Nearest planned updates (and when are the game saves coming)
What about the game saving?
In short - I'll be working on it after the nearest updates. Truth be told, this is a feature I was always going to delay as much as possible, because for me to add it into an incomplete game means I will have to be tweaking and reworking it with every future upgrade I do. To say even more - making the game saveable is probably the single biggest task in the entire project. But having said that - this is also the single most requested feature for the game, so - you (will) have been heard. Once I finish the nearest updates - I will begin implementing the saves.
So what comes before it?
I'm currently working on making the buldings destructable. This is the first part of the "garrisoning update", planned to come out in a few weeks. When the entire feature is complete, you'll be able to raze entire buildings with CAS (though it definitely will not be encouraged), rebuild the demolished structures to regain lost support, as well as use the buildings as protection for your troops. The same goes for the AI units, who in turn will start using the buildings for their ambush missions.
Before the big update is out, I'll also deploy a small bugfix-only build (bug tracker: https://trello.com/b/BQiZ1I7t/invasion-machine-bug-tracker).
tl;dr; you have been consistently asking for the save games, so I'm gonna be working on it soon.
The current near-term roadmap for the game updates is: Destructable + Rebuildable buildings >> Units garrisoning in buildings >> MAKING YOUR GAMES SAVEABLE
The "intermediate" update is out now.
This week's news
The minor update I promised recently is now out - bumping the game to version 0.3.6. The goal of this one was to give you some of the patches for long standing bugs, because I didn't want you to be forced to wait for them until I'm done with the nearest big roadmap development (the garrisoning).
So, to keep things short, the most important changes in this one are:
You can no longer develop social projects if you don't have construction materials stockpiled near it (or just loaded intoa car parked near it). You can choose the cargo your car leaves with in the dispatch menu, similarly to how it was done before.
Your dispatch will no longer get broken after a longer playthrough (this was actually caused by civilian vehicles entering your unit roster by mistake). This bug was in the game since the beginning, but I only recently was able to reproduce it myself, after I got a game log from one of the players.
There is new areas on the map. A new town and a farmland area.
The game's bugtracker is now publicly visible, and you can always see what I'm currently working on, and which of the issues have already been reporter. Link here: Invasion Machine Bug Tracker
What's next?
I will now start working on the next step of the roadmap - the garisonning in buildings/ destructable buildings. This will be a big undertaking, again requiring me to write quite a few new systems and interactions, so you can expect this update to take a while. I will keep posting updates about it. By "take a while" I mean 3 weeks, or so.
tl;dr; there is an update out, with changes to the game map, bugfixes to the most annoying bugs (well, sans pathfinding) and a new "stockpiling construction materials" mechanic, now required for developing the social projects. Next update will be the garrisoning in buildings / destructable buildings, but it will arrive in 3 weeks or so.
Invasion in May - what to expect
What is happening with the project
The last post I made was about the development roadmap, and I've gone radio silent. At least that may have been the impression if you're not on the game's Discord (you don't have to be there if you don't want to, I'm just trying to say that Discord is to me a much more immediate form of interaction, so I'm mostly posting the updates there). So, for all those of you who want to see the updates here - this is a summary.
What happened recently
The last update introduced many under-the-hood changes to the game's mechanics. It allowed me to make custom loadouts and weapons for your troops (even if it's not yet used to the full capacity), added new, random loadouts for the enemy and introduced some new weapons. It may or may not look like much. On the tech side - it was required to prepare the game for the more interesting updates in the future, like equipment tech tree.
And what about the roadmap? What's happening now?
It's still valid. I'm actually beginning to work on garrisoning + destructable buildings, which will be another one of those big (and long?) developments, but will transform the gameplay quite a lot. Enemies will be hiding in buildings and shooting out of them. You'll be able take structures over. It's gonna be fun. Nothing changes in terms of the plans for the projects.
