Sep 22, 2023

Sea Dogs: Legendary Edition - Joruba

Ahoy!

We have another development update for you today, and if you are a fan of the series, tomorrow is your day. At 1 PM PST we will reveal:

ːjollyrːAnnouncement Trailer;
ːjollyrːRelease Date;
ːjollyrːSteam Page of Caribbean Legend - more than a new edition, and a bit less than a remake of POTEHO;
ːjollyrːFAQ - to cover all your questions and concerns.

We have arranged a special early premier for our patrons earlier today. The feedback was ːburning_flamesː ːbombingː, everybody is totally hyped now! You can visit our Discord and ask them themselves if you are eager to learn more.

Our Discord Server:

Don't hesitate to drop in and say hello. It's the ideal place to be if you're keen on staying in the loop about the game. Here's a spare link if the banner above doesn't work for you: https://discord.gg/CaribbeanLegend

Announcement Trailer Premiere:

https://youtu.be/DX7L13FN18M.
Remember to go directly to Youtube via this link and hit the notification bell to receive updates about the big reveal.

Now back to…

Gorgeous and dangerous Helen

…happily ever after indeed

Has this piece of dialogue ever felt satisfying for you?

H:
Ah, there you are, my captain! I am so glad, "+pchar.name+", that you have finally decided to visit me. I have got a lot to discuss you.
PC: (Option A)
We will delay this conversation a bit. I need to get some more information before I'll be able to answer your questions. And now I'm asking you to not show yourself on the streets. I hope that your waiting will not last long. Trust me and wait.

Right?! The lady is clearly giving you signs and you are like:

Wait.ːseawolvesː

This is Helen’s peak of interactive content. No wonder she feels totally inferior to Mary. Just think of it:

ːjollyrːA unique Vanguard is much more valuable than a unique Companion;
ːjollyrːNo personal quest and no proper love story;
ːjollyrːDoesn’t take the bedroom initiatives in her hands, so to speak. Although, for some, it is a plus.
ːjollyrːZombie Jessica doesn’t approve of her. Must be personal.

Caribbean Legend will change that. Helen will get her own quest and one more ending. The quest will be happening during the Pirate Saga, allowing Charles and Helen to learn more about each other and to spend some time together. The best part is that you will be able to build Helen differently, depending on the choices you make. You can make her a perfect Vanguard, strengthen her naval skills even further or make her stats more balanced.
There is also another new major feature, but that would be a spoiler. Don’t want to ruin the moment for you when and if you get to it. ːbombingː

PC: ( Option B)
You told me you wouldn't forgive me if I didn't visit you and Gladys. Well, here I am.
H:
Nice that you remember that. I wanted to say that I am truly grateful. It's not every day you get saved from, you know, that kind of situation.
H:
Let's just go and get a drink, my treat.

Getting better, right? Behind that simple dialogue option, a couple of hours of additional gameplay is hiding. Looking forward to hearing your feedback once you complete the quest in the game.

…And that’s all for today, folks, see you soon at the big event tomorrow!

Good hunting.
ːjollyrː

Sep 22, 2023

Vol.60 - Ready or Not Development Briefing - Special PSA

Ready or Not - catindabox

Attention Officers,

Thank you for joining us for the 60th edition of our biweekly development briefing, September 22, 2023!

Today, we have some important details to cover in the form of a Public Service Announcement regarding the game's ongoing development process, and technical reasons for a lack of public build updates as our many departments work effectively towards delivering you all the 1.0 version of the game. In this process we will describe avoiding development crunch, maintaining efficiency, and a technical perspective that represents the challenges our currently rapid and all-enveloping development progress presents for releasing incremental public updates.

It's all about forward momentum rather than perpetual Early Access, and we will see this project through to meet you all at its many future successes and a mature, complete stage. We are incredibly pleased with the progress we’ve made so far, and although we're sorry about the absence of recent incremental public build updates, we appreciate you all continuing to stick with us so that these exciting game changes can be released together once 1.0 eventually arrives.

(Note: The term “incremental update” refers to a public build that is released as an update in-between major milestone development versions of the game. These public builds contrast with development builds of the game, which are not yet released)

As we discuss examples that illustrate this development topic, you will also find substantial new work-in-progress content throughout this briefing!

All-Enveloping Development Progress and You

Ideally, we'd love to provide you, our playerbase, with as many public builds to play as possible. However, due to our current progress there are currently interconnected and inseparable challenges with doing this based on our status of a rapid, all-enveloping game development focus over this period in preparation for the 1.0 release.

