Soldiers: Arena cover
Soldiers: Arena screenshot
Linux PC Mac Steam
Genre: Strategy

Soldiers: Arena

Changing the DevDiary date.


link

Hi, friends.

Sorry, but we haven't enough time this week to finish the diary. So we had to shift the date of publication. Wait for it next Thursday.

Tnhx for you patience ;)

DevDiaries #58: special infantry

4k link

Hi, friends.
Did you pay attention to the cover? Did you find the link for original 4K resolution? Take it pls, have no doubts. Let Soldiers: Arena be not only in your hearts and wishlists, but also on your desktop :) And in this diary we'll talk about the role, tasks and pain that the special infantry can inflict.


link

A wise man prefers a parachute to climbing boots.



As you already know from the early diaries, infantry in the game is divided into: basic, support, heavy and special categories. Independant infantry units stand separately by themselves. In Soldiers: Arena, the same task can be performed in different ways, depending on the specialization of the infantry commander. For example, our target is an enemy tank, reinforced by an infantry detachment.

  • The motorized battalion will focus on speed, maneuverability and numerical superiority. He will rush with several armored vehicles in hope that in the midst of battle, the enemy will not spot the grenade wielding soldiers rushing amongst the rest of the turmoil.
  • The sapper battalion will reinforce the defenses and simply wait until the enemy comes forth and blow him up with mines.
  • The assault battalion will cover enemy infantry with shelling from regimental guns and mortars so that grenade launcher infantry can come up close and personal to take the shot.
  • The sabotage-reconnaissance one will prefer to remove the infantry silently using snipers. After that he will crawl silently to the tank with saboteurs and deliver a dynamite parcel.



link

You can say that that heavy infantry is a hammer, and a special one is a scalpel. In our case it is an armor-piercing and flame-throwing hammer and an airborne sniper scalpel, but the comparison stays true. Special infantry is good for those who do not like to get caught, since the main advantage of it are stealth and good field of view. The main disadvantage is the inability of all units, except the paratroopers, to seize the territory. However, these guys are created for another job. To maximize the potential of special infantry, you need to choose the right moment, the right location and not get carried away into brutal combat. Maybe you will be able to clean up the trench and storm the fortified building, using scouts. But is it necessary? SMG infantry recruits are equally effective in the assault, and cost half the price. And you’ll be better off cutting enemy reinforcements from arriving and marking artillery positions with your scouts. The gameplay of special infantry should please those who remember with nostalgia the singleplayer campaigns of Soldiers: HoWW2. Those ones where a lone saboteur could neutralize an infantry regiment, blow up a couple of tanks, help the locals with the harvesting, and then set fire to the hay and come back driving the tractor stolen from them (cause the saboteur is an unpredictable chap).


link

Oh, how do these snipers suits your deck!



Predisposition to reconnaissance and sabotage activities unites special infantry units so it is logical that sabotage-reconnaissance battalion has a lot of slots for them. However, other commanders also have to think about them. Special forces are able to emphasize with intelligence the protective nature of your deck or shade the sly squint of your eyes with saboteurs. Scouts and jaegers will help in defending positions and stopping enemy paratroopers, detecting firing points and controlling the map. Snipers will decorate any conservative-play deck, adding trouble to the enemy and frags for you, killing the machine gun’s crew, infantry in the field and in trenches. Saboteurs, paratroopers and special forces will give you a rare opportunity not to get into the fight for the front line, because their goals are behind it. Deep in the enemy's rear, careless artillerymen stare with surprise overhead. They are not aware it’s not khaki-colored snow, but in fact your paratroopers landing on their heads. Empty buildings are waiting to be seized by guys with parachutes, to arrange a party at the doorstep with firecrackers and flappers. And the more forces the enemy send to your holiday resort, the less that will remain on the front line. Weakly protected areas of the map are waiting to become a fully-fledged diversionary highway, along which saboteurs and special forces will move through. Risk, trophies and glory are waiting for special forces.


link

And we are waiting for your activity. In the development tree there are still a couple of empty places, so suggest in the comments the sabotage units and formations with unique history and the nature of the fighting that must fill these gaps. By the way, we are thinking about adding individual features for top special infantry of each faction. For example, to make NKVD special forces a heavy version of watchmen with better weapons and grenades, so that they could fight with saboteurs of any level. The Devil's Brigade could become an airborne unit, and the Brandenburgers would have the invisibility.

