January Status Report

Respected soldiers of Call of Combat,

Please allow us to shine some light on the development progress:

KaVa Gaming
As per the 1st of January 2013, KaVa Gaming has penetrated the global game production & publishing market. This sounds a lot cooler than what it actually means. Because in a nutshell what it means is that we have set up a company which provides us with a legal framework that allows us to develop and publish Call of Combat v2 without any hassle.

GDD: good progress is being made
Among other things, we are currently still working on the GDD (Game Design Document). There are several key features which still require careful consideration, weighing and discussion. The GDD will never really be finished as it is a dynamic document which will continuously be adapted while we develop the game. However, we do expect an acceptable version to be finished within two months.

No multi-story buildings
One of the latest developments while writing the GDD is the choice to not implement multi-story buildings. Extensive research and long discussions have led to this decision. It is a very interesting feature. But, looking at the effects on the game-play, quite complicated to implement properly. We went back to the roots of this idea and asked ourselves: "why did we think that this feature could have so much added value?". Well, quite simply put, because of its strategic value. The strategic value of having 'higher grounds' on a map is something CoC has never seen before. And eventhough we scrapped the idea of multi-story buildings, we would still love to implement a feature that creates such value. Therefore we have decided to do so by implementing terrain elevation. In our post about prototyping we have mentioned the use of terrain elevation briefly. This feature is far less complicated than multi-story buildings, but it pretty much achieves the same thing. Terrain elevation will require extensive testing.

New team members
As you might have noticed, we have began our search for enthusiasts who are willing to help out. So far we have registered all people who have offered their help and will make use of all these kind offers as best we can. Let us already introduce some of them. Martin has been aiding us for a while now, but we haven't properly introduced him yet. He has been invaluable to us to make us reflect on our choices, as well as structure our whole game design approach. Jovan is a keen developer that has offered to help with coding. His knowledge of development is obvious and it has been great to brainstorm with him about the biggest technical challenges ahead of us (think of things like multiplayer, cover, pathing, etc...). In the short term he will help set up some prototypes to test the feasibility of some ideas we've come up with. Last but not least Tijmen is helping out with development in general, but the back-end in particular. For example, you need to be able to authenticate, games need to be hosted, you need a matchmaking system and a way to store all the statistics. These things are all essential to make a working game!

Kick-off meeting
We have not forgotten about the kick-off meeting, and we hope you havent either! We will announce all specifics (date, brands of beer to be served, etc.) next week.

With great enthusiasm,

The Development Team
Florian & Erik

Comments

UltimateGod's picture

Sounds like good progress. I can't wait!
The idea of terrain elevation sounds perfect. Multi story buildings always sounded difficult to me in the confines of coc. Terrain elevation has a lot more possibilities. Also with terrain elevation possibly different types of terrain can be utilized, such as water,mud, etc. The different terrain can change the movement speed of soldiers, or be impossible to pass, but provide a better tactical location on the map if traversed.
BulletInAHeart's picture

marvelous.thanks for the update!
Foggy Dewhurst's picture

Thank you so much guys, we all appreciate what you're doing for us. Keep up the fantastic work, I'm so excited for CoCv2.. CoC is/was the only game I played online I miss it gosh darn it!
Pai-ku-han's picture

I like how you guys are keeping us of everything thas happening. The resolution about terrain elevations vs 2 story building i think is the best. I´ll enjoy mountains and valleys pretty much!
Glacier's picture

Sounds very interesting, would love to see how this game turns out, sadly I have re-enlisted in the Army and wont be around for a long time. :( I wish the best of luck with the game & everyone else who I have had the pleasure to meet on CoC, see you around guys ;)

- Glacier out.
Florian's picture

Good luck Glacier. And be safe! :)
Erik's picture

Glacier my man! The best of luck to you!!

ps. its 2013 you know, free wifi hotspots everywhere ;)
burster's picture

thats a shame they decided to disclose the effort into making mutistory building it would have taken so much work but can be worth doing so.
Florian's picture

It was a bit a of a tough decision for us also. I personally still feel strongly that multi-story buildings have a place in a game like this. But I completely agree with our decision to not implement them, as much of the gameplay effect can indeed also be achieved with terrain elevation. It simply isn't worth our time as there so much work ahead of us already!

But Erik and I both feel that we aren't making this game for just one release. We want to make continuous improvements afterwards and hope to be able to keep it up and running for a long time (World of Warcraft is an example for us in that, also in number of players actually :p). So who knows, perhaps multi-story buildings will be back at some time. Time will tell!
burster's picture

i understand clearly the complications and your wise deciding this to start of without elevation. it may increase popularity but right now your starting out...
DedSharK's picture

Is the game going to be the same kind of strategy type that it always has been? im curious what its going to look like...but if its going to have the same gamplay/style I would be kind of against multistory buildings. I just think it would be kind of overkill with the basic type of strategy the game is based on.
Erik's picture

The core game mechanics will not be changed. Therefore the game will definitely be the same type of strategy game as CoCv1. Why would we change something so awesome? ;)
Foggy Dewhurst's picture

I'm so excited, Erik!

