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Lighting Paths and Cloudy Skies

The web team continues to dig into the player profile page making improvements, and streamlining the friends and referral process. Jesse put on his research hat this week, and looked into a number of other games, picking out what works, and what seems confusing. Using that knowledge we looked at a number of wireframes, and talked through changes we could implement to make the process as easy, and appealing as possible.

Jared is busy hooking up some of these improvements, and we talked through some other player interactions we’d like to foster. Various incentives for things like: completing your player profile, connecting your social media favorites to the game, and uploading shots or streams of your gameplay, were discussed. We came up with a good set of rewards and bonuses we can give players in the near future, but no FRV research hats I’m afraid. That’s Jesse’s thing.

We continue to push forward with a number of audio improvements across the board. We have new sounds for picking-up and dropping items depending upon their size and what they’re made of. I personally find the clang and slight echo of an axe dropping in the underground spawn area to be strangely pleasant, while my office mate feels the clang loses it’s appeal after the 50th drop in a row. However, we both agree that it sounds realistic.

It seems as though that the skies in the game are filled predominantly with one type of cloud, the cirrus. A few weeks back Chris pointed out the flaw in TrueSky, and we requested more: cumulus, stratus, cirrocumulus, nimbostratus, and a few others we could still remembered from that section of science class in high school. We’re working on adding some variety to the sky now, as well as making some improvements to their low hanging representatives, the fog.

While we continue to populate the game map with: buildings, roads, plants and structures, this week we started adding a few other things, namely boxes and bodies. Players can find a number of different types of containers to rummage through and loot. Ranging from a cargo container to a tiny shoebox, we have a container for you. We’re working on an ingame shipping company logo to give the containers some personality, and have the auto-looting feature up and running. Most of the bodies have been pretty well looted, and are there to add an ominous feel to the forest, and serve as a warning where they are plentiful. As far as I know, none are affixed with a shipping label.

Performance improvements continue with the Veil Station upgrade. In the near future we plan on using the station as the social hub of the game, instead of the Thorcon Power Plant, which is now the main gathering point for players. We’re making some improvements to our procedural building system in order to create pre-trashed buildings. Currently, we can add rickety decks and slight damage on the fly, but have to go back and grunge up siding and roofs by hand.

One of our main focuses remains completing our first quest scenario, centered around the Communications Tower. We have the storyline, and tasks worked out, and looked at a scene breakdown of the area: where players have to go, the obstacles they will encounter, and the items available to loot. We discussed marking objectives in the HUD as point of interest, and subtle lighting cues that will point characters in the right direction at night.

The team continues to make good progress in overall lighting in the game as well. We’ve spent a lot of time improving our volumetric lighting, and making sure that areas lit up at night act as a beacon for players, but still allow them to move around stealthily. You can see the fruits of that balancing act in this shot of a shack built in what used to be a parking lot.
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We’ll be back next week with more.

DEV

Measuring Mountains and Securing Trade

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.
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As usual, we’ll be back next week with more news and updates.

DEV

Loot Drops and Weapon Shops

We started off Sprint 24 by discussing our third loot drop scenario in the game. The first involves players scrambling to a designated area after a flare goes off, to grab a crate of goodies before anyone else. The second finds a group holding a building or area against multiple waves of attackers for a set period of time. When the timer runs out, the group is rewarded with a hidden cache of weapons, survival items, and food. Our latest opportunity for players to grab a pile of loot, involves safeguarding an item’s transport from one location to another, while encountering a number of obstacles. Once the item makes the journey safe and sound, in the allotted time, the players will be awarded a prize. We briefly discussed adding some non-traditional impediments to the journey, like poorly written directions, or children who demand to stop to use the bathroom every five minutes, but decided to stick with the usual group of bloodthirsty creatures and bandits in the end.

Our AI works continues in three specific areas: waves of combatants in loot drops, birds, and monsters. Not only are we making our monsters smarter, but we’re making them work better in a group. Currently, our creatures don’t have much of a game plan other than ripping your face off. That’s a pretty simple plan, which is usually best, but our goal is to have monsters with a little more method to their madness. We want our mutants to work well together, and at least cover all the entrances to a building that they know players are hiding in.

