Armaphract

I don't have a ton of new feedback on this game, other than the common "holy crap this is really fun", however, the performance isn't great. Take this with a grain of salt, however, as the computer I usually play it on is a 7 year old laptop that could probably use an upgrade. It runs at roughly 10ish fps (maybe), and it can take a few seconds for my inputs to register. A small bug I noticed, however only on this laptop, is that sometimes, when I use smoke, it will obstruct view for far longer than it probably should, usually taking around 10 seconds for the view obscuration to clear after the actual visible smoke is gone. Otherwise, really good game, I quite like it

This is a really cool game.  Door kickers never grabbed me, but this feels like a better fit for the system they made.  It is very obvious you are on to something and I'm excited to see where this goes.

Some thoughts (ok I wrote a little more than I thought I would, sorry for the wall of text)

It isn't super clear how damage works or how/where a tank is damaged.  I assume this just hasn't been added yet, but I think it will be really cool to do things like point the side of the tank that still has ERA at oncoming fire.

I think you should experiment with different turret traverse speeds.  Right now, it feels very zippy.  This means you can react faster to being flanked, but also that enemies react faster to being flanked.  Ultimately, it makes out maneuvering enemy tanks with good recon and positioning less rewarding since you only get one maybe two shots before they return fire.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing, idk what your vision is, but it might be interesting if tanks were less able to whip around and getting out maneuvered was more of a death sentence.  Or maybe fast turret traverse could require a module while normal traverse is much slower but you can have something else in that slot.

I'm not sure what to say about this exactly, but be careful about how you implement missiles?  It is cool to fire off a thermobaric missile and damage/destroy large groups of enemies.  However, I found myself stacking missiles on everything I could so I could use them constantly.  I'd either recon with infantry or more often send a tank forward until it made contact, pop smoke, then fire missiles through the smoke.  It kinda detracts from (what I think is) the core tactical elements of the game, or at least it has the potential to do that.  Might be interesting to balance it by having a chance the thermobarics cookoff under fire, so you don't attach them to everything but they can still be really devastating without breaking the game.

Also, it isn't super clear what obstructs a missile or not.  I'm still not sure how it works tbh.  Having the line on the missile targeting UI be obstructed would be a nice way to communicate it.

BTW I did see a missile curve hard to the right by around 90 degrees.  If this is an intentional chance of the missile malfunctioning, that is very cool, but I thought I should mention it in case it's a bug.  And yes, it was unguided.

Just in general, I think indirect fire might detract from the core gameplay.  Needing to get an angle to fire directly requires a lot of thought that calling in artillery just doesn't.  I say this because I'm sure a lot of people will suggest indirect fire options without understanding the gameplay ramifications.  But do what you think is right.

Recon is dangerous.  I like this.  I hope it stays this way.  I'm sure people will ask for drones (or whatever other piece of equipment they love) but be vary careful about anything that makes recon less deadly.  Or don't.  Your vision your game.

There is no way for the player to develop a sense of how accurate a gun is.  I get that there is a penalty for shooting and moving, but I have no clue what that penalty is or in what circumstances it would matter.  To this end, I'd like to suggest something a little radical.  Have the full hit chance for the current target displayed on the UI and constantly be updated.  In other words, give the player perfect information.  This way, the player would be able to develop a sense of how accurate a gun is at a given range, how much of a penalty moving is, and any other factors that impact accuracy.  Otherwise, the player just has to guess when building their tank.

Smoke.  Smoke is neat.  I like smoke.  But sometimes, I want to get past an intersection without having to deal with the threats on either side.  Smoke, if properly coordinated, can accomplish this.  Sometimes.  But I found myself really wanting an option for more of a long thin line of smoke instead of a blob.  I think it would allow for some interesting maneuvers.  

I assume troops aren't supposed to destroy obstacles by walking into them.  That's a thing.  Also troops spawn inside the tank if you have the compartment.

Now for the "I think it would be cool ifs"

Blowing holes in building that tanks can shoot through.  This would allow for interesting ambush opportunities.  Maybe it could be limited to infantry precisely planting explosives while everything else still destroys the whole building.  There is some historical precedent for this if you care.

Walls.  Walls that can be more easily blown up and traversed than buildings but that still block sight.  Maybe make it so tanks can just run through them.

I think some missions having restrictions on what vehicles you can bring would be interesting.  Maybe the local infrastructure can't handle more than x weight so you have to either not bring your heavier tanks or really strip them down.  I imagine most players will just find a comp they like and use it for all missions otherwise (which would probably get old faster).

In that same vein, sandstorms could be an interesting modifier.  Maybe a storm starts 5 minutes into a mission so you either have to rush the mission to avoid the greatly reduced visibility, or try to take advantage of it and wait for the sandstorm to hit before you start.

I assume you aren't super concerned about realism as long as it's fun.  While this seems very rooted in cold-war-like tech, MBTs can be a little bland.  I think it would be neat to draw some inspiration from the oddities of WWII.  Some casemate SPGs with limited traverse might be interesting.  Having to deal with some super heavy (if completely impractical) abomination as a sort of pseudo-boss could be pretty cool too.

