Hi, friends.

Immediately after the vacation, we rushed into the work, so there was not enough time to finish the diary. We'll post it in a few days. In the meantime, pay attention to the screenshot from the last issue. Again. And try to find the "Easter egg" standing near the trees. Wish you all the best as usual.



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Hi, friends.

The theme of today's diary was born from your comments under the last post. We read them all, don’t you know? As Doomykins reasonably noted, the USSR development tree did not appear in the diaries beforehand. Today, we will correct this situation and talk about Soviet artillery in Soldiers: Arena. And so, we’ll tell Egor Tolstoff and the whole community why the difference in one or even several levels is not a huge margin separating the winners from the losers. This is not the final version of the development tree btw. We constantly add new units, change levels or type of existing ones, their places and links with other units, so as not to let imbalanced forces invade your PCs. Vigilantly and relentlessly we stand on the guard of balance.


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We did not include most of the SPGs here, because they are closer to the tanks in the devtree, and we will write about them in the next diary. But even without self-propelled guns, the artilleryman has a wide range of tools to destroy any enemy. Collecting the deck, you can adjust it to your style and add some infantry aggressiveness, self-propelled mobility or howitzer large-caliberness. How to play and how to assemble a commander is up to you. In Soldiers: Arena, the artilleryman does not have to sit in the bushes all the time. Despite the fact that most guns in this group are good at long distances, they can be played aggressively. After all, the closer the distance to the target, the more likely the ‘one-shot’ is, so sometimes it's more profitable to get to a good position for a shot rather than to aim for long - Especially if you support allied forces or they support you. It makes sense to recall the experience of assault troops during the battles for Stalingrad or Koenigsberg, which included sappers, scouts, riflemen, several machine guns, anti-tank guns and cannons. This tactic also works in Soldiers: Arena, and Zis-3 or 53-K, for example, are lightweight and mobile enough to be moved by the forces of their crew and, moving along with the infantry, to support the offensive. Most often, seeing the advancing infantry, the enemy calls something inexpensive and capable of stopping it. Whether it's a machine gun, an armored car or a medium tank, such an assault team will overcome this barrier without hindering the advance. If you were always embarrassed by the contemplation of the artillery gameplay, it's time to reconsider your views. Any deck can be good in Soldiers: Arena, if you know what you are doing.


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With the increase in the level and development of the artillery branch, you will gain access to the most threatening weapons such as anti-tank 100 mm BS-3, ML-20, and B-4 howitzers. There is no armor that these monsters can not cope with, and there is no such cover that will save a foe from their domains. The payment for such power is a high level of noise produced, a low rate of fire and heavyweight. In the game, this means that you quickly become visible and evade the retaliatory strike slowly. In addition, the huge caliber does not make the crew more survivable. Grenade, tank tracks, paratroopers, mortars and even small arms - either of these options are deadly. That is why the level of the unit in the tree is not the only determining factor of success in a duel. Often even the most innovative tools can be broken, when you have the correct tactics, skills, experience, and knowledge of the enemy's vulnerabilities. And this is the realism to which we aspire. In previous games of the series, for example, the IS-1 has practically no chance against Pz.Kpfw VI Ausf. H1. In Soldiers: Arena all chances are on the side of the experienced player. Even KV-85 or T-34-85 can compete with the Tiger if they are in better conditions. It creates the room for maneuver when most tank fights are not solved with ‘one-shots’. You can hide into the fog of war after an unsuccessful enemy shot, come from the rear, spot him first, lure it to some mines or just knock down its tracks and allow allied artillery to spank him - all this can lead to the victory of a weaker unit. In addition, the fight is not split into an amount of duels and sometimes there is no time for them. The Tiger may be stronger than KV-85, but is it stronger than KV-85 and BS-3, for which you carefully spotted it? In the previous Diary we compared the F-22 and Pak 36 (r). Indeed Pak 36 (r) is one level above and better copes with the tanks, but the F-22 due to a larger bullet drop can shoot with indirect fire. It turns out that Pak 36 (r) copes better against tanks, but the F-22 copes better against the Paks, and it does not matter what Pak we’re specifically talking about. Which of them is stronger?


