Task Force Admiral: Vol.1 - American Carrier Battles
A final, happy new year? Task Force Admiral Devlog #13 (Winter 2023)
Dear Fans, Dear Followers of Task Force Admiral, Old & new, Welcome back!
First of all, allow us to dastardingly use the opportunity of this all-too-rare Steam update (oh, if that stuff could be made easier & faster, God knows we’d post more of them!) to wish you a Happy New Year, and great success & happiness – and health, more than anything else – for the year to come. To you, and all your loved ones.
By Julien our illustrator. Thanks to Taffy for finding some time to say hi to the boys!
Months have gone by, worked has piled up, and with the videos doing their good job online it felt that the weekly updates you get on the social platforms was a fair way to keep you all updated. We do understand though that some of you ain’t too hot about having a Twitter, Facebook or Discord account to enjoy properly the fruits of our progress. This post kinda is for you.
It would be a bit long of a story to tell, but let’s say that things got really hot, really fast this Summer. As we decided to go for a slice to run on the computers of our collaborators and a select few contents creators, we wanted to use this opportunity to deploy the stuff at the larger scale – it meant making sure that it was good enough to be used in a video, despite all its rough edges and limitations in the day. It was also a fantastic way for us to collect additional feedback in regard of how the game runs, on a wide selection of hardware. So far so good: the games runs well (courtesy of Jean Baptiste’s healthy obsession for optimization, for sure)
In that regard, let's help some of you play catch up. Here's some contents from your favorite contents creators, all trying out our (non-playable) slice. Those who had been thirsty for contents will probably be in luck.
For those who'd rather have it in Spanish, we have that too!
Japanese? No problem!
As for Chinese, you'll find us on Bili Bili easily enough I am sure.
Big thanks to them all contents creators, above and many others who might not be above, but still had the kindness to share their experience and post contents. Every view on your videos delight us and give us some hope that we are working towards something that matters.
As for what's next: what’s clear is that we’re now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and what remains to be done before a fine demo is made is easier to plan for. But that’s a hell of a tunnel still ahead of us, we ain’t gonna lie, even though we're all set for 2024. At least, we’re lucky to be in the right company for the trek, and we’ve walked way too far down that hole to fail at that point, save for a cataclysmic event. So, rest easy, things are moving forward, and we're getting the stuff ready to roll, especially for the future KS campaign for a fine box, manual & goodies included.
We sure wish they could move faster, but good things take time, as they say. For those who can't wait, I am sorry for the pain we inflict on you. To those who will still stay along for the ride, our thousand thanks...!
And to you all, once again, Happy New Year, Cheers and stay safe!
The Task Force Admiral Team
Task Force Admiral Devlog #12 (Spring 2023) - Spring Cleaning
Dear Fans, Dear Followers, Old & new, Welcome back!
So, the few last months were seemingly calm on Steam, but don’t worry, the pot was still being stirred, with much to tell you about.
We advanced on many fronts, alternating between them as we were implementing this, improving that, correcting bugs along the way. We cannot really list everything we did during that time, and some others are probably better showed than told. Just to give you an example of what our days are made of, here’s a sample of a normal week these days. Work just doesn’t stop. But it brings along progress, pushed by rigorous testing.
At the end of the day, you will get most of this in a gameplay format soon enough – the videos and the screens we will be sharing today are probably enough of a testament to our steady pace, and those who have been following us for some time already will certainly be able to appreciate it better than anyone. Please just remember that everything you’re seeing in this update is work in progress, and that every visual and mechanic is subject to change further (for the better!).
Surfing birds
Now as for the features themselves, we worked a lot on the seaplanes lately, as an important addition to the larger game’s environment.
Cruiser and Battleship seaplanes were a crucial asset in carrier combat, or naval combat in general. On both sides, they obviously accomplished a number of tasks that normal aircraft from carriers were either unable or too precious to accomplish themselves. As the American player, you will be very much welcome to use your SOC Seagulls & OS2U Kingfishers – and the few Supermarine Walrus inherited from your Australian allies. They can be tasked with patrolling the skies above your force as part of the standing Inner Air Patrol, guarding you against submarines. They are also a prime choice when it comes to search and rescue efforts, especially when recovering the aircrew from the drink proper is needed. Unfortunately, even if they can still do that job in time of need, their speed and range do not make them ideal platforms for naval search – unlike their Japanese counterparts.
"Indeed, more often than not, the first sign you might have from a Japanese force nearby is a Jake flying into radar range. Make no mistake, they will most likely spot you before you can spot them, as these small airplanes are detected late, if at all, by your radar operators. But once they are on your scope, the hunt is on. Make sure that any snooper you come across pays the ultimate price for having snitched on you...!"
That’s a lot of damage, second round
As mentioned in our previous update, we did dedicate some time to damage modeling. We’re not finished yet, obviously, but let’s say we’re halfway there. Different types of impact decals (still in their work in progress state, of course) and damage have been implemented. As it has been the case all too often lately, I’ll let Lexington explain the whole thing, as the old lady bore the burden of experiencing the pain for the greater good.
Lexington, as a test bed, has suffered many woes to help us develop our external damage model. As you can see it here, on Yorktown this time, damage of all sorts exists: some of the projectiles in the picture above exploded or bounced without penetrating the deck – a common occurrence for the lighter high explosive bombs in the Japanese arsenal – and left a mere scratch on the flight deck. Others, upon exploding, penetrated the deck and affected the lower level (in this case, the hangar deck). Finally, some, owing to their fuze, cleanly passed through the wood and steel, stopping only on a lower level – if they stopped at all before reaching the armored belt
I need not highlight further, I guess, the potential of this tech in-game, as it will make any scenario unique the moment a projectile hits your precious flagship. The same way the angle of impact and resulting penetration value are dynamically calculated based on the characteristics of the projectile, so are the explosion delay (based on the fuze setting) and the blast range, along with the chances of a fire – chances which will increase if fuel or ammunition are within said blast zone.
As for the rest, we still have to add sinking effects, oil, and possibly debris left and right, and we’re nearly there. Still, there’s some soul to it already, even in this early stage. Decals seen above are mostly placeholders; they were here to test the functionalities. The final game will improve in this department too, among many others.
The devil is in the details
Mentioning the damage decals brings us to another topic we can talk about: skins and markings decals. When put together, they provide Task Force Admiral and scenario designers with the tools needed to somewhat accurately represent the air groups featured in the game. If you guys join us on our Discord, we can discuss features like these in more detail. We have already shown an example of what it entails, with the SBD currently integrated into the game.
To simplify things somewhat, let’s say that skins are what an aircraft would wear, and the decals are the little pins and other accessories you’d add to your outfit. When combined with dynamic numbers, we can accurately reflect the extremely diverse paint schemes the US Navy went through between January and August 1942. This includes variations in roundel size, red dots, LSO bands, and flashy red and white rudders. The same goes for squadron badges for those who had them. So don't worry, we have you covered on this one.
