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11
Games Discussion / Re: Panzer Corps 2
« Last post by Asid on March 14, 2024, 12:12:32 AM »
Welcome to the first Dev Diary for Panzer Corps 2: Frontlines - Bulge
Tue, 13 February 2024



Frontlines represents a brand new chapter in the Panzer Corps Saga


The game is still in development, some details seen in this preview are subject to change.

Frontlines represents a brand new chapter in the Panzer Corps Saga, so a dev diary is the perfect opportunity to introduce players to the general idea behind it, and particularly to the first entry in this series.



What it is, and what it's not

Frontlines - Bulge gives players the chance to experience a decisive part of World War II in Europe – for the first time in Panzer Corps 2 from the American side.

The campaign depicts the Battle of the Bulge from mid-December 1944 to mid-January 1945.

The new Frontlines series will offer shorter, but nonetheless very intense campaigns, and this more focussed approach allows us to show specific operations in a much more detailed way.

A typical Panzer Corps 2 DLC depicting an entire year of the war wouldn’t spend a dozen battles to cover only 4-5 weeks of combat. But, due to the different scope of Frontlines - Bulge we have the opportunity to dive deeper.

And the fierce fighting during the Battle of the Bulge, from the start of the German offensive to the iconic siege of Bastogne, and finally to the Allied struggle to regain lost ground, is certainly worth being shown in a dedicated DLC Campaign.


History in the making

The move away from Germany-centered content may not come as a surprise for players after the conclusion of the Axis Operations series in AO:1946, but it marks a fundamental shift in many ways beyond just taking another side.

There is less of an incentive to add large ahistorical campaign paths since the Allies won the war, and we think that a campaign about the Battle of the Bulge should reflect the actual course of it more closely but without putting historic accuracy above gameplay and fun factor.

Featuring the US Army in the Ardennes in 1944 adds an extra layer of challenges, since you are soon confronted with highly effective late-war equipment fielded by the Germans and need to find ways to deal with it.


On top of that the typical strengths of the Allied side, especially of the US, are not readily available when the German offensive begins.

Allied air power was initially limited by bad weather, and the Ardennes were only thinly held by a few US divisions, while the Germans had secretly amassed substantial forces to establish numerical superiority at least in the early stages of their surprise offensive.

The Devil is in the details, but so is God

To give you an idea what "focussed" or "detailed" means, let's compare the standalone "End of the Bulge" map included in the base game already to an example from the new Frontlines content.


As you can see we show the entire perimeter around Bastogne in a completely different scale now. Houffalize, the next important town in the Ardennes is near Bastogne in the standalone scenario – in Frontlines' siege of Bastogne it is outside the map area.

Obviously a single map featuring most of the Bulge requires a more abstract take, while a dedicated campaign about the same topic allows for a much more detailed look.

Similar approaches have been taken before sometimes in the Panzer Corps series, but now this more zoomed-in take is applied campaign-wide, which has a huge impact in various ways:

We use a consistent scale for maps which are closely linked geographically, with only slight variation where needed.

For example the early stage of the campaign plays in the northern sector of the front, with several maps showing different parts of it, but in the same, more zoomed-in scale.

This enables us to include smaller, but historically significant locations, and most importantly to depict key engagements with more varied forces that resemble the historic realities to a higher degree.


All those various aspects add up to a campaign that offers an in-depth experience of the Battle of the Bulge. It aims to be closer to history without abandoning the fun-to-play nature of the Panzer Corps series.

Put differently, in Frontlines - Bulge it is not your job to rewrite history, but you can relive it.

All quiet on the western front?

The limited timeframe of the Battle of the Bulge, coupled with more zoomed-in maps, means that individual turns are measured in hours, and a complete scenario represents - at best - days of combat, not weeks or even months.

Instead of an entire battle we often depict certain key stages of important engagements.

To come back to our example of Bastogne: the initial German encirclement and siege of the town, the following US relief effort and subsequent heavy fighting around Bastogne are three separate scenarios in this campaign.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves too much here. Frontlines - Bulge begins a few days before the Germans launch their surprise offensive which led to the formation of the large front bulge that became eponymous for the entire battle.

At this point the front along the old border between Germany and Belgium is rather calm. US forces only conduct limited attacks to prepare for a bigger offensive on their own, unaware that their enemy is already moving in position for an all-out offensive against them.


