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Videos and Voices

To get the week started we had a lengthy conversation about game videos. We have some landscape and test footage, as well as a few bloopers, but we need to make quite a few more. We looked at what we already have in the folder, and talked about what aspects of the game we wanted to highlight. Putting on their editor hats, Jesse and company are working on a few more videos, and cutting them up to make GIFs. We’ve already shared the “Can Gun” video from a few weeks ago, with most people expressing interest in having it as a weapon option in the game, and wondering how many beans a second it could fire.

We briefly discussed which one of us had the most pleasing voice for doing voice overs, and came to a consensus rather quickly, avoiding a lengthy reality-talent-show-like process. In addition to the GIFs and videos, we talked about creating websites for the larger ingame companies like: Manimal, Duracave, and SSHAM, and what we’d like those sites to look like, and offer players.

We made a few play improvements recently too. We adjusted hitmarkers to make them easier to use, made some enhancements to points of interest visibility on the map, and have a brighter, more noticeable beam showing the location of loot drops in the game. We discussed the possibility of including a basic melee weapon, like a club or rock, in the player inventory when they spawn, so they always have something to defend themselves with. The led to a conversation about punching your way out of, or into trouble, in the game. Chris lamented the lack of a punching option, for when you’ve run out of ammo, and want to feel like flailing your arms around will help.

Jared is finishing up the last round of improvements to the email and notification system, as well as the settings options necessary to support them. We talked about setting up a RSS feed to add to the forums and our Discord channel. We continued work on building out an achievement system, both for the game and the web page. Jesse is currently working on layouts and designing badges while we compile a list of achievement worthy activities like: joining a house, inviting a friend, or filling out your profile.

Terry and crew continue our march towards the upgrade to UE 4.20.2, but the audio transition to Wwise is done, and we’re making the final push on our trueSKY update. We circled back to a few lingering play features that needed some attention like blocking player notifications from the annoying and needy, and various minor weapon fixes. We discussed ways to improve our iteration time, and solutions for NPC voices (see the conversation about pleasing tones and articulation in the second paragraph above.)

One of the team’s main tasks this sprint is improving performance in structures, and building out the game area around the Thorcon Power Plant, our temporary social hub.
That work continues this week, as we focus on adding details to our ruined neighborhoods while being mindful of being kind to your GPU. Here’s a look at a few houses and some roof detail work.

October 2, 2018

Upgrades, Updates, and Points of Interest

As the week comes to an end, the team remains focused on the upgrade to UE 4.20.2, and is making good progress. We’re also upgrading trueSky, to fix some lingering fog and cloud issues, and moving all of our audio over to the latest version of Wwise. With all these different updates and upgrades, Terry and crew have been busy putting out fires as they appear, and working on documentation. In the midst of this flurry of updates, upgrades, and documenting, we briefly discussed server stress testing down the road, once everything is stable.

While the web team worked on fixing a few bugs that popped up with the new front page navigation, we talked a bit about some marketing ideas and options. We discussed a number of possible contests and giveaways for players in the closed beta, and further along in the game’s development. We’re putting together some videos, making sure we capture the best of game play, as well as the stuff that didn’t go so well, which to be honest, can be a lot of fun to watch.

We’re collecting feedback on all areas of the website: the account creation process, purchasing items and packages, as well as joining a House, from people who haven’t seen the website before. We’re hoping the fresh eyes will be able to spot areas of improvement and anything that is too confusing, that we’ve overlooked. So far it’s really paid off, and we’ve started a list of refinements to make all areas easier to use and more intuitive.

We also made some improvements to our “Points of Interest” map to make it a better design tool. Containing all the places and structures mentioned in the game stories, and a few other surprises, the POI map serves as an aspirational guide for building out areas, and the placement of buildings. We’ve added a few new layers to represent areas the art team have already finished, the places that are playable in the game currently, and different “loot zones”.

Distributing items and gear across the map in a way that makes sense, our loot zones provide players a dependable area to look for certain items they need for crafting or completing a quest. For instance, a player looking for shark teeth should check beach areas, and someone in need of some food or refreshing Manimal will have the best luck searching one of the many ruined neighborhoods. We talked about some refinements we could make to the system as it currently stands, and how best to adjust it in the future.

We also spent some time discussing crafting. With only a few minor issues remaining, like working on the ui for splitting stacks of items in your inventory, our first pass at the crafting system is just about done. We talked about new recipes and creating a tiered model for resources with items like smelters, various types of machines, and lab equipment. We have quite a few decisions to make for the next iteration, but we’re off to a good start.

