Development updates - Unity version

[bracer]

Hey everyone!
I have taken a quite drastic turn and decided to port the project over to Unity!
My own engine sadly couldn't keep up with my needs.
It has taken some time, but as you'll see, it's been well worth the time investment!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg-sJEuUlTI

Battleship Command is a naval war simulator set in the second world war. It's simulating the technologies of the era including the naval vessels, aircraft and the development of radio and radar. The player focus will be on controlling a single battleship hands on and to some extent manage the strategy of other units both naval and air.

[Sonarman]

Looks superb Bracer, you seem to have become comfortable with Unity very quickly will be great so see how the sim evolves going forward.

[bracer]

Looks superb Bracer, you seem to have become comfortable with Unity very quickly will be great so see how the sim evolves going forward.


Thanks Sonarman!
Yes, after working with my own engine for a few years, Unity is a breeze :-)
One of the biggest advantages is that you can use C# in Unity, which I prefer.

My own engine was written in Pascal :o, an old language. Don't ask why, haha!

[bracer]

If anyone likes Discord, you can find my channel here: https://discord.gg/DtHGqb7Ucx

[bracer]

Here's a few new screens to enjoy!
Currently I am working hard on AI management, specially your control over AI in your fleet.
Like setting their rules of engagement and which targets to attack.
If you don't set a target, they will do the prioritizing themselfs.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1050176481772449802/postp.pnghttps://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1050176482154127431/postp2.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1050176482519035984/t2.png

[bracer]

Happy holidays! I've been spending some time on the radar and finally added a feature I've been wanting for a while, that the radar detects land masses!


https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1056675855700590592/radarLand.png

[bracer]

I've been working on the onboard crew to help with spotting and gunnery. The three fire director stations all work independently, and any of them can be AI controlled. The three main guns can be connected to any fire director, so in the extreme case each gun can have a director each and fire at three different targets. Or you could control the top fire director, directing gun Anton and Bruno, shooting at targets ahead, while the AI is controlling the aft fire director, aiming gun Ceasar at targets behind you.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1058119567718744144/splitFire.png

[bracer]

Happy New Year!
Today I had the Scharnhorst and a whole bunch of Hippers out training turns in formation.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1058913957739503696/turnFormation2.pnghttps://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1058913958167330876/turnFormation5.png


In most cases it works fine!
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1058914084290056232/hardTurnFormation.png


But in some cases it lead to a month or two in drydock reparing a bow or so...
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1058914318365753404/crash.png


Back to the shed and code some collision avoidance!
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1058914476918841444/formation2.png

[Oubaas]

I'm watching this one with great interest. Thanks for the updates!

:Kaleun_Salute:

[bracer]

I'm watching this one with great interest. Thanks for the updates!

:Kaleun_Salute:
Thanks! I am glad the project interests you!


During this week I have made the smaller AA guns functional
https://youtu.be/DGVa5jGKK5Q

[TheGreatElector]

Thanks! I am glad the project interests you!


During this week I have made the smaller AA guns functional
https://youtu.be/DGVa5jGKK5Q

This looks amazing, been watching your development and i just subscribed to your channel. Can't wait to see how this goes! Thank you for sharing! :Kaleun_Salute:

[bracer]

Thanks mate!
It makes me very happy to hear that others are interested in this project!


I've been working on the airplane AI and doing torpedo attacks. This is after all one of the real battleship killers of the wwii. But the AI ships can also fight back now!
Here you can follow a few Swordfish planes doing their thing, and doing it well.
As you can see the Swordfish/torpedo models are still unfinished or placeholders...
Cheers!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSD1iPE80WE

[bracer]

Hey!

I've taken a break from coding AI and instead been giving the terrain generator some love.
First I've switched to a mercator projection, which do make the sizes of the contries in the north bigger than those near the equator.
But the landmasses look less stretched than in my previous terrain data setup. After some tuning of the heights I think the scale looks fairly good.
The resolution of the land can be increase further with my interpolation system, but that will wait until I'll start modifying points of interest by hand and adding structures.
Roughly the playable terrain covers from Svalbard in the north to the canaries in the south. From Greenland to Murmansk, west to east.


Teneriffa
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1068309720026316901/teneriffa.png


Kaafjord whit Tirpitz in the photo.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1068310281211609148/kaafjord.png


Gibraltal, looking south.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1068310486170468402/gibraltar.png


A certain volcano in Italy.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1068310593997643826/vesuvius.png



Nida, Lithuania.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1068310750671667321/nida.png

[bracer]

Hey!
Look! I finally took the time to record some gameplay.
Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/9yDoFA3E24E

[Onkel Neal]

Excellent, front page stuff. :Kaleun_Salute:

[bracer]

Thanks alot, Neal! Much appreciated! :Kaleun_Salute:

[Oubaas]

Excellent video. It's looking great! This one is definite for me when it's released! :yeah:

:Kaleun_Salute:

[Kipparikalle]

This looks really good :Kaleun_Cheers:
And you picked the german ship as well, few things beat a good old fashioned "underdog" setting.

