We are thankful for the incredible feedback and support you've given us, allowing us to focus on key areas of improvement. This update tackles that feedback, aiming to improve the game to better your experience!
We have also done extensive optimization behind the scenes, improving code and visuals to not only perform better - but look better too. This framework will allow us to build upon what we have far easier, meaning greater updates in the future.
Listening to Feedback and Quality of Life
Your experience is our top priority, and we are pleased that your feedback has highlighted areas where we need to improve. Here are a few of the main changes:
- We have allowed the player to reload at will. Use this tactically, as you won't be able to keep that ammo remaining...
- You can now zoom the camera in and out - and we have increased the range of the mini-map so you can see enemies from further away, creating a fairer gaming experience.
- The improved visibility of health and objective bars should allow you to better see your progress.
- The cursor now aligns with the turret barrel.
- We have also fixed the annoying issue of the upgrade menu not letting you buy an upgrade you should be able to afford.
- With the integration of Steam Cloud, the issue of your saves not carrying over between updates should be fixed.
Your feedback is invaluable, and we take all of it into consideration. With these improvements, we can now move further, introducing more impactful updates...
Player Tank Overhaul
To make upgrading armour feel more rewarding, we have implemented a visual change whenever you upgrade your tank. Starting from the base Sherman, unlock wood, track, and sandbag armour with your upgrades!
We have improved the speed upgrade greatly, now being far faster at max level. (this may need some tweaking)
Track movement has also been improved, moving much more convincingly.
Enemy Tank Overhaul
To make fighting the waves more interesting, enemy tanks will now randomly have a selection of add-on armour, stowage and other elements - to help make them feel lived-in. Much like the player tank, the enemy tanks' barrel will now recoil back when shooting as well.
They also have their own unique engine and shooting sounds - instead of using the same sounds as the player.
We have also introduced the visual health system the player has to the enemies, meaning enemies will now set on fire when low on health. This should help indicate how much health an enemy has left.
Visual Consistency
Before, you may have realised the difference between high, medium, and low settings being quite drastic - with completely different lighting, fog, and general mood.
With this update, visuals are consistent between each quality setting, with much less difference.
The number one priority with this change was optimization, and performance should be vastly improved on all quality settings - especially high - without any noticeable impact on quality.
What's Next?
Whilst there are some improvements yet to be made, we are also working on what's beyond for Front Lines. We aim to give you more gameplay content to play through, as well as continued polishing of what's there!
Patch Notes:
Fixes:
- Fixed the cursor not aligning with the turret
- Fixed impact decals to not cover mines
- Fixed health and objective bars being hard to see in certain situations
- Fixed an issue where you couldn't buy upgrades even with enough medals
- Fixed an issue where supply crates wouldn't break when touched
- Fixed the mud hazard not slowing the player down at higher speed upgrades
- Fixed an issue where the watchtower wouldn't collapse on hit
- Fixed quality settings being too different from each other
- Fixed an issue where the bunker in the tutorial would not destroy the barrier to proceed
Added / Changed:
- Added manual reload
- Added the ability to zoom in and out
- Changed view distance for the mini-map, allowing the player to see greater distances
- Added random unique visuals for enemy tanks
- Added health stage effects for enemy tanks, now setting on fire after a threshold
- Changed supply crates to fall much faster
- Added steam cloud saving
- Added supply crate mini-map icons
- Added better loading screens with more useful hints
- Changed falling effect of ambush trees
- Changed destructible meshes and tanks to dissolve over time, instead of a jarring disappear
- Added custom tank movement audio
- Added custom tank shooting audio
- Changed flamethrower ammo consumption to be more intuitive
- Added recoil effect on all tanks
- Changed destroyed tank mesh to be more realistic
- Added chance of ammo rack explosion
- Changed soldiers to run away when shot at or driven towards
- Changed camera shake to be less intrusive but more impactful
- Changed particle visuals for clarity and optimization
- Added tank armour visuals
- Added tank armour visualiser in upgrade menu
- Added bags with physics to the player tank
- Other, smaller visual changes across the board
Changed files in this update