And we continue to work on portraits of commanders, so help in finding references will be very useful. Now we are looking for a photo with the form of German artillery, engineering, sanitary and sapper officers. It is desirable with characteristic elements that distinguish them from other kinds of troops. Send your references to PR@bestway.com.ua. In order to cheer you, just below we attach a small video with the stages of work on the art from the cover. In the future, we plan to create another 15-20 arts to fill the loading screens and interface pages. We will share them with you ofc in future. Wish you the best - let’s rush into comments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ssi4jUiUv40&feature=youtu.be

International Women's Day

Hi, friends.
Best Way wishes all the best to our girls from the community on this International Women's Day. Dream, achieve and never stop. And, guys, we remind you make some pleasant things for the ladies (and not just today). At least buy the flowers today, or you'll have no one to patch your wounds tomorrow.



DevDiaries #57: DevFeeback

link

Hi, friends.

Here is the continuation of our constant rubric DevFeedback. How is the development going and how new features are tested, how many iterations of the seven circles of hell you need to go through in search of balance and what are we doing when we are not busy with making healthbars for household utensils and water lilies on a swamp - let's read today's diary

Conceal yourself.



We recently wrote a diary about concealment. Almost always new mechanics change the gameplay and in order to maintain balance you have to revise and adjust some existing ones. Once we gave the camouflage ability to tanks and artillery, the life of infantry, which was never a pleasant one, became even more difficult. In order to compensate unnecessary pain, we proportionally increased the working range of viewports for each infantry type. In order to maintain the normal rate of AT-grenades and bazooka shells in the air - we reduced the circular viewports range of the most of SPG-s and tanks, and the driver's viewport width was cut from 90 to 60 degrees. The life of an infantryman did not become a beach resort, but the chances of their survival increased. Tanks firing from invisibility were still a serious problem, so we increased their concealment time so they take twice as much time to become green compared with cannons. The distortions began to level off, but in order to stabilize the situation it was necessary to revise the noise mechanics. Sometimes there were situations when several conditions stacked together (long range from the front line, small enemy presence, concealment, etc.), and the gun could fire without complacency and remain invisible to the enemy. Constant invisibility isn’t good, you know? Concealed units have become a moderately dangerous targets now, as it was intended.


link

Balance. Settings. Stuff.



  • Made a tracking firing mode for the guns with plunged fire trajectory. After the aiming crew of the mortars, regimental guns and howitzers keep their eyes on the enemy and correct the fire, if it starts moving. If the target disappears in the fog - shooting will be conducted at the place where the enemy unit was last seen.
  • The rebalance of the submachine guns characteristics according to their real features was carried out. For example, the PPSh is less accurate at long distances than the MP40, and the M3 has faster recharge speed than Thompson and so on.
  • Added fragmentary shells for armored vehicles with 20 mm autocannons. The life of infantry and artillery became a bit sadder, and light tanks became more popular.
  • Adjusted the chassis and the armor of some more vehicles and worked on the path search for them. Now each tank is manned by a special crew member who is able to pave the way using the cosmic constellation so getting stuck on complex routes and stopping in front of the ravine have ceased to be a problem.
  • Modified the AI. Now he's clever enough to keep artillery away from the front line, entrench himself, conceal his positions and arrange tank retreat, but not smart enough to send Iron Arnie back to the past.
  • Experimented with the optimal average session time, maps with hilly terrains and dense buildings from previous games. Adjusted the camera, so that at the maximum approach the picture was cinematic.



link

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. ©



Fought with bugs, among which were, as always, funny, strange and even touching ones. For example, a number of problems with the behavior of infantry existed in trenches. Sometimes the infantryman, being in the trench, became possessed, stood like a salt pillar after taking a grenade in his hands, firing only with single shots from the machine gun (just to annoy the player, we suppose) and simply refused to dig further, apparently having decided that his mother had brought him to this world for something more than gymnastics with a shovel. At the same time over the heads of the immovable infantry in the trench, airplanes were colliding in the sky due to problems with navigation and uncoordinated routes. But the first place in the past couple of months’ bug ranking goes undoubtedly to a bug with a chicken-silencer. It so happened that the hens, which run all over the place on the Village map, were perceived as a conflicting party by the game. Hearing the sound of the first shot, the hen perceived it, processed it and ... silenced it, not letting it be heard by others. Because of this, some guns did not make the noise and did not come out of the invisibility. If only the chickens could talk, maybe they would tell how C–beams glitter in the darkness at Tannhauser Gate.