Examples of some such interconnected challenges that result from this progress are outlined in the section below; the main point is that we are in extremely rapid development of many different interdependent systems across the game, and to ship an incremental update would require effectively halting, reverting, and synchronizing fragments of our forward progress at a critical moment winding up to the larger 1.0 release.

An All-Enveloping Example

In this hypothetical example, let's say we plan to release a public build as an incremental update that contains the new level, Coyote, for you all to play.

As previously mentioned, we've been working on every single aspect of the game— from revamped SWAT AI (to be showcased at a later date!) to extensive UI/UX overhauls/additions. They're not compartmentalized into any "group" where we can just cleanly export them to a public build in isolation from the rest of the development build features.

This means that at this stage of development from a technical perspective, adding the new Coyote level would require us to also add all these other features in some form:

- First of all, we need to provide you with our new AI spawn system and AI improvements. This means a lot of polishing, subsequently taking time away from our current pre-content 'lock' focus and therefore delaying full release. This sort of content-lock roadblock taking away from our current development priorities is a trend for all the remaining bullet points below.
- ("Pre-Content lock” refers to a point in time where we solidify existing features, stop adding new ones, and polish them for a new release).

(Image below: A slice of Coyote’s current WIP version)

(Image below: Some of Coyote’s WIP AI points of interest)

- We would need to provide you with all our new Coyote level characters, most of which are still pending character rigging, and one or two are still being developed in the art stage.
- If we don’t do this, we would have to use generic models as placeholders, which would create a dull experience without the desired character variety.
(Image link below: WIP new character models for various levels)
https://imgur.com/a/S24iKZC

- We also need to provide you the new Quantum Sound System, without it, audio would not work properly in the public build

- We need to provide the new level select system.
(Image below: a WIP example of the new level select system)

- We'd need to provide you with the new customization system, weapon select system, Station Lobby, audio tracks, and items that are tied to each system. Many of these are still in the later stages of development, yet they are by no means ready for a public build.
(Image below: views of just a couple areas of the new Police Station)

- Furthermore, we’d need to provide the briefing menu, interactive tablet, briefs for each level with voice acting, maps, and media details.
(Image below: tablet view of a new map)

- Next, we'd need to revert all other changes specific to this development build, and then fix any issues related to linking old systems with new systems (e.g., all the new UI code gets reverted, but code that has already been written in for that purpose in other areas also has to be rewritten and fixed).

- Lastly, we would need to then spend at least several weeks ensuring a solid Quality Assurance pass has occurred, testing an adhoc game build that will be almost entirely different from its intended proper state in 1.0.

- - -

Further Meaning and Forward Momentum

Metaphorically, releasing incremental updates during this phase of the development cycle is like tearing down a house, rebuilding it halfway with improvised parts, furnishing it, and then tearing most of it down again to rebuild the ‘final’, largely different house that we are working towards.

Releasing updates when this massive, interdependent development is going on creates an unsustainable strain on the team, effectively causing us to crunch and redo old work just to release an update.

Our goal is to release a strong product that we can continue to update post 1.0. Making sure our team is working effectively, love what they are doing, and love what they are working towards is something we see as critical to our process.

That's important, and we’re doing it with the technical limitations for public builds and momentum in mind. Our ultimate goal is providing you all with a complete experience that will enhance the game’s quality, replayability, and will naturally keep you coming back for more as we push new updates post 1.0.

Conclusion

We have tons of great content and fixes in store for you all, but we hope this briefing paints a better picture of the technical limitations for why we cannot release it in incremental public builds while we work spanning every area of the game towards the 1.0 release— to the end of Early Access.

Before we go for now, here's a glimpse at a new level with the image below: a beachfront home where the events that may take place contrast the pleasing, cosmetic view of a distant pier and rolling waves.

This concludes our 60th development briefing. Be sure to tune in next time for more development news!

Are you a content creator on Youtube or Twitch looking for new games? We've got you covered; Ready or Not has partnered with Lurkit to elevate gameplay! Link up with our Lurkit campaign here.

Make sure you follow Ready or Not on Steam here.

Keep your feet on the ground.
VOID Interactive

Sep 22, 2023

In Development: Boxer CRV

Armored Warfare - Silentstalker

Commanders!

Last week we introduced the Puma, a German Tier 10 Premium coming in the next Battle Path. We also mentioned the Puma would be the middle prize (available for reaching Level 31 of 50 for that matter). And today, we’d like to tell you about the vehicle that’ll be available as the Battle Path’s first prize (for reaching Level 20) – the Boxer CRV Tier 9 Premium Armored Fighting Vehicle.

