{"data":{"id":17634,"title":"Theaters of War AMA Recap","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/transmission\/17634-Theaters-Of-War-AMA-Recap","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/17634","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/17634","channel":"Undefined","category":"Undefined","series":"None","images":[{"id":24293,"name":"Tavern-Upload-Image-537769-1591208031.png","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/chwv71odfo1kir\/source\/Tavern-Upload-Image-537769-1591208031.png","alt":"","size":2427873,"mime_type":"image\/png","last_modified":"2020-06-04T22:22:46+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/24293","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/24293\/similar"},{"id":24294,"name":"Tavern-Upload-Image-537769-1591215788.png","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/lvppzfneu8umfr\/source\/Tavern-Upload-Image-537769-1591215788.png","alt":"","size":3184136,"mime_type":"image\/png","last_modified":"2020-06-04T22:22:52+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/24294","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/24294\/similar"}],"images_count":2,"translations":{"en_EN":"Theaters of War AMA Recap\n\nEach month we host an open submission live Q&A on Spectrum hosted by developers from various specialties across CIG. These questions and answers were collected from the Spectrum AMA on June 3rd, 2020.\n\n\nThis time, we welcomed four guests from the team working on the upcoming game mode, Theaters of War (working title):\n\nSean Tracy \u2013 Technical Director\nJonny Jacevicius \u2013 Senior FPS Systems Designer\nTom Solaru \u2013 Senior Producer\nMilan Pejcic \u2013 Director of Development Operations\n\nThis AMA is complete but keep an eye out for upcoming threads for your chance to ask us anything!\n\n\nWhat Changes have been made since the CitizenCon 2019 Reveal\/Evocati Tests?\nSean Tracy:\n\nThe sheer amount of changes since CitizenCon would be hard to list as we were based on 3.7 for citizen con. The biggest updates that we had to consume were the planetV4 updates and a physics system refactor. This meant a change to the map itself, updates to many systems and is why the evocati weekend event would have looked quite different (conceptually the same design) but visually different. We even changed planets from Hurston to MicroTech.\n\nJust to give a further idea in the last two weeks there\u2019s been over 150 changes directly addressing feedback so the list would be large and would need to include the patch notes of 3.8 and 3.9\n\n\n\nWill it get medic \/ engineer \/ support roles?\nJonny Jacevicius:\n\nCertainly something we\u2019ll want to incorporate eventually, but right now our priority is getting the combat feeling good in a combined arms scenario before moving onto more specialized roles.\n\nAs medical gameplay and other systems come online in future quarters for the PU, we\u2019ll be looking closely at how we can incorporate them into Theatres of War.\n\n\nWhat was the outcome of the Theatres of War Evocati Tests?\nSean Tracy:\n\nThe weekend event was actually successful in achieving the objectives we set out to achieve with it. I could do a whole hour just on this, but to summarize the objectives\/accomplishments\/outcome. Most importantly because of our new metrics\/analytics we discovered that someone, somewhere made a kill with a fire extinguisher\u2026\nServer performance was great\n\nWe ran into challenges every time we scaled concurrency to some degree (and this instance was not different).\n\nWe reached the highest concurrency we\u2019ve had, almost 5x what we had tested with previously.\n\nWe found issues in platform (that remain and are being looked at that affect everything) we ran into some persistence \/ service issues and finally the popular and more difficult topic we\u2019ve found our game is running much more poorly than expected on our player\u2019s hardware, at least when you have \u201caction\u201d happening and 40 people in relatively tight proximity consistently.\n\nTons of new features were proven out at scale which included Chat\/Party\/Friends joining into AC\/SM servers as well as voip\n\nPulled a good amount of very specific analytics. The evocati played straight for 6-8 hours with round cycling (means no downtime just round after round after round) and those metrics are validating (and in some cases not) much of our gameplay (map wise).\n\nMap\/Mode balance validated for example: 117 rounds played, 54% win rate for defenders so it\u2019s fairly equal (slightly stilted to defense but would expect that to level out as people learn the map)\n\nShips balance got highlighted between Buccaneers and Arrows (2x spawn rate of buccaneers over Arrows which is likely that they die twice as much) and community highlighted this which is great and we\u2019ve adjusted.\n\nWe managed to confirm a few facts for the resources requirements of ToW instances.\nPerformance is and continues to be the biggest issue and addressing that will help everything. Whether that the perception of a desync, to feel to responsiveness etc\u2026 No game feels good at all below 20fps (except maybe Civilization or Risk!)\n\n\nWill we see a ToW game mode where the emphasis is on space combat rather than ground combat, yet still incorporates combined arms concepts? (Example: \u201cCapture the Idris\u201d game mode as discussed in early AC development). (EDIT: this would also incorporate multi-crew\/turrets in, which would touch more of the SC experience as a bonus).\nSean Tracy:\n\nYes! The intention of this particular scenario was to ensure ground vehicles and infantry would co-exist and to match them up against the ships, but not so many of them. For our next scenario you can expect it to be turned on it\u2019s head where the focus will be space and ship combat as a central component but using the same template of phases\/objective game-play.\n\n\nHow will you fix the desync problem?\nSean Tracy:\n\nSometimes lack of responsiveness for certain systems or actions can be conflated into desync issues. This is then further exacerbated by low frame rate! So sometimes what might seem like a desync isn\u2019t and is instead a different issue (be it responsiveness or lag). Quite a few actual desyncs were addressed for ToW and are much easier to track and fix comparatively to the PU. For example the 250ms injected delay was completely reworked (approximately 50 same as most other games) and adjusted to serve ToW as the server runs at a solid 30Hz. Short answer desyncs are addressed as they are discovered but often times responsiveness and low frame rate are the bigger culprits.\n\n\nAre these \u201clow framerates\u201d you noted issues with map geometry or optimization? I would imagine that people would expect the same (or better) FPS in this arena-like instance and therefore are calling out a performance issue different than what they experience from PU.\nSean Tracy:\n\nGreat question and I wish I could answer clearly in a single sentence but there were some many optimizations to be made on all angles art, design setup, implementation of some features, rendering code, vfx, sounds basically all aspects are adding up together. There wasn\u2019t one silver bullet unfortunately but we\u2019ve done a single sprint fully focused on performance and have saved quite a bit with more to come. Again ToW lets us see these issues obviously and analytically so it\u2019s been incredible useful for more than just the small ToW team and this includes engineering around the company.\n\n\nI appreciate your answer. There\u2018s a situation I always face in PU that the grenade flying out after the throwing hand animation is finished. Is this a case of lack of responsiveness? Will this be fixed in ToW?\nSean Tracy:\n\nGrenades are being actively worked on this quarter! Not specifically for ToW but was scheduled already as developers AND players see the same wonkyness and this isn\u2019t really desync but a slowly rotted implementation. So basically it\u2019s already being done\n\n\nWill FPS AI ever be introduced in ToW to make the battlefield even larger? Could this be a test bed for FPS AI to get them ready planetside in the PU outside of bunkers?\nSean Tracy:\n\nIt actually already has some AI (not FPS) that we wanted to prototype as the obvious comparison is with games such as Battlefront. ToW is not exclusively a PvP only mode and scenarios can make use of AI when it makes sense. It would be immensely useful to have bots for internal testing as well (even if they aren\u2019t that good) but with AI focus needing to be on PU and S42 we have to be mindful of the resources and the ToW group doesn\u2019t have any of these specialists for AI.\n\n\nWith the amazing introduction of the uee navy during the invictus fleet week we got to see and battle the mighty idris and javilin, would it be possible to create a tow scenario where we could battle them? This in turn could allow of continuous data to help tweak and balance these powerful and important space behemoths.