© Douglas Adams about Soldiers:Arena

Hi, friends.
Today's diary is quite important one. I bet that you will not need 10 million years to understand what kind of question we are talking about. We will also talk about how and when playtests are going, about holy wars and memes of the Alpha and how they help us to find the right solution amongst a lot of wrong ones. Here's a working version of the portrait of an infantry commander to stretch your eyes before reading.




Twice a week we gather alpha testers for playtests to get feedback from them about the innovations in the game. Further down we’ll include the best quotes from these reviews. These are our first critics and we appreciate their help immensely. Among them there are both seasoned players and baby seals. There are those who without regret cast their lives on the altar of the game-god, and there are those who play for a couple of hours a week.

To someone, the game seems too fast, to someone else, on the contrary, too slow. Often this opinion is the result of the player's temperament multiplied by the chosen commander. ’He plays the slowest commander. A fast combat in this case is possible only if you misclicked and accidentally picked up something lighter than IS-3’ - about one fan of heavy tanks. Artillery for fans of infantry combat: ’Played this stuff, too calm for me. Lazy clicking all the game’.

Someone hates the building assaults, because ’Have you seen how the buildings are being stormed? Crushing with tanks! TANKS, Carl!’. For others, storming is not a problem in the presence of high-explosive AT-grenades, flamethrowers, or simply ’take ten to fifteen submachine gunners and arrange an exterminatus for the whole area.’

Someone tries to avoid the fights in the field, while someone with tears in his eyes remembers the infantrymen who were thrown into the meat grinder of city battles ’I remember one fight where 50 people were killed in one f***ing house".’

One thinks that the infantry is too strong, the other that ’if the enemy gives you the opportunity to kick his ass with infantry only- it's his own fault’, and only one thing is important for the third one - ’artillerymen must suffer!’.



While artillerymen suffer for themselves, someone suffers from suppression, trenches, storming buildings, slow-moving guns or too mobile tanks. Some suffer from health bars, but they no longer sharpen their pitchforks, cause ’health bars aren’t so terrible as they look like’.

We collect user reviews in special albums, decorate them with stickers and reread them in rare moments of rest.

‘I like that the game gives a big set of roles: an anti-tankman, an artilleryman, an infantryman, a heavy-tankman, a defensive guy and attacking guy, and at the same time is aimed precisely at the teamplay’.

‘Well, I ran into the house with 15 submachine gunners - but f***ing calliope rolled out from the corner and blew up everyone. That’s how cooperation works’.

‘I like: bots, that fight better than the personal guard of Ivan the Terrible; lot’s of units already at the stage of closed alpha; the artillerymen sufferings.
I dislike: healthbars of the tanks and cannons, artillerymen as a class’.



Feel free to speak in defense (or vice versa) of artillerymen and share your pics on our facebook page.

© Douglas Adams again

The described disputes and contradictions are the essence of the development process. Do not think that the alpha test is an opportunity to play before everyone else. No, friends, this is work, and quite nervous work in fact. But this is an opportunity also to participate in the development of the game and to influence the final result. Many features have been changed under the pressure of the alpha testers, and some of them appeared only thanks to them. Now we see that the main gameplay is formed and the game gives different opportunities to different players within the same session. Everyone can find his place and his tempo in the game. The same combat mission can be performed in a variety of ways, depending on the nature of the player, his preferences in units, the chosen commander, team-mates, etc. And most importantly, it requires cooperation. This means that the game becomes that which we envisaged in our dreams.

Earlier, we said that as soon as we determine the date of early access - you will know it first. Our spouses and children are still unaware waiting with the hope of the release date, as a happy time when their loved ones will be freed from night hours and festive bail-outs. Do not tell them that after the release even more work will appear... Please.

We plan to enter early access in the first quarter of 2018. If someone seems to think that the development of the game has been going on for a very long time and the key to it should have been at your email yesterday or even earlier - here's a small thesis on why unicorns do not exist:

• We are a small team working without a publisher.
  
