We spent time on mostly fixes but added some key things that allow us to give better feedback to the player regarding the driver's state and contextual control information. We also got into some features, like garages, that are key elements in how you'll tackle areas and manage your vehicles.
{ Garages }
Garages are used to customize your vehicle with different unlocked parts, replace broken parts, and repair. They're placed in some areas by default and likely will be a building you'll be able to build. In the second driving school area, you start with the pickup truck. It has "road" tires, very smooth tires that get great grip on equally smooth surfaces like roads or metal. However, they are pretty horrible off road, especially in something like sand. A bit into the area, you can unlock a different type of tire that works quite a bit better on loose & rough surfaces. Nearby, there's a garage you can drive to that lets you swap the road tires currently on the vehicle for the newly unlocked offroad tires.
This is a simple example of how garages can be used to re-outfit your vehicle for different tasks utilizing parts that you've unlocked in the game so far. The downside is that you have to physically get your vehicle to the garage, so planning is required. When you FIRST bring a vehicle into an area, you can customize it and select what parts it has, but once you do that, ONLY garages allow you to make further changes or repair. So they're quite powerful and end up being a key part of completing areas, especially longer ones with many varied objectives to complete. What setups will work well for hauling over sand dunes will not work well for rock crawling up narrow trails.
{ Improved Feedback }
We have learned that in-game communication to the player about the current state as well as about how underlying systems work is extremely important. I recently made a variety of feedback mechanisms or improved them - in many cases redundancy is important. For example, the driver has a "consciousness" bar that shows how conscious they currently are. This drops for several reasons but two of the main ones are lack of oxygen (if you are away from your vehicle, or another oxygen source, for too long) and head impacts. We added a screen effect for when your consciousness is low and the driver is "woozy" along with quick double vision screen effects for when the driver hits their head hard. This immediately conveys to the player what happened (or at least that something bad happened/is happening) and then the player can look for further information in the interface via the oxygen and/or conscious bars. We also added some initial sound effects to indicate certain states for oxygen.
Along with some of the more dramatic feedback mechanisms, we made the pop up that displays when the driver has died way more versatile and intelligent, now able to display information on when the player is out of bounds, fails to enter a vehicle because the seat is blocked or fails to use a vehicle yard space because it is blocked by an object. Because the pop up is directly in the center of the screen and very obtrusive, it needs to be very careful how and when it is displayed -- very easy for it to become annoying. So we made sure any messages that are less important show up in tutorials on the side, whereas messages that are very important are displayed in the popup and only for as long as they need to be.
These systems are important for new players to learn how the game works, what controls are and how to handle things like getting stuck, the driver dying or the driver falling over. But they also are important for players of any stage to get information quickly when it's important - especially in dangerous situations where seconds matter, like running out of oxygen. It's too easy to not notice your driver's oxygen is low and die accidently because you're were too focused on running around to scout out an area ahead for just a bit too long. Admittedly, in a game like this, things are dangerous and you have to be smart, so we have tried to make sure that any feedback players will get consistently (like after initial tutorials) is either gentle or adds to the feeling of a dangerous situation (like suffocation or violent crashes).
{ Out Of Bounds }
Out of bounds zones sort of worked before - they are now stable and improved. There is plenty of warning but they're still dangerous and will stop you from driving off the map.
The visual effects are direct but effective, only showing up when you're near them, allowing for the maximum immersion when you're in an area (a visible horizon, distant foggy mars mountains, etc) but creating an exciting experience the first time you find the edge of the map. We also found that it's fun to try to navigate "out of the main area" to the edge of the map, so there's an optional objective in areas to just reach the edge which has some unique lasting benefits for your driver. :)
{ Torque Path + Vehicle HUD }
When we added multiple vehicles in over the last few months, some user interfaces for the vehicles needed to be fixed to accommodate the change - this was done, in particular the torque path display and the dashboard display for the advanced controls of the vehicles. We have a window that shows the route that torque is taking from the engine to the transmission through the transfer case & differentials to the axles and wheels. This is important to have accurate because differentials locked/open state do make a big difference in vehicle performance as we always calculate the torque path based on what each wheel is doing and the setup of your vehicle. We're aware that many people, even those who love vehicle games, don't know exactly how differentials and torque distribution works in vehicles. It is also not exactly intuitive even when explained directly. In virtual offroading, particularly when precise calculations of each wheel are happening, it make a huge difference and understanding how it works becomes a massive tactical advantage. Currently, this torque path indicator is accessible in the dashboard display and can be locked open. In the future, it will be brought up when one wheel is getting all the torque while spinning out, to give contextual information about what's happening, helping to teach players how it works as well as how to overcome it. I feel the best way to learn about it is by being able to experiment, see/feel your vehicle while also seeing the torque display live. Once you get a feeling for it over some time of play, the display feels redundant unless something odd is happening, so we like the choice to have it display or not be up to the player.
(on the left side of the image, the torque path is displayed and torque is shown being routed to the front left wheel only)
The second half of August was productive. In this news update, I'm including a raw changelog below with all the changes made since the last post. We're forging ahead, maintaining the goal of releasing a playable update this month.
Thanks for reading!
raw changes since last post:
- updates to areas: driving school basics, driving school test, water delivery, road to frontier town
- garages added
- road tires art updated to allow for getting dirty (Roadster Tires) + make them default tires for the ataire pickup
- fix problem where tires were getting forces added incorrectly, sometimes causing a weird sliding effect while parked in lighter vehicles and some unpredictable rolling (this came from a problem in the system that controls the shape of the tires while they squish or stretch with forces)
- make signal towers have unlock zones + signs added to help nav to them
- recovery pads have feedback indicators when blocked
- hint tower art fixed so text is always clear to read
- slippery metal plates added to school basics to help teach how much friction of surfaces matters
- auto recovery brings you to the last recover pad you used or unlocked
- fixes to detection zones for some objects so they don't incorrectly block entering the vehicle
- fixes to vehicle yard space menu when customizing a vehicle you're bringing into an area for the first time so that it closes appropriately if the player pauses, is knocked unconscious, dies, etc while menu is open + button to allow manually cancelling
- minor map updates so "space" sector is locked until you have access to earth areas
- fix to context controls system that caused controls to get locked after recovering the driver in certain situations
- exhaust amount changed to be more reasonable, is emitted based on total exhaust fumes in each of the engine's cylinders and total pressure in cylinders is used to determine speed the exhaust fumes are shot out
- add basic sounds to oxygen system to indicate when driver oxygen tanks are being used under 75% and when tanks are being replenished + better support for more driver related sounds in the future
- dialog updates
- save/quit panel simplified because saving/loading now saves the entire state of your game vs losing any progress or state :)
- fix tire track visual displacement on terrain to adjust based on tire size correctly, allowing much better control of one part of the visual aspect of tracks being left behind by vehicles
- vehicle part scanning laser effect for unlocking new vehicle parts in an area
- driver footprints
- out of bounds zones have correct feedback, effects and disallow exiting of the area with appropriate warnings + 'secret' objective works correctly for reaching the edge of an area
- loading screen works correctly (was broken by engine update)
- torque path, vehicle dashboard, vehicle hud works for multiple vehicles correctly
- visual effects for driver conscious + for head impacts
- pop up hint system improved to handle death reset warning, starving to death, out of bounds warning, blocked vehicles/vehicle yard spaces
- context tutorial controls added when stuck to help players learn how to reset, push/pull, and enter/exit vehicle when needed
- fix ground visual effects glitch in some situations where driver is moved instantly