Tiny Combat Arena cover
Tiny Combat Arena screenshot
PC Steam
Genre: Simulator

Tiny Combat Arena

0.11.1.1 Patch Notes (Testers branch)
New Features:
- Hardcoded escape button to escape on keyboard
- Additional bindable "escape" key is now bound to "Start" on the gamepad by default
- Player can now eject
+ Pilots are now a viewable object (only when ownship ejects)
+ Fixed pilot rotations to face forwards
+ Option to trigger either by hold or triple press
+ When ejecting during Arena missions, pilot is not lost, only aircraft
- Added SA-9 IR guided surface to air missile (SAM) vehicle
+ Vehicle launchers can have a finite or infinite number of reloads
- (JSON) Vehicle turret "Type" property no longer used
- (JSON) Vehicle missile turrets require "LauncherMounts" in the "Model" of the turret
- Completely redone HUD designed for customization and more universal usability
- HUD "Instrument" (TWD and Radar) design changes
+ TWD shows incoming missiles and incoming missile type
+ Can be configured to 4:3, 16:9, or screen edge
+ Three different display styles : Borders, Transparent, Clear
- RWR Codes system to different aircraft can display different RWR symbology labels
- Radar shows lock target type and altitude
- Tape added to the heading indicator
- Pitch ladder (optional)
+ Reacts automatically to field of view (Thanks Vazgriz!)
- Waterline and flight path marker (optional)
- VTOL HUD mode automatically activated when nozzle angle >30 and ground speed <200 knots
+ If in NAV mode, NAV will switch to say VTOL
+ Flight path marker symbology switches to lose the top mark
+ Pitch ladder caged and used as vertical velocity indicator (1 degree = 100 feet/min)
- Input debugger is now part of the HUD (optional)
- Fuel gauge (optional) which displays both internal and external fuel separately
- New HUD is now (optionally) available in the Chase (F3 by default) view
+ When in third person, the HUD takes on a wider format
- Radar and IR missile symbology adjusted and now shows target aspect
- Target boxes have a SHOOT cue that coincides with seeker lock
- DLZ added with very questionable calculations (WIP)
- Time to impact shown on DLZ for previously launched munitions
- Ground targets on the radar appear as indistinct blobs (AAA still has a unique symbol)
- Important ground targets will always be bright and highlighted
- Gunsight shows current range to target, or slant range to ground, along with gun max range
- Added fixed gun cross which situationally appears
+ If no target or A-G, fixed gun cross is replaced by gun piper when aimed at the ground
+ If A-A target is selected, fixed gun cross is always visible
- Blinking incoming missile text on the HUD, coincides with audio beep
- Missile warning ducks the constant lock tone

Improvements:
- Missile seeker diamond now tries to move towards locked target instead of moving only when target has entered seeker angle
- Cockpit SFX slider defaults to 50%
- Flak smoke lingers for longer

Bugfixes:
- Chase/external no longer centered on the viewable's position last frame
- Aircraft control surface animations no longer play after ejection
- Target lists no longer getting clogged with invalid references every level load
- When Harrier engine is off, it reads ambient temperature instead of 0
- Fixed NRE caused by attempting to view vehicles when there are no vehicles

Balance:
- GAU-12 muzzle velocity reduced 1600 -> 1300
- GAU-12 time to live reduced 1.5 -> 1.3
- Normalized the bullet diameter for AI aircraft guns
+ Gsh-23 reduced greatly 10.0 -> 2.5
+ M61/M39 increased 1.0 -> 2.5
- All dumb bombs now have penetration, allowing them to do full damage to tanks on a direct hit
- AV8B countermeasure fire rate doubled (0.2 -> 0.1 delay)
- SA9 tweaks
+ 9M31 MaxRange lowered 8000 -> 5000
+ 9M31 EffectiveRange lowered 6000 -> 4500
+ Turret MaxRange lowered 6000 -> 5000
+ Turret FireDelay raised 10 -> 15
- ZSU-57-2 range increased 5000 -> 6000
- Added SA-9 to several bases in the Arena Demo mission

One Year of Early Access


Hello! I can't believe it's already been a year! Tiny Combat Arena's reception and sales, even in its Early Access state, has wildly exceeded my expectations. I can't say thank you enough to you and the people who made this happen behind the scenes.