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Even the units of the first levels never lose their relevance. The most advanced infantry will die very quickly if it is sent to a fortified position with fire coming from a modest first level Maxim gun. ZIS-2 crew often do not even think about the level of medium tanks they’re facing. And no matter what version of Pak the enemy has, even a 50-mm mortar can handle it, if you give them enough time to it. And of course, BM-37 or 120mm regimental mortar can cut some people to shreds without hesitation. Taking a position in the yards or behind a natural shelter, you can shell the infantry and artillery of the enemy even through the entire game duration. People often underestimate such cheap and, apparently, harmless units. Seeing something powerful and expensive on the map, players forget about everything just to focus on taking the kill. Tankmen are firing from all guns, infantry is leaping about with grenades in their hands and howitzers are firing at tanks hoping to deal the finishing shot. And during this time a mortar crew may destroy half of the enemy's artillery. Also, no matter how powerful are the infantry in the trenches or buildings are, they can not survive the hit of a 76-mm shell of the M1943, and the penny-worth DS-39 suppresses the infantry better than the B-4 because it shoots without prolonged reloadings. We can continue calling out examples, but you have caught the main idea. Whether the unit will dominate the session depends only on your skills and knowledge.



By the way, we have finished the model of 29-K. Changed the body and supports to match the real ones, and added animations. This gif is for you. The next diary will be in three weeks, since from 6th to 19th we have a vacation. All of Best Way at once will take it, just to avoid unnecessary delays and disruption of the schedule. So we’ll see you in three weeks, friends. Wish you all the best.

Hi, friends.

We will post the diary next week. Still thinking about the topic, so it's the right time for your suggestions. Wish you all the best.

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Hi, friends.

While the Best Way programmers take Soldiers: Arena from the darkness of unoptimization into a stable bright future, the rest of us also have something to do. In today's issue of DevFeedback, we'll talk about some of the minor (and not so minor) fixes, changes and settings that Soldiers: Arena has been subjected to in the last few months. Also we’ll tell some about logic and behavior of AI that did not fit into the previous diary. Over the past few months, AI has grown strongly and moved from the phase of children's entertaining to the phase of teenage rude AI, and we just had to send it to military school to correct its behavior.

• Choose the right targets. The threat factor of the enemy and the distance to it are both taken into account. For example, an SPG is much more dangerous for a tank than a grenade launcher or another tank. But, what if the SPG is on the other end of the map, and the grenade launcher is ten steps behind and reloading his weapon? Now the units know what to do in this situation. Machine gun crews know that a car moving straight towards you is a bad sign, and anti-aircraft gun crews know that no ordinary bird can cast such a big shadow.
  
• Use weapons on the right situation. Against infantry in a shelter or on a hill, anti-infantry grenades are preferable to small arms, a moving car is better to hit with a HE-shell, and the smoke grenade used in time has a positive effect on the survival rate of the entire squad. And of course they know a few things about the importance of a precision lobbing of a sapper’s shovel - If the shovel of death is in the hand, and the enemy has come close enough - the AI ​​knows what to do!
  
• Manage units. And not only how to play with the rushing tank, but also how to play guardedly with howitzers, how to support the allied infantry with fire from light cannons, to withstand the balance between sitting in the rear and breakthroughs of the front line with SPG-s. He learned some tricks about the game with situational and complex units. For example, Willys with bazookas will patrol the territory until enemy tanks go on a breakthrough, and only then will he go into a head-on.

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• Have worked on interfaces. Including updated metagame interface, which we will show in the future. Have made templates for commanders, so that in the tests you can start the game in two clicks.
  