Consequently the first map is intended to be a smaller, and relatively easy intro battle to the campaign.

Decisions, decisions...

The gloves are coming off when the enemy onslaught begins. But for the second battle players can still decide between an easier task at the northern tip of the front or the more chaotic and difficult first clashes just a few miles south.

There are several of these choices throughout the campaign to select easier or more challenging battles. However, they are also included to depict different, yet equally important developments that happened roughly at the same time.

So do you rather hold out with the 101st Airborne in Bastogne, or do you support the 82nd Airborne to stop Kampfgruppe Peiper trying to break through towards Antwerp? Do you then move to Patton's relief effort for Bastogne, or aim to cut off Wehrmacht Panzers which almost reached the Meuse River?


You do not have to follow a specific campaign path resulting from these choices. This is a gameplay decision to allow players to explore the different scenarios linked to those choices more easily.

Conclusion

That’s it for the first part of this Dev Diary. We hope you enjoyed this introduction to Frontlines, and that it gives you a better sense of what to expect in the new campaign. Stay tuned for the next Dev Diary, which will arrive soon!


Join now the Beta

You can now apply to the beta and help us in developing the game. If you are willing to test it, find bugs, offer feedback and criticism and you love Panzer Corps, we definetely could use your help.

What are you waiting for? Click here to sign up: https://www.slitherine.com/beta/panzer-corps-2-frontlines-bulge


12
Games Discussion / Re: War of Rights
« Last post by Asid on March 14, 2024, 12:12:19 AM »
Update 194: Networking Overhaul - Released!
Wed, 13 March 2024




Hello everyone,

We're thrilled to announce the release of the 194th update for War of Rights today, with a major focus on enhancing overall server performance to future-proof the game. Additionally, we aim to broaden the selection and scope of available game server hosting options. War of Rights truly shines when immersing you in massive battles with hundreds of players on-screen. Therefore, we consistently strive to push boundaries, improving both client and server performance to increase the server player cap. The networking overhaul in Update 194 is another crucial step in our ongoing quest to support even larger battles.


Traversal : Phase 2
Building upon the previous traversal update, which introduced climbing, knockdowns, and variable-height vaulting, the second phase of the traversal content brings two significant additions to the way your character moves through the world.

Deep Water Wading



With deep water wading, water areas are no longer restricted from play. As your character enters the water, your options become more limited. Once the water depth reaches knee height, it becomes impossible to load your musket, as attempting such an action would wet your powder and render your weapon useless. As you venture deeper, your character raises the weapon gradually, holding it above their head to keep it and the powder dry. Consequently, you'll eventually lose the ability to aim, fire, engage in melee, or kneel when deep enough in the water. If you persist further, your character will begin to flail their arms in a desperate attempt to stay afloat and will eventually drown if you do not turn back.

While this will open up new avenues of approach on many maps, your movement will be severely impacted, and your ability to defend yourself will be diminished. Therefore, you will have to pick your routes carefully, lest you become target practice for the opposing team.

Falling & Fall Damage



Another, and frankly overdue, addition with this update is falling and fall damage. Falling from a reasonable height will result in your character's death upon impact, and while falling, you will no longer be able to use your weapons or equipment. This also applies to hitting a surface of water at speed.

The traversal updates have been important milestones towards the community editor, eliminating some of the more burdensome aspects of level creation, such as placing vault areas, falling killzones or invisible walls to prevent water access. We want to ensure that when the editor goes live, the only limit is your creativity.

New Customizations
Players enjoying the ability to customize their favorite regiments and batteries are likely to have a good time with Update 194 as it includes customization for 19 additional units as we continue to chip away at our target of making each and every single unit in the game customizable:

2nd South Carolina, 4th Alabama, 4th North Carolina, 4th Texas, 5th Alabama Battalion, 5th North Carolina, 5th Virginia, 8th Alabama, 9th Louisiana, 10th US Regulars, 12th New York Militia, 12th Ohio, 15th Massachusetts, 3rd Maryland, 5th New York, 6th Pennsylvania, 7th Maine, 7th Michigan and 9th Vermont.

Networking Improvements
The network compression and serialization code was entirely rewritten in an effort to minimize bandwidth and CPU time required, while also fixing some hazards inherited from the default CRYENGINE networking. For example, previously, if a client were to send a message for an entity that was already being destroyed on the server, the client would have been kicked with a RMI:Entity error.