Lastly, performance improvements continue on the Municipal Veil Station. The future social hub of the game is a huge building that the art team is busy making material improvements to, for better performance. At the same time, we’re marking up the outside to show the toll time and the fracture have taken. Below you can see some prefracture and postfracture shots.

September 28, 2018

The Distribution of Loot

The team is finishing out the week by focusing on a few ui improvements. Currently, it can be hard to see in the heat of battle what items you have selected or equipped from your inventory. The last thing we want is players mistakenly splashing mutants with a canteen, instead of filling them full of lead. We’re adding improvements to better outline the stuff you want to use. We’re also working on hitmarker improvements so you can line up your shots more accurately, either on the fly, or after a measured exhale.

While Terry and crew continue to manage the UE 4.20.2 and trueSKY upgrade, we made a few improvements to the map. We found some areas are too resource poor for our liking, especially when it comes to metal and minerals. The team is adding more rocks in these areas, allowing players the ability to smash stones until they give up the goods. We also talked at some length about points of interest visibility on the map. We’re making some improvements to better highlight places that are important for quests, might hold valuable loot, are fun to explore, or just act as landmarks and rallying points.

We’re just wrapping up final touches on the next round of mutants to chase players around Lahaina. These gruesome creatures will offer players new types of challenges to overcome, through different tactics and attacks than the Trophy Hunters do now. The group has been focusing on improving ranged AI this week too. We’re improving the tactics employed by ranged attackers like: taking cover between shots, focusing on certain targets, and funneling players into the teeth and claws of waiting melee fighters. After some discussion about what types of mutants would still retain enough of their minds to use complex weapons, we started working on gun tactics for specific creatures.

We’ve been moving all of our audio over to Wwise, and making some improvements as we go. Every area and building has its own specific noises, so those who’ve spent a lot of time exploring could theoretically tell where they were just by listening to the background noises. We’ve made some improvements to reloading sounds, because the noise a shotgun makes while being racked can be a great morale boost before combat, or a warning that something really bad is about to happen. We’ve made some other minor audio changes too, like slightly delaying the sounds of doors, and adjusting the volume of footsteps on different types of surfaces.

One of the biggest projects this week has been making improvements to the loot system. We’re creating all new loot tables based on “regions” on the map. While players have a chance to pick up any kind of loot anywhere, we want certain items to be rare in certain areas, and more plentiful in others. For instance, if you’re looking for shark teeth, you might find them anywhere, but beaches will be the best places to look. The mountains and dense jungle will turn up more harvesting tools and raw resources. Ruined neighborhoods hold more provisions than other areas, and downtown is the place to look for weapons and ammo. We’re also working on adding visual cues to help players see where a loot drop scenario is happening, and adding the same for quests.

Finally, we continue to work on improving performance issues with the Veil Station and our procedural building system. While we’re making progress on turning the station into the future social hub of the game, the team is also building out neighborhoods surrounding the Thorcon Power Plant. We’re still making performance and materials improvements to the automated building system, but as you can see from these shots below, the neighborhoods that we can build on the fly are looking pretty good.

September 20, 2018

Grungy Buildings and Ricocheting Bullets

While Terry kicked off the week poking the monster that is the UE 4.20.2 upgrade and updating trueSKY, the rest of the team was busy switching over audio to Wwise. We’ve made a number of audio improvements across the board. The amount of noise a player makes when doing various activities has been adjusted (there’s no quiet leaping from the top of a structure), and we’ve made improvements to some other environmental sounds too. You can now occasionally hear a bullet ricochet, (a strangely pleasing noise when firing a weapon), and we’ve added a little flying blood when you successfully cause damage with a shotgun.

We’ve been polishing the area where our first quest takes place, fixing bugs, and doing some general UX work. The shot below shows you what the neighborhood surrounding the Communication Tower looks like as you approach, looking for quest items.

A few of the bugs we fixed already this week include: Medkits will now heal poison effects. Sometimes a player would start to lean to one side like they had just maxed out their credit card on mai tai’s, at Beachcomber Bob’s Tiki Tavern. We made sure everyone now stands up straight. Occasionally a mutant would refuse to climb stairs, so we worked on their confidence, glutes, and quads to make sure they could run stadium stairs with the best of them. Lastly, we fixed a problem with crafting recipes turning up empty.

