The Bangladeshi dev behind Battle Tactics 2025, an upcoming Unreal Engine-powered Combat Mission-like, refuses to draw a veil over war’s grim realities. Combatants in his high-fidelity RTT/TBT are going to lose limbs and buckets of blood in the line of duty.
As well as showing graphic WIP death and dismemberment animations, the latest video devlog reveals a sophisticated GHPC-style vehicular damage system, and some of the potential victims of that damage system.
Announced last summer, BT2025 is a project born out of mingled CM admiration and frustration:
“So the reason I started making this game was because when I played Combat Mission I loved it but I hated how it looked… I also quite often found myself struggling to find out the Lines of Sight of my units… Building combat lacks control – you should be able to control how many units are poking their heads out of windows at a given time, but there is no control like that. Infantry movement is also kind of buggy. My troops always get themselves killed by going through the wrong door in a building. And on top of the horrible graphics , it also runs poorly. I can never get more than 15 FPS when I’m running AAA titles at 60 FPS.”
Now that looks really interesting!
I recently re-installed CM Black Sea and I was immediately reminded as to why I had uninstalled it a few years ago and never looked back. It’s age is definitely showing. The graphics and the feel of the game bring me back to the early 90’s and not in a good way either.
I know Battlefront has never put much effort into the graphical presentation of the game, but at this point it’s hard not to pretend that the game doesn’t look like absolute crap in 2023. The ever-present blinking shadows, awkward and non-synchronized animations, as well as the janky and cumbersome camera movements cannot be hidden in a veil of ‘realism’ any longer.
So, any game that pulls me away from CM is a big plus – but I’m not sure that THIS is the game. His comment about 60FPS is weird – his video looks like it’s about 30 FPS, so that argument is going right out the window. Along with the other comments he made about what’s missing from CM. “Building Combat lacks control” – How much more control do you want before the game turns into a micromanagement simulator? The 3d model presentation – OK – you can buy those – so again, I’m not sure what the developer is showing off other than what appears to be a Unity project.
I would argue that aside from the fact that CM is using the same game engine from the 1990s with some lipstick applied is probably the biggest complaint for me. CM’s ‘ancient’ game engine cannot handle the reality of modern combat ranges – most maps aren’t even larger than the maximum effective range of a modern M829A3 APFSDS round, and there’s a complete lack of MANEUVER space allowed.
I’m just not sure that Battle Tactics 2025 is the game that’s going to do it.
Thank you for your coverage of that gentleman’s project. He has made consistent progress over the past year and has always demonstrated thoughtfulness in his approach and presentation. What he has showcased over the months is a solid and sincere effort that is headed in the right direction. Challenging an established paradigm is never an easy task, nor a kind one towards our elders. However, it can ultimately contribute to the improvement of the larger niche, provided it brings its own share of innovations. Even if, for various reasons (and there are numerous obstacles for smaller or single-person indie teams like us), it fails to deliver in the end, it will have demonstrated the potential of the technology and design. As long as it is done respectfully by acknowledging what came before (in this case, the significant and epoch-defining accomplishments of Battlefront over a couple of decades), there are no negative feelings to be had. It strikes the right balance between incorporating old and new elements, and I have confidence in the vision and mission it has set its sights on.
However, along the way, the more recognition he gains, the more he will face criticism from all sorts of experts, who will readily switch to the “I told you so” attitude the moment he encounters difficulties or setbacks. Nevertheless, he has shown great promise thus far in the realms of AI and damage models, coding extensively to meet the specific needs of his project. This alone poses a significant challenge that requires a solid technical background to even fathom. I will be eagerly observing from the sidelines 🙂
Cheers & keep up the great work Tim
> Even if, for various reasons (and there are numerous obstacles for smaller or single-person indie teams like us), it fails to deliver in the end, it will have demonstrated the potential of the technology and design.
Well said! I must add as well that I would be greatly surprised if TF:A didn’t turn out to be great 😛
Thanks for featuring my game! 🙂