More than anything though, I think anti-tank guns could add a lot.  They'd be stationary and only cover a limited traverse, but I think that would make for interesting ambushes.  Tanks are very flexible, so I think having some less flexible enemies in some cases could add some depth and variety.  It would also be nice to have an enemy that infantry can reliably take on without getting obliterated.

I think greater specialization would be fun.  Being able to have a tank that sacrifices traverse, speed, and any FOW for extreme range and a massive gun would be interesting.  It would be extremely good in some situations, while being totally useless in others.  That could be used to encourage players to only take it on certain missions, or to do everything they can to keep a favorable position for that tank.  This might add depth.  Or be really easy to abuse.  Idk.

Anyway, you seem to really know what you are doing.  I didn't know I wanted what this game offered until I played it.  I'm sure I will be the same when I play the next update.  Us players don't always know what we want, so if you take none of my suggestions and make a game better than I could imagine I will be very happy.

Absolutely wonderstriking

First things out of the way, I found this by Twitter. I downloaded it because I was curious, and I played this on a MacBook, so many of my performance criticisms will need to be taken with a bit of skepticism, but may be applicable universally.

My thoughts will also be extremely general and first-in-mind kind of deal, so if you want me to clarify on anything specific, I'll do my best.

GAMEPLAY -
Tank combat is very responsive. I don't think I've ever had a moment where I've said to myself "damn this sucks." But occasionally, tanks will run over heavy obstacles (gas trucks, destroyed vehicles). Maybe this is intentional, maybe not, but it'd be a bit convenient for the player to have them navigate around it themselves rather than me having to babysit Aspera when I notice she's moving too slow. Like, c'mon woman, I know you have eyes.

UI serves its purpose. Aesthetically, I don't have any complaints, but it'd be neat to have a section titled "model viewer" within our armory. Not a huge deal, but I like seeing with my own eyes the detail of the vehicles.

Okay, let's head a little deeper.
Infantry is fairly wack. I don't mean to say they're useless, but I've cleared almost every level in the game with 3 medals using only tanks. All I had to do was cycle the first two tanks, then when they fire, bring the rear row forward to quickly deliver the next volley, repeat (like musketmen or some other generic tank tactic). The only time I ever found myself considering not using this maneuver was when enemy armor started moving to flank me-- or if I was too far out of range. I heavily suggest playing around way more with infantry with longer, more obtuse angles with better armor support.

Not saying it wasn't fun or a bit of a brain teaser. The game did make me think. But not a single point in the game made me go into the pause menu for more than 3 minutes, and then nab 3 medals.

PERFORMANCE -
Mmm. My favorite. I've only included the one's I've been able to repeat (so no one-off glitches.) Okay, so I've noticed a few things you might want to take a look at.

When issuing multiple orders simultaneously (moving forward, rearing, queuing smoke or supplemental rounds, turret direction and infantry movements), usually if you queue four of these, the game dips into 4 FPS for a brief second, then reset to normal.

Occasionally switching to freecam will launch your camera into orbit. I see it happen the most when my units are in combat, but I've seen it happen when nothing's happening (albeit, once).

Other than those two, no major complaints on performance. It runs well.

WORLDBUILDING -
At the end of the day, this game has what? Lore. What kind of lore? Anime women tank lore. How exciting.

The one thing that bothered me a lot was that the descriptions for some of these items cut off, and when I try to select them-- oh, what do you know, they only appear when my mouse is hovering over it.

I'm trying to read and Aspera snatches my dossiers away lol

But truthfully, much of your worldbuilding will have to come from the briefings and your commanders. Unless you want to include cutscenes, and I'm fairly certain that's not coming anytime soon.

The game by itself is super fun, and there's not much for me to say on the lore. But what I do know is the world seems to be established on an alternate Earth (assuming it's Earth, some folk like it to be Not-Earth-but-kinda) where people accidentally-on-purpose destroyed the ozone layer. The factions with the most power seem to be akin to mercenary militia groups that run under countries. Or these countries subsidize said militia in order to maintain territory. I dunno.

There's many super fun and equally (super) exciting ways to exposit your world without vomiting it into my ear (or eyes if you like typing as much as I do). But I'm not the one making the game, so that's none of my business.

SUGGESTIONS -
Hi.

Okay, so some things I'd like to suggest are the following:
* Queuing firing commands. 
          I mean like, firing the turret when they reach a certain location- like how you did with queuing turret turns. I'm super annoyed when I see someone there, but they have an angle on me. So I want to tell my commander "Hey, the second you peek that corner, drive a round through that motherfucker." But Aspera's brain is on airplane mode, so she's like "aye sir" and now I have to throw in another tank to cope with the damage she sustained and her ass is on fire.

* Purchasing units and modules.
          Ditto.

