Attention Officers,
Thank you for joining us for the 61st edition of our biweekly development briefing, October 6, 2023!
Today, we have a Situation Report via a variety of subtopics that provide a wide view of the game’s current development. Included in this format we hope to show you some of the more nitty gritty details of our development process.
This briefing's subtopics include police “trailer” units, Quality of Life (QOL) improvements to less lethal equipment, level blocking volumes, level overhauls on Farm, and VFX improvements/optimizations.
Furthermore, we are excited to say that we are on track for an expected 1.0 release towards the end of this year based on the incredible pace of our team’s development throughout these past months!
Thank you for all of your continued patience, along with your considerate reception of our recent PSA in Vol.60, regarding still ongoing technical limitations presented by incremental public build updates at this stage. Quality takes time, and we’re fortunate to have had the opportunity and support to continue to use our time efficiently over these months.
Please keep in mind that the development content depicted in this briefing is a work in progress and may be subject to change in the game’s final state.
In this briefing you will also see media that illustrates several of these areas of development below!
Police "Trailer" Units
"This is Entry Team to TOC. Suspect secure."
"TOC to Entry Team. Roger that, proceed with caution, trailers incoming."
These above in-game radio communications finally come to life with the new addition of a physical police "trailer" AI unit that's intended to increase immersion at the end of a mission.
The name “trailer” refers to the fact that these units safely ‘trail’ behind the actions of the tactical team, avoiding tactical interference while providing auxiliary support. Reminiscent of real SWAT procedures, our police trailer units arrive to physically extract secured civilians and suspects to safety after you clear a level, removing them from the scene.
Although in previous testing we had trailers extract subjects during the active scene, it resulted in some rare but awkward occasions where active suspects would incidentally encounter trailer units.
Therefore, in the current state once all civilians/suspects are detained and/or tragically deceased, trailers come in and manage "the level after your SWAT team's actions, [carrying] detained/deceased civilians/suspects and collecting bagged evidence to take back to the bearcat [vehicle].” As a result, “you can actually see them doing their job and walking back to the bearcat, rather than being something that happens off-screen.”
Less Lethal QOL Improvements
We have made numerous quality of life improvements for less lethal equipment by realistically rationalizing the unique niches they fill and the in-game tactics they’re involved in. This is particularly emphasized by our more nuanced approach to the usage of CS gas, the VKS pepperball launcher, and pepper spray to make them more distinct and realistic.
CS Gas from a technical perspective used to perform similarly to flashbangs, statically stunning individuals within its area of effect for a period of time. However, we have changed them to operate more appropriately as area denial equipment.
To achieve this CS gas clouds last longer (~30–45 seconds), no longer emit audio that alerts suspects, and serve to primarily flush out subjects from dangerous areas. The previous form of CS gas also used a tick-based damage system which was unoptimized, where this new system avoids that issue. Lastly, our improved gas logic system allows CS gas to work through 'rat holes' in walls and around corners to a certain extent. This is done by drawing a path from the grenade to the target and then determining whether the target is in range.
With the VKS pepperball launcher you can expect a major change to its ammunition function and a tactical usage change to indirect fire instead of direct fire. The updated OC-balls, referring to oleoresin capsicum (pepper resin) inside of them, are less effective upon direct impact but instead leave small OC powder clouds that last for ~20–25 seconds at an impact. NPCs and players that walk through these clouds are affected by them, allowing you to lay down less lethal suppressive fire or flush out AI in a precise manner.
We found that pepper spray was sometimes too powerful for use against armed suspects in combat contexts. Now, instead of a full stun, suspects who are affected with pepper spray will cover their eyes, experience an accuracy reduction, and have a morale drop. In this blinded state they are still capable of shooting the player up close.
The player’s response to any chemical agents is now less extreme under current changes:
“Instead of turning the screen red and taking player control by making the camera sway all over, it only makes the screen red/blurs the screen as if with tear filled eyes, and the player character makes audible coughing sounds” that alerts suspects as an aggressive noise.
Blocking Volumes
The usage of "volumes" is an invisible yet crucial element of ensuring quality gameplay on a given game level. These volumes come in a variety of forms, including “blocking” volumes which optimize player/AI movement and “vision” volumes which help facilitate fair engagements with AI.
