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Flying Squirrel Entertainment
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32
News & Announcements / Developer Blog 40 - Battle Cry of Freedom Part 11
« on: March 02, 2019, 04:27:06 pm »33
News & Announcements / Developer Blog 39 - Battle Cry of Freedom Part 10
« on: February 09, 2019, 09:00:13 pm »34
News & Announcements / Developer Blog 38 - Battle Cry of Freedom Part 9
« on: January 21, 2019, 12:44:01 pm »36
News & Announcements / Developer Blog 37 - Battle Cry of Freedom Part 8
« on: December 23, 2018, 09:13:48 pm »37
News & Announcements / Developer Blog 36 - Battle Cry of Freedom Part 7
« on: December 17, 2018, 01:33:29 am »38
News & Announcements / Developer Blog 35 - Battle Cry of Freedom Part 6 (CTRL + F5 IF VIDEO IS BROKEN)
« on: December 09, 2018, 08:48:54 pm »39
News & Announcements / Developer Blog 34 - Battle Cry of Freedom Part 5
« on: December 02, 2018, 07:14:23 pm »40
News & Announcements / Developer Blog 33 - Battle Cry of Freedom Part 4
« on: November 24, 2018, 06:46:28 pm »41
News & Announcements / Developer Blog 32 - Battle Cry of Freedom Part 3
« on: November 17, 2018, 06:42:12 pm »Developer Blog 32
Battle Cry of Freedom
Hello and welcome back to the Battle Cry of Freedom developer blog! This week we are going to talk about Graphics and historical accuracy.
Graphics Part 1/3
Graphics are an important part of any game and to that end it is something we have spent a lot of time on during the creation of our game. However we are not planning on making the next Crysis! While graphics are important and can make the first impression for many potential players we prefer to focus on gameplay. We also are restricted by the limitations of our chosen game engine and have to work with the tools we are provided with. Despite this, as things stand we are very happy with the way the game looks. It may not be cutting edge compared to some high budget triple A titles but that is not everything. We believe that our models, textures and sounds combine together well enough to create an immersive 19th century experience. We are of course far from finished, and there is a lot more to come!
Face Customization[/b]
Facial customization is not currently implemented and instead faces are created randomly, but this is something we plan to change in the nearest future. We have created a large number of selectable faces, haircuts and beards that can be chosen by the player at will. Additionally, players will be able to select their hair color and accessories like glasses, tobacco pipes or cigars. All of our faces, beards and haircuts are recreated from historical photographs and based on both well known persons, like Joshua Chamberlain, but also on photographs of privates who’s name no one remembers now. This creates what we believe to be a fairly realistic period accurate look.
Below are screenshots of 11 of our 23 different face and haircut variations, in their default layout as well as some of our accessories. Maybe you will recognize some of the faces! Please note that while some of the units below are carrying artillery tools and are placed around a 32pounder, they are not dressed to be of a single unit or exclusively artillery. Clicking on any images in this blog will open a higher resolution version of them.
Weapons[/b]We currently have over one hundred unique weapons in the game, each with its own graphics and unique gameplay (Read our previous Blog to learn a little about how our weapons perform within the ballistics system). As such, there is much to show. Here are a few screenshots of some of the more well known and important weapons in the game, none if which we have featured in previous blogs.
Historical Accuracy in the gameWhen creating a game set in the past, research and staying as close to reality as possible is one of the most time consuming and difficult tasks. It is extremely important to balance both historical accuracy and gameplay to make a fun but authentic gaming experience. Looking back at our previous game, Napoleonic Wars, we could have done a much better job on research. We did not realise it at the time, but we now have a much better understanding of the subject and how to do proper research.
We started re-enacting in June 2014 and joined a Dutch Napoleonic re-enactment group, that reenacts the “85ème régiment d'infanterie de ligneâ€. At first we thought that everything they did was historically accurate, but a year later we slowly started realising that most re-enactors are anything but historically accurate. This might be a surprise to anyone who is not in the re-enactment community, as it was to us. However, the truth is that most re-enactors do not do much research at all. Many re-enactors even make up their own facts, because “It makes senseâ€.
