Close Combat - The Bloody First, dates update

[Benedict151]

Hello Everyone

I am sorry for the lack of information regarding Close Combat and thank you for your patience so far. I would like
to assure you all that 'Close Combat - The Bloody First' is still very much 'live' and in full development.
At this point it seems appropriate to introduce the team to you all.

Working on The Bloody First are -
Myself - Ben (producer)
Steve (programmer & designer)
Phil (engine programmer)
Jim (art)
Richard (art & effects)
Koen (art & UI)
Bartshe (art)

Recently we have all been busy re-assessing the requirements for Close Combat (there will be more information on
this shortly) and this in turn has meant a complete schedule revision.

However, this process is now comple and The Bloody First is in full production and we plan to start beta testing
during January 2017 (and to release before the end of Q2 2017).

I'm sorry for the long wait and disappointment this delay might cause and as a fan of the series from the first
I'm also frustrated we won't see a new Close Combat this year but I'm also really looking forward to the beta testing
in January and I hope you will be too.

Thanks again for your patience and we'll aim to keep you posted on progress a little more regularly from this point
on.

Regards

Benedict Wilkins

[SteveMcClaire]

In terms of the technical and scheduling side of The Bloody First, the big news is that we’ve changed 3D engines. The project was begun under Unity 3D, but we have since switched to Slitherine’s in-house 3D engine, Archon. This change comes after much discussions about whether Unity was the best engine for the franchise going forward, and agreement that Archon was the better choice for future releases. This left us with a decision unique to The Bloody First – release this one version under Unity and then switch all future versions to Archon, or bite the bullet and make the transition now? As it did not make much sense to have a single ‘orphan’ release under Unity, the decision was made to switch The Bloody First over to Archon as well.

Archon has already been used to develop games of the same scope as Close Combat, and the latest version of the engine is better suited to our needs than Unity. It is a very flexible, data driven engine that already has great support for DLC and modding, major features we needed but which were somewhat problematic under Unity. Archon even has a built in scripting language we can use to expose game functionality – we can have scripted soldier behavior, or script the armor penetration model, for example -- and these scripts could be modified to change the game. The other major advantage of using Archon is that it is Slitherine’s engine. We have access to the source code to see exactly how it works, and there is an in-house developer who can modify Archon as needed. In short, we can add the new features we need and make sure they work the way we need them to, and we do not have to worry about existing features being changed out from under us.

Obviously the change to Archon has added extra work and extra time to the schedule. But the payoff will be a game engine that is more flexible, easier to mod, and easier and quicker to create new content for.

Steve

[Canuck_jp]

Glad to hear that there is progress being made. What other games have used the Archon engine? Are they representative of what we might eventually see from CC or completely different?

[PipFromSlitherine]

Nothing in Archon has been shown publicly as yet, but its games have a wide variation in genre and style so wouldn't be ideal to compare. We will try and get out some screens when we are happy that the look has reached the quality we want.

Cheers

Pip

[DAK_Legion]

Thanks for the info!!

Good notices;)Q2;)

[Nomada_Firefox]

Good news. I have been followed all the stuff published about Archon and clearly it was a very good decision. Release the first version at Unity3D and after it changes the game to Archon had been a mistake, specially thinking at modding or at future versions or DLC. At the end, Unity3D is clearly a problem for modding. I do not know a single game made at Unity3D where you can mod a byte.

I hope you publish something one day, one suggestion, some images with all the 3D vehicles and perhaps a example from infantry. If you record all them in a video, it would be better.

About other games, I read something about how perhaps the Battle Academy will use it in a future.

[Southernland]

good to hear its still progressing

[IainMcNeil]

Archon is an evolution of the engine that was used for Battle Academy. It adds a lot of modern features like shader support and various other effects that allow the games to compete graphically with other modern games, whilst maintaining mod support and giving us direct control so when there is an engine bug we can fix it rather than having it wait until Unity decide the issue we see is important enough to resolve. It is designed as a wargame engine from the ground up, making it much more efficient at that kind of game while Unity is generalized to allow anything from FPS to RPG so has a lot of baggage we don't need. We obviously think it was the right decision but it meant throwing away a lot of work which is why we deliberated so long on it.

[Nomada_Firefox]

10 points by the change of engine. I am sure how all we like it more than Unity and it will give a long live to the stuff created by the modding community without lose everything with each new version from the game or DLC. It will sound crazy but if I can add new 3D models, I see me making a Star Wars mod, if something I can make very well, it is adapt stuff created from other sources and of course I like the WWII a lot. I have many ideas at my head.