• Have set up and deepened shooting mechanics. At medium and long distances, precision was increased for rifles and aiming for mortars. We set up a different radius of auto attacks for cannons and vehicles armed with armor-piercing shells to reduce the amount of random and ineffective shooting and avoid the situation when the AI ​​attacked without even a chance to pierce. For example Pak-35/36 will start shooting only from the distance of guaranteed penetration of the armored car, and BS-3 from the distance with which it will be able to precisely penetrate a medium tank. Fine tuning of each gun in the game continues.
  
• Have conducted tests. Including the intensity and duration of the session. Have increased the session time, the number of points needed to win, reduced the limit of units and so on.
  
• Have fixed game mechanics. For example, we fixed the ability to dig or not dig trenches on each individual type of terrain to avoid underwater and above-asphalt trenches in the game. With the help of smoke grenades, you can now hide the tank or SPG, but only in the case that it does not create much noise from the shooting and is not spotted on the minimap.
  
• Have added new units and replaced the some old models. Amongst which we can find the leFH 18 from the render and Pak 43.

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And as always we fought with bugs. The last two months have passed under the sign of a Drifting Stug. Because of the bug in the settings of the new Stug III Ausf. G and StuH 42 Ausf. G, suspension worked incorrectly, so they moved as if they came from a new part of The Fast and the Furious. At the same time the infantry was forced to cross the swamps of the map of Polesie only by swimming, which greatly complicated the infantry battle, especially in combination with the underwater trenches. And you could go inside almost any object on the map using Direct Control. Imagine a floating infantryman in a freshly dug trench in the middle of a swamp. Add a tank hiding inside the stone and decorate this with the drifting Stug. This rare sight is only comparable in it’s madness with the The Last Judgment by Bosch. Fortunately, all this you are not destined to see.


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In the development tree, F-22 and Pak 36 (r) cannons have made a sudden appearance. As you know, these two are essentially the same cannon fought for both sides. F-22 was a successful implementation of an unsuccessful concept of a universal anti-aircraft-divisional gun. Although it was created just fine and with the use of the latest technologies, it did not cope with the tasks set. By 1941-42 more than 1250 guns were captured by the Wehrmacht. After studying being conducted by German engineers, it turned out that the F-22 has a good safety margin and is excellent for upgrading to an anti-tank one. That was very useful, because the existing AT-devices could not cope with the Soviet T-34 and KV-1, and the production of Pak-40 had yet to be adjusted. So Pak 36 (r) appeared on the battlefield, for a penny modernized from the F-22 and became formidable only in battles against the side that created it.


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In Soldiers: Arena this sad story is reflected. F-22 is a universal, but in all respects a weak second-level gun in the USSR tree, which has a weak penetration and low rate of fire, and is the predecessor of the ZIS-3 divisional gun. Pak 36 (r) is an anti-tank third-level gun in the German technology tree, successfully coping with Soviet medium tanks and precedes the Pak-40. With such an elegant solution we filled in the gaps in the technology trees, upgraded the Pak-40 level to the fourth (it was too strong for the third one) and saved work on modeling. Isn’t it great?


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Friends, what units that fought for the several parties would you like to see in the game? Preferably, not those that were bespoke designs. Write in the comments and we still wish you all the best.

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Hi, friends.

Today we will talk about AI in Soldiers: Arena. In one of the diaries there was some info about work on the behavior of bots. A lot of things have been done since then, and we decided to tell in detail how the bot is struggling to make the PVE fun, the battle competitive, and itself to look like a real person. You probably know that making a decent AI for strategic games is not an easy feat. The point is not in the reaction and the number of clicks unattainable for a person and not in analytical possibilities. The key to success is in creating interesting game situations. After all, this is a game and it should give pleasure: Including and especially so after a defeat. We are not talking about creating a super-brain with the possibility of self-learning and making its own name. At this stage, our plans are not so ambitious, but also not so resource-intensive. We are talking about creating a set of behavioral instructions, following which AI could call plays which are interesting and unpredictable.

