Welcome to our thirteenth developer update for City 17, and apologies for the extended wait for this one. We have quite a few exciting things to share.
Baillemore Court
The ever-talented Ballads has completely reworked and finished the interior of Baillemore Court, the large former-hotel at the heart of the slums. Once planned to be a larger residence for players, it has now been converted to a massive Combine outpost dominating the region.
It features an armory, garage, barracks, and multiple roof access points and defensive angles, making it the perfect vantage point for the Combine to shift the tide with snipers or suppressive fire. However, with such a large structure to defend in extremely unstable territory, the Resistance might find a nook or cranny the Combine have overlooked in their renovations, or perhaps could utilize the architecture of the building against the defending forces in a push.
Game Mechanics
In our last developer update we showcased our raid system concept, and have continued to build on this feature in the time since then. The Combine, as planned, are now able to search your apartment's inventory and seize contraband, making apartment raids both a viable and threatening tactic from the Combine.
Likewise, we've seen the hotbar and inventory receive some valuable quality of life changes. Inventory icons now fit properly in the hotbar, and equipping one of the seven hotbar items will enlarge that item such that the player can visually identify what they have equipped on the bar. The hotbar also supports dragging items between slots, into and out of the backpack, and etc.
Trading
Most exciting of these is the new trade system, that allows players to safely and effectively initiate trades without having to worry about extortion or attempted theft with no recourse. Players can drag items from their hotbar into the trade interface to offer item-for-item barter exchanges, token transactions, or a mix of both which will operate with instant UI notifications on the completion, confirmation, and cancellation of trades.
Trading does have an anti-spam cooldown to prevent players from being spammed by trade offers, locking them out of gameplay. We are hoping that with this feature, we can see a player economy surface alongside our own, official economy.
The above three features (trading, raids, and hotbar QoL) have all been developed by Chris Comstock, one of our premier programmers.
Ragdolls and Loot
Thuxmwarn, another of our premier programmers, has developed a ragdoll and loot system. Players who are fully killed (not in a critical state) are transformed into ragdolls that players can interact with. The entire players intentory will, likewise, be up for grabs.
Remember: make sure you check your friend's pockets! If they needed it, they wouldn't have died!
Map Design
Despite the map being largely complete, Pngnore has pushed along with continuing to expand options for both our developers and players with new and reworked areas.
For example, he's reworked the resistance underground base and added a new tunnel system that adds a new black market area, serving as a safe area for illicit dealings of all kinds, but beware for the Combine may find their way even into these meager havens in a future update!
We have, likewise, removed the centerpiece holographic statue in the center of Nexus Square with a communications array. We've also added a larger holographic screen to another building in the square, and a third floor to overlook the plaza for aspiring resistance snipers!
And so much more!
There is so much more to list here, but I've run out of characters and these features are all represented in the video attached:
- Nexus/Trainstation Lighting
- Combine Shields
- Combine loadouts
- Credit tier icons
Watch here: https://youtu.be/18SzIcMX0BI
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.