The system is made so that it offers a flexible platform that can be easily enriched by your own work if need be, whether you need them for a specific scenario or a good joke. Hopefully, we will find a proper way to have you share your contents with little hamper, but practical solutions in that regard will have to wait for us to deliver you with a game first!
Finally, we would like to take a moment to express our deepest gratitude for your unwavering support throughout our journey. Your presence and enthusiasm have been instrumental in keeping our team motivated and energized as we strive to make our dream a reality. Knowing that there are people out there who believe in us and our vision has helped us to push through the tough times and stay focused on delivering the best possible game.
As we move forward towards the release of our game, we want you to know that your support will continue to be a crucial part of our success. Your feedback, encouragement, and excitement keep us going, and we are truly grateful for every single one of you. We can't wait to share our game with you and hope that it lives up to your expectations. Fear not, as our goal is now within sight, we’re not going to give up just yet.
Cheers and stay safe!
The Task Force Admiral Team
Task Force Admiral Devlog #11 (Feb.2023) - Through the Lens
Dear Fans, Dear Followers, Old & new,
Welcome to this (late, but still earlier than before!) February 2023 dev diary for Task Force Admiral.
Sooo... Well, we did post the January update a bit late, and February not being a very long month either, we had to tie a few loose ends before I end up with some contents in an interesting format. A video being worth a thousand words, let's start with the fun. More details below!
Under the Sea
Views would be nothing without relevant, sophisticated visual effects. Now that cameras are working their magic following the progress made back in January, let's see how they also allow you to explore the depths of the Pacific and our colorful palette!
I won't spend too much time on the underwater camera, it kinda speaks for itself. Until now we were lacking an actual underwater plane for the game, and considering subs are coming too, and ships got to sink convincingly, we had to do something about it. Some aspects still need to be tweaked of course (the propellers are a bit fast, and have to be made more compatible with the actual framerate) but overall, it is serving its purpose well-enough - we aren't making a submarine simulation after all. We just want to make sure that you'll be able to make nice shots all the same below and above the water, and as these few seconds above demonstrated, I am pretty sure our players will make do!
Oh yeah right, talking about submarines by the way...
The Filter System
The filter system is somewhat more complex as a topic, as it is more of an extra feature in nature. The four pictures below depict the same scene. Yet, they seem a bit foreign, different from each other - some of them actually don't look like the game as you know it, some might say. Why is it so?
We're excited to talk about a new feature we've developed that we believe will add a whole new dimension to your gameplay experience – fully customizable color filters that can be swapped on the fly during gameplay.
This feature is all about giving players the ability to create the mood and atmosphere that they want while playing the game, and we think it's going to be a game-changer when it comes to experiencing the game and creating contents along the line of what you think the deep Pacific should feel like.
First of all, let's talk about what we mean by "color filters." Essentially, a color filter is an overlay that changes the colors of the game world. We've developed a variety of different color filters that players can choose from, ranging from vibrant technicolor to more subdued, vintage-style filters. These filters can be swapped in and out during gameplay, giving players the ability to experiment with different looks and moods as they play.
So, why are color filters so important? Well, for one thing, they allow players to create a more personalized gameplay experience. Everyone has their own preferences when it comes to visual style and aesthetics, and color filters give players the ability to customize the look of the game to their liking. Whether you're into bright, bold colors or more muted, understated tones, there's a color filter that will suit your tastes.
Beyond personal chromatic preferences, color filters can also add a whole new dimension to the game world itself. By changing the colors of the game world, players can create different moods and atmospheres. Are you looking for the darkest night? Or a romantic sunset? Or a black & white / Sepia old school vintage feeling? We've got you covered. And considering it is an in-game feature, this kind of flexibility should be available when using our future replay system too.
Although it will obviously not replace a full-feature video or image editor, it is a good start, and it is all done in real-time! Somewhere, there has to be a setting that fits your needs, and you'll be completely free to use it for the right sequence.
Besides, as you can see above in a few shots, those who feel like making a periodically a new wallpaper or screensaver for themselves will be happy to know that our object viewer is also used to tweak said color filters. We are certain that the most art-minded souls among you will put this to good use to produce breathtaking shots. We are looking forward to these, and will probably start producing a few ones ourselves in the near future as a reward for those who are following us and reading us in here!
That's a lot of Damage
Finally, we have also used the small amount of time we had available in February to work further on the damage model of our ships. As our Porter is being readied to serve as a guinea pig for everyone else, it had to endure some extreme punishment day after day, as we were meticulously making boxes within its 3D shapes so that we could puncture them all mercilessly shortly thereafter.
It made it necessary to create the right tools for the job, and we got there with little trouble thanks to the versatility of our existing interface in the editor. These integration tools will be available to you too, and should speed up the modding process whenever you need to add a new ship or aircraft to the existing gallery.
The flooding system, as depicted in the video at the top of this blog post, allows water to incrementally enter a compartment based on the diameter of the hole(s) which were created by damage received from a projectile or a collision. Water pours in, but will not spread to other yellow compartments as long as each adjacent box retains its original integrity. That's where big shells, bombs and torpedo play a role: by damaging several of these "cells", they will create a cascading effect that might very well make the ship impossible to stabilize before it's too late.
One will also have to keep in mind that not all compartments are equal. Engine & boiler rooms occupy larger space (equivalent to several decks) and can critically impact the overall balance of the ship if they were to flood rapidly following a hit. These are basic mechanics of course - one still has to factor in the effect of damage control, which also includes water being pumped out, or counterflooding being used to bring the ship back on an even keel. But we're getting there, solving one issue at a time, and the future still looks bright!
There you go! Hope this was an enjoyable ride. As for us, we're back to the workshop, thinking hard about our next step. Thank you for following us, sharing this post and our media posts, and for supporting us in that long, long trek of ours...!
As always, if you aren't too fond of Discord, Facebook, Twitter or else, don't forget that we have a mailing list here specifically made so as to keep you updated of all our Steam updates and other announcements which might be big enough to deserve a special treatment. Click on the pic below to access the form.
Cheers & take care, and see you at the end of March for our next chapter
The Task Force Admiral team
Task Force Admiral Devlog #10 (Jan.2023) - A View to a Kill
Dear Fans, Dear Followers, Old & new,
Welcome to this (late!) January 2023 dev diary for Task Force Admiral.
That was quite the busy month we had in January, and I had a bad cold right at the time I was supposed to upload all this stuff, so apologies for the unwanted delay...!
We have mostly worked on ironing out bugs and introducing our view system, while implementing thoroughly combat systems aboard ships and visual effects too. That might sound a bit surprising considering views & visual effects are not usually an important part of the wargamer's toolkit to a good experience. Yet, in the specific 3D environment of TFA, they remain central to the enjoyment of the game, and a fair companion to any After-Action Report minded playthrough. Let's see why.
The View System
Our view system is sticking to a few cardinal rules in its design which, hopefully, will satisfy the expectations of most, whether you use it for your in-game enjoyment or as a tool for a video or picture-based after-action report.