[mickxe5]

Hoping this goes better than the last time CC changed 3D engines during development. Looking forward to further news!

[Gripen]

I'm really happy about this news update and the choices you people have made.

Now, I'm just gonna go ahead and ask the question we all want to know: Does this switch of engine mean we can have multiple floor houses like in ALL THE CC GAMES and which is a CRITICAL part of the whole setup/game?
(Example: MG or Sniper nest in the church tower?;))

Good luck with making some progress, hoping to see some screenshots soon.
Take your time but keep us in the loop a bit more like you have done now.

Yaay for Close Combat

[mooxe]

ORIGINAL: Gripen
Now, I'm just gonna go ahead and ask the question we all want to know: Does this switch of engine mean we can have multiple floor houses like in ALL THE CC GAMES and which is a CRITICAL part of the whole setup/game?
(Example: MG or Sniper nest in the church tower?;))

I don't think even CC supported multistory buildings. When you think about it, you could only use the top level. In Unity3D maybe you could make a building look like it had multiple stories but just code a different height to it and you could only use the top level, just like in CC. It was never fully explained how that worked in Unity.

Great news though from Matrix. Looking forward to seeing the product.

Not to start a wishlist or anything... But one thing we have learned with all the previous versions is to have a "1 second game timer." This will enable much MUCH easier beta testing of all the background functions... reinforcements, supply, weather etc etc.

[Nomada_Firefox]

CC supported multistory buildings

I would be surprised if this thing was added to the game code because one thing is the engine code and other very different thing is the game code. Very probably they have taken the same code from the BF added at first place to Unity and they have used it with Archon. Of course, perhaps they made some changes but from my point of view, this is what they have made and if the game code had not multistory buildings, it continues without them.

About other things, probably now to add new 3D models will not be a problem. If this Archon is similar to the Archon from Battle Academy, at Battle Academy you can add new 3D models. Just at least at BC, they have a limitation, the 3D models does not use more of one texture. It is not a very big problem but perhaps now it was changed this.

What about this Steve?

[Gripen]

I think it was very crucial in the previous CC games and I was quite surprised to read in an older thread that they removed it. Other than that, this is nothing but great news

[Hexagon]

Thanks for the info.

Related with multiple level houses... i think that the system used in CC was ok, more levels more elevation... i find more critical on this area HOW soldiers enter in buildings to made them good defensive positions... at same time they could be rat traps... i see here more interested 2 global levels... normal level and sub-level to represent things like bunkers, caves, sewerage.

Other history is how soldiers are going to move in trenches or using cover in terrain, a good deploy as unit to see in game real squads of 8-10 soldiers and not like in last CC titles with halfsquads.

[mickxe5]

ORIGINAL: mooxe
I don't think even CC supported multistory buildings. When you think about it, you could only use the top level.

CC had nominal support for multistory buildings in that guns can only occupy the ground level.

[SteveMcClaire]

Multi-story buildings are not planned for The Bloody First. It is a solvable problem but it does add a level of complexity in a 3D game, especially when the camera is top-down.

2D Close Combat 'sort of' had multi-story buildings. Any team that entered a building was automatically on the top floor, so in that sense there was only one floor -- the top. As Mickx5 pointed out, the exception was towed guns -- there was some special case fudging in to the code to limit their LOS checking to simulate them being on the ground floor.

Steve

[Gripen]

I guess what I'm trying to say is that one building could have a higher top floor than the other (numbers on the buildings) which would allow for scouting, machine gun nests and sniping for example. You could look over another building. If all building have one level then this whole strategic element is taken away, right? I'd say that would be a step back from the previous games but that's just my opinion.

[Nomada_Firefox]

Yes. Just with some type of buildings with different height for their floors, it would be more than enough. Nobody would see the difference with the old CC.

About a step back. For me the old games are nothing at this moment, they were very fun 16 years ago when there were a big multiplayer community with sites as the msn zone where you could find easily players. Of course, the amount of people playing them were bigger. But now.......the AI from old games is absolutelly missing. I do not play them more and I do not go to compare them with BF.

At the end, my unique concern here is the AI. If it is bad, the game will be bad but if it is good, the game will be very good. I am sure how I am not the unique with this opinion.

[Platoon_Michael]

You changed everything and you expect a January 2017?

And you never once felt compelled to inform anyone.



This is Funny.