\nMilan Pejcic:\n\nYes! This is something we are definitely looking to do. We want to provide diverse scenarios that would be interesting and fun for you as well beneficial for us to balance and polish. Capital ship fight scenario is on our radar. Which specific ships would take part will be dependent on our ship pipeline progression.\n\nSean Tracy:\n\nCopying from another answer (similar question) Yes! The intention of this particular scenario was to ensure ground vehicles and infantry would co-exist and to match them up against the ships, but not so many of them. For our next scenario you can expect it to be turned on it\u2019s head where the focus will be space and ship combat as a central component but using the same template of phases \/ objective game-play.\n\n\nFPS Movement in the PU has been rather clunky, have you made any significant improvements to player movement in TOW in regards to the way we move and handle our FPS Weapons?\nJonny Jacevicius:\n\nToW has been great for identifying issues with on-foot combat, due to the concentration of combat and the variety of environments it takes place in. As a result, we\u2019re making some great steps toward making the movement feel much more responsive and to improve the weapon handling. Some of these changes have already gone live over the last couple of updates or will be coming in the near future, but here are a couple of examples off the top of my head: Movement and strafe speed increases\n\nTotal stamina and regeneration increased (increasing overall sprint time and reducing weapon sway)\n\nAnimation speed increases (weapon reloads and ship and vehicle enter\/exits)\n\nWeapon spread and recoil improvements\n\n\nWill we see some vehicles like the Nova Tank in ToW before it\u2019s in the PU?\nSean Tracy:\n\nThe tonk is very dear to me, and is needed for some key balance to the ground combat (direct fire heavy weapon). ToW has, however, managed to increase the priority of the tonk for such gameplay needs. It would hit PU at the same time.\n\n\nThe ToW 40 player cap seems a little dated in this day and age; especially for a game that is promising a single shard universe; is there a reason why we\u2019re still capped at these low player numbers per instance?\nSean Tracy:\n\nMostly comes down to performance of vehicles and the intensity\/balance of the mode itself vs. the size of the playspace. Some of the discoveries during the Evocati testing has been that our relative player performance costs are far less than anticipated and thus could increase this in a larger map setting as the cost of players is less in ToW than in SC as far as the server is concerned. We aren\u2019t at all locked to 40 players but this count suited the Crossroads of Crime map design and we are considering higher player counts for future scenarios.\n\n\nHow big is the ToW team and are they dedicated to working on ToW?\nMilan Pejcic:\n\nWe are cognizant of resources available and other high profile priorities for the company. Main intent was to provide an environment where we can get appropriate information which would result in multiple improvements across the board. All the development playtime and feedback provided directly benefits the needs of Star Citizen and Squadron 42.\n\nTeam of people specifically dedicated to ToW is very small. Total team size of 10 consists of 4 designers, 2 engineers, 3 artists and 1 producer.\n\n\nYou say Theatres of War is the working name\u2026 what other names you are considering?\nMilan Pejcic:\n\nTheaters of War is the title we have been using internally so far. We are considering several names as we progress with development. We want to make sure that name works well within our universe and identity before making further commitments.\n\nWhat is your feedback for current working title? Do you have other interesting ideas?\n\n\nHow will CIG devote resources differently to ensure the ToW remains a lasting, developer-supported game mode option for players?\nMilan Pejcic:\n\nThere is a strong desire to continue our efforts for developing and maintaining ToW related content. This directly benefits our SC, S42, AC, SM needs. We are committed to delivering polished and fun games for you and ToW work is a crucial component of enabling that.\n\nWe are looking into ways of scaling the team which is highly dependent on multiple circumstances such as hiring rates, virus delays, specific profile of new hires, etc.\n\n\nWill we see ToW incorporate multi-crew ships eventually, including possibly dropships for troop insertions?\nJonny Jacevicius:\n\nWe\u2019re already using them! We are currently utilizing a Valkyrie and Vanguard, though this may change due to ongoing balance changes.\n\n\nHow has ToW helped balance the game as a whole?\nJonny Jacevicius:\n\nIt has been incredibly helpful. Previously the main opportunity for mixed arms gameplay has been in PU encounters, which could be quite uncommon due to its size. Having a game mode where you\u2019re immediately in a focused combat scenario, where FPS, ground vehicles and ships are all interacting has given us an opportunity to see how everything interacts.\n\nIt\u2019s also influenced sweeping FPS weapon changes and fixes as it\u2019s allowed us to tune our weapons for longer (and more realistic) combat ranges due to the size of the map, and distance at which you can encounter enemy players.\n\n\nDo the Dev\u2019s working on ToW understand how important it is for this game mode to be polished and balanced on release? or it will be dead within the first week and never touched again\nMilan Pejcic:\n\nThere is a strong desire to continue our efforts for developing and maintaining ToW related content. This directly benefits our SC, S42, AC, SM needs. We are committed to delivering polished and fun games for you and ToW work is a crucial component of enabling that.\n\nWe are actively working on improving performance related and player feedback related issues from the latest playtest. You can find more info on that in one of Sean\u2019s answers above.\n\n\nWill there be Squad Management \/ pre-made queues\/features, or will it be a 20vs20 free for all?\nMilan Pejcic:\n\nParty system is already implemented. You can join as a group through party leader and play in the same instance.\n\nWe will be looking into improving the UX\/UI elements that would make this easier and more visibility in some areas like scoreboard for example.\n\n\nIs FPS (frame rate) improved in ToW especially compared to Star Marine?\nSean Tracy:\n\nNo. We have basically 3 SM maps in one + a planet and we include vehicles (ground and ships) so compared to the current SM maps it runs slower but honestly to be expected and with the changes we\u2019ve talked about we are getting closer and closer to SM performance.\n\n\nWill ToW be released to more players as an Alpha? OR will it be more complete and polished product?\nMilan Pejcic:\n\nWe are looking to expose the mode to larger groups of players instead of Evocati only. Once we feel more comfortable that the intended experience or parts of that experience are ready for broader consumption we will be communicating that proactively.\n\nEvocati and PTU groups are treated as gates. Based on your feedback and backend data we are making guided decisions on how\/when to proceed. Your feedback and playtesting is incredibly valuable for our ability to achieve the intended experience.\n\n\nBalance can make or break a game mode, how fast can we expect balance related changes given the current 3 month cadence, and will those same changes be reflected in the PU as well?\nJonny Jacevicius:\n\nIt really depends on the nature of the change. Balance changes to things like the weapons or vehicles are issues we can likely solve in point patch or incremental patch. Larger changes we want to make, like alterations to the map or game-mode are things you\u2019d be more likely to see in one of the quarterly major updates.\n\nAny changes we make in Theatres of War will be made in the PU. All of the weapons, armour, items and ships etc. are all part of the same game.\n\n\nStar Marine scopes and sights are famously inaccurate. Is there any progress on weapon sight zeroing?\nSean Tracy:\n\nYes, Jonny himself even did pass just recently to dial in all alignments across FPS scopes based on the feedback from the evocati weekend test. So expect that to be fixed\/addressed on the next event and next PU patch.\n\n\n\nWhen can we expect to see a ToW scenario beyond the initial one presented at CitCon?\nTom Solaru:\n\nWe\u2019re currently looking at testing with Evocati again this weekend in order to get more feedback on our recent gameplay tweaks, bug fixes and performance improvements. We\u2019re looking to ensure a positive experience for players before opening the game mode wider to even more backers.\n\nMilan Pejcic:\n\nWe are starting scenario 2 work next quarter.