Dev Diary #013 - Machine Gun Gameplay
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:
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
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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 there’s 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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
Dev Diary #014 - Moods, Map, Stories and more
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
Machine Gun Update 0.8 – now live!
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
Update 0.8.4 - Christmas and Hard Mode
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
One year Early Access!
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!