• Create different game situations using the same set of tools. For example, a moving tank can be stopped by anti-tank mines, another tank, self-propelled guns, artillery, grenade launchers (and simpler tanks even with AT-rifles), an assault of paratroopers dropped on the turret, anti-tank hedgehogs and so on. So, the bot should not only be able to do it all, but also be able to choose the best of options.
  
• Use complex and situational mechanics such as digging trenches, capturing buildings, camouflaging positions, reconnaissance, retreat.
  
• To be a part of metagame systems and game mode, which means that its decks should be as logical and diverse as the player’s.
  
• Correctly act within a certain game mode and respond to player actions: eliminate breakouts, capture points of interest, cooperate with other bots (or players), and so on.
  
• Have flexible customization on the level of complexity and sometimes make mistakes, like a living person.
  
• Do not try to win by cheating and use only resources and units with the same limitations as the player. When AI sees through the fog of war, has more units and in general it's armor-piercing weapons are rather more armor-piercing than yours, it causes sadness, which eventually gives way to righteous anger. Yes, and fortune should be equally supportive for both the player and the bot. Who among us did not spin the roulette in the naive hope of hitting the target with an insane 95% hit chance?

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• Create tutorial and training missions in which the player could hone their skills and master even the most complex of game mechanics.
  
• Create interesting single and cooperative doctrines and make them as replayable as possible. Since, from the unpredictability of AI’s actions, it will directly depend on whether you want to replay the mission.
  
• To play against those who are interested in the game, but not PVP.
  
• Replace the player in a multiplayer session after the disconnection or when you just need a +1, and there is no will to wait more. Now the bot is doing quite well at the level of the average player, and the work is far from complete.
  
• Configure comfortable difficulty and combat conditions. To justify the bot existence, it does not necessarily have to win. The main thing is for the bot to fight like a lion, driven into a corner, which is crushed by unemployment, a generic curse, a mortgage, the loss of kittens in a plane crash and the affair of his lioness with a tigress.

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The tuning work can be divided into three levels: creatures, commander and army. At the creature level the characteristics of the unit and its behavior are tuned, so that each of them improves its combat functions in their own way, starting with the detection of the target and ending with its neutralization. Between these two points there are many other processes: the transfer of information about the target to the allies, the selection of the right weapon for its destruction, the decision to move, the choice of route, etc. At the same level, scripts and functions are configured that allow bots to make specific decisions, such as switching to hand-to-hand combat or throwing a smoke grenade.

At the bot-commander level, the systems of managing the deck are being tuned. AI must select units with the same restrictions as the player, but with certain conditions. For example, be balanced for playing in a team and reflect the specifics of the chosen commander. Seems obvious, a heavy tank regiment, spamming machine guns, and light tanks, looks strange. At the same level, we also configure how the bot uses its troops and tracks their number in the session. Here a lot depends on the difficulty level. On a low, for example, the bot can "forget" or be "short of time" to use the entire available limit of units.

At the army level, the bots learn how to interact with each other and to make things right within the game mode. Watch that the enemy does not greatly exceed them in firepower and the presence of a certain kind of troops on the battlefield. Conduct joint operations. For example, bots can arrange a local blitzkrieg, and the infantryman-bot will try to support them by at least a few soldiers to seize the territory.


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We want the bot to be as much like a living person, despite its scripted essence. Not surprisingly, sometimes this creates funny precedents. Once our game designer needed to attach the text to a certain entity. Hints like "Grab this hill" and "Win bad guys" for training missions became more informative. But along the way, he decided that it would be more convenient for the work to display information about the triggering of the condition not in the console, but directly over the unit. The work was on, the bots were learning, nothing was foreshadowing the troubles ... Until one day, in the game, you came across a cheerful but slightly creepy situation where a bot was driving to crush a cannon and a smiley appeared over the tank … The sad artilleryman in a tankmen’s world crying for his life :(


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Friends, what settings would you like to see when creating a game, except for the obvious like a game nation, commander, aggressiveness? In the future, we want the choice of the bot to not only be limited to the basic settings and your wishes will be very helpful. Wish you all the best.

