Again, this update is focusing on new features and quality of life updates. There's a lot featurewise I wanted to bring in from other titles, namely mission briefings, a hit/kill log, and loading screen hints.

AWE has had issues with communicating useful gameplay info to the player, with information sometimes split between multiple out of the way sources. 

Mission Briefings

A staple of every combat sim, the mission briefing gives the player an idea of what'll come up in the mission. It's a storytelling medium (if only there was a plot), and a useful source of mission specific advice.

The mission overview gives some quick background and tells you what you need to do in the mission.

The friendly assets section lets you know what you're working with, and gives hints on how to make the most of your craft and the assistance of allies in the mission.

The enemy assets section outlines the enemy forces you'll encounter in the mission, and provides advice for engaging them. This section is sometimes based off confirmed enemy reportings, but in the field it is more often based on speculation and estimates, not including actual enemy numbers. Always be ready to deal with more than you bargained for.

Debriefings at the end of missions tell you what the mission has (or hasn't) accomplished, and give you access to a combat log with a breakdown of your score and the targets you've destroyed. If your ship was destroyed, the combat log will also tell you how you were killed e.g. "Altus F.2 'Bounder' destroyed by collision with a Falchion-Class Light Carrier" or "Altus F.2 'Nomad' destroyed by gunfire from an N-163 Asag"

The new screenshots taken for the briefings were made possible with the new custom camera bind (F2), giving me freedom to position the camera anywhere in a packaged build at runtime. I will likely be messing around more with this, sticking up some new screenshots for the itch page and maybe some alternate loading screens. 

Hit/Kill Log

I started work on AWE with an ArmA 3 mentality of not liking hitmarkers or kill displays, instead depending on your perception to confirm hit effects. However, I then racked up a stupid amount of hours in War Thunder, where the occasional satisfaction of 'Aircraft Destroyed' in a long game could not be understated. AWE so far has depended on shot hitting/enemy destruction SFX /VFX to make hits clear, but I'm a definite fan of the racking up hit count into TARGET DESTROYED.

It might not be everyone's cup of tea, possibly obstructing your view, so I'll be looking into tying it to toggleable setting.

Revamped Loading Screens

Loading screens first came in around the time of course mode and basic training, this first version showed displayed loading a mission, but not in the (sometimes lengthy) transition back to the menu.

These visuals were becoming outdated, and weren't representative of the AWE experience outside of course mode. The last update saw a replacement image featuring a REDFORS fleet with current AWE visuals and a fade in effect.

This update brings with it a working load progress indicator, and hints. The hints displayed are categorised to be applicable to the mission you're loading in, so you won't be told Altus specific facts while going on an Asag mission, and you won't hear about dogfighting on a VR course mission. There are 27 loading hints at the moment, some of which might not have the best layout.

I shelved some new content for this update to give it more time and prioritise on features I could work on quickly enough. The next major update, v0.30, should be coming with a new gamemode and fleshed out versions of the current WIP missions. As for the timeframe, I'm slightly hoping to be done by Christmas?

Anyway, I can at least hope this update won't demand a day 1 hotfix like last time...

All Changes

• Added real time combat log to the HUD, counts up hits and shows enemies destroyed in the last few seconds
  
• Added timed explosion to player Altus F.2 variant. At long last, you can actually die in AWE if you don't eject!
  • Also reimplemented REAC temperature skyrocketing out of control when a ship is crippled, a feature missed from pre 0.27 AWE
• Added mission briefings/debriefings
  • The briefings provide some mission background and hints
  • And debriefings give you access to a detailed combat log with killcounts and more score info
• Added loading screen progress display and loading hints. These hints are tailored for the mission you’re taking on
• Added a glow effect to a lot of ingame text, mostly on the HUD.
• Added custom camera, made mostly for screenshots but can be fun to mess around with. Press F2 for custom camera, press shift+F2 for custom camera with stopped time
• Camera movement using scaled delta time has been fixed, so you can look around in timestop again
• Increased Altus F.2 laser damage
  • In v0.26 and before, you could destroy an Asag in one shot (2 hits) by firing at over 75% weapon energy. With v0.27, weapon energy damage scaling was left out, leaving the unscaled base shot damage insufficient to take out an Asag with 2 hits
  • Base shot damage has been increased from 16 -> 22
  • Non player Altus variant has been increased from 12 -> 22 for parity
  • A simplified version of weapon energy scaling has been introduced. Laser cannons deal a flat 25% extra damage with weapon energy charged to 100% or beyond. This only affects ships with manual power distribution
• Fixed REAC text not turning red within critical reactor temperature range. Another feature missed in the move to 0.27
  
• Fixed destroyed Altus F.2 remnants not maintaining velocity
• Missile seeker no longer stays on after firing your last missile.  I’m surprised I didn’t get around to this sooner as it’s peeved me for a while.
• Fixed sensor probes occasionally spawning remnants twice
• Fixed bugs with using pause quit to menu button on course levels
• Score value adjustments
  • Fixed the chance of being credited kills twice
  • Sensor Probe
    • Gun hit score reduced from 20->10
  • G-110 Transport
    • Gun hit score reduced from 20->15
  • CRISIS Battlestation
    • Destruction score increased from 400->3000
    • Grade requirements of Course 2 have been adjusted in turn
• Doubled time bonus animation speed after mission complete
• Fixed sound priority issues plaguing Course 2, and increased the audible distance of turret/reactor explosions.