While we were working on the crafting bugs, we also put in some UX time and addressed a number of layout issues on the crafting screen. We nabbed a lingering bug with the player inventory grid, added some improvements to the queue, made rollover info for items more clear, made some navigation improvements, and added subtle changes to the color scheme to help differentiate items actively being worked on, and those waiting for repair.

The web team made some changes to the front page, including upgrades to the slides, colors, and navigation layout. We talked about incorporating a badge/achievement system to encourage players to explore the page, and all the various social tie-ins available to them. Jared started work expanding our notification system so players can get alerts every time something new happens in their House, or to one of their friends. He’s also making sure there is a setting for those of you who don’t want to get notified of anything those people are doing, so long as they’re helping you shoot things in the jungle, and bandaging hurt limbs. We discussed the need to give the VNN drone the updated geographic information of the new map, so it will stop traveling through the Earth while making its path around the island.

Our SEO work is starting to pay off and we talked at some length about user flow improvements. We’ve addressed some of the confusion our packages page had inadvertently caused. After some initial feedback, we learned that some wrongly thought they’d have to pay a monthly subscription to play the game, instead of a one-time fee. We’ve addressed the problem, and updated the page to make it clear that a player doesn’t have to pay every month to play the game. We discussed offering some sort of game bundle which would allow a player to buy multiple copies of the game for their friends at a discount. We looked at a number of examples other games were using, and are deciding what we think would work best for us.

Being the temporary social hub in the game, the Thorcon Power Plant is getting some minor touch-ups, and we’re building out the surrounding areas to make sure there is plenty to loot, explore, and fight. However, we plan on moving the main meeting point to the Veil Station in the near future. The art team is hard at work making all the performance and texture improvements necessary to make that happen. The shots below highlight the building’s exterior transformation from normal wear and tear, to what 60+ years and The Great Fracture has done to it.

That’s everything for now. I’ll be back with more updates at the end of the week.

September 18, 2018

Bigger Buildings and New Mutants

Sprint 27 is here and in addition to covering a few goals carried over from 26, our biggest tasks are: upgrading to UE 4.20.2, speeding up iteration time, upgrading trueSky to fix some of our lingering weather issues, and addressing any bugs from the last sprint.

We made a big push to get our first quest ready to play. Centering around the Communication Tower, players explore the surrounding area fighting off dangers, gathering loot, and completing quest goals. As this picture of the tower with a little morning mist shows, the area is looking great.

However, Lahaina is a big place, and we’re moving on to bigger buildings, namely the Municipal Veil Station, and the Thorcon Power Plant. Being a little bit more play ready, we’re working on building out the areas around the Thorcon. We plan on making it the temporary social hub for the game, and are working on filling it up with useful items for players, as well as making it an interesting place to explore. The team has a few concepts for the surrounding areas, and are working to improve materials for our procedural building system.

The Veil Station still needs a lot of performance improvements before it can become the main hangout for players. We’re working on a number of updates and improvements inside to help performance, while we work on grunging up the exterior to properly represent 60+ years of neglect and encroaching jungle.

We found some of our mutants to be a bit too tough so we plan on balancing combat a bit. Right now, you can shoot so many arrows into a Trophy Hunter that they look like a bipedal porcupine before running up to you, and ripping off your face. The team is going to adjust their damage and health values a bit to make fighting more fun, but still challenging.

We’re making some improvements to mutant models and animations, and are improving the existing AI in the game to help fix a few bugs we uncovered. We’ve upgraded ranged AI to help players take full advantage of natural cover, and all the hard work we put into buildings to hide behind. We’re adding another type of Trophy Hunter for players to deal with, as well as a whole new group of terrors to encounter in the areas we’re working on.

With the new and improved horrors of the jungle to deal with, we’re making some weapon improvements too. We’re adding a number of audio features like reloading sounds, and fixes to attenuation and ricochet sounds. We’re fixing a bug where a players M4A1 will move around independent of their hands. This is a great feature for shooting around corners, but we’re not really into phantasmal riflery. We’re adding impact decals for gunshots to make things look more realistic, and misses will sometimes kick up a little dirt now as well.

