Arms Trade Tycoon: Tanks

I backed this on Kickstarter in 2021 after playing the Demo. It was novel and fun and I could see that if they fleshed it out a bit more it would be a great game. So I funded it and sat back waiting for updates. Nothing substantial was ever added. They didn't fix the contracts, AI cheating, refine any of the mechanics. No they decided to re-do the entire game engine to turn it from isometric to full 3D. What followed for years were 'updates' which were just new assets they now had to 3D model. A 3D modelled engine and all its components like flywheel and carburettor. A 3D modelled factory which changed appearance with upgrades. The speed of progress was glacial. All of this stuff they already had in the original demo, but isometric. No changes to gameplay. I saw the writing on the wall years ago. Asking for more funds all the time, only to update us with a 3D modelled McGubbin. They must have a bunch of nice 3D model assets, but they don't have a game. Abandonware.

The games just not good enough. Lets start with research. It's on rails, you can't skip much of it, you have to research some items you don't want and it always leads to to researching the same stuff, and the same points of the game. Even if you reverse engineer bolts for example, they won't clear bolts from the research tree and they still have to be researched as they're blocking further research along that tree. And then you still won't use them as the German bolts are better. This also means there's no variation to any playthrough, wouldn't be so much of an issue if there were other nations with their own tech tree. But, there arn't and no sign of them coming. Adding to the weird quirks of the design element. You'll probobly find your tanks will do better with just one sponson and half the weapons it could have, if you've got a late version era 1 MG, and a tank with 3 MG slots, when you install the 3rd there will be a big hit to performance, and you have to install an earlier MG in the third slot to prevent this. Because, reasons. Introduce minor upgrades, there's no re-working existing tanks in storage, even if you just want to add a different fuel, or ammunition type. Through era 1 there's no competition for contracts at all from the AI that put out slop and don't advance far. Test drive! This would be fine if it was an option where you could take a look at your creations, but it's not. The test drive gives the tanks deployment and repair phase bonuses for combat. So, it's a requirement. But, every single design variation needs to be done. It becomes an extreamly boring part of the game. And, introduce a new fuel and you have 4 tanks designs, that means you have to do the test drive 4 times with each new variation of each of the tank designs, same with ammunition, same with new armour, oil etc, etc. So unnecessary, so boring. So monotonous. That's before you get to the other problems with it, the second trench crossing you have to avoid a post as your tank might get stuck on it, the early war light German tanks can't drive in a straight line and can't deal with any incline, which means they simply can't complete the course at all. Tracks behaving more like ice skates than anything else, come to an incline and the tank will just pitch sideways towards the bank and you'll find it impossible to get out of. And, you can't even quit the test drive and go back to the game you were playing, you only have an option to quit to main menu which means you have to wait for the timer to run down to keep playing. (10 mins) You tanks won't win any battles either. Certainly through era 1. The British will generally loose and a big part of that will be the performance of your tanks. Even if the battle is against another tank with only an MG, and you have tanks with cannon and AP shells. It's a guaranteed loss. This somewhat makes the game absurd. Tanks you build 4 years into the game with a decent amound of research kit will go out and loose to earlier MG armed opposition tanks. Aswell as loosing to infanatry and arty.... always. Combine this, including long standing issues that are just not being looked at with the slow down of development. A roadmap that makes no mention of era 4, which should have been coming, no mention of other nations to add to re-playability and only development geared towards modding, which so far means we can add different camouflage patterns..... It honestly looks like the devs winding down development on a game that's still no where near ready. Hope i'm wrong. But it's not looking good at the moment.