Happy New Year! 🎉
Happy Belated New Year, everyone! Considering this is the first Dev Log of the new year, I thought it would only make sense for me to upload it myself. About a year ago, we started to really take this project seriously, growing from a 4-person team to now having about 12 active developers working on the game. In one year, we have made substantial progress, and as Guac stated, it's looking like the release is imminent. We are just over the finish line, with all our efforts honed in to focus solely on that. It's looking like 2024 is going to be an incredible year for us, and we cannot wait to deliver this long-awaited game to you.
Now onto the twelfth Developer update where we are discussing everything we achieved in December. We have a lot of exciting updates for you:
Supply Crates
Astro has made significant progress on the supply crate system, a key feature in our game. He has successfully integrated 17-item icons into the supply crate interface, providing a visual representation of various weapons and items for players to become familiar with. This interface now features interaction and purchase sounds, integrated data saving, and an automatic disappearance function for the discovery interface, which is essentially a pop-up showing the player which items they received from opening a crate. In these supply crates, which spawn in discreet locations throughout the map, players have a randomized chance of obtaining weapons and items of different rarity levels. Additionally, players can opt to boost crates using credits, the premium currency, to double their loot. The crate system offers two types: the basic crate with lower-end items and the Combine crate containing rarer and more powerful equipment.
Trash Collection System
Furthermore, Astro has been developing the trash feature, a primary method for players to earn tokens, the primary currency in the game. Players can interact with trash piles across the map, scavenge for items, and then exchange these at dumpsters or trash cans for tokens. There's also a chance to find rare items in the trash, which can be traded at the antique shop for larger rewards. He has implemented the trash interaction feature, creating outlines around trash models when players are nearby and integrating scavenging animations as players dig for items. Remaining tasks include enabling item rewards for players, spawning trash piles throughout the city, and developing the antique store NPC for trading valuable trash finds.
Dynamic Lighting, Communication Systems, and Player Interface Functionality
Asetasar Created a lighting module that can be used to create dynamic street lights. These work in tandem with our night and day system, so the lights will automatically turn on as it begins to get dark and turn off at dawn. In addition, this developer successfully completed the radio and chat system, which will be utilized by Combine players for cross-server communication. This system is versatile and has four chat rooms for Civil Protection, Overwatch, Deathwatch, and one for global announcements. Additionally, a notification UI has been incorporated so that Officers and high-ranking members of the Combine can make announcements that can be specifically tailored to any of the divisions, the Combine team as a whole, or server-wide announcements including both Combine and Citizens. Additionally, he has added several security measures such as adding a timeout notifier to prevent spam for our custom chat system. This developer has also been hard at work programming the Player HUD and key stats.
He made significant headway by designing the shop menu to appear with a smooth and intuitive slide animation upon pressing the shop button, where all game passes and credit purchasing tiers have been implemented. He also made the health meter functional and established animations for hiding the hot bar, and player inventory. Additionally, tooltips have been introduced for the player stat interface, displaying descriptions when you hover your mouse over different stats for clear understanding. Once game passes are purchased, they are now labeled as "bought" on the client to distinguish between purchased and unpurchased items. He further ensured that player stats increase at set intervals and introduced rank parameters for stats like Requisition Points, the currency specifically for Combine players, used for purchasing equipment and deploying vehicles. Lastly, all necessary sounds have been included to enhance the overall experience and polish.
Movement, Arrest/Search Mechanics, and Apartment Raid Feature
Chris Comstock has incorporated run and walk animations for Combine and Citizen players. In addition, Chris introduced sprint mechanics and integrated a smooth transitioning Field of View (FOV) while sprinting, to give the impression that the player's focus is being narrowed as they engage in a sprint. Chris also successfully completed both the arrest and search features, enabling Combine to interact with players and send them requests for the following: Citizens can resist both searches and arrests, but doing so will alert the Combine. The Combine can force unwanted arrests by weakening a player's health enough that they can no longer resist. This goes a long way in making the world feel more immersive! He has given members of the Combine the ability to raid apartments. A requirement has been set that three Combine units need to be present to initiate a raid. Upon doing so, animations will be sequenced, depicting one of the Combine units kicking down the door. At this point, the Citizen who is being raided will lose apartment permissions, and their door will be unable to be closed for a duration of 10 minutes. In the near future, Chris will be implementing mechanics to allow the Combine to search and seize items from the Citizen's apartment storage inventory.
New Developer Update Video!
Embracing the spirit of the new year, we're evolving our approach to sharing updates. Instead of individual images and brief clips that don't fully capture our progress, you can now expect a monthly Developer Update Video. This will provide a comprehensive and polished overview of all our latest progress. Dive into our most recent developer update right here! If you enjoy the content, don't forget to hit like and subscribe if you haven't already!
https://youtu.be/WCWDe-if3gE?si=EeesUoZPFIxj2AU4
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.