With that in mind we decided to instead form our own group that also tries to re-enact the “85ème régiment d'infanterie de ligneâ€. As we did our research we noticed more and more things that were wrong with our previous understanding of the subject and with re-enactment in general. Ever since then we have been trying to improve our performance/impression of the time and are still continuing to do so.
At about the same time, we also started our own Civil War reenactment group, the “110th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantryâ€. Now with a lot of our research focused on the American Civil War, we started seeing more and more issues with our uniforms and equipment in the game.
Having started work on BCoF right after finishing Napoleonic Wars we barked up the wrong tree due to our poor research and general understanding of the subject. On account of this we decided to redo most of our models and textures for BCoF. Many of them were based on sloppy references and had problems. For example, their colors were wrong, their stitching patterns were all off and on some of them. even the scale was completely off...Research for the game is now practically no different to the research we do for our re-enactment performances or as a historian might do it. Primary sources, originals and photographs are regarded as the only reliable sources. Secondary sources are only used if it is absolutely impossible to find anything else and preferably if they can be corroborated. This produces not only more accurate content but also much better looking content. Reality always looks better than some made up stuff, at least in period gaming. The problem with this approach is that since we are progressive re-enactors, this is our passion and we sometimes like to focus on unnecessary details like inspector and manufacturer stamps that no player will ever see...
Below is a small series of screenshots showing some of our old and new old equipment pieces like haversacks, knapsacks canteens etc. I am sure you will recognize the new models.
Despite that, in terms of gameplay we try to limit ourselves and we do not want to go into extremes. A game has to be playable and in certain aspects we have to cut corners to make it work. For example, if you were to strictly follow the drill manuals, many of the animations would take to long to execute and would destroy the flow of the game.To this end some animations have been sped up by cutting out movements. Some of the actions have also been combined and we also used different drill manuals to create more visibly distinct actions. For example, we are using both Hardees Revised, Gilhams and Caseys manual as a base for our musket animations.The melee animations in particular had to be made up from scratch and are based on no real manual. We need each swing direction to look visually distinct from another and this would have simply not been possible if we had followed actual manuals.
With our small team it would also not be possible to make uniforms and equipment pieces for all regiments from 1861-65. Certain equipment pieces will be intermixed and worn in a way that does not strictly reflect history. Differences in the time period of 1862-65 are fairly minor though, and it should not be a big issue. For example, the backpack featured above is from 1864, while many of our units are based around 1863.We will obviously continue adding more content to the game during development and after release, so hopefully we will be able to create enough gear to represent all of the years accurately.
We admit that we have made mistakes regarding historical accuracy in the past and we will continue making mistakes. We are not infallible. As such we do not claim that our game is historically accurate, we merely claim to be inspired by history. There are various things in the game that we are aware need to be changed, but are very low on the priority list. For example after making all of the ammunition and ammo crates, we took another look into the ordnance manual and found out that some of our ammo crates and cartridges are wrongly colored. This will have to be fixed, but it is by no means a huge mistake. It certainly can wait until after release.Anyway, we hope that you now have a better understanding about what we are trying to achieve in regards to historical accuracy in the game, and how we try to approach things.
Once again, thank you for reading this weeks installment of the Developer Blog and we will hopefully see you next week!
In next weeks Blog we will be talking about Graphics.
Flying Squirrel Entertainment
42
News & Announcements / Developer Blog 31 - Battle Cry of Freedom Part2
« on: November 10, 2018, 07:17:53 pm »
Gameplay Part 2/4
The American Civil War was primarily fought with rifled muskets and saw the introduction of repeating rifles, revolvers and breech loaders. As such we have decided that it is time to program a more advanced shooting system to really showcase the main focuses of this game. In its core the system is still the same, the player aims, fires his gun and he can not move when reloading. In action though, there will be a lot more going on than simply pointing and shooting!