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Hi, friends.

Today, we'll talk about the underprivileged, undervalued, complex-in-use and often "single-use” units - cars and motorcycles. You often compare Soldiers: Arena with other games of the series (sometimes even with those we did not make), talking about useful and not so useful units. This is the wrong way to do it, since Soldiers: Arena is very different from GEM games: the organization of combat, the system of managing and spawning units, the constant fight for territory, and so on. Why, for example, take the Kübelwagen VW82, if clearly, an armored car would be a sharper tool in the shed, and more so any light tank of some description? A car has no armor, a weak gun, and will get pummeled from rifle caliber rounds... Sounds like a rather useless piece of equipment.


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From the point of destroying the enemy units, the things said above make sense, but the battle in Soldiers: Arena is not limited to destroying enemy units. The priority task in the game is capturing the territory and ensuring the bridgehead, and in this sense: speed, maneuverability, good line of sight and a low price can be much more important than armor and a large caliber. When you need to capture and begin to strengthen the buildings before the enemy, a Kübelwagen or BMW R75 is preferable to any other unit. While enemy tanks and infantry will be approaching, you will already have placed the machine-gun nests and brew tea, waiting for reinforcements and providing a bonus on the territory and improved visibility from the captured building.


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The cheapness of jeeps and motorcycles allows them to be used as a one-way ticket for the aforementioned maneuvers without a large expense on your pocket. And it makes them a less attractive target for fraghunters, after all, they give a very little amount of points when killed. Often the enemy won’t see something too menacing in a racing Willys and will continue on with the chit-chat. And that could be one’s famous last words: A Willys MB with a machine gun may well crush the infantry in the field, regardless of its elitism, and a Willys AT with two bazookas will very quickly reduce both the distance between itself and the tank and between the tank and Valhalla. A Pz. IV will not be able to traverse the turret in time - and the Valkyrie warrior wielding panzegrau will now acquire a dark tone of carbonated metal a hue of burning flesh.

Improved view ranges and a bonus to the detection of stealth units make motorcycles especially useful for reconnaissance and spotting the enemy. If the loss of a M72 will make it possible to destroy enemy howitzers or snipers who are feasting on your allies’ blood - who will not rate that as worthy? A good viewport in combination with excellent mobility not only is a great asset for the capture of territory - but also to defend one's own. If the enemy infantry in large strengths run to seize the land and burn the cornfields - surprise them with a sudden appearance of GAZ 67B and their plans will swiftly be no more.


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The separation into battalions with their specialties implies some limitations. A pair of cheap jeeps will perfectly complement your infantry deck with mobility. And the artillerymen will be given an excellent budget protection from an airborne landing force. The economic aspect of war has not been canceled, and every exchange of a cheap jeep or motorcycle for an infantry squad or some dashing paratroopers brings you closer to victory.


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A machine gun mounted on a jeep or a motorcycle cannot be reinforced and sandbagged, but it can escape from dangerous spots or quickly shorten the distance to the enemy. And if a conventional machine gun mounted on a mobile and high-speed chassis has a chance to harm the enemy, then what about a large-caliber machine gun? You, no doubt, paid attention to the triple DShK on the screenshots. This geeser is not just dangerous for infantry, but for aviation, careless artillerymen, & light and medium tanks. A 29K with a 76 mm anti-aircraft gun is his fearsome brother, combining power, rate of fire and mobility. But closing in, comes one of the main disadvantages of artillery - a low movement speed, plus they have a number of other shortcomings. These units can no longer be called cheap and their loss responds with a decent pain down in one’s heart. In addition, to defeat ground targets you need to turn the vehicle, since shooting through the cabin is rather detrimental to the health of the crew. The triple DShK is good basically at close distances, so you will need to shorten the distance, get to the target alive and somehow pull out of the attack run. Due to their rate of fire and high silhouette, they quickly become detected, and unlike light cars, they will be an interesting target for your opponent’s guns. As a consequence, they need to be played very carefully, wait for the right moment, and not shoot constantly in the hope of intimidating the opponent.


