Hello everyone!
I’m making this post to inform you all on what’s been happening since the long silence I had from almost anything social media related.
First of all, I am going to apologise for the absence of any update on the development of Vincemus or the addition of any new content patch to Vincemus.
Throughout the time spent away from social media I’ve been programming away designing new modular systems that not only integrate into Vincemus but into other new projects & game designs. I also didn’t want it half baked either, So I took my time developing and creating tools to help development of such systems.
This has led to the next release for Vincemus to be A LOT slower then usual, but on the other hand this should not only make development faster for generic core systems. It should also make the backend for Vincemus require a lot less manual labor and time can be spent creating content rather then spending a whole day setting up save & load profiles for individual aircraft or new keys.
Most components in the public version of Vincemus require me to manually code extra parts for any changes or additions, slowly adding on top of an already pretty big pile of code. So for future planning I’ve decided to remake a lot of the backend code to not only be a lot more automated but to also be able to integrate different modules with my newer projects if we want to share any components between already made games.
During this period for Vincemus I’ve removed close to 40,000 lines of code and replaced most of Vincemus with a modified version of a “generic” system I’ve developed for a newer game project and have also included some new additions.
New stuff coming to Vincemus
New Input System
- The previous version used “Unity’s new Input System” but this turns out to still have issues using listening to anything that isn’t a mouse. So I’ve ultimately decided to scrap the entire thing and rebuild it using a modified version of a new design thats going to be used in a new project.
New Health System
- The previous health system was also scrapped entirely for a new modular design, using a layout idea that was planned for another game. I’ll be honest I put it in vincemus not only to give it modular health but to test how viable this new class layout will be as our new Core Health system for future projects that are coming.
- This allows us to damage/destroy individual components connected to the object.
- It can also couple or unlink components in runtime & can work with or without any physics coupled to the object using this new system.
New Upgrade System
- I have replaced the previous upgrade system in Vincemus to use a new modular design that has the ability to work of tech trees and levels individually separated from each other but connected through any requirements or upgrade groups/tiers.
- I felt that the current upgrade system was rather basic and didnt allow player to spec their aircraft to their individual play style, So with this new system, you can buy components that each have their own stats that effect the aircraft, weapons or payload in some way. Leaving much more customisation to the player.
Generic Classes System
- I’ve included a new code layout which I call the CoreGeneric system, This causes all object to inherit specific classes & creates off chute classes that’s based on the type of object the component is connected to.
- For example
- Vehicles in Vincemus are now all sharing the same base class, but when the object type is marked as an aircraft. The vehicle then populates itself and prepares to take assume of the roll of being an aircraft.
- This allows us to customise vehicles based on Type/Class/Group of vehicle. anything more specific outside of the generic parameters connects itself onto the generic system and after initialisation it spawns an already working system without the need for any duplicate code or changes to the coreComponents.
Universal AI/Player Control System
- This is used to replace the current AI in Vincemus to sync Inputs controls for vehicles under the Generic system, and allows the player to& AI to sue the same vehicle and actions.
- Previously the AI used their own “AI model” for each type of object it controls and was forked off the UnityStandardAssets, but this created a lot of problem when trying to modify/Add and debug AI patterns as each type of AI Input was different.
Revamped HUD
- The HUD for Vincemus has been updated to be a lot more minimalistic as before looks very clunky and took up a lot of screen space, This new version takes up less space & uses a new AutoHide feature.
- When a part of the hud hasn’t been after a while, it will hide itself. This can be changed to always show details, or hide everything.
Revamped MainMenu
- The MainMenu for Vicemus has had a total overhaul in the way it operates and can now listen a lot more accurately listen to player Inputs.
- The previous Menu layout had trouble when we started to add more vehicles into the game so I’ve changed the layout mainly to a support more future aircraft without the UI annoying the player by taking longer to navigate the menu.
New Save/Load System
- I’ve removed the old Save/Load system to incorporate a new version designed to lower the tedious process of manually entering values to save for different properties. The previous used to use 20,000 lines, but this new design only takes up 150, 50 for saving/loading & the rest for searching for specific variables or names for saved data.
- I’ll make it also to be able to set backup save files that automatically saves loaded variables when you start the game for the time in the day. This will be for any cases where progress was wiped for unknown reasons, or if you are migrating computers and Steam Cloud failed to sync data. This backup may have missing progress, but it’s better than loosing everything.
New Mission & Game Manager
- The previous versions used to be joined together but the new versions of the Mission & Game manager are now separated and can work independently of each other, this also includes missions.
- Allowing for more customisation to how InGame progression works
- It also gives us the ability to have multiple missions running on screen at once & give the ability for dynamic spawns based on difficulty & allows the player to complete a mission without following a static route, missions on complete can activate the same mission, allowing for the ability of with which missions the player wants to complete to finish the scene.
There’s whole bunch of other changes that’s been made but those are the major ones I’ve been working on since the previous release
Quick Summary of some smaller yet interesting changes
- Reduce polyCount in commonly spawned vehicles
- Player aircraft performance has changed due to the generic class system.
- Aircraft are now lot more modular, if your left engine takes damage it will output less thrust vs your right engine.
- Same with lift & drag from wings they are now all individually effects based off the new health + generic class system
- UI Reticles got a slight improvement in code performance
- Audio got a RNG multiplier for pitch and spawn times so each repeating sounds a tad different.
- Gunner & Co-Pilot models now a thing
- They also use IK handles and their body now follows the target they tracks and hands also follow the handles on their turrets
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Despite not being that active. I have read all your feedback and suggestions throughout the development while making these new systems. And many of the changes and additions in this overhaul are a result of your valuable input. I am truly thankful for your continued support and involvement in shaping Vincemus and the future of our game development journey.
So What's Next?
After releasing this overhaul for Vincemus and with it comes the removal of the Early Access tag for Vincemus.
I’ll be truly honest here. After some time discussing with people from the virtual convict discord in private. I have decided that if the game doesn’t garner a much needed boost sales. I plan on halting any future development for Vincemus. Other than providing support for any bugs. I believe that Vincemus has run its course and I wanted to make it feel like a more fledge out game so it can stretch its wings out before I move to the next project.
Thank you so much for your support
Though this overhaul is a significant push and not yet released publically. I want to let everyone know I am committed to enhancing our gaming experience in Vincemus and all future projects to come closer to what we envision for gaming. I want our games to be worth your time and money.
Please feel free to let me know what you think of these new additions to Vincemus or if there’s anything you would like to comment about please don’t be afraid to reply, or post on the steam forums and if you want you can message me directly on Discord through our server
I wish you all an awesome one!
Zer0