With this update, two brand-new maps were introduced into the game: Afghanistan Rural Village and Vietnam Outpost. Building upon the relative success seen with Chaos Destruction test map, both maps feature all destructible assets (except trees or foliage ).
Merry Christmas to everyone! May 2019 be blessed by peace, prosperity and good cheer for us all.
As I look back over another month of development, it has been exciting to witness playable content appearing for this project. Although more work needs to be done before its completion and release date is reached, any incremental development progress should be celebrated!
These two maps open up many new possibilities:
Training Range on Vietnam Outpost. Troops in Contact with Jungle Outpost (Zombie Rush). Taliban Ambush on Afghanistan Rural Village.
As planned, Training Range and Zombie Rush maps for Afghanistan Rural Village would also be included with this update, however I mistakenly thought they had already been completed. They will still be released this month in an earlier smaller update before Christmas Day!
Additionally, I rebuilt the Cannon Air Force Base Desert map - improving landscape textures and foliage assets. While map building remains my least favorite activity (mainly because it requires so much time), I feel as if my skills at creating more realistic/believable environments is improving with each new map I create. With this latest revision of Cannon AFB Desert I reworked training range and Zombie Rush "In The Open" scenarios - particularly Zombie Rush where I spent much of my "testing time". These changes to Cannon Air Force Base Desert made the game much more interesting to play through; especially Zombie Rush In The Open was amazing fun to play through!
Zombie Rush now allows players to select all scenarios directly in its scenario menu. Due to the dual menu system used for Zombie Rush (selecting first a map and then the scenario menus for selection) there has been considerable confusion as to what options exist within it - this change should help clear things up by providing all playable scenarios in one convenient place.
The scenario menu has also made strides forward since its first iteration back in 1990's: all maps/scenarios now come equipped with images to better differentiate each from another; further customization updates should also appear shortly.
As well, I wanted to notify everyone that I have begun developing an audio feedback system to enhance immersion while playing, including commentary from various crew positions that responds to what's going on on the battlefield. You will hear comments when infantry units are hit directly; expect additional examples as this feedback system evolves further - direct hits on infantry are just an example! I believe audio cues and responses from crew members is essential part of gunship gameplay - not only because it helps steer players towards proper behaviors (ie attempting a hellfire without an active laser designation etc), but because providing insightful commentary provides valuable context as part of gunship gameplay experience!
Finally, I have updated the roadmap menu so as to be more specific and useful for you. Now you can easily locate features you should expect in future updates as well as their estimated release dates - though of course these dates depend on multiple variables coming together, they serve as personal deadlines that I aim to meet!