• It takes a lot of time and effort to create a game in which the user will spend a lot of time with pleasure and enthusiasm, instead of simply plunging into his pillow and pray to Apollo to have his eyes mercifully shed with divine arrows after the first game to never see such a sickness ever again.
  
• We burn ourselves on games with early access and believe that at this stage the game should give joy from something more than finding a bug.

The exact date of early access start, we can say 2-3 months before its release. Do not get lost, everything will only become more interesting. Wish you all the best!

Hi, friends.
What have we done for you lately? Hey-hey, everything is written right here, in the diary. Read, please.

We worked on the performance of Soldiers: Arena. We switched to 64-bit client, for example. Steam says that as of May 2017, about 7% of users are playing with 32-bit OS, but their number is constantly falling. Friends, are there any of us who need the 32-bit version of the client?

We optimized the transfer of information between units in combat, which saves resources and is especially felt in mass battles.

Changed the server rules when one of the players lags. Previously, the server, guided by the musketeer’s principle, forced all to wait for one, or slowed the game, allowing the laggers to catch up the rest. In the first case, we "enjoyed" the pause in the culmination moment, in the second we watched another Wachowski film (same spectacular and slow mo). Now the server does not stop the game because of one lagger, because "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”. The game for the others goes on as usual, like a caravan of tanks, aspiring to a cloudless and happy future.



The game for the lagging guy is recovering as much as possible, trying to catch up what’s lost and find what’s gone. Rushing at a gallop and moving to the trot only when catch up the server. Lagger at this time alone in his lagging sad world, like a caravan of desperate tanks, lost among the dull country roads.




We configured Soldiers: Arena. Changed the calculation of damage for armor-piercing shells. Now both the muzzle and potential energy of the projectile are taken into account. For example ZIS-2 has excellent armor penetration, but ZIS-3 deals more damage.

Drew markers for fast messages. Now each of the contextual messages has its own visualization, which helps to quickly understand what the ally wants from you, without distracting yourself by looking at the chat.



We fought with strange bugs. There was a time when machine-guns have mythical durability and could withstand a direct hit of 75-mm (and even more) landmines. In those harsh times even glass in the windows were tougher than the chains of Fenrir. The rifles of the defending infantry could not even scratch it. But the tanks jumped on the mines joyfully and high, like mongrels at the sight of meat. Especially lucky ones even could finish the jumping streak with a gymnastic stand on the tank tower.


We filled the map with objects. It’s configuration should provide opportunities for the use of all kinds of troops: open areas for tanks and artillery, areas with dense buildings for mortars, light vehicles and infantry, hideouts and locations for maneuver battles, etc. Based on these criteria, the model of the next soviet village map was also created.

Added a new type of surface - "deep snow", which slows down the movement and makes mobile units even more useful. So we made winter versions of maps for tests.

Configured environments. We want the player to remember with joy the hours spent in the battles on each map, so that one would like to admire them as cherry blossoms and write haiku. Note how the mood of the “Village” map changes with the using of different environment.

Can’t you hear the third set of roosters, looking at this farmland morning?



Do you feel how the sun scorches the landscape on this summer day?



How does your back ache in the evening after hiking for mushrooms?



Maybe you want to make tea and read A.E.Poe, looking at this rainy weather?



If you feel something like this it’s ok. It's nice. But don’t forget these desires must not dislodge your passion to show your skills in the battlefield. Cherish this feeling. This fighter’s enthusiasm will be in need.

And finally we have a couple of questions. How do you feel about bots? Where are they good, and where are they not? To train skills only, or do you need them to replace disconnected players, for example? Would it be interesting to test your skill in cooperative battles against AI in the "hardcore and his brother INSANITY" mode? Blurt out your plain truth below! Wish you all the best!