Voice Chat
We've replaced the previous TeamSpeak voice chat integration with our own in-house system directly integrated into the game engine. This update offers several advantages: Player voices now seamlessly integrate with the game audio, subjecting voice chat to effects like interior reverb and suppression, resulting in a more immersive and consistent audio experience. Moreover, this update significantly reduces server and player bandwidth usage for voice chat. Additionally, the new system addresses some longstanding issues with most Bluetooth audio devices and also ensuring the correct detection and usage of audio devices.

Roadmap: Community Self-Hosted Servers
We've invested significant effort in optimizing server performance for various reasons, not just to approach the possibility of accommodating more players per game server. Enhanced server performance now enables the game to maintain a good tick-rate with a high player count on a broader range of hardware.

We're excited to announce the upcoming release of community self-hosted dedicated servers. With this upcoming release to War of Rights, we will provide server tools that allow anyone to host a War of Rights server on hardware of their choosing. While we have been proud to partner exclusively with G-Portal since the early days of the development of War of Rights, providing centralized access to all servers for analytics, crash reports, and bug fixing, we are now confident in the game's stability, making centralized access no longer necessary.

To preserve the highly tailored and deliberate gameplay of War of Rights within community self-hosted servers, we will be implementing a server token system. Server owners desiring to maintain traditional Campfire Games authored content and balancing can request a token. Servers which hold authorized tokens have access to veterancy, achievements,other progression systems and special events along with being an official server listing on the server browser. Those opting for modified content or balancing are welcome to do so, but it's important to note that these servers will not be authorized for progression and will not be filtered by default on the server browser. Campfire Games will exercise its discretion in token distribution, and access may be revoked at any time for violations.

We'll keep you updated on any new developments regarding community servers, and rest assured, those who prefer to continue using G-Portal or any other third party server host provider can continue as usual!

Retiring The Company Tool
A while back, we invited all of you to participate in a survey regarding the various features of “War of Rights” and your preferences towards them. We extend our gratitude to those who took part in the survey, as it greatly assisted us in restructuring tasks based on your likes and dislikes. The Company Tool, our antiquated and rudimentary attempt to effectively perform tasks now better handled by third-party web-based apps like Discord for player organizations such as clans/guilds/regiments, received significant negative feedback in the survey. Very few of you are utilizing it due to its extremely limited usability and lack of any connection to in-game mechanics. Therefore, we are announcing the shutting down of the Company Tool.

We have as of yet not set a final date for the closure of the Company Tool but it is likely to be closed without additional notice after the end of March. However, this does not mean that we have given up on integrating player organizations into the game. We are continually striving to improve and enhance organized play, and we will share more details about a successor to the Company Tool as development progresses.

Update 194 Patch Notes

    Rewrote the network compression and serialization code of the game in an effort to minimize bandwidth and maximize server hardware performance.
    Added deep water wading and drowning to the game.
    Implemented fall damage.
    Integrated voice chat directly into the game instead of relying on a TeamSpeak plugin.
    Added customization for 19 additional regiments: 2nd South Carolina, 4th Alabama, 4th North Carolina, 4th Texas, 5th Alabama Battalion, 5th North Carolina, 5th Virginia, 8th Alabama, 9th Louisiana, 10th US Regulars, 12th New York Militia, 12th Ohio, 15th Massachusetts, 3rd Maryland, 5th New York, 6th Pennsylvania, 7th Maine, 7th Michigan and 9th Vermont.
    Updates to 72nd Pennsylvania uniforms to better match their real world counterpart.
    Added a gray Georgia Depot shell jacket to the game.
    Updated the M1832 artillery sword idle animations.
    Updates to the movement animations while aiming a rifle.
    Updated the farming wagon’s model and textures.
    Added destructible shutters and doors to most farm buildings in the game.
    Adjusted the walking animations while aiming with a bayoneted rifle while in melee mode.
    Updated the exterior of Pry House.
    Reworked the proxy of the stonewall model.
    Fixed a hole in the Henry Rohrback barn model.
    Fixed LOD popping on Dunker Church.
    Added a 2nd standing and kneeling reloading animation when using the short rifles (Mississippis and Whitworths).
    Fixed the missing textures of the rear doors of Otto Barn.
    Updated the kneeling revolver animations.
    Improved the end segment of the long and short rifle reload animations.
    Fixed the Y-axis offset for Kepi LODs.
    Bluetooth headsets when using VoIP should now be supported.
    Improved Kepi LOD mesh.
    Better facial hair LODs.
    Updates to NCO insignias.
    Various uniform details such as belts, sashes and insignias that have been invisible in the first person view are no longer hidden.
    Shell jacket improvements.
    Fixed R. Miller Spring House proxy.
    Added falling animations.
    Implemented various animations used when in water.
    Various minor level updates.
    Removed most of the invisible collision walls from the game now that deep water wading and falling damage are supported.
    Corrections to the sprinting animations while carrying a rifle.
    Updated the rifle melee club hit sounds.
    Reduced the percentage of downvotes in a server from 10% to 7.5% required to trigger a demotion.
    Reduced the percentage of mutes in a server from 10% to 7.5% required to trigger a global mute.
    Increased the experience level that is required to reach before the officer class unlocks from 4 to 10.
    Increased the experience level that is required to reach before the NCO class unlocks from 3 to 7.
    Increased the experience level that is required to reach before the artillery branch unlocks from 2 to 5.