When I posted the Early Access description over a year ago, I had planned for the Early Access period to last for 12-18 months. We're now at the start of that window. I'm further behind that I'd like to be, but the pace of work has picked up recently for several reasons.

1. Vehicle AI uses real and extremely performant pathfinding


Vehicle AI pathfinding now has a proper and high performance solution. With this in mind, vehicles are free to move around when before any kind of vehicle movement was buggy and performance intensive. The new AI pathfinding also allows for maps to be much more interesting, since a practically infinite flat plane is no longer a requirement, and they can follow/avoid terrain features such as roads or forests.



2. New terrain and terrain tools in development


This is a really big one. In the past couple weeks, I've brought on a technical artist with experience and a love for retro games, to help with terrain generation and map creation.

Terrains have been, across every version of Tiny Combat that has ever existed, a nightmare that would keep me up at night. While I was making steady progress on a new terrain, I hit a wall where I realized that I just don't have the time to do this myself. I used to say that tooling for terrains had just evolved in a different direction from what I needed, and that to make the terrains I wanted I'd literally have to make new tools from scratch. That's where they come in! In the past couple weeks, new tools have been developed for Blender to create terrain in ways that I could only fantasize about before.

Below are some very early WIP images of a redo of the largest island on the Sand Island map using the new technology. I'm really excited for what this means for future map development.

Parametrically drawn features such as flat areas on which bases, towns, and buildings can be drawn.


Parametrically and non-destructively cutting unique features such as canyons into the terrain.


3. The campaign framework is in place


Long overdue considering that this was meant to be a core aspect of the game. My vision for Arena had been for smaller individual Arena missions to be stringed together across a larger campaign map. With the terrain being taken care of, this lets me focus on the Arena mechanics, their missions, UI, and filling in the missing gameplay features.



What's coming?


The old roadmap post is still relevant, so I recommend checking that out. Almost all aspects of it are in progress to some degree, with a lot of tangential work such as the new user experience, control tweaks, and many other changes immediately post-release to address the most pressing problems, and bugs having been completed in the last year.

An update on everything on the roadmap:


  • Expanded Arena Map UI - The Arena map now has a proper camera, but the UI for drawing bases and other strategic information is still in need of a rather large overhaul.
  • Campaigns - The functionality is done. The only thing missing is content.
  • Finished Sand Island Map - See above. A new developer has been brought on to create terrain tools, finish the map, and create new maps.
  • Air defense and Defensive Structures/Units - Internally, these have been called "tactical targets" and are in progress right now.
  • Improved Offensive and Defensive Missile Combat - No work has specifically been done on this since then, but is in progress right now. Flares will get some tweaking, chaff will become functional, new UI has to be created to give the player information to dodge missiles, and finally all the necessary AI to make this fun. Missiles are a very multi-faceted issue.
  • Custom Loadouts - Custom loadouts are already completely possible and supported within the game, it's only lacking UI. Since then, it's now possible to select loadouts in instant action and before flights in Arena, but a dedicated UI for creating new loadouts is still to come.

While still not "strategically" important, I've started working on all the missile related items needed to get AI, both ground and air based, firing missiles. I know it's a year late, but it was one of those things that as a developer just isn't really wasn't that important to where I was in the game to have them done. However, between player feedback and hitting the point where mission design is going to become relevant very soon, it's time.

When it comes to development news, the best and most up to date places to follow or reach me are on the MicroProse Discord, or by following me on Twitter.



It's nice too that this stuff is really fun and motivating to work on.

0.10.3.1 is now available. Features an updated camera and bugfixes.
This is a small patch to keep up the tempo while larger features are being worked on. Expect an update very soon about terrain in particular! I have some exciting news to announce.



Updated External Camera Motion



Basically it uses acceleration to convey the motion of the jet. It feels really good, and is adjustable. This is on almost max settings. 0% setting would be how the camera used to be. The funny part is that this is based on how the camera used to work in some of the earliest pre-release builds before the game was announced, but it was lost at some point during a camera rework. The camera in those ancient builds was actually awesome and I've been meaning to bring it back for a while.

