Hi Everyone,
Warplane Quest Playtest - Alpha 9 is now available on Steam!
This update adds a heavy bomber plane (Handley Page Type O), dynamic weather system and much more.
Many thanks to our community member Jure Račnik who contributed a great looking model of a heavy bomber hangar to this update.
Make sure to join the Playtest on our Discord to try out this update: https://discord.gg/32SQtMFUzd
Update Highlights
Handley Page Type O Heavy Bomber
A fully playable Handley Page Type O has been added to the game. This flying behemoth was once the largest aircraft in the UK and one of the largest in the world. It is equipped with five Lewis guns and sixteen 112lb HE bombs.
The player controls the front Twin Lewis Guns, which can be aimed using the mouse or the controller's right thumb stick. The AI-controlled rear gunners take care of the chasing planes and help with the ground enemies.
Since the old hangar was too small for the bomber, our community contributor Jure Račnik modeled a new one, which is now the main hangar for player aircraft.
The plane can be unlocked after completing the new mission "Death from Above".
Dynamic Weather System
To make each mission unique and each Free Flight playthrough different, a dynamic weather system powered by Ultra Dynamic Sky has been added to the game. This allows for many different weather types, such as clear skies, cloudy, foggy, rain, thunderstorms, sandstorms and snow.
This package also includes volumetric clouds that bring the sky to life. If you prefer the old sky box, you can turn off the volumetric clouds by setting the effect quality to low and restarting the game.
In each mission, a weather forecast is now displayed in the mission briefing, indicating what the weather will be like in the mission. In the Free Flight mode, the weather can change randomly at any time.
New console commands allow you to test any weather type at any time. Note that snow and sandstorms are not fully implemented yet.
Enemy Infantry
Until now, the trenches in the game were empty and served no purpose. With this update, that changes, because now enemy infantry equipped with Gewehr 98 will appear there and try to take you down. Don't forget to use the rolling maneuver to dodge the bullets when flying the Camel. The Handley Page Type O machine guns are especially effective against this enemy type.
Full Change List
New Content
- Added new plane: Handley Page Type O (Heavy Bomber) equipped with five Lewis Guns and 112lb HE bombs. It can be unlocked by completing the "Death From Above" mission
- Added a heavy bomber hangar made by Jure Račnik which is now the primary hangar for player planes
- Added new mission: "Death From Above"
- Added new enemy type: Infantry equipped with Gewehr 98 which spawns in the far side of the trenches
- Added new primary weapon for Sopwith Camel: Twin Lewis Guns. It can be unlocked by completing the optional objective in the "Vendetta" mission
New Features
- Added speed boost that can be activated by pressing the SHIFT key on the keyboard or the left trigger on a controller
- The game now performs a hardware benchmark after the first launch and configures optimal display options
- Added an Auto Detect button to the display options which runs the hardware benchmark
- Added new display option: Vertical Sync
- Added option to turn off the music
- Added new cheat console commands: unlock all planes, add money, damage immunity, increase weapon damage, zoom camera, trailer mode
- It is now possible to close a modal dialog (e.g. options, missions) with the Escape key on the keyboard or the Back button on a controller
Dynamic Weather
- Added new weather types: clear skies, cloudy, foggy, rain, thunderstorm, sand storm, snow. Only some of them are used in the level at the moment
- Each mission now has a weather forecast in the mission briefing that indicates what the weather will be like in the mission
- In the Free Flight mode, the weather can change randomly at any time
- Added console commands to change weather. Type 'help' in the console to show all available weather types
- Added volumetric clouds to improve the look of the sky. They can be turned off by setting the effects quality to low
World Changes
- Made the aerodrome and main hangar larger so that heavy bombers can use them
- Made the caves larger so that heavy bombers can fly through them
- Observation balloons are no longer spawning directly above trenches
Balance Changes
- Twin machine guns (Vickers, Lewis and LMG 08/15) are now shooting from both barrels simultaneously
- Increased the damage of the Parabellum MG 14 (Albatros C.III) and Luger P08 (Fokker Dr.I) to match increased damage output of twin machine guns
- Increased the fuel tank capacity of the Sopwith Camel to 168l (37 imperial gallons) and increased the fuel consumption
- Sopwith Camel now carries 4 Cooper Bombs instead of 3 and drops 2 at once instead of
- Increased the probability to spawn a repair wrench after killing an enemy
Other Changes
- Disabled dynamic shadows for pickups, grass and some other objects to reduce GPU load
- Changed layout of the mission dialog to make it look less cramped
- Removed the anti-aliasing option as it has no effect. The game uses Temporal Super-Resolution (TSR) which doesn't require additional anti-aliasing
- Removed contact shadow from grass on the aerodrome
- Slightly adjusted the layout in the main menu
- Added category labels to the help widget of the cheat console
- Updated ground texture of the fighter hangar to match the bomber hangar
- Removed the gem pickup which is replaced by the new speed boost feature
- Removed the fuel tank upgrade as it is not intended that player runs out of fuel under normal circumstances
- Added maneuverability stat to the hangar UI
- Replaced chest and ring collect sounds with less childish ones
- Removed the message pickup as it serves no purpose
- Added triangle above ground enemies for better visibility
- Hit points bar is no longer displayed after hit points reach 0
Controls
- Mapped secondary weapon to the right shoulder key on a controller
- Mapped air brake to the left shoulder key on a controller
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue where the game would crash with a Fatal Error if the Options menu was closed repeatedly in the pause menu
- Fixed an issue where the in-game UI would display 0 instead of the current mission progress after pausing and unpausing the game
- Disabled shadows for the aiming reticle, hit point bars and name tags
- Fixed an issue where the game would occasionally crash when flying backwards for some time and after that forwards
- Fixed an issue where the Le Prieur rockets would fly through enemy planes
- Fixed an issue where an enemy plane which was chasing the player would fly to the top of the screen and then crash to the ground
- Fixed some sounds still playing after turning them off in the options
As always, thanks for playing Warplane Quest!
Martin