That’s all for now. We look forward to playing in the shallow end of the pool with you all!

- The Campfire Games Team
More About This Game

13
GHPC Update 20240312
Wed, 13 March 2024




Regular Update: T-80B

GHPC Early Access has been updated to version 20240312.

This is a regular update, introducing new features, adjustments, and bug fixes.

We've got plenty more in the works for GHPC! As always, you can get additional info by visiting our Discord server and YouTube channel. Links are on the GHPC website.



NEW VEHICLE

Release of T-80B tank for Soviet forces

Notable characteristics:

    125mm smoothbore cannon with access to the newest Soviet ammunition
    Modern 1A33 fire control system with laser rangefinder, automatic lead and superelevation, delta-D, cant correction, and more
    1G42 gunner's sight with automatic and manual modes for range adjustment
    Passive night vision sight with manually adjustable range scale
    Composite upper hull armor (steel and glass textolite) reinforced with high-hardness surface plate
    Composite turret armor (steel and "kvartz" ceramic)
    Turbine engine


NOTE: Gun-launched ATGM "Kobra" is not implemented yet




NEW CONTENT

    Two new Instant Action missions featuring T-80B: Pushing Tin parts 1 and 2
    T-80B training range mission
    T-80B added to campaign
    125mm HEAT-FS-T 3BK18M added to Soviet tanks (but not East German ones)
    125mm ammunition 3BK18M and 3BK14M added to campaign logistics system for Soviet forces
    Mi-2 scout helicopter added
    New unlockable Soviet themed main menu scene (reward for completing Pushing Tin part 1)
    Soviet themed main menu scene features new remade version of music track "Target Acquired"

Owners of the GHPC OST on Steam have also received the new track as a free update!


FEATURES AND ADJUSTMENTS

    Artillery batteries can now be used in parallel with separate controls in the map view
    Helicopter tail rotor driveshafts and gearboxes can now be destroyed
    Early TPN-1 type active night sights no longer have illuminated reticles
    TPN-1 reticle updated to match sources
    Added area triggers to ramps in training range missions
    Mildly increased drag coefficients on 3BM22 and 3BM32
    M901 can now have its missile tubes damaged individually



FIXES

    Fixed a bug that would lock all functions on the Bradley if a restock attempt was made while there was still too much ammo remaining to restock
    Fixed an issue that could lead to repeated or cut-off voice lines
    Fixed a bug that allowed taking control of unintended vehicles using instant swap
    Improved stability of projectile impacts
    Improved stability of several code systems
    Fixed improperly configured armor on T-62
    Fixed visual issues with night sight covers on T-62 and T-64A
    Fixed mislabeling of optical rangefinders as laser rangefinders in damage HUD
    Corrected labeling of some turret and gun drives in damage HUD
    Corrected some briefing errors
    Removed smoke grenade setup elements from T-62
    Helped M113 commander keep his head during free cam mode



Thanks for playing!

14
GHPC developer stream - March 10, 2024



his livestream originally took place on   / gunnerheatpc   on 2024-03-10. Subscribe there to catch the next one live!

