Hey there, all valiant nooters!
We'd like to come with an update on what we've been doing and what is still to come during 2021 for the game. These past weeks we've been working on improving and revamping a lot of existing content. This is because we want the game to have an even better foundation for the updates that will come next year.
Level Revamps
One of the main things you'll notice in the updates soon will be visual and level enhancements. All levels are being redone with better textures, models, and overall level design. Some maps are being completely remade so that they hold up to our standard for a good heist. An example of this is Pongo City, a level that was previously quite confusing, has been remade with a more clear city layout and with a distinct style.
New Pongo City, view towards the bank.
Other levels have also gotten revamps regarding the nature part, with more variation in vegetation. As of now the revamps are mostly visual, although there are several new things added. The plan for the rest of the year is to also fill these spaces with Blueprints, NPC quests, unique vendors, and side quest mysteries.
Revised Playa del Sol nature, expanding the island to be twice as large and with more paths and obstacles.
New Military Base jungle. The map previously had a huge unused portion on top of the island which has now been turned into a jungle and a volcanic hellscape.
Blueprints - New Weapon Unlock System
All of this weaves into the new weapon system we're going to implement in December: Blueprints. Instead of buying Constructions that are confusing, you will find Blueprints scattered around the maps. Some are really easy and obvious to find, everyone will find them, but others may require to you explore the whole map to find them. Some of them are locked behind NPC quests, or sold by unique vendors in a town in one of the maps.
First Person and Modern Aiming
As some of you may have noticed, there's a first person mode in the game. Some of you might think the aiming is a bit too janky as well. We listened to the feedback and chose to implement "Modern Aiming", basically, your weapon and sight follow the mouse instead of being fully simulated physically. This means it will feel a lot more responsive and first person is both playable and enjoyable now. We're going to ship this with the November Update that's coming out in just a few days.
Multiplayer Improvements
We know that there have been some issues with multiplayer, which is why we've been spending a lot of time trying to optimize as much as possible. What does this mean in practice? For levels it means that we can add a lot more enemies without it lagging. No more small groups of 1-2 enemies here and there, now we can add proper guards and extra NPCs throughout the world.
Furthermore, the less issues we have with performance, the easier it is for us to see the serious issues. We're fully aware that there are people out there who can't host a server, can't see any servers in the list, and those who can't aren't able to join. Since we're a 2 person team, it takes time for us to test all the edge cases that could possibly break the multiplayer system, but we've been spending a lot of time trying to find the causes.
New Multiplayer Modes
As a result of the new optimizations, we can now have larger player numbers, and that has lead us to experimenting with PvP modes, such as deathmatch. It's hard to tell when this could be in place, but we want to add some PvP modes to spice up the game. With the first person and aiming improvements, PvP would be a new aspect of the game for those who just want to play around with the game's mechanics.
Dedicated Mail
We're currently setting up some Penguin Heist mail addresses/domains so that everything Penguin Heist related can be sent to those. You'll be able to send us logs and other info that could help us resolving multiplayer issues, for instance. Those will also work for any support/questions regarding the game.
I think that's it for now. Feel free to ask any questions if you have any, and we'll be right there!
Stay safe and keep nootin'!