All Quiet in the Trenches is set in a (fictional) secondary theatre of war on the Western Front. Many soldiers stationed away from the main front lines probably did not come into direct contact with poison gas very often. Nevertheless, poison gas is one of the most well-known and devastating weapons of the First World War. That's why it was clear to us from the very beginning that we wanted to incorporate this topic into the game. Poison Gas in the Diary With less than one percent of all World War I deaths, poison gas is considered an ineffective weapon in retrospect, but its cruelty and the effects it had on soldiers give it its terrible reputation. We have written several new journal entries on this topic, which deal with various aspects of gas warfare. We plan to have 6-8 stories by the time of release of the next update, but due to our dynamic storytelling, it is of course possible that you will not experience all of them in one playthrough.
Gas Masks We designed the gas masks in the game based on the German GM15 rubber mask and the French M2 mask. Both variants have been given their own storage locations: A carrying bag for French soldiers and the Bereitschaftsbchse ('emergency box') for German soldiers.
Gas Attacks in the Trenches During the trench phase, occasional gas attacks may now occur. The main consequences are increased exhaustion and mental stress for the soldiers. The use and duration of a gas attack depend on the wind. Gas can affect life in the trenches for several days, but it is ineffective in strong winds. The wind, in turn, depends on the weather. So heavy rain now has its good sides too.
Chlorine Gas on the Battlefield Some new levels have been designed in which chlorine gas is used. Soldiers who are near poison gas clouds automatically put on their gas masks. The gas clouds behave similarly to artillery smoke or smoke grenades. However, gas adds additional penalties to the visibility impairment: reduced stamina and lower soldier effectiveness.
Stamina Adjustments As part of this, we have made minor changes to stamina, which is reflected in the game via the Out of Breath attribute. In addition to balancing changes, we have introduced a mechanic where soldiers who are not given a break on the battlefield will eventually become unable to carry out orders.

[ 2025-04-19 17:21:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

In the last two Dev Diaries, we talked about the limited visibility caused by artillery smoke and smoke grenades. This will be supplemented by fog as a natural challenge that will be added with the gas update and which we will tell you about today. Occurrences of Fog Fog will occur as an additional weather effect in the game and will influence both the battle and the trench phases. While fog cannot occur in hot or sunny weather, there is a certain probability of it occurring in moderate or rainy weather, as well as in cold snaps (in order of increasing probability).
Effects of Fog in Battle During a battle, fog drastically reduces visual range to about half of the normal distance. This makes movement through no-man's land less dangerous, as generally there are fewer enemy troops in sight. However, careless movements can also be extremely risky, as you can now move into close combat or grenade range of one or more enemy troops that were previously out of your sight. Fog in the Trenches In the trench phase, fog reduces the danger of all tasks and also affects other circumstances: while enemy snipers, for example, can no longer carry out their tasks, which further lowers the danger level, the probability of an enemy attack increases. Unknown Factors There will be another change in battle: if a movement poses dangers from enemy troops that were not previously visible, this information will be hidden. This also applies to tactical attributes such as flanking or close combat. It does not matter whether visibility is restricted by terrain, fog, smoke or other factors.
This is supposed to make movements through fog or smoke more interesting and encourage cautious, short movements. Positions that can be seen by many enemy troops are generally more dangerous, but also give the player more information about the battlefield. The aim is to create a new strategic weighing of safety and information gain. NPC troops are subject to the same restrictions. Graphical and Technical Improvements As part of the integration of the fog effect, further adjustments were made: The shader has been modified in such a way that the graphical outlines are now also influenced by the fog, which previously caused unwanted artifacts in the distance, especially at low resolutions.
Both screenshots in low resolution without anti-aliasing The transitions to the skybox, especially in hot and sunny weather, have been optimized, which overall leads to a more beautiful appearance in the depths. This has also prompted us to tilt the camera up a little during the battle so that it can now see further into the distance.

[ 2025-04-04 08:12:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

The last dev diary was about the effects of artillery fire and the resulting smoke as a tactical challenge in the upcoming Gas Update 0.9. Now we can present another way in which obscuring visibility can affect gameplay: smoke grenades Smoke Grenades in the First World War On the German side, production of the Nebelbombe Typ N (literal translation: Fog Bomb Type N) did not begin until 1917, while the French had used smoke grenades before then, but in the form of hand grenades for infantry they were quite rare. Due to the similarity in development to gas and smoke and the tactical component in the game, we still wanted to introduce them with this update. Up until 1917, they can only be found occasionally on the battlefield or on French soldiers. Use of Smoke Grenades Soldiers can actively throw smoke grenades during an advance or retreat. When doing so, they try to place the grenades with the aim of obscuring the largest possible fields of vision. Smoke grenades produce a grayish-white smoke and are similar in effect to the smoke from artillery strikes. The emitted smoke disappears after two turns.
Kohn places the smoke grenade as a barrier to the French troop Equipment Changes With the introduction of smoke grenades, we have also adjusted our general equipment system. Previously, ammunition, bandages and hand grenades were set to a fixed value at the start of a battle. With the upcoming update, equipment that is won will be retained throughout the entire game and the troop will receive additional equipment from Feldintendant Hennek at the end of each camp phase. The amount can depend on various factors, such as the supply situation or your standing with your superiors.
... or if you hoard far too much ammunition ...

[ 2025-03-21 15:31:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

With the upcoming Gas Update 0.9, there will be new tactical challenges in battle that restrict visibility and movement. These new features are primarily intended to provide more depth and more dynamic gameplay in battle. Today we would like to take a closer look at one of these new features: Fires caused by artillery strikes Artillery is already a relentless threat on the battlefield. With version 0.9, it will be expanded by one more dimension: As soon as an artillery salvo hits the battlefield, there is now a chance that areas will be ignited by the detonations. These (smaller) fires then produce dense smoke that spreads across the terrain depending on the wind direction. After a random number of turns, the fires extinguish themselves. Restricted visibility due to smoke The emerging smoke blocks the lines of sight, obscuring troops at a certain distance behind it. They can then no longer be suppressed or focussed in any other way. Fire on sight is still possible, but the chance to hit is greatly reduced.

Comparison of the fields of vision of the French and German troop. Impassable positions A burning position is also impassable for a certain period of time. Especially in narrow trenches, this can mean that certain routes are blocked or that favoured positions with good cover can no longer be used.
The position further ahead would have been passable under normal circumstances.

[ 2025-03-08 20:47:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

In early January, we started working on the Gas Update 0.9. The first thing we did was to revise the save system in response to numerous requests from the community. We would like to present the changes to the save games that will come with the 0.9 update in a few months today. Saving After Every Turn From the beginning of development many years ago until today, All Quiet in the Trenches has undergone many changes. The decision to only save at the beginning of a level was made at a point when the playing time of a single level was still considerably shorter. This system was easy to implement and served its purpose well at the time. This system became increasingly impractical the longer a single level took to play. This revision of the save system has therefore been on our to-do list since the beginning of Early Access. Due to the many requests from the community to adjust the save system, we felt it was important to address this now. With the 0.9 update, the game will save at the beginning of each turn. While saves at the beginning of each level will remain permanently, there will be a certain number of save slots (currently 10, but there may be an option to set this in the settings) per game for turn-based saves. Revision of the User Interface
The most important changes to the UI are as follows: A thumbnail for the game is created when saving, which improves the overview and identification of the individual saved games. The active soldiers are displayed as icons. The saves for each playthrough are grouped together to provide better structure in the window, and the key information has been restructured.
Further Changes Due to the aforementioned changes, it will no longer be possible to open older saves from version 0.8 and earlier. However, the system revision will also bring other improvements: the size of the individual save games has been reduced somewhat, whilst the performance when loading the information has been significantly improved. This has eliminated the lag when opening the window.

[ 2025-02-03 15:06:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

One year ago today, we released All Quiet in the Trenches in Early Access. It has been a very exciting year for us, with difficult moments but also many wonderful experiences. Thank you for accompanying and supporting us on this journey. During this time, we have concentrated our updates on the trenches and the battle. The upcoming update aims to focus on the gas war and extend the playable time to the spring of 1917. We then plan to look more closely at the soldiers, the military hospital and the French civilian population before tackling the final year of the war. You can find a detailed list of all previous and planned future updates here: https://totallynotaliens.com/aqitt#roadmap Your feedback and your opinions have repeatedly given us new insights and perspectives on our game over the past year. We are happy and grateful to have found such a thoughtful and pleasant community in you. We are looking forward to the coming year, which will continue to be dedicated to our Early Access, and wish you many exciting and memorable experiences with All Quiet in the Trenches! Your Totally Not Aliens team!