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We already wrote in the comments that we are forced to move the release. Now we are focusing on autumn 2018. We realize that it's hard for you to wait and sometimes it seems that the development goes unnecessarily long. At such moments, it is important to remember that we are waiting for a release no less than you, guys, but for us Soldiers: Arena is not just another game which we can simply leave to collect dust in the Steam library. This is more than two years of our team’s work and the quintessence of the GEM multiplayer game. So, and we wrote about this earlier, it will be released only when it is ready and will be able to both to give a new gaming experience (in this sense it has long been ready) and to comply with the standards that dictate the Free to Play games market and be stable and optimized. Best Way is not an accidental name. Doing everything the best way possible is a priority for every day. When it is obvious that an unplanned new functionality or work to optimize the engine is necessary - we make them. Yes, and create something new, and not just use the franchise, adding a couple of new models and a single-campaign - the task is not one that is easy to measure. Postpones are born from the desire to make the game better, so we hope for your patience and your fireproof chairs. And we know, you are the best! By the way, what interesting units on the basis of car chassis you would like to see in the game? See you in the comments.

Hi, friends.

With a heavy heart and torrential rain in our souls, we must say, that did not have time to prepare a diary this week. Have to postpone it. You can use the opportunity and suggest the topic in the comments. We will try to answer. Wish you all the best.

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Hi, friends.

Stug III Ausf. G and StuH 42 Ausf. G received new models in one of the latest patches. So far, in the base gray colour, but the historically right one is on the way. In the DevDiary about SPG-s, we spoke in general terms about the role of self-propelled cannons in Soldiers: Arena. Today we will take a closer look at the example of two units from one game category which both use the same chassis, and how their tasks, priorities and gameplay may differ. Plus some words about why the battle is not determined by the caliber and thickness of the armor, but by the tactics and knowledge of the enemy.


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Stug III Ausf. G - one of the most successful anti-tank SPG-s of the World War II and the most numerous representative of German armored vehicles (more than 8,000 units were produced). It can handle with light and most of the medium tanks with ease. A 75-mm high-explosive shell makes it possible to destroy gun crews and infantry in the field and in shelters. But shooting infantry with an anti-tank SPG means squandering its potential. You can use cheap mortars to knock out the enemy from buildings. And even better, you can ask howitzers for support. Nobody is going to limit you in the choice of goals, but we are setting up units based on their role in real combat. So using an anti-tank SPG against tanks is quite a logical move, preferably against ones from the same weight category. It is worth considering this, since calling an IS-2 out for a duel or trying to frighten the neighbouring battery of anti-tank guns with your low threatening silhouette might not be the best of endeavours.

The battle does not always go according to plan and a suitable opponent may not be on your flank. In this case, it is better to retreat or wait, but do not shoot at sparrows from boredom. It is not worthwhile to go beyond the front line for shootings with tankmen or participate in major scrimmage. The disadvantages of not having a turret are obvious - you can easily become defenseless after a lucky shot that hits your track. The Stug III Ausf. G is a hunter, so try not to frighten off potential preys and wait for the right shot. You have to maintain a balance and stay close to the front line to be able to destroy the enemy tanks with one or two shots, but do not drive too close to get into their viewports and to become visible.


