Tiny Combat Arena, a simulation-lite, yet fun polygon-shaded flight simulator

[Asid]

0.13.4.1 is now available on the main branch!
Fri, December 22, 2023



The 3D model for the second cockpit is complete.

Hello! All the major features from 0.13 are now available on the public branch, along with a couple extra features.

New to this patch!

Nav Lighting

https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images//40742388/8b9130d4a2bfa4d24d3df61f907989c06336d9cd.gif

The final feature that was needed for night time environments was the lighting on the aircraft themselves. This is a feature that I've been iterating on behind the scenes for quite some time, with this final version being by far the best. It re-uses the scaling and display tech created by the tech artist for the street lights and various other environment lights. Features include:

When viewed up close, they are little "bulbs"
When viewed from afar, they turn into small point lights that are always visible (prevents flickering)
The lights are directional, so the correct nav lights are seen from the correct aspects
Blinking is supported
Each light can be configured individually for each aircraft (no presets required)

Even better, all these features are built right into the shader, which means that they have essentially no CPU-side cost. On TCA, the CPU is basically always going to be the bottleneck, so being able to move computations off to the GPU when possible is always a win.



Nav lights are toggle on/off by whether or not the HUD is in NAV mode. Basically, when out of combat, they are on, when in combat, they are off. Most important, this applies to the AI as well. Especially at night time, AI aircraft can be visible from quite some ways away while "idle" and out of combat. However once they enter combat, the lights go out and it's all business. I really like how this gives a clear "out the window" tell for whether or not you've drawn the AI's attention. Expect mechanics like this to play an important part in the future!


M48 Infrared SAM



A minor addition, but one that was a long time coming. Replacing, the placeholder US SA-9 is the M48, an M113 descendant adapted to fire AIM-9 missiles from a very "Mech" looking quad rail launcher. The M48 can be found in the dev test Arena mission, as well as a selectable formation in the Strike test.


Tester's Build Highlights
Check out this past news post on 13.3.1.1 for more information. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1347550/view/5940872360627653802


AI Firing IR Guided Missiles



This is will be an area of ongoing work that will have pretty sweeping effects on most parts of the game. As such, this is only the first part of a much larger revision to air combat, which will eventually include radar guided missiles and new tactics by the AI.

For the time being, the AI is restricted only to firing IR guided missiles. Until chaff is functional (which will come with radar guided SAMs) I wasn't comfortable with allowing the AI to fire radar guided missiles since there'd wouldn't be much in the way of counterplay yet.

NAV Mode



The Arena map symbology isn't meant to be overlaid while flying, but it was a convenient hack at the time. NAV mode is meant to clean up and declutter the HUD, and to give a non-combat "strategic" view of the map while flying on it. This update is just the first part of this


Changelog

New Features:
- NAV Marker system to replace Arena symbology for bases while in flight (NAV mode is WIP feature)
  + When in NAV mode, strategic targets have faction-colored HUD elements with their names
  + Arena symbology (big wall of text) is no longer shown while in flight
- AI have the ability to fire IR guided missiles
  + How often missiles are fired depends on skill level (Rookies rarely fire, Aces will spam missiles)
- Wave system added to dogfight instant action
  + When waves >1 all aircraft of a faction respawn when shot down
  + Endless waves option added
  + New incoming waves spawn randomly within a 10 mile radius of their mission defined spawn
- Added "Random" option for aircraft type in Dogfight
- Added 1x, 3x, and Unlimited countermeasures gameplay setting
- Nav lights added to all aircraft
- Nav light state tied to whether or not aircraft is in Nav mode
- AI will enter/leave nav mode based on what they're currently doing
- Added M48 and MIM-72C
- M48 can be selected as part of US instant action strike formations

Improvements:
- Tweaks to text rendering to make it more reliable at lower resolutions
- Optimized show/hide code for vehicle group icons
- Proximity fuzing ignores friendlies
- Dogfight lowest starting altitude raised to 3000ft
- Wings in Instant Action Dogfight/Strike spawn at 3000ft AGL or MSL, whichever is higher
- Instant action dogfight respawned waves now appear relative to the player
  + They also respawn in the original specified configuration, with some random offsets
- F-5E model has added fuselage lights
- Renamed "Vulcan" in Strike formation selector to "AAA - M163"
- Added Tactics text to the SA-9 database entry
- US SA-9 in the dev test mission has been replaced with M48

