Welcome to our ninth developer update! This month we've gotten a few new additions to the map and are fully dedicated to optimizing design for gameplay!
Level Design
PngNoRe has done a massive detail pass over the train station and developed a great many new holographic screens using custom artwork and work from Half-Life: Alyx, enriching the environment greatly. The theater has been transformed from an empty husk to a powerful Combine outpost just outside the Nexus, and the train yard itself has been detailed to accomodate the new player experience of riding the train into the city.
All that, and on top of that some new game icons!
But it doesn't even end there, as Ordinal ExdoxuS has kindly developed us a new Citadel model from scratch using the Half-Life: Alyx model, and it truly leaves an imposing impression upon the city, even blocking out sunlight at mid-day!
User Interface
Chris Comstock has spent this month enhancing and designing the Combine and Citizen loadout systems, the team selection screens to display player counts and labels, and on top of that has worked heavily on the Citizen appearance sections of the menu, which now allows for smoother adjustments of facial features, hair, colors, scars and attire.
An issue we were having with the character customization system was that many clothing meshes would clip through the body at some points, particularly around joints, and Chris has rectified this particular problem!
Astro has been working heavily on the supply crate system, which initially will be the main method players will acquire new weapons at first. A post-launch update will make these crates drop crafting components, however these hidden resistance caches contain a vast array of useful items ranging from medical supplies and food to entire weapons and credits!
And if you thought that was all, our newest team member, Astral, has been hard at work working the primary UI that players see during gameplay into place, developing easy inventory access, ammunition counters, health counters, armor indicators, and more!
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.