Enlisted: Results of 2017!
Happy new year! We would like to wish you all the best in the upcoming year and also tell you about the state of things in Enlisted and the job we’ve done so far in 2017.
Let’s check out our Road Map point by point.
Completed tasks
Grenades - high-explosive fragmentation grenades added, characters carry them, these grenades damage or kill (destroy) other players and guns.
Locations for testing - We have prepared 2 locations where we played thousands of battles and we are happy to introduce them today. We are currently working on other planned locations and fixing bugs on the existing two.
Game controls - you can change control settings, mouse sensitivity additionally the game also supports gamepads.
Improved terrain editor - So far we have developed our terrain creation technology comprehensively - you can see this on the screenshots. At the moment this technology is not completely suitable to be used for user created locations. However, we plan this task for the period after OBT since we want to maintain flexibility in changing tools.
Weapon customization - we have implemented the most important customization option for WW2 weapons - installing optical sights. The other addons are not as important and will be implemented as and when necessary.
Bunkers, objects of military infrastructure and other fortifications needed for game missions are ready along with mountable weapons, light sources etc. See the screenshots. It was really important to implement these in order to test various mechanics - interactions of camera and characters with objects that have complex geometrical form.
More weapons and improved weapon animation, more equipment - we have implemented all or almost all the weapons that we wanted to have in our game at the beta stage. A weapon is reloaded in a realistic manner (the reloading is performed in several phases), and we have implemented the same realistic approach to the weapon firing and changing animation. But we probably will do something more before CBT, at least more melee weapons.
Dynamic decals - bullet hit marks are now ready and artists now have an opportunity to decorate locations with signs and drawings.
Improved visual appearance of the buildings — ready, see screenshots.
Interactive doors — they open and close, including during online gaming.
More vegetation and terrain types — we have completed everything that is required for the existing locations and that’s a lot of work since the locations are not at all small and they have various terrain types.
Work-in-progress:
Net ECS-framework for game logic — this is a basis for a game engine, all game logic is currently created in it which allows to expand opportunities and entities behaviour in the game in a flexible way. We still improving hit registration during online multiplayer games but in general everything is working.
We would like to remind you that we want to have various physical objects (controllable vehicles, destructible environment, interactive objects such as doors, ballistic grenades and bullets etc.) in the multiplayer game, we want to have specific lag compensation (so that the game is comfortable to play with a ping of up to 150ms and still playable at 300ms ping) while making all calculations on the server (in order to decrease any influence of cheats and modifications as much as possible) it’s not a simple task. For those who are interested we recommend watching two videos - short introduction from Battle(non)sense and informative video from Blizzard so that you may have a better understanding (but remember that only a small part of net problems is shown when we are talking about interaction of the controllable characters with real physical objects).
Item drop - Is already implemented in the game with an opportunity to pick up items etc.
Currently if you we will drop everything (or almost anything) from a dead character it causes serious problems with performance and network traffic so it needs to be optimized before it is implemented as a feature in the release, although item drop/pick up itself is fully implemented.
Inventory (a player can use items stored in their backpack) - This feature is implemented good enough for the game and testing.
For the release status several things need improvement:
Currently item weight does not affect a character’s dynamic (maximum weight is limited though); we should divide inventory items “size” and “mass”. Also at the moment inventory does not have full-fledged visuals, which is enough for gameplay purposes now but of course we’d like to show pictures and 3d objects in the inventory.
Equipment customization - gameplay wise we have implemented many - backpacks, carried weapons and ammo, helmets and vests. Visually only carried weapons changes are displayed at the moment.
Stationary weapons - We have implemented destructible and controllable stationary MGs that are an important part of the “Invasion in Normandy” part of the game. Currently we are working on a complex task of animation of the characters that control MGs that are positioned in random places.
Besides this they have infinite ammo, they never experience overheating and don’t need to change barrels, which will probably change in the future (and probably not if playtests and balance requirements will show it).
Character skills - We have implemented and tested many game skills - both passive (such as high endurance, or greater running speed) and active (the opportunity to “heal” wounded soldiers). We checked them using the “perk” mechanism - selectable skills/features in battle. At the moment this is a comfortable and adequate mechanism but for the final stage characters should of course be different but they shouldn’t change during battle.
Network solutions and combat gameplay tests - The game is not quite ready for alpha test yet, but we thought it might be good to show you current state of the game and invite the first feedback from those who have supported us. You will receive an e-mail with instructions on how to download the current working version of the game.
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Improved character animation - We have spent a lot of effort on a realistic character movement animation. At the moment we are almost happy with everything that requires bipedal movement - running, crouching etc. However climbing ladders or obstacles requires further improvement and crawling still needs some work (the fields of WW2 are not the place where this may be unimportant). Voice chat - Voice chat is integrated into the game launcher but we have not yet implemented any options to control it (mute/kick users). There is also not yet any option to create dynamic rooms (like squad chat). We also want to have controls for the voice chat in the game (voice 3d positioning, voice attached to characters etc). Other current tasks that have not been completed:
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Results and plans
We have done a lot of work and touched everything that is needed to launch an alpha version which will allow sharpening in gameplay, netcode and many important game details - content, mechanics, balance, optimization. To begin this test - meaning regular multiplayer battles we should finish everything we have in our current tasks list but the most important item is the network code (hit detection and object synchronization, including physical ones), character movement and probably the destructible environment - since these things play a key role for network battles and 99% of its perception may depend on the details of the implementation. Virtually this what you experience - how you play, how run/crawl/shoot, how you die.
According to our estimates there is still a lot of work to be done - it is still a few months before the alpha version. At the moment the most important tasks for us are: improving character movement, physics and animation of characters and hit detection. But we are happy to show our backers what we have done so far and gather your feedback.
Thank you for supporting us!