Major Systems Update • Asset Integration • Cross-Platform Improvements
Over the past month, development on Ferrous has focused on bringing its core gameplay systems together, expanding customization and unit support, improving platform compatibility, and preparing the game for its next stage of testing.
This has been one of our largest development pushes yet, involving substantial changes to combat systems, equipment, deployment, modding infrastructure, animation support, and underlying game architecture.
With the primary code implementation phase completed, development has increasingly shifted toward asset integration, validation, debugging, and preparing future builds.
NEW FEATURES & GAMEPLAY
Expanded Unit & Equipment Systems
Expanded support for BCVs, QCVs, Gunwalkers, Hardsuits, Infantry, ground vehicles, aircraft, airships, and installations.
Implemented Levitators as an additional equipment category, complete with deployment integration and dedicated mounting points.
Implemented Components, providing customization-based bonuses to armor, mobility, targeting, sensors, and other unit attributes.
Improved Backpack functionality, including ammunition support, electronic warfare equipment, and specialized tactical utilities.
Expanded Pilot integration, including default crews, pilot attachment, skills, proficiencies, and honor-related behavior.
Added support for Combinators and Heavy Shoulder Weapons, allowing compatible units to combine into larger formations.
Weapon & Hardpoint Overhaul
Continued consolidation of weapon equipment into a unified loadout system.
Improved weapon spawning through Unity Addressables.
Added logical hardpoint occupancy and automatic attachment behavior.
Improved support for animated and static weapon configurations.
Implemented compatibility handling for older weapon-equipped prefabs.
Resolved overlapping weapon spawning caused by legacy testing components.
Continued work on persistent item identities and equipment tracking.
Gameplay & Rulesets
Advanced implementation of the expanded V5 ruleset.
Continued development of movement, facing, and combat behavior across different gameplay modes.
Expanded reinforcement and deployment functionality.
Improved support for aircraft, off-map support, and specialized unit actions.
Added and refined day/night functionality.
Continued improvements to multiplayer game rules and match configuration.
ANIMATION SYSTEM OVERHAUL
One of the most significant development efforts this sprint has been the modernization of Ferrous's animation architecture.
Animation Libraries
Recovered and integrated the BCV animation library, with 77 clips successfully discovered during initial testing.
Recovered the full QCV animation collection.
Recovered the Gunwalker animation collection.
Introduced automatic animation-family detection for BCV, QCV, and GW units.
Added support for standardized QCV and GW animation naming prefixes.
Implemented canonical gameplay animation mapping.
Added deterministic animation selection and duplicate-variant detection.
Animated Unit Support
Improved compatibility between static unit prefabs and animated mesh hierarchies.
Added automatic discovery of child Armature Animator components.
Improved animated renderer detection and Skin component compatibility.
Expanded support for animated BCV models, including the Babil, Cossack, T99, T99C, Pz9, Lynx, and Qilin.
Introduced editor debugging tools for cycling through and previewing animation clips.
Began final integration work on direct animation playback and gameplay action synchronization.
Still in progress: Final playback validation, animation-to-action testing, and animated hardpoint alignment.
Advanced animation features, including procedural blending, inverse kinematics, and vertex animation tooling, are being deferred until the essential systems are fully validated.
CUSTOMIZATION & WORKSHOP
Expanded customization support for Weapons, Backpacks, Levitators, Components, and Pilots.
Improved equipment handling between the Workshop, Stockpile, and deployment systems.
Continued integration of customizable weapon loadouts.
Improved compatibility between static and animated unit appearances.
Updated Skin and material handling to support different shader and renderer configurations.
Improved GameFeel preset compatibility.
Continued work on the hand-painting system and texture customization.
Improved equipment icons, portraits, and marketplace presentation.
MULTIPLAYER & GAME CONFIGURATION
Expanded multiplayer game creation and lobby functionality.
Continued refinement of faction selection, map selection, and match configuration.
Expanded game-rule customization, including terrain, ammunition, Fog of War, and unit restrictions.
Improved support for multiple unit categories during multiplayer deployment.
Continued preparations for expanded campaign and scenario functionality.
MODDING & DEVELOPMENT TOOLS
Continued development of the Ferrous ModKit.
Added and expanded Ruby-based modding infrastructure.
Introduced mod registration support for gameplay content.
Continued work on .gembundle packaging and MemoryPack-based serialization.
Advanced support for importing and processing external model formats.
Continued investigation of Megastore integration and native library interoperability.
Expanded internal Unity editor utilities and debugging tools.
These improvements are intended to make future content development and community modding easier to support.
PLATFORM COMPATIBILITY & BUILD IMPROVEMENTS
Continued the migration from Unity 2022 to Unity 6.
Identified and corrected major Linux and macOS startup configuration issues.
Improved cross-platform build preparation.
Continued Steam deployment and distribution improvements.
Addressed soundtrack depot configuration and release metadata issues.
Improved internal build testing and validation processes.
BUG FIXES & STABILITY
Fixed missing Skin component initialization on supported unit hierarchies.
Corrected several material and shader-property compatibility issues.
Improved detection of SkinnedMeshRenderer components on animated models.
Addressed mesh-processing exceptions involving unreadable imported meshes.
Resolved legacy Resources loading failures affecting weapon testing.
Corrected duplicate weapon spawning caused by overlapping equipment systems.
Improved animation discovery and Animator detection.
Added safeguards for missing or incompatible animation assets.
Continued resolving equipment initialization and hardpoint-related inconsistencies.
DEVELOPMENT STATUS
Completed or substantially implemented
Core gameplay systems implementation
Expanded unit and equipment support
Weapon loadout architecture
Animation-family discovery
BCV/QCV/GW animation library integration
Major Skin and renderer compatibility improvements
Cross-platform startup fixes
Modding infrastructure groundwork
Currently being validated
Runtime animation playback
Gameplay animation triggers
Animated weapon hardpoints
Asset compatibility and prefab configuration
Equipment persistence and customization
Multiplayer and ruleset stability
Upcoming
Complete the core Animation Pass
Finish animated unit and weapon alignment
Continue the remaining Asset Pass
Perform integrated gameplay and regression testing
Prepare additional Windows, Linux, and macOS builds
Continue Campaign and Scenario development
DEVELOPER NOTES
This sprint marks an important transition for Ferrous.
Much of the foundational engineering work is now in place, and attention is shifting toward making the game's growing collection of units, weapons, animations, environments, and gameplay systems function together reliably.
The work is not finished. Several systems still require testing, refinement, and integration before they can be considered release-ready.
However, the emphasis of development is increasingly moving away from building individual systems and toward making Ferrous a cohesive, playable, and extensible strategy game.
Thank you to everyone following development, providing feedback, and helping test the game.
The next objective is straightforward: finish integration, validate the assets, and get back onto the battlefield.
— Miles J. Litteral
Team Lead, Team Ferrous