Sep 20, 2019

Free version to be discontinued and new update coming!

Call to Arms - Instinct

Hello everyone,

we will discontinue the option to get the free version for Call to Arms next month. If you own the free version, you will still be able to play the game. The free version will not be removed from your library, unless you do so by yourself. If you want the free version, you should hurry and collect it from the store page now. However, once you removed the game from your library, you will not be able to receive the free version in the future anymore.

All purchase editions remain unaffected.

Major new update

We are working on a major update for Call to Arms that brings in more singleplayer variety to you, by adding a conquest mode versus AI. The new feature is for free, but the factions you can choose are linked to the packages you own. Basic Edition allows you to choose between USA and GRM, Deluxe adds Rebels and UAF, Ultimate adds Germany and Russia. It’s the same way singleplayer campaigns work.

We are also working on a lot of balance tweaks, especially in regards of the armor system. The update will contain multiple fixes and enhanced online stability until our new netcode is ready.

New Netcode

For months, we have been working on a new netcode that brings huge changes to the game. So far, we have been using peer2peer networking. The problem with this solution is, that all PCs must do all the same exact calculations and even more so, their results must be identical. The “out of syncs” are caused by different calculation results, which appear too often in 64-bit environments, because float values differ depending on the CPU architecture. Furthermore, it is also likely that some changes in code can break the synchronization model very easily. Out of syncs are an annoying and a repeatedly appearing issue that we want to get rid from once and for all.

Therefore, we have been working very hard on a server to client architecture. The server will do all the important calculations and sends the results to clients, who then will just work with the server data.

Two massive benefits: out of syncs are a thing of the past and clients need to do much less work and therefore will see a significant boost in performance. The person with the fastest computer, can now host and make the life easier for everyone else. You will also not depend that much on the speed of other players and everyone is responsible for themselves, to have a proper connection to the server and to run the game at appropriate graphic settings. We completed our proof of concept and we will now move into the testing stage. We hope to have a public beta testing by the end of next month.

For the full netcode to be completed, we will need more time, because the singleplayer/cooperative code needs major re-design to work with servers.

Your opinion matters

We have been thinking about ways to involve the community more than before, as it is important for us to receive your feedback to improve the game. For this matter, we have created a new discord channel to do user opinion polls on specific matters:
https://discord.gg/HkGyEZh

This way, it will be easier for us to understand what topics matter to you the most and how decisive some change requests are. Based on your feedback, we can announce that the "old school" direct control will make a return to the game in the next update!

You can also drop us your in-depth feedback in this dedicated topic:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/302670/discussions/0/541907675762213439/

Thank you!

Jun 1, 2019

Developers Update 33

Call to Arms - Instinct

Welcome to our 33rd developers update for Call to Arms.

We have been quite silent lately, as we were working super hard on the next update for Call to Arms. As our communication has been far from perfect, while in the heat of pushing ahead with the many improvements we are working on, we decided to launch our official discord to public!

Our goal is to have a meeting point for similar minded people, who enjoy our games, share experiences and learn from each other. We want to improve our communication and share what we are doing and allow you to ask questions to developers more frequently.

This developers update is going to be rather technical, as we want to report on our performance improvements progress.

Below we have the current Steam build versus our latest developer build:

You will notice a performance boost of 10% on a simple, static scene, with no units around, even though it uses more advanced anti-aliasing methods.

In this scene, we disabled the distance clipping and you can see, that the performance difference increased to 60% boost. Simply put, we are able to render scenes on a much larger distance now and we are still working on enhancing it. You will also notice, that we render more objects in the newer builds and still have this huge gain.

This is how multi-threading has been improved and AI optimized:

As you can see, the FPS increase somewhere between 100-150%. This is an amazing result and we had to triple check it ourselves, as we couldn't believe it. But it's true and we are not done optimizing the game yet and we will deliver further improvements this year!

Of course, we weren't neglecting our other work and pushed hard to finalize the new factions, including the new weaponry you can expect in the upcoming update this summer, which will be really big. We also progressed well with the campaigns and will start the QA of the German campaign soon, which means it is on its way to release later this year.

Follow our developer website to stay updated on future sales, new games and upcoming updates!

