Overwatch Sandbox playtest
Use Steam’s official Play – Anti-Cheat Disabled option. Stay off official servers.
THUNDER BUDDIES OVERWATCH 0.1.2 — SANDBOX PLAYTEST Target: Broken Arrow 1.2.0.3, MelonLoader 0.7.3, B.A.R.O. 5.9.2. This is a separate plugin. B.A.R.O.'s DLL is unchanged. The sandbox uses native game units, pathfinding, weapons and buildings on vanilla Kaliningrad. It does not change your Rimal maps or replace your Studio UI. START A BATTLE 1. Start Broken Arrow through Steam's official Play - Anti-Cheat Disabled option. 2. Select Play. A fourth card, Sandbox, appears after Find a lobby. 3. Click Sandbox, then START SANDBOX. It loads TBS Overwatch Sandbox - Kaliningrad. 4. Wait for the map. Director and disaster controls appear on screen automatically. COLLAPSE CONTROLS hides the drawers; SHOW CONTROLS restores them. CANCEL TOOL cancels placement or targeting. No F8 shortcut is registered. The plugin only operates in this exact local scenario. It refuses network sessions. Do not use official servers with this mod package installed. SWITCH BLUE / RED NATIVE DEPLOYMENT 1. In the dedicated Sandbox, click BLUE TEAM or RED TEAM in the persistent top bar. 2. The selected side is marked ACTIVE. The custom drawers collapse so the native unit selection and hangar are accessible. Deploy through the game's own UI. 3. SHOW CONTROLS restores the director and disaster tools. Hangar units join the first matching AI group; set its doctrine/objective and START AI when ready. 4. Both sides currently share the embedded Absolute Arsenal deployment deck. Changing sides changes ownership/enemies, not the national content of this deck. 5. The switch is limited to TBS Overwatch Sandbox - Kaliningrad and never appears in other scenarios, campaigns or network games. The scenario must be restarted after updating so both sides receive their decks. Native hangar switching is compiled but has not been verified in a live game. Aircraft deployed by the native hangar use native flight entry; the custom ground AI director is not a complete aircraft commander. Layout saving records custom placement requests, not units deployed through the native hangar. BUILD YOUR ARMIES 1. ALPHA 1 and BRAVO 1 are created empty. Use the arrows beside the group name to choose which group receives units. + ALPHA / + BRAVO creates another group. 2. Search a native ground-unit name. Click its catalogue row to arm placement. 3. Choose the quantity, from 1 to 12, then click exposed terrain outside the drawers. A formation of that many native units is requested at the click. 4. Wait for the native models to load. The side counters update as live units are found in their assigned native group. A request is not confirmation. 5. Repeat for the other side. ESC cancels a placement or target tool. Maximum: 16 controller groups, 200 placement requests per session. There are four native owner slots on each side; additional groups share those slots. The catalogue lists base ground units from the loaded database. Aircraft, custom loadout editing, automatic purchases and reserve budgets are not in 0.1. Availability/loading of individual DLC units still depends on the user's game. GIVE THE AI ORDERS DOCTRINE arrow cycles Assault, Defend, Patrol and Manual. Assault: SET OBJECTIVE then click terrain. Without an objective, it advances toward the nearest living enemy sandbox group. Defend: SET OBJECTIVE to choose a defensive location. Units move back toward that location when far away and engage nearby opponents through native orders. Patrol: ADD PATROL POINT then click multiple locations; ESC finishes editing. The group moves between those points and advances to the next near arrival. Manual: the plugin does not give the group automatic orders. START AI enables every non-manual group. STOP AI ORDERS stops their orders; it does not stop native combat. PAUSE BATTLE pauses the actual battle. These are independent scripted group controllers, not eight copies of the B.A.R.O. tactical commander. Native weapons handle their own firing behavior. B.A.R.O. commander preferences are temporarily suspended for the sandbox and restored on exit. Realism stats remain active. No preference Save() is called. OVERWATCH AND INTERVENTION OBSERVER VISIBILITY toggles rendering of both armies. The hook changes visual components; it does not change native AI spotting tests. Fog shading, icons and HUD behavior still need a live playtest. FOCUS GROUP moves the existing native camera toward that group's first unit. The sandbox extends the native camera height range; normal camera controls apply. TAKE CONTROL selects the native owner of the chosen group and makes that group Manual. Use the game's selection and unit commands. RETURN TO AI restores the group doctrine and the director player. Groups sharing an owner also share that owner's selectable units. Full native control/selection needs a live playtest. REMOVE GROUP UNITS removes only the selected sandbox group's live units. DISASTER CONTROLS Choose an effect, set radius and power, and click exposed terrain. Radius: 20–500 metres. Power: percentage of a unit's maximum health removed per damaging pulse, independent of armour. These are deliberately god-mode effects. TARGET BOTH SIDES affects both armies. TARGET SELECTED SIDE uses the group side selected when the effect is placed. Changes do not retarget existing effects. Building damage starts OFF. Turn it on before placing an effect to allow actual native building destruction. Place at least one unit first for damage attribution. STOP ALL EVENTS removes active effects; it cannot undo damage already inflicted. Lightning: one damage pulse and a short bolt/flash. Thunderstorm: a 60-second rain zone with a damaging local strike every 8 seconds. Wildfire: a 90-second expanding burn footprint, damage every 2 seconds, smoke/fire ribbons. This is an area-hazard model, not a vegetation-fuel fire simulation. Earthquake: 12 seconds of local damage pulses, dust and camera shake. Terrain height and navigation meshes are not changed. Hurricane: a 60-second moving vortex/damage footprint, following the initial camera direction. It does not physically throw vehicles or implement flight aerodynamics. Disaster visuals are custom playtest ribbons. Global native weather/sight changes, terrain deformation and wind physics are not implemented. At most 12 events run. When you pause the battle, disaster simulation pauses too. SAVE AND LOAD SAVE LAYOUT writes UserData/ThunderBuddiesOverwatch/battle-plan.json atomically. It records requested unit types/starting positions and group objectives/patrols. It is a battle setup, not a save of current damage, ammunition or disasters. LOAD LAYOUT requires an empty sandbox. Remove placed group units first or start a fresh session. The file is validated before spawning and restores AI stopped. Personal battle-plan.json is never included or overwritten by the installer. BUILD AND INSTALLATION STATUS Source compiles against the installed game's native IL2CPP interfaces. No in-game acceptance test has been run. Compilation and file integrity do not prove the map loads, every unit moves, selection works, or effects render correctly. Keep reports specific: menu card missing, load stuck, unit name/group/count, orders issued, effect settings, and the relevant MelonLoader Latest.log messages. Log prefixes: OVERWATCH_SESSION_STARTED, OVERWATCH_CATALOG, OVERWATCH_SPAWN_REQUEST, OVERWATCH_DISASTER, OVERWATCH_SANDBOX_CARD_ADDED. REMOVE ONLY THIS PLUGIN Close the game and remove Mods/ThunderBuddiesOverwatch.dll. The associated local scenario is Scenarios/TBS Overwatch Sandbox - Kaliningrad. Keep your personal UserData/ThunderBuddiesOverwatch/battle-plan.json if you want to reuse layouts. The combined installer also supports its normal backup/restore ownership rules.