Nearest update - next week
Because garisonning will be a big update, I'm first preparing something smaller, to tide the active players over. Next week I will release version 0.3.6, containing multiple bug fixes, some major changes to the map, and a more complicated mechanic for building Social Projects (you'll now need to stockpile and guard construction materials to move your projects forward). With that released, I'll be back to working on the planned roadmap step, as described above.
And what about the bugs?
There's now a couple of places where bug can be reported - here, on Discord. But in the end, I'll be gathering them all in a publicly visible bug list, where you can see what's been noticed, what's been fixed and what's about to get released in the nearest patch. The list is here:
If you don't see a bug there - it might not have been reported, yet.
When will I be able to save the game?
After garrisoning, I'll start working on game saving. I wanted to wait longer, for technical reasons mostly, but it's the most often requested feature, so - you (will) have been heard. It's gonna be the next priority.
tl;dr; I'm still not posting updates to Steam forums often enough, to the point where some people thought the project's been abandoned. That's not the case - the daily updates are always posted to Discord (cause it's a much more immediate form of discussion, so it captures attention more). I will update more often here as well, from now on.
tl;dr; Next week there's an intermediary update planned - it's gonna introduce many changes on the game map, take care of some of the often-reported bugs and make some larger changes to how you build Social Projects on the map
Future of the project, the roadmap
After Action Report
Let me start off by thanking each on of you who already decided to support the game. The current build stresses the "early" part of an early access, and what you're playing right now is just a fraction of the game's future content. I know it has it's problems, and I'm working on them. I've been saying before that this game is not a typical RTS title, and thankfully pretty much all of you understand it and are on board with my ideas. That's great, and now that the first week after the release is behind me - I'm ready to move forward with the project.
Updates and common Issues
Some of you are reporting commonly occurring issues, some of them rather severe, so at this point I'm focused almost exclusively on bugfixing. There's already been one release since the update, with the next one coming this week (most likely on Thursday evening CET).
If you already have the game in your Steam library, please make sure you have the auto-updates enabled for it (right-click on the game title and select game settings). This game will be updated a lot, and you'll want to play the latest version of it.
Of the worst still outstanding issues we have:
car pathfinding (often failing to find the quickest route, as well as getting stuck in the far village)
unreadable UI (too much transparency, not enough contrast, overlapping windows)
Both will be addressed in the coming weeks. I won't even be mentioning game crashes and smaller usability issues, missions getting stuck, etc. - because all those things have been brought to my attention and are being worked on as well.
Roadmap
I will be working on a nicer, a little more interactive roadmap in the coming days, but before it's ready, let me just list the nearest term plans here, so you're not kept completely in the dark until it's up. Note: I know not everyone has Discord, but if you do, and are interested in this game, you can join here: https://discord.gg/G4zX63s - we discuss the game daily, probably most of it will never end up on Steam until I create the next update.
Having said that, here's the steps:
Bugfixing
I cannot continue adding more layers of complication into the game until I fix some blocking issues. I think the most important one here is the car pathfinding (I'm actually working on it right now) - at times it's plain pitiful. Before I continue adding more features and complications - I need to bring it up to a more acceptable state.
Soldier specializations and loadouts
Basically, the game's right now missing both the marksmen (for both you and your enemies), and the machinegunners for some more effective suppression. I consider both those roles essential for the game. Along with that, I'd like to add a first layer of troop customization, where you'd be able to select the general loadout of your men (the weapon, and therefore the role; med supplies; additional ammo). Along with it, the unit dispatch menu could use a do-over, because right now it's unnecessarily complicated.
Right now neither your troops nor the enemy can shoot from within the buildings. Also, right now, even if you drop your CAS directly onto a building - it won't touch it, or the people inside. With the update, you'll be able to take over buildings (after first breaching and searching them), even with civilians inside (they'll hate you for it). Your men will be able to use the openings as firing positions, and explosions will be able to collapse the whole structure. Demolished building will be rebuildable for both the civilians and your men (to their previous shape and function), with the use of a new resource - the building materials.