Another minor issue that's been fixed is that the camera changes its distance depending on the object. I.e. the camera isn't too close now when looking at bigger planes like the F-4 and MiG-23.

Handling of "orphaned" launchers by aircraft


A long-running issue in the game is that when an aircraft lost wings that contained stores, the fire control didn't know how to handle that. This was the source of many different bugs. I'd been putting off fixing it, because usually by the time any bug happens you won't live long enough for it to matter much, but the pile was getting too big. This item on Trello lists some of the resultant reported bugs.

Now though, the fire control and stores management reacts to lost weapons and removes them from the plane. This should fix all of the resultant bugs, and also some minor ones that weren't reported like lost stores still counting towards a plane's weight.

Changelog:


New Features:
- Added setting for external camera motion in the camera settings tab
- Added countermeasure firing sound

Improvements:
- External/Chase came adjusts distance based on the viewed object
- New external/chase camera motion that better conveys movement through air
- Terrain scatter colors adjusted
- Terrain scatters (e.g. grass) can align to terrain
- All engines are a little less high pitched

Bugfixes:
- Aircraft no longer report a reversed acceleration to cameras
- More robust spawning rules to prevent failed ground unit spawns
- Tweaked FMOD logging rules to prevent inconsequential error reported when audio devices are removed/added
- External/chase camera transition removed because it was buggy
- "Orphaned" launchers and stores are removed from a plane's fire control when they fall off a plane
+ Should fix a ton of bugs related to what happens to planes after they take damage

0.10.2.3 is now available!
Hello! This update has taken a lot longer than I planned. In hindsight, I should have released a new build after finishing the map controls, as that build would have included a couple nice features on its own such as the pre-flight loadout menu in Arena. However once I got started on the campaign UI, one thing led to another, and now the game has the full campaign framework the 1.0 final game will need.

Campaign




The "Arena Demo" button has been replaced with the proper "Arena Campaigns" menu option.

Campaigns are a string of missions, each with their own objectives. Missions are unlocked as you progress through the campaign, either by completing a previous mission, or achieving a total number of stars across the campaign. Stars are awarded by completing objectives, with secondary objectives awarding bonus stars. As mentioned in the roadmap post, campaigns are one of the big features required before the game can be considered 1.0.



At the moment, the only campaign available is a quick one I threw together to test that the progression and saving functionality works. This is a very critical function that is difficult to debug or fix once it goes live, but results on the tester's branch have been very promising with no issues reported. However, if something catastrophic happens to campaign save data (and for my own testing purposes), I've added a button to clear the persistent data in the syste settings.



The old Arena Demo mission can still be found under a separate campaign. It may still get used for testing future features in isolation, but will be removed eventually. A pseudo-tutorial/introductory campaign will be the first released, and will be released in parts.

Map Camera



Also on the roadmap post is improvements to the Arena map screen. The first step of this is a proper RTS style camera, the camera type that was always intended for this screen. WASD can be used to pan the camera, or the mouse can be dragged while the right mouse button is held. This is only the first of many improvements to the map screen.

Selectable Loadouts for Instant Action



A small change, but a welcome one. Loadouts are now selectable before a flight in both the Arena map screen, and the instant action screen. This allows for more intuitive loadout selection in Arena, and the ability to use the loadouts you want in Instant Action rather than the ones hardcoded to the mission type. I frequently use this to test and practice with different weapon types.

Missile Lofting



After getting pretty burned out by the campaign work, I wanted to do something quick and fun that I had been meaning to get around to for a while. A new navigation mode for missiles has been added, currently in use by the anti-tank missile AGM-65D. After launch, the missile will try to gain a little bit of altitude before coming down on the target. This extends the range slightly, and also gives a higher trajectory to help fly over terrain and other obstacles.

X1, X3, X5, and Unlimited Munition Counts



A new option for adjusting the munitions carried on the plane has been added. X1 is the default, and uses the loadouts as they currently work. Unlimited, as it sounds, makes it so that you never run out of bombs or missiles. The middle options, X3 and X5, allow you to carry an exaggerated, but still limited, number of munitions. For some peoples' play styles, especially since there aren't wingmen, I think this will hit a good middle ground.

