Profile of Qvazar

Jump back to quoted post12 Apr 2013, 21:28 PMpathfindergold

Summary for those without password?

Hey Everyone,

Gotta tell you, we're having a blast doing this beta. It's been fun interacting in the forums, and we're having some great discussions every day.

I thought I could touch - briefly - on some of the improvements we've been making in the game. I'll focus mostly on the gameplay, although the UI team is also hard at work. We won't be able to patch this stuff in for this round, but your feedback has proven very valuable and you should see the benefits of the beta feedback in future builds.

AI
- AI takes a while to get together. A whole bunch of new AI levers and controls have been added and tuned. And the AI feels better every day - it selects a good variety of units and uses tactics really well. The current challenge is getting the AI to concentrate on fewer objectives so it offers a good hard-hitting challenge.

Pathing
- We've made dozens of changes to pathing, squad formation tuning, etc. A number of deep-seated latent bugs were dealt with that caused squads to hitch and do odd things.
- Vehicle pathing has a good evacuate system now, meaning vehicles will move out of each other's way more appropriately, squish together less, and generally perform much better. Night and day improvements.
- Infantry move around vehicles in a much more believable way now - less jitter and weird stuff.

Tuning and Systems
- Cold-tech - many small tweaks to this system. Burning vehicles and buildings will heat squads. Scatter, artillery weapons, off-maps are more restricted during blizzards. Infantry are better in blizzards because we've reduced the slowdown.

We're also running on our server now with our first set of features. Again, we'll announce features for launch, post ship etc. at later date.

And lots more...

Just for perspective, we use Perforce for our version control. The changelist numbers when we shipped the beta were in the 260000 range. My last check in today was 284073. That doesn't necessarily mean there have been 24,000 changes but it does speak to the current pace of development.

Some of the team is off to London next week to show off a few different pieces of the game. More multiplayer/skirmish and even some of the campaign levels. Keep your eyes peeled for more previews. We'll also be visiting the Bovington Tank Museum (my second visit in a year). They have King Tigers there. Two different kinds.

Just sayin'.

There probably won't be an update from me next week, but I'll be following the progress from the road.

Best Regards,

Quinn