Status of the Campaigns, Alpha 2 Update, Servers Live!

News

The servers are live!

With today’s release of the Alpha 2 update, we will put the multiplayer servers online again for a week. If you want to play Iron Harvest in multiplayer, please do so between

Wednesday, Feb. 13th and Wednesday, Feb. 20th

Please play plenty and give us your feedback on the changes and the game in general. See you on the battlefield!





Backers Discord Channel. You can find the link here, if you claimed your copy of Iron Harvest. If you backed Iron Harvest on Kickstarter or pre-ordered it at www.iron-harvest.com , be sure to join us in our. You can find the link, if you claimed your copy of Iron Harvest.

Info: Status of the Campaigns

Where we're at

In this issue of our DevBlog we will talk a lot about the Alpha 2 update, which means, by definition, that it’s a lot about multiplayer. However, we do know that many of you are especially looking forward to the singleplayer/coop campaigns.

So here is a brief overview of what the status is in terms of campaigns:

The content and structure of all 21 missions and 23 cutscenes has been defined.

Texts for the first campaign (Polania) are mostly done (including the tutorial).

There is a layout for most maps (3 or 4 are still missing).

The first campaign map (map 3 of the Polanian campaign) just received the first visual pass (see below).

This map will be our “testmap” for scripting, staging and campaign gameplay. We’re working on our scripting system at the moment and expect to be able to play the mission in early March.

At the moment, three level designers and three artists are working on multiple maps and graphics sets at the same time. Usually, the first maps take forever and as soon as there are all the assets available and people know what they are doing, things speed up considerably.

We start each map with a rough in-engine layout. Then we do a first visual pass, followed by the scripting and staging. After a ton of testing (functionality/bug testing, but also many playtests), we do the second visual pass to make everything look perfect.

City Set

Doing the first maps in a game always takes forever, because we have to design all the elements for the map. We’re almost done with our “Rural” and “Industrial” sets (all the Alpha 2 maps use these sets) and are working on the most complicated set, “City”.

Some blockouts and tests regarding the size and general look of city buildings.





And here a couple of buildings, all build from a surprisingly small number of pieces.



Info: Alpha 2 Change-Log (Patch Notes 0.4.0)

General

There is a chat in the multiplayer lobby now that helps you negotiating the match settings with other players and insult their mothers (Please don’t do that.)

There is an ingame chat now to communicate with your teammates or with all players in the match

Improved performance and reduction of lag-spikes, for example when fighting with the spider mech for the first time



We added several new ingame notifications to the game

A new unit, the medic, has been implemented in the game for both the Polania and Saxony faction:

Medics can heal other units



You can sacrifice a medic squad to build a medic field post that can heal and also reinforce infantry units

UI & Ingame Feedback



Unit selection circles and range indicators are now better visible on any terrain

Progress bars (e.g. conquering, building) have a progress animation now and the health bar of a building flashes when the building is being captured

Resource buildings no longer display full health while being destroyed

Tooltips and health bars of buildings that can be garrisoned now show how many soldiers are garrisoned

Tooltip of build options in the production menu is improved to better reflect why a unit cannot be built

Placing fortifications now shows a ghost preview

There now is an UI element that informs you about low FPS, bad ping and server problems. By default, you’ll only see the element if there is a problem. You can change that in the settings.

Remapping keys in the settings menu has been improved

The “Rules” in the „Skirmish Map Settings Screen“ have been improved

You can now configure mulitplayer victory conditions better than before

The „Multiplayer Result Screen“ works better now and should no longer display wrong “0” values

Controls

Context sensitive orders can now be used on the unit pictures in the Unit Selection (for example: You can now repair a mech by right-clicking its portrait when an engineer is selected)

Improvements for squad interactions with objects (better feedback, enhanced usability)

It is now possible to select objects like crates or equipment even if some of your units are standing in front of them

You can now use right-click drag to determine in which direction your units take cover in two-sided covers or in trenches

The right-click drag now works for all mechs

UI elements no longer cancel the right-click drag

When starting a selection drag over an object that is not on the floor layer, the rectangle now starts exactly where the click was registered in world-space instead of on the floor below

Soldiers following a weapon system are now clickable

Hotkeys are no longer blocked if the cursor is over an UI element

Assigning groups with Ctrl+Number should now also work if you release Ctrl before the number

Releasing the mouse cursor after moving off an ability button no longer executes that ability

Camera rotation hotkeys now match the keybindings in the options menu

Gameplay

Retreating units no longer need to touch the Headquarters to end the retreat; instead, they stop the retreat when near the Headquarters

While in a multiplayer game, players can now surrender if they are the only humans in a team or start a vote to surrender if they are in a team with other humans

AI takes over in multiplayer games if a player has a disconnect and there is a chance to reconnect to the game

It is now prohibited to build an HQ when you already have one

Fortifications can no longer be built in the building zone of another player

Animation & Art

More gameplay buildings have hit animations now

Highly reduced aiming inaccuracies for all soldiers

Enabled full motion range for all soldiers (walk to sprint and everything in between)

Further improved responsiveness for all units

Some UI enhancements

Balancing & AI

Reworked the population costs to be lower overall and easier to read

Reduced overall damage and health values to be 1/100 of their former values. Gameplay stays the same.

Buffed splash damage in general. This affects: Smialy, Isegrim, Wotan, Cannon System and Gunner Infantry

Nerfed Wotan: Slightly reduced health, reduced damage to light and medium armored targets, reduced rocket damage, increased rocket cooldown

Nerfed Grenadier: Reduced grenade damage to all targets

Buffed Lowca: Basic attacks now pierce through unarmored and light armored targets, short range high damage ability is now available

Buffed Grimbart: Slightly increased damage to light and medium armored targets

Buffed Eisenhans: Increased health, reduced size in hit-system

Adjusted the attack behaviour of the AI in AI modes "Hard" and "Insane”

Further improved AI behaviour

Bugs

Wrecks of mechs no longer "float" if destruction happens while off-camera

The rally point no longer resets after upgrading a building

Population costs of weapon systems are now processed correctly

Setting "Confident" bonus modifier to anything higher than "None" no longer results in invulnerable units

Buildings constructed by the AI now face in the right direction

Gatling sweep and spider default attack are now properly cancelled when the mech is dying while shooting

Fixed a bug where you could get stuck on the loading screen of a skirmish map when you invited someone to a multiplayer match earlier

Look Ahead

We are planning the next Alpha 2 update for late March. If everything plays out as planned, we will add “shouts” (units giving vocal feedback to orders and so on), which will be exciting because it’s very important for the atmosphere.

After focusing on bug fixing for this update, we’ll add more new features, at least one new unit and at least one new map to Alpha 2 with the next update. Of course, while working on these more visible changes, we’ll keep working on a lot of stuff “behind the scenes”.

As always, we’ll keep you updated through our monthly DevBlogs, over Facebook and Twitter, and via our developer server on Discord.





pre-order Iron Harvest here. You‘ll also get access to upcoming Beta builds and to our private Backers Discord Channel for exclusive behind-the-scenes material. If you want to support us and get your hands on Alpha 2 right now, you can. You‘ll also get access to upcoming Beta builds and to our private Backers Discord Channel for exclusive behind-the-scenes material.

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