Wild Assault News

Wild Assault Early Access Launches April 2025!

Furiends and family, the day we’ve been waiting for so long.
Wild Assault early access is scheduled for April 2025!

None of this could ever have happened without your love, help, and support! Thank you for co-creating Wild Assault with us! Please consider adding it to your wishlist, as it means a great deal to our little project. RESPECT!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2827230/Wild_Assault/

Combat Cat Studio

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Discord https://discord.gg/WildAssault

Wild Assault QoS Test Officially Concludes!

Wild Assault QoS Test concludes today! Thanks for joining us! 🎉

Your feedback has been incredibly valuable, and we’ve taken it all to heart! We know there’s still a lot to improve, and we’re committed to making the game as good as it can be!
Stay tuned for more exciting news about early access! 📣

Again, don't forget to add Wild Assault to your wishlist! 🫡

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2827230/Wild_Assault/

Combat Cat Studio

Wild Assault QoS Test Preload is LIVE

Calling all Wild Ones!

It’s been a while! Combat Cat Studio has received over 2,000 suggestions and feedback of all kinds since the gamma test in October 2024, guiding us through the last stretch of darkness before the dawn breaks. This time, we’re excited to show you how much Wild Assault has evolved over the past 100+ days and nights.

Over 600 bugs have been fixed.
Performance Optimization: Frame rates have been significantly boosted across LOW, MID, and HIGH graphics presets. Visual quality has also been improved under LOW and MID graphics presets.
New Content and Systems: Check out the details below!

We’ve prepared special rewards for this QoS test! Complete designated tasks during the test to win exclusive items (redeemable in the early access version)! We hope you have fun during the QoS test, and don’t forget to send us Bug Reports and share your suggestions in our official Discord!

NOTE:

Bug Reports: This time we’re using GitHub to track bugs for better bug report management and workflow! For more details, please visit our bug tracker page on GitHub: https://github.com/CombatCatCommunity/BugTracker
The two new valiants you saw on the QoS Test key art aren’t ready yet. They’ll meet you in the early access version.

1. QOS TEST UPDATE SPOTLIGHT

[h2]1.1 New Content[/h2]

[h3]1.1.1 New Game Mode: WA Raid[/h3]

In this game mode, you'll be involved in an intense regional control battle as either the attacking side or the defending side. Detailed instructions coming soon!

[h3]1.1.2 New Map: The Ricky Mountains[/h3]

Danger lurks in the hills and valleys. Uncover the secrets buried in the mountains!
Learn more about the Ricky Mountains: https://steamcommunity.com/games/2827230/announcements/detail/4610085845249276841

[h3]1.1.3 New Systems[/h3]

Valiant Talent System: Play matches, earn talent points, unlock unique talents for each Valiant, and craft your own stylish gameplay!
Rank System (Preview): Available for a limited time during the QoS Test. Skill and strategy matter. Polish your combat techniques and aim for higher ranks on the leaderboard!

[h3]1.1.4 New Event[/h3]

Dawn is on the horizon! Complete designated tasks during the test to win exclusive cosmetics, profile pictures, name tags, medals, and more (redeemable in the early access version)!

[h2]1.2 Core Gameplay Experience Optimizations[/h2]

Visual Improvements: Significantly enhanced visual quality and performance.
Improved Gameplay Under High Latency: Enhanced overall gameplay experiences in high-latency scenarios.
Mantling System Refinements: Further improved the mantling system, addressing issues such as difficulty triggering mantling and Valiants getting stuck during the process.
SFX Enhancements: Upgraded overall in-game sound effects quality.
Misc Improvements: Refined gun feel, Valiant balance, and ability performance.
Overall Enhancements: Improved user experience and performance across multiple stages.