Bugfixes:
- Lines no longer draw between strategic targets when not in Arena
- Fixed NRE caused by AI running out of missiles
- Missile launch notification no longer appears for AI fired missiles
- Incoming wave message time reduced 600s -> 15s
- Fixed instant action dogfight friendly waves not respawning
- Fixed bug where mission failed when instant action dogfight allied planes (but not player) were destroyed
- Fixed bug where respawned waves could appear only at 1800m AGL
- Selected loadout preserved between instant action missions
- Animated parts stop updating if their parts become null
- Missile trails and wing trails no longer glow at night
- Objects hidden on destroy are null checked before attempting to hide them

Balance:
- 9M31 (Strela) increased CountermeasureRate 1.0 -> 1.2

JSON:
- In Arena definitions, StrategicTargets can have a "HudName" for NAV mode display
- "Flyables.json" file added to root of mod directory
  + Defines which aircraft are flyable (should allow mod aircraft to be flyable without cheat)
- Renamed "CountermeasureResistance" to "CountermeasureRate" to reflect its actual usage

[Asid]

0.13.4.3 New Years Bugfixes
Tue, 9 January 2024

The Blender file for the island map is 233 MB.

Glad to be back into things after the holidays! There are lots of things that I'm really excited about in the coming months.



Changelog

Improvements:
- Start button on gamepad is rebindable
- Pressing the keyboard escape key, or the "Escape Menu" bind, will close the escape menu while open

Bugfixes:
- Restored the hills to the east of Nazrin
- Fixed select previous weapon logic

[Asid]

0.13.5.1 Available on Tester's Branch
Wed, 24 January 2024

Hello! This past month I've been knocking out bugfixes along with continuing pre-production work on the next map. This includes more work towards moving all the Arena missions to the updated Sand Island terrain. Most of the bugfixes included are small, but there are two very important changes with not so obvious effects and hopefully (crossing my fingers!) no side effects.


Revised cockpit rendering



Now that I've been working on cockpits again, I finally did a long-overdue change to how cockpit rendering works since. It doesn't look much different from the player's perspective, but the plane exterior is no longer duplicated in the cockpit model. Instead, when in first person view, JSON specified meshes get hidden. E.g. the third person canopy frame is hidden, because the cockpit model contains its own version of that geometry. Previously, the hiding third person geometry was done through a pushed out near clip plane, cutting off the third person model geometry near to the camera, but this is a very inflexible way to handle the problem and doesn't always line up the way you'd like it to.

To compensate for things not always lining up correctly, the whole front of the plane was included in the cockpit model, which caused some annoying issues and visual glitches, and it was annoying to keep the two models perfectly in sync whenever something minor changed.



This is all gone now. The intended workflow is now much more straightforward and robust. Simply model the cockpit, and just the cockpit. This cockpit model is always drawn on top of the third person geometry. Then, on the third person model, mark objects to be hidden while in first person that would look strange since the cockpit model includes a high res version of them. Things like the third person instrument cluster, canopy bows, etc.

The pilot model is now automatically hidden while in first person as well. For modded planes, this should make cockpit rendering a little nicer and more convenient.


Vertical floating origin



For very legacy reasons, the game's floating origin worked only in the horizontal. If I recall correctly it was a quick hack to get over something related to either spawning or ground handling. Over time, as systems have been reworked, they've been written with a vertical floating origin in mind, to the point where I think it's feasible to finally make the jump. This should solve all the jittering that was visible as planes got higher in altitude, particularly in the cockpit.

The AI in particular had to be gone over with a fine tooth comb and while I think I got everything, if you notice any oddities with altitude reporting or the AI acting strange (more so than usual) then please let me know either here or on the MicroProse Discord server.


Changelog

Improvements:
- Cockpit design changed so that ONLY the cockpit is in the cockpit model, no more duplicated geometry (e.g. fuselage in both models)
  + "Third person" parts of the model such as the canopy bow are hidden when in first person
  + First pilot automatically hidden when in first person
  + Cockpitless planes no longer require special h andling regarding camera clip planes
- AV8B model updated for new cockpit modeling workflow and removed unused vertex colors
- AV8B no longer uses unique shader
- Near clip plane for ALL cameras is now 0.05 (most were 1.0)
- Far clip plane for ALL cameras is now 100k
- When escape menu modal dialogs are open, escape will close it
- Floating origin now applies in the vertical

Bugfixes:
- Page selectors on database mode now work
- Instant action wing selector pages should work correctly when multiple pages are visible
- Pressing escape during the pause menu while settings or bindings are open won't continue game
- Fog and clouds no longer disappear when loading Instant Action after Arena
- AI aircraft flying in formation automatically switch back to nav mode
- Cockpit no longer shakes at higher altitude
- "Investigate" AI behavior correctly accounts for floating origin
- "Idle Orbit" AI behavior correctly accounts for floating origin
- "Climb" AI behavior correctly accounts for floating origin
- Arena icons no longer appear for a single frame near origin when a unit spawns
- Camera text correctly accounts for the floating origin

JSON:
- Warning shown in log when collider is missing
- Added "HideInFirstPerson" list to aircraft definition (see AV8B JSON for example)

[Asid]

0.13.5.4 is now available!
Wed, February 7, 2024



When terrain isn't an island, you have to do something at the map boundaries.

