Tank Universal 2
Update August 2018: cutscene palooza
It's August and I'm happy to announce a new build for the month.
The bulk of last month's work has been on completing the artwork for all the cutscenes throughout the game. Although a review may see tweaks to that artwork, the story aspect of the game is now complete. This is an important milestone in that it means dev work can return to fun things such as bug squashing, adding extra bosses and sorting out the save system.
There's still a good block of work to be done, but I'd like to pose a question about release timing.
When should TU2 leave early access?
Do you guys have any thoughts?
Doing some research on Google, a few points come up.
Firstly, some say November.
This is to take advantage of the Xmas buying splurge.
Downsides are that everyone else will be doing the same along with a number of heavyweight triple-A titles. These big releases can suck the air out of the market and there's defintely some big titles due November this year, including RDR2 (although that won't be a PC release intially).
Other option is to leave it till late January.
Thinking here is that people are starting to spend again but more importantly, it's a quiet period where an indie release is more likely to be noticed. You only get one chance at a successful launch, so why rush it at the end? Another couple of months of dev couldn't hurt.
Last point is to avoid Steam sales as during these the new releases window pretty much goes AWOL. For example, the game below (Youropa) was released during the last Steam sale. Who knew?
https://store.steampowered.com/app/640120/Youropa/
(I point this game out as the author also produced the Giles lightmapper utility which has been of immense help to me over the years.
Then again, Steam has become such a gushing hosepipe that it probably doesn't matter when TU2 is released.
For example, Steam lists 46 new games released just today.
Let me repeat, 46 releases in one day (actually two more popped up while I was writing this and the day's not over).
Out of interest, roughly breaking those releases down looks like:
A third look to be trash. For example:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/897840/Alien_Hunt_3D/).
Looks like the link above is broken because the game (Alien Hunt 3D), was a bitcoin miner and has been taken down!
A third are early access and so are not complete (and may never be completed).
A fifth are VR only or are free.
Long story short, about a fifth of the releases I looked at are games that seem to be technically competent and are sold as complete.
However that's still ten titles a day to compete against for attention.
BTW: Known issue with this build:
Beams between distant pylons are not connecting.
Looks messy but doesn't affect gameplay. Is something to fix in the near future.
Update June 2018: the Winter Kiwi
Happy summer to those northern hemisphere dwellers - it's winter down here in New Zealand and a bit chilly too.
However time for a new build to be uploaded.
Firstly, loading times (apart from the first load into the main menu) have been reduced.
Seems that particle data did not need to be read again between levels ;-)
The final two levels (26 and Epilogue) are 'finished'.
'Finished' means pending extra artwork for the static cutscenes and a general review of course.
But this is still a milestone as it means that TU2 game dev is now moving into its final stages.
Spent today playing through the entire game just to pick up any major issues before uploading this build.
There's still a boat load of bugs, tweaks and balancing to fix and admittedly I set infinite upgrade points and powershards to speed my playthrough - but I got a sense of how the full game 'feels'. It's clunky in terms of graphics and general production values - it's a one dev game after all - but it works and I feel it is more than just the sum of its parts. I guess the proof will be when it's released as a complete work.
Known Major Issues:
Memory footprint needs to be reduced - can cause a mem error later in the game when loading a music file to play for example.
Armour levels lost between levels - level 10 sees upgrades reset. Need this sort of stuff to be persistant.
Beams between distant pylons are not connecting. Doesn't affect gameplay but a worldbuilding problem that'll need to be addressed.
Triggered Atheist has let me know that the game has issues on his rig using integrated graphics. Not sure if this can be fixed (sorry TA) - at the very least it means I should update the min/recommended specs to include a dedicated graphics card as being a minimum.
That's all for the moment. Hope you all have a good month.
P.S. if you want an authentic kiwi t-shirt for summer, go to redbubble.com and search for 'madjack'.
Update May 2018: closing the loop
As promised, public build updated this month.
The focus these two months past has been on getting all the levels in and being able to play from 'go to woah'.
Well, it's almost there.
The final level is under development now and a postscript to George's story comes after that.
So it is possible now to play from level 1 to mid-way level 26.
There are still bugs to be squashed and quality of life tweaks to be made of course, but the answer is yes.
Regards bugs for example, in my last playthrough some UI elements were not being turned off during cutscenes or the odd situation was not dealt with.
A classic was where a cutscene ended with the player having no time to avoid a nuke.
But the shape of the game is finally lifting out of the nutrient bath so to speak.
The new pylon level mentioned last month, is level 14, 'Difficulty Spike'
To see more new content, start from level 22 onwards.
Note that level 23 onwards are set in Gorgon's sector and so are 'spoilery'.
However I would appreciate feedback on these.
Hope you all have fun with these new levels.
Once again, thanks to all those who've supported the game over the years - hope you enjoy this fresh update! ːsteamhappyː
Update March 2018: level 10 playtesting
As with last month, it has been a mix of content creation + bugfixes + general improvements.