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The StuH 42 Ausf. G is an assault SPG with a modified 10.5 cm leFH 18/M light howitzer as the main weapon. The creation of this SPG was primarily due to the low effectiveness of the Stug III’s gun against infantry and fortifications, as we mentioned above. As a consequence, the main roles of StuH 42 Ausf. G in the game are: the destruction of the enemy's manpower, fortifications, and artillery crews. Despite the fact that a 105mm caliber shell can cause serious damage to tanks, the indirect fire trajectory, short barrel and a weak piercing rate of the armor-piercing shell put an end to the possibility of hitting a mobile opponent at long distances. Close and personal and with direct fire, the StuH 42 Ausf. G has some chances, but only against tanks of lower tiers. And even if you win a duel - you will most likely be noticed and destroyed. Fights in Soldiers: Arena rarely go one-on-one, and as soon as you become spotted close to the front line - you can say goodbye to your SPG.

But being in the rear, the StuH 42 Ausf. G can spoil the whole game to the enemy and be less afraid of being detected. Your priority targets do not have armor, which means that piercing is not important. The 105 mm shell allows to destroy fortifications and infantry inside them. Shooting on with indirect fire makes it possible to neutralize the crews of the firing positions hidden behind the buildings, safe from direct fire units. Even if you have a long aiming against howitzers at the other end of the map - this will make them nervous and change their position. And howitzers, as is known, do not fire on the move. While pressuring them - you can give the chance to straighten shoulders to infantry allies.


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If you were to add to the screenshot above a PzKpfw III Ausf. F (it has no new model now), then the line of gaming units based on PzKpfw III chassis will be complete. Today we compared only Stug III Ausf. G and StuH 42 Ausf. G, but each of them has its own characteristics, which we will reflect in the game. Let’s sum up:

• Stug III Ausf. G is used to fighting light and medium tanks near the front line. It's worth playing unnoticeably and carefully. Preferred commanders would be anti-tank and SPG.
  
• StuH 42 Ausf. G is designed to fight fortifications, infantry, and artillery. It can play more cocky, standing deep in the rear, and distracting the enemy's fire, while simultaneously clearing the way for the allied infantry. Preferred commanders would be howitzer and SPG.

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You probably noticed that we write a lot about the correct choice of targets, the role of units in combat and how we try to take into account as many of their characteristics as possible. This is because we set up the game so that the fight does not boil down to penetrating/not penetrating. If we consider only the distance, penetration and thickness of the armor, then the infantryman with a grenade has nothing to do on the battlefield. The hit of a 150 mm KV-2 projectile, for example, is dangerous for any unit. In one test last week there was an interesting situation when a team with a motorized battalion and medium tanks won the game against heavy tanks and howitzers. What did armored cars and medium tanks have to do against KV-2, we thought? Nothing unusual! Units moving faster than the KV-2 exceed its turret traverse, and it just didn’t have enough time to aim, it’s territory was captured, and then the players squeezed the infantry both in the houses and in the field. As a result, those who fired from the spawning point stayed and were locked up there. Defeated, but not broken :) In this case, the piercing and thickness of the armor were not important, but the correct choice of tactics was.

And finally the question to the community. In Soldiers: Arena there will be unique commanders for each nation that would underline their strengths. The USSR already has a commander with a focus on artillery tanks, and we plan to add a commander with a large number of paratroopers and active use of the airfield capabilities for US. How do you see the unique commander of Germany? See you soon and wish you all the best.

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Hi, friends.

In the last few months, we have been mainly working on the optimization, interface and responsiveness of Soldiers: Arena. Of course, new models are being created in parallel, maps are being finalized, units are being set up, commanders built, and balance is being corrected, but the priority now is to make the game stable and understandable. Work on the new mechanics is much more interesting than fighting for every +2 fps, intuitive interfacing and no bugs. And, most likely, it would be more interesting for you to read, but hey ... is it not this the essence of feedback, to show things as-is? Now our endeavors involve a complex, damn time-consuming, and rather boring stage, of which without it’s successful completion, you will be much harder to love Soldiers: Arena. Good performance of the game is the norm and hardly anyone decides to say thank you for it. But when the game constantly hangs or is full of bugs... Beware, , developer, cause you can’t escape the wrath of the masses, and even your dearest folks will not hesitate to stone you. The word 'optimization' weakly reflects more than 9000 problems that need to be solved so that everything works, but also does it constantly, without crashes, bugs and accompanying pain.