* Sickbay/Medical center.
          Certain characters may survive being blasted by armor-piercing discarding-sabot fin-stabilized rounds. I wouldn't, but let's pretend I did and I live in this god-forsaken world known as Armaphract. First, we'd need to requisition medical supplies, personnel, then therapy (as required). But oh no! What if we're broke-as-fuck and we need to perform a mission ASAP? (There are no limited time missions so who cares) Now we have supply missions! Rob those mean foreign motherfuckers for all of their money and medical supplies and give them to that one woman who refuses to speak our language, but can somehow communicate her status to us in-real time and we just kinda understand her.

* Logistics
          Y'know, speaking about wounds is making me hungry. That reminds me, we need to feed and take care of our troops! But wait, what happens if we idle on main missions for too long? Some additional missions may appear that we can only tackle on a limited time-frame. Say, protecting persons, buildings or vital routes. Losing or failing these missions apply significant debuffs on our future campaigns. What a thrill... In darkness and silence through the night... Also food animations mmm delicious. Anyways, you get the idea.

* F-16 Fighting Falcon
          Wouldn't it be cool if we had air support aha aha nooo don't drop that thousand-pounder danger-close your so sexy aha aha
          I'm actually super biased because I work on military fighter aircraft but y'know if you wanted to add air support I think that'd be jackpot frfr no cap

* Interaction with named characters
          Why wouldn't I want to talk to Aspera about uhm uhh uhmmm uhh idk how's the weather 
          Or maybe more interaction with each other depending on how long they've spent together in battle.
          1-3 missions Aspera might say "We've lost armor. Recommend vacating the area." But say 6-7 (67 mmm sexy number) missions with the same commander and they die, she might mourn the loss, complimenting their competence in battle. Or perhaps 10 missions down the line, she'll comment on their personality, suggesting that they've begun interacting on friendly terms outside of firefights.

* Elevation
          This simple change (and its inevitable accompanying changes to angles and range by introducing another dimension to ground combat) will give you significant leeway to play around with the map, unit movement and maybe even utilizing the destructible environment in order to prevent enemy movement while helping your own objective. (Destroying bridges, hiding in trees and the ilk. All that fun stuff.)

Ok im tired goodnight

Found this game in one of your recent posts in Twitter.(2 or 3 days ago after the latest build was uploaded)

Very promising, took the 0.C build, operating tanks felt like Company of Heroes 2 but modern and in a alt. universe like Forever Winter just by the world build alone and i actually thought this was based on the middle eastern wars featuring USA tanks and Soviet tanks till i realize the names and tank design were different other than the older models.

Lots of stuff going on in just a few seconds either a win or i lose a tank despite angled and facing its front armor (some cases ammo rack kill mostly on Marrow and Aspera) but that's armor degrading for you (although im a little disappointed the ANGLED armor doesn't seem to stop that being getting my tank destroyed sometimes the integrity was down to 1 more shot before it eventually cracks and cause heavy damage...)

Tried using a set of old tank models boy i tend to forget how slow the reload is compared to our two named tankers so i have to make to reverse after each shot.

lots of trial and error on the game mechanics but i had fun.

Feedback and suggestions:

2 Player COOP:
Think there's a possibility of a COOP mode probably a YEAR after releasing the full game? somehow i wanna see how this works out when playing with a friend in the future. (2 player ONLY)

Character Perma-death and crew mount & dismount, Hi-jacking abandoned tanks:

Theres a chance of character perma-death being implemented? in cases like Aspera was KIA but the story goes on, similar to DEAD STATE 1 after our supposed MC was taken by the infected but the other survivors that are playable will continue on. Incase the tank was knocked out maybe showing some survivors climbing out of it and retreat to safety. (Purely AI) 

maybe hijacking enemy tanks incase of a SUDDEN RAID or let troopers to move around while the tank is oblivious or too busy fighting our tanks. Other suggestion RISKY, surviving crews from a destroyed tank would interact with the wrecks of the enemies, see if the tank is still intact despite its armor being compromised but once the crew gets it working on field repairs on critical modules it'll be in a crippling state or its armor is compromised based on where its mainly hit, if its the other side then it should be fine.

Infantry vs tanks:
In cases of being too close to an enemy tank, maybe we would set a COMMAND for infantry only to lob a nade through the tank hatch to neutralize the threat, this also applies to enemy troops if our tank gets too close and stationary for too long while under fire they will do the same.

FPS:
Im not sure how others deal with this but how HEAVY is the current game setting suppose to be? i just realized my GPU was running 60-90% for a game thats mostly pixelated with details during the most intense battles when theres a HUGE explosion by a tank (ammo rack) causing FPS drop, runs very smooth in the tutorial missions.

Running 1650 for this, most cases of just a quick skirmish its often 30-40, for tutorial missions its 50-70+ fps considering how small it was, INTENSE missions like mission 4 really rocked the FPS between 20-60 whenever explosions, smoke and multiple units are involved and the battle escalating very quickly.


More than 1 platoon:
I was wondering how will this work out IF the 4 vehicle limit was extended for certain operations in larger maps (to the point that we deploy all available vehicles in the motor pool) and we get to command 2 or 3 platoons considering WE COULD have a Support the Frontline type of mission and take over command, similar cases of Mission 4 we get to command the Rear Guard Units that were already in the map rather than us deploying our spare vehicles.