[h2]1.3 Bug Fixes[/h2]

Fixed an issue where Uly would not take damage after using his E ability.
Fixed an issue where Akai Hime would teleport unexpectedly after using her E ability.
Fixed an issue where Norman’s Ultimate Ability would fail to activate when the player set the melee key to RMB.
Fixed an issue where the Hongying lobby animation would stutter.
Fixed an issue where Jack’s Q ability projectile would remain in place after being fired under high latency.
Fixed an issue where Ryan’s E ability animation would not stop under high latency.
Fixed an issue where Valiants would slide unexpectedly and can't cast abilities after respawning.
Fixed an issue where players occasionally couldn’t interact with ammo crates.
Fixed an issue where the HP bar would not update smoothly during HP regeneration.
Fixed an issue where nearby teammates would occasionally stutter while running.
Fixed an issue where flags would block bullets.
Fixed an issue where weapon recoil occasionally didn’t function.
Fixed an issue where weapon SFX didn’t play correctly.
Fixed an issue where the Announcer lines would occasionally get cut.
Fixed an issue where bullet traces didn’t behave as expected on low-spec PCs.

2. QOS TEST DETAILS

[h2]2.1 Time Period[/h2]

8 AM PT, February 28 – 9 AM PT, March 9

[h2]2.2 Game Client Setup[/h2]

We will be using the Wild Assault Playtest game client for this test.
Please uninstall all previously installed Wild Assault game clients (playtest or demo) and download the new playtest client via Steam to avoid unexpected game launch issues.

[h2]2.3 How to Get Access[/h2]

If you already have access to the "Wild Assault Playtest" client on Steam, you can join the QoS test during the time period mentioned above. No additional steps are required.
If you do not have access to the "Wild Assault Playtest" client on Steam, please visit Wild Assault’s Steam Store page and click the "Request Access" button.
To ensure test quality, access to the QoS Test is limited. Please request access as soon as possible, and don’t forget to add Wild Assault to your wishlist!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2827230/Wild_Assault/

[h2]2.4 Got More Questions?[/h2]

Please check out our QoS Test FAQ for troubleshooting and more: https://steamcommunity.com/app/2827230/discussions/0/4842023763260714219/

See you in the desert and the mountains soon, Wild Ones! Thank you so much for your attention! 🫶

Combat Cat Studio

Wild Assault Dev Log: 2024 Recap

Hello Wild Ones! 🎩👌

How time flies! We posted the first Wild Assault Dev Log on June 13, 2024, and now all of a sudden, you're reading the 22nd log we've posted. ✍️

According to our plan, this will be the last dev log you read before Wild Assault enters early access. So let's take some time to highlight some of the most memorable moments from the past year! 📸

After years of development, Wild Assault first went public on January 18, 2024. It’s been an amazing year for us, and we’re so glad that you’ve embraced our little project and walked with us along the way.

Alpha Test

Wild Assault's Alpha Test began in early May 2024, and we clearly didn’t expect that much attention.

Our Steam page received over 300k views in the first five days of the alpha test, and more than 40k players from all over the world applied to participate. Gameplay videos posted by players on multiple social media platforms generated over 3 million views.

We were caught off guard at first but managed to quickly build a functioning community and feedback mechanism. Thanks to your attention and continuous support, we were invited to the Anthro Festival 2024 on Steam. Thank you Klace! What an honor!

Special thanks to Auxl, Bliz, Frizzey, Hilda, Tonky, VoiL and Yonu for being the best Discord mods ever! ❤️
Again, a big thanks to DoryuuZ. You are one of the best content creators we’ve worked with! 🫡

Beta Test

Wild Assault Beta Test: Assemble went live on August 1, 2024, alongside our first official trailer. What started as a "side project" was once again warmly received by our community and players. The trailer generated over 1.1 million views across all social media platforms, and we received countless positive comments and feedback.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
During the beta test, more than 300 gameplay and review clips were uploaded to video platforms like YouTube, gathering 1.5 million views. Wild Assault also caught the attention of streamers, many of whom began streaming it on Twitch. The beta test achieved over 90k watch hours and peaked with more than 50k viewers throughout the beta test.

Tokyo Game Show 2024

In late September 2024, we traveled to Tokyo, Japan, to attend the Tokyo Game Show 2024, one of the biggest events we’ve ever participated in. By setting up a booth on-site, we showcased Wild Assault’s core gameplay and eye-catching features to hundreds of attendees during the event. Our producer Lantin also presented Wild Assault to an even larger audience through the TGS official live show. By attending TGS 2024, we were able to go beyond borders, make new friends, and introduce our project to their communities.