More densely populated map, more POIs
With the map being a rather desolate place right now, it will be time to add more unique (and functional) structures. There's gonna be at least one more village, inaccessible to vehicles, located on high ground. There's gonna be new unique structures, serving as possible social projects for you to develop - a water distribution center, a power station, a factory, farmland and cellular network infrastructure. All destructible. All rebuildable, each with it's own effects on the local life quality.
Politics
Both your faction and the enemy will be able to send political figures on campaign trails. This will mean a constant political tug of war between the factions, causing you to more rapidly lose civilian support if your only strategy is a military domination.
Saving the game
I know many of you consider it an essential feature (I also think it's understandable), so while I had my reasons to delay it as much as possible (both because along with future game updates, your saves are gonna keep getting broken, and because it's such a heavy task that as I work on it - it will pause other progress on the game), due to popular demand - I'll be adding it sooner. You win :)
Structure Building
Because it should be a big part of a more permanent presence of your units on the map, you should be able to build various defensive structures. Sandbags, machinegun nests, traffic checkpoints. In the end, I'd like the player to be able to build a permanent combat outpost of sorts, which he'd later have to re-supply using his convoys.
Smoke cover, explosives and APCs
Right now your enemies are somewhat powerless against you. With their rusty AKs and the occasional technical, your men completely dominate the map most of the time, so in this update I'll introduce RPGs, mortars, more technical units and some old APCs for your enemy. Your men will get access to smoke cover, AT weapons and new MRAP units.
Long-term goals
The points I described above are just the first steps. For one - the community is constantly feeding me with ideas, and I haven't yet added any of them to the list. On top of that, there's some bigger projects planned, which will change the game quite a lot.
Special Forces
SF units with their own, new missions. Recon, snatch and grab, and anything we come up with together. I don't want them to become just infantry with beefier stats, but rather another flavor for the game.
Helicopters
Troop transport for your own men, as well as a quick means of casevac. Will be a scarce resource, with big penalties for your relations with the high command, if lost. PJs - an additional unit you won't get direct, full control over. Similar to fire support, you'll be able to call them in, and will be tasked with preparing and keeping a secure LZ for them.
Tanks and other mechanized units
This game is mostly about infantry. I want it to always be a story of a handful your men, having to deal with an overwhelming task given to them. Tanks and other advanced units will never play a major role in the game, but I'm open to adding them as additional fire support units, in limited quantities. The enemy will also get their own tanks, in even more limited quantities.
tl;dr; this is the list of _some_ of the things coming to the game. Because many of you've been asking where is this project going - I tried listing the features that I think will affect the gameplay most. This is not a complete list, nor does it mean that I will stop accepting your ideas. Think of it as the starter roadmap, with more to come later.
The invasion begins on February 26th
Invasion Machine is almost here. There's been delays, but every on of them meant more time for the crunch (yay) and more fixes.
[previewyoutube="FDqTaqGvSl0;full"]
The first build to be publicly available will feature a single game mode - the sandbox/freeplay, where you don't try to complete a specific mission, but rather keep your AO in check.
You can expect some major limitations at first, though:
saving/ loading will be disabled
the UI lacks many quality of life features, but I'm adding them one by one
the AI is sometimes dumb, but also is getting improved with every patch
the general roughness of interaction
In general, if you feel that an early access game isn't for you - that's fine. You can let it mature a bit before you get invested, just maybe wishlist if you haven't already. I'm not your usual gamedev studio - I've been here a while, and I'm not going anywhere. The project will be progressing.
What you can expect of me - is a lot of attention to realism, dillemas of a modern conflict and depth of the simulation, and I don't mean it as in marketing-talk. This isn't your usual RTS, will never be, and will look into areas probably no other game in the genre ever does.
tl;dr; I haven't been updating this page lately, mostly because I've been keeping busy with the development. But the big news is here - the game launches into early access on February 26th.
tl;dr; Early access means in this case the same thing it usually means - the game will start out as an incomplete product, with big (and sometimes much needed) updates planned for the next few months.
