Archive for the ‘Warfare’ Category

8
Jul

Warfare 1944 - Post Mortem

   Posted by: Con

So the game has been out for just over a week now. It’s getting good press and the reviews on Armor Games have been good if not all too often incoherent.

I have to admit, I loathe the first few days after a release. I’m generally exhausted having been up until 5am a few nights in the week prior, only to be confronted with thousands of people filling my comments pages with bugs and ‘glitches’ (I hate that word). Then follows the week of fixing, more late nights, the constant urge to keep checking the score, plays, comments.

As it stands though, the rating is 9.2 and it’s had over 1 million plays during this first week, but it’s raised a few concerns about the future. Why? Well there’s a few reasons…

Expectation.
It’s a curse. A lot of initial reactions were that the first game was better, too many bugs, didn’t live up to what was shown off. I’m not really sure how to handle expectation at the moment, especially with a third Last Stand game on the horizon. In Warfare’s case I think that it had a bit of an impact because it was only a sidestep from the original, so the two were comparable but not identical.

Complexity.
Really, Warfare 1944 is pretty basic as far as Real Time Strategy goes, but it seems it went waaaaay over the heads of a lot of people. I’ll admit there is a fair chunk of assumed knowledge in there, short of delaying the play of someone for 10 minutes while you explain it all, I’m not sure how much more I could have laid it out.

On top of that, the game does force you to actually play it though, unlike 1917 and it’s passive sit back and spam away tactics. It’s more challenging and makes you think, unlike 1917 where you didn’t have to consider resources or micromanage units. As far as I can tell from the polar nature of internet comments, some enjoyed it, some hated / were confused by it.

What I’ve learned.
I need to address all of my audience and cater to them. Some of them are a hell of a lot younger than I had counted on. I think I can safely say that a majority of my future games will have difficulty settings, different play modes and other functionality to broaden the play opportunities for everyone.

- Con

1
Jul

Warfare 1944 - v1.1 OUT NOW!

   Posted by: Con Tags:

I released a small update today to deal with some small issues, heres the rundown:
————————————————–————————————————–

Current quick fix (v1.01):
- Assault troops got a health and damage buff
- Units running over trenches should be less apparent
- Upgrade panel graphical errors fixed
- German MG34 teams had damage lowered
- Air Support damage to tanks reduced

————————————————–————————————————–

Here’s what’s in v1.1:

General
- Difficulty options when starting a campaign
- Autosave notifications
- Fix for some Objective based missions not reseting properly

Units
- German tank damage fixed (was too low)
- Tanks now concentrate fire on dangerous targets (bazooka’s and other tanks)
- Increased Tank armor for both sides
- Better A.I for Bazooka / Panzershreck teams with regards to tanks
- Reduced buffer at edge of screen to help block flanking troops at last minute
- Reduced Officer cost
- Reduced Air Support cost
- Reduced Bazooka / Panzershreck resupply time slightly

Cover
- Fix for A.I loading cover with more than one team - This’ll have to wait until the next version.
- Fix for units jumping out of empty cover

Upgrades
- Fix for discount upgrades (such as “In Good Supply”)
- In Good Supply lowered to 20% cost reduction from 25%

————————————————–————————————————–

There’ll be another version in a few days with some bigger changes. Got most of the issues sorted. Keep the feedback coming guys, thanks again! Head over to Armor and check out the new version.

PLAY WARFARE 1944 v1.1

30
Jun

Warfare 1944 - Out now!

   Posted by: Con

It’s finally out guys and gals. Not much to say right now as it’s 2:30am 4am here…enjoy!

Update: Problem with the first level on SLOW computers it seems, making it IMPOSSIBLE. Also, people think the first level is hard, toning the difficulty down a bit. It’ll be back soon, promise.

All is well, play on! Leave your feedback on balancing and stuff here or over at Armor Games.

PLAY WARFARE 1944

29
Jun

Warfare 1944 - Release Tomorrow!