The views should give you as much freedom as possible when it comes to picking an angle
They should be easy to navigate using a few keys, in an intuitive fashion, while making good use of the mouse without hampering gameplay functions
They should help with focusing on a given unit from your current PoV with handy padlock options
They should be fully interactive during pause as long as pause is a thing in your realism settings, and obviously will be as such when used in the future replay system
The first video below gives you an idea of the basic PoVs one can pick for any naval or air unit, on either side. Basically the different views are:
A default Orbit view around the selected unit
A Front view, at bridge-level for a ship, and above the engine cowling or the nose for an aircraft)
A Left side and Right side view, which also works for the vulture’s row on a carrier
A Rear view, which will puts you on the stern of a ship or the backseat of an airplane
A Chase view, which will allow you to follow dogfights & the action in general with a cool head bobbing effect
Of course this cannot equal all the options you would have in an actual plane or ship simulator, but we believe that it offers enough opportunities so as to keep you entertained. As you can see below, the free navigation lets you pick the angle you like best. Coupled potentially with a rewind function in the replay mode, you should be able to efficiently cover a given event under different angles without having to restart your track and pray to have it right the first time. At least, that’s the intent, time will tell if we manage to (pardon my French rugby lingo) convert our try by learning from the sins usually encountered in games with a comparable scope, while hoping we are not committing too many new ones while doing so!
Of Padlocking & FoV
The padlock system works pretty well. It allows you to easily pick a friendly or enemy contact by switching between the different objects rather seamlessly. It allows for some dramatic angles, like these we’ve been showcasing in our shorter videos this month. Whether you are aboard a ship getting bombed, or seeing the action from the perspective of the aggressor, you will have you covered.
Another nice feature is the ability for the player to tweak the Field of View on the fly so as to find the best setting for your shots. It does change the perspective quite a lot, as you can see below. It’s an old trick from our simulation days, something that I remember from the very first Il-2, which would definitely give your screenshots the sort of inspiring oomph actual photography can instil in real life. In this mode, the work done on the 3D models shines, and I am happy to say that our 3D artist Rizki's work managed to give them quite the oomph factor despite our originally very tight triangle budget. As for their looks, they will be improved (some of these ships are still in their original untreated base texture). With the playable slice approaching, our 2D artist Julien will be hard at work to weather in a credible way all this wood and this steel.
Altogether, the camera options seem to make for a fair, functional package. We will carry on with the rest of our development pipeline for now. Naturally, all of this needs to be properly refined based on tester experience later on, and changes will necessarily happen, but the basic functions seem to do their job for the time being. Once paired with the future replay system we envision, we will hopefully achieve a relatable level of customization in the way you want to watch your gameplay contents. As such, we hope that it will result in a satisfying solution for those among our followers who favour colourful contents for their battle reports, whether these are posted on message boards or video platforms.
In the meantime, enjoy this lavish compilation below of all these aforementioned tools!
Of Water, Fire, Guns & Fun
Another area of interest this month was the continuation of the work already done on the mounts. After assigning them basic properties, it was time for us to put them in a relevant environment so as to test them against actual aircraft. Quite logically, it also led to an increased interest in the implementation of the corresponding sound and visual effects. These were applied to the guns and their target area alike. For starters, the sounds were properly integrated in-game and are now firing with a convincing punch. The guns themselves were fine-tuned so as to fire with a little more randomness to them and avoid the feeling that everybody is shooting in unisson whenever it is not warranted.
As for the visual effects, here’s a small demonstration below. Whether it is about water or fire, we went for solutions that might not seem always so popular with all developers, but we just could not accept the idea that billboards would look spectacular from one side, and suddenly look flat (well... like billboards are) the moment you rotate the camera to take a screen from another angle. Although this is certainly still work in progress, and will be improved over time, the water splash previously showcased really do work well and make you feel very much in the midst of the action.
All these sweet videos might have gotten some of you readers a bit worried when it comes to the configuration needed to run Task Force Admiral. What was said on the store page back in the day is still pretty unchanged. Some time was devoted to the implementation of several techs that will allow the game to still run smoothly even if your computer is not NASA-grade. AMD FidelityFX™ Super Resolution (FSR) is among these technologies. The advantage of implementing the support for this tech in particular is that work with all manufacturers (unlike other comparable solutions) and will allow you to play at a higher resolution while dramatically improving performance by using upscaling smartly. Below, you can see the same scene, with native rendering on one side & a 0.75 rendering with FSR-managed upscaling. As you can see, differences are fairly minor - if you can't see immediately which is which, it is one of these rare times when it is actually good news ^^ - yet can mean the world to smaller rigs. It is in our interest to keep exploring solutions that will make TFA run smoothly on a larger panel of machines, so do expect us to keep optimization always in a good spot on our minds.
That's all for today Folks! As a parting gift, here's the traditional Greetings card for the Lunar Year authored by Julien. The year of the rabbit was a good opportunity to honor VT-2, which served from 1943 onwards with a mix between Bugs Bunny & Oswald as a mascot, riding a (working & modified) Mk13 torpedo. Feel free to greet your friends who celebrate the Spring festival in style!
As always, if you aren't too fond of Discord, Facebook, Twitter or else, don't forget that we have a mailing list here specifically made so as to keep you updated of all our Steam updates and other announcements which might be big enough to deserve a special treatment. Click on the pic below to access the form.
Cheers & take care, and see you (earlier than usual then!) for the February update at the end of this very month!
The Task Force Admiral team.
Task Force Admiral Devlog #9 (Dec.2022) - Smoke Puffs in the Sky
Dear Fans, Dear Followers, Old & new,
Welcome to this December 2022 dev diary for Task Force Admiral.
As December is only going to remain with us for a few more hours, the time for our usual Monthly update has come. Join us as we detail a few of the features & mechanics we have been working over the past few weeks.
Anti-Air Artillery Effects & Mechanics
We will begin with the part of the work pipeline that involves the most eye candy. We’ve been at work on implementing Anti Air artillery systems in-game, both visually and on the programming side of things. Visually speaking, it was mostly about optimizing the explosion and smoke effects, while adding a few new gimmicks to improve overall immersion, such as shrapnel effects in the water below the explosion proper.
As far as its in-game implementation goes, anti-air artillery is a complex, multi-layered affair that requires a detailed approach for it to shine – or at least start to look the part. Three main types of AA guns have to be accounted for in Task Force Admiral :
Heavy Anti Air is made of naval guns acting in AA mode. Some of these are dual purpose by design, as their inner workings support high angle elevation while still allowing reloading and firing at a useful rate. In this category, you will also come across single purpose mounts, which cannot elevate past a certain angle and train past a certain speed and still remain efficient. Yet, most of these guns do have some limited anti-air use, as they can still shoot at low flying objects, and as such they will take part to the defence of the force against torpedo planes. This category of guns usually fires a time-fuzed projectile at aircraft, set to explode in the vicinity of where the enemy plane is to find itself a few seconds later. Said fuze is set just before loading by a complex system, which begins with the AA directors, the AA gun plot and ends with a fuze setter embedded with the mount at the mouth of the gun. The radar proximity fuze, an invention that was to find its way into the Fleet in 1943, was not available yet in 1942 to the US Navy, so back then it really was a matter of getting timing right, or get the odd lucky direct hit that would set off the impact fuze. In TFA these shells will be what they were in action: an ubiquitous sight on both sides when aircraft attack, but a mostly harmless display of pyrotechnics save for that one shell in a thousand that will manage to connect.
