties cannot be started
- Slightly smoother Arena camera movement
- Tinted AV8B forward canopy for easier to read HUD
- Vehicles don't slow down if they are firing on air targets only
Bugfixes:
- Custom attrition costs are now respected (e.g.)
- Frontline arrows will shrink in size if the bases are too close to each other
- Fixed rearm/refuel dialog not being updated when rearm/refuel is pressed
- Bases too close together have their frontline arrows rendered with no weird clipping
- Weapons symbology is hidden when weight on wheels
- Flight messages no longer block mouse clicks
- Fixed fuel tanks and cosmetic stores not appearing correctly on pylons set to hide when unloaded
- Sortie button no longer overlaps loadout buttonw hen sortie unavailable
- "ReloadsLeft" for vehicle missile turrets should now function correctly
- Fixes to arena capture/disable/attrition events not firing correctly
- Fixed loading order of the triple Maverick rack
- Moved the flight messages to not overlap certain HUD elements
- Fixed fuel weight being incorrect in the pre-sortie loadout screen
- Retooling of "Capture" training mission to only use the small Sand Island island to make it go quicker
- Vehicles spawn directly onto the navmesh instead of terrain clamped
- Fixed NRE from laser on destroyed targets
- All spawn points are now used correctly for Strategic Targets instead of just the first one
Balance:
- M2 damage increased 5 -> 12
- KPVT damage increased 8 -> 15
- Increased yaw RCS on AV8B 7000 -> 14000
- AGM-65D tweaks to make it fit the role of the high power "standoff" long ranged anti-tank and anti-air weapon
+ Drag greatly reduced to fit description better and be more in line with bombs 0.1 -> 0.025
+ Motor duration reduced 6 -> 5
+ Max effective range increased 10000 -> 12000
+ Effective range increased 8000 -> 9000
+ MaxG reduced 7 -> 4
+ Updated database description
- Mission 2 now uses the High Drag Bombs for the default loadout
- Mission 2 added new primary objective to prevent capture of home base
- Increased drag on Mk82 "Snakeyes" to make them easier to use 0.2 -> 0.5
- Tanks will fire on passing aircraft with their main gun, but won't lead them correctly
JSON:
- "IsHidden" can be set to "true" in the Campaign definition
- "Attrition" property for Vehicle and Aircraft definitions now functional (defaults to 1)
- Fixed typo in the aircraft bullet pool definition (BulletConstants.json, "Aicraft" -> "Aircraft")
- "ReloadsLeft" set to -1 will be infinite
- "ReloadsLeft" set to a positive number will allow the launcher to be reloaded that many times
- "GuidanceType" now has possible value of "Laser"
- Added "Spinners" list to the aircraft definition (see vehicles for example)
Asid:
0.15.3.1 Patch Notes (Tester's branch only)
Sat 16 Nov 2024
The Ural kinda wasn't supposed to be in this patch but oh well.
Changelog
New Features:
- Added Ural 375D supply truck
- Added arena map cursor, used for navigation with gamepad
- Arena map cursor points towards Arena objectives
Improvements:
- Gamepad now has default controls for for moving map screen camera
- Added new controls specific to photo mode for better controller support
+ Photo Mode: Zoom In/Out (D-Pad up/down)
+ Photo Mode: Hide UI (A button)
+ Photo Mode: Take Photo (X button)
- Updated Steamworks SDK to 1.57
- Photo mode controls box changes depending on last touched input
- World position display on top right of Photo Mode
- A new control scheme has been created for the Steam Deck as the new official default scheme
+ Back buttons are used as camera shortcuts
+ A trackpad based menu allows for expanded camera controls
+ The right trackpad is already configured to function as a mouse for menu navigation
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