General Update

Hello all,

First off, thank you to all the new backers. I assume most of you saw the Steam page announcement on Youtube or Twitter, or came here from the PC Gamer article about us. (You can read it here, if you haven't already seen it: https://www.pcgamer.com/this-wonderfully-90s-rts-looks-like-a-lost-command-and-conquer-game/ )


As far as progress goes, we are continuing to update the game with a menagerie of new units and weapons to show off in another upcoming trailer. Why another trailer? Well, long story short, we received an invitation to submit a trailer for a pretty significant upcoming event. I won't say which right now, but it's happening relatively soon, so keep your eyes out.

As for the new content itself, I've got some screenshots.

(keep in mind this GIF is compressed, so some colors - namely the explosions - are incorrect)

This may look like an oversized defensive turret, but it will functionally be more like a C&C-style superweapon, albeit it must aim at the target, has a minimum range (it can't target itself or anything near itself) and rounds must be purchased (similar to Starcraft's nukes). 

The way it functions currently though is a bit of a mess, due to some engine limitations; right now, it actually *is* a big gun turret, and only has 8 rotational facings. The reason for this is, right now, the engine can have firing animations for gun turrets per-rotational facing, but it must have an animation for *every* facing if that is the case. Of course, given the sheer size of the cannon, that would be an absolutely *massive* file if every single rotation had a firing animation (easily 500mb of sprite data). Obviously this won't work out for the final game, so the engine will need some additional custom logic to get it to allow for turreted entities to have firing animations only only specifically designated rotational facings. Note that it will also have some dedicated frames for reloading (that's what the large structure in the back of the cannon is for), but right now there is no support and no animation for this. It also, of course, needs some additional logic for being a superweapon that is controlled through the UI, but still needs to aim at a target.

Next we have a more bizarre weapon for the Warband faction, a gigantic ball of junk that can just run over enemies and small structures, crushing them instantly. 

This unit has no weapons, only the ability to crush enemies. While obviously vulnerable to long-range weapons fire, and incapable of crushing large units or heavy structures (such as large concrete structures), it offers Warband players a unique way to breach defensive walls or close the distance with heavier enemy vehicles that Warband's lighter, less armored vehicles may not be able to survive.

However, like the Railway Cannon, the engine will need some modifications to work correctly. As of right now, the way unit pathing and movement animation works means that, when turning, the spikeball will awkwardly rotate in place and will snap to a different rotational position in a strange way. A fix needs to be added to allow for the spikeball to remain on its last animated frame when it comes to a full stop. Similarly, the engine also does not support multi-tile sized units; right now the spikeball, despite its massive size, has the movement collision size of only a single tile. The engine will need to be modified to include support for units that are multiple tiles in size, though of course the ramifications of this extend beyond the spikeball; other large units such as the Heavy Tank and various warships, as well as the NWO walking bases, will make use of this functionality as well.

Lastly, here's another weird Warband unit:

This game has dorfs (this may surprise some people who assumed this was just an artstyle thing), but it also has giants.

As an edge against the 2 more technologically sophisticated factions, Warband brings with them some funny creatures, including hulking giants, far more resilient than normal infantry, and capable of wielding vehicle-sized weapons. They can punt hostile infantry, destroy buildings with melee attacks, hurl rocks and debris as a sort of light-artillery weapon (if any debris is nearby), and field guns (such as heavy machine guns and rocket artillery) can be hand-wielded by them, making them a highly dynamic unit.

("Don't talk to me or my son ever again!")


Unfortunately I don't have any footage of them right now, as they lack animations; in general, it is *much* easier to create new vehicles and structures, due to the fact that these rarely have complicated animations. Meanwhile, infantry (and other "organic" actors) have to have tons of animations to account for walking, firing, idle animations, death animations, wading through water, crouching, firing while crouching.... etc and as such are much harder to create and get ingame.


This is it for right now, more to come soon, and again, thank you all very much for the continued support.

- Henske