Hello everyone,


This new trailer summarizes all the previous French Content that was released and the new, secret weapons content that this update contains. Give it a watch and be sure to share it with all your friends! It's a great way to catch up on what's new in Brass Brigade since the spring.


Your mission, should you accept it, will take you to deep behind enemy lines in the secret side of warfare. Today's new update is not based on any particular battle or skirmish. Rather, it is inspired by the clandestine operations of WW2 alongside other classic WW2 games. It is an amalgamation of special weapons, equipment, and scenery that would normally be found in the hands of special commando units and special divisions. Let's take a tour of these codeword-classified assets.


Welcome to a sleepy, wintery town in [CLASSIFIED], Norway. British Commandos will be attacking a series of German installations in the dead of night in an attempt to capture key German super weapons. The Commandos will first need to assault a German airfield, work their way to a V2 Launch Site, and ultimately to a U-Boat pen. Dense foliage, snow, and low light make visibility a bit more difficult. Engagement distances vary from long range (in the forests and airfield) to CQB (inside the U-Boat pen).

This may be just about the most difficult mission for Allied forces available. Strong German defenses, strategically placed artillery guns, and new weapons will make the assault a difficult proposition.


Such a daring assault calls for specialized weapons. The British Commandos have swapped their standard No. 4's for silenced De Lisle Carbines. Their Sten submachine guns have also been fitted with suppressors and modified with a slightly increased rate of fire. New experimental suppressed .45 caliber sidearms and borrowed OSS suppressed M3s also make an appearance for some of the troops. But the firepower doesn't end there - new impact grenades have been deployed to select troops to help them clear out nearby infantry. But be careful - if you drop one near you, you'll have no time to run before it goes off!

The German Army has a few modified weapons of their own to counter the Commando threat. A scoped StG44 and scoped G43 will make picking off Commandos a bit easier at range. However, once the Commandos get in close, the Germans might find themselves at a bit of a loss...


German scientists have been hard at work developing some of the most sophisticated rocket technology known to man. Despite the early speedbumps during the development of the V1 Rocket, the V2 rocket is now available to German Shock Troopers in the new Brandenburg faction. Simply point at the location you wish to call in your rocket and press the special ability key. Green smoke indicates where the V2 rocket will head to. You'll want to be very far away from that green smoke if you want to survive the massive blast that follows impact. As destructive and lethal as the V2 is, troops will have to be careful on the field, as it takes a full minute to recharge in between uses - the longest cool-down of any special equipment.

I have another map in the pipeline that I hope to bring you soon. This November 22nd will mark one full year of post-launch Brass Brigade support (and almost 3 years of total development time). The game has grown so much and covered many iconic parts of WW2 that it didn't on launch day, and I hope everyone has enjoyed all the additional content.

Until next time,
Henry Kucab

Hello all,

Small update in preparation for a larger one that is in the works (head over to the Brass Brigade Discord if you want to see some screenshots of what's to come!)

In this small update, you will find...

• Fixed a bug that caused TNT to not damage tanks under many circumstances. This was a by-product of the previous optimization update. TNT works as intended now.
  
• The STUG tank has been visually modified to include an armored side skirt and period correct wheel arrangement. Its turning speed & top speed have been slowed down to allow for easier aiming while it's health has been increased - this further solidifies its role as a tank destroyer on the field.

Another large-scale update is in the works and nearing completion - be on the lookout for that soon.

Many thanks to those of you who picked up Brass Brigade during the Halloween Sale - I hope you're enjoying it. If you are, please leave a review on the Steam Store page!

Thanks,
Henry K.

Hello troops,

This is a smaller update (no traditional "content") than normal but hopefully a welcome one. Since the Maginot Line update (which most everyone seems to be enjoying!), I've received some really fantastic feedback from players. It warms my heart to see so many players enjoying my WW2 game. One consistent theme from some of the comments is occasional lag experienced by some users. While I think an argument could be made that some amount of "sub-par" performance is expected for a battle-simulator type game (lots of AI bots tends to do that), I always want to try and make the game perform as best as it can to enable as many players to enjoy what it has to offer.

The tricky thing about optimization is that the first 60-70% of optimizing is relatively easy. The more efficient and optimized you wish to make it beyond that begins to require an exceptional amount of work and trickery. Think about automobiles - many cars can routinely get 25-35 MPG, but to push beyond that margin starts to become very tricky. You begin to work at the edges of your knowledge, your design & engineering limitations, your tool limits, and a shrinking time-spent vs. performance-gained margin. Let's talk about some of my limits with Brass Brigade and how I'm addressing them.