[ 2025-01-17 19:05:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

With the update to version 0.8.4, we are releasing a few new features in addition to some bug fixes. In addition to a new offensive level and two Christmas stories, there are also new settings for a new game. We have split Hard Mode into smaller modes, added a few new modifications and made balancing changes.
It is now possible to select only some of the Hard Mode options. If you select all Hard Mode sub-options, the game will be slightly more difficult than before. Game saves from version 0.8.3 should be compatible with the new update, but the new stories can only occur in a new game. If you still encounter errors, you can switch back to version 0.8.3 at any time via the Steam beta. And here are the full patch notes for 0.8.4: Features:

• Added new difficulty settings, hard mode has been slightly rebalanced and divided into: - Hard times - Ailing troop - Outsider - Out of luck - Incompatible ammunition
• Added two new stories around Christmas
• Added new offensive level MG Decoy

Improvements:

• Added a bonus for Trained in first aid in Assist in the hospital
• Added a chance of mood Disgusted when failing to loot corpses

Bugfixes:

• Fixed game over in battle not working when a soldier is in the hospital in the camp
• Fixed soldiers may not automatically return even if they are in close range at the end of a battle
• Fixed some stories that deal with the death of a soldier happening for a soldier who didn't know the dead comrade
• Fixed an error when a machine gun is repositioned while it's firing
• Fixed not cleaning up the Drive away MG-troop task at the end of a battle, which leads to an error in the camp
• Fix an error happening in camp, when a soldier lost his glasses in battle and died

[ 2024-12-21 17:05:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Bugfixes:

• Fixed Trench Defend MG defensive battle level was not finishable when winning
• Fixed Sneak To Disturb MG offensive battle level optional move to area task was always returning, when failed

Balancing:

• Minor balancing adjustments in Trench Defend MG defensive battle level

[ 2024-12-14 18:35:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

Bugfixes:

• Fixed an error in Death Blamed Story that caused a certain choice to be unavailable
• Fixed a crash that could occur when some movement paths were invalid
• Fixed an error when successfully completing Recover wounded soldier in trench
• Some minor adjustments

[ 2024-12-13 17:18:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's time for the first patch, in which we've fixed a few things you've sent us! Bugfixes:

• Fixed an error that could occur after a soldier helped another soldier get rid of negative moods
• Fixed an error that occurred when loading a new level or exiting the game while the machine gun was firing
• Reduced possibility of soldiers giving first aid in awkward positions (e.g. behind a wall or above a trench)
• Hotfix for the boundary boxes of the continue button and journal
• Minor text adjustments

[ 2024-12-13 01:29:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

The time has come! The Machine Gun Update 0.8 has now been released.
The core features of this update are:

• Integration of stationary machine guns into the game
• Soldiers can be influenced by moods
• Faster and skippable cutscenes in battle
• New ways to obtain equipment in a battle
• An expanded battle map, new levels, events and stories

Some things to be aware of: 1. Saves from version 0.7.x will no longer work. However, we will continue to make version 0.7.8 available on the Steam Beta Branch for some time. 2. Please note that due to the random selection of some battle levels, it is possible to have a playthrough without specific machine gun logics. 3. Last but not least: As we won't start development on the 0.9 update until next year, we're planning a few more improvements over the next few days in addition to the usual bug fixes. And here is the list of the full patchnotes:

Patch Notes 0.8.0

Features

• Added machine gun feature: - Model MG08 and usable by two soldiers - Placed at various positions in certain levels - Can be constructed at some positions in the trench - Adds danger, stress and suppresses all visible troops in the fire cone - Can be used by the player troop, although at way less efficiency
• Added moods: - 10 new attributes that changes morale - Soldiers will get moods in several situations - Replaces the Positive- and Negative Events attributes
• Added new ways to get ammunition, bandages and grenades: - Possibility to loot dead soldiers - Possibility to loot surrendered enemies - Possible rewards when giving allied soldiers first aid
• Added new response options for Karrsbruck after a mission
• Expanded the battle map in the south-western region
• Added 6 new battle levels
• Added 7 new stories

Improvements / Adjustments

• Added the ability to bring wounded allied soldiers into cover
• Changed that separated soldiers within a certain range now always return to the troop when a battle ends (previously, e.g., a wounded soldier could go MIA by chance even if he was only in a nearby area)
• Improved battle cutscenes to run in parallel, making them generally faster
• Improved firing animations in cutscenes
• Changed cutscene camera to also highlight rifle shots and artillery impacts
• Reduced size of the black border bars in cutscenes
• Battle cutscenes now can be skipped after all NPC troop calculations are finished
• Added blood particle effect
• Added blood on uniforms for wounded soldiers
• Added 'startled soldier' animation in trench
• Improved finding positions in an area to reduce the possibility of soldiers getting stuck
• Improved selection of default movement order when not allowed to hold position in battle
• Improved looting corpses: possibility to fail depending on skill checks
• Changed sorting of notifications: new notifications now appear at the top
• Added notice from soldiers when they have shot an enemy
• Added notice from soldiers when the troop is suppressed
• Added notice from soldiers when the troop is being flanked
• Added notice when harvest starts in the village
• Small adjustments to the battle map at various points
• Changed icon for Feverish
• Some story tweaks and typo fixes
• Added 'MG08' loading screen

Balancing

• Removed restrictions on forward movement when being flanked or losing a melee battle
• Reduced the impact of artillery and grenades by adding a limit to how many soldiers can be wounded at once
• Increased the distance for a troop to be too far forward
• Increased movement range of separated soldiers (Quick soldiers can now move further than troops)
• Changed providing cover fire for separated soldiers to also increase their possible movement range
• Changed the More Rations reward to apply negative consequences to the rest of the troop immediately, and added chances of negative mood effects when more than one soldier gets more rations (to discourage rewarding all soldiers with better rations instead of increasing the rations for the troop)
• Rebalanced Karrsbruck feedback to slightly reduce the difference between winning and losing a battle
• Reduced hospital capacity decrease after a battle drastically
• Reduced chance of trench destruction while Under Artillery Fire
• Reduced the threshold for rebuild destroyed constructions task

Bugfixes

• Fixed troops sometimes getting stuck at an area when they spawn too far behind
• Fixed Panic sometimes not adding Calm Comrade project
• Fixed separated soldiers finishing First Aid resulting in one turn of Take Cover instead of directly retreating or returning to the troop
• Fixed soldiers getting stress attributes in camp when the battle ends and they are still bleeding
• Fixed consequences for Latrine, Laundry, Firewood and Remove Water projects being applied to unavailable soldiers
• Fixed soldiers that spawn at a later time in a level to not execute certain animations
• Fixed dead bodies sometimes falling through the ground
• Fixed some trench levels with incorrect artillery display
• Fixed wrong animation for soldiers returning to battle after receiving first aid
• Fixed barbed wire not throwing shadows

We wish you all a good time with the new update! Your Totally Not Aliens Team

[ 2024-12-12 17:06:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Only a few days left until the release of version 0.8! Today we would like to give you an overview of further improvements that will come with the new update. Moods With the new update, we are introducing moods that soldiers can obtain at various points in the game. They replace the previous attributes Positive Events and Negative Events.
Of course, we made sure that there are more negative moods than positive ones! From left to right: - Disappointed - Upset - Resentful - Nauseated - Shaken - Dejected - Determined - Grateful - Belonging - Relieved Moods change morale and remain for a certain period of time until they disappear naturally. A soldier can have several moods. Expanded map We have focussed on expanding the south-western area of the map, but also made some minor changes to the existing locations. We have also defined three placeable machine gun locations for Constructions.

Stories We have added a few new stories that can appear in the diary. The focus of this update was on dealing with the death of soldiers. Karrsbruck's feedback Some changes have been made to Lieutenant Karrsbruck's feedback after a battle. There are new situations and the previous situations have been slightly adapted. In general, it is now more about how you behave in the battle and less about whether the battle was won or lost (although this remains the main criteria!). Visuals Blood spatter from a wound can occur and wounded soldiers will have blood on their uniform.
Soldiers are startled, e.g. by an artillery strike.
More Further improvements are coming with the update: - Improved positioning in an area (should reduce the likelihood of multiple soldiers getting in each other's way) - Notification of soldiers when they have wounded an enemy or are suppressed - Some smaller ones, which we will then publish in the patch notes

[ 2024-12-10 18:43:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

The time has come! We can announce a release date for the Machine Gun update 0.8. It will be the 12th of December 2024. In addition, we plan not only to release bug fixes but also other minor improvements in the subsequent days before we start developing version 0.9 next year. Among other things, these patches will include more starting options, in which individual components of the hardcore mode can be selected (e.g. more exhaustion per soldier, no ammunition from French soldiers, etc.).

