This community devlog is kicking off a new format we want to follow moving forward. We want you, our community, to be more aware of things going on at Donkey Crew and within the community itself! There will always be the same basic structure to these, but there might be certain topics that we rotate through, depending on what we have to share that month.
There’s a lot in this post: notes on development, patch notes, community highlights, and a Q&A are just a few things you can expect to read.
Let’s start things off with information about the second part of the Volcanic update!
When we first started development on the Volcanic theme, we knew that we wouldn’t release everything at once. We were simply too busy with all of the fixes and smaller patches. Now that we’re ready and for this second part of the Volcanic update, we’ve added in a few more new features:
Hose Station
—Wanted to use fuel in more creative ways! This ties in directly with:
Lava Fuel
—Using these together create fuel puddles that can be lit to deal fire damage
New Walker Wings
—Skirmish, Rugged, Raider and expanded use of Heavy Wings
Walker Modules
—Fireproof, Harpoon Protection and Pack Speed
—Only available on Volcanic maps, expands on current module system
Gas Mask
—Keep reading to hear from Thomas about the art process for designing this!
—Head slot accessory that lowers damage from gases
Obsidian Machine with Lava Fuel recipe to be used in Hose Station
If you want to see the full changelog for this patch, head over to this post.
TEAM UPDATES
For this team update, Art Director Thomas Fossgard wanted to share some insight into the art department’s development of the Gas Mask. Here’s what he has to say:
“Since we are starting with devblogs, I thought it would be interesting to answer this question: How does an asset get made? The Gas Mask seemed like a great example to use to illustrate what our creative process is like, and why we choose to take this approach.
The idea for a gas mask first got pitched as something to include in the Volcanic Update, after having been thrown around in various discussions earlier. Thematically, it was a good fit, so we decided to go for it.
Now from the perspective of the art department, at this point, “gas mask” is just a word. Every member of the team probably had a different image in their mind. Our job is to find an expression of the asset that fits the game, gameplay and style, as well as a host of technical requirements.
In this case, we had a lot of freedom and weren’t bound excessively by gameplay constraints. We knew it was supposed to be rather crude and disposable. When that’s the case, a good starting point is to narrow down the range of possibilities and establish some basic dogmas.
Some of the closest threats stylistically for Last Oasis come from three well established genres that we want to avoid: Classic Post Apocalyptic, Steampunk, and “Standard Medieval”. It’s always important that we push for our own thing, or risk confusion with other games and projects.
With these constraints, I requested that our concept artist Waclaw Wysocki collect some references, and modify them for our game:
He was set free to search and push, without any serious expectations of quality during this first step. It’s important to let the imagination roam without shame!
After Waclaw finished, it was time for selection. Personally I strongly favored no.7 because of its shape and novelty, where most of the others have been seen in variations in other projects. However, it had one problem: a very weak silhouette. Silhouettes are important in conveying information to other players that someone is wearing a gas mask. No.6, a “Plague Mask” with history stemming from the Black Plague and WWI contributions, clearly had the strongest silhouette, as well as resonating with the current Pandemic. However, I didn’t like the strong connotations to history so blatantly expressed. We are thousands of years into a forgotten future here!
Thankfully, the initial process of going for a wide variety rewarded us. We figured if we took some ideas from no.7 and no.2, specifically the fabric “windows” and ornamental threads, we would be much closer to something that could exist in Last Oasis. I requested Waclaw to keep developing some concepts based on no.6:
Note the style here has changed because these images had to be modeled and hand painted, as no direct references exist.
Decisions, decisions. The most original and simple mask won out: the middle bottom. From the choices we had, we picked elements from other masks to enhance it. Waclaw was asked to go for final concept:
He added in one last idea, too! Cool, but we preferred the simpler one. (When in doubt, go for the simplest solution!)
A concept artists primary job is not just to create impressive images, but to also prepare an idea for production. This means that it should strongly and clearly communicate all information that a 3d artist needs, with material references, and otherwise unclear details visible:
Finally, the object is given to our 3D artist Mateusz Gruszka for final interpretation. His responsibility is not only to be faithful to the concept, but to make sure the concept intention actually translates well to in-game look and feel. A game engine might wreak havoc with a model once game lighting, LOD’s, Mipmaps and actual screen size and scale has taken its toll.
Additionally, he must decide how performant he should make the object. The scale ranges from extremely time consuming for him to relatively straightforward but with non-optimal performance. During all of this he must keep the expression and intent of the object alive.