Feb 9, 2019

Developers Update 32

Call to Arms - Instinct

Welcome to our 32nd developers update. After quite some time, we are back with some status report on our current work and planned work for the future.

There are two major tasks, that are our priority list at this point:

New campaigns

We are working very hard on finishing two new campaigns that are included in the Season Pass / Ultimate Edition. You will receive a total of 20 missions, 10 for Germany and 10 Russia. As before, they are fully scripted missions with varying mission objectives and gameplay. We tried to improve upon the first missions, by creating larger scenarios and with more units available at your disposal. Also, we moved most missions away from the Middle Eastern setting and provide you some interesting and fresh Eastern European battlegrounds with new assets all over the place.

If you are into singleplayer content, we suggest upgrading your package during the sale!

Performance

The second key goal for this year, is to enhance the game performance significantly. 2019 will be all about optimization and improvements to the game engine. We are currently working on improving the multi-threading capabilities of the game engine. Furthermore, we go through each major feature, that is demanding, most of them are related to AI and think about ways to optimize them even more. We already made great progress here and we expect noticeable boosts from our current work. Not only do we want to improve performance, but we also want to improve AI behaviour. For instance AI will now have a peripheral vision and can notice units moving in from behind. If you are careful, you can still sneak up on enemy units, but it won't be that easy anymore.

Also, we aren’t quite happy with the multiplayer stability, since we switched to 64-bit. The CPU architecture isn’t all too compatible with fully synced multiplayer. Something that put us in a pretty bad spot, as 32-bit is stable netcode wise, but unstable due to the memory load, while 64-bit offers more than enough potential memory usage, but the synchronization model is not fully in sync and causes OOS. To solve this, we are moving the netcode from a fully synced model between clients, to a server to client architecture. Step by step, the server will handle more and the clients less, which should also help gaining performance for clients and fixes OOS related issues, as the server makes sure everyone has the same data. At one point, it could also possibly allow us to have a full server model, including dedicated servers.

For solo skirmish players, we are also working on a feature, that allows you to play against AI, as if you were playing in singleplayer. All netcode related implications will be removed and you have a perfectly smooth game, just like in singleplayer. Obviously, there are some limitations when playing in multiplayer, tick rates and similar, that limit the maximum possible performance. We think, if you play solo, these limitations shouldn’t apply to you and that's why we are working on this special case.

We are fixing the 1st person controls, that sometimes tend to warp, as the weapon aligns to the target. Furthermore, we plan to have the local aiming model, once we completed the server / client architecture. This will help significantly to minimize the input lag.

Overall, we expect the game to perform better and better throughout the coming months, which should be a noticeable quality improvement for everyone.

But we are also working on some nice little extras as well:

New water technology

The new water allows us to create different scenarios, with windy oceans, or calm lakes. Depending on the environment, the water will behave differently, look much better and realistic.

Match-making

We’ll soon start working on match-making, as we think, it’s time to create some competitive scene around Call to Arms. You will have an ELO-rank system in place, that helps to determine your skill level and rank you versus the best players. We will most likely support 1v1 and 2v2 at the beginning. Hoping for more, as we improve the system.

New units

Of course, we are also working on new units. Aside from enhanced weapon models, you will soon have mobile artillery at your disposal. We think these units will add another layer of strategic depth to Combined Arms matches and give defensive players new tools to fight with.

Tell us in the comments what units you would like to see in-game!

Follow our developer website to stay updated on future sales, new games and upcoming updates! We are also posting small updates and insights on game development on our newly set up Twitter account.

Sep 23, 2018

The Russians are coming!

Call to Arms - Instinct

We are getting much closer to the release of the two new factions. We are closing in on the public beta in full swing and expect the factions to be available for limited testing next month with the public beta to follow after. To be part of the public beta, which will last a few months, you require the Ultimate Edition. There are no limitations to play with foes or allies who use the new factions, if you don't own it. After the German and Russian campaign is available, the factions will become available to the Basic Edition of Call to Arms for free.

Today, we we will talk about the Russian Army. It was extremely important for us to make the Russians unique, even though a lot of Russian equipment is already present in the game. Therefore we invested a lot of time into researching Russian military equipment and picked a lot of interesting vehicles and small arms that will expand the options for you in-game drastically.