[ 2024-12-05 18:01:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! Version 0.8 is almost here and we would like to give you a few insights into the new gameplay with machine guns. If you haven't seen the last dev diary with the graphics yet, you can watch the showcase again here: [previewyoutube=F4IPKXhAE3I;full]All Quiet in the Trenches - MG08 Showcase for Update 0.8[/previewyoutube] For the Machine Gun Update, we have focused on the MG08, which was already in use on the German side at the beginning of the First World War. So when we talk about MG in the following, we are referring to the gameplay with the MG08. If other types of machine guns are integrated in future updates, it is of course possible that they will have different modes of operation. The MG has a longer range and a limited firing radius. When you click on a firing machine gun troop, the range is indicated by a cone of light. This does not necessarily mean that every area is affected by MG fire. As with rifle fire, all areas are tested beforehand with raycasts to see whether they can be hit at all from the respective position and it is calculated how good the cover is. If an area is completely behind a hill, for example, it is not visible to the machine gun. Each area that is under machine gun fire is therefore also marked accordingly.
MG suppresses all troops in the cone simultaneously. The logic is similar to the existing suppression system, except that all troops in range are suppressed simultaneously. This means that these troops cannot shoot or throw grenades. Furthermore, it is not possible to shoot back against MG suppression. So theres only one choice: persevere or flee? Movement under machine gun fire is dangerous. Here we were able to fall back on our existing Overwatch system. Depending on the terrain, movement distance, etc., the system simulates how dangerous the corresponding movement is.
Persevering under machine gun fire increases soldiers' stress. Continuous machine-gun fire demoralises the affected soldiers. The stress increase under machine gun fire is therefore very high. Poor cover can also be fatal.
Machine guns must be reloaded. Machine guns can fire for several turns. They then take a complete turn to be reloaded. This can be the moment to flee the danger zone. Machine guns can be repositioned. When balancing, we realised that all these brutal effects are useless if you simply stay out of range of the machine gun. The possible angle of rotation of the gun on the mount is limited by the mount, so we built in the ability to slightly move a machine gun in the same area. This is not possible at every position and the possible positions are predefined. Such an action also takes an entire game turn.
Machine guns can also be used by your own troop. In the First World War, there were specially trained machine gun troops. However, in situations where your own troops occupy a machine gun position, we thought it would be useful to at least allow interaction with it. We therefore decided that firing with a machine gun is allowed for non-specialised troops, but is associated with greater obstacles. This makes firing much less effective and can lead to jamming, for example, which has to be fixed.
New levels have been designed. New levels have been designed for battles with the MG, which can occur randomly after the introduction is completed and are primarily centred around MG positions. We have slightly increased the chance of these new levels for update 0.8 and will lower it again with update 0.9. This means that although it is unlikely, you may not run into a battle centred around machine guns in a playthrough until home leave.

[ 2024-11-30 15:39:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! Today we would like to show you the graphics, animations and particle effects of the machine gun that will come with the Machine Gun Update 0.8 (planned for early December). The machine gun is modelled after the heavy MG 08. For the gameplay in the early years of the war, we wanted a stationary machine gun, which most closely resembles the weaponry used by the Germans, since the light MG 08/15 was not distributed until 1917. A stationary machine gun also has the advantage of creating more points of interest in the gameplay. The MG 08, which weighed over 60 kg (133 lbs) with cooling water and mount and was therefore too heavy for its infantry to follow on foot, was well suited for these purposes. We plan to tell you more about the gameplay in another Dev Diary. In this Dev Diary, we want to give you a brief impression and have therefore put together a video: [previewyoutube=F4IPKXhAE3I;full]All Quiet in the Trenches - MG08 Showcase for Update 0.8[/previewyoutube]

[ 2024-11-15 15:58:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

106 years ago today, on November 11, 1918, the Armistice of Compigne was signed in the early morning hours, which silenced the guns a few hours later, at 11 o'clock, and heralded the end of the First World War. This was preceded by more than four years of endless bloodshed. In some countries, such as the United States, France, Belgium and many Commonwealth countries, today is a special day of remembrance for the fallen of the First World War. In Germany, today is not a national day of remembrance, but November 17th is this year's Volkstrauertag ('people's mourning day'), which is intended to remember the victims of violence and war of all nations. This day is also a special one for us personally. We started developing All Quiet in the Trenches about seven years ago. It was supposed to be a small, short game about the First World War that we wanted to release on November 11, 2018. 100 years after the end of the First World War. However, after the first prototypes and playtests, we realized that we wanted to delve deeper into the subject matter, both narratively and mechanically, and give the game more time and space to develop in order to do justice to the complex issues and their impact on all involved. So it has been with us for many years now and will continue to be so for years to come. Nevertheless: Without the original idea of making a game for the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, All Quiet in the Trenches would probably never have existed. We plan to release the next major update at the beginning of December.

[ 2024-11-11 12:20:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! For version 0.8, we have made changes to the cutscenes in the battle. The new system offers us new possibilities for further features and for balancing the levels. The new cutscenes are generally completed faster and can also be skipped once the NPC troop calculation is complete. What has been changed?
The situation is as follows: Troop I moves from A to B. Troop II then throws a hand grenade at the new position B, causing a soldier from Troop I to flee to position C. Troop III then moves to position C and captures this soldier. The calculations for the NPC troops are turn-based, so all this happens in a single cutscene. Due to the way the individual events were linked, the NPC troops' calculations were previously paused in certain situations (e.g. when a hand grenade was thrown and a soldier's position changed) until the in-game display caught up. This was the easiest way for us to implement and didn't pose a problem prior to version 0.7, as such links occurred very rarely. However, with the introduction of melee combat and the revision of the grenade mechanic, the cutscenes sometimes became very long, which is why we decided to write a completely new system for them. With the new system, the display is completely decoupled from the logic. Actions, movements, injuries and other value changes now take place in the background. All these things are then forwarded to a system that progressively processes the actions in the display. This not only results in a better and clearer code structure, but also makes it possible to skip the cutscene once the calculations are complete. Furthermore, the cutscenes are also faster because events that occur independently of each other are played in parallel.
The gear symbol in the bottom right corner indicates that calculations are still being carried out. If it is no longer displayed, the cutscene can be skipped by pressing the ESC key. The new system also offers us further possibilities: Previously, if a soldier was wounded by a rifle shot, we had no proper display for this in order to avoid further chaining and thus slowing down the time between rounds. So far, the soldier has walked to his target position and played his wounding animation there. We have found that this automatically led to the effectiveness of, for example, overwatch being rated as too low, because it was often not clear what exactly the consequences were. With the new system, we can now better depict such moments.
From version 0.8 onwards, rifle shots will be assigned directly to a specific soldier and displayed accordingly. Furthermore, the new system now allows us to do a text-based simulation of a battle in the engine to better balance the individual levels. This involves replacing the player group with a NPC troop and running through a level multiple times at the push of a button. This allows us to see which levels have one-sided odds and adjust them again. The rework of the cutscenes was not originally planned for 0.8, but arose from the frequently expressed feedback to be able to skip cutscenes. We are looking forward to your feedback on the new system!

[ 2024-10-27 14:00:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

Bugfixes:

• Fixed an occasion where escorting soldiers would never return to the troop
• Fixed separated soldiers not regenerating physical exertion (a hidden value that causes the 'Out of breath' attribute and increasing exhaustion per turn)
• Fixed that soldiers that are already retreated still can get wounded by artillery

Balancing:

• Influence of the number of active soldiers in melee increased
• Influence of morale in melee combat slightly decreased

[ 2024-10-09 14:40:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! Work on the Machine Gun update has been underway for a while now. Today we would like to introduce you to a feature that will be added with version 0.8: It will be possible to obtain equipment from dead, wounded or captured soldiers.

Search corpses

If you are in the same area as a fallen soldier, you can search their corpse for ammunition, bandages or grenades.
As part of this, we have made a small change to the relevant personalities. Previously, a jaded soldier had a small bonus over a compassionate soldier when searching corpses in terms of the amount of equipment obtained.
We changed that so instead there is now a chance that soldiers can fail a body search (a very jaded soldier will always make it).

Search prisoners

It will be possible to search captured soldiers via a dialogue option. We have considered whether it should be possible to obtain ammunition from French soldiers, as it is probably not compatible with German rifles. In this case, we opted for gameplay instead of realism. On the one hand, because we haven't made any distinction between ammunition boxes, rucksacks etc. in the enemy trenches so far, but also because of the possible tactical component of being able to take an enemy position when ammunition is scarce.

First aid for allies

We have also implemented the possibility that caring for wounded allied soldiers can lead to them leaving some of their remaining equipment with the troops.

