Tiny Combat Arena - Why485
Hello! This one is a long time coming and the culmination of a lot of behind the scenes work and also what was effectively a weekend side project for a while.
The Tiny Combat Tools have been released on GitHub. The game has always been built with modding in mind. The game's JSON data files were meant to be edited, and with the new mod loader from last patch, no longer required overwriting the game's native files. Unfortunately adding new content is a lot more complicated, which is where the TCA Bundler comes in.
Using the new tools and TCA Bundler, you can import models and preview them exactly as they would appear in the game, using the same materials and shaders as the real game. This finally allows for the addition of new content by mods.
Check out the GitHub page for more details, along with instructions on how to import models.
Please keep in mind that there isn't a UI yet to show mods that are loaded and any errors, so if you plan on modding the game it's recommended to stick with the tester's branch in the meantime since it will print error logs to the screen.
Yak-141 by nuclearstonk and giantenemycrab
The progress on night time is both ahead of schedule and close enough that night is now selectable in the game! The time of day system has support night for a long time, waiting only on an implementation of night lighting such as streetlights, runway lights, and beacon lights. All of these are now in the game and thanks to the tech artist look fantastic! The distant point light rendering saw another revision and now looks great at all resolutions and all distances, as well added support for blinking beacon lights.
With a couple new bases and other redesigned ones, the Sand Island map is approaching finished. Only gameplay related work remains, which means updating the Strike Instant Action missions along with the Arena UI improvements necessary to build out the first campaign.
Tiny Combat Tools
The Tiny Combat Tools have been released on GitHub. The game has always been built with modding in mind. The game's JSON data files were meant to be edited, and with the new mod loader from last patch, no longer required overwriting the game's native files. Unfortunately adding new content is a lot more complicated, which is where the TCA Bundler comes in.
Using the new tools and TCA Bundler, you can import models and preview them exactly as they would appear in the game, using the same materials and shaders as the real game. This finally allows for the addition of new content by mods.
Check out the GitHub page for more details, along with instructions on how to import models.
Please keep in mind that there isn't a UI yet to show mods that are loaded and any errors, so if you plan on modding the game it's recommended to stick with the tester's branch in the meantime since it will print error logs to the screen.
Yak-141 by nuclearstonk and giantenemycrab
Night
The progress on night time is both ahead of schedule and close enough that night is now selectable in the game! The time of day system has support night for a long time, waiting only on an implementation of night lighting such as streetlights, runway lights, and beacon lights. All of these are now in the game and thanks to the tech artist look fantastic! The distant point light rendering saw another revision and now looks great at all resolutions and all distances, as well added support for blinking beacon lights.
Finalized Sand Island Map
With a couple new bases and other redesigned ones, the Sand Island map is approaching finished. Only gameplay related work remains, which means updating the Strike Instant Action missions along with the Arena UI improvements necessary to build out the first campaign.
Changelog
New features:
- New mod loading system
- Mods can be loaded on top of each other
- Core game is now a hardcoded "mod" that gets loaded first
- Many new buildings and props placed around the updated Sand Island map
- Lights rendered as pseudo-sprites for pixel perfect point light goodness
- Night is selectable in Instant Action
- Automatic HUD dimming at night time
Improvements:
- Unified loaders for all JSON data
- Text adjusted to work better at low (800x600) resolutions
- Better runway lighting
- Updated many buildings to use the new point lights
- Added PAPI lights to Murasa
Bugfixes:
- Added quotes around the names of duplicate/overwritten data error/log messages
- Bad campaign data no longer corrupts the persistent Arena save file
- Bad campaign data no longer breaks the Arena selection UI
- MapList.json now loaded on a per-mod basis
- Vehicles initialized through the mod system
- Fixed gun display name not showing correctly
- Fixed markings not appearing correctly on Expeditionary field
Balance:
- AV8B roll rate increased 140 -> 180
JSON:
- In Loadout definitions, "Aircraft" renamed to "Name"
- In Loadout definitions, "Loadout" renamed to "Loadouts"
- "Store" in the Store definition has been removed and made part of the Store definition itself
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