Command Panels:
I would like to suggest some additional commands

Stop and Fire (Hotkey Suggestion:G or Mouse 4 or 5 if possible?) once setting a pathway, any target on sight they will stop and fire and drive off for cases of crossing narrow streets but with alleyways to quickly disengage or when you wanna try to cross the street in a form of convoy, one unit keeps going the one following stops and fire before moving out. Im aware that we can just use the TACTICAL PAUSE but i was wondering if that's a possible option for the ones that are gonna challenge themselves with REAL TIME scenarios than relying on the PAUSE.

FULL DIRECT CONTROL: (Hotkey suggestion: H)
While WE DO have direct control, its mostly on the steering while leaving the aim to our gunner, i was thinking how difficult is it to implement both movement and our aim, considering we are mostly top down aiming with either mouse or ARROW KEYS (LEFT AND RIGHT) to aim our shot, maybe in a way to FIRE BEYOND our range and the enemies as well? (Infantry scouts ahead or a spare tank gets closer from a different angle as a diversion, player tank stays back out of range and sight but line of fire is there, just not within our optic range)

Hull direction: (Suggested default Hotkey:R)
Its a little pain to use the path way mechanic to adjust our tanks or make it U-TURN unless it doesn't have neutral steering? Just a quick command to R for rotation of the hull to adjust its armor or quickly facing a threat from behind but turns in place. This is only for tracked vehicles.

SQUAD CONTROL: (Hot key suggestion: Ctrl+1-2)
In cases of fast pace action, maybe we could apply the HOTKEY SQUAD CONTROL?

Just like Company of Heroes, we select multiple units (in my case of 4 units ill just go by DUO so one team is 2 tanks under team 1 and the other half is team 2) and then CTRL 1 to form a new squad rather than individual units to make use of quick selection of units, again im aware of TACTICAL PAUSE but this one is just a suggestion for those that wants a raw RTS of tank combat and not using the pause mechanic to react on the fly.

If we are to return to DEFAULT individual unit, maybe a quick hotkey or command to disband the team and return to individual 1,2,3,4 selection commands (Hotkey for Disband squad: J)

Generic chat boxes (Mostly minor details but nothing wrong with a little more impressiveness right??):
Similar to Aspera and Marrow when they REACT in combat but this one is for tankers that didnt have a name yet or just simple Generic characters (RNG avatars but faces are covered or eyes not revealed but their outfits and body shape tells their identity in the matter)


OFF MAP CALL INS & Logistic Units or Engineers for salvaging parts from wrecks:(Hotkey Suggestion: Holding T and the Panel appears, release and it will retract and go hidden)

I red a comment suggesting this mechanic about salvaging spoils of war mid game and not AFTER, maybe we can take a piece from Company of Heroes 3 and implement a panel that offers support whether calling in back up (reserves from our motor pool so its VERY LIMITED), airstrike if available (im still thinking whats the COST of this and then theres the LONG COOLDOWN) , off map barrage (if we bought an mobile artillery piece like an M109 or MLRS vehicles regardless of how old they are)  or just simply RECOVERY UNITS to salvage the wrecks by tow or just take it apart on site while our fighting forces will guard the area for awhile (considering we don't have a time limit here unless its a URGENT MISSION) i did thought about a support truck to bring in the tools and maybe armor replacement (ERA and other add-ons from our storage) to fix up our battered units while its good and all it only repairs and replaces the ADD-ON and not our tank's armor, lets not forget the AI can make a counter attack and catching us with our backs exposed so its rather a RISKY FACTOR time to time unless the player guarantees a STRONG DEFENSE while the supports work (20-50s at best in terms of action?) or make it realistic and turn it to a SUB OBJECTIVE of "DEFEND THE ENGINEERS" for 2-3 minutes during the counter attack scenario whether the already spawned enemies on the map or off screen spawn from various entry points of their territory. (Mostly in missions where we have to fight 2-3 groups of squads or the large amount when we tried to escape the encirclement mission but it might be too much)

Side missions (Claiming spoils and other missions):

Continuation of the Support units, maybe a mission where this time we secure each site full of wrecks that we destroyed last mission but we are just claiming our spoils (mostly the smaller maps) with two simple objectives: Secure the Site and Defend the Engineers from a possible counter attack or survivors that were left unchecked.

probably some quick missions randomly turned disasters because of a unfortunate encounter with a battalion or facing a large group of heavy tanks, ATGMs, heavy infantry with ATs or an elite group (the hardest AI you can create) thats a BIG threat to the current line up.

Maybe also a MISSION MODE in completed campaigns. particularly side mission in claiming wrecks can vary from a simple scavenge run (RNG map sizes vary as a DIFFICULTY) to unfortunate encounter of a massive group of reinforcements enemies or patrol. and only have to defend against an incoming wave for 2-4 minutes depending on the wreckage whether the already destroyed tanks from the previous mission or RNG wreck sites (RNG feels like an easier option)

Purchase of units, crew and parts:
Still wondering if a store and depot for buy and sell are already planned but not yet READY. Im curious if you got it all planned already once game currency is now established on the future builds.