Lastly, we’re fixing some social player items and game features too. The ability to block players has just been completed, so you can now easily ignore the annoying or needy with the click of a button. Inventory stacks can be split into manageable piles, and we’re fixing a bug to make sure medkits will heal poison now. While it can be fun and tingly for the first few minutes, nobody likes to stay poisoned for however long they have left. We’re adjusting how far away the sound of jumping carries, and are making sure that all the ammo boxes now contain ammo, which isn’t the case currently. We’re also adjusting how easy it is to see campfire smoke at a distance, so you can provide other players with a live action version of your favorite scary campfire story, or just make new friends. Whatever you’re in to.

That’s it for now. We’ll be back next week with more updates.

September 14, 2018

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.

We’ll be back next week with more.

August 31, 2018

Casting an Appropriate Level of Light On things

The team started off the week with some work on smoothing out the flight plan of the Veil News Network (VNN) drone. The game’s eye in the sky broadcasts a live feed of what’s going on in the game, highlighting different areas of the map, and capturing player activity. We’re also working on an “Art Bible”, that documents the look, feel, and methods we’ve used in the game, to help keep things consistent for any new faces in the future.

We’ve finished some AI improvements for ranged attacks and reloading. We found that occasionally a ranged attacker would lose confidence in their ability to hit a target at a distance and move too close. We also ran into trouble with NPCs emptying their guns and then taking time to ponder what life choices led them to be in the middle of a firefight, delaying their reloading time. We want mindless killing machines who know enough to stay out of machete reach hunting down our players, so we’re retraining our antagonists to make them appropriately deadly.

While Terry was busy doing documentation on existing servers, and updating tech documents, we revisited the old keybindings sheet and decided to make a few improvements. All the normal shoot, jump, and movement keys are right where you would expect to find them, but we mapped out a few of the other less used movement/action key in a way that is intuitive for players and easy to hit when you’re being torn apart by enemies. Of course, players can always change things in their settings if they have a set-up they prefer.

The web team was busy making some layout improvements and squashing a few bugs. Jesse reworked the game packages page to make it look better. We worked on some context menus, added a few new animations, and looked at some background/wallpaper video options to give certain sections a unique look and feel.

We’re taking a deep dive into some SEO issues we discovered, and are making some changes to improve things. We discussed a few tweaks that we plan on making to the friends system to help you find play buddies, and follow people streaming the game. We went over a number of forum improvements that we plan to roll out in the near future, and talked about updating our YouTube channel more often with different aspects of game-play.

The art team remains focused on building out the areas around the Communication Tower to support our upcoming quest/tutorial. Players will start out safe and secure in our sewer respawn area where they will learn the basics of game play: aiming/shooting/fighting, crafting, looting, harvesting resources, and moving around. They will then embark on a quest involving the tower and the surrounding area using all the skills they just learned. We’re fixing a number of little bugs and adding roads, loot, buildings, and enemies in the corridor leading up to the tower.

With so many systems and creatures ready, we’ve been putting in a lot of play time, and of course found a few bugs. We’re working on ziplines, making it easier to strap yourself in, fly across a large section of Lahaina, and hopefully stop. We’ve been having trouble with the stopping part, and that’s a pretty important part. We’ve discovered tiny puffs of poisonous clouds where they shouldn’t be, and we’ve mostly worked out our remaining weather and wind issue.

Lastly, we’ve made a lot of improvements to the game’s lighting. This shot below shows off the progress we’ve made. The large spotlight clearly illuminates an area but doesn’t wash out the dimmer bulb in the background or the stars in the sky. It’s not perfect yet, but it’s getting there.

We’ll be back later in the week with the latest news.

August 28, 2018

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.

That’s it for now. We’ll be back next week with the latest updates and screenshots.

August 23, 2018

Building Roads and Aging Buildings

Sprint 26 kicked off this week, and we’ll be focusing on getting things ready for players with items such as: Improving creature AI, filling in the map, implementing a way for players to bank or secure loot, creating a social hub in the game, and focusing on player growth.

We’re updating campfires to make them a more useful place to regroup your party, dry wet clothing, and make a meal. We took a brief tangent discussing the viability of pineapple s’mores, and other Hawaiian versions of traditional campfire treats. We discussed what we would like in a basic banking system and talked through questions like: Does money have weight? If so how much does it weigh? If not is there a cash limit? Is banking free? We haven’t made any decisions yet, but it was good to work through some of these questions.

