Hi, friends. That quarter in which we are going to start the sales of Early Access, has already began and we are looking with hope and anticipation into this near future, but still feeling some anxiety. From the discussions in the Steam forum it is clear that there is a misunderstanding in the community about how the game in Early Access will look like, what will be in it besides multiplayer mode, and why Soldiers: Arena is not similar to our previous games. So let’s clarify some of these.

What to expect in the Early Access.

With the beginning of Early Access sales, the game will be available to everybody, but it's worth to remember that by this time it will not be polished and ready one hundred percent. We would like to add and fix lots of things, but for the correct development of a multiplayer game, more players are needed. And now the player already has something to do in Soldiers: Arena. However, people with a harsh allergy to bugs have a reason to refrain from buying (there should have been a sign "Watch out. Work is in progress. Put on a helmet."). We stick to the original plan to create a game together with the community. Therefore, we did not wait long with the announcement. All in all, we try to quickly respond to your requests and implement features, add units, etc. Therefore, we want to go to Early Access as early as possible.
To meet the deadlines and achieve the desired results we often had to abandon some ideas, and to postpone others. Yes, we would also like more game factions, a full singleplayer, dozens of game maps, but not all at once. We are constantly adding new models, special effects, animations, sounds, but in the Early Access version there will still be some old variants. Factions may have gaps in the development tree, and USA devtree will suffer most, but we’ll fix this issue too. The interface will still be partially on the works, and the caring hands of optimization will most likely not get to some particularly dark corners in which bugs will wait for the player, hoping to catch him by surprise, and drag oneself to the path of darkness and hate, whispering for negative reviews about vile and greedy developers. Be strong, friend, do not despair. We will counter them with fast and powerful patches. Even now Soldiers: Arena is playable and the content in it is enough to organize serious team fights and break into the battle as one of a dozen commanders. Most of the planned features are already ready and we began to optimize the game, work on maps for the cooperative game and solve some old and annoying problems. We did not disclose some aspects of the game in the DevDiaries, so you will get a lot of new things to see, including the very combat organization, without the usual and slightly annoying buying points.

PVP vs PVE

A separate paragraph with explanation deserves a multi-user focus of the game. Having defined the genre, we understood that we would need to change a lot: division into classes, combat organization, the basic gamemode, the approach to creating maps, increase the need for teamwork, to fix old engine problems unacceptable in the competitive game, like musketeer lags and the impossibility of reconnection to the session, etc. Something has already been done, something has yet to be done, and something has to be temporarily abandoned. One of the important aspects of the game that had to be sacrificed until better times was the single-player mode. On your questions about the availability of a full-fledged single-player mode in Soldiers: Arena, we usually answered with a confident 'No'. The degree of this 'No' confidence has changed with the formation of the core gameplay. Over time, 'No' has become more like 'It may well be,' and today we can say that we are seriously thinking about some campaigns. The question of having a singleplayer was always a question of economy and the desire to meet deadlines. Until we were sure, we did not want to give up hopes that we could not realize. Now, when the core of the game is formed, we can think about the historical battles, single-player campaigns (with the possibility of playing some missions with friends) and cooperative game modes that will only complement the multiplayer game. These are still far-reaching, but very realistic plans, and for the start of Early Access three maps should be ready for multiplayer games and skirmishes, and a couple of missions for the cooperative game.
PVP still tires faster than PVE, and can not be paused without provoking the rays of hatred from other players, so we would like to give more content for the cooperative and single-player games. Those who do not like brutal PVP, will be able to open all the branches of any development tree, without even going into it (although this is a little insulting to us, but still ok). And if the campaigns are only in the plans, but cooperative missions and smart bots have been in development for a long time. The style of the game, the number and intensity of the actions of bots in missions is adjusted to the chosen complexity, the level of your commander and the number of players in the team. And it's not about these bots that just beat harder and shoot more accurately, but about those who know how to be unpredictable and create interesting game situations.
By the way, we have begun work on a story mission against bots named "Siege of Argentan" for USA commanders. In this mission, the player will need to search and destroy air defense guns, seize the territory, fight massive enemy counterattacks, stop convoys trying to escape and breakthrough the blockade, and advance without stopping, because the success of this operation will determine whether the ‘Falaise pocket’ will be closed. Of course, without forgetting about saving resources and caution. Well, you know as well as we all about a lone infantryman with a grenade in the enemy rear. And you probably noticed that in this diary we are talking about the US faction, not the Allies. We decided to create more space for new gaming factions in the future. And now there are a couple of spaces in the development tree that are worth filling out. What interesting US units would you like to see in Soldiers: Arena? Write under the post, and, as usual, we wish you all the best!

[ 2018-01-11 20:10:30 CET ] [ Original post ]