Crafting/improvised modification and repairs of battered tanks after a mission if auto-repair is not an option: 
Similar to what the tankers did in WW2, they would grab parts from a wrecked tank, weapons, intact armor skirts, modules, etc., strip a piece of armor and just slap it on our tanks for extra protection or extra firepower if we cannot afford a proper protection in the store for the older models or maybe in cases of QUICK REPAIR and not the standard if you decided to make it more of a semi-management when we are not in a mission.

Lots of stuff in mind but that might be too ambitious for this game at the moment. so ill just keep it like this for now.
I played this more often despite completing everything. A bit of suggestion when doing REPLAYS. maybe make the Enemy spawns RANDOM or is this story BASED?

Overall best Indie game ive had since Pacific Drive, mix of RTS Company Of Heroes 2 & 3, War Thunder for its modular damage, armor mechanics.

Looking forward to this dream game of an RTS i wished to play. :D

Thoroughly enjoyed this. The core gameplay is already solidified if you ask me, it only just needs polishing and more content.

So I will be starting this section with suggestions for the armory.

QOL

- Allow dragging of vehicle order in the armory instead of trying to figure out the click order. (This is for comfortably setting vehicles to the 1-4 shortcut hotkey)

- Lots of dragging in the armory if I want to extensively play around with crew and modules, maybe a hotkey like Ctrl+Click to instantly bring crew/modules into the storage would help?

- A "Set to default" button: When I swap around modules too much and just want to reset

- A "View vehicle" button: It's a shame I can only see the vehicles only from a top down view, or the limited camera angles the armory screen provides.

- Saving and loading squads: It's not a big deal now since there's not many vehicles and modules to change but definitely would save a lot of trouble in the future.

Information

Some mechanics don't explain much and some elaboration on them would be great. Ideally all information should be easily accessible from the game itself

- What do different armor types do? Does internal ceramic composite give me 30% more damage resistance compared to hardened metal?

- The 120mm APFSDS has a "Sabot" tag, what does this mean against a 120mm AP shell? (generally the people playing would know what a sabot means in real life but it would helps players if they knew what the sabot tag does ingame)

- What happens when I load both HE and AP for my 30mms? Does it fire in an alternating belt or switch ammo depending on target?

Overall most of the stats and mechanics are self explanatory so this isn't exactly a big issue. This might be quite nitpicky but if you don't mind, it's a suggestion nonetheless haha

Categorising/Filters

Currently there's a limited selection of vehicles/modules/crew so browsing through all of them isn't so bad now. I can imagine it will get very tedious when more content gets added so I suggest making filters to make finding specific things easier. Maybe a search bar? Idk.

-  Vehicles could be filtered by roles/tags (Heavy, light, MBT, IFV, etc)

-  Modules could be filtered by colours (Grey, Red, Blue, White)

VEHICLES

K-50 Series

Personally I am not a fan of "variants", or at least when they're fairly similar. Think of games where you have 4 guns but in actuality the guns are only like +-1 damage/accuracy/reload speed from one another. Usually this results in the one "meta" choice to be picked by the majority and the rest would basically be ignored. It's fine to have a few variants but I think it would be better to lean into very distinct and unique hulls and let the modules do the smaller tweaks in stats.

K-75A

Love this thing, big front and back module space, and the only hull with both front and back spaces available for engines. One thing I like to do is to remove the front modules and replace it with a small troop bay with the tradeoff of making it sluggish, turning it into a Merkava of sorts. My ideal squad is just a pair of these. This is a prime example of the module system's potential, allowing a vehicle to go through very significant changes through modules rather than just picking a different vehicle altogether. I hope to see more vehicles designed with this level of customisation in mind.

K-115

In-built launchers at the back.. It's really nice when you put a spin on an existing design, personally I feel it would great to see more unique designs like these or even completely original vehicles.

B-30D/B-26

Not much to say other than they're good and servicable IFVs.

Some throwaway vehicle suggestions

You seem to be leaning into the US vs Soviet equipment theme but I hope you would branch out and maybe have some from the other nations? Maybe some Leopards (bias towards 2A4s haha), Merkavas, etc?

- Wheeled fire support vehicles (AMX-10, Styker variants)

- Coaxial gun based vehicles (STRV 103)

- Something completely original

COMBAT

Amazing gameplay, nothing bad particularly sticks out other than a few things that need ironing out + a few suggestions.

- Markers/Flags: Allow markers to be put on the map, it would be helpful in keeping track of vehicles I spot with infantry and running back afterwards. Maybe even have different types of markers such as ATK/DEF/etc?

- ROE indicator: A small icon hovering somewhere over my units (maybe a crossed out target) would be nice to show ROE is turned off. Would help me over checking each unit individually whether I forgot to turn it on/off.