\n\n\nWill ToW feature a \u201cDowned\u201d state before death? to give your teammates a chance to get you up in feet, similar to current Battle Royale games?\nJonny Jacevicius:\n\nThis is something we\u2019re currently looking at alongside the incoming body dragging mechanics and medical gameplay.\n\n\nHow are the Internal Tests going for ToW?\nJonny Jacevicius:\n\nReally well! The development staff seem to really enjoy playing and we\u2019re really grateful for all the issues they\u2019ve found and the feedback given.\n\nThe team have been using the regular playtests to trial changes and continually iterate to improve the experience.\n\n\n\nHaving played the CitizenCon playtest, balance seems hard and it looks to me that the defenders were \u201cbalanced\u201d to win more often than the attackers\u2026 what do your stats say?\nJonny Jacevicius:\n\nWe\u2019ve seen varied results from different tests, but we do sometimes see an attacker\/defender advantage depending on what phase of the game they\u2019re in. Our last set of analytics showed 117 rounds played, with a 54% win rate for defenders, so overall it\u2019s fairly equal (slightly stilted to defense but would expect that to level out as people learn the map). We will have our eye on the stats going forwards and will make changes to ensure a fair fight for both sides.\n\n\nCan you name and quantify your criteria for when you will consider tow ready for release?\nSean Tracy:\n\nWe have specific review gates and will not release or push out anything without having passed these given gates as a very strict rule. For example one of these are the current evocati weekend events which we\u2019ve not yet passed. Reviewing the analytics (for balance, performance and more) inform the decision making about taking it to the next stage.\n\nFor example, the next for us will be a larger audience playtest and we will review the data and make decisions accordingly. Some of the KPI\u2019s though are concurrency, performance, and visual fidelity.\n\n\nToW has asymmetric vehicles, ships and loadouts \u2013 was it really necessary to overcomplicate things for yourselves that much; wouldn\u2019t have mirror matchups been at least a little easier on everyone?\nMilan Pejcic:\n\nWe have a very diverse and abundant amount of vehicles and weapons within our universe. Using various scenarios would enable us to balance and polish our content and gameplay better. For example with this testing and feedback we have made changes to various ships to balance them out more.\n\nDoing things in an easier and quicker way often doesn\u2019t translate in best experience for the players.\n\n\nHow does development currently align with the 3.x releases? Back at citizencon you were working off a separate branch to keep development stable. Are you still slightly behind the latest and greatest or keeping up with tech going in the upcoming 3.10\nTom Solaru:\n\nWe\u2019re not far off parity with 3.10, we\u2019re still working in 3.9.1 for this next Evocati weekend but then will integrate over and work in that branch so we can stay in-sync.\n\n\nOne of the big problems I thought TOW had was the tiny artificial boundaries. A sniper couldn\u2019t take up position in the forest, because going 20 meters from the building was considered out of bounds. Has this been addressed at all?\nTom Solaru:\n\nWe have relaxed the outer boundaries so hopefully players will enjoy more freedom to move around in the next build.\n\n\nWill there be something like C4, we can\u2019t have a game mode like this without jeep stuff\nJonny Jacevicius:\n\nWe have loads of really cool throwable, deployable and consumable items coming to the game in the future. I don\u2019t want to give too much away, but there\u2019ll certainly be a lot of items you can utilize for combat!\n\n\nAre there spawn limits? Like do the defenders only have 8 respawns each? Or is it unlimited respawns.\nTom Solaru:\n\nIt\u2019s currently a choice of four preset loadout classes per team with unlimited respawns.\n\n\nToW looks amazing \u2013 looking forward to the AMA\nTom Solaru:\n\nThanks DaleChristopher! Hopefully we can answer all of your questions fully. We\u2019ve recently put another round of art polish in to the build so we\u2019re excited to see what people think of the changes.\n\n\nToW is for 3.10?\nTom Solaru:\n\nWe\u2019re testing another 3.9.1 build with Evocati this weekend and will be looking to open it wider to more backers as soon as we\u2019re happy that it will be positive experience for everyone.\n\n\n\nDisclaimer\nThe answers accurately reflect development\u2019s intentions at the time of writing, but the company and development team reserve the right to adapt, improve, or change feature and ship designs in response to feedback, playtesting, design revisions, or other considerations to improve balance or the quality of the game overall.","de_DE":"Kriegsschaupl\u00e4tze AMA Zusammenfassung\n\nJeden Monat veranstalten wir eine offene Live-Frage- und Antwort-Runde zu Spektrum, die von Entwicklern aus verschiedenen Fachbereichen der CIG veranstaltet wird. Diese Fragen und Antworten wurden bei der Spectrum AMA am 3. Juni 2020 gesammelt.\n\nDieses Mal begr\u00fc\u00dften wir vier G\u00e4ste aus dem Team, das am kommenden Spielmodus Theaters of War (Arbeitstitel) arbeitet:\n\nSean Tracy - Technischer Direktor\nJonny Jacevicius - Leitender FPS-Systemdesigner\nTom Solaru - Senior Produzent\nMilan Pejcic - Direktor f\u00fcr Entwicklungsoperationen\n\nDiese AMA ist vollst\u00e4ndig, aber halten Sie Ausschau nach kommenden Themen, damit Sie uns alles fragen k\u00f6nnen!\n\n\nWelche \u00c4nderungen wurden seit der CitizenCon 2019 Reveal\/Evocati Tests vorgenommen?\nSean Tracy:\n\nDie schiere Menge der \u00c4nderungen seit der CitizenCon w\u00e4re schwer aufzulisten, da wir f\u00fcr die CitizenCon auf 3,7 basierten. Die gr\u00f6\u00dften Updates, die wir verbrauchen mussten, waren die planetV4-Updates und ein Refactor des Physiksystems. Dies bedeutete eine \u00c4nderung der Karte selbst, Aktualisierungen f\u00fcr viele Systeme und ist der Grund daf\u00fcr, dass die evocati-Wochenendveranstaltung ganz anders ausgesehen h\u00e4tte (konzeptionell dasselbe Design), aber visuell anders. Wir haben sogar die Planeten von Hurston auf MicroTech umgestellt.\n\nNur um eine weitere Idee zu geben: In den letzten zwei Wochen gab es \u00fcber 150 \u00c4nderungen, die sich direkt auf das Feedback beziehen, so dass die Liste gro\u00df w\u00e4re und die Patch-Notizen von 3.8 und 3.9 enthalten m\u00fcsste\n\n\n\n\nWird es Mediziner-\/Ingenieur-\/Support-Rollen bekommen?\nJonny Jacevicius:\n\nSicherlich etwas, das wir irgendwann einmal einbauen wollen, aber im Augenblick ist es unsere Priorit\u00e4t, dass sich der Kampf in einem Szenario mit kombinierten Waffen gut anf\u00fchlt, bevor wir zu spezialisierteren Rollen \u00fcbergehen.\n\nWenn in den kommenden Quartalen medizinische Spiel- und andere Systeme f\u00fcr die PU online gehen, werden wir genau pr\u00fcfen, wie wir sie in Theatres of War integrieren k\u00f6nnen.\n\n\nWas war das Ergebnis der Theatres of War Evocati Tests?\nSean Tracy:\n\nDie Wochenendveranstaltung war tats\u00e4chlich erfolgreich, um die Ziele zu erreichen, die wir mit ihr erreichen wollten. Ich k\u00f6nnte eine ganze Stunde allein daf\u00fcr verwenden, aber um die Ziele\/Ergebnisse zusammenzufassen.\n\n\nVor allem aufgrund unserer neuen Metrik\/Analyse haben wir entdeckt, dass irgendwo jemand mit einem Feuerl\u00f6scher einen Mord begangen hat...\nDie Serverleistung war gro\u00dfartig Wir stie\u00dfen jedes Mal auf Herausforderungen, wenn wir die Gleichzeitigkeit bis zu einem gewissen Grad skalierten (und dieser Fall war nicht anders). Wir erreichten die h\u00f6chste Gleichzeitigkeit, die wir je hatten, fast das 5-fache von dem, was wir zuvor getestet hatten. Wir stellten Probleme in der Plattform fest (die bestehen bleiben und untersucht werden, die sich auf alles auswirken), wir stie\u00dfen auf einige Hartn\u00e4ckigkeits-\/Serviceprobleme, und schlie\u00dflich lief das beliebte und schwierigere Thema, zu dem wir festgestellt haben, dass unser Spiel auf der Hardware unseres Spielers viel schlechter l\u00e4uft als erwartet, zumindest dann, wenn \"Action\" stattfindet und 40 Personen in relativ engem Raum durchgehend anwesend sind. Tonnen von neuen Features wurden in gro\u00dfem Ma\u00dfstab erprobt, darunter Chat\/Party\/Freunde, die sich in AC\/SM-Server einklinken, sowie voip Pulled eine gute Menge sehr spezifischer Analysen. Die Evocati spielten 6-8 Stunden lang ohne Unterbrechung mit Rundenzyklus (d.h. keine Ausfallzeit Runde f\u00fcr Runde), und diese Metriken best\u00e4tigen (und in einigen F\u00e4llen nicht) einen Gro\u00dfteil unseres Gameplays (kartenweise). Die Balance zwischen Karte und Modus wurde zum Beispiel best\u00e4tigt: 117 gespielte Runden, 54% Siegquote f\u00fcr die Verteidiger, also ziemlich ausgeglichen (leicht gestelzt zur Verteidigung, aber man w\u00fcrde erwarten, dass sich das ausgleicht, wenn die Leute die Karte lernen). Die Balance zwischen Schiffen wurde zwischen Freibeutern und Pfeilen hervorgehoben (2x Spawn-Rate von Freibeutern \u00fcber Pfeilen, was bedeutet, dass sie wahrscheinlich doppelt so oft sterben) und die Gemeinschaft hat dies hervorgehoben, was gro\u00dfartig ist und wir haben uns darauf eingestellt. Es ist uns gelungen, einige Fakten f\u00fcr den Ressourcenbedarf von ToW-Instanzen zu best\u00e4tigen.