After around a month of work the 0.30.0 update is now out and ready for testing. Complete with new features, changes to existing ones and a whole slew of bug fixes which no doubt created more bugs than they managed to fix.

What’s New?

To start off with much like my previous couple of updates, 0.30.0 was primarily focused on bringing ground combat up to the same level as space combat. To this end the first area in which ground combat saw improvements was with regards to the battle maps themselves. Not only does the 1 v 1 ground map now have a set of custom made textures, but there’s also now a test map which can be accessed while the game is in dev mode. Allowing you to spawn in any of the existing or upcoming ground units for the sake of testing them in the same way you can on the equivalent dev map for space battles.

In addition to map visual updates I also made improvements to unit collisions and pathing. Now as units are moving around the map they should look less like they are floating and more like they are actually moving across the ground. Furthermore they now also support collisions with both one another and buildings. This means that they should move out of the way when trying to reach a specific destination and thanks to there now being actual collisions, buildings are finally able to target and fire at them as they can now be detected.

Beyond the more general changes to ground units this update also brings with it an entirely new type of unit alongside an update to an existing one. Squad’s of what I’m calling character class units are now supported in ground battles and to showcase this a set of 5 squad units have been added, one for each of the different factions. As with most of what I implement, much of the squad logic and implementation is place holder but for now it serves to give you an idea of what I want to be able to achieve in the future.

While implementing the above squad units I also took the time to do a couple of rewrites to how I handle both ground and squad based units. With regards to ground units they now have support for armour and shields, with armour reducing incoming damage in the same way it does for space units. While shields will block all non kinetic damage until they have been fully depleted. In the case of squad units the part of the squad which holds all the logic for said squad is now actually classed as a unit, making it much easier to substitute normal units for squad based ones without having to write additional code for specifically dealing with squad based units. One side effect of this is the rewrite I had to do for carrier class units which as a result of the new way squad units are handled means that in theory you may now be able to spawn any unit from a carrier. Even another carrier…

Last but not least 0.30.0 also includes the usual selection of bug fixes with the majority of them this time focusing on the settings menu. There were some issues previously meaning the resolution would always be detected as being changed, preventing you from leaving the settings menu. This is now no longer the case. In addition the screen resolution setting has been changed to only be applied when the game is in window borderless mode as it’s pointless for windowed mode and getting the correct scaling in full screen mode is proving to be a bit of a pain. To address this I’ll look into adding a render scale option which should allow you to change the render resolution of 3D objects without affecting the in-game UI.

Update 0.31.0

Much like 0.30.0 and the updates before it 0.31.0 will once more continue the trend of working on improving ground combat. First and foremost 0.31.0 will include a selection of new maps for ground battles to make use of with a 2 v 2, 3 v 3, 4 v 4 and 5 v 5 variant planned to be added. I may not get all the sculpting or texture work done for them in this update. But at the very least they will be added and functional. Other than more custom maps, 0.31.0 will also include a placeholder campaign ground battle map for use with ground battles triggered on the campaign map. Something which isn’t currently possible, but will be implemented for the release of this update.

Beyond the new maps themselves 0.31.0 will also include more general work on the maps with the addition of some much needed props. I had originally planned for some of these to be added in the 0.30.0 update but it turned out the rewrite of squad units was much more in depth than I was expecting. Not to mention it still needs additional work to bring it back to the same level of support I had it at before. As such the props are now planned to be added in the 0.31.0 update instead. As I mentioned in the previous devlog this will include things like trees, bushes, rocks and fences.

Moving on from map changes 0.31.0 will also aim to improve the look of some of the existing features already in ground battles. In particular, a new general use reinforcement animation will be added. This will consist of the faction's transport ship landing, dropping off the selected troop before once again flying off. In addition to a new animation I might also look into implementing some kind of decals or shaders so troops and vehicles can leave marks on the ground as they move about the battle map.

Last but not least I also want to add a second set of squad units for each of the factions who, unlike the existing squad units, will be built around dealing with vehicles through the use of more powerful weapons. While working on this second set of squad units I might also see if I can go about adding a proper weapon system for character type units to use. Currently they use a somewhat hacky solution with their weapons technically being classed as turrets but if possible I’d prefer them to have proper weapons. Which would not only allow me to swap them in and out more easily but may also allow me to support having them pick up and drop weapons when in a battle.

