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End of March Update - More Units
🕑 Added 2025-03-31 01:37:49 +0000 UTCHello everyone,
First off, this month was mostly spent continuing to update old artwork and replace it with new stuff to fit the new graphics system, as well as redoing most of the game's color palette files, as the previous ones were very outdated (color palettes are a very oldschool way of doing things, but they do present a huge advantage for VRAM optimization). Here's a screenshot of most of the current units lined up for size comparison. Note that this is by no means all the units, or all the planned units, just the ones that are presentable at the moment.
We've also updated a few Warband buildings.
We've got a few new units as well. Since we haven't seen much of the Collective infantry, I figured it'd be best to get a few in.
Hazard troopers are the Collective's baseline infantry, and like the basic infantry of other factions, they can be used to clear debris and will be used to build trenches.
Combat Pioneers are better used in close-range engagements, and can serve as a useful defensive infantry, as they can deploy automated sentry guns to better create light defensive positions (note that this logic is still being worked on).
We've also altered the role of the Powersuit unit. It's now a dedicated anti-tank infantry, which deals substantial damage to vehicles, and stunlocks them momentarily. It's also a solid choice against infantry as well, but is fairly expensive overall, and so not something you should over-rely on.
Also in general, Tesla weapons will now be the domain the the Collective faction, as some gameplay changes fit their playstyle better. Specifically, Tesla weapons in general will be quite powerful, but must be in range of a power generator to operate. This doesn't mean that you need to build a generator near these combat units, since Collective power generators can be packed up and repositioned. Units with Tesla weapons will also fall back on conventional weapons if they are out of range of a generator, so they aren't totally helpless.
This also doesn't mean that the Empire faction will no longer get access to the Tesla Tank. Rather, the Imperial Tesla Tank is only accessible if they capture a Collective factory, and so is now one of the game's hybrid units.
There's also this funny guy for the Warband.
Rather than use something basic like a bazooka, Warband anti-tank infantry are these strange fellows carrying a clutch of funny little legless mutants, who want nothing more than to end their suffering by serving as a living bomb. While otherwise defenseless, these bomb-throwers effectively carry a collection of living guided bombs.
We've also made some further optimizations. While the game still has a decent load time on startup, loading up a map - either an actual game or a map in the map editor - is now virtually instantaneous. This is obviously good but has also been a lifesaver for testing, since it makes jumping back and forth between the editor and a game very fast, so saves us a ton of time in testing.
We were also contacted by a German gaming publication, who wanted us to submit a short teaser trailer for their Find Your Next Game show, which airs from April 11th to the 13th, so if you're in Germany, you should be able to catch that.
That's all for now. Next month we should have way more units to show off, as the pipeline for creating new assets (including infantry, which were a huge pain before due to all their animations) has been hugely optimized. Thanks for the continued support.
Comments
Henske
Weapons teams in general are something that I haven't made any updated art for in a long time, since there's some special logic we need to implement to get them to work right
Decommanda
What happened to the Collectives Missile Team? That looked pretty cool.
Henske
In general, Empire tends to get focused on since they're the testing ground for most of the game's broad mechanics.
Uneuclid
deleted the last comment cuz i realized hazard infantry IS the standard NWO trooper, but if i were to reword my last comment: I hope we get to see more concept art of the other two factions, looking online the Empire is the only faction with public concept art and id just love to see more
Henske
We actually technically already have logic for vehicles leaving tracks in the terrain, though it hasn't been tested and I haven't created the art assets for it. I may test it out sometime this month, though it's unclear how that system would interact with things like slopes.
Petr Tůma
One thing I always loved in RTS games was when wrecks stayed on the battlefield and spent shell casings actually landed and remained on the ground — I’m so happy D.O.R.F. does this! These kinds of details add so much to immersion. What I do miss, though, are wheel and track marks from vehicles on the terrain, like in the classic game Z (1996). Are you considering adding something like that in the future? It would be awesome!
