It was a busy weekend for some of us but the team still got a lot done. Here’s what we did and what we talked about since the last time we checked in.
Tired of looking at blank avatar icons on our test accounts, we added Gravatar support. If you already use the service, you can use your favorite icons on Fractured Veil now too. If you don’t and you can’t decide which picture of yourself that you’d like the world to see, it’s an easy way to have a unique avatar icon that follows you around.
We did a lot of work on animations in the prone position. Now your characters can crawl forward and backwards, pick up items, use them, and eat and drink, with or without a weapon in your hand. We don’t really recommend chugging an ice-cold Manimal while face down in the dirt with a machete in your hand, but we understand that things happen out there in the wilds. We also did a lot of detail work to buildings to make them look better. You can see from this shot below how the bullet holes in the windows really add the right amount of menace to this lovely home.
The team continued work on the inventory ui with drag and drop bandaging on the way. Our quest system progressed this week too, with alert systems being integrated including map markers to show you where to go. We added colored alerts to help players know when they have been poisoned, diseased, or are suffering from some other ailment. We did some refinements to combat and are almost done with the framework for our quest system. There was a lot of discussion about our crafting system and whether or not our recipes would allow for some experimentation. We decided that allowing people to play around with recipes was the way to go.
There was also a lot of talk around player skills, and the possibility of having some character abilities that benefit everyone in a group. For example: someone with a high level of medical skill might be able to give others close by a bonus when applying a splint or bandage. We discussed how that mechanic might work and how it would be displayed to players.
We buttoned up the player death/kills data and are refining the graphs. San continued his analytics work and we discussed what data could be tracked and how it could be used. Of course, lots of you would be interested in being at the top of the “shark teeth found”, or “pineapples eaten” graph but this data could be really useful to Houses. House leaders would be able to see who their best killers are, who is gathering the most resources, and who is crafting the most items. This way it would be easy to find who your superstars are and also how many moochers you have mucking around, not pulling their own weight.
The art people worked on some of our lingering lighting issues and made another pass on refining plants and some sand/ground textures. Lastly, one of our largest buildings got some more attention this week. As you can see below, the communication tower is nearing completion and even got a gift shop this week. There isn’t much as far as merchandise goes right now, but we’ll get the shelves filled soon.
