Zetheros
Developer
Hey Exanimates,
We're basically at the point where we've accomplished our major goals for the update as well as many extras and a good portion of our backlog of things to improve, fix and update, but the level designers are still making some additions and improvements and we have our usual list of things that would be nice if we have time. We now need to decide where to draw the line and call it done. Some of these additional features we consider high priority and of particular value in the context of this update, but we can't do everything so we need to pick and choose, figure out exact requirements and consider how it fits into our development flow. Sometimes things get prioritised just because we see an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, even if we could let one live a little longer.
There is one thing in particular that we'd really like to see in this update, it's a new type of encounter and the first case of AI using special abilities or attacks. This is something we've been keen on for some time, not only for new creatures, but for some existing ones too. It would add some much needed gameplay variety and provide a context for various mechanics. We wouldn't be immediately adding all the special abilities we have planned, but introducing this new encounter now would be great, and so would be paving the road for more abilities in future. We're still figuring this one out, but we're optimistic.
Right now we're still doing some things with Force and general thaumaturgy mechanics. We're developing a new type of effect system which would improve one of the Force powers, but would also be the basis for more powers in future, some creature abilities and potentially other advanced effects for a variety of phenomena.
We also made another important improvement to our tools, which is the ability to "paint" specific holes in the terrain. This solves a lot of difficult problems for our level designers, giving them a lot more freedom with how they shape and integrate terrain with custom geometry and removing the need for complicated workarounds. It can also improve performance in many situations. This is one of those things we always wished we could do, so it's great to have it.
Have a great week!
-the BM team
We're basically at the point where we've accomplished our major goals for the update as well as many extras and a good portion of our backlog of things to improve, fix and update, but the level designers are still making some additions and improvements and we have our usual list of things that would be nice if we have time. We now need to decide where to draw the line and call it done. Some of these additional features we consider high priority and of particular value in the context of this update, but we can't do everything so we need to pick and choose, figure out exact requirements and consider how it fits into our development flow. Sometimes things get prioritised just because we see an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, even if we could let one live a little longer.
There is one thing in particular that we'd really like to see in this update, it's a new type of encounter and the first case of AI using special abilities or attacks. This is something we've been keen on for some time, not only for new creatures, but for some existing ones too. It would add some much needed gameplay variety and provide a context for various mechanics. We wouldn't be immediately adding all the special abilities we have planned, but introducing this new encounter now would be great, and so would be paving the road for more abilities in future. We're still figuring this one out, but we're optimistic.
Right now we're still doing some things with Force and general thaumaturgy mechanics. We're developing a new type of effect system which would improve one of the Force powers, but would also be the basis for more powers in future, some creature abilities and potentially other advanced effects for a variety of phenomena.
We also made another important improvement to our tools, which is the ability to "paint" specific holes in the terrain. This solves a lot of difficult problems for our level designers, giving them a lot more freedom with how they shape and integrate terrain with custom geometry and removing the need for complicated workarounds. It can also improve performance in many situations. This is one of those things we always wished we could do, so it's great to have it.
Have a great week!
-the BM team