Gamma Test & Steam Next Fest

Our third open test, the Wild Assault Gamma Test, began on October 9, 2024, during the Steam Next Fest 2024. Our team successfully pushed updates daily, addressing over 700 issues submitted by our community throughout the test. By our estimation, posts with the hashtag #WildAssault received over 1.1 million views across social media platforms. We saw many amazing streams, clips, and fan art created during the gamma test. We are truly amazed by your creativity and sincerely thankful for the support from our wonderful community！

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Art by @teteteko

In collaboration with CShip, HOWL, Klace, Maxi Molina, and Studio Klondike, we attended the SXSW Game Show in Sydney, Australia, expanding Wild Assault to even more continents. You guys are some of the most amazing indie game devs we’ve ever had the pleasure of working with! Thank you so much for your help, we owe you one!

Through your invaluable support and our collective efforts, Wild Assault made it to the "Most Wishlisted Upcoming Games" chart in the Steam Next Fest October 2024 Edition, an achievement we never dreamed possible!

The Next Step

Our community is the most precious treasure we have. Wild Assault now enjoys more than 100k followers and community members across various social media platforms, bringing together players, esports elites, indie game devs, streamers, YouTubers, VTubers, artists, cosplayers, and voice actors. Wild Assault has become a project co-created by each and every one of us. Through tests, feedback, suggestions and fan art, our community has made Wild Assault more alive and creative than ever. We are proud to be part of this journey, and you should be too!

To continue co-creating Wild Assault with our community, we have been posting this dev log on a weekly basis. Our dev logs have generated over 1 million impressions across Steam and social media platforms, gathering enormous comments, likes and feedback. We’ve truly enjoyed sharing our development process with you all and have confidently relied on your input to guide our decisions. We couldn’t have done it without your love and support!

Since the gamma test, we’ve been working hard to prepare new content for early access, hoping that features like new valiants, maps, systems, grind content, trailers, and key art meet your expectations. On the tech side, we've focused on improving game performance and server stability, resolving over 100 issues based on your previous feedback. If you've been following our previous dev logs, you probably have a good sense of what we’ve been working on lately. We’re also preparing to reveal more info about the new content before early access — they’re really cool and you’ll definitely like them!

📣 By the way, we’re happy to let you know that there will be another QoS focused open test before we enter early access! Please consider adding Wild Assault to your Steam wishlist so you’ll be notified once our test is ready.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2827230/Wild_Assault/

Thank you so much! Wild Assault early access is on the horizon. Let's make it happen!

Combat Cat Studio

Wild Assault Dev Log: Dive into Performance Optimizations - A Case Study

Hello, Wild Ones! We're excited to talk to you again in this episode!

First of all, we’re thrilled to see that so many players love our early concept designs for Akai Hime. The team is already discussing the possibility of making them cosmetics for Akai Hime in the future. We’ll definitely keep you updated on our progress!

Emote by Glitter

In this episode, we’d like to share a case study on how we continue to optimize Wild Assault’s graphics performance.

Handy Tools in the Gearbox

Combat Cat Studio is a small group of developers. To improve overall development efficiency for such a huge and complex project, we decided to utilize some of the most innovative tools available in the latest version of Unreal Engine 5, including Nanite, Lumen, and VSM, to achieve stunning visual effects like Dynamic Global Illumination.

[h3]Technical Terms[/h3]

💡 Nanite: A powerful system for rendering ultra-detailed geometry, enabling rich, immersive experiences without sacrificing performance.
💡 Lumen: A real-time global illumination and reflections system, delivering natural and dynamic lighting for immersive environments.
💡 VSM: A high-performance shadow-mapping system that delivers soft, stable, and detailed shadows for realistic visuals.

📖 Explore More from the Epic Games Dev Community:

1️⃣ Nanite Virtualized Geometry
2️⃣ Lumen Global Illumination and Reflections
3️⃣ Virtual Shadow Maps in Unreal Engine
4️⃣ Dynamic Global Illumination Methods

However, the new technologies offered in Unreal Engine 5 are relatively hardware intensive and could introduce performance issues in the game. We've been conducting all kinds of experiments to address these performance issues ever since the alpha test. Specifically, one of the most important questions we're trying to answer is: "How can we further optimize the loading and rendering process in a large, open world created using UE5?"