The rockets..  might be too strong? It's quite the get out of jail card and I've been surprised by how big the AoE is, it's strength amplified by the AI liking to bunch up at times. When my tanks enter an unfavourable duel ideally I would pop smoke, fall back and reposition to a better firing spot. But the rockets kinda just bring out an "I win" when i'm outnumbered 2 to 4 provided the rocket doesn't miss. It's launchers also reload fairly quick and coming in sets of 4 or 6 is pretty plenty.

I think it's alright if it's
strong
has a high magazine
reloads fast

But it can't be all 3.

Infantry

So apparently this is the update where infantry were added. I cannot imagine what the game was like before that, they are an amazing addition. Moving infantry through the building blocks and peeking out the narrow alleys and windows scout out tanks for your armor, supporting fire from said windows. It's all great.

Improvements can be made, such as the imperfect pathfinding. Running into corners and not properly curving around them, refusing to go through a certain alleyway and just go completely around the block. 

Enemy infantry sometimes tends to stand in the middle of the road when their vehicle dies, would be better if they scurry to the nearest building instead of waiting to be finished off

Other comments:

I enjoy flavor text on the modules/vehicles/etc. Not much to say other than can't wait to see more of it.

Full replay when completing a game? I get that it's a pretty big feature to work on I'm not expecting much to come out of it haha

Maybe some pattern camos on the vehicles? idk

Bugs:

Hotkey 7 and 8 are not working (I brought 4 vehicles with all of them having infantry)

Overall, loved it and still playing on occasion trying to do the missions with different squads. I will be following the game's development very closely. C:

I don't have a ton of useful feedback to give, but I do have lots of praises (lol). I guess I kind of just love everything about this game? I played the whole thing today, and the art direction is just wonderful. Apart from some slight readability issues when things get heated, you've definitely nailed something special here, and of course the lovable characters breathe even more life into it, (pretty please add more of them xD). The only thing that comes to mind as I'm sure you've thought of already is filling the void out of bounds with some terrain to make it nice and seamless. There are even already little bits of worldbuilding in place, so seeing where that goes will be neat. All this plus the moody soundtrack make it feel deceivingly complete.

Playing the game, the first thing I notice is that you've got a pretty clear idea of what you want it to be; it's confident in itself. It lacks content in its current state of course, but it's obvious you've got a lot of that sorted out ahead of time, with what looks to be the foundations for a campaign mode and a story line. I saw there was footage on your twitter showing off ATGMs and APS, massive W and a clear next addition.

I would like to mention some difficulties with planning maneuvers around vehicles in a formation that have different speeds, and it might be worth looking into a way to order vehicles to move together at the pace of the slowest in the group.

Very cool game, very promising, I would support this any way I can in a heartbeat.

Any chance of the player being able to use more than 1 tank of the same type? e.g. Have 2 K-50UMs alongside 2 B-30s

Ran into some issue with the amount of modules, where it is very hard to switch around what i want. Turns out if you cancel out of the module edit screen while you have a module in hand, it will deposit into the inventory, even over other items.

I gave it a go and I will say that the new tutorial for infantry is... Kinda unfair and somewhat overwhelming for a tutorial mission? I understand that you're trying to show information about visibility for vehicles, but as soon as that section of the tutorial ends, immediately several enemy vehicles pop out and open fire on my IFV's, which was rather surprising since I wasn't able to react fast enough to get smokes or move the tank ahead before I pretty much lost one IFV and infantry in less than a couple of seconds, and the other infantry getting damaged when I panick unloaded. It doesn't feel good that this is what is happening in a tutorial. Obivously on the second attempt I was more prepared but I feel like that probably isn't the intended effect.

As for the rest of the tutorial mission, I found it to be rather jarring as the enemy infantry were always pretty close together and I ended up just basically using my own infantry as scouts whilst my vehicles destroyed buildings.

I get the concept, but I do think it'd make more sense to have the 4th tutorial mission focused around the IFV and infantry by themselves rather than have the tank be a component in the mission, as otherwise it feels a bit like there's a lot to juggle (Managing Tanks, IFV's, and Infantry all at once can be a hassle, especially if you throw in enemy vehicles and infantry into the mix, which I feel should be left for the game itself, like in mission 2).

I think it'd be a good way to demonstrate the firepower of IFV's and infantry, and allow you to better demonstrate how they work offensively (attacking infantry in buildings), and defensively (setting up in buildings to counter enemy vehicles), and more easily demonstrate visibility and engagement by having the IFV act as more of a scout unit that can detect units at range (and focus on ROE) and allow infantry to move between buildings to engage in ambush. Am I saying that's how it should be? No, I'm not a game designer. But I just feel in my head this makes more sense.

Also, I confess I preferred the older versions 'top down' style in the customisation menu where it was at an angle, I initially got confused in this version and mistook the IFV for the Tank a couple of times, despite the spotlight, due to the Tank being in the center. I know, a really minor and petty thing, but I just think it looked better in the old version.

I also found a visual bug: I discovered press M automatically completes your mission, however, if you press N and M together at the same time, you get a combination of both screens (See image) - I thought if I pressed M, it might open a map for some reason, so I must've accidentally discovered a dev command there.

Very exciting game! Can't wait to see another update. I would like to ask will there be more tanks to be used at the player side, like the K-75UM and K-50BM.

