Zetheros
Developer
Hey Exanimates,
From here until the update drops we won't really have much to report in the coffee diaries. We're basically just finalising assets, improving and polishing things up in general. With the core features for the update established, there won't be anything new and exciting to report on. We will update you on overall progress, and talk about a few specific things, but most of the work we're doing now is something that would belong more in a detailed patch changelog than a coffee diary.
We think we have a solution to the pathfinding problems we discussed last week, but there's still some difficult implementation details to figure out for a high performance solution, so we've temporarily set this aside to focus on more pressing matters. It is something we want to fully solve, but it concerns fringe cases and already things are working better than in previous versions of the game.
One feature we're looking at completing before the update releases is something we call the "narrator". This is basically just text presented to the player which can convey things, give feedback or even provide interactions that can't be represented with the game's normal functions of graphics, sound and controls. This could for example be a smell or sensation, a detailed assessment that can't be linked to something like an item description, a specific action or choice etc. We plan to use these features sparingly, and so far we've avoided it entirely, but sometimes it's useful. We prefer to think of this as a "narrator" because it can address the player or their character as if they are one and the same. The more common approach in games where the character addresses the player as if they were an observer seems a little odd and immersion breaking to us.
One feature we just added that's been frequently requested is the "play dead" mechanic. This means that when you've been knocked unconscious your character won't attempt to move until you give an input and nearby characters won't be alerted. You can then either wait for them to leave the area or simply get up quickly by taking time to recover.
Have a great week!
-the BM team
From here until the update drops we won't really have much to report in the coffee diaries. We're basically just finalising assets, improving and polishing things up in general. With the core features for the update established, there won't be anything new and exciting to report on. We will update you on overall progress, and talk about a few specific things, but most of the work we're doing now is something that would belong more in a detailed patch changelog than a coffee diary.
We think we have a solution to the pathfinding problems we discussed last week, but there's still some difficult implementation details to figure out for a high performance solution, so we've temporarily set this aside to focus on more pressing matters. It is something we want to fully solve, but it concerns fringe cases and already things are working better than in previous versions of the game.
One feature we're looking at completing before the update releases is something we call the "narrator". This is basically just text presented to the player which can convey things, give feedback or even provide interactions that can't be represented with the game's normal functions of graphics, sound and controls. This could for example be a smell or sensation, a detailed assessment that can't be linked to something like an item description, a specific action or choice etc. We plan to use these features sparingly, and so far we've avoided it entirely, but sometimes it's useful. We prefer to think of this as a "narrator" because it can address the player or their character as if they are one and the same. The more common approach in games where the character addresses the player as if they were an observer seems a little odd and immersion breaking to us.
One feature we just added that's been frequently requested is the "play dead" mechanic. This means that when you've been knocked unconscious your character won't attempt to move until you give an input and nearby characters won't be alerted. You can then either wait for them to leave the area or simply get up quickly by taking time to recover.
Have a great week!
-the BM team