For more info, check out https://gunnerheatpc.com

0:00 Pre-stream
2:04 Target Acquired (Remake)
3:36 Stream start
5:20 T-80B overview and gunnery practice
26:22 On vehicle requests
27:48 Mission 1 start
28:15 Mi-2 helicopter debut
29:22 Gameplay and Q&A
35:15 Helicopter damage model improvement
36:19 More gaming
37:25 Crew station switching and roof guns will come in the future
40:11 Mission 2 start
42:51 Update will have 2 dedicated T-80B missions and add it to campaign mode
43:39 You spin me round
43:56 More questions, more answers
53:59 Thoughts on operating independently with a small dev team
57:26 Bradley restock bug is fixed
57:52 The gaming will continue until morale improves
1:04:07 Update is Soon (TM)
1:06:13 Target Acquired coming to official soundtrack on Steam when update arrives
1:06:45 Patreon Q&A every month
1:07:14 Stream ending


15
Games Discussion / Re: War and Peace by Avalon Digital
« Last post by Asid on March 13, 2024, 12:03:50 AM »
Roadmap

See here  https://www.patreon.com/posts/88022662

As the proverb says 'Think Big, Start Small".

16
Games Discussion / Re: War and Peace by Avalon Digital
« Last post by Asid on March 13, 2024, 12:03:38 AM »
Updates 1.3.9, 1.3.10, 1.3.11, 1.3.12
    

Update 1.3.12
11 Mar 2024

Spanish language

Bug fixes:
- the siege value was incremented twice a turn.
- A leader was wrongly bringing its supply line to the hex it is moving to
- The production view was a little horizontal offset on large screen


Update 1.3.10 & 1.3.11
2 March 2024

AI attack improvement

Bug fixes:
- Spanish scenarios: a partisan just arrived outside a city was not able to move this turn.
- Undoing production placement.
- Grand Campaign: miscellaneous Production fixes.
- Fixed a risk of duplicated reinforcement after an undo

Peninsula War
- Large French reinforcement of 1808 displayed on 2 rows.


Update 1.3.9
23 Feb 2024

Grand Campign fixes
- Removed the warning for the absence of movement if France is neutral
- Production of neutral MP

Struggle of Nations: some Russian units were illegally entrenched at the beginning of each turn
17
Games Discussion / Re: Dawn of Man
« Last post by Asid on March 13, 2024, 12:03:32 AM »
Version 1.8.2 experimental
Tue, 12 March 2024



Maintenance update

Hello all,

We finally have some time now, after releasing The Mobius Machine, and wanted to release this maintenance update to fix a couple of pending issues.

To download this version, in the Steam client, in the library, right click on Dawn of Man, then select Properties > Betas, then in Beta Participation
select Experimental.

Changes

-    On Windows, the game now detects if the user has changed the mouse pointer size in the system and adjusts the position of tooltips accordingly, to avoid the cursor overlapping the text. This is a fix for the issue reported here. https://steamcommunity.com/app/858810/discussions/2/2794999097687932328/?snr=2_groupannouncements_detail_
-    Updated to latest Unity 2022.3.21, this we hope will fix the issue of some Mac players not being able to click. Reported here. https://steamcommunity.com/app/858810/discussions/2/4036976402232936566/?snr=2_groupannouncements_detail_



We are looking forward to any feedback.

Thanks for supporting Dawn of Man!

Martiño.
18
Games Discussion / Re: Cogmind
« Last post by Asid on March 12, 2024, 12:02:02 AM »
Cogmind Expansion, Price Increase "Coming Soon"
Mon, 11 March 2024



It's finally time! For 1.0? No, of course not (that we hit it back in 2017 is just a poorly kept secret), what I mean is raising the price to better reflect what Cogmind is: hundreds of hours of content and lovingly-crafted roguelike adventure and storytelling. I don't explicitly advertise the worldbuilding's diversity and surprises, since that is best left to discovery, but it's been enough to challenge and entertain some folks for even thousands of hours. (Cogmind's screenshots represent only a small fraction of what you'll really find out there, for the reality you'd have to check out spoiler sections of the community, or some videos/streams.)

And the scope continues to grow.

I've dedicated more than the past decade of my life to full-time development of Cogmind. Just me, since it's not like this could support additional folks--it can only barely cover frugal old me :P. I will hopefully, likely, continue to do so for the next couple years. Content is planned out even beyond that, but who knows if it will still be sustainable by then?