Medium Anti Air mounts are a category the Imperial Japanese Navy never really managed to get quite right. These intermediate calibres attempt to retain the best characteristics of both worlds: powered mounts managed by AA directors, with several automatic guns bundled together so as to reach a critical, uninterrupted volume of fire. Thanks to their redundant feeding systems, these pieces usually don’t have to stop firing for a long period, and as such can put up an actual barrage of shells. As their ammunition is too small and their range too limited to warrant further fine-tuning, all the projectiles are set to explode with the same delay, setting up killing zones in the trajectory of approaching attack craft. The U.S. quad 1.1in (28mm), British 2 Pdr (40mm) and 40mm Bofors are among the most common systems of this kind you will encounter in TFA.
Light Anti Air, finally, is a category made of all manually-trained, manually-fed and manually-aimed guns. These can be found in single, double or even triple mounts in the case of the IJN Type 96 25mm. They do not benefit from the input of a AA director, and their short range only allow for short duration bursts on a given target before said target leaves their firing arc. They end up being primarily psychological or even revenge weapons, but in the latter case, they still serve a purpose, as a damaged or destroyed aircraft, even after it has delivered its payload, is still one less threat to worry about in the future. On the US side, the Oerlikon 20mm and water-cooled .50 AA mounts are part of this category.
Naturally, all these different weapons and their mounts have their own technical specs, which will result in varying base accuracy and dispersion values, acquisition time, reload time, etc... Their base performance might or might not be improved by an additional layer of control offered by AA directors if these are available to them. As you can see in the screenshot above, we keep on deploying the relevant edition tools along with the new features they serve. As these are designed so as to allow everyone in the team to contribute to the integration of new devices, down the line they might prove handy for all those who wish to customize the in-game specs and tweak them to their liking.
The Air Plot
Those who have been reading our previous update (click here if you haven't just yet) will remember that we had mentioned the Ouija board, or aircraft management screen, as one of TFA’s carrier-centric feature. This month, we fleshed out the other modes of what we call, in short, the “Air Plot”.
The Air Plot is an array of air-focused management screens which are here to provide the player with a complete panorama of the air activities in his task force. The different screens and their uses are as follows:
The Aircraft Management Screen (which is the new, more practical name for the Ouija board) remains unchanged this month, besides the few functions left & right which were not there yet last time: it is used as an interface that allows you to check effortlessly the status of all the aircraft aboard a given aviation ship under your command.
Using the same top-down layout of your carrier, the Deck Timeline will retain the upper part that displayed the flight deck and provide you with an extensive schedule of deck operations, indicating in details which aircraft are about to be spotted, launched or recovered. It is a more thorough version of the information always available on the air ops timeline at the bottom of one’s screen.
The Mission Roster is a specialized table that goes the extra mile as far as commander awareness is concerned: all the air missions are there, with a number of buttons which will allow you to easily follow them on the map, edit them, or read their log and final report.
The Squadron Roster on the other hand focuses on the air groups aboard your ships, giving ample details in regard of their readiness, their equipment, and their statistics since the beginning of the scenario.
Finally, the Aviation Stores tab, not depicted here, will give you a complete brief about the allocation of aircraft loadouts. As bombs and especially torpedoes are in limited supply, we needed to make sure that you would have the ability to follow ammunition expenditure closely.
To those who might wonder about the effects of all these contents of the game’s complexity and accessibility: worry not. All these screens are mostly of an informational nature, with little in way of actual interaction – so no mandatory micro-managing hell is involved. Going through them is only necessary for those who want to make sure to know each and every detail of their on-going air operations. The same way one can play through a Paradox game without ever opening the ledger screen, one can succeed at Task Force Admiral while not giving a damn about which pilot is flying which plane, or which is the next flight in line for recovery. But considering all these information were there already floating around anyway, we had to think of a way to make them available in a centralized & exhaustive fashion for those who like to run a tight ship, so there you go.
Pearl Harbor Art
December is like every year, finally, the moment when we can commemorate the event that started it all, that is the Dec.7 attack against Pearl Harbor. Over the last few years, our artist Julien has contributed quite a number of original pieces dedicated to the battle proper and to the events surrounding it. They will undoubtedly be an important part of the posters or postcards line-up in any physical box edition we might come up with during our launching phase.
Mentioning the said launching phase, I will happily use the opportunity offered by this update so as to reiterate that our plans are to have something playable in your hands certainly by the end of next year. Can’t say just yet which approach we’ll be using so as to reach this goal, but I take you as witnesses here and now stuck between Christmas & the New Year to claim that we’ll eventually get there. I hope that the progress shown over the last few updates has made clear that we know where we’re going, and that our deliberate pace is mostly the result of us trying to do the things the right way. Watch out for more exciting contents over the next few months!
That's all for today Folks! Although the day wouldn't be complete without the traditional season greetings by Taffy - so there she goes, along with a nice view of a very cute, illuminated Yorktown, waiting calmly for the release of Task Force Admiral like a good girl.
As always, if you aren't too fond of Discord, Facebook, Twitter or else, don't forget that we have a mailing list here specifically made so as to keep you updated of all our Steam updates and other announcements which might be big enough to deserve a special treatment. Click on the pic below to access the form.
Cheers & take care, all of you! Happy New Year to you and all your loved ones!
The Task Force Admiral team.
Task Force Admiral Devlog #8 (Nov.2022) - We're under Attack!
Dear Fans, Dear Followers, Old & new,
Welcome to this November 2022 dev diary for Task Force Admiral.
Ok, so what do we have here this month? Two much needed functions bringing us closer to our goal by a resolute margin were on the menu.
Of evasive maneuvers, exploding fishes and sacrificial helldivers
First, we had our first actual attack with bombs, explosions, etc... that wasn't staged. That was enough of a small event to warrant some footage, so there you go.
Everything is coming together, slowly but surely. Obviously all visual effects are placeholders & there are glitches left and right - sorry for the occasional stuttering, it's been taken care of - but overall it ain't too bad. Also, don't pay attention to the fierce efficiency of the anti-air fire, it is obviously way too murderous for now - our poor Vals playing guinea pigs were slaughtered mercilessly, so we gotta tweak that among other things, of course. But we're getting close enough to the vibe we're looking for, and it is always a heartwarming and reassuring moment indeed!
(don't be shocked to see that Porter's guns at such a high elevation, the final version will take into account the single-purpose nature of these and all related fire direction issues)
The relatively crude state of all techs across the board provided a few smiles to the assistance. As our Vals are just not rigged for complete dismemberment on impact just yet, their carcasses ended up floating in the wake of our ships in a somewhat macabre and grotesque fashion. Well, at least the flotation part of the code still works, it seems!
