Hello!
It's time for a new episode of our weekly review column! ...You may have all noticed that there was no 'Tech Feature' article yesterday. We'll be temporarily moving to a once-a-week, official post model until we get this new update out the door. Everyone at the studio has been taking it to the next level when it comes to working on this new update. We'll still make sure to touch base and keep you updated on the progress every week, however. First up, we've implemented a brand new tileset -- The Graphene Tileset. And man, is it ever beautiful! Goodness! Can't wait for you all to see it in-game.
We've also done a lot of audio updates for the game! The weapons all sound much beefier and of higher quality than in previous versions. Also, The drill sounds for as its revving up, and chunking through different minerals have changed. The game will certainly have a different -feel- to it when you all receive the new update! Very exciting.
Also, one interesting feature that we've added that helps save memory on dedicated servers. We've given players the ability to construct 'Protective Spires', that will prevent the structures from being wiped after 24 hours have passed on the server. So this way, the dedicated server can keep itself clean from players that spam blocks and items everywhere that would normally eat up resources over time, sometimes quite quickly. So if you want to save your stuff, place a spire so it can hold a dome over it, like this:
Anything within that dome, won't be wiped after 24 hours on the server.
Other work this week has included introducing, tweaking and adding new Biomes to the game. The player can now move between Desert, Prairies, Earth Forests and other such biomes. Each biome has greatly different characteristics, advantages and disadvantages. For instance, most of the wood will be found in the Forest biome, but a lot of oil and other resources can be found in the desert biome. The players will have to cooperate to run bases to get all the different resources together from different areas.
Also, check out some of the new armor previously discussed that'll be going into the game shortly!
The Tier 1 Armor, featuring our re-do of the classic 'Gunner' skin
And here we have a shot of what your character will look like when they go to sleep. They take off their armor and zero suit, stuff it into their backpack and use that as a pillow for when they go to bed (when you log out).
Look at those Space Pajamas!
The team is greatly focused on bug fixes and getting the game as polished and proper as possible. We've heard the community's call for an optimal, engaging and smooth playing experience, and we aim to deliver!
That's pretty much everything for our "Week @ Code}{atch", thanks for reading and have a good weekend!
-- Will