That said, as stated before I've never wanted to declare 1.0 then release all my expansions as DLC. Even though that technically makes a lot of business sense and would be significantly more sustainable, I think it leads to a worse player and community experience overall. Instead, I chose to start a Patreon some years ago to help keep the lights on. Although paling in comparison to what DLC would bring in, that has worked out well enough, so once again a special thanks to all of you patrons!

To the point at hand, Cogmind's price will be going up next month. There's only a relatively small window within which to do this without conflicting with other Steam events, and that period is April, so April it is. The new base price will be set to $24.99, and no don't expect that to mean deeper discounts going forward. The price isn't being raised to allow for greater discounts, it's being raised simply to raise the price :P

Some may question the idea of a price increase during "Early Access," but don't worry, the price will likely go up again (!) later and Cogmind isn't really
Early Access, anyway, we're waaaay past that. Yes that label does keep some people from buying in since they're skeptical of anything marked EA, an unfortunate side effect of all the poorly planned or executed projects that don't manage it well. Cogmind could've completely skipped Early Access to begin with, or stop development at any point, and be fine in terms of completion.* (Cogmind was publicly released for over two years before coming to Steam in the first place! The date on the Steam page is not Cogmind's actual release date, though many informational sites will assume and repeat that...) We'll open the gates to those folks eventually, but the next couple themed expansions cover at least four more betas
before that's even a consideration. The third still-to-come major expansion could be released before or after that threshold (still undecided), it's essentially just a pure marketing decision when to use the "1.0" label.

*that said, I'm super happy, as I'm sure others are, that we've finally been in development long enough, with enough new QoL and engine features, to support map zooming and full UI upscaling--that was BIG


Some historical metrics, for context:




For more historical info and graphs, you can also check out my annual reviews, one from each year for the past 10 years so far.

As for the next expansion, to focus on an important new location, it has technically already begun in part as a portion of Beta 13, and much more than that was completed last year, but that version detoured off into the map zoom and UI upscaling features arena so that more people could join us on this ongoing journey. With all of the new folks on board now, it's time to get this train steaming into exciting new territory again.

We're soon to increase the number of items in Cogmind by nearly 7%, a nice chunk considering we're already over 1,000, along with new maps, new factions, new abilities, yet another large increase in the number of encounters... the works. It'll be like Cogmind alpha content injections all over again, said in the strongest attempting-to-contain-my-hype tone possible :)



So yeah, in summary, price going up next month, and fun new releases coming, too, but... those not quite next month :P. They won't take forever, though--we'll be seeing somewhat faster releases down the line!

Oh yeah and there's still one more discount coming up later this week, so before the increase in price.


Memestrike

Since even after using an abbreviated version of the Beta 13 release notes we still hit Steam's length limit, I didn't have a chance to append any community stuff to our last announcement, so I'll just do that here...

MrMesh shared this wicked painting of a Cogmind scene--such a lively piece that also captures some great details! (via Roguelikes/Cogmind Discord)



A pair of awesome meme videos also dropped recently, including one titled "The Cogmind Beta 13 Experience" by Youngster (not very spoilery, but fun and nicely done!) and another dubbed "Cogmind Slander" by u/dogawesome, which is a good summary of a lot of Cogmind experiences, and in that sense it contains a lot of spoilers, but
probably makes relatively little sense to anyone who hasn't actually played, or moreover played a lot. There's a huge number of lore and content references in there though, for those who can relate ;)

After releasing some patches for Beta 13, I also streamed the late-game portion of a run I had started on my own. It was fairly chaotic as usual, by choice :)

Some map-wide sterilization may have occurred prior to the start of the stream, and we know that in Cogmind destruction often begets ever greater levels of destruction, so yeah, continued remodeling was in the cards for a while.



We later used a hidden spoiler area to switch to 100% stealth for the remainder of the run (okay, except for the times our friends murdered everyone...)

That run was able to temporarily take 6th place since the leaderboards were reset for Beta 13, but has already been pushed down to 10th as more folks finish up their first runs with the new version, and at only 64k will probably not even sit within the top 20 for too long :P
 

19
Games Discussion / Re: Black One Blood Brothers
« Last post by Asid on March 12, 2024, 12:01:46 AM »
Preview 1.49: New Maps, Video Mode, Gameplay Enhancements
Mon, 11 March 2024

Dear operatives,

We are thrilled to present the upcoming update for Black One Blood Brothers, featuring two unique new maps and numerous gameplay and interface enhancements.