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So we have a similar situation with the balance. We continue to set up commanders to make them unlike each other and emphasize the features of their gameplay. Add and take whole groups of units, change mechanics, test, change again and test again. One of the main tasks of Soldiers: Arena is to show the real interaction of combat units. But this does not mean that you can just write the data into a spreadsheet and everything will fall into place. It's not just the distances, the thickness of armor and the speed of movement. After all, there is no balance in life. And the conflict parties did not start the fight under the same conditions. The vehicles of one side could surpass the enemy in all respects. Soldiers could be tired after a long march and hungry because of potential problems with the delivery of provisions. In addition, the enemy would refuse to fight fairly and unleash all sorts of hell on earth at you. Many of these conditions can not be considered in the game, without turning it into a simulator. Therefore, the balance must be sought and sometimes created where it was not in real life. But we believe that the result is worth it.


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Still from patch to patch, something new appears to give a dose of overpoweredness and suffering. For example, for a long time the explosive action of artillery shells on the armor was insufficient because the tanks sometimes did not notice the direct hit of a 150 mm projectile. It was not realistic, so we changed them and everything would be fine .... but in the same patch came a change in the noise mechanic. So you overdid the settings somewhere, something broke, some already got fixed and yet a new bug reappeared - and we now get permanently invisible howitzers, which present themselves unopposed to proceed to beat the devil out of life and flatten everything on the map. At the same time, the infantry suffered more than others because of low survivability and an abundance of shells in the air. We had to experiment with the health values of the infantry, cannon reloading speeds, power of fragmentation action of shells, protection in fortifications and trenches to find the best ratio. Now howitzers inflict enough damage, but do not go over the top, and infantry manages to breathe for a little longer inside fortifications and do not die from a passing projectile.


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Among other things, we set up the rules for capturing the Front Line. Now it is more profitable to break into the enemy territory than to win a narrow strip along the entire front line. So we wanted to encourage risk and make tactics of sabotage and breakthroughs more profitable. Continued work on fine-tuning every gun. From the length of the barrel depends the effectiveness of the gun at long distances, its accuracy and speed of aiming. For example, StuG III Ausf. B, due to the short barrel and low speed of the projectile, has a significantly lower efficiency at long distances than the StuH 42. The plans include the precise adjustment of tank and anti-tank long guns, semi-automatic rifles, bolt action rifles, etc. We were also repairing armor bugs to avoid those uncomfortable moments when the tank can be killed with machine-gun fire by shooting it into the hatch. Despite the fact that even the Death Star had its own Achilles’ hatch, tanks in the game aren’t supposed to have one.We went on adding and customizing new models, both units and entourage assets. In addition to almost three hundred combat units, there are still a lot of buildings, stones, tractors, and other things to be done.


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If you have been waiting for a long time for some particular feature and have not seen it in our diaries, do not rush to call your homies from the block and come forth to our home addresses. The list of the mechanics we planned is impressive, and you offered many interesting things, but they all can wait a little. Still, it's better to have a working and stable game and adding new features with subsequent patches than to have a lot of features and add with patches the mere ability to play. Optimization and elimination of bugs - this is what many developers are burning on, thinking that the game is ready and you can quickly break into the release, reap the glory and money. This is not our option and we better apologize for the next change of the date than a thousand times for selling a game that can not be played. Wish you all the best.


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Hi, friends.

Best Way wishes peace and tranquility to our community on these days. No matter is it Victory Day in your country or Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation, the main thing is to remember about the sacrifices that our forefathers brought and be grateful for them. Wish you all the best.