Weekly Dev Update: 2016 August 12th - PS4 Parity, Progression Progression and more

[yota]

This week, we have been busy making sure that the PlayStation 4 version was on par with the PC version. e.g. making sure that things like the new GUI functions correctly using the PS4 controller. The PS4 version is still running at 60fps (the accurate number is 59fps but a little rounding up would not hurt?) and it supports all the features that are in the PC version. Its visual quality is the same as the PC options set to their highest

We haven’t forgotten about Trading Plinths, Direct Trading and XP player progression. We are scheduled to start our internal testing by end of next week. To our surprise, it is looking like we might be able to start our internal testing of warping too around the same time. Next week is going to be busy. We started some internal testing of World Builder’s prefabs this week. That should be released to the public soon! We hope that players will be able to get hold of these new features (first pass) by end of this month. Exciting!

As we been working on developing the bigger features, we were only able to release a small update this week. Details of this update can be found here. Testing 20: Bug Fixes and Art Improvements

Oh, the hopper (working name) creature (first pass) is coming to your neighborhood in Boundless soon too! Watch out! You have been warned

Code
This week, we have been continuing the work on the buying and selling plinths, with the user able to set prices, types of item to buy/sell and collect the coin/items from trades. Work on the warping has begun, and as part of this friend lists and location markers are being looked at.

Progression is progressing, with a simple in game leveling system now in place for systems like mining and combat xp. Work is continuing on the creatures with the server side root animations being used for smoother movement, as well as some tweaks to wandering behaviours so they approach the user. We’ve also been working on expanding the color palettes for the blocks to support more varied colors schemes.

On the engine side we have replaced the texture atlases with texture arrays. This reduces the amount of texture space used and improves the filtering using by anisotropic filter, so oblique object are more detailed.

Design
The design team is starting to feel more like a team, with four of us now.

Luke has been working on an objective system, which will be used for the non-obtrusive tutorial, and also for rewarding interesting feats in the game (much like the achievements that many games have). He has also been considering what other help new players might need to learn and understand the game. In between doing all that, he’s started getting his head around the progression, stats and forge systems which will be a key area of the game, and deliver a core part of our “sandbox MMO” concept. That’s going to be a long time in development, and be delivered in many stages, so he’s going to have a lot to do.

Rob has continued work on the HUD, and how all the GUI will work over different resolutions and aspect ratios. He has also been looking at the styling of the GUI, whilst not wanting to move too far away from the excellent work Ben did, we want to see if we can tweak things to turn it up to 11.

Having spent last week getting up to speed with the World Builder, Matt has put together a good first set of earth-like biomes (see his post here: New Biomes!). It’s great progress in such a short time, and I’m sure it won’t be long until some new worlds are up on testing for you to explore.

Ollie has been trying to catch up with everything that has happened while he was away, and there have been lots of meetings and discussions. Let’s hope next week he actually manages to contribute directly to the development of the game…

Art
This week, the art team has continued with creature progression exploration concepts.

We’ve completed progression concepts for the spanner which you use to maintain your machines. See our post here:

Art: Spanner concept - progression

Hi guys, i recently finalised the design for the Spanner. You can see the concept exploration page and the progression. Jess is currently working on the 3D model and soon will be in game. As always, stay tuned! Spanner Concept Exploration [image] Spanner Progression [image]

The spanners are now in the modelling stage.

We completed Torch progression models and here’s an ingame gem torch visualisation (the one on the left). Eventually the torch lighting will look like the one one the left. We are going to explore particles in the future.

We’ve started rigging the Hunter. Here’s a WIP image of building the skeleton.

[sikerow]

Omg that hunter looks scary good job

[Thorbjorn42gbf]

@yota

Progression is progressing

Shocker that one

[Stretchious]

Oooh, do I spy some Decorative Rock blocks in that first image!?

… and what are these!! …

@yota

Ollie has been trying to catch up with everything that has happened while he was away, and there have been lots of meetings and discussions. Let’s hope next week he actually manages to contribute directly to the development of the game…

Hope you had a good break @olliepurkiss … now, back to work!

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Some very exciting things on the horizon it seems - can’t wait to try some of these things out!