link

After reading your comments under the last diary, we regretfully understand that players these days are too painful to perceive the fps drawdowns and the lack of optimization in games even at the stage of closed alpha. And it's not very important whether we did or didn’t promise high fps, next gen graphics or the best special effects ever. So we decided to postpone the start of the Early Access for a few months to complete a number of important works that were originally planned for later stages. This will shift the release date to the second quarter of this year, but we all get Soldiers: Arena more stable, optimized and with more content than we could have. And that’s all for today. Wish you all the best, guys.

DevDiaries #56: We need more videos
Hi, friends.

The community asked for more videos, and here they are. We are breaking our usual habits today just to please the brommunity. Today you can rest from thinking about how and with what gun you can pierce the foe’s tank armor, how the bushes on the tank should look like and why hellbars are needed. Sit comfortably in the armchair, wrap yourself around a mantle, pour some cucumber-celery juice into a cold glass, decorate it with an avocado slice, stare comfortably under a sweet umbrella and just watch some videos - we can afford it today.

When you love, you give everything away.



The first thing is - there was a Valentine's Day yesterday, boys and girls. So we wish you to be loved by life, your mates, colleagues and do not hesitate to love and make some good to others. And yeah, do not forget about us when it comes to the reviews. And we will try to provide so much love from us. We irradiate sparks of love in fact.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5n2F6T-p88&feature=youtu.be

Meanwhile, we continue to work on the new map, some areas of which you have seen already on screenshots.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA5hBUevznY&feature=youtu.be

The weather forecast in Soldiers: Arena is… the usual, you know. Prolonged fights will remain along the isobaric frontline, somеthing stormy is creating high pressure blast regions somewhere over there, richter-scale 5 quakes in the trenches, and Marders still thundering down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCJeF6hKlv8&feature=youtu.be

Twice a week we play with alpha testers to collect more feedback about embedded features, find new bugs, and, of course, to burn ourselves from tricky noobs, who every time cheat on the auto-balance and get together in your team and don’t let you win. Artillerymen, the mostly reckless ones, still suffer in the tests (the last two videos are straight from the replays, so do not judge strictly).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM0Th6v4UyM

However, the greedy tankmen isn’t living a happy life either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajnpIV6NOXI&feature=youtu.be

Wanna finish after this ragequit too. Comments welcome. Wish you all the best.

DevDiaries #55: Conceal yourself or die trying!

Hi, friends.

Today we will talk about concealment in Soldiers: Arena. About the importance of staying in the shadows, whether you're far in the enemy's rear, or deep in your own. No armor will save someone who carries a bullseye target on his back. MoW fans know lots about this mechanic and how important it is for survival and successful sabotage. But in Soldiers: Arena, it changed and got some upgrades. We made it more understandable for beginners, expanded the scope of its use and gave the ability to mask positions to some other types of units. After all, not only saboteurs far beyond the front line need to remain unnoticed, but also artillery in the rear.


link

Concealment is an important stage in the organization of the firing position, so we simply have to pay attention to this topic. Previously, we already wrote a diary about viewports , stealth artillery gameplay , and wrote a little about reconnaissance aviation. And we didn’t do it for no reason, but because it's a damn important part of the gameplay. The longer you stay out of enemy’s line of sight, and the longer he stays into yours, the greater your chances of winning. The first shot can easily become decisive, so we do our best to make fans of secret and careful game style happy.