Come closer to the fire, my friends. I'll tell you a story. A story of struggle, death and rebirth of one brave game engine. In the comments, you can often read that you can’t look onto the annoying second GEM and suffering from the need to see the third one, and, preferably, better soon that sorrow. For how long will you release and remake these things on this engine when you can potentially work on something else. Stop using the dead GEM2. For how long will we need to wait! We need to do something! It's time to take a stand!

Friends, do not rush to take protest posters in your hands. Most likely it's a banal misunderstanding. This whole thing with the engines is not as simple as it seems. Some people think that the engine is something that "renders great models with cool shaders and so on." Others that it completely determines what kind of game will be. The third ones think that GEM3 is better than GEM2 because ? you know… It’s obvious! The third is always better.



Apparently some moments need to be clarified. Wikipedia tells us that "A game engine is a software framework designed for the creation and development of video games. The core functionality typically provided by a game engine..." So the main part here is “core” one. And this core can be quite flexible. This is easy to understand if you just compare the games that developed using the same engine. Hardly anyone would say that Lineage II and Star Wars: Republic Commando are very similar. Tyranny and Fallout Shelter can’t be called twins too. And even now Men of War…



… differs from Soldiers:Arena.




The engine determines the basic rules, and greatly simplifies the work on creating the game, because you do not need to do everything from scratch. But do not forget that this is a tool and quite changeable tool in skilled hands. Most of what we write about in the diaries is the editing of the engine. All these trenches, medics, fortifications, interface, the new gamemodes and so on - that what had to be added. By the number of changes that we made, it has long ceased to be the GEM2 that you remember. A year ago we talked about version 2.3 and even then it was rather conditional label. Since then, it has changed many times and will change more to match the goals set for Soldiers: Arena and it is not so important what number you can add after the name. If it helps you get the answers you need, you can call it even GEM42.

And we talked mainly about the gameplay functionality earlier. In addition, there is a huge piece of work, which is not so interesting to read (and write, too btw). Partly because such topics are very difficult to normally describe in an understandable language, without using a mass of terms and abbreviations. Yes, yes, jokes about the "programmer's answer" here would be ok. And these invisible, but important works go on constantly. GEM2 learned a lot.

• Carefully support partial and complete localization. At the moment almost everything except right-to-left languages.
  
• To inform the player about his success in the session, ratings, available commanders and their experience.
  
• To work with memory according to C ++ 11 standards. The selection, release, counting of the number of references to objects now passes better using the new stuff.
  
• Improved the system of quantizing units. And what has we say earlier? Terms in da house. This makes it possible to set a more realistic rate of fire for machine guns, cannons etc. And AI began to think faster.
  
• To recognize a highly detailed map of heights in the right places. Specially made this one to make possible to shoot an apple from the infantryman's head sitting in the trench using your Pak40.
  
• To understand Rim shading, Ambient bounced, HDR, LUT, gamma-correction and stuff.
  
• Gathered the tools to create games against bots, both single and multiplayer.
  
• Learned to be tolerant to different platforms. At the last test, our coders finally managed to play in the general session using the Linux and no longer feel hurt.

This list will continue to grow and GEM2 will absorb everything Soldiers: Arena needs. Guys, most of the problems that came from previous games of the series are not unsolvable. Complicated and resource-consuming, but not unbearable. The infantry already taught to themselves the complex science of not asking philosophical question before throwing a grenade. Do you remember? - they learned how to jump over fences. We know about the old problems and we try to fix them as much as possible. We realize that it is strange for the game not to have support for 64-bit processors and new graphics processing technologies in 2017 . But now gameplay features have the higher priority. And as soon as most of the functionality is ready - we will start the optimization and cosmetic works. In the meantime, we ask you to remember that GEM2 is our bro and it makes its five sets every day to become even more powerful :) Wish you all the best and we attach PZ.IV.

Hello friends.

