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End of June Update - Working Logistics
🕑 Added 2025-06-30 19:35:52 +0000 UTCHello everyone,
First off, we posted a video to our Youtube page showing off the sprite tilting system in greater detail. If you haven't seen that yet, go do that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaOjgIA66fs
With that, all work relating to updating the game's sprite graphics system is essentially complete.
Now, to get to the meat of what was accomplished this month, we spent a lot of time actually fixing up and properly implementing the resource logistics system. While a lot of features have been implemented for a while now - namely the conveyor/pipeline system - a lot of the resource logistics system and related systems (such as basebuilding) were broken or in a half-working state and so for the longest time, resources and basebuilding were essentially unusable. As you can see from the video, a lot of it is now in a working state, with worker and logistics units now being smart enough to automatically seek out places to carry resources to and construct new buildings, without the player needing to wrangle these units directly too much.
Here are some notes on the video, which includes both new features and things that are currently bugs or oversights:
Logistics and resource buildings have a visualized radius that shows where any associated units will gather from and deposit to. The position and radius can be re-assigned using the command wheel.
Resource units can now automatically dump their cargo if there's nowhere to place it (this can also be ordered manually by the player). In addition to being convenient, this will hopefully lead to some interesting gameplay on the part of opposing players, where bad resource management means piles of refined resources can be snagged in raids. We also plan on making the fuel drums explosive, so enemy players can exploit that as well.
Large junk piles and derelicts can now be salvaged from.
While forklifts are shown as being the method of delivering supplies in this video, we'll likely change it so that initially, all delivery is done with the Engineers, which are responsible for building construction as well, while Forklifts are accessed after building a factory.
Similarly, we'll also make it so basic infantry can harvest scrap, with those large scrap harvester vehicles being accessible once a factory is built, and thus essentially will be a major upgrade to your economy. This is not shown in the video as currently the game has issues with lots of infantry units harvesting scrap at once.
This video doesn't reflect the finalized build order and speed of the game; the video is almost half an hour, which would be a pretty absurd amount of time to spend building up your base like that. The construction and gathering speed of many units still needs to be heavily tweaked and balanced. The final game will also include other activities for units to partake in (beyond combat as well, obviously), such as using your basic infantry to dig trench networks and other fortifications to better help defend your base.
Those teal blocks on the righthand part of the UI are a bug.
Other key resource features, namely the Recruit logistics/reinforcements system, are still on the to-do list.
Buildings under construction won't use those ugly scaffolding sprites in the final game, and will instead have dedicated construction sequences for every building. The scaffolding sprites are just a placeholder.
Most buildings will also be able to be rotated 90-180 degrees in the final game, so that the player can build more efficient base layouts based on the entrances and exits of buildings for resource units and produced units.
You may be worried about how the tall buildings and pipelines will obstruct the player's view. We plan on solving this by including a system where units behind other large units and buildings will be shown as a team-color silhouette through the obstructing building or unit (other games like AOE2 and Starcraft 2 use this function). We may also include a Stronghold-like mechanic where pressing a certain hotkey will show only the foundations of buildings, giving you a clearer view of your base's layout.
The automatic nature of worker units can be disabled with a UI button, in case you want to have more manual control over them.
The forklifts using a very different looking sprite compared to the barrels/crates they pick up will be changed. While it wouldn't be possible to make the crate/barrels they pick up match the one they carry exactly due to how resource logic works fundamentally, we do want to at least make it so the sprite they carry at least distinguishes between carrying solid materials and fuel drums.
That's all for the resource system for now. Next month, the resource system should be largely completed, and we'll be able to show off systems like the Recruit reinforcements system, as well as vehicles that harvest by deploying their crews to pick up scrap and materials.
As always, thank you all for the continued support for this project.
Comments
Jens Bolanz
Amazing work, you seem to have strong opinions what your game needs and i really like that. Staying true to your believes about what kind of game you want to make will create an authentic experience and in the end that is what most player will care about, don't compromise about what you think is needed. Cheers!
Henske
A lot of the time the game is tested with the audio muted. You're not missing too much, since it's mostly just engine noises and the announcer nagging about certain buildings having full storage or low power. There's also a lot that's missing, like harvesting units make no sounds when gathering, buildings don't have kind of ambient noises when working, etc. Base construction will definitely be slower than in most RTS games, but we definitely want to have it go faster than it is in this video. A lot of the slowness is due to some missing or half-functional systems as well. Also worth pointing out is that we don't intend for the early game to only include base-building, since we also want the player doing other things like building trench networks and defenses and scouting, which this video doesn't show since those systems are missing (and also if I showed scouting in this video, it'd just be units crossing a completely empty wasteland). There are also some missing systems that the player would engage with relating to basebuilding, such as altering/leveling terrain for base expansion, as well as the recruit reinforcements system, which is currently being worked on. EDIT: Also worth pointing out that OpenRA (and by extension, DORF) already have a gamespeed option for both singleplayer and multiplayer, though it can only be set before the game actually begins.
GG
The video up top has no audio... is that intentional? About the speed of the game: I like that it is not as fast and stressful as Starcraft for example. But I can understand that building up your base for half an hour before entering combat might also not be a great choice. I would love to see an option to adjust game speed like in the old command and conquer series. So players in multiplayer for example could play on fast speed, while singleplayer guys like me, could relax with normal or even slow speed.
Henske
Yes, units and building can block shots, although we'll need to rework the game's attack logic since right now, units are stupid and will just shoot into eachother's backs.
Harrison Varley
Does the game take into account unit heights vs shooting heights? Like, would a short infantry block the elevated turret of a Heavy Tank behind it, or does the game account for unit-blocking and sizes using the z-sprite information?
AzzAzf
the hype is so mega, logistics is so underrated!!
Henske
Not sure about something like a mode that just has explicitly more streamlined building mechanics like in a normal RTS, but a decent band-aid solution would be what we have now, which is options for more starting resources, so base construction in the beginning is a lot faster if the players preferred. Another thing to note is that generally, while this game will have multiplayer, it is being built more around a singleplayer campaign experience, and we are thinking it would be best if the SP campaigns were designed around slowly easing the player into a lot of the more complex mechanics. Specifically, the very first mission or two shouldn't involve base building at all and should just be about easing the player into the basics of unit movement and attacking, and the early basebuilding missions after that would likely only include Recruit reinforcements as the only "resource" system, with the following missions only introducing true resources properly. Maybe even the early missions involving proper resources should only include them as pre-refined resource stockpiles you move around with forklifts, with harvesting scrap and building oil derricks being something introduced even later. A lot of RTS campaigns usually dole out new units and expand the tech tree over the course of the campaign, and I think it would be best to apply that same design philosophy to the resource and logistics systems as well.
Lord of the Glass Cube 유리큐브 제왕
I do have a question though about future plans. I'm not opposed to having longer 'start-up' periods and longer games in general, or more involved economic mechanics in RTS games, but are you guys considering having a quick-play mode or something where the economy systems are simplified or streamlined? My concern is that players that are newer or less experienced to RTS games may find the rather in depth base management of DORF to be a bit daunting to handle all at once. I suppose it probably won't be too big of a problem, and the speed of the game will probably be fine tuned as things go along, but I do think it's worth keeping in mind
Lord of the Glass Cube 유리큐브 제왕
I'm glad that a big chunk of the foundations are out of the way. This was very exciting to see! And man, a 27 minute demo? Very nice!
Harrison Varley
Hey! Congratulations on mostly finishing the sprite system. It must feel amazing to complete what was started so long ago!
VirtualFax
"Ow! Okay, okay, I will work!"