Mall of Eden

In this mission, your special forces team will face a unique challenge: liberating a giant shopping center seized by determined terrorists. You'll navigate through labyrinthine floors, minimizing civilian casualties while neutralizing the threat




The Mines

Dive into the heart of a dense forest where the remnants of an old mine hide the headquarters of an enemy group. Among abandoned buildings and dilapidated structures, your team must navigate cautiously to capture or eliminate enemy leaders. Natural covers offer unique tactical opportunities but also pose high risks of ambushes.




New Video Mode

This groundbreaking update introduces a brand-new video mode, giving players the ability to switch to free camera mode and record unique gameplay sequences. With a specially designed cinema camera, players can capture epic moments of their gaming experience from the perspectives and angles they choose. Whether it's creating impressive videos to share with the community or reliving their most memorable moments, this new video mode adds a new dimension to the Black One Blood Brothers experience.




Gameplay Enhancements

This update brings a plethora of gameplay and interface enhancements for a more immersive and engaging experience. Weapon handling animations have been reworked for a realistic and fluid feel. The artificial intelligence has been enhanced to offer more responsive and strategic opponents. Game menus have also been optimized. Many other improvements, such as balance adjustments, bug fixes, and performance optimizations, are included to ensure a top-tier gaming experience for all players.



Get ready!
Helios

20
Games Discussion / Re: Distant Worlds 2
« Last post by Asid on March 11, 2024, 07:39:31 PM »
Distant Worlds 2 - Feature Stellar Update
Mon, 11 March 2024



Ship Design and Research Priority Policies

Hello everyone and thank you for your interest in Distant Worlds 2!

One of the principles of Distant Worlds 2 from the start has been to add more “guided automation” to find a better middle ground for players between full manual play and fully automated play. Ship Design and Research are two of the key areas where we heard a great deal of feedback from players who wanted more guided automation.

In Ship Design, players have the option to fully automate this area, design all of their ships manually, or mix things up by assigning some ship roles to manual design and keeping others automated. The fully automated and mix and match players wanted more influence over how those automated designs looked and we agreed that this would be a good thing.

In order to fully achieve this goal, we also needed a way to better guide research (when it is automated) because the ships and bases that you can design depend in large part on the research you have done in terms of what components are available to you. It made sense to connect the two systems in order to achieve the desired end result.



We added an entirely new section to the Empire Polices to accomplish this goal and you can see a screenshot of that section above.

There are tooltips in the game to help explain the choices, but I will summarize how the system works here. For close-in weapons and stand-off weapons, you can choose a weapon category to prefer for research prioritization and ship design.

The automation will then focus your weapon research in those weapon categories and use those weapons in its automated designs. When a faction has a faction-unique component within these categories, it will be further preferred and weighted for research and design.

For example, you can see in the Mortalen ship below, that it has Blasters and Torpedoes as the preferences state, but in the choice of which Torpedo to use, the automation has researched and included the Mortalen-unique Pulse Torpedo.



There are other categories where the player can also choose the priority of a particular weapon type, which ship role should be the smallest to try to fit those weapon types in its designs and even state that he does not want that type of weapon used at all to free up space for other priorities.

For example, see the screenshot below of the choices for Ion Weapons. These three options give you maximum flexibility – if you don’t want Ion weapons on your ships at all, or you do want them but only on your Battleships, or you want lots of Ion weapons on all of your ships, you can achieve that through these automation policies. The same flexibility now applies to Intercept Weapons (Point Defense and Fighter weapons), Area Weapons and Bombard weapons.



Near the bottom of this new policy section are a few sections that are not about weapons. The first deals with Fighters and as with the above lets you pick how much you would like to prioritize Fighter Bays on your designs and which should be the smallest ship role with Starfighters.

The rest give you some choices on Reactors, Shields, Hyperdrives and Engines. In each of these component areas, the research tree offers you different paths. For example, you can see below the choices for Hyperdrives – you can choose to focus on Energy Efficiency, Jump Initiation Time or Speed. In the game, these are represented by the Kaldos, Calista-Dal and Equinox hyperdrive branches. Once you’ve picked one of these preferences, it will guide your automated research and design to focus on those components without manual involvement.



We plan to build on this system further in the future, adding additional preferences for Fighter designs and Civilian ship and base designs, as well as other requests the community may have.

We hope this feature review helps you understand how to use these new policies and that they make your time in Distant Worlds 2 more enjoyable!


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