First of all, happy new year to all of you out there. Since our last news item, it's been almost a year, and even longer since the release of Chapter 2, so I thought it was about time to let you know: We are still working very hard on Chapter 3. The past 12 months have been a hard time for us developers, since some of us had to struggle with job and family issues. Despite the slower progress, we kept working, not only on the 3rd chapter of Blade of Agony, but we have also been improving what we have already released. Why? We are listening, and we take your feedback seriously.
Shadows of the Reich has received mixed reviews. Some people loved it from the beginning to the end, but there have also been others who had some gripes, and made a good point. Therefore, we wanted to make sure that these issues were sorted out, and with the final release of the game including all three chapters, we wanted to ensure you have the best possible game experience that we are capable of creating.
With the upcoming development blog entries, we will talk about what we have been doing "behind the scenes", giving you an inside scoop on the things we have been working on, and stuff we have improved and added. Hopefully, that will make waiting for the final chapter a bit easier. This is the first entry out of many more that will be posted, so stay tuned and make sure to come back from time to time; It's worth it!
AI Improvements
One of the problems we've faced in the past is the AI (artificial intelligence) of the soldiers. The code of every enemy soldier is based on Doom's demons and zombies - no need to be pretty smart, it's simply "walk, aim, shoot/bite, loop", nothing less. We are aware that human beings (even though they are Nazis) should act a bit less predictably, and that's where we started to make improvements. First of all, we gave the AI a few new tricks - now, the enemy soldiers can try to dodge your attacks from time to time (this is what you can see in the screenshot above). In addition, enemy soldiers can now try to take cover or run away if you toss grenades at them, or if they are wounded. Makes sense, doesn't it? Last, but not least, some enemies will not leave their covered zone until you get closer; instead, they stay where they are. It's not much, but it adds new dynamics to the combat, and feels like an appropriate change. Let's see what our coders AFADoomer and Ozymandias come up with over the next few months to make the gunfights even more interesting - stay tuned!
Great to hear this is still rolling strong and developing. Sending some good mood for all ya!