[bracer]

Thanks guys!
Yeah, the Scharnhorst is setup for some interesting gameplay.
She was built to outrun anything stronger then her, and outgun anything faster.

[Sulikate]

Really like both premise and scope - looks very promising!

[dsawan]

This is awesome. But can you tell us what pc specs are needed to run this when released? Will there be a non-steam version and also a low end version for those who have older windows pc's?

[Aktungbby]

Sulikate!:Kaleun_Salute:...after a 2year 'silent run'!:up:

[bracer]

This is awesome. But can you tell us what pc specs are needed to run this when released? Will there be a non-steam version and also a low end version for those who have older windows pc's?


Thanks!
I am quite keen on having it perform well, so it should be playable on older PC's. I will test it on older PC's and see how it runs at the moment.
I havn't decided yet how to sell the game, but I am leaning towards Steam. It's also possible that I will also sell it on my own page.

[dsawan]

Yes, my friends and cohorts prefer a non-steam purchase too. As for low end, I use a vista windows 7 pc. Hoping it can work on that as well.

[iambecomelife]

Nice work; I would really like to have a scenario involving HMS Glorious! Maybe with options to have Glorious handled more effectively than she really was, or with a whole flight of Swordfish ready. Would make for interesting outcomes. :up: Beautiful terrain and vessel models BTW.

[Sulikate]

Sulikate!:Kaleun_Salute:...after a 2year 'silent run'!:up:
Ahoy! It's been way too long. Glad to see the community's still thriving, with new projects like this cropping up and all :subsim:

[bracer]

Hey!

The last few weeks I've spent more time on the map, which now also lets you control your friendly ships and give them basic orders.
Now I have also started to work on a more advanced AI grouping/convoy system.
It is looking quite promising! In the screenshots you can see a 24 ships that are spawned in, and after a button press I force them to organize themselfs into a convoy.

Starts out as chaos, but after a while they manage to line up nicely.


(Map image is a gif, probably click it to play if it doesn't autoplay...)

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821087117215399948/1095803849601732789/mapWPs.gif
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1102365244719890553/con1.pnghttps://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1102365245219016755/con2.pnghttps://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1102365245739106394/con3.pnghttps://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1102365247475552276/con6.png

[bracer]

Work on the AI is starting to pay off! To test the AI properly I had to build a new scenario setup screen to quickly be able to battle groups against eachother. Now it's quite fun to watch the AI fight.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1108118824970113034/11.png

Here I had a group of Hippers find a big convoy, which was overwhelmingly escorted.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1108119111839535154/1.pnghttps://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1108119112300896277/2.pnghttps://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1108119112653226065/3.pnghttps://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1108119112976191649/4.png
The Hippers were quickly encircled by the Brittish force.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1108119365771083796/5.pnghttps://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1108119366328918148/6b.pnghttps://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1108119367583023164/7.pnghttps://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1108119490522267668/9.pnghttps://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1108119491163983882/10.png

[Sulikate]

Thanks for the update! It's great to see new features coming to life :arrgh!:

[bracer]

Hey everyone!
Finally time for a little update.
I have been hard at work with the ai and various controlls for the ship.
More importantly I've reached some big milestones regarding time compression, handling abstractions of ai ships and a custom mission editor.
The time compression allows for having missions set over large distances, large distances means many ships needs to be simulated.
That's why I have implemented a way to simulate ships far away in an abstract manner, cheaply, so that I can have hundreds of ships travelling the Atlantic.
With this done, I could start on my mission editor. And you can see I've been busy playing with it.
And here's a long gameplay video for y'all:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aM4ZvZUhGY

Cheers!

[Oubaas]

Looking good! I'm paying full attention. Keep us posted.

:Kaleun_Salute:

[bracer]

Here is a few small clips I cutted together from August play tests.
https://youtu.be/kVNUSHRLJ5w?si=iuzHkANadeVe4M0y

[agathosdaimon]

its all looking good! i need to get back on to supportign the patreon when i doing a bit better financially

[agathosdaimon]

i just saw the controversy with unity - that they want to start charging developers per every install of games with unity engine - seems ridiculous as an idea and would make indie game dev with unity impossible - you might want to keep you old engine there as a back up if unity actually goes down this path

[bracer]

Hey Mitch!
I hope all is well!
Yeah, this new Unity pricing plan looks crazy.
Luckily so far it won't affect me, since i would have to sell atleast 200.000 copies the first year. Which I guess is rather optimistic for such a niche game.
And when I would reach 200.000 installs, I would have to still be earning $200.000 the last 12 months for it to take affect.
So, I am not worried, but I do feel that it's a brutal change for those that it does affect...