Progress on party mechanics continues, and we talked about some things we’d like to include down the road. We added some new items to help heal injured players, and worked on the player healing player system as well. Soon you won’t have to leave slow, injured team members behind unless they’re really annoying. Speaking of friends, we’re updating the Friends system ingame to make it easier to find your buddies while running around Lahaina.

The team did some crafting work as well. We moved forward with a design for a wash bench, and are refining the icons for items being repaired, rebuilt, or recycled. We talked through the best way to split and stack items in your inventory, and did some work on weapon attachments. The HUD got a few tweaks and updates, and we talked through some additional things we’d like to add in the future.

We discussed plans for a new armory, Lahaina’s premiere place for everything sharp and shooty. We talked through what the place should look like, and where it would be located on the map. The team started a performance pass on the Veil Station, improving lighting, textures, and material changes inside. Terry set up some mirrors and is working on source control changes, while the art team makes audio improvements to various parts of the map, ensuring that the post-fracture world sounds as good as it looks.

Lastly, improvements to the environment and weather continue as we build out the map. We’re making overall performance improvements to the wilds, adjusting lighting (especially at night), fixing the fog, and making changes to the rain. Below you can see just how good the beach looks, while taking your morning stroll with your favorite machete or shark-toothed weapon.
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We’ll be back later in the week with more updates

DEV

Performance Improvements and Cloudy Days

To finish out the week, the web team is completing performance improvements on the web page. Jared has made some caching improvements, images have been optimized across the page, and we’ve made some changes to the Story Timeline view, in order to make it quicker to scroll through. We talked some more about a secure player to player trading system, and what things we need to avoid when creating such a mechanic. We also briefly discussed new merchandise options, and what things we’d like to see available on the Shop page in the near future.

The team made some melee weapon and crafting updates as well. We looked at some options for destruction effects for trees being chopped down for wood, and rocks splitting apart for metal and minerals. Soon players will see a tiny explosion of rock when their pickaxe work bears fruit. We added a few more weapon animations and improvements, so spears look great when you throw them, or thrust them into the horrors of the jungle up close. Chris did run into an interesting bug however, when his hands started to produce a blurry aura, like they were about to go into stealth mode, but got stuck midway through their transformation. We’re addressing the issue, and will get a fix in soon. Here’s a screenshot of his sneaky hands on the bottom right.
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Our AI work continues to make creatures fight and act more tactically, and we’re wrapping up ui improvements to the Settings page. The team is still working on ui for leveling up your character, and a way to claim buildings for one of our loot scenarios, as well as some other potential applications down the road. We had a longer discussion about ways other games handle currency: weight, where it is kept (taking up an inventory slot or not), how much you lose upon death, if any, and how much other players should be able to loot from your lifeless corpse.

The art team showed off a number of concepts for specific areas on the map. We talked about how to best use existing structures, and the landscape to funnel players to and from different areas, and where we need to add a clearly visible path. We discussed natural and manmade structures that would have survived the fracture, and would make good “hero” areas, where players could either get supplies and quests, or rampage through and explore. We discussed different options for work/wash/crafting benches and we talked about whether we want to go with a futuristic looking design or something a little more jury rigged.

The team is working on map, grass, and foliage improvements across a wide range of Lahaina, and we’re making some lighting improvements in those areas too. Our large buildings: The Communications Tower, Municipal Veilstation, and Thorcon Power Plant, are all getting some attention. We’re working on some performance improvements there in order to make them better able to handle large groups, without making your GPU fan spin like a top. Lastly, while the weather in West Maui is mostly beautiful, it has been known to get a few cloudy days and some rain. We haven’t been satisfied with the way things look on a cloudy day, so we’re working on a few things to make the game look beautiful, even when the sky is grey. Below you can see a screenshot of the beginning of that silver lining work.
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We’ll have more updates next week.