At any rate, one might say that the main meat of this video was not really the pew-pew part. To be honest, it would rather be the whole evasive logic instead. As you can see on the video, our Task Force tries to remain cohesive & to maneuver together, as concentrated AA fire is the difference between life & death.
As enemy torpedo planes approach, the main units in your force will maneuver so as to offer as small a target profile as possible, usually running in the other direction if it can help putting some additional distance between the attackers and themselves. Their screen will maneuver with them, so as to keep their station and firing arcs optimum (which, hopefully, you'll have adjusted using the relevant formation before the attack). The goal for the friendly AI is to have the enemy torpedo bombers fly as far, as long as possible before reaching a favorable attack position, optimizing the chances for interception and loss of attack coordination. Even then, once the torpedo bombers will start their run, the ships will maneuver a second time so as to avoid the torpedoes themselves. Once the danger has passed, the ships will return to their previous heading, or prepare for the next wave if the enemy is already in sight. The opening sequence in the video precisely shows that happening.
At the end of the day, do not expect to hit ships moving at high speed too easily without favorable circumstances and numbers. Conducting a torpedo and dive bomber strike at the same time, and having enough torpedo bombers to enable a pincer attack to begin with will increase your chances of a successful attack remarkably, as only then will the enemy ships be forced into the difficult task of picking the lesser threat between two evils. Besides, as time goes, the formation will start to gradually lose cohesion, especially when some of its ships will start reacting individually to immediate threats, possibly decreasing the effectiveness of the defensive fire.
Sometimes you're lucky. Sometimes you're very much less so...!
Aircraft Management
The second item on the list this month, as those who follow us on our social media platforms certainly know, was the design of a proper in-game interface for aircraft management. Not that we're planning on overwhelming you with tasks in that department (that is still fully automated, for your own good to be honest), we aim at providing the player with the clearest picture when it comes to knowing what your air group is up to. And oh dear, that's one busy part of your carrier indeed!
(Playing around little aircraft aboard USS Randolph - CV-15 in 1945. Ref 80-G-K-5395 from the NHHC website)
It all started with that: how could we turn the above view into something useful for the player? It actually came in very early in development, and one of our very first prototypes, 4 years ago, actually started with the idea that the Ouija (as it is called after the mystical board) should be an important part of gameplay.
(very, VERY early prototype from our first trials back in 2018. The model was the World of Warships CV-6 that we had bought online thinking it was a legit one, ah jeez we were young & innocent back then...) (Also, don't tell JB our dev I've shown it to you, or I am a dead man)
At any rate, the 3D version was cool, but let's be honest: it had no business down there in the flag plot, and it was going to be a lot of effort expanded for comparatively little gameplay potential, as we are not exactly remaking Carrier Deck here and can't afford to have the player mess around the parking spots and the missions all at the same time. That's why, four years later, when the topic came back to our attention, we went for something else which, just 15 days ago, looked like that:
Just a few days later, it had turned into this
And then... Into this
Gotta say, these were 14 very busy days. In its final form, the Ouija screen allows you to check quickly and simply in an overlay window the current status of each and every aircraft aboard a given carrier (and potentially within an airbase too). It will show you all the planes in different shades of color depending on their status (whether they are unassigned, assigned to a mission, ready to go, etc...), will tell you which one is going where, and allow you to visualize the flight deck as it is in the process of being reorganized for the next phase. You will be allowed to swap aircraft between the hangar floor and the storage area (a.k.a. the space overhead in an American carrier) where spare aircraft are stored. These will require time to be assembled. Same with the aircraft undergoing maintenance and repairs, which will have their own little icon depending on their current status. As you can see, there's more to come, but it's taking shape.
Now that the system is undergoing stress testing with the utmost number of aircraft would could expect to see aboard a Yorktown class carrier (based on the actual data we had from the historical battles, especially at Santa Cruz where Hornet and Enterprise were packed at full capacity), we are relieved to see that everything seems to be going according to the plans, give or take a few little issues. It is, at the end of the day, an efficient AI-based solution to our needs, although it certainly doesn't have the brains to replace the wits of a creative human deck officer. And believe us, it is not because we don't think you'd have the needed smarts either, but it's quite a specialized job to manage all this, and it deserves its own game. Perhaps someday, who knows? Not on the menu just yet though, and until then it's for your own good. Let's see how well you behave as a Flag officer first, and only then will we see if we can recycle your talent into some actual job...! :P
That's all for today Folks! As always, if you aren't too fond of Discord, Facebook, Twitter or else, don't forget that we have a mailing list here specifically made so as to keep you updated of all our Steam updates and other announcements which might be big enough to deserve a special treatment. Click on the pic below to access the form.
Cheers & see you for our next update!
The Task Force Admiral team.
Task Force Admiral Devlog #7 (Oct.2022) - Startin' to look like a game, indeed!
Dear Fans, Dear Followers, Old & new,
Welcome to this October 2022 dev diary for Task Force Admiral.
Some new progress to show this month. Most has been showcased in our previous weekly updates on our social platforms, but as these are usually limited in terms of length of text and media quantity, this update is an opportunity to put that all somewhere, where it matters, and where it will last!
We will actually start with the main dish. Those who have been following us know that we have been making steady progress in the development of the GUI & gameplay-related functions over the last few weeks, bringing Task Force Admiral every day a bit closer to an actual game, rather than a mere tech demonstrator, if I was to be say it in a silly way. Here's a series of comments we posted regarding our scouting system and how the AI interacts with it, which will offer some insight in what we've been doing.
First of all, we've been teaching our Artificial Intelligence engine the ropes of carrier combat - and carrier combat 101 says that a good battle starts with some good scouting. This was also the opportunity to test our basic friendly fog of war. Indeed, we wanted to make sure that you actually lose contact with your scouts (at least as a permanently spotted, accurate plot on the map) the moment they leave your immediate sighting and radar range. That worked. And when they come back, they are also coming back as unidentified aircraft, so that works too. So far so good.
Still, it would be a bit unfair to leave you with no clue whatsoever in regard of where their position is, so we added a small icon on their flight plan which tells you where they should be if everything went well. Naturally, if they got shot down without sending a report, them not returning at all will be your first hint that perhaps not everything went so well on that specific search sector...
In other cases, we also had contacts spotted before a radical turn, and with the original spotter shot down shortly after its first report, the AI was not updated and sent its aircraft out there in the void. An embarrassing episode for that Japanese raid indeed, missing its target by a whole 50-60 miles. Bad luck, but all too historical actually!
By recreating the conditions for the random blunders of the era, we sure hoped to see our game recreate them organically, with as little intervention on our part as possible. Fortunately, our theory in terms of design did deliver ultimately, and we had our first small AI carrier vs AI carrier engagement proceeding as it should - that is, absolutely chaotically. We have described it below:
Ok, it wasn't really a full-fledged carrier battle, as we're still adding feature after feature, but that was the first time carriers actually engaged each other in some remotely comprehensive way that involved a full day of scouting & attacks, before retiring at night (which was helped by the fact that these ships cannot sustain damage as of now - again, upcoming features).