[Oubaas]

Due to the incredible uproar caused by their unmitigated treachery, Unity has walked back some, but not all, of their ill-advised new pricing scheme.

Unity Walks Back New Engine Pricing After Protests (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/unity-walks-back-new-engine-pricing-after-protests/ar-AA1heTxG)

Unfortunately for Unity, they have lost the trust of the developer community despite semi-repenting. Many developers have sworn to never use the engine again, and a number of popular Unity titles are being urgently converted to different engines. Unity has shot itself in the foot. Lawsuits are probably coming.

:Kaleun_Salute:

[bracer]

Hi everyone!

During early autumn I decided to tackle my old system for terrain generation which was rather slow and low resolution.
Instead of using Unitys built in terrains for rendering my heightdata I am now generating custom meshes where
I much easier can add some procedural noice to increase the terrain detail as well as higher resolution procedural textures.

The visuals, like the shader and textures still needs some love...
And also some variations in the different climate zones would be needed.

I also took the chance to develop a tree generation system for the new terrain. It's all very fast and
you can travel without any hickups at high time compression from Norway through the English channel down to Morocco.
With the new terrain generator in place, it's time to move on the another big project; getting the secondary guns working.
First step was to improve the models.
This is the SK C/28 guns in C/34 twin turrets. There was four of this twin turrets and four in single turrets.
This type of turret was developed from a cruiser turret, and for economic reasons they used the back plates from the old turrets.
Problem was that the new type of turret had different layout, so the door hatch in the back plate couldn't be used. :k_confused:
So they bolted it shut, placed a ladder on top of it and let the crew enter via the emergency roof hatch instead!

Cheers!


https://i.imgur.com/3YCicy6.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1166733650616926308/15cm1.png?ex=654b9063&is=65391b63&hm=cd77d9e15f100deab396635f18546c93e59ff8ca723c7c3 e1c696a21f601384c&
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1166733651090878545/15cm2.png?ex=654b9063&is=65391b63&hm=9c361ab69caccdb23b0a09e17757a8235aff5699db5c545 53e1ef5dd8aeb434b&
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1166733651564843018/15cm3.png?ex=654b9063&is=65391b63&hm=4071938759f69b8dece0ff7c0c77d6677f76c7b82c92a1f 4941e86bd741971e6&
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1166733652114292837/15cm4.png?ex=654b9063&is=65391b63&hm=95684d572891ee50a72d5e52e9138758c41c2c668fbd305 6659a586e04fdf078&

[bracer]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CENX3hgFR2o&lc=Ugxrl2KxBGLqvlC3fh14AaABAg

[bracer]

Hey!
I am working on improving damage systems and handling flooding and fires on the ship. Nothing to really show off there yet.
On the more visual side of things I am working on searchlights and star shells, as well as updating the weather system.
https://youtu.be/hWYb8wCjz1A?si=_Z4R9a-sURWr8Uws

Cheers!


https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/812567410733088778/1179114770104844318/nightfight.png?ex=65789b34&is=65662634&hm=cccf5acff152c9153a743691e44812900a2ccbaf46417c4 fc35818fc7e42d353&https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/812567410733088778/1179114770876604426/abc.png?ex=65789b34&is=65662634&hm=121868e46e4f0573a5acac4a1236e91b20635a2b520da80 eb5639f61c4f3d80a&

[bracer]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1179805190682066964/sf2.png?ex=657b1e35&is=6568a935&hm=7290f82f9fd3dd94c6be68edfac23a4e3c18ccbc8a9ac4d 18958966c5ead9c60&https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821092552681324574/1179805191562858666/sf3.png?ex=657b1e35&is=6568a935&hm=de2cd3a5b78096acfb31d546e33e28e41e678071a36636e 40c44b028e3c522f2&

[bracer]

Hey!
I finally finished some heavy work on the AI and now I am doing some tests with a newly compiled build.
Seems to run just fine!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iGrssvIibM


:salute:

[bracer]

https://youtu.be/mmsYeQm-wRs?si=B41sbe9uATz4_Bqp
https://youtu.be/J6sWUgms3JM?si=Tzc0slgLBSPhI9yu

[Sonarman]

Love the new lighting effects, the fluid zoom on the fire control station and the subtle texture work on the various surfaces eg the glazing, metallics and checker plate etc, really starting to come to life now, great work Bracer.

[bracer]

Thanks Sonarman!


Here's a glimpse of a test scenario I run now and then to check that I didn't mess with the performance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twBfvhDhIKI