Update 12
Update 12 will be the one of the largest content updates to date!
Beach will get a new Siege mission where you have to defend part of the island from the invading Americans. Like Combat Base, you'll start off with a limited loadout and have to survive as many waves as you can. Each wave you survive, you'll earn tokens which can be spent on fortifications, reinforcements, loadout upgrades, and more. This time around, the invading forces will have helicopters at their disposal which can be shot down for extra tokens. Be careful though, because some of them shoot back!
U12 will also see the first actual transport mission! You'll be tasked with delivering supplies to as many areas as you can before the timer runs out or you crash. Landing zones will be chosen at random from a pool of around 15 spots across the map. Your first delivery will be met with zero resistance, but with each successful drop-off, more enemies will start to spawn to make your job harder. If you prefer to have a "less stressful" or longer experience, I'll add in an endless mode where the time limit is removed and your only threats are crashing and getting shot down.
-
Early screenshots of the new transport mission
-
In addition to these new missions, I'll add in all current flyable combat helicopters to Beach's heli search & destroy mode.
Lastly, I'd like to add in at least one new weapon. I'm planning on adding a machine pistol that will be storable in your medium slot/sidearm holster. This will lessen the sacrifice of taking an rpg, grenade launcher, or sniper rifle as it will give you an option to still have a "real gun" when you run out of ammo or get too close to the enemies.
This will be an exciting content update and I can't wait to see how it all turns out. If you'd like to follow the progress of not only U12, but the development of PunjiVR in general, make sure to check out the game's discord server here: https://discord.gg/U4W5Wm529S
----------
Future Updates
Update 12 will be the last large content update for some time (in terms of new missions & weapons), but the updates after it will essentially revolutionize key aspects of the game itself!
AI Overhaul
The current AI in PunjiVR aren't necessarily horrible, but they are lacking, basic, hard to expand, and bad on performance. I've spent a long time since release balancing, tweaking, and bug fixing for the current AI with every new update and they have really improved a lot, but I feel like I've hit a wall with what I can do with them. Instead of spending more time with it, I've decided that the best option is to start from scratch.
I spent almost all of December working on the new AI and feel like I have a good start. In short, they fight smarter and are a lot more performant than the current AI. In a simple scene (warehouse with boxes & simple textures), I was able to have 90 enemies at once and still have a playable frame rate! The new AI are a lot more dynamic and unpredictable to fight and have a lot more advanced states such as flanking, taking cover, and communicating with their allies.
It will likely be a long and tedious process to replace a core system such as the AI, but it will be well worth it!
Lighting & Graphical Upgrades
This update will finally focus on the game's visuals and give me the chance to make the game look pretty! I don't plan on making any super crazy changes, but I do want to do a few things like adding shadows and advanced lighting back in as well as some minor vegetation upgrades. I've been studying and practicing lighting and optimization over the past month and I feel confident that I'd be able to come up with a good result that still performs well on VR. I'll share more about this future update after U12, but I'm hoping that these little changes and additions will give the visuals the boost it needs to help the game look better and stand out.
The Next Campaign
I'm going all out for PunjiVR's next campaign and want to make something really special with it, which is why I'm working on the AI & graphics updates beforehand. The next campaign will be a collection of stealthy missions where you play as a lone Viet Cong sapper. You'll be doing things like sneaking around enemy bases, assassinating targets, creating ambushes, and sabotaging fortifications, just to name a few.
To spice up these missions, I'm also planning to make a complete traps system where you can create, set, and disarm traps. With the inclusion of that, distraction mechanics, better level design, and the AI & visual upgrades mentioned above, this new campaign will add an entirely new level to PunjiVR that has never been experienced before!
----------
Closing
I will be doing a large move in the next few months, but I'm planning everything so that it won't affect the game's development too much. Anyway, I'm extremely excited about these upcoming updates and I can't wait to see how it all plays out. Thanks for reading and don't hesitate to let me know if you have any questions or suggestions in the comments, forums, or through one of the links below.
As you were!