Being a 3D Artist is much much more than being able to make awesome models! It requires visual understanding, deeper technical knowledge, being able to plan workload and estimate for yourself, and good communication skills. Here’s the end result:
All in all, the process of even a simple asset is a multi staged, multi layered approach. We first try to create a low bar with room for bad ideas with some basic constraints. It’s incredibly important to keep emotions like pride and ego out of the early process, because they serve as blockers and points of conflict that rarely bring anything useful.
When there is time for discussion (which will happen anyway) we all share an understanding on how and why we got to the point we are at. This harbors a stronger, more defined base to continue forward and make a decision on what will become the final product.
So that’s the little story of the Gas Mask. I hope you enjoyed this look behind the curtain, and appreciate every little asset we work hard to deliver!”
Check out the private artstations of the artists who worked on Gas Mask here and here.
ROADMAP
We’re very, VERY excited to finally present our roadmap. This isn’t a definitive list of what’s going to come: things will change and things will be added as development of each theme progresses.
COMMUNITY CORNER AND SPOTLIGHT
-We love seeing groups like Iron Nation organizing in-game events!
-How about a spider slam dunk?
SPOTLIGHT: Jennaside
Want to see an 800 seat arena that took Jennaside 2,400 tiles, 840 clay, 1556 medium wood, and two weeks to build?
The process started with a 24 x 24 foundation and four watchtowers and has turned into the Shadows Fall Arena, stocked with two armories with HQ Walkers as prizes for the victors:
COMMUNITY QUESTIONS
We’ve asked members of our Discord to submit questions they have for the team. If you’re interested in participating in this, join our server to see whenever a new form is posted! discord.gg/lastoasis
We got over 240 questions for this round! We picked some we felt were important to answer.
If the question you asked hasn’t been addressed yet, feel free to ask it again when we open up the next round. We will be keeping track of topics that come up the most as things to touch on in the future.
Producer Lucas and Community Lead Gladiator answer some of your questions in the following video, with more questions answered in text below!
Q: Are there more points of interest planned?
A: We definitely plan on adding more points of interest in the future! We have some exciting things in store that we’re looking forward to working on and putting into the game! There will be more information about new content (like points of interest and many other things!) closer to when that patch would be released.
Q: When will we see a proper clan permissions system implemented?
A: We’ll keep adding new options to clan permissions overtime to make clan management more handy. With this next update, we’re adding in Discord integration, we’ve also fixed the bug where Walkers restricted to leaders could still be embarked by anyone in the clan. In the future, we will look into expanding clan permissions even more, so it’s more customizable.
Q: When are you gonna implement worm and shaman content?
A: The Shaman video we posted as just a side project that our video producer, Jakub, enjoys doing. It was not a teaser for any in-game content, but we were inspired by the positive response and you might see some things from it in the game at some point. The Sandworm will come later on, probably some time next year.
Q: Do you see yourself working on this game a year from now and do you have the proper funding to do so?
A: Considering we still plan on being in Early Access for at least a year from now, so we’ll definitely still be working on the game! We don’t want to give any hints at when full release will happen, but we absolutely plan on seeing it through to that and beyond.
Q: How often do you think there will be new content released? And what’s your announcement schedule?
A: Both our announcement schedule and release schedule are pretty fluid. This means that content updates (what we’re calling “Themes”) and their accompanying patch notes and write-up post could be two months or more apart, depending on what’s going into them. We plan on breaking each update into two parts, like we did with the Volcanic update. “Announcements”, like Devlogs, Community Updates, and Q&As will each happen once a month.
It’s important to keep in mind that if we don’t make a post at “the usual time”, it doesn’t mean we abandoned anything: we’re hard at work putting something together that took more time than the usual post.
Q: Will developers show off more new upcoming content (new walkers, objects, maps, npc...), even if it is not finished yet in a weekly or monthly devblog to show the community that progress is being made?
A: We’re interested in bringing you, the community, into the process a bit more so you can see what we’re doing and how we do it. Hopefully this devlog gives you a good idea of the direction we’re planning on going with these posts. We don’t want to give away too much, but showing some visual development art or snippets from testing are things you can expect to see in future devlogs.
Q: What kind of plans are there for PvE content? Things to to do to drive more organic play / PvP like Dungeons or better POIs.
