Dear players, we are happy to announce that we have already completed development of many core gameplay mechanics and continue to add new features, technologies and content into the game. These include common features like character skills and visual effects, as well as some technical tasks, which are not so well known, while still a significant part of the development process.
Today we are publishing a list of goals we want to reach next
Grenades were useful assets for infantry during WW2. It’s very important to have grenades correctly syncable through a network and have predictable behaviour. In our game, items (such as ammo, weapons, grenades) found in the location (for example, on enemy dead body) can be used. Although regular rules do not encourage soldiers to take and use such items instead of their weapons, in extreme situations it may be the only way to survive and execute orders.
In addition to this, there are of course locations (especially within fortifications), where ammo and weapons are stored regularly.. We of course support fast switching of weapons, using quick-shortcuts.
However, in some case, additional weapons or items (such as mines) may be in the backpack. To gain access to them, we need to have an in-game inventory. Our meta-game implies that some perks/skills of the characters will affect their combat and other abilities. Run speed, stamina, ability to hold breath, etc.
These perks have to be designed and implemented by engineers. We want to perform networking and combat-core gameplay tests as soon as possible to obtain feedback and tweak our networking code.
We want to create a special location for this test which will represent the overall look and feel, but also suits the goals of the specific game rules for this test. We want to be able to quickly iterate with mission and location design. The current landscape editor is heavy, and requires a restart of the game. We have decided to implement a lightweight interactive editor. Our gameplay code relies on the Entity-Component-System paradigm. However, its current version is not very network friendly, and requires some explicit networking code. In order to speed up development and make iterations faster, we want to move networking code to our ECS framework, so gameplay code will automatically become network friendly. We definitely want to have an interactive environment.
Synchronization of physical objects is not an easy task, it is sometimes called the “holy grail of networking”, especially when there are many of them. The game should be able to run on a low-bandwidth connection, so this is difficult but important task. Most common networking models, called ‘interpolation with lag compensation; does not work well with collisions involving player controlled physical objects like vehicles, especially with high ping. Networking approaches used in some other games with fast and heavily used physics (like fighting games) require low ping and\or peer2peer networking which is not good for large scale battlefields. Another approach used in the War Thunder networking model is one of the most effective with a physical objects game but is not ideal for high frequency fast paced action as it is highly dependant on physical determinism in the behaviour of objects.
Therefore we need to discover our own way in networking, perhaps some hybrid system." As soon as we implement the networking and gameplay core we would like to run a «combat« test.
Of course, gathering feedback and statistics will require developers time. Of course, any game should have the option to bind input keys and shortcuts.
However, since we want to introduce controllable vehicles eventually, it is not as easy a task as in most other games. In order to test server load and our infrastructure in general we plan to run several stress-tests. Most of them will be implemented using different AI/scripting systems. The game definitely needs a VoIP solution for platoon coordination. Blood & dirt should appear on surfaces, when required. This makes an environment more immersive, believable and is generally very cool. Some guns/cannons/machine guns are so big, that they can't be moved alone and can only be used stationary.
Stationary guns is important for maintaining fortifications and realistic WW2 scenarios.
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Although we have basic melee attack functionality right now, this approach should be extended to allow players to use different melee weapons, starting from your usual bayonet and ranging all the way to shovels.
Although most WWII weapons were not as modular as modern guns, some could be customized a bit by adding a scope, a bayonet, changing sights etc. Although a soldier’s outfit is pretty much standard, some things could be switched to change battle performance. For instance you can choose to drop a backpack, making yourself more mobile, instead sacrificing carry capacity. Or you can choose to have grenade carrying webbing instead of the standard ammo one to be able to carry more grenades in battle. We are working on creating many different bunkers that players will be able to navigate through and utilise any firing points.
Village/city objects (road signs/fences/billboards/tractors/) We are working on creating believable building interiors. To make that happen we will create models of furniture and other props usually found in houses of the era. We want to add another layer of detalization to our buildings so they’ll look even better. For that we’ll add additional props on them, like posters, hanging flower pots, signs. To make level environment interactive first of all we need to make interactive doors, as this is most common interactive object. To add an additional layer of interaction, we need to create breakable objects. The Most common objects of this kind are doors, windows, boxes, barrels. To create more realistic levels we need to are going to add more types of trees that grew there, bushes. grasses, ground plants. With more biosphere diversity will come more immersion into a level.
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Creating interesting and realistic level requires a lot of attention to terrain types used in it, and we are going to add new, which haven’t been implemented yet: swamps, dunes and scorched fields, while continuing to improve our towns, villages, field and forests. To increase level of detail we are going to add small rocks, branches and debris where appropriate. We are going to create special visual attraction points on level, to make it look better and to create unique places, so players will be able to navigate our levels better. These attraction points will range from destroyed military vehicles, like crashed aircraft or burned tanks, through natural landmarks, and all the way to unique buildings, like churches, town halls and other notable buildings. Rivers significantly change the layout of any landscape. We want to have them play their role in our game too. To make that happen we are going to develop a tool to easily place rivers through our level and also working on swimming physics. We’re going to add many different military oriented objects within levels, to create the proper look of locations, where military forces decided to make their stands: trenches, sandbags, barbed wire, heavy weaponry installations, fortifications will be among these objects of infrastructure. We’re going to make more weapons for our game so it will show some of the most notable weapons of war. Ranging from revolvers and pistols, to some of the more large personal weapons like machine guns, and maybe some unusual types of weapons as well.
To make Enlisted look good we are working on improving our animations. Creating so many animations for all the many weapons takes time, but we’re working on improving our tech to make this task easier. As well as animations we’re going to improve our character rigging. This will not only improve the final quality of characters, but also will allow us to introduce more types of animations. Soldiers used many different types of equipment. From simple stuff, like backpacks and ammo pouches, to more complex items like trench shovels, bipods, optics. We want to create as many of these items that will allow players to customize their experience as well.
As soon as we complete any of them or reach an important stage, we will share the results in detail in social media.
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