APB Dev. Blog :: June 22nd, 2009 Options

So what have we been working on? Well, we've nearly got the M16 done that we showed the other week, just needs some touching up. Expect the final version somewhat soon. The new hands are going in, although right now all I have is an image that unfortunately got eaten by JPG compression. The new RPG and frag grenade have been unwrapped. The RPG guy handles well so far in testing, by the way, but needs a little bit of tweaking to make sure he's useful but not overpowered. It's a fun character to play as.

Which brings me to saying that we just had a new internal release, which includes the myriad of balance changes we've had and fixes up a ton of things both from prior public and internal versions. Seamist is a blast, and you can now run off into the ocean and slowly drown if you really want to. It makes getting shot down in a helicopter over the sea more interesting, that's for sure. Spies are more fun than ever, snipers feel a lot better, and a lot of the little changes really make it hard to go back to playing 1.2.0 even more than before. Can't wait to get this out so you can all play with us!

In other news, it's Ackart's birthday

Surviving Vehicle Loss

Something that's being looked into for the official server and for Gamma is the different ways we can handle damage after your vehicle dies. It's currently undergoing testing and might deploy to the 1.2.0 server if it handles well, and might give us an idea of how it'll fare in the next version. One idea that I'm really keen on is that in 2.0.0, a dead vehicle will leave a smoking husk that will protect the former occupants from incoming fire (and prevent outgoing fire) and that will also protect them from being immediately run over by enemy vehicles. However, after a short period of time, the husk (which can be shoved around) will explode, harming any infantry still around it. So you can't loiter too long, it's mostly so you can more or less pick your exit point and get going. This kind of thing is something we've been thinking about for a long time, so let us know your ideas.

Luna changes

Through the magic of whatever jonwil can code up, all lunar maps can now feature Earth floating in the sky instead of the sun (or more confusingly the moon). It's a nice little touch. We're actually manufacturing some kind of mini-plot about the Soviets and Allies on the moon and their scientists just for fun, probably just as throwaway flavor for now but perhaps more will come of it. Naturally, there won't be any "serious" maps because it's the moon but for things like Capture the Token it can work, I think.

So the plot and objectives for Luna are straightforward. The Allies dropped in a bunch of equipment, but missed their landing zone, and now sensitive communications gear and data are scattered near and in a canyon on the moon. Either side needs to secure ten special crates to win, and there are standard weapon and healing crates available. Teams spawn both in a crater for each, and randomly around the map.

To try to help alleviate some issues with spawning, jonwil's going to be looking into the flaw wherein the random spawn point chooser typically favors the first two or three locations. This makes the gameplay too predictable. Player spawn point selection has already been made "more random" however, for those of you keeping score.

Click for big

Model Revision

Kane000, or Tiberson as some of you know him, has actually been sneakily redoing and improving the meshes for a variety of the new vehicle models that needed it. Go ahead and take a look. I don't think I need to put a label on any of these. These are still technically work-in-progress since they've not yet had final riggings, optimizations, and textures of course; thus, you may expect to find inconsistencies between shots. The gunboat and transport helicopter have also both been finished up a bit more, but I don't have shots of those on hand.

The vehicle explosions harming infantry will had a twist for sure and the Earth on Luna maps is awesome!

The new Heavy looks abit... odd on the turret but i'm sure it will look right textured and the new Missile Sub just looks amazing, great work!

nice idea with exploding vehicle husks

heavy I have to agree with wolf, turret look a bit odd, thinks it is those plates or w/e it is sticking out on either side of the guns that make it look a bit weird. The miss sub looks really nice though..

and an earth on lunar maps FTW

It took almost three years, but at least one of my ideas was kinda implemented, so I'm pretty happy.

Missile sub and heavy tank look sweet. I wonder why we don't have any images of BOTE....

*looks at M1Garand*

Happy B-day ackart, you've done some wonderful texture jobs for us, and you deserve a good birthday .

For all of you saying about the armor on the sides of the turret, well back when I was doing a live WIP in the tester forum, a lot of you wanted it to look as close to the T-80 tank in real-life, so that's what I did. It's still up for revision like CJ said though, so things may change.

