This week has been spent on FTUE behind the scenes (expecting it to be in next week's update, yay!) and AI, as promised. And yup, some of that AI work is now in the game. Let me explain...
AI REWORK
So the underlying systems that drive the AI have been reworked, to make our updates and tweaks much faster, which allows us to iterate more, which means the game will get better faster. That has led directly to the following two updates this week.
FIGHTER ENEMY
Much smoother movement, they keep a wider berth of each other too. They shoot in bursts of 4 to 5 shots, and then wait before firing again. Their bullets are way bigger (still not final) too and move more slowly, so en masse they create problems for you in terms of movement. Previously they were small and fast so didn't really deny any spac.
MELEE ENEMY
Smoother movement just like the Fighter, but also we've fixed their animations and damage so now they will catch you and smash you between their claws. We've also played with their collision, so you'd be advised not to take them on headon.
TUTORIAL
We've taken out the masking of the Xenotaph's tabs for now, as it was causing some issues with the new FTUE. The old tutorial is getting removed next week anyway. If you seem to be stuck in the tutorial, or your have a tutorial mission box on screen, just hold 'x' for about 5 seconds and all should be fine and dandy.
PLAYER COLLISION
This is a weird bug that we're struggling to find the exact casue of. We've reproduced it, and have fixed some small issues related to player collision, but we're not sure we've fixed the root cause. Essentially, if anyone sees MEV and Loot Crates around the entire screen get picked up the moment they spawn, we've failed and will try again next week!
EQUIP SCREEN
The 'shop' no longer refeshes its stock when you change tabs. This is a part-fix that will lead to a new feature in the not too distant future, whereby all Xenotaph stocks are defined at world start, and stay that way until the end of the server/wipe.
MEV DESPAWN
When MEV despawns, it no longer plays a particle effect. This was bugging us as it confused players - did I pick it up or did it despawn? Well, now you'll know.
TECH SCREEN
Several Systems, ones not avaiable in the shop yet as we've not finished them, are no longer viewable in the Tech Screen. Mostly the Beams :D
SHIP VIEWS
In the Xenotaph, you can now use your mouse ot rotate your ship again. This was lost due to a small bug, and has now been brought back.
QUEUING INFO
You won't see this until we have multiple live servers around the world, but we've finally got queuing info and world population being fed to the front end of the game.
See you out there! Next patch due in a week!
