Mercenary Operator: Wolves cover
Mercenary Operator: Wolves screenshot
Genre: Shooter, Indie

Mercenary Operator: Wolves

Art and Animation Update

Small update focusing on improving the overall look of the game, mostly fixing some transition issues with the player’s animations and making the player animations look better overall. Further improvements will be made over time to other animations and art of the game.

Full Changelog


Changed



  • Dirt ground art redone
  • Calibers are now displayed using a dot instead of a comma for decimals on magazine names
  • Inventory and loadout UI layouts adjusted
  • Gun movement is now performed over time rather than immediately snapping to the target location (such as when changing shoulders, changing from aiming to idle)
  • Player animations were slightly reworked
  • Key binding code refactored. This reset custom key bindings to their default values
  • More detail added to the Killhouse level

Fixed



  • Fixed camera control labels to reflect the control they're actually associated with
  • Null reference exception on loose ammo storage fixed when trying to unload multiple magazines of different calibers

Removed



  • Deprecated weapon collision animations and related animator scripting
  • Independent gun rotation. Gun now rotates along with the player’s body
  • Player sprint loop animations removed. Player sprint start animations have been adjusted and are now used for all sprinting animations

"The Hotel" Campaign Level Released

Full Changelog


Another new campaign level, “The Hotel”, has been added to the game and can now be played.
Additionally, some of the character art has been improved.

Added



  • Hotel campaign level

Changed



  • All AI now use rigidbodies for more consistent collision and trigger detection between a variety of objects
  • Certain dialogue portraits art improved to look better

Fixed



  • Only AI specifically set to be destroyed after death are removed from the world rather than all AI
  • Player gun collision is more consistent
  • AI look targets are now reset on death to prevent some AI from continuing to turn
  • AI no longer occasionally get stuck in the walking animation after being teleported

Removed



  • Aim states removed from the player throwable controller as they’re not used

Loadout bugfix

An issue with loadouts where guns couldn’t be unlocked and previously unlocked guns were showing as locked has been fixed.
Additionally, the next campaign level is nearly finished and a majority of the content for it has been added in this update.

Full Changelog


Added



  • Content for the next campaign level

Changed



  • Intel objects world-space text has been made smaller and now truncates if it exceeds its available space.
  • AI refactored for better modularity
  • Enemy AI’s guns are now removed from the world upon death rather than staying

Fixed



  • Wolf mercenaries in the Wolf HQ end reached distance increased to 20 to prevent them from pushing into the player when talking
  • Makarov pistol magazines now use the correct loading and unloading sounds
  • Helicopters now use full 3D sound
  • An issue where guns couldn’t be unlocked has been fixed. Additionally, an issue where previously unlocked guns would show as being locked has also been fixed.

Wolf HQ Added

Wolf HQ has finally been added to the Obatenwe Story! This is different from the Contract map version of the Wolf HQ as it allows you to talk with other Wolf mercenaries to learn their backstories and more about the world of Obatenwe. Wolf HQ can be accessed from the main play menu (Main Menu > Play > Wolf HQ) after completing the Introduction story level.

Full Changelog


Added



  • Wolf HQ (Obatenwe story version)
  • More dialogue portrait variants for Wolf characters
  • UI notification for when objectives are added to the in-game minimap
  • Credits can now be fast forwarded, reversed, and paused via keyboard input

Changed



  • How to Play article on reloading no longer mentions clearing gun malfunctions as these were removed in a previous update
  • New door opening and closing sounds. Doors now use the new opening and closing sounds
  • Checkpoint UI made more generic and is now used for all UI notifications
  • AI’s field of view raycast is now drawn using 55 rays instead of 20 rays. This greatly improves AI detection
  • AI now react to doors being opened and closed within their line of sight

Fixed



  • Door highlight no longer has physics
  • Remote gates now derive from the same base door prefab as all other doors, should fix issues in some levels where gates wouldn’t behave correctly
  • Tutorial UI script execution order set lower to fix a timing issue in the Smugglers level

Makarov Pistol

The Makarov Pistol (or PM) has been added to the game. It’s one of the lighter handguns currently in the game, but comes at the expense of lower stopping power and magazine capacity. There are no unlock requirements before being able to use the new Makarov, and it has now replaced the M9 as the starting handgun in the game.

