It's that time of the year again and we're bringing bunch of new exciting information and gifts!
What's up?
It's been almost a year since Beta 0.21 released and pretty much nothing since then, except
under the wraps we've been rather busy working on GenEvo 0.3 as much as we could afford, adding new features, adding new units and making more maps.
Let's get into details.
First of all, let's talk about future release plans and nebulous GenEvo Beta 0.3. GenEvo B0.3 scope is pretty gigantic - it is meant to be a first and final massive update, which would include a lot of new units, new unit/general abilities, more upgrades, several single-player campaign missions, full SkirmishAI rework, gigantic amount of bug fixes, VFX rework, new sounds, new voice lines, properly split subfactions and much more. All of that goodness was meant to be released somewhere at the end of 2021, but, unfortunately, things never go to plan. The scope of this update is too large for us to handle, it's still just the 2 of us right now. Me and sgor00 are both a bit overwhelmed with work and real life things, me especially, having to work on 3 projects simultaneously, having to juggle between them constantly, it's a bit soul draining as you can imagine. In any event - we've came up with several solutions on how to solve issue.
Solution One: Cut down on the scope of 0.3 and release it with ~60% of planned features somewhere by the end of this year, with select features like a good bunch of new units, properly split subfactions, complete SkirmishAI overhaul, new Skirmish maps, more upgrades, sounds and abilities. Then after that release 0.4 somewhere in Spring 2022 with rest of the "cut from original 0.3 scope" features.
Solution Two: Delay 0.3 'til we're done getting all things into the mod, basically releasing it much much later than we've optimistically anticipated, it'll be a full complete package, but it'll take us a lot of time.
Solution Three: Curl up into a ball, cry and do nothing while internet people scream at you on Discord.
While I'm leaning towards solution three ( because I'm going to be exceptionally busy during December ), sgor00 is leaning more towards solution one, he doesn't want you to wait and wants you to enjoy some much needed variety added in 0.3 patch. In other words he really wants to polish up and release what we've made already and patch it up to 0.4 somewhere in spring/summer of 2022. In any event,
please let us know what do you think would be the best solution.
That is pretty much all the boring stuff I wanted to mention regarding GenEvo development, now let's get into the fun stuff, there's a lot of it.
GenEvo Beta 0.3 New Content
GenEvo B0.3 will introduce 18 new units into the mod to spruce up the roster of subfactions. Instead of doing absolutely boring things like changing price/health/speed/weapon of a specific unit for a specific general we've decided to add bunch of brand new units to several generals, as well as bring back some unused cut content from Zero Hour. Couple of brand new units work mostly as reskins in an attempt to preserve delicate Zero Hour balance while making them visually distinct for variety sake. Obviously Zero Hour was rushed to release and we're kinda attempting to fix that. I implore you to click on each image bellow and read its description if you want to learn about specific unit, I'll just mention very briefly their name and what they're doing.
Fuel Air Aurora and Hypersonic Aurora
Alpha Raptor and King Raptor
Chinook and Combat Chinook
Comanche and Stealth Comanche
Guardian Tank and Particle Tank
Medic&Mechanic and Mammoth Tank
Nuclear BattleMaster Tank and BattleMaster Mark II
TaskMaster and Iron Dragon
Manticore APC and Flak Tank
GenEvo Beta 0.3 Single-Player Campaign Details
While I've been busy adding brand new units into the game sgor00 been busy working on official single-player campaign for GenEvo called
SpecOps: Aftermath.
This is 6 mission campaign we've announced 3 years ago, that continues Zero Hour storyline after Chinese end of campaign. Here's a brief summary from the first 3 SpecOps missions.
"Fallen Eagle"
"GLA forces occupied entire Europe. We're losing positions and there's no other option but retreat. We're gathering remaining forces into the naval base near Hamburg to evacuate. You must secure this location and guarantee our troops survival."
"Spark of Rebellion"
"My General! We've failed our last stand, Chinese occupants eliminated all our bases in Europe, but they cannot destroy us so easily - our brothers survived and in hiding. They're our last hope of Global Liberation. Find new home for them, let us rise again, General!"
"Mammoth Bones"
"Welcome back, comrade! China and USA united anti-terrorism initiatives brought peace to Europe. Price was great and our allies had to evacuate from the continent leaving most of their weaponry. We must secure their bases in this area, before anyone else will get to them."
Future plans?
As mentioned above we're on a proverbial crossroads when it comes to 0.3 release, we're still thinking about what solution we should chose and if we'll be able to deliver at all. Life is extremely unpredictable these days and added stress of working on something this huge doesn't help it at all. If all goes well we'll keep on working on this thing either until it's fully feature complete to the best of our abilities or engine wouldn't be able to handle it anymore. We're currently struggling with keeping the game stable because of engine limitations, so that's another added stress factor to the list. That said rest assured that we're putting our best effort into this project and we hope you'll continue following this wild ride with us.