Examples:
Radar now shows enemy gun ranges as red shaded circles and gun directions as thin lines. This is very helpful in gauging how close to enemy beam turrets you are as these turrets are typically deadly. And if you're moving into an area with many overlapping red circles and a lot of lines converging on your position, you can probably expect trouble!
Speaking of hardpoint beam turrets (in hub battles), enemy towers are now tougher and you'd be advised to claim a freed hardpoint as soon as possible.
Additionally, beam tower build time has been shortened for the player and when in control of a beam turret, reload time for the player is shorter.
These changes make building and jumping into beam towers more useful overall and hub battles involving hardpoints are a bit more tactical.
In the Custom Battle screen:
New control allows the player to set initial upgrade points.
A second control sets a multiplier applied to upgrade points earned during a custom battle.
Battles in which red team controls the area selected can not be started until at least one blue team invasion direction is set.
When choosing a mission from the Chapter Select screen, initial upgrade points are now calculated by level number - the higher the level, the more initial points awarded.
Note that a final balancing of upgrade points vs upgrade costs is still needed.
Also need to award points for sucessfully completing missions as it is possible to fail some missions (get caught in a blastwall for example).
Blue powerstations have received a visual upgrade.
Additonal tweaks and content for levels 16-17.
A new intro to level 18 involving a mysterious droid.
Level 20 - the final logic gate - is now playable to completion but missing cutscene images.
LEVEL 10 PLAYTESTING REQUEST ###################
This mission involves opening a logic gate (as per TU1 but without the big capship as battering ram). It's a multi-part mission involving a base assault and then using the jetpack to open the gate and finish the level. Would be keen to hear players' impressions.
Once again, thanks to all those who've supported the game over the years - hope you enjoy this update and that March turns out to be one of the better ones! ːsteamhappyː
Update February 2018: level 15 playtesting
Now that dev is fulltime, things are moving along.
A big chunk of this last month has been spent filling in content for levels, particularly 15, 16 and 17.
However additional time has gone into some essential bug fixes.
LEVEL 15 PLAYTESTING REQUEST ###################
Note that this level is pretty much a re-run of the transport evacuation level in the original Tank Universal - which was something of a crowd favourite. However, be warned, this level is intense.
Before the combat starts, recommend visiting the upgrade screen.
- Upgrade points have been provided and I would suggest upgrading your armour level, shield regen rate, gun reload rate and turbo time.
- I would also recommend upgrading your drop turrets and rockets.
- This is all to mimic the upgrades you might have earned by level 15 when playing each level sequentially in the full game.
- After exiting the upgrade screen, pick up as many armour shards as needed(look for the cracked rocks).
The enemy will come from the north in waves and try to bombard the transports as they're waiting for lifter pickup on a plateau.
They will also call in spotters and bombers. It's imperative to clear the spotters as they will call in powerful airstrikes from the circling bombers.
One possible counter-strategy is to place dropturrets as you can afford them, in a defensive line along the northern edge of the plateau, but be wary of placing these just before air raids. They tend to get destroyed by dropped bombs easily.
Another option is to jump into a heavy tank, max shields and armor and tough it out.
Whatever your strategy, you'll need to pick up whatever shards you can, but may want to resist going too far north lest you find yourself swamped by the enemy and unable to get away.
FIXES/IMPROVEMENTS ###################
To see details: http://steamcommunity.com/app/523030/discussions/0/1699415798761122352/
Update January 2018: sabotage and messaging
A new year is here and what better way to get into it than a TU2 update!
This update includes:
- Better messaging on where to go and what to do, particularly during fortress attack levels. This includes radar directions + text.
- Linking between levels improved. Generally each level will now end with the player being able to call a lifter in when they're ready. This does depend on the player having survived (note: lifters are still a bit buggy and often clip below the terrain. They also need to take the player north rather than south, as they currently do, so another pass needed here.)
- Hidden caches are in and working. Once you've won a level, go searching for hidden caches in amongst nearby forests. Rewards include extra upgrade points, player spawns, a beam tank as a wingman or a free sabotage team(see below). Note that caches are not enabled for custom missions.
- Upgrade screen now includes an option to sabotage the tower Gorgon is building back at Gorgonopolis. It will be necessary over the course of the game to divert upgrade points to keep the tower from being completed, else it's game over.
- Note that a baseline of 150 free upgrade points has been included in this build so the user can try out the sabotage option in the upgrade screen. Final game, you'll need to earn them.
- Pressing 'g' (the default eject key) while facing a friendly tank will put the player in that tank. Else touch the tank as per normal to take control.
- Nasty bug where fortress defend levels wouldn't trigger as completed due to tanks not moving onto level as they should.
What's being worked on next?
