We've been swamped! We keep having to shift back and forth between small parts and big new systems. Network code, UI, game logic, character customization work, and a revamped Mission Select menu.
As I've said in previous developer logs, our original plans changed. At first, our plan was to shoot for really simple tests. Instead of that, we decided to go for the full playable game loop. This means that we're now doing a lot of things at once.
This developer log will cover our work on a new Mission Selection system, and our further work and plans on the Character Customizer.
Development News
Since last month:
Mission Selection system mostly done
Conveys a lot of info without needing to open up another window
Read next section for more details!
Persistent crew tracking, for things like stats, health, loot, their appearances, traits, etc
Further work on the new scripting and CYOA text system, with events
Some more rooms for the YM Derelict station location type, including cafeteria variations
Lots of work on Character Customization and UI
Sound bugs that cropped up for awhile, now fixed
Work on ambient sounds for all locations
Hammering joining/disconnection logic for non-host players
Zombie AI tweaks
More sounds added to enemies, such as custom hit and pain sounds
Tweaks to how mass works
Better configurable mass for everything. Enemies, decos, etc
Mass strongly effects what you can run through safely
More tweaks to melee
Enemy hit aim tries to get enemies more towards the middle of your arc, rather than the ends (which would hit furniture more often)
Larger cleave weapons having a more unwieldy arc for accidentally hitting walls, smaller cleave weapons being more precise
Tweaks to throwables for better physics
NPC's complaining if you harass them
Things we're doing currently:
Further work for the Mission Select
Finishing up some last things on Crew setup and tracking
Title Screen work (very placeholder right now)
Work on Loadout UI
Adjustments to knockdown chance
Tracking down a "phantom lag" bug when leaving locations
Mission Selection
We've been working on a revamp to how picking your next mission works. Our goals:
Convey more information so you know a little about what you're getting into, without needing spoilers. This applies to both for enemies and potential loot
Let you pick a mission quickly, so you're not keeping others waiting too long in multiplayer
Be very seamless, because this is something you will be doing a lot in the game
To be quick and seamless, we're avoiding any extra windows you have to go back and forth between. You will be able to mouseover any icon for info on enemies or loot. Then you click on a mission, and then click the ACCEPT button on the bottom.
Each mission displays a description at the top, and then an indicator of the difficulty of that location
Below that, there are icons for the location's Threats, big Prizes (the diamond icon), and common Supplies, respectively
The last icon section, often blank, is for potential big hazards in the map. Things like Radiation, explosive traps, or unusual enemy aggression
At the bottom of each mission choice, there's space for your crew members to comment on the mission. What they say can be based on their traits, perks, skills, or other things. This is often for flavor, but sometimes they'll point out info you wouldn't have known otherwise.
You will usually be able to Reroll your missions, though this will take a specific resource. Currently these are called Warp Cores. I also want other ways to get rerolls past this, such as from special rewards in CYOA events.
Some things I want to add to the system:
The Prizes section should also show things like safes, big loot rooms, and rescues. Currently it just shows rare loot.
The icon frames should be able to expand and contract. Such as if there's 4 enemies in one map. Same for only have 1 or 2 sections for Prizes, as most maps won't have 3.
Special treatment for really big missions, where there's only the choice of that one mission. These would likely use one big window, with more descriptive text under the info icons.
Character Customization
Making characters is so appealing to people, that we decided to make the character customizer UI a lot nicer. Here's what it looks like in-game, currently:
Right now you use arrows to switch between pieces, but the plan is to bring up a big submenu of all valid pieces you can pick by clicking on a category. You can also change the color or colors of any piece by clicking the color squares below it, which brings up a submenu of color choices.
We want the character customization menu to eventually look more like this:
There's a lot of empty space in the bottom right that we're not sure what to do with yet. Maybe a combination of different options for randomization, and possible in-game presets that your character picks in different situations.
We've floated the idea of being able to set a casual outfit for your character, and a mission outfit, and a hostile planet "hazardous" outfit. Then your characters would change clothes depending on the situation. We're not sure if we're going to stick with this idea or not.
Next Up
After we're done with current work, we will be hunting final things we need for a good, presentable full game loop with all UI. Once we're done with that, we have a lot of different things we can focus on again for new content. I'd really like to get some new weapons in, as a big candidate.
Next Dev Log will be on May 29th. Before then, I'm going to start posting more playthrough videos on Discord and Twitter.
Thanks for reading! You can discuss news as we post it in the #future-preview channel of our Official Discord, and on the site formerly known as Twitter.