You're not how much frags you have (с)



Artillerymen in the tests long ago started to play, trying not to unmask their positions, because they were prevented from shooting on cooldown and keep records of unpunished hits by paratroopers, tank breakthroughs, enemy artillery and mortars. Unmasked crew could write a will. And only the SPG commanders due to a combination of invisibility mechanics, a powerful weapon and good mobility and armor got a second chance. Assault and some specially armored self-propelled guns such as a StuG, SU-85, SU-100 could even afford to trade shells staying at the distance of non-piercing capabilities. Such impudent behavior contained some imbalance in relation to other types of units and a clear disparity to their role on the real battlefield. In fact, when choosing an assault SPGs the player received tanks with invisibility. So we decided not only to decrease the invisibility for self-propelled guns, but also to revise the invisibility and disguise mechanics in order to reflect in the game the moment of firing positions preparation and make more survivable other light SPGs, artillery and type of units. So now artillerymen can mask their positions.


link

Artillerymen must choose what is more important for him, mobility or invisibility, and play accordingly. Either you shoot a few shots and change the position until the noise in the shot zone has increased and lighted you up, or you take the roots to the maximum, preparing positions for the enemy assault, blocking the approaches with minefields, hedgehogs and barbed wire, strengthening and masking your cannons, minimizing the noise produced by them and their visibility. In the second case, the longer enemy is searching you, the more damage you can inflict. The enemy will not take a well-fortified flank with little blood, but the preparation of such a position takes time.


link

And if you gave it up, then it will not be possible to jump to the other flank and quickly restore your strength. Mobile tactics are better for those who want to play as a hunter, do not like to play defensively, and prefer to be right in the midst of battle. Masking positions with such tactics will be more a waste of time instead of something actually productive. In other words, if you want to destroy the enemy from a distance and without moving, prepare your positions.

Is that you, Mr. Hyde?



To slightly equalize the chances and make the tank gameplay more interesting, we gave the noise mechanics for them too. They unmask much faster and remain visible longer than the artillery, but shooting a couple of times and staying unnoticed is very useful for one’s healthcare, at least that’s what tanksman health blog said. And rejoicing comes to those who have been waiting for ages the opportunity to disguise his tanks in the game. Like for the artillery, the progressbar will start to be filled by pressing the 'disguise' button. As soon as it is filled the tank will be covered with shrubberies and will receive a stealth buff. Of course, the tank must stay in place for this. As soon as it starts moving, the camouflage bushes will fall as quickly as the needles from the New Year’s tree fall in July, and the cooldown of the ability will start. Tank camouflage is much weaker than artillery ones, but still gives a lot of new opportunities.


link

link

Infantry disguise changes affected the least. We made it more understandable for a beginner. Now a special icon appears above the infantryman hiding in the bushes.


link

The disguised infantry is visible two-thirds down the viewport work range. Units with the original bonus to stealth, become almost imperceptible when masking. For example snipers, who can install camouflage bushes or simply hide amongst other shrubbery bring even more chaos into the ranks of the enemy. We also reduced the impact on the front line for single soldier, so sabotage missions into the enemy's rear is relevant not only for stealth infantry. And, of course, the concealment mechanics underline others already working. So, the concealed infantryman in the trench gets both a bonus to protection and to stealth, becoming a real thorn in ass for attacking forces.

This is all for today. Ask your questions under the post and express your wishes regarding the mechanics and how the concealed SPGs, tanks, cannons, trenches should look like. And we still wish you all the best!

Evening screen


link

January streets in Kiev now look very much like a swamp from a new map Polesie. And what about the weather of yours? Is it also light January wind blowing scalp out of your head?

Changing the DevDiary date.

Picture link

Hi, friends.

Sorry, but we haven't enough time to finish the diary, so should ask you for one more week.

Don't get mad. Look here. This is LeIg18 firing only for you - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=954HbNducbM&list=PLPcbAzP08i685J2-McUcctwJrCvLyCu3T&index=4

And Coub Version in case you want to watch it more than once - http://coub.com/view/12hk0b

DevDiaries #54: Say 'Hi' to singleplayer mode!


Hi, friends.

That quarter in which we are going to start the sales of Early Access, has already began and we are looking with hope and anticipation into this near future, but still feeling some anxiety. From the discussions in the Steam forum it is clear that there is a misunderstanding in the community about how the game in Early Access will look like, what will be in it besides multiplayer mode, and why Soldiers: Arena is not similar to our previous games. So let’s clarify some of these.

What to expect in the Early Access.



