Hey guys, the dawn of the weekend is upon us and that means it's time for another update here at the studio. This week we'll be showing you some more artwork, and a variety of the new armor tiers shown in-game! Also, the team has been working on tying up the remainder of the implementation for this patch, and moving onwards to bug fixing. One exciting technical feature that we've been making progress on is running the game on a 64-bit platform. We've made some significant headway in this direction and we're incredibly excited for its completion sometime in Starforge's future. For those that are unaware, 32-bit programs only allow for a maximum utilization of ~4GB of RAM, which is shared with all applications including the OS, often leaving significantly less than that for the program to utilize.
This can create performance bottlenecks, crashes due to running out of memory, and all kinds of unexpected errors for the user. However, 64-bit systems in all respects are technically limitless. Thus allowing programs to take full advantage of the high amounts of RAM that modern rigs are built with today. This will prevent crashes, increase framerate, and allow for a more reliable and smoother end-user experience. Onto the things that've been implemented this week: Armor! All of them! We've got every tier into the game, fully equippable and effective. The "Power Suit" area of the interface also shows a dynamic read out of the boosts one receives to their stats such as damage resistance and net speed decrease.Here is the Tier 1 "Gunner" Armor as viewed from within the game:
Alright, as you can see, we have the 'Power Suit' readout in the top right corner of the screen displaying the stat boosts and effects on the player. Moving along to Tier 2 Spec Ops in action!
As you can see the armor is getting heavier and more imposing, but none more so than the Tier 3 Guardian Armor:
How beastly is that? We're really excited for the addition of armor into the game. It gives players a real sense of security, and a new sense of confidence to be able to take on Atlas. The clothes make the colonist, am I right?
Here we have the other critical utility of what it means to be a colonist on Atlas; the drill. In specifically, we've got some concept art for the Graphene Drill:
And here is of course, the most basic drill, the Ground Pounder, that will be issued to all colonists upon planetfall!
As one can see, it's more a pneumatic jack than a drill, but will suffice for chipping off valuable ore from nodes and deposits sticking above the surface. However, it's rather ineffective at accessing subterrainian deposits.
Here are some 3D models of it at current, so you guys can get a better idea:
And here we have the Ground Pounder:
As you can see, most first tier gear is rusty, worn gear, as it's all fairly inexpensive issue due to the sheer number of colonists engaging with Atlas at any one time.
One very cool thing that will be part of something larger in the game that the player can find, will be Loot Crates. These will be found in zones across Atlas, and will help to promote adventure and exploration.
Players will be able to find all kinds of gear, equipment, resources and things that will be able to benefit them and their troop in the long run. We're excited to show you next where these can be found and how the player can procure some phat loots. That's it for this week's "Week @ Code}{atch" post, I hope you all enjoy it and are having a great weekend filled with video games and joy!
Thanks,
-- Will - See more at: Starforge.typepad.com
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