Development News (2nd October '19)

[Kenix]

Dear Soldat friends,

It's that time of the year again. Today we present you with the tastiest bits from the world of Soldat Development. What? Development? Yes, you've heard that right. We know it has been a while since more information regarding the upcoming Steam release has been announced. What we want to give you today is an overview over the biggest features our developers are working on right now. Prepare yourself, because what you are about to read is nothing short of pure awesomeness.

New Features

#1 New demo system
We will get a new demo system, that comes with a bunch of great benefits:
? The local position will be recorded at a higher frequency. The result is a better and more precise depiction of the players and much better demo quality
? The crosshair will be rendered for the viewed player.
? Servers also support recording demos now.
? You can jump to specific ticks of a demo with an easy "demo_tick" command

#2 PolyWonks - a new map editor
This beautiful piece of software is designed to make the life of all mappers a lot easier. There's a bunch of new features that will allow mappers to create new Soldat maps faster and easier. Oh, and it is also a lot sexier than other map editors.

#3 Achievements, Stats and leaderboards
All stats gatherers rejoice! Soldat will come with a virtual candy store. The game will count your stats for you on all approved non-modded game servers. That includes the number of games you play, your wins and losses, your caps, your K/D ratio, your kills per weapon. And this bag of treats comes for every single game mode. And the most amazing thing? The game will also have leaderboards, where people can compare their stats to all the other players. Now, don't complain if you go home with a belly ache after your most recent Soldat binge.

#4 Steam Workshop integration
The integration of the Steam Workshop will make the life of every content creator a thousand times easier. As with other games, they can share their content to the steam workshop and with a single click players will be able to install maps, mods and interfaces. Soon the hassle of setting up your customised Soldat interface will be just a faint memory in the back of your heads.

#5 In-game voice chat
If you are like us, you probably have missed the seraphic voices of your most beloved foes while playing the game. I have good news for you. With Soldat 1.8 you'll be able to hear them, thanks to the new in-game voice chat. This is also very useful for our competitive scene, as there's no need anymore for additional software to communicate through your microphone.

#6 SteamID to replace HWIDs (Hardware IDs)
Instead of the old and problematic HWID system players will now be authenticated with their SteamID. The authentication of players on the gameserver will be much more precise with the new system. Some of you may ask now whether this means that you will be forced to use Steam to play Soldat?

#7 Steam and non-steam players
The answer is no. While we greatly encourage the use of Steam we do not want to restrict non-steam players from playing the game. Both player types are compatible and will be able to play together. However, please bear in mind, that server owners may opt to exclude non-steam players for their server.

#8 Global game bans for cheaters
Let's admit it. Nobody likes cheaters. Which is why we have come up with a way to tackle that problem in a better way. By banning the whole SteamID we now have a powerful tool to bar cheaters from playing the game entirely by removing them for the whole game for good.

#9 Steam Cloud support
This new feature will allow players to save their configuration files in the cloud. That means that from now on you will never have to fear losing your personal config, should you ever have to reinstall the game.

#10 Faster release cycles
And if all that you've read wasn't already enough, I've got one last savory piece for you. Soldat 1.8 will also come with a built-in auto updater. Thanks to this awesome tool new features can be implemented much faster.

Sounds great..but how far are we in that process?


Now, there's one last amazing piece of information we haven't told you yet. You might ask about how far all these features have progressed. The answer is: Except for the stats system, all these features are already done. That means Soldat 1.8 is in it's finishing touches and we are very close to the release of Soldat 1.8!

[McWise]

We truly live in the dankest timeline. I am so confused right now, emotionally jumping between amazement, puzzlement, disbelief and laughter.

Maybe I will be able to to once again get rekt by random kids from the internet. Oh what a joy that would be.

Party time, excellent!

[Outcast]

Wow, that's awesome.

Well done to all involved and I hope this brings a large resurgence.

[homerofgods]

This is all I could ask for to get back into soldat, which means I will get back into soldat

Also, when the work is done I would like to know were I can donate a small amount

[Rainy]

Sound great! Thanks to the dev-team and everyone else involved! 

[Mittsu]

Huh

Guess I will give it a try after a couple of years of absence

I thought the development died, nice to see some dedication put into it

[echo_trail]

Ah, great news! Can't wait to check it out and, hopefully, reconnect with a few of you old geezers.

[jrgp]

Cool, great job everyone!

[xrealx369]

Great stuff, keep it up boys!

[mtk]

is netcode also fixed?

[Tony]

This Soldat just refuse to die 

[Colt]

HECK yea. Stoked beyond belief. Rise from the ashes!

[machina]

Sounds too good.

Btw. can someone remind me what was the business model of this Steam release? Ideally we should have boxes with skins and other useless shit that can make you look a little bit different xD Even though soldier models are so small there's nearly no details visible.

[helloer]

Sounds too good.

Btw. can someone remind me what was the business model of this Steam release? Ideally we should have boxes with skins and other useless shit that can make you look a little bit different xD Even though soldier models are so small there's nearly no details visible.

There is no business model except donations through patreon. There are many implications of selling a game that a) You don't own it and don't trust the owner b) Is 16 year old c) Nobody from the devteam wants to get paid .

[[ShioN]]

Become a soldat patreon and support the actual Soldat dev team!
https://www.patreon.com/soldat2d

[Raged`]

I was just about the make a topic about the progres of soldat and saw this. Great works. I'll definetly come back after a long time

[Tarrega]

The launch of Soldat will be big news and the initial surge of players will be significant.
But most people will play for about 10 minutes, get their nostalgia, and quit.
We can make it so that they don't quit forever.

If we want the game to stick, we have to have at least one of the following:

1. A built-in (or officially promoted) 3v3 ranked matchmaking system (gathers).

2. A built in system for (or official promotions of) tournaments like SCTFL/SCTFC/SWC.

In short, give the players something to play for.

If Rocket League never had a ranked matchmaking system or a pro scene, it would never be played longer than a week, and be lost in the dusty shelves of history by now.

A sidenote: A stats system for pubs is unnecessary, and a bit meaningless. Stats only matter when winning matters, aka competitive/ranked gameplay.

That's my two cents.
I love you all, bye

[homerofgods]

Probably a noob question, but will I still be able to change out files in soldat folder without getting VAC banned? Like nades with a different color or 50% opacity bushes

[dst]

Great news!

1. A built-in (or officially promoted) 3v3 ranked matchmaking system (gathers).

Also for DM pls!

Probably a noob question, but will I still be able to change out files in soldat folder without getting VAC banned? Like nades with a different color or 50% opacity bushes

Maybe let the server owner decide between no mods, limited to original size+opacity and free for all.