We have the beginnings of a talent system in place, allowing players to specialize their characters to fill certain roles in a group, or just tailor to their liking (though there is no tailoring skill currently planned). These special abilities focus on things like combat, stealth, crafting, and medical expertise (Not tailoring). We need to play test the talents we already have, fine tune them, and fill in any holes we find (But not darning holes, no tailoring, remember?). We’re working on a talent ui currently, and trying to avoid the tangled-string-art (String? Seriously, no tailoring!) looking web of skills you see in so many other (non-tailoring oriented) games.

The web team discussed the alerts and notifications we already have in place, and what areas we could improve in. We want players to know when their friends, or people they enjoyed playing with, are online or near them. We also discussed the importance of having an easy way to disable those things so your game isn’t pinging you every few minutes. We also talked over a few ideas for game trailers and sizzle reels.

We had to face an uncomfortable truth this week when it came to clothing. It’s obvious that the fracture caused a severe food, water, and supply shortage for survivors in Lahaina, but we had unwittingly created a unique outfit shortage as well. A post-apocalyptic makeover show would be a huge failure on the island right now because there just aren’t any options for the all important “new threads” (Dammit! Again with the clothes!) segment. We talked about adding a variety of outfit choices with some waterproof options, as well as a good selection of hats and headgear to help keep players warm at night. Maybe we need a tailoring skill…

The group went over a few more ideas for new places to explore on the map, as well as locations from the game stories. The art team is working on concept drawings of a few of our favorites. We’re adding some final touches to our road and village generating system, and working out a few lingering weather bugs with TrueSky. We’re currently filling in the areas surrounding the communications tower and damaging/roughing up the building materials with moss/vines, discoloration, and cracks to properly represent decades of neglect.

We plan on using the municipal veil station as the main social hub for the game, but have run into some performance issues. The already poor frame rates would only get worse with every new player running around, so we decided to shift the main hub to the Thorcon plant until we get the issues worked out. The team is busy roughing up the outside of the power plant and armory, and filling up the interiors with decorations, furniture, and containers to root through. We’re also making sure there is a distinct path leading to these important buildings. Below you can see what’s left of a portion of the Honoapi’ilani Highway. Although the jungle has reclaimed much of it, highway 30 remains an important road even after the cataclysm.

We’ll be back next week with more updates.

August 13, 2018

Staging Ruins and Upgrading Creatures

With sprint 25 coming to an end today, the team is busy adding a bit of polish, and finishing up goals. While filling in the map, and laying down a network of connecting trails is going to be an ongoing process, the handful of sections to the South that we’ve been focusing on are looking great. We’ve added buildings, places to explore, and paths to get there. We took some topographical liberty in a few spots, and added a line of cliffs to explore. We try and stick to a geographically realistic Lahaina in most cases, but this area is one long flat plain, and we felt that it needed a feature to break it up, and act as a landmark.

We noticed that there was very little minable stone in the area, so we’re adding enough new rocks to appease even the most rabid mineral enthusiast. The team discussed possible areas to build out in the upcoming sprint. We looked at a few concept drawings of post-apocalyptic fishing villages, bridge dweller enclaves, and abandoned military outposts, and kicked around some ideas about what to include next.

Our Trophy Hunter monsters received a major AI upgrade this sprint, and we watched a demo of the final, (for this sprint), product. They now have ranged attackers who: try to push players towards melee combatants, avoid line of site, and utilize surrounding cover for protection. There’s still some work to do, but they are miles ahead tactically from where they were. Here’s a shot of a group of Trophy Hunters coming out of the jungle, and looking for victims along the beach near the “Welcome To Lahaina” sign.

We talked at length about various weather related bugs we need to address. We’re still having trouble with the rain which falls but doesn’t get a player’s clothes wet. Running full speed during the hottest part of the day doesn’t raise your temperature, and you don’t get cold at night. There only seems to be one type of cloud in the sky at any given time, and we need some help with wind physics in regards to the foliage. Right now leaves and limbs are moving to the beat of their own drummer instead of going with the breeze.

We’ve added a number of ravaged buildings and homes to the map for players to explore and seek shelter in. With the structures in place, the team has been busy adding furnishings, rugs, and knick-knacks that really tie a ruined room together. We’ve added some obvious loot crates/boxes inside and out, but we’ve also hidden useful items inside cabinets, appliances, and furniture. Rewards now await those brave enough to reach into the deepest crevices of a couch and root around in 60-year-old pet hair and cheese snack crumbs.

We still have some weathering to do to these old homes, but below you can see a couple of prime beach dwellings, with a few suspiciously placed crates sitting out in the open.

August 8, 2018

Tag: Weather