FCOM Alpha released, Tactical Missiles, Bombers and more!

FCOM is now officially in alpha! 0.1.0 has been a massive update overhauling visuals, adding in new Platform and Weapon types and improving various aspects of the game. There are currently 13 different platforms (vehicle types) and 29 different weapons to choose from, with a multitude of different combinations of both. 

Overview

In addition to the texture detailing that all units have, units now have unlockable skins to further enhance customisation and the look of your units. 

This uses a procedurally generated camo shader to create loads of unique looking possibilities. You can also alter the emission and trim of your units to help them stick out in battle!

Artillery has been further improved, needing to deploy before they can fire, and all turrets now look towards their projectile trajectory enhancing realism. New weapons in the form of Tactical Missile Launchers, Bombers and Scatter weaponry have been added. 

Tactical Missiles Launchers, much like Artillery need to be deployed and can attack ground. They are adept at taking out structures and units at long range. The new Bombs weapon pair with the new Bomber Platform, and can perform massive area of effect attacks on ground units. Tactical Bombs can also attack ground. The new Scatter weaponry deliver suppression across a wide area with light damage, great for peppering a large area of lightly armoured forces at a distance. They come in an artillery shell or a bomb format.

All release gameplay features at this point have now been added. The game units have been balanced (to a point!) platforms and weapon selection have been reduced to a point where each unit has a clear counter to aid core gameplay mechanics. A group limit of 6 has been added to provide more tactical flavour and limits have been placed on certain weaponry on certain platforms for balancing or where made sense. (An ATV can't drop bombs for example!)

VFX have been improved, rockets looks cooler, tank shells look less cartoon-y and artillery trails and feel have been much improved. Thrusters on Fighters have a distinctive look to better differentiate between other air platforms. The visuals are now more thematic and art style has been tightened.

AI path finding has improved for air units, and behave more predictably as a result. Gunships physics have been completely re-built from the ground up, resulting in far more consistent behaviour - they now try to reach a target height, and not an offset of the ground (which could be a chasm!)

These are just a selection of the changes for this version, heaps of smaller updates have made it in to improve UI and UX also.

What's next?

Accessibility is the focus for next version. Adding settings menus and options to improve the experience for a greater range of people. A tutorial to help new comers, Retinue re-work to better help you to sort your built units. New maps, a continuation of replacing old placeholder units and replacing them with spanking new models. Adding a profile menu so you can change your skins, colours, name and other settings. 

Although Walkers were (and still are on the roadmap) they will be postponed due to balancing and complexity - but will likely be added at some point. Much more on the horizon, watch this space! More neutral buildings as referenced in the last update article are still planned, and now that the tactical missile launcher has been built, a capture-able missile silo is definitely on the horizon!