[ 2024-10-05 10:18:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

Bugfixes:

• Fixed endless cutscene when ending a turn in battle very quickly
• Fixed "treat fever" not working
• Minor changes to checks on whether a soldier is stuck while moving

[ 2024-10-04 14:27:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

We have got an increasing number of reports in the last few days that the game can get stuck in the cutscenes during the battle. As the 0.8 update will take a while longer, we wanted to release a quick fix for this. As always: Thank you for your reports! Improvements:

• Faster melee combat cutscene

Bugfixes:

• Prevented the possibility of getting stuck in a cutscene during melee combat
• Prevented soldiers in hospital can have an exclamation for not digging latrine
• Hotfix for an error when not digging latrine and all soldiers are unavailable after battle

[ 2024-09-30 11:58:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Unless something goes wrong, this will be the last minor patch before we start working on the Machine Gun update. As always, thank you very much for your feedback and bug reports! Improvements:

• Improved selection of first aid positions
• Soldiers will put down their rifles when giving first aid or looting

Bugfixes:

• Fixed a bug where soldiers who broke orders (e.g. avenging a comrade) or panicked would sometimes be counted as 'unavailable' for the rest of the game, which could lead to various strange situations
• Fixed a bug with notifications when the number of soldiers exceeds eight
• Fixed a rare error that could occur when exiting to the start menu
• Fixed a possibility where soldiers can get stuck in a wall
• Fixed Troop Danger UI element that pops up briefly at the start of a new turn
• Fixed an issue where the rifle would sometimes be rotated incorrectly in the soldier's hand when picked up again

[ 2024-09-03 11:39:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Unfortunately, a bug has crept in that we wanted to fix as quickly as possible. Bugfixes:

• Fixed that separated soldiers escorting wounded soldiers do not move

[ 2024-08-19 17:30:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

We will be exhibiting All Quiet in the Trenches at the Indie Arena at Gamescom from next week. So with 0.7.3, we are now bringing a few improvements to the battle, as well as the first two tutorial levels, in addition to further bug fixes. We wish you a continued good experience! Improvements / Changes:

• Added a new UI element that shows the danger of rifle fire when changing troop actions or providing cover fire
• Improved system for determining whether a soldier is on an area or the open field
• New tasks are now slightly highlighted until you click on them
• Several balancing and display changes in the tutorial levels
• Removed the requirement to exceed a certain danger level for cover fire
• Allowed 'Tactical Movement' in addition to 'Retreat' when flanked
• Prevented 'panic' when troops are in melee or flank positions (too many sources of error for now)
• Increased aggressiveness of the French NPC troops in the 'Defence into Attack' battle
• Some minor NPC behaviour balancing in battles
• Some minor map adjustments regarding movement paths
• Improvements to highlight camera
• Increased turn rates for soldiers by a bit
• Increased fire rate for suppression and flanking
• Adjusted rifle fire target positions
• Added a small trail for rifle fire
• Changed professions for Kohn and Mencke (we went over the information of all the soldiers, as we are printing small cards with the soldiers for Gamescom)
• Increased Pedersen starting fitness

Bugfixes:

• Hotfix for the possibility of getting stuck when forced to move (we'll think of a better solution at some point)
• Fixed a rare occasion where NPC troops would get stuck in an area and never move
• Fixed inability to loot in a specific area
• Fixed problem where separated soldiers would sometimes be shown in wrong areas
• Fixed weird camera behaviour when all currently moving soldiers become separated or wounded
• Fixed display of wrong attributes when troop position changes due to having no active soldiers
• Fixed grenades sometimes rotate when still hold in hand
• Fixed new soldiers not appearing in project detail window when acquired via Karrsbruck favor
• Fixed wrong text when hovering over flanking action
• Fixed that the tutorial window overlaps the notification for a task
• Fixed soldier name not being displayed correctly in 'Eating Rats' story (EN)

[ 2024-08-18 14:53:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

The second patch for 0.7 comes with even more bug fixes. Many thanks for the detailed reports you send us! Bugfixes:

• Fixed an error that could occur when an NPC troop tried to loot in an impassable area
• Fixed an error in the 'Friendly Fire' level that could occur, when enemy reinforcements arrive
• Fixed an error that occurred when there were not enough hospital beds available
• Fixed possibility of getting stuck when your last soldier panics and you are forced to move
• Fixed two phase changes triggering at the same time at the start of 'Home Leave' scenario
• Fixed soldiers staying MIA when they aren't anymore (e.g. when their death has been confirmed)
• Fixed collapse attribute claiming Nurse Elisabeth is grateful for it, when she's actually unhappy about it
• Fixed recovery attributes being added to MIA soldiers
• Added relevant attribute displays to Take Cover project in Mission (e.g. soldiers who are out of breath)
• Fixed tooltip for Lusitiana and added a missing translation

[ 2024-08-06 14:42:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

We're happy to announce that our second major update is now available!
It focusses on the battle phase in the game and has the following core features:

• Overhaul of all battle systems: Gunfire, melee and grenade throwing
• Improvements to NPC troop behaviour logic
• Improved balancing in the battle phase
• Better display of certain effects and more detailed tooltips
• Some new animations and improved battle camera cutscenes

If you would like to find out more about the individual features, you can take a look at our Dev Diaries, which we published in advance: Dev Diary - Changes in the battle Dev Diary - Melee combat and grenade reworks Dev Diary - Visual improvements in battle And here is the list of the full patchnotes: Features:

• Added new close combat system: Melee combat will automatically occur when troops move within a certain threshold of an enemy troop, defeated troops will have to move out of the 'close combat zone'
• Added new suppression system: It's possible to target a single enemy troop, suppressed troops cannot give fire orders or throw grenades
• Added new flanking system: Flanked troops are forced to reposition
• Added new cover fire system: It's now possible to cover your own troops when they move
• Added the possibility of soldiers getting wounded in the field and a project to bring wounded soldiers into your cover
• Added two new game-over options: Losing all your soldiers on the battlefield, or having only one soldier when surrounded by enemies
• Added animations for close combat, throwing grenades and being wounded
• Added highlighted scenes to the cutscene camera in battle: The camera will pan to melee combat or grenade scenes when they are near
• Added three new journal illustrations

Improvements / Adjustments:

• Reworked NPC troop behaviour to adapt the new changes
• Improved NPC troop behaviour to have an aggression multiplier: The more turns played in a battle, the more aggressive they will be
• Improved NPC troop behaviour to look for more ways into a target trench (and therefore move horizontally more often)
• Improved NPC troop behaviour to adjust their strategy more on behalf of other troops (e.g. if only a few troops are firing, they are more likely to do so)
• Changed being able to wound the last remaining soldier of a troop
• Reworked impact system: Multiple impacts from different sources are now possible
• Reworked troop actions: Hold position now includes all other troop actions that are not movements
• Reworked overwatch: Project is limited to two soldiers with higher efficiency
• Reworked throwing grenades: A distinction is made if the grenade hits, partially misses or completely misses
• Added several projects in battles to be displayed in 3D space
• Changed displays in 3D space to be a bit smaller
• Changed effect displays for projects to be easier to understand
• Added new attribute tooltips: they now highlight the primary effects
• Reworked danger display: The danger from gunfire is now better displayed in the troop action info window, removed all other danger sources
• Reworked UI troop info displays: They only show the most important attribute, and now also show the current fire actions instead of the last troop action
• Changed UI troop info displays, so that they don't appear when the corresponding troop is out of sight
• Improved UI troop info displays, so they don't overlap anymore
• Adjusted some project and attribute icons
• Improved soldier movement slightly
• Improved cutscene camera in general
• Adjusted tutorial slightly to cover the new changes

Balancing:

• Rebalanced every battle level to adapt to the new changes
• Increased the number of turns it takes to decide whether a battle is lost or won
• Increased the playable distance in each level and the distance to get 'Outside the formation' or 'Too far forward'
• Increased movement distance slightly, but limited the distance being able to advance
• Increased cover impact on firepower
• Changed attribute 'Narrow cover' so that suppression is impossible from there
• Changed attribute 'Bushes' so there can be no suppression there.
• Rebalanced ammunition usage
• Rebalanced stress gain / reduction to be less dependent on danger and more on attributes
• Rebalanced the decisive soldier traits for specific projects in combat
• Rebalanced all chances of impact from danger sources
• Increased wound intensity for non-player soldiers: they will take slightly more serious wounds and bleed faster
• Increased morale penalty for running out of provisions

Bugfixes:

• Fixed a number of bugs and errors when reworking the Battle Phase, which may have resulted in other bugs and errors ...
• Fixed scattered soldiers sometimes moving in advance direction
• Fixed being able to move onto an area with a troop with zero active soldiers
• Changed troops without remaining active soldiers to be moved to retreat territory
• Fixed 'Bunker panic' story being able to trigger for every soldier
• Fixed 'Bad work' dialogue adding fear directly when choosing the topic
• Fixed typo in Camp_Cherries story (EN)

Please note that saves from the 0.6.X version will no longer work. However, we will continue to make version 0.6.2 available in the Steam Beta Branch for quite some time. We wish you all a good time with the new update! Your Totally Not Aliens Team

[ 2024-07-31 16:19:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! In today's Dev Diary we write about the visual features that shall come with version 0.7. We plan to release the 0.7 Battle Update on Wednesday, 31 July.

Information on attributes and values

We have slightly revised the display of projects. In future, a red arrow (for negative changes) or a green arrow (for positive changes) in different intensity levels will communicate the changes in the completion of a project. A die indicates that there is only a chance of an impact or that the intensity is variable.
In addition, the tooltips of the attributes show which other attributes or values are primarily affected.

Animations and other improvements

A few new animations have been added. We've also improved the movement of the soldiers in battle, so hopefully they'll get stuck less often.

Improvement of the cutscene camera

Last but not least, we have reworked the camera settings in battle so that they show a little more of the action. When certain actions take place in the immediate vicinity of the troops (initially only melee combat and grenades), the camera now also captures these.

[ 2024-07-28 19:42:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! We are nearing the end of the development phase for the Battle Update. We're doing our best to release it by the end of this month. But before that, we'd like to introduce you to a few selected changes we've been working on over the last few weeks:

More buttons

Commands such as cut barbed wire, loot crates and a few more are now displayed in the 3D view. This not only helps to keep the bar on the left-hand side clearer, but above all allows us to improve the future map design: For example, we always had to make sure that only one barbed wire was available to cut per area, otherwise it wasn't clear which barbed wire it was.
The areas where you can search for ammunition are now also highlighted with a button.