The Boxer platform has an interesting history reaching all the way back into the early 1990s when France, Germany and the United Kingdom decided to launch a joint wheeled modular platform project. Back then, modularity was a cutting-edge concept and despite the lack of funding for military projects and all the end of the Cold War budget cuts, they all thought they had something in there.

The beginning looked like it would end up as usual. The project was launched in 1993 by France and Germany (Great Britain joined in 1996) but by 1999 France already broke off and did its own thing (which would end up with the VBCI). This is usually the point where the Germans and the British get into additional arguments, scrap the project after multiple billions spent and buy American.

But it wasn’t like that in this case because there was really something to be had. For one, the project was managed competently by the Germans, specifically a company called ARTEC. There was an EU supervision panel but ARTEC was apparently in charge. Being controlled by both KMW and Rheinmetall comes with a lot of perks, including a huge lobbying pull.

The Netherlands joined the project in 2001 and a year later, the first two demonstrators were ready. By that time, the project had many names, different for each country:

GTK for Germany (Gepanzertes Transport-Kraftfahrzeug)
PSW for the Netherlands (Pantserwielvoertuig)
MRAV for the UK (Multi-Role Armoured Vehicle)

The name Boxer appeared around 2002. Where exactly it came from is not quite clear but it was adopted and is currently used pretty much universally. The original idea was to order 200 vehicles for each of the participating countries. The United Kingdom, however, withdrew from the program in 2003 (it would rejoin the program 15 years later, but we’ll get to that). The Netherlands ordered 200 vehicles in 2006 to replace the old M113 variants such as the YPR-765 while Germany ordered 272 vehicles in 2006 to replace the old M113s and Fuchs AFVs (not the Marder). The initial production was scheduled to launch in 2004 but it was delayed until 2009 (the five years in-between were used for additional rigorous testing).

As technology goes, the Boxer is pretty much cutting edge even today, three decades after the project launch. The platform consists of two parts:

Drive module (universal for all configurations)
Mission module (different for each configuration)

The Mission module can be replaced very quickly using a crane. Whether this is actually a useful feature is another matter but it potentially allows the users to receive specialized variants (if needed) very quickly or to upgrade APCs to IFVs on short notice (providing the appropriate modules are available).

Both modules offer roughly the same protection (plus the option to mount extra composite armor on the basic steel hull). The baseline armor is said to be STANAG 4569 Level 4 all around, which means that the vehicle can withstand 14.5mm heavy machinegun bullets from any angle. The additional armor kit (AMAP-B) brings its frontal resistance up to Level 6, making the vehicle frontally resistant to 30mm autocannon rounds. Additional defensive measures include various systems that we’ll get to later.

The IFV version weighs some 38 tons, has a crew of 3 and is armed with a turret somewhat similar (but not identical to) the Puma IFV, featuring 30mm autocannon and a missile launcher. It is powered by a 15.9 liter MTU 8V 199 TE21 8-cylinder diesel producing some 816hp, allowing the vehicle to go as fast as 103 km/h (typical off-road speed being 40-45 km/h).

There are several sub-types of the platform, from the oldest A0 to the newest A3. They basically represent separate production runs and have only relatively minor differences, including additional protection. Most of the Boxers built are of the A1 and A2 variants. All in all, the Boxer is a very solid platform and it has seen a lot of market success (especially compared to the Puma).

Three facilities producing the Boxed had been established – two in Germany and one in the Netherlands. In total, more than 1600 vehicles have been built so far or are planned to be built, including:

531 for Germany
200 for the Netherlands
600 or more for the United Kingdom
211 for Australia
91 for Lithuania

The contracts are ongoing but it is the Australian contract that’s most interesting because our Boxer is based on the Australian version.

The Australian Boxer won the contract for the LAND 400 Phase 2 program that sought to replace the aging ASLAV vehicles (MOWAG Piranha III variant for Australia) that have been in service since the early 1990s. The LAND 400 program has been in work since the mid-2000s – the initial Request for Information was issued in 2006 with another, more detailed one following in 2009. The program included several phases:

Phase 1 was the initial 2006-2009 market evaluation
Phase 2 was the acquisition of ASLAV replacement
Phase 3 was the new IFV program (recently won by the Korean AS21 Redback)

Phase 2 was launched in the December of 2015. By the summer of 2016, two most likely to succeed candidates were selected – Rheinmetall with its Boxer and BAE with its Patria AMV version called AMV 35. Further evaluations took place between 2017 and 2018. The winner – Rheinmetall – was announced in the March of 2018. Simultaneously, the contract was reduced from the original 225 to 211 vehicles and signed in August of the same year (for 211 vehicles and 12 spare combat modules). The first 25 vehicles would be made in Germany, the rest in Australia. The contract would comprise of:

133 CRV vehicles (fire support and recon Boxers)
13 multi-purpose vehicles
15 command vehicles
29 JFS vehicles (basically lightly armed scouts)
10 recovery vehicles
11 repair vehicles

The vehicles are to be built until 2026 (the first ones were delivered in 2019).