In today's diary, we will talk about the tasks and advantages of regimental cannons in Soldiers: Arena. There will be some text (yeah, sometimes we can write short diary) and three renders: the legendary M-30 howitzer and two regimental guns. So do not rush to wear your "reading glasses". Let your eyes rest. Admire the curves and angles of the cannons our modellers have been working on.




Earlier we already wrote that we want the Soldiers: Arena units to fulfill their roles as close as possible to the real ones. The regimental cannons, originally intended to support infantry with “fire and wheels”. For example, "Quick Service Guide" for the 76 mm regimental gun M1927 tells us that it was intended for such purposes:

• the destruction of the enemy's manpower - in open field and in trenches;
  
• suppression of enemy firearms;
  
• fighting with mechanized enemy corps;
  
• destruction of wire barriers

You can see our proofs below. Unfortunately there are no English variant of this brochure, so your only option is to believe us :)



In Soldiers: Arena, they fulfill the same goals, the main one is still primarily infantry support. The artilleryman can take them to the deck too, but in the hands of an infantryman, limited by a small selection of cannons, they are simply irreplaceable: in supporting the offensive actions, suppressing the attacking infantry, destroying the enemy's artillery (at relatively close distances). Considering their mobility, rate of fire and flexibility of usage, regimental cannons will be useful at any stage of the game.

• Is the enemy trying to drag you into an infantry shootout? Don’t play his game spamming more infantry, it's better to call the gun instead.
  
• Was your attack stopped because of the enemy's stronghold and your comrades are in no hurry to help you? Take your soldiers to the rear and summon a "battery" of regimental cannons that will clear your way. And after that, occupy the territory with infantry.
  
• Are the enemy's mortars covering your positions? Make the artillerymen suffer!

Although the serial production of the M-30 was completed in 1955 (a total of 19266 guns were manufactured), the howitzer is still produced in China under the designation of the 122mm howitzer Type 54 and in the self-propelled modification Type 54-1.

Le IG 18 had a mountain modification (7.5 cm le.GebIG 18), which could be divided into 6-10 parts, the heaviest of which weighed 74.9 kg, which made it possible not only for horses but also for humans to carry it.

76 mm regimental gun M1927 in the soldier's vocabulary called "polkovushka" or emotionally "bobik" (which means mutt dog) Why “bobik”? Who knows... Maybe because the gunfire was sharp, resembling a dog's bark, maybe because the cannon jumped upon shooting, like a dog on a chain, or maybe - resembling it’s short barrel, from a chopped "nose" - just like the bobik's from the yard. But we loved it for no less, and even more than the same "Zosia", or "Farewell, Motherland". Vyacheslav Ivanovich Chaliy, commander of regimental cannons battery explained the appearance of the nickname. (С) Svirin M.N. "Bobik". Pages of life.



On this sentimental note, we say goodbye. Wish you the best!

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.


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.




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-clicking 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!

Hi, friends.

We have already talked earlier about commanders in Soldiers: Arena. About what they are and what their advantages on the battlefield are. Today we will tell you more specifics about the very concept of the commanders, but do not forget, that concept means possible changes.


I have three words for you (or rather two words and one phrase): tactics, role-playing component, teamplay. The idea of creating a tactical game with a focus on teamwork was born long ago. Even in the Men of War multiplayer were laid a lot of its components. But the format of the session, game modes, and some overcomplexity of the gameplay didn’t allow the tactical part to unfold completely. The base of the tactical component was excellent, but we wanted to enrich it, add a role-playing element and team interaction. And over time, we stopped on the commanders concept, which, coupled with the development tree, could help to achieve our goals.