Shooting, Ammunition and Bullet System
With the introduction of repeating rifles and revolvers, the player now has to hold the right mouse button to aim and fire by tapping the left. Holding down the left mouse button while aiming will empty the magazine of the players revolver or repeater as quickly as possible, though of course, more careful shooting is recommended.
Reloading is initiated by pressing "R" which makes it possible for the player to aim when not loaded. Though you might be disappointed if you have not been keeping track of number of shots fired... Reloading is done in stages, so if a player cancels a reload that is half way done, he does not have to start all over again. Revolvers can be reloaded shot by shot.
Originally we intended to have the player go to "ready" before going to aim, however that made the game feel too unresponsive. As such we decided to speed up the animation by cutting out the 2nd movement of "ready". The player is now able to aim immediately after the first movement, starting to look down the barrel of their gun as they pull back the hammer. We have also added the ability to slightly shift your aim to the left or right by pressing Q and E. Often this is achieved by moving the player's upper-body from side to side, we wanted to do something a little different. We are doing a step to the right or to the left instead, this is accurate to the period and fits the historical drill manuals. It will not only make it possible to shoot around corners, but will also make it a lot easier to fire in two ranks or to oblique fire. Additionally we have added a check for collisions, so if a player is standing to close to an object, he will not be able to aim and has to move back before trying to line up another shot.
Players can choose to aim in third person or to aim down the iron sights. We have coded a reticle that is no longer in the center of the screen, but actually tracks where the player is aiming his gun. It will react to objects within a few meters distance of the player, for example it would let the player know if they are aiming at a wall in front of him. This will make it easier to identify where you are aiming in third person. The reticle will also perfectly match the iron sights, so aiming in third person and in first person is finally interchangeable and neither third nor first person aiming will have a mechanical advantage over the other. Bayonets will affect the "aiming sway" of the player, for example a gun with a bayonet fixed will sway and shake more than one without. Walking while aiming will make the gun sway even more, making accurate shots practically impossible. We plan to modify the aiming sway the more/less stamina a player has available, but more about that in a future blog...
Bullets no longer leave the gun at random angles like some horribly inaccurate laser rifle as you might have experienced in earlier games of this period. Your shot will now fly in accordance with an advanced ballistics system we have been working on, which realistically simulates real life bullet physics. Artillery and small arms will also both use the same system. In real life there is no difference between a smoothbore cannon and a smoothbore musket, they both fire a ball of lead at high speeds and are both subject to the same laws of physics, a cannon can simply haul more lead through the air at once.
Each weapon has unique settings for muzzle velocity and twist rate. A muzzle velocity deviation setting can be used to represent larger or smaller touch holes through which pressure can escape and make the gun less reliable (think flintlocks, for example). There is a random firing delay, that can be changed for each gun. Flintlocks will have a significantly longer delay than percussion rifles. Each gun also has a unique range of loadable ammo. With over 100 unique weapons currently implemented in the game, each with their own gameplay, it will take some time for the player to get known to all of them.
In the game the player will be able to choose what ammo he wants to load and pick up different types of ammo. Ammo will be dropped in packs or in single cartridges, just like they were issued back in the day. There are ammo crates which can be used to restock ammo, these ammo crates can be transported around and will be very useful for regiments that are in longer firefights.
In addition to that, ammo has a muzzle velocity modifier to represent quality of the ammunition. High quality ammunition does not modify the muzzle velocity, but low quality ammunition might lower it randomly and make the rifle less reliable. Each type of ammunition refers to a projectile, this is the bullet that leaves the barrel when fired. Bullets all have proper graphics and will visibly (to the more keen eyed amongst you) fly through the air in the game. Projectiles have many variables which are modeled by our ballistics system, such as drag coefficient, size and weight.
