Welcome to our one hundred and fifth development status update.
Maus work in progress
As you might know, we are working intensively on the Maus right now. The engine compartment has been finished. We are right now focusing on improving interior modules of Hull Interior and Turret Interior with more details and elements to renovate. The process of the tank prefab configuration is in progress, elements are renamed to the appropriate nomenclature. We must admit that we faced more work on Maus than expected.
We have prepared some work in progress materials for you. It is footage from workshop renovation and a few screenshots from the latest development builds.
[previewyoutube="968mWWvmi2E;full"]
Ammunition for big Maus
For Maus, we have created new shells with proper caliber for big KwK 44 gun. Two types PzGr. 43 an APHECBC and Sprgr.L/5 a HE type of projectile.
MG-34
We have also worked on adding new metal objects of MG-34 as well as versions mounted inside tanks. This version differs mostly from not having a stock and being supplied from “Gurtsack”.
Framerate Option
We have added more options to control the framerate, as we had a lot of reports that our game caused too big an impact on players' GPUs. Now the options are more open to configuration and we want to hear if it helped or not.
[previewyoutube="Da5IyHplPZg;full"]
Drone Waypoints
As suggested we took our time and we have added the waypoint patterns. A player is now able to save the pattern of flight to a file and then load it using the Extraction Panel Menu when the drone controls are on. Players can also start and stop the drone at any point. We have received a few suggestions to add a special upgrade that allows for faster drone speed movement and a bigger area of search. If you have more suggestions for drones please share them with us.
[previewyoutube="cNENEIDxb3g;full"]
Thanks for all the support and have a good weekend. DeGenerals
Playway Publisher Sale 2021!
Attention Mechanics!
Playway Publisher Sale 2021 began!
From July 20 to July 27, you will be able to purchase Tank Mechanic Simulator at a great discount
The month is about to end, and we haven't updated you on the progress of our work on Maus recently. The tank turned out to be a lot more challenging than we originally anticipated. The model itself needed a lot of improvements to the game engine and fixes to the existing build. We know that our community has high expectations for Maus, and we want to do everything to make this model one of our best.
As a result, we are forced to postpone the release of Maus without a specific date.
We have to ask you to be patient for a little while longer. We assure you that work is in full swing and we are not slowing down.
However, we want to show you a little bit of our work progress and a few historical facts about the upcoming vehicle:
Professor Porsche was dumbfounded when Hitler asked him for a 100-ton tank project, but he knew it wasn't impossible. Ultimately, he exceeded the requested tonnage, and the Maus was born.
A monstrosity on its own, the turret itself weighed more than the entire Panther tank! 189 tons of German steel were made in only two examples, and both were partially destroyed, only to be found by Soviets, put back together, and transported to Kubinka for tests and museum exhibition.
The monster was propelled by a derivate of the aerial DB 603 engine, the MB 509, producing a whopping 1080 horsepower, but don't let that gigantic number fool you. The Maus' top speed was a mere 20km/h, with 13km/h being the usual speed. It sported an interesting feature, being able to go in reverse at the same speed as forward, due to its electric drive.
The beast had a hard bite, using the 128mm KwK 44 gun, alongside a smaller, 75mm KwK 44 as well, mostly for rangefinding, and for destroying weaker targets. A standard issue MG34 was also in the turret. A 20mm AA was planned but scrapped.
For such weight, a sturdy double-bogie, helical spring suspension was chosen. Not as fancy as the torsion bars, but easier to fix and replace.
All in all, the monster was impressive, but very impractical, being slow, fuel-inefficient, and a very good target for allied bombers.
Thanks and have a good one! DeGenerals
Get Tank Mechanic Simulator with -55% discount on Steam Summer Sale!
Dear Mechanics,
We are happy to announce that Tank Mechanic Simulator is going to be available on upcoming Steam Summer Sale!
Steam Summer Sale starts on 24.06.2021 🕔- 18:55 CEST you will be able to get the Tank Mechanic Simulator together with many other games on discounts!
Excavate, repair and drive the most iconic vehicles of both World Wars!
Get your copy of Tank Mechanic Simulator and celebrate Steam Summer Sale together with us!
Degenerals
Tank Mechanic Simulator VR News!
Dear Mechanics,
We are almost finishing the final stage of work on TMS VR. In a few weeks you will be able to play this legendary game. Please visit our discord channel and steam page for first-hand news from the battlefield.
Many mechanics on VR work great and we have a lot of fun playing TMS VR ourselves. We will provide more information soon. For now, to satisfy your curiosity - we send you some new screenshots from the game.
Also, a new video will appear very soon!
