Where's my soldier at?

Hello Combatants!

Having only just joined the Call of Combat v2 development team, I think a small introduction would be in order. My name is Wessel van der Es, and I will be working on the game as a technical artist. My focus will be getting the game to look awesome using the latest and best lighting and shading techniques, as well as bending my head over a few other technical aspects of the game.

One interesting thing that I've already been working on is something that has also been discussed internally before I joined the team, namely the (in)visibility of friendlies units on the battlefield.

A big part of the gameplay of Call of Combat is to stay out of sight of the enemy whenever possible, whether it is by moving into a building or crouching behind a stray barrel. A problem that arises from this is that one of your own men could potentially become hidden from your own sight as well, as a result of the way the soldiers and their surroundings are currently rendered. Although we strive for a sense of realism, soldiers going MIA is not part of the game.

So what to do when one of your soldiers disappears behind a wall? Temporarily remove the wall? Show an indicator above the soldier's position? A possible solution we've been testing so far is to render a kind of overlay which makes your characters visible through walls. This way you'll never lose a man on the battlefield, from a certain point of view.

Be safe.

Comments

Dan's picture

Welcome. Nice to have you on board. that does look pretty sweet.

quick question though. I take it that's for when one of your soldiers has eyes on an enemy soldier and you cant see them because of the wall? In which case i presume you will be doing it for friendly soldiers as well? Maybe an outline of red for enemy green for allies?

Great stuff though. Just hurry up and finish this game ;)
Dan's picture

Who are you? :D
Mrdood92's picture

I used to play all the time and I was bored today and I wanted to go and play this game again and I am sad to see that it is gone. Are the old servers still active or is everything in standby until the new v2 is finished?
Erik's picture

Old servers are down unfortunately. We kindly ask for your patience while we are building the new version!
UltimateGod's picture

Nice video Wessel!
I like Dan's suggestion. Taking what you have in the video and outlining the model edges in colors that signify friend or foe, would be interesting.
Rapidkiller's picture

Does this mean the chain of command is obselete? Every friendly soldier can see every friendly soldier? or is this just for friendlies in the immediate area?

All games need some sort of story, even if its extremely general and nearly nonexistent during gameplay. Call v1's story was basically re-enacting ww2. If v2 is using the same general idea, having "radar" and being able to see everyone on your team will take away from some of the experience. This game was centred around communication as not everybody could see everything that was going on. I'm curious whether v2 will take the same route or move to a more Call of Duty style know-all see-all feel.
Colethemole69's picture

Really like your points here Rapid. I really hope the game can keep some of the old features of it. Would hate for it to go to "Call of Duty Style" ...maybe leave that for 20 years from now when someone wants to "save their favorite game" ;)
Wessel's picture

To clarify things, seeing units through walls only happens on units that you are supposed to see in the first place. Units that are not visible because of the chain of command or line of sight or any other reason will of course stay hidden.

The see-through render effect is simply a visual trick to make sure that the units that are visible from a game-play perspective are also visible on your screen.
Dan's picture

yes but say you have a lower ranking soldier who eyes you have staring down a hallway where at the end of the hallway there is an enemy soldier facing a different way laid down in ambush waiting for an enemy to come round the corner. so you physically have eyes on the soldier. if you can only see a brown outline your gonna be in trouble. where as with red you know its enemy. thats the point i was trying to make.
UltimateGod's picture

I agree Dan, Now we will most likely being trying this in different configurations to see what is Fun and not frustrating. So if just seeing through the wall like in the video is fun it will be in. If it is still hard for the players to see whats going on (chain of command still in play) we will try your suggestion, or bring in any other ideas.

But I do like your suggestion a lot :)

As Wessel said. The chain of command/Rankings will be in full effect just like in V1. Line of sight will be similar to v1. This video just demonstrates from you as the player how you can see your soldiers if you are rotated looking through objects.

For instance in v1 when your soldier was in a building, you had to rotate your camera to see him, for v2 we are thinking of this transparency thing so you can keep an eye on the soldier, and what he can see. (this includes your subordinates)
Alex's picture

Am I the only one who never rotated the camera anyway?
I actually think I never had need to rotate it in the 5 years or so I played
It's a nice graphic but I actually think Dan unintentionally raises another point.

Those 'ambushes' everyone uses of a man lying behind the wall etc are surely being fixed as they were overall a cheap trick in the eyes and LOS.
UltimateGod's picture

Alex, what do you mean a cheap trick in eyes and LOS for a man hiding behind a wall? and What kind of fixes to it are you thinking about?
Dan's picture

I never rotated my camera. :L
Erik's picture

Are you guys serious? I rotated the camera all the time. For better visibility, but in particular for corner and window nading.

Maybe that's why I whooped your butts :p
Foggy Dewhurst's picture

I was forever rotating camera, you could often get better nades at angles when rotating
Colethemole69's picture

I wasn't too bad haha and I never rotated ever. Nading windows was easy with my spam hotkey button...thank you Ohmy for the script ;D
Dan's picture

not hard to nade through a window without rotating.

have you been dreaming again? whooping our butts? paha ;)
Foggy Dewhurst's picture

Just make the wall 60% transparent for the person who's soldier it is. That way they can still see the wall and any windows in the wall, but also see their soldier through it.
Speake's picture

For those that don't read forums I made an ventrilo account for those who wanna jump on and talk bout the cocv2 over mics/ horse around etc. Info is amber.typefrag.com 7320 no password
Colethemole69's picture

I registered to it. None on today, but hopefully i catch someone in the near future :P
Revolutionary's picture

I was always rotating the camera when i start to play inside building for better view and warping :P