Changes to melee combat

It was a bit complicated to find a suitable system that simulates close combat. We wanted to avoid situations in which enemy troops face each other in close proximity for several rounds. A direct attack should be possible by surprise. Nevertheless, we needed certain signs to indicate the dangers in advance. On the one hand, close combat should be as brutal and unpredictable as possible, but on the other hand the risks should remain manageable. If more than half of the troops lie injured on the ground after a single action, frustration is inevitable. We hope that we have struck the right balance with the current system! As before, if you are within a certain range of an enemy troop, you will be shown that you are now in melee range. This means that melee combat can break out at any time. The big difference to before is that the range is now much greater (about the same as the range at which you could throw grenades before). If a troop moves too close to an enemy troop, close combat is automatically triggered. The result is simulated, whereby the number of possible wounds is limited. However, the "loser" is forced to retreat, similar to the flanking we discussed in the last Dev Diary. This means that the lost position must be recaptured in the following rounds, in order to save the missing soldiers. In the process, however, we have built in the fact that soldiers can now be wounded anywhere on the map and can therefore sometimes lie without cover in no man's land. Previously, a soldier could only be located in a specific area.
This move will automatically result in close combat.

Bringing wounded soldiers into cover

In these situations, it is now possible to have wounded soldiers brought into your own cover on the open field. However, this can be quite dangerous, as the soldier can also be shot on the open field.
Pedersen was critically wounded in close combat and can now be taken into your own cover.

Changes to the grenades

The grenades now have a slightly longer range. We have also revised the underlying system. Instead of more or less just simulating the number of wounded, a distinction is now made as to whether a grenade hits directly, explodes near the target or misses the target completely. You are now also informed about the outcome of a grenade throw.
"Don't worry, Mayel. It was only our last grenade..."

New game over options

As some of you may have noticed, there is currently a restriction: the last soldier in a squad is invulnerable. This will no longer be the case with the new update. However, this also means that a sudden game over can occur as soon as all soldiers in a squad are incapacitated. We have written two new stories for this purpose.

[ 2024-07-15 17:47:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! Over the last few months, we have made a number of changes to the battle based on your feedback. Today, we would like to give you a few details about the upcoming changes that will be released with the 0.7 Battle Update. All Quiet in the Trenches is a game that is somewhere between strategy, role-playing and simulation. We want to retain the simulative aspect, especially in the battle, because we believe that it is better suited to creating in-depth experiences. However, we also found that the previous approach was perhaps a little too simulative, lacking transparency and with too little opportunity for direct influence. We have tried to restructure the battle phase so that the player has more influence on what happens, the effects are more direct, but we have still retained the previous feel and the simulation aspect.

Danger display

When selecting a troop action, we have revised the danger display. The danger caused by artillery, enemy hand grenades and possible close combat no longer plays a role in the displayed danger level. The danger level is now only calculated from the various "gunfire" commands. In the previous version, we tried to somehow summarise the various dangers, which was quite complicated and obscure, as other factors also played a role in addition to the probability of an event, such as the number of soldiers potentially affected (moving with fewer soldiers was less dangerous), the intensity of the injury (artillery had a higher chance of causing serious injuries), etc. In the future, the danger level will precisely reflect the probability of an injury, and the new system also gives us the opportunity to explain the individual hazards in more detail.
This movement action becomes dangerous because of four of the French troops. Troops III and IV contribute more to the danger. In addition, troop III suppresses our position.

Troop Actions

The troop actions Rally and Suppress have been removed. This means that there is now only one action per area. If the troop is to remain in the same position, there is now only Hold.

Command: Take Cover

The Take Cover command, which was previously only available via the Gather troop action, is now the default command for Hold. If a soldier remains in cover, the displayed danger from rifle fire is irrelevant to him.

Command: Fire on sight

The Fire on Sight command is carried out by two soldiers. It allows the entire battlefield to be monitored with minimal ammunition consumption. The command combines and replaces the previous General Suppression and Monitor Routes commands.

Command: Suppress

The new Suppress command can now be used to suppress any enemy unit.
The icons in the 3D interface were introduced in the last update for the constructions and now allow many different commands without cluttering up the display on the left side. Suppression requires three soldiers and uses a lot of ammunition. In return, the target receives the suppressed attribute. If you are suppressed, you cannot give any fire orders. However, you can shoot back, which can be very dangerous. The team that wins the firefight is evaluated. The losing side is suppressed, while the other side receives the fire superiority attribute, which, among other bonuses, prevents further suppression for one round.

Command: Fire from the flank

This was already there, but we wanted to have a more comprehensible system here as well. The flanked troop receives the Scattered attribute and individual soldiers flee to nearby cover. In addition, this troop must retreat in the next round in order to slowly regroup its soldiers.
The troop was flanked in the last turn, which is why there are only a few options for retreating.

Command: Provide covering fire

Cover fire for allied troops will be removed. Since it is possible to suppress any troop, this would only conflict with this and make the suppression system less valuable. Instead, it will now be possible to provide cover fire when moving your own troops. To do this, two soldiers are assigned to stay behind during the movement. They reduce the danger for all moving soldiers, but must return to their unit on their own in the next round. Cover fire for individual, separated soldiers will continue to exist!

Cover

The level of cover will play an even greater role. Good cover not only lowers the danger level, but also increases firepower. The level of cover plays an enormous role, especially in direct firefights (suppression).

Troop display

The troop displays have been revised. We have noticed that the large amount of information is given little to no attention. This is partly because it was not important enough in the past, as there were rarely direct interactions with the troops, but also because there was simply too much information at once. With the next update, we will only display the most important attribute for each troop. Normally, this will be the level of cover. However, if a troop is suppressed or scattered, this will be displayed instead. In addition, all important commands will be displayed instead of the last troop action. So if a troop has two of its soldiers in Fire on Sight and three soldiers in Suppression, these two commands will be displayed.
A much more compact overview: Troop IV is in a level 2 cover, suppressing an enemy troop from there and also assigning soldiers to monitor the entire area. Troop III is suppressed, which is why its level of cover currently plays a lesser role. However, clicking on the flag button will still reveal all the information. Additional arrows indicate the positions affected by the respective command.
The arrows indicate that Troop VII is suppressing Troop V.

Conclusion

In our opinion, it is now much easier to make strategic decisions. The changes mentioned so far now also allow for new situations: For example, if an allied troop is on the flank of an enemy, it is now possible to suppress the enemy troop directly, allowing the allied troop to change its cover. The more precise breakdown of the dangers makes it easier to assess where the danger is coming from. For example, if a troop is responsible for the high danger, which would have to retreat soon anyway, it is easier to decide to hold out for another round in the cover before advancing.
The only danger at the moment is from Troop III. Since they are a little too far forward in the offensive, it is quite possible that they will retreat in the near future. Since certain characteristics, such as scattered, force a troop to retreat, it is also easier to control the battle. Troops that remain in one position forever despite flanking are a thing of the past! But that's not all: We are also planning changes to the melee system, hand grenades, troop behaviour and much more. More on that in one of the next dev diaries. We plan to release the battle update in July.

[ 2024-06-22 12:00:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! The Games Baked in Germany Event is now taking place and All Quiet in the Trenches is there with a 10% discount! Take a look and don't miss out on the great, exciting variety of other games developed in Germany. We are planning to release the next update of All Quiet in the Trenches in July. We'll tell you more about it this weekend in the next Dev Diary :)

[ 2024-06-20 18:19:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! It's been a little over a month since the Trench Update and we can tell you that the next update will be for the Battle Phase! We have a lot of features and changes planned, which we will tell you about in the Dev Diaries in the near future. But first something personal: We are a small, familial dev team. Jenny and Carola are siblings, Alex is Jenny's partner and Julian is a good friend of ours. When tragic things happen, it affects us all in some way. Unfortunately, something like this happened a few weeks ago and someone very close to us passed away unexpectedly and far too young. This has hit us all hard and made it very difficult to work over the last few weeks. We all needed time to come to terms with it. And now that most of us are back to work, we realise how much pressure we are under to release a new update as soon as possible. As there was a lot of content planned for the Battle Update (more work than the Trench Update), we're going to split it into two parts to take some of the pressure off our shoulders. We plan to split the update as follows: 0.7 Battle Update The new battle update is planned to essentially include major changes to the game design of the battle phase, some new animations, adjustments to the NPC troop logic and more detailed tooltips. Many of the changes are based on your feedback and are intended to make the battle phase more comprehensible and direct. 0.8 Machine Gun Update The outsourced part of the Battle Update is planned to be be moved to the Machine Gun Update. This is planned to add the machine gun, an expanded map, new levels, events and stories to the battle phase. All other updates in the roadmap will then move up one step. We have also adjusted this in our roadmap. To help us with the stories, Marie is also joining our team and will take over some of the writing from now on. She was previously on board for a short time as part of her studies and we are delighted to have her back. We hope you can understand our decision and wish you many more interesting experiences with All Quiet in the Trenches.