The CRV variant is intended for recon missions and combat, which is why it is armed to the teeth with the Rheinmetall Lance turret armed with 30mm Mk.30/2 autocannon and a Spike ATGM launcher (in later versions). The initial version from 2016 did not feature additional protection (just the composite armor option) or the missile launcher.

The gun can depress to -10 degrees and elevate to +45 degrees and can fire 200 rounds per minute (including programmable ones) although the rate of fire is variable and can reach up to 600 rounds per minute. The turret also features the C4ISR Battlefield Management System by Northrop Grumman. Additional, optional defensive measures of the CRV include the ROSY Soft-Kill APS and the StrikeShield hard-kill APS.

In Armored Warfare, the Boxer will be a Tier 9 Premium Armored Fighting Vehicle.

As was mentioned above, it’ll be a reward for reaching Level 20 of the Exile Battle Path. Concept-wise, it’s similar to Puma – a solid infantry carrier and fire support vehicle with some interesting features and good protection.

What makes it Tier 9 and not Tier 10 is the fact that the Puma is a bit more high-tech than the Boxer, is more protected and is a heavier, tracked vehicle overall. The Boxer, on the other hand, will offer more burst firepower than the Puma, which will make it more suitable for PvP.

But first things first. Let’s start with the armor. Aside from the usual frontal protection from autocannon shells, the Boxer CRV will feature two additional systems:

ROSY soft-kill APS
StrikeShield protection system

We intentionally are not saying anything about StrikeShield APS because it’s not really an APS in the game. From the game perspective, StrikeShield is more similar to ERA than anything else. The reason for that is that unlike typical hard-kill APS (like the Trophy) that consists of a series of sensors and a rotating launcher that lobs some projectile at an incoming missile, the StrikeShield (like its AMAP ADS predecessor – it’s basically the same system) consists of static segments, each with its own sensor set. In addition, these act as additional armor as each comes with a steel plate. The outer layer can withstand 7.62mm AP bullets while the inner layer (behind the sensor suite and charges) can withstand 14.5mm bullets on its own.

When designing this system in Armored Warfare, we had to look at some aspects of how the APS in the game works. On one hand, we have some similar static systems in the game. On the other hand, they don’t work really well and are implemented unrealistically. The two solutions that come immediately to mind are:

A single comprehensive system that detonates each module depending on the direction the incoming projectile is arriving from
Or each element should be its own separate APS working in a narrow angle

The first solution is incredibly hard to implement as it would require a total APS overhaul. For such a unique system that cannot be used anywhere else (at least for the time being), this is a massive resource sink that would delay other things. Not worth it.

The second solution is more interesting and logical but it has two major issues. First is some unintended behavior. The modules are placed so that if you fire at the front of the vehicle, the frontal module “catches” the missile and explodes. But if you fire alongside it, you make the side modules explode. It’s hard to describe but it looks incredibly uncanny. The second – and perhaps more important – issue is that for this to work, you have to have a separate APS module for each segment and it breaks the UI really badly. Again, no good solution to this issue.

In the end, we decided to implement the StrikeShield combat modules as ERA with multiple charges (in addition to the extra armor they provide). We’re still working on the mechanic so we don’t have more to share right now – but the side armor of the vehicle will be durable and the Boxer will also feature effective soft-kill APS.

Next, the firepower. Once again, we’ll have a combination of 30mm autocannon and a Spike launcher with two launch tubes. The autocannon is similar to the one used by Lynx Skyranger and will also use similar ammunition (APFSDS and PELE). The autocannon will have a limited magazine and the overheat mechanic as well as a rather high rate of fire. In addition, the missile launcher (tandem HEAT missiles, the usual) will have the option to launch two missiles at once (it’ll have to be unlocked via Battle Path progression).

When it comes to mobility, the vehicle will be fairly slow and sluggish. On the bright side, it’ll make it easier to control. The Boxer will also carry Mechanized Infantry – quite possibly larger squads than usual (6 AT troops, 3 mortar crews or 2 snipers).

And that’s pretty much it. The Boxer will be more a wheeled tank than a scout, with a lot of firepower to boot. We hope you’ll enjoy it and are looking forward to telling you more about the final vehicle of the Battle Path.

See you on the battlefield!