Let's consider the issue in more detail. The commander is a specialization of the user within the gaming session. Basic specializations are represented by an infantryman, artilleryman and tankman. In addition to the basic, there are commanders with deeper specialization, which become available with the development of the player. For example, for an artilleryman they are: the howitzers commander, the SPGs commander and the anti-tank commander. We want 3-4 ready commanders for each type of troops before the OBT release. The unit tree (we are sure, everything is clear about it in general, and more specific we shall speak about it in future) is common for all commanders within the nation. But each commander has his own "preferences" and restrictions on the use of units. The number of units that you can take into battle is limited and often it is less than the number of units available for hire. So sometimes you have to choose - whether to take a couple more cannons or insure yourself with engineering teams. And some units are simply not available for use by certain commanders. So, for example, a tankman can take into battle a lot of tanks, several infantry squads and none of artillery units at all. The commander of heavy tanks has an even deeper specialization and operates a large number of heavy tanks than the basic commander, but has less light and medium tanks, which makes him well protected and indispensable for breakthroughs of the front line, but generally slow and disclosing his best sides close to the middle of the game.

Each commander has its own characteristics and even some game mechanics inaccessible to others. For example, the support sapper commander has twice as many engineers and they dig trenches and strengthen buildings much more quickly, and his medics can evacuate not only their own, but also allied wounded. The howitzers under the control of the appropriate commander will be able to use the special firing mode with a gunlayer. Engineer troops of the tank commander will be able to evacuate to the rear any vehicles left without crew, both allied and enemy. Special commanders do a good job for which they are intended and do worse anything else. In the game there are both balanced commanders who do a good job with most tasks, and highly specialized, which are strong in something one. But you can be sure that there are no such commanders in Soldiers: Arena, who dominate all.


Tactical part. By introducing commanders into the game, we want to create a kind of "faction within the faction" and significantly increase the number of possible tactical solutions within the session. We don’t want the game limited to waiting for the last minutes of the fight, when you can order the best cannons and tanks and finally fight. No, Soldiers: Arena must be tense every minute of the fight. Some specializations dominate only in the beginning and middle of the game, others have no such aim as domination at all, but rather help allies. We want the player to invent more and more options for victory based on the situation on the battlefield and the composition of the teams, rather than waiting for his Königstiger for the whole game.

The role-playing component. It is often perceived as leveling and customization, but first of all it is about acting the role. And in Soldiers: Arena, with the introduction of commanders, the importance of following these roles and their number have grown dramatically. Even now during the tests we see how rarely two players choosing the same units even while choosing the same commander. Some constantly rushing with the tanks at the beginning of the game and tries to tear off a bigger piece of the enemy land and give the allies opportunity to strengthen there. Some on the contrary bites into the ground and builds walls around their positions. Some using their maneuverability is constantly looking for unprotected enemy areas. Having the opportunity to choose different commanders and different troops to them, you will be able to find the role that suits best to you. And when it is bored - switch to another commander and another role.

Teamplay. When you have no hammer for every in-game nail - you have to play your role and wait for the same from the allies. We want to create a non-linear game balance in Soldiers: Arena and stimulate the teamplay, create the need to complement the ally’s minuses with your pluses. You can have many howitzers and cannons, but they cost nothing without proper cover. And killing enemies couldn’t always grant you win, especially if you did not cover the ally at the right moment and now he have no infantry to capture the territory.

This is not all that we would like to tell on the topic, and we will continue later, but for now watch the video with the work of the new suspension and rest some. Good luck!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe6y5rToWzc&feature=youtu.be

Hello friends.

In today's diary, we will tell you a little about the section of user interface that helps you to control your units: hotbar and quick access bar. But remember, my friend, that everything shown on the screenshots is a working concept. To bring the interface to it’s fullest potential, we need all features to be implemented and this is possible only closer to the release. So, looking at the screenshots, remember what Confucius said at this point "If you hate an alpha-build, then you’re defeated by alpha-build”.


