This will be a quick one since most of the work done for this update was on the back end. However, I’m happy to say a sought-after and planned addition has finally been worked into the game, and I think it really improves the experience.

Flight sticks/Joysticks are finally recognized and able to be used in-game. After having played/tested with a joystick, I can say the experience is much more immersive and fun. Being able to control nearly everything from a single joystick (essentially one handed) gives a level of control that just makes everything better. It is important to note, you most likely will need to be adjusting your sensor speed/sensitivity depending on your zoom level to maintain good control. Most of the time, I would have the sensitivity at the lowest to allow for smooth and controlled movement.

Configuration is simple and hopefully won’t give anyone much trouble. You will simply need to go into your control options and select “Configure Joystick,” to bring up the appropriate menu. Then you will check the option to use joystick input (when this is active, mouse input in game will be ignored) and select your device. It should detect all USB devices that were plugged in prior to starting the game and after selecting one, you will be able to test the different axis’ and buttons to ensure they are working. Following this, you will need to ensure the X and Y axis’ are match up appropriately to control the sensor as expected.

I’ll emphasize this again, it is important to not be disconnecting/connecting devices while in game. The configuration will not detect them and unplugging them after they’ve already been selected may possibly crash the game. Hopefully I’ll be able to come up with a solution for this, but for now just be aware and avoid this.

Another thing this implementation has solved is the issue with attempting to set input keys while having a joystick plugged into your system. Often times these devices have buttons/switches that appear to the system to be “pressed” and therefore automatically sets the input key to that button, or it hangs waiting for that button to be released while ignoring all other inputs. As far as my testing has gone (this would happen to me with my devices connected), this should be resolved now as I’ve adjusted the logic to account for this (if anyone still has this issue, let me know!).

In addition to this, I had to implement some features to help with the joystick experience, which also has been applied to those who use a mouse, but don’t like the mouse joystick emulation setting. Whenever there isn’t input detected from the joystick or mouse, the sensor will automatically lock – keeping the sensor from drifting along with the aircraft’s movement. This is an important feature to improve control in these input methods.

Outside of joystick support, I’ve spent a good amount of time adding over 60+ new infantry animations to create variety and improve immersion. I still want to add a lot more here to ensure there is a good variety in the infantry’s actions, but this little bit should make a good difference.

There is still a lot more to do here, but it is nice to knock out an important feature that has been requested since the beginning. Going forward, the focus will be on more animation improvements for infantry (particularly, adding more wounded states they can be in) and finally reworking everything about the vehicles. In addition to this, I’m hoping to release some higher quality scenarios that should be more engaging than the last few that have been released.

If you have any issues with anything, be sure to let me know in the steam discussions forum or on the community discord. A lot of optimization work has been done, and this can often result in new bugs, so let me know if find anything! I appreciate all the support and hope you have a good rest of your week!

Thanks!
-Sklor

Changelog

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that could cause the player to get stuck in the loading screen.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the options menu to remain on screen, despite closing it.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused infantry to get stuck in the terrain.
  
• Fixed an issue that prevented controls from binding when a device (joystick, etc.) was plugged in.
  
• Fixed an issue causing Anti-Air units from taking on damage as expected.
  

Visual Effects Updates

Gunship Updates

• Reduced the step up/down value for the sensor speed to 0.05 from 0.25.
  

AI Updates

• Added new wounded idle and locomotion for infantry.
  
• Added new hit animations for infantry and Anti-Air units.
  
• Added new regular idle and locomotion animations for both friendly and enemy units. There is now a difference in their animations.
  
• Tweaked infantry movement settings to ease into movement.
  
• Reduced the acceleration for the LAV-25.
  
• Slightly reduced the enemy's accuracy.
  

UI/Menu Updates

• Dropped the limit on how low you can limit your frames per second in the options menu (down to 24 fps).
  
• Added joystick support.
  
• Added an automatic sensor lock when using a joystick or mouse (without joystick emulation active).
  
• Within key mapping, mouse scroll wheel, keyboard arrow keys, and space bar are now recognized.
  
• Added a new visual indicator for MANPAD missile launches (countermeasures).
  
• Removed the auto-close function in the exit game screen.
  
• Made various optimizations to the UI.
  

Map/Scenario Updates

• Fixed some issues in the CASEVAC down scenario.
  

Other Updates

• Made quite a few optimizations to various classes, which should be more efficient now.