\nDie Leistung ist und bleibt das gr\u00f6\u00dfte Problem, und wenn wir uns damit befassen, wird das alles helfen. Ob das die Wahrnehmung einer Desynchronisation, das Gef\u00fchl der Reaktionsf\u00e4higkeit usw. ist... Kein Spiel f\u00fchlt sich unter 20fps \u00fcberhaupt gut an (au\u00dfer vielleicht Civilization oder Risk!)\nWerden wir einen ToW-Spielmodus sehen, bei dem der Schwerpunkt auf dem Weltraumkampf und nicht auf dem Bodenkampf liegt, der aber dennoch kombinierte Waffenkonzepte beinhaltet? (Beispiel: \"Capture the Idris\"-Spielmodus, wie er in der fr\u00fchen AC-Entwicklung diskutiert wurde). (BEARBEITEN: Dies w\u00fcrde auch Multi-Crew\/Turrets einbeziehen, was als Bonus mehr von der Erfahrung des SC ber\u00fchren w\u00fcrde).\nSean Tracy:\n\nJa! Die Absicht dieses speziellen Szenarios bestand darin, die Koexistenz von Landfahrzeugen und Infanterie sicherzustellen und sie den Schiffen gegen\u00fcberzustellen, aber nicht so vielen von ihnen. F\u00fcr unser n\u00e4chstes Szenario k\u00f6nnen Sie erwarten, dass es auf den Kopf gestellt wird, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf dem Weltraum- und Schiffskampf als zentraler Komponente liegen wird, aber die gleiche Schablone der Phasen\/des objektiven Spielverlaufs verwendet wird.\n\n\nWie werden Sie das Desynchronisationsproblem l\u00f6sen?\nSean Tracy:\n\nManchmal kann mangelndes Reaktionsverm\u00f6gen f\u00fcr bestimmte Systeme oder Aktionen zu Desynchronisationsproblemen verdichtet werden. Dies wird dann durch eine niedrige Bildfrequenz noch verschlimmert! Manchmal ist das, was wie ein Desynchronisationsproblem aussieht, also kein Desynchronisationsproblem, sondern ein anderes Problem (sei es Reaktionsf\u00e4higkeit oder Verz\u00f6gerung). Eine ganze Reihe tats\u00e4chlicher Desynchronisationen wurden f\u00fcr ToW angesprochen und sind im Vergleich zur PU viel einfacher zu verfolgen und zu beheben. Zum Beispiel wurde die eingespeiste Verz\u00f6gerung von 250 ms komplett \u00fcberarbeitet (etwa 50 wie bei den meisten anderen Spielen) und so angepasst, dass sie ToW dient, da der Server mit soliden 30 Hz l\u00e4uft. Kurze Antwortdesyncs werden angesprochen, sobald sie entdeckt werden, aber oft sind die Reaktionsgeschwindigkeit und die niedrige Framerate die gr\u00f6\u00dferen \u00dcbelt\u00e4ter.\n\n\nHandelt es sich bei diesen \"niedrigen Frameraten\" um Probleme mit der Kartengeometrie oder -optimierung, die Sie festgestellt haben? Ich k\u00f6nnte mir vorstellen, dass die Leute in diesem arena-\u00e4hnlichen Fall die gleiche (oder eine bessere) FPS erwarten und deshalb ein anderes Leistungsproblem ansprechen als das, was sie bei der PU erleben.\nSean Tracy:\n\nEine gro\u00dfartige Frage, und ich w\u00fcnschte, ich k\u00f6nnte sie in einem einzigen Satz klar beantworten, aber es gab viele Optimierungen in den Bereichen Kunst, Design-Setup, Implementierung einiger Funktionen, Rendering-Code, vfx, Sounds - im Grunde summieren sich alle Aspekte. Leider gab es keinen einzigen Silberstreif am Horizont, aber wir haben einen einzigen Sprint gemacht, bei dem wir uns voll auf die Leistung konzentriert haben, und wir haben eine ganze Menge gespart, und es werden noch mehr kommen. Auch bei ToW k\u00f6nnen wir diese Probleme offensichtlich und analytisch sehen, so dass es nicht nur f\u00fcr das kleine ToW-Team, sondern auch f\u00fcr die Ingenieure im gesamten Unternehmen unglaublich n\u00fctzlich war.\n\n\nIch wei\u00df Ihre Antwort zu sch\u00e4tzen. Es gibt eine Situation, der ich in PU immer begegne, dass die Granate nach Beendigung der Animation mit der Wurfhand herausfliegt. Ist dies ein Fall von mangelnder Reaktionsf\u00e4higkeit? Wird dies in ToW behoben werden?\nSean Tracy:\n\nEs wird aktiv an Granaten in diesem Viertel gearbeitet! Nicht speziell f\u00fcr ToW, aber es war bereits geplant, da Entwickler UND Spieler die gleiche Schw\u00e4che sehen, und das ist nicht wirklich desynchronisiert, sondern eine langsam verrottete Implementierung. Im Grunde wird also bereits daran gearbeitet.\n\n\nWird FPS AI jemals in ToW eingef\u00fchrt werden, um das Schlachtfeld noch gr\u00f6\u00dfer zu machen? K\u00f6nnte dies ein Testbett f\u00fcr FPS AI sein, um sie planetenseitig in der PU au\u00dferhalb von Bunkern einsatzbereit zu machen?\nSean Tracy:\n\nEs hat tats\u00e4chlich bereits einige KI (nicht FPS), die wir als Prototyp entwickeln wollten, da der offensichtliche Vergleich mit Spielen wie Battlefront liegt. ToW ist nicht ausschlie\u00dflich ein reiner PvP-Modus, und Szenarien k\u00f6nnen auf KI zur\u00fcckgreifen, wenn es sinnvoll ist. Es w\u00e4re immens n\u00fctzlich, auch Bots f\u00fcr interne Tests zu haben (auch wenn sie nicht so gut sind), aber da der Schwerpunkt der KI auf PU und S42 liegen muss, m\u00fcssen wir die Ressourcen im Auge behalten, und die ToW-Gruppe hat keinen dieser Spezialisten f\u00fcr KI.\n\n\nMit der erstaunlichen Einf\u00fchrung der uee-Marine w\u00e4hrend der Invictus-Flottenwoche, in der wir die m\u00e4chtigen Idris und Javilin zu sehen bekamen und bek\u00e4mpfen konnten, w\u00e4re es m\u00f6glich, ein Schleppszenario zu schaffen, in dem wir sie bek\u00e4mpfen k\u00f6nnten? Dies wiederum k\u00f6nnte kontinuierliche Daten erm\u00f6glichen, um diese m\u00e4chtigen und wichtigen Weltraumgiganten zu optimieren und auszubalancieren.\nMilan Pejcic:\n\nJa! Das ist etwas, was wir auf jeden Fall tun wollen. Wir m\u00f6chten Ihnen verschiedene Szenarien anbieten, die f\u00fcr Sie interessant sind und Ihnen Spa\u00df machen w\u00fcrden, aber auch f\u00fcr uns von Vorteil w\u00e4ren, um auszugleichen und zu polieren. Das Szenario des Kampfes um das Kapitalschiff ist auf unserem Radar. Welche konkreten Schiffe daran teilnehmen w\u00fcrden, h\u00e4ngt von der Entwicklung unserer Schiffspipeline ab.\n\nSean Tracy:\n\nKopieren von einer anderen Antwort (\u00e4hnliche Frage) Ja! Die Absicht dieses speziellen Szenarios war es, die Koexistenz von Landfahrzeugen und Infanterie zu gew\u00e4hrleisten und sie den Schiffen gegen\u00fcberzustellen, aber nicht so vielen von ihnen. F\u00fcr unser n\u00e4chstes Szenario k\u00f6nnen Sie erwarten, dass es auf den Kopf gestellt wird, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf dem Weltraum- und Schiffskampf als zentraler Komponente liegen wird, aber die gleiche Phasenschablone \/ objektives Gameplay verwendet wird.\n\n\nDie F\u00d6D-Bewegung in der PU war ziemlich klobig. Haben Sie bei der Bewegung der Spieler in der TOW im Hinblick auf die Art und Weise, wie wir unsere F\u00d6D-Waffen bewegen und handhaben, wesentliche Verbesserungen vorgenommen?\nJonny Jacevicius:\n\nToW hat sich aufgrund der Konzentration der K\u00e4mpfe und der Vielfalt der Umgebungen, in denen sie stattfinden, hervorragend f\u00fcr die Identifizierung von Problemen bei K\u00e4mpfen an Ort und Stelle eignet. Infolgedessen machen wir einige gro\u00dfe Schritte, um die Bewegung viel reaktionsf\u00e4higer zu machen und die Handhabung der Waffen zu verbessern. Einige dieser \u00c4nderungen sind in den letzten paar Aktualisierungen bereits in Betrieb gegangen oder werden in naher Zukunft eingef\u00fchrt, aber hier sind einige Beispiele aus dem Stegreif:\n\n\nErh\u00f6hung der Bewegungs- und Beschuss-Geschwindigkeit Erh\u00f6hung der Gesamtausdauer und Regeneration (Erh\u00f6hung der gesamten Sprintzeit und Verringerung des Waffenschaukelns) Erh\u00f6hung der Animationsgeschwindigkeit (Nachladen von Waffen und Ein- und Ausfahren von Schiffen und Fahrzeugen) Verbesserung der Waffenverbreitung und des R\u00fccksto\u00dfes\nWerden wir einige Fahrzeuge wie den Nova-Panzer in ToW sehen, bevor er in der PU ist?\nSean Tracy:\n\nDie Tonke liegt mir sehr am Herzen und wird f\u00fcr einen wichtigen Ausgleich zum Bodenkampf (schwere Waffe mit direktem Feuer) ben\u00f6tigt. ToW hat es jedoch geschafft, die Priorit\u00e4t der Tonk f\u00fcr solche Spielanforderungen zu erh\u00f6hen. Sie w\u00fcrde gleichzeitig PU treffen.\n\n\nDas ToW 40-Spieler-Cap scheint in der heutigen Zeit ein wenig veraltet zu sein; vor allem f\u00fcr ein Spiel, das ein Universum mit nur einem Scherben verspricht; gibt es einen Grund daf\u00fcr, dass wir immer noch bei diesen niedrigen Spielerzahlen pro Instanz gedeckelt sind?\nSean Tracy:\n\nMeistens geht es um die Leistung der Fahrzeuge und die Intensit\u00e4t\/Balance des Modus selbst im Vergleich zur Gr\u00f6\u00dfe des Spielraums. Einige der Entdeckungen w\u00e4hrend der Evocati-Tests waren, dass unsere relativen Kosten f\u00fcr die Spielerleistung weitaus geringer sind als erwartet und diese daher in einer gr\u00f6\u00dferen Karteneinstellung noch steigen k\u00f6nnten, da die Kosten f\u00fcr die Spieler in ToW geringer sind als in SC, was den Server betrifft. Wir sind keineswegs auf 40 Spieler festgelegt, aber diese Zahl passte zum Kartendesign von Crossroads of Crime und wir erw\u00e4gen h\u00f6here Spielerzahlen f\u00fcr zuk\u00fcnftige Szenarien.