Hello everyone, there’s been a lot that I’ve completed recently. Note that there’s not much that is game changing, pun intended. But there’s certainly a lot added, and even more polished, fleshed out.
Security doors:
I added a security clearance for each room, generated for each floor. So, level 1-2-3 for example. And, it’s created so there’s a level 2 security key in area 1, a level 3 in area 2. This encourages more exploration around the level. And it really kinda fun. There feels like a bit more purpose to exploring. The keycard shows on the minimap so there isn’t too much frustration involved.
Player revamp:
I’ve written a list of stats for the player. There is a fair amount left to add, but I feel closer to what feels right. As well as it all feels more meaningful.
My original ideas stemmed from the name Dereliction. As well as a bit of entropic themes.
So. Let’s say the player starts with 10k rounds of ammunition. And ammo restocks will be not super common. So the player will need to conserve ammo, even when they start with a very large amount, to last a long time. Similarly, permanent non healing damage, just a small percent of damage taken. But it will slowly add up. The player will start with full mobility, capacities, for example. And gradually it will wear down. Of course, there will be ways to increase these stats too. Not necessarily repair them, but compensate for any losses. Of course, it is ideal not to lose these stats so any increases would be a net positive instead. As these upgrades would be rare, or expensive.
For this I’ve added locked “chests” to use the breach charges on. And I’ve limited the doors to the small rooms, which hold valuables, to be the only doors used with the charges as well. This ties in with the added security doors, as I was having issues.
General improvements:
In between the major changes, as well as some of the major changes, was just general improvements overall. So new art, better art, more variety. I did some serious optimizing for the corridors. They are now more interesting and do not fail as often, so require fewer checks after they are initially built, lowering load times.
I’ve been delving into instanced batching as well. So far it’s low cost at load, finds all identical meshes in a room, which is currently many many smaller panels, which allows the modular environment. There’s small pieces then instance themselves from the main or first mesh, so the first one costs the system performance. And all subsequent bits are free.
There’s also minor changes, such as keycards are given ideal positions, if they find any, such as on top of tables, compared to just placed on the floor.
By my estimate I’d say that 20% of what’s required now is added stuff, and 80% polishing existing stuff. This is for the core loop of the game. So, between starting and finishing one floor. Then I would focus on progression
Ok that’s about it, this update is necessary but also very in between good things, everything done feels cleaner, more solid, but there’s still a lot more to go where I’ll feel satisfied with how it looks and plays.
Till next time,
~Salt_
Rad update as always, keep up the good work!