Note & credit: Action screenshots were provided by players on the game’s Discord - today featuring Foxman, battleship61, betrayedsoldier, keepeverythingassimple, lapa, Matic, oriskany, pidgeyarmy, polandball_120, SundryZoo986973.
Dear Friends, Dear Fans,
Today's the day for a larger update. We've got a lot of stuff to cover, so allow us to go directly to the point in regard of the latest progress.
The latest news
We have worked on a number of mechanics over the last few weeks, aiming to provide Task Force Admiral with that extra touch of depth that sets it apart from the rest of the gaming landscape. Alongside these came a number of features designed to make the game more accessible to all, especially those who had trouble reading the interface. Last but not least, the interface itself has been rebuilt and optimized, so that readability and art direction remain more consistent throughout your game experience.
The latest patch also introduced a long-awaited early version of clouds impacting air assets. See below for more information:
25/09/2026
Ship detection by aircraft is now impacted by clouds.
Limited to the first cloud layer.
This is still rough, future tweaking is expected.
Expect scouting missions to now have a chance of reporting contacts later, in an incomplete fashion, or not at all.
Following reports from the forums regarding questionable target selection when visibility is impaired, the changes only affect naval search missions for now. The behavior of strike packages will be investigated further.
Updated the "Crane" and "Patriots" scenarios with the new AI system. Please report any weird behavior.
Enabled the new AI system in the Midway mission generator. Please report any weird behavior.
Camera "head bobbing" state selection is now persistent.
Fixed a conflict with circles being drawn when editing a search mission.
Fixed a crash when recording TacView if the username contains non-ASCII characters.
Fixed crashes when starting a scenario multiple times.
For a complete coverage of our previous updates, please refer yourself to the following posts, which can be also accessed through the news section of the Steam community hub for Task Force Admiral
[dynamiclink href="https://steamcommunity.com/games/1281220/announcements/detail/701027957162902246"][dynamiclink href="https://steamcommunity.com/games/1281220/announcements/detail/697648989243180408"]
What comes next
We wanted to use this update to talk a little bit about the future. As usual, you would say, but by now we have a clearer picture.
The last few months have been a rollercoaster of emotions, partly due to changes and concerns in our private lives. As you know, some of us have day jobs that pay for development, while others are funded entirely by the game's sales. We are about to make some choices that might steer our respective lives in one direction or another, but whatever choice we make, we can guarantee you one thing: TFA will remain at the very center of our attention and our priorities.
Indeed, clearly, we are at a crossroads: a number of items need to be addressed before we can call the game complete, and we will publish an updated roadmap next week (hopefully!).
Two obvious goals stand out, and they are interdependent, impossible to separate from one another:
The road to completing our Kickstarter commitments, which includes spending a lot of time on the goodies, but is intimately linked to the completion of 1.0.
The completion of 1.0 itself, which is the larger goal: until the finishing touches are in place, the manual cannot be finalized and made ready for publication.
As such, without going into further detail, our current path is to focus on delivering the 1.0 mechanics as efficiently as possible. The main features still missing, which are a must before we can call it 1.0, include:
The in-game mission builder which will unleash the full potential of the community ;
The in-game replay system, which will allow you (and all youtubers) to never lose a bit of the action when making an AAR ;
The interactive tutorial system and its corresponding lessons/missions.
In terms of combat mechanics, the other aspects include:
More advanced strike choices and strike AI ;
Weather impact ;
Comms interception and delay ;
Submarine action ;
Search and rescue mechanics ;
Relevant surface combat and ASW mechanics ;
Some more aircraft management mechanics (especially persistent damage).
In that regard, despite their importance in terms of playtime, scenarios are quite unfortunately, to some extent, to be considered a bit secondary, consistent with their nature as content rather than mechanics. Nonetheless, we will keep working to have a few more ready, especially to make good use of the updated SOPAC map. But before that, we want to optimize the general scenario briefing interface, so that everything is somewhat standardized before we expand. This includes the following:
An interface that remains accessible during gameplay from the flag plot's intel shack ;
The main briefing window with the narrative ;
An OOB window dedicated to friendly and enemy force intel ;
An automated conditions window listing all conditions (wind, weather, sunrise, sunset, etc.) ;
A map and static media window that the mission builder can feed with any doodles they deem important.
In addition, we want to dedicate some time to making the videos that are currently missing for the scenarios, especially the briefing ones, and perhaps some victory reels too.
As for the rest
Obviously, these are the core functions, but everything else revolves around them. This includes all the additional eye and ear candy yet to come:
Integration of the missing ship classes and aircraft models ;
More chatter during combat, including dogfight and strike lines ;
New in-game music tracks ;
More ship-based chatter (especially for air ops) ;
Animated crew in the flag plot ;
Workshop support ;
Achievements ;
And other improvements along the way as we go.
Then, once 1.0 can truly be called that and we can finally provide our Kickstarter backers with their physical version, we will move on to the next stage, which includes most of the remaining stretch goals. These include a campaign system able to handle the complexity of Task Force Admiral and place it within a larger environment, with persistence and resource management, one that will give Task Force Admiral the same punch Sea Power just got with its own eponymous campaign system. Some have called for something comparable: unfortunately, it might not be that easy to adapt to the WW2 scale, for which a Task Force 1942-like system might be more relevant. We will see, we are not there yet, but you can be sure that it is on the cards.
Until then, thank you all for sticking with us through calm and rough seas alike. Your patience, your reports and your enthusiasm are what keep this project steaming ahead. As always, do not forget to pay us a visit on Discord, and keep an eye out for the updated roadmap next week.
Ok, that was another looong post, and congratulations, along with our thanks, if you are still with us.
For those who wouldn't know, here's a small reminder that the modding community is alive and kicking, and can be interacted with on the non-official server. Until we get the workshop up and running, missions are available out there, don't hesitate to give them a try!
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE BUORD DISCORD
And as you know Task Force Admiral also has its own server. For any in-depth, direct support for technical issues, please do pay our tech support section a visit.
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE OFFICIAL TFA DISCORD
The TFA Team