   Posted by: Con

So the 29th has come and gone for those in the U.S. Rest assured I’ve spent the day tweaking and balancing and adding some stuff based off the feedback from the guys at Armor. The game will be released tomorrow, the 30th of June, most likely in the afternoon PST (so 12-20 hours from now). I’ll post here when it’s done.

Almost time to choose a side…

28
Jun

Warfare 1944 - Almost Done

   Posted by: Con

Quick update. Neeeearly there. German Campaign is finally done, had some interruptions from other areas of the code, so I had to go back and make some changes.

All that’s left now is the Skirmish setups, some playtesting and updating the help. It will be released on ArmorGames some time on the 29th or 30th (US time).

Those who haven’t been posting “waaaaah when duz it come out i hate u!!!”, thanks for your patience. I honestly had no idea when the game would be done, it wasn’t like I was holding out on you guys.

- Con

23
Jun

Warfare 1944 - Hold the Line!

   Posted by: Con

Shot from the very first German campaign map. It’s the first example of the Defend style missions and I’m enjoying playing it, probably due to it’s resembelance to The Last Stand. Simple gameplay, hold the enemy off for a set amount of time, take their ground or deplete their morale to win.

I’m about a third of the way through the German campaign now. Past that there’s just the skirmish maps and screen to update and this baby is done. Having spent the last two days optimising, it’s good to be building something simple that doesn’t have the potential to totally break the game (which I did on a few occasions).

With the optimisations I’ve done, the game runs a hell of a lot smoother during most situations, I’ve had big firefights with 30 - 40 guys all pumping rounds out at each other with no slowdown.

Anyway - back to it. Goal for the day is to be half done with the German campaign maps.

- Con

21
Jun

Warfare 1944 - Getting closer

   Posted by: Con

Things are really starting to come together. The U.S Campaign is one map away from being done. Then it’s onto the German and Skirmish maps. They’ll be a lot quicker as I’ve got all the functional stuff behind the campaigns sorted out now (Objectives, Defence missions, static enemies etc).

The above is a shot from Hedgerows, a mission about half way through the U.S campaign. It shows a smoke round that’s been dropped onto the field by a mortar team. Smoke mortars act as a way of blocking the view of Snipers and Machine Guns so that your Riflemen squads can move up their flank or your assault troops can get a good run at the cover they’re in. Meanwhile all units trying to shoot each other through the smoke get a 70% reduction to accuracy.

I’ll keep you guys up to date and post more screens as we draw nearer to the end of the month and release!

- Con

19
Jun

Railways and Upgrades and Panzers, oh my

   Posted by: Con

Working my way through the last third of the U.S Campaign maps. They’re coming together rather nicely and it’s a hell of a lot more varied than the 1917 campaign in a number of ways.

There’s still quite a bit to do (including the entire German campaign) but that should come together over the next week or so. One last thing, it’ll be after the 20th that’s for sure at this point, but it’ll definitely between then and the end of the month. Now enjoy a few new screens (click for big ones).



13
Jun

Warfare 1944 - Mini Update

   Posted by: Con

Not much to report. Been finishing up the addition of voice acting and getting the campaign maps underway again. Can’t wait to unveil what’s waiting at the end of that beach later this month.

10
Jun

Warfare came to town.

   Posted by: Con

Above is a shot from one of the later levels in the US campaign. There’ll be a few missions with the town setting to mix things up a bit.

Development is coming along and I’m finding myself trying to stop the flow of new ideas that tend to come to me when I don’t have time to implement them. I’ve also had to ditch some stuff that wasn’t working in exchange for some things that are far more enjoyable to play with (i.e Tanks).

I got half of the voice acting back today, there’s way more in it than the original and it’s sounding great. We’ve got a range of accents this time and it’s really adding to the feel of the game.

Estimated release is sometime after the 20th. The campaign needs to be completed and balanced as do all the upgrade tree items. It’ll be worth the wait, promise.

Also, there’s a bit of discussion about the game and some more details on the forums.

- Con