Screenshots by Potatogranate, George, Hood & Reis.
We have finished implementing the new smoke effects. They come with a few extra tweaks that are the vanguard of the features needed to give our players more scenario options and, eventually, a working scenario editor.
We are keenly aware that VFX were not necessarily at the top of your priority list, but we needed to make an optimization pass, and this was a good opportunity to introduce mechanics that will prove useful in the future.
10/24/2026
- Smoke from damage will now change in volume and color depending on the seriousness of the fire it emanates from.
Comment: the new smoke is not just for looks. We updated our smoke generation technology across the board so that it can be used wherever it is needed. Applications include funnel smoke, damage smoke for ships and aircraft, and, in the future, smokescreens. In this particular case, we made a few aesthetic choices regarding how the smoke is generated. We are well aware (cf. what some of you pointed out on Discord) that the color of smoke primarily depends on what is burning, but it is also true that existing photos and footage of catastrophic fires aboard WW2 carriers often show white smoke clouds early on (see Lexington, Bunker Hill), and whiter smoke again as the ship burns out (see Hiryu). With that in mind, you will often see white smoke as the first sign of an internal fire, and it will grow darker as the fire spreads. On the other hand, exposed areas of the ship, including the open hangars aboard US carriers, will see the smoke of an uncontrolled fire turn black very quickly, adding some variety. We hope you will like what you see, and that you will appreciate the external gameplay indicators it gives you about the damage the enemy has suffered - or the damage your own ships are currently taking. Please also note that Japanese carriers are not emitting their emblematic white funnel smoke at all times anymore: sprinklers are now only activated during air operations, so as to keep the smoke at a lower altitude. Seen from the outside, this should be an interesting indication of their on-going plans.
- The scenario briefing interface has been reworked to allow for further development, and some functions have been automated. More are on the way.
- The "Conditions" button now gives you access to all available weather and astronomical information.
- The "Order of battle" button now generates a complete order of battle of friendly forces present in this scenario.
- Options to randomize weather and customize difficulty are now available under the "Scenario options" button. Set these options before you launch the scenario.
- Among these options, a selector allows you to add experience to the air units of either side. This should please those of you who would like their pilots to be better at dropping bombs in non-generator scenarios. Hope this helps!
- As for wind direction and weather, both are fairly self-explanatory: wind direction will obviously affect your air operations, since your carrier will have to steam against the wind during takeoffs and landings; and the more clouds there are, the better the chances that your scouts (or the enemy's) will miss something in the soup up there
Comment: our next step in that department will be to standardize the AI in the single scenarios and lay down the basics of the future system that will be used in longer scenarios and in a dynamic campaign. We should be good to go from there. In the meantime, we will update the existing scenarios and make new ones once this is done.
- Bug fix: objects will no longer suddenly disappear from the screen when the field of view in increased.
- Fixed another bug affecting ship renders in the UI on old AMD GPUs.
- Improved GPU usage on old GPUs.
- Added 2 options to customize cloud quality and improve performances on more low-end configurations. Please do share with us the effects and any bug you encounter.
Thank you for your attention! And don't forget to join us on discord if you want to exchange with others about the game.
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https://store.steampowered.com/app/1281220/Task_Force_Admiral__Vol1_American_Carrier_Battles/
Best, and take care,The TFA Team