Another issue i would like to say is about the camera setting. would it be possible to have a camera position that is on the commander's cupola on a tank? this would be an immersing experience.

Really excited to see how this develops! The visual style is very cool and the UI reminds me of Highfleet. I wonder is there going to be any form of CAS and/or Artillery that can be called in?

This is a very exciting game and I love the UI and design elements you're going for here!

Some notes / feedback from a more casual RTS player:

- I like the click-drag system for moving, but I feel like it's going to be wasted ultimately with the right click to move feature. But as it stands; both movement systems are a bit clunky (of course, this is very early in development so I expect it'll be refined as it goes on!) but I think it'd be nice if instead of having to click drag from the tank, you could click to select, THEN click and drag, as I found myself frequently trying to select the unit, then click dragging to move, when i had to unselect the tank, then click drag.

Speaking of the click-drag and the right clicking, I noticed a slight flaw (bug?) where if you use the right click to move, and then try to set their aim halfway through, you'll instead up changing where they move to instead.

- Many elements of the UI I tend to find are really small, and this isn't coming from someone using a 4K screen or anything, just a stanard 1920x1080 screen, requiring me to lean in sometimes to get a better idea of what's happening exactly.

- Whilst I understand some weapon armaments and what the acronyms mean (e.g APHE - Armour Piercing High Explosive), not everyone is gonna know what some of these means, and sometimes going that extra mile to explain what the acronyms means can go a long way for player readibility. Of course I can tell this is the type of game that would appeal to those who are more militarically inclined (if that's even a word) but I think it helps out a lot, especially if you start adding more rounds in.

- Its great you're implementing some form of INF combat with IFV's, it left me excited! But it would be nice to have a tutorial that covers these elements. The tutorial missions focused heavily on tanks but if you're going to implement other vehicles like IFV's and have infantry accompanying them, I think its fair to expect a form of guidance for how to use them.

- It would be nice if you could use the number selection keys to select multiple or to shift click them from the side bar, especially if they get split off.

I hope this is helpful feedback, I found the game to be fairly easy to grasp and easy-ish so far, my only real criticism is just there's a LOT of stuff on screen, and its a bit hard to grasp what it all means (especially with how small the UI is at present), definitely following you on twitter and I hope there can be other places to keep track like a discord or something!

Great game so far.
However, in my opinion, it hasn’t yet realized the full potential of a tank-based CQB game. It’s a great and fundamentally solid CQB experience, but as it stands, the connection to tanks feels somewhat limited.

1. You should really consider implementing a modular damage system and a crew mechanic for tanks, similar to War Thunder or GHPC. It doesn’t need to be overly intricate, but these features are essential.
2. Assuming the first point is addressed, I believe the current observation system for tanks could use refinement. Right now, only the gunner has a vision cone, but in reality, the tank commander should also have their own field of view.
3. In urban combat, a tank’s true adversaries are often concealed infantry and their anti-tank weapons—actual tank vs. tank engagements in cities are relatively rare.
4. It would be great if crew members could dismount to conduct reconnaissance (a task usually handled by supporting infantry, but since the game’s setting involves isolated tank units, the crew will have to manage). Dismounted crew would be hard to detect but extremely vulnerable—if spotted, they’d almost certainly be eliminated.

Awesome it would be nice to see infantry squads in the future

Good game, here are my impressions after playing the demo:

Soundscape

- I like the music, the combat sounds are also competent, good job on that.

- We need different response sounds for each unit slot, maybe even based on tank models, with older models having more static/noisy responses.

- It seems like the 100mm family cannons sound the same, they should make different sounds based on caliber.

Writing

- Some words in the writing are too hyperbolic for the grounded vibe you are going with, for example "extremely powerful", "ancient cannon" and "The Empire" in some tank descriptions feels like I'm reading 40K and not something inspired by Brigador. 

- Consider using a Republic as a background setting, it acommodates broken ideals and old days nostalgia better.

Graphics

-The buildings could use a bit more detailing, especially on the rooftops.

Loot & gear

- Need better differentiation in engines than just linear upgrades, maybe some engines drive faster in reverse or better torque for smashing through obstacles? Quality over quantity is always better, same case for the tanks, try not to have xx variations of one tank.

- Loadouts don't save after exiting the game, I assume this will be fixed soon.

- Plows as equipment to better break/push objects aside.

- Don't go overboard with rpg like stat modifications, it will only detract from the importance of tactics. 

Now this depends how deep you want gear acquisition to be but the best part of being a merc is looting. Make it a core mechanic, with tanks and gear recovered after battle, maybe clean kills can increase the chance of salvage? Soldiers of Anarchy handles unit acquisition in a very interesting way where capturing & salvaging is just as important as defeating an enemy. 

If so give players limited salvage slots so we have to choose? Get logistics vehicles so we can drag back more/heavier salvage? I think this is more interesting than "here money, go shopping", since a warn torn anarchic city would function more on bartering than currency. Maybe even go on branching paths for different end game gear.

