Welcome to our seventh Developer update for the month of July! I don't have the characters for a proper intro, so let's dive right in!
Release Date
First and foremost, let's address the elephant in the room: We don't have a definitive release date at this time, and we can't commit to a specific date. We are making good progress, and I can assure you we'll have an announcement as soon as we have a definitive date, even if it doesn't fall on a Developer Update.
Level Design
With all critical map elements completed, we've moved onto decorating and refining the environment of City 17, filling the map with props, and making it feel a lot more alive. Spearheading this effort, PngNoRe has masterfully transformed the bland roads of and alleys of City 17 to decorated environments that break up the monotony of the city. Breaking up districts in design, prop placement, in an excellent manner, so as to vary the world space.
I, personally, have been converting cables and ropes on the map to RopeConstraints that will inherit velocity from the wind, and modified our lighting to a darker, more realistic-feeling tone. Do let me know if the lighting needs some more changes!
User Interface
Nya0 has accomplished some major milestones in finalizing the design of the next UI elements, with Astro programming them for functional use. The Combine Unit selection, equipment loadout, and citizen appearance screens have all been implemented and are ready for testing. In addition to these new UI elements being finalized, we've made the decision to take on some new UI designers to speed up our development of this incredibly important part of the game!
*Note that many of the UI elements shown are using placeholder images.
Programming
Chris Comstock has been busy whittling away at core systems for City 17 ranging from implementing functional doors in all buildings, to a dynamic ambient audio system that will create spatial sound effects around the city based on the player's location, alongside clientside events that will happen above and around the player, enriching the environment without the need for staff intervention. Traditional ambient effects for interiors and exteriors follows a standard gating system for the series, however rather than cutting between audio tracks sharply, this new system fades in and out to prevent an extreme difference between an interior and exterior environment.
All of this audio technology, coupled with ROBLOX's relatively new spatial audio system makes for a truly immersive experience, and we hope to expand this system massively.
Astro has, among his other work on the UI elements, made functional the Combine chargers found in areas they frequent. Mayhaps a particularly bold anti-citizen might leech power or health alike from these devices, assuming they aren't stopped from entering a secure location...
FROM THIS UPDATE
In pictures.
About this edition
Republished from the original announcement and its continuations. Discord ping syntax, thread-opening notices and unrelated personal asides have been removed; contributor names and links have been made readable. Historical plans retain their original context.