Hello there! This last month has been a rollercoaster (annoying driver issues and Unity being as epic as always). Good news is this debacle has made me go for a new lightmapper solution that seems to work very nicely!
THE LIGHTMAPPER PROBLEM
Until now I've been using Unity's default GPU lightmapper to bake the game's lights. It's a pretty acceptable and fast solution, and while it had its quirks (you might have noticed some lighting artifacts here and there in the game) I was happy with it. Sadly, because of some driver shenanigans I am unable to use it any longer, so I had to find an alternative. The CPU lightmapper works but it takes too long (and the next phase in Mandrillia requires a lot of fast iterations), so I have decided to make the switch to Bakery. Some of you might be familiar with it, as it's a pretty popular lightmapping solution. I had my doubts, but after fiddling with it for a bit I can say I'm very happy with it!
All the main scenes have now been re-rendered using Bakery. At first glance you will not notice many differences: some shadows have higher definition, some emissive materials behave more realistically, and most lighting artifacts (especially regarding pipe joints) have disappeared. Performance might be marginally better, too.
NEXT IN LINE: NEW AREAS
Now that the lightmapping is secured, the long-awaited work on the map can finally start, as I mentioned on the last big update.
Since the beginning the plan has been to add fully fledged sections for the Warehouse, Waste Disposal, and Research areas. Those areas will be able to be toggled on/off from the Main Menu, with the following options for each:
-A "default" version just like the current system; use a magenta keycard to open the big gate and get to the small checkpoint-like area behind to get a yellow keycard and resupply
-A "full" version that will include the entire new section to explore, where you'll have to find the yellow keycard
-An "off" version where the gate will stay locked and one of the regular magenta keycards will be replaced by a yellow keycard (this will also allow for super-fast paced gamemodes where you only have to find 3 yellow keycards and race to the exit)
Before adding these areas, there's some reworks coming to the Observation and Exit zones -there's a lot of dead space there that will be repurposed with some juicy stuff!
SWORD REWORK
By community request, the Sword has been reworked to include some of the features the Pipe already had. Instead of making a flat 1000 damage on slash and stabs, damage will be velocity-dependant and cause bleeding status effect. It will now be able to be overheated with the flamethrower (like the pipe) and electrified with the multitool. Overheating it will make it ignore armor (such as the AI Mandrillians') and cause extra damage, as well as burning status effect. Electrifying it will also do extra damage and apply shock status effect (one use before having to reapply it)
It also looks kinda cool.
SILLY STUFF
While monitoring if the AI Mandrillians were displaying any weirdness, I also implemented some easy community requested features.
Glowsticks now appear in multiple colors instead of just green.
The Super Mandrillian Ball has been added to the item spawner. Please, use responsibly.
Pictured: the Mandrillian ball NOT being used responsibly
Also, AI Mandrillians can now be gibbed just like their human-controlled counterparts. The RPG has finally found its true purpose!
Other changes include the tweaking of some "sensor" stuff for both the human players and AI enemies (for example, the minigun spin now counts as a noise source)
FULL CHANGELOG:
- Main scenes have had their lightmaps re-baked using Bakery
- SWORD REWORK:
- Velocity-based damage from 1 to 500 instead of a flat 1000 damage
- Heating the sword up will add extra damage, ignore armor, and apply burning status effect
- Shocking the sword will add extra damage and apply shock status effect (one use before having to re-apply)
- Minigun spin counts as a noise source for both the human players' minimap and the AI enemies
- AI Mandrillians can now be gibbed
- Tweaked some Main Menu screens to accomodate the future coop and map section settings
- Glowsticks now will appear with random colors: red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, yellow and white.
- Super Mandrillian Ball is now on the item spawner.
- Fixed dynamic spawn marker appearing below the minimap
- Improved AI Mandrillian behavior
- Fixed minimap UI being disabled for player 2 when doing the dynamic spawn
- Fixed rare bug where one AI Mandrillian would not respawn if both mandrillians died within the same frame