What was more interesting was that it was a full AI on AI battle, with no human intervention, and it was pretty fun to see how things evolved organically from very similar, remotely different standpoints using our observer mode. It might look like much from here, but believe me it tells some beautiful stories, really, and ends up being a happy confirmation that the gameplay certainly has much original potential. The day started with a scouting mission programmed for each side. Both carrier task forces had an "interdiction" task set for them, which implied that they would search a given sector, either provided by the scenario maker (the case here), the player (if it's a friendly TF) or generated from known data (that is, around the area the AI would expect the enemy to be the day following a loss of contact later during a scenario).
As scouts went on their respective business, they both encountered the enemy and reported its position. The scouts on the IJN side were sent up faster (as the US carriers started in a recovery mode, necessitating a few extra minutes of rearrangement of the aircraft on deck). That mere factor changed a lot of things, actually.
As the scouts left the vicinity of the enemy force (ultimately you will be free to order them to loiter & shadow relevant enemy forces, but it wasn't part of their instructions here), strikes were prepared on both sides. The scouts weren't shot down (we haven't programmed automatic CAP yet) so they went to the end of their research leg and returned. The info having reached the Japanese carrier force first, it meant that the Japanese raid went out first and cleared the decks before the return of the US scout above the Japanese TF.
On the other hand, the US strike was still assembling when the Japanese scout came back, and it was shot down by a fighter.
This resulted in the Japanese losing sight of the US force, while the US side didn't. As both carrier task forces changed their heading a few minutes after that to remain in range of the enemy, the US acout came back in time to report this change, but nobody was now in position to do so on the Japanese side. The result is that despite faster reaction times, the Japanese strike was sent on a wild goose chase. As the Japanese bomber slipped by the US force, missing it from 50-60 nautical miles, the US force went straight for the enemy. Yet, the US force also experienced its own issues: it was now approaching the Japanese carriers with part of its escort lagging behind after having attacked the snooper...
These events are actually reminiscent of actions that took place on different sides in 1942 (the afternoon IJN raid at Eastern Solomons, which missed completely the US force for the first one ; the catastrophic distraction of Hiryu's escorting force at Midway, going out of its way to intercept lagging SBDs on the ingress leg, along with a comparable event at Santa Cruz for the second). And it is refreshing to know that these kind of SNAFU events can be generated by the flow of battle as long as the conditions are met to recreate their causes. That's what happens with a handful of aircraft in the air - imagine when there will be dozens of them, with their comms & doctrine fully implemented. Can't wait!
As October went along, we added feature after feature to the engine. The AI is now capable of setting up CAP patrols and is actively engaging incoming strikes all by itself.
We are also working on AAA (anti-air artillery) logic. We are testing guns on a few platforms first, so as to make sure that they will be properly calibrated in-game. But even with just a mere two ships firing, the results are pretty convincing, if not impressive at times in terms of volume of fire... Approaching a US Task Force will ill intents will be costly, as it should be!
It's all very work in progress of course, but it's a good taste of things to come. This one is quite buggy, because the ships did not have a hitbox yet, and the aircraft don't explose on impact just yet, but here's a Val getting shot down on its dive and hitting the water just a few feet away from the carrier, like it happened so often in 1942. Hopefully this aspect will be functional in time for the next dev update - and I'll happily try to record a Val attack from Yorktown's vulture's row!
And, last but not least, a few shots of the Japanese strike getting home. Or at least, whatever is left of it after overstaying its welcome over the US task force (and yeah don't worry, Shokaku's antennas will be lowered during air ops, eventually!)
Ok, that was a long trek already. Now for those who like nice looking models, we had a new addition to the roster with Wasp, re-made with much love by our 3D artist Rizki. I am quite sure those among you who know about that one lady will appreciate the research he went through so as to recreate all aspects of her specific construction.
Her peculiar side elevator has always been a fan's favorite. It will be around for sure, at least, when we'll have understood how to animate it properly!
She's getting the full treatment, and is nearly ready for integration. With some more objects added...
... and her basic skin applied, she will soon encounter the digital paintbrush of Julien, our 2D artist, for her second life, a little more than 80 years after her dramatic loss.
Now, as a final shout-out, I wanted to mention two videos of importance released this month about Task Force Admiral. First, obviously Stealth17's blockbuster who brought us quite a few new fans from all around the world. If you were interested in hearing a second opinion about our July gameplay trailer, search no more, that man has you covered!
And yet, if the perspective of a longtime UAD player wasn't close to enough, let me introduce you to Tim Migaki's take on the very same trailer - only this time for a full hour, and coming from somebody who's into real-life naval matters. About that, if you're into Navy stuff of all sort, and especially literature, don't hesitate to pay his great blog Fair Winds & Following Seas a visit!
Big thanks to both of them for their kind coverage
That is all for today Folks! Thank you all kindly for your attention, dear followers. Hope that extended gibberish made sense. That was another long one, but don't worry though - unlike what has been claimed by some out there - to my bewilderment really... - these updates do not affect in any way the pace of development, besides providing our single dev with some comfort to see his work being acknowledged and archived (who knows, we might need that for a making-of some day!). Our online presence is fully handled by yours truly, the producer, who doesn't get to write a single line of code or author a single stroke of virtual brush. Besides contributing to keep our feet firmly on the ground, while developing a sense of responsibility in regard of the feedback we offer our community and our publisher, these updates are a handy way to maintain a presence online and reassure those who might be wondering about the state of development of our baby. Hopefully, some of you do enjoy these monthly rendezvous. At the very least, we do!
As always, if you aren't too fond of Discord, Facebook, Twitter or else, don't forget that we have a mailing list here specifically made so as to keep you updated of all our Steam updates and other announcements which might be big enough to deserve a special treatment. Click on the pic below to access the form.
Cheers & see you for our next update!
The Task Force Admiral team.
Monthly Dev update #6 (September 2022) - A busy month
Dear Fans, Dear Followers, Old & new,
Welcome to this September 2022 dev diary for Task Force Admiral.
Life’s been sweet to us in September, at least by the standards set by 2023. We didn’t have much to complain about, we were among our loved ones, doing our work. That work, unfortunately for most of it wasn’t very graphic, and as such can only be mostly explained through the unabashed use of walls of text and a few diagrams. Yet, it was an important step in the direction of providing Task Force Admiral with a soul beyond its pretty face.
Operation Barebones, the codename we gave to our basic playable slice, is well on its way. This month was all about artificial intelligence & its strategic implications, along with efforts to provide the game with its strategic layer. With each passing week, Task Force Admiral is morphing into an actual game, and like many of you might think - clearly it was about time!
So as to make sure that the enemy and friendly AI in Task Force Admiral behaves in a believable fashion, we need to reconstruct carefully a scheme of thought. The AI will be asked to adhere to this logic, that tries to emulate the process you would expect from a commander faced with dilemmas, over and over again, and reacts dynamically to them – with some sense, but often with some wrong assumptions of his own. It means developing a specific set of tasks which will identify clear goals, whether these are dictated by the original mission objectives or by the ever-evolving combat situation.
