Major update ! Missions, upgrade system and gameplay fixes

Aerial Destruction has recently received a major update which adds one new mission and many new features.

The new mission named “Frontline Assault” is set during an assault where the allied militaries are attempting to destroy a mutant base. The player will have to destroy the many fortified positions surrounding the base before launching with the allied units the final strike on the base itself.

With this new mission, the game is now consisting in 7 missions, each one playable with the 3 helicopters available in the game. After completing a mission, the helicopter of the mission is unlocked for all the other ones.

Outpost Invasion

Bridge Destruction

Frontline Assault

Convoy Support

Volcanic Island

Ancient Ruins

Camp Defence (defend for as long as possible)

Controls of the helicopters were improved so that each one gives a more different playing experience. The small helicopter is now lighter and much more manoeuvrable, while the heavy helicopters can fly faster and can take more damages.

Along this, an upgrade system has been added to the game. With credits point earned while playing, it makes possible to upgrade in an unlimited way the helicopters armaments and fire power to achieve maximum destruction !

Last, there are many minor bugs which were fixed and adjustments made to improve the gameplay.

Thanks for reading,
Devdan

Firing power and destruction increasement

The game has received a small update which greatly improves the accuracy, firing power and destructivity of the helicopters.

Here is a list of the changes and fixes:

• Fixed the impact of miniguns and 30mm cannons being a little bit offset from the crosshair.
• Miniguns are now deadlier to mutant infantry and vehicles, with a higher radius of damage.
• Rockets are now much more faster, are more explosive and inflict more damages.
• Missiles are travelling faster and can now wipe out entire convoys of mutants.
• Resupply zones are now resupplying cartridges and rockets much more quickly.
• Fixed the cartridges ammo count which was always leaving one unusable cartridge.
• Fixed the ammo and damages warning message sometimes not being displayed.
• Fixed the MH-6 collision boxes.
• Helicopters can now fly at higher speed.

The update should apply instantly, more tweaks are planned for the gameplay so don’t hesitate to let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading,
Devdan

Early Access launch and controls improvements

With the initial controls closer to a realistic flying simulator, the helicopters were quite hard to pilot and could require a lot of time to learn and be efficient with them.

It is why improvements were made to make the game more playable and easy to handle to avoid giving a frustrating experience of helicopter crashing.

It is now much easier to control the altitude and direction, therefore giving more accuracy and stability when firing at grounded targets.

The helicopter holds its altitude when flying so it is less prone to crashing when manoeuvring to dodge enemy fire. Here is a video showing the difference between the new and initial controls :

A new control system has also been made for the cockpit view, where the helicopter is mostly controlled with the keyboard and the firing aim is manually done with the mouse.

Regarding the initial controls system, it is now unavailable in the current version but will be improved and brought back in a future update, so the game will have 2 different controls system, arcade and realistic.

Although, for those willing to try the realistic piloting controls now, it is still possible by switching the release branch. Open the properties window of the game in the Steam client and check to the “BETAS” tab.

Along this update, here are the minor fixes :

• Fixed and improved options to tweak the mouse sensitivity
• Added an option to invert mouse
• Added support for 21:9 screens (2560×1080)

Thanks for reading,
Devdan

Early Access launch and clarifications about gameplay controls.

Following almost a year of development, Aerial destruction has just been launched as an Early Access and is now available to play.

Many tweaks are still being made and some updates with fixes should come soon, including more contents. In the meanwhile, there seems to be some difficulties with handling the gameplay controls which I would like to explain here.

The controls for helicopters in Aerial Destruction is an attempt to be close to reality, which means it doesn’t work like a first person shooter with W moving forward and A-D strafing left and right.

Instead the keys are mostly used to give engine power to the helicopter and the rest is done with the mouse.

The keys are mapped such as bellow :
W = Lift / Accelerate
S = Descend / Decelerate
A = Turn Left
D = Turn Right

The mouse is mean to be used as a joystick :
Mouse Forward = Roll Forward (nose of the helicopter points down – advance)
Mouse Backward = Roll Backward (nose of the helicopter points upper – slow down)
Mouse Left = Barrel Roll Left
Mouse Right = Barrel Roll Right

Don’t brutally push the mouse or you will loose control of the helicopter.

Piloting the helicopters requires pressing W to raise the helicopter in the air, then slowly move the mouse forward to have the helicopter rotate forward and start advancing.

The helicopter will keep rotating forward so move the mouse back to normal to stop the rotation when it is enough. To slow down the helicopter its the same excepted the mouse must be moved backward and then returned.

One last thing to say is that the cockpit view is the easiest and best to control, especially when beginning, while the behind view is nice to have an overview of the helicopter but can be hard sometimes to aim accurately.

When handled, these controls give a more intensive and immersive gameplay experience, but I will see if it is possible to implement a more airboat-like control in a next update.

Thanks for reading,
Devdan