For all of you saying about the armor on the sides of the turret, well back when I was doing a live WIP in the tester forum, a lot of you wanted it to look as close to the T-80 tank in real-life, so that's what I did. It's still up for revision like CJ said though, so things may change.

I wasn't one of those

that said it might look better with textures too

This post has been edited by GummiBear: Jun 22 2009, 08:45 AM

Are there any reference images for the Missile Submarine? I don't think that having five access hatches looks right, but if they're there in the source material, I'll happily eat my words.

EDIT: Typos.

This post has been edited by Aidoneus: Jun 22 2009, 09:52 AM

They are supposed to be missile tubes but kane000 was experimenting with it, add a little more detail to the top of the sub, seeming you can't use submarine launched ballistic missiles in APB.

As mentioned though, those images are not final yet :P

IMO, the Earth in Luna should look like that picture taken by the Apollo 8 crew in 1968: http://ssbraccia.myncblogs.com/files/2007/...h-from-moon.png I think it'd give that feeling of being in the conflictive past times when the Berlin Wall was still up and your parents were only babies (if already born, that is). BTW, is it possible to have the Earth AND the Sun in the sky at the same time?


I like the vehicle husk-cover idea, but I think the husk should be destructible or last only a few seconds before exploding.


Finally, the new HT looks a bit weird on the turret as it's already been said. If you watch carefully the armor plates, the dual cannons and both hatches, it all resembles the face of a giant walrus. The new missub looks epic tho.

Just to help out the uninitiated The Heavy Tank in Red Alert is basically a T-80 tank with reactive armour. That's what those weird looking plates on the turret are, and also the "walrus teeth" looking plates at the front, the armour plates on the front/side and the cluster of rectangles on the front. It's a type of extra armour put on over the top of the real armour, which explodes outwards on impact, lessening/nullifying the penetrative force of the projectile hitting it.

Here is the Westwood render of their Heavy Tank, before they added the second gun barrel. The model remained pretty much identical to this picture though. I can't find the picture with two gun barrels right now, but it looks just the same apart from that.

And here is the tank from real life which Westwood based their model on.

You can see that it has the same plates on the turret, just like the real tank does, when it's fitted with them. So Kane000's model is very accurate to Red Alert.

The earth image isn't final (looking at texturing a globe using some nasa images) which is why it still has a halo and is reflecting sunlight. You can also see the horizon is lighter then the top of the sky in the image, which wouldn't be the case on the moon (no atmosphere)
Just a WIP image, that is all.

Surviving Vehicle Loss

This should be interesting. Especially if it has a chance to kill you.

Vehicle husks sound interesting too. I presume they can be forced to explode prematurely?

Luna changes

This map is going to be wacky.

Model Revision

IMO, the barrels need to go or not be hindrances to the tank. Heavy Tank does not deserve having a retarded little weakness like that, when no other tank suffers similarly, not even the Mammoth.
Besides that, the Heavy Tank looks fine.

Missile Sub is excellent, and the Gunboat and Chinook are sure to look great as well.

IMO, the barrels need to go or not be hindrances to the tank. Heavy Tank does not deserve having a retarded little weakness like that, when no other tank suffers similarly, not even the Mammoth.

The only reason north by northwest is semi balanced in Beta is because you can take on a heavy with a light by using that hard to hit spot. I like it IMHO.

That plus the fuel drums are a defining feature of the Red Alert Heavy Tank in renders and FMVs. And to be honest, it's extremely difficult to get behind a half decent Heavy Tank driver, unless you're in a Ranger/Mine Layer or they're not even looking. The Heavy Tank can just keep turning...

I'm not sure about the five hatches on the Missile Sub either. Well, I think it's really cool that the detail has been carried over from the old Missile Sub model, I just don't think they should be access hatches. Like drunkill said, I think they were supposed to be vertical launching missile tubes on the old model.

The little hatch opening turny thing (what do you call those things?) is a nice detail though. Perhaps that detail could be added to somewhere else, where it makes more sense?

The Missile Sub is win and the Heavy Tank... too! Good work! =D