This Simulator has been simmering since 2017, and now in 2020 it's getting serious!
(http://www.moodurian.com/tornado/images/visuals/GunnerHeatPC.png)
The tank game you've been waiting for
It's a weird time for fans of modern tank combat games. The straight-shooting simulator titles from the turn of the millennium are no more, replaced by free-to-play games with modern vehicles locked behind aggressive pricing or absurd playtime. As tank nerds, we need a game that gets right to the good stuff - modern tanks, realistic system and damage models, and a focus on fun over all.
With Gunner, HEAT, PC! we aim to make that dream a reality.
No more staring at locked MBTs in your progression tree and wondering if you'll ever get to play them. No more spending industry prices to buy industry simulators just for a taste of something worthy. We're making a great tank game because that's what we want to play.
Gunner, HEAT, PC! was started by tank nerds, driven by our experiences playing tank games. We remember the well crafted sim-lite titles from decades past, and we think there's a place for that kind of game again. GHPC is not another free-to-play arena TDM game, and it's not a full-blown simulator you need a manual and a week of training to use. We intend to fuse game and simulation in a way that preserves player experience yet doesn't sacrifice on realism where it really counts. Read the full FAQ from https://gunnerheatpc.com/news/articles/ghpc-faq
https://youtu.be/6Exj0ekgubI
Alpha Gameplay
https://youtu.be/kBsYlrlkKtQ
Models and work in progress
More information, free pre-alpha build and lots of comments here: https://gunnerheatpcdev.itch.io/gunner-heat-pc-development-test-build,
So far 583 patrons at https://www.patreon.com/GunnerHEATPC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn-HhiB5HWw
Text interview with the developer
https://youtu.be/bHRZxbVec_E
Twitch Channel
https://www.twitch.tv/GunnerHEATPC
Featured on The Flare Path article
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/06/19/the-flare-path-a2z-19/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7VfPg_bv88
Optics and preview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCvPYr6tDD4
Youtube review by SteelBeastser Mirzayev
Response to Mirzayev by ActionScripter (Dev)
Thanks for checking out the public demo for GHPC! Great video. Your feedback is very thorough and, I should say up front, completely fair and correct. The sudden spread of my early demo caught it at kind of an awkward time - I decided it needed to be redone to a higher standard, but that redone version isn't ready yet. To that end, I have a small team now (most notably on visuals and audio) and we are rebuilding just about every piece of the demo.
Things from the video that we've fixed in the updated build of GHPC so far:
- Stabilization. The new stabilizers support several real-world "modes", including basic "direction" stabilization, angle-based Delta-D (e.g. T-72A), and full point tracking (e.g. Abrams). There are still a few bugs in the new version and the lead isn't implemented completely yet, but I absolutely want to nail it this time, and I've been taking feedback from a bunch of 19 kilos to make sure that happens. Still, at least now when you lase a spot and drive around, the aim stays glued to that spot.
- Gun sights. The public demo used a couple of really simple methods of displaying gunnery reticles, and it did not lend itself well to realistic or complex systems. (I'm still pretty proud of that GAS though; the stadia reticle and ballistic markings are accurate via live calculation, not pre-drawn!) In the new build, we have full fidelity in the gun sights we've completed so far, which includes the T-72A, the M60A3 TTS, the T-55A, and the BRDM-2. This attention to detail will continue as the new standard for the other vehicles we add; there should never again be a "fudged" gun sight like the T-72M sight in the public build.
- Thermals. You noted, correctly, that the black hot mode in the public demo was screwed up. I made a change to the rendering shortly before I stopped updating that build, which improved a lot of things but completely unbalanced the inverted thermal mode. This will no longer be an issue in the new build. We've been working on thermal rendering itself, beyond simple contrast and tone balance, and we now support things like separate heat sources on vehicles, temperature change over time (and reacting to things like guns firing), and better depiction of the ambient temperature of vegetation and atmospheric haze. This stuff is actually not in the Patreon build yet, unlike the rest, because we're still polishing it - but we've teased it in our Discord server.
- Tracks and suspension. Our driving system has had a complete overhaul and now features animation, suspension forces, moving wheels and tracks, gear shifting, and dynamic exhaust smoke, among other things. There are still some rough edges to smooth out, but it's a lot closer to what you'd expect a tank to look and feel like in motion.
Things from the video that we're aware of and working on still: everything! I'm not even joking, we have a to-do list a mile long and you mentioned a lot of stuff from it. With how people have responded to my early demo, I and the rest of the team are extremely serious about making sure we get the details right in the new version of GHPC.
If you're interested in giving us feedback as we complete and show new features, consider joining the GHPC Discord server! If you message me there and let me know who you are, I'll get you set up with the proper roles and get you in the loop for Abrams and Bradley stuff especially.
What GHPC has going for it:
1. Dudes have a great sense of humour and wit
2. Unity engine
3. Game looks great and refreshingly very 2020 compared to that other tank simulator
4. Passionate band of 5 brothers (increase from 1 to 5 in the past year)
5. Keen following on Patreon
6. Twitch developer livestreams
7. Physics, physics, physics
8. Multicrew in the works
9. Slo-mo/bullet-time effect so you can see the sabot petals separate from the penetrator
Cheers
Frankie Kam
P.S., the latest Pre-Alpha access link is available to Patreons of Gunner, HEAT, PC!