Hi, friends. Our today's DevDiary is about (you'll be surprised) how development of Soldiers: Arena is going. We want to give you some feedback, like in the pre-New Year's diary. Tell you a little about the work days of the Best Way, what problems we face constantly, what part of the development process is the most difficult, and how unexpectedly funny bugs could be.

What did we do all this time? Do you mean, except rest in Monte Carlo?

There is no point in trying to describe everything that has been done in the last four months. It's just too much. In addition, some of the features are still at a stage when it is early to talk about them. And some things just has no sense for those who have never played the game to absorb the info. So today's diary is about that small part of the changes that we think are most interesting and fun (everyone knows that developers have a strange sense of humor). We continue to add to the game some new icons (for example, for abandoned vehicles, for infantry suppressed and "unconscious" and others), vehicle models and skins for special infantry.
We test the size of the map and the Frontline gamemode with different number of players in the session in search of the best variant. We do not want players looking for an opponent to fight half a game. But he should not feel himself like in a supermarket in the midst of a black Friday. We Added the preparation phase before the start of the fight, to allow the player to look around and select their flank and the starting units. At the end of the session, the game will show you the "Battle Results", where you can see how much experience each unit has earned and how much damage he has inflicted to the enemy. Why guess who of your units is the most useful, and who does not fit your strategy, when you can see the numbers? And the boldly re-adquired enemy tanks must go somewhere, right? Created a special "hangar" for this case. Remember, we wrote that in the fight for territory, every building will be the center of your foreseeable universe? So, in order to meet their high goals, we constantly make changes and add new mechanics related to their work. AI must allocate units inside the house based on the situation on the battlefield. But how often does he have to change their positions, how long does it take to move them? Should the units interrupt the building strengthening process, for example, to fire back? The answers to such questions can only be obtained empirically, by testing, making mistakes, and eventually finding the best option. Well, of course, we needed to create fortified form for each of the buildings.

Balance is the king!

And we have similar situation with each new mechanics. Particularly difficult in this sense was the case of digging trenches. After digging foxholes, we taught the infantry to connect them with trenches, and engineers to dig these trenches faster than others.
You introduce a cool feature and domino effect immediately reminds for himself. Do you want to dig trenches? And how will other units fight with them? How well will the infantry be protected in them? What units can dig them (Saboteurs with shovels? Seriously?)? How fast? Will the type of surface influence on the process (Our adamantium shovels aren’t afraid of asphalt and stones)? Which units will be able to move over them and which ones are not (Artillerymen with jump-packs will carry howitzers in their hands, and motorcyclists will master the motocross)? How will the AI ​​behave in the trenches? And many similar questions will not be answered fast and easy. You make protection in the trenches too strong and the speed of digging is too fast and on the nearest test you see someone advancing with trenches. Advancing, man! Once again, thanks to alpha testers for their help and selfless search of any opportunities for exploits. You make the defense rate too low and no one is digging no more. And do not forget about the correlation with the rest of the mechanics of the game! For example, infantrymen teleporting to the rear during the retreat or grenades, faithful as a labrador, which do not want to leave the master and explode only at his feet. By the way, talking about the feet - the infantry has finally mastered the basics of parkour and without problems overcomes low fences. Finds the best route without complicated manipulations from the player. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0vKwM7BGVw For some, it may seem that the game development process always follows a well-defined plan, all features are specified and prescribed, all collaborations are built, and no alterations are expected. This is partly true only when you create a clone of something created earlier. And even then only partially. In the case of something new, you have to go through the bug minefield and the process of implement-test-fix-test. Periodically encountering ridiculous bugs. For example, when the artillery crew of the cannon goes into minus on health, but refuses to die and give up positions, apparently because the Valkyries have a day off. Or when an assaulted building suddenly does not affect the front line (not all the domains of captured land were received, we think). Or a destroyed tank forever circling around dancing the Samba. And how do you feel about extra non-clinging ghost-tankman spawning separately from the tank and at any distance annihilating the whole team of the tank if you hit him with a fougasse? We liked him! This is just a couple of examples of what was done and a few curiosities, but we would like to know if you are interested in such a format of a diary? Do you want more informative and fun stories from the life of Best Way? Maybe you need videos and screenshot-reports about the most unexpected bugs? Let the indicator of your interest be your likes and comments with your answers so that we know whether to prepare the next such material and how soon. Wish you all the best!

[ 2017-05-04 18:40:50 CET ] [ Original post ]