[werff]

So will we get more weapons? XD
Or the combat xp will give us more “raw” damage or something?

Still good work, keep doing it

[Predatoxic]

@werff

So will we get more weapons?

Probably not.
Afaik we will use these points to unlock talents in the talent tree

[jesshyland]

Those are indeed Decorative Rock blocks Thought I’d confirm that because that one with the swirling pattern(inspired by the Neolithic artwork found in Newgrange tomb!) is one of my favourite block textures…

The other two you spotted are Compact and Decorative Ruby blocks.

[Havok40k]

Well, we know about the spear weapon, and there was some development of various shooting weapons, so I think we will see more before 1.0

[Predatoxic]

@ben

Lance is the only melee weapon in the short term. Our approach at the moment is to have two core weapons (melee, ranged) and use them + Forge upgrades + ammo to cover a very broad range of weapon types in a very sandbox-ey way.

Lance and slingbow are the only weapon types that will be in 1.0

[Clexarews]

@yota

We completed Torch progression models and here’s an ingame gem torch visualisation (the one on the left). Eventually the torch lighting will look like the one one the left. We are going to explore particles in the future.

Do you mean eventually torch lighting will look like the one on the right? I think just a minor typo here.

Thanks as always for the updates!

[Vastar]

I think it’s a pity to only have this few weapon choices considering the awesome dual wielding feature we’ve got.
Maybe the ‘forge’ will take care of this but I´d still like to see at least a bit more variety for the weapons.

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@yota

Progression is progressing

[KingSamZe1st]

Do the shelves, shelve full stacks? I haven’t gotten to play with then yet.

[Miige]

in my personal experience dual wielding weapons (attacking at the same time mouse 1 - 2) is too complicated and i usually end up using only 1 mouse button when attacking (pressing both mouse buttons not implemented at the moment). i rather use shield (if there is), grappling hook or torches in offhand which are easier to manage and can be more effective for surviving. But Dual wielding swords looks really cool.

[Stretchious]

Yup, the shelves will hold up to 4 items in stacks of up to 99 each

[james]

@Vastar

I think it’s a pity to only have this few weapon choices considering the awesome dual wielding feature we’ve got.Maybe the ‘forge’ will take care of this but I´d still like to see at least a bit more variety for the weapons.

This is a misconception of the # of weapons in the game.

Yes - we’re only planning thematically 1 ranged weapon and 1 mêlée weapon - but there are many material variations of each, they can be enhanced extensively, and they can be customised with (again) highly enhanceable ammo / powerups.

So whilst at first glance you may only see 2 weapons, there are thousands of dual handed combinations - and you’ll need them…

[GyroParadox]

Hello!! Its great to get back in the forums, seeing all of the progress the game has made in the last few months. Great work Devs!

On a different note, i would like to bring up something that has me a little bit worried. As we all know, the mammoth title No Mans
sky has finally been released, and i’m surprised to find on steam the it has “Mixed Reviews”. while browsing the negative reviews, something caught my eye, and has gotten me worried about this game. “A mile wide, and an inch deep” stuck with me for a while. The game is positively massive, but that enormity falls flat if there is no story.

Im just wanting to get this out there, that along with all of there great and awsome updates and features, there still has to be a great story. Of course, this is just my opinion and truly hope that i have not offended anyone at the office. Chances are that their already developing a great story, and im just worrying over nothing. I just wanted to bring this to light.

[Havok40k]

Well, almost a year ago we got little snippets of lore. Of course, that was more to tease the language, but it at the very least reflects that there is some lore.

I’d also point out that having a great story, while excellent at being engaging, isn’t completely necessary for a great sandbox game. Minecraft had 0 lore until well after it had already become a smashing success. Even then, “mile wide/inch deep” still adequately describes MC’s story. What is most important is the depth of the game play, and Boundless already has NMS beat in that regard.

[Miige]

NMS repeats it self and the gameplay is super limited, singleplayer game with massive world without story.

[Thorbjorn42gbf]

The enormity falls flat because the game is swallow and lacks most of the depth that was promised:

r/NoMansSkyTheGame - Where's the NMS we were sold on? Here's a big list of...

[sikerow]

Wait so there is atleast 500 weapons and tools?