Pathfinding

- Friendly tanks should make room for allies and return to position after.

- Enemies often clown car themselves together, they need better pathfinding, same for our units.

Maybe each unit should have small personal space bubble they don't cross?

Weak vs strong tanks

- To me it looks like this game will suffer from the same issue Battletech games does, where heavier units are better by default due to a combination of few unit slots and most missions being straight forward kill stuff. One way around that is a more varied mission roster, like evacuation, sabotage, air defense with self-propelled AA, etc.

Will you sell the game on itch?

Well that's all I can think of for now, good game and good luck!

Great game! I always wanted to see a game based purely on Company of Heroes tank gameplay. Here are some UX thoughts:

• The color palette is quite monochrome, so it is hard to distinguish the tanks from the other vehicles and buildings.
• I would encourage removing the glitch effects on text and UI (you can still glitch UI on taking hits etc., but make an option to turn it off) for better clarity of UI.
• Pick a more legible font, even though it might be slightly off your style. Try to use sentence case where possible. (Capitals are now overused, which reduces legibility.)
• Check your texts for contrast vs the background. Use backplates where needed.
• It is not clear what the tanks' health bars or morale mean. Often, destroyed tanks have green rectangles under them.
• It is hard to distinguish the destroyed tank from the functional tank.
• It is easy to forget that the tank has a locked view direction.
• When controlling tanks as a group, they are often pushing each other, which looks weird and is not convenient for the player.

Here are some preferences:

• Tanks vs tanks only may get boring too soon. I would think of expanding the player's fantasy.
• Adding some basic engagement/retention mechanics (like XP, leveling, and perks) would help a lot in the further direction of development.

Looking forward to further updates!

Even with the limited amount of content in already, really enjoyed this one, think the gameplay concepts have legs (perhaps unsurprising given I'm a big fan of both Brigador and Door Kickers). Pulling off a flank down a sidestreet while one tank pinned the enemy frontally so I could have another roll out, ammo rack him then duck back into cover, and a chaotic battle inside the factory complex in the 2nd to last mission felt excellent.

Really the only critique I could level is wrt to the character design of the tank commander. Now given how early days it is I've no idea how placeholder the art is, and not to say that the anime girl tank commander angle is one I'm opposed to in the broad sense, but the game has a such a pleasantly grungy aesthetic with the tanks and battle maps and a similar tone in the briefings writing that Aspera's design stands out somewhat jarringly for being dressed and just looking contrary to that style, and to her description. I don't look at that design and think 'yeah she could command anything at all with an iron fist'- Some more grime (oil smears, a bandage or bruise, the signs of the hard work and hard knocks that accrue just by operating multi-tonne warmachines in the field), a harder look (The description makes me picture someone a bit more in the vein of Balalaika from Black Lagoon tbh), a more fitting style of dress (get that jacket up over the shoulders, some webbing or other field equipment on her body, or put her in coveralls or a uniform proper) and perhaps a different style to the art (though I know that's a potentially very big ask) would go a very long way I think to unifying the vision of the world presented and the characters in it. 

Brigador's actually a great example of this: To be a Brigador, and betray everything one has ever known for a paycheck (or in the case of Spacers, travel to distant worlds to screw them over for said paycheck) is ugly work, and so the Brigadors available to play as are mostly ugly people, and even the conventionally attractive ones look a bit grimy, a bit run down just like the world the game presents them in. Not to say that the characters in this should be the same I should clarify, just pointing out how matching a game's story/context and its character designs can elevate the result.

All that said, the fact I only have one thing to needle at and it's a single character portrait indicates more about how little is actually wrong here, and how much is obviously right. I'm eagerly looking forward to seeing this project develop, dig the concept, the core gameplay is on really solid footing and the tactical layer aesthetic is strong. 

Really happy to have found this, it’s exactly the kind of game I’ve been looking for for a long time.

Played through the tutorials and missions, the controls are intuitive and while challenging, losses I took on missions seemed fair as I put my vehicles into a bad position and didn’t make good use of smoke and cover.

- Game runs smoothly on the Steam Deck using Proton 9.0 without any problems other than the interface getting cut off on the left side of the screen when playing at 1280x800 resolution. I didn’t encounter any crashes or bugs while playing 

- Minor suggestion would be to have a little indicator dot or icon on each unit to indicate that you’re about to pop smoke similar to the one you get when using ordinance. It might help if you’re issuing orders to multiple vehicles when paused and can’t remember if you deployed smoke or not.

Played it for a few hours, it's pretty fun! Love the aesthetic and the feeling of the camera in particular.

-Tutorial is good, basic controls are quite easy to understand, perhaps look direction indicator can be more obvious. Am still a bit confused on the smoke launcher deployment, was expecting to be able to deploy them while paused.

-Runs fairly well, didn't notice any frame drops (AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 6-Core Processor, 32 GB, RTX3060 Ti)

-Difficultly feels tough, but fair. Doesn't seem like any losses I took were unavoidable, personally enjoyed that the odds are constantly stacked against the player.

It's also a bit jarring when the music completely stops when paused.

Overall pretty fun!