The team started the week by fixing a number of weapon attachment bugs. Previously, a player trying to use the sights on a weapon felt like they were in a truck speeding down a dirt road. We addressed the ADS (aiming down sights) jiggle, so iron sight fans can take a steady aim. However, that exposed a number of other attachment issues. We’re fixing the overlapping scopes, improperly sized suppressors, and other broken add-on problems as they arise.
Guns weren’t the only weapons that got some attention. Last sprint we added a throwing mechanic for weapons, and expanded what items could be thrown to include the resource harvesting tools. We’ve added a number of animations including ones for your axe, and pick. A few of us spent time this weekend: throwing axes into creatures, pulling them out of their bodies as we ran past, and hurling them again at any remaining monsters who gave chase. It may not be the best way to stay alive, but it is a lot of fun! All that throwing weapons into heads led to a conversation about adding a staggering effect when something survives taking a flying axe to the face.
We continue to iterate on the HUD, fix bugs, and add minor tweaks to make it as useful as possible to players. The team made some improvements to the Friends and Party systems to make it easier to find your friends, and keep tabs on the people who have agreed to help you survive the horrors of the jungle. We made some more improvements to the healing system, so it’s easier to keep your friends alive when things go bad for your group too.
The web team is spending some time improving user flow, and ui. We’re adding some hover animations to help users navigate through the page, and tweaking a few layouts. Jesse demoed the latest iteration of a company intro trailer, and it looks fantastic. We gave our feedback, and started talking about what audio elements we want to include.
One of the major points of focus this sprint has been on map improvements. We’ve rebuilt the entire game map for both development and performance improvements. Last week we brought in all the topography data available about the Lahaina area, making accurate shorelines, valleys, and mountains. This week we finished importing a layer that contains all of the roads, so the art team can build a makeshift network of crumbling highways, and overgrown residential streets based on the actual roads of Western Maui.
While rebuilding the play area, and adding foliage, we ran into a few (software) bugs. For some reason certain plants will no longer produce fruit, and none of the trees can be harvested for wood. We have some people fixing those problems now before the lumber shortage tanks the already fragile post-fracture economy, or some interprizing furniture maker becomes the island’s first end table billionaire.
While Terry tackled some package editor issues, the team made some improvements to creature AI. Our monsters don’t run in perfectly straight lines anymore, helping to shield them from sustained bursts of automatic fire. We plan on adding some additional defensive movements and tactics soon, but it’s a start. In addition, we’ve added some new animations giving the terrors new interactions with players as they try to tear your throat out, and a host of new reactions when they notice prey in their area.
Lastly, we’ve done some additional illumination work, and are focusing on water improvements too. The ocean has never looked better in the game, and we’re trying to find the right balance of light at night, to let players to sneak through the foliage, and still allow the stars to subtly illuminate the jungle. Here are a couple shots of beach areas after the sun goes down.
We’ll be back later with more updates.
