The web team is working on a few tweaks and improvements to the notification system. We discussed ways to streamline and limit messages to avoid being bombarded with notifications, but still stay up-to-date with things like friends joining the game, and House members being online. Jesse is making a number of layout improvements including subtle hover animations to player cards, and various other areas that could use some sprucing up. We also looked at a complete list of craftable items, talked about recipes, and discussed what we’d like to add down the road.
While Terry was busy doing some minor server maintenance and fixing a few bugs, the art team was finishing up their work replacing the foliage across the map. We’ve stripped out much of the old forest, and are replacing it with a jungle that has more native Hawaiian plants, and is much less demanding on your GPU. With all the old forest gone, the team is working through the map, dropping in plants and animals across Lahaina.
Our attention then turned to player interactions and we discussed what we’d like to see in a player-to-player trading system. Very few things in life can feel as uncertain as waiting for “StealMaster6” to leave the crafting reagent you need on a rock, after he’s picked up the pile of money you threw on the ground for it. We want a simple, and secure trading system to avoid such scenarios. We then discussed various achievement awards. We came up with a few examples of obscure ones that would quickly identify the most hardcore players, and talked about the pros and cons of daily or login rewards.
We worked some more on expanding the attachments available for weapons, crossbows and compound bows in particular, and continued to work through a lengthy bug list to make sure your rifle add-ons work correctly. Armor has been working in the game for some time now, but your armor’s “health” isn’t displayed anywhere in the HUD. We decided to add an indicator there, so you don’t have to flip to your inventory screen to find out if your vest is in tatters before you start taking fire or fangs.
Jesse has been working on Paddle Creek Games animations, and trailer intros with great success. He demoed a few options, and we chose our favorite. He’s adding the finishing touches now, but it is looking terrific already. It wasn’t just the company logo however that got some animation attention. Our Trophy Hunter mutants got some new moves too. We’ve added a number of animations that make them look more realistic, and much more terrifying as they run around with their bags of heads and other trophies.
Our major map overhaul is just about complete. We’ve updated our height map of Maui, and have finished importing all the existing roads. The game map now has a solid backbone that is built on the actual topography, and infrastructure of Lahaina. We have a clear starting point now, so we can continue work building a game map for the website. The team is busy filling in the play area with our structures, special areas, and foliage, as well as adding years of overgrowth, and the effects of a global catastrophe to the two main highways that run through Lahaina. Below is a satellite view of the entire game area.
As usual, we’ll be back next week with more news and updates.