[ 2024-05-20 13:12:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Second round of bugfixes! Bugfixes:

• Fixed an error that occurred when a soldier working on the "Deliver Message" project was wounded or collapsed
• Fixed an error that sometimes occurred when a soldier collapsed while the project window was open
• Fixed an error that could occur when allied troops had a start area in battle that was destroyed by artillery
• Fixed two constructions that didn't provide a movable area (and were therefore useless)
• Fixed collapsed soldiers still being visible in the trench phase
• Removed a non-existent historical tooltip
• Fixed some typos

[ 2024-04-07 22:24:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hotfixes for the new update that address the most common bugs, that were reported to us. Bugfixes:

• Fixed an error when opening task window in the first battle
• Possible fix for an error that sometimes occurred at the start of a battle and prevented the game from continuing (let us know if this bug still persists)
• Fixed typos

[ 2024-04-05 09:35:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Two and a half month after our initial release we can announce that our first major update is now available!
It focusses on the trench phase in the game and has the following core features:

• Building/repairing selected defences, barbed wire, ladders, bridges
• Longer Trench phases with new tasks, projects and additional features
• New trench areas and new defensive and offensive battles
• New stories inside and outside the Trench
• Expansion of the map
• General revision and improvement of existing content

If you would like to find out more about the individual features, you can take a look at our Dev Diaries, which we published in advance: Dev Diary - Constructions Dev Diary - Improving the Trench Phase
And here is the list of the full patchnotes: Features:

• Added construction feature in trench levels with 35 construction projects
• Added the possibility of constructions being destroyed by artillery fire or skirmishes during the trench phase
• Added two lieutenant tasks related to constructions
• Added two new trench levels
• Added four new defensive battle levels
• Added two new offensive battle levels
• Added 7 new stories
• Added new lieutenant and soldier projects and short event chains in the trench phase
• Added new trench artillery barrage system: soldiers have to be "convinced" to go out under artillery fire
• Added the option to send exhausted soldiers back to camp for a few days
• Added an option to ask Lieutenant von Karrsbruck for a new soldier
• Expanded the map to include south-eastern regions and reworked some existing regions

Improvements:

• Trench levels now have a variable length and can get even longer
• Soldiers can now also collapse in the trench phase when they are too exhausted
• Added a new dialogue option when a character has other "!" information available
• Reworked prestige/mood icon
• Project user interface now shrinks, when there are many open projects
• Added some more information when trying to get soldiers out of locked projects or when trying to put soldiers into locked or full projects
• The location of choices in the journal is now randomised
• Adapted the first tutorial trench level to use the new systems (for construction and artillery barrage)
• Added a few more tutorial steps
• Added new icons for soldier healing status
• Text tooltips are now also displayed in dialogue and project descriptions

Balancing:

• One camp turn now lasts 10 days instead of 12 (resulting in more camp turns until home leave)
• Slightly increased chance of being sent to a trench in camp instead of an offensive battle
• Minor battle balancing (battles should last a bit longer)
• Lieutenant's "Ask for favor" dialogue now only costs prestige if he grants you a favour (previously, refusing could also cost prestige)

Bugfixes:

• Fixed a possible error in game-over window
• Fixed some pathfinding errors
• Fixed "Defend into Attack" battle being rated as a defensive mission
• Fixed battles that never ended
• Fixed one trench level being selected more often than the others
• Various minor bugfixes
• Fixed some typos

Others:

• New loading screen added
• Various text adjustments
• Added some more historical tooltips
• Removed grain post-processing in heat waves (didn't look good)

Please note that saves from the 0.5.X version will no longer work. However, we will continue to make version 0.5.6 available in the Steam Beta Branch for quite some time. We're also taking part in #TurnBasedThursdayFest, which starts tonight at 7pm CEST. During the festival, we'll be giving a small discount on All Quiet in the Trenches. We wish you all a good time with the new update! Your Totally Not Aliens Team

[ 2024-04-04 14:49:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! Today the #TurnBasedThursdayFest on Steam begins. We're taking part and giving a 10 % discount on All Quiet in the Trenches. Feel free to also check out the many other fantastic games at the fest! On this occassion, we're releasing our first major update later today: the Trench update 0.6!

[ 2024-04-04 11:28:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello again, in today's Dev Diary, we would like to take a closer look at the additional changes that will be coming with the next update.

Artillery fire

We thought about how we could make artillery fire in the trench phase more interesting. Until now, the probability of being injured during a bombardment was higher. We wanted to make it so that you have to carefully weigh up whether to fulfil a task or not. If we had simply made artillery fire even more dangerous, this would not have had the desired effect. With the new update, all soldiers are now locked during heavy artillery fire in the "Hole up in the bunker" project. If a soldier has to fulfil a task because, for example, food or ammunition supplies are running low, you have to deal with him... and, if necessary, force him to leave the safety of the bunker. Of course, this has personal consequences...

Longer phases

With the additional content, we have decided to tweak the balancing a little and at the same time ensure a slightly longer game experience. On average, the troops will be sent to the trenches more often and a turn in the camp will now only last 10 days instead of the previous 12 days (which means there are more game turns overall). A battle will also last a little longer until one side is ordered to retreat. In addition, the phases in the trenches are slightly longer on average. Sometimes longer than expected...

Send to camp

Spending more time in the trenches? Have we then reduced the general exhaustion of the soldiers? No! On the contrary, new circumstances have been added that can put even more strain on the soldiers... In addition, it is now also possible for them to collapse from exhaustion during the trench phase. However, it will be possible to send exhausted soldiers back to the camp. There they can recover a little and come back after a few days. In the meantime, they will not be able to perform any other tasks, and if the enemy launches an attack, they will of course not be available...

What more is there?

The old user interface for the reputation with superiors / mood of the soldiers was not understandable for some. We decided to make it a little simpler in order and emphasise the most important elements.
We have implemented an additional dialogue option if a character has several "!" at once. This makes it quicker to collect the countless orders when your trust in Lieutenant von Karrsbruck is on the line.

[ 2024-03-30 19:48:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

In today's Dev Diary, we would like to take a closer look at the "Construction" feature that will be coming with Trench Update 0.6. An important aspect that we would like to expand in the gameplay is the ability to complete optional tasks that not only have a direct impact, but also a potential long-term change. In our initial release version in the tutorial, there was already an option to rebuild a destroyed position. A feature that we did not take up again afterwards... Until now!
"Constructions" are individual areas in the trench, such as defences, barbed wire or ladders. During the trench phase, certain positions may be destroyed by artillery. This may mean that defensive positions in the battle can no longer be manned, that certain routes in the trench become impassable or that the enemy has an opening into the trenches. These areas can then be repaired by your troops.
In addition, some new, defined areas of the trench can be optionally extended. Ladders enable further retreat options, barbed wire directly in front of the trench prevents rapid infiltration. If sufficient capacity is available, new positions can even be built.
We have therefore decided to install new camera zones in the trench phase. This provides a better overview of the trench. The optional projects can be added from there in the left-hand bar. We first want to see how this feature is received. With the release of 0.6 there will therefore be 35 "Constructions" for the time being.
We have also added 2 new trench levels. These are not only a visual component, but also have an influence on which "constructions" are possible. They also change the starting positions in the event of an enemy attack.

[ 2024-03-26 19:45:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

Two months have passed since our early access release version 0.5. Today we are happy to announce the next major update: Version 0.6 will be the "Trench Update" and will focus on the Trench Phase. Attentive observers will know that this update was not previously included in the roadmap on our homepage. As indicated in our last post, the positive response to the game allows us to add further updates in addition to those already announced. We are very happy about this. The Trench Update is one of them!

What will be included in the Trench Update?

• Building/repairing selected defences, barbed wire, ladders, bridges
• Longer Trench phases with new tasks, projects and additional features
• New trench areas and new defensive and offensive battles
• New stories inside and outside the Trench
• Expansion of the map
• General revision and improvement of existing content

What about the Battle Update?

The Battle Update is moving down one position and is currently planned as the next major update. You can see the adjusted order on our homepage: https://totallynotaliens.com/aqitt#roadmap For the following reasons, we thought it made more sense to start with the Trench update: The Trench phase has received the least attention in our development so far. We have realised that there is still a lot of potential here. With all the things we had originally planned for the Battle Update, the additional features we wanted to implement and the feedback we received, the Battle Update has also become very large. We didn't want to run the risk of needing half a year for the first update in the worst case, which is why it was logical for us to spread the update out. A not insignificant part, especially in terms of map design, but also a few features, is therefore already included in the Trench update

What are we planning for further development?

We have also swapped the Gas Update with the Soldiers Update in our roadmap. On the one hand, because we want to ensure that the period up to 1917 is playable earlier. Secondly, we realised that it simply makes more sense: when soldiers acquire new characteristics and abilities during the course of the war, you also want to see their effects over a longer period of time. We very much hope that these adjustments are in your interest and will enrich your gaming experience. In the future, the roadmap may continue to change depending on current circumstances or feedback, for example by adding new points, swapping updates or splitting them into several parts. As previously announced, this should never lead to something being cancelled, but only happen if it means more content can be added to the game. We also estimated the development period in Early Access to be 1-2 years before release. Now that we are able to build additional content for the game, we are changing the time frame to ~2 years.