Indeed so! But the industry does not stand still, standards change, and, most importantly, in Soldiers: Arena, the pace of the game is a little faster. These means making the interface responsive and intuitive is the priority task. The old interface was occupying a good quarter of the entire screen and was doing this without days off and holidays. Most of the important buttons were in the lower left part of the command panel, which made you constantly distracted from the fight. And you had little possibilities to configure this panel. In addition, it even displayed impossible-to-use commands, which misled the newcomer and was simply inconvenient. In Soldiers: Arena the number of possible commands has become even bigger, as many new features have been added to the old functionality: entrenching, strengthening buildings, sending medics, suppressing fire, and active perks are on their way. With so many commands, it was impossible to make it work properly without the reworking the interface.

We realized that the interface should be informative, intuitive and flexible. To ensure that a beginner won’t lose his mind with a staggering amount of information, and in addition we’re looking forward to enable the seasoned players to customize the interface for themselves so as to use all twenty fingers on their four hands. We have already achieved some successes in this field, but there is still a lot of work to be made.


Hotbar in Soldiers: Arena looks like this.



As you can see, only the available commands are highlighted. Unavailable at the moment are darkened. If we select another unit - hotbar will change and display other commands.



Now the hotbars are configured by types: infantry, tank, artillery. In the future, we plan to deepen this system so that each unit has its own hotbar and the player will only see the commands of the selected unit. So darkening is a temporary half-measure, but even with it you are not distracted by buttons that are inaccessible to use. While it is not entirely clear whether we will be able to do this until the start of the beta, but we are trying to do so. The possibilities for customizing the hotbar have also expanded significantly. Now you can add the commands you need from the extensive list shown below.



To call the quick access bar you need to press F button. This bar is divided into four groups. In the screenshot below, we see that a group with common commands is selected, which includes the commands of movement, shooting, inspection and so on.



A group with specific commands for vehicles / artillery, where you can choose the type of projectile, change the position from combat to marching, strengthen, etc.



Here is the group of system commands, where you can customize the displaying of other interface details: maps, battle statistics, highlighting units and so on.



As you can see some commands even have the “working” names :) And here is the group of commands for the infantry.



Hot keys are binded now, not on the functional F1-12, but the numbers 1-0. We try to make the interface intuitively understandable, and most of us still used to see hot keys binded to numbers. And F-keys are now occupied by commands for allies. Clicking them you can put a marker on the map and send a message to the chat with a call to action. So it became even easier to ask something. "Attack", "Intelligence is needed", "Urgent need of whining about health bars" - the choice of commands will satisfy up to the most refined tastes.



This does not cover all the interface, because there is also a start menu, a context menu, a development tree and the associated tool for creating an army and much more. And we will tell you about everything, but not this time. Bye!

Hello friends. Today we will talk about medium tanks. Their role in Soldiers: Arena, their strengths, and review some usual ways of getting your ideas to the enemy with the example of the PzKpfw III’s family.




A commander specializing in medium tanks is an excellent choice for those who appreciate the balance between maneuverability and firepower. Do you prefer a set of overall tools for all occasions instead a narrow focus on a particular aspect? Then the medium tank commander is what you need. When the enemy strikes you mounted on a powerful but slow Tiger - we'll take two PzKpfw IV’s and break through his flank. The speed of medium tanks allows you to choose a maneuverable fighting style, appearing from your hidden locations only to strike the enemy. You shall deliver a rather meaningful strike, because medium tank guns are usually sufficient to defeat most of the enemy's firing points. Choosing medium tanks you must fight aggressively and quickly. You should be especially active in the early and middle stages of the battle. That's your moment of glory, when you can inflict maximum damage to the enemy, pinning down the infantry, levelling the fortifications to the bitter pieces and helping teammates to break through the enemy's defenses. You should always be in the midst of battle!. Trying to shoot with heavy tanks or artillery through the entire map is a bad idea. But if you make proper use of your resources, the game will already be in your hands, when the enemy heavy tanks appear.




