January Development Update

This month we have started to integrate the new AI system into the game, and we have started work on saving and loading the world state and units. We have also continued work on the client side handling of the water, and continued work on the corvette model.

AI System

We have started to integrate the tactical AI system into the game. The tactical AI is responsible for steering individual units, as well as groups of units. When a convoy is attacked, it is the job of the tactical AI to decide how many of the escorts it can spare to hunt down the u-boat.

The new AI system can handle ships, aircraft, coastal artillery, anti aircraft guns and hazards like mine fields. It is built to navigate in the global world map.

Saving, Loading and the Mission Editor

We have introduced save and load functionality for missions. Missions will in the future be able to be saved and resumed when the host machine turns off—even in online multiplayer, on dedicated servers and normal peer-to-peer hosts. The state of an individual u-boat can also be saved, such that when you return to a specific server, your U-boat will be where you left it.

The new mission editor will use the same format. The mission editor is also being reworked to a full 2D view where you can place units, assign groups, create custom objectives, use waypoints and triggers to construct complex scenarios—as well as linking multiple missions to form “story arcs”.

Missions and save-files are saved to simple text files and can be easily shared. Missions will have the same Steam Workshop functionality as today.

Playable Corvette

The playable corvette is under development and coming along nicely. Einar is currently modeling the deck gun to high fidelity, and will continue working on the remaining stations of the corvette.

What’s next?

Our highest priority is still to release a playable version of the game as soon as possible! We are making sure that all of the core systems that we need to run the open world game mode are in place, so that we don’t have to make any structural changes that introduce bugs after the code has already been tested.