This is a small, yet quite important update for Unsung Heroes 1898. This update builds off of the infantry AI rework from the previous update, adding two additional behavioral states (the defend and scatter states) and implementing cover mechanics for the infantry AI.

New Cover Mechanics

Originally, AI were unable to take cover in the environment, leaving them often exposed to enemy fire during combat. The scatter and defend states allow the infantry AI to finally take cover behind certain objects. In the demo, this is specifically behind any of the sandbag models (in future updates, this will be expanded to include other environmental objects). When the defend or scatter commands are called, infantry AI will search for nearby cover positions and stand behind them. In the “defend” state, they’ll typically use cover to shield themselves mostly from oncoming attacks, but will not fully hide behind cover. In the “scatter” state, they’ll crouch (and in the future, go prone) behind cover, shielding themselves completely from enemies. They’ll then stand to attack when ready before taking cover again. While there are many improvements that will be made to this system in the future, this provides a solid base for allowing infantry AI to protect themselves during battle, making battles longer and more challenging.

Defend and Scatter States

Defend and scatter states operate just like the regroup and charge states, being called by the commanding officer. With the defend state, infantry AI will either take cover and search for enemies to attack or stand in place and look for enemies if there is no cover available. If cover is available, infantry AI will almost always stay on the side of cover that the commanding officer is on. This means that the commanding officer can also direct the direction of attack for the infantry unit. Defend is best used when the player wants an infantry unit to stay in one spot for a prolonged period of time while not taking much injury or loss. Scatter is quite the opposite. With this command, infantry units will run as far away from the commanding officer as possible and randomly search around for any enemies. If one is found, they’ll search for cover and attack the enemy from behind. Otherwise, they’ll engage the enemy from a standstill.

One important thing to note is that the defend and scatter states are not fully implemented. The infantry models are not able to go prone yet (this will be fixed with the new infantry models mentioned below). As such, when taking cover infantry will always assume to crouch to stay shielded. In the future, infantry AI will detect the height of the cover and either crouch or go prone depending on how much cover is available.

New Infantry Models

Not implemented in this update, but currently in the pipeline are the new infantry models. These models will include better rigging, new animations, performance enhancements (in the form of LODs and optimized material texturing), and many new details. Pictured below are some of the new details the infantry models will include, such as a water canteen and a holster for handguns. All things going to plan, this infantry model will be implemented in the next major update.

Quick Reminders

Just as a quick reminder, all additional content in this update is only available on the development map of the game, not on the other maps (as stated before, this will be added to preexisting maps when all the infantry AI systems are complete). You can join the Unsung Heroes 1898 Community Discord server (https://discord.com/invite/p8CA9qXgCN). This post is also available on the Venomic Games website: https://venomicgames.com/?p=703

Known Issues

(NOTE: many of these issues were present in the previous update and will be resolved soon)

• Infantry death has not yet been added. While friendly fire is on, infantry can go into negative health. In the next update, survival states will also be implemented that change the behavior of infantry when at low health.
• Infantry still is not holding a rifle in third-person. The new infantry models will include models of their currently holding weapon, which will resolve this issue.
• Enemy soldiers are currently represented as “red-capsules.” This is temporary for the time being until the new infantry models have been created.
• Infantry may bump into each other if their cover destination is the same. This will be fixed later with some additional path-finding improvements.
• Some things that should count as cover, do not. This will be fixed in the main maps in future updates.
• Some behavior states are not fully visible in game (even though they have been implemented), since enemy soldiers do not have the capacity to die yet.
• The objective points have a “progress bar” above them showing if they have been captured or not. This is still not fully implemented yet and does not rotate to follow the player.
• Infantry can not see enemies that are too far away (even with clear line of sight). This is due to testing values on a smaller map and will be fixed at a later date.
• AI will sometimes not be able to find cover even if they are looking at it. This will be fixed with better search radius values.
• Infantry AI does not react quickly to nearby enemies present. This will be changed later to allow for faster reaction.
• Commanding officer SFX (specifically the sound coming from the horse) is quite off. This will be updated in the future with better sounds that fit the model’s animations and movements better.
• The museum map may have weird collision issues on stairs. This will be fixed when better geometry is made (and also when the movement system from the development map gets added to the museum mode).

If you find any additional issues or bugs in the game, please report them in the community discord server.