Brass Brigade is built on Unity Engine 2018.1.9f2. Unity Engine is an absolutely fantastic game engine, known for its high accessibility, user-friendliness, and C# backend. Many fantastic games have been built on the Unity Engine such as Ravenfield (an inspiration for Brass Brigade), Tannenberg, Verdun, Escape from Tarkov, and more. Despite these fantastic games, some players associate Unity with poor performance or sub-par gaming experiences. While I disagree with such a black-and-white association, one thing that is true is that some of Unity's fundamental programming libraries derive from a class called "Monobehaviour". This is a class that provides engine level programming functionalities to Unity developers. The name Monobehaviour does imply though that it is not "thread-safe" - in other words, it cannot be multithreaded. This core coding library that backs much of Unity cannot be multithreaded. To clarify, data can be extracted away from the Unity level libraries and multithreaded elsewhere, but this limits multi-threaded work to extremely low-level computation, which would not often benefit from multithreading.

Some users, especially those with Ryzen CPUs, have noted low CPU consumption. This is a by-product of Unity executing on a single thread. In my experience, I've noticed similar patterns with other Unity games on other CPUs that have multiple cores. As a general take-away, CPUs with higher clock speeds & stronger single-core performance should perform better than other multi-cores with slower per-core speeds - at least, that's my experience with Brass Brigade. Newer versions of Unity are introducing new technologies that are much more friendly to multi-threading; these are still in early development & forwards compatibility with old projects is unlikely in my estimation.

The good news is that Unity does offer some fantastic tools to profile your game and figure out where CPU time is being spent. In the case of Brass Brigade, more CPU time was being spent in the Camera Rendering and Physics engine than anything else.

• Optimized bot character controller code to not rely on physics engine for translating characters. This significantly reduces physics overhead for bot movement.
  
• Particle effects have had their total number of sub-particle emitters reduced. Most debris that gets kicked up by bullet impacts & explosions will no longer collide with the environment to reduce stress on the physic engine.
  
• Bot AI has been refactored to spread out the timing of when they raycast a target (checks if they can physically see a target) across all bots. This has the added benefit of allowing an individual bot to raycast more frequently than before while retaining a net reduction in raycasts per frame. This has helped to reduce the frequency of friendly fire drastically as bots can detect a friendly in front of them much quicker.

• Particle effects no longer have randomized rotations over time; this allows them to be culled when off-screen. Previously, particles were being rendered by the camera system, even when off screen.
  
• Ambient Occlusion sample count was drastically reduced.
  
• Disabled reflection mapping in the rendering pipeline as it wasn't really contributing to the overall visual presentation.
  
• Reduced terrain grass render resolution slightly.
  
• Particle effects no longer cast shadows.
  
• Modified shadow cascade profiles to allow for much crisper shadows closer to the earlier releases of the game with virtually no change in performance (increased visual fidelity for no cost effectively).

Test System

• i7 7700k @ 4.2GHz
  
• 16GB DDR4/3000MHz GSKILL Trident Z RGB
  
• GTX 1080 Ti @ 1920x1080@60Hz
  
• Game running off 2TB 7200RPM SATA300 HDD
  
• Windows 10

Game Settings

• Anzio Day 2
  
• 64 Bots, default map settings
  
• Default CPU time settings
  
• Low Settings = Out of the Box Settings with no grass, no ragdolls, no bullet impact effects
  
• High Settings = Out of the Box Settings, 0x ragdoll corpse multiplier

Here, the previous Maginot Line Update build was compared against this new optimized build. I played 3 minutes on the map with each configuration, doing my best to run the same path. With the "Low Settings", I saw a 13% increase in performance on average, going from an average of 122.808 FPS to 138.942 FPS. With the "High Settings", I saw an increase from 87.923 FPS to 94.253 FPS, or an increase of 7.2%. Across 3 different test systems (ranging from 4th gen i7s & GTX1060m to the aforementioned test system), similar increases were observed.

Not too bad - plus, I believe the overall gameplay experience has increased in part due to more responsive enemy AI, less friendly fire incidents, and sharper shadows. These results were captured using Fraps benchmark tool.

On my test rig, exceptional performance (120FPS+ on average) was experienced by reducing the graphical fidelity. By turning off the grass, shell casings, bullet impacts, and ragdolls, you trade some visual candy back for CPU time. You can use that to fill up your scene with more bots, or just enjoy the extra frames.

Most Costly Settings (Higher = More Costly, Lower = Less Costly)

• Graphics & Audio > Render Shell Casings For Bots
  
• Graphics & Audio > Use Ragdolls
  
• Graphics & Audio > Bullet Impact Particles
  
• Graphics & Audio > Terrain Detail Draw Distance
  
• Graphics & Audio > Terrain Detail Density
  
• Gameplay > Ragdoll Corpses (Set to 0x for best performance if using ragdolls, if this is turned up high, it can FAR outweigh anything else in cost and make the game unstable.)

There were a few other optimization tools I was testing (such as a mesh-combiner toolset) which did not yield the results I was initially hoping for, but due to their complexity, I have not exhausted their use entirely yet. They may still provide more performance as I learn them. Until next time, I'm hoping to bring you a map or 2 in the future. I'm always curious to know about your performance - feel free to visit the Brass Brigade Discord and drop me a line. As always, if you're enjoying the game, please leave a Steam Review!

Until Next Time,
Henry Kucab

Addendum (9/30/2020) - Small update pushed that fixes missing global lighting on Operation Battleaxe.