Hello! This patch cycle is once again focused on bugfixes, as a lot of dev attention has been on the next terrain, the new challenges it's creating, and other behind the scenes work.



The major changes this patch, with links to the posts in which they are discussed, are:

-    Revised cockpit rendering
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1347550/view/3950287576122204269

-    Vertical floating origin
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1347550/view/3950287576122204269

-    New audio sliders and adjustments to the audio mix
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1347550/view/4047115602009198492


Changelog

New Features:
- Added real (64 by default) and virtual (256 by default) audio channels to audio settings tab
- Minimum airspeed that can be read by an aircraft is now configurable on a per-aircraft basis

Improvements:
- Cockpit design changed so that ONLY the cockpit is in the cockpit model, no more duplicated geometry (e.g. fuselage in both models)
  + "Third person" parts of the model such as the canopy bow are hidden when in first person
  + First pilot automatically hidden when in first person
  + Cockpitless planes no longer require special h andling regarding camera clip planes
- AV8B model updated for new cockpit modeling workflow and removed unused vertex colors
- AV8B no longer uses unique shader
- Near clip plane for ALL cameras is now 0.05 (most were 1.0)
- Far clip plane for ALL cameras is now 100k
- When escape menu modal dialogs are open, escape will close it
- Floating origin now applies in the vertical

Bugfixes:
- Page selectors on database mode now work
- Instant action wing selector pages should work correctly when multiple pages are visible
- Pressing escape during the pause menu while settings or bindings are open won't continue game
- Fog and clouds no longer disappear when loading Instant Action after Arena
- AI aircraft flying in formation automatically switch back to nav mode
- Cockpit no longer shakes at higher altitude
- "Investigate" AI behavior correctly accounts for floating origin
- "Idle Orbit" AI behavior correctly accounts for floating origin
- "Climb" AI behavior correctly accounts for floating origin
- Arena icons no longer appear for a single frame near origin when a unit spawns
- Camera text correctly accounts for the floating origin
- Radar altimeter and shadows should be handled better when flying "out of bounds"
- Paging for the wing selector and database selector should work correctly for edge cases
- When vehicles fall off the navmesh, they instead report (with error messages) that they did, but also shouldn't call any invalid NavMeshAgents
- Optimized how stores weight is calculated (was an unexpected bottleneck)
- Changes to audio mix to hopefully reduce missing engine sounds
- Afterburner thrust value no longer affects aircraft if no afterburner is available
- AV8B MFD Cruise page minimum speed IAS/TAS now matches the Game HUD minimum speed
- Landing gear can no longer be raised/lower post-ejection
- Terrain raycasting better accounts for vertical floating origin
- Aircraft no longer spawns underground in Arena if a new sortie

JSON:
- Warning shown in log when collider is missing
- Added "HideInFirstPerson" list to aircraft definition (see AV8B JSON for example)
- Added "Avionics" property to aircraft with sub-property "MinDisplayedAirspeedMPS"

[Asid]

0.13.6.3 has been released, official TrackIR support and Steam screenshots!
Sat, March 2, 2024



I've been living with an AMD64 compiler issue from that ancient TIR plugin for years and it's finally gone.


Almost everything I've been working on lately has been back end to support the upcoming training campaign, which will introduce each of the mechanics of Arena one by one and take place on the new island map. The Arena mission handling got refactored a bit, along with a global event system, to handle the basic scripting necessary for the Arena training missions.



In the parallel to this, one of the things that has been on the backlog for a while has been updating the TrackIR plugin and fixing a couple head tracking related bugs.


Official TrackIR Plugin



The absolutely ancient TrackIR plugin I've been using for almost 10 years has finally been updated to the latest, which brings native support for the game in the TrackIR software. The unusual pitch ladder movements when head tracking was used have also been addressed.


Steam Screenshots



Another small line item that was on the backlog for a long time was having photo mode actually take Steam screenshots. This works as would expect, with the default behavior being to take a Steam screenshot if the game is currently being run through Steam. Two new settings have been added to the game to force the old behavior of locally saved screenshots, or disable Steam screenshots entirely.


