Greetings, comrades!
Very soon we will share news about the bombers for Great Battles and tell you about the first update for Korea. Today, we will discuss an equally important topic—the foundation on which our future plans for the project's development are based.
This Dev Blog is devoted to one of the most important stages in the game's post-release life: your feedback, our response to it, and the changes we plan to implement in the near future. Following major releases, we traditionally outline our plans for the future. A similar Dev Blog was published at the start of Early Access. We managed to successfully implement most of the tasks outlined at the time.
Today, we would like to go through the most important topics that have been actively discussed since release and explain exactly what we plan to do about each of them.
PILOT AI
We plan to take an iterative approach to AI development.
As we have mentioned before, we had several fundamental tasks to complete ahead of release. The AI had to perform core combat tasks reliably while accounting for the changed dynamics of aerial combat, new weapon types, and the predominantly mountainous terrain. In addition, we needed to implement a new system for interacting with airfields so that taxiing would become a natural part of missions, as well as a new command system for players acting as commanders. All of these tasks were completed.
The next stage is AI polishing: improving its behavior and addressing the shortcomings players have already encountered. At its core, a combat flight simulator is a complex system with a vast number of possible situations. It is impossible to predetermine every set of conditions in which the AI might find itself and have to make decisions. Altitude, speed, aircraft positions, terrain, armament, objectives, threats, and the current task create a virtually infinite number of combinations. The AI system for combat aircraft is therefore an extremely complex mechanism with a large number of interdependencies. This is especially true of transitions between different tasks.
AI development does not end with release. We continue to evaluate its behavior across different aircraft, mission types, terrain, and combat situations. The broader range of gameplay data now available allows us to identify recurring issues more precisely, reproduce them reliably, and assess the effectiveness of each change.
This is where your feedback is particularly important. Your reports enable us to find these cases, reproduce them, and perform the necessary fine-tuning. We plan to work on the AI throughout the project's lifetime. We will address the most noticeable issues first. Once they are resolved, the less obvious shortcomings will become more apparent. Layer by layer, we will refine the AI's behavior to a level that can satisfy even the most demanding players. AI polishing is our top priority in this area for the near future.
In addition, we plan to expand the AI's functionality. In particular, we still need to refine the player-commander's target designation and look direction commands to the required standard, as well as implement target designation in the Do As I Do mode.
Another major area of work is the further development of the radio communication system.
We plan to:
• significantly increase the number of radio phrase variations;
• make radio communications more informative;
• add voice lines for wingmen as they carry out the commander's orders;
• create a system that will allow mission and campaign creators to add their own lines to radio communications for any aircraft in the mission;
• improve the quality of the English voice acting.
We will also need the community's help here. We are looking for native English speakers willing to lend their voices to the in-game radio communication system. If you are ready to help and quite literally immortalize your voice in the game — contact us at [email protected] with a title 'In-game radio'.
VR PERFORMANCE
Another important topic is game performance when using VR devices. A great deal of optimization work was completed before release. At the same time, matching the performance level of previous-generation games is objectively difficult: new graphics technologies and numerous visual features place additional load on the graphics subsystem.
In some projects, Quad Views technology delivers a significant increase in VR performance—especially when pixel shaders account for most of the workload.
Our situation is somewhat different.
The pixel shaders in our engine are already optimized as much as possible, so QV does not deliver the same straightforward and substantial performance increase. Nevertheless, we have done a great deal of work to optimize the engine, and overall VR performance is currently at a good level. Devices with 8K resolution remain the most challenging category for the time being.
At the same time, we have ideas for further improving the situation. We plan to explore several new optimization options and, if testing yields positive results, implement them in the game. Our primary focus is on improving gameplay quality in high-resolution VR headsets.
MULTIPLAYER
We are also preparing several important changes for multiplayer. First, this autumn we plan to add a built-in leaderboard displaying player rankings in multiplayer and other game modes.
Second, we intend to make full use of the airfield taxiing system. Multiplayer mission creators will be able to place player aircraft spawn points at parking stands, in revetments, and at other locations around the airfield at their discretion.
Work on network optimization will continue as well. We have several ideas that could potentially reduce server load when there are large numbers of player aircraft.
In addition, over the course of the year, we plan to add versions of AI fighters and attack aircraft with simplified physics. This will make it possible to create far larger and more varied scenarios, including for multiplayer, without placing an excessive load on the game server.
We are also closely monitoring reports from players and server owners and working to improve those aspects of multiplayer where it is technically possible. Several updates featuring improvements of this kind are already planned for autumn.
CORE GAMEPLAY
Major changes are also being prepared for the core gameplay experience. The first important area is a new mode for basic training in aircraft control and the principles of air combat. We plan to implement it as early as this autumn. This is particularly important news for newcomers to the flight simulator genre, so after release we decided to make it one of our priorities.
The second area is the further development of Commander Career. We are currently working to significantly expand the variety of combat scenarios. We want to nearly double their number by the end of the year.
However, there is another equally important and widely discussed topic. Commander Career currently follows the historical context of the Korean War. Completing missions represents the player's contribution to their side's overall effort, while successes and failures primarily affect the player and their air unit. At the same time, the overall course of the war remains historical and ultimately leads to the same outcome as it did in reality. This is historically accurate and plausible, but sometimes you want the opportunity to change history.
Today, for the first time, we can reveal that we are gradually beginning to design a fundamentally new game mode that could be called Dynamic Campaign. In this mode, the player's actions will affect the course of the conflict as a whole. The results of operations will be able to influence the resources of both sides, the advance of troops, and control over territories. The destruction of key facilities will affect the enemy's logistics. Proper planning, execution, and support of landing operations will enable your side's army to establish bridgeheads behind enemy lines. And this is only part of the possibilities we are considering.
This mode will no longer be solely about air units. It will be about the war as a whole—and how the player's actions can change its course. Dynamic Campaign is currently at an early design stage, so a tremendous amount of work still lies ahead. We will explain its structure and mechanics in greater detail when we are ready to share specific solutions.
Even after release, work on Korea is not slowing down. AI, VR, multiplayer, training, the expansion of Commander Career, the future Dynamic Campaign—these are all areas the team is already working on or plans to work on in the near future. And very soon, we will return with news about the first update for Korea and the bombers for Great Battles. But before that, we will have some news about the long-awaited bombers!
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Good hunting in the skies over Korea!
Stay tuned!