Hello Everyone,
If you haven't noticed, we've updated the game both in Beta & Live branches. Live hasn't been updated for a while because we have been trying to get a solid foundation going before we do that, so it's been neccessary to take appropriate measures. With this being said, we will probably update Live (Public, Normal Branch) every couple of weeks, and use our testers in the Beta branch to help test. There was a little hiccup when the update went live, Jack had an idle message act wonky and it disconnected players from the server, but he's since fixed that issue.
Table of Contents:
-Patch Notes.
-State of the Game.
-What's coming.
-Synopsis.
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Patch Notes:
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-Combat has been added.
-AI NPC's (Artificial Intelligence Non-Player Characters) have been added.
-Idle & Character behaviors have been added.
-Frame rate has been vastly improved.
-Spawning in the sky has been fixed.
-Spawning underwater has been fixed.
-Building has been improved upon; new structures as well.
-Improved pathfinding.
-Improved lighting.
-Various bug fixes.
The fixes, improvements, and functionality have been vastly improved and we have not had a single crash in over two months. Woohoo!
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State of the Game:
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Although there are a lot of additions and fixes that need to be made, we are on a home stretch, which mirrors my initial vision for the game. We've gotten a lot of solid feedback from this latest patch, most of which was remarkably positive! What's interesting about this patch is that each of the functions we have now are foundations for the future. As an example, basic combat has been added but multifunction parameters for future components were imbeded with it. What does that mean? It means that everything from a hammer to a bow and arrow can use this system, inclusive with stats and attributes like ammunition quantities, amunition types, special damage types and other attributes that I've specified in the GDD (Game Design Document).
We have Tiers 1-3 modeled, both structural and equipment, so when we finish the core of the game we'll sweep back through adding all of these items and giving them specific stats. This system enables us to easily add new items with a wide array of functionality, which then scales from the pre-dawns of civilization to futuristic eras and everything in between. A huge quantity of history is going to be covered in ABD: A Beautiful Day, so we needed a system that can be as vast and capable as possible.
What's in right now:
-100sqkm Terrain.
-Rivers & Lakes.
-Simulation of Time.
-Basic Weather.
-Spawning.
-Persistent Units.
-Resource Foundation.
-Building.
-Combat.
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What's Coming:
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Phase I:
-C.T.S. - Cell Tracking System.
-A.E.S. - Advanced Environment System.
-Persistent Structures.
-Persistent Inventory.
-Persistent Wildlife.
Phase II:
-Crafting.
-Breeding, Children & Aging.
-Alliances & Permissions.
-Exposure, Sustenance.
Phase III:
-Disease, Plague, Sickness, Infection.
-Classes & Levels.
-Capital Cities.
-Technology. (New Tiers).
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I've broken down our remaining tasks in three phases, which have been outlined above for you.
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Phase I:
We are at a point where we are severely limited by the Unity engine, and in order to make the world as vast and diverse as possible it is important to take a look at cells. Without these cells, persistence is difficult and enormously costly with performance; hence the lag issue with trees this last week. By using cells, we can not only have an infinite number of trees, but wildlife and resource consumables as well. Pretty cool huh? We can litterally populate tens of thousands if not millions of kilometers with lag-free components without resorting to expensive servers and monthly subscriptions; a part which you should be very happy. From various flowers and bushes, fruits and vegetables, squirrels and other wildlife running about, it should certainly feel like a living breathing environment unlike anything you've seen before. With C.T.S. we can really stretch our legs with what we can achieve! *Caugh* Whole Earth from satalite data, *Caugh*.
Phase II:
Without Phase I, we can certainly move on but we would be avoiding the end-game-solution to our problems. With Phase I out of the way, Crafting will be 100% guaranteed persistent followed by a huge increase in performance. Breeding data and family trees, Alliance data, and other new and unique ways to make your life hell with exposure and starvation are also enabled. I'm aiming for realism here, and nothing sucks more than working a bunch on gameplay that'll either dissapear on its own or have system shortfalls be exploited by other players.
Phase III:
This phase is more of a polishing point, and as we get closer to Technology (which is the last step before tier progression) there will be a big push for refining the basic playstyle I have envisioned since the beginning. Refining stats on items, structures, and balancing the crafting/structural/economic costs will be a big part of that. Environmental stats pertaining to the refinement of costs, construction, modification and values are also a big part. I think Capital Cities are something we can add at any point, so that might go on hold so we can have time for Classes & Levels before we advance onto Technology.
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Synopsis:
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It's been a great week, a lot of things are coming together, and I am beginning to get a sense of how the game is going to look when its heavily populated and we achieve our goals. For the most part the game is being prepared for stat balancing and content creation, opening up enormous opportunities to be very creative with such a diverse platform. Once we get this set up, all we have to do is model/refine/polish content for another Tier, link up various stats and plug in figures, then do an update allowing players to progress; bam, done.
To give you an idea on the stats we can interchange, here is an excerpt out of the design document detailing what attributes we're giving items:
Special Modifier Categories:
•AD = Area Damage. (Radius) 1m, 3m, 5m, 10m, 25m, 50m, 100m, 200m
•DD = Direct Damage. 5, 10, 25, 50, 75, 200, 500, 1,000, 5,000,
•AC = Ammo Capacity. 1-10, 1-100, 1-1,000, 1-100,000
•AT = Ammo Type. Stone, Arrow, Spear, Container, _ Caliber (Cannon, Mortar, Bullet), Fusion.
•FC = Fuel Capacity. 1-100,000,000,000,000.
•FC = Fuel Type. Fat, Oil, Steam, Gasoline, Diesel, Hydrogen, Solar, Fusion, Dark Matter.
•Dur = Duration. # of units consumed at a rate, ie 1x Fat Per Minute.
•CCap = Container Capacity. 1-100,000,000,000,000.
•D = Durability. 10hp, 25hp, 50hp, 100hp, 125hp, 150hp, 300hp, 500hp, 1,000hp, 5,000hp.
•Enc = Encumbrance. (Speed Reduction) 5%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 80%, 90%.
•V = Vulnerability. AP, SP, OP, CC, PC, DC, BC, Fire, Water, etc.
DOT = Damage Over Time. (HPPM, FTPM = Hit Points/Fatigue Per Minute) 1, 5, 10,
So here is an example of a Tier 1 wooden hammer:
T1 Tool - Wood Hammer.
Cat: Tool.
CC: 15x Wood, 6x Fur, 2x Tendon.
U: Crafting, Building.
DD: 8HP
B:
6% Craft Speed.
8% Build Speed.
Here would be an example of a Tier 30 M1911 .45 ACP Pistol
T30 Weapon - M1911
Cat: Weapon, Ranged.
CC: 1x M1911 Frame, 1x M1911 Barrel, 1x M1911 Spring, 1x M1911 Reciever, 1x M1911 Assembly.
AC: x7
AT: .45, .45 ACP, .45 Hollow, .45 Steel Core, .45 Misc.
ENC: 5%
U: Combat.
DD: 70HP
B:
-10% Reload Speed.
-35%
These stats haven't been (as far as I know) coded in yet, but weapons/items/components/containers/wearables have been readied to recieve these stats at a later date. I envision one day the game will just explode with data, which we are tracking but that's a story for another day.
Until next time!
-Robert Bonner
Creative Producer for ABD: A Beautiful Day
G.A.M. Entertainment, LLC.
www.GagAMaggotEnt.com