I need to delay the release to December
I feel like I'm really testing everybody's patience with this, but the game needs to be delayed again - the build that I currently have as the alpha still just isn't ready to go to the early access, yet.
I still plan on releasing before the end of the year, but've been (reasonably) asked by Steam to stop changing the release date all the time, so for now it's displayed as "coming in Feb 2020". But this is the worst case scenario, and I will soon update you all with the actual date.
I have a number of issues that need addressing, among them: 1. Some major issues with pathfinding 2. Enemy AI tends to clump all together into one big easy target for you, on every engagement. This is boring, too simple and provides little tactical challenge. I'll be making some major adjustments here. 3. Any interactions with the locals (stopping vehicles, searching the houses) completely block the rest of your gameplay, and need reworking. 4. other, general look & feel things that will be very awkward for new players. In the past, this for example included no simple way of giving the move/ engage orders to your troops, but a recent update already fixed this. When I say look & feel, this is the sort of issues I'm trying to address.
So in the end, I could release the game already, but it wouldn't still be a good representation of the future finished products.
Sorry again, the game still gets updated daily, and
the Open Alpha is still available and downloadable, from the game's Discord server: here. The project isn't canceled and nothing's really changed - I'm working on it same as before, I was just bad with my planning.
Release Day (small) Delay and the Confusion
I've created some confusion with the release date. The store page states that the game launches tomorrow, but unfortunately this isn't the case. I've decided to delay the release for 4 weeks - till November 6th.
The reason for this is because lately more people started playing the open alpha version of the game - and pointed me to some still-prevailing bugs that I find unacceptable to launch the game with. You might have seen the recent coverage on Youtube, where the guys reviewing the game infallibly get overwhelmed with the chaos in the gameworld. And, although they're funny and chill about it - makes the game barely playable for them.
So - I will fix all that, while also adding more tutorial messages to the game and make the learning curve a bit less brutal, but I need a bit more time.
And because recent changes on Steam make it harder to adjust the already-published game release date, I'm still in the process of properly updating that, and this is why the page still shows the wrong date.
tl;dr; My steam store has a release date set for tomorrow, but I'm in the process of changing it to November 6th - this is the final and official date on which you can expect this game to come to Steam.
Feature Showcase: the "Social Projects" in the game
How deep can I go with some of the game's systems?
As some of you who joined Invasion's Discord server (you can too, by clicking here) know, I often advertise the game as having deep and complex gameplay.
To me, this means that if I add a something to the game - I want it to affect the game world in a similar way it's reallife counterpart would affect ours.
Let's take an example. Your main task in Invasion Machine is improving the quality of life in an occupied province and ultimately - recreating a working society. This means, among other things, rebuilding war-damaged infrastructure.
Our example of the local infrastructure needing our help will be a gas station:
By default, as you start a new campaign - this station is abandoned. Nobody works there, nobody stops there for gas.
The locals are unlikely to put effort into any reconstruction in a still war-torn province, so the burden of re-opening it falls onto your troops.
As long as the nearest vicinity of the station is clear from enemies, you can order your men to start reconstruction. After a longer wihle, when they're done (reconstruction will take a long time, cause I don't want these projects to be too easy of a fix), the station becomes operative, again.
This means a couple of things:
1) We now have a new legitimate workplace for the locals. This means they won't all have to be working in the opium fields, and the local guerrilla druglords will have a little bit less power (and money) in your province. Over time, this should mean less opposition and less attacks on your forces.
2) A gas station needs fuel to operate (duh), so fuel trucks will start making deliveries to it. Normally, the fuel deliveries will be made by local contractors, but if the area is deemed to be too unstable - your Command will order you to send your own convoys (a local fuel truck plus some of your vehicles as security), instead.