High tier Russian infantry consists of VDV, Russian paratroopers with solid training and experience. The famous Guards are combat proven and well experienced units, that leave no gap to comparable Western units and had to earn their ranks in previous battles. On top of it, we have the Special Forces, Specnaz, with a good mixture of close combat weapons and support utility. Unlike the Middle Eastern counterparts, Russian troops use modernized AK-74M and even more specialized versions in limited quantities such as the AK-12, AK-15, AK-103, AK-104 and AK-105 and improved machine guns such as the PKP Pecheng, or RPK-16. Russian Specnaz come with the light sniper VSS Vintorez, which makes their available strategies different to their Western counterparts and open up new gameplay options.

The unique supports units, include Grenadiers with 40mm grenade launchers, very similar the the American version. This is a nice addtion, as the Resistance alliance that had no such option before. The Anti-Material-Rifle team is an extremely nice choice to take out lightly armored vehicles from a save distance with the ASVK-M Kord-M. On top of all that, you will find the Stealth Sniper Team equipped with a VKS silenced sniper capable of doing serious damage while staying unnoticed. The Russian sniping abilities are extraordinary. Combined with their ability to dominate light support vehicles with cheaper, yet reliable options, is a great start for any battle.

We made sure, that trucks, light vehicles, armored cars all differ from existing factions and reflect the modernized Russian military of today and tomorrow. Needless to say, they come with a wide range of improvements.

The Russians have very potent and widely available anti-tank options, which are capable of dealing with most if not all Western tanks effectively. However, most Russian vehicles lack strong armor themselves, so they should be used with the necessary amount of care.

However, as most Russian equipment has been modernized over the last couple of years, even partially Soviet Era equipment has been improved with modern technology and the BTR-90, as well as the BRDM are solid backbones of your armored units.

The latest tank that is available for the Russian faction, is the T90M. It is the top of the line tank that the Resistance alliance can offer and delivers a strong message to Western units.

With the Ka-52, the Russians have a very powerful helicopter option and once again deliver nothing short of a bold statement to their foes.

This is it for now, stay ready for the upcoming beta. We are excited to see the new factions roll out soon. ːcta_emo1ː

Sep 6, 2018

The Germans are coming!

Call to Arms - Instinct

We have splendid news!

The German faction reached an important milestone and is now in internal testing for multiplayer balance. The next stage will be to complete the new Russian faction, which has progressed very well too. We are closing in on the public beta in full swing and expect the factions to be available for testing by the end of the month, beginning of next. To be part of the public beta, which will last a few months, you require the Ultimate Edition. There are no limitations to play with foes or allies who use the new factions, if you don't own it. After the German and Russian campaign is available, the factions will become available to the Basic Edition of Call to Arms for free.

Now let's talk about the new faction!

High tier infantry consists of Panzergrenadiere, Fallschirmjäger and KSK. Panzergrenadiere are used as tank support units, usually sent to the frontlines in armored fighting vehicles, such as the Marder and Puma. We expect to see very similar strategies in the game. The Fallschirmjäger are German paratroopers and are extremely well trained and equipped. Usually dropped behind enemy lines, they are used to fight against overwhelming odds and are very well capable of doing so. The KSK, or Kommando Spezialkräfte, is the most famous German elite force similar to Navy Seals, or the British SAS. Expensive, yet extremely effective against any other type of infantry. Deadly and stealthy, they should be used for precision strikes during the battle.

The unique support units of the German faction are the Scout Team, who consist of fast and agile units, used to operate behind enemy lines to spy on enemies or to capture strategic locations quickly. They don't take much of a beating, but they are doing extremely well in surprise attacks. The elite marksmen are equipped with the G28 rifle and provide fire support over long distance. Hard to take out, but expensive to own. The elite engineer team enhances your capability to build defense structures. They build faster, are better equipped and take more of a beating. A perfect choice to quickly build strong and reliable defense positions.

Remember, the next update will come with a completely new fortification system. Engineers can now build defense structures, including fox holes, tank traps, barbed wires and more. Furthermore, we added a completely new system to get and build stationary weapons via the purchase menu. This system also supports mods with an endless amount of opportunities. For now, engineers will be able to construct heavy machine guns, stationary anti-tank weapons and heavy mortar systems. We expect to expand the amount of exciting options later this year.

