Update 1.2.0 + Modding tools & Roadmap 2025 finalization

Dear Tankers and Mechanics!

News in Patch 1.2.0

Of course, there are plenty of changes, fixes, and improvements in terms of game performance. Please see the more detailed description below, where we discuss the most important things we have done since December. At the very bottom, you will also find a changelog with all the changes.

UI overhaul
We described the changes to the UI in previous Development Status reports #87, 86, and 85. First and foremost, the changes affected the appearance of the main menu and in-game elements. The new Battle Map design comes to the fore here, where the map is rendered across the entire screen and the selection of units or troops has been completely reworked.

We have also improved the overall support for widescreen displays. The game should now correctly adjust the UI to the given resolution.

The main menu and Battle Map are just the beginning of bigger changes. You can expect further improvements to the interface in upcoming updates. We take your feedback and reports seriously. If something isn't working, we try to fix it, and if something isn't working at all, we try to change it for the better ~Dev Michal ”Winters"

Roadmap 2025 & Steam Workshop & Modding tools
With the release of patch 1.2.0, we would like to finalize and summarize the 2025 roadmap that we published shortly after the game's release in May. During this time, in addition to working on the game itself, improving performance, and actually fighting with the project and Unity itself, we managed to bring the game to a state where it can be played with decent FPS. It's still not perfect, but it's definitely better than it was in May when we had to release the game to survive as a company.

We released the Soviet campaign, added the missing tutorial and periscopes to tanks. We added several new static guns and two versions of the KV-1, thus expanding the pool of Soviet tanks.

The last few weeks have been marked by UI improvements, further optimization efforts, and literally squeezing every last drop of performance out of the engine by performing some design tricks.

We added basic support for the Steam Workshop. We added a tool that allows you to create and upload mods to the workshop. We described what and how in the PDF documentation, which can be found in a folder in the game's installation directory on Steam.

That's not all. We have more ideas in mind, including your suggestions for the game's development. After the patch is released, we want to sit down and work on a new roadmap, and as soon as it's ready, we'll publish what we'll be cooking up over the next few months. We hope you'll stay with us, but we also hope that new players will join us and that those who doubt us will see that we're trying our best to fix this game and make it better.

Optimization

We managed to improve the game's performance even further by implementing a few tricks. Among other things, when the player's camera is not “looking” at units, their animations are disabled. This trick allowed us to increase the FPS. In addition, we made changes to the rendering distance of track animations in order to improve the performance of tanks on the scene.

We still have two open issues ahead of us, which should further improve optimization in the future, but we are reaching a certain wall that we cannot overcome without a revolution. The issues mentioned above are infantry/crew animations, which start to put a heavy load on the CPU when there are many of them on the screen, regardless of how far they are from the player's camera, and the optimization of the amount of data that the game sends during battle to synchronize gameplay.

What next?

We are preparing plans for a new roadmap. We are continuing to work on Ponyria, procedural missions, an editable force pool, and new vehicles. You can expect more information about these issues in future development status updates.

TMS 02/20/2020

Exactly six years ago, we had the opportunity to release our first game, Tank Mechanic Simulator.

Game discount

Today we are launching a discount on the game. The 25% discount will last for the next 7 days.

Changelog 1.2.0

Below is the list of changes being made:

Added:

• Added behaviour for enemy units to shoot while moving and replaced Pak40 with Pak38
• Waterbox to the lake on C1M6 environment scene
• Swamp area for navmesh for C1M9/C1M10
• Terrain Tesselation Quality as video setting option
• StuG to Proving Grounds force pool
• Localization for new Main Menu items
• Main menu click & hover sounds
• Click & hover sounds to various panels
• Synchronization of direction of penetrating shot as well as direction of ricochette
• KW IS(r) icon
• Main menu overhaul
• Battle Map new design
• BattleMap SpawnSelector, WreckSelector, OffmapSelector buttons & animations backend added
• In-game panels (wide screen support)

Modified:

• Game version from 1.1.2 to 1.2.0
• HQ improvements over wide-screen
• Intro improvements over wide-screen
• Optimized C1R1 scene (german repair section)
• Spectator
• Pause Menu
• Battle Map before more drastic changes
• Battle Progress
• Drastically decreased CPU needed for animations
• Counterattacks and hunting should now be more aggressive
• Movement speed for units
• Reworked how ai calculate destination points
• Optimizing character animators when we can't see them (performance boost)

Fixed:

• Play commander VO is now shorter
• UI Scale changed to UI Scale match; moved slider to VIDEO tab
• Intro canvas scaler
• Engine icon fix
• Vehicle being able to run down player disabled on repair scene
• Vehicle flip-death logic disabled on repair scene
• Wooden barrack won't be destroyed by MG fire
• Binocular item now disables properly after reentering a tank
• Removed too many captured tanks from german campaign captured platoon
• KV-1C GER black interior placeholder no longer visible outside
• Tiger I H1 radio and driver hatches material
• Main menu UI bug with locked tutorial button after leaving Steam lobby
• Battle Map bottom buttons scaling on low resolutions (Steam Deck etc.)
• Weird looking player details panel after selecting one of them
• Ammo bug for bought wrecks or captured vehicles
• Vehicle Customization menu now correctly keeps the icons loaded if you re-enter the menu
• Shadows of various tanks should now be better balanced
• Increased distance of last Level of Detail for T-70
• Issue with shadow cascades not working as they should in custom video settings
• Decal on the front of the Stug is reversed

Thank you for your support, we are working. See you next time!
DeGenerals