Zetheros
Developer
Hey Exanimates,
The update has been live on the testing and then beta branch for almost a week now and after a couple of patches it looks ready for the main branch. We'll be going live with it along with release notes shortly. The update includes some final content additions to arena, with no more content planned for arena in the foreseeable future. There are still some nice features to add to arena and we're always making new items, but nothing is currently in the pipeline.
We've talked already about a number of improvements we still want to make to combat, many of which we've just laid the foundation for, and some that we think could really improve the feel and pacing of combat in general. We might come back to some of the more important ones in the near future, but for the time being we are trying to focus on other things.
Our main goal now for the story update is of course Force thaumaturgy. You've probably seen early prototypes of the most basic power, force blast, but an actual complete implementation of this is far more complex than that. Complex enough that we've been trying to figure out how to approach it for some time without an answer. The blast can't just be a ball that flies forward and passes through solid objects, or just stops when it touches something, parts of it need to break off or be deflected. We considered using an actual fluid simulation, this was quite doable for the physics, but we couldn't find a way to effectively render this with the fine visual detail we want. We also want some nice lighting that needs to match all this.
We do have a plan for how to develop the force effects now and we're eager to get started and see how it turns out. The core systems, UI etc. for thaumaturgy are already there, but there's a certain amount of casting mechanics and animation work to do and developing the fundamental visual effects for all force thaumaturgy. With these elements in place it should allows us to rapidly build all the different powers, and hopefully we can start showing you some results relatively soon.
Have a great week!
-the BM team
The update has been live on the testing and then beta branch for almost a week now and after a couple of patches it looks ready for the main branch. We'll be going live with it along with release notes shortly. The update includes some final content additions to arena, with no more content planned for arena in the foreseeable future. There are still some nice features to add to arena and we're always making new items, but nothing is currently in the pipeline.
We've talked already about a number of improvements we still want to make to combat, many of which we've just laid the foundation for, and some that we think could really improve the feel and pacing of combat in general. We might come back to some of the more important ones in the near future, but for the time being we are trying to focus on other things.
Our main goal now for the story update is of course Force thaumaturgy. You've probably seen early prototypes of the most basic power, force blast, but an actual complete implementation of this is far more complex than that. Complex enough that we've been trying to figure out how to approach it for some time without an answer. The blast can't just be a ball that flies forward and passes through solid objects, or just stops when it touches something, parts of it need to break off or be deflected. We considered using an actual fluid simulation, this was quite doable for the physics, but we couldn't find a way to effectively render this with the fine visual detail we want. We also want some nice lighting that needs to match all this.
We do have a plan for how to develop the force effects now and we're eager to get started and see how it turns out. The core systems, UI etc. for thaumaturgy are already there, but there's a certain amount of casting mechanics and animation work to do and developing the fundamental visual effects for all force thaumaturgy. With these elements in place it should allows us to rapidly build all the different powers, and hopefully we can start showing you some results relatively soon.
Have a great week!
-the BM team
