Community members! In our daily efforts to raise the bar for all aspects of the game, we are currently working on several improvements in the field of performance and the general quality of life. In this update, we will discuss a number of developments we plan to introduce in our next game update.
Performance upgrade
With our next update, you will notice an improved frame rate in specific areas. These would be due to improved usage of mesh groups and game optimization. The largest improvement will be noticed on maps with many buildings. Our own lab tests suggest that the improvement could be as much as 20-30 fps in such areas!
Another gain in performance should be noticeable under morning or evening conditions with strong directional shadows which, so far, is particularly performance draining on low end PCs.
We also did a cleanup in - and improvements to - the resource packing, which will result in a 2 Gb reduction in the installation size and an improvement in loading times.
To visualize the improvements we made a “before and after” comparison,
Click here to view; to open the image, click on it. Then, slide the white bar from right to left to compare “before” and “after”.
HD Link - Community image by =.Masters.=
Graphical improvements
We changed the laws for rendering Shadows and grass. They will be rendered at longer distances; perhaps surprisingly, performance improves at the same time! Object visibility distance will also increase by 20%.
This will make the game look even better, and it’s actually a stepping stone toward the new expansion we are working on.
When we announce the next episode in the Gates of Hell experience, It will be the biggest leap forward in visuals in the history of our project, or even in the history of WWII RTS games. Does that sound like a bold claim to you? Well, you can be the judge of that very soon!
We also upgraded the visual damage modeling for vehicles. When the shots do penetrate, they will leave different marks, depending on the size of the shell. We enhanced large caliber penetration marks with new molten metal glow effects. Make sure to enable the glow effect in video options. This will make vehicle combat more immersive and readable.
HD LinkSkins and sprites
Many fixes and improvements have been made to the shaders of human models. We changed the rendering of light in one texture direction, which fixes some unwanted artifacts and wrinkles that were especially noticeable on human faces.
We have improved the way selection sprites are displayed on the units, so that they are uniformly sized, tailor-fitted to each geometry of vehicle, and not too obtrusive to the eye. We’d like to remind our players that a year ago we introduced the ability to hide the selection sprites for increased realism in the game options.
HD LinkHD LinkFurthermore, we will also introduce new cursors and icons to improve the overall look and feel of the game. We added new cursors for new ammo types which were recently introduced (APCNR, API) or will be introduced in the future. The reticles for the gun sights in first person mode have also been increased to 4k resolution, to improve the immersion.
Netcode improvements
We fixed an issue affecting multiplayer lobbies, where player- occupied spectator slots sometimes prevented the lobbies from being accessible to other players trying to access open player slots. We now separate spectator and player slots in the lobby.
We have also been working on pathing and unit movement desynchronisation in the PvP environment. Work in the netcode progresses steadily.
Bot improvements
We are delighted with your feedback about the improvements to bots that were introduced with community update 2.
In conquest, they became extremely challenging to fight. We read all your feedback, and there was a noticeable amount of people who considered the last update to be too difficult. We have toned down bot resources in conquest, so that the bots rely on their newly acquired abilities and tactics, as opposed to spawning an overwhelming amount of units. We hope that the players, especially new players from our sale, have an easier time fighting the AI.
Besides that, the bots have been taught how to tow guns. Not only that; bots will spawn less emplacements in the early stages, thereby avoiding the risk of players capturing those units early on. Bots will also make sure their tanks are escorted by infantry. And your most horrible dreams have come true: the bots will defend when their artillery gets flanked. The crew will get out of the vehicle and fight, instead of waiting for the enemy to kill the crew and capture the gun with impunity.
We think you will appreciate the continuous improvements to AI. It's definitely been a lot of fun testing them!
HD LinkFuture development
We are also working on the logic that allows bots to decide what purchases to make based on the situation on the battlefield. The bots will spawn sufficient infantry to maintain line of sight, while maintaining availability of AT weapons. The bots will react to the units the player purchases, and try to counter them in the most logical and realistic sense. However, this will be part of an update further down the line.
We are also working on the domination gamemode, and we want to make some improvements to make it more fun and competitive. We want to add a timer to the game, so it doesn’t protract for long periods of time. We also plan to make the flag points award victory points in the future, to give a bigger incentive to fight for them.
Last but not least, we are re-balancing numerous units and doctrines, thanks to the input of our talented competitive testers, while we are also working on the artillery gameplay.
We have long term plans for artillery, to make it a rewarding, less random factor. This will take time to implement, and we will keep you posted on progress of course. Stay tuned!
HD LinkConquest evolution
We are approaching a new milestone in our evolution of the conquest dynamic campaign. Stay tuned for future devblogs which will cover this in detail, once we come closer to reaching results.
Ukrainian and Polish
Ukraine and Poland are among the top 10 countries in terms of player base amount for our game. We decided to make the full localization for the game in these languages, and we will implement it in the coming updates.
That’s it for now, thanks for stopping by and see you on the battlefield!
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