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Tactical Jerky

Upcoming tactical shooter from Blackfoot Studios: Ground Branch

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Early impressions of the tanker ship for you all:

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Early impressions of the tanker ship for you all:

 

the graphics are no great shakes. looks a little dated . not sure what the deal about a ship level is, not the first one i've seen and not the best looking one. 

 

but its the gunplay and gameplay that promise that makes this game good. ho[e that eventuates sooner than later.

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Did a little testing out of the first iteration of A.i so far promising start, just placeholder stuff at the moment but good to see stuff taking shape

 

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Just managed to get a bit of coop going on test build, recorded below:

 

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Rather long playthrough on a test build, was good fun :)

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I'm wondering if the mil dot reticle is accurate ...

 

I suppose that it's not really a part of the GB's game design ?

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I have no idea what a mil dot reticle actually looks like in real life, but they are going for accuracy.

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Large testing update for private tester build lot to test, include AI on the tanker ship for the first time, recorded below:

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 Literally some of the worst AI ive ever seen. Seriously, why pursue such strong integrity of kits, guns, and models mic up only to fight these brain dead zombies? Thats like going shopping for some top of the line Adidas sneaks, running pants, windbreaker and headband only to go out and trump a game of tag with a downe syndrome camp?

 

 These AI literally just walk forward begging to be shot or a few time just blinked while a player walked in front of them as if to say "What are you doing? Shoot me already!?"

 

 Truly awful. Maybe its time to build an interesting AI firefight system, build in strategic points on the (very limited) maps, give the AI a few more dodge type animations and let them work in cohesion. Then add a new gun or two.

 

Guess I just dont get games today..

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To be fair, those are just placeholder so the players now have at least something to shoot at rather than just doing TvT. The actual AI down the line should/will be far ahead of this, which yeah as of this moment don't shine well. 

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7 hours ago, froggyluv said:

 

 Literally some of the worst AI ive ever seen. Seriously, why pursue such strong integrity of kits, guns, and models mic up only to fight these brain dead zombies? Thats like going shopping for some top of the line Adidas sneaks, running pants, windbreaker and headband only to go out and trump a game of tag with a downe syndrome camp?

 

 These AI literally just walk forward begging to be shot or a few time just blinked while a player walked in front of them as if to say "What are you doing? Shoot me already!?"

 

 Truly awful. Maybe its time to build an interesting AI firefight system, build in strategic points on the (very limited) maps, give the AI a few more dodge type animations and let them work in cohesion. Then add a new gun or two.

 

Guess I just dont get games today..

 

Ground Branch is in pre-alpha, and the AI is nowhere near finished. Really all the work that has gone into it so far is hooking up it's various perception systems, and even that is not finished yet, since their hearing still needs to be hooked up properly.

The AI does not interact with eachother yet as a team, they do not find cover, the don't recognize danger zones, yet all of these things will come. Hell, the plan is for them to not just recognize danger zones AFTER people got shot there, but even pre-emptively check out areas like doors and windows depending on their level of altertness. 

 

You need to be aware however that all of these AI-related things are being made by a single dude in his spare time, like all production on GB is being done. It's literally three guys doing the heavy lifting, with a few people creating models along the way. All of these guys have regular jobs that they need to do to pay the bills.

 

As Jeza said, the current AI is literally just there to give people something to shoot. Their intelligence will increase gradually along the way in steps. Once all the perception systems are hooked up, I believe the next step would be to make sure they can take cover. A tool for that is already developed, or is still under development, so a large part of the maps will automatically create cover spots. After that, AI should start to interact with eachother more and work together, and eventually the plan is to have some sort of a "AI Director" that oversees the various groups walking through the map.

 

Simply put, don't judge the AI yet.

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Re AI, new video released maybe of interest:
 

 

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I've followed this game since 2010-2011 and I was hoping to fill the vacuum left from R6, but I've looked at the date of the thread.If after 10 years this game is in pre-alpha I doubt it will reach beta in my lifetime let alone 1.0.

I understand there is a single guy working on this and delivering a quality game takes time when one has to deal with everything and probably few funds too but is there any plan(for example a beta in 5 years)?

I know about the failed Kickstarter and there weren't plans for a second(why?there were games that succeeded on a second ks), but has the dev tried alternative crowdfunding platforms like Indiegogo or others?The influx of cash should at least add a few more members to the dev team.

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They decided against a second KS because it was so much work to set up and they prefer to spend that time developing the game further. The current plan is to create a working and stable enough version to start selling it on Early Access and hope the funds from that will be enough to ramp up development.   They have a road map for the EA version here: https://trello.com/b/Th9370Gy/ground-branch-early-access-roadmap

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