DeGenerals SA & GameFormatic SA
Update 1.2.5 Hotfix #1
Dear Mechanics,
we have uploaded a hotfix for update 1.2.5, list of changes:
1.2.5 Hotfix #1
Fixed:
Saves now correctly load
Highlight on water sprinkler and the water itself is not displayed at all time
Prop Menu ammo resupply works correctly
Turretless vehicles now should work properly (previously they could cause problems when loading their state)
Flashlight now can be only used in FPP (+ in interior mode + in vehicle mode)
Little Willie left side front road wheel dependency
Issue with saving repaired elements in Storage
Optimized the highlighting feature, as it was consuming a lot of performance when too long in game
We hope this hotfix will be helpful. We look forward to your feedback, especially on the subject of lost save files.
Thanks and have a good weekend, DeGenerals
Community Free Vehicles #3 - PzKpfw II Ausf. C - Update 1.2.5
Dear Mechanics,
We're kicking off June with a big update! Thank you for your patience and trust. As usual, you guys have been extremely supportive of our decision to move the release date to June. We present you the result of our work - Update 1. 2. 5, including new tank - PzKpfw II Ausf. C
PzKpfw II Ausf. C
[previewyoutube="pVfbIu4xF78;full"]
For full list with changes please find attached change log below:
1.2.5
Added:
Tank: PzKpfw II Ausf. C
German new decal for PzKpfw II Ausf. C
Assistant driver seat for Little Willie
Second welder for Workshop LvL 2
Prototype mechanism of selecting next suggested part (in orbit camera mode when tank part is selected press spacebar)
Decal for Canada - 4th Canadian Armoured Division
Decal for Canada - 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade
Decal for USA - 2nd Armored Division
Decal for USA - 3rd Armored Division
Decal for USA - 6th Armored Division
Decal for ENG - Guards Armoured Division
Decal for ENG - 11th Armoured Division
Decal for ENG - 8th Armoured Brigade
Decal for ENG - 27th Armoured Brigade
Decal for ENG - 79th Armoured Division
Decal for GER - 10th Panzer Division
Decal for GER - 3rd Panzer Division
Decal for GER - 1st Panzer Division
Decal for GER - 4th Panzer Division
Decal for GER - 5th Panzer Division
Decal for GER - 2nd Panzer Division
Decal for GER - 21st Panzer Division
New shader for vehicles (merged 3 materials into 1, for now only Pz II C is using this)
Modified / Tweaked:
Prices of M20, M8, Little Willie and Vickers E when selling them
Tanks with less than 90% repairs and 90% assembly will not be allowed to put in museum
$ color in Shop Panel
Visual improvements in Prop Panel
Swapped position of ACCEPT and RESET buttons in Shop Panel
Visual improvements in Paint Room Panel
Visual improvements of slider in Storage Panel
Improved highlighting system for elements, selecting tools etc...
Improved performance for Storage panel
Fixed:
Crafting menu now correctly shows the selected tank when selecting Craft Missing Parts option
Money exploit by generating free ammo in AmmoResupply menu
Tank interior lights should now not be displayed/visible when the player is in test drive mode with given tank, and the player uses vehicle camera
Player won't be able to enter aim camera mode if the slot he is currently in has no weapons mounted/attached
Player now should not be transported under terrain when the game auto-repositions the player when switching tanks (the game detects that the player is too close to the incoming tank - so he wont clip)
Dependencies for various elements for M8 and M20
Colliders for test drive/proving grounds for main bodies of M8 and M20
Camo not visible when Default Textures is applied
Stug config now correctly handles the state of the elements, previously the state of the turret was incorrectly calculated
Configs of tanks that had incorrect modules assigned to them, and tank analysis menu might have showed incorrect values
Tank Warehouse slot 5 and 6 repositioned to be in center of the markers on floor
Welding damage is now correctly saved
Rotation of the AA MG on M8 Greyhound
Tanks with multiple armament now correctly selects ammo storage for given weapon
Instances where the game tried to release memory very often that caused hiccups and maybe even crashes
Repair state selected in storage menu now correctly takes into account if a part is a Drive or Tool Proof, and cannot be repaired to lower than Paint
Pressing F when sitting in a crew slot with radial menu opened is now blocked
Positions of Valves for Vickers E in engine (they had an offset)
Little Willie Engine belt is now tool proof (can be only repaired by outsourcing)
Offset for few parts on Panzer III M and J
Angle for gearbox hatch for T34s, so by default it covers the engine bay correctly
Dependencies for wheels and suspension for Little Willie, so no parts are floating
Dependencies for wheels and suspension for Vickers E, so no parts are floating
Spare wheel for Panzer III J/M is now interchangable with other road wheels
Material config for Panzer III J/M hull mgs
Dependency for Panzer III J Viewer B must be now disassembled before the cannon base
Thanks for all the support and have a good weekend. DeGenerals
Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator 2021 Prologue Out Now!
Dear Mechanics,
Our friends at Play2Chill have just released a free prologue of Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator 2021.
If you have had a chance to play the demo then some of the features may already be familiar to you, but you'll also find a number of new things, all with improved graphics.
