Hello there and Merry Christmas! This weeks blog will be rather short as I am sure most of you are very busy with Christmas Celebrations.
Music Instruments
As many of you are probably aware, Battle Cry of Freedom features a playable Musician class, able to use music instruments such as the Fife, the Drum or the Bugle. However, as usual, we went one step further and added usable Pianos, Banjos and Violins to the game.
Players can choose from a large variety of different songs, all of which can be performed by any of the music instruments in the game. The music system is designed with cooperation in mind; players can perform tunes together in perfect harmony and beat. In addition to the Fife, Drum, Bugle, Piano, Banjo and Violin we also added a usable songbook to the game, which will allow players to sing along to all the songs in the game. All instruments were played and recorded by award-winning musicians in professional sound studios, ensuring both quality and accuracy to the source material.
Check out the Christmas themed preview we have prepared for you below:
[previewyoutube="QKcWG0GMyTg;full"]
300+ Player Server Stress Test
Last weekend on the 18th December we hosted a large-scale 300+ Player test. The test went very well, providing us with valuable Server and Client Performance data. The collected data will be used to improve both Server and Client-side performance. However, we are already very happy with our current Server Performance, outperforming many other games on the market. From our current estimates and calculations, 400 players should be achievable without further tweaking of the game, and 500 players is likely reachable with only minor adjustments. As such, we have bumped the officially supported player count from 300 to 400.
The event was recorded by several YouTubers, so if you are interested in checking out their perspective from the event, here are some videos of the event:
Pixelated Apollo
[previewyoutube="_EcGxR4hjZQ;full"]
SLUG
[previewyoutube="dQuvkGVWsGw;full"]
Saris
[previewyoutube="B1S3Y5jXRVU;full"]
[previewyoutube="lapi2KRMpas;full"]
Nobleman Asa
[previewyoutube="5Qr0Cn4GtKI;full"]
Stay tuned for future updates here or on our Social media, as we have a lot more content coming in the near future. We look forward to seeing you on the battlefield very soon!
Flying Squirrel Entertainment
Uniform Customization in Battle Cry of Freedom
Hello there and welcome back to another developer blog for Battle Cry of Freedom. It's been a while, but rest assured, we will be posting a lot more often in the near future. Today we’ll be talking about one of Battle Cry of Freedoms' unique features - Uniform Customization.
Character and Face Customization
Before we talk about the uniform customization in more detail we would like to briefly talk about the face customization featured in the game. To stay historically accurate and to honor the men who fought in the Civil War, we have implemented a very unique game mechanic. In Battle Cry of Freedom your profile is always associated with TWO characters. The white character will be used when playing as a regular Union or Confederate Soldier, while the black character will be used when playing as an enlisted or Non-Commissioned Officer in the United States Colored Troops or one of the many African-American Volunteer Regiments, such as the 54th Massachusetts.
Battle Cry of Freedom allows you to freely modify the look of your character by choosing from numerous faces, haircuts and beards. All faces have been modeled from real world characters, such as Joshua Chamberlain or Francis E. Brownell. Each of these faces can be combined with the haircuts or beards of other characters, for example, Chamberlain's face can be combined with Burnside's beard and Custers haircut. This level of customization allows for an insane number of possible variations, with no two soldiers looking alike. But that is not all! In addition to being able to choose your face, beard and haircut, you can also pick from a number of different glasses as well as other assecoires; such as pipes or cigars.
This brand new profile managing system allows for the dynamic creation and customization of character profiles, putting at your disposal a wide array of haircuts, beards, mustaches and accessories. But in addition to that, you will also be able to pick your voice and accent, as well as a banner that will be displayed on top of your head and will help teammates identify you from a distance. We also included a feature that will take a really cool looking photograph of your character, which you could use as a profile picture on the Forum or Discord.
Uniform and Loadout Customization
The regimental structure in the game will be very different to what you have seen in other games before. Most games focus entirely on the CO-NCO-Private-Musician aspect of the regiment. They do not offer options for different companies, or ranks above the Captain rank. In Battle Cry of Freedom, we instead opted for a more advanced system. Each Regiment is split into several companies. Each of these companies has different unit slots available for the player to choose from. And each of these units has its own set of selectable weaponry and ammunition. The UI will inform you of all the most important stats for the available weapons and ammunition so that you can make an informed choice on what to bring to the battlefield.
In addition to being able to modify the loadouts, you will also have access to customize the units uniform from there. Clicking on the "Gear" button will bring you to a new sub-menu in which you you can modify the uniform in detail. Here you can customize your uniform down to the color of the socks, pick from thousands of historically accurate uniform and equipment pieces, choose from different shoes, coats, hats and more.
All models and textures have been recreated down to the last stich. We are very proud of this system and are not shy to announce that this is likely the most historically accurate and detailed implementation of such a system in an historical game yet.
[previewyoutube="8ja3Q5tW03I;full"]
Vote for Battle Cry of Freedom!
The IndieDB Indie Game of the Year Awards are currently running. Thanks to your help, Battle Cry of Freedom was nominated to the Top 100 and we are therefore now in round two! As such, it would be greatly appreciated if you voted for Battle Cry of Freedom on the IndieDB Awards again.
Stay tuned for future updates here or on our Social media, as we have a lot more content coming in the near future. We look forward to seeing you on the battlefield very soon!
Flying Squirrel Entertainment
Battle Cry of Freedom Reveal Trailer
Clean your musket, pack your rations and strap on your knapsack as you will soon be marching to battle!
We are happy to announce that we have finally released the Reveal Trailer for Battle Cry of Freedom to YouTube. Check it out below and let us know what you think in the comments!
[previewyoutube="PfthLJXyc_s;full"]
The IndieDB Indie Game of the Year Awards are also currently running. If you got a spare 10 seconds, It would be greatly appreciated if you voted for Battle Cry of Freedom on the IndieDB Awards.
Stay tuned for future updates here or on our Social media, as we have a lot more content coming in the near future. We look forward to seeing you on the battlefield very soon!
