Hey everyone! That Fish reporting in with some news about the Blueprint Update.
How It's Going
We've been working hard to rework all the current maps and add over 100 new quests in total - one for every weapon. Some are really easy, others will take a while to figure out, and may require gameplay across several levels.
Listening to you, the community, has been really important to us, so we've dived into a lot of the comments, reviews, and suggestions you've all left. One thing that has been standing out is that maps can seem big and empty, and lacking content. So, we decided to remodel most maps, add settlements, tribes, gangs, monuments, and more to liven up the maps. Then we've connected this with the new quests and lore.
However, these new things are not mandatory, the main objectives will still remain almost the same. Some will even be simplified to make the main objectives more straight forward. Why? Well, the game is what it is, most people are here for physics fun and playing around, so we thought that these quests are great environments to play around in but with an actual objective and reward.
That's basically what most of the time goes toward. Other than that we've made more performance fixes, and That Other Fish managed to lower the CPU usage by around 60%, so the game will run even fast now. Yay!
What New Features Are Coming
Body Armor
Long gone are the days of bullet-sponge enemies. We've added body armor that has act more naturally with different types of weapons, and once broken it will expose the penguin to any type of damage, including headshots. So, if an enemy has a full iron armor, it will not do much if you hit it with an iron sword, but if weakened by heavier weapons and explosives, you can destroy the armor or just kill the enemy outright.
This will make certain weapons much more useful, such as snipers, grenades, etc. and make it more dangerous to run into a bunch of nooters with a baseball bat. There's a lot to the system, so instead of explaining more, we'll just leave it up to you to try it out once the update drops.
Turrets
We've added several cool new locations, and this calls for better enemies to fight against. Instead of dropping 100 penguins with pistols, or even heavier guns, we're going to balance it with turrets and heavily armed penguins. The turrets are pretty simple, if they can see you and you're close enough, they'll shoot you. They will guard important points, but they can't move and they can be destroyed. You can either blow them up, or deactivate them through a switch located nearby.
Those big open spaces will not be as safe anymore, and flying into a heavily guarded fortress is not the best idea anymore. The turrets will come in several forms fitted to the theme of the map.
The Library
Just like the Post Office, the Library will be a new in-game store in the Blueprint Update. Instead of focusing on items, it will be focusing on tips, tricks, as well as lore. Here you can buy hints (a few fish coins, don't worry) for finding blueprints, you can store and view pieces of lore you've discovered. In the future we may integrate some research options that will work alongside the village builder and house builder. But that's for another time.
More Rewards
Right now you only get money when you complete a heist, or a stamp when you complete a challenge. Sucks a bit, right? We'll, we're thinking that Pizza Panic and Survival will get better compensation, and we'll add more collectible rewards around the maps, so it's not all dependent on finishing the main objective. Same will go for blueprints. The challenges will reward you will reward you with a blueprint, but also something more. It can be anything from extra coin, some lore, or an achievement.
New Game Modes
Pizza Panic was a bit of an experiment, but it turned out really well (we've seen people play it for hours, so... yeah), and the result is that we're going to put in some more fun levels like Pizza Panic. These levels will be more sandboxy, and just let you go crazy with physics in special environments. This also means we can go more crazy, as we don't have to make a big map full of enemies.
Some New Screenshots
Pongo City is getting an epic overhaul to look more like a city, as well as new areas to visit.
Pumpkin Harvest is getting a fitting town instead of the acid lakes.
A pirate village is now populating the wilds of Playa the Sol, along with a lot of new secrets.
A small, magical, village in The Blue Forest, below Dark Castle. Here you may encounter things out of the ordinary.
There's more to show, but also more to do. We're planning on making some new trailers soon, though, so keep an eye out for them. There we'll show more of our progress. We'll also post some info on the Post Office and Library when they're fully integrated into the game. It's a lot of work, but we're really happy to be able to make the game better. With the Blueprint Update, it should feel a lot more like a "whole game", and the old systems will be gone for good.
As always, feel free to contact us if you have any questions, suggestions, or just want to chat. We're almost always available on the Discord server, but also hang out in the forums here.
Until next time, stay safe and keep on nooting!