Close Combat February Update

[Benedict151]

Hello everyone
Apologies, its some time since we last did one of these and thanks for your continued patience and polite enquiries.

We're putting together a more expansive news update but I wanted to give you guys a quick heads up of where we are.
Firstly (as some of you have been suggesting) the game will release this year (that's 2018 for those of you who have been following this long running saga for sometime). This is obviously far later than we ever planned but changing not only platforms but also the game engine have taken their toll timewise - and its fair to say we had underestimated some of the challenges involved.
However - things are really starting to roll now and everyone is feeling optimistic that the finishing line is now in sight.

Over the past few months the emphasis has been on getting a playable alpha version ready - and by playable I mean a version that runs outside of the development environment that can be used outside of the Close Combat team and Matrix.
This has now been done and we're (or rather Steve and the team) are rounding off some of the rougher edges and implementing a few 'user friendly' updates. Currently we're working on some UI polish, adding some extra art assets, testing the first campaign and refining the load/save system.

When this is done we'll have our first genuine alpha version and we plan on using this to start some limited outside testing and we will of course keep you posted on this.

In the meantime, please see below for a screenshot from a recent build.

regards
Ben Wilkins

[mickxe5]

Good to see the progress being made on TBF.

A few Qs -

What are those thick gray arrows emanating from the two M10s?

What is being represented by the two stacked GE unit icons along the left screen edge?

The smoke plumes from burning vehicles affect the player's map visibility. Will they also affect LOS?

Will rooftops be removed to reveal bldg interiors if a player's unit inside is selected?

[SteveMcClaire]

ORIGINAL: mickxe5
What are those thick gray arrows emanating from the two M10s?

These show the movement path the unit is/was taking.

What is being represented by the two stacked GE unit icons along the left screen edge?

Enemy units off the screen in that direction. The red border indicates the currently selected unit does not have line of sight to them. You can interact with these screen edge icons (like targeting them with a fire order) without having to scroll the map.

The smoke plumes from burning vehicles affect the player's map visibility. Will they also affect LOS?

They will, though they 'rise' rapidly and thus won't often get in the way of ground level LOS.

Will rooftops be removed to reveal bldg interiors if a player's unit inside is selected?

Yes they will. Men from the selected team area also highlighted (see the bright white outline around soldiers in the screenshot) and the outline will appear even if they're behind something (like a tree.)

Steve

[zakblood]

nice[;)]

[mickxe5]

Thanks Steve. Of course one question leads to another...

Is the length of those gray movement arrows just a matter of perspective (closest being bigger/longer) or do they represent different movement types (arrowhead=sneak; short=move; long=move fast)? Or does the tip of the arrow indicate destination, replacing the old color-coded move dots? Wondering how those move arrows are going to work with waypoints.

The off-screen enemy icons explain why the Teams monitor is indented from the map edge. Assume those icons will rotate around the screen edge as the view field rotates, jogging around the minimap and Soldier monitor as they go. Will interacting with those icons indicate which of your units do have LOS to them? Also, curious why the third off-screen enemy unit, in the same general direction as the two shown, doesnt have a screen edge icon?

Will soldier outlines be color-coded to show suppression, morale, ammo status etc.? If so, will there be hot keys for those statuses rather than having to go into game options?

Looking at the fire line cursor over the Soldier monitor (Watkins is beserk!), will we be able to select a soldier in the Soldier monitor and get something like the yellow CC selection square on him? Or will left clicking within that monitor still click thru to the map?

Are those rooster tails of dust behind the 2 panzers or engine exhaust? The upper one is bigger and whiter. Is he moving faster than the lower one?

Those broken, bailed-out M10 crews look like theyve taken cover rather than continuing to rout off the map. Will bailed crews be useful at all in combat? Will bailed crews eventually get 'leg' icons with a NATO armor type rather than vehicle silhouettes?

Will enemy infantry get tagged with unit specific icons (MG, AT, CMD etc) or just a generic infantry icon? Or generic until observed at close range or they reveal their function (eg. by firing a pzschreck or flamethrower). Likewise, will a spotted but unidentified enemy vehicle just get a generic vehicle icon until better identified?In any event, players are going to want more game immersion with an option to toggle off unit icons.

Im hoping for an extreme fog of war setting, both for realism and play balance, where I dont know things like which VLs belong to who (or nobody yet), or whether enemy infantry is ambushing within a bldg because their casualties cry out when I fire at it, or the location of unseen enemy units because their casualties appear even when outside of my LOS.