\n\n\nWie gro\u00df ist das ToW-Team und wie engagiert arbeiten sie an den ToW?\nMilan Pejcic:\n\nWir sind uns der verf\u00fcgbaren Ressourcen und anderer hochrangiger Priorit\u00e4ten f\u00fcr das Unternehmen bewusst. Unser Hauptanliegen war es, ein Umfeld zu schaffen, in dem wir angemessene Informationen erhalten k\u00f6nnen, die zu zahlreichen Verbesserungen in allen Bereichen f\u00fchren w\u00fcrden. Die gesamte Entwicklungsspielzeit und das Feedback, das wir erhielten, kommt direkt den Bed\u00fcrfnissen des Sternenb\u00fcrgers und der Staffel 42 zugute.\n\nDas Team von Personen, die sich speziell f\u00fcr ToW engagieren, ist sehr klein. Das insgesamt 10-k\u00f6pfige Team besteht aus 4 Designern, 2 Ingenieuren, 3 K\u00fcnstlern und 1 Produzenten.\n\n\nSie sagen, Theatres of War ist der Arbeitstitel... welche anderen Namen ziehen Sie in Betracht?\nMilan Pejcic:\n\nKriegsschaupl\u00e4tze ist der Titel, den wir bisher intern verwendet haben. Im Laufe unserer Entwicklung ziehen wir mehrere Namen in Betracht. Wir wollen sicherstellen, dass der Name in unserem Universum und in unserer Identit\u00e4t gut funktioniert, bevor wir weitere Verpflichtungen eingehen.\n\nWas ist Ihr Feedback zum aktuellen Arbeitstitel? Haben Sie weitere interessante Ideen?\n\n\nWie wird die CIG ihre Ressourcen anders einsetzen, um sicherzustellen, dass der ToW eine dauerhafte, von Entwicklern unterst\u00fctzte Spielmodus-Option f\u00fcr Spieler bleibt?\nMilan Pejcic:\n\nEs besteht der starke Wunsch, unsere Bem\u00fchungen um die Entwicklung und Pflege von ToW-bezogenen Inhalten fortzusetzen. Dies kommt unseren Bed\u00fcrfnissen im Bereich SC, S42, AC, SM direkt zugute. Wir sind bestrebt, Ihnen ausgefeilte und unterhaltsame Spiele zu liefern, und die Arbeit an den ToW ist eine entscheidende Komponente, um dies zu erm\u00f6glichen.\n\nWir pr\u00fcfen M\u00f6glichkeiten zur Skalierung des Teams, das in hohem Ma\u00dfe von verschiedenen Umst\u00e4nden wie Einstellungsraten, Virusverz\u00f6gerungen, spezifischem Profil der Neueinstellungen usw. abh\u00e4ngig ist.\n\n\nWerden wir sehen, dass die ToW irgendwann Schiffe mit mehreren Besatzungsmitgliedern einbeziehen, m\u00f6glicherweise auch Dropships f\u00fcr Truppeneins\u00e4tze?\nJonny Jacevicius:\n\nWir benutzen sie bereits! Wir setzen derzeit eine Valkyrie und eine Vanguard ein, obwohl sich dies aufgrund laufender Gleichgewichtsver\u00e4nderungen \u00e4ndern kann.\n\n\nWie hat ToW zur Ausgewogenheit des Spiels als Ganzes beigetragen?\nJonny Jacevicius:\n\nEs war unglaublich hilfreich. Zuvor bestand die Hauptgelegenheit f\u00fcr das Spiel mit gemischten Waffen vor allem in PU-Begegnungen, was aufgrund seiner Gr\u00f6\u00dfe recht ungew\u00f6hnlich sein k\u00f6nnte. Ein Spielmodus, in dem man sich sofort in einem konzentrierten Kampfszenario befindet, in dem FPS, Bodenfahrzeuge und Schiffe interagieren, hat uns die M\u00f6glichkeit gegeben, zu sehen, wie alles zusammenspielt.\n\nEs hat auch weitreichende FPS-Waffen\u00e4nderungen und -korrekturen beeinflusst, da es uns erm\u00f6glicht hat, unsere Waffen f\u00fcr l\u00e4ngere (und realistischere) Kampfreichweiten abzustimmen, was auf die Gr\u00f6\u00dfe der Karte und die Entfernung zur\u00fcckzuf\u00fchren ist, in der man auf feindliche Spieler treffen kann.\n\n\nVerstehen die Entwickler, die an ToW arbeiten, wie wichtig es ist, dass dieser Spielmodus bei der Ver\u00f6ffentlichung ausgefeilt und ausgewogen ist? oder er wird innerhalb der ersten Woche tot sein und nie wieder ber\u00fchrt werden\nMilan Pejcic:\n\nEs besteht der starke Wunsch, unsere Bem\u00fchungen um die Entwicklung und Pflege von ToW-bezogenen Inhalten fortzusetzen. Dies kommt unseren Bed\u00fcrfnissen im Bereich SC, S42, AC, SM direkt zugute. Wir sind bestrebt, Ihnen ausgefeilte und unterhaltsame Spiele zu liefern, und die Arbeit an den ToW ist eine entscheidende Komponente, um dies zu erm\u00f6glichen.\n\nWir arbeiten aktiv an der Verbesserung von leistungsbezogenen und Spieler-Feedback-bezogenen Fragen aus dem neuesten Spieltest. Weitere Informationen dazu finden Sie in einer der Antworten von Sean oben.\n\n\nWird es Squad Management \/ vorgefertigte Warteschlangen\/Features geben, oder wird es ein 20vs20 gratis f\u00fcr alle geben?\nMilan Pejcic:\n\nDas Parteiensystem ist bereits eingef\u00fchrt. Sie k\u00f6nnen \u00fcber den Parteivorsitzenden als Gruppe beitreten und in der gleichen Instanz spielen.\n\nWir werden pr\u00fcfen, wie die UX\/UI-Elemente verbessert werden k\u00f6nnen, um dies zu erleichtern und in einigen Bereichen, wie z.B. dem Scoreboard, sichtbarer zu machen.\n\n\nIst die FPS (Framerate) in ToW insbesondere im Vergleich zu Star Marine verbessert?\nSean Tracy:\n\nNein. Wir haben im Grunde 3 SM-Karten in einem + einem Planeten und wir schlie\u00dfen Fahrzeuge (Boden und Schiffe) ein, so dass sie im Vergleich zu den aktuellen SM-Karten langsamer, aber ehrlich gesagt erwartungsgem\u00e4\u00df langsamer l\u00e4uft, und mit den \u00c4nderungen, \u00fcber die wir gesprochen haben, kommen wir der SM-Leistung immer n\u00e4her.\n\n\nWerden ToW f\u00fcr mehr Spieler als Alpha ver\u00f6ffentlicht? ODER wird es ein vollst\u00e4ndigeres und ausgefeilteres Produkt sein?\nMilan Pejcic:\n\nWir sind bestrebt, den Modus nicht nur Evocati, sondern auch gr\u00f6\u00dferen Gruppen von Spielern zug\u00e4nglich zu machen. Sobald wir uns wohler f\u00fchlen, dass die beabsichtigte Erfahrung oder Teile dieser Erfahrung f\u00fcr eine breitere Nutzung bereit sind, werden wir dies proaktiv kommunizieren.\n\nEvocati und PTU-Gruppen werden als Tore behandelt. Auf der Grundlage Ihres Feedbacks und Ihrer Backend-Daten treffen wir gelenkte Entscheidungen dar\u00fcber, wie\/wann wir vorgehen. Ihr Feedback und Ihre Spieltests sind unglaublich wertvoll f\u00fcr unsere F\u00e4higkeit, die beabsichtigte Erfahrung zu erreichen.\n\n\nWie schnell k\u00f6nnen wir angesichts der aktuellen 3-Monats-Trittfrequenz balancenbezogene Ver\u00e4nderungen erwarten, und werden sich dieselben Ver\u00e4nderungen auch in der PU widerspiegeln?\nJonny Jacevicius:\n\nEs h\u00e4ngt wirklich von der Art der Ver\u00e4nderung ab. \u00c4nderungen des Gleichgewichts bei Dingen wie den Waffen oder Fahrzeugen sind Probleme, die wir wahrscheinlich mit einem Point Patch oder einem inkrementellen Patch l\u00f6sen k\u00f6nnen. Gr\u00f6\u00dfere \u00c4nderungen, die wir vornehmen wollen, wie z.B. \u00c4nderungen an der Karte oder am Spielmodus, sind Dinge, die Sie eher in einem der viertelj\u00e4hrlichen gro\u00dfen Updates sehen w\u00fcrden.\n\nAlle \u00c4nderungen, die wir in Theatres of War machen, werden in der PU vorgenommen. Alle Waffen, R\u00fcstungen, Gegenst\u00e4nde und Schiffe usw. sind alle Teil desselben Spiels.\n\n\nStar-Marine-Zielfernrohre und Sehensw\u00fcrdigkeiten sind bekannterma\u00dfen ungenau. Gibt es Fortschritte bei der Nullstellung der Waffenzielger\u00e4te?\nSean Tracy:\n\nJa, Jonny selbst hat sogar erst k\u00fcrzlich bestanden, alle Ausrichtungen \u00fcber den FPS-Bereich hinweg einzuw\u00e4hlen, basierend auf dem Feedback des Evocati-Wochenend-Tests. Rechnen Sie also damit, dass dies bei der n\u00e4chsten Veranstaltung und beim n\u00e4chsten PU-Patch behoben\/adressiert wird.\n\n\nWann k\u00f6nnen wir mit einem ToW-Szenario rechnen, das \u00fcber das auf der CitCon vorgestellte erste Szenario hinausgeht?\nTom Solaru:\n\nWir werden dieses Wochenende erneut Tests mit Evocati durchf\u00fchren, um mehr Feedback zu unseren j\u00fcngsten Gameplay-Anpassungen, Fehlerbehebungen und Leistungsverbesserungen zu erhalten. Wir m\u00f6chten eine positive Erfahrung f\u00fcr die Spieler sicherstellen, bevor wir den Spielmodus f\u00fcr noch mehr Unterst\u00fctzer \u00f6ffnen.\n\nMilan Pejcic:\n\nWir beginnen im n\u00e4chsten Quartal mit der Arbeit an Szenario 2.\n\n\nWird ToW einen \"Downed\"-Zustand vor dem Tod zeigen? um Ihren Teamkollegen die Chance zu geben, Sie wieder auf die Beine zu bringen, \u00e4hnlich wie bei aktuellen Battle Royale-Spielen?\nJonny Jacevicius:\n\nDies ist etwas, das wir derzeit neben der neu hinzukommenden k\u00f6rperzerrenden Mechanik und dem medizinischen Gameplay betrachten.\n\n\nWie laufen die internen Tests f\u00fcr ToW?\nJonny Jacevicius:\n\nWirklich gut! Die Entwicklungsmitarbeiter scheinen das Spielen wirklich zu genie\u00dfen, und wir sind wirklich dankbar f\u00fcr all die Probleme, die sie gefunden haben, und f\u00fcr das Feedback, das sie gegeben haben.\n\nDas Team hat die regelm\u00e4\u00dfigen Spieltests genutzt, um \u00c4nderungen auszuprobieren und st\u00e4ndig zu iterieren, um die Erfahrung zu verbessern.\n\n\nNachdem ich den CitizenCon-Spieltest gespielt habe, scheint die Balance schwer zu sein, und es sieht f\u00fcr mich so aus, als ob die Verteidiger \"ausgeglichen\" waren, um \u00f6fter zu gewinnen als die Angreifer... was sagen Ihre Statistiken?