Tank Mechanic Simulator Development Status #92

Posted: 21 Aug 2020 07:18 AM PDT

Dear Mechanics,

welcome to our ninety second development status update.

It has been a busy month since the last dev status, we want to showcase what we have been working on.

-----

Four weeks ago, after moving the damage generation from test level to extraction missions successfuly, we have been left with two tasks left to have the new gameplay mechanics working:

The damage making holes in tank hull and turret (parts on the way of the damage or in it's range go missing)
Spawning shells inside extraction tank, so the player must get rid of any explosives from the dig area to be able to get the tank out

And for that second part we have come to a point, where again, the need of configuration of what type of weapon and shell the tank is using was needed not only for the Test Drive/Proving Grounds tank model, but also for the workshop tank model.

At that point we came to conclusion, that it is time to merge these two models.

-----

How it worked up untill now

Each tank was separated into two tank models:

Workshop model - used when player extracted the tank or wanted to repair it
Test Drive model - used when player took the tank to test drive or proving grounds

The separated models required lot of additional config and code, that copied the tank state when, for example, player took a tank to test drive yard:

the workshop tank state was saved
the test drive tank was spawned, and the state copied and applied on the test drive tank
the workshop tank was destroyed (unloaded from memory)
player drove the tank around and could at some point fill the fluid of the tank during test drive
when player finished test driving, the state of the test drive tank was saved
workshop tank was spawned, and the state copied and applied on the workshop tank
the test drive tank was destroyed (unloaded from memory)

What is wrong in this system?

Player has to wait for all of these saving/copying/spawning/destroying stuff (time loss on loading)
Lot of code that can lead to various bugs (and indeed it was causing bugs, for example the fluid state was not copied correctly between tanks up untill few weeks ago)
Any change to workshop tank had to be also made for test drive tank, so for example we have added more details to interior or new animations, all this has to be copied and checked for the test drive tank (double time needed for tank config)

Why change it?

It will decrease the time of loading
It will allow of faster creation of new tanks, and is another step in supporting custom made tanks (each step that simplifies this process is a good and required step)

So we began working on merging the tanks into one model, and today have finalized one of the milestiones, the merged model correctly switches itself to driving or repairing on demand, and drives without an issue on test level.

Testing merged Tiger physics when driving on test level

-----

So whats left to do?

Adding the new weapon config to the tank (to be used when extraction mission happens, to spawn correct shells for the generated tank, and on proving grounds when shooting)
Adding tank holes spawning
Modyfing the game logic connected with saving/copying and spawning workshop/test drive tanks to new system, without all that needed

Here's some of our tests on the tank hole shader

This decision will cost us more time to spend on the patch, but it had to be done at some point. We have estimated, that the stuff we wanted to do would be achievable by September but we know it is impossible now. We will keep you guys updated with next development statuses, as we do not want to push out a patch full of bugs, that will ruin your game/save files. Sorry for all these delays.

-----

Last but not least

We present you another tank in production. By just looking at its silhouette this tank does not need to be described :)