Wish I could do more to help!

This is going to be the best game ever!
dooiefries's picture

Glacier, are you still coming to Amsterdam or is your military life starting immediatly?
I am curious to see some more faces behind your screen names!
Glacier's picture

Hey Dooie, there is a good chance I will be coming over yeah, Britain pulls out of the war in 2014 which by then I should have some spare time to get a flight out and see you guys. Also thanks Kading and Erik, i'll try my best.
Nuclear Destruction's picture

Anyone care to explain what happened to Call Of Combat as I once knew it? Im kinda of excited to get back into the game that started my pc addiction
Erik's picture

Hi ND. We took it down so that all focus can be put on developing a new version!
hotwheel300's picture

Wanna play! ^_^ Oh, and on the home page it says *Tactical insight and teamwork "and" are just two of several key characteristics a player must master in order to be victorious.* (I guess a random "and" just popped up there) :T
I know... just a simple mistake, but I like to point out those kinds of things, It's just who I am. Sorry. O_O
Erik's picture

Fixed. Thank you very much hotwheel!
hotwheel300's picture

Woah, you replied. (:T Didn't think you'd care.
Locust's picture

And what of those of us with classier taste, than for beer? No ciders?
Foggy Dewhurst's picture

Money's a bit tight at the moment so not donated much, but will donate again next time I get paid and the time after that and the time after that so it'll add up.. :P

Love you guys! I'm so BORED without CoC.
DedSharK's picture

Hey guys its DedSharK (Amityville, KY Jellyfish). Just wanted to stop by and say hi and tell you everything looks awesome and im really excited. Looking forward to hearing back from everyone. I hate that I've lost touch with so many people. If you guys need any help with any please ask. I'll be honest im not very good with computers but if you wanna throw ideas my way id be happy to critique and comment on them. Good luck, keep up the hard work!
Erik's picture

Hey Dedshark, welcome back, thanks voor the support!
Locust's picture

Gonna be a daddy, can't afford a return flight to Europe.

Baby stuff is expensive.

Definitely a no go for the initial meeting.
Erik's picture

Congrats! And a pitty that you wont be able to make it to the meeting.
More information about the meeting will follow next week.
Snip3's picture

Its me Snip3/cyco, and its great to see that this game is coming back! I honestly cant say that i have been able to find another game i can play endlessly for days. lol
Erik's picture

Wb snip3! Good to see you around. Doesnt surprise me, for CoC its quite lonely at the top ;)
Foggy Dewhurst's picture

Where's Foggy Dewhurst on donations list?? :P
Colethemole69's picture

Extremely excited to see this! I cant wait to spend my drunken late nights in college on here with you all :D
Snip3's picture

i know this isn't the time to ask but, is this version, going to be the small loving Community i came to love in v1? or is it going be thousands of players? in other words. what are your goals, on active accounts? at one time?
Erik's picture

A good question Snip3. At the moment its quite difficult to provide you with a solid answer though. Right now we are doing everything we can to simply make the best possible game. We're trying to build on what makes CoC so much fun to play in order to enhance the amount of fun (even more). Because its as simple as this: without a good game there will be no players at all.

To answer your question: subsequently we will be trying to pull as many players as possible to CoC. What the numbers will look like, is very difficult to say at the moment. All i can say is this: the sky is the limit ;) One thing which (i think many of us) love about CoC is the community aspect. We do recognize this and our aim is to maintain that. However, as ive posted before on this blog, i do expect this become more difficult (or at least different) as/if the player base grows.
Snip3's picture

Thanks, And i understand that it must be difficult to answer this early on. but having a smaller community would bring back the family aspect of an AG, then having like 10,000 people online, it would be more of a your on your own type of game.
Colethemole69's picture

Anything more than that and it will be very unfamily like, but trust me if it does grow in the thousands...they wont mind...more players = more money ...unfortunately for some of us :P
Erik's picture

One thing of which im sure you'll agree with me: its better to have too many players than too few. I remember all the hours of waiting before being able to play an AG game.. day after day.. week after week... A main reason for many to stop playing as far as I know.
Colethemole69's picture

Yeah I agree...just hope it doesnt get too big to the point of like 30 AGs haha...LONG LIVE KFG :D
Darkminstrel's picture

Glad to see such an amazing and motivated core team has taken up the charge for CoC v2. Looking forward to following all of your progress! Please don't hesitate to ask if I can be of any assistance!

Take good care all
Respect
DM (Dave)
Snip3's picture

I'd Love to see a solid 300-400 playerbase online at all times., compared to some of these bigger games with millions of players, having a small Player base, makes you feel like you actually mean something to the game, that's what i loved about call, everyone knew everyone. some in bad cases and other in good cases, like Heat for example, Heat is Probably one of the Best players to ever play, or you have your bad players. Like Erik.. :P that everyone knows