Worth mentioning too is that spamming cluster bombs like crazy caused the volume to get so loud that it was just totally unacceptable. The game's audio now has a compressor built into its final mix so that if something ever gets so loud that it would blow out the game's volume (and your eardrums) the volume gets reduced to safe levels.

Cheat Codes




A couple cheat codes have been added to the game. Cheat codes are meant for easier debugging of issues. Typical video game cheat codes like unlimited ammo and invincibility are simply gameplay options in Tiny Combat Arena, and have been available for some time.


One of the cheat codes allows for all AI aircraft to be selectable through the updated loadout dialogs. This is not an officially supported feature. As the name applies, AI aircraft were not meant to be flyable by the player so they will be janky and/or strange. Flying the AI planes is something I often did using my own somewhat awkward to maintain dev tools to test various aspects of the game, and this was one of the most commonly modded features of the game, so I figured I could get two birds with one stone by making this more accessible.

Changelog



New Features:
- Aim time variation added (again)
+ Vehicles will take a minimum amount of time looking at the target before they can fire (typically ~1 second)
+ This value has a spread (e.g. 1-3 seconds) so that vehicles don't all fire synchronously at a target
- Loadout screen can be accessed in the Arena map
- Mouse driven camera for the map view
+ WASD by default to pan camera
+ Hold right mouse button to pan camera
+ Scroll wheel and QE can be used to zoom the camera in/out
+ Bindings can be adjusted in the bindings screen
- Pre-flight loadout screen now supports selection of aircraft if >1 aircraft is defined as playable
- Loadout info now displays selected aircraft
- When an aircraft has no cockpit, the camera near clip plane adjusts to show third person cockpit
- "Arena Demo" replaced with "Arena Campaigns"
+ Mission selector for arena campaigns
+ Dynamic text for start time, pilots, and selectable aircraft shown in mission description
+ Campaigns are a string of Arena missions
+ Completion of a mission + clearing objective earns stars
+ Arena missions unlocked throughout a campaign through either unlocking missions or earning stars
+ Locked missions show their pre-requisites when selected
+ Campaign progress persistently saved on Steam Cloud
- Added button to clear campaign save data to system settings (nuclear debug option...)
- Map category added to input binding screen
- Lofting navigation type for missiles (currently used by AGM-65D)
- Loadout screen now available in the arena map menu, and in the instant action menu
- In instant action, player spawns with the loadout specified by the loadout dialog
- Added cheat code system
+ "onlytheharrier" : Allows all AI aircraft to be selectable in the loadout dialogs
+ "surrenderbelisarius" : Unlocked all missions in all campaigns for the current play session
- Added X1, X3, X5, and Unlimited munitions option to the gameplay settings
- Gun has new 3X ammo option in gameplay settings

Improvements:
- Decreased muzzle velocity variation to decrease longitudinal spread of flak
- Mouse sensitivity slider range changed from (0.1-0.8) -> (1-32) to work better at higher resolutions
- Continuous mouse mode sensitivity now defaults to 10 (equivalent to old 1.0)
- Clouds are hidden when in map view
- Strategic info billboards when in map view instead of facing the camera (prevents awkward rotations)
- Whether tickets are used as a mechanic or not is set by scenario (defaults to off)
- Initial camera position in Arena is now defined by the scenario
- Updated UI borders to be more consistent with each other
- More verbose logging for Steam Cloud functionality
- Main menu buttons are reactive in size
- Modal dialog is a bit wider
- Updated Rewired 1.1.38.3 -> 1.1.44.U2020
- Tweaks to the quick mission builder visuals
- Campaign/mission loader will check subfolders of their respective directories
- Moved the version number to bottom left screen so it won't get covered by "Development Build"
- Floating origin generates less garbage
- Added sound compressor to game so the game volume won't clip like crazy when lots of loud SFX happen at the same time

Bugfixes:
- When non-aircraft are destroyed mysterious, they are now "destroyed" rather than "crashed"
- Selecting previous weapon on the map screen no longer causes NRE
- Adjusted spawn offsets/rotations for all AI aircraft
- Fixed mission and map loaders not correctly reporting as loaded
- Button sounds can no longer be heard if the player is not in control of an aircraft (e.g. menus)
- Removed legacy press build stuff (no visible changes)
- Pre-flight loadout menu (e.g. as seen on map) shows correct store counts
- Changed rounding to prevent "100% Damaged" on a strategic target
- Increased FMOD virtual channels (256 -> 512)
- Launchers automatically sets ownship on its munitions
- Fixed typo in Mk82 Snakeyes description