A: Moving forward, we want to focus a lot of our efforts on delivering more PVE content. We’re crafting new experiences that will consist largely of PVE content, taking advantage of our event maps while also looking to add more valuable PVE content to the persistent maps. We’re also working on additional systems and mechanics that make other playstyles more fun and viable inside the game to find more balance between PVE and PVP.
Q: Do you have one team working on bugfixing and another on content? or does the whole team focus on one thing at a time?
A: There are multiple teams working on all types of things at the same time. If we only focused on one thing at a time, it would slow the development process. While people do wear many hats and might work within other teams on certain projects, we have people working on bug fixes and improvements to the current game and people working on upcoming content. An Artist will be focusing on art, and coders will be focusing on bugs. Community and Marketing will focus on community and marketing.
Q: Is there a limit to how much the world map will shrink? If the playerbase keeps dwindling, will we be reduced to a few tiles and a map so small that a few jumps get you across the entire world? // will we reduce map size to accommodate the smaller playerbase?
A: The world map is dynamic, and will scale to match the number of active players. Due to Oasis Decay, it can take some time to see those changes happen.
Q: Multi tile access on private servers?
A: Multi tile access is something we’re going to be adding in the future, but we don’t have an ETA right now.
Q: Can you give some insight on your balancing process and how you decide if equipment is too strong or too weak, resource cost is too high, etc?
A: Data is gathered through community feedback and discussed with QA. That data is compared to design and balance documents where we take a look at why and how a mechanic was meant to be played and perceived and how it may have deviated from our initial concept. After that, we have a decision to make: is the mechanic still making the game enjoyable, or is it hindering players from having a good time?
When it comes to balancing and designing features before they’re even in a build and ready for testing, it’s some good spreadsheet magic, in-engine tools, hunches, and luck.
Q: When can we delete/rename/edit characters?
A: We’re going to be adding in the ability to rename and edit your character in the Commerce update. Currently, we don’t have a timeframe for when the option to delete a character will come back.
Q: Do you need any community given direction on what should be developed next?
A: We do keep an eye on what the community is saying when it comes to what they’d like to see in the game. While we have a general idea of what we want to implement for the next few updates, we do take community sentiment into account when shaping those ideas. We will keep pushing for an improved process for collecting feedback.
Q: Does each region have a community manager? And if not, why not?
A: Currently, we have one community lead that’s based in the US and moving to Poland when she’s able. We’re working on expanding our community team, though! In the long run, we’d love to have CMs for each region.
Q: Will the decline in the playerbase affect the development much? // Are you worried about the fall of an online game? Will you develop the game if there are few players?
A: Being in Early Access gives us a bit more wiggle room. While we absolutely want to see an increase in numbers, we know and would like you to understand that the game you’re playing is still in progress. We don’t plan on stopping development any time soon since we have a ton of exciting ideas to explore, and will be working hard towards our full release far down the road. We want to use this time in Early Access to take community feedback into account for development while we keep working towards our full release.
Q: Have the oceans dried up? Have they frozen? Will we ever be able to travel frozen, sunless tiles in pitch darkness? Would warm clothing be necessary? Would the ice be slippery? Will there be water too deep to drive a small walker through (or any walker if deeper)? This would be a fantastic variation to an already amazing world.
A: We’ve been thinking about expanding the range of biomes we have! No exact timeframe for when they’ll be available, but if it’s added, ice will definitely be very slippery. Nomads are used to heat so they’d need a heavy jacket, maybe some gloves.
Q: What kind of plans are in motion to further incentivize the use of the in-game economic systems? At the moment, Flots seem to be used more as a progress block or an alternative vault of sorts, but there's not much of any reason for people to use a devoted trader playstyle as they'll simply become loot pinatas for more aggressive groups with no tangible payoff at the end of all this risk.
A: We definitely have a lot of plans that will be unveiled in our Commerce Theme updates, where we’re building systems and mechanics to support more trading and economy focused playstiles.
Q: Will be there a cosmetic shop for real money without putting the content behind a paywall?
A: We want to focus on solidifying the game experience for now, but will look into a cosmetic shop in the future.
Q: Would it be possible to have a new resource when a walker comes out as to prevent players from farming it prior to the walkers launch to force them to play the game and not just learn and then craft it in 5 mins?
A: We’re floating around some ideas on how to make it more challenging to unlock new Walkers or weapons.
Thanks for reading!