Hello Soldiers,

I hope everyone is doing well. Today I bring you some new content to further expand the Brass Brigade arsenal. This "defense-themed" update has two major features - the Maginot Line map and the addition of two stationary field guns. Let's dive into them.


The main bunkers in the Maginot Line.

The Maginot Line was a series of defensive structures built by France in the 1930s in an effort to deter and stop any potential invasion by Germany. The line stretched a vast distance through the south of France and proved to be a nearly impossible defense to breach. However, as German troops moved north through France, the line weakened/ended, and provided pockets and flanks for the German advance to leverage in the Summer of 1940. It would eventually become an expensive symbol of false security.

French soldiers overlook their forward defenses.

The new map available in Brass Brigade is an assault-styled map, designed to play as a front-line attack. German troops spawn just outside of a French village before the main defensive line. German troops will need to capture the town before attempting to cross a series of small fields and defenses before reaching the main line of bunkers and field guns. The attackers get four tanks to assault the line with, while the defenders get two tanks and a series of scattered field guns positioned around the line.

A German Panzer waits near the Ammo Dump spawn point.

The map is balanced such that the attacking team (Germans by default) start with less tickets, and gain more tickets each time an objective is captured. Conversely, the defenders (French Army) start with a full slate of reinforcements, but gain back less tickets for each objective captured than the attackers. This asymmetric reinforcement balance encourages the attackers to maintain momentum in their attack, as without consistently capturing flags, they will run out of tickets before reaching the final set of objectives. It also encourages the defenders to keep the attackers at bay, as merely stalling the attack may be enough to bleed the attackers of tickets.

Tanks have been a fairly powerful and dominant force on the battlefields for quite a while now, with only heavy explosives such as TNT, rocket launchers, and mortar strikes being the most viable option for stopping them. This left other troops completely defenseless against enemy armor - until now. New to many of the maps are stationary field guns that players and bots can hop onto to rain down heavy fire on enemy troops. But be careful! When manning a stationary gun, you are exposed to enemy fire. If you see an enemy soldier manning a gun, try to take them out with your small arms. Otherwise, you can damage a field gun the same as you would a tank. Field guns also have sights (just like tanks) so you can aim at far away targets.


A German officer mans an 88.

There are two field guns introduced in this update. The first is the Flak 88 cannon (for the Axis forces) acting more-or-less as an anti-tank weapon. It has a fairly slow traversal speed and can only be aimed high vertically when using the sight. But it has a fairly high projectile speed which makes long range target shooting fairly easy.


A French soldier fires the 25-PDR.

The second field gun is your classic 25-pounder styled gun with a short barrel (for the Allied forces). This gun has a quicker traversal speed but leaves the gunner slightly more exposed. They are smaller though, which makes them a harder target than the large 88s.

*As with all things in Brass Brigade, artillery guns can be toggled on/off in the Instant Action menu.

• Foliage improvements
  
• Added more props to the German spawn area
  
• Added more foliage and micro-terrain to the exit from the Allied spawn area into the main town
  
• (This is part of a sweep I plan on doing to try and equalize the quality of all maps)

• Adjusted culling layers on camera system which may result in minor performance increases for some users.
  
• Added occlusion culling data to Arras; some users reported lower performance on that map compared to others. This should help to balance performance.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused bots to stand still at spawn for extremely long periods of time after respawning when the bot count was high.
  
• Tanks & Field guns now have their vision affected by the "Vision" slider in the Instant Action menu properly. This should reduce the frequency of being "sniped" by distant tanks.
  
• AI will not attack a tank/field gun that has not been occupied.
  
• AI attacks vehicles based on the driver now, rather than the absolute team the vehicle belongs to; this should prevent friendlies from killing you if you steal an enemy tank for example.

• British Armies now have an Anti Tank Rifle class, equipped with the Boys AT Rifle & Sten (by popular request)
  
• German K98k Standard has 10% damage increase to better combat the semi automatic M1 Garand, 10 round Enfield, 8 round Lebel, and powerful Mosin Nagant of Allied Forces.
  
• G43 damage bumped from 30 to 50 to align it closer to the M1 Garand.
  
• German Early War Team no longer includes the Stug and Tiger tank; only the Panzer tank is available for the Early War variant.

I think the immediate future will bring some more maps to Brass Brigade. I have a few more maps that I would like to explore developing as I think they would provide unique environments and may offer unique gameplay scenarios. That's all I'm willing to divulge at this time. It's hard to believe in just about two months, Brass Brigade will be a year old - at least publicly. The game was in development for almost 2 years before that. It's been a three year sprint and I suspect another slowdown may accompany the fall/winter season - the combination of screen time and the still-persistent shutdown of much of where I live due to Covid make consistent programming/development strenuous. I still have more I would like to development, but maps are the easiest thing to add, so in order to pace myself, that's where I think I will put my attention for now. Thanks for understanding & your love & support.

Until next time,
Henry Kucab

Huge thank you to Polygon Blacksmith for his incredible work on the French Forces! This would not have been possible without his efforts! Give it up for Polygon Blacksmith!!