Check out the trailer of the free prologue!
[previewyoutube="-mm7cf7rHkc;full"]
If you're into motorcycles, join the MMS21 community on Discord. Just click on the graphic below :
Check it out for yourself! High five!
Development Status #104
Dear Mechanics,
Welcome to our one hundred and fourth development status update.
PzKpfw II Ausf. C - Engine
As for all new vehicles we are adding we trying to simulate and present how engiens and gearboxes are working inside. Here is a sneak peak and work in progress of upcoming PzKpfw II Ausf. C. Check out video below:
[previewyoutube="WtxqDnIyFtw;full"]
New shader & new objects inside
With new tank we are finalizing new shader we started working on from few weeks ago. General idea was to merge materials into one. For current vehicles our system consist 3 materials per module.
Extraction (Stage 1 Mud - Stage 2 Rust)
Workshop (Stage 2 Rust - Stage 6 Final Paint)
Museum (Stage 6 Final Paint + Stage with camo and other)
Now each module have only 1 material. With this change we now can easily tweak and control data inputs in materials. Supporting this required a bit of reworking the system of how we read and translate materials between for example extraction missions and on workshop.
Within this material/shader we can control every step of renovation and also have options to have camouflages, decals, dissolve effect when disassembling elements or for example Default Textures. This enable to have custom colors or textures and keeping all renovation aspects visible. This for example gives opportunity to us and for modders in future to add other objects/models inside tanks like radio stations or anything.
Optimization
Previously we have received a lot of reports that the game crashes when entering/leaving the museum. We dug around and found that the game tries too often or even a few times at once release memory - this process is slow and heavy for Unity and should be only done when necessary - so after this patch take a note on how fast the room/level loads - it will be important to us to tell if this works.
Storage Panel
The newest patch will bring performance improvements for the Storage panel. Previously it worked in a simple way: for a selected tank, the game internally loads his data, because access to tank elements info is required. Then, for example, for 1000 stored elements, the game had to create 1000 independent buttons. This process could take even over a dozen seconds. Now game also first loads tank data, but then it spawns only a maximum of 10 buttons, only these which have to be physically visible in the Storage panel. When a player will press scroll bar buttons, to go to the next or previous page with listed elements, game logic will dynamically load and assign proper element info (properties, icons, etc.) for a particular button.
[previewyoutube="Abe3xVngXOY;full"]
Localizations
We have received many reports suggesting that there are still bugs in our localizations. We would like to improve the quality of our in-game translations, so we thought we would share this idea with you directly. As there are people in our community from all over the world, we would like to announce that we are looking for people willing to participate in the process of localization of Tank Mechanic Simulator.
If you are interested, please contact our Community Manager - [DeGenerals]Goozy on the forums, in a private message or on discord.
Thanks for all the support and have a good weekend. DeGenerals
Announcement - Patch 1.2.5 "Overlord" and PzKpfw II Ausf. C Release Date
Dear Mechanics,
Patch 1.2.5 "Overlord" and PzKpfw II Ausf. C are coming out on 4.06.2021!
We have decided to postpone the release of 1.2.5 for 4 days. Our goal is to focus on implementation and optimalization of the new vehicle, and to eliminate as much bugs reported by our community as it is possible.
This date, of course, is no coincidence. With D-Day's anniversary and our update coming up together, we want to celebrate with a 45% discount on our game! You will be able to purchase Tank Mechanic Simulator at a discounted price for 2 weeks from the release of patch 1.2.5.
Also, we have a little sneak-peak of upcoming PzKpfw II Ausf. C:
PzKpfw II Ausf. C
A tank that was supposed to be a stopgap, until more advanced models were introduced, yet still played a very important role in early German skirmishes. In 1934, when Pz IIIs and IVs were already put into production, something was needed as an interim design, something light, fast, and with enough hit to destroy the less developed tanks. The C variant was the standard production model from June 1938 through April 1940.
It sported an automatic 2 cm KwK 38 L/55 cannon, derived from a FlaK. Mostly inadequate against allied tanks, it managed to be somewhat useful in earlier stages of WW2. Tungsten core ammunition was also provided, but due to shortages, its supply life was rather short.
All production variants of the Pz II were equipped with a Maybach HL62 TRM engine, producing 140 horsepower, and along with a ZF transmission, Pz II C could reach a speed of about 40km/h. Leaf spring suspension wasn't the most comfortable one, but for sure it was easy to maintain and cheaper than torsion bars.
Armor was pretty standard for an early war tank, not much to speak of. 14mm on sides, front, and rear, 10mm on top and bottom. Even the unarmored later variants were easily penetrated by towed anti-tank guns.
All in all, despite being a stopgap design, the Panzer II was one of the most important tanks, taking part in various invasions in the early years of WW2. It also provided hours of training for tankers, getting ready to switch to heavier machines, when the time comes.