Another department where some sweat was expended in no small measure is our interface for the Naval Search missions. Separate from defensive and offensive missions, this tool will ultimately allow you to program your sector searches, the ubiquitous opening move of any proper carrier battle during which both sides send scouts to locate their opponent before launching a strike.
Yet, although it is a common matter treated by all games about the topic, Naval Search ended up being a remake of the irreconcilable "the chicken or the egg" kind of conundrum: setting up a flightplan based on a given sector you wish to investigate (aka populating it with your aircraft) vs. generating a sector from the aircraft you have available. Sounds kinda simple & harmless enough, but it ends up being a rather game design-defining choice, and a tough one at that!
Each system had a few issues of its own when it came to providing us with the tools needed for the job. The latter is actually what people usually have in games like that - say, in Carriers at War, Task Force & Pacific Air War, for instance. You add aircraft from your pool, sub-sectors are created each time and add to each other, and there you go, that's the good old Microprose way many of you have been used to, easy to use. I'd know that, I could use it when I was 9 and set in another language, so it must have been pretty handy after all!
On the other hand, you also have the rarer breed of the sector taking precedence over aircraft themselves, 2by3's War in the Pacific being one example. But even then, a squadron is limited to one sector search at a time, which means that you need two units when you need to cover two sectors. Mostly, each technique encountered can be either put under one or the other doctrine, with their own limitations. These are limitations we attempted to solve in TFA, hopefully with some luck, observing the best practices and learning from our illustrious forebearers. Here's the preliminary result we came up with.
After some experimenting, we ended up convinced that the mission itself (aka the area to search) shall be the defining item, rather than the result of the air assets you have in hand - and if the latter don't work to cover your needs, then you'll have to revise your needs to take your limitations into account. Similarly, using a mission-based system rather than a plane-based system allows you to create as many search plans as you like, including two-phased ones or sector searches going in opposite directions, yet worked on separately by aircraft from the same squadron.
This done, the next stage will now include the vital doctrine-related & behavioral choices we want to inject in the gameplay, so as to allow you to brief your scout pilots - simply, but with some clarity - regarding what you expect from them. We will hopefully cover that in the next update, if all things go well in October, that is!
While Jean Baptiste our coder was busy trying to assemble the brains of our game, one cog at a time, obviously other had his own workload.
Now that most of the fleet is on its way to finalization, our 3D artist had some spare time to dedicate for a smaller task – and by that we don’t mean a matter not less important in the larger scheme of thing, but purely something that doesn’t involve big ships, but little men.
Our local pixeltruppen, that is our digital sailors, officers & other crewmen, are often requested as a feature in the comments left & right in our social media. Do understand that they are a concern for us all the same, but we are looking for the right most satisfying and balanced way of including them to the game without incurring a disproportional workload that would possibly affect our overall timetable and pipeline. For now, we will probably settle for static crewmen which will certainly add some bits of life to the scenes, despite their unequivocal stillness.
Adding animated models would require the opening of a different can of worms we can ill afford right now, but obviously our wish is to get there at some time down the line, especially if we were to be successful at release. It is, when all things are said and done, in the category of pure eye-candy, but this is the sort of feature that contributes its own valuable little step towards an improved overall immersion.
In the same fashion, don't expect these soldiers above to jump out of their Daihatsu barge and storm a beach. For now, it is all about adding some more immersion to the mix, and we will certainly develop this further as time goes once the game will be seating on solid foundations. But until then, at least we won't be afflicted with that silly "ghost ship syndrome" most of you dislike so much! Better than nothing, like they say.
As for the 2D front, we’ve been painting new ships one after another, while still researching better rendering techniques for our vehicles. As our skins are all layered with different effect, working on a given layer in order to improve a given effect doesn’t impact workflow as much as it used to back in the day when a single overall skin was to include everything you needed to dress up your model. Rivets in particular are a tough customer. Whether they are visible or flushed, they still require an extra bit of attention to render properly while being optimized so as not to slow gameplay to a crawl when a wave of 50 SBD is about to dive on the Kido Butai. The progress is probably more apparent with pics rather than words, so I’ll let the pixels speak!
And that will be all for this update! As a final word, yet again, don't forget that we have a mailing list here specifically made so as to keep you updated of all our Steam updates and other announcements which might be big enough to deserve a special treatment. Click on the pic below to access the form.
Cheers & see you for our next update!
The Task Force Admiral team.
Monthly Dev update #5 (August 2022) - Ghosts of Summer Past
Dear Fans, Dear Followers, Old & new,
Welcome to this August 2022 dev diary for Task Force Admiral.
Hopefully we'll keep it short and to the point, with a recap of a few items of interest that have been explored this month, including some that were kept for this very update.
First of all, the video of the month, this time courtesy of our 3D artist Rizki. As people often ask us questions about our ships and how they're done, our artist filmed himself while recreating a ship from head to toe. Nothing fancy, it is an auxiliary, so it is comparatively simple - yet it is probably a good introductory video for those who might be interesting in trying out their skills in 3D ship making. Everybody has to start somewhere - might as well start with him!
His technique was mostly self-taught, like it is the case with many artists out there, so it certainly doesn't mean that there's a single right way to get to the final result. Yet, as Task Force Admiral will have to display massive engagements over a very large area, we made sure that all elements in the pipeline were as optimized as they can get. At the end of the day, this ship is a good example, as a game ready model which required less than 30,000 triangles. Sometimes the perfectionism, especially when it is all about applied knowledge, is about doing more with less rather than the other way around.
Featured in the video is AD-15 Prairie, as a good example of the auxiliaries you will find in-game. As a Dixie class tender, she shared a hull with USS Dixie (AD-14), but also in most part submarine tenders USS Fulton (AS-11) and USS Sperry (AS-12) and to some extent USS Curtiss (AV-4) - which requires a big fat hangar on the stern - all of which at one point or another contributed to the battles and theaters featured in Task Force Admiral vol.1, and will show up where they are supposed to be. And if they don't, well, you'll be free to tailor make some scenarios to make them shine! They will be joined by a large family of other smaller combatants, merchants or specialized vessels. Often ignored in the domain of gaming, auxiliaries were actually the most common sight even at sea or off the coast of Guadalcanal. Giving them the attention they deserve is paramount to making Task Force Admiral a bit different from what came before it, hopefully all for the best.
Note that Prairie and her sisters are only halfway to her homeport. It is time for Julien our 2D artist to ride the pipeline and use the assets produced by our 3D artist to give the ship her final look. In a game like Task Force Admiral, it is important to make the most out of the 2D art itself so as to complement, enhance the 3D model. Now that the original skin has been produced by Rizki, Julien can work his magic and start providing the ship with as many liveries as required - as you can see here with Kongo Maru, another one of these ubiquitous designs that you will often encounter in the game, and bomb accordingly.