When will the Trench Update be released?

We can't give a firm date yet, but we are planning for an early April release. Most of it is already implemented. We want to add a few more things and then take some time for bugfixing and polishing.

[ 2024-03-17 16:35:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

With this small patch, we are fixing a few bugs that have been reported to us. We are still working hard on version 0.6 and expect to be ready to give you some news in the next few weeks! Improvements:

• Improved generated escape path when surrounded by enemies in battle

Bugfixes:

• Fixed an error in battle that occurred when calculating a path that was too long
• Fixed weird camera behaviour in battle when escorting a wounded soldier to hospital very close to the rear trench

Other:

• Removed the email button, as it didn't work on the Steam Deck (only a handful of people contacted us by email anyway)
• Some minor camera adjustments

[ 2024-02-15 14:03:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! We've started to work on 0.6.0! To ease the wait, we thought about giving everyone who has already played the game and wants to start a new playthrough the option of a new and harder experience. That's why we're introducing the new "Hard Mode (Experimental)", which can be selected when starting a new game. Why experimental? This mode includes some tweaks to the game's economy. We haven't done a lot of testing with this mode and we don't know if we'll keep it (in this form). So please feel free to give us your feedback when you've played it! This patch also includes some other improvements and bug fixes. You can see the complete changelog here: Features:

• Added "Hard Mode (Experimental)" game setting: Affects the starting morale and fitness of your soldiers, the reputation of your superiors, the capacity of the hospital, the supplies of the quartermaster and in the village, the consumption of rations, exhaustion, the trust and respect of your soldiers, the supply of ammunition and equipment, the chance of having to fight after being in the trench, as well as a modifier that causes your soldiers to receive more severe wounds on average and to bleed to death faster

Improvements:

• Added a save popup warning when exiting the game
• Added a soldier alert when running out of ammo in melee combat
• Added some soldier alerts for panic / calming project

Balancing:

• Slightly increased the chance of survival for the wounded soldier rescued from no-man's-land during the trench phase
• Slightly reduced the maximum time it takes to get a guaranteed replacement for a lost soldier
• Increased chance of soldiers being able to fight again after being wounded in battle
• Slightly increased chance of desertion and mutiny
• Prevented the lieutenant from scolding the player for coming out of a battle without a scratch when soldiers are missing in action
• Added some negative impacts when soldiers get imprisoned
• Minor rebalancing of panic in battle

Bugfixes:

• Fixed inability to continue the turn due to movement restrictions in rare circumstances in battle
• Prevented the last soldier of your troop in battle from being forced into a locked project (e.g. panic)
• Fixed soldiers sometimes being positioned incorrectly in battle
• Fixed the currently selected action in battle not being highlighted in the UI at the start of the turn
• Fixed overlapping phase changes when Home Leave scenario is triggered
• Fixed an error in desertion story
• Some text adjustments / fixed typos

As always: If for some reason your current savegame doesn't work, you can always revert back to version 0.5.4 on the Steam beta branch.

[ 2024-01-29 16:06:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's now been a week since we released All Quiet in the Trenches in Early Access. We'd like to briefly look back at how things went for us and look ahead at what's to come. In the last 7 days, almost 3500 people have bought the game and 90% of your ratings were positive. This is a great acchievement for us, especially since we are a very small indie studio - without a publisher and marketing budget. Thank you very much for your support and trust! It is not a given to buy a game in Early Access. Your constructive feedback also helps us a lot. It allows us to identify what is already working well and what we can potentially improve. We have created a roadmap in advance to help you assess what content we want to add to the game during Early Access: https://totallynotaliens.com/aqitt#roadmap This roadmap has deliberately been kept short so that we can hopefully implement everything in it, regardless of the game's future success. Based on current developments, it looks like we will be able to add a few additional points to the roadmap. We are very happy about that. So be prepared that a section may be added to the roadmap every now and then and that the order of other sections may therefore change. This should never result in something being cancelled, but only happen if it means more content can be added to the game. We are currently working on a small patch to version 0.5.5, after which we will focus on developing the first major update. This will take a few weeks. We will try to keep you regularly updated on our development. Until then, we hope you continue to have a good time with All Quiet in the Trenches and thank you for your support!

[ 2024-01-25 17:33:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Small patch to version 0.5.4 This patch is a wild collection of smaller improvements, balance changes, and bug fixes that we have received from you. Thank you very much for that! Your savegames should remain intact with this patch. If for some reason this is not the case, you can find version 0.5.3 in the beta branch on Steam. (edit: there are some problems with soldier background dialogues and old savegames, also some of Elisabeth's newer texts might not appear, but nothing game-breaking) Improvements:

• Added the option to warn the lieutenant of an imminent attack detected by your troop via the recon project.
• Added more conditional texts for Elisabeth (to better indicate if a wounded soldier is in danger of dying even if his fever has subsided, or to ask for help if a soldier has bad recovery).
• Allowed the Lieutenant to complain about the poor work ethic of soldiers assigned to his projects during the trench phase as well.

Balancing:

• Increased chance of weather changes (especially snow in winter)
• Some tweaks to hospital capacity and helping in the hospital
• Some adjustments to the prestige gain for doing lieutenant projects when below medium prestige
• Reduced danger for 'Get Rations' and 'Get Ammunition' projects in the trench
• Randomised wounds gained while being MIA a bit (on average they'll be less severe now)

Bugfixes::

• Fixed a rare error in soldier pathfinding
• Fixed the possibility of two troops being on the same area/location in battle
• Fixed dialogue button appearing in character window when soldiers are missing
• Fixed prisoners of war appearing in camp
• Fixed lieutenant complaining about soldiers doing bad work in his projects who weren't assigned to those projects
• Fixed treat fever project happening when the soldier is already dead
• Fixed Kohn asking for work while he's in hospital or missing
• Fixed own soldiers joining an allied troop being hidden in project view (they are now in "unknown location")
• Fixed display of some soldiers (e.g. looking at the same place for loot when there are two locations)
• Fixed notifications sometimes being displayed twice
• Fixed one journal choice not being translated and some typos
• Fixed text overflow in drop downs in settings menu
• Some other minor fixes

Other:

• Minor changes to soldier background dialogues structure

[ 2024-01-22 11:30:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

Small patch to version 0.5.3 Balancing:

• Reduced the cooldown for soldier story arcs in the journal by a small amount (which means you will probably get a few more stories for your soldiers until the end of the game)

Bugfixes:

• Prevented shader errors from popping up, as this does not seem to be an issue at all (will be fixed in a later patch)
• Fixed an error in the journal on Kummerbunt's story arc
• Fixed Kummerbunt asking if he can do church service when he's a prisoner of war, wounded, missing, dead or in other ways indisposed
• Fixed clicking "Return" when writing in soldier note sheet processing a new turn
• Fixed endscreen window to close journal immediately (now you can actually read what's written there!)

Other:

• Changed the load save game window from an endless scroll view to page buttons to reduce a heavy lag when having many save games

[ 2024-01-18 20:13:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone, First of all, a huge thank you to everyone who supports us during the Early Access phase and the wonderful feedback we have received! We would like to correct a mistake on our part in this news. When we were asked by players months ago about the amount of time required for a playthrough, we had roughly estimated the playtime at 10 - 15 hours based on game tests by us developers and empirical values from the demo. Although we never put this estimate on the Steam shop page, we did state it in response to a few enquiries and finally included it in the FAQ on our homepage. The time needed for a playthrough of our game can vary considerably. One major factor is, of course, the different playing styles of the players. To further complicate matters, our strong focus on replayability means that, in addition to player decisions, many random factors also have a major influence on the number of events and stories, the difficulty and therefore also the playtime. Probably the main effect of this is that the phase changes in the game are determined by chance. This affects: - How many turns you stay in camp - Whether you are sent into battle or into the frontline trench - Whether there is an enemy attack during your time in the frontline trench Since a turn in camp takes 12 days, while in battle you need over 15 turns for a day, this has vastly different effects on the amount of time it takes to play. So what's the takeaway from this? There are actually players who have completed their playthrough after just over 2.5 hours. This is of course a huge difference to our initial assessment. We would like to correct this and apologise to all those who expected a longer minimum playtime for each playthrough. It was never our intention to make false promises! We hope that the Early Access version will still be a valuable, long-lasting experience for all players thanks to its high replayability.

[ 2024-01-18 15:56:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Small patch to version 0.5.2

• Fixed game-over end screen bug
• Fixed a bug in a story with Lotze
• Fixed Elisabeth saying a soldier has recovered from fever when he is dead instead
• Fixed dialogue about laundry duty with Madame Laroche could lead to an error

[ 2024-01-18 01:26:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Small patch to version 0.5.1 We didn't think we'd need it, but here's a quick Day 1 hotfix patch.