Hello everyone!

The French Forces join the battlefields in Brass Brigade! They bring with them a host of new and interesting weapons, a new light-tank, and will make their debut on a new map - "The Battle for France". The French Forces are armed with many stayover weapons from the Great War. Bolt action rifles are the primary weapon type backing the French infantry - Lebel and Berthier rifles will be a common sight in the hands of French soldiers. Newer armaments for French soldiers include the Mas38 sub-machinegun and Hotchkiss light-machinegun. Perhaps the most notable weapon the French troops bring to battle is the Boys Anti-Tank Rifle. The Boys AT rifle was reasonably effective against early German tanks until armor was thickened to better counter-act the AT rifle threat - be sure to look out for the massive Boys AT rifle & its thunderous report.

The full weapon list...

• Lebel 1886 Rifle (and scoped variant)
  
• FM 24/29
  
• Boys AT Rifle
  
• Chauchat
  
• Mas38
  
• Mas36
  
• Hotchkiss
  
• Berthier
  
• Ruby Automatic

In the Spring of 1940, the Battle of France commenced. The rolling countrysides were ideal grounds of tank combat, with infantry skirmishes taking place in the towns that dot the landscape. The Battle for France in Brass Brigade takes place near the town of Arras and its adjacent farmlands. French forces attempt to counter-attack a wide-spread German offensive. With wide flanks on either side of the town, Allied forces will be hard pressed to root out the Axis threat without succumbing to Axis armor.

This map is deliberately skewed against the allies a bit. When playing as the French, players will need to enlist the help of the Troop Command System to rally together a squad when attempting to capture points. Otherwise, the French will find themselves retreating to their rear-lines and a defeat is sure to follow.



The French get a new tank in Brass Brigade. The FT17 makes its return to the battlefield, back from fighting in the Great War. This tank design, though out-dated by 1940s standards, boasts a small profile, making it more difficult to target at range by other tanks. However, its small design and weak armor make it less than ideal for traversing rough terrain and attacking targets head on. Its advantage comes from its ability to fit through smaller passage-ways in the environment and to conceal itself easier. Be sneaky when piloting this tank, otherwise, a single well-placed Tiger round will put you into an early grave.


The Panzer IV gets a makeover to look much more historically correct.

• New AI sampling load distribution strategy. This new AI load balancing system grants more CPU time to bots that are nearer to the player. Bots that are far away (and not as visible) use less CPU time. I have seen more consistent performance on some lower end machines using this new method; please drop some feedback if any significant performance gains/loses are felt by you.
  
• New UI elements on screen that denote the keybindings for certain controls, such as Grenade, Special Ability, Camera Mode, and the Troop Command System. I noticed new players were unaware of these systems, so these on screen elements should clue them into trying them.
  
• Early German team selection choice only includes the Panzer IV to distinguish them further from Late War variants.
  
• Panzer IV treads rebuilt to look more correct
  
• Bots no longer continuously swap weapons when reloading.
  
• Bots pause for ~5 seconds at the start of a game, giving the player some time to pick a class and spawn in.
  
• New main menu background scene
  
• Weapons now have an empty click sound when they are out of ammo (sorry this took so long!)

My current plans are to develop a few more maps in the future, possibly for the French, American, and/or Russian forces, though I haven't solidified anything yet. My mind currently wants to have a Carentan-esque map, a Berlin type map, and/or a Maginot Line themed map. Let me know your thoughts! I have also been experimenting with other special abilities for the troops (ex. deployable sandbags) with varying degrees of success. I think I will take some time to build out a new map or 2 and pursuit some ideas I've had for special abilities. As always, feel free to swing by the Steam Discussion forums to drop me a line. Alternatively, our Discord is always open to newcomers. If you're enjoying the game, please leave a review - they really help keep the game visible.

Until next time (and again, thank you Polygon Blacksmith),
Henry Kucab

Listen up soldiers, this is classified information!

To all the players in the United States, may I wish you a belated happy 4th of July! I took a vacation, moved houses, oversaw another Steam sale for Brass Brigade, and spent a week in a house without air conditioning, coding in rooms that routinely reached 90 degrees fahrenheit! Hopefully everyone is staying healthy & a little bit cooler than me. Thankfully, reinforcements are here to help me through!


I can finally show off something that has been in the works for several months. Before I do, I must thank Polygon Blacksmith for all of his help with the French Soldiers. Polygon Blacksmith is the original artist of the character models & weapons used in Brass Brigade, and he was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule & develop these custom French soldiers and weapons. Without Polygon Blacksmith, neither Brass Brigade or these awesome French soldiers would be as great as they are today! A huge thank you Polygon Blacksmith!



The French soldiers come armed with a variety of historically accurate weapons, ranging from the Lebel 1886 Rifle, Mas36 Rifle, Mas38 Submachine gun, and more (including an early war tank....any guesses?). The exact & full list will be revealed in the release-day announcement post. For now, enjoy these teaser screenshots.


