We’re wrapping up sprint 39 this week and the team is busy fixing last-minute bugs and adding a bit of polish to existing systems while we finish editing our game trailer. Our main focus has been on finishing up the player construction system. We have different materials in the game now for all construction pieces, doors, and totems. Decay rates for pieces are now dependent on which one of the three little pigs you’ve decided to emulate and what kind of materials you’ve chosen to build your catastrophe cabana out of. Also, there have been a number of prediction improvements added to the process to make building your safe place easy and quick.
Everyone knows that the only thing more fun than building a new home in the apocalypse is blowing it up. Much to Chris’ delight we’ve created a new persistent RPG breakable actor class that can be used for various breakable objects including explosive barrels, glass, and item crates. We’re still working on how much damage reduction each material has so it will be harder to shoot through a wall than a window, but very soon those players with destructive tendencies will be able to run through the world tagging everything with bullets.
We finished the first pass at testing and updating quests and fixed a bug that would make the system crash in some instances. Players wandering around shooting and looting without any direction will be able to find a purpose and get rewards in the near future. Another audio pass has added ambient sounds to some of our large unique buildings like the communication tower and Thorcon Power Plant. You can almost feel the deep thrum of machinery in your chest while running through the power plant now.
Finally, we’ve been doing our fair share of playtesting recently and discovered that gathering resources can be just as deadly as running into a pack of wolves or fighting mutants.
