Zetheros
Developer
Hey Exanimates,
The collision damage system has been in testing for a few days now and it seems to be working very well and as intended. This ended up being quite different and more advanced compared to our original solution as we tried to cover more cases and applications. There's a tricky balance between realism and gameplay here in taking raw physics inputs and figuring out what the outcome should be in different situations. We found some elegant solutions that aren't hacky and temperamental and indeed it seemed to have worked out really well.
We also introduced some important changes to object interaction. Object placement is a lot easier and more intuitive, it will try to place objects in the last valid position displayed rather than snapping them back to their original position unless manually cancelled, and you no longer need to target a valid location with the mouse to move an object somewhere where it can rest on something. We've also added a new interaction mode that allows you to grab a point on an object and drag it. With this you can make fine adjustments to object positions without picking them up and drag objects with you as you walk. These are some good QoL changes that we've been wanting to make for some time, we know that these things could feel quite fiddly and frustrating.
There were lots of bug and other fixes and things are looking very solid now. We've tested the really important engine and game system changes and we don't plan to make any more real additions to the test version. We're now focusing entirely on content related things for the full update. Madoc's been very busy with all these new systems and hasn't been free to support the art and level design guys with some final touches they need to make to new content.
Right now we're making an important addition to our terrain design tools which will allow level designers to add and customise procedural terrain brushes with interactive results. This previously required Madoc to program in new brushes, so this will give the artists much more freedom and a better workflow. It's also part of a solution to the problem of creating a large seamless open world with hundreds or thousands of brushes that all potentially need to interact with each other. Nothing really new here, and it's based on existing systems, but it's moved up our to-do list as we're making these kind of additions to a lot of different content right now.
Have a great week!
-the BM team
The collision damage system has been in testing for a few days now and it seems to be working very well and as intended. This ended up being quite different and more advanced compared to our original solution as we tried to cover more cases and applications. There's a tricky balance between realism and gameplay here in taking raw physics inputs and figuring out what the outcome should be in different situations. We found some elegant solutions that aren't hacky and temperamental and indeed it seemed to have worked out really well.
We also introduced some important changes to object interaction. Object placement is a lot easier and more intuitive, it will try to place objects in the last valid position displayed rather than snapping them back to their original position unless manually cancelled, and you no longer need to target a valid location with the mouse to move an object somewhere where it can rest on something. We've also added a new interaction mode that allows you to grab a point on an object and drag it. With this you can make fine adjustments to object positions without picking them up and drag objects with you as you walk. These are some good QoL changes that we've been wanting to make for some time, we know that these things could feel quite fiddly and frustrating.
There were lots of bug and other fixes and things are looking very solid now. We've tested the really important engine and game system changes and we don't plan to make any more real additions to the test version. We're now focusing entirely on content related things for the full update. Madoc's been very busy with all these new systems and hasn't been free to support the art and level design guys with some final touches they need to make to new content.
Right now we're making an important addition to our terrain design tools which will allow level designers to add and customise procedural terrain brushes with interactive results. This previously required Madoc to program in new brushes, so this will give the artists much more freedom and a better workflow. It's also part of a solution to the problem of creating a large seamless open world with hundreds or thousands of brushes that all potentially need to interact with each other. Nothing really new here, and it's based on existing systems, but it's moved up our to-do list as we're making these kind of additions to a lot of different content right now.
Have a great week!
-the BM team
Sui Generis maybe?
