Zetheros
Developer
Hey Exanimates,
This week we've mostly been looking at feedback, fixing, adjusting and improving things.
One thing that received a significant rework is how the camera deals with things blocking the view. We mentioned last week that we were working on fading objects in the way, this feature is in the game now and we plan to use it in various ways. While we were at it though we also improved the default behaviour of the camera tilting to keep the character in view. This used to abruptly switch to an almost top down view when near a wall or other obstacles, which was quite annoying. We went through several iterations of improvements and it is definitely much better now. It uses smarter predictive methods to detect obstacles, it only tilts in small increments as needed, it moves more smoothly and quickly returns to normal angles when it can.
Something else that got reworked is how characters flinch from being hit, how this interacts with actions and how the security skill technique works. Security was causing characters who got hit during the windup to a swing to launch odd and unpredictable attacks as they recovered, not fondly known by players as the instant retaliation glitch. These mechanics have been reworked to prevent this issue, but also to generally make the flow of combat when exchanging hits feel more natural and consistent, regardless of the skill.
We've also been updating more story assets for the new renderer, these are getting better and better and easier to do as we build workflows with our tools. There's not much left that we haven't updated, but the older assets kind of stick out like a sore thumb now, and replacing them also improves performance.
We're doing a bit of engine housekeeping too, working through driver issues and supporting Linux. The new rendering engine is very streamlined in how it uses the GPU, but the game and our tools do a lot of other stuff with the GPU that we're trying to give the same treatment. When this is done we hope to see less compatibility and performance issues with specific drivers, and it will also make an eventual transition to Vulkan much easier.
We're working through a list of more combat mechanics improvements, some quite significant, some small, but they should all make the combat feel better. This and a couple of new features and QoL improvements will be the focus of a smaller update in the near future.
Have a great week!
-the BM team
This week we've mostly been looking at feedback, fixing, adjusting and improving things.
One thing that received a significant rework is how the camera deals with things blocking the view. We mentioned last week that we were working on fading objects in the way, this feature is in the game now and we plan to use it in various ways. While we were at it though we also improved the default behaviour of the camera tilting to keep the character in view. This used to abruptly switch to an almost top down view when near a wall or other obstacles, which was quite annoying. We went through several iterations of improvements and it is definitely much better now. It uses smarter predictive methods to detect obstacles, it only tilts in small increments as needed, it moves more smoothly and quickly returns to normal angles when it can.
Something else that got reworked is how characters flinch from being hit, how this interacts with actions and how the security skill technique works. Security was causing characters who got hit during the windup to a swing to launch odd and unpredictable attacks as they recovered, not fondly known by players as the instant retaliation glitch. These mechanics have been reworked to prevent this issue, but also to generally make the flow of combat when exchanging hits feel more natural and consistent, regardless of the skill.
We've also been updating more story assets for the new renderer, these are getting better and better and easier to do as we build workflows with our tools. There's not much left that we haven't updated, but the older assets kind of stick out like a sore thumb now, and replacing them also improves performance.
We're doing a bit of engine housekeeping too, working through driver issues and supporting Linux. The new rendering engine is very streamlined in how it uses the GPU, but the game and our tools do a lot of other stuff with the GPU that we're trying to give the same treatment. When this is done we hope to see less compatibility and performance issues with specific drivers, and it will also make an eventual transition to Vulkan much easier.
We're working through a list of more combat mechanics improvements, some quite significant, some small, but they should all make the combat feel better. This and a couple of new features and QoL improvements will be the focus of a smaller update in the near future.
Have a great week!
-the BM team