The Battle for France is the newest map joining the rotation. It features the French Forces springing into a rapid responses in and around the town of Arras to stop (Early War) German Wehrmacht troops in the Spring of 1940. The map features a medium sized town in the center, flanked by farm lands and small creek beds on either side. Tanks will need to make use of the flanks to avoid getting choked up on tank traps and other obstacles in the middle of the town. But tanks will need to avoid some new threats the French are bringing to the battlefield (more details on those will be in the next update announcement).


Of course, there are other smaller changes coming in the next update that further refine & improve the overall experience. It humbles me to see so many passionate history buffs enjoying Brass Brigade - I try to walk a line between cartoon fun & historical flavorings. As for the release date - it will be soon, hopefully in the next few weeks. I'm really trying to squeeze as much polished content in this as I can.

Until then - Vive La France!
-Henry Kucab

Apologies for the prolonged gap between this update and the previous one. Balancing programming 9-to-5 for my day job, working on Brass Brigade, and marshaling other life events is no easy task. But I'm pleased to be able to bring you some new features and content in today's interim update.


Before I dive into the specifics, I'd like to give DaleyProductions a special thanks for his continued support and content creation that features Brass Brigade. I recently partnered with him and his team to host a giveaway of some Brass Brigade Steam keys. Thank you to him and his community for their love and support,


In the previous update, I teased a new, untitled map. That map, while mostly ready, was meant to be coupled with some other custom art that a very talented and extremely generous individual is creating. As of writing this, the last of the art that I am expecting is still being worked on. As such, I am splitting up this update into two parts. Today's update features...

• Swappable allied & axis team arrangements for all maps
  
• Reverse Mode
  
• Type 89 Tank for Japanese Forces
  
• Tank support on Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima maps (bringing tank combat to the Pacific theater for the first time in Brass Brigade!)
  
• Improved 1st Person Shooting Mechanics
  
• A switch which lets you pick between carrying your custom settings over to the next match at a battle's end, or selecting the defaults.
  
• The ability to kick bots out of tanks (highly requested, finally implemented!)

As mentioned in the previous post, players can now pick and choose from any Allied-Axis team combination for all maps. Please keep in mind that maps were originally intended to be played with specific teams & tanks, so altering this can lead to very interesting gameplay results! The default settings for each map reflect a more historically accurate assignment, but you can change the assignments to your heart's content. You can also swap around the starting spawns of either team, doubling the arrangements available for each map.

The Japanese finally get a tank, making every faction in Brass Brigade feature at least one armored vehicle! The Type 89 rather weak when it comes to armor, but boast a decently speed and reasonably good off-road ability. It can often scale really uneven terrain smoother than other tanks thanks to generous suspension travel. However, it lacks a forward-mounted turret machine-gun, meaning its small cannon is its only armament. Look out for these when fighting against the Japanese Army.



This also means that both Pacific theater maps (Iwo Jima & Guadalcanal) have been updated to support tank combat. Iwo Jima pits one Allied tank against one Axis tank. Guadalcanal features one Allied tank against three Axis tanks, owing to the nature of that battle. Allied troops are meant to be surrounded in the firebase at Guadalcanal and should struggle to hold the line against relentless Japanese attacks.

I've recently noticed that bullet-tracers can sometimes appear to go through walls, which gave the effect that AI bots were able to shoot at the player and other bots through solid objects. Fortunately, only the tracer effect was clipping through walls - the physical bullet projectiles that cause damage did not. None-the-less, this oversight has been corrected, and tracers should no longer go through solid objects and should end where the bullet projectile stops.

• First person weapon shooting has been improved such that bullets stem from the exact center of your screen. This makes shooting out of windows behave much better; bullets shouldn't hit the frame if your crosshair is aiming through the gaps of the window.
  
• Players can now kick bots of out tanks. Simply approach a tank that a friendly bot is occupying and press the ACTION key (as usual). The player will assume control and the bot will return to battle.
  
• A new option has been added to the End-of-Game summary screen; players can now pick to use the default settings for the next battle (default), or if their current settings should carry over.
  
• German forces as a whole have been nerfed a little bit; internal testing & player feedback indicated that they were really dominate in many maps, so their troops have seen an average of 10% health reduction across the board, as well as making them stop while shooting more frequently.

I hope I can bring you the new map soon along with the planned additional content. I am not ready to divulge any specifics about it, but the person who is helping me is being extremely generous with their time and I want to accommodate them in every way possible.

Until next time,
Henry Kucab

Hello Soldiers,

I wanted to give everyone a quick status update as to what's going on with Brass Brigade. I have a few things in the works, some of which I am able to give you a glimpse of today. I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy given the Covid-19 situation. I'm hanging in there as best I can - unfortunately my area's shelter in place order is still getting extended well into June with no end in sight, so I'm doing my best to balance screen-time with other activities. Nonetheless, I'm still crunching away at my codebase in the background.