Balance:
- AV8B roll rate increased 100 -> 140
- AV8B slightly more responsive to input (AngularDrag 120k -> 150k)
- MiG-23/F-4 are more durable 120 -> 200 usable HP
- MiG-21/F-5 are slightly less durable 175 -> 150 usable HP
- Destroyable aircraft part HPs generally made tougher to ensure loss of essential parts (e.g. entire wing) results in loss of plane
- AGM-65D tweaked for more predictable performance at close ranges
+ Motor delay reduced (0.5 -> 0.25)
+ Seeker delay reduced (1.0 -> 0.5)
+ Loft angle slightly reduced (15 -> 12)
- Increased FMOD virtual channels (256 -> 512)
- Launcher automatically sets ownship on its munitions

0.10.2.2 Hotfix now available on the Testers branch!

Changelog


Bugfixes:
- Increased FMOD virtual channels (256 -> 512)
- Launcher automatically sets ownship on its munitions

0.10.2.1 is now live on the Tester's branch!
Hello, this is a small patch that if it goes well in the next couple days will be pushed to live. Compared to the last patch, the only major feature is the addition of the new munition options. However, these new options touched some pretty low level code that could have effects in unintended areas, so I want to be sure it runs fine before it goes live.

X1, X3, X5, and Unlimited Munition Counts



A new option for adjusting the munitions carried on the plane has been added. X1 is the default, and uses the loadouts as they currently work. Unlimited, as it sounds, makes it so that you never run out of bombs or missiles. The middle options, X3 and X5, allow you to carry an exaggerated, but still limited, number of munitions. For some peoples' play styles, especially since there aren't wingmen, I think this will hit a good middle ground.

Worth mentioning too is that spamming cluster bombs like crazy caused the volume to get so loud that it was just totally unacceptable. The game's audio now has a compressor built into its final mix so that if something ever gets so loud that it would blow out the game's volume (and your eardrums) the volume gets reduced to safe levels.

Changelog



New Features:
- Added X1, X3, X5, and Unlimited munitions option to the gameplay settings
- Gun has new 3X ammo option in gameplay settings

Improvements:
- Floating origin generates less garbage
- Added sound compressor to game so the game volume won't clip like crazy when lots of loud SFX happen at the same time
- Lofting calculation adjusted for less aggressive lofting when the missile has just launched

Balance:
- AGM-65D tweaked for more predictable performance at close ranges
+ Motor delay reduced (0.5 -> 0.25)
+ Seeker delay reduced (1.0 -> 0.5)
+ Loft angle slightly reduced (15 -> 12)

0.10.1.2 Hotfix is now available on the Tester's branch!

Changelog


Improvements:
- Moved the version number to bottom left screen so it won't get covered by "Development Build"

Bugfixes:
- Reduced star requirement for final test campaign mission to something possible (16 -> 12)
- Changed rounding to prevent "100% Damaged" on a strategic target

0.10.1.1 Is Now Available on the tester's branch!
Hello! This update has taken a lot longer than I planned. In hindsight, I should have released a new build after finishing the map controls, as that build would have included a couple nice features on its own such as the pre-flight loadout menu in Arena. However once I got started on the campaign UI, one thing led to another, and now the game has the full campaign framework the 1.0 final game will need.

Campaign




The "Arena Demo" button has been replaced with the proper "Arena Campaigns" menu option.

Campaigns are a string of missions, each with their own objectives. Missions are unlocked as you progress through the campaign, either by completing a previous mission, or achieving a total number of stars across the campaign. Stars are awarded by completing objectives, with secondary objectives awarding bonus stars. As mentioned in the roadmap post, campaigns are one of the big features required before the game can be considered 1.0.



At the moment, the only campaign available is a quick one I threw together to test that the progression and saving functionality works. This is a very critical function that is difficult to debug or fix once it goes live.

