STORYLINE

Noodle shop teaches kids that recycling can be fun

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Over the past 18 years Hula Noodle has grown from a favorite eatery for the locals to a Lahaina tourist destination. Run by Ralph Umeke, (Uncle Ralph to Lahaina residents), the shop is well known as being one of the best places around to grab a delicious bowl of food and catch up on the local news. Now thanks to a donation from Reality Machine, the Maui landmark is becoming a place where kids can learn the importance of recycling, and have fun doing it.

Umeke never dreamed that his small noodle shop would become a place where kids and tourists alike could learn about the science of recycling, but then again he never thought he’d be famous. When he built the restaurant he had one thing in mind, “making a place where you could grab a warm bowl of food before work, or after a long day surfing, without a lot of fuss or people bothering you.” Everything changed when a brilliant young scientists named Eric Oeming moved to Lahaina and walked through Hula Noodles’ front door.

Despite being known for his gruff exterior and his wariness of tourists, Umeke declared Oeming a “local who just happened to be born somewhere else.” The pair became, and still are, very close friends. Soon Uncle Ralph’s quite local noodle shop turned into a favorite for hundreds of Veilcorp employees and a stop for any company VIPs. Hula Noodle became a hotspot for tourists trying to get a glimpse of the rich and famous, or Oeming himself. The rest, as they say, is history.

The recycling program began like so many things do at Hula Noodle, with Uncle Ralph’s vocal consternation. The issue that was troubling him this time was the amount of wasted food he was throwing away on a daily basis, and he let everyone know it. Bill Stewart, lead designer at Reality Machine, happened to be in the shop at the time and went back to talk to his team. “It was a no brainer,” Bill says. “We all love Hula Noodle and agreed that donating a RMIII to the shop would be a great idea. Having a place where thousands could see one of our machines working up close would be great for business, and we could show Ralph how to break down whatever customers left behind, instead of just throwing it away. I’d be lying if I said that we didn’t also have a laugh about what he’d throw in the recycling drawer when he got upset. We joked that we’d probably have to go down there one day to clear out a rude tourist who was jammed in the machine.”

A week later a working RMIII was up and running inside the shop. “I let my nephew dump the first half-eaten bowl of pho in the machine. He told some of his friends, and by the weekend I had a dozen kids asking if they could help me clean up,” Umeke says. A month later, what started as a novel way for Ralph to get rid of unwanted food and a fun exercise for a few local kids, has expanded into an educational program teaching the importance of recycling.

Umeke and another local business owner, Ano Lee, have partnered to create a unique recycling program many want to expand to other areas. Kids can use Umeke’s machine to recycle trash they’ve found along the beach and in the preservation zone and can deposit the raw materials in a special “Builder Bank” at Lee’s maker commune. “We have a big list of recipes for various things we thought the kids would like,” says Lee. Ranging from backpacks, to various toys and sporting equipment, or even fluorescent shoes, once a child has all the ingredients they need, Lee will demonstrate how it’s made and hand it over as a reward.

“I donate the CHON we get from all the excess food to local farms to use as feed of fertilizer,” says Umeke. “I have to admit that I have almost as much fun as the kids watching something get broken down into it’s core components. The kid’s love it and I’m proud of what Ano and I have come up with. I understand that we’re not going to change the world, but we’re definitely making our little part of it better. I think that’s all you can hope for. With all the tragedy​ in Lahaina over the past few years and Stonegate’s trainwreck she called the visitor restriction program, we could all use a story that we could feel good about. That’s what this is. A chance for all of us to come together and feel some pride in this jewel we call Lahaina and keep it sparkling.”

However, not everyone is sold. Preservation Zone Compliance Officer Elizabeth Stonegate has been a vocal critic of the program. “I rarely have the pleasure of eating at Hula Noodle myself, as I prefer a more spacious dining area and try to avoid people attempting to fight off a weekday hangover with a bowl of noodles. Nonetheless, I am concerned about any establishment that serves food a few feet away from a glorified garbage machine. I’m not sure I understand how the authorities have allowed this to go on for so long. Throngs of kids are breaking the rules daily by going off clearly marked trails to grab bits of trash and plastic bottles. Instead of punishing them and teaching them how vital it is that we all follow the rules, we are rewarding them with cheap plastic toys. I would be mortified if my children were out in public carrying around bags of other people’s garbage. As a society we pay people who have no other options to do that kind of work. We shouldn’t be encouraging our kids to do it.”