\nJonny Jacevicius:\n\nWir haben unterschiedliche Ergebnisse aus verschiedenen Tests gesehen, aber wir sehen manchmal einen Angreifer-\/Verteidigungsvorteil, je nachdem, in welcher Phase des Spiels sie sich befinden. Unsere letzte Analyse ergab 117 gespielte Runden mit einer Siegquote von 54% f\u00fcr die Verteidiger, so dass sie insgesamt ziemlich ausgeglichen ist (leicht gestelzt auf die Verteidigung, aber man w\u00fcrde erwarten, dass sich das ausgleicht, wenn die Leute die Karte lernen). Wir werden die Statistiken im Auge behalten und \u00c4nderungen vornehmen, um einen fairen Kampf f\u00fcr beide Seiten zu gew\u00e4hrleisten.\n\n\nK\u00f6nnen Sie Ihre Kriterien benennen und quantifizieren, wann Sie das Schleppen als freisetzungsreif betrachten?\nSean Tracy:\n\nWir haben bestimmte \u00dcberpr\u00fcfungstore und werden nichts freigeben oder herausschieben, ohne diese vorgegebenen Tore passiert zu haben, was eine sehr strenge Regel ist. Dazu geh\u00f6ren zum Beispiel die aktuellen Evocati-Wochenendveranstaltungen, die wir noch nicht passiert haben. Die \u00dcberpr\u00fcfung der Analytik (auf Ausgewogenheit, Leistung und mehr) informiert die Entscheidungsfindung \u00fcber den \u00dcbergang zur n\u00e4chsten Stufe.\n\nZum Beispiel wird der n\u00e4chste f\u00fcr uns ein Playtest f\u00fcr ein gr\u00f6\u00dferes Publikum sein, und wir werden die Daten \u00fcberpr\u00fcfen und entsprechende Entscheidungen treffen. Einige der KPIs sind jedoch Gleichzeitigkeit, Leistung und visuelle Treue.\n\n\nToW hat asymmetrische Fahrzeuge, Schiffe und Beladungen - war es wirklich n\u00f6tig, die Dinge f\u00fcr Sie selbst so sehr zu komplizieren; w\u00e4re die Spiegelvergleiche nicht wenigstens f\u00fcr alle ein wenig einfacher gewesen?\nMilan Pejcic:\n\nWir verf\u00fcgen \u00fcber eine sehr vielf\u00e4ltige und reichhaltige Menge an Fahrzeugen und Waffen in unserem Universum. Die Verwendung verschiedener Szenarien w\u00fcrde es uns erm\u00f6glichen, unseren Inhalt und unser Gameplay besser auszubalancieren und zu verbessern. Mit diesen Tests und R\u00fcckmeldungen haben wir zum Beispiel \u00c4nderungen an verschiedenen Schiffen vorgenommen, um sie besser auszubalancieren.\n\nDinge einfacher und schneller zu erledigen, bringt f\u00fcr die Spieler oft nicht die besten Erfahrungen.\n\n\nWie verl\u00e4uft die Entwicklung derzeit mit den 3.x-Versionen? Damals bei citizencon arbeiteten Sie an einem separaten Zweig, um die Entwicklung stabil zu halten. Sind Sie immer noch ein wenig hinter dem neuesten und besten zur\u00fcck oder halten Sie mit der technischen Entwicklung in der kommenden 3.10er Version Schritt?\nTom Solaru:\n\nWir sind nicht weit von der Parit\u00e4t mit 3.10 entfernt, wir arbeiten immer noch in 3.9.1 f\u00fcr das n\u00e4chste Evocati-Wochenende, aber dann werden wir uns integrieren und in diesem Zweig arbeiten, damit wir synchron bleiben k\u00f6nnen.\n\n\nEines der gro\u00dfen Probleme, von dem ich dachte, dass die TOW die winzigen k\u00fcnstlichen Grenzen hatte. Ein Scharfsch\u00fctze konnte keine Position im Wald einnehmen, weil man sich 20 Meter vom Geb\u00e4ude entfernt als au\u00dferhalb der Grenzen betrachtet. Wurde dies \u00fcberhaupt in Angriff genommen?\nTom Solaru:\n\nWir haben die \u00e4u\u00dferen Grenzen gelockert, so dass die Spieler beim n\u00e4chsten Build hoffentlich mehr Bewegungsfreiheit haben werden.\n\n\nWird es so etwas wie C4 geben, k\u00f6nnen wir einen Spielmodus wie diesen ohne Jeep-Zeug nicht haben\nJonny Jacevicius:\n\nWir haben eine Menge wirklich coole Wurfgegenst\u00e4nde, Einsatz- und Verbrauchsmaterialien, die in Zukunft ins Spiel kommen werden. Ich m\u00f6chte nicht zu viel verraten, aber es wird sicherlich eine Menge Gegenst\u00e4nde geben, die Sie f\u00fcr den Kampf verwenden k\u00f6nnen!\n\n\nGibt es Spawn-Grenzen? Haben die Verteidiger zum Beispiel nur jeweils 8 Respawns? Oder handelt es sich um unbegrenzte Respawns.\nTom Solaru:\n\nDerzeit stehen vier voreingestellte Ausladeklassen pro Team mit unbegrenzter Anzahl von Respawns zur Auswahl.\n\n\nToW sieht fantastisch aus - ich freue mich auf die AMA\nTom Solaru:\n\nDanke DaleChristopher! Hoffentlich k\u00f6nnen wir all Ihre Fragen vollst\u00e4ndig beantworten. Wir haben dem Geb\u00e4ude vor kurzem eine weitere Runde Kunstpolitur verpasst, daher sind wir gespannt, was die Leute von den \u00c4nderungen halten.\n\n\nToW ist f\u00fcr 3,10?\nTom Solaru:\n\nWir testen an diesem Wochenende ein weiteres 3.9.1-Build mit Evocati und werden versuchen, es f\u00fcr mehr Unterst\u00fctzer zu \u00f6ffnen, sobald wir uns freuen, dass es f\u00fcr alle eine positive Erfahrung sein wird.\n\n\nHaftungsausschluss\nDie Antworten geben die Absichten der Entwicklung zum Zeitpunkt des Verfassens dieses Artikels genau wieder, aber das Unternehmen und das Entwicklungsteam behalten sich das Recht vor, Funktionen und Schiffsdesigns als Reaktion auf Feedback, Spieltests, Design\u00fcberarbeitungen oder andere \u00dcberlegungen anzupassen, zu verbessern oder zu \u00e4ndern, um die Ausgewogenheit oder die Qualit\u00e4t des Spiels insgesamt zu verbessern.","zh_CN":"Theaters of War AMA Recap\n\nEach month we host an open submission live Q&A on Spectrum hosted by developers from various specialties across CIG. These questions and answers were collected from the Spectrum AMA on June 3rd, 2020.\n\n\nThis time, we welcomed four guests from the team working on the upcoming game mode, Theaters of War (working title):\n\nSean Tracy \u2013 Technical Director\nJonny Jacevicius \u2013 Senior FPS Systems Designer\nTom Solaru \u2013 Senior Producer\nMilan Pejcic \u2013 Director of Development Operations\n\nThis AMA is complete but keep an eye out for upcoming threads for your chance to ask us anything!\n\n\nWhat Changes have been made since the CitizenCon 2019 Reveal\/Evocati Tests?\nSean Tracy:\n\nThe sheer amount of changes since CitizenCon would be hard to list as we were based on 3.7 for citizen con. The biggest updates that we had to consume were the planetV4 updates and a physics system refactor. This meant a change to the map itself, updates to many systems and is why the evocati weekend event would have looked quite different (conceptually the same design) but visually different. We even changed planets from Hurston to MicroTech.\n\nJust to give a further idea in the last two weeks there\u2019s been over 150 changes directly addressing feedback so the list would be large and would need to include the patch notes of 3.8 and 3.9\n\n\n\nWill it get medic \/ engineer \/ support roles?\nJonny Jacevicius:\n\nCertainly something we\u2019ll want to incorporate eventually, but right now our priority is getting the combat feeling good in a combined arms scenario before moving onto more specialized roles.\n\nAs medical gameplay and other systems come online in future quarters for the PU, we\u2019ll be looking closely at how we can incorporate them into Theatres of War.\n\n\nWhat was the outcome of the Theatres of War Evocati Tests?\nSean Tracy:\n\nThe weekend event was actually successful in achieving the objectives we set out to achieve with it. I could do a whole hour just on this, but to summarize the objectives\/accomplishments\/outcome. Most importantly because of our new metrics\/analytics we discovered that someone, somewhere made a kill with a fire extinguisher\u2026\nServer performance was great\n\nWe ran into challenges every time we scaled concurrency to some degree (and this instance was not different).\n\nWe reached the highest concurrency we\u2019ve had, almost 5x what we had tested with previously.\n\nWe found issues in platform (that remain and are being looked at that affect everything) we ran into some persistence \/ service issues and finally the popular and more difficult topic we\u2019ve found our game is running much more poorly than expected on our player\u2019s hardware, at least when you have \u201caction\u201d happening and 40 people in relatively tight proximity consistently.\n\nTons of new features were proven out at scale which included Chat\/Party\/Friends joining into AC\/SM servers as well as voip\n\nPulled a good amount of very specific analytics. The evocati played straight for 6-8 hours with round cycling (means no downtime just round after round after round) and those metrics are validating (and in some cases not) much of our gameplay (map wise).\n\nMap\/Mode balance validated for example: 117 rounds played, 54% win rate for defenders so it\u2019s fairly equal (slightly stilted to defense but would expect that to level out as people learn the map)\n\nShips balance got highlighted between Buccaneers and Arrows (2x spawn rate of buccaneers over Arrows which is likely that they die twice as much) and community highlighted this which is great and we\u2019ve adjusted.\n\nWe managed to confirm a few facts for the resources requirements of ToW instances.