Closing Thoughts

All in all 0.30.0 turned out to be another solid update to the systems surrounding ground combat. It also allowed me to finally do the rewrite of squad based units which I had been thinking about for awhile now. But somehow managed to keep putting off. Regardless, the basic  rewrite is done now and so I can look to improve the implementation of them over the next couple of updates.

Speaking of updates I should probably get to work on them, so as always I’ll end this dev log here and be back in around a month's time with the 0.31.0 update. Depending on how things progress I may or may not also finally have an update for my other game, Rise. It’s still my secondary project though, so no promises.

As always if you have any questions or queries then don’t hesitate to ask and similarly if you have any feedback for existing systems. Or indeed if you have any ideas, features or changes you would like to see implemented then also don’t hesitate to let me know.

As with all of my updates a full list of the changes made can be found in game, with the changes and additions pertaining to this update listed below:

• Added support for character type units (which are used by the marine units) to ground battles
• Added support for shields to character type units
• Added support for squad based units to ground battles
• Added a new ground unit for the Human faction, the human marine squad
• Added a new ground unit for the Astel faction, the astel marine squad
• Added a new ground unit for the Kessoni faction, the kessoni assault squad
• Added a new ground unit for the Shin faction, the shin infiltrator squad
• Added a new ground unit for the Pirate faction, the pirate marine squad
• Added a set of campaign variants for the new ground based squad units
• Added a new test ground map for testing ground battles which can only be accessed when in developer mode
• Added a new test ground target for testing ground battles which can be found on the test ground map
• Updated the 1 v 1 ground battle map to have custom made ground textures
• Updated the units and buildings guide page to split units between space type and ground type units
• Updated the units in ground battles to automatically attack enemy units or buildings once they are in range
• Updated the units in ground battles to make use of collision avoidance so they no longer phase through other units
• Updated the units in ground battles to rotate in the direction of their current velocity instead of towards the next path point
• Updated the buildings in ground battles to automatically attack enemy units once they are in range
• Updated the buildings in ground battles to have weapons which burst fire like the units in ground battles
• Updated the battle maps to store their map size with their map information instead of calculating it at runtime
• Updated the settings menu to only allow the screen resolution to be changed when the window mode is set to borderless window
• Updated the settings menu to save the screen resolution between sessions
• Updated the ground battle map to draw the unit paths from the units current position rather than from the start of the calculated path
• Updated the existing space based squad units to make use of the new logic used by ground based squad units
• Updated the carrier class units to support the new squad logic used by space based squad units
• Fixed a bug where the game version label on the main menu incorrectly displayed numbers ending in a 0
• Fixed a bug where the settings menu couldn't be exited as it kept detecting a change in the window type even when there wasn't one
• Fixed a bug where the settings menu wouldn't include changes to the screen resolution in the list of current changes
• Fixed a bug where the settings menu would only apply the screen resolution change after the changes had been applied
• Fixed a bug where the minimap displayed the incorrect position for the player camera in ground battles
• Fixed a bug where weapons which were set to burst fire would reset their rotation even if they were still firing
• Fixed a bug where units in ground battles would appear to float above the surface of the ground map once given a movement path
• Fixed a bug where ground units wouldn't clear their current target when they were given a new move order
• Fixed a bug where ground units would try and attack a target before being spawned into the battle
• Fixed a bug where ground units would try and avoid other units even if they hadn't yet been spawned into the battle
• Fixed a bug where ground units would move towards the centre of the map when they were given a stop order
• Fixed a bug where each individual unit within a squad was marked on the minimap
• Fixed a bug where the incorrect information was passed to battle maps when a battle was triggered from the campaign map, meaning no map was loaded
• Fixed a bug where the game would crash when trying to retreat from a battle triggered on the campaign map if units had been called into the map as a result of updating the units state manager
• Fixed a bug where the new squad units didn't support loading custom health values for those units that had been damaged on the campaign map