Hello there! These last weeks I've been working on stuff for the upcoming Arena modules, and, by extension, on single-player stuff.
Some of you might have already noticed the disabled buttons at the Virtual Training Hub. Soon those will take you to a variety of modules, the most important one being the Arena.
The Arena will be an arcade-y gamemode for those of you who want instant, fast-paced action. You'll face an assortment of enemies and obstacles, scoring points along the way.
SINGLE PLAYER CONTENT AND NPCS
The Arena update will also mark the beginning of single-player content. To make it more than a glorified shooting range, I've been working on the foundations of the NPC systems. The first version of the Arena will be VR-only, but soon after you'll get Versus mode (adding enemy player-controlled Mandrillians to the mix), and maybe even cooperative modes.
This means I have to make enemies fun to fight against as both the Robot and the Mandrillians, which has been quite the interesting challenge so far.
Here's some test footage of me placing this beefed up tutorial bot in the main map, checking its reaction to different types of damages and its targeting systems:
NPCS AS MATCH MODIFIERS
All these things learned in the "controlled environment" that is Virtual Training are gonna come in handy for one of the future features I'm most excited about: NPCs as a new kind of match modifier. For people wanting to add some spice to their matches against friends, or for people who just feel like playing alone, these additions should be a literal game changer.
THE INSECTOIDS
Mandrillian mechanics are completely balanced around the idea of them being controlled by human players. In the past I considered adding an option for "filler monkeys"; dumb AI-controlled Mandrillians that would just rush at the Robot. I ended up scratching that idea because it would just not work with Mandrillians as I knew them. But what about making a simpler, "dumber" enemy that could fill that role while still making sense?
The idea behind Insectoids as a match modifier is that the player will decide how many (if any) of them they want. Maybe a handful scattered around, feasting on corpses that hold good loot. Maybe you want more, but still a finite amount. Or maybe you want them to infinitely respawn, completely changing the dynamics of the game (this sounds like a good addition to the Super Soldier preset...)
Besides being a new obstacle chipping at your health and making you waste ammo, they'll also be a good tool against the Mandrillians, as they will be hostile to any non-insectoid entity.
THE DRONE
The roided up version of the Sentry Turret, this SPHYNX machine will be another NPC match modifier. Roaming the facility in search of any unidentified threat, it will shoot at anything that moves, be it the Robot, Mandrillians or Insectoids. However, if you link your Multitool (as you can currently do to enable the security camera system), it will identify you as a friend and you will have a valuable ally.
It's also physics-based and I'm having too much fun testing it.
DISCORD AND DISCOUNT
As I have no proper update to offer you in these trying times, the game's gonna be 24% off for a week.
And as always, if you want to find people to play against over Remote Local Play, or just have a look at the development process, you can
JOIN THE DISCORD
Have a nice week!