When a projectile is fired, it spawns at the tip of the barrel and the system then calculates a trajectory, using the above settings as a base. It will also look for the local humidity, temperature, air density, gravity, wind direction and wind strength plus some other factors. Taking all of this into account, our system creates a fairly realistic bullet trajectory. The unique settings on each gun mean that all of them will perform differently, guns with a higher twist rate will be more accurate than guns with a lower twist rate. Smoothbore guns are therefore much less accurate on long ranges than rifles, but both smoothbore and rifled guns will still be deadly accurate on short distances.
As you can see on the screenshots of our testing range above, accuracy of guns gets increasingly worse the further away the target is. Accurate long range shots become impossible with smoothbores, but rifles also loose a lot of their accuracy. All of the above is without any aiming sway, with that added into the mix, the player will quickly notice that accurately shooting long distances will require much more skill, experience and also a little bit of luck. Click on the image above to see a higher resolution copy of it.
Additionally, upon impact with an object, the system checks whether the bullet will get stuck in, ricochet off, or pass through the object. Should it be able to pass through or ricochet, the system will calculate its new trajectory and velocity and keep going. Passing through and ricocheting is heavily Dependant on the impact angle and force. Larger calibers will have a much easier time passing through objects than smaller ones (Assuming they are traveling with the same velocity). Damage delivered to players or objects is equal to the velocity lost upon impact, multiplied by the size and weight of the projectile.
The American Civil War was primarily fought with rifled muskets and saw the introduction of repeating rifles, revolvers and breech loaders. As such we have decided that it is time to program a more advanced shooting system to really showcase the main focuses of this game. In its core the system is still the same, the player aims, fires his gun and he can not move when reloading. In action though, there will be a lot more going on than simply pointing and shooting!
Shooting, Ammunition and Bullet System
With the introduction of repeating rifles and revolvers, the player now has to hold the right mouse button to aim and fire by tapping the left. Holding down the left mouse button while aiming will empty the magazine of the players revolver or repeater as quickly as possible, though of course, more careful shooting is recommended.
Reloading is initiated by pressing "R" which makes it possible for the player to aim when not loaded. Though you might be disappointed if you have not been keeping track of number of shots fired... Reloading is done in stages, so if a player cancels a reload that is half way done, he does not have to start all over again. Revolvers can be reloaded shot by shot.
Originally we intended to have the player go to "ready" before going to aim, however that made the game feel too unresponsive. As such we decided to speed up the animation by cutting out the 2nd movement of "ready". The player is now able to aim immediately after the first movement, starting to look down the barrel of their gun as they pull back the hammer. We have also added the ability to slightly shift your aim to the left or right by pressing Q and E. Often this is achieved by moving the player's upper-body from side to side, we wanted to do something a little different. We are doing a step to the right or to the left instead, this is accurate to the period and fits the historical drill manuals. It will not only make it possible to shoot around corners, but will also make it a lot easier to fire in two ranks or to oblique fire. Additionally we have added a check for collisions, so if a player is standing to close to an object, he will not be able to aim and has to move back before trying to line up another shot.
Players can choose to aim in third person or to aim down the iron sights. We have coded a reticle that is no longer in the center of the screen, but actually tracks where the player is aiming his gun. It will react to objects within a few meters distance of the player, for example it would let the player know if they are aiming at a wall in front of him. This will make it easier to identify where you are aiming in third person. The reticle will also perfectly match the iron sights, so aiming in third person and in first person is finally interchangeable and neither third nor first person aiming will have a mechanical advantage over the other. Bayonets will affect the "aiming sway" of the player, for example a gun with a bayonet fixed will sway and shake more than one without. Walking while aiming will make the gun sway even more, making accurate shots practically impossible. We plan to modify the aiming sway the more/less stamina a player has available, but more about that in a future blog...