Behind the Scenes

The new map is quite large, with the base geometry for it now being down. Expect mountains and valleys to fly through. It's still extremely WIP, so keep that in mind with this very WIP preview image.



The first campaign mission is very simple, just taking off and landing in a couple airbases around the island map, but since the game right now only has events for purely "Strategic" stuff like base capture, this has caused some coding fun to expand the event system to make for more robust mission objectives.

The bulk of the remaining work on the game will be on building out the Arena and Arena missions. The training campaign is still subject to re-organization but this is the rough outline of not just the campaign but also Arena's feature-set.




Changelog

Improvements:
- Strategic Target visuals no longer Z-Test
- Updated TrackIR plugin to the latest over the original 10 year old plugin
- Game will be recognized as "Tiny Combat Arena" in the TrackIR software
- Photo mode automatically takes Steam screenshots
- Added setting for local screenshots to be saved only when Steam is not in use, or always
- Added setting to enable/disable Steam screenshots
- Shutter effect in photo mode happens only after a photo has been successfully saved

Bugfixes:
- Occasional freeze caused by TIR on startup no longer happens
- "Use head tracking" setting works as expected
- "Use head tracking" setting can enable/disable TrackIR mid-flight
- TrackIR no longer resets every time settings window is opened
- "Reload TrackIR" keybind works as expected

Balance:
- AltitudeEfficiency set to the following values to make dedicated fighters better at high altitude
  + AV8B: 1.0
  + F-5/MiG-21: 1.2
  + F-5/MiG-23: 1.5

JSON:
- Added "AltitudeEfficiency" parameter to the engine definition for aircraft
  + Value of 1 is normal, >1 mean engine suffers less engine degradation with altitude

[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

[Asid]

Steam Workshop has been added to Tiny Combat Arena!
Sat, March 15, 2025



It's been awesome to be surprised by some of the things people have done with mods!

Hello! As a former modder, Tiny Combat Arena was always built with modding in mind. The layout of the game's files are plainly accessible, and tools were released a little over year to allow for importing of new 3D models into the game, which dramatically expanded what could be done.




The Modding Community



It's been awesome and heartwarming to see a modding community build over time for Tiny Combat. However, mods had little in the way of discoverability, with no central location to download and share them, until now.



Workshop support was something I was putting off as a post-1.0 update, but at the insistence of, and with some programming support provided by, MicroProse, it was able to get done much sooner. In the long run I think that was the right decision.


Accessing Workshop



The easiest way to access the Workshop is through the Workshop tab that now appears on the game's page in your Library. It can also be accessed directly through the Community tab.


The Mod Manager



New in this patch is the Mod Manager. It's pretty self-explanatory, but it can be used to check the mods you have installed both locally and from Workshop. The mod load order can be adjusted, in case you need one mod to have its data loaded first so it be overwritten correctly by another mod. The Mod Manager will also tell you if you there is an asset conflict between mods.

Local mods can still be installed into the Mods folder the same as they used to, and this is something you will need to do if you want to create your own mods. Uploading mods to Steam Workshop is also done through this menu, as is updating your mods to Workshop.


Preview: Northern Germany Work Continues



This patch was almost entirely concerned with Workshop support, so none of the convoy, helicopter, and terrain work that is being developed in parallel is making it in. I'm very excited about the variety of missions the new terrain will allow, but it's facing some challenges right now with regards to handling the scale of the map, with some pretty amazing optimizations as well.

In the meantime though, here's a few more WIP screenshots of the upcoming Northern Germany terrain!






Changelog

New Features:
- Added Ural 375D supply truck
- Added arena map cursor, used for navigation with gamepad
- Arena map cursor points towards Arena objectives
- New modding window to manage mods ingame
  + Set load order
  + See description with thumbnails
  + Enable/disable mods
- New Mod tools which export whole mods instead of just asset bundles
- Added "Loading..." bootstrapper scene to make the transition from the Unity logo to the splash screen logos smoother
  + Unity changed their licensing so the Unity logo is unfortunately back ;_;

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
- Added move to top/bottom buttons for mod manager sorting
- The mod specific panels (View, Upload, Update) have more consistent styling
- Better logging for various Workshop mod related things
- If updating a mod fails, the error message show's the mod's Steam ID
- Added toggles to set what gets updated when updating the Workshop mod (defaults to only content)

Bugfixes:
- When a mod is unsubscribed from, it is deleted when the game is reset on its first try
- Fixed mods not downloading after a certain number of subscribed mods reached
- Mod loading status is shown whenever mods are being downloaded, and not only once on startup
- Mods are downloaded ONLY on game start, not every time data is reloaded

JSON:
- Fixed typo on the mod description JSON from "Description:" to "Description"