FTessaro - Lead Programmer
Much of this past month I’ve been working on the new diet system, setting up the latest design decisions during the several meetings we've already had. I’m very happy with the system we are developing, it seems robust, very flexible and easy to set up after the main programming core is complete, it will bring forth a completely new playstyle, but be aware that this can make the game far more difficult than what it is now, having a good or a bad diet during your life cycle will make an enormous difference when it comes to survival.
We need a lot of balance changes to get this right and even more adaptations as we introduce additional playables. There are also a number of other things that I've been working on but cannot share the specifics of just yet, as we need to be sure that those systems have the necessary quality and performance, otherwise we’d have to go back to the design board, so no point talking about those right now.
Lastly it’s been the usual pending fixes and performance improvements for both server and clients, this is a constant process that we will work on throughout the game’s development, as new content can also affect performance in one way or another.
dmIV - Programmer
Firstly I completed the class setup for the Pachycephalosaurus so we could begin testing the animations. This is a quick and straightforward process on the programming side, but significantly helps the animation team.
Afterwards I moved onto updating the scent effect. You might have experienced strange behaviour when the framerate dropped, or certain particles not being very smooth or pleasant to look at. The style of the plant and water scent didn’t really work out as well as I’d originally hoped with the leaf and bubble shaped particles, so this time around I chose something that resembles the corpse effect more. I think you will enjoy seeing it in the game.
I also added a new mechanic, fractures. Even though fractures will be more heavily utilized by the Pachycephalosaurus, we’re bringing the feature itself to update 4. There are three different parts that can be affected: the legs, the body and the head. Fractured legs decrease your movement speed, but still leave you enough mobility to get around. In the case of the head your vision becomes blurry and you deal less damage due to the concussion messing with your concentration. Getting your body fractured makes you take a bit of damage each time you perform an attack.
Other than that there’s the usual bug fixes. A particularly annoying one that keeps coming back is surfacing as a Deinosuchus and just having it stay there. No accidental submerging, no hopping out of the water a little, no flying up into the sky, just staying on the surface. I went through this several times already and I think I finally reached a point where it reliably behaves how you’d expect it to.
amar0k - Programmer
This year is flying by! I have been more focused on AI lately to try to get some more species out in the world. We should be seeing the Utahraptor and Tenontosaurus AI make an appearance soon with full use of all their playable abilities. You may also be able to catch AI off guard as they are eating or drinking with some added dynamic behaviour.
I have also been working on a new method for spawning AI as the diet system will require the right balance of creatures in the world to function correctly. You should always be able to find the right nutrients, you just have to know where to look.
Lastly the usual performance improvements to AI logic is an on-going battle as everything runs server-side and needs to be handled appropriately. This will only get more complex as we add more creatures and more AI. I am constantly looking for more creative ways to do certain tasks and handle AI behaviours.
Tapwing - 2D Artist
How to design a terror of the skies without going overboard?
Well to start I wanted to branch off from the original design, borrowing and accentuating the forward leaning crest and the sharp yet sturdy beak with some facial features inspired by the great ground hornbill.
While we played with the idea of giving the quetzalcoatlus a fibrous coat. We went with skin this time around. At least for now. We’d like to get our hands on a technical artist who would create a proper shader that could do pycnofibres justice.
Well I’d say Deinocheirus was a mix of fun and frustration.
On one hand there was a fair amount of potential to work with in the way of feathers, different types of skin or scales and other potential soft tissue. On the other hand, Deinocheirus is a rather silly looking animal based on the skeletal. So how to balance staying true enough to the bones while still coming up with something that fits our aesthetic. Ultimately we stayed pretty close to the skeleton for this one, only lengthening the neck and tail a tad and bulking up the hands.
For covering we went with a half and half of textured hide and feathers. Aiming for something somewhat hydrodynamic for the large wader. A mix of hornbill and ducks were used for facial details, giant armadillo claws for the hands, both for offence and to dig up plants and perhaps water sources. Lastly coot-like pads were added on the feet as a little detail suggesting the mud dwelling life.
We had some additional features in mind for the neck and even the nose, but decided to hold off on those for now, saving them for the future elder stage and potential cosmetics.
Wedge - Sound Designer
The first half of this month saw me finish up designing the remaining sounds for the Ocean biome, I spent a decent amount of time creating all the one-shots needed. Now all sound sets are completed for the Coastal biome, a bespoke ambient zone will need to be created, as two of the four one-shot sound sets will need to emit exclusively from the ocean and one exclusively from land. Afterwards I focused on mixing the four existing biomes together, maintaining an appropriate dynamic range as the player crosses from one ambient zone to the next, so there is less work needed to complete the mix later on. In doing so I found that I had only fully developed the idea of creating Fauna one shots for all times when working on the Jungle biome. Consequently, these sounds were missing from the Swamp biome so I set aside some time to create these. Currently all 4 of the biomes I have worked on so far have all audio needed designed and set-up in the engine, leaving just the cave biome audio left to create.
For the second half of the month, I shifted from working on the ambient audio in order to make progress on both Fractures and the Pachycephalosaurus vocal audio. I have started designing a collection of cracking, splintering and popping bone sounds with varying degrees of intensity to audibly indicate how severe the fracture based on size and how it was applied. For the Pachy I have updated the existing calls, adding more layers to give depth and weight to them, whilst conforming aesthetically both to the original calls and to new vocals that I create. The calls were further improved by introducing additions such as the 1 and 3 calls power layer that are audible upon holding the key. I have also created a large majority of the supplementary vocal sounds for the adult Pachy.
VisualTech48 - Environmental Artist
Majority of the month has been spent upping the prop count, with cool new additions that make it more “homey” for our humans, starting by adding a semi-modular television so they can sit back and watch the dinosaurs eat, featuring a lot of variants so we don’t look at the same one each time.
Within the same package we also have the broken mirror variants, with pieces of glass missing or broken, the holy toilet itself, and the sink as well.
Other than that, I’ve been hard at work with the new buildings and interiors, some of which you'll see very soon, as well as one that is still being constructed, but with added stuff as well. This has been a good challenge to make, as some changes have been made to the system, and with the addition of a lot of decals I’ve pushed it to look as “used” as I can with the current propwork we have.
Closing Remarks
That's a wrap for June! We hope that you've all enjoyed this insight into some of what we've been up to the past month. As a parting gift I was able to secure Fred's latest map concept, feast your eyes upon our plans for the Underwater Swamp Environments! - Punchpacket.