DEV

Finding Friends and Mutant Makeovers

Since our first type of mutant, the Trophy Hunters, are prowling the forests looking for parts to add to their collections, we decided to give them a little individuality. They already have a couple different types with special abilities, such as one who has ranged attacks, but until now all basic types look the same. While giving them each name tags may have been an easy solution, we decided to go down a different road. We’re working on a number of different variances to make them look more like individuals transformed into creatures, and less like they’ve escaped from a clone factory. We’re adding things like: subtle shading differences, different garb, scarring, tattoos and body markings to let each pack member be their own best mutant.

The team is adding a number of AI improvements including fixing the distance you can be from a creature before it notices you, and attacks. Currently, there are a few things that you can almost bump into before they are stirred to action. We’re adding some new animations to improve the look of some actions, and adding some better audio fx to monsters. Since the first pass at the Trophy Hunters is almost done, we looked at a few new types of jungle horrors for players to contend with. We talked a bit about what parts of the map these new dangers would lurk, and some basic tactics and abilities.

With all the new mutants in the pipeline, players are going to need friends/party members to help keep them alive. The web team circled back to the friends system and is working on ways to make it easier to find and invite people to watch your back. Jesse showed off wireframes highlighting some onboarding improvements. We talked at some length about the referral system, and the best way to explain that you earn premium currency (kula) when a friend uses your link to join, and cash when that friend makes a purchase.

The team discussed the upcoming Communication Tower quest. We’ve worked out the basic story line and the goals for players to complete. The art team is busy adding a few new items to the area, and are finishing up last minute details to the buildings around the tower. We’re adding new audio cues, and talked about sounds for future quests. In addition, we’re including a new visual indicator for areas of interest in quests, and using the same marker for our loot drop scenarios.

We fixed a few bugs keeping our campfires from being all they could be, and are including a few more styles of boxes/containers/crates to hold loot. Right now when you find a pile of stuff, it is almost certainly in a military style container. However, It wasn’t the look of the loot boxes that was troubling Chris, it was the inability to smash them once emptied that was the problem. He always asks if we can shoot/smash/break and recycle it when we look at something new, and boxes are no different. The team is working on a way to accommodate this need to break things down into their core components, including containers, so Chris can get back to dismantling his box of fidget spinners.

One of the 3d artists is busy finishing roofs to a number of buildings before moving on to the mammoth task of fixing some of the visual issues, and collision problems we’ve run into with the Municipal Veil Station. We’ve discovered a few door problems with the Thorcon Power Plant too. Doors inside would somehow allow players to clip through walls and go outside, and some would open vertically like a reverse drawbridge. Even the large main doors had some trouble, and refused to open. We’re looking into it now, and hope to have the issues fixed soon.

Of course we continue to make improvements to the weather and wind, as well as the foliage and landscape as we fill in the map. In this shot below you can see deer who is feeding on our amazing looking ground cover with the mountains in the background.
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That’s it for now. We’ll be back next week with the latest updates and screenshots.

DEV

Testing Teams and Gear

This week marks the end of the old sprint, and the beginning of 22. The teams are busy finishing up some last minute work, fixing bugs, and setting goals. We’re adding a bit of polish to the group play system, but it’s ready to test. Players can make teams, use team VOIP, see members on the map, and revive teammates who ducked when they should have dodged. We plan on spending the next sprint squashing bugs, addressing problems as they arise, and running around, shooting the hell out of each other until we’ve worked out all the kinks. We don’t want to leave the creatures of the forest out of all the gratuitous violence though. We’ll be doing some AI work, to add another element of danger to groups venturing out into Lahaina.