3) Cars will occasionally stop for gas here, but only if the station actually has any gas left. The more customers it has, the more money the station makes (double duh).
4) A newly re-opened gas station means two things to the guerrillas. One - it can become a juicy shakedown target for them, so if you don't protect it with your troops - they might start collecting the earnings from it.
And two - any Social Project you complete makes your faction appear stronger and more effective (as your start winning some hearts and minds over) - and is sure to rub your enemies the wrong way. So, they might decide the best course of action is just to take your newly-operating project out of the picture - either by setting up ambushes on it's premises, attacking the staff, or simply blowing the place up (this last part is actually not yet implemented and will come as a future game update). Which again - forces you to place some security in the area.
In the end - with every completed Social Project you bring more stability to the province. But also - the more projects you have, the more troops you need to consistently deploy for security. And since your troops cannot patrol forever (they get tired, stressed out, and run out of resources) - you also need to rotate them.
tl;dr; The buildings in game will have various functions (as opposed to just being 3d models slapped onto the map), and will all affect the local economy and quality of life in some ways. If a building is especially valuable, all factions in the game will be thinking of ways of exploiting it for their own benefit.
PS. The game is on track for it's early access release, currently planned to be the last week of September. Early Access of course means that lots of things might be more or less broken at launch. I don't want to keep blowing the release deadlines over and over again, so if I deem the game playable by then - I will just release it, with my main goal being - it's a game, so it must be playable at launch. There also must be something interesting to do in it, and must at least show you what to expect in the future. If I can meet these goals by end of September, we're finally gonna have us a release.
Proof of progress
Proof of Progress
If you've been following the development of this game, you know that about a month ago I've released a "proof of life" build of the game - a very barebones version, but intended only to prove that Invasion Machine is actually playable, and not just a bunch of screenshots and busted Steam release deadlines.
Since the day I released the first build I've gotten a ton of actionable feedback and for the past month have been putting it to use. So, today I'm ready to share a "public pre-alpha" (or a barely-even-alpha) version 0.2. This one addresses the biggest issues some of you had, and finally lays foundation for the unique features of Invasion Machine (like combat stress and war crimes).
The current build still is too incomplete for me to consider deploying it to Steam as a commercial, early access version of the project. So for now the only place you can get it - is the game's Discord server: Invasion Machine DIscord
tl;dr: the game is steadily getting shaped up. It's not on Steam yet, because I don't want to push an incomplete build out and pretend it's ready for the public release. If you wanna see how it plays now - check it out on Discord.
Proof of life - a public "pre-alpha" available now
Proof of life - the project is not dead, just delayed (as usual)
As anyone who's been following this game knows, the release date is being pushed forward over and over again. This is because laying the foundation for it (all the most important systems of the game, as in movement, firefights, pathfinding, etc.) is always taking more time than I'd like it to. By now, I have most of it complete and I'm slowly entering the stage where I can focus on creating the actual, proper game content. This means that on the outside the game seems to be dead, but it's actually slowly but steadily getting developed.
But, because it's been delayed so many times - I decided it at least owe it to you all and should get a "proof of life" build out, so people know the game's still coming and hasn't been abandoned.
...so - If you're feeling adventurous, you can join the Open Public Alpha for the game.
I've just released the first playable build, for now only available off-Steam (because it's super-early, and not necessarily suitable for unfiltered, public access, yet).
If you do, however, please keep in mind that this build haven't been uploaded to Steam for _a reason_ - most of the features that will make this game unique, are either not in it yet, or are broken and incomplete.
So what's next?
Of course the actual Early Access release is not canceled. Currently, I plan to publish on Steam around July 15th, after all the most spectacular and ridiculous bugs are taken care of.
I don't want it to become another buggy mess on Steam, so if I don't believe it's ready for you - I won't publish it here.
