Hello Reclaimers!
And welcome to your monthly update from the Rogue Core Factory.
It’s been another busy month, experimenting lots and finding a balance between being ambitious with new ideas and having to actually implement and fine-tune all those ideas.
IN THIS ISSUE:
- Update on Playtest 04
- Costume rework for the Reclaimers
- New guns: Now with more guns
- A big list of the major stuff we’re working on right now
Before we get into it, here is the usual disclaimer: Everything you see and read below is under development and may be subject to change. Nothing here is written in stone (or rock).
Alrighty. We’ll start with the People’s Choice Award for Most-Asked Question of September.
Where’s Playtest 04?
It’s still coming! But it’s delayed.
The main reason for this is we’re reworking the Mission Map and Intel system. The Mission Map is of course the whole UI for selecting missions, and Intel is our progression system for unlocking new mission lengths and cave complexities, difficulty levels and planetary zones. Basically, collecting data and deploying down in the mines earns you Intel, which allows you access to previously-classified facilities and features.
Both the Mission Map and Intel system have a big knock-on influence on a number of other important game systems, like cave generation, mission mutators, player power scaling and difficulty progression. So while the new Mission Map and Intel are under construction, it’s tough to package the rest of the game into something tidy and playable. We have also been working on a lot of other new features on top of all this, too – more on those down below.
At the end of the day, our goal is getting the game into shape for an early access release. It’s not about making it to the next playtest, though we get that there’s a lot of demand for that. We’ll run another one when we’re ready for more player feedback.
Our best guess for Playtest 04 is three weeks from now, but that could change. Doin’ what we can over here, and we’re happy with the progress and feedback so far.
Costume rework for all Reclaimers
As we’ve been pushing ahead on the cosmetic system for Rogue Core, it’s given us reason to revisit our initial character armors and who gets what gear.
When we designed the fancy new armor suit for our fifth class (who has been officially dubbed ‘Retcon’), it made the original four Reclaimers’ outfits look a little rudimentary. So we revisited each one to make it even cooler.
Here’s a look at the new armors as they are now. The facial models/hair/headgear you see here aren't necessarily representative of the character, this is just to show the armor suits.
Guardian
Slicer
Falconer
Spotter
Retcon
New guns: Now with more guns
Last month we took a look at a couple concept sketches for two new guns. After a month of tender care, those baby concepts have grown into in-game guns! And they have multiplied into more guns. Now we have five in the works: a battle rifle, an energy shotgun, another pistol, an assault SMG, and a smaller machine pistol.
Here's a look at how the Battle Rifle is coming along so far. We've implemented it into the game, but are still working on balance and polish (like the WIP weapon inspect animation below). Final sound design and weapon performance may change.
How come Rogue Core gets all the cool new guns?
It’s a lot easier for us to implement new weapons in Rogue Core compared to regular Deep Rock Galactic.
Why? Well, in DRG, adding a new gun works like this:
- Think up concepts for a new gun and how it’d work.
- Test, balance and bug-fix the new gun, using a placeholder model.
- Think up, test, balance and implement Overclocks for the gun.
- Make concept art, then a 3D model, then animate that gun (in first- and third-person views).
- Make 16 different cosmetic wraps for that gun, to fit all existing weapon frameworks.
- Repeat the entire process three more times, because we couldn’t just give one class a new weapon and ignore the other three.
In Rogue Core, we get to skip half these steps. Weapons aren't class-specific here, and we don't have any Frameworks for them. This makes it much faster to whip up new guns and get them implemented. That’s a really fun liberating feeling, and one of many benefits to making this its own standalone game rather than a DLC. We get as much of a “Hell yeah, a new gun!” feeling as you do.
Speaking of new guns, here’s a peek at the upcoming machine pistol.
The main stuff we're working on right now
Here’s a big list of all the major stuff we’re busy with. To be clear, not everything here is going in the next playtest. Some of it we’ve already mentioned, some might come later, some might get cut.
In no particular order:
- Class skills rework. Trying out a new system where every class has two distinct skills, with a particular focus on team synergies.
- Mission selection overhaul. Giving the Mission Map a whole refresh, including the UI, the ‘Intel’ system for unlocking new difficulties, mission lengths, security clearances, planetary zones and mutators. This is a pretty big job, as we discussed above.
- Ramrod Bar. Beer economy, animations, OMEGA and Reclaimer voicelines around ordering and drinking beer.
- Ramrod Fitness Center. Figuring out how to implement weightlifting mechanics/minigame, and the corresponding sound effects and animations.
- Ramrod Toilets. We haven’t actually made progress here but I’m hoping if I can sneak this part into the Steam post then I can nudge us to work on the toilets some more hehe
- Terrain Scanner UI. Animations, textures and overall visual overhaul for the handheld scanners issued to Reclaimers.
- Enhancement tree rework. Adding new Enhancements to select, extending the entire upgrade tree.
- Grenade rework. We noticed people rarely picking grenades as a mid-run reward. Trying a new system where some grenades can always be equipped from the start of a run, while ‘utility’ grenades accessed via Equipment Crates.
- Fall damage rework. Increasing the height Reclaimers can fall before taking health damage – they will, however, be slightly slowed. Testing this out as an option, as part of experimenting with the Armor system.
- Cooper V2.0. Revisiting your single-player helper drone with more upgrades and abilities, and an entirely character model and animations.
- End screen polishing. Figuring out how to best present the post-run endscreen, both in terms of aesthetics as well as player data.
- Adding more Risk Vectors. More variety in ways to spice up each run.
- Bio-Booster decks. Updated Bio-Booster decks for several classes, offering different options to support specific strengths and playstyles.
- Character model face tweaks. Adjusting the faces for male and female character models.
- Refining bosses. Working on new models, animations and gameplay tweaks for both bosses currently in the build.
- Reclaimer armor suits + cosmetic developments. Mentioned above.
- Five new weapons. Mentioned above.
So, that’s the run-down of what we’re busy with these days. If you’ve got questions, ideas or comments, feel free to pop ‘em down below, discuss them in our Discord, or join us during our weekly dev streams to talk about it. We stream Tuesdays and Thursdays at 13:00 CET.
Rock and Stone, Reclaimers!
With love,
-The Ghost Ship Crew