Development Updates

[Usurpator]

Hello Everyone!

This week Axel's continued working on the texture streaming framework, as well as looking into terrain loading/shaders. Oscar's making progress on the net code. It's getting there! Einar is unwrapping/texturing the VIIC/41 tower.

[Usurpator]

Hello everyone! This week Oscar has continued work on the net code refactor - more details below. Axel has been on sick leave most of the week, but is continuing work on the global map and terrain planning. Einar has been finishing up the type VIIC/41 model.

FAQ about our progress and priorities:

Why do you have to refactor the code right now, can’t you just fix the bug and release the patch?

Refactoring code is a normal and necessary part of development and needs to happen periodically, because requirements change as the product matures. Right now, the net code is the oldest piece of code in the game. It was written seven years ago, when the game was in its infancy and everything worked very differently from the way it does now. This has caused several issues as time has passed, and is currently preventing us from expanding the design of the game.

Why is it taking so long to fix?
The net code affects most of the components in the game. Since we have to rewrite the components, we’ve decided to also make some structural changes to them, in preparation for future updates. This means it takes a bit longer now, but in return it enables improvements and speeds up upcoming releases. For example:

In the current version of the game, the player character is a property of the U-boat. This means that each U-boat has seven hidden player characters in it at all times, and when a player connects they possess one of these pawns. Each u-boat has exactly seven player slots, and the player character can’t leave the u-boat. This design is part of the legacy code that we are throwing out with this patch.

In the new version, the player character is its own object, separate from the u-boat, and the u-boat implements a generic container interface that can hold any number of players. This change means a couple of things:
It will be possible for the player character to be in different places than the u-boat, for example in the bunker, or in the water.
It will be very easy for us to add other vessels, like the Corvette and the Type VIIC/41 that Einar has modeled.
The u-boat (and other vessels) is no longer limited to 7 players, it can have as many players as we want.

How much work is left on this patch?

The netcode itself is finished, but all of the components that touch the net code need to be updated to work with the new system. Oscar has been implementing one system at a time.
These are done:
The water and weather system.
The player character
The propulsion system
The torpedo system/tdc
The electrical system.
Periscopes and depth keeping.

We still need the radio/sonar room and map to work before we can release the patch.


Thank you for your patience!

[Usurpator]

Hello everyone!

This week Axel has returned to the UI temporarily to prepare some fixes for the new patches, and otherwise continued work with land and sea charts. Oscar has been working on the map implementation, it is almost finished. For more details, see the previous update.

[Usurpator]

Hello everyone! This week Oscar has finished work with the map. Axel has been working on shaders for the land / world map. Einar has been working on the corvette.

[Usurpator]

Hello everyone!
This week we have worked on real scale world maps, terrain and in-game sea charts rendered according to those maps (using real oceanographic survey data), AI groups/convoys and steering behaviors as well as network code cleanup.
We wish everyone a great weekend, happy hunting!

[Usurpator]

Hello everyone!

This week Axel has been working on a group system for non-player units, which includes pathfinding according to depth/terrain and task/waypoint management. Without getting too technical, individual units (ships, submarines, aircraft) are composed into groups (mixed compositions are available), groups share tasks and waypoints and will operate as a group when pursuing those objectives. Groups can dynamically form and split at the command of a "global" AI director. This should make missions much more dynamic and more replayable.

This group system is built with a new mission editor in mind, where our vision is for mission authors to be able to compose groups in real-time and assign waypoints, etc.
Oscar is making progress on the network update and Einar is working on a few unfinished parts of the the VIIC/41 tower.

[Lignite]

That sounds very... Dynamic! Great concept, would love to hear more as it developes.

[Fidd]

Originally Posted by Usurpator

Hello everyone!

This week Axel has been working on a group system for non-player units, which includes pathfinding according to depth/terrain and task/waypoint management. Without getting too technical, individual units (ships, submarines, aircraft) are composed into groups (mixed compositions are available), groups share tasks and waypoints and will operate as a group when pursuing those objectives. Groups can dynamically form and split at the command of a "global" AI director. This should make missions much more dynamic and more replayable.

This group system is built with a new mission editor in mind, where our vision is for mission authors to be able to compose groups in real-time and assign waypoints, etc.
Oscar is making progress on the network update and Einar is working on a few unfinished parts of the the VIIC/41 tower.

It will be useful if these groups can be deployed in formations by a real player acting as "convoy commander", so, for example, two or three Flower class corvettes can sweep an area in an asdic search about a half a mile apart. or be formed into line ahead to protect a flank, or sequentially DC a discovered u-boat? This is I hope a great first step towards players being able to drop into escorts and control them, with AI escorts continuing to follow their formation/route/activity orders. That'll put all the tedious searching into AI boats, but nevertheless have them directed by a human mind, with boats able to prosecute DC attacks again under player control. Meaning they won't just give up merely because a uboat has reached 185m, or the elapsed time for searching has been reached.