\nPerformance is and continues to be the biggest issue and addressing that will help everything. Whether that the perception of a desync, to feel to responsiveness etc\u2026 No game feels good at all below 20fps (except maybe Civilization or Risk!)\n\n\nWill we see a ToW game mode where the emphasis is on space combat rather than ground combat, yet still incorporates combined arms concepts? (Example: \u201cCapture the Idris\u201d game mode as discussed in early AC development). (EDIT: this would also incorporate multi-crew\/turrets in, which would touch more of the SC experience as a bonus).\nSean Tracy:\n\nYes! The intention of this particular scenario was to ensure ground vehicles and infantry would co-exist and to match them up against the ships, but not so many of them. For our next scenario you can expect it to be turned on it\u2019s head where the focus will be space and ship combat as a central component but using the same template of phases\/objective game-play.\n\n\nHow will you fix the desync problem?\nSean Tracy:\n\nSometimes lack of responsiveness for certain systems or actions can be conflated into desync issues. This is then further exacerbated by low frame rate! So sometimes what might seem like a desync isn\u2019t and is instead a different issue (be it responsiveness or lag). Quite a few actual desyncs were addressed for ToW and are much easier to track and fix comparatively to the PU. For example the 250ms injected delay was completely reworked (approximately 50 same as most other games) and adjusted to serve ToW as the server runs at a solid 30Hz. Short answer desyncs are addressed as they are discovered but often times responsiveness and low frame rate are the bigger culprits.\n\n\nAre these \u201clow framerates\u201d you noted issues with map geometry or optimization? I would imagine that people would expect the same (or better) FPS in this arena-like instance and therefore are calling out a performance issue different than what they experience from PU.\nSean Tracy:\n\nGreat question and I wish I could answer clearly in a single sentence but there were some many optimizations to be made on all angles art, design setup, implementation of some features, rendering code, vfx, sounds basically all aspects are adding up together. There wasn\u2019t one silver bullet unfortunately but we\u2019ve done a single sprint fully focused on performance and have saved quite a bit with more to come. Again ToW lets us see these issues obviously and analytically so it\u2019s been incredible useful for more than just the small ToW team and this includes engineering around the company.\n\n\nI appreciate your answer. There\u2018s a situation I always face in PU that the grenade flying out after the throwing hand animation is finished. Is this a case of lack of responsiveness? Will this be fixed in ToW?\nSean Tracy:\n\nGrenades are being actively worked on this quarter! Not specifically for ToW but was scheduled already as developers AND players see the same wonkyness and this isn\u2019t really desync but a slowly rotted implementation. So basically it\u2019s already being done\n\n\nWill FPS AI ever be introduced in ToW to make the battlefield even larger? Could this be a test bed for FPS AI to get them ready planetside in the PU outside of bunkers?\nSean Tracy:\n\nIt actually already has some AI (not FPS) that we wanted to prototype as the obvious comparison is with games such as Battlefront. ToW is not exclusively a PvP only mode and scenarios can make use of AI when it makes sense. It would be immensely useful to have bots for internal testing as well (even if they aren\u2019t that good) but with AI focus needing to be on PU and S42 we have to be mindful of the resources and the ToW group doesn\u2019t have any of these specialists for AI.\n\n\nWith the amazing introduction of the uee navy during the invictus fleet week we got to see and battle the mighty idris and javilin, would it be possible to create a tow scenario where we could battle them? This in turn could allow of continuous data to help tweak and balance these powerful and important space behemoths.\nMilan Pejcic:\n\nYes! This is something we are definitely looking to do. We want to provide diverse scenarios that would be interesting and fun for you as well beneficial for us to balance and polish. Capital ship fight scenario is on our radar. Which specific ships would take part will be dependent on our ship pipeline progression.\n\nSean Tracy:\n\nCopying from another answer (similar question) Yes! The intention of this particular scenario was to ensure ground vehicles and infantry would co-exist and to match them up against the ships, but not so many of them. For our next scenario you can expect it to be turned on it\u2019s head where the focus will be space and ship combat as a central component but using the same template of phases \/ objective game-play.\n\n\nFPS Movement in the PU has been rather clunky, have you made any significant improvements to player movement in TOW in regards to the way we move and handle our FPS Weapons?\nJonny Jacevicius:\n\nToW has been great for identifying issues with on-foot combat, due to the concentration of combat and the variety of environments it takes place in. As a result, we\u2019re making some great steps toward making the movement feel much more responsive and to improve the weapon handling. Some of these changes have already gone live over the last couple of updates or will be coming in the near future, but here are a couple of examples off the top of my head: Movement and strafe speed increases\n\nTotal stamina and regeneration increased (increasing overall sprint time and reducing weapon sway)\n\nAnimation speed increases (weapon reloads and ship and vehicle enter\/exits)\n\nWeapon spread and recoil improvements\n\n\nWill we see some vehicles like the Nova Tank in ToW before it\u2019s in the PU?\nSean Tracy:\n\nThe tonk is very dear to me, and is needed for some key balance to the ground combat (direct fire heavy weapon). ToW has, however, managed to increase the priority of the tonk for such gameplay needs. It would hit PU at the same time.\n\n\nThe ToW 40 player cap seems a little dated in this day and age; especially for a game that is promising a single shard universe; is there a reason why we\u2019re still capped at these low player numbers per instance?\nSean Tracy:\n\nMostly comes down to performance of vehicles and the intensity\/balance of the mode itself vs. the size of the playspace. Some of the discoveries during the Evocati testing has been that our relative player performance costs are far less than anticipated and thus could increase this in a larger map setting as the cost of players is less in ToW than in SC as far as the server is concerned. We aren\u2019t at all locked to 40 players but this count suited the Crossroads of Crime map design and we are considering higher player counts for future scenarios.\n\n\nHow big is the ToW team and are they dedicated to working on ToW?\nMilan Pejcic:\n\nWe are cognizant of resources available and other high profile priorities for the company. Main intent was to provide an environment where we can get appropriate information which would result in multiple improvements across the board. All the development playtime and feedback provided directly benefits the needs of Star Citizen and Squadron 42.\n\nTeam of people specifically dedicated to ToW is very small. Total team size of 10 consists of 4 designers, 2 engineers, 3 artists and 1 producer.\n\n\nYou say Theatres of War is the working name\u2026 what other names you are considering?\nMilan Pejcic:\n\nTheaters of War is the title we have been using internally so far. We are considering several names as we progress with development. We want to make sure that name works well within our universe and identity before making further commitments.\n\nWhat is your feedback for current working title? Do you have other interesting ideas?\n\n\nHow will CIG devote resources differently to ensure the ToW remains a lasting, developer-supported game mode option for players?\nMilan Pejcic:\n\nThere is a strong desire to continue our efforts for developing and maintaining ToW related content. This directly benefits our SC, S42, AC, SM needs. We are committed to delivering polished and fun games for you and ToW work is a crucial component of enabling that.\n\nWe are looking into ways of scaling the team which is highly dependent on multiple circumstances such as hiring rates, virus delays, specific profile of new hires, etc.\n\n\nWill we see ToW incorporate multi-crew ships eventually, including possibly dropships for troop insertions?\nJonny Jacevicius:\n\nWe\u2019re already using them! We are currently utilizing a Valkyrie and Vanguard, though this may change due to ongoing balance changes.\n\n\nHow has ToW helped balance the game as a whole?\nJonny Jacevicius:\n\nIt has been incredibly helpful. Previously the main opportunity for mixed arms gameplay has been in PU encounters, which could be quite uncommon due to its size. Having a game mode where you\u2019re immediately in a focused combat scenario, where FPS, ground vehicles and ships are all interacting has given us an opportunity to see how everything interacts.