Brass Brigade was on-sale during the Spring Sale and I got some really fantastic feedback from new players during that time. Namely, optimization tweaks and performance increases were focused on, tank combat was reworked to be faster, and tank controls were made to be editable rather than hard-coded (sorry for taking so long on that!) Let me again give my thanks to all you awesome soldiers for leaving your reviews. Of course I'm always happy to see positive reviews which reaffirm to me that I'm doing something right with the game and all of its updates. But I'm also always interested in your feedback and I hope the course the game has taken over the last 6 months has only improved your experience. Cheers!



Pick from the Allied and Axis forces for all maps!


This is a rather simple one, but it forced my hand to refactor some long-standing codebase problems in Brass Brigade. You will soon be able to swap between any Allied and Axis teams for all maps. If you want to rush Omaha beach as the Soviets with T-34s against the Japanese, go right ahead. Maybe you want to fight in Stalingrad as the British?


Actually, Soviets fighting in the snow covered woods in the Battle of the Bulge almost makes sense...


There are quite a few combinations possible, and it leads to some pretty interesting results - maps were designed with specific teams and vehicles in mind, so to play them with other tanks/weapons/soldiers creates previously impossible scenarios. Talk about a WW2 sandbox!

Coupling to the team switching options is also the new ability to swap the starting positions of each team. You will now be able to reverse the spawns of each team. Maybe it's time the Germans know what it feels like to run up Omaha beach against American machine-guns. Or maybe the Fallschirmjager will have to drop into Arnhem and try to secure the town against an entrenched British Army. And don't forget you can combine this with the team swapping! You could have the British defending Omaha Beach from a Japanese invasion if you want.

For those of you who are prefer the more historically correct arrangements, fear not, the more accurate arrangements are still the defaults for the map. This is simply a series of new options for those players who may want to open up the sandbox experience even more.


Japanese troops storming Arnhem bridge against American Shermans. Crazy or brave?



I am working on a new map that is set somewhere in France (go figure for a WW2 game...). Unfortunately, I'm not entirely ready to give away too many details concerning this map and it definitely needs more work from a balancing standpoint, but it combines two open farm areas, a small creek, and a lovely town center/plaza to create the perfect spring-time blitz. It takes visual cues from BFV's Arras (say what you want about that game, the environment art was pretty slick). It's a pretty unique map in that it incorporates tight urban combat on the village which sits above farms and fields on either side - perfect for open tank combat.

The new map relies on some additional artwork which I am still waiting on (from a very generous individual), so I don't have an exact ETA on when it will be available. I hope you will enjoy it very much when it is made available.


Note the bullets hitting the post through the window opening, rather than the window frame


One small improvement made to the shooting mechanics is that when the player switches to first person, bullets go exactly where the crosshair points. This makes shooting out of windows much easier and work as expected. Third person shooting is always tricky as a compromise has to be made since the camera and crosshair can sometimes be placed over things the player model shouldn't reasonably be able to shoot. Balance has to be made between the player's expectation of what they can hit and what they can actually hit based on which parts of them are exposed. But in first person mode, if you're weapon's crosshair is on the target, you should hit it, and that is the new behavior.

You'll hear from me again when I'm ready to ship some/all of these features to you. I hope you're enjoying the new tanks and improved performance from this month's earlier update in the meantime.

Until next time,
Henry K.

Hello troops,

With the Golden Week Sale treating Brass Brigade well, I've taken to heart some of the critiques Brass Brigade received and have implemented some changes that I think everyone will welcome:

• Tank driving controls are now mapped to your character's movement controls, which can be changed in the Settings > Controls menu
  
• Additional tank specific controls (such as the gun sight and tank machine-gun) are also bindable in the Settings > Controls menu

• All tank shells have seen a drastic increase in velocity, ranging from 50-100% increase over original values; this means you won't have to account for drop-off & travel time as much over long ranges.
  
• All tanks have had armor buffs to their fronts (65-70% damage reduction from a direct hit compared to 40-50% reduction before).
  
• All tanks have significant weak spots in their rears (500-800% increase from a direct hit compared to 200-400% increase before). This means that (usually) 2 hits in the rear of the tank is sufficient for a kill.
  
• All tanks have had side armor buffs (40-50% damage reduction from a direct hit compared to 20-30% reduction before).
  
• Tanks with an exposed magazine on their turret (Tiger, Firefly, Sherman) receive extra damage if hit there.
  
• StuG received substantial armor buff on its front of 80% incoming damage reduction due to its inability to rotate its turret.
  
• Firefly has had its reload time shortened by 20% to make it more suitable against stronger Axis tanks.

Unity Profiler data points to camera rendering & physics calculations as the primary time-sink as far as performance. Some graphical changes to counter this include:

• Significantly decreased shadow resolution across all graphical settings.
  
• Disabled countless reflection processes that were not being used by any materials/textures in the game from the rendering pipeline
  
• Reduced global physics solver iterations
  
• Reduced particle raycasting (this should help maintain frame rate when many particles are being rendered on screen at once)

Several critical AI behaviors and bugs have been addressed, though I am monitoring their new behavior closely for stability. AI optimizations are often unpredictable, but I am happy with the results being shown on my test systems.

