Hey everyone,
It’s been a hot minute since we released an update, or a devblog for that matter - we apologize for that!
There’s been a lot happening around and inside XREAL Games in the past few months. (I'll probably write a blog post about everything that's going on on our website for those who are interested.) Let's see what's going on with Zero Caliber VR!
Our current goal is to provide you all with the best, coolest Zero Caliber experience ever. Analyzing all the feedback you sent us both during the closed PvP beta and in general over the years made it clear that the only way we can achieve that is if we rework the game's core mechanics.
The code currently used in the PCVR version of the game has become super intricate over the years (one might think our code looks like spaghetti), which made rolling out updates extremely complicated and risky. It’s no exaggeration to say that we spent more time hotfixing an update than developing the update itself, which is not sustainable.
Reacting to community feedback quickly has always been our thing, but in these circumstances it became cumbersome, so we decided to make substantial changes under the hood while being fully aware that this might hurt our players in the short run.
We had to rewrite so many things in the past few months in order to have a manageable source code that it feels like we’ve been working on a completely new game.
(That isn’t the case of course, we’re still talking about Zero Caliber here.)
We definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel though, great improvements are on the way!
Here’s a few examples of what’s coming:
DEDICATED SERVERS | PVP
Yes! We finally got them working!
We now have hundreds and hundreds of players using dedicated servers daily on other platforms, so when we roll out the PC update they’ll be super smooth.
Currently we have servers in three regions: NA, EU and SEA. They will provide an excellent Co-op (and PvP) experience without having to rely on peer-to-peer connections. (Yes, PvP is coming back!)
VOICE CHAT
Besides dedicated servers, our voice chat implementation proved to be working flawlessly as well.
It will come in handy in both Co-op and PvP!
HANDS | WEAPON HANDLING
We know it’s not perfect in the current version, so we completely reworked it and introduced a so-called weapon priority system. This system tries to predict what you want to grab or interact with on your weapon, and it does that efficiently.
No more “clunky” controls y’all!
(Whether we’ll keep using the current body IK or turn it off and have hands only is TBD.)
NEW MAPS
Even though we are mainly focusing on backend systems and code improvements, you can expect new content as well. The story is soon coming to an end!
MELEE
Smack those Tlalokii up!
Melee is making its debut - you’ll be able to punch your way through the Tlalokii hordes. Currently it's weapon (or grenade) only, we don’t have knives or bayonets (yet?).
ACCESSIBILITY | CLIMBING | WEAPON HOLSTERS
We’re introducing a few extra accessibility features like the crouching (and jumping) button for those who don’t want to physically crouch - using covers will be much easier.
Climbing won’t be as cumbersome as it is now, and we’ll likely implement different holster placements and an option to set them manually.
And much more… but I’ll keep those for a future devblog.
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This is a slow process, we still have to piece things together. Once it's done though, Zero Caliber VR will be a much better, much smoother experience!
Once again, we're sorry for the lack of updates, but this is a necessary process we have to go through.
Please keep posting feedback in our community hub here on Steam, or on our Discord server - we see EVERYTHING, even if we don't have time to get back to everyone.
Thank you all for the continuous support and for the patience! I'll be back with another devblog post soon so stay tuned!
Cheers,
Dan & the whole XREAL Games Team