Going Forward...

Current State: Update 3 is over 60% completed and should be ready for release in about two weeks. The main features for it include the long-awaited door gunner mission, weapon swaying, improved chest inventory (featuring easier grabbing/storing, and a set of fixed slot pouches alongside the current open-ended pouch), and an updated mission selector.

Revised Chest Inventory, featuring 4 socket pouches and 1 dump pouch

The pouches will be rearranged for release to a more realistic and historically accurate setup

After this release, PunjiVR should have a decent amount of content for the time Version 2 has been out, so I want to start transitioning to the next stage of development that focuses on larger and more complex missions.

Offensive:

The next focus for PunjiVR will be on its first medium-scale gamemode called Offensive, where one team attacks an objective and the other team defends it. It will work similar to existing push-style gamemodes from existing games, but with a few changes to make it function better and play more interestingly with bots.

The attacking team has to occupy the objective and keep it clear of all enemy troops to capture it. If even one enemy is in the capture zone, it stalls the progress. If there are no attackers on the point, then the capture progress begins to reset to zero, even if there are no defenders in the zone. This means that attackers will have to apply constant pressure to the objective and play more aggressively in its capture to make progress.

The new mission will be set on a larger map similar in feel and appearance to Cu Chi in Rising Storm 2, with a mix of a small town, paddies, sparse forests, and a rural industrial zone.

You'll be able to play as both the attacker and defender, for either faction, and with any loadout.

You'll be able to decide how long the game lasts, each team's tickets, the amount of bots per team, and a few other basic modifiers, with more planned for the future.

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Once the gamemode's logic is finished and polished, I'll make another map or two for it (including the first urban level!) then I'll move on to the next new gamemode...

Sapper Ops:

The next mission will be Sapper Ops, an intense and stealthy roguelite.

You are inserted into a random point on a small map and given an objective to complete --anything from an assassination, to sabotage, intel collection, ambushes, terrorist hunt, and more.... Once you complete the objective, you have to escape to a designated point, which can be a tunnel entrance, into the concealment of the jungle, into a boat and down the river, etc. Depending on if you were spotted or not will determine how easy it is to escape.

Once you complete the objective and escape, you are then given currency based on how well you did which you can spend on improving your character and your loadout, then you go to the next mission and rinse and repeat. Once you die, then all of your progress is lost and you have to start over with a new character and loadout.

The maps will be small and the missions will be short (~10 minutes), but there will be a lot of them with good variety and a lot of replayability. Stealth will be encouraged and rewarded better, but it's definitely not necessary.

Multiplayer: Once these two main gamemodes are added and the entire game itself is polished up to a quality state, I'll finally embark on the multiplayer journey for PunjiVR.

This period of development will definitely take a lot longer to complete, which is why I want to get Offensive and Sapper Ops out beforehand, but it will bring PunjiVR to a much brighter era once it's eventually finished. I will be utilizing the test build heavily and most likely require some community members to help out along the way. Overall though, it should be a fun challenge with a nice payoff!

There will be a unique multiplayer branch to launch to keep it separate from the offline mode. There will be different missions and gamemodes for multiplayer (most of which will be built off of existing missions with some new small ones added, too), but the weapons and other mechanics will stay the same as the base singleplayer game.

The scale of multiplayer will be kept small, most likely having a maximum of 4-8 players, but there will be both co-op and PvP missions available.

Vehicles:

Vehicles will get added next, bringing PunjiVR to a brand new scale and opening so many new doors. The goal is to have them implemented seamlessly into the existing flow of gameplay rather than being separate entities like they were in Version 1. This means you'll be able to enter and exit them smoothly and without any loading screens.

Expect more info on vehicles at a later date...

Content Push:

The next stage will focus on beefing the game up with a lot of content. New missions, weapons, systems, maps, vehicles--everything.... I have an entire notebook full of ideas (most of which come from your suggestions!), and there are a lot of great features and additions I look forward to adding, so it will be fun to see how the game grows in this stage.

Operations:

The last major gamemode planned is Operations, which is the original large-scale mode that was theorized in the original roadmap for Version 2. In short, it takes place on a huge map with vehicles and other systems like character upkeep (stress, sleep, hunger, weapon maintenance...), advanced navigation (map and compass), medical system, radio supports, and more. You spawn in a friendly base and are given a random objective to complete somewhere on the map, then you travel there and complete it however you can/wish. It will basically be Sapper Ops times 50. Expect more info on this later in development...

Mission Editor:

The last major addition before the full release will be a mission editor and (hopefully!) Steam Workshop support. There will be two versions of the editor: a PC one that functions similar to the Arma editors, and a VR one that lets you place soldiers, waypoints, etc. with your hands like they're toy soldiers. Again, expect more info on this at a later date...

Conclusion:

Once all of this is added and polished, PunjiVR will transition from early access to a full release. I will still update the game regularly with new missions, weapons, vehicles, and other improvements, but the bulk of the game will stay relatively firm. I want PunjiVR to be a complete experience and not just a sandbox that endlessly gets chipped away at without any goal or plan, so this roadmap (to me) feels pretty solid and correlates with my vision of what I want this project to be.

As always, things happen and plans change, so none of this is set in stone, but it should give you all a decent idea of what to expect and what my intentions are. Even if the missions themselves change, the same idea of [Medium Missions>Multiplayer>Large Missions>Mission Editor] will stay the same.

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Thanks for taking the time to read and thanks again for all of your support and feedback! All of this was based on the info you all provided in the survey a few weeks ago, so a special thanks to those of you who took the time to fill that out.

If you have any questions, suggestions, or bug reports, don't hesitate to share them in the comments of this post, the Steam Discussions, or through the links below. Thanks again and remember to keep an eye on the treeline!

Discord Subreddit