Of course, Germany doesn't lack a great choice of armored vehicles either. Their infantry comes with very good standard AT. Their tanks are expensive, yet very much capable of facing everything you throw at them.

In a defensive role, the German faction is quite unmatched, as they combine extremely good AT capabilities, strong armor and powerful infantry.

While their tanks are the best you can buy for money and their infantry is very well equipped and trained, Germany lacks good air support. Which turns out to be the biggest weakness they have.

Only equipped with gunpods instead of rotatable autocannons. Germany will have a hard time to support ground units with precision strikes against well organized infantry attacks.

This is the first look at the German Army. Next week, we will be talking about the Russian faction, so stay tuned for more! ːcta_emo10ː

Jul 27, 2018

Developers Update 31

Call to Arms - Instinct

Welcome to our thirty-one developers update for Call to Arms! We will use these updates to keep you posted on the progress of the development and features.

We are currently preparing a massive update for Call to Arms and we are super excited to hand it out to you guys soon.

New Armor System

We added a new armor system so that we can finally balance vehicle and tank combat properly. Vehicles will have an armor value for each component, next to the armor thickness. While a 7.62mm projectile can penetrate a technical, it may not instantly knock it out, or randomly knock it out after some magic threshold has been reached. Instead each hit will cause some damage to the armor value depending on a basic projectile damage value and penetration power.
If you penetrate a vehicles’ armor the strength of the penetration matters too, for instance if an armor plate has a thickness of 10mm and your weapon penetrates it will 11mm, it will cause much less damage than a weapon that penetrates with 50mm.
This allows us to make it easier for autocannons to penetrate vehicles, but don’t knock them out instantly, or use some magic random factors that would decide whether the vehicle breaks or not. It also helps us to simulate vehicles with a lot of mass vs. vehicles with little mass but with similar armor stats. Overall this system gets rid of all the randomness that happens to vehicle combat, while preserving the realistic armor penetration system that takes armor angle and weapon type into consideration.

Furthermore, we can scale it better between the regular gameplay and hardcore. Before only the human damage would change, but now both can be adjusted for much smoother transitions.

Direct Control Power Bar

We noticed that a lot of users tend to use the third/first person controls way too much in online games, which can be fun, but puts the focus away from the RTS perspective of the game and makes the gameplay quite messy, as often, using direct control wouldn’t necessary lead to a success but makes it cumbersome for the other player to counter it.
Hence, we decided to limit the usage of direct control in the RTS gamemodes. You will now have a Power Bar that fills up very slowly by time, or much faster by kills. This bar allows you to use direct control for a limited amount of time, when you really need it and when it really helps you to change the course of the battle. It also protects you from direct control spam by the other team. This feature can be disabled in server settings, but we generally recommend using it for a better experience.

Fortifications

Engineers come now with the ability to build fortifications, such as sandbags, tank traps and so on. Later, we will allow them to create real emplacements, like heavy mortars, but these will cost you MP like any other unit in the game. Our goal is to make the engineer class more interesting and more worthwhile, while adding more options and strategies to our players.

New netcode

We finally finished the new netcode for Call to Arms. Multiplayer is now supported in 64-bit, which means you can enjoy much better graphics, longer and bigger battles without crashes and support for huge mods. On top of it, the input lag is reduced quite noticeably, which will enhance the overall online experience for everyone, especially in direct control.

New landscape rendering method

We did several things to enhance the visual experience for future, as well as existing maps. We added a new altitude haze to simulate fog in lower regions of a map. Furthermore, we added the ability to disable the border fog, as well as support for 3d background landscapes for long distance views. Our latest improvement is an enhanced lightning of the landscape, which helps a lot to render natural cliffs and hills. This feature adds a lot of details to existing maps and make them look more natural. It also helps you to distinguish between slopes. On top of that, we improved our workstyle for future maps. They will have much more natural landscapes, that are more fun to play and simply look better.

More good news: the new factions are progressing very well and will be most likely available in beta for Season Pass owners within 2 months!

Follow our developer website to stay updated on future sales, new games and upcoming updates! We are also posting small updates and insights on game development on our newly set up Twitter account.