I've done a lot of testing myself on the system. Finding and fixing errors that could put the persistent progress into a weird state has been where a lot of the delay and development time went. However, I didn't want to push this build to main branch until enough people have had time to bang on it that I can be reasonably sure it'll work. If all else fails, I've added a button to clear the persistent data in the syste settings.



The old Arena Demo mission can still be found under a separate campaign. It may still get used for testing future features in isolation, but will be removed eventually. A pseudo-tutorial/introductory campaign will be the first released, and will be released in parts.

Map Camera



Also on the roadmap post is improvements to the Arena map screen. The first step of this is a proper RTS style camera, the camera type that was always intended for this screen. WASD can be used to pan the camera, or the mouse can be dragged while the right mouse button is held. This is only the first of many improvements to the map screen.

Selectable Loadouts for Instant Action



A small change, but a welcome one. Loadouts are now selectable before a flight in both the Arena map screen, and the instant action screen. This allows for more intuitive loadout selection in Arena, and the ability to use the loadouts you want in Instant Action rather than the ones hardcoded to the mission type. I frequently use this to test and practice with different weapon types.

Missile Lofting



After getting pretty burned out by the campaign work, I wanted to do something quick and fun that I had been meaning to get around to for a while. A new navigation mode for missiles has been added, currently in use by the anti-tank missile AGM-65D. After launch, the missile will try to gain a little bit of altitude before coming down on the target. This extends the range slightly, and also gives a higher trajectory to help fly over terrain and other obstacles.

Cheat Codes




A couple cheat codes have been added to the game. Cheat codes are meant for easier debugging of issues. Typical video game cheat codes like unlimited ammo and invincibility are simply gameplay options, and have been available for some time.


One of the cheat codes allows for all AI aircraft to be selectable through the updated loadout dialogs. This is not an officially supported feature. As the name applies, AI aircraft were not meant to be flyable by the player so they will be janky and/or strange. Flying the AI planes is something I often did to test various features of the game, and this was one of the most commonly modded features of the game, so I figure I can get two birds with one stone by making this easily accessible for those that are looking for it.

Changelog



New Features:
- Aim time variation added (again)
+ Vehicles will take a minimum amount of time looking at the target before they can fire (typically ~1 second)
+ This value has a spread (e.g. 1-3 seconds) so that vehicles don't all fire synchronously at a target
- Loadout screen can be accessed in the Arena map
- Mouse driven camera for the map view
+ WASD by default to pan camera
+ Hold right mouse button to pan camera
+ Scroll wheel and QE can be used to zoom the camera in/out
+ Bindings can be adjusted in the bindings screen
- Pre-flight loadout screen now supports selection of aircraft if >1 aircraft is defined as playable
- Loadout info now displays selected aircraft
- When an aircraft has no cockpit, the camera near clip plane adjusts to show third person cockpit
- "Arena Demo" replaced with "Arena Campaigns"
+ Mission selector for arena campaigns
+ Dynamic text for start time, pilots, and selectable aircraft shown in mission description
+ Campaigns are a string of Arena missions
+ Completion of a mission + clearing objective earns stars
+ Arena missions unlocked throughout a campaign through either unlocking missions or earning stars
+ Locked missions show their pre-requisites when selected
+ Campaign progress persistently saved on Steam Cloud
- Added button to clear campaign save data to system settings (nuclear debug option...)
- Map category added to input binding screen
- Lofting navigation type for missiles (currently used by AGM-65D)
- Loadout screen now available in the arena map menu, and in the instant action menu
- In instant action, player spawns with the loadout specified by the loadout dialog
- Added cheat code system
+ "onlytheharrier" : Allows all AI aircraft to be selectable in the loadout dialogs
+ "surrenderbelisarius" : Unlocked all missions in all campaigns for the current play session

Improvements:
- Decreased muzzle velocity variation to decrease longitudinal spread of flak
- Mouse sensitivity slider range changed from (0.1-0.8) -> (1-32) to work better at higher resolutions
- Continuous mouse mode sensitivity now defaults to 10 (equivalent to old 1.0)
- Clouds are hidden when in map view
- Strategic info billboards when in map view instead of facing the camera (prevents awkward rotations)
- Whether tickets are used as a mechanic or not is set by scenario (defaults to off)
- Initial camera position in Arena is now defined by the scenario
- Updated UI borders to be more consistent with each other
- More verbose logging for Steam Cloud functionality
- Main menu buttons are reactive in size
- Modal dialog is a bit wider
- Updated Rewired 1.1.38.3 -> 1.1.44.U2020
- Tweaks to the quick mission builder visuals
- Campaign/mission loader will check subfolders of their respective directories