We’re working on the loot economy/distribution system too. We’re making sure that the loot not only flows, but it flows in an appropriate way across the entire map. The goal is to avoid creating an area that gets too crowded because we’ve inadvertently created a looters paradise. We’re also making some improvements to our crafting and recycling system. We’re adding deterioration to items, and the recycling mechanic. Players will no longer have machetes that can hack through a thousand trees without suffering from some wear and tear, or becoming dull. We’re also making sure a brand new item provides more raw resources when recycled, than a piece of worn out junk.

The team is adding some audio support, and working on weapon and player movement animations to make characters look more natural, and add a level of authenticity to weapons. We’re also making a material upgrade to help performance, and make the props you’ll find around Lahaina look more realistic. The before and after shots below are a good example of how things are improving.
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Of course our Veil News Network (VNN) work continues. The web team is working on video stream improvements currently, as well as stinger and bumper videos to fill in coverage gaps and transitions. Jesse is hard at work putting together a VNN lead-in video and working on a few overlap bugs.

Terry was busy digging into some merge issues we ran into, and we’re working on some streaming, destreaming, and performance improvements. Improving map and large building performance is a never ending task, and we’re focusing on three large buildings this sprint in particular: the Thorcon Power Plant, the Veil Station, and the lighting inside the Communication Tower. We’ll be doing some HUD updates and working on graphics on the settings menu as well. The team is adding animations to the respawn area and building out our cave system, in addition to few other spots of interest on the map. We’re also finishing up the texture, weather, and lighting work for the wild places around Lahaina. As you can see below it has really improved the quality of our beaches, but we still don’t recommend taking time to make a sand castle without a weapon handy.
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We’ll be back later in the week with more updates and pictures.

DEV

Customizing Houses and Respawning Players

This week started off with the completion of the timeline view on the story page. We’re still working out a few minor bugs, but now you can read the game story in chronological order, instead of the back and forth over a hundred years of history and happenings, like before. Jared continues to look into improving performance and page load times, while Jesse is focusing on building out player profiles and Houses. We’ll be adding more color schemes, background and banner choices, as well as more image loading options. Soon players will be able to individualize themselves, and their Houses a lot better.

San and Terry continued their infrastructure work, migrating servers, and getting us to the point where we can start automating a push every night. With all these steps forward over the past few sprints, we started a more in-depth conversation about analytics and different data tracking options. We discussed the pros and cons of writing something specific for ourselves, and looked at a few of the software options available out there.

The team is still working on squashing the lingering bugs with our item spawning system, and are just about done. They’ll be moving on to adding stats to every item this week, and working on item attachments. Tactical lights, scopes, and the rare crossbow bayonet are coming up in the near future. They are finishing up the last of the recycling ui work, and are adding notifications, so it will be easy to know when your item has been broken down into its core components. With the initial handful of player talents in and working, we’re expanding options and adding new talents. The team will be working on balancing those, and play testing them this week.

Spawn points are a point of focus this week as well. We’ve put a lot of thought into having a system that will allow players to spawn back without getting immediately killed in a fire fight, or appearing in combat over and over again like an undying killer in a horror movie. The system is still in its early stages, but right now we are thinking a cave-like respawn area and a sewer drain protected area for starting over. It turns out exploring, and playing in storm drains was an important part of both San and Chris’ lives as children, so they’re both excited about the idea of respawning in the sewers. We have no plans on including teenage reptile martial artists of any kind down there, but there might eventually be a few mutants. Chris would like to ask that kids today don’t go storm drain spelunking. It’s a good way to get in trouble with the safety patrol, oh, and you know, die during a rainstorm.

Compass and map work continues, with focus on the use of both in the HUD. We’re working on some layout and ui issues, as well as fixing some remaining bugs. Speaking of bugs, we talked about some of our ongoing trueSKY issues and how best to address them without eating up a big chunk of engineering time.

Finally, we continued work on our Veil News Network (VNN) logo and overlays. We talked about expanding the service into specialty segments like travel, weather, or animals. If you think cat videos are cute, wait until you see the antics of an upset pig-shrimp hybrid, grumpy shrig is sure to be a hit! This VNN camera is set up on a bluff overlooking the forest and beach, with the bird songs and waves mixing together beautifully.

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We’ll be back later this week with more updates.