I like the timestamps on the combat mssgs. Interested to see how the expanded toolbar looks and works.

[mickxe5]

Those barrier walls should pose some interesting tactical situations, from breaching actions to grenade duels between units on opposite sides of the wall.

[Hexagon]

Thanks for the pic and info.

Well, i need admit that looks a lot better than the last images released, maybe is the desert map that looks more... modern and less ugly.

In the UI...

I like see that white line to conect unit counter with the 3D unit (maybe could be used to show more info, diferent colour to know if unit is in command range or other valuable info) but i still think game needs offer coloured bases for vehicles and specially soldiers to made them more visible... i see that when you have mouse over the soldier area in the unit panel is showed in white over the map 3D soldier, this made him visible and is good but a coloured base activate when player need it help you know who is alive and not.

The UI in general for my taste is to empty and not very informative, the units lists are to simple and not very informative... in relation space used-info showed ratio is very low, i really think that old CC5 unit panel in comparison used not a lot more space and offer more usable info, now the resolutions used in PCs are bigger and return to the old CC5 unit panel has less impact, even is possible made 2 versions, one like classic CC5 and other like the one you use now.

I am curious if soldiers status are going to use a colour code or not in the unit panel... red-yellow-green-white.

NATO counters could use more colours like made the NATO symbol use a diferent colour based in the unit type... red arty, yellow recon, green infantry, brown armored...

In general looks better, lets see if continue.

[Nomada_Firefox]

Very good. I have not questions because I have made all them before and I like a lot what I see in the screens. Very similar to a old CC but with the addition from a 3D engine.

[Benedict151]

Hello there
I an answer some of these

ORIGINAL:
Is the length of those gray movement arrows just a matter of perspective (closest being bigger/longer) or do they represent different movement types (arrowhead=sneak; short=move; long=move fast)? Or does the tip of the arrow indicate destination, replacing the old color-coded move dots? Wondering how those move arrows are going to work with waypoints.

At the moment its a matter of perspective and the tip of the arrow shows the destination. We are still pondering how to deal with waypoints and showing the different movement orders available

ORIGINAL:
The off-screen enemy icons explain why the Teams monitor is indented from the map edge. Assume those icons will rotate around the screen edge as the view field rotates, jogging around the minimap and Soldier monitor as they go. Will interacting with those icons indicate which of your units do have LOS to them? Also, curious why the third off-screen enemy unit, in the same general direction as the two shown, doesnt have a screen edge icon?

Yes they will rotate around as you rotate the map. Whether they will show which of your teams has LoS to them they don't currently but its an interesting idea (and something we have been discussing in a different context)
As for the 3rd enemy team in the example, to be honest not sure

ORIGINAL:
Will soldier outlines be color-coded to show suppression, morale, ammo status etc.? If so, will there be hot keys for those statuses rather than having to go into game options?

TBD

ORIGINAL:
Are those rooster tails of dust behind the 2 panzers or engine exhaust? The upper one is bigger and whiter. Is he moving faster than the lower one?

Dust - and yes, if you move faster you kick up more dust

ORIGINAL:
Those broken, bailed-out M10 crews look like theyve taken cover rather than continuing to rout off the map. Will bailed crews be useful at all in combat? Will bailed crews eventually get 'leg' icons with a NATO armor type rather than vehicle silhouettes?

Bailed out crews will not be useful in combat and they will eventually get their own icon. I am continually being surprised at the moment by tanks turning out to be forlorn crews!

ORIGINAL:
Will enemy infantry get tagged with unit specific icons (MG, AT, CMD etc) or just a generic infantry icon? Or generic until observed at close range or they reveal their function (eg. by firing a pzschreck or flamethrower). Likewise, will a spotted but unidentified enemy vehicle just get a generic vehicle icon until better identified?In any event, players are going to want more game immersion with an option to toggle off unit icons.

They will be given their specific icons. Nice idea to only give details at "short range" or when they reveal themselves. Something to think about


regards
Ben Wilkins

[Benedict151]

Thanks for your thoughts Hexagon

We'll be looking at these sort of issues during alpha

regards
Ben Wilkins

[Neogodhobo]

I agree with Hexagon, it seems a lot was taken out from previous CC as far as not being very informative. I want to know if my soldiers have wives, children, families to take care, their social class and income....