\n\nIt\u2019s also influenced sweeping FPS weapon changes and fixes as it\u2019s allowed us to tune our weapons for longer (and more realistic) combat ranges due to the size of the map, and distance at which you can encounter enemy players.\n\n\nDo the Dev\u2019s working on ToW understand how important it is for this game mode to be polished and balanced on release? or it will be dead within the first week and never touched again\nMilan Pejcic:\n\nThere is a strong desire to continue our efforts for developing and maintaining ToW related content. This directly benefits our SC, S42, AC, SM needs. We are committed to delivering polished and fun games for you and ToW work is a crucial component of enabling that.\n\nWe are actively working on improving performance related and player feedback related issues from the latest playtest. You can find more info on that in one of Sean\u2019s answers above.\n\n\nWill there be Squad Management \/ pre-made queues\/features, or will it be a 20vs20 free for all?\nMilan Pejcic:\n\nParty system is already implemented. You can join as a group through party leader and play in the same instance.\n\nWe will be looking into improving the UX\/UI elements that would make this easier and more visibility in some areas like scoreboard for example.\n\n\nIs FPS (frame rate) improved in ToW especially compared to Star Marine?\nSean Tracy:\n\nNo. We have basically 3 SM maps in one + a planet and we include vehicles (ground and ships) so compared to the current SM maps it runs slower but honestly to be expected and with the changes we\u2019ve talked about we are getting closer and closer to SM performance.\n\n\nWill ToW be released to more players as an Alpha? OR will it be more complete and polished product?\nMilan Pejcic:\n\nWe are looking to expose the mode to larger groups of players instead of Evocati only. Once we feel more comfortable that the intended experience or parts of that experience are ready for broader consumption we will be communicating that proactively.\n\nEvocati and PTU groups are treated as gates. Based on your feedback and backend data we are making guided decisions on how\/when to proceed. Your feedback and playtesting is incredibly valuable for our ability to achieve the intended experience.\n\n\nBalance can make or break a game mode, how fast can we expect balance related changes given the current 3 month cadence, and will those same changes be reflected in the PU as well?\nJonny Jacevicius:\n\nIt really depends on the nature of the change. Balance changes to things like the weapons or vehicles are issues we can likely solve in point patch or incremental patch. Larger changes we want to make, like alterations to the map or game-mode are things you\u2019d be more likely to see in one of the quarterly major updates.\n\nAny changes we make in Theatres of War will be made in the PU. All of the weapons, armour, items and ships etc. are all part of the same game.\n\n\nStar Marine scopes and sights are famously inaccurate. Is there any progress on weapon sight zeroing?\nSean Tracy:\n\nYes, Jonny himself even did pass just recently to dial in all alignments across FPS scopes based on the feedback from the evocati weekend test. So expect that to be fixed\/addressed on the next event and next PU patch.\n\n\n\nWhen can we expect to see a ToW scenario beyond the initial one presented at CitCon?\nTom Solaru:\n\nWe\u2019re currently looking at testing with Evocati again this weekend in order to get more feedback on our recent gameplay tweaks, bug fixes and performance improvements. We\u2019re looking to ensure a positive experience for players before opening the game mode wider to even more backers.\n\nMilan Pejcic:\n\nWe are starting scenario 2 work next quarter.\n\n\nWill ToW feature a \u201cDowned\u201d state before death? to give your teammates a chance to get you up in feet, similar to current Battle Royale games?\nJonny Jacevicius:\n\nThis is something we\u2019re currently looking at alongside the incoming body dragging mechanics and medical gameplay.\n\n\nHow are the Internal Tests going for ToW?\nJonny Jacevicius:\n\nReally well! The development staff seem to really enjoy playing and we\u2019re really grateful for all the issues they\u2019ve found and the feedback given.\n\nThe team have been using the regular playtests to trial changes and continually iterate to improve the experience.\n\n\n\nHaving played the CitizenCon playtest, balance seems hard and it looks to me that the defenders were \u201cbalanced\u201d to win more often than the attackers\u2026 what do your stats say?\nJonny Jacevicius:\n\nWe\u2019ve seen varied results from different tests, but we do sometimes see an attacker\/defender advantage depending on what phase of the game they\u2019re in. Our last set of analytics showed 117 rounds played, with a 54% win rate for defenders, so overall it\u2019s fairly equal (slightly stilted to defense but would expect that to level out as people learn the map). We will have our eye on the stats going forwards and will make changes to ensure a fair fight for both sides.\n\n\nCan you name and quantify your criteria for when you will consider tow ready for release?\nSean Tracy:\n\nWe have specific review gates and will not release or push out anything without having passed these given gates as a very strict rule. For example one of these are the current evocati weekend events which we\u2019ve not yet passed. Reviewing the analytics (for balance, performance and more) inform the decision making about taking it to the next stage.\n\nFor example, the next for us will be a larger audience playtest and we will review the data and make decisions accordingly. Some of the KPI\u2019s though are concurrency, performance, and visual fidelity.\n\n\nToW has asymmetric vehicles, ships and loadouts \u2013 was it really necessary to overcomplicate things for yourselves that much; wouldn\u2019t have mirror matchups been at least a little easier on everyone?\nMilan Pejcic:\n\nWe have a very diverse and abundant amount of vehicles and weapons within our universe. Using various scenarios would enable us to balance and polish our content and gameplay better. For example with this testing and feedback we have made changes to various ships to balance them out more.\n\nDoing things in an easier and quicker way often doesn\u2019t translate in best experience for the players.\n\n\nHow does development currently align with the 3.x releases? Back at citizencon you were working off a separate branch to keep development stable. Are you still slightly behind the latest and greatest or keeping up with tech going in the upcoming 3.10\nTom Solaru:\n\nWe\u2019re not far off parity with 3.10, we\u2019re still working in 3.9.1 for this next Evocati weekend but then will integrate over and work in that branch so we can stay in-sync.\n\n\nOne of the big problems I thought TOW had was the tiny artificial boundaries. A sniper couldn\u2019t take up position in the forest, because going 20 meters from the building was considered out of bounds. Has this been addressed at all?\nTom Solaru:\n\nWe have relaxed the outer boundaries so hopefully players will enjoy more freedom to move around in the next build.\n\n\nWill there be something like C4, we can\u2019t have a game mode like this without jeep stuff\nJonny Jacevicius:\n\nWe have loads of really cool throwable, deployable and consumable items coming to the game in the future. I don\u2019t want to give too much away, but there\u2019ll certainly be a lot of items you can utilize for combat!\n\n\nAre there spawn limits? Like do the defenders only have 8 respawns each? Or is it unlimited respawns.\nTom Solaru:\n\nIt\u2019s currently a choice of four preset loadout classes per team with unlimited respawns.\n\n\nToW looks amazing \u2013 looking forward to the AMA\nTom Solaru:\n\nThanks DaleChristopher! Hopefully we can answer all of your questions fully. We\u2019ve recently put another round of art polish in to the build so we\u2019re excited to see what people think of the changes.\n\n\nToW is for 3.10?\nTom Solaru:\n\nWe\u2019re testing another 3.9.1 build with Evocati this weekend and will be looking to open it wider to more backers as soon as we\u2019re happy that it will be positive experience for everyone.\n\n\n\nDisclaimer\nThe answers accurately reflect development\u2019s intentions at the time of writing, but the company and development team reserve the right to adapt, improve, or change feature and ship designs in response to feedback, playtesting, design revisions, or other considerations to improve balance or the quality of the game overall."},"links_count":0,"comment_count":38,"created_at":"2020-06-05T00:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"5 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-05-13 06:01:20","valid_relations":["images","links"],"prev_id":17633,"next_id":17635}}