In the game, this handsome little one from the cover art is currently represented in two modifications: F and J. There are three more self-propelled guns based on PzKpfw III: StuG III ausf. B, StuG III ausf. G and StuH 42 ausf. G, but we will not talk about them now. Containing all the advantages and disadvantages of medium tanks, PzKpfw III has one additional excellence. This is the only medium tank available in the early game. And this means that even from the first minutes of the battle it is possible to hunt artillery tanks such as BT-7A, which are so fond of shooting from afar. And the rest of the light tanks don’t even need to be mentioned. In the heat of combat, supported by your comrades, PzKpfw III even in the early game can snatch one third of the map.

https://youtu.be/p9PECvI4ao0

And then: strengthening, defending, pushing again. Repeat until victory. But we do not recommend to be impudent. After all, the enemy team may have a commander of the anti-tank regiment. Against these guys any tank is prone to become a steel coffin.


By the time of the invasion to the USSR PzKpfw III was the main battle tank of the Wehrmacht. On June 22, 1941, in divisions directed to the USSR, there were about 1000 machines of this type, which amassed around a 25 to 34% of the total number of tanks sent to the USSR.



At the end of the summer of 1940, 168 Panzerkampfwagen III tanks of F, G and H modifications were converted for underwater travel and were to be used for landing on the English coast. The depth of the dive was 15 m; Fresh air was supplied by a hose length of 18 m and a diameter of 20 cm. This miracle of engineering had the name Tauchpanzer III.



In addition to twelve modifications and an underwater tank based on the Panzerkampfwagen III, there were the Panzerbefehlswagen III commander's tank, the observation armored car of artillery, several German SPGs and three Soviet ones (SU-76i, SU-85i, SG-122) and, of course, the flamethrower tank Flammpanzer III Sd.Kfz. 141/3).



And what modifications of PzKpfw III do you want to see in Soldiers: Arena?

Hi, friends.

We continue to share with you the latest development results. Now we are working on a system of visibility zones (further viewports) in Soldiers:Arena. We have repeatedly said that between balance and realism, we will rather choose the former. But this is only in a situation where the choice is inevitable. In most cases, you can get both. And our today's diary about a similar case. Any unit in Soldiers:Arena has its own set of viewports and we now writing and changing for them some general and particular rules. We add viewports to the commander's machine guns and usual ones, to all observation slots. We added dependence on the unit type. For example, the SPG with closed superstructure sees much less compared to an open-top one.




Each unit has a viewport suitable for its combat tasks, strengths and weaknesses. For example, the best round viewport will be found in the motorcycles and special infantry like jaegers ( you helped to find the name for them). Units, that rely on brains, scouting and reconnaissance more than a fistful of steel. And heavy tanks have the worst in comparison. That's why they need more support than others.

As we already wrote earlier, the cannon crews are now not so visible when shooting. In fact, their exact location is unknown until they reach the enemy's field of vision. In addition, they have better gun viewports in comparison with the tank ones. This combination makes them dangerous on long distances. But if you let the tank close enough - this particular cannon will soon be no more.

There are some types of infantry in the game with a camouflage skill and most other units can only see them from a close distance. Besides jaegers, special forces, officers and saboteurs who can detect them on the entire field of view. It should be noted that loud shooting unmasks any fighter. Therefore, in the arsenal of some squads there is a silenced weapon, shooting from which doesn’t lead to detection.


Next, for a better visualization of the process, we’ll show some screenshots from the editor, which show the viewports in their debug mode. You won’t see any unnecessary lines in the game ofc. So here is the specific visual example. Here is our KV-1.



It is so lonely and lifeless. But by just putting a soldier in it will trigger the round and driver’s viewports to start functioning.



We'll send two more guys there and viewports of the main gun and rear turret machine gun will start to work.



And here, for example, an armored vehicle, fully loaded with infantry, ready to kill any living creatures offending or defending.



Viewports are now at the development stage, so do not hesitate to write your suggestions in comments.

Best wishes from Best Way! We love you! Honestly, honestly :)