Iron Assault Progress Update No. 3 news

Hello there!

I realize it's been a while, but I certainly haven't just been sitting around. Lets get into it.

Campaign: Operation 2

Is now finished and 100% playable (including in sim mode), pending some balance adjustments. This completes all of the map content I want to have for demo 2. Have a look:

With the new operation comes some new props, including special animated ones. All props have been overhauled to include new effects and debris, a bit more on this later. On with the show:

These shots are from O2M1 and O2M3. Nothing really new from O2M2 as it's a fairly small mission in terms of map size.

New Palettes

A selection of new colors. From left to right we have: Urban, Mountain/Forest, Arctic and Desert.

Here's the mountain pal in game. As things stand this color scheme is used for allied units. A new skin system allows existing unit infrastructure to remain the same while visuals can freely change (including things like properly colored debris).

New Parts in the Lab

A load of new modules and weapons have been added, and the lab now reports properly on the state of things like jumpjets and ECM. Which might seem a bit opaque to you at first, but don't worry. With a little experimentation you'll figure it out.

Jumpjets have been overhauled to be more useful and to scale better, and the sensor/ECM system has also had work done (mostly to do sanity checking and avoid minute long lock-on times). Most substantially armor has been overhauled, allowing for different types, each with their own benefits/drawbacks.

Ally Control / HUD Tweaks

Ally units now have a more granular level of control. They can be selected/deselected in a number of ways. Orders wise, apart from a basic "move" and "attack" command they now have a "follow" command.

Also note the compass around the radar display :)

You might also have noticed the red target in the lower right, similar to the green wrench icon in some of the shots above. This is a support indicator, showing that an artillery strike is available. More on this below.

The Rest of the Stuff

1. Most substantially, mid mission support is now available. This varies per mission, but in sim mode you can tweak it to your desire.

Mission support takes the form of various modules that can be dropped from the air to a location of your choosing. They include:

• Artillery strikes which damage a wide area. Good for taking out target buildings or concentrations of enemy units.
• Repair modules which can repair your mech, up to a certain level (They can't take you above 80% health, nor can they restore destroyed limbs. So be careful!).
• Ammo modules which can restore a limited amount of ammo to you.

2. Crushing and ramming has been tweaked. You can now properly "goomba stomp" small vehicles and other mechs (if you're heavy enough). Large, heavy mechs will plow through obstacles with little effort while smaller, lighter ones will have more resistance.

3. Water now acts like water. Fire no longer spawns underwater (lol), and being submerged in water grants you a passive cooling bonus. There is also an environmental cooling bonus too, so in the arctic you'll cool down faster, and the in the desert slower.

4. A further projectile optimization pass. There can be a lot more stuff flying around before things start stuttering and there are some new missile trail effects.

5. Prop overhaul. To bring props in line with mechs every prop has had its debris and destruction effects tweaked. Most large props have destruction animations now. It's a real joy to stomp on and blow this stuff up.

Otherwise the bulk of the work done has been unsexy behind the scenes tweaking and bug fixing.

Demo 2: What Needs to be Done.

Content wise I'd like to get one or two more new modules in, and get the NPC sensor system working. Considering that, for content, the demo is 99% done. The big stumbling block is the bug list. A lot of it is minor stuff, but there are 2 big ugly issues that I need to resolve before demo 2 goes live.

Frankly I'm not sure how long that's going to take, but I am reasonably confident demo 2 will be out this year.

If you want to check out the (old and busted) 1st demo, you can grab it here.

Until next time.