With the beginning of Early Access sales, the game will be available to everybody, but it's worth to remember that by this time it will not be polished and ready one hundred percent. We would like to add and fix lots of things, but for the correct development of a multiplayer game, more players are needed. And now the player already has something to do in Soldiers: Arena. However, people with a harsh allergy to bugs have a reason to refrain from buying (there should have been a sign "Watch out. Work is in progress. Put on a helmet."). We stick to the original plan to create a game together with the community. Therefore, we did not wait long with the announcement. All in all, we try to quickly respond to your requests and implement features, add units, etc. Therefore, we want to go to Early Access as early as possible.



To meet the deadlines and achieve the desired results we often had to abandon some ideas, and to postpone others. Yes, we would also like more game factions, a full singleplayer, dozens of game maps, but not all at once. We are constantly adding new models, special effects, animations, sounds, but in the Early Access version there will still be some old variants. Factions may have gaps in the development tree, and USA devtree will suffer most, but we’ll fix this issue too. The interface will still be partially on the works, and the caring hands of optimization will most likely not get to some particularly dark corners in which bugs will wait for the player, hoping to catch him by surprise, and drag oneself to the path of darkness and hate, whispering for negative reviews about vile and greedy developers. Be strong, friend, do not despair. We will counter them with fast and powerful patches. Even now Soldiers: Arena is playable and the content in it is enough to organize serious team fights and break into the battle as one of a dozen commanders. Most of the planned features are already ready and we began to optimize the game, work on maps for the cooperative game and solve some old and annoying problems. We did not disclose some aspects of the game in the DevDiaries, so you will get a lot of new things to see, including the very combat organization, without the usual and slightly annoying buying points.



PVP vs PVE



A separate paragraph with explanation deserves a multi-user focus of the game. Having defined the genre, we understood that we would need to change a lot: division into classes, combat organization, the basic gamemode, the approach to creating maps, increase the need for teamwork, to fix old engine problems unacceptable in the competitive game, like musketeer lags and the impossibility of reconnection to the session, etc. Something has already been done, something has yet to be done, and something has to be temporarily abandoned. One of the important aspects of the game that had to be sacrificed until better times was the single-player mode. On your questions about the availability of a full-fledged single-player mode in Soldiers: Arena, we usually answered with a confident 'No'. The degree of this 'No' confidence has changed with the formation of the core gameplay. Over time, 'No' has become more like 'It may well be,' and today we can say that we are seriously thinking about some campaigns. The question of having a singleplayer was always a question of economy and the desire to meet deadlines. Until we were sure, we did not want to give up hopes that we could not realize. Now, when the core of the game is formed, we can think about the historical battles, single-player campaigns (with the possibility of playing some missions with friends) and cooperative game modes that will only complement the multiplayer game. These are still far-reaching, but very realistic plans, and for the start of Early Access three maps should be ready for multiplayer games and skirmishes, and a couple of missions for the cooperative game.



PVP still tires faster than PVE, and can not be paused without provoking the rays of hatred from other players, so we would like to give more content for the cooperative and single-player games. Those who do not like brutal PVP, will be able to open all the branches of any development tree, without even going into it (although this is a little insulting to us, but still ok). And if the campaigns are only in the plans, but cooperative missions and smart bots have been in development for a long time. The style of the game, the number and intensity of the actions of bots in missions is adjusted to the chosen complexity, the level of your commander and the number of players in the team. And it's not about these bots that just beat harder and shoot more accurately, but about those who know how to be unpredictable and create interesting game situations.



By the way, we have begun work on a story mission against bots named "Siege of Argentan" for USA commanders. In this mission, the player will need to search and destroy air defense guns, seize the territory, fight massive enemy counterattacks, stop convoys trying to escape and breakthrough the blockade, and advance without stopping, because the success of this operation will determine whether the ‘Falaise pocket’ will be closed. Of course, without forgetting about saving resources and caution. Well, you know as well as we all about a lone infantryman with a grenade in the enemy rear. And you probably noticed that in this diary we are talking about the US faction, not the Allies. We decided to create more space for new gaming factions in the future. And now there are a couple of spaces in the development tree that are worth filling out. What interesting US units would you like to see in Soldiers: Arena? Write under the post, and, as usual, we wish you all the best!

Merry Orthodox Christmas, guys.
Newer posts Older posts