• Corrected bot rigidbodies to act as kinematics - bots should now smoothly traverse bumps and terrain without getting stuck much if at all. This should also finally resolve the "stretching ragdoll" problem.
  
• Bot hitboxes has been stabilized greatly. There were occasions before where bot hitboxes would de-sync from their bodies before - this should now be corrected & hit registration should be stable.
  
• CPU Time slider now has a VASTLY MORE AGGRESSIVE affect on the CPU cycle time spent on bots. This means that when the sliders are zeroed out, bots will behave a little dumber, but if you're running a high bot count for your machine, this should buy you more framerate stability for higher bot counts. This effectively gives you more breathing room with high bot counts.
  
• Optimized situations where bots raycast when determining to shoot, further reducing CPU load
  
• Bots will now try to navigate around tanks rather than running straight into them.
  
• Added logic to make bots stand still when shooting under circumstances. This increases as bot count increases to prevent bots from endlessly charging into one another like a mosh-pit.
  
• Sniper bot accuracy has been reduced in general. It has been reduced even more when they are not stationary at their "sniper spot."
  
• Sniper bots no longer use handguns for long range encounters, which should resolve problems of being sniped by pistols from across the map.

• Fixed 2 flags being named exactly the same on Battle of the Bulge, which would prevent you from selecting one of them when trying to spawn (German Center Flank).

Keep the feedback coming, and if you like Brass Brigade & what I'm doing, please leave a review on the Steam Store page.

That's all for now.

Until next time,
Henry Kucab

Hello soldiers,

I hope you are all doing well. The Covid-19 pandemic has shaken up life for just about everyone across the world, and I am no exception. I'm doing my best to balance my day job with developing Brass Brigade. As such, I've taken a little bit of time to add some smaller but highly request bits of content to the game. These new vehicles and troops should make for some new eye-candy and tasty historical flavor for all to enjoy. (If my wording sounds weird, it's the self-isolation getting to me!)

Anyway, I hope you're all doing well, staying safe, and following the health and safety guidelines of your local authorities. Onwards to the good stuff!

This update has 3 new tanks - the American M4 Sherman, the German StuG, and the Russian T-34-76.


The M4 Sherman is the big brother and originator of the Firefly, the previous predominant Allied tank in Brass Brigade. It features a larger profile, but stronger armor. The extra protection from damage comes at a disadvantage though, as the Sherman is slower than the Firefly. However, the extra weight and reduced speed do make it more stable for turning at high speeds. Look for this tank on maps that feature either the Americans or British, such as Anzio, Caen, El Alamein, and Battleaxe.


The T-34-76 needs no introduction. It was one of the longest produced tanks in history with a production count of almost 2-to-1 against the M4 Sherman. Compared to the T-34-85 (previously the only Russian tank in Brass Brigade), the 76 features a shorter barrel, slightly larger profile, stronger armor, reduced speed, and more suspension travel for traversing uneven terrain. Look for these on maps that Feature Russian troops, such as Kursk, Stalingrad, and Ponyri.


The StuG is perhaps the quirkiest tank in Brass Brigade. To aid the Axis forces against their new Allied armor opposition, the StuG features an extremely low profile, moderate speed, and very high resilience to incoming shells. Sounds too good to be true? The StuG comes with two big drawbacks - it does not have a driver-operated machine gun and its turret cannot rotate horizontally. The StuG must face directly at its target. This makes the StuG ideal as a support tank from the rear while other tanks charge forward. These can be found on almost all maps featuring the German forces.

Besides these new tanks available today, I hope to update and tweak tank gameplay going further. I've seen lots of good, constructive feedback around the tank combat/controls and I'm planning what areas should get updated next.


Avanti! The Italians are an often under-represented part of WW2 history and a good amount of players have asked for their inclusion into Brass Brigade. You can now be on the lookout for Italian blackshirt troops in the Anzio Day 1 and Day 2 maps fighting along-side the Germans. They sport Carcano rifles and Beretta pistols as their go-to weapons.

The Italians aren't a fully flushed out faction; I see them more as a complementary part of the German forces for their inclusion into Brass Brigade. Brass Brigade features a map with British and American forces fighting together and I think the idea of Italian and German forces fighting together should be just as welcome - it helps to highlight the global scale of WW2 and the comradery these nations might have had to employ.

*Note - I've also seen lots of people asking for other factions to be included into the game. While I wish I could include every faction that took part in WW2, I simply cannot afford to do so. I have to be picky when it comes to what I spend my time developing - seeing as how I already had maps on the Italian Front, I felt they were the best choice for inclusion.


Caen has had a new area added just outside the hedgerows near the Allied and Axis spawns. This area contains a small trench network, a crashed cargo plane, and 3 new flags to capture.


This area helps to spread out the armor on the map and helps ease up the action in the town's center courtyard area. More flanking routes are possible by both sides and it adds some more visual variety to the map. The foliage outside the playable area has also been greatly reduced which should increase performance for some users.




