Happy Halloween, Spartans!
May Nyx offer you a wonderfully dark and spooky evening! But before you run off to your costume parties and trick or treating, we wanted to bring you a quick production update!
We’re in the thick of Q4, our estimated window for Dawn of Defiance “Desert Reign,” and we’re happy to say we’re still progressing for the major update's release before the end of the year. But since you still have some time before you’ll be able to continue your odyssey in the Ancient Desert, here’s some snapshots of development (that we don’t mind spoiling) since our last community update.
Production Recap
Level 25 Skill Perks!
As we shared in our initial announcement of “Desert Reign,” this next update will be increasing the skill level cap which will include new skill perks, but there’s a couple other changes you should know! The skill system is being overhauled to have skill progression driven by different entities in the world, so performing more difficult actions result in larger skill gains! This can be seen from mining harder rocks, to killing fiercer enemies. Some skills like hunting also reward skillful players, multiplying skill XP when the player is undetected, hits crit zones, and achieves higher star ratings.
At this new skill cap, there’s now perks at level 10, and 25, which are already in our Dev-build for testing. That’s at least 28 New Skill perks! Some examples include: LvL 25 Hunting | Butcher’s Bounty: 20% chance a carcass placed on a butchers block will produce double resources; and LvL 25 Foraging | Nimble Reaper: Harvesting flowers gives grants 200 increased movement speed for 10 seconds.
Raid Implementation!
Elevators are lifting, traps are triggering, switches are toggling! Ah, yeah. It’s all coming together. Part of the team is focusing on getting the new core mechanics of the next raid online. You won’t be able to rely on the same archery and puzzles solutions as Sisters of the Deep to get you through this next update! In the Ancient Desert, there’s new challenges at the minor shrines and through the raid which aim to integrate more of story and myth! And that means all new obstacles for us to implement and test. For instance, one room has quadrants with timed triggers to unlock the centermost room!
This work also includes boss fights and lesser enemy encounters! We’re in the process of improving new variants to skeletons and soldiers and their interactions within the new environment, plus prepping integration of boss voice-lines, among other specifics.
Environment Progress!
While our engineers and designers are hammering in the functions of the raid and new shrines around the Ancient Desert, our artists have been bringing in all the assets to replace existing placeholders en masse, from cliffs, walls and doorways, to pathing, props, and foliage-- many of which are new assets unique to the raid zone! The artists progressed from the temple exterior, to the raid entry room, and so on… By the end of today, they will have all temp-art replaced, allowing our remaining production time to revisit and polish!
From our props, there is the new Lore Tablet, which will be found in select locations to offer you more optional, narrative information on your encounters. And to capture the palatial atmosphere of Poseidon’s temple, our environment artist made new hedges and lavender bushes. Can you guess how these hedges might be used in a royal garden…
Female Animations!
Besides the ton of work going into the character creator, such as bringing the new customization features and UI Art into the game, revising the flow of the front end UI, and very specific functions like thumbnail generation of completed characters, we’ve also been progressing on the implementation of the female player model!
While the 3D art for the revised female armor sets continue, just this month, our animator has taken up the daunting task of revising ALL animations for the new female model. Idles, light and heavy attacks (for every weapon), tool use and interacts, swimming, gliding, crouching….you get the idea! That is 383 animations (including 82 for just the bow)…of which he is nearly already complete! Below is an image of his task spreadsheet...Godspeed.
Audio Preparations!
Nearly every asset, enemy, location, and animation that is added to the game necessitates a change or addition to the sound design. This month. our audio director has been working on new sounds for fauna, boss abilities and idles, interactions like door variants, and adjusting playback locations and audio loops. On the list of unsung specifics, they are experimenting with how to allow for NPC footsteps to accommodate enemies interacting with water...
Our audio director’s goal for the tonal bed of Poseidon’s temple was to build suspense and create a contrast with the beautiful environment. As many community members may know, he captures the audio himself! Here’s a clip of how he captured part of the raid soundscape, followed by the edited version coming to a raid near you!
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Again, this is only a glimpse at the work from October. In addition to the above, our developers have been working on special abilities for the new Legendary weapons, making quests repeatable, adding story beats, new fauna behavior trees, and more…! As with Sisters of the Deep, we’re intentionally reserving our coolest development highlights for you to experience yourself when the update releases!
Lastly, as a Halloween treat, we dare you to witness the tricks that our wonderful game has played on us since our early access launch: the Horrors of Early Access!! i.e., A collection of our favorite bugs! And with that, let us say a big thank you for your support during our open development. It may not always go perfectly, but we think it is always worth it!
Happy Halloween… but an even happier Halloween to QA devs everywhere!