Bullets no longer leave the gun at random angles like some horribly inaccurate laser rifle as you might have experienced in earlier games of this period. Your shot will now fly in accordance with an advanced ballistics system we have been working on, which realistically simulates real life bullet physics. Artillery and small arms will also both use the same system. In real life there is no difference between a smoothbore cannon and a smoothbore musket, they both fire a ball of lead at high speeds and are both subject to the same laws of physics, a cannon can simply haul more lead through the air at once.
Each weapon has unique settings for muzzle velocity and twist rate. A muzzle velocity deviation setting can be used to represent larger or smaller touch holes through which pressure can escape and make the gun less reliable (think flintlocks, for example). There is a random firing delay, that can be changed for each gun. Flintlocks will have a significantly longer delay than percussion rifles. Each gun also has a unique range of loadable ammo. With over 100 unique weapons currently implemented in the game, each with their own gameplay, it will take some time for the player to get known to all of them.
In the game the player will be able to choose what ammo he wants to load and pick up different types of ammo. Ammo will be dropped in packs or in single cartridges, just like they were issued back in the day. There are ammo crates which can be used to restock ammo, these ammo crates can be transported around and will be very useful for regiments that are in longer firefights.
In addition to that, ammo has a muzzle velocity modifier to represent quality of the ammunition. High quality ammunition does not modify the muzzle velocity, but low quality ammunition might lower it randomly and make the rifle less reliable. Each type of ammunition refers to a projectile, this is the bullet that leaves the barrel when fired. Bullets all have proper graphics and will visibly (to the more keen eyed amongst you) fly through the air in the game. Projectiles have many variables which are modeled by our ballistics system, such as drag coefficient, size and weight.
When a projectile is fired, it spawns at the tip of the barrel and the system then calculates a trajectory, using the above settings as a base. It will also look for the local humidity, temperature, air density, gravity, wind direction and wind strength plus some other factors. Taking all of this into account, our system creates a fairly realistic bullet trajectory. The unique settings on each gun mean that all of them will perform differently, guns with a higher twist rate will be more accurate than guns with a lower twist rate. Smoothbore guns are therefore much less accurate on long ranges than rifles, but both smoothbore and rifled guns will still be deadly accurate on short distances.
As you can see on the screenshots of our testing range above, accuracy of guns gets increasingly worse the further away the target is. Accurate long range shots become impossible with smoothbores, but rifles also loose a lot of their accuracy. All of the above is without any aiming sway, with that added into the mix, the player will quickly notice that accurately shooting long distances will require much more skill, experience and also a little bit of luck. Click on the image above to see a higher resolution copy of it.
Additionally, upon impact with an object, the system checks whether the bullet will get stuck in, ricochet off, or pass through the object. Should it be able to pass through or ricochet, the system will calculate its new trajectory and velocity and keep going. Passing through and ricocheting is heavily Dependant on the impact angle and force. Larger calibers will have a much easier time passing through objects than smaller ones (Assuming they are traveling with the same velocity). Damage delivered to players or objects is equal to the velocity lost upon impact, multiplied by the size and weight of the projectile.
43
News & Announcements / Developer Blog 30 - Battle Cry of Freedom
« on: November 03, 2018, 10:36:08 pm »44
News & Announcements / Developer Blog 29 - Napoleonic Wars Patch 1.21
« on: October 04, 2018, 09:09:29 pm »45
Skins & OSP Resources / New units for the NW patch.
« on: December 05, 2017, 06:52:47 pm »
Hello there,
if you have made uniforms/weapons/any other graphical items you think are good enough to be included in the game, and want to see added, please contact me via PM or in this Thread. I will take a look at them and if they are good enough I include them in in the next patch!
Thanks.
- Olaf
if you have made uniforms/weapons/any other graphical items you think are good enough to be included in the game, and want to see added, please contact me via PM or in this Thread. I will take a look at them and if they are good enough I include them in in the next patch!
Thanks.
- Olaf