The art team has been busy this week stylizing a bunch of items in the game and roughing up buildings. We looked at a number of different flare gun models, building interiors, and lots more loot. We discussed improving the pipeline for these themed items and building performance. The team has made great strides in this area, and our procedural building system is creating ruins that are up to 50 times more performant than before.
We took a long look at crafting and resource gathering, and decided that resources were too hard to come by so we’re cranking up their availability, and how much players harvest when banging on rocks and chopping at trees. With all the resources about to pour into player inventories, we talked some more about a player bank. Designed to allow players to unburden themselves and embrace their inner pack rat, the bank will act as a secure extension of their personal inventory. We discussed how it would work, how and when players could access it, and what it would look like.
We have a number of weapons in the game, most of which a player can craft themselves, but the bow is one that we’ve focused on a lot. We’ve made many improvements to bows in the game, and improved them a little too much. They are a bit overpowered right now. We plan on nerfing them a bit so the island isn’t filled with a bunch of overzealous archers, dropping everything in sight.
Most of our time this week has been devoted the biggest dangers on the island, the mutants. We took to Imgur with an overview and brief history of the terrors of the jungle. Players need to find food, water, and shelter in the game while avoiding being ambushed by other hungry players, but the biggest obstacles to their survival are the mutants. Below you can see some early concept art before we decided what direction we wanted to take.
We called our first mutants Trophy Collectors. Victims of the terrible SSHAM plague, Trophy Collectors remember little about their previous live, but retain an unnatural cunning and need to collect body parts from their victims as trophies. We tried to avoid just creating zombies with a different name. We wanted our mutants to have personality, tricks, and more ways to kill you than just teeth and claws. We gave certain Collectors ranged attacks and AI that allows them to “herd” players towards their melee attacking friends. All of them have complex group attack AI, and battle tactics sure to make them a challenge.
Big Bob Abramo is our first individual mutant, and the leader of the cannibals. A meat obsessed Lahaina real estate mogul and restaurateur before the fracture, Bob and the cannibals were twisted by the collapse of the Veil, and cursed with an unnaturally long life and hunger. Below are some early concept iterations of Bob before he was looking his best.
Players need to properly dispose of their kills when Big Bob and the cannibals are around or they will smell the blood and come running. Cannibals who find a corpse that wasn’t properly burned will feed on it, giving them a big speed and attack buff for a duration as they hunt down players, looking for some fresher meat. Don’t let his size or his cane fool you. As you can see below, Bob is still fast enough to be a danger to anything he hungers for.