After months of exploration, we are finally making progress. We've tested the latest build of Wild Assault with the HIGH graphics preset on an RTX 3070 Ti GPU, and the average FPS has increased by 7.2% compared to a prior build without the new methods implemented.

"Let'em Cook!"

[h2]"NOT a Piece of Cake"[/h2]

Unreal Engine 5 offers a variety of efficiency driven tools that make it easier for developers to achieve their goals. Initially, we considered using the World Partition feature to automatically divide the open world into several grids, loading them only when needed. Additionally, we planned to utilize the HLOD (Hierarchical Level of Detail) system to render models at varying levels of detail.

By combining these two features, we could load only the necessary grids of the open world, render objects near the camera at a high level of detail, and display objects farther away with lower levels of detail. This approach can significantly reduce hardware demand (including GPU workload and VRAM usage) while ensuring a high and stable frame rate.

Problem solved, right? Or is it?

[h3]Demonstration[/h3]

Wild Assault Operation Mojave World Partition Demonstration

Wild Assault Operation Mojave HLOD Demonstration
The tower is rendered in high detail when the camera is near but in low detail when the camera is far.

[h3]Technical Terms[/h3]

💡 World Partition: A system that splits large game worlds into smaller grids and loads only what's needed, improving performance.
💡 HLOD: A feature that shows nearby objects in high detail and distant ones in lower detail to optimize rendering.

📖 Explore More from the Epic Games Dev Community:

1️⃣ World Partition in Unreal Engine
2️⃣ Hierarchical Level of Detail in Unreal Engine

Test runs reveal that the problem is more complicated than it initially seemed. World Partition's dynamic grid loading often causes significant frame rate stutter, an issue that’s unacceptable for a competitive, fast paced PVP shooter like Wild Assault.

What if we make the grids bigger? That could prevent the HLOD system from working effectively. It seems we’ll need to further develop a customized approach to implementing HLOD. 🤔

[h2]"We're Goin' Custom Shop!"[/h2]

By default, Unreal Engine manages the HLOD system automatically. To better control how the engine renders different levels of detail, we modified its source code to make the system more customizable. We also added various configuration parameters to fine-tune the process.

(Fellow indie devs, feel free to DM us if you want to learn the trick!)

[h3]Solving HLOD Visual Defects[/h3]

Some objects displayed noticeable visual defects after merging, indicating the need for rules to better manage how HLOD is applied to specific objects. We have further developed a set of rules for all relevant objects and applied HLOD accordingly. In addition, we have also modified the implementation of the HLOD layer to achieve a balance between visual quality and frame rate performance.

[h3]Demonstration[/h3]

Wild Assault Custom HLOD Demonstration
Original model, model with visual defects caused by auto HLOD, and model processed with custom HLOD.

[h3]Solving Performance Drops in Multiplayer Mode[/h3]

Wait that's not the end of it!

While our custom HLOD solution has significantly improved frame rate performance in singleplayer mode, it didn’t work as expected in multiplayer mode, even after we removed all dynamic components.
After a careful investigation, we discovered that the loading order of different levels of detail (LODs), along with a related VFX frequently applied to textures like terrain, roads, and vegetation, was negatively impacting frame rate performance.

We then developed specific solutions to address the issues we identified.

As a result of our custom HLOD R&D, we boosted FPS in our test build by approximately 7.2%. We hope this example provides a simple and transparent look at our performance optimization workflow. As our producer mentioned in the previous Q&A sessions, performance optimization is always an ongoing task for us. We’ll continue exploring new methods to improve Wild Assault's frame rate and deliver the best possible gaming experience.

Emote by Glitter

We hope you enjoyed this week’s geeky dev log, and we truly appreciate your support! We’ll keep striving to find better ways to discuss tech topics with both players and fellow indie devs. Let us know your thoughts!

Don't forget to add Wild Assault to your wishlist! 🫶

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2827230/Wild_Assault/

Combat Cat Studio