Development Status #98

Dear Tankers!

Welcome to our 98th Development Status.

Status report

This week, another update on the game's development. We're working on the sectors in Ponyri, testing and fixing bugs as we go. Of course, it's a bit of a never-ending cycle since we're constantly adding new things, filling in gaps, and adding content to the base game and DLC, but we're heading in the right direction. We're closer to the finish line than we were before.

If possible please consider reading our last news regarding previous patch 1.3.10 :) Below we are describing what next patch will bring ;)

The Soviet Campaign in Ponyri and Mission Objective Improvements

We are currently working on the Soviet campaign. As with the German campaign, it will begin with a dedicated introductory mission, and subsequent key decisions will be up to the player. The SU-152 is set to be the most powerful support on the battlefield, offering high firepower and excellent armor penetration even at longer ranges, at the cost of limited maneuverability and a long reload time. The defending German forces, equipped with Tigers and Ferdinands, appear to hold a significant advantage; therefore, proper game balance will be essential to ensure that the Soviet campaign remains challenging while still providing a satisfying gameplay experience.

We are also nearing the implementation of new mission types and improvements to existing ones. The objective of defending an area will appear only once per mission and can be combined with a counterattack. The reverse scenario will also be possible: first, we’ll attack the enemy’s positions, and in the final phase, we’ll switch to defending against their counterattack.

One of the new mission types will be an encounter battle. Both sides will fight in a designated area, and the winner will be the side that destroys more enemy units while suffering the fewest casualties of its own. This mechanic, familiar from other games, will, in our opinion, add a nice variety to the gameplay in Tank Squad. The Ponyri map looks particularly promising in this regard, as it’s a good setting for introducing this type of engagement.

New environment assets

This time, we’re presenting a slightly smaller structure than the previous ones: a Soviet coal hopper. It will be part of the railway facilities along the Ponyri. We are right now working onto getting main station building ready for Ponyri - more in future Dev statues.

Cinematic Tools

That was how it looked in last friday

After the release of the latest patch, 1.3.10, I sat down to work on the project and started prototyping a tool that would let you play around with camera settings in spectator mode. So you could capture cool shots and take pictures of everything happening in the game.

That’s how Cinematic Tools aka Combat Camera aka Ultimate Screenshot Simulator came to be :) The foundation was already there. We already had unit selection during missions and the ability to switch the camera from tracking mode to free-camera mode.

All I had to do was add a few options, such as changing the FOV or adjusting the camera’s distance from a selected or tracked vehicle. Additional features were added, such as sliders for camera movement speed and motion smoothing. I also added support for tracking a point or target selected via buttons allowing you to choose a target and record smooth camera movement that orbits around it. Anyone who’s ever played with drones and flown them knows this is useful slightly smiling face

We’ve added two more tabs, including one where you can change the hour, minute, or current weather preset during a mission. At this time, these changes are synchronized across all players; therefore, only the session host can modify these settings.

The third tab contains post-processing options. These changes are local, so everyone can adjust them on their own screen as they see fit. There’s a set of sliders and buttons here to change the game’s appearance, including settings such as contrast, saturation, depth of field, noise, and vignette. I’ve added some basic color grading options.

And now, how it works, how it’s currently implemented. When you enter a mission, the post-process settings for those sliders are loaded. Each mission has slightly different settings because it has slightly different weather either selected or randomized. That’s how it works here. If you change the settings and don’t save them, when you exit the mission or the game and then re-enter a mission, the “original settings” will still be visible.

There is a save option, and the game creates a UserSettings.json file in the AppData\\LocalLow\\Degenerals\\Tank Squad\\CinematicTools\\ folder. This file then applies globally to the entire game, but remains local. You can reset the settings at any time to the defaults offered by the current campaign/mission, reload the file (if it exists), or delete it.

This is a basic solution for now - it would be great to add support for more profiles in the future and the ability to upload profiles to the Steam Workshop as a mod. That’s something to work on.

When new patch?

Most likely we will release the new patch 1.3.11 next week.

Thank you for your support, we are working. See you next time! DeGenerals