The amount of work Julien accomplishes when fine-tuning 3D models into the ships you will have in-game is absolutely paramount to the end-user experience. You can very easily compared the result between the base 3D model of Yamato (1941) when she was fresh from the 3D shop in the July update, and how she looks like now, after a few good strokes of paintbrush and a huge load of talent. Hopefully we'll get to show you Prairie in her new clothes soon enough too!
Don't worry though, the art team wasn't the only one hard at work this month. Despite a short Summer respite so that we could spend a few quiet days with the family, one cannot say that time wasn't used productively
First of all, performance tuning is still on-going, and we did step it up a bit further. After the 50 v 50 dogfights of a few months ago, we wondered how it would scale beyond that, with, say, 200 aircraft and 50 or so ships in the same scene. We're happy to say that it is still going fine, with zero bug in sight. A most important matter when a battle like Midway entails having around 500 aircraft and 40 ships maneuvering in such a tight space. If they were to all meet in the middle of the ocean, one would have to take into account the workload of the AI and the effects proper, but when it comes to displaying these numbers, we are not too afraid.
On the GUI (Graphical User Interface) front, we have started the design process on the counters you will be using on the strategic map. Although the old tabletop-like wargame counters you could see in the original trailers were kinda cool (at least to yours truly ^^) and worked fine in our prototypes, it quickly became obvious that they were unfortunately a cul-de-sac design-wise. They wouldn't indicate the heading of the relevant task force or contact, would definitely loose clarity when zoomed out, even when rescaled... And last but not least, we just did not find a satisfying way to have them coexist when two forces are so close to each other that some sort of merging was required.
As such, we had to stray away from a purely skeuomorphistic approach by abstracting them to some extent. This will have the combined advantages of making the mission of the task forces clearer, and more obvious to the untrained eyed, while the round shape allows us to put a directional indicator along the ring. Although these below were early prototypes, we are definitely heading that way. Note that the large space above the ships will probably be used for a nationality flag to add to their readability. The facing will also help our color-blind players to more easily distinguish between friends and foes, beyond the colors themselves. As for the other information, it will be displayed in a dedicated pop up window during fly overs, not unlike what you had in games such as Task Force 1942 or 1942: The Pacific Air War.
Once the display system will be in place, at least sufficiently for proper testing, we will spend our time on the AI logic that brings these forces in contact and in conflict. Task Forces types, Tasks and waypoint types and everything they cover will finally be designed and implemented fully. As for the rest, it's reaching a point that I might call "mature" enough for dedicating our next round of effort to substance rather than looks. Getting there boys!
August was also, naturally the 80th anniversary of Operation Watchtower, which marked the beginning of the Guadalcanal campaign. Like all the rendezvous of 1942, we couldn't let that go without a small homage.
It came in the form of Julien's latest painting, depicting the last moments of unfortunate USS Quincy, sunk 80 years ago off the coast of Guadalcanal in the first of many bloody surface engagements in what was to become the Iron Bottom Sound. CA-39 sustained crippling damage during the engagement, leading to a dramatic loss of life, leaving more than half of her complement dead, wounded or missing in action.
Those who have an interest in learning more about her fate can read her official damage/loss report, available online at the Navy History and Heritage Command at this address.
Click here to download the high-res JPG version of Julien's work.
Finally, a shout out to Jochen Heiden, a noted War in the Pacific: Admiral's Edition who has taken a liking to Task Force Admiral and has begun to cover us, and has kindly offered us shelter on his discord server too!
His tutorials are the top of the crop when it comes to taming that tough beast that is WitP:AE, so don't hesitate to subscribe to his channel if you are among the few ones who got acquainted with this monument these days, as it is sitting at a formidable -80% discount for an extra few days. If you're a PTO fan, that one game was very much worth its $80 - you can expect it to deliver all the same at $16! ːsteamthumbsupː
That is all for today Folks!
Thank you all kindly for your attention, dear followers. Wishing you all a fine life September, especially to all those who study and work at school – days ahead remain tough, but there's one thing you can be certain of, is that we're way too far in development to let you down. Hopefully, we'll see each other again for great news by the end of the Fall. By the way, if you don't want to miss a thing, and aren't fond of Discord, Facebook, Twitter or else, don't forget that we have a mailing list here specifically made so as to keep you updated of all our Steam updates and other announcements which might be big enough to deserve a special treatment. Click on the pic below to access the form.
Cheers & see you for our next update!
The Task Force Admiral team.
Monthly Dev update #4 (July 2022) - Long Videos, Large Ships, Big Love.
Dear Fans, Dear Followers, Old & new,
Welcome to this July 2022 dev diary for Task Force Admiral.
As always, the last few weeks have been filled with honest progress. A specific care was given to the optimization of the game environment, in regard of the tech of course, but the GUI in its larger meaning too. Let’s go over the contents of the last months, including some new cool stuff released just yesterday.
The part of the GUI relevant to player user experience has been discussed already at length in the previous video – although we do have a new version now, with a spoken narration. We also added some extra trivia regarding our vision of how history can be made to speak to you through the diegetic interface we have been designing. It might be worth a look if you haven’t seen the original video – and even then, we have thrown in a few more gameplay sequences at the end that might sweeten the deal!
Talking about behind the scenes contents, we just had an interview with the right honorable Wolfpack345 some of you no doubt know well for his adventures over the Russian front, the Solomons or the bottom of the Norwegian sea. He was kind enough to extend an invitation to us for this new feature, and we went for it. Obviously our game designer is no professional interviewee, but it was a first for Wolfpack, so we were in good company! We did throw in there a lot of original contents, especially some nice sequences of Rizki, our 3D artist, and Julien, our 2D illustrator hard at work. The complete videos will be released later in early August – it will be a treat for whoever among you is into naval architecture using Blender, or digital painting.
Finally, in regard of non-player GUI, we also made a lot of progress on the integration tools we will be using ourselves when calibrating ships and aircraft in the game. These tools, readily available in the general interface of the engine, will be available to some extent to those among you who might want to tweak around the ships – or add your own creations. Task Force Admiral in its current form will be a single player game, so there is little incentive to prevent you from playing around the properties and try your own stuff. We are of the opinion that good games inspire people to mod them – while great games actually give them the tools to do so. We’ll do what we can to steer in the direction of the latter.
In the meantime, these tools are practical for those in our team who can now give a hand to our developer without prior experience with coding & all the sweet programmer stuff. It will certainly improve the workflow – all these 90 ships and 40 aircraft ain’t going to get right into the game all by themselves, are they! Talking about the former, let's finish this update with a few screenshots of the latest additions to the Japanese roster. Not all ships are at the same level of finish just yet, and the textures are the main mapping (that is the clothes that come with the 3D model) not the final deal just yet. But we know we have a few Nihon Kaigun enthusiasts in here who will not say no to some more additional relevant eye candy... So there you go, enjoy it all thoroughly!
Thank you all kindly for your attention, dear followers. Wishing you all a fine life & a safe Summer – take good care of yourselves, and of all those you love!
Cheers & see you for our next update in late August!