Bugfixes:
- When non-aircraft are destroyed mysterious, they are now "destroyed" rather than "crashed"
- Selecting previous weapon on the map screen no longer causes NRE
- Adjusted spawn offsets/rotations for all AI aircraft
- Fixed mission and map loaders not correctly reporting as loaded
- Button sounds can no longer be heard if the player is not in control of an aircraft (e.g. menus)
- Removed legacy press build stuff (no visible changes)
- Pre-flight loadout menu (e.g. as seen on map) shows correct store counts

Balance:
- AV8B roll rate increased 100 -> 140
- AV8B slightly more responsive to input (AngularDrag 120k -> 150k)
- MiG-23/F-4 are more durable 120 -> 200 usable HP
- MiG-21/F-5 are slightly less durable 175 -> 150 usable HP
- Destroyable aircraft part HPs generally made tougher to ensure loss of essential parts (e.g. entire wing) results in loss of plane

Hotfix 0.9.2.3
Hello, this is a hotfix to fix some small issues found after the last patch, but also includes a revised crater system based on the new empty shells that are much more efficient and allow for far more craters than before.

Changelog


Improvements:
- Optimized crater system to support many more craters with less overhead

Bugfixes:
- Fixed some particle effects having sub-emitters with stop effects
- Fixed NRE caused by capturing a base with buildings that were previously on fire
- Fixed NRE caused by vehicles with a defensive mission having nothing to defend

Patch 0.9.2.2 is now available! ZSU-57-2 flak tank added!
Hello! The primary purpose of this patch is to migrate the aircraft guns/bullets to the new system used by the vehicles. This brings the optimizations and robustness from the vehicle weapons to the aircraft. For the most part this is a back end change, but in updating the code it has resulted in a lot of tangential features being updated.

ZSU-57-2




This patch brings in a new unit, the ZSU-57-2. This "flak tank" is primarily an area denial weapon. It's not very accurate, and cannot fire under a certain altitude, but if you get hit by a salvo it can be devastating. The ZSU-57-2 can be selected in the Strike Instant Action mode, and has been added to the Arena Demo.

Timed fuzes and flak




Vehicles can now be configured to fire an explosive round with a timed fuze. The new ZSU-57-2 fires these rounds. Flak rounds are explosive with a high splash damage, but aren't precisely aimed. The flak rounds of the ZSU-57-2 cannot (intentionally) explode below a minimum altitude, so they can be (mostly) safely avoided by flying below the flak screens. Just try not to intercept any of the shells with your plane and you'll be fine.

Turret error




In 0.9.1, following the vehicle rework, all vehicles became perfectly accurate regardless of what their accuracy was set to in the files. This resulted in APCs and machineguns taking more than just pot-shots at passing planes, and anti-aircraft fire being dead on if you didn't jink or change speed.

With this turret error back in, only dedicated anti-aircraft weapons are accurate, and even those are no longer perfect unless you get close to them.

When taking fire from AAA, you should have a short warning to react to it before the distance is closed to the turret's effective range. This is back to how it was originally intended to work, and can be used to further differentiate different vehicles of the same type. E.g. a newer Shilka can be more accurate than a manually aimed older one.



For reference, this is how the system works:


  • Leading: Affects how far ahead or behind the AI can lead a target. Turrets which lack fire control software (e.g. machinegun turrets) will lag behind a moving target.
  • Effective Range: The range at which the turret will fire accurately onto a target. At ranges beyond this, accuracy falls off, and the turret will have some error applied to its targeting solution simulating an inaccurate solution.
  • Falloff Range/Error: At a certain range, the maximum amount of error that can be applied to a target. E.g. if set to 500m error at 1500m, this means that the most the targeting calculation will be off is by 500 meters when the target is 1500m away.
  • Min Height: Used mainly to prevent vehicles from firing into the ground when aiming at aircraft. For most vehicles this is irrelevant, but the ZSU-57-2 uses this to create the "flak floor" effect which prevents it from (purposefully) detonating flak too close to the ground.