The type of each level has been set, now scripting for level specific events needs to be sorted. An example is lvl 10 which is adjacent to a logic gate. Once the player has removed the enemy, they'll need to jetpack to switches either side of the gate to open it.
Other things to do: setup more end of level boss types + pylon missions.
As always, feedback is welcomed.
Madjack
Update August 2017: bugfixes and bombers
End of the month and given a month was skipped update wise, definitely time to have one now.
Not a massive update, but a number of very useful bug fixes and some tasty new content.
BUG FIXES
- Turret blocking exit to level 1 was clipping below ground.
- Enemy harvesters will not now be deployed in level 2.
- Level 5 cut-scene crash fixed.
- Further tweaks to resolve tank traffic jams.
- Fixed turrets give upgrade points regardless if destroyed by direct hit or splash damage, when destroyed by player.
- Intro scene being replayed on exiting to main menu no longer occcurs.
- Tweaks to reduce occurrence of tanks driving over ground switches and change not being registered.
- Harvester status in tactical info panel (bottom, mid-left) now updates correctly.
- Fortress status in tactical info panel (bottom, mid-left) now updates correctly.
- Artillery shell particle distance cutoff extended.
- Heavy tank battle range reduced.
- Extra on-screen notifications when fortress is breached or fully repaired.
- Shard bonus given when hard point converted by player.
http://www.tankuniversal.com/images/04_08_2017.jpg
The extra content comes in the return of two units- spotter and bomber.
Spotter trawls about until an enemy comes into view - you'll hear him calling out reports - and then directs the circling bomber to come down low and drop a heavy bomb.
However the spotter is very vulnerable sitting up there all by himself and if knocked off his perch, the bomber will break off the attack.
Note that dropped bombs will do extra damage to fortress walls.
TU2 update June 2017: a bit of a messy one
Progress this month has mostly been 'behind the scenes' in the sense that it has been about reducing the memory footprint of the game.
Part of this was tightening up on a rather horrendous memory leak that was seeing the game crash after changing out a number of levels.
There is still a 1 meg or so leak between levels and am looking to track that down.
Possibly a texture ref is being lost somewhere, meaning the texture is not cleared between levels and remains in memory.
Levels 1 - 22 are available, but this is where the comment that the update is 'messy' comes in.
It should be possible to play through these levels consecutively but they're messy in that they haven't been playtested.
In fact, apart from the first four, they're more like building sites under construction.
This is particularly true of the cutscenes which often include text but are missing images etc..
But they're included as part of the early access process and to allow people to sample.
If you'd like to see the inside of George's house, give lvl 6 a whirl.
If you'd like a preview of George's street and his backyard, fire up level 16.
These are bare-bones but are a nice change from the virtual world's graphics.
As always, thanks to all those who've supported the game and very keen to hear your feedback.
May and another TU2 update.
Main feature of this month's patch is the inclusion of the upgrades screen.
Upgrades give you a reason to go after that distant turret as upgrades (in time honored tradition) require upgrade points to purchase and blowing up fixed turrets is one way of procuring said points.
Having said that, this is a first pass at upgrades and balancing the cost of upgrades versus the availability of upgrade points is something that will need to be heavily tweaked. Additionally not all upgrades are working - namely Titan Summoning and Nukes.
Note that as this is a beta test, upgrade points are infinite in this build to allow for testing.
Fixed: out of memory error that was popping up after level 4 was finished. This was related to resizing a particularly large array. Hopefully this will have resolved the issue - let me know if it hasn't.
Next up: hooking up all the levels together for extended play.
The levels will be barebones with placeholder graphics for cutscenes but I feel it will mean the game has turned a something of a corner development wise.
It will extend the TU2 experience and allow for overall balancing.
Beyond that: extra units - more late level foes and bosses. Return of the behemoths and titans.
Rocket command!
Quick progress report for April 2017
As a sole dev, Real Life (tm) has been taking more of my time than usual.
Having said that, development goes on.
Here's a screenshot of the upgrades screen as a wip.
UPGRADE SCREEN
The idea is that all upgrades can be seen at once along with what the player can and can't afford. This is because I'm not a fan of upgrades being spread across multiple screens in games, a scheme which some games - particularly console - seem to favour.
Don't look too closely at the cost - these are just dummy values for now.
Additionally extra upgrades may be added to the list or the existing upgrades changed.
Any suggestions, let me know.
The S/M/H check boxes refer to Scout/Medium/Heavy and relate to the type of tank the powerup applied to. Bad news is I have decided at this point that artillery tanks are not going to be playable.
Also, undecided on the graphic top right corner. It adds a splash of colour but doesn't quite fit the world-building (although it is available on t-shirts)
http://steamcommunity.com/app/523030/discussions/0/133258593386576874/
Never a big fan of building UI screens - I find the work a little tedious - but when properly integrated, players will have an extra long-term goal and a reason to take out distant fixed enemy turrets.
Look out for the upgrade screen to be included in a future patch and let me know your thoughts :D