Blocking volumes are used to optimize movement through a level by guiding the player and AI around obstacles, enhancing immersion by providing smooth navigation around them.
Note: The “player capsule” refers to the collision boundaries of a player’s movement that interact with the game world.
(GIF below: [Before:] A pillar without blocking volumes around it, causing the player capsule to get stuck on the pillar’s edge)
(GIF below: [After:] A simple blocking volume like this will allow the player capsule to automatically slide out of this corner in close quarters, which is more natural for general movement.)
“Other than movement optimization, blocking volumes are also used to keep players and AI away from climbing certain props that would in most cases get them stuck.”
(Images below: [Before] “The navigation in this area is very uneven and bumpy which would result in AI getting stuck on these trash bags.”)
(Image below): [After] Volume blocking optimized for terrain, so we can solve both collision and AI navigation issues.)
Visibility volumes are used in areas where the AI is able to see the player, yet it is excessively difficult for the player to spot the AI. These areas are often darkly lit with plenty of visual concealment that gives an AI aiming system too much of an advantage compared with a player.
(Image below: “In this example, in Coyote we have some wood planks that have some tiny physical gaps in them, which are blocked with visibility volumes”)
(Image below: A view of completed level volumes on the level, Dealer)
Farm Level Overhauls
Farm is one of our many pre-existing levels that have undergone significant improvements to better suit our story and widespread gameplay intentions, both of which we will discuss more in the future. For now, you can see a variety of these changes subtly manifested within the construction of this eerily beautiful compound, where detail creeps in every distant crevice.
(Image below: The main garden of the compound is inhabited by humanoid hedges and quiet picnic tables)
(Image below: Portraits are placed amongst the leaves)
(Image below: Greenhouses for self-growth)
(Image below: Sunlight spills around a garage’s parked white van)
(Image below: The depths of the corridors provide further refuge)
VFX Improvements/Optimization
At the same time while we’re making improvements to the fidelity of visual effects, we are also optimizing our related systems so that they run as efficiently as possible. Among just a few the VFX improvements we’ve worked on are muzzle flare, explosive effects (including increased performance for C2 breaching), new vehicles, and increased granularity of our existing vehicle destruction plus optimization.
For optimization we are generally trying to reduce the number of "draw-calls." Draw-calls are what occurs when your computer performs instructions to render (draw) a given graphical element and how to render it.
(Video below: Updated effects for muzzle flare, [new] oxygen tank explosion, optimized C2 explosion, and the updated CS Gas effect which has improved performance as well)
Keep in mind that due to in-engine performance demand of development tools overhead this footage capture is at a decreased resolution, and that development build performance is generally worse than in a shipping (meaning eventually intended for public) build.
(GIF below: Showcasing many of environmental art's new vehicles that have been added to the game, destructible, customizable by color, and more)
(Video below: The upgraded and optimized vehicle destruction system, with the added ability to destroy all review mirrors, gradually shatter windows, lights [with improved alarms], and even doors.)
Lastly, improper scaling of vehicle size has been fixed and we’ve optimized static “vista” vehicles to avoid draw-call drain. Vista vehicles are those that are outside of the playable space, which now use just one material type, rather than non-vista destructible vehicles that have texture meshes specific for each door, etc.
Conclusion
We hope you enjoyed this broad look into these various aspects of RoN's development progress as we near our expected 1.0 release towards the end of this year. This briefing is by no means an exhaustive list of the changes being made to the game, and in the coming months we can't wait to share even more of what our immensely talented development departments have done.
Speaking of which, reporting an APB that we're officially now in the season to double check your corners and watch your team's six during this particularly spooky month. Stack up and stick together, officers! We might just have some small after-shift treats for you and your teammates, on us.
In fact— here’s a sort of treat now, before we sign off.
(Image below: Cosmetic options to choose from such as a version of a SWAT officer's impromptu Rapid Response 'uniform,' next to the "BDRTAC" uniform, a U.S. Special Operations unit intended to conduct high-stakes operations in scenarios similar to Coyote.)
This concludes our 61st development briefing. Be sure to tune in next time for more development news!
Thank you Zack for the gorgeous photos of Farm, Tiša for providing the level/vehicle media, Vman for much of the VFX media, and to all of our many developers who contributed pieces of their hard work and knowledge to this briefing!
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