• Fixed a game-breaking error in a main story in camp (by the way: a dialogue option in that story is "I'm sorry. It won't happen again")
• Fixed soldier names in loading window showing the names of deceased soldiers (they should only show you active soldiers)
• Fixed a missing localisation in a story

All savegames should be compatible. But to make this a regular thing, we put the 0.5.0 version on the beta branches in Steam.

[ 2024-01-17 21:56:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

The time has finally come: Our game All Quiet in the Trenches is now released in Early Access! [previewyoutube=mF16Xw-9K3w;full][/previewyoutube] We are excited about your feedback :)

[ 2024-01-17 18:57:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

The Early Access release of All Quiet in the Trenches is fast approaching. It'll launch the day after tomorrow, Wednesday 17th January 2024! We have published a roadmap on our homepage, showing the current state of development and our planned future updates. Feel free to take a look: https://totallynotaliens.com/aqitt#roadmap We're also planning to take down the demo on Wednesday morning. So if you haven't played it yet, now's your last chance :)

[ 2024-01-15 11:37:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

After the demo, we have spent the last few months focussing fully on the Early Access of our game All Quiet in the Trenches. [hr][/hr]

October

The Steam Next Fest took place at the beginning of October and it was a very exciting experience for us. Over 6000 people played our demo and we received a lot of good feedback and encouragement from you. A big thank you for that! Over the next few weeks, we fixed a few bugs based on all the feedback from the demo and have already been able to implement some of the feedback, like the most frequently mentioned too small settings menu or the option to change the cursor size so that our game can also be played comfortably on the Steam Deck.
[hr][/hr]

November

Some missing features were added to the game in November, such as hand grenades and the surrender of soldiers. We also expanded the areas on our battlefield to ensure a larger playable map. We plan to further develop these during Early Access. We have also added more projects to the trench phase.
[hr][/hr]

December

Based on the expanded battle areas, during December we implemented various scenarios that can occur randomly after the introductory battles. The missing season Winter has been added and the pool of possible soldiers has been expanded by two more: Linnecke and Mayel. In addition, an FAQ section has been added to the All Quiet in the Trenches homepage. Feel free to have a look!
[hr][/hr] We are very much looking forward to our Early Access release on 17 January 2024 and are eagerly awaiting your feedback. Early Access will cover the first year of the game - roughly from spring 1915 to spring 1916. In the course of further development, we plan to add the following years (until the end of the war in November 1918), minor adjustments and additional content to the game. We have also made a new Early Access trailer. If you haven't seen it yet, you can watch it here: [previewyoutube=mF16Xw-9K3w;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2024-01-08 17:28:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's almost time: On 17 January, our game All Quiet in the Trenches will be released in Early Access. Therefore we've created a new trailer. Have fun :) [previewyoutube=mF16Xw-9K3w;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2024-01-05 16:27:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

Another small patch to version 0.4.3! List of changes: - Fixed a possible "NullReferenceException" on some devices for formulas - Fixed being able to cancel Laundry project multiple times which could lead to an error - Fixed territory for "advancing over creek" not being placed correctly - Fixed some typos - Increased the negative consequences of mercy killing or failing to start the project Thanks for your feedback!

[ 2023-10-17 13:08:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

And again another small patch to version 0.4.2! List of changes: Balancing: - Soldiers will now recover from exhaustion slightly quicker when resting during camp phase - Added some more conditions for consequences when an inadequate soldier is being sent on the "Deliver message" project - "Dig graves" project now has an alleviating effect on "Hospital Capacity" for a few turns, instead of only instantly Bugfixes: - Fixed "Abstinent" soldiers getting no value changes at all from "Trip to the pub" project - Fixed "Assist in the hospital" project not being cancelled correctly - Changed "Assist in the hospital" project to allow any number of soldiers and Nurse Elisabeth asks for confirmation before adding the project - Fixed the intro story for the offensive battle displaying the outdated "Into the Trenches!" confirmation - Fixed Nurse Elisabeth reprimanding the player every time she's talked to, after not completing the "Latrine fatigue" project (now she will only say the text once per turn) - Fixed error that sometimes occured when leaving the trench in battle with only one soldier - Fixed camera transition in start screen not working - Fixed some bugs with getting wounded in mission - Fixed typos in Pedersen introduction Other: - Added a feedback popup when resetting the tutorial - Added a short "loading" message before a level ends - Changed VSync option standard to be on - A few more minor adjustments Thanks again for your feedback!

[ 2023-10-11 17:45:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Minor patch 0.4.1 for the demo build is now online. It contains several bugfixes, text issue fixes and some more minor adjustments. Thanks to everyone who reported their bugs to us! A list of all changes: - Fixed overlapping continue button in journal when several stories trigger at the same time - Fixed game getting stuck in mission when no soldier was left on the troops area - Fixed dialogue "Encourage comrades" not disappearing which could result into an error - Fixed error when dragging a soldier icon when using both left and right mouse clicks at the same time - Fixed an error sometimes occuring in a dialogue with a soldier who is giving first aid - Fixed some parts of the tutorial close button being blocked - Fixed naming of screen resolutions in options menu - Fixed sometimes resetting screen resolutions when going to options menu again - Fixed some grammar and punctuation mistakes in english translation - Added a small UI description for "relevant attributes" in projects - Changed demo ending to first turn of the battle (some players found the current ending too abrupt) - Limited base frame rate to 60 (your graphics card will now no longer explode :D) - Increased screen resolutions scroll bar sensitivity Thank you for playing and supporting All Quiet in the Trenches! :)

[ 2023-10-10 20:01:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

As of today, the demo of our game All Quiet in the Trenches is live at Steam Next Fest! Feel free to stop by until 16 October and play our free demo. You can expect about 30-45 minutes of gameplay in which you take on the role of an Unteroffizier - a sergeant - in World War I with responsibility over a handful of men. What you do won't change the war, but it will change the lives of you and your soldiers. In the demo you will learn the basics of the game in the trenches, in battle and behind the front lines. We'd love to hear your feedback on our demo on Discord or Steam. What did you like, what not so much, what sticks in your mind and what would you like to see in Early Access?

[ 2023-10-09 16:17:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Our last few months have been all about our All Quiet in the Trenches demo for Steam Next Fest, which takes place next week from 9/10/2023 to 16/10/2023. Feel free to visit us here during this period and get the free demo. [hr][/hr]

July

In July, we completely revised the game's starting point. Instead of starting with a troop that has already been at war for some time, the game now starts in May 1915 with the arrival of your troop in the trenches. This game entry will also be the content of our demo.
[hr][/hr]

August

August was mainly a time of fine-tuning for us, called polishing in game development. Outdated icons were revised, bugs were fixed, texts were adjusted, placeholder graphics were replaced and we checked everything again to see if anything was missing or outdated over the years of development and no longer fitted in with the rest of the game.
[hr][/hr]

September

This polishing phase extended into September. In addition, we added a tutorial to the game in September and optimised the performance of the game in various places so that the demo hopefully runs smoothly on as many devices as possible. In the course of this, we also added graphics settings for older hardware.
[hr][/hr] We are very excited to see how you like the demo. This is the first time that we have a publicly available demo of the game. Please let us hear your feedback on what you liked, what you didn't like, where there were bugs and what you would like to see in Early Access. Send us your feedback preferably via Discord or the Steam forum . Have fun with the demo!

[ 2023-10-07 12:18:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's already been a few years since we started developing All Quiet in the Trenches - the first game by our indie studio Totally Not Aliens. Now we are approaching the Early Access release with great strides. A free demo will be playable at the Steam Next Fest in October 2023. In the meantime, we will continue to work diligently on the game, will provide you with regular updates, and look forward to everyone joining us on our journey this year and beyond. [hr][/hr]

April

In April 2023, we launched our Steam page and are very happy with how positively the game has been received by you. We also created a TikTok account in April and started telling people about our game and explaining the main features of the game in short videos.
Also in April, we added weather effects to the game, which give the game visual variety as well as having an impact on the gameplay (mood of the soldiers, harvest of the nearby French village, ...).
[hr][/hr]

May

In May, we redesigned the camp where our own soldiers are stationed alongside other German troops when they are not in the trenches. The most important thing for us here was to emphasise the military nature of this camp and to position the various places that can be interacted with more clearly.
In addition, the hospital received a complete redesign, new objects, animations and significantly more space in order to be able to visually depict the workload of the hospital.
[hr][/hr]

June

The gameplay in All Quiet in the Trenches was always intended to alternate between three game phases - the camp, the battle, and the stationing in the trenches. However, the latter had not yet been implemented, which we finally did in June. For this, we designed a suitable environment and created new animations.
Furthermore, we registered All Quiet in the Trenches for the Steam Next Fest in October and in the course of this we revised the Steam page and recorded a new gameplay teaser: [previewyoutube=PezbRb_zS1M;full][/previewyoutube] [hr][/hr] If you have any questions about the game, we will be happy to answer them. For more details and insights into both the game and our activities as a company, please visit us here: Discord TikTok Instagram YouTube Homepage

[ 2023-07-11 10:38:11 CET ] [ Original post ]