Hello Explorers! Since last week's Fires of Industry Update we have turned our attention to polishing and fixing existing content and features. To do this we began with an update to the Player Feedback page by adding pagination and more fields to help create a better connection with you as we charge through the issues you find and report (which we appreciate!).
Next we compiled every issue/bug/concern across all our channels into our project management software (we love Zoho!) and organized each issue by priority. Then we got right to work starting with the most severe bugs first. We currently have a list of about 400 bugs and was able to squash about 120 of them this week!
The majority of these issues came from three fronts: multiplayer stability, lost robots, and space ship issues.
Space Ship Movement and Camera
Many of the Spaceship issues ultimately relate to handling and controls. We've always viewed the spaceship control as prototype and were happy to get down to update it. Our goal is to have realistic yet intuitive control for the spaceship during each of the various flight modes. We're hoping with your feedback will get it spot on.
The bulk of the issues and problems occurred in Hover mode so we prioritize this first. We added an orbit cam, mouse controls rotation (yaw), WASD controls 2D movement, and throttle increase lifts and lowers the vehicle's altitude. Lift high enough and the ship switches into Flight mode, which also now includes orbit cam.
Check it out!.....we made GIFS!!!!!
Hover Camera Up and Down
This allows you to get a better view while landing.
Hover Yaw
Move the mouse left and right to turn the craft while in Hover.
Left and Right Movement
Your assigned left and right input will move the vehicle laterally.
Forward and Back Movement
This will help you back away form obstacles, trees, buildings, or anything else in your way.
OK, just two more, showing orbit cam while in flight or in space. This allows you to view much more of the world and plan your approach, landing site, or Space Station.
Flight Mode
Space Mode
Of course, this is all work in progress and snuck into the build just late last night, so please let us know how we're doing on the new Spaceship controls! In the meantime, let's move onto the change list!
Change List
Added - Roar animation to Arachnoid
Added - HarvestableSegment to Arachnoid head
Added - Server completion date to avatar save game
Added - Count down to upper corner of UI in multiplayer modes to show Cycle Time Remaining
Added - Hit reaction animations to Hybrid
Added - Icon for makeshift Screw Driver and Prefab
Added - Support to remove spaceship and asteroid collision during travel transitions
Added - Hover Mode to Spaceship control
Added - Support for mouse rotation to Space Ship while in Hover Mode
Added - WASD to move Space Ship while in Hover Mode
Added - Orbit cam to Space Ship while in Hover Mode
Added - Orbit cam to Space Ship while in Flight
Added - Orbit cam to Space Ship while in Low Orbit
Added - Ramp collision sham to improve fluidly entering and exiting the spaceship via the ramp
Added - Boundary forces on Space Ship to prevent leaving playable area
Changed - FOV on Main Menu camera
Changed - Updated materials for Foliage and Minerals
Changed - Updated Icons for New Planet foliage and some custom pieces
Changed - Updated some map icons to have specialized icons
Changed - Reduced Bloom intensity amount
Changed - tweaked Nickel material to appear more metallic
Changed - moved Asteroids in Proteus 2 low orbit to be out of the way durring travel transitions
Fixed - Issue causing 3rd and subseuqent players from preventing to properly load the world
Fixed - Spaceship bypasses for transitions between low orbit and planet to prevent getting stuck
Fixed - Data issue in multiplayer causing built objects to randomly disappear
Fixed - Clouderous plant should now be properly harvestable
Fixed - Lonsdaleite should now properly read as in the Low density minerals filter on Discovery screen
Fixed - Deep mineral vein of Chromium on Proteus marked as lithium
Fixed - Copper veins from underground should no longer display on the surface radar of Proteus
Fixed - All map icons are now properly interactible
Fixed - Bug fixes for Silver
Fixed - Collider issues on spaceship
Fixed - Collider issues on Large Satellite
Fixed - Crab Monster Mecanim Bridge issue
Fixed - Crab Monster head harvestable segment issue
Fixed - CrabMonster IK issue
Fixed - CrabMonster rotation issue
Fixed - Creature looping movement audio continuing after death issue
Fixed - Display of time remaining in Server Cycle for multiplayer modes
Fixed - Time remaining display to show correct time remaining
Fixed - Droids not re-pathing wander error (stuck in rocks)
Fixed - Droids rotation issues
Fixed - Arachnoid rotation issue
Fixed - Arachnoid ragdoll projection settings
Fixed - Issues with Procedural Leg Hub rotation jitter (to be added back into creatures)
Fixed - clipping issue with Crab Mech
Fixed - animation issues with Crab Mech
Fixed - Colossus loot drop amount
Fixed - Zer will no longer greatly lag when loading in, hopefully fixing a common crash on Zer
Fixed - Various Zer optimization issues
Fixed - Errors reported by automated reporting tool
So, as many of you have probably figured out by now, we're huge sci fi movie buffs. Much of the inspiration from OND came from The Martian (when it was a book), Interstellar, Gravity, and Prometheus. But a lot of our team is older (myself the most ancient) so we constantly reference Alien, Aliens, Total Recall (Schwarzenegger version), Starship Troopers, Enemy Mine, Mission To Mars, Red Planet, Sunshine, and Event Horizon. But no matter what, you just can't beat a great Space Balls quote!
"You're looking at now, now. Everything that's happening now is happening now. What happened to then? You missed it. When? Just now."
- Brian
*This is me, my way of saying "nice to meet you!" ːsteamhappyː
**Would you like to meet the rest of the team? Some can be a little shy, but if we can give them a nice warm welcome I'm sure we can get them to come out and say hi!