All joking aside, I actually wish you could see those info [X(] , then you would feel really bad when you send your soldiers on suicidal task. But yes, a little more info would be great.
Personally, CC5 : Invasion Normandy was the BEST.... THE BEST [&o] CC there ever was. I only wished CC5 had the same graphics of Gateway to Caen, then Id be in heaven.

But what can you do. Il wait for the release of this one and see for myself but it seems like it took a more mainstream approach ?

[mickxe5]

ORIGINAL:
Will enemy infantry get tagged with unit specific icons (MG, AT, CMD etc) or just a generic infantry icon? Or generic until observed at close range or they reveal their function (eg. by firing a pzschreck or flamethrower). Likewise, will a spotted but unidentified enemy vehicle just get a generic vehicle icon until better identified?In any event, players are going to want more game immersion with an option to toggle off unit icons.
_______________________________________________________________________

They will be given their specific icons. Nice idea to only give details at "short range" or when they reveal themselves. Something to think about

A step back from the current CC method on the Overview map where spotted but unidentified enemy infantry get the question mark (?) icon. Even on the tactical map unidentified enemy inf dont reveal their team type when moused over. In TBF if I were to see a lone enemy Command infantry icon I'd safely assume there were other, unseen enemy infantry units nearby. Or if those two enemy soldiers lurking in the weeds were always tagged as an AT team I'd know to keep my vehicles at a safe distance.

In modifying CC for my own use Ive found that maximizing the players FOW helps offset deficiencies in the AI, substantially improving solo play balance.

[zakblood]

seems games coming along nicely as it's moved into coming soon, congrats all

[&o]

[SteveMcClaire]

Couple points from the discussion so far:

The missing edge icon is probably a fading contact (one you've lost sight of but is still shown for ~30 seconds) as the mini-map dots aren't going transparent yet.

There are still several levels of unit identification that are in the code but not yet represented in the UI due to lack of proper icons. Unknown enemy units will get a very generic icon / label like 'infantry' or 'tank' or 'gun.' The next step up is more specific function like 'machine gun' or 'light tank' or 'anti-tank gun.' You'll have to fully identify an enemy unit before you'll be able to see it's a command team, or know if it's an MG34 or MG42, for example. Of course there are other clues, like the vehicle models or the weapon sounds, which an experienced player can use to identify things as well.

As you can probably see from the discussion so far, we're still iterating over the UI and the big questions like LOS / spotting / displaying information. So your feedback is appreciated.

Thanks,

Steve

[Rosseau]

I have every game of course, but the expectations will be high on this one. Especially regarding previous pathfinding problems, etc. So good hunting those bugs [;)]

[bazza05]

There's an article on Polygons website that provides a little more detail about the progress they've made with The Bloody First. It even includes a small animation. I can't post the link as my account is not old enough. Maybe someone else could post it? Worth a look and read. The GIF gives me hope the light is at the end of a long tunnel finally.

B.

[zakblood]

here you go and welcome to the forum and board

Code: Select all

https://www.polygon.com/2018/2/20/17033518/close-combat-the-bloody-first-delay-2014-release-date

[Nomada_Firefox]

Steve, can you publish the same images from this article https://www.polygon.com/2018/2/20/17033 ... lease-date with better size? with this small size we can not see the details and increasing the size in the browser will not give us better detail.

[mickxe5]

Here is a better version of that with 'save as' available. A large still of the initial frame.

Good to see how the movement arrows help define terrain elevation. The voice SFX are classic.

The Polygon article raises an interesting question - is it Steve McClare or McClure?

[Quadie]

Can't tell you how pleased I am to see these recent images. We're all rooting for the team and know you'll do your best with what you have. I imagine it's been a hard slog but to finally see some light at the end of the tunnel must be a huge relief even if you're not quite there yet!

I'm no games developers neither am I a market researcher but there is only one thing that concerns me. There have been a few developers who have moved their game from the niche market to what they think is main stream, often removing themselves from the uniqueness and remarkable aspects of the game which was ironically their reason for success! As a witness to a handful of developers alienating their current fan-base and ultimately digging their own grave, I'm wondering if you plan to appease main stream gamers and if you are how do you plan on tackling it? [:D]

Very forward question I know but so many times have I seen a classic try to be something else only to fall flat on it's face and never to be seen again!

I can't actually see that myself but it's the only thing that comes to mind right now.