Full Changelog


Added



  • Makarov pistol, related magazines and ammunition
  • 3 glass impacts sound
  • Glass destruction sound
  • Footstep sounds for walking through glass shards
  • Stairwell system to allow movement between floors on larger buildings, which will appear in the next campaign level

Changed



  • Wood impact sound changed to a more realistic wood cracking sound
  • Optimized impact sound code and added functionality for more sounds to be played for each material impact
  • Maximum audible range decreased on walls from 500 to 100. Minimum audible range increased from 1 to 20.
  • Glass windows will now shatter into shards when destroyed
  • Credits scroll slightly faster now. Speed was increased from 40 to 65.
  • Roofs now use the same code as ground to set trigger sizes on initialization to prevent inconsistencies between trigger and sprite size
  • UI manager and access to child UIs has been refactored for easier maintenance
  • Black screen overlay now fades quicker (speed 0.025 changed to 0.075)
  • Reduced G17 weight to 0.7
  • Magazines can be composed of several separate sprite renderers

Fixed



  • First time tutorial scales correctly at high resolutions (>1080p)
  • All iron sights now pivot around the tip of the front sight rather than the center of the sprite
  • Map settings UI in the main menu no longer has a timing issue with getting references on some machines

Removed



  • Old wood impact sound

Checkpoint Additions, Fixes, and Rebalancing

Content for the next campaign level and the Wolf HQ level is being worked on. In the meantime, this update adds a UI to the checkpoint system from the previous update so you know when you’ve actually reached checkpoints, and rebalances grenades and the accuracy of some of the guns. There’s also a few bugs that have been fixed with the checkpoints and in the story.

Full Changelog


Added



  • Checkpoint UI, level checkpoints now display a notification and play a sound when reached
  • Skip Time UI, which will appear in the Wolf HQ level

Changed



  • In-dialogue tutorial on how to use guns in the introduction campaign level was changed to a pop-up tutorial on the UI
  • Grenades can be thrown farther (Linear drag decreased from 10 to 6, initial speed increased from 90 to 150)
  • RGD-5 wounding range lowered from 100 to 75
  • Magazine in/out sound code changed to allow for multiple sounds to be specified for each. Grey Wolf M4 CQBR now has 4 more sounds for insertion and removal of magazines
  • Killhouse starting shot timer beep lowered in volume
  • M4 CQBR (default and Grey Wolf) and all pistol accuracy increased by 5
  • M16A2, M4, and M4 CQBR no longer have an ambidextrous safety selector shown on their side-view sprites
  • South Miji expanded, more structures added to the map for the next campaign level
  • Confirm/cancel button order on UIs reversed to have the confirm button on the left for standardization

Fixed



  • Restoring multiple times from the Scent of Prey checkpoint no longer restarts the mission from the start
  • Pausing when restoring from the Smugglers checkpoint no longer keeps weapon controls disabled
  • Introduction story now level has consistent umlauts on Jäger’s name in dialogue
  • Outer boundary sprites (roads, grass, concrete, other clutter) has been extended further out on maps for the increased zoom level
  • Ground now sets its trigger size on initialization to prevent some ground from having trigger sizes inconsistent with their visual sprite size

Campaign Checkpoints and Bugfixes

Checkpoints have been added to the Scent of Prey and Smugglers campaign levels and will be used in all future campaign levels. This will hopefully make campaign levels less tedious to play through as you don’t need to sit through the introduction dialogue anymore every time you restart the level. Checkpoint progress is only stored so long as you remain in the level.
Additionally, a lot of small changes, tweaks, and bugfixes have been made. The controls to adjust the camera zoom level can now be rebound, though the mouse scroll wheel can still be used as well. The camera zoom level has also been increased, with the maximum and starting zoom levels being changed from 100 to 160.

Full Changelog


Added



  • Checkpoints added to the Scent of Prey and Smugglers campaign levels
  • Camera zoom controls can now be rebound, in addition to using the mouse scroll wheel
  • Changed
  • All actor move speeds increased from 30 to 50
  • Maximum and default zoom level on player camera changed from 100 to 160
  • Middle Mouse no longer resets the camera zoom to its default level. This is now its own rebindable key (default Keypad Enter)
  • AI patrol end reached distance changed from 0 to 5 to prevent AI getting rapid jerky movements when nearing their destination waypoints
  • Scent of Prey now uses the Time of Day system and starts at 0500

Fixed



  • AI groups in the campaign no longer cause null reference exceptions
  • Shanty town west border in the Smugglers story level was adjusted to prevent player being on its edge when ambushing the APRF convoy
  • Ramirez and Kim now use the Fireteam Grey corpse sprite
  • Flashlight controls are disabled after the player has died
  • Sprites that weren’t enabled before entering a vehicle are no longer enabled after exiting a vehicle (headwear, flashlight beam)
  • AI patrols that look the same direction they’re moving now start looking at their move target at the same time the patrol is started.
  • Scent of Prey Worthsfeld duplicate AI Core null reference exception fixed
  • Magazine repacking code refactored. No more duplicate method calls and Load/Unload magazine button no longer becomes interactable while performing a magazine repack

Removed



  • Loading screen tip on clearing malfunctions removed