The American forces on Anzio have struggled to hold the main town area against the Germans - the Destroyed House outpost is behind the main ridgeline and offers little cover to the advancing Americans. A new capture point has been added opposite the ridge giving the Americans a chance to take and hold the main town center. Speed is key for them to take and hold the town.



The AI has seen several tweaks to how they navigate and move. Artificial intelligence and NPC movement is a never-ending battle with a game that has open maps and non-predetermined pathfinding. I'm actively watching how the bots perform with these changes and initial impressions seem good - let me know your feedback as you play so I can adjust further!

The tweaks include...
- Adjusted the bot obstacle avoidance policy to reduce the chances of bots clipping through one another.
- Corrected the movement speeds of bots - they should move faster overall, more in-line with that class's actual movement speed.
- Adjusted the physics solver iteration count for ragdolls. This should prevent (or at least greatly reduce) the instances where ragdolls are seen "stretching" in an unnatural and glitchy way. This particular bug is extremely tricky to track down and reproduce, but my internal tests seem to indicate it's been eliminated (or at least reduced to the point that I haven't noticed it).
- Bot vision has seen a general reduction across the board.
- Bot accuracy has seen a slight reduction across the board, but their inaccuracy should be more noticeable over longer distances. Bots should struggle more to kill their targets at long ranges. This also applies to snipers, though they are still more accurate than their non-sniper counter-parts. I'm also monitoring this closely too. Striking a good balance between reasonable vision and AI that appears reasonably aware is tricky, but I think this adjustment is proving to hit a better middle-ground. Running across an open field under machinegun fire is still an almost guaranteed way to get killed, but you might make it a bit farther than you would before.

As stated in previous updates, the immediate future is concentrating more on quality of life rather than large content drops. This update serves to provide some new tanks and troops to play with while also hopefully sprucing up the AI, maps, and other niggling bugs. I hope to continue sprucing up tank gameplay in the near future.

• Tank driving controls are now mapped to your character's movement controls, which can be changed in the Settings > Controls menu
  
• Additional tank specific controls (such as the gun sight and tank machine-gun) are also bindable in the Settings > Controls menu

• All tank shells have seen a drastic increase in velocity, ranging from 50-100% increase over original values; this means you won't have to account for drop-off & travel time as much over long ranges.
  
• All tanks have had armor buffs to their fronts (65-70% damage reduction from a direct hit compared to 40-50% reduction before).
  
• All tanks have significant weak spots in their rears (500-800% increase from a direct hit compared to 200-400% increase before). This means that (usually) 2 hits in the rear of the tank is sufficient for a kill.
  
• All tanks have had side armor buffs (40-50% damage reduction from a direct hit compared to 20-30% reduction before).
  
• Tanks with an exposed magazine on their turret (Tiger, Firefly, Sherman) receive extra damage if hit there.
  
• StuG received substantial armor buff on its front of 80% incoming damage reduction due to its inability to rotate its turret.
  
• Firefly has had its reload time shortened by 20% to make it more suitable against stronger Axis tanks.

Unity Profiler data points to camera rendering & physics calculations as the primary time-sink as far as performance. Some graphical changes to counter this include:

• Significantly decreased shadow resolution across all graphical settings.
  
• Disabled countless reflection processes that were not being used by any materials/textures in the game from the rendering pipeline
  
• Reduced global physics solver iterations
  
• Reduced particle raycasting (this should help maintain frame rate when many particles are being rendered on screen at once)

Several critical AI behaviors and bugs have been addressed, though I am monitoring their new behavior closely for stability. AI optimizations are often unpredictable, but I am happy with the results being shown on my test systems.

• Corrected bot rigidbodies to act as kinematics - bots should now smoothly traverse bumps and terrain without getting stuck much if at all. This should also finally resolve the "stretching ragdoll" problem.
  
• Bot hitboxes has been stabilized greatly. There were occasions before where bot hitboxes would de-sync from their bodies before - this should now be corrected & hit registration should be stable.
  
• CPU Time slider now has a VASTLY MORE AGGRESSIVE affect on the CPU cycle time spent on bots. This means that when the sliders are zeroed out, bots will behave a little dumber, but if you're running a high bot count for your machine, this should buy you more framerate stability for higher bot counts. This effectively gives you more breathing room with high bot counts.
  
• Optimized situations where bots raycast when determining to shoot, further reducing CPU load
  
• Bots will now try to navigate around tanks rather than running straight into them.
  
• Added logic to make bots stand still when shooting under circumstances. This increases as bot count increases to prevent bots from endlessly charging into one another like a mosh-pit.
  
• Sniper bot accuracy has been reduced in general. It has been reduced even more when they are not stationary at their "sniper spot."
  
• Sniper bots no longer use handguns for long range encounters, which should resolve problems of being sniped by pistols from across the map.

• Fixed 2 flags being named exactly the same on Battle of the Bulge, which would prevent you from selecting one of them when trying to spawn (German Center Flank).

As always, feel free to leave some feedback, comments, concerns.

That's all for now.

Until next time,
Henry Kucab