New/Updated visual and sound effects




In the process of moving the aircraft to the new and optimized gun code, this was the best time to do the pass on weapon effects I'd been wanting to do for a while. All weapons now have new hit, penetrate, explosion, and ground/water impacts split among three "sizes" of weapons: machinegun, autocannon, and cannon. The sound effects for all of these has been revised as well, so they're more audible and with cleaner audio than before.



Originally written in a couple hours as a "haha wouldn't it be funny if I used instanced meshes to draw empty shells it'd probably be stupid efficient to the point of having no performance impact" joke, it worked so well that I decided to formalize it and add it to the game. The Shilka has been converted to use this effect (it previously achieved it through jankier and less performant means), and ejecting shells have been added to all the aircraft that do it: MiG-21, MiG-23, and F-5E. I also added it to the AV8B's gunpod which is not realistic but it looks so cool I left it in.

Changelog


New Features:
- Many new visual and sound effects for the autocannon and cannon sized weaponry
- Added ZSU-57-2 using a new timed fuze to create an area denial flak effect
- Guns can use a timed fuze to explode based on a predicted target position
- ZSU-57-2 has a "minimum engagement altitude" for turrets creates a "floor" that the player can fly under
- Added ridiculous and extremely optimized empty shell system
- Shilka, Mig-23, MiG-21, F-5E, and AV8B eject empty shells (I know the GAU-12 doesn't, but it's cool.)

Improvements:
- Aircraft guns migrated to new bullet/gun system
- RecoilForce parameter moved to the gun itself
- Vehicles override a gun's burst settings on the turret
- Tracers have configurable length (1 for aircraft, 2 for vehicles)
- All aircraft guns (even AI) now have bullet drop
- AI can compensate correctly for bullet drop
- Additional error reporting when something is wrong in the vehicle JSON
- Revision of turret error properties
+ Leading is used to make the turret lag behind the target or apply extra lead
+ EffectiveRange is the range at which a turret is 100% accurate
+ FalloffError is the most a turret can be off target when the target is at or beyond FalloffRange
+ Offsetspeed changed such that higher values result in more errative behavior
- Gun metal impact sounds more metalier, explosions more explosioner
- Bigger muzzle flash for the Shilka
- Tweaked empty shell color
- More responsive radar/threat warning display auto ranging
- Added 2 and 8 mile ranges for the displays

Bugfixes:
- Vehicles/turrets no longer target destroyed/disabled vehicles
- Fixed gun audio not playing correctly when firing
- Aircraft guns won't continue fire sound or pause burst when put into nav mode while firing
- Tracers appear correctly from the barrel, even on fast moving jets
- More aircraft gun camera shake
- Gun fire sound emitted from barrel rather than vehicle/aircraft center
- Barrels recoil in the correct direction
- Bullets spawn the specified effects on self-destruct/explosion
- Fixed crazy issue where sometimes some gun sounds could only be heard if the camera was next to the control tower
- Fixed vehicles being unable to target if there were too many vehicles around
- Turrets no longer instantly reset to forward when they go idle
- Tank muzzle flash smoke no longer turns with the barrel
- Muzzle flash smoke now has shading applied correctly
- Removed "HasRecoil" parameter, default barrel recoil is now 0
- Removed recoil visual from Shilka (not modelled correctly)
- More (EXPERIMENTAL!) safeguards to help vehicles spawn without errors in Arena
- Delayed sounds waiting to be played after scene has changed no longer crash
- Fixed rare crash caused by bullet exploding the vehicle it was fired from if it impacts on its first frame
- NavMeshAgent enabled only after initialization (should reduce log spam and make for cleaner vehicle spawning)
- Simplified NavMesh spawning, and it now checks through a wider radius (hopefully reduces errors from spawning...)
- Vehicles now avoid disabled/destroyed vehicles in addition to wrecks

Balance:
- M60 top turret burst delay increased 2 -> 3
- Machineguns have difficulty tracking/leading moving targets
- M163/Shilka have "perfect" accuracy only out to 1500m
- All AAA in the Arena demo have had their build times increased to 70 seconds
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