Dev Notes: Part IIFri, October 10, 2025
New details about what our team is currently working onDear Players,
We continue to share details about what our team is currently working on. For us, these updates are not just a way to talk about the development process, but also an opportunity to show which tasks we consider to be our top priorities.
Your feedback helps us understand which features and changes are most important to the community, and it also guides us toward the areas that deserve additional attention.
Team ChangesBroken Arrow is our first major project ? and a significant milestone for the entire team. From the very beginning, the game was created by a small but incredibly close-knit group of about ten people: five programmers and several content specialists. Among us are 3D artists, interactive audio experts, and experienced wargame and strategy players.The journey was not easy, but at every stage of development we felt your support ? the very support that inspires us to move forward and keep improving Broken Arrow.
The release of the game became a major milestone for our team. It allowed us to significantly expand and bring in new specialists ? programmers, modelers, and other professionals, to help us tackle the challenges ahead. This growth enables us to develop the project much more efficiently, expand the in-game arsenal with new units, and bring to life ideas that once seemed too ambitious for a small team.
At the same time, the release is by no means the end of development ? we will continue to refine the game, expand its content and mechanics. It?s especially rewarding to see that our audience turned out to be much larger than we had anticipated.
Now, more than ever, we are focused on improving the technical side of the project and continuing its development. There are still many challenges ahead, but with our team?s dedication, your support, and our shared vision for Broken Arrow, we?re confident in overcoming them all. We sincerely thank each and every one of you for your trust, patience, and belief in our game. Thank you for staying with us!
Adding Allied AIMany of you have long been waiting for the addition of allied bots, and we?re happy to finally share how development is progressing.
Our work began with the most complex aspect ? behavior logic. The bots must act as true allies: predictable and reliable teammates, yet flexible enough to adapt to different in-game situations.
To make interactions more convenient, we are expanding the lobby functionality. Players will soon be able to assign bots to any available slot on either side. The rest of the settings remain the same: difficulty level and specialization can still be customized. This creates space for experimentation ? you can form teams, balance forces, or try out new tactics.
During this process, we also had to adapt certain elements of the game logic: particularly those related to how bots interact with their surroundings, respond to threats, and carry out objectives. Our goal is to ensure they behave naturally and fit seamlessly into the rhythm of a match.
Final testing lies ahead, which will confirm the system?s stability and readiness for full release.
About BalanceBalance has always been and remains one of the key non-technical aspects of our game and others in this genre. As players ourselves, we?ve also enjoyed taking part in ?forum wars? debating the strengths of certain units.
Since the game?s release, we?ve seen intense discussions around faction strength, ?overpowered? units, and other balance-related topics. Initially, we didn?t have formal statistics to rely on, but through our own experience and observation, we identified problematic areas and made targeted adjustments. For additional insight, we also used general statistics without ELO segmentation. Of course, every change sparked debates from both sides, often resulting in heated comment sections and critical Steam reviews.
Over time, we developed our own internal metrics ? tracking win rates, pick rates, and the most commonly used units. The latest patch was built directly on these data insights. In this diary, we would like to share some of these statistics, helping players better understand the reasoning behind certain balance decisions ? and how future ones may be shaped.
Let?s start with a dataset whose accuracy has been debated since its release: win rates by nation (without ELO segmentation). As you can see, these figures have remained largely unchanged over time, with a consistent difference of about 7%.
Now, for something new and interesting: win rate statistics after patch 1.0.10 ? this time segmented by ELO. The presented chart shows that the previously published graph, which did not account for player skill levels, reflected the overall situation fairly accurately, but not entirely correctly: one faction consistently holds an advantage over the other across almost all ELO levels. Deviations from this general picture are observed only at higher ELO levels ? where the situation looks less straightforward, but the number of matches is also significantly lower. The most recent patches, intended to reduce the overall gap at the most populated ELO ranges, were steps in the right direction.
The next chart presents the distribution of all available specialization combinations by win rate and popularity. We invite you to share your conclusions in the comments ? your thoughts and suggestions for improving balance are highly valuable. Please note that in this context, ?popularity? refers to how often a specialization is chosen, not its combat effectiveness.
Finally, we?ve included a list of the most popular units, segmented by ELO. These tables show which units are considered the most effective and are most frequently used by players at various skill levels. The dataset also includes mirror matches, though the findings remain highly insightful.
We hope this statistical overview will give players food for thought and perhaps even prompt some of our most passionate balance advocates to reconsider their positions.
Fighting CheatingWe are constantly working to improve our anti-cheat system, fully aware of how essential it is to maintain a fair and transparent environment for all players. Currently, we are integrating a third-party tool as part of a broader anti-cheat initiative. This solution will combine the capabilities of external software with our own detection systems.
It?s crucial that this new protection mechanism functions reliably without affecting game performance, which is why we are proceeding with caution and precision.
A significant part of this work also involves shifting key gameplay logic to the server side. This approach minimizes the potential for client-side manipulation and improves overall security.
If you suspect another player of cheating, you can report it in several ways: either directly in-game by clicking the /!\ button, or by emailing basupport@slitherine.comwith a detailed description of the situation.
To help our team investigate more effectively, please include the suspected player?s nickname and, if possible, video evidence of the violation. These materials greatly assist us in identifying offenders and taking the necessary action.
Adjustment to Mirror Match OptionWe understand that this setting is an important part of the gameplay experience for many players, so we?d like to clarify the current situation. Although the option to disable mirror matches exists, players may still occasionally encounter identical team compositions.
This happens due to how the matchmaking system was originally designed ? modifying existing mechanics can often be far more complex than building new ones from scratch.
We are actively working on a fix. Our developers are carefully analyzing how to rework this function to ensure consistent results. Since the process requires a deep review of the matchmaking logic, implementation will take some time.
ClosingThank you to everyone who continues to believe in us and stays by our side. Your support gives us the strength and confidence to move forward, opening new horizons for the project. We?ll continue sharing important updates with you. We are working on a long term roadmap, which we are looking forward to showing you in the next few weeks. In the meantime, our team remains fully focused on making the game better with every update.
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